'RAFA, A CERTAINTY'

Not sure how long it's been since Rafa has ruled the clay in Europe, maybe two years or so where injuries and lack of confidence has kept him from dominating the dirt as he did for ten years or so. It's funny how the Tennis World finds a way to give a champion another chance just as it did with Federer after all those beltings at the French Open by Rafa.
All that had to happen for Roger to gain tennis immortality was for Rafa to have a day against a challenger that didn't go according to plan and that's exactly what happened in 2009 when Soderling stunned the Spaniard in the Fourth Round.
To prove it wasn't a fluke Soderling also beat Roger in 2010 in the quarters at the same event. Back to 2009.
Roger took that unexpected loss to Rafa as a catalyst to put his name in the record books as maybe the greatest ever tennis player on the planet. It was almost all or nothing because if Roger didn't make the most of that opportunity then he quite possibly would never have won it. I am probably stating the obvious here.
This year in Monte Carlo Novak Djokovic got beaten rather early for his lofty standards and even though he was a 'local' he played like a tourist, perhaps more interested in the surrounds than the tennis. Monte Carlo is like that, trust me I have been there, the scenery is distracting. Maybe Novak thought that as a resident of one of the most magnificent places in the World to play tennis at he could simply turn up on his home turf and claim the title. Tennis aint like that.
So back to this year.
I put Rafa in now as a certainty to win the event because the pressure is off. No one has to play Novak in the final so there is no tightness, no concern over who is going to finish second to the World number 1 and no thought of a press conference asking why Novak can't be beaten. It's party time in Monte Carlo.
Rafa will take this opportunity to show the rest of the World that he isn't quite finished just yet and when he wins this year in Monte Carlo he may just put some doubt in the mind of Novak going into the French Open because that's all Novak requires to join Rafa and Roger as all time legends of the game.
You need to win all 4, Novak knows it but now he may be doubting it but best of 3 is a little different than best of 5, tactics change and so does the mind set.
If Rafa loses in Monte Carlo he can kiss his chances goodbye of winning another title on the dirt of any significance because Novak won't lose too many unless he is injured from now on. I think he simply turned up this year at the home of Bjorn Borg's last ever tournament match with the wrong attitude, he will fix it I am sure.
I am tipping Rafa to get through to the final in Monte Carlo and to win it comfortably to put him back on the clay court tennis map. He has won it eight times, I think his ninth is only a few days away. Not many champions let an opportunity like this go by just as Roger did in Paris in 2009 when Rafa went out early.
They sense a moment, I think Rafa already senses his.....

'YES, SAME OLD LINE'

" I was playing really, really bad ". That's what Novak Djokovic said after his match where he lost in the second round at Monte Carlo. Then he said that his opponent played well. I reckon once again that's a 'bet each way'. Now if a player says that their opponent simply outplayed them well that to me is the best answer because if you do get beaten at any level well you must give some credit to your opponent. But not secondly, it must be firstly.
Sure we have all lost matches to people we either dislike or have beaten in the past but when it really comes down to it we have days we would rather forget on a tennis court. Personally I have had many but I am sure that I am not alone there. I have always thought however that it was my head that lost me a tennis match and not my shots, I am sure most would agree.
Novak got beaten by Jiri Vesely, a player who can hit a ball extremely well but should not be smart enough to outsmart a player of Novak's ability, yet it happened, Novak is human after all. Novak may have played 'really, really bad' as he described his performance but that's tennis for you as your game only needs to be off a little to get beaten by someone who's game is on. Nature of the sport.
Novak needs to clean up his press conference dialogue as it's typical tennis banter that has arrogance written all over it. A loss is a loss, a fact of life on a tennis court that will usually happen more than a win due to the impossibility of regular victories in a sport that requires a genius and nothing less to keep winning.
I hate press conferences because it's the same old 'crap' as Gulbis said quite some time ago. Ernest was correct and he would know, he loses more than he wins and he does not provide cliché's as answers like many do.
You got beaten by a better player on the day Novak, fact of life in tennis............

'NEVER A LOT IN IT'

American Tennis Pro Denis Kudla had a rather frustrating week at the 'office' in this week's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas. Kudla is a battler on the circuit though he is now at an all time high ranking of 59 in singles so he is at last making some good dollars. He has in fact made US $1.2 million in his six years on the tour, but let's put that into perspective.
Two hundred thousand a year before tax and after expenses does not leave a pro tennis player a whole lot at the end of the year but it isn't a bad way to tour the World either. The frustrating thing about Kudla's week in Texas was that he was a whisker away from some much needed dollars but in particular some ranking points that would have eliminated the requirement for him to qualify for the smaller 64 man events. Currently he is right on the edge.
Kudla lost in the Round of 16 to big serving American John Isner by the typical Isner match score line of 7-6, 7-6 but his heart break didn't end there. Now Kudla is not really a doubles exponent as his current ranking of 600 plus suggests but he and fellow Countryman Don Young lost 9-11 in the third set super tie breaker to the greatest team of all time in Men's Doubles, the Bryan Brothers.
Kudla picked up almost $9,000 US for the singles effort and whilst I don't have the Doubles Prize money in front of me the smaller tournaments offer around $2,000 US for an early loss to each player, so it was a lucrative week none the less for Denis. If he had managed the tie breakers a little better against Isner he would have been guaranteed an extra $6,000 US plus double what he went home with if luck had been kind to them against the Bryans.
Yet that's Men's Pro Tennis for you, never a lot in it and usually it's a couple of points here and there that decide a match.
Denis Kudla picked up 20 ranking points for making the last 16 in the Men's Singles which has given his number a small boost on the rankings list. His 600 plus doubles ranking will probably stay the same. For the record Kudla scraped into the second round by a score line of 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 against a guy by the name of Mischa Zverev of Germany who is currently ranked 164 in singles. I suppose we could say the same thing about Zverev as we have about Kudla in regards to a close match and a score line which suggests it could have gone either way.
Look at how many games Zverev won ( 18 ) and look at how many Kudla won ( 17 ) and you tell me whether or not it seems totally unfair that a player goes out of a tennis tournament as the 'loser' sometimes. Tennis, tough sport to make a living out of. A sport of small margins and a sport of close line calls that may turn a match result if a linesman gets it wrong and Hawkeye is not at that particular smaller event.
Hats off to the Pros who make a living from a sport that requires some to hire a psychologist as well as a coach just to help them think better.......

'GT NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD'

Did you see who rates number 1 on Google for one of the most famous tennis quotes in history ? Yep yours truly is WORLD NUMBER 1 when it comes to looking up 'A Haircut and a forehand' by the great Ivan Lendl in regards to the great Andre Agassi.
I always had a dream of being World Number 1. Some people don't like me because of what I write though that particular chapter has in fact had over 30,000 views World wide. I still receive the occasional email over that one even though it has been around for a while now. I haven't received a negative one yet, most like the content of 'A Haircut and a forehand' as it is a compliment to one of the World's greatest ever tennis players.
Nice to be Number 1........

'BIG TED' ( TED ADAMS )

OK, I read your blog and you are still managing to piss people off.
You were obnoxious as a 15 year old and, while I will concede you have mellowed a little with age, you still come across obnoxious and a little truculent as an adult (I use the term 'adult' loosely!)
You wouldn't play 'Pennants' for Lawley Park when you were a kid and it appears you still 'dont play well with others' now.
You broke rackets (Emrik Blitz's) like they cost you nothing! Sometimes I know they did?
You would ride your bike everywhere and sometimes you had a fat passenger on the back.
You loved to eat snickers bars but never put on weight.
You were the only serious tennis player in the Southern Hemisphere that still wore Dunlop 'Volleys'.
You went to Queensland with Kieron and when you guys came back he still couldn't take me.
And in all the years we would hit together I never did beat you.
Remember me!
That was an email I just received from 'Big Ted', a mate of mine from way back in the 80's. I used to ride about 7 kms to Ted's house, he then sat on my seat while I dinked him down to the Lawley Park Tennis Club. The hardest part of our training session was in fact taking Ted on my bike as the big fella was just that, a big fella even in High School but boy he could serve.
It's funny but Ted and I trained a lot, as we also did with our other buddy Kieron ( as Ted mentioned ) yet we only played a couple of tournaments together as juniors. I recall Ted and I losing to two South Australian kids in the semis of the 18's Boys Doubles at the Albany Open Junior Tournament one year but we made 'em earn it.
Ted and I didn't really have any success on court together until we were around 30 years of age when we put in a late entry for the Albany Open Championship just for a bit of a laugh. In our second last match we faced match point against Max Loveridge and John Quinn and Ted did the most ridiculous thing, yet it worked a treat. 
I actually said to Ted "Just get it back mate, nothing fancy, make 'em play", so this is what Ted did. He ignored me, took Max's serve half way to the service line, chipped it on his backhand and came to the net where he hit a sublime backhand volley winner in the tram lines past John.
I remember looking at him with a rather wry smile and nodded in appreciation at his rather gutsy move but it was tough to watch. It was all up to Ted whether we won that match or not.
We saved one more match point then I served it out from memory to 15. We won our last match easily to take the title, classic day out at the Emu Point Tennis Club. I believe it was the year 2000.
Absolute legend of local tennis here in Albany was Big Ted and I am grateful for being able to play against guys like him in my junior days. Our practice matches were plentiful and most involved 4 or 5 sets where we put the friendship aside for several hours and did our best to kill each other on court. There were no niceties when Ted and I trained at Lawley Park in the 80's.
Ted won me my first ever Albany Open with a display of guts that I was simply in awe of as most players would tighten up at match point down, not Ted, he only knew one way of playing.
One day Ted when you get back to the land of Oz we will renew our rivalry down at our old tennis club but we may just cut that best of 5 sets down to best of 'one' as the old legs may struggle to do much more.
Legend you are buddy......

'HOW MANY MATCH POINTS' ??

In the 80's there was a tennis professional from Czechoslovakia who went by the name of 'The Big Cat' or Miloslav Mecir, whichever you preferred. Mecir was a genius and owned possibly one of the most remarkable returns of serve the game has ever seen. For proof of that statement you only have to watch the first two sets of the Wimbledon semi final between Edberg and the tall Czech in '88 to see that he simply knew how to get a serve back with interest.
Mecir was also known as 'The Swede Killer' because of his ability to basically 'own Sweden'. His win/ loss ratio over the Swedish players was second to none and for him to do it predominantly on clay was even more remarkable. As we all know the Swedes will go down in history as one of the most successful nations on clay tennis courts. 
Miloslav Mecir somehow found a way to beat the Swedes at their own game which was to play their game until he basically got bored with it then he would up the pace almost at will and more often than not he would confuse the opposition with his tactics. By the time the 1986 US Open came around Mecir owned a 17-3 win / loss record over the Swedes over a two year time frame and he confirmed his status in that particular Open once again by beating the number 2 seed Mats Wilander of Sweden in the round of 16.
So to the current game of World tennis and it's not very often that you see any real domination from one particular country towards another but there is however one gentleman who stands out a little further than the rest in the art of the two on two format. Take Serbia's double's genius Nenad Zimonjic and the way in which he handles the greatest ever doubles combination of the Bryan Brothers from the US.
In 2009 alone Zimonjic won nine doubles titles with Daniel Nestor and in five of those finals they beat the Bryan brothers. In the Cincinatti final they won 15-13 in the third set super tie breaker. Whilst I do not have the match details in front of me I am certain they saved at least one match point, possibly several. In the Davis Cup Quarter final of 2013 against the US Zimonjic was paired with Ilija Bozoljac who at the time was ranked World number 900 plus in singles and 102 in doubles.
This match will certainly go down in history as a win for the heart and not necessarily the talent as Serbia won this match against the Bryans 15-13 in the fifth set, a marathon match where Zimonjic somehow took his partner's level from that of a Challenger level player to that of a World beater. Such is the talent of Nenad.
In the same month in Monte Carlo in 2013 Zimonjic paired with Julien Benneteau of France and in the final against the Bryans' they saved an incredible seven match points before taking the match 14-12 in the final set super tie breaker. How is it possible to work your way through that many match points and simply not miss ? I believe it's a gift of not just the technical ability of a player but more so of the mind. It's an ability to not fear losing and that is a rarity.
So to the current Indian Wells Championships and this time Zimonjic paired up with another Frenchman in Edouard Roger-Vasselin who won the French Open Mens Doubles of 2014 with Benneteau. In the quarter finals they played the Bryan brothers once again and rather incredibly the Bryans' lead the third set super tie breaker at one stage 9-2.
From that stage you would have to be questioning whether there was any light at the end of the tunnel yet somehow Zimonjic and his French partner found a way to level at 9-9, save another match point and win the breaker and the match 14-12. That's a total of 15 match points that the Bryans' held over Zimonjic and his French partners' in two tournaments yet they could not convert one of them.
Whilst Mecir dominated the Swedes from the start of most of their matches Nenad Zimonjic seems to have a remarkable ability to fight his way out of impossible situations against the most successful doubles combination of all time. The Bryans eventually reached the magical number of 100 tournament titles but surely would have got there a lot quicker without the magician from Serbia who weaved most of his magic throughout his career when he seemed to be down and out against Bob and Mike.
Some Tennis Professionals have higher profiles and some have earned a lot more money over their careers yet the man from Serbia who seems to shadow his countryman who happens to be the World's best singles player will surely be talked about one day for his exploits.
That Davis Cup Doubles match in 2010 will surely go down as one of the best wins in Davis Cup history as it was pivotal at the time with both teams sharing the opening two singles matches. Bozoljac's ranking alone defied logic as someone who could even bother a team of the Bryan's ability, but he was playing with Nenad, that was the difference.... 
Nenad Zimonjic is a tennis professional who never knows when he is beaten and he may just own the record for most match points saved in the World of Mens Doubles. Genius............

'AN APOLOGY JIM' ?

Last month I wrote a chapter that touched on the fact that Jim Courier had a red hot go at David Goffin's apparent 'inflated' ranking just because he was getting a red hot belting from Mr Federer. I wonder if Jim would have said the same thing about David if he had perhaps won a set or at least a few more games but Fed was on fire that night. He saw it like a football.
So how is David Goffin's ranking looking now days Jim ? Well I reckon it's looking pretty damn good and whether Jim Courier likes it or not I think the Belgium pocket rocket is in the top 20 to stay for quite some time. How about Indian Wells this week Jim ?
Goffin is in the semi finals after beating none other than Stan the Man in the round of 16 in three sets and then Cilic in straight in the quarters. Every pro who owns a name or a game turns up at Indian Wells, in fact you could almost call it 'the fifth Grand Slam', it's huge. To beat Stan and Maran on a neutral surface with no real advantage to any player is an effort that cannot go unnoticed. So how did he do that Jim ?
Well it may just be because David Goffin is in fact a very good tennis player and even though he may not own a game that is recognised as big, classy or really even that entertaining he owns an ability to win.
David Goffin is just a light weight tennis player who can in fact beat the heavy weights by simply getting the ball in play. He is not unlike David Ferrer of Spain who bothers opponents to the extremes of frustration as he really does not own a big shot, just a very big heart.
I wonder if Goffin got wind of Courier's rather unflattering comments from the Federer match in Australia this year ? Hope so cos I reckon that Jim fired him up and now he's just doing his best to prove him wrong. I love to see that in World Tennis.
You don't have to own a big game to be successful, you just have to find a way to keep getting the ball back, it's not rocket science, just common sense. Jim Courier I believe owes David Goffin an apology because it's not the commentator's place to make assumptions as to whether a player owns an 'inflated' ranking or a 'legitimate' one. Unless that player is an absolute 'crab' and cannot justify his place on court with the big boys then I think he deserves a bit of respect.
David Goffin has proven not just this week that he belongs whether he beats Raonic in the semi final or not, it's simply a huge result just getting to the last 4 as he is in good company.
Some commentators are too full of their own self importance and are quick to judge players and usually it comes back to bite them on the arse.
I reckon Jim got bitten big time..........