WIMBLEDON 2009

so hyped for this!

Qualifying under way, a few warm-ups done and dusted (Halle final - Haas d Djokovic; Queen's final - Murray d Blake; Edgbaston final - Rybarikova d Li), "could it be Murray's year" is the phrase you'll be most sick of hearing by the time it even starts and the hot topic is whether grunting on the women's tour should be regulated, an issue on which Grandmartina has already sounded off, in a shock move from her. My view: yes, duh, it should've been nipped in the bud years ago. It was ridiculous when Seles did it, it was ridiculous when Sharapova did it, and now Larcher de Brito is just intolerable. It's torturous even for actual fans like me, and it totally repulses casual fans. People look at these screaming wenches like they're insane. Nothing will happen though because the WTA are pussies and won't dare do anything to Sharapova.

This is a great interview w/British No 1 Anne Keothavong about her background growing up in Hackney as the daughter of Laotian refugees!

sigh. wrong board.

'Andy Murray won't be on dis ting 2009' is on ILE now.

I'm *already* sick of the 'now we know for CERTAIN that Murray will win a GS, might not be this year, might not be for 10 years, but he WILL and he is a HERO' claptrap

when's Baghdatis gonna roar back into contention, is what I want to know

A great interview indeed, thanks for linking that Lex!

What's worse though, lawnmowers or Sharapova?

if Sharapova was shrieking outside my window at 9am, that might the one thing that would enrage me more than lawnmowers.

I'm certain Murray will win a Slam! Maybe even here! I hate all the press mania though, as if he somehow "should" win. And if he gets to the SF or F and loses to Fed or Nadal, which is the most likely, I can just see him being labelled a failure or a choker...which is ridiculous.

Baghdatis just beat second seed Robredo in the 1st round of 's-Hertogenbosch but has been ranked around 100 all year and hasn't shown that he's healthy or disciplined enough to rise any time soon - but if he draws a big name in the early rounds and they're off their game, watch out - he's a showman who plays his best on big courts, and he's played well here before...

I'm certain Murray will win a Slam! Maybe even here! I hate all the press mania though, as if he somehow "should" win. And if he gets to the SF or F and loses to Fed or Nadal, which is the most likely, I can just see him being labelled a failure or a choker...which is ridiculous.

OTM. It's the press' tone which irks me. The simpering Murraycentric fixation which forgets that there are all manner of other worthy players out there.

My Cypriot allegiances have been tested by the world of sport, and it's incredibly disappointing that when a good sportsman finally arose, he faded just as fast.

lol @ wta needen bitches stfu gag order personally i think they need to invoke some kind of reward system - every unforced error is another point u have to go w/o grunting. might be just what the women's game needs

keothavong intvw was really good thnx for the link.

going out on a limb here w/o seein the draw but fed d murray

Is this the right place to announce that I'm backing Murray and Sharapova at Wimbledon this year?

putting money on or supporting? sharapova a bad choice either way tbh

lol Elena Baltach and Li "Alkali Metals"* Na have played 57 points in their Eastbourne first-rounder... and it's only 2-3. Some WTA matches are over by that point.

*) http://www.learner.org/interactives/periodic/images/alkalimetals_new.gif

Baltacha

i have a soft spot for sharapova and would like to see her do well

good luck with that

ty! im not sure what my luck will have do w/ it but i appreciate the sentiment

who is a gabbenb rooting for?

Luck in the sense that she's unlikely to do well

ty! i'm not sure why u thought i need that explained but i appreciate the effort

alkali metals!!!!

yeah today's Eastbourne upsets were a bit wacky. Well...the Chak Attack beating Jankovic, not so much; it just confirmed that even deep in a slump, Chak can still make Jankovic her bitch. Their h2h is 7-3 to Anna C now, with two of Jankovic's wins coming via retirement and the other one coming when Anna was like 12 or something.

WozCan beating Sweta SIX LOVE AND SIX THREE wtf wtf wtf - I assume and hope that was a tank! The year Sweta won Eastbourne she lost 1st round at Wimbledon so maybe she's hoping it works the other way round this year.

Nice to see Bepa 3 back in action, a three-set loss to Amelie on grass isn't such a bad comeback performance. Still can't believe that horrid ankle injury came just when she reached the top 5 and was in her best ever form :(

Top seed Verdasco crashes out in the 1st round at 's-Hertogenbosch to one B. Becker (Benjamin)...

ty! i'm not sure why u thought i need that explained but i appreciate the effort

Uhhhhhhh, because you didn't appear to understand what gabbneb meant by "Good luck with that"?

My Verdasco in the top 5 prediction not working out so well.

LOL @ Mauresmo proving today vs Makarova that her choking skills are truly limitless.

5-1 up in the 1st set tiebreak...loses it 8-10.
4-0 up in the 2nd set...lets lead slip and goes into another tiebreak.
5-2 up in the 2nd set tiebreak...loses it 13-15.

Really not looking good for the Nadal title defence - lost an exhibition at Hurlingham to Hewitt four and three today, and was apparently not moving very well. Tendinitis in the quadraceps and fluid on both kneecaps. He'll play another match tomorrow vs Warwinka and then we'll know...

I always try not to buy into these pre-Slam injury dramas...have seen it so many times before, a top player creating all this drama and uncertainty over ~~OMG CAREER-THREATENING INJURIES~~~~ and the turning up and winning their first three matches 6-0, 6-1. Clijsters was the fucking mistress of it, every few weeks another career-ending injury which turned out to be a turned ankle. Monfils did it at RG too, all that drama over his knee and then he played magnificently to reach the QF.

Also v suspicious of the fact that it's Toni Nadal running his mouth to the press over how serious it is! If it was really serious you wouldn't want your opponents to know. You don't do that b/c you're worried, you do that when you want drama and attention.

Yeah also total lolretirement week as any gambler knows -- Dushevina def Petrova 5-7 1-0, Santoro def Ljubicic 3-6 4-2 etc.

Shame if Nadal doesn't make it. This is a bit more than 'will Iniesta/Messi make the CL final?' type thing. He's not the type who would ever miss on preparation work.

Murray is more than deserving of the heightened coverage -- unlike Henman, as much as I was ok with him -- although a lot of press people have had problems because of his attitude: you know, how he wouldn't crack into a smile much after his win at Queens!!! I thought it was wonderful.

Not that I care that much about volume of coverage to switch allegiances...so I'm definitely hopeful that Murray beats the unarguably best player ever on the way to his first slam.

I can never decide whether to be heartened by still seeing numerous comments calling Murray surly and unable to get over his "anyone but England" remark years ago, because they mean that we'll probably never have to endure full-blown Timbledon idiocy with him, or to be annoyed because how stupid do you have to be to think like that.

lost an exhibition at Hurlingham to Hewitt four and three today

Tennis Reportage That Wouldn't Have Looked Out Of Place In Pride & Prejudice - part one of an occasional series

The injury thing also sets Nadal's press up perfectly...if he loses, it's a ready-made excuse. And if he wins, he gets annoying FIGHTER~~~~ headlines.

Also annoying: the Wimbledon seeding committee breaking their own seeding rules to bump 59th-ranked Sharapova up to 24th seed. A-Bond is the unlucky 32nd-ranked player who was robbed of her rightful seed; I hope she draws Sharapova first round and beats her 6-2 6-2, like the last time they played. I would BET that Sharapova's people requested this, and that if it was, say, former champ Mauresmo in the same situation it wouldn't happen (indeed she hasn't been bumped up at all). Cf Serena at the AO 07 - a two-time champ there but ranked 81, and therefore unseeded.

I always try not to buy into these pre-Slam injury dramas...have seen it so many times before, a top player creating all this drama and uncertainty over ~~OMG CAREER-THREATENING INJURIES~~~~ and the turning up and winning their first three matches 6-0, 6-1. Clijsters was the fucking mistress of it, every few weeks another career-ending injury which turned out to be a turned ankle. Monfils did it at RG too, all that drama over his knee and then he played magnificently to reach the QF.

He lost twice on clay in a week and then loses to Hewitt. Toni is right to be worried.

FYI

kind of a lot 2 digest here ‼~‼

so ive never been the biggest nadal fan dude just kind of turns me off his whole stile is basically the opposite of what i like about tennis but he has always seemed like a bro. takes 7 pgs to basically reaffirm that. i do think it puts the injury report gaming in a different light

i was just abt to post that link. great read and tells you a lot about how Rafa approaches tennis - which is to say, i refuse to count him out just yet.

i like all these profiles of rafa that have cropped up since he made no. 1 (there's also this one from last month) if only because they break down exactly how hard he's worked to be that good. as a longtime fed fan, sometimes you forget that it's not by accident that he troubles roger the way he does. it will be a shame if this injury thing does turn out to be major.

ive always tht i was obv that he works really hard but i think its his single-mindedness makes him unattractive 2 me he just ~hits~ the ball so well but hes not crafty u know?

still i would miss him if he was gone

that's the thing tho i think he's craftier than people give him credit for - pretty guilty of it myself. i mean beyond sheer hard work, he's shown a willingness to change up his game when he needs to, which maybe gives him an edge over Fed who's notoriously stubborn about changing anything about how he plays. ok fed's record speaks for itself, but it always surprises me that he's never seemed that interested in developing a proper response to nadal.

(agree w/Roz re: Nadal - he suffers from the press "narrative" which paints him as the superhumanly fit grinder and Fed as the aesthete, and he makes having his sort of strength & stamina seem so natural, but think about how dominant Fed used to be and how all the other players were scared shitless of him - and how clueless Rafa was in that first Wimbledon final - to overcome all that wasn't just a question of out-muscling Fed.)

OK the draws are out! Been so busy today that am only just now looking at them.

Men's - http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/ms/index.html
Women's - http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/ws/index.html

Brief initial thoughts -

Men's - ughhh I sense a deep run from Roddick. Other than that, a great draw! Sets the desired Murray/Fed final up perfectly, I guess I'll just have to endure the two weeks of press mania and the Fred Perry outfit. Not much else to say though. People will say "does Toaderling have a chance against Federer" and the answer is "maybe a set". And Tsonga will come through the Nando section and become a Wimbledon ~crowd favourite~ esp after the "golliwog" story is rehashed to death. He deserves it! People will also go "oooh" at Rafa drawing Chewitt in R2 and go on about the exo result this week, at which point I will roll my eyes and have to remind them that it was an exo result.

Women's - talking of rolling my eyes, I cannot do that enough w/r/t Sharapova drawing useless fucking Petrova with her bullshit arbitrary seeding again. I'd be rooting against her anyway but that kind of favouritism means that I REALLY want Kutuzova, or anyone, to finish off the double bagel that Cibulkova couldn't at RG. Silliams can do it in the QF if nothing else.

Sad about a bad draw for Kimiko Date-Krumm :(

Perfect draw for Deadisova to resurrect herself if she gets it together even slightly...which she won't. Szavay for the QF, or another bullshit run from Dinara?

I can see A-Rad losing to MJMS in round 1. The top 10 recedes further away from her.

Cake can seriously make a SF run. That quarter is so weak...Bepa, only just back from a lay-off. Slumping Demented. SexyDomi (never won a match on grass) and Ice Cream (hasn't won a match at all for ages). Oh ugh, De Screamo lurks there. At least if she plays Cake, Cake will potentially be even more bitchy than Caravane was at RG.

A big wild card is how Azarenka will do...she could take Serena out in the QF, but is she ready? (No.)

A 94842923th fourth round showing for Tammy coming up! Hey, she beat the second seed here last year. Repeat!

(All-Williams final obvzzzzz.)

Warm-up news: Cake retired against La Razz in Eastbourne and refused to shake her hand b/c La Razz decried Cake's mid-match "injuries" to the French press - a huge turnaround from RG, where they were both gushing over how sweet and nice the other was!

Tammy Tanasugarn beat Safina for the second year running in 's-Hertogenbosch LOLOLOLOL. Imagine how high she'd be ranked if there were more grass tournaments. Ah, I love Tammy so much.

(And Baghdatis is out of Wimbledon w/another injury, sorry Louis!)

oh Rafa is out! ignore everything about the draw then, presumably they will reorganise it - IIRC the rules would be that 5th seed JMDP moves into Rafa's slot, the 9th seed into JMDP's, the 17th seed into the 9th seed and so on.

yeah just coming 2 post that. andy murray this could be your year

ugh...another racist asshole on tour.

Australia’s Klein fined for racial abuse of opponent

By Clare Fallon

EASTBOURNE, England, June 19 (Reuters) - Australian player Brydan Klein has been fined 10,000 euros ($13,920) and suspended by his national sports body for racially abusing South African opponent Raven Klaasen during a qualifying match at the Eastbourne International, tennis officials said on Friday.

Klein, 19, had been given the maximum penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, the men’s ATP Tour said in a statement, adding that it was carrying out a fuller investigation which could result in an additional penalty for aggravated behaviour.

Tennis Australia said in a statement it had suspended Klein from the Australian Institute of Sport Pro Tour Program and could impose further sanctions after an investigation.

Media reports in Australia said Klein, the 2007 Australian Open junior champion, had called Klaasen a “kaffir” and spat at his coach and another player.

“The ATP has a zero tolerance policy against racism,” the body’s statement said.

Klein, the world number 184, beat Klaasen and made it as far as the second round of the Eastbourne main draw before being beaten by Serbian Janko Tipsarevic.

Shame about Nadal.

Thinking of going on Wednesday - what time do people start queuing again? 7am?

8.30ish should be fine for a ground pass! i haven't decided when i'm going to go yet.

Right, I went about four years ago, just couldn't remember.

It depends on the weather forecast, but earlier in the week rather than later.

O MARCOS

I'm supporting uh James Blake, he came across very well in that R5 interview

i feel really bad for nadal now. :(

btw this means if fed wins, he gets his number 1 ranking back. and if murray wins, he'll go to number 2.

see...i love tennis so much. you think you have a status quo, and you can't see any way it can be even slightly shifted. then two weeks later and the game is FLIPPED just like that.

country matters u need 2 do a live for wimbledon video blog

I'm supporting uh James Blake

PREPARE TO BE VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED

(Blake does come across as a pretty great guy in interviews, tho)

theres something quite punchable about federer.

roddick looks like stifler from american pie.

I want Fed to hold onto his champ status as long as possible, but Andy was a sweetheart. Oh cruel sports!

All the Fed 15 ads they had in the can were funny.

WTF. Federer needs to stop talking.

lol <3 you fed and all your smugness

WTF. Federer needs to stop talking.

fixed.

roddick looks like stifler from american pie.

Ha, I thought the same. Only afterwards, though, when he took off his hat.

Yeah, I always think Christian Slater because of the goofy wide-apart eyes, but Stifler's a better call really.

i've always thought roddick looked like stifler. like from the first time i watched him play.

15th slam, back at number one, 7th consecutive wimbledon final, 16/17 finals, record 20th final, 21 straight semis. i'm sure he and andy broke some kind of ace record in this match too. he has to stop sometime right?

Overheard in pub during conversation over whether tennis was a rich sport or not:

"Yeah, well, I mean Andy Murray was from an unemployed single parent family on benefits."
"That's not true is it?"
"Well he's from Scotland which means benefits, and he's from Dunblane and nobody had jobs round there after that nutter with the gun. And I read somewhere his mum was divorced."

I was too shocked to join their conversation.

Well, to be fair, you're from Scotland as well. You probably don't understand reasoning, what with having dropped out of school to drink buckfast all day.

i guess Federer will be after Sampras's 7 Wimbledon titles and the 2012 Olympic singles gold next.

lol the mixed doubles final is just starting! it'll almost certainly be a more entertaining match, too. have given up though.

World number two Serena Williams questioned the ranking system after winning Wimbledon to hold three of the four Grand Slam titles.

The 27-year-old beat her sister Venus 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 in the final, and then called the ranking system "shocking".

"I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles, maybe you should be number one, but not on the WTA Tour, obviously.

"My motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay number two, I guess."

Serena remains behind Russia's Dinara Safina in the rankings despite being the reigning US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon champion.

Safina, in contrast, has yet to win one of the sport's four major titles and was thrashed 6-0 6-1 by Venus in the Wimbledon semi-finals on Friday.
Serena declared herself "the real number one" back in March and repeated her dissatisfaction with the system after regaining the Wimbledon crown.

"If it disappointed me I'd go crazy just thinking about it, I think anyone really could, but it's just shocking," she said.

"But whatever, it is what it is, I'd definitely rather be number two and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be number one and not have any."

Asked if she still believed she was the rightful number one, Serena added: "I see myself as number two, that's where I am. I think Dinara did a great job to get to number one, she won Rome and Madrid."

fed'll be after sampras/connors' 5 titles at us open next actually. he's already bettered that by making them consecutive. xp

i still think that if fed faces djokovic or murray in the us open warm-ups, he loses. was not impressed w/his ground game or returns in that final.

i wish there would be an article about why dinara is no 1 in the press instead of acting like it's some arbitrary honour randomly bestowed on her

the ranking system is far from perfect but there's not much you can do, mathematically, to make serena no 1, with the results she and dinara have had.

yeah not without abolishing non-slam tournaments entirely.

wow at that Serena press conference.

I know your frustration, Lex. Recall when Kafelnikov rose to #1 in the midst of six first-round exits or when Sampras thrashed Agassi in the Wimbledon final only to lose his #1 ranking to Andre. The papers were all "LOL RANKINGS" and "something must be done" but it all made perfect sense*. Within six months we'd lost the bonus points system and we had the Race instead. That was definitely a case of the ATP caving a bit in the face of media incomprehension.

(* for the record, Kafelnikov's poor results didn't count cos he was the sort of player to enter 30+ tournaments a year and only your best x-teen (16 then, 18 now?) count - meanwhile Agassi and Sampras were failing to defend points from the previous year; when Sampras won Wimb '99 he was merely defending his title, Agassi was improving on a 2nd-round loss in '98).

god bless yevgeny

to get the full effect of serena's comments you have to see her cracking up when she says "she won rome and madrid."

the ranking system is far from perfect but there's not much you can do, mathematically, to make serena no 1, with the results she and dinara have had.

that's true, but i wouldn't get too hung up on defending the system. the system is there to promote and protect the tour, which is a fine thing, but that means it's less vested in identifying the actual "best" players -- which is going to lead to inevitable snickering and wtf-ing. and it all has to do with the weirdness of tennis. you can't skip half the season and still show up to play in the world series or the super bowl, but tennis is just a different beast.

also, if safina had played like dementieva, i don't think there'd be as much catcalling right now. it's the prospect of someone remaining #1 after such an irredeemable flop that has really set it off. and safina's got no one to blame but herself for that.

Does it annoy you when teams, winning the champions league or,League or FA Cup, put tshirts on commemorating the achievement before they lift the trophy?

I did enjoy the phonecam footage (taken by a very amused Evertonian) of the open-top bus in its depot the night after Liverpool lost the 2007 Champs Lge final, emblazoned with "six times European Champions".

As for Serena, no one who loses 6-1 in the 3rd to Zakopalova in Marbella can be considered the best in the world. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

roddick's a top guy, i'd probably not support him because his game is unloveable, but he has a heart of gold iirc

― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Monday, 22 June 2009 13:12 (1 week ago) Bookmark

i support him losing gallantly

― gosh I actually dig this shit (country matters), Monday, 22 June 2009 13:12 (1 week ago) Bookmark

yeah i'm joining in the catcalling, Safina is useless - even a lopsided loss here, on her worst surface, would have been OK had she not already done much the same thing at the USO, AO and RG. all top players get thrashed on occasion, it's just she gets thrashed regularly and predictably.

it's the "incomprehension" pose i can't stand. the media comprehend why Safina is No 1 very well. it's an easy system which they are v familar with. they also comprehend why it can't be changed. it's their job to transmit this to the public so that the sport as a whole saves face. yet they persist with the "buh, guh, we don't GET IT".

also, Serena is blatantly lying when she says she's been consistent all year round. she's had four opening-round losses in the past year.

i loved kafelnikov <3

i liked this picture from when Serena played the Moscow tournament a couple of years ago, and Sweta and Kafelnikov took her to Moscow's biggest hip-hop night after she lost the final. then she blogged something like "omg I can't believe they have hip-hop in Russia", then she flew to Zurich the next day and lost 0-6, 0-3 ret. (hangover) to Schnyder in the 1st round.

http://tennisinfoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/kuznetsova-serena-kafelnikov.jpg

the worst thing about safina is the way she breaks down in the later stages of the tournament. like, you got that far, get some self-belief stupid cow.

lol great pic. would've liked Roddick to win today, thought he deserved it. will this be Fed's last grand slam title?

i understand people saying roddick deserved to win, but really, the only serious case of nerves all day was his. that 2nd-set tiebreak was his to take, and he choked. can't do that against even a more-vulnerable federer.

"will this be Fed's last grand slam title?"

This seems unlikely, considering he's won 3 of the last 4!

It was so out-of-character with the rest of the match, it was weird.

nah federer was choking too. wasn't that obvs because he never gives any emotion away but the first thing that goes when roger's nervous is his first serve - 50 aces or whatever, he still only landed something like 60% in compared to 75% against Haas. He was like this against Rafa at the AO too.

And so many unforced errors that he would never have committed while playing in God mode. both of them deserved to win in the end but perhaps unfortunately, roddick blinked just when it counted.

"will this be Fed's last grand slam title?"

This seems unlikely, considering he's won 3 of the last 4!

heh wow didn't realize that, he still seemed lucky today.

in his defense though, when Roddick got 2 break points he didn't choke, and when Federer finally got 1...

obv. Roddick did choke.. and Fed didn't.

roll of honour…

Men's singles: Roger Federer
Women's singles: Serena Williams
Men's doubles: Daniel Nestor & Nenad Zimonjic
Women's doubles: Serena Williams & Venus Williams
Mixed doubles: Mark Knowles & Anna-Lena Groenefeld
Boys' singles: Andrey Kuznetsov
Girls' singles: Noppawan Lertcheewakarn
Boys' doubles: Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Kevin Krawietz
Girls' doubles: Noppawan Lertcheewakarn & Sally Peers

Last year we all wanted the last set to go on forever. This year we were like, when the hell is this going to end.

Just watched that final game again. Whoever said it was going to be ugly upthread couldn't have foreseen how grotesque the climax would be - FIVE Roddick mishits, one backhand unforced error and three service winners. G, S & M. Makes you yearn for Goran and his double fault-ace-double fault-service winner falling-over-the-line title win.

Just occurred to me: This means Roddick set a record for most games ever won in a single Wimb final, right?

Last year both players deserved to win. This year was more a case of neither deserved to lose. Neither ever looked like dropping serve. It was a surprise when Fed did and he took his chance at the end very well to break Roddick and win the championship.
I think Fed did look more likely to break in the final set sudden death part , there was a few 40-40 games.
It wasn't a bad final(we've been spoiled by the last 2 lets be honest), it's just that most games weren't really close as the server dominated.
It was certainly very close and you couldn't predict who was going to win, unlike a lot of the Sampras victories.
Fed just shaded it for me. Watching the 2nd set tie-break again, Roddick didn't totally choke it(one point he did), Fed raised his game and was godlike from 5-1 down winning 6 in a row. He forced Roddick into mistakes.

I bet the condensed highlights of the match probably made it look really good. Did anyone watch them?

Probably. And Federer's 223 points could also be a record.

(xp)

Federer only broke serve once in last year's final too.

Roddick had very negative body language in the last game. Perhaps ran out of gas? Or maybe all the Federer aces wore on him mentally.

i think roddick had some mounting frustration, which he mostly did a good job of keeping under control but maybe ultimately took a toll. just that sense of, "how unfair is it that i have to play roger fucking federer every time i get to a wimbledon final, and even when he's not perfect he still won't just fold up and goddammit i might never have another chance at this and i'm playing the best tennis of my life and and and and ARRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!"

Alright, we can dwell on Roddick's choke at 6-5 or the interminable boring 5th set, but honestly Roddick played really well, better than I've seen him play in a while. While it doesn't compare to the last two years' finals and undoubtedly Fed-Nadal would have been better, it certainly was a fine match for 4 sets. And Roddick's groundstrokes, defense, and decision making are immensely improved. Grats to Andy, who I still hate.

I'm guess I'm the only guy who likes those endless 5th set serving contests that happen at wimbledon...

yeah it's crazy...a men's tennis match where the players actually held their serves. shame on them for not serving more poorly and making it exciting for all of us!

I liked watching the highlights late last night, though Inverdale is still a sort of daytime-TV Tony Blair. I didn't get the impression that it was a bad or boring match: quite the opposite. I don't dislike Federer, either; he showed up suddenly to meet Becker and Rusedski and that was quite exciting.

I remember watching Roddick vs Federer in ... 2004? - and posting to the ilx thread that it was boy vs man, hapless thrasher vs assured winner. Steady Mike replied that it was unfair to make this judgement, Roddick was only young and it might be different in years to come.

To my limited eyes there has always been something sort of blazingly wayward and clunking about Roddick - whom I quite like. Yesterday I'm sure he played better than before as people have said - and to hold 14 service games in a row against the best player ever is itself a considerable achievement, isn't it? But when he loses his cool and his touch, he really loses them. He doesn't seem to miss major points buy a couple of centimetres - again and again he blasts them out of the court, crashes them off the edge of the racket, practically hits the air.

He is also always gracious in defeat.

*by

the closing stages of the first three sets were all really great, though even then I remember wishing they'd just start each set at 4-4.

I'm going to say "poor returning" made for the boring final set as much as "great serving". Roddick's always been a poor returner and unlike his other weaknesses, he hadn't improved in that area. Federer...by the 5th set should have been used to the body serves. He never even attempted to move further back to return, just to get the ball back in play and test Roddick of the ground.

New rankings...

1. Roger Federer (2)
2. Rafael Nadal (1)
3. Andy Murray (3)
4. Novak Djokovic (4)
5. Juan Martin Del Potro (5)
6. Andy Roddick (6)
7. Gilles Simon (7)
8. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (9)
9. Fernando Verdasco (8)
10. Fernando González (10)
11. Nikolay Davydenko (11)
12. Robin Soderling (12)
13. Gaël Monfils (14)
14. Tommy Robredo (15)
15. Marin Cilic (13)
16. David Nalbandian (16)
17. James Blake (17)
18. Stanislas Wawrinka (18)
19. Tommy Haas (34)
20. Tomas Berdych (20)
21. Radek Stepanek (23)
22. David Ferrer (21)
23. Mardy Fish (25)
24. Igor Andreev (26)
25. Dmitry Tursunov (22)
26. Victor Hanescu (28)
27. Ivo Karlovic (36)
28. Richard Gasquet (19)
29. Philipp Kohlschreiber (32)
30. Jürgen Melzer (30)
...
37. Juan Carlos Ferrero (70)
44. Lleyton Hewitt (56)
60. Marat Safin (24)
82. Rainer Schuettler (29)
92. Mario Ancic (40)

1. Dinara Safina (1)
2. Serena Williams (2)
3. Venus Williams (3)
4. Elena Dementieva (4)
5. Svetlana Kuznetsova (5)
6. Jelena Jankovic (6)
7. Vera Zvonareva (7)
8. Victoria Azarenka (8)
9. Caroline Wozniacki (9)
10. Nadia Petrova (10)
11. Ana Ivanovic (12)
12. Dominika Cibulkova (13)
13. Marion Bartoli (11)
14. Agnieszka Radwanska (14)
15. Flavia Pennetta (15)
16. Amélie Mauresmo (16)
17. Virginie Razzano (23)
18. Na Li (18)
19. Samantha Stosur (19)
20. Anabel Medina Garrigues (20)
21. Patty Schnyder (22)
22. Aleksandra Wozniak (21)
23. Alizé Cornet (24)
24. Jie Zheng (16)
25. Kaia Kanepi (25)
26. Sabine Lisicki (41)
27. Daniela Hantuchova (32)
28. Francesca Schiavone (43)
29. Sorana Cirstea (27)
30. Sybille Bammer (26)
...
40. Anna Chakvetadze (30)
60. Maria Sharapova (60)
70. Melanie Oudin (124)
76. Michelle Larcher de Brito (91)
82. Tamarine Tanasugarn (47)

yeah it's crazy...a men's tennis match where the players actually held their serves. shame on them for not serving more poorly and making it exciting for all of us!

There were only four breaks of serve in last year's final and that was glorious. As Lex says, yesterday neither player could read the other's serve and that just made for dozens of to-love or to-fifteen holds. Tactically it seems Stefanki only really had to make one suggestion - body serves - and for about the first time in 21 meetings, Fed wasn't all over the Roddick delivery (he still won loads of points off the 2nd serve though). Roddick was better than I've ever seen him in almost every other department though.

I recall our exchange after that 2003 semi, Pinefox. Your assessment of it was the more accurate, I think! Although Roddick followed that defeat with a single golden summer on North American hardcourts and the #1 ranking, he and Fed went in opposite directions for three years thereafter, culminating in this annihilation in the Australian semi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikx0Du735Y