This week I'm discussing the 2006 season, and looking forward to 2007, with ex-pro and expert analyst Hank Moravec (also known as Dunlop Maxply here and at Tennis World).
Hank,
Well, it seems that Lamar Hunt and the WCT had the answers to our problems two decades ago. Why didn’t anyone mention this secret before yesterday? It comes as a bit of a shock to me that the WCT is so mourned today. But that’s because I came to the tour late, in its fading, early-80s incarnation. My main memories of WCT events were the loud, dull thud the ball made on that rubberized court in cavernous, quiet arenas; Ivan Lendl cashing in on the then-lucrative $100,000 winners’ checks against largely second-tier competition (was that how he built such an amazing record in 1982?); and one funny incident between Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase (I think it was WCT, anyway, but it may have been an exhibition; funny nevertheless). Borg tuned up an aged and lumbering Nasty in the first set. In the second set, Nastase decided that every time he won a point he would stop and stare, mock-menacingly, at Borg’s coach, Lennart Bergelin, who was in the second row (and who, like Borg, was a famously poker-faced). The crowd loved it, and Borg himself cracked up, which was pretty much unprecedented. Nastase even got on a little roll doing it, until Borg got back to business.
Despite its eventual demise, the simple logic of WCT does seem inescapable: Give each tournament a stake in the other events’ success; select a limited number of recognizable, top-quality players; and get them out there for singles and dubs. Even the indoor courts made sense; sitting in sweltering conditions from Key Biscayne to Flushing Meadows to Cincinnati and beyond, I’ve often thought how much more spectator-friendly—despite the thudding echo of the ball—indoor tennis is. What’s depressing now is realizing that, as you said, each tournament has almost no stake in the success of any other. Looking at it that way, I’m amazed that tennis is as popular as it currently is.
Of course, even WCT itself was only halfway to the best answer for tennis: turning it into a team sport (while keeping the Slams, of course). Billie Jean King had the right concept in the 70s; it’s too bad she tried to change the sport so radically. World Team Tennis has never had the gravitas, the seriousness, the class that attracts tennis fans in the first place, and which make the Slams such grand events. But there’s no doubt that team tennis in some form would take a lot of pressure off the sport. We would never have to worry about whether a match was well-played, whether the game was “in decline,” or whether baseline tennis is more entertaining than serve-and-volley. We could just root for our team, like normal sports fans.
Speaking of baseline versus net play, I think we’re in agreement that more volleying and touch would be welcome to in today’s game, and that one way to do it would be to force everyone to play doubles. As I mentioned before, a senior player I met in New Orleans recommended making doubles points count toward singles rankings. My first thought was, “Man, what century is this guy living in?” (The 20th, I guess). But now I’ve come around to the idea, at least as a theory. I guess that’s because no matter how much TV coverage of doubles there is, I don't think I would get engaged unless the game’s great players and personalities were out there taking it seriously. I want Roger Federer, not Nenad Zimonjic (apologies in advance to the Zimonjic fan club). The Bryan brothers strike me as an anomaly among today's teams. I don’t love their games, but as twins they have the benefit of seeming like an act as much as a team, which get fans involved and makes them easier to market than say, that dynamic Canadian/Bahamian duo, Knowles and Nestor. (Now that I mention those two guys (as well as Zimonjic), what’s up with doubles specialists having such hot wives? We shouldn’t feel too bad for them, really.)
One racquet-tech story I have to mention: A few years ago a guy at my club pulled out an old wood frame (Davis, I think; the thing’s like a work of art it feels so solid). He tried it for a few weeks and realized he had to change his game. He was getting less topspin but he hit a heavier ball, so he started hitting flatter, using less backswing, and coming in more. His serve was also heavier, but he couldn’t kick it easily. By the end of a month or so he said he was having the same results against his opponents that he had always had, he just played a different style against them. I think he may have even won the club championship with it (I wonder what the reaction was from his opponents!). He’s gone back to a modern racquet but still gets out the wood now and then.
Not that that proves anything at all. It’s just interesting to me that he was no worse with a wood racquet.
Back to the pros. I don’t want to sound dire about today’s game. This season may end up being part of another evolution in the sport, from baseline play toward all-court skill. Think back just a few years, to when the game was dominated by Lindsay Davenport, the Williams sisters, and Lleyton Hewitt—you might say that was a pretty dire time, from a style standpoint. But as you said earlier, Hank, we’ve now got all-courters Henin-Hardenne, Mauresmo, and Federer, as well as guys like Nadal and Davydenko who do about as much with the baseline game as a fan could ask. And the new generation I mentioned earlier, which includes Gasquet, Baghdatis, Djokovic, Monfils, and Murray, is hardly a group of cookie-cutter grinders.
Two end-of-season semifinal matches stick out for me. They were displays of what the sport could offer on the right night in 2006. Clijsters vs. Mauresmo in Madrid was a wild mash-up of high-flying movement, all-out baseline power, and acrobatic net forays. Federer vs. Nadal in Shanghai was simply baseline shot-making at its most intense, and as dramatic as anything Borg and McEnroe put together in the glory days. Both of these matches came at WCT-style, big-money, big-name, indoor round-robin events. Lamar Hunt should have been proud.
Any last thoughts, Hank? I’ll be back with a 10 most memorable moments of '06 list to finish.
Steve