Tennis Talk 2009

[lt]

I'm filling out my ATP draw (thanks falafaclese!) and the best looking (potential) matchup for round two? Starace and Lopez. Oh my, my TV would melt (if anyone saw fit to air it, which they wouldn't). Meanwhile, how do I pick between Qualifier L and Qualifier M? Hmmmm, tough decisions. Meanwhile, my choices are so loony tunes (Tsonga might be hurt? Okay, gone.) that I would be quite embarrassed to have my choices in the main pool. I know you guys will be kind.

[chestylarue]

Jan 16, 2009 20:36:42 GMT amarathe said:

I read that Volandri got suspended for doping. The Italians do seem to get banned quite often.

He was not found guilty of doping in the sense of performance enhancement. He took too much of his asthma medication, which he had been granted permission to take. It was at IW in 2008, and someone who attended it this past year said that with the wind and sand, etc. it was a prime condition to aggravate asthma The Tribunal believed that he did not want to take it for performance- but just to treat his asthma. I know there are rules- but I think this is a little harsh. If you are suffering from asthma complications/an attack- it is easy to go over a specified amount.

Decision in the case of Filippo Volandri
London, England, 15 Jan 2009 - The International Tennis Federation announced today that Filippo Volandri, a 27-year-old Italian tennis player, has been found by an independent Anti-Doping Tribunal convened under the 2008 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme to have committed a Doping Offence.

The independent Tribunal found that a sample provided by Mr. Volandri on 13 March 2008 at the ATP Tour event in Indian Wells, California, USA, contained salbutamol at a concentration greater than 1,000 ng/ml. Salbutamol at such a concentration is a Prohibited Substance under the Programme, the presence of which in a player’s sample constitutes a Doping Offence unless the player can prove that its presence was due to his therapeutic use of asthma medication in accordance with an abbreviated therapeutic use exemption (an ‘ATUE’) issued under the Programme.

Mr Volandri claimed that the high concentration of salbutamol found in his sample was due to his inhalation of Ventolin (which contains salbutamol) to treat an asthma attack. He relied on an ATUE that he had been granted for use of Ventolin to treat his asthma.

The Tribunal accepted that Mr Volandri had not taken salbutamol with intent to enhance his sporting performance; rather, he had taken salbutamol to treat his asthma. However, it found that his ATUE only permitted him to use asthma medication in line with generally accepted asthma treatment guidelines, and that the amount of salbutamol he inhaled was not consistent with such use, and so could not be said to be proper therapeutic use in accordance with his ATUE. The Tribunal therefore found that a Doping Offence had been committed.

The Programme implements the World Anti-Doping Code in the sport of tennis. The changes to the Code for 2009 include treating salbutamol as a “Specified Substance”, even at a concentration greater than 1,000 ng/ml, which triggers a discretion on the part of the Tribunal as to sanction if it is satisfied the substance was not used to enhance sports performance. Applying the legal principle of “lex mitior”, the Tribunal held that Mr Volandri was entitled to the benefit of that rule change and that therefore, because it was satisfied that he had not used salbutamol with intent to enhance his performance, it had discretion as to the sanction to be imposed.

Based on its assessment of Mr Volandri’s relative fault, the Tribunal decided to impose a period of Ineligibility on Mr Volandri of three months, starting from 15 January 2009 and therefore ending at midnight on 14 April 2009.

The Tribunal also ordered that Mr Volandri’s results from Indian Wells, and from competitions that he played subsequent to 18 August 2008, should be disqualified, with the resulting forfeiture of the ranking points and repayment of the prize money that he won at those events.

A copy of the Tribunal’s full, reasoned decision can be accessed on the ITF’s website, at www.itftennis.com/antidoping. Any party wishing to appeal the decision has three weeks to do so from receipt of the written decision.

[francienolan]

Jan 16, 2009 19:19:50 GMT oopssorry said:

I think the shelf life depends on the player's game. I think because Andy has struggle to make his game versatile and anything other utterly-dependent on a whipping serve, he may suffer a shorter life out there....

By notoriously short I should have said relative to other sports and by top tier I should have been more specific and said top 10. I know Pete Sampras and Agasssi won majors after 26 but I was under the impression that they were the exception and not the norm...

But one thing is for certain, nothing is ever certain. Maybe Stefanki can help Roddick shock the shit out of me and hoist up another GS trophy!

[oopssorry]

I'd be stunned to see that, but not unhappy!

Roddick for me is the most aggravating. Because as an idea I so want him to win. And then when I'm watching him play, I wonder "what is he thinking?" more than with any other player.

But Stefanki is good with the head cases, no? Should be interesting. I'm guessing Andy takes IW. Random, I know.

[agentx]

I am so excited for the Open, what's not exciting me, are those early mornings/late late nights.

[breezybee]

Anyone happen to catch the match today between Fat Dave and Jarkko? I only saw a couple of minutes but could someone tell me what happened to Jarkko? I haven't seen him play for a while but I remember him as being quite skinny. Now he looks pregnant. It was the battle of the bellies today.

[falafaclese]

I noticed that too. I don't know if anything is going on, didn't he always have a bit of a pooch anyway in spite of his skinniness? I can't remember. The second set of that match (especially the tiebreaker) was fantastic.

On an unrelated note, Bethanie Mattek recently got married, and I'm sure it will surprise nobody to find out that she wore black. Here are some pics(page down). It's a little dramatic (again, no surprise) but it's a nice gown. I'm not digging the bouffant though.

[Mpol]

Over the past three years my tennis love has been put on hold due to my Uni commitments. I don't know. I felt like a few things in my life were (hobbies, thigns to catch up on etc.) Now that it is done I am as much the fan as I ever was and have seen changes in the game, especailly amongst the top players.

On the men's side, the biggest change in the game that I have seen is that the men's game has become much more of an all round sport (as apose to being just a baseline game, with which many were scared about, note how the whining about no volleying has quietend down?). One of the commentators expressed as much as well claiming that the progressive string/racquet technology was allowing players to gain more angle or variety, allowing them to come in (I am not too sure what it is exactly but I really have notived that shift.) Is Federer's all round style to be given credit? To have beaten him players have had to develope DIMENSIONAL games?

And on the women's side of things, depth is much more apparent. Any top player can be slightly off their game and be upset. You can have the top female players in the world but the women's circuit no longer exists of just the top 10 women. People get upset by their opponents out playing them both physically and mentally and the top ten is forever changing etc...
However this comes with a down side. With the era of power (Williamses, Davenport, Capriati, Sharapova, Clysters, etc) the only way for the girls to compete with such athletisism is for their games to really be the same. So VARIETY, good serving, volleying, and even the all round game on the women's side is now all but gone. The new wave of players (namely American/Eastern European) have games that are all carbon copies of each other. If you look at the men's side, you have the class of Fed up against the power Rafa, the all rounds talents of Djoko and Murray, and the new guys all coming through have near complete games. On the women's side the only player with real variety is Momo and she is only a year or two away from retirement. I only hope now that power has taken the girls so far and that a player with power AND variety will emerge and kick some serious ass. No doubt the likes of Venus, Ana, Serena, Svetlana and a few others can slice, chop and come in on a few points but it is such a rariety. And this is coming from someone who's a huge fan of the women's game.

[mizjj]

I heard Mary Carillo mention during the Safina/Williams final's match that they were going to allow coaching for the female athletes? Does anyone know anything about this? Why only women?

[falafaclese]

Jan 31, 2009 18:54:40 GMT mizjj said:

I heard Mary Carillo mention during the Safina/Williams final's match that they were going to allow coaching for the female athletes? Does anyone know anything about this? Why only women?

Over the past year or so the WTA has been experimenting with on-court coaching as part of their Roadmap 2009 initiative. In a limited number of tournaments, they were allowing the players to receive coaching during their matches during changeovers, between-set breaks and injury timeouts. This year they decided to go live with it for all WTA events, which would include everything in the regular season except the grand slam tournaments which are owned by the tennis federations of their respective countries and are technically not WTA or ATP events. The reason it is only the women is because only the WTA is involved in it.

I personally think it sucks. I think one of the central features of tennis is that it's a one-on-one or two-on-two battle between two sides who have to try and figure out how to win on their own. I also think the fact that only the women are involved invites negative comparisons to the men's tour. Also, I don't buy that it makes it more interesting for the fans, because it's not particularly compelling to watch, and seeing someone improve because they had help doesn't add to the enjoyment for me even if it means more tennis or improved play in a given match.

[mizjj]

Thanks falafaclese. I completely agree it will take away from the one-on-one feel of tennis. I hope the Grand Slams never bring in this approach. Can you imagine during a crucial point in the game someone calling an injury time-out to consult with their coach? Ummm...no.

[Mpol]

I agree as well. Tennis is one on one and adding this on court coaching crap really takes away from that.

[roseha]

Absolutely. To me on court coaching belongs in the haterade thread. But since it's not a person I will just say it here. Worst. idea. ever.

[oopssorry]

I am really against the idea, but was thinking last night that with the number of head-cases in the women's game, maybe it would be an interesting experiment. I wonder if it would have helped Dinara yesterday....

[Mpol]

Does anyone remember these commcials?

au.youtube.com/watch?v=QGulqw6zkOg

au.youtube.com/watch?v=BSiWa7vBvj4&feature=related

Tennis use to be real fun back then. The women's game was really booming with Martina, Anna and the Williams really glamorising the sport. Why can't Adidas and Nike make commercials like these? A Rafa/Fed commercial would be AWESOME!