I ran into the great Jimmy Arias at the USTA National Campus in Orlando yesterday after playing World Team Tennis national qualifiers for our 4.5 team from NJ, and Jimmy walked by, on site for his Tennis Channel broadcast of the Ohio State vs Florida State womens tennis match.
“What are you doing here,” Jimmy asked. Just like what he said another time we bumped into each other at Laurel Oak where I was playing a league match and he was just finishing a hitting session with a top junior Ty or Micah Braswell.
About a month ago I had the chance to hit with an old timer from Buffalo named Tom Lapenna, who knows Jimmy since he was 9. He told me a lot of stories about how good Jimmy was a kid. At age 10-11 he would hang around the adult players who he could beat, despite his small stature, that’s how talented and powerful he was. They’d go out to eat sometimes, a big group of over a dozen and the kid was so sharp he would actually dominate the conversations. “Everybody loved Jimmy,” Tom recalls fondly. Strangers would be in wonder, how could a kid, A KID, dominate grown men in conversations?
Then at 12 Jimmy was arranged to play an exo with Rod Laver in Buffalo. This was in 1976. Laver was 38, like Federer right now.
Jimmy somehow managed to get the best of Laver for a while 2-love. After that, Laver looked at Jimmy and said, “Kid, you’re not getting another game.” In the end, Laver finally did prevail, 7-5. Arias said he was “unbelievable” that night and did not reach that level of fine play for five years.
Arias relocated to Bollettieri’s Academy on Longboat Key at 13. At 16 he beat top 20 ATP veteran Eddie Dibbs in an exhibition. But the word was Bollettieri mismanaged the Arias game, by trying to turn him into a top spinner far behind the baseline, like a new Borg Vilas. Doing endless hours of drills. But Jimmy had his own identity and game and a decent backhand with touch. He was good enough to be his own player – not an imitation.
He turned pro upon Bollettieri’s insistence. The first year on the ATP Tour was a “miserable” experience. Arias broke into the top 100 but he was not embraced by the other older players. One player named Francisco Gonzalez bullied Arias off a practice court to hit with Ferdie Taygan. In 1982, Arias made the finals of Washington and lost to Ivan Lendl. In 1983, Arias made the semifinals at US Open and lost to Lendl again. This was when Lendl was a choke artist. A bad call went against Arias which Jimmy felt turned the match and cost him a final showdown with Connors. Lendl choked the final to Connors 63 67 75 60.
After US Open, Arias played in Palermo, Italy, for a $20,000 guarantee. He got mono and strep throat. He didn’t play for three months. When he finally felt strong enough to hit the court he jumped right into a practice set with Lapenna and lost it.
The career of Arias went downhill from there. He won a total of five ATP titles in 1982 and 1983, plus a French Open mixed doubles major with Andrea Jaeger. Overall, a good solid career. but not quite the stuff of legend like he himself and some others expected.
The questions remain. Was the 12 year old prodigy misguided and miscoached by Bollettieri? Was the then uproven Bollettieri really truly worthy of handling and developing such a rare, one in a million talent as young Arias?
Today Arias is the best tennis commentator on TV for Tennis Channel. He’s also now the head of player development at the IMG Academy in Bradenton.
IMG · Jimmy Arias · Tennis Channel
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »Scoop Malinowski · March 4, 2020 at 8:47 pm
Andrew, what are we implying here about the Goerges-Gerlach relationship? That they were much more than coach/player? No that never happens in the WTA. All coaching relationships are strictly business.
Andrew Miller · March 4, 2020 at 9:32 pm
Scoop, probably leaving it to press if they want to sort out the Goerges coaching issues. Her game is MIA. And her statement was odd. Fact: four coaching changes in a year. FOUR!!!
Scoop Malinowski · March 4, 2020 at 9:54 pm
Can you please post her statement here? Danielle Collins had at least 4 coaches in the first half of 2019. I lost track of all her coaches. Maybe up to 6. Chip Brooks, Pat Harrison, Dutch guy, Betsy Nagelsen, Jay Gooding.
Andrew Miller · March 4, 2020 at 10:33 pm
Goerges: “Jens and I decided to end our player-coaching relationship.” (…) After we have checked our partnership and personal circumstances, we think it best to go our separate ways.”. And Gerlach: “Gerlach told the SZ, “Julia and I have worked very intensively on our own things over the past five months. For personal reasons, however, we have agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest if I resign from my coaching role.”
Andrew Miller · March 4, 2020 at 10:36 pm
As Goerges/Tennis World is source, expect a spotty translation. Anyways, I believe I’m reading too much into this. I’ve never known German to have a particularly sentimental character – but glad to be wrong. I’m not trying to insinuate anything, this could be a roundabout way of saying yeah we’re not working together anymore because my ranking is in the gutter.
Andrew Miller · March 4, 2020 at 10:55 pm
Fernandez/Stephens match is good. Jose Morgado mentioned it.
Hartt · March 4, 2020 at 11:41 pm
Fernandez won against Stephens in 3 sets. She is now No.116 in the live rankings.
I could not see the match, only some individual shots, but it sounds like Sloane was trying, so this is a very good win by Leylah.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 1:02 am
Last word on Julia (from me) – Jens was Fed Cup captain after Barbara Rittner left a couple of years ago so Julia would have known him fairly well. It’s more likely she’s flailing around a bit like Kerber did – when your results tank you tend to panic and maybe make rash decisions. Reading the comments again I tend to think the translation is misleading. Julia’s a private person and it’s out of character for her to be open about ‘personal circumstances’.
Good result for Leylah and Sloane showed a bit of fight, something that’s been sadly lacking in recent matches.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 1:33 am
Scoop – Ted was originally a dress maker and when he translated his interest to tennis (via Gussie Moran) it was natural he concentrated on women. No big brands around in those days so he built a big reputation.
Julie Heldman has an amusing story in her book – she and her boyfriend invited Teddy to dinner with a couple of other friends and after the first course Teddy just got up and left. Apparently if the talk wasn’t about himself and/or tennis he wasn’t interested. So I’m not sure how you and Ted would have got along đ
He was also a world champion snob.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 7:11 am
There is lots of press about Fernendez after her win against Stephens. In a WTA piece, she is quoted as saying: “In the first set, I had my chances, but I missed the opportunity,” Fernandez said. “In the second and third sets, I just tried to calm my nerves down, and play through the match and try to figure things out to win.”
I think “try to figure figure things out to win” is key. Also, she said she would have a game plan for her upcoming match. So the youngster uses her head.
Harold · March 5, 2020 at 7:47 am
Taking away nothing from Fernandez. But Stephens plays, and acts on the court the last few months, as if its the last place on Earth sheâd rather be. Her body language should give her opponents a chance in any match.
Stephens â C or Bâ game shouldâve beaten Fernandez. Her power was too much, if she gave herself a little more margin, this match shouldâve been 3, and 3…Donât want to hear Fernandez played up. Everything was flying long… Her former genius Coach looks just as lost as SS..Donât see them making it through the year unless SS has a big turnaround. SS is gonna have to blame someone, Coach gonna go
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 8:11 am
“Personal circumstances.” There it is.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 9:26 am
‘Personal circumstances’ covers many things of course and we don’t know the exact words in German.
Could be the lovely Julia began to channel Muguruza ?
We’ll never know, but can only hope things look up for her in the coming months.
BTW – Some readers of TWorld are probably still under the impression that Julia is Kerber’s twin sister and Sascha Zverev is Jens Gerlach.
More German – Steffi Graf has some nice words to say about the new Berlin grass event which she won 9 times in its previous incarnation and where she’ll no doubt present this year’s winner’s trophy (Gauff ?)in the stadium named after her.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 9:41 am
I sat next to Jens Gerlach at Georges vs Rybakova night match at Miami Open last year. We chatted on some changeoevers. Very nice guy. Didn’t detect any romance between the two but you never know.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 9:56 am
My guess is there wasn’t one. Julia’s previous boyfriend was her physiotherapist who left her team last year – but she’s never said a word about that. It’s her own business.
More likely disagreements about mundane issues such as money, technical approaches, psychological fallout from her sub-par performances – things like that. As players grow older they seem to chop and change more.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 10:13 am
The physio with the nerdy glasses? He sat several seats away from Gerlach during the match.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 10:50 am
Yes, probably him – Florian someone ? Her coach at that time resembled him slightly, without the nerdy glasses. I called them Julia’s ‘Gang of Two’.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 12:03 pm
Goerges: FOUR COACHING CHANGES! A player with problems. Sorry for the innuendo – I am not used to that description and choice of words for a “I am firing my coach” scenario, but I am used to bad translations đ German doesn’t lend itself I don’t think to such sentimentality so the easy explanation is the best one: there isn’t any.
I don’t think the Goerges game is in the gutter but she isn’t playing confident tennis.
As for TW they might want to change their Monica Puig photo to be accurate, because Kerber and Zverev are showing up for the article on Monica Puig and her zero confidence post Olympics. Which was a paltry article too.
Tennis World isn’t very good.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 1:20 pm
A Tennis.com article, posted before the Stephens vs Fernandez match, talked about Sloane’s poor results. I was surprised at just how bad they were.
“The Universal Tennis Rating system (UTR) takes five or six matches to gather enough data points to accurately estimate a playerâs current level. Sloane Stephens has now played five matches in 2020, and the early numbers donât look good. According to their metrics, the 2017 US Open champion is the 136th best player in the world right now.”
I think Leylah’s win against Bencic in their recent Fed Cup match was more telling, because Belinda played pretty well in it, and Leylah still totally dominated the match.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 2:15 pm
Kenin: won 2 in a row. Truly struggling.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 2:16 pm
What is going on with Sloane? She turns 27 on March 20, so she is not a spring chicken, in tennis terms. If she isn’t interested any longer that is a shame, because the years go by very quickly, and you don’t want to be a 33 year old player trying to save a career.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 2:32 pm
Sloane is like Muguruza. She’s only “in it” when she’s up for it, and otherwise is an enigma.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Andreescu’s really considering IW? Seems like a mistake. Is this a PR thing where she’d show up for IW and then decide instead to play Miami or begin on the clay?
Makes no sense, again. Can’t tell if it’s her eagerness or sponsors or something. I’d guess she can’t wait to hit a ball against a fellow WTA player, but this is crazy. It’s like Nadal returning to form at the French Open after five months off…just not the first tournament you play. You do an exo or something like that.
INJURY-PLAGUED ANDREESCU COULD STILL DEFEND INDIAN WELLS TITLE
“We’re going to take no risk, so weâre hoping itâs going to be good to go for Indian Wells, but we need a few more days,” the Canadian’s coach said.
By Kamakshi Tandon / March 05, 2020
https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2020/03/injury-plagued-andreescu-could-still-defend-indian-wells-titles/87842/
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 3:43 pm
Andrew – nothing new here. See my post above. It’s the same quote Bruneau gave which Hartt quoted. Hot air – need a ‘few more days’, ‘not quite there yet’ etc & etc. After a torn miniscus ? Before a tournament like IW ? BS. What difference is a few more days going to make ?
If I were conspiracy minded I’d say Bianca didn’t want surgery after her injury last year (understandable) and she was allowed to get her way because she would stay in the public eye and not be hopping around in plaster for a few weeks. Satisfy her management and PR and make everyone more money.
If things go pear-shaped I can see writs flying.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 3:55 pm
In the interview that Bruneau gave on Tuesday to Sportsnet, he said the doctor gave her the go ahead, so it is a matter of whether she can do well on the practice court, play without fear. It sounds like they will only go ahead at IW if she is fully prepared in terms of her tennis. People here were wanting info from her team, and now you have it.
To me it would make sense to have more practice time and play Miami, but presumably they will have the best idea of where her game is at.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 4:02 pm
Sloane did a Cecil B Demille in reverse, she went from stardom to obscurity.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 4:03 pm
No reason to talk about Andreescu till she plays a match.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 4:28 pm
Scoop, so the question is – can Sloane go back from obscurity to stardom?
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 4:30 pm
Scoop – that’s ok but I see no reason not to discuss the stuff which is coming from the Andreescu camp.If it turns out that everything is rosy and Bianca flies through IW and Miami then I’d have to say that her management pulled a pretty good diversionary tactic.
catherine · March 5, 2020 at 4:37 pm
Sloane should follow Sabalenka’s example – get engaged and forget about the wedding. (Aryna’s quote: ‘I don’t like weddings.’)
Might do marvels for her game.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 4:39 pm
Team Andreescu dropped the ball, no matter how you slice it.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 4:40 pm
Hartt, if she really wants it, but I see no indications that she wants it. She looks like she would rather be somewhere else than on the tennis court.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 4:41 pm
Sloane evokes Jack Sock. Boom.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Catherine, exactly. It doesn’t matter if Andreescu comes back tomorrow or by 2021. The PR around it has been bad. Don’t really care about the reasons, I hope she’s healthy.
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Catherine, even Federer’s knee surgery or fake knee surgery did not cause this much drama. Kerber was right.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 5:16 pm
Sorry to kick up so much dirt. IW challenger matches today are good! In fact, many good matches on the board.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 5:22 pm
Pat Cash interview great w/Nina Pantic. He’s quite a character, hard not to like the guy. And he was an excellent player, his points on the WTA being more of an “anything can happen” tour were well put. He said he’d like to coach Nakashima as well as one WTA player (he said coaching two ATP or WTA players is a conflict of interest).
He has this Aussie sensibility/respectability. He has become and old school Aussie in the best sense. I wonder if any Aussies playing today will have his kind of stature from the men’s tour – my guess is a big fat NO, unless Alex De Minaur, with his Ferrer-like work ethic, can join the club.
Listening to him speak one gets a very good sense of how professional he was and how he went about scaling the heights. When he was told about Nakashima he scouted him too to learn more about him and say hey you know you realize that if you want to do this what’s required? That Nakashima was game for this was nice to hear.
For anyone interested:
https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/podcasts/episode/20131607/
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 5:22 pm
Rubin, Sock, Nakashima all into QF. Tiafoe loses 76 in third to Barrere. Youch.
Harold · March 5, 2020 at 5:45 pm
Sock and Popsicle reunite for IW and Miami
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 6:11 pm
Denis Kudla just won his IW Challenger match vs Jannik Sinner, taking the decider 6-1. Jannik was very inconsistent, making some terrific winners, but plenty of bad UFEs as well. I did not see the entire match because I had to take a couple breaks from it, but from what I saw, Kudla was solid and played pretty well overall.
Hartt · March 5, 2020 at 6:33 pm
Correction, it was 6-2 in the decider. Kudla had won the first set, and Sinner won the 2nd set TB.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 8:41 pm
IW men: Sock d. Donskoy 7-6 in third. Wow! Rubin wins.
Surprised Sinner lost to Kudla. Kudla has been playing steady ball this year. All next gen players from the next gen finals have had slow to no starts on the year. Sinner isn’t alone in his slumping.
Monterrey: nice win by Escobedo d. Berankis.
Andrew Miller · March 5, 2020 at 8:47 pm
IW women challenger: Zvonareva d. Siniakova. Wow. Glad to see Zvonareva out there. Though it may not seem like it, when players like Stephens and Siniakova slump, for others it’s a comeback or a career win. I think the proof is if they play again.
Harold · March 5, 2020 at 9:21 pm
Arantxa Rus looks like the fittest woman on the WTA tour..
Scoop Malinowski · March 5, 2020 at 10:01 pm
Sloane showing no passion or inspiration. Just going through the motions.
catherine · March 6, 2020 at 1:49 am
Japan’s Davis Cup tie is looking a bit dicey – Nishikori is out over recuperation from his elbow injury, Nishioki isn’t playing for fear he won’t be allowed to re-enter the US for virus fears and the whole event is being played behind closed doors.
Some players are going to have to think carefully about their travel plans for the foreseeable future. It’s going to be an unusual year.
(Good piece from Ubaldo on Ubitennis – pondering the whole situation, which has affected Italy badly.)
catherine · March 6, 2020 at 1:58 am
Scoop – no, whichever way you look at it, Kerber was not right, and after a few seconds thought she knew that and so she sent a congratulatory tweet to Bianca, a gesture previously unheard of from Angie and speaking of a guilty conscience and possibly a nudge from her manager.
Hartt · March 6, 2020 at 7:06 am
That was a very thoughtful piece by Ubaldo, am glad they translated it.
catherine · March 6, 2020 at 11:13 am
Dkat bts Georgi in Monterrey. 3 sets but Daria seems to be playing better.
Hartt · March 6, 2020 at 11:44 am
I was watching the score for Dasha’s match, and was thrilled when she won. She is too good a player for that slump to continue. Dasha is now No.66 in the live rankings. She still has a long way to go, but at least her ranking is moving in the right direction.
Also, I have never been a Giorgi fan, so was especially glad that Dasha beat her.