Cincinnati Tennis

Notable events at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati are as follows:

The men

Zverev shows a temper. 

Alexander Zverev refused to shake the umpire’s had after he lost to Sugita in an early round.  Zverev has shown some irascibility in other matches.  He is still young, but keeping cool under pressure is an important aspect of success on the tour.  He should be aware of that.

Dimitrov showing some signs. 

Grigor Dimitrov had several good wins in this tournament, beating Feliciano Lopez, Stan Wawrinka, and Steve Johnson.  As pointed out in previous posts (He’s no Fed, baby!) Dimitrov has been playing aimless tennis, with serves placed passively into the box and groundies that appear to be simple rally balls.  That approach caused him to lose a lot of matches this year, but in this tournament he served to the extremes of the box and hit his groundies, particularly his forehand, with much more authority.  He lost to the eventual winner, Marin Cilic, but Dimitrov fans can feel encouraged after this week.

Steve Johnson is U.S. number one. 

Stevie Johnson continues to improve against top players.  He beat Tsonga in this tournament and became the number one ranked American player.  He’s got a big serve and forehand.  We’ll see how far those assets can take him.

Murray dominates Raonic again. 

Ever since the Australian Open, where Raonic looked as if he was going to beat Murray, but then succumbed to health problems, Murray has dominated this matchup.  Murray has been playing the best tennis in the world over the last several weeks, and thus his win is no surprise.  If you want to see why Jimmy Arias called Raonic the third best player in the world right now, and why so many people predict Raonic will win a slam, take a look at the point he played against Murray in their first set, with Murray serving at 3-2, 30-30. 

Nadal does not look good.

Rafa lost to Borna Coric in this tournament and looked bad while doing it.  He cited fatigue in his post match interview, but let’s be frank:  it’s not possible to effectively play Rafa’s physical style year after year.  Rafa is a big guy, and moving his frame around the court the way he has in the past seems very hard now.  In my opinion Nadal has also lost some competitive intensity, which is understandable after so many years on the tour and so many matches.  Nadal is now in the unenviable position of being a huge target for players while no longer having the huge game that made him such a target.

The women

Karolina Pliskova finally manages her nerves. 

Pliskova, like her compatriot Thomas Berdych, has a big frame, huge weapons and easy power.  However, she has been her own worst enemy in many matches, where she has appeared to succumb to nerves.  She overcame that problem this week though, as she powered her way to the title.  She gets so many free points on serve and off the ground she could be a real threat if she stops snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  She is someone to watch at the Open.

Serena stays at #1. 

Angie Kerber fell short in this one, losing to Pliskova in the final.  Had she won, she would have assumed the number one ranking.  If Serena really cared about that she would have played a couple of rounds at this tournament, but in my opinion she’s more interested in being completely fit and sharp for the U.S. Open.  In skipping this tournament Serena claimed injury (shoulder), but don’t expect her to be hampered in New York. 

The winners

On the men’s side, Marin Cilic defeated Andy Murray in the final.  This is the first match Murray has lost in a long time, and as I said earlier, I believe Murray is playing the best tennis in the world right now.  As we know from his U.S. Open win, Cilic can be a very tough customer when he plays his best. 

On the women’s side, Karolina Pliskova beat Angelique Kerber in straight sets.  This win has already been discussed. 

Olympic Results with Cheer

Olympic tennis is over, but some nice things happened.  On the women’s side, Monica Puig, who has shown some signs of real improvement in her singles game over the past several months, won the gold medal.  She is a native of Puerto Rico, a territory beleaguered by debt and in misery at the moment.  She gave her homeland something to smile about, and we’ll see if this win propels her to greater success at the upcoming US Open.

On the men’s side, Juan Martin del Potro almost did one of the hardest things to do in the open era – beat three of the “big four” in three consecutive matches.  After taking out Djokovic and Nadal, he finally fell to Andy Murray, who is playing the best tennis of his career this year.  Will del Potro’s wrist hold up from here on out?  We have to wait and see, but nobody who is significantly hampered with an injury can take out players of the caliber of Djokovic and Nadal, so we have to assume the wrist is OK for now.  As with Puig, we have to watch him over the next several weeks to find out if he’s at a new level.  Grats to Murray, who won his second Olympic gold.

Atlanta, Olympics

Atlanta

The Atlanta tournament was won by Nick Kyrgios over John Isner in very hot weather.  Isner committed one of my tennis no-nos (see July 8 post) which was:  “don’t double fault in tiebreakers”.  He did it once in the first set and twice in the second.  A little surprising that Kyrgios didn’t go to Rio, as he is the highest ranked player in Australia.

Olympics.

Novak Djokovic lost to Juan Martin del Potro, a big surprise.  Not that del Potro isn’t good, but Novak is the best hard court player in the world by a wide margin and del Potro has been hampered by a wrist injury, as we all know only too well.  Of note is that Djokovic has lost two big matches lately – Wimbledon and now the Olympics.  Relevant to these losses, in my opinion, is the reality of how difficult it is to stay unbeatable in tennis for more than about three years:

If you look at the records of previous greats of the game, only one, Roger Federer was essentially unbeatable for more than three years.  I am measuring “unbeatable” by looking at consecutive weeks with the number one ranking.  If you take a look at greats of the open era, here are their streaks of being number one uninterrupted:

Federer          237

Connors         160

Lendl             157

Sampras         102

Djokovic         99*

McEnroe         58

Nadal              56

* - still going

The reason it’s so hard to be totally dominant for very long is the extreme pressure on the number one player combined with the fact that competition is deep and stiff on the men’s tour.  When he retired, Sampras emphasized that the mental pressure, the travelling and the constant need to practice had taken their toll on him.  I believe Federer was able to stay at the top for so long because he actually enjoys the life style. 

Novak, as noted in recent posts, has been quite irritable on the court recently.  He was nearly disqualified from a couple of clay court warmups for the French Open because he nearly hit bystanders after throwing his racquet.  These recent surprising losses, considered along with his more volatile behavior, might indicate that the pressure is finally getting to him.  It’s worth keeping in mind that other things in his life may also be drawing his attention – like fatherhood.  It will be interesting to see how he performs at the US Open.  He looked pretty good at the Rogers Cup.

Let cord woes

            At both the Rogers Cup and Atlanta, many “false positive” let cords appeared to have been called by the net sensor.  This frustrated players.  In the Atlanta tournament, Kyrgios hit a serve that was called a let, and Brad Gilbert, a commentator, stated that the ball had passed several inches above the net.  On 6/21/16 in this blog I proposed a mechanism whereby the mechanical sensor might falsely detect a let, and suggested we go back to the tried and true method of having a human being simply put his finger on the net cord.  I say it again right now:  Give nets the finger!

The “best athlete” in tennis

During the Rogers Cup, one the very best TV commentators, Jim Courier,  described Gael Monfils as far and away the best athlete ever to play on the tour.  Comments like his are frequently heard during TV coverage of matches.  So at this point I think it’s worth asking what makes a person a great athlete.

In my opinion the definition is usually a narrow one that is based on a subjective feeling one gets when watching a player.  However, that subjective impression is created by only some aspects of athleticism - the ones most easily seen when watching play.   In my view, all of the highly ranked players are phenomenal athletes.  So in this post, let’s take a look at the important features of athleticism, and which top players manifest these features most clearly.  Here they are:

 1) Strength.  Many top athletes utilize strength as their main asset.  In tennis, the players who use strength most are Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal.  These guys brutalize the ball with their tremendous upper body strength and/or strength in their quadriceps muscles.  Without that power I don’t think Stan would be anywhere near the top 10 in tennis.  Other very strong men are Milos Raonic and Thomas Berdych.  On the women’s side, I believe Serena Williams is the physically strongest woman ever to play the game. 

2) Quickness.  Quickness is the ability to reach top running speed from a standing start, or after changing direction, in the shortest time.  Top players with the greatest quickness are Kei Nishikori and Novak Djokovic.   A look at these players’ physiques makes it easy to see that brute strength is not their asset.  Their quickness, however, is awesome, and allows them to save balls that other players would never reach.

3) Speed.  When you reach top speed, how fast do you run?  In this area, Gael Monfils is clearly near the top.  Once he gets those long strides going, it’s simply amazing how much court he covers.  Murray, Nadal and Nishikori are also very fast, and a few years back, so was Roger Federer. 

4) Dexterity.  Dexterity in tennis is used both to set up for shots with footwork and to handle the racquet deftly.   In the footwork department, Roger Federer is at the top.  He makes small adjustments to the ball with such lithe efficiency that he looks as if he’s waiting for shots even when they are very difficult to handle.  He also uses his footwork very well to set up his forehand.  Djokovic is another with high dexterity.  This aspect of athleticism is not nearly as easy to see as strength or speed.

5) Hand-eye coordination.  When the ball coming at you at blazing speed and you have to adjust in order to make a solid, well placed return, hand-eye coordination is crucial.  Again, Roger Federer is endowed with phenomenal hand-eye abilities, manifest mostly these days by his great volleying skills.  He has always been an incredible shot maker, particularly off the backhand side, and those shots cannot be made without awesome hand-eye abilities.  Another player with strong skills in this area is David Goffin.  He takes blazing ground strokes and redirects them to unexpected parts of the court with astounding skill.  Nobody thinks of Goffin as one of the “great athletes” on the tour, but don’t kid yourself.   Djokovic and Andy Murray also have tremendous hand-eye abilities, which they use to return serve extremely well.

6) Flexibility.  That ability to make one final stretch to get a ball, or to contort your body so as to be on balance when returning a difficult shot, is another important aspect of athleticism.  Again, Federer is one of the most flexible athletes ever to play, as is Djokovic.   That final stretch Federer often makes at the net or when pressed at the baseline is beautiful to watch, and sometimes Djokovic looks as if his limbs are made of elastic bands. 

So who is the greatest athlete on the tour?  Stop asking!  They all are, but the aspects of athleticism that they use in order to play great tennis are not equally apparent to the casual viewer.  It’s easy to see it when a man is enormously strong or jumps very high.  But the subtler abilities, especially when used in the high speed exchanges of professional tennis, are easy to miss. 

Rogers cup

The Rogers cup is now complete, and the results were somewhat anticlimactic.

The men

            Novak Djokovic played Monfils in the semifinal.  Monfils had beaten Milos Raonic in the previous round by standing back and using his tremendous speed to return every ball.  Raonic was first to make mistakes most of the time, and Monfils’ serve was good enough for him to hold fairly comfortably throughout.  When Gael brought this game to Djokovic, though, he was asking for trouble.  Djokovic is the best base line player in the game.  His forehand, one of the most improved shots in tennis over the past few years, is frequently hit with 3500 RPM of topspin or more.  Novak also hits with great accuracy off both sides and moves incredibly well.  Baseline wars of attrition will not be won against Djokovic.

            Nishikori played Wawrinka in the other semi.  Stan started very well, but Nishikori eventually broke him down psychologically with his impenetrable defense and judicious use of power shots.  There was an interesting moment in this match that relates to the introductory post of this blog.  In that post I pointed out that one feature of tennis that makes it a great spectator sport is that the top players sometimes make the same mistakes as we club players.  An example of that occurred with Wawrinka serving to Nishikori, 0-3, deuce in the second set.  If you feel bad when you miss an easy shot, take a look at this miss by Stan and you’ll feel a little better.

            In the final, Novak totally dominated a spirited Kei Nishikori until he served up a break, 3-2, in the second set.  At that point Kei completely red-lined his game and broke back.  He then held, but Djokovic broke him again shortly thereafter and cruised to victory.  Novak once again showed some irritability during the match, a behavior he has manifested since the clay court warmups started.  Not sure what his issue is.  I guess it doesn’t matter if he keeps winning.

The women.

            Simona Halep played Kerber in one semifinal.  As expected, these two played some fabulous points.  Kerber and Halep are two of the four best defenders in tennis (the other two are Radwanska and Wozniacki) and their defensive skills led to some great exchanges.  Overall, though, this was a match decided by who played poorly least often.  Halep prevailed in the end.  In the other semi, a fatigued Kristina Kucova was destroyed by Madison Keys.   After a fabulous run here, Kucova’a rank went from 121 to 77!  She should now be in the main draw at the US open, so grats to her!

            In the final, Keys’ game was simply off.  She hit many balls into the net, particularly when she hit the inside out forehand.  Halep played her normal game, which is to make her opponent hit a lot of balls and play offense opportunistically by redirecting shots.  Keys missed first, and that’s about the size of it.  This blog predicted that Keys, Kerber or Halep would win the title, and it was indeed Simona Halep.