{"id":992,"date":"2009-02-05T17:07:09","date_gmt":"2009-02-06T01:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/?p=991"},"modified":"2009-02-05T17:07:09","modified_gmt":"2009-02-06T01:07:09","slug":"leftover-feelings-from-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/leftover-feelings-from-melbourne\/","title":{"rendered":"Leftover Feelings From Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Before we launch into the tennis season, I have to get over my feelings about the Australian Open.<\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;;height:470px;\" class=\"picappstyle\"><script src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/Javascripts\/PisV3.js\"><\/script><script src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/javascripts\/DataV3.ashx?ImageId=579258&#038;PublisherId=13010\"><\/script><a href=\"http:\/\/www.picapp.com\/ViewDetails.aspx?ImageId=3797707\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"remove\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"picappimg\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/d\/6\/7\/3\/fb.jpg\" width=\"234\" height=\"324\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\" onload=\"try{registerLoadImage(this)}catch(ex){}\" alt=\"2009 Australian Open: Day 14\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(234,324,579258,\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/Resources\/Css\/css2.css\")}catch(ex){}}()<\/script><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019m almost ready to get on with the rest of the tennis season. <a href=\"http:\/\/tennistv.com\">TennisTV.com<\/a> will crank up next week with online coverage of the women\u2019s event in Paris and the men\u2019s event in Rotterdam meaning that I can now say goodbye to <a href=\"http:\/\/tvants.en.softonic.com\/\">TVAnts peer to peer pirated broadcasts<\/a> which never worked anyway because I was too lazy to upload any footage of my own. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called peer to peer: you get back what you give.<\/p>\n<p>Our writer <b>Mike McIntyre<\/b> will be in Dubai covering the women\u2019s event this month when he\u2019s not snowboarding down the indoor slopes at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skidubai.com\/ski-dubai\/resort\/\">Dubai\u2019s ski dome<\/a> or, who knows, riding up a glass elevator to share a Turkish coffee with Dubai resident <b>Roger Federer<\/b>. We\u2019re pretty excited about that, but first I\u2019ve got some leftover feelings to spill.<\/p>\n<p>Last Sunday Melbourne time wasn\u2019t the first time Roger cried after the final at the Australian Open, but it was slightly different this time. They weren\u2019t tears of joy on the shoulder of the legendary <b>Rod Laver<\/b>, they were tears of despair as his shot at the &#8220;greatest of all time&#8221; appears to be slipping away.<\/p>\n<p>Give a slight nod to the new Plexicushion courts that were slow enough to produce one of the best clay court-like semifinals of all time between <b>Rafael Nadal<\/b> and <b>Fernando Verdasco<\/b>. Rafa\u2019s epic 2005 final against <b>Guillermo Coria<\/b> in Rome was the longest match in that city\u2019s history and it was 5 hours and 14 minutes long \u2013 yes, exactly the same length as the Rafa-Verdasco match. But no one will remember that.<\/p>\n<p>Because first it was grass as Rafa snatched away Roger\u2019s Wimbledon crown last year, and now hard court. One more slam title than Pete Sampras or not, it won\u2019t matter, because Roger couldn\u2019t consistently beat Rafa on either of his two favorite surfaces. I\u2019m telling you, it may be killing Roger, but it\u2019s killing me too and I couldn\u2019t help being a bit snarky as Rafa fell to the court in victory.<\/p>\n<p>When my lovable Arizona Cardinals lost the Super Bowl later that day, at least I could kick my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hometowncelebrations.com\/inrepubag.html\">inflatable referee punching bag<\/a> across the room. All I could do about Roger losing was accuse Rafa of taking drugs. How does this guy do it? Steroids? HGH? EPO? How can he play a 5 hour and 14 minute semifinal, have one less day of rest, then watch as his opponent is the one who fades in the fifth set?<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t matter either because Rafa is slowly taking over the world tennis tour. Can he win the calendar slam? Oy, I hope not. Local sports shows are actually beginning to talk about tennis again because we now have a bona fide rivalry. We have five set matches between the two best players in the world and that\u2019s what people want.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and personality. We want personality too. Rafa has it and Roger is finding it &#8211; even if it means overshadowing Rafa at the award ceremony. <b>Martina Hingis<\/b> completely disintegrated and walked off the court after losing the 1999 French Open final before the award ceremony even started, and <b>Mary Pierce<\/b> could barely speak through her tears after losing the 2005 French Open final. <b>Lleyton Hewitt<\/b> watched with cartoon-sized saucer eyes as <b>Marcos Baghdatis<\/b> walked off crying after their epic five set match in Melbourne last year.<\/p>\n<p>Hewitt looked like he couldn\u2019t quite believe it but that\u2019s what we want. We want drama and we\u2019re getting it and it\u2019s not just Rafa and Roger. England was beside itself when Verdasco dropped <b>Andy Murray<\/b> in the fourth round in Melbourne and <b>Novak Djokovic<\/b> always has a bit of controversy following him around.<\/p>\n<p>It ain\u2019t <b>Borg<\/b> and <b>McEnroe<\/b> and <b>Connors<\/b> and <b>Lendl<\/b>, but it\u2019s a whole lot better than we\u2019ve had in a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before we launch into the tennis season, I have to get over my feelings about the Australian Open. I\u2019m almost ready to get on with the rest of the tennis season. TennisTV.com will crank up next week with online coverage of the women\u2019s event in Paris and the men\u2019s event in Rotterdam meaning that I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}