I have to admit I’d only been keeping a half open eye on Nikolay’s fortunes this week, expecting another valiant but ultimately, ill fated effort. On the evidence of this performance however, this is beginning to shape up like Miami last year, when after a similar spell out in the cold, Niki peaked, laying waste to A-Rod and Rafa en route to his second career Masters title. In the final of which Nadal looked as equally devoid of any answers, as Novak did in that final set tie break today.
The truth is, Niki only knows one (very effective) mode of play, and there’s very little anyone can do (except, you know, that Swiss bloke) when he reaches these heights; you might, however, have expected Novak to fare just a little better given their very similar style of play.
(Photo: AP)
But Novak, has been in something of a transition this year. That’s me being generous. I’ve described his play as exhibiting more grind than should come naturally to him, and recently he’s even been given over to some unbecoming episodes of ‘lurking’. Behind the baseline that is.
You all know who the traditional ‘lurkers' are: Gael, Reeshard, Nadal even. But last time I checked, Novak wasn’t one of them.
Seeing him behind the baseline is a bit like watching Dementieva serving aces on her 2nd serve. Oh wait, it's been that sort of year.
I guess he’s been trying to forge together a more well-rounded tennis product, which is a lofty aim, and deserving of some success. But it’s success which can’t come too soon IMO.
All this uncertainty about his game makes him uniquely vulnerable to someone like Nik, who doesn’t need to think twice about how exactly to best use the sharpest (and only) tool in his box.
That’s not to say Novak didn’t try however; the quality of this match (and that final set tie break in particular) makes up very nicely for my being denied a Rafa-Soderling match up for the second time in two weeks. Yeah, I’m not about to forget that in a hurry – especially now that Nik has just usurped Big Rob’s place in the Race to London, leaving Nando of all people in the eighth position.
“I’m in a final and that’s very important,” Nadal said. “It’s my first final since I’ve been back and that’s a good result for me.”
(tennis.com)
I’m thinking that with it being Nadal’s first final since his return, and with Nik playing as well as he so evidently is, this might be as good as it gets for Rafa.
Having only played two complete matches this week can’t have been of much help either (Ljubicic and Lopez today brought the men’s infirmary-count to nine).
Maybe we should pass on yelling out ‘Break a leg boys’, this week?
"I always thought it's best to give the players a schedule that enables the players to be at their best," eight-time Grand Slam champion Agassi said in a teleconference ahead of next week's Venetian Macau Showdown with Pete Sampras.
"The off-season is healthy for players and the fans—it builds up anticipation for the fans.
"I think the tour should tighten up the schedule, so the top players can play more often in a shorter time. I would like to see everyone come to the table and work out a schedule that suits everyone."
-- Andre Agassi on everyone’s favourite punch bag right now, the schedule
Ok, but isn’t that exactly what the mandatory designation of the Masters-1000s was meant to be about?
Show up at these nine events (and the Slams) -- a total of 17 tennis weeks -- and spend the other, very generous 30 odd weeks, basking in the Seychelles; or, you know, playing some tennis. Selectively.
There is an argument to be made, I suppose, in favour of spacing out that very intensive stint of tennis that begins with Indian Wells and ends at Madrid.
If I had anything to do with it, they’d be forced to supplant that post-Wimby no-man’s-land of the tennis calendar in July, with a half-decent grass court Masters event. Though I’m not aware that anyone, as of yet, has sought my involvement, so you’ll be forced to continue to make do with that quasi-clay-court season they currently have. Nikolay’s most prolific section of the year.
Marat’s brought the issue up before - 5 years ago, to be precise.
"In 2004, we had this discussion at the Olympic Games with [Andy] Roddick," said the 29-year-old Russian who plans to retire next month after a decade and a half in the sport.
"I was saying that the season is too long - we should make it shorter, and the guys, they jumped on me, like I was the one who was wrong," he said.
"So look at all of them - everybody is falling apart," Safin said. "Everybody is getting injured left and right, and everybody is complaining the season is long. It takes six years to realise that something is wrong?
"It's a beautiful sport, so why kill the players and make the calendar basically playing 12 months of the year?"
(Times Live)
This is the first I’ve ever heard of any kind of ‘fallout’, if it can be described as such, between Marat and A-Rod, though am I the only one mildly amused (and somewhat relieved) by his reference to the game as a “beautiful sport”?
This from a self-professed hater of all things sport. Not with a racquet, not on TV, not even a ten-minute kick around in your neighbourhood. Heartened and relieved to discover that that wounded anti-hero act is nothing more than a front, where tennis is concerned. Marat doesn’t hate tennis any more than I do. It’s the competition and the grind, he finds so problematic.
“Everybody is falling apart” this week however, with Juan-Marteen, Gael, Stanislas and of course A-Rod, all retiring hurt in their opening two matches.
Berdych looked set to do the same opposite Marat, pulling up after dropping the first set, for some extended treatment to his thighs and knees.
His subsequent quick recovery (on the back of which he reeled off the remaining two sets), left Marat deeply mystified and understandably unimpressed; and questioning of Tomas’s manhood:
"The fact [is] that I've known the guy for so many years. I've been nice conditions with the guy, and then look at this ? to hold [a] show? Just come on. Just grow up a little bit. 26 years old - Just deal with that."
And there was more from an indignant Safin.
"If you're losing, be a man and lose as a man.Don't pretend that you are injured and then you start running around and start to hit winners, and then pull [your] hands up in the air after winning the match?
…
"I mean, what kind of sportsman are you? What kind of man are you?
"Of course [Berdych] will say, No, I [have] been injured but then I felt a little bit better. He will find 10,000 excuses [but] it is not enough."
"[Either] you're playing or you're not playing. If you're not going to play, so don't play. If you're playing, then just shut the f**k up and play, basically."
"And you're a man, so just lose like a man."
(TVNZ)
And so ends Marat’s penultimate stop of his farewell tour; perhaps a little ironic, that this last few weeks saw a lift in his form.
My mind's still in a quandary as to whether it’s Murray, Daveed or Marat that hits that shot the best. I don’t think Murray’s action’s half as pretty as those other two. And I think Marat might just have the edge over Daveed in pace.
So many memories…
***
So here’s how it is.
Big Rob edged out a truly lacklustre Jo-Willy in straights today, leaving both him and Rafa set up with immensely winnable matches.
Rafa’s looked mighty fine throughout this week, but particularly in that three set blast-off he and Blake gave us yesterday (Is it me, or has the James Blake-Kelly Jones match up seen the greatest turnaround in form in recent coaching history?)
I may get my wish of a Rafa-Soderling semi final after all.
(PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
And it concerns me not, that Rafa thinks of Big Rob with little warmth, and about as much affection as he might reserve for the Antichrist. If anything, it will add some very welcome edge; and if not, might we be seeing a Murray-Delpo-like burying of the hatchet, culminating in a worthy man-hug at the net?
Not to mention that the stakes have just been upped again, with Big Rob supplanting himself ahead of Tsonga and claiming position number eight in the Race to London?
This match needs to be played. I will not be denied.
“It was enough to make me stop a tennis match … beyond that I don’t know, that’s not my profession,” the 27-year-old Roddick said of his left knee injury.
…
“Trust me, as frustrated as (the Chinese fans) are that we’re not here, I promise you we’re more frustrated,” added Roddick.
(Yahoo! Sports)
And with that, A-Rod’s penultimate stab at banking some invaluable ranking points, and strengthening his bid for London, comes to an end.
This a mere two days after his and Rafa’s (double handed) swipe at the lengthy season.
Every year this argument is doled out with unfailing regularity, and every year it always seems to outlast the season that is it’s subject.
While Nadal abides by the "jock code" and doesn't attribute defeat to injury, it's clear he is playing hurt. (The stats don't lie either: He had zero aces and lost the majority of points on his serve against Cilic. That's saying something.) When one of the sport's most magnetic figures -- a supreme athlete and consummate professional -- simply cannot make it through a season abiding by the entry rules as currently written, think it might be time to rethink the schedule?
-- John Wertheim, SI.com
Agreed.
The season is monstrous in terms of both length and intensity.
Only, talk of restructuring opens up that can of worms in which tournament organisers will be required to cede either their position in the calendar, or their standing from a rankings standpoint.
It’s easy to say the ATP should step in, but do they really want their offices teaming with Hamburg-styled litigation once again?
I don’t believe the ATP can ever fulfil the combined player-tournament charter once envisioned for it: a conflict of interest, if ever I saw one.
A-Rod abides by the “Jock Code” too; but there’s a reason neither Federer nor Murray are here this week.
Something’s gotta give; maybe it’s the ATP, and not the Calendar that needs restructuring.
I forgot to mention Youzhny yesterday, who's had something of an upturn in his fortunes this week.
And despite my future willingness to treat French tennis seriously being heavily dependant on the outcome of that French Proposition I put forth a few days ago, a small part of me wanted to see Youzhny pull through today, hopefully bringing to an end a particularly dank spell of form.
A season that’s seen him plummet from his top ten highs of early 2008.
(Photo: Getty)
But it wasn’t to be. Jo was nimble, Jo was keen, Jo-was-serving-like-a-dream.
And was rewarded, for his troubles with what looked like an item of 80s Phantasm Memorabilia.
Taken with Gael and Gilles' efforts this is now the most productive three weeks of French tennis I care to remember.
I’m tentatively back on board.
Similar story in Beijing.
A-Rad looked set to cap off a week of borderline top ten play.
But there’s few distinctions in tennis more worthy of my attention than the sight of one of it’s most skilled athletes intent on playing the house down, and even fewer than watching Sveta doing precisely that from her very first match.
The Pole did good, and has much to be proud of, though I think I still prefer the relative ‘order’ of the head girl beating up on the young fledgling.
Fortunately A-Rad seems to share my view of things.
(Photo: AP)
And in other news from the land of oversized cheques and trophies, Nole celebrated his recent ascension to world #3 with his best Rafa impression yet.
(Photo: AP)
…and by throwing his shirt in security’s face.
(Photo: AP)
Generally unimpressed with this outcome.
For Marin it’s another nearly-man result. And not an entirely distinguished one for Novak either, despite getting past some tricky opponents.
For those that still don’t know it, Marin knocked seven shades of minty-green out of Rafa, whose serve, from what I understand, has a lot to answer for.
I’ll be using the phrase “from what I understand” an awful lot over today and tomorrow.
And maybe even in the future; at least until that great British Broadcasting Machine stops pretending men's tennis doesn’t exist in between Flushing Meadows and Shanghai.
This Asian Swing, has taken shape in a way, I certainly didn’t see coming.
Beijing in particular.
The suits cannot be well pleased at having missed out on televising what might well turn out to have been the best ATP 500 event this year. And you all thought the tour couldn’t survive the absence of Roger Federer.
That’s the second top four player disposed of, head first through the Cilician wood-chipper, in little over a month.
“From the beginning of the match until the end I didn’t let my level of play drop and definitely I came into the match really good,” Cilic said. “I was aggressive when I had to be.
“The best thing I did today: I didn’t back off, I was just stubborn with my style of play.”
(ESPN)
(Photo: AFP)
Following up opposite Juan-Marteen proved more difficult after his ‘upset’ of Andy Murray at Flushing last month.
I’d like to see him use more of that stubbornness, to follow up good n’proper this time round, even though I’d normally back Novak to break his finals curse. This is turning out to be something of a breakthrough year for Marin – and I think he needs a title at this level to underscore that. More so than Novak, whose interests would be better served at the Masters level – where he’s already made a staggering 4 finals this year.
Speaking of which, Novak played some pretty fine tennis of his own yesterday.
“From what I understand”, Big Rob was far from his best, but that in no way detracts from Nole’s performance; one that included more of that ‘grind’ I’ve found so unpalatable these past few months.
I’ve no objection to it being used in moderation provided it’s mixed in with those more aggressive bouts of play that should, under normal circumstances, be considered the mainstay of his game.
But there’ll be no Rafa Soderling final tomorrow. Rafa’s chipped to bits. ‘The Rob’ stops here. My ‘double-blind’ predictions saw to that.
***
Not to be outdone, the Sveta wood-chipper made equally short work of Nadia, racing to a one set lead before Petrova had even found her feet. From there on in, and understandably feeling the after effects of her three setter against Vera the day before, Nadia made an admirable commitment to a match she must have known was never going to be her own.
Not with Sveta firing on five out of four cylinders.
Nadia did however reinforce my conviction that no Russian serves anywhere near as well as her. You know who to hit with Elena. Another day, another opponent, and it might have been so very different.
"If I play my best game I think I'm to be the favourite but you never know," said Kuznetsova.
(SkySports)
No you never do know, but it’s A-Rad, rather than the favourite (and my favourite) Sveta, that I’ll be rooting for tomorrow..
She triumphed in straights over Bartoli, a result I would normally have expected to have gone the other way round; but perhaps not that unexpected this week with A-Rad seemingly set to go A-Rad 2.0, and not nearly as unexpected as the sight of Bartoli turning up to the match in what looked like a Matron’s castoff.
"I was surprised when he pulled out of Shanghai but obviously he has some problem with injury," said Djokovic.
"That's tennis. Rankings come and go, we are all quite close and it can turn around at any time. It's still not the end of the year."
(BBC)
No it’s not the end of the year. There’s still the small matter of those 1300 points he has to defend at the TMC.
But making the finals here will see Djoko reclaim the #3 spot.
And all that stands in his way to achieving that is Big Rob who, somewhat predictably, dispatched Ljubicic in straights today.
Like I said yesterday, I’m quite fancying Big Rob’s chances, but more to the point: Rafa v Sod - needs to happen.
Speaking of which.
(Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)
No that’s no victory parade. Well it is, sort of.
No Hollywood scripts tonight though.
He lost the match in straights; but they gave him a send off fit for a king.
Djoko let slip to reporters that Marat is to return to his on-again off-again love of mountain climbing, with a trip to Argentina set for January.
That’s set then. Marat’s 2nd career will in part at least, involve the production of personality laden Mountain Mockumentaries/Road Trips/Video Diaries/Travel Shows.
In any order. Or all at once.
But all that will have to wait. There’s still Shanghai and then Paris.
“We’ll always have Paris…”
(FREDERIC BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
I almost forgot. She came through. Two more matches to go girl.
Williams praised her 27-year-old opponent and said: "I ran into a girl today who has never played so good in her life.
"I don't feel like I ever got into high gear ... I felt like in the second set I got one break and then I just made sure I held serve so I could go to a third set."
(BBC)
I only saw the closing stages of this match, including that controversial call.
But I can vouch for Serena’s comments: I can’t remember Nadia ever playing as well as that even back in her world #4 heyday. What I do know is she’s long been touted as having the weapons and the muscle to do exactly that sort of damage.
(Feng Li/Getty Images)
She also has one of the more powerful and surprisingly underrated serves out there – something of a rarity on tour. Peng Shuai seems to have this angle figured out on turning former world #1’s into her pigeon. Nadia’s no one’s pigeon, but is all too frequently her own.
Kuzzie’s match with Alona Bondarenka yesterday, was of a similar high quality.
I’m not quite ready to forgive the Russian top twenty female tennis-playing population for that gutless debacle we saw at Flushing Meadows this year.
But if one of these two pick up this title, which is btw now anyone’s for the taking, I might just be persuaded to stop grimacing at them.
In the other quarter, I’m backing A-Rad over Elena.
Here’s why:
1) I’m still not on what you’d call cordial terms with Elena, partly because of her post-Wimby slump, but mostly because of her outlandish insistence that her extended post-Flushing guttural excursion has something to do with not having had enough recovery time.
2) Like many, I haven’t seen A-Rad play as well as this since 2007. Could this finally be her time to shine in the shithouse? Why not? Everyone else is.
She should at the very least be able to fashion a fairly secure top ten position on the back of this showing, but I’d like to see her do so much more.
Finally, Vera takes on Bartoli, after avenging her US Open loss to Flavlova. Flavlova picked things up after a horrendous start (including a comic spell in the third set where Flavs moonballed her way into Vera’s head), but was otherwise, essentially, out of town.
Vera’s capable of some extremely fine things on a tennis court. We’ve seen that both at Flushing and back in Indian Wells. Unfortunately, she all too often gets in her own way of achieving them.
I’ve sort of learned to live with that. I could do without the annoying tick she’s developed of holding her hand up before every point on which she’s receiving serve.
(AFP/Getty Images)
Vera, like Nadia is her own worst enemy, but is still very open to all forms of mental manipulation. A tendency Bartoli seems exquisitely well placed to take advantage of. Bartoli in three.
***
Some retirement speak I forgot to include in my last Marat post.
"I don't think today's match is going to be the key to my deciding to play another year, definitely not," Safin said.
"It's easy to play when you have nothing to lose, no points to defend, so you have no pressure at all so you can just play, just go for it.
"If I was playing and had to defend something, it would be a different matter. I would get nervous at some point."
(BBC)
I still do think he will call it quits at the end of the season, but this is a lot more ambiguous than any of his recent comments on the subject have been
Someone a little less ambiguous, on the same topic:
Mauresmo said on her Web site: “Since I came back from the U.S. Open, I’ve been trying to practice but I can’t find again the desire to come back to competition. I don’t want to rush or force things. (I will take) some time to think before making a decision regarding the remainder of my career.”
(Yahoo! Sports)
I shudder to think I may already have witnessed the last ball Amelie every struck.
Volleying is officially dead . But you already knew that.
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