Is Nadal about to end his New York nightmare?

Every sports person has a challenging obstacle to face up against, whether that is a fixture or an opponent, an event or a venue it’s what makes competition so intriguing.

For some they are able to overcome these obstacles and on occasions by prevailing these they can transform themselves from a champion into a truly great champion.

Rafael Nadal undeniably understands his obstacle probably more than he understands how to move a ball around a clay court but there is one thing understanding it to actually overcoming it.

Going into the hard court stretch the Spaniard has looked back to his supreme best, winning three straight events on the clay before securing both the French Open title and then his second Wimbledon Championships.

After all the trouble of last season with his aggravating tendonitis in his knees and the tennis world distressing about whether or not the 24-year-old may have to cut his career devastatingly short this now looks to be behind him, for the meantime anyway.

But since moving on to the hard the discomfort returned and this time it is not just his delicate knees there are a number of things which come with it for the World No.1.

I understand that Nadal has proven plenty of times that he is able to win on hard, for god sakes he won the Australian Open in 2008 but the North American courts are different.

Other than his two Rogers Cup titles in Toronto two years ago and Montreal back in 2005 the Spaniard has struggled in the tournaments running up to the final slam of the year.

Then we come to Flushing Meadows, not by any stretch the eight time grand slam champion’s favoured place to play. In recent years it must be said his record has steadily improved and with all his difficulties has reached the semi finals in his last two visits.

This type of effort demonstrates the type of winner and sportsman Nadal is. It proves why he is the world’s best player but until he conquers that slam, therefore winning the illustrious Career Grand Slam alongside six other men (Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer), the argument about whether he is ‘great’ will forever be questioned.

Rafael Nadal’s US Open record - 2003 – 2nd Rd; 2004 – 2nd Rd; 2005 – 3rd Rd; 2006 – QF; 2007 – 4th Rd; 2008 – SF; 2009 – SF

You could make similar parallels with Federer, who for years had a giant question mark over his extraordinary career until he completed the set with the French Open last year.

The way in which they are different however is the fact that the one and only obstacle the Swiss had to remove was Nadal and luckily for him this was removed for him, but for the Spaniard there is more than one person, it is a number of elements.

First of all there is the ball. Every tournament has their particular ball, for instance Wimbledon uses Slazenger, the French Open makes their own ball and the Aussie Open uses Wilson.

The US Open are also users of that manufacturer but it is a fraction smaller and lighter which is more suited to the flat hitters of the ball, like last year’s champion Juan Martin Del Potro, who can generate huge amounts of pace at the players heals.

This therefore relegates Nadal’s greatest asset, his viciously whipped forehand, which at the other three slams especially at the French and Wimbledon has brought him so many rewards but in the US fails to kick up as much.

The other is the court surface. We know of Nadal’s problems with the hard courts with his knees continuing to take the strain due to his physical nature of play and last year this showed signs of defeating him.

With all this contriving against Nadal not forgetting the impending ask of facing the more suited hard court players it is amazing how he can walk on to court thinking that he can overcome all this but this is what makes him the spirited, heart on his sleeve champion he is.

Over the past nine years on the circuit, the 24 year old has pretty much gone by the phrase ‘what hurts you only makes you stronger’ because after adversity he continues to comeback a better man and in this championship especially that appears to be the case.

He has put all his mental demons as well as his physical difficulties to one side to produce some magnificent tennis and goes into tomorrow’s semi final against Mikhail Youzney without dropping a set.

The key for Nadal as yet has been his serve. This is not something one would point out with the World No.1s game but it has been something which he has kept consistently strong throughout and even produced a 135mph serve against his compatriot Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round, his fastest since 2005.

Along with the aggressive serve he is utilising his flat punchy backhand as much as possible and to great effect. He is also looking to end points as soon as possible, which has often been the problem with the Spaniard who tends to grind out points.

Another obstacle Nadal had to endure in his quarter final clash against Fernando Verdasco was the blustery weather conditions but unlike his opponent he was undeterred by this to stay focused and blow Verdasco away 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.

After all this great tennis Nadal has now two hurdles remaining and possibly the biggest he has ever faced. The first is to make his first US Open final by defeating Youzhney, a man who he lost 6-0, 6-1 in Chennai in 2008 and also knocked him out in the quarters at Flushing Meadows four years ago.

Then, if that is achieved he will have to produce the performance of his life to defeat either the

five time winner Federer or the 2007 runner-up Novak Djokovic in the final.

And if this is be achieved, well, he will become the youngest to achieve the Career Grand Slam and it will end any doubt in anyone’s mind that Nadal is a true great in the sport, which will be richly deserved.

Bally's rallying cry

Elena Baltacha put to bed her Wimbledon demons by powerfully dispatching Petra Martic 6-2, 6-2 in the first round on Monday.

The victory was made sweeter by the fact that this was the opponent the Scot had her dreams crushed by three months earlier when she lost to the Croat under the watchful gaze of the British public in the first round at Wimbledon.

That defeat came with it a wave of negativity towards her as it added to what was a thoroughly depressing day for British tennis, with all apart from Andy Murray losing in the opening round.

There is no nicer way of saying it but Baltacha did well and truly bottle it that day, having been two points away from winning before collapsing with nerves. It has to be said she wasn’t the only Brit to suffer with Anne Keothavong also going down when in a winning position.

However awash all this the British No.1 showed true grit to take down the opponent and reverse the memories which she stated had taken her a while to get over.

“I took that loss quite hard and there were a lot of things to get over after that match but it was one of those things that would make me or break me, admitted the Scot, "I always try to think things happen for a reason, however hurtful, and after Wimbledon really tested me mentally and emotionally. There were a couple of demons there and after today I think I've flicked the demons off my shoulder.”

Baltacha, who is currently ranked 57 in the world and is on the fridges of getting into the top 50 for the first time, has been in fine form all year and a strong performance here will demonstrate her rapid progression.

The 27-year-old has reached the second round of the competition last year, when she showed tremendous fight to come through qualifying to even reach the main draw. Now with the satisfaction of her ranking guaranteeing her a place it is now all about stamping her authority.

If she is to better her previous best at Flushing Meadows she will have to produce a similar performance to defeat this year’s Wimbledon semi finalist Petra Kvitova in the next round.

And if Baltacha wins that then she could send not just a message back to Britain but to the world if she was takes down the reigning US Open champion Kim Clijsters in the third round.

All wrong for Keothavong

Meanwhile, the British No.3 Keothavong could not summon the type of performance her fellow Brit produced as she was defeated 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 to China’s Yung-Jan Chan yesterday.

She admitted that she has been struggling not just mentally but physically at the moment after falling from inside the top world’s 50 to 142 largely down to a bizarre knee injury suffered at the end of last year.

The 26 year old speaking after the loss said: “Who knows what's going to happen after this? I'm going to need time to reassess and decide what I want to do.”

Keothavong has also suffered a number of mental breakdowns especially at Wimbledon and with her confidence now at a significant low point a break not necessarily retirement might be a good option for her.

Roger Federer produces the unbelievable once again

On the way to defeating Brian Dabul in straight sets the great man, with his back to the net, produced a moment of breathtaking magic, which has unerring similarities of his 'tweener' against Novak Djokovic in last years semi final.

Sky Sports News highlights LTA problem...at last!

Finally Britain’s largest sports network news channel Sky Sports News spoke out yesterday about the woeful state of British tennis.

In a series of their Monday night in depth sport features they focused on the issue which has in fact been rumbling for years but it is only now that the numbers are really beginning to stack up against the Lawn Tennis Association as Britain continues to fail.

Watch this!

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,12611_6349428,00.html

The problem for me though is why now? This type of feature should have been broadcasted shortly before or during Wimbledon, when the British public become ten times more interested in the sport.

Now, when the programme has controversially switched from freeview to the paid digital customer is the issue being highlighted.

Despite that it was a thoroughly interesting 22 minute feature, where presenter Clare Tomlinson was accompanied by Andy Murray’s former coach Miles Maclagan and former Davis Cup captain David Lloyd.

The feature focused on many areas including the next generation, local clubs, a look at a LTA funded centre and also provided us with interesting sound bites from a number of faces within the game, some more opinionated than others.

The two that obviously stood out for me were David Lloyd and Mark Petchey, both of whom for a long time have been the true voices of the game.

Hard hitting but factual, their views brought to light what has been wrong with the countries game for so many years.

As Petchey pointed out the LTA has used up 42% of its annual budget of £60 million on the elite of the game and with only Andy Murray at the top with the rest hovering between 200 and 500 in the world, it has been money well and truly wasted.

Lloyd backs this up by suggesting that the LTA should not monopolies tennis talent and nurture them into their type of player and instead the talent should be picked out and put into independent squads.

The decreasing number of public courts was also pointed out, which again has been down to the governing bodies inadequacies with funding.

Miles Maclagan also offered some interesting points and tried to take the attention away from the LTA by saying it is a more of a countrywide problem. He suggests that the councils need to be doing a lot more to maintain the conditioning of courts because even in poorer Eastern European counties they still manage to have access to thousands of clean courts.

Murray’s former coach also indicated that the country needs to build a base of good professional, players ranked from 30 to 80 in the world and not focus on making ‘special’ players like Andy Murray’s. He suggests this is down to coaches looking too technical too early and not allowing them to have fun and play.

This is what Lloyd, who is an owner of a business of sport and leisure centres which are spread throughout the county, believes is the root of the problem. He believes there needs to be separate youth programmes away from the LTA’s rigid system and fundamentally better quality coaches within the game.

The resounding result to come out of the special programme is the failings of the LTA, specifically the terrible reign of Chief Executive Roger Draper, a man who came in with big plans and in the end has not reached any of them and has in fact made things worse.

Petchey and Lloyd are 100 per cent adamant the he and a number of his colleagues should hold their hands up and leave.

The former Davis Cup captain said: “If you run a business and you are in the job for four and a half years, miss targets, miss budgets, nothing seems to be improving, he has had his chance and I think he has to go.”

One thing I did notice and hopefully the rest of you noticed was the lack of appearance of Draper to stand up and pledge his case.

I am sure when the Sky Sports reporter Geraint Jones went down to the National Tennis Centre he was around to speak to but obviously he prefers to stay quiet, which in my eyes is a sign of a guilt-ridden man.

Murray out to be the boss

Andy Murray’s performances prior to this year’s US Open have underlined why Flushing Meadows may well be the location where the Scot finally comes away with that elusive major.

I know this has been uttered plenty of times before when the British No.1 has entered a Grand Slam but this time there seems to be a feeling that he wants it more than ever.

And when Murray wants something he usually gets it.

Before the Rogers Cup all the talk was that with Murray making the radical decision to drop his coach Miles Maclagan he will be at risk of slipping down the rankings especially with the news of an extremely tough draw ahead of his title defence in Toronto.

However the Scot seemed completely unnerved by this and banished all those negative questions by producing a run of sublime positive tennis to defeat an inform David Nalbandian, World No.1 Rafael Nadal and then Roger Federer in the final.

The performances especially against Nalbandian and Nadal showed that Murray has altered his approach and is now out to take his game to his opponents rather than allowing them to dictate him.

This has been one of the most frustrating things about watching the Scot. Too often does he fail to step up, throw coercion to the wind and tear through his opponents, which we all know he is capable of. Instead he tends to sit back, wear down the baseline and let the player on the other side of the net bully him.

Although this approach works by frustrating his opponent into submission an attacking natured Scot looks far more assured and imposing figure.

This is noted in today’s Times newspaper where Nalbandian commented on Murray’s highly impressive performance against him in Toronto. He said: “Andy played a more offensive style that day and I like it, said the Argentine, “I don’t like it when he plays too defensively. He played much with an attitude of offensive play in Toronto and won the tournament; he was more defensive in Cincinnati and did not win. There is your answer."

Federer is another to criticise the Scot for his defensive, counter punching style.

Now and unfortunately for the Swiss Murray is beginning to listen, as he defeated the 16 time major winner in the final in a swashbuckling manner proving to Murray that this is by far the best way to topple the World No.2, who is himself coming back into form winning in Cincinnati.

The path to another Murray-Federer final looks odds on with both of them finding themselves in very kind sections of the draw. Despite landing his Roland Garros conqueror Tomas Berdych in the quarters final, with Stanislas Warwinka and Sam Querrey also in the way in the third and fourth round respectively the inform Brit should make a straight forward journey through to the semi final.

World No.1 Nadal may well be his challenge in the last four but as shown in Toronto and the Australian Open quarter final, on hard court Murray is the boss with this being the Spaniard’s least favoured surface and slam.

This then leaves Federer, on the Arthur Ashe Court, a place the great man has dominated for half a decade but after being out lasted by Juan Martin Del Potro in last year’s final it has demonstrated that he can be shunned and Murray needs to believe that.

Serve well, take it early, put his opponent on the back foot as early as possible, step in and win the point this should be the mentallity Murray utillises to ruthlessly take his first Grand Slam title back home.

Welcome to Fine Line Tennis!

With the US Open just a day away this blog will report on the upcoming action, specifically tracking the progress of British No.1 Andy Murray, and pick out and discuss the main talking points over the fortnight.

Following that Fine Line will carry on through the hard court season up till the curtain closers in London and Doha. After the off season, where the players have their well earned rests the blog will hopefully carrying on through 2011 and beyond...

I obviously welcome comments and hopefully I can offer a different perspective on the world of tennis and will try, where possible, to bring up any British news as this is something I am deeply concerned with.

Enjoy!