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Various Goings On in Europe
Attentions this week are split three ways, with major tournaments going on in Belgrade, Portugal, and Munich for the men’s tournaments.
Belgrade
When you’re one of Serbia’s biggest stars, winning a tournament in your hometown must be a special moment. Winning in your hometown in a tournament your family now own and run is even more special. Goran Djokovic, Uncle to world no. 2 Novak Djokovic, is the Serbia Open’s director, and after the popularity of the tournament in Belgrade last year has increased the capacity of the stadium in Belgrade. The calibre of players has increased slightly from last year too, and the Djokovic family are hoping it will go from strength to strength in the coming years. Needless to say, Nole is hoping for his second win in his family’s tournament’s second year. He has currently booked a place in the quarter final after beating Italy’s Fabio Foginini.
Portugal
Roger Federer started the tournament in Portugal with a children’s clinic at the Estoril stadium. The kids got to have a knock up with the world no. 1, and I imagine there are a number of very jealous fans around the world at seeing that opportunity. Today he got through to the semi-final, beating Arnaud Clement 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 for the spot. Looks like the champ hasn’t let his shock exit in Rome hamper the rest of the season; well, did anyone really expect it to?
Munich
At the BMW Open in Germany, Marin Cilic is top seed, with M more »
Predictions for the year ahead…
· Roger Federer will get one more Grand Slam: one is as far as I am willing to go. After del Potro beat him in the US Open and Andy Roddick came so close at Wimbledon last year, I get the feeling there are too many strong competitors to the Grand slam titles for him to comfortably get the next three.
· Juan Martin del Potro will get a Grand Slam, and will get a girlfriend by the end of the year: I’ll go out on a limb with this one and say either the French or the US Open. Radical, I know. I just don’t think we’ve seen the end of this guy, despite all the murmurs afte more »
2009
It’s probably quite obvious as to why it has taken me at least two weeks to write this rather bulky blog. The clue is in the title: this is a look back at the year 2009. Writing a ‘Looking back’ blog in sport is rather like writing about the history of a country with a 1000 word deadline. I.e. impossible. That is why historians write books that are around about 5 tombs in length and need a crane to get them off the shelves. A similar feat would be needed if I were to write an in-depth story of the past year in tennis.
So, how am I going to do this? By choosing ten highlights of the year as a way of looking back.
1) Federer cries at Aussie open
I know, this one has been done to death. But it just shows how perceptions of others’ emotions can be wrong. The world saw Federer dissolve into tears as Nadal took the Australian Open trophy from him after a gruelling final match, and they decided that it signalled the end of a shining career. It was soon obvious that this was not the case. Federer has hardly had a slump of a year, winning the next two Grand Slams in surprising finals.
2) Soderling takes out Nadal
We all know this one. ‘Pulling a Soderling’ is now in our tennis-related vocabulary. Soderling is now the one to watch at any tournament. And he recently topped this fantastic year with a finals appearance at the ATP World Tour Finals after Andy Roddick dropped out.
3) Serena blows up at referee, accuses opponents of cheating…
…and generally behaves a more »
Ten Things to take away from the Grand Slams of 2009
1) Tennis talk can be used in every day life. When you want to demonstrate that the impossible has been achieved, the new phrase “Pulling a Soderling” will now do nicely. This was born from Robin Soderling’s extraordinary defeat of Rafael Nadal early on in the French Open.
You get that deal that no-one in the office thought you could clinch, and announce it to them all with a cry of ‘I pulled a Soderling!’
England win the Ashes in the cricket “Gerry, England won! Those guys pulled a Soderling!” (no, I have no idea who Gerry is)
“Robin Soderling pulls a Soderling to get through to the semi-finals!”
oh, wait….
2) Watching tennis is bloody tiring. One minute they’re in Australia, the next they’re in France, then they’re in England, then they were in America. In between that, they’re visiting a whole host of other countries. We can’t keep up with all these time zones, I have no idea how the players cope. The French Open and Wimbledon aren’t so bad for us Europeans, but I went a bit doo-lally trying to keep awake to watch matches in the first and last grand slams. I need my sleep, and trying to concentrate on a tiny ball zipping from one side of a court to the other whilst sleep-deprived is not good for one’s mind….
3)
The Quarters are done….finally
So it’s not just Wimbledon that’s blighted with the rain. In fact, Wimbledon should be feeling quite smug about itself. Of course now they have the upper hand with a retractable roof, but they have always had sheeting which ball boys and girls were trained to pull across the court the minute rain disrupted play. At Flushing Meadows, they have a bunch of hand towels – probably borrowed from the locker rooms. I can imagine that is a pretty thankless job.
So Day 12 never really happened, a complete day of tennis stricken from the event as the rain continued to pour. Still, there’s a doozey of a semi-final along the way for both the men’s and women’s side of things.
Roger Federer vs. Novak DjokovicThis was set up by two relatively straight forward matches. Roger Federer had a bit of a scare in this third set against Robin Soderling, but all in all he appeared his usual calm, collected self. He took the first set 6-0 and the next 6-3, as Soderling struggled to get into any swing. The third set blip was a 6-7 (6-8) loss in the tiebreak. Soderling gave the Swiss world no. 1 nothing in the fourth and what was to be final set. Roger Federer clinched it 7-7 (8-6), and it seemed that ordered was restored.
Novak Djokovic had an up-and-down performance against Fernando Verdasco. Both decked out in a colour that c more »
