Tennis Prose




Aug/21

23

Three Funny Tennis Tales

1.) A Florida newspaper tennis columnist arranged to do a participatory journalism feature about returning – or rather trying to return Mark Philippousis’s serve at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in the 1990’s when the mighty Aussie had the biggest serve in the game. Not surprisingly the reporter couldn’t even touch the serve. On the 25th serve, Flipper said “last one.” The reporter had to jump to evade the body serve. The liasion who set up the meeting with the reporter and Philippousis asked Flip how the experience went? Flip replied, “I missed him.”

2.) A former pro witnessed some classic hissy fits at the Nick Bollettieri including this one involving Andre Agassi: “They had these Mitsubishi NBTA vans and Andre was driving it in the parking lot, stopping and starting and screaming and pounding the steering wheel after he lost a set to Tommy Haas.

3.) Ilie Nastase was playing at the US Open on old Grandstand. During his match he was bothered by the airplanes flying overhead out of Laguardia and JFK airports. Nastase requested the chair umpire of his match to call the air traffic controller tower of the airports to try to reroute the planes so they wouldn’t bother the players at the US Open. Nastase’s request was denied.

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6 comments

  • catherine · August 23, 2021 at 2:49 pm

    Scoop – at some point, I don’t remember the date, the planes were rerouted during the Open. But I do remember the quiet 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 23, 2021 at 3:26 pm

    Catherine, it used to be quite bad and annoying and incessant. Nastase’s complaining may have been the impetus to create the positive change. Miss the old grandstand, it was the best court to watch pro tennis. I remember the last match being played and seeing Luke Jensen up in the last row just reminiscing.

  • catherine · August 24, 2021 at 1:24 am

    Yes, the old grandstand was great. Equally good was the old Number One court at Wimbledon. In the press seats you could almost reach out and touch the players. And snooze in the afternoon sun if the match was dull 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 24, 2021 at 7:46 am

    Catherine, I still remember the first time being at Grandstand – in 1989 at a John McEnroe doubles match with Tatum Oneal sitting a couple of sections to our right. Probably watched over 100 matches in there in the following years. Rios vs Tarango, Dent vs van Pastor Navarro, Nadal vs El Aynouaoi, Hewitt vs Tomic, Djokovic vs Young, Reneberg vs Fromberg, Moya vs Clement, Hingis vs Kournikova juniors, Kafelnikov vs Hrbaty, Gambill vs Braasch, Rios vs Novak (Jiri), Corretja vs Golmard 2001 75 76 75 after Golmard beat Corretja in Halle 60 62, so many cherished memories.

  • Krzysztof · August 25, 2021 at 10:19 am

    There were some more memorable matches on Grandstand such as: Edberg vs Novacek (US Open 93), Blake vs Davydenko (US Open 2002), Thiem vs Del Potro (US Open 2017)

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2021 at 11:06 am

    Too many to remember Krzysztof. I’d read a book compilation of every match ever played on that hallowed court.

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