Fish and Sticks

What a night! What a tournament! J-Block was in the house. Fish Tank was on the golf course. Buddy Ball was in effect. James Blake, the ninth seed choked up a third set tie-break handed off a pretty big upset, and willing to accept misfortune to his long time pal Mardy Fish. Not an entirely unpredictable upset but nevertheless still an upset. Fish advances to the fourth round to face Frenchman Gael Monfils who's best run previously was only into the second round also. It must have been tough for Blake to die-hard because he usually goes deep into the Open and is a solid hard court player. It's like that movie Wimbledon where he has to close out on his best friend in the third round and he does it with the girls help and goes on to win Wimbledon. We can only hope that this kid has the same luck. I think "the girl" affects every man's game depending on the totality of the circumstances. Fish is getting married next month and Blake is in the wedding as a groomsman. My first thought was that Blake might throw this match for Fish just for that reason. On the other hand Mardy may have been thinking this is my time to make my mark. Remember when Andy Roddick got engaged and beat Federer down like the next day for the first time in forever. Either way, as close as they are Fish will have bragging rights for the rest of his career with a beat down in straight sets over Blake. Mardy Fish has been on a decent tear this summer on the hard courts and hopefully it will extend into the quarters which he would inevitably face foe Rafael Nadal a fearless warrior on the court. Let's not totally overlook the lanky Frenchman who stretch's the court and does cartwheels between forehands. Could this be the real life movie of Wimbledon? Only time will tell...

Hurricane Nadal

Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker will all be humbled in a couple weeks by superstar phenom Rafael Nadal. None of these players won the French, Wimby, and the Open in a calendar year. The last was Rod Laver's Grand Slam in 1969. Nadal owned the French from day one. He conquered grass through strength and will. One year ago Federer left the Open as champion and known as the greatest player of all time, just short of the Sampras' record. Fed became the first player to win the Open four years in a row along with Wimby. In 2008 Federer has only won 2 of 14 events he has entered. Nadal is just more motivated than Federer. Nadal takes cold showers before matches. Between points he will not touch the lines similar to a baseball player. He changes racquets every eighth game, and keeps two water bottles, one cold and one warm under his chair. He asks for three balls everytime when serving and gets rid of one. Jimmy Connors is quoted saying that "Nadal plays like he's broke." I dont know if that is true, but it sounds hilarious. It's tough to make a prediction in the womens' game. The serbians will probably be in the finals. Keep an eye on Safina, Williams Girls, and Dementieva (Olympic Gold).

Authors Predictions...Rafael Nadal and Jankovic. Your Predictions?...

U.S. Open Details...
When: Monday through Sept. 7
Where: Flushing, N.Y.
Men's top seed: Rafael Nadal
Women's top seed: Ana Ivanovic
2007 men's champion: Roger Federer
2007 women's champion: Justine Henin
Highest-seeded U.S. men: Roddick (8), Blake (9)
Highest-seeded U.S. women: Serena (4), Venus (7)
TV coverage: USA, CBS
Online: usopen.org

Breaking News

Etienne de Villiers, Executive Chairman and President of the ATP, governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit, announced today that he will not be renewing his contract at the end of the 2008 season. Executive Chairman since June 2005, who replaced Mark Miles. Villiers has been one of the most controversial Chairman's that tennis has seen. Increased prize money, new tournaments, changed the calendar, new brand look and so on. There were bold changes in the sport. The ATP remembers him in their articles as a genius. The newspapers are saying he was pressured out. Either way the South African is stepping down. The players just did not get along with him in my opinion and he knew it. Villiers will fulfill his current three year term as ATP Chair that ends December 2008. He will now assist the ATP Board in their recruitment of a successor.

Top Gun

THE NUMBER ONES
Here is a list of the 24 players who have ranked No. 1 for the first time in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings (since 1973):

Player (Country) Reached No. 1 Age Total Weeks
Rafael Nadal (ESP) Aug. 18, 2008 22 year, 2 months 1
Roger Federer (SUI) Feb. 2, 2004 22 years, 5 months 237
Andy Roddick (USA) Nov. 3, 2003 21 years, 2 months 13
Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) Sept. 8, 2003 23 years, 6 months 8
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) Nov. 19, 2001 20 years, 8 months 80
Gustavo Kuerten (BRA) Dec. 4, 2000 24 years, 2 months 43
Marat Safin (RUS) Nov. 20, 2000 20 years, 9 months 9
Patrick Rafter (AUS) July 26, 1999 26 years, 8 months 1
Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS) May 3, 1999 25 years, 2 months 6
Carlos Moya (ESP) Mar. 15, 1999 22 years, 6 months 2
Marcelo Rios (CHI) Mar. 30, 1998 22 years, 3 months 6
Thomas Muster (AUT) Feb. 12, 1996 28 years, 4 months 6
Andre Agassi (USA) Apr. 10, 1995 24 years, 11 months 101
Pete Sampras (USA) Apr. 12, 1993 21 years, 8 months 286
Jim Courier (USA) Feb. 10, 1992 21 years, 5 months 58
Boris Becker (GER) Jan. 28, 1991 23 years, 5 months 12
Stefan Edberg (SWE) Aug. 13, 1990 24 years, 9 months 72
Mats Wilander (SWE) Sept. 12, 1988 24 years, 1 month 20
Ivan Lendl (CZE) Feb. 28, 1983 22 years, 11 months 270
John McEnroe (USA) Mar. 3, 1980 21 years, 15 days 170
Bjorn Borg (SWE) Aug. 23, 1977 21 years, 2 months 109
Jimmy Connors (USA) July 29, 1974 21 years, 11 months 268
John Newcombe (AUS) June 3, 1974 30 years, 11 days 8
Ilie Nastase (ROM) Aug. 23, 1973 27 years, 1 month 40

Viva Espana

Is he on steroids? Sharapova is out (baby). Blake beat Federer for the first time in his career in 8 tries (took you long enough). Blake whines (again) after his semifinal loss. McEnroe gets kicked out of a tournament for making obscene gestures to the fans (wish i was there). Nadal wins the gold (no surprise). Federer loses his first place rank he has held for 4 years (237 weeks) tomorrow. Williams sisters won gold (whatever). Dementieva finally won something, it was gold(who?). Safina finally lost match (a bulldog looking russian). US Open starts next week (eh). Olympic tennis was on at 4 in the morning (didnt see a match). Djokovic won the bronze (flying under the radar). The Bryan Brothers lost to who....? The Fed in doubles (thats kinda funny). Bryan Brothers get the bronzer (blah blah). Phelps won 8 gold medals (spitz is out). Del Potro is on a ridiculis tear beating the snot out of a whole lot of players and winning tournaments. (US Open dark horse sleeper?) I think so....

German Icons

Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker is planning to marry his late manager's daugher, who is 16 years younger than he. If it were reverse it would be called "cougar style." A German newspaper picked up the feed and reported the story. Becker is 40 years old and has a total of three children. Two with Barbara Becker who he divorced 7 years ago, and another daughter with model Angela Ermakova. Becker's fiance Sandy Meyer-Woelden, 24 is the daughter of former Becker manager Axel Meyer-Woelden who died in 1997. Sandy is a jewelery designer who dated German tennis star Tommy Haas for years. How do you go from Tommy Haas to Boris Becker?? Haas is young and GQ model look alike still in his prime and Becker is a washed up old man. He must be doing something right though, look at her photo. Why would Tommy Haas let her go?

Beijing Tennis

Is anyone watching Olympic tennis? I have not watched a single game yet. I have watched swimming and gymnastics with awe and that amazing swimming race when USA won by a finger tip. I did get to see the opening ceremony and some of the tennis pros smiling and laughing with their respective countries which was very cool to see them happy and off the court. Are the Olympics all hype? The Olympics is only every four years, so why isn't anyone watching? What shocks myself is how many people are in the stands in China, like 5. There are almost none at times. No one really cares about it. The courts are 45 minutes away from everything else. The finals will be on Sunday and hopefully we will catch another Federer Nadal match, but will anyone be there to see it. The Olympics will be cast in London four years from now. The tennis will be at Wimbledon also known as the All England Club. How exciting!?!?! This is more of a relevant stage than many others. When I think about tennis, I think about Grand Slam, I don't think about going for the gold. I think about going for the gold in gymnastics, swimming, running etc. I took a hard look at this, and now respect more of what some of the players are doing by passing on the Olympics to train for the true event, as in the US Open. Will you watch the final on Sunday? I will try and plan to if I can, I wonder if I will even look to find out the time it is on, probably not. So, is anyone watching? Are you? Your thoughts?

Daytona Beach

Warning, Warning. Tennis is addictive. Players travel all over the state of Florida and dump hundreds of dollars into the local economy to maintain the addiction. Whether it is through equipment, gas, fees, food, beer, hotels etc, it can cost a pretty penny.

Dayton Beach: City officials propose cutting off the city's staff at the tennis center from eight to four in the next budget year. The facility brings a lot of tourism to the city through USTA. Daytona Beach is home of NASCAR and the LPGA, but also tennis, host of USTA's Florida Tennis Center. This is the final destination for players before nationals. The city is required to keep 24 clay courts, maintenance and staff. This past weekend 500 ment travelled from Gainesville, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, and so on to play in the Adult Sectional Tournament. The weekend was full of tennis, restaurants, Sports Authority and beer.

USTA moved from Pompano Beach seven years ago. The tennis association pays a 75K lease for the center and up to an additional 20K per year. The city has let the facility go with lack of maintenance and the everything is looking a little crapped up according to the USTA Executive Board. The center tried to sell last year losing many members. The center has not made money since it has opened. With a 1.2 million loan still unpaid from the beginning, cuts were made to compensate losses.

Hopefully the city can get funding straightened out because it booms the hotel business seasonally for the city. On a good tennis note, the city has budgeted a complete renewal of the courts for the upcoming year. Happy Tennis!

Del Potro

Juan Martin Del Potro dominated former U.S. Open Champion and number one seed Andy Roddick in the final at Los Angeles 6-1, 7-6 played in UCLA. Del Potro has won his last three tournaments and 14 matches in a row. He is a young, lanky and awkward looking with long stringy arms at 6 foot 7. The guy's arms are so long that it is like he does not have to move much to cover the whole court. If you have ever watched Sharapova play LIVE they are similar because they both look too tall for tennis and move very awkwardly on court. Roddick couldn't hold serve in the first set and Del Potro was not phased at all by his monster service speeds. Roddick held his own in the second set until he got smoked in the tie-break. He was complaining at 4-1 in the first set about back pain which was probably more of a mental thing then a real thing. Allegedly Roddick beat Del Potro in a friendly set a day earlier 7-5. This is officially the second time I have seen Del Potro and the first time he was just god awful. This time he was not terrible but not great. Roddick looked like he took amphetamines before the match because he was twitching and looked so ancy in the first set it looked kind of scary and he eventually snapped by cracking his racquet which is always very cool in my book.

Roddick passed on the Olympics to prepare for the Open and I will be rooting for him. He reminds me of just another dude who is really good at tennis. Fish also had a decent run after being in the dumps in singles (winning in doubles though). I was hoping for a Fish Roddick final (all american) but this Argentinian kid (who should be playing soccer) was unstoppable and is continuing to climb the ranks.

TEAM USA

Olympic Tennis August 10 - 17
Olympic Green Tennis Center
Beijing, China
Men's Singles & Doubles
Women's Singles & Doubles

James Blake
Bryan Brothers
Sam Querrey
Robby Ginepri

Williams Sisters
Lindsay Davenport
Liezel Huber

The United States of America has participated in each edition of the Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1980 Games in Moscow, which it boycotted. It has hosted the Games on four previous occasions, in 1904 in St Louis, in 1932 and 1984 in Los Angeles and in 1996 in Atlanta.

Stamp Model

Olympic athletes don't get paid to do anything. Athletes tend to rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics. Ana Ivanovic is currently the second ranked women's tennis player in the world. Her native Serbia clearly believes she has more to accomplish, as an image of her was recently placed on a postage stamp in her home country in honor of the approaching Beijing Games.

Sharapova Out

Maria Sharapova, of Russia got medical treatment for her shoulder against Poland's Marta Domachowski during second round action at the Rogers Cup tennis match Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in Montreal. The three time grand slam winner announced she is pulling out of the Olympics and the US Open. She has a torn rotater cuff tendon and will go to Arizona to get rehab and treatment and strength work. I can relate to this because when I don't hit the gym enough and do maintenance on my muscles (especially my shoulders) they become weakened and loose and have a tendancy to tear and/or dislocate. In order to fix this, surgery or strengthening the shoulder muscles are required.

Amelia Sawgrass

I actually got to attend the Bausch and Laumb event that just past and got to sit front row right behind the players for nearly the whole tournament that Russian Maria Sharapova defeated rising star Dominika Cibulkova in the final. It's actually a really cool tournament and since I was sporting a Florida Gator Tennis shirt the ballboys loved it and hooked me up with the players drinks out of their hopper next to their chairs all tournament long. I met a lot of the WTA players and coaches because they would just walk around the tournament grounds like they were just watching the tournament. I even nearly persuaded Amelie Mauresmo and another American doubles girl to hit with me. It was not like the Cincinnati Masters where the players were more protected. It was like when Lincoln just walked around the community without security and anyone could approach him. The gossip around the tournament was that they were going to lose their prestige and not take any players in the top 10 next year because they were going to reduce the prize money from pressure of the WTA and that means only less ranked players would be playing in the tournament. In laymens terms, the tournament was going to be lame next year and this was the last good year to go.

An added twist hit the media recently and the Sawgrass Club in Ponte Vedra Beach is vying for the event. It would be a minor shame because the centre court at Amelia is one of the most beautiful sites and courts I have ever been to with a giant tree partially covering the stands and the court with the sun rising from the far side of the court early in the day. It was an incredibly great aesthitic view with great value. The tournament has been played in Amelia since 1980. The catch is to find a new sponsor to cough up at least 700,000 a year and sign at least a 3 year contract, which is what Bausch and Laumb was under for the past 22 years. This is not definite yet and I am sure Amelia will fight and hustle to keep the tourney but the word is out and PVB (Ponte Vedra Beach) is trying to make it happen and probably will.

Battistone Brothers

Dann, 31 and Brian, 28 Battistone, the flying doubles playing brothers who received wildcards at the ATP events in Newport, RI and Indianapolis, IN are getting a ton of publicity in the last month. The pair feature a running and jumping happy gilmore volleyball type serve, and both play with two-handled racquets, which are legal on the tour. These brothers are finally winning some professional tournaments in doubles tennis. They are playing with a revolutionary two handled racquet which is key to their 135mph volleyball type serve in which he leaps high in the air and smashes the ball.

I actually got the privilege of watching the brothers play doubles and singles with little to no crowd. I was able to speak to them after their match because I thought it was really odd to be playing with that racquet and thought he had some sort of disability because he was playing a really awkward game. He was crushing serves and jumping and hitting one handed forehands on each side and sometimes two handed on either side. There was no rhyme or reason to it I guess they were just playing on feel but the singles match I did watch in full was with the taller brother with the big serve who was playing I think it was a midget (seriously). So I was not sure if this was even a real match. It was at Wesley Chapel, Florida at a pro tournament that I tried to play in but had more fun socializing with these guys, Thomas Blake, and many others. I am not sure if this racquet will catch on but I when I saw them play I asked for one for free because no one was even watching the match much less was I going to be willing to pay for something so random looking. I then was going to buy it off of them but they wanted $200 so I said no thanks. I rarely pay for my racquets and if I pay for them it is a good deal. I told them I would send them business but they didnt really care so I took a card and their phone number and was on my way. Now eight months later they are in magazines, websites, winning, and galore. Good for them.

You can actually order one of these freakish racquets at http://www.naturaltennis.com/.

Battle of the Sexes

Steve Bellamy has done it again. Bellamy is a former rocker, musician, and now a tennis entrepreneur and a decent role model for anyone conducting business within the industry of tennis. Bellamy, Founder of the Tennis Channel and a lot of other cool stuff, is hosting a tennis tournament in Los Angeles and it is an idea that I absolutely love. The event is today from 3pm-6pm West Coast time so pack a bag if you're game right now.

Players like Tommy Haas, Vincent Spadea, Sam Querrey, Donald Young, Ashley Harkleroad and Alexandra Stevenson are competing in the inagural tournament called the Shotgun 21 World Champiosnhips, where men and women will play each other. It will be a one-day tournament lasting less than 3 hours and offers a purse of more than 20K in prize money, and 10K going to the champ with a limited edition Fender Stratocaster. There is a 32 player draw with 28 selected and a qualifier for the bottom 4 spots that is open to the public at the Palisades Tennis Center.

The rules are different and are genius in my opinion. No overhand serve, second serves or lets, and the winner is the first to 21 with no ad or deuce scoring. It is not win by 2 either, just first one to 21, keeping it simple. All serving is drop hit from below the waist. The players in the field include celebs like Gavin Rossdale, Sara Foster and others. Haas is the obvious favorite to win this but it will not be easy since he cannot serve regularly. Women are just as consistent as men and generally keep the ball in play longer off the ground which is why the rules level the playing field.

The first tournament where men and women played each other was in 1973 in a match between old washed up and retired sugar daddy Bobby Riggs and superstar Billie Jean King at the peak of her game who won easily in three straight sets.

Tennis Wise

WHERE WAS THIS PHOTO TAKEN?

10-4 Roger's Out

The obvious and big story in tennis today is that Roger is on his way out. The big Fed is about to lose his reign as number that he held now for 235 weeks. That is a long, long, time. There are only 52 weeks in a year. With a brutal loss to Ivo Karolovic the tallest man in tennis in a third set tiebreak has to be crushing and demoralizing for him. I was fortunate enough to attend this tournament last year and Fed won it by a landslide ripping Blake in the final. His game has gone for bad to worse and bad just skipped town.

Here is the deal...If Nadal reaches the semifinal he will be the eventual number one. If he wins at Cincy he will be number next Monday. If he reaches the final he will be number one the following week. Players lose points from last year because the calendar rankings shift as the year goes on. Even a semifinal will gaurantee Nadal the number one spot after the Olympics no matter how either of them do at the Olympics. It is inevitable. Say hello to the new champ in tennis. I have a feeling he won't let it go for a very long time.

In a press conference at Cincy Fed was asked about the possibility of losing his No. 1 ranking, Federer said, "I don't care."