His last point, that the courts are slower, has long been cited as a primary reason for the demise of the creative and the rise of the safe and solid in men’s tennis. And a turn around the grounds at Indian Wells, which may own the very slowest hard courts on tour, is powerful proof of this thesis. As much as commentators talk about how the players should learn to move forward more, to add a net game to their arsenals, it’s the guys who have moved back recently, the guys who have solidified what they already did well, who have prospered.
Andy Murray won today while playing deep in the hinterlands behind the baseline. In the last year or so, he has reached his highest ranking while playing some of his most defensive tennis. Last night Novak Djokovic did the same. This season, the Serb has played more passively than ever, forgoing his famous change-of-direction down the line forays. And like Murray, he’s been successful with it. Gael Monfils, someone with the height and wingspan of a born serve-and-volleyer, spent his loss today even farther from the net than Murray or Djokovic. For the last year or so, Andy Roddick has followed the same formula and lost no ground. The list, as you know, goes on. The guy at the top of that list, Roger Federer, still embodies tennis creativity, but what has his signature macro-tactical shift been since he first won Wimbledon in 2003? To come to the net less often.
Is this, as the now-disproven cliché once went, the end of men’s tennis history? Has the old dialectic between baseline play and serve and volley, been resolved in favor of the safe and solid, in favor of the return of serve, in favor of the two-handed backhand, in favor of the tall and rangy and reliable, rather than the risky and the brilliant? Will even the dictating forehand, which is slowly seeming less crucial than all-around competence, also go the way of the slice approach.
Like I said, it turned out that there was no end to history, and there will be another John McEnroe, another genius with a one-handed backhand who upends the consensus of what can win on a tennis court. Federer has shown what's possible with the power-baseline game. I await the player who shows us what can be done with something different. But I have trouble picturing him.
As for Baghdatis, his win today has given him what he wanted. He'll face a first-tier player, named Roger Federer. He might want to be careful what he wishes for in the future.