(Excerpts from Jon Wertheim’s article: Juan Carlos Ferrero finds the magic in Stuttgart win)
Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former No. 1 player, and a Grand Slam champion has fallen deep in the rotation. His ranking has gone down quite a bit. At age 31, he battles constant injuries. Even when Rafael Nadal pulled out, his name wasn't even mentioned for the Spanish Davis Cup roster. But last week, he looked like the world-beater of years past. Playing in just his third event of 2011, he won the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, the 16th title of his career. It's not exactly winning the French Open. But one suspects that, in its way, it was comparably sweet. We wish Juan Carlos the best for the North American hard court season!
Now let’s move to tennis’ crazy schedule. The tennis calendar is a logic puzzle that no one has come close to solving. Why -- when all other sports ease into a season and allow time for plots to unfold -- tennis holds its first major two weeks into the year! Why does the last major conclude in early September, rendering the entire autumn and early winter anticlimactic, yet only two weeks separate the French Open and Wimbledon? Why is a Davis Cup competition held five days after the Wimbledon final? No wonder fans complain that many of the world’s top tennis players don’t play Davis Cup. Perhaps they are human and want to rest a bit after a grueling Grand Slam?
We got another sample of tennis' nuttiness this past week. The circuit threaded its way through two clay court events in Europe -- right after the grass court stretch ended and the hard court season is about to commence. It was a dead week in the United States, with the exception of World Team Tennis. Thank God the Legg Mason Tennis Classic is coming to our city – Washington, DC in three weeks!
Please remember that there are spots left for our tennis trips to Costa Rica starting in December. Please contact us anytime at tennis@sportsfornature.com or visit www.sportsfornature.com/trips for full details regarding the Costa Rica trips.
Sports for Nature = Healthier people in a healthier world.
0 comments:
Post a Comment