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THE
SCOOP: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26
USTA
fears for Fed Cup players, pulls out of Madrid
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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USTA
board members feared for the lives of its Fed Cup team, which
is one of the major reasons the U.S. decided to pull out of the
competition scheduled for Nov. 7-11 in Madrid.
"There
were board members who felt like it was wrong to take risks with
the players lives, regardless of how much security was being offered,"
USTA Board member Michael Mee told tennisreporters.net
.
"Even if we were given credible assurances of security, how
secure can anyone really be at this time? There
were board members who were in favor of sending a team, but there
were a number of people who were very uncomfortable about it."
USTA President Merv Heller and Director of Pro Tennis Arlen Kantarian
held discussions with government officials over the possibility
of the team playing,
but it is unclear whether or not the government felt comfortable
with a U.S. team playing abroad. No U.S. professional team from
any sport has played abroad in an international competition of
note since the 9-11 attacks.
BILLIE
JEAN KING DISAPPOINTED
USTA
sources told tennisreporters.net
that Fed Cup captain Billie Jean King was very disappointed that
her two-time defending championship team was pulled out of the
competition. King was so upset that she decided not to address
the media
on the subject. The United States has participated in Fed Cup
each year since its inception in 1963.
The U.S.'s withdrawal will very likely throw the competition into
a further tailspin, given that America tends to bring the most
high-profile stars to the event. Although last year's final in
Las Vegas wasn't a commercial success, the competition did attract
the likes of Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles.
While Venus and Serena Williams were unlikely to play in this
year's competition on clay, Seles was a real possibility, as was
Capriati.
Now, the ITF must promote a competition that is not only without
the
Americans, but is missing Martina Hingis and Russian pin-up starlet
Anna
Kournikova, who didn't make her team. Given that Conchita Martinez
hasn't
played in month and that Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario is in a slump,
Spain is a
longshot to win the crown. With young guns Kim Clijsters and Justine
Henin
(who were spanked by the U.S. last year), Belgium has to be considered
the
favorite along with France, who will bring a very physical team
that should
include Amelie Mauresmo and Sandrine Testud. However, none of
these players
have the drawing power of the Williamses, Capriati, Kournikova
and Hingis, so
the ITF and the Spanish Tennis Federation will be hard pressed
to make a
profit off the event.
All
this comes at a time when the competition itself is in crisis.
The ITF
sold the rights to Fed Cup to ISL in 2000, which completely changed
its
format. Then, after ISL went bankrupt early this year, the ITF
was forced to
take the rights to the competition back and changed the format
again,
deciding to hold the final in Spain even though the 2000 agreement
dictated
that the defending champion (the U.S.) would host the tie.
THE
AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE: RETHINKING THE MOVE TO MUNICH
Adding
to end-of-year disappointments, the Sanex WTA tour announced today
that Venus will not play its 2001 championships in Munich next
month. Venus cited the wrist injury that kept her out of competition
this week. Serena has confirmed today she will play in Munich.
The tour decided to move its championships out of New York to
Munich for increased money and so far, that decision appears to
have been poorly thought out. As we have written before in this
space, most of the tour's marquee
players are American or live in the U.S., so why take the risk
of playing all
your major fall event on the Continent when you know that many
of your bread
and butter players would prefer to spend at least a couple weeks
at home?
Since
the U.S. Open, neither Venus nor Serena have played one single
event,
Lindsay has played a couple (impressively) and new No. 1 Jennifer
has played
a few (not so impressively). Hingis is done for the year, Anna
is barely
getting her feet wet and won't qualify and Seles will never play
an event in
Germany again.
We
already know that not one single U.S. journalist is going to Munich
to cover the event (sorry, readers), so exactly how much publicity
is this tournament going to get stateside. Not much. As some reporters
told the tour in the early fall, the only way they would travel
to Munich is if the No. 1 ranking was up in the air.
We'll
talk more about Munich on Monday, but here is how the rest of
the field shakes out as of today: No. 1 Capriati needs a victory
bad, No. 5 Henin appears to be a little bit fried; No. 6 Kim Clijsters
keeps plugging but needs another big win; No. 7 Mauresmo isn't
convincing anyone anymore: No. 8 Jelena Dokic plays too much and
has a thing about facing Lindsay; No. 9 Serena is a phantom; No.
11 Sandrine Testud has no chance; No. 12 Meghann Shaughnessy is
hurt and appears burnt out; No. 13 Silvia Farina Elia is likable
but doesn't have the weapons to win; No. 14 Nathalie Tauziat is
always complaining and is retiring; No. 15 Elena Dementieva is
not the player that she was last year and needs to prove something
here; No. 16 Maggie Maleeva is fun but is no longer a big-time
threat; and No. 17 Anke Huber may win because she's playing at
home, it's her
second to last tournament and she deserves a major title because
she's
pleasant and has managed a solid career even though she holds
her racket with
a bizarre grip.
How's that for a first-time WTA Octoberfest?
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