Tennis Chatter: Mid-Week Report

What a difference 10 days makes.

10 days ago Andy Roddick had seemingly already proclaimed himself US Open champion, Roger Federer was about to vault his "comeback" and everyone wanted to see how Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic would play after their polar opposite experiences at the All England Club.

But now:
--Roddick is out with injury... and questionable for the USO? He's also 8-4 in his last twelve matches. Has Andy REALLY lost his mo-jo?

--Federer shocked us all with his implosion again Gilles Simon in Toronto, then almost did the same against American Robby Ginepri in his opener at Cincy. Is the two-points-from-defeat win over Ginepri a sign that he's back in form. Maybe. Or maybe not.

--Novak has been mediocre to say the least, with his departure to Murray in Toronto and he's currently entangled in a first-set breaker with Italian Simone Bolleli.

--And Rafa, well, Rafa is the bomb. He continues to prove us all wrong by winning everything in sight. Is this kid more of a craftsman than we think?

While the women's tour might (emphasis on might) heat up in Montreal this week, one player who has taken to the summer hardcourt season with a fury is up-and-comer Michelle Larcher de Brito. She flew to the second round at the Bank of the West (through qualifying) and gave Serena quite a scare, and now in Montreal has again come through qualifying and won two main draw matches.

Watch out for this girl, she's living up to her (commercial) billing:

Video Post: Rollin' Rafa

Enjoy the video post, everyone. I'll be back with more stuff later in the week from Montreal and Cincy. Can Rafa keep rolling?



DRAWS
Men | Cincinnati
Women | Montreal

Playing "Journalist" for the Weekend

Well, I did stay up last night pretty late to preview my articles, neither of which ended up on the front page. But, I did land on B1 and C1, so I can't really complain, can I? The feature I wrote (much more interesting), can be found here. The other article was for the game I'm covering right now, a simple preview.

Playing journalist for the weekend has been extremely fun, and it feels pretty incredible to have the opportunity to write for the local paper like this... on such a short notice I mean. In one case, this is an invaluable experience for me learning wise, but it also serves as a tremendous resume booster, too, right?

This week on the tennis tour, two players are attempting to claim the title of "number one in the world" each in their own right. Jelena Jankovic is trying to do it in a technical manner, and if she wins tonight against Dinara Safina she'll be one match from such an accomplishment. The thing is, however, Jelena has never even been to a Slam final, so it will be quite interesting to see how she's received on tour as the "number one" player... especially heading into the Olympics and the US Open.

Rafael Nadal is through to the finals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto where he'll play German veteran Nicolas Kiefer. Many have already named Rafa as the unofficial numero uno after his epic win at SW19, but the Spaniard remains behind in points to Roger Federer.

If Nadal wins here, however, I believe that he'll solidify himself as the number one player in the world in the minds of tennis fans and players alike. Hard courts have continuously been his weakness, and he's struggled during the summer season over the last couple of years. But to win in Toronto would give him a big boost in confidence, but also intimidate much of the rest of the tour.

Can Kiefer stop the Rafa roll? History says no.

Tennis Chatter: Head Above the Crowd

Well, I'm sitting here at my computer waiting for the clock to strike midnight (it's 10:40) to see what my first ever front-page article will look like. Last week both stories I did got B1 (Sports) billing, but I have a hunch that the piece I did might make section A... so I'm waiting for the web site to re-boot at midnight so I can check it out!

Meanwhile, I thought it might be good to get in here and update all of you on what's going on in the world of tennis (as if you don't know).

Here's one thing you might not be tuned into: a friend of mine that I just graduated from college with is interning down in SoCal with The Press Enterprise in Riverside. He emailed me late today to let me know he was on assignment at the East West Bank Classic, telling me that it was "my first time shooting tennis, too bad the tournament turned out to be kinda lame." I think that Joey is right, the EWBC has turned out to be quite lame so far this year, but let's hope that Jelena can make a run into the finals and start her summer right. I'd love to see her win the US Open, wouldn't you guys?

The link to Joey's (Joey Anchondo, if you're wondering) EWBC photos is here.

And while we're on the topic of the women, let's talk about their summer season for a minute. So far they've played Stanford and now LA, two tournaments that have turned into complete jokes on the women's schedule. Remember when playing during the summer was important to WTA players? When playing outside of the slams for that reason was important?

Well, the girls certainly don't care now. It's really, really heart breaking to watch these tournaments come up with Aleksandra Wozniak (no offense Al, but my favorite Wozy on tour is Caroline... you just don't cut it!) and Bethanie Mattek (sorry to you, too, BM, but you're just not the player I want to see in the semis!) as premiere players?!? Perhaps the WTA needs to re-think that brilliant Roadmap of theirs and figure out how to get top players to play, and play often.

I know that was a poor attempt at a rant... but the last 18 hours have been rough... so take it easy on me, okay?

Let's talk about how Rafael Nadal continues to prove why he's so much better than the entire rest of the ATP tour. Nadal has advanced to the semifinals in Toronto by beating Richard Gasquet in three sets, and will take on Andy Murray, who has arguably had the second best summer on the tour.

With all that's happened at the Rogers (and I'm sure will happen over the next couple of days), it's sure to say one thing: the top of the men's game is very unsure right now. Federer, Roddick, Djokovic... they all lost to opponents they could have and should have beat, all saying that they needed to "play their way into the tournament" or something of the like.

So what's their excuse going to be when they fall at the US Open? Can't wait to hear those.

Oh, and video post this weekend... I PROMISE!

OK... "I Told You So"

Now I can say it: I told you so.

The Elect Andy TOOTB campaign train came to a screeching halt Thursday at the Rogers Cup when he lost in three sets to Marin Cilic (yes, Marin Cilic) 6-4 4-6 6-4.

A couple of days ago I wrote about how Andy was doing his best to convince everyone (including himself) that he's one of the top three players in the world. With Roger Federer bowing out yesterday, you think that Roddick might have slipped a couple of confidence ballots in his own box, but that did not appear to be the case.

My point in the "Elect Andy" post was this: Roddick can talk (and he's good at that) all he want, but he must play his way to the top. He didn't do that today, losing to Cilic, a Croatian teenager who is ranked 44th in the world (I know, I was surprised too) and made the fourth round at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Cilic isn't a nobody, but he certainly isn't a somebody. His ballot was most important today, and, in turn, Andy Roddick is out in Toronto.

Advantage, Roddick

Gilles Simon did Andy Roddick a huge favor today at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Simon beat top-seed Roger Federer in the opening round to pave the way for Roddick to the semifinals, if the American can keep his TOOTB campaign on the right track.

Now, I won't say "I told you so," because I didn't. But I did say, and I quote: "[Federer v. Simon] could be quite an interesting match..." on my last video post.

Back with a new video tomorrow!

Campaign Trail: Elect Andy in '08

Andy Roddick began his campaign for 2008 US Open champion with quite the advertising campaign. There's the Canadian commercial where Roddick is plastered on a billboard, his I'm-as-confident-as-ever interview for the hardcourt season and a press corps that's eating it all up.

Sound familiar?

Roddick is doing his best to campaign for a slot that he lost at this tournament last year: The Office of Third Best (TOOTB). You all remember that it was Novak Djokovic who stole that title from Andy, beating him in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup and then proceeded to beat Nadal and Federer for the title.

(Jimmy Connors couldn't cut it as Andy's campaign manager. Photo by Arch Noble via Flickr.)

But Andy wants you, and all of tennis, to believe that he is indeed still holds TOOTB. That he, Andy Roddick, can not only campaign to be TOOTB, but also have a chance to win the election everyone is gunning for this summer: US Open champion.

Roddick has made one smart decision: he's not going to Beijing. That's right, Andy is staying in the Good Ol' US of A to do his campaigning, to make sure that everyone puts him in the running for the title, and that maybe, just maybe, he can win his first slam in five long years.

A few days ago, Matt and I attempted to talk about this very topic: is it fair to put players like James Blake and Andy Roddick on the same level as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic?

Andy has become somewhat of an outsider over the last few years, and his campaign to reassert himself is just more evidence of such a downward progression. When it all comes down to it, it depends on how Roddick can play on the court, and he didn't play so well today ... maybe doing too many interviews, Andy?

If he wants to win over votes, perhaps he should try it on the court a little more, right? That's where the election is won and lost. And can he ever get past being TOOTB? Now that would be a miracle.

Tennis Chatter

A year ago Virginie Razzano had the week of her career in LA. This week, she won just six games in a first-round drubbing against lucky loser Melinda Czink.

What is it that makes tennis so mental? So stringy? Players are hot for a few points, or games, or weeks or months, and then they disappear into the oblivion? I know that's a rather general statement, and that every sport has its ups and downs, but to watch mid-majors like Razzano, Maria Kirilenko, Marion Bartoli, or, on the guy's side Janko Tipsarevic or Radek Stepanek have such talent but not always be able to execute it is baffling to me. Is it mental?

Last week, Aleksandra Wozniak gave Canada something to cheer about by coming out of nowhere to win the Bank of the West Classic.

This week, however, my favorite Canadian takes center stage in the friendly confines of Toronto. Frank Dancevic began his dream run in 2007 in Indianapolis and continued it here at the Rogers Cup. This year Dancevic didn't fare as well in Indiana, but the hometown boy won his opening match last night against Mario Ancic in straight sets, and now gets a tall order tonight: defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Doug Robson, a freelance writer who does lots of tennis for USA Today, posted this item on his blog about an OUT Magazine article featuring a gay tennis player. Robson dismisses Rodriguez's coming out, saying it will take a "much higher profile retired player" to make any waves in tennis, but it's still an interesting read.

Video Post: Roger's Week?

The men are in Toronto for the Rogers Cup, the first ATP Masters Series event of the summer.

Though Novak Djokovic is the defending champion, the last time this event was held in Toronto, it was Roger Federer who took the title. Federer won four straight three-set matches to win the tournament, beating Richard Gasquet in the final.

Is it his year again? There are a few guys standing in his way.



(Correction: The WTA heads to the Rogers Cup next week, not to San Diego as mentioned in the video.)

Tennis Chatter: The Sunday Scramble

I feel as though I have a lot of catching up to do on here and in the tennis world in general, but as I surfed the web this morning checking out the latest scores and story lines, I realized that I really didn't miss that much over the last ten days.

As I promised, here is the second feature story I've done for our local paper, The Independent Record. It's been quite the learning experience for me over the last week to write these two stories. Though they dealt with the same event, they were vastly different in subject matter and leg work.

The first I had six days to work on, get interviews for, re-think and edit over and over again, but yesterday had me at the pole vault event for four-plus hours before heading home and hunkering down in my basement to crank out an equally-long story. I felt a bit of pressure, but lucky the words came off the keyboard with relative ease, which is always any writer's hope. I could tell you the dozen or so little things I found in the two stories that I was self-critical about, but instead I'm going to see these last seven days as a learning experience. What else could it be?

This next week, I'm doing two pieces (again, one feature, one "game-day") on the Shodair Soccer Classic happening here in Helena. I'm pretty pumped about being a part of the Shodair festivities this summer as my older brother was a participant years ago went the event was just getting off the ground. I know there will be some great stories to tell, I'll just have to dig deep to find them.

Being around pole vault reminded me of one thing yesterday: tennis really is a niche sport. As much as I think we all want tennis to succeed on a global stage, it is, and will always be, for us tennis enthusiasts. Yes, there will be times when the world's eyes are on our sport (think Wimbledon 2008), but for the most part, we bask in the quietness and uniqueness of this sport.

Such is the same in pole vault, which in and of itself is its own sport within track and field, but inspires such a niche and often cult-like following that it's pointless to ever try to make pole vault mainstream. You can't kick around the pole vault in the back yard or hit it against the wall, can you? It's always going to exist as it does: a sport that few love and are passionate about, but most have no idea what the hell is going on.

That's the thing I get most often when talking about tennis to others: I just don't get how it works. Yes, tennis scoring is beyond confusing, which I think plays a big role in why we will never be a football, soccer or basketball. And I'm not saying tennis should just hang out with its five fans and be happy for the rest of its existence, but there needs to be a realization on a bigger level that this kind of sport can only be so big, just like pole vault.

Perhaps I am speaking from a naive point of view. No, I wasn't alive when John McEnroe was America's bad boy and tennis stars were like rock stars. But our world has vastly changed since then ... it's hard to think tennis could ever have that status again.

With all that said, I think what Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have done for the sport is spectacular. As we head into the meat of the US Open Series schedule, I will be interested to watch just how things shape up. This past weekend was a blow to American tennis: Serena pulled out at the BOTW, Blake and Querrey both lost their semis at Indy, and Venus and Lindsay both pulled out of LA before they even hit a ball. Will these American tournaments live and die by the American participation? It's hard to tell.

It isn't hard to tell, however, that the entire tennis world - not just Americans - will be a little less interested in the Simon-Tursonov and Wozniak-Bartoli finals than had those aforementioned players won their matches yesterday. Will it be another USOS plagued by injuries and pull outs? I sure hope not.

But then, there's those things call the Olympics, too...