* !Tie Breaker by Pete Bodo *
While we're all sitting around, drumming our fingers on the table, waiting for the draw of Roland Garros to be made, let's take care of a few housekeeping chores. For those of you who are in tennis for the long haul (rather than merely until the retirement of that Spanish dude who makes you swoon and wonder, what's Shakira got that I don't have?), I have a new book to recommend: Tie Breaker, by Eleanor Dwight (Scala/ACC distribution).
The book is basically the biography of Jimmy Van Alen, the Newport, R.I., brahmin who dreamed up the tiebreaker - and had the clout and contacts to not just be taken seriously, but to convince the Lords of Tennis that abandoning the traditional deuce set format of tennis was a useful idea. As such, it is also a history of tennis as it made the transition to the Open era, in which pros and amateurs finally were welcomed to compete against each other on the level playing field of the Grand Slam events.
The first thing I noticed about this book was the extraordinary quality of the design, paper and layout. It's a classy, picture-rich (black-and-white, naturally) book; it's that rarity in this day and age of the e-reader, a book that's fun and oddly satisfying to merely hold. This is a book you'd be proud to display on your coffee table, or bookshelf. And it's obligatory reading for anyone who wants to develop a feel for, and knowledge of, the history of tennis in the 20th Century.
We'll take a closer look at the book as we approach the 40th anniversary of the tiebreaker (it was first used at a major by the US Open); Ms. Dwight has agreed to write something for this space at the appropriate time.
One thing I found amusing as I perused the book was Van Alen's suggestion for changing the game of golf. Writing under his own name in Sports Illustrated, he introduced the VAAGG scoring system, the acronym standing for Van Alens Answer to Grief in Golf. The piece ran after the tiebreaker portion of VASS (Van Alen Simplified Scoring) system for tennis was accepted, and it's still hard to tell if it isn't just a tongue-in-cheek adventure by Van Alen - a man not averse to publicity and one, who by many accounts, had nose for mischief.
I don't know much about golf, but Van Alen wanted to address four elements that made golf "torture": the amount of time it takes to play a round, the lack of real exercise in golf, the sheer number of clubs you had to lug around, and the lack of "club action," which I'll define as "swings per minute" in golf. VAAGG proposed playing nine-hole rounds, and offered a mulligan on each and every shot. That is, a do over- any time you want one. And you could choose to play either of your two shots, depending on which lie is better.
Under VAAGG rules, you carry only two clubs: a five-iron (a "mashie," whatever that is) and a putter. This, Van Alen figured, allowed you to play a round faster, hit more balls, get more exercise, and become truly proficient with one club instead of being lousy with 14 of them.
My wife enjoys golf; I'll have to float this idea by her and see her reaction, although I have a sneaky feeling that she'll tell me it's crazy.
In another matter, We have a truly international readership here at TennnisWorld, so this SOS I received from my pal, well-known Italian journalist and blogger Ubaldo Scanagatta, may be of special interest to some of you. Ubitennis is the most popular tennis website in Italy, but Ubaldo is having trouble keeping up with his English and French versions. Ubaldo asked me if I would alert TW readers who might be interested in working for him as volunteers, translating and/or posting content, with a flexible commitment that could amount to as little as three hours per week - or as much as. . . whatever time you've got.
Ideally, the volunteer would at least read if not write Italian, in order to be able to translate some of the native-language posts into English.
Ubaldo is an inventive guy. I think Ubaldo would be open to any ideas and suggestions when it comes to his site.
Ubaldo was a good tennis player, although he's old and fat now. While an exchange student-athlete at Oral Roberts University, he put up a win over Mexico's then no. 1 Joaquin Loyo Mayo, who would go on to make the fourth-round at Wimbledon and the US Open. (I've loved that name, Loyo Mayo, for years now; it's sheer poetry). Ubi also tagged Terry Moor, who had wins over, among others, Adriano Panatta and Ilie Nastase. Ubaldo has also been the tournament director for the now defunct ATP Florence event. He publishes books, and does ratio and television commentary. He was also a founding member of the International Tennis Writers Association, and he knows everybody in tennis. That's the easy part. More important, everybody knows him.
I routinely get emails from young readers who want to know how to break into tennis journalism, and while the prospects are, frankly, bleak, this kind of opportunity is a potential path. Feel free to contact Ubaldo if you're an Italian American grandmother with a passion for tennis and a little spare time on her hands; you can't spend all day rolling out the pizza dough, right? Ubaldo might even be able to pay you an honorarium, perhaps ultimately a salary if things work out.
So there it is.Take it as an invitation.
Anyway, what are we going to do if Soderling ends up in Nadal's half and Federer pulls a second-rounder with Montanes? Stay tuned, and have a good night.