I’ve been fortunate in being whisked across the globe for decades by this game, and I’ll be sharing some of the fascinating experiences and destinations.
Meanwhile, keep on hacking. While your own game may not take you to Wimbledon, it’s more important than Nadal or Federer’s because it keeps you moving (in whatever manner) and, for a valuable while, rescues you from the cares of the day.
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June 23 2008 | Messages | No Comments »
“No, but I was worried about getting my dress really dirty,” says Jelena “Jelly” Jankovic, a tourist from Serbia clad in a lemon yellow tennis frock.
Had she been hit by a bus? Nothing that ordinary in the big city. Actually she was running as though she were trying to catch a departing bus, chasing instead a nifty hit, a deft drop shot from the racket of a troublesome Swede named Sofia Arvidsson.
Tags: new york, tennis, US Open
August 27 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Seventeen of them, for Lenin’s sake, infiltrating, seeking the U.S. Championship for which only 15 Americans were eligible. But only two of them with a chance. (You know who, named Venus and Serena.)
I think Tolstoy would have singled out 22-year-old Dinara Safina because she has the best story. Kid sister of the 2000 champion, Marat Safin. Shipped out from Moscow at age 12 to Spain for coaching. Strange country. Strange language. Knowing no one. Valencia, where the oranges come from - and good tennis players. Following the route of big brother, Marat, she fit right in - “It wasn’t hard,” Dinara shrugs - tuned up her game and became a touring pro.
Tags: new york, tennis, US Open
August 26 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
If there was a hard luck guy here yesterday, it was a 28-year-old German named Bjorn Pfau. He got in through the back door as a qualifier ranked No. 136 only to find himself looking at No. 1, Rafa Nadal, a bruiser seeking his third major of 2008. Pfau was named for Bjorn Borg, the great Swedish champion - but a luckless lad at the Open, zero for 10 years.
Tags: new york, tennis, US Open
August 25 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
August 20 2008 | Messages | No Comments »
All the greats are represented in bios, and many others who have made historic marks. Such as the Australian bloke, Viv McGrath, who introduced the two-handed backhand during the 1930s. Or Anita Lizana, slightly known Chilean who entered the U.S. Championship once, 1937 - and won it. 0r Whitney Reed, who partied his was to U.S. No. 1 in 1961.
As well as the prose are the championship rolls of all the majors - naturally you want to know whom Francoise Durr and Jean Claude Barclay beat to win the 1973 French Open mixed doubles - and records and stats galore.
People often ask me how long it took to write such a book. I reply, “Fifty years.” A bit of an exaggeration. But I have been gathering tennis info as a journalist, print and TV - scribbler and babbler - since 1955, and have poured it into this volume.
I hope you”ll dig in.
[ed: order a copy of Bud's book from the Books page]
August 19 2008 | Messages | No Comments »
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OFF TO LONDON TO WATCH FEDERER TRYING TO BREAK RECORDS…HOWEVER
Roger Federer is worried.
That is the diagnosis of the eminent Belgrade psychologist, who also plays some tennis, Novak Djokovic. Considering his most recent egg laid in a significant nest, the French Open final - scrambled, poached or sunny-side-down - Federer has a right to nibble his nails down to the shoulderblades.
Djokovic, who pick-pocketed Federer’s Australian Open title five months ago, suggests that the pressures of being perfect for so long have eroded the efficiency of the Lord of the Swings, and that it’s time for a changing of the guard - not outside of Buckingham Palace but at Roger’s palace, Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
Tags: federer, london, nadal, tennis, williams, Wimbledon
July 07 2008 | Tournaments and Wimbledon | 2 Comments »
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SAY IT AIN’T SO, JUSTINE !
PARIS - How dare she? How could she?
Women have walked out on me, but this was different. For this one I was prepared to spend the next five years admiring her moves and touch, the way she controlled herself and spiky situations, ever up against overpowering foes.
June 08 2008 | France and French Open | 3 Comments »
Four is the normal quota. At last, on a muggy Saturday afternoon, one did pop up: long shot Alize Cornet - she of the lovely name meaning ocean breeze — overcame No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, as a slim crowd cheered her breezy two-fisted backhands down the line.
By that time the customers were justifiably fed up with the two week tournament. Because of injury pull-outs there were no semis in the men’s precinct, only 38 minutes worth of tennis. Move ahead, the women’s looked promising - until Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova decided not to play, citing pains in the back and the calf respectively.
May 17 2008 | Rome Masters | No Comments »
Originally named Il Foro Mussolini for the dictator of the 1930s, who had it built and fancied himself as a high-grade hacker playing with a private coach, it nestles beside the Tiber at the foot of Monte Mario. Numerous of Respighi’s glorious “Pines of Rome” are hunched beside the courts, and the crowds become wildly passionate if one of their own is on view. They adored Adriano Panatta, the last homeboy to win the title in 1976, and threw coins at the young Swede, Bjorn Borg, to distract him in the 1978 final against Panatta. Borg cashed in, however, and never returned.
May 17 2008 | Rome Masters | No Comments »
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