What Ever Happened to Consistency?

For years now, I've been able to comfortably sit down to watch a match between any top 5 player and a player out of the top 5 with little belief that an upset was possible. However, recently the game has changed. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been the dominant figures in tennis for at least the past 5 years and players like Djokovic, Murray and Roddick have continued to float around the top 10. It's been rare that any new players have a chance to break into the top 5 or 10 because the players at the top of the rankings have just been too dominant over the past several years to make room for any new comers.

Lately, there's actually been a bit of movement around the top 10. Is this some kind of mid-season slump, or are we looking at a changing of the guard? While Roger Federer may not have won any titles since the Australian Open yet, but he is still an unshakable number one. Federer's over 3,000 points ahead of any other player in the rankings. He may not have won the most titles this year, but he's been playing a more limited schedule, and frankly he won the one that counts. Federer will go into this year's French Open as the defending champion for the first time, but I don't think this will add to the pressure. He's already completed the career grand slam and bested Sampras' all time record. Federer has nothing to lose and is undoubtedly the most consistent player in Grand Slam tournaments on the the tour. I'm not sure he'll win this one, but he'll defend plenty of points to retain his number one spot going into the summer.

Djokovic has had a lackluster year so far. The change in his service motion and switching back and forth between coaches doesn't seem to have helped his game. He may be number two in the rankings, but that has less to do with merit than the injuries plaguing usual number two, Nadal. Frankly, Djokovic has been coasting since his Australian Open win in 2008 and if he has any shot at winning another slam, he's going to have to dig a little deeper. While his clay court game has improved, I wouldn't give him great chances at this year's French. Djokovic's next big hope for a Slam win will come in September at the US Open. Let's hope he can find his game by then and earn his number two spot.

It's truly a shame that Rafael Nadal's career has been plagued by injuries at such an early age. He is only 23 and already has 37 career singles titles. That's a truly amazing statistic. If he can manage to stay healthy, that number should easily double. However, Nadal seems to be in a bit of slump lately. Last week's win in Monte Carlo should be a big ego boost since he hasn't won a tournament since Rome in 2009. That's almost a year with no titles. Nadal's win in Monte Carlo also marked a record 6th title in a row at the MCCC, a feat never accomplished by another player, not even Roger Federer. This week, Nadal was meant to be going for a 6th title in Barcelona, but pulled out for fear of re-injuring his knee. However, I wouldn't count Nadal out just yet. I think he's probably just being extra cautious in the weeks leading up to the French Open in hopes of regaining his crown. I expect we'll be seeing him in the final at Roland Garros in a few weeks, if not winning the whole tournament.

The fourth spot is really what I'd like to discuss in terms of players slipping around the top 10. Juan Martin del Potro currently holds the number 4 ATP ranking, a career high for the Argentinian. However, del Potro hasn't played a single tournament since the Australian Open as he has been out indefinitely with a wrist injury. This means that players like Murray have slipped so far that they are being overtaken by players that aren't even currently playing on the tour. That said, I hope del Potro recovers quickly and can return to the tour in time to defend his US Open title. He is an extremely talented young player.

Andy Murray...what can I say? Murray started the year off with a bang. It seemed like he would finally put the Brits out of their misery and win a Grand Slam. While the match wasn't a blow out like his US Open final, Roger Federer very clearly dominated the young Scotsman. Getting to the final of a Grand Slam is nothing to scoff at, but it's the rest of Murray's year that has me worried. It just seems like something's not quite right. He hasn't won a single title yet this year and exited in the second rounds in both Dubai and Miami. Unfortunately, I don't see Andy's year getting much better from here. Like every year, soon Andy will start to feel the pressure of Wimbledon looming ahead and the extra stress most likely won't help his already ailing game.

To round out the top 10, Davydenko is currently out with a broken wrist, so I'd expect to see him fall a spot or two in the coming months. Andy Roddick is hiding out during the clay court season. Roddick hasn't played any tournaments since winning in Miami and has pulled out of this week's mandatory tournament in Rome, citing personal reasons. However, according to TMZ it looks like his personal reason was a beach vacation with wife Brooklyn Decker. Soderling and Verdasco squared off in today's Barcelona final, which Verdasco won, a nice victory for him considering his defeat in Monte Carlo last week. Jo Wilfried Tsonga rounds out today's top 10, but I'd expect a little movement in spots 9 and 10 in the upcoming weeks as there are plenty of points to be gained and lost.

Mastering the Monte Carlo Masters

Monte Carlo loves tennis! Last weekend I had the pleasure of crossing an item off my to-do list for life. I visited Monaco. Luckily, my free weekend coincided with the beginning of the Monte-Carlo Masters Tennis Tournament. The Tournament is held at a private club in Monaco, situated directly on the coast and backed by the French Alps. The prospect of watching tennis amongst the rich and famous at the Monte-Carlo Country Club (MCCC) was very enticing and the atmosphere was wonderful. Fans seemed very excited and the Club was far less pretentious than I was expecting, and more importantly the merchandise was reasonably priced (unlike the food.)

Unfortunately, my day at the Masters was cut short by some bad weather, but I still managed to catch a few practice sessions and a match between Andrey Golubev and Arnaud Clement. The centre court at MCCC is a spectacular venue to watch a match because it's very small. There really are no bad seats. My friend and I paid about 25 euro each for seats about four or five rows up from the court. Loge seats are even available for a mere 60 euro (at the beginning of the tournament). This is a big pro for the Monte Carlo event seeing as it is a Masters 1000 event but has the more intimate feel of a smaller tournament. If you see my post below on the Rotterdam 500 event, you'll notice how much I enjoyed watching the players' practice sessions. While Monte Carlo Centre Court was much better for a spectator than Rotterdam, the practices courts left me wanting. The practice courts are sealed off with opaque mesh so you cannot see in from the ground level. There are bleachers and an upper deck where you can watch the various courts. It is hard to maneuver between courts and there is minimal seating. However, my biggest complaint was the lack of protection from the elements. I mentioned that MCCC is right on the water, which means that there can be a significant breeze. This also means that the clay has a tendency to kick up in the wind. By the end of Paul Henri Mathieu's practice session, I was completely covered in clay. I spent the rest of the day trying to get tiny specs out of my eyes and teeth. Although, I'm sure my discomfort was only a fraction of what the players must have felt. For part of the Golubev/Clement match, it looked more like a sand storm than a tennis match.

Even though I returned to London absolutely freezing and covered in clay from head to toe, I still had a lovely time at the tournament. One of the best surprises of the weekend was learning how much of an impact the tournament has on Monaco. It seemed like tennis was absolutely everywhere you looked. I took the picture above on the way to our hotel when I noticed this masterpiece in a cake-shop window. It seemed like everywhere we went, there were small signs, or in many cases big signs, that the tournament was coming (like the giant tennis racquet pictured above right outside the Grand Casino.)

For me the most exciting part of the weekend was the opportunity to observe some of the players off the court and outside the realm of the tournament. Monaco is such a small country that if you wonder through certain parts of Monte Carlo, you're bound to run in to one of the numerous players staying there. Spotting the rich and famous isn't uncommon in Monaco, so you have to have a keen eye for spotting players or you might miss them. My friend and I walked the entire length of the country on Saturday night looking for dinner. While it was an incredibly quiet walk, we did walk past Julien Benneteau out with a friend and a couple of girls, most likely on their way to dinner before the Players' Party at Zelo's in the Grimaldi Forum. We kept walking, until we reached the Monte Carlo Bay Resort, which was playing host to the Anti-Aging Conference for the weekend. The Monte Carlo Bay Resort is one of several Monaco establishments which sponsor the tournament and clearly where most of the players choose to stay. While eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant, I spotted Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Tommy Robredo, Tomas Berdych, and Marin Cilic. I have to say my friend was most likely fed up with my lack of attention as I tried to decide how everyone in the restaurant was related to the tournament and watch out for players at the same time.

All in all, I would again recommend this tournament to almost any fan. Monaco is a beautiful country and spectators won't be able to avoid being enchanted by the glamour of the whole event.

This Could Be The Year

After the past few weeks, I'd imagine that a lot of tennis blogs will feature articles on the future of Andy Roddick. At the moment, he seems almost unstoppable. He has the most match wins for 2010 in the ATP with a record of 26-4 and already has two titles this year, including a win at the Miami Masters 1000 event this weekend, which is one of the biggest events on the tour outside of the Grand Slams. Ever since joining with coach Larry Stefanki at the end of 2008, it seems like Roddick has enjoyed a career resurgence.

For years, Americans dominated the tennis scene with Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras reaching a combined 33 Grand Slam finals between 1990 and 2005, and winning 22 of those. Andy Roddick was touted as the great young American hope to take over when Sampras and Agassi retired. Roddick won his first ever Grand Slam in 2003, at the age of 21 at the US Open. He became the youngest American to hold the ATP number 1 ranking. Roddick's future was bright, and for the majority of tennis players, his career achievements to date would be more than they could ever hope for. He's won a Grand Slam singles title, reached 4 more Grand Slam Finals (1 US Open and 3 Wimbledon,) and has another 28 career titles.

While Andy Roddick has already achieved a great deal in his career, he's never really managed to live up to everyone's expectations. Last year he came heartbreakingly close to winning Wimbledon and certainly proved that he still has the skills to win another major. For the past two years, it actually seems like he's been getting better and it honestly looks like all of that hard work could be leading to a second breakout year.

I want to make it clear that I don't see Andy Roddick as a let down for American tennis. He consistently finishes the year in the top 10 and usually wins at least a couple of titles. There are plenty of worse players out there. But I see incredible potential for Roddick's career and think he should go down in history as a guy who won more than one Grand Slam title.

For Roddick, 2010 has started with a bang. I expect to see great things from Andy this year. Personally, I would love to see him win Wimbledon. He's reached the final there 3 times and after last year's epic battle, I believe he really deserves to win.

**For those of you who never read my old blog, the title of this post, "This Could Be The Year," is a reference to a song by Ryan Star, my favorite singer. Please check it out, if you're unfamiliar with his work.

A Spectator's Dream

Like I mentioned in my introductory post, I'm living in London for the next several months. The invention of low cost airlines and the almost ridiculous security check I had to endure before starting my job afforded me the opportunity to visit the ABN AMRO ATP 500 event in Rotterdam a couple of weeks ago. I've been very busy for the last few weeks and haven't had much time to write about my experience there. Since it's already been so long, I'm sure you could all look up the fact that Robin Soderling won the tournament and any other relevant details that interest you. However, I would still like to share some of my observations.

First of all, I've never been to one of the small ATP tournaments and I could not have been more excited. I traveled to Rotterdam on my own after visiting a friend in Amsterdam for a day or two and checked into my hotel. The players all stay at the Manhattan Hotel in Rotterdam, the only 5 star hotel in the city. If you want the full experience, it would probably be great fun to stay there, but by the time I booked, it was already full and I'm fairly certain it was out of my price range anyway. I stayed at the Golden Tulip Inn, which was absolutely fantastic and more reasonably priced. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting this tournament as it is a very convenient commute to the venue.

When I arrived, I decided to settle in and get the layout of the city instead of going to the day session on Wednesday. Instead, I decided to try out the Wednesday night session and the Thursday day session. I could not find very good tickets online and decided to try my luck at the box office. I highly recommend this strategy. The tickets online never seem to be as good as the tickets you get the day before the event at the box office. The best available tickets for the night session were not very good (because I arrived approximately two hours before the matches started), but I got one of the best seats in the house (excluding VIPs) for the day session.

If you ever plan on going to a smaller tournament, be sure to check the schedule of play. For instance, there are only two matches in the night session at Rotterdam. This means that your seat assignment for main court is very important. However, during the day session, there are usually matches going on on Centre Court and Court 1, sometimes even Court 2. There is no assigned seating on Court 1 and I found that almost no one bothered to watch the matches on that court. This meant that I consistently got to sit in the front row directly behind the players. At this point, it barely mattered to me who was playing, I was getting to see incredible tennis from less than 10 feet away. I even decided to forgo my awesome Centre Court seat for the Monfils match to watch Benneteau/Berrer match on Court 1. I even noticed Florian Mayer sitting in the stands and taking in the match on his off day. I felt bad squandering such a great seat, so I did head over to Centre Court to watch the Youzhny/Ilhan match, some of the Djokovic/Chiudinelli match, and the Robredo/Lopez vs Nestor/Zimonjic doubles match.

All the matches were great to watch, but by far the best part of this tournament was the opportunity for interacting with the players. You may not be as excited about meeting the players as I am, but I had a fantastic time wandering around seeing who I would run into. Immediately upon entering the tennis facility on Wednesday night, I decided to explore a little. I eventually happened upon Court 2, which happens to be the practice court that most of the players use. As I walked right up to the edge of the court, probably only 5 feet from the player, I realized that I was one of maybe 6 people watching Tommy Robredo prepare for his match. It was truly incredible how few people bothered to come watch the players practice. I honestly preferred it to match play because I was able to get so close to the action and I got to see a lot more of the players' personalities because they were much less serious than they would have been during an actual match.

Note to potential attendees: Take a look at the draw before the tournament and look at pictures of players. I'm familiar with most of the players in the top 100, but many of the players look different in person. Since you can't identify who might be famous based on the amount of people crowding around them, it might be a good idea to take a look at some of the players' photos if you want to be able to recognize them. Unlike at major tournaments, most of the players are not surrounded by large groups of fans and they generally don't ask security to escort them anywhere. The only exceptions to the large crowd rule that I found in Rotterdam were Djokovic and Davydenko and even then, a 'large crowd' meant about 20 people. I'm not very pushy and didn't want to intrude on any of the players' practice time, so if I can get autographs, anyone can. If you want pictures with the players, you may have to be a little more forward and you're definitely going to need a friend who's prepared to take them.

Now that I've rattled through all of my tips, I'd just like to share some of my favorite parts of my visit.

• Watching Michael Llodra/Andy Ram practice for their doubles match - I've never been a huge fan of Michael Llodra before and I barely knew who Andy Ram was (I had to look up who Llodra's partner was for the doubles to figure out who I was watching), but I had a surprisingly good time watching this particular practice. Of all the players I watched, Llodra and Ram definitely had the most personality and I was getting a bit of a private show since I was actually the only person watching. They joked around a lot and Llodra even broke out into song a couple of times. At the end of the practice, they walked off the court to about where I was standing and it was super easy to walk up and say hello, and get an autograph. They weren't in a hurry and seemed happy to stop for a second.
• Robin Soderling eventually went on to win the tournament, but I stopped by one of his mid-week practices just as it was ending and managed to get an autograph. After reading all of the tennis gossip, I expected Soderling to be a little surly and unsocial, but he was perfectly happy to stop and take pictures with fans. He was a bit quiet, but didn't seem at all unfriendly.
• Apparently Monfils prefers to play soccer as a warm-up to actually playing tennis. He spent at least 50% of his practice time playing soccer with 3 members of his entourage. He's another fun player to watch and fairly interactive with the crowd. At some point he went behind the netting on the outside of the court, picked up a ball and hit it right at me. I think there may have been some laughing when I couldn't catch it and let it roll away. I'd like to assume he was trying to give me a souvenir, not hit me in the face. However he would not sign any autographs or take any pictures after practice and asked security to escort him back to the players' area. I think this might have been due to the timing of his match though, so I won't count him out as unfriendly yet.
• Tommy Robredo somehow seemed to be everywhere, and his practice with doubles partner Feliciano Lopez was particularly nice to watch. They're both good singles players and they had a fun routine. Robredo would intensely run around the court, stretch out, and hit with his coach, while Lopez spent at least 10 or 15 minutes sitting on the sidelines on his mobile. Robredo managed to hit all of the balls outside of the practice court and most of them landed right in front of my feet. I picked them up and brought them back over to hand to his coach on the sideline, but he came over to the net to collect them and say thank you.
• I would also like to mention that there are about 20 rows of VIP seats surrounding Centre Court, most of which are empty. I would particularly like to find out what I would have to do to get one of these seats. They also come with access to the VIP areas of the grounds, which compromise about half of the complex.
• As a final observation, I would just like to mention the odd displays. There were big chickens playing tennis and all kinds of apparel shops (but oddly no real tournament merchandise) as well as tennis fashion shows. All this made sense, or at least had to do with tennis. However, there were also booths for airlines, jewelry, furniture, handbags, and meat. Yes, a meat stand. Not like a concession, just a stand that sold meat you could cook at home.

I hope you all take away something interesting. I know it's a long post, but I just wanted to share some of my favorite moments and observations. While most of you probably won't visit the ABN AMRO Tournament, there are plenty of ATP 250, 500, and 1000 level tournaments around the world which all offer a much more intimate experience than a Grand Slam. Hopefully I'll be visiting several more during my stay here.

**If you're interested in seeing more photos, follow this link...

http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae146/lubinskya/

Top Ten Surprises of the 2009 US Open

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS***

ORIGINALLY DATED September 13, 2009

10. Marat Safin loses in the first round of his last Grand Slam event.

*This wasn't actually a surprise considering how he's been playing this year, but I couldn't let his retirement go by without saying something. People tend to forget that he is a two time major winner ('00 US Open and '05 Australian) and as late as last year made a run to the semis at Wimbledon. He has provided us many years of incredibly entertaining and dramatic play as well as entertaining and dramatic press conferences.

9. Roger Federer's between the legs shot on the penultimate point of his semi-final match against Djokovic.

*No one but Federer would have been able to pull this off, if you missed this shot, please check out this video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVQhIEPbM0g

8. Dinara Safina maintains number 1 ranking regardless of her miserable play during the Open.

7. Kim Clijsters captures women's title after several years of retirement. The last US Open she played was 2005, which she also won.

6. Andy Murray loses to Marin Cilic in the fourth round.

*I had him going all the way to the final again this year.

5. The majority of the seeded women are defeated early in the tournament. Almost every early round match seemed like a huge upset. Only half of the quarterfinalists were seeded, only 1 in the top 5.

4. Serena Williams threatens to kill a linesperson over a foot-fault call in her semi-final, resulting in a point penalty on match point.

*We all knew she was terrifying, but never expected this. A $10,000 fine is not enough, and she should not have been allowed to play in the doubles' final. The WTA should really consider suspending her form the Australian Open. This unsportsmanly behavior reflects poorly on the whole sport.

3. Andy Roddick loses in the third round to 6'9" American John Isner, who precedes to lose to Fernando Verdasco, resulting in the first time an American man has not made it to the quarter finals at the US Open.

*Seriously Andy Roddick, every time I start to believe you can win another major, something like this happens. I'm expecting great results at the Australian.

2. Unseeded American Melanie Oudin, only 17 years old, beats Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova en route to her first major quarterfinal.

1. Juan Martin del Potro defeats Roger Federer in the first five set final since 1999.

The Giant Masters the Maestro

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS"***

ORIGINALLY DATED September 15, 2009

The US Open is over and the king of Flushing Meadows has been dethroned. For the past five years, I have been able to confidently watch Roger Federer dispatch a slew of final opponents to take home the title. So yesterday, I sat down with my roommate, a little disappointed the final had been moved to Monday, ready to watch del Potro crumble under the pressure of playing in his first Grand Slam final against the almost supernatural Roger Federer, who has proven himself to be the best player ever. I am certainly not going to take anything away from del Potro, he played the match of his life against an opponent he had near been able to conquer and gave us the most dramatic Us Open final in 10 years. However, Roger Federer was not the genius we saw crush Djokovic, who was playing excellent tennis, in Sunday's semi-final. Frankly, if Andy Roddick was watching last night, he was most likely wondering why he couldn't have played 9/15/09 Roger Federer, who at one point was serving just above 30%, at Wimbledon, instead of the Federer who served 50 aces in one match. Last night, for the first time, I saw a Roger Federer who was content to lose. He came into the match overconfident, although I'm not sure we can blame him for this, and once it finally occurred to him that he could lose, it didn't seem to matter anymore. I can't really fault him for this slump in ambition; he did achieve a career Slam, break Pete Sampras' record for all time majors, regain the world number 1 ranking, get married, and become the father of twin girls all in one year. However, I hope the old Roger is out for revenge at the Australian Open in January.

I spent a lot of time discussing Federer's faults in the last paragraph, but I wanted to take the time to congratulate Juan Martin del Potro on what was truly a stunning match. This was absolutely an incredible accomplishment for a 20 year old, in his first major final. del Potro showed an amazing amount of heart to get back into the match after being down a set and a break in the second. The match looked to be over. Juan Martin is not always a favorite on the tour because he seems a bit stoic, but last night he proved how much this title meant to him. Maybe it's time to start spreading the wealth. It seems the Federer/Nadal monopoly may be coming to an end, or at least breaking up a bit. The Australian Open has always been the most likely Slam for breakthrough performances, so it looks like an interesting season to come.

Dear Andy Roddick (A Letter About the Wimbledon Final),

***REPOSTED FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG "LIVE AND LET DIGRESS"***

ORIGINALLY DATED JULY 5, 2009

You are now only one step away from the elusive Wimbledon place-setting, four pretty inscribed silver plates, better known as four runner-up trophies. If you achieve this amazing feat, you and Roger can team up for the ultimate Wimbledon trophy dinner. You can double-date, eating off silver Wimbledon plates and drinking from Roger's many silver gilt cups.

Ok, enough of my lame attempt at a joke, you probably wouldn't find that too funny right now. I wanted to write this "letter" as a tribute to how amazing your performance in this morning's final was. To be perfectly honest, I didn't give you much of a chance going into this final, which can be seen in my pre-match post.

I woke up early this morning to cheer on two of my favorite players in the game. I wasn't sure who I wanted to win, the man trying to make history or the under-dog working to end a six year grand slam dry spell. I didn't have an answer until I found myself shouting at my television every time you missed a point, urging you on towards the title. I was ecstatic when you took the first set and devastated when you missed that volley in the second set tie-break. I was impressed by how well you shook off that loss, considering the media was already hounding you for it. You left your heart on the court and both you and Federer played incredible tennis. It was a joy to watch. There was a point in the fifth set where I was convinced I would be watching for the rest of the day because neither of you would ever tire and drop serve. It's unfortunate that just one break cost you the championship, but apparently that's the way life goes sometimes. Hopefully, we'll be seeing a lot more of you in these grand slam finals and you too will have your day in the spotlight. I commend you for your for your sportsmanship and gracious post-match speech. You were extremely graceful even in defeat, which is the mark of a true champion. I wish you the best of luck at the US Open and hope you have a chance to win another title on your home turf.

Sincerely,

Andrea