Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed (also called “canola”), rye, corn, linseed and soy.
The term was first used by paranormal researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching. While patterns involving complex geometries have been observed, the term circle has stuck as a generic term crop patterns.
Many circles are known to be man-made, such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg. [6][9] Bower and Chorley were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 1992 for their crop circle hoaxing.
Various hypotheses have been offered to explain the formation of crop circles of unknown origin, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal. The main naturalistic explanation is that all crop circles are man-made, primarily as a hoax. Another naturalistic explanation is that they are caused by ball lightning. Paranormal explanations suggest that, while some crop circles are man-made, others are the product of alien spacecraft or supernatural processes such as communication from Gaia or from extraterrestials in a Galactic Federation.
History
The earliest recorded image resembling a crop circle is depicted in a 17th-century English woodcut called the “Mowing-Devil”. The image depicts the devil with a scythe mowing (cutting) a circular design in a field of oats. The pamphlet containing the image states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was demanding for his work, insisted that he would rather have “the devil himself” perform the task. That night, the crop appeared as if it were on fire, then in the morning a circular pattern had mysteriously appeared.
1678 pamphlet on the “Mowing-Devil”
A more recent historical report of crop circles was republished (from Nature, volume 22, pp. 290-291, 29 July 1880) in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Meteorology.It describes the 1880 investigations by amateur scientist John Rand Capron:
“The storms about this part of Western Surrey have been lately local and violent, and the effects produced in some instances curious. Visiting a neighbour’s farm on Wednesday evening (21st), we found a field of standing wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance, circular spots….I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind or rain, or both combined, which had caused them, beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action,…”
In 1966, one of the most famous accounts of UFO traces happened in the small town of Tully, Queensland, Australia. A sugarcane farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet (12 m) up from a swamp and then fly away, and when he went to investigate the location where he thought the saucer had landed, he found the reeds intricately weaved in a clockwise fashion on top of the water.The woven reeds could hold the weight of 10 men.
There are also many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles in Ufology literature that predate the modern crop circle phenomena, though some cases involve crops which were cut or burnt, rather than flattened.
Crop circles rose in prominence in 1975 as circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. The phenomenon of crop circles became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire and corresponding phenomena were reported from locations as diverse as Penrith in Australia and Minnesota in the United States. To date, approximately 12,000 crop circles have been discovered in sites across the world, from locations such as the former Soviet Union, the UK and Japan, as well as the U.S. and Canada. Skeptics note a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.However, proponents point to the simple profusion of these events prior to and continuing after the decline in media coverage as rendering the amateur crank phenomenon unlikely.
Although farmers have expressed concern at the damage caused to their crops, local response to the appearance of crop circles can often be enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the tourist potential of circles. Past responses have included bus or helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, t-shirts and book sales. Potential markets include curious tourists, scientists, crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking a spiritual experience by praying to and communing with spirits.Notably also, the crop generally continues to ripen in a ‘genuine’ circle, being laid flat rather than broken. Some researchers have found that the corn appears to have bent at the nodes of the stalks, showing that can only be replicated in the lab using a microwave oven. In rarer cases, this has occurred near the top of the stems, not the bottom, all but ruling out human involvement .
In 1996, a circle appeared near Stonehenge, and the farmer set up a booth and charged a fee. He collected £30,000 in four weeks. The value of the crop had it been harvested was probably about £150.
Crop circle designs
Wheat pattern about 150 feet (46 m) in diameter with crop laid down in counterclockwise circles discovered on May 14, 2007, by Monroe County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Bryan Graves while flying. First aerial photographs on Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
Early examples of crop circles were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes. After some years, more complex geometric patterns emerged. In addition to circle designs based on sacred geometry, some of the later formations, those occurring after 2000, are based on other principles, including fractals. Many crop circles now have fine intricate detail, regular symmetry and careful composition, and elements of three-dimensionality have been introduced.
Crop circle maker John Lundberg, in an interview with Mark Pilkington, spoke about this change in crop circle designs: “I am rather envious of circlemakers in other countries. Expectations about the size and complexity of formations that appear in the UK are now very high, whereas the rather shabby looking Russian formation made the national news. Even Vasily Belchenko, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, was on site gushing about its origin: ‘There is no doubt that it was not man made… an unknown object definitely landed there.’ If the same formation appeared in the UK it would undoubtedly be virtually ignored by researchers and the media alike.”
2009 season
Often crop circle seasons begin with a few simple patterns. The 2009 season began with complex and numerous formations.[20] The 2009 season also unusually began with six large formations in rapeseed. “The crop is tougher and more brittle than corn or barley.”During May, June and July crop circles in the UK have pointed to the date July 7th 2009 hinting at solar activity.
Creators of crop circles
A 780 ft. crop circle in the form of a double (six-sided) triskelion composed of 409 circles. Location: Milk Hill, 2001.
In 1991, two men from Southampton, England, announced that they had conceived the idea as a prank at a pub near Winchester, Hampshire, during an evening in 1976. Inspired by the 1966 Tully Saucer Nests, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools: using a four-foot-long plank attached to a rope, they easily created circles eight feet in diameter. The two men were able to make a 40-foot (12 m) circle in 15 minutes.
The pair became frustrated when their work did not receive significant publicity, so in 1981, they created a circle in Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre just outside Winchester, Hampshire-an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by. Their designs were at first simple circles. When newspapers claimed that the circles could easily be explained by natural phenomena, Bower and Chorley made more complex patterns. A simple wire with a loop, hanging down from a cap-the loop positioned over one eye-could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the creation of straight lines. Later designs of crop circles became increasingly complicated.
Bower’s wife had become suspicious of him, noticing high levels of mileage in their car. Eventually, fearing that his wife suspected him of adultery, Bower confessed to her, and subsequently, he and Chorley informed a British national newspaper. Chorley died in 1996, and Doug Bower has made crop circles as recently as 2004. Bower has said that, had it not been for his wife’s suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing that it was a hoax.
Circlemakers.org, a group of crop circle makers founded by John Lundberg, have demonstrated that making what self-appointed cereologist experts state are “unfakeable” crop circles is possible. On more than one occasion, such cereologists have claimed that a crop circle was “genuine” when in fact the people making the circle had previously been filmed making the circle.
A crop circle in Switzerland
Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley,who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on “expert” sources such as the Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods to create a crop circle are now well documented on the Internet.
On the night of July 11-12, 1992, a crop-circle making competition, for a prize of several thousand UK pounds (partly funded by the Arthur Koestler Foundation), was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three helicopter engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope.
Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to be legally charged with creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in agriculture, created a 36-meter diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 km) southwest of Budapest, on June 8, 1992. On September 3, they appeared on a Hungarian TV show and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made. As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the youngsters for 630,000 HUF (approximately $3000 USD) in damages. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the 36-meter diameter circle, amounting to about 6,000 HUF (approximately $30 USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors that flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media’s promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students’ legal fees.
Not everybody accepts that circles are man-made, believing instead that many designs are too perfect and that they lack signs of human interaction. They also point out that it is highly unlikely that an international wave of highly covert amateur pranksters could have developed prior to the 1991 publicity gained by Bower and Chorley, and that this is far more likely to be a ‘reverse prank’, where credit is taken for an existing phenomenon and an explanation offered in order to garner media attention. The fact that crop circles were widely attested internationally by the late 1980s is thought to have caused the British men to devise a stunt. Among these critics was British-born astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who, prior to his death, argued that some circles displayed a level of complexity and accuracy that would be difficult to recreate on paper, let alone in a field after dark.[19] In response, circle-creating groups and proponents of the man-made hypothesis state that it is possible to create a complex design by marking radii and angles with rope, and to enter and to move about a field using landscape features and tractor trails in order to avoid leaving other marks.
Scientific analysis
In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned five aeronautics and astronautics students from MIT to create crop circles of their own. Discovery’s production team consulted with crop-circle researcher Nancy Talbott, who provided them with three attributes that she believed set “real” crop circles apart from known man-made circles, such as those created by Doug Bower and Dave Chorley.These criteria were:
1. Elongated apical plant stem nodes
2. Expulsion cavities in the plant stems
3. The presence of 10-50 micrometre diameter magnetized iron spheres in the soils, distributed linearly
Over the course of a single night, the team was able to create a stereotypical “man-made” circle that they then attempted to enhance using the three criteria. The team used lengths of rope to plot their design and trampled the wheat down in a spiral pattern using lengths of wooden board attached to loops of rope. To meet criterion 2, they constructed a portable microwave emitter, using it to superheat the moisture inside the corn stalks until it burst out as steam. To meet criterion 3, they built a device-dubbed the Flammenwerfer (”flamethrower”)-that sprayed iron particles through a heated ring. However, the device proved to be too time-consuming to use, and they were forced to finish the task by using a pyrotechnic charge to distribute the iron around the circle. The circle was later analyzed by graduate students from MIT, who declared it to be “on a par with any of the documented cases”. Their conclusion was later questioned by Talbott, who noted that the team had only been able to recreate two of the three criteria. Talbott also expressed concerns that the iron particles were not distributed laterally. Furthermore, she felt that the team’s use of night-vision headsets and other technologically advanced items would be out of reach for the average hoaxer.[28] This would have been even more so in the ’70s and ’80s when night-vision equipment was rare outside official use.
The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery Channel documentary Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.
Paranormal and alternative explanations
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[32] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system.Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses have also been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities.
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing. New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to their becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by experts as being indistinct or clear hoaxes.
Analysis
The main criticism of non-human creation of crop circles is that evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is scant. Crop circles are sometimes explicable as the result of human pranksters. There have also been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be “the real thing”, only to be confronted soon after with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud (see above). Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles are created.
The main criticism of human creation of crop circles is that Bower and Chorley could not have covertly travelled internationally and executed all if indeed any known circles prior to their claims in 1991, and that still-secret cells of hoaxers are very unlikely to have spontaneously and successfully joined the game. It is more likely that their “hoax” consisted merely of claiming to have begun the practice years earlier. All subsequent human circle creators derive from the 1991 publicity, and devote their efforts to maintaining the hoax, i.e. to proving the implausible proposition that Bower and Chorley created a world-wide plethora of crop circles in total secrecy. In hoaxer terms, this represents a classic success, an “I’m Brian” scenario.
In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan discussed alien-based theories of crop circle formation. Sagan concluded that no empirical evidence existed to link UFOs with crop circles. Specifically, that there were no credible cases of UFOs being observed creating a circle, yet there were many cases when it was known that human agents, such as Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, were responsible.Circle creators Doug Bower and Dave Chorley concur.
In 1999, researcher Colin Andrews received funding from Laurence Rockefeller to conduct a two- year investigation into crop-circle hoaxing. Andrews put together a team that studied crop circles that had been commissioned by various media outlets and infiltrated several groups known to be creating man-made circles. Using these man-made circles as a base, Andrews went on to study data from circles found in England in 1999 and 2000. Andrews concluded that 80% of all circles studied showed “unassailable” signs of having been man-made, including post holes used to demarcate circle layouts or evidence of human tracks underlying the circle sites, but could not account for the remaining 20%, for which he was unable to find signs of human interaction.Andrews’s figures have been disputed by CSICOP, who argue that Andrews’s criteria for distinguishing between man-made circles and non-man-made circles were insufficient, as no official standard exists for determining the nature of a crop circle.Furthermore, these circles were in England, where the hoax is most operative.
In 2002, Freddy Silva published Secrets in the Fields (2002).He paraphrases Gerald Hawkins’ summary: “If crop circles are made by hoaxers, then they should stop doing it, because they are breaking the law and damaging the food supply. If they are made by UFO aliens, they shouldn’t give us back the dates of our trips to Mars and the names of the men from the Titanic era – famous, clever, but now forgotten. If some are transcendental, the power behind it should realize that our culture is not now willing to accept transcendental happenings. But if they are indeed transcendental, then society will have to make a big adjustment in the years ahead.” (p. 299)
Critics have cited what they refer to as the “shyness factor”. This alludes to the fact that no crop-circle makers have been caught in the act. This assertion is not true however, and there are cases of circle makers being apprehended, including one high-profile case in 1998 when a circle was made for the media and the makers interrupted when seen in the act. In most cases, it appears that the creation of crop circles is a nocturnal activity. Usually nothing is reported, and during one attempt to observe the creation of a crop circle, numerous individuals witnessed nothing out of the ordinary, yet were astounded to see a crop circle in the field only a short distance away from the one they had been watching the next morning.Crop circles known to have formed during daylight have not revealed the presence of hoaxers.[citation needed]
Similar phenomena
* Lawn Cross of Eisenberg an der Raab
* Unusual ground markings
* Nazca lines
* Fairy rings: An unrelated phenomenon where fungal circles are formed by a spreading mycelium. Older, larger fungal circles are not recognized when they have broken into arcs or patches. In Scandinavia and in Britain, the phenomenon of mushrooms or puffballs forming circles in a patch of meadow or pasture was referred to in folklore as “älvringar”, “heksering”, “pixie circles” or “elf circles” and was attributed by countryfolk to mystical forces. This phenomenon is commonplace and is recognized[41] as the natural growth of fungus colonies.
* Crop marks: Variances in subsoil conditions can cause differences in the growth pattern of a crop that can appear from an aerial survey to be similar to crop circles. In 2009, investigation of such crop marks near Stonehenge led to the discovery of 6,000 year old tombs and other prehistoric subterranean structures.
The UK-based artists Circlemakers.org have been asked to create numerous crop circles since the mid 1990s for movies, TV shows, music videos, adverts and PR stunts.[citation needed] Clients to date have included Royal Bank of Scotland, Scope, Xbox, Disney, NBC, UKTV, Red Bull, Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nike, Shredded Wheat, AMD, Hello Kitty, Pepsi, Weetabix, BBC, The Sun, Mitsubishi, O2, Big Brother, National Geographic, NBC-TV, Orange Mobile, History Channel and the Discovery Channel.
New Age author Dan Joy in 1991 humorously suggested that crop circles are an advertising campaign displaying the logos of galaxy-wide corporations, preparing Earth for its forthcoming admission to the Galactic Federation of Planets
Solange Piaget Knowles (born June 24, 1986), who performs under the mononym Solange, is an American recording artist, actress, model and dancer. She is the younger sister of R&B singer and actress Beyoncé. Knowles was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Showing an interest in music recording at an early age, she eventually broke into the music scene at 16. She has released two studios albums: Solo Star in 2003 and Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams in 2008.
Aside from recording, Knowles has ventured into film, modeling, and entrepreneurship. She co-launched the junior apparel collection Deréon, a sister line to House of Deréon that was established by her mother and sister. Knowles has been compared to her sister by the media, but she dismisses the notion, saying they are artistically different.Early life
Solange Knowles was born on June 24, 1986,in Houston, Texas, to Mathew and Tina Knowles. Solange is the second child of Mathew and Tina, and the younger sister of Beyoncé. Her father is African American and her mother is Creole (French, African American and Native American descent). Her maternal grandparents are Lumis Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon, (a seamstress). As a child, Knowles studied dance and theater. At the age of five, she made her singing debut at an amusement park. She began writing songs at the age of nine At 13, she decided to pursue recording, but her parents initially advised her to wait.At the age of 15 Knowles replaced a departed dancer and performed with her sister’s group Destiny’s Child on tour.During the group’s opening stint for American pop singer Christina Aguilera’s tour, Knowles temporarily replaced Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland after Kelly broke her toes backstage during a costume change.[5] When Knowles was 16, her father, who was then also her manager, signed her to his recording company, Music World Entertainment.
Recording career
2001-2003: Early career and Solo Star
Managed by her father Matthew, Knowles’ first foray into the music business was in 2001 as the lead singer, backed with Destiny’s Child, on the title theme song for the animated television series The Proud Family.She also was a featured performer on “Hey Goldmember” for the soundtrack to the 2002 film Austin Powers in Goldmember, as well as a backup singer on the track “Little Drummer Boy” on her sister’s group’s 2001 holiday album 8 Days of Christmas. In 2002, she was featured on Lil Romeo’s second studio album Game Time, singing portions of Luther Vandross-penned “So Amazing” on the single “True Love”, and on Rowland’s debut solo album Simply Deep, for which she also wrote the title track and “Alone”. In 2001 she was also Lil’ Bow Wow’s date in his Puppy Love video.
In June 2003, Mathew Knowles excitedly announced that he was considering adding Solange to Destiny’s Child when the group reunited in 2004, thus turning them into a quartet for the first time since short-lived member Farrah Franklin left in 2000. Mathew Knowles said he was testing the reactions, and, judging by what he had heard, “it seems like a good idea”.[9] Later in August, however, Beyoncé said it was only a rumor and Destiny’s Child would remain a trio. Rowland added, “She’s a Solo Star,” namedropping Knowles’ debut album.
At the age of 14, Solonge Knowles started working on her debut album Solo Star, which involved American producers such as Jermaine Dupri, The Neptunes, Linda Perry and Timbaland among others. The album is primarily uptempo R&B, although Knowles said there are pop, rock, reggae and hip hop influences. Knowles co-wrote and co-produced some of the 15 tracks in the album, including its lead single, “Feelin’ You (Part II)”. The song failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100, but reached number three on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales and Hot Dance Singles Sales chart.Solo Star was released on January 21, 2003 in the United States, where it debuted at number 49 on the Billboard 200 and reached number 23 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.Solo Star had a mixed critical reception: William Ruhlmann of Allmusic called it a “state-of-the-art contemporary R&B album”, but deemed Knowles “lost somewhere in the mix”. As of mid-2008, the album had sold 112,000 copies domestically according to Nielsen Soundscan.
2004-present: Career break and Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
After the release of her debut album, Knowles started acting in films, followed by a career break.[18] When she was married, her family moved to Idaho, and, while staying there, resumed writing songs including the singles “Get Me Bodied” and “Upgrade U” off her sister’s second solo album, B’Day. Knowles earned the R&B and Hip-Hop Song accolade for “Get Me Bodied” at the 2008 ASCAP Awards. She had also written songs for Destiny’s Child, and members Rowland and Michelle Williams. In 2004, while pregnant with son Daniel, she made a cameo appearance in Destiny’s Child’s music video for “Soldier”.
After the divorce, Knowles returned to Houston to began working on her second album. Knowles renewed her management, signing a record deal with Geffen and a publishing deal with EMI. Knowles finished working on her second studio album in 2008 and titled the project Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. It includes production by Cee-Lo Green, Soulshock & Karlin and Mark Ronson as well as appearances by Lil Wayne and Bilal. A collection of 1960s- and 1970s-influenced songs, it is seen as a departure from her pop-oriented debut, with what Billboard magazine called “more of a modern twist on hip-hop and R&B flecked with tinges of blues and jazz”.The album was released on August 26, 2008 in the United States. By December 2008, the album had sold over 114,000 copies according to Nielsen Soundscan.The album was positively received by critics, some of whom considered it far better than her debut.The album’s lead single, “I Decided”, was released in April 2008, and reached the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play;Rolling Stone magazine labelled it her breakthrough single.In support of the album, Knowles began the Solange Presents Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams Tour in Britain in November 2008.
Solange announced, via her blog HadleyStreetJournal.com, that she will be releasing a series of mixtapes, to coincide with the album. The first mixtape, “I Can’t Get Clearance…”, includes the leaked track “Fuck the Industry (Signed Sincerely)”. On this record, Knowles expresses her views on the current state of the music industry. The lyrics to the song name check some major artists such as Mary J. Blige, Ashanti, Keyshia Cole, and Beyoncé, although she made a point of stating that it does not have “a negative light to any of.
In an interview with MTV, Knowles revealed that she is currently determining the type of sound for the follow up to Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams.
Other ventures
Aside from recording, Knowles ventured into film, modeling, and entrepreneurship. According to her father Mathew Knowles, her goal of merging music and film was part of the overall plan for her career.Knowles appeared as a nubile teenager in the 2004 comedy film Johnson Family Vacation, starring alongside American actors Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa Williams and Bow Wow.[10] She provided a song for its soundtrack-”Freedom”, a collaboration with the Houston-based funk-jazz band Drop Trio. Although the reviews were generally negative, Knowles earned praise from Variety magazine: “Solange Knowles is nearly as dazzling as big sister Beyoncé and does little more than smile winningly in her first bigscreen outing.”In 2006, she starred as a cheerleading captain in the film Bring It On: All or Nothing, the third installment of the Bring it On series, alongside American actress and singer Hayden Panettiere. What little critical reaction the low-budget, direct-to-DVD movie got was negative, and Knowles was described as an “affordable young starlet”.Knowles uses her full name for her acting, rather than just the first name she uses when singing; for Bring It On: All or Nothing, she was billed as Solange Knowles-Smith,reflecting her married state at the time.
Knowles also appeared in several television series. In 2002, she lent her voice for the character Chanel, the cousin of the protagonist Penny Proud, in the episode “Behind Family Lines” to the animated television series The Proud Family.In 2004, she guest starred in the episode “The Catch” to the sitcom One on One.
Knowles and sister Beyoncé model for their families’ clothing line, House of Deréon, named after their grandmother, Agnéz Deréon. She also helped launch Deréon, a junior apparel collection and a sister line to House of Deréon.[40] Both sisters model for Deréon, and are featured in most of Deréon’s marketing campaigns. They were featured in a “Got Milk?” campaign ad, while still wearing House of Deréon. In 2008, Knowles was named as ambassador for Giorgio Armani’s younger diffusion line, Armani Jeans. Armani said Knowles epitomizes the style, which is a “vision of a young, independent, casual lifestyle with a strong and cool, fashion sensibility”.
Knowles has been promoting Baby Jamz, a hip hop-styled toy line for pre-schoolers.It was inspired by her son, Julez, who is fond of hip hop music.[23] She is the executive producer of the CD, composed of updated hip hop inspired nursery rhymes, which is featured in all of the toys.
Personal life
Knowles, at age 17, married football player Daniel Smith in February 2004. Knowles met Smith at a high school party through mutual friends. He was in high school at the time and Knowles was 13 and in middle school; they called themselves high school sweethearts.On October 18, 2004, Knowles gave birth to their son, Daniel Julez Smith, Jr. Knowles has partly expressed regret that she bore a child at an early age, but calls her son the greatest unplanned blessing. A song she wrote for her baby, “An Ode to Julez”, was included on Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams.
After Daniel Julez’ birth, the family moved to Moscow, Idaho, where Knowles’ husband continued studying in college.[26] In October 2007, Solange confirmed in an interview with Essence magazine that she and Smith had divorced. Both of them co-parent the child.After the divorce, Knowles and her child moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, where they established their new home.
Artistry
Knowles cites as her influences Motown girl groups such as The Supremes and The Marvelettes, and Martha Reeves, lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas.She also listened to the music of English pop singer Dusty Springfield, and according to Knowles, her “greatest music influence” is her mother, Tina Knowles, who was a one-time member of the 1960s harmony group The Veltones.
Knowles says her first passion is writing songs. She has been doing this since she was nine years old, and has collaborated with a number of songwriters and producers.On her debut album, Knowles had no control over which kinds of music to produce, because “when you’re 14, everyone else is older and more seasoned and you trust their decisions”. Knowles was more concerned with pleasing her record label by submitting to their desires. Her musical influences were better expressed on Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, when she considered herself mature and was able to write and produce songs as she wished, without worrying about the expectations of others. Knowles’ lyrics tackle relationships, world issues, and deceased friends, with her second album focusing on events in her life, such as marriage, divorce, and parenthood.
Aside from recording, Knowles occasionally paints as her hobby: “I think that painting, for me, is such an affirmative expression in that sometimes you don’t know what the outcome is gonna be and each stroke and each brush for me is an emotion and, in the end, it comes out as a piece which is the most amazing thing. … It definitely provides a different outlet.”
Public image
Knowles has always been compared by the media to her sister, Beyoncé, whom she considers one of her role models. She has expressed her opinion of the comparison in the lyrics to “God Given Name”: “I’m not her and never will be”- which was purposely set as the album’s opening track to show their differences. In her review for the album, Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone magazine referred to the lyrics a declaration of independence. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Knowles commented: “People think there should be this great rivalry between us, but there’s never been any competition. There’s a big age gap and we are two very different characters.”In another interview, Knowles said that she would not live by her sister’s level of stardom, stressing that she and Beyoncé are artistically different. Beyoncé was unwilling to bring her sister into the recording industry, reasoning that it “involves a lot of pressure”. Knowles countered by saying, “It’s good to have her advice, but we really have different goals”.
Discography
Main article: Solange Knowles discography
* Solo Star (2003)
* Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams (2008)
Looks at the risk factors in male suicide and what each of us can do to help.
Suicide is a major cause of preventable death. The number of men ending their own lives has fallen, but too many men still commit suicide.
Who’s at risk?
People who already have a mental health issues are at a greater risk, along with those experiencing depression.
The teenage years can be difficult at the best of times. Emotional and physical development brings the turmoil associated with body changes and a desire for independence.
Problems with alcohol and drugs, the law and school are common at this point in life and are associated with a higher risk.
At the other end of the spectrum, getting older brings bereavement for many people. Loved ones and friends pass on, ill health and loss of independence are more common.
Tragically, in the UK, this usually culminates in social isolation as older people are forgotten about and ignored.
Risk factors
We all feel down from time to time, but most of us don’t think things are so bad life isn’t worth continuing. However, some things do put a person at greater risk of suicide.
Having tried once, someone is far more likely to try again – and to be successful. One in ten teenagers who takes an overdose will kill themselves within a few years.
Living alone and feeling isolated, whether because of divorce, unemployment or bereavement, often makes people question if life is worth living.
A painful chronic illness that prevents someone getting on with their life, or mental health issues such as severe depression, alcoholism or drug misuse, for example, should flag up the possibility that a person is more likely to consider suicide as a solution to their problems.
Being able to tick one or more of these risk factors doesn’t mean, however, that someone is definitely going to kill him or herself. Likewise, crossing them out doesn’t mean everything’s all right. It’s important to be aware, and be prepared.
Offering support
There are people who would argue that if somebody is intent on killing themselves then there’s little any of us can do to prevent it. To a degree this may be true, but it doesn’t mean we should sit back and let them get on with it.
Get the person to talk about the way they’re feeling, why they want to die, and just listen to them. There’s no need to dive in with miraculous solutions to their problems. A person considering suicide needs support, understanding and to know there’s professional help available for them.
It’s important that the person offering support knows they’re not alone in this, too. It can be a frightening and stressful experience to go through.
Jack White’s latest band, the Dead Weather, isn’t Jack White’s band — at least not the way the White Stripes is. When the quartet made its D.C. debut Monday night at a sold-out 9:30 club, the singer-guitarist stayed behind the drum kit for all but one song, while Alison Mosshart (of the Kills) handled most of the lead vocals.
Yet the show provided much evidence of White’s vision, from the two-tone lighting scheme (blue and white) to the style of minimalist blues-rock. Instrumentally, the band resembled the White Stripes, only with a thicker, more epic sound that relied on keyboards almost as much as guitar. Both were played by Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age); he was supplemented on guitar occasionally by Mosshart and once by White, who stepped forward for “Will There Be Enough Water?”
Performed live, most of the material from the Dead Weather’s debut album, “Horehound,” seemed interchangeable. The band had only a few solid songs and didn’t manage to put two of them back-to-back until the encore set, which segued from “Hang You From the Heavens,” the album’s standout, to Bob Dylan’s “New Pony.”
The musical gestures were broader than in the tighter (and better) duos that brought White and Mosshart to prominence. Although the Dead Weather never stretched out in the manner of Led Zeppelin, clearly a major inspiration, the group did rely on arena rock’s dramatic pauses and grand flourishes. These didn’t always enhance the songs, whose thin melodies were easily trampled. Whatever White meant when he sang “I cut like a buffalo,” “I move like a buffalo” would have been more accurate.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy-adventure film based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth film in the Harry Potter film series. It is directed by David Yates, the director of the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. David Heyman and David Barron are producing the film,[5] and Steve Kloves, screenwriter of the first four films, has returned as screenwriter for this film.[6] Filming began on 24 September 2007, and the film was originally planned for a UK and North American release on 21 November 2008,[6][7] but on 14 August 2008, it was announced that the release date for the film was to be delayed to 17 July 2009, a date later changed to 15 July 2009.[1][8] Unlike the previous film, the sixth film will not be simultaneously released in regular cinemas and IMAX 3-D, due to a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen several week commitment.[9] The film will instead be released in IMAX 3D on 29 July, two weeks after its original release.[10] The film was also released into midnight showings on 14 July, the day before the film came out.
Plot
Further information: Plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In December 2007, Warner Bros. released its official plot summary:
Emboldened by the return of Lord Voldemort, the Death Eaters are wreaking havoc in both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that new dangers may lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. He needs Harry to help him uncover a vital key to unlocking Voldemort’s defenses critical information known only to Hogwarts’ former Potions Professor, Horace Slughorn. With that in mind, Dumbledore manipulates his old colleague into returning to his previous post with promises of more money, a bigger office and the chance to teach the famous Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as adolescent hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry’s long friendship with Ginny Weasley is growing into something deeper, but standing in the way is Ginny’s boyfriend, Dean Thomas, not to mention her big brother Ron. But Ron’s got romantic entanglements of his own to worry about, with Lavender Brown lavishing her affections on him, leaving Hermione simmering with jealousy yet determined not to show her feelings. And then a box of love potion-laced chocolates ends up in the wrong hands and changes everything. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof with far more important matters on his mind. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
Cast
Further information: List of Harry Potter cast members
* Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, who is now entering his sixth year at Hogwarts, with the wizarding world at war.[5]
* Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, one of Harry’s two best friends.[5] He develops a relationship with Lavender Brown.[12]
* Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, one of Harry’s two best friends.[5] Watson considered not returning for the sixth film,[13] but eventually decided that “the pluses outweighed the minuses” and could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione.[14]
* Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore.[6] The legendary wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts. The revelation of Dumbledore’s sexuality prompted Gambon to “camp up” around the set when off camera,[15] but his on-screen performance is expected to remain unchanged from the previous films.[16]
* Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, the newly appointed Hogwarts Potions master. Broadbent described his costumes as “tweedy”, and his character as “comic”,[17] while Radcliffe noted that “[Slughorn's] tragedy will outweigh the comedy”.[18]
* Alan Rickman as Severus Snape,[6] the former Potions master, who finally achieves his goal of becoming Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
* Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy,[6] a rival of Harry’s, whom Harry suspects of carrying out a task for Voldemort across the year. Son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and nephew to Bellatrix Lestrange. Unknown actor Tony Coburn will play young Lucius Malfoy in a Hogwarts flashback.
* Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Voldemort’s principal Death Eaters, older sister of Narcissa Malfoy, aunt to Draco, and cousin of Sirius Black, whom she murdered in the previous film.[6]
* Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy, Draco’s mother and younger sister of Bellatrix. McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in Order of the Phoenix, but had to drop out due to pregnancy.[19] Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role,[20] only for it to be denied by her agency.[21]
* Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid,[6] the Hogwarts gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Harry’s first friend from the magical world.
* Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall,[6] the Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher, deputy headmistress and head of Gryffindor. McGonagall is a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
* David Thewlis as Remus Lupin,[6] former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Lupin is a werewolf and a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
* Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks,[6] a member of the Order of the Phoenix, who is in a relationship with Lupin in this film.
* Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew, former member of Harry’s father James’s group of friends, he betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort. Now one of Voldemort’s principal Death Eaters, despite being weak magically. He goes by the nickname “Wormtail”.[22]
* Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley,[6] Ron’s younger sister in her fifth year, for whom Harry develops romantic feelings.
* Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom,[6] a friend of Harry, Ron, and Herminone, who helps them in times of need.
* Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood,[6] a dreamy girl with odd ideas and a friend of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny.
* James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George Weasley, Ron and Ginny’s elder brothers.
* Mark Williams and Julie Walters as Arthur and Molly Weasley respectively,[6][23] Ron, Fred, George and Ginny’s parents. They treat Harry like another son.
* Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown,[12] Ron’s new girlfriend. Watson described her as “perfect for the role,”[24] although Cave did not attend the open auditions.[25] An open casting call was held for the part on 1 July 2007. Over 7,000 girls turned out for the audition and read from a scene with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione and Ron.[26] Yates said he planned to test Grint with the top five choices for Lavender, reading certain lines and kissing, to see which pairing had the best chemistry.[27]
Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane each play Tom Riddle, the child who becomes Lord Voldemort, at age eleven andkjggectively.[6] Tiffin is the 10-year-old nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who plays the adult Voldemort in the fourth and fifth films.[28] Christian Coulson, who played Riddle in Chamber of Secrets, expressed an interest in returning;[29] Yates responded that Coulson was too old, nearing 30, to be playing the role.[27] Jamie Campbell Bower, who appeared in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, previously noted that he had his “fingers crossed” he would be cast as a young Riddle.[30] Bower was, however, later cast as the teenage Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. An open casting call was held for the part in July 2007, with applicants reading from a scene involving Riddle trying to persuade Horace Slughorn to explain what Horcruxes are.[31]
Dave Legeno appears as Fenrir Greyback, the most savage werewolf ever to live and greatly feared in the wizarding world. Leader of the werewolves.[32] Ralph Ineson plays Amycus Carrow and Suzanne Toase plays Alecto Carrow,[33][34] while Lord Johnpaul Castrianni and Rod Hunt play Yaxley and Thorfinn Rowle respectively. Tom Moorcroft portrays Regulus Black.[35] Tony Coburn plays a young Lucius Malfoy.[36]
Both Clémence Poésy and Chris Rankin were interested in returning,[37][38] but in October 2007 Poésy noted that she will not be reprising her role of Fleur Delacour,[39] and Rankin has stated that he thinks Percy Weasley will be cut.[40] Miriam Margolyes, who has not appeared in her role as Pomona Sprout since Chamber of Secrets, will be in this film.[41] After Bill Nighy expressed an interest in appearing,[42] Yates confirmed that Nighy would be his first choice for the role of Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, providing the character made it into the final screenplay.[43] Yates told Wizard that he was “struggling with [fitting Scrimgeour in the script] at the moment, and he’s in one moment and he’s out the next.”[43]
Early auditions took place in England in April 2007, though reports would not state for which role the audition was. One actor who auditioned for the role was Icelandic Jón Páll Eyjólfsson, who went to school with screenwriter Steve Kloves.[44] Official casting news was scarce even as filming began.[30] It was reported that Jack Davenport, Stephen Rea, Peter Rnic, Stuart Townsend, and Joseph Fiennes were each offered unspecified roles,[20][45] although representatives of Townsend and Fiennes denied the reports.[21] Warner Bros. announced in a press release on 16 November 2007 that casting for the film had been completed.[6][31]
Production
Development
Before David Yates was officially chosen to direct the film, many others had been offered the job[citation needed], and previous directors had expressed an interest in returning. Alfonso Cuarón, the director of the third film, stated he “would love to have the opportunity” to return.[46] Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell declined a spot to direct the fifth film, and was not approached for this one.[47] Terry Gilliam was Rowling’s personal choice to direct Philosopher’s Stone. However, when asked whether he would consider directing a later film, Gilliam said, “Warner Bros. had their chance the first time around, and they blew it.”[48]
From the fifth film, Yates has retained composer Nicholas Hooper, who, judging by the background music on the Official Harry Potter website, has included a reworking of John Williams’s Hedwig’s Theme, which has recurred in all scores including Patrick Doyle’s. Also maintained are costume designer Jany Temime, visual effects supervisor Tim Burke, creature and make-up effects designer Nick Dudman, and special effects supervisor John Richardson from the third film.[6] Since February 2007, Stuart Craig, the production designer of the first five films as well, has been designing sets, including the cave, and the astronomy tower, where the climax of the film takes place.[49] Academy Award nominated Bruno Delbonnel is the film’s cinematographer.[6] David Yates remarked Bruno’s work on the film as “The choice of angles, the extreme close-ups, the pacing of the scenes…It’s very layered, incredibly rich.”[50]
Yates and Heyman have noted that some of the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may influence the script of the film.[51]
Sets
The film’s production designer is Academy Award winner Stuart Craig. Several new sets have been introduced in this film, including Tom Riddle’s Orphanage, Astronomy Tower and the Cave. In one of the sneak peeks for the film, Stuart Craig said that Tom Riddle’s Orphanage is based on buildings in Docklands, Liverpool and it is designed from Victorian-Georgian architecture. The exterior of the Orphanage uses Victorian glaze bricks, to give the set a very hard structure.[citation needed]
He noted that the film used several CGI sets, noticeably the interior of the Cave where Harry and Dumbledore both go for hunting Horcruxes. The exterior of the cave scene was filmed in Cliffs of Moher in the west of Ireland. The interior of the cave is made up of geometric crystal formations. Craig noted “Apart from the point at which Harry and Dumbledore first arrive and the island formation on which everything inside the cave happens, the set is entirely virtual, designed in the computer. We’d had our first totally virtual set on the last film, so we approached this one with a bit more confidence.”[52]
Filming
Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as Tom Riddle Jr.
Following a week of rehearsals, principal photography began on 24 September 2007 and ended on 17 May 2008.[7] Before filming commenced, there was belief that filming might move from the UK, where all of the previous five films have been shot. This is North Scotland reported that the filming would take place in New Zealand, due to the “more agreeable economy and climate” and lack of Scottish funding.[53] The Sunday Business Post in Ireland noted that the film’s producers and WB executives had been scouting there, specifically Leinster and Munster because they “believe they have now exhausted possible locations in Britain.” They are “particularly keen on Ireland, as the landscape is similar to Britain and will appear similar to the settings of the previous films.”[54] The crew also scouted around Cape Wrath in Scotland, for use in the cave scene.[55] Filming returned to Glen Coe and Glenfinnan, both which have appeared in the previous films, to preserve the continuity of the landscape.[56]
On the weekend of 6 October 2007, the crew shot scenes involving the Hogwarts Express in the misty and dewy environment of Fort William, Scotland.[56] A series of night scenes were filmed in the village of Lacock and the cloisters at Lacock Abbey for three nights starting 25 October 2007. Filming took place from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily, and residents of the street were asked to black out their windows with dark blinds.[57][58][59] On set reports indicated that the main scene filmed was Harry and Dumbledore’s visit to Slughorn’s house.[59] Further filming took place in Surbiton railway station in October 2007,[60] Gloucester Cathedral, where the first and second films were shot, in February 2008,[61] and at the Millennium Bridge in London in March 2008.[62]
Though Radcliffe, Gambon and Broadbent started shooting in late September 2007, some other cast members started much later: Grint did not begin until November 2007, Watson did not begin until December 2007, Rickman until January 2008, and Bonham Carter until February 2008.[63][64]
Visual effects
Tim Burke and Tim Alexander are visual effects supervisors for the film. Tim Alexander said completing inferi-attack scene took several months. He said, “It’s [inferius] certainly much bolder and scarier than we imagined that they’d ever go in a ‘Potter’ movie. Director David Yates was really cautious of not making this into a zombie movie, so we were constantly trying to figure out how not to make these dead people coming up look like zombies. A lot of it came down to their movement – they don’t move fast, but they don’t move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style.” He also noted that inferius are skinnier, waterlogged and grey.[65]
About Dumbledore’s ring of fire, he noted that the effect will look like someone sprayed propane and then lit it. He added, “We did a lot of research on molten volcanoes, which have a lot of heat going on but no actual flames, and collected a bunch of other references, including flares that burn underwater, and showed them to the Potter folks.” The visual effects team emulated these six fire parameters: heat ripples, smoke, buoyancy, viscosity, opacity, and brightness. Since the whole fire scene was very time consuming, computer graphics artist Chris Horvath spent eight months for finding a faster way to conjure flames.[66]
Differences from the book
There are a number of changes from the book in the film. Much of the book’s ending has been changed, with the climactic battle and Dumbledore’s funeral being removed. Heyman commented that the end battle was removed to “(avoid) repetition” with the forthcoming adaptation of Deathly Hallows. The funeral was removed as it was believed it did not fit with the rest of the film.[67] The collapse of a Muggle bridge mentioned briefly in the book serves as the film’s opening sequence.[68] Scenes of Diagon Alley being demolished by Death Eaters and an attack on the Burrow, Known as “The Burning of the Burrow” by Bellatrix Lestrange and werewolf Fenrir Greyback are added, as can be seen in the trailers. All but two of the memory scenes, including that of the Gaunts, have been cut. Only the flashbacks of Tom Riddle at the orphanage and Riddle asking Slughorn about Horcruxes, shown twice, remain.[68] Yates said they made the decision to compress the memories, but still “got some really cool ones”.[69] Characters who are cut include the Dursleys, Kreacher, Dobby, Bill and Fleur, Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge and the Muggle Prime Minister. However, Quidditch,[70] being excluded from the previous film, returns. Bellatrix Lestrange will also participate in the battle of the astronomy tower, whereas she did not in the book, as seen in a picture with the Carrows and Greyback, celebrating Dumbledore’s death. This scene also shows Harry hiding on a floor underneath Dumbledore and his adversaries as he is acting on Dumbledore’s wishes to stay put.
In the book, on the Hogwarts Express, after he is paralysed and hidden under his Invisibility Cloak by Draco Malfoy, Harry is rescued by Nymphadora Tonks. In the film, Luna Lovegood saves him instead, using her Spectrespecs to find him.
Futhermore this film includes a few Ginny/Harry scenes that were not in the novel. Also Cho Chang is cut out of the film entirely. In the film the blossoming love between Harry and his best friend’s sister Ginny is heavily focused on, more so than in the books or previous films.[71]
Marketing
Warner Bros. has spent an additional estimated $155 million to market and distribute the film.[4] The special edition two-disc DVD for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix contained two sneak peeks of the film,[23][72] while the US edition included an additional clip.[73] A 15-second teaser for the film was shown alongside the IMAX release of The Dark Knight.[74] The first full-length domestic teaser trailer was released on 29 July on AOL’s Moviefone website.[75] An international teaser was released on 26 October and the U.S. theatrical trailer was released on 14 November. Another trailer was screened on the Japanese TV station Fuji TV during a screening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on 18 January 2009.[76][77] Scenes from the film were aired during ABC Family’s three day Harry Potter movie marathon, which aired from 5-7 December 2008.[78] On 5 February 2009, the first three promotional teaser posters were released, featuring Dumbledore and Harry.[79] On 5 March and 16 April 2009, new trailers were released by Warner Bros.[80]
Warner Bros and MSN ran an online Order of the Phoenix quiz, with the prize being a walk-on part in the film.[81] As with the previous films, EA Games will produce a video game based on the film.[82] On 10 March 2009, it was announced that there would be a video game soundtrack, which was released on 17 March 2009.[83] On 27 March six character posters were released: Harry, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Professor Snape.[79] An English version of the international trailer since a Japanese international trailer was released online 10 April.[84] On 8 May, CW Channel aired 30-second TV Spot, which focused on the romantic side of the movie.[85] On 20 May, first clip from the film was released through The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s official website, showing love-struck Ron.[86] Another clip of the film, showing Dumbledore visiting Tom Riddle’s Orphanage was released on 31 May 2009 at MTV Awards.[87] Also a short clip featuring the Weasley twins’ shop Weasleys’Wizard Wheezes was released on 22 June.[citation needed]
Release
The film was released in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, United States, Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand and Brazil on 15 July 2009[1][88]. It was originally set to be released on 21 November 2008 (UK, US, CAN, IRE) and 11 December 2008 (AUS, NZ),[8] but was pushed back by eight and seven months to 17 July, despite being completed. Warner Bros. executive Alan Horn noted that the move went ahead “to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009,” with other films being delayed due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike.[89] The box-office success of summer WB films Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Dark Knight also motivated the decision.[90] An unnamed “rival” studio executive told Entertainment Weekly that the move was to “stop next year’s profits from looking seriously underwhelming after the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight,” as “they don’t need the money this year anymore.”[91] Dan Fellman, WB head of distribution, said that the studio had considered the date change for three to four weeks prior to the announcement, but gave it serious consideration a week before they came to their final decision.[92]
The date change was met with a heavily negative reaction by Harry Potter fans, as the Los Angeles Times noted: “Petitions were circulating, rumors were flying and angry screeds were being posted on Internet sites within minutes of the Thursday announcement.”[90] The move was mocked by Entertainment Weekly who had Half-Blood Prince on the cover on their “Fall Preview Issue”. Despite each being owned by Time Warner Inc., EW were unaware of the change until it was publicly announced by WB and noted that readers would now be in possession of a “Dewey Defeats Truman collectible”.[91] Several days after the announcement, Horn released a statement in response to the “large amount of disappointment” expressed by fans of the series.[93] Following the date change, Half-Blood Prince’s release slot was taken by Summit Entertainment’s Twilight.[94]
Three months before its release in July, the date was again changed by 2 days from 17 July to 15 July in the United States and Canada.[95] It was later confirmed the same date change applied to the UK as well. The Australia and New Zealand release dates which were then 16 July, were also changed to 15 July. The premiere dates for the movie are 6 July in Japan, 7 July in the UK (Leicester Square, London) and 8 July in the US. The Belgium premiere is on 11 July.[96]
The sixth film didn’t simultaneously released in regular cinemas and IMAX 3D, due to a conflicting agreement in which Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be given a four week window by itself in IMAX. Therefore the IMAX 3D version of the film will be released on 29 July 2009. However, is releasing in India, Mexico and Australia in both 2-D and 3-D simultaneously, on 15 July.[97] The film’s opening sequence featuring the destruction of the Millennium Bridge will be in 3D.[98] The film had been chosen to be screened at the 2008 Royal Film Performance on 17 November,[99] but was not shown. Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund chief executive Peter Hore noted he was “very disappointed” with Warner Bros’ decision.[89]
Advanced ticket sales on fandago.com for Half-Blood Prince surpassed advanced ticket sales for Transformers 2 at the same point in sale cycles. It is also MovieTickets.com’s top 25 advance sellers of all time, promising a very successful cinematic run.[100]
The film is 153 minutes (2 hours 33 minutes and 19 seconds) long,[101] making this movie the third longest of the series so far, coming behind Chamber of Secrets (161 minutes) and Goblet of Fire (157 minutes). The movie was also released into midnight showings 14 July.
Soundtrack
Main article: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (soundtrack)
The soundtrack based on the film was released on 14 July 2009. The primary composer is Nicholas Hooper who previously scored the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack.[102]
Reception
As of 15 July 2009, the film holds a 95% “Certified Fresh” rating on the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 123 reviews,[103] and 96% of those referred by the website as “Top Critics” have given it positive reviews.[104] Also, the movie holds a 85/100 normalized rating at metacritic.net, which represents Universal Acclaim.[105]It stands as the most critically acclaimed Harry Potter film. Nearly all of the early reviews for Half-Blood Prince have been very positive. Critics such as BBC News’s Tim Masters have praised the film’s cinematography and special effects, as well as the film’s darker plotline.[106]
The first review of the film came three weeks before the official release. Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com ranked the film with The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and called the film a “possible Oscar contender”. He highly praised the performance of Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Daniel Radcliffe. He commented, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young”.[107] Another early review came from the UK tabloid The Sun, whose anonymous reviewer called the film “masterful” and “very emotional”. The reviewer praised David Yates’ directing and called Jim Broadbent’s portrayal of Horace Slughorn “perfect”.[108] Devin Faraci of Chud.com called the film not only the best Harry Potter film yet, but also one of the best films of the year.[109]
Andrew Pulver of The Guardian also wrote a positive review, and gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars rating.[110] Todd McCarthy of the trade magazine Variety said that the film is “dazzlingly well made” and “less fanciful than the previous entries”. He praised Alan Rickman’s performance and he described Helena Bonham Carter as “mesmerizing” and Jim Broadbent as “grand eccentric old professor”.[111] The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt noted that the film’s first half is “jerky and explosive”, but in the second half, the film finds better footing. He adds, “Composer Nicholas Hooper, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and designer Stuart Craig deliver a singularly muscular and vigorous chapter”.[112] Screen Daily called the film “[s]tunningly shot by Bruno Delbonnel in metallic hues leavened by buttery tones and the thumping beats of Nicholas Hooper’s score bear little resemblance to the original and the overall effect is much less twee, much more grown-up”.[113]
Chris Tilly of IGN UK commented on the length of the movie, saying “while on occasion it drags, the 153 run-time never feels too long, thanks in no small part to the astonishing visuals and (largely) marvellous performances,” and goes on to say, “This is by far the best-looking of the Potter films thus far,” commending the “beautiful” Quidditch match and the “stunning” finale.[114] However, Dave Golder of SFX Magazine found some aspects of the film to be a disappointment, largely due to the large amount of opportunities the director had sacrificed to devote “huge swathes of the film to subplots of Harry and his chums’ teenage romances,” but nevertheless found the film to be a large enjoyment, praising the performances of Jim Broadbent and Alan Rickman.[115]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3/4 stars, saying he “admired” the film, stating that it “opens and closes well, and has wondrous art design and cinematography as always, only more so.”
One band isn’t enough for Jack White, or even two. The co-founder of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs is the driving force behind yet another project, dubbed Dead Weather. Whereas he sings and plays guitar in his two other groups, White largely confines himself to drumming in Dead Weather, with Kills’ singer Alison Mosshart handling most of the lead vocals and Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) on guitar. But the project has White’s distinctive fingerprints all over it. His production and songwriting once again embrace a raw, fuss-free vibe, with robust guitar riffs and drums that force the action. “Horehound” (Third Man Records/Warner Brothers) has a you-are-there immediacy, with dramatic swings in volume and density and touches of sci-fi keyboard atmosphere. Obsession permeates lyrics that could serve as a B-movie script or the outline for a pulp novel: “I like to grab you by the hair/And sell you off to the devil.” The music grinds and lurches, as if writhing through a fever dream or crawling through glass. It’s tense and claustrophobic, with Mosshart sounding appropriately misbegotten, while Fertita’s guitar jabs in and out. The low end positively vibrates at times, the rock equivalent of a gangsta-rap rumble. All that’s lacking are truly great songs. Beneath the noir garage-rock and prickly attitude, the melodies are just ho-hum.
Chris Daughtry became the most successful fourth-place finisher in “American Idol” history in 2006 when his debut album sold 4 million copies. Tucking “Idol” ballad bombast inside a rock-band chassis turned the North Carolina singer-guitarist into a shaven-headed star, the first rocker to emerge from Simon Cowell’s diva-maker franchise. On the follow-up album (on RCA), Daughtry co-writes with a host of mainstream rock hitmakers, including members of Lifehouse, Three Days Grace and Nickelback. First-album producer Howard Benson returns to buff every hook to stadium-rock proportion and jacks up every arrangement until the arrangements sound uniformly shrill, devoid of dynamics or drama. The femmes fatales in these songs leave the narrators howling, usually in gang-style choruses that start to blend together after a few listens. Maybe that’s because emotional power plays combined with sanitized rock riffs makes for a hit-single formula that’s been around since the dawn of REO Speedwagon. “Leave This Town” is what happens when a formula turns into a cliché.
Andrew Stephen “Andy” Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American professional tennis player, and a former World No. 1. His best surfaces are hard court and grass.
He is ranked 6th in the world, and the top-ranked American player, as of March 23, 2009. He became a Grand Slam singles champion when he won the title at the 2003 U.S. Open. Roddick has reached four other Grand Slam finals (Wimbledon three times, and the U.S. Open), losing to Roger Federer each of the first three times with their 2009 Wimbledon finals matchup still to be decided. He and Federer are the only players to have finished the season in the ATP top 10 each of the past seven years. Roddick is known for his powerful serves, and holds the fastest serve recorded in professional tennis, clocked at 155 mph (249.5 km/h).
Roddick was on the United States Davis Cup team which won the 2007 Davis Cup. Roddick defeated Dmitry Tursunov of the Russian Davis Cup team, the defending champions, in the final.
Personal life
Roddick was born in Omaha, Nebraska[3] to Jerry and Blanche Roddick. Roddick’s father was a businessman and his mother was a school teacher. She now directs the Andy Roddick Foundation. Roddick has two older brothers, Lawrence and John (All-American tennis player at University of Georgia (1996-98) and head tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma), who were both promising tennis players at a young age.
Roddick lived in Austin, Texas, from age 4 until he was 11, then moved to Boca Raton, Florida in the interest of his brother John’s tennis career,[4] where he lived, first attending Boca Prep International School which Mardy Fish and later Jesse Levine also attended,[1] until graduating from Highlands Christian Academy in 2000.[5] Roddick played varsity basketball in high school alongside Davis Cup teammate Mardy Fish, who trained and lived with Roddick in 1999. During that time period, he sometimes trained with Venus and Serena Williams; he later moved back to Austin.
Roddick began dating singer Mandy Moore in 2002. Moore, after reading a magazine article about him, thought he was “really cute”, so she sent her mother, who was attending a tournament in Toronto, to invite him to her set on a movie she was shooting nearby, How to Deal. Roddick accepted and they began dating.Roddick ended the relationship in March 2004.
While flipping through the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Roddick spotted Brooklyn Decker, a fashion model. He had his agent contact her. The two dated since at least the 2007 Davis Cup. On March 31, 2008, Roddick announced on his website that he and Brooklyn had become engaged and they were then married in Austin on April 17, 2009.[9]
Career
Breakthrough
Roddick seriously considered quitting competitive tennis at the age of 17, when he had a losing streak in the juniors. His coach, Tarik Benhabiles, talked him into giving tennis four more months of undivided attention.Roddick finished as the # 6 junior in the U.S. in 1999-2000, and as the # 1 junior in the world in 2000. He won six world junior singles and seven doubles titles, and won the US Open and Australian Open junior singles titles in 2000.In March in Miami, in the first round Roddick had his first major victory as he beat world # 41 Fernando Vicente of Spain, 6-4, 6-0. In August in Washington, DC, he beat world # 30 Fabrice Santoro of France, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Roddick played the Banana Bowl in the city of São Paulo and won, beating Joachim Johansson in the final match. Roddick also won the Australian Junior Open, defeating Mario Ancic in the final. In 2001, Roddick defeated Michael Chang in 5 sets in the second round of the French Open. During Wimbledon, he further showed potential by taking a set from eventual winner Goran Ivanišević. He also defeated 7-time Wimbledon champion, world # 4, and fellow American Pete Sampras, at the age of 19, at the Miami Masters, 7-6 (2), 6-3 in March, and world # 1 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 in August.
Roddick’s breakthrough year was in 2003, in which he defeated Younes El Aynaoui in the quarterfinals of 2003 Australian Open. Roddick and the Moroccan battled for five hours, with the fifth set (21-19 in favor of Roddick) being the longest fifth set in a Grand Slam tournament during the open era, at 2 hours 23 minutes. (This was surpassed in 2007 during a Wimbledon men’s doubles second round match, when Brazilians Marcelo Melo and André Sá beat Paul Hanley of Australia and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe in a 3 hour 5 minute set, winning it 28-26.) Despite a lackluster French Open, Roddick enjoyed success in the United Kingdom by winning Queen’s Club (beating world # 2 Agassi 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6) along the way) and reaching the Wimbledon semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Federer in straight sets. He avenged that loss in August, beating world # 3 Federer in Montreal, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3).
World No. 1
Roddick’s hardcourt record in 2003 included his first Masters Series titles – coming at Canada and Cincinnati – and his first Grand Slam title. At the U.S. Open, Roddick rallied from two sets down and a match point against him in the semifinals to beat David Nalbandian 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-1, 6-3. He then defeated world # 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. At the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston he defeated world # 7 Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, and world # 4 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, before losing to Federer in the semifinals. By the end of the year, at age 21, he was ranked # 1, the first American to finish a year at # 1 since Andre Agassi in 1999. He also became the youngest American to hold this rank since computer rankings were started in 1973.
Roddick’s reign at #1 ended the following February, when Roger Federer ascended to the top position after winning his first Australian Open. In April Roddick again beat world # 6 Moya, this time 5-7, 6-2, 7-5. In June, Roddick advanced to his first Wimbledon final, and after taking the first set from defending champion Federer, lost in four sets. Roddick was knocked out during the 2004 U.S. Open in a five-set quarterfinal against another big server, Joachim Johansson. Later in September in Bangkok he beat world # 9 Marat Safin of Russia, 7-6 (1), 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2). At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Roddick lost to Chilean Fernando González, the eventual bronze medal winner, in the third round. In November he beat world # 7 Tim Henman of Great Britain 7-5, 7-6 (6), world # 4 Safin, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4), and world # 6 Coria 7-6 (4), 6-3. Later that year, Roddick teamed up with Mardy Fish and Bob and Mike Bryan on the U.S. Davis Cup team that lost to Spain in the final in Seville. Roddick lost his singles match against Rafael Nadal, who would in the following year win the French Open. Towards the end of 2004, Roddick fired his coach of 18 months, Brad Gilbert, and hired assistant Davis Cup coach Dean Goldfine. Roddick finished 2004 ranked as the world # 2, the U.S.’s # 1, and the player with the most aces (1,017). In 2004 Roddick saved fellow tennis player Sjeng Schalken and other guests (including close friends Ben Campezi and Dean Monroe) from a hotel fire.
Roddick’s first 2005 tournament victory was the SAP Open in San Jose, California, where he became the first to win the event in consecutive years since Mark Philippoussis in 1999 and 2000. The top-seeded Roddick defeated Cyril Saulnier 6-0, 6-4 in 50 minutes, the event’s first championship shutout set since Arthur Ashe beat Guillermo Vilas in 1975. In March he defeated World No. 7 Carlos Moya 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1. In April, Roddick won the U.S. Men’s Claycourt Championships, reclaiming the title he won in 2001 and 2002. (He lost in 2003 to Agassi, and in 2004 to Tommy Haas.) In May, Roddick had match point against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco was attempting to save the match point on his second serve, when the linesman erroneously called the serve out. If this call had held, Roddick would have won the match. Roddick motioned to the umpire, pointing to the clear ball mark on the clay indicating the ball was in, and the call was consequently changed. Verdasco went on to win the match. At the French Open, Roddick lost to the unseeded Argentine José Acasuso in the second round, and at Wimbledon, Roddick lost to Federer in the final for the second consecutive year. In August, he defeated World No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt, 6-4, 7-6 (4) at the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. At the US Open, Roddick was defeated by World No. 70 Gilles Müller in the first round. Roddick’s last US Open first round loss had been in 2000. At the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Roddick defeated Gaël Monfils to wrap up a tournament without losing a set or getting his serve broken.
New coach
Roddick’s first ATP event of the year was the Australian Open. There he reached the fourth round before being upset by unseeded and eventual finalist, Marcos Baghdatis. At the French Open Roddick retired in the first round, after sustaining a foot injury during the match. Two weeks later at Wimbledon, Roddick was upset in the third round by British hopeful Andy Murray. This loss caused Roddick to fall below the top 10 for the first time since 2002. After Wimbledon, Roddick began working with a new coach, tennis legend Jimmy Connors. In his first event with his new coach, Roddick reached the final of Indianapolis before losing to good friend, and fellow American, James Blake. His resurgence finally came at the Cincinnati Masters, where he won the event by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final, making this the first masters event he won since 2004. At the U.S. Open, Roddick easily won his first two matches against Florent Serra and Kristian Pless. He then played a thriller five-set match against Fernando Verdasco, winning 6-2 in the final set. Next he beat Benjamin Becker, who was coming off a huge win against recently retired Andre Agassi. In the quarterfinals, Roddick beat Lleyton Hewitt, avenging his loss in 2001, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Now in the semifinals for the first time since he won in 2003, Roddick played Mikhail Youzhny, and beat him 6-7, 6-0, 7-6, 6-3. In the finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon a year prior, Roddick was to play world # 1 Federer. He lost however, 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, 1-6. He then qualified for the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, where he defeated world # 4 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-1, but lost in the round robin to world # 1 Federer 6-4, 6-7 (8), 4-6 in a tough three-set battle.
Roddick at the Legg Mason tennis tournament Washington, DC, August 2007.
Roddick entered the 2007 Australian Open as the sixth seed. In his first round match, he lost a marathon first-set tiebreak 20-18, but eventually won the match in four sets against wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from France. Roddick defeated 26th-seeded Marat Safin in the third round, and 9th seeded Mario Ančić in a five-set fourth round match. Roddick won his quarterfinal match against fellow American Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. His run ended in the semifinals by world # 1 Federer, who defeated him in straight sets 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, making his head-to-head record against Federer 1-13. In first round Davis Cup action, Roddick helped the U.S. defeat the Czech Republic, winning his singles matches against Ivo Minář and Tomáš Berdych. Roddick reached at least the semifinals of his next two tournaments. He bowed out to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the SAP Open in San Jose, California, a reprise of 2006. Roddick then defeated Murray in the semifinals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, before losing in the final to defending champion Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-2. Reaching the final, however, enabled Roddick to overtake Nikolay Davydenko for the world # 3 position, his first week inside the top three since March 6, 2006. At the first ATP Masters Series tournament of the year, after beating world # 8 Ljubicic 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-1, Roddick reached the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, lost to world # 2 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-3.
Series of injuries
Roddick then played the Miami Masters, where he retired from his quarterfinal match against Andy Murray due to a left hamstring injury. Roddick then helped the U.S. defeat Spain and advance to the Davis Cup semifinals, winning his lone singles match against Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-4. However, Roddick re-aggravated his hamstring injury during the Davis Cup tie, and was subsequently forced to pull out of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas. Roddick also announced that he would withdraw from the Monte Carlo Masters, citing the injury. His next tournament was at the Internazionali d’Italia. After a first round bye, he won his first match against Gastón Gaudio, where he saved all three break points and fired nine aces. However, he was unable to stop Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round, losing 6-0, 6-4. Roddick then withdrew from the Masters Series Hamburg tournament because, according to his website, he needed time to physically prepare himself for the upcoming French Open. Roddick was seeded third at the French Open, but was eliminated in the first round by Russian Igor Andreev in four sets 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 4-6. Roddick was victorious at the Stella Artois Championships for the fourth time when he defeated Nicolas Mahut in the final 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2). At Wimbledon, Roddick was seeded third and considered one of the pre-tournament favorites behind Federer and Nadal. He reached the quarterfinals after wins against Justin Gimelstob of the U.S., Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, and Paul-Henri Mathieu of France. In the quarterfinals, Roddick lost in five close sets to Richard Gasquet of France 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), 8-6.
During the summer hardcourt season, Roddick played four tournaments in four weeks. Roddick made it to the semifinals of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, where he was upset by Frank Dancevic of Canada 6-4, 7-6 (1). The next week, however, Roddick claimed his second ATP title of the year by winning the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. for the third time, when he beat American newcomer John Isner 6-4, 7-6 (4). He then lost in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal to Novak Đoković, and in the third round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio to David Ferrer of Spain. At the U.S. Open, Roddick defeated Gimelstob in the first round 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-3. He won his next three matches, one in straight sets and the other two when his opponent retired. In the quarterfinals, Roddick once again lost to Federer 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-2, bringing his head-to-head record with Federer 1-14. There were no breaks of serve and only one break point total in the first two sets, that being on Federer’s serve. Two weeks later, Roddick anchored the U.S. Davis Cup team during its 4-1 semifinal defeat of Sweden. Roddick won both his singles matches, opening the tie with a defeat of Joachim Johansson 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3, and clinching it with a 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Jonas Björkman. This was the ninth time in nine tries that Roddick has clinched a tie for the American team.[citation needed]
Roddick’s then set his sights on the Madrid Masters, but pulled out, citing a knee injury. At his next tournament two weeks later in Lyon, France, Roddick lost in the first round to frenchman Fabrice Santoro 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4. Roddick then withdrew from the Paris Masters, incurring a $22,600 fine for not fulfilling his media obligations at the tournament.[14] At the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Roddick defeated world # 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in his first round-robin match, and then defeated world # 7 Fernando González in his next match to become the first player to qualify for the semifinals of the tournament. In his third and final round-robin match, Roddick lost once again to Federer, 6-4, 6-2 for the 15th time in 16 career matches. In the semifinals, Roddick lost 6-1, 6-3 to # 6 seed David Ferrer, who had won all three of his round-robin matches. This was Roddick’s third semifinal finish out of the last five years at the Tennis Masters Cup (he reached the semifinals in 2003 and 2004, withdrew in 2005, and failed to advance to the semifinals in 2006 after a 1-2 round-robin record). Roddick finished the year by helping the U.S. defeat Russia and win the 2007 Davis Cup, its 32nd Davis Cup victory but first since 1995. Roddick won his rubber against Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, before James Blake and Bob and Mike Bryan completed the victory. Having secured the tie with an unassailable 3-0 lead, Roddick decided to sit out his second singles match of the tie.
Roddick started 2008 strongly, defeating Ljubičić 6-3, 6-0, and Safin 6-3, 6-3 to reach AAMI Kooyong Classic final for four consecutive seasons. In the final, he defeated Baghdatis 7-5, 6-3 to win the tournament for the third consecutive year. Roddick was seeded sixth in the 2008 Australian Open. In the first round, he defeated Lukáš Dlouhý of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. In the second round, he defeated German Michael Berrer 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. He then lost to the # 29 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the third round in a 5-set match 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (9), 7-6 (3), 6-8. Despite losing, Roddick served a career-high of 42 aces in a match. Roddick won his 24th career title and his 3rd title at the SAP Open in San Jose, California. He defeated the Czech Radek Štěpánek in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. Roddick’s next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships. He made it to the semi-finals by defeating world # 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-2, his first victory over Nadal since the second round of the 2004 US Open. The win also marked Roddick’s first victory over a player ranked in the top two since June 2003. He progressed through to the finals by defeating world # 3 and 2008 Australian Open Singles Champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the semi-final. By making it to the final, he became the first American to reach the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships final in the tournament’s 16-year history. In the final he defeated Feliciano López 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-2, to win his 25th career title.
Split with coach
Following Roddick’s quarterfinal match in Dubai, he announced that he had split with his coach of two years, Jimmy Connors. Connors had resigned a week earlier, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.[15] Roddick would continue to be coached by his brother, John Roddick. He then fell to former world # 2 Tommy Haas at the Indian Wells Masters in the 2nd round, 6-4, 6-4. At the 2008 Miami Masters, Roddick advanced to the semifinals after defeating world # 1 Federer 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 an hour after proposing to Brooklyn Decker, bringing his head-to-head record against Federer to 2-15. Roddick improved to 3-0 against top-3 players in 2008. Roddick lost in the semifinals to Nikolay Davydenko 6-7 (5), 2-6. Roddick’s next tournament was the Masters tournament in Rome. There he equaled his best result by reaching the semifinals, where he retired against Stanislas Wawrinka in the pair’s first encounter, due to a back injury.
Roddick was forced to pull out of the 2008 French Open due to a shoulder injury. After a visit to a doctor in New York it was determined this was nothing more than an inflammation of the rotator cuff. His first tournament after the shoulder injury was the Artois Championship, his annual Wimbledon preparation, where he was the defending champion after winning the title last year, one of four wins at the tournament. In the tournament, Roddick defeated Mardy Fish and Andy Murray before losing to eventual champion Nadal in the semifinals. In the 2008 Wimbledon, Roddick suffered a 2nd round defeat to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarević 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (4). This was his earliest exit at Wimbledon. Roddick was beaten at the Toronto Masters in the third round by Marin Čilić, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6. He was then forced to pull out of the Cincinnati Masters following a neck injury, which he said may have been caused by a poor sleeping posture. He stated in an interview that the neck injury had nothing to do with his shoulder injury. Roddick did not participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics, with his reason being to concentrate on the 2008 US Open.[16] In order to prepare for the US Open, Roddick then played in the smaller hard court tournaments in the US Open Series, including those at Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. At the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Roddick lost to Juan Martín del Potro in the final, 1-6, 6-7 (2).
At the 2008 US Open, Roddick defeated Fabrice Santoro in the first round 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Roddick then won his next 3 matches against Ernests Gulbis, Andreas Seppi, and Fernando González. In the quarterfinals, Roddick lost to the World No. 3 and reigning Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5) bringing his head-to-head record to 1-2.
Success in Asia
Roddick captured his 26th ATP title in Beijing at the China Open on September 28, 2008. He defeated Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. The victory was part of Roddick’s strong showing in Asia, as he reached the semifinal round of the AIG Japan Open where he lost to eventual champion Tomáš Berdych after squandering a 5-3 lead in the third and deciding set. In the third round of the Madrid Masters he lost to Frenchman Gaël Monfils in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 3-6. Two weeks later, Roddick reached the quarterfinals of Paris Masters by defeating Frenchman Gilles Simon, 6-3, 7-5, before losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Due to his performance in the tournament, Roddick automatically qualified for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup. At the Masters Cup in Shanghai, he played Andy Murray in his first round robin match and lost 4-6, 6-1, 1-6. He was then scheduled to play Federer, but retired due to an ankle injury and was replaced by Štěpánek.
Bouncing Back
He hired Larry Stefanki as his new coach, and started working with him on December 1. Stefanki had previously trained John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Fernando González, and Tim Henman. Under his guidance both Marcelo Rios and Kafelnikov became world number one, and Fernando Gonzalez reached the final of the Australian Open.
After losing the exhibition championship Capitala World Tennis in Abu Dhabi, Roddick began his 2009 season by playing at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. He defeated Ivan Navarro, Arnaud Clement, and Victor Hanescu in the early rounds. In the semifinals he beat Gaël Monfils in a closely fought match, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, to set up a final with Andy Murray, which he lost 6-4, 6-2. At the first round of the 2009 Australian Open, Roddick beat Bjorn Rehnquist, before Roddick battled from a set down to defeat Xavier Malisse 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the second. After following this up with victories over Fabrice Santoro and 21-seed Tommy Robredo, Roddick played the defending champion and world # 3 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Djokovic retired in the fourth set, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1, allowing Roddick to reach the fourth Australian Open semifinal of his career and brings his head-to-head record to 2-2 against Djokovic. Roddick was defeated in the semifinals by eventual runner-up Federer, 6-2, 7-5, 7-5, bringing their head-to-head series to 2-16.
In the SAP Open, Roddick beat qualifier Michael Ryderstedt 6-0, 7-6 (3) in 62 minutes. He defeated his next opponent, Ernests Gulbis, 6-3, 7-6 (3). Roddick saved four break points on serve in the second set, and converted on his first of three match points in the tie-break to secure the win in one hour and 20 minutes. He then snapped a three-match losing streak against Tommy Haas in his quarterfinal match, securing the 7-5, 6-4. Roddick, whose last win against Haas had come in the 2005 San Jose semifinals, now has a 4-7 head-to-head record against the former World # 2 tennis player. Roddick lost in the semifinals to Radek Stepanek, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 4-6. It was the first time in five matches between the two players that Roddick had lost. In the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, Roddick beat Steve Darcis of Belgium 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the first round, and quickly defeated Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-3 in the second. He defeated Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the semifinals. There Roddick defeated Australian Lleyton Hewitt 2-6, 7-6 , 6-4, to reach the final. He took his first title of the year by beating Stepanek in the championship match, 7-5, 7-5. He had to recover from being up a break and losing serve in the first set, but broke serve to take the opener. The two remained on serve throughout the second set until Roddick broke to take the match.
Roddick chose not to defend his Dubai title, with prize money of over $2 million, to protest the UAE’s refusal to grant Israeli Shahar Pe’er a visa for the WTA event. “I really didn’t agree with what went on over there,” Roddick said.[17][18]
Roddick entered the 2009 BNP Paribas Open as the number 7 seed. He received a bye in the first round and beat Daniel Koellerer 6-1, 7-6 (3) in the second. In the third round, he beat veteran Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 7-6 (4). He defeated David Ferrer in the fourth round 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 to secure his place in the quarterfinals where he met defending champion Novak Djokovic whom he’d beaten earlier in the year and against whom he held a 2-2 win/loss record. Roddick prevailed in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. His run was ended by World # 1 Rafael Nadal, 4-6, 6-7 (4). However, he managed to win the doubles title partnering Mardy Fish, defeating Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 3-6, 6-1, 14-12 in the final. It was his fourth doubles title overall, and his second partnering Fish.
At the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open, Roddick was given a first round bye and defeated Diego Junqueira 6-1, 6-1 in the second. In the third round he defeated the number 25 seed Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (9), 6-2. He beat Frenchman and number 9 seed Gaël Monfils 7-6 (2), 6-2 to secure a place in the quarterfinals and a meeting with Roger Federer, whom he had beaten in the same round in 2008. This year, however, he was beaten after fighting off three break points in the second set; 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, bringing their head-to-head record to 2-17.
As of April 11, Roddick had the second-best winning percentage among Americans on clay; .663 to .714 of Wayne Odesnik.
Roddick returned to action at the ATP Masters Series in Madrid. In his first match at Madrid, Roddick overcame 2 match points in the second set tiebreaker to defeat Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-6(9), 6-4. In the third-round , Roddick was scheduled to face Nikolay Davydenko, but due to a leg injury, Davydenko withdrew, thereby sending Roddick to the quarter-finals via a walk over. In quarter-finals, Roddick lost to Roger Federer 5-7, 7-6(5), 1-6, bringing their head-to-head series to 2-18.
Roddick defeated his first opponent at the 2009 French Open, wild-card Romain Jouan in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. After that he defeated Ivo Minar in the second round, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 and moved into the 3rd round. He went on to beat his previous record in 2001, shutting out Marc Gicquel 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. This was the best result that Roddick had ever had at Roland Garros. He was knocked out in the Round 4 by Gaël Monfils 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
At the Aegon Championship, he advanced to the semi-finals before retiring in his match against James Blake due to a twisted ankle. Roddick stated that the injury was not serious and that he expected to be fit to play at Wimbledon.[19][20]
At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Roddick was seeded sixth. He won his first round match versus Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 and his second round match versus Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. He beat his third round opponent Jurgen Melzer 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. Roddick defeated Tomas Berdych in the fourth round in straight sets 7-6, 6-4, 6-3. He defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4, serving a career-high 43 aces, and defeated the third seed, Briton Andy Murray, in the semifinals, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5).[21] He will face Roger Federer for the Wimbledon championship, the third time the two have met in the Wimbledon finals, and the fourth time in a major final, all previously won by Federer.
Davis Cup
With his 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu on April 13, 2008 for the deciding victory in the best-of-five 2008 quarterfinal Davis Cup match with France, Roddick improved to 10-0 in clinching situations for the United States. In his second singles victory in three days, he was held to 17 aces, down from 30 against Michael Llodra a few days prior. Roddick improved to 31-11 for the US in Davis Cup matches, trailing only John McEnroe (41). His win against the 12th-ranked Mathieu was part of a strong month in which he beat the tour’s top three players — Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.
Nicknames and on-court behavior
Roddick is often called “A-Rod,” referring to his first initial and the first three letters of his last name,[23] and a reference to baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez who already has that nickname.
Roddick is known for frequent outbursts against umpires on the court. His most famous quote is to umpire Emmanuel Joseph in his Australian Open 2008 match: “You’re an idiot! Stay in school kids, or you’ll end up being an umpire.”
Equipment
Roddick uses a discontinued version of the Babolat Pure Drive, extended to 27.5 inches. The racquet itself is heavily customised with additional weight placed in the head via the use of lead tape. The resulting racquet exhibits a more head heavy balance point and a higher swingweight than the stock model with a higher overall weight, though this is similar to the model he endorses at approximately 12oz. Modifications of this sort are not uncommon for professional players.
Roddick’s racquets are painted to resemble the Pure Drive Roddick Plus with Cortex racquet in order to market a current model which Babolat sells. The cortex in particular is visibly painted onto the racquet. For marketing purposes Roddick endorses the Pure Drive Roddick GT Plus Cortex Racquet, a signature racquet designed for him by racquet sponsor Babolat, which is slightly heavier (11.9 oz), stiffer (Babolat RDC index 72), and longer (27.5″) than the standard Pure Drive Series (11.3 oz, Babolat RDC 71, 27″). The racquet is designed for a strong service due to its weight, stiffness, and length.[25] According to Tennis Warehouse, it is the best one for this fundamental. He strings with a custom hybrid (Pro Hurricane Tour + VS). Roddick’s tension varies, but he mostly strings his racquets to a tension of roughly 64 or 65 pounds.
Roddick also uses Babolat Propulse II tennis shoes, which are his signature gear.[26] In matches, Roddick wears shirts, shorts, and caps manufactured for him by Lacoste.
Playing style
Roddick is known for his powerful first serve, usually serving at around 130-150 mph (209~242 km/h), which he uses to earn free points with aces and unreturnable serves.[27] His first serve is known to some as the “Roddick Serve” since he abbreviates the serve by removing part of the motion. He usually targets the two corners to win aces. As for his second serve, he usually employs a heavy kick serve, then tries to use a variety of spins, slices, and angles in the rally to throw off his opponent. He is noted to use heavy topspin on both his serves and his twist serve is probably the highest-kicking serve anyone hits.Roddick will also occasionally use the serve-and-volley tactic on both first and second services to surprise his opponent, though he generally prefers to remain near the baseline after a serve. Despite all this, Roddick is sometimes criticized for his lack of variety; however, he has developed a more all-court playing style compared to the aggressive baseline style he played with for most of his early career. Under new coach Larry Stefanki, he has been in the fittest shape of his career, as well as developing his volleying skills.Roddick’s backhand is also considered to have improved over the course of his career.
Appearances
On April 5, 2002, Roddick guest-starred on the television show Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as himself. In the episode, Sabrina summoned him so he could give her tennis lessons.
Roddick appeared on the The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn talk show in 2002 and 2003, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 2003, Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2004 and 2005, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2005 and 2007, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2006.[31] Roddick also appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on June 8, 2007. The two had humorous conversations about life beyond the court, other players, and on-court fashions. At one point during the interview, Ross sat on Roddick’s lap to try to make him feel uncomfortable.
Roddick hosted Saturday Night Live on November 8, 2003, becoming the second tennis player to host (Chris Evert being the first).
Roddick also appeared on a 2004 episode of the Anne Robinson Version of The Weakest Link, but ended up being voted off.[33]
Roddick is in a This is SportsCenter ad with Stuart Scott, in which he confronts the Sports Center anchor about the anchors not calling him “A-Rod,” and asks him “Did Alex Rodriguez put you up to this?” Scott replies “Who?” Roddick says “A-Rod!” Scott gets a sneaky look on his face, and Roddick leaves disgusted.
The June/July 2007 issue of Men’s Fitness magazine carried an article on Roddick. The cover shot featured the tennis ace in a t-shirt, straining to contain massive, pumped-up biceps and hulking shoulder and chest muscles. The image set off widespread online speculation that the magazine had altered Roddick’s likeness, a suspicion echoed by Roddick himself. Roddick has quipped that he saw the photo, and that Nadal wanted his arms back.
In March 2009, Andy Roddick appeared in the “Speed Feels Better” music video for singer/songwriter Michael Tolcher. Other athletes in the video included Amanda Beard, Barry Sanders, Kimmie Meissner, and Rick Ankiel.
Awards and Record Serve
In 2004, Roddick produced the fastest serve in professional tennis: 249.5 km/h (155 mph) during a Davis Cup semi-final match with Vladimir Voltchkov on hard court in Charleston. Earlier that year, Roddick had the fastest serve in U.S. Open history: 244 km/h (152 mph) against American Scoville Jenkins.Roddick also won the 2004 ESPY Award for Best Male Tennis Player.
That same year he won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award of the Year because of his charity efforts, which included: raising money for the survivors of the tsunami following 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake through Serving for Tsunami Relief and other efforts; auctioning off several rackets and autographs to raise money for UNICEF; and creating the Andy Roddick Foundation to help at-risk youth. The foundation is partly funded through the sale of blue wristbands inscribed “No Compromise,” inspired by Lance Armstrong’s yellow Livestrong wristbands.
In 2007 Roddick and the Andy Roddick Foundation was awarded by the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. Roddick was the first male tennis player ever to receive the award.
WIMBLEDON, England – As American Andy Roddick plotted and perspired over the years to get back to the place and the round where he once belonged, the opponent he visualized across the net in the Wimbledon final was always Roger Federer of Switzerland.
“It’s the only thing I’ve known in a Wimbledon final,” Roddick said. “It’s expected that it’s Roger. Pretty much, if you want to win a Slam, it’s got to go through him.”
Roddick was surprisingly measured, even mellow Friday evening after experiencing the high of defeating Andy Murray of Scotland at the All England Club in the semifinals.
“You spend the better part of three hours stressing out, high drama and the whole deal,” Roddick said. “I think afterward you’re just kind of trying to maybe calm down a little bit.”
Calm down and come up with a good plan, which is what will presumably be required if Roddick is finally to beat Federer on a big occasion. Federer comes into today’s Wimbledon final with an 18-2 lead over Roddick.
“It’s clear that it helps me to have this record against him,” Federer said after his practice Saturday. “But if I don’t win, it’s not going to help me. So I have to remain concentrated and, above all, not underestimate him, because things can go quickly.”
Federer beat Roddick in the 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon finals.
Federer is seeking his 15th major title, which would snap a tie with American Pete Sampras for the most of all time.
Federer is seeking his sixth Wimbledon title and a victory in the final would vault him over Rafael Nadal of Spain for the No. 1 ranking in the world.
“Records are part of this great match right now,” Federer said, “so it’s obviously even more of an incentive to try really hard.”
WIMBLEDON, England — It isn’t the Wimbledon men’s final Great Britain was hoping for, and it is unlikely to match Rafael Nadal’s epic victory over Roger Federer last summer. But those poor souls who paid thousands of pounds hoping to see Andy Murray might get their money’s worth Sunday as gutsy, big-hitting American Andy Roddick stands between Federer and history.
Federer is going for his 15th Grand Slam title, which would break Pete Sampras’ record. Playing in his seventh consecutive Wimbledon final, Federer also is trying to win a sixth Wimbledon title and reclaim the No. 1 ranking from Nadal. He had been the world’s top-ranked player for 237 weeks in a row before Nadal surpassed him in August 2008.
The Royal Box will be loaded with luminaries. Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver and Sampras are expected to be among the men in suits.
Federer was in a funk for much of last year, and skeptics wondered whether Nadal had surpassed him. But then he won a fifth consecutive U.S. Open, lost a tough five-setter to Nadal in Australia and won his first French Open. Granted, Nadal wasn’t his final opponent, and the Spaniard skipped Wimbledon because of sore knees, but still, nobody is questioning Federer’s game anymore.
HE’S IN A GROOVE
He showed up in his white blazer and slacks, looking dapper and confident as ever. He has dropped only one set at this tournament, is on an 18-match winning streak and he seems happy off the court, as well. He married longtime girlfriend, Mirka, in April, and they are expecting a baby later this summer.
”I’m just excited Mirka is feeling great, awaiting our first child. It’s quite something on a personal note,” he said. “Also, I’m playing wonderful tennis at the moment. Everything’s just great.”
The only man who can spoil his mood is Roddick, the sixth-ranked American who has a dismal 2-18 record against Federer.
Roddick is 0-7 against Federer in Grand Slams and 0-3 at Wimbledon, including the 2004 and 2005 finals. Roddick’s only victory over Federer in their past 15 meetings was at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open on Key Biscayne. In front of an electric crowd that night, Roddick got past his nemesis 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3.
”I’ve played Andy 20 times, so I’ve had plenty of time to understand his game,” Federer said. “He’s always played me quite differently every single time I’ve played him. In the beginning of his career, he was standing way back on the return. In 2004, he chipped and charged a lot. I’ve also played him when he serve and volleyed.
“I’ve had many different looks against Roddick. I enjoy how he leaves everything out on the court. I can only marvel at how incredible his serve is. I like playing against him, not only because of the record.”
Asked what he finds most challenging about playing Roddick, Federer said, “His fighting spirit, his belief.”
It is that spirit that pulled Roddick through a five-set dogfight against Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, and the belief that carried him to a shocking semifinal victory over Murray and his legions of fans. Roddick brought out a more diversified game, rushing the net more than usual, and placing his serves right on the lines.
This is a new, more confident Roddick. He, too, is a newlywed, and said that has brought him calm on the court. The former No. 1 hasn’t won a Grand Slam title since the 2003 U.S. Open and he is desperate to prove he’s not a one-Slam wonder. He cried after reaching the semifinals Wednesday, and again after beating Murray on Friday.
HUMBLED BY MOMENT
Roddick usually does a great job describing his feelings, but said he could not put into words what winning Wimbledon would mean.
”I didn’t know if I was going to get to play a Wimbledon final again,” he said. “I’m thankful to have that opportunity.”
Is there a danger he is so excited to make the final he will be satisfied with that?
”That won’t be the case,” he said. “It’s too close.”
Roddick has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter, and has been entertaining them with daily musings. He didn’t need the full 140 characters to express what he was feeling Friday night.
“126 home — 2 left.”
• Hoping to add to the U.S. title haul after Serena Williams’ victory Saturday, top-ranked twins Bob and Mike Bryan fell short and lost the men’s doubles final to defending champions Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimanjic of Serbia, 6-7 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (3-7), 3-6.
It was the third Grand Slam final for Nestor and Zimanjic, who lost in the 2008 French Open final. The Bryans had not dropped a set this Wimbledon, but got broken in the second game of the fourth set and couldn’t recover.
”I remember the scene last year, coming in with two private wives holding hands on their bellies after we won the trophies, and now we have three kids,” said Zimanjic, whose wife had twins in December. ‘To see our names on the winners’ plaque twice in a row is real special. We took a picture. It’s always special to play Centre Court, a full stadium. This is the only place with such a big tradition, and the doubles is still very popular.”
well-worn form of Andy Roddick, a good bit of 1930s great Don Budge and his irreverent, long-deceased tennis coach have found their way to the regal grounds of Wimbledon.
Roddick’s thrill-ride swing to the men’s final, where he meets five-time champion and longtime nemesis Roger Federer today, has been a monumental surprise; not only to seasoned observers who assumed he had long ago played his best tennis, but to Roddick himself.
“To be honest, the last couple of years I didn’t know if I would ever get a chance to play for a Grand Slam title,” Roddick said after his semifinal dismantling of Britain’s great hope, Andy Murray. “Now I get to, and it’s a dream.”
As has been widely noted, this particular dream has been guided by a new coach: a hyperkinetic San Diegan and former tour journeyman named Larry Stefanki. Since the pair hooked up late last year, Roddick has streamlined his game and his attitude. The results have been steadily encouraging: the semifinals at the Australian Open, a personal-best fourth-round showing at the French Open, two close matches against Federer in lesser events. And now, out of nowhere, his third final at the All England Club.
Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be different this time. Under Stefanki, Roddick has slimmed by 10 to 15 pounds. As important has been the change in how he plays: He’s lighter and more balanced on his feet, he’s more erect and relaxed and he’s taking shorter, sharper swings. Instead of lunging, leaning and groping like a rag doll on a string, he has focused on the simple principal of moving aggressively forward.
None of this is a surprise to those who know about the lineage of Tom Stow, a little-known, one-of-a-kind tennis coach from Berkeley who died two decades ago.
Even die-hard tennis fans may be wondering, Tom who? In the 1920s, Stow won a national doubles title at California. Then, for decades, he taught a distinct serve-and-volley style while coaching at Cal and then at the Berkeley Tennis Club and a few other tennis outposts in Northern California. It was Stow’s coaching that put a stamp on one of the sport’s all-time greats, Oakland-bred Budge, the first man to win all four Grand Slam event singles titles in one year, the Wimbledon champion in 1937 and 1938.
Budge’s best shot? Arguably, the backhand drive. It’s not a coincidence that one of Roddick’s most improved shots at this year’s Wimbledon has been his backhand, taut, tight and down the line.
Here’s how the lineage spreads. Stefanki played at Cal in the mid-1970s. Along with his brother Steve, who coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1984, Stefanki developed much of his tennis philosophy while working with Stow when Stow was in his 70s and nearing death. (Full disclosure: Steve was my tennis mentor when I was co-captain of the Cal tennis team in the late 1980s.)
To Larry and his brother, Tom Stow wasn’t just another tennis coach. He was a maestro: a crafty, chain-smoking, uncompromising sort, a man willing to buck every trend and see the game differently. He studied dance and tried to get them to move like Fred Astaire. He studied boxing, hoping to have them press forward with the steadiness of Joe Louis. Sometimes he’d force his students to spend their afternoons hitting balls while sitting in a chair, to teach the feel of being grounded. He’d focus session after session on two parts of the game often overlooked by other teachers — returns and serves — which Roddick has excelled at this Wimbledon. Stow almost never watched his charges play matches, not even Budge. He figured tennis’ true essence lies in finely tuned practice. The competition would take care of itself.
“I have learned something from every great player I’ve ever worked with,” Stefanki said in an e-mail the day after Roddick’s semifinal win, a reference to his past coaching of players such as John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Fernando Gonzalez. “But the foundation of fundamentals and knowledge of the game is credited to Tom. His principles and understanding of footwork and absorbing speed is second to none. He was a true master in that regard . . . he understood this game played in a rectangular box better than anyone I have ever come across.”
And so it goes. The lineage moves one step forward. A player from the roaring 1920s becomes an exacting teacher. Without wide notice he spends decades doling out wisdom. That wisdom travels through an all-time great, then it evolves and adapts while remaining true and honest and relevant. Now we find it at Wimbledon.
“My only regret,” Stefanki wrote, “is that Tom is not around to see his techniques are still being passed on.”
There are limits. A startling upset can occur. Most likely though, by this afternoon these techniques will have been neutralized by the great magician from Switzerland.
But this much is certain: No matter what happens in the final, America’s long-suffering top tennis player has just had a marvelous tournament and a superb half of a season. His once foundering career is moving in the right direction — forward. For all of this, we now know, Andy Roddick owes a debt to Tom Stow.
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