TRIVA ANSWER

Tennis (lawn tennis) was part of the Summer Olympic Games program from the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, but was dropped after the 1924 Summer Olympics. After two appearances as a demonstration sport, it returned as a full medal sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics and has been played at every edition of the Games since then. In 1896, 1900, 1904, 1988, and 1992, semifinal losers shared bronze medals. In all other years, a playoff match for the bronze medal was staged. Starting from the 2004 Athens Olympics, results from the Olympics count towards both the ATP and WTA world rankings.

100M ANDY

2009 to be big year financially for Andy Murray. Andy Murray will start the new year as the hottest property in tennis, with the promise of £100 million from the management companies that are vying for his signature. The world No 4’s present representative, Ace Group, is in danger of losing its most prominent client as Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a subsidiary of Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment empire that is bursting with enthusiasm to sign him, IMG, the recognised No 1 management company in sport, and Lagardère Group, a French conglomerate with interests in aerospace, publishing and sport, brandish their chequebooks.

There may be all sorts of restraints on such spending in an era of downturns and depressions — it is understood that Reebok, the clothing manufacturer, may be forced to pull out of its deal with Jelena Jankovic, the world’s No 1 woman player from Serbia, because of financial cutbacks. However, where Murray, who has played in only one grand-slam final, the US Open in September, is concerned, the money can be mustered. +The Times

TENNIS TRIVIA

What year was tennis originally introduced as an Olympic sport?

Choose Your Answer:

A: 1896

B: 1924

C: 1968

D: 1988

the first four people to answer this post correctly will get a tennis prize!

Florida Tennis Jobs

I must admit my newest endeavor is interesting and express that it makes me feel like a good tennis patron. Although the economy is tough on the rest of the job market I dont think it has hit the tennis industry too hard. My new site has caught the attention of two major tennis magazines and hopefully a few others will follow suit in order to draw more traffic to the site or bring in advertising revenue.

Did you know that some tennis jobs offer benefits, salaries, meal plans, percentages of income, gauranteed working on court hours, medical plans, and a dental plan? I did not. I got curious recently and wanted to see what else was out there beyond the Gainesville scope. I began first looking throughout the United States and there is a lot out there but I am pretty much attached to Florida because the majority of my family is in the state and would like to stay here if possible.

So...I built a website called http://www.floridatennisjobs.com/ that any tennis players, pros, etc can view existing and open jobs and contact them. It is a combination of hotjobs, juju, careerbuilder, monster, PTR, USPTA, google searches, aol-jobs, tennisjobs.com, snoooz.com, and several other websites all onto one easy sight to navigate and view so you dont have to bounce around from site to site. Not every job is on this site, but I think a good amount are on there and if I am missing any please let me know. I believe this is one of the more selfless acts that I have done in tennis because it has not made me a profit yet, and I still have no plans for it except to hope it does pan out into something greater.

I do call or email to verify if the job is still open because there are a lot of job postings that have been filled, so that is one thing my site is on top of. Anywho, please take a look at the site, let me know if you know of any other openings and have a good one!

Frying Pan Roddick

Format: Tiebreaker.
Surface: Clay.
Weather: Partly cloudy, low 70s, slight breeze.
Roddick's utensil: Generic (Stainless Steel Professional Fry Pan).
Score: 7-4 Frying Pan Wins

Stupid Contest winner, Chris Wetzel got the chance to play a tie-break against the 2003 US Open Champion and lost. Down 3-1 Roddick switched frying pans and ended his bad luck. The match took place in Boca Raton as a charity fundraiser. You can catch the video on youtube or espn.com.

USPTA

USPTA announces 2009 certification exams for tennis-teaching professionals:

The United States Professional Tennis Association, the world’s leader in tennis-teaching certification, provides tennis-teaching professionals with the opportunity to earn the sport’s most respected certification by participating in one of more than 110 USPTA Certification Exams scheduled nationwide in 2009 (see schedule). Additional dates will be added. USPTA’s Certification Exam includes an on-court evaluation of tennis strokes and playing skills, stroke and grip analysis, private and group lesson instruction, and other skills needed in the tennis-teaching profession. The exam also includes a two-hour written test covering teaching, playing and business management skills, rules, club activity programming and other topics. Applicants can now opt to take the written exam and the grip exam online after completing the on-court portions of the certification exam.

The exam process also offers a Certification Review Course that covers test topics. The CRC can be taken at Regional Testing Centers, which offer tests every other month on the same weekends, or it can be taken online. The course is also useful to current USPTA members who wish to review specific exam areas before upgrading their certification ratings. CRC topics include student psychology, developing student rapport, class organization, lesson progression and a review of teaching techniques.

“A tennis-teaching professional’s success in becoming certified through the USPTA demonstrates that the individual has the skills necessary to excel in the game, and business, of tennis,” said USPTA CEO Tim Heckler. “We know that tennis players and club owners and managers hold tennis-teaching professionals to the highest standard in regard to professionalism and knowledge and we expect our certification and education process to prepare them to live up to and surpass that standard.”

Contact USPTA at 800-877-8248 or e-mail membership@uspta.org to register for an upcoming exam, or for further details. Advanced registration is required. The total fee for the exam and CRC application is $175, plus prorated USPTA membership dues.

South African Tennis

I did some research on some of the most overrated tennis countries and I came up with South Africa. Wayne Ferreira, Wesley Whitehouse, Liezel Huber, and Cliff Drysdale are the only names that you may have heard of but even most of these you probably never heard of unless you are an avid tennis fan. It is ungodly how few tennis players this country has had in its history. I wonder if I played tennis in that country if I would be the best player in that whole country. Maybe they should just stick to being radio announcers because of their cool sounding voices but I can't think of much more a south african could provide to tennis. Bottom line, South Africa just does not have a quality tennis program or tennis players. You would think in such a beautiful country with adventurous people that their coaches would produce better tennis players but they just do not. They probably flee to the US to just get paid, but seriously stay oversees. What are your thoughts on some of the worst or best countries that produce high quality tennis that is unexpected or countries that should be producing better tennis. You would think since the ATP throws around the South African name so much that better tennis would be coming out of there. Let me know your thoughts.

Best and Worst

Best and Worst Moments in Tennis in 2008

Best of 2008:

1. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal Wimbledon Final Match

2. All William's Sister Wimbledon Final Match

3. Ashley Harkleroad in Playboy

4. Boris Becker's Engagement

5. Jump Volleyball Serving Battistone Brothers

Worst of 2008:

1. Davydenko cleared on the Gambling Scandal

2. Sexual Assault Charges at the Australian Open

3. Maria Sharapova's Tuxedo Look at Wimbledon

4. Chris Evert and Greg Norman's Marriage

5. Olympic Tennis at Five in the Morning