Behind the Australian Open racquet-stringing office is a small alley where air conditioners drip and security guards sneak away from their posts for smokes. This morning, as I finished up an interview with a coach for an article that will appear in our Magazine later this year, Tom Gleeson, an 18-year-old Aussie, walked into the alley dressed as giant tennis ball. Gleeson couldn't see very well with the costume on, so a guide helped him along. He shed the costume quickly and stood panting and shirtless, wearing only boxer shorts and brown stockings.
"It's sooooooooooo hot, yeah," Gleeson said. "I'll be going out again later. It's going to be 50 in there." Fifty, of course, converts to 122 degrees. If Gleeson was exaggerating, it wasn't by much.
Gleeson, who spends about 45 minutes at a time in the costume, was perhaps the only person in Melbourne Park today who had a more taxing afternoon than Serena Williams and Gisela Dulko, who tussled for an hour and 50 minutes inside Rod Laver Arena. I don't use the word tussle lightly. On paper, this match was a cinch for Serena. Consider the numbers. Serena, winner of nine major singles titles, is ranked No. 2 in the word. Dulko is ranked No. 45. Serena is 5-foot-9 and weighs about 160 pounds. Dulko is a slight woman, standing 5-foot-7 and weighing in at about 125. Dulko plays defense, loops the ball, and loves clay. Serena serves better than any woman in history (yes, even slightly better than her sister) and scorches every ball that comes her way.
Many tennis matches, of course, don't conform to our expectations. This match not only didn't conform, it downright confounded onlookers. Though Serena won in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, it was Dulko who dictated play for much of the match. She led 5-2 in the second set. Dulko hit 29 winners for the match (only one of them an ace) compared to 26 for Serena (eight of them were aces). She also committed more errors than Serena (a byproduct of her aggression): 38 to 29. Dulko's play was remarkable not only for her unusual aggression, but for her poor health: She told me afterwards that she had a 100-degree fever yesterday and was taking antibiotics for strep throat.
Dulko couldn't hit a winner when it counted, though. Six times she failed to convert a set point when she served at 5-3. The game spanned 14 deuces before Serena won it. When Dulko served at 5-5, she held five game points--and lost them all (and the game). Serena ended the match with an ace.
Most fans consider strength to be Serena's greatest weapon, and for good reason. No doubt she is more powerful than anyone on the tour other than her sister. When Serena returns first serves, she stands where other players don't have the courage to stand when returning second serves. When she returns second serves, Serena advances so far inside the court that one would think her opponent was seven years old. At last year's Australian Open, a few of us asked Mardy Fish, the hard serving American, about Serena's serve (the two had played together in the Hopman Cup). Fish paused for a second and then said sheepishly, "She serve's like a guy."
Serena has beaten guys before, too. Asked yesterday to recall her best matches, she noted the time she beat Andy Roddick when she was perhaps 11 years old. (Roddick would have been nine, but as Serena said, "Age doesn't matter.") How badly did she beat Roddick? "Well, there's an argument about the score. I think I beat him like 61. He says it was 64. But I believe it was 61." She said she doesn't intend to offer Roddick a rematch.
All this is to say that Serena has more game than anyone on the women's tour, so much so that she can win most matches without playing well ("Today I was at like a D minus at best," she said). Still, power of a different kind--willpower--is what has served Serena so well over the years, not her strength. For her, stubbornness is the greatest weapon, not strokes--what more evidence do we need than the 2007 Australian Open? Today, in hot and humid conditions against an opponent who decided she would crack the ball all afternoon, rather than loop it, Serena didn't have her best game. Yet she would not relent--never mind panic or tighten up, as many players would--on pressure-packed points.
In Serena's mind, no one should win a point against her; she believes she is that good. Self-confidence of this kind has plusses--major titles can't be won without it--and sometimes, minuses. Serena has been known to make uncharitable comments after losses that discredit her opponents. (Here's what she said after Venus defeated her in the Sony Ericsson Championships last year: "This is definitely the worst match I've played this year by far. I didn't even look like a Top 8 player today. Maybe top 600 in the juniors.") Serena can't stand losing, even if it's to her sister--no one in tennis hates to lose more.
As you might know by now, Serena won't lose to her sister at this tournament, because Venus is gone after a shocking upset on a cool evening in Melbourne. More on that in a bit…
Hello from Melbourne, where humidity today decided to crash heat's party. Very windy, very warm, and very sticky--a perfect day for tennis, don't you think?
I'll get to today's action in a separate post a little later on (the topic: Serena Williams, and perhaps her sister Venus, too). Here, though, I'd like to give you a chance to ask questions about the tournament as it moves toward its first weekend. Ask about players, ask about conditions--ask about anything (as long as you do it nicely). I'll give you my take or try to uncover answers (if you are looking for facts). I'll reply in a separate post in a few days.
In the meantime, I've collected links to a few of my favorite articles from the tournament so far. Enjoy!
Where is the real Djokovic? The stylish writer Richard Hinds has this to say in The Age.
Age colleague Linda Pierce takes a close look at Jelena Dokic, the story of the tournament so far.
World No. 1 Rafael Nadal blogs for The Herald Sun and reveals how late he stays awake after evening matches.
Simon Barnes of The Times (London) challenges the traditional view of Andy Murray.
Steve Bierley of The Guardian looks for the Ana Ivanovic who won the French Open. He can't find her.
Neil Harman gives us more details on the contentious ATP player meeting mentioned in my Adam Helfant piece from yesterday.
We know the Australian Open as a place of upsets and upstarts, but it's often a place of unrest, too. Two years ago, tournament officials ejected 150 Serbian and Croatian fans after a melee on the grounds. Last year, local police confronted rowdy Greek fans and unleashed pepper spray on them, causing an uproar in the local press.
Confrontation is not uncommon at the major tournaments--tennis is a truly global game whose fans travel the world (not to mention live in countries far from their native lands). But these incidents seem to occur more often in Melbourne, perhaps because this tournament has grown so quickly in the last 20 years and remains, in terms of square footage, rather small. When you pack people of many different ethnicities into a tiny place, and subject them to 100-degree temperatures, blood tends to boil a little more quickly than usual (for more on overcrowding at the majors, read this excellent piece by Doug Robson of USA Today).
Yesterday was one of those days in Melbourne. On Show Court 2, Marin Cilic, the 20-year-old talent from Croatia, squared off against Janko Tipsarevic, the tattooed and philosophical Serb who pushed Roger Federer to five sets here last year. Cilic won the first two sets with relative ease, but Tipsarevic worked his way back into the match--and the fans became more animated. There's no love lost between Croatians and Serbians, and Cilic, the favorite and ahead in the match, felt besieged by the verbal attacks. Asked what the fans were shouting at him, Cilic said, "You don't want to know."
There's no love lost between Serbians and Bosnians, either. The second match on Court 13, which is a short walk from Show Court 2, featured Paul-Henri Mathieu and Amer Delic, the Bosnian-American who fled Bosnia (with his family) as a 14-year-old. When Cilic had finished off Tipsarevic, the Serbian fans walked over to the Delic match and began to taunt Delic's Bosnian fans, who responded in kind. By that time it was late in the fourth late (Delic at one point trailed 4-1). Delic was caught in the middle; Henri-Mathieu--not known as good under pressure--was, to say the least, confused.
"I felt bad for Paul and I apologized to him right after it happened," Delic said. "Here I am in the middle and he doesn't know what the hell is going on, he can't understand any of it, and I can understand all of it. I tried to calm my side down. I can't yell at the other guys."
Delic, a 25-year-old former standout at the University of Illinois, whose coach at the time was Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley, eventually prevailed (1-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), 9-7) and reached the third round of a major for the first time in his career. He is the first lucky loser to reach the third round of the Australian Open since Glenn Layendecker in 1991. The loss gave Mathieu a distinction, too, but of the dubious variety. He has now lost five matches in his career after winning the first two sets.
Rather than shy away from the behavior of his fans, Delic said he would do something about it. For one, he plans to post a message to his web site asking for decorum. For another, he will contact leaders in the local Bosnian community (he knows they personally) and ask them to voice their concerns.
When Delic lost in the last round of qualifying, he figured he would stay in Melbourne and play the unfamiliar role of tourist (he, like most players, spends all his time either on court, at his hotel, or in a restaurant). Television advertisements for the local aquarium looked enticing, but he's happy to put the fish on hold--thanks to a main draw withdrawal and his good luck--for a little more tennis, as long as the security guards prepare for his next match against No. 3 see Novak Djokovic (of Serbia, of course).
"I'm just hoping that it doesn't turn into World War III," Delic said.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Novak Djokovic on supposed favorite Andy Murray: "The thing is that you cannot put somebody, I mean, all the respect to Andy, I like him as a person and as a player. He's done a lot in the last couple months, and he's a very talented player and we can expect him to win some Grand Slams in the future. But you cannot put him as the favorites next to Roger and Rafa and myself here at Australian Open."
Hello everyone. here's a quick post to reveal quiz answers (I almost forgot) and to point you to an article I wrote today about the incoming ATP president, Adam Helfant. You can find that piece here.
The quiz question (from a previous post): Bernard Tomic is the fourth-youngest winner of a match at a major tournament (16 years, 90 days). Who are the other three?
1. Michael Chang (15 years, 191 days) at the 1987 U.S. Open
2. Jimmy Arias (16 years, 9 days) at the 1980 U.S. Open
3. Aaron Krickstein (16 years, 27 days) at the 1983 U.S. Open
Congrats to those who knew the correct answers.
Feel free to congregate here after reading the Helfant piece. He stressed that he wants to listen to players, media, and fans, so I suggest you offer him some advice (polite advice, mind you--otherwise your comment will end up in the dustbin of cyberspace). What do you think the ATP, and the sport of tennis, needs most? Is the calendar (that is, the long season) the most pressing problem? Something else?
I'll be back later with another post.
It's a beautiful Melbourne evening: A light breeze, dry air (which feels almost like fall air after the 105-degree high of this afternoon) and lots of happy Aussies inside Rod Laver Arena. It's one big party in here--a party at the expense of Christophe Rochus, the small Belgian with miserable luck who must lose to Rafael Nadal tonight. First-round matches in majors often lack suspense, especially when the top seed plays a part. But so far, this one is more than a drubbing. It's like watching a man being fed to a lion, except I have a wireless connection and a very comfortable seat (I imagine the Romans would have enjoyed such amenities).
Nadal continues to stroke winners from every corner of the court (boom! There goes another backhand, this one over the outside net post and into the corner) as poor Rochus looks on in amazement. Nadal claimed the first eight games of the match before Rochus recovered some dignity. Then the Spaniard closed the second set with three consecutive aces. For my money, he has the best forehand in the game, and perhaps the best backhand, too (I refer you to last year's Wimbledon final, in which Nadal hit both the finest slice backhand passing shot and the most remarkable two-handed cross-court bomb I've ever seen). Now he can serve, too?
An opponent like Rochus, of course, doesn't tell us much about the form of the world No. 1. Nadal could win this match in straight sets on a very bad night. But if you're looking for positive signs, well, there are many. Nadal is serving for the corners and hitting those corners. He's standing close to the baseline during (rather brief) rallies. He's stepping into his returns and moving forward whenever he gets the chance. The question, as always, is whether he'll be able to do that when the competition stiffens.
No matter how well he plays and how many titles he wins, Nadal still doesn't inspire as much confidence on hard courts as he does on clay and grass. This isn't surprising, but perhaps for different reasons, I suspect, than most observers suggest. The book on Nadal is that he often plays too defensively on hard courts (and hits the ball too short), and that he doesn't serve well enough. I don't think that's true these days, as his gold medal run at the Beijing Olympics showed. Nadal plays more aggressively each year, no matter the surface and his game is perfect for hard courts. It just happens to be more perfect for clay and grass. The chief reason? On cement, to my mind, Nadal's superior hand-eye coordination becomes less of an advantage. (Match update: Nadal spins, runs hard to the baseline, and loops a topspin lob winner. The lion roars again.)
How often do you see Nadal mishit the ball or hit an outright shank? Considering how hard he swings, and how much spin he applies with an extreme western grip, not too often. That's the case on clay and grass, too, where the bounces are unpredictable. In the rain, in the dark (the Wimbledon final), in the blinding sun, on clay, on grass--it doesn't matter. For everyone else, it does, or at least, it matters more than it does for Nadal. I can't help but think that his Uncle Toni, who made a point of teaching the young Nadal to deal with shoddy courts and conditions, has a lot to do with his nephew's impeccable timing, no matter what the ball does after it bounces. (Forehand winner down the line; Nadal to serve for the match.)
Hard courts, of course, give the truest bounces in the business. On hard surfaces, Nadal's supreme spin, so effective (and so unpredictable once it crashes into clay or a worn down patch of grass) becomes more predictable. His drop shot, which is underrated, becomes less of a weapon, too.
These are subtle difference, but important ones--differences that define wins and losses against opponents like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. It's not the whole story of Nadal's failure to win a major on a hard court, but it is part of it, and part that is too little discussed.
That said, I fully expect Nadal to win a hard court major or two, and perhaps this one (we'll know more about his chances later in the week, especially if he meets someone like Fernando Gonzalez, the slugger who demolished Nadal here in 2007, when Nadal's offensive skills weren't nearly as developed).
A final update: Nadal detonates another winner to bring on match point, followed by another forehand blast to end this bloody affair, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2. One hour and 17 minutes and one Belgian carcass later, I'm through for the night. By the look of things, Nadal has many nights to go.
Temperatures neared 105 degrees in Melbourne Park today as the first-round action continued. Here are some notes on the day's happenings.
Sisters Stroll
Serena Williams d. Yuan Meng, 6-3, 6-2; Venus Williams d. Angelique Kerber, 6-3, 6-3. Serena and Venus wasted little time in the first round. Serena, who is noticeably slimmer this year than when she last won here in 2007, said her improved fitness didn't help her withstand the heat. "No, I mean, maybe with the fat I would be able to, like, absorb more of the heat," she said. "It wouldn't necessarily bother me, so I don't know."
Heartbreaker
Jessica Moore d. Christina McHale, 1-6, 6-3, 9-7: McHale, the 16-year-old American wildcard who won a USTA playoff for a spot in the tournament, served for the match at 5-3 in the third set. Cramps, unfortunately, got the better of her. The loss left her in tears on the court.
Home Loss
Fernando Gonzalez d. Lleyton Hewitt, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3: In a local paper today, Hewitt's manager said that Hewitt, who is returning from hip surgery, would retire if he can't improve upon his current rank of 70 in the world. This loss won't help his cause, but Hewitt played quite well in patches. Gonzalez continues to search for the form that took him to the final here in 2007.
I'm No Lance…
Andy Murray d. Andrei Pavel, 6-2, 3-1, retired: The man tipped by many to win this tournament escaped the heat when the 34-year-old Pavel, who has played in 39 majors, retired with a bad back (a recurring problem in the last year or so). Pavel didn't say he would call it a career, but the end seems near. "I don't want to have surgery on my back. You know, what for? I'm 35 years old in few days. If I have a surgery, I going to be 36. What am I, [Lance] Armstrong? No, I'm not. I wish him good luck, though, because he is amazing, amazing guy."
I've always admired Pavel, for his game (well-rounded with a beautiful backhand) as much as his colorful conversations. Here's my favorite Pavel quote, after he lost to Andre Agassi in a first-round evening session at the 2006 U.S. Open: "The only problem is, I don't know it happens, I just started having stomach cramps. I went two times to the bathroom; I just had diarrhea. I don't know how it happened, but I couldn't concentrate that much like before, you know. I had the feeling I going to explode in my pants, so it was not very nice." The man tells it like it is.
AWOL
Severine Bremond d. Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 6-1: Troubles abound for the once sure-fire superstar Vaidisova, who refused to talk to the press afterwards and faces a potential fine.
Fading Russian
Tathiana Garbin d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5: Pavlyuchenkova, the 17-year-old Russian and former junior champion, led 4-2 in the third set before dropping five of the last six games.
Head Wound?
Stefan Koubek d. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2: Consider this: Since he bloodied himself with his own racquet in Miami last spring, Mikhail Youzhny, then ranked No. 10 in the world, has posted a record of 14-19 and dropped to No. 40. Coincidence?
Breakdown
Jurgen Melzer d. Kei Nishikori, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1: The 19-year-old Nishikori's preparation was limited by a forearm injury.
Upset Central
Kateryna Bondarenko d. Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-1: The usually steady Radwanska crumbled down the stretch.
Back on Track
Sesil Karatantcheva d. Nuria Llagostera Vives, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2: Special K continues her comeback from a doping suspension with her first victory--in fact, her first match--at a major in three years.
Iron Men
Fernando Gonzalez, Igor Andreev, Nicolas Almagro, Sebastien De Chaunac, Ivan Ljubicic, Roko Karanusic, Guillermo Canas, Victor Hanescu, and Arnaud Clement all won five set matches (yes, that's nine total).
Aussie Hope
Bernard Tomic d. Potito Starace, 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6): It was a proud day for the Aussies, who also saw Brydan Klein, a 19-year-old, advance to the second round. Tomic, who won the junior tournament here last year, is tall and reed thin, but can he ever hit the ball, especially on the backhand side. At one point he had 18 backhand winners to Starace's one; he ended the match with two consecutive down-the-line backhand winners. He's the youngest player--16 years, 90 days--to win a match at the Australian Open and the fourth youngest when all majors are counted. Care to name the other three? Answer tomorrow.
A Coach for Ana?
Ana Ivanovic d. Julia Goerges, 7-5, 6-3: An update on the Ivanovic coaching situation. She's still working with Adidas coach Sven Groeneveld, at least for now. Ivanovic may hire a full-time coach in the next two months. Until then, the part-time relationship with Groeneveld remains. Ivanovic struggled at times against Goerges before winning in straight sets.
Defensive Champ?
Novak Djokovic d. Andrea Stoppini, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5: The defending champion had little trouble in the first round. Asked if it was wise to switch racquets before the first major of the season, Djokovic said, "I've already done it, so I don't want to talk about it anymore."
No Joke
Jelena Dokic d. Tamira Paszek, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4: She's back!
American Killer
Philipp Kohlschreiber d. Sam Querrey, 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-2: Another Australia Open, another American scalp for Kohlschreiber, who ruined Andy Roddick's tournament in 2008. Terrible start to the year for Querrey. Will this put him out of the running for the Davis Cup tie against Switzerland?
Danish Express
Caroline Wozniacki d. Shahar Peer, 6-3, 6-2: Two years ago, Peer was a rising star and a quarterfinalist here. Cruel sport, this tennis.
Magic Marcos
Marcos Baghdatis d. Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2: Last year was long and difficult for Marcos, but he's healthy at last and playing in the city that made him famous three years ago. This match played out during the hottest hours of the day.
Kid Sister
Dinara Safina d. Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-3, 6-4: Tricky first-round opponent for Safina, who trailed early. She might be in better shape than any other woman in the game.
A-Rod
Andy Roddick d. Bjorn Rehnquist, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2: Rehnquist wore a long sleeve shirt for the pre-match coin toss. Never knew Sweden and Melbourne had similar climates. Abby Lorge tells you the rest here.
Decline and Fall
Galina Voskoboeva d. Agnes Szavay, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4: Many people, including yours truly, picked Szavay to go far after her 2007 U.S. Open performance. Now she must go farther.
Fabrice the Fabulous
Fabrice Santoro d. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2: May he play another 20 years.
Young Gun
Juan Martin Del Potro d. Mischa Zverev, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2: In one of the local papers, Del Potro talked excitedly about winning every point he played at the net in a recent match. I'm beginning to like this guy.
PS: You can find the answers to my pre-tournament quiz here.
There's heat, and then there's the heat in Australia, where the fight against ozone depletion is never-ending and the rates of skin cancer are among the highest in the world. Day one at the Australian Open had the sort of heat you don't encounter at the other three majors. When you watch a mid-day match here, it feels as if the sun is shining from all directions--every part of your body seems to be in direct sunlight. As Mardy Fish, who won his first round match, put it, "You can feel it in your lungs."
The ball kids here wear long sleeves and hats that have a cloth sewn to the back (it drapes over their necks). They also wear black shorts, which seems like a bad idea. Most of the fans pack umbrellas (a surprising number of those were black, too) and I only came across one who struggled to stand as the temperature passed 97 degrees, a girl of about 15 who needed a quick visit from the on-site medical crew.
Remarkably, only one match ended in retirement on Monday (Jarkko Nieminen, the Sydney finalist, pulled out with a strained groin). Gilles Muller and Feliciano Lopez served bombs at each other for four hours and 23 minutes, with Muller--a man whose arms seem as long as his legs--winning 6-3, 7-6(5), 4-6, 4-6, 16-14. David Ferrer (surprise, surprise) played five sets, too (he beat Denis Gremelmayr).
Jelena Jankovic felt the heat, but only on her feet.
"Really it's like fire, my soles of my shoes," Jankovic said after defeating Yvonne Meusburger, 6-1, 6-3. She iced her feet on changeovers and said she might ask her new clothing sponsor, the Chinese sportswear company Anta, to develop another shoe for her.
"I will tell them to put some airconditioning in there," she said. "Especially with the technology growing and getting better, I believe in the future we will have these kinds of things, too. It would be nice."
This match didn't tell us much about the state of Jankovic's game, but it was good to see a No. 1 player acting like a No. 1 player on the first day of the first major of 2009. Players who win majors take care of the early rounds as quickly as possible, especially in the heat. Last year at this tournament, Jankovic defeated Tamira Paszek 12-10 in the third set; two rounds later she needed three sets to upend Virginie Razzano. Champs don't waste time like that in the early rounds, at least, not when they are in top form. The less energy Jankovic wastes this week, the more she'll have when she needs it most.
When I visited the Bollettieri Academy in December for another assignment, Jankovic was hard at work, both in the gym and on the court. The No. 1 ranking, clearly, is not enough for her. She wants to win majors. She's certainly good enough to do it, though her flaws--a weak serve, a forehand that sometimes sits up, and a habit of collecting of minor injuries--are not small. Jankovic often reminds me of Monica Seles, that is, Seles without the lefty serve and killer instinct that made her into an all-time great.
The draw gods have been kind to Jankovic: She won't face a seeded player until at least the fourth round and doesn't have to contend with either Venus or Serena Williams until the final. Another thing champions do well is take advantage of opportunities. This Australian Open is, by far, the best opportunity Jankovic has had for a major in her life. Air-conditioned shoes or not, she needs to make the most of it.
It's a cool, breezy Sunday here in Melbourne as tournament organizers tidy up for the big day. The event's heavy hitters--players like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer--have booked their last pre-tournament practice sessions inside Rod Laver Arena. Those who don't rate for a Laver session are enjoying the sun on the outer courts and otherwise milling about. There's one last day to be calm, to be hopeful about 2009, to think big before the games count and reality settles in for most of the tour.
On the way to my desk this morning I came across Oracene Price, sitting on a ledge just inside the entrance at the base of the stadium (the bowels of Rod Laver house the media and the players' locker rooms, restaurant, and garden). Price tapped away on her BlackBerry, her daughters nowhere in sight. It's always worth talking to Price, because she never sounds like she's reciting lines that were written by someone with a doctorate in spin. Mom's assessment of Serena: "She'll be fine, as long as she keeps her temper under control." Isn't that customary for Serena on the practice court? "Yeah, but this is more than usual." Sounds to me like Serena is motivated, which is bad news for everyone else.
Another flash of bad news, this time for the men's field: Roger Federer feels fresh and confident. And this year, he's not kidding himself.
Last year at this time, Federer tried to convince all of us--and to convince himself--that he was healthy. He suffered two illnesses in the lead up to the tournament, but was told that food poisoning was the culprit. The diagnosis gave him hope, but it didn't take long before he realized he would have to win the tournament with something less than his best.
"Just trying to play at the highest level and you're one step slow, it's just not gonna work out," he said yesterday. Then he corrected himself. For the rest of us, a step slow means failure. For him, a step slow means failure--sometimes. "It will work out a few times, 70 or 80 percent of the time, but not 100 or 90 like it was the last few years."
This year, Federer is 100 percent, and he seems eager to settle a score or two. No doubt he'd like to remind people that his record in hard court majors, since January 2004, is 68-2 (and he held match point in one of those losses). No doubt he'd like to see Novak Djokovic in the semifinals again. No doubt he'd like to show odds makers that Andy Murray isn't the wisest choice for a champion.
What Federer wants to do most, though, is to make his legacy tarnish proof. When he was asked about recent improvements in the competition--something most of us who write about the sport, including me, take as fact--Federer had this to say.
"I know a lot of people are always saying this seems like a tough generation right now with Murray, Djokovic, Rafa and everything. I don't think it's that much stronger than when I came about. We had Agassi, Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Ferrero, Nalbandian, all these other guys. It just always seems like two years on and nobody talks about what happened two years ago. I thought we've had very highquality tennis since a long time now. It's not just now that we have really four great players again. I think they were there before, but there were just different names."
Many of us have wondered if this generation--Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, and also Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin Del Potro, Marin Cilic, and Ernests Gulbis) will one day be remembered as one of the best in history (I recently wrote about it here). The early indications are positive, yet if that ends up being the case, will it reduce what Federer accomplished before this generation matured? I think not, but it seems that the idea is on Federer's mind.
I was also struck by Federer's "two years on" comment, a jab at the media (and a justified one) for its lack of long-term memory. This, of course, is a disease that plagues every profession--in fact, most people. (It's quite useful: Imagine if you remembered everything in excruciating detail, rather than stressing the new and exciting at the expense of past miseries and banalities. Would you be happy for more than a few minutes at a time?)
A few years ago, when reporters used to ask Federer why the new generation was struggling, he would say that he was increasingly impressed with the likes of Murray and Djokovic, and that they would have their time. These days, he seems to be saying that they receive too much attention. In Federer's mind, Nadal is the only other player on the planet who has earned the right to be treated as a true champion. It's a reasonable argument, too. Murray and Djokovic, as good as they are, have played in three major finals and won a single title. Federer equaled that last year and it was considered his worst season since he became No. 1. It is, to some extent, a measure of our impatience, our hunger for the new and bold, that Djokovic and Murray are portrayed as such formidable figures. As Lleyton Hewitt put it earlier in the day, "You're a brave man to look outside those two [Federer and Nadal] as a favorite going into any Slam at the moment."
Federer doesn't want us to forget all the good he has done, or worse, begin to remember it as something that, in hindsight, wasn't as special as we once believed it to be (curious to know if any of you look at Sampras's career this way; I don't). Of course, there's only one thing he can do to make us remember his reign as he wants us to remember it. He has to win again and again, to prove himself again and again, even though he should have nothing to prove. He has to put this generation in its proper place--or risk that the conversation will end on someone else's terms. As Federer said two times on Sunday--both times with emphasis, so we wouldn't forget--"It's going to be an interesting year."
Hello everyone, I've landed in Melbourne. Haven't slept much, but I'm feeling pretty darn good, much better than my colleague Abby, who needs to eat and sleep in the next half hour or else I'm not going to make it through the first round of this tournament (alive, that is). There's something about this city that gives me energy--such a wonderful place. Can't wait for the first rally.
We're leaving the grounds now in search of food, but I figured I'd link to my women's preview and give you a chance to post comments at the bottom of this entry. Enjoy and I'll be back tomorrow.
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