Do I Really Have to Leave Tomorrow?

Hi guys. So, after a wonderful night's sleep, I am over last night's ordeal and had an amazing time at the tennis today. Qualifying play started at around 10am at the tennis center in Rock Creek Park. Unfortunately the spectators' shuttle doesn't start until Monday, but the hotel Acura service chauffeured me to the tournament around 1pm. I didn't miss too much. Plus, while I was waiting in the lobby this morning, I happened upon an unoccupied Tomas Berdych, who was more than happy to pose for a picture with me and sign an autograph. This was definitely a good start for the rest of the day.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't spend anytime on Center Court today. Instead, I chose to enjoy the view of the practice courts. I watched a lot of practice sessions, including Michael Lloda, Gilles Simon, Julien Benneteau, Stanislas Wawrinka, Yen Hsun Lu, Viktor Troicki, David Nalbandian, Andrey Golubev, Rajeev Ram, Dmitry Tursunov, and probably a few more I forgot about.

Nearly all the players were happy to stop and sign autographs after their practice sessions. Stan Wawrinka was particularly fun to watch in practice as he was quite playful with his coach and spoke English the entire time. Although, he definitely wasn't pleased that someone screwed up his practice reservation. Gilles Simon did not seem at all happy with his practice this afternoon. If I knew any French obscenities, I'm betting that's what I was hearing from Simon's side of the court. Llodra was lovely as always. I've had quite the soft spot for him since I watched him practice in Rotterdam. Dmitry Tursunov looked like he was ready to kill someone after his practice. I got there at the very end after he was already finished, but it didn't look like it went well. His coach did hand out the practice balls to fans at the end though. Anyway, that was most of what I saw today, but I would like to follow this post with some fun facts.

Some Things You Probably Didn't Know:

Tomas Berdych has ridiculously blue eyes. I know they show him on TV all the time now, but this guy is a thousand times better looking in person. I even saw him play in person at the French, but this was still better.

Julien Benneteau has a picture of him and a woman I assume is his girlfriend as the background on his blackberry. No, I was not being a creeper. We road down in the same elevator this morning and he was holding his phone.

Even ugly players have pretty girlfriends.

David Nalbandian has the prettiest autograph I've seen so far.

There were puppies. They drew almost as large a crowd as some practice courts.

No one watches doubles practice.

Alright, I'm getting ready to head off for dinner, but I will definitely have a much more in depth tournament article for you guys on Monday.

Legg Mason Bound...Maybe

Hi Guys. I know my posts are usually long and thought out, but it's about 9:20pm in Boston and I'm at the airport waiting for my perpetually delayed flight to leave for Washington, DC so I can go see the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Anyway, the good news is it looks like I'll get there, the bad news, I've shelled out a lot of money to stay in the W Hotel (where the players stay during the tournament,) and am missing most of my first night. Since I have to sit here for another few hours, I thought I might share some of my thoughts with my readers, if they actually exist.

Putting aside the slight set back concerning my JetBlue flight out of Boston Logan, I am really excited to get down to DC for the Legg Mason tournament. I chose to fly out for the first weekend instead of finals weekend in hopes of catching more matches. Luckily, the DC tournament starts main draw play on Sunday instead of Monday. So, I will be attending the qualifiers and one day of main draw play. While the top 16 players have byes in the first round, I'm hoping maybe a few of them will turn up early to practice. Plus, I could always run into someone in the elevator at the W. When I attended the Estoril Open in May, I stayed at the absolutely gorgeous players' hotel and ended up sitting right next to a few at breakfast. I'm fairly certain doubles specialist, Robert Lindstedt started to recognize me for the amount of times we ended up in the same place. I have to add that this was not on purpose. If I was going to stalk a player, it would be someone significantly more famous than Robert Lindstedt. For me, it is entertaining enough to share the same place as an incredible tennis player, I feel no need to bother them. I am no tennis groupie. I believe there should be some limits if you're going to approach a player, and try to do so only at the actual tournament or if they are clearly not busy.

Andrea's Rules for Respecting Boundaries:
1. Never try to talk to a player during a meal. How would you like it if someone interrupted your dinner? These players should be allowed to have private lives too. The only exception to this rule could occur if the player is seated alone and makes the first contact. For instance, if the player is sitting at the table next to you in a restaurant, and asks you to pass the salt from your table, this is an invitation to begin some kind of conversation. He started it.
2. Don't treat the players like you know them when you meet them. It's weird. No matter how much you read about them on the internet, they are not your friends. You may address them by first name, but don't get weird. I may scream at my TV like Andy Roddick is my friend, but I'm aware that we do not actually know each other.
3. Don't try to butter up their entourage. When I was in Rotterdam for the ABN AMRO tournament, there was a girl who attended nearly every practice session and accosted the player at the end. As if this wasn't bad enough, she actually found a player's mom and started chatting her up. I was close enough to hear some of it and the girl played this woman until she would introduce her to her son. This is creepy, bordering on insane.
4. Never break out a camera if you are less than 10 feet from the player and haven't asked their permission. This rule is void if you're on tournament grounds and willing to deal with the awkwardness. A way around this is a camera with excellent zoom. If you're dead set on taking a picture at dinner, at least pretend you're playing with your blackberry or iphone and do it discreetly. I wouldn't, but that's up to you.
5. If you do not know the player's name, do not ask them for a picture or autograph. This is awkward.

Well, that's enough of my ramblings for tonight. I'll check back in tomorrow, hopefully in a better mood.

Money, Money, Money, Money...Money

For the seventh year, Sport Illustrated has come out with a list of the top 50 earning American athletes. Tiger Woods topped the list again this year despite everything that has happened. Although his earning are down about 9 million dollars, but I’m not sure that matters very much when you’re earning more than 90 million dollars per year. The complete list included 15 NFL stars, 16 NBA players, 13 baseball players, 3 NASCAR drivers, two golf titans, and a boxer. I’m guessing you probably noticed the absence of any tennis players on this list. It makes sense. Americans just aren’t that interest in tennis, but I don’t have to like it. Andy Roddick is the highest earning American player on the men’s side and as much as I love him, he’s not winning the big tournaments that come with the big money and the big endorsements. Even if he was, the A-Rod of the tennis world would have to win prize money equivalent to 22 grand slams in a year to equal the yearly salary of baseball’s A-Rod. Clearly that isn’t going to happen. That’s why tennis players have to make up for the lack of prize money with endorsements.

Serena Williams may be the superstar of the WTA tour, but even more so than other industries, female athletes only make a fraction of what their male equivalents take home. Tennis is actually one of the most equal sports in terms of pay between men and women, but even if the prize money is the same, the endorsements will never be. Williams isn’t even the highest earner on the women’s tour. That honor goes to Maria Sharapova, who earned nearly 20 million dollars in the last year. Not only is Sharapova the highest earning female athlete, she made it to number 20 on the list of the Top 20 Highest Earning International Athletes, one of 3 tennis players on this year’s list. Attractiveness will get you everywhere. Maria hasn’t made it past the quarters at any major since she won the 2008 Australian Open. I’m not knocking her play. She was out for a long time with a shoulder injury and has been working her way back to top form. But this just goes to show how little prize money means and how much the “cute” factor matters for endorsements. I mean, Anna Kournikova never really won anything on the singles tour and she still makes money on her tennis career because people think she’s hot. Serena Williams may be incredibly talented, but she’s also slightly terrifying. Maria Sharapova and her Chihuahua make for a pretty cute commercial, but Serena doesn’t exactly scream cute.

Anyway, I got a little off topic. Three tennis players made the list of the Top 20 International Earners. Roger Federer came in at number 1, earning over 60 million dollars between prize money and endorsements. Federer’s got it all, mind blowing talent, good looks, and ridiculous sums of money. Mirka is a lucky lady. He was number 9 on last years list, so even though he didn’t defend his title at the French Open or Wimbledon this year, he’ll be pleased to know that he earned more than twice as much as the next highest earning tennis player, world number 1, Rafael Nadal. Nadal appeared at number 9 on the list, earning 27 million dollars. In case you’re wondering what would happen if SI put together a global list. Federer would be the 2^nd highest paid athlete in the world, right behind his good friend Tiger and right above pro golfer, Phil Mickelson.

A Day for Doubles

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent last weekend in the lovely town of Newport, RI at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Unlike most events, in Newport, a semifinal ticket will cost you more than a ticket to the finals and is often difficult to come by. The reason for this is that a Saturday ticket includes both singles semifinals as well as the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and even a doubles semifinal for kicks. I was mostly looking forward to the semifinal matches as I wasn’t particularly familiar with most of this year’s inductees (let me know when they’re inducting Roger Federer and I’ll be first in line.) The Hall of Fame decided to dedicate this year’s inductions to doubles, a facet of the sport which most fans ignore for the more glamorous singles events. I’ll be truthful, I don’t follow doubles nearly as closely as I do the singles, especially on the WTA tour, but it’s a sham that doubles is so underrated by fans. I love watching doubles in person. It’s like getting double for your money. You get to see four players instead of just two and doubles matches are generally on outer courts early on in an event even if they feature big name players. Plus, doubles offers a very different kind of tennis, almost solely dependant on the serve and volley. The points are shorter and faster but can often be quite exciting.

Back to the point, 5 of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees were known best for their achievements in doubles where they all won numerous Grand Slams, including two incredibly successful teams. The most famous of the inductees were the “Woodies,” Australians Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge. They racked up an impressive 61 ATP titles (a record only recently tied by the Bryan brothers,) 11 Grand Slams, and both a gold and silver Olympic medal. They were introduced by Ray Ruffels, the man who helped bring the pair together. Ray explained that he had been working with Todd and together, they had prepared a list of potential partners. Todd brought up Mark. Ray proceeded to tell an amusing anecdote about how hesitant he was to seek out Woodforde, not because he believed him to be a poor choice but because he believed Woodforde would resent Ruffels for denying him a prestigious scholarship years earlier. Lucky for everyone, Woodforde agreed to partner with Woodbridge and the Woodies partnership was born. Woodforde, apparently the sappier of the two, gave an emotional thank you to his friends and family while Woodbridge followed with a shorter thank you for his camp. He then remarked what a shame it was that he and Mark had to be split up for this year’s Wimbledon invitational tournament as Woodford is now considered a senior. He made up for the jibe by mentioning that Mark won the event, while he had lost his group. It’s clear there’s a great camaraderie between these two and they seemed very nice, wandering the grounds, stopping to chat with fans and holding an autograph session in the museum.

The Woodies induction was preceded by the induction of Natasha Zvereva and Gigi Fernandez, introduced by Pam Shriver. Honestly, I had never heard of the pair before as they were most successful during my early childhood and aren’t often mentioned in tennis trivia, eclipsed by the slightly more recognizable team of Pam Shriver and Martina Navratilova. Pam gave a lovely tribute before handing the floor to Gigi, who had 48 family members attending the event. She gave a heartfelt speech about her partnership with Natasha and what it meant to be the first female Puerto Rican professional athlete. Nearing tears at many points throughout the speech, Natasha provided a much needed shoulder rub before taking over and giving a brief thank you to the Hall of Fame for procuring her a visa despite the travel ban from Belarus. Tennis.com did a nice piece on Zvereva in their Daily Spin section last week if you’re interested in learning more. I met Gigi at her autograph session on Sunday and she was very friendly, personalizing each signature and chatting with each fan.

For me, the most interesting and inspirational inductee was under the contributor category: Brad Parks. Parks is the pioneer of wheelchair tennis. He was paralyzed after a trick skiing accident at age 18 and used tennis a way to help his recovery. Over time, he found other wheelchair bound sportsmen to play with and helped develop the sport to where it is today. Wheelchair tennis is included at all of the Grand Slam tournaments and several other ATP tournaments as well as having its own tour around the world. I first got the opportunity to see wheelchair tennis earlier this year in Rotterdam and it’s really fascinating to watch. The upper body strength that the players have is absolutely staggering and the only difference from regular tennis is that the ball can bounce twice. I would highly suggest checking it out if you get the chance.

Newport News

I know tennis is supposed to be a gentlemen’s sport and players should remain unperturbed by a bad serve or a missed overhead and simply play through until the better player wins, at which point the loser will congratulate the winner and hide his disappointment. I do love the fact that Roger and Rafa have an incredibly gracious rivalry, unlike some of the more bitter rivalries of tennis past. There’s something truly remarkable about the respect and reverence that each player has for the other. However, sometimes I like to see the players get frustrated. I’m not talking about some obscene outburst (a la Serena Williams at the US Open 2009 or Victor Hanescu at Wimbledon 2010,) but sometimes it seems like a little racket throwing or a muttered obscenity can do a player some good.

On Sunday, I had a courtside seat for the singles and doubles final at the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, RI. I watched the semi-finals on Saturday and was thrilled to see Olivier Rochus and Mardy Fish in the singles final, as I consider them extremely talented players whose games are generally underrated. I mean really, Olivier Rochus is only 5’6” and he’s 29 years old, but he still very nearly managed to take out Novak Djokovic in the first round of Wimbledon this year. Mardy Fish was once a top 20 player but has fallen by the wayside as younger Americans like John Isner and Sam Querrey have eclipsed veterans like Fish and Blake. The youngsters still have a way to go to push Andy Roddick out of the top spot though.

Fish seems to have taken Andy Roddick’s approach to revitalizing a tennis career and has recently dropped a shocking 30 pounds. I’ve never seen Mardy in person before this weekend, but he’s honestly looking a bit wiry, but he does seem to be sporting some nicely defined abs and the new slim look has mad his head appear less round. Anyway, this transformation does seem to have vastly improved his tennis. Fish was serving incredibly well in the first set, when at 5-all, breakpoint, he stopped play on a ball he clearly could’ve hit because he believed the linesman had called it out. Mardy looked flummoxed when the chair umpire declared “Game Rochus.” Once Fish realized that there had been no call and Rochus was only one hold away from taking the first set, he screamed, “No way!” and rounded on the man he believed made the phantom call. Fish wasn’t unjustifiably angry or threatening with the linesman. On the changeover, he repeatedly asked the man, “So you’re saying you didn’t make a single sound?” and telling him, “It’s ok. I already lost the point, you can say it.” As seemed inevitable an unconcerned Rochus held to take the set as Mardy openly berated himself for missing easy shots.

However, Fish didn’t let this call influence his play and came back even more focused to win the second set 6-3. This is why I enjoyed watching Fish criticize his own play. He was passionate. Newport may not be anywhere near a Grand Slam, but he was playing to win. He wasn’t being unsportsmanlike or insulting to anyone else on or off the court, he merely wasn’t happy unless he was putting everything he had into each point. Believe me, there were a lot of shots that other players would’ve let go that Mardy dove face first to hit. He ended up flat out on the grass more than any other player I’ve seen live.

Best of all, he didn’t disappoint the hometown crowd. I’m not sure there was a single Rochus supporter on center court yesterday, the obvious exception of his box. I always feel bad for the player when the audience so clearly favors his opponent. But Olli didn’t seem the least bit upset by the lopsided crowd. In fact, he didn’t really even seem to mind losing. He gave a lovely speech after accepting his runner-up trophy and check and convincingly congratulated Mardy on his victory. As I said earlier, I appreciated both gracious winners and losers and these guys epitomized both. Well, I’ve got to work tomorrow so I better wrap this up, but I’ll give you guys some more of my impressions from Newport throughout the week, including the hall of fame induction.