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

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.)

Video Post: The Boys Talk Tennis

Well, as I said in my last post, things have been more than hectic around here. I've been working 30-plus hours a week at the cafe that always is gracious enough to let me put in a few hours when I'm back in Montana on top of writing two feature stories for this weekend's local paper and entertaining a rather pesky guest, Mr. Matt Murphy.

Matt and I always have a blast together, so we've spent the last couple of days exploring Helena. We've had some ridiculously good local food (No Sweat | Donut Hole | Karmadillo's), played with my adorable niece, Sammie, and took in Matt's sister's incredible tap/modern dance at the Myrna Loy Theatre tonight.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep up with everything that is happening in the tennis world. The men and women are finally back here in the States on the first leg of the US Open Series. What a big win by Serena Williams today over up-and-comer Michelle Larcher de Brito, right? It just goes to show you that LdB has lots of talent and is slowly progressing toward the top 100, while Serena is still trying to shake an ultimately disappointing Wimbledon.

As much as Matt and I have been having fun, we also have been writing in every spare moment. We had to take a little break though to film a little video post for you guys, addressing this question, posed by reader TroyCHooks: Why does everyone continue to make Roddick and Blake seem even remotely in the same level as Nadal and Ferderer?

While Matt and I attempted to address the question, we distracted each other most of the time. In any case, enjoy this post:

Tennis Chatter: A Week Later

Well, we're just now a week removed from that epic final that had all of us stirring for days and that we will no doubt be thinking about and re-analyzing for weeks, months and perhaps years to come! I've spent this last week working and hanging out with family, and also had the pleasure of playing my first USTA tournament in over three years. All in all, it was a good weekend (and I'll just leave it at that!).

With all this "de-throning" and "changing of the guard" talk on the men's side, I wanted to touch a bit on what the last few weeks have meant for women's tennis. In my post on Wednesday, I mentioned that a few journalists had made this point themselves, and so I thought it would be fun to speak a bit about it in my next video post. My good friend Kelsey joined in for the convo, and though she's no tennis buff, she knows a thing or two about longevity and burnout.



Over the next week, I'm working furiously on two feature articles that are to be printed in my hometown paper, the Independent Record. I'm pretty stoked to be doing some freelance while in Montana, and hope that I'll be able to cover all my ground and write some kick-ass stuff. I've got this blog thing down pretty good, but writing features for the local paper is a little bit different.

While I'm researching, transcribing interviews and writing, the men and women of the professional tennis tour officially kick off the US Open Series with the ladies at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford and the guys playing in Indianapolis.

Wimbledon: My Favorite Things

Random musings from a Wimbledon we won't soon forget:

As I mentioned in the video post, Alexandra Stevenson has a new blog up on ESPN.com. Is this finally her time to come back? Or was she ever really a legitimate player to begin with? It'll be interesting to see just how far she goes (and how healthy she stays).

Laura Robson is the FairyTale Princess of The Championships 2008. This is a story I just can't resist, especially because growing up, I would play tennis in my back alley and always concoct some sort of darkhorse who at the French was French or at Wimbledon was British and he or should would caption the nation's heart with out-of-this-world tennis.

Robson certainly did that in the last two weeks, winning her home title as a darkhouse and as a player who really played like she was from a different world. Robson's win was a legitimate one, beating the 1st, 9th and 3rd seeds along her way.

How special would it be to see this girl in the main draw next year? Only the next 12 months can show us what she's learned at the Girl's Champion.

Marina Erakovic is my new favorite women's player. Don't know her? Read up!

What a tournament for Andy Murray (and Jie Zheng and Marat Safin and Elena Dementieva, too!)! Murray's fourth-round conquering of Richard Gasquet was his proclamation to the tennis world: I have arrived.

Murray was overwhelmed in the quarters by Kingdom of Clay-Grass King Rafael Nadal, but his consistent effort at the All England Club show me that he is making headway each year, and continuing to improve in surprising ways. This kid will win WImbledon some day, that is no doubt. Even Tim Henman thinks so.

And, before I pay homage to Mr. Nadal himself, I want to thank William C. Rhoden of The New York Times for his thoughtful and dead-on column on the legacy of the Williams sisters. They certainly don't get enough credit for what they've done for the game, and Saturday's final is another example.

So at last we come to Rafa. This is what I'll say: the kid didn't miss. All in all, he dug deep, ran everything down, hit the ball as hard as he could, and - most importantly - didn't miss. Yes, Federer made a few errors, but it was all about the human boomerang on Sunday: everything Fed threw at Nadal, the Spaniard threw right back, and with a little more zip and curve than the five-time champ.

UPDATE: Changing of the Guard

Wow. That was incredible.

Tonight and tomorrow from Tennis Chatter:

-Video post



-Match analysis

Well, it's hard to break down a match like this and place its outcome on a few points, or just one factor or another. If there is one thing to say, it would be that Rafael Nadal was just better, and more consistent. In this match, that translates to: "Rafael Nadal didn't miss a freaking shot in five hours of tennis."

But, in all my amateur ways, let me at least a few things about why Roger Federer wasn't able to win his sixth-straight Wimbledon crown:

Federer, who went 42 of 75 (56%) at the net for the match, wasn't the better volleyer. Yes, the Swiss won more points than Rafa at net, but Nadal was 22 of 31 (71%), finding a much better success rate. To me this speaks volumes of Nadal's passing ability, but also shows that if Federer is going to approach the net 75 times in a match, his shot selection needs to be more fine-tuned. Many times Federer reached for a ball her could've stepped toward or chose to take a ball out of the air instead of scooping it off the turf.

Secondly, Rafa's fitness proved to be too much for Fed, showing that athleticism has as much of a place at Wimbledon as anywhere else. In the third set, Federer his 16 unforced errors to Nadal's 7. Most of these errors came off of the Mighty Fed's spectacular forehand, a shot that become more of a liability than a weapon in the final few games.

-Tournament wrap
-What this means for men's - and all of - tennis

Congratulations, Rafael Nadal.

Video Post: Wimbledon Weekend (Pt 1)

Here's a summary of Venus' "W" at the W over little sis, Serena, along with talk about the men's finals and the surprisingly arrival of Miss Laura Robson.



Oh, and you can see Laura's post-match interview here.

Video Post: Now It's Getting Good

Really, I mean Wimbledon is so exciting this year that I'm actually into the men's draw - that never happens!

Here are my thoughts on yesterday, today, tomorrow and nothing more:

Halfway There

Well, getting up at 6:30 AM and not watching or listening to any tennis certainly wasn't in my day's plan, but I ended getting a lot of cleaning and packing done, and also took in a lot of reading and poking around the web. Not a bad morning at all.

What a first week we've had at Wimbledon. Some champions have risen to the occasion, while others have exposed gaping holes in their tennis armor that we didn't really know exist. Overall, it was a week of quality tennis. Lots of three set matches on the women's side (40) and five setters on the men's (17).

Fellow blogger and the much more fashionably-minded Erwin Ong was interviewed by the Globe and Mail in Saturday's issue talking about fashion in the world of tennis. A big kudos to Erwin for this interview as he continues to emerge as one of the sport's most knowledgeable fashion critics.

One of those fashion-wearing tennis players Erwin often talks about is Miss Jelena Jankovic, who avoided the upset bug and is into week two of Wimbledon following a three-set win over Caroline Wozniacki today. Lately I've been all superstitious when it comes to Janky, and wrote an article for Sportingo.com comparing her to Jennifer Capriati and her "early years."

Now, this might be a stretch, but in 2001, in the "later years" (will there be "later later years?") of Capriati's career, she fell to Justine Henin in the semifinals of Wimbledon. She did so by losing the match 2-6 6-4 6-2 after winning the first two slams of the year. Today, Jankovic (or, as I like to call her, Jelena Capriankovic), beat Wozy 2-6 6-4 6-2. Yes, more Capriankovic-ing going on, but Justine did go on to win the tournament after that scoreline. Same result for Jelena? Venus is one who certainly stands in her way.

Superstitions aside, my favorite Kiwi, Marina Erakovic ended her bid at Wimby today with a tight, three-set loss to tour veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn 4-6 6-4 6-4. It's great to see such a young and spirited player like Erakovic play consistent and tough tennis over the last two grand slams. One thing I really appreciated about this match was two women representing such nations that aren't traditionally tennis havens in Thailand and New Zealand. For a couple hours on Court 11 today, Wimbledon was the Official Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific!

(Note: I said the Globe and Mail was based in London - that's the London Globe - in my video post. It is located in Toronto.)

Just Wear, Yes "Wear," is Maria's Motivation?

Watching the last game of Ana Ivanovic's implosion today against Jie Zheng was rather painful. Ivanovic ended the match with four mis-hit forehands, much like Maria Sharapova opened up her dismal performance yesterday with three double faults.

Women's tennis is have a miniature identity crisis currently, with two of its foremost stars plummeting out of the tournament in incredibly bad form. There has been an abundance of swirling talk surrounding Sharapova and her motivation following her loss yesterday, especially because there had been so much talk about her outfit during the first four days of the fortnight.

But I found this most interesting: Maria Sharapova had no idea who or what Alla Kudryavtseva was. This clip (especially 0:57 to 1:23) is rather telling:



Maria says "Did she?" when the reporter tells her of Kudryavtseva's close call with Venus last year here and then proceeds to mindlessly say she "Practiced with her" and played her on clay "a couple of years ago." No, no, Maria. Not a couple of years ago, honey, last year, at the French, a grand slam, in a match that Maria was down 1-4 in the second set.

To me, it's inexcusable and rather disrespectful for a top player to give more thought to how to change up her outfit from round one to two instead of her game. Yes, I understand that thousands of matches have been played in which a higher-ranked player gave little to no thought or effort into what their opponent would do on the court, but this is Wimbledon, and this is Maria Sharapova.

Kamakshi Tandon wrote a great piece over at TENNIS.com about how the tour, the media, the public and the players love to hate Sharapova. Yes, it's true that she is not the most loved individual on tour, but Sharapova helps the process along when she refuses to say hello to others in the lockerroom, doesn't mingle at social events on tour and dismisses reporters like they are ridiculous for asking if the Biggest Sharapova Story of the tournament (um, her outfit!) has been distracting.

Wear is your motivation, Maria? Because the tuxedo outfit is history, and there's no trophy to go along with it this year.

Continued discussion on Maria and day five wrap below:

Video Post: Grades!

The first-quarter grades for the students of Wimbledon University have been posted:

Video Post: The Inconsistent Dragon

Yes, I just called Marat Safin a dragon, but why not? I mean, the guy totally breathed tennis fire on the court today. So much, actually, that Novak Djokovic was still smoldering as he walked off the court, chin against chest.

The question now is, will Safin continue his run at SW19?

LFAH? Not Me

OK, enough nakedness for now, at least until a streaker makes an appearance on Centre Court.

Here are my thoughts from Day 2 at The Championships:



In other news, the new "Looking for a Hero?" advertising campaign put out by the WTA Tour has made its debut and is so terribly bad that instead of having 23 people in the stands for the Tour Championships in Doha this fall, there will probably be 14 or 15, instead.

Here's my problem: the WTA just doesn't get it. There's nothing appealing about these women just running around the streets of Rome that makes me more interested in them. If you want me to think they're ordinary, make them ordinary. If you want me to think they're superheroes, make them superheroes. But watching Jelena Jankovic run through a rotating door looking awkward and almost smiling into a "this-is-ridiculous" laughter is flat out boring.

It will, however, be interesting to see how this campaign does for the tour. They are spending millions of dollars on it, and hope to reach new corners of the globe. But, I wonder how much people who haven't been attracted to tennis beforehand will really be drawn in by these commercials?

And, finally, shouldn't the WTA be focusing on the tennis that these women play? Instead of trying to build up these stars as bigger than life off the court, shouldn't the tour showcase how they play on it? To spend $75 million marketing women as individuals instead of the game that they play? I guess to me it just shows how much weight the WTA has thrown behind its "stars." Which, in looking at the recent past (Justine, Martina, Jennifer, Kim anyone?), is a dangerous move.

"Looking for a Hero?" 60-second TVC



"Looking for a Hero?" 30-second TVC #1



"Looking for a Hero?" 30-second TVC #2

Tennis Chatter: Wimbledon Monday

As Tennis Week Magazine has done its best to re-vamp its coverage of the tennis tours both in print and on its recently re-done web site, you might think that IMG (who owns the publication) would be making sure that glossy look came with a competent copy editor, too. Can you tell what's wrong with the picture below? Let's just Jelena wouldn't be too impressed.

(Tennis Chatter photo.)

A few WTA stars have landed themselves on Forbes' Top 100 celebrity list. That's both current and retired, if you were wondering.

It may be the most traditional tournament in tennis, but The Championships at Wimbledon are not scared to do things a little differently sometimes - or, trendy - that is. The tournament has created a facebook page that features news stories, videos and other inside-the-tournament features for members to become "fans" of and get all their AELTC news while stalking their friends on the slightly-less-creepy version of MySpace.

Also on the new media front, Wimbledon was quick to take down any videos of play posted on YouTube last year during The Championships, so we'll have to see what happens this year. So far, you can see lots of Day 1 action on the site.

Canadien Frank Dancevic is through to round two after a rousing upset over David Nalbandian on Day 1. Don't want to brag, but I kind of predicted that this would happen.



Oh, and here's the light-hearted clip of Federer and Dominic Hrbaty at the end of their first-round match.


(Video by Deborahtje44.)

Predictions: Wimbledon

I'm wearing my lucky Irish green and wishing that Kelly Liggan was in the draw...

Alas, here are my predictions (and hopes) for the AELTC 2008.



In case you forgot these two matches: