On Sunday night I trudged home, head down, defeated, after watching the Philadelphia Eagles once again reveal their fatal flaw: the inability to win when it counts. For some reason, though, I feel like Reid, McNabb and company are explosive enough to get hot at the right moment and go all the way some day—unfortunately, I thought that day might have been about to come.
It was time to turn the sports page once again, which made flipping on ESPN2 when I got home that night all the more enjoyable. There once again were the blazingly blue courts of Melbourne Park. They didn’t just look warm this time, they sounded warm. By now, the trademark echo in Rod Laver Arena—most noticeable when a line call is hollered out—triggers sensations of vicarious summer.
I spent a good part of the next two days wallowing in that virtual sunshine. One thing you can say about ESPN’s coverage is that it lasts awhile. Each day feels like a small tournament of its own, which is pretty much the way a Grand Slam feels in person. From my perch in the living room, here are a few notes after two days of surveying Oz.
1. Juan Martin del Potro: I came into this year a little wary of the big man’s immediate future. But the first shot I saw him hit was a brilliant, inside-out, two-handed backhand return for a winner. I’ve never heard anyone mention his anticipation on the return, but he seems like a natural.
2. ESPN
Early downsides: They have a few too many people over there. After you’ve heard from Pam, then Brad, then Patrick, then Darren, then Mary, then Mary Joe, it can begin to feel like the commentators are in the foreground and the players somewhere off in the distance, doing their thing. The network also works too hard to make U.S. viewers feel at home. Did we need Andy Roddick’s thoughts on the Super Bowl, and a live interview with Lance Armstrong (who?)? Tennis fans in the U.S. are internationalists at heart; we follow the sport, not the Americans who play it.
Early upsides: While I once wanted tennis and only tennis, Fowler’s interviews with Roddick—he looks better 15 pounds lighter—and Ana Ivanovic—who else speaks quickly enough to work a quote from Nietszche into her analysis of her current game, all in three seconds flat?—have been worthwhile and even charming. And unlike the Tennis Channel’s bare-bones operation, ESPN’s full-court, all-court coverage does justice to the grandness of this Slam.
The channel continues to follow Americans to the ends of the earth, sending Shriver and a lone camera to peek in on the likes of Robert Kendrick on Day One. But it follows players from other nations there as well. I actually found myself wishing I could see the Fish-Groth first-rounder, rather than the record-breaking marathon between Lopez and Muller—it was the longest match in Australian Open history—that the network tracked so diligently. It was newsworthy, but still, it was Lopez and Muller, neither of whom was at their spryest after 5 hours in the blistering heat.
Note: Cliff Drysdale and Mary Carillo, both in their 30th year in the commentating business, sound something like an old couple when they’re forced into in the booth together. Yesterday Carillo said she “hated to agree” with anything Cliff said.
3. Jelena Jankovic
I like the green dress and the heavier topspin she was getting on her forehand. But speaking of green, did JJ look a little, well, pukey, at one point in the second set of her first-round match? No matter how fit you are, nerves and 100-degree heat are a lethal combination.
This match exemplified a problem I have with more than a few early-round WTA contests at majors. Jankovic was shaky for a few games, but her opponent, the little-known Yvonna Meusburger of Austria, couldn’t take advantage of it. If an ATP seed had stumbled like that, he would have at least been punished with the loss of a set. There’s nothing, short of making the women’s draws 64 players rather 128, that can be done about this, but the massive gaps in ability levels make the women’s first week seem more like an exhibition—what’s Venus wearing? are Jelena's arms bigger?—than a competition.
4. Bernard Tomic
The 16-year-old Aussie was impressively skilled and calm in winning his first match at a major, over Potito Starace in four tough sets. Tomic is a rail-thin finesse player, which is not exactly what you want in a prospect. But he’s tall, he has a weapon—his smooth two-handed backhand caught Starace off guard with its pace—he changes speeds well, and he has good hands. He even stood stock still as he hit a forehand winner in the deciding tiebreaker. It may have looked like he’d given up on the shot, but I’ve seen him hit balls like that before, where he doesn’t move at all. Could this be the start of a new, game-changing technique?
5. Chris Fowler
Did he study to be a lawyer? He's personable and a good interviewer, but he has a habit of not letting a statement, no matter how benign or polite, pass without challenge. Darren Cahill made an innocuous and friendly comment about how Tommy Haas still thought he could win a major. It was made more in generosity than anything else, but Fowler jumped on it, asking Cahill if that were really possible considering that Haas is 30 years old and ranked No. 79 in the world. Cahill answered that Haas had been injured and was better than his ranking, but Fowler kept at it, saying he would never get seeded with his ranking that low. Cahill did the smart thing and dropped the subject.
6. Shahar Peer and Tamira Paszek
These sure shots from years gone appeared out of nowhere as first-round losers on outer courts. The tour churns them up, and then churns them out. Who will we see in this position in two years? Bernard Tomic?
7. Sam Querrey
He has to be counted as the U.S.’ biggest disappointment thus far, falling in three feeble sets to Philipp Kohlschreiber. I was struck by the same thing that Brad Gilbert was struck by—even when Querrey hit a forcing shot, he did it from so far behind the baseline that he was never in position to capitalize on the next ball. Beyond that, what is Querrey, at 6-foot-6, doing playing the same game as the 5-foot-10 German?
8. David Nalbandian
The grouchy Gaucho may just turn into a curmudgeonly entertainer in his later years. The crowd in Melbourne loved his multiple racquet smashings during the second set of his win over Marc Gicquel.
9. Roger Federer
He went into full-flight mode too early against the tricky Andreas Seppi. Federer broke out to a 4-1 lead, then started getting playful, hitting overheads from the baseline, squash shots from his ankles, and a glorious turnaround topspin forehand pass off a Seppi lob. Then he had to go back to serious work in the second and third sets. It looked like a drag. Watching him slog dutifully through, I began to wonder if the real reason champions lose their grip on the top is not because they lose a step—after all, everyone is losing them at the same rate—but because the motivation and hunger of youth are impossible to sustain.
Also, was their something a little wonky about Federer’s backhand, especially early on?
