Here's an item Kate will appreciate, because the subject is another Texan, and the New Yorker guys might also enjoy because (or in spite of the fact that) it's a little like one of those front-of-the-book, Talk of the Town pieces that have become no less a trademark of the New Yorker than that oppressor- class dude with the top hat and monocle.
Anyway, almost all of you know that Sam Querrey this summer whacked 10 consecutive aces, sending the ATP's go-to stats guy, Greg Sharko, scrambling to find out if this was, in fact, a new record. The result of that search was inconclusive, although it's certainly the most consecutive aces hit sincre the ATP and ITF began tracking such things. At the time, various names were tossed out as players who might have equaled Querrey's feat, including John Newcombe, Slobodan Zivojinovic, Mark Edmondson, Roscoe Tanner and Kevin Curren or his long-time doubles partner, Steve Denton.
My own "best bet" in that regard was Denton, the Texas Ace Machine who battled McEnroe and Connors in his heyday on the tour in the early 1980s. I happened to run into Denton just the other day in the player lounge here at the USTABJKNTC; he was having lunch with another guy who knew a thing or two about hitting The Great Unreturnable, Peter Fleming.
Steve is now coaching the Texas A&M tennis team, and he was dressed in his finest Aggie maroon-and-white (Texas Kate is an Aggie as well). He told me the story of the time he hit 13 aces in a row (well, 12 for sure) in a doubles match in 1982, at the Stockholm Open (an event that remains a staple on the fall, European indoor circuit).
Denton would be inclined to remember, because 1982 was the high-water mark of his career. Coming into the U.S. Open, he explained, he had beaten John McEnroe in the semifinals at Cincinnati, and was in turn beaten by Ivan Lendl (who had beaten Jimmy Connors in the Cincy semis, by an improbable score of 6-0,6-0). At the Open, Denton recalled, he had Guillermo Vilas by two sets to none but let him slip away. Still, Denton won the U.S. doubles (with Curren), beating the Gullikson twins in the semis and Hank Pfister and Victor Amaya in the finals. That final, BTW, may have represented the most service firepower ever assembled on a court for one match.
Anyway, riding high as recently crowned U.S. Open doubles champs, Denton and Curren were a tough assignment for anyone on the fast courts of Stockholm's Kunglia hall. Shortly before they played their quarterfinal match against doubles icon Frew McMillen and Sandy Mayer, Denton's coach, Warren Jacques, took away his Prince Woody racket and shoved one of those new graphite models in his hand, suggesting he play with it instead.
Denton shrugged; if coach says so. . .
Denton served first in the match, and he clobbered four aces ("Not bad," he thought, appreciating the new racket). In his next service game - the fifth - Denton served four more No See Ums. Hmmmm. . . Of course, this wasn't exactly uncharted territory for Denton, who, despite his bulk (he was a good 6-2 and broad at the shoulders), looked a bit like leaping fish flicking its tail as he delivered that hard one. On more than one occasion, Denton found himself down, love-40, and ended up serving five consecutive aces. Demoralized much?
With a break in hand, it was up to Denton to serve out the match. He hammered out three aces, for a 40-love lead and set point, at which point his partner Curren shrugged and went to sit down in his chair (back in those days, players still did those kind of things). Meanwhile, McMillen and Mayer flooded the zone, trying to unnerve Denton by placing one man inside the service box. The ploy failed. Denton whistled another ace past his opponents.
By the time Denton hit his last ace of the set (thereby having played an entire set without having allowed his opponents to so much as touch a ball on his service games), the Swedish crowd were aware that something unusual was in progress. So they started that slow, staccato clapping. "I think the King of Sweden was even there that night," Denton said."But I don't know if he took part in that clapping thing they do."
Naturally, Denton was given the ball to serve first in the next set. And this is where he gets a little uncertain about the details. He believes he hit another ace, bringing the total to 13, but is not sure. What he does remember clearly, he says, is how the ace streak ended. He hit a fault and, in a desperate attempt to keep the string going, he went for too much on a second serve. And there it ended.
"It was just one of those freak days," Denton said. "If you put a dime down on the court, I could have hit it for you. I could never do that again in a million years."
I jokingly asked if, with all the recent attention on John Isner, Denton was at all tempted to try a comeback. He replied: "Nah. I've put away my gun for good. But hopefully, one day I'll come and see one of my (Aggie) boys play here."
