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Courier's legacy
Posted: Tuesday May 16, 2000 06:05 PM
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question. A number of you, including Kent from Louisville and Mary of Chicago, asked me to reflect on the career of Jim Courier, who retired last week. Befitting a player who once read a book during a changeover and addressed a French Open crowd en français, the arc of Jim Courier's career was far out of the ordinary. For a spell, it looked like he was the leading light in what was perhaps the best pack of Americans ever to hit the circuit. By age 22, he was on the fast path to legend status, a world No. 1 capable of winning a Slam on any surface. That, unfortunately, was the peak. When Courier pulled the plug last week, he was working at a level barely north of journeyman status, a player who gave up his tenancy in the seeds' locker room years ago and hadn't won a Grand Slam since the Bush administration. Like so many of us, Courier's biggest asset was also his biggest liability. Preternatural tenacity enabled him to outwork every player on tour, dirtball a conga line of opponents into submission, and outlast more talented players who simply could not match his resolve. The same trait, however, manifested itself as a stubbornness that prevented Courier from making adjustments to his game as it became increasingly clear that his one-dimensional slugging and a punchless serve could no longer sustain him. And it prevented him from quitting long after it became clear he was no longer a threat to achieve much more than springing the occasional upset. How will history regard the quintessential all-American kid? Hard to say. Yes, the last seven years Courier has been a shadow of his old self. But let's consider the totality of his career. He's played well all over the world; he may have hit the best inside-out forehand in tennis history; he was a loyal Davis Cupper; and, a year ago today, his Grand Slam record stacked up favorably with Andre Agassi's. Hall of Fame material? Absolutely. What's more, even to the end, Courier stood out in a game whose participants are often accused of lacking character and color. Perhaps more than any other contemporary, Courier had a curiosity that greatly exceeded tennis -- which made the prolonging of his career all the more unnecessary. And don't think he'll go quietly into the night; he's already signed on to provide Wimbledon commentary for TNT and CNN/Sports Illustrated, and his name is always bandied about as a future Davis Cup captain. If you were asked a decade ago what Courier was capable of achieving in his career, a likely response would have been: Maybe the moon. Turned out he missed the moon, but he landed on the stars instead. Which ain't so bad. Over ...
Not that Pete Sampras has a chance at the French (given that he can't reach for a glass of water without tearing a muscle), but if you were his coach, would you advise him to play his usual attacking game or to hold back and grind it out (if he can trade groundstrokes with Andre Agassi, one would think that he could be pretty successful just hitting from the baseline)? Or would your advice depend on the conditions of the clay during the tournament? As I see it, half of Sampras's problems on clay are mental. It seems he's so busy worrying about strategizing and fretting about his stamina level that he lapses in concentration and makes errors unthinkable on any other surface. I don't disagree with you that Sampras can hang with virtually any player on tour from the baseline -- but there's an asterisk: only in a best-of-three hardcourt match, not over five grueling sets on a surface that preserves points, against looping topspin savants who think nothing of playing for four hours. Were I his coach, my instructions would be simple. First, play the tuneups and catch the NBA playoffs on satellite. (Trust me. I've been courtside for a half-dozen postseason games in the past three weeks and they ain't all they're cracked up to be.) Second, stop obsessing over your string tension, the weather and the conditions. Third, attack, attack, attack. Yes, you'll get the business end of some passing shots. And, yes, your footwork will occasionally be stymied and you'll have to hit some volleys at your feet. But you're not going to win playing a game with which you're simply not comfortable.
Is Jennifer Capriati still alive? I haven't seen her on the tour for close to two months. So she's split with her coach and is dating an ATP player. I'm hoping she's off somewhere secretly training to take the French Open by storm. If not ... how sad. If she's secretly training for the French, she has a funny way of doing it, starting with her sayonara to Harold Solomon, the man she was crediting two months ago with salvaging her career. At the time of Capriati's "Cinderella" run to the Aussie semis, yours truly warned the masses not to read too much into it. Her biggest win Down Under was a three-setter against Patty Schnyder followed by a whitewash of Ai Sugiyama. Since then, she's done very little. I saw her get thoroughly outplayed by Cara Black in Indian Wells, reverting to the same mindless overhitting that characterized her game as a 14-year-old. And, yes, she beat Serena Williams in an error-plagued match in Key Biscayne, but bowed out quietly in her next contest. I spoke with Solomon the other day and he wasn't selling out his former pupil. "I'm still a big supporter of Jennifer," he says. "I still think if she decides to put in the work, she can be the best player in the world." My WTA Tour sources, though, tell me that Capriati's work ethic has nose-dived since last year and she's more devoted to Xavier Malisse than she is to playing top-notch tennis. It's still early in the season, and, remember, she won her first event in years on clay last May. But I agree with your sentiment. She's been given such a reprieve by the sport. How sad, indeed, if she squanders it.
Why are Marat Safin's best results on clay? He hits a flat ball, has a big serve and doesn't move particularly well. Sounds like he's the perfect hardcourt player. Does he simply know how to play on clay, or has he merely underachieved on faster courts? (Then again, if Marc Rosset can win the Olympics on clay, anything can happen.) By the way, is it just me, or has Vince Spadea still not won a match this year? Good question. I don't have much problem with Safin's movement, but you're right, the serve, the heavy ball and the impatience are better suited for hard courts. At the same time, Safin was weaned on the terre battue. You'll recall that Safin moved from Russia to Spain when he was barely a teenager to train with Rafael Mensua. Re: Spadea, it ain't just you. By comparison, Alexandra Stevenson is on a hot streak.
Is it just me or does John McEnroe seem less foolish for saying that he could compete with some of today's ATP Tour stars? Jimmy Arias entered the qualifying draw for the Ericsson Open (Masters Series) and very nearly qualified. McEnroe has been playing far better than Arias (dominating him and everyone else on the senior tour, routing Arias twice). He also reached the mixed doubles semis at Wimbledon last year. I therefore conclude that it is not that unrealistic to see McEnroe teaming with, say, Alex O'Brien and winning some Davis Cup doubles. What are your thoughts? I wrote a few weeks ago that given the futility of the American doubles team and given that most senior events are on clay, I wouldn't be surprised if Mac makes good on his threat and calls his own number for the next tie in Spain. That said, let's not get carried away. Yes, Arias entered the qualifying draw in Scottsdale on a lark and nearly won a match. (Don't hold me to this, but I believe it was against Andrea Gaudenzi). I say, Big deal. Arias was once a top-five player. So 15 years later he can still give an ATP Tour qualifier a good match? So what? Trust me, there's no player in the top 50 he can beat today. I guess, at some level, this is where my uneasiness with Martina Navratilova takes root. I don't doubt that she can hold her own against the Francesca Lubianis and Anne-Gaelle Sidots of the tour. But this is Martina freakin' Navratilova we're talking about. So long as she has no chance against players in the top 10, what is she really proving by holding her own against second-tier players?
If you could only buy a ticket to one more match in your life, whom would you like to see play and where would you like to see the match played? This can include players of the past and present. I'd have to say it would be TeamTennis. The 1983 Boston Lobsters vs. the 1997 St. Louis Aces. On the indoor carpet. This isn't particularly creative, but here's my final answer, Reege: Sampras vs. Rod Laver on hard courts. FINALLY, I yield the balance of my time to Jacqueline Dupree of Washington, D.C.: Less a question than an observation, about the ATP Champions Race. BLUCH! BLAH! PTOOEY! I think it's hysterical that the ATP felt it necessary to change to this useless new system to "help the fans" at the same time that golf changed to a rolling, two-year weighted ranking. And obviously golf is nose-diving in popularity. [Shameless plug here.] I've been running for nearly 10 years a little contest called the Men's Tennis Stock Market, where contestants pick and choose ATP players like stocks, and can buy and sell them throughout the contest. It's always been based on the rolling calendar, mainly because that adds the fun of strategy (not just picking the best players, but the best players with the fewest points to defend). So I have a vested interest in the old system (now called the "entry rankings"), but I still think that this new system won't last any longer than three years. It certainly hasn't forced the top players to play more -- the pathetic draw at Monte Carlo is a prime 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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