Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Ron Kantowski is tired of overpaid athletes like Andy Roddick who talk a big game but then fail to make good on their word

One of the selling points of Las Vegas' version of the Tennis Channel Open is that it is so much more than just an ATP tour stop.

There is no shortage of things you can do on the midway at the spiffy Darling Tennis Center out in Summerlin while the guys with the big serves who wear their ball caps backward are changing sides.

You can have your serve timed, and see how it measures up against the guys with the big serves and backward ball caps. There are parlor games, such as table tennis and air hockey. There is a women's tournament and a junior tournament and a platform tennis tournament and a couple of college matches featuring the UNLV women's team. There's music and art and instructional clinics and exhibits and trivia contests. There's even a contest to see who can string a tennis racquet the fastest.

This is what the tournamment organizers call "Tennispalooza.''

About the only thing you won't be able to do - if you are lucky enough to find a parking spot during the weeklong Tennis Channel Open that runs today through Sunday - is watch Andy Roddick beat some guy wearing a backward ball cap that you've never heard of in straight sets.

That's because Roddick, the world's fourth-ranked player and the TCO's top seed and biggest attraction, announced Friday, fewer than 72 hours before the start of the tournament, that he was withdrawing because of fatigue.

This is what the tournament organizers call "Andy's-a-looza.''

Actually, that's what the tournament organizers would call it if they had a big racquet in their bag. But this tournament is such a good idea that it actually might last a year or two beyond this one. And then they might need Roddick, or at least his name, to sell tickets again next year.

So tournament organizers refused to call him for a blatant double fault: Saying he would play, and then lying about it.

Tournament director Steve Bellamy said something about how the TCO would have loved to have had Roddick but because the field is so deep, it wouldn't miss him all that much. How predictable.

Good thing Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman isn't worried about selling tickets. Or refunding them. Just as predictable, hizzoner wasn't bashful about saying what was on his mind, and he didn't whisper it off the record behind closed doors in the player's lounge.

Grabbing the microphone at the official tournament draw Saturday, Mayor Goodman basically called Roddick a phony who reneged on his word. Then he said the real reason Roddick bailed on the TCO was because Lleyton Hewitt was going to kick his rear end. (He actually said "rear end'' too, although it took all his restraint not to use the real word in front of the genteel country club types.)

Earlier, Bellamy said Roddick "felt bad'' about pulling out, but he (Roddick) didn't think he "had the energy'' to go the distance here.

That has got to be the weakest excuse since the late Redd Foxx told the IRS that the check was in the mail. Too fatigued? Lack of energy? You're 23 years old, Andy. Have a Gatorade for cryin' out loud. Take the supermodels home early and get a good night's sleep.

The tournament committee apparently was so busy trying to get the hospitality tents set up that it didn't have time to update the official Web site over the weekend.

Roddick's picture and statistics were still all over it. If you didn't see The Mayor go ballistic Saturday night on Channel 8, you would swear he was still playing. For instance, by midday Sunday, nobody had made an effort to take down Roddick's giant likeness from the stanchions lining Durango Drive on the way into the tennis center.

Here's what I would do: Take Roddick's billboard down and tack it back up in the Tennispalooza section. Charge fans who paid hundreds of dollars to watch him play here this week another $5 to "Pin the Lame Excuse on Andy Roddick.''

The line forms behind Mayor Goodman..

Ron Kantowski can be reached at 259-4008 or [email protected].

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