Australian Open 2011: Impressions on the Week Thus Far

Federer is more than just a beautiful player to watch. In tough 5 setter, He showed real heart to fight off a comeback from Gilles Simon who gives him trouble. For an account from someone who was there, see Dootsiez' story. You really must check it out.




You haz a 16-2 head to head record against someone but you're coming back from 6 plus month layoff from tennis. You would think you might be rusty, but you hope you're in your opponent's head. Well, not this time. JuJu lost to Sveta. Sob!



Coming back from a knee injury, strained psoas (groin) muscle, screaming in sharp pain ... Props to you Vee for coming back to beat your 2nd round opponent, Zahlavova, but it doesn't take a genius (much less your mum) to tell you that it's OK to give Petko a walkover. Get your health back, and take as much time as you need. The sport needs you.



Caro is the world number 1, hasn't won a Slam (yet), gets accused of giving boring pressers, but she's got real smarts. You've got to see the video of the presser for yourself. See transcript). Matt Cronin, you just got pwned.

Australian Open 2011: Practice Again

For those of us up in colder climes of the Northern Hemisphere, nothing can make us feel more envious than seeing balls getting smacked in Oz.

Sharpie christens Rod Laver Arena to work on her forehand.



Here's JuJu Bear playing practice points.



A shirtless Nando posing for the ladies.



Lawnmower getting advice from Ivan Lendl.



Le Monf looking serious



Finally more Masha (can't she work on her defensive skills?)



ADDITION: Woger Federror working on his serve and playing practice points

Tennis 'Experts' Build Frankenstein

Sports Illustrated has decided to ask their panel of 'experts' to build their version of an ideal tennis player based on the current form of today's ATP and WTA players for your mass consumption in 90 seconds.

If you want to read the article, go here. Or your could just look at the summary table below.

	Jon Wertheim	S.L. Price	Bruce Jenkins	Richard Deitsch	Brian Armen Graham	Andrew Lawrence
Serve	Ivo Karlovic / Venus Williams	Andy Roddick / Serena Williams	Andy Roddick / Serena Williams	John Isner / Venus Williams	Ivo Karlovic / Venus Williams	Rafael Nadal / Serena Williams
Return	Andy Murray / Vera Zvonareva	Andy Murray / Caroline Wozniacki	Andy Murray / Venus Williams	Andy Murray / Victoria Azarenka	Andy Murray / Victoria Azarenka	Novak Djokovic / Jelena Jankovic
Forehand	Juan Martin del Potro / Ana Ivanovic	Juan Martin del Potro / Samantha Stosur	Robin Soderling / Samantha Stosur	Fernando Gonzalez / Kim Clijsters	Roger Federer / Samantha Stosur	Robin Soderling / Venus Williams
Backhand	Novak Djokovic / Justine Henin	Richard Gasquet / Venus Williams	Rafael Nadal / Justine Henin	Novak Djokovic / Justine Henin	Novak Djokovic / Kim Clijsters	Richard Gasquet / Francesca Schiavone
Net Play	Bob Bryan / Samantha Stosur	Mardy Fish / Francesca Schiavone	Michael Llodra / Francesca Schiavone	Bob Bryan / Francesca Schiavone	Mardy Fish / Francesca Schiavone	Michael Llodra / Cara Black
Fitness	David Ferrer / Francesca Schiavone	Roger Federer / Kim Clijsters	Nikolay Davydenko / Caroline Woznaicki	Nikolay Davydenko / Samantha Stosur	Nikolay Davydenko / Caroline Woznaicki	Roger Federer / Justine Henin
Footwork	Roger Federer / Kim Clijsters	Novak Djokovic / Jelena Jankovic	Roger Federer / Kim Clijsters	Roger Federer / Caroline Wozniacki	David Ferrer / Justine Henin	Andy Murray / Maria Sharapova
Mental Toughness	Rafael Nadal / Serena Williams	Rafael Nadal / Justine Henin	John Isner / Maria Sharapova	Rafael Nadal / Serena Williams	Rafael Nadal / Serena Williams	Andy Roddick / Kim Clijsters

Some of these choices are trivial: Rafa & ReeRee for mental toughness, Federer for footwork, Djoker & JuJu for backhand, Andy Murray's return or ARod's serve. Others deserve this reaction.



Sharpie's footwork? The cow on ice is a smooth dancer. Vee's forehand or serve? Every commie points out those strokes get wonky because she doesn't keep her head still. Izzy's mental toughness? Yeah it was great for the Wimbly marathon but he hasn't won any majors. Bob Bryan and Cara Black getting consolation prizes for their net play so that the present top players like Nadal and Federer don't take all the top spots? Rafa's serve? Sure it has improved but is it the best?

More to the my present point, this assemblage is a Frankenstein. A player with the serve like Dr. Ivo or Tree will be tall (over 6' 6") but will he actually move as well as Fed to hit punishing inside forehands off of slices skidding at shoe lace level? If you've seen ATP pros up close and personal, many will hit slice shots that well. Or if a player actually had a backhand like Reeshard, how does a player avoid letting such a strength take over his game so much that it prevents him (or her) from rounding out the rest of his game?

If you do want to use your brain a little bit to actually analyze the game of tennis, allow me. My main criticism of this "dream player" meme is that it treats a player's game as an additive summary of parts. If you've consciously tried to improve your own tennis game beyond the beginner level, you know it isn't as simple as acquiring a different forehand. Changing a stroke will have ripple effects on the rest of your game which requires adjustments to your other skills. Justine Henin's game over the last several years is a perfect case in point. She's always had an excellent backhand, but it's her forehand that's improved the most to the point that it's now her main weapon. Her backhand went from being her main weapon to her set-up shot. Yes, it's still a thing of beauty to see her flick a sharply angled top spin BH roller that puts her opponent in the stands, but she can now do that with her FH too. Present-day Henin is so solid from both sides of the court that she's one of the few pros who won't hit a running reverse FH, because she probably feels she doesn't need to.

No Henin Backhands Until 2011

Allez Bitch announced on her website that she won't be returning to the tour until next year.

Hello everybody,

By this time, I'm doing everything required by my medical team to get a good recovery of the injury I had at the Wimbledon tournament.

I took several medical examinations the last days. It is going in the right direction. It's encouraging news!

It is still a slow recovery so I need to be patient again until the end of 2010!

For my preparation for the competition in 2011, I cannot take any risks, so I hope to go back to practice in October. I'll work hard to get ready for this new season!

I really thank you for your support and I'll keep you informed of the further evolution of my injury.

See you soon!

Justine

Of course when you take a spill like this

You too would end up wearing a cast like this. It's a good thing ReeRee took the time to pay a personal visit to her secret BFF.

But only a few of us get to sell the virtues of our homeland for hosting a World Cup in 2018/2022 instead of trying to smack 80 mph forehands. Oh, JuJu, football is so much more interesting than tennis.

We won't get to see this until next year.



How does "diss" make me feel?

Wimbledon 2010: Manic Monday

One of the consequences of Wimbledon taking the middle Sunday off is that all the 4th round matches took place on Monday, which makes for lots of great tennis.

The Greatest Forehand Shanker was kidnapped by aliens and replaced by TMF who returned beautifully and put on practice match against Melzer (63 62 63)

Belgian text-buddies promised to meet each other for the biggest exho since BJK beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. Mum Train's chance of winning a Wimbly before she has another kid were kept alive and JuJu has another year to work on her serve (26 62 63).

Ears were split at Centre Court by Shrieka and ReeRee. Unfortunately for fans of rose petal dresses, Shrieka double faulted in the tie breaker to set up set point to gift the match to ReeRee (76 [9] 64).

Vee her sister also hung in there to win a tight straight setter over Groth (64 76[5]).

The Djoker overcame an "illness" to do his Incredible Hulk impression to overcome Rusty (75 64 36 64)

ARod played not to lose and lost to Asia's best tennis player, Rendy Lu (46 76[3] 76[4] 67[5] 97). Oh, BTW, his interview is a gem where he takes stupid media questions apart.

Nails kept enough balls in play to hit Aggie off the court (63 62).

So did Petra Kvitova to Aggie's best friend, Caro, who really needs to learn to win matches without on court coaching (62 60).

Lady JaJa had to retire with a lower back injury against Bepa (61 30).

In other news,

• Rafa steamrolled Mathieu (64 62 62)


• Sod hung in there against Ferru (62 57 62 36 75)


• Ali danced after triumphing over Benneteau his compatriot (61 46 63 61)


• Samurai couldn't hit through Muzz (75 63 64)


• Big Berd triumphed over Brand (46 76[1] 75 63)
  
• The Hamster lost to Pironkova (64 64)


• Kanepri cruised over Zakopalova (62 64)

Wimbledon 2010: Seedings and the Practice Courts

Wimbledon announced its seedings for the championships this year

1 Roger FEDERER (SUI)
2 Rafael NADAL (ESP)
3 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB)
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR)
5 Andy RODDICK (USA)
6 Robin SODERLING (SWE)
7 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS)
8 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP)
9 David FERRER (ESP)
10 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA)
11 Marin CILIC (CRO)
12 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE)
13 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS)
14 Juan Carlos FERRERO (ESP)
15 Lleyton HEWITT (AUS)
16 Jurgen MELZER (AUT)
17 Ivan LJUBICIC (CRO)
18 Sam QUERREY (USA)
19 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP)
20 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI)
21 Gael MONFILS (FRA)
22 Radek STEPANEK (CZE)
23 Feliciano LOPEZ (ESP)
24 John ISNER (USA)
25 Ivo KARLOVIC (CRO)
26 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP)
27 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA)
28 Gilles SIMON (FRA)
29 Ernests GULBIS (LAT)
30 Albert MONTANES (ESP)
31 Philipp KOHLSCHREIBER (GER)
32 Tommy ROBREDO (ESP)

The major departures from the current rankings are: Fed over Rafa even though Rafa is the current world #1, ARod over Sod and Playstation and Ferrer over Tsonga. The Rafa-Fed switch can be explained by Fed's record at Wimbledon as the defending champion, and is really not that significant at the end as they both get their own quarter. ARod's relatively high seeding is due to his status as the runner up last year, but he's probably crossing his finger's that he won't be assigned to Fed's quarter.

BTW, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth over these departures from the ATP rankings. Some think Rafa is getting dissed. Rest assured, Wimbledon didn't cut a back room deal with the Federer camp: they employ this numerical formula (beautifully explained here): 100% of points from your ATP rankings + 75% of points from your best grass court performance in the past 12 months.

1 Serena WILLIAMS (USA)
2 Venus WILLIAMS (USA)
3 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN)
4 Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB)
5 Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA)
6 Samantha STOSUR (AUS)
7 Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL)
8 Kim CLIJSTERS (BEL)
9 Na LI (CHN)
10 Flavia PENNETTA (ITA)
11 Marion BARTOLI (FRA)
12 Nadia PETROVA (RUS)
13 Shahar PEER (ISR)
14 Victoria AZARENKA (BLR)
15 Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL)
16 Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS)
17 Justine HENIN (BEL)
18 Aravane REZAI (FRA)
19 Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS)
20 Dinara SAFINA (RUS)
21 Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS)
22 Maria Jose MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP)
23 Jie ZHENG (CHN)
24 Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK)
25 Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE)
26 Alisa KLEYBANOVA (RUS)
27 Maria KIRILENKO (RUS)
28 Alona BONDARENKO (UKR)
29 Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS)
30 Yaroslava SHVEDOVA (KAZ)
31 Alexandra DULGHERU (ROU)
32 Sara ERRANI (ITA)

There are no major departures from the current rankings amongst the ladies. Safina gets no benefit from her grass court performance from last year since she's been off the tour due to injury. And, sadly, Demy is out of Wimbledon due to injury. Some might give Masha and Allez Bitch higher seedings but frankly both are on the comeback trail (Masha due to injury and Allez Bitch due to a return from retirement).

In other news, the Greatest Forehand Shanker is working on his inside out forehand.



He'll need that to avoid all those serves this Mallorcan Lefty likes to hit to his backhand.



Shrieka will need to hit a lot of running forehands as there's a whole new generation who've adopted her ball bashing style.

Roland Garros 2010: The Queen of Clay Has Fallen!

Sam broke Allez Bitch's streak of 24 consecutive wins at Roland Garros (2-6 6-1 6-4). While I thought that Allez Bitch had an excellent chance to win the French Open, I didn't think she was the overwhelming favorite. Tennis is a game of probabilities, and even champions who are supposed to win can lose. She had a couple things against her: a dodgy/inconsistent serve and a draw from hell. Sam was one of those obstacles she had to but could not surmount. All credit to Sam, as she played her game. JuJu praised Sam's game yesterday.

She has beautiful qualities on clay because she plays kind of a man’s tennis. I mean, she has very heavy balls. She is a very powerful girl.

The keys to the match, in my opinion, were whether Sam could maintain her nerves when she got ahead. After JuJu handed Sam a service break at 2-1 with a double fault, Sam had the match on her racquet but gifted the break back with two double faults. Sam finally made a crucial hold at 3-4, and then broke JuJu's service game.

How did Sam get the momentum? From what I saw, Sam had a more reliable 2nd serve that would keep her ahead in the points, and Sam's fearhand was doing a better job of dictating play especially out of an inside-out shot to the backhand. In the 3rd set, JuJu kept trying to thread the needle of getting the ball into Sam's weaker BH but refused to go for the BH DTL (or inside-in FH) when Sam was so clearly favoring her FH in ad crosscourt exchanges.

	Henin	Stosur
Unforced Errors	29	33
Winners	14	26
1st Serve %	56%	54%
Aces	4	2
DF	7	7
1st Serve % Pts Won	32/45 (71%)	29/44 (66%)
2nd Serve % Pts Won	14/29 (48%)	21/30 (70%)
Break Points Won	3/7 (43%)	4/6 (67%)
Net Approaches	6/8 (75%)	15/19 (79%)
Total Receiving Points Won	31/81 (38%)	35/81 (43%)
Total Service Points Won	46/81 (57%)	50/81 (62%)
Total Points Won	77/162 (47%)	85/162 (52%)

From the stats, there is no question that Sam was the better player. Sam was able to use her forehand to get to net more frequently and effectively, and was able to defend her second serve more effectively. Hopefully, this will give JuJu some time to work on her 2nd serve.

Sam will face ReeRee to play for a place in the semis. On clay, Sam has a better chance since it will be harder for ReeRee to overpower her opponents. Sam will have to maintain her nerves against ReeRee's gamesmanship. And she should since she has the firepower to keep up.

Roland Garros 2010: Middle Sunday

Caro wore down Flavs with her usual brand of Golden Retriever tennis (7-6 [4] 6-7 [5] 6-2)

She'll face another Italian: Franny, who frustrated MaKiri by keeping a billion balls in play (6-4 6-4)

JuJu survived Shrieka's ice stare and fireballs to play Sam for a place in the quarters to take the 3rd set after play was suspended last night (6-2 3-6 6-3).

BTW, Tigs noticed Masha's new tic. Instead of combing her hair before she serves, she clenches her fist before she receives serve.


Demy had a relatively easy match over Scheepers (6-1 6-3).

She'll face Nads who demonstrated improved defence to "upset" Vee (6-4 6-3).

In the battle of big fast guys who are supposed to be the future, Sod handed a beatdown to Cilic (6-4 6-4 6-2).

Sod will try to get his first official career win over the Greatest Shanker of All Time, who beat his friend and compatriot Wawa (6-3 7-6 [5] 6-2)

Big Berd feasted on Muzzard who has not had a great clay court season.

He'll face Head Banger who advanced due to the retirement of Jo Willy because of a hip injury.

Roland Garros 2010: Fashion Grades (Women)

Nike's golden gal, Shrieka, is going for a more plain vanilla look with mahogany and grey, and has ditched headgear. This is a definite improvement over her dress in Oz, but it doesn't seem to go all that well with her skin. B




Well, we don't get to see much of Vika's kit as she went out early in an epic collapse to Dulko. The stripes on the dress add a nice accent to the solid Aster Pink. Having the same color for the shoe laces seems overdone. All in all: nice without being boring. A-



I certainly hope we get to see more of Nails through Roland Garros. The Cool Mint color for her crew with a Marina Blue accent complements her skin well. I like the different colors for the layers of her skirt. A




Stella McCartney hasn't changed Caro's kit in 150000 years. F



NaturAna has been sporting the orange Adilibria dress for the clay season. Since the tank top in the same line comes in white and black, why can't Adidas pull off the same colors so that she can wear a different colored dress at RG than for the rest of the clay season? Still this one looks great on her. B+



Dani's Adidas tank comes from the same Adilibria line as NaturAna. The pattern they've added is subtle, and has to be seen up close. Keep it up Adidas, and you can keep up with your competitors from Oregon. A.



Allez Bitch has been wearing the same hot pink Adidas crew since Miami. While she's not exactly a fashion maven, it's really not too hard to change the color of one of her two pieces. Why not a white skirt with a pink top? Or a white crew with a pink skirt? B-



Lady Jaja appears to be donning a yellow version of the Anta dress she's been wearing all year. The skirt ruffles add a nice touch to an otherwise boring dress. B




The Marina Blue accented by Electric Green on ReeRee's dress could go well on a lot of different skins. Nike did a great job with the matching bandanna for her. A



Vee's black lace dress pushes the envelope, and prompted cat calls in the stadium. Sexy? Yes. Would any club player be caught dead wearing this on court? Probably not. Call me strait-laced, but I'd rather see this in the bedroom but not on the tennis court. D



In contrast, Sveta dressed like she was going to practice with dark shorts and a hot pink crew. This suits her earthy and tomboyish personality. Props to Fila for departing from the tried-and-true skirt/dress. A