28 posts categorized "December 2009"
By Jackie Roe, TW Social Director
Hi there, come on in! So glad to see you - and you brought some sweets, I see. Go ahead and put them in the kitchen with the rest of the holiday treats. A bunch of folks are already here, helping me set up shop. So far we have quite the spread: Jenni whipped up a decadent rum cake, and I made the egg nog, in addition to my signature Bûche de Noël. jewell can't come, but she sent over some homemade tennis player-shaped cookies and of course, tea. Doesn't quite make up for her absence, but we'll take it! What else ... there's Bobby's white chocolate peppermint martini fixins and Mr. X's Spanish cider. And CL is adding to the bar; I see she has some scotch and a beer with Sam's name on it. (Think some of y'all ought to plan to stay put overnight.) Hmm, there's nothing for me to drink here ... teetotaling and holiday parties really don't mix!
Lleytsie just came in a few seconds ago and brought with him the most fantastic gift - our playlist for the evening! What makes this so special is that it's a compilation of our selections from last summer's TW Music Festival. I'm grateful to Lleytsie for putting this together and even more excited to experience the TWibe's favorite tunes again. To listen, click here, select "Play All Videos," and enjoy!
As Pete noted at last year's party, this shindig is dog-friendly, smoker-friendly (that oughta please Ferru) and just-about-everything friendly, so make yourselves at home and have fun!
by Bobby Chintapalli, TW Contributing Editor
Like it or not, win or lose, on court or off, Serena Williams dominated women's tennis this year. She grabbed our attention in Melbourne in January and still had it in Doha last month. Even if we couldn't look (or couldn't look away), there she was through four seasons for many reasons, including quite a few that had nothing to do with her massive serves and crosscourt forehands. The queen of the court, the player 'Sports Illustrated' named female athlete of the decade, can even hold court off court, serving up quotable quotes as effortlessly as those aces out wide.
In fact it's when her tennis fizzles that Serena really sizzles. Remember those comments after her loss at the French Open to eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova? “I lost because of me and not because of anything she did,” Serena said. “I pretty much gave it to her. It was like, Here, you know, do you want to go to the semis? Because I don't. She was like, Okay.” Zing… and we all know there's more where that came from.
You can call Serena ungracious… or maybe charming, dense, witty, bizarre, sensible, unbearable, inspiring. She can be all that and more – in just one interview. What you can't call her is boring. Her pressers can be juicier than Tiger Woods's text messages and funnier than his voice messages. They can also be longer than his apparently not-so-little black book. Is there a topic Serena hasn't discussed, a product she hasn't plugged, a new extracurricular activity she hasn't mentioned? If you think so, chances are, you missed a few pressers from Wimbledon or some other tournament this year.
It's not necessarily that Serena likes to talk. Often fans and journalists like Serena to talk. And talk and talk. She seems to get asked more questions – and certainly more odd, comical and inflammatory questions – than others. Perhaps to be newsworthy or just courteous, she also seems to answer more of them and relatively honestly at that.
I decided to recap the year of a player we live to watch or maybe watch to berate using her own words from her favorite eight weeks of the year, the Grand Slams. As I pored through every syllable she uttered during every press conference of every Grand Slam tournament, I wanted to hug her, lecture her, laugh, scream or throw my laptop out of the window. Not once did I want to yawn.
Australian Open
* Topics discussed: The heat, rankings, Andy Roddick, odd-year AO titles, the economy, President Barack Obama's inauguration
* Products plugged: Hewlett Packard, Nike
* Extracurricular activities mentioned: Designing, playing guitar
Most interesting question: “With your present silhouette, do you suppose you're able to bear the heat better than one day you might have?”
On whether being more “slender” this year helped her handle the heat (her answer to the question above): “Maybe with the fat I would be able to absorb more of the heat (laughter).”
On President Obama's inauguration: “I was watching on the TV before I went out to play. I looked at my arm, and I literally had chill bumps. I'm a big fan of African American history, learning my roots so I can be a better person. You just look at all the things that we've come through. Now to have this opportunity… is amazing.”
On her winning the AO in odd years: “One year I wasn't able to come back and defend my title. One year I went crazy. A couple years I went completely crazy. So hopefully I'll be able to stay focused this year.
On Andy Roddick: “My biceps are probably still bigger than his (laughter).”
French Open
* Topics discussed: How drama follows her, the Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez incident, injuries, playing on clay
* Products plugged: Surprisingly… none?
* Extracurricular activities mentioned: Even more surprisingly… none?
Most interesting question: “I don't think you've ever won a Slam without being able to scream. This could be a big challenge for you.” (A journalist asked this in response to Serena saying she was losing her voice.)
On whether Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez knew a ball touched her as Serena said and cameras suggested: “I hit that ball rather hard. She knew that ball hit her.”
On the drama in her life: “I'm like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, drama follows them. I don't want to be that girl.”
On how she played in her first-round match: “I played really horrible today… I just played junior tennis or even worse.”
On the calendar-year Grand Slam not being possible because she and Rafael Nadal lost: “Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go down alone.”
On whether she would root for Roger Federer to win: “I like Del Potro's game, because he's young and he's tall and he's really nice to me. And Roger is really nice to me, too. Obviously I love Roger. But, yeah, him, and I like González. Well, González is hitting too many drop shots, so he kind of got me a little frustrated. So yeah. I don't know. Maybe – I like Del Potro. I don't know if he's the favorite, but I'd just like to see him do well.”
Wimbledon
* Topics discussed: Venus Williams, Roger Federer, rankings, Russian players, Michael Jackson's death, uses for trophies
* Products plugged: Nike t-shirts, Gatorade
* Extracurricular activities mentioned: Script-writing, designing
Most interesting question: “You were late on court. Jelena Jankovic was late for her match yesterday. Both of you look pretty perfect on court, your hair, you outfits. Does it take time you a long time to get ready? Does that affect how late you are on court sometimes?”
On Michael Jackson's death: ""Words can't express my shock and horror... I think any celebrity who met Michael Jackson was completely in awe. I know I was... [He] was the celebrity of all celebrities."
On her forehand during her close match against Elena Dementieva: “My forehand didn't show up today. I think he went to Hawaii (laughter).”
On Venus at Wimbledon: “I think she's everyone's worry. [She] has proven herself to be the best grass court player in our generation.”
On Nadal's absence: “I was sad… I'm sure there's a lot of guys on the men's tour who were probably celebrating and partying.”
On Wimbledon perhaps scheduling players on Centre Court based on looks rather than talent: “Well, I think Roger's hot, but he's married…”
On what she admires most about Roger Federer: “I like how he hates to lose.”
On how there are so many Russian players: “Everyone is from Russia. Sometimes I think I'm from Russia, too… I think my name must be ‘Williamsova'.”
On whether she marvels at her accomplishments: “No. I have plenty of time to think about that when my career is over… I feel like there's so much more I would like to do."
On her trophies: "I use some of my trophies for makeup brushes, so, you know, maybe I'll just take a step back and be like, Hmm. Take all the makeup brushes out and really appreciate every title and every trophy."
On whether she was disappointed not to have the Number 1 ranking: “I'd rather be No. 2 and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be No. 1 and not have any.”
US Open
* Topics discussed: Her semifinal outburst, Kim Clijsters, Melanie Oudin
* Products plugged: Her book ('On the Line'), HSN collection, Nike Delicious t-shirts, Wilson
* Extracurricular activities mentioned: Writing, fashion, designing, acting
Most interesting question: “Is it harder to play against somebody who is nice as opposed to someone who is maybe a pain in the ass?”
On Kim Clijsters: “Seems like she's even faster than what she was before. I was thinking that maybe I should have a baby and then I'll come back faster. (laughter.) That was my observation, so I'm thinking about it.”
On Melanie Oudin: “She's a real fighter. It's great for the United States and great for women's tennis… Now I don't have to have so much pressure on Fed Cup all the time.”
On what little Serena might think of today's Serena: “I would think that this Serena Williams today is super cool. I would love to get her autograph. I think she would have been my idol, because it would have been like growing up there weren't too many black people.”
On being a champion: “What makes a champion isn't how well they do. It's about how well they can recover when they fall, or if they fall.”
On hearing fans yelling: “I hear it sometimes. I heard a guy in the crowd saying, Stop hitting lobs, so I didn't hit any more lobs after that. My lob was not working today (laughter).”
On what she said to the lineswoman during her now-infamous semifinal outburst: “What did I say? You didn't hear? Oh.”
On how that semifinal ended: “I planned on hitting a couple of aces, but I guess it didn't work out.”
On whether the weather contributed to her outburst: “What? That's like the craziest question I ever heard… Usually if it's hot you lose your temper, not when it's cold. Come on.”
On what she learned from the outburst: “I think the whole point of learning from your mistakes is not to do the same thing. I definitely would, I think, have a more professional way of voicing my opinion… I want to get another bad line call so I can get some more practice and see how I do. That would be awesome… I probably would even smile.”
On what the money means to her: “You know, when I first started playing tennis, I never ever thought of a paycheck. I play to win; I play to be happy; I play because I enjoy what I do.”
Howdy, everyone. I hope y'all can come around for our virtual Holiday party starting tomorrow at 5 p.m. Jackie-Oh is still making the egg nog, and I think Jewell is going to bake some Christmas cookies. It's been a hectic holiday season for me, mostly for work-related reasons, and this year I resolved to cut back a little at TennisWorld over these slow weeks of the off-season. I've been writing the blog for almost five years now (or is it five?), and can honestly say that I never thought the well would be so deep. You've done your share of the heavy lifting, too. Did you know that we are bearing done on the one million comment mark (not all of them put-downs by NP, either)? I have to think up a way to commemorate that. Of course, "prolific" is a relative term. My not-so-secret vice is the western novel, and just yesterday I downloaded (to my new Kindle) a single file containing 13 novels by Max Brand. The whole shebang cost me a whopping 99 cents.
I had thought that Louis L'Amour, one of my favorites, had a fertile mind and a fast hand (he wrote 89 novels and a boatload of short stories, while living a life filled with high adventure). Well, Brand, who was born Fredrick Faust, churned out some 500 novels, sometimes at a clip of 12,000 words per weekend. Production-wise, he rivals Edgar Wallace and Isaac Asimov. And he was a surprisingly "literary" person and author. Tell that to your slacker nephew in Brooklyn, who's still waiting to go on Charlie Rose because he published a dark short story three years ago in an obscure Southern literary magazine . . . "Dark" is awfully big lately, haven't you heard?
I love that anecdote about L'Amour's toddler daughter wandering into his study and asking why daddy was typing so "fast." To which L'Amour replied, "Because I want to see how the story ends!"
When I first started writing this blog, I worried I'd run out of topical material, the stuff of red- meat posts, long ago. Instead, I'll still wake in the middle of the night, thinking something like: I really need to write that post about the 1991 Orange Bowl. . . or, We really need to address this issue of surface properties other than speed. But I forced myself to cut back a little during this holiday period, to re-charge the batteries for the new year. The scary part is that writing becomes like breathing. You just do it automatically, as a natural part of life. I also learned that the difference between your best and worst writing is minimal, at best. Writing faster doesn't necessarily mean writing less well - in fact, the opposite may be true, although it's up to your readers to make the call on that one.
I enjoyed cruising through the comments responding to my tennis vs. golf post yesterday. Like certain other subjects (think "horned barnyard animal heavily consumed in many parts of the world outside the USA?"), determining which sport or athletic role is the toughest, most demanding, etc. is a topical gift that never ceases to give.
I even like the fact that the issue ultimately remain unresolved. Life should always contain mystery and a measure of chaos, right? I have just three things to add, the first of which I wish I'd thought to include when discussing tennis and golf yesterday (apologies if someone made this point and I missed it):
1 -In tennis, you must react to, chase, and strike a moving object. In golf you have all the time in the world to prepare, swing, and strike a stationary one. That makes all the difference in the world.
2 - An NFL cornerback (as opposed to quarterback) is at the very top of my totem pole of great athletes. He must be fast enough to cover the fleetest men in the game, the receivers, but also strong and tough enough to bring down a tight end or running back who might outweigh him by 50 pounds. He must also be skillful with his hands, to intercept or bat away passes. And he works under an enormous disadvantage: the other guy, at least in the case of a pass receiver, knows exactly where he's going and where to expect the ball to be thrown. This calls for an unusual combination of skills and athletic flexibility and decision-making under pressure - sometimes at serious risk of bodily injury. 3 - Boxers are the must underrated of all athletes.
And in the interest of full disclosure, I sheepishly admit that I did not know that the Swiss named a skier, rather than Roger Federer, their athlete of the year. I guess they wanted to send a message: We've got more than that Roger Federer going on here in our pleasant Alpine hideaway!
I have a new post by Bobby Chintapalli going up tomorrow morning. Have a happy day, everyone. -- Pete
Holiday Greetings, everyone. We're in the middle of that long grind that now begins officially the day after Thanksgiving and ends abruptly, one day into the new year. Say what you want about how "soft" we've all grown - our sheer ability, as a species, to gut out the "holiday season" is an enduring testament to the human spirit. . . or stamina. . . or greed. . . or the wholly understandable willingness to trade loads of money and the inevitable measure of emotional stress that is part of all holidays for - days off from work.
I think I'll slip out tonight to catch the 11 p.m. showing of The Road, just to restore my balance after two straight weeks of listening to the Christmas music station in my satellite radio. I hear that Wham! song, Last Christmas, I Gave You My Heart one more time and I'm gonna go all Serena on someone.
The Holiday season: it giveth. And it taketh away. Now what the hail did I do with the receipt too that ridiculous Eco-Sleep clock radio that wakes you to the sounds of the (fast-disappearing) rain forest instead of a good old-fashioned buzzer, or the voice of some coffee-addled morning talk show host. Why don't people give me nice presents, like a Come Along winch, or a Sawzall? Anyway, this headline caught my eye this morning, and is as fine an example of irony as I can find. If Federer was named the European Athlete of the Year, he's probably right in the thick of the battle for earning the Swiss athlete-of-the-year honors, too, right?
Actually, it makes me feel bad for all those poor yodeling skiers, archers, figure skaters, cyclists and, of course, the titans of the luge. You may be the best race-walker or curler Switzerland has ever produced, but as long as that Federer character is around, you've got not shot at being named the athlete-of-the-year - or if they do find a way to bestow that honor upon you, even if it's just out of a desire to something new and different, how can you accept that abstract metal trophy (it could be truly useful if you attached to the line used to anchor your dinghy on Lake Geneva) with a straight face? By the way, even before we learned that Tiger Woods is more swordsman than golfer, I felt that Federer was the athlete-of-the-decade, world-wide, hands down. As John McEnroe once said of golf, "I thought you had to run for it to be a sport. . ."
No disrespect intended toward golf, here. I'm not a fan, but it's a great game requires enormous skill, fabulous eye-hand co-ordination, yadda-yadda-yadda. But at the end of the day it's still more game than sport. There's a essential component missing that disqualifies golf from the pantheon of sports. That's something I would call "physicality." I'm not a big fan of figure skating, either, but there is physicality involved, despite all those ridiculous costumes the skaters wear. You don't jump high enough, you don't get that burst of acceleration that gets you there in time to catch the girl before she cracks her head on the ice and you don't have a shot at success.
I recall reading somewhere that Tiger spent a lot of time in the gym (he didn't just fall off the turnip truck; every gym on the planet is crawling with hotties in thongs, clutching bottles of Evian). But so what? Everyone these spends a lot of time in the gym; fitness, like climate-change, has become religion. So that angle didn't sell me on the fact that Tiger is a great athlete, although it certainly suggested that Tiger improved as a golfer because he decided to pursue fitness as diligently as the average Manhattan bond trader. It was a useful narrrative though, helping to boost the prestige of golf. Do you really want to tell me that golf is a demanding, physically challenging sport when it's the recreation of choice for eighty per cent of the blowhard, overweight corporate executives in the world? I'll consider the argument when all those guys I see on the golf course join a Thursday night boxing group, or trade their clubs for pitons and ice-axes, just for a change of pace. . .
No, Federer is the hands-down athlete of the decade in my book. Physicality is essential to tennis; take away the explosive first step, the ability to withstand the shock inflicted by a sport predicated on violent bursts and sudden stops, the stamina required to go fives sets under a broiling sun (we'll know more about that in a few weeks, when things get underway in Melbourne), and and you've got. . . a pretty darned good golfer. Or someone who could be that, at any rate. They ought to divide what is commonly called "sports" into two distinct categories: sports and games of skill. For McEnroe's Duh! line is actually a very accurate and reliable way to separate the two. On a sliding scale, tennis veers strongly toward sport; golf would skew heavily toward game. The gap separating the two activities is wider than the distance of either from the pole toward which it's drawn.
I'd be curious to know what you all think about this. -- Pete
 Good mornin', everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, or enjoyed the spirit even if you don't celebrate the holiday. We're having a family weekend here at the farm in game-rich Andes, so I'm going to keep this brief. But we'll be back with full-force tennis coverage on Monday.
One thing I need to do this weekend is figure out how to work this Kindle reader my wife Lisa got me for Christmas. I'm looking forward to using it, especially on work trips and vacations, where those four or five books I usually take constitute a pretty heavy burden in my carry-on luggage. I also need to teach Luke how to shoot the Red Ryder BB gun that Santa brought him. And don't worry, ladies, Lisa did pretty well too. Santa brought her a nice little necklace, with a nicely set pink pearl.
How did you all do on Christmas? Was Santa as good to you as he was to us? Feel free to share your holiday experience. I'll drop by later to see how y'all are doing. PS - Kim Clijsters is collecting donations for victims of the Christmas brush fires Down Under.
-- Pete
By Jackie Roe, TW Social Director Merry Christmas and happy holidays, TWibe! I'm not sure how many folks are around, but I'm hoping some of you won't mind taking a little break from the holiday festivities to say hello and hang out here for a while.
What is the TWibe up to this holiday season? Are you with family? Traveling? Just catching up on some rest? And for those who celebrate Christmas, how'd you make out, gift-wise?
I usually take it easy during this time of year and spend Christmas at home, with my family. My sister Elizabeth is in town once again, and as always, she's the only entertainment I need. I joke that I'm her shadow - always following her around the house! I just opened my gifts and am blown away by the abundance of goodies (including gift cards, clothing, beauty products, and one of those laptop cushion support thingies). I can't wait to use it all. And here I thought I was getting too old for Christmas gifts ... I'm realizing there's no such thing!
Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I wish you all a cheerful, warm, and relaxing holiday season and new year. (I'll be back next Friday with some more new year's sentiments!) I'm so pleased to be spending my second Christmas as a member of the TW family and can't thank you enough for your readership and support. Writing these Deuce Club posts, serving as your "Social Director," and hanging out with you every Friday evening have been the highlights of my year, and I look forward to continuing the fun in 2010.
Before I wrap up, I have a couple of announcements: Yep, I'm still accepting TW Award nominations, so make sure to send those my way if you haven't already. Don't forget to include your picks for both male and female Poster of the Year in your submission. I had been asking that you send your ideas to my Tennis.com e-mail address, but that e-mail account isn't working at the moment, so please contact me here instead, and I apologize if your messages got bounced back (resend if that was the case!).
It must be noted that things have been rather hectic for both Pete and myself of late (but especially Pete!), so we have yet to figure out when the official announcement of the awards will take place. I hope soon ... and in the meantime, many thanks for your patience!
PROGRAMMING NOTE: One tradition we're definitely keeping alive is the TW virtual holiday party! Usually the party takes place a little earlier in December, but we're making this year's more like a New Year's party. It'll take place on Wednesday, 12/30. Exact time TBD. (Do y'all have a preference? Would 5 PM TW time work - same time as when the DC goes up? Suggestions are welcome.) Last year's party was a blast - click here and here to relive all the action - and I'm sure this year's will be no different. Hope all of you can stop by! That's all for now. Virtual hugs and happy holidays again!
 by Pete Bodo
Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, is the new owner of the BNP Paribas Open, one of the most valued and prestigious of tennis franchises. The tournament draws more spectators than all but the Grand Slam events (over 330,000 last year alone), and it's one of the prestigious "dual" events that feature men's and women's draws.
You' ve got to hand it to this tennis nut Ellison - when he jumps in, he goes with both legs. I guess Wimbledon wasn't up for sale.
This is a terrific bit of news for the game, because while Ellison certainly has a nose for making money, you have to see this acquisition as comparable to Ted Turner's ventures into ranch ownership. Whatever other issues come into play, we know that Ellison's aim can't be speculative, or driven purely by a desire to put another cash cow in his barn (That's Ellison on the far left in the photo, with his Oracle BMW America's Cup sailboat racing crew). The Indian Wells tournament will probably figure as a high-profile jewel in the Ellison empire, and you can bet it will be treated accordingly.
Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore, the founders and former owners of Indian Wells, held a conference call yesterday. In it, they sometimes referred to the BNP Paribas Open as their "baby." Cliché as that it is, the description is apt - and accurate.
Pasarell and Moore took the clay, or sand, of the Palm Springs area (their mutual adopted home) and sculpted the event and the place that became their Indian Wells Tennis Garden over decades, navigating some howling sandstorms along the way. For them to have survived even the political wars that tore the ATP apart in the wild and wooly 1980s and '90s called for shrewd planning, great negotiating abilities, a Rolodex the size of a 60-gallon oil drum, and political skills that would make even a U.S. Senator tip his hat, or blush.
And the funny thing is that the more they grew, the harder they had to work. Thanks to the changing game, the tournament proved to be as demanding and unpredictable as a robust infant. The recent, new demands for dramatically increased prize-money for the women - part of the pay-to-play deal cooked up by former WTA President Larry Scott, and others - was just the most recent example of how the stakes for Pasarell and Moore just kept rising.
The co-founders were quick on their feet, but not invulnerable. Over time, they created a consortium of 32 investors to provide financial backing, and the alliance came with all the expected problems. The first thing an investor in anything looks for is a good return on his money, and that led to high anxiety for Pasarell and Moore, because the rights to the tournament - the right to promote the event, in that calendar slot - is the most valuable component in any tennis franchise.
As Pasarell explained: "Because we're a privately owned company, some people have taken a run at acquiring us, maybe moving us to another part of the world. It might have been the Middle East, or China, to name a few places that produced backers interested in owning - and moving - this event. We had several offers made on us. Raymond and I, we needed to secure this event and keep it here. We don't want to have it lured away, have to send this event off to another part of the world."
But as the figureheads of a private company representing 32 investors, Pasarell and Moore were under constant pressure to respond to those inquiries, no matter how they personally felt about them. And they knew that if an offer were sufficiently attractive, their investors might go to war against them to force a sale. At the same time, over the past few years, Moore very diligently cultivated a new friendship with Ellison. As their relationship matured, Ellison's interest deepened. In a prepared statement released yesterday, Ellison said:
“Anyone who knows me knows that I love the game of tennis. I play it regularly, watch it frequently, and now look forward to being in Indian Wells every March to host the greatest players in the world. This tournament has an incredibly solid foundation, including one of the best venues and management teams, and I intend to build on that and continue the vision of being one of the greatest international sporting events worldwide."
The buzz for a long time now has been that Indian Wells was teetering, financially. Yesterday, Pasarell dismissed that as an "incorrect assumption." The tournament has been successful, financially, but self-interested investors always have one big question in mind, even when profits are rolling in - when's the right time to cash out?
In Ellison, Pasarell and Moore saw a potential savior - someone who could untie them from this wheel of accountability that had very little to do with tennis, and was often in conflict with their authentic, long-haul passion for growing the game. In paying off the shareholders and consolidating all the authority over the event in the hands of one man (Ellison) who probably won't be driven primarily by the rate of return on his investment, the co-founders were returning to their original way of doing things - even if they could no longer do it that way themselves.
Pasarell made a touching confession in the conference call when he said, "There's a little side of us that says, 'Oh, well, we sold our baby.'"
But it isn't like they sold it to a Madonna, or Angelina Jolie. Elllison is dedicated to keeping the event right where it is. He's a confirmed tennis enthusiast. And the co-founders will have comprehensive visitation privileges, because they've been retained to head up the management team.
They may no longer own the event, but then what parent actually "owns" his child?
Dear Santa,
If you don’t count the month of March, the crazy things I did on that trip in May, those horrible things I said back in July and a few other tiny transgressions and indiscretions, I’ve been an awfully good girl this year. So I’m hoping you’ll get me everything on my Christmas list. Don’t worry… you have plenty of time – all of next year in fact. And lest you think I’m being selfish, Santa, note that these are for women’s tennis players, not for me… not really. Pretty selfless, huh? Now here’s what I want:
#1 A Grand Slam for Elena Dementieva
Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic may deserve a Grand Slam, but in my mind Elena Dementieva’s the best player without one. She’s been at the top of women’s tennis for a while and has much to show for it – Olympic medals, Grand Slam finals, big Fed Cup wins… and have you seen those biceps? She was a favorite at this year’s Australian Open and US Open, but it didn’t happen for her. It nearly did happen at Wimbledon, where she wasn’t a favorite but was one down-the-line shot away from the final.
Dementieva has athleticism, technique and even mental ability. You may disagree, Santa, but this year Dementieva didn't usually melt down when it mattered. It’s just that others – a Serena Williams here, a Melanie Oudin there – really stepped up. Off court she’s all class. Win or lose nobody gives a more gracious post-match interview. My favorite thing about her? Whatever the round, whatever the tournament, she plays like she really wants to win. And that’s why I really want her to win the final round at the biggest tournaments.
 #2 Wimbledon for Venus Williams (again)
Other champions have won Wimbledon more (Martina Navratilova), younger (her own sister, Serena Williams, in mixed doubles), even taller (Lindsay Davenport). But lately, on the green, green grass of Wimbledon, nobody’s mowed down her opponents quite like Venus.
This decade she made it to final eight times and won five times. Clearly she has the skills: Her speedy serve, pounding ground strokes and explosive movement enable her to “bully” others, as she told Conan O’Brien. She also has the desire, which isn’t as strong or perhaps as obvious elsewhere. Tennis-wise, you sense Wimbledon is why Venus gets out of bed in the morning. With the years and teenagers creeping up on her though, she doesn’t have that many chances left, so once again next year, please put the Venus Rosewater Dish in Venus Williams’s stocking.
#3 Big wins for Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova
Not because they’re my favorites but because the women’s tour will be a more exciting place if the no-longer-retired Belgians and the no-longer-injured Sharapova play the level of tennis that won them a combined dozen Grand Slam titles. With these three back, Serena dominant again, talented youngsters making some noise, and ‘middle-aged’ players like Flavia Pennetta and Sam Stosur playing with poise, things should get good.
#4 More confidence – and joy – for Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic
 What is it with the Number 1 ranking? Except for Serena everyone who gets it these days goes off the tennis deep end soon after (i.e., drops out of the top 20, melts down in Grand Slams). Serena doesn’t handle the top spot better because she’s a better tennis player (though she is that). She handles it better because she’s crazy confident (admittedly with the emphasis occasionally on the ‘crazy’ part). It seems like a small thing, but for elite athletes, who have the strokes down pat, it’s everything. It helped Flavia Pennetta overcome six match points against Vera Zvonareva at the US Open this year, didn’t it?
Sure, Ivanovic could use tips for the yips, but what she needs more is confidence. It might also help her play with more joy. I miss the Ivanovic who looked happy out there, and played like she wanted to win and not like she was afraid to lose.
Ditto for Safina, who played scared, soulless tennis in the latter part of the year. As a fan it’s hard to watch a player who’s so hardworking (and quite endearing) play like “such a chicken” in big matches. Maybe the Number 1 ranking took a toll, and probably the back issues and sour coach didn’t help. Jankovic occasionally has too much confidence, but her sometimes delusional attitude sure beats Safina’s often doubtful one.
What Jankovic lacks these days is joy. She had a tough year on court and off, so it’s understandable… but it’s missed. Remember the player who smiled while receiving Venus’s first serve? That JJ loved tennis, and we loved her for it.
#5 More tennis and titles for Kimiko Date Krumm
She’s ranked 82 at age 39 – that’s 20 years older than the woman ranked just under her. The best part is that she’s playing tennis like it’s meant to be played – like it’s fun and she really wants to. And what about the tour’s other golden oldies? Not counting Amélie Mauresmo, who retired, and Date Krumm, the top 100 still has three thirtysomethings – Jill Craybas, Tathiana Garbin and Patty Schnyder. Can you save them some goodies? At least small stuff like good health and free swinging?
#6 Rising rankings for Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska 
These top players are leading the charge for the toddlers of tennis. I root harder for the golden oldies, but it would be nice to see these youngsters and all the others play with fun-to-watch abandon knowing they have little to lose with a great coach – time – on their side. The top 100 has more than a dozen teens and a long list of impressive players who were teens when the year began, including Azarenka and Radwanska as well as Yanina Wickmayer, Sabine Lisicki, Dominika Cibulkova, Alisa Kleybanova and Alexandra Dulgheru. Off court it would be nice to see them continue to grow into the ambassadors women’s tennis will need when Venus and the gang leave the tour.
#7 Fewer injuries for Jelena Dokic
After an emotional return to tennis this year, she suffered from an assortment of health issues, including an Achilles tendon injury, a lower back injury and glandular fever. And she’s not the only one hanging out in hospitals. We all know what happened to Sharapova last year. Now Zvonareva’s recovering from ankle surgery, and Safina withdrew from the year-end championships with a back injury she thought might keep her out of the Australian Open. When you read the now-obligatory medical section of post-match pressers, it’s easy to forget (and sad to remember) that these are twentysomethings.
#8 More respect for all the players
Women’s tennis could use more exposure… especially of the right kind. That means fewer fat jokes. The players don’t all look like Daniela Hantuchova or Gisela Dulko, and that’s ok. That means more coverage of more players, not just the top five, the Americans, the youngest and the prettiest. That means more respectful questions from journalists. It was fine to ask Safina about the Number 1 ranking, but it was downright rude after the 20th time. Heck, that even means more respectful tweets. The tweets of a certain ATP player ranked below 200 questioning the state of women’s tennis within a few minutes of Kim Clijsters winning the US Open? They don’t fall into this category.
We could all work on this one, Santa. Maybe we should occasionally ask ourselves and others if, in the words of one wise woman, we’re “trying to be down on women’s tennis”. Then we could remind ourselves that we shouldn’t “deal with down”. This isn’t too much to ask, is it?
Hugs and kisses to Mrs. Santa!
Love,
-- Bobby Chintapalli
 by Pete Bodo
The job of reclaiming his aborted pro career after losing three years to back trouble and two surgeries seemed so daunting a task to Taylor Dent that he found himself reaching for a pencil and paper - not to scrawl a suicide note, but to write down some goals. Not to be No. 20 in the world, or to make the Wimbledon quarters. Not to beat at least three Top 50 players in a tournament. They were small goals. Much smaller goals. The first one was to make it through a long walk around his neighborhood.
One of his first tennis-specific ones was complete a ball-feeding drill - five sets of ten balls apiece, hit back across the net and into the court, off puffballs that Dent could reach at a stroll. "That's been the trick to this comeback," Taylor told me when we sat to visit at the IMG Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy recently. "I had to try to keep from being overwhelmed. That first day I hit I saw how far I'd fallen from the peak of my game. I was just sucking wind, hitting balls terrible. I was on the verge of tears."
Little by little, one small goal at a time, Dent hobbled back - all the way back to a year-end 2009 ranking of No. 76, a number that seemed stratospheric back in May of 2008, when he played the first match of his comeback at Carson, Calif. That day, he lost to Cecil Mamiit, a battle-scarred veteran who was nearly 32 at the time. Dent didn't win a tour level match until November, but every match he lost up to that point had been a three-setter. So hope gleamed.
Starting in Brisbane in 2009, Dent began to win matches. He qualified for Wimbledon, but lost a heartbreaking first-rounder to Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 6-4 in the fifth. He broke into the Top 200 in August, and ended up winning two rounds at the U.S. Open, beating Feliciano Lopez and Ivan Navarro (9-7 in a fifth-set tiebreaker) before Andy Murray put him out in straight sets.
"I'm not looking too far ahead," Taylor told me. "But I've had a lot of small highs and a lot of silver linings to some of the losses, and my progress in general. It all culminated at the U.S. Open. I didn't feel I was playing that well going into the event, but I was able to compete at a pretty high level thanks to my fitness and a lot of hard work. That win over Navarro was great for me, even though Murray beat me in the next round. I followed up that tournament with wins in Tulsa and Knoxville (Challenger events), and a final in Champaign (Ill.). That was gratifying."
Dent is an interesting character. His father Phil was a Top 20 Australian pro; his mother, Betty Ann Stuart, was a Top 10 American player. Dent is a strapping, 6'2" 200-pounder with an atomic serve and daredevil's volley, but he's also an intensely cerebral young man man with a taste for abstractions. He prides himself on his abilities as a handyman, and he and a buddy built a Ford Cobra hot-rod from the ground up, from a kit, a project that took two years to complete. He says his "hobbies" include politics and religion. He's also emotional.
The combination of cerebral and emotional doesn't always work well in tennis, and it seemed to account for some of the obstacles Dent struggled with in his first incarnation on the tour (he still rose to a career high-ranking of No. 21 shortly before his back troubles laid him low). In that first section of his two-part career, Taylor was known for working himself into a lather and running off the rails, the mental equivalent of tripping over his own two feet. He believes the time he's spent away from the game has helped him develop a clearer perspective.
"The break really helped, no doubt about it," he said. "I've always been hungry to win - that's never been a problem. But I was always too emotional about it. It was always my way or the highway. It didn't matter if someone came to me with a good reason to do something a little differently. I was so emotional about wanting to win, and win my way (with that go-for-broke serve-and-volley style), that it worked against me. I was relying on luck, rather than reason."
Dent isn't interested in having a coach, at least not the way he defines the word. "My game is what it is. I'm 28, it's too late to change now. I'm the foremost expert on my game; it's hard to imagine by this time that someone would come up with an idea I haven't already thought about. But I'll bounce ideas off people like Red Ayme (one of Bollettieri's right-hand men) or Brad Gilbert, and I ask a lot of questions. What I want, and welcome having, is something more like . . . consultants."
This form of complex thinking is classic Taylor Dent. Other players wouldn't even bother to make such distinctions, and would call it over-thinking - definitely not a good habit for a professional athlete.
Dent once was one of the last of the old-school type serve and volley players; if he went down, he went down with his guns blazing. But he's come to believe that the style is no longer viable as a basic game plan. By the third set of his difficult match with Murray in New York, Dent says he actually "felt better" after missing a first serve. "When I served and volleyed earlier in the match, I felt on the defensive every single point. And that's a death sentence for a player like me. Knowing that I could - and should - stay back when I missed my first serve made me feel secure."
That's one of the more interesting observations I've heard recently, and it puts the general style of play in today's game into perspective. So I framed a situation for Dent, asking what he'd do now when serving against a high-quality player at 30-all.
"Maybe in the past I would have just gone for the big serve and volley play. Now I'm more likely to think: What's been my winning percentage in serve and volley in the deuce court? How's his return on the side I'd prefer to serve to? How well am I hitting the big bomb down the T?
"It would be a game-time decision, based on the conditions. But let's face it, if you win the point, whatever decision you chose will be deemed right, and if you lose the point you were wrong. That's the nature of the business.
"Let's be frank - my game is based around hitting the volley. Even during baseline points, my game is set up to get me to the net, and to make it hard for an opponent to keep me off he net. But I'm not coming in behind any old ball. I have my plays that get me to the net advantageously, and that's what I'd try to implement."
Dent believes that you need three things to win a match: a sufficient level of execution, relative to the ability of your opponent; fitness, and the mental toughness to maintain that first quality - good execution.
"You can control two of those things going in," Dent said. "You can be fit, and work hard enough to be able to execute, and know what you can execute, at your best level. Before my surgeries, I believed that if I played well I could beat anyone. So I went out there hoping to play well. But when you're playing well, everything is pretty easy anyway.
"Now, I go out prepared to deal with the two things that can go wrong. You can play badly, and you can miss opportunities. Those are the only two obstacles you have on the court, although you can still get outplayed and lose, of course. But if I'm mentally prepared to face those problems and deal with them, I won't beat myself and that's all a player can hope for. These days, I feel that no matter how many shots I drill into the back fence and no matter how many opportunities I let slip away, I'm going to keep trying to execute at a high level. I'm going to have that focus and mental toughness."
Dent is optimistic about next year. He said he'd be surprised if he doesn't surpass his career-high ranking of No. 21 sometime before he set the sticks aside for good. Besides, he's playing for two people, and soon he'll be playing for three. His wife, former touring pro Jennny Hopkins (career-high WTA ranking: 52), is expecting a baby boy they plan to call Declan. The baby is due on the same weekend as the Australian Open final.
"When we looked at the calendar, Jenny said, 'You're not allowed to come back from the Australian, because if you're still there when I'm due you'll be in the semis or final.'" Dent paused to contemplate his dilemma. "That could be a hard decision, you kind of want to be there for the birth of your child. But if I do that well in Australia, I'd be better off staying, just because of what it would enable me to do for Declan's future."
Declan will certrainly need shoes; and Taylor can use those ranking points if he's to make good on his determination to be a Top 20 player again.
 by Pete Bodo
The other day, I said I'd have some further thoughts on Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open. It's nothing less than the best sports autobiography I've ever read in a number of ways, starting with its promise to be . . . Open. And if you read it, you'll know why I say they ought to revise the old proverb, Never judge a book by its cover. . . to, Never Judge a book by the publication of its first serial rights. If the folks at Time Inc. and The Times of London wouldn't have basically leaked (for that's one of the reasons first-serial rights sell, and for such a high price) the portion of the book dealing with Andre dabbling in crystal meth, the general impression of the book - especially among those who haven't read it, and/or are quick to leap to judgment - would have been different.
No matter. The book the book eventually gained enough momentum to catch up with the headlines, although the way Tiger Woods KO'd the Agassi saga probably prevented attitudes about Open from achieving the balance the book deserves.
This is an extraordinary book on a number of levels, starting with the fact that it reads like fiction. In a good novel, the characters reveal themselves; what you need to know about them is conveyed in their actions and words, without a lot of explanation by the author. Andre's book takes the same tack.
Those who are, or would be, shocked by Agassi's harsh criticisms of Nick Bollettieri - or his own father Mike, for that matter - need to keep in mind that Agassi and his collaborator, Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist JR Moehringer, didn't set out to paint a "balanced picture" of Agassi's life and times in tennis. There are no attempts to be objective, no ambivalences, no ifs, ands or buts.
The idea was to convey to the reader exactly how Agassi felt and what he thought while on his career path. Sure there's another side to the story when it comes to Andre's relationships, as well as the decisions he made. But that's not the story he set out to tell, and he clearly didn't want to compromise the way he told that story. Agassi had the right to tell his story any way he chose; honesty has nothing to do with it. His approach also frees the reader up to read between the lines; and isn't that what we do with so many great works of fiction, even though the message is usually the famliar refrain the life is a vale of tears?
Those who think they knew Agassi will find the book a trove of surprises. Nobody ever accused Agassi of being an underexposed celebrity; yet ever few pagesin Open you come across a revelation that makes you shake your head and think: You can't make this stuff up. . . There's the revelation that when Agassi's first wife, Brooke Shields, wanted to get in shape for their marrriage, the woman whose picture she cut out and pasted on her refrigerator door was. . . Steffi Graf. There's the whole wig thing.
To me, though, one of the more interesting stories concerns Andre's former assistant, the now notorious "Slim" who introduced Agassi to meth. I don't recall any of the first serial holders publishing the bit about how, when Slim's own first child was born premature, Agassi took the point on finding and getting the child to a critical natal-care hospital far from Las Vegas. In fact, Andre seems to have spent an awful lot of time in hospitals when friends or their loved ones were in need.
Parts of the book read almost like farce - can you see Andre, desperate after his break-up with Shields, trying to guide his vintage Cadillac over snowy mountain passes en route to Vegas (he ultimately slid to a halt and had to spend the night in a flea bag hotel along the way)? Or trashing what he himself describes as his "cheesy" bachelor pad and destroying most of his tennis trophies in a fit of misery? Like I say, you can't make this stuff up.
Andre and I had a pretty long talk about all this, but I can't go into details here because it's for a story that will run in an upcoming issue of Tennis magazine. But the way he and Moehringer went about determining exactly what kind of book they wanted to make is fascinating stuff, and it underscores the degree of care - and extraordinary time and effort - that went into the project. The artistic hand of Moehringer is evident everywhere, even though he insisted on keeping his name off the cover. "It's your book," he told Andre. "Yours should be the only name on it."
There's an added element of appropriateness in that, because the book's strongest quality is something you might call its integrity. Agassi set out to let the reader into his mind and heart as he re-created his life and times. He resisted the urge to rationalize, justify, or put his career and the decisions he made into perspective, which means he decided not to try to be all things to all people. It isn't easy to pull that off - it requires a kind of discipline, a determination to just say no to the temptation to explain yourself.
The result is an autobiography that's less a template for success in tennis or even a cautionary tale about the perils of prodigy than a window on the soul of a kid - for Agassi was a kid through most of the book's pages - who was confused, self-absorbed, mercurial and unable to find his place in life for far longer than most of us are allowed when we're making a mess of it. Andre doesn't resort to sweeping away the hoofprints and covering his trail. He just takes you along on his ride. That he was able to finish the ride and ultimately emerge a much finer and more thoughtful individual was just another gift he received from the talent he mistook for a ball and chain for so long.
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