The Russians Are Coming

Thanks for a very interesting piece. There are so many talented youngsters coming along that it is hard to keep up with them.

I just finished watching Medvedev’s match against Tsonga. The Russian played quite well but he was no match for the experienced Tsonga. Had not realized Medvedev is based in France.

I am a huge fan of Khachanov. I remember a few years ago when he had a surprising run in Moscow when he was still a kid. The ATP site has had some features on him and interviews; he comes across as an appealing young man.

Think Sascha has to be considered German rather than Russian since he was born in Germany, grew up there and plays for Germany. But it was fun to hear him speak Russian to the crowd when he won St. Petersburg.

Yeah Zverev boys are German. See the Adidas three stripes! Otherwise id have to call Wozniaki from Poland.

Yeah these guys have sound technique and Power. But I’m not there yet in believing that the future is written etc. Medvedev lost R1 at us open to a us player I think. I’ve been fooled before by players like Nedyesov etc. And sure things on tour just aren’t sure.

Like the youth wave dominating at the Australian.
WHOOPS!!!

The tour is just too hard these days. Sacha/Alex Zverev is a fine player and because he is taking his lumps up front and his big brother has his back, like his chances.

And junior wins don’t count:( otherwise we’d be singing the praises of former Canadian standouts on the 18s and under. Here’s my suggested guide.
– How does your game hold up under duress?
– can you handle a physical battle out there? Got a physio?
– do you know the court well?
– are you improving or staying the same?
– how is your team?
– when you lose, do you lose all out? If you lose, do you get revenge on the player that beat you?
– are you playing doubles and maximizing real playing or just hitting around and looking great in practice?
– are you winning somewhere? You can’t do well in this sport without getting wins somewhere after losses.
– are you turning to your weapons when things go badly? You have to start somewhere when you are losing repeatedly
– are you working on your weaknesses and battle testing those weaknesses?
– how are you playing during a match or in a game when you are down?
– how is your return of serve?
– are you negative on court? If you lose your cool are you then refocusing or are you as good as gone?
– can you get a crowd on your side somehow? Do you know how to change the dynamic of a game?

I think those things show up in a player’s tennis life. And the difference between Pless and Zverev the younger is definitely whether a player learns from their experience and keeps learning. Being a pro is hard, great life at the top but hard. Requires working on things.

Talking about up-and-coming youngsters, the latest SI tennis podcast is an interview with Reilly Opelka. He said he may grow another inch!

He talked about how he got started in tennis (because his dad got to know Tom Gullikson through golf), modeling his game after John Isner’s, and how having the other young American players to travel with makes the tour more pleasant. He said he’d like to have a long career, for however long his body holds out and cited Karlovic as a guy still playing. It is amazing to realize Dr. Ivo soon will be 38, twice as old as Reilly.

Yes, Catherine, I agree, that can go on and on. On another site there is a Serbian poster who, if a player even breathed in Serbia, claims the guy is Serbian. To me it is simple, in terms of tennis the player is the nationality of the country he/she plays for.

So I want to talk about Canadian player Vasek Pospisil (whose parents are Czech). He won easily over Tiafoe, 6-1, 6-4 in about an hour. I was glad for Vashy and glad for myself because it meant I got to bed before 1:00 am. But it was too one-sided for entertaining tennis. Vasek will play Mmoh in the SF. I hope that his fine play in Davis Cup last week and his good run this week means that the “old” Vashy is back and that horrendous slump is finally over.

Oh no! The Coco run has hit a snag. From the SI article both Coco and Kardon said Hingis was welcome to give pointers to Coco so it was like having a second world class coach, given Hingis has arguably one of the finest tennis minds of all time.

Hingis hits and plays dubs and world team tennis. No coaching just tips to her doubles partners. I agree that she’d be an excellent coach on par with her mom, who is also one of the best coaches of all time (funny how that happens, no? Some of the best coaches in the game are female, like the woman who taught both Seles and Djokovic, like Judy Murray, like the head of the Moscow academy who refined the game of all the Russians, as in ALL of them!).

I think something happens when they are in say Mauresmos position on team Murray, subject to a lot more criticism. But this is beyond dispute: Some of the world’s best coaches are people like Judy Murray.

Yeah I think a female champ like MartinaNavratilova or Novotna could sharpen up Halep, or even who, why not Henin? A few sessions with Henin and Carlos Rodriguez. They were small champs who could probably see Haleps perspective and help her work out her strategy so it’s not “first round loss”.
I don’t get the attachment to Cahill unless this is an Adidas pays for it and Halep pockets the savings.

Scoop, I heard Rios got his advice FAR away from practice courts. Whatever took place on the practice courts was just hardwiring it into his game. I can’t imagine Mauresmo gave him feedback at tournaments, by then it’s too late to implement. The real work takes place put of sight and tournaments are where rubber meets the road. Giving advice at the tournament site is way too late for serious players. Mauresmo was probably observing it.
I know it’s popular to smack down Mauresmo and elevate Lendl, but look at it this way – Mauresmo and Vallverdu rehabbed Murrays game so he was back at number two, all cylinders firing, and Lendl swooped in to take him over the hump again and win another Wimbledon and Olympic medal.

Just saw the San Francisco Challenger SF where Pospisil beat Mmoh 6-1, 6-2 in about 1 hour. It wasn’t an interesting match, Vasek is simply playing at a different level. I imagine the guys playing Challengers will be glad when he is back on the main tour. Vasek plays Ze Zhang in the final tomorrow.

Yes, Pospisil has just mowed down Tiafoe and then Mmoh in succession, losing only a total of 8 games in two matches to the youngsters. It’s al relative, but lately you look at the Young Guns, their progress and play has not been very encouraging. Yes, Opelka did take a set off of Pospisil, but Fritz and Donaldson have not been strong and neither has Tiafoe or Mmoh. Rubin after the AO, is playing Challengers in Australia where he’s doing well in the current one, but the fields there are weaker and Kozlov and Tommy Paul look like they’ve fallen off the map.

This Zhang is an interesting case. He is already 26, but can he be the first Chinese player to break the Top 100? Chang and Ho, of course, were Chinese Americans and Lu is not Chinese Chinese.

Curious, Catherine, you seem obsessed with Halep the way I was once obsessed with Spadea or Johnny Mac. Where’s the kernel of your obsession? To me, just watching her play a few times and walking beside her at the Open last year, she’s definitely an interesting player, a smaller player with a lot of pop and obviously a slam contender, but what is the true basis of your obsession with Halep?

Re women coaches for WTA players. There are a few, but they are far too rare. Daria Gavrilova has worked with Nicole Pratt for many years, although apparently Pratt won’t be travelling with her because Nicole has young daughters. Which, of course, is one reason there aren’t more female coaches.

Jelena Ostapenko is coached by her mother, Jelena Jakovleva.

Bianca Andreescu works with Nathalie Tauziat, former coach of Genie Bouchard. Bianca, at just 16 years old, is a very promising player. She just won the junior doubles at AO. And she is part of the young Canadian Fed Cup team, which had a successful run in Mexico. The other 2 members, Sebov and Robillard-Millette, both just turned 18.

Scoop –

Are you talking about women coaches ? One of the reasons of course is the tendency for women to have more domestic responsibilities and another might be that some women may regard their time in tennis as just part of their lives and not an abiding part either.

Chris has stuck around I would say ?

A great day for the Zverev brothers with Sascha winning Montpellier over Richard Gasquet, who seemed to own this tourney, and then teaming up with Mischa to win the doubles over Martin/Nestor.

I like Vince. We’ve been friends so to speak since we wrote the book together. Of the three athletes I wrote books with (Walt Frazier, John Starks and Spadea) I certainly got closest to Spadea. I would surely be fascinated (right, much better word) with Vince still I think if he was still playing. Our friendship has touched on many different aspects of our lives and careers, but lately (and probably because Vince lives in LA and me in NY) we haven’t been in touch at all. I called him and left messages over a couple of things and didn’t hear back from him so we’ve lost contact.

Look, I was supposed to write a book with Charles Oakley too, but that fell through and while I still talk with Charles very occasionally, it’s rare I think when an athlete and writer, even when they’ve worked on a project together, stay in touch. For one thing, I’m 14 years older than Vince and even though we have common ground, there’s a divide in where our lives are taking us and interests us.

Uh, Dolan wasn’t his boss when Oak played for Knicks and it’s unclear who acted out first. Oakley had a ticket. Why did Dolan send up security guards to evict him from Garden. Oak said he was not acting poorly at all. Dolan’s reputation as a terrible owner precedes him. Oakley’s reputation as a stalwart Knick precedes him.

Don’t assume because Dolan is an owner and white and Oakley a former player and black that Dolan is in the right and Oak in the wrong.