The Weight of Expectations: The Kids Part 2

by Savannah

"Who the hell is this CiCi Bellis?" I kept asking myself. Everywhere I looked I saw her name and age, 15, and the words prodigy and future star somewhere in the next sentence or two. So this morning I decided to look her up and see just what recommends her to tennis stardom in the near future.

The closest I found was this glowing article by someone named Ashlee Vance from August of last year for Bloomberg Business.

Silicon Valley is hardly wanting for prodigies, but until Tuesday it hadn’t produced one on the tennis court. Enter Catherine “CiCi” Bellis, who beat 12-seeded Dominika Cibulkova at the U.S. Open. The win was remarkable because Bellis is only 15 years old and was playing in her first Grand Slam match. The most recent 15-year-old to pull off such a feat was Anna Kournikova—back in 1996, three years before Bellis was born.

In some respects, Bellis’s success shouldn’t be all that surprising. Where the Williams sisters defied the odds by rising up from the mean streets of Compton, Calif., to become superstars, Bellis comes from a privileged background far more conducive to tennis development. She grew up in Atherton, Calif.— the elite among elite suburbs in Silicon Valley. Gordon Bellis, the youngster’s dad, made enough as an investment manager to supply his daughter with a backyard tennis court while wife Lori home-schooled CiCi.

Even by tennis’s hoity-toity standards, these were luxe surroundings. The only comparable situation would be the case of Ernests Gulbis, the mercurial Latvian player on the men’s tour and son of Ainārs Gulbis, a super-rich investment banker.

(...)

Given the track record of other out-of-nowhere Valley startups, it would be unwise to bet against her.

Notice the tennis names Mr Vance mentions. If those don't set off warning bells for Vance they do for hard core tennis fans. Neither Kournikova or Gulbis lived up to their potentials. But of course this girl - she is a girl - is going to be a success because SILICON VALLEY!!!

Yeah.


via USATIS

Well young Ms Bellis got her ass handed to her yesterday by the world #1 Serena Williams. Can I say that Serena let the girl win two games? The 6-1, 6-1 score is deceiving. It really wasn't that close.

I wonder though what sport other than tennis would allow a fifteen year old girl face the best player of this generation? In what sport would the hype machine try to spin it that the kid had a chance. I mean would it have been fair to let a college freshman go one on one with Michael Jordan back in the day? No you say? Then why build this girl up as the second coming because she beat Dominika Cibulkova and has had a decent ITF career so far. No offense meant to Dominika but Serena is several levels above Cibulkova and in my opinion it does more harm than good to expose someone this young to the juggernaut that is Serena Williams. As I said earlier this year exposing young players, male or female, to the rigors of the main tour before they're physically and mentally ready is not a good thing. It can lead to regression and self doubt. Tell me how many players have made the successful jump from the Juniors to the main tour? Look at the kid I'm following this year, Alexander Zverev. Poor guy is not doing well at all at the moment although he is playing Qualies something I think is a good thing.


via ITFtennis.com

Why isn't the hype machine talking about Chung Hyeon from South Korea? At 6' tall he doesn't have to worry about a height disadvantage. He's very mobile and very fast and can make shots from anywhere on the court. The hype machine may not be on his case but the tennis cognoscenti are. I mean when you hear the likes of Robbie Koenig and Jason Goodall falling over themselves to describe the potential of this young man you know that away from the ever vigilant (sarcasm alert) tennis "press" the people who matter are already paying attention to him. Oh but wait. He's from South Korea. His team is composed of Koreans. His English is very limited something we know drives the US tennis establishment up the wall. So he can't be publicized because he's too foreign. Better young Bellis who comes from a background the US tennis establishment understands and who can communicate with them without an interpreter.
I've been told by @Tonicate that the correct Romanization of the young Korean's name is "Jeong" but that the pronunciation sounds more like "Chung". Since he's using "Chung" I'll use it too. However it's spelled keep your eyes on him. I think he's going to be a good one.


via his Twitter profile

Borna Ćorić is another youngster with an outsize personality, a cockiness if you will, that Australian, British and US tennis people like. He's had to dial back his "best of his generation" quote and seems to be progressing, building a career. To my knowledge his English is limited too but with his buzz cut and personal charm I guess he's more approachable for the Westerners who have just stopped their pronouncements about Eastern Europeans dragging themselves out of their hovels to play tennis. Just stopped.

So Madison Keys. If you saw her complete breakdown towards the end of her match against Sloane Stephens you saw a player unable to handle the pressures she's under. After her run in Australia everyone was saying she was the next big thing, the American poised to succeed Serena, the one who should obliterate anyone across the net from her when she played. I think it was a mistake for her not to play anywhere until the IW/Miami swing. You have to learn to win and lose before you step on the big stages of tennis. Yes they said she was injured but did she play either of the warm up tournaments in Mexico at least? No.

This focus on the Slams and since we're talking WTA Premier Mandatory events is wrong and puts more pressure on young players no matter where they come from. You build a tennis career just like you construct a point. Everything can't be an "ace". You can't "servebot" your way through life and you can't do it with a tennis career. Make these young people play. Let them learn that taking the court, win or lose, is how you deal with life.

I have to mention that for many African American tennis fans Keys unfortunate comments about not identifying as African American have made her someone to root against. Keys is what 19? She's from a wealthy background and as many mixed race people do she's struggling with her identity. Should her parents have done more to tell how how the world sees her? It's easy for people hiding behind computers to say "yes they should have" but not being part of that family and it's dynamic the only thing outsiders can do is "don't judge". She may always struggle with her identity. We're all on this plane to learn so I say leave her alone about that for now. It was a mistake by her handlers to let that statement go in that interview but I'm betting they're unaware, and to be honest really don't care what people of color think or feel when they hear statements like that.

The way Keys was sobbing, bawling if you will, on the sidelines in the second set all of these issues are getting to her. I like the way Jonathan Leach handled the awkward situation. Men confronted with crying women usually lose it. He whispered directly into her ear so that the mic wouldn't pick up what he was saying. That was a good move on his part and Madison did settle down after that and win a couple of games to avoid being fed a bakery product. I still think she should play some International level events. Let her construct her career. With tennis careers extending into what used to be considered the golden years of tennis she's got enough time to get it together.

As for the woman who defeated Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, I think she realizes that Nick Saviano is her last chance to be relevant in tennis. At least I hope she does. I think she's afraid of him, and that's a good thing for someone with her personality. She had more to prove versus Madison and she played like it. She's still playing. Unseeded. Let's see how she handles herself.

I haven't mentioned much about US young men. There's not much to say. Too short. Lousy games. Unable to think their way through a point let alone a match. Yes Donald Young is playing better tennis but he's hardly a newbie. Ryan Harrison is also trying now. No temper tantrums so far. But neither of them are new jacks. The true new jacks like Francis Tiafoe are doing the right thing and playing Challengers. Some folks out there get it.


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This & That

by Savannah

First tennis Tweet of the morning for me:

@nicklester
just counted 64 people in the stands watching women's final in #estoril..not healthy...

Next time you hear the WTA touting the amazing numbers of people watching their product keep this in mind. Yes the weather is bad and all in Estoril right now but 64 people?

The Donald Young Incident

Donald Young has apologized to the hand that feeds him known to others as the USTA. He singled out the coaches who have worked tirelessly with him in his apology as well as the head of player developement Patrick McEnroe. So where do we go from here?

Nowhere. Donald has to make a decision regarding his parents and what he wants from tennis. It's been reported that Donald Young Sr sent the email that ended up putting his son between a rock and a hard place. I don't know anyone in Young's family so anything I write about them is pure speculation on my part but it seems it's time Donald's parents step out of their son's tennis career. Donald Junior is now twenty one years old. He has been playing very well so far this year and as we all know managed to get a win over Andy Murray as well as win a Challenger at Tallahassee, Florida. Somehow I don't think his parents were the ones who coached him to those victories. I do know that they seem to think this spate of success entitles their son to the same treatment someone ranked in the top five would be afforded.

It's time the Young's realize that they are not Richard Williams and Oracene Price and that for their son to have the success they crave he will need coaching from other people, something he seems to thrive under. Then they will be able to sit in the stands on a Sunday and show stoic resolve for the camera's. Holding Donald's career hostage to his love of family is not good for him, or them.

Bepa Bids Sergei Goodbye

In a move that sent legions of his fans into paroxyms of despair Vera Zvonareva sent Sergei Demekhin packing. Someone named Karen Krotov (below) will now be her full time coach.

The Russian press has been all over this story and there have been reports from Sergei saying that Bepa wanted a situation where he would share coaching duties with someone else. Bepa has been quoted as saying it was Sergei's lapse of judgement regarding Fed Cup preparation that forced her hand. She says that she wanted him to come with her during her Fed Cup training so that he could see Shamil Tarpishev in action. Sergei apparently had other plans and Vera felt that she had no choice but to make a coaching change. For Vera's statement (in Russian) please go HERE. If you use Google's translator you'll see her name translated as "faith" or "The Faith", the meaning of her name in Russian.

If you ask my opinion (no one has but I'm giving it anyway) you don't change a good thing. Bepa has been playing very well since the debacle of the 2010 US Open final. You don't kick someone to the curb who has gotten you ranked in the top five and no one debates your right to be there. Let's hope Vera continues to play top level women's tennis.

Arantxa Explains It All

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario made a statement this week that seems to have sent apologists for the state of the women's game over the edge.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais Sanchez Vicario said the following(emphasis mine):

We had eight or 10 players who always had an extreme rivalry," she said. "And to be number one, or winning a Grand Slam or two, that just didn't come. Now everything is much more open. You can be number one without being a great champion. There is a lot more power in the game, but it lacks variety. If you ask people, they know names of the Williams sisters or Clijsters and Henin, but don't ask them to tell you the name of the number one." Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki is the current No. 1.

Sanchez Vicario also said that she enjoyed 1990s tennis than she does today's version. "There was more variety, players with different games, stronger minds, more character,” she said." I played with three generations and they evolved. I had to adapt. It's the same now. If you want to compete in today's game you have to play a much more physical and more power than before.”


For the entire article, in Spanish, please go HERE.

Ironic isn't it that the original article seems to focus more on the fact that today no one knows who the current WTA #1 is outside of tennis professionals and die hard fans not the 1990's thing. That is part of Arantxa's argument not the entire scope of it.

What did she say that isn't true? She does give a backhand complement to the current game at the end there but it's damning with faint praise. You can debate who had the most intense rivalries in the 90's but the bottom line is that the tennis was better then. The women knew how to think on court, how to construct a point and did not have someone barreling out of the stands to tell them what to do the minute their opponent showed signs of figuring out their strategy. Ah, the good old days.

My apologies to the old children's show "Clarissa Explains It All".

Miscellany

Juan Carlos Ferrero has returned to the men's tour.
Fernando Gonzalez has returned as well.

I'm totally pissed off at tennis coverage in the States again. TennisTV is not showing any of the events this week in the United States. I would've let it go except that I got an email from them giving me a price increase. What the hell am I paying for when as a subscriber I don't get to see anything different from what non subscribers get to see? During the spring hard court swing if the cameras were off they were off for TennisTV too. When televised coverage began so did TennisTV coverage. The whole point of paying for a subscription is to see tennis not available anywhere else. This week I've been attached to live streams. They're free.

A rare picture surfaced showing Maria Sharapova with her mother.

Fernando Verdasco and Elena Vesnina visited a restaurant in Estoril for a photo op.

Sisters Venus Williams and Serena Williams appeared at a charity event in Florida. Sigh.

Through A Glass Darkly

by Savannah

Miscellany

Found this interview posted on Twitter by @fortydeucetwits where Ana Ivanovic discusses her coaching situation in between the interviewer fawning all over her.

"I know that us girls aren't the easiest to coach," Ivanovic said. "It's a strange situation. A coach is in charge of a lot of things, but on the other hand we're the boss. On the men's tour it's a bit different because I think for a coach it's easier if the guy is the boss. All of a sudden they have a girl who is the boss. It takes a certain ego to be able to accept that. I don't think there are many coaches who are willing to do it. There are a lot of them who try to control a lot.

"You want a coach who is going to push you and be strong and be in your corner when it's tough, but sometimes you have coaches who think they are more important than the players. That's where the conflicts come."

Had she thought of employing a female coach? "There aren't many woman coaches in general and I actually think it's good to have a male coach," Ivanovic said. "Guys and girls have different mentalities. Girls are so stressed about everything. Guys take everything much more lightly. That's great and it's something we have to learn from. I think one woman on a team is enough!"

Gee Ana I don't know. A coach is supposed to point out what you're doing wrong and suggest changes he/she feels you should make in your game to improve your play. If all you want is a "yes man" you don't really want a coach do you?

The Era of the Brat

Mention the names Bernard Tomic or Grigor Dimitrov and what is the first thing that comes to mind about the players? Phenom? Future of tennis? Pain in the ass?

Both young men have been hyped by their respective tennis organizations as the next big thing, the ones who will take over when the old guard rides into the sunset. Let's see what they've accomplished so far. I've lost count of how many times Tomic has been suspended by Tennis Australia. Dimitrov, incensed by the calls of a chair umpire, physically attacked the umpire. When they've managed to find the time to appear on court their performances have been underwhelming to say the least. I'm not sure how Dimitrov relates to the Bulgarian federation but Tomic seems to think he runs Tennis Australia and acts accordingly. Recently he withdrew from an event citing illness or something and showed up on the practice courts the next day as if nothing was wrong. Some want to blame his father for his bad attitude but in my opinion that is a cop out. More on why in a minute.

This week one Donald Young Jr posted a tweet that left most tennisheads slack jawed.

A little background.

The USTA holds a playoff every year to determine which of it's up and comers will get the one wild card the FFT grants for the French Open. It's fair and usually passes without incident. This year was the exception.

Donald Young, who has been on the brink for years now didn't like that he had to play to get into the FO main draw. He lost and decided it wasn't his fault but the fault of the USTA for making him go through the playoff. Seething he tweeted the following:

Fuck USTA!! Their full of shit! They have screwed me for the last time!

Needless to say the tweet went viral. First there was an attempt to delete it but it had been retweeted so much that that didn't work. Then came an apology along the lines of "I don't usually do that but I meant what I said". Keep in mind this is the second tirade in a year by Donald on Twitter.



I'm sure we don't know everything that has transpired between the USTA and the Young family and probably shouldn't. What I do know is that the USTA has paid Young beaucoup bucks and seen little to no return on its investment. When threatened with withdrawal of funding Young all of a sudden found a way to win a few matches including defeating Andy Murray. Maybe that win is why he thinks he should be given direct entry into the French Open main draw without participating in the playoff? I don't know.

The common denominator with these three young men is that they were/are the darlings of their tennis federations player development organizations. They've been told that they're legends and act accordingly. The sun rises and sets on their heads and it's not their fault that the world doesn't recognize that fact.

So what should the USTA do with Mr. Young? Should they suspend him for a certain amount of time like Tennis Australia does with Tomic? It doesn't seem to have worked with Tomic so what can a tennis association do?

A minor league baseball player knows he's in the minor leagues and works his ass off to get to the majors where salaries, good hotels and other perks await. In tennis those in the minor leagues (Juniors to be specific)are treated as if they've already arrived. Look over the rosters of any level of Challenger event and you will see that the draws are littered with juniors who are having trouble transitioning to their respective main tours. This is not only true for young men. Michelle Larcher de Brito, Coco Vandeweghe, and yes, Lauren Davis have not been able to get a toehold in the big league. Victoria Azarenka seems to have learned her lesson and no longer thinks her mere walking on court means divine right applies to her.

The British Lawn Tennis Association threatened it's darlings with a cut off of funds if they didn't start to act as professionals. It doesn't seem to be working too well right now and I haven't heard of anyone being cut off from the LTA dole.

Don't get me wrong. A tennis federation needs to provide financial support to players exhibiting promise. Tennis is an expensive sport and every family isn't wealthy enough to support a child until he or she makes the big time. I think that support should come with caveats and levels of achievement that, if not reached, result in being cut off from the trough. If a player does not make the change from the junior game to the pro game by a certain time cut the cord. If a player doesn't want to practice or work on their mental and physical stamina it shouldn't matter how big a serve he or she has. Like my mother always said doing otherwise is throwing good money after bad.

It's time for tennis associations to make the hard choices that need to be made. It will ensure that those left in their programs will be the ones who want it bad. They may not come from the best neighborhoods or be the offspring of friends from the country club but they will be hungry and willing to do what it takes to win at the pro level. Right now all I see are young people with a sense of entitlement unsupported by their achievements. Until that happens tennis could be turned over to brats with no ability to elevate and advance the sport.

Round 1 - Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

by Savannah

There were two big stories at the 2010 US Open on Wednesday. One involved the sickening sight of Victoria Azarenka, seen above during the hit and giggle on NYC's Pier 54 sponsored by Nike, staggering and collapsing to the concrete during her match against Gisela Dulko. I think everyone has seen the pictures by now so there's no need to show her in her distress today. What happened? Officially Victoria fell and hit her head during her prematch warmups and that is the reason the medics were standing by and able to attend to her so quickly.

All kinds of rumors were being posted on Twitter and elsewhere about what had happened. Victoria, seen above with boyfriend Sergei Bubka Jr, was taken to an unspecified hospital and it seemed hours before the USTA issued a statement that basically said "mind your damn business" to the public. With all the bullshit that's been in the tennis press regarding the obvious injury Serena Williams suffered it's going to be interesting to see if these pillars of the tennis world keep up with the story. The falling accident was mentioned on air after Victoria was taken off court in a wheelchair. It turned out to be what Victoria's official statement said was the cause of her collapse.

You could almost hear the sigh of relief from officials of the USTA since the fall means they don't have to review their heat policy for the US Open, tradionally held in the hottest and most humid time of the year in New York. It's ironic that Victoria's collapse occured the day after Patrick McEnroe and crew were asking if something should be done about the start times for the Open on extremely hot and humid days. They talked about everything from later starting times to earlier starting times. They were not kidding around.
As it stands Victoria is still shown on today's Order of Play. She is supposed to be playing doubles with Dinara Safina.

I hope that the people on her team convince her to give the walkover. A concussion is nothing to play with.

Serena Williams and Andy Roddick are known to be very good friends. Still I wonder what she was thinking as Andy showed his ass last night berating a lines woman over a foot fault call and having her replaced? Or what about his abuse of chair umpire Enric Molina? What about the fanboy happy talk coming from the commentators that basically excused the boorish behavior of the top American male player? Oh, and what about the continuous conversation held between Andy and coach Larry Stefanki? Any warnings about illegal coaching? Guess. By the way Andy was called for foot faults a total of three times. I'm just saying.

German/Jamaican Dustin Brown will play Andy Murray in the next round. I look forward to seeing him play. If Murray has done his due diligence and prayed to the tennis gods it should be a night match. Not looking for a win for Dustin just hoping he represents himself well.

I don't know if Cliff Drysdale and whoever the woman was in the booth with him yesterday calling Venus Williams match against Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino could've cheered any harder for Marino to prevail. Fans of Venus always worry when she plays an unknown for the first time and for the first set Marino stood toe to toe with Venus forcing a tiebreak.

I'm happy to report that Venus wasn't having any of it yesterday. Venus abandoned her serene persona and got down and dirty fighting Marino in the trenches and reveling in it. Faced with Venus in full flight and fight Marino was banished to the wilderness with Venus in hot pursuit. Afterwards Venus said that Marino showed her how it feels to play herself. Great match for Venus.

Ryan Harrison, an eighteen year old from Shreveport Louisiana defeated veteran Ivan Ljubicic yesterday. Already the "changing of the guard" articles are flying. It was obvious to anyone watching the match the Ljubicic was bothered by the heat and he said as much during his presser. Harrison is 6'1" tall and weighs 175 pounds. He will play Sergiy Stakhovsky next.

What Not To Wear

Maria Sharapova has taken a step back with this dress. I don't get the collar. I don't get all the buttons. I don't like the color.

Venus Williams, seen in both her day and night kits above, gets a big meh. As someone said yesterday Serena has gone for the conservative look on court as she matures (The dress worn by Victoria Azarenka was designed for Serena) Venus seems to have found her inner wild child. Women mature at their own pace and in their own way so I'm giving Venus a pass.

Has there ever been a more boring tennis kit? Kim Clijsters outfit defines the word dowdy. I don't expect to see her in a skin tight corset style outfit but there has to be a happy medium between slut and grandmother. I'm old and I wouldn't wear this on court.

Vera Zvonareva's K-Swiss outfit comes to mind. Vera, seen above in the NY Times photo essay, looks trim, modern and ready to play tennis without looking twice her age or ready to go out on the stroll.

Speaking of the stroll Stella McCartney went from "what the fuck" to "huh?" in sixty seconds. Yards and yards of fabric have been replaced by the tightest "dress" known to god or man. Caroline Wozniacki kept tugging at the tunic - it's too short and tight to be a dress and the slightest movement had her butt on display. The men seem to like it though.

There is no getting around it. Nadia Petrova wins hands down for the worst tennis dress ever. This is the only image I've been able to find, a screen cap posted by a fan who probably couldn't believe his/her eyes either. Yes Nadia is boxy. Yes she is not easy to design for. I just want to know how they let her walk out on court in this.

Still with fashion I have to mention Donald Young. Someone commented on his beautifully shaped eyebrows. The person said they were beautifully plucked. Since it's usually waxing or threading these days one must assume that Donald had one of those procedures done. And with that I'm ending this post.

Players To Watch In 2008

by Craig Hickman

The off-season is simply not long enough. It seems like just yesterday I penned my 2007 review and it's already time to look ahead to the 2008 season.

Someone recently asked me if I do any overall predictions for the year. Not exactly. I guess you could say I do anti-predictions such as the no brainer that no one will win the Golden Slam on either tour in 2008. But that's about as far as I'll go. There are simply too many unknowns and variables to try with any solid reasoning to predict the winners of, say, the US Open. Roger Federer, of course, would be good money, but he's got to lose it sooner or later, no? And one would think that with the Olympics in the mix, he'd much rather take an Olympic Gold than his fifth US Open title, if he had to choose between the two, and with them being so close together, that's exactly what he might have to do. Which is all a long, drawn-out way of saying that my preview of next calendar's tennis will focus solely on a select list of players to watch. Without further ado:

ATP

Ernests Gulbis made noise at the US Open last summer with his straight-set demolition of Tommy Robredo in the third round. His smooth game, excellent court craft and pinpoint strokes off both sides would appear to make him someone who could compete on every surface. He's young, though, and his head isn't always screwed on. Let's see if he can continue to make waves after putting Latvia on the tennis map.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was my pick for Outstanding Newcomer on the ATP in 2007. Sure, he's in his early 20s already, but his young career has been halted by injuries. If he can remain healthy in 2008, I think he'll make a deep run at Wmbledon and/or the US Open.

Richard Gasquet seems to believe, finally, that he belongs in the top of men's tennis, thanks in large part to his epic come-from-behind win against Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year. But can his fragile constitution see him through to his first Slam semifinal in 2008? Stay tuned.

David Ferrer had one of the hottest streaks to end 2007. Simply put: can he keep it up? With the plexicushion playing even slower than Rebound Ace, he needs to carry his momentum straight into Melbourne and let the world know he's not satisfied with his new status in the Top 5.

Novak Djokovic could experience the most pressure of any Top 10 player next year. He has to defend a truckload of points, and since he still believes his own hype, the pressure to deliver on it will rise like the mercury Down Under. As it is, he's skipping his title defense in Adelaide to play Hopman Cup, and while the Next Generation International isn't a big enough event to lose him a ton of points, he won't have a tour title heading into Melbourne. On the other hand, he ought to be better rested to contend on the cushy stuff.

David Nalbandian didn't exactly come out of nowhere to end 2007 with his first two regular Masters Series shields, beating the top dogs to take them both. He's always played well in Australia, so if he continues his form, I expect his entire 2008 campaign include contending at all four Slams and maybe, just maybe, even winning his first.

Donald Young is the youngest player in the Top 100 and his all-court game has improved by leaps and bounds over the last 12 months. If he can believe in himself, as his coach and mother tell him he's gotta do, he can have a breakthrough year.

John Isner has been already dismissed as overhyped because of his lackluster performances on the challenger circuit. Lest we forget, however, he won several matches over the summer 7-6 in the third and won a tiebreak set against Raja at the US Open. Perhaps the challenger circuit just isn't high-stakes enough for America's answer to Ivo Karlovic. And he's six years younger. I say we give him a chance before writing him off as too much hype.

Nicolas Kiefer came back strong from injury to remind us why he was once ranked as high as No. 4 in the world. Another player who produces Down Under, the first quarter of 2008 will be crucial. If he stays healthy, I expect him to cause a surprise or two at Wimbledon.

Juan Monaco took Most Improved Gonads for 2007. A great athlete with a warrior attitude, the Argentine could start the year strong in Melbourne and follow that up with a deep run at Roland Garros.

WTA

Li Na was poised for a solid campaign to enter the Top 10 when she had to leave the tour with a rib injury. But she'll be back in January with a new lease on life. Always my favorite Chinese up-and-comer, probably because I find her story so fascinating, Li may take awhile to get back into the second week of a Slam, but her storyline will be worth watching.

Agnes Szavay has a fluid game, the heart of a champion, and a bad back. Which will prevail in 2008?

Tamira Paszek needs a better serve. If she found one during the off-season, she could win her first WTA title and make another second-week appearance in a Slam.

Amelie Mauresmo came back too soon from abdominal surgery last year. Has she fully recovered? Will she return to the winner's circle or regress to choker extraordinaire? Will she finally shake her demons in front of her home crowd?

Serena Williams couldn't get her body to stop betraying her will for the last three quarters of 2007. If she can run, she can beat all comers. Will she be able to run ragged her opponents in 2008 or will her flesh be weak?

Linday Davenport has committed to playing a full schedule through the US Open. Who knows, she may even play in Paris again. Wouldn't it be lovely to see a another mother win a Slam?

Monica Seles claims she'll play at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. Nuff said.

Anna Chakvetadze is either going to solidify her Top 10 status or crash and burn. How insightful, no? But for real, though. If she can avoid Maria Sharapova at big events, she should do well. Of course this assumes that she can put the trauma of being tied up in a home robbery behind her and get off to a solid start in Melbourne where she's a defending quarterfinalist.

Marion Bartoli is controversial, talented, and targeted. She would certainly prefer more tournaments on grass. After finishing the year in the Top 10 for the first time in her career, she'll have to recover from a year-end double bagel at the hands of the woman she shocked in the Wimbledon semifinals. I don't think she's going to fall off as much as many others, but that might just be because I like her.

Ahsha Rolle appearing on this list will probably make you raise an eyebrow. Or two. Simply put: I like the variety in the American's game, the fire in her eyes, the way she handled her business at the US Open this past summer. Nobody expected her to beat Tatiana Golovin in the first round. Perhaps 2008 will bring a few more surprises for this player under the radar.

Of Fifth Slams and the USTA

by Savannah

Lisa Raymond on Women’s Tennis in the United States

Lisa has written a thought provoking article about why the United States isn’t producing female players able to compete at the highest levels in her sport. I think that between us Craig and I have talked about every issue she raises. It’s just nice to see your opinion validated by someone on the “inside”. The article is excerpted below.

Trouble on the home front
Where are all the young American women prospects?

So what's going on? Why is it that the biggest, most powerful, most affluent country of them all can't seem to produce the champions that these other smaller, much poorer countries can? Russia, Serbia and the Czech Republic are just a few of the countries producing young players at a rapid rate.
(…)
Sure, we could sit back and point fingers at the decision-makers at the USTA and the hierarchy of tennis in America. We could toss around questions such as, are they hiring the right people? The right coaches? Is it a sound structure? Is their system the blueprint for success or more along the lines of disaster? Maybe they can be held accountable to a degree. But where this issue begins is with the young player and the environment in which she is brought up.

Junior players in Russia or Serbia are willing to sacrifice everything in order to taste success, to get out and find a better life for themselves and their families. They don't know any differently. American juniors lose a match or have a bad practice and they can jump into their BMWs and head home to finish playing Halo 3 on their brand-new Xbox 360.
(…)
So what's the solution? Can hunger and desire be something that is taught? From my experience, the answer is no. Sure, everyone wants to be the next Justine Henin, but are you really willing to do the work, make the sacrifices and give up some of life's guilty pleasures in order to achieve such greatness?

When I posted about two very young up and coming American girls from the Florida area a few months back one of the mothers commented on the BMW approach to American tennis and how she had to fight to make sure her daughter understood that she belonged in that environment whether her parents drove a C class or a Honda.

I think Lisa lets the USTA off the hook here. She does talk in the article about the USTA programs in the inner cities and how much it costs to play the sport of tennis but what she doesn’t talk about are the unique problems faced by a player not to the manor born. Donald Young was pushed into playing on the pro level way before he was ready mentally because of financial reasons. He’s backtracked and seems to be doing just fine on the Challenger level building up ranking points and skill. It just makes me appreciate what Richard Williams and Oracene Price did with their daughters keeping them off the pro circuit despite whatever hardships they faced for as long as they could.

But the problem is not just racial; it is, as Lisa says class more than anything else in the States. When Sam Querrey can state on the record that he loves driving his mother’s Porsche more than anything I think he makes Lisa’s argument for her. He is talented. He could be a hope for American tennis. But hey, lose, and I drive Mom’s Porsche and have fun. No big deal.

But the “manor” attitude is not limited to the players. It’s part of the mindset of the USTA. And that is where the problem really is. When you read about how the decision was made to make the United States a hard court nation simply to stop the progress of players from South America you have to wonder what other decisions are made based on class/ethnic/racial bias. These are not easy issues to discuss but they need to be raised in a public forum like Sports Illustrated.

Some tennis heads talked about this situation at least three years ago but no one wanted to hear it and called us “racists” for raising it. With Lisa Raymond talking about a five to ten year drought before another American woman will be able to make a big splash the pressure will be on juniors like Asia Muhammad and Madison Brengle both of whom seem 3-4 years away.
Lisa Raymond on Tennis


Ion Tiriac and the Fifth Slam

Why a Fifth Slam?
(We’ll forget for now that the term “Grand Slam” refers to a home run hit when the bases are full in baseball and gives the home run hitters team four runs.)

To argue why Madrid could host a Grand Slam, the Romanian, 68, lists three points.

The first is that tennis should allow free competition.

"What I am still not satisfied about is the fact that they do not let tournaments compete. I want to compete. Tomorrow I go and ask how much are prizes at Roland Garros. Fifteen million? I go and put down 15 million, but I want to be at the points level of Roland Garros, not at the level of a '1,000.' Let me compete! But the Grand Slams will not let me compete. And neither will the ATP."

The second point of this former tennis player, former coach, former manager, former Romanian Olympic Committee chairman, businessman and banker is that Grand Slam tournaments have reached their limits.

"Unfortunately I don't think that (French President Nicolas)Sarkozy is going to let them build in the Bois de Boulogne to expand, because they already took a lot from the woods. And also they no longer have the (Olympic) Games, that the English took," Tiriac describes the challenges for Roland Garros.

London too faces obstacles.

"You cannot allow that, when you have 200 countries watching on television, the explanation is 'this is London when it rains.' Sport is no longer what is was, it is different from 20 years ago."

And Madrid is the city that according to Tiriac, incarnates more than any other this "new sport," the city that can go beyond the limits of Paris and London. The Magic Box, the fantastic tennis complex that French architect Dominique Perrault designed in the Spanish capital, is his third point.

"Madrid has a very great future, and it is going to have facilities like no other tournament. There is no other which can close three courts in five minutes and keep playing despite the rain," Tiriac stresses.

He notes he has ruled out the Asian option that he contemplated a couple of years ago.

A Fifth Slam?

Wimbledon is the Crown Jewel of tennis isn’t it? How dare Tiriac suggest that any other city, especially Madrid, supplant it? Please note that my tongue is very much in my cheek right now. After the fiasco that was Wimbledon 2007 I’m glad someone has decided to challenge the Grand Poobah’s in London. Not much may come of it but Tiriac has tons of money. Let’s see what happens.

Challenger News

Donald Young will face Robert Kendrick in the Final at Calabasas in the United States Sunday.

Guillermo Coria is rumored to be taking a wild card into Belo Horizonte in Brazil. Gasto Gaudio withdrew.

Not enough players to have a qualifying round in the Rimouski, Canada Challenger. John Isner will be the top seed.


Madrid Masters Television

Good coverage all week except for doubles. It can be expensive to purchase the season pass but it is possible to buy day passes. A day pass might be what a fan would want once you hit the quarters semi's and final for any TMS event. The best on line subscription is still provided by Wimbledon though.

Other Sports


A lot of sports fans will be watching the Formula 1 event in Brazil today where Louis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's year long soap opera will play it's final act. No lesser racing legend than Jackie Steward commented on it this week. Rafa has commented on it. It's a shame these two greats couldn't find some middle ground. Alonso is said to be going back to Renault next year while Hamilton stays with McLaren.

Pictures of the Week

Elena channeling her inner Bond Girl

The Nadal Men

Uncle Rafael, Father Sebastian, Rafa, Uncle Toni, Uncle Miguel Angel

Serena's World View

The US Open - The Week in Review

by Savannah

Upset Saturday



There is no bigger story for week one than that of Maria Sharapova, the "Golden Girl" of the WTA going down in flames to eighteen year old Agniezska Radwanska of Poland. Despite losing the second set Aggie held her nerve and her serve and managed to force Maria into numerous unforced errors and double faults. Her aggressive challenge to Maria's second serves - at times she was almost on the service line - seemed to rattle the presumed US Open Women's Champion. In the end Maria, seemingly abandoned by her father when it was obvious she would lose, was left on court alone in her misery while Agniezska and her family along with new fans cheered.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. Cupcake draws do not champions make. It seemed as if heaven and hell were moved to make sure everyone who had beaten Maria this year was in the top half of the draw. By the way the top half now looks like a TD's wet dream. Venus. Serena. Justine. Ana. Jelena. Of the women remaining in the bottom half of the draw only Svetlana Kuznetsova has ever reached the Final of a Grand Slam. Will Sveta make it again or will it be someone new? I know Larry Scott and his posse did not intend it but the second week is going to be very interesting for the women of the WTA, and for tennis fans.



Donald Young's run at the Open ended with what I would call a good loss to Feliciano Lopez of Spain who won the match in four sets. I hope Donald doesn't fall for the hype and remains satisfied with his growth and on court abilities which are more than promising. Right now I see him having a career like that of Nikolay Davydenko, the type of player no one wants to see across the net. He could do worse. Donald has garnered many followers with his play the last few weeks.Here's hoping for a nice, modest 2008 for him.

Shahar Pe'er and Nicole Vaidisova played the best women's night match of the Open so far. It went three sets and rightly ended in a third set tie breaker which Pe'er managed to pull out. It was the type of match that would draw new fans to the sport. The level of play was great and there was no one who could say who the winner would be until the last return was played. Great "thinking" match ladies.



To complete upset Saturday Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea, who has had a very nice year thank you very much sent Andy Murray home in a four set thriller. He plays Nikolay Davydenko next.



In other news...

The Scandal Contines - More Revelations

As Nikolay Davydenko continues to defend himself against match fixing allegations and bad online jokes no one has spoken about the other man who is under investigation. Martin Vasallo-Arguello has to my knowledge not been the object of bad puns or serious scrutiny by the press yet his phone records have also been subpoenaed by investigators.

And while this is going on several players have come out and admitted that they've been approached and had the common sense to simply hang up on the callers. Seems the going rate was $50,000.00 USD.

For more on this part of the story read here:
**Source**

The French sports paper L'Equipe is also reporting that two other top ATP players have been approached by shady characters about throwing matches. "Madame" over at TAT did the translation for me.

Two stars of Tennis, who prefer to stay anonymous, have told the paper they have been contacted, even threatened, by malevolent people wishing to fake matches against large money sums which can reach the 50000$.
Internet and the on-line betting are at the origin of this attempted corruption. Betting on internet is something very hot today and explains the importance of the sums. Not very surprising revelations after the Davydenko story. The Russian, world N° 4, has abandoned on the second of August against the Argentine Martin Vassallo-Arguello in the third round of Sopot, Poland. A very strange drop-out that left most people dubitative.
As for the current number one Roger Federer, he has explained that he has never dealt with this kind of problem.

Tennisticious Blog

Heads Up Ladies!

I'm writing this on the morning of August 30, 2007. Murray vs Bjorkman is on. Jim Courier was commenting on the strategy being employed by AndyM and Jonas and then went on to say that the women players should be watching a match like this and taking notes. Courier said that most of the women simply come out and try to hit winners with no thought for strategy or tactics. Several players come to mind who fit the "mindless ball bashing" definition. Several come to mind who don't. I'm glad someone said it.

8/31/2007

Exhibition Matches vs Grand Slam Matches

So Maria Sharapova continues her exhibition matches while the women in the top half of the draw play the US Open. "Tenpre" on the ESPN Board posted the following comments.

Dear Pova

I am sure the sports press is going to say things like "Maria Dazzles the crowd", "Maria favorite to take 2nd USO" and blablabla, never even taking into consideration who you are playing.

The biggest problem I can see for you moving forward is how ready you will be for players from the "A TEAM" (Henins side of the draw). While bageling these cup cakes, you are not getting enough challenges. Playing cup cakes must feel like playing in "SLOW MOTION", and I wonder if you will be ready for the speed coming from any one of the A TEAM.

Has your dad or team ever thought of the possibilities that the BIG BEATINGS you have received at the hands of Serena, Ana, and Venus could be the result of your easy draws??? Being beaten so badly in 3 of the 4 slams plus Miami (the 5th slam) makes you a historical player as this has never happened before to the nr 2 player in the world EVER before in tennis HISTORY.

You will get through your B TEAM draw with flying colors but be ready for ANOTHER BIG BEAT DOWN in the finals against whoever comes out on top of the A TEAM.

Nothing more needs to be said. My friend Allison was in Ashe last night and said that no one came in until it was almost time for Blake/Santoro which turned out to be the match of the tournament so far. She also said that when Pova, not content with hitting to the latest cup cake across the net from her, started to complain about line calls she was roundly booed. I've been watching tennis for a long time. I've seen US Open night crowds up close and personal. I can safely say I have never seen a night crowd so quiet. Even the suits knew Pova's match was not watchable.



I almost felt sorry for Ted and Tracy who had nothing to do but read IMG talking points to each other trying to pump life into a lifeless match. I did say almost. Ted made a comment last night that if he were a commentator for any other sport would get him banned from the booth.
He said that Santoro's win over then number 10 in the world Gaston Gaudio at the 2006 Australian Open wasn't important. It was left to JMac, who had earlier compared Pova to Nadal in terms of her on court play to call Robinson on that nonsense. As for Pova being comparable to Rafa Pova would make a first round exit if she'd had to face some of the draws Rafa has had to face.

9/1/2007

Tennis Outside the Lines

The NY Times printed a very nice article about tennisheads who play hooky from work in order to catch the early round play at BJK in it's Metro Section on August 31, 2007.

Unlike a lot of other major sports events — the World Series and the Super Bowl, for example — much of the play at the Open, which lasts two weeks, takes place during weekday hours. Yet many New Yorkers, not a lot known for a lax work ethic, manage a day trip to Flushing Meadows in Queens, where they join the tourists, retirees, children and full-time mothers on the stadium grounds.

Mr. Shulkin said that he skipped out on his job on Tuesday, not to mention the day before. “I help a friend with a hedge fund,” he said, adding that his line of work gives him a lot of autonomy. He paused to applaud a backspin lob that Mr. Santoro had hit from midcourt, which barely cleared the net then bounced backward onto his own side of the net. Even Mr. Santoro’s opponent, finally, cracked a weary smile.

“This kid still doesn’t know what hit him,” Mr. Shulkin said of Mr. Montanes.

The outer courts at the Open, where lesser-known players contend in earlier rounds, are where you’re most likely to find office-deserting tennis fanatics at midday. Another fellow who sat a few rows up in the bleachers at the Santoro match looked the part — worsted trousers, sports jacket slung over shoulder, briefcase — and turned out to have fled a conference at the Grand Hyatt.

“The conference was getting boring,” said the man, who added that he was in town from St. Louis. “I look for a reason to get to New York during the Open every year. And I wanted to come today and see the Santoro match. His game is unique.”

Mr. Santoro delighted his fans again yesterday. Though he lost his five-set match, against sixth-seeded James Blake, it was hard-fought.

On Wednesday morning, a pair of women in shorts and tank tops sat on the No. 7 train as it ran from Grand Central to Flushing. They were also AWOL, more or less, and they were planning to watch “a friend of a friend of mine from London who’s playing Rafael Nadal today,” said one of them, Jamie Lewis, 31.

“I sent an e-mail to my boss at midnight, said I’ll be out tomorrow and you can reach me on my cell, and turned my computer off. The markets are crazy and I work at a hedge fund, so I thought I’d escape.”

Ms. Lewis’s friend, who identified herself as Patricia, said she works for an Internet company and added, “I called in sick. Can’t you tell?” She held the back of her hand against her forehead."I canceled some meetings.”

Fleeing the Office For Tennis

ATP Brave New World

Thanks to strategic leaks the formal announcement of the changes the ATP wants to institute was almost anti-climactic. The only winners in this are the American Tour Directors who want to force the European players to play in the States more often. If they don't play they are penalized. Nice way to foster good will people.

A new American Woman?

Ahsha Rolle also landed on peoples radar this week making it to the third round before losing to Dinara Safina. The only issue with Ahsha is her fitness. Her parents are both big people and there is not much that can be done to counter genetic dispositions. I do think that she should strive to get as fit as she can so that her wins will not be made light of. The USTA high performance program has taken her under their wings so that she should be getting everything she needs to make her a success including diet and nutrition advice. It's not insulting to your parents to slim down Ahsha. It'll make all the time and effort they've put into your tennis education worthwhile. Marion Bartoli is losing the extra weight she put on for a reason.

This and That

• Some wits on the ESPN board have declared Maria Sharapova the winner of the 2007 Beat Down Slam thanks to her losses in Australia, Paris, London and New York as well as in the unofficial Fifth Slam, Miami. What to say? Somehow congratulations seems inappropriate no?

Speaking of the Beat Down Slam I guess this is the time to mention the Brawl in the Booth.

• Jim Courier has joined the chorus of commentators blasting Aggie Radwanska for daring to play tennis against the Pova gil. Shame on you Jim. Aggie wasn't dancing a jig while Maria served. She was employing - dare I say it - strategy. She was thinking on court Jim, something you went on a bit of a rant about earlier in the week if I recall correctly. The person who wasn't thinking on court is the one who lost. I do think it's kind of funny for you to get into a verbal battle with Tracy Austin, no favorite of mine by the way, on this issue. I wasn't home to see you storm out of the booth. Sorry I missed that. If the Maria apologists have no argument other than to pile on an eighteen year old who, by the way, has been on tennishead radar for the last couple of years, then their favorite player is in worse shape than previously thought. It's bad enough WWE head honcho Vince McMahon seemed to have set up the women's draw. Do tennis commentators have to resort to WWE tactics in the broadcast booth as well? What next? Someone shows up with Jim Courier's love child? Shame on you Jim.

One cup of STFU for table one please. Thank you.

• Richard Gasquet withdrew from his second round match with a viral infection. What does go on in those locker rooms?

• Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek played a thrilling five setter. Five sets. You know Mr. Djokovic used some of his infamous tactics to take rests during this match. No howling from Courier, JMac or anyone else who worships at the shrine of Novak though. He's just a breath of fresh air. Uh-huh.


End Note

"Graf_Sampras", one of my favorite tennis heads, posted this speculation on All Court Game

Just what is in Roger's manpurse?

little replicas of his trophies?
little Roger dolls?
a make up kit of course
fingernail polish
air freshener
lipstick and gloss
eye shadow
eyebrow pencil , tweezer and comb
hair curlers
hairpins
extra tooth enamel and brightener
pictures of .. u know ... roger
pictures of ....u know... marat and rafa and andy
phone number of ITF ATP officials
designer "vitamins"
mirka's scouting reports
john isner's vital statistics
john isner's plane itinerary , just in case
serena's catsuit seamstress' phone
john isner's favorite snack

Thank you for this G_S!!!

The Winners

Roger Federer Wimbledon Mens Champion 2007



Michael LLodra and Arnaud Clement - Wimbledon Men's Doubles Champions 2007


Urszula Radwanska - Wimbledon Girls Champion 2007


Donald Young - Wimbledon Boys Champion 2007


Liezel Huber and Cara Black - Wimbledon Women's Doubles Champions 2007


Jamie Murray and Jelena Jankovic - Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Champions 2007

Hype - The Double Edged Sword

When I was coming up my mother used to make these comments. To me they were cryptic and I thought that I was too bright to pay attention to what she had to say. One of them was about having a childhood. I was too busy trying to be grown to think much of her statement at the time.

Craig has often spoke about hype and the damage it can do to a person. I'm sure many of us can cite at least two or three players, male and female, who crumbled under the weight of expectations. In a sport where you're over the hill at twenty seven the pressure to do well while young is extraordinary.

On the eve of Wimbledon, the Holy Grail of tennis, Peter Wachter has written this revealing article on Donald Young, the young man who would be king of American tennis. It's a cautionary tale, one that is still being written and may still have a happy ending. So while we cheer on the young men and women who have clawed their way to the top during this fortnight there is nothing wrong with spending a little time thinking about the sacrifices they and their families have made to get them to the grounds of the AELTC.



Prodigy’s End
By PAUL WACHTER

...At this moment in May, Young is two months shy of 18. Before he had a learner’s permit, Young had a Nike contract and was saddled with the expectations of returning American men’s tennis to the heights occupied by Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. He was on a path to become the first black men’s champion since Arthur Ashe. And he didn’t dodge the hype. A clip from the Tennis Channel a few years ago, preserved on YouTube, shows Young addressing the camera. He’s 14, with the barest patch of hair above his lip. “Win all the Grand Slams more than once — that’s always been my goal,” he says. He calls Sampras his idol and says he’d like to “maybe surpass what he did or come close.”

But even if he does play at Wimbledon this week, no one will be making comparisons to Sampras, who won seven Wimbledon titles (and a record 14 Grand Slams overall). Because here at the Carson Challenger, Young is ranked No. 335 in the world, and he is losing to a guy almost 500 spots below him, a nobody. As he rises from his chair and picks up his racket to start the second set, the question is not whether Young is the future of American tennis, but whether he has a future in tennis at all.

Has there ever been a bleaker moment in American tennis? On the women’s side, the Williams sisters still show flashes of brilliance — Serena, ranked No. 81 at the time, won the Australian Open earlier this year — but their best tennis is behind them. Have you even heard of another active American women’s player?

As for the men, Roddick is a respectable No. 5 and a winner of the U.S. Open, but he has reached only three Grand Slam finals in the four years since then. James Blake has never made it beyond the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Once age and injury bring Roger Federer back down to earth, players like Rafael Nadal (already far ahead of the rest of the pack), Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Marcos Baghdatis and Richard Gasquet are ready to supplant him. There are no Americans in sight. Not so long ago, however, Donald Young, younger than all of them, seemed to be the exception.

The script was perfect: Young grew up on the South Side of Chicago and was raised by a couple of tennis fanatics — instructors, in fact. They didn’t force the game on their son, but he showed natural aptitude. At age 3, Young was able to hold rallies over the net. At 10, he hit a few balls with the sport’s most famous lefty, John McEnroe, who told reporters, “He’s the first person I’ve seen who has hands like me.” He dominated his peers and, with endorsements from Nike and Head lined up, turned pro at 14 — an astonishingly early age, but not unprecedented in tennis, especially after the rules were tweaked to allow young professionals to continue to play in the juniors. With his earrings and funky cap, Young brought another look to a men’s sport whose only other memorable sartorial flourishes recently have been stonewashed jeans shorts, worn by Agassi, and the pirate ensemble favored by Nadal. And image wasn’t everything: as a 15-year-old, Young became the youngest player ever to win a junior Grand Slam title, the 2005 Australian Open, and the youngest to hold the world’s top spot in the junior ranking.

His accomplishments generated attention outside the tennis world. Newsweek included Young in its 2005 Who’s Next list of up-and-comers, alongside another rising African-American star, Barack Obama. “There aren’t a lot of obvious bets in tennis,” says Jim Courier, a winner of four Grand Slam titles and the executive producer of “Unstrung,” a new documentary that follows Young and six other top American juniors. “At 15, with what he did, Donald was about as close as you get.”

When Young started playing the elite tournaments of the ATP tour, it figured that a breakthrough would happen soon. Lleyton Hewitt, Michael Chang and Aaron Krickstein won their first ATP titles at 16, and none had a record as a junior that was as sterling as Young’s.

But the script didn’t unfold as expected. In February 2005, in Young’s first ATP outing, in San Jose, Calif., Robby Ginepri, then No. 74 and quickly rising, needed only 50 minutes to beat Young 6-2, 6-2. Two weeks later, in Scottsdale, Ariz., Young lost 6-3, 6-1 to Paul Goldstein, currently ranked No. 95. Over the next year, Young continued to lose, and he now has a record of 0-10 in ATP events. And the matches have not gotten any more competitive. At the 2006 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last year, he was crushed 6-0, 6-0 by Carlos Berlocq, a journeyman who lost by the same score to James Blake in the next round.

At the time, Young tried to give the impression that he was unfazed by the losses. “I really do think I’m learning something from each match,” he said after the drubbing by Berlocq. But among the tennis cognoscenti, the feeling was that Young has been pushed too hard, too fast. “Psychologically, it’s got to be tough when you’re barely winning games,” Patrick McEnroe, the captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team, says.

But who’s to blame? His parents? Tennis has seen far worse, with its share of maniacal disciplinarians who order 1,000 serves before breakfast, as well as nut jobs like Jelena Dokic’s father, who was thrown out of the 2000 U.S. Open after badgering the staff about the high price of the salmon plate and who said he wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on Sydney after his daughter’s early exit from last year’s Australian Open.

Or was it Young’s management company, IMG? A colossus in the tennis world, the sports-marketing company represents Federer and Nadal, but it doesn’t yet have that most precious of commodities — an active American men’s champion. Was IMG pushing Young too hard, using its muscle to get wild-card entries into top events that his ranking — a lowly 1,253 at the end of 2004 — wouldn’t otherwise qualify him to enter? Shouldn’t he have stuck to the sport’s minor circuit, the Futures and Challengers tournaments, where the total prize money is capped at $15,000 and $150,000 respectively, until he earned a spot in the ATP events alongside the game’s elite?

Or is Young just another bust, hyped beyond the level of his talent? A Kwame Brown of the tennis world? The difference is that Brown, the first pick of the N.B.A. draft in 2001, is still being paid $9 million a year for his underachieving, while Young is in Carson fighting for the top prize of $7,200.

“There’s been a lot of negative press put on us playing in some of these ATP events,” Young’s father, Donald Sr., told me. It was a week before the Carson Challenger tournament, and I was visiting the Youngs in Atlanta, where Donald Jr. trains at Tennis in Motion, a tennis facility and training center run by his father. The campus is impressive enough, with more than 20 courts, hard and clay, set on a barren patch of land not far from the airport, but it was virtually empty on that Saturday in May. When I arrived, Donald Sr. was stringing a racket and Young’s mother, Illona, had just brought in pizza for lunch.

The decision to play the big tournaments was in large part a financial decision, Donald Sr. said, and the family wasn’t pushed by IMG. In fact, he wasn’t very happy with the company or Young’s agent, Gary Swain, who set up that now-legendary early practice session with John McEnroe. Neither Swain nor the company, according to Donald Sr., had done enough to market his son, beginning with a missed opportunity when Young became the world’s top junior. “Why couldn’t he have had . . . a two-dollar popsicle deal,” he said, or “a two-dollar bubblegum deal?”

Far-fetched examples, perhaps, but Young’s father had a point: even small endorsement deals can make a difference. After all, tennis, on any level, is expensive. That’s why, like golf, it’s often regarded as a sport for rich kids. Donald Sr. learned this long before his son was born. A Chicago native and the son of a former pro baseball player, he took up tennis at 16 and played for Alabama State. He tried his luck on the minor pro circuit, but it wasn’t much of a living. “I realized you had to have resources, sponsorships to do certain things,” he said.

Young’s mother, who grew up in Missouri, was not allowed to play tennis as a child because it was too expensive, but she fell in love with the sport during college. When she moved to Chicago to work in advertising and later for Fannie Mae, she taught tennis on the side. Donald Sr. and Illona met at a mixed-doubles tournament as opponents but soon realized they would win more matches playing together. “We partnered up, and then we really partnered up,” Illona said.

When their only child showed an early gift for the sport, the Youngs were well aware of the sacrifices, financial and otherwise, that they would have to make to see him reach his potential. Beginning in seventh grade, Young was home-schooled by Illona — she is also a certified teacher — to accommodate a heavy traveling schedule that you don’t see as often in more school-oriented and seasonal sports like football and baseball. The United States Tennis Association contributed yearly grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, but they weren’t enough. “You take a kid like Donald, who had a hefty travel schedule, and you’re looking at $30,000 to $40,000 in expenses,” Rodney Harmon, director of the U.S.T.A.’s men’s-tennis program, says. “Plus, you have to double that, since he’s too young to travel on his own.”

Neither the family nor Swain will discuss the size of Young’s endorsements, but his Nike contract, the largest of them, is reported to be significantly smaller than the $2 million deal the company is said to have given Gael Monfils, a young Frenchman of Caribbean descent who is ranked No. 62. Young’s father says only that his son is already making more than most recent college graduates. “They’re lucky if they get thirty, forty thousand,” he said — and Donald is “doing that already.” With the endorsements and the income from Tennis in Motion, the family is comfortable financially, and Illona can travel full time with her son.

Still, the Youngs aren’t rich, which is why accepting the wild cards made sense, Donald Sr. said. “If you had the opportunity to play in a pro event, make 5 or 10 thousand dollars, losing in the first round versus losing in a Future making $137. . . . ” Donald Sr. begin to ask rhetorically, referring to the paltry sums generated by a first-round exit in a Futures tournament. “Your hotel is paid for, you’ve got a car to drive around in. Is there any comparison?”

But at the time, what he didn’t understand was that the losses were exacting a heavy psychological price on his young son.

Young was on the academy’s practice courts, hitting with a college player and a teenage girl — just fooling around, really, before flying out to California in a few days to prepare for the Challenger tournament. When he took a break, we talked briefly and awkwardly, comparing opinions about “Spider-Man 3.” He has dealt with many reporters and seems to have determined that the best way to handle them is to be generous with his smiles and laughter and to say little. At first, even his high speaking voice seems conditioned to appear agreeable. But he’s handsome, naturally charismatic and well mannered, so he comes off as perhaps a tad nervous, but not affected.

The following morning, we sat down in the tennis center, next to the Ping-Pong table. Young had awoken early to catch the end of a tournament final in Hamburg, in which Federer happened to beat Nadal for the first time on clay. Later, he was hoping to make the two-hour drive to the University of Georgia to watch some of the college championships then under way. I recalled my earlier conversation with Harmon of the U.S.T.A, who has known Young for many years. “That’s one thing people don’t realize about Donald,” he told me. “That he really loves the game, loves watching it and appreciates the history.”

So I was surprised to hear Young tell me that the previous year he had thought of giving up the sport entirely.

He had lost plenty of times as a junior, he said, but the losses were always followed by wins and then dominance. Yet the learning curve was steeper at the professional level, and after his dismal start in ATP events, Young found himself for the first time questioning his tennis skills. “I felt like I wasn’t good enough, felt like I should go to school now, just hang it up,” he said. “I didn’t feel I deserved to be in the locker room.”

Meanwhile, Young, so close to his parents, began to push them away. “I wasn’t listening to anyone,” he said. “I wanted to do what I wanted to do, and that was it.” He didn’t feel like traveling. He wanted to hang out with his friends in Atlanta. Briefly, he dated. “It kind of got in the way a little bit,” he said. “Maybe it was the wrong person. I don’t know.” Young wasn’t just trying to find his way as a professional tennis player; he was negotiating his adolescence.

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