Rome Masters
The original 5th Cent BC she wolf suckling Romulus and Remus
ROME – Just when you thought it was against the rules of women’s tennis to serve and charge the net, a who-she? senorita with a boxcar length name landed amid the pines at Il Foro Italico to smack holes in the accepted wisdom.
Apparently nobody told Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez out of Barcelona that the first commandment of the women’s game is: Thou shalt not volley. continue reading »
May 08 2010 | Rome Masters | No Comments »
Another of the creative images of players used this year at the Italian Open
ROME – You can find anything in this ancient city. But diligent searchers had an almost impossible task in trying to uncover semifinals of the Italian Open.
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.
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May 17 2008 | Rome Masters | No Comments »
The artwork at the Italian Open this year was beautiful images of players....
ROME — For 35 years, a remedy to Boston’s erratic, pseudo spring has seemed to be a flight to the Italian Open and almost guaranteed sunshine. Rome sweet Rome has been the annual escape for me since 1973, a discovery of Il Foro Italico, the playpen whose earthen courts have been such a frustrating mystery for American guys.
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.
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May 17 2008 | Rome Masters | No Comments »
