Wednesday, March 10, 2004
I'M NOT A BIG Greg Rusedski fan (is anybody?), but hooray! Now how about some suspensions for the people on the tour who were behind this strategy of slipping people banned substances so they could suspend them?
Monday, March 08, 2004
VINCE SPADEA finally wins a title! That must feel good for a lot of reasons, but beating James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way must have been especially satisfying.
Spadea has been one of the top 5 American players off and on for a while now, right up there with Blake, Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri and Taylor Dent. Here were the U.S. rankings before Scottsdale:
1 Andy Roddick (3)
2 Andre Agassi (5)
3 Mardy Fish (18)
4 Robby Ginepri (27)
5 Vince Spadea (29)
6 Taylor Dent (35)
7 James Blake (37)
8 Jan-Michael Gambill (59)
But nobody talks about Spadea as an American star. Nobody talks about Spadea playing Davis Cup. After Scottsdale:
1 Andy Roddick (3)
2 Andre Agassi (5)
3 Mardy Fish (19)
4 Vince Spadea (22)
5 Robby Ginepri (28)
6 James Blake (39)
7 Taylor Dent (43)
8 Todd Martin (60)
I don't think Spadea will stay ahead of Ginepri, Blake and Dent for long, but for now the vindication will be sweet.
Not that I'm a big Spadea fan. He was a jerk the last time I saw him live. He was losing to a resurgent Mats Wilander in Washington and acting as though Mats Wilander had no business being on the same court with Vince Spadea, let alone beating him.
But you have to have some sort of admiration for a guy who has come back from humiliation the way Spadea did. The last time he was ranked 22nd in the world, in 1999, he was coming off a pretty hot summer and playing well into the fall. Runner-up in Indianapolis, round of 16 at Flushing Meadows. A few indoor losses and then the semis at Lyon, beating Schalken, Courier and Kafelnikov before losing to Hewitt. And then that was it. The win over Kafelnikov was his last victory until the following summer -- 21 straight defeats.
The way Spadea snapped the losing streak was more than a little unlikely: The baseliner beat Greg Rusedski at Wimbledon.
Trivia fact: It's hard to spot -- not nearly as obvious as it was with Alberto Berasategui -- but Spadea hits his forehand and backhand groundstrokes with the same face of the racket.
Spadea has been one of the top 5 American players off and on for a while now, right up there with Blake, Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri and Taylor Dent. Here were the U.S. rankings before Scottsdale:
1 Andy Roddick (3)
2 Andre Agassi (5)
3 Mardy Fish (18)
4 Robby Ginepri (27)
5 Vince Spadea (29)
6 Taylor Dent (35)
7 James Blake (37)
8 Jan-Michael Gambill (59)
But nobody talks about Spadea as an American star. Nobody talks about Spadea playing Davis Cup. After Scottsdale:
1 Andy Roddick (3)
2 Andre Agassi (5)
3 Mardy Fish (19)
4 Vince Spadea (22)
5 Robby Ginepri (28)
6 James Blake (39)
7 Taylor Dent (43)
8 Todd Martin (60)
I don't think Spadea will stay ahead of Ginepri, Blake and Dent for long, but for now the vindication will be sweet.
Not that I'm a big Spadea fan. He was a jerk the last time I saw him live. He was losing to a resurgent Mats Wilander in Washington and acting as though Mats Wilander had no business being on the same court with Vince Spadea, let alone beating him.
But you have to have some sort of admiration for a guy who has come back from humiliation the way Spadea did. The last time he was ranked 22nd in the world, in 1999, he was coming off a pretty hot summer and playing well into the fall. Runner-up in Indianapolis, round of 16 at Flushing Meadows. A few indoor losses and then the semis at Lyon, beating Schalken, Courier and Kafelnikov before losing to Hewitt. And then that was it. The win over Kafelnikov was his last victory until the following summer -- 21 straight defeats.
The way Spadea snapped the losing streak was more than a little unlikely: The baseliner beat Greg Rusedski at Wimbledon.
Trivia fact: It's hard to spot -- not nearly as obvious as it was with Alberto Berasategui -- but Spadea hits his forehand and backhand groundstrokes with the same face of the racket.
