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Tennis' 'Mendoza Line' converted to 'Martin Line'Who is no more than a future one-Slam wonder?By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net
In tennis terms, I was thinking higher, attempting to separate the great from very good players. I was trying to think at what point in my mind do I say, "At best, this player has a shot at being a one-Slam wonder, someone who can wrack up a few Tier One titles, a slew of Tier IIs and threaten at the Slams, but never really break through and become a bona fide Hall of Famer?' There are plenty of retired players who come to mind when attempting to solidify the prototype. But because I was searching for last names that began with M, and two immediately popped into head – Todd Martin and Conchita Martinez. So, calling it the "Martin Line" covers both last names. Both were smart, creative, thinking players. One, Martin, never won a Slam, but came close in 1999, when Andre Agassi stopped him a terrific five-setter in the US Open final. The other, Martinez, did take a major, shocking Martina Navratilova for the Wimbledon title in 1994. Todd will not get into the Hall of Fame as a player, but might end up walking in as a contributor, as he's still active as the coach of Mardy Fish, is a competent senior player on the Champion's Tour and will more than likely end up taking some significant executive position sometime in the future and enforce some common sense on the rest of us. In fact, if it were up to me, I'd hand him the ATP CEO's job right now. Because Conchita did win a Slam, because I thought that during her prime she had a good chance at two more (especially at Roland Garros), and because I believe that she should get into the Hall of Fame with the recent entrance of Gabriela Sabatini, I've decided to go with the Martin Line as my working term. For at least six years during his career, I thought that Martin had an outside shot at winning one major. There are those who would say that his big chance came in 1996, the year that Richard Krajicek upset Pete Sampras at Wimbledon and Todd gagged to MaliVai Washington in the semis. But I always felt he was better hard-court player and loved how he performed in New York. In my eyes, his best chance was against Agassi, but he was just flat outplayed in the final two sets by a better performer. That happens a lot to players on the Martin Line. Always has, always will. Even at their best, a male or female legend standing in front of them is slightly better. Without a good draw at a Slam, a career day in the final and a down day from a higher-seeded player if they face one in the final, they cannot win a major. Iva Majoli had all those things working for her when she won '97 Roland Garros (the Majoli line would work, too). Michael Stich can say much the same from his '91 Wimbledon win as Boris Becker under-performed, as can Goran Ivanisevic at '01 Wimbledon, as Pat Rafter let down. Anastasia Myskina, who was fortunate at the '04 French by not having a healthy Justine Henin or Serena Williams around, is headed that way, too. But those are players who managed to win one Slam, placing them, at least for a line in the historical texts, amongst a pantheon of greats. Think of all those who reached Slams finals but never won one? Washington, Cedric Pioline, Chris Lewis, Roscoe Tanner, Helena Sukova, Pam Shriver, Zina Garrison, Natasha Zvereva, Nathalie Tauziat, etc. There are locker rooms full of memories of "almost-there." With the approach of every Slam, every prognosticator has to come up with a list of at least eight men and eight women who could win that major, even though it's rare when there's more than five serious favorites. So going into Wimbledon, I was perusing the Top-20 lists to see who has hit the Martin Line in my mind, very good players with likely no more than one Slam in them - if that. If a name is omitted, it's either because they
have already won a Slam, or like in the cases of Novak Djokovic, Andy
Murray, Marcos Baghdatis and Richard Gasquet, they may have a shot at
two. There are others who I don't even think have even a realistic shot
at winning even one major, like Tommy Robredo, Tommy Haas, David Ferrer,
Mikhail Youzhny and Juan Ignacio Chela.
The women are a little trickier due to the younger ages of the Top 20. Again, no player who has won a Slam is listed. The players who might win two or more Slams are Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Nicole Vaidisova, so they are left off the list. The players who I think have no real shot at winning a Slam are Daniela Hantuchova, Patty Schnyder, Tatiana Golovin, Na Li, Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli. Here are the women on the Martin Line, a line of
hope: © TennisReporters.net 2007
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