Good morning all, who said they only come out at night? LOL! Ok back to tennis, I love how everyone was counting out Sweden and calling Jonas too old. Bissy said maybe he should have retired, but I guess the "old guy" showed everyone. I'm very proud. This should be a cool week, the queen returns to her court and will show the world what she can do. Ed, I think the tour can survive without the big names showing up for the small events, but I think the hard core tennis fans miss them alot. Congrats to Chaki and Aggie, but I wonder if they would have won if the top stars had showed up. Go Justine, world's #1!

Listen Jeb, in November, we're getting rid of you and your brother, so off the board and out of the white house. LOL!

Good Morning all!

Ed,

Thanks for all of the info as usual. Are you going to Winston- Salem?

not sure i share this concern, Ed.

big names are great and all, but they don´t save events when they are not working well. and healthy tourneys can be a success even without federer and co.
hamburg for example is losing money year after year. regardless the draw the attendence is always pretty low.
halle is a way smaller event. but it is financially healthy and well attended every year.
(both events have to deal with the german post-tennis-boom landscape and both events have had regularly the second coming himself i.e. fed in the draw the last couple of years)

sure, some events will bite the dust. but what is new in this? hasn´t it been just like this in the past?
and it is not only true for the sub-masters level imho. hamburg is in trouble longer than i can remember (and what about stuttgart? essen? stockholm? that fall masters never worked very well).
when a tourney isn´t a success financially it disappears sooner or later. and new tourneys surface where new money is thrown into tennis:
doha and dubai are now pillars of the wta, doha gives more prize money than any tier 1 event except miami; dubai (as a tier 2!) hands out more prize money than the average tier 1 event in wta.
additionally doha will host the women´s YEC.
and these events didn´t even exist before 2001.

another point to consider,
fed is an aberration, no good in using him as an example for numbers of tourneys played. he will do so as long as he´s über-dominant, case closed.
in average the top 25 play at least 7 sub-masters level tourneys i think, that should keep the "endangered species" alive, no?
incentive is big enough imo.

i would only be concerned if tourney after tourney went broke financially and no one bought those weeks, i.e. if the number of tourneys was shrinking steadily. seems not to happen. as soon as a tier 2 event of the wta for example disappears from hamburg a new one opens in warsaw or whoever buys that week.
do you see a shrinking number of tier 2/3/4 events (or international series etc in atp), Ed?
i don´t see it. the calendar is as full as ever. a fact which is bemoaned as ever (by many). and now you fear for tourneys which might disappear? (yes, in 10 and 20 years the calendar will have way different names of tourneys than today, but just look back twenty years how much change there has been, so what? some lose, some win...) or do you wish the top dogs would play them? or do you just wanted to express disinterest til IW? ;)
i´m just not "feeling" your point, i guess.
doha and dubai have been great last year in wta, and dubai looks strong in the atp too. i doubt that rotterdam will have 7 of the top 10 as it looks now, but i´m interested in it anyway. meaningless? i don´t share this view.
i think you were the one who proposed last year to end the season after the USO (which was a horrible thought to me), no? so maybe i shouldn´t be surprised that you colour an additional 6 weeks as meaningless to you.
different strokes etc... ;)

this was long. i´m sorry.

first!!!!

Ed,
Answer to if question is tournaments in the ATP and WTA will survive without the big names especially if the matches are high in quality. Also, fans in smaller events can see future stars on both tours if they have a good result.

"doha and dubai are now pillars of the wta"

Prize money wise, yes. But do they actually EARN? The organizers are loaded with money, they use the events as a way of getting those cities into the mainstream sport discussion.

But from I recall from last year, attendance rates had been low, and I would bet you anything most of the people were not locals.

If someone has different stats, please correct me, but I remember looking at the crowd last year and thinking that most of those people had to fly in for the event.

intersting MNP as usual, ed!
but don't you think that fans in chile, brazil, india, thailand etc have the right to wattch tennis live? I flove small tourneys esp. those in south america. the atompshere is fantastic. the fans are very vocal and passionate and there is plenty of drama and quality matches. those small tourneys provide so many passionate tennis fans with their only chance to to attend tennis matches.
in addetion, newcomers and low-ranked players, who can't get to the main draw or even the qualies of a big event, play in the smaller tourneys to improve their ranking. there is also the case of players who want to make a combeback after a long injury and want to have some match-pratice and help get their career back on track. .
the presence of the big stars always add something special to any tourney, but even without them, the tour can survive.

I was a little bit disappointed by the davis cup this week. alll the favourites qualified to the next round and part from sweden, they all went through pretty cofortable. I expected austria and peru to at least give their opponents a run for their money but peru couldn't even win a set! probaby if lucho had played in the first rubber against nico and won it, they could have put a depleted spain under more pressure. but the peruvian crowd couldn't make miracles. austria should have made it more difficult for the USA but andy and his team were just too good. however, I'm sure there will be much more drama and upsets in the quarters. the usa/france tie stands out cos every match can go either way.
viva copa davis

sorry for the numerous typos in my posts but my english is erm not that great.

I'm glad to realize that the players have a lull in their schedule. Too many injuries, too little time to recouperate. It's good to hear, too, that fans are "bored" with the interim tournaments. Enthusiasm and loyalty are fabulous fan characteristics. Now's the time to watch "old" matches like Fed and Nadal 2007 Wimbledon.

I kind-of don't understand this at all. Especially as it relates to the ATP. I mean, seriously, Open 13. Unless you are defining as weak any tourney lacking Fed or Rafa, then, seriously, Open 13. Really, here is the schedule from the AO

AO ends . . . one week off for men . . . Davis Cup (Not my cup of tea, but whatever) . . . Open 13 (an interesting, if not "important" tourney) . . . Rotterdam (a good one, by your estimation) . . One Bad Week . . . Dubai (another good one) . . . Master's

There are only, really, two bad weeks in there. The problem is that the Fed goes into his shell . . . but lots of good tennis.

I don't know if anyone seen those photos of scantily clad Tsonga and Richard (!!), probably drunk out of their mind, dancing with go-go girls.

Yummy photos of shirtless Richie, I think it is high time we stop calling him baby Fed, the only chance I see for Roger to get caught like that on Camera is if Mirka decides to dump him the night before the French Final and then call him the night before Wimby to tell him she's pregnant, or something.

shirtless Tsonga -

http://www4.prosport.ro/usr/imagini/76840_82739_tsonga8.jpg

Richard getting frisky

http://i32.tinypic.com/2j4c58h.jpg

Richard losing shirt

http://i28.tinypic.com/331375u.jpg

Richard underwear alert and Tsonga half way to dry sex

http://i31.tinypic.com/95zwix.jpg

Snoo posted this link yesterday. i think there are even a few more pics of the two jucătorii de tenis francezi in it.

http://tinyurl.com/2lots3

Or,
Was this the party after the dusting of Romania? We know that Richard and Jo-Wilfried are good friends.

Anybody got any pictures of Cliffie doing the same thing? Now that would be really hot.

Ed: I am a firm supporter of having the top players appear regularly in the smaller events. I think that it's good for the sport as a whole. In your discussion, your focus was on the ATP; but I have always been happy to see Davenport's regular appearances in Bali, Venus's in Istanbul and Memphis etc etc. So, I was surprised and disappointed to hear that the WTA will be limiting (or preventing?) such participation by top players in the lower tiered events starting next year. (I won't pretend to be absolutely sure of what the new rules will be.)

I feel particularly bad for the fans in those smaller markets who miss out on the opportunity to see the best players in person. I'm sure that the Estoril attendees, for example, are very excited about Federer's expected participation there this year, but it's sad that such an appearance by a top player is more of the exception than the rule.

I agree it is critical to marketing at these smaller events that there are a few marquee players in the mix. At the Delray Beach ITC, which is starting today, they are promoting James Blake, Tommy Haas, and the Bryan Brothers, who are flying in from Austria to be here.

This tournaments goes out of its way to be fan-friendly, with lots of giveaways, kids' events, and heavy promotion by local businesses. Even though it bounces up against Key Biscayne next month, this is definitely the little tournament that could. If I get out there later this week I will send in a report.

OK. Non-work safe photos alert...

The next two years should be very interesting for the ATP. We've had something of a duopoly, but Djokovic's run (SF or better at the last four majors) gives rise to the possibility that we'll have three players regularly contesting the SF stages plus in the majority of tournaments they enter. And these guys have a huge gap on the field in the ATP rankings, so they're the name brands.

Andrew - I did give proper warning :)

Tsonga got considerable bulk, I would even say he could stand to lose a couple of pounds. He looks massive, way bigger than Rafa.

Speaking of Delray Beach, a very strange stat: in the Mirnyi/Delic match, for the first set and the first 3 games, both players have 100% 1st serves, with no aces! Mirnyi has broken 4 times, while Delic has broken 3 times. Has anyone ever seen a stat like this before (especially with 2 big servers)?

Delic now leads 76 32, both players still haven't missed a 1st serve, but neither has any aces either. Madness, sheer madness people.

GSte,
No, I have not seen that stat at all.

No offense to the other nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards, but if you look at the results and the length of time in 2007 that they had to compete to achieve their excellents results, Roger Federer excels without any doubt above the rest.

http://www.laureus.com/nominees

"After another superb year, Roger Federer is just two Grand Slam victories away from equalling Pete Sampras’ record 14 wins. In the calendar year 2007, he once again won three Grand Slam events – the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open – to take his career total to 12. He also won the Masters Cup in Shanghai and Masters series events in Hamburg and Cincinnati. Federer’s win at Wimbledon was his fifth in succession and equalled the record of Bjorn Borg from 1976-80. Federer has been World No 1 since February 2004 and has been Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the last three years"

yeah forrealz andrew, what were you expecting from "shirtless Tsonga," "underwear alert" and "half way to dry sex."

Tsonga's a lot leaner than he was, I mean he might weigh more but he is way trimmer than last summer. c-word's got a little work to do if he's gonna make a habit out of getting publicly topless with jowi.

I have no scientific evidence to support this but it seemed last year the good people of new haven were happy too root for amer delic and dyoung and ryan sweeting, and florence jean had his milf posse out in force. people make it a yearly thing to go out to those smaller events, even challengers. they latch on to some player who impressed them the year before, and then they get all excited like, Hey Stephane Bohli's back this year! and you can sit like 10 feet away from tipsy and robby ginepri practicing and even if you don't really know who they are it still feels pretty cool, at least from the looks of the kids I saw hanging around.

Of course I have no idea if they're surviving financially but that might be more of a general interest problem than not having The Big Two there.

Incidentally, I didn't like the tennis Wii when I tried it -- it didn't matter if you put any wrist into it or not. I think it must not be able to correct itself towards the end of your stroke, or something algorithmic like that... but then I'm not a video game person at all, so don't let me rain on anyone's parade. I did love the Wii bongos.

The stat itself is not so weird except it's the beast and camel ride, which makes it weird. has max been on the dl or what? who is he gonna play doubles with now that bjorkles is fading, I mean, going out in a blaze of glory?

I am looking for that match and it's not on the live scoreboard (or the completed matches anymore).
Did they maintain those stats to the end?

I think the scoreboard froze then when it unfroze it was gone but last time I checked, which was like, 7-6, 3-2, it was 100% 1st serves with a gazillion, or 7 or 9, breaks of serve. delic was like, 54% of pts. won on 1st serve and maxi was 49%... zoiks. But it should come up on the completed matches thingy soon and then we can see how it shook out.

All I know for sure is there's more than a few bad ideas running loose out there.

The strayan cricket team is nominated for best team or whatever. do they have to win everything? Oh sorry forget I said that.

and Nole for breakthrough artist? man if he knows what's good for him he better not win.

the strayan cricket team is like insane. it's like tom brady without the pretty boy stuff and the "and 1" stuff.

about the ones who asked about viktor troicki surname and absence of "ic" factor,well his surname is russian his father is russian born in serbia.viktor's grandparents runaway from Russia after the Russian revolucion in serbia, his mother is serb by the way.

Little clean up on aisle 12 goin' on...

My only complaint in this stretch of time isn't the tournaments on offer, but the lack of adequate TV coverage of the ATP events going on. Only Dubai gets the full treatment. For San Jose, Memphis, Delray Beach and Las Vegas, in the UK we get weekend coverage of the semifinals and finals. For Rotterdam, this year I think we get less coverage than last year - from quartefinals onwards. This week, there is no coverage of Marseille, which is a sad omission, and inexplicable given that the field contains the likes of Djokovic (will he play?), Murray, Tsonga, Baghdatis, Youzhny, Ferrero and Gasquet (and poor Mario Ancic who has been given a WC but faces Tsonga in the first round - go Mario!). Here's the draw: http://www.open13.fr/tableaux.html. Also a sad omission for me are some of the clay events - Acapulco (an International Gold Series event) and three other events in South America (I don't get to see Guga!).

I enjoy watching smaller ATP tournaments where I get to look at players I don't usually see - how else would I have seen Ernests Gulbis playing back in 2006? But then, I'm the sort of fan who only really watches tennis. Other sports hold little or no interest for me - something obcure and tennis-related will always win out. Of course, I like to see the higher-ranked players turn up for events, but tennis goes on without the top dogs, and can turn out to be rewarding without them too. I wouldn't be planning to travel to Rotterdam if Nadal wasn't expected there (that's my personal spectator Slam thing), but his absence, or the absence of other favourites, won't typically stop me from watching what's on, and nor is he the only player I'll want to watch when I do attend a tournament.

I have to say that for me the same doesn't hold true for the WTA - here we get more TV coverage (i.e. Paris was on all last week and Antwerp is on all this week, with Doha and Dubai to follow) - but my interest levels are lower. I watched Chakvetadze versus Szavay yesterday, after Russia-Serbia was over and I had decided not to watch the dead rubbers for GB-Argentina (dead rubbers just don't usually excite me).

I'd also point out that as well as Rotterdam and Dubai, Djokovic is scheduled to play in Marseille (whether he will or not is another story). Also, last year Rafa's schedule was not quite as slim as implied above, in that he intended to play more than he did (and he is the sort of player who doesn't seem to benefit much from long layoffs during the season). He was scheduled to play in Marseille, but had to pull out after sustaining an injury in Geneva while practising prior to the Davis Cup tie there (i.e., he didn't play before Dubai, but not though his own choice - I can't see anyone, let alone the country's top-ranked player, going with the DC squad to a tie if he didn't intend to be playing, and given that Wawrinka and another Swiss player got injured on the same Taraflex carpet and the ITF even checked out the surface, I give him the benefit of the doubt on the actual injury, though I was dubious about it when it first occurred).

Snoo Foo, Or: No worries :-)

Changing topic for a second, I'm delighted that Djokovic's official personal website, http://www.novak-djokovic.com/ , leads with a photo captioned "Fight Till The End."

Of course, he, er, didn't quite. Almost. But, well, anyhow.

So the first news story is "Nole was close to winning, but he couldn’t beat the flu!"

Another one of those match under control deals, I guess. Anyhow, there's a delightful shirtless pic of Mr D to accompany the news report, though my guess is it was taken on a different occasion. Probably work safe, if you're interested.

Todd, funny you should mention Blake and Haas. I was going to point those two out as examples of players who consistently seem to play in the smaller tournaments. Both are confirmed for Memphis and River Oaks, and Haas is also playing San Jose (which lost defending champ Andy Murray). I don't feel like skipping the smaller tournaments necessarily makes me like the big names less, but it shines favorably on those who choose to play.

As far as advertising goes, for the SAP Open they've been running a lot of radio ads about coming out to see 'Roddick, Blake and the Bryans'. The city has also put up a bunch of banners on the light poles with pictures of players on them (the only one I noticed was Pete Sampras). Considering that San Jose's not exactly what I'd call a sports-crazy town, I think that's pretty good.

yeah rosia we don't really get to see anything, ever, on tv but now is especialy bad, except we get to see all of Las Vegas cuz it's TC Open.

also ferru is not playing marseille after all so maybe he really was injured. unless that's just more of the charade.

arrrgh Nole, "close to winning," please you don't have to be james blake but like, a soupcon of graciousness would go a long way with me sweetie.

Correction, Blake and Haas are both playing San Jose. Whoops.

"Health problems, the temperature that the champion of Australian Open has been running for the last six days, prevented him from bringing the second point to his country and equalising to 2:2. The match between Youzhny and Troicki was supposed to decide the winner.
"

sheesh.

Snoo: yes, I realise that all complaints are relative:) Sorry. I have had very little success with live streaming, though - maybe it's because I'm on a mac, or maybe it's the wireless network on my house - I'm largely reliant on the TV. Sometimes I get streams, but they break up or have no sound. Even ATP Masters Series TV only works properly on Windows computers. The only live stream that really worked for me was the paid-for one from San Jose last year, from the tournament's website. I wish all the tournaments would provide streams on their websites - I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee for the privilege of a good live stream. Though of course the TV is better.

I was actually wondering whether what seems like a lull now has less to do with events not having the top players, and more to do with inadequate coverage of what there is.

djoko is playing this week isn't he?
did he pull out of marseille?

ptenisnet: he's in the draw for Marseille. No news of a pullout as yet.

thanks ros.
i guess it's not going to be very compelling if he rolls over whatever the draw is.
There is a potential semi between djoko and murray.

There is some benefit to the lull - it gives a bit of time to pull out some old matches and watch them. I recently rewatched Murray-Pavel from USO '05. The one where Andy is suddenly sick during the fifth set, and Pavel gets so annoyed at a line call that he repeatedly bombards the umpire with f-words and s-words, and finally gets a point penalty - and after the match refuses to shake the umpire's hand.

From the front page of Nole's site, I wonder where they got the idea that his charm is irresistible:)

...or that there would even be agreement on the "charm".

Snoo Foo,
At least we get to see the SF and F of Delray Beach this weekend on TC. Hopefully, that will help the "lull" somewhat.

oh no rosia I for once wasn't poor-mouthing, just commiserating, it's hard to get into the momentum of the season when it's going on 3 continents but you can't see it, after getting all wound up over dc, now a week of zilch (on tv), i don't even think any of it's on the internets, at least until the marseille final.

ptenisnet I'm too skeert to check the link, please tell me you made up those quotes. becauze. I cannot. suffer it. Nole. Nole you are a bad kid. he needs management fast. Or different management, or something.

oh ta squabby I didn't even know about delray beach. man the name delray beach makes me think of delboca vista and that romeo & juliet movie with leo dicaprio.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3238613

check this out. ATP betting scandal. Indepth coverage. It's been on Sports Center, too, today.

That wasn't made up. It's part of this paean to the "Best Serbian Player".
It looks like it was written by his mom or by djoko ono.

WRT the attraction of small tournaments.
Marseille has 11 french players in the draw out of 32 or whatever.
That should be worth a lot of local support.

FWIW, I don't think that Djokovic is responsible for all the content on his site, any more than Federer is responsible for everything that goes up on rf.com, or the equivalent for Nadal. So I wouldn't attribute any of the nd.com material to the player himself, just as I wouldn't attribute comments made by his parents or other supporters to the player.

That said, if you want to build a reputation that you'll fight to the end, it's helpful to start by doing so.

Hey, come on now. Everyone's got a different version of what "close to winning" means. This was closer than his FO match against Nadal, right? :)

Rosia, your back to back "charm" posts cracked me up. :)

yeah I know Nole doesn't write this stuff but they need someone to look it over before it goes straight from dijana's blackberry to the internets. He's at least a little responsible, if it had instructions for how to make a pipe bomb we wouldn't be sitting around like, oh it's ok, he's not responsible for his website. Isn't he a big enough star that Adidas should step in? Isn't that what nike did for the nanner?

"Evidence shows something terribly corrupt in infamous match" Yes, they got professional lipreaders to determine that when kolya shook vassallo-arguello's hand he said, "I'm throwing this sucker! I'm gonna be rich I tell you!"

Robbyfan,
Robby won his match(3 and 0) today and now is waiting for the winner of Sela/Russell.

as demonstrated by the delightfully contentious battle for the Wild Card, the people of marseille, or france, or wherever, get real het up over local players getting to play.

Hi Schwab,

Thanks for the update. All the best to Robby this year!

Embug, thanks for the link. I hadn't heard some of those details before. Painful, yet fascinating.

Moderator, I was wondering if we're going to have a special blog for Valentine day dealing with love and romance? Remember tennis has alot to do with love. How? Every player wants a love and love game. Thanks.

Ruth,
I don't have your email. Did you get hotel reservations for Winston Salem at that spot I told you about?

Thanks for the link, embug. Sports betting is a world I know almost nothing about. But how to prove anything? There is nothing you can do. I imagine that even the most clean-cut of players accidentally meet these gamblers around tournaments, however briefly, so you can't really do guilt by association.

embug, thanks for posting. I still think that a wide-ranging, more in-depth and serious investigation remains to be mounted, but I commend ESPN for being the only news organization -- sports or otherwise -- to devote any significant time and money into looking into this important issue.

Did anyone see Andy Roddick's fairly recent (December 07) imitations of Rafa?

Nole does him better, I think.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nyEkw3Du3iM

Andrew -

I think someone from the Federer camp is definitly aware of what is going on on RF.com, especially regarding front page outline, pictures they use, etc. The color of the front page changes whenever Roger reaches a new tournament destination, so someone from the Federer camp must be in close touch with the webmaster, and you don't really see those kind of compliments on RF.COM front page.

The RF forum is probably out of the the Federer camp control, as it probably should. Still, the place is pretty carefully monitored.

GVGirl: I'll e-mail you later via your TW address. But, just want to mention before I head out that the Courtyard you told me about wasn't coming up anywhere when I plugged in my Fri to Mon dates. I called the national number, and they said that's because they're sold out for Friday night, but have space for Sat and Sun. I've reserved at the other Courtyard a few miles away; if we do go, proximity to the Coliseum might not be as important as I thought it was before since we might rent a car, anyway.

Or: I think what I meant to say is that very little of the headlines or direct content at rf.com is initiated directly by the player or his immediate entourage. There are occasional newsletters and brief messages for fans (eg the note before Kooyong). The schedule is posted on the site, so the color changes correspond to the clay season/ grass/ HC season.

You're right that the site is moderated: I think this is done in a similar fashion to this site, although they don't call moderators the Mod Squad.

Many of the comments during Federer matches make Beckham look like a Zen master.

The thing that I get hung up on is that I'm sometimes baffled at how there can be enough interest generated in each tournament, every week (oftentimes there are three separate events played consecutively around the world), in spite of some lackluster fields at certain venues. Fans and tournament officials know, unquestionably, that most of the biggest draws in the game aren't coming to Zagreb, or Casablanca, or Bastad, etc. But, as I suggested at the end, if these tournaments still can thrive, that speaks unbelievably to the fans of the SPORT - not just the players. It probably also helps that some of these "more obscure" events are the only chance for that country's fans to see pro tennis during the year.

Although it may seem that I don't care for these tournaments at all by my words above, I would like to note that that couldn't be farther from the truth - I watch any tennis that I can get my hands on (my Gasquet & Racquet motto that tennis is "one of the few sports that may actually be easier to play than to find on cable television"). Still, there is undeniably a void of a "big tournament" for these six weeks - but that doesn't mean I won't watch Delray Beach this weekend.

And though the If... question and the end drew a lot of the focus to the health of the smaller tournaments, the main focus of the BtB was about the need for top players to enter in these draws whatsoever. Because even though Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic might enter a few IS Gold events, those have been written in their calendars for years, leaving a trove of other tournaments that haven't witnessed them play in the dark. And that's when I wonder if fans will at some point say "enough is enough."

"Bammer ousted."

Bummer.

Hey Folks!! *waves*

Soderling over Nieminen 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, at Marseille. Looks like Sweden has its #1 player back--they'll certainly need him for the second round of DC, to judge by the way they played against Israel this weekend.

Rosangel ... Per Djokovic's published schedule, he is not playing Dubai. He is playing Marseille and Rotterdam, though.
http://www.novak-djokovic.com/eng/tournaments/novak_schedule.php

Last year, Djokovic overplayed, and paid the price for it during the indoor season (after USO), when he clearly ran out of gas. This year, I believe he has kept that in mind and is pacing himself well. He's still young, so he doesn't need to go to the other extreme that Federer does ... Fed plays only 2 non-mandatory events (And IMO, his extended break following AO is too long).

Hi everyone. Another hot one over here in the West. In response to the Oz Cricket team I am so over them big time. Glad they got beaten by India over the w/e. Some of the team do think they are good looking. Which is debateable. I think they have already won the award once.

I actually like the smaller tournaments as it gives the home tennis players a chance to get some match player against some of the bigger names. Like in Brazil and Marseille. I think on the South American swing the players I am sure want to win but it is also some much needed downtime. With tv coverage I don't think I get any coverage on pay tv until IW. On free to air all we get is the slams and then it is on delay.

With Fed and Nadal not playing I am not fussed as they are probably training on hc to prepare themselves for IW/Miami. I don't know if the WTA need to have Tier 4 events as the Barcelona tournie. I wish there was a few more combined tournies. They could combine Doha and Dubai that would be fun. I also think there are a lot of tournies in Asia throughout the year. As just played in Pattaya and then towards September.

Regarding RF.com... It is very well monitored with 4 moderators over there. The forum part can have a lot of "interesting" talk, but the front page is definitely monitored by the webmasters so just not 'anything' can appear over there, especially on the front page. Plus, Roger said he checks the site almost daily when he has access to the computer.

I even remembered that a fan wrote that Roger had injured his ankle (or something) at the AO. It wasn't verified and bam... it was gone almost as fast as the fan posted it. Sure things can get by, but for the most part, the mods there really do monitor that site carefully since it is the "official" site for Roger Federer. I don't know if the Djokovic site is his "official site"? I've never been over on that site so I can't say.

Crazy-for-Rog: -the Dubai website has an article dated 28th January which says that Djokovic is looking forward to playing there:.
http://www.dubaitennischampionships.com/3/news/2008/djokovic.asp
So I was relying on that. Also I was responding to Ed's post above, which says that Djokovic and Nadal are both planning to play in Rotterdam and Dubai, but didn't mention Marseille.

Yes, FoT, the blurb says that site says that it is Djoker's official site. It also says that it's new, which I think is right - it's changed in appearance since I last looked.

Forget to mention that I have just started to watch So You Think You Can Dance (Australian version, I know sometimes I need a good dose of crap tv) and there is a dancer called Hilton who looks exactly like Gael Monfils, right down to the hair.

Personally, the "lull" is good for me as it will help to curve the ever-increasing addiction. It's a good control. The lack of coverage in the US helps and catching up on the scores at the end of the day is enough. My sleep patterns have gotten so erratic since I started watching tennis.

Re: Novak's site vs. Federer and Nadal. Does anyone know what those sites were like when they were "new" on the tennis scene and now they don't need to "boast" since their image/brand are more well known? While I don't like that sort of boasting, I wonder if they are doing this as Novak's popularity builds and in using that sort of tagline targets the new fans who may not be as familiar with all the players and their history vs. the fans who know the players almost intimately. Just a thought.

Tennischica: I have no clue how Fed or Nadal's official sites were when they started but I really hope Djokovic changes his site... I mean, the site does not scream humbleness, does it?

BTW Roddick's site is very nice IMO. He even has a "quotes" section. Very funny :)

Manolo - exactly, humble is not a word you associate with Novak. Hmmmm, I would love to do marketing for these guys. Imagine how fun the focus groups would be!

TennisChica: Heh :) You know, I think that I like Nalby's website better... (Davidnalbandian.com) And that is saying something...

BTW I had been thinking for the past months or so that Davydenko was declining in his game... But looking at his results, he has actually gotten better every year, loosing to Top players in his grand Slams has been his demise, though. Last year he lost to Tommy Haas (quarters) at AO, Roger Federer (Semis) at RG, Marcos Bagdhatis (4th Round) at Wimbledon, and Roger Federer (Semis) at the USO. Of course he is not the best player to play the game, but I feel that few people give him credit for his game. I think he is the player with the better all-around game other than Federer, Nadal and Djoko. Of course it doesnt help that he does not seem to play his best in the final stages of some tournaments, but he has the respectable amount of 11 titles. Not to shabby for someone living in the Federer/Nadal era.

Note: He is not having his best start this year, but he lost to a very good player in Youzhny at the AO.

Hi guys. Is anyone watching Delray? I am only scoreboard watching, but Gaudifaux and Haas are at one set each and Gaudifaux is up a break in the third. Surprising result so far.

Ruth,
I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott in High Point during the 2007 DC in Winston-Salem. It is approx. 15 -20 minutes from the Joel Coliseum. The drive was easy and traffic wasn't a problem at all. The hotel was very nice and it included a breakfast bar, indoor pool (main reason we stayed at this particular hotel), and a workout room. I hope you are able to find/make a reservation and purchase tickets for the DC when they go on sale. Go USA!

Manolo: I have always felt that Davydenko has been underrated. He is not spectacular nor top echelon, but he is very consistent especially at the slams.

Zonie: Do you know of any streaming? I suffer a lot by scoreboard watching...

Manolo - interesting that you see that he is improving. But I wonder if his improvement is not at significant as the competition and the new young guys who are coming on strong. I think that with Davydenko there is also a perception issue and it may be because of increased attention he has received since the allegation stuff started.

The Nalbandian site says, "Visitame en 15 dias". Maybe we'll be getting a new improved Nalby ? Maybe more fit? We shall see ;-)

Zonie: Yes that is exactly my point. I wonder how many top players in history have been completely ignored by someone else's domination...

Sorry Manolo, so far I haven't found any. I was hoping someone was watching the match and could let us know what is going or tell us where to find livestream.

GAudifaux about to break to take the match.

Aaaaaaaand Diego Hartfield wins his first ever match on hardcourts!

And Ventura just broke Moya to force a 3rd set in CdS, Brazil. Guga is supposedly up next in doubles, and he plays his singles match tomorrow as a wild card.

"Visitame en 15 dias"

TennisChica: I know what the site says... That's where I was going... Though I would like to see a new and improved Nalby... maybe a different hairstyle? O.o A ponytail perhaps? Hey, that's how Roger started...

And about Davydenko: yes maybe he is not improving as fast as some other young players are popping up, but he has been top 10 for, what, 3-4 years? Almost as long as Federer has been top 1 now that you think of it.... (On that note, Kudos to Andy Roddick for remaining up there too)

Manolo: I'm not sure if he is ignored because of Federer's domination, but because of some other factors. The thing is that he has been very consistent at reaching the latter rounds, yet he has a horrible history against top players, and thus has not been able to win any major, or even reach the final. The only Masters he won was one where the other top guys did not play. I think the lack of major titles has hurt him immensely.

Gaudifaux wins. Awww, good for him.

Oh gosh, where is Mrs. Santa? This is big news.

Zonie: Yeah that maybe so. I wonder why does he have does mini-chokes? Is really unusual the fact that he cant beat other top players consistently...

Vs Federer 0-11
Vs Nadal 0-2
Vs Djokovic 1-0 (Djokovic Retired)
Vs Roddick 0-5
Vs Ferrer 1-1
Vs Gasquet 1-1
Vs Youzny 3-1
Vs Nalbandian 3-5
Vs Berdych 6-0

Or maybe the real deal is that he usually faces Federer (more than most that's for sure). Without Roger, it is actually 15-15 (Vs Current Top Ten)

What happened to Haas? Was that his first match in a while? Too bad, I really him.

Manolo - gotcha! Sorry am a little slow today. It's Monday after all.

Manolo, I don't know either, but I have seen him give the top guys trouble at times (Nadal at Rome 07, Fed at RG 07) but he can't carry it through to the end. In spite of that, he has done well in staying in the top 10 for nearly 3 years now. We have seen with players like Gonzalez, Robredo, Ljubicic, and even Roddick how hard it is to maintain that position for so long.

No problem Tennis Chica. Dont like mondays. I woke up today at 7 am, but actually left the bed at 8 am. I am so proud of myself :)

I now officially have Davydenko as my underdog-to-root-for*

*applies when facing players other than Federer and ranked above 30.

Zonie: He is, IMO, the third best clay player today, behind Roger and Rafa. I still need to see how does Djoko handles himself this year to select him above Davydenko in "polvo de ladrillo"

Davydenko vs. Blake: 0-6

Andy Murray has beaten him the last three times they've played.

With a record like that it is amazing that he is still in the top 10. I would like to see a late career breakthrough from him and shock a few people in the process.