Players, TOURNEY DIRECTORS Clash in Paris

Federer delivers Davis Cup blow
Maria mania; Jennifer, Venus soldier ahead

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

Siggi Bucher

Roger Federer has decided to skip Switzerland's first-round Davis Cup tie.

So now it's not just the top Americans who are turning down Davis Cup. Roger Federer delivered a major blow to his nation and the overall competition by saying that he will not play the first round of next season's Davis Cup.

The No. 1 Swiss said that once the '05 schedule came out and he saw that the first round of Davis Cup had been moved to the week before TMS Indian Wells (which he won last year), he knew he had to reconsider.

"It was very difficult," said Federer, who noted that he needs to schedule rest stops during the year in order to keep healthy. "But my priority for 2005 is to defend No. 1. [Indian Wells and Key Biscayne] are very important. The tennis year isn't just the four Grand Slams. When I won Indian Wells last year, I had the feeling that I'd made a big step forward."

Switzerland is at home to the Netherlands for the tie in early March and, beyond Federer, has no players of note. Federer did say that should Switzerland beat the Netherlands, he might play the next tie, but the chances of an Yves Allegro-led upset are very slim. Federer, who is currently suffering from a thigh injury, did say that he will make a big effort to be fit for TMS Houston … The great coach-less one confirmed to the Swiss press that he will be working out with former Aussie Davis Cup coach Tony Roche in December.

All this discussion of the top man being tired brings up the hell of TMS Paris and Madrid, where top player after top player pulled out, leading to an emergency meeting of the organizers of the European Masters Series events in Paris Tuesday. The tournament directors feel like they are getting screwed by the ATP, which obviously can't deliver its top players, especially during the year's final quarter when most of them are dealing with one injury or another. Try finding one guy in the Top 10 that hasn't been hurt this year. Like the women, the men's tour is killing itself with the length of the schedule. The players are to blame, too, for complaining and then competing too much.

Essentially, the requirements of the Tennis Masters Series are now dead. The players cannot be expected to play four Slams, nine to 10 Masters Series (if they want to qualify for the Masters Cup), up to four Davis Cup ties as well as another six smaller tournaments or so from January through November. Let's not even count the charity events.
It's obvious to everyone that the top players are wearing down. It's not a problem for the doubles specialists or the guys who are lucky to win two rounds a week, but is sure is a problems for the winning men who are logging 100 plus matches a year.

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

David Nalbandian is among the many men not playing in the TMS Paris.

NO SHOWS IN PARIS
Federer, Andre Agassi, Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian are missing at the $2.43 TMS Paris. Lleyton Hewitt, who skipped all the fall tournaments last year, said, "Obviously, I don't know the reasons for Agassi and Nalbandian, but it's a bloody long year for everyone. There's obviously something wrong. I think the ITF and the ATP have to work together a lot more but I've been saying it for a few years now. And, you know, I haven't seen a lot of answers." He's not offering any, either.

Roddick was none too pleased that tournament organizers ripped the players. "In what other sport do you play 11 months of the year?" he told L'Equipe. "I am going to finish my season on December 5 and start the next on January 5. I would rather pull out of an event than injure myself. If they can't understand the way an athlete works, too bad."

Many of the organizers are former players, so they certainly understand how it works. They just don't like it when the stars pull out, because it's hard to satisfy fans and sponsors. The solution is reducing the number of commitments the players make from having to play every TMS to ,say, six in 2005. That's three weeks when there would be no obligations. The points offered would be the same, but wouldn't be mandatory dividers in the ranking system.

Most importantly, the tour, tournaments and players have to get together so that enough of the top guys are playing each TMS. For example, Monte Carlo and Paris shouldn't be without Federer, Grosjean and Moya, and Indian Wells and Key Biscayne can't miss out on Agassi, Roddick and Hewitt. That's a start. Then Davis Cup needs to reduce itself to three rounds, the Slams should offer first-round byes to the Top 16 and the TMS should go back to offering byes to the top eight seeds. None of those solutions will seriously hurt the events. All of those solutions will help insure healthier players and consequently, better participation.

But, as Henman said, "When you look at tennis in all honesty, it's pretty fragmented isn't it?

Back on court in TMS Paris, Roddick blew Sargis Sargsian 6-2, 6-2 to ease into the Paris Masters third round Wednesday, while Marat Safin, survived Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-7, 6-3, 7-5. Both those men will head to Houston, as will Roland Garros champ Gaston Gaudio, who fell 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to Feliciano Lopez. The Argentine said he hadn't played since the U.S. Open in September because of "personal problems." He needs to make a better showing of himself.

Maria mania; Jennifer Venus soldier ahead
On to the women, where Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati both survived in Philly, with Venus blowing out Lisa Raymond and Capriati squeaking past Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4 in the third. Every time we think of that match-up, we can't help but recalling Capriati's comment on Shaughnessy: "She's got a great forehand but can't crack an egg with that backhand." It was Capriati's first match since the US Open and now she'll likely face Vera Zvonareva in the quarters. The loser of that match will be knocked out of LA. Venus is staring at Amelie Mauresmo in the quarters. Some telling comments form the vexing V, who is eighth in the points race: "It's a strange situation for me not to [already] qualify. But I'm focusing on this week first and really want to end my season on a good note."

What does Serena Williams get for keeping pulling out of Philly? How about second-class diva status in her hometown of LA during the WTA Championships. Here it is straight from the mouths of Octagon: "An edgy media campaign focusing on Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova has been launched by AEG in conjunction with the WTA Tour Championships presented by Porsche Nov. 10-15 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"GOT SHARAPOVA!" is the theme of a campaign that includes print ads in various Southern California publications, billboards throughout the Los Angeles area, and radio and TV spots. The billboard locations include a 48-feet by 14-feet image on the Sunset Strip at Horn Avenue in Hollywood. The other billboard locations are: Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Melrose Avenue and La Jolla Street, Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea, Olympic Boulevard and St. Andrews Street, La Brea and Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Centinela Avenue, and Venice Boulevard and Midvale Avenue. … Since Sharapova officially qualified for the Championships more than 4,000 additional tickets have been sold.

We can just see Serena jumping into her sports car in nearby Beverly Hills with her good friend Brandi and egging the billboards along Melrose, Santa Monica and Wilshire. Don't count the other attractive Russians like Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva out of a player's Devil's Night, either.

THE ATP's Graeme Agars (no good friend of Lleyton Hewitt's) clarified some of John Alexander's comments on the Kim Clijsters-Lleyton Hewitt break-up the San Diego Union-Tribune's Jerry Magee. "John was extraordinarily diplomatic, which was unusual for him," said Agars. "His feeling was that Kim had had such a miserable six months, with her wrist injury, coming back and finding she still couldn't play, her differences with [Justine] Henin-Hardenne and her differences with Hewitt's family, that she just got tired of it. It was Kim who cut it off. Hewitt, I understand, was quite gutted by it."

The Henman v. the British scribes skirmish continues. Here's fun couple of paragraphs from the always-humorous Stephen Bierley of The Guardian: "Off the court Henman continues to engender a considerable amount of mirth with his continued accusations that his critics, namely the British media, are largely ignorant about tennis. As one Australian journalist responded trenchantly: "'What exactly is there to know about tennis?' "

Henman continues to perform the press requirements demanded of millionaires on the ATP circuit, but has generally limited them to the minimum since losing in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon this year against the young Croat Mario Ancic. Then in Basel last week he suggested the British tennis media were 'the worst in the world.' It is all pretty puerile but at least it has provided some merriment among the foreign press corps, who enjoy taking the rise out of their British colleagues even when they consider Henman to be behaving more than a little foolishly."

One of our readers sent this from Brad Gilbert's web site, just in case your out of ideas as to who to surprise your kid-who-has-everthing on his 12th birthday: "Now, have a former Top 10 player, the winner of 20 professional tournaments, and the former coach of Andre Agassi for eight years, appear at your event or function. Brad is available to appear at your function, give a clinic or two, or just 'schmooze' with your corporate types. For more information on how to have Brad appear at your special event, just e-mail your requests to … ." As the reader said, "Andy must not be paying too well."