Serena's injured and out; alternate Bartoli chances slim

	Canon, WTA Maria Sharapova does her photo shoots but doesn't back off from competing at tournaments with a bad shoulder.

So why hammer Maria until it's shown that too many photo shoots, commercial and sponsor obligations and now a TV show in the making are taking her focus too much off the court? There is absolutely no connection at all between her shoulder injury and spotty play this year and her growing off court portfolio. Come now, if Sharapova really wanted to focus more of her attention off court, then why did she ignore advice from her doctors and coaches and decide to play Moscow and Madrid when she's risking embarrassment due to rust, and is playing with an unhealed right wing? Why didn't she skip Roland Garros when she was clearly not 100 percent and won ugly all the way until the semis? Why does she cry in frustration when she has to pull out of a tournament (like in LA), when she could merely hop in her Range Rover and go in search of a roaring party? Doesn't make sense to me. This year, her problems have all been about her injury and her inability to compensate for it technically and strategically. She's often playing the wrong way and she's too stubborn to change - yet.

However, like Levey, I do think there will be a tipping point for Sharapova and it could come soon. The $25-million-a-year woman might be maxed out on endorsements already and, if I were her, I wouldn't take on any more unless I'm dropping a few. But the very worse thing that her father, agent, coach and mother could do is to start telling her that she needs to be all-tennis-all-the-time again because she's a 20-year-old now and is sewing her off-court oats. That's a natural stage she's going through while attempting to become an independent woman and running her career on her own terms. If her folks try to throw a noose around her, they could end up with another Serena or Jennifer Capriati, who went on walkabouts because they revolted against authority figures.

Watching the taped coverage of the Sharapova-Hantuchova match on Tuesday night, I was struck by a number of things:

1. I recognized five officials and industry folks in the audience deep in the second set when the match was not on the line, and three of them were texting and the other two were laughing. There's nothing wrong with sharing a good laugh (and many of us reporters spend entire matches cracking up), or doing a little business in between points, but it's important to pay attention during crucial stages of the match if you are out there saying that women's tennis rocks and is worth watching.
2. The Versus Network is carrying the championships in the States. Tim Ryan is doing play-by-play and Tracy Austin is doing the color. They are calling the matches from Versus' studios in Stamford, Conn. As hard as they are trying, you can tell they are not there and the production quality of the broadcasts are very uneven. Those shimmering signs behind the baseline are very distracting and since they aren't in radio contact with sideline reporter Pam Shriver (who was hired by the WTA to do courtside interviews), there's little behind the scenes chatter. Ryan needs to set up Austin better, too. She's a baseliner, not a serve-and-volleyer.
3. That Versus is treating the championships like some low budget fishing show is an embarrassment for tennis in the States and for the WTA. By not sending a team to Spain, Versus is saying that it's not worth the production costs.
4. Like when the championships were in LA, Madrid has very much of a local feel. It's almost entirely local press, without a significant international contingent of tennis journalists, which makes the coverage thin and fairly lousy. I'm going to make an educated guess that there are fewer international reporters in Madrid than there are covering Miami or Indian Wells. I love the elite eight facing off in a year-end super tournament, but there isn't enough interest in the event on a global scale. If there was, plenty of publications would be staffing the event. How about this: There is far more coverage of Rafa Nadal's and David Ferrer's draw in Shanghai in Spain's big sports' pub, El Mundo Deportivo than there is of WTA championships in Madrid.
5. When the championships move to Doha next year, there will be almost no international press, which means less coverage. But who cares when the oil money is there, right guys and gals.

Here's a few things that Sveta Kuznetsova, who trains in Barcelona, said in an interview with La Marca (my translation):

As to why Spanish women's tennis is so far down: "Tennis now is more physical and the Russian players are strong because of that. Maria is very good, [Elena] Dementieva, [Nadia] Petrova, we are very strong and hit very strong. … We cannot compare the Russians with the Spanish players because it goes in cycles; since Arantxa [Sanchez-Vicario] and Conchita [Martinez] left the tennis, Spanish tennis has descended a level, although I know that the girls are trying and are getting a lot of coaching."

What does Russia have that Spain doesn't: "A lot of money." What does Spain have that Russia doesn't: "More respect for people."

© TennisReporters.net 2007