THE LOW DOWN: WTA to make lady ballers pay for unwarranted medical timeouts - whatever will JJ do?

So along with the numerous changes and amendments now in place for the launch of the WTA's Roadmap 2010 next season (why don't they just change it to 'Roadmap 2009' already?!) there is an additional element being rolled out: "user pays" medical timeouts.

Essentially, the Tour's governing body "intends to cap the number of occasions players are permitted to call a trainer on court for an extended consultation and issue bills for any excess." How do they intend to do this? They have installed a cap of 6 or 7 medical time-outs for the year and plan to charge a 'nominal' fee, ranging from $100 at a smaller tourney to $500 at the biggest, for anything above the cap. However, the four majors will be exempt from the "user pays" system.

WTA vice-president of operations Peter Johnston explains:

We understand that medical time-outs can be legitimate but we want to make sure that players are conscious of how many they're using up throughout the year, so we're looking to find a system of capping them during the season.

It would trigger what we'd call a service fee. It's a sports science and health issue, so it's almost like a pay-per-view. You can keep using them, but you pay for them, and the amount would depend on the level of the event. It's not about us revenue-raising, it's more just a mindset — like, 'Hey, checkpoint, you've triggered this. Are they all legitimate?' It discourages the practice of, 'I'm feeling a bit weary, I might take a medical time-out'.

The Tour plans on reinvesting the fees into sports science services and the players council was described as "being supportive" of the idea.

I agree something finally needed to be done to curb these annoyingly unwarranted mid-match trainer calls but it always bothers me when there isn't consistency across the board and certain tourneys get exempt. Plus, I'm not sure the top lady ballers, who usually grab the most attention with these incessant calls for the trainer, will stop when the fees are miniscule relative to what they're earning overall.

But I imagine somewhere in the world Jelena Jankovic is saving her pennies just in case.

(image via Getty)

ESPN's Tandon provides "WTA's Roadmap 2010 Guide for Dummies", a tool for confused tennis fans everywhere

Kamakshi Tandon is on it. The ESPN scribe, who is following the controversy surrounding WTA Tour's Roadmap 2010, has made a valiant attempt to break down the supremely confusing Roadmap into 10 major highlights - a "WTA's Roapmap 2010 Guide for Dummies" which is something I can understand, at least I think so.

Most of the Top 10 is pretty understandable: No. 4 - a longer off-season! No. 5 - more prize money!! No. 9 - Bye bye to first round byes!!!

But here's where the confusion and controversy lie:

1. Premier tournaments

The WTA tournaments below the Grand Slams are currently divided into four groups: Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV. Officially, there will be just two next year -- premier and international events.

Unofficially, however, the premier events will consist of four distinct types: mandatory (all eligible players must play), premier five (seven of the top 10), premier (two to three of the top six marquee players), and open (no minimum or maximum commitment because the events are a week before a Grand Slam or the year-end championships -- expect a feast-or-famine situation).

Mandatory events: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing
Premier five: Dubai, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati and Tokyo
Premier: Paris indoors, Charleston, Stuttgart, Stanford, Los Angeles and Tokyo
Premier open: Sydney, Berlin, Eastbourne, New Haven and Moscow

2. International tournaments

These will be a minor league of sorts for the tour, as only one of the top 20 will be allowed to participate in each event. Top players will be able to play only one international tournament during each half of the season. This would allow a player like Radwanska to play her home event in Warsaw but would limit her to premier events for the rest of the summer and fall.

There also will be a year-end event in Bali for the top eight performers in international events -- a poor woman's Sony Ericsson championships, as it were.

Essentially, the WTA Tour is being split into two tribes: the big ballers vs. the baby ballers and rarely the twain shall meet.

So a top-20 lady baller is only allowed to play one "international" minor league tourney huh? I guess the days of entering these lower-tier tourneys to grab confidence-building wins and quick cash for gracing the masses with their appearance are over.

(image via Getty)

WTA gets cranky, "expressly prohibits" top lady ballers from hurting Tour's rep

The controversy surrounding the WTA's Roadmap continues. However, the Tour and the top lady ballers will be sitting down during the WTA Championships in Doha to work towards common ground on next season's schedule.

But according to Kamakshi Tandon over at ESPN the ladies better voice their concerns now or risk a penalty for doing it later:

There will be more meetings between tour officials and players at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar, next week to hammer out the final details. Perhaps the players should take the opportunity to make their objections known, because another new rule will take effect next year -- one that "expressly prohibits" them from making "public comments that a player knows or should reasonably know will harm the reputation or financial best interests of a tournament player, sponsor, official or the WTA."

The ATP already has a similar rule with a $100K fine which is rarely enforced.

Whatever - I don't think this rule will stop Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, or Maria Sharapova from voicing any objections about the WTA Tour and it shouldn't; it's important to keep the process open to discussion and change.

But, I do hope it makes the lady ballers think twice before going public without correct information, a firm point of view, and a strongly written statement.

(image via Getty)

INSTANT REPLAY: A look back at the week's top tennis plays

(Ana Ivanovic, Linz)

Weekend Winners: Andy, Venus
Award-winning Rafa earns year-end No. 1 honors
Who's got a pit problem now?
Andy strips then dips
Fernando joins shirtless brigade
Ana + Aggie join Roadmap row
Regarding Rafa
The Ana annoyance
Rafa trades racquets for clubs
Uncle Toni gives good quote
Nadia make pretty
Who knew Amelie could be funny?
Shrieka dons fur, Dolce runs for cover
Rafa's revolving door of fashion

+ NETCORDS: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

(image via AP)

THE LOW DOWN: Ana + Aggie speak out on Roadmap 2010, big concerns over mandatory tourneys still linger

Ana Ivanovic + Agnieszka Radwanska have followed Dinara Safina's lead and come out publicly against the scheduling changes in the WTA Tour's Roadmap 2010.

Both lady ballers, who are competing this week in Linz, sounded off against the increase in mandatory events for top ballers. Here are the highlights from the Roadmap:

* 40% increase in prize money from $63.6 million in 2006 to $84.4 million
* 26 Tier I + II tourneys will be combined into 20 Premiere tourneys with a minimum baller commitment of 10 that they will play
* Four $4.5 million tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing will be mandatory for all players who qualify
* Five $2 million stops in Canada, Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati and Tokyo of which the top-ranked players must play at least four. The WTA must have at least seven of the world's top 10 ballers at each of these events.
* Ballers will complete their schedules by playing in at least one or two $700,000 events
* Zero tolerance for withdrawals from tournaments ballers have committed to playing. If a baller does pull out, even because of injury, she will forfeit bonus money ($5 million available to the top 10 ranked players) and receive zero ranking points for that event

Based on these new rules, each top lady baller must play a minimum of 24 events, which includes the four majors. Ouch.

The French Open champ admitted the lady ballers "probably didn't look deep into it and kind of let it go" because the Roadmap was announced during the height of Grand Slam season and they would "have to talk more between us":

I do believe it's going to be a lot of tournaments we have to commit to and it's maybe going to be a little bit harder in that sense. We don't have much opportunity to choose, and at the end of the day it might be that we play more matches than we did in previous years.

I think it's good that tournaments will have guaranteed players and week after week have top players competing against each other. I think that's good for women's tennis. But on us individually it's tough to say what impact it's going to have.

Aggie was more aggressive in her stance against the changes telling the press,

After the new rules with the WTA I don't want to be top 10 because the rules are so bad and everything is for the WTA. I cannot play the small tournaments and it's quite bad. I hate these rules. I can play just two small tournaments a year.

We're all saying this, but the WTA is doing everything for themselves, for the sponsors, but they don't realise we have to choose where we want to play and not want to play.

Uh-oh. Now that the lady ballers have actually had time to mull over the new schedule they're none too pleased. As I mentioned previously, a meeting of the top ladies is desperately in order here and there's no time like Doha to make that happen.

I agree with Ana that the timing of the Roadmap announcement wasn't ideal and it didn't give the ballers time to digest the changes and make recommendations. Moreover, the decision by the WTA to launch the "2010" Roadmap in 2009 is idiotic and robs these ballers of more time to voice their concerns. But my gut tells me that's what the Tour wanted - to fast forward the launch to force feed the changes before the ladies could do anything about it. Not the best way to build bridges.

I can see why they feel the need to just speak out whenever they can and to whomever is listening because, clearly, the WTA is not.

(images via AP, Getty)

INSTANT REPLAY: A look back at the week's top tennis plays

(Venus Williams, Zurich)


Weekend Winners: David, Igor, Philipp, JJ
Dinara speaks out against Roadmap, WTA clears air
Jo-Willy visits Hugo Boss
Marat and latest love caught kissing
Nicole and mystery ring follow Radek to Madrid
Martina + Nole give good quote
Separated at birth: A-Rod vs. Kolya
Madrid model ballgirl confesses
Tennis Australia responds
ReRe's blogs about surfing rehab
Fed feeling elegant, becomes top prize money earner
Nole and Co. to buy Amersfoort
The Sisters Sledge get glamorous
Carlos dogs Flavia

+ NETCORDS: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

(image via Getty)

THE LOW DOWN: WTA CEO responds to Safina boycott threat, "Dinara was misinformed...," says Scott

It seems the WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott and Dinara Safina have cleared up some of the confusion over the Roadmap 2010.

Dinara had threatened a possible "boycott" next year after being told that top lady ballers would be allowed to enter limited tourneys while the rest get to pick and choose where to play:

If they [WTA] don't listen to what we have to say, we might even choose to boycott the new tour. They said the leading players would have to play in designated tournaments while lower-ranked players would be able to enter any event they like. There's no logic in that at all.

At issue is Moscow, which will not be a required stop for the top ballers but one of twenty "Premiere" tourneys of which they must play ten. As reported by the AFP, Scott said there was misinformation being communicated to the Russian baller:

Dinara was misinformed when she stated that the Kremlin Cup in Moscow was going to have a limited player commitment in 2009.

It is in fact one of five tournaments which falls the week immediately before a Grand Slam or the Sony Ericsson Championships that will have unlimited player commitment, meaning any number of top 10 players can play the event. We have since spoken with Dinara and clarified this detail.

The world no. 2 acknowledged the error and is hoping that she and the other top lady ballers "will have an opportunity to sit with the Tour leadership in the coming weeks to discuss certain elements of the Roadmap where I think there is still room for improvement."

Yes, a meeting might be a good start here folks. These miscommunications are unfortunate and reveal a worrisome disconnect between the WTA administrators and the ballers - no surprise there. But, why is this information, which is supposedly so important to the future of the Tour, getting lost in translation and misconstrued in such a public way?

Scott did a great service by responding to Dinara's concerns so quickly but the ballers, on both Tours in fact, are feeling disempowered in this situation. I'll guess we'll all have to wait and see how this Roadmap starts to play out.

(image via Getty)

THE LOW DOWN: Dinara voices concern over Roadmap 2010, "...we might choose to boycott the new tour," says Safina

How frustrated are the top lady ballers about the WTA's new Road Map 2010?

Well, Dinara Safina dropped a hint after her 6-2, 7-6 loss to Vera Zvonareva in the Moscow semifinals on Saturday:

If they [WTA] don't listen to what we have to say, we might even choose to boycott the new tour. They said the leading players would have to play in designated tournaments while lower-ranked players would be able to enter any event they like. There's no logic in that at all.

What if all the top players choose to enter the same tournament? What will the WTA do then? We want to know.

Svetlana Kuznetsova also chimed in about her feelings about the revamped schedule:

I was told only two players from the top 10 could enter a smaller tournament like the Kremlin Cup next year.

What if [No. 1-ranked] Jelena Jankovicand Serena or Venus [Williams] want to play here? Then all the top Russian players, and there are five of us in the top 10, will not be able to play in their home tournament. That's nonsense.

A boycott is a very serious matter and not something to just throw out there lightly. But the Roadmap has some grey areas and forcing these ballers to play tourneys is always a little tricky because if they don't want to play, they won't play and they'll eat the fines.

Questions do remain: How involved were the baller reps in the development of Roadmap 2010? Plus, did the WTA Tour and the ballers, or at the very least the baller reps and Tour, have a major sit down since the Roadmap was announced to breakout this new schedule and answer any questions or concerns??

From the outside it seems like a very disjointed process where the WTA is making important decisions without real input from the ballers - a certain recipe for disaster.

(image via Getty)

Injured Ivanovic + Sharapova win in Montreal, but Maria withdraws with balky shoulder

The injuries on the WTA Tour continue to worsen with the Olympics and US Open right around the corner.

Top seed Ana Ivanovic, who's been dealing with a sore thumb she hurt in practice 10 days ago, struggled in her first match since losing in Wimbledon's third round. The sexy Serb needed three sets to defeat Petra Kvitova 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 but refused to blame the injury for her scratchy play:

I went on the court and that means that I felt 100 percent ready to play. Obviously it takes some time to get in a rhythm. But I went through this match. It would probably be the same even if I was feeling 100 percent.

Maria Sharapova survived her opening round match then quickly withdrew from the Rogers Cup citing her lingering right shoulder injury and seriously jeopardizing her chances to compete in Beijing. The 21-year old was made to fight throughout her tight 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 win against Marta Domachowska, even calling the trainer in the second set.

During the presser announcing her withdrawal Shrieka told the media,

It's obviously unfortunate. You try to do every little possible thing you can. But at the end of the day when you go on court and you're thinking about aggravating things, you're thinking about an injury, it's not really the way to play.

It's tough to go on court and not be close to even 50 per cent. I'm too good of a player to go out there and try to fight through something that can eventually become something serious.

After yesterday's post concerning the WTA's new Roadmap 2010, I give full credit to both lady ballers for flying to Montreal and playing through injuries.

But you have to think the Russian's chances of salvaging the rest of her season are in doubt. No serve, no wins. Ana, well, she's still sitting pretty at the top...for now.

(images via Forty Deuce + Getty)

+ WEDNESDAY NETCORDS: Serena, Sveta, Fed...texting Olympic tennis, Wilson's balls and more

(Ernests Gulbis, Cincinnati)

LINKS

WTT gets its due, sort of [ESPN]
Jon Wertheim, you've got mail [SI]
Does head size matter? [TENNIS]
Sveta hearts Fed [tennis week]

BLOG TALK

ReRe, Zappos, and Gladys Knight - WTF? [GOTOTENNIS]
TENNIS.com to provide live text Olympics commentary [On the Baseline]
Spotlight on Fred Perry [Tennis Served Fresh]
WTA Roadmap 2010 = stupid [Throw Up the Deuce]
Wilson has official balls [What's All the Racquet]
ReRe talks with Seventeen [WTA Tennis Blog]

(image via Getty)

THE LOW DOWN: Will "Road Map 2010" stop the WTA's bleeding? TENNIS mag's Martin is hoping so...

James Martin penned a searing essay for Tennis.com's ESPN blog on the "train wreck" that is the WTA Tour's US Open Series.

As it stands the top five point leading lady ballers are Dinara Safina, Aleksandra Wozniak, Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta and Jelena Jankovic. These women are all deserving of their places in the Series' standings and whatever prize money they earn from playing, but these are clearly not the marquee names the USTA was hoping for with the exception of JJ and possibly Dinara.

According to Martin,

...the U.S. Open Series is quickly devolving into a bit of a joke, proof yet again that the WTA is powerless when it comes to delivering its talent for the summer hard-court season and the USTA's principle marketing vehicle leading into the U.S. Open.

Agreed. But will the WTA's new fangled "Road Map 2010" cure these ills? Let's take a look-see:

• 40% increase in prize money from $63.6 million in 2006 to $84.4 million
  
• 26 Tier I + II tourneys will be combined into 20 Premiere tourneys with a minimum baller commitment of 10 that they will play
  
• Four $4.5 million tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing will be mandatory for all players who qualify
• Five $2 million stops in Canada, Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati and Tokyo of which the top-ranked players must play at least four. The WTA must have at least seven of the world's top 10 ballers at each of these events.
• Ballers will complete their schedules by playing in at least one or two $700,000 events
• Zero tolerance for withdrawals from tournaments ballers have committed to playing. If a baller does pull out, even because of injury, she will forfeit bonus money ($5 million available to the top 10 ranked players) and receive zero ranking points for that event

WTA president Stacey Allaster stated that the Tour balanced the ballers' requests with the needs of the Tour itself and the tourneys:

They asked to put the best events in the right dates and we've done all of that. We've given them breaks. Now we're saying, there's going to be a little less flexibility on where you play and if you don't play, then there's going to be really significant ramifications.

Ouch - the zero tolerance policy is pretty tough. But I do agree wholeheartedly that the WTA needed to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and get these top lady ballers to play the premiere tournaments or at least get them to show up and try.

Why do some of the men, like Andy Roddick in Cincinnati, attempt to play with an injury even if he ends up pulling out during the warm-up? The same goes for Andy Murray who dealt with a knee injury in Toronto but is still competing in Cincinnati. Of course injuries are part of any sport, some more serious than others, but it's the effort the fans what to see.

So they get some extra cash in their pockets - but will it get the ladies to show up?

(image via Getty)

THE LOW DOWN: Shady WTA Tour tries to muscle Sharapova, Russian pleads for help

I had no idea the WTA Tour was like something out of The Sopranos or in this case the Russian mob.

Maria "Shriek"apova has lifted the veil on some of the startlingly shady policies by the WTA Tour, and how the Tour is trying to muscle the Russian into paying their mortgage. But the always savvy Maria issued statements on her website and, in an unsual move, asked her fans to give her advice on her forum:

As many of you know, the WTA tour makes many players enter tournaments that they know the players will not be playing. I informed the WTA several months ago that if I played Charleston, I would have to pull out of Berlin. Now they are forcing me to give an injury for the reason why I am pulling out or they will give me an additional fine on top of the 125,000 fine already given to me. I am a very giving person, but I refuse to give anymore of my money to the WTA tour. So I want everyone to know that besides getting sick the past few days, I am healthy and I am looking forward to playing Rome. The good news is that the new road map for next year should solve all these problems.

I want all my fans to know that the WTA Tour is forcing me and several of the other top players to do a 4 hour commercial shoot for WTA Tour marketing materials. They want me to do this shoot on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of the Rome tournament after flying 12 hours from LA. I have set my own personal rules when it comes to doing shoots and I never do shoots before tournaments because they are mentally draining and I want to just focus on my tennis. Now the WTA is telling me if I don't do this shoot they will fine me over $300,000. As you can see the WTA Tour loves to fine players. To be honest, I would love to do this and help promote the tour as much as possible, but to force me to do this shoot the day before a tier 1 tournament is just not right. I am interested in what my fans think I should do?

1) Should I just do the shoot?

2) Should I NOT do the shoot and take the fine?

3) Should I NOT do the shoot and take legal action against the WTA?

4) Should I contact the other top players and try to boycott the shoot?

5) Other To voice your opinion go to the forum by clicking here.

Wow! I'd hate to run into the WTA Tour administrators in a dark alley - very scary. What's also very scary? Asking your fans what to do with your money.

(image via Getty)