STUART FRASER
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TALKING BALLS 051 – TUESDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2011
Tennis heads to Asia
For some, there may be a feeling that the tennis season is all but
over after the US Open, the final grand slam of the year, concluded
last month with Novak Djokovic claiming victory.
But while there may be no more major titles to win this year, there
is still plenty to play for as the tour heads to Asia where lots of
points are up for grabs, which is of particular importance to those
looking to secure a place at the ATP World Tour Finals in London
next month.
The Asian swing is a period of the season which can often throw up a
few shock results, as well as withdrawals and retirements due to
injury and fatigue.
A glance at the China Open’s entry list this week highlights this.
The top three seeds –Djokovic, Robin Soderling and Gael
Monfils – all pulled out beforehand which would have been a hammer
blow to those who run the tournament in Beijing.
Djokovic’s back injury, which he sustained during Serbia’s Davis Cup
semi-final loss to Argentina last month, looks set to also rule him
out of next week’s Shanghai Masters, a tournament in which Roger
Federer has already withdrawn to “rest and recuperate”.
Juan Martin Del Potro has also withdrawn from Shanghai as part of
his plan to be in top shape for Argentina’s Davis Cup Final against
Spain in December. He
will play three consecutive weeks, starting later this month, in
Vienna, Valencia and Paris, and with it, has significantly
diminished his chances of qualifying for London next month.
The absence of many top players inevitably demeans the importance of
the Asian swing to some extent, but it offers a great chance for
others to pick up some ranking points, although they will still have
Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray to contend with, both of whom have made
the lengthy trip from Europe and look in fine shape, as you would
expect.
Nadal opened up his Asian campaign at the Japan Open today and the
top seed eased past home hope Go Soeda in a 6-3 6-2 win.
The Spaniard arrived in Tokyo from Taiwan where he had taken part in
an exhibition match last week with David Ferrer, something which
understandably further raised eyebrows amongst those who are already
unhappy with the players’ complaints about the schedule being too
long.
That is a discussion for another week though.
In fact, the players’ meeting on the subject, which was due
to take place in Shanghai next week, is now in doubt due to the
absence of Federer and the likely withdrawal of Djokovic.
Murray has opted to play three consecutive weeks of tournaments in
Asia this year – Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai.
A decision which seemed rather strange at first, but made
perfect sense when he explained that he was playing Bangkok in order
to help get over the jet lag a bit sooner, having struggled in
previous years.
It was a perfect start for Murray in Thailand last week as he won
his 19th ATP Tour singles title in fine fashion.
The Scot was in great form all week and impressed with his
high first serve percentage, aggressive intent from the baseline and
consistent application.
I heard someone unfairly and misguidedly describe the Thailand Open,
an ATP 250 event, as a “diddy tournament”.
It is true that it may not rank high on Murray’s list of
achievements at the end of his career, but it will have provided him
with a sense of satisfaction and, crucially, confidence to take into
further tournaments.
It’s a busy period for Murray who is now in Tokyo, not just for
singles, but also for doubles with elder brother Jamie.
The pair got off to a fine start, winning their first round
match against Pablo Andujar and Milos Raonic, and will fancy their
chances against the local wild card pairing of Tatsuma Ito and Kei
Nishikori in the quarter-finals.
Andy will be desperate to help out Jamie who has a large number of
ranking points to defend between now and the end of the season.
The fact the Japan Open is an ATP 500 event means that it is
a great opportunity to rack up some of these crucial points.
But while Andy will hope to do his brother a favour, his main focus
will be the singles in which he gets his campaign underway tomorrow
in a testing first round match against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis,
last week’s runner-up in Kuala Lumpur, who has a 3-1 head-to-head
record over the Scot.
As the second seed, Murray is the clear favourite though and will be
hoping for another good week, perhaps another title win, to help him
achieve his goal of finishing the year as the world No.3 ahead of
Federer.
And with the Swiss not due in action again until the ATP 500 event
in his hometown of Basel at the end of the month, it’s a fair bet
that Murray will do just that, although Federer, being the
competitive great that he is, will no doubt have other ideas.
Who said the tennis season was over?
More success for British juniors
It has been a tremendous period recently for Britain’s junior boys,
culminating with victory in the Junior Davis Cup in Mexico at the
weekend.
Captained by Greg Rusedski, the trio of Luke Bambridge, Kyle Edmund
and Evan Hoyt – all aged 16 – put in an impressive performance from
start to finish to live up to Great Britain’s top seeding by winning
the event for the first time in its 26-year history.
This is one of junior tennis’s most prestigious competitions.
Rafael Nadal won the event with Spain in 2002 and Andy
Roddick, Roger Federer and Marat Safin have all turned out for their
respective countries in years gone by.
It is yet another sign that all is rosy with Britain’s junior
players after 18-year-old Oliver Golding won the US Open Boys’ title
last month, with his compatriots, Edmund and George Morgan, also
reaching the semi-finals.
What struck me as I watched, on a grainy online Facebook stream, the
closing moments of Kyle Edmund’s decisive win against his Italian
opponent in the final on Sunday was the manner in which he closed
his victory out.
There was no sign of any nerves or tightness as the youngster served
out a 6-3 6-4 victory in confident fashion.
Judging by all accounts, that is the manner in which the
British juniors performed all week which bodes well.
Rusedski is doing a great job as a mentor to Britain’s young
players. His positive
thoughts and enthusiasm is clearly rubbing off on them and they all
speak highly of the impact he has had.
When speaking to Jonny O’Mara, the young Scot who was a part of the
British team, also captained by Rusedski, which won the Tennis
Europe Winter Cup in February, he enthused about the inspiration he
had gained from working with the former world No.4.
A man of Rusedski’s experience knows though that this is only the
beginning for this young group of Brits.
There is many a player in the past who has showed promise at
a young age, only to fail to fulfil it.
The transition to the senior game is the critical stage.
The most encouraging thing about the British junior success
recently is that it appears we will have a number of players all
pushing each other on as they make these crucial steps forward.
More public courts needed
The recent launch of the new public courts at Brodie Park in Paisley
brought to my attention an alarming situation across Scotland.
I couldn’t quite believe it when someone told me that, until the new
facility in Paisley was opened just over a fortnight ago, there were
no courts to play on in Scotland’s second largest town with a
population of around 74,000.
What was more staggering was what I discovered when researching the
amount of public courts in some of Scotland’s other big towns.
Some large towns did not have any courts.
Some had very few.
Others had courts lying in a state of disrepair.
All this at a time when we should be taking full advantage of the
Andy Murray boom. We
have such a great opportunity to grow the sport at this time, yet we
do not have enough places to play in some of our biggest towns for
those who want to give tennis a try.
The lack of indoor courts in Scotland also comes to the fore as we
approach winter. The
LTA and Tennis Scotland assure us they are working on resolving
these issues. Let us
hope so before it is too late.
If you want to read more on this, check out my piece in last week’s
Herald which includes quotes from Judy Murray and David Marshall,
Chief Executive of Tennis Scotland:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/other-sports-news/scottish-tennis-is-court-short-1.1126061
You may have to register to see the full story, but it only takes a
minute plus it’s free and worth it as the Herald covers tennis
in-depth throughout the year.
On a similar theme, BBC Scotland’s David McDaid has also produced an
excellent feature on participation and facilities in the country
which is well worth a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/15157461.stm
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