Goodbye to Super Mario

Mario Ancic is living proof that not every tennis player's story is a fairy tale.

He was a world #1 junior. He made the boys' finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2000, losing to Andy Roddick and the marvellous Nicolas Mahut respectively. He was Croatia's heir to Goran Ivanisevic, and like Ivanisevic, it seemed that he had a destiny.

He beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in his first ever Grand Slam match, and I bet there's a few guys out there that will tell you that that is something which is a bit hard to do. He won a Challenger in Hamburg in 2003, which seems like a little thing... until you realise that the other finalist was some dude called Rafael Nadal. He made the Wimbledon semis in 2004. He won a bronze medal in doubles with Ivan Ljubicic at the Athens Olympics.

And that's not even his career years yet. His career high ranking was #7, and he deserved it. Mario Ancic was a fantastic player. He won titles at St Petersburg and s'Hertogenbosch (twice). He was so, so close to making the Masters Cup a couple of times. He was basically made of pure awesome and the train did not seem like it was about to stop.

But then came the monster that every tennis player fears. Injury. Illness.

Glandular fever. Broken bones. An ongoing back complaint. The mind was willing but the flesh was weak. Though weak is not the right word for it - Ancic forced his way back up to about #24 in the rankings for a while there. But he was never the same again.

Yesterday, Mario Ancic announced his retirement from professional tennis. At the age of 26, he is walking away from the sport. His body can no longer take it. The monsters won in this fairy tale. In terms of tennis, there is no happy ending here.

This does not mean that a) Ancic cannot be proud of his achievements, because he did really, really well in his time on tour, and b) that there are not bright things ahead for Ancic. From 2002-2008, Ancic was studying law as well as playing tennis, and he submitted his thesis on the legal underpinnings of the tour in 2008. He's probably one of the foremost experts in the world now on tennis and law, and I think that there is definitely a very, very excellent future for Ancic there. He might be done with playing the sport, but tennis and Ancic will continued to be linked for some time yet.

It's still really sad, though. It makes you realise that injury and illness can happen to any player out there - even the bright young things who seem to have all their career still ahead of them. We might not have seen much of him for the last few years, but we're still going to miss Mario Ancic. He was a big player with a big game and a big heart, and people like him will always, always be missed.

Adding Insult To Injury

This spate of injuries is really getting old.

We lost Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils today through retirement, meaning that one quarter of today's matches ended in injury and walking off the court. I know it's not exactly their fault that they're injured and I could use this to prompt a discussion on the schedule and stuff, but guys, really? If you're that injured, why are you playing?

I didn't see the matches so I don't know whether they were carrying these injuries into the match or whether they became injured in the course of a match. Injured in the course of a match I get - ain't nothing you can do about that. But if you know your body can't go the distance for the tournament, then you shouldn't play. Roger Federer (all hail) said once that he doesn't retire - if he's injured, he just doesn't walk on court. I think this is a really good way to do things - in fact, it's the way he's done things this week. He's still sore and needs rest, so he didn't play.

Let's face it - the guys in the top fifty are not the only tennis players in the world. There are people playing qualies and pre-qualies for tournaments like these that must gnash their teeth every time they see someone retire due to a carried injury. It's a waste of a spot and a waste of a match that these slightly lower-ranked guys would kill to play. And by half-heartedly committing to tournaments like this and then pulling out, the higher-ranked guys are wasting opportunities that these lower-ranked guys would kill off. It's rude to the lower-ranked guys and it's insulting to the tournament and to the sport.

If you're not prepared to play a full tournament, then don't step on the court. Because there are people who want to. Desperately.


Today's Results

Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 (Shanghai)

Rafael Nadal def. Tommy Robredo, 6-1 6-4
Novak Djokovic def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-4 6-2
Robin Soderling def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-3 6-3
Gilles Simon def. Tomas Berdych. 6-3 6-4
Nikolay Davydenko def. Fernando Gonzalez, 6-3 7-5
Ivan Ljubicic def. Gael Monfils, 6-2 3-0 retired
Radek Stepanek def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-2 retired
Feliciano Lopez def. Jurgen Melzer, 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1


Generali Ladies Linz (Linz)

Flavia Pennetta def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3 4-6 6-2
Agnieszka Radwanska def. Alize Cornet, 6-4 7-5
Yanina Wickmayer def. Alexandra Dulgheru, 2-6 6-3 6-1
Lucie Safarova def. Urszula Radwanska, 6-4 6-4
Ioana Raluca Olaru def. Julia Goerges, 3-6 6-2 7-5


HP Open (Osaka)

Caroline Wozniacki def. Katie O'Brien, 6-0 6-1
Samantha Stosur def. Akiko Morigami, 6-1 6-2
Aleksandra Wozniak def. Chang Kai-Chen, 7-5 7-6 (7-2)
Jill Craybas def. Mathilde Johansson, 2-6 6-2 6-0

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.

A Not-Quite-Motley Crew

Roger Federer achieved a new milestone this morning, though I'm not sure it's necessarily the one he'll be trotting out to tell his grandchildren. For the first time in 763 ATP level matches, he withdrew in the middle of a tournament.

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He's still never retired during a match at the ATP level - he gave James Blake a walkover today due to a stiff back. I suppose with Shanghai round the corner he'd rather be safe than sorry. It's still a bit sad, though, and I'm sure he's not too thrilled with himself, as it seems to mean something to him. I remember him saying that, 'Roger Federer doesn't pull out - otherwise he doesn't walk on court.' Which I suppose he held to, because he didn't walk on court. So I doubt somehow that this will be a harbinger of things to come. He's certainly not going to turn into a Djokovic!

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Someone that did retire during a match today was Rafa Nadal, after losing the first set 6-1 to Nikolay Davydenko. Add to that Djokovic's defeat early in the week and Murray's loss to Nalbandian today, and we have a crew of semi finalists who... well, not quite motley, but certainly not the four guys you'd expect, given that the four guys you'd expect would be the Big Three plus Murray (the Big Four? Can we legitimately say that yet?) But instead we have Nikolay Davydenko, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, James Blake and David Nalbandian.

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I have to say that I'm pulling for Tsonga, because he really deserves a big title and it would be nice for him to do it in front of a home crowd. Blake's been close a couple of times, Nalbandian is the defending champion and Davydenko has a Masters shield already this year. It's really open. Any one of these four guys could take it out. Much as I always want Federer to win things, it's kind of nice to have things so unpredictable. This should be a dog fight of a tournament, right down to the last point.

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Today's Results

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BNP Paribas Masters (Paris)

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James Blake def. Roger Federer, walkover

Nikolay Davydenko def. Rafael Nadal, 6-1 retired

David Nalbandian def. Andy Murray, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Andy Roddick, 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-5)

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Bell Challenge (Quebec)

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Nadia Petrova def. Melinda Czink, 6-1 6-4

Bethanie Mattek def. Melanie Oudin, 7-6 (9-7) 6-1

Angela Haynes def. Nathalie Dechy, 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3

Dancing Into Retirement

One thing I meant to write about last week and didn't because of the excitement of the US Open was the retirement of Alicia Molik, one-time world number #8 and one of Australia's best ever women's singles players. She announced it last week, and I kind of forgot about it, which is very careless of me. But never mind, I'll write about her now.

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This has obviously been coming for a long time - when you take an amount of time off so large that you can appear on 'Dancing With The Stars' then there's something pretty seriously wrong. It was so sad for Alicia when she contracted that strange middle-ear thing or whatever it was that meant she could barely walk because her balance was so bad... actually, speaking of 'Dancing With The Stars,' I remember when she on it she said that she was fine as long as she could hold onto her partner, because he kept her upright. I also remembering wondering if doing 'Dancing With The Stars' was necessarily the smartest choice, if that was the case. She commentated at the Australian Open that year as well - I think it was 2006 - and you could just tell she was so sad she wasn't out there.

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That was the beginning of the end for Alicia - but I remember the beginning of the beginning as well. It was around the same time that Jelena Dokic was playing for Australia. All the media attention was focused on her (and her dad, Damir... overbearing sports dads like Yuri Sharapov are often still referred to as Damirs in the vernacular, which I find very amusing!) So Molik came up quietly in the Dokic maelstrom. No one really knew she was there. She was very much the second banana for a long time. Then Dokic self-imploded and Alicia and Lleyton won the Hopman Cup and suddenly everyone was all about Alicia. She was an alternative to the chaos of the Dokic issue. She was simple and level-headed and uncomplicated and I think Australia as a whole really appreciated that.

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If you asked me which of the two players had more talent, Dokic or Molik, I'd probably say Dokic. I wasn't exactly watching tennis critically when she was active - it was in my twelves to fourteens, I think - but she was explosive on the court, when her head was in it. Molik was never like that. As a tennis player, she was remarkably sane compared to Jelena. She was the tortoise to Dokic's hare, and it never really did her any harm. Both girls became top ten players - Molik reached #8, Dokic #4 - but Molik is the one who stuck around. And Molik is the one who is going to stick around in Australia's memory in the long term. Dokic is remembered - when she is remembered at all - for her dad and all the drama she used to go through there. Molik will be remembered as a good tennis player and as someone who seemed like a nice person.

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Oh yeah, and someone who was once on 'Dancing With The Stars.'

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I'm actually glad to see Alicia retire now, because if she kept playing, I think it might just get embarassing for her. She hasn't been the same player since she got sick, and although she's recorded some good victories here and there - I saw her beat Kaia Kanepi very convincingly at the Australian Open this year - she's also recorded some terrible losses, like that one at the Olympics to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. It is very sad to see her go, but now she can retire with dignity. She is no longer the flagship for women's tennis in Australia - I think that baton was well and truly passed to Casey Dellacqua at the Australian Open - and so perhaps now is the right time. Vale, nonetheless. Alicia Molik may not have been one of tennis's renowned worldbeaters, but she was excellent for women's tennis in Australia, and she can be very proud of what she has done.

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Today's Results

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BCR Open Romania (Bucharest)

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Richard Gasquet def. Victor Crivoi, 6-3 6-2

Jose Acasuso def. Martin Vassallo Arguello, 6-4 7-5

Ivan Navarro def. Denis Gremelmayr, 6-3 1-0 retired

Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Adrian Cruciat, 6-1 6-2

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Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)

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Flavia Pennetta def. Anastasia Rodionova, 6-3 7-5

Nadia Petrova def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-1 6-1

Tamira Paszek def. Sara Errani, 6-0 7-6 (7-2)

Chan Yung-Jan def. Peng Shuai, 6-1 7-5