Top Spin Blog » Australian Open

Don’t Forget the Twins: Americans Remain in Oz

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:26:03 +0000

Shame on me for echoing the pack of headlines worldwide following the Roddick loss that said all of the American players had been ousted from the Australian Open. Supertwins Bob and Mike Bryan are seeded first and in the men’s doubles quarterfinals, and are set for the second match on the Margaret Court Arena starting no earlier than 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

I’m sorry I failed to mention them before. Now, the big question is will ESPN2 or Tennis Channel show it?

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Are You Ready for OZ?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:51:06 +0000

I am, and I’m taking the U.S. win of the Hopman Cup as a good omen for John Isner and the other three American men in the top 20. Look for the draw up soon on the Australian Open’s web site, and tennis from the land of January warm weather starting Sunday night in the states. More posts to come next week!

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Gambling and Pro Tennis — The Human Dog Track of the Future

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:01:00 +0000

I doubt most readers of this blog have been to an American dog track, where greyhounds run a frantic loop chasing an electronic rabbit that scoots along the rail. In Sarasota, Fla., the announcer starts each race with a fevered, “Here comes lucky!” the dogs take off, and hundreds if not thousands of fans hold their tickets and cheer and yell and then most tear them in half and curse.

I worry that professional tennis may soon become the dog tracks of the future, where gambling on the sport is the driving source of revenue. I also worry that it will become as crooked as boxing is known to be, and that many of the matches are corrupted by players willing to hit enough bad shots to lose when they could have won. I think it will be any day now when tennis suffers a match-fixing scandal of the highest order, similar to baseball’s famed Shoeless Joe Jackson/Chicago Black Sox fix of the 1919 World Series or college basketball’s 1951 point-shaving scheme.

I know I sound alarmist here, but two things have prompted me to say this. The first is the solicitations I’ve received for my blog. I do not get tremendous traffic, seeing just shy of 10,000 unique visitors in 2009, but in spite of that, I have been contacted three or four times recently by web sites who compliment me on the quality of the writing, and then ask for a link exchange with a site that purports to be a tennis blog or news page. One even offered to pay me. When I visit their pages, I find they are simply betting sites, and are hosted in spots all over the globe, including New Zealand the Czech Republic. The bets offered don’t include simply Grand Slams or ATP events, but the opportunity to gamble on Challenger events in places like Lexington, Ky., or Biloxi, Miss., where players well out of the top 100 compete. How hard do you think it might be to get a player who has never earned more than $100,000 in one year (and remember, that’s before their expenses of traveling, training, etc.), to throw a match for a bag of cash? All you need is one desperate player.

The second is, that in spite of the obvious risk of match fixing, gambling gets the endorsement of some of the cornerstone organizations in the game. The Australian Open is even sponsored by a London-based gambling web site, a recent report in The New York Times said. Not only are they a sponsor, the more money bet, the more money the Australian Open makes, as the article by Joe Drape reported: ”[The gambling site I refuse to name here] pays Tennis Australia a share of revenue from wagers on matches during the tournament. ‘“We’re not opposed to gambling,” said Steve Ayles, a spokesman for the Australian Open. “It is part of our Australian culture and it is widely accepted.”’

Tennis organizations have created a lofty sounding “Tennis Integrity Unit,” and a study found 45 matches that caused suspicions. But in the biggest suspected case, Nikolai Davydenko was cleared, despite that “the ATP acknowledged that its investigators were unable to review the phone records of Davydenko’s wife and brother, which were first withheld and then destroyed” the Times reported. We clearly can’t expect much investigative savvy from an organization that believed Andre Agassi’s excuse for testing positive for crystal meth was that he sipped a friend’s drink, or Richard Gasquet’s recent claim that he didn’t do cocaine, he only kissed a woman who had been, causing him to test positive. The ATP is predisposed to believing the falling down drunk who runs his car into a telphone pole and claims, “I only had two beers.”

Even with crack investigative work, I don’t know if match fixing can really be stopped. I love following tennis and other sports because of the unscripted nature of it, of the possibility that anybody, even someone ranked 900 in the world could beat a favorite, as unlikely as that might be. But with the growth of gambling, I will wonder. Was the upset I saw real, or did the favorite just need the money? With the multinational flavor of tennis, tracking the exchange of currencies across the globe and through many tongues is almost impossible.

I don’t know what can be done, if anything, to stop it. But tennis organizations, especially prestigious Grand Slam events like the Australian Open, need to eschew any connection to gambling. But in Australia, much like the bets on a dog race, a portion of the bets made go the house. And the house always wins, and the dogs always lose.

In this case, tennis fans, the dogs are us.

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James! — Blake Falls in Yet Another Heartbreaker

Joe Samuel Starnes — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:12:49 +0000

I feel like I’ve been watching James Blake lose tough matches all of my life, from the five-set defeat to Lleyton Hewitt in the 2001 U.S. Open to the brilliant fifth-set tiebreaker agaisnt Agassi in 2005 to his defeat to Fernando Gonzalez in Bejing that cost him an 2008 Olympic medal to early this morning in Australia against Del Potro. I flipped on the TV shortly after 5 a.m. this morning to see him go up 7-6 in the fifth. James! I yelled, ecstatic, happy to see him pushing the big Argentine, and believing he could win. But Del Potro hung tough and the next James! out of my mouth was the more familiar, the “Oh no, why did you do that?” way of saying it, the way you might question a close relative about a choice you find dubious. In the final games, Blake hit some brilliant winners, but made a few more mistakes, and Del Potro got the better of him and broke him at 8-all, and then served it out. Another five-set loss for Blake, who at the age of 30 has seen his ranking fall all the way to 45, needed this one more than ever. It could have been a huge boost for him to move back up the rankings.

Blake is now 4-13 in five set matches over his career. I do remember him winning a key four-set match in the Davis Cup 2007 final against Mikhail Youzhny that helped to seal the championship for the U.S., and the next spring he came back from match points against him to beat Paul Henri-Mathieu in five sets in the U.S. – Franch Davis Cup 2008 quarterfinal. He has won some big wons, just not in the Grand Slams. Also, more importantly, Blake has been a gentlemen in the losses, and today hugged Del Potro and congratulated him after the match. While it’s painful, there’s certainly no shame in losing in five sets at this level against the No. 4 seed, nine years your junior. Good effort, James. I’ll be pulling for you in that next fifth set.

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Americans Batting .500 in Australia — Querrey Out, Isner Hangs In, Blake and Young Win

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:13:44 +0000

Of the eight Americans in action Tuesday in Australia, the biggest disappointment was Sam Querrey’s loss to Rainer Schuettler, the aging German who keeps winning big matches. Wild card Ryan Harrison, 17, also fell, losing in four sets to Janko Tipsarevic. Other Americans to fall were Rajeev Ram and Robby Ginepri.

On the up side, John Isner hung on for a tough win, and Donald Young, who was forced to qualify, lost the first set badly but came back to win in four. He very much needed the win, and faces Lleyton Hewit next. Taylor Dent also won easily. James Blake beat Arnaud Clement in three sets, and was striking his backhand solidly for passing shot after passing shot.

Of the 12 Americans in the main draw, six have moved on to the second round. The most interesting match On Wednesday in Melbourne sees Blake against No. 4 seed Juan Martin Del Potro. Roddick, who has a good draw, goes up against Brazlian Tomaz Belluci.

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Waking Up Early to the Australian Open

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:56:10 +0000

If you are on the East Coast in the U.S., don’t forget to flip on the TV to check out any late night battles going on in Melbourne. This morning I caught the end of the fourth set and most of the fifth between Mikhail Youzhny and Richard Gasquet, both were cramping, struggling through points, the best of which was a fantastic pass by Youzhny that won him the fourth-set tiebreaker, a ball he ran down a remarkable leaping backhand overhead by Gasquet. Gasquet had two match points but couldn’t pull it out in the fourth, and Youzhny won 6-4 in the fifth. Tennis doesn’t get much better. Kudos to ESPN for sticking with the match and pre-empting more NFL blabber from the morning TV talk show.

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Americans in Australia: Russell and Fish Fall; Roddick, Odesnik Move On; Eight from U.S. See Action Today, including 17-year-old Harrison

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:14:23 +0000

Michael Russell won a set but fell in four to Juan Martin Del Potro. Mardy Fish, but Andy Roddick and Wayne Odesnik moved onto the second round. In Tuesday’s schedule, starting Monday night at 7, the remaining eight Americans see action. The most interesting match is wild card 17-year-old Ryan Harrison versus Serb Janko Tipsarevic. They are scheduled fourth on Court 18.

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If you don’t have Direct TV, Tennis on TV is miserable

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:54:21 +0000

I’m watching Karlovic – Stepanek, which is a rematch of the strangest tennis statistic ever.

If you have only ESPN2, you are listening to Dick Enberg and Mary Carrillo. (I don’t care how many Ls or Rs there are in her name). I have DirectTV and five matches to choose from.

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An Unlikely American in Australian Open: Hopes for a Great Hurrah for Michael Russell

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:41:51 +0000

I’ll never forget watching Michael Russell against then No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten in the fourth round of the 2001 French Open. Russell, a qualifer then ranked 122 in the world, won the first two sets and was up 5-2, and held a match point but couldn’t close it out. He lost in five sets, and Kuerten went on to win his second French Open, defending his championship from the previous year. I wonder how Russell’s career would have been different if he had won one more point, and moved into the quarters.

Russell, who turned 32 on Jan. 5, has held an ATP ranking since 1995, mostly out of the top 100, and often far below. He has been as high as 60 in the world, reaching that mark in 2007. He recently climbed back into the top 100, and stands at 90, although he was 79 in October after winning a challenger event. He has a tough draw, going up against No. 4 Juan Martin Del Potro on the first day of the Aussie Open. (On a side note, U.S. Davis Cup Patrick McEnroe should consider giving him a shot against Serbia in March on the clay there — it’s his best surface, and without Roddick and Blake, the U.S. goes into Serbia very thin.)

Journeyman is a term often used for players like Russell, meaning they’ve traveled the world but have never been able to crack the top ranks of the game. I’m sure you’ll heard it bandied about if his match get much air time (It probably will, since he’s playing Del Potro — they are the third match on the Hisense Arena on day one). But the determination of a player like Russell who has fought 17 years on the tour should not be under-appreciated. No media ever covers these guys, but they continue fighting into their thirties. Russell, by the way, has outlasted Kuerten, who retired in 2007.

I keep hoping for a Rocky-like character to emerge from American tennis, and tonight, I’m pulling for Mike. (Check out his Facebook page if you want to cheer him on.)

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Nadal Knocks Federer Off in Five Again

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:23:11 +0000

I woke to my alarm at insane setting of 3:30 a.m. today, but it was well worth it. The Nadal-Federer match in the Australian Open was resplendent tennis for the first four sets, with rallies of seemingly impossible angled groundstrokes. Nadal’s strength and speed is machinelike, so strong that he forced even Federer to get tight, ultimately stumbling in the fifth set when he made some uncharacteristic errors.

Only two days after winning the longest match in Australian Open history (5 hours, 14 minutes) against Fernando Verdasco, Nadal won Sunday in 4 hours, 23 minutes by a final score of 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2. Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slams is safe at least for a few months. But forget about that. Could Nadal take the French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open to achieve what no one has done since Rod Laver in 1969, winning a true, caendar year Grand Slam?

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