Thursday, February 19, 2009

BUSINESS NEWS

Major Problems Will Not Hold Back the Dubai Tournament

Things have not exactly been conducive to Salah Tahlak, tournament director of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, enjoying a good night's sleep this week. Subservient to the political insistence of the United Arab Emirates government, he has tried to maintain an optimistic face throughout the diplomatic tussle over Shahar Peer and now Andy Ram being denied entry visas.
Then when it seemed as though things could not become more complicated, came the news that Dubai's most celebrated tennis resident Roger Federer was so troubled by an aching back, he would not be able to contest the event he has won four times. And though it all was the educated guess that world no.1 Rafael Nadal would also fail to appear, even though any firm word from the Spaniard's camp about the state of his troublesome knees is as yet not forthcoming.
Clearly Tahlak is far from happy. "Federer has slipped down the rankings to no.2 and we would have thought he would have used this tournament to put his pursuit for the top ranking back on track," said the tournament director, mindful that Federer played in both the year opening Capitala World Championship exhibition tournament in neighboring Abu Dhabi and January's Qatar ExxonMobil Open in nearby Doha.
The situation with Nadal has provoked more disappointment, not directly because of his injury but the lack of information forthcoming from the world no.1's camp. "We've had no word from either Nadal or his management team so far," reported Tahlak late Wednesday.  "There are still four days to go before the tournament begins. Maybe they will send us an e-mail to keep us updated on the injuries."
Nevertheless Tahlak tried to be upbeat. "You might have a couple of top names missing but that does not mean the quality of the tennis will not be there," he insisted. "This is still a five star tournament. We have been lucky to have Federer (champion in 2003, '04,'05 and '07) and Nadal (2006 winner) at previous tournaments. And we can well understand the situation related to their health because the sport takes so much away from you.
"It would have been nice to have had them here again for possibly one of those great finals. However, that does not mean the fans will not get some great tennis to watch."
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Venus Williams Cautions Not to Lose Sight of the Big Picture

Long ago Billie Jean King, the tennis woman who more than any other loves to battle for a cause, nominated Venus Williams as the present day standard bearer for righteousness in a sport that sometimes gets things horribly wrong.
Venus talked and wrote eloquently on the matter of equal prize money. Coming from the Los Angeles ghetto of Compton, she is well versed with the struggles that face athletes from less privileged backgrounds. In BJK parlance Venus simply gets it.
However it seems she is no rebel – at least not in the ongoing situation of the United Arab Emirates government denying Shahar Peer and quite possibly her Israeli compatriot Andy Ram a visa to contest the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Arguments are raging on the morality of the decision, opinions are widespread. However Venus' voice was one of sensibility and pragmatism when she declared there was not even a likelihood of a boycott amongst the women's players in protest at the UAE decision.
"I have to look at the bigger picture," maintained Venus who sits on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Players' Council and has already talked the situation through with chief executive Larry Scott who remains in America. "The big picture is that Shahar Peer didn't get a chance to play, but making an immediate decision we also have to look at sponsors, fans and everyone who has invested a lot in the tournament."
As the looks of concern that come from sponsors Barclays and tournament owners Dubai Duty Free become ever graver by the hour, Venus offered reason for optimism. ""There are so many other people involved. Sponsors are important to us," said the elder Williams "We wouldn't be here without sponsors and we can't let them down.  Whatever we do, we need to do as a team - players, sponsors, tour and whoever - and not all break off in one direction. We are team players."
Venus has also entered into the ongoing debate about the World Anti Doping Agency's (WADA) new system that has been ridiculed by the likes of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.  "Things can be pretty tough for us as players as we do not know what time our next match will be played," she said. "I think there are some things in the new system that need to be looked at from both sides."
In the next two years anti-doping tests on both the ATP World Tour and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are set to increase by 150%. Add to this increased testing at Grand Slams, Fed and Davis Cup and on the lower ITF circuits, and there is a feeling amongst the players of an invasion of privacy.
"As a professional player I am too engrossed in taking it one match at a time at tournaments so there isn't any time really to divert from your job in hand," added Venus.
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WTA Tour is Trying to Take a Reasonable Response to Drug Testing Feedback
By Charles Bricker

As player complaints continue, both from men and women, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, is taking a less than absolute position in favor of the new, highly-invasive testing procedures dictated by the ITF and conducted by WADA.
"The tour supports the tennis anti-doping program and the principles behind out-of-competition testing," a spokesman for WTA CEO Larry Scott said. "At the same time, we want to ensure the reporting procedures are appropriate for our sports and, as such, we intend to review the player feedback with WADA to ascertain the level of reporting necessary in professional tennis to achieve the objectives."
The ITF's new testing program requires players to identify a one-hour window each day and notify WADA where they will be during that one hour. This increased incursion into players' private lives has drawn very harsh criticism from world No. 1s Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams and from No. 4 Andy Murray. Second-ranked Roger Federer supports the new rules, but there is a sense that there is a groundswell of objection from most players.
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Campbell Soup Company to Become Sponsor of Collegiate Tennis

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), the governing body of college tennis announced that a multi-year agreement has been reached between the ITA and the Campbell Soup Company in which the company will serve as the title sponsor for the ITA College Tennis Rankings and the ITA College Players of the Year awards.

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Dokic is Ready to Move up on the Rankings

Jelena Dokic is hoping to ride her recent Australian Open quarterfinal back toward the top of tennis, with the unexpected Australian performance already paying off with a No. 90 ranking.
The Serb-born Aussie is currently in the US, hoping to make a run indoors before aiming to qualify for the big March events at Indian Wells and Miami.
After a miracle showing at home after winning a wild card start in the main draw, the former No. 4 believes she is back on her game - and can stay on it - after shaking off four years of personal and tennis hell.
"I want to try to play as much as I can, I have no injuries," said the 25-yer-old, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2000.
"I've really kind of preserved myself for the last four years that I haven't played, I'm really a lot fresher than some of the other players."
"Now I'm hungry to play every week," said Dokic, who helped Australia to a Fed Cup group win the week after the Open.
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Pairings Set for “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup”

The pairings for the two semifinal matches of the inaugural “BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup” have been set for the March 2 event at Madison Square Garden.
The 2008 year-end No. 1, Jelena Jankovic is the top seed and will play Wimbledon Champion Venus Williams. The other semifinal features 2008 US Open and 2009 Australian Open Champion Serena Williams against French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic, who ended 2008 at No. 5.
The semifinals will be one set followed by the finals for a best of three sets match. The winner will receive $600,000, the finalist receives $300,000 and the semifinalists will receive $150,000 each.
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Dementieva Prefers Indoor Events

Elena Dementieva had admitted that it is tough to go from outdoors (most of the time!) at the Australian Open to indoors in Paris to outdoors again in Dubai. But she wouldn’t give up the opportunity of playing in Paris, where she reached the final last week, under any circumstances.
"I personally like to play indoors but we don’t have many tournaments anymore," she said at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. "There is only three tournaments, which is Paris, Stuttgart and Moscow (strangely, she forgets Luxembourg, which she won in 2008, and Linz). I think if we could move Paris close to Moscow at the end of the year that would be a good idea, but I don’t know how difficult it is to make such big changes.
"I like indoors because I am Russian and most of the time we practice indoors in Moscow, so for me it’s just a very comfortable feeling to play indoors. That’s how I was growing up and practicing when I was little."

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Jankovic Can’t Explain her Dubai Loss

Former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic now has a few weeks to fix her tennis before the Indian Wells event after crashing to what she called one of the worst defeats of her career in Dubai.
The listless third seed was hammered in straight sets by Estonian outsider Kaia Kanepi, who produced her first career victory over a Top 5 player with the unexpected success.
"Today was just horrible. I couldn't put two ball in the court. It was like another player out there - it was not me," said sad Serb Jankovic, who lost the No. 1 ranking at the Australian Open.
"I didn't feel my shots at all, when I went from 0-4 to 5-all in the second set I couldn't do anything. It was a bad day of tennis, I really beat myself tonight."

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Federer’s Davis Cup Replacement is no Federer

By Charles Bricker

Switzerland's No. 3 player, who probably will replace Roger Federer in the U.S. Davis Cup tie, March 6-8, is Stephane Bohli, is 25 years old, ranked No. 150 and who is 4-2 in Davis Cup play.
Bohli has won his last four matches, most recently in the World Group playoff last year in a win over Steve Darcis of Belgium. He's played in two regular ATP Worldwide Tour events this year -- losing in the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open and qualifying and losing first round at Rotterdam two weeks ago. Bohli's highest ranking was No. 126 in 2008. He's won $282,000 in six years as a pro.

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