latest tennis buzz

http://www.sport.be/proximusdiamondgames/2008/eng/#

Oh well - Szavay wasn't ready for prime-time as I unfortunately kind of expected. Hopefully she'll be ready next time - but put up a decent fight against Chakvetadze. Kind of amazing how someone so young and only 1 year older (20 to 19 yrs. old for Szavay) can seem so much more mature, poised, etc. But the tennis channel does have some good tournaments coming up - Proximus Diamonds this week, then Delray, and then Dubai when everyone comes out for the duty-free money :-). Kind of get the feeling this is Sharapova's season to lose - if she plays like she did at the Australian consistently, no one can touch her, otherwise it'll probably be Henin again. As for the men, definitely interested to see if Federer can get back on track at Dubai, and to see if Tsonga can be more than a one tournament wonder, and whether anyone else new can break through (e.g., gasquet, murray, young, etc.). And who cares about the tennis channel tournament - sheesh - can you get a weaker lineup (e.g., Isner, Hewitt, etc.). Also, looks like you can get a live video stream from proximus tournament - weblink above. And it was interesting during the Szavay-Chaky broadcast, the commentators brought up a point I had thought about before - what's up with all of the 1st round byes for the top 4 seeds - sheesh. They don't have to show up til Thurs. really, and the just do 4 days of work for a big pay day :-). The commentators mentioned that the lower-ranked players are complaining about all of these byes since it's taking away spots from them to get into the tournament. But the tour does it since it says that the top players have all of these other obligations being ambassadors of the sport (e.g., pr work, interviews, etc.) so they can't be expected to make it on mon. for the 1st round all the time - and the tour wants them out there promoting the sport. So guess it's kind of a catch 22 - think I'd cut down it to just 2 byes (for the top 2 seeds); this 4 top seed bye thing is too much - especially when they're for people named Hantuchova, Schnyder, etc. - people who definitely don't deserve a bye :-).