“HE SHOULD SUFFER FOR HIS LIES”: The confession of Lance Armstrong brought the issue of drug issue in tennis to the fore. Many, like Djokovic and Murray, denied there was any use. Djokovic said, “They should take all Armstrong’s titles away … He should suffer for his lies all these years.” But Dick Pound, the retired founder of the World Anti-Doping Agency, after reflecting on the physicality and longevity of today’s players, said, “Look at the difference in build and the sustained level of activity. If the tennis authorities don’t believe there is EPO or HGA use now, they are not paying attention.” Belgium’s former player Christophe Rochus again repeated his previous, highly controversial claim that there is drug use in tennis. He and Pound have no proof whatsoever. Most outrageous is the inventive theory that Nadal’s seven month absence from the tour is a conspiracy by the ITF and the ATP to cover up drug use by Nadal. Again no proof. And as a big drug trial of a doctor in Madrid unfolds, Rafa reported he was drug tested nine times during his absence and he again vehemently denied any wrongdoing and insisted that if all the drug testing in tennis were more open there would be far less of a problem.
RUMOR OF THE MONTH: That the Mercury Insurance Open will eventually move from San Diego to Chicago.
TSONGA, BERDYCH, DELPO, RAONIC, FERRER, ISNER: Who will be the next man, outside the top four, to win a Slam.
LET’S SEE IF WE CAN PULL THIS ONE OFF: One of our cultural treasures, Tina Turner, is about to become a Swiss citizen. So does that give us the right to lure Federer and try to convince him to become an American citizen? BTW: Roger recently told the AP that when he was a kid his dad was almost transferred to a job in Australia, in which case he might have become an Aussie.
NO KIDDING: After Darren Cahill said he’s never seen panic in Federer’s face, Pat McEnroe responded, “Let me know when he shows some. He never has before.”
GENDER GAP?: Young American women are surging quite nicely. It’s exciting. Sloane Stephens, 19, beat Serena in Melbourne and is now ranked No. 17. Madison Keys is 17 too, 17 years old. She, her serve and forehand drew rave reviews in Melbourne. “You don’t have a serve like that at 17 … I haven’t felt this for 15 years,” gushed Pam Shriver. “Best U.S. hope I’ve seen since Williams,” added Lindsay Davenport … Jamie Hampton, 23, gave Azarenka fits . Although the U.S. eventually lost to Italy in Fed Cup, Varvara Lapchenko scored two stunning wins on foreign over the considerable Sarah Eranni and Roberta Vinci. Plus, Christina McHale and Taylor Townsend could emerge and Melanie Oudin is soldiering on.On the men’s side, young Americans Jack Sock, Steve Johnson and Bradley Klahn all show promise, but Ryan Harrison is the only young American man in the top 100, and the jury is still out on him and young Jack Sock. No wonder Jon Wertheim suggested that, “For all this talk of ‘Where is the next Sampras/Agassi?’ the reality is that the U.S. would be thrilled with the next Todd Martin or David Wheaton or Mal Washington.”
APOLOGIES ALL AROUND: BBC offered an apology for a Federer expletive it broadcast during an exchange Roger had with Murray … ESPN apologized for the X-rated congratulatory comment Redfoo made to his pal Azarenka.
JUST WONDERING: Is Federer, sadly, in the downside of his prime years. Or is he in the beginning of his twilight. Or will the timeless one, who still astounds, go on playing until one of his daughters breaks into the Top 50? … Does promising junior Allie Kiick have a good kick serve?
MEDICAL MUSING: Have medical injuries ever played a bigger role in a run to a Slam title than in Azarenka’s journey to the Aussie title? Before their injuries, American Jamie Hampton and Li Na had decent shots at beating Vika and the Belarus’ medical timeout was a turning point in her win over Sloane Stephens.
IMAGINE THIS: The saga of the imaginary girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’O at first brought to mind one of the great imaginary happenings in American history, Orson Welles’ 1938 “War of the Worlds” radio drama of a fictional invasion of aliens. As for tennis, we had an imaginary interview with the founder of tennis, Major Wingfield, who actually had died in 1912. And our former Managing Editor Hugh Delehanty interviewed Yonex, Martina Navratilova’s dog. Still our favorite piece of imaginary tennis journalism was Jon Wertheim’s fictional account of a rising phenom. He wrote, “Simonya Popova is hot. Smoking. Close to it, anyway … [She] is on a back court at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, midway through a series of practice sets … Her skin and hair colored by the sun, Popova is dripping sweat like a busted faucet … Showing court craft to match her power, Popova unfurls a topspin lob that traces a perfect arc and nicks the baseline. “More accurate than ICBM,” says [Popova’s father] Sergei, smiling at his daughter. “How you beat her? I cannot say, because I do not know.”
POLITICALLY AND NOT S0 POLITICALLY CORRECT: Some say no man’s land should be called no person’s land … When comparing the men’s and women’s circuit, France’s wildly popular but not so “PC” Jo-Willie Tsonga said, “The girls, they are more unstable emotionally than us. I’m sure everybody will say it’s true even the girls … you don’t think? It’s just about hormones and all this stuff. We don’t have all these bad things, so we are physically in a good shape every time and you are not. That’s it.”reasons to stop smoking
