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Graf's comeback easy to root
for
Posted: Tue July 21,
1998
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question.
Say this about
Steffi
Graf: she's not exactly going quietly into the night. The best
57th-ranked player women's tennis has ever known was in
Mahwah, N.J., last weekend, playing an unsanctioned
exhibition on a makeshift court in a hotel parking lot.
Methodically dismantling
Amanda
Coetzer as if it were 1995 all over again, Graf was all business,
slapping her thigh after unforced errors and
inconspicuously pumping her fist after service winners.
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After 21 Grand Slam titles, Graf maintains a competitive fire.
(Manny Millan)
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Still, one has to wonder why, at age 29, she continues to
spend her day banging tennis balls in strange towns and
living the insular life of a pro athlete. It's hardly about
money. Her career earnings—to say nothing of
endorsements and appearance fees
for events like Mahwah—exceed $20 million. After a
mind-bending 21 Grand Slam titles, Graf hardly needs to
cement her place in history. And though Graf used to find
sanctuary on the court from the travails of her creepy
father, she now speaks of her
"inner peace" and clearly no longer needs tennis as an
escape.
Could it possibly be that, even after 15 years on Tour,
Graf simply still likes playing tennis and is motivated by
nothing more than a genuine enjoyment for the game? Her
comeback from knee surgery would obviously be complete if
she could win her first
Grand Slam since 1996 or supplant
Martina
Hingis and regain her throne. But she's not ready to think in
those terms. "Obviously, I want to do well," she
said after beating Coetzer. "But the good thing about
winning everything before is that you don't have to prove
anything. What I can do is just go
out there and enjoy myself." For that alone, it's hard
not to root for her.
To the
mailbag....
Why don't the top tennis players play doubles? I would love
to see Pete Sampras, Marcelo Rios, and even Andre Agassi
out there playing doubles. I think it would make the game
more
exciting.
—Amit Patel, Ann Arbor,
Mich.
Time was, every player worth his wooden racket would play
doubles as well as singles. (As recently as last decade,
the hackneyed line was that best doubles team in tennis was
John
McEnroe and whomever.) But as prize money has gone through the
roof, most of the top men want to conserve their energy and
see no reason to risk fatigue by playing doubles. I, for
one, don't get it. Doubles is a great way to improve your
net game as well as
get in some extra serves. (You'd think a player like Rios
would be better off playing two sets of doubles instead of
spending that time practicing with a coach.) As for the
argument that doubles doesn't pay enough to make it
worthwhile, I'm sure that if
Sampras, Rios, et al were in the doubles draw, the prize money
would leap
dramatically.
Perhaps because their matches take less time to complete,
the top women are better about this. Nine of the top 20 WTA
players also have top 20 doubles rankings—compared to
only three of the top 20 men. What's more, the top three
women's doubles players
are Hingis,
Jana
Novotna, and
Lindsay
Davenport. Just another reason why women's tennis is eclipsing the
men's game in
popularity.
Does Pete Sampras have enough momentum to win the U.S.
Open?
—Manan Sharma, Athens,
Ga.
It will depend somewhat on how he fares on the hard-court
circuit later this summer, but he's not a player who needs
a lot of momentum to win majors. In the tune-up prior to
Wimbledon, Sampras was summarily dispatched in the first
round by journeyman
Mark
Woodforde. We know, of course, how badly he was hobbled by that loss
once he got to Centre Court. Sampras is simply a different
player in the Slams than he is in Indianapolis or New
Haven; and the chance to close in on
Roy
Emerson's record for majors is all the momentum he
needs.
Who do you think is the best player/coach for the future
U.S. Davis Cup team? John McEnroe, Jim Courier or Todd
Martin?
—David Helfer, San
Francisco
It would obviously be ideal if the U.S. could field a team
with Sampras,
Michael
Chang and Agassi playing all at once. Since that is unlikely, at
least until the final round, the team of Agassi, Courier
and Martin that won in Indianapolis last weekend ought to
suffice against Italy, the U.S.'s next foe. If only because
he was a such a
loyal Davis Cup participant, it would be nice to see McEnroe
as coach after
Tom
Gullickson's tenure
ends.
What enables players like Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic
to hit their serves so hard? Even with fairly good
technique and motion, most USTA tournament players aren't
able to hit much over 100 or 105 mph. Where does that extra
20-30 mph come from? These players are obviously extremely
fit, but they don't appear to have that much more muscle
than most tennis players. Do they have a special
technique?
—Clarence Lee, Vienna,
Va.
I've heard Sampras say that the key to his serve is the
"snap." Players like him and Ivanisevic get that
extra juice by turning their shoulders extremely as they
strike the ball. While most players do light weight
training these days, any pro would
agree that pinpoint technique is more crucial to power than
muscle
mass.
If the server faults, is it considered unsportsmanlike for
the receiver to catch the errant serve, if it's hit behind
the service line, and either place it in his pocket or roll
it aside, out of
play?
—Name
withheld
Unless you're doing so to mock the pace of your opponent's
serve, go ahead and catch it. (It's probably just as easy,
though, to swat the errant ball aside with your racket. And
you won't risk jamming your
fingers.)
What do you think about Monica Seles' decision to play all
the major hard-court tourneys leading up to the U.S. Open,
like she did last year? Will all this activity make her
match-tough, or will she run out of steam like she did in
'97?
—Jason Rainer, Carrollton,
Texas
Now that so many other players can match her power, Seles'
questionable fitness has become a bigger issue. While she
would be well-served running laps, skipping rope and doing
crunches, her playing so many outdoor tournaments in the
summer heat ought to
improve her stamina as well. My guess is that at this stage
in her career, she knows enough to bag out on an event if
she feels her tank is nearing empty.
I'd like to know what the problem is with tennis
commentators and their incessant—and often
irritating—chatter before, during and after points.
The commentator I find the most annoying is Barry McKay. He
never shuts up and to make matters worse, he repeats himself and
encourages his co-commentators to do the same. I try
putting on the mute button, but then I can't hear the whack
of the ball. I'm not opposed to some commentating, but this
is
ridiculous.
—Steven Fleming, San
Francisco
When, say, Andre Agassi is up two sets to love against his
Davis Cup opponent, it's hard to follow a cardinal rule of
sportscasting and let the action speak for itself. Still,
your point is well-taken. (Ironically, John McEnroe is one
of the best at
knowing when to keeping his mouth shut.) More irksome to me is
when former players speak as though the audience has never
watched tennis before.
Luke
Jensen's line, "when a serve gets stuck in the net, it's
funny but it's still a fault," is but one glaring
example.
Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.
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