Notable Results:
- Miami F: Novak Djokovic d. Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 6-4
- Charleston 2R: Teliana Pereira d. Sorana Cirstea, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(0)
- Charleston 2R: Venus Williams d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 6-3, 0-6, 7-5
News and Links:
Steve Tignor explores how much slack we should give Roger Federer when considering his age:
For Federer, competing at 32 means competing full out; he couldn’t be successful any other way. He has a little more perspective in defeat than he once did, but he’s still eating the cake, not the icing, of his career. He’s still playing with the same desire and expectation to win that he always has. We should expect the same from ourselves as fans.
The ITF released their anti-doping testing numbers for last year, and a number of top players, including Juan Martin del Potro and Jelena Jankovic, were not tested a single time out-of-competition.
Among those not bothered by a house-call were Eugenie Bouchard, Carlos Berlocq, Brian Baker, recovering from injury, Daniela Hantuchova, Elena Baltacha and Australia’s Ash Barty. But they pale into insignificance when it is revealed that Juan Martin Del Potro, among others, was not tested at all out of competition in 2013. This, in a year when he won four titles and reached the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Nor, equally bizarrely, was Jelena Jankovic, in a year when she rediscovered top form to return to the top 10. Ernests Gulbis, Lleyton Hewitt, Janko Tipsarevic, Tommy Robredo, Laura Robson, Daniel Nestor, Juan Monaco, and even Mike Bryan were not tested. (Bob, on the other hand, was tested between once and three times out of competition).
Courtney Nguyen has a great interview with Elina Svitolina, the WTA’s top-ranked teenager, over at SI.com.
Davis Cup stalwart Rik de Voest will play his last Davis Cup tie this weekend.
Tennis on Twitter:
It’s April Fools’ Day!
My team and I finally decided to switch to one handed backhand!What do you guys think? pic.twitter.com/SvK1EksQco
— Donna Vekic (@DonnaVekic) April 1, 2014
Due to czech political crisis I decided to run for president #election #campaign #support
— Tomáš Berdych (@tomasberdych) April 1, 2014
My new coach is Ivan Lendl!
— ivo karlovic (@ivokarlovic) April 1, 2014
Ivan told me he dont do it for the money, he just wants to see some winners finally.
— ivo karlovic (@ivokarlovic) April 1, 2014
