Monday Net Post

By TW Contributing Editor, Ed McGrogan

Last Week's Tournaments

Olympic Tennis Event (ATP & WTA - Hard - Beijing, China)

• Men's Singles Gold Medal Match: Rafael Nadal def. Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.
  - Men's Singles Semifinal: Fernando Gonzalez def. James Blake 4-6, 7-5, 11-9.
  - Men's Singles Semifinal: Rafael Nadal def. Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
  - Men's Singles Bronze Medal Match: Novak Djokovic def. James Blake 6-3, 7-6.
• Men's Singles Bracket

• Women's Singles Gold Medal Match: Elena Dementieva def. Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
  - Women's Singles Semifinal: Elena Dementieva def. Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6.
  - Women's Singles Semifinal: Dinara Safina def. Na Li 7-6, 7-5.
  - Women's Singles Bronze Medal Match: Vera Zvonareva def. Na Li 6-0, 7-5.
• Women's Singles Bracket

• Men's Doubles Gold Medal Match: Roger Federer/Stanislas Wawrinka def. Simon Aspelin/Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
  - Men's Doubles Semifinal: Roger Federer/Stanislas Wawrinka def. Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan 7-6, 6-4.
  - Men's Doubles Semifinal: Simon Aspelin/Thomas Johansson def. Arnaud Clement/Michael Llodra 7-6, 6-4, 19-17.
  - Men's Doubles Bronze Medal Match: Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan def. Arnaud Clement/Michael Llodra 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
• Men's Doubles Bracket

• Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match: Serena Williams/Venus Williams def. Anabel Medina Garrigues/Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0.
  - Women's Doubles Semifinal: Anabel Medina Garrigues/Virginia Ruano Pascual def. Zi Yan/Jie Zheng 6-4, 7-6.
  - Women's Doubles Semifinal: Serena Williams/Venus Williams def. Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
  - Women's Doubles Bronze Medal Match: Zi Yan/Jie Zheng def. Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 6-2.
• Women's Doubles Bracket

Legg Mason Tennis Classic (ATP - Hard - Washington D.C., United States)

• Singles Final: Juan Martin del Potro def. Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-3.
  - Singles Semifinal: Viktor Troicki def. Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2.
  - Singles Semifinal: Juan Martin del Potro def. Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-1.
• Singles Bracket

• Doubles Final: Marc Gicquel/Robert Lindstedt def. Bruno Suares/Kevin Ullyett 7-6, 6-3.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Bruno Suares/Kevin Ullyett def. Marcel Granollers/Sebastian Prieto 6-4, 6-4.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Marc Gicquel/Robert Lindstedt def. Travis Parrott/Filip Polasek 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.
• Doubles Bracket

Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open (ATP - Hard - Cincinnati, United States)

• Singles Final: Nadia Petrova def. Nathalie Dechy 6-2, 6-1.
  - Singles Semifinal: Nathalie Dechy def. Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
  - Singles Semifinal: Nadia Petrova def. Maria Kirilenko 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.

• Doubles Final: Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova def. Su-Wei Hsieh/Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 4-6, 10-8.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Su-Wei Hsieh/Yaroslava Shvedova def. Madison Brengle/Kristy Frilling 6-1, 6-1.
  - Doubles Semifinal: Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova def. Jasmin Woehr/Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 2-6, 6-3, 10-4.

• Singles & Doubles Brackets

By the Letter

T...op tour spots change: Today is the first day in over four and a half years that Roger Federer is no longer the ATP's No. 1 ranked player.  That distinction now belongs to Rafael Nadal.  On the WTA Tour, Jelena Jankovic's short stay atop the mountain is over.  Ana Ivanovic has reclaimed the No. 1 spot, and will remain there for at least three more weeks.
E...bay auction of the week.  This is a must-see for Federer fans! (I bought one of these for $8 back in 2005, by the way.)
N...ineteen wins in a row now (and four tournaments) for Juan Martin del Potro.  By the way, he's playing again this week in New Haven - probably in an effort to earn the final points needed to win the U.S. Open Series title.  He's a U.S. Open dark horse for sure, but keep his exhaustive schedule in mind.
N...eglected to mention earlier that Dinara Safina clinched the U.S. Open Series title on the women's side (for those of you who care).  This week, she continued her astonishing summer run by winning the silver medal in Beijing.
I...TF passed the 2009 Anti-Doping Code.  Although vague, the changes allow for "increased flexibility of sanctions" and "introduction of mandatory provisional suspensions."
S...avor many of the highlights from Federer's 237 consecutive weeks at No. 1 with this photo gallery, courtesy of the ATP's website.
W...ild cards for U.S. Open were announced this week for the men and women.
O...pening night ceremony at the U.S. Open will pay tribute to the Grand Slam tournament's 40 champions during the Open Era.
R...ussian Anna Chakvetadze spoke briefly to David Borges of the New Haven Register about the robbery that took place in her home last December.
L...ook at the introductory window of the ATP's home page if you're a Nadal fan.  Federer fans should click on the link at the top to close the window as quickly as possible.
D...efaulted: John McEnroe, while playing in an Outback Champions Series match against MaliVai Washington in Newport.

McGrogan's Heroes

ATP - Rafael Nadal

For a few short moments during the Beijing Olympics, I thought it was 2007 again.

In his opening match against Potito Starace, Rafael Nadal had to work much harder than many anticipated to escape with a three-set victory.  Starace, a clay court specialist who hadn't played a hard court match since March, gave Nadal a worthy test for a first round opponent.  Meanwhile, Roger Federer had just cleaned Dmitry Tursunov's clock in a performance that, for one of the first times this season, reminded me of his dominant days.

But from here on out, the visions of 2007 quickly changed into the realities of 2008.  Federer gutted out a win over Athens nemesis Tomas Berdych, but then lost to a player who he was previously undefeated against, James Blake.  Nadal, on the other hand, became the invincible player that we've known for the majority of this season.

Nadal's next two opponents, Lleyton Hewitt and Igor Andreev, did not roll over for Rafa, despite winning just nine games in total.  They came out running, swinging, and hoping.  But Nadal came out running better, swinging better, and knowing that he was the superior player.  Jurgen Melzer found this out next in a 6-0, 6-4 quarterfinal stomping.

The match of the Olympics was Nadal versus Novak Djokovic in the semifinals - the de facto final for many. The quality of tennis in this match reminded me of the Federer/Nadal classic at Wimbledon this year. I only wish this one could have gone to five sets as well. Nadal won a heart-stopping third set 6-4 in his toughest contest of the tournament. After getting by Djokovic, Nadal's gold medal match against Fernando Gonzalez was expected to be a formality. Nadal didn't disappoint, winning in straight sets. The only question that remains is this: Will Nadal disappoint at the U.S. Open?

WTA - Elena Dementieva

The 2008 Olympic tennis event had a very nostalgic feel when it came to the medalists.  Fernando Gonzalez, a bronze medalist in 2004, won silver in men’s singles this time around.  In women's doubles, the Williams sisters, who won the gold medal back in 2000, took home gold again this year.  But the most unlikely of repeat medalists was Elena Dementieva, who bested her silver medal showing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with gold in Beijing.

Dementieva has had a very nice 2008 season, but it's flown under the radar because of higher-profile WTA Tour stories (Justine Henin's retirement, the hot potato No. 1 ranking, the emergence of Dinara Safina). Once again, Dementieva played great tennis this past week, this time beating three Top 10 players in the final three rounds on her way to gold.

Dementieva breezed through the first three rounds without dropping a set. In the quarterfinals, she faced Serena Williams, who looked exceptional in taming the volatile Alize Cornet one round earlier. Williams likewise came out strong against Dementieva, winning the first set 6-3. But it was Williams who ended up wilting, and not Dementieva, who has long been accused of mental fragility. She advanced to the semifinals to face fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva.

In an overlooked semifinal (Safina's match with China's Na Li grabbed the spotlight), Dementieva defeated Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6. She now had to face Safina, who was on an overwhelming 33-3 run since mid-May. Once again, Dementieva fell behind a set. But once again, she came back, winning in three to win the gold.

With a couple more performances like this, Dementieva will find herself passing around the hot potato atop the WTA Tour.

Tennis Theatre

You've all seen Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka's celebration after their final two doubles wins in Beijing.  Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez also had a heartfelt embrace after winning doubles gold in 2004:

This Week's Tournaments

• TV Schedule

Pilot Pen Tennis (ATP & WTA - Hard - New Haven, United States)

• Men's Singles Bracket
• Men's Doubles Bracket
• Women's Singles & Doubles Brackets
• Website

Forest Hills Tennis Classic (WTA - Hard - Forest Hills, United States)

• Entry List
• Website

Beyond the Bracket

For this week's BtB, I'm going to give you a behind the scenes look at my Olympic commentating experience.

Providing live play-by-play is both a simple and a difficult task.  It's easy in the sense that you're really just regurgitating the conversation you're having with yourself (in your mind), or with someone else while watching a match.  But here's the kicker - none of the thousands of people who were watching online could talk back to you.  (At least not in the NBCOlympics.com applet.  Here on the TENNIS.com Crisis Centers, I did get some feedback - mostly positive - thank you.)  So in my own little world, I felt like I was saying the right things.

Who knows if I actually was.  From what I've heard, all of the streamed matches are saved in an online archive on NBCOlympics.com, with the text commentary included.  Someday, I'll have to relive some of my chats and see if I made any sense whatsoever.

This leads into the difficult part of the job - having something intelligent to say. When I normally watch a tennis match, I'm accustomed to taking it in as a whole, digesting it, and writing a piece about it after I've thought it over. And while I may think about individual points of the match frequently, only a small percentage of these observations find their way onto the finished product.

When writing something, it should be crafted in a very polished manner. But that's not easy to do when you are writing something every 30 seconds or so. Should I write something lengthier and studied, or brief and observant? How often should I do this? (Everyone yells at tennis commentators for talking too much and too often.) I often asked these questions to myself.

In the end, I thought I did a pretty good job, with some matches going better than others.  It was very tiring (because of the time difference and the rapid-fire match scheduling), but very fun too.  Kamakshi put it best to me afterwards: Even tennis writers have to adapt to different surfaces.

if...

you've been to the U.S. Open before, what advice would you give to first-time visitors?