So the dream final is set. Rafael Nadal cruised through his semifinal, hardly troubled at all by Tomas Berdych. Rafa has played better as he has gone through the week, having lost a set in each of his previous two matches, but today he hit his stride and started playing the type of tennis we are used to seeing from him on clay. Amazingly he has now reached his 8th final in a row since his comeback after 7 months away from the game with injury.
On the other hand Roger Federer started out the week amazingly, losing only 6 games in his first two matches. Though he is still yet to lose a set, in his semifinal against Benoit Paire he was severely tested. Down a break in the 1st set he managed to break back thanks to some errors from Paire and it went to a tiebreak. But, to be honest, each man played a pretty terrible tiebreak, both of them seemingly want to give it away in errors. Federer somehow managed to walk away with the 1st set, however, and the second turned out to be a bit easier, getting an early break and somehow able to hold on. There were many more errors than I was comfortable with, but in the end he was able to close it out with little problems. So regardless of how he got there, Federer is now going to be playing his 111th career final, the 1,100th match in his career after passing the 8,000+ ace mark the night before. Not too shabby for this "aged" 31-year-old.
I must admit I would have preferred to have a Djokovic-Federer final, as Federer would have a much better chance at the title than he now has, given his dismal record on clay against Nadal. But that certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't have a chance. I would imagine the motivation will be very high and it is just unwise to write off Roger Federer, no matter the odds against him. So while I'm not expecting him to win it, I will certainly be hoping that somehow he might be able to make a dent in Rafa Nadal's incredible clay statistics and win his first trophy in Rome.
A quick side note into the women's side of things - Serena Williams has made it to the final losing only 10 games so far! It would seem her intensity on clay after her 1st round loss at the French last year is fierce. It will be interesting to see if Vika Azarenka has any chance of stemming the tide.
A short post to welcome Roger Federer back to the tour after what seemed like a very long break. And guess what - he didn't get the worst of the dreaded draws in Madrid that I was completely expecting (maybe they are saving that for Roland Garros). By that I mean that I figured, with the luck he usually gets on draws, that he would be the one that would end up having Rafa Nadal in his quarter, just like in Indian Wells. Not what he needs after being away almost two months. Instead it went the way it should have gone - with Rafa in Ferrer's quarter
Granted, Nadal is still in Federer half, meaning they would play each other in the semifinals if they each are able to win their matches to that point. The good thing for Fed fans is that Roger has beaten Rafa here before, in the final no less, thanks to the altitude which makes the court a bit quicker, to Roger's advantage. We will all be holding our breath to see how he comes out in his first round match, against either Tomic or Stepanek. Can hardly wait! Let the real tennis begin!!
As you can see from my new banner, it's time for Indian Wells!! It's one of the biggest non-grand slam tournaments of the year and one that fans thoroughly enjoy coming to. And that is definitely the case for me, as I will be heading to the sun kissed, palm tree studded area on Friday. It will be my third year in a row and I can't wait!
My two experiences have been amazing! The first year I had the privilege to watch Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka play doubles together from very close up. That, along with watching Roger practice and just in general the first experience of being at this incredible tournament got me hooked. Once you've been it's almost impossible to not be drawn back. Last year I watched Federer play Milos Raonic from a very close distance, which was the tennis highlight of my life! The biggest thing that stood out for me that I noticed watching so close up that's hard to catch on TV is the incredible athleticism as they tear around the court. It was truly an amazing experience and I hope to watch Roger close up again this year, both in practice and in a match.
This year will be interesting due to the fact that Rafael Nadal has decided to play, which he was unsure about as he was waiting to see how his knee responded. After his first three tournaments back on clay, winning two of those, the last with an incredible 6-0 6-2 victory over world #4 David Ferrer, I am very curious to see how Rafa plays in his first hard court tournament since his seven month injury lay off. And of course Federer won this tournament last year, in spite of the fact that he started the week with he and his family being sick, having a fever during his first couple matches. I sincerely hope he can step up and play his very best tennis before he takes an almost two month break before his next one in Madrid. Novak Djokovic is playing some really superb tennis once again, not having lost a match so far this year (other than one that doesn't count in the Hopman Cup against Tomic in January).
For the women unfortunately we will be missing Serena and Venus Williams, who choose not to play Indian Wells, and Li Na, who is still out with an ankle injury. The rest of the field will be there and will all be very motivated to do well at this very important tournament in their schedule.
I will try to send a couple updates during my time in sunny California letting you know what it's like up close and personal.
Christmas is over and for tennis fans we know what that means - the tennis players are leaving the wintery weather and heading for the sun drenched land down under! And even though New Years Day is still close to a week away, top names will be dusting off their racquets and getting in their groove to prepare for the important first major of the year, beginning in a little over two weeks time.
Many have been much anticipating Rafael Nadal's return to the court after a six month hiatus. His plan was to play at the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament to try to shake off the rust and get himself slowly back into form in what is a prestigious event, yet doesn't count for any points on the tour. However, he was ordered by his doctor to withdraw after catching some form of stomach virus. He is still scheduled, at this point, to take part in next week's 250 level tournament in Doha. Still participating in the exhibition, which begins the 27th of December, will be top players Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer, Berdych, Tipsarevic and now Almagro in Nadal's place. Noticeably absent from the event this year is Roger Federer, who reportedly was not asked to participate as he "hasn't won the event before."
Speaking of Federer, he is choosing not to play a warm-up event to the Australian Open this year, preferring to spend the lead-up in a large block of practice time instead, which will hopefully pay off for him, as he said he didn't have enough time to practice in the busy 2012 season. Given that he also played six matches this month in his South America tour, hopefully this has also kept him somewhat in form.
There are several tournaments leading up to the AO, one of them the Hopman Cup, which is a fun no-points event played between countries, one man and one woman playing for their country, also with a mixed doubles match thrown in. Some notable participants are Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic playing for Serbia, while Venus Williams pairs with John Isner for the U.S. There are also several small tournaments for both men and women individually in such places as Brisbane, Chennai and Sydney to name a few.
With a longer off-season this year, it actually felt pretty short to me given that there were the fun events from Federer's South American exhibition tour. That really helped to get through what would have been a very long stretch with no tennis. My intention to watch several of the past Federer grand slam wins didn't end up happening as much as I anticipated, so at this point I am itching for some competitive tennis once again. I can't wait to see all the scenarios begin to play out for the 2013 season ahead.
