2013 Sony Open...Miami, Florida

[don_budge]

The Finals of the Sony Open 2013...

Andy Murray is the only tennis player that can make David Ferrer look to be charismatic. Murray does not have what you would call "box office appeal". But that's ok...he sure can play tennis. From the backcourt. His serve was pretty shaky throughout the match.

He barely outplayed the Energizer Bunny...David Ferrer. Ferrer ran a lot of balls down. Neither did a very good job of holding service down the stretch. In the end the play was pretty spotty. Murray outplayed Ferrer from the backcourt...but just barely. Not much more needs to be said.

[tennis_chiro]

The "Heidi" Incident

I think it took NBC about 30 years to live down the "Heidi" incident where they cut from a Jets/Raiders Monday night game in November, 1968 game to go to the "Heidi" movie. Raiders scored 2 touchdowns in the final minute to win 43-32. I wonder if NBC would have pulled away from the tie-breaker. In Europe, you probably didn't miss a thing. But CBS cut away from the tie-breaker to go to commercials in introductory remarks for the NCAA quarterfinal game between Florida and Michigan. They hadn't even actually started the game yet. Coverage was picked up on The Tennis Channel, if you had it.

If I was Sony, I'd be asking for part of my money back from CBS for upsetting all the viewers on CBS that didn't have the Tennis Channel to switch to.

How far has tennis really come if that's all the respect a great final like that with riveting final action gets from CBS. On top of that, the broadcast on TennisTV is blacked out so that CBS has exclusive coverage of both finals.

Ridiculous.

don

[don_budge]

Heidi it wasn't...anticlimatic.

I think it took NBC about 30 years to live down the "Heidi" incident where they cut from a Jets/Raiders Monday night game in November, 1968 game to go to the "Heidi" movie. Raiders scored 2 touchdowns in the final minute to win 43-32. I wonder if NBC would have pulled away from the tie-breaker. In Europe, you probably didn't miss a thing. But CBS cut away from the tie-breaker to go to commercials in introductory remarks for the NCAA quarterfinal game between Florida and Michigan. They hadn't even actually started the game yet. Coverage was picked up on The Tennis Channel, if you had it.

If I was Sony, I'd be asking for part of my money back from CBS for upsetting all the viewers on CBS that didn't have the Tennis Channel to switch to.

How far has tennis really come if that's all the respect a great final like that with riveting final action gets from CBS. On top of that, the broadcast on TennisTV is blacked out so that CBS has exclusive coverage of both finals.

Ridiculous.

don

I saw it on LiveHunter.com. The tiebreaker was no contest. A runaway train. You didn't miss much. But what a shame to miss the end under the circumstances. Strange.

[klacr]

I think it took NBC about 30 years to live down the "Heidi" incident where they cut from a Jets/Raiders Monday night game in November, 1968 game to go to the "Heidi" movie. Raiders scored 2 touchdowns in the final minute to win 43-32. I wonder if NBC would have pulled away from the tie-breaker. In Europe, you probably didn't miss a thing. But CBS cut away from the tie-breaker to go to commercials in introductory remarks for the NCAA quarterfinal game between Florida and Michigan. They hadn't even actually started the game yet. Coverage was picked up on The Tennis Channel, if you had it.

If I was Sony, I'd be asking for part of my money back from CBS for upsetting all the viewers on CBS that didn't have the Tennis Channel to switch to.

How far has tennis really come if that's all the respect a great final like that with riveting final action gets from CBS. On top of that, the broadcast on TennisTV is blacked out so that CBS has exclusive coverage of both finals.

Ridiculous.

don

I agree on all points.

As excited as I am to see my beloved Michigan Wolverines play in the NCAA Tournament, no reason for CBS to jump ship.

on that note...GO BLUE!!!! Michigan all the way.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[jasonfrausto]

Andy Murray is the only tennis player that can make David Ferrer look to be charismatic. Murray does not have what you would call "box office appeal". But that's ok...he sure can play tennis. From the backcourt. His serve was pretty shaky throughout the match.

He barely outplayed the Energizer Bunny...David Ferrer. Ferrer ran a lot of balls down. Neither did a very good job of holding service down the stretch. In the end the play was pretty spotty. Murray outplayed Ferrer from the backcourt...but just barely. Not much more needs to be said.

Agreed, they both looked extremely tired. It was pretty much a test of wills and endurance, last man standing wins A definite argument for faster court surfaces could be made when you have guys this exhausted in best 2 out of 3 matches.

[johnyandell]

The answer is tennis has gone backwards--in terms of major media coverage.

[GeoffWilliams]

It wasn't on at all in my area, and I looked. Those matches are beginning to be extremely predictable. No one can beat the top guys, and Ferrer is o-14 against fed, etc. He beats anyone beneath him, and no one above him. It's not just a gap, it's a chasm, a canyon that the lower guys have to jump over to beat the top guys in a big match. Exception was one Ferrer victory over Nadal in the us open. But only one. Delpo beating fed also. who else has won even one slam other than the top four? Safin? Sampras choked that one. The combination of insane fitness/defense/offense is just too much to bear, and no one comes in much, so we have these long grinding battles off baseline that go five hrs. plus. I'd like to see the lower ranked guys like Haas come to their senses and realize they have to come in more. (Haas was 13-19 at net over Ferrer, and near 100% serving to him out wide deuce court and still could not hold third set. I have to say I miss: Sampras, Becker, Edberg, Mcen for their volleying ability. Agass. volley was more like a 4.5 level, which is why he developed the swinging in the air ground stroke volley. I'd like to do an article about volleying, all the types: snap back power high volley, half volley drop, angle, bh high ball (talk to Roddi. about that shot), medium ht., low ball, ankle volleys, when to hit which angle and where. Even the swinging in the air ground stroke volley deserves to be written up for both sides, bh/fh.

[don_budge]

Tommy Haas...The Story of the 2013 Sony Open

Agreed, they both looked extremely tired. It was pretty much a test of wills and endurance, last man standing wins A definite argument for faster court surfaces could be made when you have guys this exhausted in best 2 out of 3 matches.

It appears to me that Tommy Haas was the story of the 2013 Sony Open. Given his rather advanced age as a professional tennis player at 35 he was an overachiever during the week. Following a three set win over Nikolay Davydenko he responded with straight set wins over Alexandr Dolgopolov, Novak Djokovic and Simon Gilles before he succumbed to David Ferrer in three sets in the semi-finals. The Murray/Ferrer final was rather dull in comparison. With all of the feigned exhaustion and grimacing that didn't ring so true given the circumstances...the performance of Haas was the trump card of the tournament. With that being said...there appears to be a scheduling problem. Some of the players didn't appear to want to be there and some of them weren't there. Overall...the match of the tournament may have been between Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro where Gasquet won 6-7, 7-5, 7-6. I wonder is she with the cocaine lips was in the stands. Did you see her...stroke?

Besides the human interest angles to the Haas story regarding his age and his family situation there is the story about the style of play. Haas' style confounded his opponents because he was moving forwards to the net and he varied his shots in terms of spin, depth and speed. He made full use of all of the court and displayed a sense of all court play that is generally missing in professional tennis these days.

As jasonfrausto suggests much of the chagrin of professional tennis has to do with the engineering of the courts, the racquets, the strings...etc. He recommends that speeding up the courts is the answer but then we are faced with a game where the aggressive tactics will be over emphasized. But if the courts are speeded up then you must reduce the size of the tennis racquet. In fact...if anything is going to be dialed back it is the equipment first so that we can see where we stand. As funny as it might seem...it just might be that the original game was "the balance". The point where offense and defense were equally factored in to make the game the most entertaining to watch and the most enjoyable to play.

But I recommend starting with the equipment. Reduce the maximum allowable size to 80 square inches and proceed from there. With that size it isn't going to matter much what the strings are going to do because there will be less trampoline effect on the ball due to the oversized nature of the racquet. The play of Tommy Haas was like a breath of fresh air in a room that is dusty and moldy from being sealed up airtight for too long. Just imagine if the most talented players in the world were playing that style as well as the current "ATP forehand" style. The contrast just might make it more appealing to the television audiences...solving another problem.

After all it is the contrast in life...along with the irony that keeps it interesting. Tennis has gone backwards...it has devolved as I like to say...in more ways than one.

[don_budge]

Kyle LaCroix...Another Highlight of the 2013 Sony Open

Yesterday I had the privilege of being on Court at the Sony Open in Key Biscayne on behalf of the USPTA in cooperation with ATP/WTA Tours as part of their Pro University and career management course. Gave a few presentations and touched on topics to all the recently retired or soon-to-be retired players on teaching tennis to all levels and took them through the USPTA certification Exam. It's an event I've done before and was pleased with the feedback, questions, interest and eagerness of the professionals. They are very excited to learn and begin a new chapter in their tennis life. It was a good day.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

One other highlight...TennisPlayer.net related. Nice to know we have friends in high places!

Kicking butt and taking names...in his modest, mild and low-keyed manner. We are proud of you...and proud to know you. Keep up the good work...klacr!

[klacr]

One other highlight...TennisPlayer.net related. Nice to know we have friends in high places!

Kicking butt and taking names...in his modest, mild and low-keyed manner. We are proud of you...and proud to know you. Keep up the good work...klacr!

Thanks. I appreciate the nice comments. I'm far from a high place in the world, just doing my part to help the tennis community. Plus, hitting with former pros ranked in the top 100, top 50 and Top 20 wasn't bad either

The Sony open was a good event but missed some buzz because of Fed and Rafa out. Tommy Haas was the darling of the event and many players and fans were rooting for him and his style as it was much different from the others. That alone speaks volumes to what the fans would like to see more of in this game.

If Sony Open Tournament officials would have been crazy enough to give me a wild card, I promise fans would have seen some one-handed backhands (drive, topspin and slice) some serve and volley action, chip and charge and a few flat eastern grip forehands. Not sure how long that would have lasted against the top players, but I would have put a smile on a few faces in the stands and hopefully made someone proud. A man can dream...


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton