' PLEASE EXPLAIN ANDY '

Anyone seen Andy Murray ? 
The recent decision by the World number 2 to pull out of the US Open a day AFTER the Mens Singles Draw was made has a lot of people talking as many are asking the same question, 'Why did you enter Andy' ?
It is a fact that Murray is injured, he played with obvious discomfort at Wimbledon where he lost the final two sets of his quarter final to Sam Querrey, 1-6, 1-6.  So where has he been for the last two months ?
Andy Murray has not played a match since that loss, no warm up tournament for the US Open, he has been a ghost, yet his name came up at the bottom of the Mens Singles draw in New York .
In all seriousness that draw probably had him playing off in the final, such was the discrepancy in the bottom half to the talent laden top half.
It was a dream draw for the World number 2, no risk at all.
So what happened ?
"I certainly wouldn't have been hurting myself more by trying to play. It was more a question of whether it would settle down in time," Murray said. "Obviously I kind of ran out of time."
"Was actually practicing OK the last few days," he added, "but it's too sore for me to win the tournament. And ultimately, that's what I was here to try and do."
Andy Murray
So why did he leave it so long to withdraw ? Well tennis is one of those sports, many call it a selfish sport where it's simply you versus someone else, a sport that Andre Agassi describes as 'being on an island'.
Tennis promotes self importance, not only in play but in coaching, it's all about you. Agassi is very correct.
How else would you describe what Andy Murray did ? One of my recent posts on another selfish tennis player ( or rather, ex tennis player, now 'tourist', Dmitry Tursunov ) in fact has nothing on what Andy Murray just did. The Russian's latest effort pales in significance to what the two time Wimbledon Champion did in New York. 
Only Andy Murray knows why he left it so late to pull out of the year's final Grand Slam but one thing is for certain, he has lost a lot of fans over it. Why ? Well that's simple.
If Murray had withdrawn some 24 hours earlier ( which he obviously should have ) Roger Federer would have been promoted to the number 2 seeding thus saving the bottom half of the draw from being a total non event as far as stars were concerned.
As it now stands we have a player ranked 32 ( Anderson ) and a player ranked 19 ( Carreno Busta ) who will play off for a spot in the final to meet either Nadal or Del Potro.
Roger Federer, despite admitting to be not 100 per cent physically or mentally for this year's event would have had little trouble with either of the two players who will probably be cannon fodder for who ever they meet in the final.
Even a 'non perfect' Roger Federer would surely have made his way through that particular half of the draw.
So back to Andy Murray. For a player of his calibre and status in the World of tennis it was quite possibly the dumbest and strangest thing he has ever done. He had almost two whole months to work out whether or not he was going to actually play in New York and he made the decision to not play a day after the paper work had been done.
I find that to be nothing short of bemusing.
Surely with all of the rehabilitation he has done since Wimbledon plus the practice matches that he has obviously played recently he would have known whether or not he could have made it through seven best of five matches. Surely.
"I always thought that he was going to be playing if he was here practising," 

"It was a little bit strange that he retired just the morning after the draw was made. It was something that is a little bit strange and difficult to understand."
( Rafael Nadal )
Even Rafa thought the timing was a little odd.
So this is what Andy Murray is now going to do. He's going to take the rest of the season off, yep, no more tennis for Mr Murray, he's worked out that his hip injury is not worth trying to play through.
Many people are asking the same question however regarding the US Open hierarchy's decision to not promote Federer to the number 2 seeding. Instead they simply moved a few players around at the bottom half of the draw. Perhaps it was all too hard to rejig the entire draw ?
Either way I think the recent social media posts say it all in regards to what the tennis loving fans now think of a player who should perhaps have been holidaying on an 'island' rather than messing up a potentially brilliant last Slam of the year.
Thanks Andy Murray for your efforts in New York this year, outstanding performance.........

'THE ZEN MASTER'

I thought I would repost this. Wrote it a while back. I don't write as much now days as the things that used to piss me off, well, for some reason they don't anymore. Mellowing ? Perhaps.
The sport of tennis will continue to be coached by 'Zen Masters' who swear by their tuition and pricing but fail to deliver the one thing that is most important...
You do the sums.......
Written 2015
The average of my posts per year over the last few years has been around 190 per year which works out at roughly half a post a day, roughly. Sometimes I wonder why I write at all because my audience is not huge and there are no financial rewards yet I find it strangely soothing to say the least.
Every tennis player or coach has an opinion on the game and I like mine to be posted onto a site for anyone to read at anytime. That's just me, I am happy for my ideas to be read, dissected and perhaps shared. That's tennis in a nutshell for me as there are a ridiculous amount of ways to teach the game. Some work, many don't, many have an opinion, many are wrong, not many are right.  
When you look at a sport as complex as tennis and the many, many, many ways of teaching the sport, plus the outrageous discrepancies of the cost of learning tennis it is no wonder that it is not a sport that is as smooth as say AFL Football.
You can only play 'footy' so many ways, tennis however is far different as you can have many perceptions, styles, tactics and beliefs of how it should be played but as the saying goes 'the proof is in the pudding'.
Tennis is a sport that many 'Zen Masters' teach however many do not even know how it works, they have simply seen it played. These 'Zen Masters' have gained a 'degree', commanded a fee and became wealthy over the whole process yet their 'pudding' was never really cooked in the first place.
I like the idea of an ageing surf guru who has the long straggly hair, the VW Wagon and a beach shack as a pad. That would be the guy I would look to as far as teaching my kids how to surf if they desired to. If I saw some knob in a BMW with fancy writing on his car or trailer which generally hides their inability to teach the fundamentals then I wouldn't even ask him for the price of a lesson.
He probably lives in a mansion unlike the surf Zen Master yet the latter probably sleeps better at night knowing that what he does will achieve a result worth writing about.
Call me old fashioned, call me old school, call me an idiot, water off a duck's back. 
If I was a surfing coach I would live on the beach in a shack as I did for nearly ten years as I believe it builds character and a down to earth look on life in general.
A surfing Zen Master is the type of person who should be involved in tennis.
No frills, no glossy stuff, just the old fashioned way of teaching.
That usually gains a result or two.......

'THE FACTS ABOUT TURSUNOV'

I wrote this almost exactly three years ago about the person in question on my last post . Dmitry Tursunov is not a tennis player who deserves a 'PROTECTED RANKING' and the following story proves why many people, including myself, have no time for him.
How do you lose by this score to a guy ranked over 200 places below you ?
The fact is this, at the Portugal Open in 2014, Tursunov was seeded 5, ranked 34 in the World. He lost First Round to Rui Machado of Portugal, who at the time was ranked World number 243. 
For the record Machado def Tursunov, 6-0, 6-0.
Is the Russian a little bit dodgy do you think ? Read on.......

WRITTEN JUNE 2014
'NEED A HANKY' ?

Here's a funny story for you , it's amazing what is written on social media pages, which unfortunately at times gives just a little too much away, entertaining though. 
A little while ago , at the commencement of the clay court season I wrote a brief chapter regarding the effort of a professional who obviously 'tanked' a match. Dmitry Tursunov from Russia lost a match to a player ranked somewhere around the 243 mark without winning one game. Yep 6-0, 6-0. Tursunov is ranked in the top 35. I thought it was worth a chapter as I find that result just a little too strange to leave it alone.
A coach has written on a site that someone in this country (no it's not my chapter) had written something nasty regarding his player, looked it up, found it, it's brilliant. So the coach , who spends time with the Russian in question was not happy with what was written about his player. Why do you think this is?
Surely the public deserve better from a pro for putting in a performance that can only be described as 'weak as piss' and what about the paying public? How would you be paying your hard earned $$ to watch that ? If Tursunov was so 'out of sorts' with his life then surely a faked injury may have been a better option and an early finish to the match. Back to the coach.....
Why is he upset with the social media comment? Why would he bother commenting on it? Did he not read the paper the next day that no doubt would have slammed Tursunov's effort? Perhaps he needs a hanky , I may send him one through the 'La Poste'.
Tough game tennis , not for the faint hearted , if you are not up to scratch in the head well your shots will account for nothing. 
You can spend your whole life looking at social media and other sites that may upset you but reality is , it will still be written. If you don't like it , don't read it, sound familiar?
Sometimes my life seems to be riddled with "deja vu".........

'TURSUNOV KEEPS MAKING MONEY'

Interesting system the ATP has and how it keeps rewarding players who used to be good at the sport. Russian Dmitry Tursunov has won just two ATP matches in the last two years yet his bank account before tax looks something like this.
$323,626. Yes that's correct. For a 'tourist', well, I suppose that's not bad money when you look at it.
Dmitry Tursunov is ranked 645 currently. Let's look at how he continues to manipulate an already 'busted arsed system' that rewards the 'has beens' .
Nordics Natural Challenger, USA , 7/08/ 2017, First Round Qualifying against John Lamble ranked 880. ( I think I may have once been ranked that number ).
WALK OVER, yep Dmitry won by not even hitting a ball, about the only way this 'superstar' will get on the score board.
Second Round- Austin Krajicek defeated Mr Tursunov 6-3, 6-2. 
Any prize money ? NONE
Citi Open, Washington, 31/07/2017 - Round of 64, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 over Mitchell Krueger.
Round of 32 - Gilles Muller def Tursunov- 6-1, 6-2. Tursunov picks up $12,000.
German Tennis Championships 24/07/ 2017 Benoit Paire def Tursunov 6-3, 6-2 , ( $13,000 )
( Bet these guys can't believe their luck when the name TURSUNOV is placed next to theirs on the draw sheet )
Wimbledon 2017- Fabio Fognini def Tursunov 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 ( approximately $41,000 )
Australian Open 2017- Radek Stepanek def Tursunov  6-2, 7-6, 6-3 ( approximately $41,000 ) 
Ok to 2016, let's forget the statistics and scores, but Dmitry Tursunov won around $154,000 US Dollars for winning ONE MATCH on the ATP Tour. He lost First round at Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open.
So how can Tursunov do all of this ? Well according to the rules he has a PR ( Protected Ranking ) due to injury.
Apparently this has now been going on for around a year and a half. I wonder how many struggling tennis pros have been following the Dmitry Tursunov story and thinking ' geez, what I would give to be allowed through to the main draw to be cannon fodder'.
The system is beyond a mess. The Russian is non competitive as showed by his 6-7, 1-6, FORFEIT to a guy ranked outside the top 200 in the US Open today. Anyone can play for a set, Dmitry knew he would be gone inside two sets yet he still took a spot in the draw that could have seen a career beginning for someone. 
Selfish money hungry prick.
$41,000 US Dollars as the Russian continues his protected ranking money grabbing World Tour.
So how much did Tursunov make against 'Real Tennis Players' on the Challenger Circuit in the last year or so ?
About $3,000. And that's about all he should be making, he's not good enough to do anything else.
Spare a thought for the real players trying to make a living out of tennis having to put up with 'tourists' making cameo appearances particularly at Gram Slams.
Fair Dinkum joke..........

'DOLGOPOLOV, GUILTY OR NOT ?'

Alexandr Dolgopolov has recently been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons though it may have more to do with the way he plays more than anything else. Sometimes he 'turns up', other times he goes missing, mentally that is, yet there seems to be a bit more to the latest story on the enigma from the Ukraine.
Here's the facts.
Whether you take any notice of Betting agency odds is entirely up to you however it seems that Dolgopolov was a 'shoe in' to beat Thiago Monteiro of Brazil at the Winston- Salem Open in the US just recently. 
One particular agency had the number 63 ranked Ukraine at $1.33 to win as opposed to the number 114 ranked Brazilian's rather lofty odds which hit as high as $4.50 prior to the match. By all reports, just before the match commenced the odds for Dolgopolov drifted way out as money poured in for an upset to occur.
So this is what happened.
Dolgopolov reached deuce just ONCE on Monteiro's serve which is a reasonable delivery but nowhere near the class of Querrey or Karlovic who Dolgopolov has beaten on more than one occasion. On the other side of the coin Monteiro had three chances to break the serve of the Ukraine's and he had a 100 per cent success rate in doing so, three out of three, too easy.
Alexandr Dolgopolov won just 12 receiving points from 49 attempts and lost in under an hour, 55 minutes to be exact. 6-3, 6-3.
The highlights are few and far between, very few rallies and many, many errors from the racket of Dolgopolov. It would be fair to say that his effort against a player ranked some 51 places below him was far from competitive.
So to their previous match.
Four weeks earlier in Gstaad these two players fought hard for three sets though the result was the same, Monteiro won 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 but the statistics show that Dolgopolov doesn't really fear the Monteiro serve. Thirty eight per cent of return points were won by Dolgopolov in this particular match though it was on clay so perhaps the ball travelled slightly slower than it would on a hard court.
Surely though going into their latest match the homework had already been done by the enigma from Ukraine.
Fair to say again, Dolgopolov knew what to expect from Monteiro's delivery.
Maybe it's all a bit of a coincidence and just like the Davydenko scandal which I wrote about on this site not long ago, perhaps there is nothing in it except big punters looking at players who are susceptible to a loss at any time due to their mental inconsistencies.
Maybe, but take a look at the following efforts from Dolgopolov, he's definitely a player who likes a quick dollar, no risk.
US Open - First Round, 2016, retired at 5-6 to Ferrer. $43,000 for that effort.
Cincinnati - First Round, 2016, retired at 5-7 to Anderson. $15,480 pay day.
Rio De Janeiro - Quarter Final, 2016 ( against Nadal ) withdrew before match. $41,000
Wimbledon - First Round , 2017, retired at 3-6, 0-3 to Federer. $41,000
Ricoh Open, Netherlands, 2017, Round of 16, retired at 6-7, 2-4 to Pospisil. $12,000
Miami, 2017, First Round, retired at 6-7 to Jaziri. $16,000 
Indian Wells, 2017, Second Round, retired at 7-6, 1-1 to Kohlschreiber. $22,325
Rio Open, 2017, Quarter Final, retired at 6-7, 7-6, 0-1 to Carreno- Busta. $39,500
So in the last two seasons Alexandr Dolgopolov has picked up around $230,000 US Dollars for NOT finishing eight matches or not even turning up at all as was the case in Rio last year.
Did I mention he was an enigma ?
This year at the Argentina Open in February he did not lose a set all tournament which even culminated in a straight sets win over then World Number 5 Kei Nishikori where he picked up a further $97,000.
So what do all the facts and figures mean ?
Unless the authorities can find phone records of illegal activity to dodgy Bookmakers from both Dolgopolov and Monteiro at the Winston- Salem Open this year I would be putting it all in the too hard basket and filing it somewhere safe.
Unless there is proof it will simply be referred to as 'suspicious activity' by a professional sports person.
I will leave you with a ten minute video of the match in question. If you have time, take a look, it's almost comical at some stages, including match point where I believe a 12 year old kid could have perhaps put in more of an effort.
What do I think ?
I think Alexander Dolgopolov is his own worst enemy and many have already made up their mind about the match in question. 
I believe it is definitely a below par effort from a player who needs to improve his image........

Thiago Monteiro vs Alexandr Dolgopolov WINSTON SALEM 2017 Highlights

'WELL WRITTEN DAN COLASIMONE' ( ABC )

Comment: Nick Kyrgios continues to be hated many Australians, but he has never behaved as badly as some footballers . 

ABC News

Dan Colasimone3 hrs ago ( 22/08/2017 )

Flog. This is the word that comes up most often in the comments for articles about Nick Kyrgios. It doesn't matter if it's a story about him winning a tennis match, losing a tennis match, saying something ridiculous or saying something nice. 
It has become an office joke here at the ABC that anything we publish about the 22-year-old tennis player will be met with that same response on Twitter and in the Facebook comments.

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"Flog!"
It can only be in a similar spirit that news.com.au announced the news of the Canberran's loss in the final of the Cincinnati Masters event to Grigor Dimitrov on Monday: "Nick Kyrgios flops in historic title bid".
It is a headline dripping with schadenfreude.
Here is a young player who has put together just about the best week of tennis we've seen from an Australian male in years.

In a Masters event, just one notch below a slam, he beat the veteran Ivo Karlovic, ranked 34 in the world. He beat the wily David Ferrer, ranked number 25 and one of the toughest guys to get through in any tournament. He beat Alexandr Dolgopolov and world number 13 David Goffin. He blitzed world number one Rafael Nadal.
Kyrgios played twinkling tennis. When at his best he solicits more 'oohs' and 'aahs' from tennis crowds than anyone on the circuit, barring perhaps Roger Federer. He had Cincinnati in the palm of his hand.
But he fell short in the final against Dimitrov, the 26-year-old, 2-metre Bulgarian world number eight, playing at the height of his game. Throughout the tournament, aside from being brilliant, Kyrgios was well-behaved and gracious. He had kind words for Dimitrov and charmed the crowd by praising their city and inviting them all out to ice cream next time he's in town.
And yet some in the Australian media took the opportunity to stick the boot in over the loss by calling it a "flop", knowing full well it would appeal to a certain segment of their audience — the flog mob.
"Haha typical Australian media," was Kyrgios's reaction on Twitter. And he's right to be bemused by the headline. You can almost see the satisfied smirk on the face of the sub who wrote it.
Kyrgios is a flawed athlete. He has made mistakes. The worst thing he has done in the public eye was to make a gross and nasty comment about Stan Wawrinka's girlfriend. On the court, his biggest weakness is his lack of drive, which sometimes sees him practically quit mid-match.
A big mouth with no filter and a tendency to tank are problems for a professional athlete. But why does Kyrgios continue to attract such pearl-clutching contempt when other sportsmen, especially those in our football codes, do and say much worse all the time?
For an NRL player, a big performance in a State of Origin game seems to erase months or years of nefarious behaviour, as far as public perception is concerned.
An AFL footballer on a bender is just that — a young bloke cutting loose with his mates — whereas Kyrgios on a night out is a cue for handwringing and moral outrage, as we saw recently.
As far as we know, Kyrgios has never hit a girlfriend, manhandled a random woman at a bar, punched anyone at a nightclub, dry-humped a family pet or relieved himself in a hotel corridor while black-out drunk.
But many Australians can't let go of the fact he once took on-court heckling way too far or sometimes appears not to care.
It's funny, because the rest of the world finds him fascinating. The New Yorker and the New York Times have both done major profiles of the Australian in the past year, while the British press loves to splash attention on him ahead of every Wimbledon.
Yes, they come down hard on him when he stuffs up, as witnessed in the Wawrinka episode or the tanking cases, but nowhere do they hold on to their Kyrgios grudges as grimly as in Australia.
Americans especially love a precocious talent with a chip on his shoulder. They called John McEnroe a brat, which is practically a compliment in the US. They could have called him much worse, his behaviour was atrocious. And we call Kyrgios a flog.
Will Kyrgios ever be fully appreciated in this country for his talents?
Perhaps if he goes on to become world number one and stays there for a while, the majority of Australians will jump on the bandwagon and decide they really kinda like him now, as they did with Lleyton Hewitt, who once had a rocky relationship with the public.
Until then, having a top-20 ranked tennis player should be something Australian sport fans are more appreciative of, especially one who is fascinating to watch and has the skill set to become the best in the world.
It's time to get behind Kyrgios. Stop being flogs about it.