Mind Games

Roland Garros is underway and the big story (once again) is Novak Djokovic's quest to complete the Career Slam. An inaugural title run in Paris would be made extra special as Novak would also hold all four major titles, a feat he can completely call his own when compared to his legendary contemporaries in Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. As it has been for the last several years, there will be a lot of eyes and tons of pressure on Novak to finally check this last Grand Slam box.

All vodka, no soda | BusinessInsider.com

The lead-up to this year's French Open has not been a particularly glowing one for Nole. He was lackadaisical and mostly listless in his stunning defeat at the hands of Jiri Vesely in Monte Carlo, and though he won Madrid relatively free of great drama, he was cantankerous and, at times, downright volatile throughout his entire Rome campaign and went down rather meekly, if not quietly, to a now formidable clay court threat in Andy Murray. 

After the uproar regarding his behavior at the Italian Open calmed down, questions about the state of the World No. 1 began to surface. Was the unbreakable Djokovic cracked? Are the yet-to-be-exorcised demons of previous French Opens rearing their heads to terrorize Novak during this most critical juncture of his season?

We can't really answer those queries until we see him play under pressure in Paris. For the time being, however, let's consider these:

1. Novak Djokovic is well-aware of what is at stake at Roland Garros. He's been through this many times at this point. Anxiety is nearly the only emotion he knows when it comes to this damn tournament, meaning he is well-aware of how to navigate his feelings.
2. Novak understands that he cannot come to Paris with any negative energy. Mental preparation is an edge he has over everyone else in the game today. I would bet that he purposely attempted to leave all his doubts, fears, and worries at the Foro Italico so he is able to arrive at the French Open with clarity.
3. Novak is still, far and away, the best player on the planet. When he is playing well, there isn't anyone who can touch him. Rafa can attest to that given their match in Doha. Andy experienced peak Nole for a set in Melbourne. They know that they must bring their absolute best and hope that Djokovic is suboptimal when he faces either one of them. Granted, both Nadal and Murray are playing better tennis than they were in January, but Novak should feel comfort in knowing he has beaten both in succession here in Paris last year (and he must be further comforted knowing there won't be another match after should he pull off the feat again this year!).
4. Most relevant of all in my opinion, Novak has a really good draw. He easily dispatched Rendy Lu in the first round, and the rest of his path seems quite unobstructed through to the semifinals. If all goes accordingly, he should find himself in the final weekend with plenty of physical and mental gas left in the tank.

Every year something happens to Novak in this damn tournament. Whether it be losing his balance into the net on a crucial point, an unsettled stomach on finals Sunday, or unfortunately timed weather suspensions, the unknown is Djokovic's biggest threat to Roland Garros glory. Still, I have faith that, just this one time, fate will be kind to Nole throughout the entire two weeks and he will finally win this goddamn tournament. Goddamnit.

New Season's Resolutions

Happy 2016, y'all! We are 14 days into the New Year, but it's never too late to think up some New Year's Resolutions or, better yet, 2016 goals that one can strive to achieve during this revolution around the big, bright, reddish-yellow orb of which we are so dependent sun. I have a list of general goals I would like to achieve this year (e.g. read more books), but I also have a couple of tennis-related items that would make me a better fan this year and in the years to come:

Resolution: never miss the drama
(Daily Mail | @WTAreactions)

• Organize Twitter - I deeply apologize for invading your mentions with quizzical notifications about being added to some random list, but one of my goals for the past few years was to organize my timeline and I'm forcing myself to get around to it this year. Parsing out certain segments of Tennis Twitter is already realizing benefits: I can get the latest goings on of Novak Djokovic and enjoy the Nole love bubble on one list, see what the journos are reporting on another, and curate the fun tweets from my favorite Tweeters without having to sift through the TL hay to find those lovely needles. I also find myself on Twitter less now that I know I can always go back and find the important tweets that I may have missed.
• Plan sleep - This is especially important this Australia swing for those of us in the States and Europe. FOMO is a major pandemic within the hardcore tennis fan community. With most tennis throughout the year playing outside of my timezone, I often find myself staying up until WTF o'clock in the morning or waking at ungodly hours to watch the matches I have circled on the Order of Play. None of this is good for my day-to-day life. Instead of getting involved in a marathon of matches, I need to pick my spots and understand that I'm just not gonna catch everything. Whatever I do miss, I can get a succinct recap by consulting one of my lists!
• Watch more challengers/juniors - Since streams are available for the ATP Challenger Tour and certain USTA junior events, I have little excuses to ignore this echelon of the sport. I've been spoiled by high-quality tennis from some of my favs, so this may be a difficult one for me to follow through on. Still, it would be beneficial to keep track of the young or obsolete talents at the lower levels of the game just to say "I saw them first" when they breakout on the main stage of the tour.

What tennis resolutions do you have this year? Let me know with a comment or a tweet! Hope you're all ready for the Australian Open - should be crazy.

(p.s. Year of the Gentleman is still a tough album, so underrated.)

Comparing Contrasts

Winning so much makes you wanna dance | Getty

Novak Djokovic has just capped the greatest year of his career, and one of the best single seasons ever, by winning the ATP World Tour Finals for a fourth(!!!) consecutive year and fifth time overall. Official stats are just a little ridiculous and speak very loudly for themselves. 82 match wins against 6 losses, 11 total titles, three majors, six Masters, a finalist in every event he entered bar the very first of his year (and least significant on his schedule) in Doha. The ageless Djokovic, unaffected by the effects of passing time, has evened up the head-to-head with his two weathered yet legendary contemporaries in the geriatric Roger Federer and the rapidly graying Rafael Nadal.* Novak himself called his 2015 all but perfect.

I'd rather not waste time getting into the growing-more-moot-by-the-minute argument whether it was the best season in men's tennis history, but I would like to debunk an idea that fans and pundits have (or maybe it's 'had' at this point, either way) about Serena Williams putting together a more accomplished season than Novak. Serena had history on the line until the eleventh hour by winning the first three majors of the year and coming agonizingly close to completing the calendar-year Grand Slam. She's the one who will get the public support for SI Sportsman of the Year, deservedly so. Hers is the season we will remember more out of the two, not Novak's. All very fair, it's inarguable, really. 

However, what's not fair to Novak is letting all quantifiable evidence fall by the wayside. No argument is needed here: compare Djokovic's stats above to Serena's 2015 results and there is no doubt that Novak had a more successful run from January through November, playing a full schedule, winning damn near everything, and contending in the final for everything else. At a very quick glance, Serena's results can be classified as quizzical. Only eight tournaments of which she played through in it's entirety, a far cry from her 82-match, 15-tournament 2013 (which is, for my money, the best season Serena has ever had).

While I say all of that, I can't help but wonder what it would've been like if Novak won the French Open. Would he have been able to deal with that kind of pressure? Would his run at the CYGS make Serena breathe easier coming down the stretch in Flushing Meadows? If Serena lost at Roland Garros or Wimbledon, it's almost absurd to assume she doesn't win the U.S. Open, her most successful Slam, right? And she would obviously remain motivated to go to Beijing and Singapore and reassert her dominance there, too...right? We really don't know, so it's best to not compare these two extremely different seasons against each other at all. We haven't seen a season like this in a long time, one which one man and one woman rule their respective tours simultaneously. Yet the seasons Novak and Serena each had were so far apart from the other's, both incomparable in their own ways.


*shade

The Bleeping Venus Williams

Bow down to Queenus | via instagram.com

"She thinks she's the fucking Venus Williams."

Oh, Irina Spirlea, you had no idea how prescient your statement would be. The Fucking Venus Ebony Starr Williams has catapulted back into the year-end Top 10 after winning the Zhuhai Elite Trophy, all the way up to No. 7 in the world.

Number seven. Wut.

If you have been following the life and times of Venus Williams the past few years, you know that this is a big deal for her. Since announcing she was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder that affects her energy levels, Venus has been clawing her way back to where she left off in early 2011. In the early stages of this most recent rebirth, she's stated her desire to be alongside her sister as the two players to beat in the ladies' game once again, a place they've been numerous times in the past two decades. Most, myself included, did not think this was a feasible goal for her, but as Venus stated, she had the support of her team and family and mustered enough belief in herself to get back to where she thinks she belongs.

2015 was a season hijacked by Serena Williams. She's been the story, the one we all watched, the one who commands every bit of our attention. That's been the case for 13 years, often at the expense of Venus. Funnily enough, Venus took center stage this autumn when Serena ceded the spotlight after her demoralizing semifinal stumble at the U.S. Open. Venus herself was only ranked No. 24 after the final Slam of 2015, but she picked up quite a bit of momentum from that quarterfinal result. Venus went over to China and started her crusade at The Championships, Wuhan, winning her biggest title since Dubai in 2010. That run had the unfortunate side effect of a sluggish second-round loss in Beijing, a critical tournament for her Singapore dreams. Still, she was safely qualified for Zhuhai, the third place match to Singapore's trophy match. something that was not anything of a guarantee before the Asian swing.

Silently judging you like pic.twitter.com/imFnzMtrli

— WTA Reactions (@WTAreactions) September 11, 2015

Many players who qualified for the event decided it wasn't worth the trip. Not Venus. She saw her opportunity to get back into the Top 10, as well as significantly increase her chances at landing a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in Rio, and she would not leave this stone unturned. She runs through her path which included big hitting youngsters Madison Keys and Karolina Pliskova - two players who could be considered to be molded in the style of Venus Williams. Venus conquers them both anyway.

2015 saw the bulk of Venus's successes come mostly away from public view. I have to assume this is exactly how she'd like it. While her sister received all kinds of accolades from every corner, Venus stood back and went about her business. Serena has an (almost literal) army of diehard fans; Venus has the universal respect and admiration. Serena is dubbed the black feminist icon; Venus continues to silently boycott Indian Wells. As someone who took to Venus first, it irks me that Venus's accomplishments, especially off of the court, go unrecognized. But she probably doesn't mind. She doesn't need others to tell her that she's done a good job. She already knows what she achieved and what it took to get her the things she wants. All the recognition The Fucking Venus Williams will ever need comes from herself.

Goodbye, Grantland

It really was (via Grantland.com)

While we were all preparing our scariest and most revealing Halloween garb, Grantland, the sports and culture site founded in 2011 by epochal sports personality Bill Simmons, was shut down by ESPN, its parent company, on Friday. In the blink of an eye, the go-to place for all things witty, zany, and relevant was no longer producing content. I am, in a word, sad. Grantland was where I caught up with all of my sports coverage. Their NBA writers were second to none, the Hollywood Prospectus never failed to make me laugh, and they pumped out a zillion different podcasts that were tons of fun to listen to.

Most importantly to us, they gave so much to the pantheon of great tennis articles. The two primary providers, Brian Phillips and Louisa Thomas, were brilliant, funny, fair, and lovers of the sport and its history. Whether it was an ode to Venus and Serena or a timeline of rudeness from Judy Murray to Yoko Ono, Phillips and Thomas penned thoughtful words which will live with the tennis community for a long time. Here are some of my personal must-reads:

Novak Djokovic: The Shot and The Confrontation

This is the quintessential Djokovic article regarding the biggest forehand of his career and the events that unfolded very shortly thereafter. Of the four match points Roger Federer lost against Novak at the U.S. Open in 2010 and 2011, the third of those has stung more than any of the others, and is the one of the most memorable shots in recent history. Phillips digs deep into Djokovic's personality and his underwhelming appeal to the average tennis fan. He, more than any other writer, seems to understand what makes Novak tick.

The Pain and Joy of Sloane Stephens and Serena Williams

As a fan of both women and of the Sloane-Serena rivalry as a whole (yes, it is a rivalry), Thomas paints the picture of the second of two matches that ignited the contentious relationship between the two. This article mirrored my feelings at the time: anguish for Serena and exuberance for Sloane. Thomas helped me realize that those two emotions can be experienced simultaneously.

Broken at Love

Probably the funniest article ever posted in the tennis section (with the Grantland Tennis Dictionary coming in a close, yet distinct second), Phillips gives us the highlights of Monica Seles' novel The Academy. If you haven't read the book itself, this piece is the next closest thing. Thanks for saving me a couple of bucks, Brian.

Rembert Explains America: Discovering the Glorious All-Iowa Lawn Tennis Club

As far as random articles go, this one takes the cake. Written not by Phillips or Thomas, but by Rembert Browne, my favorite Grantland contributor, the article takes you to Iowa and Middle America's answer to Wimbledon. Never have I been more enthralled with a four-letter state. Browne is hilarious and observant, exactly what is needed to understand the vibe at the vaunted AILTC. It makes me want to add Iowa to my bucket list of tennis destinations.

--

I implore everyone to go through the archives of these writers on Grantland (note: the site didn't really perfect their tennis archiving until mid-2013, so some of the earlier columns are lost under random tags like "Art" and "College Sports"). This is the type of writing that we won't find Tennis.com or on ESPN's tennis page. Wise, insightful, emotional, hysterical all in one place, mostly from just two authors. It will be sorely missed.

What are some of your favorite pieces from Grantland, tennis or non-tennis? Leave a comment or hit me on Twitter! Both Phillips and Thomas will continue to write and inspire, and I will be sure to read and love their content as usual.

Singa-poor

Long live this photo (via Twitter)

We have finally separated the cream of the crop from the "Elite" (please re-brand and/or cancel Zhuhai next year, Steve Simon) and the WTA Finals field is set with some familiar faces Flavia Pennetta and Lucie Safarova reaching new career heights and a rising breakout star in Garbiñe Muguruza ready to cement her place at the top of the game.

Sadly, the young Spaniard is the only one I'm really looking forward to seeing. The other five singles players have participated in the end-of-year Championships in years past and this may be Pennetta's last ever professional tournament. Safarova is an interesting case as a newbie to this echelon because she has the talent to beat anyone and seems to be hitting a late-career stride. As far as this iteration of Singapore is concerned, however, her mysterious illness may have derailed her chances to be a threat for the title.

So what does Singapore have in store this year? Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Pennetta, and Safarova have taken the spots vacated by Serena Williams, Eugenie Bouchard, Ana Ivanovic, and Caroline Wozniacki. Oof. That is a tremendous decline in star power. Speaking of Serena, what does it mean to win a tournament for which she is not present? Let's be real: Serena is the Queen Bee of the WTA. The tour revolves around her, especially true this season, and the void she's left this fall is bigger than ever. As far as Serena's competitors are concerned, I'm sure they are very happy that she is taking an extended vacation. Still, I can't help but think this tournament will be a non sequitur. It will happen, but it won't signal anything to come in 2016. Even a Garbiñe win would fall between a continuation of her Wuhan-Beijing performance and a career achievement, a confirmation of what we already believed.

What do we think of the WTA Finals this year? Will it be a bang or a bust? Leave a comment or tweet at me! Draw comes out Friday, should be a great opportunity for one of the eight regardless!

Back and Reattached

What's better than being quote-unquote "BACK" in women's tennis? Probably nothing, but having "ARRIVED" comes pretty close. Madison Keys doesn't fall into either of those categories at this point in her career, but she is in a third category, "RISING," one that the WTA loves too so much.

And rising she is, very quickly. After only moving ranking up six spots to no. 31 in 2014, Maddy has busted into the Top 20 after being the third straight 19 year-old to reach the Australian Open semifinals. Her serve and power off the ground is something to behold. When Maddy is on her game, you can't help but smile at the ridiculous winners that come off her racquet. At age 20, she's still got plenty of time to improve on her variety and learn not going for broke at inopportune times, but she's got the attitude and work ethic to build upon a champion-making playstyle. The outcome of matches tends to depend on how Madison plays, something that nearly all previous Slam winners have in common.

Which is why it was so surprising to see Angelique Kerber pull off the comeBACK win in a fantastic Charleston final against Madison, especially given their forms this season. While Maddy was being rightfully crowned the new "Next Big Thing," Angie entered the Family Circle Cup with a losing record in 2015. It seemed like she was rapidly following the Sara Errani trajectory: an outsider who made the most of her talent by winning a shload of matches, but couldn't sustain nor make an impact to against the very elite. Errani's even done Kerber one better by making the French Open final; Kerber has only gotten to two Slam semis (and just two other quarterfinals). 



Still, Angie was able to put her "Duncurrber" tendencies away for a week and play a really great match against Madison. Kerber likely will never be seen as someone who can win a major, but her ability to counterpunch (emphasis on "punch") is among the best and extremely entertaining. The points she and Maddy produced is something that I want to see all the time. The push and pull, the momentum swings, and the shotmaking from both was impressive, and both were playing well. More please, tennis gods.

Now that Kerbz seems to have gotten out of her funk, is she BACK? Only time will tell. Clay isn't usually good for her and winning Charleston doesn't shake that notion for me because the court doesn't play slow or seem very clay-like at all other than the whole sliding thing. But I hope she is. This title hopefully has restored her confidence in getting back to where Madison is heading: towards the upper echelons of the WTA.

(Sidenote: Maddy should totally adopt the "cow on ice" moniker.)