Sports Then and Now

One week left to go!  As we head back across the Midwest for a preview of the NL Central, we examine the division that boasts the most teams and the potential for the most surprises.

1. St. Louis Cardinals

Holliday and Pujols will be featured in a lot of pitchers nightmares in 2010.

Arguably the two biggest moves this off season were for near-homonyms Roy Halliday and Matt Holliday. In face, the Holliday signing holds significance on several levels.  First of all, most of the talking heads agree that the Cards spent too much money and contracted too long with Holliday.  There is the added pressure that expenditure will make when Albert Pujols, arguably the best player in baseball, becomes a free agent after the 2011 season.  Most importantly, if Holliday has a season like his 2007 and like his time in St. Louis last season, the Cardinals taking the division is all but carved in stone.

On the mound,the Cards will look to continue and extend the success that they saw last season with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright at the top of there rotation. Brad Penny, will try to continue the NL success that began when he was traded to the Giants last season and avoid the mediocrity that he displayed in Boston.  The Cardinals pen is not a weak spot by any means, but on a team with such positives elsewhere, the relief crew gets the worried man’s attention. The bottom line for St. Louis is that if you add up the big bats (Pujols, Holliday), big enough bats (Rassmuss, Ludwig), then factor in the very good rotation, the Cardinals will be almost impossible to topple. Read the rest of this entry →

It’s been a shameful few weeks for British tennis.

Since the Davis Cup defeat by Lithuania, barely a day has passed without one media outlet or another revealing a new twist in the story.

First, it was the ritual analysis of the work of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). 
Before long, John Lloyd resigned from the worst job in tennis, and began to cast his vitriol in assorted directions.

Eventually, attention turned to Roger Draper, the chief executive of the LTA since 2006, who has commissioned an internal review following the Lithuania tie.

Draper himself also had some explaining to do to a group of MPs and peers chaired by Baroness Billingham. He was been summoned to explain how the LTA spends the £27 million of public funding it receives from Sport England for grass-roots projects.

But never far away from the war of words that breaks out after each Davis Cup tie is the name of Andy Murray.

One moment he is pilloried for deserting the Davis Cup team in its hour of need, and the next he is being consulted on what needs to happen to turn things around.

Well it’s time to call a halt and face a few home truths. The mire in which British tennis finds itself is not of Murray’s making. Indeed, it might be argued that, without his presence, this furore would all have come to a head far sooner.

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This is part of a series of articles that outline the stand-out matches of Roger Federer’s career.  The impetus of this series was a discussion of the Greatest Matches of the Decade – in which Roger was not mentioned very often.  We thought that perhaps it was time to review some of the stand-outs.

Andre Agassi and Roger Federer met on the court several times as Federer rose to the top and Agassi headed toward retirement.

So much has been made of Andre Agassi and his remarks during the recent ‘Hit for Haiti’ in the 2010 Indian Wells benefit.

I found the Hit for Haiti fascinating, bringing together living legends of the sport of differing generations. To offset our memory of the raucous Hit for Haiti, I thought it was time to study a match intended for our review of Roger’s career, the Miami final from 2002.

After losing to Roger in Miami in the semi-finals, Lleyton Hewitt predicted that 2002 might be a break-out year for Roger, just as 2001 was a break-out year for Lleyton. Roger Federer was 20 years old.

Coming into 2002, Andre Agassi was the defending champion of the Australian Open (he didn’t successfully defend in 2002, but got to the semis). He’d beaten rival Pete Sampras in the previous year’s IW final (one of their classic matches, in which Andre clearly put his retrieving skills to great advantage and over-matched Pete on serve). At 32, Andre was near the top of his game (He would win his final major in 2003 at the AO.) In 2002, Andre was well into his second career, ranked in the top 5 consistently for 3 straight years going into this match. He moved well, fast enough on the court to easily retrieve drop shots.

In terms of his (up to that point spare) head-to-head match-ups with Roger, Andre had won both of their previous meetings in straight sets.

Ironically in this match, it was Roger’s retrieving skills, and Andre’s serving skills that characterized the play in the first set. Roger was not able to break Andre, seemed to be in a ‘tuck’ position. So much so that Andre was able to break early, and with a lovely passing shot, Andre would win the first set. Read the rest of this entry →

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have met 20 times since 2004.

The root of the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer began in Miami when the Spaniard was a teenager with a huge reserve of self-belief.

As the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open begins in earnest this week, it might be interesting and informative to examine the tournament that set the bar for their future encounters.

Early on, playing practically perfect tennis against Federer evolved into an art form for Nadal. Nothing seemed to inspire him more or engage his senses more completely than striving to match his considerable strengths against the man many proclaimed then and now as the best player ever to wield a tennis racquet.

The quixotic mission to overtake Federer drove Nadal for 4½ years, finally propelling him into that vaunted No. 1 spot in August 2008.

But let us harken back to March 2004 when newly dominant 22 year-old Roger Federer, feeling ill and stripped of strength, struggled past Russian Nikolay Davydenko during the round of 64 at the NASDAQ-100 Miami Masters.

His next opponent was newcomer 17-year-old Rafael Nadal, ranked No. 36 in the world. Nadal was a hard-hitting left-hander from Spain, a country renowned for its prowess on clay.  This, however, was a hard court event.

Anointed No. 1 a month earlier, Federer arrived in Miami having won 28 matches during the previous nine months, including his first Wimbledon crown in 2003 and his first Australian Open title in 2004.  Even weakened, Federer expected to win this match.

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Indian Wells promised to be one of best tournaments of the year so far. And sure enough, the first Masters of the season, and the biggest tennis event outside the Grand Slams, delivered in spades.

All the top names were present and correct except for the injured world No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro. The biggest draws in men’s tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were both back from injury or illness, and the draw promised to repeat some great former matches: Nadal versus Nikolay Davydenko, Federer versus Andy Murray, and ultimately Nadal versus Federer.

But very quickly, the picture changed as seeds fell like nine-pins. The likes of Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils, Radek Stepanek, and several more, went in their first matches.

In the next round, it was Federer, Davydenko, Fernando Verdasco, and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Murray and Novak Djokovic looked less than convincing in their progress to the quarters and fourth round respectively, and so it turned into a tournament where many of the old guard could show their credentials.

Joining a pumped up Nadal and a powerful Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals was a resurgent set of long-established names such as Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Monaco, and Tommy Robredo.

It made for fascinating tennis, capped by a final between two men with a combined total of 22 years on the professional tour, neither with a win at Indian Wells.

Their outstanding performances deservedly take them to the top of our Power Rankings.

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BNP Paribas at Indian Wells provided upset after upset. Photo by Rajat Jain

How many of you picked Ivan Ljubicic to win at Indian Wells? Jelena Jankovic? Northern Iowa to upset Kansas in the NCAA Basketball Tournament?

Just as I thought. That is why I am a little reluctant to put my neck on the line when discussing the ATP top seeds’ chances at the Sony Ericsson Tennis Open this week in Miami.

That does not mean that the wins this past weekend were not significant or joyful each in their own way with the wily veteran Ljubicic finding a way to win against the stiffest competition the tour could throw at him.

It had to be a resounding vote of confidence, moreover, for the seasoned counter-puncher Jankovic to overcome the newly inaugurated No. 2 ranked player in the world, Caroline Wozniacki, also a counter-puncher.

The Northern Iowa victory, however, will be discussed in another venue.

Heading into Miami are all the top ranked women minus No. 1 ranked Serena Williams and No. 3 Dinara Safina, both suffering from lingering injuries. For the men No. 5 ranked Juan Martin del Potro is still out as is No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko, again both with lingering injuries.

In looking at the men’s draw, some interesting match-ups highlight a splendid field.

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