I have to say I’m bummed.
If I hadn’t paid an arm and a leg to get tickets for Super Saturday out at the BJK National Tennis Center I’d stay home in air conditioned comfort, write, and watch the men’s semis on television, probably with the sound off. I’d tape the women’s final and watch it at some later date.
But I’m writing this on the fly as I get ready to go out. I’m writing this because I am surprised to read on so many fan boards and from the regular readers and posters on this and Craig’s blog that tennis is not on their agenda today. That is not good for tennis.
When dyed in the wool WTA fans berate that organization for creating such a ridiculous draw that the “real final” – even Mary Carillo called it that, was yesterdays semi final between Justine Henin and Venus Williams – and that tonight’s Final between Justine Henin and Svetlana Kuznetsova will only be watched by hard core tennis fans is sad. Forget that Justine had two days rest to Venus one day since the original schedule which had Venus playing on Tuesday was jury rigged because the match that would have happened Wednesday night was an insomnia cure. The entire women’s draw was rigged to favor one player who still could not make it to semi final day.
Venus is a professional tennis player. She lost. V-nuts are not happy. Moving on.
The match between Svetlana Kuznetsova and the up and coming Anna Chakvetadze was horrid. There are no other words to describe it. Anna got a big case of stage fright and while she didn’t pull a Tomas Berdych and throw in the towel she did the next best thing. Sveta, who can play great tennis, could barely get out of her own way for one entire set. She won the next two by keeping the ball in the court, something young Anna couldn’t do. Justine Henin will not be so forgiving Sveta. Based on what I observed in person the other night when Justine played Serena and overheard on the train going home Justine may be the best player right now but she is not, and never will be, a favorite. She has her fans, yes, but with Carlos Rodriguez admitting that he cheats and will continue to do so until someone stops him the two of them, while compiling the best record and playing the best tennis will never be “beloved” by the fans.
The mens semi finals? David Ferrer comes in carrying a lot of people’s hopes on his shoulders. This is his first Grand Slam semi final. Novak Djokovic? I literally fell asleep watching him play Haase the other day. Maybe it was fatigue. I hope so. I expect to see him go into his act today due to the heat of the day and hopefully the heat Ferrer will bring. Despite Novak’s being JMac’s new darling everyone, fortunately, is not on that bandwagon.
As for the other semi final match Nikolay Davydenko will face Roger Federer, or as he is called in some circles, The Name.
If you don’t get the reference find Marcos Baghdatis post match interview where he talks about simply the name of Roger Federer inspired awe. As I said writing this on the fly so I can’t quite remember where he said it – maybe in Cincy or in Montreal. Since Federer has played warm up matches of varying degrees of difficulty to reach the semi’s while Davydenko has actually played very well this may turn out to be a match. If it turns out to be 1,1,1 or something like that don’t blame me. I said it MAY turn out to be a match.
Gotta go. I’ll report my adventures at BJK later. Ciao.
2 comments:
Have a great day! I'd have to say my interest in this Open has faded away almost completely. Fed takes another slam. Don't believe any of the three men left in the draw will challenge him at all. Do I wanna see Fed dole out another beatdown? Not really. True this is not good for tennis. Perhaps the hype around Djokovic will inspire the casual fan to watch, if Novak makes it to the final. As for the women, not interested at all. But I haven't been that interested since Capriati left.
I suppose the Fedfans will be happy to watch their man take home the trophy again. Would be nice to see him pushed a bit though.
Hey Oddman, I succumbed and watched the match with Fed/Nikolay and I have to say as a Fed fan I am deeply concerned at his performance. Talk about lacklustre. He was serving just about as well as I was, and I lost 6-1, 6-2 today, with countless double faults. At one point I went 3 straight service games without getting into a rally, my serve was that off. The sun was hot and I was just not feeling it but I had to get out of the house as I was in the doldrums somewhat after Venus' loss yesterday. I am of 2 minds as to whether I am going to watch the women's final. The thing is I am a fan of tennis, not of the personalities and if I see someone who plays the game well, then I usually like to watch, but Justine just does not do anything for me, beautiful game notwithstanding. Perhaps I will watch and cheer for Svetlana. About time another Russian steps up to the plate. I cannot believe that Sharapova has fallen down so much in the rankings. I hear that she is now No. 4. Dang, 2008 is looking very competitive.
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