The professional tennis season came to a close this past
week the top 8 players in the world meeting for the Year End Championships at
London’s O2 Arena. Since this is my last chance to talk about professional
tennis until next year, I decided to dedicate this post to my thoughts on the Year
End Event rather than go with my first idea, Why Alexander Hamilton is better than Thomas Jefferson.
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| Suck it Jefferson! Who's on the $10? |
Player of the year:
At the end of every athletic season everyone wants to know
who had the best year. Tennis is no different. Virtually the whole season we
hear talk of who is having the best year. I’m going to try something a little
different and look at some facts before making a decision. Bear with me. For
the first time since 2003 four different men won grandslams this year.
Australia went to Djokovic, The French Open went to Nadal, Wimbledon went to Federer,
and the Open went to Murray. Obviously, Nadal is not in contention because of his
injury status, which leaves Federer, Djokovic, and Murray. I’ll try to set
aside my dislike of Murray and give an objective opinion here.
It’s still not Murray. He did win the Olympics and the US
Open but ZERO Masters tournaments. Fed won Wimbledon and three Masters
tournaments and reached Year End Finals, beating Murray along the way. And
finally, Djokovic made 3 slam finals (better than anyone else), won 3 Masters
tournaments and finished the year by winning in London. His record is also 75-12 compared to 56-16 for
Murray and 71-12 for Federer. Given these numbers, it seems the player of the
year was Djokovic. If you’re a Murray supporter and think he should take home the
honors because of his Olympic and US Open performance, remember this is Player
of the Year, not Player of a Good Summer Stretch Culminating in the US Open.
Also, if you’re a Murray supporter, you’re dead to me.
Scheduling:
Before talking about the actual tournament let’s go over the
concern that is always voiced after the US Open wraps up: the tennis season is
too long. I go back and forth on this one, and I think it really depends on
where you are ranked. Look at Fed’s playing schedule. He plays in January then
takes a month off and comes back for Rotterdam and Dubai, takes a week off then plays Indian
Wells and Miami in March. He then has another month off before he begins a
significant stretch starting with Madrid in May and ending with Wimbledon in
July. His usual six week break until Cincinnati in August was interrupted by
the Olympics this year but that’s once every four years. Federer then plays
Cincinnati and the US Open before taking another chunk of time off before playing
Shanghai in October and the Year End Championships in November.
I can’t say that’s
really too much playing. Federer’s pattern of calendar play goes something like
this: play a few tournaments, take a month off, repeat. Now, it is much
different for guys who aren’t at the top of the rankings. They play every week
because they really have to. No tournament, no paycheck. Federer makes money
sitting at home playing with the kids because he has so many endorsement deals.
You can bet most tennis players don’t have that luxury, so even if you could
legitimately shorten the tennis season, I’m not sure how many of the players
would actually support that proposition when it came down to it.
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| He just made $1 million for eating that candy |
Year End Tournament.
If they did make the year shorter maybe it would result in
better tennis at the Year End Masters. Federer and Djokovic looked ready to go,
but nearly everyone else looked happy to just be there. Tsonga was checked out
before it started, Tipsarevic was overmatched, Ferrer was… well he was just fine
but that’s Ferrer. It almost felt like
the All-Star Game or the Pro-Bowl where the goal is to be selected to go there,
not to play great once there. Federer’s
match with Murray was interesting: Fed got down quickly but steadied himself
and was able to win the set. Once the first set was over, Murray was done. He
looked checked out mentally and physically. I know the first set was close
throughout, but you can look to the point where Federer clawed back for a hold
when he was already down one break as the moment when the mule threw Tony as my
high school math teacher always told us (usually when he said that, it was
referring to our utter lack of competence in anything using numbers). Murray
was blown out in the second set so bad
that Federer brought back the ol’ chip
and charge and Murray couldn’t stop it.
Stadium Entrances:
One of my favorite parts about the Year End Championships is
the players get to have a big entrance through smoke with music blaring in the
background. While most players act like this is a big nuisance and want to just
play tennis, I think they should embrace the moment and really live it up
during their entrances. Play to the crowd, do a dance, rip some shirts Hulk Hogan
style; that way the crowd knows you’re ready to bring it!
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| Hulkamania! WOOO BROTHA! |
I’ve spent and inordinate amount of time thinking about
proper entrance music. From baseball, to basketball, to pro wrestling – that’s
right, pro wrestling - ; the proper entrance sets the mood for what’s to come. I’ve
thought about this much too in depth for way too much of my life. I used to dream
about what my pro wrestling entrance music would be (Ray mysterio you’re still
the greatest), but since I’m no longer in the third grade I’ve tailored my
entrance music dream for tennis.
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| It's still real to me! |
A good entrance can set the mood for a great match, or a
poor entrance can send the audience to the bathroom in droves. Don’t just take
my word for it; let us not forget what Shakespeare said in one of his most
inspiring passages from King Henry V,
“we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood
with me, Shall be my brother. And Thou needest a great entrance, set to rocking
music!”
At this point you’re probably dying to know what music would
be pouring forth into your virgin ears as I triumphantly enter the O2 Arena.
And no, I’m not speaking hypothetically – Coach Rodgers, we have precious
little time to make me a world class tennis player so I can realize my dream of
entering raucous arenas to some sick music. My guess is it will be tough but we
should have everything figured out by next week. I feel my biggest obstacle
will be deciding on only one song. One option is All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaled. I would go with this song because it
describes what I will most likely be doing: winning (am I right!). Another
option is Can’t be touched by Roy
Jones Jr. This was my anthem during my college playing days. Before winning the
ITA, me and my doubles partner probably gave ourselves minor hearing damage
while getting pumped to this song. My top option right now is Darth Vader’s
theme music from Star Wars. If you don’t immediately year this music playing in
your head, you’ve been living in a world devoid of sound for 30 years. Picture
this: the O2 Arena is quiet, the crowd is electric with anticipation, smoke
begins filling the entrance area. Then, the music starts. That unmistakable
score starts playing as I enter wearing all black; my opponent, the announcers,
the crowd: we all know what’s coming.
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| When I said wearing all black, I really meant it |
That would be an entrance we could all get behind. I would
watch that even if Oregon was playing…okay I would flip back and forth but only because
they’re both awesome.
Championship Match:
During the final match, Federer got out to a quick lead aganist Djokovic, but
then realized he was winning easily and promptly put an end to that
foolishness. He gave up the lead and the first set went to a tiebreaker where
Federer found himself down 5-6. The next point Federer was in control and had a
shot to approach on but inexplicably hit it right to Djokovic’s forehand. I
believe Federer did this for a reason and that was to illustrate a point I made about him a few weeks ago. I said the whole reason we watch Federer
play is in the hope that he will pull out one of his impossible shots that make
us all question the laws of physics. After hitting an awful approach, Djokovic
pounced on the pass which Federer barely touch, Djokovic then raced to the net
for the put-away. The ball went past Federer who was in poor position with the
wrong grip. At this point I knew the point and the set were over. You simply
cannot hit that ball back. Sure enough, Federer wasn’t able to do anything with
the ball and lost the point
Wait, no he didn’t! Federer ran to the ball and with his
back to the net, using a continental grip, hit one of the sickest angles you’ll
ever see! SFkhagsdlkhsdglsd…sorry, I still freak out a little bit just thinking
about that shot. I don’t know what
happened next. There were other points and sets I’m sure, and Federer must have
achieved sweet, sweet victory. I never got around to checking the final score.
What’s that? Federer lost? Oh God.
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