Andre Agassi retired from tennis on a day racked with emotion at the 2006 US
Open when he lost to Benjamin Becker of Germany in the third round on Arthur
Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows (it was not supposed to end that way)
and a huge lump formed in the sport's throat. Off into the sunset went one
of only five players to have won all four of the grand slam tournaments,
Agassi turned his attention to projects such as the Preparatory Academy in
his name in his home city of Las Vegas, which helps at-risk children, to
watch his own kids grow up and give his body a well earned rest.
But he did not let the sport go entirely. At around the time of his parting,
Perry Rogers, his long-time manager, had been voted on to the ATP board as
one of the player representatives, beating Justin Gimelstob, the former
American pro and now commentator for the Tennis Channel, in a head-to-head
contest. Thus Agassi, by dint of one of his best friends, had an ear to the
ground of how the sport was being run.
A couple of weeks ago, Rogers was told he was no longer wanted, a decision
that shocked him to the core and did not exactly please Etienne de Villiers,
chairman and president of the ATP, who had come to count on Rogers for wise
counsel and, more often than not, to vote positively on the initiatives he
had wanted the sport to embrace.
Agassi did not want Rogers to go either and, the Net Post understands, he
spent quite a bit of time behind the scenes networking in his manager's
favour with members of the ATP Player Council but to no avail. The players
have had their way and as revealed in The Times last week, Roger
Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have allowed their names to go
forward on the ballot for a place on the Player Council, which endorses the
three player reps on the board proper. Muscle-flexing does not come more
overtly fascinating than this.
Listen to what Federer had to say recently about the current state of the
game. "You have to remember that tennis has incredible roots. I grew up
a certain way with tennis being in a certain way. I don't want it to change,
because I think it's a great sport. The problem we have is that we should
have more sponsors, bring more money in and get back on normal television
coverage. That's been the biggest problem for us. We had some bad deals with
the ISL deal that went bankrupt [when tennis was going to land huge
international marketing deals that never materialized]. That really hurt us
a lot in terms of being on a normal TV network.
"They sold the broadcasting rights to private networks. That just killed
the market for us in terms of sponsorship, and being on TV for the regular
fan. The stadiums now are sold out, people are loving this sport. It's a
great live sport to attend. It's a pity. But we're on the way back, because
we have a great package to sell. This is what we need to focus on and not
little changes like that stupid round robin."
The ATP believes such a sponsorship announcement is imminent, though the Net
Post has discovered that the eight man ATP World Tour finals at London's O2
Arena from 2009 (the title World Tour Finals is the latest re-branding of
the Masters Cup as the men's game suffers yet another marketing makeover),
will almost certainly be sponsored by a British bank but that a 'lead
partner' for men's tennis as a whole is some way from being settled. That's
one for a new day.
Still, not all of Agassi's friends are out of the loop. Gil Reyes, his long
time friend and physical trainer, has been spotted at Roland Garros this
year, promoting adidas gear as part of a deal with the clothing
manufacturers. Much like the situation that involves Sven Groeneveld, former
coach to Greg Rusedski, on the coaching side, Reyes has become a consultant
for adidas players, who can use his services when it can be arranged. It
will be interesting to see the level of the take-up. Not all of them are
entirely happy with the concept, the Net Post understands.
Lost in translation
Until last month, Alex Corretja had had almost no exposure to the British
sense of humour - "except for our round of golf we played in Indian
Wells last year, I did not really appreciate how funny you are," he
said and the Net Post hoped he wasn't referring to its often comical swing.
Imagine one's incredulity then that foremost among the Spaniard's memories
of working with Andy Murray through this clay court season was how much the
British No.1 made him laugh. "I didn't play Wimbledon for years and so
I didn't really understand the British," Corretja, twice a French Open
finalist said. "I've spent a lot of time with Andy recently, at
practice, watching his matches, having dinner with him and it was a really
enjoyable experience. He has a great sense of humour, really, I loved it.
And he had a very good season on clay, he's played matches in Monte Carlo,
Hamburg and here in Paris that were very good indeed, and a couple in Rome
where perhaps he was not at his best. It is the end as far as our
relationship is concerned but I shall keep in touch and do anything I can to
help him in the future."
Talent on show in Surbiton
The grass court season is upon us. The LTA Surbiton Trophy, a $50,000
tournament which doubles as an ATP Challenger and a stop on the ITF Women's
circuit starts for real in the London suburbs today. There is the promise of
a "world-class" field and with Marcos Baghdatis, the Cypriot who
reached the final of the 2006 Australian Open expected to take a wild card
(one has been awarded to Alex Bogdanovic, the British No.3, so Brad Gilbert
will be there, too) there are glimpses of brilliance to be found. But it
should be of enormous concern that, in the women's qualifying competition,
there were ten first round byes. Can we not find 32 players worthy of a
place in a grass court tournament in Britain three weeks before the start of
Wimbledon?
Remarkably, Bogdanovic defeated Robby Ginepri 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of
qualifying for the Australian Open this year and their careers appeared to
be heading in opposite directions. Now Ginepri, a US Open semi finalist in
2005, is the last American of either sex in the French Open and Bogdanovic
needs a wild card into Surbiton. Ginepri says: "Yeah, the clay courts
are hopefully going to set up a nice run on the grass and into the
hard-court season for me. The more I play on the clay, I think the better my
all-around game should be. And the smarter I am going to get out on the
court."
One to watch: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus has conceded six games in
reaching the fourth round and though she now meets Svetlana Kuznetsova, the
4th seed, who has become a lot of people's sneaky favourite to land her
second grand slam title, the 18 year old Azarenka, who lives in Arizona, has
been the most impressive player in the first week.
The last ten best British singles results at the French Open: 2008 Andy
Murray, 3rd rd (lost to Nicolas Almagro, Sp); 2007 Tim Henman, 1st rd (lost
to Ernests Gulbis, Lat); 2006: Henman, 2nd rd (lost to Dmitry Tursunov,
Rus); 2005: Henman 2nd rd (lost to Luis Horna, Peru); 2004: Henman, SF (lost
to Guillermo Coria, Arg); 2003: Henman, 3rd rd (lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero,
Sp); 2002: Henman, 2nd rd (lost to Xavier Malisse, Bel); 2001: Henman 3rd rd
(lost to Guillermo Canas, Arg) 2000: Henman 3rd rd (lost to Fernando
Vicente, Sp); 1999: Greg Rusedski 4th rd (lost to Marcelo Filippini, Uru).
Fascinating fact: Before two of their number went out to do battle
yesterday, the French were crowing about the finest record of participation
in the men's singles at their home championship since 1971. Five men
qualified for the last 16, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Jeremy Chardy, Julien
Benneteau, Michael Llodra and Gael Monfils. It was all the more notable in
that their two highest ranked players, Richard Gasquet (No.9) and
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No.11) were absent through injury. Thirty-seven years
ago the survivors at this stage were Pierre Barthes, Patrice Dominguez,
Georges Goven, Francois Jauffret and Patrick Proisy. (Only Proisy made the
quarter finals).
Harman's Hint: That Ana Ivanovic will be world No.1 by the end of this
championship. It will need a lot to fall into place to make that happen but
if Ivanovic reaches the final, Maria Sharapova does not reach the semi
finals, Jelena Jankovic does not reach the final and Svetlana Kuznetsova
does not win the title, she will be the top girl. It could also happen if
Ivanovic wins the title and Sharapova does not reach the final. I'm taking
Alternative B.
