Mondays With Bob Greene: It's the most exciting victory of my life

STARS
Dmitry Tursunov beat Karol Beck 6-4 6-3 to win the IPP Open in Helsinki, Finland
Caroline Wozniacki won the Nordea Danish Open, beating Sofia Arvidsson 6-2 6-1 in Odense, Denmark
Jim Courier beat Stefan Edberg 6-3 6-4 to win the Legends “Rock” Dubai Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
DAVIS CUP
David Nalbandian (Argentina) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3 6-2 6-3
Feliciano Lopez (Spain) beat Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) 4-6 7-6 (2) 7-6 (4) 6-3
Feliciana Lopez and Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Agustin Calleri and David Nalbandian (Argentina) 5-7 7-5 7-6 (5) 6-3
Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 6-3 6-7 (3) 4-6 6-3 6-1
SAYINGS
“It’s the most exciting victory of my life. Playing for my country, against the best players, it’s a dream.” – Fernando Verdasco, after winning the clinching point to give Spain its third Davis Cup title.
“I was prepared for the match, but Verdasco played very well in the fourth and fifth sets. He started serving better and deserves a lot of credit for this win.” – Jose Acasuso, after losing decisive match to Fernando Verdasco
“When you lose such an important player like Juan Martin, it opens a big hole in the team. After that, things got complicated for us.” – Alberto Mancini, Argentina Davis Cup captain.
“I have to remember Rafael Nadal because we played the Davis Cup final thanks to him.” -Verdasco, honoring the man who won two singles matches in the semifinals against the United States.
“Nadal gave us several victories, and thanks to him we are here. But the players who are here are the ones who deserve all the credit now.” – Emilio Sanchez Vicario, Spain’s Davis Cup captain.
“This is a great finish to a great year. Dubai is a fantastic place for me, and for all the players, to end up the season.” – Jim Courier.
“We get our grounds back and then we can decide what we do with it and be in charge of our own destiny, while it secures investment in British tennis for the next 40 years until 2053.” – Tim Phillips, on Wimbledon paying USD $83 million to gain total control of the All England Club.
“Carole and I first met when we were both 12 years old and remained lifelong friends. More than any other person, Carole worked tirelessly behind the scenes to be the driving force and influential leader of Fed Cup, the international women’s tennis team competition.” – Billie Jean King, about Carole Graebner, who died at the age of 65.
SPAIN SI SI
So what if the world’s number one player, Rafael Nadal, is missing. Spain still won its third Davis Cup by besting Argentina 3-1 in the best-of-five international competition. The winning point came on the first “reverse singles” when Fernando Verdasco outlasted Jose Acasuso 6-3 6-7 (3) 4-6 6-3 6-1 before a boisterous crowd in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. It was a battle of replacements as Verdasco had replaced David Ferrer for Spain and Acasuso was a replacement for the injured Juan Martin de Potro. Feliciano Lopez had rallied to give Spain its first point by upsetting del Potro 4-6 7-6 (2) 7-6 (4) 6-3, then teamed with Verdasco to win the doubles, besting Agustin Calleri and David Nalbandian 5-7 7-5 7-6 (5) 6-3. It was the first time Spain had won a Davis Cup title on the road. Playing on home courts, Spain beat Australia in 2000 and the United States in 2004.
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STILL WINLESS
For Jose Acasuso, losing the decisive match to give Spain the Davis Cup title was doubly devastating. The Argentine became the first man to lose two decisive five-set matches in Davis Cup finals, having also lost to Marat Safin in five sets in 2006 as Russia beat Argentina for the title. In the fourth set of the match against Spain, the trainer came onto court to work on Acasuso’s abdominal strain. “There was a lot of sadness in the locker room after the loss,” Acasuso said, “and the fact that three of the four of us lost to Russia two years ago means that the pain was double.”
STRAIGHT TO JAIL
Jimmy Connors was arrested at a University of California Santa Barbara basketball game when he refused to move on after being instructed to do so by police officers. An eight-time Grand Slam tournament champion, Connors refused to leave an area near the entrance of the Thunderdome following a confrontation, according to police. The tennis great was arrested at the beginning of the game and was taken to the Santa Barbara County jail where he was booked and released.
SUCCESS AT HOME
Caroline Wozniacki’s return home ended in triumph. Denmark’s top player won the Nordea Danish Open by defeating Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 6-1. “I played incredibly stable and pushed her around the court, just as I had planned,” Wozniacki said. “Therefore, she never really got started. So I win the fight, and since it was on my home ground, I am obviously more than happy.” Ranked 12^th in the world, Wozniacki was the highest ranked player ever to play an International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s Circuit event. It was the first USD $100,000 women’s tournament played in Denmark.
STEFANKI ON BOARD
Andy Roddick has a new coach. The former world number one player announced on his website that he has hired Larry Stefanki, who has previously coached John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Tim Henman and Fernando Gonzalez. Under Stefani’s guidance, both Rios and Kafelnikov reached the world number one ranking. Roddick has been without a coach since splitting from Jimmy Connors.
SEEKING OWN DESTINY
Wimbledon is buying back its own club. Organizers of the grass court Grand Slam tournament will pay USD $83 million to regain total control of the All England Club, buying back the 50 percent it gave away in 1934. The money will be paid to Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association after the existing agreement expires. Under the 40-year deal, the All England Club will keep 10 percent of the profits instead of giving it all to the LTA, the governing body of British tennis. This year’s tournament generated a profit of USD $39 million.
SPOTLIGHT ON VILAS
Guillermo Vilas is this year’s recipient of the Davis Cup Award of Excellence. The International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) presented the award to Vilas during the Davis Cup final between Spain and Argentina in Mar del Plata, Argentina. ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti presented the award to Vilas with past award recipients Neale Fraser (2001), Pierre Darmon (2002) and Manolo Santana (2004) in attendance. Vilas holds the Argentinean Davis Cup record for most total wins (57), most singles wins (45), most doubles wins (12), most ties played (29), most years played (14) and best doubles team, with Jose-Luis Clerc. Born in Mar del Plata in 1952, the left-hander is credited with being the first Argentine to win a Grand Slam tournament singles (Roland Garros in 1977) and the first Argentine to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (1991). He also won the last US Open to be played at Forest Hills in 1977.
SENIOR CHAMP
Jim Courier closed out the 2008 Outback Champions Series season in style by capturing the Emirates NBD The Legends “Rock” Dubai Championships. Courier beat Stefan Edberg 6-3, 6-4 to win his fourth tournament title of the year on the tennis circuit for champion tennis players age 30 and over. He also won titles this year in Grand Cayman, Charlotte and Dallas, was finished the 2008 Outback Champions Series as its number one player in the Stanford Champions Rankings. Counting his Stanford Financial Group bonus, Courier won USD $404,000 in prize money this year.
STARS OF OLD
BlackRock Tour of Champions stars John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg joined up with Roger Federer and James Blake for a series of exhibition matches in Macao, China. Federer bested Blake 6-4 6-4 and Borg edged McEnroe in a one-set clash 7-6 before the two Americans teamed up to beat Borg and Federer 10-7 in a single Champions’ Tiebreak.
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE
Julia Parker Goyer, a Duke University graduate and tennis player, was among 32 Americans chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Goyer graduated with a psychology major and neuroscience minor in May 2007. She will pursue a masters of science in comparative and international education at Oxford University in England. After making trips to Vietnam and Belize in 2007, Goyer founded the Coach for College program, which sends student-athletes to teach middle schoolers in rural areas of developing countries.
SAD NEWS
Carole Caldwell Graebner, who won doubles titles at the US and Australian Championships in the 1960s, is dead. She was 65. The top-ranked doubles player in the United States in 1963, Graebner teamed with Nancy Richey to win the 1965 US Championships, now the US Open, and the 1966 Australian Championships, now the Australian Open. She reached the US Championships women’s singles final in 1964, losing to Brazil’s Maria Bueno. Graebner was a member of the inaugural 1963 US Fed Cup team, and played college tennis alongside Billie Jean King at California State University at Los Angeles. She later served as United States Tennis Association (USTA) chair of the Fed Cup committee, and was a vice president of Tennis Week magazine and a radio and television commentator. She is survived by a daughter, Cameron Graebner Mark; a son, Clark Edward Graebner Jr.; and four grandchildren.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Helsinki: Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach beat Eric Butorac and Lovro Zovko 6-7 (2) 7-6 (7) 10-6 (match tiebreak)
Odense: Sarah Borwell and Courtney Nagle beat Gabriela Chmelinova and Mervana Jugic-Salkic 6-4 6-4
SITES TO SURF
ATP: www.atptennis.com
WTA Tour: www.sonyericssonwtatour.com
ITF: www.itftennis.com