by Pete Bodo
Howdy, folks. I'm commenting on the news a little earlier than usual this week, because I have a piece of some relevance to Indian Wells (which begins this week) and the ever-interesting subject of playing surface slated to run tomorrow. So let's get right down to business.
Everything but the W
Ivo Karlovic shattered—okay, he inched by—the service-speed record formerly held by Andy Roddick this past weekend during the Croatia vs. Germany Davis Cup tie. Karlovic cracked the 156 mph monster during the doubles, which he and Ivan Dodig would lose to Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner, underscoring an interesting detail that rally-loving and mindless-ball bashing addicts all too often forget. The serve alone won't win you a tennis match. All it can do—and this is the source of its importance and pre-eminence—is position you to control and dominate the match—to impose a form of structure on it.
Take poor Ivo's case. Karlovic and Dodig lost that doubles match. And you may recall that until John Isner put the record for most aces hit in a match beyond mortal reach at Wimbledon last year, Karlovic held that record as well. In 2009, Karlovic hit 78 aces in another Davis Cup match, that one against the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek. The remarkable thing about that performance was that Karlovic did it on the least ace-friendly of surfaces, red clay. Then along came Isner-Nicolas Mahut, aka 70-68, at Wimbledon last year. Both men destroyed Karlovic's record; Isner hit 113 aces, and Mahut over 100 as well.
But Karlovic lost that match with Stepanek, too, 16-14 in the fifth (the same final-set score, BTW, by which Karlovic's serving soulmate Roddick lost one ofhis most impressive serving displays, that five-set 2009 Wimbledon final againstRoger Federer**). So the message is clear: serving big, serving huge, still offers no guarantee of success.
As far as I can determine, Goran Ivanisevic holds the record for most aces hit in one year. He smoked 1477 in 1996, a record unlikely to be broken now that surfaces have been slowed considerably.
Jelena on the slippery slope
Jelena Dokic is caught between a rock and a hard place, which in tennis usually means getting stuck in the time warp between tournament entry deadlines and ranking updates. The newly crowned champ of Kuala Lumpur—where the mercurial Serb-turned-Aussie-returned Serb-returned-Aussie just won her first WTA title in nearly nine years—will have to cool her jets with no chance to build on the momentum she's gained at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Dokic isn't in the main draw, and decided not to try to battle into it through the qualifying tournament.
The win in Malaysia improved Dokic's ranking to No. 61, and the cut-off for direct entry into the IW main draw was No. 76. But the entry deadline was January 17 (it sure seems a long time ago), at which time Dokic wasn't even within shouting distance of the magical cut-off number. And the Indian Wells wild cards were already doled out by the time Dokic won Kuala Lampur. So instead of playing to big crowds in a "premier" category combined event, Dokic will be slugging it out in an ITF Challenger in Nassau, the Bahamas, next week.
That may be all for the better. While Nassau may seem a big step down from Palm Springs, Dokic might benefit from a few quiet days during which she can reflect on what she's accomplished, where she's been and what she's done. And this is a player who's not exactly famous for reflection, or rational planning and even-tempered decision making. She's found both career and rankings to be a slippery slope.
This is really Dokic's third shot at the big-time, of which she first got a taste way back in 2002 when, barely 19, she hit a career-high ranking of No. 4. She finished that year at No. 9 and barely more than 12 months later began a tailspin that dropped her to No. 621 by the end of 2006. She mounted a resurgence in 2009, finishing the year ranked No. 57, but soon slid back into obscurity, well out of the Top 100. And here she is, knocking once more at the door.
Dokic has asked for a wild card into the Sony Ericsson Open, in Miami, which begins at the end of the month.
Smarter than the average tennis club...
Wimbledon is a throwback, right? A somewhat bizarre, hidebound event run by fuddy-duddies in club ties and straw boaters. Guys (there are no women in the mix, right?) who probably never heard of Facebook and think that all this computer stuff is just a passing fad. Well, that's probably what Ian Ritchie, the All England Club's chief executive, would like you to think, lest you somehow interfere with the club's basic game plan, which is to appear timeless and tame while leaping on every reasonable opportunity to improve and stay at least one step ahead of it's rival Grand Slam events.
Wimbledon is like one of those motorcycles that looks like a custom chopper circa 1950, but turns out to be a brand-new model brought out by a Japanese manufacturer, brimming with all the most recent technologies and engineering advances. It's been proven once again, in this partnership between the AEC (which hosts and puts on Wimbledon) and (surprise!) Japanese video and electronics giant Sony.
Thanks to this deal, the Wimbledon semis and finals will be shown, live, in 3-D-capable theaters around the world. I wonder how this is going to affect the USA's "Breakfast at Wimbledon" tradition. Are American tennis fans going to flock to their local Imax and 3-D theaters in pajamas, bearing bowls of Fruit Loops or chocolate croissants? Will theaters on the eastern seaboard open up at 8 AM or earlier, in order to accommodate the "live" start times, and will west-coast movie houses stay open until 5 AM to welcome the early risers who want to watch the Wimbledon finals?
Big question: Can Roger vs. Rafa at Wimbledon possibly be as good in 3D as the recent *Yogi Bear*remake?
!Rena The Serena Dividend
The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported the other day that world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki stopped by to visit Serena Williams while on her way to the Indian Wells, where Wozniacki may be heading for a showdown with No. 2 Kim Clijsters. Williams is resting at her home in Los Angeles as she recovers from a pulmonary embolism that has thrown her projected return to tennis in the spring in jeopardy. Wozniacki didn't divulge what the two women discussed, but volunteered that Serena was "fun to be with" and "in good spirits."
I can almost hear Caroline telling Serena: Make sure you're fully healthy before you come back now, girl. There's no point rushing it. Your health is the most important thing you have, you know! So take your time, there's not that much going on anyway, you're not missing anything...honest!
Williams' absence since last July has been a boon for the other women of the WTA. But even greater opportunities have come the way of her rivals at Indian Wells, which the sisters have boycotted for nearly a decade following an unpleasant incident in 2001. Because of that boycott, it often seems like just about everyone but the Williams sisters has won that event. The former champions in this year's field include:
WTA No. 3 Vera Zvonarva (the champ in 2009), who had seemed incapable of winning another title of Indian Wells' magnitude until she won last week in Doha. (I told you that she was suffering from the Curse of Pattaya City, and would never win a premium title until she finally lost in that minor event. Obviously that curse is broken.) Then there's the defending champ and No. 6 Jelena Jankovic, who was a finalist last week in Monterrey but suffered a disappointing loss to No. 19 Anatasia Pavlyuchenkova. How about No. 18 Maria Sharapova, No. 21 Ana Ivanovic, or No. 31 Daniela Hantuchova (she won Indian Wells a couple of times). All are past winners there. And let's not forget No. 2 seed Kim Clijsters. She's also a past champion, and if she gets further in the tournament than Wozniacki she'll snatch back the No. 1 ranking.
Sometimes it seems like the only WTA pro who never won Indian Wells is Jelena Dokic.
Tommy's no Haas been, yet...
Tommy Haas, a true lifer in tennis, hit with Roger Federer in Los Angeles this week, as part of Federer's traditional, laid-back regimen preceding the two big U.S. hard court Masters 1000 tournaments, Indian Wells and Miami. But unlike Pete Sampras, that other spring-fling hitting partner of Federer's, Haas actually hopes to compete on the main ATP tour again.
Haas underwent hip surgery over a year ago, he he was hoping to return at Indian Wells but just hasn't made sufficient progress. So he pulled out of the tournament, with no word on a revised return date. During his break, Haas also had elbow surgery (might as well get all the maintenance work done at once, right?). The whippet-lean Haas relied heavily on his movement in the course of a career during which he ranked as high as No. 2, so the combination of a hip injury and his age (32) suggests that Haas really has his work cut out if he wants to be a main draw player again.
On the other hand, Haas has shown great toughness and resilience in a career marked by injury. So with any luck, we'll see him belting those flying forehands again before too long.