March Mania Part II - 7 Points on The Miami Open

Featuring:  The 7-6s of Muguruza in March

1. Fate of the Miami Open. 

It would be strange to say the Miami Open in Orlando, FL, or the Miami Open in Shanghai or the Miami Open in Buenos Aires. Well, along with Orlando, China and South America are other locations that are being considered for the Miami Open because the local community can't get it together to support a practically legendary event that has a history as rich as any tournament in the US - a history so rich in great players and great matches that it is beyond the scope of this modest post to get into. But I can't help but mention a few notables:

• Steffi Graf won the first two titles in 1987 (the year the Miami Open became the Miami Open) and 1988, and went on to win the titles in 1994, 1995, and 1996.
• In 1999 Venus and Serena met in the first all-sister final with Venus winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
• In 2005 Kim Clijsters became the first unseeded women's player to win the title, winning 7 matches while dropping only 27 games en route to the championship. She defeated the 5th seed, the 4th seed, the first seed, Amelie Mauresmo, and the 2nd seed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova won the title in 2006 defeating Maria Sharapova.
• In 2007 Serena Williams recorded one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over World No.1 Justine Henin.
• On the name and sponsor side of things, the Miami Open became the Sony Open in 2007. Sony remained the major sponsor until 2015 when the tournament became The Miami Open presented by Itau, the largest privately owned bank in Latin America.(It seems banks like to sponsor tennis tournaments.)
• In 2016 Victoria Azarenka (now momma Azarenka) claimed her third Miami Open Title defeating the 2017 Indian Wells runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets.

The question is whether or not The Miami Open will be able to continue at its present location in Key Biscayne, FL. The situation is this. The Miami Open is played at the Crandon Park Tennis Complex located in Dade County. The land was leased to Dade County by the Matheson family and has seven more years to run. However, a $50 million badly-needed project to upgrade the facilities was halted by a recent lawsuit by Matheson declaring that the family intent was to keep a public park from turning into a commercial development zone. The settlement agreement with the county prohibits the tournament from building any additional structures on stadium grounds. There's the rub because the tournament badly needs to upgrade the facilities to remain competitive with the other high-level tournaments. Although a Miami-Dade County ballot item about the renovations passed with 73% of the vote, the owner of the event, IMG (a global sports and event company based in NYC), is looking for a possible new home for the tournament. However, the community, which benefits greatly from the tournament, the fans, the players, and the the rich history of this tournament are all optimistic some arrangement can be made to keep the tournament in Key Biscayne. Anyway, that was the state of affairs as of the end of the year.

2. Wildcards and Withdrawals:

• Wildcards:
• Amanda Anisimova - USA, Runner-Up at the Junior French Open
• Paula Bidosa Gibert - Spain, Current French Open Girl's Champion
• Ashleigh Barty - Australia
• Nicole Gibbs - USA
• Beatriz Haddad Maia - Brazil, one doubles title on the WTA tour, and six singles and six doubles titles on the ITF circuit
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands - USA
• Ajla Tomljanovic - Croatia
• Natalia Vikhlyantseva - Russia
• Withdrawals:
• Victoria Azarenka - replaced by Mandy Minella
• Camila Giorgi - replaced by Belinda Bencic
• Petra Kvitova - replaced by Carina Witthoft
• Sloane Stevens - replaced by Jennifer Brady
• Serena Williams - replaced by Wang Qiang

3. Prize Money and Ranking Points: (Please note that the prize money distribution is the same for both the men and women but, other than the ranking points for the winner, the ranking points for the women are higher.)

• Prize Money:
• Men's and Women's Singles:
• Winner: $1,175,505
• Runner Up: $573,680
• Semifinalist: $287,515
• Quarterfinalist: $146, 575
• Fourth Round: $77,265
• Third Round: $41,350
• Second Round: $22,325
• First Round: $13,609
• Men's and Women's Doubles:
• Winning Team: $385,170
• Runners Up: $187, 970
• Semifinalist: $94,220
• Quarterfinalist: $48,010
• Round of 16: $25, 320
• First Round: $13,550
• Ranking Points - Women's Singles Only (Men in Parenthesis)
• Winner: 1000 
• Runner Up: 700 (600)
• Semifinalist: 450 (360)
• Quarterfinalist: 250 (180)
• Fourth Round: 140 (90)
• Third Round: 80 (45)
• Second Round: 50 (25)
• First Round: 5 (10)

4. The Miami Open and the Williams Sisters.

Eleven of the last twenty Miami Opens dating from 1997 have been won by one of the Williams sisters - Serena has won eight and Venus three. Serena has won the tournament three years in a row twice: 2002-2004 and 2013-2015. Over the 7 years 1998-2004, except for 2000 (Hingis), either Serena or Venus won the title.  A tad bit of domination there I'd say. The other winners during that period were: Azarenka (3), Clijsters (2), Hingis (2), and Radwanska and Kuznetsova one each. 

Although Serena will not be playing The Miami Open 2017 because of injury, playing well generally in 2017 and coming off a quarterfinal run at Indian Wells, Venus is in good form to continue the tradition. Personally, I'd like to see that.

5. The Battle for #1. There is no battle. With Serena's withdrawal, regardless of how things go down on the courts of Miami, Kerber will still emerge with the #1 ranking. If Kerber falls in the second round, she'll still have enough points to maintain a very slim margin over Serena. Even if Pliskova at #3 wins the title in Miami, she still would not have enough points to move ahead of Serena. That's the story on that.

6. The "Sunshine Double." To validate this name I checked out the number of sunny days per year at both Indian Wells and Key Biscayne. It's much more sunshiney in Indian Wells than in Key Biscayne - Indian Wells: 353 sunny days per year, Key Biscayne: only 249 sunny days per year.  I don't want to put a damper on the upcoming proceedings, but that means that approximately 1 out of every 3 days it will rain or be cloudy in Key Biscayne.
With all that nonsense said, the post reader might be interested to know that there are only three players who have won Indian Wells and Miami back to back - Steffi (Stefani now) Graf in 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters in 2005, and, of course, Victoria Azarenka last year in 2016. The newly crowned champion of Indian Wells, Elena Vesnina, has the chance to be the fourth.  Good Luck Elena. (In the Maimi Draw she has a bye and then either C.C. Bellis or Ajla Tomljanovic second round, with Wickmayer, Safarova, or Gavrilova in the third round. She is in Cibulkova's section of the draw.).
"So what will it be buddy? I'll have a Sunshine Double."

7. The 7-6s of Muguruza in March. Garbine Muguruza seems to be stuck in 7-6 losses in March. Last year at the Miami Open, in R16, she lost to Victoria Azarenka, 7-6,7-6 in a match which I feel, shot for shot, was the best tennis match I have ever seen. Azarenka went on to win the tournament. Then this year in the quarterfinals in the heat of Indian Wells she lost to Karolina Pliskova, 7-6, 7-6. I was hoping for the sake of an interesting symmetry for this post point that Pliskova would also go on to win the title, but she didn't. Thanks a lot Karolina!  Anyway, so now we'll see if Muguruza can shake the 7-6 March curse. In the draw, after her bye, she has either McHale or Beck and then Errani, Bencic or Zhang. Some other toughies in her section of the quarter include Sevastova, Puig, and Wozniacki.  Good Luck Garbine. If you get another 7-6, may you be on the winning side. (Update: Muguruza lost to Wozniacki in the quarters. She retired after the first set - the score: 7-6!)

Here is a 12 minute clip of that 2016 Miami Open match between Muguruza and Azarenka:

So that's it. The draw for The Miami Open is up for your review. Make your picks and see how prescient you are.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

March Mania Part I - 7 Points About Indian Wells

Featuring: The "Running Wounded" in the Top 10 +

1. The BNP Paribas Open at Larry Ellison's Indian Wells begins Wednesday, March 8 with the main draw matches. It will be carried both on ESPN (coverage begins Thursday) and Tennis Channel Plus (coverage begins Wednesday). The coverage for the WTA on both ESPN3 and Tennis Channel Plus is meager - not multiple court coverage - one court only. It is a Premier Mandatory 1000 event on the WTA Tour. I guess that means if you're invited you better go.

2. Ellison has raised the prize money for the tournament this year from approximately $7 million to $11 million. Last year the winners, both men and women, got $1,028,300 for singles and $336,920 for doubles. Depending on how the money is distributed, with a 57% increase in total prize money, this year we may see those figures most likely around $1.5 million and $525,000 respectively.

3. Update: Serena has to withdraw from both Indian Wells and Miami.  Angelique Kerber will regain the # 1 ranking.

4. Speaking of ranking points at Indian Wells this year, other than the points for the winner, the women get more ranking points for the other levels than the men. Don't ask me. I don't know why, but I'm fine with it..

5. In the last year Victoria Azarenka has gone from swinging a racket to strolling a baby. And last year she was swinging the racket quite well winning the "Sunshine Double" and zooming up the rankings chart. Since she will not be participating in March Mania this year, but coddling her little boy (who probably has his own racket by now), and going through the steps for her return to the tour, she'll be losing 2000 ranking points. She currently is ranked # 17 with 2131 ranking points. After Indian Wells she'll still be in the top 50. After Miami she'll be ranked # 311, tied with Caitlin Whoresky with 131 ranking points. There you go Caitlin, you've been mentioned in the same sentence with Victoria Azarenka.

6. Players receiving wildcards into the singles main draw at Indian Wells:

• Jennifer Brady
• Danielle Collins
• Kayla Day
• Irina Falconi
• Nicole Gibbs
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands
• Taylor Townsend
• Donna Vekic

   Before-Tournament Withdrawals:

• Victoria Azarenka - replaced by Vania King
• Alize Cornet - replaced by Heather Watson
• Anna-Lena Friedsam - replaced by Sorana Cirstea
• Karin Knapp - replaced by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
• Petra Kvitova - replaced by Ajla Tomljanovic
• Sloane Stevens - replaced by Kurumi Nara
• Serena Williams 

7. Health of the Top Ten + going into Indian Wells: The "Running Wounded:" (numbers 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16) None has withdrawn as of now. Details:

• # 2 Angelique Kerber - Lost to Elina Svitolina in semis at Dubai. 6-3, 7-6. During the match she was obviously hampered by a right knee, possibly right hip, lower back problem. She's been one of the most durable players on tour and now with the withdrawal of Serena will regain her # 1 ranking.
• # 4 Simona Halep -  Simona has not played since St. Petersburg, January 30 where she withdrew because of tendinitis in her left knee before a quarterfinal match with Natalia Vikhlyantseva. She's been plagued lately by injuries and has not been able to get up a head of steam.
•  # 7 Garbine Muguruza - Down 4-1 to Kateryna Bondarenko during her first match in Dubai,  Muguruza had to retire because of a left foot achilles problem. (a possible contributing factor to the injury was playing 2 matches the same day in rain-drenched Doha) Hopefully the French Open champion can recover and go deep into the draw.
• # 8 Madison Keys - Keys has been recovering from wrist surgery and hasn't played since October 23, 2016 at the WTA Finals where she loss to Kerber, 6-3, 6-3. According to the Game Insight Group, Keys leads all women in forehand speed (81.3 mph) and backhand speed (74.6 mph). Let's hope that wrist surgery doesn't slow her down.
• # 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova - "Sveta" last played at St. Petersburg, January 30 in a 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 loss to Yulia Putinseva in a quarterfinal match. She withdrew from Qatar because of an abdominal injury. The veteran that she is she can probably get "match-ready" pretty readily.
• # 10 Elina Svitolina - Because of a low-leg injury, Elina withdrew from her second-round match with Nao Hibino in Malaysia where she was defending. She has been on a roll that might take her right to the top in this tournament.
• # 11 Johanna Konta - Her last tournament was the Australian Open where she lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-3. She withdrew from Dubai because of a foot injury. Konta, if healthy, would be an odds-on favorite to also go deep into the draw.
• Both # 16 Timea Bacsinszky (left thigh) and # 24 Carla Suarez Navarro (right shoulder) had to withdraw from Dubai.

So...there are some points on Indian Wells and the top players who will be competing that may lay some mental groundwork for your watching the tournament. In Part II of March Mania, I'll take a look at Miami. So go play now with the new draw after Serena's withdrawal and see how prescient you are.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

John Farley Spotlight: In Defense of Doug Adler

John Farley Spotlight:  In Defense of Doug Adler

Doug Adler first came to my attention when I was watching a second-round match between Garbine Muguruza and Camila Giorgi at the French Open in 2015.  Doug was doing the commentary.  I didn't know who he was, but I immediately liked this guy's voice and style. As the camera panned the sparse Court 2 crowd behind the players benches, he pointed out Giorgi's father Sergio, and then immediately endeared himself to me when he said Sergio is "the man who's got the long, crazy, gray hair - looks a combination of maybe Jerry Garcia and Harpo Marx."  I thought, "I like this guy."

As the match proceeded Giorgi, very characteristically and in her quick-playing style, started banging her bazooka shots all over the court, mostly off the court, long or into the tramlines.  Muguruza's strategy became very clear and simple.  Let her sink herself.  Adler noted that it might be time for Giorgi to go to Plan B.  However, apparently, Giorgi was unaware of the concept of a Plan B, as she continued to bang away as we watched her unforced error numbers ascend into the stratosphere. Adler made the point quite gracefully that maybe it was time for her to have a seasoned coach who could help her respond better to the dynamics of a match and change her tactics if the game plan was not working.  The father/coach thing was maybe not working for her and Adler, dutifully and perhaps bravely, offered that perspective to his viewers.

That he did that I also liked, for what is "commentary,"  if it is not to "comment" on what is going on and the forces that might be shaping the match that aren't so obvious to the viewer.  Anybody can sit there and tell us what we can plainly see - the score,  the stats that appear on the screen, a players height, or who won the coin toss.  The lone commentator on a match has to be both the "give'em-the-facts" guy and the color commentator.  Adler, colorfully gives the whole package.

So I was taken aback when I read recently that Doug Adler was dismissed by ESPN for a comment he made in a match at the Australian Open this year between Stefanie Voegele and Venus Williams. He referred to a tactic that Venus was using as a "guerrilla effect."    His exact words were: "You'll see Venus move in, and put the guerrilla effect on. Charging."   Again, he was helping the viewer better understand the dynamics of the match they were watching, specifically, the tactic that Venus was using - aggressive, perhaps unexpected moves, typical of guerrilla-type warfare.  This term, guerrilla effect, is not a new term in the tennis world.

So.. what happens?  The tennis social media goes nuts accusing Adler of being a racist because what they heard was Adler calling Venus a gorilla.  The saying goes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  You could also say that baseness is in the mind of the listener.  It was the social media mob that brought up the connection between an African-American tennis legend and a gorilla, not Doug Adler.  It was the social media mob who dishonored Venus by drawing attention to this baseness and slandering Doug Adler.  And it was the social media mob rule that ESPN acceded to and in so doing validated the mob's coarse perception and slandering Doug Adler.  There was no racism on his part. It was mistakenly and, apparently, hysterically deduced by the social media mob. Don't you think that if Adler were really a racist that quality would have become apparent at various times over his many years of broadcasting matches for ESPN?  Did this man who so dedicatedly gave himself to the sport, calling matches with such insightful and edifying commentary, respected by the players and his peers alike, suddenly become a racist?

In the Bhagavad-Gita, a Vedic text usually associated with the culture of India, a bit of advice Arjuna (the greatest warrior of the age) receives from Lord Krishna (the embodiment of righteousness) is that the criterion of right and wrong should always be applied first and, only secondarily, the criterion of loss and gain.  If the decision is right, the gain will automatically be there.  

The criterion for ESPN's decision regarding the dismissal of Doug Adler was obviously loss and gain. In the face of end-of-year monthly subscriber losses exceeding the losses of all other sports cable networks combined, ESPN bowed to the pressures of the social media mob instead of standing by their man who they knew was being unjustly perceived for his comment regarding Venus's tactics on court.  It seems to me, it would have been right to stand by their man and let the usually short-lived media outburst die out.   Now what have you got ESPN -  a few placated tweeters out there, complicity in the dishonoring of Venus by validating the social media mobs perception and demands, a loss of integrity in the eyes of many of us, the loss of a popular and competent commentator, the continued loss of your subscriber base, and now, probably, a multi-million dollar lawsuit from a man who had been loyal to you, a man you and the social media mob you deferred to have slandered?   This is what the application of the criterion of loss and gain first will get you. What virtue is there in that?

Venus, in her graciousness, in commenting on this incident said, "I pay attention and address situations that are noteworthy."  She had nothing more to say.  To her, it was not noteworthy.  I agree with you Venus.

I feel, as many others do, Doug Adler deserves an apology from ESPN and his job back. So when I tune in to the French Open 2017 and watch one of my favorites, Garbine Muguruza, stride onto Philippe Chatrier to defend her title, I'd like to hear the voice of Doug Adler doing the commentary.

Anyway, that's how I see it.