Interesting tidbit from Matt Cronin re Ernie:
The 20-year-old isn't feelings that hot these days, as he’s come
down with a virus and is on antibiotics. He had to rehab a knee problem
in the off-season while at his father’s vacation home in Hawaii
(his family is very wealthy) and says he’s 4-5 months from a full
recovery.
I also appreciated this insight, because I too was wondering about the Sharapova withdrawal stories that hit the news this week. I kept having a heart attack thinking that she had announced her withdrawal from IW and Miami:
Due to the massive cutbacks in the publishing industry, reporting, or
lack there of, has grown increasingly sketchy, while the editing, or
the lack there of, has also hit the skids. How is it, for example, that
two separate wire stories on Sharapova’s withdrawals from Paris
and Dubai hit the news rolls a week apart and that the second one is
being treated as a new story with real news value? How is it that it
was reported that Sania Mirza pulled out of Fed Cup last week with a
torn abdominal muscle and is back on court this week at the Pattaya Open.
It must have been no more of a muscle strain.
Due to the lousy world economy, there are fewer on site reporters these days, which increases the size of the black hole of tennis reporting. Outside of the Slams, there are not enough common threads running through the sport, and fans are forced to guess as to the playing level and the lifestyles of the competitors. There are tons of fans blogs, and some of them are very good, but because they aren’t out there reporting, they are forced to rely on the same small information flow coming out of most tournaments and are forced to guess as to what’s really going on. Moreover, the tours are once again not doing a good enough job promoting their players and are frequently waiting for journalists to come to them rather than pitching interesting stories. They need to help the sport come alive, rather than watching it sleep post the Aussie Open.
Due to the lousy world economy, there are fewer on site reporters these days, which increases the size of the black hole of tennis reporting. Outside of the Slams, there are not enough common threads running through the sport, and fans are forced to guess as to the playing level and the lifestyles of the competitors. There are tons of fans blogs, and some of them are very good, but because they aren’t out there reporting, they are forced to rely on the same small information flow coming out of most tournaments and are forced to guess as to what’s really going on. Moreover, the tours are once again not doing a good enough job promoting their players and are frequently waiting for journalists to come to them rather than pitching interesting stories. They need to help the sport come alive, rather than watching it sleep post the Aussie Open.
