Creative ‘cliff hangers’ of 2014
What would be the deciding factor to win when equally good players compete with each other? It will be the ‘creative edge.’ Good-Tennis matches with super creativity from players are an attraction that the Tennis world awaits. Mega events are designed to bring out good-Tennis and are popular, for this reason alone. Every year the annual calendar produces legendary epic matches. Eras in Tennis are remembered by these epics. I cannot tell how many matches were played this year but certainly in the thousands. It has been a good year of Tennis and some of these matches will be remembered as 2014 epics. Players with great imagination contributed and made Tennis into a creative sport in the last one hundred years.
A dice game
We are at a point in time where the elite in the ranking are challenged by ‘emerging giants’ in both genders. This made 2014 Tennis an ‘all court game’ as it was in the 70’s and more interesting. The experienced and reputed top ten players had an iron grip on all big events until last year. It was shaken this year. The top ten players lost matches without exception in the hands of ‘emerging players.’ It is a sign to indicate that a ‘change of guards’ is coming. The experienced players like all ‘old soldiers’ will never die but only fade away.
‘Giant killers’ have been appearing and disappearing the last two years. Good-Tennis is not easy to play and it is even more difficult to sustain it. For this reason challengers who manage to upset good players did not sustain their form but faded away. Snakes and ladders, is a living-room board game of chances with dices deciding the fate. Ladders take you up but if caught by a snake, you come down. Some new comers are finding that maintaining good-Tennis to be very similar. It takes more than the luck of a favourable dice throw, to sustain good-Tennis.
Kvitova Vs Kreber – a Fed-Cup epic
After the annual tournament season was over in November, the Fed-Cup final was played between Germany and Czech Republic. The deciding match between Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kreber raised the bar of women’s Tennis of 2014. It was the epic of this year in women’s Tennis. Both from the top ten of the world ranking, played fearless Tennis and threw everything Tennis has in tactics, shots and court coverage speed, at each other. The pendulum swung right up to the final rally, making the match a sensational decider. Even at the final stages of the match in the third set, I was wondering what will make the difference and who will come up with the ‘creative edge’ to win.
It was Kvitova who came with the winning edge. Instead of propping the strokes and playing winners, she stepped-up the speed to cover court which gave her the effective positioning and denied effective targets to Kreber. It was a thin advantage and one of the most difficult to achieve. Kreber who was playing at her peak form must have found the court too small to attack. This tilted the match in Kvitova’s favour. The match pace was well on par with a men’s match. All these boosted the confidence and made Kvitova serve aces in critical situations. An epic it was!
Wawrinka’s ‘double’
Swiss, Stanislaus Wawrinka is a player who has been in the shadow of his countryman Roger Federer. One would think it cannot be any other way. By winning Australian-Open in January and the Davis-Cup for Switzerland in November Wawrinka changed his status in Swiss Tennis. Although he himself confessed that he went through a phase of ‘success shock’ between Australian-Open in January and US-season in August, he managed to end up in the top five of the men’s ranking. Apart from those his performance in the year-ending ATP Masters in London, produced some epic matches. His current ranking of 4, says it all, as to ‘who’ he is in Tennis.
Wimbledon finals – Maestro at 33
The last men’s player to mark an era with his name is American Pete Sampras. Switzerland’s Roger Federer has done the same to the present era in a unique fashion. One might ask who the current world’s number one Tennis player is. The answer will be Novak Djokovic but the era belongs to Roger Federer. His career prize money today stands at 88 million dollars. He has played epic Tennis ever since 2001.
The match that would go as the best of Federer in Wimbledon will be the semi-final of 2009 against Juan Martin Del Potro. The match that will be remembered as his epic of 2014 will be the Wimbledon final against Djokovic. It was Djokovic who came up with the ‘creative edge’ to take the title. The Tennis that these two players produced was magnificent and moments were ‘cliff hangers’.
One of the appealing aspects of Roger Federer’s Tennis is his graceful style even when he is pushed to the limits. On the Wimbledon centre court, it was even more impressive in 2014. Brazil’s Tennis Queen of the sixties Maria Bueno was called the butterfly. Federer is yet to be named for his appealing style and rhythm. I am sure a befitting one will appear soon. What makes Federer’s Tennis appealing is his ability to face most difficult situations with very simple answers. Even in life, what looks simple is the most difficult to achieve.
Access to epics
With access made easy for sports fans, global events are easiest to follow than local events. Strange but this is the reality of our times. On one side it could be told that this phenomenon is what keeps Tennis interest alive in many countries, even where game’s popularity is not very high. The possibility to witness good matches and learning from them is a deciding factor in becoming a good player. An epic match was always an unparalleled sports entertainment for the public and an education to the players, always.
George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-