Friday, November 7, 2008

BUSINESS NEWS - Special Tour Championships Edition

Editor's Note: We have begun our Monday, Thursday publication schedule for November and December. This week and next, we will be publishing some Special Tour Championships Editions that will cover the players and events surrounding the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha and the ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai.  Our Classifieds and College News will continue to stay on the Monday Thursday schedule.
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BJ King Will Try to Convince Williams Sisters to Play Indian Wells

Billie Jean King's persuasive personality has won many victories but she has now set herself a task that many would view as Mission Impossible; to try and convince the Williams sisters that it would be morally correct to end their boycott of the Indian Wells tournament.
King, who arrived at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha to become the Global Mentor for Gender Equality in the partnership with UNESCO, insisted she is a firm advocate of everything the soon-to-be-implemented Road Map 2009 specifies.
Therefore she believes that all the leading players should play the designated tournaments…and that means the Williams sisters forgetting the racial abuse they insist was widespread against them and their father Richard at the 2001 event after Venus maintained she could not face Serena because of a knee injury.
"It was horrible what they went through that day but I just hope they have it in their heart to forgive," said BJK who just happens to own a financial stake of the tournament that next year will  become one of four mandatory $4.5 million tour events for top-10 players, along with Miami, Madrid and Beijing.
"I am telling all players that they have to play the tournaments they are meant to play. There is nothing worse for the game than the big names not turning up at the important events. Larry Scott and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are working very hard to make things better and the players must also play their part."
Yet only recently Serena Williams was again adamant that she would never play at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and had reiterated the family's firm stance to Scott.  "We've been struggling for so long," she added. "I try to stand up for what I believe in."
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In Doha, Tennis Marketing and Promotion is Not Like the Rest of the World

There were concessions to be made when the end-of season Championships moved to the Middle East. The usual posters and banners advertising the event and depicting the players involved needed to be “cleaned up” in deference to local custom.
Bare shoulders are out, and so are bare legs, so outside the stadium only silhouettes of the players are shown. On site, shoulders are okay, but the bottom half of the player dissolves and lettering is placed across where the skirt would be.

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Billie Jean King Named Global Mentor for Gender Equality

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour announced today the naming of Billie Jean King as “Global Mentor for Gender Equality”, along with the funding of the Women’s Sports Foundation newly created Billie Jean King Leadership Internship program. 
As Global Mentor for Gender Equality, Billie Jean King joins Venus Williams, the partnership’s global Promoter for Gender Equality, and Tatiana Golovin of France and Zheng Jie of China, regional Promoters of Gender Equality, as core supporters and the player face of the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Partnership.
The Billie Jean King Leadership Internship program to be funded by the UNESCO/Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership is the sixth such program to be launched, joining projects in Cameroon, Liberia, Jordan, China and Dominican Republic announced in November 2007. 
The new program will be run by the Women’s Sports Foundation, and will annually provide an opportunity for one young woman to gain experience in the sports industry through an internship at the Women’s Sports Foundation.
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Life is Grand When You’re Number One

Jelena Jankovic is on top of the tennis world, and life couldn’t be any better.
"I love being on this position," she said after qualifying for the semi-finals in Doha. "This is something that I worked for since I was a young girl. It was a dream of mine. Being on the No. 1, having that No. 1 ranking is something that nobody can take away from you, and you can just enjoy it. You have nothing to lose.
When you retire you can always say you've been No. 1., and it's something that not many girls in the history of tennis have done. I'm healthy. I have the No. 1 ranking. I'm enjoying my tennis. I've made a lot of money. What else can I ask in this world?"

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Federer Guides Young Men in Their “First Shave”

Roger Federer has again set a manly example on behalf of his multinational razor sponsor, guiding a group of Chinese 18-year-olds through their (ceremonial) "first shave" during a promotion for the Masters Cup.
Federer held a microphone in one hand and a Gillette razor in the other as the Swiss paused during training for the eight-man season-ending event which begins round-robin play at the weekend.
Federer is seeking to complete a hat-trick of Shanghai title success as the tournament is held for the last time in China's commercial capital before morphing into a regular-season Masters 1000 tournament in October, 2009.
A year after showing off his shaving skills before a group of 1,000 Chinese teenagers, Federer's 2008 audience was a hand-picked group of 18-year-olds, all celebrating their maturity with the world No. 2.
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Serena Williams to Make Good Will Trip

Once her week on Doha is over, Serena Williams is heading to Africa to hand out free computers to schools in South Africa and Kenya.
"Yeah, I'm going to Africa Monday morning. I'm going to a couple different schools. One in South Africa, it's a good-will trip again. Like I’ve said, I love getting involved in philanthropy, and I'm going with one of my sponsors, HP and we're going to donate computers to the school in Africa, in South Africa. And then we're going to go to Kenya and donate some computers to a school there.
"It will be good for these kids to have an opportunity to learn to use a computer, especially one like an HP computer, and get in touch kind of with the rest of the world. Kind of see how everything else is going in the world. So regardless to what happens here, I'm excited about going to Africa. I just can't wait for that trip, and to get a chance to help children over there."

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THIS WEEK
MEN
No events scheduled
WOMEN
Doha – Tour Championships
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NEXT WEEK
MEN
Shanghai – Tour Championships
WOMEN
No events scheduled
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Bob Larson’s Stock Report
Thursday’s Stock Prices

Stock

Last

Change

Adidas

16.52

-1.87

Amer Sports

4.10

0.00

Head

2.10

0.00

K-Swiss

13.32

-.71

Nike

50.64

-2.14

Bob Larson Tennis Stock Index $86.68
* The index is based on the total value of one share of each stock we report daily.
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Results
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