Talk:Charlie Pasarell

Panatta

Adriano Panatta cannot have been ranked No. 3 in the world — as the article presently asserts — when Pasarell beat him at Wimbledon in 1976. Panatta's career-high ranking was No. 4. Although he achieved this ranking largely on the strength of his having won both the Italian and French Opens, in May and early June of 1976 — shortly before Wimbledon began — the ATP's records indicate that he was not officially ranked No. 4 until August 24 of that year.

Panatta began the year ranked No. 14, which he reached on December 15, 1975. He moved up to No. 6 in the world on June 14, 1976 — just 7 days before that year's Wimbledon tournament began. (Back then, the ATP did not revise its rankings weekly as it does today. Therefore, different rankings between December 15 and June 14, or between June 14 and August 24, cannot be ascertained.) On June 21 when Wimbledon began, and June 24 and 25 when Panatta and Pasarell played, Panatta was still ranked number 6.

(The 1976 Wimbledon Championships were played between June 21 and July 3. Panatta and Pasarell played the first 4 sets of their match on Thursday, June 24 — playing until the match was suspended due to darkness — and then completed their match on Friday, June 25.)

So I just changed the ranking stated for Panatta from No. 3 to No. 6. I also changed the punctuation and word order of the sentence to make it clearer.

References:

ATP World Tour - Tennis Players: Adriano Panatta

ATP World Tour - Tennis Players: Adriano Panatta - Rankings History

P.S. I'm not sure the paragraph should quote tennis writer Rex Bellamy's incredibly purple prose nearly as extensively as it does. The same point is made over and over: the match between Rosewall and Pasarell in 1968 — the first Wimbledon of the Open Era — was one of the great matches of all time. Note also that most of Bellamy's flowery and extravagant praise for the admittedly great match is — as of now — repeated in Note 5 of the article.

But while I think enough is enough, and this was more than enough, I left all of the previous editor's text intact, correcting only his (numerous) errors of punctuation.

2001:5B0:24FF:3CF0:0:0:0:2F (talk) 07:54, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Spelling errors in "Playing style" section?

I just corrected a number of punctuation and capitalization errors in the section on Pasarell's playing style, and corrected the repeated and persistent misspelling of Rex Bellamy's last name. I also found at least three other words that appear possibly to have been misspelled: "Marlborogh", "drawal", and "drousy".

• "Marlborough" is by far the more common spelling, but I do not know for a fact that it wasn't "Marlborogh". Perhaps it's the name of a place? Also, if Philip Morris — long-time sponsor of the Virginia Slims women's tennis tour — was also a sponsor of the Grand Prix tournament that Pasarell and the others were to attend, then perhaps instead the cigarette brand Marlboro was intended?

(Arthur Ashe did indeed take a 3-week tour of Africa in 1971, and Charlie Pasarell accompanied him. While on this tour, they discovered future tennis great Yannick Noah. Ashe was denied a visa to visit South Africa — for the third year in a row — so wherever this "Marlborogh African Grand Prix" was played, it cannot have been in South Africa. Unless of course Ashe went on the tour but missed the tournament.)

• I tried several possibilities and I cannot figure out what word was intended if "drawal" was not. "Drawal" does not appear to be a word, but I do not know what to change it to.

• "Drousy" does not appear to exist either. It is remotely possible that "droumy" was intended (though I seriously doubt it), but "drowsy" seems more likely. It fits the sense of the sentence, and has the virtue of being an actual, preexisting word.

So I changed "drousy" to "drowsy", but left "Marlborogh" and "drawal" as they were. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can clear this up someday. And change "drowsy" back to "drousy" if in fact I have made a mistake.

(Perhaps "[sic]" should be added in one place or another if these spellings — erroneous or not — truly match the source? All appear inside quotations.)

2001:5B0:24FF:3CF0:0:0:0:2F (talk) 11:18, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

After further investigation, I found that Marlboro (i.e., Philip Morris) has indeed been the sponsor of various international men's professional tennis tournaments over the years, including tournaments in Australia and Hong Kong:

Brisbane International

("the Marlboro-sponsored South Australian Men's Tennis Classic")

(This article also indicates that the tournament was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit back in the 1970s.)

Denton Gains Marlboro Finals

("the $400,000 Marlboro Australian Open tennis tournament")

(This article also refers to "a Grand Prix tournament in South Africa"! However, it gives no indication that Marlboro was a sponsor of that tournament; it identifies no sponsors at all.)

TENNIS: ROUNDUP; Majoli Again Stumbles to Loss

("the $725,000 Marlboro Hong Kong championships")

In light of all this additional evidence (including the fact that at least one of these tournaments sponsored by Philip Morris using its Marlboro brand was a Grand Prix event), and Philip Morris's sponsorship of the Virginia Slims tour, I think it is highly likely that the word "Marlborogh" was in reference to the African tournament's sponsor, and that "Marlboro" was indeed intended. So I'm changing that, too.

2001:5B0:24FF:3CF0:0:0:0:2F (talk) 11:22, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Richard Evans

I removed the "disambiguation needed" note that previously accompanied the name "Richard Evans", in the section on Pasarell's "Playing style". By searching Google I learned the full title of the book quoted in the section (Open Tennis: The First Twenty Years), and ascertained that the "Richard Evans" in question is in fact Richard Ingham Evans, a British news correspondent, sports writer and radio commentator who has written or edited 17 books on cricket, rugby and tennis, including two biographies of John McEnroe and the official history of the Davis Cup’s first 100 years. Since he was now adequately identified, and since his name now links directly to "Richard Ingham Evans" rather than just "Richard Evans", the "disambiguation needed" marker is no longer needed.

(Plus there are no other "Richard Ingham Evanses" from whom to distinguish him! At least not at present.)

Evans does not yet have a Wikipedia entry. However, he has a Twitter account (@Ringham7) with just under 3,000 followers —

Richard Ingham Evans (Ringham7) on Twitter

— and he is presently listed on the Australian Open's Web site as one of the radio commentators who covered the 2014 Australian Open:

MEET THE AO RADIO TEAM

His biography on the Australian Open radio commentary page reads as follows:

RICHARD EVANS - Richard has been covering tennis since the days of Lew Hoad and Rod Laver, and as a news correspondent covered two US presidential elections and reported from the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. He has written or edited 17 books on cricket, rugby and tennis, including a biography of John McEnroe and the official history of the Davis Cup’s first 100 years. His radio career began with CBS in New York, and he commentated for BBC Radio for 20 years. He lives in Florida and has a 15-year-old son.

(Obviously that's where I got the information I provided earlier, at the beginning of this section. Although this mini-bio just says "a biography of John McEnroe", two biographies of McEnroe by Evans are listed in the "Further reading" section of McEnroe's Wikipedia entry: McEnroe: A Rage for Perfection (1982), and McEnroe: Taming the Talent (1990). And his Twitter page indicates that he resides in London, England as well as Delray Beach, Florida.)

I added his name and a brief identifying description to the Richard Evans disambiguation page, but I did not attempt to create or request a new Wikipedia article in his name. The latter appears to be a lot more work than I am up to with my present knowledge of Wikipedia mechanics (and my present unwillingness to create a Wikipedia account, which now appears to be necessary in order to be able to create a new Wikipedia article).

2001:5B0:24FF:3CF0:0:0:0:2F (talk) 14:09, 29 July 2014 (UTC)