| News
- July - December 2003
Anna Pistolesi ends winning year with
marathon match
(October 28) In a quarterfinal match that
experts called one of the best matches ever witnessed at the
Generali Open, Anna Pistolesi succumbed to third-seeded Vera
Zvonareva in Linz, Austria last week. The Israeli fought gallantly
and completed the two hour 38 minute marathon match, with
rallies often exceeding 30 strokes, despite requiring treatment
on court and receiving a time violation for cramping in the
deciding stages. Pistolesi lead 5-1 in the final set, but
the 19-year-old Russian refused to be denied, erasing three
match points: one at 5-2, one at 5-3 and the last at 5-4 before
securing the 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory. Hard fought revenge it
was for Zvonareva who lost to the Israeli in New Haven two
months ago, after losing a 6-1, 5-0 (30-0) lead. "I am
still all excited. It was a great match and at 1-5, I profited
from Anna getting tired," Zvonareva said after the match.
Pistolesi had recorded a 6-3, 6-4 win over Slovenian qualifier
Maja Matevzic in the second round after needing three sets
to oust Austrian Sybille Bammer in the first round 6-4, 2-6,
6-2.
It was another winning year at the pinnacle of women’s
tennis for the undisputed champion of Israeli tennis, winning
13 straight matches this summer and climbing to a career-best
15 in the rankings. The match in Linz also marked the 27-year-old’s
ninth match to be telecast in its entirety on Eurosport in
2003.
Israeli Davis Cup Coach Oded Yaacov said of Pistolesi who
completes the year ranked No. 16 in the world “Pistolesi
has earned the attention she is getting. She's a top star,
the top athlete in Israel."
As Israel's highest-ranked tennis player of all time, Pistolesi
has for years been in the top 100 before last year cracking
the top 20. A Belarus native who moved to Israel with her
family in 1990, she has won eight WTA Tour singles titles
in her career.
She also garnered some press attention when she traded her
well-suited surname (Smashnova) for that of her coach, Claudio
Pistolesi, last December. The union seemed to help her career
as she reached the third round of the Australian Open a month
after her marriage. She hadn't opened with a win in Australia
since 1999.
One-time coach Anthony Harris definitely sees a link between
the change in her life off and on the court. Praising her
2003 season as "fantastic" and "unbelievable,"
he says, "Ever since Anna got married it's made a huge
difference in her life. She became happy and everything came
together - with the results to show."
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World Series scores for Fox
(October 28) Despite the best-of-seven baseball
series not going all the way, the Florida Marlins 4-2 victory
over the New York Yankees in this year's World Series proved
an overall ratings winner for host broadcaster Fox.
By losing to the Florida Marlins in the sixth game on Saturday,
the Yankees prevented Fox from airing a extremely lucrative
Game 7 on Sunday night. All this with viewer momentum building,
as more people watched Saturday's game than any other in this
year's Series.
Howerver, the 13.9 rating/25 share - a preliminary Nielsen
Media Research figure - with an average of 23.2 million people
watching gave Fox a 12.8 rating/22 for the entire World Series,
8 percent higher than all seven games a year ago and 17 percent
better than the first six games of that year.
Among all viewers, Fox averaged 20.1 million viewers, compared
with 19.3 million for seven games a year ago for the all-West
Coast Series between the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco
Giants.
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MLB.com offers live coverage of postseason
and World Series
(September 17) Major League Baseball is
expanding its online offering, with the introduction of live
coverage of postseason games on its official website to those
living outside the US and Japan. MLB.com will launch the service
with the start of the Division Series on September 30.
Fans who live outside the US can watch online, live or archived,
every game of the Division Series, League Championship Series
and the World Series - a possible total of 41 games.
The cost of the entire postseason webcast package is $14.95.
International fans may also choose to watch a single day's
games for $2.95 per day.
In order to protect the rights of MLB's US and international
broadcast partners, these postseason webcasts will not be
available to fans who attempt to access the service from the
US, Guam, the US Virgin Islands and Japan.
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World champion figure skating couple
expecting baby
(September 10) Six months after their retirement
from the amateur ranks, the Russian ice dancing couple Irina
Lobatschewa and Ilja Awerbruch are again in the headlines.
The former world champions announced that they will be expecting
their first child in March 2004. The Russians, who performed
so brilliantly in ITMS Sports’ inaugural Stars on Ice
event in 2001, won gold at the World Championships in 2002
and the silver medal at the Olympics in Salt Lake City.
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Sharapova, Rao having summer success
(August 11) It's been a productive summer
for a duo of young players from Bradenton, Florida who are
trying to make their marks in professional tennis.
Maria Sharapova, who began training at the Nick Bollettieri
Tennis Academy at the age of nine, has made the biggest splash
by capturing the attention of tennis fans with a deep run
at Wimbledon but Bradenton's Sunitha Rao is having a summer
to remember as well.
Rao, managed by ITMS Sports, has reached a career-high ranking
of 158 on the Women's Tennis Association tour to ease a disappointing
loss in the Wimbledon Juniors tournament. Rao was seeded No.
1 in the junior tournament draw, but fell in the quarterfinals
to Kirsten Flipkens, who went on to win the event.
Rao, 17, had beaten Flipkens the last time they played but
was battling a hamstring injury that restricted her movement.
Despite the injury, which was aggravated each time she slid
on the grass surface, Rao made it to the final round of qualifying
for the Wimbledon main draw before losing to Stanislave Hrozenski
of Slovakia.
Now healthy, Rao has been working out at her Bradenton residence
to build her strength and quickness and plans to play a couple
of small satellite events before attempting to qualify for
the U.S. Open.
Sharapova reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and returned
to action last week at the JPMorgan Chase Open in California,
where she advanced to the third round before losing in three
sets to Kim Clijsters.
While the younger women are making moves, the old guard is
having trouble staying healthy. Sarasota's Monica Seles has
been plagued by a foot injury almost the entire year and Sarasota's
Mary Pierce, battling various ailments, experienced pain in
her back this week during a loss to Tamarine Tanasugarn at
the JPMorgan Chase Open.
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Sauerland Champions earn high marks
(July 30) Despite record temperatures of over 100
degrees (38 Celsius) that made Sunday, July 20, 2003, the
hottest day of the year so far, well over 3,000 people attended
the first-ever Sauerland Champions in Sundern, Germany. Re-uniting
some of biggest names ever to set foot on a tennis court,
ITMS Sports hit a homerun with its new concept nostalgia-event
staged in this small provincial town of less than 30,000.
Former tennis greats Bjorn Borg, Ilie Nastase, Henri Leconte
and Mansour Bahrami entertained both on and off the court
in an event that seemed to find the perfect formula for captivating
a public that has grown weary of conventional tennis tournaments.
Unquestionably, the media and general consensus for the Sauerland
Champions was that it was an exciting and distinctive event
that evoked blissful memories of days long gone. In reports
on national television, fans gave the Sauerland Champions
better marks than long-established professional tournaments
such as the ATP events in Hamburg and Halle. And even the
generally reserved five-time Wimbledon champion Bjorn Borg
was quoted in Germany’s ‘Handelsblatt’ as
saying, “it was an excellent event and I look forward
to playing again next year”.
The event found a way to combine a series of activities that
appealed to various target groups. For regular spectators
it offered an unparalleled opportunity to see some of the
world's greatest tennis champions, up close and personal –
and the limited seating ensured everyone a fantastic view
of the action. Children got to test their own skills on one
of the specially arranged mini-tennis courts organized by
event sponsor Prince. For corporate guests and VIPs it provided
a rare opportunity to rub shoulders with this unique group
of sports legends. Guests enjoyed a garden setting of elegance
and tranquility for entertaining friends, business associates
and colleagues. And creating the ultimate sports experience,
ITMS Sports organized a fantasy event in which 24 amateurs
earned the right to compete with Borg, Nastase, Leconte and
Bahrami in a Champions Pro-Am tournament held during the two-day
weekend. The round-robin doubles tournament featured a 32-player
draw that also included current and former ATP players such
as Lars Wahlgren, Jens Woehrmann, Lars Poerschke and Fredrik
Loven.
A national marketing campaign initiated by ITMS Sports to
promote the Sauerland Champions had put the event in the media’s
focus but also under close scrutiny. It was therefore quite
gratifying that the event could fully live up to the high
expectations that the sports marketing agency had set for
itself. Afterwards, ITMS Sports confirmed its plans to develop
the idea into a full-fledged tour beginning next year. “The
positive outcome of our inaugural event confirms that our
concept, strategy and approach were appropriate and we look
forward to further developing this event model in the future,”
said George S. Pascal, president of ITMS Sports.
Several major advertisers including Coca-Cola, Tretorn, Prince
and Madison Sportswear supported the first Sauerland Champions.
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Major League Baseball International
Camp to be held in Germany
(July 24) Major League Baseball International’s
Adidas Junior Elite Camp will be held in Bonn August 6 -10.
The Adidas Junior Elite Camp will bring together Europe’s
top 15-16 year-old baseball players for five days of high
level, on-field instruction with major league coaches and
former players.
The annual camp is designed to provide elite baseball instruction
for top international junior players. MLB also places emphasis
on teaching life skills that the players can use off the field
to develop as individuals. Junior national level coaches are
also invited to observe and benefit from the training.
Former Mariners, Cubs and Brewers manager Jim Lefebvre will
lead a team of coaches to include former Red Sox and Padres
Pitcher Bruce Hurst, University of Tennessee Head Baseball
Coach Rod Delmonico and the Florida Marlines Director of Canadian
Scouting Alex Agostino. Players and coaches from Belgium,
the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy,
Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden and Germany have been nominated
to attend the camp, which will be held at Germany’s
National Training Center in Bonn.
The Adidas Junior Elite Camp includes daily sessions of skills
training including hitting, pitching, fielding, base running
and catching. A ’life skills seminar’ will take
place each evening and include added instruction stressing
the importance of proper nutrition, strength conditioning,
prevention of injury and treatment. An intra-squad game will
conclude the camp on Sunday, August 10.
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MLB confirms World Cup plans
(July 17) Speaking after Tuesday's All Star
Game in Chicago, Selig stated that plans were underway to
create a World Cup tournament for the sport. Selig said: “We
are very serious about a World Cup. I hope before my commissionership
is over, we will have a World Cup.”
”We are just debating now all the logistics with the
players' association. They have been wonderfully helpful.
And yes, there will be a World Cup, and we'll have a true
World Series winner.”
With Selig's term of office running through until 2006, a
World Cup tournament could be on the agenda as early as 2005.
The plans are in the initial stages and there is no confirmation
as yet as to how many and which nations would take part in
such an event.
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Major League Baseball TV ratings up for interleague
games
(July 3) The first three weeks
of interleague Major League Baseball telecasts on News Corp.'s
Fox network rose 12 percent over last year.
Fox, in the third year of a six-year, $2.5billion contract
to televise baseball, drew an average of 2.9 percent of the
107 million US homes with televisions for the first three
weeks of interleague play this season.
On cable, Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN drew an average of 2.4 percent
of the 87 million US households with cable television, up
2 percent from a year ago.
The New York Yankees-New York Mets game on ESPN on June 21
drew 2.6 percent of cable households, the largest audience
for the 18-34 male demographic on ESPN's “Sunday Night
Baseball” since July 2000.
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