Tennis Spin

February 3, 2014

The Rebound

It can be tough to muster up energy after a Grand Slam, especially if you didn't put up the performance you were hoping you would. But a couple ladies this weekend found the physical and mental toughness to bounce back after Melbourne and eventually came away with trophies that were a long time coming.

It's hard to believe it had been almost four years since Ekaterina Makarova's first title in Eastbourne, given how her star has risen in the meantime. Though she beat Serena Williams at the Australian Open in 2012, cracked the top twenty a year ago and reached the quarters at two Majors last season, she hasn't been able to claim another crown -- heck, she's never even made another final since 2010. Coming off injury, she survived a first round scare Down Under, but bowed out with a surprisingly unimpressive 6-2, 6-0 loss to eventual champion Na Li a round earlier than in the past.

This past week she came to Pattaya City as the fourth seed in a field of ladies who'd under-performed in Melbourne -- she was only one of two who'd made it past the second round. But she regrouped better than her contemporaries, and while one after the other was eliminated, Makarova was able to fight through one tough match after another. She ultimately faced off against Karolina Pliskova, a woman who'd already taken out two seeds and an on-the-comeback Julia Goerges on her way to the final. The Czech started off this match strong, too, firing off six aces in the opening service game -- ten total for the match -- but Makarova was able to stay stronger. With the only break on her side of the scoreboard, the Russian closed out the match in a tight second set tiebreak, winning the second title of her career. But perhaps more importantly, she ended a reputation of being a spoiler who rarely got to reap the spoils, and something tells me there will be a lot more trophies coming her way.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has claimed a couple more titles during her young career, but since peaking at #13 in the world over two years ago, her profile has fallen a bit. She hasn't gotten past the third round of any Slam since 2011, and though she played in four finals last year, her two crowns came at second tier tournaments. This year she'd retired from her second round in Brisbane, lost an opener in Hobart, and after taking the first set from Aga Radwanska at the Aussie Open, she struggled under pressure and ultimately went home in the first week again.

Pavs wasn't even seeded when she arrived in Paris last week -- four top ten players were originally entered in the draw -- and she was challenged from the start. The young Russian endured five three set matches during the week, fighting back from a set down against former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, ninth-ranked Angelique Kerber, and top seed Maria Sharapova. She lost her opener against Sara Errani in the final too -- after building a 3-1 lead, she lost seven games in a row. She turned the tables, though, winning a stretch of her own, but got down in the decider too. Pavlyuchenkova soldiered up then and remained tougher in the clutch -- after nearly two hours on court, bringing her total for the week to almost ten and a half, she'd secured the biggest trophy of her career and put herself back in the mix against the biggest names in the sport.

With their wins this weekend these ladies might have put themselves in a position to make a play for even bigger success down the road. And what better way to erase some slightly sour memories from their time in Melbourne than by coming back bigger, stronger, and ready for new heights.

January 29, 2014

Into the Spotlight: Davis Cup 1st Round Preview

It's always nice to feel the team spirit that comes along with Davis Cup contests -- buoyed by their compatriots in a way you don't often see at a traditional tournament, some players find a way to pull out inconceivable wins against heavy favorites. And this year, perhaps more than others, the likelihood of some star-making performances is high as can be.

The two-time defending Czech champions are bringing their usual cadre of talent, with Australian Open semifinalist Tomas Berdych leading the pack. But also look out for Jiri Vesely, last year's ATP Star of Tomorrow -- the twenty-year old put together a two-set lead over big-serving Kevin Anderson in his Melbourne opener, his first appearance down under, and made the semis at last week's Heilbronn challenger. He'll likely only play doubles this weekend against the Dutchmen, but if his teammates put together a strong enough lead, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a bigger platform for success.

More likely to get top billing despite his low profile is Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, but he'll have a tough test. The 2010 champs were runners-up last year, but they're now missing captain Novak Djokovic and open against a team led by newly-minted Grand Slam titleist Stanislas Wawrinka. Lajovic hasn't had a lot of experience in Davis Cup -- he lost his two singles rubbers in last year's final -- but he did open 2014 by qualifying for his first Major main draw. He even won a match, taking out wildcard Lucas Pouille in his opener. Of course stakes will be high this weekend, but with Wawrinka the only man on the Swiss team ranked in the top hundred(-fifty!) there is more than a good chance this underdog comes out on top at some point.

Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios is hoping to do the same. Behind veteran Lleyton Hewitt he'll take on an intimidating French team comprised of two top-ten players and no one ranked lower than #40 in the world. At #162, he hasn't quite broken into that tier yet -- after all, he only played two Tour-level matches before this season started -- but he did put up a big fight in the Australian Open second round this month, winning the first two sets in tiebreaks over twenty-seventh seed Benoit Paire during the scorching early heatwave. He won't have home court advantage this time, though, so he'll have to raise his game even higher. But if his momentum continues, we might see his star start to shine just a little bit brighter.

But perhaps the man with the greatest opportunity to break through this weekend is Melbourne Cinderella Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard stunned an admittedly injured Juan Martin Del Potro in the second round and went on to beat an exhausted Paire -- a man he'd also taken out on his way to the Auckland semis -- to make his first Major fourth round. From a country with a plethora of talent to choose from -- and a full hand of Davis Cup trophies this century -- this will be Bautista's first tie, and it'll be a rough one against a strong German team. But a hair outside the top fifty now, he'll likely face no one more intimidating than what he endured in Australia and could cement his status as the next big force in an already forceful country.

There are plenty other players who might make a name for themselves this weekend too. Vasek Pospisil, suddenly in the top thirty, can prove he's not the only Canadian worthy of attention when he takes on a Japanese team led by world #18 Kei Nishikori. And David Goffin will look to show us he's no one-hit wonder when he leads a sparse Belgian team against a not-much-better set of Kazakhs. And while each of these guys' performances will only be a part of the whole of their Davis Cup results, any one of them could launch themselves into a new realm with some big successes here.

And what they do at that level could mean big things for the future of tennis.

January 26, 2014

Nerves of Steel

The tenor of this post changed multiple times as I watched this year's men's final at the Australian Open -- a stunning start, a rough injury, some huge momentum shifts. It was never clear until the very end what the outcome would be.

But ultimately the results spoke for themselves, as Stanislas Wawrinka, putting together a breakthrough performance throughout the fortnight, was consistently the physically and mentally superior player on Sunday. And his reward, appropriately, was his first career Grand Slam title.

The Swiss wasn't intimidated on this big stage, his first trip to the championship match at a Major. Pitted against 2009 champion and world #1 Rafael Nadal, he was unstoppable in the first set. He secured a break in just the fourth game and won every one of his first serve points. It was the first set he'd ever taken off Rafa in twelve previous meetings. He broke again early in the second, before things started to change. Nadal tweaked his back on a return, called for a trainer, and seemed to be down for the count. Wawrinka rolled through the second set, but with Rafa's injury, I began to think there would be a huge asterisk beside Stan's name -- after all, no one wants to win a match, much less their maiden Slam, against someone who's not playing their best.

But Nadal is nothing if not a fighter -- down two sets to none and still in pain, the thirteen-time Major winner finally found his game. He broke Wawrinka to start the fourth and confounded his opponent with off-pace serves teamed with a couple blistering winners. In the quickest set of the match, the Spaniard who was all but out of contention just a few minutes earlier, forced a fourth set and looked about to turn things around. When he got behind mid-way through the next set, he immediately broke back at love keeping the trophy out just out of reach again.

Ultimately, though, Wawrinka was able to stay tough. He broke again and served out the match, winning just the sixth, but by far the biggest crown of his career. He becomes the first man in over twenty years to beat both the #1 and #2 seed at a Major -- and the first ever to take down both Nadal and three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in one fortnight. The victory caps a year which brought him some of his biggest successes and will vault him to #3 in the world on Monday, his highest ever ranking, for the first time ahead of countryman Roger Federer.

But more importantly, the way he's playing, it might just be the tip of the iceberg for Wawrinka. One of few people to crack the stranglehold Rafa, Roger and Nole have had on the Majors the last decade, at this one tournament he's squarely ended a long list of losses to the top guys. With confidence -- and now experience -- on his side, there's no telling what Stan can accomplish from here.

And the rest of the field will have to sit up and take notice.

January 25, 2014

Thirty Is the New Twenty

It's become clear over the last several years that age is only a number in the sport of tennis -- at thirty-two years of age Serena Williams is the oldest top-ranked women's player in history, and Roger Federer, born just a few weeks earlier, is consistently a threat at all the Majors, even reaching the semis this fortnight in Melbourne. Superior fitness, a more responsible schedule, and better training have allowed these players not only to keep up in a sport once ruled by youngsters, but to actually dominate it.

But Serena and Roger broke out on the scene long ago -- Williams winning the U.S. Open at just seventeen and Federer claiming a Wimbledon crown at twenty-two. Even their biggest rivals got their starts early -- Junior champion Victoria Azarenka was twenty-two when she won her first Australian Open and Rafael Nadal was only nineteen when he rocked the red clay of Roland Garros.

What you see far less often is a player only start to reach her stride after years -- and years -- on Tour, and that's just what Na Li has been able to do.

Pro since 1999, she'd only won a pair of titles in her first ten years on the circuit, spending most of her early twenties ranked in the mid-double digits. It wasn't until 2008, after her break from the Chinese government, when she really began to find her game. She beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams in the Beijing Olympics, stunned Serena in Stuttgart that fall and ended the year just outside the top twenty. She still flew largely under the radar but at least she was hanging around late in tournaments, really putting up a fight against the top players. In 2010 she made her way to the Australian Open semis as a sixteenth seed and a year later went one better, taking the first set off Kim Clijsters in the championship match. That same season, at twenty-nine, she stopped Francesca Schiavone from defending her Roland Garros crown and claimed her maiden Major crown in Paris, becoming the first ever Asian Grand Slam champion.

It would have been easy for her to bow out of the game after that. Though Li's remained in the top ten since then, she struggled with injury over the years, skipping early spring tournaments last year and even considering retirement over the summer. But she found her form again over the summer, reaching the quarters at Wimbledon and the Final Four in New York. She won her first four matches at the WTA Championships, too, taking a set off Serena in the Istanbul final and ending the year at #3 in the world.

So far in 2014, Li has been unstoppable. After saving match point against Lucie Safarova in the third round, she's rolled over her opponents, dropping just two games to always-tricky Ekterina Makarova a match later and taking the first five games against Cinderella semifinalist Genie Bouchard on Thursday. In the title match against Melbourne breakthrough Dominika Cibulkova, she was pushed early -- she gave back an early lead with a couple double faults and failed to serve out the first set. But she eked out the tiebreak she went on to dominate the first-time finalist from all angles in the second -- she fired off twelve winners to the Slovak's four and didn't allow her one point on second serve. After just over ninety minutes, the world #4 had closed out he match, winning her second Grand Slam trophy.

The victory makes Li only the sixth active player with more than only Major under her belt, but more importantly seems to have vaulted her to a new level in her career. The late bloomer has won seven of her nine titles since the age of twenty-eight -- compare that to champions like Martina Hingis, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters who'd already retired at least once by that age. And she doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

Whether there's another Slam in her future remains to be seen, of course, but at nearly thirty-two Li has cemented herself as a real threat to every player in the field -- a distinction few would have given her just four years ago. She certainly has the potential to keep adding to her trophy count, too -- and the longer she lasts, the better it will ultimately be for the game.

January 23, 2014

Something Old, Something New

This is not your grandmother's Grand Slam.

From the start this Australian Open has been one of turn-arounds and shockers, upsets and breakthroughs, and players you'd never expect to last into Week Two of a Major were not only sneaking through the draws, but destroying their competition. And here we are on the verge of championship weekend with a real possibility of seeing a duo of first-time winners in Melbourne.

Dominika Cibulkova has long been one of the craftiest players on Tour, consistently giving top players a tough time, even when she didn't eventually beat them. But while her contemporaries were piling up trophies and climbing the rankings, she only won her first title a little over two years ago and struggled to stay in the top twenty. Last year she had twelve first round losses and only won four matches at the big events.

But she's certainly turned things around this fortnight. Armed with a longer racquet -- remember how that catapulted Sara Errani in 2012? -- and seemingly a new focus, she's decimated opponents so far, losing just a set to Maria Sharapova in their fourth round, but ceding three or fewer games in four other matches. In the semis on Thursday she rolled over Aga Radwanska, a woman she also beat in the Stanford final last year, by taking advantage of weak second serves and winning points on twelve of fourteen net approaches. The win gives her entry to the first Grand Slam championship match of her career, and the way the petite Slovak has been playing, it's hard to see her getting intimidated on the big stage.

But two-time runner-up Na Li will do her best to do just that. With three Major finals under her belt -- and, importantly, one trophy -- she'll certainly be the more experienced player on Saturday. And she's been on point Down Under as well -- undefeated so far this season, she's lost just a handful of games since saving match point in the third round and won five games in a row to start her semi against super-Cinderella Genie Bouchard on Thursday. She's also beaten Cibulkova in all four of their previous meetings. Still something tells me this match won't be cut and dried -- if Domi comes out swinging as she had all week, we could be in for an exciting contest.

On the men's side it will be Stanislas Wawrinka making his debut in a Major title match. The long-time Swiss #2, like Domi, only has a handful of crowns to his name, but he spent 2013 really defining his game. He took out Andy Murray in Monte Carlo, beat two top-ten players on his way to his first Masters final, and put up two of the best matches of the year against then-#1 Novak Djokovic in Melbourne and again in New York.

Most recently stopped in the U.S. Open semis, Wawrinka had only gotten as far as the quarters here once before, but after finally ending a long losing streak to the three-time defending champion on Tuesday, he followed up with a decisive win over one-time Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych in the final four. It was his second long match in a row -- the final three sets took three tiebreaks and nearly three hours -- but he got a retirement in his first round and a walkover in his third, so he might be relatively well-rested by the time he plays on Sunday.

He'll face off, though, against a much more experienced champion -- though this time the task for him is slightly more daunting than the one for Cibulkova. In the only semi left to be decided, world #1 Rafael Nadal will face off against four-time Aussie titleist Roger Federer for the last spot in the final. The two have combined for an astounding thirty Grand Slam trophies and have played in a total of forty-two Major championships -- nine against each other. Rafa has dominated their head-to-head too, winning more than two matches for each one he's lost, and has taking nine of twelve meetings over the last four years. He's also coming off a 36-4 hardcourt record in 2013 and a title in Doha to start this year. But Roger has been at the top of his game Down Under, barely dropping a set to Andy Murray in the quarters and firing off forty-five aces to Nadal's twenty-nine. He might be nearing the end of his career, but this could be the best fight we've seen between these champions in quite some time. And that might work to Wawrinka's advantage -- Stan has only notched one win against this pair -- against Fed almost four years ago -- and will be more than happy for the two to leave each other battered by the end of their match.

While odds certainly lie with the players who've been here before -- and those who've walked away with titles -- the couple Grand Slam virgins still alive are sure to put up a fight for these trophies. They've both shown they have what it takes to battle the big guys and could each deliver one more shocker at this already incredible event. Whether either is ultimately crowned champion this weekend remains to be seen, of course, but they may never have a better opportunity to strike.

And after everything that's gone down in Melbourne the last two weeks, you know whoever walks away the winners will have earned it.