If you love tennis and/or hate winter then you have every reason to smile because now in Nassau County we are witness to ‘the little tennis tournament that could.”
Under the able leadership of tournament director Peter Lebedevs of Australia and GF Sports, the New York Open has completed its second year at the NYCB Live Nassau Coliseum. The event opens with David Sickman’s United Sports Publications group running the New York Tennis Expo on the Saturday leading up to this event. Because it is there that lines of adoring fans get to have their photos taken with former world number one Andy Roddick.
As I watched Andy patiently smile his way through an hour’s worth of photo ops I wondered if he was naturally a generous person or whether he was all aglow because soon he would be returning home to see his wife Brooklyn Decker, the model turned actress turned wife.
GF Sports are investing large dollars to make this fledgling New York Open a success and my guess is that they will succeed. The Coliseum knows how to put on a show and the announcers in combo with all the lights and music give the event a professional air but the charm of the tennis tournament is found in its newness.
One does not get to see the big three, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic but instead, you get to discover the next generation of stars that are about to emerge.
I got to speak with Stevie Johnson who is ranked 34th in the world and listened as he described the difference between the big three and all the rest on tour.
He said “Basically Federer is like all of us on tour but he does everything just a little bit better. In addition, you have to fight against his aura or the idea that everyone in the stadium including his opponent expects him to win.”
I attended the doubles finals on Sunday, Feb. 17 and got to see the team of Kevin Krawietz/Andreas Mies defeat Santiago Gonzales/Aisam-Ui-Haq Qureshi.
The Kraweitz/Mies team was like a juggernaut/ playing with confidence and grace and ease.
Doubles is different from singles in that it is fast paced and requires an instinctively quick net game. They were both dressed in matching in cheerful orange outfits and it seemed to me that they knew they would win.
The joy of watching tennis in person is the sound that the ball makes when hit. A distinctive smack each time it hits the racket. And the greater joy I got to experience after the match was having the privilege as part of the press to sit with these two young champions as they began to digest exactly what they had done.
It was the first ATP tournament either had won and they both had a glow of disbelief about them. They were asked a series of question from the press which included luminaries like Jeff Williams of Newsday and Mies and Krawietz comments were filled with gratitude and humility which is often seen with first-time winners.
All those years of hard work, travel and training had at long last paid off.
As a sports psychologist I have worked with many professional athletes who have won something big and then remark to me in a tragic tone “Gee, I thought that I would feel differently about things after my win.”
On the way home I silently prayed to myself that both Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz would feel nothing but pride and happiness for having broken through with a big win at a big setting.
There is a vivid and discrete sweetness in watching a first-time winner break into the next level and fulfill a long-held dream. And this is also how I felt about the tournament itself. Here we were in the second year of New York Open with some of the world’s greatest tennis stars deciding to come to Nassau County and play for big money in an arena that Billy Joel, The Who and Elton John had played in.
An additional draw for the players is that we are so close to New York City and Broadway to provide the athletes with high-level entertainment on off nights.
I would not be too surprised in the future if this “little tournament that could” manages to attract the big three in tennis to join in the fun but until then I congratulate Peter Lebedevs and all those young stars for warming up February in New York.
And as George Gershwin once wrote “Who could ask for anything more.”
