cover story: may 2005

getty images	Norm Fisher	getty images
Marat Safin	Art Larsen	Vitas Gerulaitis

vitas gerulaitis The Leader of the Pack

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As baseball had the Brooklyn Dodgers, who would go on to fast-lane L.A., tennis had Brooklyn’s Gerulaitis, who went on to become tennis’ “Broadway Joe.” The beloved Lithuanian Lion, with his singular blond mane, moved like the wind and didn’t hesitate to create a storm. He once suggested that a certain line judge be “put in a crematorium and burned” and boasted that he’d bet his mortgage that the No. 100 man in the world could beat the No. 1 woman. Another time, he accepted a dare from Nastase to drink half a pint of vodka mixed with cigarette ash and stale bread. And only a man raised in the shadow of Ebbets Field could concoct a plaintive cry with some of the bravado of the Dodgers’ infamous ode to persistence amidst defeat — Wait ‘till next year. Gerulaitis, after he finally beat Connors, famously crowed, “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.” More than anything, the ‘77 Aussie Open champ will be remembered as the feel-good pal to A-list stars, the rat pack of tennis. The man who had a penchant for yellow Rolls Royces and a “screw practice, let’s party” mindset showed young McEnroe the ropes of Manhattan’s Studio 54 nightlife when disco reigned; was Connors’ trusted confidante during Jimbo’s ‘91 U.S. Open run and hosted Borg when the Swede came to play the U.S. Open. It’s hardly surprising that there was a public outpouring of loss upon his death at the age of 40 from carbon monoxide poisoning.

art larsen Zappy Tappy

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Some say “Tappy” Larsen got his name because he had an intricate ritual of tapping the court with his foot and racket before serving. Others, like Abe Segal, say it was “because at certain times he has to tap on certain things, and only he knows when.” Doubles teammate Gordon Forbes remembered a quirky character who “never trained, seldom practiced, smoked a lot, drank beer, sat in damp clothes and cold winds after matches, stayed up all night, slept in the dressing rooms and had difficulty changing into tennis gear - often getting stuck in his trousers when halfway up his legs.”

damir & jelena dokic A Truck Wreck

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Demanding father and tortured daughter tales are a dime a dozen, but few are more intriguing than this relationship between a former truck driver from wartorn Yugoslavia and an often depressed beauty who rarely smiles on court. A heavy drinker, Damir has fought with tournament officials the world over — once saying (with Jelena at his side) that the Aussie Open was fixing draws against her; wrapping himself in the English flag and calling Britain a fascist nation; smashing cell phones at Wimbledon, where he was tossed; to being thrown out of the U.S. Open after an obscene rampage in the cafeteria where he cursed out food workers because he didn’t like the size of a $10 piece of salmon. Once arrested in the middle of a road in Birmingham England, he accused his daughter just last year of taking drugs.

Jelena has split and made up with her father countless times and currently is dating the brother of her Croatian coach, who Damir has blamed for her imploding game. Once a top-five player, she dropped so low she had to ask a friend to get her a room at the Esmerelda resort, the WTA players’ hotel at Indian Wells. Last year was the tall blonde’s worst, as she lost 12 times in the first round and left the tour for six months due to total burnout. She ended ‘04 ranked a career low No. 125. The 22-year-old — who played for Australia and Serbia and now lives in Monte Carlo — says she’s now in control, but we’ve heard that before. “If I do something right or wrong now, it’s totally on me,”’ she said. “I know people have forgotten about me, don’t respect me and are counting me out. In a way, I like that.”

marat safin Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

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Most men don’t like to get caught with their pants down, but Marat Safin couldn’t care less. The sometimes jocular, sometimes brooding Russian dropped his drawers during ‘04 Roland Garros and recently zipped up his trousers during a tsunami fundraiser at Indian Wells. When playing two amateurs while holding the hand of his childhood friend, Elena Dementieva, he walked with her behind the scoreboard, stood their with her for a minute and then walked back out, pretending to yank his pants up. The crowd roared with delight. “He’s always been hilarious,” Dementieva laughed. Agassi added, “Safin is always good value. “

In the past six months, the 24-year-old has been the only player to prove he’s a worthy rival to Federer, taking down the seemingly invincible Swiss at the Aussie Open. But all the while, Safin has been up and down. One week, he’s winning his second Slam. A few weeks later, he’s losing in the first round of Dubai. The next week, he’s again a Davis Cup hero. Then he’s losing early at Indian Wells and Miami. His approach to tennis is as uneven as his emotions.
The serial racket-smasher likely will never develop the laserlike focus it takes to be an all time great because his mind often wanders outside the white lines. Known for parading an array of babes through the Friends Box, Safin has frequently been accused of enjoying nightlife too much and not making the most of his talent. But the Russian says that he simply doesn’t have the mental makeup of a gym rat. “If I was the type of person who had tennis, tennis, tennis all the time and I went to bed and ended up dreaming about tennis, I would go nuts,” he said. “I understand that tennis is my job and I try to do it very well, but I need a private life, just like everyone else. It’s not a bad thing. Everyone likes to have fun.”

A zany, fun-loving, emotional guy who has a keen intellect and zest for off-court life, he loves to express himself, whether engaging in a self-deprecating put-down (Has anyone ever said, “I just played the worst match of my life” more than Marat?) or taking cracks at suffocating officials. Remember his marathon 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7, 11-9 win over Felix Mantilla at the French Open last year, when he dropped his shorts after winning a spectacular point? Later, after being told he would be penalized, he lashed out on the sport’s conservatism. “Nobody complained. I thought it was entertaining and I was trying to make the game fun,” he said. “There are officials who are trying to destroy the sport. It’s going down the drain. It’s a pity that we have these people running tennis.”

Now back in the top five, Safin still appears to resent the sacrifices he’ll have to make to get back to No. 1. Striking a balance between work and play is tough for anyone, but especially for someone with as many interests as he has. That’s what makes him all the more compelling. “We don’t have the regular life of a young person,” he said. “Basically, everybody goes to university, then they have a couple of years to decide what they want to do. They go to the shrink. But basically we’re already grown-ups. We have to be really professional. We can’t take a week off and go hiking or fishing. Some people do half a year of traveling around the world. We can’t do that. We can’t have fun for like three months, whatever. We can’t because we have to be professional. We can’t. We can’t. We can’t!”

ion tiriac Count Dracula

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One of the fiercest characters to come out of Transylvania since You Know Who, the Olympic hockey player turned tennis star played Davis Cup for nearly 20 years. It wasn’t beyond him to munch on glass, wear a dress or tank a match if he disagreed with the ump. The entrepreneurial Romanian, who speaks five languages, plays the sax and helped shape the careers of Vilas, Becker and Ivanisevic, reflected on what it was like to try domesticate his pupil Nastase: “I feel like dog trainer who teach dog manners and graces and just when you think dog knows how should act with nice qualities, dog makes big puddle and all is waste.” Tiriac became a successful promoter, power broker, and bank owner, while creating an orphanage for 99 kids.

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