The Small Spot

SB Tennis Misadventures

2010-07-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

"Fecundity. Fee-cun-ditty." The word echoed around inside my brain as I waited to receive serve. Sometimes this happens to me, especially with funny-sounding words of which I don't know the meaning. "Peripatetic" once bounced around in my head all day until I could finally get to a computer and look it up. I tried to focus - get the return back, make the other team play, let's go. I'd been invited to join the 'A' league in town, and I was in the try-out phase and wanted to make a good impression. No time for messing around with definitions now.

I was out on court 5 at Cathedral Oaks CC, partnered with Vern and playing against Ed and Dave. I've had history with Vern and particularly Ed; Marcus and I lost a tough 3 setter to him last year. Ed's serve is nothing to scream about, but he has excellent hands at net and a tricky return of serve. He'll often dump a routine return, but other times he'll surprise you with a hard shot, and he can yank his backhand slice in either direction. I got caught with my pants down trying to poach on his return. Nevertheless, Vern and I started off hot. We broke Dave to start the first set and held the rest of the way, picking up an extra break at the end of the set, 6-3.

I'd recently returned to action following a spell on the IR due to an abdominal strain. This had stopped me from serving the way I wanted to, but now I felt good and happy that the pain no longer bothered me. Vern was playing well too, and I felt hopeful that we could wrap this up in time to watch the top teams play. So far, the bottom of the 'A' league looked just like the top of the 'B's. However, the top 2 or 3 courts were working on a different level; mostly younger, ex-college players hitting the felt off the ball. I wanted to work my way up to those courts. If you wore a t-shirt displaying your alma mater, people asked if you played there. That's the main difference between the A and B leagues. That kind of assumption didn't happen in the 'B's.

Unfortunately, Vern and I fell behind an early break in the 2nd set, and I groaned inwardly. I'd yet to see those top teams play since my matches always seemed to go late. I served down 1-3, and quickly fell into a big hole with some poor volleying. I hit two good serves to bring us back to deuce, and then Ed started unleashing his bag of magical returns. A pattern established where we'd lose the deuce point because of Ed's return, but win at ad-out because Dave couldn't get my serve back in play. Thank goodness for Dave. I must have faced 3 more breakpoints in that game but Dave bailed me out every time; it was almost the auto-point whenever I kicked it to his backhand. Finally we reached ad-in. "Fee-cun-ditty... like fecal matter?" my brain tried to reason. I forced that thought process out and concentrated on closing the game. Holding re-energized us and demoralized them. We broke Ed's serve and tied the score up at 3-all.

After a quick hold from Vern, Dave quickly went up 40-0 against us. I was starting to rue the missed opportunity; if we broke them here I could serve for the match at 5-3, something I desperately wanted to happen. Dave had a pretty good serve and all his strokes looked solid in the warm up. However, he had a habit of letting the ball get behind him at net and missing the volley. He could also throw in a double fault. He did so here, and then Vern hit a winning return to bring us back to 40-30. Dave missed his first serve and gathered himself for a second one. I was super tight and trying to loosen myself up by visualizing good returns. Luckily, Dave let me off the hook with another double-fault, and we took advantage to break him. Three quick serves from me brought us to match point, and we closed it out for a clean 6-3, 6-3 win!

Afterward I tried to figure out the schedule for next week. The captain wasn't around so I didn't know if he wanted me to come back. I was talking with Todd Dickey, one of the nicer guys on our team. He told me to just show up, encouraging me that I was "one of the starters on the team." Ah, acceptance!

Nadal's first match, and the Spaniard retiring with the knee problem is...

2009-08-12T16:53:00.001-07:00

David Ferrer!?! More details to come.

Update: Though Ferrer said he didn’t believe it to be a serious injury, he admitted to having problems with his knee prior to Wimbledon. “I cannot play. I prefer to relax for these few days and stand by for next week [in] Cincinnati… I want to take some time for treatment for this.”

Nadal had just gone up a break, 4-3, when Ferrer retired. Nadal had also broken his countryman to start the match, though Ferrer had gotten back on serve at 2-all after converting on his eighth break point. Nadal said: “I never expect this, this bad thing for David, so can say sorry to him and just wish him the very fast recovery to be ready for Cincinnati… And for me, it was nice [to] have a victory like this, and I say before [I’m] here to improve every day, to enjoy every game, every point.”

He said about returning to tour-level action: “The first movements is tough and hard to move well and to feel confident when you are touching the ball. But that's the normal thing. I must be happy, because I didn't play terrible. And the next round, I have another chance tomorrow to continuing to improve. Every match, every game is important to feel better for me.”

From atptour.com

SB Tennis Misadventures

2009-07-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

(Ed. note: this is the 2nd and concluding post. Click here for part 1.)

Serving at 1-1, I went down early again. My legs were starting to go, and my serve lacked pop. I wasn't getting the free points that made holding in the first set so easy. I fought back to deuce, but Kent broke me anyway. Pissed off that I had spent myself trying to hold twice now, I decided to let the set go and hope for the best in the Match TB. Swinging away, I ironically broke Kent back to 2-all, but it didn't matter. I went down again in my serve, and then stopped trying. I would powderpuff a serve over, then Kent would whack the return back for a clean winner; I didn't move an inch. After a second such point he looked over at me, surprised, but I think he had a good idea of what was going on. I determined that I wasn't going to make an effort on his serves, but I also wasn't going to let him ace me four times in a row; I wanted to drain his energy stores a bit before we got to the breaker. I'd hit a return to the corner, or a drop shot to make him sprint, then let him hit the winner to the open court. My service games were a little tougher; when I'd try to serve my leg would start to cramp up, and my right forearm started to lock in place. Kent ran out the rest of the second set 6-2 in 10 minutes, but I used that respite to start gathering energy for the Match TB.

The short breather did me good, and I stayed with Kent in the beginning of the 'breaker. I pushed to stay with him to 5-all, and I think he was surprised and maybe put a little off-balance. Previously I wasn't running for any balls, and now I was back to rallying with him. I put together a few good points, and with a couple of teammates exhorting me from the sidelines, I went up 7-5. The pressure got to Kent and he threw in a double fault. Finally I served for it at 9-6. My body was shaky as I got up to the line, and I decided to put everything I had into a first serve in an effort to close it out. Net. The adrenaline was coursing through me so much that I could feel my arm trembling as I went into my service motion again, but I got the second serve in and maneuvered the rally until I could swing away at a forehand, and then it was all over! I won 10-7! Kent slammed a ball to the back fence but greeted me at the net with a friendly shake.

I headed out to the shade next to the courts again and the excitement really began. Two of my teammates lost in 3rd set tiebreakers so we were down 2-1. The fourth match also went to a 3rd set tiebreaker, but we pulled it out and were even 2-2, with one match still to go. It went, you guessed it, to a 3rd set tiebreaker. At this point I was sitting with my friend Yun, drinking water and yelling at our teammate still locked in battle. All of a sudden my abs locked up, and I doubled over in pain from the cramps. I flopped down onto the concrete to try and stretch it out, to no avail, and soon the Quinine Guy was running at me. Unbeknownst to me, our teammate took a lead in his Match TB, and all of a sudden there was a lot of commotion; guys were yelling for him, guys were yelling at me, and I was doing quite a bit of yelling myself.

Two minutes after the pills, the cramps in my stomach started to subside. Robin, our captain's wife and a former Registered Nurse, was by my side trying to get me to drink. I took huge gulps of an energy drink but I couldn't get fluids back into me fast enough. My leg seized up and I skinned my elbows on the pavement as I tried to move into a position to stretch it. I was channeling memories of high-school soccer preseason, where I'd encountered similar cramps before, trying to remember what I did back then to make it stop. Back then a coach knew what was happening and helped me stretch out; this time I could only give vague directions to Robin to bend my leg this way or that. My hamstring spasmed and seemingly my whole leg locked up, even my foot arched and my toes dove downward as if pulled by some invisible force. "My big toe!" I screamed, "pull it up toward my knee!" "Fuck! FUCK!" shouted my friend Yun, feeling totally helpless. I continued to try to drink and stretch out, but nothing gave me long relief. After 30 minutes Yun asked if he should call an ambulance, and I screamed my affirmation.

EMTs soon surrounded me and got me stabilized. One noticed a bruise on my right inner elbow and asked if I recently had blood drawn. I mumbled that I gave blood 4 days ago. "What?!" was the incredulous response. They strapped me into a gurney, and wheeled me out through a throng of tennis players, who were applauding the actions of my saviors. Supar embarrassing. As I was leaving I saw Kent, and I jokingly said to him "You did this to me!" One of his teammates yelled back "Yeah, but you still beat him and we're never going to let him forget it!"

I got rushed off to the Emergency Room where the doctors hooked me up with an IV. Right back into the same arm that had the blood draw. My right elbow was a purply bruised mess. Meanwhile, the roasted red pepper sauce from my earlier Tuscan Turkey wreaked havoc on my stomach. I'm already predisposed to acid indigestion, and now it felt like lava was swirling around down there. However, three hours and two bags of IVs later the cramping was gone, and I gingerly left the hospital.

Oh, and the match? Our guy held a match point at 9-8 in the 'breaker, but lost the next 3 points and the match. However, since we had won the first match so easily and barely lost the second, there was a chance that we could still advance out of the round robin if San Diego beat Temecula. That exact thing happened, and the team played Sunday, sans Jesse, and captured a 4-1 victory. See you in Sectionals, baby.

World Team Tennis Gets Ugly

2009-07-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

This video clip is unreal. First Leander Paes drills Robbie Kendrick with a volley that fires up John McEnroe, and then Kendrick responds by ripping a serve right at Paes. I'm not too sure what set Paes off initially...

SB Tennis Misadventures

2009-07-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

(Ed. note: due to length, this recap is split into two posts.)

"Arrrrrrghh!" I groaned in anguish as I flipped over on to my belly, anything to try and loosen the knots forming in my abdomen muscles. I rolled over on to my back again and tried arching, but succeeded only in firing off another round of back spasms. My body was rebelling against me in response to the last 4 hours, determined to not let my brain make the decisions anymore. Someone, a stranger, rushed up to me, spilling pills out into his palm as he thrust it at me saying, "Here, take these! They're quinine!" I cast a doubtful glance at him, but asked "How many should I take?" "All of them," he replied. Desperate, I grabbed the pills and swallowed them in one gulp. I flopped over again. I couldn't find a position that would allow me to relax, and started to panic about what would happen if I didn't find it soon. Shutting my eyes against the pain, I dropped my head to the dust-caked pavement, a situation that normally would've left this germaphobe running for the nearest bottle of Purell.

Eight hours earlier, I had set off bright and early for the 2 hour trip down to Long Beach for the USTA playoffs. Our team had been drawn into a round robin with scheduled matches at 11:30am and 2:30pm, and the forecast called for a general heat wave to be sweeping across Southern California. They weren't kidding. I pulled into the parking lot at 10am and felt the heat as soon as I opened my door. We had two courts reserved at the El Dorado Tennis Club at 10:30am, and I went through a languid warmup, determined not to waste much energy before our matches started. These tennis playoff sites usually have a tennis-themed carnival atmosphere to them. The organizers find a site with plenty of courts, and a couple hundred players descend on the location for the weekend, milling around watching, eating, and playing. At 11:15am we gathered under the canopy where the organizers had set up a headquarters, replete with a PA sound system. The booming voice called out the rules and regulations, including a warning that due to the heat, frequent hydration would be very important. And then they started to call out the matches. As each pair were called out the players would step forward while their teams cheered. This was almost like high-school wrestling, where running through a tunnel of your teammates got you psyched up enough to entertain the idea of rolling around on a mat with a complete stranger. Anyway, suddenly I heard "Jesse and Bernie!", and I walked up to the front table to shake hands with my opponent, and off we headed to Court 2.

Warming up, I noticed that Bernie sliced every backhand and had a decent forehand. He also had the slightly annoying habit of grunting every time he hit a serve, even a second serve. We started the match and he surprised me by coming over the ball and hitting topspin on his one-handed backhand. Still, I was feeling pretty smooth and was able to take control of the rallies, running him side to side until I found an opening for a winning shot. My serve also felt good, and I threw in a couple of aces and kick serves he struggled to return. My normal hitting partner, Marcus, is so fast that I rarely hit outright winners and almost never ace him, so it's always a pleasant surprise when I play someone else and my forehands whistle through the court, unencountered by the opponent's racket. I wrapped up a fairly routine 6-2 opening set and we started in on the second.

I continued to cruise, feeling particularly happy with one sequence in which I chipped a backhand return deep crosscourt and followed it in to the net, anticipating his down the line response and cutting it off with a forehand drop volley. The heat was starting to get to me though. At 3-0 I started to feel overheated. I thought that I was going to need to run to the bathroom at any second, but I tried to force it out of my mind and wrap up the match asap. I did just that and got off the court with a 6-1 second set, and headed toward the shade of the nearest tree. My teammates were performing similarly well and we won the match 5-0. We headed out to Quizno's for a quick lunch, and I had the Tuscan Turkey sandwich in a decision that would come back to haunt me later.

Back at the Tennis Club, our captain was working out our lineup for the second match. We had one extra player to sub in, and the question was who was going to sit out. The captain decided that our other singles player would be sitting out to rest up for Sunday's match. I talked to him and said that I thought I had about one more set of good singles left in me. I'd prefer to play doubles for the second match due to the heat, but if no one wanted to play singles then I'd do it. As I was the youngest player on the team by a solid 20 years, he kinda looked at me and said "You're playing singles."

My opponent this time around was named Kent. A sturdily-built guy from Temecula, I guessed he was in his mid to late 30s. San Diego, the first team we faced, would be taking on Temecula at 5:30pm in the third and final match in our round robin, so that meant this was Kent's first match of the day. His fresh legs advantage was tempered by my calm; I had gotten rid of the first match jitters a few hours earlier. Kent was a step up from Bernie, although their games were very similar. Each had a deceptively punchy forehand, and a one-handed backhand. Kent's serve packed a little more power though, and he placed his groundstrokes better.

Right from the warmup I could tell that the heat would factor into this match for me. I needed to conserve energy, which in a weird way boosted my game. Instead of worrying about chasing down every shot he hit, I played more aggressively and took control of the rallies early, looking to end the point by wrong footing him on a forehand or charging in for a volley. Kent helped me out as well - his style of play seemed designed to keep points short. He held to open the match but I had chances to break him. My serve came up and happily I found that I still inhabited The Zone, throwing down a few aces and generally holding with ease. I broke him early in the set and again to close it, 6-3.

I was back to my grape Gatorade tricks on the changeovers, and I was drinking more than usual. Water too, anything to try and cool down. I could feel my energy sapping away though, and I served to start the second set. After going down early, I fought back to deuce and had to save several break points before ultimately holding serve. I was up 1-0, but had spent a ton of energy to get there. The format for these matches is best of 3 tiebreak sets, but if you split the first two sets, you play a Match Tiebreaker to 10 in lieu of a full third set. My mind started exploring the possibility of throwing the second set to conserve energy and trying to pull it out in the Match TB. Kent served and held in what felt like 10 seconds. 1-all. Excuses were just pouring through my mind at this point; it's super hot, you're used to Santa Barbara weather while this Temeculan probably wears a winter coat when it's in the 70s... you're the only one playing two singles matches, everyone will understand if you don't have enough energy to win the second one, etc. Suck it UP! I screamed at myself.

(How did things end against Kent? Did the heat beat me down like a red-headed stepchild? Check back on Wednesday for the Emergency conclusion!)

Andy Murray Likes Kissing Toes!

2009-06-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

Andy Murray turned Gulbis upside down and wiped the court with him, winning 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. The official stats for the match recorded just 5 unforced errors from Murray. Even taking Wimbledon's generous statisticians into account, that's an exceptionally clean match.

Gulbis though, continues to disappoint. I didn't really expect him to beat Murray after the horrendous year he's had, but I'm really starting to question whether he'll ever live up to the lofty expectations I had for him. Despite his considerable power Gulbis wasn't able to hit through Murray, who chipped balls back into play and waited for Gulbis to make the mistake. Ernests agreed in his surprisingly honest press conference, giving away the secret to beating him: "I think before the match he exactly knew how he's gonna play against me. He took a really good tactic. He was giving me slice to my backhand, that kind of shot which I don't like, because I have to hit it, you know.

He hits the shot with no power. He breaks the rhythm of the game. Then I have to hit it. I can hit it once, twice, third time, then I make mistake. You know, I'm not consistent enough from the baseline to go long rallies.

He perfectly knew, and he slices very good. He didn't miss it. I think perfect tactic."

Okay Ernie, prepare yourself for an onslaught of slices to your backhand in the future. Speaking of press conferences, here's Murray explaining bets his team makes to keep training interesting:

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the forfeits you've been handing down to members of your coaching team?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I don't hand them down to anyone. We play football, and whoever loses the game has to do whatever the forfeit is. But one of the parts of the forfeit is that when you lose, you know ‑‑ my fitness trainer was walking around with a cricket helmet on yesterday.
If someone asked you what it's for, you're not allowed to tell them that you've lost a bet. You just have to say that you like it and whatnot.
Q. Just on the forfeits, they're very funny. But who chooses them? Because you never seem to lose. Is it you who sort of says you have to do this or whatever?
ANDY MURRAY: No. Before the start of each game, we decide what the forfeit's gonna be. And then, yeah, I'm better than them, so I don't lose as much (smiling).
When we play for small forfeits I lose the games more, because [I] don't concentrate as much. It doesn't bother me like when we play for push‑ups and you have to kiss the other guy's toes. Like I'll lose them.
But if it's stuff like a cricket bat or you have to get lunch for everyone and stuff, I concentrate a bit harder.

So let me get this straight: you'd rather kiss another d00d's toes than walk around with a cricket bat?

The Falcon Prefers to Fly Low

2009-06-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

Novak Djokovic's presser after winning his 2nd round match against Julien Benneteau:

Q. You seem to be downbeat about your chances. Clearly you have the game to trouble anybody.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I do. I'm aware of my qualities. It's just that I don't want to, as I said, create an extra pressure on myself, because I know how hard it is to deal with it. And I'm happy that the people are not talking about me in this moment.
To be honest, I wish for that so I can really focus on my game and try to perform my best tennis as possible.
Q. You said that you're just as happy people aren't talking about you; that you're not the favorite. Why is it that, and how is it different when you are one of the favorites for you psychologically?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, it was different, because then there is a lot of side factors, obviously. Media is one, which has an affect on your psychological, you know, situation in the certain moments, in the periods when you play tournament, for example. When I played this year's Australian Open, I had a lot of expectations as the defending champion.
But yet again, I changed the racquet and some things. Of course, I felt a huge amount of the pressure, and I couldn't really deal with it in the best way.

Pete Sampras talked about the target drawn on your back when you're the #1 guy. Clearly, Nole prefers to be the hunter rather than the hunted, but if he has designs on the top spot that's going to have to change.

Nadal OUT!

2009-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

http://twitter.com/Wimbledon

"Rafael Nadal has said he isn't 100% fit and has decided he cannot play at Wimbledon this year."

Weaksauce.

"Why you hittin such bad shots, dawg?"

2009-06-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been wondering what happened to Donald Young. Young ripped up the junior circuit, winning everything in sight, and big things were projected for him. He took a number of wildcards straight into ATP events, and learned the hard way what separates the men from the boys. An 0-9 record destroyed his confidence and sent him into a tailspin that he only began to recover from last year.

But this year? Neither hide nor hair of The Kid. I didn't see his name in the Australian Open, or even when I looked for him in the qualifying. Ditto for the French. With Wimbledon though, he has reemerged. He popped up on Day 1 of Qualifying, which isn't even held at Wimbledon - it's at a club in Roehampton. As reported on Wimbledon's site:

Donald missed the French Open to play Challenger events to earn more points. He wants to qualify directly for the US Open on his own merit, not as a wild card. But he has made an exception for Wimbledon for several reasons, because grass court tennis is suited to his game, he has had success here before and because Wimbledon is the tournament everyone cares about.

"If you do well here you can make a name for yourself. Even people who don’t watch tennis, they know about Wimbledon."

Unfortunately Donald lost 6-4, 6-4, a nod to the title of the post (my buddy Jacobs and I heard Donald utter the line to himself while watching him lose at the US Open). Young's conqueror was Alejandro Falla, a journeyman from Columbia.

Young, who turns 20 next month, was despondent after losing the first set but picked up his confidence early in the second when he had four points to break Falla's serve and lead 4-2.

But Falla, ranked 20 places lower than the American, battled furiously to escape losing his serve and once he had held for 3-3 he began, slowly, to look the stronger player.

At 4-all, Young faced five break points and although he saved four of them the fifth went Falla's way with a forehand cross court service return winner. Falla held to 15 for victory and a disconsolate Young was left with a long and lonely walk to the locker room.

Weekend Wrap

2009-06-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

Andy Murray def. James Blake 7-5, 6-4
Tommy Haas def. Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1

The most surprising result of the weekend came from Halle Germany, where the often-a-groomsmen-never-a-groom Haas took out World #4 Djokovic for the title. According to Djokovic, he gave it away. "I did not play well at all," Djokovic said. "I was lucky to win the second set." Still, I'm happy for Haas, who is back playing well after his third shoulder surgery.

The less exciting match (but the only one I saw) showcased Murray's newfound grasscourt prowess. He beat the crap out of Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semifinals - seriously, that wasn't even a match - before taking Blake out in a not as close as the score suggests straight-setter. Blake seems to have the type of game that would translate well to grass; athletic, go for broke shotmaker, but while watching I never had the belief that James could actually beat Murray. Meanwhile, Andy played well. Maybe I''m late to the party here, but Murray really impressed me with his serve. One of the commentators, remarking on Murray's improved game, called Murray "the best mover in tennis." What? I'd still rate him 3rd at best, behind Nadal and Federer, in that order. Still, with his solid performance this week he has to be considered one of the favorites heading into Wimbledon.

SB Tennis Misadventures

2009-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

There I was, warming up with Dano on Cathedral Oaks' court 6, but mostly messing around. The sting from my last loss in the Interclub league hadn't worn off, but we were playing Cathedral Oaks, who had yet to win a match. To top it off, our captain Bob had penciled me in at #3 doubles (our first time around I played #1 with Wooten and won in straight sets). So I was feeling pretty comfortable until Bob walked up and said that instead of playing #3 with Graham, I was going to play at #1 with ... Anthony!

A little background on Anthony: he's in his early 40s, 5'11" and thin - he was a long distance runner in his youth. His salt and pepper stubble is usually styled into some short fad; a soul patch one week, chin whiskers another. He's gregarious and likes to joke around off-court and during warmup. His weekly margarita mix is looked-forward to by teammates, and he always makes sure to bring an extra special glass for his doubles partner that day; an elevation over the plastic cups the rest of the team casts around with. Also, like me, Anthony is a huge Sampras-phile. We've both patterned our serves on the "Chong", Pete's service motion, but Anthony's reach advantage has let him develop into an attacking serve-and-volleyer, while I grind it out from the baseline. Partnering Anthony in doubles, however, can be a true tightrope act. Don't be fooled by his jokes in the beginning of the match, because Anthony gets more serious as the set wears on, and he hates to lose. The cardinal sin of playing with Anthony is dumping easy volleys at net on his serve; if he gets broken because you committed an error, you better get ready for the Silent Treatment. He makes me afraid to miss, which means I'm less aggressive when we play.

After turning the intensity up to 11, I finish my warmup with Dano and head over to court 1 for our match. Today we're playing Vern and Francois. Wooten and I took on Francois last time, so I know his game well (tough kick serve, decent volleys, bad backhand return) but Vern is an unknown quantity. Anthony's seen him before though, and cautions me that while Vern's serve isn't going to overpower me, he'll spot it well. We win the toss and elect to serve, and while I'm fully confident in my serve, I like to give my shoulder a few extra games to warm up these days. Anthony serves to start and Vern rips a forehand return that Anthony can only bat back into the net. 0-15. A serve to Francois and it's almost a carbon copy of the point before. 0-30 and now I'm starting to get nervous. Anthony's no longer joking about the great return they hit. Another rip by Vern and all of a sudden we're down 0-40 and facing 3 break points right off the bat. I'm tight as a piano string and not sure what to say. Anthony's not making it any easier on me either; I try to toss him a ball and miss wide. Instead of reaching his racket 3 feet to the side he let's it go, walking all the way back to the fence to retrieve it. Fail. I turn around and get ready. Anthony's in no-screwing-around mode now and fires an unreturnable serve. At 15-40 he misses the first but throws in a filthy slider out wide for a 2nd serve ace. Another unreturnable serve at 30-40 brings us to deuce, and I start breathing easier. We win the next two points and hold, but the tone of the match has been set; this is a serious affair.

Anthony and I discuss receiving options on the changeover. Traditionally I play the ad side since my backhand return is one of my strengths, but since it failed me 3 weeks ago with Marcus I've had little confidence in it. I decide to try the deuce side to get out of my own head, and it works. I start returning well, but Francois and Vern are volleying exceptionally and hold. Soon we're zipping through games, everyone holding easily; I hold my own serve at love. At 2-3 us Francois serves and goes up 40-0, but Anthony and I make a few good returns and pull back to deuce. Anthony and I are still trying to get in sync; one point that we win ends when Anthony sends a volley at Vern's feet that he can't handle. "Great shot!" I say, running up to offer a fiver. Anthony slaps my hand and says "It was a good shot, not a great shot, but a good shot." Oooh-kay dude, what do you want me to say? I'm playing well though, and starting to feel more comfortable on the court. Francois kicks a serve to my backhand and I drive a dipping return low that he can't handle. It's our first shot at a breakpoint, and Anthony sets us up with a nice return that we convert and break for a 4-2 lead. I hold and we make the one break stand up to take the first set 6-3.

Between sets I'm guzzling my grape Gatorade again and listening to Anthony strategize for the second set. Somewhat surprisingly, they've decided to start with Francois serving even though he was the only person broken in the first set. Anthony and I slap hands and determine to start this set off with a break. Doesn't happen - Francois holds easily, and it's our turn to serve. We decide Anthony should start, even though he's had a harder time holding serve so far. Part of it is me stoking his ego, but really his serve is effective; the other team has just been picking it up well so far. It turns out to be a terrible decision - Anthony gets broken and we go into a 0-2 hole. I'm worried that this will bring out the Silent Treatment, but to Anthony's credit, it does not. He stays positive and exhorts me to punish the return and set him up for an easy put-away. We eventually get the break back and holds start accumulating. It starts feeling like my match with Marcus, where I started panicking about when we were going to break them.

At 5-all Vern collects the balls for his serve. As promised, his serve isn't overpowering but he has a knack for placing it right in the corner on my backhand side, with a little slice so that it comes in toward my body. The sidespin keeps it low and makes it harder to deal with. This time he decides to try and slide it out wide to my forehand, but he misses the target. The ball comes slicing into the middle of the service box and right into my wheelhouse. I unload on a forehand and Vern's subsequent volley flies out. On the next point we get into a little exchange, then Anthony goes for an extreme angle. Vern cuts it off and hits an even more extreme angle that I think ends the point, but Anthony sprints after it and slices a backhand around the netpost for a winner! He shouts "c'mon!" and this time there is no correction when I congratulate him with a "Great shot!" We break and head to the changeover with a 6-5 lead.

We're up 6-5, and I'm serving to close the match. This is a position I like to be in, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the pressure. I've had an excellent serving day so far; 0 double faults and haven't been remotely in trouble - I don't think they've even gotten to deuce on my serve. I slide it out wide to Vern though and he repays me from before with a return that I can't handle. Two points later I'm down 15-30. Ruh roh. I take a deep breath while Anthony and I decide where I should serve to Francois. Anthony notices that Francois has been cheating to the backhand side since I've been going there heavily, and advises a serve up the T. I toe the baseline, toss the ball, and fire a serve up the middle. Francois does lean out wide and my serve catches him unaware; a clean ace. Two points later and we wrap it up for a tight 6-3, 7-5 win. Boo yah.

The Mental Strength of a Champion

2009-06-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Somehow having snuck past security, the lunatic in a red get-up gathered himself on a court side seat, leapt over the divider onto the court and made a break for Roger. Startled out of his returner's position, Federer took a step back and tried to wave the guy off. The idiot would not be denied though, and tried to force a cap onto Federer's head before getting chased around and eventually flattened by security. The YouTube videos of this incident are getting taken down left and right, but this one currently exists (no embedding possible): watch video here. Roger committed a string of errors to lose that game, but regrouped quickly and went on to defeat Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6(1), 6-4 and win his first Roland Garros title.

Emblematic of that final, Roger's greatest adversities seemed to come off-court rather than the opponents he faced on-court. First Novak Djokovic bowed out. Then came the surprise of the tournament, with Soderling taking out Rafael Nadal, followed by Andy Murray falling to Fernando Gonzalez. All of a sudden Federer was installed as an overwhelming favorite to win the only major title that eluded him, and he was playing far below his best. In his match against Tommy Haas the pressure appeared to be too much; Federer dropped the first two sets and was five measly points from losing before roaring back to win in 5. The pressure to win, and win now, felt enormous. Who knew if Federer would ever get a shot at a title match again, nevermind a shot without having to face Nadal? As Federer mentioned in his press conference:

When I walk on the streets or drive in the transportation or I go for dinner, everybody is like, This is your year. You've got to do it.
They're screaming from their scooters and out of the car. They even get out at the red lights and want me to sign an autograph or take a picture. It's quite incredible this last couple of weeks.

Obviously, Roger felt a lot of support from the French crowd. I don't know about you, but when someone tells me I _have_ to do something, or they're expecting me to pull through, I feel more pressure. Right before I turned 16 and got my driver's license, my sister or mom was talking about how crazy a driver I would be, and it was only a matter of time until I had an accident. My dad cut in though, and said "No, Jesse'll be a good driver." That set me on edge; now I had an expectation I had to live up to, rather than one I could prove wrong. If you ever want to motivate me just tell me I can't do something - I'll be working on it immediately.

So to me, the way Roger handled the pressure and emerged a champion is even more impressive. If you've followed Peter Bodo's blog he's given Federer some grief in the past for not having a Warrior Badge Moment, a la Sampras serving his way through tears against Courier in the Australian Open, or Michael Chang fighting off cramps and defeating Lendl at the French. I'm stepping into Pete's office temporarily, ripping a WMB off his desk, and pinning it on Roger for that inside-out forehand winner he hit against Haas on break point, down 2 sets to love. And credit to McEnroe, who immediately pointed out the significance of that shot should he go on to win the tournament. With this victory Roger becomes only the 6th man to complete a career Grand Slam (winning all 4 of tennis' major titles), and ties Pete Sampras for the lead with 14 Slams. In the wake of these achievements many have already weighed in, proclaiming Roger the Greatest of All Time, including the likes of Sampras and Rod Laver.

Speaking of McEnroe, a big thumbs up to the Tennis Channel (I refuse to call it just Tennis Channel) for their gigantic improvement. I've criticized them in the past, but their coverage of Roland Garros was on par or even better than ESPN's, and they shelled out for some serious talent in the booth and in the production trailer. Really, a job Well Done.

The first few days of post-Roland Garros has seen the tennis landscape change dramatically. Federer and Nadal have now split the last 4 Grand Slams, and with news of Nadal's knee tendinitis and his Wimbledon participation in jeopardy, Roger has to be considered the favorite. Things are getting really interesting as we race toward the Super Bowl of tennis; Wimbledon, starting up in London on June 22. See you there.

Match Preview: Federer vs. Monfils

2009-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Federer's French Open campaign is starting to look destiny-kissed as he marches toward the final and a date with immortality. Winning the only Grand Slam he has yet to capture would tie him with Sampras for the record, but leave him alone in most people's minds. Nadal, Djokovic and Murray have all fallen; Federer's chief obstacles are out of the way, but he still has three very tough matches to go before he can lift the trophy.

Next up is Gael Monfils, the acrobatic Frenchman that Federer met in the semis last year at Roland Garros. The head2head is 4-0 for the Swiss, with the '08 French their last meeting. Federer took that match in 4 tough sets, and with the energy Monfils has displayed so far, this year's matchup looks to be just as electric. Here's a classic point from Monfils, scrambling, diving, and whipping the crowd into hysterics.

Dobeng - looks a little like Steven, no?

Phew! That was CLOSE.

2009-06-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

R. Federer def. T. Haas, 6-7(4) 5-7 6-4 6-0 6-2.

And now Murray is out! Federer is the only 1 of the Top 4 seeds remaining. No pressure, Roger.

SB Tennis Misadventures

2009-05-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

"Nice serve there, Billy Idol!"

Last night was league night. My team, the Yacht Club, has been the dominant team in our league for the past three years, running roughshod over the likes of La Cumbre, Knowlwood, and the perennial cellar-dwelling Cathedral Oaks. This summer, however, Tennis Club of Santa Barbara has risen up as a formidable challenger. After 3 weeks of play we were both 3-0, distancing ourselves from the rest of the pack. Last night we faced off at their courts up on Foothill Rd.

Our captain's lineup card had me playing at #2 doubles with my friend Marcus. That was ideal. My game meshes well with Marcus', and I've played with him often enough to have the comfort level necessary to ride out rough patches in play. We started to warm up with our opponents, Ed and Justin, who looked fairly solid. Ed served to open the match, and his deliberate service motion was followed by a deliberate serve. Marcus hammered back a forehand return but Ed surprised us with exceptionally good hands at the net, volleying past us for a winner. I drilled my first two returns into the net, still feeling the early match jitters, but then we started to pick up our play. Justin, as it turned out, did not present as formidable a net presence, and we started directing traffic his way. We broke and I stepped up to serve.

In doubles I generally stick with a heavy kick serve even on my first delivery. My strategy is to keep a high percentage of first serves in and place the serve to set up a volley winner by my partner. If the quality of the returner is higher I'll start going for more on serve, but my serve was diving down into the corners and giving our opponents fits. I held easily and we started to open up a groove. I felt like I could do anything with my volley, directing them deep to a corner or finishing off with a delicate drop shot out of their reach. Marcus and I established a good momentum and picked up a 2nd break on our way to a 6-2 first set victory.

On the changeover I enjoyed some grape Gatorade (my fave) and looked around to see how our other teams were doing. Over on Court 1 Wooten and Anthony looked to be in a bit of trouble. Wooten had accidentally spiked Anthony in the back with a serve and the mood was dark. After their errors they glared at the ball with disdain; even winning shots they hit were celebrated with nothing more than silent resignation. It didn't look good.

Marcus and I started the second set hot, going up an early break at 2-1, which we promptly gave back. Both teams accumulated holds, but there grew a sense of foreboding as we pushed on to 3-all, then 4-all. These crucial games went by, and the question in my mind turned from "when are we going to break these guys?" to "if we don't break soon we're going to be in danger" to "crap we need to hold on just to get to the tiebreaker!" I tried to fight against this rising sense of panic. Feeling that way can lead to paralysis, and one of the worst things you can do in doubles is stop being aggressive. Meanwhile our opponents had definitely upped their level of play. Ed moved to cut off volleys whenever he had the chance, and they hardly missed any returns. Marcus and I were fighting hard just to hold, but we pushed it to the tiebreaker. I like tiebreakers. I fully expected to steamroll Ed and Justin in this breaker, but to my ever-growing horror we won the first point and then lost the next 5 in a row. Shortly thereafter they closed it out 7-2, and knotted the match at 1 set apiece.

At this point all the other matches had long since finished. The rest of the guys from both teams were up on the clubhouse deck, already breaking into the post-match beers. We had a choice whether we wanted to play out the 3rd set, or finish things in a sudden-death Match Tiebreaker. I definitely wanted to play the 3rd set out, despite the late hour. A tiebreaker is a little bit of a crap shoot, and I wanted the longer 3rd set to let our quality win out. Everyone else felt the same way (but maybe not about our quality), so we decided to play it out. We picked up our bags and transferred over to center court, right next to the clubhouse deck, and turned the stadium lights on. The drinkers, now with gladiators to entertain them, roared their approval. We had an audience.

We started to play it out to exhortations from our fellow teammates. I've recently become a "rubio de farmacia" (blonde by way of the pharmacy), hence the cheer from above. During one point our opponents threw up a lob, and I came up with an overhead (never my strongest shot), slicing it away for a clean winner. Ryan shouted "When did Jesse learn to hit an overhead?!" and someone else shot back "That's not Jesse, can't you see he has blonde hair!" Despite this, Marcus and I were playing hesitant tennis, meeting the ball a fraction too late and missing our target more often than not. We went down a break, then another break, and all of a sudden Justin served for the match at 5-2. Marcus and I slapped hands on the changeover, giving each other a "let's take this one point at a time" when we really meant "well, here goes". With such a large deficit to overcome the pressure was off, and of course Marcus and I started to dial it in. I began to hit my backhand like I should have from the beginning, driving through my return and dipping the ball at their feet. We quickly broke to a chorus of cheers from the Yacht Clubbers. Dan leaned over the fence and told me, "we're down 3-2. If you guys win we'll tie 3-3". I stepped up to serve at 3-5, but after a few hard-fought points we were down break point, facing match point. At this point I was like a cornered wildcat, pissed off about the situation and almost snarling to myself. I threw everything I had into a kicker out wide, which Justin could only bat back into the net. Another break point, two more, and we saved them both. Finally we got to Ad-In, and I reached back to send another one to his backhand. Marcus closed off the net for a volley winner and we held! I punched the air, loosed a "C'MAAAWWWWN!" and the crowd went nuts. We were nearing 2.5 hrs and by this point I had finished the Gatorade and started in on water. After the changeover we lined up to receive serve, but unfortunately Ed and Justin quelled our uprising and held to take the match 6-4.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from this loss, a day later. The champs have been knocked down and there's a new team to beat; TCSB has taken the #1 spot in the standings. Check back throughout the summer to see how the Yacht Club responds, as we go through the regular season and ramp it up for what should be an exciting playoff!

Federer opens a Magic Box of whupass on Nadal

2009-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you're ignoring your blog, doesn't it? A week slips by, then two, and you realize you haven't posted anything. Like a high school ex-girlfriend, you start avoiding eye contact with her in the hall, devising alternate routes to class, anything to miss the awkwardness of that first conversation. A month goes by and you realize you can't keep this up forever, but now that you've waited so long you better have something important/interesting to say.

Well, Sunday's match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal saved the day and provided the icebreaker! Federer and Nadal met in the final of the Madrid 1000, a top clay tournament and the final tune-up to the French Open. Against all predictions, Federer stunned Nadal in a straight-set shocker, snapping Rafa's 33 match win streak on clay (and simultaneously ending Federer's title drought).

This wasn't their highest-quality match; I don't have the stats in front of me atm but I believe Federer was only even in the winners to unforced errors ratio and Nadal was in the negative. Yes, Djokovic had worn Nadal down the day before with a 4 hr semifinal, but more important was the way Federer played this match and what it could mean for the near future. Federer finally made a few changes to his game to switch things up against Nadal: he ran around his backhand and hit his forehand inside-in (up the line to Nadal's backhand, instead of inside-out to Nadal's more powerful forehand), he serve-volleyed on occasion, and he made liberal use of the dropshot.

Quickly then, since this is our first post back and we don't want to seem boring to our new ex-girlfriend: The importance of Federer's win outweighs the importance of Nadal's loss. Nadal wrote this off as a bad day on a very fast clay court. "To me, this tournament has nothing to do with Paris. This tournament is practically another surface compared to Paris," he said. For Federer though, this win provides a much-needed confidence boost one week before the only Grand Slam he has yet to win starts. If they meet again on June 7, Federer's quest for the career Grand Slam would seem a lot more attainable.

"Get Wilson on the phone!"

2009-03-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

Roddick vs. Djokovic, part 5.

This rivalry has become interesting of late due to the trash-talking that went down at last year's US Open. Djokovic won that one and proceeded to call out Andy afterward. They ran into each other again at the Australian Open in January, and Djokovic quit in the middle of the match. Now, they met again in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells.

Going into the match pundits declared Roddick the favorite, which surprised me. Yeah, Djokovic struggled in his lead-up matches, but I maintain that had Djokovic faced Roddick in sane conditions Down Under, he would have come out ahead. Well, Roddick just tuned the Djoker 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour.

Roddick played efficient, tidy tennis, keeping his errors to a minimum and letting Djokovic litter up the stat sheet. 29 unforced errors is waaaaay too much. Djokovic recently switched to a new racket before the season and despite his protestations to the contrary, it seems he's still getting adjusted. Really, that switch made no sense at all. Djokovic won the Masters Cup last year, switched rackets in January as the defending Australian Open champion, and lost his mojo.

Anyway, onward and upward for Roddick. The Larry Stefanki experiment is a bona fide success now, and Roddick's win shook the loose tooth of the Top 4 even more, to the point where Djokovic is swinging in the wind. Against any prediction I might have made, Roddick has a good shot at being the one to fill the gap.

Roger Federer updates

2009-03-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, back to the Pro Tour. After 6 weeks of absence, Federer returns and the news reports are flying in fast enough to give you whiplash. First Federer hires Darren Cahill as his coach. Then reports come out that it's not true, Cahill turned Federer down because it would be too much travel. And today, Federer drops the bomb that his long-time girlfriend Mirka is PREGGERS!

I also have some really awesome news to share with all of you: Mirka and I are excited to let you know that we will be parents this summer! Mirka is pregnant and we are so happy to be starting a family together. This is a dream come true for us. We love children and we are looking forward to being parents for the first time. Mirka is feeling great and everything is going well.

Speak soon and thanks for all your continued support!

Roger

From rf.com

I've long suspected that Federer was holding off on marrying Mirka because he didn't want anything to change. I mentioned how superstitious I got in one weekend of tournament play; you can imagine how much Federer wanted things to stay the same as he dominated for 4 years. Well, that's all over. There are several male pros that have successfully played on the tour with a wife and kids in tow, including Agassi, but this will be a big change for Federer. Will it be the distraction that derails his career and pursuit of his record-tying 14th Grand Slam? Was that going to happen anyway, thanks to Nadal? It'll be interesting to see.

Sandbagger, part IV

2009-03-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

(Here's the conclusion of the mini-series on my tournament experience. Click here for Parts 1 2 and 3.)

Immediately following my semifinal match, I headed over to the scorers' table. Jon-Paul had advanced from the other half of the draw, and he met me there. At the end of my semifinal match I had felt the beginnings of cramping start to set in on my calves, and I knew that I didn't have another match left in me. I also knew that Jon-Paul traveled over an hour from his home to get to this tournament, and that he'd want to play the final today. His first scheduled match this morning never materialized due to a pull-out, so he had only played one match. He also had a bye in the 1st round, so all told he was heading into the final with only 2 matches under his belt; it would have been my 5th.

After reporting my victory to the scorer the tournament director asked us what we wanted to do. "I prepared to play three matches today," my opponent volunteered. "I've played four matches this weekend already,..." I started to say. "Same," he responded. Waaaay-haaay-te just a minute there, buddy. He wasn't entered in the doubles. I knew about his byes. There was no way he could have played the same number of matches as me. I started to argue but the tournament director cut in with "I'm not going to make you play 3 matches," and effectively ended it. We scheduled the final for the following Friday, did an a priori photoshoot: one with me holding the champions trophy, and one with him holding it, and left.

Sunday night felt pretty good. I relaxed a little bit and enjoyed the victories from earlier in the day. Despite my best intentions, a few of my friends found out about the tournament and offered congratulations. But the euphoria was short-lived. Pretty soon I started looking toward the upcoming final, and by Monday night I felt the tournament crucible start to close in. I hadn't had an opportunity to scout my opponent so I had no idea how he played. He could be great for all I knew. Every time I thought about the match my heart skipped a beat. Even my Tuesday night match with Marcus had an uncomfortable edge to it. Whenever I missed a shot I envisioned myself making that error on Friday. It was totally irrational; I actually played well against Marcus and walked away with a 6-4, 6-4 victory, a win that should have emboldened me.

After 4 long days Friday finally rolled around. We had scheduled the showdown for 4pm; a time I was initially happy about. I wouldn't have to worry about waking up early, and the 4pm start was reminiscent of high-school matches, a time when I was dominant. However, as I started stressing about it at work I wished it had been a morning match; I would've just woken up and gone straight into it with little time to overthink.

At quarter to 4 I headed to Pershing. Jon-Paul had staked out Court 6. Not so coincidentally, a bunch of the guys on my summer league team were practicing on the courts next to us, and turned into an audience for the beginning of our match. All day long I had been looking forward to getting on the court; once I got out and started to play, I knew the nerves would go away, and getting a good look at my opponent's game would help. We started to warm up. I could see that his backhand was the weaker wing, with an interesting twist. The harder you hit it at his backhand, the better he handled it. A ball with no pace gave him trouble. I was having trouble of my own, however. I was spraying my backhand in warmup, and wondered if he was going to target it during the match. That would be fine with me, I thought: my backhand is really my steadier shot. I can't do as much damage with my backhand as my forehand, but it doesn't tend to break down, either.

We broke off the warmup and started the match. By this point things had gotten really windy and the temperature had dropped. What had started off as a nice day was quickly devolving into unfriendly conditions. I won the toss and elected to receive. Jon-Paul's first serve was big. He put everything he had into it, and took me by surprise. His 2nd serve was a puffball - he just tapped it in, but I was having trouble getting my act together. He held. I sprayed a few shots in my first service game and all of a sudden I was in a hole again, down 0-2! I took a little walk behind the baseline before I got ready to return and tried to calm down. He served and aced me. Another big first serve that I couldn't handle. A rally that I eventually lost, and I was down 40-0 in game 3, but I dug in and fought back to deuce. I pressed the attack on his backhand and started approaching the net off a slice. That proved very successful, and I was able to break back. Getting on the board was a mental boost and I headed back to the bench rejuventated. I got on a good roll and ran off the next 5 games to take the opening set 6-2.

Taking the opening set really allowed me to settle down. The wind had reached borderline unplayable conditions by this point, and forced me to be less aggressive with my shots. I directed traffic at his backhand until it broke down, or a short ball that I could attack popped up. I still had to contend with his first serve though, and he held to open the set. Eager to stamp out any thoughts of prolonging this match, I reeled off another 5 straight games before he held again, and I stepped to the line to serve for the championship at 5-2. Three quick serves brought me to match point, where we rallied for a few shots before I elicited the final error. And that was it! I took the tournament!

A few final thoughts about the tournament experience as I can finally relax and not worry about playing any more matches. Even though this tournament was relatively meaningless, I still got nervous for my matches. It's given me even more of an appreciation for the pros. Assuming I had the game to cut it on the ATP Tour, I'm not sure I could handle it mentally. At the lower levels of the game, winning literally determines how well you're living week to week. The ones who make a successful living from it are absolutely mental giants. Also, I can see why most of them are so superstitious. I wanted my routine to be the same match to match; I wanted to wear the same shirt and shorts (even if it meant doing the laundry three times!), have my rackets re-strung and re-gripped a certain way, and warm up the same way. Now that it's over I'm looking forward to feeling free with my tennis again. Here's a shot of me with my new hardware!

Sandbagger, part III

2009-03-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

(Here's part 3 of the mini-series on my tournament experience. Here are Parts 1 and 2.)

I served to open the match and Stan immediately went into lob mode. The guy was a moonball artesan. It was like he had read the book on how to play me; he was giving me no pace and hitting high and deep, leaving me with little room to attack. At first I let myself get pushed back and replied with moonballs of my own, but quickly grew disgusted with that. That kind of crap is for juniors, I thought, and moved forward to take the ball on the rise. I started hitting harder, and missing. Frustrated, I tried to take an overhead off the bounce at the baseline, but bricked it and lamely put the ball into the net. To make it even worse, I kept picturing how easily I would deal with such a strategy in a practice match, where the lack of nerves would allow me to step in, hit the ball on the rise, and follow the approach to the net, where I would put away a winning volley. I lost my serve, the first game I had lost in the entire tournament. Then he held. Then I lost serve again. Before I knew it I was down 0-3 and headed for a changeover.

"It's a practical joke, right?" Stan chuckled as we met at the bench on the change of ends. I gave a nervous laugh, but didn't get what he meant until a minute later. I thought he meant I was thinking he was playing a joke on me, giving me a steady diet of lobs. What he really meant was that I was fooling with him, letting him take 3 games after I had beaten everyone else so easily. Either way, the joke was on me.

As I headed back to the baseline to receive serve, I thought about the situation. I decided that if he wanted to send over moonballs, I was going to moonball back and wait it out. I would run all day if I had to, but I was not going down in an avalanche of errors. Also, I renewed my resolve to make him move. Even if I was going to be airing it out, I would at least change the direction and make him go corner to corner. Lastly, I wanted to bring my chip backhand into the mix, slicing it short to purposely bring him to the net, where I was sure I could pass him.

It started to work. Trying to hit those lobs on the run introduced more errors in Stan's game. He started to pull away from the moonball strategy and played more straightforward, which is exactly where I wanted him. And slicing the ball made him run even more; I'd hit a short slice to his backhand, then drive a forehand deep to the opposite corner. I also noticed that he would rely on me to collect one of the errant balls instead of going to find one himself; I cut that out and let him fetch the balls equally. In short, I could see he was beginning to flag. I ran off 6 straight games and took the first set 6-3.

A group of my friends had gathered by the court to watch and were offering my encouragement when I'd hit a winning shot. This started to irk my opponent. I served to open the 2nd set, and at 40-30 Stan lined up about 2 yards behind the service line to receive. Usually you do this for a variety of reasons; to throw the server off mentally, or to give yourself a different look at the ball. Stan had been struggling to return my kick serve and had been changing up his return positions, but this was almost insultingly close to the line. But I didn't care. I knew that returning my serve from that close would be extremely difficult. I tossed the serve up and hit a big kicker out wide. Stan timed the ball absolutely perfectly and nailed a clean winner up the line. I applauded the shot with my racket. One of my friends clapped. Stan made some comment about the audience, but I thought he was joking. I held, and when we headed back to the bench said, "Home crowd. Next time we'll have to play in Victorville" (which is where he was from). "Who are those guys?" he shouted indignantly. "No, I'm serious, that's ridiculous! I absolutely blasted that ball and only one guy clapped!" A cold shiver ran down my spine despite the afternoon heat. Things were going well, and I didn't want any part of this dispute. "I can only be responsible for me, and I clapped for your shot. It was a great shot," I said, and picked up my racket. Stan walked over to the group and argued with them for about 10 seconds. At the end of it they all laughed, so I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to work. My strategy remained successful, and I went on to take the 2nd set and the match, 6-0. We met at the net and all was forgiven; to his credit he worked it out with the guys without things getting any uglier. I was into the final!

(How did I fare in the tournament's final match? Check back for the conclusion of the Sandbagger series!)

Sandbagger, part II

2009-03-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

(Here's part 2 of the mini-series on my tournament experience. Part 1 can be found here.)

Sunday dawned bright and early and I headed over to the Muni courts for my 8:30am match with Marco. Previously all the 4.0 matches had been relegated to the courts at Pershing Park, but now we were going to join the rest of the field at Muni. I frequently play at Muni. In fact, most of my matches with Marcus happen there. The problem with Muni is that it is *right* next to the freeway. There's currently construction going on to erect a sound barrier between the courts and the cars whizzing past, but right now it's a zoo. The first three courts are a little sheltered, but anything beyond that and you're dealing with noise, wind, and courts in need of resurfacing. They sent Marco and I out to Court 8 to play. On our walk to the court Marco told me that he knew Gary. In fact, he had been sitting courtside and watched our doubles match yesterday. Gary told Marco that I was "going to kick his ass". I laughed and we started to warm up. My dual 6-0, 6-0 wins from yesterday had made a statement, and whispers were flying around that there was a ringer in the 4.0 draw. Marco hit the ball hard but was wildly erratic; pretty much the perfect opponent for me. I ran off my 3rd 6-0, 6-0 win and was into the semifinals in less than an hour. I was ecstatic; I'd never been this far in a tournament, and so far I had played almost the minimum number of games. I was hopeful that fitness wouldn't be a factor. But things were about to get much tougher.

Since I finished so quickly I went to scout out my next opponent, the winner of the Andrew-Stan match. Andrew had lost the first set but looked to be making a strong push in the second. He is an energetic, young guy who likes to force the action, I noted. Stan is much older; I guessed he was in his 60s, and seemed to be a pusher. He floated balls back, dinked other shots, but looked to be a little slow. I figured if I faced off against him, I'd just make him move. Happy with my analysis, I went home to stretch and cool down.

Throughout the tournament I had been pushing myself to hydrate as much as possible, to the point where my stomach would feel slightly unsettled because of it. At this point I had drunk something like four bottles of Gatorade, and the equivalent of eight bottles of water, if not more. Factor in almost constant nerves, and I was going to the bathroom like crazy. I headed back to Muni for my 11:45am match and found out that Stan had advanced. I was going to play the old-man pusher. Now that we were at Muni, we ran into the scheduling difficulties that frequently crop up in the tournaments. Due to a backlog of matches, we started almost an hour later than scheduled. I had peed three times just while I was sitting there waiting. They sent us out to Court 11 - I didn't even know there were 11 courts there (Ed. note - there are actually 13)!

Up close I could see that I had mistaken Stan's age; he was "only" 48. We warmed up as the temperature climbed. Saturday had been unseasonably warm; 73 degrees at the end of February, and Sunday was shaping up to be more of the same. The conditions had yet to affect me, but the sun was beating down on my suntan lotion-less face. Still, both of us looked pretty strong in the warm up. So far all the guys I had played had been very nice guys. I dislike arguing line calls and gamesmanship, and luckily none of that stuff had entered into my tournament experience. Yet.

How did I fare against the old-man pusher? Did I wilt in the noonday sun like week-old flowers? Check back for the next part of the saga! The series continues with Sandbagger, part III.

Sandbagger, part I

2009-03-02T23:42:00.000-08:00

(Ed. note: due to length, I've decided to split this recap into series. Here's part 1)

This past weekend was the Leslie Allen Tennis Tournament. I have something of a love-hate relationship with these local tennis tournaments. I want to win one of these things to prove myself, but every time I do enter I get so worked up in the days leading up to the tournament that I psych myself out, play poorly and lose to someone I generally think I should beat. Yet whenever they roll around I sign up, and this one was no exception.

I decided to enter the 4.0 singles bracket. There's a little history here. When I first joined the USTA I self-rated at 4.0 in order to join a league here in Santa Barbara (see the previous post). After that league ended I was bumped up to a 4.5 rating, despite an appeal. I guess I did so poorly in the 2 years afterward that I got bumped back down. I decided I needed some confidence-building wins, and entered the 4.0 division, with much eye-rolling from my tennis buddies. My friend Ed also convinced me to join the 5.0 doubles.

The Wednesday and Thursday prior I started compulsively checking the tournament website (remember what I said about the days leading up?) and to my ever-growing horror watched the 4.0 bracket balloon up to 24 players! This meant that I'd have to win 5 matches over the weekend to take the title, not counting any doubles matches that I'd have to play. On Friday after work I headed over to the El Escorial tennis courts for a practice session with Ed, and that helped calm me down. Breaking a sweat helped clear some of the pent-up anxiety and put aside any doubts I had forgotten to play this game. If I was going to go down, I was going to go down swinging, and someone was going to have to play well to beat me.

The draw had me slated to face a guy named Darren in the opening round, Saturday morning at 8am. My normal wake-up time is 8:30am, so in order to avoid a short night of sleep I took some sleeping pills Friday at 8pm and was out by 10pm. I got a solid 9 hrs of sleep and was up at 7am, with plenty of time to prepare. I forced down a bowl of Cheerios and tried to drink some water to stay hydrated. The butterflies in my stomach were in full flight.

I drove myself over to the courts and the players started to drift in. Some had already hit the courts and were warming up. Every guy that I didn't recognize became Darren. When one of the players warming up looked impressive, I'd think, that's definitely going to be Darren! Then the call rang out "Jesse Small! Darren Stevens!" and we took the court. We started to warm up and it was apparent very quickly that his backhand was the weaker wing. And after facing Marcus weekly for the past year, Darren's serve and forehand didn't present many worries either. I quickly ran that match out 6-0, 6-0 and got off the court in less than an hour.

Since the match went so quickly I had just under 2 hrs before my next match started. I headed home, stretched and started rehydrating. Cramping has been a frequent enemy in my athletic past, and I was determined to nip that problem in the bud. My next opponent was Dave, the tournament's #1 seed. He had a bye in the first round and was going into our match completely fresh. My displeasure at this imbalance was tempered by the knowledge that seeding means next to nothing in these tournaments.

At 10:30am I was back at the courts. The upside to playing down at 4.0 is that I knew my game would match up favorably with most of the players there. The drawback is being the favorite, and having the expectation to win. Dave was clearly a step up. Whereas in my first round all I had to do was put the ball back, against Dave I had to rally a little more and move him around. He had this habit of presenting the ball before each point he served, as if announcing that the balls were new. At this same time he'd look directly at you. That's pretty rare; most players will glance at you to see if you've changed your positioning, or give a look to the service box, but this guy seemed to be boring holes into my brain, trying to pick out where I was going to hit the return. I decided to avoid his gaze and focused on his feet instead, changing to the ball when he began his toss. Dave had good hands at the net, most likely on account of a lot of doubles play, but I prefer a target and like when opponents come in on me. I also started picking on his forehand because he had a windshield-wiper like motion on that side. An hour or so later and I was back home with my 2nd win of the day, another 6-0, 6-0 double bagel.

Just a quick note about the doubles: Ed and I had drawn my buddies Ryan and Gary in the 1st round. They are both great players, and to beat them at any time is a big ask. We gave it our best, but went down 0-6, 4-6. I could feel the strain of 3 matches taking its toll on me. The warming up/cooling down is an underrated aspect of tournament play; just loosening up and serving practice put a strain on my shoulder. I was happy that I didn't have to play any more that day. I repeated my knock-out procedure Saturday night and slept like a baby.

Check back to read the next part of the saga! The series continues with Sandbagger, part II.

Sixty and Still Swinging

2009-02-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

"A good forward game and quick hands at the net."

That was Alan Richter's description of my game as he sent out an email to the team announcing my addition to the lineup. It was late summer 2006, and my wife and I had just gotten married and moved to Santa Barbara one day after our honeymoon ended. After three months of newlywed bliss, I was itching to get back out on court. The trouble was I didn't know anyone; all of my tennis buddies were 3,000 miles away in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

I started taking Kerry out to the court in hopes of meeting strong players. You can imagine how that worked out. Kerry, still high on our love, just wanted to spend time together and occasionally hit the ball. I wanted a good workout, and had an ultimate goal of ditching her to play with someone else. Marriage 101 it was not. Frustrated, I showed up on a Monday night at the local courts for a mixed-doubles night. Again, the level of play was too low and worse, I had to pay $8 for this hit-and-giggle! I finally hit the Internet to search for tennis leagues and stumbled across Alan's email address.

After a quick hit with Alan to make sure I wasn't a n00b, I joined the X-Pensive Winos on their quest for SB tennis domination. Oh, the halcyon days of '06! The league consisted of two teams; us and the Tennis Club of Santa Barbara. I was installed at 3rd doubles, playing with a group of guys where the average age was solidly 40+. Our first match I partnered with Alan, who was hungover from too many margaritas the night before. We played two guys who couldn't have broken a window pane with the ball, but we still managed to lose in straight sets. I was totally disgusted and learned that you can never underestimate people in doubles; the game is just that much different from singles. But I was happy to be playing. I met Dan-o, Hon, and Marcus in this league, and also signed on to a bigger league the following season where I met Yun, Wooten, and Anthony, all regular tennis buddies of mine today.

This past weekend Alan turned 60. To celebrate, his wife Penny threw a surprise birthday party for him and we all gathered at John's house at 6pm. Unbeknownst to me, Alan is also a driver. The guy has like 3 part-time jobs. Anyway, Penny had brought the limo company in on it and sent Alan on a bogus VIP pickup to a house down the street, 4722 Cresta. Alan was met at the door by an unfriendly man who stated "No. I didn't order a car!". Well fuck, that was rude! Alan thought. He started to get a little hot under the collar and called his dispatcher, who told him the address was actually 4742. At this point we started walking down John's driveway, as the plan was to intercept Alan on his way up the street. We got to the top of the driveway just in time to see Alan's exhaust as he lit up the street like a bat out of hell. Luckily, 4742 didn't exist, and with his dispatcher giving him the business, Alan jerked the car around to head back our way. By this point darkness had fallen, and we were milling around the edge of the road. I could see the headline on tomorrow's paper: "Man mows down 17 partygoers for his surprise birthday!". I decided to hang back and let the others take center stage, as it were. It all worked out though; Alan sounded a long relieved honk when he saw us, and we headed back to the house for a barbecue and the last surprise. We had all thrown in a few bucks to send the old boy to Bolletieri's for a week-long tennis camp, a Mecca for hardcore tennis enthusiasts. I was happy to be part of the gift to the man who has been a gateway for me into the Santa Barbara tennis scene.

So Happy Birthday Captain, and thanks for bringing me aboard the Good Ship SB Tennis.

Rafa wins the Australian Open

2009-02-03T16:56:00.000-08:00

R. Nadal def. R. Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2

Is this the watershed moment? The match where Rafa makes a clean break from Federer and takes over No 1 in dominating fashion? As impressive as Nadal was in 2008, and he was mighty impressive, in the back of my mind I had the sense that it couldn't last. Nadal's style was too physical to keep up. Federer's off-year due to illness would be over and he'd return to win a lions' share of titles, if not dominate outright. But Rafa's win here made a believer out of me.

The Grand Slam Kingdom, if you will, is divided up into 3 major parts; hard court (2), clay (1), and grass (1). Before this match, Nadal dominated the clay of Roland Garros and had even squeezed out a win on the grass of Wimbledon. Federer fans (including yours truly) could write that off, however, as Nadal barely won 9-7 in the 5th, and Federer has long-dominated Wimbledon. Since Federer is the #2 clay court player in the world, he could gain an adequate number of points during that season, and then mop up in the hard-court Slams, where Nadal had never even made a final. Now that's all changed, and Federer's territory is under attack from all sides. What's more, Nadal's win gives him a 3000 pt lead in the rankings, ensuring that he's going to be #1 for at least the first half of the year.

The match itself was an insta-classic. The first 5 set final in 21 years, it capped one of the best Grand Slam tourneys in recent history, IMO. It was not, however, at the level of their Wimbledon final in '08. Both men were broken several times, and Federer had a dismal serving day, at only 52% first serves in. He somehow lucked out the 2nd set serving in the low 40s. I thought Federer's forehand was rock solid, and the key for him to be able to win despite such poor serving. The most stunning statistic from the match came from Nadal's service placement, and Federer's inability (or unwillingness) to run around the backhand on the return of serve.

Out of 59 second serves, 2 went to Federer's forehand, both in the ad court. Rafa went out wide a whopping 0 times in the deuce court. Early in the 1st set Federer ran around a backhand on breakpoint and drilled a forehand return up the line for a clean winner. Why Roger didn't continue to do this throughout the match is beyond me.

In the wake of this match the "Roger needs a coach!" drum has been pounded loud and often. "A coach could point out that Roger needs to run around the backhand return!" they cry. Listen, Federer's no idiot. He's often praised for his ability to problem solve during matches and subtly change tactics. I've gotta believe that Federer knew about the return. For whatever reason, he chose not to do it. Stubborness? A fear of giving up too much court?

There are major matchup issues that Nadal presents Federer. Primarily the fact that as a lefty, Nadal's forehand goes into Federer's backhand. Yeah, you say, but Federer's forehand goes to Nadal's backhand as well! The difference is that Federer (and everyone else) usually plays against righties, and are accustomed to using an inside-out forehand to take control of a point. Nadal often returns that inside-out forehand with an even stronger forehand, and instead of being in control of the point, Federer is unexpectedly on his heels. Similarly, the chip backhand Federer uses to take opponents out of position goes right into Nadal's wheelhouse. Also, Nadal's topspin allows him to exploit Federer's lack of power on a high backhand, a limitation of the one-hander. Most of all, I think Patrick McEnroe nailed it when he said that against Nadal, Federer has to push himself to be more aggressive. He's used to relying on defense until he can get his offense working again, but Nadal is just as good at the transition game and punishes any ball Federer leaves short. Federer has to play outside his comfort zone. I do agree that Nadal is in Federer's head, and maybe a coach could help in that regard. I'm not sure, but I'm not going to jump on Federer for not having a coach just yet. If he had won, wouldn't we have been praising him for how he managed to pull himself out of last years slump to win the US Open and the Australian Open, all single-handedly?

Lastly, I've never been a huge fan of Nadal; his game is just too workman-like for me. But I gained a tremendous amount of respect for him as a person for the way he handled the post-match ceremony. As Federer broke down (my opinion? not a fan of the tears, Rog) and the emcee said they were going to present the trophy while Federer took a break, I thought, wow how is Rafa gonna deal with this? His handling of the situation was pitch perfect. Putting his arm around Roger to console him while preserving his right to speak last was a stroke of genius. I was struck by Nadal's poise and maturity at only 22 years old. I know that Federer is 5 years Rafa's senior, but in this moment the roles had reversed: Rafa was now the big brother.

Roddick vs. Federer, Round 18

2009-01-28T17:37:00.000-08:00

Roddick hopefuls like to remember that he beat Federer in their last match, in Miami. The ugly truth is Federer owns Roddick 15-2 in the head-to-head matchup, and the loss last year came in the midst of one of the worst slumps in his career. Let's look at what the players are really saying in anticipation of tonight's match:

Federer

Q. You've said on court that people haven't given enough credit to Andy, but you always have. He's lost some weight and he's moving better on the court. You've always upped your level against him. How is that going affect your game plan?

ROGER FEDERER: We'll see.
Translation: It won't.

We have played many times, which is nice as well. You go out there and you know what's going to happen on the big points.
I know exactly what that n00bifier is going to do, and it's not going to be enough to stop me.

Just a matter of who's going to play better on the day. I mean, look, seems like he's playing well.
Just not well enough to beat me.

On top of that, I think he beat me last time we played. Maybe now he's in better shape. I should have no chance.
Lolz.

Of course, I'm not going to expect a result like what I did today or what happened two years ago against him. I expect to be in a real battle.
I expect the same thing as 2 years ago: a whitewashing.

Roddick
Q. You've talked about facing Federer, and now it will be 18th time without playing matches on your own terms. Talk about playing matches on your terms and not on his terms. Talk about what exactly that would mean.

ANDY RODDICK: Well, you know, the thing about Roger, one of the things that makes him great, is he makes that very difficult.
Translation: Have you seen this guy play, dude? He only loses to one guy, and it ain't me.

You know, I think it helps that I, you know, stopped a big streak against him last year in Miami.
Because, you know, maybe lightning strikes twice.

He has nothing to prove. He's the greatest.
No really, I believe I can win this match.

The beatdown commences at 3:30am EST.

Oz Open Screws Djokovic

2009-01-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

What's that? A little tough on the way down? Novak Djokovic had to retire against Andy Roddick last night, admitting defeat to a man who previously called him out for complaining about questionable ailments.

Djokovic started out on fire, but in the end couldn't match the heat of the court. ESPN's courtside thermometer measured the on-court temperature at an astounding 142 degrees (61 C). What should have been a thrilling quarterfinal turned into an ugly retirement as Djokovic quit trailing 7-6(3) 4-6 2-6 1-2. Why didn't they close the roof? How much hotter did it need to get before the excessive heat policy kicked in?

The Australian Open Extreme Heat Policy (EHP) will be applied at the Referee’s discretion and may be altered at any time.

At the Referee’s discretion, when the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature only (WBGT) is equal to or above the pre determined threshold, the Referee may suspend the commencement of any further matches on outside courts.

Any matches currently in progress will continue until the end of the current set. At the completion of the set, play will be suspended.

Where play in any match commences outdoors (or with a roof open) and the WBGT temperature is equal to or exceeds the pre determined threshold, the match will continue until the completion of the set. At the end of the set a decision may be made by the Referee to close the roof for the remainder of the match and the following matches, when the EHP is still in effect.

A roof will only be closed because of extreme heat if a decision has been made by the Referee to suspend the completion or commencement of matches on the outdoor courts.

This is slightly unclear. It's left up to the discretion of the Chair Umpire, but it also states that there is a pre determined threshold. Surely 61 C is over that threshold? I couldn't find an answer on the website, but a report from '05 states that the policy goes into effect when the temperature is 35 C.

I'm going to call a spade a spade: Tennis Australia really screwed over Djokovic, the defending champion. You can make the argument that Djokovic wasn't fit enough, that the 15 lbs Andy lost enabled him to withstand the heat better, but I'm not buying it. Djokovic is a fit player, and we've seen him go the distance before. Yesterday he lasted only a set before his level plummeted.

Djokovic's previous match started after 11pm, and 4 sets later he finished off Baghdatis at 2:30am. By the time he finished post-match activities, press, cool down, etc, he didn't go to bed until 5:30am. There's just no way you can properly recover that quickly to play in the kind of extreme heat he faced Roddick in yesterday. Djokovic requested a night match against Roddick but was rejected (I think a night match would have only been fair). Federer is hugely popular Down Under so TV mandated that he play in the prime-time slot. The least Tennis Australia could have done was close the roof. Let it be noted that Djokovic did *not* make this same argument in his press conference, and instead chalked this up to not being as fit as Andy.

Listen, I'm no Djokovic apologist. And I give plenty of credit to Roddick for grinding Djokovic down. If Djokovic had to play me, for example, I'm pretty sure he would've been ok, even in the 140 weather. Roddick's new quickness allowed him to get to some very impressive drop-shots and send winners back over the net. At the end of the day though, this was less about tennis and more about survival, and I don't think Tennis Australia did right by Novak.

Love for the Worldwide Leader

2009-01-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

What a weekend of tennis! It was a lot to take in, from the 5 setters with Gonzalez, Federer, and Verdasco, and I'm not sure where to start. Let's do a drive-by:

ESPN

Let me preface this by saying we've seen life without ESPN, and it isn't pretty. When ESPN dropped coverage of the Indian Wells and Key Biscayne tournaments last year, FSN "stepped up" with some horrible coverage and awful commentating (I'm looking at you, Justin Gimelstob and Barry Tompkins). So, welcome back ESPN, and please don't leave us!

The worldwide leader always seems to take some flak over the way they structure their tennis coverage. I was part of that chorus a few years ago when they would stick with the same match, even if it was a blow-out, in order to show Americans, rather than cutting to a more compelling match featuring foreigners. Worse, they would repeat the same match the next day in the Taped timeslot! This infuriated me, as they usually showed Williams sisters matches repeatedly. Federer had yet to turn into a living legend, and so wasn't a big TV draw yet.

ESPN wisely realized the short-sighted nature of this approach, and started giving viewers more Federer and Nadal lest they ascend as virtual unknowns. The coverage these days is excellent; it's not uncommon for a single camerman to set up camp in the bleachers of an outer court to bring in a live feed. This year we saw Delic take out Mathieu in a 5th set from this vantage point, as well as a 16 yr old Christina McHale succumbing to cramps. I don't know how many hours of coverage ESPN is doing, but it's a lot. Between them and Tennis Channel you can watch almost the entire tournament. I know there are complaints about the number of talking heads that ESPN employs, but I can accept even that this year. I watched a little bit of tennis with my friend Matt, a sports fan in general but not a tennis fan, and when the split-screen graphic showing 8 or 9 commentators came on he said, "Wow this is a big deal!". ESPN: Impressing upon casual viewers Grand Slam importance since 2008. Besides, I DVR all the matches and just fast-forward through that stuff anyway.

Along with the coverage, the quality of the feed is excellent. I don't know what the difference is between the two, but when I flip from Tennis Channel to ESPN it's like I feel my eyes relax. And it's not just visual - the audio is vastly superior. The acuity is so good you can pick up the courtside camera shutters as they snap shut right before players hit the ball, like an overzealous church not quite clapping on the beat: clip-cli-cli-clip-THWOCK! The Murray Verdasco match was satisfying just to hear the canonshot noise coming from Verdasco's forehand. At one point in the 4th set Fernando hit an overhead so hard it made a lightning-like crraaaack-BOOM! as the ball met his strings and the court in quick succession. Speaking of Verdasco...

Murray v. Verdasco

Good on ya, Verdasco. Much has been made of his offseason training regimen with Gil Reyes in Las Vegas. That physical work is significant, but just as important was the belief he gained by pulling out the deciding win in the Davis Cup final last year. I kept waiting for Fernando to get tight in the 4th and 5th sets and leave the match up for the taking. To his credit, Verdasco kept going for his shots, stepping up and erasing a breakpoint with a 130mph+ serve up the T.

The Mighty Fed

No 'thing' was happier about Federer's turnaround in the 3rd set than my couch, which I had been abusing for two sets as Berdych bullied my hero around the court. To me, Federer's movement looked off. He was misfiring badly on his forehand, and it looked like he wasn't even trying to run down Berdych's winners. Paul Annacone said Sampras' best attribute was that he never panicked, and Federer sure looked the same way against Berdych. I mistook the calm exterior for a sense of resignation, but he revealed his desire to win once the match turned and the fist-pumps and C'mon's started flowing. Federer cut down his errors and started forcing Tomas to hit one more ball each rally, and Tomas responded with 3 bricks so hard that they rebounded off the rim out to the 3 pt line. Federer's forehand misses are disconcerting though, and he'll have one match to get them worked out against Del Potro before he faces off against Roddick or Djokovic, where he'll absolutely need to be on top of his game.

Tonight

We've got a rematch of the US Open quarterfinals, with Roddick and Djokovic squaring off circa 11pm EST. Pays to be on the West Coast :) I'm really looking forward to this match, as we'll get to see where Roddick's game really is. He's had a Betty Crocker draw so far (easy bake), but he'll need his best stuff to beat Djokovic. Roddick will need to serve and return extremely well, as Djokovic outclasses him by more than a little in the backhand and movement categories. Let's see if slimming down really does mean moving up for Andy Roddick.

What's Eating Roger Federer?

2009-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Federer's been irritable the past couple of weeks. My crackpot friend Jacobs might call this a more "interesting" Federer, but I think we all know what it is - a shout-out to me! Clearly Federer's seen the Top 5 Tennis Villains list and was disappointed to not make the cut.

Q. Still seems a bit strange when you said “former champion like me.”
ROGER FEDERER: Former No. 1 I said.

Q. Former No. 1. Does that seem a little bit strange?
ROGER FEDERER: For both of us. I didn't say former champion. I said former Grand Slam champion and former No. 1.

Q. I misspoke.
ROGER FEDERER: Exactly.

Sheesh. This comes on the heels of Federer scoffing at the suggestion that Murray is one of the favorites. Federer's also made it clear that he dislikes being introduced as the World Number 2, stating that he's either #1, Grand Slam Champion, or nothing. Why so serious, Fed?

Pete Bodo boiled it down to this: "Last year in Melbourne, TMF had mono - so that edition of the Australian Open isn't relevant. The implication is that this year, it will be back to business as usual - meaning, another silken Federer triumph. In the Federer era, this will be the grand restoration." Maybe Federer doesn't have anything left to prove. But I think he's feeling the pressure in Australia to live up to this idea, that last year was a fluke. He did win last year's US Open, but I'm not sure if that's a boon (he's already proved he can still win majors) or burden (people are expecting him to win all the majors again).

The pressure hasn't seem to affected his match play so far. He subdued a strong Seppi in the first round, and then took Korolev out behind the woodshed in round 2. His forehand and movement are crisp. The marquee match tonight against Safin would have more cachet if Marat hadn't pooped all over his chances in an interview with Brad Gilbert. "It's going to be impossible" were his exact words. Roger's expected to beat these characters, though. If the semifinal match against Djokovic materializes, that will be a good indication of how he holds up under expectations. As tough as his game is physically, Federer's just as strong mentally. I'm sticking with my prediction that he meets this challenge and holds up the trophy on Feb 1st.

Australian Open Draw Released

2009-01-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Draws available here. Let's take a look at the paths of the Big 4, a few notables, and then I'll make my predictions.

1. Rafael Nadal
Nadal's got an easy first couple of rounds but could then meet Tommy "The Gun" Haas or "Hollywood" Tursunov in the 3rd round, followed by Jerkstore Hewitt or Gonzo. There are some challenges in his quarter, as Monfils and Gilles "My name is See-moan" Simon loom, but I find it hard to see Monfils replicating his feat from last week, although Wertheim apparently sees it differently.

2. Roger Federer
The early talk is of how tough Federer's draw is. Let's break this down. Federer starts with Andreas Seppi, Carlos Moya and then Safin in the 3rd round (potentially). Roger JUST beat Seppi and Moya easily in his last warmup tournament, and while Safin is a dangerous 3rd round, Federer has won 6 of the last 7 matches they've played. A rematch with Djokovic in the semis is likely, but Federer is lucky that Nadal, Simon, and Murray all are in the opposite half.

3. Novak Djokovic
The defending champion should open with two easy matches, but things step up in a hurry from there. He could meet Jarkko Nieminen in the 3rd round, something he'll be hoping to avoid since he just lost to the Finn yesterday. Baghdatis is also a dangerous floater in this quarter.

4. Andy Murray
Murray starts off with the veteran Andrei Pavel and could meet the rising Kei Nishikori in the 3rd round. I believe Nishikori is injured though, so most likely it'll be Jurgen Melzer, followed by Fernando "Tobasco" Verdasco, and either James Blake or Tsonga. Just to get to the semis! This is a brutal section of the draw, and the hardest quarter for any of the top 4, IMO.

Other Notables:

7. Andy Roddick
Top American gets a qualifier in round 1, but meets the crafty serve-volleyer Michael Llodra after that. Former #1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sam "SQL" Querrey and Roddick's conqueror from last year, Kohlschreiber, are possible 3rd round opponents. Stefanki will need to have his pupil ready to go from the start.

9. James Blake
Newest Fila sponsor has progressed one round farther the last 4 years, leading to a quarterfinal showing in 2008. A repeat performance is not out of the question, but he'll have to get by the powerful Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

14. Fernando Verdasco
Tobasco ended 2008 as a Davis Cup hero, and is picking up right where he left off. An extremely tight match with Federer (7-6(5)) in the 3rd shows his game is in fine form. With any luck some of the Aussie love being showered on his girl Ivanovic will land on him. 3rd rounder against Stepanek could be a good one.

Ernests Gulbis
thessmallspot is bullish on this Latvian's game. His 6'3" frame allows him to generate the power needed for a Top 10 ranking, but he's still prone to lapses in concentration. Look for Gulbis to make some noise in the early rounds against Andreev and possibly Blake.

Lleyton Hewitt
Brutal draw for the hometown favorite, as the Jerkstore gets the Number 13 seed right off the bat. In his prime Hewitt would've destroyed Gonzo, feasting on all the unforced errors and relentlessly targeting the Chilean's backhand. However, Hewitt's been dogged by injuries and isn't as consistent as he used to be. I'll take Lleyton over Fernando, but don't expect him to get much further.

Predictions

Hard to pick against the Big 4 right now, but how boring is that? The Australian Open always seems to produce one surprise finalist ie. Schuettler, Johansson, Baghdatis, Gonzo, and Tsonga.

Semifinals:

Simon v. Murray
Roddick v. Federer

Finals:

Murray v. Federer

Champion:

Federer

Top 5 Tennis Villains

2009-01-12T23:12:00.000-08:00

We've been riding high on the coattails of unprecedented traffic here based on the previous post about Sampras' new racket, but it's time to show thesmallspot some love. Let's ramp it up in anticipation of the Australian Open, shall we?

Early results: Murray looks good notching wins over Federer and Nadal, Roddick makes it to the final of his first tournament working with Stefanki, and Djokovic is scrambling to get extra matches after losing early. Personalities help liven up rivalries, and tennis likes to trump up its Good Guys. That's fine, but we only have people to root for. Let's take a different tack and identify some you can root against:

#1
Name: Andy Roddick
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Surprise! America's golden boy is Tennis' #1 Villain. A lot of Andy's bad behavior gets glossed over by the US media, but Roddick doesn't enjoy the same treatment in the rest of the world. Roddick directs his venom at chair umpires, and in last year's Australian Open had this to say to the unfortunate soul in the chair: "shut up", "have a bit of class", "[Your ears are] connected to your head, use them", "I'm going to speak very slowly to you, so you can understand me" and "Kids, stay in school or you'll end up being an umpire". Yowch.

#2
Name: Lleyton Hewitt
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Hewitt's in-your-face attitude and fist pumps are well documented, and he's turned many of his coworkers against him by cheering their errors. One of his most notorious incidents came in 2001 at the US Open, in a 4th round match against James Blake. After being called for multiple foot faults, Hewitt requested that the line judge be removed from the match, yelling at the chair umpire, "Look at him. Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is. Just get him off the court." Blake (and many others) interpreted these remarks as racially motivated, but James ultimately took the high road and gave Hewitt the benefit of the doubt. Marriage and children have mellowed the fiery Aussie, but watching him (incorrectly) dispute a call at the Hopman Cup reminded us of his ugly side.

#3
Name: Nicolas Kiefer
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: This is another Hopman Cup revival. Kiefer's fallen off the map a bit these days, but seeing his surly disposition and general disdain for the ballkids brought back a flood of memories. I have an extreme dislike for players who treat the ballkids poorly. Bad boy highlight: a 2006 Australian Open match (what is it with players behaving badly Down Under?) against Sebastien Grosjean. A rally ended with both players up at net for a volley exchange. Kiefer hit a soft reply and as Grosjean prepared to volley to the open court, Kiefer tossed his racket toward the net. Distracted, Grosjean volleyed wide and appealed to the chair umpire, claiming hindrance. Kiefer quickly picked up his racket and wagged his finger "no", and to my utter amazement, got away with this completely bush-league behavior.

#4
Name: Robin Soderling
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Seriously, is this not the face of Pure Evil? Add Soderling to the Doesn't-Play-Nicely-With-Ballkids group. His 2007 Wimbledon matchup with Nadal also got ugly. Frustrated with Nadal's deliberate pace, Soderling engaged in gamesmanship, imitating Nadal's wedgie pick and slowing down the pace of the game himself. After losing in 5 tight sets, he took his feud public with comments to the press, endearing himself to no one.

#5
Name: Novak Djokovic
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: This is a rough call as Djokovic has largely cleaned up his act. Early in his career Djokovic was known for taking dubious injury timeouts, trash talking opponents through the press, and enabling his ridiculous parents to attend tennis matches. Novak showed he hasn't lost his touch at the 2008 US Open, turning the crowd against him by very publicly taking exception to comments Roddick had made about him in the press. As boos rained down, an unrepentant Djokovic stalked off to the locker room.

Disagree? Think I left someone out? Sound off below!

New Sampras Racket Revealed!

2008-12-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

Tennis Warehouse has a cheesy yet funny video on the new hotness that is about to be dropped on the public, the new Sampras Wilson [K]Pro Staff 88 tennis racket. Dubbed "The Log", the specs are 12.8 ounces, 68 flex, and a swingweight of 346. That is one man-sized racket. Comparatively, Federer's KSix-One Tour 90 is considered one of the most physically demanding rackets on the market at 90 sq inches, 12.5 oz, 67 and 336. Should be an interesting demo, for sure. A couple of screengrabs from the movie:

Dude, we're still cool though, right?

2008-12-07T14:25:00.001-08:00

Agassi's longtime friend* and business partner sues his wife, Graf.

*Assuming this lawsuit doesn't, you know, put a dent in the friendship.

SB Tennis Misadventures

2008-11-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving-day tennis at Birnam Wood Country Club, in Montecito. You've probably heard about Montecito due to the devastating Tea Fire that whipped through here recently, burning 210 houses, but before that Montecito was known as the Richy Rich area of already-rich Santa Barbara. Various celebrities have called this oceanside enclave home over the years, and most recently Oprah plunked down a cool 50 million for her mansion in the hills. Suffice it to say that these estates are guarded by large gates, and Birnam Wood is no exception. Pulling up to the security gate, my window goes down and my shades go up (so the guard can get a good look at my face) and these words get me through: "Jesse, here to play tennis with Anthony!"

Inside, the air seems crisper; the sun shines just a little brighter. Even the squirrels that dart from tree to diamond-encrusted tree seem healthier and more spry than the poor souls locked outside. Lest you think I'm some kind of baller, my in is Anthony, one of the teaching pros here. Today Anthony was running a 8 man round-robin, with a twist: we were going to play with wood rackets.

I came of age when graphite rackets were already dominating the market, and wood rackets were considered yesterday's technology. But, I play with the nCode Six-One, a 90 square inch racket that is one of the most wood-like rackets currently on the market, so I figured I'd make the switch pretty easily. I picked up a Dunlop Maxply and trotted out to the baseline. Right from the start I could tell that I had underestimated the task. When I made contact the racket head felt barely bigger than the ball. The racket also flexed more than I expected; I could feel the racket bend back, which was disorienting. I couldn't even pick a ball off the ground by doing a quick bounce off the strings. I had to drag the ball over to my shoe and pick it up the n00bifier way.

I dialed in the forehand pretty quickly, but my backhand was a different story. I have pretty high confidence in my backhand, it's usually my more dependable stroke. Still, I must not hit it as cleanly as the forehand, because I kept shanking the ball. I warmed up with two other guys, Matt Devorzon and Aaron Webster. Aaron is one of the legendary Santa Barbara "Webbies"; 3 brothers (the 4th isn't as gifted) who dominated the SB tennis scene. The oldest, Dan, is the head pro at Birnam. Aaron worked at Birnam years ago, but most recently served as a hitting partner for Ashley Harkleroad, she of the Playboy fame. The youngest and probably most talented, Adam, is one of the pros over at the Santa Barbara Tennis Club. Aaron worked out the wood racket in short order and was soon belting line drives off both wings. He's this thin, wiry guy with seemingly endless energy, the type of guy you can imagine played at the club all morning as a kid, then hit the pool, and still had enough energy to play another match in the afternoon. Despite his size, he can smack the ball. I teamed up with Wooten's younger brother, Eli, against Aaron and Matt. The strategy: hit to Matt. Even so, Aaron carved us up, and we ended up with the dreaded bagel, 6-0.

Beer Thirty: must be noon somewhere in the world. Despite this being a morning hit, we took advantage of Birnam's coffer to break open a few bottles of Bohemia and Corona. Life, I thought as I settled into a chair courtside, does not suck in Santa Barbara. So this Thanksgiving, I give thanks for the privilege of living in a sunny, warm climate year-round, and the tennis opportunities it provides. Happy Thanksgiving!

Stefanki punks Gonzo, goes with Roddick

2008-11-26T20:04:00.001-08:00

Well all the news outlets are reporting that Roddick has hired Stefanki to be his new coach in 2009, but almost no one seems to be talking about how Stefanki dumped the player he was currently coaching, Fernando Gonzalez, to take up the job!

When I first read the news, I thought "That's odd. I don't even remember when Stefanki and Gonzo broke up; I wonder what caused the split?" Looks like Roddick caused the split! Gonzalez posted a notice to his website on Nov 19th stating that Stefanki had received the proverbial offer-you-can't-refuse to work for the USTA. Nov 20th the news came out that Stefanki would be working with Roddick. What's going on here? Did Stefanki pull a fast one on Gonzo? Or is the USTA footing the bill, in a program similar to the one the English LTA had with Brad Gilbert and Andy Murray?

Drama aside, this is a strong hire for Roddick. Stefanki is an extremely well-respected coach, who took previous charges Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to #1 under his tutelage. Stefanki stresses fitness and building a strong foundation in the legs. As Roddick is a suspect mover compared to the rest of the Top 10, I think this will be a beneficial partnership. Come to think of it, Roddick is not unlike Gonzo; a strong forehand, weaker backhand, and an average to below-average mover. Maybe Stefanki can stop Roddick from making those ill-timed approaches to the net. It should be interesting to gauge Roddick's form come Jan 19th in Melbourne.

Davis Cup Final

2008-11-23T23:36:00.001-08:00

The Thrill of Victory!

The Agony of Defeat!

Write-up coming later...

Dan Patrick pisses off Andy Roddick

2008-11-18T13:34:00.001-08:00

With a fiancee like this... Brooklyn Decker was on the Dan Patrick radio show and ended up putting Roddick on the spot. Dan Patrick tried to get a rise out of Roddick by flirting with his girl and proving that his life is better than the World #8's. When that strategy proved a little too successful, they testily broke off the exchange. Yikes.

Sometimes those towels ARE really far...

2008-11-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga unleashed his Inner Diva today after losing to Nikolay Davydenko, 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 6-7 (0-7).

"I lost a lot of energy because today when I ask (for) my towel, my towel didn't come," Tsonga said.

"When I ask for a ball, the ball didn't come. Sometimes you are tired and you play a long point and you say you want your towel and the guy (ball boy) looks (and says), I don't know (where it is).

"You say one time, two times, three times, and then you ask the other guy.

"Sometimes I have to take my towel alone. So for me it's maybe 10m more.

"But if you count at the end of the match, it's like 1km."

Oh, Tsonga. Sometimes we all just have to take our towel alone.

Stunner in Shanghai

2008-11-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

Gilles Simon def. Roger Federer, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. This was the headline that greeted me this afternoon as I surfed the sports-related news of the day.

I got home and watched this match anyway to see what exactly happened to Federer. ESPN gave up coverage of this tournament, along with two other major tournaments in the spring, to get coverage of the US Open, and we're now paying the price. Tennis Channel hasn't ponied up for this event (yet), so we're stuck with Fox Sports Net. FSN did the coverage for Indian Wells and Key Biscayne and did such a poor job that it was with much trepidation that I clicked through my DVR and hit "play" for the ATP Masters Series.

Justin Gimelstob is back commentating, somewhat surprising since his recent controversy had wiped him from the tennis landscape. His partner in the booth though was Leif Shiras, of whom I'm a fan, and a big improvement from the n00bifier they trotted out before, Barry Tompkins. Gimelstob has an irritating habit of repeating himself word for word and is still prone to talking too much, but he's improved as a commentator. He's cut back on the over-the-top exclamations, and eased up on the predictions that often left him eating crow.

But let's get to the match. Hewitt part deux, I mean, Gilles Simon, is a classic counterpuncher who hits a relatively flat ball, and has exceptional foot speed. The first time they met, Federer was coming off the long layoff after Wimbledon, with question marks about how he would handle the crushing defeat by Nadal. This time around, Federer had been out for 10 days, and there was uncertainty about whether a back injury would flare up. Back in August Federer won the first set, then went down in a flurry of forehand errors in sets two and three. What a bit of foreshadowing that turned out to be. This time, Federer came out with a very specific gameplan; stay aggressive on the forehand, change the height of the ball by throwing in some heavy topspin, and slice the backhand short crosscourt to bring Gilles up to the forecourt where he is less comfortable.

Federer took the first set on the strength of that short slice, despite some scratchy serving. Simon looked confused as to how to reply to that shot, awkwardly dumping it into the net, or following it in only to get passed by Fed. The times he did get his racket on the volley he made an absolute mess of it. It was not unlike this guy I played this past weekend. We were looking for a 4th for a Saturday morning doubles match, and Dan pulled in this unknown guy. As we were warming up I was impressed; the guy had some decent groundstrokes. Then he came to the net to warm-up and I found out that he couldn't volley to save his life. At all. It was literally an auto-point every time someone hit the ball at him at net in the match. Federer saved the one break point he faced and took it 6-4, and I wondered what was going to make the tide change in this match.

In the second set Federer broke early to go up 2-1, and I started to get really confused as to how he lost this match. Simon quickly broke back to level though, and that was key. The errors started to creep in on Federer, especially on the forehand side, but I was ok with that. Against a player like Simon you need to stay aggressive, and Federer bailed himself out of trouble with some timely first serves. Halfway through the set, Gimelstob astutely noticed a shift in the pattern of play; Simon was becoming the aggressor. His go-to play was to serve out wide in the deuce court, then step in to take the next ball early and drive it into the open court. Federer also stopped slicing the ball short; he kept slicing it, but he floated it deep to Simon's backhand, which was less effective. Federer got into trouble serving at 3-4 but pulled through. He fell behind again at 4-5 and this time wasn't so lucky. Simon broke him and we headed to the 3rd set!

On the changeover Federer seemed to dwell on his forehand misses. Simon served to open the 3rd and Federer smoked some forehands, losing the game in a flurry of errors. Simon impressed me with his intelligence on court. He's a bigger hitter than I initially gave him credit for; the ATP's site illogically doesn't post the winners to errors but he did hit a good share of winners against Federer, and also out-aced him. Simon is not known as a power player, but he did an excellent job of recognizing when Federer started to just rally with the forehand, looking to get back into a groove. Simon stepped around and cracked a few winners off those shots, and kept Federer from getting comfortable again on the forehand. At 2-3, Federer went down 0-40 and I thought "this is it!", but Federer took it to another level, somehow bearing down on the forehand and reeling off 8 straight points to hold and then go up 0-40 on Simon's serve! At this point I was a believer, sure that the Internet reports had all been wrong and that Federer was going to win this thing right now. My notes from this section read: first point, Federer chip and charges, Simon hits an inside in forehand down the line pass. Ace. Rally for a while, finished by a Federer forehand miss (badly). Federer chip and charges again, Simon lob, on the line! Rally, another bad forehand miss from Federer. With those two misses, Federer lost the range on his forehand and continued to misfire. Simon broke and served out the match in style, firing an ace up the T on match point.

Andy Murray took out Andy Roddick, so Federer will need to win out from here in order to have a shot at progressing from the round robin stage. He'll also need Murray to lose to Simon (a big ask) so as to not have the losing head to head if it comes to a tiebreaker. Less than ideal, to be sure, but remember, this is exactly what happened last year, as Federer lost the first match to Fernando Gonzalez before going on to win the whole shebang.

Tomorrow: Tsonga vs. del Potro and Djokovic vs. Davydenko. Looks like FSN coverage is 2-6pm everyday, if you can find it. Good luck.

Shanghai!

2008-11-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

Alright, hur we go, Year-Ending Championships start this Sunday. Top 8 in the world (minus Nadal - knee injury) in a round-robin format. Lez do this.

Aaaand in the corner to my right, wearing the Red Trunks:
1 Roger Federer (crowd goes wild)
3 Andy Murray (polite applause)
5 Andy Roddick (raucous cheering with some boos mixed in)
8 Gilles Simon (*crickets*)

Aaaaand in the corner to my left, wearing the Gold Trunks:
2 Novak Djokovic
4 Nikolay Davydenko
6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
7 Juan-Martin del Potro

I tried to lift the html code for a nice head to head graphic from our friends over at the ATP, but that didn't work out so hot so I'm embedding an image of it:

Wow, that 0-12 and 2-15 against Federer really stick out, don't they? But no one ever confused Davydenko and Roddick as contenders to this title. Interesting that Simon (lowest ranked player in the tournament) has a decent record against the field, even though he's been owned by Roddick.

Predictions:
I like Federer and Murray to advance from the Red Group, with Tsonga and Djokovic coming out of the Gold Group. Let's do Federer over Murray for the final.

Breaking...

2008-10-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

USTA's Kantarian resigns as CEO:

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Arlen Kantarian is resigning as CEO of professional tennis for the U.S. Tennis Association, leaving after running the U.S. Open for nine years.

Kantarian told staff Thursday that he will depart at the end of the year.

The USTA was planning a formal announcement later in the day.

Kantarian is a former NFL and Radio City executive who brought instant replay to Grand Slam tennis and launched the U.S. Open Series of summer hard-court tournaments in North America.

This year's U.S. Open broke tournament records for attendance and revenue.

Maybe Arlen's getting ready to make the jump to ATP Chairman...?

If I were tennis commissioner...

2008-10-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

"Daddy, where are the Sampras jerseys?" My son asked me as I steered him past the All-Alcatraz lineup of Bengals jerseys. His question stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't believe that in my tenure as commissioner of tennis the idea had never occurred to me. My boy wanted to be outfitted in the same Swoosh that Pistol Pete took the court in; wouldn't others as well?

The next day at work I stopped by the office of our Manager of Operations, Jesse Lusk, to find out what he thought of the jerseys. A day didn't go by without him telling me about the death of serve-volley, Round Robin formats, or which doubles team took the tournament with a 10-8 win in the Match Tiebreaker last week in Hong Kong. "Hey, how come there aren't any jerseys for tennis players?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"It's not a big deal. The tours have bigger fish to fry. They've got player withdrawals, too short of an off-season, and tournament directors that are threatening to cut doubles off at the knees!"

"Yes, but... jerseys!" I could only exclaim. "Every sport has them! This is the proverbial low-hanging fruit. Not only is it a great way for fans to connect with players, but it provides another source of revenue. This is a win-win!" Jesse gave me a dismissive wave and headed back to his desk.

Unwilling to be deterred, I pitched my idea to a rep at Nike who I knew from college. Before I knew it, my idea made it to Phil Knight, who suggested it to the King of Swing himself. The idea caught fire in the locker rooms of the ATP and (Sony Ericsson) WTA Tour, fanned into flames by the agents that inhabited these locales. Most of the players were all too eager to see their name in lights or, at least, in bold print across their shoulder blades.

By the time the U.S. Open rolled around the jerseys were in full swing. I walked through the turnstiles with a young Sampras in tow, or at least one dressed like him. My son was happily eating an ice cream cone, decked out in a jersey hanging down to his knees. "Sweet shirt!" said an attendant as she gave him a tummy tickle. She passed out fliers that read: “The Tennis Channel: Write to Roland Garros." After the jersey revelation I wanted to see what other ideas people had about the game.

Back in the office the following week, I walked by Jesse's desk and noticed he had on a brand-new Safin jersey. I walked closer and could see him filling out the flier. "Commissioner for a day, huh?" I teased. "Why don't you tackle something meaningful, like curbing racket technology, or the Davis Cup schedule?"

"One thing at a time," he smiled. "One thing at a time."

Death of a Serve-Volleyer

2008-10-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

We're continuing on in our quest to tackle some of the most important issues facing tennis, and today's post focuses on the death of serve-and-volley. One of the things that makes tennis so enjoyable to watch is contrast; battles between Sampras and Agassi showcased a huge server (Sampras), following his delivery into net and looking to pressure with the volley vs. a power baseliner (Agassi) with laser passing shots. Attacking vs. defending. Even their personalities were opposed: the conservative Pete vs. Agassi, the Vegas showman. Matches between them were the pinnacle of the sport in the 90s.

Today's pro game has evolved into a power-baseline contest, where two combatants sit on the baseline and trade haymakers until one of them errs, or manages to exploit a small opening and rips a winner. I think that the reason this sameness hasn't totally bored the tennis-watching populace is Federer and the artistry he brings to the table. His ability to elevate a normal tennis match to the sublime by hitting jaw-dropping winners makes you forget that the style he and everyone else employs is relatively low-risk.

That in a nutshell is why serve-and-volley is Must See TV; it's a high-risk high-reward proposition. When a player starts to rush forward, you know the point is going to end, one way or another, in the next couple of shots. It's the climax of the point. Charging the net is a way of throwing down; in essence the player is saying "I'm bringin' it! What are you gonna do about it?"

The generalization of court speed is one of the reasons for the death of serve and volley. Clay courts play a little faster and grass and hard courts have been slowed down a bit. This narrower spectrum allows for a power-baseline game to translate well from surface to surface. But the unrecognized-until-recently main factor behind this problem is the new string technology. Namely, polyester strings such as Luxilon. The polyester is a "dead" string, which means that you drop the tension by 10%, take a huge swing, and the ball still won't go out. The huge cuts you can now take enable you to generate incredible amounts of spin. The importance of topspin in the pro game is best explained in David Foster Wallace's Roger Federer As Religious Experience (relevant section copied here):

Extreme topspin is the hallmark of today’s power-baseline game. This is something that Wimbledon’s sign gets right. Why topspin is so key, though, is not commonly understood. What’s commonly understood is that high-tech composite rackets impart much more pace to the ball, rather like aluminum baseball bats as opposed to good old lumber. But that dogma is false. The truth is that, at the same tensile strength, carbon-based composites are lighter than wood, and this allows modern rackets to be a couple ounces lighter and at least an inch wider across the face than the vintage Kramer and Maxply. It’s the width of the face that’s vital. A wider face means there’s more total string area, which means the sweet spot’s bigger. With a composite racket, you don’t have to meet the ball in the precise geometric center of the strings in order to generate good pace. Nor must you be spot-on to generate topspin, a spin that (recall) requires a tilted face and upwardly curved stroke, brushing over the ball rather than hitting flat through it — this was quite hard to do with wood rackets, because of their smaller face and niggardly sweet spot. Composites’ lighter, wider heads and more generous centers let players swing faster and put way more topspin on the ball...and, in turn, the more topspin you put on the ball, the harder you can hit it, because there’s more margin for error. Topspin causes the ball to pass high over the net, describe a sharp arc, and come down fast into the opponent’s court (instead of maybe soaring out).

So, today's composite frames have a bigger sweetspot, which means you have a higher margin for error when swinging at the ball. Coupled with dead strings that also let you take a huge cut, pros can now swing away like a juiced-up Barry Bonds and not only impart tremendous pace to the ball, but enough topspin to bring it down into the court. This is a double-whammy for those brave souls who would charge the net. Not only are the balls coming at them with the speed of rifle shot, they are also dipping like crazy due to the jacked-up spin. When Sampras saw the way the strings turned Zeros into Heroes, he dubbed it "Cheatalon". Cheat-a-lon! Like Cheat-to-win. Clearly a shout-out to me.

Some experts in the game have posited that the lack of serve-volleyers is only cyclical, and in time some will show up. I state that this is bogus. The advantages that Luxilon offers baseliners doesn't apply to volleyers. When you volley, you apply a slight bit of underspin to the ball, and the dead string ain't doing a thing for you there. If anything, it takes away a bit of the "feel" you need to control touch volleys. And once that ball bounces on the other side of the net, a pro with half a second to set up for his shot is going to use you for target practice.

When Blizzard saw that the Archmage was nuking the competition thanks to a way-too-strong Water Elemental did they say "I think that this is part of a cycle. Eventually a maverick Death Knight player will come in and we'll have balance"? No, they Nerfed the Archmage! We need to make the proactive step of speeding up hard and grass courts. One variable at a time here, Lords of Tennis. We changed surface speeds AND brought in new string, and the pendulum swung all the way to the baseline. Let's speed up the surface again and see if we can't get volleys to become a viable option again. The resulting contrast in styles of play would help put a stronger, more appealing product back on court.

SB Tennis Misadventures

2008-10-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

"C'mon, let's do this David Wells-style," I said to myself, trying to get pumped up for my imminent match with Marcus. I was in the car, driving over to the courts for our 1pm match, severely hungover.

The night before I had gone to an Oktoberfest party, and one of the activities was a beer-tasting contest. There were 11 beers listed, and they came out with a tray of paper cups for each round. You had to name the beer as it came out. Now, those who know me know that I'm no Joe Sixpack. More like Jesse Onepack. I have a high-performance system, people! You can't just be throwing crap into this body and not expect bad things to happen! Anyway, I know my limits and am usually pretty good about staying within them. I had one beer with dinner before starting the contest, and all told, the taste tests added up to maybe half another beer.

By the time I got back to my apartment I knew I was going to be in trouble. Apparently the mixing had done me in (I maintain if I had even 2 beers of the same kind, I would have been fine). I wrapped a kitchen trash bag around my trash can and went upstairs to bed, hoping to take my punishment like a man. Sure enough, I spent the night calling Ralph on the porcelain telephone, and not sleeping soundly. The times that I did sleep I had some crazy dreams. Doesn't alcohol always give you the weirdest dreams? I had this one recurring dream that I had gotten in touch with the host of the party, and had boiled down my condition to a small chromosome in the beer that was giving me trouble. I learned that the host of the party also had a problem with this chromosome, and that she had thrown up one more time than I had, and I was convinced that I had to throw up one more time "just to get it out of me". Sure enough, I woke up and booted one final time.

I woke up for good around 10am, wondering if I was going to be able to make my match with Marcus. In my current state I was in no condition to play, but I didn't want to let Marcus down, and I thought if I could hydrate myself that getting on the court and sweating this out might be the best thing for me. Taking a sip of water just reminded me how sore my throat was. You know those spikes that some parking lots have, where you can safely roll forward on them, but DON'T EVEN THINK about backing up over them? That's what my Saturday dinner turned out to be; smooth on the way down, incredibly slasher-esque on the way back up. Toast was worse, but I forced myself to eat a slice and a half. An hour later I ate a baked potato and decided that I'd be able to make the match after all.

Marcus was mercifully late and I got to spend a little time sitting in the shade before we started our warm-up. Usually when I'm sick at night I wish that it were daytime, and that I were somewhere else instead, a soccer field or tennis court, as if puking onto a chain-link fence would be somehow more acceptable to me. For whatever reason, the tennis court is very comforting to me, and I was able to forget my recent tribulations in the repetition of hitting balls. We moved to the baseline and I cautiously opened up a bit more, hitting out on my shots and testing my stomach to see if it would hold up to sudden starting and stopping. It did.

Three quarters of the way through the first set I could feel myself start to flag. My explosiveness was gone; my first step just wasn't there. Balls that I normally could dig out and force Marcus to hit one more shot were flying by me. I could feel myself mentally checking out. "There's no shame in losing today," the voice in my head said. "You're sick, why even bother running for that?" I fought hard against that mentality, and pushed myself to try and win the 1st set. If I could do that, I would consider it a moral victory. I pushed the set to a tiebreaker, but that was as far as I was going to get that day - Marcus pulled away 7-4. I mentally checked out in the 2nd set, and although it was fun to just blast with abandon, Marcus wrapped it up 6-3.

Oh and next time? No Spaten Optimator for me, kthxbai.

Making the Horse Drink

2008-10-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Slow couple of weeks, tennis-wise. I started this blog up around the time of the US Open, which provided ample storylines and matches to analyze, and now that it's all over I've been a bit... flat. Oh sure, I've tried to bluff my way through it, posting occasional reports of my own tennis matches and the odd fluff picture of my wife and myself with Lincoln Brewster, but I haven't been able to come up with the TLC that readers of this blog have come to know and expect. No more! During the possibly-Federer-less leadup to the Year Ending Championships (and beyond), I'll try to tackle some of the important issues facing tennis today.

As alluded to above, the first topic up deals with the big story in tennis the past couple of weeks: Federer's decision to drop out of Stockholm, and possibly shut it down for the rest of '08. Here's the money quote from his website:

"2008 has been a tough year for me as I was always playing catch up after being diagnosed with mononucleosis at the beginning of the year. I feel fortunate to be healthy again, but I want to remain at the top of the game for many more years to come and go after the #1 ranking again. In order to do that, I need to get a proper rest and get strong again so that I am 100% fit for the remainder of the year or next year. At this point, I am not sure when I will be ready to play again, but I hope to be back at some point before the end of the year. I apologize to the tennis fans in Sweden as I was looking forward to playing in Stockholm again. The country has produced so many incredible tennis players and the tournament has such a great history. I hope to be able to come back at some point in the future."

This opens up the broader Pandora's box of player commitment and tournament promotion. Tournament directors want players to play; they bank on them showing in order to sell tickets, gain sponsorship, and grow their event from year to year. But injury and fatigue conspire to prevent players from meeting these commitments. Sometimes it's not even injury or illness, but just a lack of interest in the sport. Part of the reason I can't get into the womens' game is because the top females can't pull it together to show up consistently enough at events to create a compelling narrative. On the other hand, over the past 4 years Federer (and to a slightly lesser extent Nadal) has been an absolute workhorse, playing all year long and honoring his commitments.

Part of this lies in the nature of the sport. The international travel required of tennis players must be hugely draining; I can't imagine what it must be like to travel from one culture to another, trying to maintain some sort of balance so that your level of play on court doesn't suffer. When I travel I freak out about eating chicken in unknown restaurants for fear of salmonella (I know, I'm weird). Also, as a singular sport, you have no one to lean on when you're injured; you can't go on the DL and leave it up to your teammates to take the field in your absence. A better comparison would be golf, or even boxing, and the same holds true there. Let's face it, when Tiger doesn't show up for an event, it just ain't the same.

So what's the answer? How can you alleviate the stress of the tour so that players can hold up their end of what Pete Bodo calls the player-fan pact? There are those (and I include myself here) that have called for a shorter tennis season. This would ensure that players have sufficient time to recuperate, as well as giving fans time to "miss" the sport and want to see it again. I've decided this theory is bunk. First, most players take plenty of breaks during the season anyway. After the Australian Open and early US hard court swing, there's a break until the clay court season. To be fair, it's a torrid couple of months to get from there until the end of Wimbledon, but then you've got another break. Last year Federer took something like 4 or 5 weeks off after Wimbledon. Then you've got the 2nd half of the hard court season concluding with the US Open, break, and the weird European indoor season ending with the Year End Championships. Second, live tennis is already plenty scarce on TV. I've got the Tennis Channel and I still don't see a ton of tennis (although Kerry might beg to differ). However, the most important reason this isn't going to happen is because of the way the tour is set up. The ATP "sells" weeks of the year to promoters, and at this point the calendar is all bought up. To create more of an offseason, the ATP would have to buy back those weeks AND give up the income they generate. That friends, would be a legal and financial nightmare.

I think the key is to create a compelling cast of characters so that even when one or two don't show up, you have other stars there to shoulder the load. I'd like to see the ATP loosen up on the rules of behavior for players while they're on court. Maybe we don't need a racket or ball abuse warning every time the players let off some steam. Tennis players are coached to avoid wasting energy on emotion, but this is precisely what fans want to see and connect with. Thoughts?

Lincoln Brewster

2008-10-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a shot of me and Kerry with my guitar hero, Lincoln Brewster, after his concert in Santa Clarita.

That is all.

David Ferrer Channels His Inner McEnroe

2008-09-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

Well besides the gang-related shooting on my block (I'm serious), it was a busy weekend in the tennis world. Andy Roddick took the China Open, beating Dudi Sela in the final. It was David Ferrer, however, that stole the spotlight. This guy always impressed me as a quiet, hardworking, slightly boring player. Boy was I wrong. In the clip below he reveals himself to be a hot-head extraordinaire, and a bit of a misogynist:

A loose translation of the incident goes like this:

"I can't hit the fucking ball! I just can't hit it! My head is full of shit! Of SHIT! It's impossible to play like this."

"Warning, Mr. Ferrer. Code violation, audible obscenity."

"Why are you warning me? I'm just talking!"

*silence from the chair umpire, who is female*

"It's normal, you're a woman. Women can't do anything."

Wow! That ought to please the faction that long for the days of McEnroe and Connors flipping out on court, Ultimate Ninja Power-style.

The Bull and the Matador

2008-09-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

"SQL" Querrey managed to get more than three blinks. He got a set and 2-0 up before his disembodied head rolled to a stop on the dusty clay of the Las Ventas Bullring. Not bad - he certainly impressed this skeptic. Somehow thesmallspot got some misinformation on Friday, thinking that Roddick vs. Nadal was going to be the first match up. Not to worry, we've fired our whole QA department over the weekend and are bringing in some top-notch fact checkers.

Anyway, back to the USA-Spain Davis Cup semifinal. On Friday, Roddick lost a heart breaker to Ferrer, 8-6 in the 5th. The tie was effectively over at this point, but Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan played a great match to salvage the doubles, and Sunday brought us the marquee match up. Current #1 vs. Former #1. Rafa Nadal and Andy Roddick. There was a sense that Roddick could turn a miracle here; Rafa was tired from a long year, maybe Andy could ambush him, and with the decisive rubber coming up, who knew what Sam Querrey could do?

From the start Roddick had a game plan and was committed to it; he knew he didn't have a prayer of trying to out-rally Nadal from the baseline, so he attacked the net at every opportunity. Taking a page from Querrey's moderately successful strategy, Roddick served out wide to Rafa and followed the ball in to the net. I'm still amazed at how well top pros return Roddick's serve, even on clay. I mean, that sucker is coming in at 140mph! But that was Rafa, putting balls back into play from deep behind the baseline. Roddick showed some good hands and improvisation, massaging some drop volleys over the net and slicing others deep. Nadal has world-class speed though, and caught up to balls that looked surely out of reach, banging them down the line for winners. You could see PMac urge Roddick to continue attacking; he probably told Roddick that if he didn't get passed 20 times, he wasn't coming in enough. Roddick's serve bailed him out and he continued to hold. In one return game, Roddick ripped a backhand up the line off a second serve from Nadal and followed it in. It was a Big Boy play, and I was impressed to see Roddick come up with it. But Nadal scrambled to his left and ripped an even more impressive forehand pass up the line that Roddick couldn't even touch; it seemed to be a sign. Nadal started catching up to more of Roddick's volleys and found the range on his passing shots. He broke soon after and secured the 1st set, 6-4.

In the buildup for the second set the commentators, Leif Shiras and Barry McKay, talked about how despite the setbacks, Roddick needed to continue attacking. They trotted out the bullfighter analogy for the 2^9592065 time. Really, though, that was just confusing. Is Roddick the Bull, or is he the Matador? I mean, doesn't Rafa have to be the Bull? He even has a bull branded on his tennis shoes! Yet Roddick is the one pawing the clay and charging the net, only to be bamboozled at the last second by a Rafa passing shot. And really, I've had just about enough of Barry McKay. The dude sounds like he's hunched over an In n Out double-double, muttering "mmph...it's good." anytime a ball goes remotely near the line. We ALL know it's in Barry. That's why the linesman hasn't said anything and the players continue to chase after the ball. Tennis Channel, if you want to be taken seriously, you're going to have to shell out for some higher-quality talent. Leif Shiras is a good start; Barry McKay needs some serious coaching to stay and Doug Adler just has to go.

Watching this match, you get a sense of the conversation Roddick and Patrick McEnroe might have had as they were strategizing. "So Andy," Patrick might have started, "you have a phenomenal serve, mediocre volleys and solid if unspectacular approach shots. What about attacking all day and putting Nadal under heaps of pressure? Do you think that he has what it takes to come up with tough passing shots all day in the pressure-filled atmosphere of Davis Cup?" The answer to that is an emphatic yes. Nadal annihilated Roddick in the 2nd set, 6-0. He was hitting return winners off Roddick's 1st serve (sursly, how do you do that?!) and missed only a couple of the passing shots he attempted. Roddick backed off the go-for-broke strategy a bit in the 3rd set, and his traditional game plan was only able to get him 4 more games as Nadal wrapped up the 3rd set and the win for Spain, 6-4.

On the other side of the globe, Argentina finished Russia off in a closer-than-I-expected tie, 3-2. Spain will travel to Argentina for the final, to be held Nov 21-23 on fast, indoor carpet. Hard to pick against Nadal right now; this seems to be a year destined by the Fates, even if he is slightly injured (Nadal supposedly almost didn't play Roddick due to an injury in his famous posterior). Argentina will be going for their first Davis Cup championship ever, and the home crowd will be pulling for them like crazy. Who's your pick?

So you're telling me there's a chance!

2008-09-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

There's a chance, but it is anchored in Andy Roddick taking out David Ferrer in match 1. Davis Cup this weekend, and the US is up against it, away at Spain for the semifinals. Ravi Ubha has an excellent rundown on all the ties happening, so I'll avoid piling on and instead focus on just the US tie (thesmallspot: xenophobism, ur doin it rite, akshually!).

The key to this tie is Roddick putting the US up 1-0 and instilling belief in his teammates. They believe they can beat Spain, but they don't really believe it, if you know what I mean. I get the feeling that they look at losing the semifinals against Spain as an acceptable loss, especially away on clay, with less than the A team. Except for Roddick. That guy is a Davis Cup animal! If he wins and the patchwork doubles team of Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan can pull through, there's no telling what could happen on the final day.

And don't tell me that there's a chance Querrey beats Nadal. Please. I saw that US Open match where Querrey surprisingly took a set off Nadal, and that was because Nadal went on walkabout while up 5-2. Quick side story: When I was in 7th grade I was on the wrestling team, and our first meet was against Octorara. I was a decent but unproven wrestler, not unlike Querrey in the Davis Cup. The weight class lists were revealed right before weigh-ins, and it turned out I was going to wrestle the unknown-to-me-Matt Wood. "Matt Wood?!" one of my teammates exclaimed, "You're going to get KILLED!" Another wrestler, Keegan, jumped to my defense before my confidence was totally shot. "Shut up man, Smallz is good, and he's quick." I nodded at him, glad for the encouraging words. The meet opened and I raced out to the mat to wrestle what turned out to be a cyborg stuffed into an 8th grade boy's body. To this day I still don't really know what happened; this guy did "SHOCK and AWE" in a way that would've eliminated terrorism. As soon as the referee's whistle blew he bowled me over; I don't think he even used a real move and I was pinned in 10 seconds flat. They say that when the guillotine chops off your head you have time to blink twice before you're dead. It was like that for me. *Blink, blink* and I was back on the bench watching the 95 lb match.

Sorry Querrey, but Nadal makes Matt Wood look like the tooth fairy. My advice? Try to last three blinks.

TV Schedule for the matches:

Friday, September 19
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 1) Versus (L)
3:00 pm - 6:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 2) Versus (L)

Saturday, September 20
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 3) Versus (L)
8:00 pm - 11:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 3) Tennis Channel (T)

Sunday, September 21
12:00 am - 3:00 am Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 3) Tennis Channel (T)
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 4) Versus (L)
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 5) Versus (L)
8:00 pm - 11:00 pm Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 4) Tennis Channel (T)
11:00 pm - 2:00 am Davis Cup: USA vs. Spain (Rubber 5) Tennis Channel (T)

New blog banner/logo!

2008-09-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

The old one, you may recall, looked like this:

You like?

SB Tennis Misadventures

2008-09-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Pulling up into the parking lot, I nestled my car into a row of gleaming 'Benzes. Odd, I thought. This _was_ Santa Barbara, but I was going to play in a public park, not in one of the country clubs. A cry from a nearby court caught my attention. "ohmigod!" the anguished kid screamed as he made another error. A guy wearing a shirt with 4 vibrant colors (I kid you not) walked past and realization dawned; I was catching the tail end of a junior tennis tournament. The kid's meltdown was in full flight as I neared, and I smiled inwardly, glad that those days of junior tennis were behind me. I passed a group of well-heeled tennis parents hovering by and walked onto an open court for my regular match with Marcus, one of my buddies.

Despite being 42 years old, Marcus has a face and game of someone closer to half his age. He serves big, moves well, and has a point-ending forehand that he can drill into either corner. He's also extremely competent at net, and looks to pressure you by moving forward and ending points with the volley. The backhand is his weaker wing, and is the Italy of his game's Axis; it is the stroke that I target to take the advantage in rallies.

We begin our warmup, rallying from the baseline in a smooth, controlled manner. One of my favorite things about watching live tennis is to see players rally, making it look effortless as they strike the ball. I derive immense satisfaction from doing the same. Groundstrokes, volleys, overheads, and then serves. We've done this so many times now that I know when Marcus is ready to switch, and move over to the ad court before he says "Mind if I take a few from the other side?"

The set starts and it takes a few games for both of us to find the rhythm. At one point I hit the ball into the net 3 times in a row. "Just get the ball in," I mutter, totally disgusted with myself. I had played a match against Wooten earlier in the week and I was up 5-0 in the tiebreaker. Game is to 7, win by 2. A 5-0 lead is virtually unbeatable, until I proceed to drop the next 6 points, and eventually the set, 9-7. I couldn't even look at a tennis racket for 3 days after that match. I wonder if I'm feeling the after-effects. Anyway, Marcus and I play a scratchy first set, full of breaks, but I eventually come away with it 6-4. Now here comes the pain. In the last 5 (!) matches we've played, I've won the first set each time and then gotten obliterated in the 2nd. Marcus is some sort of 2nd set specialist. The pattern seems to be holding again and I'm down at 1-4, only one break, but struggling to stay in it. A couple of errors later I unleash a "cohoyo mielchina!" that they hear 7 courts down. Not quite "ohmigod!", but maybe I haven't left behind those junior days as much as I'd like to think. Marcus quickly runs out the rest of the set, 6-1.

On the changeover I pound Gatorade and try to get myself together for the 3rd set. I resolve to "miss less". If I make 4 errors in a game, I want to cut that to 2. If I make 2, cut it to 1. Just Miss Less. It becomes my mantra. The set starts and I'm very happy when I come out serving well. I had taken a look at some pictures of Sampras serving and noticed how far into the court he tossed the ball. From that position you wonder how the ball could possibly NOT explode into the corner. I copy this, tossing the ball farther out into the court than I think I should, and all of a sudden I've got extra pop on my delivery. After an easy hold I fight hard to get a foothold on Marcus' serve. "Miss less," I continue to tell myself. I eventually get the break and hold again to make it stand up. Marcus' serve disappears on him and he makes it easy on me, double faulting and pressing on the forehand. I wrap up the third set and the win, 6-1.

Footloose

2008-09-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

Roger Federer def. Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

On Monday Roger Federer became the first man to win 5 straight US Opens since "Big" Bill Tilden in the 1920s (he said the 1920s!). That's pretty heady stuff, and puts Federer back on track to surpass Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles (Federer's now at 13). It also saves his year and re-establishes Federer at the top of his game, halting the penstrokes of various sportswriters in the midst of writing his obituary.

If you're looking for objective analysis of the final you'll have to move on; nothing to see here. I was incapable of watching this match from anything other than a fanboy perspective. The first set you almost had to spot Federer; Murray was clearly tight in his first Grand Slam final appearance, and Federer came out with guns blazing. The second set was a hard fought affair and could/should have been tighter had Murray gotten the break that he deserved (TV replays confirmed one of Federer's shots was out on break point). Once Federer broke at 6-5 and served it out, the match was effectively over. Federer was able to fully relax and went into full-out attack mode, while the air went out of Murray. The set was not even as close as the scoreline, 6-2.

So then, how did Federer turn it around and get back to his vintage form, when Jim Courier stated that Federer was still recovering from mono and a step slow, even in this tournament? It's a good question; I'm not sure myself. The biggest difference between the dominant Federer of the past 4 years and the shaky Federer of the past 4 months has been his forehand. That shot was absolutely lethal; Federer could hit a winner from anywhere on court with it. No less an authority than John McEnroe deemed it the "biggest weapon in the history of the sport". This year though, Federer had been misfiring from that side, and the critics came out en masse. "His confidence is shot", "He needs to use a bigger racket" (Federer plays with the smallest racket head on tour, at 90 sq inches), and others. I thought an entry from his post-match presser proved illuminating:

Q. An argument could be made that you had the mono early on and it's taken you all this time really to fully recover. Do you think that's possible?
ROGER FEDERER: Possibly. I mean, I didn't feel like I was moving all that great still, you know, for the last couple of months. I thought it was okay, you know. I think I was okay on clay and on grass. Then when I came back to hardcourts, I think just my coordination was missing a little bit, because first of all, I haven't played on hardcourt for a while, and usually that comes back quite automatically, without me having to force the issue. But I didn't feel like it was all that great moving, especially in Cincy and Toronto.
I think there were some good moments at times, occasionally, as well as the Olympic Games. And I think here as the tournament went on, I started to feel like I was moving better and better. I think that was a good sign for me, and that also gave me a lot of confidence being able to know I could play defense and offense, because sometimes I just had the feeling I had to play offense because my defense was just not acceptable in my standpoint.

Andy Roddick once made the observation that everyone talks about Roger's ability on offense, but defensively "he has no peer". It's really an underrated aspect of his game (still). Federer is the rubber-band man out on court, ranging wide to slice back would-be winners and stretching for balls beyond the reach of most other players. With his movement, and by extension defense, compromised by the mono, Federer felt the need to press on the forehand and started missing. The resulting losses had to have hurt his confidence, which only exacerbated the problem. However, starting with the Djokovic match, Federer moved brilliantly, and he continued that pattern into the final. I did NOT think he moved all that well against Andreev, so it's interesting that he chalks up the poor movement to the mono. It will be interesting to see if his movement stays at this level now, and how he will fare in the indoor swing.

So what's the tennis forecast going to look like heading into 2009? Will Federer return to the #1 ranking and dominate again? I do think Federer will return to the top spot, but I don't think he will dominate as he did. And this may surprise you: I think Federer's return to the top will be less a function of his own play than the decline of Rafael Nadal. I can't imagine how Nadal's managed to play so well this year given the style of play he employs. Just looking at his schedule wears me out. He's been pushing so hard for so long to get past Federer and now that he's had his golden year I think he will have a hard time sustaining that drive. Hard thing to say about Nadal, but his body has to give out at some point, right? I think Federer's main competition for 2009 is going to be Djokovic, who has the ability to win without expending a lot of energy. Looking farther ahead, I'm not buying Marin Cilic; that forehand take-back is way too busy. But keep your eye on Ernests Gulbis. I'm predicting a Top-5 future for him, and maybe more.

Fueling the Fire

2008-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

Two points from leveling the match at 2 sets all, Roddick steps up to serve. His matte-black baseball cap is further dulled by the sweat that soaks through it, making it look like a cast-iron skillet. An apt comparison, to go along with his searing serve. On the other side of the net Djokovic bounces up and down, his spiky jet-black hair shining in the glow of Ashe's floodlights. Roddick's first delivery misses. He gambles on his second, going for the ace. Clips the tape. 30-all now, and Roddick again misfires. Two double-faults in a row! 20,000 fans in Ashe murmur in shock. At breakpoint Roddick hits the panic button. For Andy, that means rushing the net at inopportune times. He kicks his first serve out wide, rushes in to play a backhand volley, and is trapped as Djokovic's lob sails over him and lands inside the baseline. The 4th set goes to a tiebreaker, but becomes a formality as Djokovic captures the early advantage and withstands a late rally by Roddick to finish the deal.

A couple minutes later Djokovic managed to turn those cheers into boos during his on-court interview with Michael Barkann. Djokovic obviously had a huge chip on his shoulder, and basically said that he was happy to beat Roddick since Roddick said he had "16 injuries". Barkann tried to rescue the interview but Djokovic would not let it go. He kept talking about how it "wasn't nice that Roddick was telling the crowd he was faking injuries". I think this event got blown out of proportion, so I'll just say that I agree that Roddick's previous interview (see below post) was mostly in jest, and also that Djokovic never broke the rules by calling the trainer when he played Robredo. If you've got a problem with that, beat him, or change the rules.

So what happened in this match? Roddick was in such a hurry to lose the first set that I only caught the tail end of it when I got home from work. Djokovic was blocking Roddick's first serve back, deep, and waiting for Roddick to make an error, which Roddick was only too eager to oblige. The second set was more of the same. Djokovic would push Andy behind the baseline with a deep shot to the middle, then swing him out wide to his backhand, but with margin; a safety shot. Roddick's reply was to hit his backhand hard crosscourt, where Djokovic was ready and waiting to send his next shot down the line for the winner. Simple but very effective. Roddick also seemed unable to finish off short balls for winners, sending them long. He changed tack and started hitting these balls as approaches to finish off the point at the net, but Roddick's forehand doesn't lend itself to an approach shot. His extreme Western grip makes it harder to get down to low balls, and his heavy topspin makes the balls jump up into the strike zone, instead of penetrating through the court. Roddick's black-and-white striped shirt was the zebra to Djokovic's lion, watching passing shots zip through him all night.

At 2-1 in the 3rd set Djokovic played an extremely loose game and Roddick took advantage to get the break. This seemed to give his serve the shot it needed, as up to this point Roddick was aceless. Now it was raining big buckets of Roddick aces. He made the one break stand up and took the 3rd set. The 4th set started and Roddick really seemed to hit his stride. He abandoned the panicky bluff-my-way-to-net strategy and started going for his groundstrokes, especially on the forehand, hitting several nicely angled inside-out winners. He started anticipating Djokovic's down the line strike and recovered closer to the center line after hitting backhands. Djokovic, clearly rattled by the pro-Andy crowd and the suddenly powerful groundies, began to press and miss a bit more. Roddick broke at 3 all and it looked like we were heading to a 5th set. John McEnroe was happy, Ted Robinson was happy, and it looked like the USA Network would get the send-off that they were looking for. And then they didn't.

To his credit, Roddick showed good sportsmanship at the end of the match and walked off the court waving to the crowd. From their press conferences later, it appears that they cleared the air in the locker room afterward. And although he lost and extinguished the dream of an American man winning this year, I think Roddick's run has to be considered a success. Since he seems to thrive on people writing him off, I'll add some fuel to his fire; you'll never win another major, Andy!

Bulletin Board Material

2008-09-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

The stage is set - tonight's prime-time match at the US Open features two of the sports biggest showmen, Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic. Roddick has had an up-and-down year, and this match is large for him. A chance to claim another Top 3 scalp. A place in the semifinals. A shot across the bow to remind the tennis world that he's still a top player.

Roddick has been in sizzling form the past week, obliterating Gonzalez, his most recent foe. Djokovic has struggled, with his opponents and injuries. He survived a 5 set battle against Tommy Robredo in the last round, but Roddick isn't buying the ailments that supposedly plague Djokovic:

Q. When asked about his injuries today, mentioning the right ankle as opposed to the left ankle, the other day ‑‑
ANDY RODDICK: Isn't it both of them? And a back and a hip?
Q. And when he said there are too many to count.
ANDY RODDICK: And a cramp.
Q. Do you get the sense right now that he is...
ANDY RODDICK: Bird flu.
Q. Lot of things. Beijing hangover.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah.
Q. He's got pretty long list of illness.
ANDY RODDICK: Anthrax. SARS. Common cough and cold.
Q. Got a lot of things going on with him.
ANDY RODDICK: Sure.
Q. Do you think he's bluffing?
ANDY RODDICK: No, I mean, I'm sure ‑‑
Q. The way you're saying it, almost means you feel like...
ANDY RODDICK: No, if it's there, it's there. There's just a lot. You know, he's either quick to call a trainer or he's the most courageous guy of all time. I think it's up for you guys to decide.

That, friends, is bulletin-board material. Roddick v. Djokovic, tonight, 8:15pm EST, USA. Be there.

SB Tennis Misadventures

2008-09-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

A post on my own tennis misadventures...

The other night was our league match again, and I played at #2 with this other young guy named Ryan. The two guys we were playing were pretty old, in their 50s probably, so I thought we'd roll them. The match starts and one of them turns out to have a pretty big serve, a decent forehand, and good volleys. Actually they were both quite good at the net; they had really soft hands and hit a lot of drop volleys that I wasn't expecting. Anyway, I lose serve and then Ryan does too, and we lose the first set 6-2 in like 15 minutes. Second set we get our act together and go up an early break, and I'm thinking we're gonna roll, but we just keep the one break advantage and hold out to 6-3. However, the other team figures out that we're not that great on overheads. I'm average, ditto for Ryan; we just can't put these things away. We hit a hard serve and *poof* they launch one skyward. Then they keep lobbing us until we hit it hard enough that they can't return it, or we miss. And of course when you miss an overhead you feel like a total ass, because you should win that point outright.

Third set comes up and I get broken immediately. We're caught in this vicious lob cycle and can't seem to break them. I'm serving again down 1-3, 15-30. I serve, *poof* goes the lob. I'm tracking this sucker down and drill it... into the bottom of the net. That was just it for me so I grab the ball, whirl around, and launch that sucker out of the courts. I had only meant it to hit the back fence, but I took a squash-shot forehand to it, and the backspin made it keep rising. It sailed over to a dude's house across the street, bounced off one of his pillars, and rolled back to our side of the street. That tension release must have done a little good because I came back from 15-40 to end up holding, and we all held serve. They served for the match at 5-3, but we played a miracle game to break back, held into a 3rd set tiebreaker, and finished it off 7-5! By far the most competitive match I've had in that league.

Pounding Young Nails

2008-08-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

James Blake took on Donald Young last night in what turned out to be an electrifying late-night match at the US Open, winning 6-4 in the 5th set. The point is, James should have never let it become electrifying; he was up 2 sets to 1 and 2-0, 30-0 in the 4th. That's where the elite players put the hammer down and get out of there with a routine win.

This has become something of a habit with James, particularly with young players. Blake often tells a story of when he was an up-and-comer himself, taking on Patrick Rafter. Until that point Blake never seriously believed in his chances to make it on the pro tour, but he extended Rafter to three sets before losing. At the handshake at the end of the match, Rafter pulled Blake close and said "You could have beaten me today. You could beat me on any given day. It’s just that maybe you didn’t believe you could." James took this advice to heart, but seems too eager to pass the same lesson on.

Blake took on Kei Nishikori in the final of Delray Beach in what was expected to be a white-washing. Nishikori had made an incredible run to the finals all the way from qualifying, but conventional wisdom said that his inexperience in big moments coupled with Blake's superior game would result in a straight-set beating. James got off to a fast start, winning the first set 6-3, but dropped the momentum and the match, losing the next two sets 1-6, 4-6. Contrast that with top dog Andy Roddick, who took on Nishikori a couple of months later in San Jose. Roddick used every tool in his arsenal, including verbal intimidation, to subdue Nishikori 6-2, 6-4.

It's almost as if James holds back on drubbing the young players and destroying their confidence until late in the match, and then it's a dogfight. Blake is 3-1 head to head against Sam Querrey, another young American, and all 4 of their matches have gone the distance. Donald Young, a prodigy trying to live up to high expectations and not known for his mental strength, is the perfect example of a player Blake is hesitant to crush. In his post-match interview Blake talked about Young's potential and future:

Q. Lots of people talked about him having those tools and unfairly or not, put the pressure on like the next wave. What's separating him at this point? You saw a flash tonight but just in your veteran estimation, what was it?
JAMES BLAKE: There really isn't that much separating him. Like I said, him getting down and practicing with the top players more is going to make a big difference. I remember seeing him at Davis Cup last year as a practice partner, and you could almost see him improving by the day. Just getting that confidence of hitting with us and working hard, and putting in the hours is going to make a huge difference. I really don't think there's much difference between him and guys top 20, 30 in the world... Once he gets that little experience and figures out what kind of game style he wants to play and plays matches like this, I don't see any reason he's going to be held back by anything.

You can almost hear the post-script echo off the walls "...including me."

Franklin Templeton arrogance

2008-08-14T23:11:00.001-07:00

Well Roger Federer lost today. That's great. Maybe I'll get to that in another post, but no promises. I must have said to Kerry "I still can't believe Federer lost to Blake" 5 times over the course of the day.

No, today I get something off my chest that's been bugging me for months now. You've seen them, those snide, insipid Franklin Templeton commercials. It seems the whole point of these commercials is to point out exactly how much of a n00bifier the viewer is at making investments. "YOU see a troubled steel business. WE see an opportunity to invest in a re-engineered steel company poised for a turnaround." How do they know I don't see a re-engineered steel company poised for a turnaround? In fact, I'm considered one of the world's foremost experts when it comes to evaluating steel companies and whether or not they are going to bite the dust in the next 12 months, or whether they're going to be Working Their Way Back (to you, babe). Ok that's not true, but these commercials make me doubly glad I'm with American Funds.

While I'm riffing; Womens Gymnastics - love Nastia Liukin. Lezzgo, Nastia. But what is the deal with Chellsie Memmel? She seems incapable of an open-eye hug. And did you catch the team final, the way the teammates cheered each other on? "C'mon, Shawn!" They said it with a pitiful desperation, the way I can imagine someone doing alone in the locker room after the meet is over, absently muttering to herself "c'mon shawn...c'mon."