Tuesday, September 11, 2001
A POSTSCRIPT on the U.S. Open men's final: I said a lot of mean things about Pete Sampras, but I have to give him credit for one thing during the fortnight. He wore a sweatband on his right wrist and used it to swab his forehead. That's right: No more Pete Sampras Thumb Squeegee. Bravo!
As for Lleyton Hewitt on that Sunday, the name Borg comes to mind.
As for Lleyton Hewitt on that Sunday, the name Borg comes to mind.
Sunday, September 09, 2001
IT TRULY WAS a super Saturday. Oh, the matches sucked (though my heart finally did warm toward the Williams sisters), but the important thing is that I found my white tape!
You know how the racket grips of professional players are often white? Well, that color isn't readily available to us recreational players. Even anything light is difficult to find (I've been opting for "optic yellow"). But I did a Google search on "overgrip" and "white" and, after two or three false alarms, found a Yahoo forum run by the Rayco people in San Diego. As coincidence would have it, Rayco was my chief supplier back in the '70s when I was a little kid stringing and regripping rackets for fun and profit. And, better yet, the white overgrips were from Yonex, the maker of my rackets. This sounds rather minor, but I'm very excited about it.
Oh, you probably wanted to read something about the actual U.S. Open tennis, right? Well, I predicted that Hewitt would be too tenacious for the here-again, gone-again Kafelnikov. Still, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to salute Yevgeny as "the occasional champion." If he had won, he would have won three of the four Grand Slam titles in his career. I also have to say how impressed I am with Yevgeny's good-natured articulateness, which he displayed in the USA Network booth with John McEnroe and in an interview after his crushing defeat (this is quite a trend) with Pam Shriver on CBS. I'm not sure I'd be able to talk to Pam Shriver without slapping her on a good day, so Kafelnikov's ability to patiently explain his failure was most impressive.
I thought Sampras-Safin would depend on Safin, but it really didn't. Marat played a good match, but Pete (damn it!) rose to the occasion and overwhelmed him.
Williams-Williams, again, was an error-plagued match, but it was genuine. Serena just pressed too much. And I think Venus, thanks to her awesome wingspan, would win ever if both sisters were at their best.
In one way I'm happy that Sampras won: It makes for a better final. We have a classic contrast in styles, and Hewitt has shown that he can beat Sampras. Pete could serve him off the court; if he doesn't, it will be very interesting.
You know how the racket grips of professional players are often white? Well, that color isn't readily available to us recreational players. Even anything light is difficult to find (I've been opting for "optic yellow"). But I did a Google search on "overgrip" and "white" and, after two or three false alarms, found a Yahoo forum run by the Rayco people in San Diego. As coincidence would have it, Rayco was my chief supplier back in the '70s when I was a little kid stringing and regripping rackets for fun and profit. And, better yet, the white overgrips were from Yonex, the maker of my rackets. This sounds rather minor, but I'm very excited about it.
Oh, you probably wanted to read something about the actual U.S. Open tennis, right? Well, I predicted that Hewitt would be too tenacious for the here-again, gone-again Kafelnikov. Still, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to salute Yevgeny as "the occasional champion." If he had won, he would have won three of the four Grand Slam titles in his career. I also have to say how impressed I am with Yevgeny's good-natured articulateness, which he displayed in the USA Network booth with John McEnroe and in an interview after his crushing defeat (this is quite a trend) with Pam Shriver on CBS. I'm not sure I'd be able to talk to Pam Shriver without slapping her on a good day, so Kafelnikov's ability to patiently explain his failure was most impressive.
I thought Sampras-Safin would depend on Safin, but it really didn't. Marat played a good match, but Pete (damn it!) rose to the occasion and overwhelmed him.
Williams-Williams, again, was an error-plagued match, but it was genuine. Serena just pressed too much. And I think Venus, thanks to her awesome wingspan, would win ever if both sisters were at their best.
In one way I'm happy that Sampras won: It makes for a better final. We have a classic contrast in styles, and Hewitt has shown that he can beat Sampras. Pete could serve him off the court; if he doesn't, it will be very interesting.
