Waking Up Early to the Australian Open
If you are on the East Coast in the U.S., don’t forget to flip on the TV to check out any late night battles going on in Melbourne. This morning I caught the end of the fourth set and most of the fifth between Mikhail Youzhny and Richard Gasquet, both were cramping, struggling through points, the best of which was a fantastic pass by Youzhny that won him the fourth-set tiebreaker, a ball he ran down a remarkable leaping backhand overhead by Gasquet. Gasquet had two match points but couldn’t pull it out in the fourth, and Youzhny won 6-4 in the fifth. Tennis doesn’t get much better. Kudos to ESPN for sticking with the match and pre-empting more NFL blabber from the morning TV talk show.
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Jan 24th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Another late night match-up tonight (1/23) features relatively unknown Polish rising star and heartthrob, Lukasz Kubot, against Novak Djokovic. Not since Wojciech Fibak–former #1 doubles player and a consistent top 10 singles player during the McEnroe-Borg era in the late 1970s and early 1980s– has a Polish-born male tennis player met with as much success as Kubot. (Polish woman’s tennis has fared much better of late with the recent success Agnieszka Radwanska and Danish-born but Polish-speaking Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki’s parents emigrated to Denmark from Poland.) Like Fibak, Kubot has met with greater success on the doubles circuit, but 2009-10 may be a breakout season for the 6′3″, heavy serving Pole. He reached the 2009 Serbian Open final, losing to tonight’s opponent (Djokovic). He also defeated Andy Roddick at the 2009 China Open and advanced to the semifinals at the Cincinnati Masters series.
Kubot can often be found battling his way at major qualifying events. Though his success at these events has been variable, he has garnered a degree of following particularly among fellow Polish fans. At the U.S. Open Qualifiers this past summer, Kubot’s matches were well-attended and spectators bore witness to polite but noticeable chants of “Lukasz, Lukasz” at appropriate times during the match. Though it is unlikely that Kubot will advance tonight, it has been a good, but very long in coming, run for Kubot and Polish men’s tennis.
Jan 24th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
[...] If you think American tennis has had a long Grand Slam drought, consider Poland. Stefan Dombrowski has the story here. [...]
Jan 26th, 2010 at 4:49 am
Great posting on Polish players. I wanted to add the Kubot is also close to falling into the mold of the new “long and lean” player. Not unlike the breakthrough that Usain Bolt has been in men’s sprinting (a sport traditionally dominated by compact and explosive athletes) many contemporary tennis players are breaking the mold of the traditional compact and athletic tennis player (Laver, Agassi, Borg, Hewitt, et al.). Incredible fluidity has been demonstrated by the likes of Cilic and Del Potro, while Kubot and other modern long-and-lean players pose significant threats of downhill hitting and tremendous wingspan at the net. While there have been big guys in the past, the fleet-footedness of the new Cilic-like mold is unusually smooth and athletic for 6′3″, 6′4″ and beyond. Some of today’s big men still have more of a lumbering look and style (like Isner), but many of today’s long-and-leans not only hit downhill, but are surprisingly fit and nimble and cover the court very well. Consider how fleet of foot Karlovic looked against Nadal…much more athletic than the big-guy stereotype.