Future Tennis Stars

Finally.

Up 2-0 in the third set against Kevin Anderson, Novak Djokovic was warned by the chair umpire for excessive ball bouncing before he served. It certainly had an effect on Djokovic and though he won the next point, he lost the next 13 en route to being upset. Even the crowd turned on Djokovic, jeering him in the third set.

“I didn’t focus myself in that moment,” Djokovic said. “But, you know, that’s OK. It’s all part of the game.”

This has been an issue with players for a long time. The tighter the situation in the match, the more ball bounces Djokovic seems to take. It will be interesting to see how Djokovic responds to this as now that one umpire took action, more will have to follow or else opposing players will speak up even more.

A similar incident happened at Wimbledon in 1992 when Monica Seles was constantly ridiculed for her loud grunting. To stop the negative press, Seles made an effort to stop the grunting and it obviously effected her play and she lost the title to Steffi Graf in a lopsided match, losing 6-2, 6-1.

Alright, better late than never right? Unfortunately due to my server problems, I’ve had no time to write the final installment in my hypothetical view on how Serbia’s top stars will fare in the upcoming tennis season.  Onward…

2007 In Review
Novak got a ton of press and rightfully so for moving from 16th in the rankings at the start of the year to no. 3 by July 9th where he would finish, behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He reached the finals in Indian Wells and won Miami. Novak reached the semis at the French Open and Wimbledon where he lost both times to Rafael Nadal. He really caught everyone’s attention in Toronto where he beat Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to take the title. After losing to Federer in the finals at the US Open, he had a so-so finish to the year. He won a small event in Vienna and reached the semifinals in Madrid but crashed out of Paris and went 0-3 at the Masters Cup.

What to Expect in 2008
Your guess is as good as mine. Novak made a ton of progress in ‘07 but his lackluster finish at the Masters Cup made some fearful that he could be on the verge of a sophomore slump. There have been many players (Baghdatis and others) who come on hot one year and fade away the next. Novak reached the semis or better in three Slams in 2007 so we know he can play on all surfaces but the mental aspect is questionable.

Let’s see how he will fare in the Slams

Australian Open
Novak will have to come out like gangbusters in the first Slam of the year. He wants to pass Nadal and be the challenger to Federer and Nadal isn’t at his best in Melbourne so this would be his first real chance to take on Roger. Though, I doubt it’s going to happen. He suffered a mentally crushing defeat at the US Open and I think that would bother anyone. It may have been months ago but Novak is a bit of a head case so we will have to see how he performs with all the expectations on him. My guess is with other players like Baghdatis, Gasquet and Monfils who are desperate to make a name for themselves, Djokovic could be upset as early as the quarterfinals.

French Open
Were you surprised that Novak made the semifinals in Paris?Me too. Nothing gave anyone the impression that he would do so well. He did win Estoril but that’s not exactly a barometer for success at the French. Either he works his butt off on clay this year or he will go down early and I am guessing it will be the latter. Look for a third or fourth round “upset”.

Wimbledon
If Novak goes out early in Paris, it would affect his ranking and his seeding for Wimbledon. Either that will be very good or very, very bad. He could run into the likes of Roddick, Gasquet, Nadal or even Federer earlier than he would want to. Still, his game is well suited for the grass and he could end up breaking R-Fed’s streak. If he is placed on the opposite side of the draw as Federer, he could go as far as the finals. However, it’s hard to imagine that Federer if he’s on top of his game, would lose to anyone here. Depending on how Nadal does, I would say Novak reaches the semifinals or better.

US Open
This is Novak’s event to win or lose. He’s great on hard courts and with Nadal on his post-Wimbledon slide, Novak’s chances to take the title will grow all summer long. He has beaten Roger on hard courts before so he could very well do it again. He will be waiting all year for the chance to do it and I bet he does. Look for Djokovic to give Serbia two US Open championships in 2008.

Rankings
Unless Novak tears up the clay court season or Nadal takes a total nosedive, look for Novak to start, and finish, the year ranked third.

Hurdles
For any player, it’s injuries and while Novak has been pretty good so far, we will have to see if anything creeps up on him in 2008. Other than that, it’s mostly mental. His breakdown at the US Open was painful to watch and probably a thousand times worse for him. How he deals with that and how he improves his focus will be the telling factors in how he fares next year.

In Summary
Australian Open - Quarterfinals
French Open - Fourth Round
Wimbledon - Semifinals
US Open - Champion

Thanks for reading everyone!

Roger Federer drew Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Davydenko in the Red Group when the Masters Cup draw was selected on Wednesday.

The Gold Group, which opens play on Sunday, includes Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet.

Federer is of course the favourite to win his fourth Masters Cup title. Nadal isn’t in top form and Federer’s draw is similar to that of the US Open when he beat Roddick and Davydenko en route to the title.

Djokovic is also a threat and a rematch of the US Open finals is most likely what we will get in just over a week.