I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: roger federer

  • tennis anyone? you betcha

    tennis anyone? you betcha


    Fun tennis fact: The Championship at Wimbledon in 2023 for men’s singles was the first time in 25 years neither Roger Federer nor Rafa Nadal was included in the draw. Federer officially retired during the Laver Cup in September, 2022 at the age of forty-one; Nadal hasn’t played since January of 2023 but hopes to return to competition in 2024 for a farewell tour. He is thirty-seven years old with amazing resilience so fingers crossed he plays again. Regardless, as Wimbledon winds down this weekend I miss them both and resurrected this piece from July, 2018.

    For tennis fans, when July rolls around, the sounds of tennis balls flying off rackets held by seasoned warriors or hopeful newcomers, tennis balls traveling through the air at record speeds or strategic spins, landing on immaculately prepared grass courts with awkward bounces that require extraordinary hand-eye coordination to even be struck by another racket held by an adversary across a 3-ft net –  for that first fortnight in July and for those fans, the air is filled with the electric sights and sounds of Wimbledon, The Championships at the All England Club, the 3rd of 4 annual Major tennis tournaments but arguably the most revered for its traditions and longevity.

    The first week of the two-week tournament at Wimbledon for 2018 is a wrap, as we say in the entertainment industry. I have had my usual bleacher seats in front of a tv this week – the same seats I’ve had for the past 51 years since the color telecasts started. My television sets have changed through the years, but my love of the game has remained steadfast. And cheerio, the addition of the Tennis Channel with its 24-7 coverage of the sport year round has been an awesome addition for Pretty and me.

    Pretty once told me many years ago when we were in the middle of a dispute about how much time she devoted to playing tennis (which took her away from me) that “I had tennis before you. I’ll have tennis after you.” That put everything in perspective, let me tell you. As it turns out, she now has tennis with me in the bleacher seats but still longs to be able to return to the courts one day.

    Today is Sunday in the middle of The Championships at Wimbledon so the players who survived the first week are resting to prepare for Manic Monday tomorrow when both the women’s and men’s singles round of 16 will be played. The winners of these matches will move on to the quarterfinals, and two of them will win the finals at the end of this week.

    The women’s draw has been full of shocking upsets in week one with only one of the top seeds, Karolina Pliskova, remaining. And then, of course, all eyes including mine will be on Serena Williams who won the most important title of all last year when she and her husband served up their daughter Olympia who is the cutest baby ever. Serena has moved on to the second week, and I will be following her progress as I have followed her for the past 20 years. That’s right…t-w-e-n-t-y years. Serena at the age of 35 won her 23rd. major title which set the record for most women’s singles titles in the Open era when she won the Australian Open in 2017.

    As for the men in the second week, what can I say? Names that now define a Golden Age of tennis are chasing the Wimbledon title again. Roger Federer who at 37 apparently embodies the ageless body of Dorian Gray had he been a tennis player. The passionate Spaniard Rafael Nadal whose Vamos! inspires the enthusiasm of crowds like touchdowns in a Super Bowl. Winners of the past 6 tennis majors, Federer holds 8 Wimbledon singles titles and Nadal two. Novak Djokovic, another tennis titan,  is trying to reclaim his place among the greats but battling the most difficult opponent of all in recent years: himself. Two Americans, veteran big server John Isner, and unseeded unknown Mackenzie McDonald also will play on the big stage on Manic Monday.

    And so sports fans, as The Red Man used to call his friends in cyberspace, Pretty and I will be on pins and needles starting at 7 am tomorrow as we cheer for our favorites from the bleacher seats at Casita de Cardinal. Time and tennis march on.

    Stay tuned.

    VAMOS!

    (Nadal at the Olympics in 2016)

  • changing of the guard in Queens (New York, that is)

    changing of the guard in Queens (New York, that is)


    As Serena Williams said in her farewell on-court interview following her loss this year in the US Open, there would be no Serena if it weren’t for her sister Venus. Tennis fans who have followed the professional tennis world for the past twenty-five years echo this sentiment. The two sisters have been prominent figures who not only set new records in the sport but also contributed to changing the evolution of women’s tennis players toward a more powerful game.

    Selected Women’s Singles Champions at the US Open:

    1999 – Serena Williams (17 years old)*

    2000 – Venus Williams

    2001 – Venus Williams, Serena Williams Runner-up

    2002 – Serena Williams, Venus Williams Runner-up

    2008 – Serena Williams

    2011 – Samantha Stosur, Serena Williams Runner-up

    2012 – Serena Williams

    2013 – Serena Williams

    2014 – Serena Williams

    2017 – Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys Runner-up

    2018 – Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams Runner-up

    2019 – Bianca Andreescu, Serena Williams Runner-up

    2022 – Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur Runner-up

    *Serena Williams was eliminated in the third round of the 2022 US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. Williams was 24 days shy of her 41st birthday. She holds the most combined major titles with thirty-nine: 23 singles, 14 women’s doubles and 2 in mixed doubles plus four Olympic gold medals representing the United States.

    Venus (l.) and Serena Williams win 1st Major Doubles

    together at US Open in 1999

    Carol Newsome/AFP/Getty Images

    2022 US Open Women’s Doubles Runner-up Team

    Caty McNally (l.) and Taylor Townsend

    photo by Pete Staples/ USA

    The Open this year marks, in my opinion as a tennis fan for more than fifty years, the beginning of a changing of the guard in both women and men’s tennis. New names emerged this year – names unfamiliar to the television viewers perhaps but nonetheless those we will need to learn how to pronounce, to watch for, and to embrace as they make their own places in history.

    Iga Swiatek won 2022 Women’s Singles at US Open

    from Poland – also won French Open in 2020 and 2022

    19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won 2022 US Open (l.)

    while runner-up was 23 year old Norwegian Casper Ruud

    Getty Images

    The US Open win for Alcaraz meant he was the youngest man ever to become #1 in the world in the ATP rankings. The year 2022 has not been a total changing of the guard in men’s tennis; Rafa Nadal won the Australian Open and the French Open, Novak Djokovic took the Wimbledon Championships. However, Roger Federer didn’t play at all in 2022, Nadal has many physical issues as well as becoming a father for the first time this fall, and Novak Djokovic has Covid vaccination problems. I do sense a shift in the winds away from the Big Three and their stranglehold on the majors in the Golden Era of men’s tennis for the first two decades of the 21st century. Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

    Carlos said one of the greatest inspirations for him was Serena Williams. He grew up in the generation that watched the magical play of Serena. “She inspired me and a lot of players, you know,” he answered when asked what player on the WTA had inspired him.

    “It’s passion, it’s power, it’s everything; she is the GOAT for me, plain and simple,” said Casper Ruud on Serena Williams.

    photo of Iga in selfie with Serena at US Open

    posted by Dzevad Mesic in Tennis World

    “Her legacy is so big. She has shown us that it’s possible to play so good consistently for all these years and also play, and have a great business, and be a mother. She has shown us that there’s hope for that and for us.And with hard work, you can achieve really great things. So Serena is a legend of our sport for sure,” Swiatek said about Williams in a video for the WTA.

    The final word belongs to Pretty, of course, who has allowed me to quote her on Serena. “Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and every other kid in America who picks up a racket – male or female – will do it because of Serena Williams.”

    There you have it. End of story except to say Serena will always be my Queen of Queens, and it’s hard to say goodbye.

  • Winding down…Under

    Winding down…Under


    “Sport is unpredictable. I kept remembering how many times I lost here like 2012 [5 hours, 53 minutes in five sets to Novak Djokovic] and 2017 [Roger Federer in five sets]. I was not ready for these battles, but today was the day I gave everything.” (Press conference in Melbourne following Rafael Nadal’s victory at the 2022 Australian Open)

    Down the first two sets in the best three of five against the second seed twenty-five-year-old Daniil Medvedev, the thirty-five-year-old Nadal who was seeded sixth in the tournament said following the match that his win in this year’s final at the Australian Open was the greatest comeback of his career. I say amen, Brother Tennis Man. For five hours and twenty-four minutes, you gave everything.

    Pretty asked me Saturday night if I planned to watch the men’s singles final beginning at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, and I replied no, I think I’ll just record it. Pretty looked surprised since I watched the women’s final at that mad hour Saturday morning and had watched Rafa’s previous six matches to get to the final. No one, including me, was surprised with Aussie Ash Barty’s win over American tennis player Danielle Collins in straight sets in the women’s singles final. I enjoyed the match, but I had no intense feelings about the outcome.

    The Nadal/Medvedev match was a horse of a different color. My love for Rafa has grown over the past twenty years along with the increased coverage of televised “live” tennis tournaments. I like his passion for playing each point regardless of the score, the work ethic he brings to preparation, the respect he has for his opponents, his own love of sport in general and tennis in particular. I even find his obsessive compulsive behavior entertaining. Whenever I had the opportunity to watch Nadal play on television, I took advantage of it. So when Pretty asked me if I was getting up to watch the final at 3:30 a.m., she thought I would say yes.

    Uncharacteristically I said no, I don’t think so. Too much was on the line in this match for Nadal. He was tied in the race for men’s Grand Slam singles tennis wins with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at 20 each. History was hanging in the balance in the AO final for him. He had only won the Australian title once in his twenty year career – in 2009 when he defeated Federer in five sets. That was one win in seventeen tries. Not a great track record down under. Plus I knew Rafa had been plagued for the past six months with surgery and rehab on his left foot that was always a problem for him so he had limited preparation for this tournament. In addition, Rafa had tested positive for Covid in December, been very sick for two days and wondered what effect the virus would have on his stamina. I believed it would take a miracle for him to win against Medvedev, and I honestly didn’t want to see it “live.” My nerves would be jangling, I thought. That’s why I said no when Pretty asked me if I was going to get up at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

    But of course, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. wondering about the match. Curiosity got the best of me, and I staggered into the den to click on ESPN. As I feared, Nadal had lost the first set 2-6; but as the second set began, I saw something in the way he was competing that appeared more forceful than I had hoped. I was hooked, but he lost the second set in a tiebreak that was, oh so close.

    Mind over matter. The spirit must be willing for the flesh to suffer as Nadal often says his uncle Toni Nadal taught him from the age of three when he began learning to play tennis on the island of Mallorca in Spain. Uncle Toni’s training has been reinforeced by Carlos Moya who is Nadal’s team captain, the leader of a small group of friends on his team that supported Rafa as he transcended tennis history to become the first man to win twenty-one Grand Slam Titles in singles at the 2022 Australian Open. It was Nadal’s version of the Mallorca Miracle in the final three sets – a clinic in determination, persistence, and brilliant problem solving under immense pressure. Billie Jean King says pressure is a privilege and if she’s right, no one is more privileged than Rafa Nadal was in the last three sets of the AO final.

    2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 was the score when the last gong sounded for Medvedev who had competed like the champion he is in the long, grueling match that pitted the two men like sweaty prize fighters in a boxing ring instead of the Rod Laver Arena with a seating capacity of 14,000+ fans that were overwhelmingly supporting Nadal. The Aussies love their tennis – Nadal is a favorite – the crowd was pulling for Rafa. Poor Daniil who Rafa said afterwards “always has been nice to me.”

    “I’m so tired I can’t even celebrate,” Nadal said to the reporters at his press conference following his victory. He had to ease down in the chair provided for him to sit and answer questions about the match and his future.

    “I know no one expected me to win…but the support of the crowd helped me…I understand what 21 means, and I feel honored. Of course it means very much to me…my love for the game, my passion for it, my working spirit to play a beautiful sport that makes me happy. I know I have fewer chances to win so I stay more in the moment now than looking toward the future…”

    Rafael Nadal won the men’s singles final at the Australian Open.

    Alana Holmberg for The New York Times

    I was never a very good tennis player when I was a member of the tennis team in high school but I enjoyed playing for fun in college and the years beyond. My serve and volleying days are over, but my passion for the game lives on. Thank goodness for the magic of the fuzzy images of the small screens that became larger ones in high definition in my lifetime. I’m grateful to have lived in the golden age of the Big Three men plus a diverse collection of women legends over the past six decades that includes Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and the Williams Sisters (Serena and Venus – not Pretty and Darlene).

    I said farewell to the 2022 Australian Open this past weekend – Pretty is hopeful the clay court season starts soon and that The Tennis Channel will have better coverage for me than ESPN did for the summer down under.

    Rafa Nadal at the Australian Open in 2012

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    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated, get boosted and please stay tuned.

  • VAMOS! Oh, to be 18 again

    VAMOS! Oh, to be 18 again


    Eighteen year old Carlos Alcaraz Garfia upset the #3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas under the Friday night lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2021 US Open Tennis Tournament last night to earn a trip to the fourth round in the second week of the tennis major – a victory intensified by the always enthusiastic New York City fans. Even from my bleacher seat in front of our tv I saw Hurricane Carlos blow through that stadium with every swing of his explosive forehand or the delicate touch of a well placed drop shot. The guy was magnificent with self confidence oozing toward his player box after every point whether he won it or lost it.

    When Alcaraz won the fifth set in a thrilling tiebreak, I also felt the tennis world shift in cosmic concert with the fans. Move over, Nadal. You have company that will soon be vying for the top spots in tennis, and the last name is not Djokovich or Federer. This name is one that will roll off your tongue with perfect pronunciation because he shares your Spanish heritage. Carlos Alcaraz Garfia.

    Who is Carlos Alcaraz Garfia? » FirstSportz

    Nadal (l) and Alcaraz played in Madrid in May, 2021

    photo from FirstSportz

    Nadal won in two sets in the Madrid match but was effusive in his prediction of greatness for Alcaraz in his press conference following the match. “When you make a salad, you need the best ingredients. Carlos has the best ingredients for tennis,” said Nadal.

    Rafa rocks the semis in the 2013 French against guess who? Djokovich

    Tennis: Who is Carlos Alcaraz, the 17-year-old who could face Nadal at the Madrid Open? | Marca

    Alcaraz with the infamous Spanish Vamos to fire up himself –

    and the fans

    photo by Marca

    Alcaraz wasn’t the only teenager with an upset last night; I was impressed by the play of the Canadian Leylah Fernandez. She came from behind to get the best of Naomi Osaka in a three set match. I thought her composure was impressive as Osaka lost a major battle with herself in a sizzling public meltdown. I fear we will not see Naomi again on a tennis court for a very long time, if ever.

    Finally, what a pleasant surprise to check the scores this morning for the only match I couldn’t watch yesterday because it was played too late for these old tired eyes. American Frances Tiafoe upset the #5 seed Andrey Rublev in what must have been another great match. Another five setter that ended around 2 a.m. today. Whew – what an unbelievable week for tennis at the US Open which, by the way, has traditionally been my least favorite of the majors in the sport. Keep going, Frances – you’ve got spunk. I love spunk.

    I have had the privilege of watching Venus and Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovich compete in tennis tournaments for the past 20 years. Looking back, I know how fortunate I am to have had this opportunity. Luckily, I have had the good sense to appreciate this so-called Golden Era.

    Although the Williams sisters, Federer and Nadal have not competed in this year’s US Open, I am surprised I haven’t missed them as much as I expected. Forgive me, Nadal. You will always be first in my tennis heart of hearts, but I confess I have two new young guys whose energy, enthusiasm and excitement are creating new flutters in my tennis heart: 20 year old Italian Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Their young hopes revitalize my old memories.

    Please retire to a well deserved rest, Rafa. Your work is done – you have fought the good fight over and over again. Those who follow in your footsteps will rely on your awesome example.

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    Stay safe, stay sane, please get vaccinated and please stay tuned.

  • from black magic vaccines to Wimbledon wizardry

    from black magic vaccines to Wimbledon wizardry


    Pretty knows I will be grumpy next week because today the two week tennis odyssey known as Wimbledon climaxed with the men’s championship match which pitted 25 year old Italian Matteo Berrettini in his first career slam final against five time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The not unexpected result was a sixth Wimbledon title for Djokovic, but Berrettini tested the champ with his massive serve and forehand that Djokovic called “the hammer” in his post match interview on court.

    Novak also played for his place in history today – his victory gave him a total of 20 grand slam titles that tied the record for men on the tour with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. At 34 years of age, Djokovic is the youngest of the three (Nadal is 35, Federer will be 40 in August) and thought to be a favorite for a gold medal in the Olympics this summer as well as the front runner in the US Open in New York which begins August 30th. He is now also leading the conversation for the GOAT of men’s tennis; his four set win on the Wimbledon grass courts today support the acclaim.

    If anyone is looking for a tennis band wagon to climb on for a ride to the top, Djokovic is your man. Those of us who are Nadal and Federer fans for the past 20 years find Novak’s band wagon a tough one to climb on, but it’s hard to argue with his professionalism, his commitment to the game, and most of all…his success. Well done.

    The Wimbledon women’s championship was played yesterday with two newcomers to the final: Ash Barty of Australia, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Barty won a thrilling 3 set match which began with a frozen Pliskova who lost her first four games on Centre Court but she thawed in the second set to push Barty, the number 1 player in the world, to a third set. Wow. Big hitting, Vanna. Pow – take this. Pow – you take that.

    The unusually emotional Barty paid tribute to fellow Indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley who won her first Wimbledon singles title in 1971 fifty years ago. Barty not only made Cawley proud but also the entire country of Australia which holds Ash as a special part of its large tennis heart that is sprinkled with awesome champions in the past. I’ve just about given up on tears, but mine flowed alongside Barty’s during her interview after the match. You see, I remember when Evonne Goolagong won Wimbledon so Barty’s respect for her mentor and friend made me feel the emotions I always felt when Dick Enberg wrapped up NBC’s Wimbledon coverage every year. Enberg was a man who tapped the spirit of sports – and the tennis tradition that was Wimbledon.

    My love for this game runs deep, and one of the ways I mark time is by the tennis season majors. The Australian Open, Roland Garros and now Wimbledon are in my 2021 rear view mirror. The Olympics are an added attraction this year but I know the year is drawing to a close when the US Open ends in September. Remarkable how time slips away.

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    On a totally different subject I had a remarkable conversation this week with someone who told me he hadn’t been vaccinated against the Covid virus. We live in South Carolina which currently ranks 39th. in the nation out of 50 states with our 39% of the population fully vaccinated so I wasn’t surprised to talk to someone who was in the majority. But his objections to the vaccine included his opinion it had not been fully tested plus his belief in a mysterious component lurking in the vaccine which was designed for “culling” the population. I shook my head and asked him who he thought was being “culled?” Hearing this fiction on the news made the ideas seem distant, unrelated to my life. Having the black magic plots brought to me at my back door steps by someone I knew personally – someone whose work I admired – chilled me in the hot summer humidity.

    As John McEnroe would say, You cannot be serious?

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    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated and please stay tuned.