by Pete Bodo
Well, here we are again, culling and mulling the news, now that we don't have a major event to keep us otherwise occuped. So let's get right to it.
Money For Nothing
A fair amount of the news in recent days has been created or generated by Andy Murray. Unfortunately for his fans and long-suffering British subjects, the stories aren't drenched in Grand Slam glory; rather, they're complaints by Murray, who sometimes appears to want add "spoiled ingrate" to his present title of "Best Male Player Never to Have won a Grand Slam."
Murray has been in the news a number of times since late stages of the U.S. Open, most often as a disgruntled employee and ATP spear carrier. It all seems to have started with the conflicts and discontents created by the way U.S. Open officials handled the rain delays that marred the tournament. I guess he took to this new role as labor-relations firebrand, for in successive days he revealed that he'd be interested in helping create a new player's union (the ATP can hardly call itself that anymore, given that it is in partnership with the tournaments), asserted that he wants more money if the U.S. Open expands to 15 days (the way the French Open has), and he's complained about the number of mandatory tournaments a top player must must enter.
Murray has become the go-to guy for a quote about how unhappy and disadvantaged the top tennis players are behind that veneer of prosperity, good health, and a lifestyle in which your bed is made every day by someone else, a chauffeured car is at your disposal for any and every purpose, and all your meals are served by others.
I took special note of some remarks Murray made to reporters after leading Great Britain to a zonal Davis Cup win over Hungary. Murray took advantage of the occasion to whinge about the number—and quality—of the mandatory events the pros must play (four Grand Slams, eight Masters events, plus the ATP World Your Finals in the event you're one of the eight qualifiers). All in, that amounts to about 18 weeks of actual playing time. The rest of the time, the players are free to play Davis Cup, rest, practice—or chase dollars in smaller, non-mandatory events, like the ATP 250s, at which the promoters are free to recruit top players with enormous cash appearance fees.
Although he doesn't like the work load, don't for a moment think that Murray is in favor of cutting back those tempting 250s and (presumably) exhibitions. As he said, in what seems an awkward attempt to explain why so many players play far more than those required 18 weeks: "When we play the Masters Series and the Slams, we're playing against the best players in the world every time. Sometimes it's nice to go to a tournament when you don't have to kill yourself in every single match."
Yup, Andy. And some of us also think it would be nice if we could go to a job where we don't have to "kill ourselves," but end up getting paid something like $30,000 per day for a week.
Query on Querrey
In case you were wondering what's become of Sam Querrey, he's finally back in action after elbow surgery (he sustained the injury during Queen's Club last year) and then a freakish bout with, of all things, an umbilical cord infection. That one whacked him just over two weeks ago, and set him back even further.
But Ravi Ubha of ESPN tells us that Querrey finally seems fit again; last week, in his first event back, he lost in the semifinals of the Tulsa Challenger to Michael McClune. At No. 116, Querrey is outside the cut-off for Grand Slam events, but he hopes to build his ranking back to at least direct-acceptance level by the end of the year. For starters, he's entered in five tournaments in the upcoming six weeks, and is anxious to get back into the fray.
At his best, Querrey was ranked No. 21 in the world (he won four tournaments in 2010, including Queen's Club, and made the fourth round at two majors); he was right up there among American players with Andy Roddick, John Isner, and Mardy Fish. Today, he's just the 10th best player from the U.S. But that could change quickly, if Querrey—whose dedication has sometimes been questioned—was serious when he told Ubha (you can read his in-depth piece here):
"Now I'm hungrier than ever. When you don't play a tournament or practice for a while, it lets you know how much you miss the sport, how much you love it."
Headlines We Love. . .
It's a toss-up this week.
Gasquet: Loss to Nadal Not the Worst Thing Ever. As the beaten French player Richard Gasquet pointed out, the eruption of Krakatoa, Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf BP oil spill and World War II—all of them, and probably a few other things, were worse than his loss to Rafael Nadal in last week's Davis Cup semifinal.
Djokovic: Back Injury Not Serious, May Marry Soon? That's right, heaven forbid Novak Djokovic contemplate getting married with a bad back, what with that mad dash for the limo amid the pelting rice, the ritual first dance, carrying blushing Jelena over the threshold and . . . never mind, you get the picture.
But Will They Still Give me a Wedgie?
Samantha Chang (no relation to Michael), the "Celebrity Fitness and Health Examiner," is posting an update on Nadal's status as the face (ahem) of Emporio Armani men's underwear, complete with a slide show. What's funny to me about the images is that in most of them Nadal looks like either, well, a woman, or like he's been spray-painted bronze or silver. It's all so fashion-forward I could almost puke, and whatever happened to salt-of-the-earth, boy-next-door Rafa? I mean, it's not like he needs the money to do this stuff, right?
Still Crazy (Like a Fox) After All These Years
Jimmy Connors is down in Florida to compete in a Champions Series event tonight, and I came across this video clip at the website of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper. The blog post promises that Connors "Examines the state of his sport," but it's really one of those "gotcha!" clips in which the reporter (columnist/blogger Mike Berardino) tries to nail Connors down on the motivation behind his on-court antics and emotional outbursts, and the impact they may have had on others.
Time was, Connors would have gone all purple in the face and threatened to punch Berardino for this transparent effort at entrapment. But Jimbo is a smooth dude these days, and wa-a-a-a-a-y too canny and experienced to wander into that trap. But it's still fascinating to hear Jimbo rationalize and justify his sometimes ugly and almost always vulgar and off-putting shenanigans. Has Connors ever given an interview in which, when the subject veered (as it inevitably does) to his unsportsmanlike conduct, he didn't invoke the name of the patron saint of all emotional maniacs, Ilie Nastase?
*
Muster Offically Retires. At 44.*
The headline on our home page isn't quite accurate when it declares that Thomas Muster is retiring again. The former No. 1 and French Open champ never did announce that he retired, not on any of the many occasions when he might have. Muster has proved one of the most durable—and enthusiastic—of competitors through roughly 25 years in the pro game. The ultimate clay-court baseline grinder, Muster's most remarkable achievement was his unlikely comeback from an accident that almost cost him his left leg in 1989. The night before he was to play the final of Miami (as big a tournament then as it is now), he was hit by a drunk driver and his left knee was nearly destroyed. Yet in just six months he was back on the tour.
Muster rebounded to win numerous tournaments (including the Italian Open); in 1993, he won seven title (and made nine finals). He still shares the record for most titles in a single season (12) with Roger Federer. Muster abruptly and unceremoniously left the game in 1999, but he never formally retired. He married, moved to Australia, had a kid—and almost doubled in size.
Muster decided to give the ATP tour (note: not the Champions Series, or some comparable "senior" exercise) another shot in June of 2010, at age 43. To date, Muster has won exactly two matches in 18 events, most of them Challengers. Now he says his last tournament will be the ATP Vienna event in October—a tournament he first played 27 years ago, and one which he never won despite making three finals.
In a show of either amazing patience or pure delusion, Muster said of his past 18 months: “I’ve made good progress this year but my age is counting. I know what’s still possible if I put even more effort into it. But I have a family and also would get to my physical limits one day.”
Muster was never the most popular guy in either the locker room or the bleachers. But he will be remembered as the ultimate ironman—and inspirational figure for any aspiring pro.
!Pic Do as I Say, Not as I Do
Lleyton Hewitt won the Sydney International, the struggling ATP event held the week before the Australian Open, four times. And in 2005, the year Hewitt made it to the final of his native Grand Slam (l. to Marat Safin), he also won the warm-up in Sydney. So it's only natural that he would talk up the benefits of playing the event—which is exactly what he's been hired to do. The target: the blue-chip Australian Open contenders who have been by-passing Sydney in favor of taking part in the Kooyong Classic, a lucrative exhibition in Melbourne (note to Murray: it's not mandatory. . .)
Hewitt's sales pitch might ring a little hollow, given that he also was among those lured away from Sydney to take part in the no-stress, big-money exo in preparation for the Australian Open.
But as any marketer can tell you, the idea is to turn a theoretical disadvantage into a plus, so Hewitt is on the record as saying that something was "missing" from his preparation for the Australian Open this year, when he opted to play the exo instead of Sydney this year—the implication being that the decision may have had something to do with Hewitt's first-round loss in Melbourne's major.
Of course, Hewitt's age (he was a month shy of his 30th birthday), ranking (No. 54) and quality opponent (David Nalbandian) may have had something to do with that loss, too. But not everyone needs to know that.
The truth is that Hewitt has been faithful to the Sydney tournament for most of his career, so perhaps his pitch to fence-sitters, especially potential contenders for the Melbourne title, might still seem credible.