No lobs allowed

It's time the tennis world spoke up

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words and some of the world’s top players and the leaders of their sport have said little in protest of the treatment of Israeli tennis players in Dubai and Sweden.

 

Most of the world’s top players, including Venus and Serena Williams, went ahead and played in Dubai last month after Israeli star Shahar Peer was denied entry for the WTA’s Dubai Tennis Championships. Officials said they feared fan anger over Israel’s recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The tournament was fined $300,000, but in Dubai that’s pocket change.

 

And this weekend, the Israeli Davis Cup team will play Sweden in an empty stadium without fans in Malmo. Israel’s doubles specialist Andy Ram blasted the International Tennis Federation on Thursday for not putting more pressure on Sweden.

 

"They say it’s bad but they don’t do anything," Ram told the Associated Press. "They have to act. Now it’s too late. Politics won over sports. That’s sad. You don’t see that very often in tennis."

Ram said the ITF should have put more pressure on Malmo officials who decided to play the first-round matchup in a closed arena because of fears of demonstrations and protests against Israel. Ram said the ITF should have issued an ultimatum to the Swedish organizers: Play with a crowd or the event would be moved to another country. ITF representative Jacques Dupre said the federation was disappointed with Malmo’s decision to ban fans from the series. “However, for the integrity of the competition, it is most important for the tie to go ahead,” he said.

 

Huh.

 

Hats off to Billie Jean King and Andy Roddick.

 

Roddick was one of the few pros to take a stand, pulling out of the Dubai tournament. And he was the defending champion.

 

"I really didn't agree with what went on over there. I don't know if it's the best thing to mix politics and sports, and that was probably a big part of it," Roddick told the Jerusalem Posti. Roddick's actions drew praise from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Check it out here.

 

At the Billie Jean King Cup earlier this week in Madison Square Garden, the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association was still upset about the visa troubles at the Dubai tournament and adamant the tour won’t return there next year if the problem recurs.

 

"Believe me, it will never happen again," King told The Associated Press. "We won’t be there, I can guarantee you that. Our sport has to set an example of freedom and equality."

 

Why can’t more top players and the leaders of the sport take a stand?

 

For more on the controversy, check out Jon Wertheim's Tennis Mailbag.

 

Serena edges Venus for Billie Jean King Cup

Serena Williams looked up at the rafters after beating her older sister Venus to win the Billie Jean King Cup. Following a short trip to her courtside chair, she walked to the center of the court, held her racquet up and waved to the crowd. Yes, the world’s No. 1 player enjoyed her first tennis tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Serena wore down Venus in a 6-4, 6-3 victory Monday night, wowing the fans with her impressive power as women’s tennis returned to the Garden after a nine-year absence.

“Definitely winning in Madison Square Garden, also with Billie Jean and this Cup is just really fun and it being the first time is really cool,” said Serena Williams, who took home $400,000 of the $1.2 million purse. I’m really excited about that opportunity. Hopefully it will continue to open more doors for women’s sports and women’s tennis.

The Williams sisters gave the crowd of 12,026 exactly what it wanted by advancing to the championship, but Venus was never the same after she was broken in a marathon game in the first set.
 
“The crowd was really nice, definitely,” said Venus Williams, who won the Mexican Open on Saturday night for her second WTA Tour title in two weeks. “I thought they were rooting for me to get back in and take it to the third, which I couldn’t quite do.”

The Garden hosted the WTA season-ending championships every year but one from 1977-2000, but the marquee event hasn’t been back since. After Roger Federer beat Pete Sampras in a riveting three-setter at MSG last year, four of the top seven women’s players in the world agreed to stage their own exhibition at “the world’s most famous arena.”

Serena Williams shook off an early challenge from seventh-ranked Ana Ivanovic and won 6-3 in the second semifinal after Venus advanced with a 6-4 victory over Jelena Jankovic in the one-night exhibition.

Before the final, former President Bill Clinton, figure skaters Sarah Hughes and Nancy Kerrigan and race car driver Janet Guthrie participated in a tribute to Billie Jean King, who founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973.

“She has probably done more than any other woman in the world to empower women and educate men,” Clinton said.

-- The Associated Press

Knowles, Bhupathi begin Dubai defense

Southlake resident Mark Knowles and Mahesh Bhupathi picked up their 50th match win as a duo after opening their title defense Tuesday at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over wild cards Hamoud Abbas and Mahmoud-Nader Al Baloushi. The No. 2 seeds this week at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament are making their first appearance since a runner-up finish at the Australian Open. The pair joined forces in January 2007, though they played together a handful of times in 1998 and 2000, and finished the season as the No. 3 duo in the ATP Doubles Team Rankings. They won back-to-back titles at Memphis and Dubai, and captured the Basel title in October.

Knowles is coming off a victory Sunday in Memphis where he teamed with American Mardy Fish. 

Sweden-Isreal match to go on without fans

If a Davis Cup tennis match were played and nobody came, would it still be a Davis Cup match. Apparently, if it's a match in Sweden, involving Isreal.

The Davis Cup matches between Sweden and Israel will be played without spectators in Malmo next month after an attempt fell through to move the venue to Stockholm. Swedish organizers Tuesday cited security concerns for the closed-door policy because anti-Israeli demonstrations are expected during the best-of-five series March 6-8.

“It’s terrible that they are trying to mix politics with sports, especially in an enlightened country like Sweden,” said Michael Klein, chairman of the Israeli Tennis Federation.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Tuesday the decision was not for his government to make: "If local authorities decide to prevent spectators from attending, what can I say? We leave it to local security authorities to do what they think is best.”

The action comes after the United Arab Emirates denied Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer a visa last week, preventing her from competing in Dubai. Organizers said they feared fan anger over Israel’s recent military offensive in Gaza. The WTA fined organizers a record $300,000. The UAE later granted a permit to Israeli Andy Ram to play in this week’s men’s tournament. Ram was chosen Tuesday to the Davis Cup team, along with Dudi Sela, Harel Levy and Noam Okun.

This will be the second time a Davis Cup series will be played in an empty arena in Sweden. In 1975, two years after a military coup in Chile led by Augusto Pinochet, Sweden played Chile in Bastad and no spectators were allowed.

The Malmo-Stockholm matter has an unmistakable political dimension. Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, has a left-leaning local government and large Muslim minority. Its leaders have strongly criticized Israel after the Gaza invasion. Some called for dropping the Davis Cup matches altogether. Stockholm has a center-right majority that is more pro-Israeli. The Swedish capital on Monday offered to step in as an alternate venue, saying it was better prepared to guarantee security. The plan was canceled when Stockholm officials realized they wouldn’t be able to organize in time for the Israeli team’s Sunday arrival, said Madeleine Sjostedt, Stockholm’s vice mayor in charge of culture and sports. She said it’s “regrettable that Malmo doesn’t engage in discussion with those who threaten with violence.”

Malmo Mayor Ilmar Reepalu insisted the decision to bar spectators was based solely on security. Reepalu noted that pro-Palestinian groups disrupted a recent pro-Israel demonstration by throwing bottles, eggs and fireworks. “It shows the tensions that exist after the conflict in Gaza,” Reepalu told The Associated Press by telephone.

McEnroe names Davis Cup team

The U.S. Davis Cup team will go with its regular lineup for an opening-round match against Switzerland on March 6-8 in Birmingham, Ala. U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said Tuesday that Andy Roddick, James Blake and the doubles team of twins Bob and Mike Bryan will team up for the 11th time in the past 12 Davis Cup matches.

The match changed dramatically when 13-time Gland Slam singles champion Roger Federer pulled out of the series because of a back problem after announcing his decision in October to participate in the Davis Cup opening round for the first time since 2004.

“With Roger pulling out, that obviously changes the dynamic a little bit of the tie,” McEnroe said in a conference call with reporters. “Certainly if Roger was playing, it would have been pretty even. I think this certainly makes us a pretty solid favorite. We’re not overlooking the team that Switzerland brings in.”

The U.S.-Switzerland winner advances to face either Chile or Croatia in the quarterfinals on July 10-12. The Swiss team will include Stanislas Wawrinka, Stephane Bohli, Marco Chudinelli and Yves Allegro. No. 17 Wawrinka is the only one of the four ranked in the Top 100 of the ATP Tour.

The U.S. fell short of defending its Davis Cup title with a loss to Spain in the semifinals last year.
“The goal is to try to get into the later rounds and win the Cup again,” McEnroe said. “We have the capability of that.”

Without him, the Americans will arrive in Birmingham as heavy favorites to advance to the next round. The depleted Swiss squad figure to rely heavily on 17th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka, their only other player ranked in the Top 100 of the ATP Tour.

Other 2009 Davis Cup First Round action includes: Croatia vs. Chile, Argentina vs. Netherlands, Czech Republic vs. France, Sweden vs. Israel, Romania vs. Russia, Germany vs. Austria, and Spain vs. Serbia.

Tennis Channel signed a multi-year deal to be the exclusive U.S. television home of all U.S. Davis Cup ties. All three days of the U.S.-Switzerland tie (March 6-8; daily covering starting at noon CST) will be broadcast live in high-definition on Tennis Channel.

Agassi, Graf to play under Centre Court roof

Former Wimbledon champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf will return to the All England Club in May to try out the playing conditions under the new Centre Court roof. Agassi and Graf will join Kim Clijsters and Tim Henman for a series of exhibition matches on May 17, five weeks before the Wimbledon tournament June 22-July 5.

The event — dubbed “A Centre Court Celebration” — is designed to test the new roof and air management system with live matches in front of a capacity crowd of 15,000. The program will feature a men’s singles, a women’s singles and a mixed doubles match. The matches will be played in a pro-set format—the first to eight games, with a tiebreaker at 8-8.

Tickets, which will cost $50, will go on sale March 12. The new sliding roof will help alleviate Wimbledon’s perennial rain delays. The traditional roof overhang on Centre Court was removed after the 2006 tournament, leaving the grass surface more open to the elements in 2007. The overhang was back in 2008, along with 1,200 extra seats.