G'day all. It's shaping up as quite the finish to the ATP season in Paris, eh? How about yesterday, when three huge stories competed for what meager headlines the game is able to generate, in this the season of Novak's discontent: Federer's second-round loss to Julien Benneteau, Rafael Nadal's nervy escape from (five) match-points down against Nicolas Almagro, and Marat Safin's career-ending loss to Juan Martin del Potro.
And there's this: Five player were still in the running for the final two slots at the start of the week, making the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 a complicated shoot-out; if you've ever been in one of those, you know that cross-fire can be a nasty thing. You go out and gun down the outlaw Davydenko and that clears the field-of-fire for desperado Jo-Willy to blast his way past you to the title. Or something like that.
This would be high, media-commanding drama - if only the Tennis Masters Cup (and, therefore, the doings at Bercy) were higher on the radar of the sports public and media. At first blush, you might be inclined to blame the relative lack of buzz over the year-end championships on faulty promotion, or the surprising power of the Grand Slam events, which have a choke-hold on the game. I think it has more to do with the fact that all but deeply committed tennis nuts (that's you, buck-o) think of tennis as a summer, outdoor game. That the Grand Slams are all four summer events (it being summer in Australia in January) only helps sustain the idea.
Tennis took a big gamble when it adopted the Grand Prix concept - a year-long race for ranking points and, during some periods in the GP history, incentives like extra bonus-pool money, capped by a final mega-event. It's a logical, defensible idea, but it has one enormous flaw. It dictates a November or December finale.
It seems that most people have ingrained ideas of when tennis matters and when it doesn't. BTW, does it ever occur to you that the NBA or even the NCAA might be better served if basketball were played . . . outdoors? Oh, we know why it's indoors alright; and we know it's a gym-based sport. But that's only because, over time, it made sense for basketball, amateur as well as pro, to go indoors in order to command a time-slot on the seasonal calendar. So we now think of it as a winter, indoor game. Just as tennis is an outdoor, summer game.
Well, I know you're keen on talking Bercy (that's a language closely related to French), so without further ado, here's my two cents on the five contenders for a place in the TMC:
Nikolay Davydenko (needed to reach semis to qualify) - Robin Soderling cut him off at the knees, but Davydenko can still back into a spot - depending on what his rivals do.
Robin Soderling (needed to reach the final to have a shot at qualifying) - As I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong, his fate isn't entirely in his own hands unless he wins it all.
Fernando Verdasco (would have qualified if he won the event) - Having lost today, he'll be out if either Soderling, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, or Fernando Gonzalez wins the event. 'Dasco put in a good effort but, as at the U.S. Open, he just couldn't take capitalize on a huge opportunity. His chances now are slim to none.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (needed to reach final to have a chance) - He's the defending champ and the home-crowd favorite, and who could ask for greater motivation?
Fernando Gonzalez (needed to reach final to have a chance) - I don't really trust the volcanic Chilean to get it done, but he's caught fire at the end of the year before.
I get the feeling that Soderling might win this tournament to cap a year in which he made believers out of many who initially wrote off his run to the Roland Garros final as a fluke. This guy has taken great strides since those two enchanted weeks in May, and I'd like to see him win this event and qualify for the TMC.
I say I'd "like" to see Soderling win because he's a whale of an indoor player, and he's done due diligence outdoors to prove he's not just a slam-bam, fast-court specialist. I hate making predictions (call me vain, but I think I know better than that, after having covered the game for 30 years), but I don't mind revealing the things that might tug a little at my heart.
And I'd like to see Soderling joined in the elite 8 by Jo-Willy. Is that even possible, with Rafael Nadal proceeding with the huge boost of confidence any player gets from having survived an early-round match from match-point down?