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Posted: Monday September 13, 1999 05:52 PM

Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will answer your tennis questions weekly. Click here to send a question.

After bagging the 'Bag last week, we're back to regularly scheduled programming ...

Am I just jaded? I guess I am in the minority when I say that I found Todd Martin's overwrought performance against Greg Rusedski lame. He didn't seem "sick" at all. I also watched his match against Pat Rafter at Wimbledon and read about his Davis Cup match. This guy is milking his pain, and his "guy with heart" act is wearing thin.

Am I just jaded? What's the deal with John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi? Are these guys in love? They can't stop talking about each other and they give very little credit to other talented players (just ask Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Rafter). At first I thought it was a pro-American bias, but I noticed that they scorn or barely mention other Americans (Michael Chang). Then I clued in: They are all sponsored by Nike! My guess: Nike encourages these guys to hype each other up and ignore other players, such as Rafter (Reebok), who are sponsored by other companies. I also think Nike will have something to do with Sampras and Agassi playing for their new Nike-sponsored coach; what a marketing coup when the Nike-clad Americans win the Davis Cup.
—Maria Erickson, Vancouver, B.C.

Wow, jaded, a Canadian and a conspiracy theorist all at once. Martin has indeed looked as though he ought to have been transported to the court in a gurney the last few times he's played. But Martin is a 29-year-old trapped in the body of a Nuveen Tour player. That gray hair is a metaphor for the rest of his body. (Martin, I hear, even drives with his turn signal on and eats dinner at 4 in the afternoon.) Besides, Martin is a stand-up guy -- he's from the Midwest, dammit -- who is light years beyond milking his pain. Give the guy a break.

There's little I put past the evildoers at Nike, but I don't see Phil Knight's minions orchestrating the great Davis Cup coup you envisage. Sampras and Agassi, far and away, are the best American players, indispensable to the new captain. So regardless of what brand of footwear they endorse, it's essential that McEnroe mention them and lobby for their full participation. Rafter is a foe and Chang can't win Challenger events right now, so it's no wonder neither figures prominently in McEnroe's talks. Bottom line: You need to watch more tennis and fewer X-Files episodes. Come to think of it, didn't The X-Files use to film in your hometown of Vancouver? Coincidence? Hmmm ...

How come all of the men's doubles matches, including the final, were played best-of-three sets? I thought that beginning with the quarterfinals men's doubles matches in Grand Slams were best-of-five.
—Amy Breckman, Chicago

The Open plays by its own rules (e.g., the fifth-set tiebreaker) and is a slave to television scheduling. Then again, does anyone need to watch five sets of men's doubles?

I think one of the reasons Lindsay Davenport lost at the U.S. Open was because of her serve. It is a strong enough shot, but I really feel that with her height she should be hitting it as hard as Venus Williams does. She has such a great return, and if she ever developed a truly dominating serve she'd be extremely difficult to beat, even if she is not as athletic as the Williams sisters. Comments?
—Leo, Quezon City, Philippines

Fair point. Davenport's serve has improved immensely in the past few years -- it used to be in the Gabriela Sabatini range -- but it could still be a lot better. You're right, there's still a surprising lack of wattage given that she's nearly 6'3". She hits a very heavy serve -- laced, like all of her shots, with little spin -- and she paces it well. But sometimes there's no substitute for a little juice. Davenport has that odd hitch in her motion as well. I'd like see that removed so she turns her shoulders more and generates greater torque.

Her real problem, though, seems to be temperamental. Richard Williams could have said so more tactfully ("She should go to the junkyard"), but, much as I hate to admit this, he was essentially right when he questioned Davenport's attitude. As the defending champ as well as the reigning Wimbledon winner, she ought to have been supremely confident when she stepped on the court against a lower-seeded, less-experienced player. Instead she was oddly nervous, played big points poorly, and was hardly the picture of dejection when she lost in three sets.

Tennis writers keep saying that Martina Hingis will eventually be pushed aside from the No. 1 spot by bigger and stronger players like the Williams sisters. With those kind of players dominating this year's U.S. Open, do you think Hingis' best days are over?
—Aasmund Aadnoy, Stavanger, Norway

We can judge for ourselves after last weekend. Time and again, Hingis has beaten one the Williams sisters in a tournament but then lost to other one. She's not ready to surrender the stage quite yet, but, watching her play Serena, it is abundantly clear that she is susceptible to their power. On the other hand, if she keeps improving her strength and stamina, she'll keep pace just fine and she has far more guile than either sister. All of this, of course, bodes well for the short-term future of women's tennis.

You've no doubt been asked this question hundreds of times, so what's another one going to hurt? I've heard the TV folks refer to the U.S. Open as the "toughest tournament in tennis." In your opinion, which of the Grand Slams is the toughest to win, and how would you rank them in terms of difficulty, prestige and desirability by the players?
—Suzanne Low, Vancouver, B.C.

Yes, the U.S. Open is often referred to as the toughest tournament, but I think it pertains more to the ambient conditions than anything else. The event comes late in the summer when bodies, as was the case this year, are at their most frail. Players have to deal with the commute from Manhattan, the planes overhead, the constantly changing schedule, the noise and the general frenzy that is less a factor in Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon.

But here's another reason the U.S. Open is the toughest event: While scads of top players (see: Sampras, Pete) are clueless on clay and many others detest grass (see: Lendl, Ivan) by necessity, tennis players must be at least somewhat comfortable on hard courts. At what other tournament could a player like Gustavo Kuerten, weaned on clay, and a hard-serving behemoth like Richard Krajicek both have a legitimate chance to win? Though he, along with a host of other players, bemoaned the speed of the court this year, Jim Courier rightfully calls the Open "the fairest Grand Slam tournament."

You ask about prestige and it's an interesting question. Wimbledon obviously has history and tradition on its side, but it's an aberrant event. There are so few events on grass (no Super 9's) and so few grass courts in existence, it makes for an entirely different game. Wimbledon, like the Rose Bowl in college football, is still "the granddaddy of them all." But my feeling is that deep down, the players hold the U.S. Open, the tournament anyone can win, in a higher regard.

After Andre Agassi's Open victory, Brad Gilbert said that there is now a two- or three-year window for guys like Agassi and Sampras to still be successful because there are a bunch of younger guys who have not stepped yet like he thought they would. However, he refused to mention them by name and said that most people could probably think of them themselves. Who do you think those players are and why?
—Huey Kwik, Pleasanton, Calif.

Look at the top male players ages 20-25 and the cupboard is pretty bare. Marcelo Rios has already achieved the No. 1 ranking but has yet to win anything bigger than the Lipton. He doesn't just lose; he loses disgracefully. Mark Philippoussis is still relatively young, but he's been on tour for five years already and barely cracked the top 10. Carlos Moya? Tommy Haas? Nicolas Kiefer? All perfectly good players, but not exactly guys that have Agassi and Sampras pondering retirement. There was a brief vacuum in the women's game, but as Steffi Graf and Monica Seles got on in years, Hingis, a resurgent Davenport and the Williams sisters were there to hasten their demise. The top guns in the men's game lack those challengers right now.

I would like to know if there is some sort of written contract between doubles players. For example, if one of the players is in the finals of a Grand Slam and is due to play in the finals of a doubles match the day before, he or she could opt to not play the doubles to be fresh for the singles. This, of course, would mean a possible loss of prize money for the other player.
—Karen Marceau, France

As McEnroe will you tell you, it's caveat emptor when you have a doubles partner. There's always the chance that doubles players who have a strong week in singles will want to rest before their high-stakes solo matches. Both players generally know that risk going in. That said, some players even relish the chance to "get loose" and play doubles, in part to work on their net game for singles.

Saw Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo on the tube and was wondering if she has the skills to make it into the top echelon anytime soon. With her looks, she would attract a lot of attention (and fans) if she made a finals or two.
—T.E. Neal, Knoxville, Tenn.

For all the oohing and aahing about Anna Kournikova, MASL (a tennis player, not a soccer league) attracts a legion of wide-eyed followers, mostly in Europe. Alas, her looks outstrip her game. Currently ranked No. 39, she plays like a typical Spaniard, retrieving every ball that comes her way and hitting groundies with a surfeit of topspin, but unfortunately lacking the requisite weapon for the top echelon.

Anke Huber seemed to have a resurgence at the U.S. Open this year. Do you think she is eager to satisfy Germany's hunger for tennis success after the retirements of Steffi Graf and Boris Becker?
—Keith Olding, Minster, Ohio

If Germans are pinning their hopes on Huber to carry Graf's torch, their weltanschauung needs immediate re-adjustment. Though Graf always makes vague reference to Germany's promising juniors, Deutschland is unlikely to replicate the Becker-Graf- Michael Stich heyday anytime soon.

Why did the WTA bother staging the peace offering between the Williams camp and Martina Hingis? Don't they like the headlines these bratty teens bring?
—Erika Smith, Princeton, N.J.

That was what's known as a "slow news day." The WTA spin doctors, though, are smart enough to know that any rapprochement would be short-lived. Indeed, by the end of the week, Richard was back to calling Hingis "that big mouth" and suggesting the medical staff attended to her before the finals because she "looked like she had a heart attack." Naturally, Hingis responded that it was not she, but Serena, who looked scared. Heaven forbid both sides would shut up. Then we would be forced to write only about tennis.

Goran Ivanisevic is often named "the best active player to have never won a Grand Slam." Shouldn't Cedric Pioline get this dubious title? He may have only reached two finals (to Goran's three), but it was at two different tournaments; he also reached the semis at the French.
—Jean-Francois Hiller, Cambridge, Mass.

Pioline, as he proved last weekend, is capable of both breathtaking and breathtakingly awful tennis. Often in successive matches. Yes, he's been to the finals of two Grand Slams and is a great big-occasion player. But entirely too often throughout his career, he turns in a perfunctory effort and loses to scrubs. Ivanisevic's legacy is slipping away with each subpar year. Rios is proving to be a flash-in-the-pan. Martin has been to two finals now, too, but lacks the raw talent to be considered a disappointment. Best player never to have won a Slam? The vote here goes to Alex Corretja.

Finally, this came from Michael Barnes of Grand Rapids, Mich.:

"I just wanted to inform you that the members of several tennis Internet bulletin boards are working on a proposal for a new tennis schedule, sort a grass-roots thing. It begins with a series of basic premises, the first being that tennis requires an offseason. I invite you to view and comment on the proposal." .

Send a question to Jon Wertheim, and check back the beginning of each week to read more of his answers.

 

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