Two Contrasting Champions

Serena Williams and Andy Murray winning the US Open singles titles were perhaps not altogether the most unexpected occurrences in sport in recent weeks.  Both had clinched the Olympic singles gold for their respective countries and though Andy had faltered somewhat in the hardcourt leadup tournaments , you somehow felt this tournament was destined to be his , especially after Federer was sent packing in the quarters.

An affirmed Legend and another in the making

Serena now surely deserves her place among the absolute top legends of the women’s game – the likes of Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Margaret Court. With 15 grand slams, Olympic gold medals, a fair share of doubles crowns, she has easily been the most consistently dominant player over the past decade and a bit.  It was not always thus – at the outset, her sister Venus burst onto the circuit earlier and more successfully and for a while it seemed that Serena would play bridesmaid to her. However while Venus has had her unquestioned moments in the sun, Serena’s career has comfortably outmatched hers.  The 2 sisters span 2 different generations of ladies tennis – right from their initial rivalries with Graf and Lindsay Davenport following to the battles with the Belgian duo of Justine Henin Hardenne and Kim Clijsters and on through to the modern day , where they (Especially Serena) have maintained their hold over the bumper crop of eastern European talent.

Serena’s game never had the panache of a Navratilova at the net, or the gazelle-like court coverage and powerful yet artistic groundstrokes of Steffi. Yet she used and still does to this day the asset she has been amply been blessed with, a cartload of power, which when accurately unleashed makes her nigh unstoppable. Both her playing style and the number of on and off court controversies she has courted, have ensured that she is hardly the most loved player on earth, especially for a generation like ours, for whom the ladies game effectively came to a halt with the retirement of Graf. Yet to not give the American her due would be a great disservice to a true champion of the game.

Andy Murray has been the tearful runner up in more tournaments than he would wish to remember, like his coach Ivan Lendl, losing his first 4 slam finals. For a long time, especially in the light of Djokovic’s awe-inspiring 2011 deeds, Andy seemed destined to remain a distant fourth in the quartet of modern powers, the other 2 being the incomparable Federer and Nadal. The London Olympics proved the perfect catalyst to spark the flame in the emotive Scotsman which has culminated in one of the oldest clichés in British sport finally being laid to rest at Flushing Meadows – the first British winner in a Grand Slam since Fred Perry. The future looks especially rosy for Murray if he can maintain fitness and consistency.  Still only 25 years of age, Andy has just stepped into what should be his most productive 3-4 years of professional tennis.  His rise in form comes at a time when his main rivals have all been dragged back towards the peloton, making Murray, if not the best player on the circuit , a definite favourite every time he enters a tournament. Federer has had a renaissance year but that aura of invincibility has long gone. There are now a number of players (none of them called Nadal) who believe they can beat the great man. Rafa himself has yet to step onto the court after his shock Wimbledon exit, and as the long term recuperation from injury continues , one wonders just what kind of toll his unforgiving style of play has taken on his body.  He may yet come back at the highest level and is still sure to dominate on clay for still some years but we might never the Nadal of late last decade ever again. Djokovic has struggled to reattain the Olympian heights of last season where he was the best , 2^nd best and 3^rd best player on the Tour. The Serb is still a potent force and his rivalry with Murray could well be the defining match-up for this decade , just like the Federer-Nadal showdown in the one.

All in all , Andy Murray has the world at his feet and having overcome that initial Slam hurdle, more  are likely to be just that trifle easier. The big question now on all minds is that having won the Olympic Gold in the hallowed turf of SW19, can Andy make that one step up and win Big W. He for once will be desperately hoping that this is one area where doesn’t end up emulating his coach Lendl. 

Chronicling 2 High Profile Retirements

With Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick announcing that the US Open will be their swansong (the Belgian already out of the tournament), there is a certain inevitability about further retirements of higher profile names in their generation in the not too distant future – notably the likes of Roger Federer and the Williams sisters. Clijsters and Roddick were never the best players of their generation but were both enormous crowd pullers.

Kim and daughter Jada : One of the more enduring tennis images of  recent years

I remember well the days of the late nineties – Steffi Graf was on her way out, the power of the Williams duo was destined to rule the game for the next decade. In the midst of this you heard names of 2 teenagers who were pipped to really take on the battle against the Americans – Martina Hingis and Clijsters. Their careers could not have been more different. Hingis blossomed early , won a slew of grand slams in her teens, reached number one and just when it seemed that the world was at her feet, injuries and loss of form struck from which she never recovered. Klijsters on the other hand looked like the early promise may have been overdone. There were a number of good performances and the odd slam final but the crown somehow always eluded her. Add to it the high profile engagement and subsequent breakup with Lleyton Hewitt and her premature retirement due to injuries, and it seemed that the single US open title would be the only one in her repertoire. However, in one of the more stunning comebacks in sporting history, she returned as a Mum and displayed a level of excellence that fetched her three further slams. Her game was never as artistic as that of her compatriot Justine Henin or as powerful as that of Serena and Venus , but she covered the court with amazing dexterity (all the more commendable as she hardly was the smallest player on the tour). The fact that she was one of the most likeable ladies didn’t hurt her cause. Always smiling, gracious in victory or defeat and without a trace of controversy ever dogging her, Kim became the darling of tennis crowds worldwide (especially in Australia and the US , the scenes of her grand slam triumphs). She leaves a unique legacy in that a post retirement comeback of such success is scarcely likely to be replicated, in the men’s or the women’s game.

Andy Roddick : Good Player in an Era of Legends

I have actually felt sorry for Andy Roddick many a time over his professional career. Pretty much the sole heir to the golden era of American Men’s Tennis, it was always going to be an improbable task to emulate Sampras, Agassi and Courier.  The booming serve was his forte, the powerful forehand a great asset but both his backhand and net skills left a bit to be desired as he was to eventually come up against some of the greatest ever in the game. He won his first (and only) slam in Flushing Meadows before Roger Federer had his first and got tennis writers all over predicting a rivalry for the ages over the years. The rivalry bit was true but the name Roddick didn’t feature in it. He was ever the Ivanisevic to the Sampras of Federer (all those Wimbledon final losses) – and unlike Goran, he will not now get an unlikely name on the trophy. True, he nearly denied Roger his destiny in that 16-14 fifth set final, but that game apart, A-Rod was consistently second best to the Swiss maestro over a host of meetings on all kinds of surfaces.  The emergence of the Nadal and Djokovic pretty much made it impossible for Roddick to sneak in that 2^nd slam. It was inconceivable that all three would play below par in a single tournament and hence , for a player to go the whole way, he would have to produce 2 weeks of scintillating tennis, to outmatch these masters similar to the likes of Krajicek , Safin and Del Potro over the years. It didn’t need rocket science to note that Andy didn’t really have the game for that. Andy was and still remains an immensely likeable fellow with a penchant for the humorous at his press conferences. He leaves the game, probably to his legion of supporters (mostly Americans wondering what happened to their dominance in the men’s game) having underachieved. However to the more pragmatic, Andy will probably be the guy who was overburdened by expectations that perhaps never should have been his lot in the first place.