Kim Clijsters Returning to WTA Tour

By Mike McIntyre

Nothing has been officially announced yet but it sure seems like former world number one, Kim Clijsters will be making a comeback to the WTA tour this summer. A news conference is being held tomorrow by Clijsters in her native Belgium where she is expected to announce a return to regular tournament play after a two year retirement. Wild cards are rumored to be in the works for Toronto, Cincinnati and Flushing Meadows.

Clijsters had an impressive, though not spectacular career on the tour before her retirement in 2007. She held the number one ranking for 19 weeks, won the 2005 U.S. Open, and finished with a career record of 427-104 in singles competition. She was also the runner-up in four Grand Slam finals and finished with 34 career singles titles.

Injuries to her back and hip as well as the birth of her first child led to Clijsters early retirement at the age of 23. Her potential comeback should come as no big surprise however judging from the string of exhibition matches she planned to play this year. May 17th she is scheduled to play alongside Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi and Tim Henman at Wimbledon to unveil the opening of the newly covered Centre Court. On June 14th she will play a friendly match against Michaella Krajicek in the Nertherlands. She is also committed to playing two matches for the St. Louis Aces of World Team Tennis in July. As well, just last week her former coach, Carl Maes, advised Reuters that he believed Clijsters was planning a comeback to the tour.

Clijsters comeback would add another exciting big name player to the already competitive field on the tour. Since the retirement of fellow Belgian Justine Henin in early 2008 the number one ranking has changed hands several times. Perhaps Clijsters would be included in that mix after getting her fitness level back. Who knows, perhaps her return might spark some interest from Henin to consider a similar comeback in the future?

While Clijsters did enjoy success on the tour I think it's safe to say she was never a truly dominant  player. She may have been a regular Grand Slam semi-finalist, but her record against other elite players was nothing spectacular. Here's just a sample:

1-7 vs S. Williams
4-6 vs V. Williams
9-9 vs Davenport
10-12 vs Henin
4-3 vs Sharapova (although she lost the last 3 in a row against the Russian.)

Still I expect having Clijsters back will provide another competitive player to keep things interesting in the top ten. Taking some time off from the game has helped players such as Jennifer Capriati and Andre Agassi in the past and prolonged their careers. Both returned to the game to win multiple Grand Slam titles. The same could very well hold true for Clijsters as well.

Qualifying Draw Reveals Surprises in Miami

By Mike McIntyre

It's not too often that the qualifying draw of a tournament piques my curiosity like this week in Miami. The 250 and 500 level tournaments are normally packed full of players I've never heard of or who are destined to always be grinding their way through the season for small victories here and there. At the 1000 level or Masters Series events things can be remotely more interesting at times, but I really had to raise an eyebrow when looking at the qualifying draw in Miami this week.

In the men's qualifying draw we have a distinguished group of players who all competed for a main draw position. This group included the number one players from Canada and Israel, the supposed "future" of American men's tennis, a Grand Slam winner, and a B. Becker who will never win a Grand Slam like Boom Boom did.

First kudos to Israel's Dudi Sela. He must still be thrilled with his country's recent Davis Cup upset over the Swede's in Malmo. Not allowing fans into the event killed the home court advantage for the host country and perhaps contributed to their shocking loss. Sela has been having a solid season reaching the third round of the Aussie Open and the Semi-finals in Memphis. Despite losing during the qualifying draw, he makes it into the tournament as a lucky loser.

I've also gotta give props to Canada's number one, Frank Dancevic. All of us here in Canada were pretty thrilled with Frank's exciting run at the Rogers Cup in Montreal during the summer of 2007 where he took Rafael Nadal to three sets in the quarter finals. Unfortunately injuries derailed his progress last season and he continues to search for the consistency in his game that could shoot him back into the top 100. Nice to see him make his way through the two qualifying rounds and hopefully build on that momentum.

One player I was shocked to see being forced to qualify was American Taylor Dent. After coming back late last year from what seemed to be a career-ending back injury, Dent is giving it his all this season in a bid to regain his previous form. One of the few pure serve and volley players left on tour it is nice to see him working so hard. What baffles me is how a guy who has given so much to American tennis over the years fails to receive a wild card into the main draw. Instead the tournament organizers allowed lesser known Americans like Jesse Levine and Ryan Sweeting and even India's Yuki Bhambri (who???) into the draw. I'm sure Dent wasn't too thrilled about having to get through the qualies, which he did fortunately manage to accomplish.

Another big qualifying surprise was to find former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio making an effort to get into the draw. Gaudio was never known for his hard court abilities and hasn't been seen at a Masters Series event in what seems like forever. This season he has had mediocre results at the challenger level and only played two clay court matches in all of 2008. The last time he even competed in a hard court event was at this very tournament in 2007. Gaudio's comeback will have to wait a bit longer to gather any steam as he lost in the first round of the qualies to Evgeny Korolev. Better luck on the dirt Gaston!

Benjamin Becker has never won a Grand Slam, but his namesake Boris won six. It certainly doesn't appear likely that this Becker will ever reach that mark, but it is still nice to see him make it through qualifying and into the main draw. Becker has not lived up to the promise he showed at the US Open in 2006 when he sent Andre Agassi into retirement. He really struggled with his game last season and is looking to get some much needed wins under his belt.

Finally, two Americans at opposite ends of their careers both attempted, and failed, to qualify in Miami. Donald Young was once hyped as the future of American tennis. He might yet live up to those bold claims, but for right now his career seems to be stuck in neutral. So far 2009 has not been kind to him, although at just 19 years of age there is still lots of time for him to blossom on the court. Another American, Vince Spadea, most definitely does not have much time left. The wanna-be rapper will be turning 35 this summer, but he looks 45 and should cut his losses now and call it a career. A first round loser in four of his last five tournaments, Spadea seems to be near the end. At least he has his music to fall back on I guess.

While the tournament itself kicks off Wednesday, tennis fans have already been treated to some solid qualifying action. I personally would have really enjoyed watching some of the above players in action. Whether they are trying to jump start a career, prolong a career, or simply take it one match at a time, some interesting players were found this week qualifying in

Safety of Players Must Come First

By Mike McIntyre

Lately the phrase "safety first" seems to be causing quite a bit of controversy on both the ATP and WTA tours.  Authorities in Dubai denied a visa to Israel’s Shahar Peer at the last minute and almost did the same to compatriot Andy Ram. In both cases the safety of the individual players was cited as the reason for the situation. Safety is again being brought up in a controversial manner for the Davis Cup tie between Israel and Sweden that is to take place between March 6-8 in Malmo, the third largest city in Sweden. It has been decided that the best of five series between the two nations will take place without any spectators in attendance. The safety of the players is at the forefront of this decision according to the mayor of Malmo, Ilmar Reepalu.

If taken at face value, the concern for a player's safety is a noble and necessary factor that must always be taken into consideration. A sporting tour or league cannot continue to operate without being able to protect its players properly. In the same breath a sporting tournament or venue must also provide adequate security to its participants in order to enjoy continued success. In fact this is the fundamental task that such events and organizations must adhere to. Safety first, and always first.

The recent ambush of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan drives this point home ever so clearly. While en route to their match that day, the team bus came under fire by a group of terrorists. Six police officers were killed and six members of the team sustained injuries in the attack. The future of cricket in Pakistan is now under intense scrutiny and rightly so. An inquiry into what preventative measures could have been taken must be held. Was a lack of security responsible or should the event itself never have taken place there?

This attack demonstrates rather unfortunately that sports and politics do clash at times and with potentially deadly results. The sport in this instance is irrelevant; it could have just as easily been tennis. It is naive to think that international tensions and relations outside of sports cannot have an impact internally as well. The effect of such an attack on any sports body is immeasurable. If the safety of participants, officials and participants cannot be guaranteed then necessary steps must be taken.

In lieu of this recent tragedy it is necessary for all international sporting leagues and tours to re-evaluate how they maintain the safety of all those involved. For a moment it made me reconsider recent steps taken in Dubai and in Malmo. Could it be that they took the right action after all? Upon further consideration their apparent concern does not validate their actions. The reason for this fact comes down to a single word; timing.

In Dubai, Shahar Peer was only refused a visa at the very last minute. It was not until Tuesday February 17th that the tournament officially issued a statement explaining their refusal to allow Peer to compete. The statement claimed that, "Concern was raised about her wellbeing." The timing of the decision raised questions. The tournament obviously did not anticipate the backlash that occurred early that week and scrambled to come up with some type of plausible excuse for her exclusion.  Had the issue of Peer's safety been brought up by the Dubai Tennis Championship weeks in advance, then we might be able to take their concern at face value. That would also have allowed enough time to put in place the necessary security measurements to allow her participation. Somehow they were able to install metal detectors and increase security forces the following week for Andy Ram to compete.

The timing of the Malmo security logic is also the flaw in its sincerity. After Davis Cup organizers in Malmo made the decision to prevent spectators from watching the matches between Israel and Sweden, officials in the country's capital of Stockholm made an apparently genuine attempt to have the location moved. While Malmo has a large Muslim minority that could produce protests against the Israeli squad, Stockholm has a center-right political majority that is more pro-Israel. Moving the venue would have made sense, but again the timing here is suspect. Madeleine Sjostedt, vice mayor in charge of culture in sports in Stockholm said, "I'm very disappointed. We worked intensely with this for a few days but had to give up." A few days? Knowing of the potential for protest and violence in Malmo one would think a change in venue would have been discussed during the planning stages of this event long ago. If keeping the players safe was the real goal then Malmo never should have even been considered.

Keeping the players on tour safe must remain the primary goal of those involved - both on the side of individual tournaments and among the ATP and WTA tours. While the last minute security concerns in places like Dubai and Malmo have been questioned, they are also very real. Talk of keeping the players safe is essential, but action taken only days before an event is to start or after it has already begun is unacceptable. Forget about ranking points, prize money and sponsorship responsibilities. Safety first, and always first.