66 posts categorized "March 2009"
[This is an expanded version of the story posted at Tennis.com] By Pete Bodo Sometimes, a weakness is a blessing in disguise, and a flaw can bear surprisingly sweet fruit. When Andy Roddick ventured forth on the pro tour, he toted a massive serve, a bone-crushing forehand, and a sanguine love of competition. They were enough to earn him a Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2003 and a world no. 1 ranking - but not enough to secure a reliable perch at the top of the game. A lot has happened since then. Roger Federer happened. Rafael Nadal happened. Tennis changed, and Roddick could have been forgiven for taking a realistic approach to the altered landscape, humming “to everything, turn, turn, turn . . .” as he plugged away, shortcomings and all, and settled for capitalizing on his celebrity as the lone Grand Slam champion in a tennis nation shorn of its glory.. Roddick didn’t do that, though. He chose, instead, to work on those weaknesses, even though some said they were critical and career-defining. The backhand was a shot meant only to keep him alive in rallies long enough to load up and fire the forehand. The footwork was sketchy. His overall sense of strategy, pace, and shot selection – even when the shot was that howitzer serve – were superficial and predictable. Roddick came onto the tour leading with his chin, and that’s a difficult instinct to subvert. - especially when you still have something like a knock-out punch. But over the years, through crushing defeats (including the emblematic three consecutive losses to Federer at Wimbledon, two of which occurred in finals), a succession of coaches, criticism that the game had passed by his type of player (the meat and potatoes power-player whose game is built around the serve), Roddick kept the faith. More importantly, he worked. He worked like a dog trying to keep pace with the fire truck barreling down his street, tongue hanging out, nails clicking, chest heaving, keeping that vehicle in sight. Yesterday here at the Sony Ericsson Open, the fruits of all his labor were manifest, as he eliminated Gael Monfils, 7-6,6-4, to earn a quarterfinal berth opposite . . . Federer. This means he has a tough row to hoe, but also that he’s playing with house money. What's he going to do, go ballistic if his record falls to 2-17? In Monfils, Roddick faced a player much like himself – or at least the Andy Roddick of yore. Monfils can really bring the big serve, and he can smack the forehand. He even lines up to serve just like Roddick, poised with his ankles practically touching, at which point he arches his back, tosses, and then goes up for the ball, disconcertingly like a salmon leaping from the water. But the contrast between the two men in one key area was stark. Roddick was all carefully calibrated power, honed focus, and he radiated the discipline and patience of a craftsman hard at work doing something he loves. Monfils, by contrast, looked like he was mostly interested in setting himself up for the spectacular counter-punch. The ambush strategy Monfils plays is a risky strategy at best, and never moreso than against an opponent who can dictate the terms of a match - even a close one, as this was for a set. But what the hay – Monfils is still a pup at 22, and he’s also born and bred on clay, where counter-punching your way to glory on the strength of your quads and your ability to pull a forehand rabbit out of your hat pays better dividends than on hard courts. That, I thought, was the great underlying theme in this match, and it makes an interesting point about tennis on clay. The difference isn't really (or exclusively) about grips and backswings, spin or the lack thereof - it's really about attitude. For when you look at Monfils athletic profile and tools, which aren't all that different from Roddick's kit, it's easy to see the clear advantage on hard courts of pressing the action - provided you can resist pressing too hard, too early, or too artlessly. Today, Roddick played a match that was artful, which will strike many of you as an odd way to characterize Roddick's game. But once again his shot selection was superb, his patience noteworthy, and his general judgment outstanding. You could see the mastery he must have felt at the gut level in his body language: He wears his duckbill cap with the visor pulled down to block out distraction; the walk that once was a swagger has been notched back, so that now it merely declares that he means business. When he calls for the towel, he does so with the most subtle of gestures - pointing an index finger in the general direction of the ball boy lucky enough to hold the perspiration-soaked rag without even bothering to glance at the kid, break his stride, or turn to take the towel. It's as if he wills the ballboy and towel to materialize and just as subtly disappear after Roddick has given his chin and racket handle a quick swipe. As the first set unfolded, you could feel the pressure building, much like it was gathering in the dishwater gray clouds that threatened rain throughout this oppressive, humid afternoon. Both me were taking care of business - that business being holding serve. There was Roddick, powerful but patient. There was Monfils, powerful but cagey, ever eager to lure Roddick into the forecourt to set up a passing shot. Monfils knocked at the door of Roddicks's backhand and found it firmly shut; Roddick poked at the dormancy in Monfils' game, virtually daring him to do something, but found that Monfils would not be goaded. The men slowly boiled down the sap of this contrast to its essence as the games rolled by. Roddick's played with prudent aggression; Monfils pushed back just hard enough to keep Roddick on edge, and from bullying him around the court. Roddick earned a break point in the eighth game on crisp forehand approach shot winner, but Monfils dismissed it with a crafty drop shot hit off a let-cord backhand. Soon he leveled to 4-all. In the ninth game, Roddick fell behind 0-30 when he got a bit ahead of himself and his feet became tangled as he tried to execute a heavily sliced backhand approach while moving forward toward the net. The shot reminded me of the "old" Andy Roddick, and in context it also made the current model that much more striking. But immediately a service winner and an overhead placement pulled him even, and Roddick went on to hold. Monfils held, and then put together a break when, from deuce, he forced a pair of forehand errors, the second of them a volley. This is precisely where Monfils counter-punching mindset cost him, because he then played a curiously loose, error-strewn game. After hanging back and waiting to spring a trap, he seemed unable to impose his game. Oh. I'm serving for the set, not trying to break him? What one earth do I do now? As Roddick would say later: "I think he (Monfils) gives you ample opportunity because he likes to do the rope-a-dope a little bit. He likes to invite you in. Then, if you don't come in, he beats you with length on the next ball. He's quick enough to be able to pass a lot, so I just tried to at least make my approach shots firm if I did it." If you read some of the other quotes in my Tennis.com analysis, you'll see that at times Roddick sounded almost Agassi-like as he analyzed the game. Here's another nugget: Asked about the most significant way losing 15 pounds (at the behest of his latest coach, Larry Stefanki) has impacted his game, Roddick replied, in part, "I think the biggest difference is after I hit the return, that first ball, if they become aggressive on it I can get it back to neutral quicker, because I'm able to scramble after that first one." Scrambling, scratching, digging. . . those are all appropriate words to describe the way Roddick now gets through matches against players who can hurt him. And at the risk of patronizing Monfils - who has the athleticism and firepower to hurt Roddick and anyone else who gets in his danged face - I think he could learn some valuable lessons watching Roddick. We can start with the way Monfils reacted to losing the first set; it was as if he beheld a pre-ordained ending that nobody else - least of all Roddick - took for granted. Oh, he made a few spectacular shots and gets, but I'm not sure they fooled anyone. In Monfils shoes, I think Roddick might have thought: Okay, I played a lousy 'breaker, now let's get down to the work of winning this match. Maybe that's the difference between a 22-year old and a veteran - and former no. 1 - of 26. Maybe that's the difference between a Frenchman with a clay-court mindset and an American knowing he best make hay while the sun shines on that nice, purple and green stretch of asphalt. Maybe that's the difference between a kid who hasn't put a lot of thought into his game yet, and someone who managed to grow out of that difficult stage and, intent on remaining in the hunt, has become. . . a tennis player. For that's what Roddick is now; the tennis player. He knows his tools, he's not afraid to use them, he's not cowed by the threat of failure nor deluded by the promise of victory. Has the clay of tough losses ever been shaped a player into as well-proportioned and finely-turned a figure as Andy Roddick? Federer and Nadal were always good, and largely weakness free. That wasn't true of Roddick; in fact, for a while, his weakness constituted the way he was defined, and that's the ultimate gut-check. I brought this up in Roddick's presser, asking if he was conscious of how far he'd come as a player, blending improvments in his game with those two indespensible qualities of every champion - self-containment and focus. "No, I think it's not something that I think I've been uber-conscious about. I mean, I kind of grew up in front of you guys (the media), you've probably seen the best of me and, unfortunately, the worst of me, at times. So you know, I'm definitely not there yet. . . but i think it's improved." The fire truck is still in the lead, but this is one dog that won't quit. PS - Please stay on-topic at this post.
Hi everyone. With TypePad reaching the 500-comment mark on the last post and freezing up, please continue your match observations here. Please note also that at the bottom of this headline post, I am including a link to an additional overflow, to be used once the 500-comment/five page mark has been reached here, and posters start experiencing problems again. We'll be closing down "full" posts as soon as it's practical to do so. This method of accessing extra overflow posts is our temporary solution to the technical issues we're experiencing with the TypePad software, which effectively places an unprecedented low limit on comment numbers per post - an issue that most of you are very familiar with by now. The link below will not appear on the tennis.com front page. Typically, on days when comment numbers warrant its inclusion, it will be accessed through the day's "official" front page overflow post. This will help to preserve access to "red meat" posts for all tennis.com visitors, while keeping your conversations flowing as best we can. While moderators are around, we may leave the comments closed until the time approaches when the new post is needed - otherwise we'll leave the post open. If it is opened up early, please resist the temptation to start filling it before it's needed - it will only make conversations more difficult for everyone to follow. - Rosangel Valenti [As of around 11 p.m. TW time, we have moved commenting to the new overflow linked in blue below.]
Mornin'. I'm sitting here in the Marriott Biscayne Bay hotel, in a room on the 8th floor, with a view of the port of Miami, a pea-green sea (it's the overcast), and the causeway leading to South Beach, where I'm going later to do Jaegermeister shots in a bar full of flip-flop shod scholars on spring break until I'm drunk enough to duck into a tattoo parlor to have the profile of Caroline Wozniacki tattooed across my shoulder blades. As if. . .
Actually, I nailed it pretty clean this time. As a frequent hotel guest, I can tell you it's not just where you stay, but where they put you in the joint, and that's something over which you don't always have control unless you're the type who doesn't mind changing rooms midway through a stay (I do). I can tell you this: You don't want by the ice machine. You don't want by the elevators. You don't want the view of rooftop parking, at least not when you have the big blue (on a sunny day) ocean and a dozen yachts bobbing around on their moorings just around the corner from your depressing "viewscape."
And you - or at least I - don't want the 32nd floor of the high-rise hotel. I prefer to have my boots on the ground and don't like to stay any higher above terra firma than I must. The idea of going out to one of those restaurants rotating like a giant top 500 feet above some city doesn't make me want to eat, it makes me want to puke. For me, the sweet spot is anywhere between the 5th and 10th floor. And here's the added bonus this week: my "window" is a great big sliding glass door that actually opens all the way. When I came in last night, I turned off the air-conditioning, opened the glass door and, after getting cleaned up, I settled into bed with a scotch over ice while watching the translucent white curtain billow in and out. I wished I hadn't left my book back in New York, but I lay back and fell asleep soon enough.
My flight in was delayed by a few hours, so the Gonazlez-Stepanek match was well underway when I arrived. It took some time to get my credentials and parking pass sorted out, and while I waited at the courtesy desk in the media center, a German lady photographer couldn't help but crow: Tomorrow is going to be the best day, ever! I can see why she's all fired up - the day begins with Tomas Berdych vs. Novak Djokovic (the grandstand opener isn't exactly dog poop either: Gillles Simon vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) and the menu also includes a very tantalizing Andy Roddick vs. Gael Monfils, Andy Murray vs. Viktor Troicki, and either David Ferrer or Marin Cilic vs. Juan Martin del Potro. The nightcap is Rafael Nadal vs. Stan Wawrinka, just in case you aren't tennised-out.
Oh, and I failed to mention Roger Federer's match with Taylor Dent. I had time last night to write a post for ESPN on the resurgence of Dent. I may write that match today for y'all, partly because Taylor's story is a pretty inspirational one. But also because he plays high-risk, relentless attacking tennis, and he has some big serve. As some wag said of the man who invented the modern revolver: God made some men big and some men small, but Sam Colt made them equal."
This week, I'll be writing for the Tennis.com home page, much like I did during Davis Cup. But I think I'll be using some form of those files for my red-meant posts as well. We'll see how it works out. I'll keep you posted.
-- Pete
OK - TypePad is groaning again. Carry on talking here, folks. - Rosangel Valenti
 Howdy. This is just a quick update to let you all know that I'm enroute to Miami, and will be posting on the Sony-Ericsson Open starting late tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm glad that most of the top seeds are still in the hunt; it seems like forever since I've seen the entire cast of characters vying for space on center stage. I'll be in Miami in time to catch the evening matches, which feature Fernando Gonzalez vs. Radek Stepanek (I shaved my back for this?). Seriously, though, Gonzo is a big draw in Miami (the tournament has sometimes been called The Grand Slam of South America), and I'll certainly get accustomed to life under fire as he loads up those big groundies. So it's all good with me.
And how 'bout that Taylor "Brokeback" Dent? He's on the comeback trail, and looking at Roger Federer as his next opponent. Ouch.
A note about Typepad: I am beginning to think that the "new" Typepad can't adequately accommodate the needs that have developed at this website. I think many of the upgrades the parent company (SixApart) has instituted are good ones, albeit not for us because of the way this site has organically developed. I am not, first and foremost, an Internet-head, nor an IT wizard. I'm not even an amateur geek. I'm a tennis journalist. And as you all know, everyone else who helps me out is a volunteer. So we are really at the mercy of the software providers - unless we choose to roll up our sleeves (or call someone who can) and seek out custom solutions that will enable us to run the site exactly as we wish.
We're going to look into some of these options, but that doesn't help us in the short term. Even in the best case scenario, re-structuring this weblog in a way that's seamlessly integrated with our Tennis.com servers etc. will call for weeks of work, by a number of people. So for now, what you see is what you get.
To that end, I'm going to ask you all to resist the "instant message" temptation, avoid point-by-point match calling, and try to remain on-topic even at these Crisis Center posts (and certainly at the upcoming red-meat posts). While Rosangel has done great work giving you new CC threads when we've hit the 500 comment mark, it also comes at a cost. A new or casual reader going to Tennis.com will see Tennisworld and a short table of contents (headlines) that reads like something out of an advanced physics textbook. That doesn't really help attract or grow our base of readers, as large, friendly and knowledgeable as it already is.
To that end, there will be just one "overflow" post per day and I may even eliminate that one in the coming days. That means you'll be able to post about 500 comments per post, and then the tank will be full.
Meanwhile, one option that ought to be more appealing than ever is our Facebook TennisWorld group. Our social director, Jackie Oh!, has posted all the information you need to join the group on numerous occasions - just click on the Deuce Club category on the menu on the right hand side of this blog and scan her most recent posts for instructions. Or, just go directly to Facebook and make contact through that site.
If any of you have suggestions on how we can create a chat room within the bubble of TW, which is what the Your Call and Crisis Centers have become, please send it on. For example, if we can embed a link in every post that takes you right to what is, in effect, a streaming conversation a la CC posts at their peak a few months ago, that may be the way to go. I will be discussing this and other options with the Tennis.com team and others in the days to come. It doesn't appear that we can ever be what we were, but maybe we can minimize the changes and, who knows, maybe even improve the overall experience. It's an awkward time to have to deal with this, so thanks for being patient. I'll be back with you tonight or tomorrow, early.
-- Pete
Hi all. Yet again, here is your Crisis Center extension for continuing today's tennis-related conversation.
- Rosangel Valenti
OK everyone - with TypePad slowing things down on the last post, please keep on talking tennis here. - Rosangel Valenti
Mornin', everyone. It's a cold, gray, rainy morning here at the farm in game-rich Andes, but is sure is nice to see the tawny skin of meadows that had been asleep under snow for months, the the occasional green shoot (can that really be a daffodil, beginning to sprout?) poking up through the dense mat of compressed vegetation. I'll be returning to New York tonight, and leave tomorrow, midday, for Key Biscayne.
Special thanks to Rosangel for so frequently posting "overflow" threads; she's been tireless and it has kept the site from imploding while Typepad continues to address our specific needs as an unusually fast-moving, high-volume of comments site. I plan to work on this issue tonight, at home. This weekend was mostly about spending some valuable time with my son, Luke, before I leave for my week in Florida. Thanks for understanding.
I love this picture of Venus Williams. Enjoy the tennis today, and please bear with us as we navigate these changes in our TennisWorld.
PS - Lance Harke is off on a family trip, but he'll be back and working with me in Miami.
-- Pete
TypePad is freezing again on the last post - please discuss the tennis here. - Rosangel Valenti
Hi everyone. David Nalbandian exited at the hands of Victor Troicki, Ivo Karlovic went down to Frederico Gil (see above), Andy Murray and Juan Monaco have a set apiece, and TypePad is slowing up again. Here's a new Crisis Center for you to carry on talking. -- Rosangel Valenti
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