Tennis, everyone

June 26, 2015

Just in time for Wimbledon (June 29 through July 12), teNeues offers “The Stylish Life: Tennis,” a new coffee table book that ranges over the art, fashion and personalities of the modern game that began in the late 19th century. It’s a book that had me at the back cover.

The photograph (also reproduced opposite the Table of Contents) depicts the green tennis courts of Italy’s Il San Pietro di Positano resort spilling onto the jagged, pristine blue Amalfi Coast. That photograph and the reproduction of a Roger Broders poster circa 1930, with its clay courts tumbling onto a periwinkle Mediterranean Sea in Monte Carlo, are precisely what I imagined in “Water Music,” my debut novel, when my athlete-heroes vacation on the island of Mykonos. ...

American Pharoah among ESPY nominees

June 25, 2015

Kudos to Novak Djokovic, Aaron Rodgers and American Pharoah, all among the nominees for ESPYS (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly).

AP got the nod in the Best Championship Performance category, along with San Francisco Giants’ ace (and World Series star) Madison Bumgarner, Florida Softball’s Lauren Haeger and LeBron James. No word yet on whether the Pharoah will attend, although his jockey and fellow nominee Victor Espinoza will no doubt be there.

Nole got two noms – Best International Athlete along with Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton, the LPGA’s Lydia Ko and soccer’s Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo; and Best Male Tennis Player, along with Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic. Aaron was also a double nominees as Best NFL Player (along with Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, DeMarco Murray and JJ Watt) and Best Male Athlete, with Watt again, James and Stephen Curry. ...

Top ten reasons why American Pharoah is one athlete who will never disappoint

June 13, 2015

Number 10: No fizzing out in the French Open finals. (Sorry, Novak Djokovic.)
Number 9: No flaming out in the quarterfinals. (Sorry, Rafael Nadal.)
Number 8: No meltdown over blisters, stray feathers, etc. (Sorry, Andy Murray.)
Number 7: No loud plaid shorts. (Sorry, Stan Wawrinka.)
Number 6: No left-handed compliments to rivals. (Sorry, Roger Federer.)
Number 5: No steroids. (Sorry, Major League Baseball.) ...

Cover me: American Pharoah and the search for authenticity

June 11, 2015

What Anna wants, Anna gets – particularly when it comes to a sleek, gorgeous, well-muscled male.

And what Anna Wintour, Condé Nast creative director and Vogue editor, wants right now is American Pharoah.

Ahmed Zayat, who has pledged that the Pharoah will belong to the American people, has told Bloodhorse, which covers the Thoroughbred industry, that AP will grace the cover of the next issue of the fashion bible.

"We are breaking new territory," Zayat, who operates his family's Zayat Stables, said June 10 in a podcast interview with Bloodhorse.com.

I’ll say. Anna has featured some studs in her day – Tim Tebow (shirtless), Colin Kaepernick, her fave Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic (Speedo), Ryan Lochte (cover, with Serena Williams and Hope Solo at the beach). Now she has a soon-to-be real stud. ...

Heartbreak at the French Open: Novak Djokovic loses to Stan Wawrinka

June 9, 2015

From the high of American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown, I plunge to the low of Novak Djokovic losing to Stan Wawrinka in the French Open final.

After routing Rafael Nadal in three sets – unthinkable at Roland-Garros and a whole other kind of heartbreak – and outlasting Andy Murray in five sets, Nole fell to Stan in four. He was so close to his dream of a career Grand Slam. It wasn’t to be. At least not this year.

It’s easy to make excuses – and Nole, to his credit, has learned not to make them even though beating Rafa and Andy back-to-back must’ve produced a physical and emotional letdown – but he simply got outplayed by a player who has beaten him in big matches before, like the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2014. ...

Open season: a fashion report from the French

June 3, 2015

What’s with the men at the French Open? I don’t mean their play, which, while not exactly setting the world on fire, hasn’t been terrible. I mean the way they look.

Any discussion of men’s style on the courts of Roland-Garros must begin (and, please God) end with Stan Wawrinka. With his stocky physique, pug nose and rough skin, Stan has always had a certain animal magnetism. One of his nicknames is even “Stanimal.” But his bed head and thin plaid shorts that look like boxers, complemented by a polo shirt that does not flatter his chest, suggest nothing so much as a bus-and-truck Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Honestly, even Roger Federer – known for his sartorial superiority, thanks in part to Anna Wintour – has fallen short, as he did in his match against Stan, with a Nike ensemble that consisted of hot pink shorts and a deep periwinkle shirt. The contrast is too jarring.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal’s fashion sins have been less in his choice of outfit (blue Nike ensemble, meh) than that of accessories. On court, he sports a $750,000 watch that recalls something you purchased at a convenience store while on vacation, having forgot your real watch at home. We’re not talking croc-embossed, rose gold-plated Longines chronometer here but something with an orange grosgrain strap and lots of gears. And why, pray tell, does Rafa need a watch on-court? It’s not like he’s going anywhere. His matches last hours. Plus, tennis stadiums have clocks. So why does he need to wear the watch, except that he’s being paid to wear the watch. ...

Rafanole revisited: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic meet in the French Open quarterfinals

June 2, 2015

Well, the match that we’ve anticipated since the French Open draw May 22 (Novak Djokovic’s 28th birthday), is now at hand, the 44th meeting between him and Rafael Nadal, the longest – and, I think, greatest – rivalry in tennis’ open era.

For both men, this is a crucial contest. For Rafa, it represents a chance to return to former glory after a dismal winter and a surprisingly mediocre season on his favorite surface, clay. A win against Nole in the quarterfinals Wednesday, June 3 – his 29th birthday – would cement the return of the King of Clay. He could still go down in the semifinal or final, but the Big Mo, momentum, would be with him.

For Nole, the quarterfinal represents an opportunity to bury once and for all the notion that he can’t beat Rafa at Roland-Garros, that he lacks the Rafa-esque mental fortitude to close out a match that means the most. He would be the only man to take Rafa down on every Slam surface, and he would position himself not only for a career Grand Slam, since the French is the only Slam he hasn’t won, but propel himself toward winning the Grand Slam in a calendar year – something no man has done since Rod Laver in 1969. ...