Australian Open

Day 14

Well, JHH defeated Clijsters, but this was a better match than their previous meetings... I like both players, but I would've liked to see Kim take this one home. She was definitely the victim of some bad calls, all at crucial times for her, but you can't put all the blame on that... if only she could have stronger first sets and be a little tougher a little earlier in the match. It's less than 10 hours from the men's match and I am looking forward to it... a five-setter would be great, if it goes to that I don't necessarily mind who wins... but, as you may know, I am leaning Safin's way for this one.
Here are a couple links I found of interest:
ESPN commentary on how a life outside of tennis is good
Sports Illustrated report on Leander Paes' incredible return, he plays in the mixed finals today with Martina.
I have a couple more to add, but after getting bounced off for the seventh time, I am giving up for bit. Will add those from a computer at work.

Day 11

Well, it's an all-waffle women's final again, and the men will be Marat Safin vs Fe----- (Federer v Ferrero to be decided in a few hours that I can't stay up for). I'd like to say I knew Safin would make it this far, but I won't lie. I ponied up the $15 the ATP charges to play Fantasy Tennis and am giving that a whirl. I only hesitated because I have a tendency to get practically obsessed with my fantasy baseball teams... I've played for three years and finished 2nd in my group all three times (damn, so close!), and normally place in the top 15% overall (there are a couple thousand teams total). I manage three to four teams (it's all free), with one that never changes or has any trades the entire season - that one came in 2nd last year - and then a couple other teams that I seem to constantly fool with. Mainly, if I can think of a clever team name, I add another team... I know, very scientific. One I've had a few years is "Damn Yankees" and a new one last year was "Crank Yankees" (there's a US comic show called Crank Yankers where recorded hysterical prank phone calls are acted out by puppets, sounds weird, but it's a riot)... I just dislike the NY Yankees. This year I'll have to come up with something anti-Pete Rose for a new team name. I don't follow the baseball games on TV or pour over the boxscores or anything, just check the injury report before the trading deadline each day, or trade someone instantly if I hear about beforehand.

Back to tennis, on the Sunday AM (US time) at the start of the Oz Open, I made my team... they have some interesting rules... basically there are tiers of players based on rankings, the higher the ranking the fewer number of those players you can buy.
Here's the ATP's explanation:
Category 1: 1-15 from the ATP Champions Race 2003
Category 2: 16-45 from the ATP Champions Race 2003
Category 3: 46-90 from the ATP Champions Race 2003
Category 4: 61-149 from the ATP Champions Race 2003
You have $20,000,000 to spend and you are able to buy up to 20 players. You can choose as follows:
Cat. 1: Max. 3 players
Cat. 2: Max. 5 players
Cat. 3: Max. 8 players
Cat. 4: Max. 8 players
I didn't even look at the draw when I made my team, which wasn't swift - otherwise I wouldn't have had top tier players from the same half of the draw, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of my lower ranked guys weren't even playing! I know, dumb move, but I was worried about the deadline! But, I did pick Safin, so I'm quite happy about that... but I am sure most people also picked a Federer or Ferrero, which I didn't. I went with (in ranking order) Agassi, Rainer (who I won't 'sell' for the year), Nalbandian; Hewitt, Dent, Youzhny; Safin, Nadal; Escude and Popp. There are 1678 teams at this point, early on I was in like 1200th place, a couple days ago I was in the 500 range, but am now at # 727 with 358 points (#1 team has 551 points and #10 has 529 pts). This is where no other half of the draw is costing me. I can sell up to 6 players before the month ends, and I have ten slots left to fill if I have the money to do so. Isn't all this fascinating? Sorry... I just want Safin to win, regardless of the F vs F outcome, I think Marat's return is great for the game, and being Russian never hurts in my book.

Here are sometennis and sports items I came across, but they don't justify their own separate post:

• Second seed Roger Federer will battle third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero for a place in the Australian Open final - and No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings - when they meet in a blockbuster semifinal showdown on Friday. Federer will replace Andy Roddick at No. 1 if he defeats Ferrero or if Ferrero does not win the title. Completing one of the juiciest Grand Slam semifinal combinations in many years, defending champion Andre Agassi will play Russian powerhouse Marat Safin on Thursday night.



• From the boys at Tennis-X, their ridicule of Nalbandian, which did crack me up (this is a real): "I feeling good," said Nalbandian in his excruciating caveman-era English. "I didn't play Adelaide because I had to check the wrist for be sure that I can play, I don't know, maybe 10 more years. But actually, then I play three matches in Kooyong (exhibition), and that's make me a very good feeling in the court. I really enjoy the match." Me watch enjoy too, ugh.



• Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim's Tennis column



• The Henin-Hardenne v Mauresmo match, on paper at least, would have been a great match to see. Mauresmo upset JHH in November at the Tour Championships 76 (2)36 63 and has a good game. I think she adds a nice mix to the power of the Williams sisters and the finesse of JHH and Clijsters, throw in a little healthy Davenport and a Capriati with a good mental game, and women's tennis is interesting again.



• This week marked the return of NHL player Dany Heatley after recovering physically, yet still emotionally on the mend, from a late Septmeber car accident that killed friend/teammate Dan Snyder. This portion comes from one of the links: "By any measuring stick, the 2002 rookie of the year and last year's All-Star Game MVP has made dramatic progress in his rehabilitation from surgery to repair complete tears of his medial collateral ligament and the anterior cruciate ligament, and a repair of his lateral meniscus of his right knee 3½ months ago. He also suffered a broken jaw in the accident.He has been practicing with the team since Jan. 16 and engaged in his first full-contact practice on Jan. 21, his birthday." That is amazing that he's back on the ice already, but can anyone tell me how he's playing and yet there's no Serena on the tennis courts yet? She's made it as far as high heels... something's not right with that.
  Here are some links about this incredible hockey/sports story. ESPN piece, 2nd piece, and a third.
  
  
• The new commercial for the 2004 Masters Cup in Houston features four clips of Rainer, a much better production than last year's when there was nothing of Rainer.



• I've just learned that there's a family wedding the middle weekend of Wimbledon, the scheduling makes me less than happy as it means that Thursday to Monday leaves me without any strawberries and cream viewing! I really don't want to take off work (lose money), drive or fly to the place and pay ridiculous prices for a hotel room on an overpriced island, go to a black tie wedding - which means a dress (more wasted $ and I hate dresses), and on top of that, miss a good portion of one of the sporting events that I've loved and watched every year since I was like 9... not looking forward to it! Sorry, had to vent, we now take you back to our regularly scheduled links and observations.



• NY Times article on East German athletics and steroids... link 'self-destructs' after a few days and then you have to pay to read the article, so I've copied the whole thing here. It's the last entry for this day, so you can scroll down to other Aus Open day entries if you don't want to read it.
  
  East German Steroids' Toll: 'They Killed Heidi'
  By JERE LONGMAN Published: January 26, 2004
  AGDEBURG, Germany, Jan. 20 - Andreas Krieger opened a shopping bag in his living room and spilled out his past: track and field uniforms, a scrapbook and athlete credentials from the former East Germany.
  
  The photos on the credentials looked familiar, but the face was fuller and softer, the hair covering the ears and draping down the neck. This was Heidi Krieger, the 1986 European women's shot-put champion, perhaps the most extreme example of the effects of an insidious, state-sponsored system of doping in East Germany.
  
  The taking of pills and injections of anabolic steroids created virile features and heightened confusion about an already uncertain sexual identity, Krieger said, influencing a decision to have a sex-change operation in 1997 and to become known legally as Andreas.
  
  "They killed Heidi," Krieger said.
  
  More than 14 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and more than three years after criminal trials resulted in convictions of East Germany's top sports official and sports doctor, Krieger and a number of other athletes are still trying to resolve legal, medical and psychological issues related to the secretive doping program that was known by the Orwellian euphemism of "supporting means." Many of the athletes were minors at the time and say they were given performance-enhancing drugs without their knowledge.
  
  Karen König, a retired swimmer, filed a civil lawsuit against the German Olympic Committee, contending that it inherited more than $2.5 million in assets from East Germany upon reunification in 1990 and thus bears responsibility to assist the former East German athletes.
  
  She is seeking $12,500 in a test case, and as many as 140 former East German athletes, including Krieger, are deciding whether to file similar complaints. Last month, a state court in Frankfurt ruled that König's case could proceed. Indications are that the case could be settled out of court, according to German news reports.
  
  Jens Steinigen, König's lawyer, said in a telephone interview that he was also exploring the possibility of suing the pharmaceutical company VEB Jenapharm, formerly state-run and now a subsidiary of the Schering AG Group. According to evidence in the criminal trials of the late 1990's, Jenapharm produced the steroid Oral-Turinabol that was given to East German athletes.
  
  "We won't be able to make these wrongs undone, but the athletes can still use the money for medicine or therapy," Steinigen said.
  
  As Krieger sees it, no amount of money could restore his health, which he considers harmed by steroid use and secondary effects. He experiences such intense discomfort in his hips and thighs, from lifting massive amounts of weight while on performance-enhancing drugs, that he can no longer sleep on his side. Only the mildest physical exertion is tolerable. Long unemployed, he now works two days a week as a clerk for a real estate agent.
  
  On Tuesday, the same day that President Bush called for an end to steroid abuse in American sports in his State of the Union address, Krieger again told his own story, feeling compelled to shed more light on one of the darkest chapters in the history of performance-enhancing drugs.
  
  As many as 10,000 East German athletes were involved in a state-sponsored attempt to build a country of 16 million into a sports power rivaling the United States and the Soviet Union, recent trials and documents of the East German secret police have revealed.
  
  An estimated 500 to 2,000 former East German athletes are believed to be experiencing significant health problems associated with steroids, including liver tumors, heart disease, testicular and breast cancer, gynecological problems, infertility, depression and eating disorders. Some female athletes have reported miscarriages and have had children born with deformities like club feet.
  
  In 2002, two years after the criminal trials ended, the German government established a compensation fund of $2.5 million for the doping victims, with a maximum payout of $12,500. Only 311 athletes, however, made claims — Krieger among them — by the deadline of March 31, 2003, according to Birgit Boese, a board member of Doping Victim Aid, an assistance group.
  
  Some athletes were unaware of the fund, while others were embarrassed, afraid of losing their jobs, unable to gain full access to their medical files or unsuccessful in convincing doctors that their ailments were directly related to steroid use, Boese said.
  
  "There was a lot of denial and still is," Boese said of the athletes. "Many have never, or only now, understood that they were abused by people they trusted."
  
  Some of the most outspoken have faced harassment and threats. Ines Geipel, a retired East German sprinter who chronicled the doping system in a book, "Lost Games," said she had been confronted at readings in 2001 by former East German officials. As recently as Jan. 18, she said, an anonymous phone caller told her, "You know there is not much time left for you."
  
  Neither she nor Krieger has been deterred.
  
  "People should know what happened, what side effects can be generated," Krieger said, speaking through an interpreter inside a concrete-block apartment building left from the Communist days in Magdeburg, a 90-minute train ride west of Berlin.
  
  As Andreas, he has a goatee, wide shoulders and a narrow waist, and is handsome in a Three Musketeers kind of way. Told this, his wife, Ute Krause, said, "D'Artagnan," and he gestured as if sword fighting, saying "en garde" to an imaginary foe.
  
  When discussing the effects of doping, Andreas became serious and animated, sometimes emotional, smoking cigarettes and nervously rubbing his palms. When he was Heidi Krieger, scratching of the hands became a compulsive act and sometimes drew blood.
  
  Though Krieger said he was happy, his life remains complicated. At 38, he is married to Krause, 41, a former East German swimmer. They met in Berlin at the criminal trials. Before Ute and Andreas were wed, he explained to her teenage daughter, Katja, that he, too, was once a girl. Katja accepted his explanation and her mother and Andreas married in May 2002.
  
  Theirs began as a desperate kind of love. Ute and Andreas were former elite athletes, damaged by steroids, betrayed by coaches and officials they trusted and eager to testify against them. Both were once given to thoughts of suicide. They leaned on each other for information and support during the trials. Both had come to believe their drug-fueled performances were no longer legitimate.
  
  Andreas's gold medal from the 1986 European championships, now part of a trophy designed as a steroid molecule, is given as an annual award to Germans involved in anti-doping efforts. Ute keeps a framed certificate of her 1978 world rankings in the backstroke in a symbolic location, over the toilet.
  
  He is glad that he became a man, Krieger said, explaining that Heidi felt out of place and longed in some vague way to be a boy. What makes Krieger angry, Krause said, is a belief that the steroids essentially made the decision for Heidi, leaving her unable to sort out her sexual identity on her own.
  
  "They pushed her out of her sex," said Geipel, the former sprinter and writer who is a friend of Krieger's.
  
  A Teenager's Torment
  In 1979, at age 14, Heidi Krieger began attending the Sports School for Children and Youth in Berlin. It was affiliated with the powerful sports club Dynamo, which was sponsored by the Stasi, the East German secret police.
  
  At 16, Heidi began to receive round blue pills wrapped in foil. This was the steroid Oral-Turinabol, but coaches typically called them vitamins that would increase strength and help the athletes endure the stress of training. In Heidi's case, the Oral-Turinabol was given in tandem with birth control pills.
  
  Six months later, Heidi's clothes no longer fit and she felt "like the Michelin Man or a stuffed goose," Krieger said. By the time she was 18, she weighed 220 pounds, had a deep voice, increased body and facial hair and appeared mannish. On the streets of Berlin, Krieger said, Heidi was derisively called a homosexual or a pimp. Once on a commuter train, in the presence of her mother, she was called a drag queen. She went home, removed her skirt and never wore one again.
  
  At the airport in Vienna, where Heidi had gone for a track meet, a flight attendant gave her directions to the men's bathroom. Even later, as she considered a sex-change operation, Krieger said, a psychologist asked, "So you want to change from a man to a woman?"
  
  The insults stung, but Heidi kept taking the blue pills. She had wild mood swings, from depression to aggression to euphoria. Once, she swiped at a boxer who had taunted her. When she stopped taking the birth control pills, her breasts began to hurt severely. She felt out of place at the sports school and in her own body, but the shot-put was a way to measure up, to fit in. By 1986, she had become the European champion.
  
  "The only thing I could do was sports," Krieger said. "I got to travel, I received recognition. I got the feeling that I belonged. That's what I wanted, to belong. From my point of view, I deserved it. I had worked hard. To question whether these were hormones I was being given, I didn't ask or suspect."
  
  Clearly, though, the steroids had a profound effect on her performances. And Heidi received drugs in large doses. As a 16-year-old, she put the shot just over 46 feet. Three years later, she pushed beyond 65 feet 6 inches. Trainers and doctors referred to her as Hormone Heidi.
  
  According to medical research records uncovered by Brigitte Berendonk, a onetime West German Olympian, and her husband, Dr. Werner Franke, a molecular biologist from Heidelberg, Heidi Krieger received 2,590 milligrams of Oral-Turinabol in 1986, the year she won the European championship.
  
  "That's about 1,000 milligrams more than Ben Johnson got in 1988," Franke said in a telephone interview, referring to the Canadian sprinter who was stripped of his gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, after testing positive for the steroid stanozolol.
  
  After the Fall
  Eventually, Heidi's powerful muscles and strenuous workouts began to overwhelm her joints and skeletal system. Retrieving a training log from June 1988, Krieger displayed a regimen indicating that Heidi lifted more than 100 tons of weights in a two-week period. Such physical strain took a toll on her knees, hips and back, and by 1991, her career ended.
  
  That same year, Berendonk's seminal book about East German doping, "From Research to Cheat," appeared. But even after Heidi's mother showed her the book, which detailed Heidi's steroid dosage, she did not want to believe that her performances had been achieved through doping rather than simply by skill and determination.
  
  "Even then, I was in denial," Krieger said.
  
  Retired, unemployed, the social safety net of her country no longer available to soften her fall after reunification, Heidi began to experience a deepening sense of dislocation, despair and ambiguity about her sexual identity. She never had a relationship with a man. She did have relationships with two women, but did not consider herself a lesbian, Krieger said.
  
  By 1994, Heidi grew so depressed one day that she filled her tub with water and sat inside with a razor blade, intending to slit her wrists, seeing the blood flow in her mind, Krieger said. At that moment, Heidi's dog, a shepherd named Rex, nuzzled her arm, signaling it was time for a walk.
  
  "The dog nudged me with that cold nose and it was like a shock, like I woke up from a dream," Krieger said.
  
  In 1995, Heidi met a transsexual and began considering a sex-change operation, Krieger said. Two years later, she had her breasts removed and underwent a hysterectomy and other surgical procedures to begin the process of becoming a man known as Andreas.
  
  Eventually, Andreas accepted that Heidi's athletic performances had been fraudulent. This left him feeling sad and angry, Krieger said. Heidi had trusted her coaches and trainers as if they were surrogate parents. But the officials gave her drugs that pushed her in a certain direction, Krieger said, denying her the most important decision she could make.
  
  "I didn't have control," Krieger said. "I couldn't find out for myself which sex I wanted to be."
  
  By May 30, 2000, Andreas was ready to confront in a Berlin courtroom the former East Germany's top sports official, Manfred Ewald, and the top sports doctor, Manfred Höppner. As described in the book "Faust's Gold," (St. Martin's Press, 2001) written by an American psychologist, Dr. Steven Ungerleider, Andreas had a dramatic encounter with the presiding judge.
  
  First, Andreas presented a wrinkled photograph of himself as Heidi. Then he said of the East German officials, "They just used me like a machine."
  
  He described hating his body, and spoke of a mind "crazy with panic," filled with thoughts of suicide. He told of the sex-change procedure, and in a moment of brutal poignancy, said of his mother, "She says no matter who I am, boy or girl, she will always love me."
  
  Ewald and Höppner were both convicted of accessory to the intentional bodily harm of athletes and were given probation. Upon testifying, Andreas said he lost his fear of the two men. And he got some confirmation of his beliefs from the verdicts.
  
  "The words used in court were that the giving of relatively high doses of Oral-Turinabol to a girl around puberty has significantly contributed to development into transsexuality," said Franke, the molecular biologist whose research into the East German doping system formed the basis of the criminal prosecutions.
  
  Although the complex decision to have a sex change could not precisely be connected to steroids, the psychologist Ungerleider said, "Emotional fallout from high levels of testosterone can make people unsure who they are."
  
  Facing Life Today
  In a twist to his story, Andreas Krieger is again receiving hormones every three weeks, this time as therapeutic injections to maintain his maleness. The hormones are more benign versions of the testosterone derivatives that East German officials fed him. He still feels depression near the end of each hormonal cycle, and he worries that he is at a higher risk of cancer.
  
  Still, Andreas said, "It's better than I had before."
  
  In Krause, his wife, and her daughter, Katja, he has a renewed sense of family and belonging. And Ute understands what Andreas experienced as an athlete in a way that does not need words. As a swimmer, she had her own problems, developing bulimia in an attempt to stem weight gain from steroids. She struggled with bulimia for 20 years, she said, and once tried to kill herself by swallowing sleeping pills and vodka.
  
  "Since we have been together, she has not thrown up," Andreas said.
  
  Ute manages a pair of nursing homes as Andreas struggles to find a job in graphic design in a region with high unemployment. When they watch sports, it is with a certain skepticism about doping. Now, when he sees a woman throw the shot more than 65 feet, Andreas said, "I know this is not only from drinking water."
  
  He is adamant that athletes caught using drugs should be treated as criminals and banned permanently from sports. And he considers it hypocritical for other countries to hire coaches from the former East Germany. Through it all, Andreas keeps Heidi close, memories pressed between the pages of a scrapbook.
  "I have to accept that Heidi is part of my history," Andreas said. "The more open I am, the less problems I have. Less than if I try to deny her."

Day 5

Schuettler and Kiefer's match is the first of the day on Court 18 at 11am on Friday. Update: Kiefer and Rainer were defeated by fourth-seeded Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, 57 46. Here are the match stats from the event's site. Not too shabby against a pair that finished 3rd in the ATP Team Race and won a tour-best six titles in eight finals. They won the title here in 2002 and were runner-ups last year...
Even I cannot make it till 3:30am for the start of the Roddick-Dent match on the live ticker, so I'll have to check online as soon as I get up. I hope it's a good match, it would be pretty cool if Dent won, nothing personal Andy. Update: Man, I'm glad I didn't stay up to watch that one, Dent pretty much got smoked, oh well... Just curious, does Todd Martin even step off the court in under 5 sets or at least one tiebreak?

Day 3

German pair Rainer Schuettler and Nicolas Kiefer take on the Australian combo of Raphael Durek and Alun Jones today on Court 7. They are the fourth and final match of the day on that court, following the Schett/Schnyder v Cargill/Harkleroad doubles match (Schett lost in singles on the 1st match of that day on Court 7, nice scheduling), which as of 1:10 AM early Wednesday NY time, just finished.
Kiefer, a quarterfinalist here 1998 and 2000, lost his first round match in singles to Filippo Volandri, 36 64 36 46. The two have played before in Davis Cup action, losing to Belarussians Mirnyi/Voltchkov 36 63 57 57 in September. I believe that was their first time playing doubles together, but it's late and I could be wrong. Rainer's previous partner from Sydney, Yves Allegro, teamed up with Federer for the Oz Open. The Swiss pair just lost to Brazil's Sa and Saretta, 46 46. Mikhail Youzhny is partnered with Harold Levy.
I am hoping ESPN will show a bit of the Taylor Dent v Juan Ignacio Chela 5-setter in tonight's late-night coverage, it looked good on the ticker. But no, right now we are watching Agassi just beat up on some guy instead. I think Chela has one of the great names in sports, it just sounds good. Other favorites just off the top of my head include: Sterling Hitchcock and Trot Nixon (baseball), Lawyer Milloy (football), and hockey players Sandis Ozolinsh, Saku Koivu and Zarley Zalapski. Off to see more tennis...
Update: Schuettler and Kiefer won the match 67(6) 61 64. Next up for the German pair are fourth-seeded Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who advanced after defeating David Ferrer (ESP) and Filippo Volandri (ITA) 76(5) 75.

There's Something About Rainer... Articles

• Stats from the match


• Here's a wire report about Agassi's comments on ATP testing

More to follow...


Days 1 and 2

Well... Mondays really, really aren't Rainer's best day so far this year. In first round action at the Australian Open, Schuettler fell to Soderling in five sets, 64 64 57 36 46. The stats for the two players from the three-hour-plus match can be found here. After taking a two-set advantage, at 5-5 Schuettler faltered and Soderling was able to capitalize and come roaring back for the win.

In what could be a very telling time in his career, Rainer has the mindset of taking a break from tennis and waiting for when he feels the desire to play to return. Perhaps the strain of such a long 2003, combined with an extra-short off season and playing in two exhibitions are now catching up with him. When losing to Sargsian in December, Schuettler destroyed a racquet for the first time, and his impressive drive to continuously improve may be hampering him now.
"I turned into a little like the hamster in the wheel - play, train, play, train. At the same time I lost the desire for tennis," said Rainer, who on Tuesday was more than ready to take his pre-scheduled break (a slightly lighter spring to concentrate/prepare more for the summer events). "I'll return only when and if I really have a desire for tennis. In three weeks or in three months. I am physically fit, but not mentally."
"I was absolutely super-motivated, I wanted too much", said Schuettler a couple of hours after his first round loss. "I must get myself newly regrouped, I need a break from this entire circus."

Finally, they have released the draw for doubles, but no order of play as yet. Rainer will be playing with countryman Nicolas Kiefer. The German duo faces off against the Aussie duo of Raphael Durek and Alun Jones in the first round. Fun fact: Durek has Polish parents, was born in Brazil and now plays for Australia, his favorite surface is Rebound Ace.
More info when the schedule is known.


There's Something About Rainer... Articles

• Postmatch interview with Rainer. "I wanted to play well and in practice the whole three weeks I play well. But I just didn't win a match. I try now to take a little break and then start practicing again and get ready for the rest of the season. Hopefully, I will do better then - because it can't get worse," said Schuettler. Next up for him could be Rotterdam and Dubai.


• Aus Open article on Rainer, it talks about one-time slam appearances


• Sport1 piece, includes quotes from Hordorff and Rainer. "It's simply that the mental freshness and the self-assurance are missing," said Dirk. On blaming nerves of playing on Center Court and being the first match of the entire men's side, Rainer said that wasn't an excuse for the outcome, "That cannot be an apology, but rather it motivates me."


• Sport1 recap of matches


• Sport.ard brief


• Sport.ard audio clip of commentary and Rainer quotes, but I have no idea what they're saying


• Bild mini report, Rainer says that in the 3rd he played a shot he normally wouldn't, and could have been done in 90 minutes and in the cab, instead of going 3+ hours and losing


• Sportbild report


• Netzeiting article


• Netzeiting additional piece


• N-TV.de report


• Rhein-Zeitung brief interview


• Skysports recap of the loss


• Spiegel.de interview


• Spiegel.de recap


• Sportbild article


• Sportgate story


• Bild story


• ATP recap of first day


• TennisMagazin.de 'blitz' interview


• TennisMagazin.de article


• TennisMagazin.de report


• Aus Open site's recap of Day 1


• Die Welt great article, may need to register (free)

Tuesday (US) links (have more to add later in the day)...

• Sport1 interview with Rainer

Schuettler Shots... Photos










The Wonder Down Under



Rainer Schuettler returns to the Australian Open - the start of his fantastic 2003 - now as the 6th seed and a stronger player. He certainly hopes a repeat is possible, though last year's runner-up hasn't had as much luck early in the season, but the first Grand Slam of the year is always a place where anything can happen. The other top seeds are 1) Roddick 2) Federer 3) Ferrero 4) Agassi and 5) Coria. I think some spoilers lie in Nalbandian and Dent, injury questions follow Coria and Moya, and Roddick's first match could be a very interesting one. In Schuettler's own bracket, there are some names that one shouldn't look past... Kuerten, Paradorn, Escude, Robredo, Ljubicic and Youzhny. Throw in the women's side and it all plays out to be a great two weeks of tennis, and thankfully, most of us can see it all on TV! Here is ESPN's schedule of their two-channel coverage. ESPN has also announced that they will cover some 600 hours of tennis this year. I think it sounds fantastic, let's just hope that 596 of them aren't all Americans.
One side note, this time difference always throws me, I can do 8 hours difference for Iraq, but the 16 just finishes me off - I swear during the adidas International there was a point where Rainer played two games in one American day... but unless otherwise noted, all times listed in my postings are Australian... this is where the time clock link to the right comes in very handy.

Rainer (here is his bio from the tourney's site) takes to the court Monday against Robin Soderling. The Swede is big (6'3 180lbs) and young (19) and had an extremely solid 2003, jumping more than 100 places in ATP Entry Rankings to No. 63. He reached first career ATP final (Stockholm) and reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon in his debut there - as a qualifier.

The 11am match is scheduled for Rod Laver Arena, which for me is 7pm Sunday evening... Be sure to check out the IBM Australian Open site, they normally do a fantastic job on covering the Slams with all sorts of extra features and insight.

**Keep an eye out for the airing of the behind-the-scenes-show from the Masters Cup... It was on (half-hour version) here in the US on Saturday, I only saw the a few minutes before I had to go to work... by far the best quote is from Agassi, who was serious when he said, upon being fitted for his cowboy hat... "Do you think if all eight players say 'We're not wearing it' we can avoid it?" Right on partner!

There's Something About Rainer... Articles

• Draw writeup from the event's site


• ESPN's take on great matchups to watch, their Rainer blurb: "(6) Rainer Schuettler, Germany, vs. Robin Soderling, Sweden - After reaching the finals last year, Schuettler is facing a little pressure. Soderling moved up more than 100 points in the world rankings from 2002 to 2003. The Swede is capable of making this interesting."


• SI's Jon Wertheim has done his report on the seeds... here is his Rainer mention: "6. Rainer Schuettler: The Rain Man can play, but no way will he replicate last year's feat of reaching the final, particularly since his early season play has been spotty. Could be kaput after second-round match against streaky Nicolas Escude."


• BBC Sport profile of Rainer as the 6th seed. At least they have faith in him... "A baseliner with great agility and a strong return, Schuettler is at his best on hard courts and this time around, it will be no surprise if he repeats last season's success or even goes one better."


• BBC Sport on the early matchups


• BBC Sport's men's preview


• BBC Sport has their own guide to the Oz Open and tennis in general


• MSNBC's Bud Collins with his preview of the men


• ESPN report on the men


• Sport1 piece


• Sport1 repeat link of interview


• Sport1 checks out the odds on the favorites


• Sportbild piece on Rainer v Soderling


• Rhein-Zeitung blurb


• Sport.ard editorial on upcoming Oz Open


• The Age (Aussie) article on the Open from their new tennis columnist, a guy named Mats Wilander


• The Age report on Wilander's comments on what he views as top choices (no Rainer)


• Sunday Mail (Aus) article


• Guardian Unlimited (UK) preview


• Scotsman preview of the event


• Scotsman commentary on Rusedski... I love the part about Costa facing Rusedski!


• Scotsman's additional, more detailed piece on Rusedski and doping


• Financial Times report mainly on Henman and Aussie Open


• Daily Telegraph article on Andre


• Herald Sun piece on the draw


• Independent Online (South Africa) take on the draw


• SportingLife.com piece on the draw


• Straits Times (Singapore) piece on Andre


• TennisMagazin.de article


• Netzeitung article with Kuhnen about Rainer


• Netzeitung additional piece


Other sports bits of note...

• ESPN piece on Wie just missing the cut... a 14 yr old girl playing a PGA event! I think that Suzy Whaley, Annika and now Michelle Wie are great for the PGA, LPGA, golf, sports and people in general. It's motivational, it's promotional, it's educational. I follow sports a great deal, and until this tournament, I never knew there was a Hawaiian PGA event. You go girl!


• MSNBC piece on a high ranking soccer guy who thinks that the women need to wear shorter shorts... just curious, is he a cro-magnon man or just a neanderthal?


• BBC Sport article on the 2012 Olympic bids


• Observer Guardian (UK) great piece on Lance Armstrong


• Observer Guardian article on Americans and baseball


• Another piece from Observer Guardian, this one on an American basketball player and his playing with Dirk Nowitzki


• And, finally, in conclusion, this quote from Tennis-X in their Speak Up section... "That alone immediately suggests two things. (John) McEnroe is a bigger dill than we thought and that his erratic, aggressive behavior on court may have been drug-induced."
  -- The Weekend Australian on John McEnroe admitting he unwittingly took steroids during his playing days.