I saw the tennis legend from Ecuador, Andres Gomez watching some matches at the 2019 Eddie Herr Championships by a fence pole, seemingly unnoticed by anyone. At first I wasn’t sure if it was really him or Fernando Roese.
It was indeed the 1990 Roland Garros champion who bested Andre Agassi 63 26 64 64. I traded Gomez a copy of my Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew book for his memories of Facing Guillermo Vilas. And the conversation continued down a fascinating path.
Gomez said as a junior in Ecuador, the kids at his club knew the new copy of World Tennis magazine would arrive by mail at the club on Wednesday and he would get there when it came that afternoon and read it avidly, to see the pictures, the scores, etc. Back then, World Tennis printed all the scores for pro and big junior tournaments. And Andres would track the results of all the notable players, some world ranked juniors he could face later on. Seeing their results he could learn something just by scores in print. It was like homework and match preparation – anything for an edge. Some kids today don’t even bother to look up anything on their opponent and just walk on court knowing absolutely nothing about who they are playing, despite having a phone that can reveal past results on any player.
Vilas was a key inspiration for all South American junior tennis players as Vilas winning French Open and Australian Open in the 70s showed that more South Americans can do what Vilas did. And Vilas sparked sufficient inspiration in young Andres to believe he too could conquer the tennis world.
The dream came true for Gomez in 1990. He beat Muster in the semis – after having lost to Muster in Rome earlier that spring. Which was actually a blessing because no man had ever won Rome and Roland Garros in the same year at that time (Nadal later changed that history). Gomez said he actually played better vs Muster than in the final vs Agassi where he said he did serve and volley a lot actually, he preferred the serve and volley on clay than on hard court because he could slide into the volleys.
Next year will be the 30 year anniversary of the Gomez-Agassi French Open final and Andres is trying to invite Agassi to Ecuador to play an exhibition to celebrate the landmark achievement. So far, no reply yet from Agassi.
I asked Gomez what is the most important qualities for striving juniors and he said desire is first.
That same day I met a former player and current coach/director of tennis at University of San Francisco, Peter Bartlett, who played Agassi a few times as a junior and hosted Agassi’s pro training at his old club The Olympic in San Fran. Agassi, when coached by Brad Gilbert, would train there before flying off to majors and a ritual Team Agassi had would be to schedule (on Thursday) a final practice for Friday before the major. But Andre and Brad and Gil Reyes would never show up. It was a quirky ritual they did, schedule that last practice but never show up. Also, another standout out memory of Agassi practicing was how Gil Reyes would walk around the back court of the baseline behind Andre during the practice and speak encouragement and praise for the whole practice, ego pumping cheerleading phrases like You’re great Andre, You’re the best… That’s all Reyes would say, over and over and over, massaging Agassi’s ego with positive verbal reinforcement.
Surprisingly Gomez said he did not see the full version of the Nick Bollettieri documentary Love Means Zero, which his final vs Agassi is a prominent element. In three days at the Eddie Herr tournament I did not see Nick there once, which is a sign of concern that the 87 year old legend could be injured or ill.
But I did see plenty of pros training hard for 2020, including Nicolas Jarry with new coach Dante Bottini. Jarry was sparring with Australian Jordan Thompson on a court next to Michael Ymer and Chun-hsin Tseng and his new coach Dominik Hrbaty. One drill I saw them doing was Tseng in the backhand side half court only hitting slices up the line and cross court to Ymer who could hit anything back to Tseng’s backhand half (orange cones were set up down the middle). Apparently the drill was to strengthen Tseng’s backhand slice.
Sebastian Korda was training with his dad and mom, I saw him working on his serve. I talked with Petr briefly after and he said he got a lot of negative feedback about the article I did in a Chilean newspaper aSegundo about his memories of defeating Rios in the 1998 Australian Open final which I’m sorry about and it was not my intention to cause Petr any grief. Petr said he will never talk about Rios in the media again. But anything else is okay.
Nathalie Tauziat was also here. The former coach of Bianca Andreescu for three and a half years is now working with a 14 year old Canadian teen Kayla Cross. The intent is the same as for what she worked on with Andreescu, to broaden her game and dimensions and try to get her to move forward more and also to build up her physical strength.
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 12:52 pm
The poor tennis sites have to find something to write about. Even my favourite podcasts have stopped for a few weeks, or just have the occasional program. As a result, I have been playing more online poker lately (just for fun, not $).
Although I think this would be a good time for some in-depth articles, if anyone was willing to try writing them.
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Further to media stuff this time of year, the Tennis Podcast will air a feature interview with Baghdatis on Monday. They announced it several days ago, so I don’t know if it was recorded before the Svitolina coaching announcement or not. But it should be interesting.
Scoop Malinowski · December 11, 2019 at 1:09 pm
Hartt be careful with the poker, that’s how they hook you into the next step, gambling.
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Scoop, no worries about my becoming a gambler. I am way too conservative with my $ for that! I do enjoy poker, but have no interest in gambling. When I did play poker seriously, from an online poker tourney I won a $1500 buy-in for a World Series of Poker tournament in Vegas. I won enough $ in other online tourneys to pay for the airfare, hotel, etc. But when I was in Vegas I wasn’t interested in even watching the gambling games.
But it takes work to play poker at that level, so now I do just play for fun. Watching tennis and chatting about it takes up too much time!
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Tennis.com has an extensive article about tennis and social media. It looks like players can’t get away from social media even if they want to. It has become part of the job.
“Kelly Wolf, a veteran tennis agent and vice president at Octagon, explains that while a strong social media following isn’t the only factor in endorsement negotiations, it’s in an athlete’s best interest to build their brand in the digital realm.
“Every endorsement agreement now includes a social media component,” says Wolf, “as advertising and marketing on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are now the status quo.”
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 1:59 pm
Andreescu should be best, too bad post US Open “non season” derailed that, the three losses must have pushed the vote to Barty.
Award: “Player every other WTA player fears – Bianca Andreescu”
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 2:13 pm
I don’t think it was so much Bianca’s losses, but Ash’s wins that gave the edge to Barty. She won the WTA finals and was year-end No.1. I think that Ash deserved the Player of the Year award.
I do love the “Player every other WTA player fears” idea, though. 🙂
catherine · December 11, 2019 at 2:45 pm
I read the tennis.com piece and I just felt, so what ? All this is just ephemera. What matters is what happens on court. You fail on court, doesn’t matter how your ‘brand’is doing. A tennis player has one job – play tennis. Not ‘advertise and market’ – that’s someone else’s job. Or can’t they be bothered to do it ?
Seems to me players are manipulated every minute of the day – batter batter batter into their ears and in front of their eyes,and they are complicit in it. Hardly any parts of their lives are private. It’s damaging.
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 2:47 pm
Hartt, fair enough! Hard for me to frame Ms. Andreescu. Her year was a scorcher especially on hard courts. Yes Barty earned the distinction with her game for all seasons and the WTA finals win.
Three years in a row with different slam winners, four slams four winners. I expect this continues. Osaka was last year’s and this year’s star from September 2018 until February 2019 and with the Bajin drama fell back to earth, after which it was Barty’s moment then Halep’s turn at the wheel while Andreescu, having burst onto the scene with her unbelievable Indian Wells title run, found her form to have one of the more scintillating summer hardcourt runs in women’s tennis history.
It seems to spell out the same thing. Women’s tennis is extremely competitive, there’s a new stable of champions, and they are keeping one another on each other’s toes. Expect this to continue.
The arms race among women’s players for coaches and nonstop announcements of coaching changes etc is a sign of a fluid WTA. The ATP has become somewhat more exciting with young players seemingly ready to claim the throne before turning into pawns of the big guys.
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 2:55 pm
Maybe Andreescu isn’t player of the year, but she sure is “player that changed every other player’s life in 2019”. There have been players that have stunned the tennis world before. I don’t know what that leads to but the fact Svitolina, Osaka, and everyone else is adding or subtracting from their teams (or in Halep’s case continuing to go with what works) is not just because they want good people around them but also because they believe it’s necessary.
Hence Andreescu stunned the women’s tennis world. I don’t think Barty did 🙁 But I like Barty! Andreescu is biggest thing to happen to women’s tennis in a long time. And that won’t change even if she wins a total of one match this year and the next five years.
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 3:32 pm
Andrew, that is quite the statement! I think for Bianca to make an ongoing impact she will need to have success over the next few years, and I sincerely hope she does exactly that. 🙂
Harold · December 11, 2019 at 4:14 pm
An Aussie woman winning the French is pretty damn surprising..
Brugera and Paes the answer to the Sampras, Fed question
catherine · December 11, 2019 at 4:20 pm
Andrew – Actually I can’t see Bianca having much impact if she fails to win matches – surely that’s what she’s there for. I really hope she can achieve something this year otherwise she could sink back into the ranks of the might-have-beens. So along with Hartt, I certainly hope that doesn’t happen.
Trouble at the LTA – good piece by Simon Briggs which I can’t link (paywall) – sounds a mess. So no point looking to the UK for any young players in the near future.
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 4:37 pm
Bruguera and Paes!!! Amazing
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 4:44 pm
LTA must be corrupt or something. Thank goodness for Murray and Edmund. I like how some British juniors play but for the most part they are woeful. They are as Canada used to be when it comes to juniors. Players are hyped and fall off a cliff and all we can do is talk about how Robson was a friend of Bouchard and that’s it. It’s amazing no one follows in Murray’s footsteps, and that Judy Murray hasn’t shaken anything up.
Is there anyone on the horizon for the LTA?
It’s time to declare all the LTA reforms from the 2000s a total failure. Unless I am missing something and some juniors are just waiting to make their mark in tennis.
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 4:46 pm
Really? Any time a teenager wins a title I think someone somewhere sees that and says I want to be (Andreescu) etc. And on the tour I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the top WTA players are adding coaches and staff. Not just because they can but because they must, and I think that’s because Andreescu scared them?!
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 4:50 pm
Andreescu LOOKS young. She gives people the idea hey, at eighteen, nineteen, you could get one of these slams too.
I wouldn’t underestimate how epic that fact is, that players everywhere from eight years old to teenagers etc just saw that it wasn’t just in past that a teenager could win a big one. For all I know some kids may have changed sports BECAUSE of Andreescu (and perhaps some even have stuck it out a few months after her triumph).
Andrew Miller · December 11, 2019 at 5:53 pm
Some prose, thought all may appreciate.
“I adore chess. It is a killer game, it’s not checkers, nor like a card game…Chess players look calm and collected, but in their mind they are out to (unprintable) the opponent…My way of playing is exactly that (…)”. A lot of unprintable. From the author Robert Littell.
Hartt · December 11, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Catherine, can you tell us some of what the Simon Briggs article said?
Scoop Malinowski · December 11, 2019 at 6:37 pm
England has some talents coming up, that kid who beat Sock this summer is 17 I think. Big prospect.
jackson · December 11, 2019 at 10:09 pm
Beating Jack Sock this summer isn’t a particularly notable accomplishment. Everybody could do that (and did).
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 1:20 am
Hartt – mainly crticising the set up and the new appointments Scott Lloyd has brought in, talking about a ‘David Lloyd mafia’, how there seems little rapport between the LTA and the players and few signs of any big sponsorship deals in the offing. SOSO basically.
Simon Briggs is a regular critic of the LTA but a lot of this rings true and I’ve heard similar stuff from other people. I’ll see if I can find out more.
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 1:27 am
Andrew – Judy Murray is Scottish and she’s not remotely interested in the LTA. She has her own projects going in Scotland.
Michael Downey from Canada stayed the minimum time here and gave up in despair.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 7:26 am
Thanks, Catherine. For some reason I’ve been interested in the LTA for a while, even before Michael Downey went there. He talked about how the organization had so much $ that it did not use its funds wisely. Before he went to the LTA he discussed the situation with Tennis Canada, which did not have a huge budget and had to have definite priorities.
Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 7:42 am
For 17 yr old Jack Draper it was a big deal beating Sock.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 8:29 am
If this is the way the LTA operates no wonder they are in trouble. This is from a Simon Briggs article for the Telegraph. The initial comment is unbelievable, but I think the human resources department trying to excuse it as just a joke is even worse.
“The Lawn Tennis Association has paid compensation to a post-room worker who was made redundant and then described as a “Moroccan porn star” in a leaving speech given by his manager at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.
The speech was given by Charles Jude – the recently appointed general manager of the NTC – in August at a leaving drinks held for the post-room worker and three other LTA employees, all of whom had been made redundant at the same time.
The man, who is in his late 40s, is in fact from Algeria and is a practising Muslim. He was not present at the event, but was subsequently told about it. When he complained to the human resources department about the demeaning comment – which he felt to be a poor reward for 12 years of service – he was initially told that it was a joke, and was then offered a verbal apology. Only after his departure, when he contacted the LTA via a solicitor, did the organisation offer financial compensation.”
Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 8:30 am
Draper had good tournament. However it’s true: Sock year was abysmal, his return from injury has been underwhelming. Other players struggling include D. Young, who had his form early in year and I believe he suffered a series of the worst losses he’s had in more than ten years (we can say this as following the player since he began playing challengers). His scorelines are that bad, and something must be bad for a guy that had things in good working order only six hundred days ago or so (I caught him in top fifty playing about that long ago, he was angry with himself but played some of best tennis I have seen – as in seen in my life – for a lot of that match).
Enough with memories. Draper has potential. And sadly my favorite US players B. Klahn excepted have declined dramatically. Waiting for Escobedo to get his game back.
Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 8:44 am
Tennis Canada….in regards to female players, why is that held up to a success standard? Only 1 of the top 200 WTA players is from Canada. Not exactly an amazing amount of success.
To explain, not a knock on just Tennis Canada, its just that no federation from democratic countries , LTA, USTA, Tennis Canada produces many top players. Its almost always a parent driving the wagon, either coaching, hiring private coaches, or finding ways to use a federations resources to help their kids. But federation coaches almost never find or develop top pro players.
Now if you want to discuss the ability of non democratic countries to funnel scores of kids into pet sport development programs,that is another topic. But looking to a USTA, LTA, Tennis Canada to find and develop top players, it does not happen often enough to justify their budgets. Much better off simply running the tournaments in an organized and fair fashion and supporting the parents whose kids show promise.
Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 8:49 am
Sock was desperate to beat Draper and was in the winning position up a set and in the second set tiebreaker but Draper outplayed and outsmarted him. Huge win for the kid vs a desperate rock bottom Sock.
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 8:55 am
Not to get into politics here Jon, but what do you mean by ‘non-democratic countries’ ? There are a lot of countries which produce good tennis players, in Europe and elsewhere, who would not like to hear themselves described thus. France, Germany, Spain….I could go on.
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 9:02 am
Hartt – that was from the same article by Briggs. I read it on MSN. The LTA seems to live on a planet of its own.
Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 9:03 am
catherine, only talking in regards to sports federations.
A country like China can funnel kids into whatever sports they want to. China can feed its gymnastics system and require girls to train. The US and Canada can not.
Tennis federations do not find and produce most top players. Parents and private coaches do. Thats true in Europe and in the US. Its almost always a parent running the show. Its super rare for a federation to spot a kid at a tournament, take over development, and produce a money making pro player. Whether its Osaka or Gauff or Kenin or Anisimova…its a parent running the developmental show.
Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 9:05 am
Scoop….Vivian Ovrootsky got her revenge at the Orange Bowl. Took out Lan 6-4, 6-0.
Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 9:22 am
Jon I saw that result, she probably played smarter and more patient. She is the slightly better player right now with more weapons and ways to end the point. It’s a very good revenge result for VO, who was in tears after blowing the 5-2 third set lead and the 40-love five break points in the 5-5 game. Congratulations to VO. Lan has tremendous upside too. Both girls are very impressive players.
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 9:24 am
Jon – I see your point there. But some federations, the LTA included, would say it’s not their job to produce champions (and I would agree) – it’s their job to run the show, tournaments, revenue producing stuff etc. A lot of criticism of the LTA stems from the fact that it doesn’t seem to be doing anything that well at present.
Parents obviously are the ones to spot talent early on – then it’s up to federations to provide training and opportunities and maybe financial help as the kid develops.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 9:54 am
Jon, I don’t think anyone is claiming that Tennis Canada is producing a lot of top female players. But they can take credit for developing both FAA and Bianca. Both started working with Tennis Canada at a young age, around 9 I think.
Louis Borfiga has said very clearly that a federation can’t produce a top player, it can only assist in the development of young players.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 10:14 am
“Poor Louis Borfiga. It isn’t always easy to have such young players. 🙂
The Vice-President of Elite Development Louis Borfiga praised Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime for their performances in Davis Cup. “I was pretty scared in seeing two 19 and 20-year-olds in a Davis Cup final.”
(Tennis World).
In the same article Sylvain Bruneau, Bianca’s coach, made bold predictions for Canadian tennis, saying in the future the players will win Slams, Davis Cup and Fed Cup.
Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 10:21 am
Okay, but Bianca and FAA are 1 male and 1 female of thousands to come through the system over the years.
Parents spot the talent and develop it in almost every case. They either coach themselves or seek out a parade of private coaches along the way. In most cases, parents avoid USTA coaches like its a disease.
The federations spend untold millions on ‘player development’. With almost no results from their hand picked players.
The federations only role should be to run tournaments with referees to make sure the bully kids do not win early and run out the shy but talented kids. The tournaments should be spread across countries and well organized. If a kid is winning at these well run and fair tournaments, the federations can provide funding for travel and private coaches and hitting partners. A player gets a budget based on results.
In no way, shape, or form should a federation try to hand pick kids, train them with federation coaches, and require a player to train at its facilities if decent facilities are available near home. The track record of failure and waste of money is ridiculous.
Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 10:30 am
Jon goes on the record as anti federation 🙂
If the “federations” put money into fixing public courts that would be great, or having smaller tournaments. The game at the local level is on life support in the States.
Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 10:31 am
Personally I’d like the racquet companies out of the sport and the perks for top players. It’s enough to compete against kids with bags filled with racquets. And while at it get academies to take down the perks for top ranked players. The emphasis is bad.
Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 10:36 am
Canada pre-Raonic: you had Dancevic and no one else. Other heralded juniors did poorly at the pro levels. There was zero emphasis on learning the game well and they seemed to copy the US with tournaments over knowing the game. Fast forward to 2019, 18 years later, and Canada has a stable of players with good groundstrokes and games that hold up as well as the French, Italians, Argentines, etc. That’s unbelievable change in a period of under two decades. And a huge achievement for any “national system”, probably at a lot lower cost.
So there is such a thing as better coaching and better promotion of the sport. Ask Mayotte. He’ll probably say Canada cared. Bodo. Anyone.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 10:42 am
Jon, Tennis Canada does not have the huge budgets of the LTA or the USTA to put thousands of kids through its system. The current regime started with Louis Borfiga about 13 years ago. As far as I know, the National Training Centre has no more than a dozen kids in a year, and most years it is not that many. Plus, there are kids training part-time in Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
Quite a few players who trained with Tennis Canada were, or are now, on tennis scholarships. Some, like Ben Sigouin, will pursue a pro career after their college days.
Along with training junior players the Federation also assists players when they turn pro with advice, funding, and often hooking them up with a coach. I think that is a valuable contribution to a young pro’s career.
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 10:48 am
Borfiga, in a 2018 interview, said the biggest difference was a change in the mindset.
“The only thing that I noticed when I got here was that the ones who were here didn’t have much ambition. They just played to play and they didn’t really have the mindset. Then we had the good fortune to have players like Milos and Eugenie and Vasek who had that in themselves. That allowed us to bring along the other generations by changing their mindsets.” (Tennis Canada site)
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 11:03 am
Andrew, don’t forget about Daniel Nestor! Not only was he an all-time great in doubles, he reached No.58 in singles, higher than Dancevic, who got to No.65. And Danny gave Canada one of the highlights in tennis, when as a 19-year-old he beat Edberg, then ranked No.1, in Davis Cup.
He has said that recurring injuries put an end to his singles career, so that was a shame.
Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 11:15 am
Its good that Tennis Canada is so small, hopefully it does not grow into the den of waste that is the USTA.
The USTA high performance junior development system has a much longer track record. It started 35 years ago in Key Biscayne, moved to Boca Raton where they hired Pat McEnroe to pick 16 kids and build dorms. Not one kid made a penny in tennis. Then to Orlando. hand picks kids for training with USTA paid coaches. Hundred million spent over 35 years…zero record of producing money making pros.
Yet at the local tournament level, maybe 1 roving referee to watch 20 courts of intense kids bent on winning by any means possible, including cheating. We know 10 kids who have quit tennis the past 2 years because of the poorly run tournaments.
That to me is a complete waste of money on high performance.
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 11:18 am
The problem with the LTA is that GB comprises Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. I’m not even sure how much autonomy each of those have. Tennis is one of the few sports, outside Olympics, where athletes are representing GB. Or could be UK. Oh well.
(And Wimbledon of course isn’t the championship of any nation. Maybe SW19 )
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 11:23 am
In yesterday’s press conference Bianca talked about dealing with sudden fame.
“I think for me the toughest part would be the media and the fame that goes along with it. Like when you dream about becoming No.1 in the world, winning Grand Slams, you don’t think of [that],” Andreescu said. “Sometimes you get noticed everywhere – you just want to do your own thing. But I have to deal with that. So far, so good, I’m not complaining. I’m pretty outgoing, I’m a very social person.” (Tennis.com)
catherine · December 12, 2019 at 12:32 pm
Hartt- I can’t wait for Bianca to stop talking and start playing. I know she has to speak to journalists etc but it seems she’s having endless press conferences and the new season is looming on Boxing Day, if she’s really going to Hawaii. How much match practice is she getting in ?
Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 12:49 pm
Jon, the discussion here led me to take a closer look at Tennis Canada’s training program. In addition to the National Training Centre in Montreal, which currently has 6 players – 5 boys and 1 girl, there are 4 training centres for after school and weekends. What is interesting is that they are designed to assist local coaches, club leaders and parents.
“In addition to the National Tennis Centre in Montreal, four Regional Training Centres have been created in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary to act as regrouping centres for promising U14 talent in those regions. The centres are supplementary training programs designed to support club leaders, personal coaches and parents to enrich the current training and competitive environment for our top performing athletes. These four programs act as feeder systems into the full-time NTC.” (Tennis Canada site)
That same article has a chart showing what the players are doing now. The kids at the National Centre are still in high school, but most of the previous ones are either playing pro tennis or are in university.
Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 1:44 pm
Hartt, Nestor too. I was somewhat familiar with Grant Connell, more familiar with Jesse Levine. Of course Mary Pierce before she decamped for France. And the biggest slap in face ever in Greg Rusedski.
Canada had distinction of players LEAVING Canada. Now what they’ve done is totally astonishing. I don’t think it’s pure luck – because we’d be talking about Latvia and their world class juniors (we’re not). Or Finland’s turn.
What we have instead is the absolute improvement of Canada and possibility that Canada and other countries where tennis matters more is a group of players with better fundamentals and great hunger. That’s a good combination.