Monday, March 23, 2009
BUSINESS NEWS
Even in Tennis, Sex Sells
When it comes to marketing the plusses of women’s professional tennis, the spin doctors at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour have long appreciated that their trump card is glamour. And nothing rings more bells than having attractive marquee players posing in long respected high profile publications such as Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit edition. Market savvy some would call it, sexism would be the reply of others.
Nobody in the history of the sport has cared more about women’s tennis getting the coverage it deserves than WTA Tour founder Billie Jean King but of course she has long been riled by the blatant exploitation of the female form. So not surprisingly BJK has mixed feelings about female athletes posing in a swimsuit issue.
“Girls get so many commercial messages about how we should look and that's a continuum of that,” said the 65 years-old winner of 49 major titles who is still most probably remembered by many as the female player in the Battle of the Sexes back in 1973 against Bobby Riggs. “But if those women are proud of their bodies, then fine.”
King is in constant dialogue with Larry Scott, chief executive of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, and the two never try to disguise the fact that they want maximum exposure for photogenic icons such as Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic and positively celebrated the fact Maria Kirilenko, Daniela Hantuchova and Tatiana Golovin (none of them currently top 30 players, it has to be remembered) feature in the latest SI Swimsuit extravaganza. He did however maintain that he was in no way supportive of Ashley Harkleroad nude spread in last August’s edition of Playboy.
Steve Simon, a board member of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Tournament Director of the just completed BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, insists promoting tennis plain and simple is the foremost concern. But he maintains if the player is consenting, then why not capitalize on her good looks?
"There are a lot of times the individual girl wants to do it, not necessarily the tour," said Simon. "A lot of times you have to respect that,” said Simon. “What you hope is that nothing crosses the line and people are able to view it for what it is. For a lot of the girls, it's self-expression.
“If the tour went down that road, that might be something else again. These are clearly individual decisions made by these young ladies and not tour-pushed in any way.”
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Davydenko and Sharapova to Skip Miami
Russians Maria Sharapova and Nikolay Davydenko have both withdrawn from this week's Miami Masters with injuries as the hardcourt season moves to its second major US event of the month.
Sharapova, who underwent shoulder surgery last October, tried and failed to test her shoulder with doubles last week at Indian Wells, losing in the first round with partner Elena Vesnina. Her return to the WTA now looks to be put back to Rome on clay in May, an event more than a month and a half away.
Sharapova has a massive global sponsorship contract with tournament and women's tour sponsor Sony-Ericsson and will make a promotional appearance at the title event where she has not played since 2007.
She is then scheduled to return to a clinic in Arizona where she has been re-habbing her right shoulder. "It felt great to be back on tour last week even if it was just playing doubles," said the three-time major champion. "But I'm still not ready to play so many consecutive matches and will have to withdraw."
Time was Nickolay Davydenko was the work horse of the ATP, relentlessly playing tournaments week after week with his durability amazing both his peers and fans alike. Now the Russian has declared the foot injury that has limited him to just three matches this year and forced him out of January's Australian Open has turned into an infection and he will not be fit enough to contest this week's Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Concerns about the world no.5's passion for the game are now beginning to circulate following the lengthy campaign to clear his name after betting allegations were proven unfounded.
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Wilson Extends Long-Term Contract with Del Potro
Juan Martin Del Potro has signed a new long term agreement with Wilson Racquet Sports. 2008 was a defining year for Del Potro, with his meteoric rise from top 40 to top 10. He achieved this feat with a 23-match winning streak over five tournaments last summer.
Del Potro currently ranks sixth in the world and is the youngest player in the Top 10.
Wilson’s new endorsement with Del Potro includes not just rackets but also strings, bags, grips, and tennis balls.
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In Indian Wells Equal Purse Does Not Mean Equal Pay
The prize money at Indian Wells was $4.5 million for both men and women. The prize money for performance was not equal, however.
The women’s champion won $700,000, while the top man won $605,000. The women’s finalist won $350,000, and the men’s won $295,500. Semi-Finalists were paid almost equally; women received $150,000 and the men received $148,100.
It was in the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds that the men paid more than the women. In the round of 16, the men paid $39,800 and the women paid $32,000. Men’s quarter-finalists received $75,500 while the women received $64,700. In qualifying and first two rounds of the main draw, men and women were paid equal monies.
The men’s tour had the philosophy of paying those who were not quite at the top of the tour more to encourage their future efforts.
Discussions are underway, however, to have both tours pay the same amount of money for performance, perhaps in 2010.
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Federer and Roddick to Skip Monte Carlo
Maybe he’s given up hitting his head against a brick wall. After losing the last three finals to Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer will give Monte Carlo a miss this year. "Roger already told me some time ago that he had to renounce to play in our tournament because of a change in his clay season's schedule," tournament director Zljko Franulovic revealed.
Meanwhile, Rafa will attempt to win a record fifth straight title there. "His only goal is to make history by achieving the unseen feat of winning five times in a row," Franulovic added.
The only other player ranked in the top 10 not to enter the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event is Andy Roddick.
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Djokovic Urges Serbian Tennis Association to Promote Tennis to Youngsters
Novak Djokovic has pleaded for the Serbian Tennis Association to take advantage of the phenomenal interest in the sport and discover and encourage more future champions like himself, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic.
"Serbia is currently living for tennis and now it’s the right moment for us to forge a system back home, in order to enable the kids to become true professionals one day," said the world No. 3. "I assure you there are plenty of kids who are exceptionally talented and that their rocketing success is only a matter of whether they get the proper support from the system. I can be of assistance to a certain extent, but I appear at ATP tournaments worldwide and I am often not in Serbia and it’s a job the Tennis Association should get their hands on."
The Djokovic family is in the process of constructing a new tennis facility, and the family is also behind the new Serbia Open to be held in Belgrade May 4-11.
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Murray Urges ATP to Determine Safe Medicines
Andy Murray has complained yet again about Draconian doping rules, after he was terrified of ingesting a banned substance while recently suffering from a virus that led to him defaulting a quarter-final match at Dubai and then missing Britain’s Davis Cup tie against Ukraine.
"I am scared to take anything," he said. "I literally felt like I was dying in bed a couple of weeks ago and all I could take is paracetamol, three times a day."
Murray suggests that the ATP uses one company to check all drugs that players might need to take to ensure they are clean and break strict guidelines, saying, "It would make sense for the ATP to have a company that is used where we know that everything is going to be fine.
“The women’s tour has a company they turn to which basically guarantees they are going to be safe. We don’t have anything like that."
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Federer is Aware There are Younger Players Around
Roger Federer joked that "age" was to blame as the 27-year-old lost for the fourth successive time to Andy Murray at the Indian Wells Masters. "I'm old, he's young," said the Swiss. "Makes a huge difference."
Federer didn't admit it, but he might have been slightly unnerved when Murray took a heavy fall in the fourth game of the final set. After going over to make sure his opponent was not damaged, the Swiss did not win another game.
But he could tell that his performance was well off normal. "In the last few matches I always felt Andy came on strong as the match went on. This time was different. I think I played well in the second, forced the issue a bit more, and then I played a shocking third set."
But Federer was generous after what had to be another painful defeat. "He played unbelievable in the end. He's a great counter-puncher and reads the game really well. He has great feel.
"He's very confident at the moment. You can tell, the way he plays. He knows he doesn't have to play close to the lines because he can cover the court really well. I think that calms him down mentally. I think that is why he's playing so well."
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Seles is Using her Celebrity for Good Causes
She might not be playing tennis any longer, but Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles is still very much around. She shows up now and then at tournaments, and recently she paid a visit with former New York Knicks shooting guard John Starks to the ‘I Challenge Myself’ project in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood. The former pros, both members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, presented the project with a check for $25,000 as part of the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation's support.
‘I Challenge Myself’ is a non-profit project using fitness-based challenges to help high school students from New York's low-income communities develop physical, academic and social skills. The project intends to curb obesity and related illnesses that are prevalent in low-income communities. Laureus granted the project the initial funding to begin its Cycling Smarts program in 2004.
"This is a terrific project and a great concept and I'm very pleased that Laureus is able to support it," Seles said. "It takes care of kids at an age when it is really important to get them off the streets and prevent them from getting involved in drugs and crime. This is where sport can be such a winner."
While in New York, Seles and Starks took part in one day of the program's self-confidence boosting training session. The goal is to drive students who had difficulty completing a five-minute sprint on the spin bike to complete their first one-day, 100-mile bike ride.
In addition to her work with the Laureus World Sports Academy, Seles' humanitarian efforts include work with the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM). As a Goodwill Ambassador and Spokesperson for its Global Sports for Peace and Development Program Initiative, Seles works to counter malnutrition, and work towards the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
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When You Have a Lot of Trophies You Also Have a Problem
Roger Federer has his priorities straight concerning the pecking order of his nearly 60 trophies won so far. In case of fire, the world No. 2 has revealed his theoretical action plan for saving the best reminders of his standout career.
"I would definitely would grab one of the Wimbledon trophies. I'd put the Olympic gold around my neck. That would be easy," said the Swiss. "I could use one hand and probably grab one of the US Open trophies."
Federer admits that he has a storage problem as his collection of honors grows. "I have a trophy room but it's rather tight. I have the most important ones out there, especially also the Laurels Sports Awards and sports awards from Switzerland. I've got all those out as well."
The 13-time Grand Slam winner admits that there is an editing process involved with some of the "smaller" honors. "Finalists trophies, those I'm not a big fan of. I put those in the bottom and sometimes I just put them away."
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Collegiate Tennis Writing Contest
The creative folks at the US Tennis Writers Association (USTWA) have come up with a very interesting event.
In order to acknowledge tennis writing at the college level, the USTWA has created two national tennis writing contests in conjunction with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
One contest is for Sports Information Directors (SID) at all colleges and universities with tennis programs, and the other is for college students who help out SIDs or cover tennis for the school newspaper.
The USTWA figures by creating the contests they hope to create interest in college tennis and possibly generate interest in tennis writing and eventual careers in the field.
The winners will be selected in early May, and the plan is to announce their names at the annual awards luncheon that is held during the NCAA Tennis Championships.
Contest specifics can be found on the following websites:
http://www.itatennis.com/ITA360/2009ITA_USTWASIDWritingCompetition.htm
http://www.itatennis.com/ITA360/2009ITA_USTWAStudentWritingCompetition.htm
For further information about the joint ITA and USTWA effort, contact Mark Winters at okram@earthlink.net
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We Hear---
--that tickets for the exhibition matches on Roof Day on May 17 on Wimbledon’s Centre Court have been selling on e-bay.co.uk at a multiple of about 7 over face value of £35 ($50) thus £450 ($775) for 2. And recently a set of 3 went up for sale at £2499 ($3750).
--that relations between Sweden's Robin Soderling and his coach, former world no.1 Magnus Norman, may be a little stretched. Norman was so infuriated by the tempestuous Soderling's racket smashing antics at the BMW Tennis Challenger at Sunrise, Florida that stormed out during the Swede's match against Rainer Schuettler.
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