gaston gaudio

What if there had been no Roger Federer?

October 5, 2012 by WTM

By James Crabtree

What if there had been no Roger Federer?

Ever since the defeat of Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001 Roger Federer has been in the spotlight. Two years after this emphatic victory he claimed his first grand slam over Mark Philippoussis. Since then we have witnessed almost ten years of the greatest tennis onslaught in memory, by a master craftsman employing an effortless classical style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQIfymP-a4I&w=585

Simply put, Federer has ruined a lot of parties from Sampras and Safin to Hewitt and Haas to Roddick, Nadal and Murray.

But what if there had been no Federer?

scud_show — Mark Philippoussis as a reality TV star

Rewind back to Wimbledon 2003 and you find a draw that looked pretty open. Defending champion and number one seed Lleyton Hewitt had lost in the first round to qualifier Ivo Karlovic. Andre Agassi and Juan Carlos Ferrero, the other top seeds, had both lost in the fourth round. Federer went on to beat Andy Roddick in the semi and then Mark Philippoussis in the final. If he hadn’t been there would Andy Roddick have claimed a Wimby title? Or would Mark Philippoussis be sitting back on a beach somewhere now, enjoying the star status that comes with being Wimbledon champion? And would ‘The Scud’ have ever needed to do a stint on reality TV?

The dominance exhibited between 2004 and 2008 was purely brutal with Federer collecting eleven of sixteen possible slams. Lleyton Hewitt was denied the momentum needed for more success. The twilight of Andre Agassi’s career missed a fairy-tale finale whilst Andy Roddick beared the brunt of Swiss aggression losing in five slams during this time, with enough nightmares to last a last time.

During that time Gastón Gaudio won his French Open crown, Marat Safin collected his Aussie title and Rafael Nadal started his incredible clay run that has not stopped. Andre Agassi, Tommy Haas and Rafael Nadal have been the only players to really challenge Federer outside the French, having both pushed him to five sets at the 2004 U.S. Open, 2006 Australian Open and 2007 Wimbledon Championships respectively.

Arguably, during those years Rafael Nadal could have proved he was more than just a clay specialist a whole lot earlier. Marcos Baghdatis and Fernando González both made finals appearances as lower seeds during this time, and it’s not unreasonable to believe that if they were in a different era they could have collected a slam, as Thomas Johansson or Petr Korda did in Australia years prior.

In 2009 when Federer completed the career grand slam with his French Open win, he managed to thwart the considerable efforts of Del Potro, Haas and Soderling along the way. Andy Murray could have saved himself a few years of hurt. As recently as Wimbledon 2012 Julian Benneteau stretched the great Swiss to five sets, but to no more avail than a little praise and a pat on the back. Beat him and add to your place amongst the Gods, lose and become lost within the Federer chronicle.

True, Federer has been less greedy in more recent years. And we have seen Djokovic and Nadal both take their turns atop the tennis Empire, each managing to collect three slams out of four in a season. Meanwhile Federer has continued to play havoc with familiar foes, most notable Murray and the recently retired Roddick. However it must be noted, with Nadal injured and Novak appearing mortal, it’s hard to imagine that Federer won’t still spoil a few more parties yet.

The French Open’s tradition of unlikely winners

May 26, 2012 by Charles Bricker

By Charles Bricker

Of the four Grand Slams, the French, which begins Sunday, is the one that seems to inspire the most unlikely winners.

Like Al Costa in 2002, Iva Majoli in 1997, and Anastasia Myskina and Gaston Gaudio in 2004. One-Slam wonders, all of them.

Gaudio was down two sets to love to Guillermo Coria in the final when Coria began cramping and lost in five. Gaudio never reached another quarterfinal in all his years at Roland Garros.

Costa had always been a good clay courter, and sometimes a very good one. But ’02 was his only big year. When he retired, he had his major title, but was 21-23 in the other three Slams.

Myskina? She had lost four of her first five French Open matches when she soared to the title in her sixth year at Paris, defeating double-fault prone Elena Dementieva in the final — her only hurrah.

As for Majoli, she never reached another semifinal at Paris in her career. That was her one year.

US Venus Williams returns a ball during — Venus Williams (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/GettyImages)

Conversely, these five players might be the greatest NEVER to win a French Open — Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Venus Willliams.

It wasn’t that Sampras couldn’t get the hang of clay. He was 90-54 on the dirt surface, well below his overall winning percentage, but, still, he had three clay court titles when he retired. In 1996, with the fortnight warmer than usual and the clay playing a lot faster, Sampras made it to the semifinals — farthest he got in Paris. And then he was blown away by Yevgeny Kafelnikov. After that season, Pete reached a French Open third round only once.

Connors, with his great service returning, had the game for clay and, in fact, won 12 clay tournaments and was 197-56 overall on the soft surface. He was 40-13 overall at Roland Garros and four times made the semis. But he never clawed his way to the final plateau, though in 1980 he went five sets in the semis with Vitas Gerulaitis.

McEnroe, whose game depended significantly on his serving-and-volleying, had enough finesse to win on clay, but it just wasn’t his surface. He won four clay tournaments and was 118-46 overall on the stuff. He had his chances to win the French. In 1984, he was up two sets to love on Ivan Lendl in the final, but lost, going down 7-5, 7-5 in the final two sets.

Becker would have been great throwing his body around on red clay, and there would have been a lot fewer skin rashes. But you could see from the time he won Wimbledon in 1985 at age 17 that his game just didn’t translate well to clay. He was only 120-61 on clay and never won a clay title. He reached the French semis three times.

Of the five players, Venus perhaps is the most intriguing. The clay took a lot of the oomph out of her big serve, but she has always had enough power to hit ground strokes through any court, hard or soft. What she never had was the patience to endure the longer rallies. She reached the final at Roland Garros just once, losing to sister Serena, who won her only French title in 2002. Some of Venus’ worst losses were at Roland Garros — to No 96 Sesil Karatantchevea in 2005 and in 2006 to 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova. Vaidisova could have had a great career if she hadn’t retired from the game early, disinterested in tennis. She was no easy mark for Williams. Still, she was just 17 when she won that match, and very inexperienced.

Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com

Federer’s ATP World Tour Finals White-Wash

November 19, 2010 by WTM

WorldTennisMagazine.com takes a look back at ATP World Tour Finals from yester-year in this special series – ATP World Tour Final Rewind. Today we look back to matches from November 19, as excerpted from the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com) by Randy Walker.

2006 – Roger Federer concludes one of the most dominating seasons in tennis history, defeating James Blake 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai,China. Federer finishes the year with 12 titles in 16 final-round appearances in 17 total tournaments played, three major championships (Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) and becomes the first player to exceed $7 million in prize money in a season with a $8.34 million during the 2006 campaign. Only two players manage to beat Federer during the year – Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Says Blake of the undisputed world No. 1, “Obviously, we’re all chasing Roger. It’s no secret. He’s playing head and shoulders above the rest of us.” Says Federer of his epic year, “To finish it off by winning the Masters Cup, the world championship so to speak, it’s the perfect ending to an incredible season. There’s not much more I could have done.” Federer is one match from winning the Grand Slam – losing in the final of the French Championships to Nadal. He finishes the year with a 92-5 record – winning his last 29 matches.

1995 – Boris Becker defeats Michael Chang 7-6 (3), 6-0, 7-6 (5) in the year-end ATP Tour Finals in Frankfurt, Germany. Says Becker, “This was the best crowd I’ve ever had in Germany.”

2005 – World No. 1 Roger Federer blanks Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals of the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China – the first ever white-wash in the 35-year history of the year-end men’s championships.

2005:Federer’s 6-0, 6-0 Whitewash

November 19, 2009 by WTM

There are only three more days until the start of the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. As part on of the countdown, WorldTennisMagazine.com is presenting a special look at some of the best moments in the history of the season-ending ATP championships, courtesy of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com). Each day, WorldTennisMagazine.com will present the anniversaries of some of the best matches from the event.

ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY – November 19

2006 – Roger Federer concludes one of the most dominating seasons in tennis history, defeating James Blake 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China. Federer finishes the year with 12 titles in 16 final-round appearances in 17 total tournaments played, three major championships (Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) and becomes the first player to exceed $7 million in prize money in a season with a $8.34 million during the 2006 campaign. Only two players manage to beat Federer during the year – Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Says Blake of the undisputed world No. 1, “Obviously, we’re all chasing Roger. It’s no secret. He’s playing head and shoulders above the rest of us.” Says Federer of his epic year, “To finish it off by winning the Masters Cup, the world championship so to speak, it’s the perfect ending to an incredible season. There’s not much more I could have done.” Federer is one match from winning the Grand Slam – losing in the final of the French Championships to Nadal. He finishes the year with a 92-5 record – winning his last 29 matches.

1995 – Boris Becker defeats Michael Chang 7-6 (3), 6-0, 7-6 (5) in the year-end ATP Tour Finals in Frankfurt, Germany. Says Becker, “This was the best crowd I’ve ever had in Germany.”