Andy Murray’s growing pains

March 21, 2014

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in – to borrow from Michael Corleone.

Just when I thought I could take a night off from blogging about men’s tennis, there’s big news:

Andy and Ivan the Terrible are splitsville.

Yes, Andy Murray and his coach, Ivan Lendl, have announced an amicable breakup. It says a lot about tennis – a sport in which “love” means nothing – that players and coaches announce their breakups as if they were married. No Lendl fan here – you can’t be a McEnroe fan and root for the dour, robotic Ivan – but give the guy credit. He was the Annie Sullivan to Andy’s Helen Keller. And by that I mean he did what great teachers/coaches do. He helped Andy unlock himself and cross the threshold.

The return of Feddy Bear

March 19, 2014

Congrats to Nole, who beat Feddy Bear in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open March 16 in Indian Wells, Calif. 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3). (That was the tournament Nole was headed to after he played at Madison Square Garden on World Tennis Day, another BNP Paribas event.)

But apparently, the big news out of the California desert is that Roger Federer is back in the top five at age 32. A larger racket, a healed back and the hiring of Stefan Edberg – yet another 1980s star coaching players who were born in that decade – as adviser have all been credited with FedEx’s renewal. (They call them Fedberg. Cute.)

Nole + Andy = Love at the Garden

March 4, 2014

World Tennis Day – which was celebrated March 3 with marquee matchups of past and present stars around the globe – featured something that Andy Murray said we were not likely to see again. He and Novak Djokovic squared off in the “BNP Paribas Showdown,” an exhibition that reminded us what makes tennis and friendship so great.

A tennis exo – as exhibitions are sometimes called – is a bit like a rock concert mixed with a boxing match. There’s smoke (no mirrors). There are lighting effects and an irresistible beat. There’s an announcer who pronounces everyone’s name dramatically.

The latest on Olympic figure skating: Send in the clowns

February 22, 2014

Where would the Olympics be without the drama and simultaneous comic relief that is figure skating?

Thursday night was the latest chapter in the farce as Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova beat the seamless defending champ, South Korea’s Yuna Kim, for the ladies’ gold medal by five whole points. The decisive margin of victory, Kim’s clearly superior artistic (and let’s face it, overall) performance and the revelation that the judges included the wife of the head of the Russian skating federation and a Ukrainian involved in a 1998 ice dance controversy has led 1.7 million to petition for reform on change.org.

Good luck with that. The current convoluted system, which would require an Einstein to parse, was put in place to counteract the kind of abuse being alleged now. In the frozen world of figure skating, the Cold War never ends.

Russian hockey disappoints; Yuna Kim does not

February 20, 2014

Olympic shockeroo. Shock-er-roo (well maybe not to hockey writers): Russia went down in the quarterfinals.

But it’s been that kind of winter, hasn’t it? The favorites, the big dogs, haven’t always succeeded. All the talk about Russia returning to hockey glory and tiny Finland – which nonetheless packs a hockey wallop – takes the host nation down, 3-1. (If I were Team USA, I would guard against any schadenfreude: The American team has to play the tough Canadians in the semifinals.)

Apparently, the Russian loss was the case of a good defense stopping a good offense. OMG, can you say “Seahawks and Broncos”?

Vladimir Putin mustn’t be too happy, although at present he’s busy facing off against Barack Obama over civil unrest in Ukraine, politics being the real game men play. There were more surprises for the Russians in the ladies’ figure skating short program as a Russian placed second, but not the one everyone expected.

The best of frenemies at the Olympics

February 18, 2014

The triumph of Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States over Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada in the Olympic ice dancing competition marks the latest and perhaps last chapter in one of the best rivalries in sports.

Rivalry has gotten a bad rap. Cain and Abel, for starters. And who can forget Tonya and Nancy? Certainly not NBC, which has a Mary Carillo documentary airing later during the Olympics as we recall the 20th anniversary of Nancy’s knee-whacking at the hands of Tonya cohorts.

But true rivals can be friends, intimates – and in my just-released novel, “Water Music,” even lovers – as long as they respect each other and leave the competition on the field of “battle.” As my rivals discover, that’s easier said than done.

But it can be done. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were true rivals. During the glorious summer of 1961, they chased Babe Ruth’s single season home run record – while sharing an apartment. (They even shopped and barbecued together.)

Davis and White and Virtue and Moir are rivals in that tradition. Read More

Hanyu’s golden moment

February 15, 2014

Can I pick ’em or can I pick ’em?

Four years ago, I picked Evan Lysacek to win gold in men’s figure skating in Vancouver, and he did. The moment the new team competition began in Sochi, I knew that Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan would win the men’s gold. He just had the right combination of athleticism and artistry, focus and looseness – even if his free skate was less impressive than his short program.

Still, he was clutch while Patrick Chan of Canada, the three-time world champion, never seemed to lose his deer-caught-in-the-headlights quality. Just as some people seem to inspire confidence, others make you wonder why they can’t consistently come through when it’s all on the line. As NBC commentators Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic noted, Hanyu’s flawed free skate left the door open, and yet, Chan failed to walk through. Read more