January 4th, 2006
THE NEW YEAR IN TENNIS. Some thoughts on what might be the stories of the year:
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal seem destined to continue their reign as No. 1 and Distant No. 2. If not for Nadal, Federer would be closing in on that elusive French Open title by now. If not for Federer, Nadal would be picking up some major hard-court titles.
Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt might fall a bit as they press to make a dent in the Federer armor.
Andre Agassi (I hope I’m wrong) seems likely to succumb to injuries and call it quits.
Marcos Baghdatis and Andy Murray are the up-and-coming men to watch. Look for both to end the year in the top 20, if not the top 10.
Martina Hingis has a golden opportunity to restake her claim as a contender for Grand Slam titles amid the chaos that is women’s tennis. She’s a little shit, but I’ll be rooting for her. What a game.
Electronic line calling should become the norm. Look: Even if the fucker is off by a hair on occasion, how about just playing until the damn thing tells you a ball is out? And all this business of regulating challenges is ridiculous. Reviewing a call takes 0.0 seconds. Review every call. Better yet: Get rid of the linespeople and hook up the machine to a beeper. That’s where we’ll end up eventually.
Doping policy needs to become (a) sane and (b) ruthless. I still don’t understand what’s going on, but for now, at least in official statements, it appears that the people being suspended are either taking substances shoved down their throat by the ATP (Rusedski) or taking microscopic amounts of innocuous over-the-counter medications that couldn’t help their performance even by the gallon jug (every Argentine who has ever picked up a tennis racket). But wait: Why would the Argentines bother? Obviously there’s a communication problem. We need a clear voice to go with that stern hand, and then we need that hand to get even sterner. Suspend the hell out of Puerta if it’s merited, but then don’t go telling me that it was because he accidentally licked a Dristan.
Entry Filed under: Tennis
