12/23/24
October 14, 2003
Anna may be out of tennis.: Although she's holding off her final decision until January, word is she's possibly quitting for acting and uh... awards presenting?
posted by jerseygirl to tennis at 01:11 PM - 18 comments
Is that like making a doody? As far as the tennis world is concerned, Anna K has been out of the sport for the past four years. Seeing her name opposite yours on a bracket is the same as playing one of these guys.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:18 PM on October 14, 2003
i made a non-baseball post? about Anna no less....tres cool.
posted by garfield at 01:21 PM on October 14, 2003
Well, we still have Jelena Dokic!! 
posted by StarFucker at 01:57 PM on October 14, 2003
SF, don't forget Sharapova. I bought the soundtrack to her matches this year. Anna's new direction could include something like this ....to help the less fortunate train, and other stuff I can't think of right now.
posted by garfield at 02:09 PM on October 14, 2003
As far as the tennis world is concerned, Anna K has been out of the sport for the past four years. Two. She reached the semis or better five times in 2002.
posted by rcade at 02:42 PM on October 14, 2003
I haven't forgotten Sharapova...she's just too thin for me.
posted by StarFucker at 03:11 PM on October 14, 2003
Seeing her name opposite yours on a bracket is the same as playing one of these guys. I see you don't follow men's tennis with any regularity. You are right in your insult, but no need to drag the ATP's latest (completely undeserved) scandal into this. Two. She reached the semis or better five times in 2002. SFs were at Auckland (Tier IV), Tokyo PPO (very weak Tier I), Acapulco (Tier V), San Diego (Tier II), Shanghai (Tier IV). So, out of all those, 1 good result (San Diego) in an entire year. About par for the course in women's tennis. So no, he's right, Anna's been a joke for the better part of five years. She's been threatening to retire (or at least, her management company has been) for about two years now. She hasn't played since May (and a $25K challenger, where she lost in the first round) and she is far away from the Top 100. Even if she's waiting for an injury-protected ranking, it'll only be in the mid-70s, so it's not going to do her much good. Frankly, most of us in the tennis world aren't surprised by this news. It's not been a question of "what if", only "when."
posted by somethingotherthan at 04:18 PM on October 14, 2003
somethingotherethan, thanks for the in-depth factual recap. Her actual tennis accomplishments fly under my radar most of the time.
posted by garfield at 04:39 PM on October 14, 2003
So no, he's right, Anna's been a joke for the better part of five years. People excessively slam Kournikova because she gets such a disproportionate amount of attention for a singles player who never won a title. But calling her a "joke" since 1998 is easily disproven when she went to five semis in 2002 and was the No. 4 ranked doubles player in 2000.
posted by rcade at 04:43 PM on October 14, 2003
She's hot.
posted by StarFucker at 04:59 PM on October 14, 2003
Her actual tennis accomplishments fly under my radar most of the time. Wrong part of you for her to be flying under, I think.
posted by billsaysthis at 05:19 PM on October 14, 2003
Point taken, somethingotherthan. I'll amend that to "the part of the tennis world that doesn't follow the sport as obsessively as we follow baseball. Or Lisa Guerrero." Now, could you explain two things (and I'm not trying to be a smartass): 1) How does the tiering system work? How many players would start out at a normal tourney in the draw? Does making the semifinal of Tier IV or Tier II make you a serious player in the eyes of the rest of the tennis world? /lazyfilter 2) How is the ATP's Betfair scandal completely undeserved?
posted by wfrazerjr at 06:06 PM on October 14, 2003
Even in her heyday I never thought she was much of a threat. There's always been such a jump from the first few rankings and the rest of the women's field. Tennis wise I don't think many people (with rcade an exception ;) ever took her serious. Maybe she'll move on to playboy and allow others who take the game more seriously to play on.
posted by justgary at 06:06 PM on October 14, 2003
1) How does the tiering system work? How many players would start out at a normal tourney in the draw? Does making the semifinal of Tier IV or Tier II make you a serious player in the eyes of the rest of the tennis world? The WTA has 5 Tiers of tournaments. It's actually pretty complicated to explain, but I'll try to make it as simple as I can. Tiers are determined by ranking points and prize money, *not* necessarily by prestige. There are 10 Tier I events. These are considered the most "prestigious" tour titles, offer the most ranking points outside of Slams (Slams are under the control of the International Tennis Federation, so the tours don't have control over the prizemoney for them) & year-ending championships, and also offer the most money (at least a $1 million total purse). Tier II events are also considered pretty big titles, also give pretty hefty points, and have at least a $585,000 total purse. There are some strong Tier III events, but most of them are considered rather small titles. The total purse is only $170,000. Tier IV's ($140,000) and Tier V's ($110,000) are considered very small titles, and are usually won by journeywomen or average-ranked and average ability players. Top players usually do not play below the Tier III level. (The Williams sisters rarely ever play Tier II events, but then, they rarely play at all.) Below the 5 WTA tour level tiers, there are (in descending order) ITF challengers, futures, and satellites. Challenger events range from $25K to $75K for the women, futures are $10Ks and satellites are $5Ks (that's total purse for the event). ITF events don't count towards a players professional record. Draws -- don't get me started!! Usually it's a 32 player draw if its a Tier III or smaller. Tier II's and Tier I's vary from 48-player to 96-player. (For reference, Grand Slams have 128-player draws). Draws are made even more complicated since almost every event now gives out first round byes to at least the top two seeds. Haha, this is why I follow men's tennis, it's not nearly as complicated ;) 2) How is the ATP's Betfair scandal completely undeserved? The players don't deserve that, especially not the ones who's matches have been named. Tennis is an individual sport, and you are literally playing for a living. Unless you become a Top 50 player on either tour, you're doing good just to break even on the year with a full slate of events. It would be disadvantageous to bet against yourself and then tank the match -- especially since you can be fined for tanking the match -- especially in the early rounds of an event. The media has mishandled this whole deal (quelle surprise) and the players at TMS Madrid are now spending more time defending themselves and their friends than they are talking about their matches.
posted by somethingotherthan at 10:20 PM on October 14, 2003
But calling her a "joke" since 1998 is easily disproven when she went to five semis in 2002 and was the No. 4 ranked doubles player in 2000. In 4 weak events and 1 good event. This from the player lauded as a future Grand Slam champion since her Wimbly SF run in '96 and a former Top 10 player. She's gotten a lot of advantages for her two good years on tour that even top players today don't get to enjoy. To be fair, it's not her fault that she has a chronic back injury (though she's hardly the only one), and it's not her fault that people love to follow her around and speculate. But it does women's professional tennis a great disservice for her to have an on-again, off-again relationship with the game. The sooner she decides to leave, the better. When you get beaten by a 300-ranked player in the first round of a challenger event who can fun of your serve, it's time to hang it up.
posted by somethingotherthan at 10:24 PM on October 14, 2003
But it does women's professional tennis a great disservice for her to have an on-again, off-again relationship with the game. The sooner she decides to leave, the better. Amen to that.
posted by justgary at 12:03 AM on October 15, 2003
I don't disagree that Kournikova has failed to live up to her early potential -- she beat four top-10 players in a row one year and looked like a future no. 1. But the joke talk, to me, is just as bad as what happened every year she played at Amelia Island here in Jacksonville -- the media showed up to talk about Kournikova for days and then occasionally mentioned the fact a tournament was going on.
posted by rcade at 06:47 AM on October 15, 2003
i made a non-baseball post?