Retiring "Gonzo" shores up the good will

Fernando Gonzalez, affectionately dubbed "Gonzo" by fans and media types alike, will retire after this spring's ATP tournament in Miami (Key Biscayne, to be exact). The 2007 Australian Open finalist, due to an array of injuries hounding him, has fallen in the rankings outside of the ATP's Top 250. To be sure, his ferocious forehand has long been a thing of wonder:

Now Fernando is being feted left and right on Twitter and on tennis sites and forums. Our own Ed McGrogan saluted him even today in his always very good First Serve column.

Maybe I'm a naysayer—a realist, I like to think—but I don't quite get it. In all of these tributes to Gonzo, I still think first and foremost of how he screwed over James Blake at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This fact seems to have been white-washed from his record.

JB was right to call shenanigans then: Losing that Olympic match 11-9 in the third set cost him the assurance of the medal stand. But it was hardly the only point that mattered. Still, sure would like to get Blake's take on this today, in light of Gonzo's impending retirement and the American's own ongoing injury woes. Maybe he has a new perspective on it. And maybe I do too, even as I write this.

Meanwhile, the beefs between players of today just don't stack up the same. They are tame. Case in point: the latest Radwanska vs. Azarenka would-be feud, one-sided and lacking. Still, that dramatic match did lead to one of the "best" recent cold shakes at the net in some time, let alone one between two who were friends to date.

In the end, one incident probably should not define any one player's career, whether Serena Williams or Victoria Azarenka, Gonzalez or Liezel Huber. It's the repeated run-ins and patterns that add up.

Your turn: Will you remember Gonzo more for his fearsome forehand or for his allegedly false testimony? Was that Olympic matter a big deal?

—Jonathan Scott (Follow me on Twitter @jonscott9.)