Posts Tagged ‘Tennis’

The Big Three and Serena’s Reality

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Tennis

I hope that even the peripheral tennis fan can appreciate what we are witnessing from the men’s “Big Three” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.

Why? Because they just may be the best threesome of athletes to overlap one another during their prime in any one sport, EVER!

When I say best three, I mean three athletes whom all have a legitimate G.O.A.T. claim.

Think about it for a bit: in baseball we had Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and later Ken Griffey Jr and Barry Bonds, but it is hard to find a 3rd peer.

In basketball we had Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. For all of their ambassadorship and marketing of the game, neither Magic nor Bird have a valid claim.

In football we had Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. But is there really a good argument to put either Manning or Brees over Joe Montana?

When talking about Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, it’s hard to find “buts” to either’s claim beyond one of the other two.

No disrespect to Rod Laver, who won a calendar year grand slam in both 1962 and 1969.

All of the Big 3 have won the career grand slam.

Bjorn Borg’s capacity to go from clay to grass, winning the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, 3 straight years, is the second hardest thing to do in tennis, behind the calendar year Grand Slam. But he never won a hard-court major.

We almost never talk about Pete Sampras and his 14 major titles. But he never won the French Open.

Other than the calendar year Grand Slam, there is nothing all 3 members of this group have not done.

How dominant have they been?

 

  • They have won 50 of the past 58 major titles.

 

  • They have all 3 made the final four of a major 12 times in 13 years. In six different years, all three made it to the final four of all the majors. If not for injuries, especially to Djokovic and Nadal, it would likely have been more.

 

  • The major title count to date is Federer with 20, Nadal with 18, and Djokovic with 16. They are ranked in reverse 1, 2, and 3 in the world.

 

Tennis’ Big Three has been to Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, and David Ferrer, what Michael Jordan was to John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing.

While Federer is clearly a lion in the winter, he is still formidable. He played his A game in last Sunday’s Wimbledon final and was still not able to beat Djokovic on his B game.

The only frustrating thing about the Big Three is identifying heirs to their throne. They are all over 30 and can’t go on forever. So, who in the hell is next?

Three have the game but all have glaring flaws:

Alexander Zverev has all the tools but just seems uninterested at times and has even all but admitted as much.

Stefanos Tsitsipas also has the game but lacks experience.

And then of course there is the mercurial Nick Kyrgios, who blatantly admits that he does not train. Even with that, his record against Nadal and Djokovic is 5-4. The guy has never lost to Novak Djokovic.

On the women’s side, we Serena fans are going to have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that she may never win another major.

SWIt’s not a question of capacity. When her serve is right, she still beats every other player. The problem is that increasingly the serve is not right and her “B” game is no longer good enough to survive the unforced errors and beat upper echelon players, as it once was. There are times when I cannot get the image of Mays, Manning, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Muhammad Ali towards the end of their careers out of my head. I could not bear to see Serena go out the way that they did.

One of the things that makes a great athlete is a fierce stubbornness. It, likewise, is also what keeps them around beyond their greatness. She certainly has earned the right to leave when she is good and ready. I just hope she is ready before Mother Time forces the issue.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

 

Respect, Liberation, and Novak Djokovic

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

ND

It was not a big surprise that World Tennis Number 1 player Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open. What was surprising was how easily he beat rival and number two ranked Rafael Nadal.

The slaughter was in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. It was not as close as even that score indicates.

What is amazing is how dramatically Djokovic has flipped his rivalry with not only Nadal, but also with Roger Federer. He is now 28-25 against Nadal (25-22 against Federer). Those numbers look relatively even, but upon closer examination, it is clear that while the others controlled the early stages of the rivalries, “The Joker” has had the last laugh for some time now.

In the case of Nadal, Djokovic lost 14 of the first 18 matches, and the first 8 on Nadal’s “home surface” of clay. Since then, the record is Djokovic 24-11 and 8-7 on clay. They have met in 25 finals. Nadal won the first five but is 5-15 since. Djokovic owns the longest winning streak at seven straight.

So essentially, Nadal dominated only the first third of the rivalry. It has been Djokovic ever since.

A similar pattern is there against Federer, who won the first four matches over Djokovic and seven of the first nine. Since then, it has been Djokovic with a 23-15 advantage and an overall 13-6 record in finals.

So the question is how did Djokovic so dramatically “flip the script”? I believe the answer lies in a 60 Minutes interview from 2012. When asked about Federer and Nadal, Djokovic readily admitted that he had a great deal of respect for them…”maybe too much”.

BINGO!

Respect is an admirable thing among peers. However, that quality will not serve you well when trying to get out from under someone else’s thumb. In fact, it is an albatross. Consider the story Michael Jordan tells about his first time facing Shaquille O’Neal. He readily admitted being intimidated by Shaq’s size alone. The first time MJ went to the hole, his fear was validated when Shaq put him on the floor. Then Shaq made a crucial mistake: he helped MJ get up. That told Jordan that in spite of his superior power and capacity to do serious harm to him, Shaq had too much respect for him to ever really impose on him the way he could.

Be it in sports or liberation efforts, if you want to get someone’s foot off your neck, respecting them is not the way to go. It must be kept in mind that the oppressor benefits from the current state of affairs and will NEVER voluntarily surrender the place of power. Oh they may appear beneficent and agree to modify the manifestation of the oppression, such as was the case in South Africa. However, rest assured, the domination remains and will until those under the foot rise up.

Various writers and thinkers from Franz Fanon to Naim Akbar and even Malcolm Gladwell have clearly illustrated that a prerequisite to changing one’s objective material condition is the changing of one’s subjective psyche about the condition.

Free your mind, the rest will follow.

I would go as far as to say that hate for your oppressor will get you a much greater return toward liberation than respect for them. At least hate can be used as fuel to do what needs to be done.

Once Djokovic figured this out about Federer and Nadal, in about 2011, he has not looked back. Even elbow surgery about a year ago has not suppressed him. Today he is number one again, and for the second time in his career will go into the French Open holding three major titles, and a chance to be the first to hold all four since Rod Laver did so in 1969. It will be no small task with a slew of clay court specialist standing in his way, to include 2018 finalist Dominic Theim and the defending champion and 11-time winner Rafael Nadal.

None of this would have been possible had Djokovic not changed his mind about his situation and those on top of him. So, for those serious about liberation, in simple terms, stick a middle finger up at the one with their foot on your neck.

You may end up being the public villain, as Djokovic often is, but you will also be a lot closer to where you want to be.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Anna vs. Jana: Style vs. Substance

Monday, December 4th, 2017

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Jana Novotna (left) and Anna Kournikova (right)

Jana Novotna (left) and Anna Kournikova (right)

Recently, a friend and I got into a respectful debate over the accomplishments of former tennis player Anna Kournikova. My primary contention was and is that she largely had no individual tennis accomplishments, or certainly not enough to warrant her lucrative endorsements.

That cannot be said of Jana (pronounced Hana) Novotna, who died recently after a battle with cancer at the age of 49.

Novotna won 24 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments to include 1 major title.

Kournikova never won any WTA singles’ event.

Even with that, what Novotna is most remembered for is the 1993 Wimbledon finals when she had a 4-1 lead in the 3rd set over the great Steffi Graff, and had game point at 40-30 on her racquet. She would double fault, lose that game and eventually the match in one of the greatest collapses in tennis history.

I remember watching that match and how uncomfortable I felt for her. We all fail but few do so on a world stage as dramatically as she did that day. In sports, not being good enough is difficult but forgivable. The two things that are not forgivable are to quit or choke. Those two transgressions speak to the athlete’s character and mental toughness in the minds of fans and will not be tolerated.

That day, Jana Novotna choked.

She would get back to the Wimbledon final in 1997 only to lose a lead again, this time to Martina Hingis. Then, finally in 1998, she would reach the finals again of Wimbledon and after unspeakable disappointments over the years, would finally get over the hump and win the title.

For me, one of the most enjoyable things about sports is to observe that moment when the team or athlete better known for not being able to win the big one finally gets it done. Be it Ivan Lendl or Andy Murray finally breaking through to win major titles, or the 2016 Chicago Cubs, or Elway’s Denver Broncos. Unlike lottery winners or the rags to riches narratives we love to promote in America, that are often as much about luck than merit, winning in professional sports is never luck.  Also, unlike most of us who may routinely fail in our professions, athletes do so in the fishbowl that is professional sports.  Their every facial expression and inkling of body language is examined and psychoanalyzed by every Dr. Phil wannabe in the world.  In spite of this all, the professional athlete must continue to strive. So, while many will remember Novotna for her failure, she should be remembered for the fact that she got up off the mat and triumphed in the end.

As for Kournikova, I don’t fault her for exploiting her non-tennis marketability. I certainly hope that she lives longer than Novotna. The fact that she is better known than Novotna, in spite of dramatically less tennis accomplishments, says more about what we as a society value than it does either one of them.

So, thank you Jana Novotna for showing the sports world and beyond that one need not be forever defined by failure and how to come back and triumph.  Your public life showed a great deal more courage than any photo spread ever has.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Ode to Venus Williams

Friday, July 14th, 2017

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

VW

Venus Williams is the single most underappreciated athlete in the world over the past 20 years!

The primary reason for this is understandable: when your little sister is on the short-list of greatest athletes of the last century, your accomplishments just might get a bit overlooked.

Just to summarize, Venus has won 7 Grand Slam titles and 49 tournaments overall.  Her lifetime record against top 10 opponents is 321-159, which amounts to a winning percentage of 67%.  Her lifetime record against the world’s number 1 ranked player is 10-5.  Even on clay, her worst surface, she has a winning percentage of 63%.  In Grand Slam finals, she is sub .500 at 7-8.  Seven of those eight losses have come to her little sister.  Simply put, Venus Williams has only lost one Grand Slam final to anyone not named Serena.

It is often noted if it were not for Venus, Serena would have even more Grand Slam titles.  But the opposite is true as well.  Without Serena in the picture, Venus could very well have 14 major titles.  That would have her in the G.O.A.T. conversation.

Those numbers alone are enough of a resume, but there is more.

It was Venus who was the most vocal active player in the fight for equal pay at Wimbledon for the women’s champion compared to the men’s champion.

In 2011, she was diagnosed with a rare ailment called Sjogren’s Syndrome.   Two of its symptoms are pain in the joints and fatigue; no small factors for a professional tennis player.    Being north of 30 and having already been a seven-time Grand Slam winner, it would have been understandable if she called it a career.  She did not, and as a result she is entering her second Grand Slam final of the year Saturday morning at Wimbledon, after having dominated up and coming Brit Johanna Konta in Thursday’s semi-final.   She is now 21-7 this year and will re-enter the world’s top 10, all at the age of 37 years old.   If she wins it will be her 6th Wimbledon title and she will become the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam event in tennis history!

Beating Garbine Muguruza for the Wimbledon title, a Grand Slam champion in her own right, will be a tall task.  I consider her to be the most likely to succeed Serena as the world’s undisputed best player.

But losing won’t take away from the fact that despite age, an ailment that would retire lesser competitors, some media that have been flaky at best to embrace one half of what is arguably the greatest story in the history of American sports, and the huge shadow of her little sister, VENUS IS RISING AGAIN.  We should not only notice, but we should show her the love and give her the standing ovation she so richly deserves.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Dominoes, Evolution, and why Djokovic is the best in the world

Sunday, February 1st, 2015

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

ND

Novak Djokovic is not a great server. He has at best an average volly and does not have a great deal of variety in his offensive game. So why does he now have 8 major titles in the prime of his career? Because he is arguably the greatest defensive player of all time.  How and why he became this is a vintage evolutionary sports tale that can be best understood through the game of dominoes.

The evolutionary aspect has to do with the conditions and environment present when Djokovic came on the scene in the shadow of whom I believe to be the greatest baseline offensive player in the history of the game in a man by the name of Roger Federer.  The only way to consistently compete with him was to develop an elite baseline defense.  So the shots that are winners against anyone else on the tour (with the exception of a healthy Nadal) become either unforced errors or merely extend a rally.  It is similar to how the Jordan era Bulls became the best and most mentally tough team in sports: conquering the Bad Boys Pistons required them to become this to be champions.  Another illustration was when Bill Parcells took over the Giants in the same division as the defending champion Redskins in 1983.  By the time he left NY, the Giants had beaten the Redskins in 6 straight non-strike games and won two Super Bowls.

Tactically, Djokovic is like the old school dominoes player at the party.  He never takes the easy 20 or 25 point score which leave the board open to the next player.  Instead he locks the board and gets his points from what the others are left with in their hands.

Trying to hit a winner past “The Joker” is like throwing in the direction of Deion Sanders in his prime: a pick six is more likely than a completion. Only in football, teams could choose to go in another direction. Tennis players have no such luxury and that is why he is the best in the world.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Serena Williams Goes Off On The Line Judge!!!!!

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011