Last Week, In Photos

So, Roger Federer played his first tournament since the US Open in Shanghai, and didn't look a bit rusty. He made the final. Oh yeah, and they gave him a pretty spectacular entrance. Check out this photo, fog and all. The only way this could've been better is if they lowered him onto Center Court amidst fireworks and some cheesy rock anthem like The Boys are Back in Town. Think about that one for next year, Shanghai. You know I'm right.



Roger played Robin in the quarterfinals. I believe this has become a pretty familiar face from Soderling. I like to call it the 'Seriously, Federer again? WTF, am I never going to catch a break?' look. The match ended in a 6-1, 6-1 beatdown. I'm telling you, Sod's luck is almost as bad as Roddick's when it comes to drawing Fed, and his head-to-head is just about as bad.



So, Andy played Roger in the final. I would like you to remember this awesome look a little later. Action shots are always pretty bad, but Andy Murray is just not photogenic. Also, my mom is convinced that he physically cannot close his mouth. Honestly, the photographic evidence kind of backs up that claim.



I mean really, he looks like a crazy homeless man. If I saw him on the street, I would cross it.



Fed stopped mid-match to show us some pilates before hitting the ball back. Nice form, Roger.



So you know how I said to remember that photo of Andy later? Yeah, let's compare to basically the same photo of Roger. Unlike Andy, Roger is extremely photogenic, just one more thing he is awesome at.



As much as the camera loves him, the fates weren't in Roger's favor on Sunday. Andy won in straights. Although, if he weren't holding the trophy, you probably couldn't tell. Gloomy much? It's cool Andy. We love you even if you are a sourpuss.



Oh wait, it's happy Andy, kind of. Can we go back to gloomy Andy?



Jurgen and Leander took home the doubles trophy, plus what looks like some kind of creepy smurf or toothpaste blob or something. What is up with the Asian tournaments and the weird stuffed animals? They are so creepy.



On the WTA tour, we were lucky enough to get this. First, Ana Ivanovic won her first tournament in two years. Awesome. Hopefully she can keep the momentum rolling through to next season. Even better, the trophy presentation included several of the Von Trapp children. How often do we see that?

So Let's Recap (Most of) What Happened

I know. I know. I’ve been bad. I promised you a Day 1 Recap. Well, today you’re getting two for the price of one as I discuss some of my favorite (and least favorite) moments of Days 1 and 2. You’ll have to forgive me for being a bit of a mess. I just moved into a new apartment, my family’s moving half way across the country this week, and I started my senior year of college today, which means recruiting time is upon us and I need a really good job to keep up my tennis habit. But, you shouldn’t care about any of this. You should be preoccupied by the awesome tennis that has already been displayed in the first two days of the US Open, the most glamorous of the Slams.

I often complain about ESPN’s coverage of tennis (i.e. cutting out in the middle of Isner/Mahut Wimbledon madness to air a meaningless World Cup match), but I have to say that their coverage of the US Open Series and the US Open has been great. They’ve even continued coverage of matches that over run their allotted timeslot. Clearly they air more of the US Open than any other major because it’s in New York and for some reason a lot of Americans only appreciate American athletes and American events. However, was it really necessary for ESPN to air a commercial completely knocking the other 3 Slams and touting the USO as the best?

Personally, I think there’s something special about all the Slams. I hail from the lovely state of New Jersey (don’t judge me, I know you’re judging me), so the USO takes place in my back yard. No, really, I’m from the part of New Jersey you can actually see Manhattan from. For this reason, and many others, I love the US Open. New York is like no other city in the world. There’s something kind of magical, yet raw about the city and that energy extends to the US Open. The night matches provide some of the most exciting tennis of the entire year and I don’t think fashion ever plays a bigger role in a Slam. But, I would never go so far as to say it’s the best.

I visited the French Open for the first time this year. It’s usually my least favorite Slam to watch on TV, but once I was there, it was a totally different experience. I think Paris is one of the best cities on Earth and the French takes on that Parisian feel. There are so many hard core tennis fans in France and I met people from all over the world that were using their vacation time to come to the French Open. I’ve never been to Wimbledon, but it’s pretty much the gold standard of tennis and I don’t look forward to any two weeks of the tennis year more than I do Wimbledon. Wimbledon is classy and historic, much like London. Finally, there’s Australia. Honestly it’s the most often forgotten Slam, but apparently a player favorite. They do call it the ‘happy’ Slam and many players have made a run there where they haven’t had much success at the others.

Like I said, I get national pride, ESPN, but that’s no reason to malign the other Slams.

Alright, I believe I promised you some of my observations from the last two days.

So, much like the first few days of Wimbledon this year, we’ve already seen a great deal of five set matches on the men’s side and several top seeds have been tested. Djokovic gave everyone quite a scare today, down two sets to one against countryman Viktor Troicki. I think this was an extremely telling match for Djokovic. He’s been as high as 2 in the world this summer and comes into the USO as the number 3 player. Based on rankings, the guy should always be a contender for the title, not a guy who could lose in the first round. There’s been a lot of talk about Roger, Rafa and Murray, but almost none about Djokovic taking home the title, even though he has one Grand Slam title and has made it to the final of the USO before. Why? Because he looks like he’s about to keel over when it’s hot. I wasn’t there today, but apparently it was hot, really hot. That wasn’t good news for Djokovic. But, he pulled out a five set victory in crushing heat, and even though he wheezed his way through the on-court interview, it should bring out some confidence.

Who else needed five sets in their first match? Gael Monfils played a hotly contested match against Robert Kendrick. Kendrick overshot the baseline on what would have been a break point in the fifth set. No big deal, he doesn’t get the break. However, Monfils went to bat the ball out of the way. It was unclear whether Monfils’ racket actually hit the ball before or after the ball hit the ground. Big difference. The chair umpire ruled that Monfils hit the ball after. When Monfils was asked about it after the match, he said he was unsure of the timing and thus stuck with the umpire’s call. If you go back into the tennis vault, you’ll recall a similar incident at the 2008 Olympics where James Blake believed opponent Fernando Gonzalez did not admit that the ball hit his racket. They did a replay of Monfils’ shot several times and it was really difficult to tell when the ball hit the ground versus when it hit the racket, so I’m giving Gael the benefit of the doubt and backing up his assertion that he was unsure.

Arnaud Clement, a tour veteran who hasn’t had great results lately, took out Marcos Baghdatis in five today. Baghdatis is coming off great results from the summer hard court season, so it was a bit of a shock to see him go out so early at the US Open. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Baghdatis is so up and down that there are no guarantees with his game. I think he peeked a bit early this summer and may have played a little more tennis than he’s used to. That’s the problem with winning, you have to keep playing more matches.

David Nalbandian has also had a great hard court summer after returning from injury. But did he peek too early? It took him five sets to defeat Rik de Voest, a 30 year old qualifier. Based on his draw, I gave him a good shot of getting to the quarters. Hopefully he got all the bugs out of his game with this match and will be all set to face Serra in the second round.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco also went to five sets in his first round match against Fabio Fognini. Fognini actually ousted Verdasco in the first round of Wimbledon this year, so I was happy to see Fernando get his revenge, but it really shouldn’t have been this difficult. Verdasco is a very talented guy and should be blasting players like Fognini right off the court. If Fernando wants to stay in the top 10, he’s going to have to bring the heat.

America’s favorite diet story, Mardy Fish, also took five sets to defeat Jan Hajek, but it was a very weird five setter. The sets he won, he won 6-0, 6-0, and 6-1 and yet somehow he lost two sets. Fish is having the best year of his tennis career and I would love to see him make it to the second week after putting in so much hard work. Plus, I’d really like to see him play Andy Roddick again, but I think it’s Andy’s turn to win.

Perhaps the biggest surprise first round battle occurred between world number 5, Robin Soderling, and qualifier, Andreas Haider-Maurer. I watch a ton of tennis and I have never heard of Andreas Haider-Maurer, so I figured it would be a pretty routine day for Soderling. Over the last year, Robin has transformed himself into a player that can really contend for any title. He’s consistently talked about with the top players and has a real chance of winning a Grand Slam in the next couple of years. I watched some of the match, but still can’t really explain it. Robin wasn’t playing poorly, but Haider-Maurer definitely upped his game. I think the five setters really come down to experience. When the qualifier finally realizes they have a chance at beating a top player, they tend to fall apart. I’ll definitely be watching for more from this guy.

Dmitry Tursunov came super close to beating 15^th seed Jurgen Melzer. Tursunov is recently back on tour after being injured. He’s fighting his way back up the rankings and it’s slow going. Luckily he had a protected ranking which gave him entry in the USO. Dima used to be a top 20 player so hopefully he can fight his way back. Taking the 15^th seed to five sets after being two sets to love down, well, it’s a good start.

Perhaps the biggest five set victory was Paul-Henri Mathieu over Lleyton Hewitt, a former US Open champion. Poor Lleyton’s been plagued by hip issues for the past several years. He’s a real crowd favorite and always a pleasure to watch. Props to Paul-Henri. He’s also on the comeback trail and has some choking issues at big moments, so an impressive win for PHM.

Ok, I promise a women’s update is on its way, but I have class tomorrow so I’m going to have to cut this post short. On second thought, this post is really long enough so you’re lucky I’m tired. We’ll talk women tomorrow. Goodnight all!

Diary of an American in Paris: Days 2,3 & 4

Hi all. While I had the best intentions of updating every day from Paris, somehow I just never seemed to have the time or adequate internet connection. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts from the last few days.

Day 2 (1st June)

I originally decided to skip the sightseeing today and head straight over to the tennis to ensure that I would get a seat on Chatrier to see Nadal's match. I arrived at Roland Garros around 3pm and approached the guard at the entrance. I wasn't quite as lucky as yesterday because he didn't speak English. After many attempts to get my point across, he informed me that they were no longer selling tickets at night. Disappointed, I asked another attendant if I would be able to purchase a ticket tomorrow morning. He did speak English, but unfortunately the news wasn't good. I would not be able to get a ticket tomorrow either.

I spent the rest of the day walking around Paris. After what felt like many miles, I stumbled upon a plaza with a large screen set up and several exhibition courts. I was glad I finally found something to do with the tennis and sat down to watch some of the match highlights on the big screen. Luckily, this was the one day that we got good weather, so it was nice to sit outside with other fans.

I did manage to catch a few televised matches today, even if I couldn't be there in person. I was particularly intrigued by the Djokovic/Ginepri match. As an American, I always like to see our guys do well, but clay courts just aren't American friendly. Robby was the last American left on the men's side of the draw and I consider that a pretty poor showing considering we've got Roddick, Querrey, and Isner. Ginepri is one of those players that lives in obscurity the vast majority of the time and then surfaces once every couple of years with a good performance. I was unimpressed with Djokovic today. A player of his caliber should be able to go out and crush a guy like Ginepri. Sure, he still won in 4 sets, but what was the second set all about? It seemed like a severe lapse in concentration. He can get away with stuff like this when he's playing second rate players, but up against someone like Federer or Nadal, the tiniest lapse could cost him the match. Spoiler Alert: Jurgen Melzer was able to take advantage of this lack of concentration and has now secured himself a spot in his first Grand Slam semi-final.

Day 3 (2nd June)

It's raining. I've chosen to spend my day watching the tennis on TV and take a bus tour of Paris later tonight. Clearly the matchup of the day is Roger Federer and Robin Soderling. These two have met on twelve previous occasions and Roger Federer has beaten Soderling in all twelve, including last year's French Open final. I predicted on Sunday that Soderling wouldn't make it past tennis' golden boy, but I must admit that I was wrong. I never doubted Soderling's abilities. He's an incredibly talented guy, but it's hard to like anyone's chances against Federer, especially when they've already lost to him twelve times.

I started watching this match from the beginning and was quite pleased to see them split the first two sets (everyone likes a close match); however, I was confident that Roger would come back to win it and continue his Grand Slam semi-final streak. Again, I was wrong. I chose a nice little Italian restaurant for dinner because it was showing the match. I watched as Federer succumbed to defeat. After getting over the initial shock of the situation, I was quite pleased for Soderling. He may not be very popular amongst the other players, but no one can doubt his determination. He is so focused. I was sitting close enough Sunday to have a very clear view of the players and Soderling has an almost crazed look in his eyes when he plays. He's passionate about improving on his results and I think this will help him get farther in all the big tournaments.

Now, the important question, what are Robin's chances of winning? He has an excellent shot at making it to the final for the second year in a row. His semi-final is against Tomas Berdych. As I explained on Sunday, Berdych is a very unassuming player. He doesn't have the drive that Soderling has and he's never made it this far in a Slam. He's bound to be a bit nervous. Soderling's problem lies in the final match. It's nearly certain that Soderling will face Nadal (who plays Jurgen Melzer on Friday) in the final on Sunday. I don't envy his position, facing Nadal in a French Open final is no easy feat. While we can consider the fact that Soderling beat Nadal in the fourth round of the French last year, Rafa is considerably healthier this year. He has won nearly every clay court title this season and doesn't seem to be slowing down. If these two meet on Sunday, my money's on Nadal to win. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of Robin Soderling though.

Day 4 (3rd June)

Fun Fact: I arrived at the St Charles train station in Marseille this morning. I was approached by a French woman while waiting and apparently she was quite certain that I was Nadia Petrova. It took me a couple of minutes, but I tried to explain that I was definitely not Nadia Petrova. She finally bought my story and moved on. I really don't see the resemblance.

Today was actually quite surprising on the women's side. It seems that regardless of who wins on Saturday, we will have a first time Grand Slam champion. Sam Stosur has played a very solid season this year and really seems to be keeping her head in the high level matches. Arguably, she had the toughest draw of anyone to get to the final this year. She defeated Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Jelena Jankovic on the way to the final. Schiavone seems to have come out of nowhere, but she also had a considerably easier road to the final, particularly after Dementieva retired in their semi-final. Interestingly, if Schiavone wins on Saturday, she will be the first Italian to win a Grand Slam.

My prediction: Stosur in two sets.