Handicapping the U.S. Open
With just the men's final left to be disputed, the final Grand Slam event of the year is almost over. Mr Ed takes a look this week at some of the high and low points of the 2001 U.S. Open.
Rough fortnight for women's tennis
The WTA boasts that women's tennis has never been better. Certainly, on the financial level, this is true, as the top players earn massive prize money and claim lucrative endorsement contracts. But on the court, the product is too often shoddy and, it seems to us, increasingly so.
There was only one match on the women's side that struck us as approaching high-quality: Serena Williams's 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 quarterfinal win over Lindsay Davenport. In most of the other marquee matches, including the Williams-Williams final, the loser sprayed alarming numbers of unforced errors and bowed out meekly. Normally, if bashing the ball as hard as one can is not working, you would expect a player to resort to a Plan B. Plan B, in the case of players like Jennifer Capriati in her losing semifinal, S
erena Williams in her losing final, or Kim Clijsters in her losing quarterfinal (all came against Venus Williams) appeared to be to bash the ball hard and make even more errors. What was most astonishing was how many errors came on the women's first or second touches of a point.
The arrival of "power tennis" to the women's game has been for the most part an aesthetic disaster, for it is power without strategy, power without variety. With little of interest on the tennis court, the mainstream media gleefully stirs up catfights among the players and concoct far-fetched stories of racial enmity in order to have interesting copy.
While the men's side had its share of clunkers as well (notably the Gustavo Kuerten's no-show against Kafelnikov in their quarterfinal, and Kafelnikov's horrible effort against Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinal), the Flushing Meadows fortnight produced some memorable, high-quality men's matches. The Kuerten-Mirnyi and Hewitt-Roddick matches were excellent and gripping, and the Sampras-Agassi quarterfinal lived up to expectations and then some.
Women's tennis may have come a long way, baby, but it still has a long way to go.
Pistol Pete fires back
Pete Sampras certainly had a lot of motivational fuel at this year's Open. Media critics were not the only ones ripping Sampras for his disinterested an lethargic play this year ? even his country's Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe had a go at him in comments published on the even of the tournament. Seeded a lowly (for Sampras) #10, the all-time Grand Slam title leader was given almost no chance to emerge trom a quarter of the draw that included former champions, and the tournament favourites in the mind
s of many, Patrick Rafter and Andre Agassi.
The tough draw and the public critiques may have been what the doctor ordered, as they appeared to focus Sampras's mind wonderfully. After watching Sampras slouch his way lethargically through the last fourteen months, it has been astonishing to see him suddenly serving, volleying, sprinting, and cracking forehands as he did when he dominated the sport. To be sure, beating the last three U.S. Open champions (Rafter, Agassi and Safin) in succession is a very impressive feat, regardless of the result of to
morrow's final.
Has his amazing U.S. Open been Pete's last hurrah, or the sign of a longer term resurgence? It will be interesting to see if Sampras can maintain this form in the months to come and next season, when he will be 31 years old.
Farewell to Nathalie and Slava!
We should not let the last Grand Slam appearances of two of the erstwhile veterans of tennis pass unmentioned.
Nathalie Tauziat, who is the last serve-volleyer left in women's tennis, said her farewell to the majors at this year's U.S. Open. The soon-to-retire Frenchwoman will be 34 next month, and can be pleased with a solid showing at her final Slam.
Tauziat's final French Open this year had been a disaster, a desultory loss to rising Russian star Lina Krasnoroutskaya in front of only a few hundred spectators on an outer court. But Nathalie did herself prouder in New York, waging a brave battle against French rival Amélie Mauresmo in the round of sixteen before bowing out in the third set. Tauziat, a former world #3 and Wimbledon runner-up, may yet claim a title in her final major, as she and Kimberly Po-Messerli have reached the doubles final. Noth
ing against their opponents, Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs, but we hope Nathalie ends her Grand Slam career with a title that would certainly be very sweet.
Slava Dosedel's career on the men's circuit never reached the heights of Tauziat's, as the 31 year old out of the Czech Republic never topped the #26 ranking he achieved in 1994. Still, Dosedel was a popular and well-liked competitor on the circuit. He was remarkable for the smiley face he painted on his racquet strings, as well as the way he almost got down on one knee to strike his volleys. Dosedel also made his acting debut last year, starring in a Czech feature film about an 18th-century doctor.
But the multi-talented Dosedel announced after his first-round loss to Andy Roddick that he is leaving the game at the end of this year.
Slava will have never one a Grand Slam title, but maybe we'll see him again at the Oscars one of these years.