Today is Martina Hingis’s 29th birthday and the last day of her two-year drug suspension. Jon Wertheim has an interesting interview with her posted on the Sports Illustrated website. Click here to read it if you haven’t already (yes, she answers the comeback question.)

Here’s what really got to me:

The amount (of cocaine metabolite found in Hingis’s system during Wimbledon, 2007) was so trace that, in marked contrast to Richard Gasquet — who was cleared to return after completing a 2½-month ban in July when an anti-doping panel ruled that he accidentally ingested cocaine by kissing a woman at a nightclub — Hingis was at a loss even to fashion a plausible theory about how she could have tested positive. (In the past few months the British media have reported about trace levels of cocaine turning up everywhere from the Thames River to restroom sinks.) Though circumstantial evidence is just that — circumstantial — it defies logic that a veteran player who had passed upwards of 100 tests, some of them unannounced and out of competition, would dabble with cocaine in conjunction with a Grand Slam, knowing with virtual certainty that she would be tested.

Steve Tignor wrote an interesting viewpoint piece at tennis.com with the title “Excessive civility muting the men’s game?”

Have you read it already? If not, click here. If you have, can you please explain it to me? Here’s what I’ve figured so far. . .

Tignor begins by comparing two US Open semifinal handshakes – this year’s touchy-feely one between Novak (Hug Slut) Djokovic and Roger Federer and the reluctant, chilly exchange between John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors in 1980.  Tignor says that both reflect the “code of camraderie” of their respective eras, and that he misses the competitive venom of the bad old/good old days.

I agree that psychological tension on the court makes things exciting. It’s fun when it gets personal out there. I’m not ashamed to admit that watching Nole vs. Roddick, Rafa vs. Soderling, or Serena vs. Safina is my version of tuning into NASCAR and hoping for a wreck. I think everyone should take a cue from Venus and stop apologizing for net cords. Hugs should be saved for five set epics and not routine 3rd round victories. And when a reporter asks a player to evaluate his next opponent, how about some brutal honesty every now and then? From a blogging perspective, it would make my life much easier!

But Tignor loses me when he leaves the Jerry Springer studios and veers East to Roland Garros.:

“(W)hy did I enjoy watching two guys who were never mistaken for gentlemen, Connors and McEnroe, so much, even while Federer’s victory at the French Open this spring, a triumphantly sentimental march through Roland Garros, leave me with a faint taste of sap?”

By Federer’s “triumphantly sentimental march” I’m assuming Tignor means “Federer’s Two Weeks of Hell with a Few Good Hours at the End”? As I remember, Roger Federer scraped his way out of two five setters that he should have lost, and was taken to four sets by both Paul-Henri Mathieu, a Frenchman playing in front of his home crowd, and Argentine dirtballer Jose Acasuso. He also endured the added pressure of becoming the heavy favorite as soon as Rafa lost early, with fans, media and even Parisian cabdrivers reminding him that the French Open was his to lose.

I don’t see how you can favorably compare a single handshake from 1980 to Roger Federer’s entire 2009 Roland Garros tournament, but Tignor tries:

Seeing player after player — Gael Monfils, Juan Martin del Potro, Robin Soderling — lose to Federer at Roland Garros and then embrace him with a smile, I found myself wishing for a little of the old, crude Jimbo ’tude, for a little of the gut-wrenching disappointment and even resentment that typically comes from losing a tennis match. But these young guys didn’t show any of it. They had taken camaraderie too far; it was as if they didn’t want to challenge their benign monarch or interfere with his long-awaited first French title.

Okay, I’m willing to be convinced. Is Tignor just wishing that someone had given Fed the cold fish at the net like Soderling gave Rafa after beating him in the fourth round? Or is he saying that the young guys, by being overly respectful towards Roger, didn’t compete to their utmost abilities against him? If it’s the latter, I cry foul! (Or bullsh*t! if that makes things more exciting for you.)

And here’s the final head-scratcher for me:

At a moment when professional athletes across the board are presumed to be frauds, the current generation of ATP tour players, taking their lead from Federer, has elevated tennis with stylish play and gentlemanly behavior. They apologize to each other after net cords, mishits, and even, now and then, when their opponent slips on the court; they congratulate each other with smiles and hugs; they sing each other’s praises in press conferences. At the same time, taking their lead from Rafael Nadal, the men have updated the game’s manners for a more expressive era. Theatrical chest thumps and fist pumps are no longer seen as gauche or unduly aggressive. They’re accepted as part of what it takes to play your best.

I think Tignor’s saying that the game is so dang “muted” nowadays that even excessive fist pumping can’t rile up any animosity between opponents. And you can blame Roger Federer for that because he’s brainwashed the entire ATP tour into being pleasant, chest thumping, hug sluts who can’t stand to beat him!

This is my main problem with the article – it seems less about the differences between eras and more about how Roger Federer single-handedly invented niceness and in the process made tennis boring by winning too much.

Put up your dukes, Tignor!

Photo by Dewey Nicks for The New York Times

The Bryan Brothers got the Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer treatment in the latest New York Times Magazine. The lengthy article by Eric Konigsberg is called Unseparated Since Birth and is filled with the kind of freaky/sweet identical twin anecdotes that will make this required reading for Roger and Mirka.

I’ve poached some choice excerpts (click here for the full article):

On the twins’ inseparability:

Some of the things Bob and Mike Bryan share include: an origin in the same dividing zygote; the No. 1 doubles ranking on the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour, a distinction they have held at the ends of four of the last six years; the titles of all four Grand Slam events; two houses; a car; and a bank account. “Most of our friends, if they’re looking for one of us, probably want to tell us both the same thing, and they know we’re probably together,” Bob says.

They do have different girlfriends. “They usually call us on our cellphones,” Mike says. The twins also have different phone numbers.

Pity the girlfriends:

Living every moment together probably has its costs, the brothers acknowledged. “The twin thing has kind of gotten in the way in the past with girlfriends, and we’re aware of it,” Bob said. Both girlfriends turned away, suddenly interested in sharing their sushi with the other end the table. “Sometimes, it’s been easier to just tell them that tennis comes first.”

Someday soon, “within a year or two,” Mike said, he and his brother will have to learn to be apart more. “Someday we’ll both get married, and we should have our own houses,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it.” The house next door in Camarillo is for sale, and there was some talk about buying it to create a compound. “That would be weird,” he said.

“So weird,” his girlfriend turned to say.

Why the brother’s don’t play singles:

From the time the boys were 8 and were supposed to play each other in the final of a Southern California tournament, Wayne and Kathy Bryan resolved never to let one of their sons beat the other. “He made us both default, and we brought home the winner and runner-up trophies,” Mike recalls. They took turns winning national tournaments in every age group. If for some reason they met in an earlier round, the boys alternated who would forfeit the match so one of them could move on. “We were supposed to play in the national 18s at Kalamazoo” — the 18-and-under championship tournament — “and the U.S.T.A. said they needed us to play a match, because people were there to watch,” Mike says. It was an important moment.

“We decided we were mature enough.” This is Mike again.

“We knew we were pretty equal,” Bob says. Bob won in two tiebreaker sets and finished 1996 ranked first in the country. Mike wound up No. 4. “I wanted to win, but I was worried about him losing,” Bob says.

But they don’t always play nice:

“We know which buttons to push with each other,” Mike says. “I pick on his backhand.” After they played a bad match at Wimbledon in 2006, the brothers exchanged punches and kicks, and Bob smashed Mike’s guitar.

A typical Bryan family night:

Wayne was on his patio. It was a Sunday evening, and the boys had come over for a barbecue. Greetings had scarcely been exchanged when Wayne, a tall and bull-necked fellow with a shaved head, raised his voice and said: “Music room. Your mom’s been taking bass lessons.” With Wayne on electric guitar, Bob on keyboards, Mike at the drum kit and Kathy with a bass guitar in her lap and a music stand before her, the Bryans, all of them in tennis outfits, belted out “Silly Love Songs,” then “My Girl.” Wayne sang and kicked his leg high on the downbeat. “One more song and then we’ll play croquet,” he said. He started in on “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl”). The boys whooped.

Sorry to bring this back to Federer Family, but I can’t help imagining Mirka on bass.

Speaking of Roger: ” ‘If Roger decided he cared about doubles, he’d be the best in the world at that,’ Mike says.”

Click here for the full article.

An amazing article in the New York Times reveals a number of intimate details about the newly formed Federer family.

Obviously, click here and read the whole thing. This post is just an excuse to marvel, gush and worry (just a little bit.)

Factoid #1: Myla and Charlene are identical.

Random thought #1: Here’s hoping the Bryan brothers have another 16 years or so on tour, so we can have the first ever identical twin mixed doubles final. Obvious headline: “Seeing Doubles!”

Factoid #2: The Federer family + baby nurse flew by private plane to Montreal today (Friday) for the Rogers Cup tournament and plan to go to Cincinnati, too. Roger says that they held off on deciding about Montreal until this week, but Mirka has been excitedly bugging him for days: “Are we going? Are we going? Are we going?”

Random thought #2: Roger and Mirka are a little bit crazy. Just a little. . .

Factoid #3: The babies were born on July 23 but just left the hospital this Tuesday. Roger spent almost 3 weeks sleeping in a Zurich hospital room with Mirka, who checked in early, and then the twins. During this time, he practiced for a week with Stefan Koubek in a location near the hospital (click here for Koubek’s take.)

Random thought #3: This must have been the Carlyle of hospitals (monogrammed pillow cases for everyone!) If Mirka and the kids extended their stay for medical reasons instead of comfort, it’s obviously fantastic news that everyone’s now healthy enough to travel.

Factoid #4: The Federers learned they were pregnant during January’s Doha tournament, and that they were expecting twins before Roger’s semifinal match against del Potro at the Australian Open. Roger said that beating del Potro 6-3, 6-0, 6-0, gave him confidence that the news wouldn’t affect his game.

Random thought #4: And then there was The Final. *shivers*

Factoid #5: Roger was definitely NOT eating for two. He says he lost 10 pounds from March to May.

Uh, “random” thought #5:

In shape Roger at the French Open. Getty Images

Is everyone looking forward to the Federer Family’s summer “road” trip? (Now if only the USTA would lend them that old US Open Series RV!)

Roger & Mirka and Steffi & Andre may have formed the ultimate tennis love-matches, but there are many more tumultuous examples: Kim Clijsters & Lleyton Hewitt, Jimmy Connors & Chris Evert and Radek Stepanek & Martina Hingis broke off their engagements, for example, while Verdasco & Ivanovic, Pennetta & Moya and Stepanek & Vaidisova experienced well-documented courtships and break-ups (yes, ladies, “The Worm”  is back on the market, per Tennis.com!)

With the increase in co-ed tournaments and prize money (get thee back, gold digging groupies!), The Wall Street Journal claims that love is in the air – and on the courts – more than ever. I’d argue that Marat Safin’s imminent retirement has dashed the hopes of lusty WTA players, making Radek et. al. more appealing, but what do I know?

Here are some excerpts from Hannah Karp’s WSJ article called Tennis Gets Hot and Heavy: Increase in Co-Ed Events Sparks More Love Matches; Federer as “Eye Candy.” (Click here for the full article and thanks to Forty Deuce for posting on this.)

The allure of The Worm, explained:

Defending the title of ATP playboy, though, is Czech Radek Stepanek. He was engaged to Martina Hingis, is (not) dating Nicole Vaidisova (anymore) and is known for charming ladies with his sense of humor and a victory dance he calls “the worm,” which he debuted at a player party in the Austrian Alps several years ago after a big win and a little too much Schnapps.

“Everyone was very impressed,” recalls Mr. Stepanek, adding that he hopes his popularity with beautiful women, a subject of much speculation on tennis forums, is “because of who I am as a person.”

Federer “as eye candy.” (No surprise, Marion Bartoli’s quoted on this one!)

Much to the dismay of many female players, Mr. Federer married one of their own in April, former pro Mirka Vavrinec, and is officially off the market. “He was great eye candy,” says France’s Marion Bartoli, who took his picture off her wall after she heard the news.

Tennis players are just like bloggers:

Thirty years ago, just catching a glimpse of players of the opposite sex at the four Grand Slams each year was a thrill. Leslie Allen, a former WTA player who joined the tour in 1977, recalls an early WTA ritual: ranking the male tennis players based on their looks. “We’d choose a captain and a co-captain—we had a whole ranking system,” says Ms. Allen, now a coach at Riverdale Country School in New York.

Forget “Mars vs. Venus”, it’s “Neanderthal vs. Jonas Brother fans”:

“It’s kind of an incestuous world,” says Dr. Mayer (a sports psychologist). When it comes to romance, he says, even the most accomplished male players tend to behave like “neanderthals” and female players like “giggly Jonas Brothers fans.” This often results in “very adolescent” relationships, he says, that last an average of three to four months and tend to have noticeable effects on a player’s performance at various stages.

In the seduction or “wooing” period, Dr. Mayer says, performance generally peaks. Canada’s top player, Frank Dancevic, for example, says he achieved the best result of his life the first time he brought his girlfriend to a tournament in Indianapolis two years ago. “I think I was just trying to show off—I didn’t want to look like a wuss,” says Mr. Dancevic.

As relationships progress, however, things can get complicated. Dr. Mayer says he watched one tour relationship hit the skids after the male player repackaged a watch given to him by a major tour sponsor and sent it to his girlfriend, another pro player, fibbing that he’d bought the watch in Paris—not knowing that his girlfriend had received the same watch from the same sponsor.

Any guesses on who the re-gifter was? URGH! I’m dying to know! The article does mention one cad by name, when Dominika Cibulkova’s coach describes her ex-beau, Gael Monfils, as charming but not “a relationship guy.” We know what that means!

Here’s an audio-visual guide to famous tennis couples (player-on-player and otherwise) – the Roddick photo at the end is priceless!

This calls for a poll!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Winner of Wimbledon’s triple crown in 1939, American Alice Marble was the tennis world’s original Glamazon. Living a life as big as her game, the 18-time Grand Slam champ shagged balls with Joe DiMaggio, survived a Nazi bullet, and fought racism on tour. Writer Margaret McArthur (a.k.a. “Alice Marble” at GTT) tells her extraordinary story.

Alice Marble: American Twist

Seventy years ago Alice Marble, the glamor girl from San Francisco, won her first singles title at Wimbledon. She picked up the Doubles and Mixed Doubles prizes, too, becoming the first woman to win the SW19 trifecta.

Alice’s groundstrokes were erratic, her forehand a sometime thing. She had health issues. So how did she do it? She finished the points fast.

She’d learned the perils of long rallies six years earlier, in 1933, at a tournament in Easthampton, New York. Because of rain delays earlier in the week, the finals and semifinals of both singles and doubles were held on the same day. The temperature hovered around 100 degrees. Marble made it to the finals of both events before collapsing from sunstroke and dehydration after playing a total of 108 games. (For perspective, last year’s Federer vs. Nadal final wrapped up in 62.)

Alice learned her lesson – no more grinding it out from the backcourt. She became the first female all-court serve and volley specialist, ferociously competitive, fleet of foot and possessing a specialty serve so vicious that opponents quailed.

The serve: The American Twist – a dipping, kicking, top-spinning fake-out that curves one way into the service box, sticks to the court on the bounce and breaks high and wide in the opposite direction. Hard to master and a bitch to return, it’s been a favorite of Hall of Fame servers spanning from Don Budge to Pete Sampras.

Marble was the first woman to serve the American Twist in competition, the first woman to wear shorts in competition and the first player to take vocal lessons to enlarge her lung capacity — she sang to great acclaim in the off season at tony joints like the Café at the Waldorf-Astoria. She was the first and perhaps only tennis player to host a football radio show, at WNEW in New York City, where she showed a chick could pick winners as well as any man.

She aced, in the thirties and forties, all the Tennis Glamazon stuff at which Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters excel today. She hung with Hollywood – there’s a photo where her blonde loveliness is only slightly outshone by Carole Lombard’s. She did print ads for Jockey with Big Bill Tilden. She gave free tennis and fitness clinics for kids. She designed her own line of tennis wear.

The Golden Girl of Golden Gate Park

Marble was born in 1913 to a poor widow, the youngest of eight siblings and the only girl. She grew up by the public tennis courts near Golden Gate Bridge, a tomboy trying to best the athletic feats of her competitive brothers. She was the team mascot and ball girl for the minor league San Francisco Seals – its star, Joe DiMaggio recalled that at thirteen, “she had a pretty good arm.” She thought tennis was a sport for sissies and didn’t pick up a racquet until she was fifteen, when her brothers explained that there was no future in pro ball for a girl, and she should take up something more ladylike – like tennis.

She began to watch other players on the public courts, and without her knowledge, her brothers signed her up for a tournament. She lost. She hated losing. She had no money for lessons. She hated losing. She played with borrowed equipment. She hated losing. She wasn’t yet in love with the game, but she’d found an outlet for her competitive streak. And she hated losing.

That year she was raped by a stranger in Golden Gate Park.

Her commitment to practice caught the eye of Eleanor “Teach” Tennant, arguably the greatest tennis coach of her time. (Her other pupils, Gene Mako, Don Budge and Bobby Riggs would be half the reason for Marble’s iron grip on Mixed Doubles Titles.) Alice couldn’t afford to pay her, so Tennant provided tennis lessons in exchange for secretarial work. She remained Marble’s coach and friend for the rest of her life.

Tennant knew she didn’t have one of those triple-named queens of the court on her hands – champs like Helen Wills Moody or Margaret Osborne DuPont. She had a scrapper with speed, serve, volley and an overhead Don Budge said she smashed “better than the best men.”

Alice also had so many health problems that Tennant spent as much time being a nurse as being a coach.

The Easthampton incident in 1933 should have ended Marble’s career. In 1934 she traveled with an American team to a French event, only to faint during the first set. Diagnosed with pleurisy – an inflammation of the lungs that makes breathing excruciating – she spent eight months in a sanatorium, bored senseless, body atrophied. Tennant had to teach her how to walk again. Her energy had disappeared; she despaired of ever competing again, and sought a second opinion. Her blood-iron level had almost flat lined. Anemia treatments and continued strength training, to say nothing of the vocal lessons, brought her up from the wheelchair.

But in 1936 the big wigs at the National Tennis Association still feared for her health and banned her from playing in the U.S. Championships. So she set up a two-hour, hot-weather exhibition and invited them to observe. After seeing her form, they let her play at Forest Hills. Good call: she beat Helen Jacobs for the Ladies Championship and took the Mixed Doubles with Gene Mako.

Alice Marble won 18 Major titles between 1936 and 1940, including one Wimbledon and four U.S. Championships singles titles. She set records in 1939 when she became the first woman to sweep the singles, doubles and mixed events at both Wimbledon and the US Championships in the same year. (Only one other woman has equaled this accomplishment  – Billie Jean King in 1967.)

But as great as Marble’s on-court achievements are, her life is too big to fit inside the record books or a display case at the Tennis Hall of Fame. Her life demands the Big Screen and Hitchcock’s iconic black-and-white, her story filmed “Notorious” style with Ingrid Bergman as the blonde.

Alice, Noir

Marble turned pro in 1940, giving up amateur glory on the lawns of Forest Hills and Wimbledon. “What’s left for me?” she said, “I’m champion and may as well make the most of it.” Big Bill Tilden and Don Budge toured with her that year in an event sponsored by L.B. Ikczly, the owner of Wilson.  Her win-loss record was 72-3.

Marble was making money, winning big, studying at Columbia and NYU, singing in nightclubs and giving fitness lectures to Women’s Groups. In 1942 she fell in love with an Army intelligence captain, Joseph Crowley, and married him. (Alice had led a lusty love life that leaned to Xtreme Doubles, Ladies and Mixed.) Pregnancy did nothing but make her golden glow more radiant.

In 1944 she survived a car crash. The baby died. A few days later her husband’s plane was shot down over Germany. He died.

Alice took an overdose of sleeping pills because she wanted to die. She lived. “Teach” Tennant found her in time.

Allied Intelligence recruited her to worm the secrets of Nazi bank transfers from a Swiss banker who’d been one of her lovers. They set up a series of exhibition matches in Switzerland, trusting that the banker would attempt a hook-up with Alice.  In her autobiography, Courting Danger, she wrote: “When I agreed to use tennis as a cover for an assignment that had little chance of succeeding, I had nothing to lose but my life, and at the time I didn’t care about living.”  Like Ingrid Bergman in this courtside version of “Notorious”, Alice Marble seduced for her country. She charmed the wire transfer numbers from the banker (Claude Rains, of course). The Nazis discovered the Allied plot and shot Alice in the back, leaving her for dead on a country road. Her keepers found her and got her out.

She lived. She wrote: “On a dark mountain road I found I did care. When my life was in danger I did what I’ve always done: I fought.”

A Challenge in Black and White

After the war DC Comics hired her to be editorial director of its “Wonder Woman” franchise. She did a little coaching – a young Billie Jean King was one of her students. And Marble fought maybe the most important battle of her life, against racism in tennis.

In 1950, Althea Gibson was barred from entering a tournament because she was black. That same year – when institutional racism was the American Way – Alice Marble wrote an article in the July edition of American Lawn Tennis Magazine. The money quotes:

“Miss Gibson is over a very cunningly wrought barrel, and I can only hope to loosen some of its staves with one lone opinion. If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it’s also time we acted a little more like gentle-people and less like sanctimonious hypocrites.” “If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of women players, it’s only fair they meet that challenge on the courts.”

Then she served an ace straight down the T. If Gibson didn’t get her chance, Marble said, “there is an ineradicable mark against a game to which I have devoted most of my life, and I would be bitterly ashamed.”

Althea Gibson played the U.S. Championships that year.

In 1964, along with her buddy and mixed doubles partner, Don Budge, Alice Marble was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame. She died in Palm Springs in 1990.

Margaret McArthur cooks, writes and pulls weeds near Chicago. She fell in love with tennis the year John McEnroe joined the tour. Her food writing can be found at www.margaretmcarthur.com.

For more about Alice Marble and other tennis greats, the Tennis Hall of Fame’s website is a terrific resource: www.tennisfame.com. Alice Marble’s autobiography (with Dan Leatherman) is available at Amazon: Courting Danger: My Adventures in World-Class Tennis, Golden-Age Hollywood, and High-Stakes Spying

Want more to read? Click here for GTT’s interview with author Jon Wertheim on his new book Strokes of Genius and here for the amazing true story of the world’s most dashing tennis player Gottfried von Cramm.

Alice on court: photo (available for purchase) at The San Francisco Chronicle

Fashion designer Alice: photo via Tennis History Online Museum

Hollywood Alice: photo with Carole Lombard at All About Tennis.

Althea Gibson with opponent Darlene Hard, after becoming the first African American woman to win Wimbledon in 1957: photo via NBCSports

Don’t duck! Don’t take cover! A MAJOR Roger Bomb is about to explode!!!

Winning his 14th Major has evidently put Roger Federer in a gregarious mood, judging from the extensive Q&A he did for the Basel-based newspaper, Basler Zeitung. The 55 question interview was given at his parents’ house in Switzerland, five days after V-day in Paris.

Huge, huge thanks, of course, to my fellow Fed fans at RF.com for translating from German and bringing this story to the English speaking world! (Awesome job, Fedfan1414 and  aFRoditeL!)

It’s a Roger Federer classic:

(My silly asides are in italic quotes)

BaZ: Roger, how is it going after two weeks of playing in the dust and clay?
I’m used to it now. The clay does get in my eyes for sure. The socks become very red. It’s better on grass or hard court where these things don’t happen.

2: What was the first thought that you had at match point in Paris?
It was something simple. I created this. It was one of the most important victories of my career. It was a weight that was lifted. Certainly the first Wimbledon victory will remain always special, it gave me all that I have. It made me popular, gave me the self-confidence, was the realization of my childhood dream. All my idols did not win in Paris. Therefore Roland Garros is different. But this first win is immense. (Deep stuff, right? “I created this.” Wow.)

3: Have you ever thought of money during a match?
Once. In Shanghai, in the first Masters when I had qualified before the last group game for the semi finals. The win against Johansson was no longer important, but there was 150,000 francs for the victory! I thought almost in every rally: 150,000 francs! 150,000 francs! What can I buy? Everything! It was hell to think of the money in every shot. . .

4: Are you ever ashamed of your tears?
No, not ashamed. It was perhaps a little embarrassing. The camera likes to focus closely on the tears. It is good to show emotions. I am actually happy that I do.

5. What would you want to have to be the perfect tennis player – without Roger Federer?
Serve, I take Andy Roddick, in addition David Nalbandian’s backhand, Rafael Nadal’s forehand and Lleyton Hewitt’s fighter qualities. There is no longer so many volleys today, but I would say Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter or Tim Henman. And in the mental area, I take probably once again Nadal. This doesn’t guarantee success, but it would be a very difficult to play against this opponent.

6: Who is indispensable to you as a tennis player?
I could actually make it all alone. But not so professionally and certainly not so well. The longest person I’ve collaborated with is Pierre Paganini; he was certainly a very important man in my early career.

7: How do you spend a perfect day?
Without tennis: Either with friends, home – or with Mirka at the beach, on the Maldives. Romantic dinner maybe. Maybe to the spa, massages watch the sunset and enjoy the waves. (Wait, where does “a cozy chat with FreakyFrites” fit in?)

8: With whom – except your woman – would you gladly get stuck in the elevator?
Then probably with my mommy. (Supposedly he really did say “mommy.”)

9: Who are your best friends?
Reto Staubli was my best man. Then there is Yves Allegro, Marco Chiudinelli, also Severin Lüthi.

10: Your favorite food?
I could eat Italian every day. I also like Japanese. And somehow my number 1 is always the Swiss food: Rösti, raclette, fondue – if I’m at home.

11: What do you not like?
I was a vegetarian until I was 16. Then I went into a steakhouse during the 1998 Davis Cup with Marc Rosset. When I said that I eat no meat, he was surprised! He ordered me a small piece of every kind of meat out of the kitchen. I tried, some suited me – and so began that.

With Mirka on vacation in Thailand I discovered seafood and fish – and today I actually eat everything. As a vegetarian, I experienced hard times at junior tournaments.

12: What do you do when you first wake up?
I snuggle with Mirka. That comes before I get out of bed. Then I go shower, brush my teeth and shave. (Yes, I know, ridiculously cute.)

13: Your biggest flaw?
I used to always be late. It’s better today. And sometimes I delay things that I could decide immediately. (Much better than the standard “I’m a perfectionist” answer.)

14: What do you not like?
People who are impolite.

15. Are there still people who are impolite to Roger Federer? When was the last time someone yelled at you?
When I was playing exhibition-matches with Sampras in Asia, we were invited by the Prime-minister of Malaysia. The man who had arranged this told us it would take half an hour – after two hours it was time for us to go. The dinner was still being served, and I called the person in charge, in order to complain about the fact that he had made us deal with this unpleasant situation. At that point I was very angry. He didn’t like it and he yelled back at me. This wasn’t good.

16. What is the dumbest advice you have received during your career?
There have been whole match-analysis attempts, like vs. Nadal, in which every single stroke was mentioned. Then there are people who make phone calls all the time, who write to me, asking why I don’t write back, saying I am impolite. But I’m not sore at anyone, it’s ok by me.

17. What are you afraid of?
Sky diving, bungee jumping, I don’t need these things. I can’t do those things. Since I’m pretty much a yellow-belly.

18. It is said that 99% of people know who Roger Federer is. Do you ever meet the remaining 1% ? (Really!? Maybe 99% of people in Switzerland – where’d this stat come from?)
Yes, that happens. People who are not at all interested in sports, and people who don’t know that Switzerland exists. I don’t expect everyone to know who I am. That’s not what I think of in life. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be good.

19. When was the last time someone called you “Roschée” (French pronunciation) instead of “Rodscher” (English pronunciation)?
In Paris this has happened 100,000 times. But now it happens rarely, I have instructed people well in the previous years, to make sure they will call me “Rodscher” (Roger), because I was baptized this way and I live up to my South African origins from my mother’s side with pride. But I think it’s funny when the French write “Rodgeur” in order to read it in the right way.

20. Who does someone so admired admire?
Other sportsmen. Golfer Tiger Woods, he is an inspiration to me. Previously also basketball player Michael Jordan. And motorcycle driver Valentino Rossi, who I watch when I can. But also musicians, like former Bush singer (Gavin Rossdale shout out!), who is a friend – and I have attended two concerts of his.

21. What will you be doing in 20 years?
I will be looking after my family of course. But I also see myself still working, not just sitting around, although I don’t think my work will have to do with tennis. Today I can’t imagine myself as a coach, or as a TV-expert. I rather see myself associated with some sponsors or running my own business, if it exists. Basically I believe that I will live in Switzerland and enjoy life.

22. You will be a father after Wimbledon. Have you and your wife attended a childbirth preparation class?
No, we haven’t. But friends have given us a ton of books on this subject, and I have read a little. But the most important thing for me is to exchange thoughts with other people who have already had this experience. And the doctor also gives you much information.

23. Have you chosen the names?
We have searched in name books, but we haven’t decided yet.

24. It is said/supposed to be a boy.
I have never confirmed this. We know what it is – and will not say. (Oh, so it could still be a girl named Martina!)

25. When Barbara Becker was pregnant, Boris Becker also felt pregnant. Do you also feel like that?
It is definitely a very interesting period of time. It is incredible, how much I’ve found out about pregnancy, but also about women and what happens to them. That was very educational for me. (Ha!)

26. Is the fact that you’ll become a father only associated with anticipation or with worries as well?
One has a lot of worries as well. It begins in the first few months, during which one must wait before announcing it, until the doctors say what could go wrong. But I’m happy for the responsibility that comes with it. And tennis helps me. I have come through so many difficult situations, that I just have the feeling that we will be good parents.

27. Have you and Mirka got nicknames for each other?
Yes, we have many (nick)names. But I’d rather not mention them. . . (Oh, how my mind reels! Feddy Bear, maybe?)

28. Disposable or cloth diapers?
Disposable diapers. We don’t know anything else, although they are not environmentally friendly. But I do make sure that I recycle everything.

29. Two children or extended family?
Three children, maybe four. Just more than just one. But for the time being we are looking forward to this birth. (One named after each Slam, of course!)

30. Stallone or De Niro?
I prefer action movies, so the answer is clear: Sylvester Stallone. I also like watching James Bond films. (Wait, what happened to Dirty Dancing?)

31. Beer or wine?
Wine.

32. Bicycle or inline skates?
Definitely bicycle, I have done the other twice. Last time (I rode a bicycle) was after winning at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors, when I bicycled through Basel, after a dinner with a friend. That was a great feeling.

33. Harald Schmidt or Stefan Raab? (Talk show personalities)
I like watching Raab’s broadcasts. Abroad it is hardly possible most of the time.

34. Cornflakes or honey-bread?
Honey bread, but when abroad I must switch to cornflakes most of the time.

35. When you are at home: rather go out, or cook for yourself?
I like to eat at home. Mirka likes cooking, unlike me. I don’t know how I did it, but I have been lucky because in my life there always have been good cooks around me: first my mother, now Mirka.

36. Do you rather help with ironing or vacuuming?
With vacuuming – I can do it well. (Hello, Hoover sponsorship!)

37. Eminem or AC / DC?
Actually, rather rock. Especially during training at home, I hear hard stuff most of the time, Metallica or AC / DC.

38. Wet shaving or electric?
Only wet shaving. According to my contract with Gillette, I must be well-groomed. Since I shave every day, I have less skin problems. At tournaments, I am supplied with razors and blades.

39. Olympic Games Single Gold or Davis Cup?
Davis Cup, because I have already won Olympic Gold in doubles.

40. What surprises me about Rafael Nadal is:
His consistency in his early years.

41. Training is for me:
More fun than it used to be.

42. My weakest stroke is:
The backhand return. And then I would like to be able to play more aggressively.

43. My dream double-partner is:
Martina Hingis. I have already played with her, it was really fantastic. And with Mirka. After my Olympic Games victory, of course, Stanislas Wawrinka has also become my dream double-partner. (Loving the Hingis-love!)

44. John McEnroe’s behavior in his early years in my opinion:
Was very funny. In my early years I was funny as well (laughs).

45. If I could be someone else for one day, I would be:
A musician.

46. On the dance floor I move:
Not that bad. (You’ve definitely got the footwork)

47. At school I hated:
“Hate” is the wrong word. I did not like getting up early and doing homework.

48. In Basel:
I feel super-good.

49. Am I interested in politics?
Yes and no. I’m barely here in Switzerland. Therefore, I do not always vote. But I have followed the U.S. election campaign very intensively.

50. Wollerau (Roger’s newish place of residence):
Is good, and also a compromise. It’s right in the middle between my parents and Mirka’s parents.

51. I would change about myself:
Not too many things, at least not in tennis. But in my private life I will inevitably have to change, when our child comes.

52. I think being a worldwide star is:
Rather positive than negative.

53. If I could rule the world for one day, I would:
Make sure that there wouldn’t be so many poor people out there. (Amen to that.)

54. I do/don’t believe in God:
Do

55. One day I would like as an inscription on my tombstone the words:
Hmm, since I hope that there is still much time till then, I won’t answer.

Hey, what about Roger’s favorite swear word and the classic boxers vs. briefs question? Any secret nicknames for Nole or Uncle Toni? Favorite perfume? Well, I guess no interview could tell us everything we need to know about Roger Federer.

Oh, and thanks to the considerate GTT reader who brought this article to my attention!

Click here for the Basler Zeitung’s website.

Andy Roddick retired from his semifinal match against James Blake at the Queen’s Club tournament on Saturday, after he rolled his ankle on court. It was bad news for tennis fans looking for an Andy vs. Andy final (and Roddick fans hoping he’d win his 5th title at Queen’s) but the good news is he should be fine for Wimbledon.

Here’s Roddick on his ankle (via tennis.com): “I met with my trainer and with the doctors. They don’t think anything is torn. We’re looking at days, not weeks.”

For folks still in need of an Andy -fix, I suggest you click here to read a fantastic interview he did with Paul Kimmage for the Times, U.K.

Not convinced? Check out these great excerpts.

On Roddick’s London cabbie friend:

“Roddick has his critics. He talks down to umpires; he’s condescending with the media; his game is a technical eyesore . . . but can a guy who invites a 63-year-old cabbie to his wedding really be all bad?”

An  email the reporter received from a colleague, warning him of Roddick’s interview style:

Andy is incredibly quick-witted and doesn’t suffer fools. He likes to pull up interviewers with questions he regards as stupid, and turn it around to make them look stupid, and often succeeds. It can get a bit annoying, especially if you are on the receiving end, but essentially he’s a really good guy.

An example of “not suffering fools”:

“(Larry Stefanki) put you on a diet,” I suggest.

“I don’t think he put me on a diet,” he says, bristling.

“Okay, he suggested a diet?”

“No, he said, ‘Lose 10 pounds.’

Roddick describes his worst period as a pro:

The worst I ever felt about myself as a tennis player was in 2006. I think I dropped out of the top 10 for the only time in my career and actually lost to Murray when he was 19. I remember thinking, ‘God! I don’t know if I’m going to be a relevant player [any more].’ And then Jimmy [Connors] and I got together and if you had told me after Wimbledon that I would make the final of the US Open, I would have said, ‘I’ll shave my eyebrows if that happens!’ I wasn’t confident at that point.

Good stuff, right? Click here for more!

Andy Murray and James Blake play the final at Queen’s Club on Sunday. Click here for the TV Schedule.

 I admit it, the Fedophile in me ran screaming from S.L. Price’s Sports Illustrated article based on its title alone: “How Nadal humbled Federer.” But boy, am I glad I talked myself into reading it, because it’s chock-full of fascinating facts and anecdotes that even the most avid tennis fanatic may have missed along the way. Obviously, you should click here to read the entire thing, but if you still need persuading, here are some excerpts:

Uncle Toni’s past as a table tennis champion helped form one of Rafa’s most formidable weapons:

At first the (young Rafa) hit his strokes fairly flat, and Toni soon realized he needed a bigger weapon. So, recalling his own spin-happy Ping-Pong days, Toni persuaded Rafa to develop what some players call a reverse forehand — in which, instead of swinging the racket across his body and finishing above his right shoulder, he jerks the racket back after striking the ball and finishes above his left — to impart extreme topspin. Thanks to his remarkable racket speed and to advances in string technology, Rafa was eventually able to hit shots that rotated at an unprecedented 3,200 revolutions per minute (compared with Federer’s 2,500), fell inside the lines and, most important, bounced like a frightened jackrabbit, high and away from the perfect player’s backhand. The stroke’s impact? Eric Hechtman, a hitting partner for both players, says returning Nadal’s forehand feels “like you’re breaking off your arm.”

On Uncle Toni & Co.’s strict training regimen (it’s a little over the top):

Toni and Rafa both knew that Rafa’s forehand, whose height was lessened by grass and hard courts, couldn’t do the job alone. Every dimension of his game had to improve. Toni would list his nephew’s deficiencies, stroke by stroke, each time they faced Federer. “He’s so much better than you,” Toni would say, “but if you believe and work, you can win.”

Indeed, it has been easy to reduce Nadal’s triumph to mere belief and work, as if he were some implacable primitive: will personified. The truth, however, is that Camp Rafa is a fairly sophisticated operation. A Majorcan trainer, Juan Forcades, oversees Nadal’s conditioning. Physical therapist Rafael Maymo spends much of his day taking notes on when and what Nadal eats; when he goes to sleep and when he wakes; how much time he spends hitting forehands, backhands and volleys. Toni, meanwhile, has harped on his nephew’s weaknesses so effectively that even in the earliest rounds of last year’s French Open, Rafa was scared of losing. Toni reassured him — “You’re Number 1 on clay!” — but it didn’t matter. “He never relaxes,” Toni says. “He’s so afraid for every match.”

On why 2008 was Roger’s best year ever:

Strangely enough 2008 might have been Federer’s greatest year — better than his 92-5 run in ‘06, better than the three years in which he won nine majors –because he battled his body from start to finish. A bout of mononucleosis in late 2007 had enlarged his spleen, ravaged his powers of recovery and ruined his off-season training; from the ‘08 Australian Open on, he played a step slow, which threw off his timing and sent his confidence tumbling. Yet Federer still made the Australian Open semifinals and the French Open final, labored back from two sets down to lose the longest Wimbledon final ever by the slimmest of margins, and won the U.S. Open — Hall of Fame stuff for anyone else.

“Federer was ill all season long, and the story was completely missed,” Courier says. “He hid it from everybody because it’s his responsibility to not show weakness, and he played through it because of his commitment to the tour. Which was a mistake. Mario Ancic [the Croatian once ranked No. 7] missed more than six months on the tour with a mono bout; it’s a serious illness for a high-level performance athlete. Roger needed to get off the tour and get healthy again.”

Rafael Nadal’s mindset vs. Roger Federer’s mindset:

On March 30, at the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla., Nadal beat 74th-ranked Frederico Gil 7-5, 6-3, walked off the court and disappeared. Maymo (his physio) waited in the locker room until Nadal showed 15 minutes later, steaming from a sprint on the elliptical trainer. “I wasn’t happy with my play,” he said, “so I punished myself.”

The next night Federer, soon to be married to his longtime girlfriend and manager, Mirka Vavrinec, with whom he is expecting a child, downplayed the idea that he needs to adjust his game. He said he felt fresh, back in shape at last. “That’s been my problem, not really Rafa or Andy or Djokovic,” he said. “I feel like I’m about to turn the corner.”

I’ve included the Federer vs. Nadal stuff, but the article includes a great run down on how Nadal has steadily improved all aspects of his game in order to become the best. The whole “Nadal’s just in Federer’s head” argument loses some of it’s power after this piece. Which is a little hard to swallow as a Fedophile, but heck, sometimes being a real fan means ignoring reality!

I do quibble with the article’s general tone that Federer is some kind of crown prince who was never interested in  “fighting for power.” Hello, Roger did play on the tour for years before becoming No. 1 – and then defended that position for a record 237 weeks! But despite this, the piece is still a “must read.”  Click here to check it out and please tell me what you think!

“You call that a forehand, Rafa?” AP Photo/Michel Spingler via Daylife

There is a terrific article by Danielle Rossingh and Alex Duff in yesterday’s Bloomberg.com entitled: “Federer Fails to Deter Nadal in Fight to be Richest Tennis Star.” It’s about the two players’ earning powers and Nadal’s ever-increasing marketability. It’s chock full of fascinating details about the Nadal family’s business and personal dealings. (Click here to read the whole thing – you won’t be disappointed!)

Here are just some of the interesting factoids I gleaned from the article:

In 2005, Nadal won a $50K Mercedes after taking the title in Stuttgart. And Uncle Toni promptly asked Rafa’s sponsor, Kia, to give his son a $20,000 Sorento, putting the luxury car in a garage to gather dust. Uncle Toni: “I said I wouldn’t like him to have a luxury car. I never wanted him to be incorrect or have a showoff attitude.” Last year, Uncle Toni approved Nadal’s upgrade to a $270,000 Aston Martin DBS – the same model from last year’s Bond film.

In 2008, Roger Federer made about $35 million from endorsements and tournaments. Nadal made somewhere between $15 – 20 million. But Rafa is making inroads – signing up with three new corporate sponsors after winning the Olympics last year.

The gap is narrowing, but some experts say Roger is still the more attractive player: “Federer has a set of values that makes him very appealing to sponsors; he is very approachable. Nadal has a more mysterious quality. He needs to be less mysterious, more outgoing.” (Note – do you agree with this analysis? I think Rafa is very approachable.)

Rafael Nadal is also considered by marketers to be a “safe rebel,” possess a “sexy virility,” and appeal to everyone from “5- year-old kids, mothers, grandmothers (and) fathers (who) see him as a very good role model for their children.”

Here’s Rafa on his reluctance to take on more time-consuming sponsors: “I am a tennis player. For me, it’s very, very important, the sponsors, sure. But at the same time, I want to have time enough time to practice and to continue to improve my tennis.”

Rafael Nadal’s father, Sebastian, manages his son’s money for him and has set him up with a pension that will pay Rafa “$180,000 euros every Jan. 1 from the ages of 30 to 63.” That’s just under a quarter of a million dollars. The article includes more detailed information on the family’s business ventures and Rafa’s own investments (click here to read.)

Uncle Toni isn’t paid a salary to coach his nephew. He takes a percentage from the family-owned window company, which netted 2.5 million Euros last year ($3,350,000 U.S.)

Uncle Toni’s live-and-learn coaching style, illustrated:

“At times, the coach has let Nadal make mistakes to teach him a lesson. Eric Babolat, chief executive officer of racket company Babolat, says in 2004 he overheard Rafael’s agent Costa alert Toni that Rafael was about to eat three chocolate croissants before a preliminary match at the Paris Masters. Costa was concerned the calorie-rich pastries would make Nadal sluggish on the court.

“Toni told Carlos to let him, that he will learn that he will lose the match,” Babolat says. “Rafa did lose that match. That says a lot about Toni’s coaching style.”

I just like imagining Nadal eating three chocolate croissants in one sitting – that’s an awesome accomplishment and something I aspire to do someday – as soon as I develop Rafa-like abs! Rafa needs a croissant sponsorship, for sure.

Read the whole article if you have time (click here) for more great factoids and anecdotes.

Photo REUTERS/Joshua Lott via Daylife