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THE
SCOOP: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6
Doubts
about the Williams sisters playing again this year
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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What
can you take away from the WTA's Wednesday warning to its top
players that if they don't show up for season-ending Tour Championships
in Munich Oct. 29-Nov. 4, that they will be fined? That European
tournament directors and the Euro media are clearly worried that
due to the Sept. 11
attacks, that the Williams sisters and other top U.S. players
may not show up in Europe, so they have deluged the WTA offices
in Stanford with queries.
And
why not be concerned? Lindsay and Venus pulled out of Moscow this
week
and Venus pulled out of Filderstadt next week, ending Venus’
chance to finish the year at No. 1. That's too bad, because a
Venus-Martina-Jennifer cat fight for No. 1 in Munich would have
been enticing.
Serena
Williams hasn't played since the U.S. Open and is due to play
the Tier
I event in Zurich in two weeks, along with Capriati and Davenport.
Venus'
next event is Linz, Austria, Oct. 22-28. Jennifer apparently boarded
a plane
yesterday for Europe, so it appears she's a go, and since Lindsay
took a
wildcard in Zurich just a couple days ago, so the Southern Californian
appears ready to roll onto the continent, too.
As
we have seen by their sparse appearances abroad in the last few
years, the
Williams sisters are no fans of fall play in Europe. Believe it
or not,
Serena has never played in the year-end championships and Venus
has played
only once (in '99). That fact alone makes the Williamses a serious
question
mark for Munich, but sources say that as of this writing, they
are planning
to play.
Remember
that Monica Seles has vowed never to play in Germany again due
to
her '93 stabbing in Hamburg and her last tour event of 2002 will
be next week
in Shanghai.
MUNICH
TOURNAMENT COULD BE HURT
Where
might this leave the tour and it's new heavy financial backers
in
Munich?
With
a spotty Championships field that could merely highlight
undeserving No. 1 Martina Hingis (no titles since February); the
up-and-down
Kim Clijsters (that wasn't the powerful Venus she beat last week
in the final
of Leipzig, it was the counterpunching Maggie Maleeva); the mentally
suspect
Justin Henin (who gagged four match points to Babs Schett in Moscow);
the
erratic Amelie Mauresmo (who wasn't savvy enough to figure out
a way to down
Daja Bedanova in Russia's capital this week); and the overplaying
Jelena
Dokic (has she skipped a week since June?)
You
can bet the tour is hoping that Elena Dementieva gets her game
back together and qualifies and that home country favorite Anke
Huber manages to sneak her way in.
By
the way, a tour source did tell tennisreporters.net
that
if the political/military
climate heats up again – say
an invasion of Afghanistan – all
bets are off
for whether any Americans will want to be exposed playing in Europe.
CAPRIATI
TO PLAY FED CUP
Roland Garros champ Jennifer Capriati is planning on going to
Madrid for Fed
Cup, Nov. 7 -11, which all but takes Lindsay Davenport out of
consideration.
(She doesn't want to play on clay anyway.)
Will
Venus and/or Serena play? Possibly. They do like U.S. captain
Billie Jean King, but they cannot be counted on yet. Even though
Monica Seles would be a good pick for clay, she's probably going
to take the rest of the year off to rest her sore feet. That would
open a spot for Meghann Shaughnessy, but since the Arizonan despises
the USTA, it would take a near miracle to get her to play.
Lisa
Raymond? No friend of King's and no demon on clay but a good choice
for doubles. Chanda Rubin or Meilen Tu as King's No. 2 singles
player? It could happen.
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