Jo-W's War

Bold words from Jo-W Tsonga this morning - he's after the #1 ranking and he's thrown down the gauntlet to everyone else. He's not letting himself be intimidated - Jo-W is going for broke. The word 'war' was used and that sounds exactly like what Jo-W intends.

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Do I think Jo-W can get to #1? Probably not. In an era of weaker players, maybe, but we have two of the all-time greats playing at the moment in Federer and Nadal, and though Djokovic and Murray probably don't qualify for that club, they're no slouches. I could see Jo-W overtaking them, however... but #1? Probably not.

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Still, that does not mean I do not wholly applaud the sentiment. That's one of the things I really love about Jo-W - he has this totally fearless attitude. He backs himself totally. Fine, I made it to the final of the Aussie Open last year, he says. This year, I'm going to win. I love that - that undaunted, unafraid attitude. Dominant players are often dominant in part because of fear: it's a battle in the mind, where they seem invincible, so they are invincible. Jo-W doesn't have that. He believes, 100%, that he can win matches. It reminds me a lot of a certain young Mallorcan, actually... and look where that guy is now. Receiving 8 million payouts to be the face of tourism for Mallorca and the Spanish Islands. Maybe Jo-W could be the face of the Riviera or something.

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So kudos to you, Jo-W. I don't think I want you to win your war - we all know my heart lies with Roger Federer - but good on you for not being afraid to try: and if you should happen to knock off Djokovic and Murray on the way, I would not be disappointed.

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Josh's Tennis Tips

Focus: Forehand

Today's Tip: Feet and Legs

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When you follow through with your forehand you should put your front leg out in front of your body. This is to get the most out of your shots and for the best guidance of the ball.

Mallorca: Where The Bloody Hell Are You?

I wish someone wouldpay me 8 million dollars to be the face of tourism for my hometown. Man, life is sweet being a tennis player.

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Rafa Nadal has just made a massive 8 million dollar deal to be the face of Mallorca and tourism for that part of Spain. I could totally be the face of NSW. Hell, I'd be a better face of Australia than Lara 'where the bloody hell are you?' Bingle. Lucky Rafa. I pretty much have nothing else to say about that.

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Tennis starts tomorrow on New Year's Day in Abu Dhabi, with that awesome exo that everyone who's anyone is playing. It seems a very early start to the year, but there you have it. So I'm pretty much hanging out for that, and have nothing better to say than that.

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Here's Jumpin' Josh's second tip!

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Josh's Tennis Tips

Focus: Forehand

Today's Tip: Wrists and Elbows

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It is important that you do not let your wrists go floppy: you should have straight, tight wrists to guide the ball easily. If you do not maintain a tight wrist, your shots can curve and go anywhere off the court and not where you have tried to place it. The same goes for elbow and forearm: keep it straight out and do not attempt to bend it. (Note: you may have to bend your elbow on serves, volleys and spin shots.)

Wild Wild Cards

The wildcard action continues apace, with two more wildcards being awarded to Aussie girls for tournaments this summer: we have Casey Dellacqua carded into Sydney (which is hardly a surprise - actually, I'm surprised that she didn't make it in on her own recognisance. The field must be mighty.) And then we have little-known but recently-impressive Olivia Rogowska making her WTA debut in the Moorilla Hobart International.

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I've said enough about Casey over the last year for her to need no introduction, and doubtlessly I'll say more over the course of the Hopman Cup (which starts on Saturday! Finally, tennis!) but she's a beautiful little player, and I'd love to see her make a big run in Sydney. 'Nough said.

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But Olivia Rogowska... I've never seen her play, but I like the sound of her a lot. She won the very competitive Sorrento International - that was a Pro circuit tournament, yeah, but it was worth $25,000! Man, if you're good at tennis, you must make some pretty sweet dollars. Anyway, she's hardly going to win the Hobart tournament, but it's just so nice to see we have some good female players coming up. Rogowska and Jess Moore both should do well at Hobart - again, my goal is for one of them to win a match. And then with Isabella Holland and Monica Wejnert in Brisbane, I think we can be pretty proud of our girls. It'd be nice if we could have a good run in the juniors at the Aussie Open. The world better watch out for them - perhaps Monica Wejnert especially.

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And today, on Tennis From The Backseat, we are debuting a new segment. I went and played tennis with my brother Josh yesterday, who is twelve and an excellent player, and he smashed me with his topspin (his words, not mine.) He also spent a long time correcting my technique (and lack thereof) and his advice was so sound I thought it deserved a little segment of its own. So here today, I present the first of Jumping 'J-Mac' Josh's Tennis Tips:

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Josh's Tennis Tips

Focus: Forehand

Today's Tip: Gripping A Racquet

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To grip a tennis racquet you will need to create a 'V' shape with your thumb and pointer finger on the top side of the grip. You place your hand at the 'butt' (bottom of the grip) to get the most power in your shots and to reach the ball quicker. This is to prevent any injury in your wrists, forearm, biceps and triceps.

All I Want In January

Only a few days to go now till the Hopman Cup! It's starting a little later this year - it actually started in December last year, if I recall correctly - but I'm sure it's going to be worth the wait. If nothing else, it will hopefully take Australia's collective sporting mind off the current dismal situation in the cricket...
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I'm hoping that Australia's tennis summer will be bigger and better than ever before. January is the best sporting month of the year anyway, and tennis is obviously the best of it. With any luck, we'll see some of the classic matches of the year here right at the beginning - and with any luck, it's all going to come up Jodi.
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What would I like to see? I have two big requests (and a multitude of smaller ones.) #1, I want Roger Federer to regain his Australian Open crown. Let's face it, it's his. It looks weird when someone else holds up the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. And I want him, as is tradition, to face some totally random opponent in the final. I'd love for one of my Stars to be the Marcos/Gonzo/Jo-W and make the big run. Ernests Gulbis would be ideal, or maybe Marin Cilic, or even Kei Nishikori. Of course, this is all contingent on them being in Rafa's side of the draw... of course a Rafa/Roger showdown would be nice to watch, but the Aussie Open just isn't that type of tournament for me. Rafa/Roger belongs at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The Aussie and the US is for Roger/Random.
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My second request? That would be Marat Safin and Dinara Safina winning the Hopman Cup. They're effectively the top seeds now - the USA are officially the top seeds, but with Serena out, they're not really. Meghann Shaughnessy is hardly a top echelon replacement (not that she's substandard or anything, but she ain't no Serena.) This could be exactly what Marat needs to get himself back on track - a tournament won with his in-form sister. Australia's been good to him before - and hey, who wouldn't want a diamond encrusted tennis ball on their mantlepiece?
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A good run from Marat at the Aussie Open is another request of mine - I'm gunning for round of sixteen/quarter final. An early loss and crash and burn from Djokovic is not compulsory, but would be nice. I want Monica Wejnert and Isabella Holland to do themselves proud in Brisbane, and Jess Moore to do the same in Hobart. I want Bernard Tomic to have a good summer and take another junior crown. I'd like some classic matches - remember Federer/Safin in '05? I want my Stars to do well. I want Dinara Safina to win the Australian Open and Dmitry Tursunov to defend his Sydney crown.
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But most of all, I just want there to be good tennis - and for Australia not to be too busy watching the cricket to pay attention.

Bella and Miss Monica Make The Cut

I think the organisers of Brisbane have made a very wise decision in allocating their last two wildcards for the women's draw. I am quite excited about it, actually - the wildcards are going to Monica Wejnert and Isabella Holland.

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Neither girls have played a WTA senior event before, but I think they could really go well. Sure, they're both only sixteen, but they've both been so impressive lately. Isabella Holland has been impressive for a while, but Monica Wejnert has really been a standout over the last month. That semi-final of the wildcard playoff when Wejnert defeated Holland could have easily been the final. Sure, Dokic eventually ended up winning the wildcard, but for me, Wejnert/Holland was the real final.

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So do these girls have a chance? In future years, I would not be surprised at all if we were talking a whole lot about Wejnert and Holland. But this year... I would be shocked and awed if they won, but not shocked if they made it a round or two. Both of them are eminently capable of pulling an upset or a couple. I would actually love to see one of them play Ivanovic in the first round. Not only would that give them an idea of where they stand currently against one of the top women in the game, but I think one of them might actually be able to win. Julie Coin, anyone?

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One thing that would be a bit sad is if Wejnert and Holland had to play each other in the first round, but I will be very, very, very happy if one of them makes it to the second round. They may only be sixteen now, but I will not be a bit surprised if these girls are very, very good in the future.

Always Channel-Surfing

The 2009 tennis season is really sneaking up on us. Seriously, the 2008 season ended about four seconds ago, and I thought the off-season was going to seem really long, what with trying to blog through it about effectively nothing - though the December Showdown was big fun - but it's flown by.

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If I were a tennis player, I would want to just lie around for about a year after I retired and not move a muscle. Perhaps this is why I am not a top athlete. But these guys keep coming back. Sure, it's lucrative, but really, if you've been a top tennis player, you're not exactly in the gutter. So I am left to conclude that tennis players really love the sport.

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I wasn't exactly intending to go on a ramble there about the love of tennis... I guess these things happen. What I was going to talk about was the Brisbane International, a tournament which I am opposed to in principle, because there was nothing wrong with the old Gold Coast and Adelaide tournaments, and the tennis love should be spread throughout the states, but which I am a little intrigued by.

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It's going to have an interesting field, if nothing else. I am very much looking forward to seeing how Bernard Tomic fares in the men's main draw - correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is his first ATP level tournament. Only a few months after Marko Djokovic too, despite Tomic being ranked about a thousand places ahead of him. Such a shame that Bernard doesn't have a big brother to buy him into tournaments, like Novak's bought Marko into the one in Thailand and now in Brisbane (though at least Marko's only making a showing in the doubles. But still.) I would dearly love for Bernard Tomic to win a few rounds... so someone keep his dad away from the court, lest we have another scandal. I don't want Bernard to be Jelena Dokic II.

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But one thing that is going to be very intriguing is how much television coverage Brisbane will get. Traditionally, the semis and finals of Gold Coast and Adelaide, but there are heaps more big names in Brisbane... Djokovic (spit spit) and Ivanovic (Anando will be there) among them. So will Channel 7 pull out their collective finger and give me... I mean, Australia, the tennis we deserve?

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Not that I could possibly watch anything except the night sessions, because my loyalty belongs to the Hopman Cup. But there's always channel-surfing.

To Boxing, To Tennis, To Sport

Today is not only Christmas - well, Boxing Day here in Australia - but it is the birthday of Tennis From The Backseat. That's right, this little blog turns one year old today.

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I chose Boxing Day as the day to begin a blog not only because I was bored the day after Christmas and it occurred to me, but because it is pretty much the closest thing we have here to a national sporting holiday. Perhaps Melbourne Cup day (Family and Community Day my foot) could give it a run, but that's one sport. On Boxing Day we have sport all over the shop. The Boxing Day test, the Sydney-to-Hobart... Australia lazes around and works off its Christmas dinner by watching other people work hard.

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Tennis itself doesn't start till January 3 here this year when the Hopman Cup starts, but still, Boxing Day belongs as much to tennis as any other sport. (Except, possibly, boxing... fear my excellent jokes.) It is a day to celebrate sport in all its glory... and to sit around and eat your leftovers, and hit the sales, if you're really adventurous, and go swimming and to the beach and all those other good summer things. If you're in Australia, that is... I imagine that wouldn't be so good overseas.

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But today is for sport, tennis included. And let's face it... tennis is pretty awesome.

The Legendary Mark Philippoussis?

One of the top stories on the Tennis Australia website at the moment - one of the things that is REALLY BIG NEWS - is that Mark Philippoussis is going to play the Legends event at the Australian Open. Me... I have some doubts. To begin... since when is the Poo a Legend?

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Let's face it. No one likes the Poo. Even at the height of his career, no one - not even Australians - really genuinely liked the Poo. I still remember during the Sydney Olympics when there was a big to-do before the Olympics started, because none of the Australian athletes wanted to room with him, because no one liked him. I think Pat Rafter got stuck with the gig in the end, but I'm sure it was made worth his while in some fashion. I mean - he's called the Poo. He may try to plug that Scud card as much as he likes, but no one calls him that. He's the Poo. And that is just not a flattering nickname.

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His tennis career didn't suck. But at the end of the day, his greatest achievement is going to be being the answer to a trivia question no one can answer: who did Roger Federer beat to win his first ever Grand Slam? Or, alternatively, he'll be known as the guy who did a reality TV show, or the guy that cheated on Delta Goodrem with Paris Hilton. None of this really qualifies him as a legend - particularly when, according to this article, he's eyeing a return to the Davis Cup squad.

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So this begs the question - what does one need to do to be a legend? Mark Philippoussis is not one. Henri Leconte, who he'll be playing doubles with, is. So what are the criteria?

Hitting The Streets

So, after writing yesterday about how tennis is in no way Australia's favourite sport, I thought I would hit the streets, so to speak, and see what the public has to say. Well, the public is a bit of a stretch - my two subjects here are my brother Josh, who is twelve and a 'sport freak' and my sister Hayley, who is eighteen and a self-described 'non-sporter.'

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Josh says:

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"No, [tennis is not Australia's favourite sport] yet. It can be, if we get other people... We'd make them interested in the sport... we'd give them a tennis racquet and they'd go 'cool, this is cool!' I got interested in tennis because my friends were playing and Mum ordered me to play - she said, 'Jack and Alexander and all those guys are playing, so why don't you play?' So I went along on Mondays and got hot chips and after that we play tennis and now I do that every Monday."

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Josh, it must be noted, is twelve and not very articulate, but he is interested in tennis - in fact, he's a bit of an idiot savant. He hasn't had a lot of training, but he regularly wins his Saturday competitions. He is, I think, an example of an Australian who is genuinely interested in tennis. His favourite player is Roger Federer (taking after me there) but he plays tennis more like Rafa - he's left-handed and loves topspin. Josh also claims he hits the ball hard like Rafa, but the jury is still out. I'll believe it when I see it. (He just saw this and said, 'I'll play you and I'll smash you! Wanna see my topspin? You just wanna get smashed, don't you? You're just asking for it!')

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Hayley says:

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"Hell no [tennis is not Australia's favourite sport.] It isn't, because - everyone thinks it's all right, no one hates tennis - no one thinks it's a boring sport like golf or cricket and all that terrible... it's instantly entertaining, but no one's into tennis... all of Australia's not INTO tennis. [Dramatic hand gesture.] I enjoyed the tennis when Jodi took me to the final. I'm not into sport at all, but tennis is the one sport I can go and see and enjoy. I don't understand sport, but tennis is fine, because it's simple and enjoyable. There aren't many hardcore tennis fanatics like there are for other sports, though."

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Glowing endorsement for tennis there from Hayley - tennis is fine, but it's no one's favourite (except hers, clearly - my influence, perhaps?) And that really is Australia's view on sport. Tennis is fine enough, but it doesn't really rock many people's socks. So is that enough to get it named Australia's favourite sport?

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Me, Hayley and Josh are in accordance. NO.

Raindrops on Roses, Whiskers on Kittens, and... Tennis?

I just read an article on the ATP website that made the following, very surprising, claim:

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"Despite no Australian male or female player being ranked in the top 50 of the world’s tennis players, tennis retains its position as the sport in which most Australians are interested."

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Bullcrap.

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I wish it were true. But it just isn't. Tennis is nowhere near Australia's favourite sport. (What does 'interested in' mean anyway?) They must have had a very pro-tennis sample, because that is just wrong. As a nation, Australia cares about cricket, about swimming, AFL, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, occasionally horseracing. We might show a brief flicker of interest in basketball or netball occasionally. But tennis? Hell no. Not unless Pat Rafter or Lleyton Hewitt is in the final.

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You can tell every time you open a newspaper. There'll be pages on the various codes of footy, the racing guide, cricket all over the shop. Tennis? Not unless it's a Slam or Bec Cartwright has just given birth. Australians care about tennis in January, and pretty much no other time, unless someone's winning - and even in January, it's a ratings war with the cricket.

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So I wish this was true. I wish tennis was Australia's favourite sport. But in reality? Not a chance.

The Damir Question

And so the wildcards have been decided. In the men's draw, Colin Ebelthite will go through. In the women's, Jelena Dokic.

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Both results are, in their way, surprising - Ebelthite most of all. Thus, let's start with Dokic. She's definitely got the most experience and Grand Slam time under her belt, so it would have been a bit of a slap in the face if she hadn't come through, but how about some of the competition she faced? I cannot speak too highly of Monica Wejnert - she is going to be pretty good one day, mark my words. She really took it to Jelena - the score was 6-7 (3-7) 7-5 6-3, so it was pretty tight the whole way. She needs some experience yet, I suppose, but that's only time... she's only sixteen. So I think she can be pretty proud of herself - and the junior Australian Open had better watch out next year!

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Dokic has been off the Australian sporting radar for some years now, but she's still remembered - more for her father than anything else. Thus, with her back in the main draw instead of losing in qualies where she can be safely ignored, it's going to be very interesting to see how Australia reacts. We are no stranger to generally liking toolface tennis players - look at the BecnLleyton phenomenon - but Damir Dokic was something else. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that more people remember him than Jelena herself. In my understanding, she was a bit of a victim - torn between what her dad wanted her to do and what Tennis Australia wanted her to do and the world and herself, and it was all just nasty and bad.

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So will Damir show at the Australian Open? If so, you can bet that no one will take too kindly to Jelena... but if she shows up independently of him, then we might be cooking with fire...

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And how 'bout Colin Ebelthite, huh? A few days ago it was pretty much assumed that Bernard Tomic would take his place in the knockout portion of the tournament, and here he is winning the whole damn tournament. It was a tough match against Sam Groth - 1-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-4 - but Ebelthite pulled it out. He's never played in a Slam before, so what an opportunity for him! Nice one, Colin!

The Marvellous Miss Monica

And so we have our finalists in the December showdown. In the men, we have Davis Cup representative Sam 'Scary' Groth against Colin Ebelthite, and in the women, we have young gun Monica Wejnert against old gun Jelena Dokic.

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Groth obviously came through a harder match today than Ebelthite - he beat Joe Sirianni, who won this event last year, and he's had victories over Robert Smeets and Carsten Ball this tournament as well. But you can't knock out Colin. He had that victory against Luczak yesterday - and the milkshake man had to be the favourite - as well as over Tomic (not to be underestimated). He 'only' beat Marinko Matosevic today, but he is totally capable of pulling this one out...

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I have to say that I'm pulling for Sam, though. He might stand a better chance of winning a round or two in the actual Open - he could scare his opponents with his eyebrows.

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And man, am I jumping on the Monica Wejnert train! Jelena Dokic is not one of Australia's better liked sporting personalities, but it's not for that reason I'm pulling against her - I just really, really like what Wejnert is bringing. She beat Isabella Holland today, and I really think Isabella has serious talent... so what will happen? Dokic winning would have the element of a fairy tale, I guess... but just how good is Miss Monica? Wejnert definitely beat the more quality opponent today - no detriment to Emelyn Starr, but she's not on the same level as Holland - and Wejnert beat Dokic earlier this week. AND she's only sixteen. I thought she was eighteen, but nope. Sixteen.

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So, Miss Monica... bring it!

Colin Cruises

Whoa! How 'bout that Colin Ebelthite? Not only is he miraculously healthy, ending Bernard Tomic's chances of a wildcard into the Aussie Open main draw, but now he's knocked out the dude that had to be the odds on favourite, good ol' Mr Milkshake.

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Now that's one that I bet Luczak didn't see coming. It'd be so easy to underestimate someone like Ebelthite - because, seriously, who is he? I hope Pete can find some other way of getting into the main draw, because he's probably a better chance in the long run than Ebelthite, but nonetheless - good job, Colin!

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The other semi-finalists in this wildcard showdown are Sam 'Scary Eyebrows' Groth, Joe Sirianni and surprise packet Marinko Matosevic, who took out Carsten Ball in a bit of a surprising one. Sirianni won the wildcard last year and you have to like his chances again, but wouldn't it be great to see Matosevic, who plays pretty much exclusively on the Pro circuit, come through and grab that card? He is the underdog - so I feel obliged to go for him. No hard feelings, Joe, Colin, Scary. But go Marinko!

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In the women, Jelena Dokic is through, as is Isabella Holland, who is going to meet Monica Wejnert - and what a cracker of a match that could be! That is well worthy of being the final, and I cannot pick it. My tip is that the winner of that match will win the tournament. I don't think Dokic will have a problem beating Emelyn Starr, who is the surprise semi-finalist, but I think she'll succumb to either Holland or Wejnert.

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That said, wouldn't it be something if young Emelyn got the wildcard...?

Up The Duff

Well, well, well. This is an unexpected turn of events in the Lindsay Davenport story. First there's all the talk about retirement, then the baby, then the comeback, then the talk about retirement, then the 'oh no! Australian Open all the way!' ...then there's the pulling out of the Australian Open because, guess what? Lindsay Davenport is, once more, up the duff. Little Jagger's going to have a playmate in the not-too-distant future.

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This is just kind of bizarre - not bad or anything, because, I mean, come on, congratulations are obviously in order! - but it's just not something you ever consider happening, a top female athlete accidentally getting pregnant. In her statement, she said this:

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"Of course this unexpected but exciting surprise now means I will be putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future."

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Guess it proves that accidents happen to everyone, even elite athletes. Congratulations, Lindsay - but you've got to think that this is the end of her tennis career now? Coming back after one baby was awesome - after two? That would just be something else. Not that she's incapable of it, but... it's horrible to say it, at her age? She's a great age to be a mum - but perhaps for a pro tennis player she's a bit past it.

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Not that she should regret it or anything. The end was obviously already coming for Lindsay. But I guess it just ends the whole career comeback thing pretty abruptly...

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But nevertheless - congratulations, Lindsay!

Some Scary Stuff

Okay, so Sam Groth? Scary looking guy. All right player - he's through to the quarter finals of the December Showdon - but seriously, that guy has one scary mug. Have you seen those eyebrows? They are totally bristling and bushy and frightening.

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Speaking of frightening - brief digression - I am frightened by the name of Bec and Lleyton's new kid. On what planet did they think it was a smart idea to name their kid Cruz? To start with, they are the least Spanish family ever, and secondly, why did they copy la famille de Beckham? That's just un-smart. Not a fan.

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Back to the December Showdown. Peter Luczak is through to the quarters - nice one, Mr Milkshake! - as is Colin Ebelthite. However, he is all injured and stuff, so if he doesn't pass his fitness test, then Bernard Tomic gets his spot... which would suck for Colin, but it'd be probably be more exciting from a tennis perspective to see Bernard play, harsh as that might seem. Bernard went down to Joe Sirianni today pretty easily... but maybe he can up the ante?

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And Jelena Dokic looks like she's through, and Monica Wejnert, and Isabella Holland. So the women are going to be intriguing as well...

December Showdown

The 'December Showdown,' as Tennis Australia have labelled the Open wildcard playoff, has yielded some very interesting results over the first couple of days. It's done in round robin format, which I don't normally like, but for the purposes of this tournament I think it's all right... and the results, for those who know who these Aussie players are, have been very intriguing.

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Let's start with the group containing Colin Ebelthite, Joe Sirianni, Bernard Tomic and Dane Propoggia. Propoggia is pretty much out of the running, but any of the others could pull a win here. Sirianni is currently in the lead, but his match against Tomic will be a very interesting one. Tomic is sixteen, Sirianni is thirty-three... veteran versus rookie. Sirianni has beaten both Ebelthite and Propoggia, whereas Tomic beat Propoggia, but went down to Ebelthite in a third set breaker - it looked like an absolute nailbiter. Sirianni won the wildcard into the event last year, so he has good history here... I totally don't even know who I'm going for.

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Mr Milkshake - Peter Luczak - has got to be the odds-on favourite, and he's been cruising along quite happily, claiming the not inconsiderable scalps of Brendan McKenzie and Brydan Klein. The names might not mean much outside Australia yet, but these boys have got potential... particularly McKenzie, in my humble opinion. Klein has made the final of the boy's Aussie Open and has served on Davis Cup, so he's no slouch either. Sam Groth and Carsten Ball, who have also served Davis Cup time, also had wins yesterday.

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In the women, the big story is Monica Wejnert, eighteen years old, victor over Jelena Dokic. Even if she does nothing else in her career, that is a scalp and a half. Dokic has been in the top five in the world. She may be far fallen, but still - I am liking the look of Miss Monica. Australia needs more women players, especially in the wake left by Molik. We have Stosur and Dellacqua... and the wind whistling through the empty spots behind them. Monica Wejnert and Isabella Holland in particular are looking veeeeeery good...

Conversations on Kooyong

The field for Kooyong has just been announced, and it's not quite as star-studded as in the past: Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Fernando Gonzalez, Marin Cilic, Marat Safin, Carlos Moya, Fernando Verdasco and Marcos Baghdatis. Fun, but where's some of the big names of the past?

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Ernests Gulbis had to pull out after accidentally scheduling to play Auckland at the same time - how he managed that I am not quite sure. He was replaced by Nando... but I think the organisers are more excited about the prospects of Ana Ivanovic in the stands than anything else.

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I like the matches, and I like that R-Fed will get challenged... but not too much. But this event has pulled some huge names in the past. Where's Rafa and Djokovic? This is such a cool event - where is everyone this year?

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Actually, where's Andy Roddick? He traditionally plays this event - where is he?

Playing the Playoff

No, the tennis ain't quite over yet - we have the big Australian playoff starting tomorrow. Playing the playoff (can you say that?) are the winners of the under-18 championships, Marija Mirkovic and Brendan McKenzie. I was a bit sad to see Mirkovic beat Isabella Holland for the spot, but then she got in anyway, so that's all right. And Brendan McKenzie - I like what I am hearing about this kid.

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Let's start with the girls - top seed is Jess Moore, whom one would imagine would find some way or another into the draw whether she does well here or not, what with making the final of the girls' event last year and getting to the second round of the senior event. Another notables (ie. people I have heard of) include Monique Adamczak and Sophie Ferguson, but the really interesting one to watch is going to be Jelena Dokic, she who used to be #4 but who laboured under the shadow of the Damir. She's playing a sixteen year old from Queensland in her first match, and you'd want to hope she could win that one... otherwise I think we could safely say it was curtains for Jelena.

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The men is very interesting - particularly the match between the aforementioned Brendan McKenzie and Peter Luczak. That one could be seriously interesting. Previously, I'd have gone with Mr Milkshake every time, but this Brendan kid is looking seriously dangerous, if one can see that without ever seeing him play. His opponent for the final also made the cut to play the playoff (Dane Propoggia), and McKenzie rolled him 6-2 6-0 or something, so that's making a point. That'll be an intriguing match.

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Bernard Tomic against Colin Ebelthite will also be interesting - Ebelthite may not have the talent of Tomic, but he certainly has some maturity (you'd want to hope - he's 24!) There are some good names in the draw: Joe Sirianni is there, Robert Smeets, Carsten Ball, Sam Groth, Brydan Klein... actually, bar Guccione, the entire Australian Davis Cup team is in this playoff.

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That is frightening.

Daddy Dearest

Remember the other day how I was lambasting Bernard Tomic for his bad attitude? Well, today Daddy Tomic (aka John) has come out and apologised for his actions in Sorrento. The plot thickens...

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I'm not exactly what Daddy Tomic did, but it resulted in Bernard defaulting his match - or so it seems we are to believe. Here is a snippet of what Daddy Tomic said:

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“I apologise to the Perth officials, to Tennis Australia, to our friends, sponsors and tennis fans and especially to my son. I was wrong. I am a father who wants the best in the world for my children. I realise that my actions have actually hurt my son. That hurts me deeply and I want to correct the situation, which is why I am fronting here today to apologise without reservation.”

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Okay, firstly, kudos for having the balls to apologise. That takes chutzpah. But seriously - on what planet did it seem like it was a good idea for Bernard to default a match for no good reason? Was he pissed? That's some serious error in judgment. I've said it in regards to Djokovic numerous times and I will not hesitate to say it again: you cannot retire yourself to #1. Look at Federer, greatest of all time. How many times has he retired on the senior circuit? That would be NONE, bitches! He retired once in juniors - here's hoping that this is Bernard' once.

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But Bernard, seriously... there's all this talk about being a rebellious team and not listening to your hitting partners and suchlike - why did you pick this time to listen to an authority figure? Play your own game, kid - and don't retire unless you have genuinely broken your leg or something. It is just not cricket. Looming in the not-so-distant tennis past of Australia, there is the ultimate evil tennis parent, the Damir. Please, Bernard, don't let yourself become Jelena Dokic mk 2! Sure, Daddy Tomic seems to have more sense than Damir - Damir would never have apologised - but what the hell was he doing getting so involved anyway? If Bernard Tomic is going to become a great champion - and he certainly has the potential - then he needs to do it on his own.

Tertiary Tennis

I graduated from university today - something which has little to do with tennis. (Surprisingly, there are other things than tennis I'm interested in... Renaissance theatre, for one!) But I thought it thus appropriate to talk tennis and university - more specifically, this so-called ATP university.

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Question: does anyone actually know what the hell it is?

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There are tennis players who have earned degrees, and they are thus exceptional - Mario Ancic, for one. But this ATP university is not so much a university as... well, a seminar, really. It's a very misleading name. There was a story on the ATP website the other day about how sixteen players graduated from it. Naturally, I was intrigued, so I went and looked... and on the list of graduates was Thomaz Bellucci and another one of my Stars (can't remember which), who are both VERY young, nonwithstanding them being professional tennis players.

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Turns out all you have to do to graduate from the ATP university is attend a three day seminar about management and some other stuff (unsure of specifics) and probably not burn anything down. As someone who has slaved away earning their degrees for five years and only now comes away with the precious testamur, I think I object to the use of the term 'university...'

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In the same vein, Sania Mirza got given an honorary doctorate the other day. I hate honorary doctorates. I know she's awesome and what she's done for Indian tennis is good and everything, but a doctorate is something you work at, damn it! As someone who is intending to do a PhD, I am always really pissed off when someone gets handed something that I, who am not famous, will have to study for for years and years and years...

Pull Your Head In, Bernard!

You know what makes me sad? When I hear bad things about Australia's great white hope, Bernard Tomic. The kid is good - ain't no one can deny that. But it sounds like he has a bit of an attitude problem.

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Scratch that. A lot of an attitude problem.

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He's been practicing with Mark Draper, who has commented on this - Bernard, it seems, often thinks he's too good for practice and such things, and is a bit... naughty, shall we say. Added to that the current controversy over his retirement a week or so ago, where his dad supposedly signalled to him to retire... dodgy, Bernard, dodgy.

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He is only sixteen. If he were a model of perfect behaviour, that would be seriously weird. Hell, look at Federer at sixteen - smashing racquets and bursting into tears all over the shop, and now look at him: the ice king god of tennis. Bernard is going to do some maturing, that's for sure - but I really, really hope it is not at the expense of his game. What he neglects now might come back to bite him...

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...of course, I am extremely ill-informed about the whole situation. Maybe there are extenuating circumstances. Maybe there are lots of things. But I would hate for Australia's next great tennis player, which is what Bernard Tomic is shaping up to be, to grow up and turn into Lleyton Hewitt - or, worse, Novak Djokovic. Now THAT would make me really sad.

The Last American Hero?

I was reading through Tennis Australia's little Off the Court article that they put out every week (it was very short - clearly they aren't the only ones struggling for something to write about!) and something struck me. There was a story about John McEnroe thinking about retiring from Blackrock after losing so badly in London, and then a story about Pete Sampras saying that there are dark times for American tennis ahead.

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These guys are two of the major figureheads of the US tennis pantheon, yeah? And they are so incredibly different. McEnroe is all racquet-smashing and fire and temper and swearing, whereas Sampras is more gentleman-like -not quite to the epic standards of Federer, but still. He could be accused of being boring sometimes. And yet they're both still beloved - and, I might venture to say, probably disliked by equal amounts of people.

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And now we come to the point - what does US tennis have now?

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Andy Roddick, who probably drew more attention from his engagement to Brooklyn Decker than from his tennis this year, and James Blake, who was a bit of a non-event this year, apart from at the Olympics. Then I suppose there's Fish and Querrey and all that crew, but there is no real American tennis god right now, no McEnroe, no Connors, no Sampras, no Agassi. I guess Australia isn't the only place seemingly in a tennis recession. And Sampras seems to think there are dark times ahead for America - no one coming up, no one coming through. (I still pray at the altar of Tomic for the sake of Australian tennis every day. Go Bernard - though not with your little temper tantrums, please.)

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Tennis is almost wholly European at the moment. Look at the top - a Spanish guy, a Swiss guy, a Serbian guy, a British guy. Europe's got the monopoly on the top. Not that I'm complaining - there's nothing wrong with it. But how on earth did we go so quickly from a USA-USA duopoly in Agassi and Sampras to a Hispano-Suisse one?

Marat In, Serena Out

Excellent news! Amazing news! News that makes me so happy I want to dance round the room!
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Marat Safin is definitely playing Hopman Cup in January!
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I knew all this stuff about retirement was just a pissy rant because he'd been losing so much. I think he and Dinara stand a legitimate chance of winning this thing - especially since the top team, the USA, has just taken a substantial blow: Serena Williams is out. I appreciate that Serena is good to play Hopman Cup and all when she does, but sometimes I don't like her attitude towards it. She sailed on late to it last year, leaving Meghann Shaughnessy to play her match in the first tie, and this year she's suddenly sick or hurt or something. News, Serena - it's in a month! Surely you'll be better by then...?
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But what do I know, I guess. Hopman Cup is my favourite tournament EVER and it makes me sad when high profile people drop out.
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But Marat is IN! How awesome is that! I wish I could afford to schlep across the country to see it, but it really might as well be in New Zealand or Indonesia somewhere - Perth is just so damn far away. Still! Awesomeness! Marat and Dinara! No words!
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Actually, I wonder if Serena's withdrawal means the seeding will be altered... Marat and Dinara could be top seeds! Now that'd be an ego boost for the big guy... even if it was mostly on the recognisance of his kid sister.

Future Future Stars

We move our coverage this week to the Optus Under18 Championships in Melbourne, the age group from whence come a great many of our rising stars. Because they are rising. Oh yes they are. Australian tennis will be great again, mark my words.

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Unfortunately, because they are rising stars, I don't know much about a lot of them. Except Bernard Tomic... but he is the king of the rising stars. What I am hoping for out of the under18 championships this week is to discover a future (or more than one) Star of the Future, if that makes sense.

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So who did we have in action today...? Dane Propoggia had a great win. He reached the quarters of junior Wimbledon this year - he could be my next Ernests. Mark Verryth is a promising looking young gun. But I think my favourite might be Brendan McKenzie - if I can legitimately say that without ever having seen him play. All the match reports I've read are making me think he could be very dangerous indeed when he grows up...

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And in the girls, can you go past Isabella Holland? She totally owned her match today - 6-0 6-1. We haven't had a really good female player since Molik and Dokic. I would love to see young Bella Holland get up there - her and Jess Moore and Sally Peers are doing the nation proud with junior Fed cup and stuff! Unfortunately Monica Wejnert, who we talked about a while ago, went down today, but we cannot have quite everything...

Lucky Star

And so the last, LAST event of the year has finished, with the Pro circuit event in Sorrento wrapping up. I can't say I am too familiar with the people that won - Marinko Matosevic in the men's and Olivia Rogowska in the women's. I don't have too much more to say about that, except that this Matosevic character has apparently won four Pro circuit titles this year... maybe he'll graduate to Futures or even Challengers at some stage. He is exactly four years younger than Roger Federer... I suppose you could say he was thus born under a tennis lucky star.

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And how about Cedric Pioline? Knocking out Pete Sampras - God, I bet that felt sweet, though I'm sure he would have preferred to have done it a little earlier in his career! - then going on to beat Greg Rusedski for his first seniors tour title. I confess I don't follow the seniors tour very much, which I suppose is a shame, because it looks kind of interesting... actually, Jonas Bjorkman said when he retired that he'd played on the regular tour for so long he could go straight on the seniors tour. Ah, Jonas...

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So what is the point of the seniors tour, exactly? Is it just a chance to set up epic grudgematches, like the Sampras/Pioline rematch? How serious is it? Is it just a group of old guys kicking around having fun or do they really get down and dirty?

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I would like to note that I exempt John McEnroe from this question. He would get down and dirty with anyone, anywhere, anytime...

In the Tradition of Middle Earth...

I thought renaming places - even temporarily - was reserved for things like the premiere of the Lord of the Rings movies. (Remember when Wellington got renamed 'Middle Earth' for a week? I thought it was hilarious.) But no - apparently for the duration of the Australian Open next year, Federation Square is going to be called 'Tennis Square.'

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Unimaginative name (right along the lines of Garden Square Cafe getting renamed 'Player Cafe' after A FRIGGING COMPETITION for the best name) but I like the intent. Melbourne in January is going to be the tennis capital of the universe, and I like that there's a huge effort to make tennis cool for the general public and not just the nerds like me. Here's what the Tennis Australia article says:

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"For the duration of the Open, Channel Seven will broadcast tennis on the giant screen and an Australian Open merchandise store and NIKE outlet will be open.

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"Top players will make special appearances, and between Thursday 22 January and Sunday 25 January 2009 Tennis Australia will conduct a variety of free interactive tennis activities, including Aviva Tennis Hot Shots and Talent Search."

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Fun for all the family, basically. Get 'em into tennis while they're young, I say, and then they can grow up fabulous, like me.

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Hmmm. I'm going to be in Melbourne for the first five days of the Open. (Got my tickets yesterday! Am now poor!) Maybe I should swing past this so-called Tennis Square... especially if those star appearances include a certain player whose initials are RF...

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...or MS, for that matter...

Hotel Sorrento

Pete Sampras. Cedric Pioline. Could be epic. Here's hoping it is. I'd like to see Pioline avenge his Slam losses, but I'm backing Pistol Pete on this one. Just a feeling.

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Anyway, we're not talking about Pete and le Ced today. No, it's back to local homegrown Aussie tennis and what is apparently the last Pro circuit event of the year, the tournie in Sorrento. Quality tournament, they say... but that doesn't mean people will have heard of most of the guys. Ah, Aussie tennis.

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What is disturbing me is that at least half of Australia's Davis Cup team is playing this tournament - a tournament on a circuit so low I hadn't even heard of its existence until a few months ago. Top seed and hot favourite is Brydan Klein, then second seed is Sam Groth. Marinko Matosevic defeated Bernard Tomic today, who retired after what one presumes was an injury and hopes wasn't a temper tantrum... I've heard he's prone. There's our Davis Cup team, pretty much. Oh dear.

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That said, here's hoping Brydan or Sam can win this one... though I'm liking the form of our old man Andrew Coelho, who pulled that good win the other week in Perth. Maybe he can join team Davis Cup next year when we play our (next) relegation tie?

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...remember when we used to win Davis Cup?

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Bernard will save us. HE MUST!

Perfect Match

So I'm checking my email today like any normal person would when I come across an email from Tennis Australia. Not unusual - I'm on their mailing list, I get emails from them all the time. But this one was a little... different.

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'Who is your tennis perfect match?' it asked. Intrigued, I clicked, wondering if the trashy title was really some witty cover from an actual tennis story... given as this is my usual technique. But no. It was a link. To a multiple-choice quiz that enabled you to discover which tennis player was your 'perfect match.'

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Questions included things like your reaction to getting fired, which type of guy you would approach at a party, your ideal date, how you'd like a man to dress, a man's most important quality, and your 'dream of a man.' My reaction? I hope to God that this is something someone at Tennis Australia found somewhere - that is, I hope they spent no time or money putting it together. Because they have a friggin' GRAND SLAM to organise.

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Not that I don't appreciate the lighter side of tennis - I love the offcourt segment that Tennis Australia does each week, just like I love the offcourt goss on Down the Line! But this is beyond fun. This is trashy. It's funny, yes... but with the Aussie Open just round the corner, I hope dearly that it's a flip, 'oh, this is amusing!' thing, because if they spent money on that that they could have spent on something good I will be so annoyed. There's already an obscene amount of money being pumped into this ridiculous 'Day on the Baseline' thing. People should not need the encouragement of Gabriella Cilmi and whomever else to come to the tennis. Is not the tennis enough attraction for that? SPEND THE MONEY ON THE TENNIS, DAMN IT!

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Yeah, yeah, I know you're all wondering who my tennis perfect match is. But need you even ask? Do you think it would seriously be anyone other than Roger?

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...though I confess that I did take it a second time and rigged it so I would get Marat...

A Kind of Quiet Confidence

The big man R-Fed has released his schedule for next year, and what everyone's talking about is its lack of clay. 'Only two events!' they say. 'Mon dieu! How will he ever be ready in time for Paris! Ca alors!'

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Me... well, I think back to 2006. That was arguably Roger's best showing at Paris - ie. the tightest final he gave Rafa, possibly in competition with 2007 - and he played exactly two tournaments before Roland Garros: Monte Carlo and Rome. (God, who can forget that Rome final in 2006? That was possibly the most intense tennis match I have ever seen: Roger and Rafa's greatest match up outside Wimbledon this year. And then they made Masters Series finals three sets. Yeah, that was smart. Cough cough.) This year he played a crushing clay season - four tournaments - and got crushed in the final in return. So why not return to the old ways? I think it's terribly clever. Let us not forget that Roger will be looking for his fourteenth - or, probably, his fifteenth - Slam at Roland Garros. I think he's very clever.

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I'd be more worried about Rafa's schedule, to tell the truth. With all his knee problems, will he continue to play four clay tournaments? Kid's gotta cut back, or he'll be retiring before Roger even begins thinking about it.

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And is anyone else thinking that this tournament in Abu Dhabi kind of looks like fun? I'm unsure why so many people have agreed to play it - Roger's pre-Australian Open schedule is looking chockas, what with that and Doha and Kooyong - but it's going to be a cracker of an exhibition tournament. Everyone who's anyone will be there - just what I like to see. Kind of like a mini Masters Cup: only this time I reckon the real Master will come out on top. I have a good feeling about Federer's 2009 - a kind of quiet confidence. Grand Slam ahoy!

Those Halcyon Days

The full lineup for the Brisbane International has been announced - hurrah! The closest thing to news we've had in days! And I still have no desire to attend! Brilliant!

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Remember when there used to be tournaments and things to write about? Ah, those halcyon days...

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The men's is headlined by Novak Djokovic (spit spit) but the real highlights for me will be Jo-W Tsonga, Ernests Gulbis (could this be his breakthrough tournament? Please, Ernests! You're a Grand Slam quarter-finalist!), Kei Nishikori (Star power) and Marcos Baghdatis. I'm sorry, but when did Marcos fall to #99? Surely he should have a protected ranking or some such? He was injured, yes - but if his ranking keeps sliding he's going to find himself in qualifying for the Aussie Open, and that's not a place you generally find ex-finalists... though maybe the powers that be at Tennis Australia would have mercy and give him a wildcard. He's been carded into Brisbane, after all...

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...actually, wouldn't it be lovely to see Marcos win? It's been so long - I'd forgotten how much I really do like him. Ah, smiley happy Marcos.

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Though there is the Ernests factor, after all. I'd love to see him win. If only there was a nice girl from Latvia he could play Hopman Cup with... instead of this stupid Brisbane tournament. What was wrong with Adelaide and the Gold Coast? I liked those tournaments, damn it! My home town lost its tournament a few years back (Ana Ivanovic's first ever tour victory was in my city!) - why are the number of tournaments just getting smaller and smaller?

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Speaking of Ana, she's headlining the girls, with Victoria Azarenka, Li Na and Sam Stosur singing back up. I'm being patriotic and backing Sam for this one. It's about time she got a title in the bag after her brush with Lyme disease...

A Terribly Interesting Topic of Conversation

One of the top stories on the Tennis Australia website at the moment is about the weather for the Australian Open. THE WEATHER.

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It's pretty standard when you have nothing to say to someone to talk about the weather, yeah? But if Tennis Australia is talking about the weather FOR THE END OF JANUARY on the first of December - if that is the sole tennis related thing there is to talk about - then I'm sorry, dear bloggers, but we are screwed.

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Apparently the Australian Open will be mostly sunny, with some rain. What a huge surprise. I am astounded. That sounds totally different to all the other years. Thanks, Bureau of Meteorology. I am so shocked that you can probably feel it rolling off the page. Seriously, the weather? For January? I know that here it's really important to spread the slip slop slap wrap message and stuff, what with, you know, sun and skin cancer and suchlike, but is it really necessary to do that on the first of December.

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Seriously, tennis world. Have we got nothing better to talk about?

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...I clearly haven't. I'm sick of the off-season. I know the players need a holiday, but could they at least do something scandalous I could write about? If I have to write about the weather once more, then badness will ensue!

Perth After Tomic

I am making an active effort to follow this tournament in Perth, but it really is very hard. Tennis Australia provides my only avenue for such following, and they seemed to have lost interest after the Reid/Tomic match. I know Tomic is the next big thing in Aussie tennis and there's all the hype and such... but really, at this time of year, wouldn't following the rest of the results be, you know, giving all the people at TA something to do? Maybe that's just naive, but please, what else is there to write about?

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The Reid/Tomic match was the second round, and the winners of the finals just went up on the website - Andrew Coelho won the men's, and Monica Wejnert the women's. I've never heard of Wejnert before, but she's looking a bit interesting - she's sixteen, this is only her third senior event (it is, I discovered, a Pro tour event) and she beat the top seed to take the title. I'm not saying she's the Tomic of the girls, but that's a bit intriguing. We do have some very good girls coming up in Isabella Holland and Sally Peers and Jessica Moore and the such like - but maybe Miss Monica will be in that pack. Who knows. I know nothing about her outside this match, but she's showing good stats, if that makes any sense.

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Coelho, on the other hand, has been round for a little while - not that he's a veteran or anything (he's a couple of years younger than me!) but he seems to have been floating round for a while... he's left-handed, if I remember rightly (ha ha - I only just realised I made a totally awful pun there... oops!) which is always interesting to watch. Apparently the Fremantle Doctor (a very strong wind, for those of you not up with the lingo) was making conditions very interesting, so kudos to Coelho for pulling out a toughie over Brendan McKenzie. I don't hold any great hopes for Coelho, and he's certainly not a missed opportunity like Todd Reid, but it'd be nice to see him play an ATP event here and there - perhaps qualify for the Aussie Open?

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And in totally un-tennis related news, I've just been awarded first-class Honours for my thesis at university, and I'm quite proud of myself. Not quite a Grand Slam, but when you're studying English, it might just be as close as you get...

The One Thing Lacking

If I were a tennis player, and worked my arse off eleven months of the year, I would totally kill someone if they even thought about encroaching on my precious off-season. I've been told I'm conscientious for writing this blog every day, even when I have absolutely nothing to say (eg. today!) but it takes me maybe twenty minutes, tops. Tennis players train for hours and hours a day - which you have to, considering the fact that you have to grind away on court, day in, day out, to keep your career going (and even then, as we have been discussing re: Todd Reid, it might not be enough.) Tennis is just so freakin' hard, when it comes down to it.

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Which brings me to my point. They get no time off, pretty much. There's all this talk about shortening the season and all, but sorry, I'll believe that when I see it. So if you're a player and the halcyon days of the off-season are finally here, wouldn't you just want to lie on a beach somewhere and chill out for a month? Obviously you'd have to do some training, because of the whole Aussie swing and that Grand Slam lurking dangerously early round the corner, but you'd want to do some quality quivering in the corner first - maybe chill with your family at home, have a nice Christmas or whatever, yeah?

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So why do these players seem to be jetting off all over the world at the whims of sponsors and such like? I saw pictures of Rafa Nadal hanging out with Marat Safin in Moscow today. What on earth is Rafa doing in Moscow? Surely with all his knee issues he should be at home in Mallorca with Xisca and his feet up on a pillow, watching telly? It was apparently some corporate type function he was at for something money related - but why on earth would Rafa need more money? He's about the same age as me - a bit younger, actually - and he's already made more than I will in ten lifetimes. Doesn't he deserve some time off? Off-season for tennis is preciously short - it shouldn't be on-season for corporate deals.

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Rafa, some words of advice, straight from me to you. Go home. Rest. Do absolutely nothing for at least a week. These top tennis players seem to have everything in the world: Boris Yelstin once described Marat Safin as the ideal Russian, which I suppose means the ideal Russian is all fast sport, fast cars, fast women. But the one thing they don't have is time. Grab on to what you have with both hands, boys - heaven knows you deserve it!

Missed Opportunities

All that talk about Todd Reid earlier got me thinking - how many missed opportunities are there in tennis?
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I mean, Todd Reid is only 24, but if you haven't made it by that age, then you're pretty much not going to, right? The only genuine late bloomer I remember is Ljubicic, and even then, I think he'd bloomed a bit earlier than this, so to speak. But Todd Reid was the #4 junior in the world back in the day, which, when you think about it, was not that long ago - 2002, I think, for him. That was just before the golden age of Federer began, but not that long before it. So just a few years ago, Todd Reid was seemingly going to be one of the tennis stars of his generation. Two junior Slam finals, one victory. A promising start in the first round of the Aussie Open against Nicholas Escude. And where is he now? Just scraping past sixteen year old Bernard Tomic in some schlep tournament in Perth.
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Largely, if you win a junior Slam, you go on to do a bit of something at the senior level. Roger Federer won junior Wimbledon. David Nalbandian was his junior nemesis, and he picked up a title or two. Andy Murray won the junior US Open. Stan Wawrinka won the junior Roland Garros. Names we think about now. Actually, let's go and look at who won the junior Slams in '02, the year of Todd Reid...
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...the Aussie Open was won by someone called Clement Morel, of whom I have never heard (anyone?) but the French and the US were both won by someone called Richard Gasquet. Heard of him?
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So what does this prove? I suppose one always has to assume that a good juniors career doesn't mean a great senior's career - I guess some people just burn out young, or plateau and stop improving while everyone else around them gets better. Maybe some never adjust to the pressure of the senior tour. But how different could the face of tennis be? Looking at the lists of those who have won in juniors but never translated it into the proper tour is like looking at a tennis graveyard - a litany of missed opportunity.

The Past Plays The Future

Anyone else think the picture they're using to advertise the new London season-ending championships at the end of next year is kind of funny? It's exactly the same picture as Shanghai '07, but with Richard Gasquet lopped out of the background and Andy Murray, looking extraordinarily uncomfortable, chest all puffed out, suspicious look on his face, stuck smack bang in the middle. I get that it's in London and so Murray is a major drawcard, but it almost looks like they're predicting Murray'll be bigger than Federer and Nadal next year. I think he'll be big, but I don't see that much boat-shaking going on!

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Meanwhile, on a totally different subject, I've been following this tournament in Perth. I am totally unable to discover what level of tournament it actually is, but it calls itself the Perth International and it's actually been kind of interesting - at least if you know who some of the Aussie guys are, in which case I might be in a bit of a minority.

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The most interesting match today was a real epic duel between Bernard Tomic and Todd Reid. It's a match Tomic really should have won, being a set and 3-0 up, but Reid got him in the end after a real see-saw. It was almost like watching history play itself - not that I was watching, because, hello, as if it'd be televised, but you get my drift. Todd Reid, a few years back, was exactly where Bernard Tomic is now. He was touted as the next big thing after he made the final of the junior Aussie Open in '02 and won junior Wimbledon... but then nothing ever really came of it. He pulled a few upsets in early rounds here and there, but I'd venture to say hardly anyone has heard of Todd Reid.

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So here's hoping Bernard Tomic doesn't go the same way. Because this kid is seriously awesome, and I would hate to see his talent fade away. He was beaten by the past today - but in the future, here's hoping he eclipses it. That'd be a real victory.

Finally, a Brouhaha in Doha!

The fields for the early tournaments next year are beginning to take shape - and the organisers of the ATP tournament in Doha must be quivering with delight. The women's season-ending championships (why, why did no one think to call it the Brouhaha in Doha? I thought that was hilarious) may have been a bit dull, but the field that's starting to take shape for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open is very exciting. It includes not only the Andies (Murray and Roddick respectively) but now the two biggest guns in tennis, R-Fed and... Rafa ('R-Nad' just doesn't work.)

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Federer's played Doha before, but not for a while - 2006, if memory serves - but I don't remember a field of this high a quality there in years. I remember Ljubicic winning it in recent memory, and possibly Gael Monfils, though maybe he was only a finalist. I can't remember. So what a boost for Doha this will be. Maybe this will be the real Brouhaha in Doha. I invented that pun, and I'm dying for someone to use it - so maybe Roger, Rafa and the Andies will give me reason.

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Sydney, on the other hand, which is close to my heart, because, hello, closest thing I have to a home tournament, is looking... all right, I guess, but not whoa, smash bang fabulous. So far, they've announced Tsonga, Simon, Berdych, Nalbandian, Hewitt, Gasquet, Robredo and most recently Fish and defending champ Tursunov. So not a bad field, but it ain't no Doha. Rafa played there the first year I attended, which was '07 - though to be fair, he only played for about a set before deciding he was injured and throwing in the towel against Chris Guccione. Still, I was there and I saw him, up close and personal (I may be exaggerating slightly there, but in the flesh, nonetheless). It'd be nice for the Sydney folks to see some of the big stars that they might have actually, you know, heard of.

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But we all know the tournament that's closest to my heart is the Hopman Cup, even if it's clear across the other side of the country. Marat Safin promised he'd give the tournament organiser a decision on whether or not he would play in the first week of November, and we're well past that and his name's still on the schedule, so I'm quietly hopeful that we might be seeing Marat on the ATP tour again next year - hurrah!

Blast From The Past

It hasn't been a good week for the legends of the sport - and I'm not talking Federer and Nadal, our current legends, here. No, we're going old school. Tennis is clearly fraught with drama, even from beyond the proverbial grave.

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First, Boris Becker gets dumped by text message. I thought this was pretty hilarious, to tell the truth. Tennis Australia does this piece every week called 'Off The Court' - here's a paragraph from their article on the Becker incident:

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'Becker has led a tortured personal life in recent decades, divorcing from the mother of his two sons, Barbara Feltus, in 2001. He later gained playboy notoriety after fathering a child, now eight, with a Russian model, after a tryst in a London restaurant broom closet.'

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Can you tell me that he doesn't deserve to get dumped by text message? He seems like a bit of a tool, really. Maybe this is some kind of grand karmic revenge. Ha ha ha. That's pretty much all I have to say on the matter.

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And then Jimmy Connors goes and gets arrested at a basketball game. Guess he took his break up (presumably not by text message) with Andy Roddick pretty hard, returning to his old badarse ways after a brief stint as a respectable coach type. John McEnroe got sent off the court in a seniors match a while back for being a dickhead - guess Connors couldn't stand to be beaten and had to one-up him.

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It kind of makes you wonder - what will today's tennis heroes be like in twenty years? I would bet you any money that Roger and Rafa will be tennis statesmen in the model of Laver and Agassi, the classy guys: still making the sport proud, quiet family types, some endorsements, light commentary duties. (Can you imagine Rafa the commentator? Hilarious!) Djokovic, on the other hand, will still be trying to seduce Paraguayan javelin throwers and Slovakian singers, and will probably be getting dumped by text message for his troubles...

The Stephen Hawking of Tennis

The top story on the ATP website today is about a poll they did of fans - I remember voting in it - about who will be the year-end #1 at the end of next year. The winner? Roger Federer, with 42% of the vote.

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I'm unable to decide if this is surprising or not. Rafa is #1 now, and I think most people have finally caught up with that fact - not to mention the fact that Roger is ten points away from slipping to #3. But taking nothing away from Rafa and yes, even Novak Djokovic, I think this is an indication of the faith people have in the immense genius of Roger Federer. He may not be as young as he used to be (an old man at 27) and he may not have had the bestest year ever this year, but in the public mind and ideology, if that is not too strong a word to use, Federer is still #1. The legacy of his incredible dominance is this profound belief that he is too good to be #2 for long.

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And I'm right on that bandwagon. Much as I was saying the other day that Rafa is one of the greats too and we're living in an age of true tennis greatness (for men - women is a whole other story), the genius and the greatness of Federer transcends even that. What he has done is so phenomenal that he can lay claim to the title of Greatest of All Time. Rafa Nadal is great, one of the greats, but I doubt anyone would call him the greatest: certainly not yet, anyway. Greatest dirtballer, maybe, but when it comes to Greatest Player Ever, my mind only goes one place, and that is straight to Federer.

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Historical competition includes Rod Laver and Pete Sampras, both of whom were fabulous, as well as a whole pantheon of other tennis greats. But I don't know if any player has ever had quite the same mystique as Federer. If he is on, playing to the best of his ability, there is only one player in recent memory who has even come close to beating him, and it isn't Rafael Nadal - it's Marat Safin. (Australian Open semi '05 - heartbreaker, but one of the greatest matches ever.) He is a prodigy, the Stephen Hawking of tennis - his genius for the sport is so great I don't know if we will ever see anyone with so much pure, unadulterated talent. He is tennis clinic and tennis statesman all in one - because have we ever seen more evidence that tennis is a gentleman's game than in this man?

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This wasn't meant to turn into a paeon of praise, but all of it is deserved. I'm part of that posse whom thinks Federer will get back to #1 - and it's good to know I'm in the majority.

Nando Brings Home The Bacon

What an incredible victory for Spain. But it is tinged with a few bittersweet notes, in my opinion. Not that Spain didn't deserve their win, because they wholeheartedly did, but there is some sadness among the gladness, and not just for Argentina.

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First, the health of Juan Martin del Potro. He was obviously pretty badly injured, considering he chose not to play or was sidelined or whatever in the reverse singles. Would the story have been different if he had been fully fit? I like to think not, because I don't want to take anything away from the achievements of Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco, who were both outstanding this weekend. But I'm sure that seed of doubt will linger in a few minds for some time to come.

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And secondly, poor David Ferrer. I was all geared up for him to bring home the bacon today - not that he had to make up for losing to Nalbandian, because there's no shame in that, but it would have been nice if he could have had a second chance, so to speak. I wonder how difficult it was for Emilio Sanchez to make the decision to play Verdasco instead of Ferrer - and how Ferru reacted? Tennis is not by nature a team sport - rejection is not something players would often have an opportunity to cope with. Losing, yes, but not even being allowed the opportunity to lose? Poor Ferru. He was part of the winning team, all right, but he was the 1, not the 3. Tremendous as Fernando Verdasco's victory was, for it to come sort at the expense of Ferrer was, for me, bittersweet. I love Ferrer's style of play and he seems like such a nice bloke. It's great that he won Davis Cup and all, but I don't think he made any progress in coming out from Rafa's shadow. I'm sad he didn't get his chance.

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But how can one ignore the way that Lopez and Verdasco came through bigtime? I talked about Fidgiano yesterday, so let's talk Nando today - what a victory that was over Acasuso! Isn't it strange, the way the biggest event in world team tennis can come down to a match between two men who are essentially journeymen: neither have been or probably never will be near the top ten, and yet what a spectacle they put on! I always go on about how un-patriotic I am in terms of tennis and how it's about the individual not the nation, but I really think that the nationalistic element of Davis Cup really spurs the players on to excellence. In normal tour tennis, sure, you're playing for your country to a degree, but mostly you're playing for yourself. In Davis Cup, you've got a country behind (or at least the part of your country that pays attention to tennis, however meagre it may be.) This match between Verdasco and Acasuso was a real thriller, a popcorn match. You have to feel for Acasuso as well - this isn't the first time he's been the losing guy in a deciding rubber. You only have to think back to Argentina vs. Russia, Davis Cup final '06. But Nando really pulled it out. I bet his lovely girlfriend Mademoiselle Ivanovic will be pleased.

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This proves that Spanish tennis isn't all Rafa - just like Stan Wawrinka proved this year that Swiss tennis isn't all Roger. Fidgiano and Nando have been round for a while and they've done a whole heap of good stuff, but they just brought home the Davis Cup for their country, with no help from Rafa at all. Congratulations, guys - and congratulations to David Ferrer and Marcel Granollers and Emilio Sanchez and the whole team. Spain is the deepest country in men's tennis right now - and they've got the enormous trophy to prove it.

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Today's Results

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Davis Cup (Mar del Plata)

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Spain 3, Argentina 1

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Fernando Verdasco def. Jose Acasuso, 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 4-6 6-3 6-1

Ferru Up To Bat

Well, well, well. This certainly is an interesting turn of events. When Rafa announced he was out of the Davis Cup final, I think just about everyone wrote off Spain entirely - including, I am not ashamed to admit, me. But now, after two days of play, we find ourselves in a very interesting place. Spain are up 2-1.

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I stand by my statement that the real hero of this tie, if Spain can pull it out, will be Feliciano Lopez. His singles victory over Juan Martin del Potro was crucial - it cannot be expressed just how crucial it was. If Spain wins, I think that will be seen as the match that turned the tide. Even though del Potro is Argentina's star player this year, when it comes to Davis Cup, Nalbandian is and always has been rock solid. He proved that yesterday, with his victory over Ferrer - a victory one can only describe as solid, actually. Ol' Dave N ain't going anywhere. Del Potro may be ranked higher, but it is over his head that the question mark lies. Nine times out of ten, based on recent form, you'd pick del Potro to come out over Lopez. But Fidgiano pulled it out.

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Spain has to win one more match to win the tie - just one. If Feliciano Lopez wins that match, he will become a national hero. But who knows whether or not he will actually be the guy to play the reverse singles rubber? After that great win over del Potro and the gruelling doubles victory with Verdasco today, he might be the guy with the hot hand, but he must also be absolutely buggered.

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It is time for David Ferrer to step up to bat. He is the highest-ranked player on this team, and though he's played Spanish second banana to Rafa for, like, ever, it's time for him to do something absolutely outstanding in his own right. He's due to play the first singles rubber, nominally against del Potro, but there is a bit of an injury cloud as well as that question mark I was talking about before hovering Juan M's head. Presumably Jose Acasuso would be the replacement if del Potro cannot play. If Acasuso wins, he will be a hero, and he will leave Feliciano Lopez or Nando Verdasco or whomever Emilio Sanchez picks to save the day and become Spain's hero. Ferrer will be out in the cold, second banana once more.

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But if Ferru can step it up and win this rubber - he's not been in the best of form lately, but hello, he's David Ferrer - then maybe he can emerge, just a bit, from Rafa's shadow. Lopez will still be the hero of the tie: but at least he won't be the only hero.

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And then, hey, maybe Marcel Granollers will get a bit of court time in the dead rubber. I'm sure he'd like that.

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Today's Results

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Davis Cup (Mar del Plata)

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Spain 2, Argentina 1

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Lopez/Verdasco def. Nalbandian/Calleri, 5-7 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-3

Roddinki

So Andy Roddick has picked his new coach - Larry Stefanki. I can't say I know a whole lot about Stefanki, except that he was responsible for that remarkable transformation in Fernando Gonzalez last year when Gonzo made it to the final of the Aussie Open and into the elite eight of the Masters Cup... but then the partnership seemed to go a bit stale. Or maybe that split or something. I'm not really up on the minutiae of Gonzo's career. But wouldn't it be interesting if Stefanki could have a similar effect on Roddick, however short-term?

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There are two matches that stand out for me from Fernando Gonzalez, both in the '07 Australian Open - and I think we can safely say that if he had not been playing Roger Federer in the final (Roger Federer in insane form - remember that semi-final demolition of Roddick?) he would have won that tournament, 400%. He absolutely destroyed Tommy Haas in the semi-finals - and sure, Tommy Haas isn't exactly a world-beater, but this was coming on the back of a straight sets thrashing of Rafa Nadal in the quarters. Whatever Stefanki did to Fernando, it worked big time, and it can be seen nowhere more clearly than in that tournament. His serve became consistent, those huge, massive groundies went in more often than not, and overall, his game just tightened up a notch.

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Thing is, I'm not necessarily sure that's what Andy Roddick needs. He's got a great serve, and while he may not be the most consistent player in the world, he's no Marat Safin. His groundies are fine - to my eye, anyway. What he really needs is a real grass-court coach - specifically, someone that can teach him how to volley. Because the Andy Roddick volley at the moment... well, I use 'volley' in the loosest possible sense of the word. And the sad thing is, it's come on light years from where it once was, and it's still only a 'volley.'

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Now, like I said, I'm no authority on Stefanki. Maybe he can teach Roddick this - looking him up, I see he's coached Tim Henman, and no one would ever doubt the Henman volley. So Roddinki will be an interesting partnership - I'll certainly be watching closely to see how it all turns out.

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Now if only Federer would hurry up and pick his new coach...

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Oh, and Davis Cup! How could I forget to write about that? (Actually, I know exactly how I could forget... I was so excited about the Nadal/Nalbandian clash, only to be thwarted AGAIN!) We're at 1-all, and I think it is going to be veeery interesting... massive kudos to Feliciano Lopez for beating Juan Martin del Potro! If Spain pulls this tie out of the bag, I think Fidgiano just might be the hero - he was an odd choice for that singles rubber, but oh! did he pay off!

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Today's Results

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Davis Cup (Mar del Plata)

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Argentina 1, Spain 1

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David Nalbandian def. David Ferrer, 6-3 6-2 6-3

Feliciano Lopez def. Juan Martin del Potro, 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3

An Age Of Greatness

I think we have to admit it - when it comes to men's tennis, we are living in an age of greatness.

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The word 'greatness' is one that tends to get bandied round a lot - it's something I especially notice in Australian sport. We have some really, really good teams, yeah? Our cricket team, for example. I'm no cricket aficiando, but it seems to me that our team has been lauded here as the 'greatest ever' for about fifteen, twenty years now: certainly as long as I can remember. But surely the team has changed almost totally over these years - so how can it make the claim to be the greatest ever?

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Team sport and individual sport are different, I know - maybe cricket is a bad example. But I think we may be able to safely say that this era in men's tennis is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, ever.

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Why do I make this claim? You have to go straight to the top. No one can contest Roger Federer's claim to be one of the all-time tennis great - if not the greatest of all time. He has an amazing genius for the sport while being an outstanding statesman. But now - I say now, it's been coming for a while - we have the emergence of Rafa Nadal. He's not just some schlep who usurped Federer's position at the top because Roger was having a bum year. He's genuinely an amazing player - and I mean amazing. That's what sparked this rant off, actually - there's an article in DEUCE magazine about Nadal's pursuit of various tennis historical geats and his claim to all-time greatness. And I think we have to realise this. We are spectators in one of the most intriguing, high-level sports rivalries of all time. Even Sampras/Agassi had nothing on Roger/Rafa. We only have to look at the final of Wimbledon to understand the intensity and the high-level of their rivalry. And it's not a rivalry in the antagonistic sense - I get the feeling Roger and Rafa quite like each other, really. They're certainly always very cordial to each other: and, moreover, both are gentlemen. I feel that's part of being a true great - it extends off court as well. And on court - can anyone deny these are two of the most phenomenal players world tennis has ever seen? Rafa is certainly the greatest claycourter of all time. Roger has got a pretty good grip on that Greatest of All Time trophy. We are so privileged.

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And, just to bring it down a notch, it really shows up what's going on with women's tennis at present... I don't think anyone would say this is one of the greatest ages for women's tennis ever. The top level is confused at best, and I think a lot of people have felt that those who have reached #1 this year haven't really deserved it. Would anyone say that of Roger or Rafa? I think not. We have too many #1s in men's tennis and too few in women's - and I know which problem I'd prefer!

Thirty-One Grand Slam Titles... and James Blake

Okay, so a question. This exhibition event in Macao that Federer's playing with Borg and McEnroe. Why, why, WHY is James Blake the other guy?

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Not that James Blake isn't a great player. I had that whole discussion yesterday about the insane achievements of anyone who makes it anywhere near the top hundred. He's a wonderful player. He has mad tennis skillz. But... he hasn't exactly won multiple Slams. He hasn't exactly won ONE Slam. Federer has thirteen. Borg and McEnroe have a pretty healthy number between them. I would feel like such a schlep if I were James, such a ring-in. You have these three major tennis greats... and James Blake. Poor guy.

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Federer beat Blake in a scrappy match, and McEnroe overcame Borg. I'm not sure what happened in the doubles. I'm not exactly sure what the point of this exhibition was, but it sounded like fun. Pity that that other one had to get cancelled - I think it was supposed to be in Penang. Still, the Macao thing sounds like it would have been fun to watch.

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Speaking of fun to watch, who else would kill to see that Sampras/McEnroe showdown in the BlackRock masters event in London? That one will be a dogfight of the old guys. I bet they'll sell a whoooooole lotta tickets.

The World Below The Surface

It's rather hard to write about tennis when there's no tennis to write about. I'm going to have to think about how to manage Tennis From The Backseat while we're in the off-season - it seems a little extravagant to write about tennis every day when there's no tennis to write about! But the blog will keep going strong into the New Year, bringing us back to where we started - the Australian tennis summer, my favourite swing of the tour (for obvious reasons.)

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Tennis Australia has also realised the dearth of stuff to write about now everyone's on holiday - but instead of writing about the Davis Cup final like normal people, they've done a list of how the Australians have been doing this week. No one's been playing on any of the major tours, but in Challengers and stuff there've been quite a few active. Let's have a look at the men's singles highlights (this list had no women on it anywhere. Are there just no women's events this week? We don't suck that badly.)

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*Chris Guccione reached the semifinal at the ATP Challenger event in Jersey, Great Britain.

*Carsten Ball was a quarterfinalist at the ATP Challenger event in Champaign, USA.

*Steven Goh qualified and reached the quarterfinal at the ITF Futures event in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

*Zachary Van Min qualified at the ITF Futures event in Queretaro, Mexico.

*Matt Reid reached the quarterfinal at the ITF Futures event in Honolulu, USA.

*Isaac Frost qualified at the ITF Futures event in Honolulu, USA.

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Reading lists like these, it makes you realise just how hard tennis is, particularly for the kids starting out. There's this whole tennis pantheon of celebrities - your Federers and Nadals and Safins and so forth - but underneath it all is this seething mass of people dying for a chance. Chris Guccione is ranked in the top hundred and he's still losing in Challenger events. That top echelon is really pretty damn small, when you think about it. Imagine if you play all your life and you get to about #200. Out of three billion or so people, #200 is pretty damn good - but in tennis terms, that's nothing of anything. Some minor Challenger or Futures victories, maybe... a lifetime on the pro circuit. You're good, but not quite good enough.

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Tennis isn't like music - it's not like lurking down in the #300s is some brilliant player who simply has to be discovered and will shoot straight to #1, winning umpteen Aria awards or whatever along the way. The guys in the top echelon are genuinely the best - because they beat everyone else. If there's one thing you can say about tennis, it's that the people at the top genuinely deserve to be there. (Except maybe Djokovic. Because I don't like him. The last two years have been a massive fluke, mark my words.) It must be so incredibly tough to be one of the little guys, schlepping away in Challengers and Futures, knowing that there is no quick fix. There's only hard work, a lot of it - and even then, you might not still be good enough. The guys ahead of you are just that little bit more talented, have those few extra shots... and though you can get a long way by hard work, sometimes it's just not enough.

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Taking that into consideration, it's amazing that the guys at the top aren't total tosspots with egos the size of Mt Isa (apparently the biggest city in the world in terms of space. Just so my imagery makes sense.) They are the best of the best of the best - because there are a whole lotta tennis players, and they've beaten them all. So congratulations, Roger and Rafa, for being genuinely nice guys.