ROGER'S APPEARANCE MONEY

........ his decision to pull out of the Stockholm Open recently, thereby forfeiting €700,000 in appearance money........

MURRY BEATS ROGER

Andy Murray reached the Madrid Masters final on Saturday after rallying to beat Roger Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a rematch of last month's U.S. Open championship match. The fourth-seeded Briton broke the second-ranked Federer in the final set on his seventh breakpoint chance to reach his second Masters Series final this season

MARIO AND MONO

When Mario Ancic sustained a serious case of mono that nearly ended his career last year, he knew he'd never be the same physically. Unfortunately for the Croat with the thunderous serve, imposing wingspan and tireless work ethic, a relapse came at the wrong time.

Ancic just reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, where a few grueling encounters didn't help, and was about to embark on one of the biggest events of the season, for him and a few others -- the Beijing Olympics.

Having felt sluggish in an opening-round loss at the Toronto Masters and having skipped the Cincinnati Masters in the summer as the fatigue intensified and the weight loss mounted, to about 15 pounds in total, the 24-year-old knew he couldn't go. 

Ancic, who teamed with veteran Ivan Ljubicic to win doubles bronze at the Athens Games four years ago, has missed six of the past nine Grand Slams, including three straight at the U.S. Open. The main culprit was mono, which first surfaced in January 2007, though knee and shoulder injuries also arose.

That semifinal showing at the All England Club (in 2004), downing Roger Federer on grass (in '02), clinching Croatia's maiden Davis Cup title in hostile surroundings (in '05) and rising to seventh in the rankings a year later all seem like a distant memory.

Ancic, down to No. 136 in January and back up to 31st now as the pendulum continues to swing, knows that, too.

Ancic is an intelligent character, earning his law degree in the spring, and thus is well aware another mono-induced setback might be around the corner.

KARLOVIC ACES DJOKOVIC

Ivo Karlovic hammered 21 aces and won 89 percent of first-serve points in a 7-6(4), 7-6(5) upset win over ATP World No. 3 Novak Djokovic. Djokovic failed to convert three break point chances in the match.

In addition to his overwhelming serve Karlovic was often brilliant at net and on match point, with Djokovic serving, he charged the net after a brief baseline exchange and forced a forehand error.

The 6' 10" Croatian is currently 27th in the ATP 200 Race, but should he win the tournament he would rise close to the Top 10 of the Race and be within reach of a Tennis Masters Cup berth.

FED OVER TSONGA

                                                                                                                            Roger Federer became the ATP Tour’s career leader in prize money Thursday, topping $43.3 million to overtake Pete Sampras.

Federer, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, set the earnings total with his 6-4, 6-1 win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga that put him in the Madrid Masters quarterfinals.

“It’s not very special,” Federer said. “It’s very nice to have records. Sure, money is important in life but it’s not everything.”

The five-time Wimbledon champion’s total is now $43,317,870. Sampras, who won a record 14 Grand Slams, held the mark at $43,280,489.

Federer, who turned pro 10 years ago, paid homage to the tennis stars before him.

FED PLAIN' IN SPAIN

World No. 2 Roger Federer began his bid to reclaim the title at the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid by defeating Czech Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-6(6) on Wednesday.

In doing so, Federer surpassed Pete Sampras as the all-time leader in career prize money in men's tennis. The Swiss, who earned 24,200 Euros ($32,428) for reaching the third round in Madrid, increased his career total to $43,300,847. Sampras earned $43,280,489 during his outstanding career.

Federer made a confident start to his second round opener, dropping just two points on serve in the first set. Stepanek saved the one break point chance of the ensuing set to force a tie-break, where the No. 2 seed delivered on his second match point to secure the straight-sets win in under 90 minutes.

OZ OPEN STAYS IN MELBOURNE

Australian Open organizers have no intention of moving the tennis major from Melbourne despite overtures from other cities in the Asia-Pacific region wanting to bid for the tournament.

Melbourne Park, adjacent to the city's downtown area, has a contract to host the tournament until 2016, although backers of a new facility in Sydney have publicly stated they'll try to poach the event from the southern city.

Other reports suggest that Shanghai, China, among other Asian cities, wants to host one of the sport's four Grand Slam events.

Melbourne Park has hosted the Australian Open since 1988, when the tournament switched to a hardcourt event and moved across town from the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, where it had been held since 1972.

The Australian championship, or Australasian Championship as it began in 1905, has been held predominantly in Melbourne but also in Australia's other mainland state capitals of Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and twice in New Zealand.

AP

RACE TO SHANGHAI

MADRID ON TSN

 

TWO-HANDLED RACKET

 

 

TWO-HANDLED RACKET VIDEO

 

ROGER IN MADRID

Roger Federer will play at the Madrid Masters next week, ending a three-week layoff and setting up a possible meeting with top-ranked Rafael Nadal.

“Without a doubt it’s a wonderful thing knowing we can count on Roger Federer being here for another year,” tournament director Manolo Santana said on Thursday.

The second-ranked Federer won the tournament in 2006 and was runner-up last year. The Swiss star skipped this week’s Stockholm Open saying he needed rest as he continues to rebound from a bout of mononucleosis at the start of the year.

AP

OZ OPEN INCREASES PRIZE MONEY

The 2009 Australian Open will offer 22 million Australian dollars (US$15.6 million) in prize money, with the men's and women's singles winners receiving an 18 percent increase.

Tournament officials said at the event launch Wednesday that the singles winners will receive A$1.62 million each, or about US$1.15 million each based on current exchange rates.

The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of next year, will be held from Jan. 19-Feb. 1.

AP

LORD OF THE RING

 

The world's top tennis player went shopping at Dubai's luxurious Atlantis resort last weekend with love match Miroslava Vavrinec.

The couple browsed a selection of diamond rings, necklaces and bracelets in the swish jewellery store Levant.

"He was looking at a ring with a large stone," a shopper said.

One of the items that Federer looked at was a 60 carat D-flawless diamond ring - the biggest diamond on sale at the hotel - and another was a 15 carat pink cusion cut diamond ring.

JOACHIM JOHANSSON TRIES AGAIN

Former ATP World No. 9 Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson of Sweden announced on Friday that he would resume his professional tennis career starting at the If Stockholm Open, where he has received a wild card for the main draw, which starts on Monday.

The 26-year-old Johansson originally retired from the ATP circuit in February after suffering from shoulder injuries for three years.

“My shoulder feels much better and when Pelle (Per Hjertquist, Tournament Director) asked me to play here it felt like a very exciting challenge. It’s extra special for me to play this tournament, with home court advantage and with the wonderful atmosphere in the arena”, Johansson said.

The If Stockholm Open will be Johansson’s only tournament this year, while he will resume a full schedule starting in 2009. Johansson said after Stockholm he will consult with his doctor and build a workout program to get back in shape. He will start playing a full schedule towards the second half of 2009.

The 6’6’’ right-hander played his last professional match in Stockholm last year, defeating Carlos Berlocq in the first round before withdrawing from his second match due to illness.

Johansson captured three ATP titles at 2004 Memphis (d. Kiefer) and 2005 Adelaide (d. Dent) and Marseille (d. Ljubicic). His best Grand Slam performance came at the ’04 US Open, when he beat defending champion Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals before falling to Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals. He reached a career-high No. 9 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on February 14, 2005.

FINALLY, HE ADMITS TO MONO

Roger Federer has withdrawn from next week's Stockholm Open, saying he needs to rest before starting his quest to reclaim the top spot in the world rankings.

Federer said in a statement on his Web site Wednesday that he had been playing catch-up all year after being diagnosed with mononucleosis at the start of 2008.

"I feel fortunate to be healthy again, but I want to remain at the top of the game for many more years to come and go after the No. 1 ranking again," Federer said. "In order to do that, I need to get a proper rest and get strong again so that I am 100 percent fit for the remainder of the year or next year."

WISHBONE RACKET

Rackets that split just above the grips, leaving a Y-shaped handle with one grip in front of the racket head, and another behind. Lionel Burt, who got the rackets cleared through the International Tennis Federation, designed them originally to help balance out the body during a swing, easing stress on the wrist, elbow, shoulder and back.

HAWKEYE

In a small booth overlooking Arthur Ashe Stadium, a team of technicians sits hunkered amid a tangle of wires, monitors and whirring computers. Although they are more than 10 stories above the match being played below, in a sense this is the best seat in the house.

The network of cameras and computers they control can track the flight of a tennis ball with an accuracy measured in millimeters — 3.6 to be exact. Overseeing it all is Paul Hawkins, the thin, sandy-haired, 30-something Englishman who had the crazy idea a few years ago to do for tennis what no other professional sport seems to have managed: create an instant-replay system that works.

“I have a technology background,” said Hawkins, who holds a doctorate in artificial intelligence. “I love sports. So I kind of had an opportunity to combine my two passions.”

The result was Hawk-Eye, probably the most successful instant-replay system in sports. Since its introduction at the United States Open three years ago, Hawk-Eye has won over fans, players and even officials.

In fact, about the only criticism of Hawk-Eye is that it is not used more widely. Currently, instant replay is available only on the two larger show courts: Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadium. This was an issue twice for the top-10 player Andy Murray, whose second- and third-round matches were marred by numerous questionable line calls and umpire overrulings.

In addition to the five-figure cost of the system each year, the infrastructure improvements — like a video-enabled scoreboard — make it cost prohibitive to put the system on all Open courts.

But Hawk-Eye has been so well received, the United States Tennis Association is seriously considering investing $100,000 to add the system next year to a third court — the Grandstand —said David Brewer, tournament manager for the Open.

“Even Hawk-Eye, when we first looked at it six or seven years ago, wasn’t accurate enough, but it is now,” he said.

The big breakthrough, Hawkins said, was not relying on optical devices to determine where a given shot lands — a surprisingly difficult spot to measure accurately. Hawk-Eye uses a system of 10 cameras to track the speed and trajectory of a ball in flight, but that is only part of the magic. The rest is done exclusively through computer modeling.

Because no tennis court is exactly flat and no line precisely straight, before the tournament. Hawkins’s team takes thousands of precise measurements of the dimensions and contours of each court, which are then converted into a three-dimensional computer model. Hawk-Eye’s virtual world takes into account other real-world factors that can affect accuracy, like the amount a ball compresses when it hits the court and even the temperature of the court.

“During warm days, the court actually changes size as it heats up or cools down,” Hawkins said.

When the ball flight data is fed into the computer model, the result is a system that is so precise it’s difficult to measure.

“The published stuff says 3.6 millimeters, but our system is actually more accurate than that,” Hawkins said.

But perhaps the biggest key to its acceptance among officials is that it matches an existing appeal process in the rules. On clay, the ball leaves clear marks where it strikes the court        [ THIS IS A TENNIS MYTH! The ball can strike the line , but leave the footprint after the line], and the umpire is allowed to use that mark to overrule incorrect calls. Hawk-Eye brings that same procedure to grass and hard courts.

One big positive for officials has been to show that they are right the vast majority of the time. Only about 30 percent of instant-replay appeals result in overruling of the original call.

NY TIMES

and your humble obedient servant.

RDC DRILL- ROMANIAN DAVIS CUP DRILL

LEANDER PAES - STROKE AND VOLLEY TRAINING

In this exercise, you again see tennis specific movement patterns being performed with the use of elastic tubing or bands. This is an example of an exercise that would make an excellent dynamic warm-up. Typically, this exercise is not necessarily recommended for strengthening, as these muscles are already very strong in tennis player, because they are used every time we play tennis. Rather than be used for strengthening, this exercise provides a way to warm up or prepare the body for tennis play. He is using both forehand and backhand movements at multiple heights, and he is also is using a lot of lower body bending to use the whole, entire body in this type of warm-up.

 

DJOKOVICI???

Marko Djokovic, the younger brother of World No. 3 Novak, will make his ATP debut in Bangkok this week after receiving a wild card into the main draw of the Thailand Open.

The 17-year-old right-hander has been drawn to meet fifth-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen in the first round, while this season’s Australian Open champion Novak will compete against Julien Benneteau of France or a qualifier after receiving a first round bye.

The pair has obtained a wild card into the doubles draw and will meet Frenchmen Fabrice Santoro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round.

Marko, currently No. 1734 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, has made three appearances on the ITF Futures circuit this year. In July, he received a wild card into the qualifying competition of the Studena Croatia Open Umag but lost in the first round to World No. 310 Italian Francesco Piccari in three sets.