Washington and Other Random Notes

Posted on August 4, 2006

By Richard Vach, Tennis-X.com Senior Writer

By the way, there is an ATP tournament going on this week in Sopot, Poland -- is that part of the US Open Series? Maybe relocate that to Sopot, Ohio, join it up with the Series? Isn't the claycourt season over?

Tough to watch Mardy Fish's horrible forehand and flagging confidence in his Friday afternoon loss to Brad Gilbert-protege Andy Murray. Tougher still to consider that, from what ESPN commentators are saying, Fish's coach Todd Martin is advocating a semi-major grip change at this point in his career. At one point Fish reached out on the forehand and, hitting a Murray serve on the strings, place it about 20 feet wide of the service alley. Also, what's with Fish's problem playing against name players? Fish can absolutely mow over someone like Andrea Stoppini, who beat Andre Agassi earlier in the week, but when he faces a player like Murray or Rafael Nadal, he gets the service yips and his first-serve percentage dips into the 40s. A fair week for Fish as the last American standing in Washington, but lots to work on in the Fish camp.

Is Lleyton Hewitt done? Too early to tell at 25 years of age, but -- yikes. Marriage and fatherhood have mellowed Hewitt for the worse, with the Aussie now infrequently going to the "C'mon!" or the "lawn mower" or the "vicht" (pointing at your forehead with an upside-down 'L'-shaped hand -- yeah if you haven't seen it it's hard to describe, and even hard once you've seen it -- the Swedes invented it) and glaring down opponents, or any of the self-pumping attempts he displayed when he ruled tennis as the No. 1 player. On Friday Hewitt went down in straight sets to Arnaud Clement, a player he had beaten in seven of eight meetings. This year in tournament finals, Hewitt failed to close the deal in small events at San Jose (l. to Andy Murray) and Las Vegas (l. to James Blake) before winning his lone event this year on grass at Queen's (d. Blake). The lone Slam quarterfinal he reached this year was at Wimbledon where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis, a player who had not won a tour grasscourt match entering the year. Does coach Roger Rasheed realize the fire is out? Are the two content to ride out the last few years of his career, winning a small title here and there? Hewitt has steadfastly refused to integrate more net play into his game to try and rise to the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal level, perhaps after watching Andy Roddick abandon his meat and potatoes to try rachet-up his game. Hewitt remains out of the Top 10 currently -- don't look for that to change without a mental change of approach.

Solid USTA commercial during ESPN's coverage with the dad hitting with the daughter at night, the trail of the ball words mimicking a father-daughter-time conversation. 'Do-you-think-Hewitt's-career-is-done?' 'Yeah-probably.'

More to come on John McEnroe and Marcelo Rios meeting for the first time next week, with both players participating in back-to-back senior events at Algarve and Graz. McEnroe feels he is obligated to go into racquet-smashing, linesman-berating histrionics each match, and Rios says he is looking forward to embarrassing the fellow former No. 1. That's a brawl waiting to happen. Rios no doubt remembers the year he lost first round at Wimbledon, calling McEnroe's former playground at the All England Club "just another tournament," then listening to the American rip him in the press. "Just tell him to get ready," said Rios of McEnroe earlier this year on their eventual first-ever meeting. "Because he's going to have a tough, tough time against me."

Refreshing to hear Andre Agassi admit that his retirement announcement probably upped the choke probability in his few remaining tournaments, such as his collapse against the unheralded Andrea Stoppini.

Andy Murray is into the semifinals at Washington -- but perhaps a pre-cursor to the Brad Gilbert-Murray relationship is Gilbert saying he wants to see Murray using the dropshot less, and against Mardy Fish Murray seemed to be using it more than ever -- even when returning Fish's serve, which, as any high-level player will tell you, is pretty much the equivalent of your opponent laughing at you from across the net. That Scottish kid is hardscrabble, perhaps not the soft clay Gilbert is used to working with.

Nice to see some life left in Marat Safin, taking out top-seeded James Blake in Washington. That doesn't bode well for the U.S.'s September Davis Cup semifinal meeting at Russia, which will be on clay, tilting the odds even further in Safin's and Nikolay Davydenko's favor.

Richard Vach is a senior writer for Tennis-X.com who can currently be seen on The Tennis Channel's "Tennis Insiders: Super Insiders" episodes, and was recently awarded "Best Hard News" story for 2005 by the United States Tennis Writers Association. You can belittle him at rvach@tennis-x.com.