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By Scoop Malinowski
Status: ATP no. 111. Top seed at Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open $100,000 Challenger this week at Laurel Oaks Country Club.
Ht: 6-3 Wt: 168
DOB: Jan. 27, 1993 In: New York, NY
First Tennis Memory: My parents used to be members of a tennis club in Japan. They had clay courts. I started playing there. It’s probably why I play the way I do.
Tennis Inspirations: Federer [smiles].
Last Book Read: I never read books [smiles]. I think I read McEnroe’s autobiography.
Current Car: I don’t have a car.
First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: David Ferrer. I used to practice in Valencia. And he used to practice at the same place. So I was able to practice with him and meet him.
Greatest Career Moment: It’s either Olympics or when I beat Djokovic in Indian Wells.
Most Painful Moment: Many weeks [chuckles]. Thirty weeks of the year are very painful [smiles].
Favorite Movies: Woody Allen movies.
Musical Tastes: Led Zeppelin.
Favorite Tournaments: Indian Wells, US Open, it just depends. If you win, it’s a great tournament. If you don’t, it’s not, so it’s hard to choose.
Closest Tennis Friends: JP Smith, James McGee, Kei Nishikori, all the Japanese guys.
Funniest Players Encountered: Fognini is pretty funny. He’s a joker for sure.
Strangest Match: There were many weird ones. Sometimes in the Futures when they try and cheat or something when there’s no referees. Guys pretending they’re injured or they’re complaining at you because you took a timeout.
Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: I don’t follow any sports but I like playing table tennis. I’m pretty good at it [smiles].
Three Athletes You Like To Watch & Follow: Michael Jordan – but he’s already done. Marshawn Lynch – that’s like the only American Football player I like. What else? … Cristiano Ronaldo.
Funny Tennis Memory: I can laugh about it now. I had a car accident in China when I was riding a taxi on the way to the airport. And I almost missed my flight. That was pretty funny when I think about it now.
Best I Ever Felt On Court: The best I ever played was maybe half of the match against Nadal in US Open in September when I was a set and a break up.
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: It’s quality not the flavor [chuckles].
Why Do You Love Playing Tennis: It’s the only thing I’ve known. I can’t explain why. I guess if I see it from a further perspective, it’s a very unique career to have. You’re traveling around the world almost every week playing tournaments and you’re fit. Seemingly living a nice life. So it’s tough but it’s also rewarding.
People Qualities Most Admired: I like people who are truthful. They’re not afraid to say what they believe in without being disrespectful. That balance is very important I think.
You can read more Biofiles like this at www.mrbiofile.com
Dan Markowitz · April 16, 2018 at 7:10 pm
That’s whack! Daniel says he doesn’t read and then says his favorite films are Woody Allen flicks which used to be pretty cerebral when Woody was in his heyday.
Thomas Tung · April 17, 2018 at 3:24 am
The truth is, the vast majority of people are visually oriented. Vision seems to be a much more developed sense than many of the other senses.
catherine · April 17, 2018 at 5:16 am
Makes sense – we need vision in order to survive. Sight, and a sense of smell perhaps.
catherine · April 17, 2018 at 5:44 am
Is Taro Japanese ?
Scoop malinowski · April 17, 2018 at 8:30 am
His mom is Japanese, dad American. Plays for Japan.
Chazz · April 17, 2018 at 11:05 am
Going back to the Donaldson thing:
They replayed the match on Tennis channel last night and I watched the second set. Ramos-Vinolas was leading 3-2 and 40-0 when the dispute happened on the serve. So it wasn’t even a critical point at all, he was on his way to losing that game. What you also probably didn’t see from online clips was he kept going on and on about the call well after those. So bizarre. No surprise but he didn’t shake the ump’s hand afterwards.
Duke Carnoustie · April 17, 2018 at 11:08 am
Daniel is 25 years old. How much could he have watched Michael Jordan? You have to wonder about things like that.
Duke Carnoustie · April 17, 2018 at 11:11 am
Sandgren is getting stomped. That’s tough, playing in Houston on Sunday and then going to Monte Carlo for a Tuesday match vs. Kohli. The tour isn’t easy.
Thomas Tung · April 17, 2018 at 11:13 am
Taro plays the kind of “clay-court specialist tennis” that hasn’t really been seen on tour since the mid/late 90s. The only other guy who plays like that is Albert Ramos-Vinolas (another guy with no real weapons). Works for them I suppose.
Scoop Malinowski · April 17, 2018 at 11:58 am
One break down is still close and to see yourself get robbed by a bad call even if it’s 0-40 just adds to the aggravation and Donaldson erupted and had to vent it out. Understandable episode and I was impressed by Donaldson showing his feisty side and fighting the injustice. Now chair umpires know that they better be paying attention because Donaldson will challenge bad calls that go against him.
Scoop Malinowski · April 17, 2018 at 11:59 am
You Tube. Jordan, Ali, Tyson, Marcelo Rios (Nishioka) have fans that missed their primes and watch them on You Tube.
Scoop Malinowski · April 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Sandgren looks like he’s exhausted and at about 50 percent of his capacity. Needs another day or two. Still it’s a special experience to play at Monte Carlo, and hopefully he will have many more chances.
Scoop Malinowski · April 17, 2018 at 12:01 pm
Thomas, Check out Daniel’s twitter, he shows video of him doing these neat strength drills on court crawling around like a spider but it looks like these drills help to give him his strength and agility and elasticity.
Dan Markowitz · April 17, 2018 at 2:05 pm
Daniel has done well to get to 111. He’s not even close to being a clay court specialist like Ramos. Donaldson just appears socially awkward to me; his voice, his mannerisms. I haven’t talked with him, but something seems a little unhinged with him.
catherine · April 17, 2018 at 3:06 pm
Just glimpsed the new adidas RG lines – on the evidence of my eyes and highly developed fashion sense Ostapenko will be out first match. Not only is her outfit a stinker style wise but some designer’s been thinking pink. Nike will have moved on.
catherine · April 17, 2018 at 3:07 pm
Hartt – article about Rebecca M in DT. I’m wondering how it’s going to work for her at 27.
jg · April 17, 2018 at 3:33 pm
I would have assumed Noah Rubin could have gotten into the Sarasota draw, but he’s playing a futures, if you do well in the 3 clay court challengers you get the usta wildcard into the french, even if he’s out of form, the draw does not look so tough Rubin couldn’t make a run.
catherine · April 17, 2018 at 3:39 pm
refresh ?
Duke Carnoustie · April 18, 2018 at 12:53 am
Donaldson is definitely one of tennis’ weirdos. He was fined a lot so he won;t do that again. Still much respect for him to get his career to levels no one imagined.
Opelka with a gutty 3-set win that he needed in Sarasota.
Tomorrow could be a career-defining match between DY and Kozlov. DY loses that one and he is officially done.
dan markowitz · April 18, 2018 at 6:52 am
I’m not saying that about JD to insult or criticize him, he just seems socially awkward or that he’s lived such a narrow life that he doesn’t come across well talking or relating with others. I could be completely wrong; he might just sound stilted in speech, but what he did in MC indicated a guy who might not have such great control of his ability to discourse or dissent in a more sane fashion.
I don’t care the instance, and being down 0-40 in a game and a set and a break makes a point not so important, you can’t go completely off on the ump like that. Usually JD seems pretty controlled out there. I saw him play a match in Delray and he’s always blessing out, “Thanks” to the ball boys when they throw him the ball, but I’m going to keep an eye out on him going forward like I’m doing with Sandgren and have always done with Harry to see if the guy is strained in his surroundings. To me, and this is just an unprofessional opinion of course, he seems like he might be on the spectrum, and has Asperger’s.
How about Mac Mac losing to a qualifier in Sarasota named Jay Clarke? And Mmoh easily dispatching Korda 2 and 4.
Hartt · April 18, 2018 at 7:17 am
Catherine, I did a longish post about Marino, but the site checked out before it went up. The gist was that I was skeptical about Rebecca’s comeback, but have been impressed with her results to date. In 7 small tourneys she went from no ranking to about No. 440. I think she will continue to make good progress, especially when she is able to play in the bigger ITF tournaments.
I have used up my number of premium articles on the Telegraph, so couldn’t read that piece. There is a very good video on Marino, however, which probably covered the same material.
catherine · April 18, 2018 at 7:53 am
Hartt – that piece on Marino wasn’t premium or I couldn’t have read it. But I think the DT is making more and more articles premium now and they rather hope we can’t tell the difference 🙂
As far as I can tell Rebecca appears to be level headed and realistic and won’t collapse back into depression if she doesn’t make the top flight. If she enjoys playing, and continues to enjoy the game for its own sake then that’s the main thing. A bit like fly fishing.
When you say ‘the site checked out’ did you mean T-P ?
There’ve been difficulties here for a while, the site seems unstable which is a nuisance but I try to work around it – eg posting in the evening and waiting overnight for the comment to appear. Or submitting a single word but that doesn’t always work.
Fed Cup week for women, so apart from MC men not a lot happening. Then Stuttgart and on to clay – In Miami Angie remembered that last year she won 1 match on clay but she seemed to see the funny side of that so maybe she’ll do better this time if her adidas outfit doesn’t let her down.
catherine · April 18, 2018 at 8:00 am
Apologies Hartt – that article was Premium when I looked it up on the archive – I must have imagined reading it or the DT changed it – weird.
catherine · April 18, 2018 at 8:02 am
refresh again
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 8:27 am
Daniel lost to Clezar in three sets. Opelka roars back to beat tricky Kecmanovic. All eyes will be on Young vs Kozlov today, first meeting on clay, Young won easily on grass in Newport and barely edged Koz in IW last year in an epic struggle. Both times Young was extremely fired up as if playing his worst enemy. Should be very interesting today at 4:30 at laurel Oaks. Will try to be there for this one.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 8:28 am
Lost respect for adidas for supposedly signing Kapernick. But I do like their styles except for that silly rainbow line last year at US Open designed by Pharrell.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 8:29 am
INteresting decision by Rubin to play a Futures and not a Challenger in Sarasota. Brave decision. Hope it pays dividends.
Hartt · April 18, 2018 at 8:30 am
Maybe they did upgrade the article to premium or you slipped in under their radar. As a Canadian I won’t be subscribing to the Telegraph for the occasional tennis article, but it is frustrating when they have something I particularly want to read.
T-P did not respond quickly when I tried to post my original reply and timed out. When I came back my post had disappeared.
Rebecca is mature now and seems much better able to cope with being away from her family, etc. And she is playing simply because she wants to, that has to make a huge difference. I find it an intriguing story.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 8:32 am
Catherine there are odd glitches. I noticed if I try to post an article with a similar headline to a previous article, the article does not post, well it posts but the actual content doesn’t post, it’s a big empty space. Just weird. But I guess a lot of sites have their glitches and possible ghosts. Or maybe the supposed Russian hackers are targeting us now 🙂
Hartt · April 18, 2018 at 8:43 am
Catherine, here is the link to he Rebecca Marino video. Hope it works.
https://twitter.com/TennisChannel/status/972592935052066816
Chazz · April 18, 2018 at 9:28 am
Did Tommy Paul pull out of Sarasota? I don’t see him in the draw now.
Big win for Djokovic over Coric, maybe it means he’s back from the dead, it will be interesting to watch.
Dan, you deserve a bit of teasing for saying JD might have Asperger’s. I mean, c’mon, did you see the My Tennis Life show on Tennis channel? He has a Rhode Island accent which is a little goofy sounding. Nothing more than that.
catherine · April 18, 2018 at 10:03 am
Scoop – it may well be Russian hackers but I feel they would support Russian tennis players so avoid tennis sites 🙂
I believe the glitch here happened when T-P separated from the Forum a few weeks ago -you mentioned that earlier so it’s entirely possible, since computers have minds of their own. Posting has become very slow.
Djokovic – in a previous thread I posted a link to a some comments D made about Agassi. Seems Novak is feeling a bit calmer about things now.
Hartt – thanks for the link. It works.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 10:07 am
Donaldson is a very bright kid, very intelligent and he has his head on right. Can’t fathom how anyone can conclude he’s some kind of social misfit, that’s about as preposterous an assumption as I’ve ever read. Do an interview with Jared Dan and erase that silly idea at once. Big win for Djokovic, and he had to earn it, ten match points saved by Coric. Djokovic looks like he’s back suddenly feeling no pain after exactly, ahem, two years. If anyone said it as a two year silent ban, it would be kind of hard to argue them. Great to see Djokovic looking like his once great self again. It’s very exciting to think about top flight Noval Djokovic roaring back on the scene to be the worst nightmares for Fed and Rafa. Thank goodness Pepe Imaz has been jettisoned back to Spain or wherever the heck he preaches his peace and love phooey.
Scoop Malinowski · April 18, 2018 at 10:08 am
Paul was on the player list, forgot to ask the tourney director why he was not in the main draw. Will try to find out today.
catherine · April 18, 2018 at 10:09 am
Scoop – I like adidas on the whole but Ostapenko’s for RG this year is a disaster playing wise and fashion wise. She’d better do well or everyone will be laughing at her.
Kerber’s is too bitsy – the plain styles suit her much better. Woz is all in black.
Thomas Tung · April 18, 2018 at 1:10 pm
Minor surprise — Gasquet downs Schwartzman 6-2 6-1. Bad day in the office for Diego?
Thomas Tung · April 18, 2018 at 1:13 pm
Also, I don’t ever really hear Jared Donaldson speak in the YouTube highlights — does he have Locust Valley lockjaw (aka American version of Received Pronunciation)? That might account for his speech patterns.
Chazz · April 18, 2018 at 1:36 pm
Here you go Thomas, lots of clips of Donaldson talking on the show:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=my+tennis+life+donaldson
Dan Markowitz · April 18, 2018 at 3:37 pm
OK I watched a couple of those Tennis Life’s with JD and he seems ok, definitely not on the spectrum, but he’s been having a tough time of it lately on the court, except for beating F Lo a couple of times, the victories have been scarce.
What is it with Djoko? How can he go from losing to Paire so badly to killing Lajovic and then beating Coric? Come on, what’s the difference? Two weeks? New old coach? Djoko back on the clay, in Europe. Hard to see how it adds up.
Thomas Tung · April 18, 2018 at 4:04 pm
Thanks, Chazz — if I’m not mistaken, there does seem to be a bit of that “Locust Valley Lockjaw” in Jared (I know nothing about his background, except what is on the ATP website, and this: http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/donaldson-miami-2018-on-the-line). Or is that a particular Rhode Island accent? No idea.
Locust Valley Lockjaw example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WruWJt2KD1Y
Duke Carnoustie · April 18, 2018 at 11:08 pm
Yeah no harm to JD, I am sure he means well. Who cares what I think anyway except I usually get my predictions right on this site. Maybe I do know a thing or two.
Scoop didn’t know adidas backed Kaepernick but not surprising that a German company would support an anti-American athlete. Hopefully the president will tweet about it and people will boycott their shoes. The anthem neeling is one of the most disgraceful things I have seen.
It’s officially over for D-Young. He gets blasted by Kozlov and it’s time for him to become a club pro somewhere. It’s been a brutal stretch – he falsified racism claims, dropped nearly 100 spots and saw about 10 or so Americans surpass him in the rankings. he has fallen with a thud.
What matches tomorrow in MC. Djoker-Thiem, Zverev-Struff, Agut-Goffin, Khachanov-Rafa and Raonic-Cilic. Wish I was there.
catherine · April 19, 2018 at 2:20 am
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2018/04/18/caroline-wozniacki-may-boycott-miami-open-next-year-abuse-family/
Well – did they or didn’t they ?
catherine · April 19, 2018 at 3:52 am
This weekend Fed Cup predictions:Czechs to beat Germany ; USA to bt France. Both teams win away.
catherine · April 19, 2018 at 10:59 am
Out goes Djokovic to Thiem – his revival’s off to a shaky start. My view is Djokovic will never again reach his former heights.