The Globe and Mail

Saturday, May 15, 2010 10:28 PM EDT

Roger looking for the record against Rafa

Following his 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 semi-final victory over David Ferrer at the Madrid Masters on Saturday, world No. 1 Roger Federer has put himself in a position to equal yet another significant record.

In Sunday's final, if he can defeat Rafael Nadal, a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 semi-final winner over Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro, he will remain at No. 1 in the ATP rankings no matter what happens at the French Open, which begins on May 23.

That would give Federer a total of 286 weeks at No. 1 as of Monday, June 7, tying him with current record holder Pete Sampras.

A victory over Nadal – Federer is 7-13 against the Spaniard and just 2-9 on clay – on the red clay in Madrid would mean that, even if he lost in the first round of the French Open and Nadal took the title, Federer would lead Nadal 8,430 points to 8,300 points.

If Federer loses Sunday’s final and Nadal wins the French Open, Federer would have to reach the semi-finals at Roland Garros to avoid Nadal taking over No. 1 in the rankings that come out on Monday, June 7.

It might then be difficult for Federer to regain the top spot because Nadal missed two months with knee trouble in 2009 following the French Open – including while Federer was winning Wimbledon – and has no points at all to ‘defend’ until August in the ATP’s 12-month rolling rankings.

Live-streaming of the Madrid doubles final – No. 1 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic vs. No. 2 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan – is available free at http://www.tennistv.com/page/Home/0,,11444,00.html starting at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday, May 16.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 1:06 AM EDT

McEnroe up to old tricks again

It started in a playful enough manner when a fan shouted “are you kidding me” at John McEnroe as he was set to hit the opening serve of his “Legends of Tennis” exhibition match against Jim Courier at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton on Saturday night.

That’s one of the irascible McEnroe’s signature lines and the early part of the match was marked by wise cracks and good-natured banter from a modest crowd of 2,000 or less.

There was an unfortunate early incident when, on one point, a fan twice shouted out as McEnroe was about to hit the ball on his serve. He protested to veteran umpire Dennis Huss of Waterloo, Ont., and wanted a ‘let’ but was denied. Huss made a request to the crowd to not shout out during serves and there were no further incidents.

In the sixth game of the opening set, with the tennis heating up and people enjoying the fine calibre of play and excitement of watching two former world No. 1s, McEnroe succeeded in sucking all the air out of the building with a single outburst featuring the F-word.

Complaining about a line call that went against him, he began to harangue Huss and it all seemed like him just doing his familiar argue-with-the-umpire schtich until he blurted out, within hearing range of a sizeable portion of the crowd, “stop being a ‘freaking’ clown.” He then proceeded to continue bullying Huss, suggesting, in so many words, that he didn’t know his (inconsequential) role in an exhibition match and saying he could be replaced.

Huss, to his credit, was not completely cowed, and gave McEnroe a warning.

The use of the F-word was bad enough, but it was as more the context of the crowd settling in for a fun, light-hearted evening only to have McEnroe brutally transform the mood in the arena.

Ultimately, the exhibition featured an inspired display by McEnroe, still in possession of much of the shot-making genius that has made him a one-of-a-kind player in tennis history.

After his obscenity, McEnroe was notably more subdued, almost (though not likely) as if he felt guilty about what he had done. He wound up winning 6-3, 6-4 and made some spectacular volleys, drop shots and half-volley pick-ups against a man 12 years his junior.

At the end, he shook hands with Courier at the net and pointedly avoided shaking hands with the umpire by making a little turn at the net post and stepping out to accept the applause of the crowd.

John McEnroe has been getting away with outrageous behaviour his whole career, on the main tour and as a senior competitor. Several years ago, a contemporary of McEnroe’s on the pro tour took his two young sons to a senior event but walked out midway through the first set because of McEnroe’s obscene language and rude antics.

McEnroe is now 51 years old and is parenting six children but is still incapable of acting like an adult on the court.

There is a sense of entitlement that has been imbued in him, a coddling by officials of all kinds – at tournaments and in his work in broadcasting where he can be a prima donna – that has resulted in him knowing he can do whatever he likes with impunity.

After Saturday night, McEnroe probably returned home to New York and told friends he had played in Hamilton and beat Courier without ever mentioning the ill-timed obscenity that poisoned a good vibe in Copps Coliseum.

He should have to do what any of his children would likely have to do in the same circumstances – apologize to the spectators, to the organizers, the umpire and any other well-meaning people involved in the event.

But it will not happen – he has gotten away with similar conduct so many times and is all too aware he’s bulletproof.

So it he will take the money – a rough estimate of about $75,000 (US) for the match – and run, and one more time thumb his nose at civility and decorum.

Late in the match, a man in the crowd called out, “Johnny, smile,” with absolutely no response from the dour individual who is, by turns, the epitome of brilliance and boorishness.

It’s pathetic, it’s sad. Tennis’ spoiled child has never grown up.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 12:58 AM EDT

Williams sisters struggling for fitness

Pride goeth before the fall. That old adage could apply to Venus Williams after her pitiful performance in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Kim Clijsters in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last week.

Williams, who wore a wrap on her right thigh leading up to the final, added another one below the left knee for the match against Clijsters. She was obviously not herself, and Clijsters won 30 of her 55 points on Williams unforced errors. During one stretch in the second set, Williams was masterfully inept, dropping 17 points in a row.

“I was just unable to push today as much as I wanted,” she said. “I just couldn’t. I tried. I just was unable.”

It brought to mind what she said after winning the title in Dubai in February. “I had a hard time last year with my fitness (playing with a bandaged left knee much of the time after Wimbledon). I learned how to manage my pain better. It was just a curve on how to really manage playing and pain level, and keeping the swelling down. I (now) have no huge, horrible strap. I hated that thing.

“I usually don’t talk about injuries this much. But I’m starting to feel better, and I’m excited about it. Maybe that’s why I’m talking about it.”

But from Dubai, Williams flew across nine time zones to play in Acapulco the very next week, while also going from a hard-court surface to clay.

Even if she had two weeks off before Miami after also winning the title in Acapulco, she had to play three tough sets there in each of her last three matches and, in all, a total of 10 matches in 12 days.

Though there was likely a financial incentive in terms of an appearance fee – maybe as much or more than Acapulco’s total prize money of $220,000 (US) – it would seem ill-advised, at 29 and with her medical history, to be playing so much tennis in such a concentrated period on different continents and surfaces.

It’s only speculation, but it may have caught up with her in Miami playing an opponent as good as Clijsters.

Venus is usually the more sensible of the Williams siblings, but the Dubai/Acapulco back-to-back could prove costly for her in the long term.

Younger sister Serena, 28, is probably still paying for pushing her body to near the breaking point while winning the Australian Open final in January – 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 over Justine Henin.

Just like Venus against Clijsters, Serena played with one wrap on her right thigh and another below her left knee. She was sketchy against Henin and actually lost 15 points in a row from late in the second set until early in the third. But, like the peerless competitor she is, she cranked up her level to win five of the last six games and notch a 12th Grand Slam title.

She later described her ails – “I pulled a hamstring in Sydney (two weeks earlier), so I was devastated by that. However, when I strapped it, it felt a lot better. Then, something happened to the side of my leg in Sydney. When I strapped it, it didn’t feel better, but it helped a little bit. And, of course, I tape my ankles for prevention. I think in the third round I twisted my ankle, and I fell against Victoria Azarenka (in the quarter-finals) and hurt my wrist. And then somewhere in between there my toes started hurting.”

Serena, who has had a chronic problem with her left knee since surgery in 2003, appeared in little pain right after her victory. Celebrating with her pals, she giddily roamed the hallways of Rod Laver Arena while Daniel Nestor was doing an interview in one of them after losing the men’s doubles final.

But she has not played a tournament since.

Last week, she was photographed cheering for Venus at the Sony Ericsson, frolicking in the ocean surf and socializing at a nightclub.

She also tweeted, “Have u guys been liking my new look?? @nikkiBstyle did it. She just joined twitter..I’m obsessed with my new look.”

The new look is essentially a shorter hairstyle, which, at the moment, is certainly more prominent than the killer cross-court forehand that has out-manoeuvred so many of her opponents.

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Monday, March 29, 2010 12:14 PM EDT

Murray's poor play raises questions about possible injury

After a great run in January to the Australian Open final (losing to Roger Federer), Andy Murray has been decidedly mediocre at his last three tournaments.

As defending champion, he was beaten Saturday by No. 101-ranked American veteran Mardy Fish in his second match at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

Murray’s loss causes a dilemma for a reporter covering tennis. Is it right to suggest a reason for Murray’s recent results was that he was in some way injured, or does a reporter simply take the player at his word when he denies that a physical problem has led to his poor performances?

A little background here – Murray lost to Janko Tipsarevic in the second round in Dubai last month in his first event since Australia. Afterward, he said he was “still trying out some things on court, rather than playing my normal game.”

That was seized on by the British media, which criticized him for not trying to perform to the best of his ability. I watched that match and Murray spent some time between points flexing downward as if to test something (he had admitted feeling “sore” after his first round) bothering him in his lower back or knees. I think saying he was “trying out some new things,” was simply a ruse to cover up his unusual tactics, and what really happened was that he didn’t feel good so he attempted to shorten points by doing things such as serving-and-volleying. As the match went on, he seemed to gradually feel better and played more of his normal game but never quite found his form in a 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 loss to the enterprising Serb.

It must be noted here that Murray does not like to make physical excuses for a loss, but he did give a bit away in an interview with the BBC after the Tipsarevic match when he said he had to “work hard and get physically right” before upcoming events in Indian Wells and Miami.

A good example of his refusal to reveal anything about injuries occurred when he lost 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 to Marin Cilic in last year's US Open quarter-finals while bothered by a wrist injury.

In the final question of his media conference, I asked him about the wrist.

Q: Do you know what the wrist problem is exactly?

Murray: Yeah, but I will try not to discuss injuries. As, you know, I leave it to my doctors and physio to let me know what I should be doing with it and how much I should be playing and how much time I need to take off. You know, but I’m not going to give out any details.

While he played Davis Cup the next week, he was then out of action for six weeks and recently said playing Davis Cup had aggravated the injury.

When he lost 6-1, 7-6(4) in the Indian Wells quarter-finals two weeks ago to Robin Soderling, I watched down near the court with an American reporter and we both noticed that Murray seemed to sometimes favour a knee or foot when he came to a stop at the end of points. Tennis writer Neil Harman of The Times (of London) began his account of the match with, “Andy Murray’s feet hurt and his spirit was bruised last night when he was swept from the BNP Paribas Masters here by Robin Soderling.”

But at the post-match media conference, when asked if there had been something hampering him, Murray predictably responded, “no, I just didn’t move well... You know, it happens sometimes unfortunately. Just I didn’t move particularly well.”

That sure sounded suspicious. How often does a player, even a Roger Federer or a Rafael Nadal, say that he “just I didn’t move particularly well” after a loss unless he has some kind of physical issue?

On Saturday, in the second set of his 6-4, 6-4 loss to Fish, at least three times he seemed to ‘pull up’ at the end of runs, as though something in a leg or foot was bothering him. Murray led 3-1, 40-love in the first set, but later admitted, “something wasn’t right from... Even though I was a break up, I didn’t feel all that comfortable on the court.”

Again, the sounded like he was hiding something.

You have to respect Murray for not wanting to make excuses, or detract from his opponent’s victory. It is the honourable thing to do.

But it is also the responsibility of a reporter to try to go beyond the surface of what an athlete says to find an explanation for his subpar play on court. As for Murray and whatever is troubling him, I have the feeling it will eventually come out, as it usually does. It may not be for six months or a year or two years, but then someone in his camp will casually say something like, “oh yeah, that was when he was having a problem with his ankle,” about the period of February/March in 2010.

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Friday, March 26, 2010 11:03 AM EDT

Another record for Roger

Roger Federer breaks records about as often as other players pop strings in their favourite racquets.

The splendid Swiss is a tennis junkie and usually aware of even the most obscure of his accomplishments.

At times, it seems redundant to bother mentioning his latest statistical feat but there is one approaching that clearly stands out. Next to winning the Davis Cup, something that becomes less likely for him with each passing season, or pulling off a calendar Grand Slam, which is improbable even for a player of his singular ability, it is one of the only remaining standards he can set that he will acknowledge with real pride.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:01 PM EDT

Off-court snippets from Indian Wells

Here are some leftovers from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., last week:

A few weeks ago there was a lot of talk about the somewhat risqué music video that Rafael Nadal made with Colombian pop singer Shakira for her new song Gypsy.

Nadal, shirtless, lay partially on top of Shakira and there was brief kiss.

A source in the know said that the four-time French Open champion’s girlfriend, Maria Francisca Perello, was not too pleased about the seemingly harmless osculation.

And, by the way, while some people have taken to referring to Perello by the familiar “Xisca,” that is apparently an invention of the Spanish media. She is officially Maria Francisca, and Rafael calls her “Mari” for short.

Perello was not in Indian Wells because she was busy with her studies in Majorca.

During his opening round match in Indian Wells, Ernests Gulbis smashed his Head racquet on the court and walked over to his courtside chair to replace it without receiving so much as a warning from the umpire.

Gulbis, 21 and ranked No. 45, recently spoke about breaking more than 50 racquets in anger in 2009 but claimed to have a gained a greater appreciation of the frames after visiting a Head manufacturing plant late last year. He said he would not be breaking as many in the future.

Since he is from a well-known family in Latvia, and his father Ainars is one of the wealthier men in the country, perhaps Ernests should have to pay his own “carbon tax” whenever he deliberately destroys a racquet. How about, each time, he gives Head the $200 or $300 cost of the frame.

There is a new and flourishing romance on the tour between Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Karolina Sprem of Croatia. Baghdatis is the 2007 Australian Open finalist while Sprem is best known for defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2004. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 17 in late 2004 but has struggled since and currently is at No. 86 after being out of the top 150 in both 2007 and 2008.

Sprem’s former boyfriend, Borna Bikic of Croatia, is Jelena Dokic’s coach, while his brother Tin Bikic is Dokic’s boyfriend. It made for somewhat complicated relationships and Sprem, 25, is probably in a much better head space dating the personable Baghdatis, 24.

The Daniel Nestor and Kim Clijsters families stayed at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells and their children made good use of its swimming pool.

Nestor and wife Natasha have a 15-month old daughter named Tiana, while Clijsters and husband Brian Lynch have a two-year-old daughter, Jada.

At various times during the week the pool at the Hyatt was full of kids of other tennis players who were not necessarily staying at the Hyatt. They included Nestor’s doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic, who has 15-month-old twins Luna and Leon, as well as children belonging to eventual singles champion Ivan Ljubicic, Belgian doubles specialist Dick Norman and Peter Luczak of Australia.

There were three other youngsters around the pool for several days – the offspring of David Beckham and Posh Spice. The pop singer was there but not her recently injured, soccer-playing hubby.

On a personal note, I had an interesting interaction with Andy Murray after his match with Michael Russell in the third round. Murray, at one point, had run awkwardly into the singles stick in the net at the side of the court. The exchange went like this:

QUESTION: Did you hurt yourself in any way?

ANDY MURRAY: “No, I think I’ll be okay. I just kind of – you know, you get it a lot on the hard courts anyway, when you – a lot of the players they have sort of the top of their big toes are black. I’ve got that, unfortunately.”

I then piped up, “be careful, the tabloids may get a hold of that.” It was meant as a joke but the Scot was slightly taken aback for a moment – making me realize that the Murray media frenzy in Britain is so great that it’s possible even his blackened toes might be newsworthy material for certain papers.

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Monday, March 22, 2010 11:11 AM EDT

Surprise winners in Indian Wells

The site of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., is aptly-known as the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. It is on 55 acres of land that feature the largest centre court – 16,100 capacity – this side of the U.S. Open’s monstrous Arthur Ashe Stadium and lots of space in a setting surrounded by three mountain ranges.

Wandering the site last week, one veteran California tennis writer remarked about how the vegetation and foliage have grown since the opening in 2000, suggesting it now has a more lived in feel.

This year’s tournament had surprise champions, Ivan Ljubicic and Jelena Jankovic.

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Thursday, March 18, 2010 11:58 PM EDT

Stacey Allaster passes first real test

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Stacey Allaster has passed her first real test since being appointed chairman and CEO of the WTA Tour last July.

The former Tennis Canada vice-president, and tournament director of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, has been able to keep tour sponsor Sony Ericsson in the fold, even if it’s not as title sponsor.

Allaster, who now resides in St. Petersburg, Fla., recalled earlier this week how she brought along the formidable trio of legendary Billie Jean King, superstar Venus Williams and the promising Melanie Oudin when she recently wrapped up the deal with Sony Ericsson management at a meeting in New York City.

In 2005, Sony Ericsson signed an $88-million (U.S.), six-year contract with the WTA Tour as its title sponsor.

There had been rumours for most of the past year that Sony Ericsson might not renew and last week’s announcement is a huge relief for the tour and a sizeable feather in Allaster’s cap.

The agreement is reportedly for about $15-million (US) annually through 2012.

While the hard numbers are not as high as with the original deal, the WTA Tour’s obligations are also reduced so Allaster was able to say, “on the gross, the average net profit we were getting from 2005 to 2009 is not that far off what the average net profit is under this new deal.”

Sony Ericsson will have on-court identification on the net but will no longer be the tour title sponsor or the title sponsor for the year-end Championships, to be held next November, in the last of three-year contract, in Doha, Qatar. They will then move to Istanbul, Turkey, from 2011-2013.

About any shortfall between the old and new Sony Ericsson deals, Allaster said, “we can clearly make it up and exceed what we were getting by selling (title sponsorship of) the Championships.”

But they cannot sell an overall tour title sponsorship to replace Sony Ericsson. “You could parallel with the same sponsorship model the ATP has: it has Corona (beer) and they’re the lead partner. Sony Ericsson is our No. 1 lead commercial partner and no one will be higher than them. (But) we can now go to the market and have discussions with prospective sponsors about being a partner of the WTA Tour versus of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. That will give us more conversations because, when you have the umbrella (sponsorship), ownership is so dominant that companies sometimes shy away from that structure.”

Allaster, 46, was in Vancouver for the beginning of the Winter Olympics. “I was a very proud Canadian for six days while I was there,” she said. “I remember going into the venue thinking ‘how are we going to put on an opening ceremonies like they did in Beijing, the whole world will be watching?’ And the athletes marched in and once they got going with the show, I was just blown away. I think the budget was about $30 million compared to Beijing being $300 million. I was as energized with the creativity and the theatrics and the energy from Beijing as I was with what they did in GM Place, a much smaller building.

“Having travelled the world, people have just raved about how great Vancouver was – the ‘goodtime Games’ and our Canadians who were welcoming and proud and ‘owning the podium.’ It was ambitious for sport development in our country, but it is about winning. And all the athletes that competed, and those that won, should be incredibly proud.”

There was a business component to Allaster’s trip. “I spent some time with our good friend Phil King (president) from TSN and, with TSN2 he wants more women’s tennis on, definitely,” she said.

As far as learning anything at the Olympics that will be applicable to the WTA Tour, Allaster explained, “When you go to events, you’re always looking for staging and operations and improvements. The graphic techniques that they used in the opening ceremonies were incredible. You saw the screen that would layer down, the whales were coming out of it. It was incredible, it was a white floor and I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘this is a little bit stark.’ But they did it all through computer-generated graphics, bringing it to life – the whales were in a tank, the salmon were swimming, the Rockies and maple leaves. It was an incredible use of technology. So, for an indoor venue, and we will be indoors in Istanbul, even for Doha, I was definitely making notes."

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Thursday, March 18, 2010 12:22 AM EDT

Federer's sense of invincibility continues to be challenged

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- It was a man-bites-dog night in tennis on Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells – Roger Federer lost.

If anyone had to beat him, Marcos Baghdatis was probably the peoples-choice kind of guy.

The likable Cypriot with the rambunctious game style has been through a lot of adversity since reaching final of the 2006 Australian Open (losing to Federer) and then hitting a career-high ranking of No. 8 in May 2006.

Injuries disrupted his bid to establish himself firmly in the top 10. In 2008, he had a stress fracture in his right wrist that kept him off the tour for two months and later that year he was troubled by a back ailment.

His ranking plummeted and by July of last year he was outside the top 150 at No. 151. He then began a hard slog back by winning a Challenger event in Vancouver in August. He followed that with Challenger titles in France and Uzbekistan, as well as the ATP event in Stockholm in the fall and had his ranking up to No. 33 entering the Indian Wells event.

“Best win of my career,” a happy Baghdatis, 24, said immediately following his 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory over Federer. “I think that says everything. I lost a lot of matches against those top guys, and, you know, it’s a relief to win a match like that after being out for two years, having some tough moments. It’s a great moment for me. I’ll try to enjoy it.”

Sadly, Baghdatis didn’t have long because he had to return to the court 19 hours after beating Federer and lost to Tommy Robredo 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 on Wednesday.

After the match on Tuesday, Federer was in a decidedly sombre mood. He held two match points at 15-40, 5-4 in the second set, and then another one at 6-5 in the third set. It was only the fourth time since 2002 that he had lost a match after having match point. The others were (tournament and number of match points in brackets) against Rafael Nadal (2006 Rome – 2), Richard Gasquet (2005 Monte Carlo – 3) and Marat Safin (2005 Australian Open – 1).

“It feels something like the (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga match last year in Cincinnati,” Federer said by way of explaining his loss. “What happened after that ... I played great. Or was it in Toronto and I won Cincinnati. (Actually, he lost to Tsonga after leading 5-1 in the third set of their quarter-final in Montreal at the Rogers Cup, and then he went on to win the title in Cincinnati the following week.)

“So it’s just like one of those matches that just happens, you know. You play good most of the time, and then you just don’t play so well when you really have to.”

There was one obvious similarity with the loss to Tsonga – on both occasions he was coming back after five weeks off following a victory at a Grand Slam. Last summer in Montreal was his first event after Wimbledon.

Federer has been flying high since recording his 16th Grand Slam title on January 31 at the Australian Open. There has been some talk of him winning the Grand Slam (all four majors) this year but the loss to Baghdatis – and Nadal’s impressive form in Indian Wells so far - will make people more cautious about making any grandiose predictions.

The loss to Baghdatis was significant for another reason. He had beaten the Cypriot six times in a row between 2004 and 2008, but that streak is now over.

That follows a pattern of recent years. Here are four other players he also had long winning streaks against in recent years before losing to them:

• Federer was 10-0 against Fernando Gonzalez between 2004 and 2007 before losing at the year-end 2007 Masters Cup but has beaten the Chilean in their two subsequent meetings.
• He was 8-0 against James Blake between 2003 and 2008 before losing to the American at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but has won their two subsequent meetings.
• He was 12-0 against Nikolay Davydenko between 2002 and 2009 before losing to the Russian at the 2009 year-end championships in London and in Qatar in January. But he beat the Russian in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January.
• Finally, the Swiss was 6-0 against Ivo Karlovic between 2004 and 2008 before losing to the Croat in Cincinnati in 2008 but has won all three of their subsequent matches.

All the above players, except Karlovic, are present or former top-10 players, so it was almost inevitable that at some point they would score a win against the mighty Swiss.

But there is still a group of serious 0-fers versus Federer – including Robin Soderling 0-12, Mikhail Youzhny 0-10, Jarkko Nieminen 0-10, Robredo 0-9 and David Ferrer 0-9.

But every time a player breaks through as Baghdatis did on Tuesday, a little bit more of the Federer invincibility vanishes.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 12:06 AM EDT

Nestor in position to claim another Indian Wells crown

One of the cruel realities of tennis is that the numbers of players diminish rapidly once a tournament begins.

With half the players losing every day, it’s simply a mathematical inevitability.

On Monday evening at the BNP Paribas Open, Daniel Nestor’s wife Natasha was pushing a stroller with her 15-month-old daughter Tiana in it and remarking about how few players were left at the tournament, something you can tell by who is still around in the player lounge, restaurant and locker room areas.

Just six days earlier, when the women’s main draw began, there were 96 players in the running. That had dwindled to 16 after Monday’s play.

As for the men, they began last Thursday with 96 and were down to 24 by the finish of play on Monday.

Natasha Nestor had no intention of trying to get into the 6,400-seat Stadium 2 where Daniel and his partner Nenad Zimonjic were about to play Andy Roddick and James Blake. The match had been scheduled last in the afternoon session on the 16,100-seat Stadium 1, but had to be moved when matches involving Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic lasted close to three hours, gumming up the intended order of play.

When the announcement of the stadium change was made, there was an immediate rush (fans were anxious to see the two best-known American players of the current generation) to Stadium 2.

Blake and Roddick often raze Nestor, who is anything but a shrinking violet in the locker room, about doubles. They (especially Blake) needle him with things like “so, did you practise 15 minutes today?” That clearly added an edge to their match on Monday night and it was highly satisfying for the 37-year-old Torontonian that he and Zimonjic were able to come through with a hard-fought 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 victory.

Nestor, with former partner Mark Knowles, has won four titles in Indian Wells and the chance is certainly there for a fifth. The top seeds, he and Zimonjic are well positioned because the No. 2-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, No. 3 Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes, and No. 4 Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi, have all already been eliminated.

As the number of players at the BNP Paribas Open continues to decline, here are some random thoughts on the women at Indian Wells.

With her Monday-night 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (1) defeat of Kim Clijsters, rallying from 0-4 down in the final set tiebreak, Alisa Kleybanova, 20, is clearly at the head of the class among the emerging new generation of Russian players. Winner of her first tour title two weeks ago with a victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final in Malaysia, Kleybanova is familiar to Canadian fans who saw her reach the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup last summer in Toronto before pushing Maria Sharapova to three tough sets. Kleybanova, now ranked No. 27, said after beating Clijsters that she aims to be in the top 20 by the end of the year. With her big serve, her surprising agility despite her size (5-foot-11 and 159 pounds) and terrific competitive temperament, she could easily do better than that and overtake many of the older generation of Russians with names like Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Sharapova, Zvonareva, Petrova and maybe even the absent-with-injury Dinara Safina. The caveat is, of course, if she can stay healthy.

As well as the top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Indian Wells event has lost its three biggest drawing cards: Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters.

Sharapova, as she showed in Toronto last summer in reaching the final, is still battling to find her serve – at times hitting double faults that miss not by centimetres but metres. She is working hard and competing with her customary determination, but the synapses in her body are still just not always firing properly since her rotator cuff shoulder surgery in October, 2008. It has to be frustrating to be a three-time Grand Slam champion, who nowadays has a serve that seems to have a mind of its own.

As for Henin, beaten by Gisela Dulko in her third-round match, she was probably due for a hiccup after reaching the finals – Brisbane and the Australian Open – in the first two tournaments of her comeback after 20 months off the tour. She has stayed on in the California desert and done some nature walking in the Idyllwild alpine village in the snow-capped San Jacinto Mountains. That should help clear her head for the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami next week.

As for Clijsters, it now seems somehow inevitable, after her charmed run to the U.S. Open title last September following more than two years out of the game, that she would encounter a little rough sailing in 2010. She admitted after losing to Kleybanova that the other players are now probably more motivated to try to beat her.

Monday night was also notable for the news that Nicole Vaidisova, 20 and a former world No. 7 (2007), is retiring and will marry her Czech compatriot Radek Stepanek, 31, in July.

Vaidisova has been in a painful-to-watch downward spiral for about two years. There were injury issues at one point but latterly she basically has just been succumbing to nerves whenever she played.

A former coach once suggested that she really just didn’t have that necessary and almost innate visceral drive to compete, everything had come too easy for her early in her career.

Kim Clijsters, when informed of Vaidisova’s premature retirement, was refreshingly candid in discussing the six-foot Czech, who reached the semi-finals of both the French (2006) and Australian (2007) Opens. She recalled practising with Vaidisova and said, “I never really felt when I was playing against her like when I practised against Jennifer Capriati or (Ai) Sugiyama, those were really good hits and fun hits. We were laughing and training really hard.

“I think, with her, we never really had that feeling that she was out there for the fun of it. You know, I think she felt a lot of pressure as well – maybe from her entourage. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. I think also obviously there are different personalities, there’s girls... if you’re a perfectionist in sports, I think it’s very hard to achieve. So, you know, maybe that, after a while, it becomes very draining. You need to realize that every day, everybody, even Roger Federer, makes mistakes. And I think – I don’t know, maybe if that had something to do with it. You know, she was always a girl, especially in matches, who was very down and showed a lot of emotions.”

On a personal note, I recall hearing one year during the Australian Open that Vaidisova, then probably about 17, had seen a $7000 watch that she liked, and that somehow it ended up being given to her. At the time, that seemed a little divorced from reality for a young woman of her age.

But, even if that was symptom of a bit of an unreal life she was leading, it was not the cause for her dramatic career decline. I think, in the pit of her stomach, she just did not have that competitive hunger to win, nor did she have that enjoyment of what is often described as the “process” of the sport – i.e. the daily routine and grind.

That said, I also think there’s a good chance she, at just 20, will attempt a comeback on the tour within two years. She need look no further and than Clijsters and her Belgian compatriot Justine Henin to understand how “retirements” can soon turn into the second act of a tennis career.

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