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ilie nastase

Serena Loses In Her Return, But USA Is Victorious – Mondays with Bob Greene

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Serena Loses In Her Return, But USA Is Victorious – Mondays with Bob Greene

 

STARS

Lucas Pouille beat Richard Gasquet 7-6 (2) 6-4 to win the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, France

Mirza Basic beat Marius Copil 7-6 (6) 6-7 (4) 6-4 to win the Diema Xtra Sofia Open in Sofia, Bulgaria

Roberto Carballes Baena beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3 4-6 6-4 to win the Ecuador Open in Quito, Ecuador

Jason Jung beat Dominik Koepfer 6-4 2-6 7-6 (5) to win the Kunel Patel San Francisco Open in San Francisco, California, USA

 

FED CUP

First Round

WORLD GROUP

Germany beat Belarus 3-2 at Minsk, Belarus

Czech Republic beat Switzerland 3-1 at Prague, Czech Republic

France beat Belgium 3-2 at La Roche-sur-Yon, France

United States beat Netherlands 3-1 at Asheville, Tennessee, USA

 

WORLD GROUP II

Slovakia beat Russia 4-1 at Bratislava, Slovakia; Australia beat Ukraine 3-2 at Canberra, Australia; Romania beat Canada 3-1 at Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Italy beat Spain 3-2 at Chieti, Italy

 

GROUP I

Americas Zone at Asuncion, Paraguay, clay: Paraguay advances to World Group II playoffs in April; Venezuela and Guatemala relegated to Americas Zone Group II in 2019.

Asia/Oceania Zone at New Delhi, India, hard: Japan advances to World Group II playoffs in April; Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong relegated to Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in 2019.

Europe/Africa Zone at Tallinn, Estonia, hard: Latvia and Great Britain advance to World Group II playoffs in April; Austria and Portugal relegated to Europe/Africa Zone Group II in 2019.

 

GROUP II

Asia/Oceania Group at Isa Town, Bahrain, hard: Indonesia and Pacific Oceania advance to Asia/Oceania Zone Group I in 2019

 

SAYING

“It’s a dream come true.” – Mirza Basic, a qualifier who won the Sofia Open title.

“It was really special to be back out here with Venus, and we’re so happy Team USA won today.” – Serena Williams, who lost her doubles match with sister Venus Williams after the USA clinched its Fed Cup first-round tie over the Netherlands.

“To play the two Williams sisters, it’s amazing because we won the match.” – Lesley Kierkhove, who teamed with Demi Schuurs to beat Serena and Venus Williams for the Netherlands’ lone point in its Fed Cup loss to the United States.

“In the end we still lost 3-0. That’s not what we came here for.” – Richel Hogenkamp, whose Dutch team lost to the United States in a first-round Fed Cup tie.

“It’s amazing. This is what you play tennis for, to play for your country in matches like this. To take the tie in this way makes it so special. It’s unbelievable.” – Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who teamed with Tatjana Maria to win the doubles and lift Germany to a 3-2 Fed Cup win over Belarus.

“The team is feeling great, so happy and proud. It was our goal to win after three matches, but really it’s never easy.” – Irina-Camelia Begu, who won both of her singles matches and clinched Romania’s 3-1 Fed Cup win over Canada.

“I learned today that we had never beaten Russia in either Fed Cup or the Davis Cup in 25 years, so this is a great day for Slovakian tennis and a perfect start for this new generation of players.” – Matej Liptak, captain of the Slovakian Fed Cup team that beat Russia 3-1.

“I’ve reached a moment in my career where I need to make some choices about when I play.” – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, after retiring from a match in Marseille because of a left hamstring injury.

“One beautiful tennis era is over.” – Tomas Berdych, announcing he no longer will play Davis Cup for the Czech Republic.

 

SERENA RETURNS, LOSES

Even though Serena Williams’ return to tennis was a crushing loss, older sister Venus Williams led the United States to a first-round Fed Cup victory over the Netherlands. Venus won both of her singles matches, but was on the losing side with sister Serena in the only point the Netherlands was able to earn. The Williams sisters, who have combined to win 22 doubles titles, fell 6-2 6-3 to the Dutch duo of Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs who were playing together for the first time. “I honestly feel better than I thought I was gonna feel,” Serena Williams said. “I feel like I didn’t expect to play, you know, like that for me. So I feel like that I’m on the right track.” It was the first competitive match Serena has had since she won the Australian Open in 2017, her 23rd major title. She then took time off to have a daughter and get married. Both attended the Fed Cup competition in Asheville, North Carolina. Venus Williams was in top shape, beating Richel Hogenkamp 7-5 6-1 to clinch the tie after downing a straight-set win over Arantxa Rus for the first point in the tie. CoCo Vandeweghe gave the USA a 2-0 lead with a three-set victory over Hogenkamp. “Honestly, I like to think that CoCo wore her down some,” Venus Williams said after the tie-clinching win. “It gave me an opportunity to be able to close this out for the USA. It was a lot of pressure for me to close it out and a lot of pressure for her to stay in and I handled it a little bit better.”

 

SURPRISING WINNER

Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic won his first ATP World Tour title, The Diema Xtra Sofia Open, by edging big-serving Marius Copil of Romania in a three-set final. Basic had earned his trip to the title match with wins over top-seeded Stan Wawrinka and fourth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber. “Every match I was playing better and better, and in the end I played good,” said Basic, who won seven matches during the week to become only the second Bosnian to win an ATP title. The 26-year-old’s toughest match came in the opening round of qualifying, when he rallied from behind to stop Bulgaria’s Alexandar Lazov 6-7 (2) 7-6 (3) 6-4. “I started very slowly,” Basic said. “I was a set and a break down, so at that point I (saw) that it was not going to be an easy week. So I was just focusing match by match.” It worked to perfection.

 

SECOND CHANCE

Given a reprieve in the semifinals, Lucas Pouille won his fifth ATP World Tour title, brushing aside fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet at the Open Sud de France. The second-seeded Pouille wrapped up his first title of 2018 on his fourth match point. Gasquet was playing in his sixth consecutive final in Montpellier, but suffered his second straight defeat. Pouille trailed another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-1 5-5 in the semifinals when Tsonga suddenly retired with a hamstring pull. Tsonga had match points in the ninth game and actually served for the match in the 10th game, only to have his serve broken. That put Pouille into the title match, where he was solid on serve throughout, never facing a break point against Gasquet. “The first set was very important and taking the tiebreak led me to the victory,” Pouille said. “I’m very happy with the way I played. It was a great week for me in Montpellier, winning the title in the city where I got my first wild card on tour at 18.”

 

SEEKS TOP SPOT

Roger Federer could take over the number one spot in the men’s rankings at this week’s ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands. After successfully defending his Australian Open title last month, Federer is just 155 points behind top-ranked Rafael Nadal. But the Spaniard is not scheduled to play until the end of this month in Acapulco, Mexico, leaving the door open for the 36-year-old Federer to become the oldest man to be ranked number one in the world. The Swiss great can do that by reaching the semifinals at Rotterdam. “The tournament is special for me,” said Federer, twice a winner in Rotterdam. “I remember playing for the first time in 1999 as it was one of the first events where I got the chance to play at the highest level.” Federer holds the men’s record for both the most time spent at number one (302 weeks) and the longest consecutive run at number one (237 weeks). If he reaches the top spot again, Federer would surpass Andre Agassi’s record as the oldest top-ranked men’s player in history. Agassi achieved the feat at age 33 years, 131 days in 2003.

 

SET FOR QUEEN’S CLUB

Rafael Nadal has entered the Queen’s Club Championship in an effort to sharpen his grass game in time for Wimbledon. Nadal has not reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon since 2011. That was three years after he outlasted Roger Federer in a five-set thriller to win his only Wimbledon title. “I am very excited to communicate that I am going to come to Queen’s in 2018,” Nadal said. “It is going to be the 10th anniversary of my victory in 2008. It’s a great memory, winning there and three weeks later winning Wimbledon. It was an unforgettable year.”

SICKENING HALT

Germany’s Dustin Brown was three points away from knocking off Frenchman Nicolas Mahut when he suddenly fell to the court clutching his lower back. Brown was leading 7-6 (2) 5-2 and serving to the first-round victory when he collapsed. After being treated in the locker room, the German limped back out to the court and conceded the match. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced an end to the match like this,” Mahut said. “Dustin was completely dominating me in the second (set). When you see him in tears you can’t celebrate such a win.”

 

STAYED HOME

Simona Halep was sitting on the sidelines when Romania won its Fed Cup World Group II tie against Canada. Ranked second in the world, Halep has yet to fully recover from the injury she suffered in last month’s Australian Open. “After spending the last week resting and rehabbing my injury from the Australian Open, unfortunately it has not recovered quickly enough,” the 26-year-old said. “I’m sad as playing for Romania is very important to me.” With Halep there cheering her teammates on, Romania stopped Canada 3-1 behind Irina-Camelia Begu, who won both of her singles matches, and Sorana Cirstea.

 

SANCTIONS REDUCED

An independent tribunal has reduced the sanctions levied against Ilie Nastase by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The 71-year-old Nastase, who had been captain of Romania’s Fed Cup team, was banned from acting in an official capacity at ITF team competitions until Dec. 31, 2020, and from attending them until Dec. 31, 2018. The independent tribunal reduced the bans by eight months each, meaning Nastase can attend ITF events from April 23, 2018, and work at them beginning April 23, 2020. However, the tribunal doubled his fine from USD $10,000 to USD $20,000. The ITF had found Nastase guilty of making a “highly inappropriate a racially insensitive” comment about Serena Williams’ then-unborn child, of making “advances of a sexual nature” towards Great Britain’s Fed Cup team captain Anne Keothavong and directing “abusive and threatening comments” at Keothavong and British player Johanna Konta, match officials and a member of the press.

 

STOPPING DAVIS CUP

Davis Cup will no longer be a priority for Tomas Berdych. The Czech Republic star led his country to consecutive Davis Cup titles in 2012 and 2013. “I’m happy I was there and helped the Czech Republic win the Salad Bowl twice,” Berdych said in announcing he is quitting the Czech Davis Cup team. “I have played 29 Davis Cup ties for the Czech Republic since 2003, but at age 32 I cannot play nonstop without resting.” Berdych has not played since helping the Czech Republic to a 3-2 first-round win in Germany in 2016. In all, he won 50 of his 67 Davis Cup rubbers, and from 2003 to 2013, he missed only two ties.

 

SET FOR NIGHT MATCHES

Night matches will be held at the new Louis Armstrong Stadium during the 2018 US Open. It will be the first time America’s Grand Slam tournament will have two arenas with both day and night sessions. Like the main arena, Arthur Ashe Stadium, the new Louis Armstrong Stadium will also have a retractable roof. In making the announcement, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) said Ashe will no have only two matches scheduled during each day session, instead of three, and the day session will begin at noon. Other courts, however, will continue to begin play at 11 a.m.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Montpellier: Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski beat Ben Mclachalan and Hugo Nys 7-6 (2) 6-4

Quito: Nicolas Jarry and Hans Podipnik-Castillo beat Austin Krajicek and Jackson Withrow 7-6 (6) 6-3

San Francisco: Marcelo Arevalo and Roberto Maytin beat Luke Bambridge and Joe Salisbury 6-3 6-7 (5) 10-7 (match tiebreak)

Sofia: Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop beat Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya 5-7 6-4 10-4 (match tiebreak)

 

lavackov

SURFING

Doha: www.qatartennis.org/tournaments/index/123

Rotterdam: www.abnamrowtt.nl/en/

New York: www.NewYorkOpen.com

Buenos Aires: https://argentinaopenatp.com/atp/es/

Rio de Janeiro: www.rioopen.com/ingressos

Marseille: www.open13.fr/

Delray Beach: https://yellowtennisball.com/

Dubai: www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com/

Budapest: www.hungarianladiesopen.com/

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

 

MEN

$2,485,960 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Netherlands, hard

$748,450 New York Open, New York, New York, hard

$648,180 Argentina Open, Buenos Aires, Argentina, clay

 

WOMEN

$710,900 Qatar Total Open, Doha, Qatar, hard

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

 

MEN

$1,842,475 Rio Open presented by Claro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, clay

$880,434 Open 13 Marseille, Marseille, France, hard

$622,675 Delray Beach Open, Delray Beach, Florida, USA, hard

 

WOMEN

$733,900 Dubai Duty Free Championships, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, hard

$226,750 Hungarian Ladies Open, Budapest, Hungary, hard

 

Serena Williams
Serena Williams

A Look Back To Michael Fishbach And The US Open’s Infamous Spaghetti Racket

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The 1977 U.S. Open was one of the most memorable and unique of all the editions of America’s national tennis championship, besides the fact that it was the final one to be held at the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills. One of the most unusual episodes involved American player Michael Fishbach, who played in the tournament with what was described as a “spaghetti” racket.

Long-time tennis journalist Sandra Harwitt profiles Fishbach and his infamous tennis racquet in her book “The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time” available for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/193755936X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_2wwQzbXHCAWZ0

 

It’s not that Michael Fishbach was a major force to be reckoned with during his tenure on the men’s pro tour. But in the late days of summer in 1977, this 22-year-old Long Islander courted international headlines. And even more than 30 years later, Fishbach’s 15 minutes of fame still garners occasional attention.

So what did Fishbach do to create his long-lasting legacy? He delivered a one-two punch to Billy Martin and Stan Smith, respectively, as a qualifier at the 1977 U.S. Open. In the regular world of tennis, those two upsets would’ve been soon forgotten instead of recorded in tennis history. But those were matches that Fishbach won using a homemade spaghetti racket.

Fishbach grew up in tiny Great Neck, the town where F. Scott Fitzgerald spent some time living and for which he modeled West Egg, the fictionalized setting of The Great Gatsby. As soon as Fishbach arrived on the pro circuit after attending UC-Irvine, he quickly became known as a free spirit around the tour. One day when Fishbach was playing on the European swing, he saw 40-year-old Barry Phillips-Moore playing his matches with a curiosity of a racket, the original double-strung racket designed by Werner Fischer, a German horticulturist by trade and tennis junkie by hobby. Phillips-Moore, an Australian long beyond his heyday, was not swinging this odd racket, but he was knocking down wins he no longer should be posting.

The racket was just the kind of edgy tool of the trade that would captivate Fishbach’s attention — it looked different, almost like something a novice weaver might produce and hope a veteran craftsman would approve. One thing it definitely accomplished was to cause opponents to want to pull the hair out of their head in frustration. The spaghetti racket made tennis balls do crazy things although it in no way enhanced a player’s power. As Fishbach said in an August 2012 New York Times Magazine article, “Queens Was Burning Too,” written by Michael Steinberger, “I had a lot of wrist and racket control. If players were ranked on the basis of ability to produce severe angles and drop shots, I would have been among the top players in the world.”

Unfortunately, Fishbach’s interest in getting a look at the odd racket was thwarted as Phillips-Moore guarded his secret weapon as if he was James Bond 007, on a grand mission. One day, however, while Fishbach was browsing in a camera store in Gstaad, Switzerland, he encountered a racket that very similarly resembled Phillips-Moore contraption. Fishbach’s attempt to purchase the racket fell short — the camera store owner would not part with his possession. But he let Fishbach examine it closely enough to get a feel for how the stringing worked.

When he returned home to New York, Fishbach told his older brother, Peter, a former player and coach before joining the business world to eventually become a Senior Vice President at Philadelphia-based Advanta, all about the spaghetti racket. The brothers immediately set to work at stringing their own spaghetti racket. It took 30 hours or so to do — there’s no sending out a racket for a quick stringing job when it came to the

double-strung hammer — but in the end they combined various materials including nylon strings, plastic tubing and adhesive tape to fashion their version of the racket. Ranked 200th in the world, Fishbach showed up with the racket to play the U.S. Open qualifying. Three matches won and he was into the 1977 U.S. Open main draw where the men’s matches were best two-out-of-three sets until the quarterfinals. After taking care of Billy Martin 6-1, 7-5 in the first round, Fishbach moved on to face the incomparable Stan Smith, a former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, in the second round. He didn’t just beat Smith; he pummeled him 6-0, 6-2, before going out to John Feaver in the third round.

A few weeks later, Ilie Nastase, who had lost to a spaghetti racket-wielding Frenchman Georges Goven at Paris in September 1977, showed up with a spaghetti racket of his own to play Guillermo Vilas. The Argentine, cruising on a 53-match winning streak, was so outraged at the unnatural shot making the racket produced that after playing two sets he forfeited the match as well as the winning streak. Prior to the appearance of the spaghetti racket, the ITF had no rules set for what is a legal or illegal tennis racket. That all changed with this controversial new stick that took away any of the judgment an opponent normally could make on what type of shot was about to come back at them. It wasn’t long after Fishbach and Nastase’s use of the spaghetti racket that the ITF placed a temporary ban on the use of this newfangled racket in October 1977. By June 1978, the spaghetti racket was forever outlawed in the game and nowadays there are rules and regulations as to what constitutes a legal racket design.

In today’s world of tennis, while layered strings remains a violation, many players prefer synthetic strings that enhance the spin on a ball and help disguise ball bounces better than old-fashioned gut strings of the past. As Fishbach said to Steinberger in that New York Times article, “They banned the spaghetti racket, but they’ve been chasing it ever since.”

After a decade playing pro tennis and reaching a career high of No. 47 in January 1978, Fishbach hung up his regulation rackets and retired from the game. Fishbach has gone on to have a successful career as a conservationist and is very involved in the preservation of whales.

Michael Fishbach
Michael Fishbach

Rafa Nadal Collects Incredible 10th Title In Monte Carlo

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Mondays with Bob Greene

 

STARS

Rafael Nadal beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3 to win the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters in Monte Carlo, Monaco

Yen-Hsun Yu beat Tatsuma Ito 6-1 7-6 (4) to win the Santaizi Challenger in Taipei, Taiwan

Janko Tipsarevic beat Oscar Otte 6-3 7-6 (9) to win the International Challenger 2017 Qingdao in Qingdao, China

Wang Qiang beat Peng Shuai 3-6 7-6 (3) 1-1, retired, to win the Biyuan Cup Zhengzhou Women’s Tennis Open in Zhengzhou, China

Frances Tiafoe beat Tennys Sandgren 6-3 6-4 to win the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open in Sarasota, Florida, USA

 

FED CUP

World Group Semifinals

United States beat Czech Republic 3-2 at Wesley Chapel, Florida, USA

Belarus beat Switzerland 3-2 at Minsk, Belarus

World Group Playoffs

France beat Spain 4-0 at Roanne, France; Belgium beat Russia 3-2 at Moscow, Russia; Germany beat Ukraine 3-2 at Stuttgart, Germany Netherlands beat Slovakia 3-2 at Bratislava, Slovakia

World Group II Playoffs

Italy beat Chinese Taipei 3-1 at Barletta, Italy; Romania beat Great Britain 3-2 at Constanta, Romania; Australia beat Serbia 4-0 at Zrenjanin, Serbia; Canada beat Kazakhstan 3-2 at Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Group II

Europe/Africa Zone round-robin at Siauliai, Lithuania: Slovenia and Sweden promoted to Europe/Africa Zone Group I in 2018; Lithuania and Egypt relegated to Europe/Africa Zone Group III in 2018

 

SAYING

“I feel lucky to keep playing tennis, being healthy all those years, to compete in one of the most beautiful events of the year, without a doubt. Very happy to win another one. For me is a very important day in my career.” – Rafael Nadal, after winning a record 10th Monte Carlo Masters.

“We expected a patriotic crowd for the Romanian team, but we don’t expect abusive language to be used … What he said directed to both Johanna (Konta) and myself is … language that is not appropriate for anyone to speak to any other human. – Anne Keothavong, British Fed Cup captain, on comments made by Romanian Fed Cup captain Ilie Nastase that caused him to be ejected from the tie.

“This is unacceptable behavior by a Fed Cup captain. No player, official, member of the media or fan should have to endure any kind of abuse, and Mr. Nastase will rightly play no further part in this tie.” – David Haggerty, president of the International Tennis Federation.

“I’m happy to confirm Serena is expecting a baby this fall.” – Kelly Bush Novak, a spokeswoman for Serena Williams confirming the pregnancy.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m doing everything that I can to play well.” – Novak Djokovic, when asked why he has been losing matches this year.

“You never win a tennis match by chance – football sometimes, but not tennis – so there is no doubt that Belarus was the better team. It seems to me that in key moments they were a little bit more courageous than we were, and this sport does reward the courageous.” – Heinz Guenthardt, Fed Cup captain of Switzerland’s team that lost its semifinal tie against Belarus.

“We all came together when it mattered most, and that’s what you expect out of a Fed Cup tie. We deserve to be in the finals.” – CoCo Vandeweghe, after leading the United States to a Fed Cup semifinal win over the Czech Republic.

“We were the underdog here. They are much better ranked, but I repeat from Day One: ‘We have to take our chance to win.’ I think the girls believed that.” – Dominique Monami, captain of the Belgium Fed Cup team that beat Russia 3-2.

“I never expected to beat Jo. I certainly didn’t expect to beat him on clay. But I tried not to think he was on the other side of the net. I just focused on what I had to do.” – Adrian Mannarino, after upsetting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Monte Carlo.

“I really want to congratulate him. He played a very good match. He was better than me today.” – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, on Adrian Mannarino.

“Today I did everything (right). I was very focused. I was really motivated after yesterday, and I’m really motivated to win this tie.” – Simona Halep, after beating Johanna Konta 6-1 6-3 and leading Romania to a 3-2 Fed Cup win over Great Britain.

 

SAME OLD NASTY

Ilie Nastase has once again lived up to his nickname “Nasty.” Nastase was kicked out of Romania’s Fed Cup tie against Britain for “unsportsmanlike conduct” following comments he made about Serena Williams’ unborn child, to British player Johanna Konta and visiting captain Anne Keothavong as well as aiming abuse at the umpire. “Mr. Nastase was also removed from the grounds due to his serious misconduct,” the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a statement. His accreditation was removed and he will play no further part in the tie.”

Nastase, captain of Romania’s Fed Cup team, was overheard at the official draw telling one of his team members about Williams’ baby. “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?” he was quoted by Romanian and some British media as saying. At the official pre-match dinner, Nastase put his arm around Keothavong and asked for her room number, which the British captain said made her feel “uncomfortable.” Then, during the first day of play, Nastase was booted from the court by the umpire after a tirade of abuse left Konta in tears, causing play to be suspended briefly. “The ITF has launched an investigation into this matter as well as previous comments made by Mr. Nastase during the week,” the ITF said.

Now 70 years old, Nastase won the US Open in 1972 and the French Open in 1973.

Romania won its World Group II playoff tie, edging Great Britain 3-2. With the loss, Great Britain falls back to Europe/Asia Zone Group I play in 2018.

 

SPANISH SOVEREIGN

Rafael Nadal is back on clay, which means the Spaniard is back grabbing the biggest trophies at the end of tournaments. Nadal crushed fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas to win Monte Carlo for the 10th time – the first time any player has won the same ATP tournament 10 times. Yet, Nadal can duplicate that remarkable feat at Barcelona this week and at the French Open next month. “Is really unbelievable, no?” Nadal said. “Win 10 times in such an important event like Monte Carlo is something difficult to describe the feeling. Yeah, is a little bit of luck; lot of things together should happen to make this 10th title in an event like Monte Carlo.” Against Ramos-Vinolas, Nadal never faced a break point as he won a record 50th clay title and his 70th career crown. “The next step is not Roland Garros,” Nadal said. The next step is Barcelona. That’s the real thing. Today is a good start of the clay court season.”

 

SERENA EXPECTING

Announcing she is pregnant, Serena Williams has stepped away from tennis to await the birth of her first child. Williams has not played since winning the Australian Open in January, her record-breaking Open Era 23rd Grand Slam tournament singles title snapping a tie with Steffi Graf. Margaret Smith Court of Australia has won 24 major titles, but 13 came before the Open Era began in 1968. In December, Williams announced that she and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian were engaged. She announced on Snapchat that she is 20 weeks pregnant, which means she was pregnant when she won in Melbourne, Australia. The 35-year-old Williams withdrew from two hard-court events in Indian Wells, California, and Miami, Florida, citing a knee injury.

The news of her pregnancy also came just before she returned to the number one spot in the WTA rankings. Her stay will be short, however. Angelique Kerber can regain the top spot by reaching the semifinals this week in Stuttgart, Germany. Williams has been ranked number one for 317 weeks, the third longest in the WTA Rankings history behind Stefanie Graff (377) and Martina Navratilova (332).

 

SERB SHOCKER

Novak Djokovic’s 2017 campaign took another step backwards at the Monte Carlo Masters, thanks to David Goffin. The Belgian finally prevailed 6-2 3-6 7-5 on his fifth match point to post his first career victory over Djokovic in six meetings. Goffin trailed 4-2 in the final set before breaking Djokovic in the eighth game, then held in a tight 11th game. In the next game, Djokovic was hit with a time violation for taking too long to serve. “That’s fair from the chair umpire to tell me that I’m taking a little bit too much time,” the Serb said. “It was just in a very awkward moment to give me a warning. It’s just that sometimes there should be maybe a little bit more tolerance and understanding for certain situations like that one, where it was very long point at 6-5 in the third.” After Djokovic saved four match points, he committed a sloppy error to give Goffin a fifth chance. The Belgian hit a deep forehand to Djokovic netted. “I’m really happy with the way I finished the match,” Goffin said. “It was a great feeling, great atmosphere.”

Goffin failed to duplicate that performance in the semifinals, falling easily to Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-1.

 

SET FOR NEW CHAMPION

CoCo Vandeweghe had a hand in all three points as the United States eliminated three-time reigning Fed Cup champions Czech Republic to grab a spot in the final of the international team competition. The Czechs had won five of the last six Fed Cup trophies, but were no match for Vandeweghe, who has now won her last nine Fed Cup matches, including singles and doubles. “It was an amazing day as a team, and it shows that every point counts in this event,” said Vandeweghe, who won both of her singles matches, then teamed with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to capture the decisive doubles match. The victory will send the United States to surprising Belarus in November for the title. It is the first time in seven years that the Americans have reached the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Final.

 

SASNOVICH AND SABALENKA

Two young players – Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Aryna Sabalenka – teamed up to give Belarus a surprising victory over Switzerland and a spot in the Fed Cup final against the United States. Sabalenka, a hard-hitting 18-year-old, downed Viktorija Golubic 6-3 2-6 6-4 to clinch the Belarus semifinal victory. That came after the 23-year-old Sasnovich surprised Timea Bacsinszky 6-2 7-6 (2). Sasnovich is ranked 96th in the world, 74 spots below Switzerland’s top player. “She was better than me today,” Bacsinszky said. “She played amazing and was there at the right moments.” Belarus reached the Fed Cup final without former world number one Victoria Azarenka, who has recently indicated she is close to returning the WTA tour after giving birth to her first child.

 

SIGNS FOR PARIS

A two-time Wimbledon champion is keeping her options open to play this year’s French Open. Petra Kvitova, who has been sidelined since she was cut in  the hand by an intruder in her home, has entered the Paris Grand Slam tournament. “My name will appear on the entry list for Roland Garros .. because, as the entry deadline approached, I had made good progress in my recovery process and I want to give myself every last opportunity to be able to compete at one of my favorite events,” Kvitova wrote on Instagram. “This unfortunately does not mean necessarily that I will be ready to play in Paris, but that I’m doing everything possible to give myself the chance and keep a positive mindset.”

 

SURPRISING WIN

A qualifier reached the third round at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters by upsetting seventh-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 (3) 6-2 6-3. Adrian Mannarino used his powerful backhand and surprising forays to the net to post just his second career victory over a Top 10 player. “It is an important victory for me, beating Jo in a big tournament,” Mannarino said. “I’m very satisfied with the match. I had the right attitude.” Tsonga won the first three games of the match and had a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak before winning the opening set before Mannarino forced a tiebreak. Mannarino surged to a 5-0 lead in the second set, then broke Tsonga to move in front 3-1 in the decider. “He played a really good match,” Tsonga said of his conqueror. He’s one of the players who are really giving it their all on the Tour. He’s improving a lot.” Tsonga was playing his first match since the birth of his son, Shugar, last month. The Frenchman also celebrated his 32nd birthday at the clay court tournament.

 

SUPERB MERTENS

Playing brilliantly, Elise Mertens won both of her singles matches and helped capture the doubles, leading Belgium to a surprising win over Russia in their Fed Cup World Group playoff tie staged in Moscow. “It means a lot to me,” a visibly exhausted Mertens said after the clinching doubles win. “If it didn’t I wouldn’t come here.” After the teas finished the opening day knotted 1-1, Mertens gave Belgium a 2-1 lead by defeating Elena Vesnina 6-4 1-6 6-2. Daria Kasatkina pulled Russia level again with her win over Maryna Zanevska, setting up the decisive doubles match. And it was the Belgians who prevailed as Mertens and An-Sophie Mestach beat Vesnina and Kasatkina in straight sets. “I had nothing to lose,” Mertens said. “We came all the way to represent Belgium.”

 

STAYING HOME

Nick Kyrgios won’t begin his clay-court campaign until next month. The 21-year-old Australian, fresh off a brilliant Davis Cup performance against the United States, will begin his French Open preparation at Estoril, Portugal, which begins May 1. While Kyrgios did not give a reason for pulling out of last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, it is believed he is suffering from fatigue.

 

SEXY TENNIS

It definitely was a love match, although it didn’t take place on the court at the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open. The first-round match between Frances Tiafoe and Mitchell Krueger was interrupted by loud noises made by a couple enjoying themselves in a nearby condo. The moaning, which could be heard throughout the James T. Driscoll Stadium, caused Krueger to hit a ball in the direction of the noise. One point later, Tiafoe shouted at the couple, “It can’t be that good,” drawing laughter from the crowd, some of whom covered their ears with their hands. Tournament director Tony Driscoll said: “It’s quiet while you’re playing, obviously. You could hear a pin drop and it was, yeah, interesting.” Tiafoe won the match 6-3 6-2. He went on to win the title, stopping fellow American Tennys Sandgren in the final 6-3 6-4.

 

SPECIAL HONOR

Rod Laver will be honored during the 117th Ojai Valley Tennis tournament this week. The native of Australia, who won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, including all four in both 1962 and 1969, will be the tournament’s special guest on Friday at the California club. “To have a player the stature of Rod Laver chosen as our tournament honoree is absolutely a dream come true,” said Mark Weil, an organizer of the event. “A true living legend of the game, we are so excited to honor him this year at the 117th Ojai.” Among others participating in the ceremony will be fellow International Tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin and actor Malcolm McDowell.

 

STADIUM PROJECT

The Australian Open will build a 5,000-seat stadium in an effort at keeping the year’s first Grand Slam tournament at its current site. Work on the new facility will begin in 2019 and will be used for basketball, concerts and other sports besides tennis. The Australian Open has been played in Melbourne since 1988, but there have been suggestions in the past few years that the event, known as the “Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific,” be shared with Sydney, Australia, as well as Shanghai, China, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Tim Pallas, Victoria state treasurer, said the Australian Open is staying put in Melbourne. “It is a pretty good facility, but we want the best facility, not only in the nation but in the world,” Pallas said.

 

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Monte Carlo: Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas beat Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 6-3 3-6 1-4 (match tiebreak)

Qingdao: Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko beat Andreas Mies and Oscar Otte 2-6 7-6 (3) 10-3 (match tiebreak)

Sarasota: Scott Lipsky and Jurgen Melzer beat Stefan Kozlov and Peter Polansky 6-2 6-4

Taipei: Marco Chiudinelli and Franko Skugor beat Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana 4-6 6-2 10-5 (match tiebreak)

Zhengzhou: Han Xinyun and Zhu Lin beat Jacqueline Cako and Julia Glushko 7-5 6-1

 

SURFING

Barcelona: www.barcelonaopenbancsabadell.com/es

Budapest: www.huntennis.hu/

Stuttgart: www.porsche-tennis.de/

Istanbul: http://istanbulcup.kozawos.com/

Anning: www.tennis.org.cn

Munich: http://bmwopen.de/

Estoril: http://millenniumestorilopen.com/en/

Istanbul: http://istanbulopen.kozawos.com/

Rabat: http://frmt.ma/frmt/

Prague: www.jtbopen.cz/en/news

 

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

 

MEN

$2,762,920 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain, clay

$573,209 Gazprom Hungarian Open, Budapest, Hungary, clay

$150,000 Kunming Challenger, Anning, China, clay

 

WOMEN

$710,900 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany, clay

$226,750, TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup, Istanbul, Turkey, clay

$100,000 Hotspring Peninsula ITF, Anning, China, clay

 

TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK

MEN

$579,299 BMW Open by FWU, Munich, Germany, clay

$579,299 Millennium Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal, clay

$533,137 TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open, Istanbul, Turkey, clay

 

WOMEN

$226,750 GP SAR La Princesse Laila Meryem, Rabat, Morocco, clay

$226,750 J&T Banka Prague Open, Prague, Czech Republic, clay

 

Rafa Nadal Monte Carlo 2017
Rafa Nadal Monte Carlo 2017

Nick Kyrgios Fast Becoming Modern-Day Ilie Nastase

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

It’s now official. Nick Kyrgios is this generation’s “bad boy” of tennis.

The out-spoken and eccentric Australian has been part of a growing list of controversies, the latest being audible comments about Stan Wawrinka and his girlfriend during their match in Montreal, as documented here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33906218/tennis-star-nick-kyrgios-caught-making-obscene-accusation-in-montreal

One of the first things I thought of in light of this latest hullbaloo is that Kyrgios could well be this generation’s version of Ilie Nastase.

There are many stories about the obscenities and crude comments and actions made by Nastase in his day. A simple google search will uncover a few. Cliff Richey, in his book “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” (for sale and download here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257669/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_01kZvb1FSEXVZ) discusses a few dust-ups and antics pulled by the man Hall of Fame journalist Bud Collins called “The Buffon of Bucharest.”

“The most notorious Bad Boy of us all was without question Ilie Nastase,” wrote Richey in his chapter on the most ill-behaved tennis players of his era. “His nickname was “Nasty” because of the dirty tricks he pulled.”

“Nastase used to mock me and really play to the crowds,” Richey also wrote. “He made fun of the grunting and groaning sounds I made when I hit a ball. He got the crowd to start laughing at me.”

Richey said he remembered a match where he wore a T-shirt with a picture of the infamous middle finger under his regular collared shirt, lifting it and showing it to the crowd when they got mad with him.

“He was literally saying “F you” to the crowd!” Richey wrote. “I really think Nastase enjoyed the carnival atmosphere more than anything else. I think that was his way of escaping the pressure. He would take a situation and make it into something he felt more comfortable with. That way he could pretend he was in control. He won the French Open and the U.S. Open that way. He was known as the Clown Prince of Tennis.”

Richey recounted two crazy circumstances in matches with Nastase as excerpted from “Acing Depression” below.

 

The occasion I remember the most came when he taunted me in Paris at the Masters in December of 1971. He had the crowd on his side, outright laughing at me. He was mimicking the way I acted. He turned it into a complete sideshow.

When I got off the court, I went into the locker room. I asked Zeljko Franulovic, “When a guy pulls something like that, what are you supposed to do?” He said, “You should have jumped the net and attacked him.” I was always known as a bit of a bad boy, but I never did anything like that!

In January of 1972, a few weeks later, we played a tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Clark Graebner played Nastase in the semis and I played the other semifinal match against Lew Hoad. Graebner did not like the way Nastase was acting and actually crossed the net to get in Ilie’s face in a threatening manner and said, “You will not treat me the way you treated Richey in Paris!”

All of a sudden, Nastase defaulted the match. When reporters asked why, he said, “Graebner frightened me.” In instances like that, yeah, man, you bet—you really do feel like you’re being thrown to the lions.

 

Nastase is still a good friend of mine, but there was a time when we didn’t speak to each other for a full year. During one match we played, the base linesman called a foot fault on his serve. Nasty kicked his shoe off at the linesman. I was waiting for him. He pretended that he couldn’t untie the knot to get his shoe back on.

I finally said to the umpire, a guy named Hague Twofink, “I’m not putting up with this. The rule says ‘continuous play.’ I’m claiming the match.”

I took all my stuff and went back to the locker room. I already started talking to reporters about claiming the match. My host that week, Bernie Koteen, came to get me and said, “You’d better go out there. They’re about to default you.”

So I went back out on the court and told Twofink, “I’ll play, but his foot fault stands. He only has one serve left. If he doesn’t put the ball in play within 10 seconds, I’m leaving. I don’t care who you give the match to.”

Twofink agreed. He announced that Nastase would have 10 seconds to serve. Nastase refused. The crowd started counting down: “10, 9, 8,” etc. Nasty never put the serve in play and was defaulted.

Nastase-Kyrgios
Nastase-Kyrgios

Learning About The Bucharest Backfire While Hitting A Roger Federer Tweener

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

You never know where and when you are going to learn a new bit of tennis knowledge or bit of history.

While playing some friendly morning mixed doubles while at the beautiful Moorings Club in Vero Beach, Florida, I attempted to hit a “tweener” while retrieving a lob over my head. I missed it for a second day in a row – hitting the ball into the net (I had a made my last few attempts earlier in the year – thankfully without any injuries across the board!)

My partner, Lynette, said to me “Oh. You tried a Bucharest Backfire.”

This was the first time I’ve heard of this term. Roger Federer is the signature striker of this shot and “tweener” is the name it was given – by someone, although I’m not who. Before Federer, it was Frenchman Yannick Noah who I remember gave this shot some fame when he hit it in a U.S. Open match with Aaron Krickstein. Gabriela Sabatini turned the trick once as well in the 1980s, and it was called “The Saba-tweeny.” Guillermo Vilas was the first documented player to hit the shot in a pro tennis match, a shot the South Americans called the “Gran Willy.”

But what is a Bucharest Backfire?

I had a hunch it had to due to Ilie Nastaste, who was an incredible shotmaker and from Bucharest, Romania. Lynette told me as such, saying how much she loved to watch him play back in the day.

After our match, while socializing and rehydrating, I googled “Bucharest Backfire” from my Iphone to learn the origins of this term.  To little surprise, the term was coined by the one and only Bud Collins, the Hall of Fame journalist and personality. However, I learned that it was actually a over-the-shoulder wrist flick shot, rather than a tweener.

During my google search, I found an instructional here on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7MDM3NTR4. There was no video that I could find of Nastase hitting this shot, but I do have some memory of seeing video of him hitting it. The most famous execution of this shot, to most people, was by Andre Agassi from a 1995 U.S. Open night match against Alex Corretja, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbNFf09E3qE

I wanted to know a bit more about Nastase and this shot so I soon called Cliff Richey, the former U.S. No. 1 player and contemporary of Nastase, who’s book “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” I published.

“I remember him hitting a lot of winners with that shot, but never against me,” said Richey before describing an incredible, but agonizing, hyper-angled inches-from-the-ground swinging top-spin forehand volley winner Nastase hit against him to save match point en route to beating him in the 1970 U.S. National Indoor Final in Salisbury, Md.

In his book “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” (soon to be updated and re-issued in December of this year, pre-order here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559386/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_JWPPvb0Z11XTP) Collins writes of Nastase “No player has been more gifted or mystifying than the Bucharest Buffon, Ilie Nastase, noted for his sorcery with the racket and his bizarre objectionable behavior.”

So the Burcharest Backfire is now part of my vernacular. We will have to wait and see if it becomes a part of my tennis shot repertoire.

 

Ilie Nastase
Ilie Nastase

 

 

Davis Cup Final Memories From A Two-Time Champion

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By Cliff Richey

 

This weekend’s Davis Cup Final between Switzerland and France should be great viewing. For one, Roger Federer is leading Switzerland in an effort to add the only major title in tennis he has not won to his record setting career as well as a first ever title for Switzerland.

But the world’s oldest international team trophy has lost some prestige over the last few decades. The four Grand Slams are the big events the top players shoot for now. Each Slam is a three-week commitment — a week to prepare and two weeks trying to win a coveted Slam. All of the matches are best of five sets. Do well in those four events and play in another fifteen world wide tour events and the Davis Cup becomes. for the top guys, a secondary event. Every nation lately at different times has had a hard time getting their best players to commit to the Davis Cup schedule. It’s too bad because the Davis Cup, with all its history, is still one of the iconic trophies in all the world of sports.  Win it and you and your country are the world team champion. Not bad!

But it was not always that way. In past history, the top guys would use the Grand Slam as a springboard to be asked to play Davis Cup for their country and back in the day the top guys all played and were honored to play for their home nation. It was such a prestigious event that also promoted goodwill amongst the nations of the world. Let me tell you, when you walk on that championship court and your national anthem is played and the red white and blue is full staff and you win the first game and the umpire is saying “Game United States” it will get your heart started!

I won two Davis Cup titles –1969 and 1970. We beat Romania in ’69 and West Germany in ’70. In ’69 when the captain named me to the team it was great. Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and Bob Lutz were my other teammates. And Romania had Illie Nastase and Ion Tiriac. In Cleveland on hard courts we had a 7,000 seat arena sold out. Arthur, at the time, was our top player and figured to play two singles matches. Smith and Lutz would play doubles. Before getting to Cleveland, I asked our captain what were the odds of me playing the other two singles – beat Stan Smith in challenge matches the week before in Cleveland and that would get me in.

Fair enough.

I did just that!  Our captain named Smith. According to the captain, the hard court surface favored Stan and not me!  Really?!  And oh by the way our captain was also the agent for the other three team members except me!  So even though I was a bench warmer that year my name is on the Davis Cup as champion because I was on the official four-man team but it hurt. I felt I was really not a Davis Cup champ because I didn’t play.

Lesson learned.

The next year, we defended the Cup against West Germany.  So here we go again. That year leading into the Davis Cup final I was having a super year. Before going once again to Cleveland I told our coach that if I win my practice challenge matches against Stan and I am not named to play I will walk out and announce to the world what happened. I beat Stan again two matches to one. I was named. We beat the Germans 5-0. I was named Davis Cup Champion MVP.  To win the Davis Cup alongside Arthur Ashe as my other singles teammate is pretty special.

In the aftermath of all that drama I would always put on my resume the 1970 Davis Cup championship but not my 1969 title. As I said, even though I was on the official four-man team in ’69 and a legit champion, because I was a bench warmer I discounted it.

But then I came to realize, I prize the ’69 title as much as the ’70 title.  Maybe more!  Why?  Challenge matches are brutal.  At the time Stan was a better player than either Nastase or Tiriac.  I beat Smith and was not named but I was on the winning team and I beat the best player there!  Oh yeah I won the Davis Cup two times.  You bet I did!

 

Cliff Richey is a former U.S. No. 1 tennis player who reached the semifinals of the French Open in 1970 and the US Opens in 1970 and 1972. He is the author of the book “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257669/ref=cm_sw_r_pi_dp_jFJBub09A42AT

1970 U.S. Davis Cup Team
1970 U.S. Davis Cup Team

Who are the Bad Boys of Tennis?

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Ilie Nastase

Who are the bad boys in tennis? There isn’t much to choose from in today’s crop of ATP World Tour, but back in the 1970s, the tour was stacked with ‘em. Ilie Nastase, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors are the three most notorious “bad boys,” but one seldom discussed is former U.S. No. 1 and U.S. Davis Cupper Cliff Richey. In his new book “ACING DEPRESSION: A TENNIS CHAMPION’S TOUGHEST MATCH” ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.CliffRicheyBook.com), Richey discussed the bad boys of tennis, in this exclusive book excerpt.

The most notorious Bad Boy of us all was without question Ilie Nastase. His nickname was “Nasty” because of the dirty tricks he pulled. I remember one match where he wore a T-shirt under his regular collared shirt and when he got mad at the crowd, he lifted up the first shirt to reveal his T-shirt with a picture of the infamous middle finger. He was literally saying “F you” to the crowd! I really think Nastase enjoyed the carnival atmosphere more than anything else. I think that was his way of escaping the pressure. He would take a situation and make it into something he felt more comfortable with. That way he could pretend he was in control. He won the French Open and the U.S. Open that way. He was known as the Clown Prince of Tennis.

Nastase is still a good friend of mine, but there was a time when we didn’t speak to each other for a full year. During one match we played, the base linesman called a foot fault on his serve. Nasty kicked his shoe off at the linesman. I was waiting for him. He pretended that he couldn’t untie the knot to get his shoe back on. I finally said to the umpire, a guy named Hague Twofink, “I’m not putting up with this. The rule says ‘continuous play.’ I’m claiming the match.” I took all my stuff and went back to the locker room. I already started talking to reporters about claiming the match. My host that week, Bernie Koteen, came to get me and said, “You’d better go out there. They’re about to default you.” So I went back out on the court and told Twofink, “I’ll play, but his foot fault stands. He only has one serve left. If he doesn’t put the ball in play within 10 seconds, I’m leaving. I don’t care who you give the match to.” Twofink agreed. He announced that Nastase would have 10 seconds to serve. Nastase refused. The crowd started counting down: “10, 9, 8,” etc. Nasty never put the serve in play and was defaulted.

One player who was emphatically not a Bad Boy was Arthur Ashe. In fact, he was the antithesis of all that. He was black, grew up in the late 1950s and early ’60s, and played tennis, which was at that time a white man’s game. His coach, a man named Walter Johnson, trained him to just sit back and take every bad call without saying a word about it. He told him not to be obtrusive, stick out like a sore thumb or become a “controversial” black man (whatever that is). Arthur always handled things really well. He was known as a gentleman on the court—and off the court too. But we all knew that if he had dared to rock the boat, he would have been destroyed by malicious racists who thought he didn’t belong there in the first place. As my roommate, Arthur was always intrigued by me because I made so many waves. I could get away with stuff that he would never have been able to.

For our era, the stuff we pulled must have seemed pretty bad, but our antics would have been more accepted in a different sport. Tennis isn’t like football or baseball. If you look at baseball—the classic American pastime—it’s a well-established tradition to complain about umpires’ calls. People would almost be disappointed if you didn’t! Those baseball guys, they scratch their crotch. They chew tobacco. They stream vulgarities. They’re covered with dirt. But tennis—now, that’s a different story. You’re supposed to sip tea with your opponent after it’s over. And don’t you dare complain about a line call! That’s not in the spirit of the game.

In fact, in baseball, hockey, and all the other big sports, there’s not a year that goes by that fights don’t break out between opponents—and occasionally even among teammates! In ice hockey, the saying goes, the fans came to see a fight—and oh, by the way, a hockey game broke out. In other sports, cursing is the standard. It’s actually considered a part of the fabric of athletics. So taking all that into consideration, I ask: what did I ever do that was so bad? I wouldn’t have been called a Bad Boy in any other sport. It was only because tennis was such an upper-crust game. When I first started, all the tennis players carried whitener with them in their bags. It was considered lack of decorum to walk out on the court if your tennis shoes were not perfectly white! I didn’t like all this prim and proper bullshit. We were actually almost timid compared to other sports. I was always proud of the fact that I brought a little more manliness to the game.

Was my Bad Boy image, at least in part, a creation of the media? It’s true, they loved to report all that crap. I was out there raising Cain, doing unusual things. I got unbelievable press coverage. I loved every minute of it. So in a sense you could say I courted the media, but I didn’t really do it for that reason. I never debased myself by cozying up to them. One time I got mad at a reporter from the New York Daily News, Mike Lupica, who credited my win over Laver in 1972 at the U.S. Open to Laver having a bad back. I started out the next news conference by saying, “Where is that reporter? I want to talk to him!” So I wasn’t out to make any friends, reporters included. I just got a lot of press coverage because of the way I was.

Looking back, it’s also probably indicative of how much the game has changed. The code of conduct was instituted for tennis after my era. (Who knows? Maybe they had to institute one because of me!) Once the code came in, they started taking points off for prohibited actions. Profanity was one. Guys like Connors and McEnroe would still utter profanities, but they would cover their mouths to muffle it so no one could understand the words. It was actually quite humorous the two times I played McEnroe, considering that I was almost over the hill at that point, while he was still a young kid. The first time was in September of 1977 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. It was one set all, and he began to pull his shtick: going after the linesman, challenging the call, the whole usual tirade. Amused, I just sat back for a while and watched. Finally I got tired of waiting. My muscles were getting cold. I shouted, “John, for Pete’s sake, show some respect. You got nothing on me. I’m the Original Bad Boy! Let’s just get on with the match.” Suddenly he looked like a child who’d been chastened by an elder. He straightened up right away!

Three months later I played him again in the final of the Bahamas Open. Before the match I said, “Let’s make a deal. I won’t challenge the line calls if you won’t.” He agreed. We split the first two sets and got to 3-3 in the third. He got a call he didn’t like. He jumped the net, stormed over to my side of the court, and was about to start challenging the call. I cuffed him and said: “Get back over there. We had a deal.” Meekly, he put his tail between his legs and went right back over to his side of the court! Eventually I went on to win the match.

I love McEnroe. We see eye to eye on a lot of things. I may have beaten him on the court that day, but that didn’t keep us from being soul mates through the years. That match was like “Original Bad Boy meets Junior Bad Boy,” the tennis equivalent of “Madonna meets Britney Spears.”

A 900th ATP Match for Federer, But What About his First?

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Much was made of Roger Federer’s 900th career ATP World Tour singles match Thursday – a 6-1, 6-2 win in 50 minutes over American Taylor Dent at the Stockholm Open in Sweden. But who did Federer play and what were the circumstances in his first ATP match?

Rene Stauffer, the author of the celebrated Federer book ROGER FEDERER: QUEST FOR PERFECTION ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.RogerFedererBook.com) discusses Federer’s ATP debut in Gstaad, Switzerland in 1998 in this exclusive book excerpt below:

Roger Federer

As a reward for winning the Wimbledon junior title, Federer received a wild card entry into the Swiss Open in Gstaad from tournament director Köbi Hermenjat. Federer received his first chance to play in an ATP tournament, even though he was not qualified to play since his world ranking stood at No. 702. Gstaad, the clay court tournament that traditionally takes place the week after Wimbledon, is played in a picturesque jet-set vacation area in the Bernese Alps. It is one of the oldest professional tournaments with a history dating back to 1915. It is loved by players and spectators alike because of its idyllic location in the little village with many chalets, the majestic Palace Hotel—whose courts previously hosted the tournament—and its postcard ambiance. Hermenjat was one of the most senior tournament directors on the ATP Tour and well acquainted with everyone in the tennis world. He embodied a piece of tennis history. He was a ball boy for the tournament when he was 11 years old and had been the tournament director since 1965. Tennis legends such as John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Ilie Nastase, Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson—after whom later the Centre Court was named—are all past champions of the Swiss Open.

Federer very reluctantly declined taking part in the traditional and prestigious Wimbledon Champions Dinner and left London that Sunday. He flew to Basel and continued by automobile to the Bernese Alps. It was well after midnight when he arrived at the luxury resort.

Federer’s ATP tournament debut proved difficult. At Wimbledon, he played on grass courts and almost at sea level. In Gstaad, he found himself on slippery clay courts and at over 3,000 feet above sea level. At Wimbledon, the balls bounced low, but in the high air at Gstaad, the balls bounced high and fast. The clay surface also demanded a completely different running technique than on grass. At Wimbledon, he competed against inexperienced junior players. An array of world class players were in the draw at Gstaad. There was no doubt that the tournament was a few sizes too big for him. His purpose, however, was just to gather some experience and be presented, on this grander sporting stage, to a larger portion of the Swiss public.

Federer drew German Tommy Haas, ranked No. 41 in the world rankings, as his first-round opponent, scheduled to play on Tuesday, the second day of the tournament. On Monday, due to great demand, Federer held a press conference to discuss his Wimbledon junior success and his ATP debut. “I would have preferred to play on the Centre Court than on the secondary court,” he said confidently of where the Gstaad tournament officials chose to schedule his match. There was so much interest in the Wimbledon junior champion that the thousand seats in the grandstands at Court No. 1 in Gstaad were not enough to accommodate the storm of spectators. As it turned out, Tommy Haas was not Federer’s opponent. The German withdrew from the tournament a few minutes before match time due to stomach trouble. Lucas Arnold, a lucky loser from the qualifying tournament, was Federer’s opponent. The Argentine clay court expert, ranked No. 88 in the world, defeated Federer 6-4, 6-4, but Arnold admitted that he was impressed by the 16-year-old, saying “he plays like Pete Sampras and he has a great serve.”

Federer was disappointed but he had no reason to be crushed. “I competed very hard, but did not play well. If I had played well, I would have won,” he said in an upbeat tone. “You have to do more running with the professionals than with the juniors and pros are not going to make as many mistakes.”

NEW JAN KODES BOOK PROVIDES A JOURNEY TO THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF TENNIS FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN

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By Ales Cvekl

The following is a review of the new book by Tennis Hall of Famer Jan Kodes called JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN (New Chapter Press: Order for $35.96 here on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278514663&sr=8-1 )

One of the hallmarks of the early “open” tennis era (1968-1973) was that two accomplished players born in 1946 in formerly communistic states, Jan Kodes (Czechoslovakia) and Ilie Nastase (Romania), entered the world tennis stage at around the same time as amateurs and soon become embedded into the emerging group of tennis professionals. During this time, they captured a total of five Grand Slam titles (Kodes, a two-times champion at French Open and once at Wimbledon; Nastase with wins at US Open and French Open), a respectable number considering that 12 of the titles were won by the “classic” Australians (Laver, Rosewall and Newcombe), four championships won by Americans (Smith and Ashe) and a single French crown won by the Spaniard Andres Gimeno. However, at home, both these athletes were instrumental in transforming the rigid system of centrally controlled sport administration where selective focus was placed on “Olympic” sports to accommodate new professional and highly individualistic sport, tennis, within the “state-amateur” sport system and social network. In turn, tennis established itself as an anomaly within the rigid, all-state-controlled system. Success in tennis encouraged many citizens of Czechoslovakia to believe that an individual could succeed in on his/her own accord gave rise to the hopes that the communistic system would ultimately fail.

In this book, Jan Kodes with the assistance of journalist Petr Kolar takes us through his journey from promising amateur tennis and soccer player, college student, to his ascendance in the tennis world, and, to his tenure as a tennis official following his active career. As he was often in the center of events that first opened the door, and, subsequently paved the road for a number of players from Czechoslovakia including Navratilova, Lendl, Mandlikova, Sukova, Novotna and Korda. At least two of them, Navratilova and Lendl, made a long lasting impact on the game of tennis, the way how pros prepare for the game today including their diet, off-court training and determination to succeed. The authors prepared this book as a meticulous testimony about Jan’s on and off court battles and challenges in the background of a rich tennis history in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia, in the beginning of Cold War, during the formation of the Open era in tennis and through the more recent developments in the game following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The only negligible weakness of the book is that it could include a small chapter focused on many benefits of tennis for both physical and mental health. In societies with skyrocketing health care costs, there is an excellent sport that can be played through the entire human lifespan. Thus, a broad support for this sport is one way how to address these pressing issues.

Jan’s contributions to the tennis are numerous, as acknowledged by his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1990, and this book provides insights into many events on the background stage in his home country that provide unique testimony about fulfilled and missed opportunities and numerous challenges that open tennis caused to the political establishment of then communistic Czechoslovakia. It is widely acknowledged that Arthur Ashe’s brief visits to apartheid South Africa proved embarrassing to a regime that found legitimacy in the superiority of whites over mixed and African people; however, it is less appreciated that tennis players from Soviet block including Fibak, Kodes, Lendl, Metreveli, Morozova, Nastase, Navratilova, Taroczy and Tiriac were inflicting damage to the communistic ideology in their home countries on a daily basis, and, paradoxically, risking being penalized for their international success. Threatened by their player’s mass appeal, the communistic regime intimidated non compliant tennis professionals on numerous instances, but to little avail. The question for historians is how it could this have happened?

It could be argued that the turning point that irreversibly established tennis as a professional sport in Czechoslovakia happened during the June 1971 Davis-Cup match between Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union. Following the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the only place to express frustration and demonstrate resistance to the occupation were annual ice-hockey matches during the World Ice-Hockey Championships. The Czechs and Slovaks got their well-deserved dose of temporal happiness as their national team played well against the USSR at the earlier world championship in Switzerland in March, with marvelous and unexpected 5:2 and 3:3 results. The next stage of was the Tennis Centre Court on Stvanice Island in Prague, this time a three-day June tennis match between home team lead by Kodes, who just defended his French Open title, against Soviets, led by skilled Alex Metreveli. Apart of the political background, it was the media coverage that glued almost the entire Czechoslovakia to their black and white TV screens. Up to this June weekend, tennis has rarely been shown on a single state-controlled TV channel. Tennis was a traditional national sport but mostly in seclusion from the public stage as an individualistic sport performed by elites and suffering from the chronic shortage of tennis rackets, strings and balls. This time, TV coverage of this match (commercials-free) delivered an unprecedented service to every household with a TV set: a battle between two gladiators, lasting for over four hours, a novel way to show athletes on TV for the Czechoslovak audience. In contrast to popular football (soccer) and ice-hockey matches, the duration of an individual tennis match is not defined and the five setter played on the first day between Kodes and Metreveli offered a drama beyond the public expectation with Kodes loosing the match.

The pressure on Kodes to win in front of the sold out crowd was enormous and being tired from a series of earlier major clay court tournaments gave Metreveli the final edge. (For additional reading: More extensive coverage of this historical event, from the perspective of an American journalist, is given elsewhere in chapter “One Little Victory” in Bud Collins’s “My Life with the Pros”). The TV blowups showing the players body language, silent and ecstatic crowd supported by sounds of horns of large diesel-electric engines slowly moving over the adjacent Negrelli railways bridge, all seen and heard on TV captivated nearly the whole nation.

As the match moved to its second day, the double match was not completed with the Kodes/Kukal team leading 5:3 in the fifth set allowing the drama to be discussed in numerous Prague’s pubs. The doubles match was briskly completed on Sunday followed by a straight three set Kodes’s defeat of Korotkov, sending Russians home and advancing the home team to the next round. Jan’s account of this event is entirely focused on his lost to Metreveli and newspaper coverage raising doubts about his professional-like status. However, it was the historical TV coverage and emotions of many citizens in the occupied country that subconsciously influenced politicians and sport administrators and tilted their decisions towards gradually allowing tennis players to become full-fledged pros. From that moment, even high-ranking party and government officials found their ways into the boxes of the Center Court.

Tennis had been shown on TV in connection with winning against the occupying Soviets, ancient wooden tennis rackets of parents and grandparents hidden in closets went out, tennis clubs started flourishing, decaying clay courts were refurbished and new indoor facilities were constructed, imported tennis equipment and clothing became more accessible, the most popular weekly magazines started to cover tennis on a regular basis, and, most importantly, a new generation of tennis players born in the sixties began to pursue their dreams with most important roadblocks cleared.

Obviously, to support this idea that this Davis Cup match had a crucial role on how the Czechoslovak authorities handled the emerging tennis pros requires further explanations. There are three nice examples, from distinct social-economic structures, to illustrate how determined individuals prevailed over the communistic bureaucracy. The situation in tennis is mainly subject of this book. The other two examples are from science and technology, exemplified by Dr. Otto Wichterle, an inventor of soft contact lenses, and art, represented by an Academy Award movie director, Czech expatriate, Milos Forman. As there is a number of common denominators how the establishment responded to remarkable talents and accomplishments of these individuals. The regime caused them numerous adversities and obstructions in development of their talent and limiting their opportunities, but, ultimately, made them remarkably strong and resilient as they prevailed at key moments when things had to be settled.

In general, conditions for talented athletes, artists and scientists were gradually improving in mid sixties in the context of efforts to implement economical and political reforms that were unfortunately terminated by the Soviet occupation in 1968. For tennis players, the ongoing dilemma was whether to follow Jaroslav Drobny’s example and leave the country. This issue of emigration is eloquently addressed by Jan’s recollections in this book and contrasting with Navratilova’s radical solution crystallized over a stretch of three summer months, and Lendl’s more evolutionary approach. Thus, these four players from three distinct generations of tennis players overcame the challenges they faced to achieve their ambitions. Drobny passed his experience to Kodes and he stayed home, Navratilova acted following Drobny’s example, and Lendl found his own way to reside in the USA without an official defection.

At least, tennis players had their valid passports most of the time; though a number of regulations controlled by the tennis federation were imposed, and sometimes the system, through an overactive and ambitious official, chased a single player to demonstrate “their” absolute power. Tennis players also faced a “financial problem” as the laws did not permit Czechoslovak citizens to hold US $ accounts or any other hard currency, or to open accounts abroad. Thus, several modifications of the bank laws were adopted to address these needs. Dr. Wichterle was the first to be allowed to have a personal account in 1968, though capped to a maximum of 2,000 USD. Czechoslovak tennis players, led by Jan Kodes, negotiated a system in which they played certain number of tournaments either as “professionals” or as “amateurs”. In simple terms, as amateurs they received travel support from the tennis federation with their earnings owned by the federation; as pros, their kept their earnings. This system was modified several times and economical pragmatism usually prevailed as the system needed to increase gross revenues, and did not want to lose another high earning player such as Ivan Lendl. In contrast to those tennis players, Dr. Wichterle, a tennis enthusiast himself, experienced multiple long-lasting travel bans.

However, when royalties form his high-earning patents in the USA were challenged, he was allowed to travel to USA as the struggling economy desperately needed to maintain this income. Director Milos Forman, did not return home following the occupation in 1968, and moved to the US. Following his success “One Flew of the Cuckoo’s Nest” he started visiting his home country and raised the opportunity to make his next blockbuster “Amadeus” in cooperation with Prague’s Film Studio Barrandov. This was another sensitive issue to the political establishment to acknowledge tacitly the success of a “defector”. To make all these things happen, Kodes, Wichterle and Forman had to find direct support for their cases from high ranking authorities, they had to use their personal charisma and dogged approach, to convince government officials that their ideas were in the best interest of the state. The book reports on a number of personal encounters between Kodes and various officials including copies of their communiqués. These are relatively rare historical data that explain construction of the new National Tennis Center in Prague, Lendl’s struggle to legally emigrate, organization of the Federation Cup in Prague in 1986 that allowed Martina to visit her home after 11 years since her defection, and other moments around tennis in Czechoslovakia.

Kodes’s book is also a valuable source of information about the structure and hierarchical organization of tennis activities within a model European country. If we consider Czechoslovakia’s example from the beginning of “open” era in 1968 towards the country’s dissolution at the end of 1992, a total of 194 Grand Slam titles were awarded to both men and women tennis players from only 14 countries. Czechoslovak tennis players (population of 15 million) ranked fifth among countries with 17 titles excluding 16 additional titles won by Navratilova as US citizen. The top five ranked countries during this period were: USA (72 titles, population of ~260,000 million), Australia (34 titles, ~20 million), Sweden (23 titles, ~8 million) and Germany (17 titles, ~80 million). The next 6th and 7th country, Yugoslavia (~23 millions) and Argentina (~40 millions) won 8 and 5 titles, respectively. What is common between these “minor” tennis superpowers?

The first common denominator is that football/soccer is the most popular sport overall and that many tennis stars played both sports at a high level. Jan describes his dilemma on whether to focus on tennis or football when describing his junior years.

The second factor is that these countries developed a tradition of tennis with many top clubs dating their history to 100th anniversaries. Through the microfabric of social interactions within the clubs, with many families having multigenerational memberships, knowledge on how to nurture tennis talent reached critical mass in the 70s and 80s. In Kodes family, tennis was a way to spend free time and his parents were involved in the club activities. His sister Vlasta Vopickova played at the international level and her best results were clay court wins against Margaret Court and Virginia Wade. His son Jan, made it to the top world juniors, won a major satellite tournament but could not progress further, and runs a Tennis Academy in Prague’s suburbs.

Third, an emergence of an impact player precipitates two important effects. It generates rivalry and competitions and this book provides nice examples how Davis Cup camaraderie elevated performance of each player resulting in crucial unexpected wins of the “supporting” player (Jiri Hrebec as the most accomplished Jan’s teammate) over the other team “star” player (John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Francois Jauffret lost to Hrebec in 1973-1975 Davis Cup matches). In this respect, the book strongly argues that Davis Cup is as significant as the Grand Slam tournaments as it helps to develop skills and bondage of all players on the team. The second effect is an increased interest of children to learn tennis. For those already captivated by the game, a motivational factor to get better is increased. It can be argued over and over that many children helping with balls and watching the game from the closest distance to the players, is really something special in the forming character of next generations of players. This is very special to tennis and it is not surprising that other sports try to emulate this “intimate” contact between the player(s) and young boys and girls during the “big” matches. Finally, the factor of “hardship” helps to form the character that compensates for the lower base of available talent in smaller populations.

Lastly but not least, the open tennis era produced a number of diverse champions. Some of them re-entered the tennis system to serve at various capacities. Some players faded away with their earnings and minimum of community service to tennis and society though tennis gave them all. In the book, Jan acknowledges what tennis gave him and he is among those fortuned who gave back more than they ever got. His modesty as a truly champion is best described when he talks about his dad, a lawyer, who was removed from his job by communistic authorities and had to earn his wage through a different job. Jan made his transfer from one to another Prague’s club contingent on his dad getting back his original job. He confronted the system, got it right, and this early experience empowered him to persuasively attack the oppressive system from inside with very high efficiency of success.

In conclusion, this is a well-written book with strong appeal to a broad audience of tennis enthusiasts and experts, anyone who is interested in the history of tennis, relationship between sport and politics, and memoirs of accomplished professionals. The book has an extraordinary quality of design, typography and photographic documentation. As the topic of professional tennis history and development in Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic has not been presented in as much depth elsewhere, this publication has the potential to find many diverse readers and become a “classic” in the field.

Tracy Austin rallies Team Lendl to victory in US Open Champions Invitational

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FLUSHING, N.Y., September 12, 2009 — Team Lendl rallied behind the dominating play of two-time US Open champion Tracy Austin to defeat Team Cash 21-17 in the final day of the US Open Champions Invitational at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. With the win, Team Lendl finished the competition as the only undefeated team, posting a 2-0 record.

With her team trailing by four games after the first three events, Austin teamed with Guillermo Vilas to roll over Hana Mandlikova and Ilie Nastase, 5-2 in mixed doubles. Austin and World TeamTennis CEO/Commissioner Ilana Kloss routed Mandlikova and Iva Majoli 5-0 in women’s doubles to give Team Lendl the match win.

Team Cash, coached by Pat Cash, started the day with an early lead when Majoli edged Conchita Martinez 5-4 in the opening set of women’s singles. The set was evenly matched with every game going to 3-points all, forcing a 9-point tiebreak at 4-4. Majoli won the tiebreak for the 5-4 victory.

Cash and Todd Martin topped Vilas and Jimmy Arias in men’s doubles 5-4 to add to Team Cash’s lead. Cash subbed in the men’s doubles event when Ilie Nastase had not arrived by the start of the set. Nastase showed up a few minutes later and when interviewed by the announcer about the reason for his late arrival, the irrepressible Nastase replied, “I cannot say – there are kids around.”

Nastase continued in classic form on the court as well, partially mooning Austin during mixed doubles and trying to unnerve her with a bit of trash-talking. “This one is for you, Tracy”. Austin was unaffected as she and her Team Lendl doubles partners outgunned her opponents 10-2 over the final two sets.

Team Cash and Team Lendl, along with Team King coached by Billie Jean King, each played two matches over three days of team competition. The event used the World TeamTennis format for the first time in US Open history and featured a lineup of Grand Slam champions and finalists competing on co-ed teams. Team Lendl finished with a 2-0 record, while Team King was 1-1 and Team Cash was 0-2.

Each match consisted of one set each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Other WTT features included cumulative scoring, sets to five games, no-ad scoring, playing let serves, Overtime and Supertiebreakers.

Final Score: Team Lendl def. Team Cash 21-17

Women’s Singles: Iva Majoli (Team Cash) def. Conchita Martinez (Team Lendl) 5-4 (4)

Men’s Doubles: Todd Martin/Pat Cash (Team Cash) def. Jimmy Arias/Guillermo Vilas (Team Lendl) 5-4 (1)

Men’s Singles: Todd Martin (Team Cash) def. Jimmy Arias (Team Lendl) 5-3

Mixed Doubles: Tracy Austin/Guillermo Vilas (Team Lendl) def. Hana Mandlikova/Ilie Nastase (Team Cash) 5-2

Women’s Doubles: Ilana Kloss/Tracy Austin (Team Lendl) def. Hana Mandlikova/Iva Majoli (Team Cash) 5-0

Check www.USOpen.org for more details on the US Open Champions Invitational.

Mary Joe Fernandez leads Team King to 21-17 win over Team Cash at US Open Champions Invitational

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FLUSHING, N.Y., September 10, 2009 — Mary Joe Fernandez is used to juggling a number of tasks at once. Mom. TV announcer. U.S. Fed Cup captain. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in between her television commitments on Thursday, she was able to squeeze in leading Team King to a 21-17 victory over Team Cash at the US Open Champions Invitational at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Fernandez won her singles and doubles matches to help Team King outduel Team Cash and even their team record to 1-1 after losing their opening match to Team Lendl on Wednesday. Fernandez is one of the former Grand Slam champions and finalists who are competing in the event which uses the co-ed team World TeamTennis format.

In the opening set of mixed doubles, it was Gigi Fernandez and Stan Smith who raced to a 5-3 mixed doubles victory over a pair of former US Open champions, Hana Mandlikova and Ilie Nastase.

Fernandez put Team King solidly in the lead after the second event, topping 1997 French Open singles champion Iva Majoli, 5-2. Fernandez said the win wasn’t as easy as the score might indicate. “This is harder than being in the booth with John and Patrick”, she quipped, referring to her full-time television work on ESPN with the brothers McEnroe at the US Open.

Todd Martin, the 1999 US Open runner-up, wasted no time putting Team Cash back into contention with a dominating 5-1 win over Luke Jensen in men’s singles. Jensen opened the set confidently, serving both left-handed and right-handed to win the first game. Martin then took control, running the former French Open doubles champ all over the court with precise shot-making – highlighted by a drop shot winner from the baseline — before closing out the 5-1 win to bring Team Cash within one game, 11-10.

Fernandez and Fernandez (no relation) added to their team’s tally with a 5-3 win over Majoli and Mandlikova in women’s doubles. The duo, who paired up to win gold medals in doubles at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, gave Team King a three-game lead heading into men’s doubles.

Coach Pat Cash tried to mix it up a bit in the final event, substituting himself for Nastase at 1-1 in men’s doubles. WTT CEO/Commissioner Ilana Kloss, filling in for team coach Billie Jean King, matched Cash’s move by sending in doubles great Rick Leach to replace Smith. Martin entertained the crowd by serving at his opponent Luke Jensen who was at the net and not in the receivers’ position. Jensen played along and dramatically dropped to the court, a nod to the well-documented World TeamTennis dustup this summer involving Robert Kendrick and John McEnroe of the New York Sportimes and Leander Paes of the Washington Kastles. Unlike the WTT Pro League incident, no fines were handed out and play resumed. Team King looked to be rolling to an easy win until Team Cash held off a match point at 4-2 and then tied the set at 4-4. Jensen and Leach held on for the 5-4 win, giving Team King an overall 21-17 victory.

Team King finishes the tournament with a 1-1 record. The 2009 US Open Champions Invitational concludes on Saturday, Sept. 12, with the final round of competition. Team Cash (0-1) takes on Team Lendl (1-0) at 11 a.m. on Court No. 4.

US OPEN CHAMPIONS INVITATIONAL RESULTS –

Team King def. Team Cash 21-17

TEAM KING: Mary Joe Fernandez, Gigi Fernandez, Stan Smith, Rick Leach and Luke Jensen.

Coach: Ilana Kloss (filling in for Billie Jean King)

TEAM CASH: Iva Majoli, Hana Mandlikova, Ilie Nastase and Todd Martin.

Coach: Pat Cash

RESULTS:

Mixed Doubles: Gigi Fernandez/Stan Smith (Team King) def. Hana Mandlikova/Ilie Nastase (Team Cash) 5-3

Women’s Singles: Mary Joe Fernandez (Team King) def. Iva Majoli (Team Cash) 5-2

Men’s Singles: Todd Martin (Team Cash) def. Luke Jensen (Team King) 5-1

Women’s Doubles: Gigi Fernandez/Mary Joe Fernandez (Team King) def. Iva Majoli/Hana Mandlikova (Team Cash) 5-3

Men’s Doubles: Luke Jensen/Rick Leach (Team King) def. Todd Martin/Pat Cash (Team Cash) 5-4

SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY, SEPT. 12

11 am – Court 4 (subject to change)

Team Cash (0-1) vs. Team Lendl (1-0)

TEAM LENDL: Tracy Austin, Conchita Martinez, Guillermo Vilas and Jimmy Arias.

Coach: Ivan Lendl

TEAM CASH: Iva Majoli, Hana Mandlikova, Ilie Nastase and Todd Martin.

Coach: Pat Cash

Check www.USOpen.org for more details on the US Open Champions Invitational.