Victoria Azarenka has pulled out of the Fed Cup tie against the United States with a lower back injury. Azarenka stated:
It has been a while and I have been trying to take [the injury] day by day. I had the pain since the Australian Open and was hoping to recover, but did not have enough time with all the flying I did.
A lower back injury is very hard to prove even from a medical stand point, thus Im not too sure if its an injury or just a bit of a niggle which means she can have another week to relax a bit after her Australian Open win.
Marion Bartoli is the top French player, but she has been left out of the France Fed Cup team due to her conflict with Nicolas Escude.
All the issues started when Bartoli fought with the France Fed Cup captain, Nicolas Escude and the French tennis federation over the autonomous coaching set-up with her father, Walter.
Maria Sharapova is actually going to play for her country in the Fed Cup next month against Spain. This is only the third time she will be playing for her country! How Sad! Its a real shame that tennis players dont seem to have national pride and want to play for their country any more.
If I was the Russian captain I probably wouldnt even want her to play, since she hasnt seemed to care in the past!
Yet another organisation to stupidly support the SOPA act trying to be pushed through the US is the USTA. Obviously the USTA have a lot of copyright content, but anyone who supports SOPA is just old fashioned and really doesnt support technology or progress.
New Zealand have been banned from the 2012 Fed Cup. This is a penalty for a late withdrawal in a match at the end of last year, when top New Zealand player werent able to play. Both were somewhat injured and Tennis New Zealand didn’t want to pay the $50,000 fee to send an inexperienced team.
I think the ban is a little harsh as they should have been just fined an amount of money instead. Cant leave a country out of an international event!
It seems like having a son who is a great tennis player has been a good career move for Judy Murray. Judy Murray has herself a new job and she is now Britain’s Fed Cup captain.
The role became vacant a year ago when Nigel Sears (Andy’s girlfriends father) resigned to coach Ana Ivanovic.
“It is a huge honour for me to represent my country in this way, and the role presents a very exciting challenge, given the mix of talent, experience and determination we have in our top female players right now.”
Maverick Banes (AUS) def. Catalin-Ionut Gard (ROU) 4-6 6-4 6-4 … in the Singles Semis of the 2011 Pensacola Men’s Tennis Pro Futures Championship at Roger Scott Tennis Center in Pensacola FL.
Tennis Australia has just released the promo video for the Australian National League tennis. However, I didnt realise its not a national league at all! Only VIC, WA and SA will be competing.
Ian Goolagong (brother of Evonne) has been appointed to Tennis Australia in the role of National Indigenous Coach.
Goolagong’s role as National Indigenous Coach will include:
visiting remote communities, local clubs and schools
be involved in creating talent search opportunities
provide coaching for the MLC Tennis Hot Shots programs
coaching at state and national camps
enhancing the scholarship program to attract and nurture indigenous talent.
“Creating pathways for the next generation of indigenous tennis players will be a major focus of my new role, for example – training pathways, National Academy and Australian Institute of Sport pathways,” Goolagong said.
Francesco Ricci Bitti is yet again the president of the ITF. Bitti was re-elected just a few days ago and will now remain as president until 2015. This will be his fourth four year term as ITF president.
Thirteen others were elected or re-elected to the ITF board of directors through 2013.
They are Ismail El Shafei of Egypt, Jean Gachassin of France, Lucy Garvin of the United States, Jack Graham of Canada, Chris Kypriotis of Brazil, Suwat Liptapanlop of Thailand, Juan Margets of Spain, Roman Murashkovsky of Russia, Geoff Pollard of Australia, Stuart Smith of Britain, Rene Stammbach of Switzerland, Jon Vegosen of the United States, and Georg von Waldenfels of Germany.
The ITF have announced the teams and draw for the 2011 Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Finals. The Finals will be played on September 27 – October 2 October at La Loma Centro Deportivo and Club Libanes Potosino in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
A good friend of mine just won his first ever ITF title in Darwin this week. Isaac Frost I have known for a very long time and I thought I would just congratulate him on this brilliant result.
Frost won the Darwin Future event beating Nick Lindahl in the final, 6-1 4-6 6-4.
Frost is only 20 and he had taken 400 spots of his ranking so far in 2011. Looking forward to seeing what he can do in 2012.
A while ago I had an idea to live stream some of the smaller Future and Challenger events and finally someone has actually done this! e-Tennis is live and currently streaming live on Livestream.
It has been reported that Luke Saville and Colin Ebelthite will play in the new National Tennis League (NTL) to be launched in Adelaide in November.
It seems like Tennis Australia is trying to bring European club tennis to Australia. Im not a big fan of the idea. I know it provides good opportunities for players, but it seems like a means to an end.
“It’s all go and people are pretty excited,” Tennis SA chief executive Alistair MacDonald said.
“Luke Saville has registered but I’m not sure which team he’s going to play for. There are a few who would want him.”
Instead of trying to keep the top players in Australia, why aren’t Tennis Australia just looking to set up more opportunities for players to travel into Europe to play real club tennis. Im sure Tennis Australia could set up a club in France or Germany and help the top players travel over, play for the club, then play a series of tournaments after the club season.
I’m still not impressed at all with Tennis Australia and how they aren’t really interested in pushing promising players into positions that will instant improve their games.
Here are the team nominations for the 2011 Davis Cup. The semifinals and world group playoffs will be held September 16-18.
