FROM THE SAP OPEN IN SAN JOSE, WEDNESDAY,
FEB. 11 –
On Thursday night, Latvian up and comer Ernest Gulbis will get another
crack at three-time SAP Open champion Andy Roddick and is hoping that
this time around, he wont lose his focus like he did at the 2008 US Open,
when the American beat him in down in a delicious four-setter.
The 20-year-old isn't feelings that hot these days, as he’s come
down with a virus and is on antibiotics. He had to rehab a knee problem
in the off-season while at his father’s vacation home in Hawaii
(his family is very wealthy) and says he’s 4-5 months from a full
recovery.
The ultra powerful friend of Novak Djokovic is also a bit accident-prone.
While at the tournament in St. Petersburg last fall, he fell and cut
his arm.
“ One small scratch and from that, the Latvian press, they wrote a lot
of negative stuff, that I make suicide and stuff like that,"
Gulbis said. “That's okay, they don't have nothing to do. But this
was like a small accident, I was together with my friends, with players,
with my father also, so -- nothing serious.”
Gulbis is still a step behind Marin Cilic and Juan Martin Del Potro,
but he certainly has the guns to catch up. However, he lacking consistency.
“My goal is that my game gets a little more stable,” he said.
“I get my performance better in the small tournaments, like 250s
and 500s then I think I can get higher in the rankings, because in big
tournaments I always find extra motivation and I always play good.”
Rafael Nadal hasn’t quite come down from his
Aussie Open winning high and really struggled in his opening round
in Rotterdam, clawing past Simon Bolelli 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Gilles Simon
and Jo Tsonga also pushed through.
At the Paris Indoors, the other AO champ, Serena Williams took
a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Czech Iveta Benesova and will play qualifier
Karolina Sprem, who, by the way, is no longer linked to Jelena Dokic’s
coach, Borna Bikic.
Amelie Mauresmo came though with a 6-2, 6-0 win over
Italy's Sara Errani, bring up memories of last weekend’s Fed
Cup debacle, where Italy whitewashed France 5-0. The smoke has not
cleared from the Flavia Pennetta incident, where Italy’s
leading player, according to Mauresmo (via Alize Cornet) called the
umpire she was une pute [a whore] and gave her the finger. If you don't
penalize that, then everything's permitted."
French captain Nicolas Escude was then quoted as saying:
"when you look at other sports, you know that the Italians are often
borderline. Today, they went beyond the limit."
Pennetta did admit to going overboard, and while she should have been
defaulted, she’s one of the classiest and most well liked players
on tour and should be cut a break. Plus, she out-gutted Mauresmo at home,
no easy feat.
For those of you who read the Russian Express story that alleged that Anna
Chakvedatze’s father Djambuli told Yuri Sharapov that
he has lost all control of Maria, that story is said to have no basis
in reality. Mr. Chakvetadze and Sharapova are not friends and would never
have such a conversation.
Due to the massive cutbacks in the publishing industry, reporting, or
lack there of, has grown increasingly sketchy, while the editing, or
the lack there of, has also hit the skids. How is it, for example, that
two separate wire stories on Sharapova’s withdrawals from Paris
and Dubai hit the news rolls a week apart and that the second one is
being treated as a new story with real news value? How is it that it
was reported that Sania Mirza pulled out of Fed Cup last week with a
torn abdominal muscle and is back on court this week at the Pattaya Open.
It must have been no more of a muscle strain.
Due to the lousy world economy, there are fewer on site reporters these
days, which increases the size of the black hole of tennis reporting.
Outside of the Slams, there are not enough common threads running through
the sport, and fans are forced to guess as to the playing level and the
lifestyles of the competitors. There are tons of fans blogs, and some
of them are very good, but because they aren’t out there reporting,
they are forced to rely on the same small information flow coming out
of most tournaments and are forced to guess as to what’s really
going on. Moreover, the tours are once again not doing a good enough
job promoting their players and are frequently waiting for journalists
to come to them rather than pitching interesting stories. They need to
help the sport come alive, rather than watching it sleep post the Aussie
Open.
