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CNN World Sport Anchor Candy Reid interviewed U.S. tennis star Taylor Dent. The following is a transcript of the interview.
Q: Hello Taylor, after a great 2005 in which you finished in the top 30 for the first time in your career, you haven't played much this year -- are you injured? If so, when will you be back?
A: At the moment, I am having some problems with my back, but I hope to be back out in time for Paris and the Grass Court season.
Q: You've had a few injury problems in the last few years -- have you just been unlucky or is it something to do with the way you hit the ball?
A: I have heard differing points of view from a number of experts but I feel it is a bit of both. I put a lot of effort into my shots and my style of play takes a lot out of my body.
Q: How much has your father (Former pro Phil Dent) influenced your career?
A: He has been the biggest impact on my tennis career for sure. He started coaching me when I was 10 or 11 and he was my fulltime coach until I was 17 or 18.
Q: What do you make of Andre Agassi's decision to miss the entire clay-court season?
A: I am in no position to criticize Andre's decision. He is one of the best players of all time and if he thinks it is in his best interest to miss the clay court season, I back him up 100 precent. He knows his body better than anyone.
Q: Now that the French Open has decided to award the men's and women's winners equal prize money, the debate has resurfaced again. What's your view?
A: Tennis is an entertainment sport and if the tournaments that decide the prize money feel the women provide as much entertainment as the men, then I support it without any reservations. However, I know how hard the women work and I feel they earn the right to make as much as the men.
Q: Roger Federer is going for the Slam this year -- but do you think he can win at Roland Garros?
A: I think anybody who gets to the semis of Roland Garros has a huge chance to win.
Q: With your big serve and great volleys, do you think Wimbledon is your best chance of winning a Major?
A: I used to when I was younger, but the courts at Wimbledon have slowed down quite a bit. As of now, I feel my best chance to win a slam is at the U.S. Open because of the speed of the surface and the solid footing.
Us Open Offcial Site
Magdalena Maleeva announced her retirement Thursday from the WTA Tour following her second-round loss at the Zurich Open in Switzerland. Maleeva won 10 singles titles and five doubles crowns during a 17-year career that started when she was 14 years old.
Maleeva turned pro in 1989, and won the Tour's Most Impressive Newcomer Award in 1990. Three years later she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open, and was named the Most Improved Player for 1993.
Maleeva's best season was 1995, when she won a career-high three singles titles and finished the year ranked No. 6 in the world, her best year-end finish. The biggest win of Maleeva's career came in 2002 when she beat Venus Williams, Amelie Mauresmo and Lindsay Davenport to win the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. She last won on the tour in 2003 at the DFS Classic in Birmingham, England
Perhaps she is best known for being the youngest of the three Maleeva sisters who played on the tour. At the 1990 French Open, Manuela, Katerina and Magdalena became the first trio of sisters to compete in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, and later were the first sister trio to be seeded at a Grand Slam event (1993 Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon). In '93, they all reached the fourth round at both the French and U.S. opens.
"I don't think any of us appreciated what we accomplished as sisters at the time, but now looking back we can be really proud of ourselves," Magdalena Maleeva said. "It was a unique situation which will probably never be repeated because it was an amazing achievement when you think next year will be the first time in over 26 years a Maleeva will not be in the rankings."
Whether Adam Scott would or wouldn't play in next month's Australian Open at Moonah Links had not quite reached saga proportions, but it was well down the track until yesterday when the world No.8 finally ended speculation by lodging his entry form just six days before the deadline.
To say the Australian Golf Union was delighted when confirmation of the 25-year-old's entry came through would be an understatement, for it completes the roll-call of all the Australian internationals, save for Steve Elkington, who remains undecided, and now it can be categorically stated it is a better field than last year's Centenary Open at The Australian.
Scott has not played the open since 2002, when he finished ninth behind Victorian Steve Allan in the championship that caused mirth around the world when the opening day's play in brilliant sunshine was abandoned after the greens, slickened up for the occasion, were declared unplayable, with the result the event was reduced to 54 holes.
Last year, he was otherwise occupied in the annual US skins game in company with Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam and Fred Couples. And, in 2003, the date of the open was changed to the week before Christmas due to a clash of its original date with the final of the Davis Cup, won by Australia against Spain, with telecaster Channel Seven saying tennis would be given priority over the golf if they were played at the same time. For Scott, the changed date was all too close to the festive season after a long year.
Scott yesterday told the Herald by phone from his Swiss home of his decision and also his indecision in recent weeks.
"[Playing in the open] is something I now look forward to," he said. "I'm just excited to come back and play, it's my first open for a couple of years, so I just want to get there and do the business - hopefully.
"I've been weighing up all my options. I'm in a position where I have a lot of opportunities and I'm trying to do what's in my best interests. You can't keep everyone happy. I'm not playing the following week in the PGA, a tournament I've played in the past couple of years, because I've accepted the invite to Sun City [the exclusive and mega-rich Nedbank Challenge in South Africa] where there are good world ranking points on offer."
AGU executive director Colin Phillips was a relieved man yesterday, saying: "I am delighted Adam is going to be in the field. It really completes a field of all the top Australians and I'm sure he'll enjoy his outing at Moonah."
That remains to be seen. Scott has played the Peter Thomson layout just once, four years ago, shortly after its opening.
"I don't remember much about it except the severity of the greens," he said. "They were all raised and the run-off was really severe." He was somewhat heartened to hear that since then, five greens have been altered to make them, according to Phillips, "a little fairer". After all, putting since the US Open in June hasn't exactly been Scott's strong point, with a litany of short putts missed and a failure to hole those around the four- to five-metre mark.
"I've been working on some stuff with my putting and, hopefully, it will be right next week in Tampa [where Scott will play the Chrysler Championship as a lead-in to the PGA Tour Championship and Greg Norman's Shark Shoot-out]," he said.
Scott is yet to win on home soil, but he has triumphed on the Australasian Tour, winning this year's Johnnie Walker Classic in Beijing which is a tri-sanctioned event with Europe and Asia.
Early in the year, he won the Los Angeles Open, though it is not an official US PGA Tour victory as it was reduced to 36 holes because of bad weather, and last month he claimed the Singapore Open on the Asian Tour. Not a bad year's work so far.
"[Failure to win so far in Australia] is not something I think about all the time," Scott said. "I'm pretty sure I'll win eventually. I'm sure when I do it will be more satisfying than anything else, but I don't really think I've got anything to prove by winning in Australia, though it would be of some personal satisfaction. I would be very proud to win back home."
If not at the Australian Open, then maybe in February, when he defends his JWC title at The Vines in Perth. Just recently, Scott completed a television commercial for the tournament. "I don't want to spoil it, but it involves golf buggies, trees and alligators [shipped into San Francisco] for the making of the ad," he said. "I didn't make contact with the 'gators, but I got a little close."
The final step in securing the future of the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells will go before the United States Tennis Association board during its meeting this weekend in San Antonio.
Raymond Moore, the president of PM Sports, which owns half of the Pacific Life Open, is optimistic the board will approve a proposal to invest approximately $6 million to purchase part of the tournament and guarantee it remains in the desert.
"We've talked about all kinds of different figures," Moore said. "We've discussed several different options. We don't know which one they will take or decide upon. The key issue is they make an investment. That's the key issue."
The Pacific Life Open, a 12-day tournament in March with an estimated economic impact of $140 million on the Coachella Valley, wants to buy out business partner IMG, an international sports and entertainment marketing firm based in Cleveland. The buyout price for IMG is $24 million.
The Tennis Company, a group which invests in tennis properties, is financing a large amount of the buyout, but said they are only in the deal if the USTA invests as well.
In August, USTA president Franklin Johnson said the Tennis Company had discussed a USTA investment of between $5-to-$6 million toward the IMG deal. Moore has said the $6 million figure is a moving target, and Johnson said it was only a starting point.
"Our objective is to do what's necessary to keep the tournament here, whatever the amount is," Johnson said. "The USTA's mission is to develop the growth of tennis in this country. Related to the growth is the stature and profile of the sport. These tournaments give people a chance to see the top players, read about them, and see them on TV. The thought of this tournament disappearing would be negative to that development."
If the USTA elects not to invest in the Pacific Life Open, the event will have to consider other options, including one from investors in Shanghai, who made an offer between $35-$70 million for the event earlier this year.
"I don't think we can wait any more," Moore said. "IMG is not going to wait any more. We need to get this thing done, one way or another. We need a resolution, up or down, by (this weekend)."
Conducting the due diligence for the USTA has been Arlen Kantarian, the chief executive of professional tennis. Kantarian will construct the proposal the15-member USTA board will vote on at its meeting in San Antonio. Board members, outside of Johnson, have been told not to discuss the matter with the media.
In order for the proposal to pass, the board needs a simple majority vote. Johnson said the presentation will be made Friday, but a decision could take as long as Sunday, when the meetings conclude at noon.
Johnson, who has spearheaded the campaign to have the USTA help the Pacific Life Open, said he has not spoken with Kantarian or the other board members, and will learn of the exact proposal at the meetings.
"I got some feedback from people who have talked to board members, and they said they will reserve their opinions until they see the presentation. So there are definitely people undecided," Johnson said. "It's hard to predict, but I would be disappointed if we didn't support it."
Johnson said he didn't expect the figure to be more than $6 million. Moore, who has been working with Kantarian and his staff, said there is a chance the investment could be more than $6 million.
Moore said the feedback he's received from Kantarian and his staff has left him optimistic.
"So far, all the signals are positive," Moore said. "We're talking about nuts and bolts like tennis marketing, branding, wild cards (into the tournament) and options for the USTA to increase their ownership. It's those kinds of things, which is positive. It's all very positive."
The USTA owns and runs the U.S. Open, the richest tournament in the world. By adding the USTA as a partner in the Pacific Life Open, it would give the tournament added clout that could help attract more sponsors, investors and provide leverage with television contracts.
The Pacific Life Open is one of the largest tournaments in the world. The event attracted more than 280,000 fans in March. Only the four Grand Slam tournaments, which are a full two weeks with larger draws, attract more fans than Indian Wells.
"The USTA's position is, we're going to do what's good for tennis in the U.S.," Johnson said. "If we step in, we'll look to see if there's a variety of ways we can help, from sponsorship to TV contracts. We'll try to use our contact and leverage to make the tournament more profitable."
Moore also mentioned other things have been included in the negotiations, such as using the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as a training facility, and a host site for the international team competitions, the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.
The non-profit USTA, whose mission is to support the growth of tennis in this country, has recently taken a more active role in professional tennis by investing in tournaments.
In addition to the U.S. Open, the USTA owns four other tournaments - the ATP tournaments in New Haven, Conn., and Houston, as well as the WTA event in New Haven and a quarter of the Carson tournament.
As far back as 1990, the USTA had no interest in investing in professional tournaments outside the U.S. Open, Moore said.
"It was a them and us (ATP) at that time," Moore said of 1990. "But as time as gone on, it makes sense. The USTA is the big fish. They run the biggest tournament in the world. They can lend considerable muscle and brain power to our tournament, the Pacific Life, and to tennis in general in the United States."
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