If you're absolutely not interested in this, just scroll down to the bottom, and I'll have a nice tennis blooper video for you.
This isn't a how to play, especially given that one of my regulars is a better tennis player than I ever was, or so I've been told. Actually, tennis is one of the few things Severo and I have in common other than a fluency in English and a very distant relative in either paleolithic North America or Siberia before the big crossing. Instead this is more a commentary on a couple of my favorite players.
There's no real theme for this one, just my thoughts on a couple of less-than-household names in the sport. The first guy I'm going to talk about is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who was the former nobody I referred to in the first paragraph. Tsonga obliterated Raphael Nadal 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in their semifinal match at the Australian Open yesterday. If you're not Severo and don't know tennis scoring that well, that means that Tsonga won in straight sets where he won 6 games to 2, 6 games to 3 and 6 games to 2 (you win a set by winning six games first as long as you win by a margin of two games. You win a match by winning 3 sets in men's tennis). Normally, in late round matches like this, you expect a broken serve (where you win a game off of your opponent's serve) to be the difference and the other guy to at least win a set, but Tsonga was unstoppable. He served up 17 aces, but was just as comfortable touching it over the net for a point as he was slamming it in with power. I didn't even watch the entire match, but saw the highlights afterward and did some reading to fill in the gaps. I'm not sure anyone could have beaten Tsongas yesterday. Now the question is whether he can put up the same sort of excellence against his likely championship opponent Federer as he did against Federer's bane. This could have been the breakout game of the next tennis superpower. Then again, he could be the next flash in the pan who shows great promise in one Grand Slam tournament and then fades back into professional mediocrity. I'm hoping for the former. I really want to watch this guy play like he did last night.
It's funny how tennis is a sport that almost no one in the US watches, but still manages to insert its star players into our collective consciousness. I didn't even bother to clarify who I meant by Federer, because only those entirely clueless to athletics of any sort don't know he's one of the greatest players to ever live. I could use Serena and Venus and you'd know who I was talking about. You probably even know who Andy Roddick is (he's Mandy Moore's former beau). Now try using a name of a soccer star who isn't married to a former Spice Girl and see how many people know who you're talking about. It's only the most popular sport in the world and yet no one knows anyone but Beckham in the US. Tennis really isn't that popular of a sport and yet there are a good many household names playing professionally. That has always struck me as a tad strange.
And people with a mind for trivia don't count in the suggested experiment above. They're too observant and would likely be able to name a few soccer players. It's kind of like me knowing who's credited with being the inventor of the little black dress despite obviously having no interest in fashion. But I digress.
One of my favorite sub-household-name tennis stars is James Blake. I've been following him since he was a young up-and-coming pro and I was in college. Blake was once in a similar position to the one Tsonga is in now. Early in his career he had managed a couple of surprise upsets and looked to be one of the next big things. Unfortunately for Blake, just as he was starting to really make a name for himself (having beaten the likes of Agassi and Roddick, but not reaching the finals of any of the Grand Slam tournaments), he fell and broke his neck against a net post in practice. Then his dad died of stomach cancer. And he got shingles. 2004 was definitely not his year. I actually laughed out loud when I read that list of bad things in 2004 during my research because it was such a bad year it seemed ridiculous. I'll admit that my sense of humor can be a bit dark. Blake hasn't lived up to the potential he was showing early on, but then he did break his neck, so I'll give him a pass on that. He's still a fun player to watch and often gives the upper echelon players a tough match, such as this year's Australian Open where he fell to Federer in straight sets, but forced him to win 7-5, 7-6 (with a tie breaker), and 6-4. When you're falling to perhaps the best player ever, that's the way you want to go down.
And now a funny tennis video.
5 comments:
I've often wondered the same thing about tennis. I like tennis, but I never did come up with a decent serve. I've got a wicked backhand, though, and I can run down a lot of balls.
I actually managed to overcome my sheer lack of athleticism through practice and technique. My serve was fairly consistent, but never deserved to be called powerful or intimidating. I got it in and it was about as hard as I could hit it without losing all control, but I never got much power in any area. I'm also incredibly slow, so doubles was my forte because there's less court to cover if your partner doesn't suck.
And Djokovic beat Federer, which means that the final is just two guys no one but tennis fans have ever heard of. Should be a great match, though. Both Djokovic and Tsonga have been amazingly good this tournament.
He, he. Mickey runs down a lot of balls. That's funny.
And you're video's gone. That does not amuse me.
Julie, I'm still seeing the video. Why aren't you?
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