Caught up with a few new mags this weekend, include Hello magazine’s exclusive on the Nole-Jelena wedding. I must say as an Emma type that there is nothing quite so satisfying as a wedding – particularly when it’s not your own and you can just sit back and enjoy the pix. After seeing the happy couple, I must add that I am in love with her dress. The Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen creation – she did the Duchess of Cambridge’s superb gown – was the perfect look for a pregnant bride and a seaside ceremony. The strapless bodice with the sweetheart neckline was embellished with a leaf motif that subtly climbed the hem of the gown and its train. The dress seemed to capture the bride’s uncluttered beauty and the couple’s love of nature. (Nole looked beautiful, too, in a pale gray suite by Dolce & Gabbana.)
As much as I enjoy a well-dressed couple, I relish an undressed man even more – artistically speaking. The ESPN Body issue has plenty as usual, including Michael Phelps.
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Read MoreWar, Novak Djokovic once observed, is the worst thing that can happen to anyone.
I sincerely hope he’s not destined to become a male Cassandra, bearing witness to the horror of the inevitable. But it certainly seems that way, doesn’t it?
In recent days, we’ve all been forced to bear witness to the kind of rage, terror and desperation that he no doubt experienced as a child of the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.
The former Yugoslavia at the 20th century’s sunset, New York at the 21st century’s dawn, Nigeria and Ukraine today, Israel and the Palestinian people eternally – the names change, the borders and media circus shift, but the stories are always sickeningly the same. Little boys mangled and murdered by mortar shells. Teenaged ones burned alive or kidnapped, never to return.
And now some 300 souls blown to smithereens on another ill-fated Malaysia Airlines plane, plucked out of the air as it were and scattered in pieces on the ground. And for what?
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Read MoreOvershadowed by the World Cup and Wimbledon – OK, and LeBron James returning to Cleveland and baseball’s All-Star Game and lots of other sporting events/news – the recent Bulldog Grand Slam at the University of Georgia in Athens nonetheless had a pleasure all its own, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte testing each other in a pool once more.
Is there a more pleasant rivalry? Look at the pictures from wherever, whenever they meet. They’re like two buddies who can pick up the threads of a conversation over distances and time.
“It never gets old,” Lochte says in the teamusa.org piece of swimming against his rival. “I love it. He’s the toughest racer I’ve ever had to go up against. No matter what stroke, what event, he’ll race you to the end. It’s a challenge to race against him and I’m always up for a challenge. Win or lose, no matter what, at the end of the race, we’re still going to be friends. We’re not going to hold a grudge, so, I love it.”
It helps that swimming is a relatively marginal sport, except at Olympic time – Phelps and Lochte are basically swimming to get in shape for Nationals in August – and that Phelpte are teammates as well. Whereas Rafanole are competitors locked in a continuing battle for titles and trophies attached to big prize money. Although I’m not convinced that Rafa and Nole aren’t so chummy anymore.
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Read MoreI know, I know, I should be writing about the World Cup and how Brazil couldn’t seem to catch a break – being shut out by the Netherlands in the consolation match – and whether or not Pope Francis has made a bet with Pope Emeritus Benedict re: the Argentina-Germany final.
But instead I find myself still on a Wimby high after Nole’s gutsy win, surfing the Net for tennis news. This is the delicious period before the start of the hard court season when tennis players take to the beach. (It’s one of the reasons I made the four athletes in my new novel “Water Music” two tennis players and two swimmers. Tennis players love water.) With Nole imposing a paparazzi blackout on his wedding – and kudos to him for keeping a private affair private – the paps have had to content themselves with delectable pix of Rafa in hot-pink board shorts.(Rrrrrrrr!) Which brings me to…
Andy Murray.
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Read MoreOK, true story: Several weeks ago during the French Open, I had a dream in which I saw Novak Djokovic – dressed in blazing white, legs spread in typical Nole-Gumby fashion – leaning forward on a grass court, butt up in the air as he drew a white line on the green with his racket and wept.
“My God,” I thought to myself, “he’s going to win Wimbledon this year.”
Which he did, defeating Roger Federer 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4 in the battle of the fertile male tennis titans. (Feddy and wife Mirka recently welcomed their second set of twins, while Nole and fiancée Jelena Ristic are expecting their first child this fall. So they have a bit of catching up to do in that tournament.)
It was no easy victory, but then for our dear Nole (pronounced "no-LAY"), it never is, is it?
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Read MoreLegendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri has had 10 No. 1-ranked players, including Monica Seles and Andre Agassi. So who better to turn to when we want a little sage court talk? The Pelham native is as busy as ever, coaching in the IMG Academy Bollettieri Tennis Program in Bradenton, Fla. – “that’s where I’ll remain,” he stresses – and promoting his new book, “Changing the Game” (New Chapter Publisher, $26.95, 319 pages). I caught up with him on his return from Wimbledon, where he did commentary for the BBC early in the tournament, before he headed out to Newport, R.I. where he’ll be among those enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 12. Congrats, Nick!
Nick, thank you as always for taking time to answer my questions. We’re down to the final days of Wimbledon. Who do you like to win?
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Read MoreI think it fair to say that the World Cup has eclipsed Wimbledon this year, what with the biting and the shouting and the salsa-dancing and the making of breakfast chicken enchiladas for the U.S. team and the holding up of the Uruguayan team’s dulce de leche in Brazilian customs and a point system that implies that even I might make the finals, just the whole internationalism of it. And you know what? Tennis is fine with it, because a lot of tennis players are soccer buffs.
Tennis actually has a lot in common with soccer as both require lots of fancy footwork. Indeed, YouTubers can check out videos of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic playing soccer tennis, in which they use only their heads and feet to get the ball over the net. That Rafa and Nole, never at a loss for a way to entertain.
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