Charlotte.com: Sports Breaking

It's all in the Williams family - singles, doubles

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:58 EDT

Thrilled as she was to win the Wimbledon singles championship, Venus Williams dialed down her celebration.

No hopping in place and skipping to the net after match point, the way she's done so often on Centre Court. No giddy laughter and whoops of joy, as she's let out in the past.

This title was different from her previous successes at the grass-court Grand Slam.

This title came at the expense of her younger sibling, Serena.

Reprising their Sister Slam Show in the Wimbledon final after a five-year hiatus, Venus and Serena Williams smacked big serves, hit hard strokes from all angles and chased down seemingly unreachable balls, like no one else does. Overcoming an early deficit, Venus beat Serena 7-5, 6-4 Saturday for her second consecutive title at the All England Club and seventh major championship overall.

“I'm definitely more in tune with my sister's feelings because one of us has to win and one of us has to lose,” the No.7-seeded Venus, 28, said. “You could never detract from winning a Wimbledon, so of course it doesn't detract from that. But I'm definitely thinking about how my sister's feeling.”

No.6 Serena, 26, meanwhile, was sullen as could be afterward, as though she had just finished losing to a stranger. Which, it turns out, was the way she tried to view Venus. That the champion's trophy stayed in the family did not ease the pain of defeat.

“It's definitely not any easier,” Serena said. “I just look at her as another opponent at the end of the day.”

Said their mother and coach, Oracene Price: “Well, you know, she's going to have to learn how to suck things up. Say, ‘OK, I'm not going to win everything.'”

About 31/2 hours after the singles final ended, Price's daughters returned to the same court, except now they were playing on the same side of the net, and they beat Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-2 to win the women's doubles title.

A day that began with a meal together at the nearby house they're sharing, ended with the sisters' seventh Grand Slam doubles championship – and a total family payday of more than $2.5 million.

Saturday's earlier encounter was the seventh all-Williams Grand Slam singles final; only one other pair of sisters faced off in a major tournament title match, and that was all the way back at the very first Wimbledon, in 1884.

Williams vs. Williams finals became routine for a bit, when they met in six of eight Grand Slam title matches from the U.S. Open in 2001 through Wimbledon in 2003. Serena went 5-1 in those, including beating Venus at the All England Club in 2002 and 2003.

But big sister got some payback Saturday.

“I didn't want the same trend to keep happening,” Venus said. “So I climbed a tiny little notch up. It's 2-5. Still behind, but I'm working on it.”

British girl wins junior title

Laura Robson, 14, born in Australia but moved to England when she was 6, won the girls' title Saturday by beating Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, 16, of Thailand 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. It's the first Wimbledon singles championship for a Brit in 24 years. Robson is the youngest girls' champion at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis was 13 when she won in 1994, and the first British singles champion at Wimbledon since Annabel Croft won the girls' title in 1984. There is no prize money, but Robson hopes the victory on Court 1 will earn her a wild card into next year's main draw. Last year's girls' champion, Urszula Radwanska, lost to runner-up Serena Williams in the second round this year. “I'd take her down,” Robson jokingly said of Serena Williams. observer news services

Thrilled as she was to win the Wimbledon singles championship, Venus Williams dialed down her celebration.

No hopping in place and skipping to the net after match point, the way she's done so often on Centre Court. No giddy laughter and whoops of joy, as she's let out in the past.

This title was different from her previous successes at the grass-court Grand Slam.

This title came at the expense of her younger sibling, Serena.

“It's definitely not any easier,” Serena said. “I just look at her as another opponent at the end of the day.”

Said their mother and coach, Oracene Price: “Well, you know, she's going to have to learn how to suck things up. Say, ‘OK, I'm not going to win everything.'”

A day that began with a meal together at the nearby house they're sharing, ended with the sisters' seventh Grand Slam doubles championship – and a total family payday of more than $2.5 million.

But big sister got some payback Saturday.

“I didn't want the same trend to keep happening,” Venus said. “So I climbed a tiny little notch up. It's 2-5. Still behind, but I'm working on it.”

British girl wins junior title

Philippoussis commits to Charlotte tennis event

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:10 EDT

Assuming he's healthy enough to play, Mark Philippoussis, one of the hardest servers in men's tennis history, will add some pop to the senior event at The Palisades in September.

A two-time Grand Slam singles finalist, Philippoussis has committed to the eight-man field, organizers told the Observer.

The round-robin tournament will be Sept. 24-28. Along with Philippoussis, Jim Courier, Todd Martin and Wayne Ferreira are scheduled to play.

Four other players will be named at a later date.

Philippoussis, 31, is relatively young for the senior tour, but he's trying to work back from various injuries and return to the ATP tour. In his off time, Philippoussis appeared in the NBC reality series “Age of Love.”

A finalist in the 1998 U.S. Open and 2003 Wimbledon, Philippoussis has fought various injuries throughout his career.

He recently had a surfing accident in rough seas off the Australian coastline. He reportedly suffered foot and hip injuries in that accident, but officials here were told those injuries shouldn't keep Philippoussis from playing.

The Palisades is a development near Lake Wylie and the Charlotte tournament is the fifth of eight events on the Outback Champions Series, for players 30 and over. For ticket information on the event, call 1-877-322-TIXX or visit Championsseriestennis.com.

Duke's Collins is held to a gold standard

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:02 EDT

Ask Duke associate head coach Chris Collins what happened to his dad, Doug, and the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team at the 1972 Munich Games and he'll tell you, “They were robbed.”

The emotions tied to a controversial Soviet Union victory and first-ever Olympic loss for the U.S. has carried over to the next generation of the Collins family.

Still, the younger Collins has a chance to lighten the heavy heart that lingers for his father, who hit two free throws with three seconds left that would have won the game for the U.S.

Instead, the Soviets won 51-50 after getting three chances to replay the final seconds and scoring on their final try.

Chris Collins will serve as a practice assistant and scout with the U.S. men's basketball team as it goes for gold in Beijing next month.

“I don't think it will ever fully reclaim anything,” Chris said of possibly playing a part in a gold-medal effort. “There's nothing that can fix that. But to be a part of that process the last couple of years and considering all my dad went through with that game and not being able to showcase a medal of his own ... it would be special for (my family). It would be a great feeling for me.”

Doug, who turns 57 on July28, wasn't a starter until his senior year at Benton (Ill.) High School. He eventually received the first full athletic scholarship ever given at Illinois State, where he became a star.

He was the No. 1 pick of the 1973 NBA Draft. But, in 1972, Illinois State coach Will Robinson, the first black head coach in Division I basketball, had to campaign hard to get Collins invited to the Olympic tryouts.

Doug got in and spent three sweaty weeks at the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. In an open-air gym with the sun beating down on a tin roof, he played three times a day with future NBA coaches Gregg Popovich and Mike D'Antoni.

Every night, he and roommate Bobby Cremins, who would later coach 19 seasons at Georgia Tech, would lie awake talking about how they messed up, sure they'd be sent home the next day.

Doug made the cut and that's how he ended up on the line with the game in his hands in Munich.

The gold medal game started at midnight, so it was early morning before the U.S. team returned to its dorm, confused and inconsolable.

Doug and (then fiancée) Kathy, with Ed Ratleff and his girlfriend, walked the streets of Munich until the sun came up.

Upon returning to the Olympic dorms, they heard that FIBA, the international basketball governing body, had denied the U.S. protest. The team voted to skip the medal ceremony and refuse the silver medal, then took the first flight home.

Every few years, the IOC contacts the 1972 U.S. team members to see if they'll take the silver medals. All 12 would have to agree. Doug said he doesn't think that will happen.

But he continues to support the Olympics and USA Basketball and said he feels “so proud” that Chris was asked to work with the U.S. team in Beijing.

Doug will be nearby, working courtside as NBC's men's basketball analyst. Doug also will share his Olympic lessons with the current U.S. team as part of the USA Olympic Ambassadors program later this month in Las Vegas.

“I want to talk to the guys about how quickly things go,” he said, “and how opportunity is there one moment and gone the next, and how to take advantage of that.”

20 years later, Costner returns to Durham

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:22 EDT

Annie Savoy: "... So we can say goodbye."
Nuke LaLoosh: "Oh, I'll be back."

Annie Savoy: "When somebody leaves Durham, they don't come back."

Bull Durham, 1988

DURHAM -- Annie Savoy was wrong. Crash Davis came back to Durham this week.

On Friday night, Kevin Costner, star of one of Hollywood's best sports movies ever --Bull Durham -- returned to Durham for the first time in more than 20 years. Not as "Crash Davis," erstwhile catcher and philosopher-in-residence for the big-screen version of the Durham Bulls. But with his rock band Modern West, which is in the middle of a 12-city tour this summer.

"I had to do the math myself," Costner said during a pre-concert news conference and VIP gathering at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. "I didn't realize it was 20 years."

The tour will take Costner and his band to Daytona International Speedway today, where they will perform before the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

For this night, Crash/Costner was back in Durham, part of the Bulls' season-long celebration of the movie's 20-year anniversary. As part of the festivities, the Bulls retired the No. 8 uniform Costner wore in the movie.

The movie was filmed in the old Durham Athletic Park, where the Bulls scratched out a minor league existence in the Class A Carolina League in the 1970s and 1980s. Today they've moved downtown to gleaming and spacious Durham Bulls Athletic Park, where they're Triple-A tenants of the International League.

"Man, this is a nice place," Costner said, looking around at the 10,000-seat stadium.

Costner formed his band two years ago in an attempt to reconnect with his musical roots.

"I was involved in music before I got into acting," he said, noting that two of his bandmates were members of his original band. He said it's a way to connect with an audience in a way that actors on a screen can't.

"We intend to play live, loud and long," he promised.

He was true to his word, working through a rain-shortened 60-minute set of rockabilly-sounding original material for an appreciative crowd of some 7,000.

One of the songs, "NASCAR Dreams," Costner noted, would be part of the sound track to his upcoming movie "Swing Vote," which also includes an appearance by former NASCAR champion driver Richard Petty.

"I don't know anything about cars that go in a circle," Costner joked.

He does know movies

Costner has come a long way in 20 years. Since Bull Durham, he's starred in a number of highly acclaimed, and some not so acclaimed, movies. "Dances With Wolves" won seven Oscars, including two for Costner as Best Actor. "Field of Dreams," "JFK," "Tin Cup" and "Thirteen Days," among others, also rank among his best work.

OK, so "Waterworld" and "The Postman" ended up weak infield grounders by comparison. Even a .300 hitter makes an out seven of every 10 at-bats.

Costner admits he's not afraid to take chances professionally.

"Bull Durham is an adult film," he said. "Not every movie is made for everyone.

"But we hoped it would be a movie that you take off the shelf 10 years later and play it for your [grown] children."

Costner isn't the first "Bull Durham" luminary to return to Durham this anniversary year. Writer/director Ron Shelton and producer Thom Mount, the latter a Durham native, were honored at the Durham Annual Tribute Luncheon in April. Costner praised Shelton for being the genius behind "Bull Durham."

"I have gotten so much credit for 'Bull Durham,' " Costner said. "But Ron Shelton, who wrote it, was the heart of the movie."

Costner has made a number of sports movies over the years. In "American Flyers" (1985) he was a bicycle racer. "Bull Durham" would be the first installment of his baseball trilogy, followed by "Field of Dreams" (1989) and "For Love of the Game" (1999). In "Silverado" (1985) he was a cowboy. In "Tin Cup" (1996) he was a pro golfer.

He said he never set out to make a sports movie or a baseball movie. "Bull Durham" was special, he said, because of the way it used baseball to explore relationships.

"I got to be part of an All-American movie," Costner said.

And on the Fourth of July, that's an appropriate celebration.

His faith in MAC pays off

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:40 EDT

David Marsh knew it was a gamble.

He had won 12 national championships at Auburn as swim coach. He could probably stay right there – coaching at his alma mater and riding a wave of personal success – for the rest of his career.

But Marsh, 49, felt itchy. Recruiting was a constant grind. Family time was difficult to come by. He was on his fifth athletic director.

So he made a leap of faith to Charlotte. The Mecklenburg Aquatic Club lured him to become its head coach with an experimental concept – supported by USA Swimming – that would turn the club into a “Center of Excellence” for American swimmers who had a chance to one day compete in the Olympics.

“The plan was really more to concentrate on London and the 2012 Olympics than on Beijing,” Marsh said.

But the dividends have already started to show. Mark Gangloff and Cullen Jones – two swimmers who followed Marsh to Charlotte – made the 2008 U.S. Olympic team at the Olympic trials here this week.

To be sure, Marsh is not responsible for every great swimmer in the Charlotte area.

Ricky Berens, who grew up in Charlotte and now swims for the University of Texas, made the U.S. Olympic team independently of Marsh. Ellen Grigg and Scot Robison, two teenagers and Charlotte Latin graduates who trained at New South Swimming, finished in the top 16 in their best events. Twins Matt and Sean Patton don't swim for Marsh, either, but did well at the trials.

Marsh, though, is a magnet for some swimmers who compete at the national level. “Arguably, David Marsh is the top swim coach in the country,” said Mark Schubert, the U.S. national team coach.

Marsh brought a team of 20 from MAC to the Olympic trials – most of whom are post-college swimmers who came to Charlotte to be coached by him. And he plans to have a larger group competing at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials.

In 2007, Marsh signed a five-year contract to lead MAC through at least the 2012 Summer Olympics. Some in the swim world were shocked.

Said Marsh with a smile: “The most frequent question I get even now is: ‘What in the heck are you thinking?' The college jobs in swimming are generally pretty secure. Club jobs have the reputation of not being so secure. All it takes is one crazy parent on the executive board and you can get fired.”

Jeff Gaeckle, a former coach at MAC and now the president of its board of directors, was the man in charge of finding a new head coach in the summer of 2006. He called Marsh for advice, not to offer him the job.

But after several talks and some timely intervention by Schubert, Marsh was ready to leave his comfort zone. He packed up, left the Auburn program where he had been head coach for 17 years and moved his wife and three children to Charlotte.

USA Swimming wanted Marsh to do that badly enough that it gave what Schubert termed a “minuscule” amount of seed money to develop the “Center of Excellence” concept at MAC. But it is the club – a nonprofit organization – that pays Marsh's salary. Gaeckle has been charged with obtaining major sponsors to underwrite some costs for MAC's “Team Elite,” which he admits has been challenging in the current economy.

“But we'll make this thing work,” Gaeckle said, “especially in 2012. Any success that we are having for the 2008 Olympic year is really gravy.”

Schubert said USA Swimming would like to help three to four similar “Centers of Excellence” sprout up around the country.

“Our sport is getting older,” Schubert said. “Swimmers are staying in the sport longer. We want to develop centers where the best U.S. swimmers can train with and against each other at practice, ultimately pursuing gold medals.

“I had some very selfish purposes for helping to nudge this along and get David to Charlotte. To me, I see it as a way for America to improve its performance and win more gold medals in swimming by getting some of the best coaching around.”

Marsh had to change one thing. At Auburn, he won partly because he recruited international swimmers. The “Team Elite” squad at MAC – with the exception of Bahamian Jeremy Knowles, who was “grandfathered” in – is completely American.

Curly-haired and calm, Marsh has a style that suits many of his current swimmers.

Said Jones, the former N.C. State standout who became an Olympian Thursday: “He doesn't put his foot in a lot of behinds. He doesn't yell. But he has a great knack of knowing how to shave off seconds from your time. If you move your hands one centimeter to the right, he picks up on it.”

Said Tim Liebhold, another one of Marsh's MAC swimmers: “He doesn't seem that organized compared to a lot of coaches I've had, but then you realize it's all there in his head. And every workout is individualized. If there are 20 of us practicing in the morning, we might be doing 20 different workouts.”

Not everyone wants to be coached by Marsh. Margaret Hoelzer, who also made the Olympic team in Omaha, left the MAC program just a couple of months before the Olympic trials and joined a swim team in Seattle. She said in Omaha that her new head coach in Seattle had put the “fun” back into swimming for her.

Marsh seems happy but not impressed with the level of success so far at MAC. “Hopefully, we're delivering some of the goods,” he said. “But I'm really looking forward to the next Olympic cycle in 2012. Watch out for us then.”