By Thomas Swick
“Hey, Tom, you just spent five days watching tennis. What are you gonna do now?”
“Watch more tennis.”
Some people don’t understand this. They don’t realize that the beginning of a tournament, when the top-seeded players work out their kinks against the journeymen and the newbies, is the amuse-bouche, followed by a few hors d’oeuvres. After that, you move on to the filling pasta dishes. I mean, you wouldn’t leave a restaurant in the middle of a meal.
Monday it looked as if the waiter had gotten the order of courses mixed up when Serena Williams and Samantha Stosur walked onto Stadium Court. It wasn’t just that this was going to be a repeat of last year’s women’s U.S. Open final, it was also the players’ powerful physiques, which brought to mind a more substantial dish – say, a porterhouse steak. If both of them hadn’t been wearing dresses, spectators might have thought they’d arrived at the women’s shot put event.
But they knew why they were here, even if they filled only half the seats on a beautiful Monday afternoon in Miami. And that was to see if Serena would avenge her U.S. Open defeat and, let’s be honest, if she would once again blow her stack. The satisfaction of a drama having nothing to do with long rallies is always a possibility when Serena takes the court.
The first set provided some excitement – though no outbursts – and Serena won it 7-5. She took the second 6-3. A small side of tasty but uninspiring spaghetti in marinara sauce.
The #1 player in the world, Novak Djokovic, was up next in the stadium, and he had an easy win over his compatriot Viktor Troicki. They were followed by a battle of the tall and the lanky: Juan Martin Del Potro and Marin Cilic. Another straight set win by the former, but at least with a tiebreak in the second. Linguine Alfredo.
Meanwhile, the match of the day (so far), was taking place in the Grandstand, where Dominika Cibulkova was dominating Victoria Azarenka. The feisty Slovak won the first set 6-1 and served for the match at 5-2 in the second. Not unlike Aleksandra Wozniak against Venus Williams the day before, she coughed up two double faults and lost the game. She proceeded to lose the next three, and then the tiebreak.
But she kept fighting, ripping forehand winners after unforced errors, before losing finally 7-5. The crowd gave both players a standing ovation, grateful for the equivalent of a seafood risotto.
The evening match in the Stadium, between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, would have been the main course in the old days, when they were what Djokovic and Nadal are now. Before a packed and partisan house, Roddick looked at least six years younger, winning the first set with powerful serves and then breaking Federer for one last time in the third. When on match point he hit a service winner, the stadium let loose like it was 2006. For Roddick it must have tasted like filet mignon.