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!
Roger Federer took a little detour to Singapore with Credit Suisse on his way to Australia. It's great to hear him talking about all kinds of things from his 2012 season, his extended practice time, his foundation, his family and many other topics. So pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy this nice long visit with Roger:
Tennis action is starting to heat up as we inch toward what we are all waiting for - the first major of 2013! I started out just half-heartedly watching some of the matches this week according to what is on TV in my area, but as the week has progressed I have begun paying more attention, finding some matches on the computer that weren't on TV, beginning to get into the spirit of the new season.
For example, I was very impressed with a girl I had never heard of before, Monica Puig. This 19-year-old from Puerto Rico and ranked in the 100s gave #5 ranked Angelique Kerber a real run for her money, taking her to a 3rd set tiebreak. Those two were going for it with everything they had on every point. It was very inspirational tennis and I'm sure we will see more of her this year.
It was encouraging seeing Gael Monfils playing in Doha. After being out of the tennis world for a few months following a knee injury and now ranked at 77, Monfils looked as if he plans on a move back up the ranks, playing some really good tennis to beat Kohlschreiber. He did, however, have a little run-in with the chair umpire after being warned that he was taking too long between points. The often ignored rule of 25 seconds between points is actually going to be enforced this year, with loss of serve after the first warning for the server (hmm, maybe that's the real reason Rafa decided not to play this month?), which happened to Feliciano Lopez in his lackluster loss the other day. I'm really happy that they're finally cracking down on this and hope it continues.
Though I am ready for the next week-and-a-half to go by to get to the tournament we're really waiting for, and in spite of several top seeds going out early in the women's game, I'm glad to at least be watching some great tennis that has actually inspired my own game, which had been suffering the last couple times I played. Today I was able to apply some of the tactics I had seen in a few of the matches I watched and had some good success.
I don't know how much the tournaments this week really mean when it comes to predictions at the Australian Open (such as Djokovic's loss to Tomic in the Hopman Cup), but it's fun to see some of the players out on the court again knowing we have some great things to look forward to right around the corner.
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.
Here is a fun video of Roger right before he left Brazil. I love the scream when he's in the boat!
Also, Roger once again had the honor, after a five year hiatus, of winning Switzerland's sportsman of the year award. This is the fifth time he has won it, but not since 2007. This time he was able to take a flight straight from his exhibition in Columbia to be there in person to receive the award in Zurich. Here's a great picture of him there:
Now it's time for him to get back with the family, enjoy the Christmas holidays, and begin his training for Australia. I still have to catch up on a few of the exhibition matches I missed while I was away and then it will be surviving on old matches for the next four weeks until the glorious days of the Australian Open!
This video is such a cool representation of what a wonderful guy tennis hero Roger Federer is. Watch this and see how much it means to him to be able to help these kids in Brazil get their own tennis court to play on. It's an honor to be a fan of such a caring person who genuinely loves to help others in so many ways.
I don't know how most are handling the off season, but for me I feel a mixture of missing tennis, but at the same time, with the busyness of the holiday season, knowing it would be stressful to try to keep up with a tournament. So what is a person to do? How about some snippets of the best of the best to bring some moments of tennis joy. If you haven't seen them, here are the best Roger Federer shots of 2012, in two parts:
Also, here is a great interview that Roger just did where he talks about his early tennis life and his family. For some reason I can't seem to embed this one, so here is the link to it:
