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Donaldson Says His Goal is No. 1: Sarasota Open
22 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Young American Jared Donaldson, 18, defeated former ATP No. 8 Radek Stepanek 6-3 7-6 and said after the match: “I’d be lying if it wasn’t my biggest win to date. It’s the best player I’ve ever beaten.”
Donaldson, who originally connected with coach Taylor Dent via a phone call because he felt he needed to beef up his serve – and Dent was renowned for his monster serve as a former top 25 ATP star – served two aces in the last three points of the tiebreaker, which he won 7-1.
Dent, who began working with Donaldson at the end of the 2013 season, has revised the Donaldson serve: “He picked things out in my serve that nobody had ever even thought of before. It’s funny, I spent three days not even hitting a ball. My technique was so off of what it needed to be. So I just practiced the motion. Not it’s still progressing after a year and a half, but I’m really happy where it’s at now.”
Donaldson originally contacted Dent’s California Academy by phone and was only planning on working with Dent for a month or so. But the pair hit it off so well that they have been together ever since and it appears they will be a long term union.
In the last off-season, Donaldson, a Rhode Island native, was invited to spend a week training with Roger Federer in Dubai. In February this year, Dent won the Maui Challenger. He’s now ranked in the top 200. “I started playing tennis because I want to be number one on the world and win a lot of Grand Slams.”
With wins like the one over Stepanek on Monday night and the prestigious Maui Challenger, and a bright and experienced tennis mind like Taylor Dent in his corner, young Donaldson appears headed in the right direction of fulfilling his tennis ambitions.
Notes: I did a Biofile with Donaldson on Tuesday after his practice. I can say it’s one of the best Biofiles I’ve ever done, funny, revealing, interesting, which isn’t usual when doing a Biofile with a young pro still in his teens. Donaldson shared a funny memory of Roger’s sense of humor in practice. A windy match as a junior where it took ten minutes between points to pick up the balls which were blowing all the way down to the fourth court. Also, he’s a Muhammad Ali fan. Stay tuned…
Donaldson plays Portugal veteran Gastao Elias today.
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Dan Markowitz · April 15, 2015 at 8:25 am
That’s a good win for Donaldson.
Dan Markowitz · April 15, 2015 at 8:30 am
Great to have Tennis-Prose.com up and working again. I hear a lot of the credit goes to Gaurang. Thank you.
I watched a little on the ATP web site of the Tiafoe-Mmoh match and Mmoh doesn’t seem to be ready yet. He didn’t win a point in the second set breaker. I like Tiafoe, he moves very well, sticks the backhand, but his forehand still looks a bit underwhelming.
What to make of Ernie?!! He lost one and love to Haider-Maurer, who then went on to edge Tomic in the next round of Monte Carlo. Gulbis is a mess. His forehand made a hideous amount of unforced errors. He’s still complaining about the shoulder. Okay, he hires Enquist, who didn’t really have a lot of success with his last charge, Verdasco, but the question is whether Ernie will listen to him.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 8:54 am
Yes, huge thanks to Gaurang for solving our technical difficulties. Gulbis should hire Gaurang to solve his technical and perhaps shattered confidence issues. Gulbis looked like a lost player vs. Haider Maurer, he could not hit 3 forehands in a row. I think those losses to the young lions Thiem (twice), Coric and Kokkinakis have killed his confidence. Not sure if even Spadea could resurrect Gulbis, he could be finished.
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 9:22 am
According to his sister, Gulbis struggled also with a stomach virus. Shouldn’t have played in Monte Carlo. Withdrew from doubles one day later.
Before that, he finally had a good practise. That wasn’t the case the last months.
“In practice I played very well,”
“I’m lacking confidence now on the court for the match. I was in a great state of mind this week practising. Every change is a good change. With Thomas, it was a really positive environment on the court. He gave me a boost. He pushed me. Everything was really good, except the match. This past hour was bad in Monte Carlo. All the rest of the week was really unbelievable.”
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 9:27 am
I don’t think it’s only a confidence problem. Gulbis had bad losses in the past as well & always recovered. The shoulder injury must have been the much bigger part of his problems, since he struggles not only with the forehand. His serve is affected as well.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 9:46 am
Loreley, you know I love Gulbis and wish him the best but the excuses smell of damage control. He’s a shattered player now. The losses to the young lions Thiem, Kokkinakis, Coric were devastating on his psyche. Those losses combined with all the other losses and the parting of ways with Thiem and Bresnik AND the pressure to defend so many points, have adversely affected Gulbis’ mind, confidence, and joy to play the game IMO. If Gulbis never went into this slump, if he beat Thiem at US Open last year then again in Rotterdam, I don’t think he would have parted ways with Thiem and Bresnik. But when he lost to Thiem twice it signaled that he could not keep up with Thiem anymore and change needed to be made. There are too many leaks in the Gulbis dam.
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 10:12 am
That he had an ongoing shoulder injury doesn’t count for you? When things change in your body it affects your shots. You can’t force the body to do what he can’t do. You have to learn it again.
Of course it’s more dramatic to say it’s because he lost to Thiem & some youngsters. Other players lost to them as well. Did they all lose their confidence? I think that would be ridiculous. Did Federer collapse because he lost to Nadal all the time?
Gulbis was a good player since a while. He defeated the guys he had to defeat & some top-10-players as well. He won titles & made it into top-10. The problems started with the injury. It’s just coincidence that he lost to Thiem. He didn’t play well the tourneys before the USO. I even think he would have lost in less than 5 sets against a better player than Thiem.
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 10:36 am
Bresnik told in an interview with Austrian media that they had arguments almost every day in Australia. Bresnik: “Therefore I told him, that it’s better that he looks for someone else.”
But of course it was Gulbis who finished the work. Bresnik tried to make himself look better in that interview. I think it hurt his ego that Gulbis left.
Austrian media is worried that Thiem lacks a good practise partner for the practise blocks in Vienna & pre-season now.
Dan Markowitz · April 15, 2015 at 10:38 am
It’s not good, all the ailments. The sickness at the beginning of the year, the shoulder, now the stomach virus. I read a very revealing piece about Gulbis from Bresnik’s perspective–he didn’t write it, he was just quoted extensively–where Gulbis always has to have his own way. He’s very particular, and will walk out of movies right away if he doesn’t like it.
Yes, a shoulder injury is bad for a tennis player, but when I talked to him at IW, he said the doctors wanted to take his arm off so he rehabilitated it his own way. Even Bresnik said that he doesn’t listen well to others and that Gulbis respects age, so Bresnik was able to gain his attention. But this doesn’t bode well–in this era of having reliable teams working with players–that Gulbis is so resistant to help.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 10:38 am
Then why did he break away from Thiem and Bresnik if it’s just the shoulder? I really wish it was just the shoulder but it seems it’s a lot more than just the shoulder. I really truly hope he can win a major and get back to top ten. Losing to FOUR teenagers is a crushing blow, no other top 50 player has lost to FOUR teenagers. As far as I know.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 10:39 am
It could be just media spin. The truth is not always freely given to the public.
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 11:12 am
If a player is losing for too long, the mood in a team can’t be great anymore, no matter what’s the reason.
Gulbis & Bresnik worked well together for quite a long time. Any other player would have finished with Bresnik too. Probably right after the USO.
Gulbis lost to these young players because he was injured. He lost to players, he normally beats as well.
Maybe it was a mistake to play on injured. Maybe it would have been better to take a break like Cilic.
The shoulder, the illness right before the season aren’t excuses. Why do you want to picture him mentally weak?
He was in bad stituations earlier in his career. He didn’t give up & came back.
Players like Federer or Djokovic make a tennis career look easy, but for the most players it’s a struggle. Even to stay in top-30 for many years like Kohlschreiber isn’t easy to do. There are a lot of examples of players who just faded away because of injuries or illness.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 11:22 am
Fed and Djokovic also struggled and suffered in their early years. People forget that. Gulbis is mentally strong, to be top ten and SF of a major in this most difficult era of all time shows Gulbis is a great player and a mentally strong one. But he’s lost his confidence and the ability to win matches. It’s snowballed. The same thing happened to Spadea. And Chang and Hewitt at the end of their careers. Tennis can be a cruel sport, on the other side of the glamour there are many heartbreaks and crashed careers. Gulbis is falling down badly now, let’s hope he can right the sinking ship.
Max · April 15, 2015 at 11:29 am
Dan, I always wanted to ask you: What die Ernie mean that the doctors told him to “cut his arm off”??? Do you think he meant surgery? It just sounds so weird… 😉
loreley · April 15, 2015 at 11:35 am
There was not a lot of struggling & suffering in Feds & Djokers career. They entered top-10 as teenagers & never left.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 11:46 am
Loreley, read my book about Facing Federer and the Steve Tignor anecdote in 99 or 98 when Fed was doing a photo shoot on the beach in Miami and he admitted he wasn’t sure if he was even going to have a successful career, he was in a bad slump that spring/summer. The run of bad losses is included in the book. Djokovic struggled and suffered after losing that US Open QF night match to Roddick, though he held his ranking, and it was not nearly as bad as what Gulbis is enduring now, Djokovic absolutely suffered during this stage of his career emotionally and physically.
dan markowitz · April 15, 2015 at 2:37 pm
Max,
I think Ernie meant surgery, which is always a pro athlete’s nightmare, especially shoulder surgery for a tennis player. Darcis told Scoop and me at the USO last year that he was the first player to come back from a rotator cuff surgery and he did so at that time only 6 months after he had the surgery.
Look, Ernie is a very smart guy, but I think maybe too smart. I believe he doesn’t believe in his team, coaches, trainer, etc. as much as some other guys. It’s good to have your own mind, but Gulbis said he rehabbed the shoulder himself. Maybe he didn’t do such a good job because to hear him talk now that he still can’t hit the forehand the way he wants to hit it is an ominous sign.
One of the TC announcers said a very wise thing the other day watching Gulbis. He said when a player has a weakness, it’s not so much about changing the weakness or improving it, it’s more about “managing” it. And when a player is going good he can do that. When he’s not, that weakness becomes more glaring. Gulbis is looking like an amateur out there and he’s hired a solid pro to help him turn around his game. Let’s see if it works.
Gulbis might not have the heart or desire to raise his game again because he’s always said his goal is to be No. 1 and he’s got to know at 26 and free-falling, that’s not going to happen. Gulbis might be a good player, but he’s certainly not in the Agassi league. That guy’s game was so precise and deadly. Agassi had no weaknesses.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2015 at 10:27 pm
John McEnroe said it best about injuries…”It’s been scientifically proven that everything hurts more when you’re losing.” I don’t see Gulbis wincing in pain, showing any shoulder discomfort and he didn’t call any injury timeouts vs. Maurer Haider. Gulbis looks more like a baseball slugger like Dave Kingman or Adam Dunn who just can’t buy a hit. He can’t buy a good patient confident forehand rally.
Gaurang · April 19, 2015 at 3:07 pm
Scoop, Dan, sure glad to help!
Gaurang · April 19, 2015 at 3:07 pm
Fixing the website is in my self-interest since I enjoy coming here and commenting and reading all the posts and comments… 🙂
Gaurang · April 19, 2015 at 3:08 pm
And interacting with you all obviously!
Scoop Malinowski · April 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm
Thank you again Guarang, it was so very kind of you to step in and help us sort out this site injury, such a relief to be back on the court and running smoothly again. Federico Delbonis cruised to the final victory today, straight sets. He didn’t lose a set all week. Last year a player told me that the Argentines always under perform on US hard tru compared to how well they play on home clay but Delbonis has proven to be an exception to that old rule. But then again, this year Argentina sent some of their best players instead of the B squad.