The Gregory Callegari Blog

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Think U.S. Men's Tennis Is in a Slump? Look at Post-WWII France

With every major tennis tournament come the lamentations over the sorry state of American men’s tennis.

With the French Open getting underway this week, right on cue came the all but inevitable “pre-mortem” inquest into the lowly rankings of the American men: No American has won a Grand Slam event singles title since Andy Roddick in 2003 at the U.S. Open, and with no American men ranked in the ATP’s top 10 (Switzerland and Spain each have two) and only one—John Isner, ranked number 11—in the top 60, Christopher Clarey’s status report in The New York Times was appropriately headlined "Once a Force in Tennis, Now Enduring a Grand Slam Drought.”

It made for especially dispiriting reading on the 25th anniversary of Michael Chang's upset French Open victory in 1989, one of the true highlights of the American experience on the red clay courts of the Stade Roland Garros. And the reasons given for the American fall from the top ranks of men’s tennis suggest that a quick recovery is not likely. (Serena Williams aside, the picture is not much brighter for American women—and Williams herself lost her second-round match this week.)

As Clarey wrote, coaches and former players, including Jim Courier, winner of the French Open in 1991 and 1992, “see a lack of world-class work ethic and toughness in too many of the young Americans. … ‘There are plenty of talented players who are not getting the most out of their talent,’ Courier said.” Jose Higueras, a Spanish player who won 16 tour titles and reached two French Open semi-finals, and who now is involved in player development work for the United States Tennis Association, has expressed similar sentiments:. “We are lacking competitiveness in our players,” he said. “They’ve got good backhands and forehands and serves, but they lack an understanding of how the game needs to be played. We have good coaches, but the culture of our players needs to improve.”

read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/05/think-us-mens-tennis-is-in-a-slump-look-at-post-wwii-france/371753/

Friday, May 23, 2014

Sweet 16: It's time for tennis Grand Slams to ditch the 32-seed draw

In 2001, the four tennis Grand Slams doubled the number of seeds at their respective tournaments, from 16 to 32. Whereas the old system could have pitted the No. 1 player in the world against No. 17 in a first-round match, the new way ensured that none of the top-32 players in the draw would meet before the third round.

The balanced draw, which theoretically leads to better matches in the later rounds, has worked out fine. It’s neither been a boon nor a disaster. Whether it’s better for the sport, however, is open for debate.

When the French Open draw was unveiled Friday, the lack of compelling first- and second-round matches was immediately apparent. Diehard tennis fans may enjoy Richard Gasquet vs. Bernard Tomic or Ana Ivanovic vs. Caroline Garcia, but there’s no matchups to capture the interest of the casual fan. The only way the non-tennis world will hear about the opening days at Roland Garros will be due to a massive upset or Venus Williams wearing another revealing dress. By protecting the later rounds, tennis has made the opening rounds irrelevant.

How much are the early rounds really protected? Were top players losing so much that they needed more breathing room in the first two rounds?

Not at all. Even before the seeding change, the best in the world rarely exited Grand Slams early. It’s not as if there were giant killers lurking in the lower reaches of the top 20 and biding their time for the perfect first-round upset.

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Thursday, May 22, 2014

David Beckham team to reveal soccer stadium design for Miami boat slip site

One of David Beckham's chief investors and their representatives plan to make public Thursday preliminary designs of what a Major League Soccer stadium would look like if it were built on what is now a downtown Miami deep-water boat slip.
Billionaire Marcelo Claure and Beckham's real-estate adviser are expected to present the images at a noon news conference at the InterContinental Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard, down the street from the proposed stadium site.
The release of the drawings is intended to give the public an idea of how the structure could look if the water basin nestled between Museum Park and AmericanAirlines Arena were filled.

Already, proponents have circulated their own amateur designs of a possible stadium to drum up support. More troubling for Beckham's group, opponents have done the same thing, to show a stadium they consider out of place.
No one expects the drawings to resemble the relatively detailed renderings that Miami Beckham United had put together for the first stadium site the group eyed at PortMiami. Those designs, by renowned Miami firm Arquitectonica, and other analysis of the port location cost about $2 million, Beckham representatives have said.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Consulting Firms Kalypso, Integware Merge

BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Continuing its growth as the firm approaches its tenth anniversary, Kalypso announced today that it has merged with Integware, a consulting firm with expertise in product lifecycle management (PLM).

Kalypso delivers a comprehensive set of services that enable innovation, including objective PLM technology strategy and implementation services. With the addition of Integware, the combined firm can provide clients with a broader set of capabilities to drive real business results from PLM.

“Kalypso and its seasoned leadership team have done a fantastic job building a solid and successful operation that provides superior innovation services to the market,” said Chris Kay, CEO of Integware and new partner at Kalypso. “I’m confident that by merging the two firms we can deliver a more comprehensive solution to our clients.”

Integware, known for its PLM expertise particularly in the life sciences industry, has served a global customer base with strategy, consulting, deployment, support and training services. In addition to life sciences, the merger expands the firms’ presence in the aerospace and defense, automotive, and energy industries. Together, the two firms have extensive knowledge of, and implementation experience with, all of the leading PLM and product innovation software providers, including Oracle, PTC, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, Autodesk and Aras.

“We are thrilled to have the Integware team join the Kalypso family. With this combination, we believe that we are the only firm in the market with legitimate technical depth on every major PLM platform,” said Bill Poston, managing partner of Kalypso. “We want to be the world’s most respected provider of objective PLM technology advisory and implementation services. Integware takes us a big step closer to realizing that vision.”

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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

This One Thing Can Make or Break Your Consulting Business

In Start Your Own Consulting Business, the staff at Entrepreneur Press and writer Eileen Figure Sandlin explain how you can start a profitable consulting business, no matter whether your consulting business will focus on HR placement, computer troubleshooting, or anything else you can dream up. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer tips on providing customer service that will help you land new business again and again.

To succeed as a consultant, you must do everything you can to set yourself apart from the competition. You want to give your clients a reason to say, "I'm really glad I chose this consultant." One way to ensure this is to provide the best customer service on the planet.

One great way to do this is by communicating with your client often about whether his or her expectations are being met and if the project is progressing as desired. "At the end of the first month of a project, I always ask my clients whether they think value is being achieved," says California trainer and coach Susan Bock, who is a past president of the Association of Professional Consultants. "I'll give them a full refund and won't proceed any further if I determine it's not possible to deal with their unrealized expectations."

Fred Elbel, a web design and computer consultant in Lakewood, Colorado, takes a different approach to customer service: He actually gives information away free as a way to make a favorable impression. "I give a lot of free advice to customers--in fact, sometimes too much," he admits. "It could be information like how to back up a computer system. But what happens is that clients remember how I helped them, and they'll call me when they don't have the time or skill to tackle other problems."

read more http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233305

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Monday, May 19, 2014

Manchester United's Ryan Giggs confirms retirement from playing ranks

Ryan Giggs has confirmed his retirement from the playing ranks on the day he was named as new Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal's assistant.

Giggs penned an open letter to United fans explaining his pride at being able to extend his relationship with the club in the coaching ranks after a glittering playing career.

The Wales winger retires after 963 appearances for the club, and more than 1,000 overall when you include his 64 international caps, and he celebrated winning 34 trophies in a golden age at Old Trafford.

read more: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11667/9317728/manchester-uniteds-ryan-giggs-confirms-retirement-from-playing-ranks

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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Nadal Battles Past Murray In Rome Reunion

Andy Murray served up a bagel set the last time he faced Rafael Nadal, three years ago in the Tokyo final.

On Friday, Murray picked up where he left off when the pair renewed their rivalry in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but was unable to hold off the seven-time Rome champion in the end. The World No. 1 battled back to win 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, setting a semi-final meeting with 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov.

The seventh-seeded Murray, who had taken just one set off of Nadal in their previous four clay-court meetings, raced out to a 5-0 lead as he converted his two break point chances and saved the three faced. Murray served out the first set after 38 minutes, after Nadal held to avoid his first bagel set since playing Roger Federer at the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Nadal saved a break point to open the second set, and finally converted on his fifth opportunity against Murray to take a 2-0 lead - the only break of the 52-minute set. Nadal won 100 per cent of his second serve points and all 12 of his points at the net.

After exchanging breaks to start the third set, Murray broke to go up 4-2 after Nadal had fought back to deuce from triple break point down. The Mallorcan immediately recovered his serve and claimed the decisive break to love, 6-5. He pulled ahead 14-5 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Nadal had reached the quarter-finals with two battling victories. He prevailed against Gilles Simon in three hours and 19 minutes - the longest best-of-three-set match this season - and came from a set and a break down to defeat Mikhail Youzhny.

This is the first time since 2005 Rome that Nadal has won three straight decisive-set matches on clay in the same tournament.

The Spaniard had rebounded from quarter-final exits in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona to win the Mutua Madrid Open title, needing to rally from down against Kei Nishikori in the final.

"He finished the match incredibly well," said Murray. "The last three games he was physically a little bit stronger than me at the end. Apart from that it was a good match."

source: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/05/20/Rome-Friday-Nadal-Murray.aspx

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