Tennis

[mr61%]

Has there been any more news about this since Nadal said he was suing the French politician back in April for accusing him of serving a silent ban? I would have thought we would have heard something unless it was just bully boy posturing by Nadal.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/25/tennis/tennis-nadal-sues-bachelot-former-french-health-minister/index.html

 

[TMP402]

First as tragedy, etc:

Djokovic Elected As President Of ATP Player Council

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/djokovic-president-atp-player-council-2016

 

[arcus]

Patrick Mouratoglou and Darren Cahill are both coaching active top players while working for ESPN, the American network covering the US OPEN...

Tennis' player entourages and TV networks are too cozy, IMO. Tough questions will never get asked while relationships between athletes and journalists are this incestuous.

 

[heart_attack_man]

Re:

With effect from 1 September 2016, the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (Programme) will be amended. Specifically, the following underlined text will be added to Article 13.3:
13.3 The ITF shall use its reasonable endeavours to ensure that Persons under its control do not publicly identify Players or other Persons whose Samples have resulted in Adverse Analytical Findings or Atypical Findings, or Atypical Passport Findings or Adverse Passport Findings, or are alleged to have committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under this Programme, unless and until a Provisional Suspension has been imposed or accepted or an Independent Tribunal has determined that an Anti-Doping Rule Violation has been committed, and/or the Anti-Doping Rule Violation has been admitted…
What does this mean?
Where a case that arises under the Programme after 1 September 2016 results in a Provisional Suspension, that Provisional Suspension will be publicly announced. This applies to all Provisional Suspensions, whether mandatory or voluntarily accepted.
Why is this change being made?
The reputation of the Programme and, consequently, the image of tennis, have been damaged by accusations that players have been allowed to serve bans without those bans being made public (so-called ‘silent bans’). This rule change will prevent any further similar accusations and so protect our sport.

http://www.itftennis.com/news/237420.aspx#8ei3JYM3irhKo8Fk.99

Plus ça change. ITF -> UCI. Rather than silent bans, look forward to no bans. At least there'll be less "injuries" in Tennis now...

 

[buckle]

Re:

Has there been any more news about this since Nadal said he was suing the French politician back in April for accusing him of serving a silent ban? I would have thought we would have heard something unless it was just bully boy posturing by Nadal.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/25/tennis/tennis-nadal-sues-bachelot-former-french-health-minister/index.html

No but he has just been outdoped in NY.

 

[Amnes2015]

Kerber is the new no1 in woman tennis

the oldest woman to debut on no1 position ...

after 10 years of mediocrity in WTA she suddenly becomes world beater for 12 months

after 1R-2R-3R average in grand slams (for 5-6 years in a row) she suddenly makes 3 finals in 1 year

at almost 29 years old ....

i guess it took a shameless doper to dethrone the most obvious doper

At least Froome had the decency to be crap only 2 years (2009 and 2010) lol

 

[sniper]

Indeed.
Kerber is up there with djoko, Wiggins, froome and farah in the all time mid career transformation ranking list.
Her game is all about extreme fitness. She's uberjuiced.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re:

Kerber is the new no1 in woman tennis

the oldest woman to debut on no1 position ...

after 10 years of mediocrity in WTA she suddenly becomes world beater for 12 months

after 1R-2R-3R average in grand slams (for 5-6 years in a row) she suddenly makes 3 finals in 1 year

at almost 29 years old ....

i guess it took a shameless doper to dethrone the most obvious doper

At least Froome had the decency to be crap only 2 years (2009 and 2010) lol

I agree with all your points. But let's not pretend that doping is not a decisive factor in major sports.

The difference between winning and losing seems to come down to how well your body responds to the dope.

 

[BullsFan22]

Kerber really blossomed this season, didn't she? 3 slam finals, 2 wins, an Olympic final and of course the #1 ranking. She wasn't that bad of a player prior to 2016, solid top 15, top 10 player, but nothing like this. I don't know if it's continued dope and renewed enthusiasm/confidence, but it's working nicely for her.

 

[DanielSong39]

How much the game has changed... it's pretty obvious that the women are hitting the ball much harder than they were just 30 years ago. Navratilova, Evert, and Graf in their prime would be lucky to win 5 games off of Kerber (or any top 20 woman today, for that matter).

 

[Blakeslee]

Re:

How much the game has changed... it's pretty obvious that the women are hitting the ball much harder than they were just 30 years ago. Navratilova, Evert, and Graf in their prime would be lucky to win 5 games off of Kerber (or any top 20 woman today, for that matter).

It drives me nuts hearing all of the U.S. commentators (including ironically Chris Evert) calling Serena Williams the greatest of all time. Take away the power advantage players like Serena Williams and Kerber are getting from performance enhancement, Martina would have mopped the floor with any of these players. She had a diversity and skill to her game that I don't think anyone playing today comes close to.

 

[Blakeslee]

Re:

Patrick Mouratoglou and Darren Cahill are both coaching active top players while working for ESPN, the American network covering the US OPEN...

Tennis' player entourages and TV networks are too cozy, IMO. Tough questions will never get asked while relationships between athletes and journalists are this incestuous.

Amen. My blood pressure rises every time I see Mouratoglou on screen and the softball questions he is routinely served during the major tournament broadcasts. Dr. Ferrari all over again.

 

[Blakeslee]

It was disgraceful during the semi final matches the other day listening to the U.S. commentators slamming Monfis for giving up on the match. Monfis didn't give up, he was getting his doors blown off by Djokovic. Instead of questioning Monfis they should have been doing the opposite and questioning just how Djokovic has become this dominant over the past several seasons.

I don't understand how these commentators can continue to ignore Djokovic's remarkable transformation which only seems to be reaching greater heights. I'm reminded of MLB when the Mitchell Report came out and all of the mea culpas from reporters that they should have been asking questions. History is repeating itself, where are the questions now with tennis?

 

[DanielSong39]

Monfils made the semifinals and actually won a set off of Djokovic - that's still a better performance than say, Andy Murray.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

How much the game has changed... it's pretty obvious that the women are hitting the ball much harder than they were just 30 years ago. Navratilova, Evert, and Graf in their prime would be lucky to win 5 games off of Kerber (or any top 20 woman today, for that matter).

It drives me nuts hearing all of the U.S. commentators (including ironically Chris Evert) calling Serena Williams the greatest of all time. Take away the power advantage players like Serena Williams and Kerber are getting from performance enhancement, Martina would have mopped the floor with any of these players. She had a diversity and skill to her game that I don't think anyone playing today comes close to.

You're probably right, but performance enhancement and power advantage is part of the game. It's major pro sports; should we expect anything different?

Martina HIngis was the last of the old-school players; she also had the diversity and skill to match the old all-time greats. But the game changed too much and she got caught in the transition.

 

[Singer01]

Re: Re:

How much the game has changed... it's pretty obvious that the women are hitting the ball much harder than they were just 30 years ago. Navratilova, Evert, and Graf in their prime would be lucky to win 5 games off of Kerber (or any top 20 woman today, for that matter).

It drives me nuts hearing all of the U.S. commentators (including ironically Chris Evert) calling Serena Williams the greatest of all time. Take away the power advantage players like Serena Williams and Kerber are getting from performance enhancement, Martina would have mopped the floor with any of these players. She had a diversity and skill to her game that I don't think anyone playing today comes close to.

You're probably right, but performance enhancement and power advantage is part of the game. It's major pro sports; should we expect anything different?

Martina HIngis was the last of the old-school players; she also had the diversity and skill to match the old all-time greats. But the game changed too much and she got caught in the transition.

Henin? Another one whose artistry got bludgeoned off the court as often as not.

 

[sniper]

Henin and Hingis, definitely two of the more naturally gifted players of the women's circuit.
Although much like Federer, their game too depended heavily on fitness.
But they were less dependent on steroid-induced power and therefore indeed one feels they're the kind of players who'd prevail in a clean field.
And it's the kind of players were seeing less and less of.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

How much the game has changed... it's pretty obvious that the women are hitting the ball much harder than they were just 30 years ago. Navratilova, Evert, and Graf in their prime would be lucky to win 5 games off of Kerber (or any top 20 woman today, for that matter).

It drives me nuts hearing all of the U.S. commentators (including ironically Chris Evert) calling Serena Williams the greatest of all time. Take away the power advantage players like Serena Williams and Kerber are getting from performance enhancement, Martina would have mopped the floor with any of these players. She had a diversity and skill to her game that I don't think anyone playing today comes close to.

You're probably right, but performance enhancement and power advantage is part of the game. It's major pro sports; should we expect anything different?

Martina HIngis was the last of the old-school players; she also had the diversity and skill to match the old all-time greats. But the game changed too much and she got caught in the transition.

Henin? Another one whose artistry got bludgeoned off the court as often as not.

Henin is another one, though she was partially successful in transitioning to more of a power game. Not quite as skilled as Hingis and not quite as powerful as Clijsters/Davenport/Capriati, but was ultimately more successful than all of them.

In another world Kournikova also becomes a top-flight player instead of being hit off the court by the power players.

 

[DanielSong39]

Speaking of which... Wawrinka. Come on. His sudden transformation over the last 3-4 years has been almost unprecedented.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re:

Henin and Hingis, definitely two of the more naturally gifted players of the women's circuit.
Although much like Federer, their game too depended heavily on fitness.
But they were less dependent on steroid-induced power and therefore indeed one feels they're the kind of players who'd prevail in a clean field.
And it's the kind of players were seeing less and less of.

Radwanska; but she is part of a dying breed.

 

[sniper]

Re:

Speaking of which... Wawrinka. Come on. His sudden transformation over the last 3-4 years has been almost unprecedented.

it has.
The fact that his competitors don't question him tells you all you need to know about tennis and doping. It's endemic.
If you look at those top guys, Nadal has actually had a relatively unsuspicious carreer path, i.e. no mid-carreer transformation. Although in his case it's the in-season transformations that have raised most eyebrows.
Edit: not sure about radwanska. Imo she's not in the henin hingis league.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

Speaking of which... Wawrinka. Come on. His sudden transformation over the last 3-4 years has been almost unprecedented.

it has.
The fact that his competitors don't question him tells you all you need to know about tennis and doping. It's endemic.
If you look at those top guys, Nadal has actually had a relatively unsuspicious carreer path, i.e. no mid-carreer transformation. Although in his case it's the in-season transformations that have raised most eyebrows.
Edit: not sure about radwanska. Imo she's not in the henin hingis league.

Nadal's career path has been in line with what we normally see with superstars. The problem is that his body is a walking billboard advertisement for PED's - while his breakdowns are equally spectacular.

I think this problem is endemic and Nadal is surely not the only juicer out there; but he's just harder to ignore.

As for Radwanska we'll never know how she would've fared in a different era. Same with Kournikova. I suspect Hingis would have been one of the all-time greats, up there with Graf, Navratilova, Evert, King, and Court.

 

[adamfo]

The women's pro tour use different balls these days. Less hairy and more aerodynamic than the men's.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Makes a nice change to see Djokovic being outrun. Wawrinka must have stepped up the Prednisone - good for him !!

 

[arcus]

ITF gets rid of 2 crooked umpires.. (and announces the news on a day when this story will be totally buried by the Fancy Bear leaks)

"The International Tennis Federation announced today that Uzbekistan tennis officials Sherzod Hasanov and Arkhip Molotyagin have been banned for life and had their ITF officiating certification permanently revoked after being found guilty of offences under the Code of Conduct for Officials.

Following investigations by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), Mr Hasanov and Mr Molotyagin were found guilty by an ITF Disciplinary Panel of charges, laid under the 2015 edition of the Code of Conduct for Officials, contrary to Articles A10, A13 and B1:
- Using a mobile phone to communicate scores of matches over which they were officiating to a third party at the ITF Futures event in Tiberias, Israel between 7-9 September 2015;
- Delaying the inputting of scores into their PDA device to allow the third party and/or other third parties to benefit by placing bets on matches in which they were officiating at the Tournament;
- Delaying the inputting of scores and/or fraudulently manipulating scores by inputting fictitious deuce games in to their PDA device while officiating at other ITF Futures events over a period of 7 months;
- That Mr Hasanov counselled or procured another official and/or officials to participate in the fraudulent manipulation of the ‘livescoring’ system on our around January 2015 including, but not limited to, Mr Molotyagin;
- Failing to report to the Joint Certification Programme the unlawful conduct of officials whom they knew to be fraudulently manipulating the ‘live scoring’ system.



http://www.itftennis.com/news/241319.aspx#BKiy1KTH7oT5Fzv8.99"