Paris Depleted
I must be one of the last people on earth to write about how the ATP Masters Series tournament in Paris has
suffered a series of withdrawals from the top players. Still, this seems to be something that plagues tournaments like this scheduled towards the end of the ATP calendar, and it's something that's been magnified by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's dominance throughout the year.
Federer locked up the year-end #1 ranking even earlier this year than last year, and he and Nadal have split between them the past eight Masters Series tournaments. All that remains to motivate other players to keep playing is (a) qualifying for the Masters Cup event in Shanghai later this month, or (b) positioning themselves for a good start next year (for example: a higher ranking would help them gain direct entry to the top tournaments, instead of them having to play qualifying rounds). Some people on various tennis forums have also said tournament earnings--and even more importantly, appearance fees--are the biggest draw to playing tournaments this late in the season.
Federer's out,
Nadal's out,
Hewitt's out,
Safin's out--these players have all claimed injury as the reason for their withdrawal from the tournament. Andy Roddick, the only top six player to make it to Paris this year, says it's because the tennis year is too long.
From Eurosport:
the American said: "It's ridiculous to have to play for 10 and-a-half months of the year.
"There is no other sport where you have to do that. Nothing changes and everyone agrees that the season needs to be shorter.
"At the moment, I am signed up to play the Paris Masters but the various pullouts prove that the players are tired at the end of a very long season."
Also on the withdrawal list are Andre Agassi (due to personal reasons) and Carlos Moya (due to the niggling shoulder injury that's plagued him all season). Tim Henman is the latest injury casualty; after his back struggles, he
cracked cartilage coming off his second-round loss in Basel to Andrew Murray and ends his season without coming to Paris.
Now comes reports that Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt may not be playing the Masters Cup as well, although neither player has confirmed their non-participation. The news on Safin comes via Russian Davis and Fed Cup coach
Shamil Tarpischev, who says that the best thing for Safin is not to play.
I don't think Safin always does what's best for himself, but he seems to be working hard to get his knee to mend well. I don't think he'd jeopardize his entire career just to make some appearance money at the Masters Cup. Still, he
did try to play on a shaky knee leading up to the US Open, which aggravated the injury and forced him to withdraw from the last Slam of the year.
As for Hewitt, his wife Bec Cartwright is due to give birth in mid-November. Hewitt's manager
Rob Aivatoglou says that if there's a chance the expectant father might miss the birth by playing in Shanghai, he won't go.
With so many players out of commission, the field at Paris is wide open for Andy Roddick, top seed, to swoop in and claim his first Masters Series title of the year. Still, there's the
luck of the draw. Though Roddick has a bye through the first round, he stands to face either Sebastien Grosjean or Taylor Dent in the second round, then Gael Monfils (who he is to face in today's Lyon final) or Dominik Hrbaty in the third round, then either of the two Davids (Nalbandian or Ferrer) in the quarterfinal if the seedings hold true. Roddick potentially could meet Ivan Ljubicic in the semifinal, and their last match was the rubber that decided their Davis Cup tie in Croatia's favor earlier this year. That's not exactly a cushy ride to a Mickey Mouse final.
UPDATE: Roddick just steamrolled Monfils in the Lyon final 6-3, 6-2. Hopefully a sign of a strong performance this upcoming week.
UPDATE #2: Monfils withdrew from Paris/Bercy citing tendonitis. He has been replaced in the draw by fellow Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard.
ATP Top Ten
Two days ago I was looking at the
ATP entry rankings and realized how far ahead of the field Roger Federer is. I also realized that I was seeing names in the Top Ten that weren't there last year.
I decided, for fun, that I'd do some sort of comparison between the players in the Top Ten: the number of tournaments they'd entered, their win-loss record for the year, the number of titles they'd won, and the
Indesit Race points they've earned so far.
The ATP Top Ten| Entry Ranking | Tournaments | Win-Loss | Titles | Race Points |
|---|
| #1. Federer, R. | 14 | 77-3 | 11 | 1245 |
| #2. Nadal, R. | 20 | 74-10 | 10 | 853 |
| #3. Roddick, A. | 16 | 51-12 | 4 | 548 |
| #4. Hewitt, L. | 10 | 37-9 | 1 | 498 |
| #5. Safin, M. | 12 | 27-11 | 1 | 346 |
| #6. Agassi, A. | 12 | 38-11 | 1 | 455 |
| #7. Coria, G. | 19 | 53-21 | 1 | 422 |
| #8. Davydenko, N. | 26 | 48-26 | 1 | 378 |
| #9. Nalbandian, D. | 16 | 34-15 | 1 | 277 |
| #10. Puerta, M. | 24 | 36-20 | 1 | 324 |
EDIT: Much thanks to
Angle Queen from
MensTennisForums for pointing out that the number of tournaments listed on the entry rankings page is from the rolling rankings and doesn't accurately reflect the number of tournaments the players have played this year.
I've also changed the points column to reflect the race points instead of the entry system points, since at this point in the year the race points matter more than the entry system points in determining what the players' year-end rankings will be.
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FOUND AND BLOGGED: Susan, the webmaster of
Vamos Rafael (the largest Rafael Nadal fan site), is doing a game-by-game blog of Rafa's matches. Currently,
Vamos Rafael::: Live! Match Commentaries is following Nadal's progress at the Madrid Masters. For those people who don't get
The Tennis Channel (or any coverage of this Masters Series event, for that matter), this blog is much better than the
Madrid live scoreboard for keeping abreast of Nadal's matches.
Andy's Onus
onus: n. - A difficult or disagreeable responsibility or necessity; a burden or obligation.
- A stigma; blame.
- The burden of proof
(from Dictionary.com)
After holding a match point in the second set, Andy Roddick let the chance to close out the match slip and ultimately was
felled by the giant Ivo Karlovic in his second round match at the Madrid Masters. This was Andy's first tournament match since his first-round loss at the US Open, and it was widely expected that the big-serving American would come out firing on all cylinders. Sadly, it was not to be.
The burden of proof has been on Roddick's shoulders since he won the US Open in 2003. There were questions surrounding the buzz his win generated: Is he just a one-Slam wonder? He's got power, but is his game versatile enough to handle the players in the Top Ten? Is he just a serve and a forehand?
Making the final at Wimbledon in 2004, Roddick seemed to have proven that he was legitimately #2, just the second-best player behind Roger Federer who won that final. However, Roddick's US Open quarterfinal loss to Joachim Johansson left him in tears since he was expected to defend his title.
This year, there seemed to be more urgency in trying to get this burden of proof off his back. Could this be the year that Andy wins his second Slam title?
As Andy fell behind Lleyton Hewitt and the rising Rafael Nadal in the rankings after the Australian Open, there was still some confidence left that he could make up the deficit with a strong showing in the summer hard court season. Never mind that he lost first round in a tournament he was defending champion at (AMS Miami). Never mind that his clay court season results were poor. He would make the final at Wimbledon, and hopefully win it. Roddick did make the final of Wimbledon 2005, but this came only after three five-set matches that could have been won by the player on the other side of the net. Federer's title clearly was uncontested as he rolled over Roddick in straight sets.
Then Andy lost in the first round against Paul-Henri Mathieu at AMS Canada. This was considered his best chance at winning a Masters Series event after the draw was left wide open with Federer's absence. Roddick still made up for it by playing well the rest of the summer, winning the US Open Series and beating his other nemesis Lleyton Hewitt in an AMS Cincinnati semifinal. Hopes were again high that Andy would make a good run at the US Open title.
There a punishing blow fell on both Roddick and his fans, with lower-ranked Gilles Muller booting Andy out in the first round. And now this early-round loss to Karlovic.
I don't think it's his coach's fault; Dean Goldfine has probably done what he can to tighten up the technical aspects of Andy's game (serve-and-volley, backhand). The psychology part of it, however, is something out of Dean's expertise. Andy should take a page out of Robby Ginepri's book and hire a sports psychologist. Those mental blocks have FEDERER and OTHER BIG HITTERS chiseled on them.
That Federer is a mental block for Roddick is a given. However, Andy also can't seem to get past other players who have weapons such as a big serve or go-for-broke strokes (
see Gonzalez, Fernando; Acasuso, Jose; Mathieu, Paul-Henri, and Muller, Gilles). Unfortunately for him, these are the same players he's encountered early in tournaments this year. Losing to them doesn't make his burden any easier to bear.
Happy Henman, Macho Nadal
Fans of the Brit Tim Henman rejoiced yesterday as he completed a convincing 6-2,6-4
rout of American Taylor Dent at the Madrid Masters. This match was described as "clinical," with Henman taking the net in both serve and return games, making excellent returns off the booming Dent serve, and moving the heavyset serve-and-volleying American around. I really wish I had seen this match, as I was hoping to see Tim playing in good form again.
Troubled by an ailing back, Henman's year has been up-and-down. In the latter half of the year, it's been mostly down. After a third-round exit to 12th-ranked Nikolay Davydenko at the Australian Open in January, Tim made the quarterfinals of Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami from February to March. Even if he didn’t make the Indian Wells final as he did in
2004, at least he was posting consistent results. However, Henman would not repeat his semifinal success at Roland Garros, exiting in the the second round.
He bounced back at Queen's Club in London, where he reached the quarterfinal and seemed to be promising another stellar performance at Wimbledon. Quarterfinalist last year, could this be his year? Two five-set matches later, that question was answered as Dimitry Tursunov disposed of Tim in the second round. As Andrew Murray made one round more than Tim, Henman Hill was hastily turned into Murray Mount instead.
Succeeding tournaments in the latter part of the year failed to see Tim get past the second round; he fell in straight sets in the first round at the
2005 US Open.
With four players already qualified for the Masters Cup (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marat Safin, and Andy Roddick), there are only four other spots remaining. After finishing at #6 last year, Tim will not be able to qualify for the 2005 Cup; his entry ranking right now is #26 and his race ranking is at #33. Even making both Madrid and Paris finals won't propel him into the top eight. Some news articles even had Tim pegged for
retirement after this year if his form doesn't improve.
Still, hope springs eternal in a Henmaniac's heart. Tim will face Radek Stepanek in the second round; in another match of serve-and-volleyers, here's to hoping Henman takes the net first and takes the win.
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Even though an MRI has shown severe tendinitis in one of his knees, Rafael Nadal has said he
plans to continue playing in the singles draw at Madrid. The tournament has been riddled with injury withdrawals from top players Roger Federer (foot injury), Lleyton Hewitt (groin injury and toe surgery), Marat Safin (knee injury), and Andre Agassi (back injury). This means Nadal is seeded #1 this week and Andy Roddick is seeded #2 for the first time since Wimbledon.
Nadal has been determined to uphold his tournament commitments this year;
among the top ten players, he is second only to Nikolay Davydenko in number of tournaments played (24 to Kolya's 29). That's five more tournaments than world #1 Federer has played, and four more than nearest ranking rival Roddick.
Though Nadal is only 19, it is not suprising for his schedule to have taken its toll on his body. One can only hope that Nadal's sponsor-pleasing decision to play on does not cost him the rest of the year.
As the Tennis Ball Spins...
...tournaments are won and lost. Though Slam season is over, that isn't the case for the rest of the tennis year. Just last week, there was a combined event for the men and women in Japan, an ATP event in Germany, and WTA tournaments in Uzbekistan and Germany. The champions at these tournaments each marked career milestones with their wins.
- Wesley Moodie of South Africa made his first appearance in an ATP singles final last week, facing off against Mario Ancic of Croatia at the Japan Open. After losing the first set, Moodie recovered and and scrapped out a second-set tiebreaker. He then broke Ancic's serve at 4-all in the third set, setting himself up to serve out the match. The final score was 1-6,7-6(7),6-4 Moodie.
With this as his first ATP title, the 26-year-old Moodie will now be able to drop the "journeyman" title.
- Also at the Japan Open, Nicole Vaidisova won her fourth career title and her second this year. After defeating Maria Kirilenko in the semifinal, Vaidisova met Tatiana Golovin in the final. Golovin had beaten Sania Mirza in the other semifinal. Anticlimactically, the title was decided 7-6(4),3-2 when Golovin retired in the second set due to an Achilles tendon injury.
Vaidisova now climbs to #18 in the world rankings, a career high for her. (EDIT: Thanks to English Professor for pointing out that it is a "high" and not a "first.")
- Michaella Krajicek won the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan, besting local wildcard Akgul Amanmuradova. Krajicek, the half-sister of Richard Krajicek, showed some promise at the Australian Open in January and would have played mixed doubles with him at Wimbledon. However, an injury to her right knee in June sidelined her until last week, when she passed through qualifying in order to play in Luxembourg.
Vaidisova won her first tour title in Tashkent last year; this year was Krajicek's turn at claiming a maiden title at this event.
- After losing three finals to Roger Federer and one final to Joachim Johansson earlier this year, Ivan Ljubicic was able to claim one for himself at Metz, Germany. He defeated Gael Monfils, who was making his second career final appearance and was bidding for a second career title. Too bad for Monfils; this was Ljubicic's turn to gain a second career title.
- With all this talk of first and second titles, how about another milestone title number? Say, 50? At Filderstadt, Germany, Lindsay Davenport overpowered Amelie Mauresmo in order to claim her 50th tour title. This was a rematch of the final last year, where Mauresmo retired due to a thigh muscle injury.
Davenport is only the ninth woman in WTA Tour history to have won 50 titles, but she still has a long way to go to equal Martina Navratilova's record of 167 career singles titles.
DOPING DRAMA, CONTINUED: Also on this episode of "As the Tennis Ball Spins," Mariano Puerta
denies the doping allegations L'Equipe published last week, fellow Argentinian Mariano Hood
admits to testing positive for a prohibited substance used to treat baldness, and retired player Magnus Norman of Sweden co-writes a book that
raises serious cover-up questions for the ATP Tour. Meanwhile, the ATP and the International Tennis Federation have yet to come out with statements addressing the
L'Equipe allegations.
Positive Puerta?
"
Dopage - RG - c'était Puerta," blares
L'Equipe today. Last month, the French newspaper had alleged that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong's 1999 sample tested positive for doping. This month, it announces that the Argentine tennis player Mariano Puerta--world #10, 2005 French Open finalist, and #1 seed at this week's Japan Open--had tested positive for etilefrine. The drug, a stimulant, is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's
prohibited list.
Earlier in the year another Argentinian,
Guillermo Cañas, tested positive for a masking agent and was banned for two years under the WADA policy the ATP had recently adopted. Under this policy, when a player tests positive a second time for banned substances, the punishment is a lifetime ban. In 2003, Puerta tested positive for clenbuteral, an anabolic steroid, and was suspended for nine months. This second positive test, if confirmed by an independent panel, may make Puerta the first player in the history of tennis to be banned for life from the sport.
This allegation follows last week's hot doping stories:
- a positive sample (the same sample now identified as Puerta's) was provided by one of the players in the second week of the French Open,
- US player Alex Bogomolov, Jr. was suspended for one and a half months for testing positive for asthma medication and not having a Therapeutic Use Exemption to go with it, and
- the International Tennis Federation is taking over the responsibility for drug testing on the men's tour.
TRACKING THE STORY: I first encountered this breaking news story in
Tennis Warehouse; one person had spotted the story in the
French version of Yahoo! Sports and created a thread announcing his discovery. Being the inquisitive (and frankly tennis-obsessive) person that I am, I ran the Reuters article from Yahoo! France through Babelfish and
tried to make it readable. From there, I went to
Men's Tennis Forums and found a similar thread. Not more than fifteen minutes later, a poster from MTF provided a link to the Eurosport
English-language article.
UPDATE: Puerta denies taking the banned stimulant. Also, according to the
Reuters article reproduced on the BBC Sport website, Puerta claims he has not been notified by either the ATP or ITF that he had tested positive at all. "After the [previous] positive I've got to be very careful," he says. "I can't even take an orange juice."
Up and Coming
Even though the five or so players atop the ATP and WTA rankings have seemed to establish their dominance, each year brings a new wave of young players seeking to overthrow the hierarchy. Or at least, climb up the rankings. Here are two players who I think have made great progress the past week.
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ANNA LENA GROENEFELD of Germany reached two WTA finals over the last two weeks. These two were her first two career final appearances in singles, and with them she is poised to make her first entry into the Top 20.
I first saw her on TV playing in the 2005
Hyundai Hopman Cup with Tommy Haas. She looked reasonably tall (5'11") with a great serve (good knee bend, spine flexibility), entertaining game, but a little chunky in the fitness department. She held up well in her singles and doubles matches; Germany's fall came when Tommy Haas had to retire with injury from his singles and their doubles match against Argentina.
She's had considerably greater success as a doubles player this year, scoring wins at Pattaya with Marion Bartoli, Toronto with Martina Navratilova, and Bali with Meghan Shaughnessy. She and Meghan work with the same coach and travel together these days, and at Bali it was clear that Anna-Lena had focused on her fitness. The two defeated two red-hot Chinese players, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi in straight sets.
Last week, Anna-Lena
reached the final of the China Open, where she encountered Maria Kirilenko. Both of them were seeking their first career title, but in the end Kiri prevailed 6-3,6-4. This past weekend, Anna-Lena again
attempted to win in the final, but she faced even tougher competition in Luxembourg in the form of Kim Clijsters, who was playing in her first tournament since winning the US Open.
Clijsters won 6-2,6-4.
Still, these results are not bad for the 20-year-old, who debuted in April 2003 and began this year ranked #69. She's now ranked #19.
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Another youngster who jumped up the rankings this week,
ANDY MURRAY of Great Britain came into the Thailand Open as a
wild card after Tim Henman pulled out. He then proceeded to tough out matches with the higher-ranked players. He
entered the Top 100 with a win over Robin Soderling, followed by a defeat of red-hot Robby Ginepri and home crowd favorite Paradorn Srichaphan. This performance brought him into his first career final--and it was against the #1 player in the world, Roger Federer.
Murray first made his mark this year at Wimbledon. After Tim Henman crashed out in the second round, Murray made waves by going through the first and second rounds in straight sets before losing to
David Nalbandian in five sets. He was ahead two sets, but
cramps and fatigue did him in.
This time, Murray's fitness was not a factor in his loss. Though he says that facing Federer fazed him, he went for his shots and acquitted himself well, losing 3-6,5-7. Afterwards, Federer had compliments for Andy's game.
From TheScotsman:
"He's got a repertoire of shots, he has slice, and his volley is alright. He reads games well," said Federer. "He has potential to become a good player. Consistency is what's missing in his game, and he's not 100 per cent sure of his game."
Though he began this year ranked #411, Murray is now ranked #72 in the world; he rose 37 spots last week. With all the positive press he's been getting from the British media, he's expected to rise even higher.
Federer's out, Nadal's out, Hewitt's out, Safin's out--these players have all claimed injury as the reason for their withdrawal from the tournament. Andy Roddick, the only top six player to make it to Paris this year, says it's because the tennis year is too long.
