As the moon likely turned a curious shade of blue and hell surely froze over, yesterday Marion Bartoli dropped a bombshell the size of faraway planets by announcing that she would be splitting from her father immediately and finally working alongside the FFT, with the hope of finally taking that step from the bottom echelons of the top ten into the top five and beyond.
“My dad will not be with me in Doha. Much has been discussed together. It is a joint decision, there is no argument, it is just the result of long reflection. It happened little by little, my father has always wanted the best for me and he told me that it might be better if I try something else to get what I want, a Grand Slam victory.
“I (speak to him) every day on the phone, there is no problem, I tell him what I do, we are always connected.
“For me the ideal would be to be with someone to help me win a Grand Slam and I think Amelie can. But it is to her you must ask the question, I cannot answer for her.
It will be fascinating to see how Marion reacts to this new, unfamiliar situation. Some of the scalps she has snatched in her career are victories all but the two most successful players above her could only dream about, and at her most dangerous she can stand to toe with any player. Despite that, there has always appeared to be a glass ceiling on her career, one that has evaded the likes of Stosur, Li and other players who have risen from below her to the top of the pecking order.
The question on most lips has forever been whether the success she has achieved in her career is because of her father’s…eccentric methods or in spite of them. As she endeavours to assemble a team complete with (yes) a fitness trainer, coach and others all working together for her benefit, we will soon find out.
It has already been a talking point this year in Davis Cup with the likes of Federer, Del Potro, seemingly every single Spanish professional tennis player on the face of planet Earth, and many others either explicitly dropping out or else excusing themselves with injuries ranging from questionable to downright laughable, in order to focus on their individual season. None, however, have quite received the backlash that Tamira Paszek is currently on the receiving-end of by Austrian Tennis Federation President, Ronnie Leitgeb, after the 22 year-old decided to against competing for the Austrian Fed Cup team before blaming the decision on her coach:
“The Fed Cup this week is actually dominated by the disappointment of the tennis federation, but also my personal disappointment. Last year Tamira promised help us [...] so Austria can leave the second division. She has denied this with a rather embarrassing excuse again this year – and at the end of the day I have to conclude from this that there is not a great deal of patriotic well-meaning.”
Their anger is understandable, particularly considering it was Leitgeb and Fed Cup captain Jürgen Waber who apparently intervened and sent the ITF a written statement which allowed Paszek to compete at the Olympics despite her patchy Fed Cup record, but still. Ouch.
After nearly five years of chronic back issues, it appears the sad career of 24 year-old Agnes Szavay will likely be coming to an end as she makes the final decision between risky surgery or retirement. So says the Hungarian media:
According to the news Szavay will decide within days: she’ll choose to either continue her career (despite) the risks associated with surgery or a more relaxed and pain-free life. True, for the time being she cannot even imagine what to do with his life without the sport (she has played) since the age of five.
The timeline of Szavay’s career – if her brief cameo on the WTA can even be called such a thing – is borderline depressing. It was 2007 that she broke through on the WTA as a bright 18 year old with huge talent and even huger, flowing swings with a penchant for delicate variety. She announced herself as even a possible slam champion after that meteoric rise from outside of the top 200 in January 2007 to number 20 by year’s end, reaching a slam quarterfinal and capturing one-and-a-half (the half being her retirement to Kuznetsova whilst a set up in the New Haven final) Tier II titles plus a further lower WTA title in the process.
Already by 2008 she was forced to re-work and shorten her service motion due to the emergence of these back issues, robbing her of one of her prime weapons. After continued back pain in the years that followed, it was in 2011 that she broke down in tears whilst explaining to reporters that the vertebral stress fractures in her back had been discovered too late. Since then, her only presence on the WTA has been only a couple of failed comeback attempts – most recently last year between the London Olympics and US Open. The option of surgery has been on the table since 2011 but she was rightfully hesitant and has since attempted just about every other possible avenue of recovery.
Now it seems surgery is the only option. Despite the great loss her presence and beautiful style of tennis is to the WTA, I personally hope she decides to hang up her racket if there is any possibility that the surgery could worsen her back and have repercussions in her regular life. But, hey, my name isn’t Agnes Szavay. We’ll soon see which decision she comes to.
Last week, the Mouratoglou academy’s Mauritius feature premièred on French Eurosport. Finally (as in three days ago now), it has made its way to youtube, and the short documentary makes for interesting and entertaining viewing. A few thoughts:
- The entire video puts into perspective the massive change Serena has undertaken since that fateful French Open match, and it’s truly astonishing. For most top players and champions, once they reach a certain age a stubbornness sets in. It becomes about preserving what is left rather than making changes that could possibly hasten their decline – why would they change a system that has reaped so many past rewards?
Then you think about Serena’s upbringing, the much-discussed “us against the world” mentality Richard instilled in her and Venus from so little. Though both have worked with many coaches in the past, it was always Richard, the family and later the sisters who retained autonomy. Again, for her to cede so much power to this new academy – not to mention one completely alien to the rigours and needs of a top favourite for every slam either tour – was retrospectively such a bold and shocking move. Evidently, it worked out fairly well.
- I should probably learn how to spell ‘Mouratoglou’ sometime soon.
- There will never come a time when I don’t get a kick out of seeing a WTA player owning an ATP player, as Serena did during her hit with Jeremy Chardy. Sorry. Suddenly, Chardy’s quote on their time training together makes sense:
A while ago I stumbled across my old photobucket account, and with it many amusing, sad and iconic pictures I had long since forgotten about. I suddenly felt the burning and unshakeable urge to share these pictures (well, mostly this picture), and here we are.
By its very definition, the off-season is supposed to signify end of tennis for another year and offer a well-earnt break for all in a sport that demands so much of both the players and fans who follow it. In reality, however, the tennis rages on in the form of “hit and giggle” exhibitions – wherein the top male and female players pocket often obscene sums of money to simply knock around the ball for an hour or two. This year, between Roger Federer’s grand tour of South America and other one-off events in cities such as Prague, Toronto, Miami, Antwerp, Singapore and many others, those “hit and giggle” exhibitions feel more prominent than ever.
It hasn’t always been laughter, however.
The year was 2000. At the time, the WTA was in a considerably different state to the tour today. Whilst the likes of Azarenka, Wozniacki, Kvitova and Radwanska today have been forced to obediently await the fall of the previous generation before ascending to the top, the young players of the late 90s and early 00s – Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, Venus Williams and Serena Williams – rapidly rose to prominence by brute force, demanding the spotlight both on and off the court and re-branding the image and core dynamics of women’s tennis in the process.
By the end of Y2K, Hingis held five Grand Slams and stood atop of the rankings for god-knows-how-many weeks, Kournikova was one of the most celebrated athletes in history, Venus had seized the previous two slams and two Olympic gold medals whilst embarking on an epic 35-match winning streak, and the legend of Serena was just unfolding. This caused friction both amongst themselves and also with the established jocks who rejected these youngsters who marched in with their over-confidence, trash talking, sex-appeal and glamour, demanding to be seen and respected.
Throughout this period, notable incidents involving these four and others mounted up; Hingis triumphantly flicked a signature Williams bead into the press crowd after defeating the elder Williams in the 1997 US Open final before declaring that she had no rivals, Serena famously brushed aside one of Hingis’ many putdowns by coyly suggesting that the Swiss champion “lacks formal education”, and long before they physically met on or off the court it was comments from a pre-teen Kournikova who sowed the first seeds of drama to come in the early 90s, as the press hyped up a Kournikova-Williams rivalry while she competed in a junior tournament at Rick Macci’s tennis academy in Delray Beach – the Williams Sisters’ old stomping grounds.
Lindsay Davenport often entered the fray too, branding Kournikova “a circus act” and allegedly kicking the bag of yet another controversial young upstart, Alexandra Stevenson, across the locker-room. During Venus’ extended hiatus in the first half of 2000 which spurred retirement rumours, Davenport’s sharp tongue lashed out at Williams with the quote to end all quotes: “Who knows what’s going on with that family? Serena is more friendly. At least she can bring herself to say hi. Venus can’t – or won’t – even speak. Venus likes to give the impression that she’s so great, that she’s ‘Da Bomb’, or whatever. She can say it all she wants but that just means she doesn’t have it. She gets psyched out in big matches, she’s not happy with her sister winning and the pressure is really falling on her.”
After Venus returned and claimed her first Grand Slam title barely a few months later at Wimbledon, Hingis cornered Davenport at the US Open ahead of her quarterfinal match against the younger Williams and demanded a victory. Davenport responded by expecting Hingis to reciprocate the deal and dispose of Venus, and thus the infamous anti-Williams pact was born. It made headline news and became embroiled in drama as Richard Williams had his own unsurprisingly controversial opinion on the pact. Davenport did indeed oust Serena, and Serena did little disguise her utter disgust as afterwards; “Obviously no one would want to see an all-Williams final because everyone doesn’t really like us. It’s going to happen in the future, inevitably. Nobody’s going to be able to stop it.” Venus was even more furious, but she publicly responded with humour, jokingly suggesting “It’s getting to be like the WWF.” And then she beat them both to take the title.
Nonetheless, the most dramatic incident occurred during the 2000 exhibition season. Despite forming a friendship and fruitful doubles partnership which secured the pair two Grand Slam titles and the top ranking spot in the same year, a November exhibition in Santiago, Chile between Hingis and Kournikova brought that friendship temporarily crashing down. After a questionable lines-call, Hingis asked Kournikova to intervene but the Russian sided with the original call. A fuming Hingis responded at the next change of ends as only Martina Hingis could, triumphantly shouting “Do you think you are the queen? Because I AM THE QUEEN!” Kournikova wept through the remaining games of the exhibition.
An hour-long locker room scream-fest between the pair followed as flowers, vases, trophies and insults were allegedly chucked across the room. The choice of weaponry being amusingly symbolic; Hingis craving the popularity, affection and flowers from admiring fans that were afforded to Kournikova, whilst the Russian wished for the trophies and success that had been effortlessly lapped up by Hingis. Event organizer and former pro Jaime Fillol didn’t even attempt to dampen the rumours surrounding the exhibition bust-up, instead hysterically claiming “It was so bad I thought they were going to beat each other up.”
What’s most interesting about these events is how much, despite the publicity these encounters generated and the fact that they would kill for this exposure today in 2012, the WTA openly discouraged it back then. They attempted to muzzle the Swiss Miss’ Everest-sized mouth by forcing her to attend PR training sessions and sometimes even resorted to quite ridiculous publicity stunts. Not least at the US Open in 1999 when they orchestrated a cringe-worthy public “truce” between Hingis and Richard Williams, which involved Hingis presenting Williams with a signed T-Shirt whilst reciting scripted lines. Mary Carillo summed it up best: “The WTA PR people cooked up this twisted and bizarre stunt. Hingis didn’t want to give this guy a T-shirt – she wanted to give him something else.”
Last week, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova each posted pictures of themselves while filming their new Head commercial. As per yushe, when these two join forces the result is usually a copious amount of laughs, sarcasm, banter and even a bit of flirting. Though Djokovic jokingly stated that Sharapova didn’t “take it easy” on him during their training, he didn’t quite elaborate on the complete emasculation that took place on the lawns of Stoke Park. Sadly for Djokovic, sovsport (check out the fully translated great write-up here.) was there to expose the Serb for the world to see.
- What is this Serbian guy doing here? – I ask Maria.
- Ha, he just lost his number 1 spot after Wimbledon and wants to train with me to increase his level of play, – Maria laughs but adds seriously: – We will have a photoshoot together and Novak came earlier to train a bit.
- When was last time you played on grass? – Maria laughs after Novak’s first bad shot.
- Haven’t played since Wimbledon – Novak shouts from the other side of the court.
- It’s very, very obvious – answers Maria while embarrassing Novak with her killer forehand cross.
And Novak begins to play with all passion and training quickly transforms into a real match with heav,y raging shots. There is absolute silence around, because the entire Russian team stopped training to watch the breathtaking match.
- I know you girls like all these slices – jokes Novak while running up to the ball. – But we deal with it just like this!
Novak hits ball heavily to the other side but Maria answers with lightning shot. Novak artistically falls down, showing all his disappointment.
- OMG, that was cool… – Maria’s hitting partner Vladimir Volthckov seems still shocked.
- Ha! – laughs Maria as she walks to her bench.
Despite losing in straight sets to Angelique Kerber the final of her own home tournament, Caroline Wozniacki still managed to leave the Kopenhagen Open with people talking about her as The Telegraph yesterday published an interesting interview on finance with the former world number one. One of her answers has caused quite the stir.
DO YOU THINK PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYERS GET PAID TOO MUCH COMPARED WITH OTHER ATHLETES?
Ha ha, no. I think tennis players are actually underpaid, but I might be a little biased. I like to think we are rewarded for the hard work we put in.
From her point of view, I can actually see the logic in her answer. Certainly compared to other athletes, tennis players are certainly “underpaid”. I mean, after watching the Superbowl for the first time this year, I felt personally offended when I learnt just how much those “athletes” were paid considering how little they actually play, how aesthetically unpleasing the sport is and the fact that American “Football” is nothing but glorified throw and catch. And that’s not to mention her boyfriend being another overpaid athlete in that McIlroy dude. But still, having earnt $13m prize money and probably double that in endorsements, it’s quite a funny thing for the Pole Dane to say. So we’ll just laugh.
Karolina also took to twitter to hush the talk surrounding this quote, attempting to rubbish it with the good ol’ “I was mis-quoted” excuse. But, that only really works when the publication reporting it is an awful, trashy tabloid and not a fully transcribed interview with The Telegraph. Bless her. That said, the quote isn’t nearly as bad as many are making out.
After her quarterfinal loss to Victoria Azarenka yesterday, Agnieszka Radwanska took aim at Maria Sharapova, calling her grunt “annoying” and “too loud” despite having no problems with her friend Azarenka’s grunt. Needless to say, the Russian didn’t take too kindly to her comments when informed of them a day later and bit back in true Sharapovian style.
Q. A lot of players this week have made comments talking about how they think the noise that you and Azarenka in particular make is excessive.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Who?
Q. Radwanska was one player that said she thinks the noise you and Azarenka make is excessive and she’d like to see the WTA change the rules to prohibit that.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Isn’t she back in Poland already?
Q. Yes.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: When did she get a chance to say that?
Q. After she lost her quarterfinal.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: She lost the match?
Q. Yes.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: You’ve sure obviously asked me this question before. I’ve heard it a few times over my career. You’ve watched me grow up, you’ve watched me play tennis. I’ve been the same over the course of my career. No one important enough has told me to change or do something different.
I’ve answered it many times before. I’m sure I’ll answer it many more times ahead. I’m okay with that.
As always, brilliant stuff from Maria “More Effortless Shade Than A Willow Tree” Sharapova. It’s no secret that she and Radwanska aren’t particularly fond of each other, and that coupled with Radwanska’s comments a couple of days ago having more to do with her liking Azarenka and disliking Sharapova, make it even more comical. A figurative knockout uppercut from the 24 year old.
Speaking more generally, the recent obsession about grunting has been absolutely astounding to watch. Usually, the tabloids at Wimbledon are the ones who make a massive deal over the grunting for two weeks, and aside from that, nobody cares.
But this year, there are suddenly commentators openly broadcasting their disgust during matches, writers are dedicating an obscene amount of space to it, and press conferences are being bombarded and hijacked on that one subject. Meanwhile, Nadal is getting away with receiving some of the most blatant illegal coaching in the history of tennis (even Carlos Rodriguez and Justine Henin would never!), while Nadal and countless other men are bending the rules to the limit in the amount of time they spend between. Double standards and hypocrisy are fun!
Four months after dramatically pulling out of the US Open due to Sjogren’s syndrome, Venus Williams has finally spoken candidly about her battle with Sjrojens Syndrome. Conversing with People magazine, the seven-time Slam champion discussed her reaction and recovery after being dealt such a dramatic mental and pysical blow.
“I couldn’t raise my arm over my head, the racket felt like concrete. I had no feelings in my hands,” she told People. “They were swollen and itchy. I realised (her match against Lisicki) would be a miserable show. [...] I would go to the doctor and start crying. I couldn’t help it. I just want a chance to play on the same field as other people, I want to feel normal, but as frightening as the diagnosis was, it was also a relief. I wasn’t crazy and I wasn’t lazy; I thought, ‘is this a mental problem? Maybe I need to work harder.’”
After reading about Venus’ experience, it’s not hard to see why her comeback has and will continue to demand such a titanic effort on her part.
Even taking the whole tennis match aspect of being a professional tennis player out of the equation, this profession demands more of it’s athletes than practically any other sport; from grueling gym, fitness and on-court training reigimes, to the constant traveling and the rapid changes in climate and conditions. The idea of managing these normal requirements of a professional tennis player while keeping her illness in check seems like nothing but an unrealistic dream.
And yet, if there is anyone with the discipline, class and sheer determination to stay on top of this illness and close out the rest of her career in style, it’s ‘The Fucking Venus Williams’. There’s hope for the legend yet.
