ATP
All bets are off: Fritz fury over gambling ads
SPORTS betting has often been described as a ‘necessary evil’ that allows different sports to levy a percentage of those bets to grow their commercial activities.
Like alcohol sponsorship before it, betting though, is now seen as a dangerous activity that could undermine the integrity of a sport or an event.
And it’s fraught with other dangers, as American Taylor Fritz revealed recently.
Athletes and anyone working with the sport are banned from placing bets or from promoting betting on matches and events.
Doubles stars Mardy Fish and Bob Bryan broke this rule and were fined – but it still continues.
Fritz spoke of Davis Cup advertising of a sports betting company, adding: “everybody in tennis is making a profit off of betting, except for the players.”
The American acknowledged that it would not be right for players to bet – “I get that,” he said, but then talked of the harassment players often receive.
“We get all the harassment from betting. We get 50 to 100 death threats after every match you lose,” Fritz said.
“Awful messages, all the hate and all of the negative side of gambling, but we don’t get any of the positives.
“By no mean tennis players should tell people to bet on tennis, but I don’t think it should be a problem when is something outside of tennis. What happened to Bob and Marty is unfortunate. Times are changing and the rules probably needs to change again.”
Many will argue that an outright ban on betting companies sponsoring sports will only drive it underground, but allowing it to continue is surely a bigger danger to society.
TENNIS Australia boss Craig Tiley is playing a dangerous political game after declaring on Friday the Melbourne Slam could move to either Sydney or China.
Tiley’s comments were without doubt a deliberate attempt to extract millions from the City of Melbourne and the state of Victoria to fund his expansion plans.
The tough-talking South African is using recent investment in facilities in Paris, Wimbledon and New York as an example of what he believes Melbourne needs to do to maintain their Slam status.
TA used up its $80m reserves during the Covid pandemic as the city and the State enforced the world’s toughest and most brutal lockdown – costing businesses millions.
Crowd restrictions and the cost of player quarantine would have hurt the bottom line, but where does he think this expansion money is going to come from?
Sydney has been hinted as one option – the State if NSW has always fought its southern rival for sporting events – so their inclusion in the story is no great surprise.
And China?
The WTA is still asking serious questions over the disappearance of Peng Shuai.
Tiley is a well-versed and seasoned ‘politico’ but his latest words may yet come back to bite him.
PERHAPS Novak Djokovic could help out …. still defiantly unvaxxed, Djokovic flew into Australia last week to prepare for the Australian Open.
The Serb, who was deported from the country in January before the 2022 event, is in Adelaide where he will start his 2023 season next week.
Reaction to his re-appearance in Melbourne will undoubtably be mixed, given millions of citizens endured the world’s toughest lockdown and vaccination rules.
Djokovic is still banned from the US due to their vaccination requirements.
AND despite the plea of poverty from Tennis Australia, pay rises are in store for players at the 2023 Australian Open with a 3.4 per cent boost in the total purse to a record $76.5 million (US$51.6 million).
The winners of the men’s and women’s titles will both take home $2.975m with players beaten in earlier rounds also getting more.
First round losers will receive $106,250 and second-round losers will get $158,850.
Australian Open prize money has increased by more than 321 per cent in the last 20 years, from $18.18m to $58.32m today.
AUSTRALIA believes Nick Kyrgios can win the first slam of 2023, well some do.
“Contrary to what many people think, there are few players who understand the game like Nick Kyrgios,” Patrick Mouratoglou wrote on Instagram recently.
Sam Stosur told local media she thought he was primed for success.
Kyrgios clearly thinks he can as well.
His withdrawal from the United Cup showed he was concentrating on one event only.
- The New York Post pulled no punches when it reported the latest Kyrgios spat with coach Lleyton Hewitt over his late withdrawal from the United Cup.
‘Tennis brat uses Netflix defense over now-show controversy’ was their headline.
FRENCH star Caroline Garcia stopped off on her way to Australia in Bali, taking a 12-day solo trip, where she said it was wonderful because “no one knew who I was.”
RAFA Nadal’s wife Maria and his newborn son were present at his practice session in Sydney ahead of the United Cup.
Nadal and Maria welcomed their son on October 8. The Spaniard said earlier this month that his son was doing well and sleeping well.
“At the moment he is doing well, sleeping. If he is right-handed or left-handed, I still don’t know,” Nadal said.
“The first event I play like a father without the baby with me, I lost first round. Second event, traveling with the baby, I was out of the group stage. At the end I won my last match, but I need to keep improving, no?” Nadal said.
“We have some help. No problem at all. Just I need to organise little bit my life, as everybody needs to do when you have a child in your life.”
AND finally…
THE dictionary definition of a narcissist: a personality disorder in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them.
Alexander Zverev cooled the jets of a teenaged tearaway on Tuesday, schooling Spaniard Rafael Jodar 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to power to his fifth career semi-final at the French Open.
The world No. 3 German finished runner-up in Paris two years ago and is still seeking his first trophy at one of the majors.
Zverev has been a consistent presence at the business end of the event here, figuring iin five of the past six semis.
But the achievement doesn’t amount to much for the seed, who has his eye on the big prize.
“I want to keep going. I don’t really care so much about a semi-final,” he said. “I want to win all the matches in front of me.
“Today was a tough test against a good player – that’s it for now.”
The 29-year-old who becomes the ninth man to play five Paris semi-finals, got away slowly as the 19-year-old Jodar showed his intentions with an early break..
But the seed began turning the tables on his young opponent while trailing 5-2 in the opening set after dropping serve in the eight-minute opening game.
Jodar’s unravelling began as he served for the first set leading 5-4 but was unable to close it out.
From then on, Zverev was in control.
The German won the opener in a tiebreaker and dominated the second to claim that chapter also.
In the third, he broke the fading youngster in the first and last games of the set
before closing out the win with a running forehand down the line on match point.
“He had perfect rhythm in the first set and I didn’t,” the winner said. “I was playing too short and too defensive.
“The ball was also not bouncing as high as it did in (last week’s) heat, I had to flatten out my shots.
“He outplayed me at the beginning of the first, but I managed to come back.
he seemed a bit nervous when he served for (the set).
“I took my chances, it was a good match for me.”
Main photo:- Alexander Zverev in control at Roland Garros – by ATPTour.com
Matteo Berrettini took Italian revenge on Monday against the Argentine who knocked out Jannik Sinner with a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) fourth-round demolition of Juan Manuel Cerundolo at the French Open.
Former top 10 player Berrettini, now mended after several seasons of intermittent injury absences sent the South American packing in a solid clay display.
The Italian saved three Cerundolo set points in the third-set tiebreaker, with Berrettini claiming a match point on an inside-out forehand, and following up with a serve winner..
“I feel great,” Berrettini said. “I’m happy with the support in a full stadium.
“This is why we train and fight, I’m enjoying the atmosphere with my team and family.”
Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime booked the last eight as he put out another South American in Canadian-born Chilean AlejandroTabilo 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.
FAA becomes the first Canadian man to complete the set of quarter-finals at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
The 30-year-old Berretini from Rome is competing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2021 when he also reached the last eight here.
The current No. 105 is the lowest-ranked men’s quarter-finalist in Paris since in 2007.
Cobolli lost his first set of the tournament as he ran up against an American with negligible experience on clay, defeating Zach Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5).
The 10th-seeded Italian’s victory put him into his second Grand Slam and his first in Paris.
“I was a little bit nervous to close the match today,” the winner said. “It means a lot, this tournament, for me.
“Sometimes it’s not easy when you have to close, especially when you are up in the score like I was today.
“But also Zachary played a really good match today after the second set… tennis is like this. At the end, I was happy, and that’s the important thing.”
Svajda came to the major with only one career match win on clay. He began correcting that in the third round by beating Francisco.Cerundolo.
Cobolli cruised through the first two sets but his perfect set record took a dent in the third as Svajda forced a tiebreaker and saved a match point after closing the Italian’s 5-1 lead and forcing a tiebreaker.
It took a tiebreak fourth set to settle the outcome after more than three and a quarter hours.
Alexander Zverev stayed on track for a possible fourth Grand Slam final as the highest seed remaining in the men’s draw at the French Open moved efficiently into the quarter-finals on Sunday.
The German who has finished runner-up at the Australian and US Open plus Roland Garros, defeated qualifying lucky loser Jesper de Jong 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1.
With this week’s second-round losses by world No. 1 and top seed Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic, Zverev could have one of his best chances at lifting a major trophy.
The 29-year-old reached his eighth Roland Garros quarter-final as he beat his Dutch opponent on de Jong’s 26th birthday.
He needed a tiebreak to secure the opening set but picked up momentum before crushing it in the third set to get off court in a relatively quick two and a quarter hours.
“I had some early difficulties but he started well,” the winner said. “But once I found my rhythm I felt comfortable on the court.
“That is important for my game. It’s (his game) is there, I just have to show it on the match court.”
With the recent 10-day heatwave now gone, temperatures dropped into the mid-20s Celsius, which should make for more comfortable conditions.
But Zverev is not so sure: “To be honest, I like the heat, I prefer it. My ball flies a lot faster through the air and opponents struggle a bit more.
“I also spend a lot of time in Florida so I’m used to the heat. But we have to make the best of it, things can change within one day.”
Zverev will bid for the semi-finals in a matchup against Rafael Jodar, the prodigy who won an all-Spanish fourth-rounder 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 over Pablo Carreno Busta.
The fightback took nearly three and three-quarter hours and put the 19-year-old into his first last-eight spot in only his second Grand Slam appearance.
He has reached the last eight here for a sixth straight year.
Jodar, ranked No. 707 a year ago, is the fifth man this century to reach the quarters in his main draw debut at the event.
The youngster made a 4-1 start in the opening set but soon found himself in a five-set dogfight against a 34-year-old dealing with a shoulder injury.
The winner of a clay title in March has now taken victory in 19 of his last 22 matches.
“He’s young and incredibly talented,” Zverev said of his next opponent. “He came onto the clay scene in two months.
“He will be a difficult challenge but I’ll be ready for it.”
Main photo:- Favourite Alexander Zverev wins third round match – by ATPTour.com
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