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Попаднах на една интересна статия из нета за някакви тенис
награди. прочетете я ако имате време - смешна е:)
Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted -- one moment -- would you capture it or just let it slip? Or would you sit at your desk and read this, the last Mailbag of the year, instead?
In a moment, we'll present our -- gulp -- fifth annual Baggie Awards. But this is the time on Sprockets when we depart from the usual cynicism and, in all sincerity, thank you readers for your continued loyal support. As it is written, the success of the 'Bag depends far more on the questions than the answers.
But if you guys have half as much fun visiting this page as I do responding to your consistently thoughtful/informed/offbeat/entertaining inquiries, then we're all doing pretty well. All the best for the holidays and a healthy and peaceful 2003. See you back at this address in two weeks.
When the ATP and WTA braintrusts come to their senses and hold a joint year-end event, maybe we'll have an actual Baggie Awards ceremony. Until then, the virtual trophies and plaques go to (envelopes, please) ...
MVP (men): Lleyton Hewitt. A year ago, the rap on Hewitt was that he would be rendered an also-ran once the bigger New Balls -- Marat Safin, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas -- found their heads and hearts. Well, Hewitt's still atop the throne and there's little indication he's abdicating it anytime soon.
MVP (women): Serena Williams. Not even close. If Serena hadn't turned her ankle before the Australian Open, we might have had our first Grand Slam winner since Steffi Graf in 1988.
The Greta Van Susteren Most Improved Award (men): Fernando Gonzalez, narrowly beating out Paradorn Srichaphan. Let's just run the numbers: Gonzalez started at No. 135 and finished at No. 17. Srichaphan started the year at No. 112 and was No. 18 at the closing bell.
The Greta Van Susteren Most Improved Award (women): Anna Smashnova. Unlike runner-up Daniela Hantuchova -- whose career trajectory has been an upward vector -- Smashnova has been on tour for the better part of a decade with up-and-down results. She started 2002 ranked No. 88 and finished at No. 16.
Comeback Player of the Year (women): Corina Morariu. Barely a year after being diagnosed with acute leukemia, she was playing against Serena Williams on Arthur Ashe Stadium. We should probably just retire the award in Morariu's honor.
Comeback Player of the Year (men): Pete Sampras. After Sampras' second-round Wimbledon loss to unknown George Bastl, only an optimist the likes of Tony Robbins could have predicted his return to glory. When Sampras won the U.S. Open barely two months later, it served as a reminder that the great ones aren't wired like the rest of us.
Best Doubles Team, presented by Liza Minnelli and her husband, David Whatshisname (men): Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor. Each Slam had a different men's 2X winner, and Knowles and Nestor only hit paydirt in Australia. But, week in, week out, they were the most consistent tandem.
Best Doubles Team, presented by Liza Minnelli and her husband, David Whatshisname (women): Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paolo Suarez. The South Americans won two Slams, twice as many as the next closest team.
[Ed note: It's more important that we stop drinking, smoking, procrastinating and wasting our money on Rob Schneider movies. But we all ought to make a New Year's resolution in 2003 to do a better job supporting doubles.]
Biggest Disappointment Award, Presented by ISL's trustees (men): Marat Safin. Though he finished 2002 ranked a respectable No. 3, Safin didn't win his only tournament title of the year until October. He is supremely talented, but it's looking more and more like he's following in the grand tradition of Goran Ivanisevic, the likeable headcase.
Biggest Disappointment Award, Presented by ISL's trustees (women): Elena Dementieva. The bloom has been off the rose with Anna Kournikova for years now. But whither Dementieva, another title-lacking Russian, who not long ago looked to have surefire top-five potential but is now at No. 19?
Newcomer of the Year (women): Eleni Daniilidou: If we're to beware of Greeks bearing gifts, keep an eye on Daniilidou, a talented Thessalonikian who's No. 22 with a bullet.
Newcomer of the Year (men): Paul-Henri Mathieu. The Frenchman had won only two tour matches before 2002. He finished the year at No. 39 (a quantum leap of 217 spots) and doesn't turn 21 until next month.
Mixed Doubles Team of the Year: Amir Hadad and Aisam Qureshi: One of tennis' most enduring images of 2002: The U.S. Open stands packed with fans in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes cheering on this unlikely team of an Israeli and a Pakistani.
Weirdest Injury Award (and somehow it fits): Tim Henman. At the NASDAQ-100 in Key Biscayne, the unfailingly polite Henman stepped aside to accommodate an eager autograph seeker and hurt his neck in the process, causing him to retire from his subsequent match.
Justin Gimelstob Press Quote of the Year: Jelena Dokic. Asked by a London tabloid about her alleged romance with Formula One driver Enrique Bernoldi, Dokic snorted: "Why don't you think of a question that is your business, and you can ask me that."
(Runner-up No.1)
After defeating Samantha Reeves in the first round of the U.S. Open, Justine Henin faced a single probing question from that notorious New York press corps. Q: "Did you like her lilac dress?" A: "Yeah."
(Runner-up No.2)
Though this one actually is from 2000, it may be the single best spontaneous line ever uttered by an athlete, and thus bears repeating whenever possible. After winning a marathon five-setter against Carlos Moya at the U.S. Open, Todd Martin was asked, "Where are you physically?" Martin responded: "Physically? I'm right here. Do you want to know where I am metaphysically?"
The What Color Are the Clouds on Your Planet? Award: Jennifer Capriati. After she was booted from the U.S. Fed Cup team for undermining the authority of captain Billie Jean King -- and for launching an unconscienably profane tirade -- Capriati was asked if she had any feelings of remorse. "I totally believe I did the right thing. I mean, I have no regrets. I think if anyone should have regrets, it's their side. You know, they lost one of their best players." Riiiight.
So Long, Farewell, Graduating Seniors: Ronald Agenor, Byron Black, Sergi Bruguera, Tomas Carbonell, Nick Kulti, Andrei Medvedev (was pretty much gone after 2001), Cedric Pioline, Jan Siemerink, Jon Stark, Mikael Tillstrom, David Wheaton, Chris Woodruff, Rob Leslie, Kim Po-Messerli, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Sandrine Testud, Dick Leach, Pat Rafter (?), Pete Sampras (?).
FINALLY, IN A shameless co-opting of Esquire's Dubious Achievement Awards, here are some of tennis' more bizarre moments from 2002.
1) Alas, he suffered a pulled finger instead
Midway through his fourth-round Wimbledon match, Tim Henman received a stomach massage from ATP trainer Bill Norris. As Norris revealed later: "I thought a darned good fart would do him a bit of good."
2) It's an old Australian remedy, mate. And, besides, Bill Norris was busy with Tim
Hours after pulling out of a pre-Wimbledon tuneup tournament with an "upset stomach," Hewitt was spotted eating at Rajdoot, an Indian restaurant in Wimbledon Village.
3) Besides that, my opponent volleyed liked Hitler and returned like Stalin
France's Nicolas Coutelot lost a French Open match to Juan Carlos Ferrero, who was allegedly suffering from a foot injury. Proving he needs to work on his metaphors as well as his first serve, Coutelor remarked: "I'm angry and I say to those who made this stupid lie [that Ferrero was seriously injured]: It's like you said bin Laden was dead."
But the next issue had an exclusive report on why the Lakers would dominate the 2002-03 NBA season
In the October issue of GQ, which hit newsstands the first week of the U.S. Open, a lengthy article claimed that Sampras is afflicted by the "curse of the succubus" and would never win another Grand Slam.
4) Who put the banana in the tailpipe?
Roger Federer won a Harley Davidson motorcycle at the St. Anton tournament in Austria. Posing atop the bike, he burned his right leg on the muffler.
5) Billie Jean King will explain it when we're done
Asked what she would say to President Bush about plans to scale back Title IX -- the legislation that greased the skids for a woman's ability to make millions as a professional athlete -- Capriati responded: "I have no idea what Title IX is, sorry."
6) And the bird still lasted longer than any of the Australian men
In the semifinals of the Australian Open doubles draw, France's Michael Llodra -- who lists hunting as his hobbies -- killed a sparrow with a forehand.
7) Dad, you're grounded
After his friend totalled his Porsche Cabriolet a day earlier, Ivanisevic watched with horror as his father crashed his $3 million yacht.
8) Or a candlelit broom closet, for that matter....
Writing a column for a London newspaper during Wimbledon, Boris Becker expressed horror that Sampras would find mid-match inspiration by reading notes written by his wife. "He will not come back. That is the end of Pete." Becker wrote. "We had a seven-times champion who had spent much of a second-round match reading a letter of inspiration from his wife -- out in the open, on a show court at Wimbledon, not at the dinner table in the candlelight."
9) And the final score was 5-4, 5-4
Anne Kremer's victory over Jennifer Hopkins in the opening round of the Bausch & Lomb Championship was allowed to stand despite taking place on a court that was improperly lined. It was discovered that the service court area backline was 18 feet from the net, three feet short of the normal distance. Kremer had 16 double faults, and Hopkins finished with 13 service infractions.
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Награди за 2002 г.
