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World Sport

Tennis mailbag, with CNN's Candy Reid


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(CNN) -- Do you have a question about tennis for World Sport Anchor Candy Reid? E-mail candy@cnn.com.

Q. Dear Candy, how come there aren't any mixed doubles tournaments? My brother thinks it's because female players are less powerful than male players. Could you help me?
In a trance, E.D.

A. There are mixed doubles competitions but really only at the Grand Slams. Unfortunately apart from the majors there are very few weeks when both the ATP tour and WTA tour are playing at the same venue. I think it's a shame for the fans as mixed doubles is always entertaining and I'm sure the players would like to play more mixed. However, say if a tournament like last week's Pacific Life Open did decide to put on a mixed doubles, I'm not sure how many entrants they'd get, because the top players mostly want to focus on singles, while those who lose early prefer to move on to the next tournament to get acclimatized.

Q. Hi, first of all I love your presentation of world sport keep up the good job. What's wrong with Andy Roddick? I personally think he's the best male tennis player but he seems unfocused.
Thanks, Josephine Daudu

A. Well Josephine, firstly I'm glad you enjoy the show. Secondly I don't think Roddick is un-focused but it does look like he's trying to work on a few things at the moment and it always takes time (unless of course you have the natural ability of Roger Federer, who it seems can hit any shot at any time!)

Roddick is approaching the net much more than he has in the past because he knows it will help him in the long run. But as any athlete knows, you can work on something in practice, but confidence will only come by executing it in competition.

Put it this way, the two people Roddick has terrible records against are the two players who are ranked above him, Federer and Hewitt, so in order to get back to number one he has to do a few things differently.

Q. Hi Candy! What can you comment about the new comer Ana Ivanovic? Will she make it to the top 20 or top 10?
Ruth

A. I've only seen Ivanovic play a few times Ruth but she looks like she could easily make the top 20 and has a great chance of getting even further. For those of you who haven't heard of her yet, she's a 6' teenager from Serbia, who moved up an astonishing 608 places in the world rankings in 2004 (she currently ranked #50) and won her first Tour singles title at Canberra earlier this year. She's got a big game and a great deal of desire, so I can't believe it will be long before she's well known by tennis fans.

Q. Hey Candy, I'm Daniel from Italy. When do you think an Italian tennis player will be able to win a Grand Slam tournament again? We have been waiting since 1976 (Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros), that's to say almost 30 years ... I wasn't born! We have some good young players like Starace and Bracciali but I don't think they are strong enough. What do you think?
Daniel, Castellanza, Italy

A. Daniel, right now Felippo Volandri and Potito Starace are your best hopes -- but I can't see either winning a GS any time soon. Starace had a good run at the French Open last year, reaching the third round after a great win over Sebastien Grosjean; and Volandri is coming off his best year on tour which included his first title, but both are some way off becoming major contenders. However, after Tim Henman retires, Italy may have more chance of celebrating a Grand-Slam winner than Great Britain!

Q. Hi Candy, I wanted to get an explanation about why do the women get paid the same amount of prizes as men in major tournaments? I am all for equal pay for equal work and I am not sexist. But to me it seems unfair that women are getting paid more money for fewer amounts of sets they are playing in majors. Eugene - Dallas, Texas

A. Eugene, this may ruffle some feathers, but I agree with you. Okay, so women's tennis may be as popular if not more so than the men's at the moment -- but playing best of five is much tougher than best of three. Right now the Australian Open and US Open offer equal prize money but Wimbledon and the French Open are still holding out.

In theory, the men's winner/runner-up of a Grand Slam could play 35 sets, while the maximum for the women's winner/runner-up is 21. That's a huge difference.

Some have said let the women play best of five -- but I can't believe tournament organizers would go along with that. A clay-court match could last all day!

There isn't really a huge difference between the men's and women's prize money anyway (at last year's Wimbledon Federer earned 602,500 pounds, while Maria Sharapova took home 560,500) Not too bad for a fortnight's work!

Q. Hi Candy,

Exactly what happened between the Pacific Life Open and the Williams sisters? Any apologies made? What would it take for the sister to go back?
Dini Geya, South Africa

A. Four years ago, Dini, Serena was supposed to play Venus in the semi-finals but Venus pulled out with a knee injury and basically the crowd thought it had been fixed. The whole Williams family was then jeered throughout the final and Serena says the memory still haunts her so she has no intention of playing at Indian Wells again. Apparently the Pacific Life organizers have extended the sisters an open invitation to return to the event.


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