Secondary players:
Trying to get excited about the yearend's lesser contenders

What's really absurd about the Sony Ericsson WTA Points Race is that no results are discarded like they do on the men's side, so a player like Hantuchova can play 14 more tournaments than Sharapova and tie her, even though the quality of many of her results aren't that high. The tour needs to change the system next year and cap it at the best 19 results (two more results than the rankings allow), which will encourage a little more play, but not too much. How about Marion Bartoli finishing as the first alternate with 30 tournaments on the board? That's 17 more than Justine Henin has on the board, and Henin finished a whopping 3,181 points ahead of her. Put that in perspective. Ana Ivanovic, who is No. 4 in the race, only has 3,163 points. Henin is also 1,308 points ahead of No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, who played 27 tournaments. There's a major quality v. quantity issue that needs to be addressed.

	Ron Angle John McEnroe keeps on playing well but we like Bjorn Borg's overall career better.

BORG'S ALL-TIME CREDENTIALS
I was talking to Mary Carillo today for my "Summer of 1980, Borg v. McEnroe" book (BTW: Whoever gives me a usable, working title wins a reference.) She pointed out – and rightly so – that Borg is not given enough air time when it comes to the greatest of all-time debate. Yes, the Swede only had 11 Slam crowns to 14 for Sampras and 12 for Federer, but he did win Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back-to-back (1978-1980), something that Federer will never do and something that Sampras never did. He also reached four US Open finals (losing on clay for Connors sake)!

Assuming that area of the planet was the most problematic for Borg (regrettably, he and other stars skipped Australia as it was as secondary Slam for much of the 1970s and portion of the early 1980s), put that up against Sampras' horrid play in Paris (one semifinal) and Federer's performance at Roland Garros (two finals and one semifinal). Borg still has the edge if you believe that going from clay to grass is tougher than going from grass to hard courts, a transition that both Sampras and Federer were able to make successfully. What puts Roger over the statistical top are his performances Down Under, but we all know that had Borg played there between 1975 and 1981, that he would have won at least one title, which would mean that as of this writing, his career would stand strongly up against Federer's. But probably not for long. … Speaking of John McEnroe, the word off the court is that Versus/Tennis Channel has offered him the analyst's position for the Davis Cup final. Our friend Leif Shiras will report courtside. … San Jose's SAP Open announced that Sampras will return to the '08 tournament at HP Pavilion to compete in a singles exhibition match against an opponent to be named later on Monday, February 18. … Former Roland Garros doubles champs Luke and Murphy Jensen will host the inaugural Bank of the West Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic, Dec. 8, at The Riviera Tennis Club in LA. Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, actor David Duchovny and musician Gavin Rossdale are among the other notables. … Forgot to mention that Berkeley's Wayne Ferreira defeated Jim Courier 2-6, 6-3, 11-9 (champions tiebreak) to win the $142,000 Stanford Championships, his second title of 2007 on the Outback Champions Series. In the third-place playoff, the 48-year-old McEnroe defeated 30-year-old Mark Philippoussis of Australia 6-4, 6-4. Looks like Flip is not ready for the AO just yet. I bet that Johnny Mac plays until he is 50, even though he was title-less this year.

INSIDE TENNIS GOES OUTSIDE
After being a West Coast-based magazine for 27 years, my mother ship of the past 15-plus years, Inside Tennis, is headed to both Atlanta and the Tri-State Area, including New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut.

Starting in January, IT will print a monthly edition in tennis-mad Atlanta (TennisReporters.net co-owner Ron Cioffi lives in the area) and mail it to the 43,000 members of USTA Atlanta. Tennis interest in Atlanta is driven by ALTA, the local 80,000-member organization that is the largest in the world. ALTA's bi-monthly magazine, Net News, is chock full of ads but does scant tennis journalism.

In February, IT will begin printing monthly editions in the New York area, mailing to the homes of all 47,000 members of the Eastern Tennis Association as well as delivering to clubs, shops and sporting good stores. Myself, IT publisher Bill Simons and Associate Editor Richard Osborn all have Eastern roots, although we are all now longtime Californians (it's my 25th glorious year in the Golden State). Inside Tennis will now have a nationwide presence with issues in the Northwest (Northern California), the Southwest (Southern California and Las Vegas), the Northeast (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) and the Southeast (Atlanta). Lots of work ahead, but I'm confident that the new markets will be very pleased with the product.

My friend John Mavroudis' work on The New Yorker's 9/11 cover has resulted in it being named "Cover of the Year" by the American Society of Magazine Editors, beating out Esquire and Vanity Fair. Props to Johnny Mav, the former Inside Tennis art director Here's the link. John's other excellent artwork is available for viewing (and purchasing) here.

© TennisReporters.net 2007