U.S. vs WORLD

BusinessWeek has introduced its Power 100—their ranking of the most influential people in the world of sports. Only two tennis players were able to crack the list—Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. The 12-time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer ranks 30^th and the Russian tennis star Sharapova is No . 73 A quick glance of the BusinessWeek’s list shows that this is yet another US-centric Most-Something-of-the-World-type list (examples are many: the most beautiful, the most powerful, the most… the best…of the WORLD). Needless to say, that the criticism is pouring in from the sports fans around the world. One of the readers notes:

As usual, we are presented with an American-centric list that in no way reflects the reality of power in the world of sports. Any list of the 100 most powerful figures in sports in which the only soccer representative, Sepp Blatter, is far lower than a whole bunch of chairpersons of sports that are completely irrelevant outside the States, has no value. Ask anyone in the world outside the US who Ronaldinho is and they will tell you. Ask them who Peyton Manning is, and they’ll know too… if they are American expats.”

Why not call it the most powerful figures in US sports and save them the criticism? Why all these type of lists always have to have the word “World” in them?

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Today’s New York Times has an interesting (or … maybe whining) article on why Davis Cup semifinals end up in a back seat.

…The matches that matter most at this late stage of the season are supposed to be the semifinals: the United States versus Sweden in Gothenburg and Russia versus Germany in Moscow. But the matches with the bigger buzz, larger crowds and more intriguing lineups are actually being played in Belgrade and Prague.

…It is a quirk of the Davis Cup’s oft-debated structure that this long weekend is also the long weekend of the World Group playoffs, eight matches that will determine the makeup of next season’s 16-team first division. It so happens that the two leading men at the moment, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, are involved in the playoffs, not the semifinals. It also happens that Tim Henman has chosen to say farewell to the men’s Tour in the playoff at the All England Club between Britain and Croatia.

…

The full article is here.

Oh well.. . Federer loses his Grand Slam virginity….NOOOT! The Swiss maestro (as many media commentators call him) has won his 12th Grand Slam title.

I wonder how he still manages to pretend that he is sooo shocked by the victory. Yes, he is a great player, loves speaking about how it is important to promote the sport, but the mere fact that he keeps winning non-stop makes those slams so boring. Good for him, but boring for many tennis fans. I wonder if his fans still get excited and thrilled by his victories.

After Federer’s win, I have been following the discussions going around in the tennis blogosphere. Apparently there are many out there that don’t like Djokovic’s djocks, his constant not-really-justified medical time-outs, and the media hype:-)

I think the problem here is not Djokovic but the way American media work. If there was no Djokovic, there would have been somebody else (remember Marcos Baghdatis hype?). Whoever gives them a good meat to chew on, they will make him/her the media darling. Djokovic is smart enough to realize it and how he can benefit from it. It is a win-win situation. If the player doesn’t have media-likable-marketable personality, (regardless of how good their game is) he/she is very likely to be ignored by the American media. Davydenko and Nalbandian (when he was in top 5) are perfect examples of it.