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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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The Greatest Match of All Time?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:29:19 +0000

John McEnroe, Bud Collins, Tennis Magazine’s Peter Bodo and Sports Illustrated’s L. Jon Wertheim all have rated Sunday’s final as the greatest match of all time, or at least of the Open era. (Sports Illustrated even put a match photo as the lead story on this week’s cover — when was the last time the magazine featured men’s tennis?) I don’t know if I can disagree, but I’m still sentimentally partial to the Borg-McEnroe final in 1980 where the fourth set tiebreaker went 18-16 and in spite of losing that tiebreaker and seven match points, Borg gathered himself and came back to win the fifth set 8-6 to take his fifth Wimbledon in a row. I remember that match well because I was 13 at the time and on that same day my dad and I went to Atlanta and he bought a ball machine I hoped would improve my backhand. We watched the Borg-McEnroe fourth set tiebreaker on a bank of televisions in the Ellman’s department store. Even with the ball machine, I still never resolved my weak backhand. (You can find much of the 1980 match in Youtube, and full coverage of that match is available on DVD through Netflix or Amazon.) Of course, I’ll always remember this year’s final because I saw the fourth set and the end of the fifth while in between going out and playing two sets with my friend Marcelo Pascale until rain brought us inside to watch it on the TV at the Green Valley Tennis Club in Haddon Township, N.J. I beat Marcelo, a transplanted Argentine, in two sets on clay, and anytime you beat an Argentine on clay you have done something special (I should probably reveal he is recovering from knee surgery). The tennis on the TV looked far better than we did. I’m still trying to decide if Wimbledon final of 1980 or 2008 is the best match ever. Fortunately, I have the 2008 match on tape and will watch again.

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Can the King of Clay Conquer Wimbledon?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:05:14 +0000

Rafael Nadal’s run in Paris without losing a set was the first time a French Open champion has won the tournament without losing a set since the great Bjorn Borg. With four titles at Roland Garros under his belt, can he win on the lawns of London? He has reached the finals of Wimbledon the last two years, and pushed Federer to five sets last year. We know he is the best clay court player, perhaps ever, and certainly since the dashing Swede with the Donnay rackets retired in the early eighties. To raise his place in the game up a notch, (and perhaps capture the No. 1 ranking) the 22-year-old Spaniard needs to win either at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open or both. I wonder, however, if his taped-up knees will hold up after the grass court season ends the tour takes to the hard courts of the U.S.

Rod Laver, in the meantime, is safe as the greatest of all time.

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Ion Tiriac Is In The House

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:51:00 +0000

Ion Tiriac, the former player, coach and agent who later became the richest Romanian and his country’s first billionaire, has a prime front-row seat at today’s match. You can’t miss his famous burly mustache. Tiriac wants to add a fifth grand slam to the tour to be played in Madrid, it was reported last fall.

Bjorn Borg, looking dapper and distinguished, is also in the house. His prediction that Federer has a good chance is looking dubious, as Nadal just closed out the first set in a shockingly easy 6-1.

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Greatest of All Time on the Line in French Open Final

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:55:26 +0000

When Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal step onto the red clay of Court Phillippe Chatrier on Sunday, Federer’s claim to be the greatest of all time—the GOAT, as Peter Bodo calls it—hangs in the balance. Because while this debate is one that will never have a definitive answer, I believe a player can only claim to be the greatest of all time unless he has won all four Grand Slams. If Federer wins, he will join Andre Agassi, Rod Laver, Don Budge, Fred Perry and Roy Emerson as the fraternity that can claim each of the premiere titles.

Even if Federer wins five more Wimbledons in a row, his status as the GOAT is dubious without the French, just as Bjorn Borg’s failure to win the U.S. Open excludes him from the conversation, just as Pete Sampras’ failure to win the French hinders his argument. And what about Bill Tilden, winner of six U.S. National Championships (then the U.S. Open) in a row from 1920-26? Or Richard Sears, who in the 1880s won the U.S. title seven times in a row?

Laver, winner of two calendar-year Grand Slams, both as an amateur in 1962 and in the open, professional era in 1969, is still undoubtedly the GOAT to beat. Laver turned pro in 1963 and missed five years of Grand Slams. You can argue that Pancho Gonzalez and Jack Kramer who missed even more years might have surpassed Laver, Emerson and others in Grand Slam titles. We’ll never know, and that’s why the debate sometimes goes in circles and provides John McEnroe endless fodder to talk about instead of the match at hand. Laver’s record, however, is tangible and speaks for itself. He is, for now, the greatest of all time.

If Federer can beat Nadal at Roland Garros, he’ll have legitimate chops in the conversation. As Borg said in a press conference Saturday, “He definitely will be the greatest player ever to play the game.” But even with a win, Federer will have a career losing record against Nadal. He’s 6-10 going into Saturday’s play, including 2-3 in Grand Slam finals. I ask you this: Can you be the greatest of all time and still have a losing record to a peer in your era?

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