Tennis Prose




Sep/10

22

The Shark On Tennis: Greg Norman Talks About The Art of Federer and The Grit of Hewitt

You never know who you will run into at the U.S. Open. Golfing great Greg Norman was with his two sons in the men’s locker room moments after a Roger Federer win on Ashe Stadium. After chatting with the world #2 and taking some photos, the two-time British Open champ (1986 & ’93) and World Golf Hall of Famer shared a few thoughts on his appreciation for tennis:

Greg Norman’s introduction to tennis? “Well, you’ve got Patrick Rafter, John Newcombe, Cashie, Ken Rosewall, I could go down the list. Rod Laver. All the great Australian players. Margaret Court. When you grow up in Australia and you look at all the other sports that have been played – and I follow cricket just as much as I follow tennis – this is the first time I’ve ever been to the U.S. Open. I was here for a meeting anyway, so I was fortunate enough to be able to come out and see it.”

The appeal of tennis? “It’s sport, simple as that. It’s sport. A lot of the athletes we know play golf. And so you have a connection in some way. Like James Blake loves to play golf. So when you see him, you know they watch you on TV. We watch them on TV. When you get to meet them and have a chat with them, you have some type of understanding with each other, even though you may not know each other until you actually meet them. At the end of the day, you respect them for their abilities just as much as they respect us for our abilities.”

How is your tennis game? “[Laughs]. I don’t play [smiles]. I don’t play.”

Who are your favorite players to watch? “It depends. I’m a huge Roger fan. I’m a huge Lleyton Hewitt fan. Because I just admire Lleyton’s determination and grit, he maximizes everything that he gets out there and puts his best foot forward every time, which is a rare talent indeed. And obviously Roger because of his grace and perfection of the game. Watching him hit a backhand is like standing there looking at the Mona Lisa all the time. It’s almost perfect. So, in sport, you always get these one every-one-thousand-year athletes – we’ve seen it in golf with Nicklaus and we’ve seen it in tennis with probably Roger Federer right now. And if you have the opportunity to see him and what he can do – it’s totally different live than it is on TV. There’s no question about it. And seeing him more than once live – he’s just an incredible talent to see. In tennis, Lleyton is the most tenacious I’ve ever seen. There’s no quit in him. All the other players don’t have any quit in them but Lleyton’s sense of awareness of what he wants on the tennis court is just unique and I’ve got a huge respect for him.”

You and Lleyton play golf together. Is his tenacity and intensity on the golf course similar to the way it is on the court? “Yeah [smiles]. Yeah, I think we’re all that way. No matter what we do – if it’s another sport or whether it’s scuba diving or something like that, we want to be the best we can be at it. Because it’s in our blood. That’s our make-up. No matter what challenge we have, same as golf, into sport, into business, we’re taking that competitive spirit and edge to it. And you just want to be the best you can at it.”

Favorite tournament? “I’ve only been to three – Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open. They’re all majors so they’re pretty impressive in their own right.”

Your greatest tennis moment? “I remember watching Bjorn Borg play McEnroe I think that was in 1981. The tie break. I’ll never forget that one [smiles].”

2 comments

  • Sid Bachrach · September 24, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Scoop. The Shark is off by a year regarding the McEnroe Borg tiebreaker. I watched the 1981 finals on the WImbledon DVD collection a while back as I didn’t remember that match well. In the 3rd set, Borg inexplicably plays a loose game on his serve and there goes the match. And seeing Borg lose the match bugged me just as much now as it would have in 1981! Borg was alot like Rafa. He played his best in every match and then win or lose, no excuses and no denigrating the player across the net.

  • Scoop Malinowski · September 24, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    Nadal might be the #1 most beloved universally respected sports champion on the planet. Above Woods, Kobe, Ronaldo, Messi, Klitschko, Pacquiao, Jeter, A-Rod, Manning. He is in a class of his own.

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