2012 French Open Championships...Paris, France

[don_budge]

The French Open Mens Singles Final...Part 1

This is a great finish to an otherwise pretty dull tournament. The tennis is all the same. Pound...pound...pound the ball. It is like watching Tiger Woods play golf and using his driver on every shot. Monotonous. Boring.

But when these two heavyweights are going at it...modern tennis takes on its own definition. It is all about power and speed. Whether you like it or not...it is what it is and these two guys just happen to be the best in the world right now at doing this. When they are going at it toe to toe the results are really quite impressive and less predictable than the rest of the herd. They have effectively separated themselves from the herd.

I believed it was the first point of the fourth set that went something like 44 strokes. Quite an amazing point. Each player blistered shot after shot into the others court with neither player giving an inch. Talk about going at it toe to toe. This is when it makes sense to compare this kind of action to heavyweight boxing. When the first point of the fourth set was finally concluded...I thing Djokovic won it, both players were dazed and spent but they immediately were shaking off the effects on their bodies getting ready for the next point...the next exchange. This is after all...heavyweight tennis. No rest for the weary.

Nadal came out of the box in the beginning of the match very quickly and landed a series of thudding body shots on Djokovic. Each time Nadal got a hold of a forehand he made Djokovic pay the price. Like a Smokin' Joe Frazior left...he was repeatedly finding his mark and pounding the Serb into submission. Lucky for Nole...he knows how to take a punch and absorb the blows without submitting. He kept hanging around and persisting...hitting hard to the lefties strength to open up the weaker backhand, which by the way is no picnic to hit to anymore. The Nadal backhand looks to me to be noticeably stronger and it makes me wonder just what it was that he did technique wise to beef it up. Technique freaks? Any thoughts?

Before you know it Nadal is up two sets to none and he appears to have Djokovic on the ropes, setting him up for the knockout blow. Djokovic has become quite the wily competitor against Nadal though and in his mind if he can weather the initial storm the Spanish Conquistador will likely punch himself out after a while, then Djokovic can go to work with his strategy of exposing the weaker backhand of Nadal. He subtly will work the Spaniard over to the forehand then he follows up with a sequence of shots to the backhand pinning him to that side of the court, varying the depth and angle to open up the court for his knockout blows to either side and off either side...which he is very capable of administering as well.

The first point of the fourth set marked a turning point in the match. At this point the Serb has worked the Spaniard from side to side for a couple of hours and there is now just a little less juice on the forehand. After controlling the tempo and flow of the third set now Djokovic has his teeth in the match and he is like a pitbull and he is not going to let go. The fourth set appears to be controlled by Djokovic and some wet and heavy tennis balls, as he is up 2-1 and Nadal can consider himself fortunate to have been granted a reprieve by the rain...otherwise he looked to be on his way out. Djokovic had effectively done a bit of a rope-a-dope on Nadal...weathered the storm for two sets and had come out swinging away as if he had nothing to lose. Just like he said he would. Nadal got a lucky break from Mother Nature.

Going into the day...things could get a bit dicey for both players. Djokovic will need to secure the fourth set and he will have to do it with Nadal having his legs securely under him once again. Last night it appeared that Djokovic was rocking Nadal with everything he had and was about to knock out the Spaniards lights. It looked to be Goodnight Iran for Nadal. Now that he has his legs back under him however it changes things. If he comes out like he did in the first two sets when he was fresh as a daisy it may be the kiss of death for Djokovic. That forehand of Nadal makes an ugly sound off his racquet when he hits it flush...it sounds as if all of the air in the stadium is being sucked out of it. The vacuous forehand. Ugly as it looks and sounds it is at least as effective as a Smokey Joe left hook on his good days. Just ask Mohammed Ali how good it was.

Djokovic really has his work cut out for him. He worked really hard to set Nadal up for the knockout in the fifth set but now he will not have that luxury. He has to pick up right where he left off. There isn't any time for any cute stuff now. He has to play like he has nothing to lose from the get go and not let up. Neither of these guys thinks he is going to lose this match. I give a slight upper hand to Nadal...with his break from the overnight delay. But I wouldn't rule out the Serb...in his quest for a fourth Slam title in a row. He doesn't want to let that prize get away from him. He may never be in that position again and it took a Herculean effort to get there.

Stay tuned for Part 2. Finally some drama!

[stotty]

Pesky Spanish Bloke...

Phew...Djokovic unlucky not to hold that first nervy service game...that awkward net cord he got was unlucky. I was hoping Djokovic would sneak the fourth set and open his shoulders up in the fifth. I didn't think the fourth set was that good. Nadal mostly hacked and Djokovic couldn't quite free up and find his range I felt.

Nadal got the job done. He is great. But I do feel Djokovic is an equal or even better on clay once he gets motoring.

I think don_budge is right, the game is getting monotonously powerful. The only way I can think of to combat this would be to reduce the head sizes of tennis rackets...maybe by ten square inches each year until we get back to around 75 square inches. I cannot think of any other solution....can you?

The problem is there is no substitute for power. You have to take power away from the game if you want to have artistry and all court play back again.

[don_budge]

The French Open Mens Singles Final...Part 2

I think don_budge is right, the game is getting monotonously powerful. The only way I can think of to combat this would be to reduce the head sizes of tennis rackets...maybe by ten square inches each year until we get back to around 75 square inches. I cannot think of any other solution....can you?

The problem is there is no substitute for power. You have to take power away from the game if you want to have artistry and all court play back again.

I have to admit that I did not see the conclusion. Just in case you are interested I had to take the car to the garage for some bad news and I gave my golf coach a tennis lesson and then we had lunch before I had to return to the little club in the small conservative town Skultorp in Sweden...The Skultorp Tennis Club. It is a quaint little club...but it has a magic all of its own. I guess that I sort of have something to do with that. Do you believe in magic?

I am not so sorry that I missed the conclusion. The rain delay screwed up everything. Djokovic had Nadal on the ropes and the only thing that saved the Spaniard's ass...was the rain. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain...but this time it fell on the Serbian Djokovic's parade or something to that effect. The match as it stood on Sunday evening was going to come down to a fifth set and wouldn't it of been something if it was even more exciting than the Aussie Final between the same two contestants. Each match between these two seems to get bigger and bigger. Fantastic stuff. I actually can appreciate the athleticism llll and 10splayer. Great stuff.

Let me say something about the tactical play of Djokovic. It was a very interesting question that my fellow Swede Mats Wilander asked him in an interview on his "Game, Set and Mats" program that airs on the ESPN of Europe...Eurosport. Mats was asking him about how he develops his tactics for matches against specific opponents and our Serbian Star gave him a nice account of his coach, some other advisors, studying films of previous matches and the like. But the concluding comment that he made was a tell all...he said that in the end...at the end of the day it is him who is on the court all by himself and it was he alone who would bear the responsibility for his tactical approach. Well this comment made me like the young man a bit more for his mature outlook on a very important aspect of our beloved game. Tactics.

Over the spread of a five set match I really admire his approach to taming the Spanish Stallion. It looks to me...and this is based on a spread of a number of finals that I have seen between the two, that Djokovic is very comfortable using a bit of a "rope-a-dope" against the left handed slugger. The "rope-a-dope" for those too young to know about this strategy, was employed by the legendary boxer Mohammed Ali against the likes of George Foreman and Joe Frazier. Basically Ali would lay back against the ropes in the boxing ring and more or less beckon his adversary to punch themselves out as he did nothing but deflect the majority of their punches into harmless deflections. After a number of rounds of throwing punches at the sly and hard to tag Ali, the fighters inevitably found themselves suddenly gasping for air and then found themselves horrified that a suddenly rejuvenated Ali was doing a tap dance all over there heads and bodies. Over the course of a fifteen round heavyweight boxing match if you somehow underestimate how much energy you have depleted while your opponent has somehow been pacing himself and saving his energy you might find yourself taking a terrific ass kicking when you discover you don't have any legs under you.

This is what it appears Djokovic sort of employs against Nadal. Usually early in the match he plays the ball to the forehand and strength of Nadal. He ends up taking it a bit on the chin as a result but he is getting a lot of "work" out of his opponent as well. But gradually once he gets Nadal leaning to his left to the forehand side, he starts to work the ball over to the backhand and then either back to the forehand or some combination of shots back on the backhand. Sooner or later he is able to pin the Spaniard down over on the backhand with a combination of angles, depth, spin and speed and as Nadal begins to tire a bit, now Nole has choices...he can choose which side he wishes to exploit. It is amazing how that later in the matches how much he actually exploits the Nadalian forehand. He is rather cunning...our boy Djokovic is.

Well the rain saved Raphael Nadal on Sunday. Djokovic had started slowly but he was employing some sound tactics at the same time. As in heavyweight boxing the object of the game of tennis it to be around when the final blow has been struck...match point that is. Djokovic was on track, I believe, to doing just that. He had Nadal on the ropes and he was tracking him with angles and deep balls on the backhand, just hanging around to apply the coup de grace, the knockout blow. Match point. Tactically he has taken modern tennis to a new level of efficiency. His ability to maneuver and manipulate his opponents makes him nearly unbeatable. Talk about his technique all you like...when it comes down to it...it's the tactics that make the final impression upon your opponent. That being said he has the soundness in his technique to carry out his objectives and the combination of the two T's make him virtually unbeatable. Tactics and technique...not necessarily in that order. Only Nadal can challenge him when he has his best stuff. Roger Federer is toast against him in a five set match.

I think that the final saved the tournament though. Up until that point it was as if you had to invent something interesting to think about to hold your interest. I kept thinking about what are they eating over there in Gay Paris. I kept looking at the girls, I mean the women. But just as in heavyweight boxing...here you had the two marquis names in the game (excluding an aging Roger Federer) and they really delivered. It would of been a different ending if the rain had not interrupted things on Sunday but that is afterall only my opinion. But even the fact that the rain did fall on their parade made it a bit more interesting to boot. Coming out today presented a whole different matrix of problems and possibilities after the rain delay. The end result was predictable. Nadal got his legs back under him and he was able to finish his business. He virtually knocked out the Wily Serb with a combination of blows...usually concluded with a forehand. Simple as that. And I didn't even see it today. Am I right? Of course I am.

[stotty]

Tactics

I am not so sure about Djokovic being the master tactician. It's just his natural game-style that troubles Nadal. Djokovic plays pretty much the same way against everyone. He's just a robot. Of the top four, Djokovic is the least interesting. The fact he hugs the baseline and has a backhand that can soak up Nadal's forehand is, well, as much good luck as tactical awareness. These two qualities just happen to be well suited to playing Nadal...his return of serve is quite handy too.

Overall, I thought Djokovic was quite well below his best, and has been throughout the whole tournament. At his best he can beat Nadal on any surface, despite Nadal's retooled game. Nadal got off lightly and probably knows it. Had the final been completed on the Sunday, there was only going to be one winner.

Likening Nadal's forehand to Joe Frazier's left hook is a wonderful analogy. Lethal. I really liked Joe Frazier. He was may favourite boxer ever.

[don_budge]

Days of Future Past...The Moody Blues

I think don_budge is right, the game is getting monotonously powerful. The only way I can think of to combat this would be to reduce the head sizes of tennis rackets...maybe by ten square inches each year until we get back to around 75 square inches. I cannot think of any other solution....can you?

Of course I am right Stotty...my good man. I am always right...at least that is what I tell my students. Even though reality may paint a far different picture.

I am sure that my comments about the equipment will not endear me to modern tennis buffs. But that's ok. Most people do not want to hear the truth anyways. Sooner or later everyone will come around and begin to understand what you have just expressed. The game is way too fast and because of that much of the original game has been lost in the shuffle. That is not funny or amusing.

As it stands now power is at a premium. With such an emphasis on power there is little left to the imagination in terms of tactics, subtlety, touch and a number of other aspects of the game that have been rendered obsolete. It would be easy to write off good old don_budge as some kind of quack or merely a blast from the past. But as you are beginning to realize...it simply is not the same game by definition and that is a problem. The worst part of it is...it speaks of an arrogance and disrespect for the game and the champions of the past. This is sadly the worst abuse of tennis etiquette imaginable.

But you see time marches on. Especially in these days of electronic gizmos, the internet and all of the other "wonderful" inventions that are making our lives so much "better". People are more in love with their gizmos than the people in their lives. How quickly people forget these days. In fact most of them never even knew. If you are under the age of 28 you are basically a product of "modern times" which is the person that started spawning around the year of 1984. So unless you were at least 15 years old at that time it is very difficult to discern just exactly what the reality of the situation really is. Most people are too young to know any better. The way the information is dispensed nowadays...it is what I call the "NOW" generation. There is very little regard for the past or tradition and of course the future remains to be seen...one never knows. Don't forget to stay within the control limits...otherwise you run the risk of being politically incorrect...the kiss of death in modern times. Jim Morrison penned a song many years ago...it was called "Strange Days". Strange days indeed. Ladies and gentlemen...The Doors!

Even as I write this I realize that many will think to themselves...philosophical nonsense don_budge! To which I say...hhhmmmm. Btw...just as a little sidebar here...I have been hired this week as a golf instructor at a nearby hotel here in Sweden to teach in a golf school for out of town guests. Great fun! Nice people! I must know a thing or two. Imagine that.