sony ericsson open

IN HIS 203rd CAREER CHALLENGER, KIM REFLECTS ON LIFE IN THE MINOR LEAGUES

March 19, 2010 by WTM

By Charles Bricker

When obscure, 31-year-old ATP veteran Kevin Kim got the news of his probable record, he had a one-word response.

“Serious?” he said, sounding a bit dumbfounded.

Yes, serious. When he went on court earlier this week to play his first-round match at the BMW Tennis Championships in Sunrise, Fla., against Michael Berrer, it was the 203rd Challenger tournament of his 12-year career.

This is far too arcane a statistic to become an official ATP record. It’s not even an unofficial ATP record. But longtime tennis officials, even after giving the issue full thought, couldn’t come up with anyone who has played more of these second-level, bush-league events than Kim.

“If there’s a tournament next week, Kevin will be at it,” said fellow American and good friend Bobby Reynolds, half in jest. Kim, ranked only 125, has built his career on playing Challengers and it’s a tribute to the ATP minor league system that he could make a pretty good living without reaching a great number of regular ATP events.

As of this week, Kim’s career earnings were over $1.5 million.

This is the 11th week of the year and he has worked eight of them, starting at Chennai, India, the opening week of the season, then moving on, in succession, to Melbourne, Honolulu, San Jose, Memphis, Delray Beach, Fla., then across the pond to Cherbourg, France, and now back to Sunrise, Fla. He’ll be down the road on Key Biscayne next week for the Sony Ericsson Open.

Kim contemplated having played 203 Challenger tournaments. “That’s quite a number. I know I’ve played a lot, but I wouldn’t have guessed that many,” he said. Sunrise was also the 320th tournament, overall, of his career, giving him an average of 28 tournaments a year — a prodigious sum which is attributable largely to the fact that he’s not had a serious injury since . . . well, since. . .

“Since I was 14,” he finally filled in the blank. There was an ankle injury his first full year on tour, after he left UCLA after a freshman All-American season. And he’s retired from a few matches. But only twice did he take more than a week off before hitting the tournament trail again.

Roger Federer has played 19 tournaments in the last 52 weeks. Nicolay Davydenko, who has a reputation for over-playing, has been in 27 tournaments the last 52 weeks. Kim? He’s been in 32. Of course he doesn’t regularly go as deep into draws as top-10 players, but sometimes the travel itself can be nearly as exhausting as the playing.

Here are his key numbers:

* Kim is 44-95 in regular ATP Tour matches — 95 tournaments and no titles.

* Kim is 37-22 in Futures tournaments, the absolute rock-bottom on the pro food chain — 22 tournaments with no titles.

* Kim is 257-211 in Challengers — 203 events with nine titles.

He’s never been past the quarters of a regular ATP tournament, so it’s obvious that the bulk of his money has come in drips and drabs from all those Challengers.

“I never really thought about how much money there would be. Never went into a tournament thinking about money issues,” said Kim, who lives in Westwood and practices at nearby UCLA with a platoon of Southern California buddies that sometimes includes rising American Sam Querrey.

“I’ve always just been interested in improving my game, being excellent at tennis. I still have a love for the game and I’ve never been stressed out or been playing just for the money.”

How does he explain never getting seriously injured? “Luck is part of it, but I also have a pretty efficient game,” he said. There is no one blockbuster Kim weapon and he doesn’t play with nearly the physicality of, say, Rafael Nadal. No doubt that has helped him avoid strains and sprains.

There’s no question about how much of the world he’s seen. He played 36 tournaments in 2009, 35 in 2008, 35 in 2007 and 34 in 2006.

Last year during one stretch, he went from Mexico City to Tallahassee, Fla., to Rhodes, Greece, to Savannah, Ga., to Eastbourne, England. Later in the year, not interested in having an off-season, he hit another three Challengers, going in consecutive weeks from Calabasas, Calif., to Lyon, France, and back to Charlottesville, Va., where he won his ninth title.

Seriously.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

WHERE WILL STEPANEK AND VAIDISOVA WED? “MAYBE CUBA” SAYS THE WORM

March 16, 2010 by WTM

By Charles Bricker

Showing no signs of jet lag after a long flight from Indian Wells, Calif., Radek Stepanek strode into the Crowne Plaza hotel here in Sunrise, Fla., and confirmed that he and longtime girl friend Nicole Vaidisova will be married later this year, putting an exclamation point on a wedding report that has been circulating for two months.

No date or month has been set, but this apparently is the end of the tournament trail for former Bollettieri ingenue Vaidisova, who turns 21 on April 23. After reaching the French Open semis in 2006 and the Australian Open semis a year later, Vaidisova’s career has resembled a runaway Toyota.

First rumblings of their impending marriage began after Vaidisova flunked out of a Challenger tournament near Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 18, losing to little known teenager Christina McHale 6-2, 6-4 in a very poor performance. She hasn’t played since and her ranking, once No. 7 (2007) is now 176.

This is the first marriage for both, though it’s the second, and maybe the third, engagement for Stepanek, 31. He was briefly affianced to Martina Hingis before he and Vaidisova became romantically involved in 2007. Then, in what now appears to have been something of a practical joke, Stepanek and Vaidisova took out a marriage license in Manatee County, Fla., not long after they became involved with each other.

Stepanek was asked where the marriage will take place — in Bradenton, where Vaidisova lives near the Bollettieri IMG Academy –or in their home country of the Czech Republic.

“I don’t think you need to know that,” said Stepanek. “Maybe Cuba,” he joked.

Stepanek, nick-named “The Worm” because of his silly post-match celebratory dance, is in Florida to play the Sunrise BMW Challenger after being knocked out early at Indian Wells. He’ll use the tournament to get ready for the Sony Ericsson Open on Key Biscayne, which begins down the road near Miami in a week.

Stepanek is ranked No. 17 and seeded No. 1 in Sunrise. Vaidisova accompanied him to the tournament and they looked relaxed and happy as they walked into the hotel.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

WOULD RAFAEL NADAL PLAY THE SUNRISE CHALLENGER? NOT IMPOSSIBLE…

February 25, 2010 by WTM

By Charles Bricker

The rain started early Wednesday at the International Tennis Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., worrying officials that they might have to endure a complete washout of the afternoon matches, but a few miles away, in Sunrise, Fla., there was rejoicing at another tournament site.

“Fantastic. Do you know what my cutoff is?” tournament director Gabe Norona of the $125,000 BMW Challenger (March 15-21) asked rhetorically. “Sixty-six.”

That’s an incredibly good potential draw, better than many regular ATP tour tournaments, but, given its strategic placement between two ATP 1000 events at Indian Wells, Calif., and Key Biscayne, Fl., and the ATP’s decision to let players double-sign into both Indian Wells and Sunrise, it’s also predictable.

Indian Wells begins March 11 and the ATP is concerned that players who are knocked out early, before March 14, won’t be able to get matches until the Sony Ericsson Open begins on Key Biscayne, March 24. So it sanctioned the Sunrise Challenger a few years ago and, not surprisingly, it has annually attracted well known players.

At the top of this year’s list are No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 18 Gilles Simon, No. 27 Nicolas Almagro and, though he’s slipped to No. 54, the well-known tennis name of Richard Gasquet. And it could get better because Norona has four wild cards.

But along with his astonishingly strong sign-up comes a trap door.

While all these players, right down to No. 66 Potito Starace, are registered to play both Indian Wells and Sunrise, if they survive Indian Wells through Sunday, March 15, they won’t, of course, be at Sunrise. It makes Norona’s sign-up list a bit of a mirage.

But only a bit, because there will, inevitably, be early upsets at Indian Wells. If No. 2 Rafael Nadal, just coming back from injury, lost in the first round at Indian Wells, would he take a wild card into Sunrise in order to get some match toughness before Key Biscayne. Nothing, Norona believes, is impossible.

And of course there will be players on his list who play each other in the opening rounds, guaranteeing that the losers will be coming to Sunrise. It leaves Norona in a pins-and-needles posture in the days preceding the start of his event, but he’s used to it after six years.

The Sunrise Challenger is played at the Sunrise Tennis Center, about a 30-minute drive from the Delray Beach tournament and 45 minutes from Key Biscayne.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

THE TENNIS MATCH THAT ENDED WITHOUT A CHAIR UMPIRE AND LINESMEN

February 5, 2010 by WTM

Ivan Lendl announced this week that he will return to play competitive tennis when he will face Mats Wilander in an April 10 exhibition match in Atlantic City, N.J. in an event that will also feature Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. It was 25 years ago today, on February 5, 1985, that Lendl and Andy Roddick’s current coach Larry Stefanki played an unusual match at the modern day Sony Ericsson Open that ended without an umpire or linesmen. The following is the excerpt about the match, as documented in the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com).

1985 – Ivan Lendl defeats Larry Stefanki 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of the Lipton Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., in a match that ended without an umpire or linesmen. “We have played a few times without the umpire knowing the score, but never without an umpire,” said Lendl. After Lendl hit an ace – that was never called – t to take a 4-0 lead in the second set, Stefanki was assessed a point penalty for delaying play while speaking with the chair umpire Luigi Brambilla of Italy. While Brambilla and other officials were discussing the point penalty, Lendl and Stefanki then continued play, prompting the officials and linesmen to leave the court and Lendl and Stefanki finishing the match without a chair umpire or linesmen. “Lendl said we should play while they are talking it over,” said Stefanki. “Tennis is entertainment and the fans loved it. When the umpire said we should start, we were already at deuce and told him that. We kept playing and the umpire left. Lendl and I made our own calls and somebody in the press box kept calling out the score. We were having fun and it was totally in control. The match wasn’t close and we just wanted to have some fun.“ The Lendl-Stefanki match is played on the first day of “the Lipton” – the co-ed tournament founded by former U.S. Davis Cup player Butch Buchholz that evolves into the modern day Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. The tournament soon is regarded by many as the biggest tournament in the world outside of the four major championships. Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere wins the event’s first match earlier in the day, defeating Angeliki Kanellopoulou of Greece 6-3, 6-2.