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Serena seems invincible Posted: Monday March 31, 2003 2:06 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question. KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Wrapping up Key Biscayne ... Remember the name Andre Agassi, who beat Carlos Moya to win the NASDAQ-100. We're thinking the kid has a real future in this sport. Lots of moxie and some nifty strokes from the backcourt. Again, the name is Agassi. He's from Vegas, too, so you know he has some entertainer in him. ... Seriously, Agassi captured his tournament-record sixth title, surpassing wife Stefanie Graf's five. ... He has also won three straight times at Key Biscayne. ... Serena Williams took the women's title, beating Jennifer Capriati in the final. ... In doubles, Roger Federer (who should have beaten Albert Costa in the quarters) teamed with Max Mirnyi to defeat Leander Paes and David Rikl. In the women's finale, Liezel Huber and Maggie Maleeva beat the surprise team of Nana Miyagi and Shinobu Asagoe. ... The WTA Tour officially announced Larry Scott as the new CEO. For more on this and other ruminations, click here. ... Another name to remember is Marion Bartoli of France, who made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Williams. First, you have to respect anyone who returns Serena's first serve from well inside the baseline (and breaks her three times!). Bartoli plays fanciful tennis and has a Martina Hingisian knack for wrong-footing her opponent or unfurling a drop mid-rally. She is full of life and endearing remarks in the interview room. Plus, her dad is rumored to make Richard Williams look more wooden than Al Gore. What more could you want in a player? ... Next time you hear Agassi referred to as the "ageless wonder," bear in mind that Martina Navratilova added to her successful 2003 last week by teaming with Svetlana Kuznetsova to beat the world's No. 1 doubles team of Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual. See Navratilova play while you can, but don't expect a novelty act. She is as intense as ever and is neither given nor wants any special dispensation just because she is usually older than the combined age of her two opponents. ... Who would have thought that Martina N. would be playing longer than Martina H.? ... Capriati showed a remarkable lack of sensitivity and taste by requesting that the Outkast song Bombs Over Baghdad be played over the P.A. system as she walked onto the court. More galling is that tournament officials, her IMG "brain"trust and WTA Tour handlers continue to act as enablers for such nonsense. ... On other hand, Capriati's play last week was superb. She might be the best fighter in tennis this side of Lleyton Hewitt, and you know her conditioning work is going well when, after three sets, she looked fresher than the indefatigable Meghann Shaughnessy. The Capster fell short against Serena in the final, but she has to walk away from this event suddenly feeling pretty good about the state of her game. ... Kim Clijsters was overwhelmed by Serena in the semis, but keep an eye on Clijsters' ranking. A stats savant made a good point to me: If Clijsters plays -- and does well -- in 20 events this year and Serena only plays her usual 12, Clijsters conceivably could finish the season ranked No. 1, even if Serena owns her head-to-head. Already Clijsters is set to move ahead of Venus next week. ... Back to Shaughnessy: Yet another nice week for her, beating Venus in a wildly entertaining night match and then falling to Capriati in a hard-fought quarterfinal. Daniela Hantuchova ought to draw inspiration from the fact that Shaughnessy put on 15 pounds of muscle without compromising her movement. ... The ATP board of directors voted unanimously to extend the contract of ATP chief executive officer Mark Miles through 2005. Considering the fate of men's tennis over the past few years, that Miles still has the unanimous support of his board speaks volumes. Whether it speaks volumes about Miles' estimable political skills and trust or about a peculiar level of consensus for a board whose members represent different constituents, is open to interpretation. ... Because Key Biscayne precedes the next round of Davis Cup, the men's doubles draw here is always loaded. But let's also give some credit to the ATP for its doubles changes. When players such as Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer all enter the doubles draw, everybody wins. ... Speaking of credit, the USTA deserves a lot for the success of the Jim Courieresque Robby Ginepri; the organization is footing the bill for Ginepri's coach, former doubles standout Steve DeVries. When you're 19 and trolling for points (and cash) on the Challenger circuit, having an experienced coach alongside to scout the opposition, critique your play and inflate your confidence is invaluable. ... Jelena Dokic put together a decent tournament for the first time in 2003, reaching the quarters. Still, her 6-2, 6-0 loss to Clijsters carried the pungent odor of a tank job. ... The U.S. named its team for a well-publicized Fed Cup dustup the last weekend of April. Venus and Serena Williams will be joined by Shaughnessy and fan favorite Alexandra Stevenson. ... Looks like Fed Cup will be Venus' only appearance in the U.S. until the California hard-court leg in late July. ... Back to Dokic: Her game may be tailing off, but she has officially arrived as a public figure. Why? Her name was the answer to a clue in last Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle. Onward ... In the past you said that no player before or since possessed Steffi Graf's air of invincibility. Seeing Serena Williams today, do you still feel that way? I don't think many players out there go into a match against Williams really expecting to win.
This goes under the heading of Check Back in Six Months and Then We'll Really Talk, but right now Serena most certainly does have an "air of invincibility." What makes this run (17-0 in 2003) especially scary is that she has yet to play her best tennis. She still makes bucketloads of unforced errors, serves erratically and looks sloppy at the net. She says she hasn't been to the gym in a month. She has a million side projects -- not all of them are to be taken seriously, of course, but still. Yet she's still running roughshod over the field. Clijsters had Serena on the ropes in Australia but offered scant resistance the other day in Miami. Venus and Capriati can both hang with Serena but need to get over a mental block. Hantuchova, Justine Henin-Hardenne and even Monica Seles simply lack the firepower. Will Serena ever lose this year? Odds are the answer is yes. I picture a windy day on clay, Conchita Martinez (last year it was Patty Schnyder) on the other side of the net. Or a scalding hot day when Serena is feeling less than 100 percent and Chanda Rubin or Shaughnessy is swinging away. But that's just speculating. Serena is head and shoulders above the field, and, as you note, until players authentically believe they can beat her, she'll keep rolling. One interesting footnote: If Serena runs the table in 2003 and goes undefeated, it will be a record year. But if she loses just one match, she won't be able to claim the best winning percentage in WTA Tour history. Navratilova went 86-1 in 1983, and there's no way Serena is playing 87 matches this year. Any thoughts on how far Robby Ginepri can go? Is he top-20 material? Top 10? Growing up in Andy Roddick's shadow, Ginepri didn't really receive that much attention until Indian Wells and now Miami. I think he has a great game and I enjoy watching him play. While he doesn't seem as explosive as Roddick, he appears to have more variety in his game -- and at such a young age.
Ginepri was always an afterthought in these "next class of Americans" conversations, but after reaching two straight Masters Series quarters, the guy suddenly has real currency. (Full disclosure: I did a small piece on Ginepri for this week's Sports Illustrated.) Two solid tournaments does not a superstar make, but I think the sudden surge of optimism is well deserved. He does nothing exceptionally but everything proficiently. He's well coached, he can play on different surfaces, he probably competes better than any of the other young Americans, and he's still just a pup (20). The comparison to Courier fits, to a point. Ginepri showed last week that he can grind out matches, he's comfortable swinging away from the baseline, and he's a hard worker on and off the court. (Undersized players should look at what weight training has done for his game and how a pair of linebacker shoulders can mask a 5-foot-11 frame.) How far can he go? I'm not sure he has the bread-and-butter weapon to be a top-10 player. Top 20? Why not? Check out his current place in the Champions Race and figure that a few more good tournaments ought to make him a lock for the top 50 in this, his first season on tour full time. Particularly since James Blake has stagnated a bit and Taylor Dent is still too inconsistent with his results, Ginepri is bounding to the head of the class among the young Americans. When is Lindsay Davenport going to turn the corner and reclaim her rightful No. 3 spot in the Big Babe Brigade (behind the Williams sisters)? Will she ever consistently beat Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne, etc., again or have the others passed her by while she recovered from her injury? I hope her latest setback isn't a sign of things to come.
Davenport was remarkably upbeat after her thigh injury against Bartoli in Key Biscayne. In so many words, she pronounced it "one of those things" and didn't foresee it sidelining her for more than a few weeks. So that's a good sign all around. It's hard to know what to make of Davenport. That she was able to miss a good chunk of 2002 and still qualify for the year-end championships tells you something about the state of her game -- at least relative to the rest of the field. But the fact remains that she hasn't really gotten her vibe back since her return. She has let big leads slip, failed to close out tight matches, split with two coaches and generally been off. I think Clijsters is the rightful No. 3 (and again, barring the unexpected she will soon inherit the No. 2 spot from Venus), but I would agree that, at her best, Davenport is a rightful top-five player. The question is when -- particularly since the clay season is upon us -- she can get back in the groove? With the clay season on the horizon, do you think that top Americans will be making long international trips to events such as Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg if the war in Iraq continues to raise concerns about safety overseas? I would expect guys like Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and James Blake to play in Houston, but I am worried that we might not see them again until the French Open. What are your thoughts on this?
Few, if any, Americans play all three European biggies anyway. It's just too long to be away from home. Davenport has been saying this for weeks, and she is probably right: Spend four weeks living out of a suitcase in Europe, and by the time the French Open rolls around you're running on fumes. Of course, try telling this to Hewitt, who will routinely go for five or six months without sleeping in his own bed. For better or worse (and I would say the former), most players aren't amending their travel plans because of the war or because of safety concerns. Roddick and Agassi aren't likely to play all three European events -- but the reasons are strictly tennis-related. On the other hand, a number of these young Americans who have been surging of late (Ginepri, Dent, Mardy Fish, Vince Spadea and even Brian Vahaly) may well receive some "automatic ins" and pop up in some draws. The idea of a French Open boycott has me wondering: Does an international federation like the USTA have the authority to pull all Americans out of an event for any reason, political or otherwise? Has this ever happened before? Would players have to comply? I know the USTA pulled the American women out of Fed Cup in 2001 because of security reasons, but I'm not sure if that was the same as pulling them all out of an individual event like a Grand Slam. (For the record, I do think that a boycott, especially for political, non-tennis reasons, is plain stupid).
I don't know how the USTA would have any jurisdiction over a player's individual decision re: tour events or Slams. The USTA could obviously elect not to field or send a Fed Cup or Davis Cup team, but it simply has no authority over a player -- who, more likely than not, has no affiliation with or loyalty to the organization anyway. In other countries where the federations are much more involved with pro players and subsidize travel, etc., then it's a different story. Where in the world is Tommy Haas? Waldo is easier to find. Any news on when he will be returning to the tour?
He hasn't been the same since that underwater match against Philippoussis, has he? First Tiger Woods' girlfriend collapses from food poisoning at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando. Then Tiger goes on to win the tournament by 11 strokes despite complaining about food poisoning from "bad pasta." Now we find out that Kim Clijsters has withdrawn from the NASDAQ-100 doubles in Miami, also because of a stomach ailment. Before that, Lleyton Hewitt lost to the oldest player on tour. How can we not assume that a madman is running around Florida serving up tainted spaghetti?
And don't forget Serena, who nearly dropped her first match in Key Biscayne because she was sick. This, after a half-dozen players suffered food poisoning in Indian Wells. If I'm a professional athlete, I'm thinking seriously about bringing a crock pot to my hotel room and cooking my own meals. Dr. LouThought I would pass along this update on Lou Noritz: I sat right behind him on the Grandstand court at the NASDAQ-100 for two nights. He was in fine form, cracking up the people around him with his remarks to the players. Contrary to what I had heard previously, he does not root for one player; he roots for both. Noritz carries a big bag full of flags. After every game Nicolas Lapentti won, Noritz stood up and unfurled the Ecuadorian flag. After each game Wayne Ferreira won, it was the South African colors. What's most surprising is that although Noritz wore a credential that read "Player Guest: Kafelnikov," he rooted for Paradorn Srichaphan as much as for Yevgeny Kafelnikov when the two played. Noritz even urged Srichaphan to gut out his leg cramps. "Get through this game and you'll be OK," he told Srichaphan at one point. At another point he told him, "Mind over matter, mind over matter." Turned out Noritz was right.
Worst tennis-related productsFeel free to send all your old ball pressurizers my way. I had one when I was 14, and after it cracked I couldn't find another. The secret is they only work if you play on clay courts (or grass, I suppose). On hard courts the felt wears off before the balls go flat. I used to get eight to 10 sets on clay from one can of balls if I kept them in the pressurizer. Now if only I could get similar results from my Ab-Roller ...
On the topic of bad tennis ideas, I seem to recall a company by the name of Mad Raq in the late '80s/early '90s that decided the classic string pattern didn't work and strung its rackets obliquely. Instead of horizontal and vertical, the strings were at 45 and 135 degrees. I think the company lasted about a year. On another note, I had the Tretorn Trainer when I was a kid and loved it. The problem was not so much the ball as the flimsy rubber cord attached to it, which would snap after an hour or so.
Wilson HyperHammer 4.3 with Powerholes: The Powerholes made the strings move back and forth after every hit, created a huge vibration, broke strings more often and reduced your control.
C'mon! The TournaGrip headband combined with a mullet and one of the hot-pink Andre Agassi getups. That was worth a couple games right there. Bad gimmicks: Christmas-colored tennis balls. Playing indoors with the green and red one was a death wish; it was virtually invisible. The racket with the dual string beds. Two sets of strings, and the people that used them were the most likely to frame the ball. The Tencap handicapping system. Why?
Towel Overgrip. Kept your hands, forehead and neck dry (picture yourself drying off with the butt of your racket) ... and increased your grip three sizes.
Long Lost Siblings*Todd Martin and singer Mary J. Blige.
Anna Kournikova and actress Kathy Bates.
Michael Chang and Els Callens.
(*April Fools' edition) Have a good week, everyone! Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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