!Tipsy by Pete Bodo
Yesterday was not a good day to be Janko Tipsarevic. Today may be even worse. For when he next wakes up, his memory of what happened in his second-round match with no. 9 seed Fernando Verdasco in Hisense Arena will be immediately and inescapably on his mind. It will be worse than a brutal hangover because the pill to cure this kind of pain hasn't been invented yet.
Tipsarevic allowed a two-sets to love lead melt away; in the fourth set, he failed to hold serve at 5-3 and at 6-5 to close out Verdasco. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Tipsarevic didn't win a point, and at 0-6 ESPN commentator Brad Gilbert spoke truth to Tipsarevic's lack of power, saying:
"You gotta feel for Tipsarevic. We've all done this, but it's hard to watch."
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Tipsarevic surfed into Australia still on a high from the role he played in Serbia's successful quest for the Davis Cup championship in 2010. He was a semifinalist in his only previous tournament of the new year; he lost to Xavier Malisse in Chennai. He has a well-earned reputation as a giant killer despite being just 5-11 and 183 pounds. He would have to box in the light heavyweight class, but there's some sting in those Luxilon jabs.
Going into the year's first Grand Slam, which is always an opportunity to build upon a briefly interrupted ascent or an ideal time to hit the reset button, depending on the state of your game and mind, Tipsarevic was 3-2 in his last five meetings with top 5 players. The centerpiece of that glowing record was Tipsy's second round upset of Andy Roddick at the 2010 US Open. And Tipsarevic owned a positive head-to-head with Verdasco, even though the Madrileno (sorry, I can't do that tilda thing on this keyboard) won the last of their three previous meetings, in 2009 in Valencia.
At 6-2, 179 pounds, Verdasco qualifies as a cruiserweight, but the feeling you get is that he'd fight up in the open heavyweight division. He packs a serious wallop, especially on the forehand side, and as a lefty he presents a right-hander like Tipsarevic with a few additional problems, chief among them the challenge of returning serve in the ad-court. On paper this was a bit of a mis-match, but that's one of the appealing things about tennis; it's an all comers deal, and it's surprising how often the game coughs up that old cliche, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
That was particularly pertinent in this clash, because Verdasco's great weakness lies in his software. He has some lethal tools, including a healthy willingness to go for broke. If only his mind were as dangerous as his big game. I don't know if it's a surfeit of pride or a moody streak, either of which can turn a player sulky. Verdasco's flaw may also be a manifestation of vanity. Being overly concerned with how you look, in both general and specific ways, can lead you to make poor choices and in any event represents a kind of self-consciousness that isn't very useful in the heat of battle.
On the looks side, Verdasco had it covered with that sleek black faux hawk. (I imagined a skateboarder leaping from the stands to perform one of those rail-riding tricks on his head.) That cut is supposed to imply a level of menace, I think, but the message Verdasco sent with it was less I'm gonna get you . . . than How do I look, dude?
Through most of the first two sets, Verdasco simply didn't appear to want to engage in combat. That was a little odd, because nobody Down Under has forgotten that epic 2009 five-set semifinal confrontation Verdasco had with his pal and countryman Rafael Nadal (it's the longest Australian Open match on record), which Verdasco came within a hair's breadth of winning.
Tipsarevic's game plan dovetailed perfectly with Verdasco's mood, which is why he leaped out to that quick lead. The giant-killer camped on the baseline and ran Verdasco, keeping him off balance and somewhat handcuffed. Tipsarevic also made the most of what opportunities he had, which is an essential task when you rock a superior player and get him back on his heels. But now and then, especially as the match went on, you could see what might happen should Tipsarevic let Verdasco get some traction. He had the capacity to hit Tipsarevic off the court.
The mandate for a player in Tipsarevic's position after winning the first two sets is plain and simple: Finish. Keep that boot on his throat. Close it out. That can be a very tall order, and you can't be blamed for faltering. You can let a guy like Verdasco off the canvas once or twice, but if you don't put him away by a certain point you're doomed. By the late stages of the third set, you could see Verdasco stirring to life.
The contrast between the strokes of the rivals was striking. Verdasco likes to get his substantial body weight behind the ball and drive forward, a talent that allows him to hit a heavier ball as well as improve his court position. By contrast, Tipsarevic, while making decent power for a guy of his size, often fails to drive through his shot. He uses too much arm and too little body, as if he doesn't want to crowd the ball. He appears to hit a "light" ball, even when it has good movement and pace. This is a fundamental technical problem, and probably too ingrained in Tipsy to be redressed.
But all that flailing was bound to tire Tipsarevic, and Verdasco's fearless, aggressive play and the sheer weight of his ball began to wear on Tisparevic. Still, Tipsarevic had two chances to serve it out in the fourth set, and that's one more than he could have hoped to overcome. Crunch time arrived when Janko, having failed to serve it out at 5-3, had another opportunity at 6-5. From there he had three match points starting from 6-5, 40-15. The second of those match points was a dagger plunged into Tipsy's heart.
Tiparevic approached the net and hit the kind of shot you might see from a keyed-up rec player in a leagues match. He just ran up and seemingly through the ball, although he did manage to get the volley across the net. It was a strange ball that bounced closer to the net than to Verdasco's baseline, and it drew a lob response. Tipsarevic went up and hit a crazy backhand high overhead. Once again, he clubbed it with insufficient depth or angle and Verdasco had a chance to make a down-the-line forehand blast. That's just what he did, and even though Tipsarevic anticipated the shot and got there, racket arm outstretched, he was so rushed that the ball seemed to go through his racket, landing for a winner. It was as clumsily played a point as you'll ever see from a world class player, and the memory is apt to haunt Tipsarevic for a long time.
Tipsarevic had one more chance, half-a-dozen points later, but he made a backhand error and it all slid away from there. Just how crushed was Tipsarevic? Verdasco won 32 of the final 37 points and surrendered but one point on serve in a fifth set that lasted just 26 minutes. It was not a good 26 minutes to be Janko Tipsarevic, and unfortunately it was just the beginning. . .