Fed Cup is over and done for another year - gee, I am SO SURPRISED that Russia won. Nobody saw that one coming. I discussed the incredible depth of Russian women's tennis the other day, but I think I just need to reiterate it. Their top three players were out, and they still won easily, one hundred percent absolutely no contest. Spain mounted a bit of a challenge in Anabel Medina Garrigue's charge in the singles, but even then, she only got a set off Sveta Kuznetsova. Russia were never going to lose this one.
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Imagine having six players in the top twenty. That's just insane. In the men's, France has something like fifteen players in the top hundred, and I thought that was pretty good - but I doubt more than three of them are in the top twenty. Actually, let's check... they have three, and none of them are in the top ten currently - Gasquet, Simon (who just won Bucharest) and Tsonga. Actually, I hadn't realised how remarkable Spain were - I knew they had a lot in the top hundred, but five of those are in the top twenty. There's Nadal at #1, of course, then Ferrer, Verdasco, Robredo and Almagro. Let's compare that with Australia. We have two players in the top hundred, Hewitt at #59 and Guccione at #80. Then in the next hundred there's Smeets, Sirianni, Luczak and Ball, then down another hundred is Ebelthite (who?), Groth, Klein, Jones (isn't he retired?), Armstrong (again, who?) and Lindahl. Bernard Tomic is at #816. Oh yes. What a strong tennis nation we are right now.
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Speaking of Australian tennis, Robert Smeets has just been added to the Davis Cup team, so that's seven guys we're sending to Chile now. He's not really adding to the age of the team much either - he's twenty-two. So I guess that makes him old, actually, compared to most of the rest of them. Tennis Australia says that:
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"The 147th ranked Smeets will add even more competitive spice to a young squad which will battle it out on the practice courts for a spot in the four man team to take on the highly-fancied Chileans in the World Group Play-off of Davis Cup by BNP Paribas from September 19-21."
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Competitive spice, huh? Because our chances are SO huge. Not that I'm ragging on John Fitzgerald or anything - I think he's awesome that he's trying so hard and that he's pulling out the stops. But I do wish journalists would be a little more realistic about our chances... so if we win, it really will be a huge surprise!
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Today's Results
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BCR Open Romania (Bucharest)
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Gilles Simon def. Carlos Moya, 6-3 6-4
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Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)
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Patty Schnyder def. Tamira Paszek, 6-3 6-0
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2 comments:
Hey Jodi, I have a Tennis Australia question for you: I notice most of the guys you're sending to Chile play a lot of clay-court Challenger events. Is that a priority down there now, trying to build clay-courters? Luczak and Gooch play on the stuff pretty much all year-round, right?
I saw Sirianni play the qualies at the Open last year and he had that old dirtballer/rugby player look going with legs like tree trunks!
What is the primary home surface nowadays? Is it rubberized hard courts or some kind of clay?--Van
I don't think it's an especial priority, trying to build claycourters - it's certainly not the default surface here. There are not many claycourts in Australia - I live in the capital, and we have one... though Canberra is not the best example of a city, really. I'm not in with the AIS, but I think building tennis players of any kind is the priority, as we have a serious dearth right now.
Luczak is certainly a specialist claycourter, but I'm not too sure about Gooch - he's a bit like a crapper version of Roddick, and clay slows down his serve, which is his big weapon. And I don't know about Sirianni, either, but he's nearly thirty-three, so I don't know if he's really indicative of current trends of Australian tennis...
But nearly all the courts here are hard courts, so that's what kids are growing up on...
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