Other players's activities

Roddick and Blake Host Player Party
Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006
Alison Coleman

MIAMI

The scene was classic South Beach – palm trees, oceanside bars, and a lavish gourmet dinner – at the Delano Wednesday night, where James Blake and Andy Roddick played host to the NASDAQ-100 Open’s official player party.

From their exclusive poolside bungalows, Roddick and Blake socialized with other players – including American favorites Bob Bryan and Jeff Morrison – as well as tournament sponsors and their own personal guests. Blake’s brother Thomas, a former pro player himself, and Roddick’s brother (and new coach) John, were both in attendance.

The star-studded guest list was highlighted by Maria Sharapova – glamorous as ever in a slinky black tank top and denim mini – and Kim Clijsters, who happily posed for photos with party guests. Men’s top seed Roger Federer, accompanied by girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec and a group of friends – surveyed the scene from a poolside terrace dinner table.

Also in attendance were a host of ATP and WTA players, including 25th seed Jelena Jankovic, Martina Muller and Galina Voskoboeva from the women’s side, as well as South African Wesley Moodie, American Vince Spadea, Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic and German Rainer Schuttler from the men’s draw. Arriving on fashionably late European time were Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero and second-seeded superstar Rafael Nadal. On hand to cover the behind-the-scenes action was former ATP doubles star Murphy Jensen with The Tennis Channel’s "Open Access."

Players who didn’t face Thursday matches partied late into the night, lounging on poolside sofas and enjoying the DJ’s mix. Then it was back to business, as they headed home to rest up and ready themselves to compete in what promises to be an intensely competitive NASDAQ-100 Open.




A. Roddick-J. Blake (photo: Nasdaq100-open official website)

Navratilova says this will be her last year on tour

July 4, 2006

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Martina Navratilova is ready to retire. Really.

Navratilova, who turns 50 in October, announced Tuesday at Wimbledon that this will be her final year of professional tennis, although she's not exactly sure where she'll play her last tournament.

"It's time. It's enough," she said. "I just, you know, want to move on to my next life. ... Most of all, it's to spend more time at home."

As of now, Navratilova plans to play doubles at hard-court tournaments in Montreal and San Diego, but she hasn't decided whether to compete at the U.S. Open.

She spoke after reaching the doubles quarterfinals at the All England Club with Liezel Huber by beating Elena Likhovtseva and Anastasia Myskina 7-5, 6-0. Huber and Cara Black won Wimbledon last year.

Navratilova is also in Wimbledon's mixed doubles quarterfinals with Mark Knowles.

"I can get sentimental when it's over," she said. "Not yet."

Navratilova originally retired in 1994, with a record 167 singles titles and having spent 331 weeks ranked No. 1. She returned to the tour as a doubles player in 2000, and eventually couldn't resist dabbling in singles, including a first-round victory at Wimbledon in 2004.

"The decision that this is my last year, that is a definite," she said Tuesday.

She's won 58 Grand Slam titles: 18 in singles, 31 in doubles and nine in mixed doubles. Of those, a record-tying 20 have come at Wimbledon, including nine in singles -- six in a row from 1982-87 -- seven in doubles and four in mixed.

"I'll miss the competition, the having to perform under pressure," she said.

Her career might be nearing an end, but Navratilova still plans to go to Wimbledon each year.

"I'll be back," Navratilova said. "I just won't be playing."

Roddick hopes to build off late-season losses to Federer

By JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The best way to build confidence is usually by winning. For Andy Roddick, however, two losses to Roger Federer at the end of last year showed him that he might finally be closing the gap with tennis' top player.

"Probably for the first time in two or three years after those matches I felt like the gap was maybe going my way for once," Roddick said in a conference call Monday to promote next month's SAP Open in San Jose.

"So that's exciting. There's still a long way to go, but I'm a lot more optimistic about it than I was maybe the last couple years."

Roddick's strong finish in 2006 included a run to the U.S. Open final before losing in four sets to Federer and three blown match points to the No. 1 player in the world in the season-ending Masters Cup.

Now as he prepares for the Australian Open, which begins next week, Roddick is hoping to get another chance at Federer so he can end an eight-match head-to-head losing streak. Roddick is just 1-12 in his career against Federer and had lost 13 straight sets to him before winning the second set in the U.S. Open final.

Roddick served to send the match to a third-set tiebreaker before Federer broke for the set on the way to the 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory. Roddick then won the first set in November in Shanghai and had three match points in the second set before falling 4-6, 7-6 (, 6-4

"I've made it clear that I'd love to play him as many times as possible," Roddick said. "Obviously he's the bar right now. We're all trying to get there."

Roddick credits much of his improvement to the work he's done with new coach Jimmy Connors, who joined Roddick last summer after he lost in the third round at Wimbledon to Andy Murray.

That marked the fourth straight major that Roddick failed to make it to the quarterfinals, including first-round losses in the 2006 French Open and 2005 U.S. Open.

It was a big fall from being U.S. Open champion and No. 1 in the world at the end of 2003. But working with Connors, Roddick made it to the final in Indianapolis before losing to James Blake, won at Cincinnati and got the U.S. Open final. He was 18-2 in the summer circuit with Connors.

The relationship worked so well that Connors plans to travel almost full time this season with Roddick.

"It's just great kind of having a mentor and adviser who has been there before, who kind of gets what you're going through a little bit," Roddick said. "It's weird because he's probably not as loud and boisterous as you all might think. He's pretty demure when he comes to me to talk about what he has to talk about. Very straightforward, very involved with the whole process."

Connors has stressed aggressiveness to Roddick and has worked extensively on his volleys in hopes that coming to the net off his 140 mph serve will be just the trick to beat Federer.

Roddick had shied away from the serve-and-volley game during his slump.

"I kind of adopted a new style on the fly. Now I've had an offseason to work on that, I think it can get better. Just kind of need to keep going along that same route," he said. "I feel good up there right now. I guess that happens with repetition, forcing yourself to do it, whereas times before that I'd have good and bad days. I think it's just a little bit more consistent now."

While Federer won't be in San Jose, nine of the top 10 ranked Americans will be. Roddick, Blake and defending-champion Murray head a field that also includes former No. 1 player in the world Marat Safin.

"It seems like it's probably the toughest field that I've played in since I've been playing in the tournament," Roddick said. "It's definitely the deepest as far as top-tier players go. I'm excited to get in the mix."

Tributes flow for Hingis





tvnz.co.nz
Nov 3, 2007


Former tournament director Paul McNamee says Martina Hingis was an "institution" at the Australian Open who will be sorely missed at the season-opening grand slam in Melbourne.
For the second time in a tumultuous but mostly brilliant career, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis on Friday after testing positive to cocaine.
While maintaining her innocence and insisting she had never taken drugs, it was a sad end for the 27-year-old former world No.1.
But McNamee hoped and believed fans would forgive her and remember the Swiss Miss for the champion she was.Hingis was the dominating darling of Melbourne Park between 1997-2002 and once again last year when the five-time major champion reached the quarter-finals just a month into her comeback from three years on the sidelines.
"She was really an institution at the Australian Open. In the modern era, nobody made six finals in a row - and won three of them," McNamee said today.
"And of course she was part of that epic final (in 2002) with Jennifer Capriati where she had to be covered in ice packs in the 10-minute break before the third set.
"Apparently that had never been seen before.
"I think of her in that way. Look, how it has ended is not ideal at all obviously. That's an understatement.
"But I don't think how she ended the game will be how she will be remembered because it was so long after her heyday.
"It was an amazing comeback, but she never recaptured those glory years she had from the age of 16 to 21 when she got to six (Open) finals in a row. That was phenomenal."
At 16 years and three months old, Hingis became the youngest grand slam champion of the 20th century with victory over Mary Pierce in the 1997 final.
Compensating for her lack of power with unrivalled cunning and guile, Hingis completed a hat-trick of Open triumphs and also collected Wimbledon and US Open trophies as a teenager before retiring for a first time in 2003 with chronic ankle injuries.
"When she was at the peak of her power, from 16 years of age to 21, she was phenomenal," McNamee said.
"I mean, that was her career in that period. Pretty much from 22 she was looking around for something else to do in her life."
McNamee said he could see the writing on the wall for Hingis long before the drugs storm.
"She wasn't playing much this year. I think she was accepting she wasn't going to win another grand slam," he said.
"She'd come back and got back in the top 10 but I could detect that there didn't seem to be the goals there anymore from a tennis perspective.
"I must admit I wasn't starting to suspect retirement was pretty imminent.
"There just weren't any signs this year that she was committed to playing.
"So, in terms of her tennis, it's not a great shock that she's retiring."
McNamee said Hingis should always be welcomed back to Australia.
"I'd love to see her again to see how she is going," he said.
"She was always friendly with a smile. She was certainly one of the easiest top players I've ever had to deal with.
"What you saw is what you got with Martina. She's a really good person.
"I'm obviously sorry to hear what's going on, but I take people how they come."