Tennis Chatter

Right after finishing with one of the most exciting tournaments in a recent memory (Montreal), it seems like, apart from Federer, almost everyone is too worn out to have a good showing in Cincinnati. Questions about Roddick’s form have reappeared after his failing to make quarterfinals and losing to Ferrer 7-6, 6-4. Roddick had three set points in the first set, and failed to capitalize on any of them. Apparently Jimmy Connors (his coach) was not happy. Roddick said:

“I talked to him; Jimmy’s not happy,”

“He goes, ‘I don’t care it you lose 0 (and) 0, but do it with what we’ve been working on and do it the right way.’ I couldn’t agree with him more. He’s right. I didn’t work on anything out there. I didn’t get any better in a loss, and that’s probably the most annoying part.”

Djokovic also fell out of the tournament early after his fantastic performance beating Roddick, Nadal, and Federer at Montreal. Djokovic lost his first round to Carlos Moya, 6-4, 6-1. Djokovic credited his loss to exhaustion, stating:

“I felt a bit tired and didn’t have enough time to prepare for this tournament,â€?

A lot of questions have been raised about having two Masters Events played back to back. It was the same story with Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year. It seems to be having an effect on the players’ preparation and stamina, as Gasquet retired to Hewitt and Nadal (one of the fittest players on the tour) retired to J. Monaco.

With Berdych’s loss to Davydenko and Baghdatis’ loss to Federer this looks to be a tournament of veterans. Former slam champions and world numbers ones Moya and Hewitt met in quarters, with Hewitt emerging victorious 6-2, 6-4. He will probably (apart from an upset) meet Federer in semifinals.

On the other side of the bracket, there is an interesting quarterfinal match-up between two Americans, Sam Querrey and James Blake. James Blake has played well so far this tournament, beating former French Open champion Ferrero. Blake thought he served well against Ferrero saying:

“I think that’s two matches in a row (for me) without getting broken,”

“For me that’s a great thing since I don’t normally have an overpowering serve or a serve that gets me a ton of free points.”

He’s going to need his serve to beat 19 year old Querrey. The last time they played was at Indianapolis a few weeks ago, when Querrey upset Blake, hitting ten aces. Althoughth Querrey hasn’t establish himself as a legit contender like Nadal and Djokovic, Blake believes Querrey has a bright future ahead of him.

“I think he’s got tons still to improve, which is probably scary to a lot of the guys that are in the middle of their career and are planning on seeing him for a long time,” Blake said. “He’s a good kid and I think he’s got a lot of improving to do, even though he’s already top 60 in the world.

“I think it’s just going to keep rising. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him because that’s unnecessary. But in my opinion he’s got a great future.”

Querrey:

To see complete Cincinnati results click here.

Here are the current ATP US Open Series standings:

1. Andy Roddick (USA) 112
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 100
3. (T) Roger Federer (SUI) 95*
Radek Stepanek (CZE) 95
5. James Blake (USA) 72*
6. Frank Dancevic (CAN) 60
7. (T) Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 50*
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 50*
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 50
10. Sam Querrey (USA) 47*

If Federer wins his quarterfinals match he will take the lead, with 20 additional points award for a semifinal appearance.

Finally, there is an interesting article here about Federer giving Nadal a ride in his private jet to Cincinnati. How nice.

In my post yesterday, I predicted that Federer, Stepanek, Djokovic, and Nadal would win their matches in the Rogers Cup quarterfinals. Guess what? Federer, Stepanek, Djokovic, and Nadal won their matches in the Rogers Cup quarterfinals (although my predictions were off on the set counts somewhat). The semifinal match ups are as follows: Federer vs. Stepanek and Nadal vs. Djokovic. Federer should win his match easily, however the Nadal vs. Djokovic match up is much more interesting. Both players are very young and are viewed to be the future of tennis.

This year Nadal and Djokovic have played each other five times. In those matches Nadal was 4-1. However if you remove clay from the picture, head to head this year Nadal leads 2-1. Two of those matches were on hard court (Indian Wells and Miami) and one of them on grass (Wimbledon). In fact I’d say you could remove the Wimbledon match, because Djokovic had to retire due exhaustion and injury after winning the first set. Clearly Nadal and Djokovic match up very well off of clay. Both of them are very strong off of the ground and can move forward to the net. I’d say Djokovic has a better serve and backhand (very close), while Nadal might edge Djokovic in the forehand category (although not by much, especially off of clay). Both are similar at the net, yet Nadal is undeniably better at passing shots. Finally Nadal has an advantage with his mentality. Despite this, I’m picking Djokovic to win this match, and I think he’ll hold a winning record against Nadal on hard courts throughout his career. Hard courts neutralize some of Nadal’s spin potential and they don’t offer the variability of natural surfaces that Nadal is so good at reacting to. Regardless of who wins, this should be a great match and preview many more to come.

Federer vs. Hewitt

Roger continues his solid form and his historical dominance of Hewitt (anyone remember 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 2004 US Open final?) to win in two sets.

Davydenko vs. Stepanek

Stepanek rides the momentum from his wins against Gonzalez (sixth seed) and Haas (12th seed) to upset Davydenko in three sets.

vs.
Roddick vs. Djokovic

Djokovic manages to return Roddick’s serve, and handily dominates Roddick in baseline rallies with his great ground game to move into semifinals. However, it takes three sets, as Roddick pushes one of the sets to a tiebreaker and wins the breaker.

Nadal vs. Dancevic

Nadal stops the Canadian’s run in two sets, utilizing his great defense to neutralize Dancevic’s game and dishing out amounts of top spin never seen before in Montreal.

Andy Roddick took a good step in regaining his confidence last Sunday when he defeated fellow American John Isner 6-4, 7-6 in the final of the Legg Mason Tournament. The match showcased great serving as Roddick hit 14 aces and Isner hit 12. Isner (ranked 416 in the world at the beginning of the tournament) had a great run at the tournament, defeating Becker, Haas, and Monfils on his way to finals. Isner is an American version of Ivo Karlovic, being 6′ 9″ tall and hitting 144 aces over the course of the tournament. However Roddick served great in finals, and won the points that mattered the most (namely in the first set tie break and managing to break Isner in the second set). This is Roddick’s third Legg Mason Classic title, and couldn’t have come at a better time. Hopefully he’ll be able to take some momentum from this win into the Rogers Cup Masters this week.

Here are the current US Opens Series standings:

1. Andy Roddick (USA) 72
2. (T) Radek Stepanek (CZE) 50
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 50
4. James Blake (USA) 47
5. Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) 46
6. (T) Frank Dancevic (CAN) 35
John Isner (USA) 35
8. Marat Safin (RUS) 24
9. (T) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 22
Nicolas Kiefer (GER) 22
Gael Monfils (FRA) 22
Sam Querrey 22

And here is the WTA US Open Series standings:

1. Maria Sharapova (RUS) 100
2. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) 95
3. Patty Schnyder (SUI) 82
4. Sania Mirza (IND) 60
5. Elena Dementieva (RUS) 45
6. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 37
7. Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 27
8. (T) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) 25
Nadia Petrova (RUS) 25
Venus Williams (USA) 25

Finally, if you have some free time you should check out this gallery. It’s a gallery of various ATP players on the catwalk at a fashion show hosted by the Rogers Cup. Some of the players pictured are Blake and Djokovic.

The WTA recently introduced a new statistic called the “Power Index.” The purpose of the statistic is to see how powerful the women’s game has become, and to compare the power of different players. According to AHN:

The stat is figured by combining a player’s fastest groundstroke (forehand or backhand), first and second serves, first and second serve returns and smash or volley into one score.

The statistic was first measured at the Acura Cup last week and showed Venus to be the most powerful women player with a 94.5 mph average of the measured strokes.

The top four players were as follows:

1. Venus Williams 94.5 mph
2. Maria Kirilenko 92.7 mph
3. Victoria Azarenka 92.3 mph
4. Maria Sharapova 90.5 mph

This morning when I was flipping through channels something caught my eye. On the Today Show, they featured Jan Silva, a five year old “tennis prodigy.” Jan is quickly becoming one of the most exciting (extremely young) tennis prospects in a while.His parents were fans of tennis and passed on their interest in the game to their son.

When it became clear that there son was very good at a young age (at four he competed with players several years older than him), the Silvas sold everything they owned and moved to France. They initially looked into sending their son to the well-known Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida; the academy of such stars as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova, and Jelena Jankovic. However the academy was wary of providing a scholarship to such a young player. Instead Jan is attending the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France. Inadvertently, I think the Silvas may have just made the best decision possible for their son. The Bollettieri Tennis Academy generally embraces a baseline bashing style of tennis opposed to the French, which traditionally embrace more of an all court style (just look at Gasquet). I believe learning tennis in France, will benefit Jan in the future to be successful on all courts. Americans recently haven’t had much success on clay, whereas in France, Jan will play on clay a lot, getting experience at a younger age. Plus a lot of tennis coaches say that if you can learn to hit winners on (slow) clay (like Gasquet, Federer, and Nadal), you can hit winners on any other (faster) surface. The all court style already shows, as Jan showed a very good onehanded backhand, along with good volleys on the Today Show. In fact, I thought his onehander looked like his best shot.

The other issue to consider is his young age. A lot of kids change their interests as they grow up or are just early bloomers. Perhaps Jan’s talent will be much less impressive in a few years, as other players catch up. And what if he decides he doesn’t like tennis? Five is an early age to already know what you want to do. Finally if the media starts picking up this story, pressure and expectations will build. There are hundreds of stories of young stars not living up to their hype (across all sports). His parents say they think he is well adjusted, but five is far too young of an age to determine that. If he makes it through all these obstacles Jan’s father thinks he has a great chance to go pro. His father said:

I think there’s a pretty good chance of him going all the way

If you want to read NBC’s story or view the video clip of him playing, click here.

The United States Open is the last grand slam tournament of the year. It is held on hard court, along with all the tournaments prior to it during the US Open series. Switching from grass to hard court is not as big of a transition as switching from clay to grass, but their are still some differences. “Traditionally” grass is considered a faster and more unpredictable surface that the hard courts at the US Open. However, some believe that Wimbledon has slowed down its courts recently. This may be true, but I still believe that it is faster surface than players will experience in Flushing Meadows, NY. Hard court provides a more predictable bounce, taking away some of the advantages of slicing on grass, but doesn’t allow the shoulder high top spin shots that clay does. It is kind of in between the two surfaces, allowing top spin or flat hitters to find success. Hard courts are often favorites of players with a lot of power and solid baseline games (Blake, Safin, Gonzalez etc). A players movement is usually different on hard courts, also. The final thing to note, is that the US Open is the second grand slam held on hard court (the Australian Open is the first). However, the US Open is considered a faster surface, than the Australian.

Contenders

Roger Federer

A favorite to win pretty much every tournament he enters, Federer looks set to win his fourth US Open. He has won the this tournament consecutively the last three years, and rarely been challenged. In addition he has eight masters titles on hard court. He can out play anyone from the baseline with his enormous forehand and very good backhand. His biggest threat is Nadal, however Nadal has never made it past the quarterfinal of the US Open.

Rafael Nadal

Right out of a Wimbledon final appearance, Nadal is looking to make a run at the US Open. Nadal has had his worst results at the US Open of the all grand slams so far during his career. He doesn’t move quite as well on hard courts as he does on natural courts, and his top spin forehand doesn’t bounce as high. As a result he can be overpowered by the many players who excel on hard courts.

Novak Ä?oković

Djokovic is a great pick to have success at the US Open. He had semifinal appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon, along with a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open. In addition he won his first masters event this year on hard court (Miami). He has an extremely solid ground game, with good power. He is adept all around the court, and I would probably pick him over Nadal if they were to meet.

Nikolay Davydenko

Davydenko has a semifinal appearance at the US Open (last year) and not much else. He is solid baseline player, who can take the ball on the rise. However, he is strongest on clay and slow hard courts and can be overpowered by bigger players. He could be a good pick for quarterfinals depending on his draw.

Andy Roddick

I don’t know what to expect from Roddick this year. He excels on hard courts, with four masters events and three quarterfinal appearance, a final appearance, and a championship at the US Open. However, he has been in a bit of a lull lately. He hasn’t been very mentally tough, was upset last week in Indianapolis. If he is on, he could beat any of the players I’ve mentioned so far, but Federer. If not, he could exit the tournament early.

Fernando González-Gonzalez has a great forehand and good power, however he hasn’t had very good results this year since his finals appearance at the Australian.

Richard Gasquet-As Roddick well knows, Gasquet is always a threat. He has a aggressive game, great backhand, and good court intelligence that can succeed on any surface. He threatened Federer at Toronto last year, however he has inconsistent results.

Tomáš Berdych-Berdych is very strong off the baseline and loves hard courts.

James Blake-Blake has appeared in the quarterfinals of the US Open the last two years. He moves well on hard courts and is very powerful. However, he hasn’t had great success lately.

Other players to watch out for:

Andy Murrary-semifinal appearances at Indian Wells and Miami
Marat Safin-won the US Open in 2000
Tommy Haas
Mikhail Youzhny
Marcos Baghdatis
Lleyton Hewitt