Tennis News

American legend Pete Sampras may be amused by the recent super coaching trend that had involved the likes of Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, he has no intention of taking on a full-time job of that status anytime in the near future.

“I am not into travelling at the moment, at least more than a couple of weeks in a year. The captaincy is nothing something I am interested in either. This is not for me at the moment. I am not going to rule it out, you can’t say what can happen in future. But for the time being, I am happy playing some exhibition every now and then and staying at home,” he said (via zee news).

Andy Murray sparked the trend of super coaches when he hired Ivan Lendl then Amelie Mauresmo; Novak Djokovic brought Boris Becker on board; Marin Cilic partnered with Goran Ivanisevic to win his maiden Grand Slam title; Roger Federer teamed up with his idol Stefan Edberg, while Kei Nishikori joined forces with Michael Chang.

Apart from a discussion on coaching, Sampras added that he believes the ‘Big Three’ will continue to dominate men’s tennis for the coming year. The 14-time Grand Slam champion is also intrigued to see how this year’s maiden champions will fare in their title defences in the coming year.

“I still see those three guys (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer) dominating. I see guys threatening them, but at the top you will see just those three guys in the second week of majors, in the semi-finals and the finals. Wawrinka is going to have an interesting Australian Open defending his title. Cilic is up and coming and he has been there for a while. I still think Roger, Novak and Rafa are the cream of the crop. I think they have the experience, they want it and when they are playing well, they will be tough to beat,” said the 14-time Grand Slam champion.

Following a fantastic season that saw her win her second Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships, Petra Kvitova has made it clear that she has set her sights on becoming world No. 1 in the coming year.

In a blog post on her official website www.petrakvitova.net, Kvitova details her preseason training and how she is plans to prepare for 2015.

“I’m happy to say that my pre-season is going very well so far. I am healthy and working very hard on everything that I need to improve for 2015. My new fitness coach Alex Stober has been absolutely great. He has a lot of experience and he knows what to do, he arrived with a very specific plan to make me stronger and faster on court. It’s also great that he is a physio as well because he knows exactly how a tennis player’s body is working.”

The Czech No. 1 compiled a 43-16 record in 2014, which included three titles on the WTA Tour. She won the Wimbledon title with a thrashing of Canadian starlet Eugenie Bouchard. She also helped her nation win yet another Fed Cup title at the end of the season.

With that in mind, Kvitova hopes the coming season will bring with it even more success.

“Next year I have some clear goals in my mind. I want to have better results at the Grand Slams and of course one day I want to be Number One in the world. I have been close already, but I really hope that day will come. Those clear goals are motivating me to work harder than ever before to get ready for 2015.”

After staging women’s tennis events since 1991, the PTT Thailand Open is facing a turbulent period and is currently at high risk of putting an end to the event after 2015.

Ironically, the news was revealed on the tournament’s official website hours after the WTA announced a historic and record-breaking $525 million media broadcast deal for the coming decade. It appears that tournament director Geoffrey Rowe referred to contract terminations as the main reason for the concerns about the tournament’s future.

“At the same time funding from other key sponsors has also been cut, which means the financial viability of the tournament is at risk. We have no option but to go ahead with the tournament in 2015 but we need to seriously consider the situation beyond next year. It is a great pity as the tournament is Thailand’s longest-running professional sporting event and we were looking forward to celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2016.”

If the Thailand Open ceases to exist, it would follow in the footsteps of the Portugal Open, which was cancelled when the tournament officials deemed it no longer financially viable.

The PTT Pattaya Open takes place Feb. 9-15 2015.

Top American players John Isner and Ryan Harrison have hired new coaches for the upcoming ATP World Tour season.

Isner announced on Monday that he will be teaming up with former player and current tennis commentator and ATP Board member Justin Gimelstob as his new coach for the coming season.

“I’m really excited to start working with Justin,” Isner told ATPWorldTour.com. “He has so much experience within the tennis business and I’ve long respected his knowledge of the sport. I think it will be great for me to have a new perspective helping me with my game.”

Isner had a mediocre year on the tour by relative standards. Although he finished as the top ranked American, he was at the tail end of the Top 20. He did manage to win two titles and reach the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters event.

“I had a great run with Mike [Sell] and feel I really learned a lot from him throughout the course of our coaching relationship. I just thought it was time to try something new, and with Justin I believe I will have a strong and passionate new voice on my team. In spending some time with Justin throughout the fall I have full confidence that he has a clear vision for my game and an understanding of what I need to do in order to play my best tennis.”

Gimelstob revealed that he will continue to undertake his duties as a commentator and a board member.

“John is a very unique talent, a great guy both on and off the court and I am thrilled to be able to be a part of his team,” Gimelstob said. “Coaching is in my blood. I have the highest regard for the level of commitment coaching a player of John’s pedigree entails.

World No. 190 Harrison hired Grant Doyle as his coach after parting ways with him in 2012. With Doyle, Harrison reached a career-high No. 43 on the tour and will be looking to achieve similar success this time around as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, the WTA Board of Directors signed a record media agreement with partner PERFORM valued at more than $525 million. The agreement will span over 10 years and could prove to be a groundbreaking achievement for women’s sports.

The agreement includes the introduction of WTA Media, which is a joint endeavor that will provide premium content to fans. It will also produce magazine shows and increase the presence on social media and in the digital world.

“This is a game changing and historic moment for our fans and for women’s sport,” Stacey Allaster, the Chairman & CEO of the WTA, said. “Our new broadcast strategy to produce all 2000 main draw singles matches in partnership with PERFORM will deliver exponential global exposure for our players, tournaments and partners.”

Ultimately, the new deal will make it easier for fans to follow the WTA tour and have complete access to the athletes throughout the season.

“We are thrilled to expand on our highly successful partnership with the WTA,” PERFORM’s joint CEO, Simon Denyer, said. “We are strong believers in the exceptional sport entertainment value of the WTA and are committed to driving the value for all WTA members and partners. This deal also delivers maximum exposure to the WTA’s global fans on multiple platforms. This is a groundbreaking and innovative partnership and is a major first step in a significant 10-year growth plan for PERFORM.”

It is not everyday that fans get to witness 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer play tennis in an environment outside of the competitive stranglehold of the ATP World Tour; it is even less likely that they will see Federer tear down the wall of professionalism during a match, and simply break out into a dance with French entertainer Gael Monfils.

However, that was exactly what happened a couple of days ago at the third leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) event.

Watch the footage below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c21RDsSxJZM

Martina Navratilova is the latest tennis legend to dip her toes in coaching, as she announced on Monday afternoon that she would be working with world No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska during the coming season.

Navratilova partnership with Aga is the latest in a long line in star coaching roles over the past few years; Andy Murray sparked the trend when he hired Ivan Lendl then Amelie Mauresmo; Novak Djokovic brought Boris Becker on board; Marin Cilic partnered with Goran Ivanisevic to win his maiden Grand Slam title; Roger Federer teamed up with his idol Stefan Edberg, while Kei Nishikori joined forces with Michael Chang.

Both the players announced the big news on twitter.

So happy to announce @Martina as the newest member of my coaching team!

— Aga Radwanska (@ARadwanska) December 8, 2014

Am very excited to be working with @ARadwanska and her team:), should be a fun ride!!!

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 8, 2014

Navratilova won 167 WTA titles over the span of her illustrious career, 18 of which were Grand Slam singles titles and won her last Grand Slam mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2006. Her rivalry with Chris Evert goes down as one of the biggest rivalries in women’s tennis, having played each other a total of 80 times, with Navratilova leading the series 43-37.

Martina, a US citizen for well over three decades now, dedicates a significant portion of her time to her causes, such as supporting environmental issues, gay rights issues as well as animal rights abuses.

The 2014 edition of the Statoil Masters Tennis ended with the crowning of a new champion, as Fernando Gonzalez defeated Andy Roddick in three sets to win the title in London.

The Chilean, who was taking part in his first ever ATP Champions Tour competition, looked fantastic in his Sunday encounter with the American Grand Slam winner and was able to close out the match 6-4, 2-6, 10-4 to the delight of the crowd at the Royal Albert Hall.

“This is great to win this tournament,” he said. “This week has been amazing and I enjoyed this match against Andy a lot. It was very tough, we had very long points, and my body will feel bad tomorrow!”

“This is so fun because after you retire you never think you are going to be back on a court like this. I have enjoyed it really a lot,” he said.

Roddick, however, made no excuses regarding his surprising loss to Gonzalez.

“Fernando played great today,” he said. “I kinda knew I would be in trouble if I had to play him because he’s still so good. But it was fun, I think the crowd enjoyed it and I certainly enjoyed my week here. I don’t know if you can ever prepare yourself for a venue like this. It’s one thing seeing it in the pictures, where it is impressive in its own right. But then to play it and experience it was a real treat for me.”

The American recently got honored with an honorary membership at the All England Club at SW19 earlier this week as well.