American Pharoah and Novak Djokovic: Of Thoroughbreds – and Thoroughbred temperaments

May 18, 2015

And so it begins again, the quest for two of the Holy Grails of sports, as sure signs of spring as cherry blossoms and roses.

American Pharoah will attempt to become only the 12th horse – and the first since my beloved Affirmed in 1978 – to win horse racing’s Triple Crown when he competes at the Belmont Stakes June 6, D Day in more ways than one.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic will attempt to unseat nine-time champion Rafael Nadal for the French Open title, which will be contested at Roland-Garros in Paris May 24 through June 7. Should Nole win, he would be halfway to doing what no man – not even Roger Federer – has done since Rod Laver in 1969 and that is win the Grand Slam in a calendar year.

These are pretty big Ifs. Can AP and Nole do it? Of course. They have the talent. But what makes life a horse race is that talent is not enough. You have to have luck, fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it, on your side. And, more important, you – or, in AP’s case, his handlers as well – have got to believe not just that you can win but that you will. And that’s not easy when you’re a Thoroughbred – or have the high temperament of one. ...

Rafael Nadal’s feet of clay

May 16, 2015

These are not the best of times for us Nadalistas. Our beloved Rafa has lost five times this season on his best surface, clay, most recently in the quarterfinals against Stan Wawrinka at the Italian Open in Rome.

In the past, Rafa could count on clay to rev up the old engine when he flamed out at Wimbledon or was returning from an injury. Not anymore.

The question is, Has his intense playing style taken too much of a toll on his body and thus affected his mind, or is he having a crisis of conscience that is affecting his style of play?

It’s hard to say. With a top athlete, the mind-body connection is so complex that it may be a bit of both. ...

Andy Murray, clay-court specialist

May 15, 2015

Well, with all the talk of deflated balls and overinflated bladders and tummies, we’ve lost sight of the bigger picture – Andy Murray, married man, has become a superb clay court player.

Remember, folks: It was only a few short months ago that Murray lost to Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Australian Open and the “Whither Andy Murray?” articles began to pour in, mostly from British journalists who can’t bear the thought of any imperfection in the life of the Great Brit Hope. The trouble with that is that the pendulum tends to swing way over in the opposite direction when he wins. He won the Munich Open, his maiden clay-court title, and then at the Madrid Open, beat Rafael Nadal (shocker of shockers but then, maybe not, given Rafa’s current Hamlet-like mental state). Suddenly, it’s adios, Rafa.

Indeed, there are those who think Andy can not only make the finals in Paris but actually win. ...

In Vogue – Nick Kyrgios

May 1, 2015

Anna Wintour – lover of tennis and male tennis players, bless her heart – has anointed a new favorite, Nick Kyrgios.

The 20-year-old Aussie hotshot – who famously took down Rafa last year at Wimbledon – is of Greek-Malaysian descent. He says in the article in May Vogue that the food in his family’s house is amazing. We can only imagine. ...

Rivals spark sports

April 16, 2015

Jordan Spieth at the A T & T Championship in February. Is the Masters’ champ and new golf phenom on his way to a rivalry with Rory McIlroy? Photograph by Erik Charlton.

On a recent installment of the “PBS NewsHour,” John Feinstein, author and sports columnist for The Washington Post, was asked to comment on the ascent of Jordan Spieth, golf’s latest phenom. He said he thought that Speith and Rory McIlroy had the opportunity to develop a great rivalry now and that for him, rivalries rather than dynasties make sports interesting.

Tell that to the fans of the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers in various eras. They’ll tell you there’s nothing sweeter than the monotony of winning year after year.

But I know what he means: Fed and Rafa, Rafa and Nole, Nole and Andy, Andy and Fed, Fed and Nole, Andy and Rafa – tennis has always thrived on great rivalries and has a round robin of them going on now. Even when you have a dynasty like the Yanks have been, they were made better by their clashes with the Bosox (even if it sometimes tore your heart out as a Bombers’ fan). ...

Tennis has got your G.O.A.T.

April 14, 2015

Ah, spring: Time for the Monte Carlo Open, the clay-court season and the game within the game:

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the greatest of them all?

Nothing men’s tennis loves better than a discussion of who’s the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.). This usually involves the Federinas squaring off against the Nadalistas. You know, Roger Federer has the most slam titles with 17, but Rafael Nadal is right behind him with 14. Although lately, Rafa, the king of clay, has been in a bit of a slump, while Novak Djokovic has passed him to move up to No. 6 on the list of most weeks as No. 1. (Nole now has 142.)

So what is the measure of greatness – the most slams and weeks at No. 1 (that would be Feddy) or the person who owns the person with the most slams and weeks at No. 1 (that would be Rafa) or the person who beat them both, often back-to-back, to become No. 1 (that would be Nole)? ...

Andy Murray’s big, fat celeb-less wedding

April 8, 2015

You got to hand it to the press when it comes to making a mountain out of the proverbial molehill. Andy Murray’s getting married Saturday, April 11 – congrats again to him and Kim Sears – and there will be no Feddy, Rafa or Nole. (Thank God for Andy’s lack of famous guests. For a while there, I thought we were going to have to live with Nole’s Miami meltdown until the start of the Monte Carlo Open.)

So Andy didn’t invite the rest of the so-called “Big Four.” What a surprise. Well, it is to the press. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have been “banned,” “shunned” and “uninvited.” (Let us pause for a vocabulary lesson, here, shall we? In order to be uninvited, you would have to be invited to begin with.)

Look, when you play for the kind of stakes these guys play for, you’re not going to pal around. It messes with your head and your game. That’s precisely why I made the tennis players and swimmers in my debut novel “Water Music” rivals, friends and lovers: It’s delicious conflict, which is the meat of fiction. In my follow-up, “The Penalty for Holding,” the football players, too, find their personal relationships tangling their professional rivalries, although there it’s somewhat different, because football is a team sport.

Can rivals be friends in the real world? ...