Across The Net 11.05.07: In Their Heads? Is Nalbandian #3? Do Federer and Nadal Have a Common Nemesis? Plus, Hingis Retires Again Amid Controversy...
Posted by Dan Martin on 11.05.2007
David Nalbandian Does it Again. Winning Masters Series Paris with Seemingly Easy Victories over Federer, Ferrer, Gasquet and Nadal makes Nalbandian into the Hottest Commodity headed into 2008.
Players of the Week:
David Nalbandian wins his second consecutive Masters Series event by collecting some nice victories. Nalbandian beat clay court power broker Nicholas Almagro and former world #1 Carlos Moya in straight sets to reach the round of 16. Both nice results, but expected results to be sure. Then Nalbandian defeated world #1 Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6, defeated world #6 David Ferrer 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, defeated hometown favorite Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-4 and defeated world #2 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-0. There will be more on this below.
Lindsey Davenport won her second title since coming back to the tour in Quebec. Davenport left the tour after giving birth to her son earlier this year. It is incredibly impressive to see Davenport playing so well so early in her comeback. My thoughts about Davenport's post 2000 career have been mixed. She won the 1996 Olypmic Gold Medal in singles, the 1998 U.S. Open, the 1999 Wimbledon championships over Graf, and the 2000 Australian Open. Clearly, Davenport has a Hall of Fame career. After 2000, Davenport frequented the #1 ranking despite no Grand Slam titles. Call me a purist, but a player ought to have 1 Grand Slam title in the previous 52 weeks if he or she is holding the #1 ranking. I do not begrudge Davenport for being healthy enough and consistent enough to hold the #1 ranking when those winning Grand Slam events on the WTA Tour were not healthy enough to compile supreme ranking totals. I just missed the days of the clear hegemonies that Navratilova, Graf or Seles held. Davenport is a great champion, but Henin's recent roll has me recalling the greats of the 80's and 90's.
In their Heads? Does Nalbandian Have Federer and Nadal's Number?
The story of much of 2007 was the emergence of Novak Djokovic as a legitimate 3rd option for winning big tournaments. After Roger dominated 2004, Rafael Nadal emerged and with Federer controlled the tour. This dual monarchy has remained intact ever since, but Djokovic showed Grand Slam longevity in Paris, London and New York. There is no doubt that Djokovic is a true contender, but the real #3 might be David Nalbandian. The Argentine has beaten Federer and Nadal twice each in the past 3 weeks. Nadal defeated Federer 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the Madrid final and improved that result with the 6-4, 7-6 win in Paris.
Nadal has only played Nalbandian twice in their entire careers. Each win has been lopsided for Nalbandian. In Madrid, the Argentine won 6-1, 6-2, and in Paris he beat Nadal 6-4, 6-0. 4 sets won and only 7 games surrendered to the #2 player in the world is doubly impressive when one factors in how hard Nadal makes a player work to win a single point let alone two matches. Federer has not been dominated in the past two meetings, but he never defeated Nalbandian as a junior and struggled vs. Nalbandian in the early portion of his professional career. That early momentum vs. Federer may be returning to Nalbandian's side of the net. Nalbandian now enters matches vs. either of the top players with a mental edge.
How Has He Done It?
Argentine great Guillermo Vilas once roughly said, "Nalbandian has the talent of making his opponent play like sh*t." Federer calls Nalbnadian's brand of tennis "contra-tennis", meaning it goes against the grain of how tennis is normally played. When I watched Nalbandian nearly beat Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open semifinal, a match he might have won in straight sets minus a contested call, his tennis reminded me of an updated version of Mats Wilander's game. Nalbandian takes pace off of the ball and changes the direction of the ball when most tennis players want to be going for broke. He also lulls a player into getting used to a certain slower pace during a rally and then adds pace to a shot. This mixture of paces leads to a lot of errors from the other side of the net.
Against Federer, contra-tennis has success by mixing up patterns and not letting Roger get into a comfort zone. Federer's success without a coach demonstrates he has a high tennis IQ. Roger is adaptable and can mold his game to attack the opposition's weak points while neutralizing strengths. Nalbandian taking pace off of the ball makes Federer force the issue rather than wait for an opening. If Federer has to force the issue, he cannot be as adaptable as he would like to be and impatience becomes a factor. Also, Nalbandian has a great return of serve making it hard for anyone, even Roger, to hold serve easily.
As for Nadal, contra-tennis gets under the Spaniard's skin for similar reasons. Nadal plays a powerful version of defensive error free tennis. Nadal also likes to push his opponent behind the baseline and beat them up with long punishing rallies. Nadal's serve is not as strong as Federer's so Nalbandian's return becomes a larger factor. Nadal cannot play defensive tennis with Nalbandian taking pace off of the ball. Nadal has nasty ground strokes, but he is not at his best when he is swinging away for winners instead of grinding his opponent into dust. Nalbandian makes Nadal take risks that undermine Rafa's error to winner ratio. Finally, Nalbandian, like Davydenko, has great hand eye coordination and is hard to push behind the baseline. All of this has added up to a resurgence for David Nalbandian against the best players in the world. He did not qualify for the Masters Cup, but his results in Paris were a cool 4-0 vs. top 8 players.
Martina Hingis Retires Amid Bizarre Circumstances
Martina Hingis assumed the #1 ranking in women's tennis in 1997 and posted an incredible season with 3 Grand Slam titles. 1998 saw Hingis win the Australian Open, but fall in the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon to Monica Seles and Jana Novotna. Neither loss was as serious to her domination as a loss to a peer would have been, but Hingis then lost the 1998 U.S. Open final to Lindsey Davenport. Hingis rebounded and won the 1999 Australian Open. Moreover, the precocious champion also made derogatory comments toward Amelie Mauresmo en route to her final major title, and trouble was around the bend.
Hingis who had never been particularly respectful to older players faced a surgically repaired Steffi Graf in the French Open final. Graf looked old and worn out for most of the first 2 sets. Graf trailed 4-6, 4-5 with Hingis serving for the match, but Graf dug deep and hit a topspoin backhand passing shot to give her a chance to break at 30-30. Graf hit slice backhands almost exclusively through her whole career, but she ripped a topspin backhand to win a point while facing the #1 player in the world, down 1 set and a service break, and two points from elimination. It was one of my 2 or 3 favorite gut check moments in the history of tennis. Steffi won the match, her 22nd Grand Slam title and 6th French Open title 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Hingis' broke down emotionally and nearly refused to participate in the award ceremony. This was one of the worst moments for a decorated player in tennis history.
Hingis went into a tailspin losing in the 1st round at Wimbledon and then to Serena Williams at the 1999 U.S. Open final. Serena and Lindsey defeated Hingis in U.S. Open matches by overpowering her. 2000 turned out to be the year this strategy pushed Hingis to the brink. Davenport overpowered her at the Australian Open, Mary Pierce bludgeoned her at the French Open, Venus Williams crushed her at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Hingis made a last stand by nearly winning the 2001 and 2002 Australian Opens, but the fact that Hingis would never be #1 again was obvious. Hingis' initial retirement was as much a result of her frustration with taller stronger players overpowering her as it was a result of foot injuries.
Hingis retired as one of the least liked players in women's tennis. She did some TV work for ESPN after hanging up her racket. In 2006, Hingis made a comeback and her lack of humility seemed to have subsided with age. Hingis reached the quarterfinals of the 2006 Australian and French Open events. Hingis showed class by saying the comeback story needed to go away because she was a top 10 player again. Hingis opened 2007 by reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open again, but her results through the rest of the year were far worse than those of 2006. Now, Hingis is retired again and fighting drug allegations. Since the records are closed, it is probably always going to be unclear as to whether or not she was abusing drugs. Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and John McEnroe all have some history with illicit recreational drugs. My thought is if Hingis is retiring again and ceasing to be a public figure that fans and writers alike offer her support in this transition and simply hope that any drug issues that may or may not exist are resolved. During her first run, Hingis came across as a petulant kid and in many ways she was just a kid. Her second run demonstrated a more mature Martina even if it ends in greater controversy than the first. Her 5 slams, doubles acumen and awesome 1997 will always leave her a place in the tennis record books even if it is well behind Graf, Navaratilova and Evert. This place in the record books is now also behind several peers as both Williams sisters and Henin have surpassed her.
