Sports Then and Now

Carlos Moya is no longer the young Spaniard who first burst on the scene in 1997.

Somewhere in his memory it will always be January 1997, and he’ll be playing a hard-serving German on a slow, hard Australian court. The tall, hard-serving German named Becker is going into this first-round match at the year’s first major as defending champion, and considered a heavy favorite against the Spaniard with the heavy topspin forehand.

Unfortunately for the German, the 20-year-old Spaniard named Carlos Moya is almost the same height, has a big serve of his own and, yes, a heavy topspin forehand, accentuated with graceful, fleet-footed court coverage. On this day the news will be that six-time Slam winner Boris Becker has become the first defending champion of the AO to lose in round one–a result that may motivate him, six months later, to decide that he’s done playing in the Slams.

What wasn’t known at the time was that the result will spark a run for the Majorcan, carrying him all the way to the finals, crushing Michael Chang in the semis and setting up an appointment with Pete Sampras in the final.

He won’t win the title, but in a game fragmented into clay- and hard-court specialists, Moya appears to have the game for both surfaces.

Somewhere else in his mind, it’ll always be Paris. Just a year and a half after he announced his presence in Australia, he used Roland Garros to show what that presence meant.

Here in the late ’90s there are many Spaniards, from Albert Costa to Felix Mantilla to Alex Corretja, all of whom have similar heavy forehands and good wheels, making them a nightmare assignment on the dirt. For two weeks in 1998, Moya looks like the future of Spanish tennis. Using his big first serve, flat backhand, and, of course, that big forehand to overpower Mantilla in the semis and then oust Corretja in the final. Read the rest of this entry →

María José Martinez Sanchez, that is, the new women’s champion of Rome. And yes, she also happens to be Spanish,  just like the male champion last week.

It’s another of those heart-warming stories that has pervaded the tennis tour in 2010.

It’s up there with Ivan Ljubicic winning his first Masters event at 31.

Or Andy Roddick reaching back-to-back Masters finals on home soil, and winning one of them, Miami, for the first time at 27.

Or Justine Henin taking the Premier title in Stuttgart just four months after her return from retirement.

Or Juan Carlos Ferrero, aged 30, reaching three consecutive finals and his highest ranking since 2004.

For the lovely Martinez Sanchez is now 27, and has just won is her first singles Premier title.

Although she had won two titles before this, both on clay, they were at International level—Bogota and Bastad in 2009. So Rome is a truly break-through moment for her. Read the rest of this entry →

Miloslav Mecir played tennis in the 1980s--known as the Swede Killer.

You have to admit that there is a huge difference between sultry singing in the shower and performing live at the Met to a packed house filled with critics.

This has implications beyond being able to carry a tune…and being fully clothed.

Besides the necessity of possessing outstanding vocal abilities, you would also need to overcome performance anxieties as you stood in front of an impressive audience thinking it knows exactly what you should be doing—never hesitating to point out your perceived flaws.

The same is doubly true on the playing field.

Monday-morning quarterbacks exist in all fields of endeavor. For example, the tennis player who exhibits all the talent and ability in the world must still overcome his or her own internal jitters in order to win.

This series will highlight tennis players who should have made it to the top of the game but who failed in big moments to win the most critical matches because of (1) nerves, (2) belief, (3) prolonged injury, or (4) the special category belonging to those who won a major but could never repeat the feat.

Miloslav Mecir

The “second-best” player who stands out most in my book is the Big Cat, Miloslav Mecir. The Slovak had an uncanny ability to annoy players from all corners of the globe during the 1980s, but he never made it all the way to the top.

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A tennis pro can end up with just one major victory to their credit for a variety of reasons.

In the case of Iva Majoli – and potentially Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic – it’s learning that the sport actually gets harder when excellence is expected of you. For Jana Novotná and Goran Ivanisevic, it’s a case of early frustrations not met until later in life.

And then there’s Andy Roddick, whose best was good enough for one two-week period in 2003, but hasn’t been ever since. There’s almost always a hint of sadness to their stories (though Ivanisevic and Novotná’s end on positive notes), but some more than others.

Juan Martin del Potro is still very young, and may have many more years of success ahead of him. Before that, though, he has to be able to play again.

Del Potro’s first slam win at the US Open last year was stunning: He was the tallest major champion ever at 6’6”, and the first to demonstrate that a guy that size could trade groundstrokes with the game’s best – that’s certainly what Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are – and prevail.

Nadal has endured losses, even lopsided ones, at the hands of hard hitters on firm surfaces, but never before looked as helpless as he did against the big Argentine in the USO semis. Federer has been outlasted and outfought by Nadal, but he’d never been outright overpowered, or lost a USO final, before he ran into del Potro. Read the rest of this entry →

Rafael Nadal wins the Rome Masters tennis tournament in 2010.

As everyone predicted heading into the clay court season in 2010, it was to be the year of the Majorcan. So far it has been almost exclusively Rafa’s reign.

Bowing out of Barcelona, Rafa’s crown did not move far from its anointed position. Fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco wears it in Nadal’s place.

So far Nadal has captured wins in Monte Carlo and Rome, equalling Andre Agassi’s total of 17 Master’s Shields. Roger Federer is now one step behind at 16.

But there is still time for both to add to their totals and we suspect the dynamic duo will be able to add a few more wins before the final bell tolls on their respective careers.

The Power Rankings reflect the men’s prowess on the red clay and as we all know, Nadal rises to the top, especially on the dirt.

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Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer accepting trophies at the conclusion of the 2006 Rome Masters.

All roads lead to Rome. So the saying goes.

But none of them are easy or even navigable in the final analysis.

The prize at the end of the journey in 2006 for Roger Federer was a trophy to make him a winner at the Rome Masters for the first time in his career and in the process, allow him to have an edge as he entered the draw at the 2006 French Open.

All the Swiss had to do to secure the victory was circumvent world No. 2 nineteen-year old Rafael Nadal who, according to the media, sported a new crown––King of the Clay-Courters.

Roger Federer congratulates Rafael Nadal at the 2005 French Open semis.

In 2005, Nadal had upset Federer in the semifinals of the French Open, going on to secure his first French Open Championship––his first Grand Slam, as a matter of fact.

Just prior to Rome in 2006, Federer had been bulldozed by Nadal in the finals of Monte Carlo, playing what most would deem a sub-par match for the mighty Swiss warrior. So far in 2006, Federer had lost two matches, both to Nadal. The world No. 2 had also bested Federer in the finals at Dubai.

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