Archive for August, 2008
MSG TV interview about Bud's new book, The Bud Collins History of Tennis
NEW YORK – Sometimes a bush leaguer breaks out of his lowly environment and makes a smash hit upstairs.
That was Gilles Muller Sunday, shaking up the establishment at the U.S. Open, as he has done before – and then, gulp, faded away to the bushes.
Gilles Muller says he never aspired to being the greatest tennis player in the history of Luxembourg – “but I am. What does it mean?” he says with his winner’s smile, maybe as broad as Luxembourg itself and sure to last for days. Even if Luxembourg is large enough to contain two or three courts, he realizes his accomplishment is sort of like being the biggest cheese in the Netherlands.’
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August 31 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Davis Cup, held currently by the US, is on display at the US Open
NEW YORK – What’s her hurry?
Venus is short-changing her fans. Three starts at the US Open – three wins, total: 192 minutes on court, or 64 minutes per match. Take away those 90 second sit-downs on the changeovers, and it’s practically a passing glimpse of the long and lean Wimbledon champion.
A Polish reporter asked Venus how she liked playing in Poland. Reflecting on winning Warsaw in 2004, she said, “I never would have dreamed that people in Poland actually cared about what I do so much. So many big fans. I thought maybe my last name was Williams-owski.”
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August 30 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Popular Carlos Moya at the US Open
NEW YORK – On and on the last act ran. It was running wild, should have finished several times…but…no…
On and on.
Neither the woman from China nor the woman from Serbia would let go of it. They played their parts with daring and dash and kept at it fiercely, sure that something good was up ahead. So, on and on they went as the sun beat down, and they tried to beat each other to the punch line. It was an abnormal act, stretching into the glorious afternoon like an extra inning ball game.
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August 29 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Ellis Island, port of entry for over 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954
NEW YORK – Did Roger Federer misplace his right arm somewhere during this – by his standard – ghastly world tour.
How else can you explain his failure to resist victimization by guys who normally would be pleased to get a hello from him? Was he using a ping-pong paddle? Or playing left-handed, trying to borrow Rafa’s magic?
The 2008 record he brings to his tennis tournament, the US Open, looks like a disaster area, considering who he is: 14 tournaments, 12 defeats. Two insignificant titles. Merely one year ago, about to pluck his fourth successive U.S. Open, Roger already had Australia, Wimbledon and four other titles in his pocket, and looked as though he’d be No. 1 until George W. Bush discovered global warming.
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August 28 2008 | US Open | 2 Comments »
One of four waterfalls, designed by Danish artist, Olafur Eliasson, this one is under the Brooklyn Bridge. Can be seen during the summer of 2008, until October 13.
NEW YORK – The lady was flat on her face on the pavement. Was this embarrassing with about 15,000 people watching?
“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.
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August 27 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Dinara Safina, No 7, talking to Bud
NEW YORK – Tolstoy would have loved her. Count Leo Tolstoy, the Russian scribbler, would have loved this U.S. Open, too, because he was one of the first tennis nuts in his country. Had his own tennis court. Played avidly. And, were he here, would be surrounded by attractive, strong-armed countrywomen.
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.
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August 26 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Bud selling his book at the US Open Bookstore
NEW YORK – The blue courts are hard, the resolve of a red-hot Spanish conquistador named Nadal is harder, and the internationally-flavored guys and dolls are in town playing tennis again. Their fortnight is called the U.S. Open, the last of the year’s four majors, at the Billie Jean King Center in Flushing Meadow.
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.
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August 25 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Bud at the US Open wearing trousers made of fabric he bought during the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
We finally added the Out of Bud’s Closet feature to the new site. Check it out here. It will always be found in the Categories list on the left.
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August 20 2008 | Messages | No Comments »
Bud signing books on Prince Street in Soho, at the USTA Shop
Five years have passed since I last published a book. This one, just out, “
The Bud Collins History of Tennis,” is long overdue – and I know you’ll love it. If you can lift it. Just kidding. But I did need 765 pages to chronicle just about everything that has happened in the game since the initial tournament, Wimbledon, 1877, up to the present.
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 »
