Conchita’s numbers are better than inductee Sabatini’s
The International Tennis Hall of Fame balloting ends on Sunday and very shortly we will know which of the six candidates will be enshrined next year. Three women are up in the players category – Lindsay Davenport, Mary Pierce and Conchita Martinez—and three people are up in the contributors category: John Barrett, Jane Brown Grimes and Nick Bollettieri. I vote in both categories and voted for all of them, perhaps the first time I have done so in one voting year and not without a lot of thought when it came to Bollettieri, whom I did not vote for the last time around. But I reconsidered this year because some of my esteemed colleagues convinced me that if I thought of him more as promoter of the sport rather than purely as a coach, that I might change my mind. They were right and I did because at the every least the man is out there every day in a high-profile way preaching the virtues of the sport and he has had a large impact in popularizing it. That was good enough to for me to give him my vote this time around, but purely as a coach I couldn’t do it because I feel there are other men who have had far greater impact, such as Robert Lansdorp and Paul Annacone, but that is a discussion for another day.
The astute Barrett has been the voice of Wimbledon for as long as I can remember and is very enjoyable to listen to: you actually feel like you are on Centre Court when he is speaking. The classy Brown Grimes has been one of the most committed and strident volunteers at the international level, having headed up the Hall of Fame, the WTA and USTA. Both she and Barrett are also very worthy entrees.
When it comes to players, Davenport is seen as an automatic and why not with her three Slams singles titles, her Olympic gold and eight times times at No. 1? Pierce won two Slams in singles and reached four other finals, which to me is essentially an automatic, although others did not feel that way when turning down two-time singles Slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov, perhaps the greatest crime in Hall of Fame voting ever, which really shows how weak the vetting process is when it comes to choosing educated voters. Two-time RG champ Sergi Bruguera, who was weaker than both Pierce and Kafelnikov when it came to performances off his favorite surface, clay, was also snubbed and should have gotten in, considering that the very likeable Michael Chang and Yannick Noah did with just one major crown.
What troubles me is the chatter that Martinez may not get in, which if you consider a few players who have been voted in before her, would be unfair. In particular, the main WTA player in question would be Gabriela Sabatini, who was inducted in 2006.
Martinez won Wimbledon in 1994 over Martina Navratilova in spectacular fashion when she came in as heavy underdog (she put together perhaps the best series of one-handed backhand crosscourt passing shots ever struck on the lawns), also reached the Roland Garros and Australian Open finals and the semifinals of the US Open, twice. She won 33 singles titles, 13 doubles titles, two silver medals in doubles and helped lead Spain to five Fed Cup crowns. She was 68-23 in Fed Cup, which not only shows commitment (she played a whopping 53 ties), but quality. She played in every one of those finals, including in 1998 in Switzerland against the excellent duo of Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder when with the team down 2-1, she took of out the tricky left- hander Schnyder 9-7 in the third set before she and Sanchez shellacked Hingis and Schnyder 6-2, 6-0 to win the Cup again. That was a clutch and heroic performance. Martinez reached a career high ranking of No. 2 in 1995 when Steffi Graf ruled the roost, Monica Seles was just coming back, Sanchez was still a very good player, Pierce was rising and Sabatini, Kimiko Date and Maggie Maleeva were in the mix.
Sabatini also just won one Slam, the 1990 US Open, only reached one other Slam final, 1990 Wimbledon, and reached the semis of Roland Garros five times and the semis of the Australian Open four times. She won 27 singles titles, six less than Martinez, although some of those were big titles such as the WTA Championships, Rome and Miami. She won 14 doubles titles, one more than Martinez. She won a silver medal in singles at the 1988 Olympics, and reached a career high No. 3, one spot lower than Martinez. Her Fed Cup teams never pushed past the semis, which was not totally on her given that she did post a good 24-6 record and didn’t have strong teammate like Martinez did in Sanchez, but her win total was much less than the Spaniard’s was.
Looking at those numbers, if Martinez does not get in, the only reason why Sabatini was able to and she was not was the Argentine’s glamour factor: Gaby was and still is an international sex symbol, while Conchita is a more demure person who does not push her, let’s say, off court qualities, other than being easy to get along with, which is why she will likely have a productive term as Fed Cup captain.
If the voters think hard on her candidacy, when the inductees are announced, Martinez will be one of those players who will be standing on the podium in Newport in July with a big smile on her face. If not, those who did not vote for her should hang their heads in shame.
Of Note
Even though it’s the off-season and the first ball won’t be tossed at the Brisbane International (where I will be on site) and other locales for 15 more days, there is plenty of off court news, almost all of which is on Tennis.com. Juan Martin Del Potro speaks about his suffering in 2010; Lleyton Hewitt says that next season won’t be his last, Roger Federer says that anything is possible in 2014 and has formed a new firm with his agent Tony Godsick and former ATP exec, Andre Silva; and Vera Zvonareva will be back at the AO while Maria Kirilenko is out; and much, much more.
The Tennisreporters.net year-end polls will begin on Sunday with a new cool category, “Coolest Player of the Year.”
The new issue of Tennis Journal is out, with new pieces on Rafa Nadal, Li Na, Ivan Ljubicic and Somdev Devvarman and much more.
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