Money, Money, Money, Money...Money

For the seventh year, Sport Illustrated has come out with a list of the top 50 earning American athletes. Tiger Woods topped the list again this year despite everything that has happened. Although his earning are down about 9 million dollars, but I’m not sure that matters very much when you’re earning more than 90 million dollars per year. The complete list included 15 NFL stars, 16 NBA players, 13 baseball players, 3 NASCAR drivers, two golf titans, and a boxer. I’m guessing you probably noticed the absence of any tennis players on this list. It makes sense. Americans just aren’t that interest in tennis, but I don’t have to like it. Andy Roddick is the highest earning American player on the men’s side and as much as I love him, he’s not winning the big tournaments that come with the big money and the big endorsements. Even if he was, the A-Rod of the tennis world would have to win prize money equivalent to 22 grand slams in a year to equal the yearly salary of baseball’s A-Rod. Clearly that isn’t going to happen. That’s why tennis players have to make up for the lack of prize money with endorsements.

Serena Williams may be the superstar of the WTA tour, but even more so than other industries, female athletes only make a fraction of what their male equivalents take home. Tennis is actually one of the most equal sports in terms of pay between men and women, but even if the prize money is the same, the endorsements will never be. Williams isn’t even the highest earner on the women’s tour. That honor goes to Maria Sharapova, who earned nearly 20 million dollars in the last year. Not only is Sharapova the highest earning female athlete, she made it to number 20 on the list of the Top 20 Highest Earning International Athletes, one of 3 tennis players on this year’s list. Attractiveness will get you everywhere. Maria hasn’t made it past the quarters at any major since she won the 2008 Australian Open. I’m not knocking her play. She was out for a long time with a shoulder injury and has been working her way back to top form. But this just goes to show how little prize money means and how much the “cute” factor matters for endorsements. I mean, Anna Kournikova never really won anything on the singles tour and she still makes money on her tennis career because people think she’s hot. Serena Williams may be incredibly talented, but she’s also slightly terrifying. Maria Sharapova and her Chihuahua make for a pretty cute commercial, but Serena doesn’t exactly scream cute.

Anyway, I got a little off topic. Three tennis players made the list of the Top 20 International Earners. Roger Federer came in at number 1, earning over 60 million dollars between prize money and endorsements. Federer’s got it all, mind blowing talent, good looks, and ridiculous sums of money. Mirka is a lucky lady. He was number 9 on last years list, so even though he didn’t defend his title at the French Open or Wimbledon this year, he’ll be pleased to know that he earned more than twice as much as the next highest earning tennis player, world number 1, Rafael Nadal. Nadal appeared at number 9 on the list, earning 27 million dollars. In case you’re wondering what would happen if SI put together a global list. Federer would be the 2^nd highest paid athlete in the world, right behind his good friend Tiger and right above pro golfer, Phil Mickelson.

Is Court 2 Really the Graveyard?

It was for Andy Roddick on Monday, but I think if you asked Yen-Hsun Lu, he would tell you the exact opposite. The folklore says that Court 2 is the Graveyard of Champions. Former champions like Serena and Venus Williams, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi have all gone out to lesser known opponents on this outside show court. However, I wouldn’t necessarily say that the court had anything to do with the unlucky outcome of the match. I was certainly shocked to see Andy Roddick exit the tournament on Monday but Tuesday offered significantly more shocking defeats on the women’s side, none of which occurred on Court 2. Let’s take a look at what happened in today’s women’s quarter final action.

Vera Zvonareva def. Kim Clijsters: Kim Clijsters kicked off her comeback with a bang winning the 2009 US Open. Since then, she’s posted reasonable performances, but I was pretty shocked by her exit to Zvonareva. Clijsters looked in charge at the beginning of this match, winning the first set 6-3. I should note, that in February of last year, Vera Zvonareva was ranked 5^th in the world and Kim Clijsters wasn’t even playing tennis, so this isn’t really as shocking a victory as we all might think it is. Zvonareva may be ranked 21 now, but that is mostly due an ankle injury that plagued her for most of 2009. I’m guessing she’s recovered at this point and I give her excellent chances against Tsvetana Pironkova. I’m not 100% convinced though, because we all know what Pironkova is capable of…

Tsvetana Pironkova def. Venus Williams: Venus Williams has won Wimbledon 5 times as well as 2 US Open titles. Tsvetana Pironkova comes from Bulgaria, a country that doesn’t even have grass courts. She has never made it past the second round of any Grand Slam tournament and hasn’t won a single WTA title. Clearly you all pegged Pironkova to win this right? I can’t even imagine what the odds were on this one. To make matters even worse, Venus barely put up a fight, losing 6-2 6-3. Maybe there’s something about players ranked 82, as both Pironkova and Lu, the man that took out Roddick, are ranked 82 in the world. Who knows? Or, maybe Williams was having the odd off-day at Wimbledon, but this upset will most likely be the most surprising of the tournament.

Finalist: Vera Zvonareva – I have some doubts that Pironkova will be able to keep this momentum going. Generally an upset this incredible is followed by a let down.

Petra Kvitova def. Kaia Kanepi: Honestly, I’d never heard either of these names before this tournament and was shocked to find out that Kanepi was a Top 20 player as late as last year. I watched as Kanepi held match point after match point and self destructed. However, props to Kvitova for capitalizing on the opportunity. She was just as likely to choke as Kanepi but had no problem closing out the match when it came down to it. What’s Kvitova’s prize for fighting back to valiantly: a semi-final match against 12 time Grand Slam winner, Serena Williams. Fate’s funny that way. Sorry Kvitova.

Serena Williams def. Na Li: No surprises here. Serena managed to bring some order back to the day. She looks in fine form and, like I said, I would not want to be Petra Kvitova.

Finalist: Serena Williams

Champion: Serena Williams

Half Way There

We’re halfway through Wimbledon now and I’ve been terrible about updating. Believe me, I’ve had plenty of opinions this week, so I’m going to fill you in on some of what I think were this week’s most important tennis moments.

Have any of you noticed an abundance of five set matches? The Isner/Mahut match clearly comes to mind as it dominated the news from Wimbledon’s first week, but there have been several other five set matches this week, even if they weren’t quite so epic. I think it’s been a while since we’ve seen Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal tested so heavily in the first week of a Grand Slam. Federer started off his title defense with a five set match in both the first round and a four set match against a qualifier in the second round. In the first round, Federer somehow lost the first two sets of his match against Alejandro Falla (someone he’s beaten twice in the last month) and fought back to keep himself in the tournament. News outlets around the world seemed to be preparing articles about the impact of Federer’s first round loss, but he isn’t the Greatest of All Time for nothing. The true greats are the players that can fight their way back from a two set hole and win the match. Federer would live to fight another die, and I mean it when I say fight. It wasn’t quite the battle from the first round, but Federer did drop a set to Serbian qualifier Ilia Bozoljac. However, not to worry, Federer looked in top form during his third round match against Arnaud Clement. Nadal has been equally off balance, just squeaking by in his second and third round matches. In the second round Nadal faced off against Robin Haase of the Netherlands and was forced into five sets again in the third round against Philipp Petzschner of Germany. The lack of dominance of the top two seeds should make some others very hopeful. Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, and Robin Soderling have all had very strong starts in this tournament and it looks like any of them have as solid a chance at the title as Roger or Rafa do.

There’s been plenty of media attention, but I can’t skip the Queen’s visit. On Thursday, the Queen attended Wimbledon for the first time in over 30 years to watch Andy Murray play his second round match against Jarkko Nieminen. Murray won in straight sets. There was a lot of media speculation over who would get to play on Centre Court during the Queen’s visit (not that it mattered, as the Queen left directly after Murray’s match.) Once the official schedule was released, the talk of the day turned to who was jilted out of a chance to play for the Queen. First of all, the Queen met many players including the Williams sisters, Andy Roddick, and Roger Federer early in the day before taking in Murray’s match. Serena Williams did have a match on Thursday, and as the number one seed, probably should have been on Centre Court instead of Court 1. However, Roger Federer is the number one seed and has played some of his matches on Court 1 as well. Granted the Queen’s attendance wasn’t a question when it came to Federer, but I don’t believe that the Wimbledon coordinators were intentionally trying to jilt Serena. If anything, I would say that Serena’s outburst at the US Open is probably what kept her off Centre Court on Thursday, not her race or her attractiveness.

Speaking of outbursts, Victor Hanescu, the usually emotionless Romanian, was fined $7,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $7,500 for lack of effort in his third round match against Daniel Brands. The $7,500 fine for unsportsmanlike was well deserved. He spit at the crowd. I was very surprised to here this considering how steady he usually is on the court. Apparently everyone has a breaking point and the crowd found Hanescu’s. I tend to disagree with the lack of effort fine. I think this is kind of a silly rule anyway. Why would a player intentionally not try when they could just retire from the match? Hanescu’s match went to five sets before he retired, clearly the guy was trying. He won two sets. I know foot faults are uncommon and generally a player shouldn’t have that many double faults, but it’s possible that he really was injured or more likely that he was a little angry after the spitting incident and wasn’t playing at his best level.

Let’s check in with the women’s side for a moment. We saw early round exits from both French Open finalists Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur. However, all of the major contenders for the title are still playing their best tennis. Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin look to be in pretty good shape. It’s a shame that one of them will be out after the fourth round, but that match up should be pretty exciting. Maria Sharapova, a former Wimbledon champ, is playing very well considering her recent form. I would consider her a possible second time champion, if she wasn’t playing Serena Williams tomorrow. Number three seed Caroline Wozniacki is also playing some great tennis and could give Serena some trouble down the line. Serena and Venus both look to be in tip top shape this year. I’m definitely predicting another all-Williams final.

I’m sure I could go on and on about the first week, but I think I’ll leave it at this. We’ve got another full week of tennis ahead and I think things are about to get very exciting.

Top Ten Surprises of the 2009 US Open

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS***

ORIGINALLY DATED September 13, 2009

10. Marat Safin loses in the first round of his last Grand Slam event.

*This wasn't actually a surprise considering how he's been playing this year, but I couldn't let his retirement go by without saying something. People tend to forget that he is a two time major winner ('00 US Open and '05 Australian) and as late as last year made a run to the semis at Wimbledon. He has provided us many years of incredibly entertaining and dramatic play as well as entertaining and dramatic press conferences.

9. Roger Federer's between the legs shot on the penultimate point of his semi-final match against Djokovic.

*No one but Federer would have been able to pull this off, if you missed this shot, please check out this video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVQhIEPbM0g

8. Dinara Safina maintains number 1 ranking regardless of her miserable play during the Open.

7. Kim Clijsters captures women's title after several years of retirement. The last US Open she played was 2005, which she also won.

6. Andy Murray loses to Marin Cilic in the fourth round.

*I had him going all the way to the final again this year.

5. The majority of the seeded women are defeated early in the tournament. Almost every early round match seemed like a huge upset. Only half of the quarterfinalists were seeded, only 1 in the top 5.

4. Serena Williams threatens to kill a linesperson over a foot-fault call in her semi-final, resulting in a point penalty on match point.

*We all knew she was terrifying, but never expected this. A $10,000 fine is not enough, and she should not have been allowed to play in the doubles' final. The WTA should really consider suspending her form the Australian Open. This unsportsmanly behavior reflects poorly on the whole sport.

3. Andy Roddick loses in the third round to 6'9" American John Isner, who precedes to lose to Fernando Verdasco, resulting in the first time an American man has not made it to the quarter finals at the US Open.

*Seriously Andy Roddick, every time I start to believe you can win another major, something like this happens. I'm expecting great results at the Australian.

2. Unseeded American Melanie Oudin, only 17 years old, beats Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova en route to her first major quarterfinal.

1. Juan Martin del Potro defeats Roger Federer in the first five set final since 1999.