Tuesday, August 14, 2007
U.S. Open Series: Is it Serious?
The Serbians. Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. This Sunday's big winners on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and the ATP Tour. Ivanovic finishes off with a big victory and moves to seventh on the U.S. Open Series point chase with more to come. Djokovic moves into first place on the men's side just ahead of American Andy Roddick. Fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic bows out to Ivanovic in the semis in Los Angeles. This is turning out to be the summer of Serbs.
Djokovic has been very interesting to watch. Steadily rising in the ranks since the beginning of the year, his main losses came only at the hands of current world number one Roger Federer in Australia and twice to world number two Rafael Nadal in Paris and at Wimbledon. A tall, young player with huge power, Djokovic is everyone's favorite to soon win a major tournament. He was to the semifinals at Roland Garros and at Wimbledon, proving that even at the age of 20, he can perform on the big stage.
Now with his win in Montreal against Federer, he sits at number three in the ATP rankings, just ahead of Andy Roddick in both the regular rankings and in the 2007 ATP points race. With two more tournaments to play before the U.S. Open, he appears headed for no worse then a number three seed in Flushing Meadows and looks like the player to beat.
Federer has looked out of sorts to date, even though he lost 6-7, 6-2, 6-7 to Djokovic. Federer dominated every statistical category in the match, but squandered set points in the first and could not sustain the second set romp into the third. The Serb has looked consistent, steady, and more so with each passing match. Djokovic won the Rogers Cup by defeating Andy Roddick, Nadal, and then Federer. An amazing achievement, as no one has taken out the top three men's players in the world in successive matches in a single tournament since 1994. Djokovic has two victories over Nadal this year, and the surface at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center should suit his game well.
Ivanovic has been sitting on the cusp most of the year. She probably benefited by the withdrawal of Maria Sharapova in the semis of Los Angeles, but she has also been performing well on the bigger stages. Making the final at Roland Garros and the semis at the Big W showed she is ready for the next step. Sitting at number four in the world and number three in the 2007 race just behind her Serbian sister, Jankovic, she is beginning to look like the woman to watch on the WTA Tour and is improving with each week.
Jelena Jankovic remains the most consistent player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year as she has failed to make the round of 16 or higher only once and has a win over Maria Sharapova included in her performance. More of a workhorse then a spectacular player, Jankovic continues to quietly rise in the rankings. Jelena is the first Serb to ever qualify for the year-end Tour Championships in Madrid and with Justine Henin is also the first to qualify on the tour for the season-ender.
So little Serbia has had a great run this year. I'm giddy. But where are the Americans?
Nowhere to be found. American tennis is bad. Not as bad as a Vince Spadea rap, but not far from it (when I refer to a Spadea rap, bad means bad, not bad as in tough cool). Roddick's ranking doesn't seem to reflect how one-dimensional his game is nor how inconsistent he has been. James Blake sits at number eight in the world, but that is based more on his performance of last year than his accomplishments (or lack thereof) on court this year. Twenty three in the 2007 race, Blake is all but done for the year, having to withdraw from the Rogers Cup and having little time left to make a serious run at the points standings.
The women's side is just as dismal. The announcement that Lindsay Davenport will return to the tour in a limited capacity in New Haven doesn't brighten the picture much. Serena and Venus Williams continue to be the only American women in the top 40 and their play has been very limited this year. The former "American Anna Kournikova," Ashley Harkleroad, sits in the top 100, but is no longer a serious threat. Meghann Shaughnessy and Laura Granville are the only other players of note even near an automatic seed in a major tournament.
Tennis is truly the international sport, well ahead of all the others, and I'll say even ahead of soccer or if you live outside of the U.S., football (or futbal, if you speak Spanish.) Unfortunately the biggest media market for tennis is still the U.S., and without a U.S. presence consistently in the top of the game and without a U.S. player to follow on television, there is little interest here. A check of the top news outlets in America today showed that tennis wasn't on the front page of any paper, and there was barely a mention of it even on most websites. Tiger Woods' 13th major was the main story for most of the papers. Understandable, as he is consistently on the top, is a figure of Michael Jordan proportion, and he gets a ton of media attention.
The USTA's idea to create a U.S. Open Series has been hailed as a great achievement. It was supposed to bring excitement to the U.S. Open and create a meaningful reason for media outlets and Americans to follow tennis over the summer leading to the Open in September. It was a great idea on paper, but it hasn't yielded the results they had hoped in the mainstream media and it hasn't been a factor in getting the top players to enter all the events. Since its inception, only one series champion, now officially a Jersey girl, Kim Clijsters, has claimed the top prize and the bonus money.
Tennis is a great game, and the quality of the men's and women's games have never been better. There are great stories everywhere, very positive for sports. Yes, gone are the days of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Chris Evert, and Billie Jean King. It's a shame. You would think that tennis in the U.S. died with them.
The rise of the Serbians in professional tennis is a credit to the U.S. and our involvement in the civil war that tore the former Yugoslavia apart a decade ago. With the war still going on in Iraq, America could use a good news story. With the state of U.S. tennis, we could use a good news story. The media (other than me) should cover this. Instead, we get Michael Vick and Barry Bonds.