By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Oh, we of little faith. That will teach us. Doubt the Great Tiger, even after back surgery, even after not winning a major in six years. Dummies.
That’s what Mr. Woods implied, which for him was just as clear as if he spelled it out, d-u-m-m-i-e-s.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — To steal a line from the Beatles, who began just across the River Mersey, Justin Rose's career has been a long and winding road.
Twenty-eight miles from Royal Birkdale to the north — where in the 1998 British Open Rose hit the spotlight before he hit the skids — to the 2014 Open, which starts Thursday at Royal Liverpool.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — Suddenly golf is more than a four-letter word. It’s an attraction, a mystery, a sport so significant ESPN is providing live coverage on its website of every shot hit by the man who’s the cause of it all: Tiger Woods.
Tiger in the Open Championship, in a major for the first time this year, held on the course at Royal Liverpool, where he won in 2006. The Return of the Tiger, film at 11.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
HOYLAKE, England — The one admission was unavoidable. “It hasn’t been a very good year,” affirmed Phil Mickelson. Not at all.
Not when he missed the cut in the Masters and finished 28th in the U.S. Open.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOYLAKE, England — The timing is perfect. The World Cup finally exits the sporting stage and starting Thursday ready to step on are Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy — and for the first time this year in a major championship — Tiger Woods.
We're in Beatles Country, for those with a nostalgic bent, across the Mersey River from their city, at a golf course formally named Royal Liverpool but known more familiarly by its location, Hoylake, the town where the River Dee Estuary flows into the Irish Sea.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
It wasn't Novak Djokovic's first hurrah, his victory Sunday in the Wimbledon men's final, but it might have been Roger Federer's last.
A month from his 33rd birthday, Federer was out to get his eighth All-England title. Djokovic had that in mind and also hoped to rid himself of the doubts about his play in championship matches.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — Roger Federer thought it was going to be enough. Except it wasn't — for him.
For tennis, for those who love any sport for the beauty and tension of competition, for those who love athletic brilliance, it was more than enough.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — It was less a match than a mismatch, 55 minutes of tennis so one-sided the winner was moved to tears by her domination and the loser felt compelled to offer a partial apology.
Petra Kvitova won her second Wimbledon women's singles Saturday, crushing 20-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 before a Centre Court crowd which hoped for better.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — The French had their era and their group. “Les Quatre Mousquetaires” (The Four Musketeers) were tennis champions in the late 1920s and ‘30s. The most famous was Rene LaCoste, nicknamed “The Crocodile,” a logo that went on his clothing line.
Australia took over in the 1950s and ’60s with Frank Sedgman, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Lew Hoad and the man who may have been the finest ever, Rod Laver. That’s four plus two, but a justifiable exception.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — Old guys rule. In tennis, of course, that means men in their late 20s, like Novak Djokovic, or early 30s, like Roger Federer.
The talk the last few days at Wimbledon was of the new generation, of the kids taking over. It won't happen this year.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — It was March, the time tennis players look in the future — bright or bleak — and try to accept where they might go compared to where they had been. In the California desert, Roger Federer sounded like a man of acceptance.
“If I can’t play for No. 1,” he told the media at the BNB Paribas tournament in Indian Wells, “I’ll play for winning titles.”
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — The cliché about Canada is that it is a great place for beer and hockey players. The line needs updating. Add tennis players. The nation has its first Wimbledon finalist.
In what could be called an upset, Eugenie Bouchard of Montreal defeated Simona Halep of Romania, 7-6 (5), 6-2, Friday in the second semifinal. Bouchard will meet a former Wimbledon winner, Petra Kvitova, in Saturday's final. Kvitova beat fellow Czech and close friend Lucie Safarova, 7-6 (6), 6-1, in the first semifinal.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — Rafael Nadal issued the warning a couple of weeks back. He said the generations in tennis don't last a generation, that before you know it, there's a new group of stars coming on — the way Nadal and Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer arrived seemingly moments ago.
The people we know, the champions, will take their leave, as champions inevitably do. Djokovic is only 27, Nadal 28, but they're looking over their shoulders. And playing as hard as they can against the guy across the net and that pest Father Time.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — He was nicknamed "Baby Fed," when his coach at the time said Gregor Dimitrov was more advanced at his age than Roger Federer. It was difficult label with which to live, but suddenly at age 23 Dimitrov has become the tennis player that he was predicted to be.
He put an exclamation point on his potential Wednesday when he stunned defending champion Andy Murray in their Wimbledon quarterfinal, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — What did they expect from Andy Murray? That he was another Roger Federer or Pete Sampras?
That he was going to repeat as Wimbledon winner?
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — A teenager nicknamed "The Wild Thing" stunned Rafael Nadal and in the process all Wimbledon, recording one of the biggest upsets of the last 25 years.
Nick Kyrgios, 19, a 6-4 Australian with a vicious serve and a positive approach, took apart the top-ranked Nadal, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, on a Tuesday of surprises.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — He's as modern as today, with a diamond stud in his left earlobe. He's as old-fashioned as serve-and-volley tennis.
Nick Kyrgios — “The Wild Thing,” as he is nicknamed in his native Australia — is the man who Tuesday turned Wimbledon upside down and turned himself into the star-in-waiting.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — Madison Keys took her leave Monday without hitting a single shot. Her left leg was too sore, so she withdrew. She was the last American woman at Wimbledon. Bye-bye, Miss American forehand.
A short while later, John Isner departed, losing a four-setter to one of this summer's better players, Feliciano Lopez. Isner was the last American. Period. Sing a few bars of the “Star Spangled Banner,” and it will serve as a requiem.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
LONDON — She has to face reality now, which for a champion is more difficult than facing an opponent.
She has to give herself the answers to questions every aging athlete gets asked and deep down asks herself.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England — Alize Cornet dictated her story, off the cuff. "It is the biggest upset of the tournament," she shouted to a TV microphone after, well, the biggest upset of Wimbledon so far, her stunning win over Serena Williams.
"Because she is No. 1," said Cornet, the 25th seed. "And she won this a number of times. I can't believe I did it myself."
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.