THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: TUESDAY, MARCH 4, No. 19

Taylor finally making a Dent
Coach Stine trying to install a Courier-like work ethic
Memphis champ has dropped 12 pounds

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE FRANKLIN TEMPLETON CLASSIC IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – Figuring out the future of California's Taylor Dent is more difficult than trying to find a golden nugget in a sand bed next to a roaring river
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Just last summer, the rugged serve-and-volleyer made a splash at Wimbledon, upsetting No. 21 Max Mirnyi in the first round and 2000 quarterfinalist Jan-Michael Gambill in the second round, before he falling to Aussie lefty Wayne Arthurs in four ace-filled tiebreakers.

He won his first title in Newport on grass and continued to tease his fans by beating Felix Mantilla, Thomas Johansson and Marcelo Rios in US Open warm-ups before bombing out at Flushing Meadows in a first-round loss to Raemon Sluiter.

His fall season was negligible except for the fact that he let go of his coach, Paul Kilderry – "We didn't see eye to eye on some things" – and hired a new one, Brad Stine, the former coach of Jim Courier.

It may have been one of the best moves of his career because two weeks ago in Memphis, Dent had by far the best week of his career, knocking off the likes of Mark Philippoussis, Jan Michael Gambill, Vladimir Voltchkov and Andy Roddick to win the title.

"It would have been nice to win a tournament anyway, but to beat a player of Andy's level is a good sign," Dent said after beating Andre Pavel in the first round of Scottsdale. "The big difference now is that I know the game I'm playing can work. I need to be proficient and relatively error free. Not too many guys can say they've won two tournaments, not only on a surface that I love [grass], but on one I didn't like that much before this year."

Stine is a no-tolerance kind of coach and when Dent arrived at his Fresno, Calif. home last November, he laid down his thoughts at a four-hour meeting at Starbucks.

"Everybody who's seen Taylor play has seen that he had a lot of skills, but I was pretty blunt about that I felt he was never in good shape and he needed to pay attention to that," Stine told tennisreporters.net. "The second day he arrived in Fresno we went to an underwater lab at Fresno State for a weighing and his number was embarrassing for a pro athlete. He got some tangible evidence of where he was at. I give him a lot of credit because he made a commitment to do the work."

Coach Stine trying to install a Courier-like work ethic
Stine put Dent through a series of Courier-like all-day workouts: riding a bike, lifting weights, doing sprints and hitting a ton of tennis balls. "I was going to sleep at 7:30 every night," Dent said. "I was beat. But if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger."

Stine said that he's always loved Taylor's mechanics, but was convinced that he was frequently out of position because he wasn't fast enough. Convincing Dent of this was a whole other matter.

"He told me he has never lost a match based on fitness but I said, 'That's bullshit,' because there's been a billion balls you've never gotten to because you were too slow and carrying too much weight," Stine said. "Especially from the backcourt, he would get tired of running around and try for a big shot and ended up bailing out of the point. He thought about it and said, 'That's probably true.'"

Memphis champ has dropped 12 pounds
Dent had to change his diet and eat less. He had ballooned up to around 207 pounds, a good weight for a 6-foot-2 first baseman, but not for a tennis player. He's lost 12 pounds since November.

"I eat healthy but a portion more than I should have," Dent said. "If someone ate one thing, I was going to eat double that. I needed to cut my meals in half."

Dent injured his knee during the training and was forced to skip the Australian events in January. But he says he feels better each day and he does appear to be a whole lot quicker, especially approaching the net. He's not sure whether he's faster, but he likes how his body has responded to the training.
"My dad watched me play Memphis and said, 'You're moving unbelievable.' Everything feels just a little bit easier," he said.

But it's not just lack of conditioning that has kept 21-year-old Dent from fulfilling the massive potential he showed as a junior. He has also had tremendous problems staying focused in tight matches. In Memphis, he heeded Stine's advice and took his time in between points.

"One of our biggest things is to make him mentally tougher," Stine said. " In Memphis, he was playing tough tennis and getting through matches. The Philippoussis match went 17-15 in the first set tiebreaker. If that breaker goes to Mark, both guys' mentality is different. Then who knows what would have happened if he's coming off losing in the first rounds of San Jose and Memphis."

You won't see any massive style changes in Dent's game under Stine, just a little more patience.

"My game is pretty simple," Dent said. "See if you can pass or break me and I make you play a lot of balls from the back and get in as soon as I can." Dent has suffered an injury is every one of his five years on tour. Stine says that they will be more careful in training because both he and Dent know that with Taylor's body type that if he goes down for another couple months, it could take double that time to recover.

The American's confidence is as high as it's ever been and should he manage to go deep here in Scottsdale – which he should considering he plays Cecil Mamiit on Wednesday and should he win that, the winner of David Sanchez or Giovanni Lapentti in the quarters – Dent could have a crack at No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the semis and should end the week in the top 40.

Then, the sky may be the limit.

"My goal is to move him up 10 spots and then take the next step to the next 10," Stine said. "He has the weapons to compete against anybody and to be very, very good."