 |
| |
|
 |
 |
Finishing first Season-long consistency is more important than SlamsPosted: Monday November 04, 2002 3:40 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question. A light load of questions this week. If the mail call doesn't improve, maybe we should make like the pros and give it a rest until January. Your call. A quick note to our L.A. readers: Support women's tennis. Good seats are still available for the WTA Championships at the Staples Center this week. On to the questions ... When Lindsay Davenport finished 2001 ranked No. 1 even though she didn't win a Grand Slam title, it was considered controversial. Now Andre Agassi might win the Champions Race even though he didn't win a Slam this year. Do you think people will be upset, and do you think both tours need to rethink their systems?
Well, first of all, it doesn't look like Agassi will finish first. I've been working on a horse racing story for the magazine this week and am up to my eyeballs in combinations, permutations and statistical probability. But let's just say that Agassi is facing Powerball odds. Even if he runs the table at the Masters Cup, he needs Lleyton Hewitt to lose early and often in order to finish the year at No. 1. Anyway, the casual fan would indeed be confused if Agassi finished ahead of Hewitt, just as heads were scratched when the Slam-less Davenport finished 2001 ahead of Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams. But the ATP would love such an inverted finish. This would reconfirm that the Slams aren't all-powerful and that the Masters Series events as well as all the San Joses and Houstons along the way really matter. If simply winning Slams assured a player of the top ranking it would greatly undercut the equity of the tour. Why bother to play the rank-and-file tournaments when their impact on your ranking is negligible? That a player like Agassi can win three Masters Series events, reach the U.S. Open final, generally play a full schedule and be in contention for the year-end No. 1 is a vote of confidence for the ATP Tour. Aside: if we're looking at ranking anomalies, try this: Marat Safin is currently third in the Champions Race and he won his first tournament of the year Sunday. Speaking of Safin ... I watched Marat Safin take apart Lleyton Hewitt Sunday. He was amazing! Power and accuracy (and it doesn't hurt that he is cute). Do you think he can win the Masters Cup, and will he finally play up to his potential in 2003?
It's always the same prognosis with Safin. To borrow from Basement Jaxx: "Where's Your Head At?" If he's concentrating and not letting his emotions carry the day, he is as good as anyone. When the spirit isn't willing, he's not a top-50 player. Speaking of temperamental Russians ... It was touching to see Yevgeny Kafelnikov donate some of his prize money to the families of the victims of the Moscow theater tragedy. What other players are noted for being generous and donating a lot of their time, effort and money to noble causes?
I didn't see that Kafelnikov had done that, but good for him if it's true. Speaking of the Y-Man, he's holding firm on his promise that he'll retire if Russia wins the Davis Cup. Anyway, for all the examples of tennis players behaving like selfish brats, there are an equal number of examples of their generosity. The hands-down winner is Agassi, who through his foundation recently founded a prep school for 200 underprivileged kids in Las Vegas. This isn't one of those Sammy Sosa foundations that exists to give family members cushy jobs and hold a big tax-write-off bash. Last month Agassi held a Hollywood-A-list fundraiser that brought in something like $6 million, and he has put millions of his own into the pot. Other tennis players are exceedingly generous with their time. A WTA rep told me that Kim Clijsters has been known to arrive at a tournament and ask in advance if any trips are scheduled to the local children's hospital. Many carry out small acts of kindness -- Andy Roddick discreetly giving a fat tip to the Cincinnati locker-room attendants, Amelie Mauresmo handing her racket to an autograph hound in Montreal -- that won't change the world, but still bespeak kindness and compassion. While watching the World Series, my husband and I wondered how someone like Andre Agassi, who sees the tennis ball so well, might do in baseball? Would he be able to hit home run after home run?
My suspicion is that if you can return a fellow pro's serve -- not just a 125-mph missile, but a kick serve laced with all kinds of English -- you can probably get a pretty good read on big-league pitching. But there's a big difference between trying to place a ball back in a tennis court and trying to hit it 350-400 feet. I doubt that tennis players have the strength to hit a baseball out of the park, much less "hit home run after home run." When the ATP wends through Cincinnati, a few guys (Jim Courier, Roddick) have been known to take batting practice. It would be interesting to know if any have ever gone yard. You wondered whether Amelie Mauresmo, out injured, would risk a fine rather than go to the WTA Championships and schmooze (per persnickety WTA rules); my question is, has this rule EVER managed to convince an injured or otherwise occupied player to actually attend? Of course the WTA wants to ensure a strong field for its tour championships, and of course it wants the tour promoted. But why on earth does the WTA set up rules it cannot or will not enforce? And then to expect the players or the public to take any of its rules seriously?
I suspect that this rule has never been enforced and will never be enforced. Is Octagon, which ostensibly runs the WTA Championships, really going to pressure the tour to fine Mauresmo -- currently the agency's highest-ranked female client -- if she doesn't show up? My guess is the fine exists as a way to stress to players just how important this event is to the health of the tour. This is very much the WTA Tour's crown jewel, both in terms of revenue and exposure. It is the lone women's-only event that guarantees the top players and where potential sponsors and television partners can really take stock of the product. In the past, when players like the Williams sisters have played hooky, it hasn't looked good for the tour. Threatening a fine is a way to try to avoid that. Why do you think Jennifer Capriati is so opposed to getting some of the specialized coaching that her father does not appear qualified to do? Why do other pros find it easy to realize the need for specialized help?
A few weeks ago one of you sent in a question (which, alas, I didn't get around to answering) asking me to name the best coach in tennis. The fact is for most players a coach's tactical expertise and knowledge of mechanics matters much less than his/her personality. Above all, the player wants someone with whom he/she feels comfortable; tennis is such a mental game that a coach's ability to motivate and to play dimestore shrink is most important. Just look at Pete Sampras. The mantra of Capriati, since you brought up her name, is "no one knows my game better than my father." Translation: No one knows me better than my dad. Many players will never admit that they need specialized help. Those who do figure they can just employ a rent-a-pro at Saddlebrook and visit a Landsdorpian guru from time-to-time for a refresher. Did you catch Serena Williams' acting debut on My Wife and Kids? She was actually pretty good for a novice. She could have a career in acting after all. Have there been any former pro players who've made a successful transition to acting? I can only think of Bors Kodjoe from Soul Food, a former top German tennis player.
Let's see ... Roddick made an admittedly forgettable appearance on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Fernando Gonzalez was wonderful as the bad guy drug kingpin in Traffic. The oeuvre of former pro Vince Van Patten includes classics like Rooster: Sours of Death!, Hell Night, Gidget's Summer Reunion, as well as spots on Baywatch and The Young and the Restless. Long Lost SiblingsBarbara Schett and Patricia Arquette, especially when smiling.
Andy Roddick and Los Angeles Kings left wing Adam Deadmarsh. Adam is definitely Andy's Canadian twin!
James Blake and Sideshow Bob.
Have a good week, everyone! Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
