Tennis Prose




Mar/14

29

Super Serena Is Sensational Again At Sony Open

serena

Serena Williams has captured her seventh Sony Open title with a straight set 75 6l win vs. the overmatched Li Na.

Serena has won on Key Biscayne so many times that when asked at the post match press conference if she remembers her first title here, she became confused and asked, “was it Venus?” Actually it was Capriati. The little anecdote showed how “in the moment” Serena is now about her career, it’s all about the present, not the past.

Watching the match, didn’t you get a sense that Serena loves to compete and win just as much now as compared to when she was a sprightly teen? I sure did.

Serena is just another level of champion, in the elite pantheon with people like Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt, Wayne Gretzky, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Rafa Nadal, Bjorn Borg, Steffi Graf, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer.

She is by far THE alpha-female of the WTA Tour. She actually may love battling and thirsting victory more now than when she was a kid. Unfortunately for her peers, Serena’s hunger for titles is certainly showing no sign of diminishing either.

It seems completely plausible that she can go five more hard years on the Tour, as she is obviously dedicated and committed to her tennis, fitness, and competing at her optimum level.

Nobody threatens Serena. Sloane Stephens looked like she might be the heiress to the throne but after seeing her love and one loss to Wozniacki last week, Sloane may be regressing more than progressing.

Serena is as dominant as Mike Tyson was in his heyday. It does not look humanly possible that another new female can emerge who can compete or play tennis better than Serena does.

Serena was asked what motivates her and she answered that she loves playing and winning and that she is gunning for more records, but did not specify the historic marks of Margaret Court or Martina Navratilova.

But you just know Serena is going after Court and Navratilova. She has to chase history, because no player today seems to be capable of challenging her.

***
The Djokovic practice session

Novak Djokovic started a hitting session on court one with Wayne Odesnik when the second set of Serena-Na started. There were only about a dozen observers to see the world’s second best player. Both started with baseline hitting – Djokovic made one request, asking Wayne for “nuetral service line slices.” Then they did volleys, overheads and serves. Djokovic announced where he was serving with “wide first” and “T second.”

Then he asked for Odesnik to serve and to tell him if it was first or second serve. Looked like Djokovic was working on returns.

During breaks, Djokovic sat by himself, alone from his team, focused on the arduous task he must undertake tomorrow, subduing Rafa Nadal. While Djokovic sat and thought (no phone or texting), Odesnik chatted and smiled with his two coaches.

Djokovic talked to coach Marian Vajda at the baseline a few times, all business, no joking or small talk. The attentive fans watching were very respectful and expressed awe and thrill when Djokovic made spectacular shots.

I watched the practice for about 30 minutes and it really is a privilege to see Djokovic work from a close view. He is a machine, his body is so lithe and strong, like a boxer. He moves perfectly, every movement is perfectly functional and efficient. Even his attire – black shorts and slightly off white Uni Qlo shirt made him look like a model in a fashion magazine. Odesnik looked more like a schlep compared to Djokovic.

***

The Bryans vs. Farah & Cabal

What a fantastic match. The Colombian fans made it a colorful and lively atmosphere and the Americans also backed The Bryans with near equal support.

The match delivered sublime tennis. No breaks or mini breaks until 8-8 in the first set tiebreak. The Colombians netted a return for 8-9 then Cabal served and netted a backhand volley.

You knew right then it was over for Farah and Cabal, they threw everything at the Bryans and played a terrific set but they still lost. The Bryans took the second set 6-4.

****

Notes: Seven additional Japanese journalists made the trip from Japan to see Kei vs. Djokovic and after Kei’s default they headed straight back to Japan. The trip is fourteen hours each way. Ouch.

A couple of the vendors on the grounds told me business was quite slow for them during the tournament. Mid afternoon, the bartender said she did not serve one beer all day a the Michelob Ultra bar. Fans prefer the mixed drinks.

The other man at the Collectables tent said business has been poor, each year it’s gotten worse. He may not be back next year.

I also overheard another vendor say, “Nobody’s buying anything.”

Inside the Nike store, there’s no problem selling Rafa or Roger stuff. The Nike manager told me after each plays, the sales people just “get out of the way. It’s like a feeding frenzy.” It just goes to show how massively powerful Rafa and Roger are as product sellers.

By the way, yours truly won the Sony Open media doubles tournament with my strong partner and good guy Mauricio Paiz. We won some nice prizes, an Espresso machine, leather bag and Sony Experia phone. Thanks again amigo. The win feels so good because last year I lost in the finals with Kenny Evans, who was also a finalist this year.

somediato

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8 comments

  • Andrew Miller · March 29, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    I like Sloane but with her shrugging she is the Andy Murray of the WTA. I think she will win a slam but from the looks of it it will be like Sabatini – one slam and done unless her attitude matches up with her obviously promising game.

    That is an ouch for Japan.

    Nice tournament. Bet some of the journalists have some game. Is tignor a solid player ?,

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 29, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    Sloane has a strange aloof demeanor, she acts almost like she doesn’t like tennis sometimes, like she’s too cool for it. That’s what Mike Belkin, former top player from the Ashe era said. I’m not sure if Sloane really loves the tennis business and all that goes with it. For some reason, I’m having a hard time seeing her become a major champion. This last year has been disappointing for her supporters. And also for Paul Annacone who hasn’t done anything to take Sloane to a higher level. I saw him come on and coach her at one match and he just said the basics like “hit crosscourt blahblahblah…” Sloane just sat there looking ahead like spaced out. I think she needs a guy like BG who can really fire her up and entertain her with his knowledge and personality. She seemed almost bored by Annacone.

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 29, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Some high quality players in the media tourney Andrew, the best ones were Kenny Evans who played recently at St. Thomas, the announcer guy in IW and Miami named Andrew, Harvey Fialkov is pretty good from the Sun Sentinel, Michael Dickson from London was in it too, he had a nice game. Tony Chang a photographer has a nice lefty serve and volley game. Kevin Ware aka SFTennisfreak on twitter, is areally good guy and a strong 4.o or so he says, might be a 4.5 when he gets that serve in. There were a bunch of guys that I didn’t get to meet or get their names. There were no slouches. Pete Bodo didn’t play. Steve Tignor isn’t in town this week, but Steve is a top player. I saw Steve hit with Courier, Rafter, Agassi at the MSG exo in November 20l2, he was actually hitting with them and Courier remarked that they should hire Steve as the tour hitting partner. He’s that good. He’s a lefty too, got a nice swooping lefty topspin forehand. It was a good event, 23 signed up for it and an extra twelve more showed up so they had to scramble the original plans. We played on three courts, round robin of six games against four teams, then the final. We won all our sets 5l 60 60 and 5l. We also won all five of our no ad games deciding points. Just like a dream perfect day. We also got a wildcard into qualies next year for the Sony Open, just kidding 🙂

  • Andrew Miller · March 29, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    Scoop you modified Rios’ game for a right handed player?

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 29, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    Kinda Andrew, try to mix it up, variety, high low fast slow short deep, move the ball around, serve and volley sometimes to surprise, but also play like young Hewitt too, rely on quickness, defense and counterpunching, fight as hard as possible for every ball. But with a one hander not two. Hewitt Rios Radwanska Federer and Nadal are all part of my game, I like to think, which maybe is an insult to them because I’m just a 4.5 local park ham and egger lol.

  • loreley · March 30, 2014 at 4:51 am

    Congrats on your doubles title, Scoop. 🙂

  • bjk · March 30, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    I saw lots of empty seats on TV. There are reports saying that there’s been some obstacles to expanding the facility. Even if you improve the facilities, I wonder if that brings in more people. Maybe there just isn’t the audience in Miami for tennis, but it’s hard to think of another city in the US that would be able to host a big tournament. Dallas? IMG is threatening to sell it to foreigners, but considering the empty stadiums at the Shanghai Open and the new Brazil Open and closing down the LA and Indianapolis tournaments, it’s hard to think ATP would watch another tournament move out of the US.

    BTW, Tignor: “He is a 1992 graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where he helped the team win the 1990 NCAA Division III championship.”

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 30, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    Thanks Loreley. For the prize, I won a Pixie Nespresso Expresso maker and fine leather bag. My partner got a Sony Experia phone. We flipped a coin and he called heads and it was tails. )

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