Andy’s Reads – Expensive Miami Open and America’s Tennis Factory

Miami Open’s new location, the Hard Rock Stadium is getting scorching reviews – expensive parking, expensive good and lot of empty seats because of expensive tickets.  Player reviews haven’t been great either (Miami Herald)

After losing to Bibi Andreescu for the second time in two weeks, Angelique Kerber did a drive by handshake at the net and called her opponent “biggest drama queen ever”.  Kerber tried to clean up her comments on social media the next day.  That didn’t go well with the fans (tennis.life)

Federer has answered every question from the press for years.  But he refused to comment on the possibility of Alexander Zverev joining his agency Team8 (TennisWorld)

In effort to get ITF to do something to help the lower tier players, here is a comment from Antoine Bellier on twitter:

“I was just wondering if it was normal for you that we play the last qualifying round WITHOUT umpire, no change of balls of all the match and a super tie-break (10 points) instead of a third set in a professional tennis tournament M15/M25 ?”

Poor run continues for Sloane Stephens (tennis.com)

Hsieh Su-Wei’s mismatched outfits have drawn attention.  She doesn’t have a sponsor and wears what she likes.  Before you say, her agent needs to get her a clothing contract,  she has no agent.  But she is playing great tennis this week (Twitter)

Florida – America’s tennis factory (Newyorker)

 

Continue ReadingAndy’s Reads – Expensive Miami Open and America’s Tennis Factory

Andy’s Reads – Andreescu Rising and Luckless Del Potro

18-year old Bianca Andreescu of Canada is making a name for herself on the WTA tour (tennis.com)

Britain’s former Davis Cup captain Paul Hutchins passed away this week (The Telegraph)

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had a coffee chat about the future of tennis in the wake of the firing of ATP President Chris Kermode (Tennis World)

Denis Shapovalov did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. (Reddit)

IMG’s tennis division is thriving.  As a host of the Masters tournament in Miami, IMG has attracted (and in some cases rightly so) controversy on how it awards wildcards to the main draw. (Forbes)

Juan Martin Del Potro is considering knee surgery that could keep on the sidelines for four to six months (Sports24)

Milos Raonic splits with coach Goran Ivanisevic and is now working with Frenchman Fabrice Santoro (TennisWorld)

Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina are still in love.  Monfils is playing good tennis (TennisWorld)

Continue ReadingAndy’s Reads – Andreescu Rising and Luckless Del Potro