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.
Australia’s most capped Davis Cup player has accused the International Tennis Federation of being irresponsible for insisting the May 8-10 Davis Cup match against India go ahead as planned in Chennai.
Todd Woodbridge, who helped Australia win the Davis Cup and played in a national-record 32 matches, said the ITF shouldn’t expect the match to go ahead in Chennai when other international sports events were being canceled or moved abroad due to regional tensions.
“The main thing right now in India is that there are elections underway — there’s been deaths because of these elections in other parts of India, not in Chennai where this tie will be played,” Woodbridge told Fairfax Radio on Wednesday. “But how can we expect our team to go and play in India when everybody else in that region is pulling out?
“I think it’s irresponsible for the ITF to expect us as players to go there and put ourselves on the line in a very, very difficult predicament with the way their social system’s running.”
The Australian Open is slowly starting to launch their own TV advertising campaign in Australia. The tournament is scheduled to run from January 21st to February 1st. Take a look at their new ad and let me know what you think!
Just when we were wondering what to do with ourselves after Andrew Castle’s elimination from Strictly Come Dancing, comes the incredible news that the multiple grand slam winner will be one of the 10 celebrities on this season’s show.
The 52-year-old American (for reasons known only to herself) will join nine C-list celebrities for two weeks of car-crash TV, starting on ITV1 this Sunday night.
Navratilova will become bosom buddies with the likes of celebrity WAG Carly Zucker (Joe Cole’s fiancée), TV presenters Esther Rantzen and Dani Behr, Star Trek’s George Takei, ex-EastEnder Joe Swash, glamour model Nicola Mclean, singer Simon Webbe and former chat show host and politician Robert Kilroy-Silk.
Sydney has embarked on a secret initiative to snatch the Australian Open tennis tournament from Melbourne, the Sydney Morning Herald said, citing Events NSW Chief Executive Geoff Parmenter.
The pitch involves a plan to build a multimillion dollar stadium at Glebe Island, west of central Sydney, that could host the Grand Slam event once Melbourne’s contract expires in 2016, the newspaper reported.
Sydney will face competition from overseas cities, with Shanghai, Dubai and Abu Dhabi all preparing campaigns to hold the Asian Grand Slam event, the newspaper said. The Australian Open is worth more than A$100 million ($64 million) to Victoria state’s economy, it said.
Australian tennis has been going through a very hard patch lately with only Lleyton Hewitt in the top 50 in the world a lot of people have been asking major questions about Australian tennis. Currently, Hewitt is still some how in the top 30 even though he now concetrates a lot more on his personal life. Australias second best player Chris Guccione is sitting at about 70 in the world. A huge difference from what Australian tennis used to be like.
Tennis Australia have long been criticised for doing not much for the development of tennis in Australia and this seems to still continue. This year in the Wimbledon boys singles however there are 3 Australian players already in the Quarterfinals. Is this because of the effort Tennis Australia is putting in, I doubt it!
Im going to say that tennis in Australia is again on the rise and it will be back to its former glory in 2012. Players such as 15 year old Bernard Tomic, Brydan Klein, Dane Propoggia, Andrew Thomas, Jared Easton, Nick Lindahl and Andrew Coehlo. I really do believe that 2 of these players will be in the top 20 in the world when 2012 comes around.
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.
Australian tennis has been going through a very hard patch lately with only Lleyton Hewitt in the top 50 in the world a lot of people have been asking major questions about Australian tennis. Currently, Hewitt is still some how in the top 30 even though he now concetrates a lot more on his personal life. Australias second best player Chris Guccione is sitting at about 70 in the world. A huge difference from what Australian tennis used to be like.
