Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers vs. Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley on grandstand, winners are in the semis of the U.S. Open men’s doubles. It’s Robredo and Granollers up a set and a break, Granollers is serving for the match. He double faults on the first point, love-15. A fan in the sparse crowd is getting on the Spanish duo.
“Oh, he’s getting tight, he doesn’t want it,” heckles a man with an Australian accent. I turn around and see it’s fellow Aussie Ashley Fisher, former doubles partner of his countryman Hanley.
Aspelin and Hanley go on to break the Spaniards and then take the lead 6-5. Fisher continues with his comments from the crowd, “He doesn’t have that shot,” after a Granollers forehand crosscourt miss off a return, “That’s too good,” on a big shot by Hanley.
All the while the Spaniards remain focused and cool. They are not bothered in the least by Fisher’s verbal jabbering, they just continue to play, to fight.
When the Spaniards hold to send the second set to a tiebreak, only then do their supporters make any kind of verbal intrusion into the hard-fought match. It’s a very small crowd – about 40-50 people scattered around – and the Spanish block is right behind the baseline, it’s the former top 50 Fernando Vicente and Robredo’s coach and two other males and a female. They only show intense positivity in encouraging and inspiring Robredo and Granollers. Fist pumps and Vamos, just pure positive.
You have to credit the Spanish way of competing, they are all classy, clean, no antics, no nonsense, no evident use of gamesmanship. They are all in excellent physical condition, and just battle and battle to the last ball, with all their might.
And they are currently the leading tennis nation on the planet, lead by the fantastic example of the world #1 Rafael Nadal and top tenners Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer. They hold the Davis Cup after defeating Czech Republic 5-0 last December.
The Spanish are all class on and off the court. Moya. Robredo. Corretja. Ferrero. Costa. Bruguera. Manolo Santana (pictured above). Think about their careers – there’s not much or anything you can really criticize about any of them. They are a credit to this sport. Champions, each and every one of them. That’s the kind of class competitors they are. True champions.
Robredo and Granollers work their way to a match point in the dramatic tiebreak at 8-7. Aspelin misses his first serve, then misfires a double fault into the net and suddenly the match is over. Robredo and Granollers mute their celebration and do not rub it in to Aspelin and Hanley, nor do their backers in the audience. They go to shake hands but Aspelin, for some unknown reason, refuses to. He skips congratulating the winners and goes directly to shake hands with the chair umpire.
Robredo and Granollers are into the semifnals where they will meet The Bryans.
Spain…they are the leaders of tennis, they are the best, consummate professionals in every way.
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Fernando Verdasco, when I asked him if he spoke with David Ferrer in the locker room after their epic five-set classic on Louis Armstrong Stadium court on Tuesday night: “Well, we just saw each other for a few seconds and we just, you know, normal. He told me, Well done. I told him, like, I’m really sorry. Then I told him, like, you know, That we need to keep fighting to be both in the Masters Cup. We have a great relationship. Of course, when you lose a match like this today, for him, if I lost this match, for sure, I was so upset and pissed in the locker room. But at the end, you know, we are good friends and I want the best for him, no? I want him to be in Masters Cup. And of course I hope he will do it.”
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