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| About C.P.T.C. • Club News • Junior Section • Club Tournament • Subscription Details • Front Page |
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| Talking Points 2002 |
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New Year PredictionsIt's always tempting to do a little bit of crystal ball gazing on the eve of a new year. We're going to try and pick two players, a man and a woman, who should build on their progress in 2002 and move on to greater things in the next twelve months.The world's top players have the ability to define and redefine themselves as necessary during the course of a match, but Fernando Gonzalez's philosophy works like this: if I lose a point, I'll just hit the ball harder! The Chilean made great strides in 2002 under the guidance of Horacio de la Pena, but some of his defeats were rather like watching someone fall over with his hands in his pockets. Chileans have a tradition of eating lentils at midnight on New Year's Eve for good luck. Perhaps a calming diet of lentils will encourage a more selective use of weapons by Gonzalez in 2003. He certainly possesses the raw talent to break into the top ten. Chileans have another belief associated with the New Year - walk around with a suitcase at midnight on New Year's Eve and it will improve your chances of travel in the upcoming year. If Gonzalez is spotted on the streets of Santiago swinging a suitcase while he munches his lentils, it'll be because he intends to add Houston to his itinerary for 2003. Quite right too - he really should qualify for the Masters Cup in November. The crystal ball has gone cloudy. Hang on, it's clearing again! I can see celebrations in Slovakia. Perhaps it's not the future at all; perhaps it's the past - you remember there were mass celebrations last November when the Slovaks beat Spain in the Fed Cup final? If it's not the recent past, perhaps it's the present - after splitting from the Czech Republic in 1993, the Slovaks now celebrate January 1 as Independence Day as well as New Year's Day. But wait, it's a Grand Slam final and, yes, I recognise that white sun-visor. This is a view of the future, after all. It's Daniela Hantuchova, who announced her arrival as a serious contender in women's tennis when she upset Martina Hingis to claim the Indian Wells Masters title back in March. By November, her big serve and powerful, precise groundstrokes had rocketed her into the top 10 and she finished the season as the driving force behind Slovakia's historic Fed Cup achievement. At the beginning of this year, Nigel Sears, her British coach, declared: "Her goal is to end the year in the top 16." Many considered it a bit optimistic at the time. If Sears were to set a Grand Slam singles title as the goal for 2003, would the pundits be just as sceptical now as they were then? D.W. Submit your opinion!  Back to the topics
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How much Christmas cheer will be evident at the WTA this year?You better watch out,You better not cry, You better not pout, I'm telling you why . . . Just when it seemed that women's tennis was establishing some real popularity, the WTA Tour has suddenly fallen into disarray. Attendance at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the end-of-year Championships was appalling. So was the quality of the tennis produced by many of the players, especially in the first couple of rounds. To cap a disastrous month for the WTA, Sanex then announced their intention to withdraw as title sponsor of the women's tour (described euphemistically as a "sponsorship realignment" on the Sanex WTA Tour website). The Los Angeles event had been touted as the sport's fifth grand slam, but the message never got through to the residents who did some early Christmas shopping instead. "A lot of my friends had no idea why I was in town," said Monica Seles, who, in the early rounds, was probably the only player who produced anything like the passion you would expect for such a lucrative event. Kim Clijsters, who defeated Serena Williams in the final, will be enjoying her early Christmas present, but the administrators in the WTA will be choking over their mince pies. Wouldn't it be better to mirror the ATP Tour and restrict the event to an eight-player round-robin? Certainly, the men's event in Shanghai was well-supported, well-contested and well ahead of the women's event in just about every respect. If the Los Angeles debacle and Sanex's decision are to be nothing more than a couple of blips on the their radar screen, the WTA would be well advised to address some of the promotion and scheduling problems that beset the tour. The lack of motivation demonstrated by many of the players in Los Angeles is a clear indication that the season is too long. The grand slams are a problem too. I know the WTA isn't the only interested party here, but there really should be more of an interval between the French Open and Wimbledon to allow players the opportunity to get used to grass. The US Open might also be moved back a week or two. As for the WTA Championships, attendance figures in Los Angeles illustrate the need for much more aggressive marketing. Given the current economic situation, it's unlikely that Santa will have a new title sponsor in his sack, so it won't be easy. But this is not the time for a Scrooge mentality. It'll be a bit like buying this year's Christmas presents with next year's money, but let's not forget - in Venus and Serena Williams, women's tennis boasts the two best known women athletes on the planet! Why not provide them with a few sound bites and get them more involved in promoting the Tour while such a good opportunity exists? D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Child Protection and the LTAA report into child abuse by the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), run by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and funded by the National Lottery, is due to be published this month and is expected to reveal that over 750 allegations of child abuse at the hands of coaches were reported over the past year. These allegations cover a wide range of incidents ranging from swearing at and intimidating children into training too hard through to serious allegations of rape. They also include a number of false allegations arising presumably from disgruntled parents attempting to "get their own back" when children were not selected for a team or competition.At a time when many children eat too much junk food, watch too much TV and don�t exercise enough, sport should be promoted as a vitally important aspect of a child's physical, social and moral development. It's imperative, therefore, that sports organisations give a very high priority to ensuring safe environments. Young people obviously need protection from unscrupulous individuals, but they also need protection from systems that (sometimes unwittingly) give rise to over-training and over-competing, resulting in "burn out" and other stress-related disorders. The world of international gymnastics, for example, has thrown up some horror stories in the past. But all sports must guard against the exploitation of children in high-stakes competition. If the abuse of children is not already a big issue for sports organisations, it soon will be. Governing bodies will have to provide specific training to coaches so that they fully understand their responsibilities and are able to implement good practice. But one of the immediate priorities must be an effective vetting policy. Here in the UK, the LTA claims to be "at the forefront of the implementation of Child Protection policies within sport". In April 2002 it became a registered body for obtaining Enhanced Disclosure Certificates from the Criminal Records Bureau. You would think then that all coaches holding a recognised LTA qualification might reasonably expect the LTA to support their efforts to obtain a Disclosure Certificate, wouldn't you? Well, apparently that's not the case. In practice, the LTA is only supporting Licensed Coaches who qualified after May 2002. Given that applications for a CRB Certificate are only accepted from registered bodies (and cannot be accepted from individuals), this puts coaches whose qualifications pre-date May 2002 in a particularly difficult situation. Many will be forced to shell out around �400 to re-qualify or face the consequences of clubs becoming (quite correctly) less inclined to employ them without a CRB Certificate. Why not extend the arrangement to include all LTA qualified coaches? Now that would demonstrate a genuine and impressive commitment to Child Protection. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Building bridgesShanghai is the destination for the ATP Tour's top players when they compete in this year's Masters Cup. An expanding economy means China is staging more and more high-profile sporting events, including, of course, the Olympic Games in 2008. Judging by the amount of corporate interest in sponsoring the Tennis Masters Cup, it should prove to be an enormously successful event and will fuel the growing interest in tennis throughout the Asia Pacific region. When it comes to the issue of human rights, however, China still has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the rest of the world. Human rights activists opposing Beijing�s Olympic bid argued that a sporting event celebrating the triumph of the human spirit should not be hosted by a regime that has at times demonstrated scant regard for humanity. Many people refuse to turn a blind eye to repression and human rights violations. It's an emotive issue for sure. But maybe the integration of China into the sporting community - and then into the world community - is the right way to go. Maybe the Tennis Masters Cup is just one of the first bridges that have to be built between China and the rest of the world. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Patty Schnyder's missing years"It's been a very emotional and special day for me and it's been a fantastic week," said Patty Schnyder, brimming over with delight on winning the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich last week. The biggest win of her rollercoaster career also ensured her qualification for the season-ending WTA Championships in Los Angeles next month. Schnyder is belatedly emerging from the shadow cast by her fellow countrywoman, Martina Hingis.Back in 1998, when she won five career titles and broke into the WTA top ten, the expectation that Schnyder would join Hingis in a Swiss domination of the women's game was gaining a lot of momentum. But suddenly, early in 1999, it all went pear-shaped. Well, orange-shaped, actually. The level-headed teenager inexplicably struck up an alliance with a German faith healer who encouraged her to sack her coach, sever ties with her family and consume copious amounts of orange juice on the basis that it is "almost identical to mother's milk". German authorities investigated allegations that he was practising medicine without a licence. It duly emerged that this man had no medical qualifications at all and had devised his techniques through self-study. The WTA Tour have a Sport Sciences and Medicine department which was founded in order to provide optimal health care for all athletes on the women�s professional tennis circuit. It offers education programmes and preventive strategies to help players cope with the known stresses of life on the road. It also boasts an innovative mentor program whereby retired players are matched with young players ranked in the top 100. It is the first of its kind in professional sport. Now, I don't know how much leverage was applied by the WTA in this particular case. Maybe they deserve the credit, maybe they don't. Either way, the episode serves to demonstrate the importance of keeping such an infrastructure in place. Anyway, one way or another, Schnyder broke free from the faith healer's insidious influence in May 1999. The association had only lasted a few months, but it had been enough to put the young Swiss player's career in a tailspin. There were signs of a significant upturn in her fortunes earlier this year when she recorded big wins against the likes of Amelie Mauresmo, Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati. With the unerring accuracy of her angled groundstrokes, she was once again becoming the scourge of higher-ranked players. Her victory over Lindsay Davenport in Zurich should now herald the start of a new phase in a very intriguing career. Patty Schnyder finally seems to have got the orange juice out of her system. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Davis Cup deliberations"The Davis Cup schedule has to be brought into the real world."So writes John McEnroe in his recent autobiography. And he ought to know what he's talking about. He represented the United States in the Davis Cup over a period of 12 years (30 ties), boasting a 59-10 win-loss record. His commitment to the competition is well documented. "I will go anywhere, any time to play Davis Cup for America," he used to say, partly in admonishment of fellow compatriots who ignored the call to duty. If a country has a successful run in the World Group, the competition takes out four weekends between February and December. That can obviously have a significant impact on a player's schedule. Those who snub the Davis Cup are usually criticised for their blinkered pursuit of riches, but players like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras have legitimate concerns about the format and the ITF should give them some serious consideration. At present, the Davis Cup is divided into World Group competition and Zone competitions. There are three zones: American, Euro-African, and Asia-Pacific. Within each zone, countries square off for the opportunity to advance to the World Group. The World Group consists of the 16 top countries which compete on certain weekends between February and December in a single-elimination draw to determine the Cup winner for a given year. Around September, each of the 8 first round losers play the top 8 finishers in the Zone competitions in a "relegation tie". The winner of each tie advances to the World Group for the next year, while the loser is relegated to Zone competition. The ITF maintain that the format is easy to follow. Huh? Yeh, right. I mean, even if that were true, by the time the semi-finals come around, you've forgotten who won the quarter-finals! I think the sport would benefit enormously if the tennis calendar reserved a two-week period every two years for an uninterrupted team event. The television networks would find it much easier to promote and the public would be presented with an undiluted sporting event capable of producing the atmosphere of an Olympic Games or a soccer World Cup tournament. "You know, I think that�s the one thing that sets Davis Cup apart from any other tennis event - the crowd really gets into it and you�re allowed to be more like a football type crowd which I find fun," said Andy Roddick recently. "I really like that atmosphere, so that�s definitely one of the pluses of Davis Cup." Players like Roddick have an appetite for team tennis, and so do the fans. The ITF should capitalise on this by offering a competition which is easy to understand, in which players wear distinctive team uniforms and which, apart from some qualifying ties, takes place within an uninterrupted timeframe, culminating in the final. The current disjointed mishmash has had its day. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Keeping out of the shadowsAs this year's US Open progresses, last year's tragic events continue to cast a shadow over New York. September 11th looms again - a date when New Yorkers will subconsciously pull the bedclothes higher for many a year to come. Security at the Open is obviously tighter. A special Opening Night ceremony fittingly dubbed "A Salute to Heroes" paid tribute to the men and women, both uniformed and civilian, who gave their all in the rescue efforts following the terrorist attacks."This is a very special year for New York and the US Open," said Arlen Kantarian, chief executive officer of the USTA. "This special Opening Night ceremony will welcome the world to a confident and resilient New York and provides the opportunity to honour and celebrate the courage and heroism of New York and its people." The resilience Kantarian referred to continues to be much in evidence as the tournament focuses on the tennis and refuses to allow the mood to become too sombre and devotional. The Ground Zero flag, hoisted high above the Arthur Ashe Stadium, was unfurled to honour the memory of New York's heroes, but it waves majestically over a festival of multi-cultural sport and flies in the faces of those who seek to jeopardise the freedoms of the vast majority of us wishing to live peacefully in a multi-cultural world. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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JB has arrived!Beneath a shock of Sideshow Bob hair, there's an incongruous blur of thin legs and baggy shorts. Shaking off some early nerves, a 22-year-old African-American player is poised to make his mark in the tennis world by coming from behind to beat Paradorn Srichaphan in the final of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington. There's evidence of an engaging, good-natured demeanour as he decorates the court with classy strokes and explosive pace. As the denouement arrives, a disingenuous grin betrays his joy at the realisation of a major career ambition. James Blake has arrived.After two years at Harvard, Blake decided to put his education on hold and follow in his brother's tracks by turning pro. The native New Yorker, who could have played Davis Cup for Britain as his mother is English (from Banbury in Oxfordshire), intends to finish his degree when his tennis career is over - but the signs are that it will be quite a wait. Blake dropped the first set 6-1 to Srichaphan, but this is a young man who has experienced plenty of adversity en route to his first tour title. Afflicted with a serious back condition called scoliosis, a gradual curving of the spine, he had to endure a difficult period in his teenage years. "It's something that can't be cured, except by surgery," he explained in a recent interview. "When I was 14, the surgery they suggested was to put a couple of rods in my back, which would have been the end of tennis. Instead, I wore a big plastic brace under my clothes all the way through high school, which was more traumatic for me than the operation because I thought it might limit my social options." Fortunately, the condition improved and he no longer wears a brace. "But I still get pain on long flights or when I'm sitting for a long time. People think my posture is pretty good but they don't realise why I'm sitting upright like that. I think I'd be about two inches taller if I had a straight back." He's developed a deep-seated resilience which will serve him well in the ultra-competitive jungle of professional tennis. Actually, it's a genetic trait. I dug up this anecdote from his years as a junior. The white father of one of his rivals said to Blake's mother, Betty: "I feel sorry for your son, being the product of a biracial marriage, because both races can hate him." Wrong-footed for no more than a brief moment, Blake recalls her recovery. "That's not the way I see it," she said to the man. "To me, being biracial means you can be embraced by both groups." The more you watch, the more evidence you find of this priceless capacity for quick adjustment, physical as well as mental. JB's progress is about to go into overdrive. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Wimbledon's new seed makes a difference!Wasn't it strange to see two baseliners slugging it out on Centre Court in the Wimbledon Men's Singles final? When was the last time that happened? Well, it's got to be 1978, I suppose - Borg beating Connors.Will it happen again next year? Is this a new trend? No, history suggests it's just an anomaly. Let's see now. What happened to baseliners after Borg's phenomenal run of five successive titles? Connors won in 1982, Agassi in 1992 and now Hewitt in 2002 - it's just a one in ten, isn't it? Nothing for Tim and Greg to worry about. Come on, we're talking about grass, remember? The balls skid low and lightning fast, bounces are unpredictable. It favours the big serve-and-volleyer, right? Always has, always will. Uh uh! The secret's out. They've changed the surface! Maybe they've been disturbed at the sight of Gustavo Kuerten joining a growing trickle of disgruntled Spaniards beating a retreat from SW19. Or maybe they've been stung by criticism arising from high profile matches degenerating into service shootouts. But whatever the reason, they've gone and done the unthinkable - the All England Club has changed the surface at Wimbledon! All right, it's still grass. It's still natural grass. But it's not the grass that Tilden, Perry, Budge, et al enjoyed. The traditional variety, familiar to Wimbledon champions from Spencer Gore to Pete Sampras, Maud Watson to Venus Williams, was called creeping red fescue, or something. Whatever. But, following months and months of research, it's been changed. It's now predominantly made up of hardy Aberelf rye (apparently!) in a mixture guaranteed to produce a hard-wearing, high-bouncing surface quite unlike anything seen at the Championships since its inception in 1877. I'd say that is just bang on! It's a masterstroke. Remember the All England Club insisting they would never change to clay or cement or Rebound Ace? Remember their insistence that the choice of grass was sacrosanct? It was a triumph of equivocation. And when they said they were changing the seeding system, no one cottoned on. Was that statement delivered with a straight face? I mean, heavy irony, or what? The point is - Wimbledon now offers a much more level playing field. It's truly become the best stage for the best players. So come on, Guga - sign up for 2003! D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Correction, give the umpire a break!The weight of expectation may prove too great for Tim Henman as he moves through the second week of Wimbledon, but don't waste too much sympathy on him if he succumbs to the pressure. After all, he is obscenely well paid for wearing the albatross round his neck. Spare a thought instead for the poor umpires.Wayne Ferreira was understandably enraged about the crucial over-rule which denied him a 5-1 tie-break lead in the third set of his third round encounter with Henman. Everyone on Centre Court saw the puff of white dust as the South African's backhand pass hit the junction of sideline and baseline in the far corner away from the umpire's chair. The television replays confirmed it. The line judge called it good, but the experienced Portuguese umpire, Jorge Dias, over-ruled the call. Henman fought back and went on to take the set and the match. "I think it's shocking," raged Ferreira. "If he (Dias) had any decency, he would come and apologise. That was the turning point. Jorge ummed and aahed but he wasn't sure. I think he realised he had made a mistake but what can you do about it? Umpires should not over-rule when it's tight and it seems to happen a lot. They try their best but they make mistakes and this was a big one at my expense." Ilie Nastase once said, "An umpire make a mistake - it's like stealing money from my pocket." Players perform under a lot of pressure at times, but many of their mistakes are glossed over and lost in the blur of TV statistics. But one single misjudgement by an umpire can appear catastrophic. Now, there's real pressure! As Ed Runge, a baseball umpire, said back in 1973: "It's the only occupation where a man has to be perfect first day on the job and then improve over the years!" D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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More grass!When Gustavo Kuerten won the French Open last year and promptly withdrew from Wimbledon, it caused some ripples of anxiety. Some pundits saw it as evidence that the prestige of the Championships was on the wane. Sadly for Kuerten, happily for the All England Club, this was not the case.This year, the Brazilian's allergy to the grass afflicted him again, and Albert Costa scheduled his wedding in the middle of the grass court season. Wimbledon was once again deprived of the reigning French Open champion. The problem is not Wimbledon per se. It's the length of the grass court season. There used to be two grand slams played on grass (and two grass court seasons). These days the players have a ludicrously short period of two weeks in which to fine-tune their games for the special demands of the Wimbledon Championships. There clearly ought to be at least one extra week between the French Open and Wimbledon, and one of these ought to include a Masters Series event. Grass-shy players would then not only have more time to adjust, but they would have more incentive to do so. "It's weird playing three weeks a year on grass," said Mary Pierce in a recent interview. "If we played a longer season, I think I would be much better. I think I have a good game to do well on grass." Wimbledon will always be played on grass and it will never lose its prestige as the greatest tennis tournament in the world, but the sport's administrating bodies could help it produce top quality grass-court tennis by ensuring that the world's best players do not arrive at SW19 under-prepared. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Who will Wimbledon 2002?Just about now, the groundsmen at the All England Club start fretting over the weather forecasts and spend each day mowing, marking, spiking, inspecting and watering. If the next few weeks are wet, they become fraught with worry lest the covers fail to provide enough light for the grass to flourish. By the time the covers come off on June 24th to reveal those beautiful emerald lawns, the groundsmen won't be alone - we'll all be fretting over the forecasts.Wimbledon is more vulnerable to the weather than the other grand slams and it dictates what type of player will prevail during the fortnight. A warm, dry spell can make the courts behave more like hard courts, as they did in 1992 when Andre Agassi won the men's title. But of course, typically, the ball bounces lower on grass and baseliners really struggle to adapt. So, let's ignore them and concentrate on the grass-court specialists. Step forward, the grass-court specialists! I said: step forward, the grass-court specialists! What's going on? Where are they? What's that you say - Rafter's not coming? Oh, yes, shoulder problem! Ivanisevic, too? Well okay, what about Rusedski and Sampras and Krajicek and Philippoussis? Oh, so Rusedski's had a neck injury and hasn't played for weeks and Sampras lost a Davis Cup rubber on grass to . . . to who?! Alex Corretja?! You're kidding! I know Krajicek hasn't played for a year, which just leaves Philippoussis - I suppose he's still trying to reconstruct his career after all those injuries - is that right? First round losses? Yes, thought so! So, we've got to go back and take a look at the baseliners after all. No, wait! I forgot - there's one more grass-court player. Now, what's his name? That British chap - yes, of course - Tim Henman! After Venus Williams won the first of her two Wimbledon singles titles two years ago, she was asked: "At what point in the last two weeks did you really know you were going to win the title?" Her reply is one of my favourite tennis quotes. "When I bought my dress!" she replied, referring to the ball gown she bought in Florida just before leaving for the Championships. This year, I reckon she'll have bought the dress and the shoes and the jewellery and she'll even have chosen from the menu - all well before the journey to London SW19! D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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What improvements will the next generation of players bring to the game?Do you sometimes wonder where tennis is heading? Do you think players of the future will come up with greater skills and athleticism than the champions of today? Or does the longevity of someone like Andre Agassi, once again a very serious contender for grand slam titles this year, suggest that we've reached some sort of plateau in the technical, tactical and physical aspects of the game?Let's peer into a crystal ball and get a glimpse of future trends in the game. No, it's no good, all I can see is the usual haze. But wait! It's clearing. Is that a figure, holding a trophy? I think it's . . . yes, it's the Wimbledon trophy. He's going over to hug someone, maybe his father, maybe his coach. Wait a minute - there's writing on the back of the sweatshirt. Looks like his name, followed by some letters . . . "Psy.D". So he's embracing his psychologist? It's going to happen. It's the one area of the game where there's obvious improvements to be made. You see it all the time. And I'm not just talking about lapses of concentration, flawed decision-making and bad mistake management. Take Daniela Hantuchova for example. She stunned the world by winning the Masters at Indian Wells, becoming the lowest seed to win a Tier 1 event since 1980. Unfortunately, it stunned Daniela too. She immediately crashed out of the Nasdaq-100, losing to an unseeded player in her opening match. Unless Cara Black magically transformed herself into a player capable of beating Masters champions, chances are it had more to do with the mental and emotional state of Hantuchova, who has continued to have a lean time on the WTA tour since her celebrated victory over Martina Hingis. As for players "choking", even the most casual observers of the sport must be familiar with some famous examples. There's no need for me to catalogue them. Even tennis's greatest champions have struggled with the mental side of the game from time to time. Do you remember when Pete Sampras won his first US Open title back in 1990? He was a "a really green, insecure kid" of nineteen and it took him a while to come to terms with his situation. "It took me a couple of years, pretty much until I won the Open for the second time in 1993, to figure it out mentally," said Sampras in a recent interview. When he lost in the quarter finals the following year, he spoke of his relief that the pressure was off and was roundly criticised by those who took this to mean he was happy to have lost. "I got overwhelmed trying to figure out what people wanted from me," he says now. "Here I am, complaining about winning the US Open. But if I had to do it all over again, I would rather have won it later. I would never underestimate the mental aspects of playing this game." Most experienced players acknowledge the importance of mental resilience. They would agree with Billie-Jean King's assertion that "more matches are won internally than externally". But I suspect many younger players, despite, in some cases, being completely consumed by the pressure to succeeed, are still inclined to place psychological issues well down their list of priorities. My crystal ball suggests that they, and their coaches, wise up pretty soon! D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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British tennis must improve its domestic competitive framework to get the benefit of Ariel's sponsorshipSo Ariel are going to pour funding into the 'Players of the Future' programme for young players aged between 11 and 17, a deal described by the LTA as "the most incredible we've been able to announce for years." 20 million packs of Ariel washing powder will incorporate the LTA's logo and website address, potentially reaching up to a third of all households in the country. Patrice Hagelauer, LTA Director of Performance, says "this kind of investment from Ariel will help us continue to offer our most talented younsters the world class training facilites, support and coaching they need." Great!A new long-term development programme, covering every stage of a player's development from earliest childhood to late teens, has also just been launched by Anne Pankhurst, the LTA's Coach Education Director. Great! Mini tennis was launched last summer and seems to be going down well in clubs and schools across the country. Great! I wouldn't want to detract from all these good intentions. It's great that resources are being targeted on the identification and development of talented juniors. Lots of participation. Lots of coaching. What worries me slightly is that we might be putting all the emphasis on support programmes without paying any attention to what these programmes should be underpinning, namely a strong domestic competitive structure. Without this, we cannot hope to establish a competitive pyramid leading up to true world standard. "It is very important that the clubs create an environment and atmosphere that is fun and so you develop a love of the game," says Hagelauer. Well, that's fair enough, up to a point, but the young players we want to encourage are the ones who will enjoy and thrive on competition. We could end up with squads of over-trained, over-coached players who are incapable of toughing out a match owing to sheer lack of appropriate competition. It should be the duty of each County Association to establish a strong local competitive framework, perhaps by compelling those clubs receiving LTA Club Vision assistance to open up their gates a couple of times a year to host open tournaments. So will the money Ariel's parent company Procter & Gamble intend to inject into British tennis be money well spent? Unless the LTA look seriously at improving the state of domestic competition, I have serious doubts - no doubt it'll all come out in the wash. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Is winning the be-all and end-all?April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. T. S. Eliot's words suggest that we're sometimes reluctant to wake up from winter's torpor and obey the call to renewal and rebirth, but it really is worth the effort. It's time to get refreshed and embrace the start of a new season of tennis. Obviously, some of us play right through the winter, but it's not quite the same, is it? There's a special kind of joy about playing outside with the sun on your back, or relaxing with a few sets of tennis in the warm evening shadows after a hard day at work. Martina Hingis is enjoying a kind of rebirth at the moment, following three month's enforced layoff through injury. "It gave me the chance to take stock and have a quiet think about myself and my tennis," she said. Watching her play in Indian Wells and Miami recently, she certainly seems to have rediscovered her old enjoyment of the sport. She still gets beaten up by the big-hitters in the game, like Daniela Hantuchova and the Williams sisters, and it still rankles her, but she's quite philosophical about it. "I am more mature, better able to come to terms with losing a match and concentrate on the challenges ahead," she reflected after losing to Jennifer Capriati in the Australian Open final. "Anyone who saw the match and my reaction afterwards will tell you that although it hurt me a lot to lose, I took it in a fair, sporting way. There are a lot more terrible things going on in the world, war and terrorism, so I think if you lose a tennis game it's not such a big deal." The change of attitude won't help her win any more tournaments - it might actually hinder her chances - but it will help her keep things in perspective and derive more enjoyment out of her career. It doesn't matter if she's ranked number one or number three or number twenty-three, Hingis enriches the sport through her tenacity and intelligent court-craft. The number one ranking is not necessarily a goal. Winning another grand slam title is not necessarily a goal. So what are her goals likely to be now? My son's girlfiend bought me a book called 'Leading with the Heart' last Christmas. It's a kind of analysis of leadership by Mike Krzyzewski, an American basketball coach popularly known as Coach K. I think Hingis may have re-motivated herself by adopting a philosophy described very succinctly by Coach K in his book. "My hunger is not for success, it is for excellence," he argues. "I do not let someone else define excellence for me. I feel good about what I'm doing just because I'm doing it." There's probably a lesson there for all of us. The good thing about the pursuit of excellence is: there are no absolutes! We can each have our own personal definition of what it means. Each one of us can get on the trail and drive after it - never letting it rest till our good becomes better and our better becomes best! And as soon as we achieve it, why spring comes around again and we redefine it! D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Are athletes paying too high a price for doping offences?There have been a couple of high-profile stories in the media recently involving drugs in sport.The first concerns Alain Baxter, Britain's first Olympic skiing medal-winner, who was stripped of his bronze by the International Olympic Committee after he tested positive to the banned stimulant, methamphetamine. The hapless Scot assumed that the US nasal decongestant he bought in a Utah pharmacy contained the same contents as the British inhaler he was accustomed to using. He was wrong. The second concerns an Argentinian tennis player, Guillermo Coria, who has just completed a seven-month ban, costing him significant loss of ATP ranking points and prize money, after testing positive for nandrolone. A couple of multivitamin pills from a contaminated batch proved to be his undoing. Do I feel sorry for them? Yes, I do. Baxter used the decongestant in good faith, believing it was the same as the one he'd been using since childhood. Coria swallowed pills in good faith, believing them to be a vitamin supplement. If we take their explanations at face value, neither of them were intentional drug cheats. Neither sought to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. "I have not and would never take a banned substance to improve performance," protested Coria. You have to sympathise with them. Both have been punished severely for their offences. So, in that case, do I think the ruling bodies were wrong to punish them? No, I don't. Unfortunately, sympathy cannot stand in the way of the fight against drugs in sport. The ruling bodies have no choice. They must apply the rules rigorously, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the consequences, regardless of the excuses. Athletes are forever being told to consult a doctor before consuming medicines. They are peppered with information pertaining to anti-doping policies. They know the risk of consuming dietary supplements. If a prohibited substance is discovered in an athlete's body, an offence has been committed. That's the bottom line. Intentional or unintentional, it makes no difference. Competitive sport can be a tough old business. Still, I note that Coria won his comeback match in Miami. At the risk of sounding patronising, I hope this whole unfortunate experience serves to spur him on to greater things. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Is the "power game" bad news for tennis?You get to hear a lot of stuff nowadays about the "power game" and how terrible it is compared to the good old days when players used strategy and finesse and . . . yep, wooden rackets!Critics lament the "lost art" of structuring points and they pour scorn on the achievements of players who have the temerity to hit clean winners from the back of the court. They imply that players like Venus Williams have never had to learn how to play the game - they simply hit the ball hard enough so it doesn't come back (and if it does come back, they hit it harder!). Well, I'm sure you've heard the argument. Allegedly, it's easy to do what Venus Williams does, because revolutionary modern rackets require less skill! They have more power, greater reach and offer the insurance of bigger "sweet spots". You don't even need to hit the ball in the centre of the racket any more! That's obviously what the manufacturers claim, and, okay, okay, I'm prepared to concede at least some of that argument. It's also alleged that tennis is becoming just a game for the giants. Well, I don't know about that. Venus Williams obviously makes the most of her height and build, but so does Lleyton Hewitt, albeit in an entirely different way. Hewitt used his wiriness and agility to top the year-end rankings for 2001. Thomas Johansson outserved Marat Safin in the Australian Open final and he's not a six-footer either. The fact is - tennis players come in all shapes and sizes. They adapt their game to make the most of their physical attributes. Tall, muscular players, for example, might use their height and power to produce an aggressive serve and volley game, while shorter, agile players typically benefit more from a mobile, court-covering game. Good players succeed by adapting to the requirements. Andre Agassi's success at Wimbledon over the years demonstrates this quite admirably. What about the facts? Are the points really shorter nowadays? Are the big servers dominating? When Goran Ivanisevic served 46 aces in a match against Magnus Norman in 1997, he broke the Wimbledon record. But it wasn't a record held by Sampras or Krajicek or Rusedski or Becker. It was held by John Feaver wielding a wooden racket back in 1976! Incidentally, both Ivanisevic and Feaver lost those matches! Ellsworth Vines is known to have served an average of 2.5 aces per service game in several big matches during the 1930s. Playing the numbers game is great entertainment and I could try to bamboozle you with more "evidence", but I admit it would be just as easy to illustrate the opposite view. The case against the "power game" could as easily be proved as disproved. Lies, damned lies and statistics! But that's my point really - I just don't think there's enough irrefutable evidence one way or the other to justify making any radical changes to the game. What do the exponents of the "power game" think about it themselves? "If you have the opportunity to bully your opponent," says Venus Williams, "then you have to take that chance." Sister Serena is a little more equivocal. "Finesse is very important," she says. "To put in a drop shot now and then, you can win a free point. It could be a set point. You really need it." And what about the spectators and their perception of "power tennis"? What about entertainment value? Watching aces and short points is boring, right? Well, no! I mean, I don't know about you, but much as I admire the finesse and court-craft of players like Tim Henman, Fabrice Santoro and Martina Hingis, I've got to say I definitely find Venus Williams and Andy Roddick exciting to watch - no two ways about it! Tennis missed the chance to stop the racket revolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the "power game" duly emerged. The ITF is now seeking to wrest control back again by the use of slower balls. I hope they don't go too far. I just don't think the problem is as big as some people make out. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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Is international sport "war without weapons"?I was discussing the Davis Cup tie between Britain and Sweden with my son the other day. He'd been in Birmingham to watch the doubles rubber and we were saying what a great match it was. I told him I thought it would have been the stuff of legend if Britain had gone on to win the tie.Wait a minute! What was I saying: the stuff of legend - but only if we'd won? That made me think. I certainly believe performances have to be judged in the context of the competition. In football, for example, a well-executed goal is not so great if it's a late consolation in a 5-1 defeat. A shock win against the champions is little consolation to a team doomed to relegation. But this tie had been a bit special. The standard of tennis had been superb, the competition had been absorbing and the atmosphere exhilarating. Of course, the result had been disappointing to the British team and supporters, but there are occasions when appreciation of a sporting event can transcend the emotions evoked by winning and losing. And this was one of those occasions. There are many who can take credit for meeting Triumph and Disaster that weekend and managing to treat those two impostors just the same. Well, not exactly the same! But I don't recall evidence of any gloating on the part of the Swedes or any resentment on the part of the British team or supporters. Even the British media, apart from some token grumbling about the LTA, gave credit to both teams where it was due and the BBC were even-handed with their courtside interviews during changeovers, giving both teams the opportunity to demonstrate not only their commitment to winning but also a commendable amount of sporting respect towards their opponents. Supporters were fervently partisan but unerringly fair. There was no jeering and no attempt to insult or distract. If only sport was always like this (sigh)! Let's face it, it frequently isn't like that at all! After all, sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics and the Davis Cup arouse feelings of nationalism that sociologists might view as a kind of civilised substitution for armed conflict, whereby nations engage in a war without weapons. President Ford once observed that "sport can be as uplifting to a nation's spirit as a battlefield victory". Nations often exploit this function of sport. A good example is Hitler's notorious attempt to present the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a showcase for his country and his belief in the superiority of the Aryan race. He was pretty much foiled, of course, by the black American sprinter Jesse Owens who bagged four gold medals and broke no less than three world records in the process. Opening and closing ceremonies continue to promote national themes and more and more money is spent on them. Problems arise when national pride flares up into unbridled jingoism. Rules become singed by the heat. Ethical codes go up in smoke. The pressure for national success prompts competitors to cheat. Hence the drug scandals that have blighted world athletics during the last couple of decades. Support can degenerate into tribalism and failure then prompts hooliganism. Even the Davis Cup is not immune from this. Argentina recently forfeited a tie against Chile because of an unruly Santiago crowd. Patriotism unites us as countrymen but can divide us as people if we lose sight of the bigger picture. Losing at sport is no disgrace if you fight hard and fight fair. Full credit goes to both the British and Swedish teams for doing just that. And full credit to both sets of supporters for recognising it. D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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No more "journeymen"?Did you notice how often the disparaging epithet, "journeyman", was applied to both Thomas Johansson and Czech player Jiri Novak as they advanced unexpectedly to the dizzy heights of an Australian Open semi final? "Journeyman" and "Novak" became as inseparable as "superbrat" and "McEnroe", "boring" and "Sampras", "ice maiden" and "Evert". It almost became a title like "Sir" or "Reverend". Johansson wasn't spared either.Professional sport has become a viper-ridden world and no mistake. Or that's how it's represented in the media, anyway. If you're not a champion (and, by definition, there aren't too many of them) or you don't look good in a sports bra commercial, then you're not a "star" and you're damned as mediocre, undistinguished - a mere "journeyman". As a matter of fact, Novak has four singles titles to his name (and fifteen doubles titles), but I suppose that's small beer compared to the likes of Sampras and Agassi. Are players deemed to be failures if they're not champions? Is that the message we really want to convey to the next generation when we encourage them to take up a sport? I mean, I enjoyed watching the tense, gripping semi final between Novak and Johansson. It was dramatic and absorbing. Both have got great serves. And I was enormously impressed when Novak sportingly conceded a point after an erroneous call. At least one of them can now peel off the dreaded label. Johansson is a journeyman no longer. But what of the others? Well, Novak and Henman and co must surely take encouragement from the unexpected successes of Ivanisevic at Wimbledon last year and now Johansson at the Australian Open. There's so much depth on the men's tour that the tournaments are becoming completely unpredictable. But will the watching public and the media really appreciate the depth of talent? I suspect the men's game is about to be besieged by critics bemoaning the lack of "stars" and "personalities". Mind you, in Britain there's no danger of that if the next successful "journeyman" is Tim Henman at Wimbledon this summer! D.W. Submit your opinion! Back to the topics
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