SAD in Rotterdam/Crisis Center 2.24

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[Pete Bodo is on vacation, Thurs Feb 14th to Monday Feb. 25th. Meanwhile, enjoy the guest posts!]

By Rosangel Valenti, TennisWorld Contributing Editor

I'm still trying to make sense of my Rotterdam experience earlier in the week. I don't so much mean the failure of all the seeds to reach the later stages of the tournament, as the feeling generated by being there, in those particular surroundings, at this time of year. It was dull and grey outdoors in Rotterdam, and I think I must be suffering from a mild form of tennis-related SAD ("Seasonal Affective Disorder") after spending so much time indoors in recent months.

In a rather circular way, I wonder if some of the players feel that way too? A series of events on indoor hard courts that began soon after last year's US Open, punctuated by the off-season and the Australian Open with its lead-up tournaments, is finally drawing to a close. While South America has been having its own month-long clay season in the open air, in much of the northern hemisphere it has been too early to move outdoors - that will happen from the beginning of March. Five indoor ATP events occur in February, with just one outdoor hard court event in Delray Beach, and then the tour will be staying outdoors and in the northern hemishere until late September.

Since last October, I've attended four events indoors - the Madrid Masters, the Paris Masters, the BlackRock Masters in London, and Rotterdam this week. Interesting as these events have been, I am looking forward immensely to spending time outdoors watching tennis again, notwithstanding the chance of rain again at Wimbledon. Action photography indoors is more difficult - and besides, I'm thoroughly tired of dark evenings after spending the day indoors watching tennis away from natural light. I'm also thinking that it would make more sense to get the tail-end of the indoor season out of the way before the Australian Open, which could surely be held a few weeks later than it is.

There's plenty to appreciate about the Rotterdam tournament in and of itself. The stadium it's held in, simply known as Ahoy, is close to Rotterdam Port. It's well known for hosting all kinds of events. I had never visited Rotterdam before this week, but had no problem finding the venue. It's within easy walking distance from a stop on the local metro system - a fact that came in very handy when I left on the second day in heavy rain, looking for a taxi and unable to find one.

Inside, the seating area is spacious, and it looked as though there are no restricted-view seats. People seem to be moving around the arena all the time - behind the boxes and the forward bank of "normal" seats is a wide walkway, that contains numerous stalls selling, among other things, tennis gear and food and drink. This area was buzzing during most of the time I was there, so there is a constant level of noise on the court. Nothing excessive in the main - and I think it makes for a relaxed atmosphere for spectators. You don't hear all of this sound on TV, where the microphones are focused on the court itself. I also like the court colours - a kind of pale brick-red surrounded by bright green. It's cheerful and easy on the eye. Elsewhere, away from the main court, there are many other concessions and eating-places, as well as opportunities for visitors to try out a tennis court. There are also some advertised opportunities to see the players offcourt (usually announced on Centre Court in between matches) - however, I was too busy watching tennis to investigate these.

I commented in the Thursday Watercooler on some of the matches I saw on Wednesday. On Thursday, I didn't stay for the entire day, after watching Ferrer, Davydenko and Nadal exit the tournament one after another. This tournament visit was, after all, part of my "Rafa Euro-spectator Slam", and had always been open-ended. If I'd been a local, I expect I would have stayed for longer, and would have returned for some of the later-round matches - as it is, I've been watching them on TV. If some of the other top players had survived, I probably would have stayed an extra day.

I felt mildly guilty about bailing out early. But then, I've been reflecting that watching live professional tennis is something that most people don't have the opportunity to do very often, and the reason is that in order to do so regularly, with the itinerant nature of the tour, you need to travel, which means giving up time and money, and putting aside other commitments. Away from home, in effect I weighed up the costs and benefits as events unfolded. Watching your favourite players in person is special, and for me would have been worth the extra time involved if they had still been there.

Much has already been said about Rafa's exit, including his explanation that he lost concentration. For what it's worth, it rings true to me - that's exactly how it looked from where I was sitting, especially the loss of serve at the start of the final set. The fact is, however, that on the day, Andreas Seppi played well enough (and consistently enough, in the last two sets) to beat him. During the latter stages of the match, I kept thinking "won't this guy ever miss?". Hardly. There were several of his balls that landed on the sideline closest to me that I thought must be out - but none were. As he did with Hewitt, so he did with Rafa - kept him pinned behind the baseline, took time away from him, punished the second serve and largely outrallied him. He possesses a sweet angled backhand volley, too. Of course, he gained in confidence. And the Nadal serve was not working as well as it did against Tursunov.

Naturally, Rafa's fightback during the third set, saving two match points in the process, was exciting. The crowd certainly thought so, even though they were very appreciative of how well Seppi was playing. The "fist pump" seen in the picture here came after that break-back game.

However, it wasn't ultimately enough (Seppi, after all, had a two-break cushion and served out efficiently the second time around). I admit (because of the "mental lapse") as a big supporter of his generally, I was disappointed with Rafa's performance, in a way that I hadn't been last November in the Bercy final against David Nalbandian - there, I didn't feel he went away, so much as being comprehensively outplayed in the second set by an on-song Nalbandian. Personallly I'm not yet reading anything much into the results of this week, though. The next few weeks, including Dubai and the two Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, may tell us more about where he is with his game heading into the claycourt season. And one thing that does not appear to have been an issue at all this week is those oft-discussed injuries.

Finally, as promised, I have put up some web galleries of the photos taken in Rotterdam. Those from Rafa's first match with Tursunov are here, and the pictures from the match with Seppi can be found on this link. There are also a fair number of pictures of other players here. [Use the arrows to page through the pictures - each can be enlarged from its thumbnail by clicking on it.]

Note: please feel free to use this post to discuss Rotterdam and the other events being played today, and other tennis-related matters. The [Deuce Club remains open for off-topic discussions.]