Grigor Dimitrov talks about raising his level at important moments during his win over Marin Cilic.
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In 1960, Mike Davies had only been a pro for a few months and the lean young Welshman was just coming to terms with sharing a locker room with his idols. Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall were in that corner; Pancho Gonzalez and Pancho Segura – just about the only man who wasn’t scared to death of big Pancho – were in the other.
The locker room was at Wembley’s Empire Pool where Jack Kramer staged one of the biggest events on a tour that was keeping pro tennis alive in the dark days when anyone accepting money for playing the game was banned from Davis Cup and all the Grand Slam Championships.
The Impact Of Mike Davies
Mike Davies and I went out into the arena and watched Tony Trabert, former French, Wimbledon and US champion, playing another of the new recruits Kramer had picked off from the amateur game. And he started talking. The Welsh accent was stronger then and the ideas were just formulating in the expansive mind of this visionary who would start changing the way tennis was played sooner than even he could have imagined.
Davies talked of world-wide tours, linked by a points system that would have the top eight finishers playing in a Grand Final, televised across the globe to determine who would become recognized as the greatest player in the world.
I had known Mike for a while and had covered some of his Davis Cup matches and spats with authority which were fairly frequent because this young firebrand, who had left school in his native Swansea at the age of 15, was never afraid to tell the amateur officials what he thought. But this was the first time that I viewed him as a future leader of the game. The drive, passion and ideas were already in place. Maturity and the ability to develop them would surely follow.
When Kramer stepped aside from running his tour and Trabert took over, Davies was immediately singled out, along with Butch Buchholz and Barry MacKay, as players capable of taking on administrative positions. But the game was changing fast and, by 1967, Lamar Hunt had become involved, buying out a partner and taking full control of his new World Championship Tennis tour.
Hunt, already deeply involved in American football and soccer, needed a CEO and, after asking around, went out on a limb by appointing Davies.
“Suddenly I found myself lunching with oil millionaires at the Petroleum Club in Dallas,” Davies told me. “I tried to say as little as possible and they thought I was intelligent!”
Mike’s self-deprecatory humor was always one of his most engaging characteristics but he already knew what he wanted to do with Lamar’s baby. After forming what became known as “The Handsome Eight”, the full WCT tour soon was up and running, with Davies organizing three tours, the Red, Blue and Green groups, were carefully divided up so that each had their fair share of top players.
Only occasionally did Davies have to change his original selection. Once, on receiving details of the Red Group for which he had been selected, Laver called Mike in horror. “Mate!” he exclaimed. “I’m the only Aussie in the group. Who am I going to drink with?”
So Colin Dibley was hastily transferred from the Blue group to keep the Rocket company in the evenings.
Davies may have lacked higher education but he was street smart and knew how to deal with free loaders. An acquaintance who ran a string of hamburger joints in Dallas called him up shortly before the first WCT Finals and asked for half a dozen free tickets. “Sure, no problem,” Davies replied. “And, I tell you what, I am having some people round for a barbeque on Friday evening. Come a little early. And bring the meat.”
At one of his first promotions, tickets were selling slowly and Mike told me, “You know what? I’m almost inclined to close the stadium and play the first day behind closed doors. They’d be lining up if I did that. Keep people out and they want to get in.”
The WCT Dallas Finals, played originally at Moody Colosseum and later at Reunion Arena, set new standards for how to stage and present a top class tennis event. Of course, he had Hunt’s money to play with but Mike’s ideas did not cost much. He just wanted colored clothing and yellow balls and 90 seconds at changeovers which, of course, was a money spinner because it allowed NBC, the first major network to cover tennis, time to get in their commercials.
Davies became fascinated by television and, by watching and listening, was soon able to produce his own programs for WCT.
After 13 years, the pressure started to tell and Davies needed a break. But Butch Buchholz, then CEO of the ATP, soon coaxed him back into the sport and, ironically, it was Davies who took over from Buchholz a couple of years later. Mike’s marketing skills ensured that he took the Association from near bankruptcy to having $1 million in the bank. In a move for which every pro who has played since should be grateful, Davies also launched the Player Pension Plan.
In 1987, Davies ‘crossed the aisle’ and joined the International Tennis Federation as director of Marketing in a move that turned out to be highly beneficial, both to him and his employers.
If, as he has suggested, David Haggerty, the new President of the ITF, is looking for a new Davis Cup format, he needs only to look at what Davies circulating to interested parties a few years ago. It is a format that centers on a two week Davis Cup finals, involving eight teams and the detail is such that Mike could tell you which team would be playing on which court at what time before the event even started.
That was typical. Mike Davies spent a life time trying to work out ways to make the game he loved better. Happily for tennis, he succeeded.
Watch Hot Shot as Richard Gasquet places a lob on a dime. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
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Watch Hot Shot as Grigor Dimitrov works his way back into the point, then hits a flashy volley to force Marin Cilic into error. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
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Watch Hot Shot as Roger Federer is razor-sharp against Andreas Seppi. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
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Matthew Ebden rises to No. 108 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after winning his second Challenger title of the year in Traralgon. He looks back on the successful week. Video courtesy of Tennis Australia.
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Roger Federer’s bid to add to his lone BNP Paribas Masters title from 2011 begins today when the Swiss No. 3 seed takes on his 2015 Australian Open nemesis Andreas Seppi in the second round. The 35 year old is coming off a return to No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Race To London after his seventh Basel title, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the final.
It brought his win-loss record in finals this season to 6-4, with his only losses coming to Novak Djokovic at ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells, ATP Masters 1000 Rome, Wimbledon and the US Open. Federer fell to Milos Raonic for the first time in the Paris qurater-finals last year. He will carry a 12-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head record into his match with Seppi, who opened on Monday with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Pablo Cuevas.
The Italian is trying to reach the third round for the second time (after 2011). He started the season with a 10-4 win-loss record, highlighted by his first win against Federer in the third round at Melbourne Park before falling to Nick Kyrgios 8-6 in the fifth.
After his run to the Basel final on Sunday Nadal arrives in the French capital having risen to No. 5 in the Race To London. En route to the title match in Switzerland, the Spaniard held off his 2012 Wimbledon conqueror Lukas Rosol in a third-set tie-break. The pair will lock horns for a fourth time (Nadal leads 3-1) on Wednesday after the Czech opened with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Rosol beat No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round in Vienna to snap a 14-match losing streak against Top-10 opponents. Nadal has a 3-3 record in finals this season but needs to win here in Paris to continue his streak of winning at least one ATP Masters 1000 title a year since 2005.
No. 2 seed Andy Murray will be out to avenge a defeat to Croatian teenager Borna Coric when the pair meets on Wednesday. The Scot was soundly beaten by the 18 year old in the quarter-finals in Dubai earlier in the season and returns to action for the first time since reaching the semi-finals at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Murray has won four titles this season on three surfaces and will like his chances against Coric should he win the first set. He has a perfect 55-0 record this season after claiming the opening set. Coric, the youngest player in the Top 50, won his first-round match on Tuesday against Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-4. His 26 wins in 2015 are most among teenagers on tour.
Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori will take on local Jeremy Chardy in a tricky second-round clash. The pair is tied at 2-2 in prior meetings but they have not played so far this season. Nishikori has three titles to his name this year and returns to play having withdrawn from Basel last week with a shoulder injury. He is the last player to secure one of the eight places at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Chardy opened with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over countryman Lucas Pouille on Tuesday.
Another Frenchman, No. 10 seed Richard Gasquet, will meet Leonardo Mayer for the first time after the Argentine downed Martin Klizan on Monday. Gasquet’s Davis Cup teammate, No. 9 seed Tsonga, faces Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, having narrowly claimed the pair’s only prior match in Montreal this year. Tsonga comes off a strong showing in Shanghai, where he defeated Nadal en route to the final, while Bautista Agut has reached back-to-back finals in Moscow and Valencia before his first-round win on Tuesday against Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
In other second-round encounters, 16th seed David Goffin and Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic meet for the first time, Grigor Dimitrov and 12th seed Marin Cilic square off and 13th seed John Isner takes on qualifier Aljaz Bedene. Fifth seed Tomas Berdych plays qualifier Edoard Roger-Vasselin, 15th seed Feliciano Lopez meets Viktor Troicki and 11th seed Kevin Anderson will look to maintain his unbeaten record against Dominic Thiem.
Leading the five doubles matches on Court 2 are top seeds and two-time defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan, No. 3 seeds and Wimbledon champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau and No. 4 Jamie Murray and John Peers. The oldest player on tour, 43-year-old Daniel Nestor, attempts to win his 1000th career doubles match when he and Roger-Vasselin take on Rojer-Tecau.
Benoit Paire produces an unplayable drop volley against Gilles Simon at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, 2015.
ATP Staff
Benoit Paire takes it to another level with his reverse-spin backhand
The match may not have been the result Frenchman Benoit Paire had hoped for, but he can draw some solace from hitting a shot that will take some topping at this year’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
Stretched low on a backhand volley against countryman Gilles Simon, Paire generated a remarkable amount of backspin, narrowly missing his head in the process.
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For Rafael Nadal, the BNP Paribas Masters represents his last chance to extend his streak of 10 straight seasons with at least one ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title. Although Nadal, along with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, have accounted for 47 of the past 51 ATP Masters 1000 titles, an astonishing figure that dates back to his triumph on the clay of Monte-Carlo in 2010, the Spaniard has been shut out of that category thus far in 2015.
But as he has underlined throughout his post-US Open run, which includes finals in Beijing and Basel, and a semi-final showing in Shanghai, he’s making progress day in, day out, the kind that manifests itself in his ever-increasing on-court confidence.
“I’m just happy for the last three weeks, competing well against very good players and winning against good players, too,” said the World No. 6, who will open his Paris campaign on Tuesday against a familiar opponent, Czech Lukas Rosol, who pushed him to a third-set tie-break in Basel. “I’m happy about the way that I’m practising. It’s important for me not just to practise well, but compete well and last week I competed well again.”
En route to the Swiss Indoors Basel final, Nadal prevailed in a trio of three-setters, eventually falling short to longtime nemesis Federer 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Under the guidance of his coach/uncle, Toni Nadal, Rafa has been targeting specific skill sets during this late-season run, including his return game.
“I’m working on things I believe can help in the future,” he explained. “And for the moment, myself and my team is happy with what we’re doing. We practiced three hours every day the last couple of months. Now we’re using our time a little bit differently. So it’s good to practise differently when you feel that you need to improve something.”
By his own lofty standards, 2015 hasn’t been an all-out success for the Mallorcan. But just as some began to wonder if Nadal would be among the top eight when the year-end Barclays ATP World Tour Finals rolled around, he indeed qualified. In fact, he’s now climbed to No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Race to London.
“I always believed that I was going to be in the top eight at the end of the season,” Nadal explained. “I’m humble enough to say, ‘Okay, if I keep playing bad, I’ll probably be in trouble.’ But I had the feeling that I was going to play better. I believe my level is to be there in the top eight. So even if I’ve had tough moments this year, the year is long.”
As World No. 1 Djokovic will attest, no one is taking Nadal lightly in Paris.
“Rafa didn’t have a season up to his standards, but he’s finding a way to win and finding a way to get to finals,” said the top-ranked Serb. “You’ve got to give him credit for that. It’s not easy when you’re not feeling that great on the court. He’s said that; everybody knows that. He has a lot of pressure because of the amount of tournaments he has won in his life and the records he has. Of course, he’s expected to reach the semis or finals of each event. He hasn’t done that too many times this year at the biggest events. Nevertheless, he’s still a great champion. He’s still somebody who is always the one to look out for. He’s always one of the biggest candidates to win any tournament on any surface. It doesn’t change much in my eyes.”
A seventh title on home soil in Basel where he snapped a three-and-a-half-year losing streak to great rival Rafael Nadal in the final has given Roger Federer fresh motivation to finish the season on a high as he enters the final two events of the season.
The Swiss No. 3 seed arrives in Paris for the BNP Paribas Masters with the added incentive of ensuring a shock Australian Open defeat to Andreas Seppi back in January was a one-off when the pair square off in the second round. He leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head 12-1 and has beaten the Italian twice this year since.
The 2011 Paris champion has claimed six titles this year and reached two Grand Slam finals. He is one of only a handful of players to have dented Novak Djokovic’s otherwise brilliant year.
“Considering how I’m playing, who I was able to beat and all these things, I feel like I have played a very good season. I have said in interviews before a few weeks back after Novak was able to turn it up, winning Wimbledon, the US Open, that definitely changed the dynamics, made him the player of the year,” Federer said. “But I was able to beat him twice and win six events. Besides that, I make two slam finals … My body and my mind is all in the right place.
“It’s been a fun year so far. And I think looking at Paris and London, obviously now there is huge goal for me coming up in London. I will take it in my stride after Basel and I hope confidence is going to carry me far into the tournament here this week.”
A surprise loss to Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round of the Shgnahi Rolex Masters proved a blessing in disguise for Federer giving him extra time to recuperate ahead of the final indoors stretch. “I was on vacation after Davis Cup for 10 days, was on the beach with my family, had a great time, was able to unwind,” he said.
“I did the same last year, maybe even a bit longer because I knew the year-end was going to be longer … with the Davis Cup final. So from that standpoint, especially losing early in Shanghai, the year-end now is not going to be a problem really. It’s a couple of events left, that’s it.”
The 35 year old reiterated his comments from Basel where he said he would play beyond the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. “I never said I was going to be done at Rio. I just said that was like my next long-term goal I had. It’s not around the corner, but it’s not that far off anymore,” he said.
“I always sort of plan over a year ahead. Basically 2017 is locked up. That’s the way I got to plan if I feel like I’m going to still be playing for some time. As long as I don’t know when the end is, that’s how you plan, into infinity if you like.”