Miloslav Mecir

[jbill]

I did a double-take when I looked at the qualifying draw of the ATP Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria, today and saw a Miloslav Mecir who had won his way into the main draw and then beat Pablo Andujar in the first round.

It couldn't have been the Olympic Gold Medalist making a comeback could it? Nope. Just his son who is 25 and ranked around 240 in the world. Supposedly plays a lot like his dad. What was he called? The Big Cat?

Just thought I'd bring it to anyone's attention who might be interested.

jbill

[klacr]

jbill,

I saw that as well. I'm a bit too young to remember The Big Cat in his prime, but I do remember him coaching Karol Kucera and I loved Kucera's game whom people said was like Mecir. very smooth

ATP Tour just wrote an article about Mecir Junior. Check it out...

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...our-Debut.aspx

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[jbill]

Kyle, thanks for the tip on the article about Mecir Jr.

jbill

[stotty]

Big Cat...Little Cat

Baby Mecir has lots to live up to in terms of emulating daddy. Miloslav Mecir was THE favourite amongst tennis connoisseurs, perhaps more than any other tennis player. He was a gem. I believe he was the last player to use a wooden racket. Mecir marked was the end of the wooden racket. It must have been great to be loved and admired for being a pure tennis player and not by slams won...just great to watch...perhaps this is how it should be.

I would love to see his son play, just to see if anything rubbed off. The power of genetics says something could well have...

[GeoffWilliams]

Mr: "I want to be with the fishes.", was: A master at changing pace and injecting extra jamming spin.

[don_budge]

The fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree...

I would love to see his son play, just to see if anything rubbed off. The power of genetics says something could well have...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8rFqfbo3vs

Chip off the old block...by all appearances. Lovely forehand...same looks as the father. Silky smooth movement. Lost a fairly close match to Tommy Haas the other day...two close sets anyways.

[don_budge]

Mecir vs. McEnroe...Dallas 1987 finals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtTKjuPcj4Q

A little cat and mouse by two experts...tactics. Vintage McEnroe...in terms of his behavior at least. McEnroe at one point picks up his racquets as if to quit the match and carries on a vociferous argument at 1.20 in the video. Great commentary by John Newcombe and Tony Trabert. Miloslav's biggest win and his biggest tournament win?

It was the Tatum O'Neal years for Mac.

A nice tribute to Jean Borotra at 1.49 in the video.

[bottle]

Is this the first of four videos you meant to link with, Steve? I think you got Jr. Mecir's down twice.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mecir+vs.+mcEnroe&FORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=A10035C62DA63846FDFFA10035C62DA63846FDFF

What an entertaining match! But I'm still looking for the Borotra tribute.

[don_budge]

Edit function...

Is this the first of four videos you meant to link with, Steve? I think you got Jr. Mecir's down twice.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...C62DA63846FDFF

Thank God for the Edit function. I had it down twice. Chip off the old block John? Thanks.

But check out McEnroe. He must not have slept very well. The match began at 10 AM and he jokes about it with Mecir at the awards ceremony. He advises Miloslav to stay single for a couple of more years...Johnny has a child with Tatum with another in the oven. Clearly in over his head.

[stotty]

Mac past his best

I've watched some of the clip of Mecir and McEnroe in Dallas. Mac is well past his best here. He's lost 20 percent of his game and his serve is diseased...the backswing has started to morph...the racket head during the backswing goes back and back and back beyond the baseline as illustrated by John in an article somewhere on Tennisplayer...not as extreme but the disease has started to set in.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/teaching_systems/john_yandell/VisualTennis_Part2/Yandell_VTP2_McEnroe_Case_Study.html

And you can compare Dallas with 1980. Compare his serve to the deuce court. Interesting.

http://vimeo.com/30721867

Mac took seven months out of the game and was never the same again. Nadal takes seven months out and comes back the greatest player the world has ever seen. This is strange because Mac is a genius whereas Nadal isn't. This is the kind of stunt Mac should have been able to pull off, not Nadal. I guess genius can lose it's way but it does seem odd.

Anything post 1984 is not vintage Mac for me. I love Mecir but he didn't beat the real deal here. This is why I largely ignore historical head-to-head records because unless players are of equal age you are getting records that involve twilight years...or in the case of Borg and Panatta, formative years. It's the zenith that counts.

Mac didn't walk out of the game like Borg but he was effectively finished at the same age...26.

[don_budge]

Dallas 1987...Enter the era of Modern Tennis and a couple of Cool Cats..

Mac is well past his best here. He's lost 20 percent of his game and his serve is diseased...the backswing has started to morph...the racket head during the backswing goes back and back and back beyond the baseline as illustrated by John in an article somewhere on Tennisplayer...not as extreme but the disease has started to set in.

Mac took seven months out of the game and was never the same again. Nadal takes seven months out and comes back the greatest player the world has ever seen.

Anything post 1984 is not vintage Mac for me. I love Mecir but he didn't beat the real deal here.

Mac didn't walk out of the game like Borg but he was effectively finished at the same age...26.

You make some really interesting points and comments licensedcoach...per usual. Per usual...you leave the door wide open for discussion. A key indicator of a great conversationalist. Thank you.

This is Dallas 1987 and McEnroe is definitely past his zenith yet his entertainment value is still the top draw in tennis. Johnny Boy had defeated Stefan Edberg in a scintillating four set match in the semi finals when he served brilliantly. The match against Edberg is a completely different effort than the one against Mecir which was testimony to his brilliance...his mercurial ability to change himself to best apply his assets against those of his opponent. The semifinal with Edberg was more or less the precursor of tennis immediately post the classic era that was characterized by powerful serve and volley tennis. A bit too powerful even as the equipment began to reshape the game. John's game was in "decline" to be certain but on any given day he was very capable of giving it that old "McEnroe try".

I agree with you about his service motion as the backswing has something of an anomaly going on quite outside of the idiosyncrasy of the McEnroe normal motion. There was a little funny business going on in the backswing as I say...something little extra motion that was unnecessary and something that will eventually create friction in the motion and become a hindrance. That was a fascinating article by John Yandell too and had to be one of the highlights of his career to do an examination of this wild man's engineering marvel of a motion. I think that one of the most interesting aspects of the McEnroe serve was that he wasn't going to necessarily beat you with speed or power but it was his serving tactics that made him so brilliant...that and the fact that he was left handed. Perfect left-handed serving tactics...a tough combination to beat.

Here...watch this match of McEnroe and Edberg. Your French is bound to improve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oak7CcbwE9g

The difference in the seven months that McEnroe took off and the seven that Nadal took off may be in the drugs they were taking. McEnroe was in his Tatum O'Neal years and may have been using recreational drugs whereas Nadal...well it's all speculation isn't it. It isn't my pipe dream by the way. During that seven months McEnroe also became a father for the first time which also contributed to his loss of concentration from the game of tennis.

1984 was like a dream when it comes to John McEnroe as he hit a zenith so high against some of the toughest competition ever and at the peak transition moment of the change in equipment. That was the line of demarcation when it came to classic tennis and modern tennis...for all of you tennis historians and tennis students out there. If you will...1987 might still be "The Twilight Zone" of tennis. The era when the classic era was not a distant memory and the modern era had not completely metabolized.

But in this match he is up against a 22 year old "Big Cat" as in Puma or Mountain Lion. Such was the graceful play and subtle lethal hunting of the feline Czech. Miloslav Mecir was knocking on the door of greatness in 1987 but for some reason was never really able to enter the same room as the greatest names in tennis during that era. Listening to John Newcombe, Tony Trabert and Tim Ryan one is able to discern much that is going on in the world of tennis back then. There was a wealth of experience in the announcing booth on that particular day. The savvy Australian and American were a great team when it came to providing insight into the game and into the players heads. Both men products of the classic era of tennis obviously. Everybody in the booth was predicting a bunch of Slam titles for Mecir but it never did happen. Too bad...he was truly a beautiful player of the game. As you have noted he also had a deep respect and reverence for the game as well as he may have been the last player to use a wooden racquet.

On this day in Dallas, McEnroe and Mecir put on quite a display of "cat and mouse" tennis as they take turns playing the cat and playing the mouse...often changing the role of either during the course of any single point. Rarely...if ever will you ever see such guile and tactical acumen between two competitors. Certainly you can safely say now that you will never see it again. Both players are playing with approximately 80 Square Inches of real estate and the game is just slow enough and just fast enough to accomplish just about anything with a tennis racquet that these two genius are inspired to do. A brilliant contrast as to what role that McEnroe played against Stefan Edberg in the semifinals...when he displayed his power game with everything he could muster. Maybe he wasn't in 1984 form but he still put on a great display when he was up to it.

Besides his playing ability...his ability to work the umpire, his opponent, the tournament director and work the crowd was second to none. In the match with Mecir he worked the whole thing like a conductor of a symphony orchestra. The mad genius at work. Some of his comments are so witty, so sardonic that if you permit yourself to...you could laugh yourself to tears. He was rude to the point of traversing the razor's edge as he was only an infraction of two from losing the entire match due to a disqualification.

In this sense it was vintage McEnroe. His ability to entertain and walk the fine line between passable and criminal is pure American realism. Getting away with every little tiny bit of advantage is a deep cutting edge of the culture...particularly during his times when change was occurring at an unprecedented rate...social change. Social engineering. McEnroe was an icon that represented that change. American culture was coming off of the heels of the 1960's revolution...spearheaded by Vietnam War and subsequent period of unrest and dissatisfaction of the youth. The social engineers managed to channel his energy into Nike and the Swoosh which in turn only served to fuel The Machine. That was a brilliant move as well.

For a great read on McEnroe...try "Being John McEnroe" by Tim Adams. It is a brilliant dissection of the man and the times. A very revealing book.

I believe that McEnroe would have stayed at the top of the game for a much longer period if the equipment had not changed on his watch. It seems that his destiny was to be the one who danced precariously on the razor's edge. He was always betwixt and between after his rival Björn Borg left the scene. He alone was left to guard the throne against the upstarts that were bringing a new wrinkle to the game courtesy of the engineering. His game was one of such finesse and a fine blend of control and power. A nimble balance...a precarious balance. It was designed perfectly for wood. Although he made the necessary accommodation to compete in the new era, the equipment change was definitely to his detriment...power became the drug of choice. As far as John McEnroe being finished. I am not so certain that this guy will ever truly be finished. He's a bit larger than life it seems.

[GeoffWilliams]

Strange how often famous athletes like Mac are forgiven all sins: horse steroid, cocaine (according to wife), not paying stringers (according to Draculie), and general hatred of stringers charging him period. No one cares about those things, and see only talent over all else! I wish that kind of forgiveness applied to me and my profession.

[nikae]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8rFqfbo3vs

Chip off the old block...by all appearances. Lovely forehand...same looks as the father. Silky smooth movement. Lost a fairly close match to Tommy Haas the other day...two close sets anyways.

Why does he rotate so much on the forehand? He has both feet off the group at one point on every forehand.