Across The Net: 2007 Australian Open Thoughts
Posted by Dan Martin on 01.29.2007
One was expected to win, the other came out of nowhere, but when the dust settled Roger Federer won his 10th Grand Slam title and Serena Williams picked up her 8th.
One was expected to win, the other came out of nowhere, but when the dust settled Roger Federer won his 10th Grand Slam title and Serena Williams picked up her 8th.
Men's Championship – Roger Federer won 21 sets and lost zero sets during his two weeks in Melbourne. Federer's play was outstanding and his hold on men's tennis has never been stronger. Below I will discuss the historical significance of Federer's win, but for now we need to look at what various players can take from the event.
Fernando Gonzalez dominated Hewitt, Blake, Nadal and Haas. He can rise to the top 5 and stay there if he maintains his Australian Open level of play. His win over Nadal puts him in the conversation for the 2007 French Open title.
James Blake ran into a buzz saw in Gonzalez, but he still needs a signature event to solidify his top five standing.
Rafael Nadal's style of play may ruin his body. He has some thinking to do. If he retools he losses his consistency, if he keeps his consistency his body may fall apart, so what do you do?
Andy Roddick should learn not talk about closing the gap with Federer in public. His 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 thrashing at the hands of Federer demonstrate that he may have caught Federer's attention. Many experts were giving Roddick a great chance to win this match. I myself thought it was a potential upset. I figured Federer would win in a tight 4 or 5 sets. The Federer vs. Roddick looked like Ali vs. Frazier, but turned out to be Tyson vs. Spinks.
The Youngsters – Gasquet and Berdych played well, but did not reach the quarters. Andy Murray looks like a serious threat to break into the top ten after his heartbreaking five set loss to Nadal.
Mario Ancic and Marat Safin both looked good in losing to Roddick. Both could have a big 2007, but neither looks ready to challenge Federer.
Federer won for a couple of reasons. First, he won 76% of the points when he put a second serve into play. That essentially made breaking Federer a Herculean task. Gonzo did that once and had two set points serving at 5-4, 40-15 in the first set. Had he converted it might have gone the distance. Federer was holding serve more easily as the match went on so Gonzo would have needed tie-break wins to take the other two sets. Federer also won because of his net play and clean tennis. Federer hit 45 winners to 19 unforced errors. He needed to because Gonzo hit 31 winners to 28 unforced errors.
Federer came to the net 11 times vs. Roddick. He won 10 of those 11 points, but he did not come in much during that 24 game match. Against Gonzalez, Federer came to the net 34 times during the first 24 games of the match. For the match, Federer won 34 out of 43 points at the net. This demonstrates that Federer can play different styles vs. different opposition. That ability to tailor his game to what his opponent gives him and to take away what his opponent wants to do is simply demoralizing to the rest of the tour.
Women's Championship
First, Serena Williams took her 3rd Aussie Open and 8th Grand Slam title overall. Serena demonstrated that she is truly the greatest player in the post Graf-Seles era. Serena has taken a lot of criticism for not dedicating herself to the sport the way the media thinks she should. Serena lost a sister to a murder a couple of years ago. She likely realized that as a wealthy young woman that spending time on something other than tennis was not terrible. As the writer of a tennis column, perhaps I should not say that life has more important facets than chasing a yellow ball, but it is true. I hope Serena can find some balance between tennis and family life, but I cannot begrudge her for losing focus on her tennis.
Maria Sharapova won the 2006 U.S. Open and looked to be ready to claim control of the women's tour. She has gained the #1 ranking, but her 6-1, 6-2 loss to Serena Williams and soft second serve have to make claims of her takeover premature.
Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis had nice events, but neither look close to winning a major at this point. Both need to gear up for Paris because the soft surface might help their defensive style.
Nicole Vaidisova reached her second Grand Slam semifinal and gave Serena a far tougher match than Sharapova. The 6'1" 17 year old Czech player may be the anointed one for being a future #1, but work remains.
Jelena Jankovic can take solace in losing to an in form Serena. Her year still looks bright.
Justine Henin is going through divorce and lost her #1 ranking. She can win the French, but missing the Australian Open does not jump start her 2007.
Amelie Mauresmo may have lost her competitive fire when she proved everyone wrong by winning two majors last year. She can still win physically, but if mentally she feels like she has proven her point it could be a swan song for Mauresmo.
Federer and History
First, he is the first player since 1937 to reach 7 consecutive Grand Slam finals. He has now won 6 out of 7. To put that into perspective, Pete Sampras won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open 1993, Australian Open 1994 and Wimbledon 1994 to win 4 Grand Slams out of five played. Pete was a quarterfinalist at the 1994 French Open. Federer won Wimbledon and U.S. Open 2005, Australian Open 2006, finished #2 at French open 2006, won Wimbledon and U.S. Open 2006 and now has won Australian Open 2007.
Also, Federer became the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win a Grand Slam without dropping a set.
Finally, Federer has won his 6th hard court Grand Slam title. That moves him ahead of Lendl (5) and into a tie for 2nd place with Agassi. Sampras hold #1 for now with 7 hard court Grand Slam titles.
Tennis Australia's radio broadcast team made the point that every time Federer wins a match he seems to be breaking some sort of record. In many ways that is true. His records are excellent in the majors, but his displacement of a 30 year old record for consecutive weeks at #1, his grass and hard court winning streaks, his tournament finals winning streak, his over all winning streaks, his annual winning percentages along with his assault on historical oddities such as winning a major without dropping a set have Federer rewriting entire sections of tennis history. He will turn 26 in August and in many ways his smooth court movement put less strain on his body than the style of the 20 year old Nadal or 24 year old Roddick. Federer appears to have more history to write.
