News bites: Venus evergreen, new directions for Vinci, Lopez, Miami

Venus wants to play Tokyo 2020 Olympics

NEW YORK, REUTERS – Evergreen American Venus Williams has dismissed the notion of retiring anytime soon, saying she is eager to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The 37-year-old in 2017 climbed to No.5 in the singles rankings after finishing runner-up at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the WTA Finals.

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The seven-time Grand Slam winner has competed in five previous Olympics tournaments, starting in 2000, and has won three golds in the women’s doubles event with sister Serena and one gold in the singles competition.

“I have no plans of stopping soon,” Williams told American magazine Entrepreneur. “It seems somehow that 2020 Tokyo is on the horizon. Isn’t that wild? I’m trying to stick around for that.”

Interviewer: @Venuseswilliams remind us how many Olympic gold medals you’ve won….
Venus: “not enough!” ????????????????????????@barronsonline pic.twitter.com/IoZa3Evc7L

— Beth Norman (@bethbrunernorm1) November 30, 2017

Roberta to retire

Italy’s Roberta Vinci has announced she will play her last tennis tournament in Rome next year.

The former world No.7, most famous for sensationally stalling Serena Williams’ bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam in the 2015 US Open semifinals, is 34 years of age and has played on tour since

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“I’ve decided to continue and return to the court, but not for the whole year,” she told Gazzetta Dello Sport. “I’ll finish at the Foro Italico. In the middle of the season I will say goodbye to tennis and it’s something I’ve considered for a long time.

“I’ve decided to make one last appearance in front of the Italian public as a way of saying thanks to all Italians.”

Vinci is also a former world No.1 doubles player – winning all four Grand Slam doubles trophies with Sara Errani – and was a stalwart of the Italian Fed Cup team.

Lopez builds career beyond tennis

Feliciano Lopez has begun moves into a tennis administration career after it was announced on Thursday that he will join the Madrid Open as an assistant tournament director.

Manolo Santana will remain the touranment’s director until the end of the 2018 edition. Lopez will from that point take over as the new director.

Lopez, 36 in both age and ranking, came close to the top 10 when he peaked at world No.12 in 2015.

Un día lleno de emociones..Gracias @MutuaMadridOpen por dejarme formar parte de vuestra familia.Y a ti Manolo que te puedo decir?No me cansaré de seguir aprendiendo contigo..???? pic.twitter.com/xkOui2rVWg

— Feliciano López (@feliciano_lopez) November 30, 2017

There are no reports of when he plans to retire from his playing career.

New home for the Miami Open?

The embattled Miami Open is set to move to a new venue.

Currently staged at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, the tournament – once considered the sport’s “fifth Grand Slam” – has slipped in prestige due to an upheld court ruling that the event’s organisers cannot significantly upgrade, expand and modernise the on-site facilities.

Now, it appears the event is set to move to the Miami Dolphin’s football stadium, as per a report in the Miami Herald.

This would see the last staging of the Miami Open at Crandon Park in 2018, before the relocation for the 2019 edition.

Shot clock for Australian Open qualifying

The Grand Slam board recently announced it would be introducing several changes to major tournaments in 2018.

One of those included the implementation of a shot clock to force players to stick to the required 25 seconds between points.

Now, it’s emerged that this particular change would apply only to qualifying matches at the Australian Open in 2018.

According to a report in the West Australian: “(tournament director Craig) Tiley confirmed the 25-second shot clock would be displayed on a screen to police the time between points at Australian Open qualifying from January 11 to 14 at Melbourne Park. Tiley said player feedback would play a big part in whether it was rolled out in the main draw of bigger tournaments.”

The US Open trialled the same initiative in qualifying this year.

Safin speaks, again

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Marat Safin has made his feelings known about the younger generation coming up in men’s tennis.

The Russian, a former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam winner, recently raised eyebrows when he said Rafael Nadal was a more impressive player than Roger Federer and that Novak Djokovic wouldn’t trouble Federer and Nadal when he returned in 2018.

And he didn’t hold back this time, either.

“If Federer and Nadal are still winning I think there’s something wrong,” he said. “The upcoming young guys just aren’t at a high enough level. If you can still manage to run at the age of 38 and still be No 1 in the world, it means there must be something wrong with the other players.

“(Players like) Rublev, Khachanov – they win one tournament and then they don’t win a match for six months. If you want to be a really good pro you need to be beating Nadal and Federer now.

“Look at Murray and Djokovic. They were beating the top players when they were 19 or 20, but you just don’t see that from the younger players today.”