Slightly Messy Hamburg
I expected a lot of unseeded players to reach the quarterfinals in Hamburg but what were Nicolas Kiefer and Andreas Seppi doing there?
When I filed my ATP fantasy picks this week I noted that Hamburg is pretty bad about predicting its quarterfinalists. In the past five years, less that three of the top eight seeded players have reached the final eight. This year is only slightly better. The top three are there - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic – and that’s really the story of the week because a game of musical chairs could be just beginning.
Before we get to that, though, how were we supposed to know which unseeded players would go far this week? It would have been difficult enough if the tournament hadn’t reseeded the draw because five players dropped out. James Blake ended up in one corner of the draw instead of Andy Roddick who hurt his back moving into his new apartment in New York – can’t he afford movers?
You might think Nicolas Kiefer was a good choice because he’s German but he had a losing record on clay before this week and a bad record at Hamburg. Italian Andreas Seppi makes more sense because he reached the quarterfinals here as a qualifier three years ago, but his fellow Italian, Simone Bolelli, was in his part of the draw and beat him in Munich on clay only two weeks ago.
Still, here they were, Kiwi and Seppi in the quarterfinals at Hamburg and Kiwi was up a break on Seppi at 4-2 in the third set and working on going up two breaks when he argued against a service winner that landed on the inside of the service line. He was clearly trying to rile up his home crowd. After getting a break point on the next point, he made a point of clearing the service line then flashing a look at the chair umpire.
Kiwi is doing a second act on the tennis circuit. He missed half of last year due to knee surgery and when he returned we had a warmer fuzzier version of the formerly crusty grumpy Kiwi. He used to be the kind of guy who would get mad at his opponent for making a good shot. He’s still feisty but now it takes the form of getting angry at line calls.
Kiwi didn’t get that second break of serve but he did serve for the match at 5-4 and, unfortunately, chose the worst time to play a terrible game. I couldn’t help having the slightest touch of pleasure that Kiwi lost that game if only because of his attitude is still annoying. But which is better, a grumpy guy who brings you some on court entertainment and variety in his game – Kiwi - or a grinder who is a nice but has very little variety and shows almost no emotion on the court – Seppi?
This wasn’t a great tennis match. Clay court tennis is supposed to be all about constructing a masterful point but these two kept hitting backhand to backhand and forehand to forehand. Kiwi was the only one doing much in the way of coming to the net or using the drop shot. On one point I counted 23 backhands. Seppi seems to be constitutionally unable to change the direction of the ball. But he is steady and today that was enough because those backhands came in the game that put Seppi up 6-5 in that third set.
Okay, I did start feeling bad as Kiwi hit a double fault in the next game to give Seppi a match point. But this is clay after all, not Kiwi’s best surface, and he’d done very well to get to the quarterfinals so don’t give me too hard a time for my previous bit of ill will towards him.
Seppi hit two good passing shots to win the match and then we finally saw the emotion as he dropped to his knees. Understandable considering that he’d just won a 3 hour and 45 minute battle and pushed himself into the semifinals of a Masters Series event. There he will meet Federer which could be a gift for the current number one, or not. Seppi did lose to him in Monte Carlo last year in their only meeting, but it took Federer two tiebreakers to beat him.
Does anyone play musical chairs anymore? I haven’t played it since I was 7 or 8 years old in the small village in England where I grew up. I can still clearly see the village hall with its shiny wooden floor and rows of chairs. Every time the music stopped, we literally crawled over each other to find an empty chair and one person was left out because there was one less chair in each succeeding round. At the end, one person snatched the very last chair and they were declared the winner.
It looks like Djokovic will be the winner. Nadal didn’t win a title after the clay court season last year and he didn’t win one until the clay court season this year. He can still win Wimbledon because it’s easier on his knees and feet and the points are shorter, but I’m not looking for him to improve on hard courts. And he certainly can’t improve on clay courts.
Whether you believe it’s his Saturn return or the sheer impossibility of dominating the tour for more than three years in a row, Federer winning is no longer a sure thing. Djokovic’s ascendance to his throne probably will not happen in the immediate future because he has four slam semifinals to defend this year and that takes some luck as well as skill, but it looks like it will happen. The question is: will Djokovic wear out physically as quickly as Nadal appears to have done or will he get his full run as number one as Mr. Federer has?
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8 Responses to “Slightly Messy Hamburg”
May 17th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Great article Nina. I agree with you about Kiwi, he can be annoying and all the things you said about him are true, can’t argue! Having said that, I’ve always had a soft spot for him, ridiculous as it might sound. I love his game which has a lot to do with it. I was rooting for him all the way, despite Seppi being the quieter, sweeter of the two. Kiwi fell heavily onto his right arm which clearly bothered him thereafter. Kiwi is an on the edge intense player who’s battled through knee and wrist surgery which could have forced him into early retirement. He’s got guts, passion with those big eyes flashing defiance and coming out swinging at 30yrs old, playing DC with a determined patriotic Rafa, and taking his all court skills to the younger guys. Something of the Hewitt about him.. Probably says something about me, I tend to warm to the passionate, gutsy, intense players, although I’m not too sure where my D-Nal fits in!! Apart from that, It’s always nice for me to see a home player do well, especially since Haas is off the court more often than not, which is a shame. I had hoped Kohlschreiber would continue to fly the flag for Germany, sadly it was not to be. The softer, but still stroppy, gutsy Herr Kiefer was still hanging in there. Looking forward return to his return to SW19, stay fit Nicolas. Big three today, can’t wait.
They still play musical chairs here, we have a doggy version at our ringcraft club party nights. That’s a sight for sore eyes I can tell you, especially when you have the large Shepherds, Rotties and Labs trying to leap onto their owners’ laps, those chairs can only take so much weight - I can’t tell you the number of bent metal chairs we’ve had to replace! On second thoughts, I suppose we could submit them to the local modern art gallery!
May 17th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Nina, I have a question from my (10 year old) daughter about Roddick’s injury. He said in his own blog that he pinched a nerve in his shoulder during Davis Cup but that it had healed. In the same blog he did mention that he’d done the moving himself but nothing about getting an injury during it.
My daughter is starting to wonder whether Roddick blatantly lies to his fans in his blogs/facebook page. Don’t get kids get cynical at a young age these days, she’s almost been totally put off tennis already by rumors of match fixing and betting scandals so I just wondered where you got the information about Roddick hurting himself whilst moving.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Hi aj, forgive me for coming in on your post addressed to Nina, who I’m sure will respond with her take on the situation. I saw Andy’s match and thought he turned rather awkwardly scrambling to retrieve a ball from Wawrinka, he isn’t a natural clay court mover imo, it appeared to be a genuine spasm to me, there was pain etched all over his face. I may not be a fan of Roddick’s clay tennis, although he performed brilliantly, I have never questioned his integrity and nothing has forced me to change my opinion.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Nina - I don’t think anyone will get a “full run” like Roger has had; his dominance has been insane. And even though I am a Djoko fan, I don’t want him to be number 1 for 4 years!!! I like variety and drama.
I agree with you about Novak; he won’t overtake number one soon. He won’t win in Hamburg or the French either. As to Wimbledon, I really think there are many contenders there. I think it would take a real stumble by Roger or Rafa at one of the slams, so that they’re vulnerable going back onto hardcourts, for Novak to MAYBE get to number 1 this year.
But I kind of don’t want him to. He could use a little more time to develop. I also think Rafa deserves some time at number 1 since he’s pushed Roger for so long; I’d like to see a Novak vs Rafa Wimbledon final, with Rafa winning, after Rafa wins his 4th French.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Jenny, that it absolutely one of the funniest things I’ve every read. I’m rolling on the floor with laughter. I can see it now with dogs crawling over each other and chairs breaking. The only thing I can’t figure out is how dog and owner get going in the same direction with such skill. I guess that’s what show handling is for. Would you mind if I put it up on the site as “quote of the week.” We have a new Quick Hit feature and that would be fabulous.
I agree about Kiwi. My impatience with him is personal to me - not him - because I get angry on the court too. I came off the court on Thursday muttering because we’d given up a break after leading 0-40 and I was impolite - I should have credited my opponents for good play and instead I grumbled about something or other. That’s not Kiwi’s fault but I think that happens a lot - we praise people we’d like to be and denounce those that are too close to how we actually are.
joel-la, you know, I find myself pushing players up before their read and dispensing with players when they still have far to go. It’s the nature of living and dying with players but it’s also forgetting the heart of champions. The same things that got them here will keep them here. For some reason it makes me think of Marcos Baghdatais. I know he’s injured at the moment but he’s an example of how hard it is to sustain greatness once you get a taste of it.
aj, Injuries on tour are a tough thing to negotiate because you don’t want your opponent to know that there’s anything wrong with you but if you pull out of a tournament, you need a good reason. Sometimes, when you are just tired, that’s not a good enough reason but you want to avoid a penalty or, if there is no penalty, you want to avoid displeasing the promoters who sold tickets based on your appearance, so you overstate a physical problem and call it an injury.
I wish I could give you a good answer to give to your daughter but the complexity of the world makes that hard. Look at the issue with the double amputee Oscar Pistorius that’s in the news today. On the face of it, the decision to let him run against able bodied runners look like a humane decision but it’s not that simple.
Pistorius has been accused of cheating in the past. He and his Doctor “remeasured” the remaining parts of his legs and decided that he qualified for longer prosthetics which gives him more speed. Not only that, but players will be getting more and more body parts added to them as the technology improves so this needs to be handled correctly and it’s not clear how to do that because the technology changes so fast. It’s happening with swimming suits too, are they legal or not?
The best thing I can tell your daughter is to follow those players that play with heart and skill and decorum over the long run. In tennis, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic - and Roddick - qualify as do many other players. In the WNBA, many players qualify too because it’s not yet become so money mad that people are doing anything to get ahead.
Sorry to go on here but sports is huge business and where business is concerned, people get any edge they can. Athletes were hugely inspiring to me growing up and they still are, but learning that an athlete was not all that I thought they were is also part of growing up. Kids learn that too.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Glad you found it funny Nina. No probs with the quick hit.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Dear Ms Rota
Thank you but I just wanted to know whether you believed Andy injured himself moving house. Or could you tell me who told you that he injured himself moving house so I can ask them.
Carrie
May 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Andy said he hurt his back moving into his new apartment and he said it at a media session in Rome.
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