TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

22 year old Latvian Ernests Gulbis claimed his second career ATP title with a 3-sets win over top seed Mardy Fish on the Westwood campus of UCLA. It’s the 14th time in 85 years that a European has won the Farmers Classic title and he’s the first unseeded winner since Radek Stepanek in 2007. And Gulbis did it the hard way by becoming only the ninth player in the Open Era in L.A. to defeat the first and second seeds en route to the title.

Fish who’s ranked 9th in the world and the #1 American was the winner last week in Atlanta, was contesting consecutive ATP World Tour finals for the second time in his career. Last summer he won 2 straight titles in Newport and Atlanta.

It was also a special doubles win for 39 year old ex-Bruin Mark Knowles who teamed with Belgian Xavier Mallise on his old home court for their first title together.

Here are your official finals results from Sunday:
Singles – Final
Ernest Gulbis (LAT) defeated [1] Mardy Fish 5-7 6-4 6-4

Doubles – Final
[3] Mark Knowles (BAH) / Xavier Malisse (BEL) defeated Somdev Devvarman (IND) / Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) 7-6 (3) 7-6 (10)

Ernests Gulbis with Ted Sobel:

So congrats to Mr. Gulbis who is a rare outspoken pro tennis player which is extremely refreshing in a sport where either political correctness or sheer lack of personality is most previlent. After his win over Fish, Ernests (who was named for Ernest Hemmingway of all people) talked openly about his October 2009 arrest on a Sunday night after a tournament in Sweden. He spent the night in jail before being released on Monday morning, for attempted solicitation of a prostitute. In Sweden the criminal burden is on the person soliciting sex, not the prostitute offering the service. So Gulbis and a friend were apparently caught as they entered a Stockholm hotel in the company of prostitutes and eventually, according to Swedish press accounts, he copped a plea and was fined 2,500 Swedish Kronor ($382 Canadian). And the rest he has no trouble laughing about now as you’ll hear in his post championship match gang bang (if you’ll pardon the expression-lol)…

Ernests Gulbis speaks about his night in jail:

So that wraps up my 11th year as the Stadium Court announcer for the Farmers Classic (the longest running pro sports event in Los Angeles). My thanks to tournament director Bob Kramer, assistant tournament director Khim Stithem and their entire staff including director of media Pete Holtermann, and stadium producer John Coleman for another great week and the tennis was outstanding again as well. Hope to see you back there next year when it will go up against the London Olympic games which will make it a challenge that we will once again find a way to overcome. 🙂

The Farmers Classic is moving into it’s 3rd day of tennis here at UCLA and Wednesday’s action will be highlighted by the return of 2008 tournament champion Juan Martin del Potro. The 2009 US Open Champion will play during the evening match against James Blake who was a first round straight sets winner over German Michael Berrer. It was nice to sit down with the returning del Potro who is just about fully healed from wrist surgery and feeling ready to become a 2-time L.A. champ.

Juan Martin del Potro with Ted Sobel:

Marcos Baghdatis will be pulling double duty with both his singles and doubles debut on Stadium Court. Xavier Malisse, Dmitry Tursunov and Fernando Gonzalez all return Wednesday in the six featured first round doubles matches. The Play begins at 2:00PM.

I’m back here after a 2 week hiatus in which we’ve been waiting for the NFL lockout to end while the NBA ponders possibly missing an entire season with their huge labor dispute. And in the middle of the dog days of the baseball season it’s that time again for the 85th annual L.A. Farmers Tennis Classic presented by Mercedes Benz at UCLA which I’ve been involved with for over 2 decades as a reporter and their main stadium court announcer for the past 11 years (and several years prior as the other guy behind Mike Walden and Eric Tracy).

This past Thursday I had the privilege of sitting down with tennis Hall of Famer Pete Sampras who’s 14 grand slam titles trails only Roger Federer’s 16. Pete won an incredible total of 64 ATP singles titles, 2 of them here in his hometown of L.A. on these same courts at UCLA which bring back so many good memories. So it was fun to reminisce with him about his standout career and thoughts about the future of American tennis. FYI, I’ve dealt with Sampras since his teens and it’s hard to believe that as per a college football coach’s once infamous rant put it…on August 12, Pete becomes ‘A Man’ HE’S 40!…WoW 🙂

Pete Sampras with Ted Sobel:

I also had a nice chat with the #1 ranked collegiate player in the country Steve Johnson who’s been a part of back to back to back national team championships at USC. And Johnson completed a remarkable tennis season on May 30 by becoming the first Trojan in 15 years to win the NCAA men’s singles championship. Now he’s getting ready to not only play in this his hometown pro tournament but hopefully be a wild card in the upcoming U.S. Open. Immediately after his unique opportunity of getting to hit balls with Sampras, Steve and I discussed his mindset as he gets closer to his childhood dream of becoming a pro tennis player…

Steve Johnson with Ted Sobel:

Here is all you need to know about the tennis week ahead at UCLA:

Tuesday’s “Super Session” will be loaded with nine first round singles matches on the schedule, including James Blake vs. Michael Berrer, Tommy Haas vs. No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov, Fernando Gonzalez vs. No. 8 Igor Kunitsyn, No. 5 Xavier Malisse vs. Ernests Gulbis, Ryan Harrison vs. Richard Berankis and NCAA National Champion Steve Johnson from USC against Gilles Muller. The 2011 debut of Juan Martin del Potro is slated to take place on Wednesday, while top seed Mardy Fish will be in action Thursday.

MONDAY – “Super Session” beginning at 2 p.m. will include a doubles match with James Blake & Ryan Sweeting against Tommy Haas & Michael Berrer plus singles matches with No. 6 seed and 2006 finalist Dmitry Tursunov vs. American Michael Russell, wild card Robby Ginepri vs. Yen-Hsun Lu and Sweeting vs. Somdev Devvarman.

TUESDAY – The remaining nine first round singles matches will take place during Tuesday’s “Super Session,” including Blake vs. Berrer, Haas vs. No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov, Fernando Gonzalez vs. No. 8 Igor Kunitsyn, No. 5 Xavier Malisse vs. Ernests Gulbis, Ryan Harrison vs. Richard Berankis and NCAA National Champion Steve Johnson from USC against Gilles Muller.

WEDNESDAY – Wednesday’s “Super Session” is slated to feature four second round singles matches, including the return of 2008 champion Juan Martin del Potro, who will play either Blake or Berrer.

THURSDAY – Top seed and the No. 1 American Mardy Fish (the singles champion of the Atlanta tournament today over John Isner and leading the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge) will be featured in either the day or night session as the remaining four second round matches are played.

The Monday-Wednesday “Super Sessions” will start at 2 p.m., while Thursday-Saturday will feature separate day and night sessions before one session for the finals on Sunday. As play starts at 2pm Monday through Wednesday, gates will open at 1pm and ticket windows will be open at 12:30. More information can be found at http://www.FarmersClassic.com/Tickets or by calling (310) 824 -1010 ext. 251.

And in addition to the top four seeded teams in the doubles draw this week, many of the singles players have teamed up together in attempts to shake up the doubles competition. Interesting teams to keep an eye out for include Tursunov/Dimitrov, Baghdatis/Russell, Gonzalez/Massu, Berrer/Haas, Falla/Bellucci, and Blake/Sweeting.

For the entire Farmers Classic singles and doubles draws this week please click on the following attachment:
Farmers Draw Singles and Doubles 7-24-11[1]

For Monday’s full tennis schedule please click on the following attachment:
Farmers Classic Order of Play – Monday, July 25[1]

The MLB All-Stars were announced on Sunday which was great timing for me to be at the finale of the Angels-Dodgers freeway series in Anaheim. Off to the July 12 mid-summer’s classic in Phoenix from the Halos will be starter Jered Weaver and second baseman Howie Kendrick. The Dodgers will be represented by first time all-stars lefty Clayton Kershaw and centerfielder Matt Kemp who was voted in by the fans as a starter.

I spoke with all of the So-Cal all-stars to get their reactions just for you…

Jered Weaver with Ted Sobel:

Howie Kendrick with Ted Sobel:

Clayton Kershaw with Ted Sobel:

Matt Kemp with Ted Sobel:

There’s also one roster spot left open for the final vote which L.A. fans (what’s left of them) hope to get Phoenix native Andre Ethier to be a 2nd time all-star in front of his homies. And Andre not only was excited for his 2 Dodger teammates but also in a seller’s mode to help get the votes needed by Thursday afternoon through little ‘ol me…

Andre Ethier with Ted Sobel:

Before the game in our usual dugout get together, I asked Dodger manager Don Mattingly about what he remembered from his first all-star appearance…and he just loved the white shoes worn back in the day. Donny Baseball also praised Kemp and Kershaw while lobbying for his right fielder Mr. Ethier to make it to Phoenix…

Don Mattingly with Ted Sobel on his first all-star game, etc.:

I met Mark Howe about 15 years ago when I was early into my 5 year stint as the now defunct International Hockey League Long Beach Ice Dogs play by play announcer. Mark already had a few years under his belt as a top scout for the Detroit Red Wings and I’d run into him from time to time (mostly in the upper midwest). And when I often desperately needed a between periods guest on the radio, who better than a potential future hall of fame defenseman and the son of Mr. Hockey to get on a semi-regular basis? And we’ve remained friends from a distance ever since.

So it was definitely exciting for me on Tuesday when I heard the news that Mark Howe was elected as part of the 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame class of 4 along with Joe Nieuwendyk, Ed Belfour and Doug Gilmour. And as you’ll hear in the our interview, Mark is the only one of the foursome to not have won a Stanley Cup and of course that still bothers him to this day.

That just means that Mark had to get to ‘The Hall’ via a different route. Like starting out as a forward playing on a WHA line In Houston and New England with his Hall of Fame father Gordie and brother Marty (winning 2 Avco Cups together in 6 WHA seasons) and then later switching to defense and finished with 197 goals and 742 points in 929 NHL games with the Hartford Whalers (3 years), Philadelphia Flyers (10 years) and Detroit Red Wings (final 3 seasons).

Mark is now in his 19th year as the Detroit Red Wings Director of Scouting and is already a U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer and is in the Flyers HOF as well. And now he tells me that there’s a 4th Hall of Fame announcement coming next week (and it’s up to you to guess where?). He also surprised me with another announcement–he’s about to become a Grandpa this winter for a first time too! So everything’s coming up roses for the Howe family and what a night it’ll be on November 14 in Toronto when hopefully Mark will don his now 83 year old Dad’s Red Wings #9 for the first and only time for all to celebrate one of hockey’s greatest families. And if you ever met any of them…they are all worthy of the people Hall of Fame.

Mark Howe with Ted Sobel:

With a potentially long NBA lockout looming…the Lakers 3 draft picks along with 17 other NBA free agents took part in a two-day mini-camp at their practice facility in El Segundo California. And this gave us media types the opportunity to meet the guys who hope to be the Lakers of the future.

I spoke with 2 of them…
L.A.’s first pick (41st overall) Darius Morris, a 6-4 point guard who played for Windward High in Mar Vista (on the westside of Los Angeles) before going to the University of Michigan. And 5 picks later in the 2nd round Andrew Goudelock, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from the College of Charleston.

They are both personable young men who I thought you’d like to get to know-whether or not we start the next NBA season on time???

Darius Morris with Ted Sobel:

Andrew Goudelock with Ted Sobel: