Wk.18- The Scottish Lion has Roared

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

Thank you for the cover last week, Todd. Sadly the right wing triumphed but it would be a even worse if the right wing of America won next year. But I digress.

Our trivia question ties in with the intro, as usual. So here it is.

What Paul McCartney song was at number one when Hana Mandlikova made her slam debut?
Well, I was wrong. Murray has broken the clay hoodoo. I thought he never would. So congratulations to him. I am quite impressed. He just beat Kohl in his backyard before defeating Nadal in his in a Masters, too. And with Nadal's collapse, that is big news. I get posed the question "where does Andy Murray stand with regards to the all-time greats?" frequently. So in a Backspin semi-special dedicated to Murray [who I try and fail to be nicer to on here] let us take a look at that question. What if Murray were compared to a player with a similar career arc?

Two men in fashionable, if a little cheap, suits walk into a restaurant in the run down district of town. This restaurant serves excellent iced coffee and is a favorite of the staff at Backspin HQ. These men always meet to debate topics. They have debated the greatest San Francisco team -- 49ers or Giants? They debated Bush or Kerry. Every Thursday at 2pm they arrive and they debate. Since the shop opened they have debated. They don’t book a table. There is no need. They just come and sit. Oftentimes they are the only customers. Their suits and their look has changed over the years, but they have aged quite well. Remarkably well, in fact.

This week the gentleman with the hat who doesn't like bow ties announces that it's time to return to tennis. They've been here before but this is different. This time they're discussing two players who have never been number one. The gentleman with the bow tie who eschews hats says I will make the case for Murray. The other gentleman sips his iced coffee, always with a shot of hazelnut, and says I think I will go for Hana. And so it begins once again.



GENTLEMAN WITH HAT: Four slams and four Davis Cup wins. World number three consistently despite having to contend with Navratilova, Evert and, later, Graf. Beat Navratilova in the 1985 U.S. Open final 7-6, 1-6, 7-6. Not a lot of drama with her. Eight slam finals here.

GENTELMAN SPORTING BOW TIE: Only two slams here but has been number two despite arriving in the heyday of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal. Beat Djokovic in five to win the U.S. Open. Ended the British Wimbledon drought. Eight finals for Murray, too. I admit you have the edge in the Fed/Davis cup. Murray will surpass her 12 years on the tour.

GWH: In those 12 years, Hana amassed 27 singles titles and 19 doubles crowns. She went 1-3 in doubles slam finals and was number six in doubles, too. She also made the final of every slam. Has beaten Evert and Navratilova in the same tournament. Mandlikova is 4-4 in slam finals. Murray is just 2-6. Murray has always struggled to do that. Has he ever beaten the top guys back to back in slam events?

GSBT: Mandlikova took the Australian twice when it was still grass. Murray has more titles than she does. He has 33 titles. And he may yet take number one. Murray is behind in finals by 51-49 but will overtake her. Let's not forget she has had some shaky losses. She lost in the second and fourth round of Wimbledon in 1982 and 1983. Both times Hana was a top eight seed and she lost badly in both. She lacked consistency.

GWH: Brave of you to bring up shaky losses. Murray has lost to Bogomolov Jr. He lost to Cilic at the U.S. Open in 2009. He was the second seed then. It was straight sets, too. A loss to Wawrinka as the fourth seed at the U.S. Open is also poor. Let's not forget his loss to Lee in 2007 or how poor he was in Paris against Berdych also in 2010. Mandlikova played better tennis.

GSBT: Murray has not missed a slam quarter for a long time. Mandlikova played more aggressive tennis, but Murray played more effective tennis. Murray won Wimbledon which Hana never did, and that is the most prestigious trophy.

GWH: But she did make the final. She could win on any surface. Murray never could win on clay.

And so it goes on. The problem, as we all know, with doing this is that most multiple slam winners have a case for being one of the 100 greatest. The problem isn't just whether they go in, but where they go in.

But enough of that. Those debates will be around for a long time yet. For now let us get on with this week..


=Rankings Watch=
Top 32 - Troicki drops a place. Still at 34. Verdasco rises three and is at 35. Anything around 35 and a seeding could be coming your way. Sock is up 4 to 33 with Kyrgios, Fognini and Klizan rounding out 30, 31 and 32.

Top 10 - Simon leapfrogs Lopez into 12th but is well adrift. Dimitrov remains at 11 with the gap widening. Ferrer, Wawrinka and Cilic all remain unchanged at 8, 9 and 10.

Top 8 - Rafa drops three to sit at 7th. It's the first time in ten years that the Spaniard is not in the top five. He could fall out of the top ten. Kei falls one place to six.

Top 4 - Murray is creeping up on Roger. Raonic is the first Canadian to make the top four. He is up two places. He could with luck snatch third.



*WEEK 18 CHAMPIONS*
MADRID, SPAIN
S: Andy Murray def. Rafael Nadal 6-3/6-2
D: Bopanna/Mergea d. Matkowski/Zimonjic


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: MURRAY
...Well, this is a Backspin first. Like the time when it was revealed that Todd didn't mind Clijsters, I can reveal I don't hate Murray. In fact he is Player of the Week. It feels strange to have him here during Spring but he has earned it. He humiliated Nadal 6-3, 6-2. Nadal was very poor. His backhand was abysmal. Yeah Murray won it but Nadal was never in it. Not really. Murray was seeded second and he opened against Kohlschreiber. He beat him in Germany and he beat him in Spain, too. This time it was 6-0 in the third. He silenced Granollers 6-2, 6-0 to move through to the quarters. He even managed to break Raonic twice in a 6-4, 7-5 win. He wasn't troubled by a dangerous Nishikori in the semi-finals. In the final he dominated Nadal. Murray has designs on the top two but he won't get it for some time. Murray's next target is to get to number one. He won't do it, though. He has run out of time.
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RISER: BERDYCH
...Berdych once more showed how good he is at beating anybody not in the top ten. Berdman played some great tennis in the past week. He has risen to five. I didn't fully illustrate above how close it is right near that number four spot. Every top eight seed can make the quarters. The fourth seed has never been so crucial.



Anyway, Berdman beat Gasquet and Tsonga back to back although it was Gasquet who put up more resistance. Next he beat Isner in three very long sets to move through to the semi-final. Then the inevitable happened. One of those bigger, scarier guys turned up. And Berdman dutifully crumbled 7-6, 6-1. For all those players between #4-#7, the key is getting that fourth seed. It is the difference between a quarter and a semi-final.
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SURPRISE: ISNER
...Americans on clay are like Spaniards on grass. Traditionally they just made up the numbers. All those years that Moya and Bruguera would be a big seed in London and one would just sit there waiting for the inevitable upset. The one or two times they actually did quite well was a pleasant surprise. it's the same for the Americans. Roddick and Sampras were seeded so highly at every French Open. It just never happened for either of them. Agassi was different. Nadal was different. And Isner can play on this stuff. He made a great quarterfinal run here. He lost to Berdych in a third set breaker in the quarterfinals after beating Kyrgios and Bellucci. That's impressive.
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FRESH FACE: RAONIC
...The Canadiens just came back from 0-3 against the Lightning in the Stanley Cup conference semi-finals. They travel to Tampa down 2-3 in the series and I hope they lose. I like Raonic a lot more than I like the Canadiens. I like how simple his game plan is. It is the kind of game plan where nothing can go wrong. Big serve, big forehand and a fairly steady backhand. He will win a U.S. Open or two, of that you can be sure. But I digress. Backspin congratulates Raonic on being the first Canuck to break into the world's top four. And we all want to see Bouchard/Raonic in Rio next year.
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DOWN: NADAL
...It feels as if Nadal is finished. I don't know if he can even win the French this year. He is looking very tired. When Graf and Henin retired they were at the top. They were number one and three respectively. Graf was the highest ranked player ever to retire at that time. Borg retired early. It's sad to see a great player retire five years after they're actually any good. Even Mauresmo, looking back on it, stayed a little too long. Retirement beckons for Nadal. He won't be playing the 2017 French Open.
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UPSET: KYRGIOS
...Kyrgios knows how to beat these guys. And he proved it again. He beat Federer 6-7[2], 7-6[5], 7-6[12] to earn his biggest ever victory. It is his most important win to date. If things stay like this going into the French Kyrgios will be the most dangerous 30th seed in recent memory. He can beat anyone on any surface right now. If he were to meet Djokovic on Wimbledon I would not know who to pick. Federer didn't play badly. He was just beaten by the better man. This has echoes of Djokovic losing to Dimitrov as the top seed back in 2013. But Kyrgios may well go on to have an even brighter future.
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Five things I liked this week...
1 - Two Aussies will be seeded at the French and at Wimbledon. When was the last time two Aussies were seeded at a slam?
2 - Kyrgios is finally all grown up
3 - Raonic deserves to be in the top four. When does he ever lose to anybody when he isn't supposed to? If the WTA has taught us anything it is that consistency brings reward. Wozniacki and Jankovic were good, but were they great? No. Just consistent.
4 - Seeing Tsonga play was good. He is starting to recover.
5 - Kokkinakis continues to plug away. So does Lucca. They rose 5 and 17 to 98 and 100, respectively.


1. MADRID R2– Kyrgios d. Federer 6-7[2], 7-6[5], 7-6[12]
...The baton has been passed. Kyrgios combined big serving with great movement to grab the upset and a seed at the French. If he makes the fourth round there, a very good Wimbledon seeding awaits him in England.
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2. Madrid R3– Dimitrov d. Wawrinka 7-6[5], 3-6, 6-3
...The darkness in Wawrinka's world continues. Having split up with his wife again he now can't find anything on the court. Perhaps that isn't the reason, but it must be having an effect. He wins a match here and there, but Dimitrov was too good by far.
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3. Madrid SF– Nadal d. Berdych 7-6[3], 6-1
...Let's celebrate vintage Nadal whilst we still have it. Nadal played like the Rafa of old. He played like a world number one for the second half of this. He was inspired. It's sad to think that it appears so infrequently.
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4. Madrid R3– Ferrer D. Verdasco 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
...The latter round may have been dull but some of the earlier bits were good. Ferrer and Verdasco met on clay once again. Verdasco is playing well again but it wasn't enough. Ferrer edged it in three long sets.
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*Rome*
=SF=
Djokovic [1] d. [3] Murray
Nadal [4] d. [2] Federer
=FINAL=
Djokovic [1] d. [4] Nadal

...The logic here should be clear.



Dellacqua and Shvedova had a good week. They opened up by beating sixth seeds Garcia/Srebotnik is straights before Marosi/Liang in two, as well. They beat Hsieh/Pennetta 6-4, 6-1. They were seeded fourth. They finally got pushed to three in the semi-finals by the seventh seeds. They came through 7-5, 3-6, 10-7. Third seeds Muguruza/Navarro were their final opponents and the Australian took it 6-3, 6-7[4], 10-5. Casey rises nine places to 22 in the world. She plays with Shvedova in Rome, as well.

Casey is at 42 in the singles. She appears to be letting that slide in favour of the doubles.

QUIZ ANSWER: Mandlikova had her slam debut at the 1978 French, where she made the second round. The answer was of course the cheesy...


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