AO Day 9: So Much for Parity

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

The NFL tries to sell the fact that it has parity. It parades its parity, if you will. In reality, of course, the same teams win again and again.

In tennis, we have been ruled pretty consistently by just three men. Federer, Nadal, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Nadal and Djokovic have all controlled everything. So dominant have they been, that even a big four is a stretch. Murray is like the Baltimore to the other's Philly, New York and Washington. Around their level, but in reality not at all. The Brits like to overrate him and by now they have got very good at it.

On the women’s tour there is Serena and then complete chaos beneath her. Utter mess from number two to number 200. But on the men’s side, there is an order. It changes every now and then but, really, it stays very similar. One of those big three guys is always number one. Two of those guys are always in the top three. Sometimes all three are and usually there are two in the top two. It is astonishing that is has been a decade of dominance. The young guns are no longer young. Guys like Safin, Roddick, Davydenko, Hewitt and Gonzalez have all gone. Injuries have taken others like Del Potro and Soderling. Those guys were consistent slam threats. Being French is too big an issue for some of their challenges and others, like Isner, just lack the weapons.

So here we are again in the semi-finals of a slam and, you guessed it, we have two of them still in. But this time we will have a new challenger in the final and it would be a great storyline if it was Raonic. Fresh blood is a must in tennis because the old blood is becoming stale and boring in some ways. It would be great if Raonic, or Monfils, could sweep to victory.

The hierarchy is set in stone and those that defy it, like Berdych, soon get shown why it is such an exclusive club. Nishikori was put to the sword, especially on the return of his powderpuff serve. Unless they retire, it seems like the current pecking order is permanent.

*Suicide Picks*
MS 1st Rd: Dimitrov d. Lorenzo {W}
MS 2nd Rd: Kyrgios [29] d. Cuevas {W}
MS 3rd Rd: Tomic [16] d. Millman {W}
MS 4th Rd: Monfils [23] d. Kuznetsov {W}
MS QF: Raonic [13] d. Monfils [23]
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WS 1st Rd: Gavrilova d. Hradecka {W}
WS 2nd Rd: Mladenovic [28] d. Gibbs {W}
WS 3rd Rd: Beck d. Siegemund {W}
WS 4th Rd: Keys [15] d. Zhang {L}


ROD LAVER: FEDERER D BERDYCH
... What can I say? At one point Frew the commentator said, “If it were any other player, Berdych would be annoyed.” “But it’s Federer. You can’t dislike Federer” In full flow, there is nothing in sport quite like Roger Federer. Not David Ortiz, not Joe Montana, not even Patrick Kane. Not even Messi is like Federer. Neither was Thorpe or Phelps. The first set was Federer gutting out a tough one, but after that he let loose. Berdych was laughing by the end of the 7-6[4], 6-2, 6-4 decision. Drop-shots, exquisite backhand winners up the line and redonkulous returns. One can so easily forget it is two in the morning and that the world is in turmoil. Because it is Roger, because he can break with ease. Because sometimes the opponents don’t matter. Fed hit 48 winners to 26 errors and won a third of his opponents first serve points. Berdman was fine in this match, going 27-27 and even broke the Fed twice. He was fine, good even. But he was powerless in the end, powerless to halt the momentum of Federer. Even on Hawkeye Federer was perfect, until the end when the writing was on the wall and he seemed to challenge for fun. BACKSPIN is in agreement with Tomic. Federer probably doesn’t have it in him to beat Djokovic. He can over three sets and Simon really pushed Djokovic, but it is unlikely. So Federer needs to go out there, do his SABR, go for his shots and just have fun. He is sure to hit the shot of the day at some point. It will be a good match which will, I think, go five.
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RLA: DJOKOVIC D. NISHIKORI
...A strange match here. Djokovic cruised through 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in just over two hours. But he only went 22-27 on the winners count. He had trouble on his backhand and again with the dropshot. He did break six times to two but it wasn’t as convincing as the score-line would lead you to believe. All is not right in Whoville. He definitely reacted after his disastrous performance against Simon and, really, it is not a good time to be facing an in-form Federer. He should be able to beat Federer, but he has to be less sloppy in certain aspects. He served better than Nishikori but not at the level he should be serving and he was also helped by the fact Kei really didn’t turn up. At all. He hit 56 errors and only won 51 per cent of his service points. That is where the match was won, really. Nishikori couldn’t win points on his own serve. It predictably lead to trouble. Of course, Federer will not be hitting 56 errors, maybe not even in a five set match and he will be winning about 70 per cent of serve points. He cannot rely on Federer to play badly Djokovic, he has to take this match…
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