Left field

Miami courts too slow – Rusedski

By Greg Rusedski

All the talk at the Miami Masters Series was again about the top four and if Roger Federer would be able to continue his amazing run. Miami is a tough event to win immediately after Indian Wells due to its slower conditions, heavy humidity and at times; strong winds.

Federer was trying to win Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back for the third time in his career. Federer has been on an amazing run since losing in the semi-finals of the US Open. He has won 6 of his last 8 events and has amassed the most points of any player since mid-September of last year. Unfortunately for Roger, he lost to Andy Roddick in the third round when he ran out of gas with Roddick playing well. This will hurt Roger because he owns Roddick and had beaten him in 24 out of 26 matches up until this match.

Nadal looked great all week to get to the semi-finals but had to pull out against Murray with a re-occurring knee problem before the match started. This was such a shame because he was playing so well. Everyone in the tennis business has always had question marks over whether Nadal could hold together physically because of the way he plays and moves; it is not efficient and is extremely physical. I hope this is more of a precaution for Rafa than a serious injury.

Murray on the other hand has had everything go his way with a default in the third round against the dangerous Canadian Milo Raonic and then in the semi-finals against Rafa Nadal to be back in the Miami finals.

Novak Djokovic played great all week and beat surprise semi-finalist Juan Monaco to meet Andy Murray in the finals. Andy vs. Novak is always an interesting proposition. They grew up playing junior tennis together so they know one another inside and out, this always adds an extra dimension. Novak didn’t play his best nor did Andy, but Novak showed why he is world number one by winning 6-1 7-6. Novak does everything a little better than Andy and looks like he is going to continue to dominate men’s tennis. The match lasted over two hours for two sets because the balls and courts were too slow.

Roddick leads movement for ATP change

By Martyn Herman 

Andy Roddick on Friday insisted that tennis players must adopt “one voice” to push through changes to the ATP Tour but that may not be as easy as it seems despite the general feeling of solidarity.

Pity Brad Drewett, the new chief executive of the men’s Tour, who has the job of trying to keep everyone happy, grand slam champions, journeymen, tournament organisers, sponsors and TV.

The moment he took over the reins the spectre of a player boycott has returned.

A meeting involving hundreds if players took place on the eve of the Australian Open and although talk of a walkout from Melbourne was aired it did not come to fruition.

But there is clearly dissent in the ranks, and Drewett is the man tasked with damping down what could become a firestorm in the men’s game.

Tales from tennis’ fifth major

Greg Rusedski writes exclusively for Reuters thanks to Thomson Reuters’ sponsorship of the Lawn Tennis Association.

The Sony Ericsson Open tournament is considered the fifth major by most of the tennis fraternity. It became a week with many story lines:

- Could Andy Murray regain form? - Would Juan Martin del Potro continue his great comeback form? - Would there be a new American number 1? - Would Roger Federer be in the mix for his 2nd title this year? - Could Rafael Nadal win Miami for the first time? - And finally could Novak Djokovic continue his unbeaten season?

Murray was even worse than last week and lost to Alex Bogomolov Jr. in straight sets in his first match. This is now two weeks in a row losing to players outside the top 100. Following his defeat he parted company with his part time coach Alex Corretja. He said by Monte Carlo there would be a new coach appointed who has won a major or coached a player to a major. There has been lots of speculation from Lendl to Connors to Wilander, nobody knows. Also on April fool’s day Murray announced on twitter that his friend and doubles specialist Ross Hutchins would be his new coach. Sky Sports, BBC and the world press ran with the story and were not impressed by his Aprils fool’s joke because of the proximity to his parting of company with his coach. I believe he needs to stay away from these sorts of games and appoint a top coach or top psychologist to get back to his best. This is turning out to be a very difficult period in his career. It is only going to get more difficult with clay court season about to start. He needs to just concentrate on his tennis.

Juan Martin del Potro continued his great comeback form this week by defeating world number 4 Robin Soderling. It is great to see one of the best strikers of a tennis ball and former US Open Champion getting back in the mix. He will only continue to get better with Clay court season about to begin, having grown up on clay in Argentina. Unfortunately he lost a very tight match to Mardy Fish in the 4th round, but is getting better each week. This is great for men’s tennis because we need more players in the mix at the top with Djokovic and Nadal dominating.

From the American point of view with defending Champion Andy Roddick going out early, Mardy Fish would become the new American number 1 if he could get to the semi-finals. It would be a first for the American. Mardy Fish made it to the semi-finals and at 5-3 down in the first set to Djokovic he had 2 break points and should have broken. Djokovic looked tired for the first time in his incredible run at 5-3 up, but managed to hold the game to win the set 6-3 and then mentally he ignored his fatigue from there to win 6-1 and win his 23rd match in a row this year to make the finals. Fish had a great week and became the American number 1 for the first time in his career which is a great accomplishment. It is great to see a player attacking and coming to the net. A style I miss seeing on tour.

New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl: How It Happened

New Orleans Saints 31 Indianapolis Colts 17 … Saints win Super Bowl … this is how it happened.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Soul of soccer survives in Florida

One of the most appealing aspects of football is that, unlike with most sports, you can find the passion of the game in almost every corner of the world, often hidden away in the most unlikely places.

What separates football from, say Formula One or tennis, is that even at the lower levels of the game you can still get the buzz of being a fan even without the top stars or the fully-serviced facilities.

On Saturday, after a long wait, I got my fix again watching Miami FC.

Serena survives scare as women’s tennis continues to enthral

Serena Williams just survived a real scare against China’s Li Na at the Sony Ericsson Open here at Key Biscayne, Miami. The world number one’s bid to reach her sixth title in this event hung in the balance during a second set tie-break after she had made a dreadful start losing the first set 6-4.

Serena won that tie break to two and then cruised through the third set for a hard-earned victory in intense Floridian heat but hers would not have been the first shock at this tournament.

In fact, in the women’s event, Serena is the only member of the top five in the world rankings who was capable of reaching the last eight.

Russian world number two Dinara Safina, Serb Jelena Jankovic and Russians Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva all suffered surprise defeats along with the poster girl of the tournament, Serb Ana Ivanovic.

In the men’s event though all the top five are through to the quarter-final stage and this is becoming a familiar scenario – upsets galore on the WTA Tour and business as usual in the ATP.

It used to be the exact opposite with great volatility in the men’s rankings and predictable results between the women. So why has tennis gone full circle?

Is it because of the emergence of so many talented women players from countries not known in the past for tennis prowess (Russia, Serbia, China?) Or simply that the leading men of this generation, particularly Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are just on a different level from the chasing pack?