hmmm there's no thread for cincinnatti, so i'll put it here.

Anastasia Rodionova has become only the second player in WTA Tour history to be disqualified from a match.

The 25-year-old Russian was thrown out of the Cincinnati Open on Tuesday for "unsportsmanlike conduct" in her first-round match against Angelique Kerber.

Rodionova had already complained to the umpire about fans applauding for her German opponent during points when her temper finally boiled over.

Kerber lost the first game of the deciding set and, in frustration, responded by smacking a ball towards a group of three fans sat at the opposite end of the court.

The ball hit halfway up the front of the stand but, while the players were changing ends, the umpire summoned tournament referee William Coffey who decided to default Rodionova and award Kerber a 4-6 6-4 1-0 victory.

The Russian said afterwards: "I'm shocked. I still don't understand why they defaulted me. I'm really upset.

"I've never seen in my life anyone defaulted in this situation. I had no warning. I didn't hit the ball at anybody. I didn't swear at anybody. I didn't throw my racket."

Irina Spirlea is believed to be the only other player in the 36-year history of the WTA Tour to be disqualified from a tournament, having directed abusive language towards a match official in Palermo in 1996.

http://www.sportinglife.com/tennis/news/st...ual_092428.html

I read about this on the bbc. Having not watched the match I don't know how Rodionova was behaving prior to the disqualification but it does seem strange that she wasn't given the normal code violation warning, then point etc.

I've watched countless matches where players have hit a ball into the stands or, as in the case of the outside courts at Wimbledon, just whacking it away to other courts which is potentially dangerous but all they've ever got is a code violation warning.

Strange...

Yeah seems strange that she got disqualified straight away!!

Seems a bit harsh :o If they started doing this to every player there would be hardly games finished :yikes:

funny, i notice with today's order of play in cincy, she's still able to remain in the doubles draw.

The mystery deepens...

I guess there has been no thread on Cincy because the WTA side of things have subsided considerably on CC of late..

This disqualification is a strange one as it is both inconsistent. Nalbandian swore at supporters last year at SW19 and didn't even get a warning. Didn't she deny that she was trying to hit the spectators by pointing at the wall where the ball hit or something??

More because Admin haven't created a forum for it. Im not sure why you want to point out about things going a little quiet on the WTA side at every available opportunity either :rolleyes: There's actually been quite a lot of chat WTA relevant the last few days....

I've read a few more articles on this now and apparently she had been complaining to the referee that the supporters kept cheering for her opponent (duh- its a competition!). Even so, when she hit the ball it didn't actually go into the stands, it just hit the boards behind the baseline (i.e. where the line-judges stand- although they weren't affected anyway). This makes it even more strange!

Even Patty Schnyder, in her blog on the wta website, said her disqualification was stupid!

I don't think there is anything wrong with saying that chat on the WTA has gone quiet. I think there hasn't been much to talk about although with Lindsay's comeback that has changed.
I guess the events at Cincinatti and Palermo aren't exactly massive and there aren't any top tenners playing except Chakvetadze at Cincy! :)

I expect things will change once the bigger events start up again! :ok:

It's my opinion Choka, do your best not to nitpick :ok:
And like I said, it was just saying it to petal as I've noticed he's pointed it out a few times now, and wondered why that's all...just a comment from me to my friend pp, not really intended to criticise or anything.... :ok:

:wacko: Everyone is really hypersensitive at the mo on here! :unsure:

Not nitpicking SW19, just agreeing with Petalp that there hasn't been much to talk about with the WTA tour since Wimby. :) (Not a criticism of you by the way! :ok: ) I can't comment on whether Petalp always does that, will leave that for him to deal with.

I just don't think there has been much to chat about with the Fed Cup and only having a couple of Tier III events this week! Things will def hot up in the next few weeks! :D

Sorry, didn't mean to be hypersensitive. I agree that it has been a bit quiet on here, it's just that that wasn't the point Im making, although what I was trying to say has now been blown a bit out of proportion. But oh well, another day on CC I guess :lol:

Btw in relation to the thread topic, it seems to me as if Rodionova has been a bit hard done by :angry:

Btw Petalp if you read this, I wasn't trying to be offensive, it's probably partly that Im more annoyed that no-one has actually bothered to create a forum for Cincy that I responded a bit brusquely. While it has quite a poor field. it is still worth talking about I think.

I was going to start a Cincy thread but wasn't totally sure I could or whether one of the admin had to do this. :unsure:

There's a new section for current tournaments, so I'm guessing anyone can now start a thread.

Hi there MissSospanfach ;) Are you Welsh per chance?

Correct!

Me too :D Where abouts you from?

I'm from the land of the sospans but am not actually based there at the mo!

Ah well..

Yes I shall continue to point out that things have been quiet on the WTA front because they have, and have been at least for the last couple of months. Regardless of what has gone on in the last few days. :P

Anyway, who is the mod for the WTA side..?

re the rodio thing, did anyone here actually see the incident?

i didn't, but i guess it depends on what she was trying to do. was she banging the ball against the wall in frustration or was she aiming at the 3 fans who were getting on her case. the umpire must have made up his mind that she was aiming at them as the referee who made the default call didn't actually see what happened.

my own view is that it was a bad call regardless. if the ball had hit someone in the face like tim henman's moment of madness at wimbledon in 1995, then the ref has no choice. otherwise, show some common sense. rodionova would have lost anyway in all likelihood so let it slide.

A hobby of yours is it roflmao ;)

Erm.. no... :whistle:

Purely a statement of fact, and presumptious of you to say that it is not the case with such certainty.

The board used to have a balance of ATP and WTA posters. There are more ATP posters now, and far fewer WTA posters because many simply don't post here anymore. Simple fact. And the frequency with which I point this out is an irrelevance. Or do you actually have a problem with me saying this? :shrug:

I never disagreed with you so not sure what you're talking about there, I just wondered why you repeated this fact at every available opportunity...that's what it feels like to me in any case. As I said Im not saying you're doing it maliciously or anything I just wondered....

Lol, chill peeps! If there aren't many WTA discussions at the mo then I guess it's up to us to make sure we discuss the tour more. :D

SW, I have mentioned it twice in the mod forum, away from the main board, and on only two threads on the main board (this one and the Rafa thread).

I wouldn't have thought that this constitutes 'at every available opportunity', surely?

Plus, the fact was definitely called for on the mod forum, as Jo had raised concerns. But why should any of us be concerned anyway? It's only a board, after all..

Agreed. I hope that a few other posters will have the same attitude. :ok:

Well those are actually about the only four or five threads I'd actually posted on since Wimbledon...until today. So perhaps it seemed that way to me, a bit unfairly sorry :hug: Like you said it isn't really of importance and has been blown a bit out of proportion here, still it's interesting when we think out loud sometimes :lol:

I enjoy posting in the WTA and ATP sometimes, I think it's good when posters like yourself are quite rounded and enjoy posting in both forums, and Misssospanfach also I can see is of the same frame of mind :)

I am indeed! ATP/ WTA I don't care. Me= tennis obsessive! :D

No problem SW, apologies too if I got a little tetchy.. :unsure:

And agreed, it is fun when posters like you and Misssos post in both WTA and ATP, as quite often people can be either one or the other (or say 90% one and 10% of the other). And quite often it's the ATP that does seem to dominate on most boards (WTAW of course excepted!!!), so it's good to see a bit more of a counterbalance on that front. :)

II think that the ATP and WTA are both really interesting right now, as they currently have such different dynamics. The WTA is currently more unpredictable, with some fierce contests (I enjoyed many of the women's matches at SW19 for example) and the ATP has the clash of the 2 titans, and the issue of what everyone is is going to do about it to try to catch them?