Tennis News

For a guy who missed the first 11 weeks of the season with an arm injury, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is sure looking comfortable on the court these days. Following an impressive 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 win over a resurgent Rafael Nadal at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, the Frenchman is into his second final in a span of three weeks.

Credit Tsonga’s ability to stay mostly healthy since returning to the ATP World Tour in March. That and a renewed sense of confidence.

“I’m really happy to work hard because I know I can count on my body,” said Tsonga, who’s into his 22^nd tour-level final (12-9). “It’s something great for me because it was not always like this. Today I’m a lot stronger than I was maybe a few years ago.”

The Metz champion has indeed had his fair share of injuries since his pro debut in 2004. In 2006, he was limited to eight events due to back and abdominal issues. Not long after reaching the one and only Grand Slam final of his career, at the 2008 Australian Open (l. to Novak Djokovic), the 6-foot-2 right-hander seemed to battle one ailment after another. A right knee injury later that year would sideline him for three months and require surgery. There have since been hip, back and knee injuries. But for the moment Tsonga has put all that behind him, his sole focus now winning the 13^th ATP World Tour title of his career.

“He’s a very enthusiastic player. He feeds on the energy of the crowd a lot. He’s very powerful, big serve,” said Djokovic, the man who stands between Tsonga and his second title of 2015. “I think his game heavily relies on the serve. If he has a high first‑serve percentage, he’s managing to get some free points there. Then he’s dangerous.”

Tsonga, now 30-13 on the abbreviated year, makes no secret of the fact that he likes the speedy hard courts at the Qizhong Tennis Center, where he has twice reached the semi-finals or better.

“This surface is one of my favorites,” he said. “I know I’m able to play good tennis.”

If he’s going to upset the World No. 1 Djokovic, a player against whom he’s 6-13 in FedEx ATP Head2Head matchups, and one who has yet to drop a set this week, he’ll need to pull out all the stops. But as he showed against Nadal in his fifth Top-10 win of 2015, he’ll put his body on the line if he has to. During the third set of that semi-final showdown, Tsonga executed an acrobatic diving volley to set up his first match point.

“For me, it was today or never,” he reflected on the play. “At the moment you see the ball a little bit far. You know it’s going to be difficult to stay on your feet. You just go. You don’t think about anything at this moment. Just to try to catch the ball. That’s what I did. It worked.”

By reaching the Shanghai final, Tsonga has jumped from No. 15 to No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Race to London. With a title, he would add 400 more points and move within 545 points of No. 8 David Ferrer. The Top 8 players on Nov. 9 move on to the year-end Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nov. 15-22.

Novak Djokovic was at his best on Saturday, cruising into the Shanghai Rolex Masters final with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 victory over Andy Murray.

Djokovic reached the final in his seventh consecutive ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, extending his overall winning streak to 16 straight matches and 20 consecutive sets won. The Serb sets a final clash against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Sunday, with a third Shanghai crown in sight. He previously prevailed in 2012 (d. Murray) and 2013 (d. Del Potro).

“It’s the best match of the tournament at the right time against a player who was in form and one of my biggest rivals,” Djokovic reflected. “He’s a player I lost to a couple months ago in the Montreal final. Obviously there was a lot at stake. Whenever we play against each other, it’s always exciting. It’s always a huge challenge. But I was ready. I came in from the very first point with the right intensity, played great, on a very high level.

“I had a very high first-serve percentage throughout the entire match. He had a very low one. I think that also made a difference in terms of the scoreline.”

The World No. 1 applied significant pressure on Murray from the start. The Scot staved off a pair of break points in the opening game of the match, but Djokovic would not be denied two games later, breaking for 2-1 and never looking back. In a dominant display of baseline aggression, he would reel off 24 of the next 27 points to capture the first set in a mere 25 minutes. Murray was victimised by 17 unforced errors in the opener, but looked poised to make it a competitive affair after securing an immediate break to begin the second set.

Murray’s lead would be short lived, however, as a double fault in the next game would hand the break back and Djokovic would surge to the finish line. The Serb laced a backhand down the line to punctuate the 68-minute win. He fired five aces and converted on five of eight break chances in total.

Djokovic carries a 13-6 FedEx ATP Head2Head edge against Tsonga. The Frenchman turned in a brilliant display in relinquishing just four games in the third round of last year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Toronto. He would go on to claim his second Masters 1000 title (d. Federer) and will be hoping for similar success against the top seed on Sunday.

Victory would bring Djokovic’s Masters 1000 title haul to 25, pulling him to within two of Rafael Nadal’s record. The Serb is currently tied with Roger Federer for second place on the list. Appearing in his 83rd tour-level final, he is also bidding to claim his 58th title.

“It was tough,” said Murray. “I’m obviously disappointed with the way I played. I served poorly in the first set especially. You can’t afford to do that against Novak with the way he’s playing just now, the amount of confidence he has in his game, and the conditions over here. You have to do better than that.

“I made it extremely difficult for myself. I just couldn’t get myself in it. Even the second set, got that break at the beginning and was hoping to kick on a little bit. Just didn’t serve well at all tonight. It was tough.”

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Maybe the biggest challenge for the tennis players participating in the Vietnam Open in Ho Chi Minh this week is just crossing the street. Players who are here for the first time are amazed at how many motor scooters fill wide avenues and seem to flow in unison like a slow moving tidal wave with no apparent traffic plan.

Not many ATP Challenger events have retractable roofs on center court but they do here at the Lah Anh Country Club.  We are nearing the end of the rainy season and monsoons sweep in from South China Sea bringing heavy rains and a suffocating blanket of humidity that is causing havoc for the Europeans. On court trash bins are stuffed with soaked grip tape, and Flavio Cipolla told me after getting past Luke Saville that at times he struggled just to keep the racquet in his hand during the point.

Drinking coffee seems to be the Vietnamese national past time. All day and late into the night coffee shops are packed with locals sitting in low slung chairs or on plastic squat stools. What a pleasure it is to sit and drink thick cups of coffee while people-watching. Ladies shine in their traditional colourful silk ao dai dresses, and farmers come in from long days in the fields wearing the conical bamboo hat. Everywhere you go in Ho Chi Minh you will see red flags with the five-pointed gold star, or smaller red flags with the yellow hammer and sickle symbolising the industrial and agricultural industries.

The care factor of tournament director, Long Le Hoang, and his staff is evident in the little details that add up to make a fine event. Hoang brought in an experienced coach in Michael Baroch, who runs a successful tennis school in Singapore and his daughter, Mikaylie. They have shown great Aussie work ethic by jumping in and carrying towels, water and even laundry bags to the players. Speaking of the little things that add up to save the players money are; airport pick-up, free buffet food for lunch and dinner, and free stringing for players using a particular brand of racquet.

On the practice courts you see which players are most committed to their craft. Young Duckhee Lee of South Korea has risen fast, but he and his team know the weakest part of his game is his serve. After losing in the first round, I saw him back on the practice court with a box of balls to work on his serve. I have no doubt he will improve it immediately.

Two other players here that I have really enjoyed watching this week; Stephane Robert and Laurent Rochette. Though they both lost in the qualifying rounds you would not know it by the amount of time they have spent on court each day.  All week, Robert and Rochette are the first players to arrive in the morning and the last ones to leave at night. They feed balls to each other for specific drill sessions in the early morning, warm up players during the day, and play practice sets at night under the lights.

Robert reached an Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 61 in 2010, and has qualified for all four Grand Slams, reaching the Australian Open round of 16 in 2014. Just last year, Robert was ranked No. 75 but injuries and loss of match confidence took their toll and his ranking plummeted. This year, Robert qualified for Roland Garros at the age of 35.

“I think next year is probably my last,” says Robert. “It has been a long journey and a lot of things have happened in my head through this wonderful experience. When I started my career I never expected to do some of the things that I have done. I have found an inner peace with myself and I can walk away knowing that I gave my best.”

Now, Robert is helping to share some of those experiences with good friend, Laurent Rochette. Both players have lost a lot of playing time due to illness and injury. They know all too well the frustration of having to start over. For Rochette, several of his injuries came because of his intense desire and work ethic. Twice he broke bones on the court while diving for balls.

“Stephane is the only tennis player that I can share what is really deep in my heart,” confesses Rochette. “He has helped me in many ways and not just by training together. He has helped me with the importance of calmness of how to get it by breathing, on and off the court; he helped me how to connect it outside and inside the court. And he is showing by example, which is just as important.”

With all the talk about ‘smart tennis technology’ today it is nice to see some good old fashion tennis IQ in real time. And that is just what Daniel Nguyen of Oxnard, California, USA did in his second-round match here. Nguyen showed off his ability to think quickly on his feet and counter the heavy hitting Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras with soft slices across the court and deft forehand and backhand sliders up the line. The effect was cumulative as it forced the Menendez-Maceiras to hit one, two and even three more balls per point. All of which took its toll as high humidity levels slowly drained the fight from the more experienced Spaniard.

Menendez-Maceiras battled to win the second set, however the damage was done and he had nothing left in the tank as Nguyen ran away with the third set 6-1. The Vietnamese crowd considers Nguyen a local and the atmosphere was enthusiastic to say the least. Sport fans who came to watch may not know all the rules and finer points of tennis etiquette such as cheering during the point and clapping at double faults, but they sure appreciated a good David and Goliath battle. 

The early 2016 ATP Challenger calendar came out recently and many of the players are excited about the three new Challengers added in January: two in Bangkok and one in Manila. And it’s not just the players who are excited: I rode back in a shuttle with two umpires who spoke about having more work now. This is the trickle-down effect of having more ATP events in Asia that spurs tennis development. Yes, it is good for the players, but it is equally good for those coaches, umpires, linesmen, and others who work in the tennis industry. Not to mention the next Kei Nishikori or Duckhee Lee, who might be standing along the fence watching Stephane Robert and Laurent Rochette hitting tennis balls.

With his speedy 6-2, 6-1 victory over No. 4-ranked Stan Wawrinka in Shanghai on Friday, Rafael Nadal notched his 300th career ATP Masters 1000 win (300-62), and now trails only Roger Federer (326-95) in that category.

When it comes to winning percentage at the ATP Masters 1000 events, Nadal (.828) is ahead of both Novak Djokovic (.817) and Federer (.774) on the all-time honor rolls.

But the Spaniard isn’t getting too caught up in the numbers these days. Having endured his first Slam-less campaign in more than a decade, and still seeking his first ATP Masters 1000 title of 2015, it’s all about progress, about measurable match-to-match improvement.

When the Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finalist was asked if his results this week might serve as a breakthrough in an otherwise tough year for the 27-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, Nadal was quick to dismiss any short-term thinking.

“I don’t believe in drastic changes,” he cautioned. “One week is not going to change everything. I don’t believe that’s going to happen, especially for me. What I believe in is playing weeks in a row at a solid level, and that’s what I feel I am doing better and better. The important feeling is that you are practising well. I am enjoying it. I don’t have the problems that I had during the whole year in terms of controlling of my emotions on court. That’s allowed me to enjoy the practices, the competition.  I’m happy for that. I have the motivation to keep going.”

It wasn’t the first time during the Asian swing that the 29-year-old had referenced his on-court emotions. In Beijing, he confided that after many months of struggling with them, he was just beginning to play with a sense of calm again, “something that has been very difficult for me.” He later elaborated on the theme: “Not having control of my nerves or my emotion is like coming back from an injury. It’s not a physical injury, but a mental injury. And for me this is another challenge. I am working hard. I’ve never had such a long period of time without playing at the level that I wanted.”

All this comes as somewhat of a surprise. Fans have long relished the Mallorcan’s matadorian fist-pumps, but he has never been one to wear his heart on his sleeve in moments of doubt. If he’s been struggling on an emotional front, he’s sure done a good job of masking it.

“I think that’s a personal thing. Normally, I don’t like to talk about personal things,” he said. “I talk about my public things, and that’s a personal thing. But in terms of the work, trying to control your emotions, it’s something you need to work on every day.”

Beijing marked Nadal’s first hard-court final (l. to Djokovic) since Miami in 2014, and until this week he hadn’t defeated a Top-5 opponent in 16 months. Despite his assertion that he doesn’t prescribe to drastic changes, deep runs in back-to-back weeks in China show that he has indeed turned a corner of sorts and is now headed in the right direction.

“I am playing two weeks in a row in the final rounds. That’s a big improvement for me,” said Nadal, who’ll next face Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Shanghai semi-finals. “In terms of confidence, in terms of my level of tennis, I am playing better.  I’m very happy for that because I am working so hard every day, with the right energy, I believe.”

ATP MASTERS 1000 WIN LEADERS (since 1990)