NEW YORK – Oldest game in the world? That’s easy – mixed doubles on a tennis court. I believe the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed that Adam and Eve won the first Eden Open over a Hittite couple, using apples as balls. Apparently Eve ate some apples, causing Adam to scold her: “How can we play if you dine on the balls?” Then she stepped on a snake, a thoughtless foot fault … [Read more...] about BOB BRYAN AND PARTNERS KEEP WINNING MAJORS
NUMBERS KEEP PILING UP AS LONG AS ESTHER IS PLAYING
NEW YORK – One of these days she will not win the US Open. Maybe. But don’t count on it. Just count on the wheeler-dealer of Flushing Meadows to ride the paved range like Annie Oakley, hitting her targets at will, making sure of one thing: you lose. It has been this way –- her way – for years since she began competing. Fourteeen years, to be exact — while the world … [Read more...] about NUMBERS KEEP PILING UP AS LONG AS ESTHER IS PLAYING
LAST YANK GETS YANKED BEFORE QUARTERS
NEW YORK – Lunging desperately at the little yellow ball they were eyeball-to-eyeball at the net for their last swings of the day. The witnesses, about 15,000 of them in Arthur Ashe Stadium , were screaming, urging — most of them in the corner of the young Californian, Sam Querrey. Make the shot and hang into this fifth set melodrama on the blue pavement – or go home, … [Read more...] about LAST YANK GETS YANKED BEFORE QUARTERS
NOTHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK!
NEW YORK – Through one of his characters, Marcellus, a scribbler named Shakespeare said there was “something rotten in the state of Denmark.” But if the Bard had been among 20,000-or-so ticket-holders at an open-air theatre called Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday, he might have reconsidered that line from his ancient soap, “Hamlet.” He would have gazed down at a battleground … [Read more...] about NOTHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK!
“LA LIONESSA” IS EATING HER WAY THROUGH THE DRAW
NEW YORK – A lioness is on the loose at a local public park called the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Stay out of the way. Four women didn’t, and the lioness, who speaks Italian, and deals Baroque spin, dined on them and is prowling the quarter-finals of the US Open. Called “La Lionessa” by compatriots for her quickness to pounce and competitive ferociousness, … [Read more...] about “LA LIONESSA” IS EATING HER WAY THROUGH THE DRAW