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EXCLUSIVE
MALISSE LIVES UP TO POTENTIAL

The ‘X-Man’ makes big strides

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

FROM ROLAND GARROS – For Xavier Malisse, a fourth-round appearance in a Grand Slam is starting to become a more familiar occurrence. This French Open, where the Belgian beat Albert Portas of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), marks the second time in his career that he’s reached the second week of a Grand Slam. His best previous appearance at a major was at the 2001 U.S. Open where he fell to Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina in the fourth round.

It might seem that this is not such a milestone to mark, but in terms of Malisse, it becomes a noteworthy accomplishment. When the 21-year-old Malisse arrived on tour as a young teen straight from the Nick Bollettieri Academy on the west coast of Florida, he seemed a hot prospect for success. Nevertheless, Bollittieri often exalted Malisse’s talent but bemoaned his willingness to put in a hard day’s work. And then there was the excitement of tour life and all its trappings that made too big an impression on the Belgian and his game languished in the lower ranks.

Besides for reaching the final round at two clay court events earlier in his career – 1998 Mexico City and 1999 Delray Beach – Malisse was most noted for a brief stint as Jennifer Capriati’s younger boyfriend. But those times have past and Malisse is now grown up to the point that tennis is becoming a more serious venture.

“I started my career off well and everything was going good, but there was a lot of pressure,” Malisse told tennisreporters.net about what went wrong early on. “I felt like I had to win every match I played. I felt the pressure of the contracts, you know for rackets, clothing, and my management companies. It’s not that they put pressure on me, it’s I put pressure on myself.”

This year is turning into a pivotal season for 38th-ranked Malisse, who has already posted two semifinal showings at Memphis and Scottsdale. And in recent weeks, he scored a major upset over Russian Marat Safin in the second round at Rome on the dirt. And now he’s into the fourth round of the French Open where goes up against charismatic Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean on Monday.

COACH GOLDFINE, MARTIN PROVIDE EXPERT LEADERSHIP
One formidable reason why Malisse could finally be making strides is his career is his choice of Dean Goldfine as his coach, a relationship that began at the beginning of the year. Goldfine is the longtime coach of Todd Martin and the threesome now travel together in a cooperative effort. This arrangement has benefited Malisse not only because of Goldfine, but also because of the close proximity to Martin, a two-time Grand Slam finalist. Martin not only is the type of guy eager to offer sage advice to a younger guy in search of some counsel, but also affords a visual example of professionalism. Both Goldfine and Martin are proving to have a calming effect on the player known as “The X-Man” and they also are leading him to a sensible approach to the game.

“Dean has a lot of experience with Todd and everything is going well since I’m with him,” Malisse said. “Mentally, being with Dean has helped me a lot. I think all the players know how to play tennis – it’s just one or two points that make the difference. But I’ve had a lot of good advice from Dean and Todd and that goes past how you play.”

Goldfine, who also had a lengthy stint working with Mary Joe Fernandez in the 90’s, believes that Malisse is maturing and has learned a great deal since January, especially by taking a lesson or two from Martin.

“It’s obviously going to be good for Xavier to be around Todd and see the professionalism of how Todd handles himself,” Goldfine told tr.net. “He’s learning from watching how Todd approaches tennis and his attitude about the game and seeing Todd’s results.

“Another important aspect of the game Xavier’s been seeing by being around us is that we’re both so laid back. It’s important to take tennis seriously since it’s his career, but you have to put things in perspective and there are more important things than winning or losing tennis matches. But taking that into account, he’s seeing that every time Todd goes on court he gives 100 percent mentally and physically. That’s something that Xavier had some trouble doing in the past, keeping his mental and physical focus in each match. He was able to do it in some matches, but not in every match, but he’s making a better job of it now. But there’s still room for improvement.”

Goldfine finds Xavier to be pretty quiet and shy for the most part, and paints a picture of him as a “good kid,” that was brought up to be “well-mannered.”

“When Xavier blows up on the court it embarrasses him,” Goldfine said. “He knows that it not what he should be doing, but he has a tough time holding in his emotions. But he’s different than some players that blow up in that they don’t realize that it’s not the most appropriate way to behave.”

Malisse never even won a set off of Grosjean in the two previous matches they played with neither one of those encounters being on clay. However, the two have not encountered each other on a court since 1999, so their previous experience against each other is not likely to hold much importance in the upcoming meeting.
“Playing Grosjean is definitely going to be tough for Xavier,” Goldfine said. “It’s another hurdle and I think he’s up to the challenge. He likes it when he goes into the match as an underdog so this will be a good match for him to play.”