[ad_1] By Chris Oddo / Monday, January 13, 2014 Victoria Azarenka battled extreme heat and a feisty Johanna Larsson to open her Australian Open title defense with a straight-sets win. Photo Source: Corleve Victoria Azarenka began her bid for a third consecutive Australian Open title with a hard-fought 7-6(2), 6-2 triumph over Sweden’s Johanna […]
Azarenka Survives Heat and Feisty Larsson to Prevail – Tennis Now Read More »
[ad_1] By Blair Henley / Tuesday, January 14, 2014 David Ferrer and John Isner joined Tennis Now for a fun Q & A before kicking off their 2014 Australian Open campaigns. Find out what they had to say! Photo Credit: Getty / AP MELBOUNE, Australia — John Isner and David Ferrer are somewhat of
Q & A Fun with Ferrer and Isner Read More »
[ad_1] By Erik Gudris / Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Roger Federer completed yet another tennis record during his opening round match. But injury forced out the highest seeded American man in this year’s Australian Open. Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve With former Grand Slam great Stefan Edberg watching him from the stands, Roger Federer posted
Federer Keeps His Cool As Heat and Injuries Rise at Australian Open Read More »
[ad_1] By Erik Gudris/Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Rafael Nadal advanced after his first round opponent Bernard Tomic retired due to injury in their opening round match in Melbourne. Photo Credit: AP Though billed as a must-see match, injury marred the first round meeting between top seed Rafael Nadal and Australia’s Bernard Tomic at the
Nadal Advances After Tomic Retires in Opening Round of Australian Open Read More »
Grant me just one wish for the tennis season ahead, and I would return to unfinished business: The Women’s Tennis Association has announced its long-range intent to limit grunting, better described as shrieking, during matches by working to educate juniors.
But long-range is much too long to wait. The W.T.A. leadership is bone weary of this subject and insists that the public is, too. Yet in fact the issue remains as raw and divisive as ever.
Travel the tennis world and speak with casual fans, and by far the most common complaint is about the racket generated by too many of the leading women, including Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and, on a less relentless basis, Serena Williams. Some of the men also continue to push the limits, including Carlos Berlocq and Marcel Granollers.
It would be both fair play and good business to turn down the volume now instead of waiting for a quieter generation to slowly take command. Consider that Azarenka, 24, could be playing and wailing for another 10 years. Enforce the hindrance rule consistently, and probably the Azarenkas, Sharapovas and Williamses — competitors to the core — would adjust with remarkable speed.
It is not as if the tour would be banning their rackets, their strings or their ball-striking techniques. The tour would be putting limits on a sound effect that the grunters do not deploy on all strokes but that is too often used to intimidate and destabilize, and, more important to the W.T.A. and its stars, that turns off fans and televisions.
Other tennis wishes for 2014:
• More matches between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, or better yet, any matches between Nadal and Murray. This has been the missing link in the bright and shiny Big Four chain. While Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer keep ramming into Nadal on big occasions, Murray has not played him since beating him in the final in Tokyo in October 2011. Nadal leads their series 13-5 and has won five of their last six. There is a strong argument that Murray’s Grand Slam breakthroughs in 2012 and 2013 were made easier by not having to meet Nadal along the way. The Scot — post-operative back willing — is a better, more resolute player now, but he has yet to prove it to the Spaniard in person.
• The game’s pay scale remains top-heavy despite concessions from the Grand Slam tournaments on prize money, which bolstered the earning power of second-tier players. Prize money in the lower divisions, including the challenger circuit for the men, has hardly budged in years. The sport needs to address that, both to encourage outstanding young athletes to choose tennis and to stamp out the temptation in the lower ranks to give in to match-fixing.
• With Europe the power base of the sport for the foreseeable future, and with the Davis Cup in a rut, the moment is right for the men to create a team competition inspired by the Ryder Cup. Why not Europe against the rest of the world? Play it every two years, avoiding the Olympic years, and see how it looks to have Djokovic, Nadal and Murray on the same side for a change.
• On-court coaching hurts the women’s game more than it helps at this stage. It is also not permitted at Grand Slam tournaments or on the men’s tour. It is past time to end the W.T.A. Tour’s multiyear experiment and get back to the essence of tennis: players solving conundrums on their own under pressure in one of the ultimate individual sports.
• Considering the consistent excellence of the champions in this era, the least Serena Williams or someone else can do is make a genuine run at a true Grand Slam in singles. No woman has won even the first two of the four majors in the same year since Jennifer Capriati in 2001. No man has done it since Jim Courier in 1992, and neither Capriati nor Courier won the third leg, Wimbledon, in those years.
• A few tournament directors seem to have understood that variety is good for the game, and are creating faster conditions: see Shanghai in 2013 and Brisbane in the first week of 2014. No one wants a return to a serve-dominated men’s circuit full of quick courts and staccato points. But to encourage contrasts in style and the full range of shot-making, and to preserve players’ health, the sport needs to present venues where winners and short points are more accessible. May the trend accelerate.
• A true, all-court rival for Serena Williams is overdue. She is an astounding 47-6 against the other members of the top 5: Azarenka, Li Na, Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska. She is now 15-2 against Sharapova, the only other active player to have won all four of the Grand Slam tournaments in singles.
• Comebacks remain a tennis staple, and here’s hoping for a second act from Nicole Vaidisova, the former Czech wunderkind who quit the game at age 20 in 2010 and is now rebuilding her life after a divorce from the tour player Radek Stepanek. Here’s hoping for a third act from Brian Baker, the American who was an inspiration in his successful return in 2012 before injuring his knee at the 2013 Australian Open. As for Marion Bartoli, who retired just a few weeks after winning Wimbledon: I’m beginning to believe she really meant it.
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the last time Murray and Nadal met. The match was the final of the Japan Open in Tokyo in October, not the U.S. Open semifinal in August. And Murray won, not Nadal.
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Grant me just one wish for the tennis season ahead, and I would return to unfinished business: The Women’s Tennis Association has announced its long-range intent to limit grunting, better described as shrieking, during matches by working to educate juniors.
But long-range is much too long to wait. The W.T.A. leadership is bone weary of this subject and insists that the public is, too. Yet in fact the issue remains as raw and divisive as ever.
Travel the tennis world and speak with casual fans, and by far the most common complaint is about the racket generated by too many of the leading women, including Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and, on a less relentless basis, Serena Williams. Some of the men also continue to push the limits, including Carlos Berlocq and Marcel Granollers.
It would be both fair play and good business to turn down the volume now instead of waiting for a quieter generation to slowly take command. Consider that Azarenka, 24, could be playing and wailing for another 10 years. Enforce the hindrance rule consistently, and probably the Azarenkas, Sharapovas and Williamses — competitors to the core — would adjust with remarkable speed.
It is not as if the tour would be banning their rackets, their strings or their ball-striking techniques. The tour would be putting limits on a sound effect that the grunters do not deploy on all strokes but that is too often used to intimidate and destabilize, and, more important to the W.T.A. and its stars, that turns off fans and televisions.
Other tennis wishes for 2014:
• More matches between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, or better yet, any matches between Nadal and Murray. This has been the missing link in the bright and shiny Big Four chain. While Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer keep ramming into Nadal on big occasions, Murray has not played him since beating him in the final in Tokyo in October 2011. Nadal leads their series 13-5 and has won five of their last six. There is a strong argument that Murray’s Grand Slam breakthroughs in 2012 and 2013 were made easier by not having to meet Nadal along the way. The Scot — post-operative back willing — is a better, more resolute player now, but he has yet to prove it to the Spaniard in person.
• The game’s pay scale remains top-heavy despite concessions from the Grand Slam tournaments on prize money, which bolstered the earning power of second-tier players. Prize money in the lower divisions, including the challenger circuit for the men, has hardly budged in years. The sport needs to address that, both to encourage outstanding young athletes to choose tennis and to stamp out the temptation in the lower ranks to give in to match-fixing.
• With Europe the power base of the sport for the foreseeable future, and with the Davis Cup in a rut, the moment is right for the men to create a team competition inspired by the Ryder Cup. Why not Europe against the rest of the world? Play it every two years, avoiding the Olympic years, and see how it looks to have Djokovic, Nadal and Murray on the same side for a change.
• On-court coaching hurts the women’s game more than it helps at this stage. It is also not permitted at Grand Slam tournaments or on the men’s tour. It is past time to end the W.T.A. Tour’s multiyear experiment and get back to the essence of tennis: players solving conundrums on their own under pressure in one of the ultimate individual sports.
• Considering the consistent excellence of the champions in this era, the least Serena Williams or someone else can do is make a genuine run at a true Grand Slam in singles. No woman has won even the first two of the four majors in the same year since Jennifer Capriati in 2001. No man has done it since Jim Courier in 1992, and neither Capriati nor Courier won the third leg, Wimbledon, in those years.
• A few tournament directors seem to have understood that variety is good for the game, and are creating faster conditions: see Shanghai in 2013 and Brisbane in the first week of 2014. No one wants a return to a serve-dominated men’s circuit full of quick courts and staccato points. But to encourage contrasts in style and the full range of shot-making, and to preserve players’ health, the sport needs to present venues where winners and short points are more accessible. May the trend accelerate.
• A true, all-court rival for Serena Williams is overdue. She is an astounding 47-6 against the other members of the top 5: Azarenka, Li Na, Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska. She is now 15-2 against Sharapova, the only other active player to have won all four of the Grand Slam tournaments in singles.
• Comebacks remain a tennis staple, and here’s hoping for a second act from Nicole Vaidisova, the former Czech wunderkind who quit the game at age 20 in 2010 and is now rebuilding her life after a divorce from the tour player Radek Stepanek. Here’s hoping for a third act from Brian Baker, the American who was an inspiration in his successful return in 2012 before injuring his knee at the 2013 Australian Open. As for Marion Bartoli, who retired just a few weeks after winning Wimbledon: I’m beginning to believe she really meant it.
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the last time Murray and Nadal met. The match was the final of the Japan Open in Tokyo in October, not the U.S. Open semifinal in August. And Murray won, not Nadal.