Consolidated Break

   Jannick Sinner is a doper. Iga Swiatek is a doper. They are two of the best players we have seen in tennis over the last decade. Each became no.1 by dominating. Now, they have both found to have benefited from illegal substances. The sport of tennis is in major trouble.  Who ever thought that the ways in which Rafael Nadal acted on the tennis court were normal ? If you thought that, then you were probably never suspicious of Rafa. But I was always scared for Rafa. He looked like an insane person adjusting his water bottles, touching himself relentlessly and having that black look in his empty eyes. Some claim these were the idiosyncrasies of a champion, but you could easily use this same evidence to say he was definitely doping.   Why am I using Jannick and Iga to throw Rafa under the bus ? It has been way too long that the fans have been in the dark about how these players become the machines we see on television. Not only do we hear months later that some h...

   Who remembers Ernesto Escobedo ? The one time up and coming American from California now plays under the Mexican flag. It's a little different from Naomi Osaka playing under the Japanese flag, due to the finances involved, but it is also similar. We don't talk too much about the flags that players choose to fly in tennis. But rest assured, most are taking a chance and very few see the success of a Naomi Osaka or Martina Navratilova.  It is my understanding that the now #458 Escobedo made the change to honor his family heritage, but to also help promote tennis in Mexico. Even at #458, he is the second highest ranked player from Mexico, after #379, Rodrigo Mendez.   At the Manzanillo Open in Mexico today, Thanksgiving, Escobedo takes on Michael Geerts, the no.4 seed out of Belgium. American Toby Kodat, currently #350 and the no.8 seed in Manzanillo, faces off against Alan Magadan. Another American, #723, Karl Poling, takes the court against Canadian Liam Draxl,...

   The Tennis Channel is showing repeats, one would suppose in order for charges to study. But it's after 9pm on the east coast and Yoshi Nishioka is about to suit up in Japan on the Challenger Tour.  Yoshi is taking on qualifier, Hiroki Moriya. Hiroki is currently #380. Yoshi is not going to be seeded at the AO25, but he's the no.1 seed here and is obviously still working on his end of the year ranking. I like Yoshi here.  Also in Japan, #167, Yuta Shimizu takes on 'lucky loser' American, Alafia Ayeni, #480. Shimizu has not won on the main tour this season. So this is a large opportunity for the 25 year old from Walnut Creek. I am cheering for Ayeni tonight.  Mattia Bellucci and Elias Ymer are also in action tonight, so it's a real unknown why Tennis Channel is ignoring the Challenger Tour right now.  Good action on the Challeger Tour tomorrow in Portugal. Andrej Martin has advanced thru qualifying and plays wild card, Francisco Rocha. Martin should push t...

 It is impossible for the tennis tour to move on from the Big 3 for two reasons. First, it was always a Big 5. And secondly, three of the five are still there ! Andy Murray is coaching Novak, and Stan is still ripping backhands.  So while Jannick and Carlos captured all the big trophies in 2024, it remains to be seen whether the new gen has actually pushed the old guys off a cliff or not. Carlos looked positively human during parts of the year. And no one really knows whether Jannick got a boost from illegal enhancement.  Are you willing to place a bet that Rafa Nadal is not considering lacing it up next spring for some dirt ball action ? Although I feel like Roger Federer, who arrived and dominated first, stuck around too long to tangle with the likes of Tennys Sandgren. It seems to further cement Roger's legacy the more controversial Novak gets and the more years that Rafa takes to retire.   Novak, with Andy Murray on his team, will compete for a major in 2025...

    Players like Sinner, Fritz and DeMinaur deserve a ton of credit for playing Davis Cup after the ATP Finals. This proves there is heart at the top of the sport. However, the ATP season is over now and I have to say, it was a little too much of  a small group of players to finsih off. Even the Next Gen ATP Finals are not even until Dec. 18th. It just proves that even though the main tour has closed shop, there are plenty of Challengers still going on.  So not only is the season not over when we say it is, a lot of important things are overlooked when we try to turn the players at the top of the sport into the Dallas Cowwboys. Tennis is different all around and the current format of the tour has done two things all at once. The top players are getting all the limelight as we wear them all out, ensuring we never have champions like Roger, Rafa and Nole again. No one seems to be looking at the risk of promoting the few over the many as the tour begins to count its Sau...

  It's almost too funny. Tennis has always taken yes-men types from the country club world and put them "in charge." As if these types of people ever ran into a rule they did not run around themselves.  Now it is 2024 and we find that despite not having all the Grand Slams on the same page, everyone got together on burying Jannick Sinner's failed drug tests as they begged for investment from the Saudis.  For a lot of people, the influence of Roger, Rafa and Novak is enough to declare the ATP a player's league. But just which players we're talking about really came to the forefront when Nick Kyrgios was not defaulted at Wimbledon while yelling and screaming at Stefanos Tsistsipas. It was clear that the tournament itself had made a calculation that Nick could do whatever he wanted.   The "calculation" on the popularity of Kyrgios is an ongoing thing. He isn't playing, but he is still showing up everywhere, sans any kind of world ranking at all. At ...