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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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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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Bryan Twins Win Again: The Best Thing Going in American Tennis Not for Prime Time

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:20:43 +0000

Since you were probably sleeping at 5:30 a.m. this morning and missed it, Bob and Mike Bryan added their tenth Grand Slam trophy to their display cases Saturday, solidifying their claim as the greatest doubles team of all time. (I recorded it and watched it when I woke up; they dominated, serving 83 percent on their first serves and winning in straight sets.)

The Bryans are easily the best thing going in American tennis this year. They have won more tournaments than any team in the history of doubles and now have a legitimate shot at winning a calendar year Grand Slam (unlike Nadal or Federer.) This was their second consecutive Grand Slam trophy, their third consecutive Australian Open championship and fifth Australian Open overall. But if you didn’t get up early or didn’t record it, it was your only chance to see it this weekend.

I was happy last year to see the Bryans get some much deserved national attention– 60 Minutes and Sports Illustrated profiles – but very disappointed today to see that the only coverage of their finals win over Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati was live at 5:30 a.m. in the morning on Tennis Channel. ESPN2, with its pretended commitment to tennis, didn’t even bother to show it.

Tennis Channel should replay later at prime time. Why no replay, Tennis Channel? The singles matches are replayed in multiples. This is an insult to doubles and true fans of the game. Give the twins some more screen time. The Bryans and American tennis deserves better.

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Don’t Forget the Twins: Americans Remain in Oz

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:26:03 +0000

Shame on me for echoing the pack of headlines worldwide following the Roddick loss that said all of the American players had been ousted from the Australian Open. Supertwins Bob and Mike Bryan are seeded first and in the men’s doubles quarterfinals, and are set for the second match on the Margaret Court Arena starting no earlier than 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

I’m sorry I failed to mention them before. Now, the big question is will ESPN2 or Tennis Channel show it?

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The Awesome Unseededs in Australia

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:36:07 +0000

Watching matches the past two nights from Melbourne, I’m struck by how many awesome unseeded players there are in the men’s game. With 32 seeds, it would seem the talent would drop down after the seeds end, but it’s far from the case.

Just ask Roger Federer about Gilles Simon, ranked 34th now, but who only two years ago was as high as number six in the world. He almost took the great Fed down, pushing him to five sets. Or ask No. 16 seed Mardy Fish about Tommy Robredo, whom announcers kept referring to as the “unseeded Spaniard,” a player now ranked 52 in the world but who has been as high as six in 2006. He knocked Fish out in four.

Other unseeded studs who put up big fights but ultimately lost included two-time Grand Slam winner Lleyton Hewitt, Radek Stepanek, Janko Tipsarevic, and former U.S. Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro, all outside the world’s top 32. How can players so strong not be in the world’s 32 best? It’s amazing, a testament to the amazing depth and sky-high level of the ATP today.

It makes more impressive what those players at the top, Federer and Nadal, of course, but also Djokovic, Murray, Davydenko, Roddick and Ferrer have achieved to stay near the pinnacle for so long. Has the field at Grand Slams ever been as strong? Of the final 32 players left in the third round, nine are unseeded.

Or maybe there are too many seeds? Can 32 really be accurate? It would seem to me that 16 might be enough, especially if you have players as strong as those above falling outside the list of players with allegedly better draws.

Mac Styslinger: Junior Off on the Right Foot In a Torn Shoe Mac Styslinger, a native of Mountain Brook, Ala., a suburb...
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The Year of Isner Begins in Australia

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:16:29 +0000

What a treat last night to flip on the TV about 11:30 to see Australian tennis fans in summer clothes watching a live rematch of the John Isner-Nicholas Mahut marathon classic from Wimbledon (Isner won this time 3 & 6 in a quick 90 minutes). Also a treat to listen to the Australian announcers for another perspective, and to hear play-by-play with pauses of silence unheard on American television. Both Australian announcers believed that Isner, ranked 19, has the game to break into the top 10 this year. I hope and think he does too, especially if he can keep up a high level of serving. A few aces out wide in the deuce court looked like they were shot from a bazooka about ten stories up.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:59:56 +0000

It has been a good year for Topspin Blog, with more than 10,000 readers in 2010 despite my lack of regular postings at times. Thanks for reading, and keep coming back. Next year looks promising for American tennis, especially the Davis Cup team, so see you in 2011!

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Tennis in the Gloaming at Green Valley

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:57:06 +0000

Tuesday night my buddy Anthony and I had planned one last match outdoors before the days get too short and the weather too cold and play moves under the inflatable bubble that covers four of the nine courts at Green Valley Tennis Club in Haddon Township, N.J. My mother-in-law was in town to babysit, and I relished the rare night out for tennis while my wife was teaching, a night I’m usually changing diapers, hunting for clean pacifiers, and trying to rock our young one to sleep. The bubble was already up and rain earlier in the day caused me to expect that we would have to play indoors, but late afternoon the skies cleared up and we punched in on Court 7, starting about 5:45 p.m., most certainly my last evening outdoor tennis for the year. As usual, our games were long, deuce-ad, deuce-ad, and the first set, even though 6-3 in my favor, took a while, at least an hour. By this time the sunset sky through the trees at the end of the courts showed fiery red and orange, like a canvas by one of the Hudson River School painters.

We started the second and played another long while to 2-2, at which point we decided to play a tiebreaker. He almost skunked me, winning 7-1 after I played a courageous (okay, lucky that the angry swipe I took went in) point. Darkness by this point was coming down hard, but we agreed to play a 10-point supertiebreaker in place of the third set. We moved from Court 7 to Court 5, optimistically hopeful that the easternmost court would provide just a little more light. He started out strong and the twilight reminded me of the Scottish word I learned from the marvelous short story, “In the Gloaming” by Alice Elliott Dark, a fantastic writer and teacher I was lucky enough to learn from in grad school at Rutgers-Newark. I also thought of some early lines in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden recalls throwing a football on the lawn: “It was just before dinner and it was getting pretty dark out, but we kept chucking the ball around anyway. It kept getting darker and darker, and we could hardly see the ball any more, but we didn’t want to stop doing what we were doing.”

I felt the same, not wanting to stop, to not lose the last rays of light and the last of warm weather allowing outdoor tennis. Down 8-5, by this time near pitch dark, I mounted a comeback, and somehow held off a few match points to come back and win the tiebreaker 13-11. On match point I hit a solid serve that he couldn’t see at all. I hadn’t beaten Anthony in a while, and even though I had to enlist darkness to do it, it felt good. I would have been content losing too, however, happy to be able to steal a last few moments of summer-like evening a few days shy of October. Besides, Tuesday night is Taco Night at the Tap Room, the bar/restaurant next door to the club, and the outdoor deck was open, the tacos $2 each, and a bucket with five Mexican beers only $10. Anthony and I and several other players sat under a tree on the deck and ate and drank and told tennis stories. It’s a memory that will sustain me through the rapidly approaching days when the sun sets before I leave work, when ice begins forming on the morning windshields, and the outdoor nets go into winter storage.

Green Valley Tennis Club, Sept. 28, 2010

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U.S. Davis Cuppers Hoping to Hold World Group Spot in Colombia

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:25:20 +0000

If there was a much coverage of the actual Davis Cup matches as there is complaining about the format, the event would be as popular as the Grand Slams are now. Instead, we get John McEnroe or whoever else has the microphone or the column space endlessly lamenting the ridiculous schedule and the format. But if you can keep up with it, Davis Cup can provide some of the most exciting and unique showdowns in tennis. Where else are you going to see a match played in Colombia? Davis Cup gives the little countries a chance. In no other event is home court more important.

Of course, outgoing Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe and the rest of the team desperately hope they get the win they should as favorites. Otherwise, the U.S. will not have a shot to win the trophy in 2011 because they’ll fall from the World Group, the top 16 nations in the world. I’m sure PMac doesn’t want that to be his last match as captain. Falling out of the top 16 nations would be an embarrassment.

If you go by rankings, the U.S. should be a lock, but on clay in high altitudes, the matchups for Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey, the day one singles players, looks tough. Fish plays ATP No. 64 Alejandro Falla, against whom he has a 1-1 record. Querrey later in the day plays No. 61 Santiago Giraldo. They have never played.

Differences of about 40 ranking points won’t mean anything when you throw in the homecourt advantage. It could be a very tough day in Bogota.

Click here for the matchups, and here for Tennis Channel schedule. You can follow live scores on daviscup.com.

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