Tennis is a serious business with a lot at stake but funny, light hearted moments with the best players in the world do happen…
Magnus Larsson recalled the folly of almost losing his first prize money. “My first tennis paycheck, $2500. I lost. On the way back home to Stockholm. With my wallet. I had no money. I was calling my dad on the phone to tell him what time I come home. When I make the call, I found another wallet. I turned it into the info desk. Lot of money in it. Then when I got on the plane, I realize I left my wallet at the info desk! I had to run to get it back in time. But there was a few sweaty moments.”
Elena Vesnina witnessed a player robbed by a thief – during a changeover. “I remember I was playing one time in India and next court to me, Vania King actually – she put the banana on the chair and the monkey came and took it. And ball kids were trying to run after it to get the banana. And Vania was like, No I don’t need it. Leave it, give it to the monkey.”
Vince Spadea showed tennis is a game of love as he somehow managed to set up a date…while playing in a Tour match. “One time I got a phone number during a match. I was rappin’, pretendin’ like I was talkin’ to the ballkid. Hey, how’s it going? Maybe we’ll have a drink sometime. So then later the ballkid slipped me the number. Her name was Sunshine.”
When asked about a funny tennis memory, Xavier Malisse immediately thought of a former player he used to practice with. “Mose Navarra of Italy, I’ve never known a guy as crazy as him. We used to go out a lot. And I know how he acts, every time we go out my stomach would hurt from laughing. His remarks around people, not bad, just funny.”
Thomas Muster went all the way back to his childhood days of playing in Austria. The always passionate and demonstrative Muster was never shy about expressing himself in tennis, not even as a young boy. “When I was younger, I was trying to ask anyone and everyone to play with me. Anyone who was waiting for a friend or who just finished, I ask everyone to play. I think people were afraid to come early to the club because I was there.”
Nicolas Lapentti recalled an uncanny memory of his amazingly accurate shotmaking. “I was playing a tournament in Lima, Peru in 1995. And my coach at the time – Pablo Guzman – was sitting up, up in the corner. And I hit a serve wide and it hit something in the wall – like a wire or something – and the ball went straight up and took off his baseball hat. The ball went completely up – it didn’t touch him – just took off his hat. A hat like yours. Took it off. It was too much.”
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Nicolas Kiefer remembered how he artfully dodged having to do tedious running drills in practice. “When I was younger, 9 or 10, in practice we used to run a lot because of fitness. Once I did not want to run and I closed myself in a locker room closet. And so I didn’t run. After, they come back and pick me up.”
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Andy Roddick honed his competitive spirit as he used to play fantasy matches in his garage. “When I was growing up, we had this rebound net in our garage that I played on. And I used to pretend I was playing McEnroe, Sampras, Lendl, three out of five sets. My mom would come out and ask me the score. And I’d be like, I’m winning. She’d be like, Oh, that’s impressive. So that was my big thing when I was little, playing with that rebound net, being in my own little world.”
Arnaud DiPasquale summoned up an odd experience in South America. Unfortunately a poor bird met a violent fate. “One time, a long time ago, in Satellite in Uruguay. Just after juniors. I was practicing. There were a few birds on the baseline while we were taking a drink on the changeover. I just hit the ball to scare them away. And I killed one. I felt so bad after that. I feel like a killer. I killed the bird.”
Jim Courier reminisced about times at The Bollettieri Academy. “The times I was at Bollettieri’s Tennis Camp where we would sneak out in the middle of the night. The boys and the girls, we’d all sneak out, take our racquets with tennis balls at 2 a.m. and have like these tennis ball wars where they were building stuff. So we were like firing tennis balls at each other from close range. Of course, we all got caught and had to wash cars and pick the weeds the next day.”
I interviewed the great Don Budge at the U.S. Open a few years before he passed away. He retained a memory of a ping pong match. “We have a ping pong table at home. I took a fellow – a neighbor of mine – up there to see our game room. He said, Oh, do you play ping pong? I said, Yes. He said, You know, I’m a pretty good player. So I played him. After he said, Gee, you’re pretty good Don! I said, Oh, I play much better right-handed! I played him left-handed and beat him easily. And he was quite chagrined [smiles]!”
Richard Krajicek culled a memory of when he was only second-best in the Krajicek household. “I was six or seven, I used to play tennis with my older sister Lenka. She used to always beat me. She was 13. Then one day she played left-handed to make it fair. And she still beat me!”
Poland’s Lukas Kubot had a bizarre moment when his serve hit his doubles partner not once but twice. “I played with Oliver Marach in doubles. And I hit him with my serve to the head. And the ball didn’t go left or right – it went 20 meters straight up. Fell down and the ball fell down and hit him again. And we were playing French guys in the Challenger. It was at the end of 2005, the Challenger in Doha. After was the ATP tournament in Doha. And the first question that I asked Oliver, Man, sorry, are you okay? And his answer was like, Man, I want to win [smiles]. So I had a second serve after and I couldn’t stop laughing. So I was laughing. I got a time violation from the referee. And I hit the second serve directly to the fans with my frame [smiles]. So that was probably the funniest. (Win?) We win the match. We won the tournament with a wildcard. And we played semifinal in Doha in the ATP tournament, which actually started the doubles career.”
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »Andrew Miller · September 29, 2019 at 12:12 pm
De Minaur: three titles in 2019, almost certainly top 20 finish, squeaky sneakers and all. Let’s his racquet talk. Made it further than Kyrgios at the U.S. Open, Rd of 16 (one of a bunch of next gens to make Rd of 16 or better). Made Murray look sound but like a wily vet tipping his cap to a successor (even if anything but and Murray just tips his hat as a trubute to fine play).
Andrew Miller · September 29, 2019 at 12:24 pm
China Open results in Rd. 1 Beijing are wild.
Ostapenko d. K. Pliskova, 7-5 in third.
D. Kat. d. Peng., in a tight three sets.
Bertens survived Vekic, 7-6 in third.
Hercog d. Goerges 6-4 in third.
Kenin d. Muguruza 6-2 in an odd match.
Zheng d. Puig 7-6 in third. Puig must hate herself.
Svito d. Sevastova in another wacky three sets.
V. Williams d Strycova in three
(…)
Only a few players snashing through like Halep.
Bizarre, Tomljanovic d. Wang despite being down a set and 4-5 in second set. That looks unlucky!
Hartt · September 29, 2019 at 12:32 pm
With the discussion here about the effects of social media, I thought a post on reddit about the number of social media interactions in August was interesting. Rafa had the most, with 4.2 million! I doubt that he even manages his social media accounts himself. Then Novak with 3 million, more than twice that of number 3, Kyrgios, with 1.4 million.
The highest female player was Sharapova at number 6 with 942.6K! Coco Gauff was number 7, followed by Sloane and Bianca. Sascha Zverev came in 10th, with 504.2K.
So the top 2 male players had the most interactions. I doubt that they pay a lot of attention to social media, but I should check to see what Novak has been doing on it.
Andrew Miller · September 29, 2019 at 1:15 pm
Big players, no way. They aren’t like Iron No Russell and his FB account which his agent took over (yeah right!).
Basically this whole social media circus thing didn’t exist fifteen years ago. It’s a reason I think some players will not reach their potential. Alex De Minaur talked about the pressures of pro tennis on Rubin’s Instagram blog – how much pressure he puts on himself. The players are like tea kettles and they are on stoves.
Anyways. It’s another element that yanks players away from the game. I guess maybe celebrate that some players will make money from their blogs. Maybe Kyrgios could find his freedom of expression their so that he’s always winning in one forum while self destructing on others. Maybe Tomic should become a lifestyle blogger so that he has a healthier existence beyond tournaments he doesn’t want to play.
What’s in the water anyways in Australia. Why are their male players beyond De Minaur so beleaguered?
Scoop Malinowski · September 29, 2019 at 4:31 pm
No Andrew, Russell said his publicist operated his FB, not the agent. Or was it his nutritionist, mental guru, physio or personal assistant?
Andrew Miller · September 29, 2019 at 4:56 pm
Sccop, hope Iron Mike “ironed” this out with his publicist 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · September 29, 2019 at 8:18 pm
Well if he didn’t he sure did iron it out with Rusty Hewitt, Iron Mike hinted they have a history (a couple of confrontations) and he expressed a dislike for how Hewitt made his matches personal with the opponent and Mike took matters into his own hands though he didn’t specify what exactly. But Russell did have the last laugh winning their last meeting in Memphis 76 in the third, a very tense match televised on Tennis Channel about six years ago. Great match, you could cut the tension with a Pete Sampras string saver.
Andrew Miller · September 29, 2019 at 11:24 pm
Tommy Paul d. Kokkinakis 6-4 in third. Wins second challenger following the qualies disappointment at the US Open and the wildcard fiasco. Apparently no guaranteed year end top hundred. Fine work from T. Paul. The perfect way to respond to the US open problem also, play better than ever.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 2:05 am
Back in Beijing – someone’s been talking to Angie. She showed great fortitude, mental and physical, getting past Zhang. I’f only she could eliminate those second set reversals. Make her matches shorter. Maybe she’s giving herself breathing space. Next is Hercog who beat the lovely Julia and who’d like two Germans in the bag. Was it Hercog who failed on match point to eliminate the Great Coco (not the dog) from the USO ? Can’t remember.
Anyway, it’ll be a tough one although Angie leds H2H.
re social media, Kerber likes reading about herself online and admiring her pictures but we haven’t seen so much of this lately which is a good thing. Angie is one of those players who went a bit mad there for a bit.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 4:13 am
Is there anyone in China who isn’t injured ? Or strapped up either as a precautionary measure or psychological ploy ? Kerber had her left thigh taped.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 4:25 am
Bianca turns in a 3 set performance for her debut – with a 6-1 in the 3rd. Didn’t see it – maybe Hartt did ?
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 4:41 am
Catherine, I did manage to wake up in the middle of the night in time to see the last few games of Bianca’s match. She played well, was very steady, and Sasnovich felt she had to go for big winners and made a lot of UFEs as a result.
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 5:00 am
Catherine, did Hercog play Coco at Wimby? I am watching some USO matches before erasing the recordings, and yesterday watched the match where Osaka beat Coco.
A fun match in Beijing would be Naomi vs Bianca. Think I read that they could meet in the QFs.
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 6:24 am
Today it was announced that Simona and Bianca have officially qualified for the WTA finals, as well as the doubles team of Dabrowski and Xu. So good news for Canadian players. And Xu said she was especially happy about being able to play in front of her home fans.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 8:32 am
Hartt – you’re right – Hercog played Coco at Wimbledon. I was so keen to avoid Cocomania whenever she played that her record didn’t engrave itself on my mind.
Simona lost in Beijing so now she can go to practise for the Finals and get some tips from Cahill. Good that Biannca qualified – will draw fans I imagine. I only wish she wouldn’t play so many 3 setters – must be tiring.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 8:42 am
Did you see Bianca telling us that she’d forgotten how it feels to lose ?
I expect there are a few players around who’d like to remind her 🙂
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 8:52 am
Catherine, yes I had seen the Bianca quote. I suspect that she will lose soon enough. Here is the quote for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
“Andreescu on a roll: “I don’t want to sound like cocky or anything, but I kind of forgot how it feels to lose, which I think is a good thing. When I meditate, I always make sure to feel the feeling of myself winning. It’s good that I forgot the other feeling.” #ChinaOpen” (WTA Insider)
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 9:16 am
Good for Andreescu. Other scorelines are confusing. Scoreline alone, Alexandrovna batters Halep, and Ostapenko is out after a pathetic display, winning three games against the fierce Siniakova. Those two efforts spells “lackluster” and “this is vacation”, “nobody remembers who wins Beijing” and “just here for the direct deposit from this wealthy tournament”.
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 9:20 am
This is a long article where 3 tennis experts analyze Bianca’s game in depth.
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/bianca-andreescu-good-at-tennis-1.5298687
One thing they discuss is her possible impact on the style of play. I hope they are right, because many WTA players could use more variety in their games.
Labelle is a Tennis Canada coach who has worked with Bianca.
“Labelle: I think it’s going to make coaches pay more attention to the younger girls with all the tools and not just to focus on the ground strokes and the serve, but being able to do drop shots and being able to volley properly and being able to change the pace with the heavier ball. And so she’ll have a great influence.”
Scoop Malinowski · September 30, 2019 at 9:37 am
Translating Bibi: “Warning to all WTA players: I feel UNBEATABLE.”
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 9:40 am
Andrew, to be fair to Halep, she is still having back problems. The question is why did she even try to play that match?
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 9:42 am
Bianca said she didn’t want to sound cocky, but I think she does need to be a bit careful. Pride goeth before a fall and all that. 🙂
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 9:53 am
Hartt: check’s in the mail. Instagram time!
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 9:57 am
I’m sorry to say this but Simona is very good at losing and then talking about her injuries. You almost expect it.
As Hartt says – why did she even bother playing ? Waste of everyone’s time. And bad sportsmanship.
I wonder how long it’ll take for the Chinese to lose patience with the level of play in their WTA events.
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 10:10 am
Hartt – very interesting article. I really do hope Bianca goes on to fulfill expectations because she’s a unique player.
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 10:17 am
China likes the prestige. Not all bets pay off – some tournaments do well others not so much. Crowds are sparse. China isn’t a tennis country.
Scoop Malinowski · September 30, 2019 at 10:54 am
When you say you feel unbeatable it’s cocky. She should just keep her mouth zipped if she does not want to sound cocky. But I like this by her, it’s sending a direct message and taunt to the other players: “I dare you to knock the chip off my shoulder!”
catherine · September 30, 2019 at 11:18 am
Andrew – I thought there was the Li Na boom ? Apart from that, I realise the WTA is trying to spread the word in China because it’s a potential gold mine but I just don’t think the game’s going to catch on there the way football has, and maybe basketball. At least not the women’s game.
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 11:27 am
Catherine, I thought that article was interesting because you rarely see that kind of in-depth analysis of a player. I would love to see it done for several different players, such as Osaka and Halep.
Gill Gross did videos about FAA and Stefanos where he went through the various aspects of their games and talked about what he saw as their strengths and weaknesses, but he doesn’t cover women’s tennis.
Scoop Malinowski · September 30, 2019 at 11:44 am
I was in China for two weeks three years ago and only saw one set of tennis courts (3) on the outskirts of Shanghai. And we only saw it by chance, walking around to meet my gfs friends for lunch. We saw no tennis courts in all the other places we went to in China. So it’s not widely played outside of Beijing where the training center is. It’s not widely played period. There are a lot of junior players, talented ITF juniors, big numbers but they are concentrated in Beijing I believe. Also I am told there is issues with how the federation controls the players. After Li Na, China is now like USA, plenty of fair players with good results but no Li Nas winning majors and being top 5. A couple of the big prospects from juniors have sputtered as pros, Yibing Wu in particular. Sven Groenveld was coaching him but ran into problems with Wu’s mother and then the kid got injuries I heard. So Chinese tennis has struggled to produce a star champion despite the abundance of so much junior talent and Peter McNamara telling me six years ago that in about five years China will be dominating women’s tennis. McNamara was coaching in China for years, most recently with Qiang Wang but he sadly passed away this year. The Chinese federation controls the players to the detriment of the players, I was told.
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 11:50 am
Na Li, Shuai Peng, Zheng. As for dominance, doubt it. Tennis isn’t something that even Russia with its coaching monopoly can dominate. A good player can come from anywhere. I think Italy given its diversity of style should have some good players. Ukraine obviously. The U.S. given it’s one of few places females can make boatloads more than in other sports played here in the states.
Scoop Malinowski · September 30, 2019 at 11:55 am
Qiang Wang is 12 in the world now so she is the closest in striking range to become a champion. There are a bunch of other young Wangs – Xiyu, Xinyu, Yafan, who are out there in position to possibly Li Na their way into the elite echelon. There are many junior talents coming up too. But at this point it’s been a disappointment for Chinese tennis, more was expected. Yibing Wu, the ITF no.1 junior two years ago and US Open junior champ is 479 now in the ATP and has not played a match since March.
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 12:04 pm
Wang. Ok. I think it’s like any other country in tennis. Can’t buy a slam. Na Li was flat out better. She has a big game worth watching and she was also interesting.
Talent is talent. It can come from anywhere. But can’t really mass produce it – Russia, Czech Republic sort of have to some extent, but even their talent pool is now lagging.
Hartt · September 30, 2019 at 12:54 pm
It is so ridiculously difficult to be a top tennis player that it is probably a minor miracle when a country produces more than one at a time. (In the sense of the players coming from that country.) I do get excited when a Canadian player does well, but follow players from a wide variety of countries (as my list of treats-eligible players will attest.)
So maybe we shouldn’t worry too much about how a country does at any given time. There will be high points, but more low points. It is exciting that we have excellent players from so many different countries, and fans who support different players.
I got a chuckle out of Shapo’s young Chinese fans in Chengdu. They even had Storm sitting in front of them.
So although they did not have a Chinese player to root for, they had fun cheering for a Canadian youngster.
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 1:19 pm
U.S. women will do fine. U.S. men haven’t had many role models for a while. A country should have good facilities and good coaching. The U.S. has had that for the most part – most women’s players have solid form. Our men’s players don’t!
Andrew Miller · September 30, 2019 at 5:16 pm
Career high rankings for these guys. From @Alex_Boroch
ATP TOP 100 – new highest rankings
#57 Alexander Bublik
#81 Tommy Paul
#82 Gregoire Barrere
#83 Mikael Ymer (TOP 100 debut)
#91 Egor Gerasimov
catherine · October 1, 2019 at 6:05 am
No huge surprises in Beijing WTA (so far). Kasatkina bts Sabalenka, no surprise considering Aryna’s inconsistancy but a good win for Daria under any circumstances. Poor Petko got wrenched apart by Osaka, SS and 6-0 second set.
Kerber lost to Hercog SS in just over an hour and really sounds a pathetic result (I didn’t see the match).Angie won 0% of return games. Even Woz is playing better. Time to go home.
catherine · October 1, 2019 at 6:15 am
Good win for Murray, but tight. Two t/bs. But it looks as if Andy’s serious about coming back. Or trying hard.
catherine · October 1, 2019 at 6:40 am
Sloane whatever – Zheng bts her 6-3 6-1. Another tired performance to add to the growing list in China. Let’s hope Bianca doesn’t find herself infected with the’ no hope so I won’t bother’ virus.
I seriously think the season, ie all big titles, should end in October.
Hartt · October 1, 2019 at 7:29 am
There were so many matches that it took a long time just to read the results.
I was so glad that Dasha won. Yes, Sabalenka can be inconsistent, but Dasha need some wins. I hope this helps her confidence.
I got up in the middle of the night to watch Shapo vs Kecmanovic. Thank goodness Denis got the win in SS. Kecmanovic did not play badly, so Denis had to work for it. He served well, which is what made the difference, with 16 aces.
Catherine, I thought it was interesting that the podcast affiliated with Tennis Canada, Match Point Canada, had a ball signed by Kerber as a prize. People were to give their favourite Kerber moment and retweet Match Point Canada. They had some nice things to say about Angie.
Scoop Malinowski · October 1, 2019 at 8:36 am
Murray has declared himself back as an elite singles player with this win vs Berrettini.
catherine · October 1, 2019 at 8:49 am
Hartt – Angie’s always been very good at off-court moments and she also comes across very well to fans etc. She gets asked to do a lot. Barbara Rittner advised her a couple of years ago to learn to say no sometimes because the demands can get tiring.
It’s her on court performances which are so disappointing – you can’t really see her getting past the first or second rounds these days which is great come down for a player with 3 GSs. I had a look at some highlights, Vietnamese and not terribly good but better than nothing, to try to see if Hercog was doing anything unusual (she beat Julia 1st round) but she wasn’t. Angie was just playing the same routine game, and with her weak serve it’s not enough anymore. Don’t get the impression she’s tried to change anything – but then I don’t get that impression with Sloane either. Some players just hit the buffers at a certain point. Unless some super coach gets parachuted in.
Scoop Malinowski · October 1, 2019 at 9:23 am
Kind of curious how Chinese and Japanese lower ranked players seem to do well in their home tournaments, good for ticket sales and TV ratings that this is happening.
catherine · October 1, 2019 at 9:53 am
Scoop – I think the fact that they’re playing at home, speaking their own language and surrounded by friends, family, helps. You might just as well ask how it is that so many other players don’t live up to their reputations. I wonder what conditions are like in China – travel, living etc. No one’s ever said. We just see PR.
Scoop Malinowski · October 1, 2019 at 10:05 am
Soeda beating Struff, Uchiyama beating Paire, Daniel beating Coric, three totally normal results. Soeda had been 0-12 at the Tokyo tournament before this win. Might bet a Soeda vs Uchiyama final now.
Andrew Miller · October 1, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Sabalenka follows up last week’s epic effort…with a lackluster one. Sabalenka needed to beat D. Kat. but D. Kat, who plays a little like Sabalenka I think (both remind me of Mauresmo, but Mauresmo movement was superior?) shouldn’t be so lowly ranked anyways.
Andrew Miller · October 1, 2019 at 12:20 pm
Many Canadian players peak in the Masters events in Canada, except one.
Andrew Miller · October 1, 2019 at 12:22 pm
Shapo is fortunate to have fans everywhere. Other players should get some fans.
Andrew Miller · October 1, 2019 at 12:27 pm
Draws holding up well, less subc tanking from the scoreline. Maybe these tournaments are better than the selection last week, draws are chock full of good players.
Kerber losing is meh, folks have her number now.
Murray’s win on Berretini is something. Djokovic smashed a guy Popyrin that’s been playing well. Popyrin if he keeps his head together could move up the Aussie depth charts. That’s a big iff.
Hartt · October 1, 2019 at 1:04 pm
Some posters on Reddit discussed Kerber. One asked if she could find her form again or if this was the beginning of the end. Another proposed the theory that she does not do well in odd-numbered years. Certainly she has had a pattern from 2016. So will 2020 bring better things for Angie?