It's just one match, but hey, that's still cool. Martinas Hingis and Navratilova have also signed on. Why hasn't Gaby joined this bandwagon? That's what I want to know!

Steffi Signs Up!

[ April 19, 2005, 06:47 AM: Message edited by: Gaga4Gaby ]

I'd like to see Steffi and Martina play a series of exhibitions. That could be fun!

I don't quite understand the committing to only one match, but it's nice to see Steffi playing again ... hopefully, she will get to play against someone fun. How much fun would Graf-Sharapova be? But at least Hingis or Navratilova ... something marquee.

I changed the title of this thread just to save space and give us somewhere to talk Team Tennis results for the season.

First Steffi signs on, now during the opening WTT week there will be a marquee battle of Martina Hingis vs. Martina Navratilova! Cool!

Martina Vs. Martina

[ April 19, 2005, 06:50 AM: Message edited by: Gaga4Gaby ]

We hear absolutely nothing about Team Tennis in the media in Oz.I sort of formed a view that it was part show biz, part serious tennis.Do you guys take it seriously?

Does Team Tennis have a site where I could read the results?

I don't know much about Team Tennis either (and I'm in the USA.) What's the deal? Graf, Hingis, Becker playing...do they get paid a lot? Is it just some favor to Billy Jean King? (who I think started the whole thing.) Is it on TV? It just seems so weird...

[ April 19, 2005, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: tigercub ]

I think the idea of WTT is about raising the awareness of tennis and marketing it as a sport that can be both fun and competitive. Its played in a more relaxed atmosphere that tournament tennis and is more fan-oriented. I'm not sure how much the big names get paid, but they might also see it as a service to tennis. You can find some info here:
http://www.worldteamtennis.com/default.asp

Team Tennis is sort of silly - they play five 5-game sets: men's singles, women's singles, mixed doubles, women's doubles, and men's doubles. So you get a little bit of everything. It doesn't count towards rankings, but it's a no pressure way to gear up for the hardcourt tennis season without the wear and tear of real tournaments week-in and week-out. I think that's why, slowly but surely, it attracts more top names each year. I like that it's starting to bring back retired pros like Becker, Navratilova, Hingis, McEnroe, Graf ... that makes it more fun than it used to be also.

So, has anyone seen the Team Tennis on ESPN2? I watched the Lobsters vs. the Sportstimes over the weekend, which featured the battle of the Martinas. Hingis looks great - really in shape - and she played so well in dismissing Navratilova 5-0 in their singles match. It's hard to believe that she's only 24.

Billie Jean King and Mary Carillo were discussing whether or not Hingis could return to the tour. The biggest issue is her second serve. Apparently, she played Meghann Shaughnessy and was pounded on in a 3-5 loss.

Watching Hingis dismantle Navratilova made me feel better about Gaby's recent exo where Hingis beat her 6-3, 6-1 (or something like that) on grass.

Steffi's match is coming up, I believe, maybe this week.

Steffi's team tennis match is scheduled for tonight. It looks like she'll play Anna Kournikova in singles! Very interesting. I think that's up to the discretion of the captains, but they're the two marquee players, so I can't imagine they wouldn't end up facing off.

I think ESPN2 will air the match-up on Saturday night at 11:00 PM.

Well, as it turned out, Steffi played Likhovtseva in singles last night, not Anna. Considering that Likhovtseva was a French Open semifinalist this year and is ranked number 16 in the world and that Graf hardly plays at all anymore ... the score is pretty good. That said, Graf lost two of the three sets she played in ... I'll be interested to see it when it airs over the weekend.

Scores. Remember that in team tennis they only play sets up to 5 with a tiebreak at 4-4 and then add cumulative games from men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles to determine the final winning team. So, even if you lose, you get more credit for losing 5-4 than 5-1, etc.

Anna Kournikova/Elena Likhovtseva d. Ansley Cargill/Steffi Graf 5-2

Elena Likhovtseva d. Steff Graf 5-4 (5-3)

Mardy Fish/Steffi Graf d. Mark Knowles/Anna Kournikova 5-3

Here's a small blurb from SI.com about Steffi's match ... and it mentions Gaby! Huzzah!

Steffi Returns

Has anyone gone to see one of these matches live? I think it would be a fun night. Especially since you get to see folks play that aren't on the court otherwise.

The only team tennis I've ever seen is one year, during the first day of the US Open or maybe during the qualies, the finals of Team Tennis were being held simultaneously and I had a grounds pass. I didn't and watch the whole thing, though. It was a couple years ago before retired pros and current pros thought it was cool to play a WTT match or two. If the trend keeps up, WTT could actually become really fun. Watching the Martinas on tv the other night was a hoot ... that'd be the type of thing I'd pay to see live.

Doesn't seem like there's too much interest here for the poor WTT season, but I'm really enjoying it this year. Watched the Return of Steffi on Saturday night and it was so enjoyable to see her playing again, to see her really have fun on the tennis courts - she was all smiles for the most part - and to see her play very well. That WTT match featured Graf, Kournikova, Fish, Likhotseva, and Knowles. There was some really fine tennis to see. I really like the new trend of retired pros getting involved.

Weather permitting, I'm going out to Long Island tomorrow to see the Sportstimes play the Lobsters. (I think that's who I'm seeing, anyway ...) So it will be Martina vs. Martina part deux!

Plus, during Steffi match, they mentioned her exo last year with Sabatini and what great shape Gaby is still in, how she still plays pretty well, and now runs marathons. That just made my day.

John Wertheim's ad-in ad-out this week alerted me to the fact that McEnroe defeated Philipoussis in WTT this week. So where are all the people who were slamming women's tennis when Navratilova beat Catalina Castano a couple years ago?

Side note: what in hell happened to the pictures on the ad-in/ad-out that week? The pic of Anna Smashnova appears to be of Conchita Martinez, and I'm not sure who the people are in the David Nalbandian and Alexandra Stevenson pics.

Gaga, interesting comment that Sabatini is now doing marathons.In her playing career was she not critizced for her lack of stamina and not dedicating herself to training on the same level as Graf? Correct me if I am wrong.

In Australia this year, pre-Melbourne, a promoter was trying to put together an exhibition between Graf and Sabatini for AUD1 million, winner take all, but for some reason could not make it happen.

I see that ex-circuit players like Sanchez-Vicario,Novotna,Graf, Sabatini, Martinas N & H earn huge amounts of money playing exhibitions. Titles maybe beyond them now but still plenty of $$$ to be achieved.

Sorry I am a bit off thread.

Early in her career, Gaby had the rep for running out of gas ... but it wasn't because she didn't train hard. In fact, she overtrained, and her very physical, heavy topspin baseline game did not allow her to go the distance against someone like Graf. So many of their early matches went three sets with Steffi winning the third set comfortably. Gaby would always tire out. Especially in 1989, Sabatini was HUGE ... overmuscular and too slow. There were steroid rumors, actually; I remember Gaby suing someone at one point. Then when Carlos Kirmyer took over, he cut back the weight training and made Gaby slimmer - she became faster and began to attack the net, which meant points ended more quickly, and that's why she played so well in those years. Gaby was always a fitness zealot, though. It was just a matter of improper training.

As far as the exo in Australia, Steffi's mindset has seemed to be that she will play for her charity - that was the reason she did the exo with Gaby in Germany, the exo with Justine in France, and Mattress Mac owns the Houston Team Tennis team that she played for ... that's all tied to his support of her charity and Andre's charity. My guess is a 1 million, winner-take-all event is too garrish for Graf. Meanwhile, Gaby would most likely lose, so why put yourself on the line like that? Especially because they both have more money than they'd ever need anyway.

I think exos for retired pros/retired players participating in World Team Tennis or entering just the doubles of tour events is great. I suppose I'm biased, but women's tennis was never more interesting to me than in the early 90s. It's so good to see those players on the court again. The tops players at that time could all beat each other AND there was a huge variety in style betweeen Graf, Seles, Sabatini, Navratilova, and Sanchez-Vicario ... then you had players like Novotna, Fernandez, Capriati, and eventually Pierce and Davenport to come up right behind them and be able to mount challenges. It was oddly derailed though: Monica was stabbed, Jennifer burned out, Sabatini lost that French Open match to Fernandez and never really recoverd her game or confidence, Navratilova got older, and Steffi was in and out with injuries. All of a sudden, Sanchez-Vicario was everywhere. Bleh.

The women's game is in a great place now, too, of course. But with the exception of Mauresmo and Henin, all the top players essentially play the same game.

I saw the WTT match with Steffi, Kournikova, Fish and Likhotseva on ESPN2 the other night. What a fun night of tennis! Steffi looked like she was having such a good time. And I just love seeing Anna take a hard forehand from Fish and drop a feathery volley cross court for a winner. Anna really is an amazing doubles player and, honestly, was the one making the shots in the end to win that match. Took me forever, though, to figure out the scoreline with that crazy game score format.

[ July 19, 2005, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: curtj ]

It was a fun match and, I agree, Anna was playing great and really closed out the match for her team. There was that one crazy backhand pass she hit and then the backhand down the line on match point. Lots of fun!

I was wrong about the Team Tennis match I'm going to see tonight. No Hingis. It will still be fun, though. I'm hoping it doesn't rain.

G4G, Thanks for the detail on Sabatini. Excellent. A fascinating woman.

Anytime, xanthos. Please, it's like putting a quarter in me! You're lucky it stopped when it did.

The Team Tennis match I went to see last night was entertaining. Martina played great. No other huge stars, though ... Thomas Blake, Jenny Hopkins, Robby Kendrick, Deja Bedanova, etc. And one young up-and-coming South African girl who wasn't in great shape but was extremely talented.

It's amazing to watch Martina play, though. She is in incredible shape - better than any of the other girls on either team, women half her age or more - and her instincts and shot-making ability are still just a notch above. She was down 0-2 to Hopkins in singles and then found her game, running off five in a row to take the set. Women's doubles was 5-2 also. Navratilova also played the mixed - I didn't see the end of it, had a train back to NYC to catch, but she was winning that with Blake as her partner pretty easily also.

It's funny, too. They have a PA system and the announcer is trying to get people to root root root for the home team, but you could tell, people just aren't able to pull against Navratilova.

The WTT semifinals are set and will be play in Sacremento the weekend after the US Open.

Semifinal #1 is the Boston Lobsters vs. The New York Sportstimes, which may mean another matchup of the Martinas. Hingis is not a certainty, but if she does play, I like the Sportstimes chances. She really embarrassed Navratilova and she can counter (and best) Martina the Elder in women's dubs, mixed dubs, and singles.

Semifinal #2 is the Sacremento Capitals vs. defending champs Newport Beach breakers. The breakers have Maria Sharapova in their corner, should she agree to play after the Open, and the Capitals have Anna K, Mark Knowles, and Likhotseva. I think the doubles could outweight the singles flash of Sharapova there and give the Capitals a win via Knowles and Kournikova.

The final is on Saturday, Sept. 17th, and will televised on ESPN2.