Former US Open Champion Lleyton Hewitt has been granted a wildcard into the 2011 US Open main draw. Hewitt is currently ranked 165 in the world and could make the main draw without this wildcard. It is good to see that he is getting a chance, but are they wasting this wildcard when they could be bringing new talent through the ranks?
“I’m really looking forward to New York. It’s 10 years on since I won there and I’ve still got the passion and hunger which is great,” Hewitt said.
Tennis Australia Head of Professional Tennis Todd Woodbridge said Hewitt was fully deserving of a spot in the main draw.
“Lleyton has achieved some of his best results in New York and it is ten years since his victory,” Woodbridge said.
“He’s had a tough run with injuries over the past few months but his fighting spirit is undiminished and we are very pleased to be able to grant him a wildcard into the US Open.”
I believe that Hewitt deserved a chance to play the US Open, but why doesnt he have his ranking inside the top 100, when he hasnt been injury for some time now? Serena Williams didnt take long to get her ranking back up there, but Hewitt hasnt even got close!
When I was back home playing big tournaments in Australia there was a young junior who was gaining traction. The guys name was John-Patrick Smith. JP decided to go to university in the USA after high school and not try to make it straight onto the ATP Tour. Now JP is about finish university (with a great collegiate record) and give the ITF and maybe one day the ATP Tour a go!
Last week JP entered the Tulsa Future event and he has to win through qualifying to make the main draw (since he didn’t have any ITF points and no world ranking), which he did. No one gave him a chance to win the tournament, but JP had an amazing tournament won the USA F19 Tulsa tournament for both Singles and Doubles (singles final score was 6-1 6-0).
I can see JP having a great end to 2011 and taking his ITF ranking from 1,200 to around 600 (at least). Expect big things from JP in the coming years!
It seems like Australian tennis is slowly getting it right, but it still seems they have the eye on the wrong prize. Luke Saville recently won the junior Boy Singles at Wimbledon 2011 and there was an article published this morning on the Tennis Australia website that stating: “Saville eyes No 1 Junior Ranking“. I find this to be the wrong mindset all over again!
Its great to be the number 1 junior in the world, but as Saville stated in the press conference embedded in the article, he only wants to focus on his ITF ranking. Tennis Australia really need to get some focus on pushing these young players into the top 100 adult players in the world and not letting them focus on their junior careers, because at the end of the day adult tennis is everything!
Saville keep on playing great tennis and working on your game. Focus on bringing home those ITF points and pushing up the rankings. We dont want to see yet another top junior tennis player fall by the way side when trying to make it to the professional ranks.
Matthew Ebden had an amazing tournament at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. Matthew made the quarterfinals of the singles event and won the doubles with American Ryan Harrison.
Here is a recent interview with him at the Newport event.
Matthew Ebden has had an amazing run at the Hall of Fame Championships at Newport. Ebden finally lost in the semifinals to Olivier Rochus 7-6 6-3. This is an amazing result for Ebden who is currently ranked number 157th in the world.
There seem to be a lot of signs at the moment that Australian Mens tennis is on the rise (very slowly).
Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione have been able to push Australia ahead in their Davis Cup tie against China. The pair defeated Maoxin Gong and Zhe Li 6-4 6-4 6-4.
Australia now lead the tie 2-1.
Friday’s Results:
Bernard Tomic d Zhang Ze 6-3 5-7 6-4 6-4.
Di Wu d Marinko Matosevic 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-4
In a bit of a shock, Lleyton Hewitt has been left out of Australia’s Davis Cup tie with China. Hewitt has been saved for the doubles match while Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic will play the single rubbers.
Tomic (71) and Matosevic (141) are still heavy favourites against the Chinese players Wu (404) and Zhang Ze (382).
Hewitt and Chris Guccione will contest the doubles rubber against Mao-Xin Gong and and Li Zhe.
Matthew Ebden has recorded a great victory by beating Ryan Sweeting (4) at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. Ebden is only the world number 157 and he defeated Sweeting 6-4 6-2 on grass.
Ebden then went on to defeat Matthias Bachinger in three tough sets and now finds himself in the Quarterfinals of an ATP Tour event.
In the boys singles final it was a great three set match between Luke Saville of Australia and Liam Brody of the UK. Brody got off to a great start and seemed to be a lot less nervous than his opponent. Brody also secured and early break in the second set and it looked like he wasnt going to be challenged on the way to the title. However, Saville came back with some big hitting to secure the second set and then power his was to victory in the third set.
It has been a very strong Wimbledon for the young Australian male players. It will be very interesting to see if they can continue this great promise for years to come in the senior ranks.
Congrats to Luke Saville the Junior Boys Singles Wimbledon Champion.
Last week you might have noticed that there were limited posts about Wimbledon 2011, this was because I was on holidays (I know what a stupid time to have a holiday). Anyways, I noticed that Bernard Tomic has been the surprise packet of Wimbledon 2011 so far.
I remember about 6 years ago when I was back home in Australia, I used to help coach Tomic when he was only 11. Tomic was a leading junior with great talent (however, his father was a nightmare!) and he started receiving coaching at the academy where I played and coached. Great things were expecting from Tomic for many years and now he is showing the world what he can do.
Tomorrow at Wimbledon Tomic will take on Xavier Malisse in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, after he defeated Robin Soderling (5) in the previous round. Im hoping he can keep this amazing run alive.
Its brilliant to see a young Australian player getting some good results. Australia has been lacking heavily in the Mens game for many years now. Tennis Australia needs to wake up and help more juniors make it to the next level.
It was great see Australia win their first match of the 2011 Hopman Cup. However, Im getting a little bit tired of seeing the same players year after year after year. Is this because Australian tennis isnt producing quality youngsters or is it because the organisers are just trying to fill as many seats as possible and not blood young players into the limelight?
The top 100-ranked men in the world and top 98 women are scheduled to play at next month’s Australian Open, giving the first Grand Slam of the year one of its best-ever fields.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will attempt to win his fourth straight major, while defending champion and No. 2 Roger Federer is chasing his fifth Australian Open title.
Women’s No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki will attempt to win her first Grand Slam title, while two-time champion and 2010 winner Serena Williams is the notable omission from the top 100 due to a foot injury.
The Australian Open is scheduled for Jan. 17-30 at Melbourne Park.
The 104 direct acceptances into the men’s draw include U.S. Open-winner Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, both with injury-protected rankings.
The women’s draw includes 107 direct acceptances, minus Elena Dementieva of Russia, who retired at the end of the season, and No. 37 Agnes Szavay of Hungary, who is injured.
“To have the top 104 players in the world in the men’s main draw is incredible and shows the high esteem with which the Australian Open is held in world tennis,” tournament director Craig Tiley said in a statement Saturday.
“The women’s field also has every available top player in the world. The players vote with their feet and they are doing it again.”
The men’s field will be completed by 16 qualifiers and eight wild cards, while the women’s field has 12 qualifiers and eight wild cards to be added.
Marton Fucsovics is the Wimbledon Junior Boys Singles champion for 2010. Fucsovics defeated Ben Mitchell 6-4 6-4 in the final (I used to play tennis with Mitchell’s older brother, and remember Ben was he was only 12. Damm Im getting old now).
Fucsovics, the 13th seed, beat the unseeded Mitchell on the 11,400-seater Court One while Rafael Nadal was securing his second Wimbledon men’s title on Centre Court. The first Australian to reach the boys’ title decider since Chris Guccione lost the 2003 final, Mitchell had been hoping to join tennis legends Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg on the champions’ honour board.
The Hungarian Fucsovics said that win had given him the confidence to beat the 17-year-old again in the Wimbledon final.
“I felt that I would win this match in the beginning, but he was playing very well. I already played against him in Australia, and now he was playing much better,” the champion said.
“I feel very happy. I was playing very good, and I hope I can play like this all year.
“I was very nervous in the match. In the whole match I was very nervous, even when I was on the match point.
“I didn’t know what to do when I won the last point. I was really happy.”
Fucsovics won the US Open doubles last year, and scored another first for Hungarian tennis by claiming the singles title here.
“Hungarian tennis is not so big yet. I hope I can be the first very good player,” he said.
Even in defeat, Mitchell finds himself in pretty good company.
Ashley Cooper (1954), Rod Laver (1956), John Frawley (1983), Jason Stoltenberg (1987), Todd Woodbridge (1989) and Mark Philippoussis (1994) have also made the final.
Cooper, Laver and Cash all went on to win the men’s title at the All England Club, while Stoltenberg and Woodbridge reached the semi-finals and Philippoussis was runner-up to Federer in 2003.
After losing her second round match at Wimbledon, Svetlana Kuznetsova refused to shake hands with Anastasia Rodionova. Radionova who is now an Australian citizen defeated Kuznetsova 6-2 2-6 6-4.
Radionova is known for on-court theatrics and tactics. During the match Radionova questioned a huge amount of line calls and even went for a medical break due to a back injury. I think the back injury was just a load of crap! Back in 2007 in Cincinnati she was defaulted from a match for unsportsmanlike conduct in a similar situation. Seems like most players on tour havent forgot about this just yet!
Anastasia Rodionova’s comments on the match:
I don’t know what happened, I guess Svetlana was disappointed. It doesn’t really bother me. I go out there and try my best, every single match that I play.
I’m happy that I won the match and I’m looking forward to my next round. I played really well and I served really well. I felt really good on the court. It can’t even compare to my first round.
And what about suggestions the injury was not as severe as she claimed?
I strained a muscle a bit on my hip at the beginning of the second set. I’m fine. I have a bit of history there and I wanted to make sure it was nothing serious.
Former Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis is currently facing financial collapse as he is unable to pay his mortgage on his Williamstown home in bayside Melbourne.
Philippoussis earned more than $8 million dollars on court over the years, but is now being sued for failing to pay the mortgage and not just for a small amount, for about $1.3 million.
“Money came in left, right and centre; you just thought that’s how it was for everyone and that’s how it will always be,” he said.
“It’s the toughest time of my life right now, but it’s also the best time because I’ve woken up to so many things in my life.
“When I get back up from this I’ll appreciate so many things so much more. I’ve fallen down and I’ll get back up. This is how it is. It’s life.”
The Australian Davis Cup team has just escaped suspension from the Davis Cup and instead will be fined $12,800 AUD by the ITF.
The ITF’s five-member Davis Cup committee held talks about what penalties Australia should face for refusing to travel to Chennai for the May 8-10 tie because of security concerns.
“The ITF’s Davis Cup committee … decided that Australia would not be suspended from the 2010 competition or relegated from Asia/Oceania zone group 1,” the ITF said in a brief statement.
“Australia will lose choice of ground for their next home tie regardless of the opponent and will pay a fine of $US10,000.
“Australia will also be liable for costs to both the ITF and to the All India Tennis Association to be determined at a later date.”
Tennis Australia had asked for the event to be moved to a neutral venue but the ITF insisted it should go ahead as scheduled.
India’s tennis chiefs have urged the ITF to punish Australia, saying they would have been aware of the potential consequences of forfeiting the tie.
The boycott gave India automatic qualification for the World Group play-offs in September.
The Internation Tennis Federation (ITF) has scheduled to make a final decision today about whether to suspend the Australian Davis Cup team for next year. This all has to do with Australia not wanting to play their Davis Cup match which was scheduled on May 8 – 10 because of security concerns.
In an interview with ABC News Australia, the former world number one doubles player said that ITF should consider the fact that the team made the decision for valid reasons. Aside from the one year ban, Tennis Australia could be fined up to $100,000.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
The position has been vacant since Darren Cahill resigned earlier this year.
Former national coach Wally Masur returned to his old job temporarily to help the team out for the Australian victory against Thailand in March.
The traditional responsibilities of the role have been expanded to make it a full time position overseeing the improvement and development of every member of the Optus Davis Cup squad as well as other leading athletes.
“The job is pivotal to the development of tennis in Australia,” said Tennis Australia Director of Tennis Craig Tiley.
“We are looking for a major commitment from a world-class coach,” he explained. “It will involve travel on the tour and on-court work with our very best players and coaches. The successful applicant will undoubtedly be one of the leaders in the sport in this country.”
The successful applicant will work closely with program coaches (including AIS and National Academy coaches) and have strong input into the technical and coaching direction for the tennis training and competition pathway.
Some of the key skills required for the job include:
• A proven ability to develop and implement successful, high performance tennis programs for evolving elite tennis athletes
• Successful and extensive experience coaching tennis at an elite national and international level with a proven ability to influence and motivate athletes
• Past playing experience at the elite international level
The International Tennis Federation turned down a request to move the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I third-round tie from Chennai, despite Tennis Australia saying India was too dangerous a venue.
“Davis Cup is very important to us but some things are more important than tennis” – Geoff Pollard
“We asked for the tie to be moved because we have major security concerns for the players, particularly during the [Indian] election,” Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard said. “The ITF decision has left us with no other option. We cannot send the team. It is extremely disappointing. It would be irresponsible of us to send our players into an area of such high risk.
“Davis Cup is very important to us but some things are more important than tennis,” Pollard said.
It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.
The top 100-ranked men in the world and top 98 women are scheduled to play at next month’s Australian Open, giving the first Grand Slam of the year one of its best-ever fields.
Former Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis is currently facing financial collapse as he is unable to pay his mortgage on his Williamstown home in bayside Melbourne.
Tennis Australia has today advertised for a new coach for the Optus Australian Davis Cup team.
