All for a Week

Roger Federer could be aiming for the World No.1 spot as he plays in Rotterdam this week.

Tonight, for the first time since 2005, Federer will be playing at the ABN AMRO  World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. Is this a tactic to help him reclaim the World No.1 ranking? Federer’s relationship with that coveted top ranking has seen some roller-coaster times the last few years.

2009 was an incredibly dramatic year for Roger. There was the emotional breakdown in Melbourne, the dream run in Paris, the suspense in London and the astonishing anti-climax in New York. By the end of the year, he had won the Career Slam. He had won the most Grand Slams in the history of the sport. He had become the greatest of all time. And crucially, he was back as World No. 1, inching ever closer to Pete Sampras’s record of 286 weeks atop the ATP rankings. Federer had the right to claim 2009 as one of the best tennis seasons ever.

However, Federer’s not-so-glorious run in 2010 threatened to derail his mission to break Sampras’s record of most weeks as No.1. A string of patchy performances meant that half-way into the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, Federer had to necessarily win his quarter-final match to go ahead of Sampras.

Of course, that was famously not to be. Rafael Nadal won the French Open and reclaimed the No. 1 spot and left Federer agonizingly short of the record. Having spent 285 weeks at the top, Roger must have surely felt the pinch of being stopped just one week short of the record.

Then in 2011, Novak Djokovic gave the word ‘dominance’ a whole new meaning, and for the first time since he began playing at the top, he started consistently defeating both Roger and Rafa. By the end of the year, tennis had a new World No. 1.

So now in 2012, though by no means done and dusted, Federer finds himself more than 5000 points behind Djokovic. He is still No. 3 in the world, with Nadal being the other player ahead of him. With age not being on his side and the top two being so highly consistent and dominating, all the factors are against him making another run for the top. But Federer does want to get back to No. 1. And he seems to have discovered a way to narrow the gap.

At the ATP-500 level tournament in Rotterdam, his toughest opponents will probably be Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin Del Potro. Which means Federer has an excellent chance of winning the tournament and eating a bit into the lead that the top two have over him. This is, seemingly, a pretty good tactic. Federer’s effortless style allows him to play plenty of matches and tournaments without subjecting his body to much stress. In contrast, the two players ranked above him put in so much hard work into each match they play that having more tournaments on their schedule would be almost kamikaze.

Although a few extra tournaments probably won’t be sufficient to close the huge gap between Federer and Djokovic-Nadal (at best, he can accumulate around 1500 points through these small tournaments), it is certainly the best way forward. If he can combine a good run here with some victories in the Masters 1000 tournaments or the Slams, then could come within snapping distance of Djokovic and Nadal. Of course, for that to happen, what will also have to necessarily happen is for one of these two let up at some point in the season. Djokovic has a monumental 8800 points to defend for the rest of the season, while Nadal has around 5500 points to guard, so a tiny slip-up from either could push them back quite a bit.

In all of his interviews, Federer has made it apparent that he is still hungry for achievement. He is determined to get to the top. With the Olympics, which are being held on his favorite hunting ground (Wimbledon) also on his schedule, 2012 could well end up being Roger Federer’s year. And if that does happen, he will almost certainly have conquered that one last week in his bid to overtake Sampras.

As I said before, don’t miss this year for the world!

Six Hour Showdown

The Longest Ever Grand Slam Final

The moment that summed up the match and made both players even more adorable was when Nadal and Djokovic said in their acceptance speeches, “Good morning everybody!”

At quarter to 2  in the morning, after 5 hours and 53 minutes of mind-boggling and ferocious tennis, two things emerged.

Firstly, the current men’s game is probably as high as it gets.
It seems almost impossible to even imagine what level could exist beyond what we are seeing presently. Two weeks ago, several of the top 10 players had a fair chance of making it in Melbourne. Tsonga came in behind a strong finish last year and a confident start to this season in Doha. Tomas Berdych came with confidence after what was his best year on tour since he went pro. David Ferrer came in hot after winning in Auckland. Andy Murray came in with significant change to his camp. With multiple grand-slams champion Ivan Lendl as his coach, many reckoned that Murray has now the advantage of experience too, on his side. With Nadal's knees creaking, Federer's back spasming and Djokovic's shoulder and ankles barely managing to maintain the functionality, many expected a fairly open field in Melbourne.

But here is where men’s tennis is currently so good. To be at the top, you have to earn it. And you have to earn it in so hard a manner, that once you are there, you will break your back, pop a tendon or crack a rib, if you must, to stay there. After the first week, only 1 of the top eight seeds did not make it. And by the semi-finals, the gap between the top four and the rest of the pack elongated a bit more. The final three matches served tennis fans across the world, 14 hours and 25 minutes of high quality, mind numbing and sensational tennis. That's how good it is.

The second thing to emerge from this match is that Novak Djokovic is now, truly and deservedly in place as the World No. 1 and the leader of the field in this extraordinary sport. Many said that he achieved it when he won at Wimbledon. However, they also said that his run of 2011 will never be repeated, not even by him. That is why, to achieve all that in 2011, and then to come back, and defend his title, and defend in such difficult circumstances in such a spectacular fashion, marks for me, the moment when Novak Djokovic earned his spot.

Djokovic collapses after hitting the winner.

Meanwhile, Uncle Toni and Rafa need to figure out what exactly is still missing. The two probably started to think about the Djoker puzzle after back to back losses in Indian Wells and Miami. Five more losses later, it still remains unsolvable. He has lost now, three Grand Slam finals in a row. He has come closer to the solution in each match, yet not managed to find it.

However, after the contesting the longest grand slam final ever, after being up in the fifth set, after being only a few points away from the match and yet losing the match, those sure were some great words, not to mention a formidable spirit, from the champion Rafa.

Lip-smacking tennis is on offer in 2012. Do not miss it for the world.

Quarter-Finals Summary

There were four monumental matches on Day 9 of the Australian Open. And I think that they all ended with the right result.

First was the battle between Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Vika Azarenka celebrates her Quarter Final win

Azarenka averaged at three games lost per match till today. It took a tight first set and a shocker of a tie-breaker to bring back that form into her. After 6-6 in the first set, the crowd was probably anticipating a tight tie-breaker. Instead, Radwanska ran away with it with seven consecutive points. Enough the shake Azarenka and bring out the best in her. Sure, the shrieks reached shattering frequencies, but it clearly meant that Vika was in the groove now.

She completed a convincing comeback to take the match 6-7 6-0 6-2.

The second clash was between Wonder Mum, Kim Clijsters and the slamless No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki.

Kim Clijsters after defeating Caroline Wozniacki

After her victory against Li Na, in what was, by far, the best women’s match in this Australian Open, yet, many wondered if she will be able to play at her best today. Especially after the tumble she took in that match, early in its first set. And despite the seedings, no one was fooled into believing that the Dane was the favourite, or the Belgian, the underdog. And after making it almost official in her previous match that this would be her last Australian Open, Kim Clijsters is on a dream run here. And she was not going to let the World No. 1 stop her.

She convincingly defeated her opponent 6-3 7-6 to progress to the semi-finals. And this meant that Wozniacki is set to lose her No. 1 ranking. She could be replaced at the top by either of Azarenka, Kvitova or Sharapova.

The third match was between Roger Federer and the rejuvenated Juan Martin Del Potro.

Federer and Del Potro shake hands after their match

To grasp just how talented and quick to learn the Argentine is, all one needs to do is look at four matches from 2009. The first one was here in Melbourne, in the quarter-finals. Federer won that encounter in a display of sheer dominance, 6-3 6-0 6-0. The next match is again between these two, this time of the clay of Paris. Federer almost had to dig the clay up to record a win. Five tight sets, with Federer even down a break in the fifth. In fact, the only reason Federer probably won that day was because he was on a highly motivated run to claim his first Roland Garros title after Nadal was disposed by Soderling. The third match is between Nadal and Del Potro, US Open semi-final. Only once before has Nadal ever had such a beating in a Grand Slam match. Del Potro decimated the Mallorcan, 6-2 6-2 6-2. The last one is the US Open final. No one, not even Del Potro himself probably believed that he could upset the five time champion. Five sets later, when he did accomplish that, he had become the first man ever, to defeat Federer and Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament.

He even had a shot at the coveted top two ranks, but for that brutal wrist injury. Missing almost the entire 2010 season, he plummeted from 4^th to somewhere close to 500^th in the world.

But the Argentine is back. He is he 11^th seed now and true to his ability, had progressed till the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, the confidence is still not quite back. It also does not help to run in a Federer who is playing brilliantly. Federer took just a minute less than two hours to win the match. The final score was 6-4 6-3 6-2.

For some records at statistics, this was Federer’s 1000^th tour level match. And he won his 2000^th, 2001^st and 2002^nd sets as well.

The last epic was between Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych.

Nadal celebrates a point

After the rather acrimonious spar between Berdych and Almagro, and being booed by the Melbourne crowd, Berdych was in no happy mood. He does not have a happy history with Nadal either. Nor is his head to head with Rafa something to cheer about. But Berdych is in the best form of his career. He is playing exceptionally well, on all wings. Unfortunately, so is Rafa.

After several nervous holds till 4-5 in the first, Berdych jumped to a 0-40 lead on Nadal’s service. Nadal then upped the ante and played three screaming points (not that Berdych was going easy, mind you) to draw level. Then in the tie-breaker, Nadal was the first to draw blood. But an excellent service return and an error in judgement related to the Hawk-Eye challenge meant that Nadal was suddenly another set point down. Berdych calmly aced it.

Again in the second set, Nadal raced to a 5-2 lead. But a challenge on his serve resulted in him having to replay the point, despite Berdych having been hardly any position to make a return. The service was broken and another tie-breaker followed. This time however, Nadal kept his nerve to close it 8-6.

For two sets, both Nadal and Berdych pounded the ball till it pleaded for mercy. After a set apiece, only Nadal had juice left in him to keep on going. Berdych was clearly out of gas. The first two sets lasted for two hours and twenty six minutes. And after four hours and sixteen minutes, the Spaniard triumphed. The score card read 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-3.

With both Federer and Nadal winning, this means that for the first time since the 2005 French Open, the two players will meet in the semi-final of a major. The only other time these two played in Australia was in the epic final of 2009.

This one on Thursday has all the makings of a classic.

Origami and more...

1. From a relative anonymity to the Hall of Fame - the jump that Marcos Baghdatis made in the sport of racket smashing.

Sure you have heard of the champions of this sport.
Goran Ivanisevic is undoubtedly one of the greatest. A Wimbledon champion and a fine tennis player. Finer than him were the pieces of his equipment after he was done with them. This is what he said after his semi-final against Kafelnikov -

"I was pretty nice to the racket all last week. I was surprised how easy it broke. Maybe there is something wrong with it, or I'm too strong."

Another famous champion is the Russian, Marat Safin. If you were to consider only his racket smashing reputation, then this man should be sending shivers down the Russian Duma (all 140% of them). He is estimated to have smashed over a thousand rackets in his career.
In his own words, the logic behind his passion for racket origami -
"Today I smash rackets, for tomorrow we die."

Safin: Using the Force to destroy this particular one

Even the great Roger Federer is a nondescript in this sport. Then how did Marcos Baghdatis achieve his feat, you might ask. In a highly explosive fit of rage in the match against the Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka, the Cypriot destroyed not just one or two, but FOUR rackets, all within a minute, before smiling, accepting a code violation and resuming the game.

Thank goodness Cypress is no longer a part of Greece.


2. Clash of the Canines - A poor joke that can be made on two very talented youngsters on the circuit.
But the Aussie, Bernard Tomic (read more about him here) and the Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov (nicknamed Dog) match up to showcase the most extraordinary brand of tennis. As Vijay Amritraj pointed out -

"If Ferrer and Hewitt played a match, no doubt it will be of excellent quality, but they will end up playing the same point over and over again.

They will come no where close to matching the variety of these two youngsters."

          

And in a true display of rising confidence, the younger Tomic battled past Dolgopolov in five electrifying sets to advance to a personal best fourth round in the Australian Open and set up a clash with four-time champion Roger Federer. This performance also justifies his new title of being Australia's No. 1.

3. After shattering and grinding all records, and then sweeping them and throwing them into the bin, all in one Wimbledon match, one would have thought he'd had enough of five set marathons.
But clearly, five set marathons have not had enough of John Isner.

The American giant with a powerful service game had two of them, back to back. Against the Argentinian, David Nalbandian, he went on for 4 hours and 41 minutess before winning 10-8 in the fifth set, which alone lasted for 99 minutes. And against the Spanish lefty, Felicano Lopez, he toiled for 3 hours and 26 minutes. But this time he ended up on the losing side.

Isner: After someone kidded that they're abolishing tie breakers.

Of course, these encounters do not compare at all with that Wimbledon match (Isner's, not the 08 final). But it would seem Isner is making himself into a professional long-distance runner.

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Read the first of the articles on the One Hundredth Australian Open here.