!Ivo By Pete Bodo
Howdy. I hope y'all had a fine Memorial Day weekend. For those of you outside the U.S., I should probably explain that Memorial Day, on which we honor the memory of those who served in our armed forces, is a significant holiday and one of the three evenly (and conveniently) spaced holiday markers for the summer.
The American summer doesn't "officially" begin with the June 21st summer solstice; it starts with the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Independence Day (July 4th) marks the height of the summer, and the season is symmetrically ended with Labor Day (the first Monday in September), which is a tribute not to heroic act of giving birth but to the organized labor movement, which may have played a part in the spacing of those holidays and the fact that each of them is ordained a three-day weekend by any civiized employer. It's not for nothing that generations paid those union dues!
It's odd how a holiday with as many somber and melancholy overtones as Memorial Day also serves as the launching pad for beach, beer and barbecue season, but that's America for you - forever forward looking, optimistic, and content on a fine summer day with a burger and beer, the unexpressed sorrows and tragic losses that can never be alleviated non-withstanding.
Usually, Memorial Day falls in the middle of the French Open, which means I am traveling to Paris. But because of the peculiarity of the calendar, for two years now I've been lucky enough to enjoy the holiday with my little family before heading for Roland Garros. We spent the holiday at the farm in game-rich Andes, as usual, and swam in the pond for first time this year. I'm in the office this week and leaving for Paris on Saturday evening.
I'll resist attempting a tortured transition from Memorial Day, with its military overtones, to the bombardment unleashed by Ivo Karlovic in his historic first-round match at Roland Garros with Lleyton Hewitt (there, tortured transition complete!) the other day. Karlovic rained down 55 aces on Hewitt, and a few aspects of that record-setting performance are worth noting.
Note 1: According to a press release on behalf of the Bud Collins History of Tennis (an encyclopedia), Karlovic fell four aces short of the single-match ace record, allegedly established in1955 by an American player, According to Collins' book, Ed Kauder. Kauder fired 59 aces in a 6-2, 3-6, 9-11, 10-8, 6-0 first-round loss to fellow American Ham Richardson at the 1955 U.S. Championships at Forest Hills.
I'm not sure how accurate that count is, for two reasons: the match was played before official records were kept, and because I find it hard to believe that a guy playing in the most important tournament of the year (the precursor to the U.S. Open) - much less his shell-shocked opponent - could actually keep accurate count of the number of aces he hit, if that number was higher than, say, four or five.
I suppose the official scorecard might have noted it, or a dutiful spouse or friend may have ticked them off, four lines and a diagonal slash through them for every 5 aces, as Big Ed - I can't imagine that the guy wasn't called "Big Ed" - fired 'em. For now, I guess we'll take Bud's word for it - but the encyclopedia merely mentions the record in passing, in a single, parenthetical sentence.
But remember, in 1955 we were still in the throes of the amateur era, or what is more tellingly described as the pre-Open era, when anyone who played for money was shut out of the most significant events, including the four pre-eminent Grand Slams. There's no doubt that Karlovic's 55 aces is the most any man has served up in the Open era.
Or is it? The ATP didn't keep track of aces until 1991, and there were some pretty lethal ace-machines running amok in the previous two decades, including John Newcombe, Pancho Gonzalez, Kevin Curren, Mark Edmondson, Colin Dibley, Steve Denton, and Roscoe Tanner. But the fact that it was Huge News when Curren hit 33 aces in an upset of Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon in 1983 makes me thing the Ivo's record is legit. 55 - that's a mighty big number.
Note 2: That Karlovic established the new ace record at Roland Garros is astonishing. The next four highest number of aces were produced at a combination of the other Grand Slam venues (all faster surfaces), and one (Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten's 47 ace effort) was posted in a Davis Cup tie, against Canada's Daniel Nestor. I checked the venue, just out of curiosity and all those aces were, fittingly, clubbed at The Corral at Stampede Park, in Calgary. Honest, that's the name of the arena. Yee-haw!
The fact that Kuerten's name is up there with Goran Ivanisevic, Richard Krajicek and Mark Philippoussis is interesting, given that the Grand Slam venue where he played best was - by far - Roland Garros (he won three titles there). And how is it that Pete Sampras isn't on that list, given that his name comes up in any discussion of the era's most dangerous servers?
Note 3: Of the 7 matches that produced the five highest number of aces (in order: 46, 47, 49, 51, 55), the man with the potent arm lost six times (this includes Karlovic). The only ace-machine who actually won his landmark match was Mark Philippoussis, one of the low-enders who hit 46 aces in the course of his five-set win over Andre Agassi in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2003.
So let's move on to a few more odds and ends from the first few days of Roland Garros:
Uh, what was this about Generalissimo Franco?
Did you see that Gael Monfils held a press conference to announce that he is not pulling out of Roland Garros (with a bum knee). Last week, Monfils limped through a desultory performance in an exhibition and made some remarks suggesting that a bum knee might keep him out of Roland Garros.
Then, a few days later he held a press conference to announce that he is not pulling out of the French Open. He said, "I'm not ready to pull out. My knee is hurting, but I wanted to share this decision with you," he said. "When I play, it doesn't hurt that much. I can control my pain."I'll finish my match, even if I break a leg."
This reminds me of that running gag on the popular Saturday Night Live comedy show, the one where the news reader would look into the camera, utterly deadpan, and say words to this effect: And in dramatic news out of Spain, Generalissimo Franco is. . . still dead.
**Actually, I'm not sure I ever got it (the Franco joke, that is), but maybe that was the point - kind of like the Monfils press conference.
Quien es mas macho?
I'm not going on a SNL jag here, but did you see that Rafael Nadal is one win away from shattering one of the most impressive records at the French Open? If he wins his next match, he will have surpassed Chris Evert's Roland Garros winning streak of 29 matches. *
*
Chris Evert, you say? But, eeeeeuuuuwwww. . . she's a. . . girl!
Look at it this way: one of the oldest narratives in tennis is the lack of depth in the women's game, which explains why a handful of women managed to post such outlandish career numbers: Steffi Graf's 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Martina Navratilova's nine Wimbledon singles titles, Margaret Court's 62 major titles (singles, doubles, mixed), Graf's Golden Slam, Chris Evert's .8996 career winning percentage and 154 singles titles).
But let's look at it another way: women have always set the standard when it comes to proving themselves big dog(ette)s, and racking up the statistical records, so any time a male player can match a female in the record books, the achievement is especially noteworthy.
Hail, even that other Olympic Games gold medalist from Switzerland, Marc Rosset, fell one double-fault short of a bid to top record-holder Anna Kournikova's mark of 31, and while Kournikova hit all of her double falults in a three-set match, Rosset had two extra sets to play with, as his personal (and men's tour) best 30 double faults were misfired in 5 hour and 47 minute, five-set Davis Cup marathon vs. Arnaud Clement.
!Gaston Give it the Gas-ton
Radek Stepanek crushed Gaston Gaudio - the surprise Roland Garros champion of 2004 - in the first round, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. Trying to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of this latest setback to his comeback hopes, Gaudio said: "It's a failure, another one. . .But that's the beginning, you know. I still have to fight and go ahead."
Lest you be overcome with pity for the stylish, handsome champion, he rather cryptically said, "Well, I feel good. I feel at ease, okay. Sometimes when I was the winner, I wouldn't feel as good as today. . ."
Basically, Gaudio said, he's sorted out some issues and he feels he knows what he's doing these days and why he's doing it - which is a lot more than you can say for some of the cradle-to-grave pros grinding it out on the tour.
"I realized that maybe all the things I've been doing maybe for the last 15 years, that I was only playing tennis. I realized that all the things that I was complaining about, the routine, traveling, airports, everything, all that, I realized that it wasn't too bad. . ."
A surprise winner is one thing; it happens once in a while, even at majors. But what still gets me is the way that 2004 final spelled doom for both finalists - Gaudio and Coria. If I were an Argentinean, I'd be hot to write a book about that final and the aftermath - for each guy. Can you imagine, getting Coria and Gaudio together in a room to. . . talk about it?
I found one particular snippet from Gaudio's presser telling. Trying to re-recreate his feelings upon winning the title in '04, he mused:
"Well, it was a strange final. . . .Actually, what I remember the most was of winning, you know, and when I arrived after the finals, you know, in the hotel, there were all, the entire staff of the hotel waiting for me. It was like kind of touching."
I found that touching too, but in a weird kind of way.
Old School
Robert Kendrick was the first American to win a match at Roland Garros, beating German qualifier Daniel Brands in a three-hour and 47-minute, five-set marathon. He later told ESPN that he had played in Zagreb, flew to Kitzbuhel on Friday, landed in bed for three days with the flu, and was finishing his first week on anti-biotics on opening day at Roland Garros.
Both Brands and Kendrick called for the trainer during their match, and Kendrick wanted to take yet another injury timeout late in the fifth set but sucked it up and resisted, explaining, "I wanted to take a time-out at 5-3 (in the fifth), but I didn't want to do it on his service game because. . . a lot of guys. . . do that."
Kendrick was rewarded for being such a good sport with the match-ending break.
!Dinara The Ruthless Safin
Marat Safin is famous for his bouts of soul searching, brooding, self-bashing, and waxing philosophical ({"I envy them, the young kids," he said the other day. "They still have plenty of years to go, but they will go through the same things that we went through, our generation. But all the best, and have a nice trip."). His sister has gone another route. She's been advantage-searching, cheery, opponent-bashing, and waxing about as philosophical as a cop when he pulls you over to give you a speeding ticket.
The other day, Dinara took out British no. 1 Anne Keothavong, love-and-love, and when she was asked if she felt any pity for the poor girl, Dinara replied:
"Well, after I shake her hand she said at least you could give me one game. I could imagine it's not nice to feel on the court, but I was just so into myself. I think I was playing with my head like into the match, so I didn't really focus. I just was playing point by point, game by game. It ended up like that."
Keothavong's own reaction was more (Marat) Safin-esque:"I think, you know, in the end, you just kind of have to find ways to laugh about it. What else is there to do, you know. So I'm sure there will be a few jokes about it, but I can take it."
A Record Worthy of our Kuzzie
In the "art imitates life" area, we bring you this piece of statistical trivia that has landed Svetlana Kuznetsova, a young lady who never met a final she couldn't lose, in the record books- with a feat unlikely to be equaled any time soon (unless she herself adds to it). She's the only woman in the Open era to hold match points against two eventual French Open champions (in the same event they won). She had Anastasia Myskina on the ropes in the fourth round in 2004, and she had Justine Henin a point from elimination in 2005.
So, if Kuznetsova makes it to the semifinals and gets to match point against, say, Serena Williams, you can sit back, take a deep breath, and mutter, "That's it, Serena - you got her right where you want her now. . ."
See y'all tomorrow -