Payday: Soured Safin, Happy Hewitt and 'Ripped' Kendrick
Cash in
Anne Marie StarkThe
joy of Marat-ing.PARIS, MAY 25- Would it be too much to
ask Marat Safin to have a good time in Paris, to give himself a chance
to reach the second week, to realize that folks line up to actually see
him play, or is that too much to ask?
The wildly popular Russian doesn’t want to talk about his claim
that he’ll retire at year’s end, or whether he’s fan
favorite, but he is and it was clear during the crowd’s warm reception
on a gorgeous day after he beat French wildcard beat Alexandre Sidorenko
6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
“Well, support, because today is Sunday, it's a beautiful day,’
said Safin. “ What do you have to do? Come here for a tournament.
Cheer for somebody. I was lucky to be me.”
There are those who think that Safin may not retire at year’s end
and that he decided to announce his year-end retirement to take the pressure
off himself and possibly to scoop up some sizeable guarantees. Whether
he really retires or not, he should be able to pull out some positive
play here as he’s a very underrated clay court player. Maybe some
fine Paris weather will pt a little bounce in his creaky step.
“Some people say they watched me winning the US Open when [they
were] 10,” he said. “ Makes me so old. I don't want to hear
that. I'm just 29. It's not the end of the world… Everybody, first
experience, first time, special feeling when you come into a big tournament.
But unfortunately, this feeling flies away with the years, and that's
of course you're missing this special thing about coming to the French
Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open or US Open. Just something special, but
it goes away, and I envy them. The young kids.”
Sometimes, it better to watch the oldies but goodies, especially when
it’s Lleyton Hewitt contesting a five setter. The Aussie came back
from two sets down and overcame the record setting Ivo Karlovic 6-7, 6-7,
7-6, 6-4, 6-3. Karlovic nailed an Open Era record 55 aces, but his legs
were toast in the last two sets and Hewitt passed him constantly. Hewitt
roared back from two sets down for the fifth time in his career and won
his 28th five- setter.
He avenged his first round loss to Karlovic at 2003 Wimbledon, when he
was the defending champ and scored his first win over him in four tries.
“It's a strange one, but I obviously got a lot of balls back,”
Hewitt said. “I think over five sets you have the pressure of having
to come up and keep serving like that over five sets. Only sets he won
today were in tiebreaks, so that sort of says I was able to stand out
there and take a lot of these best shots, but sort of threw a few back
at him”.
The U.S. went 1 for 5 on Sunday, so instead of focusing on the losses
of Wayne Odesnik (5 sets to Gilles Simon), Sam Querrey (4 sets to Ernest
Gulbis), Lauren Embree (straight sets to Nadia Petrova) and Varvara Lepchenko
(straight sets to Alla Kudryavtseva), how about a quick look at the Fresno-born,
hard court-bred Robert Kendrick’s 6-7(7), 7-5, 7-6(11), 4-6, 6-3
win over Daniel Brands of Germany. Brands is no clay court maven either,
but the U.S. will take any win on clay, especially a gutsy one by a guy
who committed to two months of clay court play this year.
“It's a lot of nerves out there,” he said. “I'm not
as nervous as I used to be. Probably in the past I probably would have
started cramping in the beginning of the fourth. It's just a lot to do
with that. I think we can play on any surface, it's just that we've got
to get it in our minds a little bit and maybe train a little bit more
in December and November when the season is over and get on the clay instead
of getting on the hardcourts.”
Two years ago, the U.S. men where 0 for 9 in the first round. Thus began
heightened criticism of U.S. play on clay, which none of the players like.
“I don't like hearing it too much.,” Kendrick said. “Kind
of hate it. I was here two years ago and I think none of us won a first
round. That was pretty depressing to hear all that in the news and what's
going on back home. But hopefully it's gonna change this year. I think
so.
Kendrick earned about U $20,000 for the victory, but he doesn’t
want to talk about his earnings (although he’ll be happy to cash
the check) because last year, at the US Open, someone wrote that he earns
about as much as a science teacher. Given how much winging there in political
circles about low teacher salaries, the revelation that some pro players
aren’t wealthy would make a lot of folks happy, but not Kendrick,
who seemed a bit embarrassed about it. Nonetheless, he cracked the million-dollar
mark in career earnings on Sunday, not too bad for a guy who is in his
ninth year on tour.
“I don't talk about paydays. You guys can't rip me on the paydays.
I don't like hearing about the paydays. We'll deal with that after the
tournament.”
He hit a career high ranking of No. 76 in April and may go higher aoon.
He’ll face Simon in the next round, whom he had a set point against
in Estoril. A win over a top 10 French player at Roland Garros would be
a career victory. Now we’ll see whether he’s up to it.
“ I'm looking forward to it,” he said. “I think I can
do few good things against him, and obviously get a few more returns in
play and go from there.”
Draws to Die For (and in)
PARIS, SATURDAY, MAY 24- Andy Roddick has a draw to kill for at Roland
Garros, which doesn’t guarantee he’s going to reach the second
week for the first time, but it does signify that when he walks on court
against French wildcard Romain Jouan in the first round, that his mind
won’t be wandering toward the blades of green grass that he speed
in the Bois de Boulogne during his ride over to the site.
Spain’s Oscar Hernandez could be threatening in round two, but if
Roddick were to pick a quadrant to be in, he certainly would have chosen
to be amongst these seeds: Rainer Schuettler, who has lost some of his
speed; Juergen Melzer, whom he can almost always face down; and the injured
Gael Monfils. Of course if Roddick gets through that section and reaches
the quarters, his nemesis, Roger Federer, could be waiting, that is if
the Swiss negotiates a tougher section that includes Paul Henri Mathieu,
Tomas Berdych and James Blake.
Draws are funny, lateral designs. These days, they are slated not to surprise,
as a quarter of the players are seeded. Every player looks at his/her
draw in a different way, depending on his or her goals. For example, Rafael
Nadal’s camp might be looking at the major roadblock that he would
have to push at for fours hours plus to get around, thereby inhibiting
his shot at five straight RG crowns. Leaping way forward, that man might
be Andy Murray in the semis, but the Scot may not get there, even though
he has a lot less rugged draw than Nadal has. By rugged, I mean men who
are willing, able and ready to wrestle with him. Not guys who will try
to hit straight through him, or around him, or mix it up a ton. Most of
those type of guys are in Nadal’s segment: David Ferrer, Nicola
Almagro (who exhausted Murray last year) and Stan Wawrinka. Rafa doesn’t
mind that, because he’s been beating baselining bullies ever since
his uncle Tony began bouncing ball off his toddler’s head.
On dirt, where he’s still learning the proper footwork, Murray would
much prefer to face a declining baseliner like Juan Ignacio Chela, whom
he’ll face in the first round, an enigmatic type like Janko Tipsarevic,
a Spaniard with an unusual style, like the attacking Feliciano Lopez,
the cagey yet plodding Radek Stepanek, or the young Croatian fireballer
Marin Cilic.
The super steady Albert Montanes does potentially lurk in the third round,
and Fernando Gonzalez knows a thing or two about clay court success, too,
but like Roddick, Murray has to be extremely happy. The highest seed in
his quarter is Gilles Simon, who hasn’t played well since when,
2008? If Murray stays the course, shows some patience and tries to shorten
those points which need a noose around their neck, a semifinal confrontation
with Rafa is probable.
Just a hunch: this will not be an easy year for Nadal. Of course he’s
a substantial favorite to win his fifth straight crown and I would be
quite surprised if he didn’t barring injury, but someone in his
first five matches is going to push him. I don’t think that man
will be Ivo Karlovic or Lleyton Hewitt, but I’m getting a feeling
that Nicolay Davydenko could be heard from again, and I just cannot completely
believe that Ferrer or Almagro are completely done for. Then there’s
Wawrinka, hiding in the shadows with his bent stiletto of a backhand.
Before moving to the women, a few more thoughts on the bottom half of
the draw: a number of Federer fans have cracked their knuckles over the
fact that Novak Djokovic is in Federer’s half, but on clay, that’s
the legitimate semifinal between the second and third best players that
the world should see. Right now, Djokovic is favored in that contest.
If the Serbian doesn’t bully his way through his quarter and Juan
martin Del Potro, he’ll be extremely disappointed.
Defending Ana Ivanovic beings play on Sunday against the capable Italian
Sara Errani on Sunday, and who knows what we are going to get out of the
game yet troubled Serbian? It’s hard to see the 21-year-old repeating
with such little play prior to the event, but maybe she’ll morph
into Serena and stun us all.
Ivanovic is in top seed Dinara Safina’s quarter, the same woman
whom she bested in last year’s final, and at least today, the tournament
favorite, AI has three matches to prepare Victoria Azarenka, who word
has it has her game face back on for the first time since Miami. The loser
of the Azarenka-Ivanovic contest will come off the court wondering just
what happened to her season, while the winner will have a full head of
steam. In great days, they are both Slam contenders. On lousy mental ones,
they can be shuttled out of tournaments by anyone in the top-30.
Safina is really going to have to earn this Slam, facing Anne Keothavong
in the first round, possibly Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in round three and
maybe Alisa Kleybanova or Jie Zheng in round four. The it will likely
be AI or Azarenka, unless Carla Suárez Navarro rediscovers her
love of the fight and a willingness to go down the lines.
More top half draw talk: the unseeded Maria Sharapova faces Belarussian
Anastasiya Yakimova, and then might bounce into old foe Nadia Petrova.
Sharapova won’t be favored there, but she knows how to beat Petrova,
so it’s sure to make for some high theater. One match I’d
love to see is Venus Williams against Agnes Szavay, which will seriously
tested the Hungarian’s nerves and the American’s legs. Or
how about Venus v. Amelie Mauresmo in round four? While I don’t
trust Venus in clay anymore, no one can look at the draw and says that’s
she’s not favored to reach the semis, when Vera Zvonareva is the
highest seed in her section and the Russian is just back from injury.
Some bottom half matches we must see: Jankovic v Chakvetadze, which will
be like watching actresses Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis drive off the
cliff together in “Thelma & Louise”; Cornet v. Wozniacki
in nervous hair tugging contest; Serena v. Vaidisova; and Pennetta v.
Wozniak.
A quick programming note: I’ll on Roland Garros radio (Rolandgarros.com)
everyday starting at 3 pm Paris time (that’s 9 am EST) until play
ends. The first hour of the show will be more of a talk format before
Eli Weinstein and I get back into calling the matches. There will certainly
be appearances by some player/coaches and other folks of interest. Tune
in.
