With the beginning of the spring, the number of people who does sport and decide to do sport has increased. Meanwhile for the people who are not willing to do sport but just want to watch, there are lots of opportunities in this season. Spring is the probably most fruitful season of the year for the sports events. In this season we can watch clay court season in tennis, playoffs in NBA and Champions League, UEFA Cup semifinals and finals in football. I would like to start my spring predictions with tennis.
The first quarter of the year ended with Miami tournament, and my favorite season – the clay court- season has just started. Clay court season which starts with this week’s Monte Carlo tournament and ends with second Grand Slam of the year- Roland Garros, it’s expected to be exciting but yet predictable. This period includes big tournaments like Monte Carlo, Rome Masters, Madrid Masters and Roland Garros, and some small tournaments like Barcelona, Estoril and the new Serbian tournament owned by Djokovic family, Belgrade Open. As we can see the Hamburg tournament is replaced with formerly indoor tournament Madrid Open. In the WTA most exciting tournaments are Rome Open, Madrid Open and Roland Garros.
In WTA, women are still in search of a number one will actually fit that position. However they don’t seem that they can. Could Clijsters comeback change that? Maybe. The idea of a number one tennis player who never won a Grand Slam like Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic, have seen lot controversy both from the women side (e.g. Serena Williams) and from the man side (e.g. Roger Federer). WTA does many campaigns and promotion campaigns for the marketing of the tour however boring competition and the problems in the ranking system decrease interest and audience. Since the surface change doesn’t mean anything for the women tennis, it seems that there won’t be anyone who can dominate the tour in clay court season. In addition to that in WTA clay court season doesn’t include big and exciting tournaments besides Rome Open and Roland Garros. The new Madrid Open on clay which will be added to the calendar in both women and the men side will probably bring more excitement to the women side than men’s.
On the men side , for the first time Nadal goes back to his wonderland -aka clay courts- as being number one. Predictions indicate that this year will not be different from the previous year. One of my favorite writers of Tennis.com, Pete Bodo’s prediction is following: “cool in the mornings, with periods of sun mixed with clouds and a 40 per cent chance of light showers. But when that thunder starts to roll in from Spain. . . Run for your lives, its women and children first, stay out from under the trees, and if there are any men left, dial 1-800-Save-Us-From-Rafa!!!”
Lately, the most popular topic in tennis is Federer’s situation rather than who will win which tournament. Last week, Federer who announced that his longtime girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec is pregnant, is married with her. There have been many comments on Federer’s performance and form, in addition to that now he became married with children. It’s not known how this change in his personal life will affect his professional career but its obvious Federer reached the 3rd stage of greatness which means the down fall. The racket breaking incident in Miami after five years is the most significant sign of his frustration. Federer has been so used to being prefect and the fact that he cannot go further than just being good is harming his confidence. However the probability of him wining the 14th Grand Slam is still pretty high. This week’s Monte Carlo tournament which Federer played last 3 finals didn’t make him feel better because he lost surprisingly in the 3rd round to his fellow Stanislaw Wawrinka. But yet clay court is not Federer’s best but still a surface which he can play very good, therefore it’s a matter time for Federer leaving the stress behind and back to winning again. So it’s too early giving up on Federer, because he’s the next favorite in clay after Nadal. span>
For Nadal, 2009 has started very well. Therefore it’s expected that he might be better than ever in the clay court season. The only problem, after his defeat to Del Potro in Miami, he stated that he has personal problems which distract him and affect his play. Even if it’s very weird to using expressions Nadal, personal problems, distraction and not focusing in same sentence, people are curious about what’s bordering Nadal and how long it will affect him.
I look for the other candidates which can pass this duo, but the fact that all potential candidates like Djokovic, Murray and Del Potro are hard court specialist and not having other candidate besides them proves that Nadal’s domination in clay won’t change this year as well.
