05084 T4T 11 UK.indd
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05084 T4T 11 UK.indd
T E N N I S M A S T E R S C U P S P E C I A L Communication and External Relations Department November 2005 Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai Red alert The future of tennis is looking very Chinese, as the world’s most populous state mounts challenges in all the major sports. Its rise to power in tennis will be particularly rapid and can count on 100 million players 1 Tennis Masters Cup China is back as host of the ATP’s grand end-of-season tennis event. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China is invading all sports – starting with tennis. The first thing to remember is that in China everything moves in the fast lane. In the time it takes projects to be passed round from one desk to another in Europe, they’ve already put up skyscrapers, hotels and factories in China. The same thing happened with tennis. Ten years ago there were fifty or so tennis courts in Beijing, now there are a thousand and there are over 20,000 throughout China, meaning a growth rate of between 2,000 and 2,500 a year. These courts are being built by ten specialist companies. But the process is far from complete. Clay courts are still very rare and to practise for Roland Garros you have to go to the only part of country that has them. The same goes for indoor courts, which are still in- I The Chinese Revolution t took Bernardo Bertolucci and nine Oscars before anyone, apart from historians, knew that Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, was arrested on the world’s most exclusive tennis court, inside the Forbidden City, thus providing the first tennis image of a country that banned the sport for years. Having been imported by the British, the game was a symbol of the most classic strain of capitalism and as such was anathema to the Communist Party, which promptly outlawed it. This was around 80 years ago, so the progress that’s been made to date in China is all the more impres- Post scriptum 2 sive, thanks largely to a few enlightened politicians (tennis fans) in the ‘70s, when Western sports started to attract even the Chinese. It’s no coincidence that one of the top officials in today’s China Tennis Association, Wan Bo Ao, keeps about his person a book with a dedication to his father and an historic photo - of a game of tennis with George Bush Senior. “Tennis has mushroomed since then and is now in the process of becoming one of the country’s best known sports”. How has such a radical transformation been possible in such a short period of time? sufficient in number, especially in places like the capital, where the temperature drops to -20° C in winter. Meanwhile, the market has grown out of recognition. All manufacturers make their racquets in China and the first totally “made in China” brand has just been launched in Europe, in Italy to be precise. It’s called Bentos, short for Best in Badminton, which was the major sport for years and is now yielding ground to its more famous relative. It was the same with ping-pong, a national relic that’s now suffering competition from the big racquet. Because that’s the reservoir of 1 million players of whom around 400 considered pros; annual growth is put at 30% 2,500 courts are built every year by ten specialist firms 300 million TV viewers saw Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun win the doubles at the Athens Olympics in 2004 100,000 dollars go to each of the top five Chinese tennis players Rafael Nadal receive the trophy afeter winning the ATP event in Beijing people that the China Tennis Association has targeted – around 100 million potential tennis players, who would turn China into the world’s biggest market for the sport. The symptoms are already evident, so it’s just a question of time. An example of the boundless opportunities the Chinese enjoy was a match played on 22nd August 2004 at the Athens Olympics. To everyone’s surprise, including the experts, one of the pairs in the final match in the women’s doubles was Chinese (Tian Tian Sun and Ting Li). They won the gold medal in fact, and that match is still a record in terms of ratings, with over 300 million TV spectators watching it on the Chinese TV channel CCYV. Obviously not all experts (many wondered why the players were allowed another service if they fluffed the first one) but it means that once they’ve been educated in our sport, China will become a world power, as has already happened in many other sports. Moya, Ferrero and Nadal take a tour of the Forbidden City 22 dollars is the average cost of producing a good carbon tennis racquet 2 and half dollars is how much you could pay for a good synthetic string racquet in a shop in Guangzhou (Canton) 25 dollars is the average cost of a 1-hour private lesson in a good Beijing tennis club 10,000 the estimated number of players throughout China before 1989; ten years ago there were only 50 or so courts in Beijing 3 Tennis Masters Cup The design of the National Tennis Center that will host the tennis event at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 Champion wanted Although China has the organization to host major events, its players are still way down the Indesit ATP Entry Ranking. There’s not one player in the world’s top 300, but various tennis centres in China have young talents who are developing very quickly. In the meantime, the no. 1 Chinese player in the world rankings is Peng Sun, in 306th place. Player Peng Sun 306 Yu Wang Jr. 370 Xin-Yuan Yu 496 Ben-Qianq Zhu 559 Yi-Ning Wang 754 * Indesit ATP Entry Ranking Post scriptum 4 Ranking* TV will play a major role here, as it can ensure, in China as elsewhere, the success of any event, including the promotion of a “new” sport. This point was made by another top official of the China Tennis Association, Zhang Xiaoning. “For the Beijing tournament we had 150 hours of broadcasting in the various parts of the country, thus transforming the event into the world’s most important after the Grand Slam tournaments”. And there’s no lack of financial backing for the sport – if tennis weren’t a multi-million dollar business it wouldn’t even be taken into consideration here. So attracting sponsors is no problem, also because China is a market all the big multinationals are focusing on. So the tournament can secure the world’s top players. Last year Marat Safin won it, this year Rafael Nadal. And now Shanghai is set to welcome the planet’s top eight players in its fantastic new tennis centre. On an organizational level, China already seems to be on a par with more important (and traditional) European and American tournaments. The Chinese market is of such strategic importance that the international federation has created a special office, that of “China specialist”, so that it can be adequately represented in dealings with Chinese counterparts. The current “expert” is Frank Couraud, a Frenchman who works out of the Federation’s London office, which has for some years now managed relations between the ITF and the China Tennis Association. “Our work is mainly technical, even though we obviously can’t export the same teaching methods we use in Europe. It all has to be adapted to the culture, the mindset, of the Chinese”. This explains why the famous American coach Doug McCurdy was invited to Beijing to start training Chinese coaches. “They’ve made great progress,” says Couraud, “but there’s still a long way to go. I remember the first course for coaches in 1999, in Tjanjin. Their level was very low but the will to learn was enormous”. The real problem is the language barrier, in a country where English is as common as Croat is in Los Angeles. How can you improve your game if you can’t even read a tennis manual in English? And how can you talk with other coaches (you can’t be ex- 4.45 million dollars is the prize money in the Shanghai Tennis Masters Cup 2 consecutive wins, so far, for Roger Federer in the Tennis Masters Cup; he’ll be going for a 3rd in Shanghai. He was also the first player to arrive in Shanghai. Research says he’s the best known tennis player in China pected to speak Mandarin!). This is why we’re trying to get retired players to work for the China Tennis Association. The best example here is Xiao Ping, former Chinese no. 1 and Asian champion who’s played round the world; he’s agreed to co-operate with the ITF. Couraud is convinced that “he and McCurdy will enable Chinese coaches to make a huge leap forward in quality”. This process will be vitally important for Chinese tennis, which is desperate for a champion to provide further impetus to a movement that resembles Europe in the ‘70s but is promising to grow at three times the speed. Today China is competitive in women’s tennis, having players who have been successful in tournaments on the professional circuit. We won’t have to wait long to see a Chinese girl in the world’s Top 20. Men’s tennis will prove more complicated though, because it’s more competitive and growing an excellent player from scratch is by no means simple. China’s best tennis player is Peng Sun, currently at 317 in the world rankings. The situation also reflects the China Tennis Association’s previous policy of favouring the women’s game. Now the declared objective is the Beijing Ol- ympics in 2008. No one believes a male player can be brought up to medal standard in such a short space of time, whereas there will certainly be women players going for gold, at least in the doubles. This shows that funding in the past was one sided. When Sun Jinfang joined the management of the Chinese Federation, he immediately understood that they weren’t going to get anywhere without investing a certain amount of dollars. They decided to spend 10 million yuan (around a million euro) on sending the country’s top talents to Saddlebrok, Florida, home to one of America’s most important tenMarat Safin with the trophy of the ATP event in Beijing last year Boris Becker at the first edition of the Ispo in Shanghai nis schools, founded by ‘60s Australian tennis guru Harry Hopman. As Samy, the editor of Tennis Magazine (“which still doesn’t sell much, only a few hundred thousand copies” !!!), explained to us, “each of the top five women players at national level receive a $100,000 a year grant, a substantial amount that enables them to play a whole season at a high level. And the men? They find it more difficult to get such backing because none of them has so far looked capable of winning at certain levels”. And to reach those levels, a lot of hard work is being done by the young players 3 Tennis Masters Cups will be staged in Shanghai (2005-2007) 4 ATP titles were won in China by Michael Chang (3 in Beijing, 1 in Shanghai); overall, he won 12 in Asia 20 Chinese players are in the Indesit ATP Entry Ranking, though none in the top 300 36th is China’s position in the world Davis Cup ranking 2 ATP tournaments are held in China – Beijing and the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai 5 Tennis Masters Cup at the tennis centre in Beijing, headed by one of China’s best coaches, Fu Zhong. “The most promising is a young girl, Liu Wang Ting; she’s only 14 and plays a fine game. There are few boys too who just starting to approach professional play but there’s a long way to go still”. A couple of kids flew to Barcelona to gain experience in Europe’s top tennis school, run by Emilio Sanchez, who recalls how, “when one of my best players, Svetlana Kuznetsova, played against a practically unknown Chinese girl, she rang me afterwards, saying, “Don’t ask me her name, but she plays a hell of game’. So we’d better get used to the idea. Tennis will soon be invaded by the Orient”. Which is already the case on an or- ganizational level. The Tennis Masters Cup will be staged in Shanghai till 2007, there’s the ATP tournament in Beijing and there are now other major events in the world circuit taking place in the region. The Bangkok tournament, for example, is a consolidated prestige event (the last two won by Roger Federer) and the same week saw the inauguration of the first world circuit tournament in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon). It’s only a matter of time, and of finding the right place, before Asia has its first ATP Masters Series tournament. Where the Chinese have already created a sort of monopoly is tennis racquets, which are nearly all made in China. It’s impossible to say just how many rac- Ferrero, Moya and Nalbandian at the Great Wall Post scriptum 6 quets are sold in China because of the numerous distribution channels, but all the brands are trying to secure a slice of the enormous market. The prospects are very rosy, as long as you can find the right distributor, for the social fabric is not easy to penetrate. Production has already been relocated in China, especially in the south, in Guang Dong province, near Guangzhou (former Canton). In spite of the technology boom, making racquets still requires several manual operations and the competitiveness of Chinese labour means Europe is out of the running. The cost of a racquet, the finished product, is around 20 dollars, though prices continue to rise, mainly because of the war in Iraq and Boeing. Carbon is also used to produce arms and aeroplanes and the war has boosted demand on the part of the major aircraft manufacturers, to the detriment of smaller industries such as tennis racquet production. In spite of this, great bargains are to be had in China. Quality products go at ridiculously low prices. In Canton we came across a medium quality string selling at two dollars, with a tube of balls thrown in for another half euro, while a local brand carbon racquet would be no more than 50 dollars. No to mention imitations; Nike or Adidas shirts with a Chinese label are sold for just a few euro, which is why many see China as the new Eldorado. The world of sport is undoubtedly looking at emerging countries. Take Formula 1 racing – new Grand Prix events have been created in Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey and China too obviously. The Nba tapped into a gold mine when it discovered Yao Ming and turned him into a world star, and all the other sports are aiming to do the same. The luxury market is booming in China too. Beijing clubs that cost $1,000 to join and $25 dollars an hour on court are packed. Newcomers to the sport no longer go for the old Chinese Aeroplane but want the top brands, the frames that Federer and Nadal use, even though Prince continues to be a favourite because it was the career-long racquet of Michael Chang, who opened up Asia for tennis, in spite of being born and bred in the States. He became an icon for the Chinese. “He showed that an Asian only 1 metre 75 could win major tournaments and become a celebrity,” says Zhang Xiaoning, “he did more in ten years of playing than anyone else in the last century”. $100 plus is the cost of a ticket for the final of the Beijing ATP tournament 8 is the lucky number for the Chinese. The Beijing Olympics will open on the 8th of the eighth month of 2008, at eight minutes past eight, am 3 years. The Tennis Masters Cup will be held in Shanghai until 2007 The jewel of the Tennis Masters Cup The Tennis Masters Cup will be staged in the brand new Qi Zhong Tennis Centre in Shanghai, which will be completed by the end of 2006 and become the biggest tennis centre in Asia. Finished in August 2005, the centre court combines international design and some major feats of engineering. It was designed by the Japanese architect Mitsuru Senda (together with his Environment Design Institute), who says, “the sliding roof consists of eight petals, each of which turns on a central fulcrum at the same time. We studied many other tennis stadiums, especially the famous ones, and Roland Garros in particular. The roof closes in eight minutes”. The Centre is in the Minhang District, in the south west part of the city. There will be a total of 40 courts, including the centre court, three smaller indoor stadiums, 14 covered courts and 22 outdoor courts. The Tennis Centre will be part of the Qi Zhong Forest Sports City Complex, which will also have golf courses and numerous houses, covering a total of 20 square kilometres. The Tennis Centre alone covers 338,836 square metres and can also be adapted to host basketball, volleyball, ping-pong and gymnastics. The central stadium can seat 15,000 (including 3,000 in the 26 VIP boxes) and has private changing rooms for each of the players in the Tennis Masters Cup. The 1,800 m2 Media Centre has 240 workstations for journalists. Chinese TV started broadcasting tennis in 1989, the year Chang won at Roland Garros. “It was the year the Berlin Wall fell, and of Tienanmen Square. From then on nothing was to be same in China,” recalls Samy, editor of Tennis Magazine, “even sport was revolutionized, led by tennis. That’s the year I started playing tennis, when the tennis racquet definitively ceased to be an emblem of capi- talism and Chang became our national hero – though it would have been difficult to find a tennis court in Beijing in those days”. There’s still an enormous amount of progress to be made though. The ITF’s Frank Couraud is convinced that “China is only half way there. Maybe less”. But it’s undoubtedly gaining momentum and no one betting on China reaching the top of the world circuits in the coming seasons would be called unwise. All the technical, organizational, economic and human conditions required for a country with a population of a billion and a half to come up with a world class player are in place. It’s simply a matter of time. And time passes faster in China than anywhere else. 1 player. Lley ton Hewit t, has won the past edition of the Tennis Masters Cup held in Shanghai in 20 02 30 in percentage the grow th of the number of tennis players in China 150... the capacit y of the Qi Zhong Stadium that will host the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai this year 7 TENNIS MASTERS CUP SHANGHAI Rafael Nadal This a sort of World Championship between the world’s eight best players. Roger Fed petition is very fierce, starting with the new phenomenon, Rafael Nadal Masterof Masters R oger Federer was almost beginning to tire us. Every tournament he took part in was robbed of suspense, so outright was his superiority. What can seriously threaten the Phenomenon? Playing on clay, against Nadal at his best? Or is some external force necessary? Now, at the Masters, Federer will probably find himself up against Nadal but certainly not on clay (it’ll be hardcourt) and that “external factor” could be the pain in some foot ligaments that kept him off the circuit for nearly two months. The last we saw of him on court was in Bangkok at Post scriptum 8 Wilson has signed up a new official stringer for the next US Open. The engagement will involve around 3,000 stringings over the two week tournament Two particularly fine tennis sites have been opened: a high quality magazinevideo (www.intenn.com) and a technical analysis forum (www.theplayer.net) SHANGHAI Andre Agassi David Ferrer the end of September, where he won for the second year in a row, without losing a single set. The last set he lost was on 11th September, to Andre Agassi in the final of the US Open. Last year too he missed out on the last two ATP Masters Series due to injury and then won the Tennis Masters against players with more titles to their names. This time Federer’s injury looks more serious and he only started training again ten or so days before the start of the Shanghai event. This is fuelling his adversaries’ hopes that he won’t be in top form, which usually turns the event into a battle for second place. Hoping in an adversary’s misfortune in order to beat him is pretty symptomatic of the current situation, but Federer has got us (and above all his opponents) into this way of thinking. Not that the others seem lacking in motivation, and especially not Rafael Nadal, the new idol of the fans who’s had an amazing season. A lot was expected of him but nobody could have imagined he’d win a Slam tournament (Roland Garros) and four ATP Masters Series, making 11 ATP tournaments. Only Federer has done better (two Slam) but let’s not forget that in the final of the ATP Masters Series in Miami Nadal got to within two points of wining the match against the world’s no. 1. All the bookmakers will obviously be giving 12 players have made over a million dollars in prize money alone in 2005; in addition to the Top 10, there are also Thomas Johansson and Max Mirnyi, who earned a lot in the doubles tournaments The new Roger Federer calendar (2006) is now on sale. It has photos of him down through his career to when he was a kid. It costs 20 euro and the proceeds will go to his charity. For information: www.rogerfederer.com 9 SHANGHAI Federer and Nadal as the main favourites, making it rather difficult to work out the odds for third place. With Hewitt, Roddick and Safin out of the running, who can stop Roger? Will it be up to “old” Andre Agassi? It would seem impossible for him, at 35, to stop the Federer Express, but in the final of the US Open he at least slowed him down. The bookmakers look at the Las Vegas Kid with esteem and affection but not even they really believe he can do it. Which is not a comforting sign. Further, back problems have prevented him from playing since that 11th September, though the rest will undoubtedly have done him good. Agassi’s problem would be a five-set final with Federer. It’s generally the Swiss player’s technique that impresses people but many (too many) underestimate his extraordinary athletic condition. What’s more, he expends half the energy other players use and this ups his chances of winning when a match is drawn out. The only person who can go the distance with him is Nadal, so we’re back to square one. The list has no other serious risks for a Federer playing at his best. Of the outsiders, maybe the most interesting is Ivan Ljubicic, the “hot” player at present, finalist in the last two ATP Masters Series and very dangerous for everyone on fast surfaces. The trouble is that to qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup he had to put excessive strain on himself, playing (and winning) nearly every week. In the final of the ATP Masters Ivan Ljubicic Hall of Fame Year 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Venue Tokyo Paris Barcelona Boston Melbourne Stockholm Houston New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York New York Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt Hanover Hanover Hanover Hanover Lisbon Sydney Shanghai Houston Houston Winner Stan Smith Ilie Nastase Illie Nastase Ilie Nastase Guillermo Vilas Ilie Nastase Manuel Orantes Jimmy Connors John McEnroe Bjorn Borg Bjorn Borg Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl John McEnroe John McEnroe Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl Boris Becker Stefan Edberg Andre Agassi Pete Sampras Boris Becker Michaerl Stich Pete Sampras Boris Becker Pete Sampras Pete Sampras Alex Corretja Pete Sampras Gustavo Kuerten Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Hewitt Roger Federer Roger Federer Series in Paris against Tomas Berdych he looked tired, though ten days rest should be enough for him to recharge. And let’s not forget that at the beginning of the season he lost three finals to Federer but on two occasions he took him to the last point. That leaves us with four others, Guillermo Coria, Nikolay Davydenko, David Nalbandian and Gaston Gaudio, the last two replacing Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick. On paper they ought to be the least competitive. Coria doesn’t like playing on fast surfaces, Davydenko is tired after an extraordinary but fatiguing season and Gaudio didn’t impress in Houston last year. The only one who might have a better chance is David Nalbandian, a good all-rounder who adapts to all surfaces and on a good day can be a nasty surprise for top players as well. Anyway, just getting past the first round would be a great result for any of these four. Post scriptum 10 Finalist Rod Laver Stan Smith Stan Smith Tom Okker Ilie Nastase Bjorn Borg Wojitek Fibak Bjorn Borg Arthur Ashe Vitas Gerulaitis Ivan Lendl Vitas Gerulaitis John McEnroe Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl Boris Becker Boris Becker Mats Wilander Ivan Lendl Boris Becker Stefan Edberg Jim Courier Jim Courier Pete Sampras Boris Becker Michael Chang Boris Becker Yevgeny Kafelnikov Carlos Moya Andre Agassi Andre Agassi Sebastien Grosjean Juan Carlos Ferrero Andre Agassi Lleyton Hewitt Scores n.a. n.a. 6-3 6-2 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-3 7-54-6 6-3 7-6 6-2 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-2 6-2 6-1 5-7 6-2 0-6 7-6 6-1 6-4 1-6 6-4 6-7 6-3 7-5 6-2 6-2 6-4 6-2 6-2 6-7 2-6 7-6 6-2 6-4 6-4 6-4 6-2 6-3 6-4 6-4 7-5 6-0 6-4 6-2 7-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 6-4 6-2 6-2 6-3 5-7 7-6 3-6 6-2 7-6 4-6 7-6 6-3 6-1 5-7 7-6 7-5 6-2 3-6 7-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 6-3 7-5 7-6 2-6 7-6 6-2 4-6 6-3 7-5 6-4 7-6 6-0 7-6 3-6 7-6 7-6 6-7 6-4 6-3 6-2 6-2 3-6 3-6 7-5 6-3 7-5 6-1 7-5 6-4 6-4 6-4 6-4 6-3 6-3 6-4 7-5 7-5 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-0 6-4 6-3 6-2 And that closes the line up. Some are off form and/or returning from injury, so other last minute withdrawals are not entirely improbable. Behind the Elite Eight we have David Nalbandian. For him, just getting to come on court at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center would be a gift. Post scriptum: a knee injury makes all talk of Marat Safin futile at this stage. Unfortunately his knee pain is proving slow to go away, in spite of treatment at Isokinetic in Bologna. A great shame. As a player capable of frightening Federer, the Russian is first to come to mind, off clay courts anyway. He beat Federer in the semi-final of the Australian Open and lost to him, by a hairsbreadth, in last year’s Tennis Masters Cup. Who’s knows how things would have gone this year. Let’s hope Marat can come out of the box fighting fit, for it is he who many of the experts see as the real anti-Federer, rather than Nadal. Mercedes has extended its ATP sponsoring agreement for another three years. The original contract was entered in 1996 The Hawk-Eye system for line calls will make its debut at the Tennis Masters Cup in the Delta Tour of Champions at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in December The Masters 1245 2 Roger Federer Rafael Nadal He’d be the favourite even if he came on court with crutches. He hasn’t played an official match for nearly two months and only started training again a few days ago. But he’s the world no. 1 and holder of this title. And he’s certain to win the Indesit ATP Race this year too. 5 953 3 Federer’s main rival. He won a Slam in Paris and four ATP Masters Series. He missed Paris because of a knee problem but should be OK for Shanghai. On clay he’d be the favourite, but here the odds are on Federer. 418 6 Ivan Ljubicic He’s the other big surprise of 2005, with Ljubicic. To be honest, his second half season wasn’t up to his first but reaching the Tennis Masters Cup is still an exceptional result. The risk is not finding enough motivation, as well as not being in tip-top form. His target is getting through the first round. This is the “hot” player at end of the season. A finalist in the last two ATP Masters Series, a lot will depend on his physical form and he’s inevitably tired. But if he can summon up strength, he’ll be the tournament’s most dangerous “loose cannon”. Even a first round win would a great result for him. 438 Andre Agassi Guillermo Coria His current physical condition is a big secret. He hasn’t been seen on the circuit since the US Open and he’s had continual back trouble. But he’s had a long time to rest and if his physique allows, he can hold his own against anyone, including Federer (more or less). Off clay he’s not competitive, not even on hardcourt but he’s in good physical form, which could be his big asset, seeing the shape many of the others are in. An old hand in this tournament, he’ll also have the benefit of experience. He may well get through the first round, but it won’t be easy. 416 7 Nikolay Davydenko 370 8 344 Gaston Gaudio David Nalbandian Not always a consistent performer and not at his most competitive off clay, he’ll be hoping someone withdraws, so he can chalk up two Tennis Masters in a row. He didn’t get past the first round last year. He hasn’t had a big win but has played a very consistent season. He’s reached the end of the year pretty fresh but wasted a couple of good opportunities in the last few ATP Masters Series. Tie-breaks lost Aces Aces per match Double faults Double faults per match Points won on first serve Points won on second serve Service games won Break points saved Points won returning first serve Return games won Prize money (dollars) 77 3 25 10 576 7.3 139 1.8 63% 77& 60% 90% 66% 35% 52% 45% 31% 5,317,018 Rafael Nadal (Spa) 79 10 16 9 219 2.5 131 1.5 69% 71% 57% 84% 64% 37% 57% 46% 38% 3,874,751 Andre Agassi (USA) 38 11 13 6 303 6.3 124 2.6 60% 75% 54% 85% 71% 32% 52% 43% 28% 1,584,596 Guillelmo Coria (Arg) 55 24 12 14 258 3.5 319 4.4 63% 39% 49% 77% 60% 36% 56% 46% 37% Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 53 29 12 9 249 3.2 179 2.3 67% 67% 53% 78% 60% 36% 54% 45% 34% 1,178,299 Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 55 21 26 17 875 12.5 150 2.1 62% 76% 55% 88% 72% 27% 46% 38% 19% Gaston Gaudio (Arg) 53 19 11 10 202 2.8 198 2.8 62% 68% 52% 77% 64% 35% 56% 43% 35% 1,028,024 David Nalbandian (arg) 40 18 13 11 184 3.4 148 2.7 61% 68% 53% 76% 57% 34% 56% 45% 33% Break points won Tie-breaks won Roger Federer (Swi) First serve Player Matches lost The table below is a summary of the key performance statistics for 2005 recorded by the participants in the Tennis Masters Cup. Matches won Matchfacts! 455 4 Points won returning first serve 1 The world’s best eight players have now qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup, though some will turn up in poor shape after a punishingly long season. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt all missed the last ATP Masters Series in Paris, while Marat Safin, no. 10 in the Indesit ATP Race and winner of the Australian Open (thus qualifying him for the Tennis Masters Cup), Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt have already pulled out and won’t play again till 2006. Outlined below are the prospects for each of the eight contestants. 1,195,726 1,281,474 873,486 A n d y R o d d i c k w i l l f i n d i t h a r d to r e a c h t h e 1,0 0 0 a c e m a r k t h i s ye a r. H e’s 8 8 s h o r t a n d h e c a n’ t i m p r ove a s h e w i l l n o t p l ay t h e Te n n i s M a s te r s C u p For further information, please contact Chiara Pascarella (Indesit Company, chiara.pascarella@indesitcompany.com, tel. +39 (0)732 662432) or Valentina Broglia (Indesit Company, valentina.broglia@indesitcompany.com, tel. +39 (0)2 30702551) 11 Memorabilia “ “ Match Point The career of ambitious young tennis coach Chris Wilton seems unstoppable, partly due to two beautiful and powerful women who will end up fighting over him. Such is plot of the latest Woody Allen masterpiece, a thriller starring Scarlett Johansson and Matthew Goode 12