P a i n t i n g T h e L i n e s

Sports Greats Define Poker at PCA

2010-01-07T08:11:00.001-08:00

Sports Greats Define Poker at PCA

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Federer's Wilson BLX 210: Feel is Elemental

2009-12-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Reclaiming the year-end world No. 1 ranking – Is it really that improbable?

2009-11-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

Amongst the 15 players to have held the year-end No. 1 ranking since the ATP adopted a computerized ranking system in 1973, Ivan Lendl remains the only one to successfully reclaim the lost mantle of the world's numero uno when usurped at the top by another player. With a lead of some 950 points over second placed Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer is poised to become the first player to match Lendl's 1989 feat. However...

In 1979, Borg and McEnroe became the first players to earn in excess of US$1 million in prize money in one season.

In 1998, Pete Sampras finished as the year-end world No. 1 for a record-breaking sixth straight season, bettering Jimmy Connor's old mark of five between 1974-78.

On November 19, 2001 Lleyton Hewitt became the youngest player to reach the world No. 1 ranking at age 20 years and 8 months.

Yet amongst the 15 players to have held the year-end No. 1 ranking since the ATP adopted a computerized ranking system in 1973, Ivan Lendl remains the only one to successfully reclaim the lost mantle of the world's numero uno when usurped at the top by another player.

With a lead of some 950 points over second placed Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer is poised to become the first player to match Lendl's 1989 feat.

However, there is one more tournament to be played before the season's out.

The player to emerge unbeaten from the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London next week stands to receive a whopping 1,500 points.

A number of possible, yet intriguing, scenarios have been worked out by the ATP:

1. If Nadal is an undefeated champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (winning all-three round-robin matches, a semifinal and final) he will earn the maximum 1,500 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win all three round-robin matches OR reach the final to beat out Nadal for the year-end No. 1 spot.

2. If Nadal goes 2-1 in round-robin play and wins the title he will earn 1,300 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win two round-robin matches OR win one round-robin match and reach the final to beat out Nadal for the year-end No. 1 spot.

3. If Nadal goes 3-0 in round-robin play, wins his semi-final but loses the final he will earn 1,000 points. If that happens, Federer would need only to win one round-robin match to beat out Nadal for the year-end No. 1 spot.

But that's not all folks.

To complicate matters further, starting this year, players participating in World Group or World Group playoff ties will earn ATP ranking points. According to www.daviscup.com:

a) Accumulated points for all Davis Cup play over the preceding 52-week period will count as one result and form part of the ATP World Tour 500 category, the best of which count towards a player’s ranking.

b) ATP ranking points are awarded for performances in live rubbers. Points will not be awarded for dead rubbers.

c) Players who miss a round of ties (i.e. not among the four nominated players at the draw) will be awarded points based on the immediately preceding round.(For example, a player who doesn’t play the first round but plays the second round will earn 40 points for each singles match won in that second round).

d) Points will be added after every round of ties and deducted at the same stage the following year.
See ATP Ranking Points as explained on www.daviscup.com for further details.

What is a known fact is that Roger Federer played only two singles rubbers this year and won both in Switzerland's World Group Playoff victory against Italy in September.

Rafael Nadal also played only two singles rubbers this year and won both in Spain's 1st round victory against Serbia in March.

Exactly just how the various scenarios will pan out after factoring in the bonus points from the Davis Cup ties, is anyone's guess.

To be absolutely foolproof safe, however, we really ought to have ATP stats guru Greg Sharko to take a closer look at the numbers behind this story.

Additional Info:

Prize money and South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings points information for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, from 22-29 November at The O2 in London.

TOURNAMENT PRIZE MONEY (SINGLES PLAYERS)
Alternate $70,000
*Participation Fee $120,000
Round Robin Win – Per Match Won $120,000
Semi-final Match Winner - $380,000
Final Win $770,000
Undefeated Champion $1,630,000

* Pro-rated on a per match basis:
$70,000 = 1 match
$95,000 = 2 matches
$120,000 = 3 matches

Did You Know...

2009-11-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

Fabrice Santoro, the man Pete Sampras calls "The Magician", the player who possesses the diabolically nasty double-handed forehand slice as a weapon in his extensive armoury, has beaten 17 of the 20 players who had ever held the No. 1 world ranking: Muster, Agassi, Connors, Becker, Wilander, Sampras, Courier, Kuerten, Rios, Edberg, Federer, Rafter, Safin, Moya, Hewitt, Ferrero, Roddick?

The only former world No. 1 players he failed to conquer were Ivan Lendl, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and Rafael Nadal. The remaining four number ones he never played against were John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, John Newcombe, and Ilie Nastase.

Farewell Marat Vid

2009-11-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

"Mastering the sport of tennis is an exceedingly difficult proposition..."

2009-11-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

"When you pick up a basketball, all you have to do is put it through the hoop. A kid does it once; he wants to do it again because it reminds him of LeBron or Kobe. Nothing a kid does on a tennis court can remind him of what he sees in Federer or Nadal."
Read More...

"He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some."

2009-10-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

In a shocking revelation in his soon-to-be-released autobiography entitled "Open" next month, Andre Agassi, the only man to have won all four Grand Slam singles title and the Olympic men's singles gold medal in his career, admitted to regularly using crystal meth and knowingly lied about it to the authorities to escape a ban.

It was a time when his ranking was free-falling to the lowest point in his career.

He was enduring the worst year of his professional career in 1997 as he struggled with a wrist injury, and his world ranking had plummeted to an all-time low of No. 141 that November.
Excerpts from Agassi's soul-searching autobiography Open, published in advance of its release on November 9 also tell how he secretly hated playing tennis, and as a boy lived in fear of his father's violent temper.

Incredibly, Agassi also admitted to being notified by the ATP of a failed drug test and in response, writing a personal letter to explain that it had been accidental ingestion and pleaded for understanding and leniency.

But it was all a lie…a cover-up, he reveals in his book.

Agassi was just seen last weekend at the Macau Venetian playing old foe Pete Sampras in an exhibition, which he lost in a third set super-tiebreak.

The opening act featured two upcoming teenagers, Ryan Harrison and Yuki Bhambri.

The release of "Open", which comes hot on the heels of the Macau exhibition, would naturally make anyone suspect of the timing of it all.

However, more bewildering is the notion that the eight-time Grand Slam champion, who is married to Steffi Graf, arguably one of the best women's tennis players that ever played the game, would be doing all this for a few extra bucks that he doesn't need.

Agassi wrote in his autobiography: "Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful - and I've never felt such energy."

This self-confession can only tarnish his reputation and on the surface seems more damage, rather than good, will come out of this episode.

But the irony to all this is that if crystal meth is not performance-enhancing, i.e. a recreational drug, then taking it should, in theory, impair rather than improve one's on-court performance, no?

YouTube: Image is Everything, Canon (1990)

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1223679/How-did-Andre-Agassi-away-taking-drugs.html#ixzz0VHHMeCUZ

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jonathanoverend/2009/10/agassi_confession_lengthens_sh.html#jump_more

Kubler set to scale new heights after Osaka win

2009-10-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Osaka Mayor's Cup may have witnessed the first and last time Jason Murray Kubler would ever grace the courts here at the Utsubo Tennis Center. For the Aussie's, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, victory over Japan's Hiroyasu Ehara in Sunday's boys' singles final was all but confirmation of his ascension to the Junior Slams and beyond.

There is no looking back now.

Yet, on a brighter note, the city of Osaka, which had been host to the tournament in every October since 1996, can lay claim to possessing the distinction of catapulting the youngster to dizzying heights when he was still a rising junior.

For the history books would say Osaka was the launching pad where it all came together for the 16-year-old.

Make no mistake about it: This is liftoff.

Kubler's results earlier this week in Osaka were frankly impressive.

He had dropped a staggering 11 games in his four matches prior to the semifinals in which he coolly disposed of No. 9 seed Yasutaka Uchiyama in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5.

In fact, so indefatigable was Kubler's play, it was bordering absurdity by the third round when he yielded just one game against No. 5 seed Hsieh Cheng-Peng, who was ranked as high as No. 8 in the world after winning this year's Grade 1 Japan Open, not to mention being the proud owner of four Grand Slam doubles titles to date.

Then in the ensuing quarterfinals, the Aussie faced the Philippines' Jeson Patrombon, who, though unseeded, had already knocked out No. 4 Shuichi Sekiguchi and No. 15 Vaidik Munshaw in the previous two rounds.

As it turned out, Kubler was ruthlessly efficient - He dished out a double-bagel.

The degree of supremacy is not clearly comprehensible until one compares the age of the two players. Patrombon, who is a little over a month older than his Aussie counterpart, was almost as if faced with a boys-against-men type scenario in which he had no business putting his foot in.

Never had there been such anticipation of an eleventh seed competing at the Osaka Mayor's Cup. Ever since his led Australia to a come-from-behind victory in the Junior Davis Cup final to equal Rafael Nadal's impressive WJT-JDC double (and as the team's No. 1 singles player in both finals, no less), this was always going to be Kubler's tournament.

It was never about whether world No. 2 and reigning Roland Garros winner Daniel Bertha would lift his first title here in Osaka, nor was it a debate whether a local boy would win his prestigious home tournament.

No.

The name Kubler was, and is, all the rage ― and rather predictably, he turned out to be more than just hype.

Well, this week, at least.

See also: Jason Kubler matches Rafael Nadal's primo WJT-JDC double (www.tennishk.org, 5 Oct 2009)

Why Novak Djokovic said no to Great Britain

2009-10-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

From The Times October 16, 2009
By Neil Harman

We will never know how close Novak Djokovic came to representing Great Britain. But as his Cadillac was manoeuvred out of the Shanghai slow lanes and picked up a heady turn of speed yesterday, there was no holding back on his first account of a riveting tale that could have inspired a team from this country to win the Davis Cup. Read More...

How the pros paint lines

2009-09-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

The task of painting the lines might seem complicated, labourious, and sometimes downright confounding to the novice - painting inside the lines, just outside the lines, plum on the line, just scraping the lines, between the lines, over the lines, on top of the lines, below the lines, around the lines, nicking the lines, or just old fashioned bang on the line...To be continued