DAVIS CUP BACK TO OREGON: The Davis Cup will finally be coming back to the US and to the West Coast on July 15-17 in Beaverton, Oregon. The US probably will play John Isner, Jack Sock and the Bryans against Croatians Marin Cilic and Borna Coric. If you’re an optimist, you’ll recall 2007, which was the last time the US played the Davis Cup in Oregon and the last time we won the championships. The Bryans were also on that team. If you’re a pessimist, you’ll recall 2005, the year the US suffered one of the most humbling losses in Davis Cup history when Croat Ivan Ljubicic scored a three-match run past Agassi, Roddick and the Bryans. Tickets go on sale at the USTA website on June 3. For info go to usta.com.
FED CUP COCO-MOTION: First the US Davis Cup team rediscovered its mojo Down Under, then our Fed Cup squad scored a key win over Australia that qualifies us for the World Group. Victories by Christina McHale and Californian Coco Vandeweghe over Sam Stosur, who often struggles in Australia, led to the win. In November France and the ever-dominant Czech Republic will face off in the Fed Cup final.
“SON OF A BISCUIT” – SARASOTA STRIKES AGAIN: While facing African-American Donald Young at a Sarasota Challenger, 20-year-old Russian Daniil Medvedev was upset by a call and told African-American umpire Sandy French, “I know that you are friends. I’m sure about it.” He then was disqualified for “aggravated unsportsmanlike conduct…[because] he questioned the impartiality of the chair umpire, because of her race.”
Just last year, after missing a shot at the same tournament, Young himself was penalized for yelling, “Son of a biscuit, man! Biscuit, man! Biscuit!” Medvedev’s disqualification also brought to mind an eerily similar incident involving another 20-year old. When facing James Blake at the 2001 US Open, Lleyton Hewitt became incensed after being called for foot faults and demanded that an African-American line judge be replaced. He told the ump, “Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is. Get him off the court. Look at what he’s done.” Hewitt denied his comments were racist and wasn’t penalized. Medvedev apologized after being disqualified. Then, a week later, he again lost to Young.
ECHOES OF VITAS: After the Golden State Warriors ended the San Antonio Spurs’ record of 33 straight home wins over the Warriors, coach Steve Kerr recalled Vitas Gerulaitis‘ iconic quote, “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.” Kerr boasted, “Nobody, and I mean nobody, beats the Golden State Warriors 34 straight times. Nobody. You got that?” Speaking of the NBA, when Kobe Bryant retired, Serena tweeted, “I’m in tears…You inspire every athlete for a lifetime.” Once after meeting the competitive Djokovic, Bryant compared himself to Novak: “Different animal, same beast.”
THE EMOTIONS OF THE GAME: Justin Gimelstob noted the comments of Djokovic‘s father Srdjan, who said that Andy Murray expends too much emotion venting during matches. Gimelstob noted that for Murray “the emotional precurses the physical…To win big matches he has to have a sense of desperation and use every skill he has physically, mentally and tactically.” As for his own emotions, Justin confided with a wink that he “played with a Babolat racket because it gave me emotional stability.” Lindsay Davenport then joked, “How well did that work out?”
THE GRAYING OF TENNIS: Nineteen years ago Czech Jana Novotna predicted, “In the future we will see younger players becoming No. 1 at an early age, but they’ll not last as long. They will retire when they’re 23 or 24…Hingis will be the first one. [The Swiss actually first retired from singles when she was just 22.] In 10 years, nobody will be surprised when you have a Grand Slam champ at 15 or 14.” Instead, tennis is aging. No. 1 Serena is 34, there hasn’t been a teen Slam champ since Rafa Nadal in 2005 and there is just one teen, No. 8 Belinda Bencic, in either top 30.
BATTLE OF THE AGES: Gail Falkenberg, 69, won a round at the Atlanta Futures tourney before losing to then-19-year-old Taylor Townsend. Decades ago, Falkenberg played Jennifer Capriati. BTW: Townsend won the playoffs to qualify for the French Open.
SERENA’S BUSY OFF COURT – ON COURT NOT SO MUCH: Until she won in Rome, Serena hadn’t done much on court in months. But she had a cameo in Beyoncé‘s controversial video, “Lemonade,” and signed up to be the executive producer of a movie called “Sister Dance” which is inspired by the annual dance competition she hosts with Venus.
PERFECT POINT: We loved that the curiously-named Dominic Thiem was the only “team” in sports which actually had an “i” in its name. And as many fans note, you can’t spell ‘peRFect’ without using Federer’s initials.
INITIATION BY FIRE: This year, incoming WTA CEO Steve Simon faced a string of crises relating to gambling, drugs and sexism. Then again when Etienne de Villiers became the ATP CEO in 2005, he was greeted with a trio of simmering crises: the decline of doubles, drug use and perennial no-shows.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: The USPTA World Conference will be in Indian Wells on September 25-29.
QUOTEBOOK:
“You wonder if people come here for lunch or for tennis.” – Stan Wawrinka on the beautiful people at the Monte Carlo Masters
“When you do something best in life, you really don’t want to give it up, and for me that’s tennis.” – Roger Federer
“The exertion of winning 21 sets [in a Grand Slam] against the immense physical specimens that populate the ATP Tour will likely prove beyond even this most durable of 34-year-olds.” – Charlie Eccleshare on Federer
“You can disagree, but no respect – I cannot accept that…I’m not stupid.” – Umpire Damien Dumusois to Andy Murray
“The whole goal in any sport is to put your opponent in a state of emergency.” – Mary Carillo
“The cool insouciance with which Jiri Vesely produced that perfect dropshot from two yards behind the baseline at 5-4,15-0 versus Djokovic was remarkable.” – Richard Evans
“When she provides us with this kind of tennis, she’s top four.” – Pam Shriver on Sloane Stephens‘ dominant play in Charleston
“You can be a wonderful person, you can do wonderful things, but the way our country is structured, if you don’t win, nobody cares.” – Sloane Stephens‘ coach Kamau Murray, as quoted by Cliff Drysdale
