Franco Davin Is A Master Coach

Dan – I agree that Wallace and Joyce were a good match, if Joyce had been a better player Wallace wouldn’t have got the story he wanted – not that Joyce was poor, he was just more representative than someone highly ranked. The two them, DFW and Joyce, developed a relationship, as happens in these cases, but it was clearly one which mattered a lot to Joyce and not much to Wallace.

Janet Malcolm is (or was, she must be in her 80s now) a journalist mainly at the New Yorker and she wrote a book about the Jeffrey McDonald case called The Journalist and the Murderer. The quote which opens the book caused a bit of discussion: ‘ Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.’ And she goes on to explain that.

Another writer I like, Joan Didion, put it more succinctly: ‘Writers are always selling somebody out’.

Didion never wrote about a tennis player, but apparently before she more or less stopped writing she was planning a book on pro basketball. Would have been worth reading.

Here is the context of Wallace’s “virgin” comment.

“Michael Joyce in close-up, viewed eating supper or riding in a courtesy car, looks slighter and younger than he does on-court. Close-up, he looks his age, which to me is basically that of a fetus. Michael Joyce’s interests outside tennis consist mostly of big-budget movies and genre novels of the commercial-paperback sort that one reads on airplanes. He has a tight and long-standing group of friends back home in L.A., but one senses that most of his personal connections have been made via tennis. He’s dated some. It’s impossible to tell whether he’s a virgin. It seems staggering and impossible, but my sense is that he might be. Then again, I tend to idealize and distort him, I know, because of how I feel about what he can do on a tennis court.”

Wallace talks quite a lot about how narrow a pro athlete’s life is, because they must have such a narrow focus from a young age. He even compares their world to the limited world of a child.

Wallace ends the essay:

“Whether or not he ends up in the top ten and a name anybody will know, Michael Joyce will remain a paradox. The restrictions on his life have been, in my opinion, grotesque; and in certain ways Joyce himself is a grotesque. But the radical compression of his attention and sense of himself have allowed him to become a transcendent practitioner of an art–something few of us get to be. They’ve allowed him to visit and test parts of his psychic reserves most of us do not even know for sure we have (courage, playing with violent nausea, not choking, et cetera).

Joyce is, in other words, a complete man, though in a grotesquely limited way. But he wants more. He wants to be the best, to have his name known, to hold professional trophies over his head as he patiently turns in all four directions for the media. He wants this and will pay to have it–to pursue it, let it define him–and will pay up with the regretless cheer of a man for whom issues of choice became irrelevant a long time ago. Already, for Joyce, at twenty-two, it’s too late for anything else; he’s invested too much, is in too deep. I think he’s both lucky and unlucky. He will say he is happy and mean it. Wish him well.”

The Ontario Tennis Assoc. has produced a few podcasts, and they have an interview with Bianca, done last April. It was conducted in her home, and Coco made her presence known with the occasional yip. The interviewer asked her quite a bit about her early years as a junior, etc. She said at whatever level she was at she always tried to play against better players because she felt that was how you improved.

It was a reminder of quickly things have changed for Bianca because then her goal was to make the top 15.

Asked who her idol growing up was she said Kim Clijsters because she was physically and mentally strong and had so much variety in her game. She said it was still Clijsters, plus Simona Halep because of the Romanian connection.

The interviewer said that he sees Tennis Canada coaches working with junior players, and they are teaching the slice more than they used to. So a bit of good news on that front!

Bianca talked about how much support she’d received form Tennis Canada, financially and with coaching. But she also talked about how competent the staff there was, how they treated players the same whether they won or lost and how they showed their belief in the players.

Ah the price of greatness, the old Nadal’s knees issue. How else was a Canadian player going to win an enormous title, other than to risk everything?

To me this is a no brainer. Of course it was. There’s a reason Andreescu is only Canadian player with a slam to her name. Part of the drama is we don’t know if she makes it through any match she plays.

Only mistake Andreescu made was to play WTA finals. Money too good to pass up. For top players Asia swing is one fat pot of money.

Andrew, why wouldn’t Andreescu play the WTA finals? She did not have an injury going into the tournament, and she was anxious to win such a prestigious tourney. She also had a goal of finishing the season in the top 3. I doubt that the $ was as big an incentive as lifting the trophy.

News on the coaching front:

“Max Mirnyi, one of tennis’s most cerebral players & hardest workers during his long career, is joining Kei Nishikori’s coaching team. Michael Chang will continue to work with Kei during the big tournaments. Quite a coaching duo.” (Christopher Clarey tweet)

The ATP players are starting to rival the WTA when it comes to coaching changes.

“World No. 16 Stan Wawrinka has split with his long-time coach Yannick Fattebert but the two remain on good terms as the Swiss tennis star has nothing but good to say about Fattebert.

Wawrinka will continue working with Magnus Norman and Daniel Vallverdu.” (Tennis World)

‘I used to be such a tomboy but now I want to dress up like her (mother) and do my makeup’.

Quote of the year from Bianca Andreescu in W magazine.

Do hope she doesn’t forget how to play tennis while she’s trialing her makeup and modelling new outfits.

I don’t think it is a problem if Bianca enjoys fashion, as long as her tennis has priority. She seems far too ambitious to let other things get in the way of tennis.

I never understand some coaching choices. What can Mirnyi add to Nishikori’s game, besides a new work ethic..Wouldn’t you look for a more aggressive base-liner, closer to your size, not a 6”6 serve and volleying doubles specialist( his singles career faded fast)

Nishikori should have begged Agassi to coach him

Coaches for courses – we don’t know what goes on in players’ minds but maybe a ‘strong work ethic’ is something Kei is looking for, plus longevity.

Muguruza rehired Martinez because she wants one or two more titles and Conchita keeps her calm, she says. I’d guess not so much for the technical side.

Kerber picked on Kindlmann rather than someone more high powered because she needs an undemanding coach who can nurse her through her last year and let her relax
into retirement. Shouldn’t think he cost much either.

Don’t know if Murray has a regular coach at the moment but I would think his aims are like Angie’s – this is most likely his last year so he’ll want someone who understands his situation.

Agassi, Sampras don’t want to muddy their legacy. And it’s not clear they’ve impacted anyone’s game beyond Verdasco, who listened to Reyes and who Agassi told, “you can’t lose to anyone other than Nadal and Federer.”