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Visitors' guide to the U.S. Open
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question. New Balls, Please ...
I will be attending my first US Open this year. What are some must-dos and must-sees? Thanks. You must: ... take the much maligned No. 7 train from Manhattan, not a cab or car service. At the risk of sounding like a tourist bureau p.r. flack, I think you'll be surprised how civil and efficient an experience it is. ... bring your own lunch (or break into your 401k for a slice of greasy pizza ... your choice). ... buy a daily program, but not a yearbook, when you walk in. ... watch at least one match from the Grandstand court. ... complain at least once about the lack of intimacy in Arthur Ashe Stadium. ... part with $2 and try smacking the ball as hard as you can at the serving booth. The money, I believe, goes to charity, and this exercise will help you appreciate just how good these players are. ... watch the Woodies play doubles for the last time in the U.S. ... arrive early and spend, say, half an hour watching players practice. ... wear sunscreen. ... watch the top-seeded player in the boys and girls singles draw. ... catch Hicham Arazi if you get a chance. ... TURN OFF YOUR DAMN CELL PHONE. ... avoid dressing like a player. Unless you have a match that day, it's unspeakably tacky. ... catch Hernan Gumy in action so you can tell your friends in Nebraska, "I saw him when ..." ... ignore the imperious attitude of the ushers. They're not representative of New Yorkers. ... bring a book/crossword puzzle/date to pass the time during changeovers. ... I'm serious about the sunscreen.
I have been a tennis fanatic for a long time, but I have never understood the Australian Open. It comes at the very beginning of the season. Why not move the Aussie Open to the last weeks of October and have it be the final tournament of the year? A capstone Grand Slam would not only make more sense but also may raise the stature of the tournament. Am I alone in thinking this, or do "important" people in tennis also agree? A lot of fans, and even some "important" people, are in your boat. The tennis season is like a roller coaster -- there's an original turn of phrase -- where you get a double loop early in the ride then cruise for the next four months. The year starts with a bang Down Under (albeit one that, alas, coincides with Super Bowl Sunday) and then there's not another Slam until late May. Any momentum that tennis generates early in the year -- as Lindsay Davenport can attest -- has atrophied by then. The problem with moving the Australian is, as I see it, two-fold. First, you don't want to risk lousy weather, so you can't do much before December. Second, it has become very difficult to adjust the schedule. Virtually every week is booked solid, and neither the ATP nor WTA Tour is prepared to bump longstanding events to make accommodations to the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
What's wrong with Lindsay Davenport's game? Is she just the latest casualty of the Williams' improved play? Davenport looked awfully shaky this week in L.A. and had real problems with double faults. After blazing through the Aussie Open draw and winning Indian Wells, it looked like Davenport was running away from the field. Yet since March she has won as many tournaments as Anna Kournikova. The quick answer is that Davenport's problems are physical: she hurt her back before the French, she injured her foot in Montreal last week, and her groin has nagged her for years. They're obviously related, but I think Davenport's motivation has really slipped as well. She wearied of the road long ago, she has a serious hunka-hunka burnin' love at home in L.A. and deep down she knows that in spite of her flawless technique, she lacks the athleticism to stay with the Williams sisters much longer. Davenport isn't one to suck up every last ounce of glory. Another forgettable year like this one and she'll repair to Orange County and do just fine for herself outside of tennis.
Everyone is always talking about how cold Anna Kournikova is to the press. Don't you agree the reason is that she is always hounded by the press? Lindsay Davenport is one of the nicest and friendliest players to the press. Maybe that is because she is left alone by them. The generous side of me says that Kournikova gets asked so many personal, inappropriate questions -- that are posed only to stir up controversy -- that it's no wonder she is frostier than a Wendy's dessert in her press conferences. The less forgiving side says that she is so imperious and patently snobby, that it's no wonder she and the press have such a rancorous relationship.
I haven't heard anything about Vladimir Voltchkov since his big breakthrough at Wimbledon (where he lost in the semifinals to Sampras). Has he been playing since Wimbledon? If so, what sort of results has he shown? Does he stack up as a darkhorse contender at the U.S. Open? Sad story about Vladimir Voltchkov -- who never did get the clothing contract, by the way. After qualifying in Indianapolis, he won his first round match over Vince Spadea (doesn't everyone?) and then lost to Karim Alami. Against Alami he re-injured his shoulder and is expected to pull out of the U.S. and may not be healthy for the Olympics. This sounds suspiciously like a Rafter-esque rotator cuff injury that bodes ill for much future success. (To make matters worse, Voltchkov, the first player since John McEnroe to go from the Wimbledon qualies to the semis, is the nicest player you could ever hope to meet.)
Being deprived of any tennis matches on TV, I never saw the once-ranked-No. 1 Magnus Norman. Can you give me some sort of "Complete Idiot's Guide to Magnus Norman?" What you're missing! Just kidding. Not to worry, there are a lot folks with DirecTV, a satellite dish and a broadband Internet connection who don't know much about him either. The thumbnail sketch: solid player; good groundies, mediocre serve; hard worker; personality-wise, he's a veritable Jerry Lewis by Swedish standards; fell head over heels for Martina Hingis; is having a hard time dealing with the status that attends being a top five player; has seen his results plummet since the French. I may whiff on this, but I think he could do real damage at the U.S. Open.
I've been pleasantly surprised by your coverage of Hernan Gumy, one of my favorite lesser-known players. How about some info on another: Galo Blanco? I saw him play in the qualies in Scottsdale last year, and I really liked his game. Been following him a bit since. Any info you have on him would be much appreciated. If Gumy is the Sampras of Buenos Aires, Blanco is the Agassi of Andorra. Blanco, 23, reached the quarters of the French a few years ago but hasn't done much since. He was discovered by Alex Corretja's father, Luis, who brought Blanco to Barcelona to train full time. In all honesty, he's a perfectly nice player, but don't look for him to do much on a surface other than clay.
What's the story on Fernando Gonzalez of Chile? I just watched him in a doubles match at the Legg Mason with Guillermo Coria of Argentina, and the kid was popping serves at 129 mph. Then he went on to knock Chris Woodruff out of the tournament. Both he and Coria were very charismatic, getting the crowd into the match. I was wondering if Gonzalez has the stuff to be a future champ. Yeah, another one of you wrote in about him a few weeks ago. To be honest, I've never seen him play, but he's on my APB list for the Open. One no-name who caught my eye in Paris was Agustin Calleri of Argentina. He seems to be a clay-court specialist, but he bludgeons the ball off both sides and has a lot of flair. Check him out if you get a chance.
I am a big fan of Younes El Aynaoui. O.K., so he does have a weak backhand, but I say his flat, killer forehand is awesome. It must be one of the best in the game. How would you rate it against the big forehands in the game? Does it make your top-5 list? Top five foreheads:
1. Agassi Oh, sorry I misread that. Top five forehands:
1. Kuerten You're right, though, El Aynaoui blasts the ball with no trace of spin. He's probably in that 5-10 category along with Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Magnus Norman and Lleyton Hewitt. Too bad his mediocre backhand will keep him from being a truly elite player.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever seen a player past or present who used/uses a forehand slice (not the forehand drop shot) occasionally in a rally? Sometimes I'll see players hit it out of desperation when they're chasing a ball in a corner. Other times, players like Amanda Coetzer or even Hingis will hit it just to junk up a rally or to be cute. But, no, never have I seen a player -- not a contemporary one anyway -- use it effectively or consistently like we see with the backhand slice.
Enjoy your mailbag, although I am a tennis spectator only. I thought you might like to know you appeal to the non-players as well. My question is, How do players on any of the tours scout each other? Or do they? Is it common knowledge what a player's strengths and weaknesses are? Are players friendly enough to share information with each other on another opponent? Or is it a matter of someone like Sampras saying to himself "Doesn't matter how that guy plays, he's gonna have to play his absolute best tennis to beat me?" Guess that was actually five questions. We'll excuse you since you commenced your welter of questions with a compliment. The answer is that it varies greatly. Martina Hingis, for instance, has an encyclopedic knowledge of other players' tendencies, favorite shots and weaknesses. Often her mom and/or "manager," (read: mom's boyfriend) Mario Widner, are in the stands, scouting and scribbling notes when her opponents are playing. Other players have only a vague awareness of their opponents. Serena Williams, for instance, occasionally doesn't even know whether her opponent is right- or left-handed until she takes the court. As a rule, I think your Sampras hypothetical is correct. Sure, it helps to know that Conchita Martinez likes to serve wide to the deuce court or that Lindsay Davenport prefers to hit backhand passing shots crosscourt. But ultimately, players have to have enough confidence in their own game to "play their game" and worry more about themselves than their opponents.
At what point are the top females equal to the males? For instance, could a top U.S. boys' 16 junior beat a woman ranked in the 200's by the WTA? Could a decent D-I men's player -- say, the No. 5 for Stanford -- hang with Serena Williams? Would a good No. 1 player totally dust Davenport? How do they match up and where? This is one of those hot-button issues, so let me preface this by saying that the point of women's tennis (or women's sports in general) isn't to compete with the men. Two different bodies, two different species -- and let's appreciate each separate of the other. That disclaimer out of the way, the gulf between men's and women's is a wide one. The Williams sisters skew the comparisons a bit, but my guess is that the fifth singles player for Stanford would beat Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3. The top-ranked player in the U.S. boys' 16 could beat any WTA Tour player outside the top five. Yes, Alex Kim, who won the 2000 NCAA singles title would dust Davenport. (Likewise, my high school basketball team would dust the Houston Comets and Marion Jones would get outrun by a man on the Olympic track team.) My ultimate response, though, is so what ? This gap in ability doesn't mean women's tennis is any less entertaining or any less worthy of our attention, or that the WTA Tour's abundant rivalries are less exciting. If the television ratings, attendance and even your mailbag correspondences are any indication, tennis fans don't think so either.
If Anna Kournikova somehow managed to meet Tim Henman in a final who do you think would win? Hint: it's a trick question. Vince Spadea. Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.
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