Category: Tennis

Let me join the chorus of hundreds who’ve congratulated Ricky Ballesteros. The executive director of the Sinulog Foundation, Inc., Ricky was the overseer of last Sunday’s biggest festival in the Philippines. Well done, Rick!

Jana, Jasmin and I watched from the upper deck of the Cebu City Sports Center. It was a feast for the eyes and ears. Tribu Himag-ulaw of Placer, Masbate was the best. We also relished the fast-paced presentations of the Talamban Elem. School, Tribu Buyoganon of Leyte, and the Mabolo Elem. School. The Chinese-inspired finale (starring the wushu martial artists)—plus, of course, the Chinese-invented fireworks—were fantastic.

The rain? While we were drenched last Saturday—together with Jourdan Polotan—walking the Osmeña Boulevard route during the procession, it stopped two afternoons ago. Sure, showers sprinkled but it was nowhere near the torrent of sky-water 24 hours earlier.

OZ OPEN. The first Grand Slam tennis event of the year bounced and served yesterday. Will we witness a different champion—named Murray or Djokovic—instead of R & R in Melbourne? Maybe. But, most-likely not.

Yesterday at 5:30 p.m., I watched a few minutes of Star Sports. Justin Henin played Sania Mirza. Among the ladies, can Maria Sharapova win the title? I hope so, but doubt it. Although her last Grand Slam title came at this same  Australian Open—that was three Januarys ago. Since then, the 6-foot-2 Russian-turned-Florida-resident has been busy, off-court: engaged to NBA star Sasha Vujacic and operated-on because of a shoulder injury, her world ranking slipped last year… to a painful 126.

Still, Maria is Maria. Wearing an orange and gray dress in Melbourne, no one is prettier and attracts more attention. Down Under, I hope she rises.

DAVIS CUP. It’s near. The Philippines vs. Japan tennis competition is nearing—it’s this March 4 to 6. The venue is not in Manila but is near you and me: the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa.

Last week, I sat down at Bo’s Coffee with Councilor Harry Radaza, the head for sports and tourism of Lapu-Lapu City. Tickets will soon be out. By “soon,” I mean possibly next week. Prices are as follows: The least-expensive are P500 per day. Next, the “season tickets” at P2,500. These reserved seats include access to all the Friday-to-Sunday matches. Plus, you’ll receive free shirts and caps. Finally, the VIP tickets at P5,000. As expected, these are the exclusive, best seats inside Plantation Bay.

As soon as tickets are for sale, I suggest you not delay your purchase. Only 1,100 total are available. For an event this international and monumental, tickets will fly as fast as Andy Roddick’s 151-mph serve. Consider that plenty from Manila, Bohol, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao are coming. Plus, the Japanese! They, too, will gobble up tickets so they can cheer for their countrymen.

THIRSTY CUP. On to a different Cup… Now on its 8th season, the Thirsty Football Cup will be held from Feb. 4 to 6 at the Cebu City Sports Center. The deadline for registration is tomorrow, Wednesday. Call 0917-6244853 for inquiries.

ED HAYCO. Received this text message from CCSC chief Edward Hayco: “Visit Facebook.. Cebu City Sports Commission. View the CCSC billboard, the dance presentation featuring different sports, and the sports float. What we have achieved is making the athletes and coaches believe in themselves… and in their future! We also created awareness of the purpose of the Sports Institute and the free barangay grassroots sports program.”

Chairman Ed is successful because of his personal approach to sports. Dissecting the term “grassroots,” he himself plants the seeds in San Nicholas (Sports Institute) and many other barangays so that sports can take root and flourish. His success story in dancesport—emulated and featured internationally—Chairman Edward duplicating in other sports.

Like Ricky Ballesteros, he is one of the few selfless heroes of the oldest city in our country.

Yes! Finally, the first grand slam tennis event of 2011 is about to start. Who’ll win? Can Murray and Roddick and Djokovic avert another R & R championship? Will Maria S., who’s nearing marriage, win another Slam? These and more we’ll find out in the next 14 days. For now, here are two of my favorite tennis sites…

Peter Bodo

Steve Tignor

My daughter Jana joined the Cebu City Olympics elementary tennis event last weekend. She won both her matches, 8-0, and will represent the city in next month’s CVIRAA in Dumaguete. That’s good news. The sad part: the incompetence of the tournament manager, Carmelita “Mely” Bala. Imagine this: for an event that includes boys and girls in the elementary and high school divisions, she only had one tennis court as venue. Yes, just one court. And so the result was this: Players arrived before 7:30 a.m. only to wait for hours and hours before playing. It was a pitiful sight at the Cebu Technological University watching the children and parents waiting. Why not choose a bigger venue? With two or three courts? In fact, it turned out a second venue (USC) was available—but left unused. Calling on DepEd P.E. head Nenita Pardenilla and DepEd Sports Committee chief Ricky Ballesteros: please make sure to change the tournament manager next time!

Each year, Dan Mastous, a tennis aficionado from the U.S. whom I’ve known for many years now since he visited Cebu several years back, never fails to attend the Tennis Hall of Fame Awarding. Here’s Dan’s email report to me a week ago…

This year’s Hall of Fame crop was a group that, although relatively unknown may have (collectively) the largest Grand Slam title total in Hall of Fame induction history. In all the five main player inductees have 72 grand slam titles and 309 major titles to their names.

Inducted as modern player Hall of Famers this year were the doubles teams of Mark Woodforde/Todd Woodbridge from Australia and Gigi Fernandez (USA/Puerto Rico)/Natasha Zvereva (Belarus), and as a Past Champion, Owen Davidson, also from Australia.

Also inducted as tennis contributors were Brad Parks who was one of the founders of the wheelchair tennis tour, and Derek Hardwick who was chairman of the British Lawn tennis associate when it was decided to open it to professional players, thus helping usher in the modern age of tennis.

Many question the logic of inducting doubles “specialists” into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. No one can question the numbers. It helps that all four modern players also reached at least a Grand Slam semifinal, and were ranked in the top twenty as singles players (Zvereva peaked at no 5, and was an 0/0 looser to Steffi Graf in the 1988 French Open final). But at doubles they were special. They were a collective 2807 wins to 475 losses. That’s an 83% clip. As a comparison, all time great and future Hall of Fame locks Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have each posted a 76% winning clip, and Pete Sampras won just under 71% of the time.

Here is the tale of the tape:

Owen Davidson kicks in with 11 Grand Slam Mixed Doubles titles, mostly with Billie Jean King. He is the one of a small group to have won the Grand Slam in mixed doubles, winning all four titles in the same year.

Doubles is an integral part of tennis now and historically. In the past, many of the greatest singles players also played doubles, John McEnroe being the clearest example along with Martina Navratilova.  Doubles is by far the most common form of tennis in the recreational area, and requires every bit the skill and talent that singles does. It is the poor step child now only because the media doesn’t give it the focus that singles gets. It’s treated as a specialized sport and a team only gets press when they are either very dominate, like the Bryan Brothers, or wacky, like the Murphy Brothers.  Why that is, I don’t know. The International Tennis Hall of Fame has taken at least a step in the right direction by recognizing some of the all time great doubles teams. As an avid doubles player, I welcome this induction and hope more doubles players can be recognized for their skills in the same way as singles players do.

On a side note, it was only due to some international political negotiations that Natasha Zvereva was able to attend. Apparently there is a VISA restriction on Belarusians in the United States. She was given an exemption, possibly due to the fact that she doesn’t look too much like a terrorist.

Next year it will back to normal with Andre Agassi eligible for induction in July 2011. Book your tickets quickly. Videos of the acceptance speeches can be seen here: http://www.tennisfame.com/node/980

Señor Rafa—like the Spanish footballers now in the FIFA World Cup semis, the Spanish cyclist at the Tour de France named Alberto Contador, the Spanish 7-footer Pau Gasol of the LA Lakers—was estupendo! Campeon! Excelente!

Nadal, who owns eight Grand Slam crowns at only 24 years young, is the King of Clay, the Prince of Grass, the world’s No. 1… And that’s why I detest his game.

On clay, yes, his all-spin, lefty, walloping groundstrokes which pain opponents to labor left, slave to the right, toil forward, excruciate moving back, is unmatched. His topspin is relentless, his doggedness pulverizes the hapless enemy salivating across the net, his strength of brain guarantees $1,000,000.

But I don’t like his style. Not on grass. You know why? I miss Stefan Edberg. I miss Martina Navratilova. I miss that German wunderkind who dove, bruised his knees, and smashed his way to Wimbledon glory as a 17-year-old qualifier. I miss Henman, Rafter, and the lady whom I named my daughter after, Jana Novotna. I miss Goran’s first serve, Goran’s second serve, Goran’s double fault.

This isn’t Rafa’s fault. It’s nobody’s. But I miss the type of game called Serve And Volley. As the S and the V imply, this style means to blast a 128-mph service bomb down the T, dash to the net like Usain, catch the ball before it dips, and knock off that McEnroe-like volley.

In the 1980s and 1990s, “Wimbledon” and “serve-and-volley” were twins. Synonyms. In fact, players who stayed at the baseline were disallowed from winning London. It was the law! Thus, when you scan the list of champions from 1981 through 2001, everybody—except Connors and Agassi—served-and-volleyed: McEnroe, Becker, Cash, Edberg, Stich, Krajicek, Goran and a seven-time winner named Pete.

This was then. When the music of Tears For Fears and AHA played on Y101. Now, grass tennis has turned gaga… Lady Gaga. What happened?

“The courts are getting a bit slower, the balls are getting a bit slower, that’s something I don’t like as a spectator and as a former player,” said Michael Stich, the 1991 Wimbledon winner. “What is happening on court is more predictable and less exciting. In those matches we played in my time, Boris against Stefan, me against Pete, there was a lot of serve-and-volley, obviously a lot of aces, and people loved it.

“When Goran hit his 35th ace in a match people were screaming, and when Agassi managed to get a return back it was, like, wow. Now the serve is more often just being used to get the ball into play. For me, that’s clay-court tennis, not typical grass-court tennis, and I find that sad.”

Me, too. Gone were the days when Becker dove like a German goalie, when Rafter spun his kick second serve to attack, when Sampras served four aces bang-bang-bang-bang, when Agassi rifled a passing shot, when drop volleys and half volleys were exquisite. Today, players serve to start the point. Before, they served to end a point.

The questions are why and how? Is it the a) slower grass? b) hi-tech Babolat and Wilson rackets? c) Western-grip topspin shots that twirl the ball like the Jabulani? d) rise of the two-handed backhands?

All of the above. But here’s another query: If somebody possessed the 142-mph serve of an Andy Roddick and the volleying prowess of a Pete Sampras, would that American be able to supplant Roger and Rafa?

On grass, I believe so. The sad part is, none of today’s ATP players are willing to venture forward. (Funny: In the ‘80s/90s, the grass near the service box looked just as brown and denuded as the baseline area; today, they’re as green as the Pebble Beach putting area.)

Wimbledon today is not as acrobatic and stylish, offering contrasting styles. Today’s green grass is just like the blue cement of New York and Melbourne, the red clay of Paris.

My point? This column’s Match Point? To challenge R & R, who’ve won the last eight titles and renamed Wimbledon as The House of Roger and Rafa, let’s wish for a Boris or Pete.