Across The Net 11.12.07: January - November the 2007 Tennis Season is About to End; Plus Tennis Scandals
Posted by ikabod Crane on 11.12.2007
Henin Caps a Top Flight Year. Who Will Win the Masters Cup on the Men’s Side? Did Haas get Poisoned?
Justine Reigns Supreme
I had to barrow the old Iron Chef line about reigning supreme, but Justine Henin closed out 2007 with her hands firmly grasping the #1 ranking in women's tennis. Justine Henin won 9 titles in 2007 including the French Open, the U.S. Open and the season ending Sony-Ericsson Championship. Henin finishes the year at #1 as she did in 2006 and 2003. At this point, Wimbledon is the only crown lacking in Henin's impressive trophy case and she looks poised to win more major titles in 2008.
Why Henin is So Good: Power, Versatility and Toughness
Justine Henin defeated a resurgent Maria Sharapova for the Sony-Ericsson title 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in a match that went well over 3 hours. Henin is less than 5'6" tall yet she strikes the ball with great racket head speed and generates a lot of power from both her forehand and backhand. Unlike Hingis who seemingly shrunk from the challenge of playing taller and stronger players, Henin has embraced the challenge and matches the Williams Sisters and Sharapova power for power on ground strokes even if her serve is never going to be a massive weapon.
Power is one thing, but imagination and constructing points during power based baseline rallies is another thing. Henin, unlike most of the top women, hits a one handed backhand that is capable of more variety than the two handed backhand. Henin can come up the line with more disguise if she is hitting a topspin drive and she can slice the ball in order to take pace off of the ball and keep the ball low. Mixing paces and keeping the ball low is a good counter measure against taller players who generally want to just hit the ball as hard as possible on every shot. When an off pace shot is hit to someone who plays what Jim Courier calls "ball machine tennis", the change up will often elicit an overly aggressive swing and an error. On a tour that values hitting hard over variety, Henin reaps the benefit of being able to mix up ball pace and placement.
As mentioned above Henin is slight and not overly tall. Sharapova stands around 6'3" according to those who have interviewed her, Venus Williams is 6'1", Ana Ivanovic is 6'1", Jelena Jankovic is 5'9" and 5'9" Serena Williams is much stronger than Henin. Justine gives up a lot of leverage and serving angles against most of her top competition (#2 Svetlana Kuznetsova is a nice player, but not a true test for Henin). Justine is not intimidated and even seemingly likes the challenge of what Mary Carrillo calls "Big Babe Tennis" presents to a player of smaller stature. Henin is a street fighter on the court and much of her opposition is more mentally fragile.
Masters Cup: Early Start for Nadal and Ferrer and Predictions
Rafael Nadal defeated Richard Gasquet 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and David Ferrer defeated Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in the first day of play at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. These early results give the two Spaniards a leg up in surviving their round robin pool. Djokovic would seem to benefit from the surface, but he may be hitting his sophomore slump. People in the locker room know his game now and are going to force him to play on terms he does not like. Gasquet has the shot making to pull through the round robin, but now likely has to beat both Ferrer and Djokovic to do so. My guess is Nadal goes 3-0 and Gasquet 2-1 to reach the semifinals.
The other round robin centers on #1 Roger Federer. Roger ought to win his first match vs. Chile's Fernando Gonzalez. Andy Roddick should beat a scandal ridden Nikolay Davydenko. Federer and Roddick on an indoor court could be very interesting. Roddick nearly beat Federer in Shanghai last season. Regardless of who finishes 2-1 and who finishes 3-0, Federer and Roddick should reach the semifinals. My guess is Federer will face Gasquet and Nadal will face Roddick in the semifinals. I then see Federer and Nadal in the championship match. The winner is hard to pick because I do think Federer's grasp on #1 is slightly less strong than it was one year ago. Also, Nadal has spent over 2 consecutive years ranked #2. I imagine Nadal wants to attain the #1 ranking badly and a win in Shanghai would go a long way toward making that happen in 2008. Federer should benefit from an indoor court vs. Nadal, but Rafa may have more motivation. #1 vs. #2 to end 2007 is how it should finish. If I have to pick I will go out on a limb and suggest that Federer wins his 8th title of 2007 and beats Rafael Nadal to do it.
Tennis Scandals: Drugs, Gambling and Poisoning (?!?)
I am an avid tennis fan and think I have some interesting thoughts to offer on the state of the sport. I do not have the ability or budget to travel with the tour. Therefore, I have stayed pretty quiet on the match fixing allegations and such. Still, the last few months have not been good for tennis' image. Many players are reporting that they have been approached by match fixers. Investigations on each tour surround irregular betting patterns. Martina Hingis has retired arguing she is innocent of a sealed drug test result. (Hingis' action begs the question of what is gained by discussing a sealed drug result. Was she going to be blackmailed or beaten up by a leak in the system?) Tommy Haas, who has never been known for mental toughness, is now claiming that someone poisoned him during the Russia-Germany Davis Cup match this fall.
Regardless of the veracity of Haas' claim two things can be drawn from this mess. First, tennis needs to do a better job of policing itself. The sport has generally been clean on issues of performance enhancing drugs and attempts at match fixing seem to be at peripheral events. Hingis' drug result is at best a momentary embarrassment because she is retired and has not been a real top player since 2001. Second, some may look at the number of Russian players, Russian tournaments and supporters of the Russian Davis Cup team involved in these allegations and want to construct some Russian Mafia scenarios, but I think that is really a paranoid reaction. My guess is if tennis can get to the bottom of this stuff quickly and in some ways combine/enhance cooperation among the governing bodies, the sport will be fine going into 2008 and beyond.
