By Jayita A Belcourt
Lleyton Hewitt is undoubtedly one of Australia’s greatest tennis players of the modern era. As a former world number 1 and with 2 grand slam titles under his belt, Hewitt’s talent and experience is vast. Unsurprisingly, following his retirement in 2016, he was quickly snapped up as an asset for Tennis Australia appointed team captain for the Australian Davis Cup and now the ATP Cup. But Hewitt’s role has not come without controversy. In recent years, Hewitt has been at the receiving end of a string of allegations from players like Bernard Tomic who accused him of intimidation, favouritism and even blackmail. At the Australian Open in 2019, the headlines splashed throughout the media with such a strong stench like “no one likes him anymore” and suggestions that Hewitt had acted “illegally” and “ruined the system”, that many wondered how Hewitt and Tennis Australia would bounce back.
Yet, as the sky turned red in parts of Australia’s apocalyptic bushfire conditions, in contrast, any reputational tarnish was certainly wiped and forgotten this week for the 38-year old during the ATP Cup in Brisbane. Championing two wins for team Australia over Team Canada and Team Germany, the praises and smiles from Hewitt’s players couldn’t have been brighter.
John Millman, who secured a comfortable win for team Australia against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to kickstart the second tie following a last-minute call to replace an injured Nick Kyrios, expressed deep appreciation for his Aussie captain.
“I love having Lleyton in the corner… You won’t find someone that’s more passionate about tennis than Lleyton. And I admired so much his game and his tenacity, and what he showed on the court is exactly how he is off the court.”
Indeed, Hewitt was certainly known for being a feisty, competitive, determined player. Someone who would grind you down and never give up. And that’s exactly the energy that was on display as he sat consistently and patiently courtside throughout his nation’s matchups in Brisbane. It was almost like he too was playing and toying with the world’s best through his players.
Whilst some may see this as negative or even controlling, it’s far from the opinion of his players. As highlighted by Millman “he’s [Lleyton] tenacious and he’s got that never say die attitude that we will have as Australians and he’s someone that, I guess the best way to describe it is, he’s someone that when you go out you look over to the box and you see him giving you a bit of a fist pump, you know he’s in your corner. And that’s what so great about these team competitions is that you can draw upon legends like that and also the support staff. They play every shot with us out there and that’s what makes these team competitions so unique and special”.
Millman’s thoughts were echoed by rising star Alex De Minaur describing his team captain as “awesome”, “supportive” and “encouraging”. The 20-year-old world 18 had a tight 3 set battle with Canada’s world number 15 Dennis Shapovalov in his nation’s second clash at the ATP Cup. After losing a heartbreaking first set tiebreaker and down 2-4 in the second, De Minaur was able to recompose and dig deep to clinch a stunning three set victory 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2 for team Australia. Throughout the match, Lleyton remained visibly calm and positive, clenching his fists in the pivotal moments and echoing words of encouragement when the youngster was running low on emotional fuel.
Of De Minaur, Hewitt remarked “I’m so proud of the way Alex was able to hang in there. He was going to get an opportunity at some stage and he was able to take that. He had a bit of a flat spot there but after you lose a tight first set, that was always going to happen. He went on with it in the third set.”
Yes, it seems Lleyton’s insights and in-depth psychological knowledge of his players and the game itself is really cementing Australia as a formidable opponent. So, with a string of talent at his disposal with the likes of Nick Kyrios and Alex De Minaur, is Hewitt’s input and energy able to give Australia the edge it needs to take out this year’s inauguration of the ATP Cup?
Up next, Australia will face team Greece on Tuesday 7 January. Should they secure even one win from three matches, they will process to the ATP Cup quarter-finals in Sydney.
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »Jon King · January 9, 2020 at 9:02 am
Naomi took out Kenin. 6-7, 6-3, 6-1. That looks like a good sign for Osaka to get better from set to set to set.
And I agree….how does Simon forget to mention Naomi the first several times he mentions today’s young stars? 2 Slams and she just turned 22 a few months ago.
Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2020 at 9:08 am
Just goes to show you how much $$$ they see in Coco rising to the top, over Osaka who they don’t value as highly. Naomi Osaka superstar double major winner and former world no. 1 is an afterthought compared to Coco.
catherine · January 9, 2020 at 9:21 am
Hartt – yes, I found that odd , but not really unexpected. I suspect a few people in the US based WTA were a little miffed when Naomi chose to represent Japan – they were getting ready to promote her as the next Serena when puff! she was gone and they’re left with Coco who may be great but may not. Naomi is now called ‘Japanese’ by the media, which must stick in some throats.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 9:22 am
Shenzen, Bertens d. Kontaveit. Nice to see Kontaveit making it competitive, goes down swinging.
Kr. Pliskova wins again over one of the Bondarenko sisters. I like all the sisters on tour. Williams, Pliskovas, Bondarenkos. Reminds me of the Maleeva days, best trio ever of tennis pros.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 9:24 am
Anyone catch SI Tennis Mailbag this week? It featured predictions for 2020. Thougnt Jon Wertheim did another great job. He is mildly concerned on Zverev, but only mildly. I know Harold reads it!!!
Harold · January 9, 2020 at 9:25 am
2 year age difference, but Anisimova is way better than Gauff. Next ten years, she’ll have more success…
Tough USTA honchos dilemma…blond, pretty girl, or AA girl? Which hype machine wins?
Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2020 at 9:31 am
Catherine, I was told USTA rejected Osaka and supported Keys and Stephens instead. USTA could have supported Osaka and she would have changed to American, as she lived on Long Island and played her first USTA tournaments at age 8 in New York. I researched and found she played about 25 tournaments as an 8 yr old her first year of competition.
Jon King · January 9, 2020 at 9:33 am
True, and the ironic thing is that Osaka is a vastly superior overall player to Gauff, and would be even if Gauff was the same age.
The reason for that is how they developed. Osaka took her time, dad took her from one technical coach to another. Developed power early, worked on foot speed over time, fixed this grip, tweaked that shot. Did not get caught up in the junior success stuff.
Gauff was getting attention when we first saw her at Sly Black’s at 9 years old. Pretty much only worked on speed which was Sly’s thing. But he was not a technical coach. Gauff won with extreme grip, tons of junior success, then she got caught up in the hype train we now see.
Now she has a forehand grip that can be exploited in a number of ways once the top players get the scouting report. Thats a big issue because gaining tour experience helps a player….but it can’t do a thing to change a technical flaw.
catherine · January 9, 2020 at 9:35 am
I would have been very surprised if Kenin had beaten Naomi, who is far above Sofi in talent.
Re Naomi – Japan is currently suffering from a falling birth rate and an ageing population and the Japanese are relaxing their former restrictions on immigration and people of mixed race, so their welcome to Naomi, which may have been inconceivable a couple of generations ago, can be seen in that light. In a way she’s a visible symbol of the new Japan. The Japanese tennis authorities also probably see Naomi as an Olympic gold medallist. No wonder they wanted her.
Jon King · January 9, 2020 at 9:37 am
Harold, I thought the same thing the other day….Anisimova is going to have a superior career to Gauff.
The only issue with Anisimova is her leg structure. She has had a few lower body injuries already. But if Anisimova can stay healthy and her legs hold up, better player than Gauff.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 11:34 am
Kenin outworks people. Just does. And it isn’t “just working hard” – she learns from matches. Few players do this enough to make a difference, and Kenin does it all the time. This is a page from the Serena Williams playbook (and from what I can tell, the Andreescu playbook). You learn from matches, absorb it, document it, figure out how to improve, implement, execute in a real world setting. Same technique used by Federer and other tennis psychos.
It will be interesting seeing how far her burning ambition, obvious competitiveness, and work ethic take her. I don’t love the Kenin game, but I love that she listens and works on things. I wouldn’t be surprised if, among all players, the one that comes closer to a certain blond girl in reaching beyond themselves to bigger titles (like a Masters, possibly more) is none other than Kenin.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 11:41 am
All in on Cocomania. And a fan of Coco the dog, and CocoV, who qualified for the Aussie. I don’t think it’s responsible for reporters to be all in on Cocomania though, and I think it’s pathetic they aren’t highlighting other players results and improvements. It’s responsible to report: Gauff won today, so and so lost, etc and so forth. It’s irresponsible to report, GAUFF AND SERENA COULD MEET TWICE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS GET YOUR TV DINNER READY!!!
That’s WWF promotion, not women’s tennis, which is more like: “Serena’s draw looks like this. If they both win their matches, Serena could face off against Gauff. However Gauff has struggled in early rounds, and has a tough opponent in Siegemund.” So the story is about Serena’s draw as one of the best players in history, her smashing of Camilla Giorgi, and that she has pretty good draw whether or not she squares off against Gauff.
Cut the kid some slack. She isn’t writing the stories about herself. Everyone else has a problem pouring all this attention on the kid and overlooking the game that swirls around the players. I am sure her agent is milking all this for more endorsements, but if you had an agent, wouldn’t you be doing that? Wouldn’t you be working the phones to turn LL results into first round opportunities? I mean, if you weren’t, wouldn’t you be avoiding your job for the Gauff account?
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 11:50 am
Anisimova must be playing on emotion. Huge loss. Mr. Anisimova seemed like a good guy. I wish her well. No amount of money can make up for a loss of a good parent. She’s making good on the work they did.
Yeah there was a hail of a lot of hype poured on Anisimova and that was also incredibly irresponsible. As everyone knows prior to the US Open there was a huge ESPN article dedicated to Anisimova as the next huge marketing phenomenon, with all of that hype being popped like a huge balloon when Anisimova only days later pulled from the US Open following her father’s untimely death.
I think all those features are irresponsible, but writers need to write and can’t overlook the narrative of the next big thing, the next Kournikova with talent but without Enrique Igleasias and “here take a few of these vitamins”.
Anisimova is walking a path and doing ok. Let’s see how this works out. I can’t make predictions this far out.
The only observation that I agree completely with today is Catherine’s where she remarked that Siegemund “played tennis” to beat Gauff. That’s how you beat grinders. Gauff will retrieve everything possible out there and you have to either exploit her willingness to run and blow her off the court (Osaka) or play tennis (Siegemund) by giving her balls she doesn’t want to hit (where you’re playing chess but everyone else thought they were playing checkers).
Something I wish other players did more of against anyone. But mindless tennis is a feature of the tours.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 11:55 am
Please don’t be anti-Gauff. She isn’t trying to feed the frenzy and doesn’t know better. This whole thing has gotten way out of hand in less than 120 +/- x days. Her game has problems. So what. That’s tennis. Only a few players are good at everything and we can count that on maybe two hands.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 11:59 am
One observation: players aren’t improving (much). When Serena gets back to her level she hasn’t “improved” (and she’s one of the few that shows the ability to improve aka add to her game).
Still strikes me as incredible. So much money changing hands, so few legitimate attempts to add to the repertoire. Players opt to work hard to be in the groove (“play my best tennis”), not to expand their game and brave the elements.
About the only thing improving is the mental toughness capability of some players such as De Minaur. Helps him beat players that shouldn’t be struggling so much against him.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 12:09 pm
Jackson/Nadal: There’s a special on the U.S. program 60 Minutes by Jon Wertheim – he went to Mallorca to learn more about the Nadals and talk with him etc. It’s on Sunday.
Harold · January 9, 2020 at 12:09 pm
SW will not get to 24…make her play 3 points in a row with 10 shots, and she’s doubled over panting for air. At 4-2 in the first set she was tired. McHale was afraid to win, and choked.
Carrillo was saying in the third set SW’s loud breathing was to scare McHale, I call BS, she was breathing hard because she’s out of shape..
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 12:29 pm
Maybe/maybe not. Serena’s “match readiness” on 1-10 since her return has been around 5.5 🙂 She trains hard but more often than not on the big stage her best isn’t what it was. Still think she needs a good draw and some luck and that gets her to 24.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 12:30 pm
Harold, classic, “Pride of NJ”. Like McHale, Gimelstob ranked pretty high here as superstar from NJ.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 12:43 pm
Jon, those Mitch Gornto courts must be nice (and quite something for a non factor tennis program). Don’t remember anything like that being around in the past (other than Patch Reef Park in Boca – those were the nicest a long time ago). Wonder if we’ve come across similar people. If you get to Mark’s Center Court tennis in Greenacres, 6145 Lake Worth Rd/Greenacres. Mark is an excellent pro, trained under Lansdorp, and is the cousin of Jeff Salzenstein. It’s his racquet/tennis store. If you get to St. Andrews, schedule some time with Reid, the tennis coach there. He was a top junior and played full ride at Vandy. He was a strong pro, had to leave the tour when his sponsor passed away. If you get to Frenchmans Creek, Shaker Heights, Admirals Cove, know their head pros (sisters) who are positive, excellent on the training end.
catherine · January 9, 2020 at 12:52 pm
http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/tennis-australia-wta-cup-new-womens-tournament-atp
Is this true ? I can’t believe it. What’s happened to the Fed Cup ? Buried. This new WTA Cup will mean everyone’s so exhausted by the time the AO comes they’ll be falling over on the court – not to mention the heat which will go on and on. It’s a rubbish idea. Talk about killing the goose….
Tennis isn’t a team sport. It’s played in tournaments.
Except for maybe one competition.
catherine · January 9, 2020 at 12:54 pm
Also, there aren’t enough good women to make a WTA Cup successful in that format.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 2:21 pm
Muster, to beat Nadal, joins Thiem’s team (ha!). Will this matter? Does Thiem have the ability? Will Muster grab a racquet?
More from Tennis World Website:
Jared Donaldson withdraws from Australian. The injured Donaldson is now in 700s. Gotta be depressing.
Marcos Giron wins Australian wildcard challenge and qualifies for direct entry to the Australian. Congratulations to Marcos Giron. His interview was good here.
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/American_Tennis/82348/marcos-giron-hopes-australian-open-will-help-him-break-into-the-top-50/
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 2:23 pm
Mladenovic will get sidetracked. The cup runneth over. Way too many team contests. Only two matter on women’s side: World Team Tennis (I love it!) and Fed Cup.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 5:01 pm
Kozlov d. Nakashima (6-2 in third), Ann Arbor MI challenger results. There’s a McNally in the draw too! Must be McNally’s brother John, who plays at Ohio State (Source: Google). McNally currently getting his hat handed to him by Fratanegelo, Ann Arbor top seed at #179 in the world and a former French Open junior champion. Fratangelo gets so close and then his ranking doubles.
Jon King · January 9, 2020 at 5:18 pm
Yes Andrew, the Mitch Gornto courts are amazing. Like you said, a great facility for a small school’s tennis program. Palm Beach Atlantic has some of the best sports facilities for all its sports.
As far as Gauff goes, she was telling people at age 10 at junior tournaments that she was going to be “better than Serena”. Never heard any other kid say that, even Tornado and Hurricane Black who were supposed to be the next Williams sisters and won a ton in juniors. When compared to Serena and Venus, they would always be humble. Not Co Co.
Co Co has always been in your face with how good she thinks she would be. So I think she has no problem with the hype at all and welcomes it.
Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Jon told me Kozlov played very aggressive vs Nakashima, considering how good the teen looked in Hawaii, this is a big win for Kozlov.
Andrew Miller · January 9, 2020 at 7:44 pm
Jon, she’ll have to “grow up in the spotlight”, as best she can, and learn in the public’s “school of hard knocks”. The media is gushing now, but what happens when that spotlight shifts to the “next biggest thing”, which could be arriving any day now. Anyways, I’ll forgive all the nuttiness around her, whether her parents and agent are behind it or whether she has decided this is how she does tennis. Cuts both ways.
Personally I am a fan of the “let the racquet do the talking” way of tennis. But to some extent that’s going out of style – all depends on the player. I appreciate the lower key approach to tennis, but some lower key players have privately destroyed many racquets, and that’s no good either.
Anyways. Players have to pick their battle. I just hope there’s a soft landing in case of disappointment because this amount of hype has the danger of turning into a huge canyon size gap between expectations and performance and that grates on the player. She’ll have to cross that bridge in the event all isn’t roses. And in pro tennis even among the best players of all time, it never is. Every player goes through highs and lows, high highs lowest lows. I worry about that.
If players are super confident that’s good. Just what is the source of the confidence, the practice or the hype? If the practice then awesome, you like what you’ve got going and are eager to do battle. If it’s the old because I’m the Best, that tends to smash I reality.
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 12:46 am
I saw a Youtube video a few years ago, Coco was about 11 I suppose, and she was doing the GOAT stuff. Where did she get it from ? I just thought, oh well. Now I think she’s growing up without a good sense of the world, little education (no geography obviously) but tons of money to make sure the bad things don’t happen.
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 12:56 am
Not a good day for Germany in Auckland – Siegemund out to Serena and Georges to Wozniaki, both SS. Is Julia’s time over ? She’s had coaching changes but nothing seems to work and now sinking in the rankings.
The Collins tornado comes to a stop in Brisbane – out to Keys SS.
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 1:54 am
I watched Julia’s highlights and it’s odd – all the character has gone from her game, along with her serve and forehand, and she’s just playing ordinary tennis. Caroline could handle that. Julia seems to have lost weight as well.
Woz playing well because she knows she’s retiring ?
jg · January 10, 2020 at 6:37 am
Kozlov looked really good, coming in a lot and is solid at the net. But see the results of JJ Wolf, he’s into the semis at a challenger in Australia, I see him making a big jump.
Jon King · January 10, 2020 at 10:23 am
Yes, J.J. Wolf is a tough young guy with a nice game. Great to see a nice guy like Kozlov getting wins. He was always so kind to the younger kids.
catherine, that video of Gauff at 11 years old proclaiming she would be GOAT is pretty much what her and dad would tell anyone who would listen at junior tournaments.
To be fair, when she played other juniors from age 9-13, even good ones, she looked like Serena. Gauff was faster, much stronger and would demoralize the other girls since she was so much better. So I can see how her and dad might extrapolate that if she was destroying girls at age 11 she would destroy them as a pro.
But as we know, pros do not work that way. No more huge physical advantage like as a junior.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 11:52 am
It will be put up or shut up time in 2020 for many players including those who keep talking about GOATS while losing early in tournaments. Players will get a pass for this (and Ryan Harrison did, he talked about all of these enormous earth-shattering goals and kept talking to anyone that would listen) and then suddenly the other kinds of articles come out (how many casualties are there on the tours? I have lost count).
The media “event” cuts both ways. As a player you can ride the tiger, but beware that it’s a tiger. Sampras and his family knew this, so I think his dad made sure or maybe Fischer not to over-expose.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Media critique: I appreciate Tennis World content, but the quality is laughably “low”. They make headlines of small things and make so many mistakes in terms of accuracy as well as general spelling errors! I caught one the other day from a major tennis reporter but it was small in comparison to the full containers of errors from the machine that it Tennis World.
I still like them. Might have to write them and ask them to make some changes so that they don’t ruin a good thing through tons of errors and bad content. I was beginning to believe it was a service and to some extent it is when other tennis sources are sputtering or obsessed about one or two players or topics at a time, but the more you dig in the worse it gets.
Maybe stick with more reputable sites or don’t get the expectations too high when there are no editors.
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Andrew – the internet has opened up ‘journalism’ to just about anyone who can operate a keyboard or whatever other instruments of electronic communication are around these days. I could. These people have no training, probably no background in communications and very often it seems, no knowledge of basic law. A lot of sites are practically illiterate as well. And you find the same stuff just repeated endlessly – a waste of time.
I just look at a couple of newspaper sports pages and one or two established sites and that’s it. Anything really important will be there.
Most contributors to online sites are not being paid. So you can’t expect much.
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 1:02 pm
Andrew, Tennis World isn’t a source to take seriously. Their headlines can be so misleading that Reddit does not allow posts with links to the site. As you said, they make a lot of errors. You have to be careful when reading their stuff. That said, sometimes they do have useful info, perhaps quotes from a player in a publication I don’t read, etc. But I only go there after I’ve exhausted my other sources.
These days I’m looking at the twitter accounts of journalists such as Jose Morgado, George Bellshaw, Simon Briggs, David Law, etc. As well as sites such as ubitennis.net, the ATP site, Tennis.com, Tennis.life and the Tennis Canada site. For Roger Federer matches PeRFect tennis is a must. For analysis of matches, Gill Gross’ Monday Match Analysis on YouTube is excellent.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 1:20 pm
Thank you Catherine and Hartt. You are right. I will have to move away from Tennis World towards the reputable sites as well as the better podcasts (of which there are now many!). I have enjoyed the coaching podcasts and some new ones, they have a lot of depth and more than I expected. Always helps when they have excellent guests such as the name brand coaches.
I had my hopes up with Tennis World this week. At first I was reading and thought you know, not all of this matches up but I appreciate how quickly and how much they put out and some of this is spot on! Then as the week has gone by I read the headlines (that don’t match the actual statements from players) and notice the tendency to totally stretch if not fabricate some things (as in “this could be true” but “the player didn’t say what the headline says at all”), or plain “wishful thinking”.
So I am sorry to post this: anyone, be careful with Tennis World. I can’t recommend it – I wanted to recommend it and now I can’t. It’s not a valid source of tennis information. It can lead to the podcasts etc or content, but it’s not worth referencing in and of itself. It’s hollow.
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 1:49 pm
Andrew, I totally agree about the tennis podcasts. There are almost too many good ones, and each one has its own slant. Did you know that Tennis.com has what they call the “Tennis Channel Podcast Network,” with links to about a dozen podcasts. It is on the Tennis.com site under “podcasts.” I discovered it when my go to podcast for Canadian content, “Match Point Canada,” joined the group.
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 1:55 pm
Will I be right or wrong ? My prediction: Bianca Andreescu will not play in the Australian Open.
Now someone tell me she is already practising at Melbourne Park.
(Hartt – I looked on tennis.life and the very slightest hint there that she isn’t ready. )
catherine · January 10, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Podcasts – they are cheap to produce but I’m afraid I can’t stand them. All those people talking.
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 2:25 pm
Catherine, I’m not even trying to figure out if Bianca will play the AO. At least she still has a couple weeks, but she will need to get there in time to get over jet lag and become accustomed to the conditions.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 3:21 pm
Catherine, not seeing it re: Andreescu + AO. Why risk (a bad back, a bad injury, etc). She pulled off the feat of Toronto and the “draw of death” she faced at the Roger’s Cup (I just call it the Canada Masters but it’s been Roger’s Cup for a long time!). Is she really showing up at the Australian cold, for a slam? I think Serena Williams has done this, and Federer “opens” his season at the Australian. Federer I know trains like a fiend before it, so maybe Andreescu is doing that where she plays her way in.
I don’t know. Australian Open isn’t Roger’s Cup – they are both big but Australian is of course, slam, counts more, greater pressure. I worry about Andreescu, she will be Andreescu the Injured.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 3:29 pm
There is filler in podcasts. I like the format, and surprising to me I really enjoy tennis on the radio. I listened to much of the Medvedev-Nadal match by radio until I had a chance to catch the end and the highlights afterward on whatever screen I could find. Sure, there’s a lot of filler. Some of it is off-beat and not always appropriate. One was wild and a little nutty and I couldn’t quite square it, with a former WTA pro that is good and outspoken but for some reason I couldn’t work through it.
Rennae Stubbs. Sometimes refreshing. Sometimes I’m like TMI. Maybe she’s better than I give credit and I can’t deal with the “true reality” of the women’s tour – that there’s way more afoot and a lot of it is unpleasant. Or maybe I have a Stubbs issue and just need to endorse her.
Thank you Hartt for the tip. I like the podcast form. I love radio, and hope it makes a comeback given all the podcast “treasures” (or content, or whatever!)
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 3:48 pm
Andrew, I find different podcasts are good for different things. One complaint I have is when there are two hosts and they spend a few minutes in informal chat. I keep thinking this isn’t a private conversation and after a minute or two I am saying, “Just get on with tennis!” My other complaint is when you can hear one person clearly and the other one sounds like he/she is a hundred miles away. Maybe they are, but the audio quality needs to be better.
But overall I enjoy several podcasts and if it is one that is on every Monday, say, I keep looking for it until it is finally up.
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 4:02 pm
Andrew, it is the Rogers Cup, named for the giant media company and main sponsor, Rogers. Roger’s makes it sound like it belongs to Fed and sadly, he does not play it any longer, preferring Cincy, where he has had more success.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 4:07 pm
Yes Rogers Cup! I’m never sure what to call it. The Montreal Masters. The Toronto Open. Rogers Cup. Canada Masters. Canada Open. I tend to go with “Canada”, “Montreal Masters” or “Toronto Masters” and leave out Rogers! I am amazed Rogers still has it under their name, they must be an excellent sponsor.
Andrew Miller · January 10, 2020 at 4:11 pm
Nadal – with podcast, a preview of the 60 minutes with Rafael Nadal and Jon Wertheim. Not to give more attention to the big guys, but here is more and more about the big guys. Surprised Nadal credits Moya with his renaissance and “more organized training”. I’ve always considered Nadal among most disciplined players in practice, always working on something.
https://www.si.com/tennis/2020/01/10/rafael-nadal-interview-jon-wertheim-60-minutes-mallorca-career
Hartt · January 10, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Rogers is involved with just about every Toronto sports team, as well as tennis. They must have more $ than they know what to do with, if my cable bill is any indication!
With the event taking place in both Montreal and Toronto, it does make the name problematic. I am used to calling tourneys by whatever city they are in, like Rome. The Canadian Masters does work.
Scoop Malinowski · January 10, 2020 at 6:29 pm
Semi surprised to hear Gauff and her dad were so cocky to make such outrageous declarations at age 11/12. So far so good though, she’s ahead of Serena at the same age. Tremendous year last year, spectacular accomplishments on big stages. She has been quiet about her ambitions lately which is good, she is letter her results and racquets speak for her. And they are speaking very loudly. Confidence is a good thing. Naming targets takes guts. To be the best you have to be different. Gotta lay it on the line and let the competition know your intentions. I will not criticize Gauff’s confidence. Larry Holmes, the former heavyweight champion in the 70s and 80s told me a few weeks ago, Everybody wanted him to have a lower opinion of himself but he refused to. He aimed high and big. And he got there. Why listen to people who didn’t have the guts or confidence to aim high and big? Follow your own path and heart.