Most Entertaining Match So Far

had to be Federer’s match with Suzuki, and although the Japanese player is only 5’8″, he put on display a game style other players should think about adopting if they want to make inroads on Roger’s winning ways. He came out serving very aggressively and effectively, rushing the net repeatedly. I think Roger was a bit taken aback…at least until the magical game eight, when he shifted into the high gear, got the break and served out the first set.

The style that can beat Roger, in other words, is basic old serve and volley. Too bad hardly anyone is playing it today, and the most likely candidate – Tim Henman – has had good success against Federer, at least up until last year, when Roger gained the upper hand.

The rest of the match was an amazing display of Roger, Roger, more Roger. Yes, I suppose there’s really nothing more to do…other than walk off the court when the guy hits the around the post shot barely six inches off the ground!

Still, the crowd loved and really appreciated Suzuki’s effort and gung-ho style of play, and I just want to know how a guy can be ranked in the 300 range on the tour and play as well as he did…for at least a good portion of the first set, against the world’s best player.

Role Reversal

Used to be the men’s game was the thrilling game, a number of guys could beat each other on any given day to take a title. Then a guy named Roger Federer came along, and even though Brad Gilbert thinks the four top guys can win it (Federer, Roddick, Hewitt, Safin) along with Andre (#8), it seems Roger is the one who will most inevitably rise to the surface at the end of the day.

Not so the women, although it seems only a brief while ago when Serena and Venus were exchanging titles amongst themselves. Now there are a handful of Russians, along with a rejuvenated Lindsay Davenport, and the always powerful Amelie Mauresmo, who can keep Serena and Venus company.

If last year’s slam record for the women is any indication, the trophy wealth will be spread around, with a different woman winning each slam. A great deal for the women’s game!
Although Mary Carillo made the interesting comment that the Williams sisters would dominate again, if they can get their serves back to where they once were.

Hopefully the men can get it going too. Much as I love to watch Roger Federer play and win matches, tennis will be better served if he has a pack of howling guys nipping at his heels.

Starting this week, writer Pat Davis is joining Tennis Diary to cover the grand slams and weigh in as only she can on everything from technique to high style in the tennis world:

I was going to write about the oddity of both #1 and #2 male players being without coaches, when lo and behold, Roger and Andy both went out and got hitched, so to speak.

This happens over the holidays, the normal time when tennis players get married, get hitched, have babies, fire their coaches, replace their boyfriends/girlfriends. Hopefully, they also rest their overworked bods, in the only time of the year when they get what is called, a “rest.”

Andy gets Dean Goldfine. Hhmmm. I have to think about that. What made Andy reach his end, rather suddenly it seemed, with Brad Gilbert? Maybe the lad is restless, I thought. Andy believed he should have performed better at the close of last year; he didn’t, so he took it out on his coach. Andy wants to do better, but doing better means he has to climb over Roger Federer, and that he did not manage to do by year’s end.

Roger makes out perhaps better, with the laconic sardonic Tony the Roche. If nothing else, Roger will learn a few more cuss words, the Aussies are good at that. But only part-time. Tony is an old curmudgeon, and realizes he Does Not Travel Well.

Brad Gilbert, on the other hand, is Pupil-Less. He may enjoy it, given his quip about being “the Fired Coach, moving into the ESPN commentator’s booth.” He actually said the F word, “fired.” I went back and replayed my tape.

Not one to feel seduced and abandoned for long, Lleyton Hewitt came out of his breakup with Kim Clijsters looking pumped up in his new muscle tees and firing big-ass service winners. Rumor has it she gave him the bad news over the phone, in which case she doesn’t appear to have the class I thought was part and parcel of her Repertoire of Shots. But Lleyton went out and rebuilt his body to win his own home Slam. The guy is fired up!

In a moment of churlish display, he reputedly chastised his own federation for not making the court more adaptable to the Aussie favorite, i.e. a faster court. Instead, it’s somewhere in between. Patrick McEnroe picked up on this in the booth, remarking how he felt Patrick Rafter suffered from the same problem during his run. He could never win the Aussie Open because the court was TOO slow, and ill-suited to his game. Hewitt has begun to suspect the same. He is one guy who takes Federer seriously, and having been hammered good by Federer last year he appears determined to get himself up to the challenge.

And now for the fashion statements….you didn’t think you’d escape without commentary on the fashion, now did you?

One of the best things about seeing tennis players up close in person is they have such bloody gorgeous legs, the men and the women.

So, why then cover up the fine legs of a really fine looking young player, Rafael Nadal? He’s wearing white cotton knickers this week, but the little tweak of ankle that we see is lovely to look at. He’s already, at 18 years old, please, got a really nice Lou Diamond Phillips look. He reached somewhere into those knickers and found the wherewith all to upset Mikhail Youzhny the other day, in a great five set display.

Knickers rule, I guess.