Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
TENNIS ELBOW
In a medical advance inspired by recessionary thinking, researchers from the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City announced last month that they’ve developed an effective and supremely cheap treatment for chronic tennis elbow. Huddling a while back to brainstorm about inexpensive methods for combating the injury, the scientists glanced around their offices and noticed a homely, low-tech rubber bar, about 8 inches long, which, at the time, was being used for general physical therapy programs. The researchers wondered whether the ribbed, pliable bars, available for less than $20 [Thera-Band Flexbar], might be re-purposed to treat tennis elbow. The answer, it soon become clear, was a resounding yes.
Monday, August 24, 2009
FEDERER"S LONG SHADOW
After lengthening his shadow over tennis, Roger Federer stepped to the microphone Sunday and said grace, thanking his vanquished opponent in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, Novak Djokovic; the tournament organizers; the volunteers; and the fans.
Then he deviated from the timeworn script, thanking his month-old twin daughters, Charlene and Myla, for being such good sports. They arrived more than two weeks early, on July 23, which made it possible for Federer to shift his focus to the summer hardcourt season, which will culminate with the United States Open starting next Monday.
It would have been understandable if Federer had experienced a drop in desire after notching his milestone 15th Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon, then helping his wife, Mirka, welcome the couple’s first children into the world.
But Federer’s drive is greater even than his genius, which is true of relatively few sports superstars, among them Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps and Candace Parker.
Federer grinds even when it is not a Grand Slam event. His focus in a summer that has been full of distractions for him, however wonderful, has given the men’s game a center that the women’s game has lacked.
Federer returned to the ATP Tour in Montreal this month, having lost a little sleep but clearly none of his enthusiasm for chasing tennis balls and titles.
He was part of history in Canada, where the top eight men in the world reached the quarterfinals for the first time since the ATP rankings were instituted in 1973.
Federer’s 6-1, 7-5 victory Sunday against Djokovic was his first hardcourt championship of 2009 . After a shocking collapse against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals in Montreal, Federer made smooth work of Djokovic, as he had Andy Murray in the semifinals. Some of his shots in the final were so sublime, all Djokovic could do was roll his eyes or clap.
“The closest I was able to get to the first-place trophy is now,” he said during the awards presentation.
Because Federer, 28, has shown no signs of complacency after spending 245 nonsuccessive weeks at No. 1, his challengers cannot afford to rest.
For several days before and after the birth of the twins, Federer spent most of his waking hours at the hospital in Zurich, his life in a sort of anticipatory limbo.
“But I also went for practice, you know, almost every day except obviously during the time of the birth and right after,” he said Sunday, adding, “My condition trainer was really happy with the work I put in.”
Federer is the reason the depth and quality of the men’s game has never been better. Everybody is forced to raise his effort to match his. When his opponents speak, as Djokovic did Sunday, of the pressure Federer applies, they are not speaking strictly about on the court.
Djokovic, who has lost to Federer in the last two United States Opens, hired Todd Martin, a retired American player and former Open finalist, to work with him.
That’s why the great British hope, Andy Murray, the first player other than Federer or Nadal to occupy the No. 2 spot in four years, is spending his off weeks in Miami, practicing twice a day in the unforgiving sun.
Federer’s omnipresence helps explain why Nadal spent three hours practicing in searing heat on the day before his first match here. He knows how sharp his strokes must be after taking almost two months off from a knee injury to match Federer in what has become arguably the best rivalry in sports.
Fifth-ranked Andy Roddick wants so much to escape Federer’s long shadow he has gone through four coaches since reaching No. 1 in late 2003, bringing aboard fresh perspectives in his quest to wring every last drop of his talent.
You can say, as Djokovic repeated Sunday, “Yeah, unfortunately, I was born in the wrong era.”
But the men’s pathos is the sport’s reward.
KAREN CROUSE - NYTIMES
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
US OPEN DRAW
The U.S. Tennis Association says former No. 1 Carlos Moya of Spain is pulling out of the U.S. Open because of a foot injury.
The 1998 French Open champion has been sidelined most of this season; his ranking recently slipped out of the top 100. Kei Nishikori of Japan was atop the alternates list for the year's last Grand Slam tournament, but he withdrew due to an injury, too.
The two departures mean that 106th-ranked Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador moves into the tournament's main draw.
The U.S. Open begins Aug. 31.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/tennis/08/10/us.open.withdrawls.ap/index.html?eref=si_tennis#ixzz0NspdViHt
Friday, August 7, 2009
ROGER IN MONTREAL
Roger Federer, the record 15-time Grand Slam tennis champion, will play a tournament in Montreal two weeks after becoming the father of twin girls.
Federer, who regained his No. 1 ranking on the ATP Tour from Rafael Nadal after winning Wimbledon last month, confirmed his participation today, according to a statement on the Rogers Cup Web site. The tournament begins tomorrow.
Federer and his wife, Mirka, had twin girls named Charlene and Myla on July 23. The 27-year-old tennis champion today posted a picture of the couple holding the babies on the social networking site Facebook, saying, “The girls and mom are doing great.”
Nadal also will play Montreal after a 10-week absence because of tendonitis in both knees. The injury and his parent's separation kept him from defending his Wimbledon title.
BLOOMBERG
Thursday, August 6, 2009
CAN YOU TIE YOUR LACES?
Sometimes even the right shoe doesn't seem to fit right. Fortunately, you may be able to accommodate a narrow heel, high/low arch, or wider foot by simply changing the way you lace your shoes. Try one of these lacing techniques to help your favorite athletic shoes deliver a secure, comfortable, and supportive fit.
- Make sure your laces are loose before you slip into the shoes. Doing this maintains the integrity of the eyelets and heel.
- Tighten your laces from the bottom (toe end) to top (ankle end), tightening gradually at each set of eyelets.
- Remember that a shoe with more eyelets allows you to create a more custom fit with lacing.
Follow a normal lacing pattern up to the last pair of holes. For narrow feet, buy shoes with eyelets that zig-zag up the placket. Tighten from the outer eyelets, pulling the body of the shoe towards the center. At the last hole, tighten the laces and thread into the last hole without criss-crossing. Do not pull the laces all the way through, but leave a loop on each side. Now cross the laces and thread them each through the loop on the other side before tightening and tying.
See the "loop lacing" technique used for a narrow heel. Criss-cross lace shoes as normal halfway up the placket. Use loop lacing the rest of the way.
Begin lacing as normal, criss-crossing and stopping after the first set of holes. Thread your laces straight up each side, criss-crossing only before threading the last hole.
Thread laces through the first set of eyelets and then straight up each side without criss-crossing at all. Continue this way for two or three holes. Once you've passed the forefoot and can tighten without squeezing, begin criss-crossing and finish lacing as normal.
Friday, July 31, 2009
NADAL'S PAIN
24 June 2009
He withdrew from defending his Wimbledon title because of his bad knees. But Rafael Nadal has also been nursing a more personal hurt.
For many weeks there have been whispers that all was not well in the Nadal household, and yesterday it was confirmed that the world number-one's parents Sebastian and Ana Maria have separated.
Nadal's family is hugely important to him. The 23-year-old still lives in the family home in Majorca and is coached by his uncle Toni.
A source close to the Nadal camp said: 'Rafa is devastated. All through the past couple of months he has been trying to get his tennis back on track, but his heart has been elsewhere.
'In public he has put on a brave face, but in private he has been hoping for a reconciliation and fervently wishing this wasn't happening. Now he has returned home and is catching up with his family.
'He talked about resetting his body after withdrawing from the championships and yet he has a more difficult task - resetting his entire life.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1195122/Rafael-Nadals-heartache-parents-split.html#ixzz0Mqbh3vOz
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
NADAL UNCERTAIN
Rafael Nadal, the former top-ranked tennis player sidelined with a knee injury since the French Open, isn’t certain when he’ll return to the ATP World Tour.
“I have to wait and see how I continue to recover because I’ve only been back training for a week and a half and you always feel a bit happier,” the 23-year-old told Spanish broadcaster TVE yesterday in an interview at his summer house in Porto Cristo, Majorca.
“You start with lots of hope,” Nadal, who was unable to defend his Wimbledon title because of tendinitis in both knees, said. “But again, the real test would be to see how I go when I really push my knees and I think that’s likely to happen in the coming days. So I hope it’s all good.”
Nadal played his last match May 31 in the fourth round of Roland Garros against Robin Soderling of Sweden, who handed him his first loss at the French Open.
“I would like to come back in Montreal in a week and a half,” he said. “I have to force the knees and just see how far I can go.”
BLOOMBERG
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
ROCKET'S RED HAIR
First he couldn't feel his right leg. Then he couldn't feel his right arm. Rod Laver thought perhaps the bright lights that had been set up for the television interview that July afternoon in 1998 were making him dizzy. They weren't—he was having a stroke. Fortunately for Laver, the interview, for an ESPN segment on the 20th century's greatest athletes, was being taped just down the street from UCLA Medical Center. He spent the next month there.
For the first few weeks after the stroke, the two-time tennis Grand Slam winner struggled to even read a clock. He also suffered memory loss and couldn't speak coherently. "Mainly [the challenge of rehab] was trying to get the brain to absorb more things, because it was frustrating when you found yourself not being able to accomplish simple tasks," says Laver, 70, who worked with occupational, speech and conditioning therapists for four months and did daily therapy on his own. "Love from the family was the thing that got me through it."
His wife, Mary, realized he'd have to rebuild his tennis game from scratch, so she called Laver's longtime friend Tommy Tucker, the tennis pro at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. "I would go to his house to pick him up, and he would be in the garage, practicing the footwork drills we'd done the day before," says Tucker, now pro emeritus at the club. "Each day he knew he got better. It was thrilling to see, actually."
In 1969 Laver, a lefty nicknamed the Rocket (for his Australian hometown of Rockhampton), thrilled tennis crowds worldwide when he completed his second Grand Slam. He'd accomplished the feat—winning the Australian, French and U.S. opens and Wimbledon—as an amateur in '62 (the first man to do so since Don Budge, in '38), then turned pro and did it again one year after the beginning of the Open era, which allowed professionals to compete alongside amateurs at the major tournaments. No male player has won a Grand Slam since. He retired from competition in 1979, then played on the senior tour and traveled extensively.
Described by fellow Aussie and former rival John Newcombe as one of "the most humble champions you'd ever want to meet," Laver has turned to golf to satisfy his competitive urge. Though he recovered his speech, memory and mobility within a year after the stroke, he has arthritis in his wrists and finds it easier to swing a golf club near his home in Carlsbad, Calif., than a racket. "We played [golf] back when we were amateurs," says Laver, a 10 handicap. "I was down to around a four or five before the stroke." He adds with a good-natured chuckle, "That stroke took all those strokes away from me."
SI
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