notes on a draw sheet

John Parsons: A lion of tennis journalism passes
RG favorite Coria romps to 26 consecutive clay victories
Kimmy, Callens, Conchi, Dulko other Fed Cup heroes

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Art Seitz/London Daily Telegraph

John Parsons

The first thing you should know about award-winning tennis writer John Parsons – who passed away on Monday at the age of 66 – is that he didn’t suffer foolish play gladly, and the second thing you should know is that he happily and passionately spent four decades of his life shedding a brilliant light on the world’s most intriguing game.

"JP," as he was known to much of the tennis world, made the UK’s Daily Telegraph a necessary read for the past 23 years. He took his job and his sport seriously and always made time for people who he could tell truly cared about the game. He was warm, witty, and insightful and was one of the last truly great on-court print analysts. He wrote about every Slam, made a point to travel to every other major tournament that was relevant and actively engaged in the pressing issues of the day.

The last time I saw JP was at Indian Wells last month. He had officially retired in 2002, but despite his up-and-down health, he had decided to keep on as the Telegraph’s tennis correspondent because he felt like he still has something left to contribute to the game. He sure did.

The sport has largely moved from coverage of what happens between the lines to exposes of the game’s varied personalities. While that may suit some, it is certainly not a trend that does the sport any great favors.

What really matter to the players, coaches, devoted fans and serious writers is how the ball is struck, where it goes and who is mentally prepared to do the better and more intelligent striking. If JP was watching a match that you weren’t, you could go to him and he could break down the important patterns of a match in a heartbeat. He was a willing and essential resource.

I remember a lunch I had with JP a few years back and he was quizzing about my family life. I told him a few stories about my kids and I asked him why he never had any. He said that while he would have liked to have had children, that he was full-time tennis correspondent and never felt like he had enough energy or time left to develop a proper home life, because chronicling the sport took up the vast majority of his waking hours. John said he had no regrets, saying that he simply loved his part in the game and wouldn’t trade his life for anyone else’s.

That kind of devotion is rare amongst journalists in any walk of life. That kind of devotion and love of tennis will be sorely missed on earth. When JP walks up to the gates of heaven, St. Peter will issue him a Centre Court credential. The gods better be on the games the first time that JP sits down to watch them play, because the lord knows Parsons never let a dodgy forehand go by without noting it. We sadly note his passing.

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA

Coria did the full Monte in Monaco.

RG favorite Coria romps to
26 consecutive clay victories
Where have you gone Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa and Guga Kuerten? Don't look now … on second thought do look, Argentine Guillermo Coria has made himself the early frontrunner for Roland Garros by blitzing through of Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo field.

Coria crushed fourth seed Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in the final and has now won his last 26 matches on clay dating back to the '03 Roland Garros semis, where he was stunned by Martin Verkerk, a loss that is even more surprising today if you consider where Argentine's newest "Willy" has gone since then and where Bezerko has gone – one north, and one south.

The quickest and possibly fastest man on tour right now, has won '03 clay court titles in Stuttgart, Kitzbuehel and Sopot, and this year in Buenos Aires and Monte-Carlo. Coria also moved up to third position in the INDESIT ATP Race (not as deceitful as it seems the closer we get to mid-season) and is now within 26 points of No. 2 Andy Roddick, but is still 139 behind Roger Federer. Neither of those two played the less-than-a-full Monte.

En route to the 12th title of his career, Coria took down a nice variety of high-quality players including Thomas Enqvist, Nicolas Kiefer, Andrei Pavel, David Nalbandian and Marat Safin in a remarkable three-setter.

"He's just playing unbelievable good tennis," Schuettler said. "It's not a big difference from the tennis point of view. Everybody in the Top 100 can beat each other. Right now he's very confident. Last year he had a very good season. He's right now on top of his game."

The 28-year-old Schuettler posted his best result of the year, defeating Guga, French qualifier Jean-Rene Lisnard, Lleyton Hewitt in three sets, No. 6 seed Tim Henman in the quarters and Moya in the semis.

Guga and Ferrero are both Monte Carlos champs who went on to win the big dance at RG. Coria has all necessary elements to win on clay (and on hard), but it is much more difficult for the smallish counter puncher to win three out of five set matches than two out of three – especially when you have to grab seven in a row in Paris, rather than one, which is what he did in Monte-Carlo.

"I hope I will be able to maintain this level," he said. "This victory is great motivation for me to practice very hard, and I have great hopes for Roland Garros. The physical part is very important in Roland Garros, so I hope that I will feel good physically before then."
Don't get too overly excited yet: There's still more than a handful of big French warm-up to come including TMS Roma and Hamburg.

Kimmy, Callens, Conchi, Dulko other Fed Cup heroes
There were plenty of other Fed Cup ties other than US-Slovenia contested over the weekend that bear noting, but none more than Belgium's very impressive 3-2 win over Croatia. With Kim Clijsters having been off the tour for seven weeks with a wrist injury, it looked like the Croats should storm in for an upset but playing at home in Bree, Kimmy butchered Jelena Kostanic and Karolina Sprem.

Then Belgian coach Ivo Van Aken decided to play 33-year-old Els Callens instead of teen Kirsten Flipkens , who had gone down to Sprem on day 1. Callens might have played the match of her career in knocking off Kostanic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to seal the tie. Hero: Kim "I'm not Elke" Clijsters and Els "Go Flipken off Kirsten" Callens. Goat: Sprem, who's way too talented to be getting only four games off a rusty Clijsters on clay.

Ron Cioffi/tr.net

Martinez wins three Fed Cup matches for Spain.

Belgium will play Spain in the quarters after 32-year-old Conchita Martinez pulled a rare triple, winning both her singles and teaming with doubles aficionado Virginia Ruano-Pascual to knock off Switzerland's Myriam Casanova/Emmanuelle Gagliardi 7-6(3), 6-2 to give Spain a 3-2 victory in La Manga.
Martinez beat both Gagliardi and Patty Schnyder (for the second week in a row).

The 18-year-old Casanova was a replacement for Gagliardi and leveled the tie by besting Marta Marrero 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-0. If Casanova would have had a shot in both singles matches, the outcome might have been different. Hero: Conchi. Goats: Gagliardi (2 losses) and Marrero (2 losses), who finally got a spot on the team after five years and couldn't pull off a win at home. Time to try another dusty blonde, Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo.

Teen Argentine Gisela Dulko is having a breakout year. She stunned Ai Sugiyama in Argentina's opening tie against Japan, thereby setting up tireless veteran Paolo Suarez to have a crack at Sugi. Suarez took down' Akiko Morigami in the second match to give the Argentines a 2-0 lead and then on Sunday, came back from a 3-5 deficit in the third and forced Sugi off the courts with cramps in a 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6 victory.

Argentina will host Russia, who needed a solid performance from Vera Zvonareva to clinch the tie 3-1 after Alicia Molik shocked Anastasia Myskina, 6-3, 6-3. Vera took down Samantha Stosur, 6-2, 6-3.

Hyperactive Russian captain Sergei Tarpischev replaced Svetlana Kuznetsova with Zvonareva, even though Kuznetsova had beaten Molik on the first day. Vera Z – who was awful in Russia's semifinal loss to France last year – finally found her form at home. "I'm really delighted," she said. " I showed my best tennis today. I had great support and I really love to play in Moscow."

Amelie Mauresmo, Natalie Dechy, Emile Loit et al whipped Germany 5-0. However, German teen Anna Lena Groenefeld did push Dechy on day 1. The defending champs will face Italy or the Czech Republic, whose tie was halted due to rain with the Italians up 2-1.