July 12th, 2008
I tried to determine the toughest draws conquered at the respective events since the start of the 1988 season. The Australian Open did not have 1 draw that jumped out at me. The U.S. Open had several draws that stood out as quite difficult for the champion to navigate (1992, 1994, 1998, 2002). At any rate, these are the 4 draws I selected. Tell me and the rest of the Tennis-x readers what other draws were exceptionally deep and rough.
Posted by Dan Martin @ 1:29 pm in Australian Open, French Open, Grand Slams, Tennis, US Open, Wimbledon | 13 Comments »
June 23rd, 2008
Tennis-X Barbs: Grass is Greener for Spaniards…and Slower
New ATP Player Council member and U.S. TV commentator Justin Gimelstob speaking to a D.C. radio show on Anna Kournikova: “Hate’s a very strong word. I just despise her to the maximum level, right below hate. I think she falls into the Marcelo Rios ‘Scumbag’ category….And this whole bluff about her retiring because of her back? She had the yips on her serve, she can’t get her serve on the court. Wait until you see on July 23, she’s gonna be serving 40 miles an hour and I’m gonna be just plugging it down her throat…We do exhibitions together and I’ll mock her, and make fun of her. I’ll just make her know that she’s stupid…I’m sure she’ll rue the day that she has to come here and actually share space with me…I have no attraction to her, because she’s such a douche…I really have no interest in her. I wouldn’t mind having my younger brother, who’s kind of a stud, nail her and then reap the benefits of that.”
Posted by Staff @ 1:23 am in Tennis, Wimbledon | 18 Comments »
June 19th, 2008
Sampras v Muster at Senior Sao Paulo; Says Leave Federer Alone
“There is a burning desire in Roger to break my record, and when he does it I would like to be there,” Sampras told the BlackRock Tour of Champions. “I told Roger to just make sure it’s in New York or London! Australia is a long way to go! If it worked out like that, I would fly there. I would just let him enjoy it as it’s his moment but (I would want to be there) just to respect the record and what he was able to do and to just say ‘congratulations.'”
Posted by Richard Vach @ 11:25 am in senior tour | 38 Comments »
May 5th, 2008
Pete Sampras vs. Roger Federer: Behind the Scenes at the MSG Showdown
With apologies to Spike Lee, for the rest of the evening I had the best seat in the house. In the player guest lounge I caught all the action in brilliant high-definition on a couch with Ivan Lendl (one of seven hall of famers in attendance…with Roger a lock, make it eight) and former Top 10 player Tim Mayotte. Needless to say, we had our own commentary, plenty of stories and the banter between Ivan and Tim was not nearly as one-sided as Lendl’s 17-0 career record against Mayotte (and you thought Andy Roddick had it bad with Roger)!
Posted by Staff @ 11:35 am in Tennis | 5 Comments »