A second dispatch from Doug Robson in Dubai. If you haven't already, read his first entry and check out his own blog here.
I've discovered that among the annoyances in Dubai, besides convoluted alcohol prohibitions, is that certain websites are blocked. I cannot access my email account through AOL software. A social networking site I sometimes use and other seemingly innocuous sites like Skype.com generate the standard UAE censorship warning in bright red English and Arabic letters:
SITE BLOCKED.
Below, it reads:
We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.
If you think this site should not be blocked, please visit the Feedback Form available on our website.
I took a pass on filling out the feedback form in case it marked me for another kind of list I prefer to avoid. Tennis officials will be pleased to learn that Betfair.com is also blocked.
Since I also have been unable to view TennisWorld on Tennis.com, I wondered what kind of salacious keywords the censors were picking up on Pete's blog (love? gambling? drugs? - hey, this is just sport in the 21st century!). Then again, he does wander far afield at times, and we love him for it. Upon further review, though, I think it's a technical issue with some of the servers at the venue here. I can access most of the material on tennis.com, just not the blogs. One of the press officials told me that he could access them from his home, so I'm not sure what is going on. It's all very maddening. If this is a progressive Muslim country....
The tournament advanced to the quarterfinals with few major blips, but then yesterday saw two of the big guns go down. Playing perhaps the match of her life, Italy's Francesca Schiavone knocked off top-seeded (and previously undefeated in Dubai) Justine Henin in two tiebreakers. Eighth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia then took out Serbian No. 3 Ana Ivanovic, leaving No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 4 Jelena Jankovic on the bottom half of the draw to battle it out among the remaining favorites.
In an up-and-down match Friday, Kuznetsova got out of the way of her own thick lower body long enough to come back and book her place in Saturday's final against Serbia's Jankovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. She clinched on her seventh match point. On a hot afternoon, the two-hour, 42-minute match boiled down to the Russian's power game against Jankovic's consistency and retrieving skills, and Kuzy, who hasn't had a great start to the season (Sydney final, third round exit at the Aussie Open and Doha), capitalized on her chances and prevailed.
I like Jankovic; she's fun, effervescent, approachable and entertaining. But she can get a little whiny. After the match, she complained again about all the injuries she's had this year and bemoaned her poor fitness for her fade in the third set. If you can't go three sets in the heat when you're game is built on movement, you're not going to stay in the top five for long. She also sounded very iffy about her new coaching relationship with former pro Scott Humphries, who she began working with recently. "I am struggling with him at the moment as we are in a trial period," she said. "I'll know in a week or two whether the arrangement will last."
In the night match, 11th-ranked Dementieva snapped a three-match losing streak, defeating Schiavone 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 to set up the 13th all-Russian final in WTA history and a repeat of the 2004 U.S. Open final. Dementieva is a workhorse with some of the best groundies in the game and is climbing back into form after injuries hampered her 2007 season. Still, I get the feeling that she's destined to be an afterthought in the history of Russian women's tennis, despite some fine credentials.
In 2004, she became just the second Russian woman since Olga Morozova to reach two Grand Slam finals (Roland Garros and U.S. Open), has reached a career high ranking of No. 4 and frankly has more model qualities than all of her more celebrated compatriots (IMHO). Those are stats most players would easily settle for. And yet, perhaps unfairly, she'll be remembered for that sickly serve. It came up again after the match, and Dementieva grinned and bore it, as she has dozens of times before. "I keep working on it," she said. "It's not as good as I want it to be."
I honestly hadn't watched Schiavone play much recently. At 27, her best days are probably behind her, but she has a lot of spunk, competes well, isn't afraid to come into the net (even if her volleys and transition game need work) and has to be one of the fittest women on tour. The Italian seemed emboldened by her form here and said in her post-match presser that some of her best tennis still might be ahead.
Though the lineup here is close to Grand Slam quality, at least at the top, the overall match quality has been less than stellar. In fact, it's exactly the kind of tournament a week-in, week-out jock like Kuznetsova wins during the course of a long season. She's my pick to bring home the hardware Saturday. By the way, a gold star to the tournament for speedy post-match press conferences. I realize this is likely because the pressroom is about 20 yards from the show court while the the player lockers/lounge are a good distance away. But I have to applaud the rapid appearance of nearly every player, often 30 seconds after they leave the court. Former speed champ Andre Agassi, eat your heart out! If it could only be this way all the time.
At the over-the-top player party the other night, which featured live music, a magician and falconry, I caught up with IMG's Tony Godsick. Godsick is one of the sport's uber agents, whose roster of clients includes the recently retired Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, and of course the big kahuna, Roger Federer. Godsick is a smart and accessible guy and, as far as I can tell, a straight shooter, which in his line of work is saying a lot. Among the variety of good tidbits Tony passed along was that Roger has been working particularly hard these past couple of weeks in Dubai. As most know by now, Federer owns a place here and actually spends more time in the UAE now than he does in his native Switzerland. Godsick said Roger lost some valuable preparation time with the stomach virus he carried into the Australian Open. He even said that his semifinal loss to eventual champ Novak Djokovic was, under the circumstances, an excellent result.
But Godsick really tickled my ear when he mentioned a commercial shift in Federer's activities. It sounded like Team Federer feels like the Swiss has maxed out his earning potential in the USA - and not without chagrin. They are now focusing their marketing, sponsorship and brand-building efforts on the Middle East and Asia, where Federer's status is closer to deity than Rodney Dangerfield. Federer, in fact, spent seven hours filming a new spot in Dubai for a soon-to-be announced partnership aimed specifically at China. As Godsick said, "Roger can't get any bigger in America. I mean, he's won four U.S. Opens in a row!" True dat.
And speaking of deals, Tiger Woods - who is designing his first-ever signature golf course in a themed, Orlando-type mega development called Dubailand (now there's a name that should make you run and hide) - isn't the only IMG mega-star looking into leaving a larger foothold in Dubai (hint hint). Godsick briefly touched on the upcoming Federer-Sampras exhibition at Madison Square Garden, too. He wouldn't give me any hard figures on how much his client will pull down, but I'm guessing that the Roger is ka-ching ka-chinging a high-six figure or even seven- figure fee. Surely players like Federer must wonder: Why slog through a fortnight against top players gunning for your backside - not to mention the boring downtime, tedious press conferences and mental strain - when you can slip in and out of the Big Apple with that kind of change for a night's work?
