Qualifiers and veterans are retiring this week and a few other players look like they should.
This Qualifier Is Ready for Retirement
Juan Martin Del Potro is building a highly undesirable reputation for fragility. Last week he retired in his second round match in Estoril, he retired in his second round match at the Australian Open, he even retired during his first round match in qualifying this week. Most of the time these retirements only hurt Del Potro, but when he retired in a match against James Blake in Las Vegas, he deprived Blake of an opportunity to advance to the knockout round of the round robin tournament. That in turn rang the death knell for the round robin format when ATP CEO Etienne de Villiers tried to advance Blake anyway thus showing that it was silly to think that fans could understand the round robin rules when de Villiers didn’t know them himself.
It reminds me of something I read in a book about a Zen monastery called The Empty Mirror. A Zen priest castigated his student by pointing out the consequences of the student’s carelessness:
“I saw you turn a corner the other day and you didn’t hold out your hand. Because of your carelessness a truck driver, who happened to be driving behind you, got into trouble and had to drive his truck on the sidewalk where a lady driving a pram hit a director of a large trading company. The man, who was in a bad mood already, fired an employee who might have stayed on. That employee got drunk that night and killed a young man who could have been a Zen master.”
Besides the fact that it took me less than five minutes to find this quote in a book I read more than twenty years ago just by entering “zen mirror carelessness” into the google search bar, there’s a lesson here. The only thing Del Potro might have killed is round robin and most people are happy about that, but if he’d been more aware, he would have completed the match with Blake. And if he didn’t feel well enough to play, he’d have given up his qualifying spot in Rome which would have allowed someone else to enter.
There was another notable incident in qualifying. Guillermo Canas is running up the rankings ladder so quickly that he’s now number 21 in the world. But a short while ago he wasn’t ranked high enough to get into the draw here so he had to qualify. That meant that he was ranked higher than his first round opponent – Jurgen Melzer, number 32 – even though he was a qualifier. Poor Melzer lost easily, 7-5, 6-2. And Tomas Berdych is probably not happy that he’s ranked number 12 yet he has to play the number 22 – Jarkko Nieminen. Aren’t you supposed to lower ranked players in the first round?
Clijsters Retires and Hewitt Runs Out of Gas
We knew Kim Clijsters was ready to leave the game but not quite so soon. She’s only twenty-three years old but she’s so beat up she has to stretch for an hour after she wakes up just to get going. That was just too much so she abruptly announced her retirement over the weekend. Ten years on the tour and she’s worn out.
Clijsters’ former fiancé Lleyton Hewitt isn’t looking so good himself. He’s only in his ninth year and he’s had multiple injuries the past few seasons. Today he lost the third set 1-6 to qualifier Oscar Hernandez. It’s not surprising that Hewitt is breaking down. He never had enough offense to dictate matches so he wore himself out playing defense and exercising his indomitable will.
Are current players wearing out sooner? A quick look at a few recent slam winners says yes. Lindsay Davenport lasted thirteen years, Monica Seles fourteen, and Steffi Graf fifteen. On the men’s side, Jim Courier played for twelve years, John McEnroe fourteen, Ivan Lendl sixteen, and Andre Agassi twenty.
Twenty years might be too much too ask but ten years is a decided drop from the last crop of big players. There are as many reasons for this drop as there are reasons for the increasing number of injuries on tour: more travel, harder hit balls, luxilon strings, shorter off-season… Feel free to add your own. The WTA and ATP are desperately making changes to keep their top players in one piece but it’s not a trend that’s likely to change anytime soon.
Enjoy your favorite players while you still can.
See Also:
Rerun in Rome: Preview and Picks