PARIS (AP) — Paul Annacone was smart enough to coach Pete Sampras and Roger Federer to Grand Slam titles, but the player he’s currently working with, Sloane Stephens, rolls her eyes when it comes to Annacone’s cellphone skills.
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” the 15th-seeded American said after her first-round French Open win Tuesday.
First of all, Stephens explained with perhaps a touch of hyperbole, Annacone set up his new phone with oversized lettering, making one word fill the entire screen.
“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stephens said with a smile.
Then she got on a roll.
“He doesn’t know how to put on Wi-Fi or anything, so in Australia he had like a $2,000 phone bill, because he was like on Twitter. He had his data roaming on or whatever instead of being on Wi-Fi,” Stephens said. “I’m like, ‘Dude.’ He’s like sending Twitter pictures off his data. I’m like, ‘That is not ideal.'”
— Howard Fendrich, http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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COFFEE BREAK: Staying focused is hard enough, but Jelena Jankovic said Tuesday she had trouble just staying awake before her opening match at the French Open.
Because of the rain, the sixth-seeded Serb had to wait nearly all day to start her match Monday evening. She quickly lost the first set before play was suspended by darkness.
“I had quite a lot of coffees, and my eyes — I needed to be alert and just ready to go, quite active; I could not make that happen,” Jankovic said Tuesday after action resumed and she finally beat Sharon Fichman of Canada. “My opponent was way more kind of hyper and playing so well. She was all over the place. I was like in slow motion.”
The overnight break helped Jankovic just enough to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
“Today was a little bit better,” she said. “I needed to start off very well today and hopefully win that third set, so overall quite a lot of things going on in my mind.”
— Chris Lehourites
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YEA OR NAY: David Ferrer had to make a choice, and he picked the French Open.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard didn’t submit a ballot in last weekend’s European elections because he was in Paris getting ready for Roland Garros, where he was the runner-up a year ago.
“But I wanted to vote,” Ferrer said after winning Tuesday. “Of course I read the papers. I’m interested in policy and politics.”
Spain was among the European countries hardest hit by the financial crisis, and Ferrer said everyone should do their part to help in the recovery.
“I think that all of us should contribute, even though it might be in a minimal way, to improve the situation and do good for all people on earth,” Ferrer said. “We have to fight for our ideas.”
— Trung Latieule
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TOUGH LOVE: After a difficult year on tour, Bernard Tomic was happy to have his father back by his side at the French Open.
John Tomic, who is also Bernard’s coach, recently completed a one-year suspension from the men’s tennis tour for head-butting his son’s hitting partner in May 2013. He was convicted in September by a Spanish court of assault and given a suspended eight-month jail sentence.
“It’s good to have him back,” the younger Tomic said after losing to No. 12 Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 on Tuesday.
“We started a long journey together, my dad and myself,” the Australian added. “We didn’t have nothing, so my dad is everything to me. He knows everything about me. It’s stupid for me to lose someone like that in my life that brought me to the level where I was at.”
— Trung Latieule
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French Open Watch follows tennis’ clay-court Grand Slam tournament in Paris as seen by journalists from The Associated Press. It will be updated throughout the day.
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