Dr. Chiro News
Watching the marvelous matches coming to us from the Australian Open in Melbourne, I am of course reminded of all the tremendous Aussies I got to know in the years that I was tournament director for the Huggy Bears Invitational from 1985 to 2004.
Here's the final installment. The draw looks very good for Federer. Djokovic, Murray, Raonic, Wawrinka and Tsonga all in the other half. Ferrer, Berdych, Monfils and Gasquet fight it out for the privilege of playing Roger in the semis after he deals with Dimitrov in the quarters.
I started out this series of articles to emphasize the importance of the six week season from the week of the Washington D.C. tournament before Toronto through to the end of the US Open. I ended up talking more about the Big Four and how they have attained and maintained their dominance over the field since September 2008, almost 6 years ago.
If you take a look at Part 2 of this series on the Big Four, you will see that since they first took up the first four slots on September 8, 2008 only in 2009 when Del Potro won the US Open and 2012 when Rafa was out for the last half of the year and David Ferrer had a great year has anyone else been able to pierce the 6000 point barrier.
When Andy Murray reached #4 in the world on September 8, 2008, the Big Four had arrived. Here are the top 5 year end and mid-year(after Wimbledon) rankings and the point totals from 12/25/2006 to this year after Wimbledon.
I decided to try to write an article on how important the tournaments are the next 3 weeks and really the next 6 weeks including the US Open, but I felt the best way to illustrate that was to show how important these events have been to the Big Four: Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray.
I wasn't able to make it to Carson for Tuesday's matches. I spend a lot of time trying to keep track of what's happening to some of my current or former students, or just to players I am interested in online. So, when I can't get video feeds of a match, I might keep track of the match statistics entered in real time by the umpire.
I owe a big apology to the Yakima Tennis Club and their tournament director, AnnElise Anderson. I wrote "the only reason this event is here in Carson is it was going to be cancelled at its site up in the Pacific Northwest; the tournament basically folded". That was very poor reporting on my part. Yakima gave up the tournament because of a fire that destroyed the clubhouse.
Actually, there are no tournaments in Los Angeles anymore that afford the chance to earn ATP or WTA points. Carson is an independent incorporated city, but at least it is in Los Angeles county and we think of it as part of Los Angeles. This coming week’s (qualis start Sunday, July 13) is the USTA PLAYER DEVELOPMENT WOMEN'S $50,000 CLASSIC.
I got to make it down to the USTA PLAYER DEVELOPMENT WOMEN'S $50,000 CLASSIC at the Stub Hub Center in Carson yesterday. I wanted to see the second round qualifying match of one of my former students, Danielle Lao. I was a little late and they got off to a quick start and when I arrived Danielle seemed to have the situation well in hand...
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At 2-3 in the third set, Mats Wilander commented on EuroSport on Federer's aggressiveness forcing Murray to start going forward himself: "…and suddenly we are looking at a completely different style of tennis, … and how healthy would that be?"
Going late into the third set, I thought Wawrinka was making a mistake in not engaging in more rallies involving movement like he and Djokovic demonstrated in the quarters. I felt that while Berdych is definitely an exquisite striker of the ball, he did not move as well as Wawrinka...
At 2-3 in the third set, Mats Wilander commented on EuroSport on Federer's aggressiveness forcing Murray to start going forward himself: "…and suddenly we are looking at a completely different style of tennis, … and how healthy would that be?"
Men play one semifinal Thursday, 1/23 but it is a night match. The women, however, will play two semifinals on that day and the second of those will face some challenge from the heat, but nothing like they are facing today and tomorrow.
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