Groenefeld tormented by ex-coach

	Mal Taam/MALTphoto Anna-Lena on Rafael: "He's always trying to do some things so he can feel good about it."

According to Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Rafael Font de Mora, her former coach and tormenter, didn’t go out to taunt her during her 6-3, 6-2 first-round loss to Nika Ozegovic of Croatia on Tuesday because he was busy warming up his on-again, off-again student and partner, Meghann Shaughnessy.

But he did bother to give tips to her opponent and with tears in her eyes, Germany’s once most promising player described how she can’t get her ex-coach out of her head and consequently, can’t win a match.

“He makes his way into it well when he goes up to my opponent and someone is coming up to me and telling me, yeah, he gave them all the tactics how she had to play me today,” Groenefeld told TennisReporters.net. “When you know that, it's always in your head and you just can't throw it away. But I think that's just his way of dealing with it. I don't want to go down to his level. It's just sad to see a guy doing things like this. … He still thinks he's the man of the world. So it's not easy right now. So right now for me it's not so much about tennis, it's more about getting accustomed and feeling well on the court.”

She’s a very long way from doing that, so long in fact that the woman who reached No. 14 in the rankings after '06 Roland Garros and hasn’t won two consecutive matches on tour since '06 Eastbourne. Not only is she now no threat to the top, she’s not a threat to the bottom, either, and she’s seen her ranking plummet down to No. 134. After this week, the 22-year-old will have to start qualifying for tournaments.

Groenefeld and Font de la Mora are both allegedly suing each other. They split up in September of last year and the intense man who created Shaughnessy’s game from the bottom up and also brought her into the Top 20 took it hard; so hard in fact that, according to Groenefeld, he’s making it his business to ruin her as a player. After splitting with Shaughnessy both on court and off, he’s back with the American again, but according to Groenefeld, Shaughnessy doesn’t want to get involved in repairing the split.

“Meghann told me that when she started to work with him she doesn't want to know anything about it because she's a friend of mine,” Groenefeld said. “She doesn't talk to him at all about it. We are still good friends, and I think the worst of all is I can't play doubles anymore with her.”

Shaughnessy told TR that while she misses her partnership with Groenefeld (“we had a lot of fun together), she won’t step in and try to mediate the situation.

“I've known for Rafael for 14 years and he’s practically raised me and always been there for me and been great for me,” said Shaughnessy, who credits Font de Mora for her resurgence back into the Top 35. “On the other hand I’ve only know Anna for four to five years. She’s a great girl and I don’t want to get in the middle of anything. I have Rafael here to help me and I don’t want to get involved in anyone else's situation. I have an idea of what’s going on but I don’t want to know anything from her or from him. It’ something they need to work out between themselves and I don’t want to get involved because I care about both of them.”

The German freely admits that she needs to find her way out of the situation, because even though Font de Mora is giving tips to her foes, she isn’t responding at all on court. It’s pretty obvious how to play her anyhow (go to her forehand and move her around) and she and her new coach, Dirk Dier, could make adjustments, regardless of what Font de Mora is saying. But she has no faith in herself and is feeling victimized, which is no wayto approach to matches, even if it’s the truth.

“He's always trying to do some things so he can feel good about it,” she said. “I guess he's having his time of his life right now, just disrupting other players, but that's the way he is. I have to learn to deal with it. But it's not that easy. The whole three years I worked with him I had a good relationship with him. It's sad to see that after such a long time that he's like this. Maybe he cannot get over it that we don't practice anymore I don't want to get down to his level, I just try to forget about it, although it's not that easy right now.”

Groenefeld hasn’t approached Font de Mora to ask him to leave her alone and to just move on. She’s obviously lacking self confidence (which is clear by her substantial weight gain) and doesn’t know how to negotiate herself out the relationship. Font de Mora’s behavior may be off-putting, but he’s not doing anything illegal, so the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour isn’t likely to get involved. She has complained to the WTA medical staff, but has not filed an official complaint.

“I don't talk to him at all,” she said. “I got to know him well, and if I would go up to him and say something to him, it would just make him do it even more. … I think I have to deal with it myself. It's in my head. I think everybody around knows what's going on. There is no question about that. But it's just that I have to deal with it and have to get over it. I know there are a lot of people out there who are on my side.”

While this situation can’t be considered abusive as what Mirjana Lucic, Mary Pierce and Evgenia Linetskaya underwent with their fathers or coaches, it certainly has affected Groenefeld to the point where she may never reach her Top-10 goals. She has physical limits to begin with and if she can’t think clearly enough, she won’t be able to design winning strategies. She tried to put a brave face on, but wasn’t very convincing when she tried to offer up some hope.

“Right now it's not about forehands and backhands; it's more about the mental part of the game,” she said. “It's more dealing with the situation I'm in right now. For sure I think I will be able to play at top level again. It depends how long it will be or when it will be. But I've seen in the past I can do it, so why can't I do it in the future? I still have a lot of years ahead of me. For sure at some point I'm going to separate it and for sure I'm going to be able to just play my game and forget about it.”

(Dating) Notes from All Over the Grounds
More Shaughnessy: It’s not surprising when a player goes back to her first coach when all else looks bleak. Shaughnessy was a much better player under Font de Mora than she was the last two years or so, as she’s emphasizing her strengths more. Regardless of what some may think of Font de Mora personally, he knows how to teach an aggressive game. Neither of his two main players have been creative enough, but both cracked the Top 20.

Shaughnessy, who injured her left ankle last week, may have lost in the first round of Wimbledon, but her game is no longer lacking direction.

“We are doing a lot of good work and getting back to the basics,” she said. “It’s a lot of serve, forehand, more aggressive emphasis on my legs because my whole game revolves around my legs. We’ve always been very close and stayed in touch and he always did what he could to help. I’m older now, so he doesn’t need to be quite as hard on me as when I was younger. I have a better understanding as to what I want. And I’m listening more.”

American men’s tennis avoided Black Tuesday with James Blake and Amer Delic winning, but as of this writing, only three of the 14 US guys (Andy Roddick triumphed on Monday) have won matches, not exactly a banner tournament. They are not 0-9 like they were in Paris, but my goodness, where’s the depth? The women haven’t faired much better either – only Venus Williams and Bethanie Mattek came through. Ms. Williams scratched out a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over teenager Alla Kudryavtseva. She later added that she isn’t too concerned about the state of women’s African-American tennis these days because she’s focusing on herself and staying healthy.

Mardy Fish played reasonably well in his 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 loss to Rafael Nadal, but the Spaniard is clearly better on the surface when he’s playing on top of the baseline. Blake was awfully convincing in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 spanking of Roddick’s French Open foil Igor Andreev.

Here’s Blake on the guys: "It helped when I saw Roddick versus [Justin] Gimelstob first round. I knew we couldn't go. I was safe," Blake said with a laugh. "Obviously the surface plays more into our styles. Most of us grew up playing a little more aggressive, going for your shots, ending points a little quicker. It plays more to our strengths. I have a feeling we tend to perform better here. We're showing it so far. I think we got a long way to go to appease the American public's ideas of what it takes to have a good American tennis scene right now. I think it's pretty darn good with two players in the Top 10, Andy being the third seed here, got the Bryans [in doubles] as a top seed. We're still in the Davis Cup. I think tennis in America is doing great. It was one of those coincidences or bad luck incidents where we had everything go wrong at the French Open. I just hope that doesn't happen again for a long time, especially as long as I'm playing."

Other notable wins in a very busy day include Gael Monfils over Thomas Johansson 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-2 (great news for the US Davis Cup team); Chris Guccione over Alex Bogdanovic (nice work by the zero for 2007 British male wild cards and watch out for the big serving Aussie lefty); Fabrice Santoro upended 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 with a sky-scraping lob on match point; Nicolas Kiefer returned and downed Filippo Volandri 6-3, 7-6(6), 6-1; Robin Soderling told Rafa to watch out when he bested Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-2 6-2; and in an upset in my book, Juan Ignacio Chela beat Benjamin Becker 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 10-8.

Now to the women: Maria Sharapova outlasted Chan Yung-jan 6-1, 7-5 and says her tournament will be based on whether she can rediscover that 2004-type confidence; Nadia Petrova regained some interest in tennis and bested Vania King 6-0, 6-1 (if Zina Garrison re-names King to the Fed Cup team over Meilen Tu, it will be a controversial section); Alona Bondarenko thrashed Jill Craybas 6-1, 6-2 and I wouldn’t name her to the Fed Cup team, either; Amelie Mauresmo powered past Jamea Jackson 6-1, 6-3 and JJ isn’t really ready for Fed Cup candidate. If I’m Garrison, I’m naming both Williams sisters (if they deem to play), Lisa Raymond in dubs and Tu as a back-up singles player.

BTW: Unless she loses early, Sharapova won’t even consider going to Stowe with the Russian team to face the US. She’s planning on taking three weeks off post Wimbledon to strengthen her shoulder.

Here’s a big scoop from USA Today’s Doug Robson: Michael Chang (who is coaching Shuai Peng) is dating! He told Robson he’s "dating exclusively a woman he's been seeing on and off for a few years.”

Here’s another: Serena Williams is dating actor and comedian Jackie Long, who has been her friend for a few years. The two just spent a weekend together in Ibiza.

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