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Sorry about my inactivity, guys. My blog is on temporary hold.
I've moved from working on several weekly papers at Star News Group in the City of Casey, Greater Dandenong and Cardinia Shire to a daily newspaper in Shepparton.
That meant moving two-and-a-half hours from home and leaving my girlfriend behind until just before Christmas.
I'm renting in Shepparton and getting used to living out of home and everything that comes with that in a town I know very little about.
It's weird coming home, and waking up to, an empty house.
Hopefully this all pays off in the future.
My tennis blog will be back up and running soon.
Wish me luck!!!
September 28th 2009 13:47
ONE of tennis’ biggest underachievers took a minor step towards fulfilling his potential with victory in the Metz final in France overnight.
Hometown hero Gael Monfils needed three sets to edge hard-hitting German Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(1) 3-6 6-2 for just his second career ATP Tour title and first in four years.
Fans and fellow players are still waiting for Monfils to make a grand slam breakthrough since he progressed to the senior tour full-time in 2005.
Monfils was as dominant a junior player as there has been despite emerging at the same time as the likes of Scot Andy Murray and Serb Novak Djokovic.
The now 23-year-old won the junior Wimbledon and Roland Garros crowns and lost the junior Australian Open decider in his final year at that level in 2004.
Monfils joined the tour with Roger Federer at the peak of his game and was burdened with the inevitable predictions that he would be the man to end the Swiss superstar’s dominance.
Unreasonable expectations and the pressure that came with them and a questionable work ethic have all been listed as reasons for the world No.13’s failure to win a grand slam championship to date.
French world No.13 Gael Monfils won his second career ATP Tour title in Metz overnight.
Australian coach Roger Rasheed, a former tour player himself and a previous mentor of Lleyton Hewitt, started working with Monfils last year to fix the latter problem.
Rasheed’s coaching philosophy is based heavily around a strict fitness regime.
Monfils has hardly been a failure – he has reached the quarter-final and semi-final stages at the past two French Opens and boasts fourth-round showings at both the Australian and US opens.
But his early promise means those achievements are not enough to satisfy those in the tennis world – himself included, considering Rasheed became his fifth coach in just two years when he came on board.
Monfils is a confident young man who is well aware of his freakish athletic talents; once revealing he would have pursued an NBA basketball career if tennis hadn’t worked out in his youth.
But his penchant for unnecessarily sliding around the court and attempting outrageous winners from poor positions smacks of a player who lacks tennis ‘smarts’.
This deficiency explains why Monfils has only been able to reach a career-high ranking of nine (in March this year) despite his immense talent.
Monfils' physical gifts have helped establish him as one of the most exciting players on the men's tour.
He will have to develop in this area if he is to take the next step and move towards the top five and be a grand slam contender.
That will be no easy task because his rivals at the top of the men’s game are just as young and just as promising.
Junior rivals Murray and Djokovic loom large, reigning US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro is getting better every match and is only 21 years of age, and Federer and Rafael Nadal aren’t getting any easier to beat.
Then there is fellow former world junior No.1 Thiemo de Bakker, a 21-year-old who defeated Monfils in a Davis Cup playoff match just over a week ago and has taken major strides this season.
And don’t forget fast-rising Australian prodigy Bernard Tomic, a two-time junior grand slam champion at the age of 16.
These guys could quickly make Monfils yesterday’s favourite rising star.
Monfils could retire tomorrow and be remembered as a very good player, but he has the chance to be a great.
Let’s hope he realises that because it will be damn fun watching him achieve that.
September 27th 2009 12:38
WHAT does it say about the WTA Tour when an almost 39-year-old who peaked in 1995 can defeat a top-30 player to break a 13-year personal title drought?
Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm’s 6-3 6-3 victory over Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues in the Korea Open final further questions the women’s tour’s credibility.
Date-Krumm had not won a WTA Tour-level match in eight tournaments since returning to the circuit last April until this week.
But she managed to take down highly fancied players Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko and Medina Garrigues in consecutive contests to earn her eighth career crown.
Date-Krumm’s win follows Belgian Kim Clijsters’ US Open triumph in just her third tournament back from retirement.
Former world No.1 Justine Henin also announced this week that she, too, will forge a comeback in January.
And, no doubt, Henin will be a success.
The Japanese star and the two Belgians are quality players and have all managed top-five rankings in their careers.
Japanese star Kimiko Date-Krumm claimed her eighth career WTA Tour title in Korea tonight.
That fact cannot be ignored, but their respective returns to the spotlight come at a time when the WTA Tour is at its lowest ebb in several years.
Russian Dinara Safina is an unconvincing No.1 who is yet to taste grand slam glory, while 11-time grand slam champion Serena Williams’ disgraceful outburst at a lineswoman at Flushing Meadows almost overshadowed Clijsters’ fairytale victory.
Date-Krumm is a phenomenal athlete, much like all-time great Martina Navratilova, who briefly returned to the singles court in 2002, 2004 and 2005 – the last time as a 48-year-old.
Navratilova certainly didn’t embarrass herself either – but the same can’t be said of the competitors who barely beat her.
American seven-time grand slam champion John McEnroe quipped in 1998 – at the sprightly age of 39 – that he was better than all of the male doubles players at the time and could also beat most of the male singles players ‘on a given day’.
But, surprise surprise, we never saw an official return to the ATP Tour for McEnroe.
He would have been eaten alive, unlike his female counterparts.
Meanwhile, Israeli Shahar Peer is celebrating back-to-back title successes after taking out the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan.
Peer eased past hometown player Akgul Amanmuradova, who eliminated top seed Yaroslava Shvedova in the semi-finals, 6-3 6-4 in the final.
Former world No.15 Peer jumped 11 places to No.46 this week after winning in China and can expect a similar rise in the latest rankings tomorrow.
Albert Montanes became the third Spanish player to win at least two titles on the ATP Tour this year when he claimed the Bucharest Open crown.
Twenty-eight-year-old Albert Montanes is also now a two-time winner this year after outlasting Argentine claycourt specialist Juan Monaco in two tie-breakers in Romania tonight.
Monaco has won the most matches on clay on the ATP Tour in 2009, but was unable to grasp his many opportunities against the Spaniard.
World No.53 Montanes saved five of the six break points he faced – all in the second set – while Monaco defended two of the three on his side of the net.
Montanes can expect a rise in the rankings tomorrow, but won’t be able to rely on his favoured surface for further improvement this year as Romania was the last claycourt event of the season.
French world No.13 Gael Monfils and German Philipp Kohlschreiber, ranked No.23, are set to fight out the Metz decider in the coming hours.
Both players enjoyed straight-sets semi-final triumphs – over French stars Richard Gasquet and Paul-Henri Mathieu – and will be confident of continuing their strong weeks.
Monfils boasts only one tour title – in Poland four years ago – while Kohlschreiber’s two victories have come over the past two years.
Their only meeting came last year when Monfils saluted in a third-set tie-breaker on an Austrian hardcourt.
Monfils, a former world junior No.1, spent a brief time inside the top 10 this year and is surely headed back there in the not-too-distant future.
I am a fan of both players, but I am giving the athletically gifted Monfils the edge in this clash in his hometown event.
September 24th 2009 11:00
NICOLAS Almagro’s season went from bad to worse when he exited the Bucharest Open in the second round last night.
That may sound like a bold statement for a player still nestled inside the world’s top 30 players.
But Almagro was as high as No.11 in July last year and failure in the last claycourt event of the year leaves him vulnerable to a rankings fall
[ Click here to read more ]
September 23rd 2009 13:18
KIM Clijsters’ amazing US Open triumph inspired people all over the globe – including, it seems, fellow Belgian Justine Henin.
Henin announced today that she, too, will return to the women’s tour and the Australian summer season is where it will happen.
The former world No.1 and seven-time grand slam champion listed Clijsters’ ragingly successful comeback as one of several reasons she is ready to return after a 16-month retirement
[ Click here to read more ]
September 23rd 2009 12:02
THREE of the Bucharest Open’s eight seeds tumbled out of contention in round-one action overnight.
Top-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu’s straight-sets defeat to Spaniard Oscar Hernandez was the biggest shock, but fourth-seeded Russian Igor Andreev and seventh-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi joined him on the scrap heap.
It was Hanescu’s second straight first-round exit at his home event
[ Click here to read more ]
September 22nd 2009 11:03
THE claycourt specialists are out in force for the last tournament on the red dirt for the year at the Bucharest Open in Romania this week.
Victor Hanescu is the top seed at his home event ahead of Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, Argentine Juan Monaco and Russian Igor Andreev.
The bottom four seeds are Spaniard Albert Montanes, Austrian Daniel Koellerer, Italian Andreas Seppi and Argentine Pablo Cuevas
[ Click here to read more ]
September 20th 2009 13:36
ISRAELI Shahar Peer won her first title – and fourth overall – in three years with a straight-sets triumph over Italian Alberta Brianti in the Guangzhou International final in China.
Peer looked set for a long career at the top after winning three titles in 2006, but has slipped down the rankings in the past two years to her current No.57 standing.
The 22-year-old didn’t have to beat much this week, but she has played many tournaments against mediocre opposition like this in recent years and hasn’t been able to emerge victorious
[ Click here to read more ]
September 20th 2009 12:45
SPAIN and the Czech Republic are the final nations left in the Davis Cup after both needed only three rubbers to barnstorm their way into December’s final.
But that was where the similarities in their victories ended.
Defending champion Spain, courtesy of former top-five baseliners David Ferrer and Juan Carlos Ferrero, crushed overachiever Israel in the singles match-ups
[ Click here to read more ]
September 18th 2009 11:50
FOUR different nations make up the Guangzhou International semi-final line-up after a straight-forward day of quarter-final results.
Local star and third seed Peng Shuai will fancy her chances of a maiden singles title against a remaining field of Israeli Shahar Peer, Japan’s Ayumi Morita and Italian Alberta Brianti.
Brianti eliminated Anastasija Sevastova, from Latvia, who defeated top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues
[ Click here to read more ]
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Comment by Marc McGowan
on More doubts on women's cred
Sports Righting
Women's sport does get a tough rap at times and I am usually one who defends it. But women's tennis has struggled in recent years due to a lack of depth.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but there are four major events on the tennis calendar called 'grand slams'. The depth (or lack thereof) of women's tennis is no better displayed than at these events. The women's draw is usually filled with lopsided results until around the quarter-final stage, where only eight players remain.
You could even get away with saying only the top seven or eight women's players are very good and the rest of the rankings could be raffled.
Daniela Hantuchova has been a top-10 player and is always around the top 25, but was one of the players who lost to Date-Krumm last week.
She is supposedly among the best women's players in the world, but can't beat a player who peaked more than a decade ago. Date-Krumm may be a phenomenal athlete, as I wrote, but she should not be able to return after 12 years and beat someone of Hantuchova's calibre unless something is very wrong.
Date-Krumm's success raises further questions about the validity of the women's tour. I am not sure what the answer is and why a player like Hantuchova can lose a match like this.
Does it mean women's tennis is behind men's tennis? Does it mean women's tennis players are less professional and are hence more vulnerable to bad losses? Do they not train as hard?
I'm not sure. I am simply offering my opinion on why a 39-year-old can return from such a long break. Date-Krumm's success is a credit to her - and her work ethic - but is to the detriment of the WTA Tour.