Wimbledon: Week One

Between a busier than usual work schedule and World Cup soccer viewing, it’s been a while since I posted. Now that Wimbledon has completed its first week, it’s time to share some thoughts on the happenings of Week One of the Championships.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I haven’t seen much of the tennis this past week, but I did catch the Andre Agassi – Rafael Nadal match twice yesterday (once on NBC and again on ESPN). Thanks to our friends at NBC, no one in the US saw the match live, but my wife and I decided to listen to the end of the match on Radio Wimbledon via Wimbledon.com. We heard Sue Barker’s interview with Nadal and Agassi live and it was an emotional moment. One could hear Agassi struggling to bottle up his emotions as he spoke to the Centre Court crowd for the final time in his career. The emotion of the moment may have been more discernible via the audio feed of Radio Wimbledon as we had no video to distract us from Agassi’s words.

As it turned out, Nadal was the perfect opponent for Agassi in his final Wimbledon match. The many contrasts between the 36 year-old and the 20 year-old showed everyone watching that Agassi had chosen well in making the summer of 2006 his swan song. While Agassi is still one of the best players in the world, Nadal showed him that his time for competing for Grand Slam championships has passed, and one gets the sense that Andre won’t want to compete under those circumstances, especially given his recent injuries and physical issues.

The departure of Andre Agassi from competitive tennis is a significant event for the game. He is the last of a great generation of American tennis players – a generation that included Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Michael Chang and Todd Martin. It’s a generation that has yet to be succeeded. Andy Roddick teased American audiences for a while, but he’s been revealed to be a pretender to the legacy of Agassi’s generation. So with Andre’s departure, the face and buzz of American tennis will be gone by the end of the summer and we’ll be left with the reality that there is no one ready to replace him in the hearts of US tennis fans.

And while Agassi’s farewell tour is sad for tennis, it does create two interesting story lines for the men’s game over the summer that should bring plenty of media attention. The first is, of course, Agassi himself. The media coverage of his final tournaments in the next few months should be unprecedented and that will be a positive for the sport. The other story line is the continuing saga of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Is Nadal ready to reach a Wimbledon final and possibly challenge Federer on grass? What will happen when these two champions meet during the hard court season? Can Federer improve on his 1-6 record versus Rafa? These two stories have the potential to give tennis some of its greatest media exposure in the US in recent years.

Other Thoughts

· In my two viewings of the Agassi – Nadal match, I was quite impressed with Rafa on the grass. He’s made a few adjustments in his court positioning (closer to the baseline on service returns and during rallies) and he’s putting more velocity on his serves. The fact that Agassi did not have a single break point during the match is remarkable and a testament to how well Nadal played. Based on his current form, a run to the semi-finals and a potential date with Lleyton Hewitt is certainly attainable.

· Wimbledon 2006 is just the latest chapter in the descent of Andy Roddick. The tactically befuddled American got it all wrong again against anti-Englander Andy Murray, and he went down in straight sets. Murray’s been lauded as an intelligent player, and justifiably so. This was his second victory over Roddick in ’06 and he proved once again that brains can overcome brawn, even in tennis. The combination of Murray’s tactical awareness and Roddick’s physicality would make for a formidable tennis player. Unfortunately, that’s not the way things work in life and each player must work with his own abilities. While many tennis observers feel that Roddick has to go back to relying on his big serve, those people ignore the fact that the men’s tour has adjusted to Roddick’s serve. That’s why it isn’t as effective anymore; it’s not because he isn’t hitting it. Andy’s going to have to make some tough choices in the next few months about the direction of his game. He’s no longer playing top ten level tennis and he won’t be able to get back there without some serious changes. The problem is that Roddick appears to be too stubborn to do just that.

· Roger Federer has an interesting couple of matches this week. First, he meets Thomas Berdych in the Fourth Round and if he gets through that, he will meet the winner of Mario Ancic and Novak Djokovic. Ancic was the last player to defeat Federer at the All England Club.

· My prediction earlier this year that the Williams Sisters wouldn’t win another Grand Slam title remains intact thanks to Jelena Jankovic of Serbia. Jankovic took down Venus in 3 sets on Saturday and advanced to a Fourth-Round match-up with Anastasia Myskina of Russia. Thanks Jelena!