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Posts Tagged ‘Monday’

The Super-Serb trio of Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic has captured the fantasy and imagination of the tennis fanatics, and all three will be showing their talent in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships title started from 15th to 28th of this month.

Both Jankovic and Ivanovic have already increased to world number one position, and there is little fear that Djokovic is ready to participate in this event in the distant future.

Ivanovic has showed excellent performance in her top 100 debut in the year 2004 after her four Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events and following Wimbledon in 2005. In this way she was declared a player who crashed into the world’s top 20 in tennis history first time. Bizarrely, in that season got victory over Hungary’s Melinda Czink in the final game of qualifying round held in Canberra and before this, she has already defeated her again in the final to win her first career title.
These online live tennis scores will bring moments of great relish for tennis lovers. Her performance delight public and media alike with her alluring smile and exciting online tennis score continuously enhanced her ranking. After wining second title in Montreal in 2006, and three more in 2007, she had succeeded to sweep all her opponents. Recently Grand Slam championship is waiting for her marvelous performance as Ivanovic has able to lift the title of French Open trophy last summer with striking victory over Dinara Safina. That resounding triumph has given Ivanovic her first crown of Grand Slam crown and elevated this tennis star to world number one position.

In The Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship, top tennis players are participating for glory and high ranked position at the Dubai Tennis Stadium. Organizers and owners of this championship have maintained this tournament to promote tennis within UAE. This event forms a major part of the game that invokes thousands of tennis fans to devote their time for live tennis score coverage.

This Tennis Championships is going on held under the supervision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai ,Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE started at Sunday, 15th February 2009 event and continues till the start of ATP tournament from Monday, 23rd to  28th February.
If you really want to enjoy these memorable Tennis results moments, you need to set your schedule in accordance to the matches held in this event. These exclusive matches really makes your expectation fulfilled which you may expect from your tennis heroes.

There are various online sites from where you can get latest updates of live matches held on different days, if you do not find any good one, just log on to ScoresPro.com to get latest Tennis  livescore.

Filed under: U.S. Open

This is when a suspension is not a suspension, a major fine is not a major fine.

It took months to figure this out, how to word it perfectly, but on Monday, the International Tennis Federation did it.

It gave Serena Williams a punishment that wasn't a punishment.

The $175,000 fine and three-year suspended ban from the U.S. Open and probationary period for her f-bomb laced, threatening tirade at a tiny U.S. Open line judge do sound like big words, don't they?

They aren't. Break it down, and Williams will end up paying just $82,500. She recently referred to $50,000 as the furniture budget in her home remodeling.

If she doesn't have another major outburst, the fine is cut to that number, and the suspension thrown out. She will not miss a tournament. Her debt will be paid.

Look, the fine means nothing to Williams. She won't feel it. But the ITF can say that it's a record size.

OK, Serena? Is this OK with you?

I can only imagine ITF officials pleading with her to please, please let them appear to be an actual governing body.

You remember what happened. The line judge called footfault on Williams, who then waved her racquet in the judge's face and threatened to take the ``(f-ing) ball'' and shove it down her "(f-ing) throat.''

That led to a point penalty on match point. So the match was over.

Let's be honest: Race is an issue. It always is with tennis and the Williams sisters. Some people will think Williams was given a record fine because she's black. Others will think she was given a pass because she's black.

Some people think she was the bully, some think she was victim of a bad call.

The ITF doesn't really care what's right. That was never an issue. The only issue was this: How do you give a penalty that looks big but isn't?

The point isn't that she was punished too much or too little, but rather that it was a non-justice based on non-truths, when true leadership was crying out because people's real feelings were involved about the game, Williams, race, and sportsmanship.

The feelings are so real that some people insist the video evidence proves she never footfaulted. Others demand the video evidence proved she did.

Here's the truth: There is no camera shot, video or still, that can determine anything.

There are lots of truths missing here, a mess that has made tennis look uglier than ever. Williams' smokescreen reasons for her tantrum, her ``punishment,'' the ITF's naked self-interest, John McEnroe's irresponsibility.

The ITF let this thing drag on so long that hard feelings only grew. It became a social debate lining up mostly along racial lines.

So the ITF points out that this is the biggest fine ever at a major. Jeff Tarango got about half as much for storming off at Wimbledon and calling a chair ump corrupt. His wife later slapped the judge, too.

Of course, the ITF doesn't mention that Tarango was also banned from two majors. McEnroe was once suspended for two months.

But McEnroe had been a brat for years, and that could have been a career-achievement punishment. Serena has not behaved bad nearly as often, though she did threaten a player who cheated her at this year's French Open. In fact, one tennis official told the New York Times, "We're not talking about a John McEnroe type character here."

Here was the telling quote, a bit of truth, from ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti a few weeks ago:

"I don't think (an Australian Open ban) would make much sense, because it would penalize the people handing out the punishment. For the grand slam committee to exclude her from a grand slam doesn't seem likely.

"A significant financial penalty makes more sense. But it has to be significant enough for the fans.''

They didn't want to kick her out of a major tournament because that would hurt the tournament. How is that's a concern to a governing body?

And they wanted a fine big enough to look like justice, not to serve it.

Let's go back over what really happened, over the truth.

Williams was in the semifinals of the U.S. Open playing Kim Clijsters in a tight match. Williams had been spouting off all year about how she was the real No. 1, not No. 1 ranked Dinara Safina. That had racial overtones. So did the sudden popularity of teenager Melanie Oudin, a white girl from the South, at the Open. How much of her appeal was that she was the great white hope?

So that was the setting. And Clijsters, just back from a 2 1/2-year break, was beating Williams. Williams was two points from losing when she was called for footfault on her second serve.

Did she footfault? Yes. Absolutely.

I was sitting just behind the line judge, several rows back. Other media members were sitting there too. She clearly stepped way out onto the thick baseline.

But that's not really the point. With several chances, Williams could not bring herself to play the final point. Why?

Because to her, that was less embarrassing than losing to a woman just back from maternity leave.
Williams quit this match, not planning to get thrown out, but knowing at some level that she would.

Meanwhile, McEnroe, still the face of the game in many ways, was on TV ripping the line judge, saying he didn't see a footfault and that a judge doesn't make calls like that such in a crucial situation. Juan Martin del Potro, by the way, was called for a footfault in a crucial third-set tiebreaker last week during the ATP Finals.

But whatever, McEnroe, famous for being a jerk to officials, was irresponsibly and unwittingly fueling a racial debate even though there was this truth:

From where he was sitting, he could not have seen whether Williams had actually foot-faulted.

The next day, Williams issued a statement calling it an "unfair line call.'' The day after that, with endorsers presumably upset, she issued a real apology.

She went on to win the tour championship, reclaim the No. 1 ranking, appear nude on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, pitch her new book, appear on Leno and every other show.

Did she get away with this? Obviously.

But was justice served? Well, that was never a consideration.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com

Tennis Deserves Fault for Serena's Flawed Justice originally appeared on Tennis FanHouse on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: U.S. Open

Dick Enberg is just the poor sap in this whole thing. But Juan Martin del Potro beat Roger Federer to win the U.S. Open Monday, becoming just the second South American man to win it. And the first, Guillermo Vilas, was in the stands to celebrate. And throughout the match, a huge Spanish-speaking crowd sang O ... lay, Olay, Olay, Olay ...

And then del Potro politely and with great humility spoke to the crowd in English, a language he doesn't speak particularly well yet, or comfortably. Then, he asked Enberg, the CBS announcer, if he could say a few words in Spanish.

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"I'm sorry,'' Enberg said over the p.a. "We're running out of time here.''

Well, there was time -- time to get a word in from Lexus.

Eventually, with del Potro on his third pass at Enberg, all but begging him to allow him to speak Spanish, Enberg handed him the mic.

And del Potro, who is from Argentina, lit up, nearly breaking into tears during his talk.

So I asked him what he had said, what had gotten him so emotional. Here's what he said:

"Well, because my parents want to come watch the final and say no be there (they didn't come). Of course, they are part of this moment. They believe in me a lot like my coaches.

"It's a special moment for me, for my parents and my friends. This trophy is for these, too.''

Look, this moment was an insult. But it wasn't Enberg's fault. He is out there on court with strings being pulled, told to hurry up, get to sponsors, get to commercials.

A great moment in a young man's life had been sold out.

In the end, del Potro did get to say what he wanted. So that really is what matters most.

But tennis is an international sport, not an American game. Del Potro is a 20-year old Spanish-speaking man who had spent the entire two weeks saying it was his dream to win the U.S. Open.

And to make him beg to speak to his people in his language in that place, Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest tennis stadium in the world, was not only a failure to recognize the moment, but also to recognize modern times and one of the beautiful things about the worldliness of the game.

Crying for Argentina: What Weepy del Potro Really Said at US Open originally appeared on Tennis FanHouse on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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