Tennis Talk 2009

[oopssorry]

Oh no! That's what I get for posting with kids running all around me (I retire from parenting! I just don't feel the passion anymore. Kidding. I think.)

Kim is actually my favorite female player of all. But I was so very stunned by her retirement though I totally got the reasons why she wanted time off. But it's hard now not to wonder why Retirement is the way to take the break. My goodness, I feel like I've been three different professional people in the last 3 years without having to "retire".

I realize there must be some big piece of info I'm missing - but my common sense argument would be to allow for players to step away for a bit.

ETA: the adjective "female" since y'all know me too well and know I'd be lying if I didn't separate out by gender.

[falafaclese]

I have been watching the Tokyo tournament, and I find it interesting that they have the roof closed there, and there are still women standing over the players with umbrellas during the changeovers. Curious.

[mooncreek]

The tours don't seem to like the idea of a player simply taking a break. So you hear of injuries that may not be significant or "fatigue" as reasons for withdrawing. Look at the way Serena and Roger withdrew from recent tournaments as way they twist the words to avoid the penalties.

[acre]

Oh I hope you didn't really think I was being negative to you about Kim, oops. I think in her case it was primarily about motherhood, but that the injuries wore her down and made tennis feel undesirable, no goddamn fun anymore. Plus, taking time off to rest is a far cry from taking time off to give birth, their are extremely few mothers on the tour, and for pretty good reason I'd say. Not just the obvious bodily changes, but the whole shift in focus and priorities. And even with her amazing spectacular return it's very clear that tennis is now 2nd in her life. Perfectly reasonable to me.

And I agree with mooncreek that the tours really make no allowances for players needing or wanting a break - you're expected to play, and if a top player, penalized for not playing at designated tournaments. I mean, the players are the game, the draw, the money in the bank, and there's no leeway for mental fatigue.

And geez Louise that was a bad loss Nadal just took! The DelPo spanking at the Open is pretty understandable, considering how good DelPo really is, and that Rafa was quite injured, but .... I mean Cilic is clearly very talented, but not remotely in Rafa's class. Rafa did seem to say that it was mental on his part, that he just wasn't focused, had an off day, and that makes sense to me cause otherwise, no way. It happens, you can't be "on" every single day and match, so I don't worry about him unless something similar happens again.

[vallegirl]

Oct 9, 2009 21:59:55 GMT oopssorry said:

The Mauresmo sentiments make me think again about the Favre/Jordan/Clijsters/Henin type of retirements that aren't so permanent. I have often thought that there was a corporate angle to why they chose to retire officially rather than take a break. But there's Mauresmo saying just that - she'd rather take a break and be sure than make a too-hasty decision. I find that much more appropriate, and have struggled to like even Kim as much post-retirement issues.

Each athlete was in a different circumstance when he/she made the retirement(s) announcement, though.

With Clijsters, Henin and even Jordan were all in the midst of highly emotional times in their lives. So in those moments, each athlete felt, probably genuinely, that this would be the end of their athletic careers, or in Jordan's case his basketball career. But, at least for Clijsters and Jordan, and maybe Henin, time away gave them clarity and they came back.

So I don't think it had as much to do with her not wanting to be penalized for being away or "taking a break." I do believe that in her mind she wasn't coming back but once her new life had settled down and she'd had that break, that she really felt she had some good play left in her and she returned.

(Favre, conversely, just seems like such a narcissist that he needs to be adored. He can't just walk away and be remembered fondly, he has to come back EVERY DAMN YEAR so whatever city he's playing in will let out a giant and joyous "HUZZAH! The Mighty Bret unretired again!!")

[lt]

You know what is sad? That Feli NOT losing his first-round match made the news on the ATP site.

[acre]

Oh dear, I can't say I particularly follow Lopez, but yeah that's not a good sign. OTOH, in news of the "well, duh!" variety, Yahoo sports reports that Henin got a wild card into the Aus Open. Now that's a shocker alrighty. I don't mean to imply they shouldn't have reported it, it matters to tennis, but for some reason it made me laugh - was there ever even the slightest possibility she wouldn't get a wild card into each and every tourny she so desired? Of course not, and she deserves them.

The other story was pertinent to what we've just been discussing about retirements vs breaks and the overall careers of players. I agree with vallegirl that Clijsters and Henin weren't looking for a break, but it applies to others. Roddick was the focus, and he was pretty adamant about the fact that an 11 month calendar is just too much, and he cited Nadal's months off with injury, Murray now, Roger "resting" for the 2nd time this year. He even made reference to a new tour or "industrial action" which I think means a strike/boycott, though he specifically said of course noone wants that, or is planning it. Andy's never been shy with his opinions, but I was still surprised.

They're men(and women) of steel, but at some point something's gotta give. It's an incredibly demanding sport and they pretty much all say that everyone always has something niggling, some minor injury or issue. I'm sure that's true of pretty much all elite athletes, but they have actual off seasons. I would gladly give up a month or two of tennis to have healthier players with longer careers.

This has been an issue and major complaint for years and the tour, the tournaments - at some point they're gonna have to acknowledge that without the player they don't exist! Or so one would think, but given how long it's been going on, maybe it will take another "insurrection" to actually change anything.

[pokey]

I certainly wouldn't like to see a strike or anything but I don't trust the Tour to fix this without some major action by the players. It's ridiculous to have them playing this long and every year it seems like someone brings it up but nothing ever gets done. There's no reason really to be playing past early October.

[lt]

There's no reason really to be playing past early October.

Agreed. And playing a 1000 tournament now? With all the fines that go with skipping one? It's crazy. Of course the thing of tennis is that they have to hit all the continents. But wouldn't it make more sense to put the Pan-Asian leg of the tour together? Start in early January, move the Australian one or two weeks back and instead of those random warm-up tournaments, put China/Japan/Malaysia tournaments first and then the players could swing down to Australia. The YEC could move to the end of October and that would give a solid two months off for the top players and close to three months off for the rest of the tour.

Oh, one more thing. Striking is not the answer for tennis. It does not have the popularity of other sports in the US and, I can say from experience, a hell of a lot of great things have to happen for fans to come back to a sport--and those are the diehards. The casual fan? Don't want to think about it.

(I hereby apologize if the above post does not make sense. I've been on press for 12 straight hours and I'm very, very tired. I'm far too old [where's my walker?] for the all-nighters--especially where printing presses are involved.)

[breezybee]

Roddick retired against Stan. Sprained knee or something. Tough break for him.

[pokey]

A full on strike would be a very, very damaging thing for tennis; this is one of those crappy situations where I don't know what the solution really is but I strongly think the current setup is a failure and needs fixing. It won't happen unless the players band together and force the action unfortunately.

Saw where Dinara Safina regains the number on ranking again the week of Doha. So super excited to be back on that merry-go-round.

[francienolan]

LT your post made complete sense. But that means nothing to these national tennis associations who are dead set and won't give an inch, making it nearly impossible for the schedule to make geographic sense.

Stan was funny b/c at the end of the match you could hear him marveling to the chair that's the second time that Roddick ret against him after only a couple of games. The first was in Rome.

[breezybee]

Don't even get me started about the ATP right now. I wrote to them and asked them why the winners of the Draw Challenge for Indian Wells and Miami received $1,000 gift certificates for Tennis Warehouse and I, the winner of the Draw Challenge for the Roger's Cup received $40 in books and a calendar that reference a season that will expire in a month. Their reply -

Thanks again for playing the game, I hope you are in the running to win the grand prize. Unfortunately, we were not able to secure secondary prize sponsors for the games beyond Indian Wells and Miami.

Don't forget about your Shanghai picks since the window to pick is quite short.

In other words, piss off and don't bother us. They had no secondary sponsor so they sent me some crap laying around the office.

[Mpol]

Oh lord they are indeed lame. Good on you for writing to them though mate.

[lt]

Ugh. Fer lost in Shanghai which kills his chance of getting to London as one of the top eight. Hopefully, he'll maintain his #9 in the race and go as an alternate. Meanwhile, Feli wins another match! Against Ferrer! Where is this coming from? And Del Potro adds to the list of the walking wounded--he retired with a wrist injury.

eta: breezy, it's hard to be angry at the ATP because they didn't have another sponsor--I'm pissed that tennis isn't popular enough with advertisers to GET another sponsor. I wonder if they'll even offer prizes next year. . .