The ATP Tour Cheated Andy Murray! #2
photo credit: envisionpublicidad
WORLD EXCLUSIVE for OnCourt Advantage:
In part 1 of this story we revealed that Andy Murray was cheated out of a possible spot in the semi finals of the ATP World Tour Finals. Murray was said to have missed out on a semi final spot by one game with a 43-44 record. To this day the ATP World Tour Finals has posted that Murray missed out on the semi final spot by one game.
Now in part two of this story we will look at other possible deadlock scenarios that could be used to determine who should qualify for the semi finals when 2 players have tied.
How do you think the semi final spots should be allocated in the ATP World Tour Finals?
See what we believe is THE innovation that is best for tennis by clicking this link to read part 1 -> The ATP Tour Cheated Andy Murray!
Other possible deadlock scenarios:
Should it be based on their career head-to-head record?
Murray leads 6 wins to Federer’s 4, so Murray would have got the semi-final spot. However, the ATP World Tour Finals determine who is the best player and what the final rankings for that particular year. The head-to-head record for the year would be a better measure of who should be selected to advance to the semi-finals.
Should it be based on their head-to-head record in that particular year?
Murray and Federer both won 2 matches against each other in 2009 so this deadlock solution may not be very effective.
Should it be based on who won the most singles titles in that particular year?
Murray would have got the semi final berth in this case as he won more ATP titles than any other player in 2009 with 6. Federer won 4 ATP titles in 2009.
Should it be based on who is seeded higher in this event?
Surely this does not make sense and if anything the lower seeded player has performed even better than the higher seeded player to have tied with him.
Should it be based on who won their head-to-head battle during the round robin?
In this case Federer would clinch the semi final spot. However, this event is the culminating one for each year on tour and deserves far more than this. Federer may have beaten Murray in the round robin match yet that means for Murray to have tied with Federer overall, that Murray must have been better than Federer in both of the other 2 matches. In effect, Murray was better performed in 2 of the 3 matches as compared to Federer only being better than Murray in one match.
For more on the ATP World Tour Finals click these links -> ATP World Tour Finals Results, ATP World Tour Finals in London, ATP World Tour Finals Draw, Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #1 and Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #2.
© OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
5 Tennis Tips for YOU! Merry Christmas
Improve the way you play tennis by reading the following 5 tennis tips and studying the photo that goes with each particular tip. The photos are a great demonstration of these 5 tennis tips. Then next time you go out OnCourt solely focus on applying these tips as you play. If you do this you will definitely gain an Advantage over your opponent!
Click on the underlined links to see the photo that goes with each tennis tip:
- The WTA World Championships: Doha. This photo captures Svetlana Kuznetsova demonstrating her forehand return of serve and is taken after she has made contact with the ball. From this picture you can see the posture of Kuznetsova’s head despite how powerfully she has played this shot (see her arm muscles!) and maintains it as she watches where her shot is going. Make sure that you make your best efforts to keep your head still and watch the ball like a hawk for every shot that you play.
- WTA Tour Year-End Finals: Doha. This photo captures Dinara Safina in the preparation stage of her forehand volley before she makes contact with the ball. From the picture you can see that the ball is fairly close to the same level as Safina’s eyes. Make sure that you make your best efforts to make contact with the ball as close to your eye level as you can for every volley.
- WTA Tour Championships Day 1. This photo shows Elena Dementieva already driving her racquet to make contact with the ball for her serve. From this picture you can see that Dementieva really drives her legs and body up to strike the ball in her service action. Make sure that you make your best efforts to use your legs to go up and get the ball instead of letting it come to you for every serve.
- WTA Tour Championships Day 2. This photo shows Caroline Wozniacki making contact with the ball for her 2 handed backhand. From this picture you can see that Wozniacki makes contact with the ball above her shoulders when she plays an attacking shot. Make sure that you make your best efforts to make contact with the ball at chest height at least for every attacking groundstroke that you play.
- WTA Tour Championships Day 3. This photo shows Victoria Azarenka driving her racquet out through the ball with this aggressive double handed backhand drive. From this picture you can see that Azarenka has her racquet directly out in front of her after making contact with ball for this attacking backhand. Make sure that you make your best efforts to drive your racquet right through the ball and out towards your intended target area for every attacking groundstroke that you play.
For more tennis tips click these links -> Learn How to Volley in Tennis, Learn How to Serve in Tennis, Kim Clijsters: Comeback Update, How to WIN Tennis Matches, How to Concentrate and Achieve FOCUS, So WHY didn’t Andy Roddick Win? #2 and SoWHY didn’t Andy Roddick Win? #1.
Pictured above is Ana Ivanovic the former world No.1 and 2008 French Open singles champion has placed the ball and is beautifully positioned to serve up a storm. Let’s hope Ivanovic can take tennis by storm in 2010!
Become a fan on our Facebook page and register for your free OnCourt Advantage email subscription and and we will post your requests on our tennis website!
Today’s POST is dedicated to Aranxta Sanchez Vicario. Sanchez Vicario was born on this day in 1971. The Spaniard won 4 Grand Slam singles titles including in 3 French Open Championships in 1989, 1994 & 1998 and one US Open Crown in 1994. She first achieved her highest career ranking of World No.1 on 6 February 1995.
©OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
The ATP Tour Cheated Andy Murray!
WORLD EXCLUSIVE for OnCourt Advantage:
The following news has not been revealed anywhere in the world to date. Andy Murray was cheated out of a possible spot in the semi finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
Murray was excluded from the semi finals because he was said to have one less game than Roger Federer with 43 to Roger’s 44. However, simple arithmetic shows that they both won 44 games.
To this day The ATP World Tour Finals has posted that Murray missed out on the semi-final spot because he won one less game than Roger Federer 43 games to 44.
Murray’s 44 games won:
- On Day 1 Murray defeated Del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Murray’s score in each set is listed first so the No.4 seed won 15 games (6+3+6=15).
- On Day 3 Federer defeated Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Murray’s score in each set is listed second so the Scot won 10 games (3+6+1= 10).
- On Day 5 Murray defeated Verdasco 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. Murray’s score in each set is listed first so he won 19 games (6+6+7= 19).
- 15 + 10 + 19 = 44.
Federer’s 44 games won:
- On Day 1 Federer won 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 against Verdasco. Federer’s score in each set is listed first so the No.1 seed won 17 games (4+7+6=17).
- On Day 3 Federer beat Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Federer’s score in each set is listed first so the Swiss won 15 games (6+3+6=15).
- On Day 5 Del Potro defeated Federer 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. Federer’s score in each set is listed second so he won 12 games (2+7+3= 12).
- 17 + 15 + 12 = 44.
OnCourt Advantage follows tennis extremely closely and we consider ourselves world leaders in tennis knowledge, expertise and innovations.
How do you think the semi-final spots should be allocated in the ATP World Tour Finals?
On this tennis website we believe that if 2 players results are tied then they should play one full set with a tie-break at 6 games all against each other to split the deadlock.
This set would create great entertainment and added value for the crowd and for the millions of viewers around the world. This deciding set should be played as the first match on the very next day of play. If this had been done in London 2009 then Federer and Murray would have played on Day 6 which was the final day of play for the “Group B” round robin matches.
When players battle out the entire year to qualify for these end-of-year championships it does not make sense that a count back system should be used. Whoever the better player is on the day should always be the deciding factor in tennis.
In part two of this story we will look at other possible deadlock scenarios to determine who should qualify for the semi finals.
For more on the ATP World Tour Finals click these links -> ATP World Tour Finals Results, ATP World Tour Finals in London, ATP World Tour Finals Draw, Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #1 and Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #2.
Today’s POST is dedicated to Stan Smith. Smith was born on this day in 1946. The American won 2 Grand Slam singles titles, the US Open in 1971 and a Wimbledon Championship in 1972. He first achieved his highest career ranking of World No.1 in 1972.
© OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
Final 2009 WTA Top 10 Rankings
- 9,075 points - Serena Williams
- 7,800 points – Dinara Safina
- 6,141 points – Svetlana Kuznetsova
- 5,875 points - Caroline Wozniacki
- 5,585 points – Elena Dementieva
- 5,126 points – Venus Williams
- 4,820 points – Victoria Azarenka
- 3,965 points – Jelena Jankovic
- 3,560 points – Vera Zvonareva
- 3,450 points – Agnieszka Radwanska
Steffi Graf holds the record for the highest total number of weeks ranked as the WTA World No.1 with 377. Martina Navratilova is 2nd with 332, Chris Evert 3rd with 260, Martina Hingis 4th with 209, Monica Seles 5th with 178 and Justine Henin 6th with 117.
Serena is in 8th place and has been ranked for a total of 91 weeks as at 28 December 2009, to move into 7th place she needs to beat Lindsay Davenport who spent 98 weeks as World No.1.
Serena is from Michigan, USA is the World No.1 ranked player on the WTA Tour, because she earned the highest total number of ranking points of all players over the past year. This means Serena is the 2009 WTA Tour Champion. Serena has twice been the WTA Tour Champion.
Serena is 28 years old and was born on September 26, 1981 and in 2009 won 6,545,586 US dollars in prize money. The 1.75m right hander’s total number of WTA ranking points is 9,075 from the 16 tournaments she has played in the past 12 months. Serena won 50 matches in 2009 including 4 tournament victories and lost 12 times.
Serena turned pro in September 1995 and uses a double handed backhand, she has won 11 Grand Slam singles titles to date and has been a runner-up 3 times. Her name is pronounced Se-Ree-nah Will-Yums.
The following is a breakdown of exactly how Serena achieved her singles ranking and rankings points total of 9,075 WTA ranking points. These points are counted from her “best 16″ tournament results. Note: The total from the 16 tournaments listed below adds up to 9,076 points which is more than the WTA credits Serena with.
OnCourt Advantage is awaiting an answer from the WTA Tour to clarify whether Serena has been penalised with another zero points result this year or if the current WTA total for Serena is just incorrect. Stay tuned as we will update you with the verdict…
- 2,000 points: Grand Slam Champion (Australian Open)
- 2,000 points: Grand Slam Champion (Wimbledon)
- 1,500 points: WTA Tour Championships Winner (Doha)
- 900 points: Grand Slam Semi-finals (US Open)
- 700 points: WTA Premier Mandatory Runner-up (Miami)
- 500 points: Grand Slam Quarter finals (Roland Garros)
- 350 points: WTA Premier 5 event Semi-finals (Dubai)
- 350 points: WTA Premier 5 event Semi-finals (Toronto)
- 200 points: WTA Premier Semi-finals (Sydney)
- 200 points: WTA Premier Semi-finals (Paris)
- 140 points: WTA Premier Mandatory Round of 16 (Beijing)
- 120 points: WTA Premier Quarter finals (Stanford)
- 110 points: WTA Premier 5 event Round of 16 (Cincinnati)
- 5 points: WTA Premier Mandatory Round of 64 (Madrid)
- 1 point: WTA Premier 5 event Round of 32 (Rome)
- 0 points: Did not play WTA Premier Mandatory (Indian Wells)
There are certain events such as Premier Mandatory tournaments that must be included in a Top 10 players ranking and if they entered that event and did not play. This is why Serena has a zero points included in her ranking total for her “Best 16″ tournament results even though the zero is not one of her best 16 results.
Pictures of Serena on this tennis website can be found by clicking these links: WTA Tour Championships Final, US Open 2009 Women’s Singles, How to make the WTA rankings work and Wimbledon 2009 Ladies Singles Final.
Today’s POST is dedicated to Tracy Austin. Austin was born on this day in 1962. The American won 2 Grand Slam singles titles both at the US Open in 1979 & 1981. She first achieved his highest career ranking of World No.1 in 1980.
©OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
Final 2009 ATP Top 10 Rankings
- Roger Federer
- Rafael Nadal
- Novak Djokovic
- Andy Murray
- Juan Martin Del Potro
- Nikolay Davydenko
- Andy Roddick
- Robin Soderling
- Fernando Verdasco
- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Federer holds the record for the most consecutive weeks ranked as the world No.1, at 237 weeks. Pete Sampras holds the record for the highest total number of weeks ranked as the ATP World No.1 with 286. Federer now has been ranked for a total of 263 weeks as at 28 December 2009.
Next in Federer’s sights are Jimmy Connors with 268 and Ivan Lendl with 270 weeks. Federer 5th time as ATP World Tour Champion 2004 to 2007 and 2009 he equals Jimmy Connors 5 times and is now just one finish behind Pete Sampras who finished 6 straight years 1993 to 1998.
No.1 - Roger Federer from Basel, Switzerland is the World No.1 ranked player on the ATP World Tour, as he earned the highest total number of ranking points of all players over the past year. Federer is 28 years old and was born on August 8, 1981 and in 2009 won 8,761,805 US dollars in prize money.
The 1.85m right hander’s total number of ATP ranking points is 10,550 for the 19 tournaments he has played in the past 12 months. Federer won 61 matches in 2009 including 4 tournament victories and lost 12 times.
Federer won turned pro in 1998 and uses a one-handed backhand, he has won 15 Grand Slam singles titles to date and has been a runner-up 6 times. His name is pronounced Roh-jer Fed-er-er.
The following is a breakdown of exactly how Federer achieved his singles ranking and rankings points total of 10,550 ATP ranking points. These points are counted from his best 18 tournament results only. Players who qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals receive the bonus of being able to add that as a 19th tournament result to boost their rankings points tally.
- 2,000 points: Grand Slam Champion (Roland Garros)
- 2,000 points: Grand Slam Champion (Wimbledon)
- 1,200 points: Grand Slam Runner-up (Australian Open)
- 1,200 points: Grand Slam Runner-up (US Open)
- 1,000 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Winner (Madrid)
- 1,000 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Winner (Cincinnati)
- 400 points: ATP World Tour Finals (London)
- 360 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Semi-finals (Indian Wells)
- 360 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Semi-finals (Miami)
- 360 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Semi-finals (Rome)
- 300 points: ATP World Tour 500 Runner-up (Basel)
- 180 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Quarter finals (Canada)
- 90 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Round of 16 (Monte Carlo)
- 90 points: P World Tour 250 Semi-finals (Doha)
- 10 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Round of 32 (Paris)
- 0 points: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (Shanghai)
- 0 points: ATP World Tour 500 (Washington)
- 0 points: ATP World Tour 500 (Tokyo)
In his ITF Junior Tour days Federer achieved a career high singles ranking of World No.1 on 31 December 1998 as a 17 year old. In the juniors he was runner-up in the 1998 Junior US Open, he won the 1998 Junior Wimbledon title and he was a semi-finalist at the 1998 Junior Australian Open.
Pictures of Federer on this tennis website can be found by clicking these links: Learn How to Volley in Tennis, ATP Top 10 Rankings: Part 1, US Open 2009 Singles Update, Federer Eyes His Birthday Cup, Champion in Focus: Roger Federer, Learn Through Images: Photographic Memory, How to Concentrate and Achieve FOCUS and US Open 2009 The Men.
Today’s POST is dedicated to Gaston Gaudio. Gaudio was born on this day in 1978. The Argentine won 1 Grand Slam singles title the 2004 French Open. He first achieved his highest career ranking of World No.5 on 25 April 2005.
©OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
About OnCourt Advantage
OnCourt Advantage was started in an effort to make tennis known and accepted as the No.1 sport in the world. Spending years working in the tennis industry, it is clear that the way tennis is and has been delivered to the consumer is the number one reason why tennis is NOT reaching its full potential as the world’s most played, watched and enjoyed game.
OnCourt Advantage aims to be the positive change that is desperately needed in the tennis world. We aim to have the greatest positive impact on tennis possible.
Our goals are:
- To increase the number of people who watch tennis by reaching and promoting tennis through innovative and effective ways;
- To increase the enjoyment of viewers by motivating and educating them so that they want to watch the game far more often;
- To supply our reader’s with the necessary information needed to fully understand and appreciate tennis;
- To become more influential within the tennis industry in order to encourage tennis businesses and organising bodies to unify in the BEST interests of tennis;
- To deliver information that is thought provoking and challenging in order to extend our reader’s ideas and thoughts;
- To change the way the game is played;
- To change the way the game is taught and learned;
- To assist the tennis community to continue playing and enjoying the sport with their friends and families for life;
- To prevent the current widespread afflictions to the game i.e. people dropping out of the sport, underachievement, pain and injuries etc.;
- To empower the individual consumer to question the common norms and misconceptions about tennis; and
- To follow the WTA and ATP Tours by providing quality commentary, editorial and insight into the professional tours.
Strength lies in numbers so please sign up for a FREE subscription and become a Facebook fan of OnCourt Advantage so that together we can make THE difference!!!
OnCourt Advantage is written by degree educated Exercise and Sport Scientists with years of experience in the tennis industry. The reasons that we have such far reaching goals are because we are passionate about tennis and have acquired the necessary and unique knowledge to achieve these goals.
OnCourt Advantage has completed a number of in-depth scientific studies that have revealed why current tennis instruction and practices are so DAMAGING to the sport.
Everything you do On Court has repercussions for your body and the way you play the game. This includes dictating the results you can achieve in matches, whether you will achieve your goals and how many years you can play the game for. Our research includes muscle activity analyses, determination of various methods of force production and the resultant loading or stress on the body, for every single action and movement performed On Court.
OnCourt Advantage has identified the full spectrum of physical movements, thoughts and choices that are needed to be the most effective and efficient player. Exactly how these can be applied and learned has also been mastered. Parts of this information can be found all around the world, but only through OnCourt Advantage can the full body of knowledge be gained.
OnCourt Advantage has solved the puzzle that is successful tennis performance. We have identified what each crucial interrelated aspect of successful performance is, how each aspect works, when it occurs, what results will follow and why this is not understood in the tennis world.
To compliment this scientific research we have also completed a world first study into winning tennis, strategy and tactics. This study involved a comprehensive evaluation of the male and female winners of every Grand Slam singles title over the past 20 years. Exactly how, when, where and why each point is won or lost has been identified in this study of the 20 female and 28 male Grand Slam champions over the past 2 decades.
OnCourt Advantage seeks expressions of interest from you to;
- employ us as consultants;
- become a financial supporter, sponsor or advertiser;
- become a distributor of our written materials (through obtaining our permission to reprint);
- write about any tennis-related content for you; and
- link to our website http://www.oncourtadvantage.com by adding us as a link from your website.
For further information please email info@oncourtadvantage.com
Today’s POST is dedicated to Richard Krajicek. Krajicek was born on this day in 1971. The Dutchman won 1 Grand Slam singles title in 1996, the Wimbledon Championships. He first achieved his highest career ranking of World No.4 on 29 March 1999.
© OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
ATP World Tour Finals Results
photo credit: underdogpiano@btinternet.com
The final of the men’s singles in the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in south-east London was between last years runner-up Nikolay Davydenko and this year’s US Open Singles Champion Juan Martin Del Potro.
Davydenko went up 3 wins to 1 in head-to-head battles with Del Potro by winning the biggest title of his career. The shortest man in the field thoroughly deserved this title. He defeated all of the 2009 slam winners during this event to become the 1st Russian to win the end of year championships since it began in 1970.
Besides 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, Davydenko defeated the 2009 Australian Open singles champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the round robin. Nadal was the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion.
Davydenko defeated World No.1, 2009 ATP World Tour Champion, French Open and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in the semi-finals. This was the 1st time Davydenko had ever defeated Federer in their 13 matches.
After the final Del Potro said, ”He worked hard to beat every player here this week. So maybe I have to improve a little bit the little things. But he played much better than me and that’s it. He played unbelievable tennis.”
In the final Davydenko to control of the match from the outset by moving forward, dictating play and forcing Del Potro back behind the baseline as well as preventing Del Potro the opportunity to unleash his power forehand. Davydenko went out to a 4-1 lead and closed the set barely losing a point on serve to win 6-3.
The 2nd set was a battle and Del Potro imposed himself on the match however, at 4-4 Davydenko’s superior court movement and coverage took its toll and he fought to win the next 2 games and match 6-3 6-4 in 1 hour and 24 minutes in front of the capacity crowd of 17,500.
Davydenko won 1300 ATP ranking points as well as taking home 1,510,000 US dollars for winning the tournament. Davydenko finished the year in style and posted a 57 wins to 17 losses record which included winning 5 singles titles and $3,636,773 US dollars in prize money.
Del Potro finished the year with 54 wins to 16 losses, 3 singles titles and $4,392,743 US dollars in prize money. Del Potro won 800 ATP ranking points as the runner-up and 740,000 US dollars.
For further details about this event on this tennis website click these links -> ATP World Tour Finals in London, ATP World Tour Finals Draw, Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #1 and Understanding the Men’s Pro Tour #2.
Today’s POST is dedicated to Monica Seles. Seles was born on this day in 1973 and won 9 Grand Slam singles titles (8 representing Yugoslavia and 1 as an American citizen). Seles won 4 Australian Open titles including 3 years in a row 1991-1993 and a 4th in 1996, 3 Frech Open Championships in a row 1990-1992 and 2 US Open Crowns back to back from 1991-92. She first achieved her highest career ranking of World No.1 on 11 March 1991.
© OnCourtAdvantage.com 2009
Subscribe now!
