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James Blake, Luke Jensen, Vince Spadea and Jan-Michael Gambill To Play Forest Hills Friday

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Former standout tennis professionals James Blake, Luke Jensen, Vince Spadea and Jan-Michael Gambill will compete in a special one-day tennis tournament Friday, August 25 starting at 4:00 pm at the historic West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills in Queens, New York as part of the club’s 125-year celebration.

The tennis matches are part of a day-long celebration at the club, the long-time former home of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the site of the most ever U.S. Davis Cup matches. The public has the opportunity to play on the famed grass tennis courts, watch the pro tennis matches and a special anniversary ceremony at the Forest Hills Stadium, followed by a Gala dinner with entertainment and dancing.

Blake, the former world No. 4 and member of the 2007 championship winning U.S. Davis Cup team, will play Gambill, the former world No. 14 and also a former member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, in the first semifinal match at 4:00 pm. It will be followed by Spadea, the two-time U.S. Olympic team member and former world No. 18, taking on Jensen, the charismatic winner of the 1994 French Open doubles title, in the second semifinal. The winners of each semifinal will then compete in a championship match. Each match will consist of one FAST-4 set, first to four games, no-ad scoring and a tie-breaker at three games all.

Following the tennis, fans will also be able to stay for a special 125-year anniversary ceremony featuring USTA President Katrina Adams and International Tennis Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin. The legacies of Jack Kramer, a two-time U.S. singles champion, and Maureen Connolly, the second player to win the “Grand Slam” of tennis in 1953, will also be honored with a banner raising ceremony at the famed Forest Hills Stadium, the site of their greatest triumphs, with each family being represented.

Tickets for the tennis tournament and the Anniversary ceremony – that includes an Open Bar – are $100, with $50 being a tax-deductible contribution to the West Side Tennis Club Foundation, the non-profit organization that helps introduce tennis to children and the physically challenged while also preserving the history of the West Side Tennis Club.. A $250 ticket ($125 tax-deductible) includes play on the grass tennis courts starting at 2 pm, including the tennis and ceremony viewing, and the Gala Dinner starting at 7:30. To order tickets, go to www.WSTCFoundation.org or by calling the West Side Tennis Club front desk at 718 268 2300.

The West Side Tennis Club was founded in 1892, then located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The private club moved to its current location in Forest Hills in 1913, where it hosted the U.S. National Tennis Championships (known as the modern-day U.S. Open since 1968) from 1915 until 1977. In addition the club has hosted a total of 16 U.S. Davis Cup ties, more than any other facility. The club features 38 tennis courts featuring four different court surfaces – grass, hard, red clay and Har-Tru – including the 13,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium that is now a popular concert venue. The club also features a junior Olympic-size pool, paddle tennis courts and its famous Tudor-style clubhouse. For more information on the club, including membership information, go to www.ForestHillsTennis.com

Mondays With Bob Greene: Roger generates pressure just by being in front of you

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STARS
Andy Murray beat Gilles Simon 6-4 7-6 (6) to win the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid in Madrid, Spain
Venus William won the Zurich Open, beating Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (1) 6-2 in Zurich, Switzerland
Lu Yen-Hsun won the Tashkent Challenger by beating Mathieu Montcourt 6-3 6-2 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Mara Santiago won the Internazionali Tennis Val Gardena in Ortisei, Italy, when Kristina Barrois lost the first set 6-3, then retired.
SAYINGS
“The serve is the reason I won the tournament because today Gilles was hitting the ball better than me from the back of the court. He was obviously more tired than me. I didn’t play my best, but I’m really happy I won.” – Andy Murray, after beating Gilles Simon to win the Madrid Masters.
“I was really tired today. I didn’t move like I usually do and Andy knew it. He just wanted to kill me, just wanted to make me run.” – Gilles Simon, after losing to Andy Murray.
“I love the pressure. I need it in my life.” – Venus Williams, after winning the Zurich Open.
“It is tough to play against someone who serves like she did today.” – Flavia Pennetta, after losing to Venus Williams, who won one game with four straight aces.
“I was a little unlucky today. I had some mistakes with the backhand, which didn’t help. But I’m not surprised. He’s playing very well and with great confidence.” – Rafael Nadal, after losing to Gilles Simon in the semifinals at Madrid.
“Roger generates pressure just by being in front of you.” – Juan Martin del Potro, who lost to Roger Federer at Madrid.
“I didn’t play tennis because of money, that was never my drive, but I have been very successful. I’ve had an incredible run in slams lately that racks up the money and also the Masters Cup. There is a lot of money involved there.” – Roger Federer, after becoming the ATP career leader in earnings.
“I had no gas left in the tank. I am not a robot and after winning three titles in different time zones and climates I felt mentally and physically tired.” – Jelena Jankovic, after her second-round loss to Flavia Pennetta 5-7 6-3 6-3 at the Zurich Open.
“I think maybe mentally she might have been tired from all the tennis she played recently, but I also served better in the second and third sets than she did.” – Flavia Pennetta, after upsetting top-seeded Jelena Jankovic.
“The mental ability that I have at the moment is one of my advantages. What divides top players from the rest is mental calmness and an ability to cope with pressure in certain moments. … If you are mentally able to play the right shots at the right time, then your place is at the top. That’s the key of this game.” – Novak Djokovic.
“I have to do my things, but in Davis Cup he is the leader and he is the one that counts above everyone else. We don’t compete to see who is the best from Argentina.” – Juan Martin del Potro, after beating compatriot and seventh-seeded David Nalbandian 6-4 6-2 at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Masters.
“For the last two months, I’ve been very serious. It’s all changing for me.” – Gael Monfils, saying his new approach to his career is paying off with victories on the court.
“We are going to deliver on our contract at Melbourne. We’ve had a great run, massive growth in Melbourne. Australia is really behind the event as a Grand Slam. It’s a good event in Melbourne.” – Steve Wood, Tennis Australia chief executive, explaining that the Australian Open will not move from Melbourne to Sydney.
“In my career I’ve stood here on the final day like this nine times now. Not a lot of weeks go by where everything goes right like this.” – Vince Spadea, after winning a Challenger tournament in Calabasas, California, his ninth tournament title in his 15-year professional career, eight of them coming on the Challenger tour.
STOPPING AT THE TOP
Rafael Nadal will finish the year as the number one player in the ATP rankings, ending Roger Federer’s four-year reign. The Spaniard was guaranteed to claim the top spot at the end of the year when Federer lost in the semifinals of the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid. Nadal becomes the first left-hander to finish the year at number one since John McEnroe in 1984 and only the third lefty in the 36-year history of the ATP Rankings. McEnroe was number one from 1981-84 and Jimmy Connors finished number one from 1974-78. The first Spaniard to finish the year as number one, Nadal has won an ATP-leading eight titles in 2008, including Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
SVETLANA’S IN
Svetlana Kuznetsova has clinched a spot in the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha. The Russian is the sixth player to qualify for the eight-woman field, joining Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva. The tournament will be held November 4-9.
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SO IS NIKOLAY
Nikolay Davydenko is the fifth player to qualify for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China. The Russian joins Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in the elite eight-player field for the November 9-16 tournament. Also qualifying for the doubles competition at the Tennis Masters were Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, along with Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Luis Horna of Peru. Cuevas and Horna qualified by winning the title at Roland Garros.
SPECIAL BRIT
When Andy Murray beat Gilles Simon 6-4 7-6 (6) to win the Madrid Masters, he gained a spot into a pretty select group. Murray is the first Briton to win four ATP titles in a season and will be the first from Great Britain since Fred Perry in 1936 to finish the year as the fourth-ranked man. Both Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski reached number four in the rankings, but neither finished the year there nor won four titles and played in a Grand Slam final in one season.
SUPER FRENCH
For the first time in ATP ranking history there are four Frenchmen in the top 20 in the world: Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils.
SERBIAN STOP
If Novak Djokovic has his way, an ATP tournament will be held in his home country of Serbia. The reigning Australian Open champion said his family has bought the license to the ABM Amro Open, which has been held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Djokovic hopes to move the tournament to Belgrade next May.
SURPRISE, NOT
Roger Federer has another title in his trophy case. The Swiss superstar has become the all-time leader in career prize money earnings in men’s tennis, surpassing Pete Sampras. Federer, who has won the U.S. Open five times, has earned more than USD $43.3 million. Sampras has won 14 Grand Slam tournament titles, one more than Federer. Andre Agassi is third in career earnings with USD $31.1 million, with Boris Becker in fourth place on the career money list.
SPONSOR OUT
The United States Davis Cup team is losing its main sponsor. The Associated Press reported that insurance giant American International Group Inc. (AIG) will not renew its contract when it expires at year’s end. One of the world’s largest insurance companies, AIG was on the brink of failure last month when the U.S. government offered it a USD $85 billion loan. On October 8, the Federal Reserve agreed to provide AIG with another loan of up to USD $37.8 billion.
SWITCHING COACHES
A former player will be Svetlana Kuznetsova’s new coach. The Russian star, who has been ranked as high as number two in the world, has hired world-renowned coach Olga Morozova. Kuznetsova had been working with Stefan Ortega from the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Spain. As a player, Morozova was runner-up at both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1974. She has coached the Russian Fed Cup squad and a number of other Russian players, including Elena Dementieva.
STAYING PUT
The Australian Open is staying in Melbourne. Organizers of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament said they will spurn an offer to move the event to Sydney when the current contract with Melbourne expires in 2016. New South Wales recently announced it was building a world-class tennis facility in Sydney and would attempt to get the Australian Open moved there. Although the tournament has been played in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and even New Zealand since it’s inception in 1905, it has been played continually at Melbourne Park since 1988.
STARRING
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is the recipient of the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Contribution Award for its 35-year history of supporting equal opportunity for women on the courts. The award honors an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the development and advancement of women’s sports. When the WTA Tour secured equal prize money for players at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2007, it fulfilled a 30-year goal of parity.
SPADEA A WINNER
When veteran Vince Spadea won a USD $50,000 USTA Challenger tournament in Calabasas, California, he moon walked to the net following the final point. Spadea’s 7-6 (5) 6-4 win over Sam Warburg was his eighth career singles Challenger title. Spadea has won once on the ATP tour in his 15-year pro career.
SHARED PERFORMANCES
Madrid: Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski beat Mahesh Bupathi and Mark Knowles 6-4 6-2
Zurich: Cara Black and Liezel Huber beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder 6-1 7-6 (3)
Tashkent: Flavio Cipolla and Pavel Snobel beat Michail Elgin and Alexandre Kudryavtsev 6-3 6-4
Ortisei: Mariya Koryttseva and Yaroslava Shvedova beat Maret Ani and Galina Voskoboeva 6-2 6-1
SITES TO SURF
Budapest: www.tennisclassics.hu/
Linz: www.generali-ladies.at
Lyon: www.gptennis.com/
Basel: http://www.davidoffswissindoors.ch/
Luxembourg: www.fortis-championships.lu
Seoul: www.kortennis.co.kr
Paris: www.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters//
Quebec: www.challengebell.com
Bratislava: www.stz.sk
Busan: www.busanopen.org/
Cali: www.tennissegurosbolivar.com/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
(All money in USD)
ATP
$1,000,000 Davidoff Swiss Indoors, Basel, Switzerland, carpet
$1,000,000 St. Petersburg Open, St. Petersburg, Russia, hard
$800,000 Grand Prix de Tennis De Lyon, Lyon, France, carpet
$125,000 Samsung Securities Cup Challenger, Seoul, Korea, hard
WTA TOUR
$600,000 Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria, hard
$225,000 FORTIS Championships Luxembourg
$100,000 Internationaux Feminins de la Vienne, Poitiers, France, hard
$100,000 2008 OEC Taipei Ladies Open, Taipei, Taiwan, carpet
SENIORS
Stanford Championships, Outback Champions, Dallas, Texas
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
ATP
$2,450,000 BNP Paribas Masters, Paris, France, carpet
$125,000 Seguros Bolivar Open, Cali, Colombia, clay
$100,000 Busan Open Challenger, Busan, South Korea, hard
WTA TOUR
$175,000 Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Quebec, hard
$100,000 Ritro Slovak Open, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, hard

Mark Keil – Tales from Cincinnati and Boise

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Mark Keil, tennis teaching instructor at the Westboro Tennis and Swim Club, MA writes on two exciting events going on in the states this summer.  The tour stop in Cincinnati, is now a big Master Series event.  The winner in singles and doubles gets a free membership for life in the ATP Tour.  I think it is is the hottest tour event all year, and can sap all of your energy.  I teamed up with Peter Nyborg of Sweden in 1995.  We beat Arnaud Boetsch of France, a former Davis Cup player. He partnered the current player Vince Spadea of Boca Raton, Fla.  We played great and won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the next round we drew Jared Palmer, the NCAA singles and doubles champion out of Stanford.  His dad was the curator of the Palmer Academy, a tennis school in Tampa that produced many junior champion’s. Jared had the best technique, he played like Richard Avedon was taking his picture on every stroke.  He was a Davis Cup doubles team member, and also reached top 40 in the world in the ATP singles rankings.  His wingman that week was Richey Reneberg, the most unheralded American player ever. This guy played solid every time he stepped on the court. He was the king of eating room service, and hardly ventured out of his room. He played Davis Cup doubles for the United States, and played in a few dead rubbers in singles also.
He did play a few practical jokes on player’s with his mate Scott Davis. They use to travel with the “winger,” a sling shot for firing water balloons from hotel balconys. One year at Queen’s, John McEnroe was practicing on an outside court, and these two dudes fired balloons from the clubhouse and kept hitting a metal shack next to his court, making him even more paranoid than he already is. We lost 7-5, 6-3.
At this time of year I played World Team Tennis for the Idaho Sneakers. Boise is a nice town, and Patrick McEnroe picked me to play doubles with him. The South African Michael Robertson was our coach, and I could have given a better effort.  He ended up being my coach for awhile, and I learned how to think more on the court.  Katie Schlukebir, Debbie Graham, Gigi Fernandez, and Wesley Whitehouse rounded out our team.  We would always have early morning flights to the next city to play, and it was an exhausting but fun experience. Patrick would travel with a medicine ball, and it was tough putting it up in the carry on bins on the plane. Gigi was a multiple major doubles champion along with two Olympic gold medals, and had scary volleys. Debbie had a bigger serve than me, and had an unbelievable playing record at Stanford.  Katie was a very sweet girl, who relished on the gossip of our season.  Whitehouse won the Wimbledon junior singles title, and had a lot of angst that it didn’t carry over to the pros. We finished 3-11, mainly due to my unprofessionalism.  All in all, being a part of the team was enjoyable and I picked up a lot information on how to be a better tennis player.  The road to the US Open continues, and what a ride it is.
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Bill Mountford – Dispatches From Newport, R.I, Part II

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Vince Spadea “ain’t afraid a-ya” and the magical Fabrice Santoro have reached the other semifinal.  When these thirty-somethings square off, it will be a nice contrast to the first semifinal that I wrote about in the previous column.
Santoro, referred to as The Magician for his inventive ways of returning balls, is the defending champion.  At the age of 35, he has been battlin g on the ATP Tour for nearly two decades.  Remember that he was once a precocious teenager, and he played in his first Roland Garros main draw at the age of 16 in 1989.  Santoro is the defending champion, having beaten fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the 2007 final.  He is certainly a crowd favorite in Newport.
A few weeks ago, Santoro achieved a unique career milestone when he lost to Andy Murray at Wimbledon.  He had played on the main stadium courts at all of the majors except for the Big W.  While he lost in three entertaining sets, it was nice to see another of the two-hander’s dreams fulfilled.
Vince Spadea, soon-to-be 34 years old, reached the Newport finals in 2005, losing a heartbreaker to Greg Rusedski after leading 5-3 in the 3rd set.  This loss would have haunted him, because Spadea has taken but one ATP Tour title in his 16 year career.  Considering that Spadea has played 344 tourneys as a professional, the fact that he has only garnered one title is a remarkable statistic.  His lifetime professional record stands at 304 wins against 343 losses.
The grass courts are playing plenty soft and the bounces are low and erratic.  It is like old-time grass court tennis.  I had the privilege of playing on these courts yesterday, as anybody can.  These are the only public grass courts in America, and one more reason that all tennis players and fans should pilgrimage to Newport at least once each summer.
I played against former University of Georgia Bulldog and current publishing magnate Randy Walker.  Thankfully, the book orders for his recently published The Bud Collins History of Tennis, are coming in more consistently than any of Walker’s service returns.
Saturday’s induction ceremony is shaping up to be another wonderful day for our sport.  There will be six speeches, including from John McEnroe and Monica Seles, and the usual flawless Newport summer weather.  Missing, however, will be Hall of Famer and MC extraordinaire Arthur “Bud” Collins.  The ageless Collins has been a fixture at every summer tennis event in Newport, Rhode Island since 1881, including the first US National Championships which were played at the Casino.
The colorful Collins is nursing a leg injury sustained in Paris (where was Billy Norris when he needed him the most!?!).  While the injury will keep Collins from playing barefoot on the grass courts this summer, a full recovery is expected.  Collins is the greatest player- or hacker- in the history of Lima, Ohio and his humor and grace will be missed at this year’s ceremony.  Get well soon, Bud.  Our sport needs you.
For Bill Mountford tennis instruction videos click here!