Saturday, August 7, 2004
No game or bet too small for Robredo
Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Notebook
By Neil Schmidt
Enquirer staff writer
MASON - Who's this Tommy? The Who's Tommy.
Tommy Robredo was named after The Who's rock opera, Tommy, by his father, Angel. Robredo isn't big on that album, though he insists he matches the "pinball wizard" talents of its title character.
"I love to play pinball, that's true," Robredo said. "With my last coach ... every time there was a pinball tournament, we were all day there."
Robredo is the least-known member of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters' final four. The 22-year-old Spaniard, in just his second career Masters Series semifinal, is clearly having fun.
And we're not just talking about the Ms. Pac-Man game in the players' lounge he has been glued to all week.
As he walked to the net Friday to shake hands with Fabrice Santoro, whom he beat 6-2, 6-3, Robredo pointed to coach Mariano Monachesi. Then he motioned across the street to Paramount's Kings Island and moved his hand up and down.
The reason? He had made a bet that if he won, Monachesi had to ride the Drop Zone, which has a 26-story freefall.
"He don't really like it that much," Robredo said. "... I will go for sure to have fun there and to (see) him not having so much fun."
Robredo won an earlier bet with his coach at the Barcelona event in April that if he won the tournament, Monachesi had to cut off his long hair.
"Tomorrow is going to be another bet," Robredo said. "If I win again, he's gonna do another thing - a little bit harder, no, with more risk, or a more funny thing."
EXPERIENCE: Robredo won't be daunted today in his second meeting with Lleyton Hewitt. He beat Hewitt last year at the French Open when the Australian was ranked No. 1, coming from two sets down to do it.
That was on clay, Robredo's favorite surface. But he grew up playing on hard courts.
"In the last two or three years, I win a lot of matches on every surface," Robredo said.
THIS AND THAT: Last week, when Andre Agassi fell to No. 11 in the world rankings, it marked the first time since May 23, 1988, that neither he nor Pete Sampras ranked in the top 10. ... Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and brothers Bob and Mike Bryan attended the Dave Matthews Band concert Thursday at Riverbend.
TV SYNERGY: As part of the U.S. Open Series, this tournament and the women's Rogers Cup from Montreal will be packaged together on television.
Today on ESPN2, the Hewitt-Robredo semifinal will be shown on tape delay from 6-8 p.m., followed by the live telecast of the second semifinal. At 10 p.m., the network will air a tape-delayed women's semifinal.
Sunday, the Rogers Cup final will air live at 2 p.m. on ESPN2; the W&S Masters is at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
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E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com
