Kyrgios Suspended

Nick Kyrgios was suspended for conduct detrimental to the game after he stood on the court and watched balls go by until he lost to qualifier Mischa Zverev in Shanghai.  The suspension was for 8 weeks, until January 15, 2007.  The 2017 Australian Open starts Jan. 16.  The suspension will be reduced to 3 weeks if Kyrgios can demonstrate that he’s undergoing suitable “treatment” to address his behavior.  Nick was also fined $25,000.

In my opinion this punishment was far too light.  Kyrgios has a long and strong history of misconduct, some of it vulgar, on the court.  Moreover, in the post match interview in Shanghai he stated that he owed nothing to fans who paid a lot to see him play.  In the next eight weeks there are few important tournaments, since Kyrgios will not make the year-end championships, and $25,000 is a pittance of a fine for someone in Kyrgios’ income bracket.

I believe the suspension should have ended after the Australian Open.  Kyrgios is from Australia, so it would be a meaningful setback for him to be excluded from that tournament.  In my view Nick very much needs a sanction that actually means something to him.  The fine is not nearly as important. 

After a Kyrgios loss earlier this year, John McEnroe, who is high on Nick’s talent, tweeted that Kyrgios should “do something else” if he doesn’t like tennis.  I believe the ATP should echo that comment by suspending him from the 2017 Aussie Open. 

Tennis News

Murray wins

Andy Murray won in Shanghai, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets in the final.  That result was hardly surprising, but Bautista-Agut’s victory over Djokovic in the semis certainly was unexpected.  Bautista Agut had a great tournament for sure, but we still have to ask what is going on with Djokovic, who has taken quite a few unexpected losses since the start of the summer.  I watched Djokovic pretty closely in this tournament, and here’s my take on it:

First of all, it doesn’t take much of a diminution in your game to relinquish total dominance of the men’s tour.  There are so many great players, and they all come to play when facing the world number one.  Djokovic is still playing great tennis, he just isn’t beating everyone all the time as he did last year.  Here are his issues I think:

First, his return of serve, historically the strongest part of his game, is not as effective as it usually is.  Novak is failing to get as many serves in play, with his backhand return spraying wide more often than it did a few months ago.  It’s hard to pinpoint why this would happen, but I believe his footwork in setting up for that shot isn’t quite as good as before.  When you hit the ball has hard as a top pro, being off by just a few millimeters at the point of contact with the ball is enough to cause a miss. 

Another issue seems to be the low ball, particularly on the forehand.  When Djokovic gets a forehand above the waist he is clocking it as usual, but he is missing the shot below the waist more frequently.  The misses are long, short and wide as well, which indicates a problem with timing to me.  This problem is most easily detected when he is brought in by short balls.  Again, under circumstances such as this, the little steps needed to position oneself for the shot are a bit less crisp than we’re used to seeing from him. 

There also appear to be psychological issues with Novak right now.  Over the past several months he has been far more irascible on the court, with near disqualifications for racquet or ball abuse on a couple of occasions.  He shattered a racquet in this last semi with Bautista Agut.  He is also exhorting the crowd to support him in a manner which suggests that he doesn’t believe he gets the love he deserves.  Although his fellow Serbs really love him, both Federer and Nadal seem to draw more affection from the global tennis community.  This reality, on top of the fact that Novak has always been a bit brittle emotionally on the court, have combined to distract him a bit. 

Once again, Djokovic fans needn’t panic.  He is still the world number one (though Murray is closing in on him), and his amazing defensive play seems to be as good as ever.  I almost feel that a few months without the number one ranking would help Novak enjoy the game.  The reduction in pressure would allow him to relax, regroup, and remember that tennis is a game that should be played, at least in part, for fun.  Let’s see what develops.

Wozniaki wins

            Caroline Wozniaki won in Hong Kong, defeating Jankovic and then Mladenovic in the final.  Over the past several weeks she has really been showing the world how she made it to number one.  She can still be overpowered on the court, but Caroline’s movement and defensive abilities are among the most enjoyable things to watch on the women’s tour.

            New Singapore qualifiers include Muguruza and Madison Keys.   Serena Williams has withdrawn, citing injury, but this group is shaping up nicely, and the year-end finals should be very entertaining.

Meltdown in Shanghai

Yesterday Nick Kyrgios, who won the Tokyo tournament last week, lost a match to Mischa Zverev, the older brother of rapidly rising star, Alexander Zverev.  Mischa is much older than his brother (29 vs. 19 years) and is a far less successful singles player.  His highest rank in singles has been 45, while the younger brother is now 21 in the world.  Kyrgios is ranked in the top 20 and obviously has great tennis talent.  So how was Mischa able to beat him?

The answer is simple: Kyrgios tanked the match in a manner so obvious that the fans, who paid good money to see the match, were outraged.  Kyrgios served balls underhanded and started to walk off the court before Zverev even hit the ball, made some fancy shots that clearly were not intended to win points, etc.  This performance was a more severe version of the behavior of his countryman, Bernard Tomic, who lost on match point earlier this year to Fabio Fognini by receiving serve while holding the wrong end of the racquet. 

In the post match interview, Kyrgios, like Tomic before him, was anything but contrite.  He stated that he owed absolutely nothing to the fans that had paid to watch the match.  In his post match interview after losing to Fognini, Tomic stated that he didn’t need to care about one match because he was already worth more than 10 million dollars at age 23.

Kyrgios was fined $16,500 for this performance and a suspension is being considered.  In my opinion a suspension through the 2017 Australian Open is needed.  If this incident was the only case of unsavory behavior by this player, perhaps the fine and a warning would be enough.  But remember that this is the guy who advised Stan Wawrinka, in the middle of a match and in front of the umpire’s microphone, that Wawrinka’s girlfriend was “banging” someone else.  This is the guy who lost a previous match at the US Open by retirement, after which John McEnroe tweeted that if Kyrgios doesn’t want to play tennis he should do something else.

This pattern of disrespectful behavior by Kyrgios, and to a lesser extent, Tomic, must stop.  Both of these men are well fixed financially, so a fine of $16,500 is not likely to impress Kyrgios enough.  Since the loss to Fognini, Tomic has played hard, so the problem with him seems under control.  But Nick needs to be barred from his home major next year so that he really gets the message. 

Sharapova suspension reduced

Maria Sharapova’s drug suspension was reduced on appeal to 15 months from 24 months.  Sharapova criticized the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for not having a rigorous and reliable system in place that would keep players informed about updates on the banned substances list etc.  The ITF has not responded at length to her criticisms.  Sharapova will be back in time for the French Open next year.

This blog has discussed the banned substance issue before, so there’s no need to go over it again.  Suffice it to say that athletes have short careers, so if they are to be banned for up to four years, the ITF or any sports organization that makes such decisions needs to adhere to the following principles:

1) Drugs should not be banned unless there is clear scientific justification for doing so.

2) An airtight information apparatus should be in place to make absolutely sure players know what’s on the banned substances list and when any changes to the list are made.

            A related issue that has come up since Sharapova’s suspension relates to medical exemptions for use of banned substances.  Russian hackers cracked the database of the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) and found that several players, including Serena Williams, have been given medical exemptions that allowed them to take banned substances.  The players have done nothing wrong here, but the exemptions raise further questions about the rigorousness of rules regarding banned substances and who, if anyone, has ever really benefitted from their use. 

            Sharapova has stated that she has found her sabbatical from the game both interesting and satisfying.  What I hoped she would say is that she used the time to get rid of her grunt!  But no such luck, apparently.

Will the Real Petra Kvitova Please Stand Up?

On her way to storming through the Wuhan Open, Petra Kvitova destroyed the always-tough Simona Halep, then did the same to Dominika Cibulkova in the final.  Neither of these two opponents are pushovers by any means, but Petra made very quick work of both of them.  Kvitova also beat world #1 Kerber in this tournament. 

Throughout the week Kvitova played tennis befitting of a world No. 1.  So why does she not play this well all of the time?  We’ve seen this level of play before in her two Wimbledon wins, where she decimated Sharapova and then Bouchard in finals.  Kvitova remains one of the great enigmas of women’s tennis.  Her movement is good for someone so big, she has good touch in the forecourt, she has a very daunting lefty serve, and her groundstrokes are very penetrating from both sides.   Why then is she ranked outside the world’s top ten?

            Kvitova has had respiratory problems over her career that have been attributed to allergies.  This problem, along with her discomfort when playing in the US, has probably contributed to her losses.  But these explanations do not account for the fact that many of her matches, regardless of where, go three sets.  When you’re losing a set in most of your matches, you are more likely to fail to go all the way in tournaments.  She is currently playing without a coach, which suggests to me that she should remain coachless until she finds someone whose communications don’t inadvertently run at cross purposes with her success. 

            Kvitova is a very well liked player and a tremendous talent.  If she can play consistently great tennis she can add a lot of intrigue to the women’s game.

On the men’s side, Thomas Berdych beat Gasquet to win the Shenzhen Open.  He is now 300 ranking points away from displacing Nadal from the year-end championships.  That fact speaks eloquently to Nadal’s problems.