Championship Tennis Tours Blog

With this one match, both players will again redefine their careers. Just by taking out Andy Murray I think Roddick and arguably given his career and new birth.  He’s played amazingly throughout this tournament with great victories and steady, strong tennis.  Not folding mentally like in recent memory.A USA sweep of Wimbledon with a Roddick win would be impressive considering it’s been so long since the Men’s side has produced any Championships since Roddick 2002 US Open victory over Hewitt.

Written by Byron Vale

The shadow of last year’s final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer looms large over Wimbledon 2009. The greatest match of all time they called it. How do you top that? You can’t. History cannot be repeated. That glorious match on a rain-interrupted Sunday afternoon is just a memory. It is now a part of Wimbledon legend, like the Borg-McEnroe tie-break, Becker’s victory in 1986 and Fred Perry’s three in a row. Using last year’s tournament as a guide to The Championships this year would be like driving a car using the rearview mirror. In fact the tennis landscape has changed so dramatically in a month that it may be most useful to start with a blank slate. The world number one and reigning men’s champion Rafael Nadal is currently undergoing intensive treatment on his knees and he may not be fit to defend his title. While Roger Federer, who had lost so much in the preceding 12 months, enters Wimbledon having won a first French Open and equalling the record for most Grand Slam wins. Before Nadal’s injury Andy Murray was considered the player most likely to break the Federer-Nadal duopoly. Now the Scot, who has won three titles this year, including two Masters events, on his way to a career-high ranking of three in the world, stands to gain most from the Spaniard’s absence. In the year of Fred Perry’s 100th birthday, could Wimbledon have a British champion again? Anything beyond the second round would be an improvement on last year for Novak Djokovic, but the world number four will not be happy unless he features at the business end of The Championships, not least because he has beaten Federer twice this year and challenged Nadal on his natural home, clay. A strong line-up in the men’s top 10 plus some dangerous unknowns – who would fancy drawing Marat Safin in his final Wimbledon appearance? – make The Championships in 2009 difficult to predict. If men’s tennis has been given an almighty shake, then the woman’s draw has been in a state of flux for some time. Three players have held the number one ranking already this year – two of whom have never won a Grand Slam – so victory at Wimbledon could provide someone with the impetus to take control of the game. Venus Williams must start favourite as she makes her second attempt at a Wimbledon hat-trick. The last time, in 2002, she was thwarted in the final by her sister, and Serena Williams appears the one most likely to derail her Championship ambitions again. A Wimbledon title, meanwhile, will give legitimacy to the claims of current number one Dinara Safina, who has now lost three Grand Slam finals and another former number one Jelena Jankovic. The French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has reached the quarter-finals three times at the All England Club but this is the first time she enters the tournament with Roland Garros under her belt. The glamour names on tour, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, are fighting back from injury and indifferent form respectively. Both were eliminated early in 2008 and neither will be planning a repeat. While Andy Murray won’t be the only Brit flying the Union flag. British women will be well represented in the main draw, particularly worth watching will be Anne Keothavong and last year’s junior winner Laura Robson. The players are the same but different this year, and so is the All England Club. The roof over Centre Court has been completed, successfully tested and is ready for use. While the new sunken No.2 Court will also make its Championship debut. So many stories this year, so many possibilities, but on 5 July there will only be history again.

Good morning from Paris, Sunday, June 7th, the morning of the Men’s final to begin at 3pm local time…….just enjoying an amazing omlette with my wife from the sun drenched, tree lined, Place de la Sorbonne at a little cafe with the wifi access, le Tabac de la Sorbonne.  Ok Roger, here’s your chance, it’s 70 degrees and sunny, conditions are perfect…i hope you got a lot of rest, even if it’s not easy knowing the next day your going to play the match of your life  in front of a worldwide audience of millions and millions, which could ultimately determine your place as the finest male ever to pick up a racket…you’ll be joining a very exclusive list of just two, you and Andre Agassi who’ve won grand slam titles on all four surfaces.  Yes Rod, Roy, and Fred each won titles at each of the four grand slams, but only you and Andre will have done it on every type of playing surface. In addition, you’ll be tying Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam Titles…This city is a buzz with the visit of the Obamas whose motorcade is zipping throughout this city… we saw them actually flash by us last night while we were heading off for our nightly stroll, eat, stroll….We  saw the motorcade whiz by the Metro Odeon where we were standing, then we saw the first family again very very briefly by chance high up on the second level of the perch at the Notre Dame waving to the masses who gathered around to get a glimpse. Often in Paris if you stand in one spot long enough you’ll see something a bit disturbing…in the same area where one sees lookalike Techno Twins from the ATT commercials juggling fire sticks, there were a few homeless guys turned politicos commentating a bit too vociferously about Sarko and Obama and had to be physically removed, it was a bit of a mess…anyway I transgress….so Robin Soderling will be the biggest spoiler at this event in a long time if he can actually take  out Rafa and Fedex in the same tournament, with everything at stake, let’s just hope it’s not to be and Roger can finally lift the Coupe de Mousquetaires and once and for all and end all arguments about who really is the greatest player of all time. Allez Roger, let’s get it done!  Or else there we’ll have to put up a photo of Soderling and Kutnesova on our site (oy boy) and let’s not mention the sea of Red Swiss Flags and women crying in the streets………..uuuuugh, my omelette is getting cold

The ususal suspects have been taking care of business. One by one they continue their march into the thinner air…as the prestigious guest list of the second week party gets determined like a chic party in the upper east side.   Roland Garros is jammed packed, everywhere you go there’s people on top of people.  You go to a food stand, packed, a souvenir stand, packed, a “remote” practice court packed, the box office, the restrooms….it’s just packed.  “Plein comme un oeuf” as the French say.  The Tournament Directors have been drueling, conniving for years now on how to expand into the lush green woods of the neighboring Bois de Bologne situated just next door as this tournament over the past 15 years has grown too big for it’s shoe. It really is a problem as the tournament tries to strike a balance between having a Sport which is as they say “Reserve Pour Tous” (Reserved for everyone) a bit of a play of words, while maintaining something still that remains exclusive to the top paying corporate sponsors.   It’s perhaps the most international of the four slams as it sits squarely at the heart of Europe, and equal distance from many of the  world’s population centers.   In any event, I digress.   Today saw a quick end to the dreams of the French  Public to see a modern version of a yanick noah holding up the Coupe de Mousquataires…… French Player Josselin Ouanna, who I like to call Obama, cause it’s easier for me to remember, gave the local crowd a hero to encourage and cheer on…He should incredible grit hanging in to outduel Safin in the 2nd round only to be beaten soundly by Chilean strongman Fernando Gonzalez in straigh sets..

For a good number of years, Roger Federer was the undisputed world No1 and “best of the rest” on clay. Those days are past now, and though he made the final here the past three years, the Swiss maestro knows that he will have his work cut out if he is to conquer the one Grand Slam title which still eludes him.

Will Roger Federer ever win Roland Garros? The question is almost an answer in itself. The 27-year-old has no fewer than 13 Grand Slam titles to his legendary name, but he is certainly not the man he once was when sweeping all before him on the circuit, suffering only four defeats in total in 2005 and five in 2006. Nobody doubted at the time that he would add the one Grand Slam title that was missing from his trophy cabinet – the French Open.

And then along came Rafael Nadal, and for the past four years, Federer’s campaigns have foundered on the rocks strewn by the majestic Majorcan’s fierce topspin. Fast forward to 2009, and not only has newly-wed Federer had to give up his No1 ranking, but his holy grail seems to be slipping out of reach, as if any one is going to knock Nadal off his clay throne, it is more likely to be one of the young pretenders than the “old” master.

Plumbing the depths

In an attempt to find out where it all went wrong, June 2008 would seem to be the moment when the bubble burst. In the 2006 and 2007 French Open finals, Federer tried out various options but was forced to give best to Nadal over four sets. And then came 2008. For a man who had stood like a colossus over men’s tennis for so long, to lose 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 was a veritable slap in the face. The final set looked like a capitulation on the part of the man from Basle, but a month later, the mere scratch that was Roland Garros became a flesh wound. At the end of a final that has gone down in the annals, Roger was forced to cede his most cherished title to his nemesis as Rafa won a five-setter in the Swiss’ back garden – Wimbledon. “This is a disaster,” was Federer’s reaction as he fought back the tears.

To add to these psychological setbacks, Federer also had back problems to contend with, though when he won the US Open in September, he seemed to be gearing up for a strong end to the season. After winning his home tournament in Basle however, he withdrew from the quarter-final of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris and was clearly not fully fit when he played the Masters Cup in Shanghai. 2009 began where 2008 left off: a painful, tearful defeat to Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open and back pain which forced him out of Switzerland’s Davis Cup defeat in Birmingham, Alabama.

11 consecutive defeats

It is far too early to say that Federer’s career is in decline, but the statistics do not lie. The Dubai resident has yet to win a title in six attempts in 2009, and against the three other members of the current top four in the world (Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray), he has slipped to no fewer than 11 consecutive defeats! What seemed to be a problem with one player and one player alone now seems to be spreading. Andy Murray has beaten him four times in a row, while Novak Djokovic knocked him out at the 2009 Masters 1000 tournaments in Miami and Rome, coming from behind both times. Federer even shattered a racquet in anger in Florida – a first for the usually calm Swiss mister, and perhaps a reflection of how two of his main weapons – his service and forehand – have begun to let him down. “I don’t usually miss out on chances like that,” rued Federer after the defeat in Miami.

Is Federer tired – either physically, mentally or both – or merely going through a sticky patch? Opinion is divided, but one thing that most observers find puzzling is that the five-time Wimbledon champ still refuses to hire a full-time coach. “Regardless of who you are, all these negative questions that people keep asking time after time in press conferences end up getting to you,” said Paul Annacone, former coach of Pete Sampras, on ESPN.com.

Is Johnny Mac the man that can?

Help might be at hand from an unlikely source, with none other than John McEnroe widely quoted in the media as saying: “I would love to help Roger – I’ve got a pretty good idea of what he needs to do to beat Nadal“. Mac or no Mac, some would say that this particular ship has sailed, particularly on clay. When asked at the beginning of the season how he saw his chances of finally winning in Paris, Federer maintained that he did not have a problem with clay, merely a problem with Rafa, but his subsequent results have failed to bear this out.

Perhaps the one thing that will finally spur him on to fulfil his seemingly impossible dream is the fact that he is clearly getting tired of being asked why he cannot seem to beat Nadal on clay. Champions are a proud breed, and this could be what Roger needs to overcome the final hurdle and finally lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires…

If you ever wanted to see two guys go at it, this was one of those matches!

The Australian Open has arrived and big names are in the headlines!  Since we last spoke, defending champion Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Australian Open due to her slower than expected recovery following a shoulder injury.  Looks like she won’t be able to defend her 2008 title!

I will begin with updating you on various matches that have taken place thus far: 

Top-rankedRafael Nadal was victorious today over  Belgium’s Christophe Rochus 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round at the Open.

Andy Roddick beat out Sweden’s 31-year-old Bjorn Rehnquist,6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

Serena Williams, who is seeking her 10th Grand Slam title, beat China’s 123rd ranked Yuan Meng with a 6-3/ 6-2 win.

#6 ranked Venus Williams beat out Angelique Kerber  of Germany with a 6-3/6-3 victory.

Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva beat Germany’s Kristina Barrois 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-1.

Also advancing were No. 13 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo of France and No. 22 Zheng Jie of China.

No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland became the highest seeded player to be ousted, falling to Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko.

Anyway, there was a lot more tennis…and a lot more to come. So I will keep you posted on my personal favorite matches as they occur!

Jokovic 2008

Hi Tennis Fans! It is another new year and you know what that means– the annual tennis season kicks off with a vengeance at the 2009 Australian Open in Melbourne on January 19th–only one week from today! Due to the fact that there are so many avid tennis fans out there I have decided to begin this blog as a way to communicate about the tournaments, players, and stories that are presently happening in the ‘tennis world!’ I would like for any of you readers to feel free to comment on my posts or notify me of your own stories of interest occurring in tennis.  For all of you that follow tennis you know there is a lot to talk about–so lets get started!

As I previously mentioned The First Grand Slam Event of the year, the Australian Open,  is right around the corner…and tickets are still currently available! If you are interested you can go to  tennistours.com and learn more about their ticket packages and pricing…If you followed the 2008 Australian Open you were not disappointed! And this year is sure to be just as satisfying! The 2008 tournament was the 96th Edition of the Open and was the first year they changed to Plexicushion courts, which is said to be a faster surface! Last year in men’s singles Novak Djokovic was the first Serbian man to win a a Grand Slam title with a four-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga! (Which was also his first Grand Slam win!) And on the women’s side,  Maria Sharapova won her third Grand Slam singles titile over Ana Ivanovic.

This years Australian Open will last a total of 13 days with both day and evening sessions.  And will include not only the men’s and women’s singles, but men’s and women’s doubles, mixed doubles, juniors and wheelchair tennis matches–something for everyone! We will be sure to update you on the matches as they occur!

More to come soon!