This week TENNIS.com will be featuring one of our blog regulars, Asad Raza, who is in Rome for the men's Italian Open. He'll be writing here a couple times, on the home page, and over at Pete's as well—he's got this thing covered. Here's his first post.
Hi Steve,
As you know, today is first day of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, also known as the ATP Masters Roma, the Internazionali del Foro Italico, the Italian Open, and simply as Rome, which is what I like to call it. I touched down a couple hours ago, promptly discovering that Richard Gasquet's horrow show of a season continues. But you gotta feel great for Luis "Mucho Lucho" Horna, an undersized warrior who always leaves it all out on the court, win or lose. [Insert mandatory reference to Roman gladiators here.] Homeboy Andreas Seppi took out another Frenchman, Fabrice Santoro, but the Roman papers are touting the chances of Simone Bolelli, for some reason (he's photogenic?).
It strikes me that Rome is currently the second most important tennis tournament to take place on the European continent, after Roland Garros. The fall indoor tournaments, Paris-Bercy and Madrid, take place too late in the year to determine much more than the scuffle for the last few spots in the year end Master's Cup. That prestigious grass-court tourney, Wimbledon, is actually held on an island just off the coast of France. The other two European Masters tournaments, Monte Carlo and Hamburg, mark the beginning and the end of the clay season's run-up to Roland Garros, but Rome is its beating heart.
Despite the charges that tennis is becoming ever more surface-specific, the top three contenders for this title are the world's top three players: wouldn't you say? During the season of terra rossa, however, the number one and two spots are effectively traded, and Nadal is as heavy a favorite here as any player will be at a tournament this year. Having won his fourth straight titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Nadal has reminded onlookers that he is as close to invincible on this surface as Bjorn Borg once was. If he four-peats Rome and Roland Garros as well, he might be close to cementing "best claydog of all time" status, no?
Federer, meanwhile, is facing a year of tests. Surprisingly, he has won only one tournament, a relatively minor one in Estoril (apologies, Miguel); are his youthful pursuers finally catching up to him, or is it just the mono? The answer to that question, whether or not he can reestablish his alpha status, will be the largest macro-story in men's tennis for the rest of this year. Two weeks ago in Monte Carlo, I thought Fed produced his best tennis of the season, dispatching all comers until running into Nadal, the man who for three years has been single-handedly preventing him from utter domination. Their final played out in a familiar pattern: despite stretches of torrid play, Federer was ultimately outclassed by the better player on the surface. At this stage, I'm not sure there's much more information to gather about the matchup. It's gonna take a special match from Federer to win.
Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, raised new questions about his durability, and possibly even his honorability, by retiring to Federer in the semifinal in Monte Carlo, claiming dizziness. Djokovic, whose game translates well to clay, has yet to win a major title on it. But I suspect this should be a good place for him--many faster-court specialists have won in Rome, including Sampras and Agassi. The clay seems be firmer and the ball seems to move through the court faster than at Roland Garros (but bounce higher than on the damp deadness of Hamburg--ah the many varieties of clay!). For Rome's court speed alone, I think Djokovic should do well. With his U.S. Open final, and Aussie and Indian Wells titles, has a strong argument for being the best hardcourt player in the game right now. After Djokovic, I'm quite interested to see how Nikolay Davydenko will do--he'd be my next pick to win the tourney. What about yours?
This being the Eternal City, historical comparisons have been jumping into my head since my train ride into the city--hey, their AIRPORT is called Leonardo da Vinci. Historical analogy for Federer? Augustus Caesar, no doubt, presiding over and consolidating an empire in magisterial fashion. The only difference is that Augustus, then known as Octavian, emerged from a three-man scrap just to come to power. Federer, meanwhile, seems to be enmeshed in a very serious three-way just past his career's midpoint. Nadal? Clearly an Etruscan, the mysterious and slightly wild-seeming civilization that predated the Romans... okay, I'm stopping. Cappuccinos are really cheap here.
The other thing I'm looking forward to is the fact that the Stado Pietrangelo will be the main court this year due to construction (there's a nice piece about it by Jon Wertheim in TENNIS magazine this month). It's about the size of the Bullring at Roland Garros or the Grandstand at Flushing Meadows, the two courts almost all tennis writers agree are the best places for witnessing live tennis. The Stado Nicola P. is also a relic of Fascist Modernism--actually Rome is abuzz right now because a right-wing mayor with suspected ties to the Fascist youth movement was just elected. Anyway, I'm glad that perhaps the most unique court in tennis (marble bleachers? nude statuary???) is having a moment in the sun. It just seems perfectly appropriate for the national championship of a country that is so uniquely itself, so Italian (I know that sounds tautological), that you can never mistake it for anywhere else.
I mean, just looking at the wrapper of the delicious little cookie they gave me with my latest espresso: "Contains: sugar, pits of apricot, almond, white of egg." It only took four ingredients to make something unmistakably Italian and exceedingly enjoyable. Man, am I excited about this week!
Talk to you soon,
Asad