Tennis and stuff.
Part two of our series on players who won just one Grand Slam title during the Open Era.
Adriano Panatta, French, 1976
 Twenty-six years old in 1976, Rome's Adriano Panatta had one big claim to fame on the clay courts of Roland Garros in his early days. He was the only player alive to have defeated Bjorn Borg at the French Open, having done so in 1973.
He entered the 1976 French Open after winning Rome on clay with a come-from-behind victory over Guillermo Vilas.
His great story almost ended before it began at Roland Garros, as he was pushed to the limit by Czechoslovakia's Pavel Hutka before escaping with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, 0-6, 12-10 win.
He swept his next two opponents and needed four sets to get to the quarterfinals, where Borg awaited again, fresh off back-to-back titles and his own big scare, surviving in five sets against 16th-seeded Francois Jauffret in the fourth round, including a 10-8 fifth set.
In the quarterfinals, Panatta worked his magic again, shocking Borg 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6. Borg would never lose at Roland Garros again, and for his career at the French Open, he was 1-2 against Panatta, 48-0 against everyone else.
At the other end of the quarterfinals, American Harold Solomon was pulling a similar shock job on second-seeded Guillermo Villas. Panatta swept American Eddie Dibbs, the sixth seed, in the quarterfinals, and cruised to a four-set win over Solomon, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, for his only career crown.
Sue Barker, 1976 French Open
 Sue Barker wasn't just a one-hit wonder, she caught lightning in a bottle like few players in a big tournament ever have.
Twenty years old in 1976, the British national limped into Paris that may with a 5-8 overall record, having played the event just once.
She left it with $204,000.
Barker seemed on the verge of destruction in every round from the second on, which she won 7-5, 7-6. From then on, it was all three-set matches for the young phenom, none more dangerous than her 4-6, 6-2, 8-6 victory over Czechoslovakia's Regina Marsikova in the quarterfinals.
In every round, she not only lost a set, but lost it badly - falling 6-1 to Virginia Ruzici in the second set of the semifinals and 0-6 to Renata Tomanaova in the second set of the final.
But through it all, she kept bouncing back in those third sets, and the future sports presenter of the BBC, who tallied 11 singles and 12 doubles titles in a career that saw her reach No. 3 in the world, came through in the final.
She would never do better than the second round at Roland Garros for the rest of her career, although she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open twice and Wimbledon once.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 2/4/2012 5:41:57 PM | with 0 comments
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Day One: Andres Gimeno and Manuel Orantes
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We all know Roger Federer has 16 Grand Slam titles, Pete Sampras has 14 and Steffi Graf racked up 22, but sometimes the lesser-known champions can have the most interesting of stories.
WIth that, we begin a series of looks at the one-hit wonders of the Open Era - those players who won just a single Grand Slam title, and never made it back to the top of the heap.
We'll exclude anyone who's won their first Grand Slam title in the last five years - because Juan Martin Del Potro, Ana Ivanovic, Francesca Schivaone, Li Na, Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur and Victoria Azarenka are still quite active on their respective tours.
That leaves 21 men and 10 women who tasted the sweetest fruit but once, and perhaps it was that much sweeter for being so rare.
We'll progress in chronological order, two entries per day, beginning with Spaniards Andres Gimeno and Manuel Orantes.
Andres Gimeno, Spain, 1972 French Open
 Spain's Andres Gimeno was 34 years old in the spring of 1972 and was into his 12th year of professional tennis. He had had a grand career to that point in time, with four titles, an appearance in the 1980 Wimbledon semifinals and a trip to the 1969 Australian Open finals in which he was thoroughly smoked by Rod Laver in straight sets.
He was seeded sixth in the 1972 French Open, but the field widened considerably when second-seeded Ilie Nastase and fifth-seeded Bob Hewitt both suffered first-round upset losses.
Gimeno didn't lose a set in the first two rounds, then rallied past 11th-seeded American Clark Graebner 3-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the third round.
He faced off against American powerhosue Stan Smith in the quarterfinals, with Smith seeded third, a returning finalist.
It was one of six times that Gimeno and Smith would square off in 1972, and the only time Gimeno would emerge victorious, in one of the most bizarrely scored major matches, he took a 6-1, 7-9, 6-0, 7-6 victory.
The road never got any easier for Gimeno. He needed five sets to edge the Soviet Union's Alex Metreveli in the semifinals, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, setting up a final against the ninth seed, France's own Patrick Proisy, who had upset Manuel Orantes in the semifinals.
At 22 years old, Proisy was younger and faster than Gimeno, but was playing under considerable pressure, trying to be the first Frenchman to take Roland Garros since Marcel Bernard.
Proisy looked on his way to being elevated to sainthood by taking a first-set victory, but Gimeno responded with three straight easy victories to take the 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 title.
Gimeno remains the oldest man to win the French Open.
Manuel Orantes, 1975 US Open
 Spain's Manuel Orantes could empathize with the Andy Murrays, Tomas Berdychs and Robin Soderlings of today's game.
He was an extremely good player in an era that had several all-time greats active.
Between 1969-1982, Orantes won 33 singles titles, but largely struggled at the majors, other than a pair of semifinal appearances in 1972 and a finals trip at the French Open in 1974. Playing in the era of Laver, Bjorn Borg and Arthur Ashe was wont to do that to a guy.
Orantes was ranked in the Top 10 as the Open Era dawned, but had slipped back into the teens by 1975. He started the season red-hot, with four titles before flubbing in the first round at Roland Garros.
He bounced back to win Bastad and Indianapolis without dropping a set, and added a title at the Rogers Cup to enter the US Open on one of the best rolls of his life as the third seed.
He dismissed of his first two opponents in straight sets, but needed three sets each (back in the pre-best-of-five days) to reach the quarterfinals.
There he faced eighth-seeded Illie Nastase and took a 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory to enter a final four that included defending champion Jimmy Connors, legend Borg and Argentina's Guillermo Villas, who would end his days with four Grand Slams.
While Connors again denied Borg the US Open title in one semifinal, Orantes performed a remarkable comeback in the other, rallying to a 4-6, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory.
Connors was the heavy favorite, both via the odds and the fans, but Orantes took control of the match early and cruised to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 2/3/2012 6:16:48 PM | with 0 comments
Today's statistical anomaly is brought to you by: the WTA tour.
For the first time in Open Era history, four consecutive Grand Slam titles have been won by women who have never won a major crown before.
Victoria Azarenka cemented the record with her victory at the Australian Open last Sunday, following 2011 US Open winner Samantha Stosur, 2011 Wimbleon champ Petra Kvitova and 2011 French Open victor Li Na into the record books.
Only twice before had three straight majors been won by three women who had never taken a Slam before. In 2004, Russia's Anastasia Myskina took the French Open - her only Slam ever - followed by fellow Russians Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon (first of three) and Svetlana Kuznetsova at the US Open (first of two).
In 1978, Australia's Chris O'Neil won her only career Slam by taking her native Australian Open and Romania's Virginia Ruzici won her only major at the French Open. The pair were followed into the winner's circle by a young Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon, who won her first of 18.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 2/1/2012 10:18:41 PM | with 0 comments
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Deep into the record books
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Statistics aren't as big in the moment in tennis as they are in other sports.
Telling someone that a guy has hit 81% of first severs for winners doesn't really mean that much if he's also got 37 unforced errors, unlike in baseball where if a guy is 3-for-3 with 3 RBI you can assume he's having one heck of a ballgame.
But when it comes to historical significance, the numbers don't lie in tennis, and with his recent defense of the Australian Open crown, Novak Djokovic's place in tennis history is starting to loom mighty large.
By winning his third straight Grand Slam title, following last year's US Open and Wimbledon feats, Nadal became just the fifth man to win three in a row in the Open Era, joining Rod Laver (four in a row, 1969); Pete Sampras (1993 Wimbledon - 1994 Australian Open); Roger Federer (2005 Wimbledon - 2006 Australian Open and 2006 Wimbledon - 2007 Australian Open); and Rafael Nadal (2010 French Open - 2010 US Open).
More impresively, Djokovic joined only Sampras, Federer and Nadal as the only men to win four out of five consecutive Grand Slam titles.
Federer did it best, taking six out of seven between Wimbledon in 2005 and the 2007 Australian Open to cement himself as the greatest player in history. Sampras did it starting with Wimbledon in 1993 and finishing by winning the event again in 1994, and Nadal did it from 2010-2011, missing only Djokovic's 2011 Australian Open title in that sequence.
With five Grand Slam titles to his credit, Djokovic is now tied for 12th in the Open Era for major titles with Australia's Rod Laver and John Newcombe. Next in his sights, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker with six each tied for 10th.
Even repeating his crown at the Australian Open puts Djokovic in elite company in the Open Era, joining the likes of Ken Rosewall (1971-1972), Guillermo Villas (1978-1979), Mats Wilander (1983-1984), Ivan Lendl (1989-1990), JIm Courier (1992-1993), Andre Agassi (2000-2001) and Roger Federer (2006-2007).
Djokovis is also making history quickly - in the Open Era, his four-year span between winning his first Grand Slam title and his fifth is tied for third-fastest to reach the achievement.
It took Roger Federer only two years to win his first five Grand Slams and Rafael Nadal and Ivan Lendl needed three. After that, Djokovic is part of an elite corps that includes Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras - all of whom gobbled up five Grand Slams in a four-year period.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 2/1/2012 2:00:13 PM | with 0 comments
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Don't make Marcos angry ... you won't like him when he's angry
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In case you didn't stay up late / get up early to see Marcos Baghdatis take on Stanislas Wawrinka on Wednesday, you missed a sideline performance that was half John McEnroe, half Bruce Banner.
During his 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 loss to Stanislas Wawrinka, Baghdatis let his temper get the best of him and smashed four straight racquets while seated during a change over.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/19/2012 12:45:12 AM | with 3 comments
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I'm counting on you, Ivan Lendl!
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Now granted, the Australian Open started yesterday if you’re a State-sider like me, but considering that there almost no first-round upsets and given the fact that we’ve had dehumidifiers and fans running 24 hours a day in our home by way of a rusty nail in the water line, I think I merit a free pass on some tardy predictions.
So even as I type that I believe Andy Murray will win the men’s singles title at the Australian Open, I find myself thinking back over the past 18 months, and how I would have asked if I had lost a bet or somehow hit my head on the pavement as to the reasons I was taking said pick.
I’ve never been a Murray fan, but his move to employ Ivan Lendl as his new coach has me playing a different tune. Murray seems to have finally grown up, and realized that this tennis is some serious business, and while being in the Top 5 in the world is tremendous, anything but No. 1 is unsatisfactory.
To the point, he has dispensed with all previous coaches – Leon Smith, who led him from ages 11-17; Brad Gilbert; Miles Maclagan, head of his “team of experts” in 2007; Alex Corretja and even his mom, in favour of a man who knows how to win intimately, having done so at a time when some of the true greatest players of all-time were at their peaks.
In many team sports, being a great player rarely translates into being a great coach, as the NBA’s Magic Johnson and Larry Bird; the NFL’s Mike Singletary and MLB’s Ted Williams all found out at one time or another.
But tennis is a fiercely mental and psychological game, and neither one of those areas is something Murray has been well known for during his early years on the tour.
Here in Australia, he is the hottest player going, following his impressive victory at Sydney. Seeded fourth, he avoids facing a higher seed until the semifinals, where defending Novak Djokovic would await if he can avoid injury or upset from a host of would be regiciders including Milos Raonic, Andy Roddick, Janko Tipsarevic, Richard Gasquet and David Ferrer.
Murray’s route seems considerably less precarious after facing American man-boy Ryan Harrison in the first round. From there, he’s unlikely to face a real challenge into Gael Monfils in the fourth round or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals.
The good news there is that if there’s one thing the British enjoy doing, it’s whipping up on the French.
If he can get by Djokovic or have someone else take out the top dog, he’s left with either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in the final – both of whom he has played particularly well against of late. Murray is 2-1 in his last three matchups with Federer and is 8-6 against the Swiss overall. He also defeated Nadal in the pair’s last matchup, at Tokyo near the end of 2011.
On the women’s side, the popular pick is Petra Kvitova (say that three times fast), so why do I find my thoughts veering northeast of her native CzechRepublic to mother Russia?
Yes, it’s Maria Sharapova that calls to me from the WTA field, despite her recent maladies and her difficult first-round matchup against drool-worthy Gisela Dulko.
If she doesn’t slip early, Sharapova has a favourable route to the quarterfinals. She could face some very good young talent – particularly German’s Sabine Lisicki and Angelique Kerber – but neither has the kind of big-time experience that Sharapova brings the table.
If she makes it to the final eight, she’ll probably run into fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva or rival Serena Williams.
If it’s Williams, Sharapova will have to be on her best to advance, as she’s not beaten the American in six straight attempts dating back to 2004, while things have come a bit easier if it’s Zvonareva, who Sharapova owns a 7-3 margin against with three straight wins.
From there, Sharapova could see Kvitova in the semifinals, followed by Caroline Wozniacki, or one of last year’s finalists – Li Na or the resurgent Kim Clijsters for the title.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/16/2012 1:10:56 PM | with 3 comments
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Now we just need a property tax website
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Tennis players make more money than you.
It's just a fact.
Don't worry, they make more money than I do too. In fact, any competitor who makes it to the fourth round during the next fortnight's Australian Open will pick up a check vastly superior to my yearly salary.
And while none of us are ever going to enjoy the life of luxury that our favorite tennis players do, we can at least take a sneak peak into what they're doing with all that money courtesey of the slick website Virtual Globetrotting, which combines the best of Google, Bing and Yahoo Maps with an extraordinarily impressive Custom Google Search engine to zoom you into anybody's backyard.
I found this lovely site while doing an earlier piece on Mats Wilander's Idaho estate being up for sale.
Since then, my wife and I have been typing in every celebrity's name we can think of to see where they're plopping down their big checks for housing.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Andre Agassi
John McEnroe's place on the beach in Malibu
Chris Evert's place in Boca Raton - note to Chris Evert, I am free to house sit, forever
Ivan Lendl's place in Vero Beach, a far cry from Czechoslovakia
Jimmy Connors, not a big fan of having neighbors in Belleville, Illinois
More to come!
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/15/2012 9:52:09 PM | with 0 comments
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Brother, can you spare 59 million dimes?
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If you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas, Mats Wilander has good news for you: He'd love to sell you his house.
Wilander, who won seven Grand Slam titles during his illustrious career, is selling his home, estimated at $5.9 million In Sun Valley, Idaho.
Wilander's house has a little over 10,000 square feet including a chef's kitchen, seven bedrooms, a sauna, wine cellar and a soundproof music room.
If 10,000 square feet seems like it might leave you not much room for a yard, no worries, it sits on an 80-acre lot with the famous Bald Mountain, a skier's dream with a 9,150 foot summit, in the background.
A pond outside the estate doubles as an ice rink in the winter, but there's also a normal pool and a hot tub.
Che Wilander has been on the market since last June, when it was listed for $8.5 million. Sun Valley boasts a full-time population of a whopping 1,406 people, but if you grab the house, you can rub potential elbows with many of its famous part-time residences such as Tom Hanks, Demi Moore, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Ashton Kutcher, Richard Dreyfuss, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Robbins.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/15/2012 9:01:37 PM | with 0 comments
Look out tennis fans, the fun police are on the prowl early in 2012. A torrent of criticism has pushed Germany's Andrea Petkovic to her breaking point, and the fun-loving WTA star in the making has announced she will no longer perform her "Petko Dance" following victories. To add injury to insult, Petkovic has suffered a lower back stress fracture, which will cause her to miss the Australian Open, making the subject of the dance a fairly moot point for the immediate future.
Petkovic told the Sydney Herald on Wednesday that she kept getting asked the same question over and over, wondering if she felt it was disrespectful to her opponent.
She cited celebration dances and routines done by football (soccer) players across the world, but said that tennis' conservative nature was her celebration's undoing. While the dance will go on indefinite leave, Petkovic has promised to replace it with the "Petko Dunk," which she calls an homage to the basketball shot goal celebration of countryman Bastian Schweinsteiger, who plays football for Germany's Bayern
Munich.
Petkovic added that Schweinsteiger has promised her that he will pay homage to the dearly-departed Petko Dance next time he scores a goal.
Putting the pressure on an affable young player who clearly enjoys interacting with the fans is just one more reason that professional tennis struggles to compete with TV ratings, advertising money and space on SportsCenter.
As for Petkovic, on the billion-to-one shot that she's reading this blog, may I share with you some advice that was first given to me 30 years ago by Ivan and Stefan Doroschuk and Allan McCarthy, better known as Men Without Hats.
You can dance if you want to.
You can leave your friends behind.
Cuz your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance,
Well, they're no friends of mine.
Take it away, Turk.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/11/2012 10:48:36 PM | with 0 comments
I’ve read a lot about the debate for modification of the current points ranking system in ATP and WTA tennis, and as crazy as it sounds coming off my fingertips, the most viable solution for me is to emulate college football.
That’s right, college football, which has one of the most screwed up ranking systems of all time.
Of course, it’s not the ridiculous BCS formula I want to adopt with all of its margin of victory and strength of schedule mumbo-jumbo.
What I want to see is the ATP and WTA stop punishing players for failing to live up to their previous year’s success and rewarding them for the here and now.
My anger at the current system hit an all-time high at the end of 2010, when Kim Clijsters won the US Open for the second straight season, and was "rewarded" by dropping from No. 2 to No. 4 in the rankings.
To that end, my proposed system would see no more defending of points from year to year. Let the past be the past, as my man 25 TA LIFE once said.
Where the ATP and WTA need to emulate college football is by not releasing any rankings until after the Australian Open is over, i.e. at the end of January.
In my vision, every single player starts the new year at zero points. The first few tournaments of the year are welcome to seed players however they choose – last year’s finishing rank, most followers on Twitter, whatever.
On the subject of points, the tournament weights need to be changed. The four Grand Slams are the top events in the world and should be treated accordingly. Bump up the winning player’s total from 2,000 to 2,500. The World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments can remain just that, but the 500s and 250s need to be downgraded to 250s and 125s a piece.
Winning four 500-point tournaments shouldn't be the equivalent of one Grand Slam. Very rarely is the field anywhere near as impressive, and there aren't as many rounds, nor are they best-of-five sets.
Players who like staying active and making some extra walking-around money will still have the right to play in as many tournaments as they wish during a season, but they won't be allowed to pile up the points doing so.
Only a certain number of 250 and 125-point tournaments will apply to a player's ranking. Remember those great college classes where you could drop your worst test grade? The same thing applies here.
Perhaps most importantly, the year-end championships don't have a point value. It's solely a cash grab for the players and advertisers and a joy for fans.
And finally, Challenger, Futures and ITF events don't count in the ATP and WTA standings at all. Those are the minor-league tournaments of tennis. Players who compete largely in these tournaments can have a separate rankings list that shows the best young players in the game.
What's your thought of what rankings system works best? What changes, if any, would you like to see the ATP and WTA make to their current formats?
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 1/2/2012 7:35:17 PM | with 2 comments
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