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USTA’s 10 and Under Tennis Nothing New

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:52:11 +0000

If you’ve watched 15 minutes of the U.S. Open by now, you’ve probably seen one of the USTA’s ads about its 10 and under tennis program. Is this concept really that new? Perhaps it is in the days of graphite rackets that can’t be sawed off like my first wooden racket (a Jack Kramer), but small rackets and lowered nets have been around a long while.

The unspoken implication in the USTA campaign is that American professional tennis is weak because the rackets, balls and courts are too big for American kids. That’s not the problem. The problem is that for whatever reason, tennis is no longer considered very cool or an important part of American culture, much like it was in the seventies when I was starting out (pictured here at age 7 in 1974 with my mother, pregnant with my brother at the time).

Spain, France, Serbia, Argentina and Russia aren’t dominating the pro ranks because they have lots of miniature courts and pint-sized equipment for kids; they are dominant because in those countries, tennis is appealing, like it was here thirty to forty years ago.

Of course, just maybe this program will work, and American kids will enjoy the game and tennis will be cool again. Encouraging kids to play is a great cause and I hope it’s wildly successful — just quit blaming the tools. What’s needed is the desire to hit the ball, not custom-made equipment. Connors, McEnroe and Sampras grew up on rackets like war clubs — there is no reason a new generation of young American players today can’t do the same.

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U.S. versus Spain: 0-9

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:11:55 +0000

Zero to nine. The number says it all. That is the record of American men versus Spanish men in singles during Wimbledon and the recent Davis Cup meeting.

For some well-chosen but dismal descriptions of the state of the American team, check out Jonathan Scott on Tennis.com who concludes his article “U.S. Davis Cup Team Walks the Plank” this way: “Down for the count. Dead in the water. Another sad metaphor for those matches.”

Perhaps we should have seen this coming when Patrick McEnroe decided to step down.

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See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:13:25 +0000

With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American men completed a dismal 0-6 record in singles on the grass against Spanish players over the Wimbledon fortnight (fortnight being one of those words you only hear once a year when Wimbledon rolls around). Not exactly the confidence boost captain Jim Courier wanted going into the U.S. versus Spain Davis Cup quarterfinal starting July 8. But the American team has four things going for it:

The match is indoors, on a hard, fast court where the ball takes an honest bounce. No more of this muddled European soil.

Doubles is a critical point, and we have the number one team in the world, the Bryan brothers. By they way, they are in the semis and going for the win. (Someone should point this out to ESPN’s resident airhead Chris Fowler who endlessly recites the inaccuracy that there is only “one American man left in the draw.” )

The U.S. has never lost to Spain in the states, and holds a 5-4 record dating back to 1965. Roddick’s hometown crowd will give the U.S. team a boost. Texans know how to whoop it up.

And the big one — Rafael Nadal is taking the week off. However, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez (who beat Roddick in the third round of Wimbledon), and Fernando Verdasco (whom Roddick beat in a Wimledon warmup) are coming and will make for tough competition. Roddick and Fish, fresh off some big wins, will make up the U.S. team with the Bryans. Lineups were announced earlier this week. It’s too bad that Nadal won’t be there, but that’s par for the course in Davis Cup, where the real superstars often sit out.

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Nadal To Skip Davis Cup in Texas

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:18:55 +0000

This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed Davis Cup for more than 20 minutes. From the Austin-American Statesman. Related posts:See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American...Davis Cup in Roddick’s Hometown: Austin The U.S. Davis [...] Related posts:

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Isner-Mahut Wimbledon Rematch: What Were the Odds?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:01:13 +0000

According to this blog post on Wimbledon.com, the odds were only one in 127. Leave it to a Cambridge math professor to sap the life out of something remarkable. But what were the odds of it happening twice? Is it two in 254? My mom is suspicious of the draw — and I agree with her — that it sounds almost a little shady, as though the Wimbledon PR people manipulated the matchups to gain a little extra news and web coverage.

Today’s match will, of course, be anticlimactic compared to last year. If you want to have a good time reliving the longest match ever in style, go back and reread this blog from The Guardian written as it happened last year where the question was asked at 62-61 in the fifth set: “what if it does actually never end? Would Wimbledon eventually have to introduce a new ruling banning all undead and just nudge Thiemo De Bakker through to the third round?”

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Greatest Tennis Player of All Time? Roger, Of Course, Despite the Fact I’ve Beaten Him 17 Times

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:54:05 +0000

The GOAT discussion reached its most ludicrous point yesterday when John McEnroe’s endless search for an answer to the unanswerable and interminable question landed at Rafael Nadal’s feet after he beat Roger Federer for the 17th time, the sixth time in a Grand Slam final. (Federer has beaten Nadal only eight times, and only twice in Grand Slam finals.) McEnroe said something like, “Somewhere in your heart you must think you are the greatest of all time.” Rafa responded in his usual humble fashion. “No, it’s Roger. He is the greatest.” It must feel good to have a .680 winning record against the GOAT.

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Gluten-Free Streak: Is Being No. 1 Worth This?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:45:16 +0000

Much has been written and said lately about Novak Djokovic’s gluten-free diet as one reason for his monumental winning streak, so I thought I’d look into it. I could afford to drop a few pounds and wouldn’t mind improving my game. All it requires giving up? According to the Mayo Clinic, just these few items: beer, bread, candy, cakes and pies, cereals, cookies, crackers, croutons, gravy, oats, pasta, salad dressings, sauces, and soups, among other things.

I think I’ll be sticking with the gluten.

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Davis Cup in Roddick’s Hometown: Austin

Joe Samuel Starnes — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:25:30 +0000

The U.S. Davis Cup match against Spain has been set for Austin, Texas, hometown of Andy Roddick, running from July 8-10.

Let’s hope that Nadal will make the trip, but I’m betting the hard, indoor court will not be that appealing to him, especially if he goes deep in Wimbledon where the men’s final is set for Sunday, July 3 — only five days before the Davis Cup play begins.

A Nadal no-show would put most likely Verdasco and Ferrer in the singles slots. Ferrer’s a tough competitor, but we know how Verdasco feels about hard, fast courts.

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Mac Styslinger: Junior Off on the Right Foot In a Torn Shoe

Joe Samuel Starnes — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:12:35 +0000

Mac Styslinger, a native of Mountain Brook, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham, reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open juniors, and saw his ranking skyrocket into the ITF’s top 100. The following profile of Styslinger written by Will Hightower, a junior at Mountain Brook High School, ran in the March issue Village Living, a monthly community newspaper.

By Will Hightower

The odds were stacked against him. Seventeen-year-old Mac Styslinger was playing in the first junior Grand Slam tennis tournament of his life. His opponent was ranked near the top of the world’s best. He was in Australia, of all places. And to top it all off, his right shoe had just torn completely in half.

His coach searched his bag for a backup, but there was none to be found. The match awkwardly came to a stop as everyone realized the problem. Luckily, his hometown came through in the oddest of situations, at the oddest of locations.

“Coincidentally, a random person from Birmingham was actually in the crowd that day,” Styslinger said. “He offered me his shoe and so I played with that until my coach found some others for me.”

The shoe fiasco was the only a minor bump in Styslinger’s incredible performance at the Junior Australian Open in Melbourne. A relative unknown on the world scale, Styslinger improbably played his way into the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Mac’s father, Mark was a star junior player in the late 1970s. As a senior, he enrolled in Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy and was in one of the first classes to graduate from the school that went on to produce ten world number one players.

So when Mac began playing at age six, it was no shock that he was much better than his peers. The tennis skills were in his genes.

“I was pretty good when I was first starting out but I didn’t know how good because I only played with the kids at my club,” Styslinger said. He eventually made it to number four in the nation in the 14 and under age group.

As Mac was climbing the nation’s rankings in ninth grade, his father attended the 35^th anniversary of his graduation from Bollettieri’s tennis school. By this time, Bollettieri’s academy was much larger than it was in its formative years, largely due to his success in coaching Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams had trained under Bollettieri.

While Mark Styslinger was in Florida for the reunion, he mentioned Mac to the world-famous coach. “Bollettieri encouraged my dad to send me down to his academy,” Mac said. “I was the best player at my club in Birmingham, so I wanted to go as well.”

The decision was made. The Mountain Brook native began a tough regimen of tennis training and schooling at IMG Bollettieri Academy in Florida, under the tutelage of the best coaches in the world. Styslinger began traveling with his coach, David DePalmer, to tournaments across the world.

“I met David at IMG and now we travel everywhere,” Mac said. “We spent six weeks in Europe over the summer doing various tournaments. But none of those tournaments were as big as the Open.”

As Styslinger worked his way through the junior tennis circuits, his world ranking climbed to number 110, earning him the opportunity to play his way into the biggest event of his life – the 2011 Junior Australian Open.

Styslinger flew to Australia in late January with his coach and mom in tow. His dad’s connections and Mac’s hard work at the Academy had gotten him this far – now, it came down to how well Mac performed.

Styslinger breezed through the qualifying rounds, beating players from Peru and Japan to advance into the main draw.

He kept winning against players that were expected to beat him, but finally was taken down in the quarterfinals by Roberto Carballes Baena from Spain, 6-3 6-2.

Colette Lewis, who writes for the USTA through zootennis.com, said Mac’s performance was unexpectedly amazing. “Mac certainly had his breakthrough tournament in Australia,” she said. “Qualifying and winning three rounds in a junior slam is an impressive accomplishment, especially when it is your first one! Most competitors need to play one or two before they are comfortable enough and can control their nerves enough to play well.”

But Mac insists that he wasn’t all that nervous. “We got to do a tiny bit of sightseeing while we were there, so that took off the edge a bit. A local farmer invited me to his farm and we got to see some kangaroos. That was cool.”

His play in the Open made his world ranking skyrocket to number 68. According to Lewis, that ranking will give Mac the chance to play the other three junior slams in his final year of junior tennis.

After that, Styslinger says, he wants to go to college and then “hopefully be in a good enough position to go pro.”

But for now, the future can wait. “Right now, I just want to get better and better as a player,” he said.

Printed courtesy of Village Living.

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Roddick Finishes the Job in Chile; Where to next, Andy?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:43:34 +0000

Big-time comeback for Roddick on the red clay in Chile today — now on to Austin, San Antonio or Albany for the next round this summer.

With the top dog Texas-resident back on the team, it’s got to be Austin or San Antonio when the Spaniards come calling in July. (The USTA wouldn’t snub Andy and his brother a second time around, would they?)

Here’s an idea: let the player who has carried the singles lines on his back for the past decade pick the next location. He deserves it. Where to, Andy?

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