We're doing something a little different here this weekend, as you already know. I'm filing mostly for the Tennis.com home page, which requires a different style and approach. It's a more conservative and less opinion-based form of reportage (You can find yesterday's wrap-up on the home page, as well as my exclusive with ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti on the Malmo situation. It was a busy day).
I must admit I like blogging better. Wonder if I'll ever get comfortable with that ugly word, "blogging." Sounds like something you do in a foetid swamp, in a sleeveless-T with mud-caked arms. Hmmm. . . maybe that's not such a bad description after all. Onomatopoeia, anyone? Sort of maybe?
Well, "socialism" is a word being bandied about a lot these days, and I'm feel like I'm getting a pretty good taste of something like it down here. I've got Michael, from the front desk at the Embassy Suites, driving me around any time I need to go anywhere. The elaborate breakfast buffet is free (omelets made right before your eyes, your choice of ingredients; I go with mushrooms, jalapenos and bacon). Hail, you don't even have to produce your room key half the time. And they have a happy hour, 5:30 to 7. Also free. I had my doubts about this promotion so I figured I'd test the system. I sauntered up to the bar and said, I'll have a Dewar's on the rocks. Make it a double. No, make it a quintuple, and keep the bottle nearby because I might be back.
"Sure thing," sir. This socialism, maybe it's not such a bad thing.
I had breakfast this morning with Heinz Gunthardt, a Grand Slam doubles champ (Wimbledon), former solid Top 30 singles player, and a pioneer of the Swiss tennis boom. Most of you, though, will remember him as the coach of Steffi Graf for a long stretch on the peak to backside of her career. Heinz is an extremely smart guy, a little cerebral, perhaps, but very good with numbers and logic. Heinz is now a television commentator for the German version of Swiss national television (their BBC or PBS, if you will, and they have it in three lingual options: German, French and Italian). But before he embarked on that career, he did a stint as a director at a prestigious Swiss bank.
"I just got disgusted," he told me. "I couldn't even stomach going to work with these guys because I quickly learned that they were all about the money, and didn't care how they made it. None of them even knew the "product" they were selling. It was partly because the products they were selling were really complicated and nobody really understood how they worked. Some of them were pretty close to being scams. So like a naive new guy, I started looking at the numbers and asking questions; a lot of it just didn't seem to add up or make sense, at least not when they were being marketed to investors whose interests the seller was supposed to represent. I learned pretty quickly that none of these guys knew or cared. As long as they and everyone else along the way got his cut. And these were "investment advisors?" One day, I just stopped going to work."
And here I thought the Swiss were very squared away and up-front when it comes to all things financial. . . Well, the banking industry's loss was tennis's gain, or re-gain.
As far as today's doubles match goes, Heinz said that if he were the Swiss captain, he'd be tempted to play Marco Chiudinelli instead of Yves Allegro. The reason? "Chiudinelli is a great returner," Heinz said. "It's an overlooked part of his game because he's got such a big game and serves well."
Gunthardt's logic: the Bryans are a straightforward power team, and the key to beating them is to keep the ball in play, making them move, forcing them into positions that call for more finesse and precision than they may have - maybe even mix in some two-back play, to keep the pressure on and, hopefully, frustrate the Bryans. Thus, Chiudienelli's returning ability is the ticket to getting into the game.
Of course, it's not as simple as that. The big problem Heinz sees is that Stan Wawrinka and Chiudienelli are not doubles experts, like the Bryans. And when you combine singles players into a doubles team, they need a few matches to feel secure and comfortable. They don't get that in the Davis Cup format. To that end, Heinz believes Wawrinka and Roger Federer won the Olympic games gold medal partly because of the structure of the Olympics competition, which forces a lot of nations to field doubles teams composed of players who concentrate on singles. The Swiss squad didn't face a dedicated doubles team until it came up against Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the quarters. By then, they had two matches under their belts and were much more comfortable playing together.
This was a classic bit of Gunthardt analysis.
I bumped into Justin Gimelstob in the elevator, and asked him what he thought of Gunthardt's analysis. Justin isn't buying it. He thinks the Bryans are too strong, especially on a surface as fast as this one, to be drawn into prolonged rallies. He feels that the only way to beat the Bryans is to take care of your own service games, keep the pressure on, and hope that you can lift your game - or theirs decline - on the handful of key points that often decide slam-bang power doubles.
It was a good way to start the day. Enjoy doubles day, everyone. I'll be posting on the home page later.
