WORST ANALYSIS OF THE YEAR: Mary Rhodes said that Victoria Azarenka (the loudest screecher in the game) was “quietly working her way through [the draw].”
INTRO TO PARENTING 101: Of his son, Pete Sampras complained, “I don’t know what’s going on in this kid’s head. Anything I say, he does the opposite.”…After the arrival of his third child, Lleyton Hewitt joked that he and his wife “were outnumbered now.”…Roger Federer insisted, “I don’t need my twins to put life or my tennis in perspective.”
BORING STRATEGY: Patrick McEnroe said the best way to get to Federer is to bore him.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘RODGE’ AND RAFA: Richard Evans said, “Federer is an air runner. Nadal is an earth runner. Federer could have been a ballet dancer. Nadal could have been a boxer.”…Simon Barnes said that Roger “bedazzles his poor bunnies with wit and style and art and guile: Nadal bashes them over the head with a shovel.”
SIR RODGE WAVING AIRILY TO THE MULTITUDES: Rafael Nadal’s autobiography says that Federer is “suave and effortlessly superior…[an] aristocrat who strolls on court waving airily to the multitudes as if he owned Wimbledon, as if he were welcoming guests to a private garden party…Federer belongs to a type one might have seen in the 1920s, when tennis was an upper-crust pastime, a gentlemen’s spirited exercise following afternoon tea.”
A TWITCHY QUESTION: Frank DeFord noted, “An embarrassing little hitch [has] developed in tennis. Unlike the GOAT in any other sport, the greatest player of all time, Federer kept losing to his prime rival, leaving us with the twitchy question, ‘How can you be the Greatest Of All Time if you’re not even the greatest in your time'”
MOST RESPECTFUL COMMENTARY: Nick Lester said of Rafa, “It would be a struggle to find a more humble sportsman in all of tennis, in all of sports. He has the deepest respect for his sport and for his opponents.”
RAFA’S SECRET: According to his pal Carlos Moya, “the secret of Rafa’s tremendous appeal…is that he is as passionate as McEnroe, but has the self-control of Borg, the cold-blooded killer. To be both in one is a contradiction and that’s what Rafa is.”
MOVIE REVIEWS
• The arrival of the movie My Week With Marilyn brought to mind the late Ted Tinling’s comment on Gabriella Sabatini: “She looks like Marilyn Monroe but walks like John Wayne.”
• Hollywood moguls Stephen Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer are reportedly in a bidding war for film rights to Andre Agassi’s autobiography.
• Novak Djokovic landed a cameo part in the Stallone movie The Expendables 2.
• James Lawton said that Djokovic’s slamming of his frame as he struggled at Wimbledon turned racket abuse into “a violent art worthy of Quentin Tarantino.”
• Croat Ivo Karlovic, who has a speech impediment, said the movie The King’s Speech (which celebrates King George VI’s effort to overcome his stammer) was great “because it describes the situation exactly. It expresses what we have to go through and how people judge us. It’s hard when words don’t come out.”
• In the compelling drama A Dangerous Method, Sigmund Freud draws on his inner-McEnroe, proclaiming, “YOU? ANNOT BE SERIOUS!”
INCORRECT AUTOCORRECTS: Andy Roddick tweeted, “I just texted the word ‘badass’ and it autocorrected it to Nagasaki.” Bob Bryan wrote, “I meant to send ‘xoxoxo’ to my wife and it autocorrected it to Codfish!”
FREEDOM, FREEDOM, OH, FREEDOM!: The BBC noted that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga “has no coach, no one to squash his spontaneity. He’s reveling in that freedom.”
HEADLINES
MURRAY FINDS NADAL TO BE A SPAIN IN THE GRASS
WHO’S RUNNING THE COUNTRY? WHO CARES WHEN THE TENNIS
IS GOOD
STOP NOW? YOU MUST BE DJOKING
FED BEST OF ALL TIME, BUT CAN’T BEAT HIS MAIN RIVAL
FEDERER ERA ENDS
THIS IS FIRST TIME I’VE SEEN FEAR ON FEDERER’S FACE
NADAL BATTERS FISH
TSONGA DANCE MAN
MARIA’S WORTH A SHOUT
DESPERATE NATURE OF HOME RECORD MAKES MURRAY UNDERPRAISED AND OVERBLAMED
GASQUET BLOWS!
TIME RUNNING OUT FOR RODDICK
BLINGTASTIC SERENA!
BRITAIN, IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE, HAS AN INSIDIOUS OBSESSION WITH EXALTING LOSERS
LAME, SET AND MATCH FOR MURRAY
FADING TENNIS EMPIRES CLING TO ANDYS
SERENA MAKES MESS OF EVERYTHING
SAY IT ISN’T SO: The U.S. has to play a Federer-led Swiss team in Fribourg Feb 10-12…Venus Williams has Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease…Mike Bryan was fined $10,000 (Yes, that’s five times as much as Serena) for an incident with a U.S. Open official after his first-round loss…Nadal is so determined not to hint that he, not Federer, is the greatest of all time that he said head-to-head records (in which he’s up 17-9 on Roger) are not that important…When reflecting on the prevalence of coaching from the stands, Martina Navratilova said, “Everybody does it, so it’s not illegal.”…The French Open’s fabled “Bullring” and its quirky Court 2 will be bulldozed…The chairman of Moldova’s tennis federation was killed when a vehicle exploded as he walked out of the federation’s headquarters…The Indo-Pak Express of Aisam-ul Haq Quereshi and Rohan Bopanna was derailed. The duo whose slogan was “Stop War Start Tennis” split up…Nadal signed an endorsement deal with Bacardi.
BEST NEW NAMES: Tennessee’s Tennys Sandgren, and Tornado Ali Black and her younger sister, Hurricane Ali Black.
BEST NEW NICKNAME: “Quizner,” for the towering doubles team of Sam Querrey and John Isner. Honorable Mention: “The Maple Leaf Missile,” for Canadian power server Milos Raonic.
HEY, GOLDEN AGE, MEET THE CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT: After losing a match which prevented him from getting a wildcard into the French Open, Donald Young, 21, sent out a tweet that more or less said: “F— USTA!! Their full of s—! They have screwed me for the last time! #enoughsaid.” Liz Clarke suggested the incident reflects a broader culture of entitlement among young, gifted American athletes.
SHOTS HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD
• Down 5-3, 40-15 in the fifth set of his US Open against Federer, Djokovic staved off match point by blasting a spectacular forehand winner just inside the sideline off Federer’s first serve. Djokovic won 17 of the last 21 points to prevail. BTW: John McEnroe called it “one of the best returns ever struck.” Federer said it was “a lucky shot.”
• Ivo Karlovic’s 156 mph Davis Cup serve broke Andy Roddick’s previous record of 155 mph for the fastest serve.
• What if Federer’s set-point drop shot didn’t miss by a half-inch in the opening set of the French Open final?
• Roddick finished off Milos Raonic in Memphis by hitting the shot of his career on match point — a leaping, tumbling, hat-flying miracle forehand.
NO GUTS, NO GLORY: After Wozniacki hit a powder puff serve on match point, Lindsay Davenport said, “That did not just happen. This is what shocks me. A No. 1 player in the world goes up to the line with a match point on her serve and she spins a 73 mph serve.”
WILD ‘N WACKY WOZ: Longstanding No. 1 Wozniacki hasn’t won a Slam. She doesn’t have any wins over Kim Clijsters, the Williamses or Henin and in ’11 she suffered 12 losses to players ranked outside the top 20. Plus, Tom Perotta noted that Woz (aka Sunshine) “doesn’t inspire dread in her opponents…because she’s too busy smiling at them, befriending them and rooting for them on Twitter.” Nonetheless, Ted Robinson noted that being No. 1 “isn’t something you have to apologize for. You don’t have to explain. It’s something to be proud of.” All the while, the Dane had plenty of fun. After hearing that the media thought her press conferences were bores, she launched into her own Q&A dialogue in Melbourne in which she provided answers before the usual formulaic questions were asked. Later she invented a tale that she was attacked by a kangaroo at a local park. At Wimbledon, she crashed a press conference and lobbed up questions to her pal and Monte Carlo neighbor, Novak Djokovic. Then she went on to offer jolly imitations of the Serb, Nadal cramping and Serena preening and she rocked the house in Bratislava with fab (eat your heart out, Petko) dance moves.
WILD ‘N WACKY WIMBY: There were three leaks in the $150 million Wimbledon roof…When ball persons at a Serena match muddled it all up and balls were rolling everywhere, broadcaster Gigi Salmon blurted out, “Get a hold of your balls”…At crunch time against Murray, Viktor Troicki was about to put away an overhead when a ballboy dashed on court…A lineswoman fell asleep during Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky’s first-round Wimbledon match.
JUST A LOAD OF OLD BALLS: The Independent’s Harriet Walker wrote, “No one could accuse Wimbledon of not being an admirably well-oiled machine, but that’s part of its problem. The play and people have become so robotic that the whole shebang has lost its charm entirely…You can glitz it all up with flags and bunting, and ladle on some double cream but, fundamentally, Wimbledon is just a load of old balls.”
SCARIEST SIGHT OF THE YEAR: Writhing in pain, a cramping Nadal, fell to the floor after a U.S. Open press conference. His collapse prompted Doug Robson to note, “You don’t often see Nadal flat on his back – unless he’s winning Grand Slam titles.”
TEARS: According to a Chinese survey, 40 per cent of the fans who watched Li Na win the French Open were crying…Federer again wept after winning in Basel, his hometown…Nadal, Clijsters and Del Potro were just some of many who got weepy during a very wet season…After being run around like a yo-yo by Wozniacki in the Indian Wells final, Marion Bartoli said she cried “tears of exhaustion.”
I’LL SEE YOUR RICK PERRY OOPS MOMENT AND RAISE YOU: Pat Cash once famously said Lleyton Hewitt’s “two greatest strengths are his legs, his speed, his agility and his competitiveness.”
SOMEONE DIDN’T READ THE SCRIPT: The U.S. was supposed to score a feel-good win over the celebrated (but Nadal-less) Spanish Davis Cup team on lightning-fast courts in the Austin hometown of Roddick. Sixteen thousand “Hook ’em Horns” rowdies yelled proud, but David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez stepped up and spanked Austin Andy and Mardy Fish. The Spaniards went on to claim their fifth Davis Cup title in 11 years.
MAN BITES DOG: Roddick issued a warning to ump Fergus Murphy for “freaking ineptitude.”
JUST COLLECTING A CHECK: Roddick said, “Tennis analyst is the easiest job in the world because whatever the person does, if it works you just say that’s what’s good, and if it doesn’t work, you guys go, ‘He should have done the other things.’…It just doesn’t take much thought.”
BROOKLYN IS MORE THAN A BOROUGH: “Before playing Roddick, Jack Sock’s handlers told the 18-year-old to “Keep your eye on the ball and not on [Andy’s wife] Brooklyn Decker”…SI’s swimsuit issue featured 10 pages dedicated to Decker…John McEnroe said Roddick’s marriage was hurting him on court and claimed, “If you are married to an actress it takes some energy – I should know. [He was married to Tatum O’Neal]. Andy didn’t play much this year and people are starting to worry.” Roddick’s pal Mardy Fish shot back, saying that his recent marriage to actress Stacey Gardner had “given him a new lease on life, period…[McEnroe’s comments] are completely unwarranted…You should probably stay away from the wives.” BTW: Esquire’s Tom Chiarella said Decker married “the only appealing American tennis player with gonads.”
A SWELL REASON TO GET MARRIED?: Alex Bogmolov, Jr. admitted he rushed into his marriage to former WTA player Ashley Harkleroad because “it was more of a prize…She was very popular with all our guys. Andy, Robby, Mardy dated her. Everybody dated her. So…I was competitive in tennis, I was competitive in the personal life…That’s just the way the juniors are. [If] you can take a girl away from a guy you feel good about it.”
BAD PLANNING, DUDE: Bob Bryan and his wife, Michelle, are due to have their first child on the same day as the Aussie Open doubles final. Bryan revealed the obvious, telling us, “We weren’t planning.”
AN EXISTENTIAL REFLECTION?ON?NOT-SO-FAUX FOES: To bolster his point that Aussie players are fine until they face international competition, Greg Baum noted, “Jean-Paul Sartre once said, ‘In football, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposition.'”
REFLECTIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Broadcaster Kate Kearns claimed that Virginia Wade’s high service toss was responsible for climate change…Martina Navratilova said, “Murray doesn’t only absorb your pace, he absorbs your energy.”
PERHAPS THE BEST DECISION IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY?: Commenting on ambitious plans for the overcrowded Roland Garros facility, French Federation prez Jean Gachassin made the move sound like a grand triumph for humanity and civilization. It was “a bold decision,’ said Gachassin, “It was brave, it was innovating and it was against the general trend to jumboization that we witness today. We made the choice of excellence, the choice of building our charm, our specificities that the whole world is envying us.”
STORMING THE BASTILLE: When the Djokovic vs. Del Potro U.S. Open match was moved to a small court, hundreds of enraged fans chanted, “LET US IN! LET US IN!”
DON’T STEP ON SUPERMAN’S CAPE: Ryan Harrison, 19, dared to diss the guy who many consider the greatest of all time. The feisty wannabe suggested that if Fed “had a little more fire it would help him get back to the top…Whenever Federer plays anyone other than Rafa or Djokovic, he plays with this swagger where it’s like, ‘It’s my match, I’m going to win.’ It’s a little more uncertain when he plays against Djokovic and Nadal…If he walked out with a little more – I don’t’ want to say ego…but just like a little more fire, it would help him.” Harrison quickly got the message that you don’t diss Royal Rodge and apologized. But Roger almost seemed to agree with Harrison, saying, “Against Rafa…I don’t want to say you don’t believe 100 percent, but you’re kind of in doubt with your game. He takes advantage of that.”
AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS OVERKILL WHEN THE NFL BANNED EXCESSIVE ENDZONE CELEBRATIONS: Paul Habershon of Bedford wrote the London Times: “Sir, I accept that the winner of a Wimbledon match feels intense pleasure. However, the victor’s first duty is surely to shake hands and be pleasant to the opponent. Instead, we often witness a ritual of selfish celebration: the melodramatic fall to the turf, the fist pump, the arms raised to the crowd. This is insulting to the waiting loser. Even some players supposedly renowned for their good manners are guilty of this gloating behavior.”
A TALE OF TWO MURRAYS: Chris Evert said Andy Murray “doesn’t have the arrogance that the other guys [Nadal, Federer and Djokovic] have.” But Jon Wertheim suggested, “Never has such a talented player projected such misery when he performs. This is supposed to be fun, dude. Instead of waiting until you’re winning to show a better attitude, maybe a better attitude would facilitate winning?”
HOW DEFERENTIAL CAN YOU GET: After Prince William and Kate Middleton showed up for one of his Wimbledon matches, Andy Murray said, “If I’d known they were coming, I would have shaved…I was sweaty and very hairy. I said to them, ‘I’m sorry, I’m a bit sweaty.'”
ASIDE FROM THAT, MURRAY’S JUST FINE: The Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell contended that Murray “moved with the bounce of a sloth. He did not like the tension in his racket or in his soul. He was leaden, sullen, beaten. It’s not history that weighs Andy Murray down. It’s Andy Murray. There are too many of him…[His] problems are psychologically deep-rooted and have to do with his inability or reluctance to seize the moment. It is as if his brain has temporarily been disconnected from his perfectly honed body…Nobody suffers so painfully as the Scot, his naturally drawn features growing more mournful with every passing excuse. He is the Hamlet of tennis.”
WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT IN NYC?: On Labor Day at the U.S. Open Scot Murray tweeted, “On way to courts and traffic has been stopped as there are men playing bagpipes with american flags on top of them….Weird.”
OMG — NO BODYGUARDS!: Rafa said, “When you have bodyguards, everything is more difficult. That’s when people recognize you. When you go normal, it’s easier to go out without problems, people are respectful.”…Of a visit to San Quentin State Prison, Mike Bryan said, “We weren’t walking around with armed guards. That was the amazing thing. We just walked down into the yard and saw the sniper towers. We were with the inmates, which was crazy – guys shirtless, lifting weights, tattoos…These guys were so cool. They all knew about our U.S. Open loss. Guys were talking about how they lost cigarettes. They bet on our matches. They know all the rankings. They’re like historians of tennis.”
CONFLICT OF INTEREST?: Regarding conflicts of interest in tennis broadcasting, SI’s Richard Deitsch asserted, “The sport’s TV entities have long fostered a climate where players are subjected to questions about as soft as a Francesca Schiavone drop shot. It’s hard to believe such flagrant conflicts would be permitted in other sports.”
THE NUMBERS
$143,000: Estimated amount players must earn in a year to break even.
288: ATP and WTA players who earned more than $143,000 in ’11.
82%: Of respondents to a French poll who said Federer would win another Slam.
30: Straight quarters reached by Federer.
$2,329,874: Annual salary of former ATP boss Adam Helfant.
BARTOLI’S WIN OVER SERENA WAS NO FAIRY TALE: Radio Wimbledon said, “Maid Marion robbed the girl from the hood.”
BILLIE JEAN ON SERENA: Reflecting on the controversial incident with Serena in Indian Wells in ’01, Billie Jean King said, “The crowd blew it. They should have been a little bit more, ‘I’m not sure what’s going on.'”
IS SEXISM ALIVE AND WELL?: Janko Tipsarivic said, “Umpires are like emotional girlfriends, once they make up their minds, there’s no point in arguing”…A leading British writer tweeted, “There’s women’s doubles on Centre Court at the BNP Paribas Masters at the moment. Tennis shooting itself in the foot again.”
NEW AGE JOURNAL:
• In the 90s, 15 women’s Slams were won by teens. In the 2000s, only three teenage girls have won Slams.
• Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, 21, is the first player born in the ’90s to win a Slam.
• Lisa Raymond contended, “The days of the prodigy are long gone. You’re not going to see a [Martina] Hingis or a [Jennifer] Capriati or a [Monica] Seles winning majors at that age-ever again. The game is so much more physical now. The strings, the racket technology, the players are fitter-it all adds up to a bigger game.”
• The youngest player in the men’s top 10 doubles rankings is Michael Llodra, 31.
• Nadal said, “I’m almost 25, but it seems like I am playing for 100 years.”
ALL HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED EQUALLY: Hall of Famer Margaret Court – now a Pentecostal minister – condemned same-sex marriage, deeming it “alternative, unhealthy, unnatural” and added, “Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take.” Martina Navratilova, whom Court has long labeled a bad role model, shot back, “Seems to me a lot of people have evolved, as has the Bible. Unfortunately, Margaret Court has not…Her myopic view is truly frightening, as well as damaging to thousands of children already living in same-gender families.” Billie Jean King insisted, “We have to commit to eliminating homophobia, because everyone is entitled to the same rights.” The WTA Tour echoed that sentiment, stating that it “believes that all human beings, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or otherwise, should be treated equally.”
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN: After teasing the press in Australia, Wozniacki said she had “a blonde moment”…Allison Pearson claimed, “The ballistic baseline belles [of women’s tennis] seem to come off a production line in some secret armaments factory in Eastern Europe”…Ana Ivanovic said “Girls aren’t the easiest to coach. It’s a strange situation. A coach is in charge…but we’re the boss. On the men’s tour it’s easier…The guys are the boss. [But when] all of a sudden they have a girl who is the boss. It takes a certain ego to accept that…Guys and girls have different mentalities. Girls are so stressed about everything.”
THE END OF HUNGER?: Chris Evert told Jon Wertheim that the “vacuum” in the WTA is about players having the drive to win every time out…”Look at the past champions,” she said. “Billie Jean, me, Martina, Steffi, Monica. What’s the common thread? We wanted it and committed ourselves. There’s a desire and hunger. You don’t see that anymore.”
A GRAND SAM WIN: Sam Stosur – a muscular Aussie vet who had suffered humiliation in the 2010 French Open final and in her career had previously won only two tournaments, outlasted Nadia Petrova in the longest women’s match in U.S. Open history, recovered from losing the longest women’s tiebreaker in Slam history and then survived Serena’s storm to score a feel-good U.S. Open win.
GOODBYE DUOPOLY, HELLO TRIVALRY?: Just when we were getting used to the word “duopoly,” Mary Carillo introduced the term “trivalry.” After all, with Djokovic’s emergence the Fed-Nadal duopoly gave way to one of the better three-way tennis tussles ever.
THESE ARE THE GOOD OLD DAYS: Some day, 20 or 30 years from now, TV cameras (if there are still such things) will give us a close up of an aging but still regal Federer sitting in the front row of the Royal Box looking dashingly handsome, despite a touch of gray. And chatting with him will be a still muscular, quite jovial Spaniard, Nadal. And at the edge of the TV shot will be a chuckling Serbian, Djokovic, now with long hair, but his trademark twinkle still in place. In other words, today as hard as it may be to realize, we’re in a golden age of men’s tennis.
LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDID THING: A lad named Larry e-mailed Aussie Open Radio and asked, “Could Wozniacki go on a date with me? P.S. I have never gone out on a date”…Kristina Mladenovic checked out Nicolas Mahut’s curves when the Frenchman showed up at the Hopman Cup in drag…Kate Kearns contended, “Love hasn’t been easy for Justine Henin.” But our fave Henin observation came from Chris Bowers, who said, “Justine is still battling with issues relating to her sense of self. She talks with great wisdom but I see those sad eyes.”
POTENT PREDICTIONS: John Isner, who has become pals with Nicolas Mahut, sent his friend a text a few days before the Wimbledon draw, saying, “Watch us play each other next week.”…Just before the U.S. Open golf tournament, Nadal texted his Irish buddy Rory McIlroy, saying, “You are going to win.”
CARLS(BAD) TRAVEL DAY: In a logistical snafu reminiscent of Ivan Lendl nearly heading to Auckland instead of Oakland, Serbian teen Bjoana Jovanovski boarded a flight for Carlsbad, site of the Mercury Insurance Open. But she went to Carlsbad, New Mexico, not Carlsbad, Calif.
BRAD DAY AT THE OFFICE: Darren Cahill tweeted, “Definition of a bad day…when you sign an autograph for a kid at the tennis and he looks you square in the eyes and says…thanks Brad!”
NEW DAY NEW TERMS:
• Brad Gilbert said tennis should have a stat that tracks player’s “re-break percentage:” i.e. how often a player breaks back after being broken.
• During the Aussie women’s final, which featured one break of serve after another, Navratilova said that instead of saying the players were on serve, she “should’ve said they were ‘on break.'”
POLITICAL POTPOURRI: When Andrea Petkovic was asked when she was going to run for prime minister, the German replied, “That takes a while, like another 10 years”…Marat Safin was elected to the Russian State Duma (Anna Chakvetadze lost)…When Libyan rebels stormed Muammar Qaddafi’s headquarters they found two courts next to a Bedouin-style tent where he entertained guests in a compound that was described as “a pleasant place, with the security of a prison but the facilities of a country club.”…Israel’s Shahar Peer led 10,000 marchers in the Holocaust Remembrance Day march in Poland…First Lady Michelle Obama, who deftly played a ballgirl in a PSA, said the part of the White House she most enjoys is the tennis court because “everyone is taking lessons.” Nonetheless, she said her tennis skills were “very questionable” …After insiders congratulated PTR chief Dan Santorum on his brother Rick’s breakthrough performance in the Iowa caucuses, the longtime USTA volunteer said, “I only wish my dad were here to see it. He would have been very proud.”…Newt Gingrich’s son-in-law, Paul Lubbers, is the director of USTA Tennis Coaching Education. Gingrich once told IT, “Tennis may be a little more Republican because there’s no distribution. Tennis doesn’t have any kind of system of giving you extra points, so it actually requires merit”…Pakistan held a tennis exhibition in their “disturbed areas” that are sanctuaries for al-Qaeda to send the message “that despite the war on terror, sporting activities can be held.”
CRIME STORIES: A few years back, Pete Sampras’ trophies were stolen. There was a brutal robbery in Anna Chatvetadze’s Moscow apartment, which derailed her promising career and Nadal’s $500,000 watch disappeared from a Toronto locker room. This year, Holland’s Elise Tamaela was seriously injured when her opponent’s father attacked her in the stands. And as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was facing Federer in the Barclays ATP Championships in December, his Swiss villa was robbed. BTW: Ted Robinson said David Ferrer’s dismantling of homestanding Andy Roddick in Austin during Davis Cup play was “utter thievery.”
MILESTONES: Tunisian Ons Jabeur won the girls’ singles title at the French to become the first Arab girl to win a Slam…Nadal equaled Bjorn Borg’s record of six French Open titles and became the first player in the Open Era to win two tournaments – Monte Carlo and Barcelona – at least six times…Andy Murray hired Ivan Lendl as his new coach… Djokovic became the only player to beat Nadal twice on clay in one year… When they won Wimbledon, the Bryan Bros. tied Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde’s mark of 11 Slam titles…Tim Heckler, the longtime CEO of the USPTA, announced that he’ll retire in December…DIED: Wimbledon and U.S. National finalist Tom Brown; Jim McManus, a founding member of the ATP Board; and agent Ken Meyerson…RETIRED: Justine Henin, Patty Schnyder and Mario Ancic.
JUST WONDERING: Is Nadal the most popular foreign athlete to ever play in America? When has women’s tennis been so devoid of anything that hints of a compelling, go-to rivalry?…Is the Nadal-Federer rivalry the best ever?…Why is women’s tennis so much better than men’s tennis in China?…Will Venus or James Blake retire first?…Who on this earth picked Stosur to win the U.S. Open?…Why do they punish match-fixing but allow gambling websites to sponsor events?…What’s a more important trend – older players, taller players or players from Europe and other distant ports?
HE MAY HAVE SOME DOWNSIDES, BUT THIS IS A MAN APART: Andre Agassi noted, “We all have our cross to bear…I had a ‘hate-love’ relationship with tennis, not a ‘love-hate’ relationship. I went from resenting a life that was chosen for me to, after being No. 1 and falling to No. 141, choosing to take ownership. That’s when I started my school. All of a sudden tennis felt like a team sport. I felt connected…I was also playing for something much larger than myself. It then gave me my life’s meaning…The reason I have everything I hold dear is because of how much tennis has loved me back.”
WHY WE LOVE KIM: Clijsters (who Martina Navratilova said was, “the most down-to-earth champion we’ve ever had”) said her goal in life is to adopt a child.
A POIGNANT REFLECTION ON LOVE: Virgine Razzano — whose fiance succumbed to a brain tumor, played the French Open just eight days after his death. The Frenchwoman said, “As two people we were just one….The most beautiful thing we did in our life was not a match or anything else but love…We made a single being…To play here [is an] homage for him. It’s painful. It’s hard…I grabbed all my courage. I don’t have much. I’m very fragile. I feel lonely…I’m mourning and it’s difficult when you lose someone…who will forever be the man whom I love…I want to give love to people who want to take the love I can give.”
ANIMAL FARM
• While musing on Roger Federer, Cliff Drysdale cautioned, “Never corner a lion.”
• Mardy Fish joked that he treats his dachshund, Charlie, better than his model wife, Stacey Gardner.
• After winning Wimbledon Djokovic fell to the ground and ate some grass. “I felt like an animal,” he said. “I wanted to see how it tastes. It tastes good.”
• As Juan Martin Del Potro was complaining that Nadal was stalling, Mary Rhodes said the Argentine “is not a happy bunny and he’s having a right moan about it.”
• Lenox Rawlings described an exhausted John Isner as “a cooked stork staggering under the broiling sun.”
• The Guardian said the color of Andy Murray’s new duds “might be the ugliest green since King Kong blew his nose.”
• Wozniacki lost to an elephant in a bowling contest in Thailand.
• Sharapova said Patty Schnyder played a game that made you feel “like a silly mouse.”
• Dimitry Tursunov tweeted, “Winston-Salem better have cockroaches in the hotel. The swanky life is easy to get used to.”
• Rafa wrote, “A tennis player must take his example from the hummingbird, the only animal that combines endless stamina with high speed, [that is] able to manage up to eight wing flaps per second over four hours.”
TOP 10 STORIES OF THE YEAR
1. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Streaking Serb reels off 43 straight wins, three majors, and one of the greatest seasons of all time.
2. SERENA WILLIAMS: Looks downright dominant in return from her 11-month layoff, only to melt down in the U.S. Open final.
3. ROGER FEDERER: Doesn’t bag a major for the first time since ’02, but sends a clear message that he’s far from done by winning the final 15 matches of the year, including the year-end ATP Tour finals.
4. LI NA: Roland Garros title makes her the first Asian woman to win a Slam singles title.
5. PETRA KVITOVA: Martina Navratilova is no longer the only Czech lefthander to win Wimbledon.
6. SAMANTHA STOSUR: The never-give-up vet owns just three career singles titles, but third one is a big one as the chiseled Aussie outmuscles (and outclasses) Serena to win the U.S. Open.
7. SPAIN: Nadal leads his countrymen to their fifth Davis Cup title (and their third in four years) as Spain topples Argentina.
8. WTA VACCUM: The No. 1 WTA player, Wozniacki, and the No. 1 WTA name, Serena, can’t win a Slam. Clijsters can, but then gets injured. Her fellow Belgian, Justine Henin retires and only one young player – Petra Kvitova-breaks through.
9. RAFA SWEET ‘N SOUR: Nadal wins yet another French Open crown and leads Spain to the Davis Cup title, but loses his No. 1 ranking, six finals to Djokovic and some of his once-ample zest for the game.
10. MARDY FISH: It’s a career year for the revamped and refocused Fish, who goes 43-25 to qualify for a spot in the ATP’s Elite Eight.
SERENA’S SONGS: Vital and imposing, with ‘tude and talent, no one does tennis like Serena, who combines best-of-her-generation skills and a penchant for drama and controversy. No wonder a Wimbledon reporter wrote that it’s “just another day in the life of a Williams. A wobble, followed by breathtaking power wrapped up with a pop at officialdom.” And then, the next day, a British writer sparked a loud press room debate when he said Serena was the least popular defending champion Wimbledon’s ever had. Well, as Jon Wertheim noted, “It’s hard to conceive of an athlete who could be more polarizing if she tried.” In 2011, after an 11-month layoff, Serena again started to play fabulous tennis and for the fourth time in five years was voted America’s most popular women’s sports star. Then, in the last days of her two-year probation for verbally threatening a lineswoman at the ’09 U.S. Open, she suffered a similar tantrum in the ’11 final. After she was penalized a point for yelling “Come on!” as Samantha Stosur was about to contact the ball – she told the ump, “We were in America last time I checked. Don’t look at me. If we’re ever walking down the hallway, stay on the other side. You’re totally out of control. You’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside. What a loser.” Later, she deflected questions about her comments with jokes and la-di-da, la-di-da giggles. Eventually, she was fined $2,000, which according George Vescey, amounted “to a tip to one of her manicurists.” Not surprisingly, Serena’s Open drama was not the only memorable incident of the year.
• On how her foot was cut by glass in a Munich bar: “To this day, I don’t know. It’s like the biggest mystery next to the Loch Ness monster.”
• After Justine Henin expressed regret for her infamous win over Serena in the ’03 French semis, Serena tweeted: “I keep hearing about an admittance to someone cheating me & lying about it after at the French? Did she confess finally?”
• When IT asked Serena what she had learned from her ’09 U.S. Open tirade in which she threatened a lineswoman with a ball, Serena said she “got really popular” and “people were telling me they thought I was super cool, that they’d never saw me so intense. It was awesome.”
• Recovering from a blood clot that traveled from her leg to her lungs, Serena told Doug Robson, “I definitely have not been happy,” she said. “Especially when I had that second surgery [on my foot], I was definitely depressed. I cried all the time. I was miserable to be around…At this point I would play Indian Wells – anything to get back!” But, then when IT asked her to explain, she backtracked, saying, “I said I would consider playing Indian Wells? I must have been high on medicine, or something just as nice. I must have been misquoted or literally [been] on meds…Indian Wells is a great place, I guess, but just not for me. That’s, like, so 2000. I’m not going back there. It’s 2011 now.”
• When asked whether she makes a concerted effort to intimidate her opponents, Serena joked, “Yeah. I walk out there, do the Crip walk and try to intimidate them. No…I am who I am…I’m just me.”
• Serena complained that she doesn’t have room in her L.A. digs for any more trophies.
• Andy Roddick said, “Trust me, in five years, when they’re gone, everyone is going to miss them. Everyone is going to realize they’re going to be living legends for the rest of their lives. Two girls from Compton, dominating tennis-that’s not an everyday story.”
OBVIOUSLY
• Before the Sony Ericsson Open final between the game’s two premier shriekers —Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azaranka — Bill McAtee said, “It might get loud.”
• Sharapova told Teen Vogue, “I wouldn’t be a professional athlete if I weren’t a professional athlete.”
• When asked, after losing to Serena at the U.S. Open, what it was like to play Williams at her best, Azarenka replied, “Painful.”
• As broadcaster Gigi Salmon was analyzing the service preperation of 6-foot-9 John Isner, she noted, “Isner looks down at his feet and it’s a long way down.”
• After Isner again drew Nicolas Mahut in the first round at Wimbledon, he recalled their 2010 marathon and informed us, “Nothing’s going to live up to that match.”
• The understandably defensive Caroline Wozniacki said, “If you ask any player if they would rather be No. 1 or No. 50, everyone would pick No 1.”
• Djokovic said that to become No. 1 “all you have to do is to lose just one match in seven months.”
• When Pam Shriver asked Mardy Fish about the difference between playing all his L.A. matches at night and an upcoming day match at noon, he replied, “It’s a matter of night and day.”
• When asked why he wears a cross, Juan Martin Del Potro replied, “Well, I’m Catholic.”
GO FIGURE: Serena got called for shouting “C’mon!” but a zillion others grunt on…After losing a set to Francesca Schiavone, Marion Bartoli kicked her parents off the court…Four different women (Kim Clijsters, Li Na, Petra Kvitova and Sam Stosur) from four different countries won Slams in ’11…Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have won the last seven men’s Slams…The only active guy to’ve won more Slams than the 16 Federer has amassed is Bob Bryan with 17…The only men in the Open Era to have lost their first three Slam finals are Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi, Goran Ivanisevic and Andy Murray…Vegas gaming exec Kirk Kerkorin gave $18 million to Agassi’s academy…A prisoner bribed his way out of one of Indonesia’s most secure prisons to see a WTA tournament… Federer has never retired during 988 singles matches. Azarenka retired 10 times during matches due to injuries during 2010-2011…Nadal takes a freezing shower before every match to help sharpen his senses…1999 was the last Wimbledon finals weekend without a Federer or a Williams…Serena was seeded No. 28 at the U.S. Open… Kimiko Date Krumm said that if a motivated Steffi Graf came back on tour “she could beat everybody.”…When Pete Sampras was practicing with Donald Young, he called the young American “a little princess.”
DJOKOVIC’S YEAR OF WONDER: He emerged from the Serbian mountains; from a German academy and eventually from the imposing shadows of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to lead his country to the 2010 Davis Cup title, to pull off a 43-match win streak and complete one of the greatest seasons of all-time, in which he dominated his top foes, collected three majors and rose to No. 1. Sure, Bill Tilden once won 98 straight matches, and Suzanne Lenglen registered 182 in a row. Plus, John McEnroe’s 82-3 mark in ’84 and Rod Laver’s Grand Slam run of ’69 are hard to beat. Still, Novak Djokovic’s ’11 was arguably the best season ever. What the Serb lacks in balletic grace, he makes up with an uncanny geometric sense of the court and a chess master’s savvy as he changes directions, transitions from offense to defense and demolishes his opponents. No wonder Pat Cash observed, “Just think – a couple years ago Djokovic was defaulting and quitting in matches. And we all said this guy doesn’t have heart. Wow, has he turned his career around!”
“I don’t think many people saw it coming,” added Cash. “Novak has been phenomenal, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and getting to the semis at Roland Garros. That puts him right up there alongside the best who have ever played. I feel Djokovic is better than Federer in his prime because he has greater opposition.” So how did Novak emerge? The Davis Cup win was certainly provided a major spark. He’s older, more mature, faster, stronger, his serve doesn’t have it’s old hitches, his laser groundies are better than ever, his support system is streamlined, his gluten-free diet seems to work, he’s healthier and, while still fun-loving, he’s now fearless, highly motivated and he believes. The Bryan Bros. don’t think Djokovic’s year “will ever be done again with this type of consistency against these types of players. He’s beaten Nadal six times, Federer four.”
“It can be considered the best year of all time,” said Juan Martin Del Potro, who fell to Djokovic at Roland Garros. “He moves better than Nadal now. He doesn’t have any holes. And he’s had a lot of luck. He has everything, everything perfect. He’s beating all the players very, very easy, and I’m one more victim.” All of which begs the question, can he possibly keep up his torrid pace in 2012?
CURIOUS QUESTIONS: The amiable Caroline Wozniacki was asked, “Are you friends with everyone?”…After she ousted Jelena Jankovic in Miami, a reporter asked Andrea Petkovic, “Who are you?”…Sharapova was asked, “How do you balance the demands of your career with the giddiness of a girl being happy and in love?”…Nadal was asked, “You play doubles so well. Why bother playing singles?”…A reporter told Nadal, “In 40 years I follow tennis, I never heard the No. 1 being asked so many times why you play so badly?”…After she said she was climbing a mountain at the Open, Serena was asked, “Is it more like Mt. Everest or Henman Hill?”…Mary Carillo, who wondered whether the WTA would move to curtail grunting, asked, “Are you going to legislate it?” Our nation turns its swollen ears to you.
QUOTEBOOK
“Everything you’ve waited for usually comes the second you stop looking for it.” – Sloane Stephens, 18
“It’s like flying first class. You don’t know what you’re missing until you fly it once. Then you don’t ever want to leave.” -Mardy Fish on getting into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time.
“Ooooooooh Deliciano…looking good out there.” – Andy Murray’s feisty mom, Judy, on hunk Feliciano Lopez
“Saturday, I will go on the court enjoying, breathing, saying thanks for everything, because for me to arrive in final is fantastic, is big emotions…Sometimes we forget to play tennis, and we go inside us and we break everything and are upset. But it is just tennis.” – Francesco Schiavone on reaching the French Open final
“We do appreciate that over-talking can irritate our audience.” – The BBC, on complaints that their broadcasters are verbose
“Everyone in the [U.S. Open] stadium could feel the winds of change in the air. For all his greatness, Federer has clearly moved into the autumn of his career.” – Jeremy Schaap
“I just don’t see Roger becoming No. 1 again unless Nadal gets hurt. Nadal beats him on a regular basis, and other players can beat Roger when he is off his game.” – Martina Navratilova
“Happy, happy, happy, we’re not.” – Toni Nadal on his nephew’s problematic results
“People look at Nadal, see the muscles and say, ‘He’s a beast.’ No, mentally, he’s a beast.” – Mike Bryan
“[It was] the most glorious achievement of 30-plus years of Chinese sports.” – A Chinese editorial on Li Na winning the French
“How tough it is to climb, and how easy it is to go down.” – Former No. 1
Dinara Safina who finished at No. 131.
“You’ve got to be able to play under all kinds of circumstances – good, bad, strange, weird, bizarre, all of the above.” – Venus Williams
“I took a dive. I thought I was on the cliffs of Italy and forgot there was no water out there.” – Maria Sharapova after tumbling in Rome
“I didn’t think I’d ever play another guy from Nebraska.” – Andy Roddick on playing Omaha’s Jack Sock
“I think that you should retire.” – A miffed Andy Roddick, to a Chinese reporter who asked what ranking he would have to fall to before he would consider retiring.
“Even if there were a magic pill that allowed her to walk, I’m not sure she’d take it.” – Sander Vergeer, brother of wheelchair star Esther Vergeer, who’s won 423 straight matches
“Serena needs to learn the rules.” – Martina Navratilova
“Mommy won the trophy! Mommy won the trophy!” – Kim Clijsters’ three-year-old daughter, Jada
“They did their best work in sneakers.” – IT on Steve Jobs and Roger Federer
“The heart of the matter is heart.” – Patrick McEnroe
CHINA’S RELAXED, CANDID, POWERFUL, FUNNY, ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT PIONEER: In ’94, Pam Shriver was supposed to play on the first day of the first modern tournament in China. But the match was put off because not a single ticket was sold. Last year, 116 million Chinese watched Li Na become the first player born on the Asian mainline to win a Slam. After her French Open victory, she had 1.7 million followers on her Twitter-like page and collected huge endorsements. She’s also a courageous pioneer who broke away from her Federation a few years ago, as well the best new comic in tennis since Djokovic. Some examples:
• On being coached by her husband Jiang Shan: “Yeah, husband and wife always fighting, doesn’t matter on the court or out of the court. This is a problem. But on the court I have to listen to what he says…out of the court, it’s opposite.”
• On up and downside of having her husband as her coach: “Sometimes I think: ‘You’re my husband. Why are you shouting at me on the court?'”
• On the upside of having her husband as a coach: “The best thing…his credit card.”
• On her preparations for the Aussie Open semi: “I didn’t have a good evening. My husband slept like this — SSHHHHSS. I woke up every hour!”
• On the Aussie Open final in which she won the first set, but then dropped the next two: “Matches should only be one set long.”
• On why men’s tennis in China is so weak: “Yeah, right, lazy.”
• On why she fired her Danish coach: “Too mild and gentle.”
• On “The Great Wall of Denmark” – Caroline Wozniacki: “I think Chinese wall is more famous.”
• On why she beat Azarenka at the Aussie Open: “Because I’m better!”
• On why she lost in the first round at the US Open: “I played like s—.”
• On the fact that she’s 29: “I’m not old. Age just paper. ”
• On winning the French Open: “So many people think I’m not so good on clay courts. Now I think they should change their opinion.”
• On what keeps her going: “Prize money.”
• On what she ultimately thinks of her husband: “I made a lot of jokes…but it doesn’t matter if you are fat or skinny, handsome or ugly, I’ll always follow you and always love you.”
THE FEDERER FILE
• Federer means “trader in feathers”
• An Arab TV commentator said, “If Allah allows, and I’m sure he does, I’m changing my religion to Federerism.”
• Roger noted that his game has more ups and downs than Nadal’s, so against Rafa “it’s always me who’s going to dictate play and decide how the outcome is going to be. If I play well, I will most likely win…If I’m not…that’s when he wins.”
• Jimmy Arias said, “The only thing that has disappointed me about Federer is that against Nadal on clay he never really changed what had been a losing formula.”
• At his peak, Roger was asked about those ranked just below him. He replied, “I guess Nadal is still No. 2. No. 3 doesn’t matter much, it’s No. 1 that matters. That’s how it goes.” But in ’11, Roger who is now No. 3, said he still hopes to return to No. 1 and that “Whether I’m No. 3 or 4 doesn’t matter…[but] there can be very quick changes in the hierarchy.
• Sampras said Roger “sees coming in and serve-and-volleying as a sign of weakness, like, ‘Wow, I have to do this now?’…[All-time greats]…say, ‘I’ve won this many majors and I’m going to stick to this way.'”
• Serbian tennis official Radmilo Armenulic said Roger “was out of motives and edging closer to retirement…The only thing that could keep him in the ATP Tour is his ambition to claim the Wimbledon once again. He always says he is still hungry for trophies, but he will never tell you he doesn’t have any motivation.” P.S. Federer had a stunning finish to the ’11 season as he streaked to titles in his hometown of Basel, Paris and the year end Barclays Championships where he downed Nadal and Tsonga en route to the title.
• Federer compared himself to his younger self, saying “I am a better player now, but then I was young and there was no fear in me and you had nothing to lose…Sometimes it’s easier to play that way as well. It is hard to dominate because I have been doing it for so long, but I feel I still have it in me.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• Despite the fact that his parents run a pizza restaurant, Djokovic is on a gluten-free diet. But his pal Janko Tipsaravic says he is “gluten tolerant.” All the while, Federer says he doesn’t even know what a gluten-free diet means, but adds “I always have been hungry [for wins]” As for Andy Murray, the Scot avoids all foods with wheat and cow’s milk and Nadal said he dislikes dogs, ham and cheese.
• Eleanor Preston said Venus Williams’ dress at the Aussie Open had “some interesting waffle works [and] sort of looked like the top of apple pie.”
• John McEnroe used to brag that he followed the Haagen-Dazs diet. Now China’s Li Na has signed a $1 million endorsement deal which Haagen-Dazs (which yes has 22 percent fat)
• Mike Bryan said European dirtballers “eat clay for breakfast”
• After Kim Clijsters injured her ankle while dancing at her nephew’s wedding, Leif Shiras suggested that the next time she’s at a wedding she should “stick to the buffet.” (Speaking of ankles, Dmitry Tursunov reported that, “over the last two years the only two things clicking are my ankles.”)
• Chris Bowers said, “Many a dinner engagement has been wrecked by tennis’ scoring system.”
NOAH’S BARK: Many chuckled when Jim Courier explained his precipitous fall in the rankings by saying, “I should never have stopped taking those drugs. Once the East German doctor left my team, I’ve never been quite the same.” But in December few were laughing at tennis’ most sensitive soul, Yannick Noah. The humanistic, embracing world citizen who has just a hint of John Lennon out of nowhere accused the streaking Spaniards of doping. “There are too many cheats winning these days in Spain and elsewhere,” he said, without offering substantive proof. “How can a country dominate sport from one day to the next? Had they discovered avant-garde training techniques and methods that no one else imagined?” While a few, including Christophe Rochus (“He’s only telling the truth.”) defended Noah, Spain’s top players were quick to pounce. “I can’t understand how my idol, Yannick Noah, can say such stupid things,” tweeted Feliciano Lopez. “How is he going to look us in the face now?” Spanish Davis Cup standout Emilio Sanchez said he was “stunned,” adding, “It is not fair to discredit the triumphs of Spanish athletes by treating them all as cheaters.” Toni Nadal said Noah “deserves no respect. I will never again call him ‘Mister’ Noah, because a man you call ‘Mister’ doesn’t talk that way. And if one day he comes to say hello to Rafa, I hope my nephew will politely tell him what he thinks of those statements…It’s just jealousy, a total lack of thought. You can be jealous, but if you think whatever, at least shut up. It’s craziness on his part.”
OCCUPY ATP?: Players have long complained about their grueling schedule. Then after Nadal said tournament decisions were “all about the money” and Roddick noted that players only get 13 per cent of tournament revenues, there were rumblings about a strike. But Filip Bondy claimed that the top players care “almost exclusively about their own careers, about their endorsements…In tennis, the stars never stay aligned for long.” Brit John Lloyd added that the players “are making absolute fortunes. Normally you strike because you are not getting enough money or your place of work is not good enough. They play all the best places in the world, they get picked up by Rolls Royces and stay at 10-star hotels…So I am not sure what part of the normal reasons to strike are there.”
WHEN IN DOUBT, GRUNT
• When the ear-poundng grunter Victoria Azarenka was asked about noisy fans up in the U.S. Open suites, she said, “As a player we would all like to have a bit of respect and quiet.”
• After listening to Sharapova at Wimbledon (her loudest shriek was louder than a jack hammer) a Dutch fan called BBC and said, “Turn down the volume – I can hear Maria all the way in the Netherlands.”
• Aussie scientist Michael Warburton said players should shriek louder because “research shows it is worth the effort for the strength, energy, performance and force it generates.”
• While watching a Venus Williams match in Melbourne, Andy Murray tweeted: “Turned it on and thought someone was giving birth.”
• A reader from Tadworth wrote The Telegraph, saying: “BBC said that grunting and female banshee-screeching could not be stopped, but the answer is simple: stop grunting or be banned.”
• Wozniacki said some players grunt on purpose. “They don’t do it in practice…They could definitely cut it. If you grunt loudly, your opponent cannot hear how you hit the ball…You think the ball is coming fast and suddenly the ball just goes slow. In tight moments, maybe the grunt helps them with getting less nervous.” Azarenka shot back, saying she’s grunted since she was eight, it’s now a normal part of her game and she’s not trying to distract anybody and “anti-grunters” should “mind their own business.”
• The WTA said grunting is part of the game and won’t be banned. Still they are seeking to reduce decibel levels by targeting younger players.
