Another big surprise - what will the final outcome be?

Nine days ago if someone would have said that the quarterfinals of Wimbledon would be minus Nadal, Federer, Tsonga, Serena, Sharapova and Azarenka, who in their right mind would have believed it?  But that is exactly what we have.  

Serena's loss in the Round of 16 was another huge shock, for some more shocking than Federer's was (though I am not one of those).  It sure seemed, after a surprising collapse in the second half of the first set to lose it 6-2, that Serena had found her form as well as her fierce determination when she quickly won the second set 6-1 and then went up a quick break in the third.  In fact, two times she was up a break, but somehow grass court specialist Sabine Lisicki kept fighting and kept finding a way back in.  To find a way, though, not just to get the break back, but to get an additional break against powerful Serena and then be able to serve it out on her own serve was truly an inspiring fight.  If only Sabine could find a way to transfer her grass success to other surfaces, she could be at the top of the rankings.

You know, anytime all of the media and all the odds makers put all their bets on one person it almost makes me want them to lose.  NO ONE is invincible - no, not even Serena Williams, though that's what at least the commentators that I listen to seemed to believe.  It seemed they all thought Serena was unable to be beaten at this stage of her career.  So although I live in the U.S and it's always good to see someone from my country win, it seems to me that putting people on such a huge pedestal is never a good idea, no matter how super human they may seem to be for a while (kind of like those who seem to think that Roger Federer is God - no matter how much I love him, he is just a person!).

So in the end, on the men's side, will it be as many odds makers predicted with a Djokovic Murray final, or are there still more surprises to be seen, such as a Jerzy Janowicz , Tomas Berdych or Juan Martin Del Potro holding the trophy at the end?  As to the women, the eventual winner could be any number of ladies - maybe last year's finalist Aga Radwanska, or how about the young American Sloane Stevens, if she can hold her nerve?  Or maybe Petra Kvitova will find her magic again from a few years ago to claim the grass court title again.  In spite of the fact that my favorite, Roger Federer, no longer has a chance this year, I'm not one of those using hash tag WimbleDone - there are still good story lines to be had for the rest of the fortnight.

Questions to be answered after Monte Carlo

The first clay court masters has come and gone and for those who have been frequent followers of tennis, for once there is a different result.  After eight years of the field trying and failing to dismiss Rafael Nadal from his throne in Monte Carlo, finally the world #1 Novak Djokovic has succeeded.  

I was personally thrilled to see a different result after eight years.  It simply doesn't make sense for any person, no matter who they are, to not be able to be beaten.  So in spite of an ankle injury which made Djokovic unsure if he would even be able to play in the tournament at all, he pushed through the pain because he wanted to be able to play in what he now considers a home tournament, since he has been living just down the street for the last several years.  Watching the intensity that he played with you could tell how badly he wanted this title.  Even so, after the almost bagel first set which eventually ended at 6-2, when Rafa got up a break in the second set I fully expected it to go three.  I was certainly unprepared to see him get broken at love serving for the set; and not only that, once it got to the tiebreak to see him only win one point.

Of course this all brings questions.  Was Nole able to win mostly because the conditions favored him, with the clay being damp from an early rain shower? Was it because Rafa isn't up to his full strength yet, claiming he got tired in the second set?  Is Rafa still struggling with injury, whether from his knee or the taping on his back?  All of these things remain to be seen.  I fully expect Nadal to rally and win in Barcelona this week.  What about Madrid, where he struggles a bit with the altitude, Rome, and of course the big question, the French Open?  Although clay is my least favorite surface, these unanswerables spice things up enough to make it all interesting once again.  In two more weeks Roger Federer will be back in the picture, with many wondering how he will fare having not won a title yet in 2013.  And with Andy Murray's lopsided loss we can't help but wonder if he will be any threat during the clay season.  As for me, I'm glad to have these questions to ponder as we wait for big guys to play once again.

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.     

And our champions are...

The first major of the year is over.  I find I am feeling a mixture of sadness and relief - sadness because I look so much forward to the Happy Slam every year, relief because I can finally get some sleep again!

The men's final turned out as so many predicted it would - with Novak Djokovic holding his third consecutive Australian Open trophy, fourth overall, and sixth major title.  It was certainly a tight match for the first 2 1/2 hours with, amazingly, no breaks of serve.  Murray had his chances to really get his teeth into it, after winning the first set in a tiebreak, when he had three break point opportunities.  He was not able to capitalize on those, however, and Djokovic ended up winning that set in a tiebreak.  By the third set Murray was being hampered by a foot injury and it certainly started to take its toll in his movement.  Once Novak was able to get the first break of serve in the match there was no turning back.  Andy definitely hung in there but it was inevitable which way things were going to turn out.

I can't help but wonder if things would have turned out differently if Murray wouldn't have played a five set four hour match in his semifinal compared to an incredibly easy hour-and-a-half semi by Djokovic with an extra day of rest.  But each player must deal with what is given them in the draw - it's all just part of the game of tennis.  

As for the women, Victoria Azarenka had to overcome an unsupportive crowd in her victory against Li Na.  It was obvious that the tennis fans in Rod Laver arena hadn't forgiven her for her injury timeout against Sloane Stevens and were in full support of her opponent.  The match was full of drama, with Li Na taking the first set but then having two falls, one twisting her ankle and the other hitting her head on the court.  She really didn't seem too affected by these injuries, however, and it was really Azarenka settling into the match and taking control that won her her second consecutive AO title.  Her reaction at the end of the match was very telling as to the emotions she had been holding back over these difficult days leading up to the final.  Rather than walking back onto the court to receive her congratulatory applause, she instead sat in her chair and began to sob.  Hopefully this will be a real learning experience for her to keep her making these kind of costly mistakes again which tend to turn people against her.

Though there are no more majors for four months now, there is much tennis action coming up with many smaller tournaments.  Roger Federer will be making his next appearance the second week in February in a 500 level tournament in Rotterdam and again in Dubai.  The one I am waiting for is Indian Wells in March, the first Masters tournament of the year, which I will be present at for the third year in a row.  Still so much to look forward to!

 

And the finals are set

For Federer fans it wasn't the result we were hoping for.  It appeared to be a 50-50 match going into it, with reasons to believe either one could pull it off.  It was obvious from the beginning, however, that Murray was very much on his game, pushing Federer in each of his service games, not aided whatsoever by Federer's serve numbers being very low.  It seemed pretty much at all times during the match that Roger was playing from behind and really only for brief moments was he really able to play his game, coming up with flashes of brilliance when he really needed it.  I have to give all credit to Murray.  He, like Djokovic, has an amazing combination of offense and incredible defense, getting back shots that seem impossible.  

I had already resigned myself to a Federer loss when he was broken back in the 4th set and then broken again, so when he surprisingly pulled off a great comeback to win the set in a tiebreak I still wasn't real surprised when he quickly fell behind once again in the 5th set.  It reminded me of the 2010 U.S. Open semi when he had been pushed hard by Djokovic, with Nadal already waiting in the final.  As that match went on in the 5th set I was getting nervous wondering how much energy he would have left for a final.  That was very much in my mind watching this today.  He had never before played two five set matches in a row.  How could he possibly have anything left, at 31 years of age, to challenge a well rested Novak, who only had to play 89 minutes in his ridiculous win over Ferrer?  So when Roger quickly got in a hole in the 5th set I wasn't extremely disappointed.  He showed great heart and resolve to push a very on form Andy Murray to a 5th set.  And to be honest, his win at Wimbledon, claiming another major after a two year drought, did much to calm me down in these situations (well, as long as he keeps his quarter final record going that is!).

So we will be having another Djokovic Murray final.  I am hoping that Murray's five set match won't play into things, but that this match will be one that really shows who the best is at this moment.  With a much more confident Murray this could be a real interesting one.

On a side note, Federer had a few choice words for Andy at a particularly tense time of the match.  Personally I wish he would try to refrain from lowering himself to that level.  I happen to like the squeaky clean Roger image, which is one of the things that makes me such a fan.


On the women's side of things, the final between Li Na, who played a brilliant match to soundly defeat Maria Sharapova, and Victoria Azarenka is being clouded by the great controversy of Vika's actions at 5-4 in the 2nd set semi against Sloane Stephens, choosing to take a 10 minute medical timeout before Sloane had to serve to stay in the match.  Definitely bad taste.  She has tried to smooth things over, but I think for most fans they would much prefer to see a new champion in Li Na this year.  I am real interested to see how this all goes down.  I hope it is a competitive match, as there have been some real duds in the women's major finals, including last year's Australian Open.

After almost two weeks of little sleep, we now know our finalists.  A couple exciting matches to go before the new king and queen are crowned.  Though my favorite will not be holding the trophy, in terms of tennis we still should be in for some great tennis to come.

Why Murray, Serena and Maria can never be Roger

It's that time of year where there's not a whole lot of tennis news going on.  I get a little bored with the summaries of the tennis year (though I did enjoy going back and reading a few of my blog posts from July during and after Wimbledon recently and reliving all those emotions!).  

What's fun to me is finding some random videos of humorous incidents with the players.  I thought this one was great!  (Pardon the language)...

Once again it is obvious why no one can ever be Roger Federer!  :)

Final thoughts on Shanghai

What an amazing final that was between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray!  The quality of tennis was incredible.  I can't count the number of points where it should have been over multiple times, yet one or the other of them was able to keep it going and turn things around to win the point.  I'm sure Murray must be bitterly disappointed after having 5 match points, to end up losing in the end.  Novak seems to have an uncanny ability to come back from the brink of defeat to win matches.  

With another 1,000 points added with this win it won't be long at all before Djokovic is able to wrestle #1 away from Roger Federer once again.  I must say, as a Federer fan I was rather discouraged with his lackluster performance against Andy Murray in the semis, strewn with so many errors, knowing this would have so much affect on the end-of-year #1 ranking.  However, I was encouraged to read this comment from him:

"I would love to finish number one as well for the end of the year. For that it's going to take a great stretch again, winning Basel, Paris and London I assume to give myself a chance," said the 17-time Grand Slam champion. "We'll see how it goes.  Look, I'm relaxed about it.  I'll give everything I can.  I want to get through this season well and finish strong.  But it's not the number one goal right now.  Right now it's to manage my schedule, hopefully be in good shape for Basel, then kind of go from there.  Just to repeat, the goal was to become world number one this year, which happened, not the end of the year. But if that happens, that's a bonus."

It's easy to just keep wanting more and more as Federer fans because we've seen him do so many amazing things.  But the fact that he repeated the statement that his goal was to become world #1, not to end the year as #1, just reminded me that it's okay if he goes back to #2.  Novak deserves #1 again at this point, and to have achieved 300 weeks at #1 was just incredible.  We can't expect him to win everything at 31 years old.  

It will be a fascinating next few weeks, particularly, in my opinion, to see who is going to step up at the World Tour Finals.  I would imagine Djokovic has much motivation this year to add that to his resume.

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.

Olympic tennis, over and out

It has taken me a while to write this today, partially because I was busy doing "summer" things, but partially because this one was a hard one for me to process.   Not so much because Roger Federer lost - to win both Wimbledon and Olympic gold within a month of each other would be quite an accomplishment, but because of the way he lost.  I mean, if someone would have told me the final score line as their prediction I probably would have laughed.  But it became obvious as the match went on that Roger was simply depleted, certainly emotionally and maybe physically also.  Of course, Andy Murray was playing amazing tennis too, and he fully deserved the gold medal.  If he would have been playing anyone else I would have been thrilled for him.  However, he wasn't playing anyone else, he was playing the GOAT who had just one major thing lacking in his resume, and it was difficult to see it end almost without a fight.


I thought about it quite a bit as we were on our long motorcycle ride today and came mostly to peace with it.  And when I came home and found the medal ceremony finally on my recording, seeing Roger looking very happy, and reading some of his comments I really felt much better.  Here's the one I really liked:  “I had a very emotional tournament from start to finish. I could have lost in the first round against (Alejandro) Falla. Same thing obviously with (Juan Martin) del Potro. I felt like I won my silver, I didn’t lose it. So I feel very, very happy.”

 

Of course his fans would have loved to see him win gold.  However, silver is awfully darn good, considering he has won 8 titles over the last 10 months, including Wimbledon, and regained the #1 ranking.  What he has done has been amazing, and he and his fans should be incredibly proud.  

And what a boost for Andy Murray.  Great props to him for not having his former post-losing-grand slam slump and coming back to win in style - not only gold in singles but also silver in mixed doubles.  And awesome job for Del Potro to beat Djokovic and win the bronze after, he said, crying till 3 a.m. after losing the semi.  Very clutch of him to come back after that deep disappointment.  The U.S. Open this year should be very interesting indeed!

Serena Williams was scary good during this entire Olympic tournament.  Wow, can you imagine being able to play like that, against the world #1 and #2?  Completely amazing!  And so happy for Bob and Mike Bryan, who finally got to win their gold medal.  They said if they are still playing after the Rio games they have agreed to shoot each other.  And the U.S. got another medal, a bronze one, from Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond in mixed doubles.  Great job, U.S.A., making tennis a very relevant sport!

While I'm sure I will watch some of the big tournaments this coming week, to be honest I'm feeling a little depleted from all this and looking forward to a little break from the intensity.  It will all start again with another major, after two Masters 1000s, in only three weeks time, though, with the U.S. Open.  Tennis never truly ends, thankfully for tennis fans.

Semis set, big 3 + 1

So the semis are set for one of the biggest tennis events of the year.  Each one of them would love to take home a medal, and three of the four will.  It must feel strange knowing that even if they lose tomorrow, they will still play one more match for the bronze.  Even though on the one hand this has felt just like another tennis tournament, at the same time it just has a different feel with it being the Olympics - more special somehow.


Most predicted the big 3 making it to the semis, with the 4th being a little up in the air.  But there was always a bit of the unpredictable with the best of 3 sets on grass.  Honestly I hope that each of the top three seeds end up with a medal - they all deserve it (and of course you know who I want to get the gold!).  


On the ladies side it's hard to believe it wouldn't be Serena and Maria Sharapova in the gold medal match with the way each of them are playing.  They each seem pretty fiercely determined.  


A few more days of wondering and the questions will be answered after all the waiting for the Olympics.  Big anticipation, again, different than other tournaments, even grand slams, as there is only a chance every four years.  Lots of pressure tomorrow, no doubt about that!