NEW YORK—Tennis is a sport with serious heft these days because it is blessed with the “Big Three” (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic), but one of the more intriguing subtexts in the sport is that it wouldn’t take all that much for tennis to be all about a “Super Six.”
That’s a lot of dogs fighting over the same bone on four big occasions each year, but think about it: We already have a big three-and-a-half (or is it three-quarters, now that Andy Murray beat Djokovic and Federer in the last two rounds of the Olympic Games to earn a gold medal?). And two other men have been in the hunt at big tournaments long enough to be taken seriously as contenders at Grand Slams: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the No. 5 seed at the U.S. Open, and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych.
Fans of No. 4 David Ferrer might take exception to my leaving him out of this discussion, but as attractive—and hype-worthy—as a “Magnificent Seven” might be, I just don’t believe Ferrer has a big enough game (or frame) to be included in this group. We can argue about it another time.
Tsonga and Berdych were both in action yesterday, in concurrent matches in Louis Armstrong Stadium (Berdych) and the adjacent Grandstand (Tsonga). I visited both matches.
I’ve noticed that when Armstrong is at half capacity or less, a weird, almost mesmerizing silence can befall the place when a blowout is in progress. It’s like the calm before the storm that never happens. It was that way as Berdych worked over tour newcomer, David Goffin of Belgium.
Although he’s just 21, Goffin could easily pass for 15. This guy is going to be carded in any bar he enters until the day he sloughs off the mortal coil. Goffin doesn’t help his own cause by looking as if just rolled out of a bed you’d imagine has a Federer poster pinned above it. And how does a kid play pro tennis all summer and still remain pale as a slug?
The contrast between Goffin and Berdych was striking. Goffin is a 5-foot-11 stick figure (he weighs 150 lbs, or roughly the same as one of Tsonga’s thighs) while Berdych is lean and wolf-ish at 6-foot-5. Those long muscles of his brought loads of power to bear on the match, and even though he never really trailed, you could see that he was tense.
Up 7-5 and serving for the second set at 5-2, Berdych lost the first point thanks to an artful Goffin drop shot. But then he dropped two aces and a service winner, and sealed the set with a second-service ace—after which he whirled to his support team and flashed the obligatory if unnecessary fist. Resistance, Goffin appeared to understand, was futile.
I left Armstrong and wandered to the Grandstand, where the Tsonga was laying the same kind of woe on Karol Beck, the 30-year old No. 143 from the Slovak Republic. Physically, the mismatch was similar to the one next door, as Tsonga at 6-foot-2 is only three inches taller than Beck, but he outweighs him by a good 30 pounds.
Beck lacks Goffin’s finesse and touch, but he’s got a heck of a verbal game. Granted, Tsonga was crushing him (he was running away with it at 6-3, 4-2 when I arrived), and that had to hurt. But after almost every point, Beck would point toward some unremarkable point on the court or line, shrug, and rant on in Slovakian or Swahili (I can’t tell one from the other). It wasn’t very pretty; in fact, it was almost as if Tsonga was torturing poor Beck. But it was fun to watch in a sick kind of way.
Neither Berdych nor Tsonga lost a set (although Beck did force a third-set tiebreaker that ended 7-2), so why bother looking at the match stats for each man—let’s just compare the numbers.
Exactly 38 percent of the serves Berdych and Tsonga hit were unreturnables (and that’s the most useful of all serving statistics). Tsonga’s best serve (137 M.P.H.) was three ticks faster than Berdych’s, and the Frenchman also blasted one more winner (41 to 40). But Berdych made fewer unforced errors (30, to 36 by Tsonga), and put slightly more returns into play (74 to 72 percent). Each man hit four return winners.
Those and other numbers confirm just how similar the two men are, as do their career statistics. Going into 2012, each of them had been runner-up at one Grand Slam event, and each of them had bagged one Masters 1000 title and finished runner-up at another. Oddly enough, they have only met on court in tour matches twice. Predictably, they are 1-1. Don’t you just wish the Big three-and-whatever would get out of the way and let these two butt heads in a major final?
That raises the question: Why hasn’t either of them punched through to win a Grand Slam title? Is it because Berdych is too much of a “head case,” prone to sabotaging himself when he’s perched at the brink of success?
Is it because Tsonga is too much the entertainer and fun guy, playing Grand Slam semis as if they were exhibition matches followed by an auction for charity? And does either of them believe, deep down, that he can make the big breakthrough?
The only way to find out was to ask them directly. I went to Berdych first.
“I mean, on one hand, it (winning a major) is very far; on the other one it's quite close,” he told me. “It's really tough to say.”
He went on to say that if anyone had the secret to Grand Slam success, all the players would flock to him. But since no such person exists, all Berdych can do is his best—work hard and hope.
“The majors are not for everyone,” he said. “This time it's just probably for three guys. We are probably in the best era of our sport. Yeah, that's how it is.”
And does he feel in his heart that he’s close to breaking through?
“On one hand it’s close, but, probably would be closer if I would be playing more finals with them.”
Tsonga was less equivocal and seemed to have a much firmer sense of where he stood and what he needed to do to move ahead. He said he still saw room for improvement in his game, as well as his physical conditioning. “I have to be a bit quicker,” he said. “I have to move a bit better to win against these guys, so I work on it.”
He said his superiors were “unbelievable” and, when it came to his innermost thoughts on the subject, added, “In my heart I feel like it’s difficult, but you know—it’s always in my mind. I play tennis to win big tournaments like this. I mean, since I’m a kid I dream about it. That’s what gives me motivation. You know, I never give up and I will work until I cannot work anymore.”
Advantage, Tsonga.