Wednesday, September 2, 2009
BUSINESS NEWS
Djokovic Hired Martin For More Than One Good Reason
New Yorkers have a good memory when somebody is perceived to have treated them with disrespect and they tend not to forget. So Novak Djokovic is aware he needs to go on a major charm offensive to win back the tennis fans of Flushing Meadows who took him to their heart two years ago but booed him off the court on his last visit.
To Djokovic’s thinking he now has the perfect man in his corner to bring a measure of diplomacy to proceedings. Sensible, measured, imperturbable; Todd Martin is just the person to offer sound advice on redressing the balance with the New York crowd who took offense with the Serb’s on court comments last year after ousting big American hope Andy Roddick.
Djokovic, who arrived at Flushing Meadows a year ago in a fatigued and fractious frame of mind, took umbrage at Roddick’s pre-match comments about his opponent’s conditioning: “I've got to feel good, he's got about 16 injuries, back and hip, cramp, bird flu, anthrax. Even Sars.”
The reigning Australian Open champion at the time took a snipe back when he got the on court microphone in his hand and his response didn’t win him any friends around Arthur Ashe Stadium. “What happened last year was just a little fight with a girlfriend,” said Djokovic. “These things happen. It was something that everybody can learn from it.”
And he certainly intends to learn from Martin. “I can confirm now that we started cooperating and working,” said Djokovic. “The last couple weeks we have been negotiating and trying to work things out. We started working Monday after Cincinnati. We spent the whole week together away from the site at one place in New Jersey.
“We had a lot of hours on the court daily, really trying hard to work on some things to improve the game and get ready for the most important tournament in this period of the year. I’m working with somebody that can help me out with my serve and my volley game. He’s somebody that has been on top of the men's tennis, and somebody that has a positive attitude and great experience. I think Todd is a perfect guy.”
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Venus Williams Quite Concerned About Her Condition
Venus Williams, recently heralded by Billie Jean King as the new leader of women’s tennis, is understood to have been hit with a $4,000 fine for failing to attend Saturday’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Players’ Meeting.
The 29 year-old elder of the two playing Williams sisters has been a member of the WTA Player Council, which advised the Board of Directors for 10 years. Earlier this year she won numerous plaudits for the eloquence she showed during the Shahar Peer crisis in Dubai.
But Williams is believed to be so concerned about her troublesome knee going into the US Open that she is eliminating all extra curricular activity to ensure she can give her best on court.
Certainly third seeded Venus struggled during her opening match against Russia’s Vera Dushevina before coming through in the final set. But she refused to be quizzed over her physical problems.
“I never get into details about any injuries I'm going through,” she said. “You could see I had some issues. I'm just going to do my best to get as close to a hundred percent as I can for my next match.”
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Blake Admires Agassi for His Off Court Efforts
Andre Agassi has received universal acclaim for the work he has put into his foundation, and the recent graduation of students from the Andre Agassi Academy has been likened by James Blake to them winning the lottery.
"I told my trainer, I said, winning the (education) lottery for those kids is probably more valuable than someone winning the actual lottery, because they get that kind of education in a public facility with that kind of funding and that kind of real care that Andre puts into it. The fact those kids are very regimented, they have a very healthy respect for authority, and they got their heads on straight and are going to go off to be hopefully great members of society.
"What Andre did in his career is incredibly impressive. But to have someone who can be more impressive after their career is so rare. It's why someone like Arthur Ashe is my idol. I'm sure a lot of kids have grown up in this era after mine. I hope they have someone like Andre Agassi as their idol. He can make us all learn a lot with the fact that you're given so much, and the best thing to do with that, the most rewarding thing, is to give back with what you've been given."
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Cilic is Ready to Change the Direction of his Rankings
After great results in first half of the season everybody thought that Marin Cilic is next top ten player. But, after only one win in last month, he was seen on the other way of top twenty. He is moving down the rankings.
“I put too much pressure on myself,” admitted the tall Croat who since May dropped four places from his best career ranking on #13. “I can’t say that I expected fast entrance in top ten, but it was realistic to wish that. As a result I started to play under pressure and that became sort of barrier. Great start of season turned out to be double edged sword”. He came to New York in different mood last season, as a winner of New Haven. “The year was different, different story. I wasn’t under pressure, I simply played and that was enough.”
Cilic says that nothing has been changed in his tennis. “I have never had problems with my work. I always practice very hard and I believe that I have improved in last months, but problem is that I don’t execute in matches what I learn in practice. After few months without success, I started to dip mentally, which hasn’t been case before.”
For a comparison, the Croat needed four tournaments and one Davis Cup tie for first 16 wins in 2009, but it took him another 12 tournaments and Davis Cup tie for next 16 wins.
“My downhill started in Indian Wells and Miami. I expected a lot, but I lost to Robredo and Ferrer,” added the player who won two out of first three tournaments in 2009, but hasn’t been able to keep that momentum.
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Sharapova Has Advice for Her Admirers
Many top players had an idol as they grew up. Maria Sharapova not only didn’t have an idol, she didn’t even know who most of the players were when she began training at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida.
"The amazing thing when I look back to being that young is I really didn't care who anybody was," she said. "I certainly didn't watch a lot of TV. I actually didn't watch much tennis on TV. That's why when people ask me who was my hero growing up, I never really had one. I don't know why. I don't know if it was because I didn't get to watch so much on TV. I remember many big names coming to the academy and practicing. I wasn't overwhelmed by them. I admired them. I always wanted to watch them practice. But I wasn't sitting there with my mouth open and saying, Oh, my goodness, I want to be that person one day.
"From this day on, when people tell me, like a girl or little boy comes up to me, say, ‘We're so inspired by you, I want to be just like you’, I always say, ‘No, you want to be better than I am. You always want to be better. By no means am I perfect’. I think that's from when I was very young, I never thought anybody was perfect. I admired Hingis' quickness and the way she thought on the court, but I certainly didn't think she was perfect at everything
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The Little Injuries are Annoying for Blake
It seems that James Blake has had more than his fair share of injuries. One, when he collided with a net post while practicing, almost ended his career, and his latest setback has hindered his preparation for the US Open. Surprisingly, Blake says the little injuries are tougher to deal with.
"It's frustrating as an athlete, but injuries unfortunately are a part of the game. I've been down that road before," he said. "It's weird, 'cause the ones that are very serious you kind of accept. You know you're going to be out for a long time. But had a little knee injury. Rolled my ankle. It was a couple weeks. Just broke my toe, so I'm out for six weeks. The little ones are almost more frustrating because you want to get back so quickly and you're trying hard, but you still have to take that time off and you're still rusty when you come back. You haven't hit a ball and had the practice and the prep time. It becomes pretty tough."
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Djokovic is Going to Miss Having Safin on the Tour
It’s the last US Open for Marat Safin, and Novak Djokovic is going to miss the temperamental but talented and entertaining Russian being around.
"I mean, he's a unique guy. We’re gonna miss a lot of his talent, first of all. He's a fantastic player. I mean, with the way he was playing for couple of years that he was No. 1 and winning two, three Grand Slams, playing some of the best tennis that ever could play. He was all around player. He had this strong personality. He was fearless," said Djokovic.
"And then we’re going to miss a lot of racquet throwing, screaming. I think the fans love him for that as well. But he's a fun guy. I talked to him. He said he wants to go mountain climbing I think somewhere in Argentina in January or something like that. So I might join him for a little preparation. No, I'm joking.
"He was one of my role models I think because we are still working with the same agent. He has same agent as I do, so we got to practice quite often, young ages when I was coming up. He helped me a lot. For me, I remember the first time I hit with him, one of the first times I hit with him. I was warming him up for his match in Bangkok. It was like four years ago. It was only a 20 minute warm up. I had to change three shirts because I was so nervous. When you get to play with some of the idols, obviously you get nervous."
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Witten, With Help, Pulls Off an Early US Open Upset
In one of the first upsets of the US Open, American qualifier Jessie Witten ousted 29th seed Igor Andreev in straight sets. Before the match there were plenty of people ready to give advice on how to play the Russian, but one in particular went out of his way to be supportive. A certain John McEnroe.
"It's funny, everybody seemed to be my coach the last few days," said Witten, "but I hit with John McEnroe the other day, and he was really being helpful. He's on my World TeamTennis team, as well. Plays five or six matches with us. We've gotten closer over the last five or six years. He was trying to give me pointers, helping me out. He usually doesn't say too much when it comes to somebody else's game or coaching like that.
That meant a lot, just to know that he was and he called me after I qualified, you know. So I mean, just for them to take the time out of their busy schedule, which I know is busy, I mean, it means a lot to you. Makes you feel appreciated and what you're doing maybe is worth it. I take the little things out of it, I guess."
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Safina Values Her Difficult First Round Match
Maybe Dinara Safina is following in her brother’s footsteps in more ways than one. After struggling to overcome Australian junior Olivia Rogowska in the first round of the US Open she was asked whether to come though a tough match would help her later in the tournament.
"I would take it like this, yeah," she said. "Because in the French Open, I won all the matches 6 Love, 61. Did it help? Not really. So I mean, definitely it happens like this, like you pull the match somehow, like God knows. Like, I mean, God knows how I pulled it out. Not me.
But definitely it happens sometimes, and I know that it I mean, my brother, when he won US Open, he almost lost to Grosjean in the first round. He won 7 6 in the fifth set, and they finished, I think it was 5 4. He was up and the rain started, so they finished another day. So and then he had another like difficult match against Pozzi. So I remember he said he was struggling from the first round, but he made it. So maybe I'm following his steps this time."
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Jankovic is Pleased With Her Physical Condition
Early in the season Jelena Jankovic was struggling after her fitness training backfired. In a bid to get stronger she added muscle, but that affected her weight and slowed her down. Now she’s back to where she wants to be, but what did she do to shed the weight she had gained?
"Nothing," she said. "I changed the way I trained. As well, I changed a little bit the way I eat as well. I'm a big fan of chocolate, these kind of things. But I never really had a problem with my issues with my weight, meaning that I'm not allowed or I cannot eat chocolate or these fatty foods because I was going to gain weight. I gain weight by adding muscle. I went much more in the gym. I was lifting more weights and doing exercises that made me stronger. And muscle weighs more.
"So I stopped going to the gym and lifting heavier weights. I'm lifting very light weights just to get definition and be, how do you say, have the power, but at the same time be explosive. So I don't just have power and I'm really slow. And that's what I did. All the exercises are related to tennis. So, you know, I'm moving really good on the court in this moment and I feel that, you know, my game is getting better and better, which I'm happy about."
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We Hear---
--that one of the spectacular items to bid on at the Legends Ball to benefit the International Tennis Hall of Fame in New York on Friday September 11 is an autographed photo collection from star tennis photographer Michael Baz featuring the 2009 Grand Slam winners.
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