Sunday Brunch: Jarkk the Shark

[Blogging advisory. I will be out of touch until I post the Crisis Center for Tuesday's matches tomorrow (Monday) evening. And on Tuesday, I will be in Las Vegas for the day, but business will continue as usual here at TW until my return. I hope to bring you some of Andre's thoughts on the Australian Open - Pete]

Mornin', folks, and welcome to another TennisWorld Sunday brunch. Has anybody checked over at *String Theory* yet to see if Tom Perrotta has bounced back from what some are already calling the greatest day in Australian Open tennis history - and  reporters and other camp followers are describing as another example of classic Grand Slam sleep deprivation?

Yesterday was decompression day, absorbing the Philipp Kolhschreiber vs. Jarkko Nieminen match and then watching the great white heron, Maria Sharapova, spear Elena Dementieva as if she were a hapless Fathead minnow provided a nice respite from the matches of the previous day. Your cuticles needed a break, right?  The matches I just mentioned were interesting in their own right, though, albeit for different reasons, So grab a bagel and your Bloody Mary or Mimosa and get into the conversation.

The most intriguing thing about an upset of the kind that Kohlshreiber pulled off over Andy Roddick is the downstream effect. It often means you're going to get a match-up deep in the tournament between two guys who may be facing a career opportunity: reaching a Grand Slam quarter or better. This is a significant achievement; did you know that most majors have traditionally had an elite "Final 8" club, extending annual special priveleges to players who have been to the quarters or better, and then want to return to the tournament as spectators? The perks include tickets and special credentials as well as on-site hospitality. I always wondered, as the game rolled on and the depth increased, if the tournaments could sustain a tent large enough to accomodate everyone who qualified for the Final 8 club. Someone remind me to look into whether or not the Slams have continued this tradition.

For a guy like Kohlschreiber, the match after the upset presented a trial-by-fire that always seemed to me every bit as daunting as contesting a major final is for the elite players. It's because the reply to the statement made by the upset-maker is a very swift, loud: Back it up, bucko. The elite players understand what that means, and how difficult a challenge it embodies. That's why almost every one of them has said, at one time or another: I don't mind losing as much if the guy who beats me goes on to win the tournament. Of course, for a guy like Kohlschreiber, on the day after he took out Roddick, that feat wasn't even on the radar. The horizon was dominated by the towering figure of Jarkko Nieminen. It's amazing how often an obstacle like Mt. Nieminen proves insurmontable. That's because the change from no pressure to total pressure hits a player as hard as one of those 24-hour weather events, when you go from sunny a pleasant 70-degrees to 28 with a biting wind and sleet. It's a shock to the system.

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s a tennis player, you live for the day. It's counter-intuitive, but if you're Kohlshreiber, drawing an Andy Roddick or a Rafael Nadal is not a life-threatening situation; there's no more real risk involved than there is in wandering into a deli to purchase a Powerball lottery ticket. The real crisis occurs after you've cashed that winning ticket and then have to keep your life in order. When you must play Jarkko Nieminen, after you've drawn a little bit of attention to yourself and your gorgeous backhand. You know in your heart that there's no reason for you not to beat the guy, provided your player-hating mojo makes the trip to the courts when you most need  him.

On top of that, pasting up that big W over Roddick has inflated your stock. Is it legitimate, or just a blip in the market?  Sudddenly, nobody cares that Nieminen is seeded five places ahead of you, at 24. You beat Roddick. You are the man. Now back it up.

Kohlschreiber stepped up and won the first set; so far so good. But you could see in that second-set tiebreaker that the threat of success was too much for Phil of the  three Ps to handle. He stood on the brink of proving that his win over Roddick was no form-of-the-day fluke, destined to be forgotten by all but his small handful of fans, or an army of grieving Roddick fans, roughly 48 hours after he accomplished it. All he had to do was beat this lean and gangly Finn - a win so unsurprising that it would be lucky to make it into the main body of most round-up stories that day.

The German lad also had to know this: in the eyes of his peers, if not the elite, a win over Nieminen, ensuring at least a quarterfinal finish, would earn him tremendous respect and perhaps even strike a little fear into their hearts, going forward. There's a huge difference between: He had a great tournament, beating Roddick enroute to the quarterfinals! and, Wow, dude beat Roddick and then he lost to Jarkko freakin'  Nieminen in the Fourth Round. Guess even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.

All this brings pressure to bear on a player, and it was nearly heartbreaking to see Kohlschreiber lose those second and third sets by the narrowest of margins (winning 7 and nine points, respectively), seetting up the win by Jarkk the Shark. It's not like you could not see this coming. Jarkko is one of those tough, crafty, seasoned players whom you simply have to beat if you aspire to membership in some Final 8 club. As he explained in his presser, taking stock of his powers:

People will remember that Kohlschreiber beat Roddick at this Australian Open, but most of them will fail to appreciate that the real test for Phil of the Three Ps occurred one round later, and he wasn't able to pass it. He did not have that "easy feeling" Nieminen mentioned. These Fourth Round encounters between surprise guests at that stage are a compelling part of the game - they're the boiler room of a Grand Slam, far below the deck on which the Federers and Nadals prance and rule, and when you close your eyes you can hear the pipes clanking and the fittings creaking as the pressure builds and drives the tournament onward.

It was a tough day for Philipp, and all I can say is that tennis players are lucky to be blessed with short memories. That's one thing all of them have in common.

Some further thoughts on other subjects: I suppose it's churlish of me, but I find it's always life-affirming when Gasquet and Nalbandian are upset on the same day. Also, Maria Sharapova's win over Elena Dementieva had the look of a pivotal moment.  Maria made a big statement by waxing 'Lena so thoroughly, and I don't care what kind of puffballs Dementieva was serving up.  My feeling is that Freakin' Shriekin' Sharapova loves the nature of these courts and is going to be very hard to beat.