It is now official, the ATP have just released their new rankings and Rafael Nadal is now officially World Number 1. After winning his fifth Roland Garros title over the weekend, he has passed Roger Federer yet again. I cant see Nadal dropping from this position for a while, as he has no points to defend at Wimbledon!
Visitors to Disneyland Paris today had a big surprise when they saw Mickey Mouse playing a game of doubles with invited children against professional tennis players Gael Monfils and Stansilas Wawrinka.
The court itself was a little short and had quasi-official dimensions, but that didn’t matter when the children had such a great event.
Disneyland Paris invited 200 children from the French “Fête le Mur” association, founded by Yannick Noah, to participate in this more than unusual exchange.
The Fête le Mur association is set up in the heart of 25 under-privileged Urban Zones, allows the children of those neighborhoods to practice tennis, to train and perfect themselves, and some of them to later find a professional opening.
Marin Cilic is a young player from Croatia who currently finds himself at number 14 in the world singles rankings. Marin has had a very quick rise to the top. He was playing junior tennis up until 2006 in which he then received his highest ranking of the world number one junior. While at the same time as holding this junior ranking Marin was also trying to build up a senior career and as many points as possible.
After moving away from junior tennis in 2006 Marin focused on building up as many points as possible on the ATP and ITF tours so that he could really make a living from tennis and live up to his potential. Within his first season on the ITF tour he finished 2006 ranked 173 in the world. This season really pushed his career and pretty much put him where he is today. At the start of 2006 Marin was receiving a lot of wildcards into major tournaments in which he would not have received unless he was the top junior in the world, and he made the most of it. Following in 2007 Marin continued his rise to finish the year at 71 and to now be on the ATP tour fulltime. Finally the growth continued even further to finish 2008 at number 22 and top be now a top player who everyone else wants to beat.
It is amazing how Marin Cilic has risen in the world of tennis and this has really been a steady growth from the age of 16. Marin is now a top 20 player in the world who no matter what tournament he plays is seeded. Im a firm believer that when a player progresses from juniors to seniors they deserve a few wildcards in major tournaments to help them get experience and raise their rankings fast at the same time. However, at the same time the player needs to keep his eye on the ball and actually get strong results on the ITF tours, cause that is really where you learn as a player to fight for every point and every match.
According to the SportsBusiness Journal, the ATP is developing a new TV show hosted by Justin Gimelstob: “The ATP is developing a TV series titled “ATP World Tour Uncovered,” offering a behind-the-scenes look at the circuit. The show is being produced by British Telecom and IMG and will be sold by Pitch International, a British sales agency with soccer and rugby experience.”
Im not too sure however that providing more details about the tour is really going to help the profile of the sport. However, im keen to see how this develops and it would also be great to see a show about professional players on the lower level tennis tours.
More details coming soon!
New world number three Andy Murray hit back at number four Novak Djokovic on Thursday after the Serb said the current rankings system was cruel. Djokovic was leapfrogged by Murray in the rankings on Monday despite landing a second title of the year in Belgrade at the weekend and reaching the last three Masters Series finals.
“There always seem to be problems and now it’s obviously the rankings,” Murray told a news conference after beating Tommy Robredo in the third round of the Madrid Open. It’s great that Novak’s done well the last few weeks but the first three or four months of the year I played a lot better than him so I think the rankings reflect very well how the guys are playing. Until this week I’ve never heard anyone complain. I think maybe only in the last week it’s become a problem for Novak.”
Players on the ATP tour have to defend the points they earned during the same week a year earlier, so the reigning champion at an event can only maintain his points tally, not improve it. “Playing three Masters Series finals in a row and winning a 250 event is incredible success and even then you are dropping a spot down in the rankings,” Djokovic said on Wednesday. “That shows how cruel the ranking system is in this sport.”
The ATP has released a new live screensaver. The screensaver is completely free and it provides some of the latest photos and videos from the Tour. With updates made automatically to the Screensaver, tuning into the ATP World Tour has never been so easy.
The screensaver runs on Windows 2000, XP and Vista only and it requires a minimum 1024×768 pixel resolution.
Some of the worlds top players including Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, all played exhibition matches at the Rome Masters last weekend to remember and raise money for Fedelux. Fedelux is a leukemia foundation established in the memory of former player Federico Luzzi, who died of the disease last year aged 28 last year.
Most of the players wore shirts of the event which had the image of Luzzi on the front. Other players who participated were Tommy Robredo, Marat Safin, Potito Starace, Andreas Seppi, Simone Bolelli and Filippo Volandri.
It was great to see that the players pulled together for a great charity event.
This is just Novak Djokovic all over. It is good to see that tennis commercials are actually a little fun. I really think they should be a little more like Australia beer commercials, because they are just so well done. However I really want to hear everyone’s thoughts on this commercial.
Have you ever wondered what some of the worlds best tennis players looked like when they were younger. Well over at the Tennis Warehouse forum they have come up with some brilliant pics.
Pictures include Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and more.
It has been reported that Lleyton Hewitt is in a bit of a court battle with his former management company Octagon. Octagon are taking Hewitt to court for breach of contract and then Hewitt is now fighting back with a countersuit, citing incompetence and deception on the part of the agency.
In 2005 and 2006, Hewitt earned $6.75 million net in endorsements and appearance guarantees — including $3.5 mil from Nike and $2.3 mil from Yonex. He also received $340,000 in appearance fees for Sydney, Adelaide, and Queen’s Club.
We will keep you post on how this all turns out.
Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman has bowed out of professional tennis after a glittering 17 year career that earned him nine Grand Slam doubles titles.
Bjorkman, 36, was treated to a special ceremony at Qi Zhong Stadium after he and partner Kevin Ullyett were knocked out of the Tennis Masters Cup doubles.
“They reminded me a little bit that this is obviously maybe my last match,” said Bjorkman, who noticed preparations for the farewell ceremony during the match.
“You know, I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive one more day, or maybe two.”
Bjorkman won all four doubles Grand Slams as well as the 1998 Davis Cup with Sweden and also reached the 1997 US Open singles semi-final and the last four at Wimbledon just two years ago.
Bjorkman and Ullyett fell to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski as the Swede failed in his bid for a third year-end title.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year, even if I would have gone further. But you can’t have everything,” he said.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long.”
Bjorkman, who will now concentrate on editing a Swedish tennis magazine, cited the 1997 US Open loss to Britain’s Greg Rusesdski as his biggest regret.
“Obviously losing to Greg Rusedski in the semi-final was a tough loss because I think that was a chance for me maybe to go all the way,” he said.
Shanghai, China – LACOSTE, renowned lifestyle brand of relaxed Elegance, and the ATP, governing body for the men’s professional tennis circuit, today announced that they have extended their partnership. LACOSTE will continue as the official apparel and footwear partner of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals until 2013. As the exclusive provider of apparel and footwear on the court of the tournament, LACOSTE will also continue to dress the linesmen and ball kids.
As part of the restructuring of men’s tennis in 2009, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will replace the Tennis Masters Cup, currently held in Shanghai, as the year ending finale of the ATP World Tour. With only the year’s top 8 singles players and doubles teams in the world, including the Grand Slam champions, qualifying to compete, it is the year’s climactic final event that determines the official year-end South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings.
This partnership includes a sales area dedicated to the brand that will offer the next LACOSTE collection, including outfits worn by the LACOSTE champions.
With a strong and unique heritage in the world of sports due to its origins and founder, the famous “Crocodile” tennis champion René Lacoste, LACOSTE today implements an active sponsorship policy. LACOSTE’s values of integrity, performance and elegance are exemplified by a number of ambassadors, including tennis players such as Andy Roddick, Richard Gasquet, Alizé Cornet and Tatiana Golovin. LACOSTE also has a presence at prestigious international tennis tournaments such as the US Open, Roland Garros and the Australian Open; these last two together add up to a cumulative 3.19 billion TV spectators a year worldwide.
“I am delighted that LACOSTE have decided to extend their partnership with the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals,” said Etienne de Villiers, Executive Chairman of ATP. “LACOSTE are one of the world’s most inspiring brands and we have had a hugely exciting and successful partnership over the last six years. I am delighted that LACOSTE share in our excitement and vision for our new end-of-season finale.”
“After signing with the Australian Open, renewing the partnership with an event that symbolizes our values of tenacity, performance and excellence such as the finals of the ATP World Tour season is a further demonstration of LACOSTE’s attachment to tennis as well as the voluntary and active policy of our brand in this sport,” said Christophe Chenut, CEO of LACOSTE.
As one of the world’s leading sporting occasions, television coverage of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup was distributed to over 166 countries and watched by a cumulative worldwide audience of 50 million people. The 2009 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will be held in late November at London’s O2 Arena.
Article courtesy atptennis.com
The reigning Australian Open junior champion is eligible to spend another two years bolstering his already impressive age record, if he wants to.
But, after mixing junior and senior events in roughly equal measure in 2008, the talented Gold Coast teenager would prefer to speed up his development by committing fully to the men’s circuit next year.
“I’ve started this year to play more and more (open) Futures and Challengers, but then again I’ve played also juniors,” German-born Tomic said.
“I think it’s time to put juniors away next year hopefully and just focus on Challenger level and Futures and getting my ranking up to where I want it to be.”
Tomic is the junior world No.3, with the two players ranked above him both about 18 months older.
In the senior rankings, he is 772.
While he hopes to steadily cut that number, he needs to rely on the generosity of officials if he is to play in ATP events or senior grand slams.
His chief aims for the coming summer are to make his ATP debut at the Brisbane International, starting January 4, and then play in the Australian Open later that month.
He will need wildcards for both, a prospect that remains uncertain, particularly given Tennis Australia’s recent emphasis on awarding wildcards on a merit basis, with Tomic only the 26th-ranked Australian man.
We have previously reported about the relationship between Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco and this time they have been out and about together.
Slovakian glamour girl, Daniela Hantuchova, is the latest to confirm her attendance at the Brisbane International in January.
The world number 19 was a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2008 and broke into the top 10 when she reached number 5 in August 2002.
She will be joined by French Open Champion Ana Ivanovic and reigning Australian Women’s Hardcourt Champion Na Li in the women’s draw.
The men’s draw boasts Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marcos Baghdatis, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Mardy Fish with the player cut off date, for the tournament ,on the 21 November.
Daniela Hantuchova said “I am really excited about returning to Australia and playing a strong field in the lead up to the Grand Slam.
“I took home some really nice memories last year. It was something very special for me.
“With my preparation this year and the quality field at the Brisbane International, I will be even more ready.
“I love Australia and have played in tournaments there since 2001. I am looking forward to playing in this new event and challenging some high quality players in the lead up to the Australian Open.”
World Number 3 Novak Djokovic spoke very enthusiastically about how he has been able to help Serbia to possibly host its first ATP tournament.
Djokovic, who has already qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, and his family are on the point of buying out the rights to the Dutch Open tournament in Amersfoot and transferring that week’s action to Belgrade.
The 21-year-old Australian Open champion, who hails from the Serbian capital, revealed earlier this month he was in negotiations with organisers to transfer the event with help from his father and uncle and said the arrangements were all but in place.
“Now I can say the country is supporting us and we have all the things we need – just the formality from the ATP to really take the tournament Amersfoort to Serbia,” Djokovic said after reaching the third round of the Paris Masters when Dmitry Tursunov of Russia withdrew with a shoulder injury in the second set of their encounter.
Djokovic said he expected an official announcement in Shanghai and he was delighted at the prospect.
Im not too sure why but I just today started to wonder what has happened to Guillermo Coria. Coria was a top ten player back a few years ago and until a drug scandal was leading the way on clay before Raphael Nadal. Guillermo played a few ATP tournaments this year in the middle of the year, but the majority ended up in defeats.
I was just wondering if anyone actually know what is going on with Guillermo and how come he is not back in the top 50 tennis players in the world?
Is SteveGTennis.com still being used by professional players? I remember when I was back playing futures and satellite tournaments around the world, everyone used to check SteveGTennis to keep upto date on results from all tournaments. SteveGTennis is simple and very easy to use, but as of late I have noticed their traffic has been decreasing and I was wondering if professional players still use this service or do they go to other sites now?
There have been a lot of rumours lately about who is dating who, and I could stop there so here is another one. Move over Ivanovic and Verdasco and Sharapova here is Marat Safin getting some action.
Although Marat is in too much pain to play tennis at the moment (pulling out of the Madrid Masters) he seem to be doing ok with the ladies still off the court. It appears that Marat is now seeing Nastya Osipova and Russian pop singer. Nice result Marat.
You may have already noticed but here at The Tennis Times we have just added a new sidebar widget for everyone to enjoy. The widget is a video player from the atp masters series. The videos will preview all major interviews and results from the atp masters series events all around the world.
If you want to see more tennis masters series action, then please head over to their website, atpmastersseries.tv.
