After missing most of last week's tournaments in Montreal and Toronto because of vacation, I am back home and eager to watch Cincinnati this week. I did catch the tail end of the last week's tournaments and was disappointed that the finals for each were so one-sided. Of course, not being a Rafael Nadal fan myself I was disappointed by the result, but I won't get into that since I know there are many Rafa fans out there, so time to quickly move on.
This tournament in Cincinnati is a big one for Roger Federer and his fans. It's difficult to know what to expect, though I have high hopes that his back will cooperate and that this will be the time he finds his form again on one of his favorite hard courts. Interestingly enough, Mirka has been joining him on court in his practices the last two days. Also of note is that yesterday he was using the new racquet, today his old one.
These two pictures were from yesterday with the new racquet and they seemed to be having a serious discussion.
This one is from today and look at the racquet - obviously his old one again. They also look quite a bit happier in this picture. It will be quite interesting to see what he comes on court with for his first match. It would also have been interesting to have been able to watch both practices and see if there was a difference in the way he played with each.
He will be playing Phillipp Kohlschreiber in his 2nd round match, a tricky customer. This is such an important match for him to establish himself with a solid win and show that he is ready to compete solidly without the confusing losses to low ranked players. I really feel like he can have a great week here in Cincy, maybe quelling the media's negativity and putting himself in the running for the U.S. Open. It's been four whole years since he was in the final there, five since he's won it. How about showing he is still at the top by winning it this year?! I am also curious to see how Andy Murray plays this week after losing early in Montreal. He must be feeling a bit of pressure being the defending champion at the U.S. Open for the first time. I'm sure he would love to have a good run to give himself confidence after a disappointing week last week. Novak Djokovic was rather up and down in Montreal, and he has the chance to make history if he were to win this week in Cincy, becoming the first man to have won each of the Masters 1000 tournaments. A lot on the line for many as things heat up heading into the last grand slam of the year.
A new national holiday should be declared in the U.K. on this 7th day of the 7th month, the day the 77 year drought of having a British Wimbledon champ ended. The tension was palpable as Andy Murray served for the championship at 5-4 in the third set. Having three championship points at 40-love it seemed like it was a done deal. However, #1 ranked Novak Djokovic is never one to back down, no matter how unlikely a comeback looked down two sets to none. But it seemed in a heartbeat it was suddenly break point instead, three times to be exact, which Murray fought off with everything he had. When his 4th championship point came along he took it, raising his arms toward the press in exhilaration. After the tears and disappointment last year when he had been so close in his loss to Roger Federer he had finally done it, bringing fans all across the United Kingdom to their feet in joy and relief. For all of history he will be remembered as the man who brought them another Wimbledon crown after what seemed like (per Roger Federer a few years ago) 150,000 years.
I had the privilege of watching the final with a friend who grew up in Scotland, who even brought some strawberries and cream for us to enjoy to commemorate the event, so I got to be even more involved in the joy the country was experiencing after such an extended time. Now that it's over I think they would say it was worth the wait.
Though the match had its moments of stress for Murray fans in the long rallies, breaks back and forth, and especially the last service game, overall it could have been a lot more stressful. Surprisingly Andy was able to win this in straight sets, which I never would have guessed from the start. Djokovic just seemed a bit weary out there, probably worn down from his epic match with Del Potro, and simply didn't have the same ability to fight it out this time. Andy played some very strong and smart tennis and fully deserved his straight set win to etch his name forever with the champions of Wimbledon.
Marion Bartoli was also a first time Wimbledon champion this weekend, as well as being her first major title. I'm sure there was hardly a person in the world who would have had her name in the winners box in their draw before the tournament started. It doesn't matter that she didn't have to beat a top ten opponent - no one will remember that in the history books - and that her opponent took out both last year's champion and finalist. It's the last match that counts and Bartoli played determined tennis, while her opponent, Sabine Lisicki, emotionally exhausted from all that the fortnight had required of her, simply didn't have what it took to hardly even make it a contest. You couldn't help but feel for her as she struggled with tears at different times during the match. But in the end, no matter who you were cheering for, how could anyone not be happy for Marion Bartoli, the joy evident in everything she did, including her climb up to the player's box to collect hugs from her team. She is also the first person who plays with both hands on each side to win Wimbledon. Since I also play the same way, that novelty couldn't escape my attention.
And finally, history was made again by the amazing Bryan Brothers, who now hold all four grand slam titles simultaneously, as well as the Olympic gold medal. What an incredible achievement by these highly talented and very likeable guys. And now in a couple months they will have the opportunity to go for a calendar year grand slam at the U.S. Open.
So Wimbledon is over for another year and soon we will be fully into the build-up to the final hard court slam of the year. More stories to be written, more curiosity as to who will hold the next trophy, but in the meantime history has been made in several ways and we will long remember many of the stories created in this wacky and wild fortnight.
After all the crazy upsets the first week of Wimbledon, here we still end up with the predicted (by many) final, for the men anyway. The fans of Roger Federer still were adjusting to him not being at least in the quarterfinal, and couldn't help but wonder what the outcome would have been if he had been in the semi, but that's irrelevant at this point. The fact is that it is again Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray facing off on Sunday.
For those who didn't get a chance to watch the match between Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro you missed an epic! Everyone was wondering how Delpo would fare with his knee injury against the greatest mover in the game. How about if we just say "no issue." The level of tennis in this match was one rarely seen. The amount of power, the jaw dropping gets with awe inspiring returns, the sheer determination on both sides was no less than incredible. I kept thinking I had seen the best and then they would come up with something more. It was really a shame someone had to lose that one, as they both gave it their all and both deserved to win it. And I never realized Delpo could be so funny. From his instruction to the ball of how to go over the net after a barely missed shoelace volley, to jumping up on the edge of the player stands and giving a guy a high five, along with a few others really gave the crowd a new appreciation for the gentle giant, along with his amazing tennis. I would have loved to see him make it through to another final, but if nothing else this showed himself as well as the fans what he is capable of. Hopefully he will be able to put a run together again soon. It would be fun to see him with another grand slam trophy - well, as long as it's not Roger Federer he's beating, that is. :)
The second men's semifinal wasn't the same high level of tennis as the first one, but it still had its drama. For some reason I was expecting this to be a fairly easy win for Andy Murray. Jerzy Janowicz had other ideas, however. After splitting the first two sets I was pretty surprised when Andy gave up a break in the third, thinking once he had found his game he would cruise. But all of a sudden things turned around again. I think Janowicz's drop shots were starting to really irritate Murray, and when Jerzy acted rather unsportsman-like by hitting the net with his racquet after a missed shot, with boos from the crowd, I think it triggered something in Andy, causing an amazing round of aggressive play getting the break back and also another break, finally closing out the third set. There was no coming back after that, in spite of the delay for the roof to be closed (much to Andy's frustration) and he closed out a quick final set at 6-3 to seal the deal. I really don't know who is the favorite between Murray and Djokovic. Personally I would like to see Andy get his win at home after last year's heartbreak. As for the women, the first semifinal ended up being a blow out match for Bartoli to reach the final, followed by a see-saw match in the next one which Lisicki finally took. Either way we will have a first time grand slam champion. In spite of the fact that Marion Bartoli can about drive you crazy with her quirkiness on the court, when you actually listen to her in interviews she can be rather endearing. And of course who can't love Sabine Lisicki's contagious smile, plus the fact that one of the giant killers finally came good and actually followed up their big win. What a Cinderella story that would be for her to end up holding the trophy in the end. So even though Wimbledon was full of surprises and disappointments the first week, we still have ended up with some compelling tennis and some good stories. I am looking forward to a weekend with some very good matches that really could go either way. And even the men's doubles final has some excitement to see if the amazing Bryan Brothers can hold all four grand slam titles simultaneously. Should be an exciting next couple days.
Roger Federer broke through a big barrier today to win his 77th title. After not having won any in 10 months, and knowing he would tie John McEnroe's record, I believe it had become a bit of an obstacle trying to cross the finish line. In this final match he looked to be starting off great with four break points in Youzhny's first service game. However, he was unable to capitalize on any of them and eventually went on to lose the set in a tiebreak. You could see his frustration at some of his errors, one time even hitting himself in the head with his racquet (bringing back memories of Youzhny's violent display several years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-CgSO9Evw). He was eventually able to cut down on his errors, however, finding a way to break serve in the next two sets to win the championship, bringing his head-to-head record against Youzhny now to 15-0, and most importantly winning his first title of 2013.
Usually I don't feel like these warm-up tournaments necessarily have a huge bearing on who goes on to win the upcoming grand slam, in this case Wimbledon. I this situation, however, I feel it was very important, mainly because I think he really needed this confidence boost as he goes into this tournament as the defending champion with 2,000 points to defend. As he said in an interview, winning is everything, and I think this really increases his chances as a big favorite to win his 18th major.
In other news, Andy Murray, who played Federer in the final of Wmbeldon last year, also won a warm-up tournament, taking out defending champion Marin Cilic in the final. After not playing the French Open due to injury, this will also give Andy confidence that he could come out the winner instead of the finalist this year. He also took part in a rally for cancer fund raiser, playing doubles against his coach Ivan Lendl. Here's a fun video where Andy celebrates hitting Lendl during a rally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mVVWa9GFM3I
And finally I always have to post some pictures whenever the Federer twins make an appearance. Here are adorable Myla and Charlene at the trophy presentation:
It was quite a first week of the season. During the week or two before majors when there are a lot of smaller tournaments going on for both men and women, sometimes there is so much action happening that it's pretty much impossible, even for the most hard core tennis fan, to keep up with it all. My tournaments of choice to pay attention to were Brisbane, Doha and the final in Auckland.
Aga Radwanska had the privilege of being the first person of the year to claim a title, doing so by beating Yanina Wickmeyer. Though she looked a little shaky in her semifinal, she held strong to get through tho the final and claimed the title with a 6-4 6-4 win.
The final in Doha really showed the precarious nature of tennis scoring. Played between Nikolay Davedenko and Richard Gasquet, Davydenko clearly was control of the match, winning the first set, with a break in the second and break points for a second break. It looked like it would probably be a 6-3 6-2 scoreline, with Davydenko having played an aggressive match with many high quality shots. Given that he hadn't been broken for the whole tournament so far it looked like a foregone conclusion. But then, whether it was nerves on his part or determination on the part of Gasquet, things suddenly turned around once Gasquet managed to hold serve and momentum slowly began to shift. Davydenko was broken for the first time trying to serve it out and Gasquet won the tiebreak and carried the momentum through the third set to victory. I have seen it way too often in my own matches - sometimes if you let an opportunity slip through your fingers you're not going to end up with another one. Credit to Gasquet for the fightback, but Davydenko's got to be kicking himself for letting that one go. And on a side note, the match he played in the semi against David Ferrer was really jaw dropping tennis. If you didn't see it and can find a replay on the internet, definitely inspiring tennis to watch. Serena showed that she is serious this week in Brisbane with her comprehensive win over Pavyluchenkova. She has implied that she could see herself winning all four majors this year. After watching her win that title I certainly could agree. I was impressed with first time finalist Grigor Dimitrov, who played in the hopes of getting his first ATP title against Andy Murray in Brisbane. In both sets he was up a break and was playing some really impressive tennis. He really didn't show any nerves at the start - the nerves came when he had to try to close the deal. He started making more errors and Murray showed himself to be the more mature and higher ranked player in the moments he needed to in order to win the the title in a tight two sets. Dimitrov showed himself someone to be reckoned with this year if he can keep up that level of play. I could also see why he is sometimes called Baby Federer because his style of play does have a lot of similarities. Li Na also won a title in a tournament in her home country, Janko Tipsarevic claimed one in Chennai India (against a finalist I had never even heard of, with all the other seeds falling early), and Spain was able to overcome Serbia in the exhibition Hopman Cup, in spite of the duo of Djokovic-Ivanovic teaming up. Ok, I may have missed something, but that is a lot of tennis activity. This week the majority of the top men will be resting and preparing while many of the top women are playing in small preparation tournaments. In the meantime I am counting the days to Australia!
What an amazing comeback from the GOAT Roger Federer in his semifinal against Andy Murray. He started the match by immediately getting broken and just had the kind of flat, tired look to him that he had in the Gold Medal match and the Shanghai semi that he played against Murray. I admit that I didn't really like his chances. To me it just kind of felt like he was tired from a long season and didn't have enough left, and Murray seemed inspired, ready to make his first final in London. How wrong I was! Unlike yesterday, he converted on his first break point to get it back on serve again, and unlike yesterday, though he got down a minibreak in the tiebreak he come back from that and played some great points to take the first set.
Losing the first set seemed to really discourage Murray, not to mention the great crowd support Federer was getting, and it all went downhill for him from there. And Roger was on fire with the momentum of that first set. It was a very happy day for Federer and his fans and he now has the opportunity to win his seventh World Tour Finals, his third in a row.
Novak Djokovic had a comeback of his own after losing the 1st set to Del Potro. Who will triumph in this final pitting #1 against #2?
Wow, what a match! When I saw the wind once again and how that was affecting play in the first few games I really didn't know what to expect. Novak Djokovic was obviously out of sorts from the start, not able to figure out how to overcome this disruption to his style of play. It turned out to be a see-saw affair, however, as one would take advantage while the other was down, only to see the other turn it around. Their rallies they had were incredible, with the longest being a 54-shot rally, and several in the 30s. Even when they ended with an error, often from the wind, it didn't diminish the, dare I say, ridiculousness of what they were accomplishing!
The first set tiebreak was incredible! I had stupidly scheduled my own tennis match that day, thinking surely there wouldn't be a Monday final for the fifth year in a row. I needed to leave during the tiebreak but I thought maybe I could get through it and be a couple minutes late. When Murray hit a fairly easy ball into the net on set point at 6-7 I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish it and had to wait through my own match (walking past the TV in the club with everyone gathered around without looking). Talk about having problems concentrating on my match with that going on (though I did manage to win our first long set and leave it on serve in the second). I digress - that tiebreak was very important for Murray's confidence and belief that he could do it. I won't go through each set, but when he lost the 4th, with Djokovic rallying and taking control in the 3rd and 4th sets, I was getting pretty nervous for him that he was going to go away in the 5th. He came out with fierce determination, however. I can almost see his mind working, that he is NOT going to lose again. He came out the much stronger player and Novak was obviously losing energy, surprising for someone who has played incredible back-to-back matches of endurance in previous majors. Murray held strong through the whole set, really not showing any nerves, and closed it out at 6-2. With a very muted celebration, and some hidden tears, Andy Murray finally stopped the drought of Great Britain grand slam winners and became the fourth different man to win a major in 2012.
Though I'm certainly not a big Murray fan, I really wanted him to win this one and get past this huge hurdle in his career. So now we will have four long months to wonder who is going to emerge in Australia (assuming they get this pay issue worked out) after each of the big 4 winning one this year. It will be truly fascinating. And before that, who will end up as #1 at the end of the year? Will Roger have the energy to defend all those points from last year and hold on to #1? Or will this loss kick Novak into gear to try to have a strong finish to the year and gain it back? It all remains to be seen.
And I would be remiss not to mention Serena's great win on Saturday. I was so pleased that this wasn't just another blow-out women's final, which gets so boring! Victoria Azarenka really fought back and made it a great match. Surely she must have been disappointed that she wasn't able to close things out when she served for it, but she also knew Serena is a fighter and wouldn't let it go easily. I think they each did themselves proud and gave the New York crowd a great women's final. Good to see some Americans come through, along with the Bryan Brothers winning their 12th grand slam trophy and breaking the record for the most major wins.
Time to take a bit of a tennis hiatus with some family stuff going on for the next week. We'll see if I even get any Davis Cup watched or not. All in all it was a great U.S. Open in spite of the disappointment of Roger losing in the quarters, and looking forward to next month already!
The U.S. Open is officially up and running! And for good measure, about an hour into it, there was even a rain delay to make things interesting. No big upsets on the men's side today, though for the women three of the German ladies have already gone out in the first round. I have learned not to make too many predictions in the women's game when it comes to majors - ANYTHING can happen!
Andy Murray started out a bit shaky, though you can't tell by the scoreline. Roger Federer had a routine first round match against Donald Young, winning his 50th match in Arthur Ashe Stadium (62-7 career W-L). This was his 38th Grand Slam 1st round win in a row!
You can tell there is a lot of humidity when even Roger is sweating like crazy!
Here is post match interview with Darren Cahill, which was great:
I wish it didn't take three days to get through the 1st round. I'm already getting antsy to get to the "good stuff." I know I need to savor this, though, as there will be a long break after this is done, so I am going to enjoy each and every day watching the amazing tennis at the Open the next two weeks. No other place like it!
