Tennis Prose




Dec/19

7

Chilling With Andres Gomez

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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195 comments

  • Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 1:48 pm

    Jon, yes would love to see money go back to normal tournaments, refs, and facility improvement and revitalizing public parks. That’s the greatest US tradition and it is in total disarray. Most of the time we’ll never know who will break through so better not to play favorites.

    Best move USTA had made a while ago was severely restrict wildcards at the US Open. They made it so that you could only get in if (a) ranking cut-off, (b) won a wildcard challenge, (c) NCAA or Kalamazoo champion. No exceptions for injuries. A few reciprocal wildcards for Australia, France, UK. That was it and it was a good allocation.

  • Andrew Miller · December 12, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    Andreescu is a celebrity. Canada is probably assigning reporters left and right to her.

  • Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 4:29 pm

    Andrew, I don’t think Canada has any claims om Mary Pierce as far as tennis goes. She was born in Canada, but her mother was French and her father American. She grew up in the US and, as we know, competed for France. So she didn’t leave Canada in that sense, she wasn’t here very long to begin with.

  • Hartt · December 12, 2019 at 4:33 pm

    Catherine, Bianca is still rehabbing her knee. I doubt she is on the tennis courts yet, although she is doing other training. That is why I was wondering if she will even go to Hawaii.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    Canada always had a few fringe players, Seb Lareau, Grant Connell was no. 1 in doubles. Glen Michibata. Philip Bester. Pierre Duclos. Lorne Main won Monte Carlo in the 50s. Finally the floodgates are open.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    If Andreescu sneezes it will be headline news. She’s officially in the media fishbowl. Pierce and Rusedski left Canada high and dry. Lennox Lewis did too, he won the gold medal in 1988 for Canada then turned pro as a brit, he was born in London. Canada was the stepping stone but times they are a changing.

  • Jon King · December 12, 2019 at 7:50 pm

    Floodgates? 1 top 100 player on the women’s side…heck only 1 top 200 women….and 3 on the men’s side, none of which are top 10. Junior ranks, a few look decent, but no guarantees.

    I would call it a decent flowing creek at this point.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 12, 2019 at 7:56 pm

    Andreescu, Felix, Shap all look like solid top 5 stalwarts and multiple major champions. Also a flood of quality juniors are coming too under 16, there are many.

  • Andrew Miller · December 13, 2019 at 12:35 am

    Decent flowing creek works! Far better than what it was, which was “tennis backwater” (to put it mildly, unfortunately). There was a large gap between performance at the junior level and any formation at the pro level.

    I was a fan of Helen Kelesi. That goes to show you what Canadian tennis was like on the women’s side. Kelesi was a nice player, but NO ONE will remember Kelesi today! I barely and I mean barely remember Sonya Jeyaseelan. I had to look up both of them on Wikipedia just to make sure I got their names right.

    Switzerland used to be Canada. Jacob Hlasek, Marc Rosset weren’t superstars – Hlasek was good, solid player. But without Federer, Wawrinka, Switzerland had nothing going. Swiss I knew boasted about their tennis but I kept thinking dude, you have Rosset and Hlasek. And that’s it.

    Then Hingis came along, huge. Then Federer. Then Wawrinka.

  • Andrew Miller · December 13, 2019 at 12:42 am

    Hartt, what about Rusedski? Rusedski was very Canadian, and Canadians were pretty upset about it, no?

  • Hartt · December 13, 2019 at 12:54 am

    Andrew, for sure, Rusedski was considered a traitor. There is a fun part in “String Theory” when Joyce was playing Rusedski. There were anti-Rusedski posters, and the fans cheered Joyce like crazy.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 1:28 am

    Hartt – As the Auckland event starts on January 6th I can’t see Bianca playing in Hawaii if she’s not even on the court yet and, reading between the lines, her knee is still a problem. It might seem I’m a bit obsessed with this but Bianca’s whole future may rest on her having a decent 2020. So many players I’ve seen show great promise and injuries kill their careers.

    As far as Canadian players go – yes, I remember Helen Kelesi, even Faye Urban. Rusedski was half-heartedly accepted as British. Everyone knew he was a ‘plastic Brit’.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 1:58 am

    Also of course, the tennis circuit being what it is, the whisper would have got around that Bianca may not be in top form and the fear factor will be reduced. That’s quite important.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 3:43 am

    Naomi Osaka says she admires Ashleigh Barty, calls her ‘one of the kindest players’, and also adds, in respect of general socialising, ‘I don’t hang around the players’ lounge too often’.

    That’s intriguing – which players, I wonder, do hang out in the players’ lounge and which ones stay away ? Do top players avoid mixing with the hoi polloi ? I’d like to know more.

  • Hartt · December 13, 2019 at 7:49 am

    Naomi seems so shy that it’s not surprising she doesn’t hang around the players’ lounge.

    Bianca has said that she is sociable and likes to talk to other athletes, so you can imagine her hanging around, at least to a degree.

    Chris Evert said that when she arrived on the scene and was doing well the other players wouldn’t even talk to her. Billie Jean told them she was good for tennis and was putting $ in their pockets, so they should be nicer to the youngster. Chris said after that things were better. She thinks players are generally friendlier with one another than they were back then.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 8:12 am

    I don’t think any players hang around in the players lounge anymore. They all come and go with their cocoon entourages, it’s all business. Warm up, practice, match, train, do media, eat, leave the grounds.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 8:20 am

    It benefited Rusedski financially to play for Great Britain, which also at the time was a weak tennis nation. Just about anybody else would have done the same as Rusedski did. What Rusedski did was not much different than Federer and Zverev chasing those South American exo millions over Davis Cup history.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 8:21 am

    I remember Hurricane Helen Kelesi but only because of her name! Never saw her play. Sonya Jeyasaleen wow, that’s a name of the past. How could we forget Carling Bassett Seguso??? She’s the mother of Canadian tennis.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 9:05 am

    Chris is right about players being friendlier now, possibly because there are more of them and not little cliques – and because Chris was so much younger and beating everyone there was an element of resentment from some women. There was also a split between the V Slims players and the others for a while.

    Julie Heldman’s autobiography gives a good account of life on the circuit in those days.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 9:09 am

    Billie Jean said ‘Chris saved women’s tennis’ and she was right.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 9:36 am

    Since Greg Rusedski’s name was mentioned, here’s a Biofile we did together. Quite a good read. https://www.tennis-prose.com/bios/biofile-greg-rusedski-interview/

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 9:40 am

    Talking about the locker room as a social scene, Vijay Amritraj said in Facing Guillermo Vilas that if Vilas said four words in a day it was considered a lot. Also many players said Pete Sampras didn’t talk to anybody in the locker room, nor did Marcelo Rios. For the ladies room, I was told it was very quiet when Graf and Seles were on top but then when Hingis took over, she liked to hang out in there and talk a lot with other players. We don’t see many players show photos of themselves with any other players away from the practice court.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 10:08 am

    Scoop – there are always a few IGs of women players buddying around away from the courts if they are friends, at weddings, parties etc. But everyone lives in different places (or countries)and they have friends from home or boyfriends and so on, you wouldn’t expect to see them together that much, particularly as they grow older.

  • Hartt · December 13, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    Some good news:

    “Francesca Schiavone
    @Schiavone_Fra
    “HI everyone, upon 7-8 of silence from social media and from the world, I wish to share with you what happened to me. A cancer had been diagnosed to me. I did chemotherapy, I fought a though battle and now I am still breathing. I have won this fight. And now I am back in action”.

  • catherine · December 13, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    Indeed, very good news and hope all goes well in the future.

  • Andrew Miller · December 13, 2019 at 3:02 pm

    Marcelo Rio’s incident: friend of mine played juniors, top twenty, she said Rios once went into player lounge, took empty pizza box with old pizza, ate the whole thing. She was grossed out, said he said some of the worst stuff, but said he was easily most brilliant player in terms of his mesmerising style of play out there.

  • Harold · December 13, 2019 at 5:36 pm

    Probably everyone’s perception of Rios, except Scoop. Replace pizza, with spit for my observation of Rios, and one of the most brilliant, not numero uno

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 5:53 pm

    Schiavone would never lose to caner, to tough of a fighter. One of the most stunning first and only major wins we ever saw. She came out of nowhere to win the French Open that year. She played tennis like no other woman, she had a diverse range of shots and also sound effect grunts.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 5:55 pm

    How do you eat pizza from an “empty box”? I must say, when I was in my teens if I saw a couple of uneaten pizza slices begging my stomach to digest them I would have eaten them too. “The best meal is a free meal.”

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 13, 2019 at 5:56 pm

    Harold, All I know is Federer loves Rios and was inspired in his teen years by seeing Rios and later playing and practicing with him. Rios contributed to the construction of the greatest player of all time Federer also says he would vote Rios into the Hall of Fame.

  • Harold · December 13, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    Good thing Fed doesn’t have a vote.. ha ha

  • Andrew Miller · December 13, 2019 at 9:41 pm

    Rios was no doubt a teenager. You’re right Scoop. Just my friend thought it was gross and others too, and I think it is but when people are hungry and that includes me we eat stuff that otherwise would go begging. She enjoyed watching his play, they all spoke Spanish.

    Anyways. The man is an enigma. Always will be. And even when another Chilean wins a slam he’ll STILL be number one to many people there. He’s a legend in Chile.

  • catherine · December 14, 2019 at 12:56 am

    https://badhomburg-open.de/en/

    News about new WTA event in Germany (nothing on WTA site naturally) mainly interesting for an indication of Kerber’s future. She’ll be tournament director here and after she stops playing, which I predict will be the end of the year. With Berlin this makes two grass tournaments in Germany.

  • Hartt · December 14, 2019 at 7:46 am

    That is interesting news about the new tourney and Kerber.

    The coaching carousel moves on. Naomi Osaka’s management company announced that Wim Fissette is her new coach.

    Filip Krajinovic announced that Janko Tipsarevic will be his coach.

  • catherine · December 14, 2019 at 8:36 am

    Hartt – I think that’s a good choice for Naomi. Kerber won Wimbledon with Fisette and maybe Naomi will do the same.

    Wasn’t going to work out with Vika, whose mind’s not on her game now. I’ve always thought Wim was the best coach for Angie and if he and Naomi click I’ll expect some results.

    Angie wants Bad Homburg to be a ’boutique’ tournament and I can see her managing that quite well.

  • Hartt · December 14, 2019 at 8:56 am

    Yes, let’s hope things work out with Naomi and Fissette. She is such a talented player, and you’d like to see her reach her full potential.

    Besides, she is treats eligible. In fact, yesterday I got my final treat of the season, in honour of Naomi’s Beijing title – 2 colourful plants. I was going to have sushi again, but my “Bianca” plant bit the dust months ago, so two “Naomi” plants, to brighten these dreary winter days, seemed like a better idea.

  • Andrew Miller · December 14, 2019 at 9:20 am

    Baghdatis on Svito coaching team: will Svito learn from the Bag?

  • catherine · December 14, 2019 at 1:39 pm

    It’ll be interesting to see how long Osaka/Fisette partnership lasts since Wim has rarely stayed with a player longer than a year, if that. Azarenka’s status is vague, to say the least – she hasn’t entered any Australian tournaments and has no coach but hasn’t said anything about retirement.

    I’ve heard a suggestion that Fisette did not want to extend his contract with Kerber in 2018, reasons unknown, and if true that would account for the suddenness of the split and atmosphere of acrimony which was very marked. Let’s hope things run more smoothly wth Naomi.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 14, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    Kozlov playing a $2000 money tournament in Chatham NJ, into the final at 7 vs a local top junior Michael Zheng who recently won a 16s national indoors. Michael beat two college players en route to the final, both in super tiebreakers. Kozlov beat defending champion Gary Kushnirovich, former ATP 1000 something, in the semi.

  • Harold · December 14, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    Koz get an Appearance fee?😀

  • Andrew Miller · December 14, 2019 at 8:53 pm

    Bouchard training anew in Vegas with Gil Reyes, and is down at #215 in WTA rankings, down from #5 in 2014. Working hard. At least she enters 2020 having snapped her losing streak, which is better than nothing heading into Aussie qualies. Reyes seems like a good guy. But I don’t know if Bouchard can find more in her game and more in her frame of mind to compete. Michael Joyce thought she would definitely get there if she worked hard and based on how hard she was working before taking a break.

    Joyce was straightforward and said: she works this hard she’ll easily earn US $3 million (!). Which was another way of saying: stop chasing Instagram fame as a way to riches and stick to tennis 🙂

  • jackson · December 15, 2019 at 12:49 am

    A 16 yr old from Spain who trains at Rafa’s Academy, Daniel Rincón, is in the Sixteen and Under finals in both singles and doubles tomorrow at the Orange Bowl. Vamos Dani!

    In September, Emil Ruusuvuori won the Rafa Nadal Open Challenger tournament. Now he’s back at the Academy doing his pre-season training with Rafa. Nice perk that wouldn’t be offered by any other Challenger tournie! There’s a video around that I can’t find now of him half-assedly approaching the net and watching in dismay as Rafa whips a passing shot past him. Hah! Welcome to the pros Emil. 🙂

  • catherine · December 15, 2019 at 2:04 am

    Fisette/Osaka: Fisette is now a trophy hunter – he’ll only stay as long as he thinks a player will win big. So since Clijsters he’s hopped from gig to gig and left as soon as he doesn’t see a trophy on the horizon. Konta he left, Kerber he left and I suspect he’s done the same with Vika. And he’ll do the same with Naomi if she has a dry year. Maybe it’s money, maybe a very short attention span, maybe lack of patience and empathy.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 15, 2019 at 7:18 am

    Kozlov wins 6176 over 16 yr old Zheng but it took seven match points. Crowd was giving crazy support for the local kid.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 15, 2019 at 7:20 am

    Jackson, are these the first juniors of any notable success from Nadal academy?

  • catherine · December 15, 2019 at 8:29 am

    Sloane Stephens thinks that Naomi Osaka is African-American. Naomi is of course African-Japanese, even if her half-Haitian parentage doesn’t come into it. By nationality she is fully Japanese, as Sloane will discover when Fed Cup or the Olympics come around.

  • Jon King · December 15, 2019 at 9:11 am

    In the US tennis community, Osaka is considered ‘American in tennis’ by a lot of coaches and players. Especially in S. Florida we hear all the time how her father used all the local coaches and facilities to develop her, how she spent her life here and was a US citizen, and is culturally pretty much American, etc. So I have heard that sentiment that she is ‘another African American tennis success story’ quite a bit.

    Not saying its right, just stating where that Sloane thought process comes from.

  • Hartt · December 15, 2019 at 9:11 am

    It is surprising that Sloane thinks that. Naomi has been very clear about her Haitian heritage, as well as her Japanese.

    I have started to count the days until Jan. 3, when FAA and Shapo will play in the ATP Cup. I know it is a short off-season for the players, but it seems long for this tennis fan!

    I have been catching up on matches I didn’t get to see, or want to watch a second time. So have been having my own little Shapo festival. Denis can be frustrating, but when he is playing well is an absolute joy to watch.

  • Jon King · December 15, 2019 at 10:42 am

    Sloane is not alone. The African part is pretty standard, notice catherine said “African-Japanese”. The origins of folks whose ancestors came from Africa are typical called African.

    So that just leaves the American part. Naomi came to the US at age 3, grew up here with her sister, trained exclusively in the US with US coaches, had US citizenship, and really never visited Japan from age 3. And last time I checked Naomi lists her residence as Boca Raton, FL. And her parents are also living here.

    I would think any countries tennis community would pretty much lay claim to such a player.

  • Andrew Miller · December 15, 2019 at 10:57 am

    Saw some clip. Spanish kid about as impressive as the US boys indoors finalists. Aka NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME. But I don’t have a bead on whether juniors get better. It’s up to them.

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