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Pioline is worth watching
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 12:30 PM
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question. One more postscript regarding moving the WTA Tour year-end championships to Munich. There will now be no Tier I or II women's events in the U.S. between the U.S. Open one year and Scottsdale the next. ... Did I miss an edict prohibiting American men from playing clay-court events? ... Good to see Marat Safin -- who claims he was recently contemplating retirement -- back from the dead. ... Where would that Russian Fed Cup team have been without Anna Kournikova? ... From the We're Holding Our Breath Dept.: Venus Williams is still scheduled to play Hamburg. Onward ...
Is it just me, or is Cedric Pioline (when he's playing well) the most exciting men's tennis player in the world? He's flashy, elegant and, as Cliff Drysdale says, "Has soooooo much game"! It's not just you. Pioline does indeed have major game, provided he decides to bring it. A dazzling shotmaker and superb athlete, he's capable of unsurpassing tennis. Pioline is also capable of laying a [Henri] Leconte- like egg (see his U.S. Open semifinal loss to Todd Martin last year). What's more, he's a threat on any surface: He's made the finals of Wimbledon and the U.S. and he won last week's Masters Series event on the clay of Monte Carlo. At age 31, the meter on his career is winding down; but if Petr Korda can steal a Slam in his sunset years, there's no reason Pioline can't, too.
I heard that the main reason why Mary Pierce has been playing so well lately is because she recently had laser eye surgery to improve her vision. Do you know anything about this? And have other tennis players (or athletes in general) been trying it, too? Have you ever thought about it yourself? (I've heard that it especially helps players who are a bit weaker on the backhand side ...) After a demeaning loss in Tokyo to Lilia Osterloh, Pierce flew to San Diego and did indeed have laser surgery performed on her peepers. A good thing, this, since she was constantly squinting and futzing with her eye drops when she played. Her inspiration, she claims, was Tiger Woods, who also had the procedure performed last year. (Aside: Can you imagine the pressure -- and malpractice risk -- involved with taking a laser to the eyes of Mary Pierce, never mind Tiger Woods?) Anyway, Pierce is absolutely giddy about the results of the surgery and, yes -- coincidence or not -- she's been playing much better ever since. Since you were kind enough to ask, I've thought about going under the laser but ultimately chickened out. Can't quite countenance someone taking a salami slicer to my cornea. If there were proof it would really help my backhand, I might reconsider.
What are the chances of Lindsay Davenport winning the French Open? Will she be the female version of Pete Sampras as far as clay is concerned? How is it possible that the currently absent Venus Williams was so successful last year on clay, while other big servers (notably Serena Williams and Lindsay) were not? The chances are not as bad as you'd think. Davenport's biggest enemy at the French might be herself; she's no fan of Europe and I believe she'll only play one tuneup before heading to the red clay. Still, she's hardly a female version of Sampras. Clay is probably her worst surface but she's made it to at least the fourth round at Roland Garros for five years running. With Venus -- you're right, an underrated clay-courter -- either MIA or invariably rusty; Serena off her game; Graf retired; and Seles running on tired legs, Davenport has a real shot.
Go check out the latest Mailbag from Gary Van Sickle on the Golf page. He launched a pretty big bomb at the current state of tennis. I think it is your duty as our sport's cyber-representative to come back with some defense to his comment. Thank you for defending the faith. I would start making cogent comparisons, if only I could name one golfer other than Tiger Woods. ( David Duval is Alexandra Stevenson in Dockers. Jack Nicklaus is older than my dad and can still make the leaderboard -- somehow I don't see Rod Laver beating many main-draw players at the U.S. Open this year. Do they even play women's golf anymore?) Instead, I'll let Andre Agassi speak for us. To paraphrase: "Anything you can play while drunk is not a sport." 1. What are the top five tournaments for the average fan to see world-class tennis?
2. What are the five most-popular tournaments -- men's and women's -- from the perspective of the players? (Maybe I'm a cynic, but I'm guessing this has something to do with how many freebies are handed out.) Here's where the ugly American bias I was accused of harboring last week rears its head. Haven't been to many events outside this continent, so I'm limiting this to North America. In no particular order ...
Note that indoor events, for my money anyway, are not as fun since there are no back courts to catch a few games between two players you've never heard of. There's no accounting for the taste of the players. Ericsson is a perfect example. The players inclined to getting jiggy love the proximity to South Beach and all those other civic attributes Will Smith can tick off. Others hate the "scene," the fact that the hotel is far away and the influx of media. Conversely, Indian Wells is played before a breathtaking backdrop of desert, mountains and a wide canopy of blue sky. But the nightlife sucks.
The way I see it, tennis has two major surfaces (hard and clay), a minor surface (indoor carpet) and a host of oddities, the most prominent of which is grass. Since we all love your top-five lists, who do you see as the top five all-surface players in the men's game? (The women's tour doesn't seem to suffer from single-surface specialists.)
1. Agassi
I am appalled by your prejudice against smaller young players. You consistently say that so-and-so is a "player to watch because of his size and strength," while so-and-so is "talented but too small to have a legitimate weapon to succeed in the pros." Do you still believe Marat Safin will end up being more successful than the other young players like Lleyton Hewitt? While Hewitt's progress has been consistent, Safin hasn't improved at all for more than a year. You might even say he's regressed. And just because someone is small doesn't mean he can't hit with power; Andrew Ilie is only 5'9" but serves faster than 130 mph. "Appalled by your prejudice"? Them's fightin' words. How about a more civil, "I'm inclined to disagree with your assessment." Anyway, you might be right that I'm too quick to dismiss a player because he or she is slight in stature. But I've seen too many Cecil Mamiits and Anna Smashnovas lose matches simply because they were overpowered by foes of greater size. Their strokes were just as clean as their opponents, their court coverage as good or better, their strategy faultless. But the encounter was simply a physical mismatch. Let's put it this way: The undersized players who have made it on tour -- Agassi, Hewitt, Hicham Arazi, Marcelo Rios -- are also some of the most exceptionally talented pros. Seems like they need an extra gift to make up for the lack of inches. As for Ilie, he's listed at 5'11", not 5'9". And his girth makes up for any height issues. That 130 mph serve is right out of a Foster's can.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won a lot a couple of years ago and nearly a Grand Slam last year. What happened to them this year? Also, why do you think Leander struggles so much to produce consistently in singles? Bhupathi has been suffering from a shoulder injury of late. He's on the mend, though, and I believe he and Paes will resume playing together in time for the French. As for Paes, "He's talented but too small to have a legitimate weapon to succeed in the pros." Seriously, he's precisely the type of player I'm referring to in the above question. He hits a solid ball, he's cat-quick and he has some of the best hands in the sport. But at 5'10", he has a tough time keeping pace with the Jerome Golmards and Jiri Novaks (much less the Piolines and Mark Philippoussises ) of the world. 1) What are Martina Navratilova's chances of taking her 20th Wimbledon title and tying Billie Jean King's record?
2) It is distressing to note that there were no American players in Barcelona. Is it some hubris on their part that they think they can prepare for the French Open without making the effort? I do not include Agassi in the group -- he is obviously head and shoulders above the rest anyway -- but where are the others? 1) Slim. She may be in shape but I don't believe she's in tennis shape. 2) Who are we really talking about? Agassi is hurt. Sampras likes the NBA playoffs. Martin is due back soon. Vince Spadea's career is in permafrost. Is the presence of Chris Woodruff, an aging Jim Courier, Justin Gimelstob and Jan-Michael Gambill really so disquieting?
Whatever happened to Jonas Bjorkman? Wasn't he hanging around the top five a few years ago? (His hilarious serve impersonations of Boris Becker, John McEnroe, et al. is enough to merit the ranking, in my view.) Bjorkman, one of the alltime good guys on tour, has struggled with injuries in recent years. Still, he's around, making his way through the odd draw and playing lots of doubles. In fact, I hear he's the frontrunner to replace Mark Woodforde as Todd Woodbridge's partner when the former retires. JB's imitations are indeed hilarious. His spoof of Kournikova double-faulting supposedly brought down the house at a recent players' cabaret. Finally ...
I have yet to consult the IMDB myself, but as a tennis journalist and columnist, how could you forget Players, from 1979, which not only starred the talented Mr. Guttenberg but also featured Ali McGraw, Pancho Gonzales and John McEnroe? In other words, there's always a link between movie stars and tennis. Somehow.
Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.
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