The Monte Carlo Masters – What we learned

The Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo is now over, and here’s what we learned:

1) Murray and Djokovic are still showing vulnerability.  Andy Murray, the world #1, lost to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the round of 16.  Ramos-Vinolas is a good clay court player, but last year Murray showed real dominance on clay, and one would never have expected him to lose this match.  Combine that with his early round loss at the Aussie Open (lost to Mischa Zverev), and the conclusion is inescapable that Murray is vulnerable and could lose his ranking before the year is over.

The enigma of Novak Djokovic continues, with a loss in this tournament to David Goffin in the quarters.  Novak had never lost to Goffin.  I’m a great admirer of Goffin, who compensates for is small size with great quickness, tremendous hand-eye abilities, and innovative tactics.  However, this is not a match Djokovic, the reigning French Open champ, should lose. 

So, question marks remain regarding the play of the two highest ranked players in the world.

2) Clay court line calls are error-prone.  When David Goffin played Rafa Nadal in the semis here, everyone assumed that Goliath would beat David easily.  That prediction was weakened substantially when David (Goffin), went up a break in the first set against Nadal.  Goffin was serving with the advantage for consolidation of that break at 3-2, and in the ensuing rally, Nadal hit a ball that landed at least 8 inches over the base line.  The linesman correctly called the shot out, but then the chair umpire, Cedric Mourier, overruled the call and ruled that the point should be replayed.  Goffin requested that the mark be checked, and Mourier then got down from his chair and checked the wrong mark.  Everyone in the stadium except Mourier knew that Nadal’s shot was out, but the point was replayed.  Goffin lost the point, lost his break advantage, lost the set, and eventually lost the match.  This errant line call by the umpire may have been the most critical mistake I’ve ever seen in a match.

In an earlier blog post, I suggested that the electronic line calling system, which, though not perfect, is far better than the “eyeball” approach used in clay matches, be implemented in clay court tournaments.  As I stated before, the French Open could install Hawkeye on courts Lenglen and Chatrier for less than 1% of the amount handed out as prize money.  A mistake of the magnitude that occurred in this Monte Carlo match would be a disaster in a major.

A couple of further points about this incident:  First, Mourier, who has been criticized by players in the past for poor umpiring, should be temporarily removed from umpiring until he shows that he is paying attention during matches.  Second, as Mary Carillo pointed out in commentary on this match, the incident was not Rafa Nadal’s finest hour.  Nadal knew very well that his shot was out, yet he said nothing and allowed this errant call, which had a huge impact on the match, to stand.  I agree with Carillo that Nadal should have come forward and awarded the point to Goffin. 

3) Nadal looks like the Nadal of old.  Rafa won his 10^th Monte Carlo masters, an amazing achievement.  But more telling than the achievement itself is the way Rafa did it.  He is looking again like the man who was virtually unbeatable on clay just a few years ago.  Many pundits are picking him to win his 10^th French Open, and he certainly has a chance, with both Murray and Djokovic playing less than legendary tennis.  I think the interesting match at the French would be Federer-Nadal.  Although Nadal has dominated Federer on clay in the past, Roger remains one of the best clay court players in the world, and he appears to have solved the problem of the Nadal forehand high to his backhand.  Federer’s play this year has also been nothing short of spectacular.  We will know that Nadal is really back if/when he takes out 2 of the other “big four” in dominant fashion to win the French. 

Women’s Tennis

While the men were playing Davis Cup last week, the women were in Charleston, where the theme was “emerging talent”.  Three of the last 4 spots in the tournament were filled by players who are relatively unknown:  Daria Kasatkina, age 19, from Russia, the ultimate winner; Jelena Ostapenko, age 19, from Latvia, the other finalist, and Laura Siegemund, age 29, from Germany, who made the semifinals.   Ostapenko relies most on a powerful two-handed backhand, Siegemund backs up a pretty powerful forehand with a lot of tactical ingenuity, and Kasatkina uses strong ground strokes from both sides and swift feet to succeed.  Siegemund, at age 29, is a late bloomer, but all of them have a chance to make some noise on the women’s tour, where nobody currently dominates. 

Other women’s tennis news: 

Sharapova set to return.  Now age 29, Maria will resume play from her suspension in Stuttgart on April 26.  It will be interesting to see how she plays and how her return is received by players and fans.

Kudos to Keys.  Madison Keys has begun a campaign to address the issue of abusive verbiage on social media.  In one TV spot she reads from tweets she has received herself.  One tweet called her the “cancer of tennis” and another simply said “monkey” in an apparent reference to the fact that she is African-American.  Madison gets the full support of this blog, where racism at any level, by any person, at any time, is considered absolutely intolerable.  Moreover, abusive behavior such as that to which Keys has been subjected should be considered totally unacceptable, whether or not it involves bigotry.  So, kudos to Keys for bringing this issue out for scrutiny and discussion.

Notable Results, Miami Open

            The Miami tournament produced some notable results, as follows:

The women: Venus Williams, who will soon be 37 years old, made it all the way to the semis before losing to Johanna Konta, the ultimate winner.  Williams’ play has been amazing over the past several months.  She is hitting her forehand as well as ever before in her career.  Caroline Wozniaki reminded us all that she twice before was year-end number one in the world by taking out world number 3 Karolina Pliskova before losing the final to Konta.  Wozniaki has always been criticized for playing from too far behind the base line, but my own opinion is that her problem was more related to a predictable cross-court topspin forehand.  She is now hitting a flat, inside-out forehand more frequently, and is moving up the rankings as a result.

            Johanna Konta is a late bloomer who has finally reaped a major reward for her steadily improving aggressive game.  She powered through all of her opponents, defeating a game and resourceful Wozniaki in the final.  This result may augur big things for Konta, who plays within herself very well while at the same time not being reluctant to open her shoulders and really give the ball a ride.  She also has a pretty big serve.  I think she could win a major and I certainly think she could reach the top 5 in the rankings.  Let’s see what happens.

The men:  In what may be the most intensely competitive match of the year, Federer defeated Nick Kyrgios in the semis, in three tiebreak sets.  The entire stadium was pulling hard for Federer, and on two occasions a fan called Kyrgios shots out when they actually landed in the court.   A distraction of this kind is of course more likely to hurt Federer, who in fact did hesitate to hit one of the shots when he apparently thought the linesman, not a fan, had called the Kyrgios shot out.  Nonetheless, these fan outbursts made Kyrgios very upset, while Roger only issued one very small gesture of frustration.  Mohamed Lahyani, the chair umpire, was a bit generous to Kyrgios when he didn’t take away a point or perhaps even a game for Kyrgios’ multiple acts of misconduct that included audible obscenities, ball kicking and racquet smashing.   Notwithstanding these histrionics, Kyrgios played hard throughout and exhibited good concentration.  He lost a close one, but it was very close.  We’ll see if Kyrgios can maintain his improved concentration as the year progresses.  I don’t agree with two commentators’ assessment that Kyrgios will certainly become number one in the world some day.  Nick has the talent, but consistency and psychological stability both on and off the court are necessary prerequisites for that level of success.  Kyrgios has not exhibited these characteristics as yet.  It’s true that he might become number one, but it is by no means a certainty. 

            In the final Federer played Rafa Nadal, who had a very good tournament.  Nadal had not served this well since he won the US Open in 2013.  Nadal’s draw was a bit easier than Federer’s as well. 

            The strategy adopted by Nadal in this match was to serve more to the Federer forehand and to hit more balls to the forehand side in base line rallies.  This approach was based on Federer’s dominance at the Aussie Open and Indian Wells, where his backhand was just awesome.  The problem with playing to the Federer forehand is that once the surprise factor fades, one is faced with playing against one of the greatest strokes in the history of the game.  Nadal apparently forgot that he, and just about everyone else, have been playing to the Federer backhand in order to avoid the devastating forehand.

            The first set was very tight, with tennis played at a level that every fan dreams of.  Federer got a late break of serve and served the set out at 6-3.  Although the second set looked competitive on the score sheet (one break for Federer and a 6-4 victory), the set was actually dominated by Federer, who held serve fairly easily and who controlled most of the base line rallies.   So Federer continued his amazing play in 2017.  He has been by far the best player in the world this year.

            Federer’s plan for the clay court swing is to play the French Open only.  I, for one, wish he’d play at least one warmup tournament.  I believe that would be good for his game, and of course, I have selfish reasons as well for wanting to see him play.

And by the way:  We should all look forward to the next round of TV banter about who has the best backhand in the world.  I get the feeling that the next time around Fed’s shot will be higher on the list!!