INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Last year it was Roger Federer who made the long walk out to Stadium 2 to give the masses their close-range glimpse of immortality, their chance to tell their grandchildren that they’d seen greatness from a few feet away. This being Indian Wells, most of them could drive right home and tell them that night.
This year it was Rafael Nadal’s turn to bring his talents to the people, and the people got there early to see them. Every seat was full by the middle of the first set of the match before Rafa’s, between Ana Ivanovic and Ksenia Pervak. We know Ana is a draw, but not this kind of draw. Still, she made it work for her. By the end of the third set, she was doing her best Jimmy Connors at the U.S. Open, throwing her arms in the air after every winner. When her final shot hit the net and popped over, Ivanovic dropped her racquet and put her hands to her face as if she’d won Wimbledon. I guess it felt like that kind of crowd. Still, not everyone in it loved the act. Someone behind me said, “Honey, it’s the third round.”
The main attraction took the court a few minutes later. Since this special show—doubles night at Indian Wells—apparently went unbroadcast, I’ll recap my notes from it here. It was the type of setting that can bring even a few hardened tennis writers out from under their press-room rocks, I mean desks. I saw my friend Tom Perrotta there. He said the night-time desert scene felt like “vacation.”
It wasn’t just Rafa and his partner, Marc Lopez, who made this match enticing, but the team that they were playing, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse. The bun boys laughed their way to the title here last year and built a following along the way.
Still, Team Slacker was reduced to spectator status for the introductions. They were announced first, then Lopez was brought out on his own. Finally, everyone was revved up for Nadal, who got an individual intro. Larry Ellison—billionaire, tournament owner, Rafa fanatic—was on his feet. It looked for a second, as Nadal walked out, that even Malisse and Dolgopolov were clapping for him. They were just bouncing their palms off their strings to test the tension, but it was a good visual anyway.
Malisse and Dolgo come out, as usual, smiling, chatting, whispering to each other, two kids on the playground. Then Dolgopolov clocks his first return of serve so hard that it takes your breath away, makes the crowd gasp, and nearly takes little Marc Lopez’s head off.
A favorite thing about Dolgopolov: His walk—it looks like he’s springing off the court as he goes.
As for Malisse, let’s just say the possibility of a food-borne illness going around doesn’t appear to have forced him to miss any meals lately.
On game point in the first service game, Malisse hits a winning overhead with a slight mishit. When he turns around, Dolgopolov is laughing like it’s the most hilarious thing he’s ever seen.
Did I write that Nadal is more aggressive in doubles? Maybe he’s jittery about his opponent’s full-swing ground strokes tonight, but he’s a very different player. Rooted to the baseline for most of the match, the few times he does come in, he gets too close to the net, and when he’s up there he moves around way too much, so much that he puts himself out of position for potential poaches. The first time he does poach, he goes too early and Malisse puts it behind him. Two points later, Malisse lobs him successfully. In the next game, Dolgo almost takes his head off. That’s doubles, even for a 10-time Slam champ.
Of course, volleying is not what Rafa is there for. He’s there to throw bombs. Like Dolgo, his first forehand also makes the crowd gasp. As many times as you see Nadal, watching him in a match from up close—it’s a lot different from up close in practice—always opens your eyes back up to what makes him so hard to face. His shots are like no other I’ve seen: They bend and dip in the air, like a knuckleball and a curveball put together.
More remarkable, and what may really makes him the player he is, Nadal uses topspin to get the same kind of penetration that a flat-hitter gets, without the risk. Any Federer fans who wonder how their man can keep losing to Nadal needs to see—hear, feel, sense—Rafa’s forehand from close range. You won’t wonder any more. On the biggest point of the match, break point for the Spaniards late in the second set, Nadal hit a forehand from the baseline that went for a winner between Malisse and Dolgopolov, who were on the opposite baseline. I’ve never seen that before.
This is modern doubles with a vengeance. It used to be that we lamented the fact that much of it is played from the baseline these days, but I’m past worrying about that now. It’s exciting in a different, more freeform way. The standard advice for doubles teams is to “move like you have a rope tied between you”—i.e., to move together, whether it’s up and back or side to side. But as Perrotta put it last night, if there were a rope between the players now, they’d strangle themselves.
These days doubles is played as if the court has been turned on its side. Two guys trade high-arcing topspin ground strokes, either crosscourt or down the line, while their partners rove at the net. The fact that there’s always someone behind him, to back him up, gives the net man a lot of freedom to move. The player who takes the most advantage of that freedom tonight is the most natural dubs player on the court, Lopez.
This style of play can seem dull on TV, but it isn’t, at all, when you see it live on a side court. There’s a daredevil quality, both to the dive-bombing ground strokes and the flying poaches that intercept them. The crowd is sucked in by the sheer amount of motion being generated in every rally.
What’s funny is that Nadal is the most serious of the four. He pumps his fist, looks forlorn when he misses, berates himself for a poor volley, and gets a few centimeters away from punching his strings. When Rafa serves, Lopez chatters away in front of him before going to the net. It almost looks like he’s scolding Nadal. After one changeover, Lopez chatters at Nadal from behind him, until Rafa finally throws his head in the air and rolls his eyes.
Most memorable image of doubles night; a circus-like point late in the match. All four players swirling at once. Dolgo springy, Lopez sneaking forward, Nadal shuffling maniacally, his racquet in that too-high, too-ready, ready position that he uses, like a kid trying to show his coach that he’s doing it right.
The ball slugged from the ground, and then tipped softly in a new direction at the net. Lopez circling so far out of court that he nearly sends the service linesman over in his chair.
Yells, gasps, cheers, laughs. Finally, a Lopez winner snuck up the middle. Dolgo and Malisse, slumped, smiling. Rafa in the middle of them, leaping, scissor-kicking, finishing with a mid-air fist-pump, giving doubles night a well-earned exclamation point.
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And then, this happened: