Once again, the boys and girls of tennis take to the courts in their skirts and shorts, while men with long faces talk of war.
But some top players have firsthand experience of military aggression. Asked by IT whether—like her Serbian compatriot, Novak Djokovic—she carries memories of the 1999 NATO bombings, Ana Ivanovic replied, “Yeah, I do remember very well. The very first day [bombing] started actually, I was on the practice court. They came in and they said, ‘Look, we heard it’s going to start tonight. You better go back home and just stop the practice.’
The coach was like, ‘Sure, we’ll just finish the basket’ …
That was the first day [of bombings], and then for about a week or two weeks we didn’t practice, because we didn’t know what was going to happen. After that, we used to wake up early, practice [from] 6 to 8, 5 to 7. That was for a couple of weeks. [As time went on] we went and played tournaments. We tried to live as normally as possible.
We were not going to school. People were not working. They tried to organize these tournaments. There was a rule that [when the] matches were on, [if] the sirens came on, they had to finish, but no new matches. They invented their own rules.”
Inside Tennis then had this exchange with Novak Djokovic:
INSIDE TENNIS: Ana Ivanovic had some great things to say about you, and talked about playing hide-and-seek with you as a kid. Then she said that when there were bombings, if there was a match you were actually allowed to finish it even if bombs were falling, but a new match couldn’t go out on court. Novak, could you bring to life what you wrote in your new book [Serve to Win] about what happened when the bombs were actually falling and your dad was calling out to you and you were wondering where your younger brother was? What was going through your mind at that time?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, those particular times that me and my fellow countrymen and colleagues from Serbia have been through, [it] is definitely a period of life that we don’t wish anybody to experience. War is the worst thing in life for humanity. Nobody really wins.
But it made us stronger, you know, this two-and-a-half months [of bombings]. We looked at it on the bright side. We were kids. We were only 12 years old. So we thought, ‘Okay, now we’re not obliged to go to school, we can play more tennis.’
So, we basically spent every day, the whole day, for two months on the tennis courts, with the planes flying over our heads. We really didn’t mind. After a week or two of the bombings, we moved on with our lives. We did everything we could and what we wanted. We just let life decide for us. It was not in our control. We were helpless, basically.
Luckily, we all survived, and we take this kind of experience and this particular situation from our past as a great lesson in life and [it was] something that allowed us to be stronger mentally and to actually understand what it is to basically have nothing
… [to] start from zero, from scratch, and arrive to where we are. These kind of particular experiences helped us appreciate all the life values and everything that has been given to us much more than we probably [would have] if we didn’t have them.
IT: When you do see the headlines which refer to possible air strikes, do you have cautionary thoughts about that? Do you say, ‘Oh, no’? Any thoughts on what’s going on now?
ND: I’m totally against any kind of weapon, any kind of air strike, [or] missile attack. I’m totally against anything that is destructive. Because I had this personal experience, I know it cannot bring any good to anybody.
HEADLINES: “Not Ready to Make Way, Serena Slams Sloane” “No Throne for Sloane” “Serena to Sloane: Watch and Learn”
JUST WONDERING: What was more import in the Bryan brothers’ dicey come-from-behind third-round win: a botched line call which prevented Vasek Pospisil from putting away a critical winner; Bob’s suggestion that he and Mike switch sides; or Daniel Nestor’s age and his four double faults?
THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH DOUBTERS: Many a skeptic wondered about the authenticity of Serena’s post-match comment, “How excited are we for the future of American tennis?”
SAY IT ISN’T SO: No American man reached the fourth round of the Open for the first time since the tournament began in 1881, 122 years ago.
DOUBLE BREAK: The last hope for an American Man to reach the fourth round was little-known Tim Smysczek. But the omens were not so good for the Wisconsin native, who has never been ranked inside the top 100. Before an early round match, his car broke down en route to Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and he had to wait on the side of road for 20 minutes. Then, on the brink of victory in his third-round five-set marathon against Spaniard Marcel Granollers, it was Smyczek’s game that broke down—he lost five of the last six games.
MANY IN LONDON, PARIS AND MELBOURNE MIGHT DISAGREE: While commentating on the classic 1996 Pete Sampras vs. Alex Corretja quarterfinal, John McEnroe contended, “You can’t tell me watching this match that the other majors shouldn’t have a fifth-set tiebreaker.”
A REAL TROLL MODEL: After the Bryan brothers were benefited hugely from some critical line calls in their win over Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil, commentator Jimmy Arias suggested that their zealous father Wayne was “up in the [Hawkeye replay] booth trolling the machine.”
THE CONNORS FACTOR: Lleyton Hewitt is a fierce, diminutive, me-against-the-world scrapper, much like Jimmy Connors. Now, at 32, he went on a late-career run at the US Open that’s at least suggestive of Jimbo. BTW: Jon Wertheim made a telling point when he wrote, “For some reason, Hewitt’s pugnacity is much more likable in his early 30s than it was in his early 20s.”
PONDERING PITTSBURGH: What’s more astounding: a Pittsburgh Pirate team with a winning record, or a fresh-from-the-circuit Pennsylvanian tennis player—Allison Riske—whose run at the US Open signals a bright future?
LOUIS, LOUIS: Tomas Berdych, who is accepting submissions on Twitter for his NYC song playlist, tweeted, “I heard a voice in Satchmo Stadium today, gently whispering, ‘And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. #louisarmstrong.”
ONE MOMENT IN TIME: French showman Gael Monfils shared the thrill of what it’s like to play tennis in front of huge crowds, telling the Tennis Channel, “It’s the only moment [that’s] mine.”
A COMMENTATOR WHO REALLY KNOWS THE SCORE: After Serena Williams restored order on the court, so to speak, in her rematch with Sloane Stephens, Brett Haber observed, “It seems she’s pretty good at settling scores.”
RECKLESS TWEETING: Pam Shriver tweeted, “Before I got some sleep, can anyone tell me who gets revenge better on a tennis court than @serenawilliams just ask @mariasharapova.” To which Sharapova’s ex-coach Michael Joyce responded, “Revenge is a dish best served cold #serenainarout.”
THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE: “I cannot listen to my husband at all,” said Li Na, when asked about her on-court relationship to Jiang Shan. “lt doesn’t matter what it is, I say to him, ‘Don’t talk to me.’”
REVELATION OF THE DAY: When Stan Smith accepted a major award from the President of the USTA, it was revealed that Pasadena native and Hall of Famer was rejected from being a ballboy as a kid because he was too gangly and awkward. All Smith did after that was become a Davis Cup hero and win a Wimbledon and a US Open.
NOT INTERESTED IN THE HYPE: Asked if she was interested in the brouhaha between Sloane Stephens and Serena Williams, young American Jamie Hampton remarked, “Not as much as you guys.”
NOT EXACTLY FRONT ROW AT FASHION WEEK: When a CBS camera caught friend-of-Roger Anna Wintour of Vogue watching Federer’s match against Tommy Robredo from the egalitarian stands of Armstrong, Jim Courier commented, “I would have paid good money to watch her come strolling through the masses, that would have been fun.”
