SF Tennis Freak

Women’s Semifinal Results at the Mutua Madrid Open:
(1) Victoria Azarenka defeats (4) Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4
(9) Serena Williams defeats (Q) Lucie Hradecka 7-6(5), 6-0

In what is supposed to be one of the big rivalries of the WTA tour, Victoria Azarenka handed Agnieszka Radwanska a fifth loss in as many meeting for 2012.  This “rivalry” is quickly turning into domination, which I’m sure is okay with Azarenka as she books a spot in her sixth final of the year.

Serena Williams faced-down a woman who, for at least one set, held serve as strongly as she usually does.  After winning a tight first set via tiebreaker, Serena steamrolled Lucie Hradecka in the second, handing the Czech qualifier her only bagel of the tournament in 24 minutes.

After a crazy week of blue clay tennis, No. 1 and No. 9 will face off for the title.  Let’s take a look at the match-up.

Finals Pick

[1] Victoria Azarenka (BLR) versus [9] Serena Williams (USA)
Head-to-head: 6-1 Williams

This is THE match we have waited for all year on the WTA tour, pitting the reigning No. 1 against the acknowledged best woman in the game.

Vika’s only win over (a “hobbled”) Serena came in the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open final.  Apart from that it’s been all Serena.  Vika’s not intimidated by Serena, and can hit just as hard with just as much depth.  The only difference between them in the past has been the edge in mental strength, which Serena holds over most of the women on the tour.

This is a very different Vika she will be facing tomorrow, however; one that is much tougher and more willing to dig out the win no matter what.  In their one match that went to three sets, Vika had Serena on the ropes in Australia until the heat made her faint.  I’m less inclined to believe that such an escape would happen with this 2012 version of Vika.

They’ve played once on grass, and the rest of their matches have been on hard courts. They’ve never played on clay.  That might not matter in Madrid, on a court that rewards aggressive ball-striking.  This match has the same potential for big hitting as the Berdych-Del Potro semifinal.

The winner tomorrow will be the one who serves well, and best executes their aggressive ground game.  These are Serena’s trademarks:  especially the serve.  Serena’s been dominant during this spring clay swing, winning Charleston with an average loss of 3 games per round.  This final will be very close, and will probably go the distance.  But based on serve and mental toughness, I’m going with Serena for the win.

Pick:  Williams in three sets.

I pity Caroline Wozniacki!
She’s gonna get a major beat-down tomorrow in Madrid because she beat Serena in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open.

Serena always gives her best “signature beat-downs” after a signature loss. Her loss to Caroline in Miami was definitely a signature loss, and a surprising one at that.

Serena was coming off of a great win over Sam Stosur in a rematch of their US Open final (which Serena not only lost, but in the worst “Don’t even look at me” way). She was feeling good, and ready to make a run at the title. Then Caroline comes along, plays aggressive and offensive tennis for the first time all year, and mauls her like David Ferrer later mauled Del Potro. You know that had to stick in her craw, right?

It doesn’t help that Caroline’s battling an ankle injury. But even without the injury I think Caroline would have a rough go of this match. She angered the beast, and now she must pay! Matt Cronin tweeted this quote from Caroline’s dad earlier today:
Piotr to Ekstra Bladet: “Serena’s in top form, and Caroline’s on one leg, so we’re pretty relaxed about the result”. Yeah, that’s about all she can do.

Speaking of Sam Stosur, Serena may have defeated her in Miami, but it was nothing like the beat-down that she gave Sam at the Family Circle Cup. Serena embarrassed Sam 61, 6-1 in one of the most lopsided losses of their career meetings. And yes, this particular beat-down (on clay) followed her loss to Sam back in 2010 at the French Open quarters.

Do I even have to mention Maria Sharapova? It’s a foregone conclusion these days that whenever Serena sees her on the other side of the net, it’s going to be a bad day for Maria. It wasn’t always that way, however.

Think back and you might recall that Maria’s first meeting against Serena at Wimbledon resulted in an “I’ll take that Venus Rosewater Dish, thank you very much” moment for Maria. That loss was followed by another to Maria at the year-end championships. These were huge losses for Serena. So much so that she hasn’t lost to Maria since.

It’s almost as if one of her yearly goals is to embarrass Maria at least once during a WTA event in the calendar year. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not she’s in the best shape, as we saw in the Australian final of 2007. Serena can be out of shape, overweight, a glimmer of her very best… and she still won’t lose to Maria.

The bottom line is that you might be able to beat Serena once or twice for a really big win, and then pay dearly for it the rest of your career. Caroline is about to find out for herself tomorrow.

Apologies across the board… I have been so busy with work and writing articles for 10sworld.com that I have had almost no time to write for my own blog. And since my last post is a “final thoughts” from the Sony Ericsson Open, I DEFINITELY NEEDED TO DO A NEW ONE!

And what great timing. There’s been some really good news on the tennis front from players not named Rafael Nadal. Maria Sharapova finally snapped her finals losing streak to Victoria Azarenka in Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix. For the first time since her return from shoulder surgery, she managed to beat Azarenka in a final.

And she didn’t just beat her. She beat her in straight sets, giving up only 5 games. This from a woman who had previously never scored more than 5 games against Azarenka in a final! To say that this was a good win, especially on her least favorite surface of clay, would be an understatement.

The icing on top of it all was the added cattiness of a midmatch chest bump while changing sides, and snide remarks on Vika’s “injury” during her post-match speech. Yep, the claws came out in a big way. Should make the next few tournaments very interesting!

The other bit of news is about the hotness of Tommy Haas at the BMW Open. Not in a physical way, of course. “Hot” describes the streak he’s on as a wild card in Munich. He decimated Michael Berrer, and then took out Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the quarters. Tommy served impeccably and wasn’t broken the entire match .

His next match is against Marcos Baghdatis, and he has a decent shot at going at least one step further. It’s nice to see from a player who has struggled for a long time with injuries. If he does leave the tour after this year, a championship in Munich would be a great parting gift.

(Photos courtesy of 10sworld.com)

The Miami tournament (and my trip to it) were a lot of fun!  I wrote a ton of material, met some great people, saw some amazing tennis, and have an even greater appreciation for the sport of tennis than ever.

Before I close the chapter on this last hardcourt tournament for the next few months, here are some random thoughts on this year’s Sony Ericsson Open:

1. Congratulations to Aga Radwanska on her first big tournament win!  Girlfriend deserved it.  In spite of no big weapon or “kill shot”, she took down some big hitters (Sharapova, Bartoli, V. Williams).  Can she take the next step and win 7 at a slam?  Tough ask with no arsenal other than guile and retrieving, but you never know.  Hingis did it.
2. Congratulations Nole!  Though he looked like he was going to fall over on every point during the final, he still took out Murray in straights.  So how scary is it that Djokovic can beat opponents with superior tennis even when he’s injured and running on fumes?!  Given the state of Rafa’s knees, anything can happen at this year’s French!
3. Roger Federer lost to Andy Roddick in the oddest display of stubborn tennis I have seen in a long time.  After losing the first set to a “go for broke on the forehand” strategy by Andy, Roger kills him in the second by breaking down the backhand.  Going into the third, he decides that he’s going to beat Andy on his forehand side to win the match.  Didn’t work out so well for him.  Hubris at its’ best…
4. Vika’s streak was broken by Marion, who promptly lost in the next round to Aga.  Felt bad for Marion, but was ecstatic that there would be only one outrageous grunt in the final this year. On a positive note, she does seem to be trying harder to be nicer and relate more to the fans.  Just maybe not after her match with the choking Dominika Cibulkova. Vika, anything you do that makes it seem like you’re “stickin’ it” to the crowd might be something you want to rethink.
5. Tsonga issued the most disappointing statements of the tournament when he accused the chair umpires of favoring Rafa Nadal in line calls.  That’s pretty bush league from a guy who normally comports himself pretty well. I think it was Matt Cronin who made the comparison that if this were the NBA, he would have been heavily fined.  And it’s surprising that the chair umpire, Damian Steiner, didn’t slap him with a warning.
6. How about that Juan Monaco?!!?!?!  Takes out Gael Monfils, then takes out Americans Roddick and Fish, but bites it when he hits the buzzsaw in Djokovic for the semifinals.  Overall a tremendous tournament for a player who is always capable of the big win.  But can he keep it up?  I hope so.  I like “Pico”.
7. Speaking of Rafa, or more specifically his knees, his chances of defending at the French might take a hit if he’s in pain and Novak surges toward one of the two titles he is really gunning for this year (French Open and Olympic gold).  The issue of longevity certainly seems to be rising for Rafa.  For now it’s back to the plasma treatments and hopefully a successful return to his beloved Monte Carlo.
8. How do you solve a problem like Maria?  If you’re Thomas Hogstedt, you need to figure it out quickly before her performance issues in tournament finals start to significantly erode her confidence overall.  It’s not just an op-ed piece folks, the numbers back it up.
9. It was significant that the day after each had signature wins, both Serena Williams (over Sam Stosur) and Andy Roddick (over Roger Federer) bowed out unceremoniously to players they were expected to easily defeat.  I’d never jump on any particular bandwagon for either of these players, but there are some easy conclusions one could draw.  For Serena, the time has officially come that she can no longer just pop into tournaments and expect to play her way through like before.  The good day/bad day mixing is coming too frequently.  A great US Open final rematch with Sam was followed by bad loss to Caroline Wozniacki.  And these kinds of losses are coming a bit too frequently for someone like Serena.For Andy, I would never write him off.  But as good as he played against Roger to win that match was as bad and listless as he was against Juan Monaco.  He needs that day break in between at this stage in his career (stage = age).  Without it, he’s way too beat-able. Given that fact, I’ll always give him a chance to go deep at the non-clay Slams if he’s healthy.  And that’s sometimes a big “if”…
10. Venus Williams made a great return from Sjogren’s syndrome, Alisa Kleybanova made a great return from cancer treatments, Fernando Gonzalez said a tearful “Goodbye”, Marion Bartoli stepped up to to do what no other could do and beat Vika in a gutsy performance, and Mary Carillo was back in the booth for Tennis Channel.  All in all some pretty heart-warming and good news coming out of the heat in Miami.

One additional item to share… If you go to the tournament next year and visit the Lindt chocolate booth for some sample truffles, EAT THEM RIGHT AWAY.  They are tremendously good, but will melt in your pocket  in about 2 minutes.  I have the sweatshirt pocket stain to prove it!
And now, on to the clay!

Normally you don’t see quite as much “technical” coaching in such a visible setting between the two. But Toni clearly wants to correct the contact point for Rafa’s forehand and how he hits through the ball.

A quick practice video of Caroline on the day after her big win over Serena. I ran into her right after leaving from David Ferrer’s practice. The thought occurred to me that she had pulled a “Ferrer” on Serena the night before, starting out ready and aggressive from the first ball and never allowing Serena the chance to strike first with big shots.

For a moment, Caro was the WTA’s version of Ferrer…as opposed to her normal “Murray”.

I give a little commentary at one point, and mention that she looked “relaxed”. It wasn’t relaxed, it was tired. She stayed up too late recovering from her previous match the day before and was tired and flat-footed during her match with Radwanska.

I wanted to share a few pictures of David Ferrer (Feru) in all his glory from a practice session at the Sony Ericsson Open. More than many other players I have noticed in a long time, this guy is absolutely ripped with not an extra ounce of fat on his body.

The intensity of his workout keeps him lean, strong, and with incredible endurance to play as long as needed for the win. It also makes him a pretty stunning-looking guy. On a side note: David looks to be a fan of Calvin Klein. From what I noticed during my week in Miami, Calvin Klein is the unofficial underwear of the ATP. Maybe they should pursue a sponsorship deal? Just sayin’…

Enjoy the pictures!

Well, not really stalking. More like following. I felt a bit like a groupie. Notice how restrained I am at not knocking down the kid that is in my way the whole walk to the court. He should consider himself very lucky.

Let the practice begin! This short video is just over a minute, and doesn’t even come close to conveying how intense this guy is in practice. Made me feel like couch potato, and I’m in pretty decent shape!!! I guess it gives me a goal to strive for.

I even provide a little narration at one point. Please excuse the wind in the mic. I recorded this from my Nikon Coolpix, and the mic is extremely sensitive to the surrounding sounds.
Enjoy the vid.