Mugurusa and Zverev win finals
Along with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic was the third reckoning force of men’s tennis in the past decade. Much is said about the return of Federer and Nadal, I think they have concluded their carrier in terms of being in the top five. Their appearance will be an attraction to any event, but their performance will not shine. They graced the global tennis arenas leaving a trail of appealing good memories.
In the ATP final in Turin Italy last week, the younger players Zevrev and Medvedev played the final. Zevrev got the better of Medvedev, I would say with some ease. The awaited Djokovic final did not materialised. Djokovic lost to Zverev in the semi-finals. This is the Djokovic’s third loss to Zevrev. The total prize money in Turin was US$ 7 million and the tennis was refreshing to those present and to the global audiences.
2021 Tennis
Contemporary dominance in tennis need three very demanding aspects. First out-lasting the opponent in number of rallies to compile games and sets. The second is the execution big serve, punishing returns and to hit a winner from all positions of the court. Third is to outrun the opponent mentally. The third factor is most difficult acquire and often is the deciding factor in competition tennis. A tennis match can be forty minutes to four hours long. This feature is unique only to games like tennis.
WTA final in Mexico
WTA concluded its year’s finals just a few days before ATP, in their new venue Guadalajara. WTA title went Garbine Mugurusa, which surprised many. By any scale of measurement, Mugurusa is a capable and a complete player. Her partnership with former Spanish number one Conchita Matinez as her manager for the past few years has steadily taken her back into the top of the ranking.
In Mexico Mugurusa had the company of another Spanish player in the draw, Paula Badosa. These two faced each other in the knockout semi-finals in a rare all Spanish affair. They went into the match with Badosa as the favourite to win. Both are just short of six feet in height, their athletics and stoke making ability to accommodate professional need is well proven. In that match, Mugurusa came out flawless. In an error free power play, Mugurusa walked out of the match as the winner. The tennis was attractive and appealing. Badosa is a new comer to the Top 10 of the ranking. She as a top junior won the French Open junior title. This year she won the Indian Wells title. This was her first appearance in the WTA final.
The final of the WTA was between Mugurusa and Kontaveit. Aniet Kontaveit is from Estonia, the second Baltic States player to appear in the Top 10. First was Osterpenko of Latvia. Kontaveit’s late performance placed her into the Top 10. Up to reaching the finals of the WTA final in Mexico, Kontaveit lost her service only four times. However, in the final Mugurusa broke her service five times. This means Kontaveit broke Mugurusa’s service game twice.
This year saw some new comers into the top ten. Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, Iga Swiatek of Poland, Maria Zakkari of Greece, Kreichikova of Check Republic and Paula Badosa of Spain. This is very nearly amounts to change of guards in full force.
Doubles resurfacing
In the past few decades, singles dominated tennis interest of the world. Last few years, has seen a change to this. Both the professional bodies of the world had bought the game of doubles back to the main stream of global interest. Still it is played in an abbreviated scoring system where the third set is a long tie-break.
Year-end doubles final
Most of the players in doubles today are past singles players. The four players in Women’s Doubles finals are past/present singles players. Katerina Sinniakova and Barbora Kreijcikova won the title beating S. Hsieh and Elina Mertens. WTA past record shows three of them to be winners of reputed singles titles in the past.
The Men’s Doubles had the same features in player record. Herbert and Mahut of France beat Salisbury of England and Ram of USA.
A very tough year
To the Men ATP and women WTA are the promotional live wire of global tennis. This year was difficult, in fact very difficult to sustain the momentum. Most of the events did not show growth. By midyear, players, tournament officials, schedule, and venues were tired and confused. Many players were victim of the virus. The show went on placing the faith on the effectiveness of the available vaccine. Not only WTA and ATP and ITF, but national bodies too did the best they could to stage their events.
Tournaments are the expression to show a sport is alive. Exposure of players to the virus during the tournament will be lingering danger to the players for years to come. Professionals not only interact on the field by also have to live and travel in groups to events.
When it came to spectators, popular sports at first did it without spectators and in the past few months with the vaccines, stadiums were seen full. The returning waves of the virus as numerous variant is still very irksome.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Accredited Coach of German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis-Cup, Federation-Cup; coached top 200 ATP,WTA and ITF top 50. — 077 544 8880.