Great Interview with Fred Stolle(doesn't hold anything back)

[Moose Malloy]

read this on the TC website. I always wondered what happened with him & ESPN. was it Pmac that replaced him?

some excepts(it was a long article, check the link)

Why was Emerson so formidable and what was it about his game that was so burdensome to Stolle over the years? Fred replies, “He was a bit quicker than I was around the net and he moved better than I did around the court. Roy was just a better athlete on the run and probably a better competitor. The fact that I lost to him in five Grand Slam finals over the course of our careers speaks for itself.”

The central figure in Australian tennis, and a man who was in essence a czar, was Harry Hopman. Stolle’s relationship with Hopman was complicated. Stolle felt strongly that he should have been a playing member of the 1963 Australian contingent that lost to the U.S. in the Challenge Round, but Hopman went instead with the 19-year-old Newcombe along with the redoubtable Emerson in singles, and Emerson joined forces with Neale Fraser for the doubles. “In my mind,” Stolle contends now, “I definitely should have played in 63’ when Newcombe played. And Bob Hewitt and I should have played in the doubles. Had Bob and I played in the doubles we would have won the Davis Cup that year--- no question in my mind about that. But Hopman kicked Hewitt off the team for hitting a ball out of the stadium, and Emerson and Fraser lost to Ralston and Chuck McKinley.”

The following year, Stolle was suspended from the team by Hopman, but was reinstated with Emerson when the Australian authorities and Hopman realized how much they were needed if the Aussies were going to raise the Cup at year’s end. “Hopman never really liked me much at all,” says Stolle. “He thought I was pretty lazy because I didn’t do a lot of running and training outside the court. I did most of my stuff on the court and would work for five or six hours a day on the court.”

In that period, Stolle had an altercation with Hopman, and did not hide his disillusionment with the way his captain was treating him. “Mr. Hopman,” he said, “if you think this is the way I want to represent Australia, you can shove it.”

Stolle assumed that he had thus taken himself out of consideration for the 1964 Australian Davis Cup squad because he had addressed Hopman so caustically. But Hopman had other notions. Says Stolle, “We were on our way over to the Davis Cup draw, and I thought there was no way I was going to play. But Hopman had a strange way of doing things. On the way to the draw he called Newk and told John he wasn’t playing, but he did not tell me I was playing. I did not know until my name was pulled out of the hat at the official draw ceremony. Just picture that happening today. Absolutely impossible.”

Issuing his final assessment of the late Harry Hopman, Stolle says, “Everybody had their ax to grind with Hop no matter who you were, but I finished up giving the eulogy at his memorial service which was a tough damned thing to do. Emmo didn’t want to do it because he reckoned he would break down. So I did it. Vitas Gerulaitis went before me. I then got up and used Hop’s line. I said, ‘This is very difficult for me to get through but if I don’t get through it and I start to choke up, I will take a deep breath and then I will come back and hit for the lines.’”

Stolle did an outstanding job with Gerulaitis during their years together in the late seventies and early eighties, when Gerulaitis was regularly among the top four in the world. Recalling that period, Stolle says, “ Vitas had the yips on his second serve so we would literally hit 300 serves a day and he was fine and his second serve improved. But when he got into tight situations in matches, it was just like myself or Dementieva or Safina or anybody else. You go into muscle memory. And I don’t care what shrinks you go to, in my mind that is impossible to change.”

In the final of the 1981 Masters event at Madison Square Garden, Gerulaitis took on Ivan Lendl, and led two sets to love with a match point for a straight sets win. “I was always trying to get Vitas to chip and charge. And I can still see that match point in my mind. Lendl hit a second serve, Vitas chipped it back, and Vitas took two steps forward and then five steps back. He lost that match point and lost the match in five sets. I was doing commentary on that match and nearly fell out of my chair because we had been working and working and working on this and suddenly, what does he do? But Vitas was such a kind hearted fellow.”

After his long and successful run at ESPN, Stolle understandably was unhappy that ESPN no longer wanted him as part of their broadcast universe. “It was disappointing,” says Stolle, “because I felt that Drysdale-Stolle were the best in the business and I think a lot of people felt that way. We got a lot of accolades. Quite frankly, I was disappointed with the way Cliff handled it. Whether he was put under any pressure from ESPN I don’t know. But I have always been one to speak my mind and I did speak my mind. I was disappointed with how it was handled. They just sort of let you go and that’s it. And I felt if the shoe had been on the other foot I would have fought a little bit harder for Cliff than Cliff fought for me.”

These days, of course, are fundamentally different, with the finest singles players staying largely away from doubles, especially at the majors. How does Stolle feel about the diminished role of doubles? “I will probably get a lot of people a little annoyed with me, but I don’t think doubles is anywhere near in the category it once was in the years when the singles players did play doubles. There were changes in the sport and they put doubles on the back burner and the top players didn’t want to play it. I thought that was detrimental to the game. The doubles champions of the past 15 years aren’t anywhere near as good as the doubles champions of 25 years ago, or even further back.

“You can only beat the competition that is out there, but having said that if you look at the guys the Woodies [Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge] played in their Wimbledon finals, they beat Eltingh-Haarhuis, Connell-Galbraith, Black-Connell, Leach-Melville, and Haarhuis and[ my son] Sandon Stolle. You are not going to tell me that you can put that up there with Emerson and myself against McKinley-Ralston or Newcombe and Roche against Stolle and Rosewall. What would you rather watch: Newcombe and Roche against Stolle-Rosewall or Eltingh-Haarhuis playing Woodforde-Woodbridge?”

Having addressed that topic with the utmost of candor, Stolle is asked to talk about the modern game being weighted so heavily on baseline skills, with the serve-and-volley style all but disappearing. He responds, “I personally think it is coming back a bit. But, as I have said on television, all this stuff about no serve-and-volleyers has been brought about by coaches that don’t know how to serve-and-volley. They have never been involved with the serve-and-volley game. I honestly believe that.”

Interestingly, while he is an ardent booster of Roger Federer as a great champion, Stolle does not like the way the world No. 1 produces his volleys. He asserts, “Technically I don’t think Federer has that good a volley. If you analyze it the way Billie Jean King does, she says every time you hit a volley you have got to bend your knees and get your head down to the level at which the ball comes over the net. Federer never does that. He stands pretty much upright, starts with the racket head up shoulder high and goes down with the racket until it gets to ball height. Then he tries to take the racket head forward. You never see Federer get behind the flight of the ball on the volley. If you think about the errors he makes on the volley, they happen because he is upright.”

http://www.tennischannel.com/news/Ne...px?newsid=6417

[Jonny S&V]

Credible proof that Federer has technically wrong volleys that he gets away with. Same with Nadal in my opinion.

[jswinf]

Thanks to Moose for the post. Always liked Fred.

[hoodjem]

“You can only beat the competition that is out there, but having said that if you look at the guys the Woodies [Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge] played in their Wimbledon finals, they beat Eltingh-Haarhuis, Connell-Galbraith, Black-Connell, Leach-Melville, and Haarhuis and[ my son] Sandon Stolle. You are not going to tell me that you can put that up there with Emerson and myself against McKinley-Ralston or Newcombe and Roche against Stolle and Rosewall. What would you rather watch: Newcombe and Roche against Stolle-Rosewall or Eltingh-Haarhuis playing Woodforde-Woodbridge?”

Well-put!

[35ft6]

I liked Fred, too, but I thought him and Drysdale weren't very good together. Pat and Cliff are arguably even worse. Stolle was probably better than Cliff though. Depressing thinking about all the terrible commentators out there.

[35ft6]

Originally Posted by Jonny S&V

Credible proof that Federer has technically wrong volleys that he gets away with. Same with Nadal in my opinion.

You can tell when people learned to volley with wood. It's very different. Not sure if it will come back. Almost every pro I see volley seem to slice it too much IMO. Not sure if it's a true technical flaw or if the game is evolving because the way guys hit so hard now, the slicing has the effect of absorbing some of the pace.

[Jonny S&V]

Originally Posted by 35ft6

You can tell when people learned to volley with wood. It's very different. Not sure if it will come back. Almost every pro I see volley seem to slice it too much IMO. Not sure if it's a true technical flaw or if the game is evolving because the way guys hit so hard now, the slicing has the effect of absorbing some of the pace.

I'm only 18 though, and I hit "old-school" volleys at the collegiate level, and I'm arguably the best volleyer on my team.

[35ft6]

^ Upload a video. I believe you, just want to see.

Pros seem to carve under their volleys more. Older guys who played competitively with wood hit the ball way more flush and take more compact swings. Very nice to watch.

[Jonny S&V]

Originally Posted by 35ft6

^ Upload a video. I believe you, just want to see.

Pros seem to carve under their volleys more. Older guys who played competitively with wood hit the ball way more flush and take more compact swings. Very nice to watch.

You have no idea how much I want to get a vid up... I might be able to get a vid of me volleying against a wall, but since I live an hour and half from the nearest indoor courts, it might be a week or two before I get a vid of me volleying on a court... I am playing a tournament this coming weekend (on 2.5 weeks of no hitting... hopefully I can convince the tourney director to let me at least serve on friday a bit...) so I might be able to get something up then, but idk, we'll see... Yeah, my volleys are flat with a smidge of underspin under normal circumstances, but I have the capability to carve them if the situation calls.

[OrangeOne]

Originally Posted by 35ft6

^ Upload a video. I believe you, just want to see.

Pros seem to carve under their volleys more. Older guys who played competitively with wood hit the ball way more flush and take more compact swings. Very nice to watch.

6000th post hey 35?

On topic: I wonder if the 'increased carving' that is seen (now) is to counter the increased top that the ball is coming with? Most acknowledge volleying is harder now against balls with ridiculous work thanks to poly etc, I wonder if it's a cause and effect game?

[VGP]

Maybe it's to compensate for not getting down to the ball. Or, in the case of Federer, a looser stringbed. Maybe he feels like he's gotta put a little wrist english into the shot.

I found Stolle's comment about the diminishing serve and volley game as a result of current coaches not being familiar with that style of play. I'd like to hear him (and others) say more about that.

I miss the Stolle-Dreysdale tandem for ESPN. They were the guys in the booth when I started watching tennis. Great insight. I was wondering what happened and it sounds like his relationship with ESPN ended badly. That's too bad.

I really miss hearing "The Fiery One" point out when a player's 'gone off the boil' - loved that one.

[Datacipher]

The first thing I was going to mention is that Stolle is one of the best technical commentators tennis has seen. He is INCOMPARABLE to his old partner Drysdale who is absolutely clueless about tennis mechanics....really bizzare actually. Stolle was no Tony Trabert, but he was generally good at observing the actual mechanics and play that was occuring.

Second, thanks Fred for basically saying what I have posted about Fed's volley!

Drysdale...who has a nice voice and that's about it...should have been gone. Stolle should still be there. Trabert should be there. Pmac is obnoxious, Carillo is now sloppy and useless....blech!

[Datacipher]

Originally Posted by VGP

I found Stolle's comment about the diminishing serve and volley game as a result of current coaches not being familiar with that style of play. I'd like to hear him (and others) say more about that.
.

Oh yeah! Thanks for that as well, which I have also posted! I like Stolle more than ever! lol.

PS. Fred used to argue with his kid about old time strategy vs then-modern strategy in the 90's!

[35ft6]

Originally Posted by OrangeOne

6000th post hey 35?

On topic: I wonder if the 'increased carving' that is seen (now) is to counter the increased top that the ball is coming with? Most acknowledge volleying is harder now against balls with ridiculous work thanks to poly etc, I wonder if it's a cause and effect game?

Wow, 6000th. Didn't even notice. In fact, didn't even know how many posts I had. Never looked.

Great point about the spin. I was thinking in terms of sheer pace, but you're probably right about the spin.

[OrangeOne]

Originally Posted by 35ft6

Wow, 6000th. Didn't even notice. In fact, didn't even know how many posts I had. Never looked.

Just happened to see a large round number sitting there as I checked who I was replying too

Great point about the spin. I was thinking in terms of sheer pace, but you're probably right about the spin.

Yeah, the more I think people understimate the challenge of hitting, let alone volleying, pro-level balls.

I coach - but not at a level where this discussion is really in my sphere. Next time I'm chatting to some 'guru' coaches I'll be sure to get their opinion....

[BTURNER]

When I watched a lot the absolute best was Stolle, Carillo and Drysdale. She was not stale back then but very intuitive and insightful , cliff was smooth as silk and Fred was very mechanically knowledgeable. I learned a lot from them and laughed at their humor.

[hoodjem]

I always liked good ole Stolle. He always sounded like a guy who really knew his stuff, and you could go have a beer with.

[PeterFig]

Originally Posted by BTURNER

When I watched a lot the absolute best was Stolle, Carillo and Drysdale. She was not stale back then but very intuitive and insightful , cliff was smooth as silk and Fred was very mechanically knowledgeable. I learned a lot from them and laughed at their humor.

100% agree with you. Loved that trio!
They had a really good chemistry together that brought out the best in each.

[bluetrain4]

Originally Posted by BTURNER

When I watched a lot the absolute best was Stolle, Carillo and Drysdale. She was not stale back then but very intuitive and insightful , cliff was smooth as silk and Fred was very mechanically knowledgeable. I learned a lot from them and laughed at their humor.

Carillo has really come off the rails in the past years. She was once very good. Now, she still has her moments, but she's such an oddball and seems to be trying SO hard to be witty and insightful.