Author Archives: pat davis

Bitch And Sing Dept: More Carnage From Miami

If you thought the tennis from Miami would be more orderly for the seeds than the last event in Indian Wells, well think again. Day one for the main draw started with seeds going down and the trend continues. James Blake was the first of a long line, followed by Safin, Baghdatis, Hrbaty, Hewitt (he retired) and Tommy Haas. And that’s before the television coverage kicked in. On Sunday we lost Gonzalez and Youzhny. Yesterday it was Davydenko, Gasquet, Berdych and Nalbandian. Is there something in Miami about the water that we should know about?

Still, it’s been a fun tournament. Why I don’t know, it just feels fun, the matches have been all over the place and if you are a spectator you have probably enjoyed yourself. In fact part of the viewing fun has been watching the crowd. Unlike the desert of Indian Wells, where people have both time and money on their hands, Miami has a more urban proletariat feel. This bunch could have wandered in from the beach. Crowd Control? What’s that? Changeovers? Huh? Large groups of people are allowed to file into the stadiums at the most inopportune times, annoying the hell out of the players who are about to serve. Crandon Park looks like it’s situated in a swamp, so I was half-expecting a few gators to come wandering in too. It’s been that kind of tournament. Weather has been a problem too with rain backing up the first few days, and it seems to be perpetually windy here as well.

The pleasures of this event for me are coalescing around the budding careers of some new babies on the block. One of them is Juan-Martin Del Potro. Just last week I mentioned to my co-writer Nina Rota that we should probably start speaking more about this kid. Then he went out and upset Youzhny, so now we really have to talk about him. The Argentines are extremely fond of his prospects and now I see why. He’s only 18 but his head and his nerve seem about 28. He’s got great height at 6’5”, but he moves nimbly for a big guy. He’s got a two-handed backhand that looks solid, as does his forehand. He takes both shots with elbows quite bent and arms close in to his body, but he gets his shots off effectively. His serve is solid and he is not adverse to coming forward given his chances. He’s still got to get through Nadal in the next round, but given how things have gone so far here no match can be said to be nailed down. Look for a free-swinging battle in that match-up, since Del Potro looks too young still to be scared. And last but not least, he has hair. Lots and lots of it! Yum.

The other find out of this tournament is one of ours, sort of. Amer Delic emigrated nearly ten years ago with his family from the war in Bosnia, and that’s good news for Americans. I can’t remember when I ever saw Nikolay Davydenko being so frustrated on a tennis court as he was yesterday. He could never figure out the riddle of returning Delic’s powerful serves. This guy’s name has appeared on the horizon over the last year, and his win yesterday should give him a big leg up in confidence. Delic is 6’5”, lean and strong, with a muscle T he looks like he belongs in. He reminds me of Safin, with the same power and rangy speed that allows him to get around the court well. He started the match inauspiciously, his serve wasn’t quite grooved and his one-handed backhand let him down a lot. Towards the end of the first set he fought his way into the match, getting an early break back and forcing Davydenko into a tiebreak. Normally the Russian returns well but Delic was such a new item that Davydenko had trouble reading his serve. Then Davydenko’s normally reliable game started breaking down, particularly the forehand. Davydenko had four set points and couldn’t close the deal. Delic was off to the races, winning in two sets.

The other stand-out is a veteran, Guillermo Canas, who is as hot as he was in Indian Wells. This guy is a dream competitor, he has energy and perseverance up the wazoo. Being out of the game for such a long time seems to have focused his desire to get back to the top. The guy is honed in now like a laser beam. He continues to serve well and cover the court like he was born to play the net. He had too much firepower and consistency for Richard Gasquet yesterday. Next up is the dream rematch of Canas with Roger Federer. I want to see Roger get his own back, but the way Canas is playing…..gulp! That’s why this has been a great spectator’s tournament, the match-ups have been terrific.

Yippie tai yai yay, as the cowboys say. Maria Sharapova will be yelling that too. It’s Tuesday, 11:34 a.m. and Serena Williams just stuck the knife into her. We’re going to start calling Maria “Yippie,” because she’s got the service jitters really bad. 6-1, 6-1 was the score, and it felt like we barely saw the players warm-up. The problem started for Maria down in Australia, and her service motion is not getting any better. As Pam Shriver said, it’s all mental, there’s just nothing you can do about it in practice. It only shows up for a player during a match. You wonder what advice her current date Andy Roddick has offered up. Maybe he should wonder if it’s catching.

My picks going into the round of 16:

Murray over Mathieu (Murray dropped the opening set, but came back to win).

Delic over Chela: Chela’s had a good run, clipping Tomas Berdych yesterday, but I like the American’s chances, and if that big serve is working he could pull this out.

Robredo over Stepanek (right now they are going into a third set).

Nadal over Del Potro – Much as I would love to see Del Potro shine again, Nadal may have too much experience and firepower. Besides, don’t we all want a Roger Nadal final? Sorry, Juan.

Ljubicic over Nieminen – Lots of craft and guile in this one. Both guys had some trouble getting here. Too much height advantage and firepower from the big Croat.

Djokovic over Lopez – Feliciano has great hair too, and he had for him a great run this week, taking out Safin early on. But Djokovic is a steely kid, and he’s caught a good draw here.

Roddick over Ferrer – Ferrer does amazingly well for a little guy, and he nearly forced Roddick into a first set tiebreak today. But way too much firepower and consistency now from Roddick.

Federer over Canas – I still say bet the entire house on Roger. We will see entrails scattered about here, as I wrote earlier in the week. I just hope they’re not Roger’s.

That’s it, folks. Four Spaniards, three Argentines, two Americans, one Frenchman, a Scot, a Croat, a Serb, a Czech, one lonely Finn and that Swiss guy what’s ‘is face. Shake well, cocktails are on the way. It’s going to be one powerful brew.

The B*tch And Sing Dept: After The Desert

We’re moving across the country from the dry heat of Southern California to the sticky stuff in Miami where both tours begin a nearly two-week event called the Sony Ericsson Open. Somehow the mugginess of Florida doesn’t promise much respite after the desert furnaces of Indian Wells, but it’s good to get out of town. I can think of a handful of players who probably think the same way.

Having received a surprising comeuppance in the desert, it would be wise to bet the entire house on Roger Federer this week. I expect him to come out with blood in his eye and smoke pouring from his ears emitting both “fire and music” as the inestimable Margo Channing once said. Appropriately we suppose, his opener occurs this coming Saturday night. It features entertainment ripped from the pages of Super Bowls past, replete with fire and music, sound and light, and a rendition of our national anthem from some secret superstar singer. If Roger is not laughing hysterically at the thought of all this hyper inflation, as I am now, then he should go out and win, convincingly, with style and panache, just to show who’s in charge. You’ve bought pizzas for all the ball kids, Roger, and you hung around like a really good guy and schmoozed the world in Indian Wells after your loss. But now we want to see you on your feet and swinging. Entrails scattered around the court would be nice too. Andreev’s or Querrey’s. One of them you’ll meet in your opener.

It would be nice to see him face Nadal again in a final. They have not met since the semi-finals of the year-end ATP championship in Shanghai. Roger won in two sets on the indoor carpet surface. I hope you guys meet again so I don’t have to keep watching my Shanghai tape to remind myself of how great it is when Federer meets Nadal. That match featured some serious heavy ground strokes from both players in long rallies. Nadal played a wonderful match but Federer was just sublime. Fans and inspectors need more of that intensity. If we are to experiment further with the round robin format, let’s use it to get Federer facing Nadal in more finals. Why fool around with anyone else, let’s just cut to the chase.

It’s good to see Nadal with a big win under his belt. He was having a long hiccup there. I am not a diehard Rafa fan, but it’s important for the game that he runs into Roger more often. Now that he’s finally gotten into a final, maybe he’ll get a taste for staying in them. The match on Sunday was a lot more vital for Nadal to win that Djokovic but the fact that he won and Federer lost doesn’t really import any dramatic changes anytime soon in the shape of the men’s game. Federer is far ahead of the pack, even far ahead of Nadal, yet Nadal is also far ahead of the pack.

Hopefully the pack can generate a few more rivalries of its own since they really can’t touch the top two players. Murray and Djokovic would be a good rivalry since they are the same age and are already familiar with each other’s play. It may be more of a rivalry now rather than later as I see Murray rapidly developing an all-court game. He has hands in the great tradition of Ilie Nastase and John McEnroe.

Djokovic has the drive to succeed but can he add more to his game? He can serve big but from what I saw of him against Nadal, his serve may not be big enough. Nor consistent enough. His forehand is his weapon de jour but that’s about all that’s in his bag. I don’t feel particularly drawn to his personality or his style of play. I have seen it all before. Federer has spoiled me rotten. I want to see every new player showing his particular gift; something unique. Djokovic is more of the same. I am happy to see my co-writer agrees with me in this regard. He will make the top ten after last week but I hope Murray follows closely on his heels because he has the more interesting game. Too bad Novak wasn’t playing a five-setter because he might have been able to get his teeth into it a bit more.

Blake-Roddick should be more of a rivalry too. Both guys of late appear so fragile at times against those foreigners that maybe they just need to play each other for a change. Maybe then they can channel their aggressive styles better. Speaking of Roddick, some photos of him on a crotch-grabbing spree between points at the Aussie Open this year are circulating around the internet. Not current, but timely anyway. The way Nadal took it to Roddick on Saturday, I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy repeated that gesture on occasion. Just to make sure they’re all there. Wouldn’t you? Nadal will leave a trail of manly men clutching their balls this spring.

Kudos this week also to Tommy Haas who is showing great stuff this year. He should have beaten Murray and he knows it but both guys emerged as winners from that dust-up. We kind of neglected the women last week so congrats also to Li Na for livening up the women’s draw, and how about that Daniela Hantuchova’s win over Kuznetsova? Five years is a long time between titles. Better late than never we suppose. She showed a lot of composure and strength in winning only her second tour title.

It’s good to see, if not exactly new faces, then new winners in the winner’s circle. Sometimes it’s revealing when the top seeds go out of a tournament. Good things emerge in their wake.

The B*tch And Sing Dept: Robin Bites The Worm

The action this week was all off the courts, not on. Although Roger Federer notched up another win in Dubai, Justine Henin snagged another victory, and Lleyton Hewitt showed up finally in the winner’s column. Somehow these events will all pale beside the brouhaha that wafted out from Las Vegas. By now everyone has probably caught the drift that many folks in tennis are upset with the round robin format. There is a rather large swathe of people like me who think the format frankly sucks. It’s right up there now on my Hit List of things I do not want to see perpetuated in tennis. It has not yet replaced my Top Ten flame subject, the issue of on-court coaching in the women’s game. But this week it came close.

Even my co-writer Nina Rota and I are fighting on this one. She feels tennis needs a few changes; if you twist her arm a bit she might even admit that tennis is, well, a bit boring at times these days. Okay, well, let’s go the source of that problem: can someone just shoot that Federer guy, ‘cause he’s causing a lot of consternation by just being so damn good. But don’t give us a round robin format to make life more interesting. All it did this past week was give everyone a monumental headache.

James Blake nearly ended up in the sauce, looking like a Bad Guy for once. He says there were no hard feelings between he and other players at the Las Vegas event, where the egregious event occurred in the first place. But he should not have been so eager to comply with the ATP’s wishes initially to insert him into the draw over Evgeny Korolev. Fortunately the ATP honchos came to their senses and backed down and decided to follow their own rules, after all. The guys commenting in the TV booth tried to put a decent face on things by inviting Korolev up for a chat. He’s a well-spoken youngster, intelligent enough to realize he was there to smooth over the rough edges, and he did, brushing off any annoyance he might have felt with the ATP decisions, or lack thereof, and analyzing what went wrong for him in his semi-final match against Jurgen Melzer (the Austrian Melzer advanced).

But the whole episode will leave a sour taste for some time to come. How soon do you think it will be before the ATP abandons RR? They can’t do it right away, that would look awkward, like us pulling out of Iraq tomorrow. We could do it if we wanted to, but we won’t. But soon they will abandon it.It’s not that the idea doesn’t have merit; Nina may be right, it could add a pique of interest to the game, and when the round robin was being planned it sounded like a fun idea. As it went along, it has not been so much fun. Now we see the problems that crop up, and it is also very hard to figure out the draws now that use round robin. When Fantasy Tennis season starts soon this format will screw things up and we’ll all be tearing our hair out. Maybe it really comes down to how our lives are so crowded already, all is so complicated, that adding more math on top seems like cruelty in the extreme. I think that is partly why people are flaming like they are, we are all tired and our boats are full already. Terrible, but that’s the way it is. People don’t want anything to come along and rock their boat unless they feel there will be a payoff.

Round robin doesn’t show a payoff. The payoff to this thing was supposed to be that name players would get a second chance in draws, allowing fans to count on seeing them play during an event. But had Las Vegas gone down the path initially suggested by the ATP heads, I.e. keeping Blake in and tossing Korolev out, I would wager the crowd in Vegas would not take kindly to that. In fact, when the initial ruling came out – that Blake would stay in anyway – I felt outraged. I woke up the next day and turned on the match expecting to see Blake and Querrey play, and I was frankly hoping Querrey would blast Blake off the court. I may want to see a top player play, and get to the finals where he belongs. But not this way. If James wanted to advance, he should have played a damn sight better in his opening match. That’s the way it is, guy, you lose, you go home. Or down the road to Indian Wells, which gets under way next week. You don’t get to ride along on the back of someone, namely Korolev, who played throughout like he wanted to get to the final. Tough titties, as we used to say in high school.In this case, keep tennis the way it is, why this eagerness to shove new and ill-conceived ideas down our throats? Every time someone wants to “upgrade” the game, I end up feeling de-graded. So sod off, I say, unless you can slip it to me when I’m not looking, not having to pay attention, and then I wake up and see it and I go, ohhh, that’s not half bad, and the idea gets familiar.Unless you can find a way to do that with round robin, or any of these other crackpot ideas both tours entertain, then don’t bother. Over at Tennis-X, it was reported that someone on Korolev’s management team said, “The ATP says they’re changing the rules to help the fans and if that’s the case, they should pay for some clowns to come and put on a circus.” God, the clowns, why didn’t we think of that before? Isn’t tennis in need of clowns? But the best line of the whole mess came from some wag, I forget who exactly in the midst of all these guided missiles of hostility swirling about: “Wait till Roger hears about this.” We all laughed, because we all know what Roger will think about this. Always the bloody purist. And thank God for that. This week, we should all be so pure.

The Bitch and Sing Dept: Amelie Amelie Amelie!

Over the weekend we were treated to a great women’s final in Dubai between Justine Henin and Amelie Mauresmo. This has emerged as one of the best rivalries in tennis, men’s or women’s. The match certainly did not disappoint: both players showed a wide array of touch and power and while both of them brought their “A” games, when push came to shove it was Amelie who folded up her tent and went off into the desert, so to speak. What could have happened to make the outcome different next time?

We’ve yelled before about certain aspects in the Frenchwoman’s game that could be tightened up, or changed. Like her inability to really hit a flat forehand shot, and her lackluster serve, particular the second serve. It comes floating over the net almost like a balloon sometimes, sitting up begging to be smacked. And Justine was just the woman to treat it with the impunity it deserved.

Women’s tennis has so few really good servers that you wonder why more of the players don’t show more aggression in returning the second serves of players. Dementieva has been the principal culprit, although lately she has gotten a little more pop on her first serve, and can protect the second better, at least a little. After Sunday I think Mauresmo could fit into that category. She needs to put more pace on the first serve and on the second. She needs to take it as seriously as the Williams sisters do. Not some casual thing we’re doing just to get the ball in play.

As far as her forehand goes, it is too loopy with too much topspin. Not that a shot like that cannot do some damage, but you face occasions when the ball needs to be hit flatter, more directly and with more pace. A lot of it may just be mental mistakes. During the match Amelie came to net behind a forehand approach to Justine’s backhand, but she hit the wrong forehand approach. It sat up and Justine whacked a rather easy backhand up the line for a winner. If Amelie had flattened it out and given it a more inside-out look, she probably would have won the point.

Part of her loopiness is due to that somewhat extreme western grip she uses, wherein your hand is almost under the racquet rather than behind it or on top of it. You can’t help but hit topspin with a grip like that. I wouldn’t know, though, so maybe I’m just jealous. I am probably the last person on the planet who uses the old eastern grip, the “shake hands” goody they used to teach. I could not hit topspin if my life depended on it. I can flatten the ball in a way Connors would approve, and put pace on it, but timing is really key here, and if your timing is off the shots can spray every which way.

Can we expect Amelie to change her grip after all this time? Probably not. Mardy Fish has been tinkering of late with the grip on his forehand; reports are it looks kind of weird but it seems to be more effective. But this is a risky undertaking and not many players would go down this road. Someone should have nipped her tendencies in the bud long before she got to this point. But you need several kinds of forehands, one for pace and flatness when you’re going for a shot before the player gets to the spot, topspin for when you need extra time to get in position and to give yourself a little extra margin. Amelie’s got plenty of the latter and not enough of the former.

Surely her coach has tried to address these problems. Surely she is aware of what she needs to do. I am somewhat astonished that she doesn’t show more progress in these areas. Is it laziness, or fear? Or is she simply unable to? I always assume that even if you reach the top of the rankings you still want to improve your game; you are still eager for the challenge of new things.

During the match one of the commentators chastised Mauresmo for hitting her forehand very late, like off her back foot. This may contribute to her forehand errors, but it is not the root of her problem. Steffi Graf got away with hitting lots of forehands off her back foot too, in fact Steffi looked at times like she was pulling balls out of her pocket. But don’t tell me Steffi did not know how to flatten out a forehand, she did, and it was her most devastating shot. I don’t think we will say that of Mauresmo, because her grip works against her. And maybe her mentality too. Mauresmo really doesn’t have the killer instinct Steffi did. She can still win matches, but whether she will continue to win the big matches consistently is doubtful until she makes these adjustments in her game. Look at what Henin has done: she’s upped her backhand a ton and she’s made changes in her serve. She ventures forth into the territory she needs to get to to improve her game. Mauresmo, it seems, has to be dragged kicking and screaming.

But it’s such a beautiful game already, fans of Mauresmo may be moaning, she can still win lots of points in beautiful rallies without turning into a female version of Jimmy Connors. Beauty is beautiful and I love to see it too, but is that going to put points on the board, or win you matches? Mauresmo’s beautiful backhand, her stellar shot by far, won’t ever see the light of day in a match if she can’t get that first serve in more convincingly and improve the quality of her second serve. And that backhand kill shot won’t kill unless maybe you set it up first with a decent forehand drive.

Come on, Amelie, you know we love you and your game, that’s why we want to see these adjustments made. You could have won that match in Dubai. Next time we hope you will.

Justine And Amelie: A Royal Dust-Up In Dubai

Most likely Justine Henin and Amelie Mauresmo didn’t sit down and decide to cook up a stellar women’s tennis match yesterday, but the timing was beautiful nonetheless. Because earlier in the week it was announced that Wimbledon, finally, would pay the women equal money. With an announcement like that some of us were probably holding our collective breaths: how often do the players come out and play exactly the opposite of what the situation requires? Instead the two women delivered up a pretty spectacular final with a lot of great variety of play. They DESERVED equal pay for that performance. We should add that they probably got it too, not just from the purse (a hefty 1.5 million) but from the appearance fees that I assume both women received as well. I’m glad they took it seriously and delivered the goods to us, big time.

After all, it could have ended up like the debacle down in Buenos Aires, where that men’s event lost nearly all the top seeds, and in the end what we got was pretty much a non-match between DiMauro and Monaco. Someone should keep an eye on the tournament director, he’s probably looking for the nearest open window. If he hasn’t gone out of it already.

The sheiks in Dubai on the other hand must be very pleased with what they got for their money. They lost Sharapova and Serena Williams before the tournament started due to hamstring problems and flu, but the draw held up almost perfectly. Four of the five top seeds made it into the semis, the exception being Martina Hingis at Number 4 who lost to Number 5 Jelena Jankovic. This was probably no real surprise as Jankovic has beaten Hingis before and is on the way up, while Hingis probably ran out of steam after playing a very late night round of 16 match.

Justine Henin should probably buy a plot of land in Dubai like Roger Federer has. She loves this place, she has not lost a match here in 16 attempts. She won this title for the fourth time. It was also the first time that both top players have visited the final together.

The tone was set early in the match with both players showing off a variety of attacking shots, moving each other around early and coming forward at every opportunity. Justine stayed just a half-step ahead of Amelie most of the way, you felt her mentality was stronger, her shot-making more decisive. And that backhand. Wow! Actually, we got two great one-handed backhands, certainly the two best in the women’s game. But Justine has worked on hers a lot and it shows. She now gets an incredible amount of pace on her backhand. In fact she can probably hit it the way some women wail on their forehand sides. It was that impressive a shot.

Henin also went after Mauresmo’s serve, both first and second, which are still pretty big shortcomings in her game. Why can’t more of the women do what Justine did early in the first set when she took a second serve, stepped around and tomahawked an inside-out forehand winner up the line. It was like shooting ducks in a barrel.

Henin broke at 15-40 in the first game then fought Amelie off to hold with a great backhand passing shot up the line. Henin showed weakness at only one point, when she served at 4-3 in the first set. Amelie unleashed a great backhand of her own up the line for 0-15 then attacked Justine’s second serve (anything you can do I can do too) and came in behind her return, forcing Justine to net her shot. Then Justine double faulted for 0-40. You’d swear Amelie was going to even the set at this point but Justine fought her off and held for 5-3. The back and forth continued with pressure on both serving games, but Justine had the last word holding at 40-0 and closing the set with a great cross court backhand.

The second set continued the great play of the first, Amelie gave no signs of being demoralized, but Justine gave no signs of fading away. Amelie fought off a break point for a 4-3 lead. But you felt somehow that it was Amelie who was having to play catch-up. As well as Amelie could raise her game Justine was raising her level as well. One quick blink might decide this one.

It happened on Amelie’s serve at 5-all in the second set. She double faulted twice in this game giving Justine the lead, 6-5, and the chance to serve out the match. She used the occasion to show off even more of her brilliant shot-making on this day, coming into net and digging out a low volley for a cross court winner giving her 30-0. A forehand out wide that Amelie couldn’t handle gave Henin championship point and she closed the deal with another forehand crosscourt that Amelie netted.

6-4, 7-5 was the score, and my, was the handshake at the net brisk and cool. No love lost between these two. We’re all fine with that, aren’t we? A good hate relationship probably brings out quality tennis like this. Keep up the hatred, ladies!

The key was that Amelie could not protect her serve at the crucial moments. That is going to be part of my rant during the week as I plan to take up a WTA player each week and comment on their game. Amelie is first up to receive a bit of flame.

But for today, we saw some spectacular play from two women who hopefully will provide us a few more lovely matches throughout the year.