The Mothership Has Landed

What is going on here? To read the tennis fan boards one would think the Apocalypse was upon us. As one regular poster at TAT put it, the Mothership seems to have landed. Roger Federer gets beaten by a man just back from the desert of a drug suspension. Maria Sharapova doesn’t even get to live up to her pejorative nick name “SemiPova” losing to someone the tennis Powers That Be and press would have you think should be groveling at her feet. The much more mellow Martina Hingis goes out earlier than expected. There are still top names on the ATP side but the quarter finals for the women feature names like Li, Hantuchova, Peer and Zvonareva. Not quite what the new owners had in mind. The ATP seems to have stemmed the bleeding and since they fielded a stronger group to begin with there are still marquee matches in store for the fans. The women on the other hand fielded a draw worthy of a Tier II event and with Sharapova unable to hold on to her Number One ranking some would argue that the “B” list players are finally getting a chance to show what they can do. Peer is on the way up and a good showing here would raise her profile significantly. Players like Svetlana Kuznetsova have a chance to reverse their slumping fortunes and play the way fans of women’s tennis know they can play. Daniela Hantuchova who up to now has been known more for a suspected eating disorder than her tennis has stepped up in the last few weeks and is poised for a very good showing.

So why all the fan unrest and prognostications of doom from some quarters? Why is everyone upset because the draw did what it was supposed to do – provide the top players with challenges that didn’t fit into their comfort zone and make them have to think their way into the next round. Both Guillermo Canas and Vera Zvonareva did what worthy opponents are supposed to do. Canas somewhat predictably lost his match the next day to Carlos Moya, a veteran and former number one who has been playing very well lately. Zvonareva is playing today against Li Na. Both women have a lot to prove and tennisheads will be paying close attention.

I think part of the problem is that the early round play was carried by The Tennis Channel. The Tennis Channel is not carried by many cable providers in the United States or abroad so the only access to live tennis was via live feed from Asia. Very few fans got to see how Guillermo Canas dismantled Roger Federer and forced him to play a style Roger is not comfortable with. Experience kept the first set close. Frustration on Roger’s part made the second set score representative of what took place.

I have no similar perspective for what happened to Maria Sharapova. For some reason not one WTA match was carried on the Tennis Channel. The live feeds, which were using the Tennis Channel feed, showed only ATP matches. There are fan sites where you can get live fan recaps, www.wtaworld.com is one of them, but even that was limited since TTC feed was the only one in use. Perhaps Larry Scott is so focused on Roadkill that he forgot to negotiate this for fans of his product. ESPN picks up today and I’m sure jaws are tight over there since the media darling is gone.

But I don’t want to bash Maria or Roger. What happened is that both of them ran into a real draw, one that did not play to their predilections and serve up players that would barely cause them to break a sweat. Instead Federer was faced with a man who had beaten him once before (it was emphasized that that had been a long time ago by TTC announcers) and Sharapova was faced with a focused and ready to take names Vera Zvonareva. Fans who keep up with the sport know Maria has had her problems of late but Vera beat her and has now moved into the next round. Maria is on her way to Miami.

I’ve been watching tennis long enough to appreciate what has happened over the last few days. This is what things used to look like before the image makers took over and decided the fans wanted to see certain players on court as opposed to other less worthy athletes.

I’m not a fan of this event. I still remember the crowd’s , and tournament officials actions (or lack there of) towards Serena Williams and personally would like the event to just fold up its tent and go away. It won't for many reasons but that is not the subject of this piece. I think this year this event is a triumph for the players. Bethanie Mattek has publicly complained that the WTA only promotes one player. The events in Las Vegas are still resonating with fans and players. The anointed have departed leaving the rest of the tour to show what it’s got. I think we’re going to see some good tennis. And I for one will be glued to the screen watching.