Herald Tribune reported a major restructuring is going on at the top of IMG Academies, the world renowned sports training facility.
The deepest impact has come at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, leaving some of the facility’s founders jobless.
Four top executives were either fired or encouraged to resign since December. They include tennis academy director Gabriel Jaramillo, VPs Ted Meekma and Greg Breunich and CFO Jeff McNeil were asked to leave.
Each man was given severance pay, according to Jaramillo‘s attorney, and signed nondisclosure and no-compete contracts that prohibit them from coaching tennis or speaking publicly about the changes.
As this makes room for people to move up the corporate ladder, this could also mean there will be some entry level positions available for recent graduates from sports management colleges. IMG officials refused to comment yet.
Meekma and Bruenich started as tennis instructors who worked side-by-side with Bollettieri since the early years of the academy.
Jaramillo also started as an instructor and worked his way to the head of the academy while training dozens of top players, including Agassi, Sharapova and Pete Sampras. He is the guy who spotted the talent in Kei Nishikori when he was in Japan.
In 1987, Bollettieri joined IMG to open the multi-sport academies in west Manatee County, on 300 acres of former tomato fields. IMG now trains thousands of athletes in sports from golf to basketball.
An investment firm, Forstmann Little & Co., acquired IMG — an international sports and entertainment marketing company — in 2004 for $750 million.
Forstmann Little has a history of cutting costs to make its acquisitions more profitable before reselling them.
Hopefully the restructuring process taking place would not affect the players.
(Via heraldtribune.com)
China's Sun Tiantian, who was 2008 Australian Open mixed doubles champion along with Nenad Zimonjic, was given the honour to become the first WTA player to blog in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour website this year.
Sun is currently in Sydney to compete and make her Australian Open preparations at the Medibank International.
She shared with the fans why most tennis players look older than their age. For instance:
Marcos Baghdatis is only 23 but looks like 32.
She also said, in Australia, the UV ray is very strong due to the depletion of ozone layer.
Believe it or not, statistics show that Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world!
Besides talking about the sun in Australia (didn't talk about the surf though), she also blogged about missing her mom's cooking, playing doubles with Anna-Lena Groenefeld in Sydney and being satisfied with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar for 2009.
"There are tournaments with more prize money, and they're also paying more attention to the players' health, giving us a longer off-season among other things. I like these changes."
Click here to check out more updates from her blog soon.
(Via sonyericssonwtatour.com; Images via Yahoo! Sport)
With the Australian Open campaign is on, practicing on court is just not enough. Some players will play the psychological war too.
But we hate any kind of war, don't we?
Roger Federer usually starts as the favourite to win the Australian Open. Not anymore.
Federer arrived in Australia over the weekend after losing to Andy Murray in the semifinals at Doha, Qatar.
Some British bookmakers listed Murray as the favourite to win the Grand Slam after he defended his Doha title and won an exhibition at Abu Dhabi.
Federer, who needs another Grand Slam to equal Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles, was surprised to hear it.
"Who said that? The bookies? Good for him," Federer said Tuesday at a news conference for the Kooyong exhibition tournament.
"It doesn’t help him a whole lot. I’ve been in that position before as well and didn’t make it."
Federer said Murray was a contender due to his form and no. 4 ranking, but winning a Grand Slam was a new level for him.
"He’s put himself in a great position. He started off well, going well in Doha. He finished strong last year. It still does surprise me that the bookies say that," Federer said.
"He’s never won a Slam."
"He’s shown for a year now he’s knocking on the door, trying to make his move. Sure, he’s put himself in a position, but winning a Grand Slam is a different animal."
"Not many guys have been able to win a Grand Slam in the last few years. Rafa and me took a lot of them, Novak won here last year. They don’t come easily."
Murray then hit back at Roger jibe.
"You get used to being expected to win matches when you play at Wimbledon. The pressure that comes with that gets you used to these situations."
"The older you get, the more matches you play, you realise what the bookies are saying doesn't make any difference once you get on court, whether they are saying good things or bad things. You just get on with your job."
Murray has beaten Federer five times in their seven career meetings with his only defeats coming in their first meeting at Bangkok in 2005 and in the US Open final last year.
"The more you play against him the less fearful you are, you're not scared to win the match. If you're young and you play against the top guys, once you get close to winning you get nervous," Murray said.
"Now when I play him I don't get nervous and if I play my best tennis I can beat him."
Now I can't wait for the Australian Open to begin! Can Murray win his first Grand Slam here or is he going to prove Roger's comments right? We'll see.
(Via AP, independent.co.uk; Image by William West/AFP/Getty Images)
Mario Ancic in Medibank International earlier this week.
Andy Murray during a practice at Melbourne Park.
Marat Safin at Melbourne Park.
Andy Roddick at Melbourne Park.
Herald Tribune reported a major restructuring is going on at the top of IMG Academies, the world renowned sports training facility.
Jaramillo also started as an instructor and worked his way to the head of the academy while training dozens of top players, including Agassi, Sharapova and Pete Sampras. He is the guy who spotted the talent in Kei Nishikori when he was in Japan. 
China's Sun Tiantian, who was 2008 Australian Open mixed doubles champion along with Nenad Zimonjic, was given the honour to become the first WTA player to blog in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour website this year.
Marcos Baghdatis is only 23 but looks like 32. 
With the Australian Open campaign is on, practicing on court is just not enough. Some players will play the psychological war too.