Today was a very unusual day, as so many unrelated tennis references appeared unexpectedly. My first stop was 21 Club on 52nd St. for the New York Road Runners Fifth Avenue Mile press conference at 10.
Jenny Simpson, the 1500 meter world champion at the Daegu World Track and Field Championships last month, said she had a close encounter with a very famous tennis champion at the 2008 Olympics. She was having lunch at the Athlete’s Village and a Spanish man sat down at her table She didn’t know who it was, but he said hello and was very nice, just like any normal guy, she said. He had lunch and spoke Spanish with his friends and later, one of Simpson’s friends came over to tell her who it was, as she didn’t know. It was Rafael Nadal. Simpson said she became a fan of Nadal’s after that and began to watch his matches.
After Biofiling Bernard Lagat, Morgan Uceny, Shannon Rowbury, my last interview was with Oregon’s Nick Symmonds, America’s premier half-miler. Symmonds, winner of the U.S. Outdoor Championships 800 meter event this summer, said he loves to watch Roger Federer and has enormous admiration for tennis players, calling them the best all-around athletes in the world, in his humble opinion. Symmonds has great appreciation for the combination conditioning, speed, athleticism, power and technical skills of tennis players. He hasn’t been to a live match yet – missing the most recent U.S. Open and Australian Opens by just a few days, as he was in New York and Melbourne just after the tournaments completed. Symmonds also said he read Andre Agassi’s book this summer during his off-time competing in Diamond League track and field meets in Europe and absolutely loved it, finishing the entire book in two days.
Then after the conference ended, I walked a few blocks over to visit my friend for lunch, cutting through the southern part of Central Park on the way over to West 67th Street. On one of the paths I walked by two women, and just as we passed each other, I eavesdropped one say to the other, something like “…tennis is a great sport.” Whoa, after a few steps I decided to stop and ask her about it. Anjenette Harper said she played tennis for the first time recently. I told her I would like to do a short feature about her for this site and having given out all my business cards at 21 I asked her to contact me through tennis-prose (hopefully she will).
About ten years ago at the U.S. Open during the first week, out on the grounds around court 14 and 15, I walked by a black woman who I overheard say, “I don’t know what my life would be like without tennis…” I kept on walking but later regretted not stopping and talking to her and asking her to expound on her obvious love for tennis. So that’s why I stopped and interrupted Anjenette – pursuit of a unique tennis story.
The tennis references were not over by a longshot. As I exited Central Park and walked down W 67th St to Cafe Des Artists, who do I spot walking towards me but John McEnroe. Johnny Mac is in his baseball hat and typical shades but I could spot the Johnny Mac style of walking from a mile away, he sort of glides athletically and gracefully down the sidewalk. He’s with the WTT New York Sportimes owner/GM Claude Okin. We stop for a few seconds and small talk. Mac’s hamstring injury which happened in August in Canada, is not hampering his walk at all, which is good news for tennis fans.
I show the proof copy of “Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew” to my friends and they like it very much, one, not a tennis afficianado, describes Mighty Marcelo from the cover and back cover excerpts this way – “Those mavericks always stand out.”
I take the 167 bus home and the forecasted rains never arrive so we get to play three sets of doubles at Overpeck Park.
What a tennis day huh?
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14 comments
<< U.S. Top Half Miler Nick Symmonds Calls Tennis Players The World’s Best Overall Athletes
Dan markowitz · September 23, 2011 at 3:16 am
Love that dude, Nick Symmonds. He runs like Prefontaine.
Mitch · September 23, 2011 at 3:39 am
Damn, I live in the neighborhood and have never seen JMac.
Michael · September 23, 2011 at 4:32 am
I was eating down in the W. Village at a “gluten-free” restuarant this evening and I mentioned to the hostess the Djokovic gluten-free diet. Not only didn’t she know the name she said she worked the USO this year at that restuarant by Ashe with the outdoor patio. But they had no monitors and no time off and she didn’t know what was going on or any of the players.
No one else at the bar had heard of Djokovic. What in the world happened to tennis.
PS, I’m in that Lincoln Center area frequently and I didn’t know they reopened Cafe De Artiste. But I’ll give you a recommendation on one of the great lunch bargains in Manhattan in the same area, if you are in the mood to semi-splurge. For $28 per the prix fixe menu at Nougatine (adjacent to Jean-George and I think the same kitchen) in the TIT building (aka Trump Int Tower and Hotel) is very good. I’ve had crappy means for not much less.
PSS, when I got the link and checked the menu I see they (must have very recently) raised the price to $32. Figures. It’s still worth I think.
http://www.jean-georges.com/
Scoop Malinowski · September 23, 2011 at 11:52 am
How would you describe the Pre and Nick S. running style Dan? I’m actually thinking of biking over to watch the Fifth Ave Mile this weekend, got some really good runners entered.
Scoop Malinowski · September 23, 2011 at 11:55 am
Mitch Did you ever see Howard Stern? I believe he lives on that W 67th block. He goes out to jog in the park midday sometimes. Saw Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta in 2002, the night of Lewis vs. Tyson. Liam Neeson, Joel Grey live there too.
Scoop Malinowski · September 23, 2011 at 11:58 am
Michael some people may not even know who Federer and Nadal are, believe it or not. Will have to try that lunch deal sometime, never been to Jean-Georges.
Mitch · September 23, 2011 at 2:35 pm
I live a few blocks north and have never seen anyone famous in the area. I run in the park a lot too and haven’t seen anyone there, except maybe the guy from Entourage once.
Gans · September 23, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Wow, what a day, Scoop.
Makes me want to move to or at least visit New York during USO. May be next year.
Great stories.
My son takes lessons from Gary Plock. Have you, Dan or anyone heard his name before? He was a phenom as a child and went on to become a pro. Reached NCAA doubles final beating JMac-Stan Smith (I believe it was Stan)in the semis- year may have been 1970 or something.
Gary made an interesting comment about the Djokovic-Federer USO semis. He said 6 years is a huge gap and the fact that Fed almost beat Djokovic is an unbelievable achievement in itself.
Scoop Malinowski · September 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Mitch; Wow, I don’t even live there and I’ve seen LeRoy Neiman, John McEnroe, Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas and wife, Mary Stuart Masterson, Joel Grey, Steve Albert. Spent a fair amount of time there though.
Gans · September 23, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Sorry, the year Gary beat JMac-SS was around 1979, not 70.
Scoop Malinowski · September 23, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Gans, Have not heard of Gary Plock before, but I also before last week did not know Van Winitsky used to dominate John McEnroe as a teen but suddenly JMac turned it around on him, a guy my friend played tennis with was telling stories about his Florida junior days and Van Winitzky was a destroyer. Like Gary Plock was. So many tremendous players in this sport who don’t make it big on the international level as adults. Just because they don’t doesn’t mean they aren’t incredible players. Like the Filipino Felicisimo Ampon who was under 5 ft tall but could on occasion beat the world’s best in the 50-60s. One question Gans, how could McEnroe and Smith play NCAA doubles together as Smith won Wimbledon in the early 70s and Mac was a generation later.
Gans · September 24, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Scoop,
Good catch. You could see my interest was more on McEnroe, so made a mistake on who his partner was. JMac’s partner was Bill Maze. Here are the details taken from ITS website.
“In 1978, Gary together with doubles partner Kevin Curren reached the Finals of the NCAA Championships in Athens, GA where they defeated John McEnroe and Bill Maze of Stanford University in the semi-finals (In 1979, teammate Kevin Curren won the the NCAA Singles event).”
Gary is a great coach and it is awesome to see my son progress under him. They have amazing chemistry. To learn more about Gary Plock, here is a website:
http://itstennisschool.com/its-advisory-team/gary-plock/
I think it will be cool to do a Biofile on him! 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · September 26, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Gans thanks for this info. I’m sure it will be an interesting Biofile with Gary Plock. If you would like to do it, we will definitely post it. I’d like to hear how your son’s game is maturing and improving with Mr. Plock as his coach?
Dan Markowitz · September 26, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Scoop,
I’d say the Symmonds/Prefontaine style-of-running, and I don’t mean to put Symmonds in Pre’s elite air b/c I think Pre was a better competitive runner, is/was to just go, as we like to say in long-distance running circles, “balls to the wall.” There was a style developed by great American milers and half-milers in the 60’s, like Jim Ryun, Marty Liquori and Dave Wattle, of staying back near the end and sprinting in the last half-lap to win.
But Symmonds and Prefontaine, who ran longer distances to Symmonds (like half-mile to Pre’s 5,000 meters), I think like to run from the start and just crucify the opposition. They have an attrition style of running as opposed to a possum style. I even saw Symmonds serve as a rabbit to a 1500-meter summer race in Europe this summer. But Symmonds hasn’t shined on the international circuit as much as I think Pre did, but there are no American long-distance runners on the track or in marathons–I know an American finished fourth in Boston this year, but that was an anomaly–who can compete with the top international, predominantly African, runners.