Stan showing stamina.....Leads 2 sets to 1.
Juan is gassed.....Don`t let him get a 2nd wind.....Go Stan!
Nothing for nothing.....Juan is a poorly conditioned tennis player.....Guy is gassed at 3 sets.
Finally got 1......Great job Stan +$100.00
Solid night all the way around.......MLB 4-0.....WNBA 1-0.....Tennis 1-0
Stan the man over powers Juan to move into the semi`s.....7-6...4-6...6-3...6-2
Kei can beat Stan......That might be a classic.
Kei Nishikori defeats Andy Murray...Post match interview.
Serena Williams defeats Simona Halep...Post match interview.
Free Community Day offers something for everyone.
Say farewell to one of the most iconic tennis stadiums in the world on Thursday and get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play on the same court where some of the most memorable US Open matches of all time took place.
As part of Community Day on Thursday, all fans will receive complimentary admission to the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Once inside, be sure to take part in a special tribute to Louis Armstrong Stadium from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. before the historic stadium is knocked down in preparation for an all-new stadium in its place in 2018.
Tennis legends James Blake and Gigi Fernandez will pair up to battle against up-and-coming junior players, and some of the best tennis trick shot artists in the country will be on hand to amaze with you with their slick skills and smooth moves. All of this is against a backdrop of Grammy-nominated artist, DJ RAC spinning the hottest tunes to say goodbye to the court.
Then it’s your turn to shine. Take your game onto our court with a chance to try trick shots and play with some of the best in the game.
But that’s not the only thing taking place on Community Day.
The men’s and women’s doubles competitions are into the semifinal stage and the mixed doubles competition is heating up. Then there’s the third round of the boys’ and girls’ junior competitions, the start of the Collegiate Invitational tournament and the Champions Invitational, which sees legends of the game square off against each other.
Gates open from 11 a.m. ET and admission to the grounds is free.
Say farewell to one of the most iconic tennis stadiums in the world on Thursday and get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play on the same court where some of the most memorable US Open matches of all time took place.
As part of Community Day on Thursday, all fans will receive complimentary admission to the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Once inside, be sure to take part in a special tribute to Louis Armstrong Stadium from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. before the historic stadium is knocked down in preparation for an all-new stadium in its place in 2018.
Tennis legends James Blake and Gigi Fernandez will pair up to battle against up-and-coming junior players, and some of the best tennis trick shot artists in the country will be on hand to amaze with you with their slick skills and smooth moves. All of this is against a backdrop of Grammy-nominated artist, DJ RAC spinning the hottest tunes to say goodbye to the court.
Then it’s your turn to shine. Take your game onto our court with a chance to try trick shots and play with some of the best in the game.
But that’s not the only thing taking place on Community Day.
The men’s and women’s doubles competitions are into the semifinal stage and the mixed doubles competition is heating up. Then there’s the third round of the boys’ and girls’ junior competitions, the start of the Collegiate Invitational tournament and the Champions Invitational, which sees legends of the game square off against each other.
Gates open from 11 a.m. ET and admission to the grounds is free.
U.S.Open.org Day 11 picks.
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
(1) Serena Williams vs. (10) Karolina Pliskova
Nobody will deny what Serena Williams is capable of – if the American plays her best tennis, there is nobody who could beat her. Karolina Pliskova’s strong summer and impressive US Open does not change that.
Pliskova has a ton of firepower. She already has won battles of power against No. 6 Venus Williams (4-6, 6-4, 7-6) in the round of 16 and unseeded Ana Konjuh (6-2, 6-2) in the quarterfinals. But Serena is a far different challenge.
The top seed brings more than simply power to the table. She starts off points with arguably the greatest weapon in tennis history: her serve.
But she can do more than hit through the court, but around it as well by dropping shots shorter in the court with angles to open up space in which to finish off points. In her win over Simona Halep Wednesday night, Serena used almost every tool in her repertory to fight back after a sloppy second set to win, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The last time Williams and Pliskova played was their only meeting, and it was relatively straightforward. The six-time US Open champion beat the Czech two years ago in Stanford, closing the match out with a strong second set, 7-5, 6-2.
If Serena brings her “A” game Thursday night, Pliskova will have little chance. The 24-year-old made her first Grand Slam fourth round this major, and has kept it going since. But while she has handled the success well thus far, Williams is the world No. 1 for a reason. Expect her to come through in two.
(2) Angelique Kerber vs. Caroline Wozniacki
On Feb. 18, 2013, Serena Williams reclaimed the top spot in the rankings for the sixth time in her career. The American star has not lost it since, and can tie Steffi Graf’s WTA record of 186 consecutive weeks on top of the world at the end of the US Open. But world No. 2 Angelique Kerber is two wins from taking her throne, potentially becoming the first German to hold the top spot since Graf had it last in 1996.
But Kerber still has work to do to get there, starting with a clash against close friend and unseeded former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki came to Flushing Meadows as the 74th-ranked player in women’s tennis, but she has proven that she certainly is in far better form than that with marquee victories throughout the tournament over the likes of No. 8 Madison Keys and No. 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Wozniacki has played her trademark backboard-style game, forcing her opponents into rushing points and bad shot selection. Kerber, on the other hand, is not like any of the players the Dane has faced this tournament. Her game can be described as patiently aggressive – not necessarily just scraping balls back in the court but not punishing them either. And thus far she has played it to perfection, advancing to this stage without dropping a set.
Kerber has won seven of the 12 meetings between the pair, although Wozniacki has won five of nine hard-court matchups. This will be a far different match than those, as it will be their first clash in a Grand Slam, in the semifinals no less.
While Wozniacki has played her best tournament in a long time here in New York, it will not be enough against Kerber, who can possibly be the best player in the world at week's end. Take the German in two tight sets.
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
(1) Serena Williams vs. (10) Karolina Pliskova
Nobody will deny what Serena Williams is capable of – if the American plays her best tennis, there is nobody who could beat her. Karolina Pliskova’s strong summer and impressive US Open does not change that.
Pliskova has a ton of firepower. She already has won battles of power against No. 6 Venus Williams (4-6, 6-4, 7-6) in the round of 16 and unseeded Ana Konjuh (6-2, 6-2) in the quarterfinals. But Serena is a far different challenge.
The top seed brings more than simply power to the table. She starts off points with arguably the greatest weapon in tennis history: her serve.
But she can do more than hit through the court, but around it as well by dropping shots shorter in the court with angles to open up space in which to finish off points. In her win over Simona Halep Wednesday night, Serena used almost every tool in her repertory to fight back after a sloppy second set to win, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The last time Williams and Pliskova played was their only meeting, and it was relatively straightforward. The six-time US Open champion beat the Czech two years ago in Stanford, closing the match out with a strong second set, 7-5, 6-2.
If Serena brings her “A” game Thursday night, Pliskova will have little chance. The 24-year-old made her first Grand Slam fourth round this major, and has kept it going since. But while she has handled the success well thus far, Williams is the world No. 1 for a reason. Expect her to come through in two.
(2) Angelique Kerber vs. Caroline Wozniacki
On Feb. 18, 2013, Serena Williams reclaimed the top spot in the rankings for the sixth time in her career. The American star has not lost it since, and can tie Steffi Graf’s WTA record of 186 consecutive weeks on top of the world at the end of the US Open. But world No. 2 Angelique Kerber is two wins from taking her throne, potentially becoming the first German to hold the top spot since Graf had it last in 1996.
But Kerber still has work to do to get there, starting with a clash against close friend and unseeded former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki came to Flushing Meadows as the 74th-ranked player in women’s tennis, but she has proven that she certainly is in far better form than that with marquee victories throughout the tournament over the likes of No. 8 Madison Keys and No. 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Wozniacki has played her trademark backboard-style game, forcing her opponents into rushing points and bad shot selection. Kerber, on the other hand, is not like any of the players the Dane has faced this tournament. Her game can be described as patiently aggressive – not necessarily just scraping balls back in the court but not punishing them either. And thus far she has played it to perfection, advancing to this stage without dropping a set.
Kerber has won seven of the 12 meetings between the pair, although Wozniacki has won five of nine hard-court matchups. This will be a far different match than those, as it will be their first clash in a Grand Slam, in the semifinals no less.
While Wozniacki has played her best tournament in a long time here in New York, it will not be enough against Kerber, who can possibly be the best player in the world at week's end. Take the German in two tight sets.
You`re the tennis guy indy i got lucky with that 1.....Good luck with Gael....He`s worth a shot.
Have a great day indy!
Serena Williams vs Simona Halep US Open 2016 QF Highlights.
Louie, Louie: Open bids farewell to Armstrong.
It wasn’t even built for tennis. In fact, long before Louis Armstrong Stadium hosted some of the most memorable matches in the annals of the sport, before Connors and Krickstein, before Seles and Capriati sparred upon its cement floor, it was known as the Singer Bowl, an aging remnant of the 1964 World’s Fair.
Jimi Hendrix played there. So did The Doors, The Who. Heavyweight Floyd Patterson fought there. But as fate would have it, incoming USTA President Slew Hester, in search of a new home of the US Open (then played in nearby Forest Hills), spotted the then-shuttered facility from his window seat on a flight out of LaGuardia.
It was destiny. When it reopened in 1978 with 18,000 seats, renamed for the famed jazz trumpeter who lived in Queens at the time of his death, it was the largest tennis-only venue in the world.
Over the next two decades – until it was eclipsed by the sparkling 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium in 1997 – Armstrong would serve as the center court for the year-end Slam, an epicenter of the tennis world. Alas, some 43 after it was originally constructed, Armstrong will be leveled after the 2016 US Open, making way for a second roofed facility.
U.S.Open.org looks back at 10 moments from across the years:
August 29, 1978: Bjorn Borg and Bob Hewitt square off in the first match ever played in Louis Armstrong Stadium, Borg topping the South African, 6-0, 6-2. The Swede would go on to reach the final, falling to Jimmy Connors, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It’s the second runner-up finish for the future Hall of Famer at the US Open, a title that would elude him his entire career.
September 8, 1979: In the 100th anniversary of the US Open, a pigtailed 16-year-old named Tracy Austin becomes the youngest champion in tournament history, shocking four-time titlist Chris Evert, 6-4, 6-3.
September 13, 1981: John McEnroe roars back from a set down to deny Bjorn Borg in the final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, winning his third straight US Open and effectively ending the Swede’s career. Following the loss, which assured McEnroe the No. 1 year-end ranking, Borg walks off the court and straight to the parking lot, skipping the trophy presentation and post-match press conference.
September 8, 1984: Beginning at 11:07 a.m., Armstrong plays host to four straight blockbusters on Super Saturday, a drama-filled morning-‘til-night saga that is still considered by many to be the greatest day in tennis history. Stan Smith defeats John Newcombe, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Ivan Lendl saves a match point in edging Pat Cash, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6; Martina Navratilova captures her second straight title, defeating Chris Evert, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; and John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors linger until 11:14 p.m., McEnroe eliminating the two-time defending champion, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
September 10, 1988: Nineteen-year-old Steffi Graff puts the finishing touches on one of the most dominant season in the annals of tennis, capping a Golden Slam (all four majors and the Olympic gold medal) by topping Gabriela Sabatini, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
September 5, 1989: Following her 7-6, 6-2 quarterfinal loss to Zina Garrison in Armstrong, Chris Evert waves goodbye to an adoring crowd for the last time, the final Grand Slam match of her storied career. “I'm real emotional,” says Garrison. “I cried, but Chris is so unemotional. That's just Chris.”
September 2, 1991: En route to the semifinals, a supposedly beyond-his-prime Jimmy Connors, a wildcard entrant, celebrates his 39th birthday with an epic 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 fourth-round triumph over Aaron Krickstein, a match filled with drama, fist-pumps and momentum swings, and one that would become rain-delay fodder for decades to come.
September 9, 1995: Playing only her second tournament since she was stabbed in April 1993, Monica Seles roars into the women’s singles final, where she and longtime rival Steffi Graf play a match for the ages. Despite a second-set bagel, Graf wins her fourth US Open title and her 18th major overall.
September 5, 1996: A dehydrated Pete Sampras literally guts it out against Alex Corretja in the quarterfinals. Despite losing his proverbial lunch on court and at times being rendered immobile, Sampras prevails, 7-6, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6.
September 3, 2013: With rain delays scattering marquee matches across the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, Roger Federer’s fourth-round tilt is moved to Armstrong, marking the first time the Swiss legend has played outside Ashe Stadium since 2006. Federer, one win shy of a first-ever US Open showdown with Rafael Nadal, falls to No. 19 seed Tommy Robredo in straight sets, his first loss to the Spaniard in 11 head-to-head matchups.
It wasn’t even built for tennis. In fact, long before Louis Armstrong Stadium hosted some of the most memorable matches in the annals of the sport, before Connors and Krickstein, before Seles and Capriati sparred upon its cement floor, it was known as the Singer Bowl, an aging remnant of the 1964 World’s Fair.
Jimi Hendrix played there. So did The Doors, The Who. Heavyweight Floyd Patterson fought there. But as fate would have it, incoming USTA President Slew Hester, in search of a new home of the US Open (then played in nearby Forest Hills), spotted the then-shuttered facility from his window seat on a flight out of LaGuardia.
It was destiny. When it reopened in 1978 with 18,000 seats, renamed for the famed jazz trumpeter who lived in Queens at the time of his death, it was the largest tennis-only venue in the world.
Over the next two decades – until it was eclipsed by the sparkling 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium in 1997 – Armstrong would serve as the center court for the year-end Slam, an epicenter of the tennis world. Alas, some 43 after it was originally constructed, Armstrong will be leveled after the 2016 US Open, making way for a second roofed facility.
U.S.Open.org looks back at 10 moments from across the years:
August 29, 1978: Bjorn Borg and Bob Hewitt square off in the first match ever played in Louis Armstrong Stadium, Borg topping the South African, 6-0, 6-2. The Swede would go on to reach the final, falling to Jimmy Connors, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It’s the second runner-up finish for the future Hall of Famer at the US Open, a title that would elude him his entire career.
September 8, 1979: In the 100th anniversary of the US Open, a pigtailed 16-year-old named Tracy Austin becomes the youngest champion in tournament history, shocking four-time titlist Chris Evert, 6-4, 6-3.
September 13, 1981: John McEnroe roars back from a set down to deny Bjorn Borg in the final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, winning his third straight US Open and effectively ending the Swede’s career. Following the loss, which assured McEnroe the No. 1 year-end ranking, Borg walks off the court and straight to the parking lot, skipping the trophy presentation and post-match press conference.
September 8, 1984: Beginning at 11:07 a.m., Armstrong plays host to four straight blockbusters on Super Saturday, a drama-filled morning-‘til-night saga that is still considered by many to be the greatest day in tennis history. Stan Smith defeats John Newcombe, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Ivan Lendl saves a match point in edging Pat Cash, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6; Martina Navratilova captures her second straight title, defeating Chris Evert, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; and John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors linger until 11:14 p.m., McEnroe eliminating the two-time defending champion, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
September 10, 1988: Nineteen-year-old Steffi Graff puts the finishing touches on one of the most dominant season in the annals of tennis, capping a Golden Slam (all four majors and the Olympic gold medal) by topping Gabriela Sabatini, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
September 5, 1989: Following her 7-6, 6-2 quarterfinal loss to Zina Garrison in Armstrong, Chris Evert waves goodbye to an adoring crowd for the last time, the final Grand Slam match of her storied career. “I'm real emotional,” says Garrison. “I cried, but Chris is so unemotional. That's just Chris.”
September 2, 1991: En route to the semifinals, a supposedly beyond-his-prime Jimmy Connors, a wildcard entrant, celebrates his 39th birthday with an epic 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 fourth-round triumph over Aaron Krickstein, a match filled with drama, fist-pumps and momentum swings, and one that would become rain-delay fodder for decades to come.
September 9, 1995: Playing only her second tournament since she was stabbed in April 1993, Monica Seles roars into the women’s singles final, where she and longtime rival Steffi Graf play a match for the ages. Despite a second-set bagel, Graf wins her fourth US Open title and her 18th major overall.
September 5, 1996: A dehydrated Pete Sampras literally guts it out against Alex Corretja in the quarterfinals. Despite losing his proverbial lunch on court and at times being rendered immobile, Sampras prevails, 7-6, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6.
September 3, 2013: With rain delays scattering marquee matches across the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, Roger Federer’s fourth-round tilt is moved to Armstrong, marking the first time the Swiss legend has played outside Ashe Stadium since 2006. Federer, one win shy of a first-ever US Open showdown with Rafael Nadal, falls to No. 19 seed Tommy Robredo in straight sets, his first loss to the Spaniard in 11 head-to-head matchups.
Superstition is the way.
Tennis is a game that can play with your head. It’s a uniquely solo endeavor on court, at least for singles competitors. And not only are players out there all alone, they’ve got to react to and try to master an opponent on the other side of the net – whose actions are beyond their control, as are the court conditions, weather, noise and sometimes even their own bodies.
In that context, it’s probably not unexpected that players have unique ways of dealing with everything that’s thrown at them. Many pro players have developed a host of curious tics, rituals, idiosyncrasies and superstitions to get them through the high-stress environments of their professional lives.
Some habits are charming and insignificant, some bizarre, some venture into full-blown OCD. And some, as we’ll see, are just flat-out gross.
If you’ve ever seen Rafael Nadal line up his water bottles just so, next to his chair, as he methodically prepares to take the court, you have witnessed someone trying to focus intently and perhaps impose a little bit of order in a world of chaos.
The most common, and innocuous, superstition among players is probably the routine of eating at the exact same restaurant night after night during a tournament. Many go so far as to order the exact same dish each night, all in an effort to propel their winning ways.
Let’s run down a few of the less-common habits and superstitions in the tennis world.
Roger Federer: The 17-time Slam champion, who was forced to skip this year’s Open due to a lingering knee injury, apparently has an obsession with the number eight. Born on Aug. 8 (i.e., 8/8), Federer is wont to carry eight racquets on court. He drinks from eight water bottles. Eight is his lucky number. Magically, if you add the digits in his record number of majors won (17) you get – you guessed it – eight.
Dominika Cibulkova: One of the more peculiar habits belongs to the diminutive Slovak, the 12th seed at this year’s Open. Cibulkova apparently has a predilection for smelling the tennis balls when she receives them from the ball kids to serve. It looks almost like she’s giving the balls a little kiss, but in fact, she merely likes their smell. Her olfactory sense is so well developed that the BBC conducted a blind smell test with her at Wimbledon, presenting her with cans of freshly opened balls from each of the four Grand Slams (each uses different balls from different manufacturers, ostensibly suited for the unique surfaces and conditions). Cibulkova nailed them all. Without hesitation, she identified each ball from its respective tournament, like a master sommelier guessing varietals and vintages.
Rafael Nadal: Nadal is king of the methodical quirk. Super fastidious during a match, he follows certain rituals to a "T," and has for his entire career. The Mallorcan always follows his opponents onto the court, never emerging first from the tunnel. Nadal puts his headband on just before entering the court, and he always carries one racquet in his left hand, with the rest sequestered neatly in his racquet bag. On court, he lines up those water and energy-drink bottles (one cold, one room temperature) with the labels perfectly aligned, always facing the court, and he drinks from them in the same order every time. Nadal is always the last to stand for the coin toss, and he makes his opponent cross the net at changeovers before he does. In an attempt to get into Rafa’s head, the pugnacious Czech Lukas Rosol purposely knocked over one of Nadal’s water bottles at Wimbledon in 2014. (Nadal was not pleased. But when the wind kicked up and upended one of his bottles at the Australian Open in 2015, and the ball boy took pains to line it up perfectly, as it had been under Rafa’s meticulous care, Nadal charmingly burst into laughter at the service line.)
CiCi Bellis: The 17-year-old Californian, who has charmed the crowds at Flushing Meadows with unexpected wins in two US Opens, leaves nothing to chance when it comes to the number four. (Given that she’s roughly half the size of Roger Federer, it probably makes sense that her number would be four and his eight.) She calls it “my insane superstition. Everything in my life has to be done in fours.” Her obsession with the number extends to practice and off-court. “My coach,” she said, “would never ask me to make 23 balls in a row. He knows that I would need to make 24 balls in row or some multiple of four.” As she disclosed in the blog she was writing for usopen.org, “I won my first qualifying round today in a perfect 48 minutes (the ultimate lucky number because I was born on April 8).” And CiCi was happy to find snack four dining places to her liking in New York City. Too bad CiCi was stopped one round short of the fourth round at the US Open this year!
Maria Sharapova: Sharapova has long had a habit of consciously avoiding stepping on the lines on court when walking to her seat at changeovers. Luckily, this practice of avoiding the lines didn’t extent to her actual playing of points – as running and avoiding the lines while concentrating on the ball is a feat even the meticulous Sharapova would be unlikely to master.
Andre Agassi: Agassi is well known to have a highly ordered mind, but it’s hard to say what that has to do with a couple of his superstitions. In his playing days, Agassi would frequently demand that his tennis racquets travel to the tournament site each day in a separate vehicle, not in the car that transported him. In 1999, when he won the French Open for the first and only time – as he bravely reveals in his autobiography, Open – Agassi forgot to pack underwear for his first-round match. He won and apparently thought: What the hell? Let’s keep this going. So he went “commando” all tournament long, right up until he grabbed the title at Roland Garros.
Goran Ivanisivec: When the huge-serving, combustible Croat won Wimbledon in 2001, he stuck to a specific routine: He spent each morning watching Teletubbies on British TV.
Bjorn Borg: The Swedish champion, a heartthrob in his day who won 11 majors, would never shave at Wimbledon, getting scruffier by the day as the rounds wore on. By tournament’s end he looked full-on lumberjack.
Kei Nishikori: The Japanese player, runner-up at the US Open in 2014, is committed to not phoning his parents back in Japan for the duration of the tournament, so fearful is he of the bad luck speaking to his family will inevitably bring. So they know when he finally calls, he’s either lost or won the entire tournament.
Richard Gasquet: He is certainly not alone in his mania, but the Frenchman with flair is obsessed with getting the same ball back from the ball kids after a winning point. He directs the ball kids on court like a traffic cop, waiting patiently until the exact ball is back in his hand to serve.
What’s with all this mania? You’d probably have to be a psychologist to have some idea. In his classic song “Superstition,” Stevie Wonder was dismissive: “When you believe in things that you don’t understand.” And Nadal himself proved he didn’t take his own habits and superstitions too seriously. Of his obsession with water bottles, he said: “It’s just the very stupid things you do after a lot of years competing.”
Tennis is a game that can play with your head. It’s a uniquely solo endeavor on court, at least for singles competitors. And not only are players out there all alone, they’ve got to react to and try to master an opponent on the other side of the net – whose actions are beyond their control, as are the court conditions, weather, noise and sometimes even their own bodies.
In that context, it’s probably not unexpected that players have unique ways of dealing with everything that’s thrown at them. Many pro players have developed a host of curious tics, rituals, idiosyncrasies and superstitions to get them through the high-stress environments of their professional lives.
Some habits are charming and insignificant, some bizarre, some venture into full-blown OCD. And some, as we’ll see, are just flat-out gross.
If you’ve ever seen Rafael Nadal line up his water bottles just so, next to his chair, as he methodically prepares to take the court, you have witnessed someone trying to focus intently and perhaps impose a little bit of order in a world of chaos.
The most common, and innocuous, superstition among players is probably the routine of eating at the exact same restaurant night after night during a tournament. Many go so far as to order the exact same dish each night, all in an effort to propel their winning ways.
Let’s run down a few of the less-common habits and superstitions in the tennis world.
Roger Federer: The 17-time Slam champion, who was forced to skip this year’s Open due to a lingering knee injury, apparently has an obsession with the number eight. Born on Aug. 8 (i.e., 8/8), Federer is wont to carry eight racquets on court. He drinks from eight water bottles. Eight is his lucky number. Magically, if you add the digits in his record number of majors won (17) you get – you guessed it – eight.
Dominika Cibulkova: One of the more peculiar habits belongs to the diminutive Slovak, the 12th seed at this year’s Open. Cibulkova apparently has a predilection for smelling the tennis balls when she receives them from the ball kids to serve. It looks almost like she’s giving the balls a little kiss, but in fact, she merely likes their smell. Her olfactory sense is so well developed that the BBC conducted a blind smell test with her at Wimbledon, presenting her with cans of freshly opened balls from each of the four Grand Slams (each uses different balls from different manufacturers, ostensibly suited for the unique surfaces and conditions). Cibulkova nailed them all. Without hesitation, she identified each ball from its respective tournament, like a master sommelier guessing varietals and vintages.
Rafael Nadal: Nadal is king of the methodical quirk. Super fastidious during a match, he follows certain rituals to a "T," and has for his entire career. The Mallorcan always follows his opponents onto the court, never emerging first from the tunnel. Nadal puts his headband on just before entering the court, and he always carries one racquet in his left hand, with the rest sequestered neatly in his racquet bag. On court, he lines up those water and energy-drink bottles (one cold, one room temperature) with the labels perfectly aligned, always facing the court, and he drinks from them in the same order every time. Nadal is always the last to stand for the coin toss, and he makes his opponent cross the net at changeovers before he does. In an attempt to get into Rafa’s head, the pugnacious Czech Lukas Rosol purposely knocked over one of Nadal’s water bottles at Wimbledon in 2014. (Nadal was not pleased. But when the wind kicked up and upended one of his bottles at the Australian Open in 2015, and the ball boy took pains to line it up perfectly, as it had been under Rafa’s meticulous care, Nadal charmingly burst into laughter at the service line.)
CiCi Bellis: The 17-year-old Californian, who has charmed the crowds at Flushing Meadows with unexpected wins in two US Opens, leaves nothing to chance when it comes to the number four. (Given that she’s roughly half the size of Roger Federer, it probably makes sense that her number would be four and his eight.) She calls it “my insane superstition. Everything in my life has to be done in fours.” Her obsession with the number extends to practice and off-court. “My coach,” she said, “would never ask me to make 23 balls in a row. He knows that I would need to make 24 balls in row or some multiple of four.” As she disclosed in the blog she was writing for usopen.org, “I won my first qualifying round today in a perfect 48 minutes (the ultimate lucky number because I was born on April 8).” And CiCi was happy to find snack four dining places to her liking in New York City. Too bad CiCi was stopped one round short of the fourth round at the US Open this year!
Maria Sharapova: Sharapova has long had a habit of consciously avoiding stepping on the lines on court when walking to her seat at changeovers. Luckily, this practice of avoiding the lines didn’t extent to her actual playing of points – as running and avoiding the lines while concentrating on the ball is a feat even the meticulous Sharapova would be unlikely to master.
Andre Agassi: Agassi is well known to have a highly ordered mind, but it’s hard to say what that has to do with a couple of his superstitions. In his playing days, Agassi would frequently demand that his tennis racquets travel to the tournament site each day in a separate vehicle, not in the car that transported him. In 1999, when he won the French Open for the first and only time – as he bravely reveals in his autobiography, Open – Agassi forgot to pack underwear for his first-round match. He won and apparently thought: What the hell? Let’s keep this going. So he went “commando” all tournament long, right up until he grabbed the title at Roland Garros.
Goran Ivanisivec: When the huge-serving, combustible Croat won Wimbledon in 2001, he stuck to a specific routine: He spent each morning watching Teletubbies on British TV.
Bjorn Borg: The Swedish champion, a heartthrob in his day who won 11 majors, would never shave at Wimbledon, getting scruffier by the day as the rounds wore on. By tournament’s end he looked full-on lumberjack.
Kei Nishikori: The Japanese player, runner-up at the US Open in 2014, is committed to not phoning his parents back in Japan for the duration of the tournament, so fearful is he of the bad luck speaking to his family will inevitably bring. So they know when he finally calls, he’s either lost or won the entire tournament.
Richard Gasquet: He is certainly not alone in his mania, but the Frenchman with flair is obsessed with getting the same ball back from the ball kids after a winning point. He directs the ball kids on court like a traffic cop, waiting patiently until the exact ball is back in his hand to serve.
What’s with all this mania? You’d probably have to be a psychologist to have some idea. In his classic song “Superstition,” Stevie Wonder was dismissive: “When you believe in things that you don’t understand.” And Nadal himself proved he didn’t take his own habits and superstitions too seriously. Of his obsession with water bottles, he said: “It’s just the very stupid things you do after a lot of years competing.”
Superstition is the way.
Tennis is a game that can play with your head. It’s a uniquely solo endeavor on court, at least for singles competitors. And not only are players out there all alone, they’ve got to react to and try to master an opponent on the other side of the net – whose actions are beyond their control, as are the court conditions, weather, noise and sometimes even their own bodies.
In that context, it’s probably not unexpected that players have unique ways of dealing with everything that’s thrown at them. Many pro players have developed a host of curious tics, rituals, idiosyncrasies and superstitions to get them through the high-stress environments of their professional lives.
Some habits are charming and insignificant, some bizarre, some venture into full-blown OCD. And some, as we’ll see, are just flat-out gross.
If you’ve ever seen Rafael Nadal line up his water bottles just so, next to his chair, as he methodically prepares to take the court, you have witnessed someone trying to focus intently and perhaps impose a little bit of order in a world of chaos.
The most common, and innocuous, superstition among players is probably the routine of eating at the exact same restaurant night after night during a tournament. Many go so far as to order the exact same dish each night, all in an effort to propel their winning ways.
Let’s run down a few of the less-common habits and superstitions in the tennis world.
Roger Federer: The 17-time Slam champion, who was forced to skip this year’s Open due to a lingering knee injury, apparently has an obsession with the number eight. Born on Aug. 8 (i.e., 8/8), Federer is wont to carry eight racquets on court. He drinks from eight water bottles. Eight is his lucky number. Magically, if you add the digits in his record number of majors won (17) you get – you guessed it – eight.
Dominika Cibulkova: One of the more peculiar habits belongs to the diminutive Slovak, the 12th seed at this year’s Open. Cibulkova apparently has a predilection for smelling the tennis balls when she receives them from the ball kids to serve. It looks almost like she’s giving the balls a little kiss, but in fact, she merely likes their smell. Her olfactory sense is so well developed that the BBC conducted a blind smell test with her at Wimbledon, presenting her with cans of freshly opened balls from each of the four Grand Slams (each uses different balls from different manufacturers, ostensibly suited for the unique surfaces and conditions). Cibulkova nailed them all. Without hesitation, she identified each ball from its respective tournament, like a master sommelier guessing varietals and vintages.
Rafael Nadal: Nadal is king of the methodical quirk. Super fastidious during a match, he follows certain rituals to a "T," and has for his entire career. The Mallorcan always follows his opponents onto the court, never emerging first from the tunnel. Nadal puts his headband on just before entering the court, and he always carries one racquet in his left hand, with the rest sequestered neatly in his racquet bag. On court, he lines up those water and energy-drink bottles (one cold, one room temperature) with the labels perfectly aligned, always facing the court, and he drinks from them in the same order every time. Nadal is always the last to stand for the coin toss, and he makes his opponent cross the net at changeovers before he does. In an attempt to get into Rafa’s head, the pugnacious Czech Lukas Rosol purposely knocked over one of Nadal’s water bottles at Wimbledon in 2014. (Nadal was not pleased. But when the wind kicked up and upended one of his bottles at the Australian Open in 2015, and the ball boy took pains to line it up perfectly, as it had been under Rafa’s meticulous care, Nadal charmingly burst into laughter at the service line.)
CiCi Bellis: The 17-year-old Californian, who has charmed the crowds at Flushing Meadows with unexpected wins in two US Opens, leaves nothing to chance when it comes to the number four. (Given that she’s roughly half the size of Roger Federer, it probably makes sense that her number would be four and his eight.) She calls it “my insane superstition. Everything in my life has to be done in fours.” Her obsession with the number extends to practice and off-court. “My coach,” she said, “would never ask me to make 23 balls in a row. He knows that I would need to make 24 balls in row or some multiple of four.” As she disclosed in the blog she was writing for usopen.org, “I won my first qualifying round today in a perfect 48 minutes (the ultimate lucky number because I was born on April 8).” And CiCi was happy to find snack four dining places to her liking in New York City. Too bad CiCi was stopped one round short of the fourth round at the US Open this year!
Maria Sharapova: Sharapova has long had a habit of consciously avoiding stepping on the lines on court when walking to her seat at changeovers. Luckily, this practice of avoiding the lines didn’t extent to her actual playing of points – as running and avoiding the lines while concentrating on the ball is a feat even the meticulous Sharapova would be unlikely to master.
Andre Agassi: Agassi is well known to have a highly ordered mind, but it’s hard to say what that has to do with a couple of his superstitions. In his playing days, Agassi would frequently demand that his tennis racquets travel to the tournament site each day in a separate vehicle, not in the car that transported him. In 1999, when he won the French Open for the first and only time – as he bravely reveals in his autobiography, Open – Agassi forgot to pack underwear for his first-round match. He won and apparently thought: What the hell? Let’s keep this going. So he went “commando” all tournament long, right up until he grabbed the title at Roland Garros.
Goran Ivanisivec: When the huge-serving, combustible Croat won Wimbledon in 2001, he stuck to a specific routine: He spent each morning watching Teletubbies on British TV.
Bjorn Borg: The Swedish champion, a heartthrob in his day who won 11 majors, would never shave at Wimbledon, getting scruffier by the day as the rounds wore on. By tournament’s end he looked full-on lumberjack.
Kei Nishikori: The Japanese player, runner-up at the US Open in 2014, is committed to not phoning his parents back in Japan for the duration of the tournament, so fearful is he of the bad luck speaking to his family will inevitably bring. So they know when he finally calls, he’s either lost or won the entire tournament.
Richard Gasquet: He is certainly not alone in his mania, but the Frenchman with flair is obsessed with getting the same ball back from the ball kids after a winning point. He directs the ball kids on court like a traffic cop, waiting patiently until the exact ball is back in his hand to serve.
What’s with all this mania? You’d probably have to be a psychologist to have some idea. In his classic song “Superstition,” Stevie Wonder was dismissive: “When you believe in things that you don’t understand.” And Nadal himself proved he didn’t take his own habits and superstitions too seriously. Of his obsession with water bottles, he said: “It’s just the very stupid things you do after a lot of years competing.”
Lol good stuff. Agassi was on that crystal meth...that was his superstition
LOL....Andre had that wig problem.
