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 The Davis Cup runneth over
Posted: Tuesday April 06, 1999 01:38 PM
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question. Memo to Pete Sampras: As a guy so obsessed with how history will recall you, think it would have hurt your legacy if you had been able to win dramatic five-set matches against both Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman ? ... As it is, Jim Courier, who had one foot in the grave of retirement not all that long ago, turned in one of the most heroic performances in Davis Cup history ... I'll say it again: Neither Rusedski nor Henman played that badly. Courier was simply a man possessed on this weekend ... If he could motivate himself to play half as well during the year, no way is he ranked No. 54 ... Todd Martin returned Rusedski's serve as if the ball were suspended on a tee ... It's great for tennis that the U.S. will play Australia in July, but if you weren't secretly rooting for tiny Zimbabwe (a.k.a., the Black family, Byron and Wayne ) to upset the big, bad Aussies for a second straight year, you need your heart examined by a geologist ... Brazil beats Spain, in Spain, behind a superhuman effort from Gustavo Kuerten and Jaime Oncins ... Spain has two of the world's top six players, Alex Corretja and Carlos Moya ... Oncins hasn't been ranked in the top 100 since 1992 ... Think the Swedish team, the defending champs, are rethinking the decision to let Thomas Enqvist play singles? ... Memo No. 2 to Sampras: The "Davis Cup fatigues me" bleating rang a little hollow after Richard Krajicek won a four-set final at Lipton on Saturday and then beat Jerome Golmard in a five-setter in France less than a week later ... One last thought on Courier: When he plays in ties, the U.S. is 13-0. Remind me again, why didn't Tom Gullikson call Tailgunner Jim's number in Milwaukee last year? ... Memo No. 3 to Sampras: I trust you'll have the good sense to lick your wounds and not avail yourself for the next tie in July. Anyways, as we say in Indiana ... How do you feel about Pete Sampras's recent comments concerning Greg Rusedski
and the Davis Cup match against Britain? Rusedski basically abandoned the
nation that taught him tennis as a junior (Canada) in favor of living in
Britain, because of sponsorship opportunities. No wonder that Sampras and the
other players do not really respect Rusedski. What do you
think?
In case you're coming in late on this one, Sampras was asked last week about the British Davis Cup team, and he responded, "You mean the half-British, half-Canadian team." This was a snide reference to the fact that Rusedski was born in Canada and only emigrated to England recently. I'm of mixed minds. On the one hand, in a rare instance like this when Sampras shows flickers of a personality, you're reluctant to whack him too hard. On the other hand, the only player in the top 10 who didn't play Davis Cup this past weekend doesn't have a whole lot of leverage for questioning another player's patriotism. You stated that Stefan Edberg is the best serve-and-volley player of all
time. Do you mean that he was even better than John McEnroe or Rod
Laver?
First, I don't consider Mac a true serve-and-volleyer. This is totally to his credit, but his game was versatile enough that depending on surface/opponent/tenor of the match, etc., he was just as cozy staying back. Second, I've written before that I'm always uneasy about comparing players from different generations. Had Edberg played with a stiff wooden racket and thrown back a few bottles of Foster's with his mates after his matches (as Laver did), would he still have been a No. 1 player? Had Laver played with a graphite thunderstick and traveled with his own coach, fitness trainer and cook, how much better would he have been? But the short answer is that I'll stick with my pick. You mentioned in your Hot List that Bob and Mike Bryan were talking smack to Boris Becker at
the Lipton. I missed this whole thing. What happened exactly? This sounds
interesting!
This isn't as sexy as sounds at first blush. But in their doubles match against Becker and Jan-Michael Gambill (and you thought Serena Williams and Max Mirnyi was a random pairing) the Bryans got a little too pumped up for Becker's taste. After winning one particularly intense point, the Bryans celebrated vocally. Becker turned and yelled to them, "Shut up." Allegedly one of the Bryans retorted, "Why don't you just shut up and play tennis." Apparently, thereafter there was quite a bit of headhunting. Becker and Gambill ended up winning the match, and I didn't hear of any fallout. But admit that it takes guts for two tour rookies to stand up to Becker -- who definitely has some bully in him -- at this point in his career. I was wondering what you thought of the Lipton's scheduling the men's final
on Saturday and the women's on Sunday. I understand that women's tennis is
hotter these days, but I thought it was a slap in the face to the ATP Tour. Who
knows, maybe the men will take it to
heart.
I've heard two theories on the Lipton TV scheduling. The company line is that there was no slight. It was simply that the men play best-of-five sets so they were a better match for Saturday because Fox has more available airtime on that day. Plenty of other folks in the know, however, have told me that Fox predicted the women would get better ratings so they put them in the plum Sunday afternoon slot. And if the issue was simply about timeframes, they could have shown the matches on tape-delay. Assuming the latter explanation is the correct -- and my guess is that it is -- it looks awfully prescient in retrospect. After yet another tournament when marquee male players like Sampras, Marcelo Rios, Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi and Corretja -- none of whom has won a tournament this year -- flamed out, the men's drew yielded a Richard Krajicek - Sebastien Grosjean final. I'm guessing it drew ratings comparable to the Emanuel Lewis bowl-a-thon. The women's draw, as usual, was fraught with drama and served up the historic Williams-Williams final. In your opinion, what is preventing Anna Kournikova from winning? She seems
to have such a great game when she's on. It seems there is some sort of mental
block. Not long ago, she was considered a shoo-in with Hingis, Mirjana Lucic
(although Lucic's absence is understandable) and the Williams sisters. What
happened? Too much pressure? Do you think she can get over the hump and start
to meet her great tennis
potential?
What? A tennis-related question about Kournikova? Come on K. Elliot, you know the rules. Seriously, your question is a good one. Empress Anna has plenty of game and, contrary to what a lot people assume, she is actually capable of playing creative tennis. Yet, as you've no doubt heard ad nauseum, she has yet to win a tournament, an albatross that remains after she lost to Hingis in the Hilton Head finals last weekend. Part of her problem is obviously her serve, which has simply deserted her over the past year. But I also think her nerves aren't as steely as she'd like us to believe. She plays a good game of doubles, for instance, but invariably misses a half-dozen or so easy volleys and overheads during her singles matches. Also, whenever the match gets tight, I've noticed that she reflexively looks at her mom and coaching box with a distinctive Do I really want to be here? look on her face. My suspicion is that once she finally gets the simian off her dorsal side and proves to herself that she can win an event, she'll loosen up. Meanwhile, I can tell you for a fact that her struggles have induced no shortage of Schadenfreude among some of her colleagues. Who, in your opinion, is the hardest hitter in the men's game today? I know
most of the men can really turn up the heat on their groundstrokes a few times
in a given match, but who do you think hits with the most power ALL the time (at
a reasonable success rate)? I would have to make a tough call between Mark
Philippoussis and Thomas Enqvist. Your
thoughts?
After seeing Krajicek play last weekend, I might put him at the top of my list. We hear a lot about his serve, but his groundstrokes -- which overpowered Sampras earlier in the week -- had smoke coming off them. Anyway, Philippoussis is definitely up there, even though he seems to be taking a little something off the ball this year. With unequivocal success, I ought to add. I'd say Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Sampras and Agassi round out the top five. One player who wouldn't make the list is Rusedski. He may have hit a 135 mph second serve against Martin this weekend, but I was surprised at how authoritatively both Martin and Courier dictated the points from the backcourt once there was a rally. Have you heard of a young tennis prodigy called Monique Viele? She is only 14
and apparently about to make her pro debut. What do you think of her prospects
in the future, since some say she will be better than Anna Kournikova and Monica
Seles. Or perhaps another wash out like Jennifer
Capriati?
Funny you should ask. I spent an afternoon with Viele during the Lipton last week. She's training with Rick Macci -- former coach of the Williamses and, irony of ironies, Capriati -- at his Fort Lauderdale academy. To be honest, I was impressed by her game. She has a good deal of power off both wings, hits her serve 110 mph, covers the court well and -- no doubt in part because she's shunted junior tennis -- she isn't afraid to go for her shots. Still, I just find it creepy, for lack of a better word, that a girl barely out of puberty, two years removed from driving a car (who likes Celine Dion for G-d's sake!), thinks she ready for the pro circuit. The Viele family, with IMG's backing, is making noise about suing the WTA for the right for Monique to play a full schedule ASAP. I'm skeptical they'll win, but regardless of when she makes it on tour, you'll hear plenty more from her. Do you feel both Venus and Serena Williams can continue to be coached by
their
father?
In a word, yes. King Richard isn't the last of the great tennis experts. Agreed. But Serena and Venus are at the point where they don't need a strokes coach or even a tactician so much as they need a motivator. Their dad, quite simply, knows how to press their buttons like no one else. Bjorn Borg won five French Opens (on clay) and five Wimbledons (on grass). Is there anyone (in the men's game) who you think is capable of winning multiple majors on both grass and clay? Also, so few men have won all four majors throughout their careers. Who do you think is the best all-surface player today? Why can the women win on multiple surfaces but the men
can't?
Absolutely no, and I'm not sure there ever will be. As technology has improved, the differences between clay and grass have become more pronounced. One need only look at Sampras' futility on clay -- or, more pointedly, Thomas Muster or Sergi Bruguera or Lendl or Moya's ineptitude on sod -- to see how drastically disparate the surfaces are. Good question. He hasn't done much yet, but one player whom I bet does well in both Paris and London is Marat Safin, who grew up playing largely on clay but hits a big enough ball to acquit himself well on grass. He has played poorly on both surfaces lately, but it's worth pointing out that before he won Wimbledon in 1992, Agassi had twice made the final of the French. Otherwise, players really seem to be either fish or fowl. The obvious answer is that women's tennis is less power-oriented, so the players are not the bionic boomers who thrive at Wimbledon but are blunted on clay. I think another, not unrelated, reason is that there are not enough high-tier events on clay for WTA players to specialize in a particular surface. Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.
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