Aaron Krickstein

I grew up a child of the 80s. I went to college in the 80s. I went to high school in the 80s. I was finishing up junior high school in the 80s. When I was 13, which was barely in the 80s, I learned to play tennis, though it took a significant number of years before I was OK at tennis, partly because I was mostly self-taught (I took lessons early on which helped with the basics, but learned most of it on my own), and partly because I didn't play enough (a few times a year).

I look back at the 80s as a time that I most remember about tennis. I used to follow the scant results rabidly. The Internet as we know it was not around. There was no "Web". There were no ISPs. Most newspapers thought little of tennis, and provided little results. One of the reason USA Today became popular was its extensive sports results. USA Today was always light on quality articles, but it tracked tennis pretty well.

Many tennis fans found it hard to follow the sport, and didn't follow it the same way that fans followed baseball or football which had not only newspaper coverage, but was on television. The early 80s were the time of cable. Cable TV started becoming widespread in the mid-70s, and by the early 80s, became huge. Many sports benefitted from ESPN, most notably, college basketball.

Tennis also benefited. Most would argue that the heyday of American tennis was really the 1970s. This coincided with a few things, the biggest of which was Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs. Bobby Riggs was actually quite a good player from the late 30s and early 40s, winning Wimbledon in 1939. He was a pretty clever player, which helped him later on.

Riggs had beaten world number 1, Margaret Court, on what he termed as the Mother's Day Massacre. Court, despite her ranking, was a nervous player, and Riggs did what he could to unnerve her. Realize that Riggs was not a young man when he was challenging women to play. He was in his 50s. Many people may not have realized just how old he was.

Billie Jean King was a leader of the women's circuit, which had, up to that point, paid women far less for playing. She worked with Virginia Slims, a cigarette company, to help build a renegade tour, which paid better. A win against Bobby Riggs was critical to lend some legitimacy to women's sports (even if there are physiological differences). The match was a huge spectacle, which King won in straight sets.

Her victory was hugely important, as it literally transformed all of women's sports. It was a seminal point in the women's lib movement. It was the peak of feminism, which eventually suffered a beatdown when conservative Republicans eventually insinuated that feminists were lesbians and Nazis.

The years after this lead to a surge of women playing tennis, but also lead to viewership going up. It lead to a few rock stars of tennis. In particular, at the top of men's tennis, was the stoic Swede, Bjorn Borg, and the brash, bad boy, Jimmy Connors. The women had Chris Evert, America's sweetheart, who played dominating tennis late in the 70s, and had a brief fling with Jimmy Connors, before marrying Brit, John Lloyd.

To be honest, the tennis played in this era was boring. Borg beat people because he was incredibly steady. He would generally not hit winners, but wait until you made the error. He didn't hit so well that he was making winner after winner, but he didn't hit so poorly that you could hit winners either. Indeed, outside of Connors, hitting winning shots was not so common as it was in the 80s. Hitting winners from the baseline was really hard with tiny racquets that was typical of the 70s and before.

The 80s began to usher in a revolution in tennis. Perhaps the player that epitomized the early evolution of tennis was Ivan Lendl. Had the oversized racquet never come into play, or had been banned early on, I think you would have seen Lendl dominating for longer than he did. In particular, Becker used a fairly large racquet, while Lendl favored a reasonably small racquet.

People saw Lendl as the new Borg, but Lendl was really the power player of his day. While Connors was also known for his power, his influence on other players of the day seemed minimal. Few people wanted to hit flat shots like Connors, shots with little spin that had a low margin of error. They emulated Borg, and eventually Lendl.

In the old days, it was hard to hit winners from the baseline. Connors could do it, and Vilas and Borg could do it, but didn't do it that often. But the player that really amped up the power was Lendl. He was the precursor to Agassi and Becker.

But even had Lendl not arrived when he did, players were already starting to hit harder. In particular, Lendl started making news in the late 70s, but by the early 80s, Nick Bollettieri's wunderkids were coming out.

Nick was a paratrooper turned tennis player, and seemed to have talent identifying young kids and training them. Bollettieri, one has to really note, did as much for American tennis as anyone. He often doesn't get the credit he deserves. Without him, there might not be an Agassi, nor all the folks that preceded him. It wasn't that Nick was a great coach, but he did gather a lot of good players together.

Back when little Sweden, with under 20 million people, was cranking out great tennis players, due mostly to the interaction between the juniors, pushing each other to success, US tennis lacked this, and Bollettieri filled in.

Two of his most notable early students were Jimmy Arias and Aaron Krickstein. Jimmy Arias was the little New Yorker who could (though, I believe, he was from Buffalo. At 5'7", which was unusually short for a player, Arias could hit his forehand a ton. However, he had a few trademark weaknesses that people would brand as typical Bollettieri. His backhand was OK. He often seemed to fling his entire body, trying to hit that backhand. He didn't volley well. He didn't serve well.

He's claimed that had the newer larger racquets never been invented, or had tennis enforced the use of tiny racquets, he'd have a longer career. But despite a semifinal appearance at the US Open early on, and a successful run during the summer clay court circuit, Arias soon faded, probably, I bet, due to injuries, and the game passing him by.

A year after Arias had his good run (this would be, I think, 1983), the second of Bollettieri's proteges had a good run. He fit the usual stereotype. Big forehand, not much volley, not much serve. But amazingly, Krickstein's career was far more solid than Arias, which may have been because his backhand was pretty solid. He was also nearly 6 ft tall, an advantage that helped him deal with high balls.

Indeed, Krickstein's best year was 1989, more than 5 years after making his big debut. Krickstein, alas, is best known for a key loss. Krickstein has always had trouble with Connors flat style, and did not fare well against him. But in 1991, most people would say Connors, at 39 years of age, was really past his prime. Connors wasn't really winning tournaments any more. The power game was passing him by. Even so, he was still good enough to play reasonably good tennis even at 39.

Connors managed to get past Patrick McEnroe in the first round, even after McEnroe was up two sets to none. Patrick was, of course, never quite as good as his spectacular brother. Temperamentally, he was not argumentative, and he played from the baseline. He was Eli Manning to John's Peyton, except without Eli's team success.

Connors had a pretty good draw, playing good players, but nobody completely overpowering. Krickstein usually played quite well at the US Open. He had a famous match against Yannick Noah, where Noah made a famous between the legs shot, and eventually knocked out Krickstein (Noah may have lost to Arias, in 83, now that I think of it). Krickstein lost a tight five setter to Connors in the fourth round, and eventually Connors made it to the semis, where he was pummeled by Courier, another Bollettieri protege, whose forehand was even harder, and serve, a touch better.

Krickstein also had a famous match against Vitas Gerulaitis, who basically choked, double faulting prodigiously, when Krickstein made his big debut in 1983 at the Open. Indeed, he also beat Edberg in the first round, once upon a time.

Krickstein was a solid player, and won 9 titles. 9 may not seem like a lot, but it puts him at the second tier of players, who won some tournaments, but never the big ones, and never a lot. By contrast, Andy Roddick, a more highly ranked player, has already won 25 titles. Connors had over 100 titles to his credit.

Personality-wise, Krickstein was very quiet. He had that 80s look to his hair, the big poofy hair, with the headband, even when it was creeping to the 1990s.

I'm currently watching him play Wayne Ferreira in a champions tour. I'm sure Krickstein hasn't played a lot since he retired. Ferreira was in the group of players just after Krickstein. He was more a Courier-era player, where the players hit with even more spin and power than Krickstein.

Indeed, Krickstein's forehand, as powerful as it was, was very compact. Krickstein literally had no backswing, at least, compared to modern players. At his age (age 40), he lacks the power that Ferreira has. Ferreira is, at this point, both younger and stronger than Krickstein, and usually a fixture in the later rounds. Amazingly, McEnroe still plays reasonably well at these things, despite being nearly 50, which is ten years older than Krickstein.

Krickstein's footwork was also notable. Krickstein was really into the tiny, tiny steps. If you watch him play now, you'll notice that. Most players take longer strides than Krickstein. If you remember Krickstein, you'll remember that.

Watching Krickstein makes me wonder what all these former players do with the rest of their lives. Certainly, if he paid attention to his retirement, he should have no worries. Even a player like Krickstein probably earned a million dollars plus in his career. Still, I wonder how he passes his days.

Krickstein is noted for being the uncle of golf player, Morgan Pressel, who had a runner-up showing at the US Open (I think). He's had some bouts with cancer. His sister died of cancer (the mother of Morgan), and his wife had ovarian cancer (still alive, thankfully).

Krickstein has aged pretty well, actually, looking not that much different than he did nearly 20 years ago when he faced Connors. Krickstein realizes, of course, that he's now just past the age when Connors made his run to the finals. He resents what Connors did to rattle him in that tournament. They had been pretty close, but Connors desperately wanted a big win, and Krickstein was always a bit sensitive in this very public sport. Connors was, of course, the better player, but many would probably prefer Krickstein as a person.

Oh yeah, one should mention that Krickstein is Jewish. That's interesting to note because there aren't a lot of Jewish athletes. In tennis, I have to struggle to recall one Shlomo Glickstein who almost knocked McEnroe out of the first round of the US Open. This rarely became a topic that was broached. Krickstein, as I've already mentioned, was a quiet one, who had a pretty good career, better than, say, Jimmy Arias (who, one notes, is doing OK for himself as a tennis commentator).

I'd say one thing the Tennis Channel seems to be doing pretty well is covering the seniors tour. If it wasn't for them, these events would get no airtime at all. I'm sure it's a lot cheaper to get coverage for the senior tour, and really, Connors has to be credited for trying to revitalize this tour, starting about ten years ago.

When I see Aaron Krickstein, I think of my own (rather insignificant) tennis career, which is really, just a past-time. As I get older, I find myself looking back more, seeing parallels in my own life, and those of people that I "grew up" with.