Tennis Random, Random

[Fay007]

I see Tommy Robredo just won the Aspria Tennis Cup Trofeo City Life Challenger tournament in Milan. Yay. But I didn't realize he had gone so far down in the rankings, to 266. Yikes .

[Ribbons]

Sorry, I've been in a bubble (actually, I've been at Wimbledon), so I could only see a few Brit newspapers. Do you have links for this?

Re: Tsonga -- I'd seen comments in English on Twitter, but I didn't bookmark, and the only reports I'm finding at the moment are in French:

http://www.liberation.fr/sports/2012...t-simon_830030
http://www.sport.fr/tennis/tsonga-au...on-269238.shtm
http://www.le10sport.com/omnisport/c...end-simon66127
http://www.rds.ca/tennis/chroniques/342848.html

("Je ne vois pas ce qu'il y a de faux dans ce qu'il a dit", a déclaré le N.1 français. "Il ne fait que dire des choses évidentes." -- "I don't see anything wrong in what [Simon] said. He's only saying obvious things.")

(Interesting quote about Simon in the last article: "Simon a précisé qu'il était « très au fait » de la lutte des femmes pour l'égalité dans la société en général. « C'est un juste combat. Mais ça ne marche pas dans le spectacle », a-t-il dit. [Simon specified that he was very much in favor of women's equality in general society. "That's a just battle. But it doesn't apply to entertainment."])

[Ribbons]

Re: Malisse, Sports Illustrated/AP reported:

Malisse said he shared Simon's view but "I'd rather not get into it. I'd rather he gets into it.''

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...64/2/index.htm

[Kirkus]

Has this been posted here? It's from our own Mr. Salmon.

Brookly Decker Talks About Timing of Roddick's Retirement
February 16, 2012

By BEN ROTHENBERG

Though 29-year-old Andy Roddick has not made any public statements explicitly detailing his retirement plans, Brooklyn Decker, Roddick’s wife, revealed more about his intended time line in a radio interview Thursday morning.

While her husband slept in the adjacent room of their San Jose hotel, Decker, the model and actress, was a call-in guest on “The Dan Patrick Show” and discussed Roddick’s plans to join Patrick full time in the world of sports radio.

“Him and his friend Bobby Bones, his co-host — I think you actually met Bobby — they recently signed a deal,” Decker said. “They have a weekly show they started in January, so it’s about a month old. But they hope to eventually make it a daily show, but of course that will probably be two years down the line once Andy is, um, completely finished.”

“So two years from now he’s retiring?” Patrick inquired.

“Well, we don’t know,” Decker said, seeming to backpedal. “But you never know, you never know what could happen in the world of tennis, with injuries and all that kind of stuff. But his time line is, hopefully, full-time radio in about two years or so.”

Roddick’s show is heard on Fox Sports Radio.

Roddick, who turned professional in 2000, admitted after retiring from his second-round match at the Australian Open that his increased proclivity for injury recently has made him think about his career in the context of his age.

“I don’t think it’s coincidental that all of a sudden in the last year and a half or two years that I’m getting hurt more,” he said. “It’s just frustrating, because you can do all the right things and it might not matter.”

Roddick rolled his ankle in his second-round match at the SAP Open on Wednesday night but was able to continue and prevail over qualifier Denis Kudla in three sets.

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.co...ks-retirement/

[Ti-Amie]

Long Federer profile in New York magazine.

http://nymag.com/news/sports/roger-federer-2012-7/

[rabbit]

Really interesting article overall but this part caught me offguards:

[In a conversation, Hingis says:] And her [Serena's] dad, Richard Williams, was not only a great coach, but had an astonishingly good serve himself.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ten...#ixzz1zX1mk1Xb

[Woody]

In case anyone missed it, this was a funny point from Djokovic-Troicki:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3um_...eature=g-all-u

[owendonovan]

Re: Malisse, Sports Illustrated/AP reported:



http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...64/2/index.htm

Why do they care? Is any of the women's purse coming out of the men's?

[suliso]

Why do they care? Is any of the women's purse coming out of the men's?

I also have trouble understanding that...

[owendonovan]

Is a celebration "routine" now a required part of winning?

[Charlie02123]

Why do they care? Is any of the women's purse coming out of the men's?

Because when there's no one to do the birthin' and the cookin' and the cleanin', the terrorists win!

(I don't get it either.)

[Woody]

Why do they care? Is any of the women's purse coming out of the men's?

Not directly, but I can see the point of arguing it. Men's and women's tennis are independent entities. Each builds their brand and markets themselves on their own, and a few times a year they happen to split the revenue share at a few tournaments. When prize money gets pegged at equal, then whoever has the stronger brand is going to feel like they're running with a parachute on every time they go to the table for increased prize money. "Well, if we give you 20% more, we have to give THEM 20% more too, even though we couldn't get an increase in the tv rights for their matches"

[MeganFernandez]

Is a celebration "routine" now a required part of winning?

Yeah, it seems like everyone has their four-point salute to each side of the stadium. I trace it back to Agassi, at least in terms of popularizing it.

I also think Agassi popularized having a ballkid remove the plastic from a new racket, although I've noticed that move waning recently.

[MeganFernandez]

Why do they care? Is any of the women's purse coming out of the men's?

Presumably. It's inferred that this is a percentage-of-the-pie issue. But none of the men arguing for it explain it that way, which is a big problem. Someone, I forget who, made the point that they'd be much better off joining forces with the women to increase the size of the pie and not worry about the women's cut of it, as along as they are happy with their own cut. That makes a lot of sense to me.

[Charlie02123]

Presumably. It's inferred that this is a percentage-of-the-pie issue. But none of the men arguing for it explain it that way, which is a big problem. Someone, I forget who, made the point that they'd be much better off joining forces with the women to increase the size of the pie and not worry about the women's cut of it, as along as they are happy with their own cut. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Makes sense to you? With that tiny brain of yours!? Make me a sandwich! Someone give me a pay raise for no reason!!! Bark! Bark bark bark bark bark!

Simon brings up a good point, though, which is that it's often the non-masculine guy who's the biggest chauvinist.