2011 A Year To Forget?

Injuries, poor play, retirements and few matches that will stick in the memory. Tennis in 2011 was in need of a great US Open final between 2 of the top 3 players to rescue it from becoming once of the worst in tennis history. Now due to weather someone will get to hold a trophy sometime in September but the result won't be decided on tennis skills. Luck, schedule and endurance always play a part but this year they will be the deciding factors.

Can't we just pretend this week didn't happen and start again next Monday?

Perhaps more a first week of September to forget.

I know I am concentrating on the top 4, but before the farrago of this tournament the year was pretty interesting. Nearly all the big finals have involved top 4 opponents duking it out - and there have been some truly memorable matches and runs in tournaments from the top 4 and lower ranked players (Tsonga and Fish have done well). Nobody this year has won a big tournament without having to beat a top player playing decent quality tennis (if not necessarily at his very best) somewhere along the line. And at last we've seen a seismic shift at the very top of the game.

Some good may come out of the current debacle - the USO has got away with deliberately damaging the integrity of its competition for money for too long and now the wheels have come off in a very spectacular way. They can point to the weather, and they've been unlucky, but everyone knows that the USO's scheduling makes it vulnerable to adverse effects of such delays like no other tournament and if there's ever going to be change this may be the impetus. At the most simple level it's unbelievable that they don't have covers for the Courts - apparently on aesthetic grounds.

It's been almost a copy of 2010 when you think about it. None of the slam finals have been memorable, but they atleast had that semi final between Federer-Djokovic last year, this year has been quite dire in term of close high profile matches.

hawkeye wrote:Injuries, poor play, retirements and few matches that will stick in the memory. Tennis in 2011 was in need of a great US Open final between 2 of the top 3 players to rescue it from becoming once of the worst in tennis history. Now due to weather someone will get to hold a trophy sometime in September but the result won't be decided on tennis skills. Luck, schedule and endurance always play a part but this year they will be the deciding factors.

Can't we just pretend this week didn't happen and start again next Monday?

Yeah, not like 2010 when one finalist had an easy match scheduled first and the two two was a clash of titans going to 5 put on second.

Thank God the scheduling didn't favour anyone last year.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:It's been almost a copy of 2010 when you think about it. None of the slam finals have been memorable, but they atleast had that semi final between Federer-Djokovic last year, this year has been quite dire in term of close high profile matches.

Let's see:

Aus Open - final was a 3-setter between two of the "big 4" like last year, but I thought Djoko overhauling Fed in the SF added a bit of interest that was lacking in 2010 when half the "big 4" went out with more of a whimper before the SF

RG - 2011 a great improvement on 2010 with the amazing Fed/Djoko SF and a final between Fed/Nadal which Fed took to 4 sets and involved some great play

Wimbledon - 2011 again a great improvement on 2010, SF's and F all much tighter, F a contest between Nos. 1 & 2 and an 'historic' new winner, with none of the top 4 players going out with a whimper unlike last year.

USO - 2011 is a debacle so far, but there may be good stuff to come and Nadal's procession to the final in 2010 was hardly rivetting. Once you knew he had the 1st SF you pretty much knew the result - and the doubts evaporated completely as the Fed/Djoko semi ground its way into the 5th set.

The TM 1,000 series this year has been an interesting story of Djoko grabbing the ascendancy and he's had to beat other members of the 'big 4' consistently to do so - they've presented obstacles to him all the way (his unbeaten run involved 3 victories over Fed and 4 over Nadal and that very tight match with Murray), which hardly happened in 2010 when far too many of the big 4 tag-teamed AWOL at different times meaning that few of the tournaments were genuine contests in the same way as they have been this year.

OK - I've concentrated on the 'big 4', and I know that they aren't the full story - but I'd say that 2011 is thus far a considerably superior year at the top of men's tennis than 2010 was.

I think 2011 has been a good year. We've seen the longest winning streak in nearly 30 years, a record for the number of ATP1000s won by a player in one year, a new number one and the Federer/Nadal duopoly finally broken.

Admittedly, none of the slam finals have been classics but I thought some of Novak's tennis in the Wimbledon final was of the very highest quality (the second set was astonishing!).

This USO has been poor though. The weather has made it disjointed but it was low on excitement anyway. Murray's blip aside, it has all been so easy for the top 4. Nadal is 4 rounds in and still hasn't faced a seeded player!

I agree with murdoch, Novak's record run has been the big story this year and he has already accomplished some big things. This has definetly been a year of change, and in a year of change many people won't be happy. Especially, if that change involves the continued deterioration of form of the great Roger Federer and a loss of dominance for the other most popular player on tour Nadal. It has been a very long time since we have had a great 5 set grandslam final, I think going back to the USO 09.

I thought the Rome semi (murray v. Novak), Novak v. Rafa in miami, Roger v. Novak at RG was some entertaining stuff. But taste of course is something you can't legislate. I am bit dissappointed that murray hasn't consistently upped his level. We knew Roger was not going to get better but was going to continue the aging process. Nadal for all the criticism he has received has reached the finals of 8 out of the 12 events he has entered.

We have also had some of the young guys like Dimitrov, Harrison, Raonic especially start to deliver some quality performances.

The USO so far has had weather issues, but if we see great matches in the upcoming rounds I think most people will forget about the torrential rains and scheduling issues. Although I would join the chorus of those who call for trash canning stupid saturday.