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Ivanisevic uses his
head
Posted: Mon Aug. 10,
1998
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question.
Goran
Ivanisevic would probably just as soon forget about this year's du
Maurier Open in Toronto. Playing in his first tournament
since losing to
Pete
Sampras in the Wimbledon final, Ivanisevic won the first set of
his match against
Andre
Agassi before disintegrating, as is his wont, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. That
was nothing compared to what happened the following
afternoon, when he and his partner,
Mark
Philippoussis, played doubles against
Mark
Knowles and
Daniel
Nestor. Down 4-2 in the first set, Ivanisevic popped a volley
straight into the air that had no chance of clearing the
net. No doubt inspired by Croatia's World Cup showing,
Ivanisevic playfully attempted to "head" the ball
back over to the other
side.
Problem was, Philippoussis, the notoriously hard-headed
Aussie, had the same bright idea and the two players
violently collided. Ivanisevic received a gash over his
right eye that required six stitches to close, while
Philippoussis needed treatment for
a facial bruise. After defaulting the match, Ivanisevic
retained a sense of humor. "I felt like I was in the
ring with Tyson," he said. "My next doubles
partner will be a bit shorter so he hits me in the chest
instead."
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Goran Ivanisevic had better success with this unorthodox move at Wimbledon.
(Simon Bruty)
| This wasn't the first time Ivanisevic has needed stitches
this year. At the Australian Open players' party, he was
"Nerf boxing" with Spain's
Jordi
Burillo and caught an elbow over his left eye. "I only needed
four stitches for that," he said with palpable pride.
"I'm never safe, but at least with me, it's never
boring."
With that in mind
...
Can you tell me what you think of Sargis Sargsian in the
future? I remember McEnroe saying Sargis has a
future.
—Shant Shahmelikian, Sydney,
Australia
Not much. Sargsian, a former NCAA singles champ at Arizona
State, is already 25 years old and is ranked
85th.
How do you think John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors would fare
against today's top players? Would they even be ranked in
the top 50? I watched part of a Bjorn Borg-Connors match in
a senior event a few weeks ago and they were really
cranking the
ball.
—Nik Chamberlain, New York
City
Mac and
Connors—and Borg, too, for that matter—can still hit the ball,
no question. But they're simply playing a different game
from the guys on the ATP Tour. Their average age is roughly
40, they're not training like they used to, they're not
playing three-hour
matches. My guess is that no player on the Nuveen Tour could crack
the top 200 in the rankings. Which is not to say that the
seniors aren't entertaining. Given the choice, I'd rather
see Connors and Mac run each other around—mixing up
speeds, hitting drop
shots and strategizing points—than watch, say,
Yevgeny
Kafelnikov and
Richard
Krajicek bomb serves back and forth for an
hour.
O.K., you've given us your
top 10
men. How about the top 10
women?
—Jason, Carrollton,
Texas
If I had a tennis rotisserie draft today
...
1)
Jana
Novotna
2)
Lindsay
Davenport
3)
Martina
Hingis (who's looking mighty vulnerable these
days)
4)
Steffi
Graf
5)
Monica
Seles
6)
Venus
Williams
7)
Arantxa
Sanchez-Vicario
8)
Irina
Spirlea
9)
Serena
Williams
10)
Patty
Schnyder
1. Despite the fact that she hasn't played all that much
until this year, why do you think Venus Williams is getting
injured with such frequency? Is it a problem in her
footwork or
technique?
2. Re: U.S. Open. Agassi, Petr Korda and Marcelo Rios have
been the most successful players on hard courts so far.
Sampras is one of the clear favorites. Are there any other
players you would chose as contenders for the men's title?
Does Patrick Rafter have a prayer of
repeating?
—Alvin Jiminez, Aguadilla, Puerto
Rico
1. My suspicion is that Venus' injuries simply stem from
spending more time on the court than her body can handle.
Though you're right, she doesn't play many tournaments, she
rarely loses early and she's practicing a lot as well.
Regardless of the
cause, Venus ought to learn that it's bad form to withdraw from a
match down 0-4 in the third set, as she did against
Mary
Pierce last weekend. It's one of those unspoken rules that when
your opponent is that far ahead, give her the satisfaction
of winning
outright.
2. I'll give my predictions next week, but, as a rule, I
like players who can get to the net. Remember that three of
the four semifinalists last year—Rafter,
Greg
Rusedski, and
Jonas
Bjorkman—were serve-and-volleyers. That said, keep an eye out
for Rafter, Krajicek, Rusedski and, bite my tongue,
Ivanisevic.
Would it be possible for the ATP Tour to be organized such
that there was only one official stop each week? I think
this would really add to the quality and excitement of
tennis today. As the system works now, the star players
seem to be spread out all over the globe each week except
during the truly big tournaments (Grand Slams plus the
Lipton, Indian Wells, etc.). I would really like to see the
game's big names playing each other more than six or seven
times a year, and I think this would add to the popularity
of our sport. Do we really need the Grolsch Open or the
tournament in Casablanca, Morocco? Should there be a
clay-court event in Austria four weeks before the U.S
Open?
—Rick Glass, San
Jose
I agree wholeheartedly. There are way too many events on
the both and WTA and ATP tours. I suppose the logic for
holding a Grolsch Open the same week as a Super Nine
(a.k.a. high stakes) event, as was the case last weekend,
is that it gives many more
players a chance to win points and prize money—and many
more sponsors a chance to pony up big bucks. The problem is
that it dilutes the game to have four of the top players at
one event, and another four at another event on another
surface in another
country. There are also so many events on the calendar that
players have little incentive to give 100% in every
match.
Along those lines,
I have one correction to pass
along. Last week I erroneously claimed that
Lindsay
Davenport received as many points for winning the Bank of California
tournament as
Henrietta
Nagyova received for winning the concurrent Polish Open. In fact,
they are different tier events, so Davenport won 120 more
points than Nagyova. Mea
culpa.
Reading your Mailbag
responses, I was surprised about your picks of the up-and-coming
young U.S. players. You canned Justin Gimelstob and picked
Taylor Dent? Gimelstob is just re-emerging (check out his
thrashing of Rafter last week) and Dent hasn't made a dent
in an ATP match yet. What about Jan-Michael Gambill (my
choice for best young American star)? And Bob Bryan (who
you also canned) looks to have better potential than Dent.
Care to revisit the teen-America
list?
—Ted Ying, Laurel,
Md.
You're right that Gimelstob had a good tournament in L.A.
last week, but he's still ranked 86th in the world.
Gimelstob has yet to crack the top 50, but at 21, he is
older than
Michael
Chang, Sampras and
Jim
Courier were when they won their first Grand Slams. (At least
Gimelstob already has the hubris of an elite player. After
upsetting Rafter in L.A. last week, he inexplicably
starting woofing, "This is my
house!")
You're not alone in your high opinion of Gambill. Agassi
has repeatedly said that JMG is America's next, best hope.
Gambill, 21, the most down-to-earth player you could ever
hope to meet, had a great winter, but has only won a
handful of matches in the
past few months. He's a good athlete with a big-time serve
but he hits two-fisted groundstrokes off both wings, which
severely limits his mobility. I'll say this much: If your
prediction pans out and he makes some noise, he'll rival
Agassi in
popularity.
Whenever Leander Paes comes into the spotlight, everyone
rants and raves about what a good player he is. He plays
well during his Davis Cup matches, but never so well on
tour. What does he lack, or why can't he reach the top
level? He just recently won tournament which only goes to
prove that he is capable, but something seems
lacking.
—Krishan Jhalani, Berlin,
Germany
Like so many other players on the tour, Paes has all the
shots but he lacks a reliable weapon. He plays craftily and
he has a great set of hands, but he's a little guy—5'
10" on a good day—who's not going to serve anyone
off the court. Though Paes won
the first tournament of his career in Newport last month,
he's not even in the top 100 right now. If it's any
consolation, Paes is a fantastic doubles player, who, along
with his partner,
Mahesh
Bhupathi, comprise one of the best teams on the
tour.
Do you think my favorite tennis player, Goran Ivanisevic,
can overcome the disappointment of losing the Wimbledon
final and put in a good showing at the U.S. Open? I hope he
can recover the mental strength he showed during
Wimbledon.
—Lakshmi Sundaram, Nassau,
Bahamas
Asking Goran to summon mental strength is like asking
Al
Gore to evince personality. It just ain't going to happen.
Still, I think he has a chance of making a nice run at the
Open. He just rejoined the tour last week after a long
vacation on the Aegean Sea and he seems to be over the
disappointment of losing his
third Wimbledon final. Ivanisevic's lefty serve is still
lethal and, when he remembers to get to the net, he is
formidable on hard courts. Provided, that is, he avoids
head-butting his doubles partner and Nerf boxing
...
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