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Going the distance
Posted: Monday November 08, 1999 12:35 PM
The 'Bag will be going on hiatus shortly, so get your questions in before it's too late! Click here to send Jon Wertheim a question. Lots of Venus Williams defenders wondering why she made the dreaded "Say, didn't you used to be ..." item in last week's Hot List. No knock on her playing; she's just been out of the public eye for a while now. She's back in action this week in Philly, by the way. ... Now that his bid to take over the ATP Tour has officially failed, Boris Becker announced last week that he would like to pursue a career in film. Say, isn't Mike Myers making a Sprockets movie? ... When he wasn't busy declaring that North Korea and the ATP Tour are the two last remaining bastions of communism, John McEnroe made news last week when he nearly came to blows with that noted pugilist, Henri Leconte. There are, to be sure, some things in this world worth fighting for. But a close line call in a seniors tennis match doesn't quite make the grade. First ball in ...
This is a question for which no one has been able to give me a truly justifiable answer: Why can't the women have a best-of-five sets final at the Grand Slams? The women are much fitter than ever, so there's no doubt in my mind that they will be more than capable of coping over five sets. It will prevent a final from being over before it has even gotten started, and the prospect of a five-set women's final is really exciting. If they can do it at the year-end Chase Championships, why should the Grand Slams be any different? I doubt this qualifies as a truly justifiable answer either, but I think it's a question of demand. No one -- fans, sponsors, networks -- is clamoring for five-set women's finals. And after having played six draining matches previously (including one the day before), the women are hardly demanding it either. Think Martina Hingis wanted to go on for another set (or three) against Serena Williams at the Open? Also, don't overlook the impact of television. If the European events are to be shown live in the U.S. (not that they are, nowadays), they have to start late in the afternoon. A potential five-setter between, say Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Steffi Graf, couldn't start at 4 in the afternoon without running the risk of getting called on account of darkness. Likewise, if the women's U.S. Open final is to be part of "Super Saturday," you can't risk a five-set marathon. Still, your question is a good one. For women to play best-of-five throughout an event is simply not feasible. Women may indeed be "much fitter than ever" but they run a lot more than the men, play longer points, and don't rely on energy-conserving aces. (What's more, we may salivate at the prospects of a Hingis-Williams or a Lindsay Davenport-Mary Pierce five-setter, but who really wants to see a three-hour mach between Elena Tartakova and Mariaan DeSwardt? ) A five-set final, though, is not only within the realm of possibility but would be a cogent rejoinder in the equal-pay debate. Fairness, however, would then dictate that the women not play the semis the previous day.
I haven't seen Andre Agassi in a tough draw since the French Open. He is consistently paired with far-lesser-ranked players all the way to the semifinals. This is unfair to the other players who are playing through mine fields, and to the fans. With so little TV coverage, I feel cheated out of competitive tennis matches. Are these draws for real or have tennis tournaments been reduced to marketing events? Since Wimbledon, Agassi has beaten just about every top player save Pete Sampras . Yes, he's had some cake draws -- i.e., the U.S. Open -- when, you're right, he hasn't had to play a formidable foe until the late rounds. This, however, is simply reflective of the parity in the men's tennis, not some cosmic plot to stack in favor of our bald-pated hero.
Last week you mentioned that Monica Seles was surpassed in the power department by the Williamses, Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce. But why was Steffi Graf able to keep up with and beat these players? Good question. First, Graf was in far superior shape to Seles (and is the much better natural athlete), so whereas Seles was often toast when she split sets against a younger player, Graf was harder to put away. Graf's game was also so different from every other player's -- the hard slice, the inside-out forehand, the refuse-to-lose je ne sais quoi -- that a power differential was often neutralized.
What's your take on the new ranking system for next year? Are we going to have more guys like Yevgeny Kafelnikov running around playing more tournaments or are the elite players going to pick and chose? Also, will this new system be a plus or a minus for the older elite players like Sampras and Agassi, or will it give a chance for the younger ones (Lleyton Hewitt/Marat Safin) to move up in the rankings earlier? In theory, anyway, I like the points-race system (if for no other reason than it does away with the Best of 14 that allows a workaholic like Kafelnikov to lose early time and again without it affecting his ranking). Starting next year, the men will have to play the four Slams and the Super 9s; every other event on the calendar is rendered near-inconsequential. What does this mean? First, players can win all the Tashkent Opens and Dubuque Classics that they want, but if they falter in the big-ticket events, their ranking is doomed. Second, it will cut down on the surface specialists ( Albert Costa, please pick up a red courtesy phone) who rack up wholesale points but flame out early at three of the four Slams. Third, as I understand it, it will wreak havoc on players who miss events. Take Sampras, for instance: He bagged the Australian, combusted at Indian Wells and Lipton, did nothing at the French, skipped Monte Carlo and Montreal, missed the Open, only won one match at the Paris Indoor, etc. Even with his summer hot streak and his Wimbledon title, no way is he ranked as high No. 3 in a points-race context.
Maybe you could offer some insight into that most erratic of Swedes, Thomas Enqvist. When this guy is playing well he can beat just about anyone, but he only seems to get hot at the end of the year and, as was the case this year, the beginning, where he was "the player to beat" at the Australian Open. What happens during the other 10 months? I can't believe it is always injuries. You want insight on a guy who reaches the Australian Open final and then loses his next match to Wayne Ferreira? A guy who beats Agassi indoors but loses on hard courts, presumably his best surface, to No. 236-ranked James Sekulov? Who can beat any player on tour on any given day, but has fallen this year to the likes of Dinu Piscariu, Christian Ruud and the always-dangerous Michael Kohlman? Can't help you, Dan. You're right that his body is something other than resilient, but his problems are mostly upstairs. Enqvist plays well against the big boys but when he faces inferior counterparts, he has real problems with lapses of concentration and playing mindless, unimaginative tennis. If he adopted a more businesslike approach to the early rounds and learned to play better on clay (which ought to suit his power baseline game just fine), he's top-five material.
Ever since a few well-publicized Todd Martin matches, I have been wondering whether it's common for players to dose up on IV fluids before big matches. Sure, Todd allegedly did this because he was ill, but do players do this often? Do you see any potential sportsmanship issues here? With all due respect to Todd, it seems a little unfair. To be honest, I can't think of any player using IV fluids this year besides Martin. Come to think of it, it does seem a bit unfair. But even given an equal-opportunity IV policy, I doubt too many players would chose to spend the hour before a match lying on their back with a tube in their arm.
Why is it that tennis players still go ballistic with any type of crowd noise during games? Is it that much tougher to hit a tennis ball with a little bit of noise compared to a basketball player or football kicker hitting a free throw or clutch kick when the crowd is screaming all kinds of stuff at them? Aside from Davis Cup and Flushing Meadows, the players seem to expect library-type quiet at their matches. What gives? This is an age-old critique of the sport. Pantywaist tennis players demand silence when they hit a second serve, but basketball players are supposed to concentrate on shooting free throws with 20,000 rabid fans waving their arms and describing their mothers in unspeakable terms. My knee-jerk response is that tennis is a civil sport and that "crowd noise" is the earmark of philistine. The better answer is that tennis players depend on sound more than athletes in other sports. Listening to the sound of the ball as it comes off an opponent's racket is a key to anticipation. Nevertheless, I'd like to see a tennis match where crowd noise was permitted (like any Davis Cup tie in South America) and then ask the players if their powers of concentration were really that distorted.
I know this is early, but I'd like to know your prediction for the Australia-France Davis Cup final showdown. Mark Philippoussis is back and Lleyton Hewitt lost a close three-setter to Cedric Pioline in the Paris Open. Who do you favor? I think that the Paris Open is turning out to be a nice preview for the Dec. 3-5 final. Even with Pat Rafter on the shelf and Philippoussis less than 100%, I have to go with the Aussies, in a 3-2 squeaker. Hewitt, undefeated in his brief Davis Cup career, plays his best tennis when the stakes are highest. Yes, he lost to Pioline last week, but Pioline's consistency level makes Leconte look like a metronome. Philippoussis ought to be good for at least one point. And even though Olivier Delaitre plays a mean game of doubles, you figure Mark Woodforde and Sandon Stolle (or a roll of the dice on the hard-serving Wayne Arthurs, perhaps) take Saturday's doubles match.
When you recently mentioned possible U.S. Davis Cup doubles players, you left out Jared Palmer. What gives? I believe he's the highest-ranked American doubles player. If indeed I neglected to mention Palmer, it was just my oversight. A finalist partnered with Paul Haarhuis at the Paris Open over the weekend, Palmer is a doubles stud. A quick Jared Palmer story, since you asked for it: To make some extra cash in college, I worked in the locker room at New Haven's Volvo event handing out towels, telling players their match was on, etc. Most of the players spent their off-court time talking tennis, bemoaning their dormant sex life, lamenting Connecticut's non-existent social options or playing Pop-a-shot in the players' lounge. Palmer, who had just finished his freshman year at Stanford, spoke nary a word to any other player and curled up in the locker room with a thick book of Edgar Allan Poe stories.
On what do you base your prediction that Anna Kournikova will grow up and have a great year in 2000? Isn't that what people have been saying since she was 14? I thought you guys gave me an edict to ease up on Empress Anna? True enough, we've been waiting for years now for Kournikova to ditch the "I'm too sexy for this game" shtick and fulfill her potential. But as she nears majoritarian age, she's shown signs that she's ready to get serious. First, her new handlers at Advantage (or whatever it's called after the recent merger) are adamant that she's an athlete, not a sex kitten, and will be marketed as such. Also, her injury-addled year -- in which she accomplished little and failed to win a title -- has cemented the reality that the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately meter is running perilously low.
You wrote recently that Pete Sampras had the "unenviable" task of killing a couple of days in Indianapolis during the RCA tennis tournament. Thanks for the low blow to our city. Sure, compared to New York, there's not much to do, but I think you could say the same thing about practically any city (I'm from Colorado, so I'm not a Hoosier trying to defend my home state; just defending a city I've come to enjoy very much). In the interest of full disclosure, I hail from the Crossroads of America, the land of John Mellencamp/Cougar, the airspace of Bob and Tom , the great Hoosier State. So it's nothing personal against India-no-place. (Also, I wrote this pre-Conseco Fieldhouse, which I hear is a sight to behold.) It's just that after playing events in Monte Carlo, Rome, Paris, London, Singapore, Montreal, etc., it gotta be a bummer for Sampras and Co. to come to a town where the new Hard Rock Cafe passes for haute culture.
Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.
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