Ka-boom: Can the American men go deep on European clay?

Taylor Fritz
Mal Taam/MALTphoto

Taylor Fritz: “Maybe not all the other, older generation of Americans wouldn’t want to play so much on clay, but it’s important.”

The American men have not won the ATP 1000 in Madrid was in 2002, when the Grand Slam eight time champion Andre Agassi won it on clay. He had been No. 1, and he also won all four, winning the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. But with the current men, no one has won it, and it has been almost 20 years. The last one was Andy Roddick, who grabbed it at the 2003 U.S. Open.

In a sense, it is somewhat decent, as over the years, many people thought out in the county began to really like tennis. Not just in Switzerland, and Spain, but also, with Serbia, as Novak Djokovic has won 21 Grand Slams. He can play spectacularly, as did the now retired Roger Federer, as well as Rafa Nadal, who is still playing.

Unfortunately, both Djokovic and Nadal are hurt so they cannot play in Madrid this week. But the No. 10, Taylor Fritz, is playing and he has had a pretty good year, but not phenomenal. He has yet to reach into the semifinals in the Slams, but at least he had won an ATP 1000 at the 2022 Indian Wells. He was rising, and at times, he looks amazing, yet on the dirt, he has yet to go deep at Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros. He wants to go further, and he wants to, but he is not quite there, yet.
 
“Well, look, if you want to be one of the best players in the world, you really do have to perform on all surfaces. I think what other choice do you have? You have to embrace it,” Fritz said. “You have to try to enjoy playing on it, try to get better, try to have the best results possible. I’m still obviously improving a lot, but it’s always been important for me to try to play a serious clay court schedule. Maybe not all the other, older generation of Americans wouldn’t want to play so much on clay, but it’s important if you want to be top-5, top-10 player to be able to perform on every surface.”

Not only did Agassi finally became so much better in the clay courts, but Jim Courier and Pete Sampras both won at Rome. In the early 1990s, Courier won Roland Garros twice, with some long, hard points. You can also throw in Michael Chang, another American, who when he was so young, he flew up into the sky and nailed it, winning with some incedible matches, and he won Paris in1989. That was mind blowing. Those four combined for 27 Grand Slams. Ka-boom.

Right now, with the current men, it is possible that someday, someone will win a major. But we are not sure. As Fritz said, that the Russian Andrey Rublev has become so steady. Last week, he won the ATP 1000 Monte Carlo. “He’s very consistent. He’s made lots of quarters, semis, and I think this is his third final. It’s kind of just whoever plays the best on that week” Fritz said. “He has been unlucky. But yeah, obviously he’s 100% at the level of a player who you would expect to have one and he’ll have one soon.”

American men have to step up now

The young American men are coming up fairly fast, but it is hard to know when the boys will win some major tournaments.

Players like Jared Donaldson, Frances Tiafoe, Ernesto Escobedo and Taylor Fritz show great promise but they have a ways to go before advancing from the top 90 to 130 range into the impact player group

Forget about the Grand Slams right now — it is very early. Nobody knows if they are good enough to beat spectacular players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka.  

Let’s look the veteran Americans, who are pretty good, but not good enough.

Way back when, the Americans dominated: Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. After they all retired, Andy Roddick was darn good, too. But that was the last one. In 2003, Roddick won the US Open. Since then, no Americans won it again.

Now, it is 2017, almost 15 years gone dry.

Currently, the American guys – John Isner, Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson and Donald Young – have not reached the semifinals at the Grand Slam. Ever. Even though he’s only 24, Jack Sock may be the U.S. man at No. 17, but he has also not shown the promise of rising Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios.

In fact, they haven’t won an ATP 1000.

Time to change?

On Sunday at Miami, the very young American Donaldson will face against the huge-hitter Canadian Milos Raonic. Sock, who reached the semis at Indian Wells. He is coming up, better and better, and will play Jiri Vesely

On Monday, John Isner will face the boy-wonder Zverev. Will the German show why he’s ranked the spots higher than the American?

Querrey has a legitimate shot against Roberto Bautista Abut.
The American vets do like Miami, so perhaps they can go very deep and possibly win it all?
Maybe, but they have to prove it.

NOTES
Bethanie Mattek-Sands is playing well again and she has a fine shot against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, but given that Lucic-Baroni played incredibly well by stunning Aga Radwanska, it will be a very intense contest.

Also on Sunday, Venus Williams and the 19-year-old Taylor Townsend will play against different foes and may face off in the fourth round. Venus is the favorite in that potential clash.

Tough one for Shelby Rogers, who has to play against No. 1 Angie Kerber.

Toni Nadal, Patrick Mouratoglou win Coach of Year polls

Coach of the Year/ATP

Results

Toni Nadal/
Rafael Nadal
37%
Magnus Norman/
Stan Wawrinka
32%
Ivan Lendl/
Andy Murray
24%
Marian Vajda/
Novak Djokovic
7%

Coach of the Year/WTA

Results

Patrick Mouratoglou/
Serena Williams
57%
Carlos Rodriguez/
Li Na
22%
Sam Sumyk/
Victoria Azarenka
11%
Marko Jankovic/
Jelena Jankovic
10%

There has not been a more interesting off-season in recent memory when it comes coaching changes than in 2013. There have been a slew a moves amongst notable players, which began shortly after the WTA season ended and culminated with Maria Sharapova’s hiring of Sven Groeneveld.

Here is my analysis of the major WTA coaching changes.

The after the ATP season ended, the guys shifted into high gear and in the last week alone, Novak Djokovic announced he had hired Boris Becker, and Roger Federer asked Stefan Edberg to consult with him, at least in the short term. Kei Nishikori is now working with Michael Chang and Goran Ivanisevic coaching Marin Cilic again.

As Magnus Norman, the former Roland Garros finalist and coach of Stan Wawrinka tweeted: “Lendl,Goran,Chang and now Becker and perhaps Edberg as coaches on the @ATPWorldTour. Should do coach tournament. Sure not top seed anymore’

Before touching on the significance of those partnerships, a few words about our current Coach of the Year polls, which you can vote in here.

On the ATP side the nominees are:

Toni Nadal for Rafael Nadal; Marian Vajda for Novak Djokovic; Ivan Lendl for Andy Murray and Magnus Norman for Stan Wawrinka. On the WTA side, the nominees are: Patrick Mouratoglou for Serena Williams; Sam Sumyk for Victoria Azarenka;

Carlos Rodriguez for Li Na; and Marko Jankovic for Jelena Jankovic.

As of the morning of December 20, Lendl and Norman were leading the men’s poll. Murray became the first man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win Wimbledon and that alone says that his coach did an excellent job in preparing him for the biggest match of his life on the biggest stage in his nation and, to many folks, the most important venue in the sport.

Norman helped Wawrinka become a better all-around player and a much more confident person on court, which is why he was able to finish the year in the top eight for the first time and become a serious threat at the Slams.

Toni Nadal did a fantastic job helping Rafa adjust to Djokovic’s newfound strengths and helping his nephew add a few new elements to his own game while he was out with an injury, which is why Nadal had the best year of any player out there, won two majors and finished No. 1.

While Vajda now wants to take a back seat to Becker after eight year at the helm, it cannot be dismissed that he helped Djokovic regain the confidence he lost after losing to Nadal in the US Open final and go undefeated during the fall.

After Serena had her most consistent year ever and only lost four matches, Mouratoglou has to be given credit for helping her keep her mind on court all season long. She hadn’t shown an ability to do that as a veteran player until this year and now once again she is the dominant figure in her sport.

Sumyk is an underrated coach who has done an excellent job with Azarenka overall. She managed to win the Aussie Open amidst controversy, score two wins over Williams and, while she could have played much better in the third set of the US Open final and of course at the WTA Championships when she was wiped out, she remains Serena’s most threatening rival, and that is partly because her coach has helped her refine her game and keep her head in matches.

Rodriguez has made Li a player to fear on every surface and she trusts him enough to actually make net charging a part of her repertoire, which could be the addition that takes her to another Slam title.

Anyone who watched Jelena Jankovic flounder in 2012 (and before) knows just how far she has fallen and it took a family member – namely her brother Marko – to understand where she was and where she needed to go to regain her former top five form. She finished the year in the top 8 and once again is filled with vim and vigor.

Here are my quick thoughts on the recent ATP coaching moves.

Djokovic hires Becker: Clearly Djokovic wants to work with an ex-No. 1 who has won Slams to perhaps do with him what Lendl did with Murray: give him some key tips as to how to handle himself in Grand Slam finals. He also wants to be able to go on the attack more often, which Becker did pretty consistently. The Serbian will not morph into a serve and volleyer like Becker was, but he can improve his volley and his transition game.  Two big questions arise: Becker has never coached full-time and, will Djokovic be patient with him if he has to learn on the job; and given that Becker is a very public person who likes to discuss issues with the media, will Djokovic tolerate that if Becker criticizes him to the world or try to muzzle him?

Federer trains for a week with Edberg: The Swede says he is willing to consider working more with the Swiss than the week together they spent in Dubai. Edberg is Federer’s hero, so he clearly respects him, but what exactly can the Swede do with a great but aging player who is behind the eight ball when it comes to being able to be the rest of the so-called Big 4 again? Serve and volley? Chip and charge? Maybe, but Federer’s prior coach, Paul Annacone preached that and it didn’t turn out to matter much in 2013.

Nishikori and Chang: The American has coached before, doing a stint with Peng Shuai, so he does have some experience. Like Nishikori, Chang was an undersized player during his era, but the former world No. 2 was steadier than Japan’s top player is now, was mentally tougher and frankly was better all around. Nishikori needs to improve his fitness and play more patiently before he takes big rips at the ball.  Chang, who was very hard worker, can help him with that.

Ivanisevic and Cilic: These two Croatians have worked with each other in the past.  Ivanisevic is a bold, self-confident person who can perhaps convince Cilic to stop doubting himself. He also needs to figure out why his student hasn’t come close to living up to his top-5 potential. From the outside, that looks like a very complex jigsaw puzzle.

 

 

Who needs to be No. 1? Azarenka finally gets over on Serena again

Azarenka IW 11 MALT6100

Vika is only 2-11 vs. Serena, but the second victory meant a lot

Some 21 years ago in San Jose, Jim Courier became No. 1 for the first time, but lost to Michael Chang and couldn’t manage to win the title.

On Sunday in Doha on the same day that the 125-year-old San Francisco Bay Area tournament, which has been played in many significant NorCal tennis-loving locales such as Monterey, San Rafael, Danville, Berkeley, Daly City, San Francisco and San Jose before the NHL Sharks group decided to slap shot it to Rio, now No. 2 Victoria Azarenka stood up as tall as she has in one year and finally got the better of Serena Williams again, this time a hearty 7-6 2-6 6-3 victory.

Williams will replace Azarenka on top of the rankings on Monday, but I can guarantee you that Azarenka would take this win over the woman who consistently stood in her way as being a legitimate No. 1 over remaining in the top spot for the next few weeks. Serena had taken her out nine times in a row and five times last year and it really appeared that Williams was not only better than she was, but had psyched her out.

Azarenka had out played her in the 2012 US Open final on outdoor hard courts, without question the Belarussian

Tennis and the Art of Losing

As great as Hingis was, she was 5-7 in Slam finals.

By Richard Osborn

Baseball is a game of failure. Always has been, always will be. Ted Williams, The Splendid Splinter, the last man to hit .400, once confessed, “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of 10 and be considered a good performer.”

Fellow slugger Mickey Mantle concurred, asserting, “During my 18 years, I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.”

Tennis has its failures, too. After all, there are 127 losers in every Grand Slam draw. Only one player can be crowned the champion. But I