Quote For The Day

"We lived through a decade of Carlos Rodriguez coaching Justine Henin after every single point and nobody called it on them."

--Lindsay Davenport, Tennis Channel commentary during the Maria Sharapova, Samantha Stosur match on Monday, March 28, 2011.

Apparently, Sharapova was called out for on-court coaching from the stands during a previous match in Miami. Davenport seemed to be underscoring a double standard. Or maybe she was simply stating her perception of a widely known "fact."

I put fact in quotations for I remember Carlos and Maria being called out once. But only once. Back in 2004 during Justine's quarterfinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova in Indian Wells. I remember being surprised by the call out, but not by the coaching, which only the blind couldn't see. Those in denial wouldn't admit. Carlos was telling his charge to charge the net more in order to turn around the second set. Sveta was leading 5-4 or 5-3, according to my memory. Justine took her coaching advice and won the last 3 or 4 games to take the match in straights.

Quote For The Day

"I'm old enough to remember Willis Reed of the New York Knicks walking onto the court at Madison Square Garden with both knees taped to the max to tumultuous applause. That was how I felt when Venus not only walked back on court but picked up her racquet and resumed playing. She then proceeded to put on a tennis clinic. Visibly in pain she proceeded, not with flash, but with skill and knowledge to dismantle her upstart opponent who won the first set in a tiebreak that ended with Venus injury. Showing why she has won seven slam titles and playing with passion unseen for quite some time Venus won the second set 6-0.

"The final score was 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-4. Don't believe any bullshit you will hear or read about what happened last night. Venus trended worldwide on Twitter because of the dress. In the end the dress was a secondary story. The big story was that Venus started a match and she was going to finish it. Kind of makes that "tummy ache" from a few years ago laughable doesn't it?"--Savannah

Wimbledon Breaking News

by Savannah

The Wimbledon Referees have released the Order of Play for Centre Court tomorrow. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be in attendance.


The Championships 2010 Intended Order of Play for Thursday 24 June 2010

CENTRE COURT ONLY

CENTRE - SHOW COURT - 1.00 PM START

1. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs Andy Murray (GBR) [4]
2. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [3] vs Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)
3. Robin Haase (NED) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2]

Should I go into my conspiracy theory bag and think the WTA wanted Wozniacki on Centre Court as opposed to the defending champion?

More on this later from Craig I'm sure.

ETA:

You know they always say never assume. I assumed that Serena would be on Court 1. I was wrong. Here are the Court assignments for Courts 1 & 2. I can't talk about this now.

COURT 1 - SHOW COURT - 1.00 PM START

1. Ioana Raluca Olaru (ROU) vs Maria Sharapova (RUS) [16]
2. Robin Soderling (SWE) [6] vs Marcel Granollers (ESP)
3. Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) [13] vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

COURT 2 - SHOW COURT - 12.00 NOON START

1. Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [10]
2. Florent Serra (FRA) vs David Ferrer (ESP) [9]
3. Serena Williams (USA) [1] vs Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)
4. Na Li (CHN) [9] vs Kurumi Nara (JPN)

Quote For The Day

"There's nothing worse than that. That's just plain cheating, and they should throw him out of tennis. There's just no room for it." --Andy Roddick on Wayne Odesnik getting busted for carrying eight vials of HGH into Australia back in January

(Thanks, Savannah)

Quote For The Day

"Britain's Andy Murray has received such a big clothing contract from adidas — around £15m over five years — that the brand have ditched Novak Djokovic, Marcos Baghdatis and the Bryan brothers to help fund it. So there was understandable meltdown within adidas when Murray turned up for a photoshoot last week at Dubai’s new racecourse wearing a distinctive Hugo Boss-branded polo shirt. Jim Latham, head of adidas tennis, will be making clear his disappointment to the Murray camp." --Charles Sale

Venus Defends Dubai

Getty

But I don't.

Look. I couldn't bring myself to watch a single point. Won't watch one next week either. As Venus Williams might say, I'm not trying to be down with Dubai. Shahar Pe'er gets her previously denied visa to enter the country and perform, but even when she plays the defending champ -- the defending champ, the kind of defending champ that gives this kind of event serious stature in tennis -- she's relegated to an outer court? Which means the stature-giving defending champ is relegated to an outer court also.

That's some straight-up bullshit.

Hey, Venus. Why you still so down with Dubai?

I don't care how much the players on both tours like the event, it simply shouldn't exist and I wish it didn't.

But it does, so....

I give it lip when it crowns a champion.

Oy.

Serena Williams On Jimmy Kimmel Live

ESPN: Fire Mary Carillo (Updated)

Dear ESPN,

I've never seen Mary Carillo as anything but a commentator who covers the sport with insight and wit and as much objectivity as she can muster when certain players aren't on the court. I've defended her around the Internet for years against accusations of ineptitude and far worse. When it comes to Serena Williams, I've found her criticism a bit acidic, but fair, giving her the benefit of my doubt, if I had any doubt about her feelings at all.

Tonight, she crossed a line.

She actually said from the broadcast booth that the world No. 1 and defending Australian Open champion is trying to start a gender war and that she got away with threatening murder.

I spit out my tea.

This from an analyst who doesn't understand that having the best serve and having the best service games won statistics are two different measures of ability and execution. One's an opinion, the other, a quantifiable fact.

Serena committed no crime, Mary Carillo. She wasn't arrested and charged. She wasn't handcuffed or dragged out of Arthur Ashe stadium in shackles.

Pam Shriver came armed and ready, as though she knew Mary would take her rant to another level during Serena's second-round match. Sounded like Pam read from a page, bringing facts to the table and let her colleague and all of us know that no man in the NFL who had an actual physical altercation with an official was fined more than $25,000.

Mary Carillo has driven fans away from tonight's broadcast because they didn't want to hear any more of her slanderous vitriol.

ESPN, do the sport a favor and fire Mary Carillo. And if you can't or won't do that, then ban her from calling another Serena Williams match for the rest of her tenure with your corporation.

Sincerely,

Craig Hickman
Maine

Update
I had intended this only as an open letter venting, but a reader suggested I post the ESPN contact link here for anyone who wants to send them a complaint. If you prefer snail mail, their corporate address is:

ESPN, Inc.
545 Middle St
Bristol, CT 06010