Tennis News From All Around: Isner Praises Roddick, Kleybanova Focused, Dan Evans Open, Connors Speaks

Written by: Staff on 27th August 2013

Tennis News From All Around: Isner Praises Roddick, Kleybanova Focused, Dan Evans Open, Connors Speaks

epa03838696 Fireworks explode over Arthur Ashe Stadium during the opening ceremony on the first day of the 2013 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 26 August 2013. The US Open runs through Monday 09 September, a 15-day schedule for the first time. EPA/JUSTIN LANE |

John Isner is not letting the pressure get to him on the tenth anniversary of the last time a US man won a grand slam singles title.

The world No. 14, who regained a spot in the top 20 through his Cincinnati final this month against Rafael Nadal, goes into the US Open worrying about his own game and not about carrying the weight of home tennis fans on his shoulders.

With 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick retired for a year, Isner and Sam Querrey appear to be the only marginal candidates to try and lift the sagging US game. “It’s been a long time, but I know and Andy knows and everyone knows how tough this game is today and how deep and international it is,” said Isner, known as a reluctant traveler at best who much appreciates his southern down-home comforts to anything available in Europe or Asia where most of world tennis is played, “I’m just very fortunate to play professional tennis. I want to do it as long as I can.”

Isner praised Roddick for carrying on the long US winning tennis tradition of previous decades – which appears to have ended for now. “Andy’s legacy, he’s a grand slam champion – not many people can say that. He was the flag-bearer for American tennis for so long, it seemed like 10 years. He did a lot for our sport. A lot of the American guys currently playing today look up to him.”

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Former top-20 player Alisa Kleybanova was overjoyed to have scored her first Grand Slam victory since she was diagnosed with cancer back in the summer of 2011. The Russian returned to Futures and Challengers play in the spring and also compete in World TeamTennis for the Springfield Lasers, but she just began WTA competition earlier this month

It has been an immense struggle to get her conditioning back so she was thrilled that she was able to outlast Monica Puig in a long three setter at the US Open on Monday.

“My goal was to end up winning this match no matter what it takes,” Kleybanova said.” It took a very long time, but I did it, and I’m very happy about it. I haven’t played so many matches yet. It’s difficult to play your best from the beginning, I’ve been training a lot. I know I’m doing the right things. I know I’m getting there. But I still need a lot more matches, a lot more tournaments to be more consistent, to feel better on the court, to be able to manage the stress level out there. Everything is a little bit new for me right now, so I’m just trying to deal with things as good as I can for the moment.”

Always a realist and very outspoken, Kleybanova isn’t sure exactly how many people are inspired by her comeback story. She is most pleased by how she has been able to push her cancer into remission and return to the sport she loves. She says that she “came out the winner” in that battle, and just wants to focus on stroking one ball after another correctly.

“I want to win. I want to come back so much,” she said. “It’s just all my mind is in tennis right now. But I hear a lot from people that I’m a big inspiration for them. A lot of people now look up to me. I think it’s great. I don’t want to be like an example, but if I am, I think it’s very nice. I’m not trying to show anything or whatever. I do it for myself.. I want to be here as a tennis player because I have skills that I can do that, not being here as someone who overcame and because of that people know me. I’m not trying to pretend anything.”

Kleybanova did concede that when she was battling the disease that there were some people whom she looked up to for inspiration, and that helped her set some goals. Her big goal was to get back on court and compete well.

“I think for some people, maybe they give up because they don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said. “Maybe they’re insecure. I was just like, it’s like playing a match: you just do everything to be a winner.”

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Last chance saloon can be a pretty lucrative place as Daniel Evans, the prodigal son of British tennis, is finding out at the US Open. Earlier this year the Birmingham-based player was told the Lawn Tennis Association would accept no more excuses for his insubordinate and unprofessional behaviour but the warning was heeded and a shock first round win against 11th seed Kei Nishikori and guaranteed at least $53,000 in the bank.

“It means more to win the matches than the money,’ said Evans, who lost in Wimbledon’s first qualifying round. “I really want to be in the top 100 and that’s when the money will start coming in — when I’m there consistently.”

Just a few months ago Evans, aged 23, was in danger of letting his tennis career go down the drain. Now the player currently ranked 179 in the world and rising, is seen to have so much potential that leading management company Lagardere Unlimited has added him to their roster.

Episodes such as being caught in a Wimbledon nightclub on the eve of an important junior match during the All England Club Championships, several interrogations by the police and far too many accusations of not trying in low key tournaments now seem to be in the past.

“I was playing in places like Wrexham (North Wales) and Chiswick ( a West London suburb just across the Thames from Wimbledon) a year ago,” grinned Evans after his win. “It just shows, for the younger boys, it can go pretty quick if you get your stuff together.”

Evans’ victory over the hard court-loving Japanese was the biggest Grand Slam upset for a British player since Andy Murray – then ranked No 312 – announced himself by knocking 13th seed Radek Stepanek out of Wimbledon eight years ago.

And Evans maintained Murray’s Wimbledon title has had a positive effect on so many other British players. “A few years ago, British tennis wasn’t so much of a team,” he said. “But it feels like everyone wants everyone to win now and everyone speaks to everyone and supports.”

Leon Smith, the LTA’s Head of Men’s Tennis, showed faith in Evans when he made him a late call up for April’s Davis Cup tie against Russia and despite being ranked well outside the world’s top 300 was rewarded with a sterling win over the world no.80 Evgeny Donskoy.

Evans gave notice of intent by reaching the finals of recent Challenger events in Vancouver and Aptos and became the first British male player to qualify in New York since Barry Cowan and Jamie Delgado seven years ago.

“I’ve played a lot of matches recently and was pretty confident I could win today,” he continued after his emphatic 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Nishikori. “I just thought I played better than him. I’ve always known that I’m a good player, it was just a question of putting it all together.”

Evans will now face another opponent who has experienced similar problems to him, albeit with far greater coverage, in Australian Bernard Tomic.

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Jimmy Connors has his criticisms about the modern game even after rubbing shoulder with the current stars of tennis at the ATP’s New York celebration of 40 years of the rankings.

The opinionated 60-year-old who spent less than a month this summer as coach of injured women’s diva Maria Sharapova characterized modern tennis to the New York Times as “a flat-out power game, with the emphasis too much on just one stroke, the serve.”

“The variety and the imagination and what guys like Sampras and Nastase and Mac and Gerulaitis and Laver and Gonzales brought to the game is mostly gone,” said the often-grumpy American. “Not that today’s players aren’t great — they are. But outside of the top few, it just seems to be so much one way.”

Connnors could not help himself in dredging up his tennis past of three decades ago. “In my day, the crowds would come and see Mac hit a tough volley or Nastase hit a topspin lob, then they could go out and play that afternoon and hit one like that and say, ‘I saw McEnroe do that, and I can do that, too.’

“That would just grab the people more into the game itself — the excitement of not only watching the tennis but also playing it. It’s very difficult for a regular guy to go hit a 150 mph serve without having his shoulder end up in St. Louis.”

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, Daniel Evans, Isner, Jimmy Connors, nadal, Roddick, Tennis, US Open, Wimbledon, Wta

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davebending22 says:

August 27, 2013 at 12:46 pm

@10sBalls_com Dan Evans wild kid on the block comes good
moniquesourdif says:

August 27, 2013 at 3:33 pm

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