!Bogie by Pete Bodo
Mornin'. It's time to take a quick look around TennisWorld to see what news caused us to arch an eyebrow, roll our eyes, or shake our heads—either in disbelief, sympathy, or pity.
This is a good week for American tennis, because one or more U.S. players are bound to do well in Atlanta, where 11 of the 28 slots (and three of the seeded positions) in the draw are occupied by Americans. That includes seventh-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr., who's already been eliminated but could be the lead character in a tennis novel. His father was a Russian national coach who helped train the likes of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Andrei Medvedev; Alex Jr. was once Anna Kournikova's hitting partner, and he later was married (briefly) to Playboy centerfold/WTA pro Ashley Harkleroad. He's had wins over Arnaud Clement, John Isner, and both Andys (Roddick and Murray), yet not long ago he was a teaching pro—and here he is, seeded at an ATP main tour event.
Also in the draw: Nicolas Mahut. He's in the second round, but up against top-seeded Mardy Fish next. And relax—Mahut can't meet third-seeded John Isner until the final. Isner has James Blake today, and you have to wonder if Long John is going to feel any kind of sympathy for the struggling veteran with whom he's hobnobbed and trained at Saddlebrook. Isner is that kind of kid, it always seemed to me, but if he gives Blake an inch he'll take a mile. Because that's what seasoned and desperate veterans do.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself here, so let's get busy.
Easy Come, Easy Go
File it under Headlines We Love: Philippoussis has no Interest in Returning to ATP. Oh, really? I'll bet Roger, Rafa, Greg Sharko and television networks all over the world are weeping and gnashing their teeth. Leaving out the obvious question of whether Scud, at 31, could actually win enough matches to qualify for ATP man draws, you've got to love his unrepentantly slackerish attitude. I mean, why try to play on the pro tour and do all that. . . work?????
I'll hand it to the guy, though. He once lived the high life on an exclusive island in Miami, a five-minute drive from South Beach, surrounded by exotic motorcycles, hair-flipping models and boats. He's now playing senior events and, I assume, having to watch what he spends on dinner. It doesn't seem to bother him, which is kind of cool.
What's the Worst That Can Happen?
Maria Sharapova ought to give freelance lessons in attitude adjustment—the real kind, not the sort easily available with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Sharapova wants a piece of Serena Williams, as she made clear in a conference call promoting the U.S. Open Series the other day. "I love playing against her,” Sharapova said. "We've had very, very tough matches against each other. I don't have a great record against her, and I would love to change that. There is no doubt I would love to play her this summer at some point."
Sharapova surprised Williams the first time they played, in the 2004 Wimbledon final, but since then it's been all Serena—five straight wins, including three at majors (two in Australia, one at Wimbledon). That doesn't seem to faze Sharapova. She's like the scrappy guy who picks a fight, gets the tar beat out of him, and comes back, grinning, for more. What some people don't understand about guys like that is that to them it's not about anything as pedestrian as winning or losing. It's about loving the action; loving the feeling of landing a left hook to the jaw, but also loving the feeling of taking a heavy blow to the ribs. There's a streak of masochism in all great fighters.
Oh sure, the fighters prattle on about how much they want to win, how much they hate losing, yadda-yadda-yadda, but it isn't about the winning and losing for them any more than it is for the addicted gambler. It's about the action in every sense of that word, including the dramatic surroundings and build-up. Theoretically, Maria will get her shot. And more than once. The two biggest stars in the game are entered in four of the same events, including the U.S. Open. We'll see if the women both honor their commitments—and meet up in the draw.
Bend it Like Becker
You aren't the only one who's losing a bit of focus on tennis in this post-Wimbledon lull. It hits the players, too. Their minds start to wander. They get wrapped up in other current events, including sporting ones. But ATP No. 78 Philipp Petzschner seems to have taken it a little too far. After losing in Hamburg to qualifier Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5), Petzschner was asked to comment on the match. His reply?
“I hope that HSV (Hamburger SV Bundesliga soccer club) reaches the Europa League this season.”
And when Petzschner was asked to describe his match-point double-fault, he again brought up HSV, pointing out that the franchise had acquired good, new players. It's easy to accuse Petzschner of being merely flip, or less than professional, but it strikes me that there was something else going on there. What he was doing, really, was saying in no uncertain terms, "I'm hurting and I don't want to talk about it." It was a little bit like Bjorn Borg whistling during that first comeback attempt after he quit the game in 1981.
Petzschner was a semifinalist at Halle (where he retired after going down a set and a break to countryman Philipp Kohlschreiber) but hasn't won a match since; those four losses include one in a Davis Cup blowout, France over Germany. Given that two of his singles losses were in the first round of the two major German ATP events (Stuttgart, where Petzschner lost to Mikhail Youzhny, and Hamburg, which is the official German national championships) my guess is that this guy is totally bummed out by his results. Hence this ill-concealed defiance.
Perhaps it helps that there were seven other Germans entered in Hamburg, and two of them quickly overshadowed Petzschner. German wild card Cedrik-Marsel Stebe upset Stuttgart winner Juan Carlos Ferrero, and another wild card, Tobias Kamke, accounted for No. 7 seed Juan Ignacio Chela. This 20-year old Stebe seems a coming player. He's No. 168, but had wins over Nikolay Davydenko (it was Stebe's first-ever main tour win) and Fabio Fognini in Stuttgart. He also qualified at Rome, Halle and Wimbledon.
The Next Federer. . . or Gulbis?
The unquestionably talented Grigor Dimitrov is beginning to lose some of the impetus that has made him a favorite of fans who like to get on the bandwagon of an emerging player. Everyone, after all, is always seeking the next Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. The question raised in the headline here is taken almost verbatim from a comment poster who noted that after Dimitrov's entertaining and flashy showing at Wimbledon (he lost in four very competitive sets to the conqueror of Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), he got blown out in the second round of Newport by No. 394 Denis Kudla, 6-1, 6-4. In his next event, Atlanta, Dimitrov was seeded fifth. But he was felled in the first round by Rajeev Ram.
But the other youngsters who came roaring out of the gate at the Australian Open seem to be faring no better. Richard Berankis hasn't been past the second round since the winter, but he missed months with a back problem and is just now returning to the court (he lost in the first round of Atlanta to Mahut). And Alexandr Dolgopolov hasn't won a main-draw match since the first round of Halle, before Wimbledon. Throw in the hip injury that knocked Milos Raonic off his star track and you can see the "young guns" story evaporating right before your eyes.
Only Bernard Tomic has built upon the buzz these youngsters created Down Under, by reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
!Anabel The Company She Keeps
The headline was disconcerting: Anabel Medina Garrigues Wins Palermo, Passes Venus. . . You might assume the reference was to ranking, for it's true that at No. 34, Funky cold Medina is now one notch higher on the WTA ladder than Venus (who simply hasn't played enough to have an appropriate ranking). FCMG secured the honor when she won Palermo. What's a bit harder to swallow—if no less true—is that she's also passed Venus in the clay-court title count among active players; they had been tied at nine apiece. I mean, we're not talking about Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva, or Kim Clijsters here. . . this is Medina Garrigues, whose name is barely known even in her native Spain.
And by winning Palermo, FCMG had entered elite company in another way. Only three other active WTA players have won a specific WTA title five different times—Venus, Serena Williams and Clijsters. But let's keep this five-titles thing in perspective. FCMG won Palermo; Clijsters won Luxembourg (not the country, the tournament). Venus is a five-time champ at. . . Wimbledon. And Serena did it in Australia.
BTW, only one of these women has won two different tournaments five times each. You guessed it—Serena Williams. In addition to Australia, she also quint-peated in Miami.
Building the Better Player
Periodically, someone or other does a composite "greatest tennis player, ever," borrowing a forehand from this one, a volley from that one. This version of the exercise caught my eye because it was written for ESPN UK by a former No. 1 player, 41-year old Chris Wilkinson of Great Britain.
I don't care how many snide remark or jokes that might trigger, being No. 1 in your nation at anything, including jacks and horseshoes, is a great accomplishment and honor. Only those who have never been good at anything, except maybe poking fun at others, would fail to recognize that.
Wilkinson's career-high ATP ranking was just 114. He never won a singles or doubles title on the tour, but he did reach two doubles finals. He was awarded eight wild cards by Wimbledon and lost in the first round only twice. My benchmark for whether a player made good on his wild card is whether or not he or she wins a match, because theoretically any person on this earth could get a wild card and lose his first match. Win one and you've shown yourself deserving of the break. Wilkinson made the third round an impressive four times, and over time had wins against Carlos Costa, Jonas Bjorkman, Andres Jarryd and Marc Rosset. Weird at it may sound, the guy had a very good record at Wimbledon—all things considered.
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That's it for this week, folks. Look for another Around the World next Thursday. . .