Monthly Archives: May 2007

Retiring in Rome

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

Rerun in Rome: Preview and Picks

Will Rome be a three man race between Canas, Federer and Nadal?

I got all excited there for a moment. I saw Guillermo Canas in the qualifying draw here in Rome and thought to myself, wow, how great would it be if Canas ended up in Roger Federer’s half of the draw? All of a sudden there would be a real possibility that Federer might lose and we’d have a three man race instead of the usual two way race that passes for ATP tennis these days.

Two years ago, Rafael Nadal and Guillermo Coria played an epic five hour match in the final with Coria suffering a heartbreaking loss in the fifth set tiebreaker. Last year, Nadal and Federer played an epic five hour match in the final with Federer losing in the fifth set tiebreaker. Coria lost his confidence after a shoulder injury and hasn’t played this year, Federer was ineffective against Nadal in the Monte Carlo final two weeks ago, and Rome will no longer play best of five matches in its final.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Canas ended up on Rafael Nadal’s side of the draw and now I’ll have to wait until next week in Hamburg or two weeks after that at Roland Garros to get excited again. If you want to beat Nadal, you have to attack the net and rush him otherwise he’ll have time to run around his backhand all day long. Federer is the only clay court player who can do that. Canas has shown that he can beat Federer – he’s beaten him twice this year – but Nadal is beyond his skill set.

Enjoy back to back clay court Masters events while you can, by the way. Hamburg will probably be downgraded by 2009. The ATP is eliminating back to back Masters events and five set finals and using a fifty-six player draw. The smaller draw gives the top eight players a first round bye so they only have to play five matches to win the title. The point of all this is to make life easier for the top players and encourage them to turn up at required tournaments.

Nadal’s Half of the Draw

So far it’s working. All top ten players are present and accounted for in Rome. I had no idea that Djokovic was up to number five. Wasn’t he number ten only a few weeks ago? He beat Richard Gasquet for the title in Estoril this week and looks to be the only player standing in Nadal’s way. Djokovic and Nadal should meet in the quarterfinals.

Andy Murray has yet to show much on clay, Nikolay Davydenko hurt his wrist, and Tommy Robredo could well lose to Canas in the third round since Canas has a 3-1 record over him. If Canas doesn’t wear himself out – he had blisters in Barcelona, an abdominal strain in Estoril and a foot problem in the qualifiers here – we’re likely to see a Canas-Nadal semifinal.

Federer’s Half of the Draw

Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych are in Federer’s quarter but Gasquet will lose to Federer before he reaches Berdych. The only interesting match left is Berdych and Ivan Ljubicic in the third round. Berdych reached the semifinals in Monte Carlo and Munich while Ljubicic has one clay court win in Monte Carlo and that’s it. I’m picking Berdych.

The bottom part of Federer’s half is the hopeless quarter. Andy Roddick, James Blake and Dmitry Tursunov don’t threaten anyone on clay and Fernando Gonzalez is sinking fast – he lost in the first round in Monte Carlo and Estoril. It’s so bad that I chose Nicolas Massu to get to the quarterfinal where he should lose easily to David Ferrer.

It will be shocking if Nadal doesn’t win here for the third year in a row.

Picks

Quarterfinalists: Federer. Berdych, Ferrer, Massu, Canas, Agustin Calleri, Djokovic, Nadal
Semifinalists: Federer, Ferrer, Canas, Nadal
Finalists: Federer, Nadal

Rome Singles Draw

See also:
Federer-Nadal VI (last year’s Rome final)

The Good, the Bad, and the Really Bad

Short of Vince Spadea getting to the quarterfinals in Estoril, there’s not much excitement this week so let’s look at the Good, the Bad and the Really Bad so far this season.

Okay, let’s start with the players.

THE GOOD

Guillermo Canas Way good. He’s wearing himself out trying to prove everyone wrong about his drug suspension. A title on clay at Costa do Sauipe, two wins over Federer, a final in Miami (a Masters Series remember) and a final against Rafael Nadal in Barcelona. No one is hotter. Only thing is, he might be overdoing it. Forearm cramps and blisters during a three hour semifinal at Barcelona then a strained abdominal muscle which forced him to retire in Estoril. Slow down guy, there are a lot more tournaments this year and we’re still counting on you to challenge Federer at the U.S. Open. Who else is there?

Novak Djokovic Djokovic has the übergame of the current version of ATP tennis: brash personality, big enough serve, all court game and that wicked inside out forehand. Not only that but he’s smart. He made tactical mistakes against Nadal and lost in the Indian Wells final. Somehow he didn’t realize that his forehand feeds right into Nadal’s lefty forehand. Nadal is supreme on clay precisely because the slow speed gives him time to run around his backhand. When they met up again in Miami, Djokovic beat Nadal then beat Canas for his first Masters Shield. Two Masters finals in a row and a Masters title, that ain’t bad.

Rafael Nadal After failing to reach a final since Wimbledon last year, Nadal took the Indian Wells title and is rolling as usual on clay with two straight titles.

Serena Williams See Maria Sharapova below.

THE BAD

Roger Federer Two losses to Canas, one to Nadal and this past Wednesday, an event that showed why he’s bad this year and Canas and Nadal are good. Nadal and Federer met in Mallorca for The Battle of the Surfaces, a match played on a hybrid court consisting of grass on one side and clay on the other. It was a weird but fun event with each player given two minutes on breaks to change into surface-appropriate shoes. Nadal scratched out a victory in the third set, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(12-10). And there you have it: Nadal and Canas have heart and desire while Federer appears to have scattered small bits of his heart over the ocean somewhere between Dubai and Miami. Losing to Canas in the first round at Indian Wells is acceptable – who could have guessed the fury of Canas at that point? But Miami? Federer’s fight couldn’t stand up to Canas’s desire. It’s also o.k. to lose to Nadal on clay but not the way he did in Monte Carlo. He looked unnerved as his forehand went missing and he failed to cash in on the few break points he got.

Maria Sharapova Usual story on the women’s tour – injuries. A hamstring pull followed by a shoulder injury both of which combined to totally mess up her service motion. Then there was that beatdown planted on her psyche at the Australian Open by Serena Williams followed by an even worse beatdown in Miami. Sharapova won five games in those two matches that are likely to leave their impression as long as Serena sticks around.

David Nalbandian Nalbandian has reached exactly one quarterfinal this year and that was last week in Barcelona. He started the year at number 8 and he’s now down to 13. And he couldn’t even beat Thomas Johansson in Davis Cup.

THE REALLY BAD

Gaston Gaudio I’ve put him in this year because the guy is so discouraged that he’s considering retirement but he’s been having problems for a while. You often hear that he never fulfilled his promise after winning the French Open in 2004 but that victory probably went beyond his promise. Before that French Open, he’d never gone above a ranking of nineteen. After the Open, he stayed around the top ten for almost exactly two years then lost his confidence and went out in the first round of seven straight tournaments after the U.S. Open last year. He started to lose and couldn’t stop. He’s now down to number 71.

Now let’s look at events:

THE GOOD

Equal prize money at Wimbledon. Jeez, finally. Maybe that was enough to convince Kim Clijsters to play there this year. She’s skipping most of the clay court season including the French Open so she can avoid injuring herself – a strong possibility on the WTA Tour – before her wedding in July. She might need the money because she’s retiring for good after the playing Stuttgart in October.

Hmm, that’s the only good thing that comes to mind, help me out here.

THE BAD

Round Robins Tank Confusion reigned supreme as retirements prevented players from advancing so ATP CEO Etienne de Villiers put an end to the experiment that was round robin play. Good news to everyone else but bad news to me. I think players could have adjusted to a little ambiguity and small tournaments could have benefited from the format but nobody listens to me do they?

Angry Players and Tournaments Canas might fit in here. As soon as he shook up the tour by taking Federer out two weeks in a row, his fellow players asked the ATP to refuse wild cards to players returning from drug suspensions. It was aimed directly at Canas who used wild cards to get into five challengers after returning from his suspension to build up his ranking.

Players walked out of a meeting with de Villiers in Miami because they were mad about losing the Monte Carlo and Hamburg Masters events in the ATP’s plan for new changes. Madrid move to clay but there will still be one less clay Masters event overall. Monte Carlo and Hamburg responded by suing the ATP in Delaware. When do we ever mention the word Delaware except to talk about lawsuits?

THE REALLY BAD

Or really good, or both, or just plain frustrating, take your pick. Federer doesn’t lose (much) on hard court and Nadal never loses on clay. We have possibly the two best players of all time on their respective surfaces and they’re each other’s best competition but there’s no rivalry. The only way we get anything is to stick grass on one side of the court and clay on the other and give each player two pairs of shoes. Maybe we should replace the French Open and Wimbledon with the hybrid surface so we’re assured of a thrilling final.

Join in please. Which players and events get your Good, Bad, and Really Bad votes so far?

B**tch And Sing Dept: It’s Nadal…Again

Are We Snoring Yet?

Seems like only yesterday when tennis fans were complaining that Roger Federer won too much on every surface except clay. This week we can point the finger of blame at Rafael Nadal, who has ended up dominating on clay this season. And the season is barely under way. He snagged the Monte Carlo crown against Federer last weekend, and followed that up with his 72nd win on clay in Barcelona over Guillermo Canas this past Sunday. The score was 6-3, 6-4.

Nadal has run away with the clay. No other man has even – ever – come close. Now only one woman stands in his way. The Iron Maiden herself, Chris Evert, had a 125 match winning streak on clay. Nothing to sneeze at, that record. But right now Nadal looks like he’s ready for a good sneezing attack. Anything is possible with this kid. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we are seeing the two best players EVER, Nadal on clay, and Roger on everything but clay? But is this going to make any of us very happy?

If it’s not good for Federer to hold sway completely, is it any better that Nadal runs through everyone on clay? Probably not. This pair of ne’er-do-wells are staging their own private parties and they aren’t sharing the loot. It’s not nice when people don’t want to share. Shame on you guys we say.

Some people suggest the level of their competition may be lacking. But when you consider that guys like Roddick, Blake, Davydenko, Ljubicic and Robredo have been camped out in the Top Ten for a while, such is probably not the case. And now a whole new flock of people are looking to muscle their way into the party. Novak Djokovic has reached Number 5 in the world, and while his game certainly looks very steady we need to give him a little more time to see if he can consolidate his rise. Ditto Andy Murray, who is hanging on to #10 but lately has had a back injury.

There are a ton of guys who can go out and dominate other top players on a particular day. The problem lies in what they do the day after. Can they back it up? Not many of them can. It’s a hit and miss affair. Which leaves the accomplishments of Mssrs. Federer and Nadal looking even more amazing. Because they do back it up. And we end up being both amazed – and a little bored. I don’t know about you guys, but I am entering the Love/Hate stage of my relationship with Rafa and Roger.

I was really hoping Canas could have turned that around on Sunday. Each time I see him play the memory of that drug suspension fades. He asserts himself more strongly in the consciousness of tennis fans. I like the brass of this guy. Even when he’s pulled wide on a shot he’s able to return the ball, and with mustard on it. Were Nadal not around, Canas would probably be the most consistent retriever in the game today. He had problems earlier in the tournament with hand cramping and foot problems, so for him to show up was a good thing; for him to play at the level he did was a really good thing. But it still wasn’t enough. Nadal was just too dominant.

Canas should not feel discouraged at all by his showing. He knows now he can create chances for himself. Like in the opening game alone, when he had two break points against Nadal. He has to get better at closing the deal when he gets opportunities like that. He also has to make sure his serving game stays firmer. A 57% first serve ratio is not going to get the job done. Unfortunately he also came to realize – doesn’t everyone – that his chances would be better if he weren’t so attached to the baseline game. So Canas started to be more aggressive in the second set. Not exactly serving and volleying, but moving forward once he got a ball that wasn’t already half-way down his throat. The problem was that this tactic is not a comfortable choice for him, it exudes a bit of desperation, and by the time he used it the match was running out fast.

Maybe next time he meets the lad from Majorca Canas will begin the match playing aggressively, rather than relying on that tactic to bail him out when it’s too late.

A quick note: As if to remind everyone on the planet of tennis that they are the two hottest players since sliced bread hit the toasters, this week Roger and Rafa are playing in a hybrid sort of exhibition match on the island of Majorca. Half the court will be grass, the other half clay. So we presume Roger wins nearly all the points on the grass side while Rafa gets the clay ones. And the rest of the guys are left holding the bag.

Are they like rubbing it in, or what?