The players are in Paris, the men's and women's draws have come out, and tennis' long time foe - the weather - is already wreaking havoc during the qualifying matches and players' practices. Yes, the French Open is upon us at last!
For fans, every Grand Slam invokes a certain routine. At first, it's the draw ceremony. You spend days counting the minutes, you moan about the coverage of the draw being absolutely useless, and then you spend hours lamenting your favourites' difficult paths to the elusive titles. At this point (this is now, in case you're wondering), you realize that the tournament is going to start before the weekend's even over, and you must stock up on all the necessary equipment - food (you won't have time to leave the house for two weeks now), tissues (for that moment when you start breaking down in the middle of a sleepless night), and a fair amount of alcohol. While urging everyone to vamos (or ajde or allez or davai, or all of them if you're a Putintseva fan) responsibly, here's a drinking game to pass you through the two weeks of the 2013 edition of the Roland Garros.
Take a swig every time a commentator proclaims Rafael Nadal or Serena Williams the heavy title favourites.
Down a shot if there's a discussion of the alleged unfairness of Rafael Nadal's #4 seed or its effect on the Djokovic-Nadal predicted semifinal.
Take a sip if anybody calls Maria Sharapova 'Cow on ice'.
Drink if Benoit Paire, Jerzy Janowicz or Ernests Gulbis hits an unnecessarily ridiculous dropshot. Finish your drink if it wins them the point. Pour yourself another drink if they lose the point and go on a youtube-worthy meltdown.
Take a shot on every single rain delay.
Finish your drink when grunting comes up.
Take a swig when Petra Kvitova botches an easy shot. Take two swigs when Tomas Berdych does the same. Hospitalize yourself if they're both playing at the same time.
Take a shot if the scheduling for the next day makes no sense. Make that two shots if it's quarterfinals day and the matches are all at the same time.
Sip every time the French crowd starts booing a player. Finish your drink when they begin whistling.
Take a swig each time you have to use the Roland Garros mobile app (Android or iPhone, but you really don't want to install it).
Drink deep into the night when matches are cancelled or called off due to darkness (get some floodlights, Paris!)
Finish your bottle if Rafa and Serena actually win both titles. Drink enough to completely pass out if you're FFT president Jean Gachassin, since a French player didn't win.
Enjoy the action, everybody guys! (And feel free adding your own drinking scenarios in the comments)
One of the major debates raging in the tennis world these days is whether the Roland Garros seeding committee should depart from the regular ATP rankings and seed Rafael Nadal higher than his current (and possibly future) #5 ranking. What happens if they don't? With two big tournaments left to play - Madrid and Rome - the rankings might still change in several ways. David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal will contest the #4 spot, while Andy Murray and Roger Federer will fight over the #2 ranking. If ranking calculations are not your forte, here are the major possible scenarios.
The Basic Numbers All four players will be seeded in both Rome and Madrid, and will get first round BYEs. Therefore, the points they can earn (in each of the tournaments) are:
R2 loss - 10
R3 loss - 90
QF loss - 180
SF loss - 360
F loss - 600
W - 1000
David Ferrer & Rafael Nadal First of all, it's important to note that Ferrer's Estoril results won't be relevant to these caculations - he already has an ATP250 tournament win (worth 250 points) that he can't count, so even if he wins Estoril his current points total won't change.
Stripping away the points Ferrer and Nadal are defending in the two clay Masters 1000 tournaments, Ferrer has 6380 points, and Nadal - 4895 points. That's a difference of 1485 points between the two, which Nadal will have to overcome in order to get to #4. Thus, we can start analyzing.
If Ferrer gets at least 515 points in both tournaments combined, he'll stay #4 until the French Open, regardless of Nadal's result. Thus, Ferrer will be #4 if:
He reaches the final of either of the tournaments
He makes at least a QF in one tournament and at least a SF in the other
Furthermore, Nadal has to get extremely good results to even have a chance of getting the #4 ranking. If he wins less than 1485 points in both tournaments combined, he'll stay #5. Thus, Nadal has to win one of Madrid/Rome and make the final of the other, and even that might not be enough if Ferrer's results are good enough. If Nadal fails to win Madrid, Ferrer only has to win two matches during the two events to stay #4.
Andy Murray & Roger Federer
Without the points of Madrid and Rome, Andy Murray has 8480 points (he didn't play in Madrid last year, and lost early in Rome), while Federer has 7310 (he won Madrid and reached the Rome SF in 2012). That's a difference of 1170 points in Murray's favor.
If Murray gets at least 830 points in both tournaments combined, he'll guarantee himself the #2 seed for the Roland Garros. Murray will be #2 anyway if:
He wins either Madrid or Rome
He reaches the final of one tournament and the SF of the other
Federer, like Nadal, has to make it far if he wants to get to #2. If he wins 1180 points or less, he'll remain #3. Therefore, Federer has to do one of the following to have a chance at #2:
Make the finals at both tournaments
Win one tournament and reach at least SF at the other
The more matches Murray wins in Madrid, the farther Federer will have to go - if Murray wins three matches (Madrid SF), Federer needs W+F, if Murray reaches the Madrid final, Federer has to win both tournaments to stand a chance.
Of course, all of those scenarios can't all happen together - out of the four players, at most one can win each of the two tournaments. The draw in Madrid might even make some of these options unreachable. But until then, you can at least know what you want your favourite player to do.
Edited on May 9: Federer's loss means that he won't be seeded #2 in France; but at most #3 (can even fall down to #4 if Ferrer does really well in Rome and Federer does not).
*********
Personally, I think the Roland Garros seeding committee should follow the rankings as they are. The concept of protected ranking exists in the ATP for cases just like this one, when a player has been away with an injury for a long period of time. The rule, not accidentally, states that protected ranking will be used only for determining entry lists, not for seeding. There's no good reason to deviate from that rule now, and changing the seeding to fit a specific player (or a specific group of players, in this case) is a dangerous and unfair precedent.
One of the talking points in men's tennis in 2013 is the not-entirely-new rule about the allowed time between points - 25 seconds and not a moment more. The ATP changed the rule to a lighter version - ducking a serve, not a point, if the server goes over the time limit for the second time in the match - and tightened the enforcement of the rule considerably. Much attention has been drawn to the effect of this change on the game's pace. Carl Bialik, on the Wall Street Journal's blog, suggests that matches in 2013 have gotten faster by an average of about 7%, compared to last year's tournaments.
It has been widely suggested that one of the catalysts for the implementation of the new rule was the disproportionally long 2012 Australian Open Final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, which lasted a record breaking 5 hours and 53 minutes. Steve Tignor wrote about their first match in 2013, the Monte Carlo finals:
The tour decided to crack down on slow play in large part because of these two. Their six-hour Australian Open final was the catalyst, but their 4-hour, three-set Madrid semi in 2009 also lives in plodding-play infamy as well. Their points are long, of course, but in the past, when they faced each other, they seemed liberated to take even longer between them than they did against anyone else.
Yesterday was different. This Monte Carlo final lasted 21 games and took 1 hour, 52 minutes. Last year’s Rome final between these two also lasted 21 games, but took 2 hours, 20 minutes. There were, as far as I saw, no official time warnings handed out by chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani, and both guys were moving with dispatch.
These statistics - 1:52 and 2:20 for 21 games - are clearly not enough by themselves, and seemed misleading to me. Taken to the extreme, if every game ends after 40-0 (or 0-40), the match will be much quicker than if every game goes to deuce. Therefore, I checked the number of points played in both matches, and was surprised to see them nearly equal - the 2013 Monte Carlo final had 139 points, and the 2012 Rome Final - 143 points. This piqued my interest, and I decided to compare all of the 34 Nadal-Djokovic matches in terms of the average elapsed time per point^ - the overall match length divided by the total number of points played.
There were several questions that seemed interesting to me before doing the analysis:
Will the pair's longest matches (AO '12 for five-setters, Madrid '09 for best of three) be the ones with the longest time per point?
Will their Monte Carlo match be the shortest, as we might expect?
How did the time/point change over time in the rivalry?
Does surface play a part?
Here are the results, sorted by time/point (in seconds) - from shortest to longest:
Yr
Tourn*
Surface
Win
Final Score
Pts**
Time
Time/pt
07
Wimb
Grass
Nad
36 61 41 RET
132
1:41
45.91
08
Queen
Grass
Nad
76(6) 75
172
2:16
47.44
13
MC
Clay
Djo
62 76(1)
139
1:52
48.35
07
IW
Hard
Nad
62 75
116
1:34
48.62
07
Miami
Hard
Djo
63 64
119
1:37
48.91
07
RG
Clay
Nad
75 64 62
181
2:28
49.06
08
OG
Hard
Nad
64 16 64
160
2:11
49.13
09
WTF
Hard
Djo
76(5) 63
144
1:58
49.17
09
Cincy
Hard
Djo
61 64
111
1:32
49.73
07
WTF
Hard
Nad
64 64
125
1:44
49.92
11
Wimb
Grass
Djo
64 61 16 63
177
2:28
50.17
07
Canada
Hard
Djo
75 63
132
1:51
50.45
08
Cincy
Hard
Djo
61 75
102
1:26
50.59
08
RG
Clay
Nad
64 62 76(3)
198
2:49
51.21
08
IW
Hard
Djo
63 62
101
1:28
52.28
10
USO
Hard
Nad
64 57 64 62
255
3:43
52.47
09
Paris
Hard
Djo
62 63
88
1:17
52.50
09
DC
Clay
Nad
64 64 61
169
2:28
52.54
07
Rome
Clay
Nad
62 63
113
1:41
53.63
08
Hamburg
Clay
Nad
75 26 62
203
3:03
54.09
09
Rome
Clay
Nad
76(2) 62
136
2:03
54.26
06
RG
Clay
Nad
64 64 RET
126
1:54
54.29
10
WTF
Hard
Nad
75 62
123
1:52
54.63
12
MC
Clay
Nad
63 61
86
1:19
55.12
11
IW
Hard
Djo
46 63 62
158
2:26
55.44
11
USO
Hard
Djo
62 64 67(3) 61
268
4:10
55.97
09
MC
Clay
Nad
63 26 61
174
2:43
56.21
12
RG
Clay
Nad
64 63 26 75
241
3:49
57.01
12
AO
Hard
Djo
57 64 62 67(5) 75
369
5:53
57.40
11
Miami
Hard
Djo
46 63 76(4)
205
3:22
59.12
12
Rome
Clay
Nad
75 63
143
2:21
59.16
09
Madrid
Clay
Nad
36 76(5) 76(9)
245
4:03
59.51
11
Rome
Clay
Djo
64 64
130
2:13
61.38
11
Madrid
Clay
Djo
75 64
133
2:18
62.26
Yr
Tourn.
Surface
Win
Final Score
Pts
Time
Time/pt
Average
161
2:23
53.17
* AO = Australian Open, Cincy = Cincinnati, DC = Davis Cup WG R1 ESP-SRB, IW = Indian Wells, MC = Monte Carlo, OG = Beijing Olympics, RG = Roland Garros, USO = US Open, Wimb = Wimbledon, WTF = Masters Cup/World Tour Finals ** Pts = Total points, Time = match time (hours:minutes), Time/pt = average elapsed time per point (seconds)
Several interesting observations can be made at first glance -
Monte Carlo is in the top 3 of 'quickest play' between Nadal and Djokovic, while the other two matches in the top 3 were played on grass.
The bottom of the table is rich in clay matches (more on that later).
The pair's 2011-2012 matches are all (together with Madrid 2009 and Monte Carlo 2009) at the bottom of the table, except for Wimbledon 2011 (which is played on... grass).
Here's a graphical way of looking at the data. You can compare the time/points and the overall match length for each of the matches:
Curiously, from the 2010 US Open and through the 2011 clay season, the period of Djokovic's ascendancy to the no. 1 spot, the time/point steadily rises. It drops in Wimbledon 2011, and never gets to the same peak again. Of course, time/point includes both the time of play and the time between points, and during the four Masters 1000 tournaments of 2011, Nadal and Djokovic played some of their most grueling matches in terms of rally length (it would be interesting to get those numbers, if they exist anywhere in the hawk-eye archives). Notably, the time/point during the 2012 Australian Open wasn't as high as during Miami, Madrid or Rome in 2011 (although it's, of course, quite high).
Now, let's take a look at the surfaces. If we simply divide the above table into two halves ('quicker' and 'slower' matches), with 17 matches in each, and count the surfaces in each half, this is what we get:
Hard
Clay
Grass
Top half (time/point < 52.52)
11
3
3
Bottom half (time/point < 52.52)
5
12
0
Without going into statistics too much, the numbers for hard courts and clay courts suggest that there's a significant difference between the two halves. In other words, hard court matches between Nadal and Djokovic tend to be in the top half (i.e. quicker), while the clay court meetings tend to be in the bottom half (slower). Generally, 3 matches on grass are not a large enough sample to draw statistical conclusions of this kind, but it's not surprising that the grass matches they did have are in the top half, especially since two of them are the quickest matches they had in terms of elapsed time per point. The overall conclusion is, of course clear - hard courts (and grass, most likely) meetings between the two players are quicker, clay court matches are slower.
It will be interesting to see if future matches between the two, especially on clay, continue the Monte Carlo trend (which goes against the usual pattern of play) and become quicker than what we (and the players) are accustomed to.
What other statistics and information would you like to see about those matches? Are there any more type of matches you'd like to see analyzed that way? Questions and comments will be very much welcomed.
^ Methodology: Sources: I extracted the data of the Djokovic-Nadal head-to-head from Jeff Sackman's wonderful TennisAbstract website. The missing data for their lone Davis Cup meeting was manually filled in from the official match scorecard, which is available on the Davis Cup website.
Data: The ATP statistics include the overall match time (in hours and minutes), as well as the total number of points played during the match. For each match, I calculated ((match time in minutes)*60)/(total points) to get the average elapsed time per point, in seconds. The time measured by tennis officials includes changeovers, medical timeouts and various other stops in play, and therefore the time/point statistic does not reflect the actual time the ball is in play (especially since time between points, as we know, is somewhat volatile).
Graphic representation: Working with excel sucks. The X axis in the graphs is a category axis (and not a time axis), the points on it are equidistant and do not reflect the actual time between Nadal-Djokovic matches.
Every year, a week after Passover, Israel commemorates Yom HaShoah ("Day of Holocaust") - the Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day of both grieving for the six million who were murdered in the Holocaust, and of telling the story of those who survived. As such, it is a day on which ceremonies are held all over the country, and it's marked by the 10am remembrance siren, during which the whole country halts for two minutes of silence.
This day is also characterized by all forms of entertainment being closed - theatres, pubs and restaurants are shut down for the day, most of the television channels stop their transmissions, and the ones that do work are dedicated to documentary and Holocaust-related films and shows.
Sports, of course, are a form of entertainment. That means that no sports events are staged in Israel on the memorial day, and Israeli national teams usually try to avoid participating in sporting events abroad on that day (and similarly, a week later, during the remembrance day for fallen soldiers). However, while the popular sports, football or basketball, have fairly flexible schedules, which often allow the Israeli teams not to play on Yom HaShoah, the tennis schedule is much more rigid. There's a tournament every week, it almost always starts on Monday, and if a player wishes to avoid playing on a specific day, he or she might as well skip the whole tournament.
Israeli players - Shahar Peer, Dudi Sela, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram among them - have encountered this situation frequently, ever since turning pro. They usually submit requests to the tournament directors, asking not to play during certain national days (both memorial days and the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur). However, the schedule restrictions often do not allow for such accommodations, forcing the players to decide whether they are willing to play, while also subjecting themselves to criticism.
Criticism? Yes, indeed. The issue of whether athletes should compete on either of the memorial days is a controversial one in Israel. Teams, players and even coaches (Avram Grant, when he managed English teams, for example) are expected to do everything they can to avoid participation in any sporting events. One point of view says that athletes are just doing their job (the Holocaust Remembrance day is a regular work day for most people in Israel), and therefore there's no reason why they can't compete. The opposing view is that the day is a special one, and should be respected by all, especially by players who represent the country. And so, practically every year, raging debates occur over tennis players' decision to keep on playing.
Why now, you ask? Today was the 2013 Holocaust Remembrance Day. Today, Shahar Peer played a final round of qualifying match in Katowice, Poland. She did it after posting the following status on her Facebook page:
I am in Poland, which makes the upcoming Yom Hashoah all the more real. My heart goes out to all the innocent people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Never again.
Peer also played with a black ribbon with the words "Never again" on it. She ended up losing 6-4 6-1 to Slovak Anna Schmiedlova, though she will still enter the main draw as a lucky loser, to play Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round.
Was she right to play? Some people commended her for donning the ribbon, thus commemorating the day in her own way. Others said she deserved to lose, since she shouldn't have played, as a representative of the Country of Israel, which mandates avoiding any kind of entertainment. A tennis match (or any sports event), they say, is entertaining other people, and thus disrespecting the spirit of the day.
Personally, I feel like this is a very individual decision. I don't think that during a regular WTA tournament (as opposed to Fed Cup or the Olympics) Peer is playing as a representative of Israel. Tennis is a solitary sport, and every player represents herself, no one else. Moreover, there's little doubt in my mind about the importance of Holocaust Memorial to Shahar herself. Three years ago, she took part in the "March of the Living" that's held every year at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Yom HaShoah. She was accompanied by her mother and also her grandmother, who had survived Auschwitz. The experience was documented in a special feature produced by the Tennis Channel, which is available online. With Katowice a mere 40-minute drive away from Auschwitz, is there a better way to honor this day than by living it to its fullest, playing and fighting for a win?
Shahar Peer and her grandmother, Yolina Eckstein, during the March of the Living, Auschwitz 2010
Photo by Troy Borruso
Edited to add: A day after this post was published, the WTA posted an interesting piece on their website, with Peer's quotes about what playing on the Holocaust Remembrance day means to her,. Among other things, she says she makes sure to observe the two minutes of silence at the same time of the memorial siren in Israel.
Earthquake!!!! I was in the bathroom. The rest of the team was a bit freaked
— Milos Raonic (@milosraonic) March 11, 2013
Earthquake in the desert! Maybe that's a sign I need to get out of her?!
— Frank Moser (@FrankyMoser) March 11, 2013
Greatest typo I've seen!!!! RT "@frankymoser Earthquake in the desert! Maybe that's a sign I need to get out of her?!"
— Henri Kontinen (@henrikontinen) March 11, 2013
Just experienced a pretty big earthquake right now... Wow... #nervous
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) March 11, 2013
It was a 5.1....
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) March 11, 2013
Woooow... What a way to get a 'wake up call'!! Earth quake here in Palm Springs... Was so scared!
— Kirsten Flipkens (@FlipperKF) March 11, 2013
Did anybody feel the earthquake at Indian Wells???��
— Feliciano López (@feliciano_lopez) March 11, 2013
We just had an earthquake!!! Suddenly everything start moving, I was holding the walls in my room not to fall! OMG��
— Maria Kirilenko (@mkirilenko) March 11, 2013
Increíble , hace minutos hubo un temblor de 5.2 en IndianWells. Por suerte no paso a mayores en esta zona. Saludos
— Carlos Berlocq (@charlyberlocq) March 11, 2013
Just experienced my first earthquake here in Indian Wells! 5.1 on the Richter scale apparently.
— Colin Fleming (@colin_fleming) March 11, 2013
Nothing like an #earthquake in the morning? Hmmm 5.2. whole room shaking around.... really does show you how small you are on this earth
— Matt Ebden (@mattebden) March 11, 2013
WOW!Small earthquake in Indian Wells just now....
— Kei Nishikori (@keinishikori) March 11, 2013
De locos estar en la cama y q se empieze a mover todo! por suerte solo ha sido un susto...
— Marcel Granollers (@M_Granollers) March 11, 2013
Am pretty sure the earth just shook!!! Yikes....
— Mahesh Bhupathi (@Maheshbhupathi) March 11, 2013
Earthquake in the desert?really?almost dropped my weights on me in the gym.I survived
Last week, I've spent four days in the southern-most city in Israel, Eilat, covering the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I tournament together with Israel Tennis Results. This has been a great experience, and I'd like to thank the ITR guys for the opportunity to go to the tournament as media. You can find all the press conferences, interviews, and other videos from the weekend on the Israel Tennis Results Youtube channel, and all the photos that I took on the blog's Facebook page. The full results can be found on the Fed Cup official website. Here, I'll cover some general tournament-related topics at first, and then sum up my impression of the teams I've had a chance to watch.
Eilat, Thursday morning
Weather
Eilat is a desert city on the shores of the Red Sea. As such, it rarely has rain, even during the winter, which makes her perfect for hosting a tennis tournament in February. Of course, the Tennis Gods are cruel, and half an hour before play was supposed to start, a storm of biblical proportions washed the city. Or not so biblical - but in Eilat, 3 hours of steady rain were enough to flood the street and cause an airport closure for half a day. The courts got dry by the time the afternoon matches were scheduled to start, but the tight format of the tournament meant that all the morning matches were moved a day forward, and half of the teams had to stay an extra day and play on Sunday morning. The rest of the weekend was sunny and warm, and even the evenings had pleasant weather.
Opening Ceremony, Thursday afternoon
Officiating
The main problem that came up in many of the matches was dodgy line calling. There were many disputes between players and line judges, a fair share of cases where the chair umpire made the call instead of the linesmen, and quite a few corrections. The players, obviously, weren't thrilled with that development, but everyone suffered equally from it.
Babos arguing with a chair umpire
Withdrawals
Compared to the original list of players, the actual roster of the tie was much weaker than expected. With Azarenka and Paszek not playing for scheduling reasons (with Doha coming up two days after Fed Cup), and many other players withdrawing with various injuries (Govortsova, Halep, Begu, Koehler, Martic, Bertens, Hercog), some of the pools became very unbalanced (Croatia easily defeating Austria, Belarus and Georgia is a good example of that).
Full crowd for Poland - Israel on Friday
Crowd
This, unfortunately, is a point that needs to be made every time a Davis/Fed Cup event is hosted by Israel, but I'd like to make it perfectly clear. Like I said after last year's Fed Cup, the crowd that comes to Eilat for tennis is mostly a tennis loving and knowledgeable one. The others are local residents, and since Eilat is a small town, there are not many of those. That means that even during Israel's matches, the crowd is generally respectful towards the opposing players. Yes, there's always the occasional heckler, and sometimes large groups of kids aren't as silent as one would like, but overall - the crowd's behaviour is not different than in any large tournament (Roland Garros comes to mind).
And now, some comments about the main teams that I've watched over the extended weekend.
Portugal
Portugal suffered from the withdrawal of their highest ranked player, Maria João Koehler, with Michelle Larcher De Brito playing as the #1 player and in doubles, as well. De Brito did very well under the circumstances, winning 2 out of her 3 singles matches in Pool B. She started the week by losing to Timea Babos 6-3 5-7 5-7 in an extremely tight and emotional match. She was playing well until the end of the second set, but then hit three double faults in one game while serving to stay in the set. That unhinged her mentally for a while, and she was close to tears in the start of the third set, but she collected herself and played evenly enough for the rest of the match. However, the match was partially decided by a questionable line call, that brought up match point for Hungary.
Larcher De Brito & Vale Costa vs Great Britain
De Brito played well in her 6-1 6-4 win against Heather Watson, being the steadier player throughout the match, but that form wasn't enough to get a doubles win versus the Brits. She did, however, win both her singles and doubles matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing the crucial point that prevented Portugal from having to play the elimination tie.
Hungary
Hungary brought a relatively strong team, with Babos and Arn in singles and Marosi in doubles. They swept their first two ties 3-0, with Babos even playing doubles straight after her second singles win, even though it wasn't strictly necessary. In an interview with us afterwards, she explained that Fed Cup is her only chance at team play, which she enjoys very much. Watch her discuss this, the WTT league she played together with Amir Weintraub, and more:
Israel
It's not a secret that Shahar Peer has had a pretty awful 2012, and 2013 didn't start much better (1-3 win-loss record before this Fed Cup). During the off-season she returned to work with Pablo Giacopelli, who's credited for getting her up the rankings back around 2010. I was skeptical about the effect this had on Peer's game, but was pleasantly surprised to see her this week. She's been hitting much flatter and more aggressively than for most of 2011-2012, with purpose to her shots and without the unnecessary moonballs. Granted, she was still on the verge of losing to Turkish #163 Cagla Buyukakcay (won 1-6 6-1 7-6(3)), and couldn't hold to a 4-0 lead in the second set against Sorana Cirstea (lost 2-6 6-7(4)), but there's no doubt that she's making progress.
Meanwhile, Julia Glushko won all four of her singles matches, including a 6-4 6-4 win over Urszula Radwanska - the biggest win of her career so far. Like Amir Weintraub, Glushko seems to thrive with home support, and despite still being overly emotional and occasionally irritable on court, she had a great week in singles.
Peer happy with a great Glushko shot
Israel's problem, as always, is the doubles - Peer is a good doubles player (fresh from a semifinal showing in Pattaya), but Glushko has no idea what to do at the net, and Peer had to manage her throughout their match with Poland. In an unexpected turn of events, that match was very decisive, with the winner proceeding to the promotion tie against Croatia. Israel led by a set, and made a mini-comeback in the second set, with the third being very tight, but ultimately it wasn't enough. The new captain, Amos Mansdorf, who on the first day decided in the last moment to conserve Peer's and Glushko's efforts and not play them in doubles, said himself that he might have made the wrong decision, when on the second day they lost meekly to the Romanians. In retrospect, that might have been the match they needed to get used to playing together.
Still, being one set away from the promotion tie is a much better result than anything the team was expected to achieve when the draw came out, despite the obvious disappointment with losing the crucial doubles match.
Croatia
Croatia was the team that piqued my interest since the moment the player lists came out. I wanted to chat with Donna Vekic (ranked #92 as a 16 year old) and Ana Konjuh (Junior AO singles + doubles champion; surname pronounced "Kon-yoo-ch") from the start, but the tight schedule and Croatia playing in parallel to Israel made the timing very difficult, and the long doubles match between Poland and Israel eventually prevented that interview from happening.
Ana Konjuh
At any rate, I had the opportunity to watch both girls play Poland, and I can say without any doubt that they were the team that impressed me the most, especially Konjuh who beat Urszula Radwanska 2-6 6-3 7-6(6) in the first promotional play-off match. Konjuh has a pro's game and a pro's attitude. Practically every shot that passed over the net hit a line or a corner - she hits very flat and nothing lands in the middle of the court. She has powerful ground-strokes and serve, and most impressively of all - she's playing calmly and absolutely quietly. There's nothing of a teenager in either her game or her behaviour, despite her young age. Watch the end of the third set tiebreak and Konjuh's reaction to the win:
Great Britain
Mostly, my opinion about Great Britain haven't changed much from last year - this is an excellent team, especially since they have the best team atmosphere by far. This, in my opinion, makes a lot of difference in tight situations (compare to Poland and U. Radwanska, but more on that later).
Watson and Robson in doubles
Heather Watson was somewhat disappointing in her match against Portugal's Larcher De Brito, in which she was missing the court on every other shot, but she covered for that with a great showing in doubles afterwards, and in a comeback win over Pironkova on the extra day of competition. Eventually, the team played up to their status of favourites, and were promoted to World Group II play-offs. Watch their press conference after the win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Judy Murray talks about her roles both as Fed Cup captain and outside of it, and in which we learn how come the British team is so awesome:
Poland
Poland is another team that for me, just confirmed what I wrote about them last year. On paper, they were for sure the best team out of the 16 participants, as is evident by their eventual 4-0 result during the week. However, the team dynamics is Poland's biggest problem. It's tough to say what exactly is going on inside the team, but I can share what I saw: there's hardly any internal support on the team during their matches. Only on the last day I've actually seen Wiktorowski (team captain, and Aga's coach) trying to cheer for his players - most of the time he's just sitting there, and the other team members don't do much cheering either. Agnieszka wasn't even watching any of Urszula's match on the last day of the competition. This might sound like an insignificant issue, but it's a stark contrast to most other teams (the Turkish team was on their feet each time their player was leading in the match against Israel, for example).
Aga Radwanska, on a changeover during her match vs Donna Vekic
As a result, whenever Ula lost her singles match, Aga came to play in a fairly bad mood, which also affected their doubles play. During the doubles match against Israel, Aga practically lashed out at her younger sister, and seemed to berate her instead of showing support (which is expected from a doubles partner).
All of that, I believe, is part of the cause for the 'main' story of the week - Poland's non-existent press conference after their win over Israel. I've seen many people express their opinion about the matter, without knowing the facts, so I'd like to set the record straight. The Polish team wasn't mad at the Israeli crowd - they didn't want to give a press conference even before the tie itself, from the beginning of the week. The crowd wasn't out of order during that match, and had a lot of appreciation for A. Radwanska's finer shots. The question that you hear in the video about the Israeli crowd was a question we prepared in advance, before the tie was even played, since we knew that Poland complained about the Israeli crowd in 2011. It was one of several questions that we had in mind to ask, and we gave up on the others when we saw the Polish attitude during the 'press conference'.
Now, don't get me wrong - I sincerely appreciate the fact that A. Radwanska has consistently shown up to the zonal tie for three years in a row, trying to get promoted to World Group II where they belong. I understand that the tournament might not be in the same standard as what Radwanska is used to. Still, the attitude is, in my eyes, disappointing.
In the end, Poland beat Croatia on a Konjuh double fault in the doubles match, after which the team finally allowed themselves to relax and celebrate.
Great Britain and Poland, the early favourites to achieve promotion, were indeed the ones to go on to World Group II play-offs. Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, easily the weakest teams, were relegated to Zone Group II. With Israel staying in the group, local tennis fans will hope that they will host the Fed Cup Zone Group I ties once again next year. See you in Eilat 2014?
The Europe/Africa (read: Europe) Zone Group I event of the Fed Cup competition takes place in Eilat, Israel for the third straight year. 16 nations will compete in four pools of 4 teams, with the winners of each pool facing off for two spots in the World Group II playoffs, and the losers trying to avoid elimination. For those who want to get the details, here's a preview of what's to come.
General Order Of Play (Click to enlarge)
Who?
The morning matches will feature Group B, where Great Britain (Watson, Robson, Keothavong, Konta) are the favourites against Portugal (de Brito, without Koehler), Hungary (Babos, Arn) and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The winner of that group will play the winner of Group D - Slovenia (without Hercog), Luxembourg (without Minella but with veteran Anne Kremer), Netherlands (Rus, without the injured Krajicek and Bertens) and Bulgaria (Pironkova). The teams that come last at both groups will play to avoid relegation to Zone Group II.
Groups A and C will play in the afternoon session. Group A could have been one of the strongest groups in the whole tournament, but all the teams are coming without their #1 player - Belarus is without Azarenka, Croatia is without Martic (but with youngsters Vekic and junior AO champion Konjuh), Austria is represented by Meusburger and Mayr-Achleitner (without Paszek), while Georgia doesn't have a single player in the top 250.
That leaves Group D to be the toughest group, with two of the strongest teams in the tie - Poland (with both Radwanska sisters) and Romania (Cirstea, Halep, Begu). This group is also where the host nation, Israel, was drawn, to the dismay of the locals. Israel (Peer, Glushko) will have to beat Turkey, the last team in the group, if they want to avoid playing a relegation meeting. Poland is the favourite to make it out of this group, and they're likely to beat any opponent from Group A, finally putting them in the World Group II playoffs.
Full lists of the players and the team captains can be found on the Fed Cup website.
When?
February 6 - February 9, with two sessions played each day. The morning session will start at 7:30GMT (8:30CET, 2:30EST), and the afternoon - at 13:30GMT (14:30CET, 7:30EST).
How?
The first three days of the tournament (Wed-Fri) will be group play, while on the final day all the teams play for either promotion, relegation or ranking purposes. Every meeting between two nations has three matches - the top ranked players play against each other, the second ranked players against each other, and finally there's a doubles match (which is played even if it's a dead rubber, to determine the group positions, except for the last day). All matches are best of 3 sets.
The format of the competition, which sometimes requires players to play both singles and doubles for four straight days, is both an advantage and a problem.
Where can I follow?
The matches are played simultaneously on 4 courts, with centre court broadcasted and streamed by the Israeli Sport5 Channel. Israel will play all of its matches on that court during the afternoon session, and Great Britain is the most likely candidate to feature during the morning session.
Livescores will be available on the website of the Israeli Tennis Association when play begins.
I will be covering the tournament from start to finish for Israel Tennis Results, so check out my tweets, pictures and press quotes on the new Let, Second Serve twitter account!
