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standing ovation

Doubles Final Ends With Everyone a Winner

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NEW YORK – American twins Bob and Mike Bryan walked away from Arthur Ashe Stadium with the biggest trophy and largest check. But they weren’t the only winners.

Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi of Pakistan and India’s Rohan Bopanna finished with the smaller numbers of the 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) score, but they were far from being losers.

“We would have been rooting for them” if he wasn’t playing on the other side of the net, Bob Bryan said. “Great guys.”

“Obviously we would love to win the match, you know,” Qureshi said. “But to me, winning and losing is a different matter. I know I gave 100 percent and Rohan gave 100 percent also. So we can easily have pleasant dreams tonight.”

Bob & Mike Bryan win the US Open doubles title

It was the Bryans’ third US Open men’s doubles title, their ninth in Grand Slam tournaments and the 65th of their career, extending their own mark. It was the first Grand Slam tournament final for Bopanna and Qureshi, their best previous doubles result in a major being the quarterfinals at Wimbledon earlier this year.

Both teams played excellent tennis, standing nearly face-to-face at the net with rapid-fire volleying. The Bryans won 83 points in the match, only eight more than their opponents.

But tennis – as good as it was — was only part the action, and a small part at that, on the hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Accepting the runner-up trophy, Qureshi had a message for not only the stadium crowd but for the world.

“I feel there’s a very wrong perception of Pakistan as a terrorist country,” Qureshi told the crowd. “We are a friendly, caring and peace-loving country and we want peach as much as you all.”

The crowd responded with a standing ovation.

“It choked me up,” Bob Bryan said. “He was quivering a little bit. Just to give that message to everyone was very heartfelt.

“What they are doing is a lot more important than winning the US Open.”

Later, in the post-match interview, Quereshi expanded on his message.

“Since September 11, every time I come to the States or western countries, I feel people have wrong impression about Pakistan as a terrorist nation,” he said. “I just wanted to declare that we are very friendly, loving and caring people, and we want peace in this world as much as Americans want and the rest of the world wants. We all are on the same side.”

Qureshi said he hoped the success he and Bopanna had enjoyed in this, the year’s final Grand Slam tournament, would help Pakistanis forget momentarily the misery of the flooding that has rocked his homeland.

“For me, you know, this whole two weeks for the obvious reason, for the peace and spreading out the message. But being a Pakistani, we have very tough times.

“My only motivation behind all my wins and trying to fight out all of the matches were to give some good news back home.”

Then, wrapping his arm around Bopanna, Qureshi said: “I just can’t thank this guy right next to me for sticking with me these two weeks as well, to help me send some good news back home, which people really needed.

“I hope we were able to give them a reason to smile, you know, for the past two weeks.”

With the starting time for the men’s doubles final pushed back an hour until noon, fans packed the stadium.

“When we came out it (Arthur Ashe Stadium) was pretty full,” Mike Bryan said. “Usually they start filling in toward the end of the match, waiting for the next match. But they came out to see the doubles, which was really nice.”

The Bryans know their opponents also helped bring out the crowd.

“I could see a bunch of Indians and Pakistanis out there at 10:15 a.m. when we were warming up,” Bob Bryan said. “I was looking around and, I’m like, ‘We’re not going to have this whole crowd on our side for sure.’

Just as they had for the semifinals, United Nations ambassadors Hardeep Singh Puri of India and Abdullah Hussain Haroon of Pakistan sat together in the stands, cheering on the “Indo-Pak Express.”

“To have the ambassadors here, it shows it’s bigger than just a tennis match,” Mike Bryan said. “When it comes down to it, there are a lot of people in Pakistan who don’t have homes and are out on the street.

“What they’re doing to bring India and Pakistan together is pretty special.”

That’s one of their goals.

“You know, this is definitely a step forward for us, like the ambassadors of the UN both coming in. Obviously it’s going to help,” Bopanna said. “I think for us reaching here and doing well is definitely a positive message to send across.”

“Yesterday I got a phone call from the prime minister of Pakistan wishing both of us all the best and appreciate what we were doing, especially in these dark times where Pakistan is going through,” Qureshi said. “He really supported our cause as well.”

THIS LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THE WEIRDEST WIMBLEDONS…

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By Charles Bricker

That’s four days down and 10 to go in what looks like one of the weirdest of all Wimbledons, and even Rafa Nadal’s sweat-it-out five-setter Thursday against Robin Haase can’t top the 11-hour and 5-minute John Isner triumph over Nicolas Mahut.

Yes, it’s over. And I’m sure the Bryan brothers can’t be too happy following that act onto Court 18.

On his fifth match point, Big John slapped a backhand return that forced Mahut to half-volley, leaving Isner a nice long look at a backhand passing shot. He pumped it down the line for an easy winner, then fell over on his back on the grass if relief and joy.

When it was over, a little more than an hour after they restarted at 3:30 p.m. (Wimbledon time), the standing ovation went on and on. “It stinks that someone had to lose,” said Isner, and he directed the audience toward Mahut and began clapping his exhausted adversary.

The longest match ever played
From left to right: John Isner, Nicolas Mahut and Chair Umpire Mohamed Layhani

Wimbledon officials gave the two players, and chair umpire Mohammed Lahyani of Sweden, some sort of commemorative medal for participating in the longest, strangest match ever at the All England Club. One half-wondered if Lahyani also did not receive a month’s supply of Preparation H after having sat in that chair for seven hours in a row on Wednesday.

Isner rejoiced. Mahut sat in his chair, a towel over his head, looking emotionally crushed. Before they left the court, Lahyani and the players posed for photos in front of the scoreboard that read 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68.

It will be days, I think, before people run out of anecdotes about this match.

Isner normally brings seven rackets to a Slam and goes to a fresh stick about every second ball change (18 games). He ran out of fresh long ago and it was just a matter of finding the racket that had lost the least tension.

Isner has to come back tomorrow to play his second-round singles against young Dutch Thiemo deBakker. Who knows how his body is going to react — all 6-foot-9 of it.

Of course, there will be those among the 2,500 on Court 18 who will claim to have watched every one of the 980 points. Right. Was there all three days. Never got up to go to the bathroom. Hung on every point. My guess is that Isner, Mahut and Lahyani were the only ones who saw every point.

Isner, by the way, joked about his coach, Craig Boynton, telling him during a training session in Tampa last week that he was so fit he could go 10 hours.

Check that, Craig. Make it 11.

Everything else at this tournament seems like an afterthought right now, though we might get back to normal on Friday.

Nadal was down two sets to one to Haase, who was serving like Pete Sampras for most of three sets. He clubbed 13 aces in the first set alone. But Rafa buckled down and won the last two sets 6-0 and 6-3, looking very happy to get off Centre Court.

Lost somewhere in all the talk about the Isner-Mahut match was Roger Federer’s dicey first two matches, needing five sets to beat Alejandro Falla and then losing the second set to No. 152 ranked Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia. And what about Taylor Dent’s record 148 mph serve in a losing effort. Between all that and Andy Murray carrying the British banner into the third round, the women’s tournament has come up very short on publicity.

One final note worth mentioning. Robin Soderling had another boffo performance to reach the third round. He’s on course to play Nadal in the quarters.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

BOLLETTIERI SHOULD BE IN HALL OF FAME

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By Charles Bricker

First, a standing ovation for tough-blogging tennis writer Pete Bodo (http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2010/02/ihop.html) for criticizing the voters at the International Tennis Hall of Fame for refusing to accept into their “club” Mr. Nick Bollettieri, a man who does more for tennis in one week than most of these people have done in a lifetime.

Next, a few thoughts of my own, and they won’t be received kindly in Newport, R.I., where this institution is headquartered.

Nick Bollettieri
Nick Bollettieri

I shouldn’t have to lay Bollettieri’s 30-year contribution to the game before anyone, though I will — just to get it on the record. But before I go there, a few remarks about why the ITHF is the worst Hall of Fame of any major sport in the U.S.

* The voting process is heavily flawed with former players having an influential voice in who gets in. I can tell you from long experience that players would let just about any other star-quality player into a hall of fame or place him on an all-star list. They have no sense of objectivity and many of the candidates are personal friends of the voters. Contrast that with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which is run entirely by long-time football media people. They owe nothing to no player and they have long, sometimes very contentious arguments before a final decision is made the day before the Super Bowl.

* Someone has to go into the tennis Hall of Fame every year, even if there is no one who is truly deserving, because the Hall relies on its week-long series of events in July for the revenue. If no one goes in, there’s no induction. No induction, no one comes to Newport to spend money. Tennis isn’t like pro football, where there are 1,600 players every season. There are a limited number of high-achieving players and there are years when no one should be considered. The result of this demand to sometimes induct anyone results in an affirmative vote for players who never won a Grand Slam singles title.

* Doubles players are considered at the same level as singles players. I like doubles. I play doubles. But if Halls of Fame are for the best of the best, the very elite, how can you compare Pam Shriver, for example, with Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles? There should be a separate category for doubles players, where Shriver belongs. She never won a major singles championship. One day, the Hall undoubtedly will induct Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge. Are their tennis skills on the same or approximately the same level as the best singles players of their era?

By settling for “good” instead of exclusively “elite,” the International Tennis Hall of Fame diminishes itself a little further every year.

Nick Bollettieri was not a player, but there is a contributor category and it’s ludicrous that he wasn’t taken in years ago. For God’s sake, they’ve inducted reporters into the contributor section. Reporters! Hey. You vote for me and I’ll vote for you.

While you’re contemplating the absurdity of journalists, who are supposed to report the news and not make it, gaining access to a Hall of Fame, Nick is down in Bradenton, Fla., shaking his head in personal disbelief at being rejected once again by the ITHF and pondering the conventional wisdom that this is personal.

“If it’s personal, I feel sorry for those people. You can dislike someone, but at least judge them on what they’ve done,” he said.

“When I heard about the vote, I had a flash of anger,” he admitted. “And then a sense of disappointment. So I told my wife, ‘You know, that’s OK. Let’s just move on.’ But she said, ‘No, you write them a nice letter.’

“I did. I said I was disappointed but I congratulated those recipients who got in. And I’ll go back to helping kids. We’ve probably given $10 million or more worth of scholarships to this academy (IMG Bollettieri Academy). I’ve been associated or coached 10 No. 1 players (Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Monica Sales, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios and Venus and Serena Williams). Why can’t they judge on that rather than whether you like someone who wears shades or coaches with his shirt off.”

It was a rhetorical question, of course. It didn’t need an answer. In one sense, I understand Bollettieri’s deep disappointment. But in another sense, I wonder why he cares.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame long ago became completely irrelevant to the game.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com