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Helping Hantuchova WTA's hands are tied regarding Slovakian's healthPosted: Monday June 23, 2003 1:16 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions every Monday. Click here to send a question. A few random notes before the dance. ... First, the tuneups: In the final of the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands (hometown of Heironymous Bosch, if memory serves), Sjeng Schalken defended his title by beating Arnaud Clément 6-3, 6-4. In the doubles, the all-profanity team of Damm and Suk (Martin and Cyril, for the record) beat Don Johnson and Leander Paes 7-5, 7-6 (4). ... To Andy Roddick's dismay, Greg Rusedski is getting hot: The Grinning One beat Mardy Fish in Nottingham to win his 13th career title. For a guy who hadn't won a tour match this year and was playing a Challenger a few weeks ago, Rusedski is heating up at the right time. In the Nottingham doubles, Bob and Mike Bryan beat Josh Eagle and Jared Palmer in the final, 7-6 in the third. Speaking of the twins, they were just named the ATP's doubles team of the month. ... As for the ladies, after surviving a match point against Jennifer Capriati in the semis, Chanda Rubin beat Conchita Martinez in a three-set final to defend her title at Eastbourne. The match was delayed because of a security alert on the grounds of Devonshire Park; the facility had to be evacuated for two hours and 30 minutes. Lindsay Davenport and Lisa Raymond beat the curious pairing of Capriati and Magui Serna 6-3, 6-2 for the doubles title. ... In the 's-Hertogenbosch women's final, Kim Clijsters beat Justine Henin-Hardenne when the latter retired midway through the second set with a left wrist and finger(s) sprain. The initial word was that the injury is not serious, but the timing scarcely could have been worse for the French Open champ. Elena Dementieva and Lina Krasnoroutskaya beat Nadia Petrova and Mary Pierce 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the dubs. ... We'll say it again: Watch for Petrova at Wimbledon. ... The Larry Scott Era officially has begun. On Saturday the WTA Tour announced a new marketing campaign that "stresses femininity," along with several other "branding initiatives," as they were described. "One of the best parts about it is that I've been on the tour five or six years, and we've never gotten together as a group to expand our sport before," Serena Williams said. "It's a great marketing opportunity for us." In his first 100 days Scott has done more to promote the tour and build a base of support from his constituents than his predecessor did in a year. ... The USTA announced that prize money for 2003 U.S. Open will exceed $17 million -- the largest purse for any annual sporting event. ... In an unrelated story, the ATP rattled its saber with a thinly veiled threat that 80 players were willing to boycott if other Slams don't follow suit and bolster prize money. A few of you asked about it, so here are some scattered thoughts: 1. Forgive us for being more than a little skeptical of the 80-player total. As long as a guy like Martin Verkerk can make more cash in one Slam than in five years of playing ATP events and Challengers, the majors will have no trouble filling 128 draw spots. Another example: With his career sunset in sight, is Andre Agassi going to take a pass on next year's French Open so that future champions won't be oppressed by the $950,000 payday? Somehow, we don't think so. 2. This year's Wimbledon is missing Pete Sampras, Marat Safin, Carlos Moya, Albert Costa, Goran Ivanisevic, Richard Krajicek, Anna Kournikova, Monica Seles and Amélie Mauresmo. This will have little or no bearing on buzz, attendance and ratings. Wimbledon is an event and institution -- "The only way I can describe Wimbledon is maybe if you had the World Series at Wrigley Field or Fenway Park," no less than Andy Roddick said last week. If Christian Bimes played Arlen Kantarian in the men's final, the house would still be packed. As long as that's the case, the players' leverage is limited. 3. As for the "alternative events" the ATP is threatening to stage, what promoter would be dumb enough to try and put on an event opposite a Grand Slam? 4. Sports fans have made it abundantly clear that they don't sympathize with striking millionaire athletes. A boycott simply would have the effect of generating public ill will and accelerating the downward spiral of the men's game. 5. Go ahead and request -- demand, even -- more prize money. But when you start bandying around the b word, you lose credibility. ... Wanted to pass along this fascinating piece on 2003 NCAA singles champion Amer Delic. ... Brad Gilbert earns Quote of the Week honors: "Tim Henman has the all-time Betty Crocker draw. We're talking Easy Bake Oven." On that note, a few questions ... You've touched on Daniela Hantuchova's body issues, but why doesn't the tour help the poor girl? She is deathly thin. If TV makes you look heavier, she must weigh about two pounds. This is too sad to watch. Didn't we learn from Jennifer Capriati's problems?
Over the past few weeks we've received a lot of mail sounding a similar theme. What was an open secret a few months ago has become a cause célèbre. As we predicted, the tabs are all over this. One headline the other day: "Babe of Bratislava becomes Spindles of Slovakia to spark health fears." Hantuchova, not surprisingly, denies -- adamantly -- that she has an eating disorder, but her appearance indicates otherwise and is cause for serious concern.
The situation is comparable to the travails of Patty Schnyder several years ago. Schnyder, you'll recall, was a rising star when she fell under spell of a bizarre "guru" whose methods included making her consume ungodly quotients of orange juice and pierce her skin with unsanitized needles. Many called upon the tour to assert its authority and act on her behalf. While administrators and other players tried to speak with Schnyder, they couldn't do much formally. As one staffer explained to me at the time, "Look, it's a horrible situation. But she's over 18, she's made a decision, and we can't start banning players because they have creepy boyfriends." Inherent in this, I think, is a philosophical tension. If you're the leading women's sport and trumpet your tour as a collection of empowered females, how do you then turn around and play the paternalistic role of Big Sister with your constituents? Of course, just because the WTA can't necessarily take formal action doesn't mean it can't bend over backward to help Hantuchova. Offer her the services of a counselor and nutritionist, for starters. Make sure that her mentor (Martina Navratilova, I believe) is on the case. Let Carling Bassett-Seguso tell Hantuchova how anorexia wreaked havoc on Bassett-Seguso's career. Get Hantuchova a copy of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. (We assume the tour is doing some or all of these already.) It would also be nice if the tour stopped selling Hantuchova as the Alternative Anna. I know some of you think we're obsessed with this issue, but when WTA staffers tell reporters that "[Hantuchova] is way hotter than Anna," when they oversee her posing spread eagle for a men's magazine or make her the focal point of their terminally cheesy calendars, how can the tour be surprised that she clearly has body-image issues? Anyway, this is as much a psychological as a physical issue. Let's hope that Hantuchova gets some help from whatever sources, in or out of tennis. What do you think of Richard Krajicek's retirement? I will miss his game, which -- on grass, especially -- was beautiful to watch. Say something about his accomplishments, if you please.
I please. It's not exactly shocking when an oft-injured 32-year-old father of two hangs it up. Nevertheless, when Krajicek announced last week that he was retiring, it was a dark day for the sport. Quite apart from his virtuosity on the court -- particularly on the faster surfaces -- he was a terrific ambassador for the sport, a bright, well-spoken, politically conscious player whose interests transcended tennis. Having said that, Krajicek is, in that Todd Martin sort of way, one of those guys who is too well-connected to stray far from the sport. He is active in ATP politics, he is the Rotterdam tournament director, and his half-sister is a top junior. In five, 10, 15 years' time, he will be neither gone nor forgotten. Regarding your assignment from last week: I agree that Justine Henin-Hardenne's backhand is a thing of beauty, but Guillermo Coria's? I think you've been watching the wrong Argentinian. Gaston Gaudio's backhand is much better than Coria's. One-handed and technically flawless, Gaudio can hit it with topspin as easily as with slice, and he can drive his opponents crazy with dropshots. Too bad the guy is a real nutcase, because if he could play Davis Cup 40 weeks a year, he'd be top-10 material -- no less. Just my opinion, of course.
With respect to Coria, I was talking effectiveness rather than aesthetics. Maybe I was hyperventilating after watching Slick Willy pick apart Agassi, but that up-the-line backhand of his is just deadly. As for Gaudio, I'm with you 100 percent. Beautiful player when he's on, but, man, does his play waver, often in the same set. A trivial note concerning Kim Clijsters' "niceness": I noticed at the French that when her service game ends on a first-serve point and the players change ends, Clijsters doesn't hit the second ball away to a ballkid -- she walks over and hands it to him or her. I have never seen this before.
Thanks. We could fill an entire Mailbag with examples of Clijsters' grace and charm. Just too bad those qualities can be antithetical to success in an individual sport. A little while ago we praised tournaments like the U.S. Open, where prize money is equal for men and women. Is there any chance the U.S. Open will ever take the next step: equal status? With the men's final always being the grand finale on Sunday, it gives the message that the women are just not as important as the men. If they alternated Sunday finals from year to year, that would go a long way toward demonstrating equal status.
I like the idea symbolically, but also practically. It would add some variety to the scheduling. But I think the television arrangement might make it a little bit tricky. If you put both women's semis on during Saturday's day session, they might each last an hour, leaving a big block of space to fill. (You figure even a dog of a best-of-five men's match is guaranteed to last at least 100 minutes.) Conversely, what happens if you slate the men's final for the prime-time spot on Saturday night and the match is a four-hour marathon? If you were able to iron out the logistical kinks, however, I can't think of any reason why the good folks at the USTA wouldn't give this a shot. Is Gustavo Kuerten the greatest player of his generation, i.e., guys between 24 and 29 years old? Who of his contemporaries has had a career like his: three Grand Slam titles, five Masters Series crowns, one Masters Cup?
Your parameters are a little bit random, but I suppose you're right: Of the players between the Sampras/Agassi/Pat Rafter axis and the New Balls (Lleyton Hewitt/Juan Carlos Ferrero/Safin), Kuerten is probably the most accomplished. Then again, it's something of a dubious distinction. With a few exceptions, the players between ages 24-29 form something of a lost generation. Mark Philippoussis, Nicolas Kiefer, Tommy Haas, Thomas Enqvist, Marcelo Rios, Magnus Norman -- an awful lot of unfulfilled potential is represented on that list. When was the last time Jennifer Capriati beat a top-eight (or -10) player? Over the past 18 months her record against top-10 foes has to be horrible. We all talk about Anna Kournikova's title drought, but has Capriati fared much better? Three Grand Slams titles, you say, but all of them came when Martina Hingis ruled the world. At Eastbourne last week, a near surefire victory for Capriati ... and she wastes two match points against Chanda Rubin. Yeah, it's Rubin, but come on. Has the time come to just write off Capriati as someone who will have nothing further to contribute to the game?
A little story: At the Chase Championships in 2000, I sat with a veteran, esteemed tennis writer a few rows behind the baseline and watched as Kournikova destroyed an out-of-shape, dour-looking Capriati. I asked VETW if he thought Capriati was cooked. His response: "Just look at her. I guarantee she won't be playing a year from now and she will go down as the saddest story in tennis history." Ten or so weeks later she won a Grand Slam. Moral: Capriati may be in dire straits right now; but she has the ability to turn things around quickly. That said, here's a subliminal message to the Capster: c-o-a-c-h-i-n-g c-h-a-n-g-e. The tennis gods have shone down brightly upon me and gifted me with tickets to Wimbledon (if only they would also bestow gifts while I was on the court). Do you have any suggestions for a first-time Grand Slam watcher of things to do, what to bring (don't worry, the cell phone will be staying at home), places and items to avoid, bargains and must-haves in both the tennis realm and off-court? Note: I am a graduate student who just spent a large chunk of my stipend to get to England.
Here's a top-five list for Wimbledon: 1. Go exploring and walk around the place. The grounds are as much a part of the experience as the tennis. 2. Bring an umbrella and your own lunch. 3. If Henman is playing on the day of your tickets, watch at least a few games from Henman Hill. Trust me on this one. 4. Bring a walkman and listen to Radio Wimbledon as you wait for the gates to open. 5. Yes, it's a gastronomic cliché, but just to say you did it, order the damn strawberries and cream. Bottom line, just go, have a good time and enjoy your good fortune. Long Lost SiblingsAnother twin doubles team: Mario Ancic and actor Ralph Macchio, circa The Karate Kid years.
[Ed. note: Danny LaRussa is going to fight! Mario Ancic is going to fight!] Martin Verkerk and actor Kelsey Grammer.
Justine Henin-Hardenne and actor Orlando Bloom (of Lord of the Rings fame).
Enjoy the first week of Wimbledon, 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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