This image of the trophy presentation at the just concluded Barclays ATP Tour World Finals in London show Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, at 6'6" towering over the slightly built Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. Davydenko's height is listed as 5'10". The discrepancy didn't matter though - the smaller player beat the bigger one proving once again that it's performance, and not size that really matters.
Not that he ever died, but by winning the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday, his biggest trophy to date - Nikolay Davydenko must have felt that he has risen from the grave. The Russian #1 was in the middle of a tennis betting scandal two years ago, and until now is answering questions about his integrity. But he played well enough in the last singles tournament of the year to escape with his 5th tournament of the year, and his biggest win in his career.
“I’m really surprised how with this difficult time I made good result, because I really know it’s staying always in your mind, and you stay under pressure from the press, from the fans, from the people everywhere in the world,” Davydenko said. “And everywhere, if I coming for tournament, press start to asking me about betting.”
It wasn't all smooth sailing for Davydenko in the tournament though. He lost his first match against Novak Djokovic, the defending champion and the same person he lost to in last year's finals. He won his next two matches against Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling to qualify as the number two player from his group.
In the semis, he faced world number 1, Roger Federer, who he hasn't beaten in 12 matches. But, Nikolay Davydenko was finally able to snatch the win against the top player on his (lucky?) 13th try.
With the win, Davydenko beat all 3 Grand Slam champions this year, and 4 of the 5 grand slam finalists. He ends the year at #6. Not bad for a player who faced betting allegations and a ban had he been proven guilty.
No, it's not the Spanish-English war. We're talking 21st century tennis here. Spain’s top 2 players ended in the bottom of the heap at the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals in London. At the completion of the tournament's round robin play on Friday, world #2 Rafael Nadal and #7 Fernando Verdasco were eliminated with 0-3 win-loss records.
Nadal, the second seed in group B lost all 3 matches in straight sets to lower ranked opponents, including French Open 2009 nemesis Robin Soderling. He was the only one in the tournament who failed to win a single set.
Verdasco was seeded 4th in Group A that had world #1 Roger Federer. He fared slightly better than his countryman by taking at least each of his matches to 3 sets. He even took a one set lead over Federer before losing the next couple of sets and the match to the top seeded player.
Still, it wasn’t all a bad week for the Spaniards. Though they both didn’t gain any ranking points due to their win-less campaign, they left London $120,000 richer than when they arrived.
Here’s hoping the Spaniards will be performing better in the Davis Cup Finals against the Czech Republic. The tie will be held on December 4-6 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain.
Andre Agassi will not be punished by the ATP tour for lying about his drug use after all. ATP Chairman Adam Helfant said that he had a "very frank conversation" with Agassi after the book came out, but that the ATP will not be imposing anything against him because he doesn't play in the tour anymore.
Some of the top stars including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal criticized Agassi because of tainting the good reputation of tennis with his confession. Retiring player, Marat Safin, called Agassi's decision to include the incident in the book "absolutely stupid".
I suppose these players are more concerned about the impact of Agassi's confession to tennis, than what really happened. Regardless of Andre Agassi's motive behind the confession, I as a tennis fan doesn't care much about Agassi's drug use because:
Not everyone has the courage to do that.
Serena Williams had to beat sister and rival Venus Williams twice before she can win her 3rd tournament of the year, and cement her status as world #1. She entered the Sony Ericsson Championships ranked #2 behind Dinara Safina but made an impressive display by winning all 5 of her matches in the tournament. She even saved a match point against Venus in the preliminary round, the only match where she lost a set.
With the win, Serena also smashed the record for single season prize money in tennis. Her tournament win ensured that she pockets $6,545,586 for the year – this tops the previous record of almost $5.5 million set by Justine Henin in 2007. More than half a million of Serena’s prize money came from doubles competition where she and Venus teamed to win 3 of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments and finish the year with a career best #3 doubles ranking. Serena’s total career earnings is now at $28,506,993 – and is the highest earner amongst all female athletes in history.
Serena and Venus have met 5 times this year. While Venus started their 2009 rivalry with a 3-set victory in the semifinals of the Dubai tournament in February, Serena won the next four matches. Two of those wins, prevented Venus from defending her biggest tournaments from last year – the Wimbledon Championships and the Tour Championships. Their current head-to-head stand at 13-10 in Serena’s favor.
To anyone who's interested:
#1. I'm not a tennis expert. I'm not a tennis player either, though I do play occasionally during the summer. I would describe myself as a regular tennis fan.
#2. I get my almost daily tennis fix by checking the Yahoo Sports Tennis Section. I get my weekly tennis fix by reading Jon Wertheim's CNNSI column. During grandslams, I read the players interviews and sometimes use the IBM tracker to monitor match progress while at work. Please don't tell my boss.
#3. I love tennis statistics and trivia.
#4. I got introduced to tennis as a freshman high school student in the late 80s. That was way back in the Philippines. I had a crush on Gabriela Sabatini. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard that she won the US Open in 1990. I was ironing my uniform. There was a 2 year period where I stopped monitoring tennis. That was the same time that Sabatini wasn't winning any tournaments.
#5. I share the same birthday as Andre Agassi. My youngest child is named Andrei, but hell no, it wasn't after Andre Agassi. My grandma's name happened to be Andrea.
#6. In this blog, I'd like to post tennis news, tennis rankings and lists, interesting photos - all with a personal twist. Not that anyone cares ... but I do.
#7. My favorite women tennis players include Gabriela Sabatini, Monica Seles (after stabbing), Steffi Graf (after Sabatini retired), Jennifer Capriati (before drugs), the Williams sisters, and Kim Clijsters (after her unretirement). I like to root against: Justine Henin (Career 1.0), Maria Sharapova (Kournikova is hotter!) and Martina Hingis.
#8. My favorite men tennis players are Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer. I like to root against: Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal.
#9. I live in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago - happily married, and dad to 3 boys. I work in the information technology consulting industry.
#10. I would have wanted to be a tennis dad - the Richard Williams type and live my tennis dreams through my children. But my boys enjoy soccer, swimming, reading, video games and a whole bunch of stuff that they want prioritized over tennis. So, I turned to the next best thing - becoming a tennis blogger.
I’ve always cherished the idea of writing about tennis. Not that I’m a tennis expert – my tennis skills are so-so at best. I’m just one regular tennis fan; who happens to be into blogging as well. On a normal day, I would relax by reading tennis news. I probably spend 10 to 30 minutes each day following the updates on both the ATP and WTA tours. On a bi-weekly basis, I take time to read the columns of tennis experts. I also stumble on some blogs from tennis fans like me, so I thought of starting a tennis blog.
The 2009 year is almost about to close - yet another exciting one for tennis. It was a year of highs (Federer breaking Sampras record, Clijsters comeback, etc… ) and lows (Serena’s meltdown, Nadal’s injury) both on and off the court. Still, it was a very exciting one, and as a tennis fan for the past 20 years now, I’m sure there are plenty of tennis memories in store in the next months and years.
2010 looks very promising. In the men’s side, the expected continuing dominance of Federer and Nadal is being challenged by younger and faster players in the likes of Djokovic, Murray, and Del Potro. Have we seen the best of Nadal? How many more majors will Federer win? Will the UK (you-key) have a homegrown champion at Wimbledon? Will a couple of young Americans make their mark? (Haven't given up on Donald, and am waiting for the emergence of the older brother of the tennis playing prodigies based in Florida.)
The women’s side is as dramatic as ever. How far can the aging Williams sisters go? What impact will the un-retirement of Henin and Clijsters have? Will Sharapova continue on her Tokyo revival? How will Safina fare in 2010? Which young star will emerge to join Wozniacki and Oudin as headliners? Will Ivanovic join Vaidisova in the talented-has-beens category?
And so, this blog will be my tennis journal. It is a record of how I perceive the happenings in tennis – not from behind the actual tennis courts, but right behind my desktop.
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I'm looking for blogs that I can link to from my site, and that fall into the following blog categories: tennis blogs, sports blogs, Filipino blogs. If you want me to link to your blog, please post a comment here. Thanks!
Tennis Blogs:
- Tennis Guru
- Hey Its Courtney Jade
- The Millennial Tennis Blog
- The Eastern Forehand
Sports Blogs:
- Total Sports Madness
- *** your Blog Link here ***
Filipino Bloggers Around the World:
- Aie Salas (Philippines)
- Down in Black and White (Philippines)
- PinoyTeens.net (Philippines)
- SaGaDa, Philippines (USA)
- a roller coaster of thoughts (Philippines)
- *** your Blog Link here ***
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