I have spoken to many about this possibility, and to my surprise, not too may were surprised. 

The Police reports quotes his wife Oracene saying, "You know what's going on... but I can't say anything that could damage my daughters careers."

Well, if Mr. Williams did break his wife's ribs in anger, and did inflict other damages in the past, his true persona should be that of an abusive husband. 

If so, should Venus and Serena break public ties with their father, should he be applauded when he's dancing and holding up signs, should women and other concerned groups hold their own signs, "I told you so he's a wife beater"?

 I hope for the sake of the game, the Williams family and for Mr. Williams himself that these allegations are untrue. if they are, my point is:

All companies entering future endorsements with the Williams sisters should do so with caution, for the fear of supporting a wife beater!

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The traveling road show similar to the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the Olympics and so on, the Chase Championships and the Masters would be the crowning jewels for the men's and women's games. Imagine a week featuring 16 of the best players in the world , 8 men and 8 women playing at the same site and showcasing the sport to the world like never before.

Let tennis friendly cities  compete for the rights to host the "finals of all finals", issue the rights many years in advance, each city would have at least 5 years to prepare and promote the coming of "The Finals", the best tennis in the world.

Many have criticized the move away from the hollowed grounds of Madison Square Garden, citing money has the main reason for the exodus, yes financial windfall featured strongly in the  departure to Europe, but the main reason is support, Europeans are tennis hungry, Americans just plain don't care about our great sport.

My point is: Let the best city with the best presentation host the finals, and the ATP and WTA year ending championships should be combined and played on the same date and same site. 

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Referees, umpires, lines people etc. are what gives organized sports their unique flavor, yes the officials are human and they do make mistakes, but that's what makes the process real, fun and at times even more dramatic.

A sporting event without the coach and manager disagreeing with the umpire for  what they perceive to be a bad call, is a sporting event without life.

A player disagrees with a call, looks up a the chair umpire and gives him a dirty look, the official simply points to the machine and the player, crowd and the fans watching on TV know exactly what he means, "You can't argue with a machine".

Gone are the days when tennis fans could claim that their favorite players got robbed by a lines person, gone are the good old days of tennis loudmouths who can't accept the fact that their shot landed half an inch out.

For centuries now I've been hearing about the coming of the electronic lines calling machine that will eliminate bad calls forever, "we've put a man on the moon, why can't we create such a machine", they say, it's now 2001, and I'm afraid sooner or later someone will come up with the ultimate lines calling gizmo. If you're out there working on such a machine please stop. I want the rare occasional "questionable" call.

Besides, if such a machine is in place, it will only be on professional courts and high end country clubs, building an even greater gap between the public facilities and the well off clubs and pro tours.

Keep the game the same for everybody, let recreational players call their own lines and don't throw away lines people, we need their 20/20 eyesight.

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It has become a tradition, the Sunday before the start of the Open, the USTA gathers a bunch of kids in the stadium to be "Entertained" by celebrities, mostly teenage singing acts and big name tennis pros doing things outside of normal tennis.

The kids love it, the celebrities use this opportunity to get more exposure, while the commercials are telling the viewer how fun the game of tennis is.

If you have to sell the fun aspect, then it's not fun. I love tennis, I don't need to be told how fun it is, if a kid picks up a racket and does not see the fun in the sport and you have to convince him using rock singers, the chances of him sticking with tennis are very slim.

As that little girl with the racquet and wearing the oversized USTA T-shirt watches Britney sing, she's thinking, "what a racquet, she gets to dance and sing to millions for millions, that's what I want to be - Tennis is too hard!

The old saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it, is perfect for tennis and the tons of juniors who are currently playing the game, 90% of them will give it up. The love for the game is not genuine, it's manufactured by parents with money and fame in their eyes.

The USTA and other governing bodies are guilty of doing the same thing, by forcing the "Fun" aspect of tennis to the kids, they are doing the game and the players a disservice.

The game of tennis is hard, it requires dedication, discipline and most of all, you must love it. The players who will stick with the game, and possibly earn a college scholarship, with minute few becoming pros and one in 2 million winning a grand slam, have to constantly remind themselves that the game is fun.

What keeps them playing, is the competition, the drive to be good, the dedication to improve, the desire to achieve their goals, the hard work, the grind and even the fame and money.  

Fun is what players have towards the end of their career, if they're lucky.

Don't sugar coat the game, give the kid a racquet, if the desire and will to play is not automatic, you can forget about it!

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Steroids are banned because of their potential to increase and improve the natural physical and mental  limits of the athlete. In the sports world competitors who take illegal substances to outperform their opponents or break a record are said to be dirty.

The mind of the athlete is where it all begins, Arthur Ashe first coined the term "In the zone" regarding athletes who seem to perform and execute flawlessly without missing, getting results where if he was not in "the zone" would not otherwise achieve. 

When Arthur coined that term, he had in mind an athlete after tremendous on court and off court training, somehow managing to be in the zone while competing, champions get there on a regular basis , while lesser competitors rarely visit that ellusive territory. He did not have in mind athletes being hooked up to computers and other gadgets to train their mind to zone out , at the snap of a finger.

Psychologists are hard at work trying to perfect Neurofeedback training, - when they identify the correct brainwave patterns that athletes generate when "in the zone", they will create computer programs hooked on various gadgets to automatically put the athlete in the perfect can't lose feeling.

I see this technology no different then steroids, it would also raise the bar on the PRICE to become a pro athlete, gone would be the days of true humans competing, replaced by programmed robots to stay in the perfect zone.

I say ban it now!  

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