Bill Simons
OF PALE LEGS AND BALD HEADS: Andy Roddick confided: “As a kid I made all the bad fashion choices, right along with Andre Agassi. I liked him so much, and wanted to be him so much, that I decided to go bald later in life.” He added that he wanted Jim Courier’s look to return: “short shorts and a real pale leg.”
HAAS BAGEL: Naomi Osaka confided that in a recent practice match, Tommy Haas beat her 6-0. She added that it was “so embarrassing.”
GEOGRAPHY LESSON: Brett Haber informed us, “There is nothing western and southern about the Western and Southern Open this year.”
SERENA SURVIVOR: Her first name is Arantxa, which brings to mind the greatest Spanish female player in history, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. With a last name like Rus, you might think she was Russian. After all, beyond Amsterdam, the slim Dutch veteran is hardly a household name. On court, she’s known as a former Australian Open junior champ who once was the best junior in the world. Off court, she’s a gay rights hero who has openly celebrated her same-sex relationship.
And today, in steamy New York, as police sirens screamed and fans didn’t, Serena managed to go up a set and a break. But this is not an era when top seeds routinely sashay into the second or third rounds. Serena is 38, the biggest target in the game, and today she felt the heat. Never mind that she’s won 93 titles, $92 million and has been on a Wheaties box, while Rus has won no titles, “just” $1.5 million, and has never been ranked higher than No. 61.
Williams collected the first set 7-6 (2). But then she stalled. Later she confided, ”I did hit a wall today in the second set. I was so hot. That never happens…I think physically I’m fit. Tennis is mental – you know, it’s all mental.”
As Serena felt the heat, the Dutch woman got Van Gogh-ing. Rus, unphased by the temp, stayed in rallies and took advantage of Serena’s diminished serve and dipping energy. She won four games in a row, took the second set 6-3, and gained four break points in the first game of the final set.
Would Serena, who recently fell to No. 95 Shelby Rogers in Lexington, again fall to a player outside the top 50? She seemed to be in trouble – but then again, Serena knows trouble. And she has a singular will and an arsenal like no other WTA player. “It’s like she’s from another world,” said Maria Sakkari.
Almost in a flash Serena dug deep, found new energy, saved all four break points and raced to a 5-2 lead. Again Rus pushed back, using her flat shots to storm back and claim a 6-5 lead and served for the match.
But Rus hadn’t beaten a top ten player in eight years. Serena calmly called on her champonship mettle countered to force a tiebreak, where she dominated 7-0, to claim a hard-fought 2:49 marathon victory. It was the longest match she’d played since her pivotal loss to Virginie Razzano. Steve Weissman noted, “When guts and greatness combine, that is the glory of Serena Williams…The legend grows day by day for her quest for history in the Bubble.”
QUOTEBOOK:
“I was sweating so much, it was pouring out of my pores.” – Serena
“I felt more at peace with myself…I am more open-minded when I’m calm.” – Naomi Osaka
“Zverev has been living inside the Top Ten for years. He is too good not to win a Slam eventually.” – Jim Courier
“Like good Goran Ivanisivic, bad Goran: good Sloane, bad Sloane.” – Jim Courier on the up-and-down 2017 US Open champ Sloane Stephens
“It was like there was a crowd there.” – Serena
“There are a couple of big-serving Americans up there at the top of the bottom.” – Jim Courier on a possible quarterfinal matchup between John Isner and Reilly Opelka
“I was in the back of the plane because I haven’t made money for six months.” – John Millman on his flights from Queensland, Australia to Queens, New York
CURIOUS QUESTIONS: Tennys Sandgren was asked, “Do you feel like you’re a guinea pig?” Then a reporter asked a question about the hotel and its protocols: “Does it feel like a fun prison?”
GO FIGURE: John Isner said that he felt that he had a home court advantage in New York, even without thousands of shrieking fans, because it’s in America, he knows the site well, and the surface is hardcourt.
MOST GRIPPING ANALYSIS: After wildcard Andy Murray beat No. 5 Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, Jim Courier said, “The grip on Andy’s racket got a little bit too wet…He couldn’t hold onto it. Then he lost his grip on the match. [Andy lost his 4-1 lead in the final set.] Then when Zverev was serving for the match he couldn’t make a second serve. [Zverev had five double faults in his last two service games.] Poor guy. So let’s spare a thought for him.”
CICI GETS AN A: Northern California’s bright light, CiCi Bellis, who until last fall had been sidelined, was only ranked No. 249 before the Western and Southern Open. But she got a wildcard into the qualies where she scored two impressive wins. In the first round she beat Oceane Dodin and even managed to win the first set of her face-off with the considerable No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian then stormed back to win the second set 6-4 and score a critical break to go up 6-5 in the third. Bellis bravely fought off two match points before falling 7-6(1) 4-6, 5-7. And, all things considered, that was more than enough to give her an A on our report card.
FUDGING THE NUMBERS: Reilly Opelka says he’s 6’ 11”, but it sure seems like he’s seven feet. His diminutive foe, Diego Schwartzman, the Argentine whom he beat today, is said to be 5’ 7”.
A BUCKEYE FEELS THE HAWKEYES’ PAIN: Qualifier J.J. Wolf, a former Ohio State Buckeye who lost yesterday, said the elimination of the Iowa Hawkeye tennis program was “definitely a tragedy. I feel for the whole Hawkeye family.”
MILMAN’S SUBWAY BOYCOTT: Fortunately this item has nothing to do with a Utah tennis fan who years ago was assaulted on a New York subway platform, or a baseball player who unleashed a wretched verbal attack on the fabled, multi-racial and often interesting Number 7 subway train that usually takes fans to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. This is about Aussie Sam Millman’s refusal to eat at the Subway sandwich shop in the Brisbane Airport, “because I think they’re lying about eating fresh.”
Bill – Disn’t Rus go up 40-15 when she served for the match at 6-5 in the 3rd? And didn’t she hold another match point from deuce. While she’s overcome that a million times, it’s still important – to take nothing from Cici Bellis fighting off a few. Glad to read about her struggles with injury and come-back. And, while Andy always gives good quote and has a first-quick-witted, rate sense of humor which is a wonderful way of putting things into perspective, I hope you take a break from him sometimes. There are others who can add to your wonderful short updates. Just ask!
And yes, in case you are wondering, I am Steve’s brother, and he frequently raves about your writing (we are Devereux brothers, but The Devereux Brothers of AZ whose new ‘threads’ business is worth checking out – very nice casual clothes including a new golf line). We loved Gene’s wildly inaccurate but amusing magazine…. I wrote a blog for Intennis for about 5 years, but with little following and a bit of an unnecessary falling out with Bob Gore over reporting on drug use in tennis, I tired of the routine, of the endless Rafa vs. Roger rivalry coverage, and of my own writing! No desire to return to spending time at a keyboard – for now I just want to watch again and, of course, read about anything but the politics which fills our days.