Roland Garros: Upset, Yes. Shocker? No.

 

Rus d. Clijsters 3-6, 7-5, 6-1


1) We KNOW Kim is prone (more than most) to occasional bouts of catastrophically abhorrent play. The stench can be positively sulphuric. This isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last.

2) She hasn’t played in two months. Competitive match play is kind of a big deal. Even for multi-Slammin’ Super Moms.

3) Arantxa Rus came to PLAY. And, as I hope we saw, she happens to play rather well.

4) Clay hasn’t ever been Kim’s surface of choice. Winning all the hard court Slams in the world won’t change that. She was only ever a “contender” in so far as her undoubted elite status as a player, and the aura that inspires, carried her through enough wins in one of the most open FO draw of recent history.

5) It was windy out there today. Wind tends to be unforgiving at the best of times. Kim was both far from her best and (worse) didn’t seem bothered (or yielding) enough to reign it in.




Perhaps the real shocker was how many respected commentators were falling over each other in their attempts to explain the loss away as a consequence of Kim’s (supposedly still injured) ankle.

Really? Did she confirm the ankle was a problem at the start of the week? Was it a problem in any of her previous matches? Would it have been a problem if she’d breezed through Rus the way everyone expected to?

[Sorry, but petulant lines of enquiry are a two-way street]

I have no reason to be sceptical of the story of how she rolled her ankle (apparently dancing barefoot at her cousin’s wedding). If that’s what she says,  let’s take it at face value without figuratively rolling our eyes, or engaging in other unnecessary innuendo.

But if she turns up to play, apparently healthy, then that’s exactly and precisely what I’ll assume her to be. There’s really no occasion to be speaking of supposed “injuries” whilst a match is still in progress – not unless and until the player concerned has taken an MTO.

Why, in any case, is it so very difficult to wait for her to bring it up herself, either in the post-match presser or any other subsequent interview?

Which, as it happens, is exactly what she did: she admitted to frustration in not being able to execute, she expressed a desire to return to the practice court – no mention was made of any injury (to the ankle or otherwise), not until she was explicitly prompted to do so, when she denied it was an issue.

In other words, she admitted that (for whatever reason) she wasn’t good enough on the day. Again, I take her word for it.

(Pic:getty)

Made My Day

by Craig Hickman

The 2011 Sony Ericsson Open is now history. Before play was officially underway, Kim Clijsters, Andy Roddick, Caroline Wozniacki and Ryan Harrison supported the Greater Miami Tennis and Education Foundation as part of Cliff Drysdale's fundraiser at the Ritz-Carlton of Key Biscayne inside the tennis center that bears his name.

Last year, Clijsters and Roddick considered the same event their good luck charms as both went on to win the Sony Ericsson Open. I guess it's true, then, that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place. But the defending champions had a great time. Seeing tennis players doing what they love to do without the stress of a match was a beautiful thing.

The Ritz-Carlton of Key Biscayne is more like a palace than a hotel. I couldn't help but thinking we were approaching royalty as we drove into the gated grounds. Perfectly designed and manicured landscaping all around, we finally found the tennis center valet. Once on the courts, I was able to see what Serena Williams once said about green clay being slower and grittier than the crushed red brick used in Europe and South America. It almost looks like gravel. On one of the outside courts, I recognized former Miami runner-up Guillermo Cañas playing a double's match with other members.



The staff at the Ritz-Carlton gave customer service new meaning. Attentive, genuinely nice, they made us feel at home. Perfect weather, live musicians, an open bar, passed hors d'oeuvres, and the chance to test-drive Cadillac's new models would have attracted anyone who wanted to support a worthy cause.

Even with the great atmosphere and fun tennis exhibition, the event highlight came at the end when I approached Drysdale, who'd kept the proceedings efficient and light-hearted with his infectious personality and wit. He's practically a stand up comedian.

"Just in case I never have another opportunity to say this to you, I just wanted to let you know that you are the voice of tennis for me. Didn't matter where I was in the house, if I heard your voice on the television, I knew tennis was on. I enjoy your commentary, your humor, and the personality you bring in the booth is always a perfect foil for your colleagues."

His face lit up more than it naturally does. "Wow. Thank you so much for telling me that. You have made my day," he replied with an outstretched hand. Next thing I knew, he touched the side of my face as though I were his son. He made my day, too.

Michelle, the media relations director who invited us to cover the event, insisted that I pose with Drysdale for a photo. As we posed, I told him of my sister's home in South Africa and JD, who's originally from the Netherlands, asked him if he spoke any Afrikaans, the Dutch dialect spoken by the Nederlanders who settled there centuries ago. Personal connections make every experience more memorable.

The entire event benefited the Greater Miami Tennis and Education Foundation and like last year, kids from the foundation attended the event as ball boys and girls. They earned that privilege based on their report cards, attendance, leadership and other factors. The $13,000 raised will benefit these socially and economically challenged Miami children, will help them learn tennis and valuable life skills by participating in free, affordable GMTEF tennis and education programs throughout the school year, as well as during the summer.

Next year's event promises to be even better.

::

Video Highlights

Circle Closed

JD Blom

Roger Federer talks to the press at the Sony Ericsson Open on March 23, 2011 in Miami, Florida.

::

He looked a bit like Kim Clijsters during and after her loss to Victoria Azarenka the other night: detached. Like parents who realize their children are more important than the thrasing they just endured between the lines.

Or perhaps, in Federer's case, he simply was demoralized. It was a bit sad to witness. Rafael Nadal made it seem far too easy. Same way he did 7 years ago.

If Rafa is indeed in Raja's head, it had to have happened instantly. I remember there were murmurings that Raja was sick that calm, humid night in Miami 7 years ago. I don't remember where those murmurings came from as I was posting about on tennis forums all over the place, but they seemed there to comfort those who needed to believe the outcome of the match would have been different had Raja been 100% healthy. A year later, the next time they played, Rafa took the first two sets from Raja in the Miami final, though he ultimately lost the match.

And so it was this storied rivalry began with Rafa winning the first four sets. Talk about setting a tone.

Tonight, safe to say, the circle closed.

Will they ever play another important match? Will Federer settle for third or fourth best? Will he win another Slam? Who can see the future?

Savannah said that 2011 would be all about Roger Federer.

I'm beginning to see her point.

Miami: Heartbreak

 

Clijsters d. Ivanovic 7-6(4) 3-6 7-6(5)

If you can’t win a match at 5-1 0-40 up in the final set, however well your opponent suddenly, mysteriously begins to play, you choked. Plain and simple.

And not ALL the kind, fanciful spin in the world will change that.

That said, and I’m not a great fan of either player, but you need help if you can’t conjure up even the pretence of sympathy.

Of War And Radiation: Kim Clijsters Speaks

by Craig Hickman


JD Blom

Tuesday morning at the Sony Ericsson Open, Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Samantha Stosur, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, Li Na, and Victoria Azarenka made themselves available for the WTA All-Access Hour.

But it was Clijsters who spoke most candidly about recent world events. Probably because she was sharing her thoughts and feelings in her native tongue to journalists from her country. Something about being around your people that opens you up. What follows is translated from Flemish by JD Blom.

Q: When you are looking at the world events of Japan and Libya do you think about what is happening to the world and Jada’s future?

KC: Certainly. As soon as I heard that there was a radioactive cloud on its way to the west coast, normally I would not have worried about that, because you think it’s so far away. But this time I was “Let’s get out of here as soon as possible,” and also with Jada you think about it differently. When I was younger I used to worry about stuff, like when we had to go to Australia or Tokyo, and the war in Kuwait (sic) was going on and then on your flight map you could see that we were flying over Iraq and Iran and I had quite a bit of fear. I want to follow world affairs, but I do know that when Jada is walking around I don’t want her to see those things. But Brian looks at it quite differently. He knows what is happening and feels badly about it but it does not affect him as much as it affects me.

I was like, “We need to get those pills.” I went to all the natural food stores to look for products with natural iodine like seaweed, spirulina, and kelp. I bought it all. And Brian just laughs at me. He is like, "If the government says it will not have any influence no problem," but I think they are lying. Of course, they say that because they can’t evacuate the whole west coast. But I won’t be fooled. Even in Belgium my sister and aunt called me saying, “You gotta leave because the cloud is coming, or you can just put Jada alone the plane and we’ll pick her up here at the airport.” What a panic. It was a bum. Do you really think it can get here in Indian Wells? I didn’t even want to imagine it.

Q: Then there’s the Toray (Pan Pacific Open) in Tokyo in October.

KC: I won't go. And I won't go to Beijing either.

::

The world No. 2 retired from her fourth-round match in Indian Wells against Marion Bartoli citing a shoulder injury. She's now happy to report that her shoulder and her wrist are improving and she's ready to defend her title in Miami.

Cross-posted to Tennis Panorama News

Indian Wells: Because I’m Worth it.

Here we all so wonderfully are at the first post-Oz event of the year that actually amounts to something. I expect electricity, I expect sociopathic levels of belief (and denial), I expect the feeding frenzy that results when those, like myself, with the predictive capacity of mucus, indulge in a little quantum-bracketology of their own. I  also expect some very poor trash-talk between Nole and Fed.

 

Maybe I’m just half a wavelength behind everyone, but it doesn’t quite feel like that just yet.

What it actually feels like is a benign form of stasis in which all the best stories are yet to develop, or haven’t yet acquired the momentum necessary to elicit the type of considered tennis reaction that goes beyond sticking bubble gum in your detractors’ hair, or breaking wind and running away– not that either of those isn’t an entirely sensible way of settling tennis disputes.

I’ve got some strong feelings on why I don’t think winning here would strongly benefit all but a handful of the top players. Woz, for example, is darned either way: Win, and face all those malignant, ‘Slamless’, ranking-related questions again. Lose, and any pretensions she might entertain of being mentioned in the same breath as Clijsters evaporate into thin air.

Muzz occupies a similar role – winning would certainly go a long way to snapping him out of his (now traditional) post-Oz runners-up stupor; and yet he owns 6 of these things already. The lack of that other more crucial “thing” is what’s causing the psychosis.

 

What would a win really do for Kim or for Fed’s legacy (other than, in his case, dispelling that grim and quite inexplicable fog of “dysfunktion” that’s loomed over him both here and at Miami for the last 4 years)?

Can Rafa really care all that much knowing he can safely look forward to claiming 4, if not 5, out of the 5 clay court events he’ll likely enter this year?

 

Wish all of them well, but here’s what will really light my fire:

1) Bepa: The best WTA performer right now (and playing as well as she’s ever likely to ) – that single title she’s won at this level (at this venue in fact) is beginning to smack more and more of underperformance.

2) Sod: as I think I’ve said before , I really don’t believe he’s done himself justice having won only a single title at this level (very) late last year. He’s actually still playing catch-up with his potential.

 

3) Sveta: see above comments about Bepa’s “underperformance” and then multiply by 50.

4) Delpo: Two consecutive semis and an entirely commendable mickey-mouse title. A Masters title makes the comeback official. Somewhat ludicrously, it would be his first.

 

5) Any one of a gang of bright (and entirely ruthless) young things like Dolgo, Milos, Petra or even Kanepi to bring about a bloody coup – a killing spree that results in the partial reconfiguration of the rankings and ownership of the tour’s main titles. 

I’m entirely serious. I’m not normally one for “next big things”, but it seems to me we’ve faffed around with Grigor and Ernie for long enough – conditions seem ripe as they’ve ever been for something a little different.

And because, they’re worth it. All of them.

Confessions

Savannah has the story on the recently-retired former world No. 1 who admitted she, well, cheated on the grandest stages of tennis.

Shifting Narratives

Delpo on the brink of making his first final since his injury comeback….Dolgo on the verge of winning his first ATP title….with Sod/Tsonga and Petra/Kim still to look forward to. That’s how I left it on Saturday night.

It’s not often I ask for EVERYTHING. I’m usually open to a watering down of at least some of my dreams – such flexibility is an essential coping mechanism for life itself.

 

But then the stakes aren’t usually this high, are they? 

 

Dolgo has “arrived”, now, I would imagine, by anyone’s reckoning  – a first ATP title would have accorded perfectly with his gung-ho, indie, all-court narrative. (Aside: Truly astonishing anyone thought he’d find the nickname ‘Dog’ either cute, funny or a term of endearment – he doesn’t)

 

And I’m guessing friends, fans, frenemies and foe alike are all united in wishing Delpo the best as he makes his precarious comeback – if only (in the case of the latter) so they may feel free to root against him again.

 

Those particular narratives will have to wait.

 

 

1) Soderling over Tsonga 6-3 3-6 6-3

Perhaps the wrong narrative altogether, because I’m afraid the stakes, in this instance, are no longer very high at all.

 

The most visceral, charged narratives often involve those who stand to lose or gain everything - a remote, anachronistic existence in which ‘anything can happen’ and ‘impossible is nothing’. It seems to me we’ve already had the first act of this with Sod upsetting two of the best players ever.

Always great seeing him come through of course – even a piddly 500 event reminds us why he’s here to stay, and defending a title definitely lends itself to a certain truculence which is, by the way, completely in keeping with his narrative and station.

 

The very last thing I want to see, however, is this coming at the expense of bigger and better things – or worse, seeing him get comfortable as the “Andy Murray” of the 500 or even the Masters-1000 level. As good as it is, a title like this should, now, mean less to him than it does to someone like Jo-Wills (his first final in 16 months).

 

There be bigger fish to fry out there Robin. Classical form would now demand that you go fry them.

 

 

 

2) Petra over Kim 64 63.

Voluntary disclosure of rooting interests for 2011: As many as half of my WTA eggs are in Petra’s basket.

Was Kim not at her best? Perhaps. This certainly wasn’t the officially endorsed narrative for the newly crowned world #1 (Update: Neither is Petra’s 76 76 loss to Morita in Dubai earlier today)

What I do know is that Petra’s serve out wide might just be the best shot in women's tennis right now. Unreadable pace. The worst kind.

Oh sure, ‘one win does not a champ make’ and all that, but it’s not just been about the one win has it? This is her second title in 6 weeks which, taken together with her QF run at Oz and SF at Wimbledon last year, simply demands that we take note. (Two Slam fourth rounds in her late teens isn’t too shoddy either)

 

Perhaps most convincingly of all, it’s the way in which she outplayed rather than outlasted Kim. Ask yourself whether the narrative of the timid counterpuncher is nearly as compelling as that of the audacious upstart.

Timely too – with a whole raft of retirements imminent in 2012, I have an opening in my tennis pool. Maybe even a number of them.

 

Yes I’m on board, but don’t think for a minute that the decision has been taken lightly:

 

-- She’s a lefty. Not the philosophical solution to life it’s sometimes made out to be, but the different look does, nevertheless, throw many players (more than you’d think) out of their rigidly defined comfort zones.

 

-- She’s daring and/or unhinged enough to imagine winners where none exist. True that this can sometimes prove counterproductive (if you saw her match against Woz in Beijing last year you’ll know just how counterproductive) – it’s also a necessary mind-set for anyone with an eye on the big stuff.

Put simply, you have to have it within you to be just a little suicidal against the best players. Both classical form and the big occasion demand it. The timid counterpuncher would never even conceive of blitzing the world #1 and winner of the last two Slams in straights.

-- She has all of the big weapons necessary to pull off an upset at the highest of levels unlike say a MJMS, yet remains far more nuanced than a Rezai – both of whom won Premier events last year. Why should we expect any less of Petra?

 

-- Best of all, the braces are a feint echo of Sveta’s 2004 USO run. Detail like this is at least as important as any of the above if you’re in the business of narrative.

Nothing is certain of course (whole matches can turn, have turned, round very fast when she loses focus the way she did after Wimbledon last year), but consider all of the above points my “due diligence”.

 

 

 

3) Confession: I still haven’t seen Milos play

 

I’m hearing the dubious Pete Sampras comparisons. I’m hearing utterly terrifying ice hockey jokes. I’m even hearing some doubts being expressed over the prevailing (overwhelmingly stark) opinion about the future of non-European tennis.

 

Listen carefully and you might even hear the wind carrying the sound of Dancevic cursing into his glass.

I’m yet to see him hit a ball. Laughable I know. But that’s just the way it panned out with timezones being what they are. All of which means I’m not in a position to weigh up any of the above.

I aim to rectify this before he, you know, wins a Slam or something.

 

From what little I have gathered, he seems (in common with Dolgo) to have the makings of an all-courter and is not afraid to have a crack at the ball – both of which bode well for the future. Being 6’5 can’t hurt very much either.

 

If I had it my way, Delpo would have made the final and Dolgo would have won in Brazil. And yet all this talk of “narrative” and “destiny” is of course all utterly preposterous. Smug, self-satisfied spiritualist nonsense – a little too full of its elemental self.

 

What makes one narrative more compelling than any other lies not always in its strict conformance with classical form. But rather in its audacity.

 

And more often than not, the more audacious narratives are forged through what seem like mere random inflections at the time.

 

Like Hantuchova winning her first title since 2007 for instance.

Ask yourself whether Delpos comeback would be nearly as gripping if he won his 2nd event back.

 

Ask yourself whether Sod winning a Slam (should it happen) would be nearly as compelling if he hadn’t pulled off what he pulled off in 2009.

Nestled deeply somewhere in the swinging, conflicted narratives of Dolgo’s floating hair, Petra’s shining braces and Milos’s scrawny 6’5 frame lies a future threatening to be as uplifting as anything we’ve seen.

Don’t let’s forestall it by being that twat sitting directly in front of you that always gets up and starts clapping before the credits have even started rolling.

Petra Kvitova Pummels Kim Clijsters To Win Paris Indoors

Getty

Shortly after the Australian Open, I read a journalist say something to the effect that all he could see in Petra Kvitova was a good swinging serve and not much else. In that writer's defense, Petra exited Melbourne with an erratic lackluster performance against Vera Zvonareva. Consistency is not Petra's forte. Not yet, anyway.


Reuters

But after saving a match point in the second round, the young Czech with the Bette Davis eyes blasted her way into the finals of the Open GDF Suez where she waxed Monday's new world No. 1 in straight sets. Beat her like she stole something. Now I see why Petra considers Paris Indoors her favorite tournament. The No. 4 seed struck 10 aces and at least 17 winners off the ground in a 6-4, 6-3 drubbing. An all-court display of power tennis that left the defending one subdued.

Wonder what that writer sees in her now.

Getty

Elsewhere, No. 4 seed Daniela Hantuchova beat No. 8 seed Sara Errani to win the Pattaya Open. Guess it was a good day to be the No. 4 seed on the WTA.

Bold Statements, Propaganda, and New Sponsors

What she said.

Oz: History vs. Destiny

 

 

For my part, I thought the way Li Na played the final was a mirror of the way she played her semi final versus Caro….but just like the mirror everything appeared inverted.

 

 

She started off rip-roaring well and seemed to be up a set before my eyes had adjusted to the morning light (8am on a Sat morning…a little understanding, please) – not that different to the way she closed out Caro.

 

Kim, all the while, seemed thrown off, jittery, confused.

 

And then midway through the second set – just two or three games away from the biggest win of her life and actually making history – Li started to give way. Not all at once, but with subtlety, piece by piece, layer by layer, it all unravelled leaving a completely different flavour of match.

 

Most of the dysfunction began with her volleying – or to be clear her drive-volleying.

 

To be fair, I actually think Li volleys, not completely adeptly, but well enough. And she’s at her best when she doesn’t think. She said so herself. That probably flies in the face of convention  – but it seems to work for her.

 

 

Which makes it all the more surprising, that she seemed almost to be overthinking some of those drive-volleys: it got to the point where you’d find yourself pleading for her to put away a conventional volley badly, rather than her preferred drive-volley right back in the path of Kim who didn’t need a second invite.

 

No secret it’s not the result I was looking for (certainly not the bigger story), but is on some level at least, the right result.

 

Kim came into the event being touted the favourite (rightly). And once it all began, was, like Djokovic, the best player in the draw.

 

Within minutes of her win, there was talk of her already being halfway to a Rafa-Slam (far be it for them to be dissuaded by inconvenient facts like that not actually having happened yet) – talk which I’m finding all rather difficult.

 

Leaving aside the fact that neither of the Williamses are done just yet, for all her gifts, Kim is still prone to inexplicable episodes of jitteriness – it was there in a lesser form this fortnight with seemingly spontaneous mini-streaks of double faults and UFEs. Not all that sure that translates to winning 7 out of 7 matches on either grass or clay – not her most effective surfaces as the best of times.

 

Earlier in the week, she signalled this might be her last full year on tour: that doesn’t give her many more chances.

 

For now however, she’s rightfully (Serena’s injury not withstanding) considered the best player on the planet and will, in all likelihood, capture the #1 ranking at some point this year.

 

Something tells me that might be enough for her.

Clijsters Beats Li For Australian Open Title

Getty

I'd love to post a long, insightful write up about this final, but it's not necessary. Kim Clijsters' experience and Li Na's lack of the same propelled the Aussie's favorite adopted daughter to the title 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Despite waking up with a stiff neck and dropping the first set behind a rash of errors, Clijsters rallied against the unraveling first-time Slam finalist who let everything but the night sky distract her from focusing on the finish line.

Technically, these two mature-in-age tennis players player a similar game. But Li should never ever take a ball out of the air. Never. In umpteen attempts to put the ball away before letting it bounce, she won a mere two points. (Or was it three?) She gets low marks for overheads/swinging volleys, high marks for stubbornness. One of her amateurish attempts came on set point in the second set when she hit a timid swinging backhand volley right back to Clijsters who blasted it down the line to seal the set. To add insult to injury, the floater she struck was sailing wide.

We all knew what the outcome would be from there, and so it was.

At least Li made Clijsters serve for it, and serve for it she did. She hit three first serves and three groundstroke winners to earn three match points. She missed a first serve on her first one, but Li missed a forehand to give Clijsters her fourth major title and first outside New York.

Oz: Destiny

 

1 day…..20 hrs…….32 mins…….43 seconds.

 

THAT……is when this Slam……..will end.

 

 

126 matches of professional tennis, most of which you won’t ever see, can’t ever prove were even played out, and for all you know probably only existed in a transient tangential Donnie-Darko type corrective universe.

 

One that will cease to exist the second after Li Na and Andy Murray fulfil their destiny.

 

I never did get round to blogging that Li/Caro match. It made for difficult viewing. It also made for incredibly inspiring viewing once Li came alive in the closing moments of that 2nd set.

 

 

Li’s groundies are dynamite. Technically perfect dynamite.  Caro still struggles to keep the ball in court on the rare occasion she tries to crack a winner. Tell me something new.

 

My own little theory for why she was in Murray’s box during his semi final today:

 

Muzz: “So, I saw you in my players’ box today [grins dorkishly] - it felt cool.”

 

*steamy music*

 

Caro: “Well….[breaths deeply]….I’m not normally the kind of girl that does this sort of thing…”

 

Muzz: “Go on….”

 

Caro: "[sighs]…even now I’m not comfortable asking you this [flutters eyelashes]…”

 

Muzz: “GO ON…”

 

*record scratching noise*

 

Caro[deadpan]:  “For a guy that isn’t [airquotes with fingers] ‘about the winners’, you win, like, a lot of matches – I need to know how that works…”

 

Muzz: …

 

 

Caro’ll never be “all about the winners” the way Li and other WTA big guns are – that’ll never be “her thing”.

 

 

But with a retirement bloodbath less than 20 months away (Venus, Serena, Roger, ARod, Kolya, Kim, amongst others – I’m doing ‘denial’ right now so I’m at ‘acceptance/hope’ in time for the 2012 Olympics) and with the players left to fill the void, you’ve got to think “her thing” will probably be enough to win a Slam….at some point.

 

I can see I’d better define what precisely“her thing” is: quite simply, being the best defender in the game (JJ used to be that once remember? That didn’t stop us from predicting a Slam for her).

 

And even though that’s (clearly) not quite what we expect or even desire from a world #1, it’s not half bad an asset. Besides, I’m kinda tired of the grinder storyline. She is what she is.

 

But back to Li.

 

 

Let there be no illusions about just how big this would be if she does manage to pull this off. Your expression tells me you already know that. Ok then.

 

And yeeaaahhh, alright – she’s probably not playing for “king and country” in much the same way as Muzz is claiming it to be more of a “personal glory” thing too. (Good luck selling that to the papers)

 

I have to say, I don’t completely believe either of them. Not that they haven’t likely successfully convinced themselves of what they’re saying.

 

I just don’t think you can, in Li’s case at least, completely blot out the hopes, desires and fears of 1.3 billion people that have never had a player even contest the finals of one of these gigs before.

 

We already know something of her love for them with the charity work she does – that has to leave some kinda carbon footprint on your psyche.

 

You can try and play it down, you can try and shake it off. You can’t pretend it’s not there.

 

 

Glass half empty:

 

If she plays as dissolute a match as she played against Caro in the semis, Kim mows her, or rather she mows herself down. In straights.

 

Glass half full:

 

Li’s been astonishingly accurate since the season began which, as we all know, is astonishingly out of character for her. Maybe this really does have a sense of “destiny” to it the way Fran did at RG last year – I have to say I didn’t really see it when people were suggesting it earlier on this week.

 

Maybe a more contained, less error-prone version of Li will only continue to exist for the span of time it takes to win this thing before collapsing in on itself the way Donnie’s tangential universe did – but only after allowing him to set things right for everyone (assuming at least some of you have seen the film?), in this case over 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE.

 

If the Caro semi-final was her one dud – then I’d say she’s got it out of her system.

Australian Open 2011 Women's Final Preview

BY MAD PROFESSAH


Getty

Front pages of newspapers in Beijing on January 28, 2011 show Chinese tennis player Li Na celebrating her win over world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the Australian Open semifinals on in three tough sets. China's tennis chief Sun Jinfang hailed Li Na, the first Asian woman to reach a Grand Slam final, as a 'pioneer' and national sports hero on a par with NBA great Yao Ming and star hurdler Liu Xiang.


AP

Belgium's Kim Clijsters answers questions at a press conference at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011.

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Li Na CHN (9) vs. Kim Clijsters BEL (3). This is an historic match: the first time a player from Asia has competed for a major title in singles. There are potentially 1.3 billion people in China who will be personally invested in the result of this match and learn the name of their compatriot: Li Na. In some sense this can be considered performance pressure that no other player has ever experienced. However, Li is used to being a trailblazer so perhaps she will not be overly affected. Clijsters is in her 8th career major final (losing the first four and winning the last three!) and her second consecutive major final following her 2010 US Open title. The two have played 6 times, with Clijsters winning 4 times, including twice in grand slams. However, Li Na won the last match they played, the final of the Sydney International, exactly two weeks to the day before the 2011 Australian Open women's final will be completed. Li Na made history there by becoming the first Chinese player to win a top Tier title on the women's tour; she beat Clijsters 7-6(3) 6-3 despite the fact that the Belgian was up 5-0 in the first set.

I find it hard to believe that Clijsters will blow a lead of 5-0 in the final (and also hard to believe that Li Na will be in such a large hole). The two play similar styles but the 3-time US Champion does everything better than the 1st-time finalist. They both have huge forehands, dangerous backhands and are excellent movers. Additionally, Clijsters is quite good at the net (although Li is not afraid of approaching the net she is not very effective when she gets there) and has a serve that should win her some free points.

The only hope for Li is if Clijsters goes through one of her patches of bad play, or for some reason gets nervous as she nears winning her first major title outside of New York.

PREDICTION: Clijsters.

Australian Open 2011 Women's Semifinals Preview

Here are my predictions for the women's semifinals at the Australian Open this year. I correctly predicted 3 of 4 women's quarterfinals.

AP

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) vs. Li Na CHN (9). Wozniacki is the #1 ranked player in the world despite not having reached a single major final in 2010 and only once in her brief career (2009 US Open). The nubile, flaxen-haired 20-year-old from Denmark is sometimes called the "Golden Retriever" by some tennis observers due to her style of play resembling a human backboard. Wozniacki is in her first Australian Open semifinal while her opponent has reached this far in the tournament for the second consecutive year. In fact Li has won the first 10 matches she has played in 2011 and is surfing a wave of confidence while Wozniacki is hearing an increasingly louder chorus of whispers doubting her ability to ever win a major title. Li on the other hand is hearing the call of history: can she become the first player from China to compete for (and win) a major title, especially the grand slam of Asia/Pacific, the Australian Open? I say, yes, and probably this week. The match-up between the two players is interesting: Li has great power on both wings and is also an excellent mover; Wozniacki has the ability to frustrate her opponents by forcing them to "win" a point several times through relentless defense. Head-to-head Li leads 2-1 and beat Wozniacki in the fourth round here last year in straight sets as well as a few weeks before in Sydney. A year later I see no reason why the result should be any different. PREDICTION: Li.

Reuters

Vera Zvonareva RUS (2) Petra Kvitova CZE (25) vs. Kim Clijsters BEL (3). I expected Kvitova to come through this match just like she had against #5 Samantha Stosur whom she dismissed easily in straight sets in front of a hometown crowd. However, Zvonareva showed incredible defense and consistency to eliminate the Czech lefty 6-2 6-4. Zvonareva has always been one of my favorite players to watch and her rise to the #2 ranking in the world via two consecutive major final finishes is a delight. Clijsters has been the clear favorite to win this year's title since Serena Willliams announced she would not be defending her 2010 Australian Open title. She is the only player of the final four remaining in the tournament who has won a major title; Clijsters has 3 US Open titles (2005, 2009, 2010). With Elena Dementieva's retirement Zvonareva is probably the best player on tour not to have won a major. Head-to-head Clijsters leads 6-3 but 5 of these wins were before Clijsters' "retirement" in May 2007. The two played 4 times in 2010 and Zvonareva won 3 of those matches, losing the most important one in a rout: the 2010 US Open women's final (6-1 6-2). None of those matches were finals, where the mental pressure is a larger factor and this poses a disadvantage to the more mentally fragile player. In a semifinal the mental pressure is less which should help Vera play some of her best tennis. It is also true that Clijsters does have a tendency to go through bad patches which complicates what should be easy wins. I suspect something like that will happen in this match as well, but in the end, Clijsters will find a way to prevail. PREDICTION: Clijsters.

Australian Open 2011 Women's Quarterfinals Preview

BY MAD PROFESSAH


Reuters
From top row left to right: Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Vera Zvonareva of Russia, Kim Clijsters of Belgium, Francesca Schiavone of Italy. From bottom row left to right: Li Na of China, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Andrea Petkovic of Germany.

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Here are my predictions for the women's quarterfinals at the Australian Open this year.

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (1) vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (23) Francesca Schiavone ITA (6). After the historic marathon match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Francesca Schivaone, most observers expected the quarterfinal involving the "winner" to be scheduled last in order to increase the likelihood of a competitive match. Unfortunately, the powers that be have decided that the World No. 1's quarterfinal would not be a featured night match, opting for a women's doubles quarterfinal instead. There are very few men's 5-set matches that have lasted the 4-hours and 44 minutes of "Franlana." After the titanic first round match between David Nalbandian and Lleyton Hewitt was won by the Argentine, it resulted in the "winner" retiring meekly after playing about a set and a half of tennis 48 hours later. Schiavone finished her match around 8:05pm on Sunday and is scheduled to play her match against Wozniacki on Rod Laver Arena following the all-Swiss Federer-Wawrinka quarterfinal which will not be before 12:30pm on Tuesday. That is much less than 48 hours of recovery time. I know that the Italian has already proved that "Impossible is Nothing" with her incredible 2010 French Open win but I think that asking her to be 100% (even 50%) for her match with Wozniacki less than 48 hours after playing the longest women's grand slam match in history is a hill too high for even this dynamic athlete to climb. PREDICTION: Wozniacki in 2 sets.

Maria Sharapova RUS (14) Andrea Petkovic GER (30) vs Li Na CHN (9) Victoria Azarenka BLR (8). I really like the play of the veteran Chinese player (so much so I named my dog after her!) and am very excited that she is playing even better than last year, where she reached the semifinals of this tournament, losing to the eventual winner Serena Williams. Li Na has been a trailblazing icon of Chinese tennis; she is the first Chinese player to reach the Top 50, Top 40, Top 30, Top 20, Top 10 and to win a Tier 1 title (when she defeated Kim Clijsters in Brisbane earlier this year). She dismissed what some people thought was a legitimate contender to win the title in Victoria Azarenka in straight sets. Li has excellent power on both wings and is currently brimming with confidence since she is undefeated so far in 2011. Petkovic is no slouch and has improved upon her best result in a major (4th Round at the 2010 U.S. Open) at this year's 2011 Australian Open. I think it is highly unlikely she will prevent Li Na from attempting to improve her best result in a major and become the first Chinese player to reach a major final. PREDICTION: Li in 2 sets.

Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12) vs. Kim Clijsters BEL (3). Kim Clijsters is simply the best player on hard courts still left in the tournament, as evidenced by her three consecutive US Open titles. She does have a tendency to go off sometimes, and can get frustrated by counter-punchers. She had a surprisingly tight match with the diminutive Alize Cornet of France in the third round. Aggie Radwanska is the epitome of the kind of player who could give Clijsters fits, since she plays a game resembling the late, little lamented Martina Hingis. Clijsters had a pretty good record against Hingis and the one time she played Radwanska (more than 5 years ago) she won that match as well. I suspect this match will either be a 2-set blowout or a seesaw 3-setter where none of the individual sets are very close. PREDICTION: Clijsters in 3 sets.

Samantha Stosur AUS (5) Petra Kvitova CZE (25) vs. Vera Zvonareva RUS (2). Petra Kvitova is the most dangerous player in the draw. She is a very confident, powerful lefty with tremendous power on both wings and she's an excellent mover with a good serve. She's also undefeated for 2011; in fact she's only lost one set all tournament, to the hard-hitting and crafty Italian Flavia Pennetta. Kvitova dismissed the host country's great hope Samantha Stosur in straight sets with no regard for the audience.Vera Zvonareva has defeated every player she has faced in her half of the draw in the last two majors she has played (Wimbledon 2010 and US Open 2010) and has done an admirable job of turning around her reputation as "head case" by embodying consistency. But when consistency meets power, I usually put my money on power. Zvonareva has also lost only one set so far in the tournament (to hard-hitting young Serb Bojana Jovanovski) and almost lost another one to the hard-hitting lefty Lucie Safarova from the Czech Republic. I'm pretty sure that streak will end when she faces an even harder hitting lefty Czech player. PREDICTION: Kvitova in 3 sets.

Oz: On the nature of Despair

 

I don’t know which I find worse: the judgmental, reactionary tut-tutting over Ana “choking” being emitted from the direction of people that didn’t even see the match.

 

Or those that are (still now) continuing to pretend that Ana’s loss is wholly inexplicable.

 

 

 

Makarova d. Ivanovic 3-6 6-4 10-8

 

First the good part: we got one heck of a match from both women.

 

Ana came into this on the back of some sound, genuine, tactile form. This was not one of the very many false-starts we’ve seen from her that usually begin and end in a rash of corrupt ball tosses.

 

We always knew she had some of the most technically-sound, incendiary stroke production this side of Li Na – today we saw her gutsily serve her way out of the agonising despair of being 3 MPs down.

 

 

That she ended up on the losing end of the best match she’s played in over two years – one in which she saved a whopping 5 MPs – is of course gut-wrenching for her fans, but also speaks to the most encouraging, unmistakably healthy signs of life since her turnaround began.

 

I get that her fans will find little comfort in this, but that’s no reason to pretend that she had no business losing to “a mere top 50 player” that left a trail of top ten wreckage in Eastbourne last year.

 

Ana simply got a rough draw. That is all.

 

Heartbreaking? Yes. “Inexplicable”, No.

 

I get that personalities, work-ethic and the exhaustive, organic buzz of following your favourite player through their best and darkest moments all year long very often transcends all of that. The trouble is, it's no different for other players  who, by the way, go through all the same struggles, week-in week out,  sometimes with not even a fraction of the fanbase, limelight or lucrative endorsements at their disposal.

 

Irrespective of whether you’re a fan or not, it’s completely outrageous not to give a player as unassuming as Makarova her due when they come through on the back of their undeniable talent, as she did in Eastbourne last year, or here this time round.

And if it’s still all too much, then spare a though for Dinara.

 

 

However bad things might get, there’s always someone who’s had a shitter night than you or your player have.

 

I don't know. I didn't know how to win a point. Basically came to this thing. I didn't know. I was sitting in the changeover and I was like, okay, at least how can I get a chance to hurt her? There was nothing that I could hurt her.

Embarrassing.

…

I had the same feeling last week when I won one game. This week I didn't win not even one game.

…

No, I mean, of course I have motivation. I've been doing two months of pre season. I'm fully motivated. I practiced hard. I cannot say that I didn't practice hard.

But I guess something was not right. I don't know. I have to figure out the answers.…to lose two tournaments in a row 6 Love, 6 1, 6 Love, 6 Love. It's really to scratch the head and to think what the hell I'm doing. It's not that I don't want. I want. There's no doubt about. I want to come back and I want to play better. But now to find answers how I can come back.

-- Dinara Safina

 

And of course someone thought it would be "funny" to ask her whether or not she even remembers last time she played well

 

I don’t wanna hate you Kim, but for now I'm proposing you be exiled to a Siberian gulag or whatever it is they do with REMORSELESS BULLIES these days.

Li Na Makes History

by Craig Hickman


AP

Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a Premier event on the WTA tour. The first Chinese player to ever break into the Top 10 and the first to compete in a Slam quarterfinal (Wimbledon 2006), the independent and spirited fighter is poised to make more waves at the Australian Open next week. Last year, she and compatriot Zheng Jie both advanced to the semifinals Down Under. Surely Li will be looking to go at least one step further. She has a draw she can work with, to be sure.

She looked down and out against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals but fought through. In a blink, she was facing a 0-5 deficit in the finals. Then, almost like clockwork, Kim Clijsters performed one of her characteristic disappearing acts, stinking up the joint with error after error, and in another blink, the set was level at 5-5.

The rest is history.

"I've played here many years. Every time I saw the name of the champion and I would think, 'Oh, when will my name be there?'" Li said. "Also, when you walk to center court, you can see many pictures of champions over there. So after today I talked to me team, saying we will come next year and see my picture.

"But now Sydney is over and I have to focus on Melbourne. After these two hours, I just have to forget everything and start the next day."

The week's other winners.


Getty

Gilles Simon of France holds the trophy after beating Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-5, 7-6(4) in the 2011 Medibank International final at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on January 15, 2011 in Sydney, Australia.


AP

David Ferrer of Spain celebrates with his trophy after his 6-3, 6-2 victory over David Nalbandian of Argentina at the final of the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Does the Spanish David play the flute?

AP

Jarmila Groth of Australia celebrates her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States at the Hobart International women's tennis tournament in Hobart, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Is that a trophy, a splay of organ pipes, or some dried driftwood with a shield affixed?

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On to Melbourne....

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World No. 1?

by Craig Hickman


AP

Humph.

Moose, over on TAT, asked it best:

So you are #1 in the world. Your prep for the Aussie is an Exo loss to Kim an Exo loss to Vera, a first round loss at Sydney to Domi Cibulkova in straights.

Are you concerned?

2011: Tennis Confessional.

 

Heck….has it actually been one month?

 

I don’t tend to do that good a job of staying away during the off-season, but the truth is that this year, I really needed some time apart.

 

I’d love to say this has something to do with my flamboyant Howard Hughes  lifestyle – the truth is I’d simply had enough.

 

 

Confession #1: You really can have too much of a good thing (That’s right, I said it).

 

The Fedal charity gig (raising over $5M in various fine causes – nice work gents) was particularly excruciating –  sitting through three engineered sets of pseudo-tennis twice, after a well-rounded, fulfilling season that actually ended on a good note smacks of the type of gluttony that leaves you feeling bloated, gaseous and in my case, nauseous.

 

Only when the start of the official season barely registered, did I sense something might be drastically wrong. Fortunately tennis-rehab came in the form of one of last years best WTA matches (Henin v ElenaD in R2 of Aus) – that’s right, it took a replay of a match that was played 12 months ago to reignite my interest in a sport I’m meant to enjoy enough to spend a criminal amount of time writing about.

 

 

 

Do a youtube search and you’ll find reams and reams of highlight reels – that’s no mistake: almost every other point was a highlight.

 

It was “only” two sets of tennis – but those two sets were uncontaminated, crystallised excellence.

 

All of which isn’t just a very long way of telling you how scandalous I find it that it didn’t even feature as a nominee for match of the year on any 2010 poll anywhere (not once). But rather to highlight that things rather faltered for the WTA from that point on  - I’d go as far as to say that all of the best women’s tennis of 2010 was played in its first month.

 

And that’s only the start of it, because I’m afraid:

 

Confession #2: I don’t consider 2010 to have been a vintage year of tennis.

 

I don’t expect Rafaelites to agree of course – come to think of it, I don’t “expect” anyone to.

 

It’s all subjective after all and I’m even willing to concede I might be wrong.

 

Even so, that many false starts, failed deliveries & soggy reams of disappointment (often from the highest of levels) speaks more of “fug” than it does “vintage”.

 

And besides, I figure we’re done pontificating on how great it all was.

 

1) All the best women’s tennis was played in its first month.

 

See above. ElenaD/Henin (Aus - R2) remains my personal fave, though the Serena/Henin final and the Brisbane final between Henin & Kim weren’t far behind.

 

The French Open final, perhaps, may have recaptured something of the drama but it remains the case that nothing came close in quality to what we saw in that very promising start to the season.

 

2) Men’s Grand Slam finals (and two of the women’s) were strictly one-sided affairs – only of any lasting interest to those strongly invested in Rafa or Fed.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that and both the Aus & USO men’s finals were spellbinding if only in a torturously one-sided way.

 

 

Doesn’t stop a season devoid of a competitive (if not a five set) men’s Slam final from being, well…just a wittle-bit rubbish.

 

3) The Spectre of Delpo

 

Only including this for the sake of completeness, because as far as I’m concerned he could have taken off the entire year to recover from what can, after all, turn into a career-ending injury(history is full of the stinking carcasses of careers blighted by an ill-conceived desire to return too soon).

 

Even so, that didn’t stop me feeling twitchy when he (those two matches towards the end of the year not withstanding) went and did just that.

 

4) Muzz won another seventy billion Masters titles….and still less than precisely one Slam.

 

Seen it, been there, done that. NEXT.

 

5) Henin’s comeback miscarriage

 

Justine probably deserves more generosity on my part considering she gave us some of the best matches of this year and spent much of its second half with a fractured elbow.

 

 

All the same, I’m calling fug on a year in which she plays her best three matches in its opening month – one of which was in the opening week of the season.

 

Harsh, I know – fracturing her arm is hardly her fault though I’m not sure her win in Stuttgart was terribly convincing either.

 

6) Player of the year: Kim Clijsters…WTF result of the year Petrova d. Clijsters 60 61.

 

Its been almost 12 months yet no one’s come up with any more cogent an explanation for what’s unanimously held to be the single most WTF result of the year, than that Kim can be both alarmingly good and unnervingly bad – both it seems in equally disturbing measure.

 

I’ve mostly given up trying, yet what's remained overlooked is that Petrova played an exceptional match – something that got drowned out  by the pitch-black humour surrounding Kim’s performance.

 

 

 

I don’t have a problem with Kim being voted POY – in fact I was rather grossed out by the redundant groans of disgust at Serena being passed over.

 

Newsflash: Serena stepped on a shard of glass and it ended her year after playing all of six events. Sad, but that precludes her from POY contention (YES even if the two events she won were Slams). Sometimes it’s not a conspiracy.

 

Contrast that with Kim winning the USO, the SEC, Miami, Cincy AND Brisbane – a title at every level. She’s not my favourite player but arguing against those numbers is futile and smacks of sour grapes.

 

Despite all of that, Kim still has a certain ‘transient’ quality to her game that no one’s quite been able to put their finger on - who’s completely convinced we won’t see more WTF results from the Player of 2010? I know I'm not.

 

7) Djoko’s Title “Tally”

 

Remember when Djoko won Dubai early on last year?

 

It would be one of only two singles titles he would win in 2010 – both of them ATP 500s.

 

To put this into perspective, Djoko won a Masters title and reached the final of four others in 2009. He also won two Masters titles in each of the two years preceding that, which makes this the first time since 2006 that he’s not won a single Masters title.

 

Disappointing for a season in which he played some of the best tennis we’ve seen from him in over two years – though admittedly most of it was towards its back end.

 

8) Rafa’s clay-court clean sweep

 

Rafa’s clay seasons are always laughably one-sided but this year he won all three Masters and RG – all for the loss of only two sets. That would be two sets over the entire clay season.

 

 

That’s not domination, that’s tennis sacrilege.

 

As pleased as I was for him, that stat also speaks of underperformance from the rest of the tour (especially the top guys).

 

It’s ok, we can say that now. The dust has settled on Rafa’s year.

 

9) Greatest “Diss-appointment of” 2010?

 

Whither comeback queens Masha, Henin? Whither Sveta? Marin?? Those last two, in particular, have a lot to answer for.

 

Not according to tennis.com, who pronounced Dinara, who spent the better part of the year out with a bad back, their “Biggest Disappointment of 2010”.

 

They took the edge off it by noting that “few believe Dinara belongs outside the top 50”, but that headline is plain irresponsible.

 

Call me cynical, but if Serena isn’t POY because she only played six events then Dinara’s not DOY for precisely the same reason.

 

10) When is a scandal not a scandal?

 

Hey psssst! Have a hot tip for ya.

 

You ready? Get this – Rafael Nadal has just expressed a desire to win the Australian Open.

 

[furious scribbling noises]

 

Got that? Not only that [breathless] ….not only that….he’s even said he intends to try his level best to defeat whomsoever he should face in the final.

 

There’s more where that came from:  next week I’ll be revealing how the UK’s most savage spending cuts since the 1920s are likely to prove “deeply unpopular” and how all 33 of the freed Chilean miners were said to be “happy to be reunited with their loved ones”.

 

 

More of an off-court disappointment this one.

 

From what I can tell, if Fed passed on any “inside information” at all, it’s that he allegedly intimated to “someone” (we don’t even know this was Forstmann) that he intended to try and defeat Rafael Nadal in the 2007 RG final.

 

That’s about as “shady” as the Mercurian stratosphere and about as “scandalous” as Rupert Everett in drag.

 

If there’s a story here at all, it’s how easy it is to drag a high profile name into what seems to be nothing more than litigious hustling between the IMG kingpin and an estranged former business associate.

 

And how willingly irresponsible members of the media lapped it all up.

 

11) Demmie’s Retirement

 

The good news: I’m no longer in denial about this.

 

***

 

Still largely playing catch-up tennis-wise.

 

Normal service will resumptionalise in due course.