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IN TENNIS, YOUTH IS OFTEN WASTED ON THE YOUNG
By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com
July 6, 1999

In this year's French Open, Martina Hingis, who was the #1-rated women's player in the world, looked very much like a woman who was throwing the towel in during the latter stages of her finals match against Steffi Graf. Hingis found herself giving up on points, hitting underhand serves into the ad court, and getting booed by the crowd at Roland Garros crowd, which can smell a phony performance.

Cut to Wimbledon. Hingis is playing a qualifier named Jelena Dokic. During the match she fails to go after points she normally would get, dogs it during her service games, and goes quietly, 6-2, 6-0. The spin may be that there was an injury involved, but the fact of the matter was that she tanked the match. Tanking is something which is openly talked about amongst players; they freely admit that they've done it on occasion, they talk about others doing it, and it has become a practice that is not at all uncommon. Except in a Grand Slam. Tanking a match in a Grand Slam tournament is almost unthinkable. Martina Hingis, despite all her titles, just doesn't understand clearly yet.

Early in 1990 Pete Sampras won his first professional tournament, the U.S. Indoor Championships in Philadelphia. When asked if he was overjoyed, he said, "Yeah, but no one remembers who wins Philadelphia". The comment may have lacked a little tact, but it was not only true, but unusually insightful for a 19-year-old. What Sampras meant, and what he had an inkling of early on, was that the only thing people remember when all is said and done is how you did in the major championships.

He had a lapse in memory, of course, the next year. Having already followed up his Philadelphia win with a victory at the U.S. Open in what was a breakout season for him, Sampras lost at Flushing Meadow in 1991 and was heard to say. "Well, at least I won one U.S. Open". When Jimmy Connors heard this, he exploded.

And for good reason. Because Connors knew something Sampras perhaps didn't understand clearly enough. You see, between all the tournaments a player can participate in, the personal appearances, the exhibitions, there are about 100 opportunities a year to make money. But there are only four chances a year to make history. In tennis, life is short - when you have the opportunity to make history, you do everything you can to make the most of it.

Sampras learned the lesson after it took him another three years to win a Grand Slam - the 1993 Wimbledon title. He has been winning ever since.

Have you noticed, when you check the agate type in the sports section, some of the names among the top 10 money leaders, more so on the men's side than the women's, are players the general public - you know, the people who only watch an occasional match, may not be completely aware of. People like Marcelo Rios, for example, who at one time was the world's #1-ranked player without having won anything of consequence in his life.

They're young. They're upstarts. And their mission in life, this early in life, is to accumulate as much money as they possibly can, playing in tournaments that offer that opportunity, chasing guarantee money all over the world, and sometimes jeopardizing their preparation for the tournaments that really COUNT. The problem is, for many of the young players, what really counts is cash only.

In tennis, youth is truly wasted on the young.

When players get a little older, they start to realize the cold, hard fact - that you can win all the tournaments you want in places like Stuttgart, Indian Wells, Tokyo, Stockholm, and yes, even Philadelphia - if you don't show up in London, Paris, Melbourne, and Flushing Meadow, you're going to turn out like Brad Gilbert. Nice guy, big sports fan, and indeed, a top ten player for much of his career. But no one talks about him, and no one cares about him. And twenty years from now, no one will even remember who he is. Why? Because when it came to the majors, Brad Gilbert rarely showed up. Literally. He skipped the Australian and French tournaments altogether a lot of years because he knew he didn't have a chance. He's the cautionary tale.

ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT IN TENNIS IS WINNING GRAND SLAMS. That's what the accomplishment is, not winning the money title. Understanding that fact is the first major step on the road to separating oneself from the ranks of the merely good players and into the ranks of the GREAT players. Andre Agassi and Ivan Lendl, two players who actually skipped Wimbledon early in their careers, grew to be sorry for it. They came to the understanding later in their careers, and reaped the benefits.

It's because of that understanding that Agassi will always be a threat in any Grand Slam tournament. It's that understanding that makes Steffi Graf play some of the most inspired tennis of her career in this year's French Open and Wimbledon championships. It's that understanding that helped Boris Becker win a couple of matches at Wimbledon, where he might not have had any business doing so. It's that understanding that drove Jim Courier to play his heart out in a four-hour match that sent him to a hospital for dehydration. It's that understanding which enabled Jimmy Connors to make a miracle run at the U.S. Open title at age 39.

Those players would have to be dragged kicking and screaming off the court before giving up in a Grand Slam match. Of course, it wasn't always that way for them.

It's not that way for Martina Hingis now. Hopefully, some day it will be.