Tennis Gossip !!

8-29-06

8-29-06

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
A men's locker room attendant said that Andrei Pavel made his first appearance on site at the BJK National Tennis Center on Monday at 3 p.m., the day he played Andre Agassi?...Andy Roddick will reportedly be on his own in Europe after the US Open, without the services of coach Jimmy Connors unless he qualifies for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai...From Newyorkbusiness.com: "Creative Sports and Entertainment Inc. sued professional tennis coach and ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert for $788,000, after he allegedly cut his long-time friend and sports agent, David Bagliebter, out of a number of lucrative contracts. The tennis coach allegedly told ESPN last month to begin paying him directly and stop sending payments to Mr. Bagliebter, who negotiated Mr. Gilbert's three-year broadcasting contract with the sports network in April 2005. The contract called for ESPN to pay Mr. Gilbert $60,000 per Grand Slam event and additional fees for other broadcasting services, according to the suit. Under a 2003 contract, all payments were to be sent to Mr. Bagliebter's firm, which would take out 15% and send the balance to Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert is also accused of cutting Mr. Bagliebter out of negotiations with the U.K.-based Lawn Tennis Association to become Andy Murray's coach, and for other services, in a 3-1/2 year deal, for $1.3 million a year. Mr. Bagliebter claims that Mr. Gilbert had pulled him out of negotiations earlier in the month by saying he probably would not want the job because it would require that he spent a lot of time in England. The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, says that Mr. Bagliebter has been Mr. Gilbert's friend and manager for the past 20 years."...Monday was a sell-out at the US Open, with the night session attendance of 23K+ a new record...You know the video replay challenge system is creating excitement when journalists in the US Open media center are watching the Andre Agassi-Andrei Pavel match saying "Challenge! Challenge!"...Maria Sharpaova has signed a "lifetime" contract with Prince, worth approximately $25 million over the next 10 years, according to the AP...From smh.com.au: "Mauresmo has won Wimbledon and the Australian Open this year and held the sport's No.1 spot since March 30. She's the top seed at the US Open in New York, where play started on Monday. Yet Mauresmo, who is openly gay, lags her rivals in endorsements. "The corporate world wants this perfect female," said Mauresmo's agent, Micky Lawler. For now, that's Sharapova. At 1.88 metres tall and 60 kilograms with model looks, Sharapova is the world's top-paid female athlete, earning $US19 million ($25 million) a year, according to Forbes magazine. Offers rolled in after she won Wimbledon in 2004. Now the 19-year-old snaps pictures for Canon, chats on a pink phone for Motorola and poses for Sports Illustrated magazine's swimsuit issue. At least Sharapova, who lives in Bradenton, Florida, has 16 career singles titles. Winning wasn't necessary for Russian player Anna Kournikova to rake in sponsorship dollars. Mauresmo, 27, who introduced the press to her girlfriend at the Australian Open seven years ago, has endorsements only with a natural gas company and an eyeglass retailer in her native France. She also has equipment sponsors Reebok and Dunlop Sports."...Greg Rusedski speaking with The Sun on facing fellow Brit Tim Henman at the US Open: "There is not as much needle between us as there used to be. We are at the end of our careers and we have both been dealing with injuries. We want to win but it is not like we are coming through at a young age or in the top 10. We both have families now. I have a young daughter and he has two girls as well. Everything gets put into perspective and you're trying to enjoy that last bit. It's funny that we are playing against each other again. The mathematical probability is one in 127. Tim seems to end up with British draws lately. He nearly had to play Andy Murray for three straight weeks. We played against each other at the Australian Open but it's the first time we'll have played at the US Open, so we'll both look forward to it. I've seen Tim in the locker room. He gave a chuckle and just said 'It's another local derby.'"...Sony Ericsson will replace NASDAQ as the title sponsor of the ATP/WTA Miami/Key Biscayne event in 2007.

Also see:
Superstitious Henin Not a Big Fan of US Open, On-Court Coaching
http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2006-08-28/c.php
 
8-30-06

8-30-06

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Jim Courier
blogging from the US Open: "I stayed to watch the match until the end. Typically I go home during the men's late match to rest up for the next day, having started on the air at 11am, but there is no chance I will miss any of AA's matches at this tournament. I feel like I'm back on the Davis Cup team with him, living and dying with each point. It's not the kosher thing for a broadcaster to cheer openly for a player but who's kidding who? I'm no broadcaster...I'm just a player having fun talking tennis and sharing my stories with you, the viewer at home, so I'm not too concerned. Hey, you can always make the Open more enjoyable and hit mute if you like. It's what I did for years when I was playing this tournament!"...Spotted at the US Open: actresses Shannon Elizabeth and Holly Hunter, model Gisele Bundchen, out-and-about pop star Lance Bass, and former basketball greats Maurice Cheeks and Isaiah Thomas...16-year-old American wildcard Lauren Albanese, who beat Top 100-ranked Olga Savchuk Monday, will next get a lesson in big-girl tennis from No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. Albanese earned her wildcard as the USTA Girls' 18s National Champion, not losing a set at the event. The best Girls' 18s winning performer at the US Open ever? Chris Evert, who went on to the semifinals in 1971 (l. to Billie Jean King)...Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett, and Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor have become the third and fourth teams to qualify for the eight-team field at the year-end Masters Cup doubles...Ivan Ljubicic has been appointed the ATP Player Council president, and James Blake the vice president, and will serve for the next two years: "I've been in the Council for three-and-a-half years now, and it's a very, very important period in front of us," Ljubicic said. "I'm looking forward to see how we can bring the game up and make improvements because there are a lot of things to do."...Billie Jean King dropped a lot of weight for her stadium naming Monday and looked great, kudos to her, and the USTA for the naming over the cash...From X-reader Myob117: "I saw Serena practicing (at the US Open) yesterday next to the Red Star Cafe. If she doesn't take some serious poundage off real soon, that knee doesn't have a chance. She needs to drop 20 pounds minimum, 30 would be better, before she can hope to keep up with the competition."...Judy Murray writing on son Andy for The Telegraph: "I took Andy to Wimbledon when he was seven along with about 20 other kids from our local club. We had some tickets for the show courts but he just camped out for three days at the practice ground, waiting to see Agassi and hoping to get his autograph. He was so small that, whenever Agassi appeared, he got lost in the crowd of autograph hunters and returned to Dunblane without it. He has never forgotten how disappointed he was to miss out and that is why now he will always try and sign for as many kids as he can. There is no doubt that Agassi was a huge influence on Andy's tennis at an early age --- you can see similarities in the way he hits his double-handed backhand and how he prepares for his forehand. Kids learn best from copying and there was no greater role model than Agassi. Both are incredible returners of serve and great counter-attackers."...The September ATP China Open in Beijing will be the first event outside the US to use the video replay challenge system...From the AP: "Luke Jensen, nicknamed "Dual Hand Luke" for his ambidextrous play as a pro and a member of the United States Davis Cup team in the early 1990s, was named head tennis coach at Syracuse University on Tuesday. "This is an unbelievable announcement for us to have someone with the experience and the knowledge of tennis like Luke Jensen," Syracuse director of athletics Daryl Gross said. "To bring him to the Syracuse community is incredible." Jensen's credentials includes 10 ATP Tour doubles titles and singles victories against some of the top names in the game -- Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Jim Courier." -- Oops, Luke never beat or even played Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Sampras, Connors, Becker, Edberg or Courier on tour...From the blogging Peter Bodo: "I would hate myself even more if I didn't express what I felt. I found it obscene that Mary Carillo somehow conflated Billie Jean and Dr. Martin Luther King in her opening remarks."...Betty Agassi, mother of Andre Agassi, has launching a global initiative at the US Open to educate women battling breast cancer about ways that will help them minimize the risk of their cancer coming back. Betty Agassi was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000...Donald Young tells Tennis-X he was between 5-foot-11 and six feet the last time he measured himself...Russia will front Marat Safin and Nikolay Davydenko in singles against the U.S. in the Davis Cup semifinals on clay at Russia...Look for Marcos Baghdatis to be tight in his first-time meeting with his childhood idol Andre Agassi...Andre Agassi's 3-1/2 hour win in the first round of the US Open helped USA Network earn its highest opening-night TV ratings in 23 years of airing the tournament.
 
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