Thank goodness for Kevin Ullyett, or we might have had to start going through the phone book for today’s entry.
A native of Zimbabwe, Ullyett won 24 doubles titles in his career, including three Grand Slams (two in men’s doubles, one in mixed doubles).
Great sports talent runs in the family for Ullyett, whose father Robert, was part of the Rhdoesian 1964 Olympic cricket team.
Ullyett had little interest in singles, playing just 55 matches in his 20-year career, but went 502-310 in doubles with 34 career titles, peaking at No. 4 in the rankings in 2005 at age 33.
His first Slam came at the 2001 US Open alongside partner Wayne Black, a dramatic 7-6(9), 2-6, 6-3 affair.
His second came in mixed doubles alongside Daniela Hantuchova at the Australian Open in 2002. The pair also reached the finals at Wimbledon that season and the semifinals in 2003. Ullyett also reached the Wimbledon semifinals with Liezel Huber in 2005, as well as the finals of the Australian Open that same season.
While he had the near misses in mixed doubles in 2005, Ullyett added another men’s doubles Slam that year, as he and Black took the crown at the Australian Open to lead off the season, propelling him to a career-best fourth in the rankings.
Overall, Ullyett won at least one men’s doubles title every year from 1997-2009, including a career-high six in 2002.
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Nick on 5/2/2011 12:13:33 PM | with 0 comments
 The swaggering Argentine played in one of the greatest competitive eras, that of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, and came away with 68 titles (62 ATP) including four Grand Slam titles, missing the career effort only by never winning at Wimbledon.
He never attained the No. 1 ranking - hitting No. 2 in 1977 - and was also won 15 doubles crowns before entering the the hall of fame in 1991.
A clay-court specialist, Vilas was ranked in the Top 10 for eight straight years, with his best coming in 1977 when he won an eye-popping 16 of 31 ATP tournaments, played in a staggering 160 matches (going 145-15), won 72 of his final 73 matches including both the French and US Opens.
His triumph in the United States might have been the defining moment of his career. A baseliner throughout his prime, he changed tactics in the final against Connors, charging the net again an again to take a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-0 victory.
During that same year, Vilas compiled a 46-match win streak, the longest of the Open Era (here's looking at you, Novak Djokovic!). He also put together a 53-match win streak on Clay that stood until Rafael Nadal broke it in 2006.
How in the world all this never got him ranked No. 1, other then the fact that the rankings were not done weekly as they are now, but yearly, boggles the mind.
He added Australian Open crowns in 1978 and 1979
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Nick on 5/3/2011 6:33:23 AM | with 1 comments
The most competitive letter in the alphabet, W comes down to a four-way battle between the Woodies, Virginia Wade and our choice, Mats Wilander.
Wilander brought home seven Grand Slam singles titles in the competitive 1980s, winning the Australian Open and French Opens three times apiece, and adding one US Open crown.
His 1988 campaign was one of the best of the modern era, as he went 53-11 and won three-fourths of the single-season Grand Slam. His Australian Open crown was the third of his career as he defeated hometown favourite Pat Cash in the final.
At the French Open, he defeated native son Henri Leconte, and connected on a staggering 71 of 73 first serves.
Wimbledon eluded him that season, as it did throughout his career, falling in the quarterfinals. He rebounded at the US Open, defeating Ivan Lendl in five sets, a match that took close to five hours and ended Lendl's three-year run as the tournament champion.
After he won the US Open, Wilander took the No. 1 ranking in the world for the first time in his career and held it for the rest of the year, 20 weeks in all before losing it back to Lendl in the following January.
While his tennis accomplishments in 1988 will long be remembered by fans, Wilander himself will likely remember the year for what he didn't do. That December, the Swedish champion had made a reservation for a plane trip from London's Heathrow Airport to New York City.
Wilander ultimately did not take his seat on the flight, Pan Am 103, which was destroyed in mid-air by a terrorist-planted bomb, killing all 259 people on board as well as 11 people killed by debris in Lockerbie, Scotland below.
Amazingly, Wilander was not the only celebrity to cheat death that day. The US R&B group The Four Tops, punk rocker Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and US actress Kim Catrall all had reservations on the plane, but changed plans or missed the flight for various reasons.
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Nick on 5/4/2011 6:45:07 AM | with 0 comments
There is no more enigmatic, legendary or whispered-about name on the ATP web site than the elusive Rocky XXXXXXX.
Mr. XXXXXXX is such a blur on the tennis court, the tour can't even get a good photo of him, but he must truly be in amazing shape, considering he is still playing on the tour, but the fact remains that neither Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic has ever been able to beat him.
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Nick on 5/5/2011 6:23:24 AM | with 2 comments
While no Rocky XXXXXXX, Mikhail Youzhny is a bit of a default pick for our penultimate entry.
 Sure, he's been ranked as high as eighth in the world, but Youzhny has yet to win a major title, and at age 28, he's likely not to achieve that goal.
But seven career singles titles and eight career doubles titles is nothing to shake a stick at, particularly when you add in his 10 career singles finals as well.
Youzhny broke into the Top 20 in November of 2004 and returned there to stay in February of 2007. His peak to date came the following January, when he started the year with a tournament title at Chennai against No. 2 Rafael Nadal, and followed it up with a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, surging to No. 8 in the world, where he spent a month.
After an injury-plagued start to 2009, he returned to the Top 20 near the end of the season and has never fallen out again.
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Nick on 5/6/2011 6:55:56 AM | with 0 comments
That elusive first Grand Slam title continues to the sticky wicket in Vera Zvonareva's resume, but hey, that's the problem with 95 percent of her contemporaries these days.
 The A-Z look at tennis concludes with a worthy entry, a woman who has 11 career titles and reached 16 others, including both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010.
She does have three doubles Grand Slams to her credit - the US Open in 2006 in women's doubles and both the 2006 Wimbledon and 2004 US Open crowns in mixed doubles.
Barring a complete meltdown or injury this season, Zvonareva, currently No. 3 in the world, will finish in the Top 10 for the fourth straight year, and in the Top 15 for the sixth time in nine years.
She's not just good, she's good against her contemporaries as well, something that is often overlooked as a sign of greatness. Zvonareva is 4-4 against reigning No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and 10-0 against Francesca Schiavone.
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Nick on 5/7/2011 8:46:29 AM | with 0 comments
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Seriously, ladies. Less is more.
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Here's a wild idea for former American tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.
Instead of letting everyone know that you're sitting out yet another tournament, how about just going away until you can actually, physically step onto the court and compete again?
No more false starts, no more Twitpics, no more "tentative return dates."
The WTA goes on without you, and quite well I might add. Caroline Wozniacki is holding on nicely to your No. 1 spot, Serena, and there's quite a bit of fresh blood making ample use of your former spots in the Top 10, Venus.
They aren't just placeholders either. Li Na is having a breakthrough year at age 29, and VIctoria Azarenka, when she can avoid injury, is becoming a world force.
Just behind those two, Andrea Petkovic is turning into a fan favorite and a vicious competitor, ditto Petra Kvitova.
And sure, we like seeing past champions like yourselves come back from injury or time off to rise again, but that implies that at some point you're actually going to come back.
Instead, we're perfectly content to cheer on Kim Clijsters, you know, the winner of the last two Grand Slam titles, and former No. 1 Maria Sharapova, back in the Top 10 and rising fast in Rome.
 Serena, the last time you played an official WTA match was 314 days ago and Venus? Three matches in the past eight months isn't exactly the kind of schedule that keeps you relevant. You'd think with that much time off, you could have made some better Oreo commercials.
Now granted, the argument can be made that the tennis media are making Williams-gate 2010-2011 into what it is, watching their every move, playing the will they/won't they? game at every tournament and speculating on how much game each player will have left when they do return.
But the sisters have seldom shied from that spotlight - from Serena's paparazzi run during last year's US Open Series to Venus' aforementioned cookie commercials in which her terrible acting was overlooked only because Eli Manning couldn't out-thespian a file cabinet.
 There's not much to miss out the Williams sisters on the court, and off it? Well, if I feel the need to listen to a diva whine about not getting fair calls or friendly receptions, that's what I've got Andy Roddick for.
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Nick on 5/13/2011 9:35:56 PM | with 6 comments
By now you know that if Novak Djokovic makes the final of the French Open, which begins in just a few days in Paris, he’ll be taking over the No. 1 ranking in the world.
 No matter who the opponent might be in that semifinal match, it’ll be a chance for double history for the Serbian sensation. It takes six victories to reach the Roland Garros finals, and if Djokovic strings together those first five, he’ll also have tied John McEnroe’s record for consecutive wins to begin a season at 42.
That means that in the span of one magnificent afternoon, Djokovic could reach his first French Open final, slam dunk his ascension to the No. 1 spot in the world and break a 26-year-old record for consecutive wins to start a year.
Oh, and that win would also run Djokovic’s overall win streak to 45, moving him within two victories of breaking Guillermo Vilas’ Open Era record for consecutive victories that has stood since 1977.
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Nick on 5/16/2011 8:16:24 PM | with 0 comments
With the French Open finals just 10 days away, we're taking a look back at the greatest of the title matches while the crescendo builds to championships Sunday.
Checking in at No. 10 today, the 1973 women's final.
1973 Margaret Court def. Chris Evert, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4
Chris Evert was 18 years old when she entered Roland Garros as the No. 2 seed for the 1973 French Open and had yet to win a Grand Slam title, although she would ultimately win 18. Margaret Court was 12 years her senior at 30, four years short of retirement, with 21 of her career 23 Grand Slam crowns under her belt. The No. 1-ranked Court dodged a second-round upset and won a highly-touted showdown with fellow Australian Evonne Goolagong, 6-3, 7-6 in the semifinals. Evert lost two games in her first two matches and never dropped a set until the final, dismantling hometown favourite and sixth-seeded Francoise Durr 6-1, 6-0 in the other semifinal.
Evert took the first set via tie-breaker, but Court matched her with a second-set tie-break victory. Evert would win her first of seven French Open titles the next year, but for the present, Court was still in charge, taking the third set 6-4.
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Nick on 5/27/2011 6:08:52 AM | with 0 comments
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The most two-sided personality since they spilled that acid on District Attorney Harvey Dent
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 Every time I think about Janko Tipsarevic, I hear the lyrics from that Katy Perry song in my head.
No, not the one about the fireworks. Or the one about California girls. Or the one with the rap by Kanye West that sort of creeps me out.
No, it's the earlier number that enters my mind when Janko's on court, you know, "you're hot, but you're cold, you're yes, but you're no."
Tipsarevic is clearly talented and can be marvelous in big matches, as he proved last year in propelling Serbia to the Davis Cup final last year with huge wins in the semifinals against the Czech Republic over Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.
 But why oh why can't he figure out consistency? He had a prime chance to make a huge statement Friday when he took on a distant No. 3 Roger Federer in the third round of the French Open.
Instead, Tipsarevic looked like he was on a pro court for the first time, crashing and burning in 90 minutes, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. The first set took all of 19 minutes, or about half the time it takes me to work in the morning (assuming there are no wrecks, which is not a very good assumption).
Federer racked up 10 aces on Tipsarevic, a rather large number at this stage in his career, and hit a blistering 43 of 51 first serves for winners.
To his credit, Tipsarevic is having a strong 2011, 20-11 after the loss. For his career, he's as close to .500 as you can get, 154-149 all-time and 26-29 in Grand Slam matches.
Friday's loss to Federer dropped him to 9-25 all-time and 0-3 in 2011 against Top 10 players.
In part, the frustration comes from the fact that Tipsarevic is so darn likable. He must surely be the most popular player on tour without a single career ATP title.
His Serbian-based fan site has 923 comments on it in the last four months, Friday's loss marked Tipsarevic' s 23rd career Grand Slam event. He's never made it past the fourth round of any of them since turning pro in 2006.
His big splashes in the early round of several Slams is what makes Tipsarevic so tantalizing and so frustrating to fans who wish him well.
In the spring of 2005, he entered Roland Garros ranked 107th in the world and upset No. 20 Dominik Hrbaty 6-7(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, a huge debut for a 20-year-old. He followed it up with a loss to a man ranked 155th in the world.
In 2007, he beat No. 25 Marat Safin Roland Garros' second round and No. 6 Fernando Gonzalez in Wimbledon's third. He followed each upset up with a straight sets loss.
At the 2008 Australia Open, he battled Federer tooth and nail in the third round before falling 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 7-5, 1-6, 8-10. He retired with an injury at his next match while losing to the No. 260 player in the world and lost five of his next eight matches.
And there was Tipsarevic's famous and fabulous upset of Andy Roddick in the second round of the US Open last year, a victory after which Roddick got in Tipsarevic's face and insisted he not stop here, that making the third round wasn't good enough.
Tipsarevic folded in four sets to Gael Monfils in the next round.
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Nick on 5/27/2011 9:12:00 PM | with 1 comments
With the French Open finals just 9 days away, we're taking a look back at the greatest of the title matches while the crescendo builds to championships Sunday.
Checking in at No. 9 today, the 1993 men's final.
1993 Sergi Bruguera def. Jim Courier, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
 He wasn’t as low ranked or young as Michael Chang four years previous, but Spain ’s Sergi Bruguera proved that lightning could strike anywhere when he raced to the 1993 French Open title as the No. 10 seed.
The early 1990s was an era when American men dominated the sport, particularly with Ivan Lendl having gained citizenship. Four of the top eight seeds at the French Open were Americans.
Jim Courier, seeded second, was in the prime of his career, having won four majors in the past three seasons, including back-to-back titles at Roland Garros in 1991 and 1992. He started off 1993 by claiming the Australian Open title, and had fellow American Pete Sampras and his No. 1 ranking squarely in his sights.
 Courier lost two sets in his first four matches, and was only challenged by fellow American Jeff Tarango, who pushed him to four sets featuring two tie-breakers.
Bruguera looked likely to be on a collision course with Lendl, much has Chang had been four years earlier, but Lendl was stunned in the first round. Instead, Brugera went the first four rounds without dropping a set.
With an All-American final looking likely, Bruguera crashed the party, shocking Sampras 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 and cruising through the semifinals. Courier went four sets in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches and was the clear favorite, only to find himself down 1-0 and 2-1 to Bruguera, who eventually won the match in five.
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Nick on 5/28/2011 7:28:02 AM | with 0 comments
With the French Open finals just 8 days away, we're taking a look back at the greatest of the title matches while the crescendo builds to championships Sunday.
Checking in at No. 8 today, the 1974 men's final.
1974 Bjorn Borg def. Manuel Orantes 2-6, 6-7(1), 6-0 6-1, 6-1
It seems almost impossible to think there was a time when Bjorn Borg  had not won the French Open, given that he finished his amazing career with six of them, including four in a row. But in the spring of 1974, Borg was merely a talented 17-year-old from Stockholm who was seeded third for the French Open.
Spain's Manuel Orantes was barely on blip on the rader, seeded 14th at age 28. He had enjoyed a standout 1973 season, winning four titles, but  hadn't won any to start the 1974 campaign.
The formatting was a bit odd that year at Roland Garros, with the first rounds being best of three and the rest best of five. Bjorg lost the first set of his first match, then rattled off seven sets in a row. In the fourth round, he ran into the United States' Erik Van Dillen, who staggered Borg 6-0 in the first set, but the Swede rallied to a five-set victory.
Orantes needed five sets to escape the third round, but followed it with one of the most memorable victories of his career, thrashing fourth-seeded Arthur Ashe in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
A showdown with top-seeded Ilie Nastase in the semifinals seemed inevitable for Bjorg, but American Harold Solomon pulled the shocker of the tournament, taking out the No. 1 player in five sets.
Borg made sure the Cinderella run didn't continue, ending Solomon in four sets while Orantes continued his dominance taking straight-set victories in both the quarter and semifinals.
It looked like Orantes would cruise to the title, taking the first two sets, 6-2, 7-6. But Bjorg responded with a taste of what opponents would come to fear in future seasons - not just winning, but dominating.
Borg took the next three sets 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 to storm to the victory. He would win the tournament again in 1975, then started a run the likes of which few have ever equaled - taking 13 Grand Slam titles in the next six seasons.
Orantes wasn't daunted, taking the US Open title in 1975, defeating Jimmy Connors.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 5/29/2011 7:53:12 AM | with 0 comments
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No. 7: 1985 women's final
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With the French Open finals just 7 days away, we're taking a look back at the greatest of the title matches while the crescendo builds to championships Sunday.
Checking in at No. 7 today, the 1985 women's final.
Between 1973 and 1987, there were 15 French Open finals played. Either Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova or both appeared in 11 of them, including four against each other.
 The first contest was in 1975 when Evert, clearly the better player, took the title. By the mid 1980s, Navratilova had improved her attitude and her physique and begun passing Evert as the world’s best player, taking the French crown in 1984.
The 1985 tournament began with Navratilova ranked No. 1 in the world and victorious at the Australian Open. Evert was No. 2. In the first three rounds, Navratilova lost four total games. Evert’s road was a little rougher, and she got a taste of what the game’s future held in the fourth round when she edged 16-year-old Steffi Graf, 6-2, 6-3.
 Neither player lost a single set in the tournament leading up to the final, but Evert drew first blood there. Evert had a chance to close the win out in two, but Navratilova battled her way to a tie-breaker and evened the match.
Evert got a crucial break in the third set to reclaim the French Open crown as well as achieving the No. 1 ranking in the world for the fifth and final time in her career. She would return to defend the title in 1986, her record-setting seventh.
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Nick on 5/30/2011 8:13:24 AM | with 0 comments
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#6: 2001 women's singles final
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With the French Open finals just 6 days away, we're taking a look back at the greatest of the title matches while the crescendo builds to championships Sunday.
Checking in at No. 6 today, the 2001 women's final.
Jennifer Capriati def. Kim Clijsters, 1-6, 6-4, 12-10
 At an “ancient” 25 years old, Capriati was 11 years from her stunning debut in 1990 and still without a Grand Slam title.
That changed at the Australian Open, when she became the lowest seed of the Open Era to win the title, ranked 12th by defeating No. 1 Martina Hingis. The victory got her momentum going, and she was the fourth seed heading into Roland Garros.
Clijsters, meanwhile, was not quite 18 years old in May of 2001, having turned pro in 1999 and reaching the finals at Indian Wells earlier in 2001. That success had her as the 12th seed at Roland Garros.
The tournament had an air of “anything can happen” from the get-go when No. 2 Venus Williams fell in the first round. Clijsters breezed through her first three matches, not dropping a set until the fourth round. Capriati was even more dominant, not dropping a set and needing only two tie-breakers to reach the quarterfinals.
Once there, she edged fellow American Serena Williams in three sets, while Clijsters crushed Hungarian upstart Petra Mandula.
In the semifinals, Clijsters struck a major blow in what would become a huge rivalry in her career, defeating fellow Belgian Justine Henin 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the final. Meanwhile, Capriati staggered a revenge-minded Hingis 6-4, 6-3.
Clijsters took the first set of the final easily, and was within two points of the title on four different occasions in the third set, but Capriati rallied time and again to take her second Slam in the third-longest women’s French Open final ever. She would go on to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon , claiming the No. 1 spot in the world that August.
Posted to Tennis and stuff. by
Nick on 5/31/2011 6:16:30 AM | with 0 comments
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