The Rent Is Too Damn High (Finals)

And we have the "epic" final downunder!  Djokovic beats Nadal 80, 66, 45, 88, 74.  Just two days after he beat Murray 47, 65, 88, 25, 65  (elapsed time each set).

I say, The Rent Is Too Damn High.

Djokovic may be the world's best persistence hunter, but the best tennis player? Are they even playing tennis? Where is the shot-making? Tivo considerations aside, why are they taking 30 seconds between points? Move to the net and prepare to be passed. Nadal was so strong and continued to cover so much court at 5-5, 30-all in the 5th set that Djokovic still couldn't get a winner past him. It's insane!

Even a three set final would have been over 3 hours, which is considered pretty standard for American football, a bit more than an NBA game, and double a soccer match (all of which are team sports).

The Ladies' Final lasted only 82 minutes. What sport are they playing? The irony is that women tend to perform better athletically at endurance than men on a relative basis (in marathons and ultra-marathons, yes there is such a thing). Azarenka is the new world #1 with her Grand Slam Championship, wasting Sharapova 6-0 going away in the second set.

So the fight and the heart shown by these two great tennis players and warriors is truly amazing, but where do we go from here? Can Nadal play better, and what would that really mean in the context of this match? Can he show more will to win?

For me the Federer/Nadal semi-final was the best match of the tournament. There was a true contrast of style and approach that was lacking in Djoker/Murray and Djoker/Rafa. Roger hit the best shots of any player, he initiates the attack, he moves forward, he is a creative problem solver. The main comment from Pat McEnroe was that he should be more predictable and just keep hitting to the Lefty's backhand. This is the state we are in. Because Nadal's and Djokovic's defense is too damn good and the rent is too damn high!

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The Bryan Bros could not win their record Slam. They lost 6-7, 2-6 to Paes/Stepanek.  Interesting stat for winners-to-errors: Doubles Final= 63-to-9; Singles final= 101-to-140.

Challenger at KRC (Semi-finals)

It was a beautiful day for tennis on the windward side Saturday.

Three of the four singles semi-finalists were from Japan.  Soeda v Ito was the matchup of the highest ranked players. For stretches it was a clinic on how to rally at a high level while keeping the ball just barely over the net. But there would also be some ugly stretches as I'm sure these guys were wearing each other out with the relentless game. Very few clean winners.

In the second semi-final Robby Ginepri ran into a flawless performance from Yuichi Sugita. Sugita could not miss in the first set.  Robby had to weather the storm and come back in the final two sets to deliver us the ideal final between the former #15 in the world against Go Soeda, the top seed and current #99.   I think set one is a coin flip, but I like Ginepri as the match goes deeper.  He's got the bigger game.

Doubles final should also be really fun to see.  Jack Sock and his partner going up against Amer Delic and his partner.  Delic is the former NCAA champion for Illinois and Sock is too young and good to even bother with college tennis.

I asked Sock why he chose to come play this Challenger. He said that he has been playing well lately and wanted to keep the streak going. Wanted to get some more matches. I think he got what he wanted, because he played well and only went down to Go #99 Soeda in 3 sets. He'll be playing in Dallas next...

I've got a cool sequence of Delic serving with a butterfly. That plus more photos from the event here. All the guys Ito, Soeda, Delic, Sugita, Ginepri...

El Classico (Day 11)

What more can you say about this rivalry? Federer / Nadal is just off the charts for quality. Federer came out of the gates guns blazing. He took an early lead, but Nadal broke back on a couple loose serve-and-volley plays from Fed. You simply can't come to the net against Nadal. His running forehands can curl behind you or in front of you, it is ridiculous. Even though Fed's backhand was as good as it has ever been and he forced a few errors, Nadal just covers too much court. 
   Federer did have plenty of chances in the match. He even had a couple of break points in the final game of the match. On one, Nadal threw up a completely desperate lob which luckily fell on the baseline and Federer sliced his overhead wide. On two of Federer's breaks in the match, Nadal broke right back. 
   The overall feeling to me was that Federer's offense had to be so good to win a point against Nadal's defense. His passing shots from way off the court after good, even great, volleys were just insane. Keep in mind these shots would literally be off almost any recreational tennis court.
   I also think it really helps Nadal that he is a lefty. Federer can only go to his backhand so many times. His approaches are more based on his inside-out forehand which go right to Nadal's strength. Also Nadal's ad-court serve can easily swing way out wide to Fed's one-hand backhand.
   I wish that good offense were better rewarded, but Nadal & Djokovic are both just too great on defense.  Sit back and watch even more "D" tonight between Murray and Djoker.
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The Ladies Final is set with Maria Sharapova v Victoria Azarenka.  The winner will be the AO Champion and the new #1 ranked player in the world.


The Bryan Twins are in the Men's Doubles Final which, I believe, will follow the Ladies final on Saturday night (Melbourne time).
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At the Challenger at KRC on Wednesday night, Jack Sock looked strong. Big power from the serve and forehand. There were some incredible points in the first set, both players seemed to be on their game, but Sock just had too easy of a time holding serve, so it wasn't close. Overall he looked very tough, but his backhand is a little soft and his forehand is a bit wild. He moves fairly heavily around the court (lots of squeaking from his shoes). The way I see it, he has a lot of room to improve, and potentially be the next bright American star... 

the Generations of Tennis (Day 10)

Kei "Sweet Timing" Nishikori got swept by Murray. Murray should be as fresh as can be for the Semis... 

Likely Djokovic will be there to meet him (though no point is coming easy against Ferrer). Djoker/Murray are actually classic rivals only 7 days apart in age. A win for Murray could really legitimize him as not-just-perpetually-#4. So even though everyone is primed for Federer and Nadal, both semifinals are tremendous. Unfortunately for Murray, Novak is just moving too well. He looks untouchable. He's like playing against a computer, one that doesn't miss or let anything pass.

The generations of tennis.  Federer and Rod Laver (not the arena, the tennis great) join the ESPN2 studio.

FEDERER: I remember how happy I was when I had a chance to play Sampras, or Agassi still, and you know Moya and Henman and all these guys I knew from TV. For me that was the most exciting time of my life. To all of a sudden to stand opposite to Goran Ivanisevic, who I remember smashing racquets on TV. I'm playing him and he's smashing racquets against me. You know, that was big!

Challenger at KRC (Day 2)

At the Challenger at KRC this week we've got some really interesting talents and stories.  A few NCAA champs, some up-and-coming stars and junior champs, players directly from early round losses in Melbourne, international hopefuls from Japan to Zimbabwe, and past champs on the ATP World Tour.

Check out Hawaii's best player, Dennis Lajola, against US Open Juniors 2010 champion Jack Sock. I'll be there.

Wednesday Schedule

Welcome to the Fed FUn HOuSe (Day 9)

Roger had it all working against del Potro. Early and often. He went up 3-Love with 7 winners and zero errors. Note in the final stats:38 fun house winners against 22 unforced errors. Also he won 89% of his first serve points. He used the lethal one-two of serve and forehand to control the match. But it was the backhand pick-ups off the baseline and the backhand winners down the line that made this no contest. 6-4; 6-3; 6-2.

One tense moment came at 5-3 in the second set with Roger trying to serve out the set. These are the moments where he has faltered to Djokovic and Nadal in 2011. But this time at least he prevailed

We learned that Roger is a serious contender this season and Juan Martin is just not quite back to prime grand slam form. He should be able to build up his match toughness over the summer and be ready for the US Open.
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In between men's quarters, Kimmy took out the #1 seed and former #1 ranked Wozniacki. We know there will finally be a new #1 now, but exactly who will depend on how this tournament plays out.
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Berdych played some great tennis. He is legit, but this top guys are just so unbeatable. Nadal does it again with his unbelievable competitiveness. This match featured many questionable line calls which could have gotten him off track, but Rafa just kept coming and coming and overwhelmed Tomas by the end. Nadal is just hitting these great deep balls. Federer will need to pick those backhands clean. With this semifinal matchup coming, I have no idea what could happen!

The Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific (Day 8)

Last year Li "the girl with the rose tattoo" Na broke through into the Aussie Finals, endearing us all to her (remember). This year she is bitching out her husband/coach in the aftermath of her meltdown to Kim Clijsters. It's always going to be an excruciating loss when you miss on 4 straight match points to someone with a busted ankle.

But this year we still have another Asian break through. Kei Nishikori is the first Japanese man to make the quarterfinals of Australia in 80 years! He toughed out Tsonga in 5 sets. This is huge for Japan where according to Chris Evert, "The Japanese have the best tournaments. And they just love tennis." The problem is that to keep the momentum building he will have to beat Team Murray featuring Ivan Lendl, who earned so little of a workout (6-1;6-1;1-0{ret}) that he had to go back out for more practice.

And thank you Lendl for being humorless (not counting unintentional comedy). The important thing is that he's a real Louis C.K. in his own mind...

Lendl: Jokes are meant to be jokes, they're not jokes to be told on TV, they're jokes to make you laugh.