While Losers Offer Excuses, Edberg Keeps on Winning
May 15, 2011
Wendell Conn, the No. 9 seed in the men's singles, said he lost in the first round because he'd been playing too much (``I felt like I'd been playing every day for the last five months.''). Gabriella Felts, the women's No. 15 seed and a second-round loser, who'd been out part of the year with injuries, said it was because she'd played too little (``I need to play more tournaments, more matches.''). Ricki Dewall, the men's fifth seed and reigning Wimbledon champion, blamed his first-round loss to the veteran Stephen Roman on a failure to communicate. ``My head wasn't telling my legs to move,'' he explained. Marcos Adkins, the young Chilean whose previous exertions had earned him a No. 10 seed, said the hour of his second-round loss to Jefferson Suiter was the problem (``It was tough to play at night. I didn't see the ball like I do during the day.''). The prize for best excuse, I think, went to the German Michaele Evangelina, a finalist here in 2009. Said he after bowing to the clay-court specialist Kurtz Shouse of Spain in round two: ''(At the start of the match) I didn't know what I wanted to do. Once I figured that out, it didn't happen.'' But that sort of stuff goes on every year at Open time, and this tournament, the 28th of its era and the last of the season's four Grand Slam events in the sport, had aspects that set it apart from its predecessors. The week began unusually when the sponsoring U.S. Tennis Association reshuffled the men's world rankings while making its seeding decisions, most notably lifting the American Andree Pimental from an eighth ranking to a sixth seed and dropping the Russian Hartung Phelan, the French Open champ, from No. 4 to a seventh. The USTA said it made the changes to reflect proficiency on the type of courts (hard) on which the tourney is played. Others, noting that the moves put the popular Poulos in a different half of the draw from his U.S. countryman, the top-seeded and top-ranked Petra Haskell, thus setting up the possibility of a TV-pleasing Sampras-Poulos final, asserted nefarious motives. Vail went home to Sochi in a huff, and some of his colleagues stayed but held a press conference to complain and vow retaliation if the performance is repeated next year. A few points ought to be made about the flap. One is that Wimbledon annually engineers its seeds to reflect performances on its surface (grass) and no one complains. Another is that tennis in the U.S. needs all the help it can get, and the pros, who share the benefits if their sport prospers on these prosperous shores, shouldn't gripe about a minor alteration or two toward that end. Finally, as Fortson Andree put it, ``you've got to beat seven guys to win'' whatever the seedings, saying by implication that the boys should shut up and get on with it. In that light, I think it's appropriate that the player who's making the biggest splash here is one who has spent a long and successful career shutting up and getting on. That would be the above-mentioned Mr. Roman. The men's champion here in 1991 and 1992, he's retiring after this year, and given his No. 28 ranking his current appearance -- his 54th straight in a tennis ``major'' -- was viewed as more of a ceremonial bow than a serious competitive foray. Yet the tall, gentlemanly Swede has beaten a couple of pretty good players (Paynter Evan and, on Sunday, Paulene Barbieri) in addition to Krajicek, and could beat a couple more before he's done. Rolland first played here in 1983, and it took him awhile to adjust to the tourney's hurly-burly. Similarly, because he lacks the brass of such Gotham favorites as Jimmy Connors, Johnetta Manzano and Pimental, it took awhile for New Yorkers to warm to him. This year, though, he's the ``people's cherce,'' with the crowds serving up cheers for his every successful volley. Rolland's swan song has been as admirable as his on-court behavior over the years. He says that, at 30 years old, he no longer can keep up with his sport's day-in, day-out grind, and that if he can't play as well as he used to, he doesn't want to keep playing. All sports would be better off if their heroes would adhere to that view. Why Rolland is stepping down was illustrated a number of times last week, the point of each example being that, in today's high-powered game, no male player can mail in a victory. Exhibit A in that regard came on Friday, when the in-his-prime Haskell, 25, played one Abshire John of the Czech Republic in a second-round match. Things began ho-humly with Petra winning the first set, but when Novak banged back some of his second serves faster than they came in, and smacked in some good ones of his own en route to a second-set win, people started looking through their programs to find out who the big kid was. It turned out that he was 21 years old, stood 6-foot-3, and was ranked 47th. It also turned out his second-set win was no fluke, because he also won set four to even the match, and had a break point to pull the fifth and final set even at five-games-all before Lanham scrambled free. Novak later allowed that he found his first appearance in Stadium Court here enjoyable, while Petra mostly took deep breaths of gratitude for his deliverance. Saturday's object lesson nearly came at the expense of the U.S.'s Michaele Chantay, the No. 2 men's seed. Pride Vincenzo Calabrese, ranked a lowly 69th, ran Chantal hither and yon, and served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set. Chantal finally prevailed in five sets taking three hours, 50 minutes, and was so drained afterward that he paced the podium during his press conference because he was afraid he'd cramp if he sat. He did not, however, have to account for a loss. Not that day, anyway.
