Daily Dispatch: Del Potro Set to Play Against Doctor’s Orders

Former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who in 2003 won Roland Garros and reached the final at the US Open, announced today that the Valencia Open will be his last tournament.

Australian Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter again publicly called out Aussie 19-year-old Bernard Tomic, describing his performance against Andy Roddick at the US Open as “disgraceful.” However, Rafter feels Tomic is ready to turn over a new leaf.

“He has really put his hand up and done everything that has been asked of him on the court and is hitting the ball really well,” Rafter said, referring to Tomic’s preparation for Australia’s Davis Cup tie against Germany this weekend.

Over at Mind The Racket, there’s a nice piece examining 10 factors in predicting the outcome of a tennis match.

In the bad news department, according to Raul de Kemmeter, Juan Martin del Potro compared the problems with his left wrist to those of his right wrist injury that kept him out an entire season. And yet, del Potro seems likely to play in the Argentina vs. Czech Republic Davis Cup tie, a puzzling decision, considering that del Potro’s doctor told him to rest for at least 15 days after the US Open.

Argentinian Davis Cup team captain Martin Jaite should have stepped in to stop del Potro from harming his long term health, but it appears unlikely he will do so. Jaite has the final word on who plays for the Argentinian team, and he should not allow his country’s best player to risk exacerbating a serious injury.

BATennis.com reports that del Potro was hitting mostly slice backhands in practice today, but they posted some practice footage of him hitting a few two-handed:

Twitter user @nidssserz got the chance to see the new documentary on Serena and Venus Williams, and wrote up a great, detailed summary. Because the Williams sisters granted the filmmakers virtually unlimited access, there are many revealing details in the movie. However, the sisters withdrew their support for the documentary due to the way it portrayed their family, especially their father, Richard Williams.

Fred Perry’s daughter Penny congratulated Andy Murray on his US Open title. Though her comments were largely gracious and sincere, she did slip in one amusing comment:

“My father would have appreciated Andy’s hard work in getting there but he was never a huge fan of power players, he liked the free flowing game and was never a fan of anyone who grunted or used a two-handed backhand, it made him very cross. In that respect there is only Roger Federer that my father would think was a class act.”

The ATP board approved a rule change to give players slightly less harsh penalties for violating the 25 second time limit while serving. The first time the violation occurs, the player will receive a warning. The second time, the server will receive a service fault, or if the offending player is the returner, they will receive a point penalty.

Previously, the second warning on a server was an automatic point penalty. ATP president Brad Drewett said the rule change was made in hopes that chair umpires would enforce the time limits more strictly, since it carries a slightly less harsh penalty than in previous years.

The board also approved a trial of eliminating service lets on the ATP Challenger circuit for the first three months of 2013.

Rafael Nadal provided comic relief in his Twitter message about Ferrero’s retirement from professional tennis, posting a hilarious photo of the Spanish Davis Cup team:

Tweets of the day; Fighting over Andy Murray:

https://twitter.com/DavidLawTennis/status/245959698921189378