We have “a new star” on the ATP Tour. Those are the words a very impressed Martina Navratilova used to describe Canada’s newcomer Milos Raonic who has a big serve and a big, steady game. Raonic took down Michael Llodra in straight sets. This was the first time I’ve ever seen Raonic perform and he looks like a future major threat, if not winner. Hey, that’s not going overboard. Martina said the same thing basically, “The sky’s the limit” for Raonic were her words. Raonic looks and moves like a slightly less gangly and more compact Mario Ancic at his best. Very, very impressive player.
I was a little disappointed with one of my favorites Aga Radwanska who used an injury timeout to kill the rhythm that the amazing Kimiko Date Krumm was enjoying to run up a 4-1 lead on the Polish woman in the third set of their battle. 40-year-old Date was totally offset by the timeout and lost the next three games and eventually the match. Smart play and intelligent use of the rules by Radwanska? Yes. But it’s sad to see an underdog player fall to pieces after their opponent takes a long time out.
It also happened at Wimbledon last year when Phil Petzchner was completely undone after Nadal used a timeout for a supposed knee injury. Nadal was down two sets to one in set four but then came out like a banshee after his timeout, running like he had two bionic knees, without even a hint of a limp.
Venus looked finished after losing her first set to Zahlova in a excruciatingly close tiebreak. On set point, which she lost, Venus appeared to tear something in her abdomen. But after taking her long timeout she came back a new player and dominated to earn the hard-fought win.
So many favored players use these timeouts, whether for real injuries or tactical gamesmanship, and take advantage of the nerves of their less opponents. The consequence there are less shock upsets than maybe there would be without the injury timeout rules.
Bottom line is that young, up & coming players have got to be mentally prepared to deal with these timeouts. Coaches have got to better prepare their players to deal with this. Because the more we see it work, the more, for sure, we’re going to see seeded players use injury timeouts.
One of my personal favorites Alexander Dolgopolov (photo above) is cruising through his draw. With two good wins, Dolgopolov is into the third round. He defeated Benjamin Becker in day three. It’s hard to put into words why I like the Ukrainian, he just has something Marcelo Rios-like about his game (but not his demeanor) that emotes “champion.” Very cool, smooth, great hands, big serve (22 aces in a two set match in Sydney). Plus he has developed a fan base of other fans (check the tennis forums at tenniswarehouse.com and menstennisforums) who believe Dolgo will win majors someday. Keep your eye on Dolgopolov.
Bernard Tomic look as good as advertised in his first round match, very solid backhand, mixes up his shots well, excellent use of variety, and a beautiful fluid powerful serve motion. He’s an average mover but his tennis talent is supreme. Some day it’s all going to come together. I like his chances to beat Feliciano Lopez (as I write this he just won the first set in a tiebreak).
Michael Russell defeated Matt Ebden in four tough sets. Russell is the ATP’s pitbull. What a dogged competitor. He is the ultimate Rocky Balboa grinder of professional tennis. I’d like to see the ATP create a new award to celebrate players like Michael Russell. How about “The ATP Unsung Hero Award”?
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Dan Markowitz · January 20, 2011 at 4:36 am
Navratilova also said she sees the young Dutchman as a top 10 player, which I don’t think so. I know you love Dolgo. It’ll be interesting to see what develops with his game/career.
I’m truly looking forward to Isner/Stepanek tonight. Should be a good one.
Scoop Malinowski · January 20, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Is that Robin Haase? Dolgopolov is making his move Dan! Keep your eye on him,
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2011 at 2:04 am
Dolgo is way better than I thought he was. Definitely some Rios in him.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2011 at 2:30 pm
He looked a lot better in this match vs. Tsonga then he did at US Open last year. IN his Biofile he says clay is his favorite surface so it will be interesting to see how he plays this spring. If he improves much from one year ago when he took Nadal to 63 64 in Madrid, he can upset Nadal on clay this year. No, I was not drinking last night.
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Dolgo has a shot at the semis! Sounds crazy coming from the 4th round – I think he can beat Soderling and Murray or Melzer. Improbable but so are a lot of things down under.
Andrew Miller · January 23, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Scoop: any chance Tennis-Prose can do a series on Junior Development programs? Reasons: FIRST, vested interest – the U.S. needs to remain a competetive force in world tennis, nothing could be more exciting here in one of the world’s largest tennis markets than a Federer-Nadal final than a U.S. champion or U.S. rivalries – we talk about the days of Chang/Agassi/Sampras as being long gone but the game back then was also an international game and the U.S. players were just better; SECOND – other countries are doing some intresting things in tennis, and it would be helpful for the U.S. to learn from what has gone right and what’s gone wrong with them.
Examples:
Spain: No one really know what happenned in Spain but now they have tons of players who get the job done, slam after slam. Sure, they have their ups and downs, and are led by a once in a generation player in Nadal, but players like Lopez and Verdasco (afterthoughts) won the Davis Cup without their top player.
U.K. – they invested a lot of $ (LTA) in junior development and, apart from Andy Murray, don’t seem to show much for it. Was the LTA investment a bust or are there some encouraging signs from the LTA experiment?
Australia: It used to be Lleyton Hewitt and the none behind him. However, the NYT article on Australian tennis indicates, via Craig Tiley, former University of Illinois coach, that the program now has 22 players in the top 250. This is a pretty big number: nearly 10 percent of all players in the top 250 are Australian, and this is a country where people were saying it was all over. “When we started in 2005, we had six players in the top 250, and we now have 22,†Tiley said. “Is it enough? No, because you have to build the base and get more numbers out there. We’re a country of 21 million people, and we’ve got, for example, five different football codes. The talent pool we have to compete with is very small.†[end Tiley quote] The good news this week  no matter what happens on Saturday against Nadal  is that the small pool appears to have produced a very big talent.””
It wouldn’t be fair to include smaller countries (Switzerland), but when it comes to tennis countries, do development program matter? Or should we just wait for saviors like the Williams sisters?
Andrew Miller · January 24, 2011 at 5:06 am
Dolgo gets the job done!
Scoop Malinowski · January 24, 2011 at 1:31 pm
He did it in style too, “sensational” is the word Cahill used after numerous points.