Tennis writers get the opportunity to travel the world, perhaps more than most professional sports writers. I'm no exception. I'm writing this after just spending a week in Italy. For the first time in a long time, however, I wasn't in Italy following the tennis tour, but just a regular vacation with my new traveling partner, the lovely Suzanne. Probably the furthest thing from my mind was tennis.
Suzanne and I strolled the beautiful city of Rome and the Colosseum, the first sports stadium if you think about it. It's as large as a modern day baseball stadium, and maybe even more complex. The marble, the architecture, just phenomenal. We walked from trendy Campo di Fiori, through the Piazza Navonna, past the Pantheon. All amazing sights. The Piazza Navonna is filled with street performers and musicians. The Pantheon is a marvel of engineering; it's dome and brick construction almost incomprehensible for when it was built.
We continued on, past the Trevi Fountain, past the most lavish McDonald's in the world (yes, I said McDonald's) all the way up to the Spanish Steps. The Spanish Steps are particularly interesting to most writers, as it was here where over the years some of our most famous counterparts spent critical parts of their lives. You name the writer, they were here. Keats, Percy, Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and other Romantics just to name a few.
Then, as we were at the end of our lovely stroll through the streets of Rome, tennis hit me square in the face. There it was. I couldn't miss it. A large campaign poster featuring Adriano Panatta, former Italian tennis great. Panatta was running for a political position in Rome. There he was, or at least his face, in black and white on a campaign poster (now probably called grayscale); that very famous, inviting grin. I immediately flashed back to the mid-to-late 1970s.
Bjorn Borg may have made Fila a famous name, but no man wore it with more style and grace than Panatta. Always near the top, but never at the top, Panatta unfortunately played at the tail end of the careers of the great Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, and John Newcombe, in the prime of Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, and Guillermo Vilas, and at the beginning of the great runs of John McEnroe and Borg. Given all that, he did manage to win the French Open, and has the distinction of being the only man to have ever beaten Bjorn Borg on the red clay in Paris. Not once, mind you, but twice!
Panatta was clearly talented on the court. More of a dirt-baller than an all-court player, Panatta managed to win one slam, the French Open, in 1976. He also led Italy to the Davis Cup in 1976, as well as the Davis Cup final in 1977, 1979, and 1980. Interesting that he isn't in the Tennis Hall of Fame. The only Italian member of the hall is Nicola Pietrangeli, who has a record just slightly better, winning the French twice, leading Italy to the cup round twice, and captaining the team to the Cup in 1976. I hope that sometime soon the Hall choses to provide Panatta with the same honor as Pietrangeli.
Panatta holds the position as "assessore allo Sport e Grandi eventi" in Rome. To translate, he is in charge of all grand sporting events in Rome. And the next up is the Italian Open in May. Hosted at the Foro Italico, it is arguably the second most important and prestigious clay court stop on the European clay court tour. The champions in Italy read like a who's who of tennis. Bill Tilden. Lew Hoad. Rod Laver. Ivan Lendl. Pete Sampras. Rafael Nadal. Elizabeth Ryan. Helen Jacobs. Maria Bueno. Margaret Court-Smith. Billie Jean King. Chris Evert. Monica Seles. Steffi Graf. And yes, Adriano Panatta in 1976. Every one of them went on to win the French Open in the year immediately following their victories on the banks of the Tiber (excluding Sampras, but that is a story for another time.)
The city of Rome has a feel to it unlike any other in Europe, and certainly not like any other on either the ATP or Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. It's a great town to just relax, enjoy history, food, and have fun. This year will be no different. Just ask Mr. Panatta. With just about all of the top 20 players from both professional tours currently in the draw, it will be a tournament second to none. Add the food, shopping, and architecture, and it's one stop on the tours that everyone should make at some time. Just keep an eye on the exchange rate...
May 3, 2008
Mert Ertunga:
Dear Tom,
Once again, superbe article. As you may have guessed, I enjoy these insights to the various sights of the world, all within regards to tennis.
I had the fortune to be a ball-boy in the late 70’s for a clay court match between Panatta and Balasz Taroczy (talk about old school). I remember a large section of the stand made up of females :) watching Panatta instead of the usual left and right neck movement for watching the ball. He was a monumental name in clay courts in late 70’s. Good point about him with regards to the Tennis Hall of Fame!
Mert