The ninth most memorable match of 2009 might also qualify as the most unlikely of the year. It involved that rarest of tennis finds, a Spanish server and volleyer, trading forays to the net for five sets against a guy who had recently been on the verge of settling into his second career as a teaching pro. It was so unlikely that, despite the fact that it took place on my favorite court, the Grandstand at the U.S. Open; despite the fact that I suspected that the ex-teaching pro in question, Taylor Dent, might set off a few fireworks around Flushing this year; and despite the fact that I was walking past that court as the match was starting, I was not in the arena to see it. I went home and, kicking myself the whole time, watched it like everyone else on the tube. I could feel the electricity all the way from Queens.
Watching the fifth-set tiebreaker in this second-rounder between Dent and Ivan Navarro, it’s clear that, like the Oudin-Sharapova match from yesterday, this wasn’t a classic for its quality. There are a lot of tight volleys, blown sitters, and ill-advised line-call challenges. But the key word in that sentence is volleys. If this match didn’t prove that serving and volleying can still get you deep into a major—Dent was beaten soundly by a baseline-hugging Andy Murray in the next round—it did remind us that constant net-rushing can still produce uniquely hair-raising tennis. Especially when it’s done by an American, at night, in New York City.
—We begin with an Aussie commentator noting that Dent uses one racquet for serving and another for returning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before. The announcer speculates that it’s because he strings one of them a little looser. Whatever the benefit, it’s got to be hard to adjust your swing on ground strokes each game. I guess Dent figures he hits mostly groundies when he’s returning, and mostly volleys when he’s serving.
—It’s hard to believe with this energy and atmosphere, but the stands aren’t full. Some tennis traditionalists might find the crowd, with its zealous partisanship, its random bursts of noise, and its sloppy summer fashion, to be of the Ugly American variety. But I’ll bet you would have liked to have been there, too. Isn’t it a strength of the sport that it can be played in places as varied as Wimbledon, Paris, and Flushing Meadows?
—I don’t think I’d seen Navarro before this. He seems like not just an old-school player, but an old-school doubles specialist. As they used to teach you in dubs, he kicks his first serve in and gives himself time to close on the net. His forehand volley is strange and stiff, but he’s so far up in the court that Dent still has trouble doing much with it.
—Up close, Dent isn’t as big as you might think. He’s also a mellow guy without the sense of entitlement that you normally expect from a professional tennis player. I always wondered if that was part of his trouble. He didn’t need to win to satisfy his ego or his sense of himself.
—Would the sport be better if there was more of this type of tennis? Undoubtedly. For one thing, s & v doesn’t need to be of the same astounding quality as the best baseline tennis to still be entertaining. If it lacks the head-smacking wow factor of a winner drilled from behind the baseline, s & v makes up for it in the relentless, nerve-wracking pressure it creates. Pressure on the returner to keep the ball low. Pressure back on the volleyer to make a lightning-quick reaction and decision at the net. Pressure back again on the returner to make a clean pass, because he’s probably going to get one shot at it. It’s tennis played at a different tempo, both for players and fans. The compression of the points, especially in tiebreakers, especially in fifth-set tiebreakers, gives the sport an antic energy. It also imposes more logic on the proceedings. Rather than rallies that end in errors for no particular reason, there's always a cause and effect with the serve and volley game.
—I love Dent’s overamped reaction at the end. His appreciation of the atmosphere on the Grandstand makes you remember that this tournament is not the norm in the pro game. The Open still lives up to its rowdy reputation. Dent is so psyched up by it that he can’t think of how to end his speech into the chair umpire’s microphone. So he skips the “thank you” and comes up with the only appropriate words for the moment: “Let’s go!”