Mikhail Youzhny pulls a van Gogh, websites charge more for recorded matches, and Rafael Nadal improves his hard court game.

Mikhail Youzhny made like van Gogh in his match against Nicolas Almagro in Miami and I wanted to say one more thing about it. Youzhny was none too happy and he smashed his racket against his forehead and opened up a wound from which blood gushed then ran down his face (you can see it in Nate’s post here. Youzhny walked over to his seat and the trainer ran over to help him. Almagro was very sweet – he came over to see if Youzhny was alright. When he got there, Youzhny looked up with a sheepish smile and both of them started laughing because, really, what else could you say?

I’ve seen on court rages that were stunning mainly because I couldn’t believe a chair umpire or a tournament or a professional sports organization would put up with such abuse – do I need to mention the name John McEnroe? That was before I sufficiently understood the star system and I didn’t really get that until the tour started penalizing McEnroe on the down side of his career. I was going to say that people got tired of his act but that wasn’t it, they weren’t tired of him, he just wasn’t winning any more. He used to throw tantrums to upset his opponent when he felt the momentum change or he fell behind, but after his play declined the tantrums didn’t work any more and they became tiresome.

That was external abuse thrown at umpires, fans, opponents and, at times, permanently attached objects. Youzhny’s outburst was self abuse and you could say it worked because he went on to win the match but, I’m disturbed by it. Tennis culture has segued from outwardly directed acts of hostility and frosty relationships between top rivals to an era where everyone is friendly and open hostility or acts of frustration are discouraged.

When I saw Youzhny’s act, I couldn’t help thinking of food disorders where people act out their feelings of inadequacy by punishing themselves in the worst kind of way. Where did we learn that kind of behavior? I’m being overwrought, I know, Youzhny will survive and it was only a flesh wound, but we discourage racket smashing and that’s a mistake. These players are under immense pressure and if you penalize them for expressing frustration externally, maybe this is what you get – self abuse.

Youzhny lost his next match to Janko Tipsarevic and Tipsy is one answer to the question: Which player ranked outside the top twenty will make it to the quarterfinals in Miami (Igor Andreev is the other)? I didn’t see the Tipsarevic – Youzhny match because I’m still trying to get ATP Masters Series TV working properly on either of my two computers. For all of you who scream that ATP Masters Series TV doesn’t give you access to recorded matches – it streams live matches online from the Masters Series events – you can keep screaming: it is recording matches but it’s selling them. If you want to go back and look at the Indian Wells final, you have to pay $3 U.S. I might get into trouble for saying this because we have a partnership with their site, but if I were you, I’d just download Hypercam 2 or WM Recorder or some other stream recording software and record the match straight off your screen. Off course, you’ve got to be there to start up the recording but that could change soon because there is software that acts like a DVR, it’s just that it’s not quite ready for prime time yet. People who try to charge for every single byte of content that comes down the pipe should beware: technology giveth and technology taketh away.

I had high hopes for James Blake in his quarterfinal match against Rafael Nadal because Miami is fast relative to Indian Wells and James has looked good here in Miami. The court looked fast in the first set as each player kept holding serve, often at love. James finally started to catch up to Rafa’s serve with Nadal serving at 3-4. James finally figured out that Nadal had yet to serve to his forehand side in the deuce court and this is one of those things that continues to confuse me.

I’ve never stood across the court from a Rafa serve and I’m pretty sure it would bounce off my nose before I ever got a racket on it because it kicks up at varying heights and it curls in on you and away from you, but I still don’t understand why Nadal can be so good at holding his serve considering that he primarily hits to only three spots on the court – and only one on the deuce side, namely, down the middle. I remember one of his finals against Federer at Roland Garros which showed his serving pattern and there was one dot to Federer’s serve on the deuce side and I believe that was on a second serve.

Clue me in please. Any theory is welcome.

Anyway, Rafa was serving at 3-4 in the first set and James ran around his backhand and unleashed one of those ungodly returns of his. On break point, he came to the net and put the ball away easily to go up 5-3 and serve for the set. James always tries to end points early and today he went into hyperdrive. He won the first set in 38 minutes and there were precious few baseline rallies of any description. The whole thing went so quickly that Nadal couldn’t get into the match physically or mentally.

James had Rafa down but he let him up and that was the beginning of the end. Rafa had been spraying balls and touching his foot as if something was wrong with it and now he was down 15-30 on his serve at 2-2 in the second set. Rafa got James on the run with one of those runaround forehands that take him outside the doubles alley, and followed that up with a trip to the net where he ended the point with a deep volley after drawing James in on a drop shot. And there it was, just as James was about to get a two break points to go ahead in the set, Rafa woke up just as he realized that the match was about to get away from him. He pumped his fist and knee in celebration and now he was fully ready for battle.

Rafa’s awakening got into James’ head. He started missing first serves and, for some reason, he kept approaching to Rafa’s backhand even though Rafa was standing there waiting most of the time and his backhand passing shot is particularly nasty. James held on but Rafa got break points on his next service game and went up a break when James, yet again, approached to Nadal’s backhand. Rafa then served for the set where James gave up 0-30 start to lose the game and the second set and where he again, oh, never mind.

So much for my coaching advice, though, because James’ approached to Nadal’s forehand at the beginning of the third set and he still got passed. I’m trying to remember how Blake beat him the first three times they played because Rafa is turning the tide after beating him in Indian Wells and it’s now time to ask: Is Rafa getting much better on hard courts or is James regressing?

Rafa is much better on hard courts because he’s learned to play more aggressively and keep someone like James from taking over points by attacking first. It took him a set and half to figure it out but once he did, the break points started coming – he ended with 19 of them. James reached the quarterfinals here for the first time so he’s improving, not regressing, but he doesn’t have levels to move between and he doesn’t have the balls out over the top intensity that Rafa brings to every point.

For instance, Rafa had break point on James at 1-1 in the third set. James got to the net and hit an overhead that was so close to Rafa that he barely had to move to hit a dipping return just over the net. James couldn’t get it back. First of all, James hit the overhead at Rafa and second, he tried to hit a cute drop volley to the side of the court where Rafa was camped out. Two missed opportunities on an important point. To add insult to injury, Rafa then broke James again on a netcord. It was over. James failed to win another game and Rafa was into the semifinals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win.

In five hard court tournaments this year, Rafa has one quarterfinal, one final, and three semifinals (so far). In the Middle East – U.S coastal two-step of Indian Wells and Miami, he has the best combined results. Other players are complaining about heat stroke and such trivialities as mononucleosis but Rafa just keeps chugging along. I hope he doesn’t wear himself out and manages to survive the clay court season with something left over for Wimbledon because Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer, and a few other players could make this year’s Wimbledon a barn burner.

Tomorrow Pat Davis is posting something about Ana Ivanovic and I’ll be back on Saturday with semifinals results. Right now I’m off to see the Los Angeles Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants (aka The Hated Ones) because baseball has arrived. See ya.

In case you didn’t know that Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams walk on water, I though I’d show you this.

Join us for the men’s Miami final! We’ll be blogging live on Sunday, April 6th, at 10am (PST)/1pm (EST)/6pm (CET). Join in and we’ll post your comments live.

Lindsay Davenport happily sent Ana Ivanovic home, Andy Roddick has big news, and a fight between Guillermo Canas and Fernando Gonzalez was interrupted by rudeness.

The sensuous art of belly dancing performed by Heather Shoopman (Photo by Nina Rota)

Motherhood

Lindsay Davenport returned to the WTA tour last fall after giving birth to baby Jagger and cleaned up on the minor circuit of Tier III and Tier IV tournaments – she won four of the five lower level events she entered. The Australian Open and Indian Wells didn’t go so well though, so when she faced off against Ana Ivanovic in Miami yesterday, I predicted a straight set loss, but here she was up 3-0 in the first set and it would only get worse.

Ivanovic faded as the match went on and lost the match in straight sets by the somewhat shocking score of 6-4, 6-2. Let’s give Davenport some credit. There are lots of players who hit the ball hard but Davenport was coached by Robert Lansdorp – as was Maria Sharapova – and he doesn’t go for this wraparound your neck topspin crap. He trains you to hit through the ball and that means Davenport’s balls go deep.

When someone asked Ivanovic if Davenport hits the ball as heavy as today’s players, she said:

It’s different. Because these days there are so many girls that are hitting really powerful, and they try to dominate the game. But with her it was different. She was playing also very deep, which other girls usually don’t play as deep. So after the serve I felt straightaway under pressure. It was hard for me to direct the ball and control the court.

Ivanovic was caught again and again trying to pick up hard shots off the baseline but, like a few players these past few weeks, she was a step slow. Since we’ve been doing theories lately, let’s call it the Middle East theory of exhaustion or, maybe, the Williams Sister’s theory of relaxation. While WTA and ATP players were recovering from Dubai, the Williams Sisters took off for Bangalore in India then took off two weeks during Indian Wells for reasons that have been well chronicled in our pages.

Most of the top players who played Dubai and Indian Wells are floundering in Miami. Andy Roddick won Dubai and he’s still alive here (see below) but he lost his first match in Indian Wells. David Nalbandian reached the semifinals in Indian Wells and lost his first match in Miami. Roger Federer passed through to the fourth round today after Robin Soderling retired and Federer reached the semifinals at Indian Wells but he lost his first match at Dubai. Soderling, by the way, retired due to heat exhaustion so the conditions aren’t helping players either.

Novak Djokovic won the title in Indian Wells as did Ivanovic and they’re both gone. So far nobody seems to resent Serena and Venus their two week vacation but then, these days, players never say anything remotely controversial, especially when it comes to other players.

I had one more thing to say about Davenport. I’ve been reading a book called Body, Mind and Sport by John Douillard. Douillard states that he can get you into the zone on a regular basis by teaching you to train at a lower heart rate thus keeping you relaxed, which is a prerequisite for getting into the zone. I haven’t put many of the principles in the book into practice yet though I have started breathing through my nose while I play tennis – try it, it does keep your heart rate down – but I did wonder about Davenport while I was reading it.

If you’re having fun, you are by definition relaxed and Davenport is having fun because she’s getting a free pass. No one expected her to come back and she has no hard goals except, maybe, as she said after the match, to not look like a fool. She looked like she was in the zone at times during her match with Ivanovic. How can you get this feeling when you’re Ivanovic or Djokovic or some other top tennis player? Do you have to learn exotic yogic practices to remain relaxed in stressful competitive situations or have a baby?

There are techniques that help you relax under stress and I imagine some of the top players have either stumbled upon them or paid to learn them from a sports psychologist. Davenport is getting them from a somewhat unusual situation and I’m jealous because I probably play with more angst than she does at the moment and, under the circumstances, that’s pretty dumb. She did lose to Dinara Safina today so we’ll see if happiness brings her a Tier I title at some point in the future.

Rules of Engagement

The only interesting news about Andy Roddick – besides poor serving in his win over Ivo Minar today in Miami – is the announcement of his engagement to model Brooklyn Decker. His tennis match wasn’t anywhere near as momentous as that little bit of information.

I will say a few things about Minar. He’s an annoying opponent somewhat like WTA player Anastasia Myskina used to be. Myskina is not likely to come back soon, by the way, unless she pulls a Lindsay Davenport (excuse me, Mrs. Leach, as it says on her tennis sneakers). Wow, there’s marriage in the air today which reminds me: I went to a book publishing party at a fabulous house in Brentwood yesterday afternoon which featured one of the more sensuous belly dancers I’ve ever laid eyes on: Heather Shoopman. She performed at the party to honor the release of my friend Sarah Forth’s new book, Eve’s Bible. That fabulous house was jammed with arts and crafts objects from all over the world – everything from outsized Day of the Dead masks to tiny balancing figurines made from gourds.

The man and woman who own the house are now splitting up and as I walked around the house, I couldn’t help thinking how difficult it’ll be to split up such a trove of objects between two people who’ve lived together for years. All I’m saying is that Roddick should seriously consider a prenuptial agreement just in case he has to divide things up, you know, some time in the future. Oh, and he really should get a companion for his fiancée who was in the stands today. She looked rather like she didn’t know what to do with herself.

Where was I? Oh yes, Myskina won’t be coming back anytime soon unless she pulls a Lindsay Davenport because she’s pregnant. When she was on the WTA tour, she’d drive you crazy because she never gave you any rhythm to work with. Minar is similar. He’s not a small guy – he’s 6ft (182cm), 187lbs. (85Kg) – but he plays like he’s a small guy. He doesn’t hit the ball hard, he just moves it around a lot to make up for lack of force and it gave him the edge on the baseline against Roddick and got him to the first set tiebreaker. Once he was there, though, he couldn’t do much.

Having said that, Minar only lost the match by one break and he was able to get back on serve in the second set after losing his serve early. He hung around and hung around until he pissed Roddick off enough to send a ball into orbit but he just didn’t have much in the way of offensive weapons. By the way, we won’t get to see that Roddick – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga matchup because Tsonga went out tamely to Julien Benneteau. We may have to settle for Roger Federer – Roddick XVII in the semis.

Fighting

It was wild and crazy last night during the match between Guillermo Canas and Fernando Gonzalez. Gonzalez’ Chilean fans were carrying on like this was a soccer match complete with flag waving and chants. The chair umpire quieted the crowd bilingually and he did it often. Not only that, but the linespeople kept making errors so the players weren’t too happy either.

Gonzalez was playing intelligent tactical tennis. He knew Canas would rather stick a fork in his eye than come to the net so Gonzalez kept feeding him short balls until Canas had to come to the net then passed him. When Canas didn’t move forward, the soft balls got him out of position and left him vulnerable to Gonzalez’ power shots.

I was planning to look at how much Guillermo Canas’ career has suffered from his drug suspension by comparing his pre and post-suspension career because it looked like he was headed for a loss – Gonzalez was about the close out the first set against him, but a bit of rude fan behavior intervened.

Gonzalez failed to cash in four set points and Canas crawled back to 6-6 in the tiebreaker. Gonzalez was then serving when someone yelled out in the middle of his service motion to intentionally disturb him. I suppose it’s like those camera shutter going off in the middle of Tiger Woods’ backswing. Gonzalez stopped his serve and spectators booed and pointed to the perpetrator. After restarting his serve, Gonzalez hit a forehand wide on the next point and, one point later, Canas had set point and the first set.

After the tiebreaker ended, the chair umpire called the ATP supervisor so they could find the guy who yelled and throw him out of the stadium. The perpetrator was too smart, though, he’d vacated his seat. On the one hand, the idiot who yelled out interrupted a tense, dramatic match and crossed the line from spectator to intruder. On the other hand, and this goes for golf too, tennis is sometimes just too precious. Baseball pitchers probably hear things they’d be embarrassed to repeat in the middle of their windup and NBA fans take pride in their ability to distract an opposing player at the free throw line.

For me the rules are the same as they are in a personal relationship. You can yell and scream and generally emote as much as you like, doesn’t bother me. If you’re mean or abusive, though, you’re out the door. I’d love to hear chanting and screaming throughout a tennis match because I’d be thrilled that tennis was generating so much emotion. But if someone is verbally abusive or interferes physically in any way, they’re out the door. That goes for much of the student cheering section at college basketball games in the U.S. these days, those students should be out the door too.

It was a fantastic match. Gonzalez hit an amazing between the legs netcord winner and Canas played his usual relentless defense, but Gonzalez’ spirit never quite recovered from losing the first set. He did go up a break in the second set but he’d returned to his impatient self and was hitting out more than working his strategy. Canas managed to break Gonzalez twice late in the set to win the match, 7-6(6), 7-5

What do you think, shall we make tennis full volume or keep the polite silence?

Have Roger Federer’s difficulties thrown the tour into chaos?

Early in the 20th Century, Henri Poincare discovered that a small perturbation – a small change in a system – can lead to chaos which is characterized by random behavior. A few people on this site wondered if Roger Federer’s difficulties have caused a ripple effect on the ATP tour leading to unpredictable events. I wondered if players are feeling additional pressure because now they are expected to excel whereas before they had a built in excuse: if they didn’t win a tournament, who could blame them because Federer always won.

Two weeks ago, Andy Roddick won the tournament in Dubai and beat the number 2 and 3 ranked players in the process then lost his first match in Indian Wells. Mardy Fish got to the final in Indian Wells and lost his first match in Miami. Novak Djokovic won the title in Indian Wells and he lost his first match in Miami too. We just finished the round of 64 at Miami and already David Ferrer, Andy Murray, Tommy Robredo, and Richard Gasquet are gone.

Djokovic’s loss is a big deal because he won the title in Miami last year and he had a chance to catch up with Rafael Nadal at the end of the clay court season if he did well at Miami and earned a lot of points on clay, but now he’ll lose valuable points. Nadal himself has to win all of the clay court tournaments he enters except Hamburg where he needs to reach the final else he’ll lose points. Federer is not as dead as we may have thought.

Federer started his Miami journey with a match against Gael Monfils. Monfils got an absolute sitter right on top of the net in the first set. He smashed it hard but the ball bounced right near Federer who stuck out his racket and bunted the ball over Monfils’ head right onto the baseline. Monfils couldn’t get the ball back.

Monfils is like a bounding Bambi. At one point he attempted a jump backhand while running from one side of the court to the other and another point had him doing a cartwheel in an attempt to reverse direction. You’ll also see him sliding and flailing and falling. When was the last time you saw, oh let’s say, David Nalbandian, lying flat on his stomach on the court as Monfils was today? He’s a bounding, boisterous youngster with a youngster’s typical lack of direction.

He should be peaking with his good friend Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and here he is ranked in the 60’s when he was, at one time, in the low 20’s. He changes coaches more often than Andy Murray. In the last two years he moved from Thierry Champion to Pier Gauthier to Tarik Benhabiles then back to Champion – there may have been a few more I don’t know about – and his ranking has gone back and forth between the 70’s and the 30’s. He didn’t play badly but he lost in straight sets to Federer by the score of 6-3, 6-4.

When I was in Indian Wells last week, the organizers of the tournament explained that they switched from ESPN to Fox Sports because ESPN would only give them eight hours of live coverage and four hours tape delayed total – the men’s semifinals would have been broadcast at 3am. That’s looking pretty good at the moment. Fox Sports substituted hockey for tennis today and the Tennis Channel broadcast the Federer match then switched to an interview with Mats Wilander instead of giving us two full hours of tennis.

The announcers, Doug Adler and Robbie Koenig, also couldn’t pronounce Monfils’ name. The correct pronunciation is “Monfees” but they preferred “Monfee” which would incorrect even if the name did not have an irregular pronunciation. It shouldn’t be so hard you know, every other word in English is irregular. The announcers did help out in one way. One of them had a conversation with Federer’s agent, Tony Godsick, who lamented the fact that everyone thinks Federer is losing it. According to Godsick, Federer is not losing it, he’s just a step slow because he’s been ill.

When Federer lost to Mardy Fish in Indian Wells, the measurement was probably closer to two or three steps but his point is well taken. For all the mental aspects of Federer’s game we could talk about, his most important asset is his movement. His smooth moves get him into position to run around his backhand and give him time to choose which shot he wants to use.

Why don’t other players have as many shots as Federer does? Andy Murray has the variety but not the power and most players have the typical threesome: power forehand, power backhand, and backhand slice. (I’m ignoring Fabrice Santoro because no matter how diverse his game, he has yet to make it to a Masters Series final let alone win one of those things and I’m talking about baseline shots here.) Players may change the speed of their shots and the arc and move the ball around, and Nadal, for sure, flattens his ball out for hard court and grass, but few players change the spin on their ball throughout a match as Federer does and few players use such a variety of slices.

Fish put it this way after beating Federer last week:

He just puts so much topspin on it and he can flatten it out and he can spin it. Nadal has a spinny forehand like that, as well. He always spins it and it’s always heavy. Roger can flatten it out. You have no clue where he’s hitting it. He can pull it up the line on you as quick as he can hit it inside out.

Are players lazy? Are they keeping their game simple to insure proper execution under stressful conditions such as a third set tiebreaker in a Masters Series final? I’m gonna say that movement is part of the issue here. If you want to play with a variety of shots and spins, you need early preparation and that means superior movement. There’s lot of quick players on tour but it’s not just an issue of speed.

David Ferrer is quick but that doesn’t make him a good mover. A good mover is balletic and nimble and that does not describe Ferrer. It doesn’t describe many players. Instead of working at gym, players could be working at the barre if there weren’t such a stigma attached to ballet because agile feet will save you a lot of time. Monfils is quick and he’s rubbery, but he doesn’t get to balls in any way that could be described as graceful. Pete Sampras was graceful and Tsonga fits the description too and that’s one reason they’re such a joy to watch.

Who’s the most graceful player you’ve ever seen in the tennis world?

The drawback with lots of spins and shots is the simplicity factor I mentioned above. When your game goes off, it’s harder to get back and Federer is having trouble re-establishing his rhythm. He looked pretty good against Monfils today and he spent much more time at the net than usual. The way this tournament is shaking out, the chaos he seems to have kicked off may end up clearing the draw and going some distance to restoring the order we’ve become accustomed to. I’m not happy about that, I’m enjoying the chaos.

Dead Tennis Balls

Here’s a list of 50 great things you never knew you could do with a tennis ball. Can anyone add anything to the list besides unlocking your car when you’ve left your keys inside? Keep it clean, this is a G-rated blog.

I still didn’t get to rankings bonus points but I will because I think the ATP is going to reinstate them and they will affect the rankings as we know them today. Cheers, and if there’s anyone on site in Miami, check in.