Great Britain fields a strong squad to take on the USA in the 34th Maureen Connolly Trophy, which will be played from Thursday June 17 to Saturday June 19 at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne.
The 18-and-under competition between the two nations resumes for the first time since 2007 when it was played in Dallas, Texas, and has a rich history. It will run alongside the AEGON International joint ATP World Tour/Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournament currently underway at Devonshire Park. Laura Robson (16), Tara Moore (17), Lucy Brown (18) and Eleanor Dean (14) are in the Great Britain squad under joint GB captains Claire Curran and Iain Bates. "It's a great opportunity for these players to have a series of high quality matches on grass against a strong American team in an event which has seen plenty of great tennis down the years," said Bates. "We are excited about the balance of our team, with players of different ages and we're all looking forward to competing in a great spirit, in keeping with the tradition of previous Maureen Connolly matches." Sloane Stephens (17), Ester Goldfied (16), Monica Turewicz (17), Chanelle Van Nguyen (16) and Grace Min (16) are in the squad for the USA . The USA currently leads the Maureen Connolly Trophy series 20-11. The event dates back to 1973, 20 years after Connolly completed the Grand Slam of all four major events in one season. The competition was started by the Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation and Mrs Frank Jeffett. The format of the competition is a two-day tie comprising eight singles and four doubles rubbers. All matches will be best of three sets with a tie-break in the final set.
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Thomas Muster may be 42 years old and 11 of them may have passed since the Austrian last contested a match on the ATP World Tour but he insists he never announced his retirement and now intends a comeback with some of his potential opponents being a quarter of a century his junior.
Muster, French Open champion in 1995 and for the last five years a regular on the ATP Tour of Champions, has accepted a wild card into an $125,000 ATP Challenger event in Braunschweig, Germany which runs June 28 thru July 4. Naturally enough the Nord/LB Open will be held on clay and Muster, who topped the world rankings on February 12, 1996, used to view the grass court season as his annual holiday. He only contested Wimbledon four times compared to 14 visits to Roland Garros. Explaining his shock decision, the Leibnitz-born player who captained Austria’s Davis Cup team, established an apparel brand named Toms and owns a vineyard in his home country, said: “I just love to play. I love the competition. “It’s not about garnering world ranking points for me. I just want to show my best tennis and see where it will all take me.” But Muster, a predecessor of Rafael Nadal as owner of the title “The King of Clay’ with 44 career singles titles and a prize haul of more than $12 million to his name, insists this is not a comeback in the true sense of the word. Casting his mind back to his last event on the ATP World Tour at the 1999 French Open when he lost in the first round to Nicolas Lapentti and has suffered eight first round defeats in ten tournaments, Muster insisted: “At the time all I said was I was going on holiday. So now I'm back from my holiday.” The most common question being asked on Day 1 of Wimbledon wasn’t whether Roger Federer would retain his crown or if the price of a punnet of strawberries and cream had broken through the £10 barrier. Most conjecture focused around the issue of whether or not Andy Murray would bow to the Royal Box when Queen Elizabeth II ends a 33 year absence from the All England Club’s Championships on Thursday. The conjecture may of course be purely hypothetical if Murray loses in his opening round match to Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic, scheduled for the second day of the tournament. But the matter of whether or not the Scot is a patriotic Royalist was front page news in most of the British newspapers as Murray prepared in another bid to become the first home grown Men’s singles Champion since Fred Perry in 1936. “Andy Murray is still dithering about one aspect of his Wimbledon strategy - whether to bow to the Queen,” said the Daily Mail. Meanwhile the staunchly conservative Daily Telegraph declared: “One of the great benefits of a free country is the freedom to criticize it – and Andy Murray is utterly free to think whatever he wants about the Queen.”
The tradition of bowing or curtseying to the Royal Box on Centre Court ended in 2003. But since the halcyon days of Princess Diana being a regular attendee of the Championships, lower profile members of the British royal family such as the Duke of Kent or Duchess of Gloucester have filled the front row seats. But with players not being obliged to show the usual gesture of respect towards the monarch, her subjects worldwide will be watching closely to see who adheres to traditional protocol. A Wimbledon spokesman said players would be asked whether they would like to bow or curtsey, but there will not be any hard and fast orders. “I'll have to wait and see,” said Murray. “It should be personal preference,' he said. 'I'll have a chat with the guys. I don't want to be bowing and the person I'm playing with walks straight past - or the other way around. You obviously have to have an agreement before you go on.” Boris Becker has set up home with his new wife and child as a Wimbledon resident and couldn’t be happier. But he is appalled by the fact that not a single Englishman figures in the 128-strong Men’s Singles main draw this year for the first time in its’ 133 year history.
Britain’s only two representatives are both Scottish; fourth seed Andy Murray and wild card recipient Jamie Baker. Stricter measures have been used over the issuing of wild cards this year and Alex Bogdanovic, Daniel Evans and Josh Goodall and seven others were all knocked out in the qualifying rounds while James Ward elected to play at Eastbourne where he reached the quarter finals. Meantime Becker views the quality of English players with disbelief. “It is a shocking fact and there can be no excuse,” he said. “Frankly it is beyond belief and somebody must be doing something horribly wrong. A country has the finest tennis tournament in the world and does not have one player good enough to play. The image of tennis is all wrong over here and needs to change. I love football but over here that is everything all the time and I’d just like tennis to be that much bigger.” The Lawn Tennis Association decreed that no wild cards would be given to players outside the world’s top 250 – although Baker, who has only just recaptured full fitness after a horrendous couple of years with illness and injury, is currently ranked 259. Ward, whose ranking also dropped because of illness and currently stands at 342 although that is guaranteed to rise after two notable wins at Eastourne over Feliciano Lopez and Rainer Schuettler, feels hard done by. “It's a little bit disappointing not to get a wildcard,” said the Londoner. “I've been in the top 250 for 18 months and only dropped off the week before the cut because of losing the points from the Sarasota Challenger I won last year. But what can I do? I don't make the decisions.” Britain’s new Davis Cup captain Leon Smith accepts the current rankings are not good enough but was heartened by the way his players battled hard in the qualifying rounds. “That's what we need to concentrate on - creating an environment where more British players aren't just in the first round because of a wildcard, but on merit,” he said. However one of Smith’s predecessors David Lloyd was highly critical of the LTA's failure to put Ward forward for a wildcard, attaching the blame to chief executive Roger Draper. “Maybe Roger Draper has done it for a reason so that they don't all lose in the first round and he loses his job," said Lloyd. "He can't get slaughtered now. He's not stupid.” Roger Federer cannot regain the No. 1 ranking from Rafael Nadal even if he defends his Wimbledon crown and after the Spaniard won Roland Garros, he stopped Federer's total weeks at No. 1 count at 285 weeks, just one short of all time leader Pete Sampras.
“I'm so close, it's obviously a pity to some degree,” said Federer at Wimbledon, where he is the top seed. “At the same time I'm happy for Pete so he can keep it for the moment. If I get it back, it's even sweeter. So I'll definitely try to do that. Once the clay court season was going to come around, it was always logical that Rafa was going to pick up tournaments. I don't want to say nobody expected him to win all four. But I know his level of play on clay. It's supreme to anybody. So it was impressive to see how well he played. He deserves to be world No. 1 again.” Last year, Nadal was unable to play Wimbledon and attempt to defend his title as he was suffering knee injuries, but the last time the two played at the All England Club in 2008 final, Nadal stopped the Swiss winning streak at five titles in a classic five setter. Federer, who won his sixth title in 2009, would love to have a chance at revenge. “Last year was a big blow because he was the defending champion,” said Federer, who overcame Andy Roddick in a five set final. ““Sure, in some ways it makes it maybe easier to win, but at the same time you have more pressure, too. If you think about it, it doesn't make it any easier because pressure plays a huge part in our game. Look, I'm happy he's back. I want him to play every tournament. I want the other guys to play as well because it's better for the game if we all face off, that there's more story for the sport.” Even though he owns 16 Grand Slam titles to seven from Nadal, the lefthander owns a 14-7 record against the Swiss, arguably the only stain on Federer's otherwise brilliant record. Both Federer and Nadal lost matches in grasscourt warm-up tournaments coming into Wimbledon, but both were pleased with their form overall. Nadal didn't drop a set at Roland Garros, playing both standout offense and defensive. Federer expects more of the same at Wimbledon. “Some think he plays defensive because he's got incredible passing shots. But on the offensive with his forehand, he can put it on a dime wherever he wants to do it,” Federer said. We've seen him play aggressive in the past on hard courts and grass courts. I don't think he needs to prove himself anymore that he can play offensive. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to win the Australian Open and, let's say, Wimbledon as well. I felt like what I saw was the old classic Rafa on clay hardly losing sets and matches. That's what we got from him. That's why it's going to be incredibly hard to beat him here at Wimbledon.” A year ago Dinara Safina began Wimbledon as the world no.1 but now the Russian’s career appears to hang in the balance as she was forced to withdraw from the Championships with a recurrence of the back injury which has plagued her for the last eight months. Safina was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year but has now dropped to 21st place on the latest WTA Tour ranking list and now seems destined to go much lower. She finally succumbed to the injury late on Saturday after originally being included in the Ladies Singles draw as 20th seed but reported on twitter: “My back injury came back and I can't play. I tried but I can't. Sorry
“It was really not easy for me to take this decision but was no more choice.” Safina, aged 24, first complained about her troublesome back at last year’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships when she was forced to withdraw and despite two months of rest was far from 100% fit during the Australian Open when she again retired from her fourth round match against fellow Muscovite Maria Kirilenko. She did not play again until April but, after winning her first match at her first tournament back in Stuttgart, she has since failed to claim a victory and lost in the first round in the Netherlands at s'Hertogenbosch last week. Safina’s losing run included a first round defeat at the French Open where she was defending a mass of ranking points after reaching the final 12 months earlier and she complained her back condition prevented her from addressing issues in her game. She said: “Basically I couldn't work on my serve until I got to Paris and then I had a lot of trouble with the motion during my matches.” Heat stroke occurs when the body’s thermoregulatory system fails. The body can no longer cool itself, and the victim will die if formal treatment is not initiated. This is an emergency situation that requires emergency medical support. Treatment includes cooling procedures and intravenous fluids and electrolytes, as well as careful monitoring of all vital signs. The victim often is not sweating, has loss of memory and balance, and may lose consciousness. Failure to recognize this condition and to initiate immediate medical treatment can result in the victim’s permanent injury and even death.
Do you want to be a US Open Tennis Championships Ballperson?
Are you… a talented athlete, with a great throwing arm, with pinpoint throwing accuracy, fast and agile on your feet, have quick catching and nimble hands and a thorough understanding of the game of tennis? How are you doing so far? If you have met the above criteria, continue on… Are you…at least 14 years old by Aug. 23 (if selected you will need valid New York State Working Papers if you are under 18 years old – Contact your school’s employment office for more info); available for ballperson interviews/callbacks the week of July 13; available for Clothing Distribution and Rookie training on Sun., Aug. 22; available to work Tuesday, August 24 through Sunday, September 12? No prior application needed. Open tryouts will be held: Thursday, June 24, 2010 Registration begins at 3pm. Tryouts start at 4pm at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. IMG Academies and Atlanta Tennis Championships announced the IMG Bollettieri Tennis Academy as an official sponsor of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
Taking place from July 19-25, the event will also hold the US Open National Playoffs Qualifying Tournament and a “Kid’s Day” led by coaching guru Nick Bollettieri from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday, July 21. “After 50-plus years of coaching, I still get tremendous joy from working with kids because they represent the future of tennis,” said Bollettieri. Bollettieri will host a clinic for 100-plus kids from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by him hosting a Q and A about tennis, match strategy and other tennis-related topics for fans of all ages from 1-2 p.m. on the Stadium Court. He will then be available for autographs from 2-2:30 p.m. Committed ATP players include John Isner, Marcos Baghditas, Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, Robby Ginepri and Mardy Fish. During the week, the men’s winners from 16 US Open National Playoffs Qualifying Tournaments will battle for one spot in the 2010 US Open Qualifying Tournament in Flushing Meadow, N.Y. You wouldn’t really associate Andy Roddick with tank tops and glitter, but when it’s for a good cause, why not?
The Andy Roddick Foundation is featuring some proshop specials. There’s a Crystal White or Black Beater tank top with ‘andyroddick’ emblazoned across the front in Swarovski crystals. At only $19.99 (a 20% savings), these stylish tanks make the perfect addition to any summer party gift bag or just a chic gift for your best friend. Or the more traditional ARF No Compromise tank top is just $11.99. While you’re wearing the clothes you can lounge in your ARF Folding Beach Chair. The canvas folding chair has two mesh cup holders and matching carrying bag. That goes for $25.99. Check out http://proshop.andyroddick.com for details and a look at the products on offer, before June 30. |
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