WTA stars exultant about opportunity to play for gold

MONTREAL — The Olympics were a hot topic among the players at the Rogers Cup WTA tournament last week. Here’s what some of the top players had to say to reporters about participating in the Beijing Games:

Soon to be the world No. 1, Jelena Jankovic has her sights set on Olympic gold and the U.S. Open.

Question: Jelena Jankovic announced that it’s unfortunate [Maria] Sharapova will not play in the Olympics. Can you comment on this?

Answer from Ana Ivanovic, Serbia: She won’t play Olympics? I didn’t know that. It must be very disappointing because for many players I think they put Olympics even higher than a Grand Slam. So I guess that’s a very, very disappointing fact.

Q: Do you put the Olympics higher than the Grand Slam tournament?

A: It’s definitely [a] very important event, especially [because] you get chance to play once in four years. You play this year, and who knows in four years if you would be, you know, able to play it? So, it’s definitely very high on my list.

Question: How big are the Olympics for you?

Answer from Jelena Jankovic, Serbia: Olympics, it’s a very special event. We get [an] opportunity to play Olympics every four years. Just to be surrounded by the best athletes in the world — being in the village with them, experiencing the whole event — is special. So … I really look forward to giving my best there and hopefully being [in] a little bit better form than I was here. We will see. I don’t know. Anything can happen.

Q: What do you prefer, an Olympic medal or to win the U.S. Open?

A: Actually, to be honest, a win in the U.S. Open. I don’t know why. I want to win a Grand Slam. It’s just, you know, individual. But if I could choose, I would choose both. Very humble, huh?

Question: Are the Olympics just as important to you as a Grand Slam?

Answer from Dinara Safina, Russia: Doesn’t matter, Grand Slam or Olympics. … If I could pick one, it’s only it’s once in four years, yeah, maybe it’s more like kind of special. But I don’t know, I don’t mind to have one of them.

Question: What do you think of going to the Olympics?

Answer from Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia: I’m really looking forward to [going] there. I’m so excited about my first Olympic Games. It will be just something different, Olympic Games. I will be playing not just for myself; I will be playing for Slovakia. I hope to play well. Now, I have enough confidence to believe in myself, and we will see there.

Paul Grant is a deputy editor at ESPN.com.

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/

Where’s the rage in tennis?

STEVE DILBECK, Los Angeles Daily News
Published: 23 hours ago

Now wasn’t that just so pleasant? Really, terrific tennis.

Two outstanding players in a truly dramatic Wimbledon final.

And they were just so polite, so sportsmanlike, so respectful.

Made me want to puke.

If I wanted to watch a love-in, I’d catch some old John Lennon and Yoko Ono footage. Would watch the classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Anyone who truly believes the Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer final on Sunday harkens the beginning of a new golden age for tennis needs to lay off the sauce.

Tennis was at its peak in the 1970s and early 1980s. People watched, people cared, people were enthralled. Not just people who actually picked up a racquet, but the general sports fan.

The players were feisty. They had attitude and panache. Emotions streamed from their pores.

Jimmy Connors didn’t want to just beat you, he played like he wanted to rip your throat out. Ilie Nastase was a character nicknamed “Nasty” – by other players. Bjorn Borg was a European jet-setter who would crush you. John McEnroe was a volcano who could volley like no one alive.

They dated models and Playmates, started fashion lines, gave the bird to linesmen, invigorated crowds. They weren’t just players, they were revolutionaries.

They raged war on the court, not love. Mavericks who rocked the Country Club game and expanded the tennis audience. They played against type.

Nadal and Federer have watched the Lion King too many times. They’re Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas giving each other a sweet kiss at centre court.

Oh, please, stop. Are a couple of punches at the net really too much to ask? Can’t we get some honest cross-court venting, some semblance of demonstrative play, some ‘my supermodel is hotter than your supermodel’ battles?

I miss the crazies, the long-haired, volatile characters born of the ’60s who took tennis to a new level, who made it compelling for the Average Joe.

Then followed the numbing Boris Becker-Ivan Lendl-Pete Sampras-Federer period that succeeded in reducing tennis to a niche sport.

This is not progress, though I’d like to thank them all for freeing up the community courts.

This latest wave of champions has returned tennis to its genteel roots, which is not exactly called swelling your market place. Very classy, very aristocratic, very foreign.

Can we get a little edge back to our tennis? Some controlled rage? Some spark of individuality? One decent snarl?

Now, McEnroe sits in a television booth, so nice it feels gooey. Words must stick to him. It screams sellout.

His eyes used to almost explode from his face when he played. Now, he watches Sunday’s well-mannered cliffhanger and declares it the greatest match he’s ever seen.

Say what?

Better than his five-set thriller over Borg in the finals of the 1980 U.S. Open or his Wimbledon loss to Connors in ‘82 and to Borg in ‘80? I don’t think so.

Great tennis is more than just repeatedly making tremendous shots, which Nadal and Federer both did with amazing consistency Sunday. Their talent is unmistakable.

Sunday was a marathon, with two tennis artisans going at it until twilight. Very admirable.

They have all my respect, just not the corresponding interest. I don’t think a couple of polite Europeans are at the vanguard of a new tennis explosion.

Let’s get real, tennis is not going to return to the sporting masses behind Federer and Nadal. They’re great tennis players, but not the kind of guys you’d like to hang with. I know more interesting rocks.

Nadal, the Grunt King, has some glimmer of personality and he’s so young there’s always a chance he may develop into something interesting.

I long for a little attitude. Long for matchups intriguing beyond the double vs. the single backhand.

If I want to watch a demonstration of civility, I’ll take in an etiquette class. It’d be the polite thing to do.

Source: http://www.canada.com

Rafael Nadal shows superhuman spirit

Tennis of this miraculously high quality has never been played so long and so late even on the most hallowed of courts

Has sport ever been so dramatic? Has a Wimbledon final, predicted to be one of the finest of all time, ever so outdone its’ billing? Has tennis of this miraculously high quality ever been played so long and so late on the most hallowed of courts?

For those fortunate enough to be inside Centre Court as darkness was falling and the luminous clock on the scoreboard ticked to 9.16 pm at almost the precise moment Rafael Nadal sunk ecstatically to the turf after Roger Federer’s final forehand thudded into the net, the memory will live with them to their dying day.

This truly was history being made and though the elements tried to intervene, they could not stop this becoming a masterpiece. The wind buffeted and blew, the rain came and darkness fell but still this was tennis of the very highest standard that mere mortals can only dream of recreating.

Not only is Nadal the first man to lift the trophies of the French Open, Queens Club and Wimbledon within the space of month. He also did it in the longest final ever played at the All England Club and, in his opinion, he overcame the greatest player in history.

Federer had his sights set on a sixth successive Wimbledon title, so beating the record he now has to share with Bjorn Borg. And there were moments during this great contest that the world no.1 did not just live up to his reputation, he further enhanced it.

Why was it Nadal eventually prevailed after 4 hours and 48 minutes of sheer drama that was in fact spread over nearly seven hours because of two cruel rain delays? Ultimately it was a question of which of these tennis superstars had the greater mental strength in a true battle royal.

Other aspects of course came into play, not least superior night vision. Surely if Nadal had not finally won 6-4,6-4,6-7,6-7,9-7 when he did, then the players would have been ushered off for the night to return after daylight had returned. Those who thought the conditions were dark as Andy Murray finally prevailed against Richard Gasquet six days earlier would have been amazed that such supreme tennis could be played in such conditions.

But Nadal is unquestionably a superhuman performer with the resolve and will that now makes it clear that anything is possible. He shrugged off the disappointment of seeing two \Championship points go to waste in the fourth set tie-break but then stood firm in the face of enormous pressure as Federer, of course intent on completing a comeback that would have demanded a rewriting of the history books

Nobody had battled back from a two set deficit to win the men’s final at Wimbledon since Henri Cochet beat his French compatriot Jean Borotra

81 years earlier. And no player had recovered from match points down to win the title since Bob Falkenberg beat John Bromwich in 1948.

The improvement in Nadal’s grass court game over the last few years is truly outstanding. Though he may have delivered just six aces compared to Federer’s 25, he still served supremely with 73% of his first deliveries getting into play. So many of these were hugely effective body serves making a telling return from the world’s paramount grass court expert virtually impossible. The fact Federer was successful on just one of 13 break point opportunities speaks volumes.

Surely now the rivalry that is already one of the most compelling in tennis history will continue and hopefully scale to new heights of excellence. But Nadal has not just brought to a close Federer’s imperious 65 match winning run on grass. He has established another step in the evolution of the game and the standard continues to rise and rise.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/