[ozza]

Serena . The tournament has to be gutted though.

[Sampressed]

Now are people going to badmouth Serena like they did Victoria??

[Exordes]

Originally Posted by Break My Rapture

I don't understand Vika playing Monterrey though. The next two to three months already feature loads of big tournaments coming so adding Monterrey during this stretch isn't really smart I think.

At the moment Monterrey is one of three candidates for the WTA Championships host with Singapore and Tianjin. So the Mexicans probably want to create a high profile tournament to promote their campaign, and pay some good money for that......http://www.wtachampionships.com/page...058063,00.html

[ReboundAce]

Originally Posted by ozza

They are probably paying her a boatload of money. It should be an easy title. And it's taking advantage of playing on your best surface. She also won't play for a month afterwards.

The only slight concern I would have if is she's deep in both IW and Miami (which is likely), it is going to be a lot of tennis (especially as there are no byes as far as I can see?), so if you are in Miami final Saturday, you are playing again in Monterrey Tuesday.

She can show up and do some promo stuff just like Serena did last year in Mexico, if she goes deep in Miami, and she will the courts suit her game well, hope there won't be any brainless bashers on her way

[Igor_Biscan]

Originally Posted by Exordes

At the moment Monterrey is one of three candidates for the WTA Championships host with Singapore and Tianjin. So the Mexicans probably want to create a high profile tournament to promote their campaign, and pay some good money for that......http://www.wtachampionships.com/page...058063,00.html

They have a strong field for an MM, I guess they are shelling out the appearance fees. I think Vika will play unless she's really injured, she's never pulled out of an MM before I think?

[ozza]

The irony about most of the moaners on GM is that it's there fav's that benefit the most from these withdrawals. They can't win whatever they do, if they play and just tank - they would be blasted for not trying. I hear many people claiming they should have withdrawn before the draw because they had no intention to play here. That is more nonsense though. Firstly the draw was Saturday, they were never going to withdraw before then. Secondly there withdrawals have arisen as a result of exertions in Doha the previous week. It's not like they both signed up to Dubai last year thinking "you know what it would be hilarious if we sign up there and then pull out. How funny!"

And that is the problem with having back to back commitment events. It will lead to late withdrawals after the event has begun due to the previous week, because there isn't any time for them to withdraw before hand.

[SilverSlam]

Originally Posted by ozza

The irony about most of the moaners on GM is that it's there fav's that benefit the most from these withdrawals. They can't win whatever they do, if they play and just tank - they would be blasted for not trying. I hear many people claiming they should have withdrawn before the draw because they had no intention to play here. That is more nonsense though. Firstly the draw was Saturday, they were never going to withdraw before then. Secondly there withdrawals have arisen as a result of exertions in Doha the previous week. It's not like they both signed up to Dubai last year thinking "you know what it would be hilarious if we sign up there and then pull out. How funny!"

And that is the problem with having back to back commitment events. It will lead to late withdrawals after the event has begun due to the previous week, because there isn't any time for them to withdraw before hand.

It's a lot like Charleston, heaps of top players who sign on for there will withdraw because of a good run in Miami. The WTA never learns though, and there's weeks where there are only one MM tournament being played in the current calendar

[ozza]

The problem is the current calendar is just too condensed. It should be at least 2 weeks longer than it currently is. So many good old tournaments pay the price because they simply can't attract top players anymore. Linz is a good example. On the one hand I don't think it's probably best for Vika that she play there, on other it's sad that given it's spot in the calendar it is simply impossible for it attract top players. Who is going to want to play after back to back weeks in Asia? The ATP has this problem with various tournaments that just can't attract top players anymore being sold off.

It's even more unfortunate that a lot of the events that pay the price are European. Hopefully Eastbourne or some other UK grass event improves as a result of the 3 week grass court season. It's especially annoying in the UK, that we have a grand slam, but to get tickets to go every single day is just impossible (would cost upwards of £20k unless you know the right people).

[ozza]

victoria azarenka ‏@vika7
Hey guys! Here is a contest i put for u �� http://www.facebook.com/VictoriaAzarenka … http://ow.ly/i/1yx4j �� im excited #TeamVika

I am sure it would fit us all well .

[ReboundAce]

Guys I have been wondering for a long time why there isn't an off topic thread in Vika's forum ? Clearly there are a lot of fans and it seems that the other big players have one

[ReboundAce]

Originally Posted by ozza

victoria azarenka ‏@vika7
Hey guys! Here is a contest i put for u �� http://www.facebook.com/VictoriaAzarenka … http://ow.ly/i/1yx4j �� im excited #TeamVika

I am sure it would fit us all well .

It's not fair there isn't anything for us, wish she would have given her racquets

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by ReboundAce

Guys I have been wondering for a long time why there isn't an off topic thread in Vika's forum ? Clearly there are a lot of fans and it seems that the other big players have one

There is It's just pretty dead at the moment.

http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=396774

[Igor_Biscan]

Originally Posted by ozza

The problem is the current calendar is just too condensed. It should be at least 2 weeks longer than it currently is. So many good old tournaments pay the price because they simply can't attract top players anymore. Linz is a good example. On the one hand I don't think it's probably best for Vika that she play there, on other it's sad that given it's spot in the calendar it is simply impossible for it attract top players. Who is going to want to play after back to back weeks in Asia? The ATP has this problem with various tournaments that just can't attract top players anymore being sold off.

It's even more unfortunate that a lot of the events that pay the price are European. Hopefully Eastbourne or some other UK grass event improves as a result of the 3 week grass court season. It's especially annoying in the UK, that we have a grand slam, but to get tickets to go every single day is just impossible (would cost upwards of £20k unless you know the right people).

Or you can queue for ground pass every day and pay £200 total, then try to scrounge show court tickets off people who leave early

I guess with extended grass season, and Birmingham going premier from next year, we will see several of the top players playing one of the pre-wimbledon tournaments.

Originally Posted by ozza

victoria azarenka ‏@vika7
Hey guys! Here is a contest i put for u �� http://www.facebook.com/VictoriaAzarenka … http://ow.ly/i/1yx4j �� im excited #TeamVika

I am sure it would fit us all well .

If one of us wins we should provide photographic evidence

Originally Posted by ReboundAce

Guys I have been wondering for a long time why there isn't an off topic thread in Vika's forum ? Clearly there are a lot of fans and it seems that the other big players have one

It's called welcome to Vikaland, you can see the old usernames and real names of the oldtimers. Maybe Will / Vika-GOAT should change the title to something more descriptive

[ozza]

Originally Posted by Igor_Biscan

Or you can queue for ground pass every day and pay £200 total, then try to scrounge show court tickets off people who leave early

I guess with extended grass season, and Birmingham going premier from next year, we will see several of the top players playing one of the pre-wimbledon tournaments.

If one of us wins we should provide photographic evidence

It's called welcome to Vikaland, you can see the old usernames and real names of the oldtimers. Maybe Will / Vika-GOAT should change the title to something more descriptive

Ha, I responded to this in the off topic thread with my opinions on the way Wimbledon is ran (badly).

It's about time you got something resembling a grass warm up event , it has been long overdue.

I wonder what I'd actually do with the dress if I won .

[hurricanejeanne]

The tour just doesn't know what to do with the calendar anymore.
They thought that if we cut a bunch of stuff, or condense it down, and force attendance would lead to better fields.
The facts are it just doesn't work that way. I also think cutting or downgrading some long running tournaments hurt them.
Also there really aren't consistent "seasons" anymore. There is the Australian Swing, the Clay Season and the US Open series but that's about it. Even the clay season isn't as good as it used to be. And don't even get me started about the Fall Season.

The tour is so focused on chasing money instead of building legacy tournaments that will attract top players based on the fact that the GOATs won it (think Miami, Moscow, Tokyo PPO, Zurich, San Diego). I think a lot of players know that these tournaments don't mean as much simply because they can't conjure a history.