This week freelance tennis writer Ravi Ubha will be blogging from Queen's Club in London. Here's his second post from the Artois Championships.
How do you know it's summer in England? The rain is warmer.
OK, that was nicked from someone else and may not be totally true, but you get the point. No rain in sight again, however, as another fine day unfolds at Queen's Club. It's not as warm as yesterday, though that's a good thing.
Novak Djokovic walks past as he and coach Marian Vajda hit the practice courts, and there's a slew of activity in the media lounge. Greg Rusedski, doing commentary for the BBC, is looking sharp in a grey suit, while Andy Murray's former coach, Mark Petchey, also with the BBC at Queen's, is busy doing his prep, or so it seems.
Before heading to the courts, a few of you asked for reaction to the collapse of the Great Man, Roger Federer, in Sunday's French Open final. Robby Ginepri, who watched a bit of the debacle and shares a coach with the slumping Swiss, said he "felt bad'" for the world No. 1. I bumped into Mario Ancic's coach, affable Swede Fredrik Rosengren, and he said he was totally unsurprised about the nature of the defeat. Motioning wildly with his arms, he was adamant that Federer still had no backhand answer to the heavy and high-bouncing Rafael Nadal forehand on clay. A few of his countryman, Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander included, thought Fed had a chance. John Roddick chose to focus on the winner instead. "I think that's as well as I've ever seen anyone play on clay, and I think that's kind of the sense in the locker room,'' Roddick said.
Still with Federer for a second, I read a little blurb in The Mirror, the tabloid that's one of the best selling papers in the UK, and a columnist who shall remain nameless took a shot at Mirka Vavrinec just for the heck of it. Here's part of what was written: "Roger Federer was highly embarrassed at Roland Garros on Sunday afternoon. And he's only himself to blame for letting his tubby fiancée Mirka sit in the stands. Poor old Fed—he offered as much resistance to Rafael Nadal during the French Open as Mirka does when the dessert trolley appears.'" Ouch.
Rafa was practising early in the afternoon on Court 3, which is separated from a walkway, which doubles as a viewing gallery, by another court. My pass came in handy, then, as I waddled on court and watched, a few photographers close at hand. Nadal took it easy at the beginning, pretty much standing stationary a yard behind the baseline and hitting easy-looking ground strokes with his Queen's doubles partner, Argentine lefty Mariano Hood. There was no bandanna; the Mallorcan wore his cap backward, donned a sleeveless blue shirt and wore predominantly white shorts. The strapping below the knees is much more prominent without the pirate pants, by the way.
The exchanges intensified, with Nadal at one point forcing Hood into a wild mishit—the ball found itself two courts away. Fellow Spaniard and pal Feliciano Lopez was there and tossed it back, trying in vain to get Nadal's attention. He did exchange a few smiles with Francisco Roig, Nadal's coach at Queen's, as usual, while Uncle Toni gets some time off.
The autograph hunters outside the court, behind a wall that you can't see through, create a mass of humanity, though they might be in for some disappointment. A security guard can be heard warning them, " "There are a lot of other exits. He'll probably be using one of them. I'm telling you now."
The results start filtering in. Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Roddick, and David Nalbandian won't be making their singles debuts until tomorrow, but North Carolina's John Isner downs fellow giant Kevin Anderson of South Africa in a typical grass-court score, 7-6 (5), 6-4. The baby-faced assassin delivers 11 aces, only throws in one double fault, and doesn't face a break point.
With that big serve, more than a few feel Isner could be dangerous at Wimbledon. Ivo Karlovic is averaging more than 15 aces a match this season, and Isner is a sniff below 15. (Karlovic averages fewer than two double faults to Isner's four.) Then again, Karlovic hasn't got past the opening round at the All England Club the last three years.
"Besides serve, I just really have to apply a lot of pressure on return games,'' Isner said in a chat post match. :Just take chances. Guys that have decent serves, their serves are going to be a lot better at Wimbledon. If I'm holding serve, that's going to allow me to take chances on return games. I feel I need to do a lot more of that in pretty much every match I play, and that's what I'm working on."
Isner raised expectations, or created them, when he came out of nowhere (apologies to the University of Georgia) to reach the Washington, D.C., final last summer, prevailing in an almost unbelievable five straight third-set tiebreaks, and taking a set off Federer at the U.S. Open. Entering Queen's, Isner was 5-9 in 2008.
Putting pressure on himself and losing several close matches, the most recent a five-set defeat to Argentine veteran Juan Ignacio Chela at the French after leading by two sets, hasn't helped. Isner brushed aside suggestions of a sophomore jinx.
"I don't so much think that the players have figured me out," Isner said. "Last year I was new on the scene, had no pressure, and was winning those close matches. I just need to get back to that, to how I was playing in the summer, not putting pressure on myself and just having fun, not looking at it as such a business out there, which I've been doing lately.
"I really feel I can do well in every tournament. When I don't, it really frustrates me. I just need to go out there and feel no pressure, just swing away, that's when I play my best.''
Andy Murray didn't need to play his best today. The aging Sebastien Grosjean quit after two games of their second-round tilt with a left thigh injury. A right shoulder injury kept the Florida-based Frenchman out for most of the clay-court swing.
Remember Richard Gasquet dispensing with his cap yesterday in practice (and again today)? Murray did it against Grosjean and said he might stick with it. "I played one match on the tour, or two matches on the tour, without a cap before,'' Murray said in a packed press conference. "I always used to have obviously pretty big hair. I did it because the hair obviously got in my eyes and stuff. Now I cut it a bit shorter. Brought me a bit of luck today, so I might keep with it." More on Murray tomorrow.
Back outside, the autograph seekers scurry for signatures as the day comes to a close. By this time, last year's finalist, Nicolas Mahut, has just edged Lopez in a third-set tiebreak, thundering down 27 aces, and Karlovic crushes Aussie Joseph Sirianni, blasting 19.
A few kids ask for an autograph as they see a player approaching. One says, "Who are you?" Ernests Gulbis smiles, not saying much, and signs a ball.
Keep it, kid. It could be valuable one day.