Dick Norman, a true free-spirit on tour, played his last doubles match alongside his countryman, David Goffin, two decades his junior, today in London. At 39, Norman teamed with the South African, Wesley Moodie, and reached the French Open finals. I’ll remember Norman for four reasons: his red curly hair; he was one of the tallest players to play the game as a lefty. I can only think of Victor Amaya as another giant lefty. I once saw Norman before he got blitzed in a Miami qualy match by Dudi Sela, calmly playing backgammon with his wife just before the match.

Dick Norman calls it a career

Thankfully, they eschewed the pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. I’m not sure when the move fully kicked in and they changed the nature and texture of the grass to make it play like a slow hard court, but that’s what’s happened and it’s a crying shame. You can tell even at the two grass court events last week in London and Germany, that the grass played more like grass used to play, slick, the ball sliding rather than hopping off the surface and the grass wearing down more as the week progressed. But somewhere along the line with Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic booming down aces,

John McEnroe and Gianluca Pozzi · Joni Mitchell

Vince Spadea was in town for the weekend to play in the Pro-Am at Westchester Country Club. Vince was the defending champion and he got to the finals against such competition from Kevin Kim, Robert Kendrick, Richey Reneberg and others. But Spadea and his partner, maybe a 3.5 player, faced Robert Pinsky, a former player from Harvard and Alex Stone, a former Dukie, in the finals. Spadea’s team was granted five freebie points because Vince was playing against two former Div. 1 players who are 25, according to Vince.

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Before I get into the main body of my post I want to express something about the women’s game. It’s hard to take seriously. I mean besides Serena and Sharapova is there one player you pine to watch play? I can’t think of any. Sloane Stephens bores me. Maybe Madison Keys has that IT factor, but it’s not there yet. There are no Hingis’, Graf’s, Capriati’s, Henin’s, Clijster’s or young Williams’ sisters anymore.

Ferrer/Nadal All-Spanish French Open Final

You remember Ken Rosewall? He looked like a cross between Lee Harvey Oswald and the young Johnny Carson. He also reached the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open at age 38 and he beat some pretty fair players along the way: Vijay Armitraj in both events, John Newcombe in both events and Stan Smith. But in the finals of both events he got smeared by Jimmy Connors winning a total of 8 games in 6 sets!

Tommy Haas plays the role of Ken Rosewall

I had some good upset picks in the first week. Who can forget my Monfils beating Berdych on Day 1 or my Nishikori beating Paire or sticking with Wawrinka to rout Jerzy boy? Yes, I did miss a few: Gulbis over Monfils, Anderson over Ferrer and Verdasco over Tipsarevic.

Nishikori · Wawa Move Out of the Shadows

I told you Nishikori had way too much game for Paire and the Frenchman is a feel-good player not one who’s ever going to make serious noise at a slam and what happens? I told you people back in Madrid that Nishikori was ready to do some big things and Paire couldn’t stand in his way. Nishikori dominated 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1.

Never in Doubt

It’s clear to me now that Milos Raonic’s chances of ever winning a slam are slim and none. He might’ve won a slam back in the 60′, 70′s, 80′s and 90′s, but not in this century. The big Canadian–and he is big, I know they don’t have measurements for this in tennis, but Milos has to have the biggest calf muscles on tour–dropped a straight set match to Kevin Anderson today.

Tough day on the planet for Raonic

In a press conference today, apparently the first question to the fake Fed, RF was asked that when he sits down with his grandchildren 30 or 40 years from now, will he feel remiss if he can’t tell the RF little tyke descendents that he beat Rafael Nadal at the French. And without blinking an eye or even standing up in front of his questioner and saying, “Do you know who you’re asking this question of!?” Fed said something to the effect of “No, because I’ve already won the French.”

Fed Has to Beat Nadal at the French to make his grandchildren happy

Besides the Simon comeback and win against Hewitt, there wasn’t a great men’s match played today. Most were 3-setters, but tomorrow offers perhaps more. Daniel Brands is a powerful German who might give Nadal some trouble. Of course, the sexiest match of the day, particularly for the French, is Monfils against Berdych. The 26-year-old Frenchman has dropped to his lowest ranking in years, No. 81, but he did get to the finals last week in Nice only to lose to Montanes and he won a French Challenger the week before that. Berdych is playing his best tennis ever on the clay, reaching the semis in both Madrid and Rome. He did reach the semis of the French in 2010 taking down Murray, but I like Monfils in this match to confound the big Czech and take him out of his rhythm and win this match.

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