Rio’s upsets, tears and joy
View(s):Olympic Lessons
Rio de Janeiro, the ‘River of January’ as a place of fame came to being on the 1st of January 1502 when the Portuguese galleon dropped anchor in the bay of the river Guanabara. Today, a mega city, it is famous for the Statue of Christ, Copacabana beach and the Carnival in Rio. From now on they will have another landmark, the ‘Barra Olympic Park’. Inside the Tennis stadium, the hard-court in shades of green is the most pleasant one would ever see. Right now the drama has shifted from the city and the venue to the athletes. They are in cheers and tears. Strangely enough in Tennis it is the number one in the world of women and men who were in tears with humiliating defeats.
‘Rio’ a city permanently in carnival mood, no one expects an ever so jovial Tennis player with a pet name of ‘Djoker’ in the Tennis world would shed tears and it happened on the stadium Tennis court of Rio Olympics. Novak Djokovic lost to Argentinean star Juan Martin Del Potro in the very first round. From what is seen in the first few days of the Rio Olympics tears of joy and sadness were common. Unfortunately Djokovic and Del Potro, two big names, unluckily met in the very first round.
Del Potro’s signature forehand
In the London Olympics of 2012 Del Porto was ranked 8 and played a sensational match against Roger Federer in the semi-finals on grass. The match lasted 4 hours and 23 minutes with the final set going to 25/23. The match squeezed out Federer’s last sap of energy. In the finals, he was no more than a shadow of himself against Andy Murray. This year Del Potro returned from injuries into ATP tour and is 141 in the ranking. He has made some big kills in every event but never clinched a title. The match against Djokovic showed his enormous potential.
Djokovic lost as he could not survive the fury of Del Potro’s ‘signature forehand’ and strangely enough Djokovic neither could avoid it tactically. I have never seen Djokovic short of tactics, ever. Del Potro’s forehand worked like a sledge hammer every time finding the unreachable spot on Djokovic’s court. Del Potro was not that great with the serve but returns did all the damage. The Del Potro formula to win was to move well and convert shots into his forehand and it worked like ‘clockwork’. I believe, of all Djokovic’s losses this will echo the most in his career. The last thought on this result is to ponder as to how fine the differences are between players now, a player as low as 141 could beat the number one.
Coach’s dilemma
Boris Becker has been by the side of Djokovic for a while now as his coach. He has experienced the plight Djokovic was facing in a match against Pete Sampras during his time. At the interview after that match Becker was asked why he lost to Sampras. His answer was ‘when Sampras plays that well as he did, the only thing I could do was to pray for rain’. In this match seated on the side line in Rio, Becker probably knew what was coming after the eighth game. The rain did not come to save Djokovic.
Serena’s unaccountable loss
Serena Williams too left the court in tears after losing to Ukrainian, Elina Svitolina 6/4, 6/3. This, to me is the most unaccountable losses of the year. Svitolina’s ‘terrier’ like pursuit dragging Williams into long rallies paid off well. Svitolina is a good player but did not do anything very big to beat the world’s number one. Serena’s error rate did most of the damage than Svitolina’s winners. Svitolina’s initiatives to extend the rally are not easy against a player whose average game speed and movements are considered the highest in today’s game.
Olympic stress
The loss Serena and Djokovic registered could be the stress Olympics creates in players. The dent made by this on these two players reputation will be hard to rectify nationally and internationally. With the favourites gone in the women’s event, Germany’s Angelique Kerber becomes the gold prospect. In the men’s there is more than one on even grounds. Del Potro certainly could be considered to have an equal chance with Andy Murray. There are others like Croatian Marin Cilic, Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Spain’s Nadal, and Belgium’s David Goffin.
Rio Survives
The beautiful hard courts of Barra have not shown any peculiarity that could be considered to assist one player in particular. Most of the South American players are clay court specialists.
Rio Olympics did cast many doubts but as we see, it has survived well. WADA’s action on top athletes for cheating has given hope to sports to reach new heights. Good athletes who opted to keep away did lose something. It confirms the Athenian Olympic flame will not get extinguished after the Rio Olympics but will grow.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. georgepaldano@yahoo.com