Sampras' waffling is a shame

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question.

Once again we have His and Hers Players of the Week. For the men, Guillermo Coria, come on down. Slick Willy beat fellow Argentine Agustin Calleri 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the the Masters Series Hamburg title. This marks Coria's first Masters Series win as well the first time a player from Argentina triumphed in Hamburg. Then again, when it rains it pours: All four semifinalists were Gauchos (David Nalbandian and Gaston Gaudio were the other two), the first time four players from the same country have made the final four of a Masters Series event. ... As for the women, a loud Brava! for Kim Clijsters, who rebounded from her disappointment in Berlin to beat Amélie Mauresmo and win Rome. Clijsters was two points from losing, down 5-6 in the second set, before turning on the jets and finishing the match without dropping another game. ... Nice week, however, for Mauresmo, who beat Capriati (whom she has owned of late) and Serena Williams to reach the final. As she heads to Paris, it will be interesting to see what she takes away from Rome: two big-time, confidence-bolstering wins? Or the inability to serve out the final against Clijsters? ... In the Rome doubles final, Martina Navratilova and Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Jelena Dokic and Nadia Petrova 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win their third title this year. We'll say it again: The 46-year-old Navratilova is no novelty act. Right now she plays doubles as well as anyone on tour. ... Back in Hamburg, top seeds Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor beat second seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi 6-4, 7-6 (12-10) to win the doubles. ...

Mark McCormack, the founder of IMG and the pioneer in the sports marketing/management business, passed away last week at the age of 72. In lieu of flowers, McCormack's family requests that donations be made in his name to educational institutions and public services he supported: the Mark H. McCormack Memorial Fund at The College of William and Mary (c/o President Tim Sullivan, The College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795); the Mark H. McCormack Scholarship Fund at the House of Hope (c/o Founder and President's Office, 2036 36th Street, Orlando, FL 32839); or the McCormack Foundation (c/o Chris Pauletta, IMG Center, Suite 100, 1360 East 9th Street, Cleveland, OH 44114), through which the family plans to support other causes which were important to McCormack. ... It was somehow fitting that Pete Sampras was at the Staples Center, watching the Lakers' run come to an end, when he told reporters of his plans to sit out the French as well as Wimbledon. While he didn't go so far as to retire ("I am not ready to close the door quite yet on my career," he told ABC's Michele Tafoya), it's hard to imagine a 32-year-old -- even one as supremely gifted as Sampras -- taking such a long hiatus and then returning to play at a competitive level. ... To the delight of alum Lisa Raymond, the Florida Gators won the NCAA women's title on their home court, upsetting two-time defending champion Stanford 4-3 on Sunday. After an 84-minute lightning delay, Julie Rotondi won a 6-0, 7-5 decision at No. 2 singles to clinch the title. ... Alex Bogomolov Jr. beat Argentina's Mariano Delfino 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 on Saturday to win the Forest Hills Tennis Classic at the West Side Tennis Club. ...

Speaking of USTA events, for the second week in a row, in an effort to apply the defib paddle to a dying game, Anna Kournikova played a $25,000 Challenger. For the second week in a row, she fell deeper into despair. Two weeks ago in Sea Island, Ga., Kournikova abruptly withdrew with an, ahem, injury shortly before she was to take the court to play Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. Last week in Charlottesville, Va., she didn't get out of the first round, falling in three sets to a player ranked No. 384 in the world. Adding insult to (reputed) injury, during the match at the Boar's Head Sports Club, hecklers drove by blaring Enrique Iglesias tunes from their stereos. After the match, Kournikova's conqueror, the formidable Bruna Colosio, exclaimed that Kournikova's serve was so weak, "I could almost hit an overhead off of it." (As a rule of thumb, when you're a former top-10 player and you're getting dissed by the No.384-ranked player, it's generally not a good sign.) Afterward, Kournikova skipped out on the mandatory media session, earning her a whopping $250 fine. Lots of you wrote in trashing Anna, but I think we have to give her some credit for swallowing her considerable pride, admitting her game isn't WTA Tour-level right now and beating the bushes. (What adidas thinks of lavishing millions on a player who is performing at the Boar's Head Sports Club is, of course, another matter.) At the same time, something obviously has gone dreadfully wrong here and Kournikova's career clearly is at a dire crossroads.

Bob and Mike Bryan are no longer working with coach Craig Edwards after 2 1/2 years together. ... Melissa Errico (TC '92), the wife of U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, was nominated for a Tony Award on Monday for best actress in Amour. She and her husband were also on a recent episode of Naked New York, which appears on a Manhattan cable channel. ... Here's Monica Seles in a nutshell: In her first match in Rome she played a dog of a first set against Swiss teenager Myrian Casanova. Down set point, Seles looked on as Casanova served an ace to the corner of the ad-court. The ball had scarcely bounced before Seles was clapping her racket graciously in applause. Seles then sat down, took a deep breath and won the match in three sets. ... Speaking of Casanova, she doesn't -- how to put this? -- have a typical tennis build. But she hits a big ball, knows how to construct a point and moves surprisingly OK. Put her in the Players to Watch file. ... Back to Seles: She had to withdraw from Rome because of her chronic foot injury, calling into question whether she'll play Roland Garros. ... Just asking: Is there an over/under on how much longer Heinz Guenthardt will remain as Dokic's coach? ... Granted, this is a tired, shopworn issue that always surfaces (pardon the pun) this time of year. But is anyone at the USTA taking note of how the Yanks are faring on clay? By Tuesday afternoon, only three American-born women remained in the Rome draw: Capriati (who had yet to play her first match), Serena Williams (whose parents had the foresight to install a Har-Tru court at the family compound) and Laura Granville (if only because she had to play another American, Meghann Shaughnessy, in the first round). The men scarcely fared better in Hamburg. Clay-court tennis isn't going to fall out of vogue any time soon, and it sure would be nice if Americans were tutored on how to play on it. ... It's a small step, to be sure, but the ATP and WTA are issuing joint pocket schedules for events this summer, another indication that the two tours are improving their level of cooperation. ...

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Question time

On to a few questions before my laptop battery dies. Check in later this week for a French Open seed report ...

I'm not the biggest Pete Sampras fan, but I can appreciate what he has accomplished in the sport -- he is a living legend who will be remembered as such. However, I'm curious why the press pays so much attention to his absence from the tour? This is something I only find in tennis reporting, and my friends use this as explanation for why tennis is a "boring" sport.
—Ike Kiatoukaysi, New York

Trust me: We're as tired of writing about Sampras as you are of reading it. But when the greatest player of his generation -- of any generation, perhaps -- has been so patently and uncharacteristically coy about his playing status, you have to cover it. When Michael Jordan was wavering between whether he'd continue to play or not, it was a story no matter how tiresome it became.

Personally, we wish Sampras would make up his mind already. He wants to continue? Great. He wants to call it curtains? Bless him, it was a hell of a run. He wants to take a sabbatical and then reassess? Hey, fine, if anyone's earned it, it's Pete. But this bizarre stay in no man's land is not only unfair to the tour, the promoters and the fans, but it is a discredit to Sampras. Here is a guy who always conducted himself with dignity and respect for the sport. Suddenly he's completely out of sight and, with each passing week, withdrawing from another event, sometimes via a one-sentence fax. Finally -- albeit at a basketball game -- he told folks that he's probably done for the year but doesn't want to officially retire. Very weird. Very uncharacteristic.

What's really sad is that Sampras is depriving himself of the grand send-off he deserves. (Hell, even Michael Chang, who won 13 fewer Slams than Sampras, is in the midst of a farewell tour.) How sad it will be when his official retirement only makes the sixth page of the sports section and the ninth segment of SportsCenter, all because he played this cat-and-mouse game for so long.

How would you compare Justin Henin-Hardenne to Gabriela Sabatini? They both are essentially clay-court players with all the classical strokes, even with very similar backhands (both have the powerful backhand down the line). I venture that Henin-Hardenne might be mentally stronger and hungrier than Sabatini ever was, but what do you think?
—Octavio, Glen Allen, Va.

Interesting. I had never made the comparison before, but I suppose that at some level it makes sense. I guess I would say that Henin-Hardenne is something of an overachiever who gets a lot out of her talent and has found a way to creep stealthily into to the top five despite her modest physical stature. On the other hand, the aesthetic appeal of her game notwithstanding, Sabatini was something of an underachiever. She never mounted a serious challenge to Steffi Graf and, particularly given the caliber of the opposition, should have won more than a single Slam. Neither will go down as a beacon of mental toughness, but I think Henin-Hardenne competes better. Speaking of mental toughness ...

What is up with Kim Clijsters? She had Serena Williams on the ropes at Key Biscayne, then two match points against Justine Henin-Hardenne at Berlin. Yet she lost both times. Are we seeing a new Jana Novotna in the making?
—Duy Dinh, Houston

Oh, how quickly tennis fortunes can change. This question obviously was submitted before Sunday when Clijsters stole victory from the maw of defeat and beat Mauresmo in three sets. Your question, however, is a good one. Clijsters has a ways to go before she receives the "new Novotna" tag, but she has been awfully shaky under pressure this year. Perhaps because she is such a pleasant person and has such a healthy perspective on tennis, the cognoscenti in the press room (self included) have kept the knives sheathed and have cut her some slack. But if we're being honest with ourselves, her Melbourne meltdown against Serena was a pretty serious gag job: She had the No. 1 seed down 5-1 in the third set in the semis of a major and couldn't seal the deal? That one will stick in your craw for a good long while.

It will be interesting to see what happens in France. Given Serena's mediocre play on clay this year, Clijsters has a nice opportunity to win her maiden Slam. If she does it, the growing murmurs about her shaky play under pressure will be muted.

Why are you such a Marlene Weingartner fan? I can't imagine that anyone on the women's tour fears her on any surface, yet you listed her as such. On top of that, you remembered that Ashley Harkleroad double-bageled her once. The only people who know that are Weingartner fans and Harkleroad fans. You certainly are not a Harkleroad fan, so what gives with Weingartner?
—Danny Hayes, Dallas, Ga.

No one is saying that Weingartner is the second coming of Graf. But I was asked to list some "dangerous floaters," and in Weingartner we have a streaky player who has the ability to stink up the joint. But so, too, does she have the ability to "tree," as she did beating two-time defending champ Capriati at the Australian Open earlier this year. Weingartner barely finished 2002 in the top 100, but she has beaten a good number of top-20 players over the years.

You'll be happy to hear that I'm starting to come around a bit on Harkleroad. I caught a few games of her first-round match in Rome and was impressed with how well she competes. Let's hope her run in Charleston gave her a boost in confidence as well as a boost in the rankings.

So what's the real buzz on tour, in the tennis media and amongst others in the know about the Spanish and French teen prodigies, Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet? A lot of media hype? Or a lot of genuine talent? Are we going to see these two face each other for Slam titles before too long?
—Ryan Nickoli, Washington, D.C.

They seem to have done a pas de deux recently. Even before he beat Carlos Moya last week in Hamburg, Nadal had been earning rave reviews. He hits the ball beautifully and plays with patience that belies the fact he's only 16. A colleague in the press room in Rome opined that he wouldn't surprised if Nadal "pulled a Guga" and came from obscurity to win (yes, win) in Paris.

The critics, however, have cooled a bit on Gasquet. He's still a little thing, 5-foot-10 tops. And there seems to be a fear that he is a shy, unassuming kid and that this deluge of attention has overwhelmed him a bit.

Now that 16-year-old Rafael Nadal has upset Carlos Moya on clay, don't you think it's about time you give the kid some ink? He did lose his next match to Gaston Gaudio, but something has to be said for anybody upsetting Albert Costa and Moya on clay in a three-week period, let alone their 16-year-old compatriot. So what's the scouting report on him? Have you had a chance to see him play yet? (Avoiding that Nadal-Gasquet comparison you media folks love so much would be greatly appreciated!)
—Rebecca, Toronto

Oops, you're a question too late. But we're happy to give the ink. Any 16-year-old who beats Moya on clay shoots to the head of the class. We eagerly await watching him play at Roland Garros.

What's your opinion about the seeding system? I know it's an old discussion, but Wimbledon certainly has its well-founded reasons for seeding according to grass ability. Shouldn't Roland Garros and the clay tournaments do the same? It's ridiculous to see James Blake playing Gaston Gaudio in the first round, as we did last week in Hamburg, especially when the seeded player is Blake. The same happens with Paradorn Srichaphan, who often is seeded and then loses in the opening round. Wouldn't it be more accurate if there were different rankings for different surfaces?
—Miriam, Rosario, Argentina

It's pick your poison. Would you rather discredit the ATP's rankings and incur the animus of slighted players when you seed subjectively? Or endure a rash of "upsets" and wide-open draws when you blindly follow the rankings? I'm with you: Particularly on the men's side, it's nuts that a player like Blake, who has shown little aptitude on clay, will be seeded ahead of a Gaudio or a Calleri at the French. Different players perform at different levels on different surfaces, and we should acknowledge as much. I've always thought that a seed should be a predictive marker for the current tournament, not a reward for past play over the previous 52 weeks.

Long Lost Siblings

First, Lisa McCalpin of Suwanee, Ga, was kind enough to note the following site. "A crack up," she called it: www.mydoglookslikepetesampras.com.

Gustavo Kuerten and author Dave Eggers.
—Sam S., San Francisco

LONG LOST SIBLINGS? Kuerten Eggers

Daniela Hantuchova and actress Jacqueline Bisset.
—Michael Toomey, Limerick, Ireland

LONG LOST SIBLINGS? Hantuchova Bisset

Marat Safin and actor Keanu Reeves.
—Kayla, Manchester, N.J.

LONG LOST SIBLINGS? Safin Reeves

Jiri Novak and race-car driver Gil de Ferran.
—Patrick Rice, Kokomo, Ind.

LONG LOST SIBLINGS? Novak de Ferran

Have a great 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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