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Those are words I thought I’d never type. But his post-match speech was revealing. Pretty pathetic praise for Andy. I heard no words about how great Andy played, nor did I hear much respect for Pete Sampras. Just a few words about wishing Pete would show up at Wimbledon more? Shame on you Roger. Shame, […]
June 30, 2009
The roof was closed during the match between Amelie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina Monday afternoon. I adore the sound effects the fans made while the roof closed. Same one we inexplicably make every time instant replay is used. For some reason it is so much fun: Another tradition goes splat… nah, I don’t view the […]
June 23, 2009
Wimbledon started today. Or as they seemed to have renamed it: The Roger Federer Greatest of All Time London Open. The dominant theme here in America is that Roger is a mortal lock to win and that he righted his Ship of State on his own and will rightfully surpass Pete Sampras and retake the […]
February 23, 2009
While we were wringing our hands over Dubai last week, actual tennis was being played. In Dubai, the tournament that never should have happened, Venus beat Serena in a 7-6 third-set tiebreaker and then defeated Virginia Razzano in the final. This is the first time Venus has been back in the top 5 in 5 […]
February 16, 2009
Darren Aronofsky’s new movie, The Wrestler, is winning rave reviews for its tale about a broken down ex-wrestling star who yearns for one more shot at glory. They could easily make such a movie about an old tennis pro who wants to walk on the Wimbledon grass one more time. Better yet, they could chronicle […]
February 3, 2009
At the end of 2008 I thought Roger was ok with his status as world #2. I thought the fall had been jarring to him, but that he ultimately was embracing the less-pressure inherent in the second spot. But from the moment he showed up in Australia I knew he was still in deep denial. […]
July 17, 2008
That video of Pete Sampras on the Charlie Rose show is not available yet, so let’s look back in the time capsule to December 19, 1996. The number 1 ranked player is Pete Sampras. He is 25 and has eight majors. You can tell it’s the 1990s because he’s wearing a flannel shirt. His coach […]
July 13, 2008
Jim Courier appeared on the Charlie Rose show to break down the match, calling it a “revolutionary match” for the sport, especially in the US. Judging by the fact that people are still talking about it a week later, he’s right. Charlie is a true tennis lover. Sampras was on Friday. We will post the […]
July 10, 2008
Bodo wrote a book with Pete Sampras that was published last month. Today he published a short interview with Pete on his blog for Tennis magazine about Pete’s reaction to Nadal-Federer. Two all-time greats, at their prime, playing great on the best court on earth. if you wrote a script it couldn’t have been any […]
May 28, 2008
While I was watching and not writing, Justine Henin abruptly retired, just one week after waxing poetic about how much she was looking forward to the French Open. This one was a shocker, but somehow also not. Justine was always the type of player you couldn’t read, she was famously closed off from the world […]
January 31, 2008
Oz has come and gone but I didn’t want to forget about Joker’s victory over Tsonga to win the title. Tsonga has all the tools. Now comes the hard part: dealing with sudden fame, learning about consistency, figuring out how to use all those tools to win matches, and staying healthy. To be fair we […]
January 29, 2008
The 2008 Australian Open is over and Dodo was unusually quiet, for two reasons. First, no one paid for him to fly his sorry ass to Oz. Second, he is writing a book with Pete Sampras. Yes, I’ve known about it for a while now. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. […]
January 25, 2008
This brief video shows Tsonga’s Samprasian tendencies. His instinct is to follow huge groundstrokes into the net. This aggression is important against Nadal. In fact, last year Sampras said he didn’t understand why Roger stayed at the baseline during his clashes with Nadal, since the way to neutralize him was to blast him off the […]
January 16, 2008
I told you will give credit when it is due. Over at ESPN.com, Bodo wrote a short post about legendary tennis coach Robert Landsdorp and his ties to second round opponents Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova. Landsdorp also schooled Tracy Austin and Pete Sampras on their groundstrokes. Of the four players, Sharapova is the odd […]
Passing Shots 
July 5, 2009
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