GAZUNTITE!: David Hyde described Venus Williams‘ screech as a “high-pitched grunt that sounds like a violent sneeze.”
CLIFF’S TOUGHEST MATCH: Former U.S. No. 1 Cliff Richey admits in a new book — “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” — that during his battle with clinical depression he sometimes hung black trash bags over the windows of his house, stayed in bed all day and cried.
KNEE SLAPPER: Greg Garber joked, “The state of [Rafael] Nadal‘s tender knees has been discussed with a zeal approaching the national healthcare debate.”
ANA’S WOES CONTINUE: Struggling Serb Ana Ivanovic (who’s fallen out of the top 50) announced that she will skip the upcoming Fed Cup tie against the Slovak Republic. “After all that has happened lately, it’s not the right time for me to be part of the team,” she said.
STEPANEK OUT: Radek Stepanek, who’s set to marry fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova this summer, will miss about two months due to fatigue syndrome and could miss the French Open.
THE NUMBERS
29: Minutes it took Kim Clijsters to take the first set from fellow Belgian Justine Henin in the Sony Ericsson Open semis. Clijsters went on to win 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-6(6).
450: Hours that Walter Bartoli estimates his daughter, Marion, trains each year. (Said Walter, “No one else works that much, but considering Marion’s initial lack of aptitude, we cannot do any less.”)
QUOTEBOOK
“I was feeling like I had glue on my sneakers.” — Bartoli on her 6-3, 6-4 semifinal loss to Venus in Miami
“I wouldn’t say [Venus] exactly carries a chip on a shoulder, but the idea here is that if she were pinned down to 100 percent honesty, she wouldn’t admit anyone —Serena, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Suzanne Lenglen, Chris Evert, not a one of them — has ever been better than [she] has been, or is.” — Edwin Pope on Venus
“I just like to think of myself as a big-point player.” — Venus
“All three girls have a remarkable story to relate. Henin’s travails against the backdrop of the premature death of her mother, family splits, recriminations and reconciliations, her marriage and divorce, are part of the sport’s folklore. Clijsters, so happy-go-lucky by comparison, was a committed competitor, before she decided to stop playing, had a daughter, lost her father and mentor, Leo, to cancer, returned to the tour and won the U.S. Open in fairytale style. Wickmayer is a no less driven character, having lost her mother at the age of nine after which her father uprooted from Belgium and landed in America, building a new life.” — Neil Harman on the Belgian trio of Henin, Clijsters and Yanina Wickmayer
