Australian Tennis Magazine - June 2015

TOP 20 IN 2020 Shoo-ins & surprises

WIMBLEDON WARRIORS Who can topple

T HE E I S S AU GE CHAR

S I K A N I K O K KY RGIO S K MIC TO

the champs?

TENNIS PARENTS Pros and pitfalls

CROSS TRAINER Why stars choose football

PLUS

THE STOSUR SMASH HOW TO TRAIN A JUNIOR FIND A WAY TO WIN THE COLLEGE PATH

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JUNE 2015 VOL 40 No. 6

contents 32 2020 VISION What will the top 10s look like in 2020?

Our intrepid forecasters select and rank Generation Next. Is it farewell to the Big Four? Is Nick Kyrgios a shoo-in for No.1? Prepare to be surprised.

FEATURES 18 THE CAPTAIN’S CALL

52 WELL SCHOOLED

22 ON THE MOVE

54 WINNING EDGE

50 GUIDING GEN NEXT

57 BEST FOOT FORWARD

Wally Masur may be interim Davis Cup captain but his Australian team is set to be a force well into the future.

Australia doesn’t have just young male prospects to get excited about. A bevy of teenage girls are casting a positive glow over the future of Aussie women’s tennis.

Parenting an aspiring tennis star is no easy task. Some top players recall their junior journeys, and how their parents helped them succeed.

Turning pro early isn’t the best option for all. More Australians are developing their games at US colleges.

How do you turn around a losing streak? We look at successful strategies used by the pros.

At first glance, AFL and pro tennis seem poles apart.

But footballers and tennis players are networking and learning from each other.

12

BEST OF THREE

Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are serving up a bright new dawn in Australian tennis.

JUNE 2015 AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE

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JUNE 2015 VOL 40 No.6

46

WIMBLEDON WARRIORS

Can Petra Kvitova power on? Can anyone stop Mr Indomitable, Novak Djokovic?

We run a line through the contenders at pretenders at The Championships.

REGULARS 8 BREAKPOINTS 10 THE HITTING WALL 30 BE THE PRO 31 STROKEMASTER 61 MIND GAME 62 FROM THE CLUBHOUSE 66 RANKINGS 68 SCOREBOARD 70 20 QUESTIONS 72 KIDS’ CLUBHOUSE 74 LAST WORD

41

SET TO SLAM

Milos Raonic emerged as a Gen Next leader as the youngest man in the top 10. Can he make his Slam breakthrough at Wimbledon?

4

AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE JUNE 2015

EDITOR Vivienne Christie ACTING EDITOR Suzi Petkovski FOUNDING EDITOR Alan Trengove GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Andrea Williamson Melissa O'Connor

ADVERTISING MANAGER Nicole Hearnden ADMINISTRATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Daniel Heathcote PHOTOGRAPHS Getty Images, John Anthony, Image(s) licensed by Ingram Publishing COVER PHOTO Getty Images COVER DESIGN & PHOTO EDITING Andrew Hutchison, Four Front

Australian Tennis Magazine is published monthly by TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD, Private Bag 6060, Richmond, Vic 3121.

Ph: (03) 9914 4200 Email: editor@tennismag.com.au Distributed by Network Distribution Company Printed in Australia by Webstar The views expressed in Australian Tennis Magazine are not necessarily those held by Tennis Australia. While the utmost care is taken in compiling the information contained in this publication, Tennis Australia is not responsible for any loss or injury occurring as a result of any omissions in either the editorial or advertising appearing herein.

GENERATION GAPS Every generation of tennis stars is different to the last – like the age, for example, that those players break through: AVERAGE AGE

MATS WILANDER (17) FRENCH OPEN 1982

MEN

STEFAN EDBERG (19) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 1985

21yrs 4mo

IVAN LENDL (24) FRENCH OPEN 1984 BORIS BECKER (17) WIMBLEDON 1985

WOMEN

STEFFI GRAF (17) FRENCH OPEN 1987

18yrs 1mo

MICHAEL CHANG (17) FRENCH OPEN 1989

MEN

23yrs 9mo WOMEN

20yrs 7mo

MONICA SELES (16) FRENCH OPEN 1990 PETE SAMPRAS (19) US OPEN 1990 MARY PIERCE (20) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 1995 THOMAS MUSTER (27) FRENCH OPEN 1995 MARTINA HINGIS (16) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 1997 SERENA WILLIAMS (17) US OPEN 1999

2000s

JENNIFER CAPRIATI (24) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2001

MEN

ROGER FEDERER (21) WIMBLEDON 2003 ANDY RODDICK (21) US OPEN 2003

JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO (20) US OPEN 2009 FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE (29) FRENCH OPEN 2010

2010s

NATASHA ZVEREVA 17 years, 2 months – June 1988

Youngest male players to win a Grand Slam match

RAFAEL NADAL (19) FRENCH OPEN (2005)

AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE JUNE 2015

STEFFI GRAF 16 years, 2 months – August 1985

SERENA WILLIAMS 17 years, 6 months – April 1999

KIM CLIJSTERS (22) US OPEN 2005)

6

MARTINA HINGIS 16 years, 1 week – October 1996

WOMEN

21yrs 8mo

MARIA SHARAPOVA (17) WIMBLEDON 2004

* Not all Grand Slam winners are listed though all were included in calculating the average age.

GABRIELA SABATINI 15 years, 4 months – September 1985

MARIA SHARAPOVA 17 years, 2 months – July 2004

JUSTINE HENIN (21) FRENCH OPEN 2003

26yrs 6mo

ANDREA JAEGER 15 years, 2 months – August 1980

23yrs

LLEYTON HEWITT (20) US OPEN 2001

WOMEN

JENNIFER CAPRIATI 14 years, 7 months – October 1990

ANNA KOURNIKOVA 17 years, 2 weeks – June 1998

MARAT SAFIN (19) US OPEN 2000

26yrs 9mo

The youngest players to rank in the women’s top 10

MONICA SELES 15 years, 9 months – September 1989

ANDRE AGASSI (22) WIMBLEDON 1992

VENUS WILLIAMS (20) WIMBLEDON 2000

MEN

WHO MADE THEIR PRESENCE FELT EARLY?

TRACY AUSTIN 15 years, 3 months – March 1978

ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO (17) FRENCH OPEN 1989

1990s

1980s

FIRST-TIME GRAND SLAM WINNERS:

Serena cracked the top 10 at 17.

At 33, she’s still on top.

LI NA (29) FRENCH OPEN 2011 PETRA KVITOVA (20) WIMBLEDON 2011 SAM STOSUR (27) US OPEN 2011 VICTORIA AZARENKA (22) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2012 ANDY MURRAY (25) US OPEN 2012 MARION BARTOLI (28) WIMBLEDON 2013 STAN WAWRINKA (28) AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2014 MARIN CILIC (26) US OPEN 2014

LLEYTON HEWITT 15 years, 10 months, 20 days RICHARD GASQUET 15 years, 11 months, 9 days DONALD YOUNG 16 years, 1 month, 6 days BERNARD TOMIC 16 years, 2 months, 29 days JASON KUBLER 16 years, 7 months, 30 days (NB – among current players)

FIRST SERVE

The Future is Now

G

eneration Next was an easy choice for our theme this issue. The markers of generational change are everywhere. Roger Federer lost his fi rst meeting with Nick Kyrgios in Madrid, as Rafael Nadal did at Wimbledon a year ago. The once-indomitable King of Clay, Nadal tumbled out of the top five after a decade – during the clay season, no less. Novak Djokovic reigns in career-peak form at No.1, but the Big Four cannot dominate forever.

The women’s game too is on the cusp of change. The stillmighty Serena Williams, turning 34 in September, dominates at No.1 but trails Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep, Timea Bacsinszky and Carla Suarez Navarro in match wins at time of press.

Pliskova led the ace tally while still outside the top 10, emerging the likely successor to Serena as the biggest server in the game.

In Australian tennis, generational handover dominated the Australian Open, with Lleyton Hewitt announcing an end-date to his enduring career, while the young guns – Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic and

Borna Coric

Much as we mourn the end of heroic careers that have given us so much enjoyment, and dread farewelling beloved champions, our feature this month projecting forward to the top 10s of 2020 reassures us that the future of the game is in good hands. Ranking Generation Next was both a fun and vexed task.

So much talent, so much wiggle room for our forecasters! Do you agree with our 2020 lists? Send us your picks.

Australia is in an enviable position to capitalise on the coming seismic shift in the game, with Kyrgios continuing as the most exciting prospect in tennis, Tomic the youngest tournament winner in 2014 and Kokkinakis joining just two other teens – Borna Coric and Korean Hyeon Chung – in the top 100. Lest we Aussies get ahead of ourselves, the stunning rise of 18-year-old Chung reminds us that future stars can emerge from any corner of the globe. The future is wide open. Exciting times ahead.

18

Thanasi Kokkinakis – served up a future as bright as their neon Nike kits. By mid-May, Australia had six men in the top 100, Hewitt not among them.

It isn’t just Aussie men to get excited about. A crop of Aussie teenage girls are beginning their march up the rankings (see On the Move). Adopted Aussie Daria Gavrilova stormed to the Rome semifi nals as a qualifier before bowing to Maria Sharapova (whom she toppled weeks before in Miami) to break into the top 50.

Nexnt th mo

BODY SERVE

Tennis has never been more physically demanding – for pro and club players alike.

Our Body issue has the skinny on keeping in top tennis shape.

Available from 1 July.

Suzi Petkovski Acting Editor

STANDOUT Stats …

The hype surrounding Nick Kyrgios is backed by some serious numbers.

Consider the figures that show why Kyrgios is such an early standout:

5

th

man aged 20 or under to beat both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. He joins Mario Ancic, Tomas Berdych, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro.

6

th

man to beat Federer and Nadal in his first meeting with them.

1

st

12

man to defeat the superstars while they were top 10 players (in fact, they were respectively ranked No.1 and No.2 when Kyrgios won at Wimbledon 2014 and Madrid 2015). total match points saved in 25 matches between June 2014 and early May 2015.

91%

239

service games won in 267 service games (until mid-May) in 2015.

aces served between January and mid-May 2015.

JUNE 2015 AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE

7

FEATURE

For years, Australian tennis hoped for the rising star who could succeed long-time No.1 Lleyton Hewitt. Now there are three. DAN IMHOFF reports.

A

s a departing flag-bearer, Lleyton Hewitt could be excused for digging in his heels, unwilling to relinquish his long-held mantle as the nation’s top dog – the go-to man for Australia’s Davis Cup campaigns, regardless of ranking slumps or new screws holding together a tour-weary body.

Sprawled on his back on the worn baseline of Wimbledon’s Centre Court after becoming Gentlemen’s Singles Champion at 21, never would the then-world No.1 have envisaged entering his swansong season 13 years later as the top-ranked Australian man, at No.50 in the world.

For years, there was a dearth of emerging prospects. Even in more recent times, excitement over promising juniors had failed to materialise into much 12

AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE JUNE 2015

else. Nobody had really taken the reins.

Now, there may not be a bolter in the pack but rather a trio rising, engendering greater optimism than any prospect during Hewitt’s reign.

Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are the genuine contenders perfectly poised to not only jostle for the mantle as the nation’s top dog, but to transfer that to where it really counts – as serious Grand Slam contenders.

Long anointed as the successor, especially after his 2011 Wimbledon quarterfi nal run, Tomic had gone on to make more false starts than a cockroach race.

But a Rafael Nadal-slaying run to last year’s Wimbledon quarterfi nals from another incipient, flashy talent – Kyrgios –

could well have provided just the impetus Tomic needed.

If nothing else, it has shared the burden of expectation, with Tomic’s fourth-round run at the Australian Open in January matching his best effort at his home Slam, and Kyrgios – on the same stage – becoming the fi rst teenager to reach two Slam quarterfi nals since Roger Federer.

“It was a spur for everyone,” 22-year-old Tomic said, reflecting on Kyrgios’ watershed moment from 2014. “Everyone sort of looked at Nick as the new kid and as bringing a lot to the game.

Nick’s sort of saved us. He’s come in and I’m very fortunate to have him and it’s going to be good building with him over the next five, 10 years.

“We both know we need to keep our heads down and work

hard and I’m sure we’re going to do that.”

While Kyrgios left Melbourne Park as arguably Australia’s next flag-bearer, back and ankle injuries stymied any significant progress in the months that followed – until he hit the clay in Portugal.

The 20-year-old reached his first tour final in Estoril, before bowing to Frenchman Richard Gasquet, and went on to another career-defining win over Roger Federer in Madrid, from two match points down.

But despite juggling back and wisdom-tooth problems, it is Tomic whose season since the Australian Open has been the most consistent, a line you would never have read about the gifted Gold Coaster even a year ago.

Fittingly, it was a fi rst-round Davis Cup tie in Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, that provided the most promising glimpse yet into a future no longer reliant on Hewitt.

While the injured Kyrgios was forced to miss the tie, Hewitt was rested from singles duty, leaving Tomic and Kokkinakis to orchestrate the upset. With his two singles wins, Tomic reclaimed the top Australian ranking from Kyrgios, while the same weekend coincided with Hewitt slipping quietly from the top 100.

The stalwart of Australian tennis could not have been happier. He was the most vocal supporter from the sidelines throughout that weekend.

“Looking at Lleyton and being around him so much and seeing what he does in Davis Cup has

really inspired me in the last couple of years,” Tomic said. “He is a great champion and to have him around, money can’t buy those things.

“It’s changed me and I’m really looking forward to these moments in the future. I’ve played well in Davis Cup and I feel like these matches, you can really use them for tournaments and Grand Slams in the future.”

The Hewitt factor – namely his work ethic, tenacity and staunch loyalty – cannot be underestimated in building a healthy rapport between his Davis Cup successors, the very troops he will be tasked with guiding as team captain at some point after retiring following next year’s Australian Open.

“I was watching the guy on television a couple of years ago

and I’d never miss his matches, his wins he lets me know about and now we’ve played Premier it, but no, it’s all good banter,” League and Davis Cup together,” Kokkinakis said.

Kyrgios told The Daily Telegraph.

“He’s the one you look up to “I know that he is going to be when you’re young playing. I was someone who is supporting orange boy at my fi rst Davis Cup me for as long as he is in Brisbane and he was POISE, POWER involved in the game, injured but he still came AND PASSION: which is really positive. along and that shows a Tomic, Kyrgios and Lleyton has been great lot about him. He was Kokkinakis are the best of frenemies. on advice about the just helping us all the Australian Open too, time. He’s unbelievable because he always puts a lot of to practise with, his intensity is pressure on himself to perform unmatched still.” and play well in front of the home It is the most excited Hewitt crowd, so it’s good for a few of us has been about the game at home guys to make a run.” since he started taking it to the For 19-year-old Kokkinakis, world’s best just shy of turning 16. the youngest of the trio, there “I guess it's probably a few more in is an Adelaide connection he a group coming through than I've shares with Hewitt – namely a ever seen in my time. Probably fierce local sporting rivalry. “We happened a bit before I actually support different (AFL) footy started. You had the Woodies, teams and when mine loses and Stoltz (Jason Stoltenberg), (Mark) JUNE 2015 AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE

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MOM N UMSPECIAL

POWER TO NEW HEIGHTS

START OVER

FORWARD NG THINKI Goal setting

Top tactical

turnarounds

secrets

POWER PLAYS Gain the

NEVER MISS

BOUNCE BACK Learn from

STAYING

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G N O STR

momentum and keep it

LLEYTON HEWITT A new life NOVAK IC DJOKOV ?

E The L B PPA Slam in Grand O T sight?

S N U S WILLIAM MADISON IS SERENA KEYS Making

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FEATURE

SET TO

MILOS RAONIC stamped himself a Gen Next leader as the first 90s-born player to crack the top 10. Could his Grand Slam breakthrough come at Wimbledon? The Canadian’s corner man, IVAN LJUBICIC, spoke to SUZI PETKOVSKI.

JUNE 2015 AUSTRALIAN TENNIS MAGAZINE

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FEATURE

BEST FOOT

FORWARD

One is a global individual sport, the other a domestic team game. Although tennis and Australian Rules football appear to be a case of “chalk and cheese” the two sports are becoming increasingly intertwined.

MATT TROLLOPE reports.

W

ith all the hours that elite tennis players spend grinding on the practice court, it’s crucial they keep their approach to training fresh.

The best players in the world know this, and many incorporate cross-training methods into their preparation. Maria Sharapova exercises with soccer and gridiron balls, while Simona Halep likes to tear up the athletics track.

Andy Murray champions the benefits of Bikram yoga.

Many of Australia’s tennis stars are turning to Australian Rules football. Recognising the example this sport can provide in areas pertinent to tennis, several players have connected with AFL clubs and reaped the benefits.

Thanasi Kokkinakis spent two weeks in Dubai in late 2014 training with Port Adelaide and has since surged on the ATP World Tour, going 20-9 through Madrid and rising almost 50 places to verge on the top 100.

“They do a ridiculous amount of running,” he reflected. “The

movements are very different – theirs is more straight-line and tennis is a lot more lateral – but it’s always good to do some (straightline) running, something I don’t really do much, to build my engine and endurance.

“I defi nitely think it paid off when it came to my fi rst round in Australia (Kokkinakis saved four match points to beat No.11 seed Ernests Gulbis). I’ve already started running a bit more (in training) and I’m going to continue to do so, especially leading up to the French Open.

“It was just good for me to do something different. Get out of my comfort zone a little bit.

I spend a lot of my time when I’m (in Australia) training here PASSING THE SHERRIN: Rafa tries his hand at Aussie Rules.

(in Melbourne) so I thought even though I travelled a lot last year it would be good to do something different to the other guys and just do my own thing and see how it goes.”

Kokkinakis’ connection with Port Adelaide came through Tyson Edwards, a former Adelaide Crows premiership player. Now the Power’s forwardline coach, Edwards became aware of Kokkinakis through his friendship with Lleyton Hewitt, and also happened to be friends with Kokkinakis’ coach Todd Langman.

Around two years ago, Edwards approached the Power’s strength and conditioning coach Andrew Rondinelli, asking him to take the promising South Australian teen under his wing.

“Everything tennis-wise with

(Thanasi) was absolutely perfect,” said Rondinelli. “(But) one thing I noticed that was lacking, both with Thanasi and across the tennis world, was the whole sport science, recovery and nutrition area. I think AFL football, from a sports science point of view, we tend to be known for leading the way.”

Just as the idea was germinating to have Kokkinakis join the team for its pre-season training camp in Dubai, Roger Federer was seeking a hitting partner – also in Dubai, and at the same time. Training with the 17-time Grand Slam champion became the focus of Kokkinakis’ trip, yet when he wasn’t working with Federer, he joined the Port players for weight training in the gym – following his own program – and took part in their recovery sessions and meal times. Said Rondinelli: “The main thing was to get him to start to see how our players prepare, the type of food they eat, how they recover between sessions, and just seeing the workload that our guys do.”

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