Thursday, March 23, 2006

The Bye Getting Into Miami Vice

The last of these rubbish 96 player draws is upon us and thanks for that. The atmosphere in Miami seems to be quite good, mainly it's because of the high Latin population that give the crowds a bit more energy and life and the standard of tennis can be quite good, though it does get windy there as well.

Once this tournament is over then it moves onto clay and no more 96 player draws, though the Bye is always a great highlight of these events and usually plays with such flair. The question will this be another Federer vs Nadal final? The thing is I don't give a fuck really, the main reason is I enjoy their tennis for different reasons and as for domination, well it's up to the other players to lift their games and they will do it eventually.

Some of the 1st round matches completed were Agustin Calleri defeating Juan Monaco 6-2 6-1 and I would love to know what happened here. I hope Juan wasn't injured or maybe Calleri just hit everything in the middle of the racquet as that is a comprehensive defeat and he know plays Gael Monfils in the next round and that could be quite an interesting match, but with Calleri one can never tell.

Stan "The Man" Wawrinka beat Andy Murray in 3 sets for the second time now and there was some confidence in the press that on a hardcourt, that this would be Murray's revenge from the Geneva defeat, but this was not to be the case. Stani has an excellent backhand and can hit very well, just needs to improve his shot selection at times. For now Murray claims that clay is his favourite surface and soon enough and the tests will come. Now Stani plays Gonzo who has been struggling with some injury problems of late and anything could happen in this one.

Fabrice Santoro managed to break big Ivo Karlovic's serve and win in straight sets and now takes on his pigeon German Nicolas Kiefer. Santoro has never lost a set to this guy in 6 matches and I can see how Kiefer would get pissed off playing against the little trickster and hope Fab can serve up some more magic to piss off the German.

Chucho Acasuso wins 5-7 6-1 6-1 over Czech Challenger Bunny Tomas Zib and seems Chucho was having a sleep in the 1st set, but he only made 1 unforced error in the 2nd set and was able to carry through to the end of the match and has a potentially very interesting match with the Berdman Tomas Berdych. In this match whoever wins I can't be a loser, though I'd like to see Chucho win.

Malisse and Massu won their matches as well. I am not a huge Massu fan, but I would love it if he takes out Boredo in the next round. As for Xavi Malisse he gets to play Radek Stepanek again and I don't think Thunder Lips will be losing 1 and 1 again so soon, but this was the scene where Malisse blew up at the linesperson and got a holiday from the ATP, which of course Roddick and Agassihole wouldn't have.

As for the rest of the first round the only Aussie player I like Peter Luczak is up against that evil toad Arnaud Clement. I hope Luczak can play a blinder and win this match and not be too passive and keep a heavy length on his forehand. Lucho Horna plays the geeky German Florian Mayer and just hope he can remain focused and not get pissed off from the junk that Mayer hits, though the unorthodox two handed drop shot on the hop is a thing of beauty.

Andrei Pavel and Beto Martin are playing and hopefully one of these guys can knock Roddick out early and Pavel really needs some good performances soon, as he will be out of the top 100 if he fucks up in Münich and doesn't do well elsewhere. He has a 3-0 record over Beto, just hope he can continue on in this way. Then the pimp of Florida the rapping genius of Boca Raton Vinny Spadea is playing against Seppi and hope Seppi shows him the door.

Then the highlight of the tournament without a doubt besides the presence of the Bye. Donald Young vs Carlos Berlocq, someone will win their 1st match on the ATP tour and the only question is who. DY is talented, but so overhyped and getting more Wild Cards than a prostitute has sex in a full working week and Berlocq is a clay hound, but hopefully with Gaby Markus, he will improve and win this match and maybe DY should learn some lessons in humility, though I don't see this happening.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

The Bye Taking Over Indian Wells

Well it's Masters Series time and I call the Indian Wells and Miami the useless TMS events, well one they are a 96 player draw. 64 is sufficient, but no these need to be different. The indoor events with 48 well this makes sense to an extent, not enough courts for these indoor event for 64 players. The best thing about this is that the Bye makes a comeback to the ATP tour and his legion of fans will be impressed.

They have played some 1st round matches and there will be some 2nd rounders played today as well. Gaudio vs the Bye was a brutal match 7-6 6-7 7-6, the tiebreaker was 35-33 and the Bye saved 31 match points in total but Gaston was too tough this time.

Rain mucked up some of the schedule so that's why some matches are overlapping and I hope that someone new can win this event, then again as long as Agassi,Hewitt and Roddick don't win, then it's all good. These events don't lead anywhere, unlike the other 7 TMS events which prepare the players for Roland Garros, the US Open and the Masters.

Jose Acasuso plays Roddick in the 2nd round and vamos Chucho. Roddick isn't in great form and if Chucho can make enough returns and serve reasonably well then he has a huge chance he can get the right result here. Chucho started slowly against Salzenstein, but this is first match on hardcourt for a while and it does take time to adjust from the clay to the hardcourt. The last 2 sets were promising and hope he takes out the Duck.

The all Russian battle between Tursunov and Andreev could be very close and while Igor has won both of their matches and both of these have been very close. Andreev does the best with his talent, whereas Tursunov does everything but, to be fair he has had some injury problems.

Berdych and Henman looks like it has potential to be a good match and the Berdman has been a bit slow at the start of the season and Henman has had his problems, though if Berdych doesn't serve well he could struggle with attacking game of Henman, though Henman is having his back problems these days.

Some first rounders that are of interest for myself anyway are Calleri vs Massu, Seppi vs Mathieu and Santoro vs Malisse. Hope Lucho Horna can get through as well and luckily I will have some coverage and when it's on and I am around I will watch it and as long as there isn't WTA mixed in, then that's a good thing.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Björn Borg Is Not Broke and What Happens to Sportspeople in Retirement

What happens to professional sportspeople after they retire. Many make the transition easily like Ivan Lendl who walked away and has virtually nothing to do with tennis these days and is more interested in his daughter's golfing fortunes. Others still stay within tennis like captaining their Davis Cup teams or play on the Seniors tour and commentating as well.

Tennis doesn't have as many of its people go off the rails as say football for example, then again this is probably cause of the different nature of the most of its players. Tennis as much as I enjoy it, in heart is a conservative sport and it helps to come from a semi middle class background and requires a certain amount of money to start up, whereas football doesn't have that. Both of these sports have a huge global appeal and players can earn plenty of money, but the amount of footballers that go off the rails with drugs, gambling and all the other stuff seems to be a lot higher than tennis players and that might even be per capita.

Which brings to the subject of the blog Swedish legend Björn Borg who is selling his 5 Wimbledon trophies and the rumours came around that he is broke and has to do this to make ends meet. Borg was the reason Swedish tennis exists, through the second generation who were the golden generation. He made tennis accessible to more people and his game was influential long after he retired.

Borg earnt plenty of money though compared current earnings it's peanuts, and he was making plenty of money through exhibitions and with his sudden retirement, it left an empty void and he had a lot of problems. Yes, he problems with women (yes, they can be troublesome), had some bad business dealing and he overdosed on some barbiturates.

With his Björn Borg label doing quite well and he seemed to put his troubles behind him and he was at Båstad talking with Rafael Nadal and he has kept himself in very good shape physically. Here is the Borg response to those rumours about his status as being broke.

http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=538879

That is the original article in Swedish and my translation below.

Björn Borg: I am not Broke at all

Björn Borg laughed at rumours about that he should be broke.

The tennis legend imagines what he can earn from selling the Wimbledon trophies he will give it to charity.

Yesterday, the news that Björn Borg will auction off his 5 Wimbledon cups in London on the 21st June created big headlines.

At the time he said in a press release. “I must secure savings in the long term for those closest to me”

It is ridiculous

The nasty rumour said that Borg is broke or needs money to pay for an eventual summons of 11million SEK. Something that the legend definitely denied

“It is ridiculous to hear from Sweden that I am selling the Wimbledon trophies to survive or save my family and my dearest. I can’t understand that people think I am broke, when I have new stores opening all the time” said Borg.

He is present for the time being in Dubai, together with wife Patricia and together with son Leo and both of Patricia’s children Kasper and Bianca.

According to Borg his personal economic status has never been stronger.

“My business has never been better”, he said in a short statement.

Why sell the Wimbledon trophies?

“I have won so much and have so many prizes. I can’t keep in order of them all and thought that this would be something that someone would like”.

Wimbledon is the biggest

“Wimbledon is the greatest you can win through tennis, but I have so many films and such about the memory. But nothing will take it backwards ”. The trophies which will be sold at the auction firm Bonhams they expect around 4,4 mil SEK and 2 signed Donnay racquets. What Björn Borg is going to do with the money isn’t clear, but it is not at all sure than he will heepit.

“The money that comes in I think I will give it to charity. But to which one I don’t know yet” completed Borg.