Olympic Tennis Fix: Tennis Team USA!

With the Olympics now just days away, let's take a look at who made it to Team USA!

We'll start with the women who are coached by Mary Joe Fernandez, herself an Olympic medalist (winning gold twice, in doubles in 1992 and 1996, and bronze in singles in 1992). In singles, the ladies, pictured above, will be playing: Serena Williams, Christina McHale, Varvara Lepchenko and Venus Williams. In women's doubles, the Williams sisters will team up and the No. 1 ranked team of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond will be playing. Good to know about these ladies:

• This will be Venus's fourth time to compete in the Olympics! She won singles and doubles gold in Sydney in 2000 and doubles gold with Serena in Beijing in 2008.
• If Serena wins gold, she will be the only female to have won all four Slams plus Olympic gold in singles and doubles.
• Venus and Serena just won doubles at Wimbledon. They only team up for the Slams. They will be going for their third doubles gold medal.
• Huber and Raymond lost to the Williams sisters in the semis at Wimbledon. Hopefully we'll see an all-American doubles final! 
• Varvara Lepchenko switched her citizenship from Uzbekistan to the United States in 2007. This is her first year to break into the WTA's Top 100.
• Christina McHale is 20 years-old, is currently ranked at No. 26, and has one win over a No. 1 player, beating top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in 2011.

For the men, playing singles will be Andy Roddick, John Isner, Ryan Harrison and Donald Young. Mike and Bob Bryan will field one of the doubles teams. The other will be Roddick and Isner. What to know about these guys:

• Roddick last appeared at the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
• This will be the first time at the Olympics for Isner, Harrison and Young.
• The Bryan Brothers won doubles bronze in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (Gold went to Switzerland's Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. Silver to Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson.)

I'm thinking the American women look really strong. The men - less so. But its the Olympics so you never know what will happen. I'd love to see Roddick bring home a medal.

As for mixed doubles, those teams haven't been announced yet. I'm guessing the two teams will look like this: one of the Bryan Brothers teamed up with Serena and the other with Liezel. Since tennis play starts this coming Saturday, I think we'll be hearing that announcement very soon.


© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved

Tennis Fixation's Wimbledon Wrap-Up!

The summer is flying by and I had a fantastic 4th of July weekend at the beach watching Wimbledon. Isn't Wimbledon the best?  It comes during the funnest part of summer, when we're all on some sort of vacation. It's on during the hottest part of the day when we can't go outside anyway. You get virtually continuous coverage with ESPN and NBC passing the tournament back and forth throughout the day. And since everyone who's anyone in the world of pro tennis is there and most of the names are recognizable, my family actually feigns interest in this tournament to please me. (Thanks kids!)

So how great was Wimbledon this year? First, I was very happy to see German Petra Kvitova win the women's final. While I was surrounded by my family rooting for Maria Sharapova for some unknown reason (they'd actually heard of her maybe?), I'm personally ready to see the new wave of women's players step up. It was Li Na at the French Open and now Kvitova at Wimbledon. Here's a shot of the champ and the runner-up:

 
And I was also excited about Novak Djokovic beating out Rafael Nadal in the men's final. I know that's pretty sacriligeous to say but I really love watching Djokovic play - he just seems to enjoy it so much. Case in point - here's Djokovic nibbling on the grass at Wimbledon. It always tastes better when you win:

And of course, the Bryan brothers winning Wimbledon makes this their 11th Grand Slam championship. They are now tied with Mark Woodbridge and Todd Woodforde for most Grand Slam doubles championships - a record I'm sure they will beat as they are nowhere near being done with the ATP tour. Here they are doing their 2011 Wimbledon championship chest bump:

The women's doubles winners were Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. They took out Sabine Lisicki, who made such a great run in women's singles, and Samantha Stosur. Here's a shot of the winners. And I think Peschke, on the left, may be a new fav for me since she looks to be of average height (like a lot of us normal tennis players).

Finally, I want to say Yay! to Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic and Jurgen Melzer of Austria for their mixed doubles championship win. I've been a big fan of Melzer ever since I saw him play several years ago in a final at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships here in Houston. Its great to see him playing doubles and winning on such a huge stage.

Ok. Enough Wimbledon. I'm moving on to Austin for Davis Cup this weekend! Roddick, Fish, Bryan Bros. and lots of cute Spanish players (although not Nadal). I'm sure I'll have lots of stuff to report from there. Like I'm a reporter or something. Hey - maybe I should find out how to get a press pass!



© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

Playing Ladies' Doubles With A Man

In the aftermath of the holidays, my indoor team still was scheduled for block time on our indoor court yesterday and, of course, a few of us wanted to play. Unfortunately, while three of us were available, we couldn't find a 4th. Everyone was out of town, visiting with family, recovering from Christmas, etc. Well, all was not lost. One of our team members, Mimi, convinced her wonderful husband, Larry, to be our 4th! We had a great time playing "ladies' doubles" with Larry and it got me thinking about how helpful it can be to play against a man every once in a while.

Occasionally, you can't avoid finding a guy on the other side of the net and it can be a little stressful. I get into this situation in drills quite a bit and try to see it as a welcome challenge. Playing against a guy is a little like playing against a woman who's much better than you. You can psych yourself out just thinking about it. The fact is that men play differently from ordinary women like me. So when I come up against a guy, I approach it as a learning opportunity. I try to keep just a few things in mind.

1. Remain calm. Unless you're playing in a mixed doubles tournament, it probably doesn't matter much what happens in your match. So have fun and don't stress.
2. Men usually try to serve harder and/or with more spin than women do. So, at least initially, on your return, just think about blocking the ball back.
3. Similarly, men often want to rush the net. Watch the ball and not the guy running at you.
4. Many men want to either hit hard ground strokes or put the ball away at the net. Many men do NOT want to run down lobs. So don't be afraid to use the lob.
5. Of course, if your lob comes up short, be prepared for the crushing overhead that guys love to hit. The good news is a lot of these may end up in the net.
6. Forget about pace. You're not going to outhit most guys. Give them soft and short balls that require them to do some work.

Thank you again to Larry for a fun match yesterday!