That’s All Folks
I was proved wrong many times this weekend. Let’s count the ways – 1. Andy Roddick should’ve gone all out and tried to beat Federer, so he could play a clearly exhausted Nadal instead of a clearly determined David Ferrer. 2. Roger Federer is still just as dominant on the Men’s side as he ever. He proved this by losing a total of 12 games over 5 sets against his nemesis, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, who finished the year 5th in the world. Not too shabby. 3. I thought I was clutch at tennis, but then I lost my service game at love while serving for the first set in the finals of a doubles tournament this weekend. Luckily, we broke back and won anyway. 4. I thought all baseball players were greedy. Mike Lowell proved me wrong. 5. I thought the Bills would challenge the Pats at home during a night game, Tom Brady and Randy Moss proved me wrong. Back to tennis…
I’m still gathering together some notes and thoughts on 2007 as a whole. For now just one quick note on the validity of this week(end’s) results. I think you do have to question how much all the wins and losses from Shanghai actually mean. Basically bring up what I mentioned in this space sometime last week, how much do players really care about it? The problem is that some players care a lot more than others. I realize that all players care about money and ranking points, but the simple fact is a guy like David Ferrer has a lot more to play for and prove. For a regular tournament, that is all well and good. But for the supposed Super Bowl of tennis, it is simply not right. Maybe if all the competitors cared enough about it, fans would care more about it too, and the stadium wouldn’t be half full most of the week.
November 19th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Maybe if they played the year-end final where people actually cared about tennis, such as nearly anywhere other than Shanghai, they might actually fill the stands. Shocking to see so many empty seats for the final tournament. Can you picture that happening in NY? Hopefully the ATP will take notice. Round -robin format is just wrong for an event of this supposed magnitude.
November 19th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
It’s too bad Shanghai & many empty seats (especially for the final) will repeat in 2008. London will be packed in 2009, as would NYC, Madrid/Barcelona, Paris, Rome, etc. Am not sure the powers that be would consider changing the round robin format – without it, Federer would have been out after his first match. And maybe that would’ve been good for the game. As far as Roddick not pulling out all the stops vs. Federer – that wasn’t going to happen. Federer was not going to permit it – especially not with all the comments that he got a free ride into the semis once Gonzales was defeated by Davydenko. Roddick was very clear about his goals for Shanghai -getting in some solid match play and some decent results in preparation for Davis Cup. He pretty much did that – but, after being whupped by Federer, was too worn down to do much vs. Ferrer. Knowing how much Davis Cup means to him, expect he’ll bounce back and come out in Portland firing on all cylinders, full of passion and power.