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Around the Corner: 2011 Aussie Open Preview

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By Mike McIntyre

Welcome back everyone to another season of tennis on the ATP World Tour. After an amazingly short break we are back to business and the first Grand Slam of 2011 is already upon us.

A year ago we watched Roger Federer surge out of the gates by defeating Andy Murray (the pre-tournament favorite) in Melbourne in straight sets. After that, Roger faltered while Rafael Nadal reclaimed the number one ranking and three Grand Slams in a row. The year ended with Federer finishing strong at the Tour championships in London and he seems poised to continue along that path in the New Year.

An early season victory in Doha against Nikolay Davydenko signals Federer is ready to push Nadal for the number one ranking once more. But as he approaches the age of thirty, Federer is well aware that father time is going to be knocking on his door with increased frequency.

Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal

As for Nadal, a recent bout with the flu has put his preparation for a “Rafa-Slam” in jeopardy. How healthy will the Spaniard be as he tries to win his fourth consecutive slam?

From my perspective, we are ripe to have a new Grand Slam champion here this year. Despite Federer’s apparent return to brilliance, he is much more prone to faltering now than ever before. He has been beaten in the past year by players that never would have previously given him the slightest challenge. Players like Berdych, Davydenko, Hewitt, Monfils and Soderling all earned big wins over the Swiss master in 2010. Once that aura of invincibility has disappeared, anything can happen.

With Nadal’s health questionable, there is no guaranteeing he will be able to hack numerous best-of-five set matches in the tough Australian heat. He is susceptible to an early round upset depending on his fitness and if he endures those opening rounds will be forced to face some very difficult players in the quarter and semi-finals.

Nadal opens the main draw against Marcos Daniel of Brazil who is ranked 93rd in the world and is not exactly known for his hard-court abilities. In fact, Daniel was unable to amass a single victory on cement in 2010. Even Nadal at 50% is going to steamroll this guy in the opening round without a doubt.

Nadal could get Feliciano Lopez in round three and Marin Cilic or John Isner in the fourth round. David Ferrer or David Nalbandian could await in the quarter-finals. Nalbandian has given Nadal problems in the past, and both he and Ferrer faced-off in the finals of Auckland yesterday where Ferrer emerged victorious. The bottom line is that both players are feeling pretty good early on this year and will make Rafa work hard to earn a win against them.

In the semi-finals Nadal has players like Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Robin Soderling among his potential opponents. All of those foes are in the second quarter of the draw which promises to be a brutal one to navigate through. A Soderling vs. Tsonga round of sixteen match is possible as well as a Del Potro vs. Murray. Wow!

In the bottom half of the draw, fans will likely be cheering for a Roddick vs. Djokovic quarter final, followed by that winner taking on Federer in the semi-finals.

Roddick made the finals in Brisbane a week ago where he fell to Soderling. Djokovic played in the Hopman Cup but against lower opponents, so it is tough to gauge where his game is at just yet. Three years removed from his only Slam win however and we’re all still waiting for the Serb to get it together and prove himself to be more than Rafa and Roger’s understudy.

Don’t forget about other big names in the bottom half of the draw like Tomas Berdych, Gael Monfils and Nikolay Davydenko. This is the year where one of these guys could finally make it happen for the first time at a Grand Slam.

While we can expect the possibility of a Rafa vs. Roger final, I suggest being open to something quite different in two week’s time. The stage is set and starting tomorrow we will see the first matches of our favorite kind of tennis take place – Grand Slam tennis! Sit back and enjoy the show.

It was over Before it was Over for Andy Roddick

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This is the ATP World Tour Championships, which means that old bromide about it not being over until it’s over is a bunch of eyewash.

It was over for Andy Roddick on Friday after the first set because even had he come back to beat Novak Djokovic in three, Nole with a 1-2 record (same as Roddick and Tomas Berdych) would have moved on to the semifinals with world No. 1 Rafa Nadal (3-0) out of Group 1.

So, yeah, it was over before it was over. I don’t want to say that Roddick chucked it in in this 6-2, 6-3 loss because he probably played a little better in the second set, though that’s pretty faint praise in a match in which he had only three aces and 12 winners to go with 22 unforced errors.

It was a surprising result, given Roddick’s successes over Djokovic in the past (five wins in seven matches), but The Djoker was hitting service returns like a demon on the medium fast indoor carpet at the O2 Arena in London. He was never broken and looked strong from start to finish.

Andy Roddick

Really, about the only drama in this one hour and five-minute clocking came with Roddick up love-30 in the final game after a couple of Djokovic frame jobs. The near full house got pretty excited at that point, thinking Roddick could take this thing to a third set. Probably very few of them understood that this was all so much window dressing at that point.

It didn’t matter, anyway, because Nole smacked two aces, whacked a service winner and wrapped it when Roddick’s forehand on the final swing of this match was intercepted by the net.

Djokovic moves on to play Roger Federer in the semis and Nadal gets Andy Murray. I guess this is what the money guys wanted. A Brit in the final four along with No. 1 and No. 2 in the world and Djokovic – the, uh, Djoker in the mix.

The first set of the Roddick match took 31 minutes. Djokovic took a kick second serve in the ad court and slapped it back as if the ball was perched on a tee to finish it.

He threw in a rare serve-and-volley point at 40-30 to go up 2-1 in the second, then broke Roddick at 30-40 when Andy’s second serve went wide.

So ended Roddick’s season with a 48-18 record, two titles (at Brisbane in January and Key Biscayne in April) and a lot of disappointment and bad karma in the final months, including nagging injuries and a case of mononucleosis.

Will he and coach Larry Stefanki remain together for a third year? My guess is yes. When things were good, they were very good. Roddick won 28 of his first 32 matches this season, knocking down Nadal and Berdych to win Key Biscayne.

He got off the clay, playing only Roland Garros, where he lost in the third round to Teymuraz Gabashvili, then was upset in the round of 16 at Wimbledon by No. 82 Lu Yen-Hsun in five sets. That one hurt badly. He pushed on to the U.S. hardcourt season, losing twice to Mardy Fish and once to Gilles Simon as the mono set in. He was a second round loser at the U.S. Open.

He’s 8-7 since New York, three of those losses coming in London at the World Tour Championships.

At 28, he’s got good years ahead of him, but it just seems that no matter how hard you train off-court after 10 years on tour, you can’t avoid the injuries. And certainly not in an 11-month season. I’m thinking he’ll schedule next season much as he did this year, forgoing the clay season, which becomes less and less significant to him as he gets older.

Roddick didn’t play Davis Cup this year, so he saved himself some travel and wear-down, but it looks as if he’ll play for new captain Jim Courier in 2011. We’ll see.

Sampras Rallies to Beat Courier

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WorldTennisMagazine.com takes a look back at ATP World Tour Finals from yester-year in this special series – ATP World Tour Final Rewind. Today we look back to matches from November 17, as excerpted from the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com) by Randy Walker.

1991 – Pete Sampras rallies to defeat Jim Courier 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in 3 hours, 10 minutes to win the year-end ATP Tour Championships in Frankfurt, Germany. Says Courier of Sampras, “When he is hot, he is hot, he can knock you off the floor. He goes for shots most of us wouldn’t even think of hitting. It was his day today.”

2002 – World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt battles Juan Carlos Ferrero for four hours and five sets, but successfully defends his title at the year-end ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, defeating the Spaniard 7-5, 7-5, 2-6, 2-6, 6-4. The event is the biggest sporting event ever to be staged in China at the time, with 9,000 fans in attendance and global television audience of millions.

Assessing the State of American Women’s Tennis

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Another WTA Tour season is close to conclusion. While Serena Williams won two more major titles to keep a strong U.S. presence in the top 10, there isn’t much evidence to suggest that women’s tennis in this country is going to flourish in a post-Williams era.

There were only five U.S. women in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour top 100 when this season began and there are seven today, but when you examine the details it’s not that encouraging.

Young Melanie Oudin has not made progress and, while Vania King is into this week’s WTA Championships with doubles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, it’s singles we’re interested in primarily.

Serena Williams

Player by player, here’s the rundown:

* Serena Williams: Began the season at No. 1, is now No. 2 after cutting her foot, then pulling a muscle during her training to get back on court, missed the U.S. Open, played only six tournaments in 2010 and was done early for the year. Had a 25-4 record and you could argue she’s the best player in women’s tennis, when she’s able to play. Repeat: When she’s able to play. Won two titles, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Out in the quarters at the French.

* Venus Williams: Began the season at No. 6, now No. 5. Won two titles — at Dubai against a good but not brilliant draw, and against second and third-level competition at Acapulco. Hasn’t won an important event since the tour championships in 2008. Also hurt and finished for the season early. Was 38-7. Quarters at the Aussie Open, 4th round at the French, quarters at Wimbledon and semis at the U.S. Open. She’s in a slow but discernible slide from the elite in the game.

* Bethanie Mattek-Sands: Began the season at No. 152, is now No. 60 for a +92 improvement. Solid comeback year from hip surgery. Was 38-18 in all matches, which include qualifying and ITF tournaments. Real WTA record, though, is only 16-14. No titles. At the Slams: 2nd round at the Aussie Open and U.S. Open, 1st round at the French and Wimbledon. High marks for courage and competitiveness, but she’s not going to reach top 20. She’s a great personality, but she is not the future of American tennis.

* Oudin: Began the year at No. 53, is now No. 68, a -15 drop. No titles and a 20-23 record. When she reached the quarters at the 2009 U.S. Open, the tennis dilettantes had her skyrocketing to the top 10. She’s very quick, very athletic and very committed, but without a bigger serve, and especially a second serve, she’s just another player out there. At the Slams: 1st round at Australia and the French, 2nd round at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

* Vania King: No singles titles, but what a year in doubles. Unseeded, she and Yaroslava Shvedova, the fake Kazahkstani who was born in Russia, lives in Russia and takes money from Kazakhstan to play for that country, won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. They then got into the four-team WTA Championships when the injured Williams sisters withdrew. King has won $695,129 this year and stands to make a lot more in Doha this week, so good for her. But her singles play isn’t impressing anyone. She began the season at No. 73 and is now No. 84, a -11 drop. Record for the year is 21-23, but only 14-17 in real WTA events. At the Slams: 2nd round at the Aussie Open and U.S. Open, 1st round at the French and Wimbledon. Could her doubles success help her singles game? That’s a coin flip. She’s extremely doubtful to reach top 20.

* Varvara Lepchenko: The naturalized U.S. citizen (born in Uzbekistan) began the season at No. 114 and is now No. 88 (+26 spots). No titles and a lot of minor league play (34-11) has given her a heavy dose of playing time. But she’s only 4-10 in real WTA matches. In the Slams: 1st round at the Aussie Open, 2nd at the French and Wimbledon, didn’t play New York.

* Jill Craybas: Bless her heart, she’s still playing at 36 years old. Began the season at No. 77 and is now No. 100 (-23 spots). No titles and a 12-23 real WTA record, plus a lot of qualifying matches. The U.S. Open (1st round again) was her 44th Slam and 41st Slam in a row. When she retires, she deserves the thanks of the USTA for her support of U.S. tennis over the years.

Three young prospects, but they are still only prospects at this point.

* Coco Vandeweghe: Turns 19 on Dec. 6 and has risen 240 spots since Jan. 1, from No. 354 to No. 114. Showed at Tokyo she can compete at the WTA level, reaching the quarters before losing to Victoria Azarenka. Two ITF titles this year. Was 6-6 in WTA matches, 18-12 overall. Big Southern California kid with a family background of notable athletes. Hits a big ball, but she’s not going to break any 20-meter dash records on court.

* Christina McHale: 18 years old and moved up 103 spots this year from No. 218 to No. 115. Reached the semis at lower-level WTA event in Quebec City, where she lost to Tamira Paszek. She was 8-10 in WTA matches, 24-10 overall. OK, we’ve got a watch on her. No one is celebrating her yet.

* Alison Riske: Blossoming a little later than Vandeweghe and McHale at age 20. Up 104 spots this year from No. 222 to No. 118. Won three ITF titles and that’s important because winning at any level is a confidence builder. Played 55 matches this year, which is very good, winning 36. But only 4-4 at the WTA main draw level. Into Wimbledon and lost first round.

And what about the U.S. juniors?

* Sloane Stephens of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: At 17, she continues to make progress, reaching the semis of the U.S. Open juniors after going out in the quarters at the French and Wimbledon. Fair size physically, but very strong. Getting excellent coaching from Nick Saviano.

* Lauren Davis of Cleveland: She’s also 17 and has won a couple of entry-level pro events, so there’s talent there. Unfortunately, drew the No. 1 seed at the U.S. Open juniors, losing to eventual winner Daria Gavrilova of Russia, who also beat Stephens.

One final note. It’s very unfortunate that the No. 1 doubles player on the WTA Tour, Liezel Huber of the U.S., is unable to play the WTA Championships this week. If she and Cara Black hadn’t had a falling out and split after the Australian Open, they’d both be in Doha working for big money. Huber went through a succession of partners after she and Black cut their ties, but, though Huber is No. 1 in the individual doubles rankings, she and Nadia Petrova, her best partner, finished 11th in the race to the Championships.

Conclusion? The U.S. still has the Williams sisters in the top 10, but with every injury one wonders how much longer they will play. And if they retire, there is nothing on the horizon at this point that would indicate the U.S. has another top-20 in the making.

Roddick’s Injury Frustrations Continue

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Shanghai-ed again!

For the second year in a row, Andy Roddick has been injured at the ATP 1000 Masters event in Shanghai, China, and this time he really sounds flustered.

“It’s not even that. . .I mean . . .  it’s been just a really frustrating year,” he said not long after quitting with a 6-3, 2-3 lead over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round. “It’s not even that. I mean, it’s been just a really frustrating year, you know. Missed three months at the end of last year, the mono in the middle of this year, little things like that.”

Andy Roddick

The injury isn’t as bad as the one that finished his season a year ago, but, for Roddick, it’s the latest setback in a year that started brilliantly and which has turned into one problem after another.

This time it’s an adductor muscle high in the right leg, which he reinjured at 1-2 in the second set. As Garcia-Lopez brushed a drop shot from the baseline, Roddick stood at the back on his side, just watching and looking very despondent. You knew something was wrong.

Last year it was a serious knee injury that ended his season, but he should be back within three weeks from this. At least, that’s his best guess before an MRI determines the full extent of the damage.

That would put Andy into the tournament at Basel, Switzerland, on Nov. 1 and the Paris Masters a week later and leave him with a good opportunity of reaching the eight-man World Tour Championships in London in late November.

He’s currently in the eighth position, but comfortably ahead of Fernando Verdasco, who lost in his opening match at Shanghai to Thiemo de Bakker. So Verdasco won’t be closing ground.

Roddick started the year by winning Brisbane and 28 of is first 32 matches, including a title at Key Biscayne and a runner-up finish at Indian Wells. He’s only 15-9 since.

“I feel like I’ve had two or three legitimate months,” said Roddick. “Today, I felt, even in the first round (against Philipp Kohlschriber) I was hitting the ball great. Unfortunatley, the thing with that area of the leg is you’re prone to (rehurt it) if it’s not healthy. I did this last week against Gael Monfils in Tokyo. Last couple of days in practice, I feel like I’ve been moving like an elephant — kind of slow, just trying to protect it. I didn’t have full confidence, but it was holding on.”

After re-damaging the leg in the second set Wednesday night, Roddick said it got to a point where “moving at all felt like I was getting stabbed in the leg. It’s just frustrating. You want to get a little bit of momentum. . .I just feel like I haven’t been able to do that since April or May. A lot of it has been out of my hands. It’s just frustrating.”

Roddick is coming home to Austin, Texas, and an early guess is that he’ll not be able to get on court for at least a week to 10 days.

2005: Nalbandian Stuns Federer

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There are only two more days until the start of the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. As part on of the countdown, WorldTennisMagazine.com is presenting a special look at some of the best moments in the history of the season-ending ATP championships, courtesy of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com). Each day, WorldTennisMagazine.com will present the anniversaries of some of the best matches from the event.

ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY – November 20

David Nalbandian
David Nalbandian

2005 – David Nalbandian of Argentina stuns world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-7 (4), 6-7 (11-13), 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (3)  in 4 hours, 33 minutes to win the year-end Tennis Masters Cup. Nalbandian’s win snaps the 35-match win streak for Federer and ends his streak of 24 straight victories in singles finals. Says Nalbandian to Federer in the post-match ceremony, “After knowing you a long time, don’t worry, you’ll win a lot more trophies. Let me keep this one.” Federer finishes his 2005 season with an 81-4 record.

2004 – World No.1  Roger Federer wins a 38-point tie-break – the longest tiebreak in the history of the Tennis Masters Cup – as he defeats Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6 (20-18) in the semifinals of the event in Houston,Texas. The tiebreak was the longest in men’s tennis history equaling the mark last set at the 1993 US Open, when Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor also played a 38-point tie-break in the third set.

1994 – World No. 1 Pete Sampras defeats Boris Becker 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 to win the year-end ATP Tour Championships in Frankfurt, Germany. Sampras loses to Becker in the opening round-robin match and only advances into the semifinals when Becker defeats Stefan Edberg in round-robin play two days earlier. “I want to thank you, Boris, for letting me be here,” says Sampras to Becker at the awards ceremony, also promising to buy Becker “an apartment, anything you want.”

BNP Paribas Showdown Field Set For Madison Square Garden

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Serena Williams and Venus Williams will be joined by 2009 US Open champion Kim Cljisters and 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2010 BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup. The event will be played Monday night, March 1, 2010 at Madison Square Garden in New York City and will feature two, one-set semifinals followed by a best-of-three-set final for $1.2 million in prize money. To purchase tickets call 866-858-0008 or visit TICKETMASTER or THEGARDEN.com .

The event will feature a nationwide “Youth Registration Night” that the United States Tennis Association has dubbed “Tennis Night In America.” The evening will kickoff the tennis season in the United States with the USTA ushering in signups for tennis programs across the country.

The field and ticket announcement for the event came nine years to the day when the 22nd and final staging of the year-end WTA Tour Championships at Madison Square Garden took place when Martina Hingis beat Monica Seles 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 in a 2-hour, 21-minute marathon final. After being held at Madison Square Garden since 1979, the year-end event moved to Munich, Germany starting in 2001. Madison Square Garden also was the long-time venue of the Masters Championship year-end men’s event.

2007: A Fourth For Federer

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There are only four more days until the start of the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. As part on of the countdown, WorldTennisMagazine.com is presenting a special look at some of the best moments in the history of the season-ending ATP championships, courtesy of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com). Each day, WorldTennisMagazine.com will present the anniversaries of some of the best matches from the event.

ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY – November 18

Roger Federer
Roger Federer

2007 – Roger Federer wins the year-end Tennis Masters Cup for a fourth time, defeating surprise finalist David Ferrer of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in Shanghai, China. The title is Federer’s 53rd of his career and his eighth on the season, which for the third time, sees him win three of the four major tournaments (Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.) Says Federer. “It was a nice victory, especially proving it, to myself and the world, that I can do it over and over again. This is the year-end tournament that only the best can make it to…I practiced hard to get (to) this level. So when it all comes together in a final like today against Ferrer – it’s fantastic.”

1990 – Twenty-year-old Andre Agassi defeats defending champion and world No. 1 Stefan Edberg  5-7, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2 in 3 hours, 15 minutes to win the year-end ATP Tour Championships, played in Frankfurt, Germany. Says Agassi, “It’s unbelievable to accomplish this at my age. It’s very special. I am proud. There is no question that this is the high point of my career.” The tournament is played for the first time in Germany after a 13-year stint at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

2001 – Twenty-year-old Lleyton Hewitt dominates Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to win the year-end ATP Masters Cup in Sydney. Grosjean actually hits significantly more winners than Hewitt in the championship match – 31 to Hewitt’s 12 – but also registers 47 unforced errors.

2006- James Blake upsets defending champion David Nalbandian 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the final of the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, one of the biggest wins of his career. The win allows Blake to finish the season as the No. 4 ranked player in the world and the No. 1 American – ahead of friend and Davis Cup teammate Andy Roddick.. Roger Federer defeats rival Rafael Nadal 6-4, 7-5 in the other semifinal.

2002: Hewitt Reigns In Shanghai

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As part of the lead up to start of the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London on November 22, WorldTennisMagazine.com is presenting a special look at some of the best moments in the history of the season-ending ATP championships, courtesy of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com). Each day, WorldTennisMagazine.com will present the anniversaries of some of the best matches from the event.

ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY – November 17

2002 – World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt battles Juan Carlos Ferrero for four hours and five sets, but successfully defends his title at the year-end ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, defeating the Spaniard 7-5, 7-5, 2-6, 2-6, 6-4. The event is the biggest sporting event ever to be staged in China at the time, with 9,000 fans in attendance and global television audience of millions.

1991 – Pete Sampras rallies to defeat Jim Courier 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in 3 hours, 10 minutes to win the year-end ATP Tour Championships in Frankfurt, Germany. Says Courier of Sampras, “When he is hot, he is hot, he can knock you off the floor. He goes for shots most of us wouldn’t even think of hitting. It was his day today.”

This Week in Tennis Business: Querrey inks seven-figure deal with K-Swiss

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By Justin Cohen

  • According to the Sportsbusiness Journal, Sam Querrey has signed a seven-figure deal with K-Swiss.
  • Tommy Haas has been diagnosed with Swine Flu. “I did a test because I suspected that I had swine flu. The test was positive,” Haas told a newspaper on Tuesday. “Of course, it was a shock for me.”
  • According to Blick, Roger Federer has hired ATP physio Stephane Vivier to be his traveling physiotherapist.
  • The exhibition match in Buenos Aires between Maria Sharapova and Gisela Dulko has been cancelled for “commercial reasons,” according to the organizers.

    Maria Sharapova
    Maria Sharapova
  • Following her title at the season ending tour championships in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday, Serena Williams set the record for single season prize money in women’s tennis with $6,545,586 million earned in 2009. Justine Henin held the previous record with just over $5.4 million earned in 2007. Williams has now earned $28.5 million in tournament prize money throughout her career.
  • Serena Williams has pulled out of the upcoming Fed Cup final against Italy and will be replaced by Vania King. King will be making her sixth appearance on the United States Fed Cup team.
  • Elena Dementieva has been awarded the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s Diamond ACES award for off-court contributions to the sport.
  • According to tennisreporters.net, Maria Sharapova is now dating Los Angeles Lakers player Sasha Vujacic.
  • Stacey Allaster, the Chairman and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, announced that tournament withdrawals dropped by more than one third this season due to the WTA Tour’s new scheduling system that has less mandatory tournaments for the players. Allaster said the so-called “roadmap” that was put into place this season has been a “fantastic success.”
  • Roger Federer has signed a long-term deal to serve as the global brand ambassador for Swiss chocolate manufacturer, Lindt & Sprungli. “I am Swiss by birth, and since my childhood, I have always been a great fan of Lindt chocolate,” said Federer during a recent press conference to announce the partnership.
  • Roger Federer announced that he will play 19 tournaments in 2010 including, Doha, the Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Estoril, Madrid, the French Open, Halle, Wimbledon, Toronto, Cincinnati, the US Open, Shanghai, Basel, Paris and the London World Tour Finals.
  • 16-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito was recently named the 2009 Portuguese Female Athlete of the Year at the 14th Gala do Desporto sponsored by the Confederacao do Desporto de Portugal. Larcher de Brito is currently ranked No. 115 in the WTA Tour rankings.
  • In the latest excerpt released from Andre Agassi’s soon-to-be-released autobiography, “Open,” Agassi says he swallowed a pill that his dad gave him that could have been the illegal drug speed. The former World No. 1 already had excerpts released that had him admitting to crystal meth use during 1997 on the ATP Tour.
  • The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked the ATP World Tour to investigate Andre Agassi’s claim that he took crystal meth in 1997 and got past a positive drug test by writing a letter to ATP Tour officials. “The ATP can confirm it has received a letter from WADA,” the tour said in a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press on Monday. “When it responds it will do so directly to WADA and not through the media.”
  • Marat Safin, Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra have been awarded wild cards for the upcoming Paris Masters 1000. Safin is a three-time champion in Paris, while Grosjean won the event in 2001. This will be Safin’s last tournament as a professional player on the ATP World Tour.
  • French Open officials have announced that they will consider moving the French Open to a different site if their expansion project for the tournament grounds is not given an ok by the Paris City Council. Reports from earlier in the fall indicate that a site near Paris Disney would be considered.
  • Beginning in early 2010, Under Armour and IMG are combining forces to create “Combine360,” which is the sports equivalent to the SAT. The Combine360 will calculate and record sport-specific ability and mental skill, nutritional level, ability to communicate and other performance disciplines to allow athletes from all over the world to compare scores. “Consistent with Under Armour’s global mission to make all athletes better, IMG Performance is a pioneer in the field of athletic and character development for competitors of all ages,” said Kevin Plank, the CEO and Founder of Under Armour.
  • The 2010 Hong Kong Tennis Classic in January at Victoria Park will feature several top WTA Tour players, as well as former ATP Tour grand slam singles champions. Maria Sharapova, Vera Zvonareva and Marat Safin will make up Team Russia. Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Stefan Edberg will make up Team Europe. Venus Williams, Gisela Dulko and Michael Chang will make up team America and Jie Zheng, Ayumi Morita and Paradorn Srichaphan will make up Team Asia-Pacific. The new team format will feature men’s and women’s singles, as well as mixed doubles over a four day period.
  • Juan Carlos Ferrero was the victim of harassment over the telephone in Shanghai, according to Ferrero’s coach. Ferrero received more than 300 phone calls that left him unable to sleep for 48 hours. The incident is being investigated by police.