Cupcakes & Tennis

Two years ago when I sat in Rod Laver Arena for the men’s final, I was tucked up in the very last row at the TV viewpoint end.  It actually wasn’t a bad seat and my fellow passengers, so to speak, and I got to know each other and formed a little community by the end.  The match itself was three straight sets to Roger over Andy Murray who never really put it in gear that evening.

I lingered after the ceremony until they chased me out, wandered slowly through the grounds one last time, caught Roger being interviewed by ESPN and talking with the handful of people who were still around, including me.  A great finish.  Even after I meandered back to my flat just a few blocks from the cricket grounds, it still wasn’t much past midnight.

What a contrast to the final this year.  The longest final in a Grand Slam in the Open era, five hours and fifteen minutes, or thereabouts.  It was 1:30 in the morning before people filed out.   I recorded it and watched during the morning and afternoon yesterday, it was a commitment.  And even though I extended the time of the recording, I still had to watch the last half hour on ESPN 3.   Epic and awesome are two overused words these days, but they apply in this case.

Both players ran about fifteen miles or so during the match.  Coming in to the semis, Novak had spent about 10 hours on the court.  For the semi and the final, he played the same number of hours.  And one comment about the running these guys do.  It’s not what you do when you go out for a three mile jog.  No, this is like constant sprinting.  Two steps to the right, then chase back fast to the left, then up to the net, then quick steps back to line up for an overhead.  Stop, start, stop, start.  And in between get your racquet on the ball for a clean shot.  Truly arduous stuff.

Rafa made a comment in press after the Murray/Djokovic semifinal that Murray lost the match because he took his foot off the gas in the fourth set, the one that Novak won handily 6-1.   It’s a valid point.  Rafa is not one to make that same mistake.  At the end of the third set of the final, he was down two sets.  Neither player took their foot off the gas.  Novak had many chances in the fourth set to close the door.  He was five points from winning the match at one point.  But Nadal wouldn’t let him.

It was fight to the finish and by the end they were both so exhausted, they were nearly reeling.  Novak managed to break Nadal at 5-5 and went on to serve for the match.  No one knew how it was going to turn out.  They had never played a five set match in all of their encounters.

It seemed so fitting.  That the last match should bring us all into uncharted territory.  The game is constantly evolving, taking itself up a notch, more power, more agility, more fitness required.  These two men are among the most fit beings in the world.  What would they do with a fifth set?

And even though Rafa lost, again, to Novak, it was a different kind of loss.  He made headway in figuring out how to beat Novak and he forced Djokovic to up his own ante.

Someone had to win, someone had to lose.  As they stood by the net while the ceremony got underway, they could barely stand and finally two chairs were brought out so they could sit while all the thank yous got said.  Rafa was gracious in defeat, as he always is.  Novak is well spoken also.

All in all, a thrilling and satisfying end to a tournament that will be hard to top for excitement and great tennis.  There were surprises and upsets and in the end, the last women and men standing did the sport proud.  The women’s game has a new number one and a first time Grand Slam winner, someone we can and will look forward to seeing a lot in the future.  The men’s game has the top four all playing well, shuffling around, challenging themselves and each other to play better, bring something more, something new to the fore.

It feels like a new, fresh chapter in the game and I, for one, am loving it.

Plus, having picked the winners correctly, Azarenka and Djokovic, I did much better on my racquet bracket than otherwise.  My own small satisfaction.

Mostly I just enjoyed watching it all, being a part of it, along with so many others worldwide.  Thanks for reading my posts here at Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

I’ll be posting right along now.  Indian Wells is not far off.  Let’s see how this new year unfolds.

Catch you later.

It was Australia Day yesterday, similar to our Fourth of July, including fireworks downtown over the river, and fly bys earlier in the day.  Probably lots of barbies.  It’s summer Down Under, remember.  The fireworks are visible, at least from certain seats, from Rod Laver Arena and whether you can see them or not, they’re noisy.  Hence, when the fireworks begin and for the ten or so minutes they last, play on court is suspended.

That happened at 5-2 in the second set between Roger and Rafa last night, with Rafa about to serve for it.  The players left the court, were permitted to hang out in massage rooms, presumably separate ones, close to the court; they were not allowed to go to the locker room, and their coaches were not allowed to leave the box.

The break was not especially beneficial, if anything the opposite.  With temperatures cooling rapidly, and no warm up, it wasn’t that easy to just pick up where you left off.  Roger seemed sluggish.  Rafa went ahead and leveled the match to one set a piece.  Roger won the first set in a tiebreak but at first took a 3-0 lead and then was up 5-2, so winning in a tiebreak was an indication of just how difficult the whole thing was.

It always is.  I had hoped this match would be somewhat different from their others.  We all know Rafa has the head to head on this, almost to the point of not being able to call it a rivalry as much as a domination.  There is always talk in tennis about match-ups.  For instance, Andy Roddick’s game is not a good match-up with Roger’s.  Andy doesn’t really have anything that bothers Roger.  That’s why Roger always beats Andy.

Two years ago no one was beating Rafa.  But then along came Djokovic last year and he figured out a way.  Basically he just goes to Rafa’s backhand, especially in the deuce court, over and over and then some more.  Do that enough and you’ll get the errors off of Rafa’s racquet.  These days Novak is in Rafa’s head the same way Rafa is in Roger’s.  That seems fair, doesn’t it?  Rafa couldn’t beat Novak last year and as the year progressed and he kept on getting beaten by him, you could really tell it bothered him.

I had hoped last night’s match would have been different.  Roger’s got that shot, he can do that, too.  Over and over again to the backhand.  Talk about fair, that’s really really fair.  After all, that’s Rafa’s strategy with Roger.  Over and over to his backhand, high up, where it’s hard to get it.

So I don’t know why Roger didn’t do that last night.  He did it some, but not enough.  Patrick McEnroe was commenting on it, thinking maybe it’s just too boring for Roger to have set plays.  Like a brilliant chef making the same brownies again and again.  But I think Darren Cahill may have more insight to offer on this.  Apparently, Darren spent some time with Roger going over video of matches to analyze what happens in break point situations, another weak spot.  Roger gets break points against Rafa, but only converts a small percentage of them.

Darren said that Roger had thought he had been aggressive in these situations.  That was his perception of his behavior.  But once they viewed the video and broke it all down, it was clear that he actually had not been.  Heartening in a way to the common folks that the master is just as human as we are.  He can’t see himself clearly just like we can’t.

Rafa won it in four sets and Roger did look discouraged.  I hope Darren gets to him for another session sometime.  It would be fun to see him beat Rafa at least some of the time.  This is really too painful now.

Depending on what happens tonight in the other semifinal match between Djokovic and Murray, we may see a Rafa/Novak final.  And if we do, I’m thinking my pick two weeks ago of Novak to win the whole shebang may just be the way it turns out.

Prior to the Big Match, between Roger and Rafa, there were two semifinal women’s matches and the way those shook out was one of the newbies and one of the veterans.  Victoria Azarenka won her match against Kim Clijsters in three interesting sets.  Maria Sharapova prevailed over Petra Kvitova, got her revenge for Wimbledon.

The main thing to note about this is if you want to watch the final be prepared for the double shrieking.  Vika and Maria shriek with every swing of their racquet.  Every swing.  There will be no respite.  First Maria will shriek, then Vika, then Maria and on and on.  Honestly, I hope the tennis is great because their voices are almost enough not to watch, they give you a headache.  Personally, I’ll take Vika’s scream over Maria’s.  It’s less irritating, not as high pitched.

People have been very aware of this situation a lot during this Australian Open but if public objection were the change factor here, it would have changed a long time ago.  I missed Monica Seles and the tennis of those years but she was one for the ages, people say.  And no one changed anything.

Where it really has to change is on the court, with other women players objecting to it as a hindrance.  I’m not sure why they don’t object more but I think it’s our only hope and clearly a slim one.  Azarenka and Maria both weighed in on this during the tournament, aware of the crowd mocking, etc…, and basically said this is the way I play.  End of story.

Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

Okay, let’s get caught up on all the quarterfinal matches, starting with the women.  Azarenka took on her good friend Aggie Radwanska.  She dropped the first set in a tiebreak, after a seesaw tight set that featured eight breaks of serve.  Clearly, serve was not going to be the determining factor.

Radwanska is a kind of surprising player.  She doesn’t look the part.  She’s petite in stature, doesn’t look beefed up even if she is.  No guns.  Sam Stosur has guns.  Aggie’s arms are just lovely and shapely and look like they could use a little more sun tan lotion.  They don’t look like they work hard, those arms.

But they do.  She gets a ton of balls back and relies on laser like placement of the ball rather than power to get her ahead in the score line.

After losing the first set, 7-0 in the tiebreak, really?, how often do you see that?, Vika shook it off and never looked back.  She took sets 2 and 3, 2 and 0 and advanced to the semifinals.

More on the shrieking.  The purchasers of the tickets, i.e. the crowd, are fighting back.  You could hear during this match, and apparently others, members of the crowd imitating Azarenka’s shrieks.  And I just saw a comment thread on the Australian Open website with various people weighing in on the subject in at least four languages.  From what I could understand, everyone hates it.  I find myself, like others it seems, not wanting to watch a match especially if there are two screamers.  Watch out, we may have a Sharapova/Azarenka final.

Yes, Sharapova also advanced.  She beat Ekatarina Makarova in a match that was closer in actuality than the score line, 2 and 3.  Sometimes when a player upsets a top player the next match is a come down, but it wasn’t the case here.  Having taken down Serena,  Makarova came fully prepared to play her game and win if she possibly could.  I’m not a big Maria fan, but you have to give her credit.  She knows everything there is to know about determination.

And Maria is the highest paid, wealthiest woman athlete in any sport.  She could sleep in late tomorrow morning and every morning thereafter, but instead she works hard on her tennis game.  She’s one of four women with a very decent chance to win the title.

Petra Kvitova doesn’t look quite as balls to the wall as she did last June when she surprised everyone by claiming the Wimbledon title.  But she’s getting the job done even if she isn’t playing her very best tennis.  Sara Errani gave her some work to do, a creditable job, but Kvitova walked off with a 4 and 4 straight set victory.  Errani is fun to watch.  Italians play tennis the way they drive – all over the place.  Big tall Wagnerian Kvitova, blonde blue eyed with the braid down her back against the Roadrunner.

Finally, Kim Clijsters took the win over Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets.  There had been intense concern about Kim’s ankle injury and whether she would be able to play this match but she came out looking sharp and running all over the court.  So much for that problem.  In the second set she let a 5-2 lead slip but made up for it in the tiebreak where she sealed the deal.

Caroline Wozniacki will be relieved of her number 1 position in the rankings, a source of great debate.  How can she be number one if she hasn’t won a Grand Slam?  Ask the WTA, it’s their ranking system.  Still, the real issue is her game, not the WTA, and Caroline is an inferior version of a female David Ferrer.  She gets everything so she wins a lot, but that doesn’t mean she is a champion.  I think she’s a nice girl, but I don’t see her game as being on the level with the greats.  Maybe she’ll get the monkey off her back now, if she’s no longer number one everyone can stop talking about how unfair it is since she hasn’t won a Grand Slam and then maybe she’ll develop her game and talents into the kind of thing that wins on the last Sunday.

So, in summary, and in just a few short hours, the women’s semifinals are Clijsters vs. Azarenka and Sharapova vs. Kvitova.  Look for Maria to be seeking revenge in this match, add it to the big bonfire of desire for another Grand Slam title burning inside her.  Maria got told what by Kvitova in the Wimbledon final last year.  Centre Court.  The Queen of Big Stages in tennis.  That did not feel good.  I’m looking for some cold stares across the net, Maria can get that going.

These are great match-ups.  In each case, a former, experienced Grand Slam champion meets up with one of the two best new players.  I chose Azarenka to win the tournament, along with Darren Cahill, it seems, and I’ll stick with it.  But any of these four could bring it home.

On the men’s side, things lined up just like we pictured them.  The top four seeds, the four who dominate men’s tennis.  Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Murray.

Nadal won in four sets over Thomas Berdych, and it looked dicey there in the early stages of the match.  Federer and del Potro played a rematch of their US Open final from 2009, prior to del Potro’s wrist surgery and absence from the tour for nearly a year.  He’s playing well now, but Roger is playing better than ever.

Andy Murray had an easy time of it over Kei Nishikori who turned in a worthy performance but not one that advanced him.  No matter, Kei has had a great tournament, he’s gone further in a Grand Slam than any Japanese player before him.

Djokovic was the last of the four to play his quarterfinal match and it was brutal for two sets against David Ferrer.  A thoroughly physical match, such hard hitting, such pressure not to lose your focus for a nanosecond.  David almost took the second set to level it at one a piece and he had chances, but Novak eked out the second set and what was a thoroughly discouraged but still fighting Ferrer to do?  The legs these guys have to have just to play a match like this.

Tonight, in the wee hours here, Federer will play Nadal for a berth in the final. Every time these two take the court, almost always in finals, it’s an occasion.  Twenty eight or nine times, that many chapters in a book that still is being written.  In his match against del Potro, Roger logged his 1,000th match, that’s a whole lot of tennis.  And now he takes on his rival and friend one more time to see who will prevail.  I’ll take Federer in this one, especially if he manages to get out in front from the beginning.

Murray vs. Djokovic?  Should be a great match, anyone’s game.  Murray is fresh, he’s had an easy draw, easy tournament.  Novak is in supreme form.  I’ve got Novak winning the Open, so I’ll stay with that.  How could I not?

Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot and keep enjoying the Aussie Open as it edges toward the conclusion.

I think it was just a matter of time.  Serena hasn’t played many matches and she retired from Brisbane with an ankle injury.  So she wasn’t 100 per cent, we knew this.  We just didn’t know how much less than that, something only she and the rest of us could find out when she was put to the test on the tennis court.

That finally came in the form of Ekaterina Makarova, a Russian player with a bit of a track record of upsets Down Under.  Last year she beat Ivanovic to get to the quarterfinals.  This year she beat Zvonareva, already an upset, to get a chance for the big one.

So Serena came out with the taping, as she  has been.  Makarova came to play.  She’s remarkably unintimidated by top players.  Unlike Greta Arn who played Serena in the last match and was reverential beyond it serving anyone well.  And even if Serena isn’t at her best, you have to believe she is an intimidating sight across the net.

But Makarova played some fantastic tennis, hitting the balls hard, showing a variety of shot, agility.  And Serena turned in a poor performance, lots of unforced errors.   Even her serve was off and that shot usually gets her a pass on sluggish movement.  You can use a lot of words to describe Serena but graceful isn’t one of them.  And our Serena, who is just so glad to be alive after her serious health problems last year, was one big grump on the court.

Ms. Makarova won it in straights, 2 and 3.  Quite a day in her life.

Now we will see if she can threepeat it, take down Maria Sharapova.  Maria beat Sabine Lisicki, one of my favorites, yesterday in three.  Many people were excited at the thought of a quarterfinal featuring Maria and Serena, but it’s not to be.  Maria may have been one of the few people who was relieved not to face that.  But she’ll have to play better than she did today against Makarova.  The possible upset will make that one very interesting to watch.

Shriek alert: During the match between Maria and Sabine on Rod Laver, Christine McHendry and Chris Evert of ESPN could hear it all the way over at their broadcasting set.  If you’ve tuned in to ESPN at all, you see the sports desk and Rod Laver in the background.  It’s hard to tell from that visual how far away the court is, but I can tell you from being there that it probably takes at least five minutes of fast walking to get there.  The shrieks waft out of the open roof and into the air, like all the birds and seagulls that fly in and around the stadium.

Lleyton Hewitt put in a valiant effort but since no one else is having any luck beating Novak Djokovic these days, why would we think a thirty year old player who has had repeated hip surgeries could do it?  Novak won in four.

David Ferrer won his match against Gasquet.  If you need some inspiration, an example of how to take what you’ve got and maximize it, get to know Ferrer.  He’s the man.

And Kei Nishikori pulled out a five setter against Tsonga in the brutal heat of the middle of the day.  Good for him.

This is what I love and everyone else who loves tennis loves.  The stories, the upsets, the successes of players on their way up or on their way back or on their way down, or fighting to keep position.  And it’s still anyone’s guess who will be in the finals and who will gain the title.

Djokovic and Azarenka, my picks, are still very much alive.  But will it be Kim or Andy Murray or Caroline Wozniacki or…?

I’ll be watching and reporting.  Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.