Quick Hits

By Mike McIntyre

Just a quick post to bring you up to speed on a few developments since the end of the Australian Open. The ATP and WTA Tours will now proceed with some smaller level tournaments on both hard and clay courts. March will showcase the two Masters Series hard-court tournaments in the United States before the official clay-court season is upon us and with it the road to the French Open in May. Until then, check back regularly for any exciting developments on the men's and women's game that you will not want to miss.

Lleyton Hewitt Injured:

Just when Lleyton Hewitt was rounding into top-twenty form, he has been hit by another injury. Hewitt had surgery on his right hip following his straight sets loss to Roger Federer in the fourth round in Melbourne. The injury was sustained during the Hopman Cup in January and is similar to the one on his left hip that kept him out of contention for much of 2008. Hewitt says he plans on coming back to the tour as quickly as he can and estimates that will be somewhere around the French Open.

For more info check out his official press conference transcript where he reported the news.

Ivan Lendl Exhibition:

Since retiring from the tour in 1994, Ivan Lendl has managed to stay away from playing any tennis exhibitions, instead choosing to focus on his golf game. That will change on April 10th as he plays former rival Mats Wilander at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The event will be called the Ceaser's Tennis Classic and will be the first in a new annual tradition. Some of the proceeds will be used to help the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education group.

Also playing during the event will be Andy Roddick against recently retired Marat Safin. That's the same  Marat Safin who said we would never see him play in such exhibition events after his professional career ended.

David Nalbandian:

Speaking of hip surgery, after being out since May 2009 with an injury to his hip, David Nalbandian is looking ready to return to the tour on clay in Buenos Aires in two weeks. Nalbandian was aiming for a return at the Australian Open, but suffered an abdominal injury while practicing. While his ranking is officially 140th in the world, Nalbandian should have a higher protected ranking when he returns from his injury.

Ranking Movements:

The most noticeable change is Novak Djokovic overtaking Rafael Nadal as the number two player in the world. Nadal has dropped to the number four position after failing to defend the ranking points he earned winning in Australia a year ago. 

Youngster Marin Cilic moves up four spots into the tenth position after his first ever Grand Slam semi-final appearance in Melbourne. 

This Week on Tour:

In Chile we have the Movistar Open on clay with Fernando Gonzalez as the number one seed and Juan Monaco as the number two. Not too many other names worth noting at this one, except perhaps Jose Acasuso who is always a threat on clay.

Zagreb, Croatia hosts a hard court tournament with Marin Cilic as the top dog. Ivo Karlovic also lurks in the top-half of the draw, while veteran Ivan Ljubicic is the number two seed.

In Johannesburg, the SA Tennis Open is underway and showcases Gael Monfils and David Ferrer as the top two players. Aside from them the draw is quite sparse, so expect the two top-twenty players to meet each other in the final.

"You Can Quote Me on That"

I just got this in the mail today and it's pretty great. Here's Ivan Lendl  on John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors in 1987:

"I think Connors believes he has to hate everybody he plays [in order]  to play better, and McEnroe hates just about everyone who can beat him. He used to hate Jimmy Connors and me. Now he has to hate the top 50."

Ouch. Man, I miss the days of smack-talking tennis! I think I'll post a good quote every couple days.

Check out author Paul Fein's site www.tennisquotes.com for more info about the book and to get an autographed copy!

Have You Seen 'The French'?

Have you heard of photographer- filmmaker Willam Klein's documentary of the 1981 French Open, "The French"? It sounds like a classic and is available on DVD from ARTE Boutique. (Here are some stills and French audio commentary from Klein). Factoid: Klein turned down an offer to do a documentary of the Rolling Stones for this.

Here's a little of what Large at the No Mas blog has to say about the film:

For those of us obsessed with the huge tennis stars of the 70’s and 80’s (meaning just about every tennis fan on the face of the earth) it is essential viewing, just for what intimate access you get into the players offcourt universe in a Grand Slam setting.

Here are the conclusions I drew from this film:
Borg was the coolest motherfucker of all time. He was a cross between Humphrey Bogart, a Swedish porn star and a lazy but talented leopard. He cared little about tennis even though he was the greatest player of his era ...

Nastase was fucking hilarious. There’s a great scene where during a rain delay he’s got Chris Evert and Hana Mandlikova laughing like schoolgirls while he flashes his buttcrack at them in the clubhouse.

He has even got a picture of the Ivory Coast (!) Borg stamp, and impressions of McEnroe, Lendl, and Noah.

Here's the whole review.

Also, does anyone know who the very pretty boy in the last photo here is?

Ivan Lendl Interview

Ivan Lendl, along with Maureen Connolly, was inducted into the U.S. Open Court of Champions before the men's final yesterday.  To go along with the occasion he did a fairly lengthy press conference with the media.

The atmosphere was completely different from during his playing days - very friendly with Lendl even joking with the media.  Some highlights:

• After Serena Williams received an apology from the U.S. Open officials for the missed call in her match with Jennifer Capriati last year, Lendl called up a frend of his at the U.S. Open and demanded to know, "What about an apology for my call in 1991?"
• He played tennis for the first time in nine years three weeks ago - and then only because he auctioned off an hour of his time on court for charity.
• Lendl speculates on what his former coach Tony Roche may be working on with current pupil Roger Federer:

"Tony was ‑‑ we never really worked on any technique too much ‑ very little, if any. But Tony was fantastic at getting my feet going well. He always was concerned about my rhythm and timing of my feet. As I just said, when I moved well, you can't ‑‑ you know it better than anyone, if you don't get to the shot, I don't care how good you are, you can't hit it properly.

"And I'm sure he's doing the same thing with Roger; we never discuss it, what he does with Roger, because it's none of my business, that's between the two of them and I don't want to get involved."

Ivan Lendl Update

From the sounds of it, the name Lendl will no longer be synonymous with tennis.

First this week came the news that Ivan Lendl came up short in his attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open in golf. 

Now the Roanoke Times has a feature on one of one of Ivan's daughters, Marika, 15, as she attempts to win her second consecutive Scott Robertson Memorial golf tournament.  The article also mentions her 13-year-old sister Isabelle as quite a gifted junior golfer. 

A quick google search actually turned up this fan site that follows the Lendl family's golfing accomplishments.