The run ups to French-Open
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The run up championship events of Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome always gave a sense of what to expect at the Clay Court (CC) Grand-Slam of the year, the French-Open. The domineering player of the year, Federer, has been absent from all of them. The man who has shown his presence felt in these was Rafael Nadal. Rome saw an end to that too, last week, when he was beaten by Austrian Thiem in a power play game.
No.1 ranked Murray was not in any of the 4 finals, and No.2 Djokovic was once in Rome. In fact, their performances this year has to be termed as meager. In Rome, it was the 20-year-old German, Alexander Zverev, who stole the show. Djokovic was his victim in the finals. He is the 6th German to break into the world’s Top 10 in the ATP ranking.
Svitolina and Mladenovic
In the Women’s, the absence of Serena Williams, who will not play the rest of the year, and the appearance of Sharapova, is making the news. In the run up events, Sharapova is discovering how tough it is to come back, and is living off the mercy of ‘wild card’ entries. She is also discovering that her body is not ready for the high intensity game of the pro circuit. Good impressions came from France’s Mladenovic, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Romanian Halep and Spain’s Mugurusa. Svitolina won the Rome title. In the overall picture, all have displayed fatigue and no one has really dominated the CC run ups. Women’s No.1, Germany’s Kerber and the ‘Top-5’ player, Czech Republic’s Pliskova, are saddled with injuries.
Influencing the ranking
In the somewhat half-way mark of the year, the top end of the ranking has opened up, and the Queen and King to be at the end of the year has become anybody’s guess. To enable the younger to mature, the ATP has taken the bold step of changing the format of scoring for their Under-21 circuit. The change makes the Set to end at 4, with a difference of 2 games or, tiebreak at 3-3. The ATP has noticed that young players drop out and is now creating a platform to mature, without being burned out. They say that it is an experiment.
Even in the recent past, the much expected performance from Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and the Pole Jerzy Janowicz, did not materialise, after their great Wimbledon 2 years ago. It is the same in Women’s Tennis. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Swiss Belinda Bencic seem to fade away, rather than rising. The WTA and the ATP cannot go on if new infusion is failing. Most of the top ranked players are in their 30s. In a way, it is a factor that Tennis is losing its spectator appeal!
French-Open 2017
The main event of the French-Open began on May 22. Maria Sharapova was not given the wild card as speculation indicated and, one time big name Sara Errani did consider the qualifying rounds to enter the event. Djokovic separated himself from his team and prudently combined with former legend Andre Agassi, for assistance. Djokovic at 30 is desperate to find his form again. He feels that a man who won it, that is Agassi, is better than paper-qualified professionals to assist him now. He could be dead right here. All the same races cannot be won by changing the jockey; the horse ‘must’ run.
Rafael Nadal
The tight schedule of matches in the first week is not the only aspect for the organising committee. The current trend of entertaining the spectators has taken a serious turn, placing extra responsibility on the players. Big names are part of the off-court show for the fans at the venue. Almost every day of the first week is dedicated to a segment of fans.
Money
The prestigious Tennis events are the Grand Slams. The pioneering venues, London, Paris, New York and was Sydney. Australian-Open was moved to Melbourne few decades ago. The Slams have bigger ranking points, all players participate in the Grand-Slams, as they are made compulsory by the WTA and the ATP and, of course, the prize money to winners surpasses any others by a large margin. Only a handful of venues have a figure over US$ 5 million as prize money. The run up events only have strategic dates, not the same purse as the French-Open.
Total prize money in the French-Open 2017 played at Roland Garros in Paris, is Euros 32.7 million. Singles winners in both genders will take home Euros 2 million each. The First Round loser will get Euros 30,000. Even players in the qualifying rounds receive a minimum of Euros 3,000. Professional Tennis at the top end is very paying but, has an equal amount or more in expenses. Gunther Bosch the coach of Boris Becker says, in his book on Boris, how divided Boris’s parents were over their son’s career path. Mother opted for the academic route and the father went with the son for sport. Boris made it and today, with better distribution of money, the risk is a little less but, still a risk.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– geodano2015@gmail.com –