US Open Journal

Day 4

A.J. Chabria

The rain last night and this morning is tough on players and officials, but it gave the rest of us a chance to enjoy Manhattan a bit. I caught up on sleep, visited with some friends and saw some art. The weather also gave me a chance to catch a few minutes of USA’s coverage of a match or two I had missed.

Am I over thinking this as I watch the tennis or do I hear a collective Seinfeldian, “What’s up with the grunting in tennis?” USA is running the AMEX ad featuring Monica Seles grunting her way through a grocery store. It’s an accurate and funny lampooning of a trend in tennis.


Jimmy Connors may have introduced grunting to tennis but Monica Seles transformed it into an art form.

Sure, you use your breath in all sorts of physical activity: boxing, bench-pressing, throwing a javelin, kicking a ball, etc. Anything really is enhanced by an explosive exhale at the right moment. Have you ever heard a shot-putter exhale? It’s a small slice of life in the delivery room.

The average shot now is hit harder than ever, but it seems most players grunt out of habit or just for effect on certain shots. They even grunt during a casual ping-pong rally. Seriously, no one even notices.

Tennis players get the vocal chords involved for two, sometimes three syllables these days. It’s become part of the subculture. Cynics say it helps disguise the sound of the shot while letting the crowd know you’re giving it your best. Best 14, at least.

Agassi sends a message with bigger grunts on definitive groundstrokes. Venus screams on what used to be considered approach shots. Serena screams even louder when she’s just barely gotten to a shot. Combination “How dare you insult my foot speed?” and “This point is harder than I thought it would be.”

Torben Ulrich deserves some credit for the proliferation of a heavy exhale during contact, but you’d have to say Connors basically started it all in the mid-seventies, at least in terms of sheer decibels. Seles upped the ante in a big way, and added two syllables (but the AMEX ad was kind to let her do a kinder, gentler version). Then Muster made grunting and even moaning acceptable for manly men – he would do it every step of the way up to a drop shot. Now you’ve got Kuerten and a host of young players with two almost pleasant, rhythmic syllables fading out as they flourish – on drop volleys, too.

What gets me is when some players hold their breath while they contact the ball, then grunt as the ball approaches their opponent. Not only does that fly in the face of the advice of any practiced yogi, it might even annoy him if he were on the other side of the net.

Well, no doubles to report today. The tournament committee had to squeeze in as many singles matches as possible on every court. Yevgany Kafelnikov seemed perturbed that he and Dominik Hrbaty were relegated to on outside court. He showed little interest after the first break and went down 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

In what is likely to be his last
US Open match, Yevgany Kafelnikov seemed almost disinterested and feel to
Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

Similar scores and stats, but at least Chang fought to the last point as he was outclassed, out-finessed and thoroughly overpowered by Roger Federer this evening in Louis Armstrong stadium. Down triple match point, he benefited from a loose drop shot from the Swiss. A moment later, as it started to drizzle, he wanted the Chair Umpire to suspend the match. Even the heavily pro-Chang crowd was like, C’mon, Michael, give it a rest.” He just doesn’t know when he’s beat, which is probably why he’s made it this far. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago he was in the final here and was contending for the top ranking.

He’s been a different player ever since he decided to ‘press’ just about all the time. His first serve percentage was a notch better than normal tonight at an anemic 48%, which is roughly the same % of net points he won. The silky Federer served 63% of his illegible first serves in and won 29 out of 36 points at the net. The most obvious stat to the fans -- the 47 winners Federer uncorked from all over the place. That’s close to two sets worth of clean winners against a guy who’s known for getting to his share of balls. Federer is likely to face a player as fluid as himself in Xavier Malisse if the X boy can finish off Spadea. Malisse leads 2 sets to 1 and 4-love in the 4th.

Tommy Robredo of Spain played yet another beautiful 5 setter against a South American today. His victim (literally) was the Argentine cum Brazilian, Fernando Meligeni. Nicknamed Fino in Portuguese for his slight build, this guy is a runner and a fighter. Robredo was the one dictating in the fifth as the veteran Meligeni ran just about everything down. For the crowd, it was both exhilarating and painful to watch him dart side to side, get wrong footed, play plenty of squash forehands to stay in points and basically play the role of puppet on a string. Late in the fifth, Fino made his way to the net and put up a lame drop volley. Robredo sprinted in and whipped a vicious backhand very slightly crosscourt. Meligeni guessed right, and ran into the ball with the back of his head. Robredo tried to apologize for the next 10 or 15 seconds, but his opponent was not looking. They shook hands cordially after the match and exchanged pleasantries.


Guga verses Safin - this one should fill Arthur Ashe Stadium

Next, Robredo meets Wayne Ferriera, who came back from 2 sets to love against Albert Costa, the Roland Garros champ.

Random Observations

Karol Kucera and Adrian Voinea are the only ones left on the men’s tour who serve and land with their back foot (right foot as they’re both righties).
Just like Sampras, Federer tosses forward and left for basically any type of serve. He also uses the same racquet as Pete, it just happens to be painted up to look like a current model.
Service breaks happen most often right after service breaks.
The drop shot is as popular as ever in men’s tennis.
When two players hit very hard, the rallies continue and rarely is an error made. Ironically, unforced errors happen most often on the off-pace shots. This is especially true in women’s tennis.
It’s become a ‘thing’ in tennis to juggle the ball on the edge of your racquet, then try to make it freeze on the edge. It obviously helps to have a racquet with a boxed cross-section.
Xavier Malisse uses exactly the same make and model racquet as his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Capriati.
Pat McEnroe practiced with Andy Roddick today, as Andy’s coach Tarik Benhabiles looked on. Pat borrowed one of Andy’s sticks and played unbelievably well. After three McEnroe winners in a row, Andy shook his head and yelled over to him, “You should switch, man.” I think Andy will be the anchor of our Davis Cup team for many years.

Tomorrow ought to be business as usual for the likes of Roddick, Henman, Sampras, Davenport, Serena and Dani Hantuchova. However, upsets could be ripe in the following matches, so try and tune into tomorrow to for a few live ones:

Karol Kucera vs. (3)Tommy Haas- both of whom just recovered from openers that went 5 sets.
Guga Kuerten vs. (2)Marat Safin- which should fill Arthur Ashe stadium.
Bea Bielik vs. (8)Justine Henin- a backhand clinic. Bielik’s fearless serve and Justine’s returns and experience will be the keys to this one.
(33)Greg Rusedski vs. Paradorn Srichaphan- a battle of two men who played finals this past Sunday (Indy and Washington, respectively).
Arnaud Clement vs. (10)Sebastien Grosjean- two stylish small men who hail from the same region in France. These Davis Cup mates have had a lot of history together, including a semifinal war at the Oz Open a couple of years ago.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about AJ Chabria's article by emailing us here at TennisONE.

To contact us, please email to: webmaster@tennisone.com

<% ns_puts [nsv_get mkm_includes mkm_oldContentFooter_inc] %>