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Biofile: Michael Russell Interview

P1011200

Mike Russell is retiring at this year’s US Open where he will play doubles with Donald Young – here is a farewell Biofile I recently did with the long lasting veteran grinder, who once had match point on eventual champion Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open —

Greatest Career Moment: “Playing all four stadium courts in all four grand slams is pretty special. Fourth round at the French Open was quite amazing, 2001. And reaching semifinals of three different surfaces – grass, indoor, and clay – and especially in my hometown tournament of Houston was special as well.”

Most Painful Moment: “Every time I lose [smiles]. It’s tough, I’m a real competitor, I hate to lose. I take it really hard. Some losses are more than others. If you have a match point or you’re up in the match, there’s quite a few of them but I try to put those behind me.”

Strangest Match: “There’s been some matches that have been pretty unusual, the finals of Charlottesville a few years ago I was down 5-0 in the final, third set, came back and won (vs Peter Polansky), that was pretty crazy. One of those weird moments where I just happened to come through and it went really well.”

First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: “Jimmy Connors, twelve years old, San Antonio, I was playing a national tournament. And Jimmy Connors was there practicing with Sammy Giammalva. That’s the first time I even saw Jimmy Connors, it was pretty neat.”

Why Do You Love Playing Tennis: “It’s such an incredible sport. You have a lot of reward and you have a lot of down but it’s all on you, it’s one on one. It’s so unique. It’s really the only sport everything is upon you.”

4 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · August 30, 2015 at 4:05 pm

    This must’ve been a while ago because Connors wasn’t hitting on tour 12 years ago.

    Also, track or long distance running is all on you. You don’t have a coach when you’re running the mile or the marathon. The runner can’t even stop the way a tennis player can and ask for an injury timeout so I’d say running is more of a one on one or one on many sport than tennis because these guys can get massages during a match.

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 30, 2015 at 8:52 pm

    No Dan Mike played a national 12s in TX and saw Jimbo there, track and running distances is also an individual sport, all the top athletes from sprinters to marathoners all have coaches though,

  • Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2015 at 7:14 am

    So all the top tennis players have coaches too. Yes a coach can give advice to a runner during a race, but it’s not going to be very detailed as the runner is running by. But running is the only sport where a player can’t take a break. Even boxing has like 2-minute breaks after every 3-minute round. So to me running is the toughest sport at the elite level. You have to deal with your fitness, your competitors and your own mind.

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2015 at 8:55 am

    Johan Kriek paid very kind respect to Michael Russell on my Facebook post of this Biofile: “Iron” Mike is a true champion and tennis warrior….You will not find a nicer guy on a tennis court anywhere….I will be watching his matches….

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