Tennis inevitability
In both the women's and the men's singles in the US Open in Flushing Meadow NY, both the players seeded nos. 1 and 2 were in the finals. Was this inevitable? If so, why bother to go through the whole rigmarole of having all these players compete against each other almost pointlessly for two weeks, why not just have the two top seeds play each other on day one and then its all over?
OK, I know, you must have a fair, open competition, and anything could happen, unseeded and low seeded players have defeated much higher seeded players. For example, this time around it was Stan Wawrinka (seeded 9) and Richard Gasquet (8) who got into the semifinals, by defeating Andy Murray (3) and David Ferrer (4), respectively, and also let's not forget Tony Robredo (19) who unexpectedly defeating Roger Federer (7). So it looks as if Federer's domination of the game is over and as if Murray, who won the US Open last year, could not sustain his effort. So the final came down to Rafa Nadal (2) and Novak Djockovic (1), as expected, and Rafa won in four sets. There was no doubt who was the better player this time, in fact the Djocker made too many unforced errors to win, over 50, more than twice as many as Rafa.
In the women's game, the resurgence of domination by Serena Williams (1) seems to be unending. She is the oldest woman to win the US Open at the age of 32. But, she had a relatively hard time against Victoria Azarenka (2) who managed to take a set from her in a tie break in the final, making it a good and exciting match. Serena hits the ball so hard that she seems to play like a man. She reminds me of a fairly elephant in her pink dress, can she really think it suits her, but she really packs a punch.
This was the first US Open when there were no Americans in the last 16. And the nationalities of the finalists were very mixed, Djockovic from Serbia, Nadal from Spain, Li Na China, Azarenka Belarus. I like tennis so much because its an individual sport, where the player's origin makes no difference, its one man, or woman, against another. So if nos. 1 & 2 are always going to win, tennis will become monotonous. But, the change over from Federer to Nadal and Djockovic is a historic move in tennis, from a proponent of style to brute force and tricky shots. At least the finals had some great tennis. Now bring on snooker.
OK, I know, you must have a fair, open competition, and anything could happen, unseeded and low seeded players have defeated much higher seeded players. For example, this time around it was Stan Wawrinka (seeded 9) and Richard Gasquet (8) who got into the semifinals, by defeating Andy Murray (3) and David Ferrer (4), respectively, and also let's not forget Tony Robredo (19) who unexpectedly defeating Roger Federer (7). So it looks as if Federer's domination of the game is over and as if Murray, who won the US Open last year, could not sustain his effort. So the final came down to Rafa Nadal (2) and Novak Djockovic (1), as expected, and Rafa won in four sets. There was no doubt who was the better player this time, in fact the Djocker made too many unforced errors to win, over 50, more than twice as many as Rafa.
In the women's game, the resurgence of domination by Serena Williams (1) seems to be unending. She is the oldest woman to win the US Open at the age of 32. But, she had a relatively hard time against Victoria Azarenka (2) who managed to take a set from her in a tie break in the final, making it a good and exciting match. Serena hits the ball so hard that she seems to play like a man. She reminds me of a fairly elephant in her pink dress, can she really think it suits her, but she really packs a punch.
This was the first US Open when there were no Americans in the last 16. And the nationalities of the finalists were very mixed, Djockovic from Serbia, Nadal from Spain, Li Na China, Azarenka Belarus. I like tennis so much because its an individual sport, where the player's origin makes no difference, its one man, or woman, against another. So if nos. 1 & 2 are always going to win, tennis will become monotonous. But, the change over from Federer to Nadal and Djockovic is a historic move in tennis, from a proponent of style to brute force and tricky shots. At least the finals had some great tennis. Now bring on snooker.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:18 AM
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