With the Australian Open currently in full swing it is interesting to note the amount of people who are offering opinions who perhaps don't know quite as much about the sport as they claim.
Now Nick Kyrgios is no saint however I fully agree with his frustration overflowing due to a couple of 'experts' taking aim at his footwork recently on Melbourne radio.
Nick actually tweeted the words 'Zero credibility' as far as what he thought of these two.
Now one of these 'experts' is not in fact an expert at all in regards to the intricacies of World Tennis as his expertise lays in AFL, Gerard Healy. Yet Gerard offered his advice anyhow.
Nice try Gerard, bit out of your league though Champ.
Now for Roger Rasheed.
Where do we start with this guy ?
Well if you ask John Tomic, he will tell you that he once congratulated Roger R on his coaching performance with Lleyton Hewitt by taking him from World number 1 to number 19 in a short space of time.
Roger R has spent time with a couple of Frenchmen, Monfils and Tsonga plus a stint with Dimitrov so I suppose in fairness he has what we commonly call 'runs on the board' here in the Land of Oz.
Personally though I am not a fan of RR at all, particularly as a commentator due to an obvious lack of tennis intelligence that he regularly displays.
Last year at the Brisbane International RR took aim at a Canadian player's dress sense which showed a remarkable lack of knowledge to what in fact was the truth behind Peter Polansky's attire.
'Lululemon' is a clothing company who sponsor Polansky, easy to look this information up, yet RR didn't. He did in fact apologise on air after someone apparently from Canada sent him the information he required regarding Peter's beach style tennis gear.
Tennis players who don't own a Bank balance like the Fed may just have to dress a little more conservatively, hence the 'plain' look of the Canadian.
RR really doesn't think before he talks.
Take the French Open of 2016 for another example. After Australia's very own headline grabber Bernard Tomic made it through to the second round RR offered his thoughts on Tomic's opponent Brian Baker.
( COURTESY OF YAHOO NEWS )
Tomic had beaten the returning Brian Baker in the opening round, to go beyond the first hurdle at the year's second grand slam for just the third time.
Rasheed said he "would beat" Baker, who has battled injuries throughout his career and dropped to 635th in the world rankings.Tomic was unimpressed by Rasheed's comments and said it indicated a lack of knowledge.
"That just shows you how much he knows," he said."You don't say that about someone. The guy [Baker] has been to a third or fourth round here, fourth round at Wimbledon [2012], finals of Nice [2012].
"You can't say that about that sort of player. He's beaten Gael [Monfils] on clay and a lot of good players.
"For him to say that comment, just shows you how much education he has."
( Bernard Tomic )
It appears that RR is renowned for saying things before he actually researches them or even thinks about it for that matter.
Enough of RR, let's look at Jim Courier.
Now here is a former World number 1 who simply just loves the sound of his own voice. I have already written in detail my thoughts on Courier after he publicly lashed David Goffin during his match against the Fed at the Oz Open in 2016.
For those who missed it, Jim stated that Goffin's ranking was 'INFLATED' due to points received from playing Davis Cup matches against lower ranked players.
True story.
Personally I don't believe a player ranked in the top 15 ( which Goffin was at the time ) can own an 'inflated' ranking. How is that possible ? Well, Jim thought so.
Now this year I was prepared to give Jim another chance as I tuned in to the Deminaur / Laaksonen match, however it took me less than 5 minutes to in fact turn the sound off completely and watch the match in silence, beautiful silence.
" And there is Alex Deminaur's Coach Lleyton Hewitt " ( Jim Courier ).
So how does this happen ? How do these guys who are 'experts' in their knowledge of tennis get things so wrong ?
I will offer a theory.
It's called a big ego.
These guys get paid to turn up, offer an opinion, talk about themselves a fair bit , " Well back when I was on the Tour", you know the line, yet their knowledge on the finer points of the sport is lacking big time.
As the public, well we get 'educated' by these ego freaks who make it up as they go along without so much as spending 5 minutes on reading up a player's profile which may just tell them that a guy like Peter Polansky nearly died through a sleep walking incident or Adolfo Gutierrez is in fact the Spanish Coach of Alex Deminaur.
And so to the spat between Tomic and Hewitt.
Hilarious.
It's tennis in a nutshell isn't it ? Whether it's on or off court, a current or former player, it's on in earnest as these guys try to get the upper hand.
I have always stated on my own Blog site that tennis is in fact an 'argument' between two players where only the best answer or answers will win.
In the case of Tomic vs Hewitt ( AND TENNIS AUSTRALIA ) well it's like this.
Bernie is very correct in what he has stated in regards to the Wildcard allocation at Melbourne Park. There is no transparency, no one has a clue who will receive one because as Kokkinakis found out, a higher ranking does not necessarily assure you a spot in the Main Draw.
Whether the players that Tomic has mentioned are in fact part of Hewitt's Management Team is yet to be proven however let's face it, will Tennis Australia really do what Pat Cash suggested and investigate Tomic's claims ?
C'mon ( pardon the pun ) however that's like saying that the Banks should do their own Royal Commission into how much they rip the public off in fees.
Nope, it will never happen.
Now on Hewitt, it's fair to say I don't like him one little bit due to his over the top arrogance that had me once place $200 on Marat Safin to beat him in 4 sets at the Oz Open in 2005 so I could say that my rent for the fortnight was thanks to Lleyton Hewitt losing ( true story ).
So why does Mr Hewitt take up spots at his home tournaments, namely Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with Wildcards that should in fact go to the youth of the sport instead ? Well only Hewitt can answer that but I believe the 'ego' word may just come into play once again.
I calculated that the 'retired' Australian Davis Cup Captain pocketed around $20,000 over the past few weeks in Wildcard 'bonus money' allocated by Tennis Australia.
Interesting this Wildcard thing isn't it ? Maybe Bernie onto something as obvious as the sun coming up tomorrow morning.
So I will leave you with a comment from a recently posted Social Media article that even the great Andre Agassi weighed in on which sort of says it all I believe.
“Tomic is hardly the most sympathetic witness, but it is odd for a Davis Cup captain to be hanging onto the dregs of his playing career instead of prioritising his young players,” Giri Nathan wrote. ( COURTESY OF YAHOO SPORT )
Yep some egos just can't let go...…..
No comments:
Post a Comment