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Pierre's Tennisrulz Blog (get your own blog here)
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Photos Part #5
#10-Maria Kirilenko  #9-Daniela Hantuchova  #8-Martina Sucha...great intensity in her face  #7-Belarus' Max Mirnyi.... one of my most "fun"The Beast was dancing for Swedish fans after a doubles win  #6-Spain's Rafael Nadal  #5-Martina Sucha and Tsvetana Pironkova  #4-Anna-Lena Groenefeld  #3-Olga Poutchkova - great attitude, even better smile, lots of talent, can she get everything together?  #2-Anna Chakvetadze  #1-Anna-Lena Groenefeld  Labels: Anna Chakvetadze, Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko, Martina Sucha, Max Mirnyi, Olga Poutchkova, Rafael Nadal
Monday, February 26, 2007
Photos Part #4
#10-Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko  #9-Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko  #8-Victoria Azarenka  #7-Lucie Safarova  #6-Iveta Benesova  #5-Evgueni Korolev  #4-Iveta Benesova  #3-Lucie Safarova  #2-Tatiana Golovin  #1-Lucie Safarova  Labels: Alona Bondarenko, Evgueni Korolev, Iveta Benesova, Tatiana Golovin, Victoria Azarenka
Sunday, February 25, 2007
WTA does good in Dubai
 Hello again and sorry about the delay since my last post. This will be a quick post but just wanted to be give a thumbs up to Amelie Mauresmo.
The WTA's responsibility in regards to the tournaments that make up the tour are complex. Now, the WTA helps organize the whole calendar and among other things, tries to delegate its players, its stars around the world.
Of course, for grand slams, it's not even an issue, all healthy players show up and are more than ready to play. The problem arises for all other problems. Players who would consider themselves healthy to play a slam are not ready enough to play smaller events. It's not easy for the WTA to reconcile interests of the tour, of the tournaments and of the players.
Usually, Dubai is one of those events that usually does not create any problems. Top prize money, treatment unmatched by any other and important appearance money make it easy for the tour to fulfill it's requirements (those are set in proportion to the event category).
But this time around, things turned wrong. Both Australian Open finalists Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams withdrew at the last minute. Such events create big problems for tournament directors. How can you tell ticket buyers that the event will be as good as promised even through the two big stars of the event are not there? That's when they place a call to the WTA asking for it to intervene. And the WTA was able to fix things up this time. They got Amelie Mauresmo to show up in Dubai adding a marquee name to the draw. Of course, getting top players to come is usually done through important money "gifts".
Still, in this case, the WTA and Amelie Mauresmo did a big favour to the Dubai Duty Free event, its sponsors and fans.
Too rarely people congratulate the tour when it does well. In this occasion, I would like to do just that. Congratulations for fixing an event that is important for the present and the future of the WTA.Labels: Amelie Mauresmo, Dubai, Dubai Duty Free Ladies Open
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Underworld of Tennis Gambling
 We all see signs of it, we all know it exists, internet websites. For most of us, it's the same type of thing as betting on the superbowl, right? Well, in fact not exactly. When you bet on matches that are on big courts, there's no difference really.
But the fun and interesting part is betting on matches on outside courts, matches where you see exactly what's going on, how a player is reacting to a losing point, matches where even though one player is down a set and a break, you have a clear feeling that they could rally back any second? In most events, the way fans do it is simply by dropping by a betting website the morning before they leave for the tennis courts, just to get an extra bit of excitement from the matches they intend to see. Now there are a few events where that is extended a bit.
Take the Australian Open, where there is a kiosk in the grounds, where you can go bet. But that can (and is) taken to a greater extent by certain people. I was quite lucky on a small outside court, lucky because the guy next to me for the Razzano-Bondarenko match was a guy speaking French, and little did he know the guy next to him could understand every single word he was saying. He spent the whole match on his mobile phone (please note he had ear plugs and was speaking very softly, or else I would have became crazy). So anyway, yes throughout the match he was giving match updates to his friend (I'm guessing in France), and asking for odds on the match, eventually, he did put a 1000 euro wager on Razzano (he lost), but seemed to be saying they were having some good success (they had put a 1000 euro bet on Stepanek the previous day while the guy was 2 sets down). And I guess I can see why in a way. You have these matches on small outside courts, and you can take bets on the match against people who have no idea what is actually happening. Sure they have the scoreboard, but sometimes that's really not that representative of the match. So anyway, I kind of knew it existed but perhaps not to this extent (the guy seems to be more than a one man or one tournament operation). I'd be very curious to see what kind of numbers they get.... Labels: Australian Open, betting
Friday, February 16, 2007
Travelling with Vera Zvonareva (sort of)
 As many of you know, I've been pretty lucky in terms of the amount of tournaments I've seen in the past few years. Through the years, I've seen some players in airports, in grocery stores, etc.. It's just the type of thing that's bound to happen when you're staying in a hotel or any accomodation around a tournament or even just when travelling by air to or from a tournament. In almost all cases, I've simply observed for a couple of seconds and moved on. I had a funny encounter with Stephanie Dubois in Moscow which I might talk about here soon and since she comes from the same place as I do, and I know she's very down to earth, we had a good occasion to talk a bit. But anyway, all that to say that under normal circumstances I just respect the player's private life...
So imagine me... I'm heading out of Melbourne on the Wednesday afternoon, after having seen a lot of tennis, the most consecutive days of slam tennis for me so far (9!). I'm pretty exhausted and actually have a while to fly.. I'm going to Tokyo for a few days but I have a layover in Sydney, oh darn. I'm there, thinking about why I have to do this layover since there are obviously direct flight (my flight in actually was a direct Tokyo-Melbourne)... but anyway, what are you going to do right? I mean... It's not like I have enough money to pay double just to avoid the connection.. I'm no tennis player:) So I board the plane, have a quick flight, very enjoyable as all are flights on Qantas (best company so far for me...!). When I get off... I head towards my gate for the Tokyo flight and it's actually in another terminal so I wait for a bus... and then guess who turns out? Yeah, I'm sure you Sherlock Holmes figured it out by now... Vera Zvonareva. She's actually with two others who I do not know. Ok.. ok ... this is nice. Oh darn, I have my Aus Open cap on, so she probably thinks (and she's right) that I know who she is. Ahhh... So what is Vera doing in Sydney hey? Ahhhhh that's right, there's a tournament in Tokyo, could she be on my flight there too? Oh man, she's going to think I'm a stalker, but it's not like I have other options right? So we take the bus, and I then head to my gate as it's already started boarding... So do both of her friends (coach maybe, I don't know really).... but where is Vera? Ahhh she arrives a few minutes later with a few (and I do mean a few) no-customs bags, containing boots, stuffed animals, etc.. I mean seriously? She already had like 12 bags! And what is she going to do with all of that in Tokyo? I mean seriously? Just send it back home? Anyway... I'm no tennis player so I have no idea:)
So we head on the plane... and surprise surprise, she's two rows from me... this is becomming seriously worrying... am I going to have police after me here? As the plane is about to leave, she goes and ask the attendant if she can go in first class to sleep... no can do mam.... So she still manages to change her seat just a little to have more space to sleep.. and she slept for the whole flight, or almost, apart from a few movies, it's not like I was spying... ok, maybe a LITTLE! But barely!:)
We then get to Tokyo Narita airport, I'm a bit lost, arriving in Japan for the first time, having no idea where I'm heading exactly and not knowing the language... but anyway, what am I gonna do right? We go through customs, I'm trying to imagine her being asked what she is doing in Japan and how long she plans on staying... (hmm between 3 and 10 days depending on how well I control my temper...lol). Once through customs I start scrambling around going from one place to another asking about trains, etc.. I pass by 15 minutes later and she's still waiting around, I guess for someone from the tournament to pick them up...hopefully that person came with a big van or something or else no way all that luggage was going to fit... eventuallly, I did figure my stuff out and left the airport after nearly 16 hours of travelling with Vera... ok maybe not with her... well kind of no? so anyway, that was the story..!!
Labels: Australian Open, Vera Zvonareva
Photos Part #3
 #10-The now famous outfit of Tamira Paszek... she did wear a less "revealing" outfit the next week when playing juniors... 9-France's Alizee Cornet, a player I enjoy very much watching, and who I actually discovered at this same event one year ago  8-Russia's Maria Kirilenko, a decent action shot...  7-USA's Ashley Harkleroad  6-Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova  5-A rare ATP shot, I know, but they are slightly becomming more frequent... Robby Ginepri, I'm actually very happy with this one as the guy's action shots are a lot tougher....  4-The great Roger Federer, always a good sport in trying to give his fans a chance to see him play when he could just be hiding and practicing elsewhere (i.e. Maria Sharapova).  #3-Elena Dementieva, one of the very nicest players on tour when you get a chance to see her   #2-Russia's Anna Chakvetadze, soon to be in the top 10...going higher... #1-Ashley Harkleroad, those rare emotion shots... they're slowly becomming what I'm trying to get more and more.. only sad thing is they are rare so you have to be ready at all times, which means less time to actually enjoy the match...  Labels: Alizee Cornet, Anna Chakvetadze, Ashley Harkleroad, Australian Open, Daniela Hantuchova, Elena Dementieva, Maria Kirilenko, Robby Ginepri, Tamira Paszek
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Photos Part #2
Monday, February 12, 2007
Photos Part #1
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Did Pierre disappear somewhere in Australia?
 Fair question I must admit, I fully deserve it. But to answer the question, if it's not obvious by the moment you read this line, yes, I still am alive, I did make it back to Canada, was not eaten by a Kangarou or anything of the kind. I know, I know... if I'm still alive, how come this blog has not been updated in almost 2 weeks. You see, like last year, I was overly optimistic when I left towards Melbourne. Going to slams is exhausting as it is... As much as I love tennis days in grand slams, it's hard to argue that being at a tennis center from 10AM to 11PM on average is tiring... Now add to that the fact that most of those hours are under the hot Australian sun (ok, it's not really an Australian sun but you get what I'm saying right?). And also, I probably never fully recover while I'm down under from the extensive travel required to reach my destination as well as the 16 hour difference. So after a day of tennis, as much I have will to write on here, it's usually an impossible mission... Quite unfortunate I must admit.
So anyway, I did gather a few interesting blog ideas, perhaps not as much about the matches themselves as they will be about a few other topics, here are some of what will be coming in the next few days:
-Fascinating world of junior grand slam events
-Thoughts on players I saw
-Passionate fans
-The underworld tennis gambling world
-My best 2007 Australian Open photos
-Travelling with Vera Zvonareva (sort of)
Labels: Australian Open, Pierre, tennis
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