Mr. Ed's Champs & Chumps (May 12, 2001)
by Ed Zafian



This week's edition we take the easy road and nominate Andy Roddick as a "Champ." The 18-year old won back-to-back titles but more importantly has injected some youth in the "graying" of American men's tennis. Our "Chumps" are less obvious choices. Venus Williams may have won Hamburg last week, but this Mr. Ed is more troubled by yet another baffling tournament withdrawal. Joining Venus, is a British celebrity...and it is not Tim Henman or Greg Rusedski.

Champs
Feat Of Clay

While his fellow Americans are making brief appearances on the European clay, Andy Roddick all of a sudden may well be his country's premier clay courter. The 18-year old won back-to-back titles in Atlanta and last week in Houston (where the club even imported European red clay). But perhaps more importantly, Roddick is raising the hopes for the future of American men's tennis. Roddick is the first American teenager since Michael Chang in 1992 to win a tournament, while one has to go back 13 years when a 17-year old American named Andre Agassi won back-to-back tournaments (though separated by a three-month time span). More impressively Roddick won his first title in only his 10th ATP tournament appearance, outpacing his senior countrymen including Pete Sampras, Agassi, Jim Courier, and Chang. Since the Ericcson Open (where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt but defeated Sampras and Marcelo Rios along the way), the hard-serving youngster has won 10 straight matches and 20 of 21 set, including the last 19.

While this is all very exciting for the media and tennis fans in the States, a "chump" within a "champ" to the hype machine that has already begun to churn. CBS Sportsline has been most guilty. After Roddick's win in Atlanta, the CBS website trotted out a poll: "Which Grand Slam will Andy Roddick win first?" While it is certainly possible (one needs only to think back to Sampras's first US Open title or Chang's surprising French Open win at the time), one thinks this poll may be a bit too hasty. Patriotically, voters selected the Roddick's first Slam title to be at US Open with 50% of the vote. The other three Slams pulled in fairly equal amounts to round up the other half of the voting. Sportsline followed up that poll with another one asking about the ATP newcomer so for this year: Roddick or Guillermo Coria? Needless to say, the rising Argentinian did not fair well on the predominantly "Ameri-centric" website.

But one has to give credit to the young American for keeping everything in check. With his profile rising at a meteoric rate, Roddick has remained surprisingly modest. With a 17-4 win/loss record this year (21-9 career), Roddick said "Anybody who puts my name as a contender is ridiculous. I feel confident I can battle. I can give most players a match. I just want to play as well as I can and make sure someone has to play well to beat me." If there was any doubt about a future fan base (and hear the typing of HTML being created for unofficial fan sites ), Roddick showed a warm side to tennis fans. After his semifinal match versus Jerome Golmard was delayed by four hours due to rain, Roddick offered to buy tickets to the next day's final for any of the remaining fans. One only hopes Roddick won't become jaded to soon in the world of professional sports.

Next up for Roddick is the ATP World Team Championships in Dusseldorf. Then the #46 ranked player (#21 on the Champions Race), makes his debut at Roland Garros.


Chumps
Injury By Appointment

While blowing away her competition in Hamburg, Venus Williams made some news when she pulled out of the upcoming Italian Open with a knee injury. Having followed tennis for more years than I care to count up, I have a hard time coming up with another instance such as this. Williams lost only 12 games and spent less than four hours en route to the Hamburg title. Furthermore, Williams is playing this week in Berlin. So how can one possibly withdraw from a tournament two weeks in advance with an injury? How the WTA is letting this one slip by is beyond me. Perhaps they do not wish to ruffle any feathers among the controversial and questionable Williams clan?

While this Mr. Ed agrees that some time off would be good for the injury-prone Williams, I believe Williams would have done better to withdraw just prior to the tournament citing the "injury." Or if she wished to be polite and send her regrets in early to the Rome tournament officials, at least say it was merely a scheduling change. Nonetheless, the timing of this withdrawal is unfortunate as Williams, for the first time, is within striking distance of taking away the #1 ranking from Martina Hingis. This potentially could have happened at Rome, but now the stage is set for an ascent to the top spot at the admittedly more high-profile stage of Roland Garros. But nevertheless this latest no-show is yet another head-scratching move on the part of the Williams family.

A Hairy Situation

Hugh Grant is currently packing them into the movie houses with the film version of "Bridget Jones's Diary" but Grant might not be filling those seats with WTA players anytime soon. Grant needed a new look for his next film "About A Boy" but the result was an unexpected one to the British movie star. Grant recently told The Scottish Daily Record: "I tried to have a trendy haircut - now I look like a lesbian on the women's tennis circuit." One thinks the often self-deprecating Grant was not exactly throwing out a compliment.

Perhaps Grant should be more careful with his words in regards to tennis. He is currently being talked up for a new romantic comedy in the discussion stages called "Two Weeks In Love." Grant would play an aging tennis pro who manages to reach the Wimbledon final and along the way romances a young female tennis star (rumored to be portrayed by Cameron Diaz).


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