From: donna@attic.bae.bellcore.com (Donna Feliciano)
Subject: Re: Lendl, Connors, etc
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 15:23:59 GMT

In article <JPT.92Sep9171318@telecaster.think.com>, jpt@telecaster.think.com (James P. Taylor) writes:
|> In article <1992Sep9.181017.22464@walter.bellcore.com> donna@bae.bellcore.com (Donna Feliciano) writes:
|> 
|> ...
|>    The Lendl-Becker match was great to watch!!!  I have very sleepy
|>    eyes today after staying up until the end.  Becker looked completely
|>    worn out by the end and seemed to have to summon extra energy for
|>    every shot.  Lendl seemed extraordinarily fresh.  I'm glad Lendl
|>    won, not because I don't like Becker, because of everything else.
|> 
|> Err?  You don't like Becker, because of *everything else*.  Please explain.
|> 
|> In my limited contact with Becker he has been very easy to deal with and a
|> quite good sport.

Maybe my use of double negative was bad - I *do* like Becker and
i would not have been upset if he won.  It's just that, as Mary
Carillo said, "Lendl has been dissed by everyone this week", meaning
after the Connors match, Connors was saying that Lendl is not the
player he used to be and that he just bunts the ball back now.  Like
I said later in the mail, Connors would not say "he beat me".
Then Chuck Adams, who played Lendl in the next round, starting
saying the same stuff, that Lendl obviously was not the player
he used to be... etc.  I was happy for Lendl to play Becker
well, and if you saw the match, he definitely was not just
"bunting" the ball back.  I felt bad for Becker, because I do
like him.  After his early successes, he seems to be one of the
few somewhat well adjusted tennis players that tries to have
a life outside of tennis.


|> 
|>    Connors is a sore sport.  Yes, it is amazing that he is still
|>    playing (funny, though, he complains about the high tech racquets,
|>    yet he is one of the very few men who actually uses a wide-body!).
|>    I'm sick of defending why I am not a Connors fan (and never was).
|>    He wasn't "man" enough to say "Lendl beat me - he outplayed me
|>    today".  Instead he has to come up with some bull excuse.  Lendl
|>    might not be the most exciting, but let's not forget that
|>    he is a great player with the smarts to play the players to 
|>    win, not to prove something to the world.
|> 
|> I have read several posts that alluded to Connor's remarks about Lendl
|> after this loss.  What were they?

As I said above, in the post-match interview, Connors was saying
"Lendl just bunted the ball back (implying Lendl can't/doesn't
hit with pace anymore) and that everyone knows he is not the
player he used to be".  He also had that smug look on his face 
like he knew he wasn't giving Lendl any credit for playing him
smart.  In Lendl's interview, he said that Connors played a 
great first set, and that he(lendl) has beaten Connors 15-16 times
using the "bunting" strategy, so why should he change?  Connors,
as usual, did not show much sportsmanship.


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Donna V. Feliciano                 email: donna@bae.bellcore.com
Bellcore                           Phone: (908) 699-2161
444 Hoes Lane Room RRC 4A741       FAX:   (908) 336-2828
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