Two players headed in different directions appeared back-to-back in Rod Laver Arena yesterday, Martina Hingis and Mark Philippoussis. There is no truth to the rumor that they are dating, although it seems almost inevitable that they have, or will, because each of them has a lust for life and between they've dated staggering array of A-list celebrities and sports stars, including Sergio Garcia (That would have been Hingis) and Paris Hilton.
Hingis, you know by now, won in straights. What was up with Vera Zvonareva’s tearful meltdown? I felt badly for the poor girl, but it’s like - you’re losing to Martina “One Match from a Grand Slam and Former World No. 1” Hingis, not some qualifier from Baluchistan. Can it be arrogant to cry? Of course not. Vera has issues, as Mary Carillo pointed out, and we hope she finds a way to sort them out. It can’t be fun to get so down on yourself, so often and so quickly.
Because of Zvonareva’s curious profile as a competitor, some will question how well Hingis is really playing. I thought her far ahead of where I expected she would be at this stage in her comeback. She hit the ball crisply, mixed it up beautifully, and took command of the space like a video-game genius. She made very few errors, which is always the sign of a highly disciplined player working off a great technical foundation. She was firing on all cylinders, loving every moment of it, and clearly absorbed in her task. What's Zvonareva got to do with it?
I know, I know, what about that 70 MPH serve?
We all know what Justine Henin-Hardenne did to that serve in Sydney. But I’m still withholding judgement. It isn’t like women have just learned to serve - or return - in the last three years. The game has a deep tradition of lousy servers accomplishing great things, including the publisher of Tennis magazine, Chris Evert (sorry, babe).
How anyone can say the lack of a big serve is a dealbreaker in a game in which Elena Dementieva is a Top 10 player who often goes deep in Grand Slams is beyond me. I want to see Justine wax Martina again, in the same way, before I yield any ground on this one. My own feeling is that Martina is going to be just fine - meaning that she’ll challenge at Grand Slams before the year is out.
Philippoussis, by contrast, may have dug himself a hole too deep to dig out of this time. I never did get to address his case when I named him co-winner (with Jelena Dokic) of 2005's Most Pathetic Story award. Pou lost yesterday on Laver to Sebastian Grosjean - not a bad loss, on the face of it, but not very encouraging when you consider that Philippoussis’s motivation had to be sky high, he had the crowd, and still got tooled in straights.
Philippoussis has fallen off the radar and come back a number of times, always kindling hope. He’s had injury problems, for sure. Who could forget that heartbreaking knee blowout that forced Pou to retire after taking the first set off Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1999? But laziness and commitment-phobia proved to be much more formidable career obstacles.
The short version: Philippoussis is a big dumb kid who never really figured out how good he’s had it, and how easy it is to lose it. The slightly longer version: Pou is the biggest underachiever in the men’s game, constantly laid low by the lethal combination of his aversion to hard work and practice, and his inability to get past this whole Hugh Hefner wannabe thing. If he put as much effort into his game as into chasing fashionistas, celebrities and pop stars, you might be calling him the guy who keeps Roger Federer from winning Wimbledon.
Yes, he’s - he was - that good. What a waste.
In any event, if you want to see just how lost and confused a player can get, read this transcript of Philippoussis’s presser following his first-round loss at the U.S. Open. The guy hasn’t won three matches in a row since Wimbledon of 2004 (ugly details here) and it was all he could do to finish last year ranked No. 171. You can get most of the gory details here. Philippoussis has been living on wild cards, and to no avail.
But hey, why focus on the negative – Pou’s got this Zorba-esque lust for life, even if it ends up relegating his tennis career to a priority somewhere between reading up on the politics of the Middle East and cleaning out the cat box. Besides, he’s got a new girl, this one apparently an American heiress American heiress.
You know this guy is always going to land on his feet, one way or another.