CNNSI's Jon Wertheim reports in his weekly Tennis Mailbag on the behind-the-scenes action in Rome last week. He says "reliable sources" tell him that Juan Carlos Ferrero's people, in an attempt to finagle him a wild card into the Rome Masters event, offered to swap two wild cards for Italian players to the next Valencia event for one for Ferrero to the Rome event. No luck.
If true, you've got to love how the business interests in tennis are so intertwined that a player's official representatives can offer to distribute wildcards to a tournament, even though Valencia is practically Ferrero's hometown tournament.
Valencia IS Ferrero's event; he (or his camp) owns the tournament. That's why so many of his Academy students play there.
Posted by: TennisHack | May 10, 2005 at 06:25 PM
That's a nice card to have in your back pocket. So he can pull a Richard Kraijicek and retire to a job as tournament director if he wants to. Good opportunity for revenge too - I have to watch next year to see if any Italians get wildcards there. Probably won't be any who deserve them anyway.
Posted by: lisen | May 11, 2005 at 08:54 AM