Australian Open Final 2018 Preview Marin Cilic Vs Roger Federer

By Christian Deverille | Published: January 27, 2018
Australian Open Men Final

Photo courtesy of www.beritagol88.com

Second seed and defending champion Roger Federer will take on sixth seed and first time Melbourne finalist Marin Cilic to win the 2018 Men’s Australian Open trophy. The Tennis Review previews the action and predicts the winner.

Paths to the final

Federer came into the Australian Open as the favorite and he has lived up to that status by reaching the final without dropping a set. He has had his awkward moments, such as late in the third set in the third round versus Richard Gasquet or at the start of his quarter-final versus Tomas Berdych, but he has lifted his game each time, producing his best tennis of the tournament in that last eight match versus Berdych.

That form rolled over into the semis when Federer dominated Chung in the early stages of their match, taking advantage of the Korean’s hampered movement, but the Next Gen Finals champ was finally beaten by a blister and retired a set and 2-5 down in the second set, a result which meant Federer did not get a competitive match going into the final. Federer said after the match that he will take a short semi, though:

 I must admit, as well, you do take the faster matches whenever you can because there’s enough wear and tear on the body, there’s enough tough matches throughout the season that when they happen, you take them

Cilic also had a struggling opponent in his semi, Kyle Edmund, the unseeded player going down in straights. The British player did play very well in the second set, however, and Cilic  handled his status of favorite well, raising his game to win the set, and taking control of the match in the third.

Another encouraging sign for Cilic is that the Croatian is the more match tough of the two finalists courtesy of a tougher path to the championship match. The sixth seed dropped a set to Vasek Pospisil in round 1, (a stage of the tournament in which Cilic is more vulnerable than most top seeds), a set to Pablo Carreno Busta in round 4, and two sets to Rafa Nadal in a match in which he played some of his best tennis of the tournament in the third set yet still lost it.

Coming through both that Nadal match, one Cilic did not ‘win’ the way he would have liked to, but one in which he was the fittest of the two and survived, and the Busta test playing some of his best tennis is the kind of preparation Cilic needs before facing five time Australian Open champion Federer in the final, the Swiss’ seventh down under.

The Serve

The Croat also looks to have the edge when it comes to the serve, the potential deal breaker in this match. Neither player has been unbreakable-Federer has been broken four times in three of his matches (twice by Berdych in the first set, once by Gasquet, and once by Struff) and Cilic has been broken nine times in four matches, (four times by Carreno Busta, twice by Nadal, twice by Pospisil, and once by Harrison)- but Cilic has the higher first serve percentage coming into the final with 67 in both his last two matches.

Meanwhile, Federer had a low first serve percentage of 43% in the nearly two sets he played versus Chung (granted, that figure could have risen) and had 63 % in his win over Berdych, 1% more than his 12 month average, but that first serve percentage is one Federer will want in the high 60s to mid 70s, at least, in the final because while Cilic’s return game is not his strength, he will welcome any second serves, especially in tiebreaks or at the business end of a fourth or fifth set, and if he welcomes them too warmly, if he gets hot, Federer could end up getting burned.

Head to head.

Federer can tell you all about Cilic burning you.

Federer has an 8-1 head to head lead over Cilic, but his one loss was a very significant one, a defeat in the US Open 2014 semi finals, in straight sets, and at a time Federer was competing in slam finals and involved in a tussle for the No.1 ranking. That day, Cilic redlined, producing a standard of tennis we have not seen from him since.

Federer got his revenge, and his second slam win over in last season’s Wimbledon final when he defeated an injured and visibly upset Cilic in straight sets for his 20th slam title. That victory was his third slam win over Cilic, the first coming at the 2011 US Open, which he won in four sets, and the second coming at the 2016 Wimbledon event when he saved 3 match points to beat the Croat.

The match-up.

That Federer and Cilic’s fourth slam contest is this year’s Australian Open final is no real surprise. Federer and Cilic are two of only six active slam champs in the draw, the reigning Wimbledon champion and finalist, and have games tailor made to succeed on a medium fast surface like the Australian Open’s plexi-cushion .

Both have great serves, both have weapons at the back of the court which can generate plenty of short balls, and both have an aggressive mind set and like to play inside the court and at the net. Also, while neither rely on their returns as strengths, both will take risks on the second serve, especially in a match versus a fellow big server in which they will get few chances and in which sets will likely go to tiebreaks.

But those strengths are as far as the similarities go: Federer serves more consistently, with unparalleled variety, and serves better under pressure; Federer also has a more effective and efficient aggressive game; from the baseline, if Federer is kept back there, he is the stronger off both wings, more versatile and less likely to break down under pressure; and, if there are risks to be taken on second serves, Federer’s will be the more calculated. 

The biggest gulf between them, though, is the mental side of the game and how they handle pressure. Federer is a great front runner while Cilic has a history of letting winning leads slip, one of the most infamous being that match against Federer at Wimbledon ’16.

If Federer gets his grip on a match, he very rarely lets go, if Cilic gets his hands on a match, it can slip before he has even fully grasped it.

Cilic has not had any slippery moments, however, this last fortnight- whenever he has suffered any disappointment in a game or set, the sixth seed has rebounded and raised his game.

As well as being in good mental condition, Cilic is in good physical shape, too. The 2010 Australian Open semi-finalist, his best showing at the event until this year, said after his semi-final win that:

 I’m feeling really, really good physically, even though I had few matches that went more than three hours. But overall, feeling really good. I think I played great tournament so far with my level of tennis…I think I improved it comparing to end of the last year. I’m playing much, much more aggressive. I’m feeling that I am, for most of the shots, hitting them really, really good. From the return, moving, forehand, backhand, serving, I think everything is in good, solid spot. Feeling really excited about the final, too.

An excited and healthy Cilic is going to be the most difficult opponent Federer has faced so far this tournament and one he is not going to underestimate, the Swiss always showing the utmost respect to the Croat when asked about him, having himself been on the receiving end of one of the few active Major champion’s slam winning game.

Prediction:

Slams are where Cilic thrives, the Croat winning 102 matches in 41 slams compared to 89 ATP 1000 matches won in 80 events- best of five sets give him the space to recover from the dips he has in form as much as the format allows for him to let winning leads slip- and if Cilic is able to produce his best form, Federer would, in turn, raise his, and we could get the best possible final on a medium-fast hard court.

There are, however, too many ifs attached to a Cilic win – if he played his best like he did at the US Open, .. If Federer has an off day,…If Cilic is stronger mentally in big matches than he has been in the past– and so a Cilic win would be a surprise, and in some ways, a good one. We would either see Cilic playing some of the best medium-fast court tennis we are likely to see in a slam final right now or we are going to see a new Cilic, one who toughs it out versus an in form Federer, who maybe manages to win despite not playing his best, but playing the big points better, which Cilic has never done at this level versus an opponent playing well. Such revelations from a player are one of the rewards of following them and any of the afore-mentioned scenarios would be quite the pay off for Cilic fans.

With Federer, it is a completely different story. We know only too well what we are getting- the Swiss, on form, playing in his 7th Australian Open final against a rival he matches up very well with, the player most qualified to get the slam won.

With slam No.20 on the line and the clock ticking on Federer’s slam winning days, what we will get is, most likely, a four set Federer win. Cilic is not going to go down without a fight, not after coming back from the hurt that must have been the Wimbledon final loss in such style, but Cilic will need a killer punch to win this one, and Federer is too good at seeing them coming in these conditions, too skilled at blocking such blows, swinging one of his own, and then never letting up.

 

 

 

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Australian Open 2018 Men’s Draw Discussion Who Will Win Their Quarters?

By Christian Deverille | Published: January 14, 2018
Australian Open

Photo courtesy of Paodom.net

Tennis fans know only too well that our sport has no off season – the break between the last tour match of one season and the first official match of the next season is all of 42 days- but, while, it does seem harsh on players, one is hard pressed to fault ardent fans who – understandably – just cannot wait for the action to commence again.

And so here we are, the yearning is over, the New Year is upon us; as is the 2018 Australian Open.

World #2 Roger Federer is the defending men’s singles champion, and will be eager to “score” his Major trophy cabinet.

Andy Murray, a five-time runner-up Down Under, had to withdraw with a hip injury and has since had surgery. Murray is not the only big name absentee with Kei Nishikori also forced to miss the action with a wrist injury.

The 2018 Australian Open draw ceremony took place on Thursday, January 11 and the obvious question on everyone’s mind was, “Where, on the draw sheet, would the returning Novak Djokovic be?”

So, where did the 12-time Grand Slam champion land? And how is it for others? Christian Deverille, editor of The Tennis Review, and tennis aficionado Karthik Swaminathan dissect the draw and offer their thoughts.

First Quarter:

World number 1 Rafael Nadal drew Marin Cilic (6) as the next highest seed in his section. The Spaniard commences his campaign against Victor Estrella Burgos and could next face Leonardo Mayer in, what would be, a rematch of their faceoff at the Big Apple last year. Borna Coric lurks as a potential third round opponent, as does John Isner (16) or Diego Schwartzman (24) in the fourth.

Cilic kicks off his quest against Lu Yen-Hsun before possibly clashing with Joao Sousa in the second, Pablo Cuevas (31) in the third and Pablo Carreño Busta (10) in the pre-quarters. Gilles Simon, who beat the Croat enroute his Pune title, is also a prospective fourth round opponent.

Survivor: 

Christian’s pick – Marin Cilic– The Croat plays his best tennis in best of five at slams and with the surface reported to be as quick as last year, the 2010 semi-finalist has a good chance to make the semis here

Karthik’s pick – big servers could put the King of Clay in a spot of bother on a nippy court, but count against Rafael Nadal at your own risk

Second Quarter:

Grigor Dimitrov and Jack Sock are the highest seeds in this section, seeded three and eight respectively, and the pair will be confident having ended 2017 on a positive note.

The Bulgarian has a couple of qualifiers first up, but standing in his path to the quarterfinal are two of his recent conquerors, Andrey Rublev (R32), who beat him at the US Open, and Nick Kyrgios (R16), who recently defeated him in the Brisbane semis.

Sock, who is the highest ranked American in the draw, opens against Yuichi Sugita before potentially running into the near seven-feet tall Ivo Karlovic. Philipp Kohlschreiber and Kevin Anderson could, respectively, lie in wait in the third and fourth rounds.

As one may have noticed, this quarter is loaded with shot makers and popcorn first round encounters such as Ferrer-Rublev, Tsitsipas-Shapovalov and Anderson-Edmund.

Survivor: 

Christian’s pick – Grigor Dimitrov has the momentum after his great end to 2017  and his experience losing to Nadal in last year’s semis will motivate him to give himself another chance at the final

Karthik’s pick – Clearly, training at Rafa Nadal Academy has done him a world of good; Grigor Dimitrov looks set to change the order

Third Quarter:

Novak Djokovic, seeded 14, scored the best possible draw of those in the 13-16 bracket, drawing 4th seed Alexander Zverev in the last 16.  

Sascha is by far the weaker of the top four seeds slam pedigree wise- he is  12-10 in slams and the furthest he has gotten is the 2017 Wimbledon fourth round- so, if Djokovic is playing well, he could exploit Zverev’s poor start to 2018 (the 20 year old going 1-3 in his Hopman Cup matches) and lack of experience in the second week of slams.  

Zverev will be match ready, however, if he does make the last 16 of a slam for only the second time of his career. The 20 year old could have to face Dannii Medvedev (Sydney champion), Thanasi Kokkinakis (who beat him in Perth), Hyeon Chung (perhaps the most consistent of the #NextGenATP at the baseline and recent Next Gen Finals champ) or his own brother, Mischa Zverev, last year’s quarter-finalist, in the round of 32, all of whom are going to put him to the test physically, mentally, and, especially if it is his brother he faces, emotionally.

Scheduled to face Zverev in this third quarter last eight match is fifth seed Dominic Thiem who had a lacklustre end to 2017 and a virus ridden start to this season. The Austrian is drawn to meet 9th seeded Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round who is in the draw despite some rumors he might not be quite fit enough and whose form is as unpredictable as ever.

Auckland champ Roberto Bautista Agut (20), scheduled to meet Wawrinka in round 3, has the experience and the form to take out Wawrinka and then Thiem in the last 16 if either of them are struggling.

Bautista Agut will have to come through a tough first round against fellow country man and upset artist Fernando Verdasco in round one if he wants to give himself the opportunity of reaching a slam quarter-final for the first time in his career after nine last sixteen appearances.

Survivor:

Christian’s pick –  Bautista Agut is match tough, very fit, and has the game and experience to take advantage of this wide open quarter

Karthik’s pick – quite hard to not back Novak Djokovic here, but head over heart: Alexander Zverev to finally announce himself at Grand Slam level

Fourth Quarter:

Defending champion Roger Federer has a comfortable route to the last eight with Richard Gasquet and Sam Querrey his scheduled seeds in the third and fourth rounds, though Milos Raonic could be an awkward fourth round match up if he can find some form and upset Querrey in round 3.

Things get trickier for the Swiss in the quarters, however. Federer has a scheduled quarter final match up with David Goffin (7) who is very comfortable on fast surfaces and has really picked up his game in the last year, even defeating Federer in the semi-final of last season’s ATP World Tour Finals.

If the Belgian is not across the net in the last eight, it could be Federer’s US Open conqueror, Juan Martin del Potro, drawn to face Goffin in the round of 16, who will be feeling confident having reached the Auckland final and returning to the world’s top ten.

The Argentine has a tough draw with Frances Tiafoe in round 1, potentially Karen Khachanov in round two, and Tomas Berdych, (10), who looked very good winning the recent Tie Break Tens event, in round 3.

Survivor: 

Christian’s pick – Roger Federer looked good enough in Perth and has the edge over all his rivals in his quarter on a surface which complements his grand slam winning game so well

Karthik’s pick – That forehand never left. He has that look again. And he is back in the top 10. Fee fie foe fum, Juan Martín del Potro doth come!

1st semi-final: 

Christian: Dimitrov d Cilic

Karthik: Dimitrov d. Nadal

2nd semi-final: 

Christian: Federer d. Bautista Agut

Karthik: del Potro d. Zverev

Final: 

Christian: Federer d. Dimitrov

Karthik: Dimitrov d. Del Potro

What do you think of the Australian Open 2018 draw? Join in the discussion in the comments below and share your thoughts.

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Australian Open Preview Roger Federer on Course for Date with Slam No. 20

By Christian Deverille | Published: January 11, 2018
Australian Open Preview

Photo courtesy of pinterest.com

After having spent four and a half years looking for slam number 18 and finally finding it in Melbourne last season, Roger Federer is, after just a year, looking on course for a date with number 20. 

We have seen more of Federer than we have seen of a lot of the potential big name Australian Open 2018 title favorites, and, if the defending champion’s four singles win at the Hopman Cup (defeated Sascha Zverev, Karen Khachanov, Jack Sock, and Yuichi Sugita, all of whom had their best seasons in 2017) are anything to go by, he looks to be the healthiest and most in-form of his fellow Big Fivers and other established title contenders in action.

This year’s Australian Open field is one beset by injuries and unproven quantities at slam level and with Federer seemingly healthy and with his grand slam pedigree the highest quality in history, he looks on course to win slam No. 20 in three Sunday’s time.

The Swiss’ serve and net game looked in especially good shape in Perth and he should iron out the kinks in his baseline game in the first few rounds in Melbourne as he faces Aljaz Bedene in round 1, and either Korean wild card Soonwoo Kwon or German world no. 53 Jan-Lennard Struff in round 2.

The Swiss’ draw pits him against Richard Gasquet (29) in the third round (Federer leads Gasquet 16-2 and has only lost to him on Clay), Sam Querrey (the Swiss leads 3-0 and has never dropped or set or lost more than four games in a set to the American) or Milos Raonic in the fourth (Federer leads Raonic 10-3 and the Canadian is on the comeback from injury and seeded 22).

In the quarters, the potential match ups get a little more interesting with David Goffin (7) or Juan Martin del Potro (12) potential opponents. Both those men inflicted big defeats on Federer in the final quarter of 2017- del Potro beating him in the US Open quarters, and Goffin beating him in the semis of the ATP finals, del Potro taking advantage of the Swiss’ compromised back and Goffin proving to be too canny for Federer at the very end of a multi slam winning world No.2 ending season.

Federer will still be vulnerable in Melbourne of course being 36 years old and more prone to injury than ever, but the surface is in the Swiss’ favor and should make life easier on his body and mind- Craig Tiley has said it will be as fast as last year –  and the balls will be to his advantage, too, ones that do not fluff up and play into the rackets of the game’s baseliners, and if Federer can impose his attacking game on his Belgian or Argentine rivals, a game which at its best overwhelms both players, Federer should find himself at the business end of the tournament with plenty of energy to spare.

Energy Federer will need, too. In the semis, Federer is seeded to come up against Sascha Zverev (4), but the German has yet to prove himself as a slam threat, and so most people’s eyes are drawn to a potential Novak Djokovic (14) match, one in which the Swiss could, if he is anything less than at his best, be made to run plenty of miles side to side and up and down on his side of the court.

Djokovic comes in looking healthy and motivated and is under relatively little pressure, a Djokovic we have not seen for quite a while. The Serbian, beset in recent times by physical injuries and motivational issues, has not been to a Grand slam final since the US Open 2016- his longest spell without making a slam championship match since winning his second Australian Open, and second slam in total, in Melbourne 2011- and will, for someone who holds the record for the most Norman Brookes challenge cups in history won in the Open era (six), go relatively under the radar.

That low key run through the draw might suit the Serb who went under so much media scrutiny in 2015 and 2016 in his quest to become the first man in the open era since Rod Laver to hold all four Majors, scrutiny that turned him from a sporting star achieving the kind of history beyond even Federer and Nadal to a shadow limping out of the first week of slams or crashing out in the second, his final set lost no less than a set to love.

Melbourne was the setting for the last competitive match between Federer and Djokovic, a four set win for the Serbian two years back, and the Serb leads Federer 3-1 on Rod Laver overall. But, Djokovic, while the more accomplished Australian Open champion, is, right now, still very much on the comeback trail, and if Federer faces him in the semis and is playing well, Djokovic could learn first hand that the resurgent Federer he managed to stop winning slam no. 18 in 2014-2015 has come back in the form of the resurrected Federer on his way to No. 20 in 2018.

This year’s Australian Open final is scheduled, seedings wise, to give us a rematch of last year’s Fedal finale, and it looks like a fairly likely outcome, too, if the Spaniard is healthy enough, that is. Nadal, if his health is in question at all, could not have asked for a nicer draw, but then he could not have worked harder either in 2017 for that privilege.

If Nadal does not make it to his date with Federer, Dimitrov looks the next likely candidate to take his place, and then Marin Cilic, and if none of those three can reach the championship match, we could have another US Open 2017 scenario with a slam final lamb springing into that most brutal of arenas, as Kevin Anderson did in New York, this time the potential offering being Nick Kyrgios, Andrey Rublev, or Jack Sock.

Either way, whether the Swiss faces a more established slam pedigree or a fresh face on final’s day, Federer is the favorite to take his seat at  the Champion’s table.

Nadal has eaten there before in Melbourne, and with great, even brutal, gusto, managing to win the Australian Open in 2009 with that heartbreaking win over Federer. But, in their recent rivalry, Federer has gained the upper hand over Nadal, winning five matches in a row, most recently in the Shanghai final, a record for the Swiss in their head to head, and with those limps on crutches we used to see from Federer in big matches versus Nadal now tossed into the doubles alley and replaced with a sure footed swagger inside the court and across his favorite surfaces, Federer would be tipped to execute his own strengths and expose Nadal’s few, but in these high stakes matches too few too many, limitations on the Rod Laver Arena.

As for Dimitrov, the Bulgarian may have broken out at the ATP Finals, but his first slam final versus Federer may be one step too soon just yet, and regarding Cilic, the Croat would have a chance in the final if he clicked into that US Open 2014 game once again, but is a little too volatile to back as a winner with any confidence.

If we do get a slam debutante of the likes of Kyrgios or Rublev, players who have shown plenty of potential having both reached slam quarters before turning 20, then Federer, who has said the difference between himself and those who have not won slams is that he knows what it takes, would be only too willing to show the Next Gen just exactly what “what it takes” is.

What it takes is a game which, when executed well, is too good on a medium fast surface for any other player out there. It’s a talent which has rendered, over a 14 year span of winning major titles, both inexperience and age irrelevant. It’s, the final and most vital part, an absolute passion for the game, one which Kyrgios and Rublev also have deep down within them, but which they let spill from their guts and then slip on, falling face down onto the court, as Federer himself once did.

A passion Federer tamed long ago and now pours, for all to see, in vessels shaped like trophies. A passion that spills over into never-ending wells and looks set, for Federer, aged 36, No.2 in the world, and the best looking title contender in the field, to run, at the very least, 20 slams deep.

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2017 Men’s Tennis- The Year the Comebacks Beat the Breakthroughs in the Battle of the Band Aids

By Christian Deverille | Published: December 31, 2017
Fedal

Photo courtesy of youtube.com

In 2017, men’s tennis saw the early signs of a shift at the top with Dominic Thiem, Sascha Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov all asserting themselves in the top 10, but the younger players were not able to outshine the return to the top of Fedal, a resurgence, which, along with the promise shown by the legions of #NextGenners, and #LostGenners, was just the healing tonic the sport needed. 

When Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in three sets in the Doha final at the beginning of the season, men’s tennis fans took what they could get. This three setter, one of Djokoray’s (not as catchy as Fedal is it?) better contests, was a decent enough way to start the year, better than many anticipated, with Djokovic looking like he might have recovered from his end of season slump, a development of some promise, suggesting that if 2017 was going to be a predictable season of Djokeray finals, fans might at least be spared too many matches like the 2016 ATP Finals championship match.

Just three weeks later, tennis fans were no longer having to search high and low for something to get excited about in 2017– on one of the biggest stages of them all, Melbourne Park, in the Australian Open semis, with Murray and Djokovic upset before the last eight, tennis served up four of the world’s most popular players, three single handed backhands no less, and a variety of styles- Roger Federer battling Stan Wawrinka and Rafa Nadal taking on Grigor Dimitrov, both matches going the distance.

Roger Federer’s win in the final, one in which he got some measure of revenge for his 2009 Australian Open final loss to Nadal, was the antidote to much of men’s tennis in 2016- tennis at its most sporting, entertaining and thrilling, a story every fan could follow, the kind of tennis to get the sporting world talking.

Fedal

Photo courtesy of mulpix.com

Federer carried that momentum over into the North American Spring swing, winning in Miami and Indian Wells, defeating Nadal twice more and putting together four wins in a row (Beijing ’15- Miami ’17) over the Spaniard for the first time in his career, a twist in their rivalry no one saw coming and which added even more spice, if any were needed, to the Greatest Ever debate. Federer’s first quarter of the season sprint saw him edge ahead in that one as he went 18-14 versus Nadal in slam’s won, and if you thought Djokovic had history on his side in 2016 when he held all four Majors at once, Federer’s early 2017 achievements- a record 18th slam at the age of 35, 18 slams after his 17th one at Wimbledon ’12, and the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells and Miami) 11 years after the last time he achieved that feat-  might make you think again.

Not to be outdone, Nadal was on the verge of a historic comeback of his own, too. The Australian Open final was the Spaniard’s first slam final since Roland Garros 2014, and, in April, he completed tennis’ first La Decima, winning the tenth title in Monte Carlo before dominating the clay season until Dominic Thiem defeated him in Rome.

Thiem tested Nadal more than any other player in the 2017 clay season and was one of a group of younger players breaking through in 2017, along with Dimitrov and Zverev, but it was Sascha Zverev who made the loudest noise as he took the Rome title, defeating Novak Djokovic in the final. With Thiem, Zverev and Dimitrov stepping up their games in 2017, and the return of Fedal, tennis in 2017 was in a state few had predicted, and one which in terms of its surprise, and shock, value, was one of the best starts to a season in a while.

But if fans were hoping that the #NextGenATP or the other generations who had not managed to reach the very top of the game might finally do so in the absence of Djokovic and Murray, they were to be let down. The youngsters just could not break through on the big stage- Thiem losing in three to Nadal at Roland Garros after an inspiring win over Djokovic- and it was Nadal who won La Decima at Roland Garros, and then, a few weeks later, with Dimitrov, Zverev and Kyrgios all failing to make it past the round of 16, Federer won Wimbledon, a record 19th slam, Fedal dominating their best surfaces a decade on from the last time they both did so in the same season in 2007.

All hope for not lost, however, for a breakthrough from Zverev and company at the season’s final slam, the US Open. In the Summer, Zverev’s Montreal win, defeating an injured Federer in the final, and Dimitrov’s Cincy win appeared to set the stage for a breakthrough at the US Open, but it was Nadal, recently returning to No.1, who won his third US Open title.

Nadal took the title beating just one player ranked in the top 30, del Potro in the semis, and defeating first time slam finalist Kevin Anderson in the final, the South African emerging from the wreckage of a bottom half which did not even see its highest seed Andy Murray compete and which was missing Zverev, Dimitrov, and Kyrgios, the stand out players of the US Open lead in events, by the end of the second round.

del Potro’s performance in the event, beating Federer in four sets in the last eight, and taking the first set from Nadal in the semis, a performance which shook Nadal and made him play his best tennis of the tournament, was one of the year’s highlights and the Argentine’s comeback of sorts- his first trip to the semis of a slam since Wimbledon ’13- saving the tournament from being dismissed as another breeze to a slam title for one of the Big Four. If Federer was going to lose to anyone, then del Potro was the man to lose to, the Argentine rivaling the Swiss not just in forehand prowess but also with popularity among fans, and if Nadal was going to win the title without beating a top five player, then defeating the Argentine, a former US Open champ who beat the Spaniard himself on his championship run, added some much needed credibility to a grand slam run, Nadal’s 16th, which though overwhelming in its focus and intensity was underwhelming in its drama and competition.

In the post US Open final stretch of the season, Nadal and Federer were still going strong, competing for the end of year No.1 ranking, as Thiem and Zverev faded away.  Federer scored his fifth win in a row over Nadal, a career first, in the Shanghai final, and Nadal sealed the world No.1 ranking, winning in Beijing, reaching the Shanghai final, and then winning a couple of rounds in Paris before withdrawing from his quarter-final against Filip Krajinovic, the Serbian going on to the final which he lost in three sets to Jack Sock, an unpredictable end to the year’s final Masters, an event which suffers the loss of the top players coming at the end of a long season, but which also prospers, delivering something different than the other ATP 1000s, champions like Jack Sock, David Ferrer, and Robin Soderling.

Federer and Nadal only had so much to give though, and by the ATP Finals, they were spent, Nadal withdrawing after his opening match loss to David Goffin, and Federer going out in three sets to the Belgian in the semis. Only Dimitrov had the stamina to play great tennis at the start and end of the season, winning the title and showing great depth to his game as he won some matches by hitting winners and others by being smart and keeping the ball in play. Dimitrov’s ability to win at the start and end of the season was partly down to his lesser match play from the end of February to the middle of August- of the Bulgarian’s 49 wins in the season, just 13 of them came (26.5%)  in that nearly six month period- and partly down to his greater fitness levels than those of his rivals, a strength that made all the difference in a season which is as over stretched and tired by the end as its competitors.

Marat Safin said at the end of the year that if Federer and Nadal are still winning in 2017, tennis is in trouble, and the 37 year old former No.1 and multiple slam champ, who was retired by the age of 29, knows only too well the game’s once natural order of young stars breaking through and established players giving way to age, injury, and the survival of the fittest.

The Fedal resurgence can be largely explained by advances in sports science, technology, and prize money, but those advances are as ready and available to the current youngsters who are richer even quicker than their predecessors, who can afford the very best in the game money can buy, and who, by now, at their ages, (Dimitrov (26) , Thiem (24), and Zverev (20( (Safin won a slam at Zverev’s age)) should be capable of winning slams and reaching No.1. rather than merely threatening to so so and then vanishing once the pressure is really on. The younger player’s inability to step up and really break through means that if Federer and Nadal were to succumb to the injuries that plagued them at the end of 2017, and Murray and Djokovic were unable to come back, which is looking a likely scenario as we approach 2018, men’s tennis would find itself without a healthy, young, slam decorated star, one with the power to attract new fans, to inspire younger already existing ones, and to give the old faithful, the fans who tune in to every final whoever is playing, for sheer love of the game, someone to be proud of when family, friends and colleagues ask them about the game’s most recent slam champion.

That star would soon sparkle, of course, by default and design, with Dimitrov, Thiem and Zverev, ranked 3-5, in the end of year rankings, as likely as anyone to win slams in the absence of the Big Four, and tennis would, in this age of PR and marketing sophistication and manipulation, spin another narrative of “Big Fours” or a fresh one of “New Stars”.  Right now, with the resurgence of two of the Big Four, Fedal, and the odd glimmers of those stars, flickers of a possible future we saw in Brisbane, Rome. Roland Garros, Montreal, Cincy and London, tennis has been, temporarily anyway, reprieved of its troubles, the wounds covered up with a band-aid where major surgery is required. With Fedal’s injuries at the end of the season and the lack of consistency of the likes of Dimitrov, Thiem and Zverev, that band-aid may be about to be ripped off sooner than expected, but what a colorful and distracting band-aid it has been for men’s tennis 2017, one which in a sport plagued by burn-out, injuries, and lacklustre rivalries could not have been better designed, more distracting, and plastered on at a better time.

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How Did Grigor Dimitrov Become the First of the Lost Generation to Find His Way?

By Christian Deverille | Published: December 17, 2017
Dimitrov

Photo courtesy of Eseenews

Grigor Dimitrov’s ATP Finals win was the biggest victory yet for a member of men’s tennis’ lost generation, made up of the Bulgarian, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, and David Goffin, all currently aged 26-27, all heralded from 2012-2014 as the ATP’s young guns, and all seeming to have lost their way in their bid to fulfill their potential. Dimitrov, however, with his ATP 1000 Cincy win and his ATP Finals trophy, has, in styles both pretty and gritty, finally found his way in the cruel world of men’s tennis, but just how has the new world No.3 managed to do achieve something the equally impressive talents of Raonic, Nishikori and Goffin have not?

In the period after 2014, when Dimitrov and co were lauded as the Young Guns, it seemed Dimitrov was the most lost of them all, seemingly succumbing to the curse of Baby Fed. While Nishikori reached a slam final at the US Open ’14 and competed for two ATP 1000 titles in 2016 (Miami, Toronto) and Milos Raonic reached world No.3 at the end of 2016, Dimitrov fell down the rankings from a career high of 8 in August ’14, falling as far as 40 (18th July 2016) within two years at an age he should have been gearing towards his peak.

That low was rock bottom enough for Dimitrov who, teaming up with Daniel Vallverdu, who had worked with Andy Murray and coached Tomas Berdych, then went on to reach the Cincy semis and the US Open last 16 to climb back into the top 20, and finish 2016 at No.17.

That rise really gathered momentum at the start of 2017. His peers may have had the higher rankings- Raonic ranked No.3, Nishikori No.5, and Goffin No.11- but it was Dimitrov who produced the highest quality of play as he won Brisbane, beating Nishikori in the final and Raonic in the semis, and then reached the Australian Open semis, defeating Goffin in straights in the quarters before playing, arguably, the match of the year versus Rafa Nadal, and climbing to world No.13.

In his next event, Dimitrov defeated Goffin in the Sofia final and then reached the last eight in Rotterdam, losing to Goffin in three sets.

But while Dimitrov’s great start to 2017 may have got fan’s hopes up that he had finally discovered just how good a player he was, knew where he belonged and was finally ready to become a top five player, his losses to Jack Sock in the Indian Wells second round, in which he held four match points, and to Guido Pella in his Miami opener, and his 4-5 record in the clay season (though he did play a very competitive fourth round match versus Thiem in Madrid) cast doubts over just how ready he really was. Slow hard courts and clay may not be the surfaces on which Dimitrov can really show off his talents, but failing to get past the round of 16 in seven consecutive events suggested Dimitrov had not really found himself at all and that he was still the most inconsistent of his generation.

Those concerns deepened when Dimitrov also disappointed in the Grass season, the 2014 Wimbledon semi-finalist and Queens champion getting off to a bad start in Stuttgart losing to Jerzy Janowicz in his opener and going 6-3 for the entire grass court season, There was a degree of silver lining, however, in the often cloudy British skies with the Bulgarian losing to an in form Feliciano Lopez in the Queens semis, motivated by his own tough loss to Dimitrov in the 2014 Queens final, and to an imperious Roger Federer in the Wimbledon last 16 and not being defeated by players he should have beaten.

After more early losses in Washington and Montreal, Dimitrov’s game finally clicked  again, in Cincy, where he won the title, defeating Nick Kyrgios, a member of the #NextGenATP generation, one which looked to eclipse his own, in the final. Dimitrov did not have to beat anyone ranked higher than 19 (John Isner) to win the trophy, so he was a little luckier than Nishikori and Raonic who faced Djokovic and Nadal in their ATP 1000 finals, but he was also in new, and in some respects even scarier, territory for any of the lost generation able to get that deep in an ATP 1000 event- the favorite in every match en route to, and including the championship match itself, an ATP 1000 final.

Ranked 11, Dimitrov was the highest ranked player in each of his matches, and playing the likes of del Potro and Isner, two players with plenty of experience and armed with match winning shots on US hard courts, and with plenty of crowd support, Dimitrov could have folded under the pressure. Instead, Dimitrov held strong, and won the title without dropping a set, thriving in the Cincy conditions which, like Brisbane and Melbourne,, was a faster hard court played in the heat, and which played to Dimitrov’s strengths- his serve, his speed around the court, his aggression, and his reflexes and flair.

Another strength Dimitrov could draw on was the training he did with Rafa Nadal in the Summer in Mallorca, the Bulgarian noting Nadal’s positive body language when winning or losing, an area Dimitrov once struggled in, suffering a particularly bad tempered defeat in the 2016 Istanbul final where in a match he led by a set and 5-2, he lost 0-6 in the third after defaulting the last game after a third penalty for racket abuse.

But while Dimitrov was composing himself a lot better than he had, he still could not control his fluctuations in form. True to form for Dimitrov’s career, his peak was followed by a sudden dip as, in the favorable conditions of New York, the Bulgarian lost in straights to the 19 year old Andrey Rublev in the second round.

Surface, however, is where the similarities end between Cincy and New York, and it seemed the biggest of tennis stages was still too frightening for the 2008 US Open Boy’s champion. Dimitrov, however, was not the only players of his generation to fail to find their form in the biggest 2017 events. In fact, he was one of the only ones who even made it to New York with Raonic and Nishikori both absent with injury. Meanwhile Goffin also fell to Rublev, in the last sixteen.

In a season of stops and starts, Dimitrov, encouragingly, picked up his game again, and at a much quicker pace than he had after Wimbledon ’14 or Sofia ’17, putting together several strings of wins in the end of season swing, going 14-4, losing twice to Nadal, once to Isner, and once to Sock, and going undefeated on his winning run at the ATP Finals.

At the ATP finals, just as in Cincy, Dimitrov did not have to beat any of the Big Four or his two biggest generational rivals. The Bulgarian, instead, had to beat Thiem, Goffin (twice), Busta, and Sock. That lack of established top level competition, however, is not Dimitrov’s fault. The very fact Dimitrov was there, qualifying for and playing the event, was, however, down to him, and while Raonic and Nishikori have, for the time being, been sidelined with injury, Dimitrov was still out there on court, one of the healthiest and fittest professionals playing tennis right now, an achievement that is also down to his coach, Danny Vallverdu, who, after his charge’s ATP Finals win, spoke highly of Dimitrov’s hard work and dedication to reaching his potential.

Dimitrov is not just physically one of the fittest men on the tour, either, but mentally, too. Despite some high quality performances versus Busta and Goffin in the round robin stage, Dimitrov did not have everything his way in London, having to defeat Thiem in three sets in his opener, and Sock, against whom he had a losing head to head against, and Goffin in three sets in the semis and the final. The Bulgarian came through in all those close contests, proving to be the more focused player in big matches, and in the final, when under pressure from Goffin, Dimitrov did not panic and showed us he had a B plan to fall back on if he cannot execute plan A, a B plan that held up to the pressure put on him by his rival, a hallmark of the mentally toughest players.

The Bulgarian had been criticized when working with Roger Rasheed for sometimes being too defensive, but with Goffin taking aggressive risks in the final, no doubt to avoid another demolition like the one he suffered at Dimitrov’s hands in the round robin stage, those Dimitrov defensive skills, perhaps implemented with clashes like this in mind, came to the fore as the Bulgarian focused on getting the ball back in play and making Goffin take the match to him, a strategy that paid off as Goffin’s attack let him down at crucial points and Dimitrov won the match not with the pretty tennis we had hoped to see, but with the kind of gritty tennis needed.

Dimitrov’s ability to execute a plan B successfully is one aspect which separates Dimitrov from Raonic and Nishikori. Raonic has worked hard to add depth to his game, but is still very much reliant on his serve and while Nishikori may have one of the sport’s most effective modern baseline A games, when he is in trouble, his B game seems to be hit the ball even harder and he over-hits himself into an even quicker defeat. Goffin, meanwhile, has a plan B, the more attacking tennis he showed in the ATP Finals championship match, but he is not practiced enough at executing it to really make it count, as his fluffed volley match point down demonstrated.

Superior fitness, a stronger mind, dedication to his sport, a lot of support, and a hell of a  lot of talent, Dimitrov finally put all the pieces together this season and became the first of the lost generation to find himself. There is still far to go for Dimitrov to become the player he seems destined to be, to find the form and strength needed to win a slam title and earn the No.1 ranking, and, considering his fluctuations in form, no one should get their hopes up that he will get there anytime as soon as next season. Still, even if his career ended today- a world No.3, ATP Finals champ, ATP 1000 champ, and two time slam semi-finalist- it’s a career many players would take. A career, we hope, Dimitrov is not going to settle for, that he will, instead, keep searching for more.

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ATP World Tour Finals Preview- Horror Show or Showstopper?

By Christian Deverille | Published: November 10, 2017
ATP Finals

Photo courtesy of http://us.24h.com.vn

The ATP World Tour Finals (WTF) will bring the curtain down on the 2017 ATP  season, and the question is just what are we going to see on one of tennis’ biggest stages this year- a horror show or showstopping finale? The Tennis Review previews the tournament’s two round robin groups and gives you its predictions.

Sampras Group: Rafa Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin.

Carlos Moya says Rafa Nadal is fit and ready to go and the year end No.1’s quest to win his first ever WTF title is the headlining story for the Sampras group. The fact Nadal’s name is not etched on the WTF trophy where it belongs alongside other greats such as Borg, Lendl, Sampras, Federer, Djokovic and McEnroe is, considering he has achieved everything else there is to achieve in tennis, one of the sport’s oddities.

At some point, one would imagine Nadal’s mental strength and cross-surface adaptability would be strong enough to triumph against the odds the tournament pits against him- the indoor hard surface and its low bounce, and the Head ATP balls, balls which do not react well to spin and ones with which Nadal has made no secret of his displeasure with.

Nadal may not be a former WTF champ, but he is anything but a slouch at the season finale- in his seven appearances there, he has made the semis three times, and the final twice, a record which suggests the top seed, considering the season he has had, is more than capable, if he has recovered from his knee issues, to reach the semis and give himself another shot at the title, and the trophy’s elusive nature could be just what Nadal needs to push himself through the physical pain that comes with a No.1 ranking season and past any insecurities the conditions might trigger in him to finally be the first to cross the WTF finish line.

Nadal Dimitrov

Photo courtesy of m.v4.cc

Group Winner: Dimitrov. If the Bulgarian is going to get another win over Nadal (Nadal leads the head to head 10-1) then these conditions might be the best ones in which for him to do so, and this stage of the season might be the right time. If Dimitrov is not quite ready to make that step, he should at least take Nadal the distance for the fourth time this season and pip Nadal to the top spot on sets won.

Runner-up: Nadal. Even if his knees are still bothering him- it is rumored he asked for his Sunday start to be postponed till Monday- the Spaniard is no stranger, like most tennis pros, to playing through stress and injury, and he should have too much game, even playing below his best, for Thiem or Goffin. Goffin likes indoor conditions but has had a less than remarkable indoor run recently.  Thiem, meanwhile, will not be expected to progress to the semis, the fourth seed has been struggling of late, going 2-5 since the US Open.

Becker Group: Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, Jack Sock.

Federer cannot reach No.1 by winning the title, but, if he wins a seventh ATP WTF trophy and first since 2011,he could end up being seen as the real No.1 in many a fan and pundit’s eye. Federer, the only player in the draw to have won the title, should come into the event with enough motivation and form to get the better of a tired Zverev, the predictably inconsistent Cilic, and top ten newbie Sock.

The runner up spot in this group is as much a crapshoot as your scrappiest tiebreak. All three remaining players have big questions marks hanging over them- Zverev seems like he has had enough of tennis in a season which has seen him climb to world No.3, Cilic has had a fairly decent indoor hard season (5-2), but trails all three of his round robin rivals in their head to heads (2-12), and Sock is an unknown quantity at an event of this prestige facing such strong opposition.

Group winner– A healthy and fit Federer has won nearly every event he has been favored in this season (Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Halle, Wimbledon, Shanghai) and there is nothing to suggest that trend is going to end at one of his best tournaments.

Second place– Sock is as good as a wildcard here. Of everyone in the draw, Sock has the least to lose, he has the killer combo of momentum and confidence, and, unlike his higher ranked young rivals in the draw, he is anything but jaded after breaking into the top ten, qualifying for his first WTF and winning his first ATP 1000 title in Paris-Bercy just less than a week ago. The head to heads are in his favor, too- the world No.9 is 1-1 versus Zverev, winning their only indoor hard court match at Stockholm ’16, and, versus Cilic, he is 2-0, beating the former US Open champ in straight sets in the Flushing Meadows 3rd round in 2016. 

The semis–Federer vs Nadal. Federer is 4-0 this season vs Nadal, each time winning in favorable conditions, and it is hard to see him not going 5-0.

Dimitrov vs Sock. The event’s last qualifier, Sock, is one of the last players Dimitrov will want to see across the net in a big match like the ATP WTFs- Sock leads him 3-1 in their head to head, which means the match would be a good workout for Dimitrov before potentially facing Federer in the final. Dimitrov should still win the contest despite the head the head deficit- three of the four matches have gone three sets, the one Dimitrov lost in straight sets was on his weakest surface, clay, Dimitrov has won the only one played on indoor hard (Stockholm ’14), and the Bulgarian has been on a steep learning curve this season and has the necessary experience now to handle the pressure and win a big match in which he will be the favorite.

The Final- Federer would be the favorite- he leads Dimitrov 6-0 and has won four of those matches in straight sets. The match may not be that straightforward, though- Dimitrov has made significant progress this season and may be due his watershed moment. One thing is pretty certain, though, whatever the outcome, the story will be a popular one- a Federer victory aged 36 or Dimitrov breaking through to win his biggest title yet- and the tennis should be very pretty, too.

So, what will we get at this year’s ATP WTF- horror show or showstopper?

The ATP WTF comes at the end of a grueling season, and while the tournament may be big on prestige it can be low on quality with the outcomes often too predictable and with most of the matches one-sided, lackluster non-contests. This year, while there may be some horror show moments, with the resurgence of Federer and Nadal, the rise of Thiem, Zverev and Dimitrov, the swift comeback of Goffin, the unknown quality of Cilic, and the last dash splash of Sock, there should be enough show stopping moments to make this ATP world tour finals one tennis fans might be able to, now and then, climb out from behind their sofas, take a seat, and enjoy the show.

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Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and the Race for the Real Number One

By Christian Deverille | Published: October 19, 2017
Federer Nadal

Photo courtesy of www.tdg.cn

Rafa Nadal’s Beijing win and run to the Shanghai final looks, on paper, like it might have helped seal him the year end No.1 ranking- the Spaniard has 10,465 points to second ranked Roger Federer’s 8,505- but, those numbers might not add up, to some, to equal who was the best player in 2017, the real No.1.  Not if Roger Federer has anything to do with it, anyway.

Should, in the next few weeks, the Swiss put together a couple more title runs like the one he made in Shanghai, a run which saw Federer avenge his US Open loss to del Potro and increase his 2017 head to head lead over Rafa Nadal to 4-0, (and cut the deficit to 15-23), then, as was the tradition before rankings began on August 23 1973 when journalists, pundits and player’s associations ranked the pros, and, as has been the case many seasons since, including last year when the WTF championship match decided the year end No.1, Murray winning the numbers contest, but Djokovic’s two slams versus the Scot’s one elevating him to, for many, player of the year, this season will also provide fans with another Who Was the Best Player of the Season debate to keep us busy in the off season. 

The Computer No.1 versus the Real No.1 debate is always contentious, but what will likely make this one so hard to pick a side in is that Federer and Nadal have split the four slams, and if that contest is decided on a tiebreak, Federer has the slight edge with his Australian Open run  arguably the toughest road to one of the slam trophies this season, the Swiss, after six months away from the pro tour, beating Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori, Stan Wawrinka, and Rafa Nadal, those last three matches all going the distance, and the final one a match in which he came down from 0-3 in the final set versus a player who had a 9-2 slam record over him.

Slams are not the only department in which both men share the same numbers. Both men have four other titles, but Federer has the edge here, too, his title haul the more impressive, comprising of three ATP 1000s ((Indian Wells, Miami, Shanghai) and one ATP 500 (Halle) while Nadal has two ATP 1000s (Monte Carlo, Madrid). and two ATP 500s (Barcelona, Beijing)

If Nadal ends the year ranked No.1, there will be no debate, in some fan’s eyes, eyes which stick to the computer ranking to tell them who was the season’s best player. They will argue that season-long consistency  trumps smartly scheduled flashes of brilliance, and Nadal has certainly been the more consistent, reaching ten finals to Federer’s seven, and has played more events (16 to Federer’s ten) ratcheting up a win loss record of 65-10 to Federer’s 44-4, the Spaniard’s only dip in form occurring between winning the French Open at the beginning of June to winning the US Open in early September (in that eleven week period, Nadal went 6-3; Federer went 11-1).

That Nadal dip and Federer rise, in the European and U.S Summer, was down to scheduling, and both men have had very different approaches to that integral factor of a best player of the year’s season. Nadal, after a surprisingly fruitful start to the season, really went prize picking in the Clay run, while Federer, who won the first big three titles of the season, skipped the entire clay season. That decision paid off for Federer in handsome style, the Swiss showcasing his panache for Grass in dominating style, getting his hands on the Wimbledon trophy for the first time since 2012, and also strengthening another grasp, his recent hold of Nadal in the Fedal head to head, one which has now seen him win five consecutive times against the Spaniard for the first time in the head to head, a hold which may have been a prime asset in the very decisive Shanghai final outcome.

While Scheduling and knowing when to rest has mostly paid off for Federer- witness his Australian Open run after six months of the tour to rest his knee and his Wimbledon run after missing the Clay season- Federer is not all scheduling genius. The Swiss’ decision to play Montreal rather than rest another week and play his much loved Cincinnati played a villainous part in an early US Open loss, and if  he had gone for the Cincy option instead, a healthy Federer would likely have won the title and gone deeper in New York, and the 2017 Best player of the season debate would have been settled once and for all.

As if- In the Federer Nadal Rivalry Tale there is no once and for all. This debate runs deeper than who was the better player in 2017, deeper than both men’s draws through the four slams this year, running all the way back to a balmy evening in Miami in Spring 2004, spanning 13 years and 38 matches, and potentially flowing all the way to the Tokyo Olympics and beyond. This one is about Fedal. The Federer- Nadal rivalry has been the story of the ATP tour for the last 13 years and when both men have produced the kind of tennis elevating them above the rest of the tour over the course of an entire season. as they did from 2005-2008 and have done in 2017, a tennis different in styles, but alike in passion, a tennis of diversity and parallels which makes Fedal not just the headline in men’s tennis, but one of the headlines in world Sport.

Those headlines will have to wait at least a couple of weeks though with scheduling and rest once again rearing its oh so sensible head now that the status of computer No.1 and the real No.1 is coming down to the wire and both men are trying to make sure they do not lose their footing on the tightrope walk to grabbing one accolade if not both.

Nadal’s withdrawal from Basel means we will not get to see that sporting highlight in the Swiss’ home city where Federer’s Nadal head to head deficit cutting began, the Swiss defeating Nadal in three sets in the 2015 final. But, if fans are fortunate, the Fedal rivalry could be played out twice more in 2017, in Paris-Bercy and the WTF. If that is the case, then Federer will have the chance of a tennis legend’s ever increasing lifetime to not only cut down the head to head deficit even further, and weaken an often used argument in the G.O.A.T debate, that a G.O.A.T could not have a lopsided head to head record against another G.O.A.T rival, but to also stake his claim to that status even further on the back of a multi slam, multi Masters, WTF winning season a decade on from the last time he achieved that feat.

Fans should not count on Federer getting too far in Paris, though, and making it four ATP 1000s for the year. The tournament has not been especially successful for either player- Federer winning once (2011), his sole appearance in the final in ten visits, and Nadal reaching the final in 2007, the Spaniard having only competed there five times, the end of the season often the stage at which his season is done and dusted, the clay from the Spring caked too generously to his feet and legs. This year, though, Nadal’s health, as it did in 2010 and 2013, stood up to the grueling grind demanded of a Roland Garros-US Open season double, and if the Asian Swing has not finished him off, then a decade on, he could have another shot at the trophy.

Meanwhile, at the WTF, Federer has the clear upper-hand in the Fedal story, leading 4-1 at that event, the lower bounce and indoor conditions suiting him better. The importance that potential WTF match plays in the  real No.1 debate is not lost on Federer, scheduling once again proving decisive in his decision making at the age of 36, the Swiss saying he is still undecided whether or not he will compete in Basel and Bercy or save himself for his priority, the WTF.

Federer’s scheduling decisions may end up being largely influenced by Nadal’s own scheduling choices- if the Spaniard pulls out of Basel and Paris, and Federer wins both, the rankings deficit would be just 460 points, and if Federer then beat Nadal in the WTF championship match to clinch No.1, or if Nadal won the WTF for the very first time, filling in the final hole in his career resume, and beat Federer in the process, then the debate would no longer be just about who the real No.1 is, but would also be about where this season ranks as either player’s, and Fedal’s, very best.

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What Is Men’s Tennis Going to Serve up in the Last Stretch of the Season?

By Christian Deverille | Published: September 29, 2017
Federer Nadal

Photo courtesy of dnaindia.com

With Nadal on the march for the Year-end No.1 ranking, Federer looking to end his year in style, del Potro showing signs of life again, Zverev and Dimitrov establishing themselves in the top ten, and new names like Gojowyczk and Dzumhur etched on trophies, the end of the year could serve up some quality tennis for fans. The Tennis Review has five questions on what the end of season is going to serve up for us.

Will Nadal finish No.1?

2017 is shaping up to be a No.1 ending year for Nadal. The Spaniard has 9,465 points, 1960 more than 2nd ranked Roger Federer, who has said he will not be chasing the No.1 ranking, 2,675 more than 3rd ranked Andy Murray who is injured, and 5155 points above fourth placed Alexander Zverev, so it looks like as long as Nadal puts in some strong performances here and there over the next few months a fourth year end No.1 finish is his for the taking.

In the years Nadal has finished year-end No.1 (2008, 2010, 2013), he has had a solid Indoor season in two of them, winning Tokyo and reaching the ATP WTF finals in 2010 and making the finals of Beijing, the semis of Shanghai and Paris, and the final of the WTF in 2013.

Nadal looks like he might not just repeat that kind of success this season, but exceed it. Federer will be his main obstacle – the Swiss might not be hunting No.1, but a high level of play could bring it his way regardless- and Nadal might still be vulnerable to a big hitter or feeling the effects of his very productive season, but it is highly possible the 16 time slam champ won’t have to be brilliant to finish as No.1- he has already put in the hard work this year, now he just has to be good enough, which is what No.1 is, for the most time, all about.

Federer Nadal

Photo courtesy of twitter.com

Will Federer end his year as he started it?

Roger Federer will certainly go into the end of season stretch on a high after his Laver Cup experience, a lift he needed after his injury hit US Summer.

Federer has traditionally played some of his best tennis in the end of season stretch and, if he is healthy, will be expected to win titles in Basel and Shanghai, two of the faster surfaces on the tour, and reach the later stages of Paris (where his participation depends on how well he does at Basel and Shanghai) and the WTF.

A run like that still might not be enough for Federer to leap frog Nadal for year end No.1, but winning a couple of big events would put the wind back in his season’s sails and send him flowing in smoothly into the new season and the Australian Open.

Will del Potro break back into the top 20?

Del Potro breathed some life into a a comeback that was starting to stagnate when he came back from two sets to love down versus Thiem and then showed just why he is considered one of the game’s greatest big match players when he upset Roger Federer on a run to the US Open semis.

That breathe could get even more fiery now that events like Basel, Vienna Shanghai and Stockholm are coming up. del Potro has won Basel twice (’12, ’13), Vienna once (’12), and been a runner-up (’11), and been a finalist in Shanghai (’13). That end of season pedigree means a healthy del Potro could fly further up the rankings (currently ranked 24) and get a top 16 seed for next season’s Australian Open. In the next couple of months, del Potro’s main points to defend are Stockholm (250) and Basel (50), and with 625 points between him and world No.16 Sam Querrey, some strong runs in the next couple of months could be a welcome jump for del Potro and a sigh of relief for the world’s top 16 as they line up to compete in the first slam of 2017.

Where next for Zverev and Dimitrov?

Zverev and Dimitrov have been the breakthrough players of 2017 and both built on that success going into the US Open, winning ATP 1000 titles in Montreal and Cincinnati, but both also failed to consolidate at the season’s final slam, the two top tenners bowing out in the second round.

The final stretch of the season should inspire both of them with Zverev and Dimitrov having enjoyed success at this stage in years past, Dimitrov winning his first career title in Stockhom (’13) and Zverev in St. Petersburg (’16).

The two should have plenty of motivation, too, with the chance to qualify for the ATP WTF and improve on their already career high rankings. The question is how much do Zverev and Dimitrov have to give after a long season and where will their heads and bodies be- on the court fighting to win points and trophies or on the beach getting some well deserved rest before the upcoming trip Down Under?

Will we see more surprise title winners like Peter Gojowczyk or Damir Dzumhur?

With the end of season stretch hit by injuries and absences, the ATP 250 and 500 events are events where some new names could end up etched on trophies. Already during this end of season stretch, in Metz, Peter Gojowczyk won his first title and climbed to a career high No.66 in the rankings, and Damir Dzumhur won his first title and hit a career high of 40 after winning in St. Petersburg.

Both men had been around the tour a while (Gojowczyk turned pro in 2006, Dzumhur in 2011) and were primed to take their chance when it came their way, and there are plenty of other experienced and skilled players who will be entering the final events of the season hungry to upset the more established higher ranked pros or make the most of collapsed draws on their way to etching their names on to their first tour trophies and giving tennis fans some new names to talk about as this season draws to a close and the new one comes into view.

 

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Five Questions with British Wheelchair Grand Slam Champion Alfie Hewett

By Christian Deverille | Published: September 26, 2017
Hewett

Photo courtesy of thetennisfoundation.org.uk

Wheelchair tennis pro Alfie Hewett has had a stellar season, winning a Singles slam at Roland Garros and winning back to back doubles slam with Gordon Reid at Wimbledon and the US Open. The Tennis Review caught up with Norfolk born Alfie and asked him five questions on how he got into the game, his favorite shot, and what it was like playing at Wimbledon and the US Open.

How did you get into tennis?

My mum was the big reason I got into Tennis. She took me to Stoke Mandeville where I trialed lots of disability sports. Tennis was one of three that I found really fun, so when I came back to Norwich I started to take up disability tennis lessons locally and found my journey just spiraled up from there.

 Who inspired you growing up?

Growing up I always looked up to Shingo Kunieda, I thought he was unstoppable and just simply amazing for the sport. His speed around the court and the way he became invincible really inspired me to work hard.

What is your favorite shot?

My favorite shot to play is probably the backhand down the line when I am on the stretch as I like to really go for it hard. It is one of those shots where it is all or nothing and so when they do come off its quite a feeling.

 What was your favorite thing about competing at Wimbledon?

My favorite thing about competing at Wimbledon was playing on court 3 in the doubles final. The crowd was behind us all the way and the atmosphere was electric to play in at times. To then win in the dramatic way we did (third set tiebreak) made it that much more tense but also special when once won.

How does the US Open compare with Wimbledon?

The US Open has a different feel to Wimbledon. It’s one of the biggest tennis events on the tour so it took some adjusting, finding where everything was and getting to know the place. Because of it being bigger, I found it more free to go around, both in the stadium and the grounds, which is something I like. All slams have their own value and I really enjoyed the vibe and atmosphere that the people brought to this slam.

 

 

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ATP Tour Time to Bring the End of Season to Life Again

By Christian Deverille | Published: September 22, 2017
ATP Tour

Photo courtesy of revistatenis.uol.com.br

Fans of David Nalbandian will know the featured photo above and fondly so- the Argentine proudly holding his 2005 ATP WTF trophy which he won ranked 12, as a replacement for Andy Roddick, beating Roger Federer in a five set final. Five set finals, inspiring upsets, surprise winners, the factors present in Nalbandian’s ’05 WTF trophy run added drama, variety and entertainment to the end of the tennis season. The Tennis Review argues it is time to bring the ATP end of season back to life once again.

Shorten the season and increase the quality

The Tennis season is one of sport’s longest, beginning, for some, a few days before the start of the next calendar year, and going all the way, for some, to Paris Bercy, and for several into late November with the WTF and the Davis Cup final.

For some players, the season never really ends with exhibitions such as the IPTL, and lower ranked players still fighting for points and prize-money on the challenger and futures circuits into late November and late December, which, with tennis such an expensive sport to take up as a career, is an opportunity to earn money all year round, one lower ranked pros cannot afford to lose.

Those players have to survive that far into the season first, though. Once the US Open is done, many players are burned out and injured, with the top ranked pros often withdrawing from tournaments from New York onwards, or, as has happened this season, some not even making it to the year’s final slam, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori taking the rest of the year off in the season’s final quarter and Andy Murray withdrawing just after the draw was done, their absence allowing other players to pick up prize money and ranking points but meaning many tournaments lack the big names who draw in the crowds.

Fans burn out, too. Many fans switch off once the US Open is done with the tour staying with hard courts, outdoor and indoor, many of which are medium slow as already seen in the North American Summer swing and the Spring swing.

Speed up courts and add some variety

If you are going to keep the tour going after the year’s final slam, considering fans have already seen plenty of hard court tennis already in the season,  why not give them something different?

One controversial tennis issue is surface homogenization so why not help settle this debate and have the final fifth of the year played on fast indoor courts like it used to be up until the early 2000s? Back in the 90s there were criticisms that fast indoor courts made tennis all about the serve, but things may have gone, in the eyes of some, too much to the other extreme with defensive tennis prevailing over offensive indoors.

If courts were sped-up, there would be plenty of fans, of fast court tennis and variety in general, who would stick with the tour all the way to a faster, and for those fans, a sweeter end, and for those fans who did like more extended rallies, there would still be some to satisfy them in the earlier rounds when baseline players were still in the event.

Speeding up the courts would also help players who were more aggressive and struggled outside of the Grass season (five weeks long in a fifty week season) and the odd event in Rotterdam, Cincinnati, and Shanghai. More tournaments suiting their style would allow aggressive players to climb the rankings, perhaps even get seeded for Wimbledon and the US Open. It would also encourage young players who enjoyed a more aggressive tennis style to adopt that game, and such versatility would only be good for the tour.

Watch highlights of the classic Sampras-Becker 1996 Stuttgart final below:

Make the WTF 32 person knock out event to engage more fan bases

For many fans, especially those of players outside of the top 8, there is little incentive to watch the season finale. There is the slight excitement of the chance your favorite player ranked from 9-16 could compete in the ATP WTF, as Nalbandian’s fans experienced in 2005, but even then most players and fan bases are excluded.

The ATP have tried to solve this problem for fans of the #NextGen who, apart from Sascha Zverev this season, are not ranked high enough to qualify for the finals by introducing the #NextGen finals but the gimmicks which will be used at that event mean it won’t be played in the conditions fans are used to and is in danger of being more exhibition experiment than a credible contest.

The ATP WTF is also a disappointment at times with the qualifying players struggling with injuries and exhaustion, and many a one sided match up playing out. Even the year end No.1 is often settled way before the season ending, last year being the first time the final decided the year end tour leader.

That lack of competition means the ATP WTF seems like a glorified money making exhibition rather than what it could be, and should be – an exciting finale to the year end. A 32 man event, or 48 with some first round byes, played indoors, on a fast court would mean the end of the year would both satisfy a multitude of fan-bases and allow more aggressive players to come forward.

It might also allow us to see another side of the tour’s established players, encouraging them to attack more and be more vulnerable, making them, in their vulnerability, more interesting.

Have a Fifth Set in the ATP WTF Final

With the two ATP WTF finalists likely to be in strong form, especially if the season were shortened, they could summon the energy to make a contest of the last final of the year, and not just any championship match, but a five set one, the format played in slams and Davis Cup,  a match which, if they win, would see them crowned the WTF champ.

We would never have witnessed Nalbandian’s greatest moment, either, had we not had best of five set ATP finals- the Argentine came back from two sets down to win in five.

See the highlights of Nalbandian’s win over Federer at the 2005 WTF final below.

Turn the WTF into a fifth slam

Even better than a 48 player season finale would be a fifth slam.

Tennis has broken with tradition to move with the times often enough, such as changing from wooden to graphite rackets, changing technology of strings, kit and footwear, and changing the surfaces at slams and later the speeds. But one tradition tennis does not want to embrace is the idea of a fifth slam.

Slams are, in the eyes of some, the be all and end all of tennis, and the build up to slams is one of the most exciting and intriguing periods of the tennis season. A fifth slam, an idea advocated by tennis great John Newcombe, on fast courts, indoors, in a place like China, India, or Brazil, would add a whole new dimension to the sport, delivering a change in style to fans, widening the pool of slam champs (do we need the same winners year in year out that we now seem to have?) and adding an injection of unpredictability to the sport, a boost all sports need, and without which you get what we have now – an anticlimax of a season end when we could have a page turner instead.

 

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