Top Spin Blog

Isner IS America’s Next Best Chance to Win a Grand Slam

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:29:25 +0000

This year thus far has been the breakout year for John Isner – winning his first ATP title, reaching the round of 16 in Australia, and making a heroic Davis Cup debut this weekend in which he played all three days, including a great effort as a last-minute sub in the doubles and a valiant five-set loss to world No. 2 Djokovic in the proud Serb’s hometown. Isner is at an all-time high in singles at 20, an awesome jump from March 2 a year ago when he had dropped all the way to No. 144. Ever since Pete Sampras retired and Andre Agassi’s back began to hurt, America’s hopes have ridden on Andy Roddick shoulders. Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003 and has come close at Wimbledon, no more so than last summer when he had chances to knock off Federer, but has not produced another championship. With Roddick turning 28 this year, he might have a few more shots, but I think 24-year-old Isner is not our next best chance. With his humongous serve, he has a puncher’s chance, especially on the fast courts of U.S. Open (which the USTA should keep speeding up by the way, especially since Wimbledon and Australia’s surfaces have slowed in past years).

The obvious comparison to Isner is Ivo Karlovic, the 6-10, 230 pound Croatian (Isner is 6-9, 245 pounds). Both hit serves from a lofty trajectory, piling up aces, giving them a chance to push every set to a tiebreaker. Karlovic is 31, and still competing strong, ranked 29 in the world. His high was No. 14 two years ago. Isner, however, has more game than Karlovic. Isner’s forehand is big too, and he’s volleying better (and it was great to see him hold his own at the net in the doubles yesterday.) I think the key for him will be fitness and developing a better net game. For too long we’ve watched Roddick bang 130 mph serves and then stay on the baseline. Big John needs to keep at it in doubles and in singles get into net, where his wing span is wide and he can put the ball away.

There’s no doubt he can step in to fill the Davis Cup role long-occupied by Andy Roddick. I’m hoping one day we’ll see him hunker down and raise with long arms a Grand Slam trophy over his head, afterward donning a Georgia Bulldog cap for the press conference. With what he showed this weekend, fighting Djokovic tooth-and-nail on clay, I believe he can do it.

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Will Roddick Play Davis Cup Again? “I don’t know,” he says.

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:26:40 +0000

Leif Shiras asks Roddick in phone interview during Isner-Djokovic match if he will play Davis Cup again? “I don’t know,” he said. Adding that he won’t play this year, and about the future he doesn’t know. Roddick is 31-11 career in singles at Davis Cup, second in wins for Americans to John McEnroe, who is 41-8. He’ll never catch McEnroe now. Roddick did say that he would be interested in coaching Davis Cup one day.

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Still Alive! Isner and Bob Bryan Win a Thriller

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:30:36 +0000

Bob Bryan and John Isner, subsituting for an ill Mike Bryan, fought back in the first and third set tiebreakers to win in four sets in the Davis Cub doubles against Serbia on Saturday. A brilliant win, especially for Isner in his Davis Cup debut, a weekend in which he did not plan to play doubles. Tomorrow the task gets harder, with Isner up against Novak Djokovic. (9 a.m. ET on Tennis Channel) Bigger upsets have happened, but I can’t think of many.

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Serbian Sautee? Mike Bryan Out of Doubles With Food Poisoning

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:52:49 +0000

The Bryan twins missed the chance to add to their Davis Cup record when Mike Bryan had to sit out of today’s doubles because of an upset stomach caused by something he ate, Tennis Channel commentator Leif Shiras said. John Isner, who lost a more than three hour match yesterday, was the last minute substitute. Tomorrow he plays Novak Djokovic. What a Davis Cup debut. Let’s hope they get the doubles win. They just saved FIVE set points to come back from 6-2 and win the first set tiebreaker! Check for live Davis Cup scores on daviscup.com.

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U.S. Davis Cup: Backs to the Wall in the Balkans

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:13:17 +0000

From Daviscup.com: Novak Djokovic confirmed Serbia’s dominance over USA by beating Sam Querrey at the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round tie in Belgrade.

Playing in front of a passionate home crowd, Djokovic handed his team a commanding 2-0 lead on Friday. Despite a spirited fight back from Querrey in the third set, the world No. 2 won the second rubber of the day 62 76(4) 26 63 in three hours, 25 minutes.

In the opening rubber, Viktor Troicki withstood a creditable clay court challenge from John Isner to win 76(4) 67(5) 75 64 in three hours 36 minutes.

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U.S. and Serbia Show Down Starts Friday

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:44:56 +0000

The Winter Olympics are over, but the Davis Cup, an event that has become more obscure than curling, has just begun. To win, the U.S. has to get victories from John Isner and Sam Querrey over Victor Troicki, because they won’t be Novak Djokovic on clay. The draw is out, with Isner making his Davis Cup debut against Troicki in the opener, followed by Querrey and Djokovic. The big Georgia Bulldog needs to bring it right off the bat, or it will be a rough weekend for the Americans.

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“Ridiculous Hands” — Top Alabama Junior’s Take on the U.S. Davis Cup Team

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:54:18 +0000

Sam Cissell, recently named by the USTA as Alabama’s junior player of the year, also has the distinction of having been across the net from three-fourths of the U.S. Davis Cup team that plays in Serbia later this week. The 16-year-old Cissell and friend Andrew Crumm last year won a doubles tournament that gave them the opportunity to play an exhibition match in November in Pelham, Ala., against Bob and Mike Bryan. The Bryans beat the Alabama teens 10-3 in a super tiebreaker. “They had ridiculous hands,” Cissell said of the 2010 Australian Open champions and the world’s No. 1 doubles team. “They didn’t miss any volleys. The ball never gets past them.”

Cissell, who spent his freshman year in high school living at the Saddlebrook Tennis Academy in Tampa, Fla., has practiced with John Isner. Isner, who won his first ATP tournament in January and reached the fourth round of the Australian Open, now ranks 25th in the world and is making his Davis Cup debut this week. “He’s huge,” Cissell said, adding that Isner’s serve is almost impossible to return because it rises so fast. “I had to jump up to just get to the ball.”

Cissel’s long-range goal is to play for a top-tier college team, noting that the list of universities he would like to play for include Mississippi State, San Diego, Alabama and Auburn. He said if he has a successful college carer, he would like to follow the path of players like Isner and the Bryans, both of whom played college tennis before turning pro. Cissell said the Bryan brothers and Isner, in fact, had some advice for him on how to get there. “They said work hard, keep playing tournaments and stay out of trouble.”

Photo Courtesy of Katrina Trotter

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American Young Guns to Get Chance at Davis Cup in Serbia

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:44:52 +0000

A new era for American Davis Cup has begun, and it will be up to John Isner and Sam Querrey to step up and fill the shoes of long-time Davis Cuppers Andy Roddick and James Blake who are sitting out the competition this year. The tall twosome — Isner is 6′9″ an Querey 6′6″ — have a tall order to fill against the Serbian team lead by Novak Djokovic on indoor red clay in Belgrade on March 5-7. “This is the first time since 2000 that neither Andy Roddick nor James Blake will be on the U.S. Davis Cup roster – a span of 25 Davis Cup ties,” a USTA press release said. The Bryan brothers, the world’s No. 1 doubles team fresh of an Australian Open championship, will try to continue to build on their dominant career record of 16-2 in Davis Cup play. The U.S. vs. Serbia winner will face either Ecuador or Croatia in the Davis Cup quarterfinals, July 9-11. If the United States beats Serbia, they will be guaranteed to host the July quarterfinal, the press release said.

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American Siblings Dominate Doubles

Joe Samuel Starnes — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:41:38 +0000

Lost in much of the coverage of Federer the Great and Serena’s win in singles in the Australian Open were the feats by two sets of American siblings: twins Bob and Mike Bryan won their eighth Grand Slam title, and Serena and Venus Williams won their 11th. Americans may not win many singles titles these days, but we are dominating the doubles and adding to the all-time records.

The Bryans are only three wins behind the Woodies — Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde — from having the most major tournament doubles wins. The twins turn 32 in April, but do not appear to be slowing down. In addition to playing together well on the court, they have been making music off the court, releasing four songs last year on the EP Let it Rip.

Also often overlooked are the Williams sisters’ doubles record. They have won four of the past six grand slam titles, and are now the third most successful women’s doubles partnership in the Open Era, after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver (21), and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva (14).

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Gambling and Pro Tennis — The Human Dog Track of the Future

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:01:00 +0000

I doubt most readers of this blog have been to an American dog track, where greyhounds run a frantic loop chasing an electronic rabbit that scoots along the rail. In Sarasota, Fla., the announcer starts each race with a fevered, “Here comes lucky!” the dogs take off, and hundreds if not thousands of fans hold their tickets and cheer and yell and then most tear them in half and curse.

I worry that professional tennis may soon become the dog tracks of the future, where gambling on the sport is the driving source of revenue. I also worry that it will become as crooked as boxing is known to be, and that many of the matches are corrupted by players willing to hit enough bad shots to lose when they could have won. I think it will be any day now when tennis suffers a match-fixing scandal of the highest order, similar to baseball’s famed Shoeless Joe Jackson/Chicago Black Sox fix of the 1919 World Series or college basketball’s 1951 point-shaving scheme.

I know I sound alarmist here, but two things have prompted me to say this. The first is the solicitations I’ve received for my blog. I do not get tremendous traffic, seeing just shy of 10,000 unique visitors in 2009, but in spite of that, I have been contacted three or four times recently by web sites who compliment me on the quality of the writing, and then ask for a link exchange with a site that purports to be a tennis blog or news page. One even offered to pay me. When I visit their pages, I find they are simply betting sites, and are hosted in spots all over the globe, including New Zealand the Czech Republic. The bets offered don’t include simply Grand Slams or ATP events, but the opportunity to gamble on Challenger events in places like Lexington, Ky., or Biloxi, Miss., where players well out of the top 100 compete. How hard do you think it might be to get a player who has never earned more than $100,000 in one year (and remember, that’s before their expenses of traveling, training, etc.), to throw a match for a bag of cash? All you need is one desperate player.

The second is, that in spite of the obvious risk of match fixing, gambling gets the endorsement of some of the cornerstone organizations in the game. The Australian Open is even sponsored by a London-based gambling web site, a recent report in The New York Times said. Not only are they a sponsor, the more money bet, the more money the Australian Open makes, as the article by Joe Drape reported: ”[The gambling site I refuse to name here] pays Tennis Australia a share of revenue from wagers on matches during the tournament. ‘“We’re not opposed to gambling,” said Steve Ayles, a spokesman for the Australian Open. “It is part of our Australian culture and it is widely accepted.”’

Tennis organizations have created a lofty sounding “Tennis Integrity Unit,” and a study found 45 matches that caused suspicions. But in the biggest suspected case, Nikolai Davydenko was cleared, despite that “the ATP acknowledged that its investigators were unable to review the phone records of Davydenko’s wife and brother, which were first withheld and then destroyed” the Times reported. We clearly can’t expect much investigative savvy from an organization that believed Andre Agassi’s excuse for testing positive for crystal meth was that he sipped a friend’s drink, or Richard Gasquet’s recent claim that he didn’t do cocaine, he only kissed a woman who had been, causing him to test positive. The ATP is predisposed to believing the falling down drunk who runs his car into a telphone pole and claims, “I only had two beers.”

Even with crack investigative work, I don’t know if match fixing can really be stopped. I love following tennis and other sports because of the unscripted nature of it, of the possibility that anybody, even someone ranked 900 in the world could beat a favorite, as unlikely as that might be. But with the growth of gambling, I will wonder. Was the upset I saw real, or did the favorite just need the money? With the multinational flavor of tennis, tracking the exchange of currencies across the globe and through many tongues is almost impossible.

I don’t know what can be done, if anything, to stop it. But tennis organizations, especially prestigious Grand Slam events like the Australian Open, need to eschew any connection to gambling. But in Australia, much like the bets on a dog race, a portion of the bets made go the house. And the house always wins, and the dogs always lose.

In this case, tennis fans, the dogs are us.

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