Wednesday, November 28
Last updated at 11:05 pm EDT
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Bhupathi back on court - The Hindu
Vicky Knowles, a former great Bahamian champion in her own right, and the matriarch of [] Mark Knowles['] successful career, told the Journal on Monday that her son has approached the situation in a "realistic fashion.""Mark well understands what a great combination they have been, one of the best in history. After Roland Garros (scene of the pair’s French Open Championship earlier this year) Dan had a chance to back off the decision. But, he told Mark that he had committed to his new partner. Mark asked him about the 13 years they had spent together on the court and the decision was really Dan’s," said Vicky.
She informs though that her son is taking the matter in good stride and she attributed Mark’s great play while the two were winning the recent Doubles Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai to the Bahamian swinger "wanting to show what he can still do."
"I suppose Mark just wanted to show the world that nothing has happened to his game. He was determined. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play better," said the proud mom.
Websites
In his debut as captain, McEnroe selected a green 18-year-old named Andy Roddick to be the fourth player on the team that would face Switzerland in the first round. Roddick watched from the bench as another emerging talent, Roger Federer, won both of his singles matches and played on a winning doubles team to hand the U.S. a loss. McEnroe threw Roddick into the meaningless fifth match. "He just smoked this guy, Georg Bastl," McEnroe recalled. "And I remember turning to the guys on our bench right after the match ended and saying, 'We've got a future. This guy's our future.'"...Singer and actress Melissa Errico, McEnroe's wife, sensed his ambition when they started dating in 1996. McEnroe was still resisting retirement, trying to rehab after surgery for a bone spur on his arm that eventually forced him from playing. "There was a lot of watching TV and not knowing how he was going to spend his time," said Errico, who grew up with McEnroe on Long Island and was re-introduced to him years later. "He would work out three to four hours a day because that was what he was used to doing. He had all these trainers with these funky ideas.
"I remember trying to provoke him and saying, 'What are the other dreams you have in your life?' He said, 'I'd love someday when I'm old to be Davis Cup captain.' That was the one thing."
Bob Bryan: "It's not going to surprise us, you know, if [Safin] shows up on Thursday and plays doubles or whatever. We're not going to be surprised. "Andy Roddick: "You're not?"
Bryan: "I'm not." (smiling)
Roddick: "I would be shocked." (laughter)
...Pressed for more analysis, Davydenko allowed as to how he found Roddick's baseline game "worse'' than Blake's and called the U.S. No. 1 and No. 2 "inconvenient players as far as I'm concerned.'' A Russian reporter in the audience leaned forward and whispered that Davydenko had actually joked that he didn't want any more of his answer translated because it would get him in trouble.
Brad got back to me a few days later (but too late from me to do much with it, because of my travel schedule), writing in an email that while he didn't want to get into a public discussion about the split, he thought that I pretty much nailed it with my commentary at ESPN. From that, I have to believe that Brad was blind-sided by this decision, and is skeptical of the approach Murray wants to take going forward....But Roger's indifference to having a coach has to be linked to the role Mirka plays in his life, and she must be the biggest stumbling block to his hiring a coach. I mean, no matter what Mirka does (or doesn't) do for The Mighty Fed's game, it's pretty hard to imagine that if Mirka were out of the picture, Roger would be traveling, well, alone. Mirka takes up the psychic space in which a coach usually exists for a top player - meaning she is the one who watches Roger's back, who sits through those pre-Grand Slam final dinners, who tries to suppress whatever white noise surrounds him at a tournament.
Laver vs. Bjorn BorgI had no idea until I looked it up yesterday that these two had even played a real match. But by the ATP’s calculations, they faced each other seven times from 1974 to ’78 , as Laver was aging and Borg was rising. Borg got the better of him in five of those matches, including the last four. The first time they played, on carpet in Barcelona in ’74, the baseliner Borg sent the net-charger Laver home 6-1, 6-1. (I wonder how many times in his career the Rocket lost by those scores?) Their best match came in Dallas the following year, also on carpet. It was a long five-setter won by Borg.
I’ve seen a tape of a semi-exhibition tournament they played in Hilton Head in 1977—watch two minutes of it here (with Pancho commentating; talk about a Goat-fest). I remember Borg, so it was the 30-something Laver who was the revelation for me. I haven’t seen many clips of him, and I was awed by the consistency of his shot-making—he could do anything with the ball—and his high-energy, all-court attack. (Check out that low forehand volley from no-man's land.) You could see that John McEnroe learned a lot from watching his fellow lefty as a kid. On this day, neither Borg nor Laver seemed to have a distinct advantage over the other. Like Federer and Sampras, they were from slightly different eras, but they belonged on the same court.
PEER'S COACHING MERRYGOROUND: For the fifth time in 18 months, the intense and straining Shahar Peer has hired new coaches, this time taking the advice of her main advisor, Jose Higueras, and going with a combo of Gabriel Urpi and Conchita Martinez, who is new to the coaching role. Urpi has coached a slew of players and will still work with Italy's Flavia Pennetta during half the season. But it's unclear whether he will still work with Sania Mirza, Peer's sometimes doubles partner whom he tutored during the summer. Peer's 2007 traveling coach, Oded Tayeg, wanted to decrease his number of weeks on the road and Peer wants someone with her all the time. The promising Israeli didn't not have a standout year, only finishing ranked No. 17 after a breakout 2006 where she finished No. 20. While she's consistently in the quarterfinal mix, she took way too many losses to Top-10 players. Perhaps former Wimbledon champ Martinez, who was a thoughtful player, can help add some more variety to her game.MIRZA NEEDS BETTER DIRECTION: The sometimes-stubborn Mirza is still undecided who will coach her, but badly needs a consistent sense of direction in 2008. While she had a solid summer and reached a career-high No. 27 in August, her training methods both during off weeks and on tour are questionable given how often she gets injured at the young age of 21.
With four players in his squad that can play on all surfaces and equally adept at both singles and doubles, Tarpischev said that it was too early to tell who would play the opening singles rubbers on Friday and that he would not decide his exact line-up until Thursday. He was also quick to put an end to speculation that last year’s hero Marat Safin would be a surprise last-minute inclusion in the Russian team: “This is our strongest team. I think that these guys play better than Marat, and he is not going to be here.”Despite his confidence in his team, Tarpischev estimates Russia’s chances of defending the title at 30-35%, as the Americans will be much more at home on the hard court in the Memorial Coliseum than on clay last year when Russia scored its first Davis Cup victory against USA. However, he went on to warn anyone anticipating a foregone conclusion, “a similar situation occurred in our first match we played with Chile. We were not the favourites, but we were able to win.”
The 29-year-old Camarillo, California natives are 17 titles behind all-time leaders Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (the “Woodies”), who own 61 crowns, and in Davis Cup, the Bryans own 12 wins, just one behind the No. 3 team of Stan Smith/Bob Lutz, and two behind co-leaders Wilmer Allison/John Van Ryn and John McEnroe/Peter Fleming.Now, the only thing that matters is helping lead the US to its first Davis Cup crown since 1995 when America faces Russia in the final, Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 in Portland... “It's everything,” Bob said. “There's no other tennis achievement on the planet that we'd rather have, not a Grand Slam in doubles, not the Olympic gold.["]
...The Bryans Davis Cup lore stretches back to 1990, when their father and then coach Wayne (a former pro who is now one of the sport's most enthusiastic promoters), took the boys to a first round US-Mexico Davis Cup in Carlsbad, CA. Just before they walked on court and clinched the tie over Leonardo Lavalle/Jorge Lozano 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-1, then US doubles duo of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh stopped to talk to twins. “Ricky is such a class guy,” Bob said. “Even though he had a big match coming up, he came up to us and asked us how we had done in a tournament the week before. We had known his family for along time, but he didn't have to do that. He's just like Roger Federer - no pretension off court.”
BRITISH PRESS
"It should be a lot of fun to play Tim," Edberg told The Daily Telegraph. "We play in the same way, with the serve and volley." But Edberg retired 11 years ago, and Henman a little more than 11 weeks ago. Isn't he going to be a little rusty? "Yes, you're right. Actually I've just got back from playing a match in Copenhagen, and that was the first really competitive match I have played in five years. So I am really feeling the effects all over my body."Edberg, who is 41, has declined countless offers to join the veterans' circuit. But he has not allowed his tall, powerful frame to run to seed. "I keep in reasonable shape," he claimed. "Or at least I keep in some kind of shape."
He says he "keeps in touch" with tennis, but he is not coaching and he has no official role with the Swedish federation. So what exactly is he doing to stay busy?
"A lot of people don't really know what I get up to these days, and that suits me just fine," he said, with a hint of a snigger. "I've always been a little bit private. Let's just say that I'm keeping pretty busy. I have an investment company, and I have some interests in property. Let's just say that."
AUSTRALIAN PRESS
Magazines this Month
