Train+Spain=Gain
Rafael Nadal is standing tall again after winning Indian Wells in the wake of Roger Federer's shock opening-round exit, but that wasn't the only reason for Spain to feel good about its tennis capabilities this week.
Daniela Hantuchova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, the two women's finalists, put SVK and RUS beside their names, but they're both growing their games in Spain.
Like Indian Wells semifinalist Andy Murray, former U.S. Open champ Kuznetsova left Russia in her early teens to train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona -- the Sanchez stands for Emilio, former pro and older brother of Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario. Kuznetsova still trains there and works with one of its affiliated coaches, Stefan Ortega.
During offseason training at the end of last year, she spotted a familiar face on the courts -- fellow Indian Wells finalist Hantuchova, who is also now working with the academy. What's more, because Hantuchova's coach Eduardo Nicolas wasn't very familiar with the current women's field when he started the job, he's been asking Ortega for advice about various players. "My coach has been coaching her coach," said Kuznetsova, which must have made her straight-sets defeat in Saturday's final just a little ironic.
And that's even though Kuznetsova was able to take an informed guess about the way Hantuchova's game is going -- "I know her forehand is improved, because to work in Spain, the first thing they do is work on your forehand."
The win was Hantuchova's second career title -- the first also coming at Indian Wells five years ago.
The two got a chance to practice together before Indian Wells, joking that if they got to play each other during the tournament, their coaches should have to play a proxy rematch at the academy. "The guys were messing around and telling us how to, you know, move our feet and to do that, to do that," said Hantuchova. "So then we said, "OK. Well what about if we change that once, and we will be coaching them, and they have to play."
Kuznetsova reluctantly hinted Nicolas would be the favorite, but she'll be working Ortega hard to try and pull off an upset on the Barcelona clay. "Hopefully my coach gonna recover the defeat today of my match," she said. "We have to train with him a lot so he get in shape and he beats."
At 21, Kuznetsova's too young to start thinking about entering the coaching game full-time, but it sounds like she's got one thing down already: to train in Spain is often to a tennis player's gain.
So that's just what I did shortly after the Djoker played a fine match to bump Nadal out of the Sony Ericsson Open. I've got to hand it to Jet Boy. Win or lose, he attends his presser, sits down at the table facing a collection of reporters, and peers out at them from under his mop of wet hair, his brow furrowed (it's his permanent, press-conference game face), the way a man might when he's struggling to positively ID someone who's just accosted him in a dark parking lot. All he sees is the periodic, orange glow of the tip of a cigarette: Is this really the operative sent by the home office to receive the secret intelligence, or some kind of diabolical trap?
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