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Tennis Player
Quote of the Week
May 11 , 2008: “There’s not going to be any exceptions to the rule for any players. There’s not going to be a Williams rule [for Indian Wells].”
—Larry Scott, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, on the suspensions that will be introduced next year for players skipping mandatory events, a problem that has plagued the Tour in recent years.
April 24 , 2008: “Now the umpires can hide even more behind these calls. It makes it really hard for us. They tend to now just let us do the work, the tough stuff. They let us get embarrassed, basically.”
—Roger Federer, rightly lambasting the inept and unfair implementation of Hawk-Eye electronic line-calling system by means of Player Challenges.
April 7 , 2008: “That’s what you wake up for, the moments you go to the practice court for. You can have low moments, but those 10, 15 seconds after a big win make up for a lot of bad days. Not all of them, but a lot of them.”
— Andy Roddick, who upset No. 1 Roger Federer 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, after losing 11 straight matches to him.
March 18 , 2008: “As far as sportswriters go, Jon is in the top echelon. But if you’re going to make statements as accusatory and defamatory as ‘blowing off kids for autographs,’ ‘jaded by your existence,’ ‘hating the tour,’ ‘insufferable’ and insinuating that ‘everyone from ATP personnel to former Grand Slam champs’ concur with your assessment that Andy holds himself as the ‘smartest guy in the room and everyone else is an idiot,’ you’d better do better research..”
— Recently retired Justin Gimelstob, now a TV tennis commentator, defending Andy Roddick, his friend, against severe criticism by Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim, in his SI.com column.
March 4 , 2008: “I guess the problem is not the same for both of us. I am a Muslim too, but my country has supported me. Sania's case is strange in that she is from a secular country and yet has to face all the criticisms.”
— Tunisia's Selima Sfar, a 30-year-old tour veteran, tells XPRESS that she was surprised by the kind of adverse reactions fellow pro Sania Mirza evokes in India.
February 13 , 2008: “I have no sympathy for Richard Williams. Imagine if another tennis parent were an outrageous liar, bragged about giving his kids 'ass whippings', made flagrantly racist and anti-semitic remarks, held up bizarre and provocative signs on a grease board, stood accused by his wife of domestic violence (supported by police reports) and allegedly cut ties with children he had fathered from a previous relationship. Would we really be dismissing him as a harmless, kooky uncle? My take: If there's a double-standard with Richard, he's the beneficiary, not the victim.”
— Jon Wertheim, SI.com tennis writer, rejecting the notion that criticism of Richard Williams, the father-coach of Venus and Serena, is motivated by racism.
January 28 , 2008: “When one gets beaten by somebody better, one has to know how to lose with humility. Sure, I could have served better. Sure, I could have hit my forehand harder. But the truth was this was like an avalanche, and there was no way to stop it.”
— Rafael Nadal, impressed with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after the unseeded Frenchman routed him 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the Australian Open semis.
January 28 , 2008: “If I loved a guy as much as I love my dog, the guy would be in serious trouble because I'm all over that dog, all of the time.”
— Maria Sharapova, on her great love for her Pomeranian pooch, Dolce, in The Times (UK). January 2 , 2008: “There shouldn’t be a heat rule regardless. We’re athletes. If you don’t put in the hard yards, don’t play. So it’s only fair the ATP [doesn’t]. We’re only playing three sets too; if you can’t cope with that, then get another job.”
— Australian star Lleyton Hewitt, pointing out that the U.S. Open had a history of players cramping in hot conditions but the USTA had not brought in a heat rule, a policy which he also favors in Australia despite temperatures reaching more than 42C (107F) at the Adelaide International tournament.
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