Dissecting
Daniela Is Djokovic the best of
the youngsters? To face heroic Murray
Anne-Marie Stark
Daniela Hantuchova in an Indian Wells press conference.
FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS –
Daniela Hantuchova will never back off on her desire to be No. 1 some
day, even though to most folks it appears to be a fantastic notion.
She still believes her best years are ahead of her, even though she has
six years behind her as a pro and likely no more than five decent physical
ones ahead.
In the fourth seed’s 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win over Li Na in the semifinals,
Hantuchova arranged points like an elite player, but her opponent had
dead legs and the Slovak didn’t have to orchestrate a perfect sympathy
in the third set. She merely had to put balls into the court.
That she did so without hitting herself off the court is to be admired,
because as bright as she is, she did that plenty in the past. No great
surprise here, but her legion of coaches at the Sanchez-Casal Academy
have taught her the value of patience. Everyone needs a little injection
of Arantxa now and then.
“Before it was either all winners or unforced errors. There was
nothing in between,” she said. “Now I'm learning that it's
okay also sometimes to hit a normal shot. It doesn't have to be on the
line or winner that goes to 200 miles an hour.”
How often has a Top-5 player won her first Tier I title and then
had to come back to the same place five years later and have to attempt
to win her second title of any kind. It's likely it
has never happened at another Tier I, but it could very well happen for
Hantuchova, who is playing as well as anyone in the tournament and is
extremely confident.
“I feel like my best times are still ahead,” she said. “I
feel like before, even though I had great results, it was too much up
and down. I was never really stable. But now I know what it takes to win
big tournaments, to have great wins. With mentally being much, much stronger,
I feel like the best times are still ahead."
Hantuchova is an accomplished on-court thinker, so that’s not what’s
been holding her back. As Martina Hingis says, she always seems to play
the right shot. It’s about execution and whether she is emotionally
and physically fit enough to be able to execute. That has not
been always the case, but has certainly been the way things are for the
past two years. She’s striking a better emotional balance, so
her challenge has largely been to improve her technical game. As sweet
as her two-handed backhand is, her forehand has been late to develop
and as strong as her first serve is, it’s often erratic. But
her serve is a weapon when she finds a good rhythm and when her feet
are properly planted, she can paste a forehand, too.
When Hantuchova is on, she’s very, very good because if you can’t
get her moving more than a few strides laterally, she’ll seize
control of the court. She has terrific depth and understand
the angles pretty well. She’s not a standout returner, partly
because she’s
not a risk-taker, but she does a fine job launching missiles down the
line off patty cake second serves.
Players like Hantuchova could be accused of being to happy with their
station in life, but in her case, that contention could be flipped on
its head. Sure, she should have won more titles by now and certainly
should have reached a Slam semi, but she’s been around the Top
20 for almost all of her career and that does take some effort. On the
one hand, you could call her a perennial quarterfinalist, but had she
gotten lazy, she could have ended up a perennial third-rounder. She’s
gifted, but it’s not like she was handed Venus Williams’ height,
sinewy muscles and speed.
Hantuchova enters her third Tier One final and the sixth final overall.
In her only title run, she stunned Hingis at the ’02 Pac Life Open. In
her other four title-round losses, she’d fallen to Kim Clijsters
(whom she has never beaten), Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova.
Hantuchova is 9-1 in three-setters this year, a terrific mark for any
player, but it also shows her vulnerability she has trouble closing
out matches. But no matter, as written in this space a few days ago,
she’s
defying those physiotherapists who believe that thin frames can’t
last under brutal conditions. She actually believed she had the fitness
edge going into the third set against Li and proved it. Big credit there
to her fitness trainer, Marco Panichi.
Anne-Marie Stark
Novak Djokovic sparkled with his
easy dismissal of David Ferrer.
Is Djokovic the best
of the Youngsters?
Novak Djokovic is pulling out all stops to become a top player and this
week, he’s brought in former doubles standout Mark Woodforde to
consult with his coach, Marian Vada. The Joker wants to throw in a
little more serve and volley, and there are few better tutors than
the lefty Woodforde, who was one of the most sure-handed volleyers
of the last 20 years and lives half the year in the desert. The pair
met up at Adelaide, where Woodforde is the tournament director and
Djokovic won the title.
The 19-year-old Serb is incredibly talented, but there’s not a lot
of room at the top. He’s tall, he’s strong, he has a cannon
forehand, a solid two-handed backhand and nice one-handed slice. He has
a huge serve that hovers in the 130s and he’s pretty well composed.
With his 6-3, 6-4 victory over David Ferrer in the quarters, he now stands
a fair chance of cracking the Top 10 this week. The 13th-ranked Serb
will likely have to win his semifinal to do so, but even if he doesn’t
he’ll
be darn close by Miami and should push out a few of men in front of him
– Tomas Berdych, Mario Ancic and David Nalbandian.
It's a race between The Joker and his good buddy Andy Murray as to who
cracks the Top 10 first. This month will almost certainly tell the tale
as to who comes in front in that race.
Djokovic is very business-like, but he’s not cold. He seems to have
a vision for himself, certainly a mark of a champion.
"I know I'm winning now, and I'm 19 years old, and still 13 in the
world, but there's many things to improve on,” he said. “
And as long as it's like that, I'm really happy . … I think I
should use the opportunities [at net], because I have pretty powerful
strokes from the baseline, and I opened the court pretty well with the
serve. I just need to get to the net and finish it off. I'm really trying
my best to do it, really working on it on practices and trying to get
on the matches. But it's not easy, of course, from the start to change
right away, but I hope with the time will come.”
There is a very good new generation that’s already cracked the
Top 20, but interestingly, it’s three off the youngest who are
among the highest ranked – the already established 20-year-old
Rafael Nadal, followed by the 19-year-olds Djokovic and Murray. Tomas
Berdych, 21, is currently ranked No 12 but he’s headed for a little
slip. Richard Gasquet, 20, and Marcos Baghdatis, 21, are ranked Nos.
16 and 18 respectively.
When asked about the new generation, Djokovic threw in France’s
Gael Monfils, but he is nowhere near the other six in terms of composure.
It’s the other six whom you could see hanging around the Top 20
for the next five years.
Against Haas, the 13th-seeded Murray looked all
but done after he rolled his left ankle diving for a forehand in the
third game of the second set, but he sucked it up, limped around, pushed
balls deep high, guided them deep and floated them short. Haas nearly
lost his mind.
The second set was a dull, confusing affair but the third set was intriguing,
as Haas finally remembered how to confront a junkballer (rush the net)
and Murray began to regain his movement.
Even though he wasn’t running that
much, Haas took a medical timeout for appeared to be leg cramps after
the 11th game of third set.
In the third-set breaker, Murray had to fight
off two match points. At 6-5, Haas missed an easy forehand. At 7-6,
Murray laced a hard approach shot that the German couldn’t handle.
Haas fought off a match point of his own
at 8-7 when he scalded a forehand winner down the line, but with Murray
serving at 9-8, he charged into net behind a solid approach shot and
Haas missed a backhand pass down the line. As the fans who aptly yelled
out a Mel Gibson-esque “Freedom!” at
the top of their lungs during the match would have said, another chapter
in the 19-year-old Braveheart’s book was burned into the pages.
Notes From Everywhere
Djokovic says that court poor Serbia might be moving to building a sorely-needed
National Tennis Center. … According to those volunteers who have been
at this tournament since wooden rackets weren’t only
encased at the ITHOF, this is the hottest two-week stretch that the
tournament has ever experienced. It certainly has been the most heated
12 days since in the 14 years I’ve been covering the tournament.
It was well over 100 on court today. … Just a thought but you know
why so many players appear to have laser focus at IW – because
the night life is severely lacking past 9 p.m. and because the air is
so dry, the sun so inviting and the mountains are so inspiring that
it demands a good workout… Who
says that TennisReporters.net contributors aren’t
large of heart. Andy Murray threw his hat to photographer Anne-Marie
Stark after his last win and she gave it to a member of the audience.
If he wins the tournament and the Scot signs that hat, AMS might have
given away a $500 item.
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