Tennis Chatter

The second round results from the St Petersburg ATP event have shown a few upsets with the top seed sent packing. 93rd in the world (q) Marin Cilic did stand much of a chance against the number 4 in the world and number 1 seed Nikolay Davydenko. The first set was quickly gone from young Cilic with Davydenko winning 6-1, but the Cilic came storming back with a 1-6 7-5 6-1 victory. Watch out for Cilic to cause a few more upsets in this tournament.

An Aging McEnroe, 48, showed that he still had some fight in the old boy when he took on Mark Philippoussis in the seniors tournament in Dallas, Texas, yesterday. With the 18 year difference between the players McEnroe showed the younger player that he could still bash a ball, winning 6-4 6-4.

Ferreira, 36, won the tournament when he defeated Jim Courier 2-6 6-3 11-9 (champions tiebreaker) in the final.

It was reported over on Tennisnews that Lleyton Hewitt is supporting Mark Philippoussis and hopes that Tennis Australia provide the 31 year old an opportunity to head back to his home grand slam.

I probably take a different view on this whole situation because I am Australia and I have long been watch the trials and tribulations of Flip. I still think Philippoussis has something to offer the game of tennis and im sure he will be playing on either the pro circuit or senior circuit for a long time to come, but Tennis Australia have very strict guidelines on providing wildcards (they have to be earned). Since Philippoussis has not played a pro match since January last year he cant be shown to have earn a wildcard, therefore he will have to head to Melbourne in December and play in the wildcard tournament in which is only for a selected few Australian players and they compete with the winner obtaining a wildcard into the Australian Open maindraw and the remainder will have to battle it out through qualies.

Philippoussis has weapons in his game that on any given day can scare any player in the world, so come January make sure you watch out!

I know I probably shouldn’t embed this video, but I just couldn’t help myself. Novak you just make me smile. I have to admit I love this. Priceless!

This side of tennis has to be shown a bit more, the fun side! Enjoy!

On the WTA Tour Serena Williams has booked her place in the year ending event. As you can see she joins Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic.

This year the Sony Ericsson Championships will take place in Madrid from November 6 - 11.

Serena who is currently only 26, but seems to have been on tour forever, is going to make her seventh appearance in the year ending event. Going on recent form, watch out for her to take the title.

I have been reading a lot about the possible match fixing problem in tennis at present and it seems to be a very hot topic.

Andy Murray has claimed this week that there is a lot of corruption and match fixing in tennis at the top level today. The BBC has also quoted Tim Henman as saying he has heard other players in the game talking about match fixing but never been involved himself.

Roger Federer has said to Tennis.com that in Miami the ATP organised a presentation by ex-Mafia boss Michael Franzese to talk to the players about the dangers of becoming involved in gambling. Roger stated ” When I went into the meeting, I was kind of, ‘what the hell?’ What he said was interesting and scary at the same time.”

It is hard to think that match fixing is not in Tennis. The matches themselves are very tight and it is nearly impossible to tell if a player is making mistakes and tanking deliberately. It has always amazed me that when prizemoney is so low and there are a lot of players losing week in week out, but somehow being able to play all the tournament, fly their and stay in the top hotels! Its a bit suspicious.

What do you think about it all??

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.

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

Nadal wins sixth title

Rafael Nadal won his sixth title of the year, taking down Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5, in the Stuttgart Cup final. With this he is 93 out of 94 on clay since April 2005. His only loss came this year to Roger Federer at Hamburg.

Springfield Lasers attempt to go undefeated

With a win tonight over the Sacramento Capitals, the Springfield Lasers would be only the second WTT team to go undefeated for an entire season. They’ve had several tough matches, yet they’ve pulled through all of them thanks to great results by their female players (Tamarine Tanasugarn is the top ranked female player in the league), and some timely wins by their men’s singles player: Martin Verkerk.

Blake, Roddick drop in ATP rankings

Both James Blake and Andy Roddick dropped in ATP rankings this week. Roddick didn’t play last week, and Blake was upset in the Countrywide Classic final by Radek Stepanek 7-6, 5-7, 6-2. Here are this week’s top ten rankings:

1. (1) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 7,290 points;

2. (2) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 5,455;

3. (3) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 3,245;

4. (5) Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, 3,175;

5. (4) Andy Roddick, United States, 3,130;

Click here!

6. (6) Fernando Gonzalez, Chile, 2,770;

7. (7) Tommy Robredo, Spain, 2,085;

8. (8) Richard Gasquet, France, 2,085;

9. (11) Tommy Haas, Germany, 2,035;

10. (9) James Blake, United States, 1,995. - Sapa-dpa

Countrywide Classic

James Blake is through to the semifinals of the Countrywide Classic in LA. His opponent is Hyung-Taik Lee. On the other side of the bracket is Radek Stepanek vs. Nicolas Kiefer. I look for Kiefer and Blake to win semifinals, and Blake to win in finals. Blake has had a little of an off year in 2007, but the Countrywide Classic is played on hardcourt, Blake’s best surface.

Mercedes Cup

Nadal looks poised to win another title this week at the Mercedes Open. He is in semifinals, set to play Feliciano Lopez. The Mercedes Open is played on clay, giving Nadal a huge advantage. On the other side of the draw is Juan Ignacio Chela vs. Stanislas Wawrinka. I don’t see either of them giving Nadal much trouble, should he beat Lopez and play one of them in finals.

On a side note, I’m not quite sure why Nadal is playing a clay court tournament. I would think he would be trying to play as many hardcourt tournaments as possible to prepare for the US Open (even though there is still plenty of time before the Open).

Emerson: “Federer not the G.O.A.T.”

Ok…maybe I am exaggerating a little bit with the title, but Roy Emerson came awfully close to saying that Federer can’t be considered the greatest of all time until he wins the French Open. Emerson, who has won 12 grand slams, expects the Swiss to overcome his record AND Pete Sampras’s (of 14) before he retires. Despite this, he said that Federer will always have lots of doubters, unless he bags the much eluded clay major before his career is over.

“I think there will be a lot of tennis purists who would say that unless Federer can win the French then he’s not a complete player, because he hasn’t won the one on clay yet,”

“Personally I thought his big chance of winning the French was this year, especially after he finally managed to beat Nadal on clay just before in Hamburg.”

“It’s clear though that Federer is awfully good,” Emerson added.

Does someone who has been as dominant as Federer deserve to simply known as “awfully good” whenever he retires? Of course not. I can see a simple way to fix this. Nadal-just let up a little bit next year. Try not to return EVERY ball. Let Federer have his piece of the French pie. Seriously though, wouldn’t everything become easier to decide if Federer just stepped up his game for one final, and took the title he covets so much? Then we could lay to rest this “G.O.A.T.” debate. At least until Nadal retires with 25 majors. All of them won in Paris.

Davenport prepares a comeback

Lindsay Davenport is prepared to return to professional tennis. She “unofficially” retired last December when she stated that she couldn’t imagine coming back to tennis after the birth of her child (born June 10). Despite this she announced yesterday that she planned to enter the Pilot Pen to play doubles with Lisa Raymond.

Rodionova disqualified from Cincinnati Open

Anastasia Rodionova defaulted her match Tuesday, when she hit a tennis ball at a group of fans. With her disqualification Angelique Kerber won the match 4-6, 6-4, 1-0. Rodionova was “shocked” at the chair umpire’s decision, stating that:

“I still don’t understand why they defaulted me. I’m really upset. I’ve never seen in my life anyone defaulted in this situation. I had no warning. I didn’t hit the ball at anybody. I didn’t swear at anybody. I didn’t throw my racket.”

She is only the second player ever on the WTA tour to default a match.

After their appearence in the Wimbledon final, R. Nadal and R. Federer were the first two players to qualify for the year end Masters Cup held in Shanghai. The Masters Cup is a end of the year tournament, comprised of the top eight players in the world. The players compete in a two section round robin form of a tournament. The top two players from each section then advance to play a player from the other section in semifinals. It is a way to directly compare all of the top eight players, as they will being facing off against other top eight players in three to five matches. Roger Federer should be a clear favorite heading into the tournament as it is on a faster hard court surface. In addition he won the event in 2003, 2004, and 2006. He was the runner-up to David Nalbanian in 2005.

With their Wimbledon finals appearence the Bryan Brothers qualified to the Masters Cup in doubles.