Hard courts over and out

It's April now, which means the hard courts are done and we head to clay.  So the tennis March Madness is over with the two big Masters events in Indian Wells and Miami.  The Miami tournament was a bit anticlimactic this year on the men's side being that we were missing two of the huge drawing cards, Federer and Nadal.  The resurgence of Tommy Haas into the semis did bring some excitement, however, taking out #1 Novak Djokovic in the process.  At that point I was really hoping to see a very unusual final, Haas against Gasquet.  However, things went along the much more predictable lines and gave us Murray and Ferrer. 

It was a strange, brutal and error prone match between the two.  Ferrer ended up with only 14 winners in three sets with 50 unforced errors while Murray had 23 winners and 45 unforced.  Not only that, but there were 15 breaks of serve between the two, at one point six games in a row!  The rallies were long, often ending with an error, and by the time the match was over Ferrer was badly cramping, something I never thought I would see, and neither one hardly had the energy to finish.  Faster courts anyone?  Andy Murray managed to pull off the win in a third set tiebreak (which I didn't get to see since I was watching on the DVR and didn't know CBS would be ending their coverage - but that's a different story!).  With this win he passes Roger Federer for the #2 ranking.  It's the first time in over nine years that neither Federer or Nadal has held either the #1 or #2 ranking.  Wow!

I was concerned about the women's match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.  I have seen enough blow-out matches between the two that I went into it wondering if they would even make it to an hour.  But Maria obviously came out with a game plan and Serena took a while to find hers, meaning that Maria took the first set.  But Serena being Serena, part way through the second set she found her form and by the time they got to the third Masha's plan had totally gone out the window.  A bagel third set for the beautiful world #2 had to hurt.  Looking back, though, she will have to feel good that she at least found a way to win a set against Serena, something that hadn't happened since 2008!

Clay court season has already started for the women in Charleston this week, albeit green clay.  Then next week, after Davis Cup over the weekend in various places around the world, we move over to Europe once again and the world will be watching to see if Rafa Nadal is going to clean up once again or if someone can hold their nerve to finally beat this guy on the red stuff.     

Catching up on the tennis world

I'm afraid I have been slacking a bit on blog posts lately.  I still follow all the tennis going on as closely as I can, but with all the little tournaments it's just a bit harder to find the excitement level to write about it.  It doesn't help when much of it isn't televised live, and watching it live on the computer at uncomfortable hours often isn't an option (unless it's a certain guy by the name of Roger Federer).  Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch any of the Tsonga-Berdych match, though that would have been a good one and I was happy to see that Tsonga had won, saving two match points in the process.  I was disappointed to miss all but the last few games of the Ferrer-Wawrinka match due to a prior commitment.  I was glad Stan was able to take a set, but in the end Ferrer was just too strong on clay.

I did follow pretty closely the women's tournament in Dubai, however, and enjoyed seeing some good tennis.  I was glad to see Caroline Wozniacki playing well again, though she just didn't have enough against Petra Kvitova, who was really on her game.  The final against Kvitova and Erani was one of those really strange matches where one set looked completely different from the next, with the scoreline being 6-2 1-6 6-1.  Kvitova is just one of those players where, when things are working for her, she is almost impossible to beat.  Some of the winners she hits are just bullets through the court with not the slightest chance of being returned.  But when things go off, they really go off.  It was good to see her winning another title after some struggles for a while to find her real game.

I also was able to watch the semis and final of the ATP Memphis tournament.  Kei Nishikori played some brilliant tennis against Feli Lopez, seeming to get back almost everything Lopez threw at him and hitting just punishing shots to win his 3rd career title.  It was the semifinal Lopez played against Istomin, however, that was more intriguing to me, particularly the end.  It was match point for Lopez and he hit what both he and his opponent thought was an ace.  They both came to the net and had shaken hands when the chair umpire finally got their attention to tell them the serve was a let.  It has been 40-15 and Lopez went on to lose the next three points.  I was getting pretty nervous for him that he was going to get broken and potentially go on to lose the match after already having celebrated his victory.  However, he held his nerve and managed to come back to win the game and the match.  Though I'm sure he is disappointed to lose in the final, that is still so much better than losing in the semi when he thought he had it won.  I had never seen that situation happen before.

 And now on to the really important stuff - Roger Federer is in Dubai getting prepared to try to defend his title from last year, not to mention that he has won here five times already.  Hopefully being back in the warm climate again after the cold in Rotterdam, and being back with his family again will up his game and produce his first title of 2013.  Of course, Novak Djokovic, will have something to say about this.  It will be Novak's first tournament back in action since Australia and he will be anxious to re-solidify his #1 ranking.

I was encouraged by a couple of the things Roger had to say to the media in the last week, one of them being:  "I strongly believe I have more Slams in me."  That is something every Fed fan likes to hear because no matter how much we believe in him, he also needs to have the belief himself that he can still win out in a major over his younger competitors.  He also said this about whether he could return to #1 again:  ''Absolutely realistic, if you play great."  Here's hoping that he can start that playing great pattern this week in Dubai and show that he is still fully in there.  
 

A strange super Saturday at the Open

Is Andy thanking God for the wind?

It was indeed another strange day at the U.S. Open.  While I have seen many a match played in very windy conditions, I have certainly never seen chairs or bags blow onto the court in the middle of the point!  Is it fair for the players to have to play in these conditions?  Tomas Berdych, and maybe Novak Djokovic, would say no, while obviously Andy Murray and David Ferrer seemed to be handling themselves just fine.  Yes it's unfortunate to not be able to go out there and play "normal" tennis.  But weather is part of professional sports and something that needs to be dealt with, and whichever player handles it better will be the victor.  

The most unfortunate part I felt was for David Ferrer.  He handled himself very well in those first seven games and Djokovic didn't.  But in spite of there being blue skies still  he was not allowed to try to serve out the set.  I understand the need for precaution (though it sounds like the severe storm didn't come), but what a frustrating situation.  I hope for his sake he is able to come back tomorrow and serve out the set on the first try.  Even winning the first set, his chances of pulling off the upset, in my opinion, would probably be 5% or less.  But he would have to feel good to at least take a set off the defending champion.

I have to admit as I was watching the first semifinal that I was wishing these conditions had been in effect Wednesday night as Roger took the court against Berdych.  When he plays in wind it seems to affect him not a bit.  What a different scenario we could be looking at.  But that isn't the case and one must move on (though it certainly ticks me off when I once again see articles coming out that the end is near for Federer just because he lost a match again - don't even get me going on that one!).

Anyway, I regress.  I would predict a four set win for Novak against Ferrer and a straight set win by Serena tomorrow.  As for Monday, though I'm not really a Murray fan, I would like to see him get his first grand slam win.  It's time and I hope he can pull it off.