Friday, October 23, 2009

WORLD NEWS

Wozniacki’s Performance at Luxembourg Has Caused an Investigation to be Launched

Caroline Wozniacki’s retirement in the opening round of the Luxembourg Open where she was just one game from an emphatic straight sets victory, has alerted the Tennis Integrity Unit which is in the process of beginning an investigation.
The top seeded Dane, finalist at the US Open last month, ranked no.6 in the world and qualified to contest next week’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha, Qatar, was leading 7-5,5-0 against Luxembourg’s own Anne Kremer, when she retired citing a hamstring injury. Speaking later to the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Wozniacki admitted that she withdrew to allow Kremer to play in the following round. ''I did not think I could play the second round, so I chose the sporting option, to let her proceed. She is playing at home,'' she said.
Concurrently internet gambling activity on the match was intense and spiked with bets on Kremer winning despite her seemingly hopeless position in the match. Neil Robinson, a newly arrived Sony Ericsson WTA Tour spokesman who previously worked for the International Tennis Federation that initially suggested the existence of the Tennis Integrity Unit, admitted: “We're just looking into everything that happened in this match.”
Court side microphones had reportedly picked up comments from Wozniacki's father and former coach, Piotr, from the point the world no. as leading 3-0 in the second set.
Speaking in his native Polish, the former soccer player was urging his daughter to retire because of the injury. Suspicions are rife that internet gamblers reacted to his comments that were picked up on court side microphones.
At the time Wozniacki was quoted by Betfair, the world’s largest online gambling exchange that alerted the authorities to the notorious activity surrounding the match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Arguello Vassallo in Sopot 26 months ago, at $1.01 to win the match. A rapid change saw a number of gamblers immediately lay money on Wozniacki to lose with a Kremer win rated at $41.
Piotr Wozniacki is maintaining his innocence. Speaking to Danish radio, he claimed: "I went onto the court and said to her: 'Caro, it does not matter whether it's going to be 5-0, 4-1 or 3-2. You can not play the next round, so you shouldn't take the risk.’ I'm very proud of Caroline, because she stopped the fight and gave her opponent a chance."
The 19 year-old player was flippant on the whole situation. "So, people bet on my matches,” said Wozniacki. “Some win, others lose. I just know that I am clean. It is most important to me. And if anyone is in doubt about my injury, I can both produce scan from the hospital and a report from the tournament physiotherapist.”
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Terrorism Fears Cause Pakistan to Cancel Two ITF Tournaments

Pakistan's tennis officials have called off two international junior tennis tournaments in Islamabad because of the growing threat of terrorism. Rashid Khan, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) secretary, said in a statement that the back-to-back world ranking tournaments scheduled to get underway from October 25 have been cancelled in the wake of the twin suicide bombing at the International Islamic University earlier this week.

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Williams Not Able to Make Tournament Plans

Serena Williams still cannot book her flight to Melbourne to take part in the 2010 Australian Open.
The reigning Australian Open as well as Wimbledon champion faces the possibility of a ban from one or more future majors, in addition to the record $10,000 fine already imposed upon her for her foul-mouthed and threatening abuse of a lines person in the semifinals of the US Open, a match she lost on a point penalty.
But, according to WTA Tour CEO Stacey Allaster, she should know her fate by the end of the year. "First of all, I'd like to say I think Serena is a fantastic champion and a great person," said Allaster at the China Open. "She has acknowledged the incident in New York as being a mistake, and something that she's not proud of, and she's apologized for that. That is under investigation, it is ongoing and it would be safe to assume that they will make a decision before year-end."
After initially showing little contrition for her outburst, which came after she was called for a foot-fault that left her two match points down against Kim Clijsters, she has since apologized and said she has learned from the experience. "Obviously I'd be not smart if I were to do the same thing," she said in Beijing. "It's important for people to learn from things they did in the past, and I learned and I would never do the same thing."
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Nadal Travels to Barcelona to Receive a Special Trophy

Rafael Nadal used his tournament break to visit Barcelona where he received a replica of Trofeo Conde de Godo, a trophy he won five times in this city. That was a great opportunity for him to get ready for the last big competition he would be delighted to win in this year. “My objective for this season ending is to win Davis Cup”, explained Rafa. “That is always special because you represent your country.”
Spain will host Czech Republic in Barcelona (December 4-6) and Nadal is convinced that his team is favorite, but it doesn’t mean that he is not cautious.
“Hosting nations are always favorites, but they don’t win always. We’ll have to prove on court that we are better. Czechs are without weak points; they can count on experienced players like Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek, who make great doubles too. He who thinks that we have guaranteed points against them, he is very wrong.”
Nadal suffered a lot the last half of the year; because of knee tendonitis he missed Wimbledon and some other summer tournaments. Later, he had problems with abdominals, but now everything should be OK. Rafa will rest until Paris Open, the last Masters 1,000 of season.
“I want to finish year the best possible way. There is nothing better then winning Davis Cup. I hope that crowd will fill Sant Jordi,” as he invited fans to come to the palace where the final will be played. Seating capacity is almost 17,000.
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Tennis Channel to Show WTA Championships Next Week

Next week’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha, Qatar, beginning on Tuesday, October 27, will be screened on a daily basis in the United States by Tennis Channel with more than 30 hours of live coverage.
The eight player singles field for the event is now set with defending champion Venus Williams, her sister Serena, Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Jankovic guaranteed their places. Vera Zvonareva, the 2008 runner-up, and Agnieszka Radwanska will travel to Doha as alternates while the doubles field features the Williams sisters, Cara Black and Liezel Huber, the Spanish tandem of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez, and the Australian duo of Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs.
Tennis Channel regular Leif Shiras will lead the commentary team from Doha’s Khalifa Tennis Complex that stages the year ending finale to the women’s tour for the second time. Former world no.1 Lindsay Davenport and her regular doubles partner Corina Morariu will provide analysis while Tracy Austin will be conduct interviews and courtside reporting.
Tennis Channel’s live coverage will include all round-robin matches, singles semifinals and doubles play at the six-day event.  The network will also offer a same-day replay of the singles final on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET.  Prime-time encore replays will air each evening at 8 p.m. ET
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Indian Woman Named Hero Among Us

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has announced Suniti Marathe as the grand prize winner for the 2009 Heroes Among Us program. Marathe, who has taught high school for more than 20 years, receives this honor for her leadership and commitment to serving as a role model and mentor to young people in her community of Goa, India. Fans selected her out of five finalists in an online vote, which took place on the Tour’s official website between September 28 and October 5, 2009.
As the winner of the Heroes Among Us program, Marathe will receive a prize package for two to attend the Sony Ericsson Championships – Doha 2009, including tickets to the final, roundtrip airline tickets, accommodation, transportation, behind-the-scenes access at the tournament and tickets to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Year-End Party in Doha, Qatar.
Marathe’s son nominated his mother because of her commitment to educating youth in local villages. Marathe, who runs a library and teaches out of her home, also travels to neighboring villages to teach and to distribute books and uniforms to children who are in need. According to Ms. Marathe’s son, her mother believes that reading not only improves knowledge, but helps improve awareness.
The Heroes Among Us program follows in the footsteps of the Tour’s landmark global partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to raise awareness of gender equality issues and create leadership opportunities for women.
Venus Williams, along with fellow Tour players Vera Zvonareva, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie, and Tour Founder and tennis legend Billie Jean King, serve as UNESCO Promoters of Gender Equality to help raise awareness about issues of importance to women worldwide, and to create leadership opportunities for women through the funding of programs in Cameroon, Liberia, Dominican Republic, China, Jordan and the United States.

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We Hear---
--that with one month to go, ticket sales for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals are quite slow. IMG returned 13,000 of the 16,000 tickets they were allocated unsold. In other words, they have only sold 3,000 corporate hospitality packages.
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THIS WEEK
MEN
Moscow
Stockholm
WOMEN
Luxemburg
Moscow
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NEXT WEEK
MEN
St. Petersburg
Vienna
WOMEN
Doha
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