Avec Double Cordage TENNIS ROCKS ...sorta BLOG
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LATEST BLOG ° 2008/12/14 Novak Djokovic interview - St. Anton Tennis Trophy ° 2008/11/17 Muito Obrigado Guga Kuerten ° 2008/11/12 Commentucci Interview ° 2008/10/12 David Foster Wallace ° 2008/09/28 A faithful tale fo how the Lord won the cup ° 2008/09/11 A second chance for Doubles ° 2008/04/10 Tennis Boom in Serbia ° 2008/03/27 Chris Lewis interview pt.3 ° 2008/03/26 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.2 ° 2008/03/22 Tennis Profile Awards - 2008 TPA Blaward ° 2008/03/20 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.1 ° 2008/03/19 Olympic Tennis and Tibet ° 2008/03/04 Andreas Seppi, Karin Knapp, Sartori & Boesso ° 2008/03/03 Chris Lewis interview pt.2 ° 2008/03/02 Class of 1995 juniors ° 2008/02/29 Chris Lewis interview pt.1 ° 2008/02/25 top 10 'watch list' ° 2008/01/27 OZ Open final ° 2008/01/26 Jo Buma Ye ° 2007/11/23 Becker got me into Tennis ° 2007/11/15 ubaldoscanagatta.com ° 2007/11/10 Agassi Black Lips ° 2007/10/26 New Davis Cup format

New year, new address, new look, new function

now you can comment also without a myspace account

If you don't have a myspace account you can go to our new address www.quadorb.net/adc and fill out the form there to leave a comment. In the next couple of months we will also post more interviews and articles by new contributors from Europe, Asia and America covering the more casual and rock and roll side of the game. If you want to contribute and have a story to tell, be it ghetto tennis or just weird stuff from the tour get in touch with us through:

If you click on the "select a TOPIC" button there, you can see all the past articles. BAR VERONICA the one that appears first is not an article but the comments sent to that topic are going directly to the AvecDoubleCordage profile page at www.myspace.com/AvecDoubleCordage ...to that Bar Veronica you can send any random news or off topics or just chat and live comment matches, there's so much live tennis streaming and P2P out there you wouldn't believe.

Soon we will also launch two sub-blogs, one in Italian and one in German, now enjoy the Australian Open!


click here to go to the top or click on comments below to leave your thoughts

Avec Double Cordage TENNIS ROCKS ...sorta BLOG

to browse the Blog Archive click on OLDER at the end of the left column below the Avec picture

LATEST BLOG ° 2008/11/17 Muito Obrigado Guga Kuerten ° 2008/11/12 Commentucci Interview ° 2008/10/12 David Foster Wallace ° 2008/09/28 A faithful tale fo how the Lord won the cup ° 2008/09/11 A second chance for Doubles ° 2008/04/10 Tennis Boom in Serbia ° 2008/03/27 Chris Lewis interview pt.3 ° 2008/03/26 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.2 ° 2008/03/22 Tennis Profile Awards - 2008 TPA Blaward ° 2008/03/20 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.1 ° 2008/03/19 Olympic Tennis and Tibet ° 2008/03/04 Andreas Seppi, Karin Knapp, Sartori & Boesso ° 2008/03/03 Chris Lewis interview pt.2 ° 2008/03/02 Class of 1995 juniors ° 2008/02/29 Chris Lewis interview pt.1 ° 2008/02/25 top 10 'watch list' ° 2008/01/27 OZ Open final ° 2008/01/26 Jo Buma Ye ° 2007/11/23 Becker got me into Tennis ° 2007/11/15 ubaldoscanagatta.com ° 2007/11/10 Agassi Black Lips ° 2007/10/26 New Davis Cup format

St. Anton Tennis Trophy - Djokovic interview

photos by Tiberio Sorvillo

Labeled as 'the great tennis party on the snow' it could appear as a trifle excessive, but I can assure you after witnessing the St. Anton Tennis Trophy in person, it really is a whole lot of great fun! The organization is excellent, the food and service top notch and you can ski or snowboard down the mountain on the slopes, or even off the slopes, directly to the Tennis hall and from there into the village to the Hotel, the atmosphere of the whole event is very relaxed, you can see young and upcoming players compete with some of the best pros and top 10 players on the ATP tour and the round robin format is really perfect for an exhibition.

The initial intention to take the trip to St. Anton was to do a detailed portrait of one of the most charismatic players on the tour, Janko Tipsarevic, sort of the philosopher amongst the pros, who off the court enjoys his time reading classical Russian literature like Dostoyevsky... but a last minute accident prevented this from happening, so the Tipsarevic interview will have to wait for some other time, it was possible to hear some words form Novak Djokovic though, here is what he had to say.



Novak what made you choose to come back to St. Anton this year as well?

Novak Djokovic: I visited St. Anton two times prior to this one, and I had a great preparation and great experience being here and being part of the tournament, which I think is one of the most fun tournaments that you can actually participate in. This year I wont play in the tournament but I will play the exhibition match, I was at the party and I'm following all the activities, such as skiing, with the other players but my main priority is to have a good preparation like last year, and be fit for the upcoming season.


Is there any special relationship that ties you to Austria?

Novak Djokovic: Mountains I think! I just feel good here in the country, any time I come here I get hosted on the best possible way, I feel like at home and if you feel like that from the first time you come in a new place you always want to come back. So this year I came with a lot of friends and I think we actually have the biggest crew of all the players, ten people and everybody is skiing, so it's a lot of fun, the time is passing much better with the crew and with the people you like to spend the time with. Also regarding the Vienna tournament, I played well there and I won the tournament last year, so all in all I think one can get the picture that I like being in Austria and I like coming back, and I can confirm that, and I will come back certainly more.
I'm in love with skiing so that's one big reason why I like to be on the mountain every year, fresh air is something that I really like, whenever I can. I try to organize with my team the best possible preparation and every preparation period we try to get at least ten days on the mountain, which we are doing now! So I think it's going to be great and hopefully I can have as good a start as I did last year.


Your last season has been very successful with the win of the Australian Open right at the start, what do you think can be improved for next year, do you think you can fight for the number one position?

Novak Djokovic: Well that's always a goal, it's always an ambition I am having, but right now I have to consider the fact that I'm competing with two of the best players in the history of Tennis, Nadal and obviously Federer! And then you have a couple of players which are coming up strong, the young ones Murray and Tsonga for instance. It's not going to be easy to achieve that goal, but I'm still only 21 years old and there is a lot of time to come, my body is developing and my game is developing all the time, so there are elements in the game that I need to improve on like serve, volley and being a little bit more aggressive, which I know and it's very encouraging for the future. So, the moment I will reach the highest possible level, that I hope I can reach, I think results will come.



Novak Djokovic on the left and on the right side Janko Tipsarevic - photos by Tiberio Sorvillo




The start of the season will be very important for you, to stay up there on top with the other players.

Novak Djokovic: Yes, ranking-wise it's quite important for me to play well at the Australian Open and try to win an other title there, but as I said it's not going to be easy! I'm going to be, for the first time in my life, in the position to defend a grand slam tournament title. But for me it's really more like a challenge than a pressure. There are going to be a lot of expectation and pressure on me obviously, all eyes on me and a couple more players, but I try to take it as a positive pressure and try to use it in my own purpose. So if I'm able to start well in Australia then after that I will be able to get a little bit of relief and try to be consistent with results on the best tournaments because I haven't done that in this year. This year was my best year, by far, but still I had some ups and downs and early losses like at Wimbledon, and If I'm planning to get to the top of the tennis world I have to be more consistent with those results. You know I can not have an early exit.


There will be an ATP tournament next year in your home country, Serbian Tennis fans will be looking forward to that.

Novak Djokovic: Oh yes! I can say that I'm very happy and proud that the country of Serbia is getting an event, a very deserved event. So why am I saying this? Because we have enough players in the men's and women's Tennis to be one of the candidates to get a tournament, we were fighting for many years. It wasn't easy, and I was directly involved in it with my family and my company. We bought the license from the Amersfoort event in the Netherlands, which was actually the first event that I won and this was the only way that we could get a tournament to Serbia, because if we would wait for the ATP to help us out I don't think that we would get it in a soon enough period of time. But this is life, there's a lot of big cities waiting for an ATP event, Tennis is growing popularity-wise and more and more people are playing it, it is becoming a more interesting kind of sport so it's normal that there is competition to get a tournament.
But as I said I'm very happy that Serbia got a tournament, but now it's on us to prove how good of a host we can be! And I'm sure that we can be a great host, and I'm sure that if we work together we can make one of the best events on this level! Why am I saying this, because me as a player I'm taking a direct part of it and I know what is happening on the other tournaments and what's going to make the players and everybody happy.


Is it going to be a 250 series tournament, and what are your tournament plans, are you going to play only the top tournaments, the 1000 and 500 tournaments or also a few of the 250 type tournaments?

Novak Djokovic: Yes the Belgrade tournament is a 250, and for now my schedule is more or less set until Wimbledon and for afterwards, I'm still thinking of what I should do. It's a pretty busy schedule, we have a lot of obligation events. We have to play 16 events plus of course a couple more, so yes I'm going to play all these obligation events of course, grand slam and 1000 tournaments and 500 tournaments and some other tournaments like Belgrade, Marseille and a couple of those. So it's going to be a tough year, with all the travelling, but you know as a tennis player you got used to it.



Philipp Kohlschreiber, Janko Tipsarevic, Novak Djokovic - photos by Tiberio Sorvillo




What are the highlights of the 2009 season, do you focus on anything in particular, for instance you mentioned Wimbledon where you didn't do too well last year, is that a particular goal for you for next year?

Novak Djokovic: Well, I'll try to do well in the grass court season, because it is quite important and also I don't have many points to defend at Wimbledon so I can use that opportunity. But yet again as I said, consistency is probably the most important thing that I need most in the upcoming year. But well, one of the goals is to try to win a grand slam tournament and reach the Masters.


Will you be celebrating Christmas in Belgrade?

Novak Djokovic: No actually in Australia! We have a differnt Christmas, not on the 25th of December, we have orthodox Christmas which is on the 7th of January, but for catholic Christmas I'm going to be in Monaco practicing, so not much rest! Well you have to have a good preparation obviously, this is the only period of the year when a professional tennis player can allow him self more than 4 weeks of a good preparation. It's very hard for the top players, they are playing in all the final stages of the events, playing the most matches. And when you finish the year, at the end of November then basically you have to combine the rest and the preparation til the catholic Christmas, which is more or less impossible, but this is just the schedule, the way it is, and everybody has to adapt to it. Throughout the year you get, one or two weeks maximum of rest between the event's and that's it, so as I said this right now is the only time to get some rest, and I think players deserve and got to have more than 3 weeks of rest. Because the season is really long, it's really difficult but we are still working on that, nothing can change over night and this is the system as it was working in the last 15 or 20 years. I'm happy that right now Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and my self, the first three players in the world, are in the players council and really discussing about the main issues in Tennis and some things that we might wanna change in the future. It's much easier when you have top players in the council, and when we are united we can get a lot of things done together.


You have a really bad statistic here in St. Anton!

Novak Djokovic: Oh yeah well, did I win a match? I didnt win a match yet, huh?! No, yeah well this time, it's not a part of the tournament but at least I will try to win a match. But yeah it is going to be fun to play again here, but unfortunately I had a toughh schedule here in the past, for the first match they put me right after the party! Heh, that was a big challenge and I wasn't able to stay on the court for more than an hour. But this year it is going to be different because my fitness coach is holding me under his arm, he doesn't allow me to do anything. But yeah it is going to be fun, I always accept the exhibition events and exhibition matches as a real exhibition in the real sense of that word. Because i think the people who come, they come to see you play and they don't have much chances to see you play, obviously they want to see you perform well but yet again they want to see something else as well, something different, something they don't see on the television. So I always try to enjoy, that's a personality thing and I will see if the atmosphere is good again, I can offer them much more.



Novak Djokovic and Philipp Kohlschreiber - photos by Tiberio Sorvillo




The people in Serbia are very interested in sports, in general, so how much has your life changed after your huge wins?

Novak Djokovic: Yes my life now is quite different ofcourse, I have received a lot f rewards in Serbia like for sports, a lot of compliments from a lot of influential people back in my country, which makes me very proud, I feel good and very flattered when the people come up to me and talk to me and say a lot of nice things not just about the Tennis and about my success but even about my personality and that I'm representing the country good in the world. This is very important to me, because our country has been through a lot of troubles and difficulties over the last 20 years economically-wise, and wars. And now the picture is changing, not just because of Tennis but also because of all the other things and also the other sports and artists and all the people who give 100% to represent their country in the best way. So I'm happy because we are a country which really lives for sports, mostly team sports, as you probably know we were champions and olympic champions in Basket and Volley Ball and Water Polo and we are always good in those sports and we always had this tradition, but we never had any great Tennis success. Right now that has changed and Tennis as an individual sport is for me the number one sport of the country, and everybody follows the matches of the girls and my self and all the players all around the world and It's a great support! The country really breathes for Tennis right now.


So the Davis Cup with Spain and Serbia will also be a very special event.

Novak Djokovic: Oh yes, it's going to be an interesting match to see! Well, already for the second time in two years we got the worst possible draw, but well this is Davis Cup, the draw is a matter of luck, we can not influence it but you never give up! I think we have a great team, unfortunately we are not going to play at home, that would have been a great atmosphere, but we will expect some fans there in Spain to give us support.



Philipp Kohlschreiber and Stefan Koubek - photos by Tiberio Sorvillo




Twentyone years of Tennis in the mountains...
St. Anton is nestled in the heart of Tyrol, surrounded by some of the highest mountains of the Austrian Alps it has been the cradle of alpine Skiing, and it is here that about 100 years ago skiing turned into the sport we all know, attracting tourism and the first snow themed film productions and eventually the Alpine Ski World Championships. Since the seventies Tennis became sort of complementary to Skiing in many alpine resorts, becoming increasingly popular with skiers during the summer months, in fact quite a few prominent ski resorts started to host their own professional tennis tournaments in the months of July an August, like Gstaad in Switzerland and Kitzbühel in Austria for instance. The St. Anton Tennis Trophy though is played indoors in December and therefore it allows to combine both, expert Skiing and professional Tennis.

This year's invitational was the 21st edition of the Trophy and over the years St. Anton hosted a great amount of talent, like for instance in the 1997 final with Tommy Haas battling it out with Hicham Arazi over three sets and many marvelous shots, Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Henri Leconte, Andrej Medwedew, Guy Forget, Thomas Muster, Petr Korda and Joachim 'Pim Pim' Johansson where just a few of the many top 10 players that showed their skills in St. Anton. This year Philpp Kohlschreiber, the guy with one of the most outstanding backhands on the tour defended his title against Stefan Koubek who is preparing his way back to the ATP tour after a prolongued stop due to a back injury. Koubek defeated both Robin Söderling and Jarkko Nieminen in his Round Robin matches, Kohlschreiber was in an even better shape, winning all his matches without even dropping a set, hitting one spectacular winner after the other form both sides, looks like we will see him in the top 20 soon enough!

The tournament typically starts on Wednesday with the round robin matches in the evening, and it ends on Staurday with an exhibition of two top 10 players followed by the final of the invitational, during the week there are also concerts and a 'Ladys Day' with free entry for the ladys, a kids day where the young can play with the stars and win prizes. Taking place already for the sixth year, is the traditional 'Symposium for Tennis and Ski Sports medicine' specialized in preventing, diagnosing and treating injuries related to the two sports. It is directed by Professor Schabus, since 15 years the doctor taking care of the Austrian Davis Cup team, during the meeting international experts of the field will relate in small, interactive groups about the newest developments and alternative healing methods. This all takes place in the ARLBERG-well.com where next to the tennis hall the offer includes sauna, gym, swimming pool and the culinary highlights of the Gurmet-Team St. Anton, with plenty of delicacies, great wines and the typically outstanding service.

But the St. Anton Tennis Trophy is not only about games, sets and matches and taking advantage of the ideal opportunities to prepare for the start of the Tennis-Season, apart from Skiing it is partying that is also a great part of the event. The players party in the 'Sennhütte' a mountain chalet near the slopes, brings back memories of the legendary players parties of the seventies, when Tennis allowed much more time for nightlife, so it is not quite clear what's more challenging for the players when they're in St. Anton, the crazy parties or the matches of the tournament... all this turns the St. Anton Tennis Trophy into more than just a normal Tennis tournament.



Novak Djokovic - photo by Tiberio Sorvillo




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Avec Double Cordage TENNIS ROCKS ...sorta BLOG

to browse the Blog Archive click on OLDER at the end of the left column below the Avec picture

LATEST BLOG ° 2008/11/12 Commentucci Interview ° 2008/10/12 David Foster Wallace ° 2008/09/28 A faithful tale fo how the Lord won the cup ° 2008/09/11 A second chance for Doubles 2008/04/10 Tennis Boom in Serbia ° 2008/03/27 Chris Lewis interview pt.3 ° 2008/03/26 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.2 ° 2008/03/22 Tennis Profile Awards - 2008 TPA Blaward ° 2008/03/20 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.1 ° 2008/03/19 Olympic Tennis and Tibet ° 2008/03/04 Andreas Seppi, Karin Knapp, Sartori & Boesso ° 2008/03/03 Chris Lewis interview pt.2 ° 2008/03/02 Class of 1995 juniors ° 2008/02/29 Chris Lewis interview pt.1 ° 2008/02/25 top 10 "watch list" ° 2008/01/27 OZ Open final ° 2008/01/26 Jo Buma Ye ° 2007/11/23 Becker got me into Tennis ° 2007/11/15 ubaldoscanagatta.com ° 2007/11/10 Agassi Black Lips ° 2007/11/09 New Davis Cup format

MUITO OBRIGADO!

This year saw the last competitive season of Gustavo Kuerten, the great Guga. He is the only South-American ever to finish the year as number one of the ATP ranking, a result that he achieved in the year 2000 after winning the Masters Cup in Lisbon. The three time winner at Roland Garros is not only one of the best players of the past decade but also one of the most casual, most respected by his colleagues and most loved by the tennis aficionados.

Always a heartly smile on his face, Guga grew up in the mythical-sounding island town of Florianópolis in southern Brazil, right on the Atlantic coast, so it is not surprising that he developed a passion for surfing from early on, what is surprising though is that he became one of the best tennis players of his generation, sparking an unprecedented interest for tennis in Brazil.
As a kid Guga was confronted with two tragedies, when he was eight years old his father Aldo died of a heart attack while umpiring a match and his younger brother Guilherme was subjected to prolonged oxygen deprivation and consequently irreparable brain damage during birth, suffering severe physical disability until his death in 2007.
Deeply affected by his brother's daily struggles Guga offered constant financial help to an NGO that provides assistance for people suffering from similar disabilities as his brother's, also by donating every year the entire prize money from one of the tournaments he had won.
Of course the first tournament he had won was the surprising 1997 Roland Garros where he beat three former champions on the way to his win, Thomas Muster, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Sergi Bruguera. The reaction to his triumph typically for Guga was one like that of a child opening his presents on Christmas Day, celebrating the victory with his grandmother Olga Schlösser who took the trip from Germany to witness the final, without her financial help Guga might have never even made it to the professional level.





One of his most memorable wins was that of the year 2000 Masters Cup in Lisbon, where on the way to the title he beat Pete Sampras in the semis and Andre Agassi in the final, the only one ever to beat both Agassi and Sampras in one tournament, the win of the Mastes Cup secured him the year end number one position ahead of Marat Safin.
A very touching display of Guga's emotional side came when, to thank the Parisian audience, he drew a big heart on the clay court, laying down in the middle of it after winning his third Roland Garros title, an unforgettable moment.
Always on his side was his coach Larri Passos, who together with Guga's mother and his older brother formed team Kuerten. Apart from his social awareness and his interest in sports and surfing Guga always was a music lover and also played the guitar himself.
Over the last few years Guga has suffered a chronic injury on his hip that forced him to pause for various months each year.





Now that he doesn't have to save his energies for the matches any more, Guga will certainly have plenty of time to surf the waves of the Atlantic, and it would not be a surprise if he would continue to help the growth of South American tennis, perhaps we will even see him captain the Brazilian Davis Cup team at some point.
After his first grand slam tournament title, hoping that his rise to prominence might prove to be the watershed in Brazilian tennis he expressed his hopes "Maybe we will see some kids with racquets on Copacabana beach now," and said "There's no chance of it taking over from soccer, of course, but it might make some kids think. All you need in sport in Brazil is one idol, one man who can win. Nobody from Brazil's ever won a Grand Slam tournament before, so everyone thought tennis was for American kids. But it's happened to me, so it can happen to them too."
Sports-mad Brazil obviously will have to wait to see Guga's results matched, but with young Thomaz Bellucci the hope is there.





click here to go to the top or click on comments below to leave your thoughts

Avec Double Cordage TENNIS ROCKS ...sorta BLOG

to browse the Blog Archive click on OLDER at the end of the left column below the Avec picture

LATEST BLOG ° 2008/10/12 David Foster Wallace ° 2008/09/28 A faithful tale fo how the Lord won the cup ° 2008/09/11 A second chance for Doubles 2008/04/10 Tennis Boom in Serbia ° 2008/03/27 Chris Lewis interview pt.3 ° 2008/03/26 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.2 ° 2008/03/22 Tennis Profile Awards - 2008 TPA Blaward ° 2008/03/20 Stefano Grazia about Tennis in Africa Pt.1 ° 2008/03/19 Olympic Tennis and Tibet ° 2008/03/04 Andreas Seppi, Karin Knapp, Sartori & Boesso ° 2008/03/03 Chris Lewis interview pt.2 ° 2008/03/02 Class of 1995 juniors ° 2008/02/29 Chris Lewis interview pt.1 ° 2008/02/25 top 10 "watch list" ° 2008/01/27 OZ Open final ° 2008/01/26 Jo Buma Ye ° 2007/11/23 Becker got me into Tennis ° 2007/11/15 ubaldoscanagatta.com ° 2007/11/10 Agassi Black Lips ° 2007/11/09 New Davis Cup format

An Interview with Roberto Commentucci of ubitennis.com

The informational revolution, besides making us transparent and to some extent addicted to the Internet, spawned a huge number of tennis blogs and forums, not only in English but also in other languages, most of them are focused on the results of the ATP tour, but there are also others that dedicate particular attention to a vast array of subjects, such as teaching methods, junior tennis, recreational tennis, history of the game, ironic aspects etc.

In this article, starting with Roberto Commentucci, we will begin to talk to some of the people that are behind those new (in the modern age new has become a very relative term) forms of communication, often very direct and democratic forms, fueled more by passion than by a sense for business.

Roberto Commentucci is one of the contributors to Ubaldo Scanagatta's web site and blog www.ubitennis.com it has been online for about two years now and a few months after its start has turned into Italy's leading discussion platform for all things regarding tennis, with regular contributions and blog comments by the main journalists, parents of current pros and also coaches like Ricardo Piatti who had worked with players such as Ivan Ljubicic and Novak Ðokovic. Recently the platform has added two international versions one in English and one in French.


Avec Double Cordage: Being your profession an other than journalism, how did you get involved in the tennis news-website-blog ubitennis.com and how much time does it take away from you? Can you point out some pros and cons that you experienced, of devoting a consistent chunk of free time to a commitment that doesn't pay cash?

Roberto Commentucci: Well you know, it all started in a very unexpected way. Ubaldo Scanagatta launched this tennis blog about two years ago, in January 2007, and I started reading it and posting comments on his articles. After some months, I received an e-mail from Ubaldo, who was asking me to write some articles, since he had appreciated the quality of my comments. In few months, me and about 15-20 people, like me former users of the blog were working together in a sort of virtual "editorial office". It was very exciting, but also very challenging. You have to read a lot, in order to keep the quality of your articles high. I employ about two hours a day of my free time working for the site. It's hard to make it compatible with work and family engagements. The best form of reward I have experienced has been to be credited as journalist at the Internazionali d'Italia, last May. After a while I recognized that many Italian tennis journalists, coaches, players and players' parents actually were reading and appreciating my articles and that my name was becoming a little bit known in that world. The sad part of the story is that I have not a lot of time to play tennis, and I am becoming fat…

ADC: The Internet is full of trolls and often it is difficult to not feed them, on the other hand the platform you are working with attracted mainly people that have the tendency to write short essays as comments many of them constructive contributions, rather than just a few words. Do you think it is mainly a matter of the article's subject or more of its form and language, that decides weather it will gain comments that add to it and sometimes even rival with it or just short messages with lack of argumentation and proof for it?

Roberto Commentucci: It think that some of the comments on our site are a great value added for it, in particular when we discuss problems of Italian tennis and ways to improve its quality and international competitiveness. To me, the high quality of the comments depends both from the way the article is built and the themes, the topics that we choose to present. So it creates a sort of virtuous circle and it is difficult for trolls to write a bad and silly comment after a series of good ones.

ADC: One of the most virulent sides of the blog is the "juniors and parents" page, you have a four year old son, did all the info contained in those many contributions by tennis-parents cause any change of view point from your side, regarding how to introduce your son to the game? Often kids have very different ideas about what one considers a fun thing to do, so the first contact can be a crucial one. How would you present tennis to a kid for the first time and what kind of advise would you give to parents who's kids already showed the desire to be athletes, should they leave it up to their kids and only support them or do you think that this is not enough?

Roberto Commentucci: I learned a lot from that area of the blog. I think that many structural problems of Italian tennis emerged there. To me, I don't want to force my son in any way. I do not think he may have concrete possibilities to become a professional player, for two simple reasons: first, me and my wife are short (1,70 cm and 1,60 cm) and so he will probably be too short for professional tennis. Second, I am not rich enough to support him in the very expensive path to the pro circuit. So I am starting with him in a very relaxed way: he will attend 2 hours a week of swimming and 2 hours a week of collective tennis lessons. My goal is to build a person ho likes sports and that has a relaxed relationship with it, in order to improve his human relations skills. That's all.

ADC: You have made many descriptions of the games of former champions and upcoming juniors such as Nishikori. This year Fabrice Santoro, one of the pros with the most entertaining game will retire, do you see any upcoming player that could follow in his footsteps?

Roberto Commentucci: Over the last years power became very important in tennis, while touch became less. You have to be first of all an athlete, and only after that touch and fantasy are added value. Federer is first of all a fantastic athlete, and then sure he is also Federer and has his incredible talent. But in the future it will be very difficult that players like Santoro will reach high levels. There will be people like Murray, who still have talent and touch, but can also face the power of the contemporary game.

ADC: Why do you think that artificial grass has such little exposure on the pros tour? There is an increase in injuries to the knees and ankles on pro level, originating mainly from the dominance of hard courts that rule out the sliding so typical for clay courts, don't you think that artificial grass and the sand on it can help reducing those problems? Clearly it also offers advantages on rainy days, over both clay courts and hard courts as its lines do not get slippery from paint or plastic, it doesn't have to be dried up with towels like hard courts and if covered it can be played immediately after a heavy shower even if there are still drops coming down. Do you think that during the spring-part of the season there could be room in the calendar for such a surface on the ATP tour, what do you think are the negative aspects of this surface?

Roberto Commentucci: Well, I am not an expert on surfaces, but I think that artificial grass may be too fast for professional tennis. Besides, it is a pity, in my view, that American green clay is disappearing from the circuit. It was a great compromise among hard courts, which are neither too slow nor too fast, but may cause injuries, and clay, which sometimes is considered too slow.

ADC: One of the most recent additions to ubitennis.com is dedicated to health and injury issues, do you think that particular styles of play can help prevent chronic injuries that hobby and amateur players often suffer from mimicking the pros game? For instance do you think that double-handed play and accurate serving instructions can alleviate issues with elbows, shoulders and spine?

Roberto Commentucci: Certainly yes. The bio-mechanics research has supported the evolution of tennis techniques both in maximizing the efficiency of the shots, and in minimizing the risks of shocks. A good execution technique is the best guarantee for health in tennis. So I can only recommend looking for a good tennis instructor!



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DAVID FOSTER WALLACE 1962-2008

Why, we will probably never know. On the past 12th september a genius of his generation prematurely died, he was found two days later, an apparent suicide, he had hung himself. In the seventies he was a copetitive junior tennis player, he majored in English and philosophy, with a focus on modal logic and mathematics. He then in the eighties became known as a writer and thinker, author of the post-modern classic "Infinte Jest" a novel where DFW in 1,100 pages meanders from substance addiction to tennis, film theory and depression amongst many more subdjects, other must reads are the short story and essay collections "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" and "Consider The Lobster" but for tennis people "Federer as Religious Experience" an essay on Roger Federer which he wrote in 2006 for the New York Times is mandatory, here is a short part from it.


Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men's tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you're O.K.

The Moments are more intense if you've played enough tennis to understand the impossibility of what you just saw him do. We've all got our examples. Here is one. It's the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. There's a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today's power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner...until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court backhand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (=left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federer's scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassi's moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he does — Federer's still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the ball's heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and there's no time to turn his body around, and Agassi's following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side...and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the ball's past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassi's side, a winner — Federer's still dancing backward as it lands. And there's that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color man's headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), "How do you hit a winner from that position?" And he's right: given Agassi's position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backwards, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of "The Matrix." I don't know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.

Anyway, that's one example of a Federer Moment, and that was merely on TV — and the truth is that TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love.

you can read the entire essay at the following link
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html



The standard way to describe DWF (and let's stick to that) is to say that Wallace's essays, just as his novels, often combine various writing modes or voices, and incorporate sometimes invented jargon and vocabulary from a wide variety of fields. His writing featured self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long multi-clause sentences, and a notable use of explanatory footnotes and endnotes — often nearly as expansive as the text proper. As an example here are 3 out of the entire 17 footnotes from the above NYT essay, which obviously is only the introduction.

(3) Actually, this is not the only Federer-and-sick-child incident of Wimbledon's second week. Three days prior to the men's final, a Special One-on-One Interview with Mr. Roger Federer(†) takes place in a small, crowded International Tennis Federation office just off the third floor of the Press Center. Right afterward, as the ATP player-rep is ushering Federer out the back door for his next scheduled obligation, one of the I.T.F. guys (who's been talking loudly on the telephone through the whole Special Interview) now comes up and asks for a moment of Roger's time. The man, who has the same slight, generically foreign accent as all I.T.F. guys, says: "Listen, I hate doing this. I don't do this, normally. It's for my neighbor. His kid has a disease. They will do a fund-raiser, it's planned, and I'm asking can you sign a shirt or something, you know — something." He looks mortified. The ATP rep is glaring at him. Federer, though, just nods, shrugs: "No problem. I'll bring it tomorrow." Tomorrow's the men's semifinal. Evidently the I.T.F. guy has meant one of Federer's own shirts, maybe from the match, with Federer's actual sweat on it. (Federer throws his used wristbands into the crowd after matches, and the people they land on seem pleased rather than grossed out.) The I.T.F. guy, after thanking Federer three times very fast, shakes his head: "I hate doing this." Federer, still halfway out the door: "It's no problem." And it isn't. Like all pros, Federer changes his shirt during matches, and he can just have somebody save one, and then he'll sign it. It's not like Federer's being Gandhi here — he doesn't stop and ask for details about the kid or his illness. He doesn't pretend to care more than he does. The request is just one more small, mildly distracting obligation he has to deal with. But he does say yes, and he will remember — you can tell. And it won't distract him; he won't permit it. He's good at this kind of stuff, too.

(†) (Only considerations of space and basic believability prevent a full description of the hassles involved in securing such a One-on-One. In brief, it's rather like the old story of someone climbing an enormous mountain to talk to the man seated lotus on top, except in this case the mountain is composed entirely of sports-bureaucrats.)

(7) When asked, during the aforementioned Special One-on-One Interview, for examples of other athletes whose performances might seem beautiful to him, Federer mentions Jordan first, then Kobe Bryant, then "a soccer player like — guys who play very relaxed, like a Zinédine Zidane or something: he does great effort, but he seems like he doesn't need to try hard to get the results."
Federer's response to the subsequent question, which is what-all he makes of it when pundits and other players describe his own game as "beautiful," is interesting mainly because the response is pleasant, intelligent, and cooperative — as is Federer himself — without ever really saying anything (because, in fairness, what could one say about others' descriptions of him as beautiful? What would you say? It's ultimately a stupid question): "It's always what people see first — for them, that's what you are 'best at.' When you used to watch John McEnroe, you know, the first time, what would you see? You would see a guy with incredible talent, because the way he played, nobody played like this. The way he played the ball, it was just all about feel. And then you go over to Boris Becker, and right away you saw a powerful player, you know?(†) When you see me play, you see a 'beautiful' player — and maybe after that you maybe see that he's fast, maybe you see that he's got a good forehand, maybe then you see that he has a good serve. First, you know, you have a base, and to me, I think it's great, you know, and I'm very lucky to be called basically 'beautiful,' you know, for style of play. ... With me it's, like, 'the beautiful player,' and that's really cool."

(†) N.B. Federer's big conversational tics are "maybe" and "you know." Ultimately, these tics are helpful because they serve as reminders of how appallingly young he really is. If you're interested, the world's best tennis player is wearing white warm-up pants and a long-sleeved white microfiber shirt, possibly Nike. No sport coat, though. His handshake is only moderately firm, though the hand itself is like a carpentry rasp (for obvious reasons, tennis players tend to be very callusy). He's a bit bigger than TV makes him seem — broader-shouldered, deeper in the chest. He's next to a table that's covered with visors and headbands, which he's been autographing with a Sharpie. He sits with his legs crossed and smiles pleasantly and seems very relaxed; he never fidgets with the Sharpie. One's overall impression is that Federer is either a very nice guy or a guy who's very good at dealing with the media — or (most likely) both.

(8) Special One-on-One support from the man himself for this claim 'It's interesting, because this week, actually, Ancic [comma Mario, the towering Top-10 Croatian whom Federer beat in Wednesday's quarterfinal] played on Centre Court against my friend, you know, the Swiss player Wawrinka [comma Stanislas, Federer's Davis Cup teammate], and I went to see it out where, you know, my girlfriend Mirka [Vavrinec, a former women's Top-100 player, knocked out by injury, who now basically functions as Federer's Alice B. Toklas] usually sits, and I went to see — for the first time since I have come here to Wimbledon, I went to see a match on Centre Court, and I was also surprised, actually, how fast, you know, the serve is and how fast you have to react to be able to get the ball back, especially when a guy like Mario [Ancic, who's known for his vicious serve] serves, you know? But then once you're on the court yourself, it's totally different, you know, because all you see is the ball, really, and you don't see the speed of the ball.... '

An other essay which you might like to read is "StringTheory" pubblished by Esquire in 1996 and repubblished in the collection of essays "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". Its main character is Michael Joyce, back then a young tennis pro close to his best ranking of number 64, DFW accompains him on his way from the qualies to the main draw of the Canadian Open, Joyce later on became the coach of Maria Sharapova. You can read the essay at the following link
http://www.esquire.com/features/sports/the-string-theory-0796

one footnote to a sentence where he describes the differences between the three main types of game in tennis i.e. serve & volley, defensive baseline style and power baseline style using Jommy Connors, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe as examples goes like this:

John McEnroe wasn't all that tall, and he was arguably the best serve-and-volley man of all time, but then McEnroe was an exception to pretty much every predictive norm there was. At his peak (say 1980-1984), he was the greatest tennis player who ever lived -- the most talented, the most tormented: a genius. For me, watching McEnroe don a blue polyester blazer and do stiff lame truistic color commentary for TV is like watching Faulkner do a Gap ad.

Bare in mind that this was written in the mid nineties, but if you needed any further proof of the man's genius read this bit of "String Theory":

I submit that tennis is the most beautiful sport there is (35) and also the most demanding. It requires body control, hand-eye coordination, quickness, flat-out speed, endurance, and that weird mix of caution and abandon we call courage. It also requires smarts. Just one single shot in one exchange in one point of a high-level match is a nightmare of mechanical variables. Given a net that's three feet high (at the center) and two players in (unrealistically) fixed positions, the efficacy of one single shot is determined by its angle, depth, pace, and spin. And each of these determinants is itself determined by still other variables -- i.e., a shot's depth is determined by the height at which the ball passes over the net combined with some integrated function of pace and spin, with the ball's height over the net itself determined by the player's body position, grip on the racket, height of backswing and angle of racket face, as well as the 3-D coordinates through which the racket face moves during that interval in which the ball is actually on the strings. The tree of variables and determinants branches out and out, on and on, and then on much further when the opponent's own position and predilections and the ballistic features of the ball he's sent you to hit are factored in.(36) No silicon-based RAM yet existent could compute the expansion of variables for even a single exchange; smoke would come out of the mainframe. The sort of thinking involved is the sort that can be done only by a living and highly conscious entity, and then it can really be done only unconsciously, i.e., by fusing talent with repetition to such an extent that the variables are combined and controlled without conscious thought. In other words, serious tennis is a kind of art.

Frankly this would be where the quote should end, but DFW follows the previous master mind definition with yet another chalice filled up to the rim with wisdom juce... so it is impossible to not quote it as well

If you've played tennis at least a little, you probably have some idea of how hard a game it is to play really well. I submit to you that you really have no idea at all. I know I didn't. And television doesn't really allow you to appreciate what real top-level players can do -- how hard they're actually hitting the ball, and with what control and tactical imagination and artistry. I got to watch Michael Joyce practice several times right up close, like six feet and a chain-link fence away. This is a man who, at full run, can hit a fast-moving tennis ball into a one-foot square area seventy-eight feet away over a net, hard. He can do this something like more than 90 percent of the time. And this is the world's seventy-ninth-best player, one who has to play the Montreal qualies.

(35) Basketball comes close, but it's a team sport and lacks tennis' primal mano a mano intensity. Boxing might come close -- at least at the lighter weight divisions -- but the actual physical damage the fighters inflict on each other makes it too concretely brutal to be really beautiful -- a level of abstraction and formality (i.e., 'play') is necessary for a sport to possess true metaphysical beauty (in my opinion).



An interview with Michael Joyce following the death of David Foster Wallace, can be found at this link
http://www.tennisweek.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=6618913

David Higdon who was the ATP employee that made the One-on-One for "Federer as Religious Experience" possible wrote the following about it:
It nearly didn't happen, as Wallace demanded a one-on-one interview during Wimbledon and Federer told me, in my role at the time as ATP head of communications, that he wasn't going to sit down for a profile during the most important tournament of the year.

"But Roger," I begged, "this guy is my idol!"

Federer laughed at this unusual twist to a one-on-one request, and he eventually relented. Afterwards, he was a bit perturbed, claiming that the questions were inane, the dude weird, and the whole exercise a complete waste of his time.

It was my turn to laugh. "Roger," I said, shaking my head like a high school physics teacher, "David wasn't listening to what you said, but how you responded, how you interacted with him and others before, during and after the interview, what was going on around you. Watch: You'll be blown away at his insight."

Indeed, the article articulated better than anything that I've ever read, before and since, the essence of Federer and his chosen sport. Wallace had come close before in an Esquire piece he wrote about journeyman player Michael Joyce (now Maria Sharapova's coach) a decade earlier, but Federer provided Wallace with an enigmatic subject more fitting of his own personal writing style. Even Federer admitted that he was impressed with the piece.

It's impossible to appreciate Wallace without devouring large chunks of his poetic prose (the same can be said of Federer and his game), but here's a taste from the article: "Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war."

In the article, Wallace whined about the hassles he encountered securing the Federer interview, and compared it to "the old story of someone climbing an enormous mountain to talk to the man seated lotus on top, except in this case the mountain is composed entirely of sports-bureaucrats." Sure, I'm happy to know Federer, but to be kicked by David Foster Wallace on his way up the mountain? Now that's something to brag about to my kids. RIP, DFW.

below is an interview that Charlie Rose did with Davis Foster Wallace in 1997

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A FAITHFUL TALE OF HOW THE LORD WON THE CUP

It took Simone(1) a while to give his definitive answer and his coach was not too sure if this could really make any sense, but eventually they both agreed and responded with a resonant yes to padre Rino, a holy man with a strong sense for business. So now the Holy See had a real Davis Cup squad and a talented player to team up with Ndoso Lisordi, the Liberian monk that once was a young talent, but could never make it past the role of ball boy, at Lagos' clubs for expatriates.

Padre Rino had long prayed for this to happen but he never felt to good about his prayers, knowing of all the earthly suffering, so he always tried to push it away from him. The turning point arrived when after years that she had wished for him to come see her, he visited his sister Tommasina in Paraguay. She had married the former South American clay court king Jesus Maria Jösele. Mister Jösele, while preparing the asado in the garden, told him about this young player from Bologna who much like Niki Pilić in 1973 was excluded from ever playing again for his national team.(2) He was also condemned to return the 100.000€ his team had received in his 10 years as a junior and he was declared "persona non grata" in all clubs affiliated with the federation. The federations presidentissimo ruled in his thick accent that for as long as he had been in power, which ever club would give Simone hospitality would lose his right to participate in the national team competitions.

Sadly the director of the club, who had given Simone a room in his house and the possibility to train on the club's courts, had to send him away now. Chances of a shift of power in the federation were widely considered as nearing zero, since president Bin Aghi had just been re-elected as single candidate with 94.94% of the votes after having been in power for 8 years during which all his opponents surrendered, many of them leaving the Federcircoli(3) in delusion. Some of the press depicted Simone as a deserter, as having insulted the nations flag, not defending his country, the moral issue was to be resolved once and for all, how the committee unanimously had voted for. So Jösele had suggested that Simone would probably be playing for Montecarlo or San Marino in the future, like other Italian players had done already, taxes were low there and it was close to Simone's home town. At this point Padre Rino shuddered, as his old dream of a Vatican Davis Cup team sprung back to his mind, leaving a grin on his face. On his way back to Rome he stopped over at the Australian Open and spoke to Simone and his coach Claudio. At first they were baffled but when he mentioned his friend with a key role in the Vatican Bank they understood very clearly what an opportunity it was for them. Back in Rome it was only a matter of days before Padre Rino had obtained all the necessary permissions from above.

All this had happened years before the final of the Davis Cup, now Padre Rino was what the press called the commissioner of the VTA, Jesus Maria Jösele was the team Captain and reported for the Osservatore Romano, finally admired in every parish of the world the now 38 years old monk Ndoso Lisordi was Simones decisive team mate who had helped him to win so many doubles. For the final they trained harder than ever before under the guidance of their doubles coach Mosé.
In a weekly column of the news paper La Repubblica it was pinned down to one sentence: Now with the help of the Lord they have to win this last one as well.

The choice of ground for the final was decided by lot, like so many times before, but this time it fell against the Holy See, nevertheless the mayor of Rome insisted that such an event could only be held in Rome and so Bin Aghi had to renounce from his idea of bringing the event to his hometown. Under the high cupola of Rome's Eur-Sportdome,(4) Ndoso and Simone had to face the young Italian doubles team. Matteo and Jack were unbeaten in the previous rounds and despite they could not have their coach Diego sit right next to them, their flamboyant tactical advisor from Naples found a way to communicate with the Italian captain Davide, whose hair at a still early age had turned white as snow over the course of the year, as he suffered with the roller coaster of emotions delivered by Andreas and Fabio, the only two singles players left after Simone's forced exit. The crushing serves and forehands of Matteo and Jack somehow seemed to bounce back off a rubber wall, and after 3 hours of this chilling December Saturday the black hand of Ndoso high fived Simone's. The Holy See led by 2:1 over Italy. On the previous day Simone had beaten Fabio in a tight 5 set match and Andreas, Siomone's friend and doubles partner on the pros tour, had eventually won the third set tie break of the opening match over Ndoso by 25 points to 23 after having lead by 6:0 6:0 5:0 and 40:0 and squandered a record number of 33 match points! Somehow miraculously Ndoso always had one more shot up his sleeve when he looked like he had lost. Andreas fell pale faced on his knees when he finally converted his 34th match point with an ace down the middle, on second serve.

On Sunday the two friends had to face each other in what would be the determinant rubber of the encounter, since Ndoso had never won a singles match and could hardly do so against a fighter like Fabio, despite the permanently folded hands of his team captain. Andreas got back to an old habit and lost his serve twice in a row in the opening set, it was 4:0 for Simone and the crowd was in silence, not knowing how they should feel and for whom to cheer, as suddenly Andreas' girlfriend could be heard shouting out a phrase in German,(5) actually South Tyrolean: Du pocksh es!

And in deed Andy won his successive service games by not dropping more than two points per game. Standing behind the chair umpire and inciting the crowd was Italy's young talent Gigi, who had been with the team as a sparring partner since the quarterfinal match, preparing them for lefty serves such as Ndoso's only weapon, apart from his ambidextrous return that prevented him from being aced despite his age and lack of professional experience. The score was 6:2 6:7 7:6 6:7 15:15 as the match came close to its 7th hour. Joseph Urtijëi a student from Vienna that had founded an unlikely international fan club for Andreas shouted his last "Gemma Sepp!" as an exhausted Simone won his 16th game of the set, being down two point's he had 3 consecutive net rollers where the ball somehow fell on Andy's side, the fourth point jumped back in the court from the net post, lobbing Andreas who standing near the net was smiling in disbelief and reaching the right hand out to his friend Simone who jumped the net to shake in. Simone and Ndoso(6) had won the Davis Cup, against all odds what seemed like a bad joke told by a mushroom-headed gnome in a nightmare had become reality... and the bells were ringing all over Italy.




FOOTNOTES

(1) The characters and events described are incredible. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.


(2) In 1973, five years after the introduction of Open Tennis by which the pros where finally admitted to the majors, Niki Pilić was supposed to play a Davis Cup tie for Yugoslavia, but he decided to play a tournament instead, so the Yugoslav Tennis Federation suspended him and the ITF (back then the ILTF where the L stands for Lawn) upheld the suspension preventing him from entering any major tournaments, which in turn de facto lead to the birth of the ATP(†) when 81 of the pros most of them represented by the ATP, including 13 of the seeded players boycotted Wimbledon in protest of the suspension inflicted to Niki Pilić and showing solidarity to him. In that year's Wimbledon final Jan Kodes beat Alex Metreveli who was the first player of the USSR to reach the final of a major, the young Borg and Connors reached the quarter finals. The 4 majors (Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open) and the Davis Cup are still organized by the ITF, one gets the feeling that most top ranked pros such as Nadal and Federer are eager to compete in the Davis Cup and represent their country there, but naturally what they are interested in is winning the cup. The majority of them is not interested in relegations and first rounds, particularly when other players can take the stage stepping in for them, since the Davis Cup traditionally is a team competition where players can be exchanged. The fact that until now there were no ATP ranking points on display for won Davis Cup rubbers plays also a role but only a minor one, so the introduction of points which will start in 2009 will help but probably won't be decisive here.
Tennis is an individual sport, where the public interest and thus that of the media resides in the performances at the very top of the game, which are the major finals and semifinals and a step below them the finals of the master series tournaments. Journeymen and the results of the weekly medium sized tournaments create much lesser buzz and the smaller tournaments serve the top players only as preparation for their goal which is to peak on the big majors, the tournaments they are focused on. So basically what national and international top players, more precisely those who are willing to represent their country, are asking for is to be thrown into the fight only when they are really needed. In this aspect (and only in this one) there is some similarity to the deal that the citizens of a country and the soldiers defending the citizens liberty and state have, when they are demanding to only be called to risk their lives when the citizens rights and liberty are under serious threat. As history tells us this deal is often to be broken by those representing the citizens, which are their governments. Many governments come into being with a tendency to have, amongst other things, their armies serve the interests of international corporations while the tax-payers cover the costs of such operations. The events that in the past took place in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq are only the most recent examples.


(†) In 1972 Arthur Ashe (the only Afro American tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament, actually three of them, namely US Open 1968, Australian Open 1970 and Wimbledon 1975 and a prominent figure in the human rights movement, who was also arrested for protesting against the Apartheid System in South Africa and once said "I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments, that's no contribution to society. That was purely selfish, that was for me.") and Jack Kramer amongst others formed The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with the intent of protecting the interests of professional tennis players. In 1988 on a parking lot at the US Open the ATP announced in a news conference that the players would take control of the game and in January of 1990 the ATP tour started becoming reality.


(3) A "circolo" in Italy is what can be considered a "country club" in the majority of cases devoted more to tradition and social aspects than to the game and the increase of the number of tennis players, also because in the more important clubs the members like to keep a certain level of exclusiveness and prefer to avoid the places from getting crowded. Differing from other sports associations there are various European Tennis federations that are somewhat confederations of such "country clubs" offering little democratic interaction with the tennis players at the base, this leads to a conservative and sort of élitist interpretation of Tennis, reducing and keeping the number of public courts to an absolute minimum, which in turn results in a small base of young tennis players. The majority of competitive junior tennis in those countries is played by kids with a very well secured financial back ground, by the wealth of their families. This in turn often results in selecting for federal support only the the kids with the most talent and touch in favour of those with a strong will and fighting spirit, but many times the more talented juniors are less inclined to work hard on their athleticism and technical improvement. The chronic lack of pros at the highest level then reflects on the base that remains small, but this is not a big problem for the established circuit of "country clubs" with clay courts (clay courts are very popular with senior players because of the lesser impact they have on their knees, but clay courts can not be played during the winter months and demand a high level of maintenance, on the contrary to hard courts which are typical for tennis-communities in countries based on public courts) but it affects the potentially big markets of countries such as Germany, Italy and other countries.


(4) The PalaEUR, which was restructured by the architect Massimiliano Fuksas in 1999 and since then also known by the name of the basketball team that plays his home games there, is Rome's sports dome and has hosted a number of other events as well, such as conventions and concerts for instance Pink Floyd in 1971. It has a seating capacity for about 12,000 spectators and was built for the 1960 Summer Olympics. Designed by the architects Marcello Piacentini and Pier Luigi Nervi, who also designed The Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican City with a seating capacity of 12,000 people. It is used by the Pope for conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience as an alternative to Saint Peter's Square.


(5) Actually there is no such thing as South Tyrolean, there is a huge variety of different Tyrolean dialects, resulting from the alpine nature of its territory that complicated communication in the past, the many dialects all differ from German just as much as Swiss German or Dutch differ from it, similarly in the way that Scottish English differs form English. Tyrol is divided in to 4 parts since the end of WWI and the Habsburgian Empire, Trentino (the former Welsch-Tyrol) and South Tyrol are part of Itlay and have the status of autonomous provinces, North-Tyrol and East-Tyrol are part of Austria. Before this division only the terms Tyrol and Welsch-Tyrol were common, where Welsch stands for an ancient German word indicating the use of a different language, similar to Welsche in Switzerland and Walloon in Belgium and even Wales in Great Britain (this dates back to the Anglo-Saxon roots of the English language, predating the influence of Latin and French on it), in the case of Trentino, which makes up the southernmost part of Tyrol, it was traditionally Italian speaking. Before WWI the term South Tyrol was existent only on post cards to associate Grandhotels with sunshine and good weather, in order to attract tourists from the British Empire, the same that brought Tennis to the Swiss mountain villages of Gstaad and St. Moritz. The original Rhaeto-Romance language of the region, that descended from a form of Vulgar Latin similar to the one from which other Romance languages such as French, Italian and Spanish originated from, is still present in South Tyrol and Trentino. Even though on the border to the Swiss Canton Grisons, in Romansh language Grischun, the Rhaeto-Romance language basically died out in the early nineteen-hundreds, amongst the few traces left there of it are toponyms such as Plamort for instance, the ancient language still lives in the two valleys of the Dolomites, Val Gherdëina and Val di Fassa, in the form of Ladin. The composer and producer Giorgio Moroder is amongst various athletes an internationally know person who's native language is Ladin.


(5) Ndoso Lisordi up to this day often provokes a smile upon citing his African name, since in Rome it could also be understood as a very direct questioning phrase that a monk would be well advised to better put in a different and more traditional way.

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A SECOND CHANCE FOR DOUBLES

Rino Tommasi who together with Bud Collins, Peter Bodo and Jon Wertheim is one of the most renowned international journalists in Tennis declares doubles, since over a decade, as a patient in the terminal phase, in fact it is hard to spot it on the media. The ATP tried to inhale new life into doubles by shortening the duration of the matches through substitution of the third set with a 10 points tie break and hoped more top players would enter the draw by allowing them to use their singles ranking for the doubles seeding, these efforts didn't change much and since the nineties doubles is completely dominated by specialists that rarely if at all play in the singles tour.

In the late seventies up to the mid eighties many pros would still be playing doubles not only to sharpen their volley, return and service skills but also out of love for the game, John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase are examples for this. On the other hand with Jimmy Connors and particularly with Bjorn Borg's dominance a new attitude set the standard for the following generations, and so only the best serve and volley players cared about entering the doubles draw the last of them being Stefan Edberg who quit doubles after having won the 1987 US Open doubles tournament with his Davis Cup team mate Anders Järryd in a lengthy five set battle only to lose to Mats Wilander in the semifinal of the singles tournament. Lleyton Hewitt makes is of the very rare exceptions, in his 2000 US Open he reached the semis in singles and won the doubles obviously when he won the singles tournament in 2001 he was nowhere to be seen in doubles.

Despite all this, doubles is still fascinating to play and watch, as any amateur player can assure, but there has to be competition on the highest level to create that particular attractively show, much like it happens in beach volley that has this top of the game effect automatically, since there is no singles there.
Davis Cup is the only competition in tennis where doubles can be more attractive to both athletes and audience than singles, this is because you can have matches with four top players like Sampras / McEnroe - Edberg / Järryd fighting for a decisive match in an arena turned emotionally into a bullring, and the team aspect allows players to show emotions, incite and shout at each other and actually suck up the crowds enthusiasm as well, watch this doubles action with Novak Djokovic in a match against Australia.


Davis Cup doubles video

Recently though doubles made it to the headlines again, the Swiss team made up by the two top ten players and friends, Federer and Wawrinka won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, making it past all the specialists such as the Bryan brothers (the only ones to be able to give some exposure to doubles in the current formula, only in their home country though) Paes, Bhupathi, Knowles and Nestor. Not only did they win but they did so in a refreshing and spectacular way by having fun on court and celebrating their wins with little theatrical performances by the net. Federer admits that the win of the gold medal with his friend Stan Wawrinka helped him gain confidence and despite all the sceptics right after the Olympics he won his 13th Grand Slam tournament in New York.

The Olympics showed that doubles is not dead yet, the level of public interest just depends on the charisma and history of the players on court.

I think that nothing can be done to get the best players to compete in the major tournaments at doubles as well, it just takes away to much energy from the singles and vice versa. It would be as if a driver would simultaneously be competing in the formula one and rallye world championship.

The way to bring the attention of the public and media back to doubles could be having young emerging players team up with some of the games legends that currently play in the seniors tournaments. It could only work at minor tournaments since young players that could gain experiences out of playing with these legends could not enter the singles draw of a Master Series or ATP 1000 event and would be playing a challenger tournament instead. But tournaments where players navigating around number 80 in the ATP ranking can enter the draw could benefint from a doubles torunament where players such as Donald Young, Misha Zverev, Ryan Harrison, Robin Haase, Thomaz Bellucci and Bernard Tomic would team up with names like Sampras, McEnroe, Borg, Wilander, Noah, Cash, Becker, Edberg, Kuerten, Santoro, Ivanisevic, Leconte, Rios, Agassi, Nastase, Rafter, Vilas. This would also add a certain continuity in Tennis allowing the fans to appreciate more generations of champions.
For the young players it would be sort of an on court coaching and they could get better in tactical aspects on big points and improve their transition and net game quicker.

Naturally with today's passing shots turned into missiles it will nevertheless be hard to see a lot of finesse at the net in singles, but with more players having a couple of seasons of top level doubles experience the standard of the singles matches could improve at the net as well, making them even more fun to watch.

To allow competition between doubles specialists and teams made out of a junior and a senior player it would be necessary to shorten the matches radically, probably it would come down to a best of three tiebreak formula, possibly best of 10 or even 15 points per tiebreak and maybe a best of 5 tiebreak match for the final. It would probably be to much of a revolution for the Grand Slam tournaments, so at the majors these Junior.Senior teams could not be competitive, although some of them might have the ranking to enter the draw, if it would be possible to use the seniors career best ranking. A compromise formula to use only for the Grand Slam tournaments could be to play the matches there up to 3 or 4 games and only then play the tie break, it would probably have to be 3 games not 4 and playing up to 6 games to reach the tie break would surely be too much for the seniors fitness, to play their best tennis throughout the match and offer the audience spectacular shot making. An other effect of playing only 3 games before the tiebreak would be that the match would immediately reach its climax since each point is pivotal, in singles this would not make sense since it would kill the tactical and physical aspect of the game. It would be wrong to apply this abbreviated method to singles only to make it more interesting to TV broadcasters since the future there is clearly in dedicated tennis - sports channels and streaming, going away from the generalist stations, Tennis is such a global sport now that it doesn't fit in their schedules anymore, all they can do is offer highlights and an occasional match but it is impossible for them to cover an entire tournament in a satisfactory way for the fans.

As a side effect the Olympics doubles tournament would in this case result in the main doubles event, sort of a world championship being played only every 4 years, adding a bit of a phisical aspect to it by being played in the normal best of 3 sets method with a tie break after 6 games. This would include Tennis-doubles to those sports, such as track and field, swimming and gymnastics that have the Olympics as their ultimate competition.



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TENNIS BOOM IN SERBIA

Unless you have been living under a rock over the past couple of months you will have noticed the strong wind blowing from the east, after Russia now Serbia too is starting to build up a tradition in Tennis. This year came the first grand slam success for a Serb, with Novak Ðokovic winning in Melbourne. Considering over a century of Grand Slam tournaments this may seem to come out of nowhere, but Serbia is in fact a new born country, in some ways, though even despite of that it is not lacking completely of tennis history, if we look at Yugoslavia’s records. Obviously the first to come to mind is Monica Seles, originally from Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, after Belgrade. Monica’s background is in the Hungarian minority of the North Serbian province Vojvodina, she left with her family for Bollettieri’s academy in Florida in her early teens, and a year after an on-court attack in which a fanatic German spectator stabbed her in the back with a knife, she became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994. So her great talent was born and raised in Serbia but developed in the US later on, but there have been other Serbian players with respectable results before her, with the most important ones reached by Slobodan Živojinovic. Bobo made it to the 1986 semifinals in Wimbledon, as an unseeded player and peaked with a best ranking of number 19 in the world winning two titles, Houston and Sydney, not to forget he also won the US Open doubles with Andrés Gómez. So the history page is not completely blank there before Nole’s big win in OZ. And to think chances where high he would have been a skier, his father owned a restaurant in the Serbian mountains and he was in the national ski team, then four tennis courts were built in front of the restaurant and so Nole got into tennis. The story has it that he was aiming at the number one since he was 7 years old (really he is on the best way to reach that goal, already this year!?) and that the lack of courts, in Belgrade, forced him to play in an empty swimming pool in his youth, at age 12 Novak left for Niki Pilic’s Academy in Munich (that’s why he speaks fluent German as well). He later trained in Italy with Riccardo Piatti and the rest is in the making. Anyway here is a report on what’s happening now coming from the heart of the country.


by Insolent Defender: On January 27, 2008 Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title, thus becoming the first Serb who has ever achieved such a success in the rocky world of tennis. On this very day the people of Serbia basically breathed as one, with a single thing on their minds- no work, no school, no money nor any of the everyday troubles- but the championship. And when their wish finally came true, suddenly there was not so much difference between streets, bars, classrooms and offices- all of them crowded with happy faces, some of them smiling, some yelling, some crying, but all of them moved by one and the same emotion.

But this was only the crowning point. It all began in Roland Garros 2007, which was renamed to Roland Garrovic when Jankovic and Djokovic made it to the semifinals, and Ivanovic even higher. Their return to Serbia was celebrated by thousands of exhilarated fans who could not even regret the fact that a Grand Slam was not yet won. It is relevant not to forget Tipsarevic and Zimonjic, who became professionals before the three young Serbs and never missed an opportunity to represent their country in Davis Cup matches with all the zeal they could gather.

In the meantime, things have even changed for the better in Serbian tennis. Janko started playing his best tennis and beat a couple of top 10 players, whereas young Viktor Troicki also showed us what he was made of. Both did excellent in the Australian Open matches against Federer and Nadal respectively, therewith joining Ana, Jelena, Nole and Nenad and showing that they would not surrender without a fight.

So the interest of the Serbian public in tennis is constantly growing and is not only a consequence of the results of the afore mentioned players but also and particularly of their will and strength. What made and kept Serbia particularly proud was the way they behave, whether on court or not. We all love them for their fair play and spirit. It affected us all. But it reached its climax during the Australian Open, kids were running away from school all across Serbia, or watching the semifinal match (Nole Vs Federer) in the teachers’ offices along with their teachers. What’s more, that 27th of January was the saint’s day in Serbia, and it so happened that an aged lady entered a monastery during the service and yelled: ’People, Novak won the first set!’
I think you get the picture...

The tennis boom in Serbia may seem strange if you do not live here, but it has become quite common for us - if you walk past some schoolyard, in a city as well as in the countryside, or even a private backyard, you will see worn ropes or nets attached to poles, and on both sides children of all ages with cheap racquets in their hands saying: ’Djokovic leads by four games to one’, or ’Game, set and match- Djokovic!’

On the other hand, foreign media cannot conceal their amazement at the fact that such great players come from a country most people cannot point to on a map, whether because it is too small or they do not know where it is. The explanation is simple and the Serbian tennis players have demonstrated it more than once- only the great fighters make great players. When you see those kids playing tennis on the streets, you realize that Jelena, Ana, Novak, Nenad and Janko have done the best possible thing for their country. So it is not about how large one’s country is, but the person’s spirit.


Bobo Zivojinovic having an argument with Ivan Lendl





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Part 3 of the interview with 1983
Wimbledon finalist Chris Lewis

you can read the first part of the interview and a short bio of Chris Lewis by scrolling down to the post dated "Friday, February 29, 2008" or just click here HERE
The fourth part will be posted later on, in the mean time you are welcome to submit follow-up questions which Chris will include in his answers.


Avec Double Cordage: You now run the international online store www.tennis-experts.com do you think there will still be any major technological changes in the pro’s equipment or will the development focus more on the amateur player?


Chris Lewis: That’s a great question. At the professional level, it’s hard to imagine that the technological advances in racquets over the next thirty years will be as dramatic as those made in the last thirty years (although most of that change took place in the ’80’s). I don’t think there’s much chance that, in 2038, a Prince O3 Speedport Black will seem as obsolete as a 1970’s/early ’80’s wooden Wilson Jack Kramer Pro Staff does today.
I also think that the professional game is more highly regulated now than in the past, with far more restrictions. Because of that, there is far less likelihood that tomorrow’s racquets will be radically different than today’s racquets. In fact, I think there’s a good possibility that more stringent racquet regulations might even retard the progress of racquet technology at the pro level.
However, at the amateur/recreational level, I think that there’s more likelihood of radical innovation. There are less restrictions with these racquets, and there’s also more scope to introduce a wider range of change as recreational players’ games aren’t as sensitive to new technology nor are recreational or amateur players as reluctant to embrace it as the pros are. There’s much less at stake for amateur players.
One area, though, that I think we’ll continue to see major technological advances at pro level is in the area of string technology. In the last ten years, advances in string technology have had more influence on the game (at pro level) than racquet technology. I think this will continue to be the case, all this is an ideal opportunity for you, the reader, to share your thoughts on what direction technology will go in. I’d love to hear what you think that direction will be.


ADC: After having coached Ivan Lendl in the early nineties and other professional players like Carl-Uwe Steeb you now work with juniors in California at the Woodbridge Tennis Club what do you think can be done to create a bigger interest in tennis amongst teenagers?


Chris Lewis: Here in Southern California, I live in an area where tennis is a hugely popular sport amongst teenagers. At Woodbridge, we run a program that has a long waiting list of players who would like to sign up, and many of the junior tournaments I attend have between 128 and 256 player in the draw for 14’s, 16’s and 18 and under events.
Getting back to Woodbridge, the coaches and staff have made a huge effort to provide an environment for the kids that they want to be part of; an environment that is primarily focused on making them better players, but one which is also very enjoyable for them socially. To achieve this, we do things like integrating the boys and the girls in the same on-court groups (as long as their ability levels allow it), and we also get them to play points and practice matches against each other.
Also, in Southern Cal, high school tennis is very popular and treated very seriously by teenagers who take pride in playing for their school team, and who are also very conscious of the benefits of playing well enough to earn a college scholarship so they can finance their studies.
But as far as increasing tennis’ popularity amongst teenagers in a particular area or country, I think the most effective way to do that is for a star to emerge in the way that Bjorn Borg popularized tennis amongst the youth in Sweden, Gullermo Vilas doing the same in Argentina, and Boris Becker and Steffi Graf having the same positive impact in Germany.
I can’t tell you how many times I receive e-mails from teenagers who let me know that they took up tennis ever since they first saw a particular player or match on TV.
Conversely, I don’t think the way to increase tennis’ popularity amongst teenagers (or any other age group) is to dumb the game down by recycling old (and failed) ideas like sudden-death deuces, abbreviated sets and on-court coaching.
I’d like to hear others’ thoughts on this question too, particularly those involving any success stories.

Ivan Lendl demonstrating the forehand at Woodbridge Tennis Club
in Irvine, Orange County, Southern California

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Stefano Grazia talking about tennis in Africa tennis academies in the world, his son Nicholas and coaching juniors - Part 2

you can read the first part of the interview and a short introduction - bio of Stefano Grazia by scrolling down to the post dated "Thursday, March 20" or just click here HERE


If you got any questions for Stefano Grazia post them in the comments and he will sure answer.
 
 
Avec Double Cordage: Is there any way to compare the situations of countries like Jamaica or Nigeria to European countries that lack to "produce" pros hungry for glory? What do you think can be done to build "public play grounds" in Africa or eastern Europe and do you think this would help the growth of tennis? How do you see the situation like in Italy and do you see any chance to build public play grounds there?

Stefano Grazia: Public play grounds should be built in Western Europe as well! To play tennis in Italy is outrageously and obscenely too expensive…but you need to come to terms with the fact that soccer and tracks and fields will always be more popular in the poorest countries. I’m curious to see what will happen in those countries where the communism regime was pushing sport for propaganda reasons … now that you have to pay for it, there might be some changes in the sport geography…Recently on the Blog I was asked which were my three wishes to express to the Italian Tennis Federation President to improve Tennis in Italy during an improbable dinner with him. My reply was:

1.PUBLIC COURTS and free access for kids (U14) in the Clubs during certain hours and whenever the courts are not occupied by Members

2.Tournaments in the week ends instead than during the weeks

3.More communications between Coaches and Parents

In Africa I already said that the problems are more than this…But basically it’s a matter of money…It is not that simply Tennis (and Golf) are for the rich, there’s something more …For an expatriate the cost of the Club or of a Coach might sound very convenient but you need to consider that a Steward/Nanny/Babysitter, a Road Policeman, a Driver will be paid just 350$ a month (and I’m talking about Oil Companies drivers) …When I was saying that tennis in Africa is cheap I was talking from the selfish point of view of an expatriate … Of course any Club has a policy to permit some kids to play so they might start as Ball Boys (yes, we all play with a ball boy and we do pay him…1 $ per hour…By the way, when we play golf we also have a caddy…we pay them 10 $ for the 18 holes) and they might hand as assistant coaches… Actually, it’s very easy to see very good junior players in Africa: I’ve seen some in Luanda, and I saw plenty in Nigeria…The problem arises when they start to need good coaching and traveling abroad to compete… The kids need money, they’re looking for sponsors, some of them have to accept the reality and turn themselves in to coaches at the local club…Others are able to go abroad…One of the Coaches at The Bollettieri Adult Program is Nigerian, Desmond Osuigwe, he married an American and after a couple of years he called the young brother Jonathan who’s now working as assistant with the junior… I already describe what Godwin Kienka is trying to do creating what he’s calling the 3S’s (Structure,System,Standard), a sort of organization that creates competitions in a sport on age group basis. He already started the ITA/NNPC Junior Tennis Circuit in 2004, a circuit of tournaments in 4 age groups (U10,U12,U14 and U16) across the nation and sponsored by the National Oil Company, installing a system that used primary and secondary school results as the basis for determining the ages of the participants. This could sound bizarre to the European or American but "faking age" is quite a big problem in Africa… Somebody will remember the shame of the Nigeria Soccer Team kicked out from a Youth World Cup (in Saudi Arabia, I believe) where they won and then they got disqualified …In fact a serious problem in Juniors Tennis Competitions in Nigeria is that you never really know how old the the opponent of your son might be…I remember asking a coach how old he was and the answer was an astonishing : "It Depends…". He told me then that if he was playing in the juniors he was 16 otherwise he was 21….Just recently my son got really frustrated because he was playing for the school against a kid who was reported to be 8 years old…And it was damn good! Can you imagine: you’re playing somebody who’s pretending to be 8, you think you’re supposed to crush him and the match is actually even or you’re losing…something ’s wrong, you get anxious, you get frustrated … His Coach was denying he was older but then it turned out he was almost 13…

ADC: You travelled a lot in Europe, Australia and the USA looking for academies that your son Nicholas could go to. Which ones impressed you the most and what are the main differences between the big facilities in the USA and the smaller ones in Italy and Europe?

Stefano Grazia: The Bollettieri Tennis Academy, in my opinion, has to be considered still the best. But you need to know a few things otherwise the experience might be disappointing. First of all you need to know the difference between going as a Full Timer or going just for a Summer or Easter Camp … an intermediate player or a talented kid, wanna be pro, might get less attention than it was hoping … I went there in the early 90es as an Adult for the Adult Program and for me it was an epiphany…compared to the tennis that at that time was taught in Italy (or anywhere else) it was another planet, beside the fact that we, as adults, were treated like a bunch of kids, insulted if we were not chasing the balls and brought to exhaustion with 5-6 hours of tennis a day… Actually I still miss the early days: now the Academy became a little bit more a luxury academy (like Saddlebrook in Tampa) with Villas, Jacuzzi and private pools for the Adults and that sort of camaraderie and the pioneer spirit has gone with the wind…Since IMG took over Tennis is not alone anymore and beside the Bollettieri Tennis Academy now you have also Golf, Soccer, Baseball, Basket, even Fishing ... It’s getting big, maybe too big…but technically you get really everything: mental conditioning, psychology, physical preparation…In tennis you have a lot of video analysis (almost every court has a video camera and then you go to the Team of The Strategy Zone
Actually, sometimes I wonder if for a small kid, a smaller academy wouldn’t be better..and to be honest at the Bollettieri they are not keen to have kids younger than 12-13 years … For us it’s also a matter of school: since I believe about the importance to haveing in the same area House, School and Academy if I had to move back to Italy I would need to consider my options…Like Mad Max, one of the fellow parents at the Blog, who moved to Lake of Iseo after he chose for his daughter the Vavassori Academy…Of course you must have a kind of job that allows you to do such a thing …For us there’s also the need to find a good English/American school since Nicholas attended English speaking schools since he went to playschool at 18 months… To have him stareting an Italian school now it would be an act of insane cruelty and especially considering the awkward relationship between Sport and School in Italy …beside the fact that we really believe that the IBO ( International Baccalaureate) is probably a better educational system


Stefano Grazia’s son Nicholas in Luanda, Angola
 
 
ADC: One of the first books I read about tennis was Gianni Clerici’s "500 years of Tennis" I know you are a great collector of books and movies, what are the essentials a tennis fan should read or watch and what is essential for a tennis parent in order to not become a pushing parent?

Stefano Grazia: The one you said, 500 Years of Tennis, is one of my favourites too. I have 5 different editions of it and I remember I was writing 15 years ago to Clerici and to La Repubblica (one of Italy’s main news papers) asking them for an update utilizing the marvelous articles that Clerici was writing for La Repubblica…It took a while but at the end they listened to me!
Another book that I consider the most is "Jimmy Connors saved my life" by Joel Drucker: in my opinion this is the best book on tennis of the last 25 years.
Then I should recommend also "A handful of summers" by Gordon Forbes, who writes about the days of the 50’s and 60’s
"Winning Ugly" and "I got your back!" are two tennis books from Brad Gilbert and they might not be literature but are still fun to read …
The "Tennis Encyclopedia" by Bud Collins is also a book to have in your own tennis library …like "You can quote me on that" by Paul Fein, a collection of quotes about tennis (Nobody beats me 17 times in a row!, Gerulaitis, after beating Connors for the very first time at the 17th attempt). Impossible not to have at least one book of or about Arthur Ashe…my favourite is "Portrait in Motion" in which Arthur writes a sort of diary of one year on the Tour…Unfortunately for him it’s not the 75 but the year before his triumph at Wimbledon but there is a chapter added later… And then I will suggest also "Breakpoint" by Vince Spadea and, if you can find it, "Uncover" by Pat Cash…Comparing them to the various biographies, these two seemed to me more honest and funny to read…And full of gossip! But of course McEnroe’s "You cannot be serious" and "Mr Nastase", the two bios of the two Bad Boys, can be interesting as well… You see, if you like, as I do, almost more the tennis to read than the tennis to watch there is plenty to buy But the best book has not been written yet, I guess…The book that should be written is the one about Andre Agassi…There are actually 2 or 3 around and one is on his way but unfortunately they are and will be just anonymous books under the category of the authorized biography but the ingredients of his life, if they could have been cooked by a Clerici or a Joel Drucker, would have made a terrific story…the father, Bollettieri at his best and worst, the Nike Revolution and the Image is Everything!, Wimbledon, the first fall from heaven because of a wrist injury, Brad Gilbert, back to the top, Brooke Shields, the Olympic Games, down to hell again, restarting from the quallies, the French open, Steffi, the transformation in a Tennis Guru… What a story to tell!
But since I love to read and my house in Italy is full of books (and DVD’s and CD’s) and I hope my son will read books between tournaments instead of playing the damn PSP… I want to recommend also at least a couple of books that have nothing to do with tennis… "Barney’s Version" by Mordechai Rilcher and "The Innocent Millionaire" by Stephen Vizinczey ... Because we know that Tennis is Life, and the rest is just details, but details are still important…


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