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Kafelnikov left us wanting more Posted: Monday December 02, 2002 2:16 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question. The format is blissfully simple. Players from two countries play four singles matches, sandwiched around an all-important doubles match. First country to win three matches advances. Easy enough. And yet, without fail, the Davis Cup furnishes enough drama, intrigue, backstories and passion plays to warrant an HBO miniseries. Last weekend was no exception. Russia faced a 2-1 deficit against defending champ France, mostly because Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who announced he would retire if Russia won, looked as though he already had checked out. Marat Safin, impervious to the weight of the occasion, played exquisitely and beat Sebastien Grosjean to tie the tie, as it were, 2-2. Before the money match, the Russian braintrust decided that 20-year-old Mikhail Youzhny, still shaken by the recent death of his father, would replace Kafelnikov. ("I sent my ego back to Siberia," Kafelnikov said afterward.) Down two sets to Paul-Henri Mathieu, Youzhny turned the match around and won in five sets, giving Russia the Cup. David Chase, we understand, has requested tapes of the matches. ... Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has become the publisher of Germany's Tennis Magazin. ... Chris Powell of Toronto forwarded this item from People: "Tennis pros and Hollywood celebs have combined for some memorable love matches: John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal, Pete Sampras and Bridgette Wilson. Now you can add American ace Andy Roddick and pop singer-actress Mandy Moore to the list. The new couple met last July in Toronto, where Moore was shooting How to Deal and Roddick was playing in an ATP event. The matchmaker? Moore's mom, Stacy, a tennis fan who invited Roddick to the movie's set. ... Mandy and Andy hit it off right away and started dating in August, when Moore came to New York City to see Roddick play in the U.S. Open." ... I'm not at liberty to say more at the time, but suffice to say that tennis fans will want to pick up the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in February. ... Check out the entry list for the Adidas International, the Aussie Open tuneup in Sydney: Jennifer Capriati, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Amelie Mauresmo, Daniela Hantuchova, Lindsay Davenport, Anastasia Myskina and Anna Kournikova. ... New York-area readers: Justin Gimelstob -- "good peoples," as we say in Indiana -- is holding his fourth annual tennis classic, on Sunday, Dec. 15, at Center Court in Chatham, N.J. The event will benefit the Saint Barnabas Medical Center pediatric department's Child Life Program. The day will include a variety of events, highlighted by exhibition matches between the likes of James Blake, Gimelstob, Ashley Harkleroad, Lisa Raymond, Pat McEnroe, Paul Goldstein and Luke and Murphy Jensen. For more info, click here. Onward ... Although he did not live up to his promise as being the heir to Pete Sampras' throne, Yevgeny Kafelnikov has had a great career. But for all his achievements -- 26 titles, including two Grand Slams, and an Olympic gold medal -- he has always received little publicity in comparison to other top pros. Could you put the Y-Man's career into perspective now that he plans to retire?
First off, not so fast, Cindy. As of Monday, the Y-Man was backing off his claim. He had vowed to retire if he led Russia to the Davis Cup. In a bit of Clintonian phrase-parsing, he is now saying that since he didn't technically lead Russia to victory, he may still play in 2003. However, my hunch is that -- particularly given his desultory performance last weekend, in which he was decidedly off -- he'll come to the realization that it's curtains time. So what is Kafelnikov's epitaph? It really depends on how harshly you want to judge him. The charitable answer goes something like this: Say what you will about his erratic play and his reputation for tanking, the guy's record speaks for itself. Two Slams, an Olympic gold, a handful of smaller titles, a brief stint atop the rankings, and now a Davis Cup. Those are Hall of Fame credentials and a résumé that 99 percent of the players on tour would kill for. End of discussion. As for the flip side, I was discussing Kafelnikov with a prominent tennis writer who is not a fan. He points out that when Kafelnikov won the French Open in 1996, he beat Sampras in the semifinals on a hot day and then Michael Stich -- no one's clay-court specialist -- in the final. In the 1999 Australian Open Kafelnikov beat a lackluster Thomas Enqvist in the final, and he struck gold at the Olympics without Sampras and Andre Agassi in the field. "You don't think of him as a guy who won many gutsy matches," said the scribe. "And for all his talent, two Grand Slams is modest." I'll take the safe middle. Sort of. Yes, Kafelnikov is Hall of Fame-bound and his career compares favorably with other contemporaries not named Pete or Andre. And for all the talk of his sour disposition, his fighting for full custody of his daughter says more about his character than a cutesy soundbite. But there is a nagging, inescapable sense that he never "laid it on the line," as they say. If he was on that particular day, he'd win. If not, he'd lose, no matter how inferior the opponent. His stint at No. 1 was an embarrassment -- a string of opening-round losses to powerhouses like Markus Hantschk and Ivan Ljubicic -- that may have been the final straw in doing away with the 52-week rankings. Plus, his near-pathological pursuit of prize money and appearance fees ended up cutting short his career. The guy is only 28, but when you play 30-plus events year in and year out, it exacts a price. This is a reach, but I feel about Kafelnikov the way I feel about the new Harry Potter movie. Objectively, it's hard to carp too much, and certainly nothing was wrong with it. But with so much potential and promise, it was hard not to feel a little deflated when the ride ended. I noticed at the WTA Tour Championships that officials didn't refer to it as the "Sanex WTA Tour." What is the deal with the sponsorship of women's tennis?
Sanex washed out as the title sponsor. Or, to use the press-release anodyne, the company "readjusted" its level of support. A few companies like Porsche signed on as secondary sponsors, but starting Jan. 1 the tour will lack a big corporate backer. At some level, this isn't surprising. Aside from the brutal economic climate, it's a tough business selling a worldwide tour. Did Sanex really get much bang for its euros in the U.S. market? On the other hand, title sponsorship comes relatively cheap, $5 million a year or so. If the tour were willing to accept it, I wouldn't be surprised if some wealthy tennis junkie didn't emerge to pick up the tab. (Hell, if the Eli Lilly heiress can give $100 million to a poetry magazine ...) Another option: The ATP and WTA merge, and that way tennis would only have to sell one sponsorship. More on this point next year. Whatever happened to Andrew Ilie? Last I heard he went through a personal tragedy in early 2002, hardly won a set through Wimbledon, barely a game in the Davis Cup, and then completely dropped off the map. Any news? Has he dropped down to Challenger events or has he just called it a day?
Linda Pearce, the excellent tennis writer for The (Melbourne) Age, recently wrote extensively about Ilie and his annus horribilis. Bottom line: When you lose your groove, tennis can send you into the most vicious of vicious cycles, a fate that befell Ilie. As he lost matches, he lost confidence. As he lost confidence, he lost matches. A flashy, fun-to-watch, top-50 player just two years ago, Ilie can barely see the top 100 in his rearview mirror. The good news: After taking some time to recover from injuries, reassess his career and read some Freud, he vows to continue playing. Thanks for your New York restaurant recommendations. But more important, can you recommend any New York-area tennis clubs? After three wonderful years of year-round outdoor tennis in San Francisco, we are moving back to New York in the near future. The USTA Web site is woefully inadequate at providing something as basic as a list of clubs in the area. The town we choose to live in (we're leaning toward Westchester) could very well be decided by the proximity of a good, reasonably priced tennis club. Any info or Web links you can provide would be appreciated.
For the most part, I only play in Manhattan. And while I am all too happy to plug my club -- let's give the proverbial shout out to the reasonably priced, pretension-less Columbus Racket Club on the Upper West Side -- it only has outdoor courts. If any of you in Westchester (or, presumably, the Connecticut 'burbs) have a recommendation for our friend Andrew, pass it on. I think you missed the point in your answer about Venus Williams' serve. Her flaw isn't the hitch (though this certainly doesn't help), it's overrotation in her shoulders. At impact her shoulders are rotated way past parallel to the baseline, and her head has pulled off the ball and is pointed to the ground. This is fine for flat serves (which explains her phenomenal speed), but not for topspin second serves. A good server will keep her right shoulder back longer so that her back and shoulder can work together to impart spin on the ball. With Venus, most everything is past the ball, leaving only her arm provide spin. If you watch carefully you'll notice that most of her double faults are into the net and to the left -- where her head is pointed. Also, pulling off the ball increases the chances of a framed shot, another common occurrence. Too often Venus' phenomenal power is used to defend her serve, but the fact is that her second-serve technique is one of the worst around.
Thanks for the analysis. Still, the reader asked me if Venus' serve was going to prevent her from gaining entrance into the legends' pantheon. If having a technically unsound stroke is hardly an indelible stain on a legacy, what are we to make of John McEnroe and that unsightly forehand? Since you cover my two favorite sports, tennis and basketball, I knew you would be the guy to answer this question. Who are the five best tennis players in the NBA? Also, who are the five best ballers in tennis? Are there even five guys in the NBA who would admit to playing tennis?
Off the top of my head, I know that Steve Nash has some game. Don't hold me to this, but I believe Christian Laettner played in high school. From the emeritus camp, Joe Dumars is quite good and plays frequently with Steve Campbell, a former pro. Former Pacer Billy Knight (the Memphis G.M. last year) was once ranked in Indiana in the men's division. The hands-down champion, of course, is Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas, who was a tennis All-America at Maryland and played World TeamTennis during the NBA offseason. Incidentally, Lucas' son, John III, the starting point guard for Baylor, once beat Roddick in the juniors (Lucas père said so, anyway). Which tennis players got skillz? Roddick played ball in high school (granted, when it comes to hoops, Boca Prep ain't exactly Baltimore Dunbar) and tallied a triple-double in an alumni game last winter. He claims he can dunk, too. I've heard that Sampras is pretty good, as is Todd Martin. I remember hearing that Tom Gullikson has a deadly outside shot. After that, I'm drawing blanks. Notice the aforementioned are all Americans. I have no idea if Lleyton Hewitt has ever played, but I suspect he has the makings of a mean point guard. Likewise, Safin recalls a trigger-happy, no-defense-playing shooting guard. Notice, too, that I included no women. The Williams sisters and Davenport both claim to have zero aptitude in basketball. Now that Melbourne Park's Court 1 is being named after tennis legend Margaret Court, will it be called Court Court?
Doug, you're stealing my jokes. I already had the identical line in the monologue. (Real answer: It will be christened Margaret Court Arena, also known as "The Maggie.") Long Lost SiblingsAlex Corretja and David Copperfield.
Kim Clijsters and Eric Christian Olsen (Not Another Teen Movie).
Chanda Rubin and Swin Cash of the WNBA's Detroit Shock.
This might be a little mean, but ... Thomas Johansson and Timmy from South Park.
Classic match tapesFinally, lots of responses to that burning question: "Where can I buy a tape of blankety-blank match?" Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in. Some of the responses: You can buy tennis matches on video (any format you wish) at www.tennistapes.com! They have a great variety and the tapes are very good quality!
I've been getting copies of classic matches for a couple of years from this site: http://www.videoarc.net. Basically, it's like a central repository for matches that were taped by individuals straight off the TV. Also, eBay always has a decent selection of the biggies, and the Wimbledon Collection -- which includes a handful of classic matches as well as yearly highlight reels -- can be found just about anywhere.
Check out this site: http://www.users.bigpond.com/tennisvideos1/
http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/andtapes/
This is the only place I know of: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2489/.
I have dealt with Sports Resources, a company based in the U.K. with tapes going back 30 years of every player, every match. Their tapes are available in both PAL (European) and North American format, prices are reasonable, service is prompt, and staff is polite and efficient. E-mail s.resourcesappleonline.net for its new Web site; the URL I have no longer works.
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.
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