TAMPA RESORT OFFERS TENNIS PLUS THE GOOD LIFE

Saddlebrook stars in action at Roland Garros

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Ever take the time to wonder where the tennis stars call home when they leave the road and head for home?

Wonder no more.

Many of the world's top-flight players – world No. 1 Martina Hingis, Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati and recent first-time tournament champion Jelena Dokic – live the good life at the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Fla., USA.

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

This being the case, there's always some interesting tidbits that come out of the Saddlebrook camp about the Saddlebrook stars.

There's even news on Pete Sampras out of Saddlebrook, a place he used to spend all his off-time living before moving back to his childhood haunt of Los Angeles.

Home might no longer be on the western coast of the Sunshine State, but Sampras still spends time at Saddlebrook on occasion. With his wife, Bridgette, in Europe filming a movie, Sampras headed to Saddlebrook to prepare for Roland Garros.

"Pete came down to practice for a week the week before Hamburg," revealed Kevin O'Connor, the Vice President of Marketing for the Saddlebrook Resort, on Tuesday afternoon in the Player's Lounge at Roland Garros.

"He stays at the hotel now when he comes down and works very hard and does a lot of training. He wants to be ready to play a five-set match back-to-back if he has to and we have two red clay courts he was able to practice on. He practiced with some young American talents – James Blake, Kevin Kim and Levar Harper-Griffith."

Sampras might get his chance to test the theory of surviving two five set matches after going the distance against the unknown 250th-ranked French qualifier Cedric Kauffman in the first round on Tuesday.

Another surprising revelation by O'Connor is that he sees a very different side of Damir Dokic then the one we've seen out at the tournaments.

Dokic, who has moved his teenaged daughter, Jelena, and the rest of the family to Saddlebrook early this year from their adopted Australian homeland, has made a reputation of creating incidences at tournaments – he has been led away from WTA Tour events by police at a Birmingham tournament in 1999, as well as Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2000.

Nevertheless, according to O'Connor, the elder Dokic, who hails from Yugoslavia, assumes a very low profile while in residence at Saddlebrook.

"He doesn't hang-out at the practice courts at all, although he'll sometimes come over and take a look," O'Connor says of Dokic. "He's very respectful, very polite and very outgoing."

O'Connor reports that Damir Dokic has something of a green thumb and after purchasing the lot next to the home the family lives in at Saddlebrook, has created an incredible garden.

"He's a fabulous gardener, just fabulous at landscaping, you should see it," O'Connor reports. "He even lays his own sod. Their house is on the golf course and it's quite a big spread."

Dokic, who just won her first career title at the Italian Open, is on O'Connor's short list of candidates for French Open glory in two weeks time. Of course, Saddlebrook residents Hingis and Capriati are his other two nominees.

"It's so exciting, so fantastic – one of our girls can be holding up the trophy on Saturday – Jenny, Martina or Jelena," said O'Connor, who isn't booking his ticket back home for any time before the women's final.