World Tennis Challenge 2013

On behalf of Tennis SA and the World Tennis Challenge (WTC), I would like to welcome you to what we are certain will be two wonderful weeks of tennis across South Australia.

2013 is the fifth anniversary of the WTC and this year marks the most visible evolution of the tournament with the arrival of our first female players, Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis.

The terms ‘legend’ and ‘star’ can be vastly overused in society today but rarely can they be more applicable and revealing of our two female competitors. Martina Hingis claimed the Wimbledon singles crown when she was 16 and three Australian Open versions while still in her teens.

She won 14 grand slam titles all in, a monumental achievement. Martina Navratilova meanwhile won 18 singles grand slams alone and backed it up with 41 doubles crowns.

The men add to the heavyweight feel, Mats Wilander a serial slam winner while Yannick Noah is the WTC’s hidden superstar. Little known here perhaps, the 1983 French Open champion is regularly voted one

It’s 12 months on from the first WTC fanzine and this issue is a belter.

You won’t find anything else like it on the market. The bald and the bland, the stat and the tat heavy publications can, sadly, be found elsewhere in droves.

This, is all about passion, passion for tennis and its peoples. At $5 it’s a steal and would sell for many times more in the big smoke.

The content is all there - Roy Emerson tells a wonderful tale about a Davis Cup trip to Sweden and recalls Adelaide 50 years ago when he claimed the Australian Championships singles crown.

Mark Woodforde talks about the time Martina Navratilova rang out of the blue, to ask to pair up at Wimbledon, and his embarrassment in letting his current partner know.

There are player profiles - to get signed at the daily WTC

Welcome to South Australia and the 2013 World Tennis Challenge. South Australia’s cosmopolitan capital, Adelaide, has a well-earned reputation for staging world-class events in style, and our unique city plays host to a brilliant line up of internationally acclaimed cultural, sporting and music festivals each year. The World Tennis Challenge has been a stellar addition to our calendar of events since it was first held in 2009, and the South Australian Government is again a proud supporter of the World Tennis Challenge in 2013. Women will take part in the World Tennis Challenge for the first time this year and we are delighted to

BILL COSSEYPRESIDENT TENNIS SA

RICHARD LLEWELYN EVANSEDITOR

GAIL GAGOMINSTERFORTOURISM

of the most popular men in France for his charity work and has a long, and heavy selling, music career.

Pat Cash, Henri Leconte and the effervescent Mansour Bahrami make welcome returns to Adelaide as do current players Stan Wawrinka and Alexandr Dolgopolov ahead of their Australian Open challenge. And a very warm hello on their WTC debuts to Victor Troicki and Nicolas Almagro.

Away from Memorial Drive, we expect 2,000 people take part in our Be Active Challenge, whether in the juniors, seniors, corporate challenge or more.

If you watched, and were inspired by, the 2012 Paralympics, then don’t miss our wheelchair tennis, a world class offering.

Finally, my heartfelt thanks to our perennial army of volunteers and loyal sponsors.

The coming days promise to be an exciting and energising start to 2013 for all tennis fans. I hope you all enjoy January in South Australia.

autograph island you’re lucky - features, interviews and random facts thrown in. Looking to the future, check out the interview with South Australia’s rising star, Luke Saville.

And if you’re heading to Melbourne for the Open, why not buy a dozen copies, and you could well pay for the airfare out of the profits.

Finally, thank you to Clare Chapman at Tennis SA, who once again championed the fanzine all the way, while photographer Chis Oaten delved through his archives to supply many top class pics.

The ideas and editorial were easy - but Josh Osis and Lauren Lepore were the design brains behind it all. They grasped the concept immediately and drove it forward always. If you need any fresh and very talented Adelaide graphic designers, you should look no further.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Editor and Publisher: Richard Evans, rich@tennisface.tvGraphic Design: Joshua Osis, hello@joshuaosis.comand Lauren Lepore, lauren.d.lepore@gmail.com

WTC photography: Chris Oaten, insightvisuals.com.au and Jacinta Oaten, jaypics.com.au

Five years in and the World Tennis Challenge is spreading its wings.

We all know the Martinas are in town but just how and where will they fit in? It’s exciting but it’s not straightforward, so focus now or forever be lost amid the cross court chaos of the 2013 WTC.

First of all, the teams. Well, they’re gone or at least the countries are. No more Europe and the Americas and so on. This time look for out the legends and one tagged on current player.

Thus we’ll have Team Cash plus one, Team Noah plus another. You’ll find out who on the night.

Otherwise it’s simple.

Two courts host three matches each night. Simultaneously.

Eight players will play one singles match every night, like against like, and then they all pair up for the doubles where the legends showcase the skills that took them to the top while the current players do the legwork for them.

Martinas Navratilova and Hingis will be on court every night, mixing in and out as the tournament and mood dictates.

THREE

BY

Eleven players, two courts, two ladies, four oldies, four currents, one special guest and 15,000 fans. Clear?

NIGHTS

NUMBERS

And don’t forget the most popular face on show, Mansour Bahrami and his bottomless bag of tricks. If you haven’t seen him before, he’s seriously good. Take note, go home and practice hard because you’ll need to if you want to emulate Mansour the magician.

And it doesn’t stop. The WTC is just the cream on the pavlova in early January in South Australia.

Fancy a daytime hit and that’ll be the WTC Be Active Challenge, which attracts around 2,000 entrants across 200 tennis courts around suburban Adelaide and is played from 1 -10 January. It’s Australia’s largest participation tennis event as you might expect.

It’s made up of 11 tournaments, from money shots to juniors to the corporate challenge, to hot shots and a world record cardio tennis activation and not forgetting the ITF Be Active Wheelchair Open.

Love tennis, then you’ll love January in Adelaide.

All details at worldtennischallenge.com

welcome tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis to South Australia. This great event gives fans the chance to watch stars of the sport in action, along with the opportunity to hit the court themselves in the Be Active Challenge. I hope all visitors to South Australia for the World Tennis Challenge will find time to explore both Adelaide and the surrounding regional holiday destinations that are so easy to reach from our capital city. Enjoy this world-class event and the vibrant city of Adelaide.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA MARTINA HINGIS

She wasn’t even out of her teens but already the trophies outnumbered the rackets the Swiss Miss lugged onto court during a frenetic end of decade mopping up of one grand slam after another.

Martina Hingis was 16 years and three months when she out thought and out played the more physical and muscular French Canadian, Mary Pierce, in the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park.

It was a forerunner, of style and substance, to much of the late 1990s for Hingis. Six months after her Antipodean triumph, Hingis picked up the Wimbledon crown and book ended the year nicely with the US Open title in New York.

She’d failed, as favourite, to complete the slam, losing in the French Open final, but these things happen when you’re just 16. It was, still, a very good year.

It wouldn’t happen today of course, or rather it couldn’t. Governing body rules dictate the slams are now solely for the seniors.

Hingis meanwhile, top 100 at 14-years-old and top 20 a year later, unsurprisingly disagrees.

“I would make it somewhere in the middle - 14 is too young, 18 is a bit too late,” she says. “You learn a lot faster at that age and you have no fear.

“When I was 16 on Centre Court at Wimbledon playing Steffi Graf, playing Arantxa Sanchez, I had no fear.

“I didn’t know that word because I thought ‘I’ve still got plenty more years to go’. When I was older, and even in my comeback at 25, I started knowing what fear was. I was afraid of losing, afraid of disappointment, perhaps not making it again.”

She has a point, says Martina Navratilova, an early slacker by comparison with her first biggie, at Wimbledon, not coming her way until she was 21.

“Pressure happens later when you know your time is running out. Then the pressure just mounts and mounts. It’s much easier for the youngsters.In my first Wimbledon I just thought ‘Yay! I get to play in the final, it’s so exciting. My last Wimbledon final I didn’t even know how to get my racquet out of my bag I was so nervous.”

Good arguments from great players but the game has changed much in the past 15 years says multi slam winner Mark Woodforde.

“Martina Hingis had a bit of time out and that’s when tennis changed in the women’s game. The Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport came along, with so much physical hitting. Hingis didn’t have the game to follow that and couldn’t base her game on strength.

Woodforde remembers the new champion well in her vintage year.

“Todd (Woodbridge) and me were going for our fifth consecutive title at Wimbledon in 1997. We commented on how young she was, is she going to be still winning in five or ten years. Is she going to get drunk with winning?”

“There was that talk Monica Seles was going to be one of the greatest ever. It was the same with Hingis. That promise was there.”

A promise that made a memorable impression on Woody when he lined up against Hingis in the US Open mixed doubles.

“I played Hingis with Larisa Savchenko. Hingis was really young, a real outsider. She was holding up the mixed doubles draw because she was doing so well in the singles.

“I could tell she just had this ability, she could manipulate the ball and with spin, hitting softly to the corners, great positioning.”

Shades of Lleyton Hewitt suggests Woody. Small builds, thought above power, big winners very young.

Lleyton of course lines in up the real deal in Melbourne next week yet Martina, 147 days older and $20M prize money in the bag, is fit, well and promises to be the perhaps the new star of the WTC 2013.

Her injuries and retirements are, one hopes, a thing of the past. Whether the sometimes forthright opinions on a range of tennis topics remain, we’ll see. The fact of the matter is that Adelaide has landed a belter of a player for three days in January.

The Martinas squared up in an exhibition match in the UK 18 months ago. Footage shows the players walk onto a deep green, grass court in Liverpool. It’s summer and the crowd are wrapped in all manner of winter warming. The sound crackles in high tempo with the wind.

Hingis serves. Ace. Next return and Navratilova strikes a crouching ball boy in the midriff and breaks the ice. Age has withered the great champions power but not her poise and she plays as we remember.

Hingis though is still 32, her lesser power still untouched by time. The movement and grace remain and she wins 6-4, 6-4.

She, like the WTC, strides the old and the new and will fit in just perfectly.

‘In my first Wimbledon I just thought ‘Yay! I get to play in the final, it’s so exciting. My last Wimbledon final I didn’t even know how to get my racquet out of my bag I was so nervous.’

“I didn’t know that word because I thought I’ve still got plenty more years to go. When I was older, and even in my comeback at 25, I started knowing what fear was. I was afraid of losing, afraid of disappointment, perhaps not making it again.”

She rang me up herself and I thought it was a hoax. ‘Martina who’?

When I figured out it really was Martina, I was blown away to hear she felt we should be good enough to win the mixed.

I’d been playing with Nicole Provis, we’d won the US Open the year before and as much as I enjoyed playing with her, winning Wimbledon with Nic didn’t seem tangible at the time. With Martina it did.

Rather than burn an offer from perhaps the greatest player ever, I said I’d love to but have to extract myself from playing with Nicole first.

I’d already played with John McEnroe (winning 1989 US Open doubles) and never regretted the chance. So this, was one of those ‘A ha’ moments.

Not really knowing how to tell Nicole, I wrote a letter saying Martina’s offer was something I would like to be able to go with, yet reunite with Nic down the track. She didn’t react well... this was happening right as the French Open was starting and she withdrew from partnering me.

Mark Woodforde didn’t know Martina Navratilova when she asked to pair up with him in the 1993 Wimbledon mixed doubles. Woody was thrilled but first he had to let his playing partner know...

A CALL TO REMEMBER...

A few weeks later I played with Martina at Wimbledon. Before the fortnight began, I remember waiting for the owner of the flat I was renting to drop off the keys and this sleek white Porsche comes zooming by and I’m admiring the car and listening to its engine. It drove past, stops, reverses, the window slides down and it’s Martina.

‘Hey partner’ she shouts, and I’m thinking, ‘you’ve got to be kidding, can this really be happening’?

A player like Navratilova was accustomed to playing their matches on centre court or occasionally on court one. Our first round was scheduled on court two, the ‘graveyard’, where seeded players/teams often lost to unknowns.

She was a bundle of nerves. She felt this was a ‘step down’ playing out there, leaving her exposed and vulnerable, yet for me this was a ‘big step’ up. I could see I’d have to nurse her through the early stages, talk to her, distract her almost.

When we played our next match on Centre Court the difference was like night and day.

She knew the whole geography of the service box. ‘If you hit that bump over there then you’ll win the point and that blade of grass does this. In 15 minutes the sun is going to be here...’

This is what it was about playing with Martina.

By the time we reached the final, we’d won two matches out there. This didn’t help me much since this was my first ever attempt at a Wimbledon title. We served first, I double faulted on the opening point and soon we were 0-40. Martina came over, patted me on the bum and said ‘just take a breath. Don’t worry, it’s the first game’.

With her guidance, I held serve, we found our groove and won comfortably in two sets. Martina suggested we try for the mixed Slam, the US Open was on in two months.

Navigating the early rounds in New York allowed me to see how this ‘great champion’ handled competing in three events at one slam. She was doing something I’d been taught from a young age... being a tennis player meant competing in singles, doubles and mixed. Yet Martina started favourite in all three events and I was still in the process of building my game, fitness, knowledge & experience. Her goal was to win all three.

Mine was... well I couldn’t see winning three titles was realistic at all. I knew I could go deep in all three events.

We lost the final to a pairing that probably was more about a mental block for us. Todd Woodbridge and Helena Sukova.

Sukova was a player who had caused some heartbreak for Martina over many years when she ran hot. This was the first time for me to see Todd on the other side of the net.

Martina was a little edgy that Sukova was striking the ball solidly, I know I didn’t play at all well.

Martina called a month later to say she wouldn’t be coming to the Australian Open in January. I felt I blew it with my form and loss in New York. I perked up when she said Roland Garros was looking good.

True to her word, we competed in the French Open together in ’94 but lost on a surface we both were vulnerable on. Our run together ended there but it was more than I could’ve ever have wanted.

Pairing up with Martina Navratilova in 1993 was defining for me. She helped me win my first Wimbledon titles.

The mixed was played on Friday and the next day I won the men’s doubles with Todd. I reiterated her words about the court, the bounces, the sun, the wind to Todd. I felt oddly calm having secured a title the day before.

Twelve months ago I spoke to Martina about bringing women into the WTC Spending an extra week in Australia poses no problem for players. The anticipation of playing some mixed was a selling point.

Welcome to Adelaide, Martina.

Martina came over, patted me on the bum and said ‘just take a breath. Don’t worry, it’s the first game’.

‘IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO

TODAY....’

Roy Emerson won the Australian Championships when it was held in Adelaide 50 years ago. It was

the third of 12 grand slam singles titles he was to amass. He’s lived in America for over half of his life but the man from rural Queensland will forever be Australian to the core.

“We set up home in Newport to tie in with pro tennis, which I‘d just started, and planned on going back after two years,” says Roy. “The pro team and a few other things took off over here. We rented to start with and then we stayed.”

As you’d expect though from a man who won a mind boggling eight Davis Cups, patriotism and the links to home will never fade.

“It’s not a bad flight from LA, seven movies and five meals... we came to Australia three times last year,” he smiles.

Roy is happy to chat about his homeland and no wonder. As well as the national team trophies, his 16 doubles and 12 singles grand slam crowns came while he was still living down under.

The average top level professional player, the fan imagines, will revisit and remember every tiny detail and scrap relating to a truly big win. Daily perhaps and even 50 years on.

Seemingly though, and understandably when you collect that many, they can morph into one.

“Who was it I beat in 1963?” asks Roy.

Number two seed Ken Fletcher was the foil, 50 years ago now and on the lawns of Memorial Drive.

“The courts in Adelaide were probably the best grass courts to play on in Australia. The side courts were all pretty good, well kept and centre court was fairly fast.

“It got pretty hot sometimes. There was just one stand near the cricket that was covered, the other stands would be temporary.

“The players used to go over and watch the cricket at the Oval, we all followed the cricket.”

Where the rest will have done them much good.

“There were no changeover rests in amateur tennis. We thought that was normal. Chairs came in with the Davis Cup. We would have a chair next to the coach and in the grand slams we didn’t have chairs, we just walked around.”

“Harry Hopman (Davis Cup coach) was a great believer in being fully fit. He liked his players to be fit enough so that if they had a hard match, they would go and have a good massage and then feel like they hadn’t played the day before, and do that every match. ‘You’re in peak condition if you can do that’, Harry said.”

Memorial Drive was a mainstay on the rota for premium events 50 years ago with the 1963 Davis Cup final also played there, Roy taking both his singles matches but the USA taking the tie late on, 3-2.

Dropping into 1964‘s main draw following the loss (the holders automatically headed straight to the next years’s final until 1972) came a memorable inter-zone match against Sweden.

“We were supposed to play Sweden in the USA. We wanted to play them on grass and we had the choice of where to play. We chose Westchester Country Club just outside New York, a beautiful club, but the courts were too soft.

“We didn’t have any advantage as the ball didn’t bounce. Bad grass is a great equaliser.

“Sweden then said, ‘why don’t we go back to and play in Sweden for $50,000 in Bastad,’. That was unheard of, so we went to Sweden and finished winning it 5-0 on clay.

“I played the first match, against Jan-Erik Lunqvist using a pressure-less, Tretorn ball.

“I was down two sets and things looked grim but came back to two each. I was down 5-2 in the fifth and at the changeover Hopman said, ‘you’ve got him now’.

Roy was perplexed. Lundqvist meanwhile was doing push-ups courtside, so anxious was he to see out the win.

“What do you mean, I’ve got him?”

“Well he looks very excited,” Hopman replied. “See if you can hold your serve and then break.

Roy duly held.

“Lundqvist served for the match with new balls at 5-3 but he played carefully. He just spun his serve in, I kept attacking and won 7-5.”

Simultaneously an intriguing sub plot was under way in the away dressing room where a nervous Fred Stolle was next up on court. A delegation was despatched to check on him.

“It was a really white dressing room. They couldn’t find Fred, he was sitting

against the wall and had turned white!”

Tie won, Roy and Fred headed straight back to New York to play in the US Open where they eventually met in the singles final, and Roy’s second US coronation.

Roy turned out for his country for a further three years, stifling the cheque book call of the pro tour. It was a wise move.

“No regrets, not really,” says Roy, a man still on top of the game, coaching camps in Switzerland each summer the substitute now for playing.

Only Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have won more grand slam singles crowns than Roy and no-one was has won more Davis Cups.

“I cherished the time I played amateur tennis,” says Roy. “I was able to win quite a few grand slams. It’s in the record books.”

“Oh yes,” says Roy emphatically.

“I still feel Australian, definitely. That will never be gone.”

Roy Emerson has lived in California for the past 44 years and, let’s face it, Newport Beach an hour or so south of Los Angeles has its

attractions.

Lauren Bacall and Bogey, Shirley Temple and John Wayne have all lived amid its mass of inlets and beaches, climate controlled to a

tee by the on-hand Pacific Ocean. Tiger Woods has a pad there, so too the LA Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant. Rod Laver lives down the

coast near San Diego.

You can see why 76-year-old Roy and his wife Joy are long entrenched.

You could recognise Henri Leconte from almost anywhere. The voice alone is time honoured French, heavily accented to English speaking ears, with passion, humour and the requisite ‘je ne sais quois,’ thrown in at all times.

Like its owner, it’s loud too. Henri has never done anything by halves though the perennial joker though can mask, still, the ability and achievement.

A French Open doubles win, aged just 20 and alongside Yannick Noah, stands out, so too a Roland Garros singles final in 1988 against another long term foe this week,

Mats Wilander. And not forgetting the small matter of a number six world ranking.

Though to judge the man who turns 50 in a few months by his love of wine, women and cuisine, would be an epic double fault.

Cast aside the trickery, and the swerve and speed of the left hander holds strong, the backhand on occasions still sublime, the nous and instinct of a classic, yet original, Frenchman ever evident.

Here’s to the next half century, Henri.

It’s second time round for “Dog” at the WTC after his debut last year which served as a forerunner to the best win of his career, later in 2012.

The 24-year-old Ukranian teed up for the first time against veteran Tommy Haas in Adelaide but, despite a defeat, picked up enough holes in the German’s game to carry him to the ATP 500 tournament in Washington in August where he beat Haas in the final.

And it’s not just Haas who finds Dog difficult to read. His game is anything but orthodox, his crosscourt backhand a delight, his pace, aggression and innovation always on show.

World number 18 heading into the new year, Dog is the face of new tennis and the man who plays like his game has been put together on an XBox - it’s all in there, it shouldn’t make sense, but it does, and is a sight to behold. Don’t miss out on the ‘Dog’.

YANNICKNOAH

ALEXA-NDR

DOLGO-POLOV

MATSWILANDER

Australia’s been good to Mats Wilander, with three Open singles titles in Kooyong and Flinders Park long in the bag.

Until January last year that is, when the former Swede world number one slipped in his bathroom in Melbourne and ruptured a kidney. Three months on his sofa in Sun Valley, Idaho followed, enough time for the father of four to map out much of the rest of 2012 and his annual travels around America in a winnebago, to raise money for epidermolysis bullosa through his Wilander on Wheels charity.

Which is in keeping with the grit that pushed Mats to once face

John McEnroe in a six hours 32 minutes Davis Cup defeat, while his rounded persona also saw the 48-year-old win seven singles majors on grass, clay and hard courts.

And then there’s the passion - Mats once played in rock band called Full Metal Racket with John McEnroe and Pat Cash - and the inexplicable (Mats is a long time Leeds Utd soccer fan).

Back for the first time since 2009, low key but the real mens heavyweight.

It can’t always be easy being Stanislaus Wawrinka. He’s yet to win a grand slam, flies under the radar much of the time and will forever be the ‘only’ the second best Swiss player.

Stan who indeed?

The flipside is that Stan returns to the 2013 WTC as the second highest ranked player on show (world 17), has bagged close to a

million dollars in prize money this year alone and has a longevity and durability few on the men’s tour can match.

At just 27, Stan’s been a mainstay on the international circuit for 12 years now, is edging his way back to a top 10 slot and has a back catalogue that includes an Olympic gold (doubles in Beijing) and Masters title in Rome four years ago.

MANSOURBAHRAMI

STANIS-LASWAWRINKA

HENRILECONTE

The headline acts come and go but the mustachioed magician remains a constant at the WTC.

Mac, Lendl, Noah, and the Pats can all claim greater individual glory and renown but the man from Iran remains an ever present at the WTC as he notches up his fifth consecutive appearance here.

The bag of tricks and effervescence is beyond compare and rightly elevates his status as perhaps, the crowd favourite, but it_s bonding with his fellow players that tells the tale.

Arriving in France as a refugee post 1979, Mansour lost all his savings at the casino pretty much straight off, though not his friends who rallied round immediately.

Thirty years on, Henri Leconte speaks of Mansour with deep and genuine affection as a man too who’d give his mates the shirt off his back. “I love him,” Henri sobbed 12 months ago.

Catch up with him for a word or an autograph and you’ll see why. Courteous, mannered and affable, Mansour stands physically smaller than most other players, but too, stands apart.

Forget the 23 career singles titles and the 16 more in doubles. Forget the number three world ranking. Forget the Davis and Federation Cups captaincy and wins. Forget even the historic 1983 French Open singles title.

There_s far more to Yannick than that. Charities for one, Yannick has devoted time to helping underprivileged children play sport, raised awareness of the worldwide nature fund and played his part in the fight against AIDS.

Next the singing, 11 albums and 15 singles have propelled Yannick to to the top of European music charts and close on 10 million

sales. Eighty thousand fans turned out to watch the 52-year-old’s concert at Paris’ Stade de France three years ago.

Don’t forget the genes, mum captained the French national basketball team, dad was a pro soccer player and son Joakim plays basketball for the Chicago Bulls.

And we haven’t even started on the dreadlocks, Bob Marley or even the tennis...

There’s little doubt that the 6’4’’ tall, hard hitting Serb comes alive in team tournaments.

Viktor hit number 12 in the world rankings 18 months ago but pride of place in his scrapbook, so far, belongs to the 2010 Davis Cup final where Viktor crushed long time WTC favourite, Michael Llodra, in the deciding rubber to hand Serbias its first ever win in the age old competition.

Serbian tennis is enjoying a boom period that currently puts it up with the Czechs, Spain and France as a leading and glamour tennis nation.

Nicolas Almagro is the third best male player in his country. But he’s also Spanish and, by default, that means he’s good. Very good in fact - the man from Murcia is the eleventh ranked player in the world and heads to Adelaide after playing on the losing side in the 2012 Davis Cup final.

The 25-year-old will be the hardest hitter at the WTC, blue collar tennis on the one hand yet his backhand can be a thing of wonder, ‘more a matador performing with a cape than a tennis stroke,’ it’s been said.

He attracts metaphors - ‘nuclear energy’ is one - and a fair few tags, combative, volatile and, best of all, the ‘terminator’. Nice as pie off court apparently.

Baseline fixated, his forehand can be ferocious and the serve’s a belter. A bit of a whirlwind, all in all, and very welcome for it too.

Novak leads the way but Viktor, six years a pro and with $4M winnings in the bank, has been an integral part of the Serbian emergence, with the ability and game to step from the supporting cast into the limelight as he did in his hometown of Belgrade a couple of years ago in the Davis Cup.

Keep a close eye on him in Adelaide and too in Melbourne a few days later. One hundred and fifteen thousand fans on Facebook can’t be wrong.

PATCASH

NICOLASALMAGRO

VIKTOR TROICKI

MARTINANAVRA-TILOVA

MARTINAHINGIS

The greatest? Well, quite possibly. Eighteen grand slam singles titles, 31 women’s doubles titles and 10 mixed doubles slams would suggest she has a shot.

Chris Evert and Steffi Graf topped and tailed Martina’s reign and would perhaps claim equal billing but just mention the name ‘Martina and we all know who you mean.

More than the titles, the Czech born player changed the way

we play the game, ushering in a physical quality and aspiration that, for a time, blitzed all before her.

She won the Wimbledon singles title a ridiculous nine times yet the Australian Open a mere three.

She’s an author, an activist for gay rights and long time charity worker. She’s 56 now but worth every cent, you have to see her in action this week.

Slovakian by birth, Martina moved to Switzerland when she was six-years-old but it was anything but uphill thereafter. Coached by mum Melanie she won Junior Wimbledon at just 13 and the real thing just three years later.

She’d won her first three Australian Open singles titles by the time she was 18 and lost her last three in Melbourne by the time she was 21.

She retired 10 years ago, to take up horse riding, and again five years ago following a 30 month return to the women’s tour.

The consummate antidote to power play, on court Hingis was all touch and finesse and thought. Fifteen grand slam titles say she was one of the best players ever.

Melbourne, footy, Hawthorn, family, Irish blood Aussie heart, physical, tennis, tennis or footy school leaver, pro tour, injuries, early glory, Davis Cup ‘83, national hero, more injuries, Anne-Britt, another Davis Cup, feuding with Newk, a contender, Barclay, backyard grand slam heartache, getting better, feuding with Lendl, media friendly, shoulder, surgery, serve & volley, Wimbledon, the service, the crown, the climb,

kids, South Africa, million dollar rejection, mates, Full Metal Racket, headbands, Emily, more kids, temper, easy going, integrity, Fulham, coaching, Skud, Rusedski meltdown, commentating, making a point, doubles wins with Woody, grand-dad, charities, good guy, a champion, rock n’roll.

Eleven thousand spectators turned out to watch the Junior Wimbledon final on Court One in 2011.

And for South Australian teenager Luke Saville, this is just the beginning.

Luke Saville knows his world tennis ranking precisely. It’s 343 and 12 months ago was 1,176.

The statement though is disarming.

There are players in even the most distant bush areas, you may think, with a higher ranking than 1,176. It’s not remotely true of course, but the casual perception says much, not least that there are players more proficient out there and, for now, ahead of Luke.

“I’ve gone up 800 places in a year,” he says proudly. As he should. The 18-year-old from South Australia’s Riverland is doing everything right and has been for some time.

The Junior Wimbledon singles title is already in the bag (2011), the Australian Open version also a year ago now.

A check list of past Junior Wimbledon champions is encouraging - Borg, Lendl and Federer - but the making of a top tennis player calls for many parts. The fortune, hopefully, will come but right now Luke Saville comes across as grounded and groomed for a top flight career as you can possibly get.

Australia is crying out for a new men’s champion. Lleyton Hewitt has played the part stoically yet Bernie Tomic doesn’t seem up for the fight. And short of Marinko Matosevic stealing Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility, it would be difficult to imagine a more low key anointment as this country’s current number one ranked male player.

Luke Saville though, quite possibly, has what it takes. Get this:

“It was always going to be tennis,” says Luke. “Dad built a hard tennis court in our backyard and also put up a concrete wall (to hit against).

“I first picked up a racket when I was around three. The Riverland probably improved my play on grass, there are lots of grass courts there.”

But the grass wasn’t enough and Luke’s family resolved to seek greener pastures when he was 10-years-old. It was the right decision.

“Mum and me moved to Adelaide. My older brothers were already at school and my dad was based in the Riverlands with work. I went to primary school in Glenelg and then onto Prince Alfred College.”

At which point respected South Australian former player Brod Dyke took up the cause and coached Luke until he was 16 and remains an influence and a friend.

“Brod was great,” says Luke. He was so passionate with his coaching. He was even happy to coach me at 8am on his birthday. We still keep in touch.”

Then, almost three years ago, the defining moment.

“I got a full scholarship from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).”

“When I got the call there was only one decision in my mind. The coaching, fitness and gym work and the facilities are first rate. The AIS has been an amazing deal says Luke.”

The upside is that all expenses are met in full - the Grand Hyatt in New York understandably made an impression - though the hospitality on offer swings to the other extreme through the multitudinous Futures and Challenger tournaments that serve as the bedrock for any aspiring youngster.

The Futures circuit isn’t easy - Luke played 20 of the hard yards, career makers across Australia and Asia last year. People and prize money are scarce, a few thousand dollars winnings on offer one week, a few hundred the the next.

It’s done for the love of the game, the goals, this grit and grind necessary to propel the players to the next level.

The follow on from Wimbledon’s defining moment came with the breakthrough moment and Luke’s first Futures win, in Bangkok, in May 2012.

“It was a great feeling because I had such a hard week, it was hot and humid and I beat a much higher ranked opponent Di Wu (currently 183).”

Job done, Luke repeated the win with another Futures title in Cairns four months later.

“It was a relief to start my senior win but the junior grand slams was another level of happiness.”

And unsurprisingly so.

Eleven thousand spectators turned out to watch the Junior Wimbledon final on court one in 2011.

“It was very noisy and I was aware of that. There weren’t really any Aussies there as the other finalist Liam Broady is British. An amazing experience,” recalls Luke.

Surreal as it was, the Aussie tennis fraternity had already helped smooth the way to a less nervy entrance.

“It was my first time playing Wimbledon but I’d been there twice before and had practiced there with Pat Cash on the clay courts at the back.

“Two years ago I was stuck in London for two weeks when the Iceland volcanic cloud stopped all flights (out of England). Both of us were trying to get a flight back to Australia.

“Pat’s a member of the All England Club and so we went in through the members entrance and had a private tour in effect around Wimbledon and its history. I loved it.”

There will, surely, be more of this to come.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to play players in the top 100. In my head I feel that I can play great tennis,” says Luke.

Which underscores perhaps the most impressive and grounded quality on show. A teenager who knows his number but, even more, knows the value of it.

EVERY

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VOLCANICCLOUD

GOLDENLINING

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Ben Weekes played a lot of tennis in 2012.

He was in the Carribean pre Christmas, Missouri a month or two earlier. Italy, France and South Korea also featured last year, Texas, NZ and more.

He played around 120 matches, more won than lost, in singles and doubles.

Ben Weekes is Australia’s best male wheelchair tennis player and number 17 in the world in both disciplines.

He’ll be at the Adelaide ITF Be Active Wheelchair Open, as he was last year when he tumbled out in the last eight.

Now, go back three paragraphs.

One hundred and twenty matches, that’s one every three days. Ben also works, in Sydney, and trains ferociously.

All the top wheelchair tennis players do in fact. Get Rafa or Novak to join in and they too would build up a serious sweat. In fact, better still, head down to watch these wheelchair athletes play at Memorial Drive this week.

Watching wheelchair tennis can be a surreal experience. Deeply enthralling but un-nerving. See Ben or his colleagues serve, too intently, and you can sense a dizzy spell coming on, such is the arch and bend backwards. But they rarely fall as you’d think.

The ball bounces twice, if you want. That’s it, the sole rule change to the mainstream version.

It’s about speed off the mark, anticipation, positioning, placement and power. Hitting at the opponent is legit. Rafa and Novak would approve and, theoretically, could even join in.

“Usually I only train with able bodied players because they always push me to be faster/ better. Sometimes my coach has jumped in the chair to get their heads around the issues of playing in a chair and get my perspective,” says Ben.

“It’s always about finding the solutions to the movement problems of playing tennis from a wheelchair.

“When I first started playing I didn’t like it so much. It was difficult to get the coordination with the racquet and moving with

the chair - it took some time to pick up the skills before I could start to enjoy it.”

“The Sydney Paralympics showed me how high the international level was and that really inspired me. We finished second in the Junior World Team Cup in Italy when I was 17 and I was lucky to have a good support network that really believed in me to help me push through the tough times.

“Financial stresses can mean traveling alone to most tournaments because there’s not the money to take a coach or team with you everywhere.”

As ever the goal is upwards and the 2012 Paralympics will fuel the inspiration says Ben.

“It was by far the best games ever and there was a great Australian group there. It’s always disappointing to lose in the games as they only come every four years but Rio is an attractive motivation.”

Should he ever find time for a break, there’s always the music, and at a very high standard...

“I used to be a good pianist. It’s something I had to put on hold when I got more serious with tennis so only made a few performances in the last years, usually just to accompany singers at various venues including the Opera House, Basement, and BarMe Cabaret.

“It’s something I’d like to get back into when I finish tennis but for now I only play a little when I’m at home.”

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Pat Cash must have been sick of Scandinavian tennis players in the late ‘80s.

The months from January 1987 to 1988 were, without question, the finest and most productive of Cash’s career but it’s a fair guess that his nightmares will have played out in blue and white of Sweden.

A five set defeat in the Australian Open final to Stefan Edberg, the last to be played at Kooyong and on grass, hurt but was much softened by the Wimbledon title coming his way just six months later.

January 1988 was different though. It was the new era of the Australian Open at Flinders Park, Cash’s home turf, though grass had ceded to the blue rebound ace.

World number one Ivan Lendl - a man Cash loathed for his perceived arrogance and bullying - loomed in the last four for Melbourne’s finest. The Czech had done himself little favour with the home crowd, putting out Mark Woodforde and Wally Masur earlier in the fortnight.Neither man had dropped a set to-date but after five long sets, Cash prevailed.

It was no easier for Sweden’s Mats Wilander meanwhile, his five set semi final defeat of Edberg going the distance too.

Wilander strode to the opening clutch of games, 6-3, on Sunday 24 January, before the heavens opened, the new facilities not yet in sync with the weather.

“For some reason the roof wasn’t closed but when we came back I felt sufficiently fired up to take the next two sets,” recalls Cash.

“Then the rain came back, only much heavier, and the roof was finally closed.” A 30 minute break followed.

The momentum lost, Wilander charged back to a snatch the fourth and 8-6 in the fifth.

Cash never came close again, to any slam, but for the Swede it was his annus mirablis.

The French Open followed - Henri Leconte the beaten finalist - and also the US Open in mid September.

There was an upside, of sorts, immediately for Cash.

Melbourne lost, he headed to Mexico City and an awkward, uneven Davis Cup appointment.

Rookie Davis Cup team-mate Mark Woodforde remembers it well.

“I’m not sure we watched the final on television, but we knew he had gone down in five sets.

“When he arrived he was fairly knackered. Having to deal with the loss increases the stress of flying and the tiredness.

“But we rallied around him. That’s what a team does.

“It was difficult playing there. The crowd were throwing cushions onto the court, at players when Wally Masur’s match ended overnight and had to go into another day.

Every manner of trick was employed by the home crowd to engineer the win.

“They were even flashing their watches at Wally to reflect the sun in his face,” says Woodforde.

“But they didn’t have a Pat Cash with their team.”

Cash played both singles and the doubles and won the lot. Three-two Australia.

WHEN MATS WILANDER AND PAT CASH SQUARE UP THIS WEEK, A REPEAT OF THE 1988 AUSTRALIAN OPEN MEN’S FINAL BECKONS...

ROGER RASHEED IS TAKEN ABACK WHEN

I SUGGEST THAT HIS PUBLIC PROFILE COMES LARGELY

FROM HIS JANUARY STINTS ON CHANNEL

SEVEN, CROUCHED COURTSIDE IN ROD

LAVER ARENA,WHISPERING TO

VIEWERS THROUGH!OUT THE AUS OPEN

“Really? I think most people know me through Lleyton (Hewitt) and my coaching,” he asserts.

Fair enough but it’s six years now since Roger split with his protegee and there’s little in tennis the 43-year-old Adelaide all rounder hasn’t touched since.

The first thing to say about Roger is that he’s quick. Fast and full steam ahead. At everything. He’s got a lot to do quite clearly and is forever intent on getting on with it.

His speech is beyond speedy and he covers an enormous range of topics seemingly without drawing breath. This author, for example, can scribble shorthand at an output of 100 words per minute, the minimum for any chat with Roger.

But crucially, subconsciously, you fall into his rhythm. He’s a motivator for sure and draws you in, but the content and substance is, absolutely, there.

The thing about Roger is that he’s full on. Yes he can talk but has always walked the walk too. Everything, comes from experience and insight.

The next thing to know about Roger, is his back. It pulled him from the pro game at just 22.

“I couldn’t play tennis any more because of my body, the grind of playing every day. It’s a 24/7 stress and distress on my back. It goes all the way up the pole and surgery’s not an option.

“I probably did myself some damage,” he says but is unsure quite when. “I was told it was growing pains when I was young.”

Yet the back has never been a crutch, but a channel to elsewhere. There’s no sitting around and dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ in Roger’s realm.

Take footy. Most people with a career abating injury might look at a more sedate immediate future but the pull of the oval ball was irresistible.

“I love playing footy and I had a bet on with my uncles,” Roger says of his seven first team games with Sturt Football Club.

“My uncles laughed that I was a bit soft. You only tend to perform once a week on Saturday in footy and in tennis you can potentially play day after day, so it’s a completely different body reaction.

“Port were doing really well and I had brief conversation but that was that. I just went to Sturt and trained and I was extremely fit going into it.

“The actual skill level of the team was ok. Seven games and I got hit. I was 22/23-years- old.

“All Aussie tennis players travel with a football and have a kick with it. Darren Cahill could have been a good player and played at a top level and would have loved it.

“It’s one thing I’ve done that he hasn’t,” he smiles.

Which is true to a point only.

Coaching soon took hold of Roger, small scale local with Pembroke College first, then local again but much bigger with Lleyton Hewitt for four years until 2007.

Shortly after, another top 10 success with France’s Gael Monfils and from the back end of 2012, a hooking up with world number seven male, Jo Wilfried Tsonga.

Roger heads to the holistic in his coaching outlook, a bringer of many things, tangible and otherwise, not least the admission that learning is not a one way street.

“As a kid I loved to be driven, to do things at an extremely

high level. With Lleyton we were passionate about the day to day things, we were passionate about where we were going.’’

“For me it was a great learning tool. As a coach you can learn on court too.”

Tsonga, you presume, had clocked the vision after hitting with Roger and Monfils and duly made the call.

“He rang me himself. He knows what I bring,” says Roger.

“I look at the forward thinking of the game. I look at the fitness and their day to day. You have got to be involved with their family and know how that all works, you have to make your player feel good.

“Jo had the last 18 months without a coach. The player needs to find the right person. You need to be able to believe their message.”

Which in simple terms is to leave nothing on the court, whether practice or prime time.

“I have never set a goal. It’s about what you put in. Sure, Jo is a guy who can win a major.” He just has to do the work, to do all the ‘right things.’

Sprinkled, outwardly at least, with much common sense.

“You have an ambition to win each event but you don’t say these things. If you then don’t achieve it, it’s like you lose. It’s all about the performance.”

Which all comes back to perspective. Jo, if he doesn’t already know it, will have a full and varied 2013.

“I love being fit. Being fit and healthy tends to make you see things a bit differently,” says Roger.

And for that at least, the back troubles will, you suspect, be forever a spur to more and bigger things for Roger.

At whatever speed he does it.

‘As a kid I loved to be driven, to do things at an extremely high level. With Lleyton we were passionate about the day to day things, we were passionate about where we were going.’

REDEMPTION AS YANNICK

SWAPS BALLS FOR BEATS

Once upon a time there was a tennis star. Today there’s far more than just one string to Noah’s racket.

Each year in France there’s a poll to find the most popular person in the country, a sort of Celebrity Big Brother but without the inconvenience of the elimination process. You pick up your phone and make your choice. Easy.

Yannick Noah knows what it takes. Last year the 52-year-old was voted the most popular person in France - for the eighth time.Yannick Noah, if you didn’t know it and many people now don’t, used to be a professional tennis player and a darn good one at that.

He peaked statistically at number three in the world in 1986, the Lendl, Becker and McEnroe (just) years. The glory came either side of ‘86 though, first with a win in the 1983 French Open final against defending champions Mats Wilander.

The French, don’t hang around with matters of the heart and France’s first winner of a grand slam for many decades was propelled instantly to national sainthood. Where, clearly, he has pretty much stayed ever since.

On court he also picked up the French Open doubles title with Henri Leconte in 1984 and in 1991 he captained his country to Davis Cup glory, a trick he knocked out again five years later.

They were pretty happy with Yannick in France in 1991 - a Rene Lacoste led team had been the last to bring the trophy home and that in 1932.

Yannick was chuffed too in Lyon in ‘91 and led an impromptu celebratory, conga style bounce around the stadium with 11 team members in attached pursuit. It’s a YouTube moment - literally.

Yannick knew what he was doing and so did the crowd who collectively belted out their captain’s hit song, ‘Saga Africa’.

By then his second and possibly, in France at least, defining career was under way. Yannick Noah was a genuine musician and one who sold records by the bucketload.

Ten albums have followed on the heels of Saga Africa, six years ago his ‘Charango’ CD sold 1.3 million copies as more than a million fans flocked to his 150 date concert tour.

To top that he filled the 80,000 capacity Stade de Paris in France in September 2010, and, added a nice line in innovation with an attempt to keep prisoners in touch with the real world by playing eight penitentiary centre concerts.

A move Yannick’s musical hero, would probably well approve of. In fact Yannick’s devotion to Bob Marley has extended to not only trademark dreadlocks of his own but to an October 2012, number one Marley covers album, ‘Hommage’ and number one single, ‘Redemption Song’.

Australia’s former Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald beat Noah twice in the mid 1980s - Yannick was a very difficult player to build up a rhythm against he says.

Much has changed since. Yannick Noah has long been in his groove now and wants everyone to join in.

order of play

WTC City of Charles Sturt AMT1-5 Jan / Open

WTC Millswood Age Titles OJT2-5 Jan / 10/U-16/U

WTC City of Salisbury AMT5-9 Jan / Open

WTC Les Tapp OAM Jnr Inter Assoc5-9 Jan / 8-15

WTC Corporate Challenge7 Jan / Open

WTC Country Carnival5-10 Jan / Open

WTC MLC Tennis Hot Shots6 Jan / 5-12

ITF Be Active Adelaide Wheelchair Open7-10 Jan / Open

MLC Tennis Hot Shots Activations8-10 Jan / 5-12

Cardio Tennis Activations8-10 Jan / Open

Australia’s ‘world record’ Cardio Tennis Activation7 Jan / Open