Bill Simons
PLANE TALK: When the Indian Wells-bound Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic showed up on the same flight to America, according to us, they broke the record for the most ATP major singles titles won by a duo who were on the same flight – 46. The previous record was set a decade ago by Federer and Sampras, who at the time had 31 slams between them.
All this brought to mind the time a writer spotted Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg on the same flight from Australia to Japan. The reporter asked Becker, “Have you thought what would happen to tennis if this plane went down with you, Stefan and Ivan all aboard?” Becker said, “I just realized that if this plane goes down, Agassi will be No. 1 in the world!”
THE BRAVEST PLAYER IN TENNIS: Daria Kasatkina doesn’t have a big game. She’s No. 13 in the world. But she’s the bravest player in tennis. Just after Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was found dead, she reposted a tweet by his wife Yulia.
Earlier, Kasatkina came out as gay and opposed the Ukrainian war. She told the Sunday Times, “I don’t regret it even 1%. When the war started and everything turned to hell, I felt very overwhelmed and I just decided, ‘Screw it all.’ I couldn’t hide anymore.”
All this seemed to match the mindset of Navalny’s widow, who said, “I am not afraid and you should not be afraid.”
LEAVING RUSSIA: Kasatkina isn’t the only player who, so to speak, fled Russia. Andy Roddick confided in a now deleted tweet that when he was in Russia, “I got robbed by a police officer on the street… when we were there for Davis Cup.” He hasn’t been there since 2006.
NOT IDEAL: Beloved Simona Halep is booted off the circuit for doping. The much celebrated James Blake is fined $56,250 for violating rules on gambling sponsorships. Laid-back Jenson Brooksy is suspended for missing drug tests. Rafa Nadal, one of the most adored sportsmen in the world, takes up the mantle of Saudi Arabia. The most charismatic player on the circuit, Nick Kyrgios, pleads guilty to a domestic abuse charge. And Alex Zverev, formerly No. 2, is twice been accused of abuse and faces a May trial.
Ouch! This is not great, folks.
A FAREWELL TO GULBIS: A know-it-all in the French Open press room quipped, “Ernests Gulbis was Nick Kyrgios before there was a Nick Kyrgios – except that he’s loaded.”
The best male player in Latvian history reached the French Open semis was No. 10 in the world and won six ATP titles, including the 2011 Farmers Classic in LA. Now, after 16 years on the circuit, he has retired.
All this brings to mind the three most interesting factoids about this endearing 35-year-old character.
His parents (his dad is the third richest man in Latvia) were avid readers, and named their son after Ernest Hemingway.
In 2009 Gulbis was arrested in Stockholm on charges of soliciting a prostitute.
And there’s a connection of sorts between No. 1 and No. 2. It’s not just that Hemingway’s granddaughter, Margaux Hemingway, was a fine tennis player. More to the point, some academics claim that prostitution was an ongoing theme in Hemingway’s life and that prostitutes were the models for many of his major characters in “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Sun Also Rises” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
One literary observer, Claude Caswell, contends that Hemingway portrays his characters as “trapped in a cycle of…emotional extortion antithetical to genuine, freely shared love and intimacy.”
Gulbis’s up-and-down career has been, shall we say, quirky. After his arrest, he suggested, “Everyone should go to jail at least once.”
Gulbis’s wealth often drew attention. Tommy Haas asserted, “You can’t buy ATP points. It’s not possible; otherwise, Gulbis would be No. 1 in the world.”
Ernests borrowed boxer Marvin Hagler’s insight, saying, “If you sleep in silk pajamas, it’s tough to wake up at six in the morning and go for a run.” When asked about going to a tourney in a private helicopter, Gulbis joked, “Yes, I have a helicopter, a submarine and a spaceship.” But no worries, he reassured us, gamblers never approached him because “they thought I was too rich.”
To Ernests, tennis wasn’t complicated. He explained, “When a lion is running behind people, you don’t need to be faster than the lion, you just need to be faster than the last guy. Same here. On court, you have one guy to beat…Simple.”
After a weepy French player won a first-round match of qualifying, the always passionate Gulbis confided, “I had tears in my eyes – I was so happy for him. I like these emotions – otherwise you feel like a robot.”
The volatile Latvian contended, “I have to break at least one racket on every court of the world.” Writer Tom Tebbutt countered that Ernests should pay a “carbon tax” every time he destroyed a racket.
French umpire Pascal Maria took the initiative during one of Gulbis’s many meltdowns, saying, “Wait, wait, wait! Let me finish – and then you give me s–t !”
PETCHEY’S STANCE: After the shooting during Kansas City’s Super Bowl parade, British broadcaster Mark Petchey wrote, “I love so many things about America, but their stance on guns is as batshit crazy as when ‘witches’ were burnt at the stake. Irrefutable evidence around the world shows that gun control leads to a complete cratering of mass shootings. Money should have never become this important. Lives are being shattered every day.”
JUST WONDERING: Will two-time Slam champ and former No. 1 Simona Halep eventually make it into the Hall of Fame? Kim Clijsters asked why, when there are problems with drug use, the athlete suffers all the consequences, but not their team. Halep is suing the Canadian company Quantum Nutrition for more than $10 million for their production of Roxadustat, a drug often used by people with anemia.
COCO’S COMPLAINT: After a chair ump made a late and quite incorrect call against Coco Gauff, the world No. 3 pleaded with him for five minutes. Ten times she asked him to call the supervisor and 15 times she said she just wanted to know what the rule was. Andy Roddick said the ump was wrong and was lying about being wrong. Gauff’s dad, Corey, praised her for “standing up for yourself and fighting for fairness. You have the strength of your grandmothers…While being passionate you remained respectful…The scene is so familiar to women, and women of color, pleading and fighting to be treated fairly…You are an incredible example…of what it means to fight…[and] are becoming the young woman I prayed for.”
MORGAN’S NOT SO SUPER SUPER BOWL: A tennis girlfriend and social media influencer went to the Super Bowl and a riddle broke out. Let us explain.
Taylor Fritz’s high-profile, Netflix-happy girlfriend Morgan Riddle said she was abused by “drunk, gross” male fans at the Super Bowl. She posted, “I can’t believe the level of harassment we dealt with…In the last 3 days I’ve been grabbed, groped, harassed, cat-called incessantly – basically every few minutes…We couldn’t even enjoy the game without getting bothered by drunk, rude, gross male fans. It’s extremely stressful and scary.”
Riddle aid she had a panic attack and hid out in the women’s washroom for the entire third quarter. There were some who actually claimed she was treated poorly due to the way she was dressed.
Morgan later told Sportsish, “It was a mixture of a lot of things like Super Bowl, drunk guys, football in general, plus the fact that it’s Vegas…There’s just something about Vegas that people’s morals…just kind of go away…Plus dudes are like, ‘I can afford a $20,000 ticket…[so] I can do whatever I want.’”
While she enjoyed the Super Bowl as a whole, Riddle said, “It was very tainted by men being just pigs.” Later, on Instagram, she added that there was a father who “used his kid as a vehicle to try to hit on us. His own son, a child, turned to him and said, ‘Dad, what are you doing?’ How do you think little boys become obnoxious men?” Riddle said she’d never experienced anything like this in tennis.
FRITZ FIRES UP AGAIN IN DELRAY: For the first time ever, four Americans – our top player Taylor Fritz, Dallas Open Champ Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe and UCLA product Marcos Giron – reached the semis of the Delray Open. Fritz, who won in 2023, downed Paul to again win the title – his 13th overall. Christopher Clarey noted that Fritz, who’s now No. 9, was 1-5 in his first six ATP singles finals, but has won his last six.
TRANSYLVANIAN TRAVELER: Karolina Pliskova won the Transylvania Open in Romania then caught the last plane out of town, made it to Istanbul and went on to Qatar 2,900 miles away, caught four hours of sleep, played her first round match at 2:30 PM and eventually went on to win her second tourney in a row.
