Top Spin Blog » U.S. Open

Two, Count’em, Two American Men in U.S. Open Quarters

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:53:21 +0000

It’s been quite a long time since two American men have reached the quarters of a Grand Slam. And good to see that Roddick broke the streak of Spanish wins over American players. Now he just has to keep it going against Nadal, but I think he has a good shot on the hard courts. As does Isner with Murray. On to the semis, gentlemen!

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Dear CBS and ESPN: An Open Letter on the U.S. Open

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:16:58 +0000

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a letter from my parents. They have been watching a lot of the U.S. Open.

To the producers and directors of CBS & ESPN tennis productions:

You have some of the worst announcers in sports.

I have a son who was a junior tennis player when McEnroe was beginning his career. I saw hundreds of junior tennis players who copied McEnroe’s horrible behavior — screaming, ranting, raving, cursing, acting like an out-of-control person. He had a negative influence on thousands of junior players. I have complained to the officials at many tournaments because of the behavior of junior players — behavior that McEnroe displayed for years on worldwide TV.

And now McEnroe is a spokesman for tennis. His tennis commentaries should be renamed the “McEnroe Autobiography Show.” He babbles on about matches he played thirty years ago while ignoring the current matches. He thinks he is the only person who ever played the game. Chris Fowler and Mary Carillo are just as bad. They talk about things unrelated to ongoing matches.

Jim Courier, Darren Cahill, Bill Macatee and Cliff Drysdale are very good.

You should trash McEnroe and Carillo.

Eddie and Jo Anne Starnes, Cedartown, Georgia

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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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Nadal Takes New York

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:46:01 +0000

I’m glad to see Rafa beat his Borgitis, but I still think Bjorn was one cool cat.

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Can Nadal Overcome New York “Borgitis”?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:22:02 +0000

Tennis history on the line this afternoon to see if Rafael Nadal can accomplish what Bjorn Borg never did — win in New York. Borg won six French Opens and five Wimbledons, kneeling down on the last one like he was giving thanks to the tennis gods above. But by September, those gods were frowning on him, knocking him down in the finals of four U.S. Opens. He practically disappeared, in fact, after losing in 1981 to McEnroe. Nadal, thus far in his career, has suffered from Borgitis. A win today vaults him ahead of Borg in the all-time great discussion.

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Dimwits in the Crowd at the U.S. Open

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:43:44 +0000

Of the more than a decade now that I’ve been attending the U.S. Open, it never fails that wherever I sit I end up in the seat in front of a loudmouth dimwit, the kind of tennis fan who tells his kid that it is match point when the score is deuce at 5-games all, the kind of fan who makes outrageous declarations despite not knowing enough about tennis to tell Tourna Grip from toilet paper. “I was here last year and I saw Andy Roddick hit a serve 240 miles an hour — I’m serious.” Or the fan who is certain the serve he saw was wide, despite being 50 rows up on the wrong side of the court. “Can’t these guys see? Come ‘on!”

Almost as bad as the obvious braggarts are the fans obsessed with the obscenely-priced food and merchandise. And they all carry cell phones so when they’ve exhausted and bored everyone within earshot, they can reach out and annoy someone else. Here’s the side of a conversation I heard during a key moment in the fourth set of the Soderling v. Haider-Maurer match on Monday:

Hey Carl, I’m at the grandstand.

I’m thinking about buying the kids shirts.

But I like the hats a lot.

What do you think of the hats?

Let’s get shirts. Shirts are good. Hats are good too. But I want shirts…

I should ask their mom.

Maybe we get the both hats and shirts. What do you think?

I think…

While this went on ad nauseum, he missed some brilliantly played points and a shocking overhead miss by Soderling that sent the match into the fifth set.

There’s clearly a lot of money to be made selling these dimwits shirts and hats and $9 souvenir beer cups and $12 crepes. I just wish the USTA would open a mall outside the grounds to occupy these idiots so those of us who came to see tennis can watch the matches.

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A Big Win for a Young American, and a Big American Bombs Out

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:53:54 +0000

Compelling dynamics for the American men at this year’s U.S. Open, with Andy Roddick losing to Janko Tipsarevic (a match I thought would be tough for him when I first saw the draw) and qualifier 18-year-old Ryan Harrison upsetting No. 15 Ivan Ljubicic, a wily veteran and no easy win for Harrison. After a strong spring, it has been a very tough summer for Roddick, and he is now in desperate danger of falling out of the top ten for the year. At 28, it will be no easy feat for him to get back near the top. On the other hand, this could be the watershed for Harrison, a decade younger than Roddick.

Despite Roddick’s early departure, there are several Americans left who can go deep in New York, with Harrison as a new favorite, but also Mardy Fish, already into the third round. John Isner and Sam Querrey also moved on yesterday, and Isner looked good coming off a recent ankle injury. Hoping to see one or two of them left come Super Saturday, and after studying the draw, my money is Isner and maybe Fish reaching the semis. Querrey also has a chance. As much as I’d like to see Harrison, I doubt he has much of a chance to move past Nadal if he reaches the fourth round. And don’t forget James Blake, at 30, making perhaps his last run, but Djokovic looms as his third round opponent.

Ryan Harrison

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Tennis Not Suited for Rocky at Monday’s Open

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:48:11 +0000

On Monday I was back and forth between the Grandstand and Armstrong courts, looking for the Rocky of tennis. But something occurred to me as I watched the underdogs go down: In boxing, you always hear about a puncher’s chance. But in tennis, one great punch is only one point, and to win a best-of-five you need a big string of punches, eighteen games worth of points in fact. In the long run, the better player is almost always going to win.

Michael Russell, the Rocky Balboa I was hoping for, started strong with some punch, an early break against Davydenko on Monday, but after the Russian settled in, there wasn’t much Russell could do to hurt him. He couldn’t outslug him from the baseline, he couldn’t beat him by taking the net, and a few stabs at junk balls were futile. It was just that helpless feeling that anyone who has played competitive tennis knows well — what can you do about the impenetrable wall put up by a superior player? Davydenko’s groundstrokes were laser sharp, and Russell started to make errors as the set went on. All Russell could do was hope Davydenko perhaps hurt himself or the Russian mafia had money on the American, neither of which happened. It was a tough draw for the hardworking 32-year-old American.

There were two almost upsets. ATP No. 214 Andreas Haider-Maurer fought back from match points at two sets to none to push No. 5 seed Robin Soderling the distance on the Grandstand Court. One weak service game by the 23-year-old qualifier Haider-Maurer in the fifth was all it took. Otherwise, Haider-Maurer hit 34 aces to Soderling’s eight. Soderling moped about a bit in the heat, benefiting from the shade that moved over the court. And in a match I didn’t see, American qualifier Robert Kendrick, ranked 149 in the world, pushed Gael Monfils the distance in front of a packed Court 11, but lost in the fifth 6-4.

It didn’t happen Monday, but one day it’s going to happen that some qualifier is going to get some big wins and go all the way. When it does, it will be a thrill.

Michael Russell, Aug. 30, 2010

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Roddick Bound For Secound Round Battle: Blake & Fish in the Same Quarter

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:11:54 +0000

Much of the early analysis I heard from the talking heads on ESPN judged Roddick’s draw as favorable to the quarters, but the second round most likely will see him paired up against Janko Tipsarevic, the Serb who knocked him out in the second round of Wimbledon 2008. Their career record is 1-1, both matches at Wimbledon. (Roddick beat him in four in 2006.) Of course, Tipsarevic retired with an ankle injury in his last match at only 2-2 in the first set in Toronto, so he might not be at full speed.

Red hot Mardy Fish and the almost forgotten James Blake are in the same quarter of the draw, both with favorable draws offering the likelihood of them moving on a few rounds.

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Looking for the Rocky of Tennis

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:09:54 +0000

Most every article or broadcast preview of the U.S. Open I’ve seen focuses on the obvious questions, as though most tennis journalists are sharing notes– will Nadal win his first Open? Can Federer reclaim another title? Is Murray going to cash the U.S. Open Series bonus check for obscene millions and go to Disney World with an Olympus camera? Blah, blah, blah…

But first thing on Monday is a match I’m excited about. Michael Russell, 32 with a career ATP match record of 40 and 88 after 12 years on tour, plays perennial top tenner Nikolay Davydenko on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court the first match of the day. Russell, ranked 80, is the obvious underdog to No. 6 Davydenko. The two middleweights (Russell is 160 pounds to Davydenko’s 154) have never played before.

I’m going to be at the Open tomorrow morning and pulling for Russell for all I’m worth. American tennis needs a Rocky, a player from down in the rankings who has been battling on the minor league circuits for years. ESPN wrote an article about his tough career path three years ago – and he’s still out battling. This is a great shot for him, on a show court, in the Big Apple.

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