Dent returns to familiar turf

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from Tennisweek <http://tinyurl.com/8m6lb> An ankle injury has limited Taylor Dent to three matches in the last two months, but the man whose serve is so explosive you could install speed bumps in the service box and still not slow it down enough to prevent percussive collisions with the back wall will undoubtedly experience another break out at Wimbledon next week. There's an energy in the air at the All England Club that touches the 30th-ranked American every time he steps foot on court. Dent carries more than a serve-and-volley style that should play well on the game's greatest grass-court stage, he carries goose-bumps the size of mothballs "For me there's something else going on there. It's tough to really explain," Dent said in a conference call today to promote his appearance at next month's Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on the grass courts of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport. "For some reason I'm always more nervous playing matches there than anywhere else. I step out on the court, and there's just a buzz with the crowd. Everyone wants a ticket in. People can't get in. They're waiting outside. There's something unbelievably energetic about the place. I've played on Centre Court now I think three times, and every time it's given me goose bumps. So I can't explain what it is, but for me there just definitely is something there." The nervous excitement of playing Wimbledon can make Dent break out every time he steps on Centre Court, but can he break through and reach the second week for the first time? It's a question Dent himself can't definitively answer at this point. The serve-and-volleyer spends matches surging forward in a series of sprints toward the net, but with the exception of his thrilling 7-6(9), 6-7(3), 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Fernando Gonzales in the third round of the 2003 U.S. Open, Dent has found the best-of-five set format to be as draining as running a marathon while carrying a microwave oven strapped to his back. "It's a long way to go. If you play a five-set match, I don't care even if you're well prepared, it's still a long time out on the court and you're going to be tired," Dent said. "I'm just going to have to cross that bridge when I get there. I've been trying to go for long jogs to get ready for it. But, like I said, sitting down for two months, not knowing what to do with my ankle, hasn't really given me a lot of opportunity to train and work out. The body hasn't been responding well to long jogs or anything. So, you know, hopefully I'm just going to play a lot of points here at Nottingham and then a lot of points for the practice week at Wimbledon and just get in some sort of shape so I can last a little bit." Conditioning is a question mark for Dent, who sustained an ankle injury during his run to the Key Biscayne quarterfinals that concluded with a 7-5, 6-0 loss to Andre Agassi in March. The injury confined Dent to the sidelines for two months. He was rusty in his return to tournament tennis last week, falling to U.S. Open junior champion Andrew Murray, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of Queen's Club. In the wake Agassi's withdrawal from Wimbledon today, Dent will arrive at the All England Club on Monday as the second highest ranked American behind 2004 finalist Andy Roddick, who defeated Dent, 6-3, 7-6(6), 7-6(1) in the third round of Wimbledon last year. It equaled Dent's best result in five Wimbledon appearances. The 24-year-old Newport Beach native has been trying to convince himself that grass is the surface best suited to his style, but succeeding at Wimbledon is proving to be a slippery slope for a player who should be a threat on grass. Traditionally, serve-and-volley success has been rooted in the grass-court grounds of Wimbledon, but Dent said the firmer grass used at Wimbledon has created slower conditions more conducive to passing shots of baseline players. "It actually depends on the grass court, believe it or not. I've kind of been trying to talk myself into grass being my favorite surface for the last couple years," Dent said. "But the fact of the matter is that at Wimbledon these days, the grass is very slow, it's very tough to move on, it's a little slippery, and the balls are heavy. So it's not the best surface for me. Whereas the courts at Rhode Island are a lot softer and the ball skips through a lot more. So those suit me a lot better than the courts at Wimbledon because it makes it tougher for guys to return and to pass. But as far as overall, my best surface, my favorite surface, probably like a fast hard or an indoor court because I get good footing around the net, I can push off and dive for volleys, and my volleys and serves are skidding through the court so it doesn't give guys time to hit good passing shots. " Three years ago, Dent captured his first career ATP tournament title on the historic Hall of Fame lawn in Newport, beating friend and fellow American James Blake in the final. Dent made history at the Hall of Fame etching his name alongside father Phil Dent, a former Australian Davis Cup player and 1974 Australian Open finalist, as the Dents became the only father and son to win ATP tournament titles in the Open Era. "I think on top of the list for a lot of the American players to go and play," Dent said of Newport. "It's back in the States. It's on grass. We like faster courts. It's an awesome place. I don't think you can find too many places around the world that are nicer than Newport, Rhode Island." Illness and injury have slowed Dent's progress preventing him from building on big wins this year. He beat Australian Open champion Marat Safin in the third round of Indian Wells but was forced to retire from his fourth-round match with Guillermo Canas after contracting food poisoning. Dent played one of his best matches of the year in conquering 2004 Key Biscayne finalist Guillermo Coria, 6-3, 6-4, in the third of the Nasdaq-100 Open in March, but hobbled to a loss against Agassi in the quarterfinals. Staying in shape and regaining his health have been Dent's biggest challenges during his time off from tennis, which coincided with the clay-court season where he typically struggles. "That's happened a few times in my career. The bottom line is I'm doing everything I can to be the best player I can," Dent said. "I can't control what happened to my ankle in Miami. I can't control getting food poisoning in Indian Wells. You know, those things are out of my control. So I can't be too upset with that. I have to just go on about my business and make sure that I'm giving myself the best chance possible to, you know, be the tennis player I want to be. You know, that means taking care of injuries and doing all this stuff. So I feel like I'm doing that right now, and sooner or later hopefully the tide will turn and things will start to go my way." -- ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ kour 的文章 __ □ ╳ ▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆ ◢╦︽╮◣ ▁▁▁▁ ▁▁▁▁ ╠═╯ 這篇文章為 kour發表的ꨠ▏確定▉ ▏取消▉ ◥╠╬╬◤ ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.130.169.226