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.
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.
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!
