Whoa, Ivan Lendl walked into the transportation area this morning. Strange to see him here at the Sony.
Word from a reliable source is that Murray “desperately wanted to keep Lendl” but Ivan wanted to move on. Source says these amicable partings are never exactly 50-50 even agreed splits.
I was told an interesting story about Marcelo Rios. A journo here saw him in Munich once, at a Holocaust memorial in Munich, with his dad. Rios was not exactly the kind of person you’d expect to see at such a place, maybe he was dragged there by his pop Jorge.
Anyway, just thought I’d share that tidbit.
I was at the Kei-Dimitrov match. Kei was 2-0 career vs. Super G and he added number three today at a packed grandstand. Kei’s just a little more solid from the baseline. The coolest moment of the match was when G wanted a ball from the ballkid in the corner behind clock, I was sitting right there in the corner on the court level. G said, Ball. Then he noticed she was not okay. He then walked to her and asked her to come out to him and she wobbled a bit as G put his arm around her and escorted her off the court. The crowd loved the heroic gesture by G and gave a huge applause. G may have lost this match but he gained a ton of respect and surely a new segment of a fanbase.
Dominic Thiem hit with Federer yesterday. I was told they hit four years ago at Wimbledon also. Bresnik’s friend, Gabe Norman told me after a minute they asked Edberg how is Thiem? Edberg said He’s good, no doubt he’s good, just needs a little more touch. Gabe showed me photo of Fed, Ed and Dom all together.
The Indo Pak Express lost in straight sets to the Colombians.
Harrison and Sock nipped Aussie Open finalists Butorac and Klassen. Sock and Harry also did well in Delray.
Hingis came to watch Robredo beat Benneteau at the end. Hingis is friends with Robredo’s agent.
Mauresmo was also there watching but I did not see them acknowledge each other when Mauresmo walked by Hingis who was signing stuff for fans.
Gasquet is a quirky fellow. He has a huge tape bulge at the end of his Head racquet handle, like Kafelnikov used to. He also changes his socks, shorts and shirt after each set because of heavy sweating. He goes around the corner and does it in the tunnel of court two, where he’s played his last two matches. Before the coin toss of the match with Gonzalez, RG was on his way to the net then realized his credential was still in his pocket, he took it out and placed it on his chair then went out for the coin toss.
A kid fainted at Rafa’s practice around noon, Rafa expressed concern but couldn’t do anything because the kid was on the other side of the fence.
Anna Wintour was here supporting Fed again in his match today with DeBakker.
A tennis fan wisely purchased copies of both Facing Federer and Break Point (Dan’s book) today at the Authentic Memorabilia tent by the grandstand.
I’ve asked Arnaud Clement three separate times to talk about Hewitt for my book Facing Hewitt and each time he’s had excuses to not do it then. Maybe he didn’t like Hewitt?
Mats Wilander told me the other day for my Facing McEnroe project that McEnroe was clearly the better player than himself, and he knows it. But then I looked up the career head to head between the two legends and it’s 6-5 in favor of Mats.
It’s an honor to have a desk right next to Peter Bodo at the media center.
See you tomorrow…
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Dan Markowitz · March 24, 2014 at 9:25 am
Scoop,
That’s a pretty dour mug you got on in this picture. What didn’t they have your right sandwich choice at the media dining room?
The tour is a grind and some people like it and others don’t. I think Sloane Stephens just doesn’t like the grind. But it’s been surprising that the young American women from McHale to Stephens now who were supposed to make it big, have somewhat floundered. Keys, Townsend, that Tornado girl, we’ll see if they rise to the top. Amazingly, the Williams sisters are still at it.
Tell me, what’s your perspective. Does it get a little tedious after a week or so going to the event every day?
Abe Froman · March 24, 2014 at 11:41 am
smile scoop – you’re in miami watchin’ pro-tennis (prlly for free) LOL !!….it’s gotten miserably cold here again in the northeast..
Andrew Miller · March 24, 2014 at 7:14 pm
Nice. Lendl was playing with house money anyhows. Probably couldn’t help but feel that life being the player was better than being the coach and didn’t want to keep reliving the sport on someone else’s terms even if he was good at it which no doubt he was. I’d also think that with the rise if players like Vesely he doesn’t want to introduce a conflict of interest – there may have been one when Vesely played Murray this year. Lendl takes a lot of things personally – he always wanted to give back to the Czechs but didn’t want them to run his life. With some distance now between the eighties and today he might be thinking that he should bring his expertise back to where he’s from. Or maybe he wants to be like a Bolletieri. It would be ironic if Lendl became a Bolletieri coach or competitor – if he took that job and became basically the most important coach in the world. You never know as Lendl thinks BIGTIME and not small and maybe coaching amurray any longer didn’t match up with a new idea he had for his legacy in the sport. If anyone could create a tennis champ anywhere it would be Lendl.
Scoop Malinowski · March 24, 2014 at 9:02 pm
It’s been hot in the day Dan, a kid fell ill watching Rafa practice around noon. And a ballkid became ill late in first set of Kei Dimitrov. Tough conditions for sure. But I love it here, grinding out the interviews and features like a clay courter in the fifth set. I have gone every single day and stayed pretty late, hours range from ten to around ten every day, that’s about twelve hours.
Scoop Malinowski · March 24, 2014 at 9:04 pm
Dan that is my game face. I take my work very seriously 🙂 Re: Murray/Lendl…would speculate Lendl sees Murray as having reached his pinnacle at Wimbledon last year. And Lendl is not the type of guy to hang around spinning his wheels. The man is moving on to the next endeavor, the next challenge. Whatever that may be. IMO.
Dan Markowitz · March 24, 2014 at 9:58 pm
That’s one of the great things about you, Scoop, I know you do love going out there and being in the midst of all that tennis. Me, after a while, I can’t watch any more tennis. I just want to play or go to the beach or ride my bike.