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The Scoop: FRIDAY, MARCH 7
Sampras withdraws … again and again
Kimmy's media ban stems from tr.net reporter
Slumping Dokic on new coach Gunhardt
By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN IN INDIAN WELLS, CALIF. – What to make of Pete Sampras' nonstop withdrawals from tournament after tournament, including his pull out today from next week's Pacific Life Open and the Nasdaq-100 Open in a week and a half?
That his fans must be pulling their collective hair out their heads trying to figure out whether he will retire next week, next month, just before Roland Garros or Wimbledon, or after the All-England Club shuts its doors in July. While it is completely within the best player of all time's right to take his time making a decision, he did tournament directors and fans in San Jose, Scottsdale, Indian Wells and Miami a major disservice by waiting so long to pull out.
His brother Gus, the tournament director in Scottsdale, said that Pete still hasn't made a decision on whether to retire yet and may just come back for the majors, but who knows?
"He's reflecting on everything and wants to see how he feels when he gets closer to the time," Gus said. "He taking it one week at a time. He doesn't want to pull a la Michael Jordan – retire and then come back again."
Gus added that if Pete does decide to retire, he won't have a farewell tour a la Michael Chang.
"That's not him or his style. If he going to play, he's going to play … he's going to play seriously."
NASDAQ tournament owner Butch Buchholtz also spoke to Pete and said that Sampras told him that the December birth of he and his wife Bridgette's first child, Christian, has nothing to do with his decision to stay at home.
"He feels he's not at a top level yet and he doesn't want to go through another drought," Buchholtz said.
Sampras is next scheduled to play the Houston on clay at the end of April. When asked whether Pete would play Houston and then hop over to Europe for the clay court season, Gus joked, " Oh, yeah, he's getting primed for a run at Roland Garros."
Funny, yes, but the waiting for King Pete's decree on his career is getting tiresome and pretty soon, people will begin to lose interest.
Kimmy's media ban stems from tr.net reporter
Top seed Kim Clijsters is upset about a story that Reuters (via this reporter) and tennisreporters.net ran last week about her battle with Belgian authorities about the amount of taxes she must pay and has now decided not to do any one-ones with the written press.
Kim could have decided not to talk about the subject, but did so anyway and has now decided to shoot the messengers instead of taking responsibility for her actions.
Clijsters' decision comes at a great time for the WTA, which is trying to promote a Tier 1 women's tournament without the Williamses and Martina Hingis with a handful of alleged stars who aren't thrilled about promoting their sport through the press.
The list of women who would rather seclude themselves in corporate suites includes Jennifer Capriati (no one-on-ones), Daniela Hantuchova (no pre-tournament press) and Jelena Dokic (little to no accessibility).
Somehow, these players must not be looking up in the stands when they play and notice that an average of 70 percent of the seats are empty.
Once the men get here on Monday, the amount of women's coverage will be reduced to a few paragraphs at the bottom of most stories. The players will only have themselves to blame.
Slumping Dokic on new coach Gunhardt
Dokic was upset by German veteran Barbara Rittner 6-1 5-7 6-3 and looks as out of synch as she has at any time in the last year. She's wild, a little out of shape and appears to have no real game plan other than to hit to open spots. Imagine being a Top-10 player and thinking you are out of a match because you lost the first set. That's Jelena – 2003 version.
"I didn't play smart enough and should have played the tougher first set and that got me down," said Dokic, who is now 2-5 on the year. "Once you lose a set so easily, it's hard to come back. If I played a tougher first set it would have made a big difference because it would have made her more tired."
Dokic hired Steffi Graf's former coach, Heinz Gunhardt, in the off-season and after she lost, they went out for a two-hour practice.
"He's much tougher," Dokic said. "Everything is more disciplined. He knows exactly what I need to work on. He played himself so he understands a lot. He's one of the best that out there, not just because he worked with Steffi, but he because. He was ideal one to pick."
The Yugoslav native and Florida resident said that she making some decent-sized changes to her game, not because she doesn't believe she was a good player before, but because she knows she needs to improve. She says the transition period from her dad, Damir, to Gunhardt, could take up to six months.
"I did well before, but there were things to improve on with my serve and physically, said Dokic. "I could definitely could hit the ball before but even players at 27 change their game. Why wouldn't I change mine at 19? It hasn't been a great year, but I'm trying and I'm not worried. Everyone has bad losses and months when they don't play well."
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