Rising star Bencic and Murray’s magic
Canada’s Roger-Cup is another warm up event to the last Grand-Slam of the year – New York’s US-Open. This year the Roger-Cup was played in Montreal. A string of WTA and ATP Hard-Court events formed as the ‘US-Open series’ of North America is now on. At last we see some changes in the top ten of the women’s and men’s world rankings. For this to happen there has to been some unexpected major upsets.
Andy Murray
An unseeded women’s player from Switzerland has produced five straight upsets to win the Roger-Cup. The five foot nine inch in height with an athletic build, Belinda Bencic ranked 12 at the age of eighteen, is not completely unknown having won some events in Europe this year. On her way to win the Roger-Cup she beat five, top ten world-ranked players. Her success got her past the one million dollar mark in prize money for 2015. It does not stop there as Belinda is now eligible for the one million dollar bonus pool of the ‘US-Open series’.
Upset of the year
Belinda defeated Canada’s seeded Eugenie Bouchard, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Germany’s Sabine Lisiki, Serbia’s Anna Ivanovic, USA’s Serena Williams and Romania’s Simona Halep in the finals. Serena has been shaken and taken to the brink of defeat a few times this year. She always found a way to bounce back from near defeat situations because of the variety of games she possesses. Now, Serena stands at the threshold of getting the Grand-Slam, having won the three majors already and one more to go. Unseeded Belinda went to three sets with Serena tackling every chameleon game change of Serena Williams and beat her in three sets. That was incredible and the performance definitely could be considered the ‘Upset of the year’.
In the finals, Halep had to concede the match to Belinda with a foot injury which she developed during the match. At that time Belinda was in a commanding lead of 3/0 in the third. Hard courts are susceptible to this kind of injuries. Halep did beat Bencic earlier and after the finals she pin-pointed Bencic’s development very well. Halep said Bencic now moves much better on the court which is permitting more effective shot selection, her services have developed speed and greater accuracy and the way she handles the overall ‘game’ shows a marked mental improvement. All these give the indication that she could be in the final show down of WTA in Singapore in November, which will showcase only the top eight of the world.
Hard Court Tennis
USA is the home of the concrete Hard-Courts. It has to be considered the surface which made Tennis a peoples’ sport from elite sport in the USA for that matter in the world. This all-weather court simply took away the hefty daily maintenance cost and effort and increased the daily court usage to unrestricted hours from a mere few hours a day of sand and grass courts. The comfortable natural surfaces on which Tennis began over 100 years ago comes nowhere close to this when it comes to the number of usage hours. The down side of Hard-Court is the unforgiving bad effects it has on players’ joints. Many recreational players have given up Tennis due to this. At International competition level, it gives injuries to the lower foot and the lower back because it does not permit a slide and has zero cushioning effect of the natural materials of traditional courts.
At competition level it is considered an additional challenge and the survival-of-the-fittest rule is cited. Federer, now in his late career is very selective in choosing the events for this reason. The Hard-Court bounce does not reduce the ball speed and as a result, good movers like Bencic have an advantage. The amount of running to cover court and speed of reaction can be punishing on hard courts and often the cause of physical breakdown.
Murray clears the Djokovic hurdle
It must be a relief for Andy Murray to have won against Novak Djokovic after losing eight consecutive times. Murray’s first win against him came at the right moment. That is at the Roger-Cup finals in Montreal.
Murray did not change the game style to win against Djokovic. He played from the back of the court as he always does and got to net once he noticed the opponent is scrambling to reach the ball, to finish off with a volley. A game very much closer to that of Rafael Nadal but played ‘a la Murray’ recipe that is hitting much flatter than Nadal’s spin. Djokovic did not play badly as he stood to the last and delivered a strong challenge. The match lasted three hours and went to three sets. Both saved 79% of the break-points and eventually Murray won getting 51% of the points played to Djokovic’s 49%. This is how close a match can be in Tennis.
Murray overtakes Federer
Murray’s baseline game often positions him closer to the back court linesmen during the rally. A cross-court shot from there is over 30 meters long. It is very far from the net and is effective only because of his unusually big, power generating back swing of his ground strokes. It is a formidable challenge to ‘time’ a shot for an effective contact with such a long swing. This being his original swing and prudently he has not fiddled around with it has turned out to a weapon of destruction for him. [An example and advice all competition players must follow]. His sighting efficiency is very good to read a drop shot from the opponent early and fast enough on his feet to reach 90% of the drop shots comfortably. These are the signs of maturity and that is what is making him very successful as a game maker.
Talking about maturity and ranking, Murray just overtook one of the most matured and venerated players of the game Roger Federer to become the world’s number two. This is also the first time he has gone above Federer in the rankings. Now that he has shaken Djokovic, it is probable that the British Isles could be having a number one in the near future.
W&S-Open Cincinnati – USA
2015 Roger Cup in Montreal honoured former world’s number one Justine Hennin by inducting her to their ‘Hall of fame’ on 15th August. In the past, she has a strong record in the tournament. Today she is cited as an ideal role model to would be Tennis players on and off court.
The US-Open series this week has moved on to Cincinnati and the event is called the W&S-Open. [Western and Southern-Open] As I write, in this event too young Belinda Bencic has sent a seeded player home and has already reached the third round. Murray is also in the third round. The playing hours and time difference in the USA does not permit good TV live coverage for us, however at mid day there are repeats for the fans in the eastern hemisphere. They are worth watching!
George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, National coach, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach; ITF and USPTR; –gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-