More interesting tennis goings-on. Serena withdraws due to knee inflammation and is replaced by Bartoli (who of course gets to play Henin today - can you say revenge for Wimbledon embarrassment - smile!). And Russian tennis gets into more trouble - accused of poisoning Haas two months in the Davis Cup semis - guess nothing is ever just simple food poisoning, huh.

Clint

Getting Tired of the Williams' excuses

http://www.tennischannel.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=3514

Oh well, more bad news and phoniness from the Williams' camp (weblink above). Venus Williams withdraws from the big end-of-the year tournament starting next Tues. due to so-called dizzy spells. Spells she first so-called experienced at the US Open - which was 2 months ago. Hmm, if she's experiencing dizzy spells 2 months ago, then why is she playing in all of these tier III tournaments beating up on nobodies - just come out and say "I want my sister to win so I'll get out of the way - after all, she hasn't done so well in the big tournaments since the Australian Open and I won a big tournament more recently" (e.g., Wimbledon); why all the phony cloak and dagger. And it looks even worse when Sharapova (who I don't think anyone would confuse with being very gritty and actually gets in now that Venus withdraws) says she's going to compete no matter how what despite how she feels physically - isn't that what Venus should be saying - sheesh!

Weekend Results

Well, I don't think Henin is going to lose again after watching her match this weekend :-) She is so determined to win every match even if it's a struggle. On the other hand, can tell when Federer just doesn't care - obviously Nalbandian wanted it more, and Federer looked like he wasn't going to kill himself to win if his opponent wanted it that bad. He's already in the final - really only cares about Slams and that's it right now - which I can respect, but probably should just not play then if he's not going to play hard the whole tournament. Look forward to the end-of-the year tournaments - the women start in 2 weeks, and the men in 3 weeks.

Men's Tennis

Think we can now call the Federer losses to Canas as flukes/boredom, etc. - as he destroyed Canas today. Again, don't really see Federer losing a non-clay court grand slam to anyone in the next few years as long as he's motivated to obliterate Sampras' record. Do like Djoko, but still has some mental toughness to gain after his bad loss to Federer at the US Open (so many break points blown). And no longer like any Americans except for Donald Young - think it's actually rather sad that a forehand/serve lets you enter the top 10 these days even though you have no other important shot (e.g., return of serve and backhand) (see Blake, Roddick, Isner, etc.) - and of course these U.S. pretenders get blitzed when they face someone halfway decent (e.g., Federer, Djoko, Nadal, etc.). And hopefully Nadal stops with the lower tier clay court tournaments to save his body and show he's really serious about improving his all-court game - couldn't believe he was still playing on clay after Wimbledon - sheesh! Look forward Federer winning another one this weekend.

Women's Tennis Finally Showing Some Depth

Definitely have enjoyed the last few weeks of women's tennis - as it is finally showing some depth. Instead of no drama til the weekend, now everyone is playing every week and thus some good matchups (and consequently upsets) in the 1st or 2nd round every week - definitely love it! For example, Bartoli, Sharapova, and Mauresmo all lost last week in round 2 in Moscow. And again, may be some upsets this week in Zurich as most of the top 20 are in the tournament (e.g., Serena, Mauresmo, Zvonereva, Schnyder, Dementieva, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Henin, Kutzy, Peer, Vaidisova, etc.). Unfortunately, though, the tennis channel still needs a clue on broadcasting - basically need to add an additional channel (e.g., similar to ESPN and others) so they can show a good men's and women's tournament during the same week instead of just showing one live during the week/weekend and the other one taped - oh well - perhaps they'll get it right one of these days. Also, something learned this year is that ESPN Deportes shows early rounds of the Miami and Pacific Life tournaments so if you have/get that, you'll have full 2 week coverage unlike the other channels.

And more great upsets yesterday and today - with Radwanska beating Hantuchova, Golovin beating Ivanovic, and Vaidisova beating Janko (although kind of strange that actually Vaidi is 5-3 career against Janko); always thought Vaidisova could achieve greatness if she puts her mind to it - looked great in person when I saw her at the '06 French Open.