``(Korolev) is a good kid and I do feel bad for him,'' Blake said. ``The rule may be silly, but the right thing was done in my view.''

``Maybe I'm biased, but I think the right decision was made,'' Blake said.

i don't know where to begin with this bullshit."the rule may be silly"? WTF? the rule says you should not have gone through, james. they bent, spindled, and broke the rule so you (their marquee player) could go through. "maybe i'm biased, but i think the right decision was made"? that may be the dumbest statement ever uttered.

i'm done with you, james.

The boys are talking about this in the other thread. And, I agree, they bent the rules for James. But James Blake is one of the classiest guys on the ATP Tour; something he's proven time and again. It seems a touch harsh to condemn the man completely over one quote, especially someone who has shown such great character time and again, day in and day out, and has usually been at his most kind and sportsmanlike in the face of tough defeats. The mess with the draws and the confusion over the rules is bigger than James himself. Clearly, the organizers of the tournament have alot of questions to answer, but I think it's possible to cut Blake some slack given his track record ... even if you disagree with his quotes about this circumstance.

Besides, it's easy to see where he was coming from. He did everything he thought he needed to do to advance and then he thought he made it and then it was taken away from him. He's human, he had to feel robbed of a victory in that moment and therefore would naturally think it was only right to get his spot back. He admits to his bias, but most people would probably feel the same way he does. I agree that he's not necessarily right, but his viewpoint isn't that outrageous.

Snicks, I don't care if you don't support Blake anymore or not, but why's he the bad guy? If any player deserves our scorn, it's del Potro for retiring.

Geez...thats a bit harsh to come down on James that way. The fault does lie with the tournament organizers here. The whole thing is shaky and if the rule is what it is then it should have been done away with after the tournament. It wouldn't have been fair either way. If James lost his spot due to the stupid retirment rule that wouldn't have seemed right and it doesn't seem right that the rules were altered mid way through the tournament. But yeah...James has proven time and time again that he is a classy player. I tell ya...a person can have a life full of positive behavior and one thing done that doesn't seem right and they are cast off by people. I think he needs to be given some slack here. Your anger should be with the tournament organizers.

I agree whole-heartedly that the fault here lies with the tournament and the ATP, but I too was a little taken back by James' statement. There's no need to pretend on his part that he did not benefit greatly from this "interpetation" of the rules. It seems so out of character for him to do that.

I certainly am not going to write him off or anything, but his statements were a bit of a suprise for me.

Oh by the way, it's interesting that del Potro has now retired four times in the past year. And yet people are questioning James' character...

OF COURSE James accepted the berth into the quarters. Only by a bizarre quirk of the rules - which wasn't understood by either player and which in fact the ATP actually misled both players about - allowed Korolev to advance. We all know that Blake should be in the quarters but for del Potro's actions. Yet Blake gets punished. He did what he had to do - he won his match & allowed only 2 games to the other guy.

And yet - he not only gets screwed, he gets lambasted. And, classy guy that he is, he's not going to raise a stink about it.

Imagine if it were anyone else in that situation.

Maybe it's time to get rid of these dopey round robin formats anyway. Going way back to the days when the season ending Masters event was held in Madison Square Garden there was always talk of guys tanking matches to avoid playing a certain player.

well, well, well....i guess JAMES has learned that even HE has to play by the rules.Maybe he'll think twice next time before he so flagrantly decided to cheat his way through a tournament!



okay...i know this wasn't james' fault, and i probably overreacted by saying he's full of shit, but i would've LOVED to have seen the look on Bridgeport Jake's face when he read that

Snicks, to agree with you a little bit is very shocking, no? This incident kinda shines a light on something that's bugged me about the new James for a while. He's been "too good to be true" when you can tell there's more going on with him. Spadea's tell-all hinted as much, but since that was Spadea talking it's taken something like this to really show it.

That said, you know, none of the players are faultless -- or worthy of unabashed hate. Your beloved Roger was hardly the best sport last spring. I still like James ok, maybe not as much as I did at the 05 Open, but we'll see how he is over the course of the next year.

I don't get how 4 retirements makes del Potro some shady character. The other thread says something about him having breathing trouble and let's face it, the conditions in Las Vegas are completely lousy for tennis.

Speaking of which, the real shady characters here are the Tennis Channel Open and the ATP's round-robin format. Talk about zero cred. I don't understand why the Tennis Channel tries to have their tournament in Las Vegas during a freezing and usually rainy time of year. The played-out tennispalooza stuff is not going to sell the sport.

Anyway, I'm sure Korolev isn't complaining too much -- he's on the map now after thoroughly spanking james in what could have been a first-round encouter. It would have been good to see him play this weekend but I guess he's not American enough or something.

Edited -- And now I guess he is playing. Boy, the ATP and this tournament have egg on their faces today. Pretzel logic in full effect. Tennis is worse off for it.

Somehow I'm sure James Blake will survive without support from the likes of snicks...

Blake was up 6-1, 3-1...he deserved the win without asterick...he should be in the quarters. If this is about a proposterous rule, than change the stupid rule.

btw - i've not read Spadea's tell all: What exactly does it say about Blake?

two hander - I'm not saying del Potro is shady, I just find it interesting that he retires in a match, thereby costing his opponent a spot in the quarters, and it's James Blake's character that's called into question. It's been called into question here, on the tennis.com blog, on men's tennis forums... And why? What did he do wrong?

He did what he'd been told he had to do to advance - won a match while dropping less than 5 games. Then they tell him, after the fact, that he's been basically lied to. Then they turn around and say, all things considered, it's clear that James should be in the quarters - and his opponent even says that he wouldn't have retired had the rules been explained clearly to him - then of COURSE he thinks he's been wronged, and that wrong was corrected.

As for del Potro, I think retiring in a match is bad enough when it means your opponent wins - it's REALLY bad when it means your opponent gets screwed. And particularly someone with a history of retirements, it makes it seem like perhaps when things go bad, retirement is more convenient than losing. What's more galling is that he did it against a player who has NEVER retired - cramps, whatever.

And Spadea is just a huge flake. I saw his "no strings" last night and I can't imagine having a five-minute conversation with the guy. He comes off in his book as someone who's extremely jealous of James Blake.

This is unprecedented in sports as far as I can tell. Imagine if Henin-Hardenne's retirement at the Australian Open had resulted in ... Sharapova being handed the trophy, because SHE at least completed her final match...

Anyway, enough of this. Everyone seems to be convinced that James' press conference was a sign of his selfishness, lack of sportsmanship, whatever. The only poor sportsman in this situation was del Potro, for not completing a match that he said afterwards he *could* have completed, and thereby costing his opponent money, ranking points, and a lot of respect, it seems, from people like snicks.

that remains to be seen.

Hey BPJ, I'm not going to defend Spadea! Don't put me in that position

But I disagree with you on some points here, which doesn't necessarily mean that you're wrong or I'm wrong. I just think maybe you're taking del Potro to task harshly the same way some people -- even me at the start of this -- might be doing with James. If he has breathing problems/asthma, 4 retirements doesn't seem like much. And let's face it, James likes things to go his way -- he's not the only one that way in the world of pro tennis, where all the top athletes are spoiled beyond most of our imaginings.

Yeah, players who retire are irritating as hell when you're beating them, but who are we to judge for sure? Do you think del Potro deliberately did this to mess with James getting to the semis? If he did, that's terrible sportmanship. But I haven't seen proof. (Admittedly I haven't had time to read much beyond this board.)

I see your point about the Australian. But the Tennis Channel Open isn't the Australian Open -- praise Jesus!

To me, the real fault here is with the Tennis Channel Open and the ATP. They've messed up big time, which is kind of funny considering how little attention anyone was paying to them before this happened.

Why would you say that? It seems to me that, by-and-large, most people who posted after snicks blamed the tournament directors and not James Blake.

Gaby I'm talking more about menstennisforums and the tennis.com blog comments. Plus snick. But here's my home and so it's where I come to bitch.

Two-hander - as to whether you're wrong or I'm wrong, it's actually a pretty simple formula: I'm right.

No player is at fault here -- it's all the ATP -- but if any player deserves scrutiny in terms of their conduct this week, it's Juan Martin del Potro. And nobody anywhere seems to be calling him out, so I thought I'd do the honors!

Having looked around a bit now, I gotta respectfully disagree about del Potro. All accounts I've read of the match say that he was sluggish, having trouble breathing, and had his pulse checked at least once during the match. ATP listed his retirement as respiratory but before that, some people were saying he was having cardiac problems, which leads me to think it couldn't have looked pretty.

People who have asthma and breathing problems shouldn't have to play on through them! Even for American seeds in the US.

This puts me in mind of another asthmatic player, Djokovic. Djokovic is mouthy, whereas del Potro isn't to my knowledge, nor have I read anyone saying del Potro has a rep for gamesmanship. Djokovic has been potentially tricky with his use of injury timeouts and his retirements and Federer has called him on it, maybe rightfully. But then I wonder if Federer saw an ATP final Djokovic had to retire from last fall because his asthma was so bad he couldn't breathe. I saw a bit of it, and it was sad and a little scary. So we'd all have to see this Blake-del Potro match to comes close to knowing what was going on. The people I've read who watched the match said del Potro was not looking good.

I haven't seen people saying del Potro was being tricky. If he was having trouble breathing in Las Vegas winter air -- sheesh -- I doubt he was thinking much about round-robin outcomes. In the case of James's response and remarks, I think he wanted the rules (albeit *extremely* stupid ones) to change and had too many people around him telling him they should be changed for him. What he said in the press conference was a mistake, but that human mistake is extremely minor in comparison to the debacle of the ATP's round-robin format and the Tennis Channel Open. And I don't know if James is taking the hit so much as they are -- it seems like players such as Safin and Hewitt are being scathing towards the ATP, I haven't seen them focus on James.

Of course Safin and Hewitt are pretty much always scathing towards the ATP...and hardly seem like the two guys to talk to when discussing rules and regulations. How anyone could find fault in Blake's desire to get to the quarters and his belief that he deserved to be there is beyond me....the rule is bogus and the explanation of it, at least to James, sounds muddled at best...So maybe they should have added another an extra match to the round robin, let them play again for the spot, that would have perhaps pleased everyone, added more box office, and scraped the egg of the organizers' collective faces...

and snicks, i'm sure james will welcome you back with open arms if you just forgive him..

It may be beyond you to find fault with Blake here, Bryan, but it isn't beyond a lot of people -- he shouldn't have been in the quarters because of the rules. Changing them for his benefit -- and he was aware they were making a loophole when he spoke in the press conference -- made both him and the ATP look bad.

I feel sympathy for James for going along with the hare-brained scheme, but he has a mind of his own and in fact is involved in decision-making as far as the implementation and endorsement of the round-robin format.

The ATP needs to ditch round-robin. The sooner the better. Like, um, right now. Having stepped away for a few hours I can only think of the idiocy of all this, and how it has all sorts of negative effects on the playing of, and meaning of, a regular tennis match.

I guess the ATP thinks the century-plus old game of tennis needs all sorts of new bells and whistles to become more popular. In their supreme wisdom, they seem to think it needs to be more complicated! Good luck to them.

Fair enough.

I'm surprised how vehement opinions are about this. Not any one opinion or perspective specifically, but just in general. I personally see no fault by any of the players. Matches are won and lost each day. Many of those matches happen when a player retires. The on-court circumstances are far from extraordinary. It's all the round robin crap and the suits who run the ATP and the Tennis Channel Open that created this mess, whether by misinterpretation of rules or by their desire to keep a top name in the field at the expense of an unknown. It tarnishes only the organization's credibility in my eyes. And, even then, it's part of an experiment that I feel is ultimately going to fail. I find it more laughable than anything else.

Look, del Potro was quoted by the ATP as saying that if he'd realized the ramifications of the retirement, he would have completed the 12 points. Every person on this board knows that 12 points can be over in a matter of minutes without one player having to exert any energy at all. He walked off the court under his own power. He could have completed the match without threatening his health, but he chose not to, and in doing so, screwed over Blake. Blake did what he had to do - what the ATP press release said he had to do - and after the fact was informed that he and his opponent had been misled. Oh well, James, sucks to be you!

What really galls me is articles like this from tennisreporters.net:



Um, end of story my ass. Korolev was OUT OF THE PICTURE according to the ATP, which said in it's media notes that there were two possible outcomes - either del Potro would advance or Blake would advance. All Blake had to do was win and drop less than 6 games. He did that. He deserves to go on. The head-to-head question is irrelevant because all three players went 1-1 during the round robin.

Argh.

Edited to add: From Jamesblaketennis.com:

"James just held a press conference in Vegas, and explained that the whole situation is unfortunate because so many mistakes were made that gave him false hope in advancing and also didn't give Korolev enough time to adequately prepare for his match. He also said that it certainly made the Tour look unprofessional, and he hoped it would shine a light on the flaws in the round-robin system and hopefully the necessary changes would be made for the future, or that round robins would be abandoned altogether."

This guy is all class, period.

THERE JAKE, i modified the title of this topic...NOW will you remember the "S" on the end of my name?

I saw the change to the title of the thread when I logged on this morning and I laughed and laughed and laughed. Love it!



At the risk of prolonging this - actually, bpj, Korolev was not out completely of the picture before del Potro's retirement, not even according to the media or ATP. There was the key loss of games involved. It was 6-1, 3-1, but had del Potro come back and made the second set close (which happens in tennis all the time) and James pulled it out 6-1, 7-5, then Korolev would have advanced. You're assuming Blake would have continued to win games at the same blistering pace. But that's not really a given, not even against an injured opponent. How many times do we see healthy players struggle to put away an injured opponent? Remember Serena vs. Sharapova in the Championships' final a few years ago, serving around 40 or 50 mph and taking - what was it? - a 4-0 lead before Maria could get it together.

I agree that Blake should not be villified. But I don't think del Potro's retirement was an attempt to "screw over" James, not intenionally or unintentionally. He didn't feel good. When he says that if he knew the rules, he would have stayed out there, I think - if anything - that's an indication that he wouldn't want to screw James over in the first place. Because he's a nice guy. He just didn't know any more than James or Korolev or the fans or the media or apparently anyone running the tournament just what the heck was going on.

I'm with everyone who says let's abadon this stupid round robin nonsense alltogether. It's turning the fans against one another!!

That's exactly correct. I have to admit my first impression was based on misreading the game score, though, and I thought Del Potro retired down 3-1 in the first set. But still, I have trouble with assuming play will continue to follow the same pattern and I feel like in a situation where one player has withdrawn and the other two are 1-1, it makes sense to take the one who won the head-to-head match.

It's not Blake's fault. It's not Del Potro's fault, either--you can't force players to complete matches. Maybe he's been withdrawing from matches because he has a real physical problem. What if he passes out on the court and cracks his skull? And while that might seem overdramatic, I remember reading Tipsarevic complaining of an irregular heart beat in his 5-setter against Nalbandian on the day of Sharapova's celebrated match in Australia. You can't expect players to endanger their health.

The problem of tanking/withdrawing from matches is always an issue in round robin formats. I remember in one masters cup event that one of the Spanish players (Moya?) who had already earned a spot in the semifinal could keep Hewitt out of the semifinal round and put his fellow Spaniard into it by tanking a match.

Well I guess everything has been spun properly now;)

Condemning del Potro for a *paraphrase attributed to him by the ATP* seems pretty shaky based on the events of the last 24-48 hours. I don't get why you are still so insistent about his liability, BPJ. It seems like you just dislike him because things didn't go Blake's way and James had egg on his face for a while. If that's the case then James bears some responsibility as well.

High-profile players shouldn't be having to hold press conferences to do damage control for stupid decisions made by the ATP/tournament organizers, even if they go along with them.

The ATP needs to ditch round-robin and the Tennis Channel Open needs to start over from scratch somewhere else next year.

It was Moya, and he could have "arranged" for Costa to go through....Moya went undefeated in round-robin play but Hewitt wound up winning the whole thing.

Although we seem to all agree that the round robin is a disaster, I'm not so sure the ATP or tournament organizers will agree. The original purpose of ensuring marquis players for at least two matches to help sell tickets was achieved. Although Tennis Channel would have preferred Blake to have moved through to the finals, they did at least get to sell tickets for two of Blake's matches instead of just the one that would have been a first round loss to Korolev in a single elimination format.

Korolev is now down 4 match points against Melzer....let's see if he can pull another Houdini....um, nope....Melzer has moved through.

Let's hope Blake, Korolev, and Del Potro all do well in the upcoming Master Series events....Blake has a lot of points to defend next week and the other two seem like nice kids from what I've seen so far.