* !Picby Pete Bodo*
If you've ever been in a forest while serious logging is going on, you know how terrifying the sound can be as, one after another, towering trees rip through the canopy with a terrible sound and finally come to rest, crushing all beneath them, with a resounding, muffled crash.
That's how it must have sounded at Melbourne Park last night as, one by one, many of the old-growth players (that is, players 6-foot-3 and taller) were felled. Ivo Karlovic went first, chopped down by No. 3 seed Roger Federer, 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-3. Kevin Anderson, the 6-foot-8 South African seeded No. 30, was next: No. 7 Tomas Berdych buzzed him up as if he were a Husqvarna chain saw. Finally, it was Long John Isner's turn. The 6-foot-9 No. 16 seed fell to the axe wielded by No. 18 Feliciano Lopez.
Get the boom truck, load 'em up.
Granted, neither Berdych nor Lopez is a midget, but each one is significantly shorter than the opponent he sent packing. And 6-1 Federer was yielding at least nine inches to Karlovic, that is if you trust the listed height for Federer. The ATP stats appear to, well, stretch things a bit for many players. Who knew Nicolas Almagro was a six-footer? Among the ATP men, nobody wants to be perceived as short, just as none of the WTA women wants to be considered . . . heavy.
Apparently, this is not going to be the Australian Open where the big men finally assert the dominion that was once perceived as their destiny. The idea that players of old-growth height would ultimately dominate tennis was planted when 6-4 Marat Safin simply blasted Pete Sampras off the court in the 2000 U.S. Open final.
But even before that apparent (and since discredited) tipping point, pundits and fans were predicting an increasing correlation between size (height and weight) and success, as though the evolution of tennis somehow was going to turn it into. . . basketball.
Remember John McEnroe famously declaring that tennis was not going to make it to the "next level" (whatever that means) as a sport until it attracts Michael Jordan-like athletes? This was partly code for athletes of African descent. If McEnroe could have made that wish while rubbing a magic lantern, the genie would have gone—poof!—and when the smoke cleared the man standing there would have been. . . Gael Monfils.
Monfils, seeded No. 14, is a magnificent athlete and a legitimate contender at this major. But he has yet to become the magnificent tennis player, which is what it takes to be one of the top dogs in this game. If there was indeed a next level, it was an olive-skinned Swiss who took tennis there.
I'm partial to the big men, partly because I worship at the altar of power and believe that the serve is the hub around which the wheel of tennis turns. The farther we get away from that, the less appealing it is, at least to me. A serve-based match can be less like a novel with a clear, satisfying narrative and a few logical if unexpected turns of plot. Too often, rally-based tennis becomes like a second-rate page turner that has you rolling your eyes at absurd twists and improbable coincidences.
But I'm also amused by the amount of fear the big men strike in the hearts of the media and pundits, if not necessarily their opponents. How many Federer and Rafael Nadal fans have been wringing their hands these past few days, fearing the meeting between The Mighty Fed and Karlovic, or Rafa and Isner (that fear obviously has been dismissed)? Any time either of those icons faces a tall guy with a big serve, we all start running around like Chicken Little, obsessing over the worst-case scenario.
You know what? Including last night, Federer was 10-1 against Karlovic. Runty six-footer Jurgen Melzer has as many wins over Federer as does Karlovic, who's won just three sets while losing 25 to Federer in their non-rivalry. Waiting for a big man to beat Federer is a little like driving out to sit parked on the highway near the runway because you might see a jumbo jet crash on landing.
But the forest hasn't been stripped of all its tall timber just yet. The tournament still features Monfils, hard-charging No. 23 Milos Raonic, No. 4 Murray (he just makes the cut at 6-3), Berdych, and two persons of particular interest, No. 11 Juan Martin del Potro and Aussie breakout-artist Bernard Tomic.
If one of the Small Three formerly known as Big Three (Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic) doesn't end up winning this thing, there's a good chance that one of the big men will. It's a pity to see a clear cut forest, right?