Martin Verkerk #9: next stop: Sherbrooke

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Lots of good tennis at Jarry Saturday -
Canadian Milan Pokrojac was up an early break against Florin Mergea of Romania in the first semi-final of the National Bank Futures event, but faded at 5-all in the first set and ultimately went down 7-5, 6-2.

Mergea, who looks like any shmoe who just came off the public courts (except for his strokes), will meet Martin Verkerk, the former No. 14 player in the world, and 2003 French Open finalist, who beat Rafael Arevalo of El Salvador 6-2, 6-3.

Verkerk, 29 (more on him in Sunday's dead-tree edition of the Gazette) is quite a character. The fans could follow every single emotion he was feeling on the court as he was playing. And his serve and backhand remain world-class.

At one point, he even had to ask the umpire to get some kids sitting courtside to move (photo below), because the last thing anyone needed was 130 mph out wide to get them right in the face.

Verkerk had two operations to repair a torn labrum in his serving shoulder. The first, in Oct, 2004, didn't really take. So he had it done again in March 2005. He tried to come back in 2007 with a protected ranking, but he entered 12 tournaments (most of them biggies, like Rome, Monte Carlo and the French Open) but lost in the first round each time.

He's back at it now, with trainer Mark Wellington (well-known for work with Maria Sharapova, among others) getting him into fighting form. He played his first Futures event in Texas two weeks ago "The winds were like 45-50 miles an hour. It wasn't fun. It wasn't tennis," said Verkerk, who lost to the No. 1 junior in the world, Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania, in three sets.

He faced two Canadian kids here, Milos Raonic (7-6, 6-3) and Vasek Pospisil (6-1, 7-6) and had good things to say about both, especially Raonic.

Verkerk also knows several of the new coaches hired to be part of the National Training Centre program, and has high regard for them. He was surprised that there were Canadian kids that good, and said that under the guidance of those coaches, they have potential.

It was nice to see that the guy wasn't big-leaguing anyone. He was just a guy, trying to make a comeback (with no help at all from the Dutch Federation, which should be giving the guy whatever wild cards it can, considering he's probably one of the top three players in the country's history).

At the moment, he's just made requests for wild cards to every Futures, Challenger and main event qualifying draw he can, hoping for nibbles. With a current ranking of No. 674, he has to take what he can get.

There was never a dull moment during Verkerk's match. A classic was when his opponent was called for a foot-fault and protested, and he made the crazy sign whirling his finger around near his ear. The guy is definitely a twitch machine, in constant motion, always reacting and practicing his stroke and looking around. Fun to watch.

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Definitely a bit full of himself, but also pretty honest and definitely very entertaining. You knew what he was thinking every second, and the crowd enjoyed him, for sure.

He wasn't moving very well - but them, he always had two legs like wood planks. Just a stiff guy.
The backhand looks pretty good. He had lots of opportunities to come to the net and hesitated, lack of match play, I'd say.

Said he's been working with Mark Wellington for three months, already lost 10-15 pounds. He's in Bradenton, Fla. Uses the facilities at the Bollettieri Academy.
After his semi he headed right to the gym for a half-hour.

The guy had two surgeries for a torn labrum, late 2004 and March 2005.
Said it took him a full year to get his serve back from the second one.

He didn't have much choice but to play the big events in 2007; he had a protected ranking (not wild cards) and needed to use it, or lose it. So he lost it.

Very entertaining fellow. A personality, which is rare enough. THe best moment (which I didn't get on video) was in the semi, when his opponent was called for a foot fault and went a little nuts. Verkerk turned to the crowd and made the whirling with his finger next to his ear (like "This guy is nuts". Not very nice for the other fellow but pretty funny nevertheless.