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.”
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….