U.S. Open 2011: Novak Djokovic Lifts His Maiden U.S.Open Trophy

Novak Djkovic lifted his maiden U.S Open trophy when he defeated Rafael Nadal in four demanding sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1. He has cemented his place as the top player of the world and one of the tennis greats.

It was a familiar script in the end. The most anticipated match culminated in the most expected end. The plot was familiar as if a replay from the last Grand Slam event played earlier this year. Novak Djokovic takes the first two sets, Rafael Nadal fights back in the third and then surrenders meekly in the fourth. Djokovic has achieved super stardom now and it will not be long before he will be talked as one of the all time greats. He has shown no signs of fading away for the next season.

Nadal did not play badly except towards the end of the match in the fourth set. He played as well as he was allowed to play by Djokovic. The result was a confirmation of the fact that one dimensional game from the baseline can extend Djokovic but cannot topple him. This defeat of Nadal, in a way, refurbishes the importance of the all shot game of Roger Federer. It was not that Nadal did not try. One could see the deliberate change of pace in his shots, change of depth and change of spin. He tried all this to disturb the rhythm of his opponent, but this is only good enough to induce errors, not to win the points a sure way. Djokovic appeared confident that this was not the opponent who could topple him here or anywhere else, all the rest of the things remaining the same. It appears that Nadal has lost the mental strength against Djokovic. His successes through extra top spin against single backhanded Federer have made him a prisoner of a stereo typed game where he tends to attack the backhand of the opponent and his defensive stock shot is the cross court forehand. Djokovic is too familiar with this game and is able to send winners in vacant space even if the ball is heavy with top spin. Djokovic has one of the best backhands ever and that further negates what was the winning game of Nadal so far. Djokovic is usually in position to hit the ball with a swing that keeps the ball within the court even when travelling as if to land beyond the sidelines. His anticipation of Nadal’s serve is so good that the return places Nadal in a defensive posture from the third shot onwards. Djokovic is a supremely confident player this year, more so against Nadal. He does not have to do anything innovative to get past him. He plays his natural game and Nadal plays his all familiar game and the result is familiar in the end. In a way, team Nadal has many things to learn from the Djokovic machine, but it has failed so far.

Rafael Nadal would have been better off if he had just lost the match, but he appears to have lost a bit of stature too. The tennis world desperately needs a youngster to burst on the scene as Boris Becker did in the mid eighties.

U.S.Open 2011 Finals Preview: Rafael Nadal - Novak Djokovic Blockbuster

The top two players will vie for the trophy at the last Grand Slam event of the year when they meet on Monday at Flushing Meadows in the U.S. Open, 2011. Novak Djokovic is favoured to prevail over Rafael Nadal yet again. 

Djokovic has become so familiar with Nadal’s game that he was there where the ball was supposed to come, and the ball did come there. Nadal has found it difficult to add surprise element in his game. On his part, Djokovic shots are landing a yard from the baseline, forcing Nadal to go on the defensive all the time. Nadal is finding it difficult to score comfortably even when it is his service game. Djokovic shots land inches from the lines and with such speed that even a good mover like Nadal finds it difficult to regroup to run to the other side. The angle is so acute that he is taken far out of the court. 

The court positioning is all familiar. Nadal is yards behind the baseline and Djokovic is just at the baseline. Nadal is forced to play short when he is not able to place his entire body weight behind the shot. The ball is hit from so much behind the baseline that Djokovic has ample time to read it and reach it. The ball has lot of top spin and therefore, the parabolic trajectory has more length to be covered giving extra fraction of second to Djokovic. On the return, the ball comes back with greater speed bursting off the court like a canon ball. It is all power hitting with Djokovic excelling Nadal in the baseline exchanges. Nadal tends to move to the deuce court side of the midpoint and tends to convert backhand into forehand. This gives open space to the opponent in the ad court corner. Many hard hitters have scored winners on this side, though on a few occasions, Nadal is able to hit spectacular down the line forehand shot on the run. 

Nadal gets taste of his own medicine when Djokovic runs down every winner and returns it with greater strength. This is what Nadal used to do to others. His movement is fluid whereas that of Nadal is spontaneous. It comes from greater anticipation. Nadal is also a very good mover, but his speed is good in long steps. The short step adjustment to an incoming shot is better for Djokovic.  Secondly, familiarity with Nadal’s stock shots makes court positioning easier for Djokovic. The cross court forehand to the backhand of the opponent has succeeded against single fisted backhanders like Federer, but it is not devastating against double fisted backhanders. 

Djokovic now plays with lot of buffer. He has capacity to get out of break points with good one-two-three combination of shots. This was a typical Federer preserve in his prime. After a good serve, advance to the middle of the court and whack the return to the other side of court at an acute angle. Nadal was seen running from side to side and capitulating ultimately to the wide shot. Djokovic is now taking the ball on the rise as Federer or Agassi used to do. This further takes time away from Nadal. Nadal too plays angles or aggressive shot, but he waits for the short ball. Djokovic, on the other hand, can hit such aggressive shot from any position in the court. 

If Nadal plays above his capacity and Djokovic plays below his, Nadal will triumph. His motivation will be immense and his intensity will be very high. But what home work the team has done to counter Djokovic superiority will be seen only on the court. It does not appear to be cake walk for either of them. Nadal will do his best to turn the tide. It remains to be seen what toll the five setter against Federer has taken on Djokovic.

U.S.Open 2011 Semi-Finals Preview: Novak Djokovic Meets Roger Federer In The Most Anticipated Match Of The Year

Novak Djokovic will battle Roger Federer for a place in the finals today. Will Federer ride the momentum of his superb victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to achieve another victory over Djokovic or will the law of averages take over and give a win to Djokovic, would be anybody’s guess. The fact is that Djokovic has defeated Federer in all the three hard court matches this year. However, Federer has defeated Djokovic the last time they played, at the French Open in June, 2011.

The matches between them have mostly been keen contests. In last year’s semi-final at the U.S. Open, Federer could not convert his chances for victory over Djokovic and appeared to fade away towards the end after playing well rest of the time. This was one of the instances where he failed to serve out or convert numerous match points and after such failure, capitulated without much fight. Big hitters have succeeded in taking time away from him, making him shank the ball or barely reach it. But critics have pointed out that one-dimensional baseliners can not aspire to win over Djokovic these days since he has more speed, more precision and more power from back of the court. It is a game of variety that can upset Djokovic’s game. And Federer is known to have that kind of game. But then, one might have a game, one might prepare well to execute it only to see that he is not allowed to play as well as he wanted to play.

Federer has been accused of being stubborn by not changing his game when things are not working his way. He still wants to hit the opponent out of the court through winners. But he has slowed down and therefore, does not hit the ball from the sweet spot that often. The winners have dwindled and the unforced errors have mounted. He wins against journeymen like Juan Monaco and plays the same game against big hitters who can place him in wider position through speed or angles. In the match against Tsonga at Montreal last month, he hit 32 unforced errors against 31 winners whereas Tsonga hit 33 winners against 21 unforced errors. But he has turned tables as far as Tsonga is concerned in the previous round.

Djokovic is playing the best tennis of his career in 2011. He scores over everybody as far as speed, power, precision and the mental strength is concerned. He hits so many winning shots in a single rally that one of these shots is bound to go through as a winner or an error inducing shot. The bouncing board sends back balls at higher speed and acute angles. The opponent can not withstand such a barrage, except over a short period of time. He has to capitulate at some point or the other. This has been seen in his victories over Rafael Nadal in the five finals they have played this year. The baseline shots not only have power but have depth as well and they follow a straight trajectory to land where they are intended to land. He takes the ball as early as Federer is famed to do, and swings with all his might. He places top spin even when he swinging downwards and the ball goes like a guided missile. But he has to get the ball which tends to sit up or jump up a bit, not the ball that skids or keeps low. What shots he is going to get when he plays Federer is the key to today’s results.  

It is the most anticipated match of the year so far. The stands will stand for the underdog, for sure.

U.S.Open 2011 Quarter-Finals Preview: Nadal-Roddick, Isner-Murray

Quarter-finals in the bottom half are going to be played today at the Flushing Meadows.

Rafael Nadal meets Andy Roddick in the second match at the Arthur Ashe stadium today. Roddick is riding a better and better showing with each round, whereas Nadal is his usual self, fighting hard against all opponents. In some ways, David Ferrer is a poor man’s Nadal and he was defeated in four sets by Roddick yesterday. There will be a similar opponent today, but with higher skills. Nadal tries to reach the unreachable like Ferrer, but Roddick had answers to that. Ferrer has the same never say die spirit, but that was not enough to stop Roddick. Ferrer is fitter than Nadal at this stage this year, but he could not dent Roddick’s performance. However, that is only as far as comparisons go. Nadal is ten times champion who has capacity to shut his ears off to the deafening roars from the stands.  He is not that good a returner of serve and Roddick is not going to falter on serve. If the serve is returned, Roddick will try to capitalize on the short balls and put them out in one-two combination. Nadal will engage Roddick in longer rallies and induce errors ultimately.  In all probability, it is going to be Roddick’s offence versus Nadal’s defence. Dice is loaded in Nadal’s favour.

John Isner will provide a perfect foil for Andy Murray. He will be the pro-active player to the reactive Murray. His endeavour will be to take the set to the tie breaker and hope to land first serves in. Murray will run like hare and retrieve each and every ball. If the serve is returned and rally gets beyond the initial server’s advantage, Murray is likely to win the point. Isner has lasted the longest match in tennis and so, it is difficult to see him out of gas even if any match goes to the wire, but then he had a triple tie break four setter against Gilles Simon in the rain delayed fourth round schedule. Murray is a good returner and he has excellent anticipation. He will also send in a few aces, since Isner is not that good a returner. The extra mobility and doggedness gives Murray an edge over Isner.  

U.S.Open 2011 Preview: Fourth Round - Ninth Day

It almost looks like America versus the rest of the world on the ninth day at U.S.Open except for the tie between Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller in the fourth round. 

Rafael Nadal will play Gilles Muller for a place in the quarter-finals. Gilles Muller boasts of a victory over Nadal at Wimbledon in 2005 when Nadal was fresh from his first Grand Slam title at French Open. A lot of water has flown down the Thames since then. Earlier this year, Nadal bested Muller in straight sets at the same Wimbledon, though Muller can take credit for extending Nadal to tie breaks in the first two sets. Muller has a good serve and Nadal is not the best returner in the game. Muller is tall enough to negate the extra bounce on the top spin ball, but he will find it difficult to deny Nadal an entry into quarter-finals unless Nadal is still down with the press conference cramps.

 

When Donald Young defeated Andy Murray in the Indian Wells earlier this year, Murray served below 50% and his second serves were so easy for Young that Murray won only 28% of points on his second serves. Murray’s service deserts him in tight situations. American crowd support for Young can damage Murray’s psyche. When Murray is down, he almost suffers from Downs Syndrome and turns himself into a retrieving mode. This succeeds against those who are prone to unforced errors but fails against safe hitters like Novak Djokovic. Young does not have the hitting power of Djokovic, but he will thrive on the support from the stands. It will be interesting to see how Murray negotiates Young. Long rallies will be the order of the day.

John Isner has the capacity to topple Gilles Simon. Both have confidence coming into this round. Simon had an improbable victory against Juan Martin Del Potro in the previous round and Isner has stepped into U.S. Open with a victory at the ATP event at Winston Salem a week before.  If Isner serves as well as he is capable of, Simon can find his consistency and returning power eroded. He will also have to contend with the crowd support for the local lad.

If Andy Roddick can tame the Spanish bull dog David Ferrer, no place would be better than the Flushing Meadows. He has to avenge his defeat in the Davis Cup played earlier this year in the United States. Ferrer goes on coming back and back and refuses to go away. He is not that susceptible to the crowd pressure too. Roddick does not boast of a great net game and it might be suicidal to engage Ferrer in long rallies. Tie breakers will favour Roddick. It should be Roddick’s endeavour to serve well enough to take his games on serve and hope to take the set to the tie break.

On this day, ENT specialists will have a field day since three Americans figure in the four matches to be played and each of them is an underdog.

U.S.Open 2011 Preview: Eighth Day - A Drab Day!

The eighth day at U.S.Open 2011 promises to be a drab day since results are, by and large, going to be on expected lines.

There is no upset on cards when Juan Monaco takes on Roger Federer. Federer’s losses have come more against big hitters; those who can take time away from him. Monaco is a clay court specialist where he retrieves every ball thrown at him. He waits for mistakes from the opponents or for short balls. With this type of play, even if he is inspired to play at double his capacity, he can not put out Federer. He can win if Federer self destructs or is blindly complacent or makes tons of unforced errors.

There is no upset apparent in Novak Djokovic - Alexandr Dolgopolov match. Djokovic can not be upstaged by a raw talent like Dolgopolov even though the latter does play an unorthodox game. Barring serve, he does not have enough power or consistency to win break points on Djokovic serve. If he were to engage in rallies, he can not stand the barrage beyond a few shots. He does not have the serve and volley variety. Slices may keep the ball out of the comfort zone of Djokovic, but he has an excellent defence to wait for the ball to land in his strike zone. Any excessive use of drop shots would be suicidal since Djokovic has tremendous anticipation and speed. If Dolgopolov has put in a good performance so far, it could be due to the fact that he was allowed to play his best game by opponents who were not in the same category as a top ten player.

In the fight between the highest American seed Mardy Fish and the entertainer Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the higher ranked player might prevail. Tsonga is not impervious to crowd pressure. He benefits a great deal when stands support him and fails when crowd favours his opponents. If Queens Club ATP tournament was played not in London in June, he could have defeated Andy Murray. He faded against Murray in Wimbledon 2010 too. Mardy Fish is playing solid tennis. He is playing on his home soil. Tsonga will find it hard to produce his best. He is an entertainer and the crowd will be entertained most if he loses.

Janko Tipsarevic and Juan Carlos Ferrero will have equal chances. Tipsarevic will hit more aces and more winners, but Ferrero will commit less unforced errors. Tipsarevic can be sublime one day and ordinary the next day. Ferrero plays the same game over and over again. Tipsarevic sometimes goes for the spectacle whereas Ferrero mostly sticks to the percentage game. One player likes complexities and the other likes simplicity, as far as tennis is concerned. One likes innovation, the other likes robotics. It is difficult to see one player totally overpowering the other.

U.S.Open 2011 Preview: The Sixth Day Cometh

The sixth day promises to be like “Sixth Day” of U.S.Open 2011. The script is full of drama and uncertainties. Unpredictable contests are in offing where interest lies not only in the winning but also in the manner of winning.

It remains a mystery why Tomas Berdych falls to Janko Tipsarevic who is short in stature, both physique wise and seeding wise. Berdych defeated Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2010 with his powerful game and lost to Tipsarevic a few months later in the Davis Cup. At Rogers Cup in Montreal last month, Tipsarevic defeated Berdych in straight sets when Berdych was sixth seeded and Tipsarevic was unseeded. Infact Berdych has never defeated Tipsarevic in any of the ATP events or Grand Slams or Davis Cup ties though they have met three times. It is time for Berdych to reverse the history today lest Tipsarevic should be called his true nemesis. Tipsarevic’s game is not as complicated as favourite Dostoyevskian characters but he has a penchant for creating complications. He took the then defending champion Roger Federer to 10-8 in the fifth in the Australian Open 2008. Infact, he plays best when he is underdog. Every dog has his day, but whose it will be on the sixth day is not known.

Ivo Karlovic doused the hopes of the thirteenth seed Richard Gasquet and now faces a ten year younger Alexandr Dolgopolov who is seeded at twenty two. They have never played each other before. Dolgopolov is as much unpredictable as Karlovic is predictable. Karlovic will serve and come to the net, point after point, serve after serve. Dolgopolov will hit down the line when he is supposed to hit cross court or will slice when he is expected to hit top spin. If Dolgopolov is able to return Karlovic serve and move him around, he will win. Otherwise, Karlovic is likely to assume seedings killer status.  

Fernando Verdasco will be a thorn in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s flesh. He too plays best when he is an underdog. He has come down from the lofty heights of a top ten player to becoming a journey man within a period of just six months. But he has the capacity to rise to the occasion if the cliché that class is permanent and form is temporary is to be believed. Tsonga is in good form and hard courts are his favourites too. But he is a rhythm player and his mood will remain good as long as his game remains good. Prolonged focus is not his forte and doggedness is a less tested familiarity. On his day, he can beat the very best and on other days, he will fold up sooner than later. Crowd is likely to favour him over Verdasco and this might be immaterial to Verdasco but not to Tsonga. In any case, Tsonga has to keep the French flag flying after the untimely demise of the other three French seeds.

Kevin Anderson is enjoying career high ranking this year and has captured his first ATP World tour title in his home country earlier this year. But he meets a hot Mardy Fish in the latter’s home country today. Mardy Fish too is playing his best and is the highest seeded American in the tournament. Anderson is the taller of the two at 6’8” but Fish is the quicker and more experienced. It will require a monumental effort from Anderson to beat the home crowd favourite in their first meeting.

 Battle will be equally intense in Juan Monaco - Tommy Haas match. Haas has the uncanny habit of springing surprises even at 33 years of age and recovery from multiple injuries. His game is versatile, often reminding of Federer’s game. Juan Monaco is a clay court specialist who puts one more ball in play than his opponent. He has defeated Haas at Cincinnati a fortnight ago in three closely contested sets. It appears to be advantage Monaco.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will both face tough opponents. Marin Cilic might have had a poor form in recent past, but he is young and hungry. He will be no toss over for Federer. Nikolay Davydenko might be looking old and jaded after return from injury, but he is like old wine. He will present a tougher challenge to Novak Djokovic.

U.S. Open 2011: Fifth Day Preview - Second Round

There are interesting battles on card on the fifth day of the U.S Open. It also features some unpredictable matches involving native players.

James Blake will go back to wall practice days when he meets David Ferrer “The Wall” in the second round. Blake will be wary of the fact that wall never loses. There are many similarities between the playing style of Ferrer and Nadal. One of them is the never say die spirit. James Blake will have to hit numerous winners when Ferrer attempts to draw him into endless rallies. Can Blake do this without committing many errors? He has defeated Ferrer at Indian Wells last year in the second round in straight sets. Ferrer has never won in the two meetings between the two. But there is a difference. Ferrer is seeded at five and is in good form. On the other hand, Blake will have massive crowd support. Blake can hope for maintaining his invincibility over Ferrer and if he loses, he loses nothing since he lost to a top ten player.

In a clash of the two veterans who have been in the top four a few years ago, Ivan Ljubicic takes on David Nalbandian. Ljubicic has had the better of exchanges having defeated Nalbandian five times against three. Both are much slower having gone through several injuries and that would present a level playing field. Ljubicic has more aggression in his game and Nalbandian has better consistency. Perhaps the better serving power might tilt the scale in Ljubicic favour a bit.

An upset can not be discounted when the American young hope Donald Young meets the fourteenth seed Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka is susceptible to crowd pressure. It will also be a battle between experience and inexperience. If Young plays a percentage game, he should attack the single fisted back hand of Wawrinka with his forehand cross court shots. The slender advantage of being a left hander should be exploited to the full. Wawrinka will draw upon his experience and the prominent victories he had over some great players in the past.

Both the all American battles will provide entertainment. Robby Ginepri will not go down without fight to John Isner, but it is the ace power of Isner that is likely to prevail in the end. Andy Roddick will find the going tough against Jack Sock, but with the crowd support not in his exclusive favour, Sock will find himself in a familiar and yet unfamiliar surroundings. Whether he can conquer the fear of the unknown is yet to be seen.