Mr. Ed's Champs & Chumps (October 12, 2002)
by Ed Zafian


This week we take a quick spin around the tennis world looking for Champs & Chumps as the 2002 season winds down.


Champs

Good news for Tommy Haas as his parents were courtside to watch him defeat Mikhail Youzhny in Vienna.  Peter and Brigitte Haas were seriously injured in a motorcylce nearly four months ago.  Perhaps the occassion was too overwhelming for Haas as he lost his next match Austrian wildcard, Juergen Melzer.  Having missed Wimbledon due to the family emergency, Haas is hoping these last weeks of the season are good enough to get him into the Tennis Masters Cup.

Looking for a way to gain entry into WTA tournaments, but your ranking is not quite up to par?  Well, all you need is to win or earn a spot on the exempt list.  The exempt list is a list of players who are considered "marketable" by the Tour and tournament officials.  The always controversial list gained notoriety when Nathalie Tauziat attacked it as rewarding style over substance in her autobiography/expose on the women's tour.  Tauziat won't be too pleased to hear that Anna Kournikova is at the top of the list.  Another perennial nominee is Alexandra Stevenson, who while improving on the court, is still far more "newsworthy" for her biological father.  Also receiving nods for 2003 are veterans Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Amanda Coetzer.



Champ or Chump - You Decide

Welcome to the next episode of "Sex and the WTA Tour."  If the adage "there is no such things as bad publicity" is true, the WTA scored another coup as three players were featured in the American version of GQ.  In a pictorial dubbed "East Bloc Hotties," Anastasia Myskina, Daniela Hanuchova, and Elena Dementieva displayed their athletic builds for the men's fashion magazine.  The provocative poses (Myskina naked on a horse, Dementieva showing a hint of underwear with one hand bound) have set another debate afire whether the Tour is engaging in exploitation of their players, especially those who are still or recently removed from their teenage years..


Chumps

While the final participants for the Sanex Championships are still be determined, it appears much of the WTA Top 10 has skidded into autopilot.  Just when we thought, Serena and Venus Williams were going to approach a full tournament schedule this year, the sisters eached pulled out of three tournaments.  Both cited "fatigue" -- so perhaps regularly routining opponents in under one hour's time is more taxing than we thought.  Jennifer Capriati pulled out of Moscow due to illness and was dismissed this week by Alexandra Stevenson.  Monica Seles has been sidelined with a foot injury for the past month, while Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis are still trying to regain their form after missing most of the year.  Hingis, in particular, appears to be in the middle of meltdown e as her early loss this week will send her outside the Top 10 for the first time since 1996.  An anonymous source was quoted as saying Hingis returned to the Tour too soon.  Hingis has withdrawn from all tournaments for the remainder of the year and even seemed sketchy about the Australian tennis season in 2003.  Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, and Jelena Dokic all seem to be struggling with form as well.

There has been much talk this year about the future of doubles on the ATP Tour.  As expected, the guillotine came down this week with news that both draw sizes and prize money are decreasing next year.  Doubles receives a 5% pay cut across the board as Tennis Masters Series tournaments will allocate 83% of prize money to singles.  25-team doubles will be reduced 16 next year.  Also, singles rankings as opposed to "doubles only" rankings will be used to determine entry into doubles tournaments.  This new entry system allegedly is to encourage higher-ranked singles players to play doubles as well.  

 



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