Apparently Evgeny still has problems with his
wirst, that would be the main reason explaining his loss
last week.
But that didn't discourage him from playing this week in
Las Vegas, the Tennis Channel Open.
Once again this is a tournament using the Round Robin
system, Jhenya is in the Main Draw
Elimination meaning he has to play one match to enter one
of the different groups.
His first match will be against A.DELIC
(USA).
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Evgeny defeated A.DELIC (USA) 7/5 4/6 6/3.
He enters the Round Robin part of the tournament, in group
#1 composed by [1]J.BLAKE (USA) and
JM.DEL POTRO (ARG).
It seems fate is giving a rough time to Jhenya those weeks, let's
hope his pain in the wirst won't be a too big handicap.
The draw is available : here.
His first oponent will be JM.DEL POTRO (ARG).
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Unfortunatly what we feared finally happened, Evgeny really
far from his usual level has been largely defeated by JM.DEL POTRO
(ARG) 6/3 6/2.
But he's not out of the tournament yet, he'll play against the #1
seed J.BLAKE (USA) in his second Round Robin match.
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SIMPLY AMAZING
!!
Evgeny def [1]J.BLAKE (USA)
6/2 6/4 !
Despite really bad statistics
on first serve in the
first set, he managed to keep his serve and convert his two
break points being agressive on each point in
return.
In the second set it went the
other way around, he kept the pressure in return but was
less successful than in the first set, and it's a relative
raise in his level in the serving area permited him to kill the
match !
Unfortunatly this win as
beautiful as it is won't allow him to stay in the
tournament.
The rules of Round Robin system, and
specially here the "game average" already gives JM.Del
Potro as the most plausible winner of this round.
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THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED
! 
Evgeny is qualified for
the quaterfinals !
As a result of the retirement
of JM.DEL POTRO (ARG) during his match against
[1]J.BLAKE (USA) who didn't score enough
games to pass Jhenya in the game average.
He will face S.QUERREY (USA) in the
QF.
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OUTRAGEOUS
!!!! 
Zhenya is out of the tournament !!
Mr. De Villiers, President of the ATP, contacted the
Direction of the tournament immediatly after J.BLAKE's win and
ordered them to make the American playing next round !
ATP' CEO firstly said his decision was "based on what the
result would have been if it had gone 'till the end".
Then he detailed his thoughts and stated : "James Blake
will be awarded the group win on the basis that the rules were not
sufficiently explained. James was within just a few games of
winning this match comfortably to advance. Juan Martin has stated
that he would have completed the match had he been fully aware of
the implications of his retirement."
I usually try to moderate myself on writing my own opinions about
ATP changes issues, but right now I can't stay quiet.
This decision is outrageous, disgusting and totally unfair. If Mr
President can make a call and change rules in the middle of a
tournament everytime he wants just to adjust the results and the
draw in the purpose of selling more tickets and making tv channels
happy preserving Big Names from an early elimination, this is
basically the end of Tennis.
Same configuration happened last week in Buenos Aires with
JC.FERRERO and they applied the retirement rule (wich states that
in the case of a retirement if the two other players have 1 win
each then it's the winner of their head to head in the group who
advances to the next round), and the former world #1 was out.
J.BLAKE is one of the players who said they were in favor of the RR
system, and now it's working against him he claims he wasn't aware
of all the rules it implies, we can't blame him for the
intervention of Mr De Villiers, but it seems to me a little easy to
put that on the rules back when they all assured those rules were
great and well settled !
It's clearly a matter of who's who here... and that's shameful for
our beautiful sport !
How would Mr De Villiers do to make amend in front of
Jhenya about how he despoil him ?!
Easy answer : "The ATP will be awarding Evgeny Korolev the
amount of $11,375, the average sum of the prize money for the
quarter-finals and semi-finals at this event."
It's seems it's all about the money for Mr President !
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Blake reaction to the decision : "It seems to me the
right decision, maybe that's biased but it is a fair
decision."
“There are rules, but the people that are there to
change the rules did so, they made a decision and
I’m very happy with it."
“He was ready to go. He was pretty much ready to leave. I
think it’s tough. He’ll be out on tour for a long time
so I don’t think one match or one tournament s going
to change anyone’s career.”
How would he have felt if the situation was reversed?
“I’ll be 100% completely honest. If I was in the
opposite situation – I had already rented a car, was ready to
get in the car to go to Indian Wells like Korolev was, I’d be
able to come prepared and say let the person who deserves
to go through, go through.”
Top players Safin and Hewitt also playing in the
tournament expressed their support to Korolev and their
ununderstanding of the decision.
Safin said : "I want to say that the way it
has been handled is just a disgrace,
I feel very bad for Korolev because he had nothing to do with it.
He's a young guy, only on the tour a year and all of a
sudden he got screwed by the organisation."
"For a serious organisation like the ATP, you can't make
these kind of decisions in the middle of the week, by the phone,
without being there, and not to talk to the guy that's in the
situation."
"And the CEO (Etienne de Villiers) disappointed me a
lot. In this situation he should have handled it in a
different way. It's ridiculous what they did. They have no
explanation and it doesn't really fit in my brain."
“It will be a big thing in the coming weeks when
everybody finds out what happened – Roger
Federer and Andy Roddick. Hewitt was here
also, he said it was ridiculous. There's going to be
serious talking.”
Hewitt said : "If it had been
the other way around, nobody would care about it and it just would
be no discussion at all."
Hewitt said he was 'mystified' by the decision.
"To change a rule mid-tournament - that's just not right,
we all start a tournament in the same boat, in the
same situation. I feel sorry for the bloke that misses out, that's
for sure."
"This is a kid on the rise. He's beaten Blake (6-2
6-4) two nights ago. A little bit of prize money's not going to
mean a whole lot to him. (I'd be) pissed off."
"It would have been unlucky for James, he was only three games away
from getting through but rules are rules."
"Me and a few other guys were sitting in the players lounge
watching the match. We said, 'is there any way that Korolev gets
though?' And they said, 'if del Potro withdraws'. Even on TV they
were saying it, so everyone was aware of the rule."
"The rules are in place -- you can't do
anything about that. So that's why I'm a little
bit gobsmacked. It really is amazing."
-------------------
here is the link to
a PETITION initiated on the mtf (biggest
tennis community on the web), to get rid of the RR
system and which will be sent soon to the relevant
authority, please sign it.
>>
http://www.petitiononline.com/nomorerr/petition.html
