Reading the Readers: Pithy Edition

As we count down the Best of 2011, here’s one last mailbag before the holidays, and the new season, begin.

If ever there was a non-slam winner who belongs in the a Hall of Fame, it is David Ferrer. By virtue of his Davis Cup performances alone, I think he belongs there.

I have never looked at the Hall of Fame “rules", but maybe I will now and create a “David Ferrer for Hall of Fame” lobby. David is everything and more a great tennis player should be about.—Mr. Rick

Ferru in the Hall is an admirable idea; few have made more of what they’ve been given. In fact, Ferrer seems to use his limitations. He knows exactly what he can and can’t do.

The basic criteria for the Hall of Fame is a Slam singles title, though the organization started down a slippery slope a few years ago when it let Pam Shriver in on her doubles record. (It also helps to be an American; one-time French Open champion Michael Chang is in; two-time French Open champ Sergi Bruguera isn’t.) Ferrer has been to a couple of Slam semis, and he is an all-time star of Davis Cup. This sounds a lot like the record of another Daveed: Nalbandian. If you let in the overachieving Ferrer, you have to let the underachieving Nalby in as well. Unfortunately, I think that’s a step too far down the slope.

I found rafa's victory over delpo oddly similar in feel to his french open final win over fed. sort of like he still had just enough gas in the tank, but it was getting tougher. less convincing than in his dominant years, and without the resultant wind at his back for the upcoming battle.—d

There were similarities. Nadal started horribly and was intermittently shaky in both matches. But those things have been true of him in the past as well—he won the Delpo match was by nearly the same scores as he did the 2006 French Open final over Federer. What did seem different in Seville was that when Nadal wrested the momentum away at the start of the fourth set, he didn’t run away with the match—in the past, once he’s gotten his confidence, he’s been very tough to stop. But here he visibly tightened up.

Granted, he was affected by the Argentine crowd stopping the match for five minutes, and he righted himself by the end of the set, but it’s a was a dicier situation than I would have thought. On the one hand, Nadal has seemed to be on the decline many times in the past; he thrives on that narrative of struggle. On the other hand, he really will start to decline at some point. My sense is that it won't be 2012.

It was soooo heart-wrenching to see Juan Martin crying right then. I admired him for not holding back - maybe he couldn't anyway, i don't know. It was such an appropriate reaction after such an amazing 4th set and then the whitewash of the tie-breaker.—jodiecate

Is del Potro a breakthrough figure when it comes to the acceptance of crying by male athletes in defeat? His emotions are such a big part of his persona that his tears only make you like him more.

Ready? Federer’s stamina is slipping, ever so slightly. You could see he was tired in the U.S. Open SF against Novak, how he seemed to save his last bit of energy for the final set after more or less just allowing the fourth set to go by. Same thing at WImbledon with Tsonga, I think the dude jsut got tired. He seemed EXHAUSTED(and said as much) after beating Tsonga in the WTF's, and that was best of three....hmm, I think I may be on to something.—Mr. Truth

I'm not sure I should doubt the words of a man named Mr. Truth (what nationality is your last name?).

It’s rare that I’ve seen Federer appear tired, or at least tired to the point where he loses points because of it. But I did find myself wondering about his fourth-set performance in the U.S. Open semis. He seemed to slow down, and eventually save what he had for the fifth. But it also might have been mental energy, as much as physical, that he was saving. Losing the third set, and seeing Novak “get his teeth into the match,” as Federer put it, appeared to take the wind out of his sails, confidence-wise, for the fourth.

If they get a businessman to run the ATP who also thinks about whats best for the players then fair enough. However, if they get anyone with even remotely the same mind set as those who run the U.S Open then I'm firmly behind having an ex-player run things.—DJB

It’s been reported that Richard Krajicek has taken himself out of the running. Chris Clarey tweeted that too many people on the ATP board thought that he could become a puppet of the tournament directors. Krajicek walking away is OK in my eyes, but losing Wimbledon chief Ian Ritchie to rugby looks bad.

Steve, I think it is fair to say, was in a very pithy mood when he wrote this.—Cotton Jack

It would be nice to be able to get yourself into a pithy mood, wouldn't it? Better than getting into another type of mood, which sounds like pithy when you lisp it.

I own Forehand Drive by Maureen Connolly who I saw win the Nationals at Forest Hills. I was a short Irish-American girl who was taught professionally and dreamed of being a player like Mo. Little did I realize what a complicated, driven and often angry young woman she was. Of course her tennis days were ended in a horse riding accident but the story of her fight to rise in the tennis world came as a surprise to me. Another nice book is Caryl Phillips tennis anthology called The Right Set. He is a great tennis fan as well as a very good author in his own right.—wiseowl

The Right Set is an excellent intro anthology, but I had never heard of the Little mo book, so thanks. She sounds more interesting than the smiling California world-crusher you see in photos and clips.

Thanks for another great article. I'm Romanian, and don't recall the 1972 Davis Cup final being "infamous". Maybe I was too young :) Care to elaborate? I looked it up, but found nothing of significance except... Nastase was nervous in his match against Smith... Thanks!—Adrian

See Curry Kirkpatrick's classic SI piece on it here. Bodo also wrote a great article on it for the 30th anniversary in Tennis Magazine in 2002, but it's not online.

Steve, you've rightfully extolled "A Handful of Summers" before, so may I recommend thevery* lightweight tome of his partner in hijinks, Abe Segal's "Hey Big Boy"? It's really fun, and as weak as literature as it is a hoot, but between the storytelling and the clear picture of Segal's character it's a must for anyone who really wants to understand the world of the tennis bums who could really play but weren't tippy top tier. Thanks for the recommendations, too.*—skip1515

Another one I hadn’t heard of, but need to read. There’s a small part of me that finds Abie’s character in the Forbes' books just a little too perfectly hilarious to be true (I know, sacrilege, but I can't help it). So it will be good to read it straight from him.

Books that changed the way I thought. Hmmm, probably "The Things They Carried." A work I return to often when I'm feeling particularly unmoved by life. Others off the top of my head would include "The Right Stuff" and "The Grapes of Wrath."

Bud Collins does suffer from that-old-guy-in-the-weird-pants syndrome but thanks for the tip on his book. I love McPhee and DFW's tennis writing so it's good to know Collins rates that high in your mind.—Michele

If it’s at all like Going After Cacciato or In the Lake of the Woods, The Things They Carried must be heavy. But it also must be good.

Bud, of course, is not as consciously literary as McPhee or DFW, and there’s plenty of hokum in there, but he’s also funny and honest and readable and tough when he needs to be. Without him, there wouldn’t be a tennis history as we know it. You have to give a guy credit for inventing a word—moonball—that sounds like it’s been in the tennis dictionary from the very beginning.

I know this is off topic but it's so beautiful I must:

"San Francisco in the middle 60's was a very special time and place to?be part of but no explanation, no mix of words or memories can touch?that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of?time and the world, whatever it meant. It was madness in any direction.?At any hour you could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic?universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were ?winning and that, I think, was the handle. That sense of inevitable ?victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military?sense. We didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had?all the momentum. We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.?So now, less than 5 years later, you can go up on a steep hill in?Las Vegas and look west and with the right kind of eyes you can almost?see the high water mark, that place where the wave finally broke....?and rolled back."
**

Hunter S. Thompson, from "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" R.I.P.—Bored Poet

I remember reading those words in the library at Pomona College and having to stop and put the book down. They were too good to pass by so quickly, and I tried to copy their rhythm for a long time afterward. I think somewhere in there he also writes that in those late-60s days, you could always find someone, just by going out in your car, who was as “high and wild” as you were. Loved that phrase (though it’s probably slightly different, like all remembered phrases are).

I saw a clip of Thompson much later, in his dark late years, at his ranch. He wants to prove to the interviewer that he was once a good writer, so he reads an old passage of his and then shakes his head with a mix of regret and satisfaction. I think you can guess which one he read.

I did enjoy reading these lists, but re-reading to decide which books I might actually buy I was completely struck by the lack of books by women or about the WTA - the only two that are mentioned being about relationships is just - well, I have to laugh. :)

I realise the lists are based on research for a particular book about a period in ATP history, but I get a more universal impression from the two posts - comments about tennis being handed from generation to generation, reading pretty much everything to sum up most of tennis history, etc. We all fall into the trap of saying "tennis" when we mean ATP tennis & it can mean that the women get overlooked and erased - however unintentionally.—jewell

That's true. My book, except for the lost Martina chapter, was about men’s tennis, mostly before 1981, so I crammed as much about the men’s game into my head as I could. Pete’s Inside Tennis and Courts of Babylon have chapters on the women. As far as the hallowed tennis boom and the early days of the WTA, Grace Lichtenstein’s A Long Way Baby captures the heady mood of the moment.

And it’s true, unfortunately, that “tennis” is often de facto for “men’s tennis.” Like when we talk about slowing the courts or the string revolution or other developments, we almost exclusively talk about them in terms of how they affect the men’s game.

Steve had you waited a little longer before changing the channel you have found out Tsonga didn't win that match at Queens. He lost to Murray in 3 sets.—wilson75

Spoiler

Federer stated in an article earlier this year that he injured his wrist in the match against Tsonga.—jeff

He was talking about his match with Tsonga at the U.S. Open, not Wimbledon.

I'd be interested to know from Fed fans which of the two matches Federer lost this year were more painful, shocking, unexpected ?
1. The Tsonga loss at Wimby??or
2. The US open SF against Novak—Nam1

I can’t speak for Federer fans, but, well, I will: It has to be the U.S. Open. My most vivid memory of that match is Federer walking off afterward and still managing to raise his hand to the crowd. I thought, “How did he bring himself to do that?”

I received an email recently directing me away from my own blog and over to the comments on Pete Bodo’s, where, naturally, the subject of anagrams was being discussed. Specifically, anagrams for “Steven Tignor,” which can be generated here. Here’s one of the comments on the subject:

"they have like 200 hundred of them [for Steven Tignor]"
**

allow me to narrow it down:
Egret von Snit
Egret von Nits
Egret vin Snot—Isis

I like Egret von Snit, as well another from the site, Veg Snottier. Unfortunately, my name is spelled Stephen Tignor. My favorites there? "Peter Nothings" might work as a (hopefully inaccurate) alter ego in a novel someday. But I have to say, "Serpent Hog" has a certain ring to it.