First, good job Chris on catching the Isner "overhead".

only second !

Everyone getting together in one place and feeding off of each other sounds like a great idea. Has anyone here been to Saddlebrook? Does it have anything special to offer in terms of facilities that makes it stand apart from other locations? Does it have any clay courts or (gasp) grass courts for the American up and comers to practice on?

I went to a tennis camp at Saddlebrook about 20 years ago. They have many clay (hard-tru) courts and hard courts; I'm not sure about grass. At the time Capriati and Seles were training there. I chose Saddlebrook for a week's holiday over other tennis camps because of the good instructor to student ratio (4-1) and the 5 hours of tennis each day. The camps were based on Harry Hopman's philosophy so we worked hard and had a great time.

I'm off to Montreal tomorrow for the quarter-finals. Can't wait!

Jenn,
Good question in your post.

Isner seems to be more comfortable with his height than Karlovic is. I think this will help him.

that is a beautiful and incredible shot of Isner's service motion: who took that picture (rhetorical): wow

It waren't me, Frenchie, but I'm glad you appreciated it. I thought so to, which is why I chose it.It's a Getty photo (copyrighted)from their subscription-based stock-house.

"Blake has shown that you can develop your game slowly, with the help of college tennis, and become a Grand Slam contender and Top 5 caliber player."

Umm, I thought Blake's best result at any Slam was a quarterfinal (US Open), I guess I was wrong.

I was at Saddlebrook this March. Mostly hartru (green clay), but they boast having all of the "major" tournament surfaces-- red clay, grass, decoturf and rebound ace (Australia, but being changed this yr). The camp, for visitors seeking several days' tuneup or training, is separate by about half a mile from where the pros like Blake and the Bryan brothers train, but one can walk or bike over there and watch them up close when they are on site.

Susan is correct about the "style" of the camp-- it's the Hopman method, which is to drill relentlessly for 5 or 6 hours a day, with very limited down time. 4 to 1 pupil to instructor ratio, with pretty good matching of pupils' ability levels and good instruction. You are free to play on the grass, red clay, etc courts after you're done (if you have anything left after 6 hours in the heat drilling, which I didn't). Nice facilities-- pool, jacuzzis, good restaurants. Not much to do in Wesley Chapel, its hometown. Tampa is a good 30-40 minute drive from Saddlebrook.

I don't know what the magic ingredient is there that draws the young American pros as contrasted with the other tennis camps out there (Evert, Bolletieri, Hilton Head, Kiawah, the Colony, etc.) I know they've been trying to raise their ranking among the camps, so maybe they're offering the pros good deals and lots of special treatment to draw them in, get more notoriety and draw more paying customers from the weekend warrior crowd.

Pete, what a great post. I'm fascinated to see what happens with Isner and how he does in comparison not only with his peers who went straight into the pros but the other gigantically tall players (can anyone start dredging up stories of the 6'10" players of yesterday?).

And what about that usual bugbear of the big tall players, movement? Catching balls that land at his feet? Side to side? I didn't get to watch Isner at all, sadly, but I'd be curious to hear thoughts based on his week's performance. Or we could just save them and start again at Cincy!

Isner said during DC that both Fish and Blake had hit with him and been very generous with their time and advise. Those experiences helped him considerably making the adjustment to the tour. It may be a critical mass issue as to location.

Pete, a great post. I wish Isner well. We've not had a men's college grad success story in professional tennis for some time (not sure Blake fully qualifies, as he left early.)

Being a Gator, I used to root big-time for Jeff Morrison (remember he took out Blake for the NCAA title back in 1999). Saw him play a few times and always liked his game. Not sure what he's up to now, unfortunately.

Man, that overhead looks painful! Much worse then it did on the tele, in real time.

I love the whole post, but especially the thinking behind coming in on the second serve. That's worth some experimentation.

Heidi: E-mails I sent to you at the address which shows on your "blue line" are returned as undeliverable. Do you have another e-mail address?

Thanks Pete,

An entire post putting forth almost every position I think ought to be made!

The "early focus" model, with its emphasis on results at young junior ages followed by turning pro rather than going to college, seemed to be almost accepted simply because it was different, and the fact that it was what alot of good euros did.

No one seemed to consider that (i) the euros did it because they did not have an intercollegiate system for advanced "graduate school" sports training from ages 18-21, and (ii) the emergence of the occasional supremely gifted player at age 18 is an exception to the general rule that, certainly for men, a player does not hit his prime until age 21 or so.

A really cool picture.

Pete .. it gets me real excited when u plug in the Sampras quotes from the book .. can't wait for that to come out ..

As for Isner.. the real test I believe will be on the slower hard courts .. see if he can still keep up his level of play when his serve isn't as dominant as DC ..

Ruthie - I just tested it and it worked fine; I use Mozilla Firefox browser and wonder if this isn't some browser issue? However, you can email Heidi at [email protected]. Just copy the email and paste it into a blank email - that has to work.

Dunlop -you nailed it perfectly on the collegiate issue, i just wish more people saw that this is is a kind of big picture philosophical/cultural issue as well as a practical, tennis-related one.

I feel fortunate to have found this website so I can learn from the perspicacity of Pete's writings. I also thoroughly enjoy most of the comments I read, seeing both your love of the game as well as your knowledge in most of them.

And, (this will sound more contentious than I feel), why this juvenile preoccupation with being first? What is the point of taking up space just to assert first without any comment? There is so much of merit in most comments that I wonder why dilute it with such a game.

Perhaps I have missed the onset of this practice and its meaning from an earlier time before I started reading the column.

Usually Dunlop is spot on and I am a strong supporter of going and graduating from college regarding of your skill level in sports, but some recent phenoms on the men's side might suggest the CW on young tennis players (women mature faster, can play pro earlier) is changing.

Rafa?
Djoker?
Murray?
Baggy?

Imagine if Rafa had waited until he was 22 to play pro tennis. And we all know here in the states that our colleges are importing tennis players from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere like crazy, so the cultural thing may also be something in flux.

To the issue of Sampras' first serve/second serve versus Ivanisevic's, we need to add the pressure the server creates (hammers home) by consistently making their second shot, be it a groundstroke or a volley.

Nothing gives the receiver more heart than believing that if they just get the serve back there's a good chance the server will blow their 2nd ball.

Conversely, a consistent first volley, or first groundstroke, goes a long, long way towards pressuring the receiver to make more than a simplistic return. See: Sampras v Ivanisevic.

Regarding the college route v the no college route: it used to be a tenet of coaching that big hitters, like Isner, took longer to develop. Harnessing their power (and growing past the Marmaduke phase), and knowing when to drop the hammer, takes longer to learn than a more baseline oriented game. Did college provide this learning ground for Isner?

pete: thanks for the answer, I'm going to print the entire post in order to keep it!

TaiC,

You've narrowed the issue nicely. Its chicken or the egg. Are the players listed better because they turned pro earlier? Or did they turn pro earlier because they were better?

Also, the point is not "waiting" until you are 22 to play pro tennis, as all college players are eligible to play the tour part time, its intentionally forgoing intercollegiate play.

Nothing wrong with some losing. Federer loses a few times. Got him to wake up again and be dominant!

That quote is telling, I agree with Master Bodo. If he is talking about a shot that eats players up - he and his team designed that shot to eat players up. That is a language Sampras speaks fluently: tennis player as assasin.

Interesting photo out there: Isner dwarfs Roddick in height. Can't teach 6'9''.

This statements - "Transplant Roger Federer's brain and heart into Blake and you probably have two, maybe there Grand Slam titles." Would say diddo for Marcelo Rios. Blake and Rios are two of the best players I have ever seen. Blake and Rios are different in important ways (too thoughtful vs. not thoughtful? just amazed to be there vs. feeling he could be there but deciding it's not worth it, right?)

Andrew Miller - I agree with you. Think about if you put Federer's brain and heart into Safin? Really scary.

Just saw your 4:24, Petey. Thanks. It's funny that typing in the address with "tennis.com" brings "undeliverable," "fatal error" etc etc, but with "tennismagazine.com," the message seems to have gone through. I was trying to find out how many others are attending USO early in Week 1, as I am, but I see that Heidi will update the list of attendees soon.

I saw the Roddick-Baghdatis match on the ATP livestream, and Andy looked very good. Can't wait to see how he does in the quarters against the "class clown." :)

You can learn from winning and losing, as long as you're playing competitive matches.

How many successful Top 50 ATP singles that are ex college players are there? Not a lot. Isner could be an exception, but he has a very unique attribute in his height/big serve, of course. So I'm not sure about your conclusion that winning a lot in college is great preparation for the ATP.

The Alamo? That's in texas, not Florida right? Did John Wayne ever play tennis? Us internationals need an explainer for the colorful metaphors. I can understand Steve's comments about Picasso etc bit Alamo is waaaay over my head...

Ah glarange, you have Google, n'est pas? This Picasso, is he the dude playing doubles with Federer?

Glarange: the Alamo (a Spanish word which means "cottonwood tree") is a nickname for the mission of San Antonio, Texas. It was the site of a battle in the Texas Revolution of 1836, in which Texas won its independence from Mexico; Texas was admitted to the United States as a state in 1845. Since the rebel Texas government had little military equipment, the soldiers had to supply much of their own arms and ammunition. (By the way, their leader was the famous frontiersman Jim Bowie, and many of the defenders were recent immigrants from Ireland and Germany.)
After all the defenders of the Alamo were killed in a last-ditch stand against the larger and better-equipped Mexican forces, "Remember the Alamo!" became a rallying cry for the Texans and one of the most famous patriotic slogans in American history.
The battle of the Alamo has been the subject of numerous films, including one starring John Wayne.
In recent years, attempts have been made to peel away some of the layers of patriotic myths surrounding the Alamo and to present a more nuanced and more historically accurate account. Needless to say, this has been very controversial in San Antonio, where the
Alamo is a sacred shrine.

How bout combining Fed's brain and Rafa's? Lethal combination. Or Fed's offense with Rafa's defense.

Chris-
BTW, great shot of the infamous overhead. That has got to be the easiest shot ever missed (IMO).

Glarange- jhurwi has given you a great historical account of the Alamo. The troops gathered there for their last ditch stand against a much stronger , better equipped foe. History tells us the men of the Alamo fought bravely to their deaths even though they were faced with certain defeat. I think Pete is trying to draw a picture of the Americans gathering at Saddlebrook - like the men of the Alamo - in an attempt to rally American tennis hopes against the best of the rest of the world.
OK?

Thanks to Pete for posting the shot and for the complements about it from many of you. It was really pure luck that I snapped it at that very second. Needless to say, I didn't think it was possible that he would actually miss that overhead.

Todd Martin was a very successful pro who did two (I believe) years of college. He's also quite tall and I wonder if, like Isner, he got some benefit from an extra few years to get used to his height. And let's not forget that McEnroe actually went to a year of Stanford when he was something like 22nd in the world already

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjtNRH8CMQk

VIVA ZAPATA!!!!

wasn't Connors also a UCLA guy ?

as well as Arthur Ashe (UCLA) ? I think it speaks for itself.

Thanks Pete, been missing your insightful posts.

skip1515 wrote: it used to be a tenet of coaching that big hitters, like Isner, took longer to develop. Harnessing their power (and growing past the Marmaduke phase), and knowing when to drop the hammer, takes longer to learn than a more baseline oriented game.

Just got me thinking about bullies in school.

Glarange: I should have given you a link on the Alamo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo. In my post last night, I was summarizing what I remembered about it from teaching courses in American history and from visiting the Alamo a couple of times.My sister lives in San Antonio, and the last time I was there, the local papers were full of the controversy over how the labeling at the historic site and the information given in official tours were being changed to reflect the new interpretations.

Beth: thanks for clarifying (in your ll:47 post) the metaphorical linking of Saddlebrook and the Alamo in Pete's article. As a historian, I sometimes tend to be rather literal-minded about historical events, and I forgot to follow through on the symbolism beyond general patriotism.

Amigos

Thanks for the History lesson. I do recall seeing the John Wayne movie as a kid. I'm not French, btw, just an amused Brazilian wondering what's the next relevant historical metaphor... Mr. ATP chairman, tear down those clay-court tournaments!?