Thursday, August 27, 2009
BUSINESS NEWS
HEAD USA Appoints New CEO and New President
HEAD announced that Jeremy Sherwood, executive director global sales & marketing, in addition to his current role has been appointed ceo of HEAD USA with responsibility for racquet sport, winter sport and diving divisions. He succeeds Dave Haggerty who has held the position for the past 11 years.
HEAD also announced the promotion of Kevin Kempin to president HEAD Penn racquet sports. With over 16 years of experience in the HEAD USA racquet division, most recently as vp sales and marketing, Kevin will continue to manage HEAD USA’s racquet sports and assist with HEAD’s global racquet sports efforts.
Haggerty will become chairman HEAD USA and take on a more limited operational role in order to devote more time toward his volunteer tennis efforts, represent HEAD on the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) board, his pursuit of guest lecturing at the university level and spending more time with his family.
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Will Henin Return to the Tour?
Will Justine Henin follow compatriot Kim Clijsters back onto center court?
The former world No.1 has said little, and her life-long coach Carlos Rodriguez with whom she still works at her 6th Sense Tennis Academy says he knows of no such plans. But that has not stopped Belgian media, and Vers l'Avenir in particular, speculating that a return could be on the cards for next season.
"There's nobody telling me of a return. We've not spoken about that. I am really astonished," Rodriguez said. “She is training, yes. Two or three times a week to get herself in shape as she's not played for a year. That's all."
The reason for the conjecture is that, like Clijsters who began training to play the Wimbledon Celebration exhibition match to test the new roof, Henin has been practicing to play a number of exhibition matches at the end of the year. And Henin herself mysteriously admitted to Vers l’Avenir that "Something is in the offing but I'm not allowed to talk about it."
Henin, now 27, won seven majors including four French Opens, earned close to $20 million in prize money and spent 117 weeks at No.1 before stunning the tennis world by retiring as the world’s best player on May 14, 2008.
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Nike Holds a Tennis Promotion on a New York Street
In an event sponsored by Nike, a makeshift, regulation-size court with bleachers was set up right next to the iconic Flatiron Building in New York City as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and John McEnroe challenged local youth to try their hand at seeing what it’s like to return a pro serve and in turn raise money for three charities including New York Parks and Recreation, Athletes for Charity, and Mentoring USA. John McEnroe helped to emcee the event.
The event also served to unveil the looks that Federer, Nadal and Williams will be sporting for Nike for the upcoming US Open. Hundreds of fans along with children representing the charities were in attendance. The lucky children were able to win a total of $15,000 dollars apiece for their respective charity after their success in returning serves from a tennis serve simulator, with a little help from the pros who also returned serves much to the delight of onlookers.
As for the US Open ensembles, Federer will be wearing a red and black combination. Serena Williams will be attired in a pink dress for day matches and a black dress for evening play. Rafael Nadal will be sporting a yellow and black outfit.
Nike erected a temporary store right next to the event complete with wares featuring their sponsored players.
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Blake the Designer is Ready to Show His Stuff
James Blake has spent this year with a team from Fila to design a collection of co-branded apparel, footwear and accessories. Now it is ready for launch, and the American will debut the new line when he steps onto court for his first match at next week’s US Open.
What to call it? The James Blake Collection sounds okay but is hardly original, and after several months searching for a name for the brand he selected the name Thomas Reynolds, the first and middle names of his father who Blake has often referred to as a superhero.
“I wanted to create a line with Fila because I have learned a lot about tennis fashion throughout my career,” said Blake. “I felt that I could create a line that is functional and stylish both on and off the court. Collaborating with Fila and their long history in tennis and sportswear made sense. It was the perfect fit!”
The fall styles incorporate a campanula, peacoat (navy) and white color combination. Campanula is inspired by James’ love of collegiate basketball and his favorite team from North Carolina. Blake wanted the line to include classic tennis looks, and the line has a distinct nod to Fila’s tennis heritage with pinstripe detailing on one of the crew neck shirts, open placket and reversible collar on the polo, and athletic taping on the shoulder of the raglan polo. The price points of the collection range from $45 - $65.
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Srichaphan Has Been Busy These Days
What does a tennis player do when he can’t play tennis? The openings appear to be endless for Thai national hero Paradorn Srichaphan. He hasn’t won a tournament since 2004 and hasn’t even played for over two years, but far from being seen as yesterday’s man in his native land the 30-year old is still the center of attention wherever he goes. Not that he attempts to keep a low profile, with his bright yellow Ferrari and Harley Davidson motorcycle.
While insisting that he intends to return to the ATP World Tour when his injured right wrist is strong enough, he has been busy setting up his future. According to the Bangkok Post, he has opened an Italian restaurant in Bangkok called So-Le, which means ‘enjoyable conversation’ in his native Northeast. And he is selling ‘magic’ herbs for men based on ingredients such as ginseng and oyster, which is supposed to promote good health.
In other Thai tennis news, the country’s current number 1 Danai Udomchoke is to become engaged on September 8th to his girlfriend of five years, with the marriage to follow in Bangkok on November 20th. And Tamarine Tanasugarn, who has been nursing a wrist injury since her first round exit at Wimbledon, returns to action at next week’s US Open.
"The doctor said my wrist is 90% healed and advised me to have it checked during the tournament," Tamarine said. "I still can't serve as hard as I'd like to but my groundstroke is okay now."
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Woodbridge Spending Time with Tomic
Australian Davis Cup Coach Todd Woodbridge has been offering advice and encouragement to Chris Gucionne with some success, and he will shortly turn his attention to promising teenager Bernard Tomic.
The 17-year old will compete in the junior event at the US Open, after vowing at Wimbledon that his junior days were over. However, he has found life at the Challenger level much more - well, challenging.
"At this stage, yes, he's going to play the juniors, and then he'll move onto Challengers after that," Woodbridge told Melbourne’s The Age. "Bernard needs those matches. In this game, particularly at a young age, you've got to play a lot of matches and you've got to win a lot of matches, and learn and build confidence through that. He hasn't played a lot of tennis the last three months and it's a great opportunity for him to do something. I'm going to spend time with him and try to obviously get to know him a little bit because I don't know him all that well, but he's obviously a very exciting young player."
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Dementieva Plans to Play Hopman Cup
Elena Dementieva will make her debut at the Hopman Cup in January, rather than defend her title in Auckland. The Russian Olympic gold medal holder, who won the Toronto event last weekend to add to her Auckland and Sydney titles earned this season, will partner Igor Andreev at the ITF-sanctioned mixed team event.
Last year the Russians were represented by the brother/sister combination of Marat Safin and Dinara Safina, who finished as runners-up to the Slovak paring of Dominik Hrbaty and Dominika Cibulkova.
Also confirmed for the 22nd staging of the tournament, to be held at the Burswood Dome between January 2-9, is the Australian pairing of Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur.
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Notes From New Haven
Samantha Stosur--Stosur’s win over Alize Cornet produced the longest first set that Stosur thinks she’s ever played--1 hour and 24 minutes. She enjoys the Pilot Pen surface as it suits her game and does not mind playing in the heat being from Australia. She feels that she can get the ball up a little higher with her spin different from the way many of the women play.
Nikolay Davydenko—The key to the match win over Robert Kendrick was taking the first set in a “lucky tiebreak” saving a set point. He complained that the last two weeks were played with Penn balls, which is a “different feeling.” Going into next week's US Open balls requires yet another adjustment to the Wilson balls.
Fabrice Santoro--During his match he kept touching his back but said it is not an injury, “nothing bad- just the age.” The upcoming US Open will mark Santoro’s 69th major. Santoro has many fond memories of the US Open including matches against Pete Sampras, James Blake, Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Todd Martin. Santoro’s last match against Martin was the last match of Martin’s career…Santoro’s last tournament will be at Bercy this fall. It will also mark the last tournament for fellow retiree Marat Safin. Santoro said it would fun to play Safin once again. Santoro stated that when Safin joined the tour it was the second half of his career and now they are retiring at the same time.
Flavia Pennetta--Flavia Pennetta’s great summer has paid off in terms of the US Open Series. She has a chance of winning the US Open Series if she wins the Pilot Pen.
Taylor Dent--What did Taylor Dent do during his recovery when he was in a body cast for 23 hours a day? He played the World of Warcraft video game.
Amelie Mauresmo--Expecting a test against Alona Bondarenko, Mauresmo used the right tactics to destroy her opponent in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. It was her first win over Bondarenko. Mauresmo’s next opponent could be her “sometimes” doubles partners Svetlana Kuznetsova.
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US Open Notes
Rafael Nadal said, “I am sure that I arrived in New York in much better shape then expected”, Nadal himself is surprised with the speed of his recovery. ”I am very happy to compete again in this city. It is important now to start tournament best possibly prepared and see what will happen.”
Rafa spent some time yesterday showing kids from three schools on Broadway some of his tricks. He was clad in black and yellow, his colors for Flushing Meadow this year in honor of Manhattan cabs, but he blocked questions about superstition. “Yellow remains my lucky color”, he said.
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We Hear---
--that Andre Agassi's much-anticipated autobiography is to be published in November. As well as describing his start in tennis, the American icon writes about his relationship with his father and his failed marriage to actress Brooke Shields.
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THIS WEEK
MEN
New Haven
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New Haven
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NEXT WEEK
MEN
US Open
WOMEN
US Open
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