World Tennis Magazine

Unique Tennis Perspectives

czech players

Jan Kodes: pace of play and court surfaces must change

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Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the new book A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that documents the history of tennis in the Czech Republic. The book features an incredible array of historic and never seen before photos and many anecdotes and stories about Czech players including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and many others. It is available for 24 percent off here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320242085&sr=1-1)

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There has been so much talk this year about the pace of play in pro tennis that I would like to speak a bit about the subject. A few years ago, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) met with the ATP Tour to work to slow down the game. They wanted slower surfaces and slower balls. In my opinion, this was a big mistake to do both as it is seen today. They went from one extreme to the other. Before, it was too fast and now it is too slow! I think the balls should be like they were before as there are so many shoulder injuries in pro tennis these days.

Matches are also so long because the players are using towels from ball people between all points, which is just incredible! I think this should be stopped immediately!! Don’t players have sweatbands? Allen Fox, Clark Graebner, Marty Riessen and others use to have a little towels behind their shorts when they were playing on the tour. Some players are using towels from the ball people already in the first game of the match!

When I won Wimbledon back in 1973, there were no sit downs on changeovers! (I am part of a great trivia question!) It was the last Wimbledon final that featured this as television dictated that there be time for commercials when the players changed sides, so the players were given 90 seconds of rest.

I also feel sorry also for players playing today who have to play so much on hard surfaces – almost the entire year! Where is hard-tru (American clay?) today? Is it not enough to play on hard just during indoor season? Most of all players will have medical problems in the future, spine, knees, hips. There is a time to start to talk about it! Or is ITF and ATP blinded??

JAN KODES: WATCH OUT FOR THOMAS BERDYCH

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By Jan Kodes

Watch out this year for Thomas Berdych!

The people of the Czech Republic are excited about Thomas and his great play at the Sony Ericsson Open, reaching the final and beating Roger Federer along the way.

Thomas has improved his game by improving his footwork and has lost some weight as well. His groundstrokes are more consistent compared to last year. He is also a lot more confident on the court.

Against Andy Roddick in the final, a double-fault at a crucial time (5-5, deuce) in the first set probably cost him the match. The first set was more important for Thomas since Andy was unbeatable in the second. Andy was better server at important times and he took mental control over Thomas. Andy played smarter and was more steady.

Thomas still needs more experience at what to do at the net, as he lost some chances there when he got passed.

It was a very good final and congratulations to Andy. For Thomas, I am sure the time is going to come for him.

Both Thomas and Andy have started the year very well. The rest of the season will be very interesting since Federer and Rafael Nadal are not really peaking as yet.

We will see what happens now at the European clay court events that will provide many tests leading into Roland Garros.

Jan Kodes is regarded as one of the greatest Czech players of all time. He won his first major title at the French Open 40 years ago in 1970 and repeated again in 1971. He won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in 1973 and was the singles runner-up twice at the U.S. Open – in 1971 and 1973. His new book “Jan Kodes: A Journey To Glory From Behind The Iron Curtain” will be released in English this Spring. The book can be pre-ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270555884&sr=1-1

JAN KODES: WATCH OUT FOR THE CZECHS IN DAVIS CUP FINAL

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Former Wimbledon and French Open Champion Jan Kodes provides his perspective to WorldTennisMagazine.com in a column previewing this weekend’s Davis Cup final be

Jan Kodes previews the Davis Cup for World Tennis Magazine
Jan Kodes previews the Davis Cup for World Tennis Magazine

tween Spain and the Czech Republic in Barcelona. Kodes helped the Czechs (then Czechoslovakia) reach the Davis Cup final in 1975, where it lost to Bjorn Borg and Sweden, and again in 1980 where the Czech team, lead by Ivan Lendl, defeated Italy to win the title.

The Czechs enter this big match with Spain with gained confidence after beating France, Argentina and Croatia and will become a strong opponent to Rafael Nadal and his colleagues in the final held in Barcelona this weekend. The Spanish team chose the clay, their best surface, and will be very strong, but the indoor game is always a little faster and therefore I think this tie will be very interesting to see. For Czech players, Radek Stepanek and Thomas Berdych, this is a good chance to prove themselves and show how really good they are in such an important match. Since their past performances in Grand Slams have not been to dazzling, this is a great opportunity for them. The Spaniards are heavy favorites since they also have more players on their team to choose from for singles, but the full pressure is on them!

I think we could have won the Davis Cup more times in the past, if we didn’t lose Ivan Lendl due to the political affairs in 1985. He stopped playing for us after that year. The time when a I served, as Czech Davis Cup captain for six years (1982-1987), I started to write my new biography book, “A Journey to Glory from Behind the Iron Curtain“ which will be published in 2010! in English, includes other tennis tales from Czechoslovakia from 1964-1998.

JAN KODES: Kodes played internationally before the open tennis began and his best results started from 1969 up to 1977. He played in five Grand Slam singles finals and won three of them at Roland Garros (1970-1971) and Wimbledon (1973). He was able to win in total 25 singles and 31 doubles titles on the international world circuit. He played in two Davis Cup finals – 1975 and 1980. In the first Davis Cup final I n1975, Kodes, the Czech No. 1 player, was beaten by Bjorn Borg, who collected all three points for Sweden. Swedish won the Davis Cup for the first time in the history over Czechoslovakia 3-2 at Royal Indoor Hall on very fast Holmsunds-plattan rubber tiles surface in Stockholm in 1975. Kodes also teamed with Vladimir Zednik in doubles lost the crucial doubles point. The second Davis Cup final for Czechoslovakia was in Prague at the Eishockey Stadium on rubber supreme surface. In opening match, Tomas Smid beat Adriano Panatta from two sets down in five sets. The Czech team, powered by Ivan Lendl, also won the very important doubles point to get the third point when Lendl-Smid overwhelmed the strong Italian team Panatta-Bertolucci in another five setter. Shortly after this final, Kodes left the Davis Cup team where he was a stalwart for 17.years since 1964.