TO SPEAK OR NOT TO SPEAK: USA Today’s Doug Robson gathered a handful of Russian players’ answers to questions about the country’s new anti-gay laws under president Vladimir Putin as next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi approach. “I didn’t hear anything about it,” said Maria Kirilenko, while Vera Dushevina and Dmitry Tursunov made similar remarks. Nadia Petrova expressed support for Putin (“To be honest, he’s done some good things for the country”) and for gay marriage (“If it makes [someone] happy, why not?). Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova evoked the repressive nature of one law, which punishes public expressions of pro-gay sentiment with fines and detainments. “I have my own opinion about this,” she said, “but I don’t know if I should comment.”
IT spoke with Svetlana Kuznetsova about the issue after her first-round win over Mallory Burdette. “I heard something is going on, but I cannot judge, I have totally no idea who said what,” Kuznetsova said. “I understand that in Russia they have this law, and in the rest of the world there are different laws. It’s hard for me to judge. This law doesn’t bother me because I’m not so public, I don’t discuss these things. I have nothing against these people. I’m so friendly and I love everybody … You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you’re happy.”
On the subject of Putin, Kuznetsova was a bit clearer. “Actually, if you don’t support Putin,” she said, “You are in big, big trouble.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY: After she lost in the first round, 28-year-old Australian Casey Dellacqua announced that she was a new mother—her partner gave birth to a son three weeks before the start of the tournament. “You see a lot of players out on tour with families,” said Dellacqua. “Hopefully they’ll be able to do a bit of travel, and we can get him a passport and introduce him to the tour.” Marcos Baghdatis, who advanced to the second round, recently became a father when his wife, former player Karolina Sprem, gave birth to a daughter.
LOOKS—AND SOUNDS—CAN BE DECEPTIVE: Describing Victoria Duval, the recently-retired British player Anne Keothavong said, “She looks like she’s 14, she sounds like she’s 10, and she plays like she’s 24.”
THE THRILL OF VICTORY: Asked to recall her thoughts at the moment she defeated Samantha Stosur, new US upstart Victoria Duval replied, “I don’t even remember match point. I guess I was really happy. I mean, you could tell by all the jumping I did.”
LIL WAYNE, BIG WIN: “I heard that Lil Wayne tweeted me,” Victoria Duval said in her post-match presser. “I don’t have Twitter. I’m going to go hit that up. Maybe I’m going to have to create [an account] and be like ‘@weezythankyou’.” In fact, the iconic Southern rapper is a passionate and informed tennis fan, who correctly predicted the 2010 US Open winners—Rafa Nadal and Kim Clijsters—for Sports Illustrated while serving time.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: “With Sweet Stroke and Voice, Duval Causes Racket,” announced the New York Daily News.
PLANE SPEAKING: “During US Open they reroute airplanes … but not Azarenka #noisy,” tweeted Ivo Karlovic.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Reflecting on her 6-0, 6-0 first-round win, Victoria Azarenka remarked, “I always find things that I want to do better.”
AUTOGRAPHS AS WORKPLACE RISKS: “His knees are fine, but he’s going to get carpal tunnel,” Jon Wertheim remarked about Rafael Nadal, as the Tennis Channel showed Rafa signing memorabilia for dozens of fans.
AUTOGRAPHS AS PERFORMANCE-ENHANCERS: One reader contacted Sports Illustrated to claim, “Victoria Duval signed too many autographs last night and will be suspended for the first half of her [next] match.”
ONE GOOD CATCHPHRASE DESERVES ANOTHER: After Jon Wertheim complimented co-host Mary Carillo for coining the term “big babe tennis,” he came up with a slightly less sexy one of his own—”smartypants tennis”—to describe the cerebral approach of Agnieszka Radwanska.
UNDERHANDED TACTICS: Two different ailing players—Jerzy Janowicz and Vasek Pospisil—resorted to underhand serves. Both ended up losing their marches. Ironically, a few weeks ago, Pospisil was on the receiving end of a underhand serve by Tomas Berdych in Canada.
A PAIR—OR TRIO—OF SOCKS: In his first-round match, young American Jack Sock faced an opponent decked out in knee-length red socks, Germany’s Philip Petzschner. The man named Sock advanced when the man wearing colorful ones retired in the third set. BTW: Marion Bartoli was present at the match, and online, rumors spread that she and Sock are dating, though she quickly responded by saying they are “just friends.”
FEDERER, TABLE FOR FOUR: When the Tennis Channel asked Federer who he’d choose if he could go to do dinner with three oast ATP champions, he selected John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, and Stefan Edberg.
HE’S A PUZZLE: “[Aussie Bernard] Tomic is just one big question mark,” said Mary Carillo.
AIN’T THAT THE TRUTH: Twenty-year-old Tomic told IT that his game has so many ups and downs because he’s “still young, still growing.”
GOOD QUESTIONS: Reflecting on motivation, Jon Wertheim wondered, “Does everyone out here want to be No. 1?” Justin Gimelstob asked, “Do you think on Labor Day weekend, CBS would prefer a match-up of Federer vs. [American Sam] Querrey, or Federer vs. [little-known Frenchman Adrian] Mannarino?”
ROGER ENVY: Reflecting on Federer, Mats Wilander said, “We all want to play like him for a day.”
BLOW-OFF COMMENTARY OF THE DAY: Mary Carillo said that Brit Daniel Evans has “been known to blow the suds off a couple.”
THE BUENO SEAL OF APPROVAL: The great Brazilian player Maria Bueno told the Tennis Channel that Bill Clinton “has that charisma—he works around the room and makes you feel he is there for you.”
THE OLD WIMBLEDON-TO-WINNETKA ROUTINE: When Jim Courier said that Jack Sock was basically ordered, after losing at Wimbledon, to play a Challenger in Illinois, Mary Carillo responded, “It’s the old Wimbledon-to-Winnetka routine.”
