Mike Houston harnesses his post Nadal/Djokovic catharsis and provides a wrap-up of the second week of the 2012 French Open.
What an incredible two weeks. What Roland Garros didn’t give
us in historic upsets, it made up for in consistent greatness. Rafa Nadal
marched all the way to the finals without dropping a set before claiming
victory. Djokovic played in his 6th final out of the last 7 Grand
Slam events. Maria Sharapova completed a career Grand Slam with her victory
over Sara Errani. Andy Murray gave the Brits less reason to believe he’ll ever
break through with a Slam victory. Last but not least, Roger Federer will have
to wait until Wimbledon to try to add another victory to his amazing career.
Let’s go to spot shot to zoom in on the action from the past week.
First Set — The Men’s
quarterfinal matches turned out to be much better than the semis. Djokovic and Tsonga played a fantastic 5-setter with Jo-Willie having the opportunity to win in the 4th
set tiebreak. Federer and del
Potro also went to five sets where Roger went down 2 sets to 0, and rallied to
win the final 3. Both semifinal
matchups were won in straight sets, setting up the Nadal-Djokovic final.
Second Set —
Is there a better sports color commentator than John McEnroe? He has the knowledge of Cris
Collinsworth and the personality of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark
Jackson. He explains the game and the shots in a very accessible way, and once
or twice a match will give a hilariously honest line. If you’re watching tennis, you want Johnny Mac on the
microphone.
Third Set — Maria
Sharapova was downright dominant all tournament. She only dropped one set the
entire two weeks, a tiebreak in her 4th round match. From the quarterfinals on, she never
allowed more than three games in a set. She forced her pace and her aggressive
style on her opponents and looked like the Sharapova of old. She retook the number 1 World ranking
in the process and goes into Wimbledon as the odds on favorite. Good to have
you back Maria.
Fourth Set — There were
three players during the Men’s finals. It was Nadal vs Djokovic vs the Rain. Two rain delays marred Sunday’s match
and seemingly swung momentum.
Nadal was cruising before the first delay, winning the first two sets
and looking in control. He was
making impossible shots and Djokovic had no answer for his powerful
forehand. After the rain, Djokovic
became the first person this year to take a set off Nadal, winning eight
straight games at one point. Then
came the second rain delay that cancelled play until Monday.
Fifth Set — Monday’s
conclusion came with clear skies and a clear winner. Nadal began the day down
2-1 in the 4th set, but quickly broke to even things back up. It was all the feisty Spaniard from
there, breaking Djokovic’s serve twice more on the day for the set and match.
Nadal has now won 11 career Slams to Federer’s 16, and seems as if you could
pencil him in for at least 2 more French Opens the way he played these two
weeks. The win ties Nadal with
Bjorn Borg for 3rd all time in Slams and gives him a chance to catch
Pete Sampras’ 14 Grand Slam titles in 2013.
Tiebreak — Looking
ahead, there’s plenty to be excited for at the All England Club at the
end of this month. Wimbledon will
likely pit Nadal and Federer on the same side for the semi-finals. Djokovic
looked excellent in London last year beating Nadal easily in 4 sets*, finally
breaking through on grass. On the
Women’s side, Sharapova won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2004 at age
17. She’s only made it back to the
Finals once since, losing to Petra Kvitova last year. Can she continue her hot play, or will the field be too much
for her? I, for one, can’t wait to
see.
*Editor’s Note: Last year, Djokovic did dominate Nadal on
a dreary Fourth of July weekend in New York much to my chagrin. While Nadal was
being dominated, I was at a beach house that didn’t have TV, so I almost threw
a satellite radio receiver threw the wall. In any event, after that Wimbledon
loss, Nadal has gained ground on Djokovic in each successive major. He lost in
four sets at the U.S. Open, lost in five epic sets at the Australian and now he
has just beaten Djokovic in four at the French. If trends hold up, this
Wimbledon is going to be an all-out and utterly graceful war.
No comments:
Post a Comment