Wk.29- Mayer Sails Maiden Voyage into Top 30

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

There is a phrase used in sporting circles. It is especially heard in British soccer where certain teams with a long period of dominance used it. It means right now we suck but we have not always stunk and there will again come a time when we will not stink. The Boston Celtics, Pittsburgh Steelers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Knicks, White Sox and Marlins are all good examples of this adage. This is that saying:



There have always been four nations at the heart of tennis. In a nice symmetry, they each got a slam. Yes, they are the four nations who have generated the most players, the nations who usually have multiple female and male players in the upper echelons.

From Pierce to Davenport to Court to Murray to Laver to Wade to Leconte to Henman to Mauresmo to Stosur to Tsonga to Sampras to Rosewall to Connors to Lloyd to Agassi to Goolagong [Cawley] to McEnroe to Emerson to Smith to Teacher to Noah to Gerulaitis to Newcombe to Courier to Tauziat to Seles to Reid to Barker to Navratilova to Ashe to Rusedski to Rafter to Roddick to Cash to Bartoli to the Williams sisters to Mandlikova to Capriati to Julie Halard-Decugis to the Bryans to Grosjean and to Hewitt.

Yes I have missed out some and, yes, I didn’t really even touch on doubles. But my point is obvious and it stands. These four nations have been there and they have dominated. Yes, of course there have been challengers and they have even stuck around for a while. But few have managed to stick around for a while in both the men’s and women’s games. Spain has managed it and so have Switzerland. The Czechs, too, and the Germans have managed sustained challenges. The Russians are worth a mention, spearheaded by a brother-sister team. Argentina has also challenged in both, as has Italy. These nations have come and gone, however. But the "big four" could not be dominant forever. Yes, their stranglehold looks as if it is slipping, but since the turn of this decade [2010] ten slams out of thirty-four have been won by players from those four countries. There is still a presence, albeit a faint one.

Talking specifically about men’s tennis, in the past fifteen years the hold has weakened. Australian and British tennis has declined whilst since the turn of the decade American tennis has declined, if possible, even more rapidly. French tennis has been in no-man’s land for the past thirty years. It has been neither here nor there; sometimes very good, but always very frustrating. Now, though, a promising crop of Australian and British young talent is coming through. The French as always, have a conveyer belt of mid-level players with a ridiculous, selfish amount of talent but with a baffling lack of success. The Americans are down but they, too, have talent coming through. Australia’s Tomic and the ‘Special K’s’ are here. For the first time in a long while the Australians have swept the men’s doubles and singles in tournaments in back to back weeks. Hewitt is literally passing the baton. He has stuck around long enough to outlive a whole generation of pretty much non-existent Aussie talent and then bought in a second generation. I think that Australian tennis is going to swiftly become a powerhouse carried by the likes of Saville, Kubler, Sanders, Kokkinakis, Tomic, and Barty to name but a few.

But enough of my talking. Stuff happened this week.




*WEEK 29 CHAMPIONS*
HAMBURG, GERMANY
S: Leonardo Mayer d. David Ferrer 6-7(3)/6-1/7-6(4)
D: Draganja/Mergea d. Peya/Soares
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
S: Bernard Tomic d. Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5)/3-6/7-6(4)
D: Groth/Guccione d. Barrientos/Cabal


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: BERNARD TOMIC, AUS
...The courts changing from clay to hard no doubt helped him. It helped him to win and it helped him to move 54 places in the rankings, back up to 70. It seems he is trying to outdo Kyrgios. They have two contrasting styles and two contrasting careers so far. Tomic is a press favorite, Kyrgios the anonymous one. You would’ve had to have been paying attention to see Kyrgios coming but with Tomic the sound of the hurricane alerted us. Here is one of my favorite Tomic related articles.

But that is enough of Tomic’s fabulous hat. I have a Boston Red Sox hat which I love and would happily talk about. I also have a Roger Federer hat which I would just love to talk on and on about. I am not here to talk about the exciting world of hats, sadly. I am here to talk about what goes on in the mysterious and intriguing ATP tour. And nobody is more mysterious than Tomic. Tomic is the one who talks the talk but cannot necessarily walk the walk. Tomic is the one who is a world-beater in January but as soon as we move away from his homeland [and mine] suddenly starts to struggle. He struggled, too, here in Colombia. Title-less since winning in Sydney [Sydney and Boston are probably my two favorite cities] Tomic came in unseeded and in bad form. If you aren’t seeded in a tournament where the fifth seed is ranked outside the top fifty either you’re injured, out of form or you’re playing at my kind of standard. Tomic opened up by easing past Dustov 6-3/6-3. The Uzbeki number two did not quite have enough game to prevail this time. Tomic landed the fifth seed himself, Colombian Falla, but was not troubled. He cruised through the first set 6-1 before Alejandro began to find some answers. The second set went to a breaker but Tomic won it handily 7-2. Next up for the young Aussie was Pospisil. Pospisil has just begun to find form and he would surely trouble Tomic. Apparently not. Tomic needed just two breaks to seal it 6-4/6-4. Next he faced Estrella Burgos and won after exchanging three breakers with the Dominican number one. Then he beat Karlovic in another third set breaker. In two finals he has beaten two big servers. Clearly he knows how to diffuse them. Tomic will start the US Open trail with a bit of form, which is always a positive.
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RISER: DAVID FERRER, ESP
...I have resigned myself to the fact I will be talking about Spaniards a lot. Basically Ferrer has sort of righted the ship. He has improved from two disappointing slam campaigns and has also, you feel, gotten back a bit of form. One feels now that he can use this to gain confidence and move on from there. He should not play so many events, but that’s none of my business, as Kermit would say.
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SURPRISE: LEONARDO MAYER, ARG
...Mayer is a journeyman and a good one at that, a solid one at that. He has been a Davis cup stalwart and has missed just two slams since the 2009 French Open. This year he has had a career best performance at all three of the slams we have had so far. If he achieves his seeding at the US Open he will make it four. He has more than 2 million dollars in prize money and also has a doubles title, back home in Argentina. He has showed the depth of men’s tennis in the past two slams. He has showed how somebody ranked as low as he is can do well in a slam. He made the third round of the French and then played the highest level he could against Rafa. He lost the second set 7-5 and that was a pretty strong showing but, really, he was dismissed. Then he goes to Wimbledon and he makes the fourth round before being dismissed again. It’s clear he is not at the level of the top players but he is at the level of the top thirty players. He is having a banner year and, after losing in Chile in the final in February, he has finally won his first title. Not seeded here, he defeated Gojowczyk with ease 6-3/6-2. Perhaps the firepower the German has was diluted by the clay. Next Mayer won two breakers to come through against Garcia-Lopez. Impressively he only dropped four points in those breakers. Next he beat Thiem [the talented future of Austrian tennis] 6-3/6-2. In dismantling Lajovic 6-1/7-5 he had reached the semifinals, having lost zero sets. He was too tough for Kohl, winning 7-5/6-4. And then he beat Ferru in an epic match, 6-7/6-1/7-6. I think he may be the only person to have figured out how to out-grind Ferrer on clay. Kudos needs to be given to Mayer, the Argentine number two. His first ever title was at 500 level. No wonder his fast rise up the rankings. He is up from 46 to 27, 19 places. If he wins a 250, he will be looking at the top twenty, though his view will be from just outside. Win another 500? The top fifteen awaits…
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FRESH FACE: ALEXANDER ZVEREV, GER
...A top junior, Zverev appears to be making the transition smoothly. He won the junior Aussie Open this year as the top seed. He beat the second seed 6-3/6-0. He has looked very good for a while but sometimes junior success does not translate. Monfils is a good example. He won three junior slams. How many senior slams? Exactly. Edberg was a set away from winning the junior and senior grand slam. Zverev finally showed us how good he can be at this level with a sterling performance. His backhand proved to be a particularly strong shot, especially as a key part of his rather loopy game. He plays very loosely and he moves with so much grace. He also plays fearlessly it seems and the spin he manages to generate is incredible. He dismissed Haase [a good player in his own right] 6-0/6-2, which nobody seemed to pay much attention to. He made us all sit up and take notice, however, when he beat Youzhny 7-5/7-5 in round two. He beat Giraldo in straight sets to follow up with on his win over the fifth seed. He also beat Giraldo in two tight sets [7-6/7-5] but struggled against Kamke. He showed real grit, however, to win in three tight sets. He dropped a bagel in that match but recovered to win anyway. And, yes, he got blown away by Ferrer, but we can forgive him that.
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VETERAN: VICTOR ESTRELLA BURGOS, DOM
...He has bloomed at age 33 into a top 60 player. The Dominican Republic is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The capital is called Santo Domingo and there are not quite ten million people who live there. Baseball is the chief sport and people do the meringue. They have probably never heard of Bryan Ferry, nor Earth, Wind and Fire. They have had to take independence from both Spain and Haiti [who live next door] but not America despite the fact the yanks are very close -- two hours away by plane. Most importantly, though, David Ortiz was born there. He has made the Red Sox stink just a little less. And believe me they have stunk this season. But, anyway, it is from this paradise that VEB hails. And he does bring a fresh approach to a tennis court. I watched him play at Queens. He is very physically striking and you notice him immediately. He beat Benneteau at Queens by being deceptively good. He honestly does not look like a lot until you see him play. He has a very solid and effective game style. It disrupts an opponent’s rhythm and it also doesn’t seem to go wrong. He is using it to climb slowly up the rankings.
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DOWN: FABIO FOGNINI, ITA
...No, not Gasquet. Yes, the Frenchman is playing poorly but Fognini is playing, if possible, even worse. He lost, as defending champion, in his first match. He also lost to a player outside the top hundred who had to qualify to get into the tournament. An inexperienced opponent, moreover, with no top twenty wins and, probably, no top thirty wins. Fognini lost to this player 6-4/6-0. Yes you heard that right -- four and love. He also karate-kicked his racket and broke it during the match. This guy is now playing like Gonzalez except without the firepower [but nobody has his firepower anymore, so this is excusable] and with the passion. Fognini needs to see a sports shrink. Is that a real thing? If it is he needs to go to one. He knows how to hit all the shots, he just needs to know when to use them. I miss Gonzo. That forehand used to scare even me when I was only watching. Fognini scares me but not with his shot-making. His antics are childish and ridiculous but he has not gone too far. Well, not yet anyway.
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UPSET: HAMBURG, GERMANY
...Seed death can be fun. Who remembers Wimbledon’s Whacky Wednesday last year? One expects the seeds to crumble at a WTA event but surely not at an ATP event. I love the WTA. I think both tours are great but some of the top players are susceptible to upsets -- Errani, Kerber, Li, Radwanska and Stosur are all great examples. Heck, why not throw in Serena and Sharapova, too? In the ATP the top seeds usually fare better. Not so in Hamburg. A great number lost one of their first two matches. Most lost in very tight three setters or straight sets. Both are hard to deal with, mentally speaking. Verdasco [9] lost to Brown in a third set breaker in the second round. He led by a set but lost 10-8 in that final set breaker. Fourth seeded Dolgopolov lost 7-5 in the third to Kamke in the third round. Kamke had beaten thirteenth seed Delbonis the round before. Youzhny [5] lost to a seventeen year old in the first round. A seventeen year old who had never won an ATP match before. Robredo [3] fell to Rosol in straight sets in round three. Granollers [8], Garcia-Lopez [10], Berlocq [15] and Fognini [2] all lost in the first round in that bottom quarter. Granollers at least pushed Thiem to three before falling. Hamburg’s top seed did do quite well, but the amount of seeds that lost in the first three days was rather alarming.
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1. BOGOTA SF - TOMIC d. ESTRELLA BURGOS 7-6/6-7/7-6
BOGOTA FINAL -
TOMIC D. KARLOVIC 7-6/3-6/7-6
...Tomic has really started to work on his serve. The last two matches he played help to push him up to 167 aces for the year. He has played just 20 matches. He is hitting eight aces a match and that is pretty strong going. Karlovic averages easily 17 aces a match. Still Tomic found a way to get past the mean lean serving machine. The Aussie did struggle against Burgos but found a way. He overcame two tough matches to win his second title. Tomic is hitting form at just the right time. He has nothing to defend and a couple of deep runs at the right tournaments and he is back in the top fifty again. He becomes the first Australian man to win in South America since Rosewall in 1968.
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2. HAMBURG FINAL - MAYER d. FERRER
...6-7/6-1/ 7-6. This was another tight final and another match which asks the question, "Where is David Ferrer?" Mayer had two breaks in the first set but could not capitalize. His time would come. Despite being broken whilst serving for it in the third set he came back to win. He demoted Ferru to a finals record of 21-23. Mayer is consistently solid but also possesses weapons and he used these to shock Ferrer. Mayer reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and has now backed that up with a title. It now looks like Mayer is going to be a low seed at the US Open. This final is reflective of his strong form over the past couple of months.
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3. BOGOTA QF - ESTRELLA BURGOS d. GASQUET
...6-3/6-4. This is disappointing. Gasquet should not lose this match. He should not be losing any kind of match like this. It is very poor from the experienced Frenchman. He needs to work on his comeback from injury a bit more.
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4. HAMBURG QF - ZVEREV d. KAMKE
...0-6/7-5/6-3. Two German wildcards played each other for the right to face Ferrer in the semifinal. Neither had been in a quarterfinal on the ATP this year and the stakes were high. In the end, Zverev’s power was too much for the more experienced German. Both had knocked out two seeds but it would be the seventeen year old who would advance to the semifinal.
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*GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND*
=SF=
Garcia-Lopez [3] d. [1] Youzhny
Thiem [8] d. [2] Granollers
=FINAL=
Garcia-Lopez [3] d. [8] Thiem

...Thiem has a serious opportunity here. A questionable Verdasco and an inconsistent Granollers are all that stand in his way. If he plays his best the final surely awaits. As for GGL, he is very good on clay with a great draw. So why not?

*ATLANTA, USA*
=SF=
Isner [1] d. [3] Monfils
Anderson [2] d. [9] Querrey
=FINAL=
Isner [1] d. [2] Anderson

...Out of the last ten years, we have had eight American winners. Combine that with Isner’s great US record and the fact the American has been on form and that is reason enough for me. Expect breakers in this rematch from last year.

*UMAG, CROATIA*
=SF=
Fognini [1] d. [6] Seppi
Cilic [3] d. [2] Robredo
=FINAL=
Fognini [1] d. [3] Cilic

...An Italian semifinal sounds good. Seppi has a do-able draw. Cilic will find hot form but eventually be outdone by someone who knows clay better than he does.

Thanx all and visit WTABACKSPIN please.

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