Tag Archives: roger federer

the grass is green, and wet

Posted on June 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

And just like that, clay is a memory.  Now it’s all about the grass.  It’s a strange and delightful part of the tennis year.  So short.  Three weeks, four if you make it to the second week of Wimbledon.  That’s the grass court season.  Is that a season?  Blink and you’ll miss it.

Add the rain factor and you might just miss it due to weather.  Today, Sunday, I was looking forward to seeing the finals of the Aegon International outside London, between Andy Murray and Jo Wilifred Tsonga.  They were looking forward to playing, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow, hopefully.  Rain!

Ditto for the Birmingham competition on the women’s side.  That’s a final I really want to see.  I watched the semis yesterday.  Hantuchova took it over Ana Ivanovic.  Sabine Lisicki delivered a beatdown to Peng.  When the Racquet Bracket comes out for Wimbledon, I’ll be looking to see where these two girls are because they both are there to play.  I think Daniela Hantuchova is realizing time is not on her side and she’s just done with choking at the important moments.  She wants the good feelings that come from not choking.  Great to see, she’s got a good strong game.

And Sabine Lisicki doesn’t have a history to overcome, she just hasn’t yet gotten the top results and she’s all in.  So let’s see who wins the final between them and then how they do in Eastborne and Wimbledon.

The weather was dry in Halle, Germany and that is a gorgeous looking stadium.  Turned out to be an all German final, between Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petschner.  Two Phillipp’s even and yes, they spell it with two p’s.  Kohlschreiber took the title after a first set tiebreak and two games of a second set where he was up 2-0 and Petschner retired with a back injury.

The big excitement this week will be seeing Venus and Serena Williams both playing after long absences due to injury and illness.  All of us want to see how they look on court.  They’re planning to play Wimbledon and that’s their playground more than any other tournament.  Venus comes to life on grass like a new woman.  Serena’s powerful serve makes her difficult to break and therefore difficult to defeat.  It they’re playing anywhere close to form, they are both top contenders for the title.

I think Kim Cliijsters will be in Eastborne and she’s another one we need to see before making any predictions for Wimbledon.  If her foot is healed from the wedding dance double insult, she should be at the top of the short list.

Neither Roger nor Novak played this past week, and Rafa looked tired.  He almost let Tsonga beat him in the quarterfinals.  I’m not sure it was that great an idea to run right over to England.  Maybe a week in Mallorca would have been a better thing in the long run.

I’ve been thinking about the men’s final a week ago in Paris.  They’ve shown it again a few times during the week.  At one point towards the end of the first set, beginning of the second, when Roger should have won the first set and didn’t, Ted Robinson was quoting some sports person, whose name I didn’t recognize at the time, as saying something along the lines of “you have to keep your foot on your opponent’s neck”.  It’s a strong image, and clear, no wondering hmmm, exactly what does that mean?

Basically, he was saying that’s what Roger had needed to do at that crucial time in the first set when he was up 5-2.  And he didn’t.  So guess what?  Rafa volunteered.  As unpleasant as the image and concept might be, you can’t say it’s irrelevant.  So if you have an opponent, you might want to remember to keep your foot on his or her (her!) neck.

That’s the brutal truth from Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.  Thanks for reading.

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the king is in his castle

Posted on June 5, 2011 | 1 Comment

Either way somebody was going to make history today.  Roger stood to win his 17th Grand Slam and his second French Open (completing a second career Grand Slam),  the first in four meetings against Rafa in the finals of the French.  Rafa stood to win his sixth French Open and tie Bjorn Borg’s record.

The two familiar rivals and friends took the court on a gratefully sunny Sunday afternoon.  It had rained during the night and looked threatening through the day, so this was lucky.  The stadium was filled to its capacity of 15,000 and one of the best things about Chatrier is the lack of a ring of corporate boxes.  It gives the place a whole different feel.  Roger came out on court first, to a huge ovation, followed by Rafa who also was received loudly and warmly.

The match got underway and Roger came out firing.  He took a quick 3-0 lead and then went out to 5-2.  On set point, his drop shot just bounced out, and I do mean just.  It was cruel, especially because Rafa took that small opening and widened it to win the next five games.  He stole the first set 7-5.  The first set is crucial always, more so for Roger in this match than Rafa, but not by that much.  Had Roger won the set, you never know; the momentum would have shifted, he would have come out with advantage in the second set rather than a haunting feeling that he almost won it, but was now a set down.

In the second set, Roger fought back from 4-2 down and took it to a tiebreak, which he lost 7-3, always coming from behind there.

It was either win the third set or go home and Roger again fought back from 4-2 down, but this time he did win the set.  A great moment.  There was hope.  The match would at least go a fourth set, maybe a fifth if everyone watching got lucky.

This was no easy match for either player.  At the end of the second set, Rafa was serving for it and the rains come very suddenly.  The players had to leave the court, but they stayed just to the side of the entryway in trainer rooms there.  The rain stopped quite quickly, the whole thing was around ten minutes, not long enough to require a warm-up, but geez, at such a critical juncture, wouldn’t that have been a good idea?

Instead, Rafa came up to the line and played two points, a serve winner to earn a set point that Federer denied him, and then two more points that Roger won bringing things level to 5-5.

In addition to the bizarrely timed rain delay, the wind kicked up as the match progressed.  Not to mention the long match Roger had played against Novak on Friday and how physically and mentally challenging that had been.  Or how less than spectacular Rafa had played the first week and here he was now in fabulous form, but would he maintain it?

Inarguably, this was the best French Open final the two have played.  The key for Roger was his first serve and his forehand and when both were firing, Rafa was on the losing end.  But when his first serve let him down, or the forehand, then Rafa was all over a second serve or a less compelling shot.  Over and over, as is his usual tactic, Rafa worked Roger’s one handed backhand with balls that come up to his shoulder and are very difficult to return once, much less several times in a row.  For all this, for three and three quarters hours the two delivered fantastic tennis, very high quality and you had much less of the feeling that the outcome was inevitable.

It did come to that.  Rafa, who has only been defeated once at the French Open, kept that statistic right where it was.  He broke Roger twice in the fourth set, guaranteeing his victory.  6-1 in the final set.  Rafa still the King of Clay. He fell to his knees and his body shook with tears, exhaustion, relief, happiness.

Worldwide, Roger’s fans were disappointed as was he.  You’re supposed to be, as he said in his press conference afterwards.  He did not stick around for any interviews on court; it was enough to sit there, as is the custom in tennis, waiting for the award ceremony to begin and end,  and all the set-up needed before it can start.

You see almost none of that when you view the tournament on television, but the French are perfectionists in this regard and, of course, always stylish no matter what they do.  Everyone is lined up just so and they get there in a just so manner also.  During every match the changing of the ball kids or the linespeople is like a military exercise.  When the crew come on court in between sets to freshen up the clay, this also is done in a precise manner.  It’s great to watch.

So finally they were ready for the ceremony and Roger spoke graciously in his fluent French.  Rafa even turned in a three language speech, a little French, some English and some Spanish.  And thankfully, Jim Courier, who won the French twice and was there to hand the players their trophies, was not given a microphone.  I understand he even speaks French but I’m sure he would manage to be smarmy and self-congratulatory in another tongue and after such a wonderful final and a great two weeks, I for one was glad to be spared.

Rafa was twenty five years old two days ago.  Bjorn Borg was exactly the same age (minus two days) when he won his sixth.  He only played tennis a little while longer.  He retired from the sport after losing a few months later to John McEnroe at the US Open.  I remember that and what a loss it was, and a shock, for the tennis world.  Borg left when he was no longer number one; if he couldn’t be that, he didn’t want to be in it any more.

Luckily, Rafa is nowhere near retirement.  In fact, he’s headed to the warm-up for Wimbledon, the Queens tournament, and he’ll be there practicing tomorrow and playing on Wednesday.  We’ll see lots more of him and lots more of Roger, too.  Good news.

For now it’s a wrap in Paris.  Thank you for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot, and stay tuned for reports from Queens and then Wimbledon.

And PS, this is my 100th blog post since I started writing the blog exactly two years ago.  It seems fitting that I reach a little milestone of my own just now. Tennis is a thing of beauty and that’s some of the reason why I enjoy writing about it.

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give it your all

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 2 Comments

If tennis players live to win Grand Slams, tennis fans live to watch matches like the two men’s semifinals played today on Court Chatrier.  My personal request to the gods to provide sun and calm were only half heard; the first part of the day was sunny and extremely windy, the second part of the afternoon cloudy and somewhat less windy.  But in both matches wind was a factor.

Today is Rafael Nadal’s birthday, and he has celebrated it in Paris five of the last six years.  Usually there is some incredible cake the likes of which you would only find in this city.  Whatever else he did today, though, Rafa spent over three hours on court taking care of business in a match against Andy Murray that put on display some of the best tennis each player is capable of.

No small thing for Murray who, in addition to coming in with the handicap that every other player comes into a match against Rafa on clay, was playing with a massively strapped ankle.  It didn’t seem to inhibit his movement, fortunately.  It was a three set match but a long one.  Both players were deliberate in the extreme, but with the wind, who could blame them?  And anyway, where else did you want to be?  The men’s semifinals at Roland Garros is one of the best tickets of the tournament.

The final score was 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 and as it indicates, Murray really kept up with Rafa.  The Spaniard looked even better than he did two days ago in his quarterfinal match and I think it’s safe to say that the Rafa who will play in his sixth final on Sunday is the real Rafa.   Today, he was, as he always is, especially on clay, the that much better player although there were certainly many points that Andy Murray gave him plenty including a fabulous volley for a winner in response to a passing shot from Rafa that was incredible itself.

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer began their match at exactly six o’clock which meant they had 3 1/2 hours of light to get off the court, hopefully with a completed match and a winner ready to go the distance on Sunday.  And that is exactly what it took.

This was a riveting match.  Federer came out the more relaxed of the two.  In an interesting twist, this was really the first time Roger came out onto Chatrier with no pressure on him.  He has flown under the radar nearly the whole tournament, few picked him to win this match-up.  It turned out to be a blessing.

Novak, on the other hand, started nervous, tight.  The first set was a seesaw affair.  They traded breaks to begin.  At 4-5, 15-40, Djokovic had two set points on Roger’s serve.  Roger served himself out of trouble and held for 5-5.  Then Novak found himself in a hole at 15-30 in the next game and at that exact point the umpire decided to give him a time violation warning.

The two took the first set to a tiebreak and Federer showed his stuff for an early lead but in the end he won it by the narrowest of margins, 7-5.  First set to Roger.

Novak still wasn’t in this match.  He seemed lacklustre, he didn’t seem to be feeling or showing how much he wanted it.  For the first time in his glorious year of winning, he was in a foul mood.   Roger took advantage and went out to a 4-1 lead.  Novak finally started to find himself and his game, but in the end the second set went to Roger, 6-3.

Roger has a 174-0 record when he wins the first two sets.  Whether Novak knew that fact or not, he knew he was in deep trouble.

Novak might have disappeared at that point and it would have been a shame if that had happened.  Fortunately, it didn’t.  He fought back.  Took a 3-0 lead in the third set and ended up winning it 6-3.

At that point there was less than an hour of daylight left so it was clear either Roger would win or they would leave the court for the night and come back tomorrow to play a fifth set.  Which would it be?  They held serve to 4-4.  Then in a very long ninth game, Djokovic finally broke to take the lead 5-4.  Surely he would hold his own serve and force a fifth set!

Roger would not have it.  He returned the next three points to perfection and then squared things to 5-5.   He served and held for 6-5.  Then Novak took things to the tiebreak.

At 4-3 in the tiebreak, Roger hit ace number 17, then added another service winner to go up 6-3.  Three match points!  Incredibly, Novak survived a lucky net cord for 6-4 and hit an ace for 6-5.  But then Roger, who had been having an exceptional serving day, came up to the line.  He threw up the ball, followed through with his elegant motion and delivered the ball right up the T, for an ace!  And for the match.  Could there have been any more fitting conclusion?  I think not.

This time, in the fading light, unlike Wimbledon in 2008, it was Roger who held court.  And here was the former number one proving to be the spoiler.  Had Novak won, he would have become the number one player in the world and his winning streak would have jumped to 42 and would have remained, at least for another couple days, unbroken. Not to mention he would have advanced to his first final in Paris.   Didn’t happen.  The moment meant a lot to Roger as you could tell from his reaction after the win, holding up one finger, feeling right at home in victory.  The best player in the history of the game trumped the best player of the year.

All was well in the tennis world.

The umpire for the first match was the one and only Kadir Nooni, he of the midnight blue voice.  His voice is so remarkable and low and beautiful, I suspect it is something everyone who meets him comments on.  You can’t help but notice it.  It’s a thing of beauty, like Federer’s movement, like Gasquet’s backhand.  At one point, John McEnroe said “I hope he doesn’t smoke.”, explaining that he hoped that voice wasn’t the result of cigarettes and therefore harder to endorse.  Hey, the French smoke, still.  A lot.  I don’t care how he got the voice, just keep talking.

We’re down to the finals, the bittersweet ending.  The women’s final tomorrow between Schiavone and Li Na.  The men on Sunday between Roger and Rafa.

Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.  Enjoy the finals, I’ll be here the next two days and for a wrap-up, before we head over to England and the run-up to Wimbledon and then the Championships.  This is a great time of year for tennis fans!

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the heart of the matter

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 2 Comments

Maybe it’s because so much tennis is being played, maybe it’s because the stakes aren’t yet that high, but in the beginning of a major tournament the focus of attention isn’t always on the role that heart plays.  But if you want to see heart on the court, heart that makes the difference, that is the critical component,  stick around for the quarterfinals, the gateway to what matters most to players, a Grand Slam title.

It was well on display today on both Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen.  Francesca Schiavone, the defending champion, found herself in a deep hole the same size as the one Maria Sharapova was in a few days ago in her match against newcomer Caroline Garcia.  Nineteen year old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the last teenager in the draw, was having her way with the nearly thirty one year old veteran.  The score?  6-1, 4-1.  In the words of the late Yogi Berra, it’s getting late early.

How was Schiavone going to get herself out of this one?  Well, Maria did it with steely determination, unwaivering self-belief and that worked for her, it usually does.  Francesca is Italian, though.  She’s all heart.

She came back to win the second set 7-5.  The third set was a topsy turvy affair.  Francesca took the lead 5-1 and served for it at 5-2, but couldn’t convert.  She served for it again at 5-4, and couldn’t convert.  Yikes.  The wind was swirling, the temperatures were cool.  Conditions were difficult.

Finally she broke her opponent to go up 6-5 and then she served for the match for the third time.  She had two match points that went begging.  Finally, Francesca created a third match point for herself with a drop shot executed from the baseline, to perfection.  Gutsy.  You could see her look up at her box, on their feet, and say “Forza!”

And so, finally again, on that match point, a microcosm of the whole match, Anastasia made a volley reply and Schiavone drove it past her for a winner down the line, taking the deciding set 7-5 as well.

Walking off the court, Francesca scooped a handful of the red clay and smeared it on her face.

Who wants it more?  Who doesn’t get tight?  Who doesn’t choke?  Who has the most heart?

All of these questions were to be answered on Lenglen in the fifth set between Murray and Troicki, the resumption of their match from the day before that was suspended as darkness fell, two sets each.   Murray came from two sets down to take sets three and four, and when they took the court this afternoon for the deciding set, he was working from behind all the way again.

Troicki went out to a 5-2 lead.  He served for the match at 5-3 and was up 30-0, two points from the victory,  and then the wheels fell off.  He choked, he got tight, you could see it.  He kept looking around and up to his box with a self-defeating smile, shoulder shrugs that seemed to say it was out of his control, it was someone else’s fault.  That is not going to get it done.  That is the opposite of heart, of digging deep.

Nineteen minutes later Murray had charged back all the way and was at 6-5, serving for the match himself.  He went up 40-0, Troicki fought back and saved those three match points.  But it was too little too late.  Murray had a fourth match point on the Ad and as in the women’s match, he ended the last point, requiring some incredible gets from him that he made, with a glorious shot, in this case a backhand crosscourt passing shot for the winner.  This is the fifth time in his career that Murray has come back from two sets to love to win a five setter.

Murray is into the quarterfinals (the match against Troicki was still round of 16) and he’ll play Juan Ignacio Chela, a match he is much the favorite to win.

While Djokovic was having another day off, due to Fognini’s withdrawal, Roger Federer and Gael Monfils took the court for their quarterfinal match.  Roger won the first two sets and you had to wonder if it was already over or if Gael was going to put up more of a fight.  To his credit he played a very competitive third set, 6-6,  but Roger went out in front in the tiebreak and never looked back.

At 6-1 in the tiebreak, I found myself saying out loud “A handful of match points”, only to be echoed in exactly those words by Patrick McEnroe who was calling the match on ESPN.  Hey, Patrick, wanna spend more time at home with the wife and kids?  I’m available.

Federer has not dropped a set in the tournament.  And this is his 28th consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal or better.  Think about that.  Seven years, all four tournaments, round and round we go from Paris to London to New York to Melbourne and start all over again, not to mention all the other stops on the tour.  He has never retired from a match; he has been nearly totally injury free.  It makes a case for staying relaxed in your body.  He’s fluid, light on his feet.  Even Rafa Nadal has said that he would play like Federer if he could, that it takes much more effort for him to play his game.

Roger will play Novak in the semifinals on Friday.  It should be a fantastic, exciting match.

On both the men’s and women’s sides, history is being made in this year’s French.  Never before in the Open era have the top three women’s seeds been gone before the second week.  And never before have all five of the top men’s seeds advanced.

In a day of play that was marked by heart, the match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Marion Bartoli on Lenglen was no exception.  Sveta won the French in 2009, I saw her win it against Dinara Safina (who?), someone you had to feel sorry for she went into such a meltdown.  Kuzy, as she is known, is the first to admit she often gets nervous at the end of big matches, but that day Safina’s nerves took up all the air and space.

Today, Marion Bartoli was on her game.  She’s such a quirky player, with the weird serve motion, and the constant jumping around and shadow cuts at the ball to get ready.  She’s a little chunky too.  But she hits the ball well off of both sides, two hands for forehand and backhand, and if you get it in her strike zone, she’s lethal.  Today she was relentless and Sveta played well, but not quite well enough.  Was it heart?  Lord knows Marion wanted it.  She’s French, the crowd was really behind her and she used it and worked it.

She served for it at 5-2 in the second, having won the first in a tiebreak.  Unable to close the door, she got another chance at 5-4 and she took it.

At this level of tennis, you can’t fade, you can’t blame, you can’t hold back.  Famously, Guga Kuerten, drew a heart on the clay on Chatrier, and then lay down inside it.  That says it all.

gustavo kuerten at roland garros, laying in the heart he drew in the clay

guga laying in the heart he drew

(Via Kamakshi Tandon)

One last comment on today’s action.  There was a unique moment in the Murray Troicki match early in their deciding set.  A ball kid thought the point was over when Troicki, up at the net, hit an overhead, but Murray got it back and Troicki angled another overhead for a winner.  But just as he was going for that shot, the ball kid was running out on the court at the net, just barely not colliding with him.  It was disruption of play, unintended, and the umpire ruled that the point be replayed.  Troicki was upset, understandably.  The kid felt terrible, a young boy, maybe ten or twelve. Being a ball kid in France is a huge honor, thousands of kids apply from all over the country for the coveted positions.  A point or two later when the same boy hesitated to retrieve the ball, Troicki messed with him in a way that was testy and unkind and to my mind, showed his true character, not a pretty picture.  I just hope the head of the ball kids wasn’t too hard on him.

That’s it for today.  This is really a fun, special French Open.  Stay tuned for the remaining matches, there are bound to be some great moments.

See you tomorrow at Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

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happy memorial day

Posted on May 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Here it’s Memorial Day Monday, in Paris it’s Day 9 of the French Open.  If you were judging from the packed stands on Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen this afternoon, though, you’d swear it was a holiday.

One of the most exciting matches of the tournament so far was the two parter between David Ferrer and Gael Monfils.  With Monfils up two sets to one and Ferrer  up 2-0 in the fourth set, play was suspended last night due to darkness.  The two opponents had to wait out a five setter between Chela and Falla, the former taking the victory, before they could get on court today to finish.  There was a great shot of them in the players’ lounge hanging around until they were called with Ferrer sitting up right next to a reclining, possibly sleeping, Monfils.

Finally on court, Ferrer continued to press in the set he already had a lead in and took it rather quickly 6-1.  But then Gael actually did wake up from his nap and the fifth set was completely riveting.  Gael broke early to take a 3-1 lead.  At 5-3 Monfils served for the match. The crowd was just wildly excited.   He had two match points and relatively easy shots for the win on both of them and he dinked them into the net.  Ferrer ended up breaking for 5-4.  That quieted the crowd down.

They go into fifth set no tiebreak battle.  In the next game, Monfils had another match point, his third, and couldn’t convert.  Ferrer got out of that game, 6-6.   At 7-6, Monfils in the lead, Ferrer quickly dug himself in a deep hole, 0-40,  and all of a sudden, Monfils is looking at three more match points.  After squandering three, who knew he would get all these chances again, and so soon?  He was not to be denied this time, winning the match on the fourth match point with a no guts no glory passing shot down the line, 8-6 in the fifth.  The French crowd, not a seat empty, were rewarded and could go have dinner.

In the 6-5 game, there were a couple of dicey line calls on Monfils’ serve.  On the first, Ferrer walked up to the line and immediately rubbed out the mark, indicating it had been good.  But shotspot showed it had been out.  It happened again, Monfils now with two serves instead of a second serve only, and the chair umpire came out to have a look and called it good, giving Monfils another first serve, but shotspot again showed it to be out.  Now the technology isn’t one hundred percent, but it’s pretty close.  At moments like these in matches, this kind of thing gone wrong can be terribly expensive, can cost someone the match.  Ferrer ended up winning that point, but still.

Monfils will face Federer in the quarterfinals and I imagine it will be a lot of fun to watch, but I don’t think Roger is going to walk off the loser.  I’m a big fan of Ferrer, but I doubt he would have given Roger trouble in the end.  Against both these players, Federer has been dominant.

What is great is to see Monfils doing more with his talent than he has previously.  His coach, Roger Rashid, has been with him for three years, a record in itself apparently as Monfils has gone through coaches like they were paper napkins.  Rashid coached Lleyton Hewitt, a player who is more like Ferrer, no work too hard or too much, fighter spirit, utterly maxing out on what they’ve got to work with on small frames.  For Roger Rashid to make an impact on Monfils has been exceedingly difficult it seems.  He’s tried hard to get Gael in better physical condition so he won’t suffer all the injuries he’s had, and you can actually see him shouting at Gael on court to play harder, want it more.  I’d bet there have been more than a few times that he thought of throwing in the towel, I don’t need this shit, and getting on a plane back to his family in Australia.

That’s the thing about coaching, it takes you on the road for weeks and weeks every year.  If you’re going to do it, you damn well better have a player who makes it worth your while.

Nadal won his match against 32 year old Ivan Ljubicic, in straights, but in his press conference afterwards, he spoke candidly about how he still isn’t feeling quite right out there.  Not as consistent, more nervous at times.  If Rafa thinks he’s a different Rafa, at least so far, on court at his beloved French, I guess we ought to believe him.

Meanwhile, fierce contender and Superman tennis player Novak Djokovic is into the semifinals.  He won’t be playing a quarterfinal match because Fabio Fognini had to withdraw with what indeed wasn’t just cramping yesterday.  He’s got a muscle tear and it won’t get better in time for him to play the match tomorrow.  You had to feel bad for the guy.  His best result in a major, about to have the opportunity to maybe be the one who breaks the Novak streak, or at least have the challenge of playing him on Chatrier, a huge pleasure and privilege, and he can’t do it.

Andy Murray and Victor Troicki played the last match of the day on Lenglen and they’ll have to finish it tomorrow.  At first it looked like Murray was having real difficulty moving, the result of a bad ankle tweak two days ago.  But he fought back and the players walked off at darkness with one deciding set yet to be played.  Don’t miss that tomorrow.

On the women’s side, Li Na defeated Petra Kvitova, both surprising and not.  Either one of them could have won that match, but Kvitova beat herself.

Maria Sharapova faced off against Agnes Radwanska and piled up huge numbers of winners and unforced errors in a game of total aggression on her part and steady play by her opponent.  But Maria is playing well and when you combine that with her dogged determination, she’s going to come out on top.  Aggie had five set points to win the second set and take it to a third and she couldn’t close the door.  Maria did it instead winning the match 7-6, 7-5.

And on Court One, Andrea Petkovic, the German player who has come into the spotlight this year, won her match in three tough sets against Maria Kirilenko.  Last year she lost on the same court to Kuznetsova, so it must have felt good to her to take the victory this year.

Finally, Azarenka dispensed with Makarova in two easy sets.

So it’s down to eight women and you still don’t know who’s going to win.  Sharapova, Li Na, Schiavone, Petkovic, Azarenka, Pavlyuchenkova, Kuznetsova and Bartoli.  Do you know?  I don’t.  The quarterfinal matches should all be interesting.

And it’s down to seven men.  Nadal, Soderling, Chela, Monfils, Federer, Djokovic and either Murray or Troicki.  Besides Novak, already there, who else will be in the semis?

Still some great tennis to come as we now head into the true business end of the tournament.  Thanks for reading Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

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smack dab in the middle

Posted on May 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

Last Sunday, it all kicked off.  The eager crowds mingled through the grounds and play began.  Next Sunday, the only match to be played will be the last, the men’s final.

Today, the middle Sunday, some of the story has been told, but not all.  The round of sixteen started and the second match on Lenglen between Fabio Fognini and Albert Montanes turned out to be a more than four hour five setter complete with twists and turns, and a lot of drama especially in the last set.

When I turned on the television after seven this morning,  I heard Leif Shiras saying someone had 97 unforced errors.  Not having seen who was playing or the score, I figured if there were that many errors it had to be a five set match.  With a cup of coffee, I watched the exciting finish to a match that was 8-8 at that point.

Earlier in the set, Fognini was experiencing leg cramps and they don’t go away.  By the time I tuned in, he could barely walk or even stand up but he played the match out, withstood a slew of foot fault calls, including on his own game point and even his own match point (and he didn’t even blanch, much less walk over and shout Italian obscenities at the linesman…)and saved five, count them, five!, match points before finally closing down the match at 11-9.  It was pretty incredible.

He was both cheered and booed, the latter because of some controversy surrounding the leg cramping and whether he was entitled to any medical treatment.  Leg cramping can only be treated during changeovers or change of ends and during that allotted time.  It doesn’t qualify for a medical treatment time out.  But the trainers said Fognini’s troubles were not leg cramping, so I guess he was entitled to what he took.  And if the crowd didn’t like the way he won, take it up with the umpire who allowed everything that happened.

The match brings up one of the trickiest circumstances a player can face on court, that of the injured opponent.  You’d think it would make it easier, your opponent is hampered in some way, you’re not, just play your game and win.  But it really isn’t as simple a it seems.  Your concern for the other player enters into it, so now you have trouble competing the way you were before.  And you’re trying to calibrate how you need to play against the injured player, go for more, hold back, and it all gets confusing.  Change one thing, change everything, as a friend of mine always says, and so it is.

It was a good day for Italy because after that absorbing match, on walked Francesca Schiavone, the defending champion, and Jelena Jankovic for a war that was both expected and realized.  Not surprisingly, it went the distance with Francesca taking the first set, Jelena the second and they went neck and neck to 4-4 in the third for a very tense finish.

Both of these girls are emotional and it’s fun to watch.  John McEnroe, Mary Carillo and Ted Robinson commentated the match and there was plenty of laughter and teasing as Francesca yelled at her box and Jelena yelled at hers.  A lot was on the line for both players.  Jelena has never won a major and at twenty six the window starts to close, so she really wanted to win this match and advance.

For Francesca, she’s the defending champion and she’d like to take it home again.  Not to mention that the first match of the day on Chatrier saw Vera Zvonareva, the number three seed, lose to the fourteenth seed, Russian nineteen year old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.   So she’s really thinking maybe she can go all the way.

Meanwhile, there’s a match to finish as all these emotions swirl and bubble up.  And Francesca broke Jelena in the next game to take a 5-4 lead and then serve for it.  She did just that and won it.  Before she left the court, after signing a few of those big tennis balls, she got down on the court and kissed it.

By that time it was nearly seven o’clock and once again there was concern if the next match between David Ferrer and Gael Monfils would be able to finish.  Ferrer came out the same as he always does, ready to fight to the last.  Monfils came out as he always does, so athletic you think he’s made of plastic you can shape and mold, so much the showman you can’t help but be charmed.  On Kids Day a few days ago, Gael entertained on Chatrier by doing a one handed handstand!  Are you kidding?

So was it to be slow and steady or flash and flamboyance that would take the day?  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.  The players got in three sets, with Monfils up 2-1, there was still some daylight so they opened the fourth set.  But no television coverage then, so I listened to RG Radio for the last bit.  Monfils injured himself in some way, Ferrer broke him to go up 2-0 and play was stopped until tomorrow.

Roger Federer has traveled under the radar so far, but he hasn’t dropped a set yet.  He played his fellow Swiss and friend, Stan Wawrinka, and won in straights.

Djokovic did the same against Richard Gasquet.  What was Richard doing, standing ten feet behind the baseline the whole time?  Certain things in tennis are determined by the laws of geometry and physics.  If you stand that far back, you can’t create angles and your opponent can.  And standing back that far it takes longer for your ball to travel back to your opponent which gives him more time to set up for the next shot and you less chance of winning the point.

If you know you can’t win from back there, why be there?  You might as well make it a walkover and go have lunch.    Hug the baseline, get into net when you can and if you still lose, well, okay, at least you had a chance to win.

Still, no one expected Richard Gasquet to win the match today and it would have been a complete miracle if he had.  It’s great that he got to the round of sixteen and now I hope he does as well or better at Wimbledon.

The French were consoled by the win of another countryman, or woman in this case.  Marion Bartoli advances to the quarterfinals, and she’ll have plenty of energy since she only played one set and two games before Gisela Dulko retired with an injury.

The final match to talk about today took place on Court One instead of Lenglen, because of the long matches there.  Kuznetsova against Hantuchova, it went three and Sveta won it.  So she’s a former champion and Francesca is the current champion, and Maria wants to win it to complete her Grand Slam wins.

And maybe none of them does it.  Maybe Azarenka wins or Kvitova or Petkovic.  It’s still wide open, perhaps even more so with the top three seeds and Stosur all gone.

Lots more tomorrow, what better way to spend Memorial Day weekend?  See you then and thanks for hanging out with me at Cupcakes and Tennis, the tennis blog with a sweet spot.

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roger and rafa in miami

Posted on April 2, 2011 | 2 Comments

roger begins

It was much anticipated.  It had been six years since Roger and Rafa played on American soil.  The first point of the match was an ace by Roger, which boded well.  But things don’t always go that way, do they?  In this match it was  Rafa all the way.  By the end of two sets, Roger had made 29 unforced errors to Rafa’s 8 and you don’t have to know much about tennis to know that won’t get it done.  It probably wouldn’t have gotten it done against a qualifier in the first round.

The final score was 3 and 2, not pretty.  Roger left the court with his head down, clearly dejected.  You could see he felt bad to disappoint so many fans who had come to see a hard fought contest, worse I think than he felt to lose a semifinal.

the crowd is ready

Given how well he had been playing this week, and the fact that Rafa had had some injury type problems last night, it seemed like it might actually work in Roger’s favor.  But the fact that Gilles Simon retired may have left Roger rested, yes, but not as match tough as he needed to be and as match tough as his opponent.  Rafa played a tough three setter last night against Thomas Berdych, a much more exciting, compelling encounter.

The fans love both these players the world around, Miami no exception.  At several points, the crowd all cheered for Roger, encouraging him.  But to no avail.  Roger dumped way too many backhands into the net and sprayed a bunch of forehands long.  It happens.  It happened tonight.  The pressure of this match had to be truly felt by the players.

What it means, of course, is the final will be between Rafa and Novak Djokovic on Sunday and we can only hope it will be an exciting contest.  Both are playing well, plenty of game.  And that winning streak of Novak’s, it’s up to twenty three matches now.  Twenty four if he wins on Sunday.

And now, because I have not been able to download photos this past week, let’s take a little visual tour of some of the scenes from the tournament and Miami.

 

road trip!

an enticing vision

end of the day in key west

blue polish? why not?

samantha stosur on court

the lamborghini!

catch the action on the grandstand

tsonga prepares to serve

a tall man on lincoln road mall

colorful miami

the end to a perfect day

And in case you want to have a slice of this fabulous passion fruit meringue tart, go to Michael’s Food and Wine in the Design District.

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

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australia day

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

Australia Day is like our Fourth of July, complete with parades, fireworks and way way too much drinking.  And it’s today in Australia.  Vera Zvonareva and Petra Kvitova were in the second set of their quarterfinal match on Rod Laver when the noontime twenty one gun salute announced itself.  They buzz the roof of Rod Laver, not once, but a few times, and it is loud and a little scary.   As if that wasn’t enough distraction, just ten minutes earlier a woman either injured herself or became ill a few rows behind where Kvitova was playing, a true visual and emotional diversion from the tennis, more so for Vera who could see it.  It threw things off for a little while, but Vera, she of the famous meltdowns as recently as a year ago, is now a consummate professional.  She had won the first set and had been up 3-0 in the second but was in danger of possibly losing the set when Petra caught up and the score was 5-4, Kvitova serving.  Vera broke her to win the match.  On to the semifinals for the third time in Grand Slams in the past year.

On the men’s side, yesterday, Roger Federer did to Stan Wawrinka what Wawrinka had done to Andy Roddick two nights before.  He gave him a comprehensive beatdown.  Now it was Stan ten feet behind the baseline, fighting for his life, looking like an amateur.  How is it possible, you wonder, that things are so different depending.  But that is tennis.  Andy had nothing to threaten Stan Wawrinka and then Stan had nothing to bother Roger.  Each player has his or her strengths and weaknesses and those match up in certain ways with other players and their strengths and weaknesses.

And if you had any doubt that the women’s game is anyone’s game, the only player who was in last year’s quarters and this year’s is Li Na of China.  My own pre-match racket bracket picks were only fifty percent correct for the last eight women.  I’m doing better with the men where I got six of eight.

There had been much talk about the Djokovic/Berdych match being a five set thriller, but it wasn’t.  Novak just outran and outdefended and outdid everything that Thomas could put out there.  And he won it in straights, 6-1, 7-6, 6-1.

The beauty of a match these past two days turned out to be, not surprisingly, the quarterfinal encounter between Caroline Wozniacki and Francesca Schiavone, last night.  Everyone thought Francesca couldn’t possibly have anything left to give after her four hour forty four minute marathon match against Kuznetsova.  But they were wrong.  Francesca won the first set and was up in the second before Caroline came to.  Where was she?  In the press room, giving guff, or over on the cricket field learning the game?  Who knows?  She wasn’t on Rod Laver for awhile.  Unsettled, fussing with the tape on her leg.  But then she did click in and that burst of energy met up with some of Francesca’s fatigue; it went three sets, with Wozniacki winning.

But Francesca was no loser.  It was beyond amazing that she played the match she did after what she had been through.  In the press conference after the Kuznetsova match, she just showed more of what you love about her.  When asked if she would be able to play again in two days after the marathon, she said she is young, she can run, she can do anything.  Was she aware of the time they had been on the court?  She said, yes, I was looking at the clock and I say, brava Frankie, you are strong!  Players get asked all the time about their internal process, what they were thinking, but most of the time you get pro forma answers.  Francesca actually gives us a real glimpse in her refreshingly honest and unscripted way.  She said she works for these things and when you do something like this, you feel big.  She’s an inspiration to every player.  At thirty, old in tennis terms, she’s having her greatest success.  After years as a journeyman player, she has become a real star.  Brava.

Kim Clijsters won her match over Aggie Radwanska of Poland in straights, but it was more of a contest than that indicates.  Kim won the first set 6-3 and should have put the second to bed much sooner than she did.  She kind of went away mentally, Kim has these periods in her matches, and let Aggie hang around until the set needed a tiebreak to settle it.  Kim has yet to play her very best tennis but she’s got one more match, against Zvonareva, to get to the final and she’ll need it to win.

Our four semifinalists are Wozniacki and Na Li, Kim and Vera.  It really is any one of these women’s game still, and both the semis and the final, whoever is in it, should be good contests.   Kim is the only one of the four who is a Grand Slam winner, though she has not yet won the Australian Open.  And as Kim would be the first to tell you, it took her about a half dozen tries before she finally closed the deal and hoisted the trophy at the end of one of these majors.  You have to win seven matches against all sorts of opponents, on all different surfaces and courts, in all manner of weather and conditions, staying in all kinds of hotels and apartments, eating different food, drinking new water.  It is not easy.  So even when you make a deep run at these events, you feel, as Frankie told us, “big”.  And if you are the last woman standing, the victor, you would feel huge.  If Caroline or Vera or Li Na win their first Grand Slam this weekend, they will feel big indeed.

Tennis is about the game and it’s about the players and all the human dramas and stories.  It’s about the different countries they come from and where they compete.  And it’s about the fans without whom it would be the tennis version of one hand clapping.  All of that combines in ways both predictable and surprising and often compelling.

As it did last night on Rod Laver Arena as Rafa Nadal and David Ferrer took the court before a packed house.  Rafa, just three matches away from a career Grand Slam, ownership of all four trophies in one year, he won the French, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010.  He was feeling better from his virus, did well against Cilic, didn’t sweat like crazy as he had been.  Feeling good, Rafa should be able to beat his friend and fellow countryman, David Ferrer, even though their head to head is 3-2, I believe.  Never count Ferrer out, that’s for sure.  If Francesca Schiavone is La Lionessa, David is and has always been The BullDog.  He’s a grinder, he’s fast, he’s a shotmaker and he goes first ball to last with the same intensity, very much like Rafa in this way.

Early in the first set, at 2-1 Ferrer, after a long game when Rafa first served, in which he was broken, he called for the trainer and left the court for a medical time-out.  No one knew what was up.  Sometimes you can see on court when a player has suffered an injury, they turn their ankle in the wrong way, they pull up in pain from a shot, but last night something happened to Rafa that wasn’t as clear as that, and it still isn’t.  He came back to the court, prepared to play, and after a few games it looked like maybe he was going to be able to work through it, but he never really did.  Was it the thigh, the hamstring?  He didn’t retire, something he did exactly one year ago, on Australia Day, against Murray.  He played the match, but Ferrer, who excecuted his game plan to perfection against a wounded Rafa, was the victor in straight sets.

It was a huge disappointment to everyone.  The purists, like Bud Collins, will say it’s not a Slam unless you win all four in the same calendar year.  Rod Laver did it not once but twice.  But anyway you cut it, to hold all four in sequence is an achievement few attain and Rafa’s hopes for that, and all who love him and his game and his spirit, were completely dashed last night.  In his press conference after the match, he asked not to speak about the injury, mostly because he didn’t know what it was, but also, greatly, because he wanted to focus on the match that got played and how well Ferrer had competed.  He does not want to be the guy who only loses because he has an injury, and he does not want to be the player who retires and deprives his opponents of a win they earned.  Rafa accepts that you go out on the court as you are on the day and you compete and you either win or you lose, and then you come back the next day and the next and do it all over again.  He doesn’t want sympathy, he doesn’t make excuses.

In the middle of the match, there was a break, as there always is, for the fireworks display.  You can see them from inside Rod Laver and last year when I was there I watched them outside of the tennis park, at the edge of the river downtown.  They put on a good show, that’s for sure.

So last night all of it combined, the drama, the high stakes, the game and its history and its present and future, the players and their humanity and aspirations, the country and its traditions and proud history, the fans and their fervor.  At the ESPN desk, now with its own Australia Day traditions, there were vegemite sandwiches (disgusting stuff) and meat pies, and lizards and wombats or whatever prickly creature that was.  Only Aussie Darren Cahill could stomach the vegemite, Brad Gilbert went walkabout when the animals started licking Darren’s jacket, Vera Zvonareva tried the vegemite and held the animals.

It didn’t turn out as expected.  It was great.

Happy Australia Day!

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