AO Finals Are Set

Women’s final

            In a throwback, the women’s final will have Venus and Serena Williams.  The semifinal matches for these two were notable only in the play of Venus Williams, who looked a lot younger than 36 in beating Coco Vandewegh, who had a really great tournament.  If Vandewegh can keep up that level of play she will really make some noise this year.  The Williams sisters haven’t always had the best matches when playing against each other.  I predict a pretty good one with Serena prevailing.

Men’s Final

            In another throwback, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer will go at it for the men’s title(!).  The semifinal between Federer and Wawrinka has already been discussed, but something should be said about the other semi between Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov.  This match will surely go down as one of the best of 2017, with Nadal ultimately prevailing by 6-3, 5-7, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4.  This match was so close that one might say it came down to a let cord by Dimitrov in the 4-4 game of the 5^th set that caused his ball to travel long, and make a break of serve possible for Nadal. 

            Nadal played the kind of tennis we were used to seeing from him when he dominated the tour.  The fact that Dimitrov was able to push him this hard testifies to the tremendous tennis Dimitrov was able to produce, and to the dogged competitive spirit shown by the Bulgarian.  How Dimitrov was able to transform himself from a rather tame competitor who played aimless tennis to the force he was today is a mystery, but one thing is for sure: if Dimitrov can play this way consistently he will reach the top 5 and win a major.

            Presuming Nadal recovers well from this five hour match and plays at the same level he attained against Dimitrov, he will win the match against Federer.  For Federer to come back from a six month absence at age 35 to beat four top ten players in a row and win the title is asking a lot.  If Federer is able to beat Nadal, this major win will go down as one of the greatest achievements by any player in the open era.  As Federer is fond of pointing out though:  the great thing about sports is that you can never know until the match is played. 

Oldies but goodies

            The final four players in this tournament are so old by tennis standards (Venus 36, Serena 35, Federer 35, Nadal 30), that we might ask if this tournament being played in Melbourne Park or Jurassic Park!  Why are older players doing so well these days?  A post on that later. 

Tennis Time Outs

Medical time outs and bathroom breaks must be permitted in tennis, as they protect the players’ health and contribute to better play.  But time outs can have an impact on matches that, in my view should be addressed.  Consider the following incidents at this year’s Australian Open:

In the first round against Marina Erakovic, Garbine Muguruza struggled to win the first set, 7-5.  She then took a lengthy medical time out that left Erakovic on the court with nothing to do but wait.  When she came back, Muguruza dominated play and won the second set easily.

In the quarterfinals against Karolina Pliskova, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni took a medical tine out when down a break, 3-4, in the second set.  Pliskova had nothing to do but wait for her, and upon her return, Lucic-Barone blitzed Pliskova to win in straight sets.

In the semifinal between Federer and Wawrinka, Stan took a medical time out after dropping the first two sets, which left Federer with nothing to do but wait.  When he came back, Wawrinka won the next set 6-1 and won the fourth set as well.  After the fourth set, Federer took a medical time out, leaving Stan on the court with nothing to do but wait.  When he returned Roger won the fifth set.

So, while time outs must be permitted, I still believe measures should be taken to lessen the “freeze-out effect” that such interruptions of play can have on the other player.  On the women’s side I think the player who is waiting should be allowed to visit with her coach.  Coaching visits are not currently permitted on the men’s tour right now, so in that case, I think the waiting player should be provided with a hitting partner to stay loose with some light hitting.

Let’s be honest:  Time outs, though they must be permitted, can be used for gamesmanship.  Even when players are not taking a break to freeze out their opponents, the interruption can compromise the play of the person who simply must wait without knowing how long the break will be, what the exact reason is for the break, etc.  We need to do something to lessen this effect, whether or not it is deliberate. 

AO – Semis are set

The Men:

Dimitrov beats Goffin.  David Goffin, with his amazing timing and hand-eye abilities likes to use the pace of his opponents to produce stinging redirected shots.  That is exactly what he did to Dominic Thiem, who eventually started to overhit.  As a result Thiem pretty much beat himself.   Not so with Grigor Dimitrov, who supplemented his amazing court coverage and racquet handling abilities with a lot of variety on his shots.  He varied the topspin and location of his forehand, hit lot of backhand slices, and approached the net opportunistically.  He prevailed in straight sets in this tactically fascinating match.

Wawrinka beats Tsonga.  Stan and Joe play similar styles, but Tsonga likes to come into the net just a bit more than Wawrinka.  At this stage of their careers, though Stan Wawrinka is just more consistent.  He prevailed pretty easily in this game of power ball.

Federer beats Zverev.  Mischa Zverev served too hard to get close to the net before the ball was back at his feet, but not hard enough to prevent Federer from placing the returns where he wanted.  To serve and volley that way against Roger is to have no chance to win.  And, as several commentators pointed out, Zverev has no plan B.  So, Roger demolished him in the first set and spent the rest of the match experimenting with things like the SABR attack etc.  Federer faces Stan Wawrinka next, and although he’s never lost to Stan on a hard court, I predict that Roger will have his hands full.  Wawrinka is playing very good tennis, and Federer must still be at least a little bit rusty.

Nadal beats Raonic.  Nadal got revenge for his loss to Raonic in Brisbane with a straight sets victory here.  Raonic was bothered by a recurrent thigh injury, and he also served uncharacteristically poorly.  He actually double faulted when serving for the second set in the tiebreaker (remember the earlier post – double faulting in tiebreakers is a no-no!).  The real story of this match was Nadal, though.  He moved very well and plied his favorite trade – passing people who dare to approach the net against him.  Rafa has a real chance to win this tournament.  If he gets by Dimitrov and faces Wawrinka I  believe he will win it.

The Women:

            Serena Williams beats Konta.  Johanna Konta played very well in this tournament, but simply couldn’t handle Serena’s power.  With her somewhat strange outfit and bulging muscles, Serena looked a bit like an 18-wheeler with legs.  No surprise in this one, but kudos to Konta for a great tournament. 

            Coco beats Garbine.  Coco Vandewhegh is playing really good tennis.  She is harnessing her power, which is prodigious, and not losing her concentration.  She dominated Garbine Muguruza, with a straight sets victory that included a 6-0 second set.  No shame to Garbine, she just got outplayed.  Coco will play the 36-year-old Venus Williams in the semis.  What an amazing run for Venus, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchencova in an expected victory.  I pick Coco in this semi if she holds her nerve.

            Lucic-Baroni beats Pliskova.  In a story that will be remembered for a long time, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni beat the #5 seed, Karolina Pliskova, and moved on to the semis.  The last time she made the semis was in the last century!  This result speaks to the great talent of Lucic-Baroni, and to the great loss we all suffered when she was taken out of the game for so long.  She will play Serena in the semis and is likely to lose, but she certainly captured the hearts of tennis fans with this great run.  Mirjana, we know you haven’t always felt loved, but we love you!

AO – American Women Excel

This Australian Open has been a great one for American women.  Jennifer Brady, ranked 116 in the world, lost in the 4^th roiund today to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, but what a tournament she had!   She got through 3 rounds of qualifying and won another 3 in the main draw.  Coco Vandewegh, ranked 35, is in the quarters after winning a close one against Bouchard and the blitzing the world #1 Angelique Kerber.  Venus Williams, despite her advanced age, is also still in and looking very strong.  And of course, there’s Serena Williams, who had what looked like a tough draw on paper, but who has continued to win.  By the way, let’s not forget Madison Keys, ranked 8 in the world, who couldn’t play this tournament because of arthroscopic knee surgery.  So overall, women’s tennis looks very strong in the US.

            The success of American tennis is very exciting to our TV commentators, many of whom are former American players.  But is this jingoism really important?  Who cares if Roger Federer is from Basel instead of Boston, Nadal is from Majorca instead of Montana, Djokovic is from Serbia and not Sarasota?  I think one of the really great things about tennis (and golf as well) is that it garners talent from all over the globe.  For me at least, great play is all that matters. 

The globalization of sports has only improved them.  Another example is basketball.  One of the strongest NBA teams in recent years, the San Antonio Spurs, had three starters from other countries:  Tim Duncan (St. Croix), Manu Ginobli (Argentina) and Tony Parker (France).  Did that make the Spurs any less fun to watch?

            So we should enjoy the success of American women on the WTA, but what we should most enjoy about them is that they produce great tennis for us to see. 

AO Remarkable Events

            As if a Djokovic loss to Istomin wasn’t enough, we had more surprises:

Mischa Zverev beats Murray.  What is it, sibling rivalry?  Mischa Zverev, who has had a journeyman career as a singles player, has improved his results substantially over the past few months.  Perhaps he’s trying to keep up with his younger brother Sasha.  Sasha Zverev, age 19, has risen rapidly in the ranks over the past year and appears headed for superstardom.  Suddenly, though, older brother Mischa seems to want to keep pace with Sasha.  Mischa played only challenger and future events between 2012 and 2015, but since then has been improving, and came into this Australian Open ranked 50 in the world.  He put an exclamation point on his improvement yesterday by knocking #1 Andy Murray out of the AO in four sets.  Murray seemed unable to cope with Zverev’s style, a lefty who likes to come forward.  Novak will be relieved, because if Murray had won this tournament, the rankings gap between himself and Andy would have widened substantially.   Now he remains in touch with Andy, but Novak has a lot of ranking points to defend over the next few months.

In another remarkable performance, Roger Federer beat Kei Nishikori in 5 sets.  When is Roger going to cease to amaze?  He came into this match with very little match play over the last 6 months, recovering from a knee injury, and with 35 years of hard tennis yards on him.  Nishikori, one of the world’s very best, came in match tough and playing great tennis.  Still, Roger was able to do it. 

This was a match where Roger moved amazingly well for his age and absence from play, and simply hit the ball too hard for Kei.  He also got many free points on his serve, which helped lessen the physical punishment.  The third set was won by Federer in only 26 minutes.  Roger played one loose service game in the 4^th set and lost it, but in the 5^th he quickly broke and seemed in command the rest of the way.  Nishikori took a time out for treatment of a back ailment, but appeared to move well after treatment.  I believe the time out had a little gamesmanship behind it.  I don’t think Nishikori was trying to “freeze out” Federer, but he may have been trying to buy a little time to collect his thoughts and figure out how to turn things around.  It is true that Nishikori has had a nagging back problem for years.  He was totally dominating Nadal in Madrid in 2014 before the back problem crippled him.  So the issues here might have been entirely medical and not at all psychological.

So now Federer plays Zverev.  Zverev will be fresh and has nothing to lose, but it’s hard to think of a tougher player to deal with than Federer, whose game is so diverse, and who has so much experience in big match settings.  We’ll see.