JOHN McENROE LAUDS DICK GOULD: After 51 years at Stanford, legendary coach Dick Gould will be retiring as the school’s Director of Tennis. So here in Paris, who would be better to talk to about that than the school’s most famous tennis product – John McEnroe? As he often does, McEnroe was wearing a Cardinal cap.
Mac said Gould “let you do your thing. I was surprised. I heard there were a lot of tough taskmasters around college tennis and at that time I was really ‘tennis-ed out.’ Dick was smart enough to let me alone, but [he] also encouraged me as a person in developing my life. Since we are in France, I’ll say he had a joie de vivre that sort of spread. And even when he had to make some hard decisions that some of the players weren’t happy with, the players all really loved him. There is a reason that at age 80 he’s still involved at Stanford.
“Dick always reaches out, like when my Dad [John McEnroe Sr.] passed [earlier this year]. “The guy’s an amazing person. He always just has a way about him. He puts a smile on your face. He always reaches out to everyone who’s been at ‘The Farm.’”
BTW: One of the great Gould stories happened when the coach managed to recruit Mac to come to Stanford in 1977. Shortly thereafter, Mac reached the Wimbledon semis. Then, later in the summer, John called Gould and said, “Hey coach, I’m on my way.” Gould replied, “What? I figured after your Wimbledon run you wouldn’t be coming and I gave your scholarship away.” We asked McEnroe whether Gould managed to fool him. With a hint of pride, he said no.
JUST WONDERING: Is the group of coaches, physios and agents that backs Dominic Thiem the “Thiem Team”?
AS A MUTTER OF FACT: Does any other athlete mutter better than Andy Murray?
VENUS PREVAILS: “Hey, Venus is still out on Lenglen [Courte Suzanne Lenglen] playing doubles,” said a voice on press row. No, Venus Williams was not still in town playing doubles. Rather, New Zealand’s Michael Venus and American Ryan Harrison were en route to winning their semifinal match. The duo will face American Donald Young and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez in the final. And ain’t it dandy that the US at least has two players in the finals? By the way, there hasn’t been a Mexican named Gonzalez in the final of a major since the iconic Pancho Gonzales.
TIME WASTING: In the semifinals at Roland Garros, Murray and Wawrinka played a marathon match of almost five hours. But, as is all too often the case, there was plenty of wasted time. Both men moved between points as if playing on peanut butter rather than red clay. So IT decided to put a stopwatch on them. With the score knotted 6-6, it took Wawrinka 40 seconds to put the ball in play. It then took Murray 35 seconds to serve – and then 33 seconds. When Wawrinka was serving twice, he lollygagged for 37 seconds and then 24 seconds. At which point Andy went into true slo-mo. It took him 42 seconds to serve. At the cross-over, with the score 2-4 to Wawrinka, neither man had put a ball into play within the legally required 20 seconds. After they spent one full minute swigging water and toweling off when changing ends, Wawrinka took 23 seconds to serve and then 37 seconds. Then Murray, with a set point against him, spent 38 seconds before putting the ball in play.
Where’s the ump who’s supposed to be keeping time and delivering warnings followed by point penalties? Why have the rule if you don’t intend to enforce it?
BILLIONAIRE TIRIAC DENOUNCES EQUAL PRIZE MONEY, BACKS NASTASE: Earlier in his promoting life, Romanian billionaire Ion Tiriac was involved with controversies relating to Guillermo Vilas and Steffi Graf. He now owns the WTA’s Madrid tournament and just said he is not for equal prize money in tennis.
Tiriac told the French paper Le Monde, “Don’t confuse business with the rights of man. Tennis is business. The day that women’s tennis earns more than men’s tennis, then female players deserve more that the men. But since that’s not the case…”
Without naming any names, Tiriac said, “I understand the men that say that they have done enough to finance women’s tennis with money from men’s tennis. Certain men see me and say, ‘Mr. Tiriac, how much longer are you going to finance the women with our money?’ Very few say this publicly, even though most of them think it.
“Prize money equality between men and women, for me is not an equitable process. When the Williams sisters starred, in the time of the little Belgian [Henin] or Graf – that was sensational – perhaps at that moment they deserved to get more. In the Grand Slams at the most I understand why they achieved parity, because that makes a lot of money. But in the mixed tournaments like Madrid, Miami or Indian Wells, I don’t agree. The day that women will earn economically as much as the men, I will give them even more money for their grace and femininity.”
When Inside Tennis asked John McEnroe about Tiriac’s comments, he said, “I thought that battle was over.”
But Romanian Simona Halep generally backed her friend and supporter, saying, “We can all see that the men have more people watching their matches. But today my court was packed, so I’m happy about that (smiling).”
In his Le Monde interview, Tiriac also came to the defense of his controversial friend Ilie Nastase. After Nastase’s troubling, expletive-laden behavior as Romania’s Fed Cup captain – in which he made a racist comment about Serena Williams’ unborn child, called Britain’s Jo Konta and captain Anne Keothavong “f––––g b––––s,” and was kicked out of the event – Tiriac honored his friend with a controversial appearance at the awards ceremony of his Madrid tournament. In Le Monde, Tiriac said, “Nastase is not a saint, ok? From there to accuse him of being racist or vulgar…Before you judge someone, you have to wait for him to be judged.”
People say Nastase is a serial verbal abuser. No one says he’s committed a crime, but Tiriac framed the situation as if people were saying Nastase were a criminal. The Romanian said, “In all the democracies of the world, until a court convicts you, you are innocent. [Nastase] is the nicest person, the most generous, sociable person I know. He doesn’t have two lungs, he has two hearts, that’s this Mr. Nastase.”
ION TIRIAC DENOUNCES EQUAL PRIZE MONEY – GO FIGURE: Jelena Ostapenko is hoping to become the first man or woman to win their first pro tournament at Roland Garros and, guess what, she was born on the day, June 8th, that Ion Tiriac won the tournament…If Karolina Pliskova had been able to win the third set of her semifinal against Simona Halep she would have been No. 1. Now, if Halep wins the women’s title, she’ll be No. 1.
