Tennis Chatter

Nadia Petrova, the one of the most talented underachievers in women’s tennis, gathered her weapons in the finals of the 15th Open Gaz de France in Paris topping the less experienced Czech Lucie Safarova 4-6 6-1 6-4 to claim her seventh WTA title.

The world no. 7 showed a tough spirit after Safarova breezed through the first set. She started imposing herself by taking advantage of Safarova’s errors to level the match at one set a piece. In the third set Safarova’s stinging backhand winners brought her closer to victory. Petrova, however, steadied herself and hit the closing service winner.

I hope Petrova could keep it up this year. It often breaks my heart to see her clam up during matches she should have won. I felt like kicking the telly each time. Her kind of game is capable of outplaying the likes of Maria Sharapova. Her first serve at times registers at 120 mph (much faster than my car). In fact, she should have won Linz last year. Maybe that lucky red top should be a staple from now on. The Chinese consider the color as auspicious after all.

The 24-year old Russian has been molded not only to have an athletic build but to wear a strong personality as well. The irony with it is the fragility of her emotional state which often makes her a head case on the court for the longest of time now. A number of coaches could not professionally deal with that part of her character. Seriously, coaches ought to have a good grasp about human behavior. The inescapable truth, however, stares at us in the face — not all coaches are created equal.

Personal tension or demons seemed to be not an issue in Paris for the Russian recently. No apologies for it either. No body language spelling self-pity. Sometimes, with Nadia, winning matches just mean quite nerves.

I have a heart for underdogs. Despite that, I did not think Czech Tomas Berdych was much of one in his thrilling encounter against USA’s Andy Roddick in Ostrava. The important thing for me was that the young man fought courageously for his country despite the leg cramps. Credit also goes to the heroics of Roddick who gave the USA a 3-1 definitive lead in their World Group tie with the Czech Republic by beating Berdych 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-6(7).

Berdych on Friday beat James Blake while Roddick crushed Ivo Minar in their opening singles matches. Bob and Mike Bryan won their doubles match to give team USA a 2-1 lead Saturday. The United States will next face Spain, who overpowered Switzerland, in a home quarterfinals this April.

It has been a decade since the United States won a Davis Cup match on clay. Although the United States leads in the number Davis Cup wins (31), the country sorely missed another victory since their 1995 feat.

Roddick seems to take this as his mission. He has always been considered the leader of the American team. The world no. 4 is now on his seventh year as a Davis Cup player.

The match was a spectacle showing two known big servers in an expected partisan crowd. Roddick is one player who thrives in team effort. The situation seemed only to fire the American. Berdych clinched the first set but started to sow errors in the second set. I notice that this is beginning to be his pattern of play. The good news is he is young, rising, and hopefully learning with experience.

Roddick the veteran used his edge against the fellow big server securing breaks in the third set and wearing down his opponent with long rallies from the back of the court to keep the match in high gear. The fourth set saw no service breaks. Roddick made an emphatic statement of their professional difference when he took an early mini-break with a backhand return during the crucial tiebreak. Minutes later, it was mission accomplished for the United States Davis Cup team.

N.B. As of this writing, other winners in the first round were France, Germany, Argentina, and Sweden against Romania, Croatia, Austria, and Belarus, respectively.

I have been eyeing on watching an anticipated concert this week but the pricey tickets have already been sold out so I rest on the consolation that I can reserve the expense and time intended for it in some other useful endeavor like hitting my books and during my downtime…checking Paris.

In her impressive journey in the City of Lights, unseeded Czech Lucie Safarova is currently battling the underachiever Russian Nadia Petrova in the finals of the 15th Open Gaz de France. Until Nadia Petrova can rise above her personal resolve to improve her nerves on moments that matter, the “underachiever�? adjective will stick with her name in my book.

The 20-year old Safarova, a worthy opponent who only seems to get better, tasted her share of fame when she upset defending champion Amelie Mauresmo of France in the Australian Open quarter-finals just last month. Safarova is ranked no. 32 in the world. The rising star toughened herself out to beat Nicole Vaidisova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and the world no. 2 Justine Henin on the road to the finals.

Like Henin, she is slim although much taller. She moves like a loose leaf carried by a hurricane. However, her dynamite strokes and service returns are packed with the right punch and precision.

As of this writing she has leveled the match at one set a piece.

Roger Federer may have been used to the accolades by now but this early video is lovely to watch if only to admire his graceful movement despite the awkward shot and see the pure unadulterated joy on the Champ’s smiling and unbelieving handsome face.

I am in the center of a very demanding endeavor that could possibly occupy the rest of my year. Relaxing one night, I listened to Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune and found myself mentally playing tennis in slow motion. Is it possible that it was what Serena Williams had been doing all along while on a respite from the tour? Sports psychologists call it actualization. Blimey, it beats actual practice! If you win a Grand Slam title, why not?

Back to the slow play, I recalled some of the mistakes I made in practice. A competent colleague’s advice can be priceless if only to break your delusional perception of having the correct stroke form. In my early lessons, I had to endure beating myself. That means hitting myself with my own racket without intending to. Tell me, why would one intend to do it on one’s self? I was the Andy Roddick of accidental hits and suffered my share of blues on my left arm (I play right-handed), shins, legs, forehead, and my watch. I gave up checking whether I grazed the glass of my watch or not. I had the thought of procuring a G-shock watch but stopped myself pronto. Why not buy a G-shock racket instead so I can throw it as much as I want to?

With the unintended self-flagellation brought about by my probationary months I cried my mind in. Yes, in. I have posted before that I was a picture of patience in learning my tennis. My tongue turned maroon from too much biting. Enduring the thought of learning this game at an adult age was not exactly the fun younger people usually enjoy. My objective was just to learn it fast so I can play! While doing so, I had to shut my mouth up and do the repetitions a…well, you know how many repetitions one usually does in tennis to get the right “feel�? and form. Just like I wrote earlier, I discovered the pure joy of it when I started to execute my strokes right.

When I was starting to learn the 1-2-3s of my serve I felt genuinely excited. My friends’ words were true. Looks easy but be prepared to be messy. I was, indeed, a bit messier. What burned me further was whenever I looked at my mentor he would give me that “what the heck�? stare as if he expected me to learn this thing in two tries. Of course I did not! You only have to multiply the number of storms in a year by ten…and counting at that. Probably that qualified me to be a head case. My tongue turned sangria, mind you. Still, I persist on my serve to this day.

That is the beauty of tennis. There are always some little things you can add to enhance your skill. It is unlike encoding (the one I am doing now) wherein you can perform it with your eyes closed. Tennis is a constant education to an enthusiastic learner. I learned it like a child so after a tennis game I usually smile like one…inside.

In my previous posts, I was raving about hair, particularly Belgian Xavier Malisse’s pony-tailed mane that just almost pulled all his veins from his face. Well, like anything else, he gave it a boot this year and made some good progress professionally. I cannot prove the jinx connection of one’s tresses to one’s profession so I leave it as is.

On Monday, The Belgian won the title at Delray Beach against the top-seed American James Blake. Notable is the fact that no top-seed has ever won the title in the tournament for 15 years. Jinx? Nah! But definitely not a hair issue.

The delayed match worked for Malisse since he was trailing the day before 7-5, 3-3. Blake lost his serve when play resumed on Monday. The wind turned out not to be his ally while Malisse adjusted well enough to outplay the American. In the third set of the third game, Blake surrendered his serve at 15-40. At the end of the day, the title went to the man who reached the final of this tournament five times 5-7 6-4 6-4.

The tournament is an example of the absurd result of the round-robin format where the one who lost a match eventually won the title. Malisse lost against Rainer Schuettler of Germany on the way to the finals.

All the wonder why tennis is not just that popular in the United States is of no use. How could you cover a sport that hops from one continent to the other? Alright, that was a bit preposterous. Let us travel to Croatia.

Where did this self-defeating attitude of Ivan Ljubicic who was once a strong favorite of mine (slowly going down the drain but can be saved, yes) come from? He is just so resigned to entering a Grand Slam tournament only to exit through the nearest door. The latest of his first-round exits was the Australian Open. Is it nerves? Dunno myself. I shall pick on him later.

Well, I thought his home would do him good. It did for a while until he met a Cypriot along the way. Ivan the Lionhearted, the defending champion of the PBZ Zagreb Indoor tournament, went down under Marcos Baghdatis’ stick 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 Sunday. He is now 3-0 against the amiable Baghdatis. It is the Cypriot’s second career ATP title which will likely catapult him back to the Top 20 on Monday.

Although a veteran, Swiss sensation Martina Hingis is admittedly an underdog in women’s tennis this time around. Celebrations have now died down on her comeback and she has successfully blended herself in again on the tour. Objectively her kind of game is not perfectly suited to the times as it once was. However, I believe that is exactly what women’s tennis now needs, something fresh from not so long ago. Especially from the diminutive player whose game can be characterized as full of guile and tactical sense.

In tennis you have to play to your strengths and expose the weaknesses of your opponents. Always an articulate interviewee, she often gives reference to staying current with the way the game is being played to remain competitive while enhancing her strengths. After all, the comeback was her sole decision and she has spent considerable time going through the baptismal fire of self-assessment. Trust the straightforward Swiss Miss when she says still has something to give to the game.

She is keenly aware that she cannot match the ball bashing style of today. She is honest about her lack of height, her not-so-thunderous serve but she has game qualities that many women players would wish they have.

For one, she is very much a thinking player. This is probably one quality she shares with the current men’s no. 1 fellow Swiss Roger Federer. Hopefully, this quality is not limited to a particular nationality. The Miss knows how to spot the weaknesses of her opponents and take advantage of them. She can vary her shots, angles, looping spins, pace, use slices effectively and boasts of awesome placements. These often surprise her opponents.

Her ability to anticipate the ball she also shares with, you guess it, “the special king.�? She is quick to place herself in position for better preparation of strokes. She has great court coverage and has the ability to let an opponent sprint all over till fatigue thy come. She can therefore adjust to any given situation because she has a lot in her armory to pick from.

Yes, her second serve deserves the term but once in a while she produces an ace which can just be a good sign, isn’t it? Still, I believe she has enough sense to only improve it whenever she can.

What is more adoring now is her humanity. Not that I had to endure the arrogance of her talent and youth before but her personality transformation is a testament to the evolution of a person’s character. This is the Miss who once tactlessly called Amelie Mauresmo “half-man�? when the L word was still confined to the locker room. Nowadays, she still remains straightforward and very witty. But she wears a humility that can only be gleaned from moments of contemplation about life and what it is all about. Her decision to return to the circuit is hers alone and she is proudly proving to herself that her past achievements were no fluke, that talent is embedded within her small frame. That she can accept loss with dignity and savor each win wholeheartedly. In her record fifth Toray Pan Pacific Open win in Tokyo, Japan, she proudly embraced her victory conveying to all that “winning tournaments is twice as sweet this time around.�? It says a lot about the feeling of earning something (the sweet photo shows it a thousandfold). Maybe her past was just a youthful cruise to glory, that invincibility that the young and talented often wear on their sleeves.

So I bet my cards that she will return to her number one ranking sooner or later at her own pace barring any injuries. People just need to have faith in her. If she could not get that from others, it is obviously written all over her ever smiling countenance that she has enough faith in herself. And that can go a long way the second time around.

Swiss second-seeded player and former world No. 1 Martina Hingis gave herself an advance Valentine’s Day gift by taking a fifth WTA Toray Pan Pacific Open title surpassing the shared four-time winning record with Lindsay Davenport in Tokyo, Japan. Hingis won the title in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002.

She has neutralized the 19-year old Serbian Ana Ivanovic’s power with her usual trademark smart play in en route to a 6-4 6-2 victory. It was a sweet revenge from her straight-sets loss in Montreal last year. It is Hingis’ first Tier I singles title since winning Rome in 2006.

The Swiss has always said that the carpet surface suits her game well and she has proven it by beating the defending champion Russian Elena Dementieva 6-4 6-3 on her way to the finals. She lost to the erratic Dementieva in last year’s final. Ivanovic reached the final after top-seed Maria Sharapova retired in their semifinal match with a hamstring injury.

With the comeback story way behind her now, the affable Hingis is immersing herself into today’s physically demanding power game at her own pace. The win will undoubtedly be a boost to her self-confidence in the coming clay court season.

While the WTA currently experiments with on-court coaching in Tokyo, Japan, the ATP obliges with its own testing of the hybrid round-robin format at Delray Beach International Tennis Championship in Florida.

American Vincent Spadea showed he was “not afraid of ya!�? when he beat top-ten player and defending champion Tommy Haas Friday night 6-3 2-6 6-4 to earn a place in his fourth consecutive semifinals Saturday against Belgium’s Xavier Malisse, the tournament’s 2005 champion. Spadea of Boca Raton has not beaten Malisse in their four meetings so far.

The round-robin format is presently a mathematical challenge to some clueless spectators. Count third-seed Malisse as one of its critics. He has been vocal about the confusion the new format is sowing to the fans. He lost to German Rainer Schuettler 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 last Thursday but in truth needed only to win a set to book a place to the quarterfinals against seventh-seed Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Malisse won the match 6-1, 6-1. . He has also reached the finals in this tournament four times.

Meanwhile, top-seed American James Blake continues his impressive run. He defeated German Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4 and is scheduled to play against another German Benjamin Becker in the semifinals.

Prospects seem to get brighter for Serbian Ana Ivanovic to go deeper in this tournament when top-seed Maria Sharapova retired in the second set of their semifinal match in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo due to a hamstring injury. She will be sidelined for a week according to her trainer. Earlier, Sharapova stated that she is setting her goals toward Roland Garros. To be healthy for the clay season is of paramount importance due to its physical demands. Sharapova dropped the first set of the match 6-1 before retiring.

Ivanovic will face the winner of defending champion Elena Dementieva and second-seed Martina Hingis on Sunday.

Serbian Ana Ivanovic beat compatriot Jelena Jankovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. She will next play Maria Sharapova who, coming from a stinging defeat at the Australian Open in the hands of Serene Williams, was a picture of a player in need of resuscitation before beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 while generously making 14 double faults. The aggressive and local favorite Ai Sugiyama also gave her a difficult match with Maria winning in 4-6 6-0 6-1. On both occasions Michael Joyce, Sharapova’s perennial coach, was called in between sets to minimize if not prevent the opponent’s damage on Maria’s game.

Yes, folks, this on-court coaching thing is currently going on in highly industrialized Japan. Quite ironic, actually, especially if what you hear is a constant reminder to fight for every point. Is not that a standard in this sport? And what an arrangement it is — Joyce is the on-court coach while Yuri Sharapov is the coach from the stands. If it ain’t broke…