Tennis - Random Thoughts

1. Normalcy Restored

Normalcy was restored in Men's Tennis with Roger Federer winning the US Open Men's Championship. This has been a down year for Federer with just only one Grand Slam Title (US Open) and 2 Grand Slam Final appearances at French Open and Wimbledon and a semifinal loss at Australian Open. Oh at Wimbledon, he lost to Rafa Nadal in the finals, arguably one of the greatest matches ever played in the history of the sport. Ya, down year, only by his standards. Now he has won 5 in a row at Wimbledon and US Open. Roger "Freaking" Federer !

I also read that Federer attributed his net play success at US Open to his Gold Medal winning doubles performance with fellow Swiss Wawarinka at the Beijing Olympics. It looks like even the greats need some change in routine to inspire them.

3 more goals for Federer:

1. Win the French Open
2. Get past Sampras record of 14 Men's Singles Grand Slam titles.
3. Olympic Men's Singles Gold.


2. Andy Murray

It was good to see another rising star in Andy Murray at the US Open. He has tremendous ground strokes. He will cherish his fantastic win against Nadal in the US open semi finals. The arm chair expert (or should I say, the Lazy Boy) thinks that, he must improve his net game to win against Federer on a consistent basis. Federer tortured him with his net game at the US Open final. If he can stay out of injuries, men's tennis would be a lot more fun in the near future with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray at the top.

3. Women's Tennis

WTA has plans to allow on-court coaching during matches, starting next year. The interesting thing is that the coaches must wear a microphone so that TV audiences can hear the conversations. This will make it more interesting for the TV viewers. I am not sure how they are going to ensure that opponent coaches don't get to know the strategies from this approach. We will have to wait and see.


4. Serena Williams

If Serena Williams is completely focused on Tennis she could be the best ever to play the sport, in spite of her frequent nagging injuries. Currently, she has other priorities like acting and fashion that seems to overtake Tennis. US Open is a fantastic win for Serena. She was lucky that Venus choked a bit in the semifinals.


5. Jelena Jankovic

Great player - still to win a major Grand slam event. I noticed that she spent watching the big screen TV quite a few times to adjust her hair and make up during the change over. I guess this is one of the reasons why she can't get the big one. You need to be mentally tough to win the big events and these acts affect your mental focus on the game.