Nice to see Joachim Johansson back on track after eight months. The Swedish Davis Cup team, who missed an injured Söderling, had no choice but risk him in the first match of the semifinal against US. Didn’t even think Pim Pim could twice force Roddick to the tie-break, in his debut after shoulder surgery last February.

Of course, memories went back to that US Open quarter final in 2004, when this young promise of world’s tennis was able to serve off the defending champion Roddick on his home soil in a wonderful night session.

Swedish supporters hoped that Davis Cup could give extra-motivation to a player whose career has been too many times obstructed by injuries. But maybe, after such a stop, Johansson is already happy to have ended the match without bad surprises. The Thailand Open, starting next week, is a better test to prove if Pim Pim can get back to high levels.

Also watch
Joachim’s training before the match against Roddick

Technorati Tags: joachim johansson, andy roddick

Tennis Hall of Fame announced that Michael Chang is in the nominees for 2008 induction. Well, I know that not everybody will agree with me, ’cause Chang had and still has thousands of fans all around the globe. But I really doubt that his tennis curriculum matches the eligibility criteria set by the Hall.

Ok, tennis is not only statistics and Chang enlarged the markets taking lots of Asians to the sport. But, if you look at the names of the former players elected in the last ten years, I don’t really think that Michael can cope with legends like Sampras, Courier, Edberg, Becker, Wilander, Lendl, McEnroe, Connors… The Hall should only be the place for the Greats of the greats.

And if a «distinguished record of competitive achievement» can be reduced to a quite fortuitous win of the French Open, well, then we’ve come to the point where even Thomas Johansson can be named among the tennis greats in a decade. 

Roger Federer has put a spell on his opponents. No matter how good they are, no matter how experienced they are, they all come to a point when they start thinking they are playing in front of an unbeatable guy and they will never be able to win the match.

So did Novak Djokovic yesterday in the final of the US Open. He did everything right ’till the moment he had three set points in a row in the first set. Seeing him play you would say: «Look at this guy. He’s not scared». But then something happened also in this nice and easy-going Serbian’s mind.

He actually beat Federer last month in the final of the Canadian Open (not before giving his guts…) and has all the qualities to become a major winner and world n.1 in the future. But yesterday was not his night. Five set points missed in the first set, two in the second. The match could have easily gone the other way. How much can you blame it on Djokovic’s lack of experience and how much on Roger’s ability to get off of any situation?

The fact is that all those streaks of winning matches made Federer hate losing. When you start fighting against him, it becomes a mental struggle in which (for Roger) the fear of losing is even bigger than the desire of winning. You can see him never glancing at his opponent, always focused 100% on his shots and on his tactical choices, only keen to be the best once again at the end.

As the talks if he is better than Sampras or not continue, this guy has won twelve Slams in four years and made another step into tennis history. Soon he will chase not Sampras’ but Graf’s record (22 Slams…)

Technorati Tags: roger federer, novak djokovic, us open

I’ve never seen a worse fifth set tie-breaker than the one played by James Blake against Tommy Haas in the fourth round of the US Open. Where did James think he was? He wasted a three hour job with a just crazy attitude, looking for the winner all the times, never waiting against a guy like Haas, who often misses when put under pressure.

Of course that outstanding point on the score of 3-3 made the difference, with Haas lobbing the American twice in the same rally. But Blake seemed to be already beaten before the whole thing even started. Maybe he’s not ready to inherit the responsibility of carrying the US flag in tennis and, at this point, I doubt that he will ever do it one day.

Could this be a turning point in Haas’ career? A player who has lost at the fifth set some of the most important opportunities in his career (an Australian Open semi agains Safin and an Olympic final against Kafelnikov) has already won two five set matches in this year’s Open. And now faces a much more relaxed Davydenko, that he beat in five sets in January in Australia.

Maybe the eternal promise of German tennis is finally becoming reality.

Technorati Tags: tommy haas, james blake, us open

Searching in his ATP profile I found out that he is not a complete unknown. In 2007 he is the winner of two challengers back-to-back in Besancon and Sarajevo. And he beat Tim Henman in straight sets at the French Open.

Here’s the last game of that match in a Youtube video

Some time has gone since Lleyton Hewitt was compared to Bjorn Borg for his foot movement, after raising US Open cup in 2001 over Pete Sampras. 20 years old, he already looked like a veteran on the Tour. The illusion was to continue: the Wimbledon triumph, two Masters Cups and two year-end n.1 spots in a row… Lleyton must have thought he could sit back and relax for a moment.

But he chose a bad year. 2003: the upcoming of the new generation. Federer, Roddick, Ferrero. One year later Nadal’s explosion, to end an era with no real leadership. That’s how Lleyton’s dream to become a tennis legend faded away. He let the momentum go, in a sport where you can never lose your grip on your opponents.

Yesterday, a claycourter like Agustin Calleri was enough to beat Hewitt in the second round of the US Open, his beloved tournament, where he had never gone out so early. A perfect match with 65 winners for the Argentine.

But would the Hewitt we all knew, the one who used to scream “C’mon” even after the first point of the match, ever lose on hardcourt to a player he had always beaten comfortably before, the last time even on clay earlier this year in Hamburg? There was a time when the Autralian seemed to have put his bad moment behind him.

In 2005 he had climbed back the rankings up to the third place in the world and he looked the only real threat to Roger Federer, along with Safin. But after his fatherhood, his fighting spirit has definitely gone.

Or maybe Lleyton has thought it’s no longer time to act as the bad boy.

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A 225 kph serve, 2 meters and 6 tall, a big forehand. John Isner, the guy who came out of nowhere this summer to reach the final of the Legg Mason in Washington, could be a serious test for world n.1 Roger Federer in the US Open third round. He gives his opponent no rythm, has great support from the crowd. He could get fired up and play the match of his life in front of the three-time defending champion.

By his physical features and style of play, Isner reminds me of Marc-Kevin Goellner, a German player of the 90’s who claimed some good results against top-players. For example, he beat Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl back to back in Nice in 1993. He also won Davis Cup with Germany that same year.

Roger doesn’t seem to suffer big servers (given his outstanding record against Roddick), but that third round could be a match to see.

«It’s just another tournament - I know it’s a Grand Slam, but I lost in the second round last year and the world’s still turning». That’s what Juan Carlos Ferrero said after losing in straight sets to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in his opening match at the US Open.

It’s been three years by now that «the world keeps turning» for Ferrero, a former n.1 and runner-up in Flushing Meadows in 2003. After suffering chicken pox and mother’s death in 2004, «Mosquito» has never been the same. His forehand doesn’t hurt, he misses a lot from the baseline, his all-court game has lost sharpness.

Most of all on claycourt, where he dominated 2002 and 2003 seasons. No more tournament victories for four years, most of his rare highlights came on faster surfaces. Finalist in Rotterdam 2004 and Vienna 2005 (carpet), Cincinnati 2006 (hardcourt), quarters in Wimbledon (grass) earlier this year.

From his pale looks, one could deduce he’s lost passion for tennis, attitude to hard work. So he was downsized from a champion to a second lead. On the other hand, even if he’s not at the top, «the world keeps turning».

Jon Wertheim’s forecast on the US Open

I also think Roger is undoubtedly the favourite, while Nadal will lose before the round of the last 16. Here’s my QF forecast:

FEDERER-RODDICK
MURRAY-BLAKE
YOUZHNY-HEWITT
SAFIN-NALBANDIAN

Finally he decided to quit. After a disappointing 2007 (never beyond the second round) that follows up two other miserable years, Tim Henman throws in the towel. The Davis Cup tie against Croatia next month will be his last appearance in professional tennis, he said during a press conference in New York.

It was 1995 when a typical British 21 year old guy amazed the Centre Court in Wimbledon, defeating Roland Garros champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov after saving match points, to go on ’till the quarter-finals and eventually lose only to Todd Martin. The Brits thought they had found the champion they had all been waiting for for thirty years. But Henman was about to step into tennis history only as “the man of the missed chance”, the grass-court specialist who has never won a tournament on grass, the “good, but not good enough guy”.

And four semis at the Championships were not enough to give him the chance of fighting for the title in front of his home crowd at least once in his life. Tim is still biting his nails for the chance missed against Ivanisevic in 2001, when he was two sets to one up and his opponent had completely lost his head, but regained it thanks to a rain delay.

Nevertheless Tim was able to surprise tennis fans: as in 2004, when he reached semis on French clay (he who couldn’t stand the baseline for three shots in a row…), or in 2003 when he won Bercy beating Kuerten, Roddick and Federer. Or even before, in 1995, when he (a Mr. Sportsmanship) hit a ball girl in Wimbledon and was sent-off during a doubles match…

There will still be room for Tim in tennis world, he says he is likely to start a new career in tennis after the birth of his third child: «It is a new beginning. I’d like to think there are going to be a lot new opportunities out there for me». Maybe this time he will be able to catch them.

Also watch
Tim Henman’s timeline in Wimbledon (by the BBC)