Indeed, that shot by Verdasco was a thing of beauty to end the match but Ferrer had his chances to close him out. Instead of seeing the final set of this match, I think we were watching a blowout on Ashe on ESPN2.

No doubt we were being treated to the Williams sisters winning 6-0, 6-1.

"That’s the problem with going to a Grand Slam—you end up missing so much tennis."

ain't it the truth

Russ,
Believe it or not while Ferrer and Verdasco was playing, Kim and Samantha played a 3 setter at Ashe during prime time with Venus and Francesca was the last match at Ashe during the day session.

Verdasco.....punishment both for the eyes and the ears.....

"When he gets hold of a forehand, there’s something Berdych-esque about it. Not in the stroke itself, but in the effortless pace they both generate, and in the way the ball seems to pick up speed as it moves through the court. It’s an illusion, of course, but when they catch it right, Verdasco and Berdych both hit their forehands so cleanly that the ball ends up moving faster than you think it will at first. One of those forehands seems to catch Ferrer by surprise here. Verdasco has a sort of deceptive power, and whether you like power-baseline tennis or not, it can be an awesome sight."
_______________--

Same can be said about Verdasco's backhand. He doesn't appear to generate the racket-head speed of many of the other heavy hitters, but his shots often fly thru the air.

Clean hitting--as is written here--and a touch less topspin than most of the other Spaniards, I guess.

Thanks Steve,

You reminded me of how ridiculous ESPN2 can be with tennis, showing boring women's matches.

Now, I don't want to sound sexist in any way, but the fact is that women's tennis IN GENERAL is much, much less impressive than male tennis. No question there are a few decent women's matches every year, but the number is very small. THe fact that women's tennis gets so much attention for the sake of appearing politically correct, I think, is a real shame, because it hurts the sport. If ESPN2 would simply SHOW the best matches of the grand slams(mainly, the men's matches), I have no doubt that interest in watching the sport would increase, both from male and female viewers!

AGain, i'm not not trying to sound sexist, but to see my point one needs only to compare the NBA to the WNBA, or men's boxing to women's boxing. The physical differences between men and women means that women's matches are simply of a lesser quality. That's not an insult to women athletes, its undeniable biological fact.

Sorry, just to be a bit more specific about "undeniable biological fact", I am referring to the fact that male upper bodies are stronger than female upper bodies, which results in women hitting the ball with much less force.

"AGain, i'm not not trying to sound sexist, but to see my point one needs only to compare the NBA to the WNBA, or men's boxing to women's boxing. The physical differences between men and women means that women's matches are simply of a lesser quality. That's not an insult to women athletes, its undeniable biological fact."

Don't even bother to explain yourself....I am a woman and I find women's tennis very boring compared with men's....

@noleisthebest

Thank you for understanding my point without trying to burn me at the stake like so many others do when I make this argument. Much appreciated :)

Even if you agree with that, it works both way...women's basketball is so much more interesting that men's.

Mens = dunk, dunk, lay up/dunk

Women's = pass, pass, fast break, pass, fall away.

Women's gymnastics - much more exciting than men's

The pendulum swings much more based on rivalries and match ups than on gender. Right now, the men's tour, has IMO, better rivalries and match ups. But in the past, the women's tour has offered better matches. Stay tuned. The pendulum may swing again.

Womens basketball is terrible.

I agree that womens gymnastics is better (or any sport wear the women wear tight clothing, such as womens volleyball, netball, diving, and womens beach volleyball).

I actually like watching the womens matches though, mainly for the tense moments when watching women who play from your country (Sam Stosur, Jelena Dokic, Jarmilla Groth).

I also agree with noleisthebest (not about Nole, though...)
TeamFedal is right --only a few women's matches are worth watching, although it is not necessarily due to the lack of upper-body strenght; it is because of the many errors (e.g., Safina, who has plenty of upper body strength, same as N. Petrova...)and double faults (e.g., Elena Dementieva, who could have piled up grand slam titles were it not for her dismal serve), and also because of the mental collapse (e.g. Safina again, and Daniela H, or Vera S, not to metion Kim K before she was born again and took all that pressure off thanks to her little girl, because in the end Kim will always have to go home and tend to her needs, win or lose). And still, there are quite a few exeptions in the field of female mental strength of which Evert, Hingis, Graf, Seles, Martina, Serena and even Henin are prime examples. Or great retrievers like A Sánchez Vicario, whose matches were always very entertaining, as boring were those involving her country woman, Conchita Martínez.

I was hoping you'd include this match Steve. I watched the whole thing on live stream and it was a great one. That last winning shot definitely was a doozie but the intensity and drama throughout was great.

The only female tennis players worth watching are Venus and Serena because of their powerful games. It's funny how ppl complain that they win so easily...which I think Clijsters wins a lot easier than either vee or serena in earlier rounds. Then ppl say they miss the finesse and variety that the williams sisters so often lack. Why does everyone always mention the williams sisters as the faces of womens tennis when it comes to negativity. There are so many other players to pick on...like cheating/dishonest/classless Henin, screaming sharapova, ugly kuznetsova, annoying/complaining jankovic, crying zvonareva, fake ass ivanovic, dog looking clijsters, demented dementieva, the list goes on and on...stop pretending that pinpointing the williams sister at every turn has nothing to do with their race because it has everything to do with it. Just admit it...lol

I was hoping for Ferrer to win, so the end was bittersweet. Great match point but I wish it had gone the other way. Can't bring myself to root for Verdasco. Something about him I just don't like. Maybe it's the fact that his ego seems bigger than his talent.

And for the record, I agree with the statements above about women vs. men. Just think men's tennis more exciting and interesting right now.

To CL:

Obviously you do not really follow men's b-ball because there is much more going on than simply dunks and lay-ups.

Never watched WNBA so I cannot comment.

And I concur with some commentators above, ATP is far better than WTA.

A match between two top 50 guys (such as 42. Granollers vs 49. Janko) on the ATP is very likely to be much more interesting/thrilling than a match between current no. 1 Wozniacki and current no. 2 Vera on WTA.

Without Serena & Justine I would not even watch WTA.

Agreed.

Too much errors and lack of quick movement by WTA players.

I cannot even count the no. of times I've seen a female player hit a winner and I cannot help thinking that in an ATP match that might not have been a winner. The opponent would have run it down and keep the ball in play.

Serena's power, serve and mental strength & Justine's backhand compensates for the WTA's general dullness. Kim & Venus are kinda OK, I guess. Maria's screaming became dull when she stopped winning.

Great match but Ferrer obviously did not keep it together. Just like what happened to Gasquet at RG 2010 and Falla at Wimby 2010 when they were both up 2 sets to love against Murray & Fed respectively in the 1st round.

Btw, another reason why WTA sucks: Time after time they have world no.1 players who didn't win a GS during their year as "top player in the world". Kim, Amelie, Safina, Jelena and now Wozniacki.

Wozniacki didnot even reach a GS final this year. Despicable. EACH of the top 6 guys on the ATP tour have reach a GS final this year. 3. Djoker at USO, 4. Murray at AO, 5. Sod at RG, 6. Berdych @ Wimby.

Missed this match and I wonder if it wasn't a bit overlooked in all the noise about "minions" that went on in comments at the time. Enjoyed the highlights very much as I love watching Verdasco when he's on, and Ferrer all the time. Thanks, Steve. :)

"Right now, the men's tour, has IMO, better rivalries and match ups. But in the past, the women's tour has offered better matches. Stay tuned. The pendulum may swing again."

Agreed, CL. Some really disappointing comments about the WTA here, & I don't mean purely having a negative opinion or being critical about the current state of it.

Regarding being #1, that is partly a product of some of the best major players playing light and/or injury-disrupted schedules, no? Strange situation and hopefully Wozniacki can add to her credibility with a slam, but if you earn the points you deserve the ranking, in my book.

There have been some really good WTA matches this year. Hoping to see some of them in the best-of list. :)

Completely agree with you Jewell - I'm really hoping this isn't a chauvinistic top 10. Last year it was well deserved as I don't think there's ever been a year like 2009 for outstanding, epic, and significant men's matches. But this year I thought the women had more classics. The French Open alone had nearly a dozen terrific WTA matches.

Great WTA 3 setters this year:
Clijsters v. Henin, Brisbane final
Clijsters v. Henin, Miami semi
Henin v. Stosur, French 4th rnd
Stosur v. Serena, French QF
Stosur v. Dementieva, USO 4th rnd
Stosur v. Clijsters, USO QF
Clijsters v. Venus, USO SF
Serena v. Henin, AO final
Clijsters v. Wozniacki, YEC WTA finals
Henin v. Sharapova, FO 3rd round
Azarenka v. Zvonereva, AO 4th round
Azarenka v. Serena, AO QF
Zvonereva v. Pironkova, Wimby SF
Jankovic v. Serena, ROme SF (QF?)
Rezai v. Henin, Madrid 1st round
Rezai v. Petrova, FO 3rd round
Kvitova v. Kanepi Wimby QF
Henin v. Stosur - Stuttgart F
Dementieva v. Stosur - YEC rnd rbn
Clijsters v. Henin, WImby 4th rnd

As well as spectacular, tight 2 setters:
Henin v. Dementieva, AO 2nd round
Stosur v. Schiavone, FO final
Serena v. Sharapova, Wimby 4th rnd

JUST TO NAME A FEW!

I am still mad at Steve for putting the train wreck of a match that was Sharapova v. Oudin on the top 10 list last year when the 3 best women's matches were clearly:
#1 - Serena/Dementieva, Wimby SF
#2 - Clijsters/Serena, USO SF
#3 - Safina/Venus, Germany SF (a forgotten but insanely competitive match, was completley overlooked).

yeah azarenka-serena match was priceless....i am big serena fan but i was sure she was gonna lose....never count the proven champion out.

clijsters-caro match at yec was lame...kim obviously had lapses of concentration in the 2nd set...or else it would have been a 2 setter (like the one she gave caro @ the uso 2009 final)

Northernboy,

Spot on about these great women's matches last year. I just watched the Serena/Elena Wimby SF match again and it was like watching it the first time around. I was full of tension, awed by the shotmaking and even crying at the end again. I don't think we had a great match like this year.

Yup.

It is very appropriate of you Steve to choose a match between two Spaniards during Spain's "Golden era".

THANKS STEVE!!
I'm really enjoying these vids ur putting up for us.
It's great to be able to see some matches i heard a lot about but missed at the time. Is a great way to fill in the off-season time. Great idea!!

Northern Boy,
Jelena vs Serena was the SF at Rome. And in 2009, Dinara and Venus match was the SF at Rome. Agree that Maria and Melanie match should not been in the Top 10 as Maria was(is) struggling with shoulder issues. Melanie and Elena at the 2009 USO was better than Maria and Melanie, IMO.
Now, it will be interesting to see if Steve have more than 2 WTA matches in the top 10 for 2010.

this match was not very interesting at ALL until the fifth set TB. lets not even kid ourselves, the only reason most people even remember it is because of the match point.

Thomas at 10:44-
Did you have to make all those derogatory comments about other players to make your point if you have one.... a persecution complex.

I just like to think that a tense, exciting 2 set match, such as Henin/Dementieva at the AO, can be just as good as something like Ferrer/Verdasco - Steve himself admits he missed most of the match and really we're only talking about the final tiebreak.

Also would like to see Melzer's punishing beatdown of Nadal in Shanghai in here - for me, in addition to Schiavone's FO final, that was the single greatest performance of the year for me. Just watch the match highlights to see how redline Melzer was.

Match of the year for me is a tossup between Clijsters/Henin Brisbane and Nadal/Murray YEC champs.

I think the women's tour final rankings were skewed because of a lack of play from both Henin and Serena after Wimbledon. If both of them play, at least one of the top tenners would be out. Henin is very few points from being in the top ten despite not playing for the last 5 months of the year, and Serena is in the top 4 despite only playing 5 tournaments. If both of them play 13-14 tournaments, the rankings are drastically different.