1. The son of Stan Smith (who’s famous adidas shoe sold millions) asked his father, “Dad, did they name the shoe after you, or were you named after the shoe?”
2. Rod Laver hoped to win his second Grand Slam at the ’69 U.S. Open, but couldn’t get much traction in the final against Tony Roche. After Roche won the first set 9-7, Laver donned spikes for greater traction on the slick, worn court and cruised through the next three sets to complete the Slam.
3. A week after Martina Navratilova gave 19-year-old Kristine Radford three pairs of her tennis shoes, the Australian qualifier (sporting Navratilova’s shoes) nearly knocked Martina out of Wimbledon.
4. Ilie Nastase was fined $1,000 for untying an umpire’s shoelaces at the French Open.
5. Sam Querrey walked out on the court for his ’08 Aussie match against Augustin Calleri with a hole in his shoe. But Querrey said it was no big deal, noting that a bigger deal was that “I forgot my pants.”
6. Alexandra Stevenson said she didn’t want to go to Stanford because it was too “naturistic,” and there were too many people walking around in Birkenstocks.
7. The phrase “little old lady in tennis shoes” has spawned theatre, song and political initiatives. For instance, the refrain of Washington Senator Patty Murray’s ’92 campaign was that she was just a “mom in tennis shoes.” Now Murray has an annual awards presentation, The Golden Tennis Shoes, which honors Washingtonians who do great work.
8. Maria Sharapova (who reportedly owns 100 pairs of shoes, and once wore a pair of 24 karat gold Nikes at Wimbledon) once said, “The coolest thing about making money is that you are able to give back. You have the opportunity to help people. You can only buy so many cars, so many houses, so many dresses and so many pairs of shoes, but it’s not going to make you happy.”
9. Commentator Bud Collins, who was famous for playing barefoot, got an endorsement contract from K-Swiss shoes.
10. Before playing an early-round-round match against Marat Safin at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic was unhappy with how his adidas shoes performed on grass, so he switched to a pair of Nikes and painted over the swooshes.
11. After winning a nearly five-hour match over Radek Stepanek at the ’07 U.S. Open, Djokovic told the crowd, “I can smell my shoes and they are so stinky.”
12. During the ‘O7 Federer vs. Nadal Battle of the Surfaces exo, which was played on a half-grass, half-clay court, both players changed shoes during changeovers.
13. Andre Agassi once said, “Sex doesn’t interfere with your tennis — it’s staying out all night trying to find it…I personally feel like I’m a little lighter in my shoes [after sex]. It makes you move a little bit quicker. It makes you feel like a stud.”
14. Loredana Berte, an Italian pop singer and sex symbol, said of her then-husband Bjorn Borg: “I will do everything possible not to lose him. What woman wouldn’t want to be in my shoes?… When I’m by Borg’s side, finally I feel like a woman. A man like this only comes along once.” The marriage didn’t last.
15. Martina Hingis sued Sergio Tacchini for $40 million, claiming that the shoes she endorsed for the company injured her feet.
16. The alligator pumps Boris Becker’s former wife Barbara liked to wear to Wimbledon were the same Manolo Blahnik brand that Princess Di favored.
17. While Yannick Noah wore flip-flops to his Tennis Hall of Fame induction, fellow inductee Dodo Cheney wore the high heel tennis shoes she used to play in to hers.
18. Ivo Karlovic wears a size 16 shoe.
19. Once promising
Mirjana Lucic said her father regularly beat her with a Timberland boot.
20. Rafael Nadal’s uncle/coach Toni noted, “There are people in Africa who have big problems. We don’t have problems, or if we do, they are only little ones. I say to Rafael, when he misses a shot and has a long face…the ball has gone out, it is only one thing… It is unbelievable how some people treat what they are given. He [gets] his shoes for nothing, yet for other people, they cost 100 Euros.”
