Scrap Metal

I’m pretty fried and ready to pack it in for the night, even though Andy Roddick is down a break early against Jose Acasuso, an Argentinean with a very clean and easy game. The fans at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden today got a program the equal of any ever offered, anywhere, thanks to yesterday’s total rainout.

Rafael Nadal, Martina Hingis, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer, in that order, appeared on the stadium (day session) followed by Maria Sharapova (okay, Maria haters, start typing!) and Andy Roddick. Stadium 2 had – in succession - Justine Henin-Hardenne, Nikolay Davydenko, Lindsay Davenport and the match of the Day, Marat Safin vs. Carlos Moya. It was a tennis feast. For the full roundup of results, go to the mother ship.

Days like this often produce big upsets but this one didn’t.

One story that I addressed last week in my post on Bjorn Borg (“What Price Greatness) has developed legs. It seems like everybody has been talking about Bjorn Borg’s decision to sell some of tennis memorabilia, including Wimbledon trophies. Andre Agassi weighed in the issue after his win over Paul Goldstein:

Well, yeah, I know it’s sad. You just – my first reaction was just to hope that the situation isn’t as desperate as it sounds. You know, it’s not right. You should only have – you should only have a Wimbledon trophy one way: if you win it. Not if you buy one, you know. I can’t may any judgments on Bjorn, I can just say that the thought of a Wimbledon trophy being in the hands of somebody who has a lot of money is upsetting

Jimmy Connors, taking a little tennis action the other day, also weighed in. He told The Desert Sun’s ace tennis reporter, Leighton Ginn (details here) that he cares, too, although not enough or in the way that would lead him to buy the trophies to keep them out of unworthy hands. Connors has the dough, too, having stuffed every nickel (and there were many nickels) he ever made into the mattress. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony, Jimmy “I’ll follow him (Borg) to the ends of the earth” Connors making good on that promise and then, upon arrival, handing his nemesis the emblems of his greatness?

Actually, Connors made the very wise and tactful suggestion that Wimbledon buy the stuff and display it in the official on-site museum, perhaps selling the hardware back to Borg should he ever improve his situation.

Unfortunately, there’s no real way out of this that doesn’t end up making Borg look pathetic. This must be really painful for Borg, who was, above all things, proud. I can’t see him accepting charity of the kind people are discussing; I think he’d rather throw the trophies in a dumpster than be the recipient of a former rival’s largesse, or evenan act of collective charity. There’s nothing wrong with that either; if you have your pride, the trophies don’t matter. Without your pride, though, the trophies are just bizarre metal artifacts.

Agassi took the discussion one step further, revealing that he had discussed with his cohorts various ways to ensure that the trophies somehow stayed in the tennis family – either with Borg, or perhaps a museum. He said, “I’d love to see the sport come together to figure out a way to make sure that those (trophies) don’t get into the wrong hands.”

I didn’t think much about this aspect of this sad saga when I wrote original post, but I’m totally in Agassi’s corner on this. Tennis shouldn’t allow those artifacts to just disappear into the hands of the highest bidder.