In other news, the 2008-2009 figure skating season finally started. Now that an amazing crop of juniors will now finally be old enough to compete at the Senior Worlds, the fight for dominance going into the 2010 Olympics will be even more hard-fought.
So far, of the ladies I've seen, Yu-na Kim looks to be in the best shape with the best set of programs. She dominated the Skate America competition and was aptly described by Scott Hamilton as: "a woman amongst girls". She wasn't perfect, of course, but her performance was appropriate for the beginning of the season: solid, but room for improvement. She does need to work on her triple loop jump, which she can do beautifully, but simply lacks confidence because this is first season that she has competed it. Her technique and presentation is wonderful, and so far, she is sitting pretty.
Mirai Nagasu and Caroline Zhang look...just so-so. It is obvious that Mirai is new to the senior scene and that she hasn't adjusted to her growing body. Her jumping technique is quite good--comparable to Yu-na's--but many of her performances recently reflect a lack of competitive maturity. Though she won the National title this year, she did so with a fabulous short program and a lackluster long program. Ditto for the junior worlds. She probably should have run away with that competition because of her technical superiority, but choked in the long and dropped to third. Mirai looks unsettled and it will be interesting if she can pull it together in time for the really big meets.
Caroline worries me. Now that's she has grown her bad jumping technique is truly coming back to haunt her. Her jumps look so labored and she's not getting enough height and speed to complete them properly. I actually thought that Caroline has fallen back since last season, and she hasn't made the progress I expected her to. I thought that her choreography, musical interpretation and presentation skills would have improved with all the competing she's done, but even that hasn't changed. I don't particularly like either of her programs this season and she still shows the immaturity in her skating that she has all along. The only difference is that she's bigger and older and it's inexcusable. A lot of people on YouTube have called for a coaching change. I don't disagree. She has so much potential but she's stalling right now.
Miki Ando had such a heartbreaking finish to her season last year, having to stop in the middle of her long program at Worlds and withdraw. I don't think anyone who saw her interview with Peter Carruthers and burst into tears while trying to express herself in English didn't feel horrible for her. One would think that she is definitely out for redemption. I wasn't impressed by her performance at Skate America, but she didn't skate poorly. She just looks like she isn't settled into her new programs yet, and she doesn't look like her skating has improved any. But...it is the beginning of the season and I haven't decided where she falls into the mix yet.
Yukari Nakano looks great, however. I still think she was robbed of a medal at worlds but it doesn't seem to have had a negative impact. Rather coincidentally, she and Miki are both skating their long programs to "Giselle." Whoops. You'd think that skaters from the same country would be more aware of their competitors music choices, even if they don't train in the same country. It's like two co-stars in a movie showing up to the premiere in the same dress. However, Yukari definitely has the better program, choreography and charm to pull it off. Unlike Miki, she does seem to have identified an area for improvement and has fixed it: she relates to the audience so much more and she is much more engaging to watch now. If the judges give her full credit for her jumps, look out.
My two heartbreakers are Kimmie Meissner and Fumie Suguri. I can't even watch Kimmie skate anymore because I feel so horrible watching her struggle so much. It seems like all of her skills have left her, and not even new programs and a coaching change seems to have helped. It feels like we're just waiting for Kimmie to figure it out: find that one key that will make all these problems go away and help her be the skater she once was. I'd hate to think that at 19, she is washed up and will never get any better. I'd also hate to see her leave the sport like this. I hope she hangs in there and I hope things improve for her.
Ditto for Fumie, her skating has continued to worsen ever since the 2006 Olympics, where she, too, was robbed of a medal. The most recent performance I've seen from her reflects this downward spiral even though she has switched coaches as well. She doesn't look like herself and she simply cannot skate and compete as well as she used to. She, however, is in a slightly different position than Kimmie in that Fumie is almost 28 years old. She has been around a long time, won 6 national titles in Japan, 3 world medals, and competed in two Olympics. But her poor skating resulted in her not even making the Japanese team for the Worlds the last two years. It's hard to go from being Japan's best skater and beating World champ Mao Asada and Olympic champ Shizuka Arakawa at the 2006 Nationals to just being an afterthought. No matter how well she is skating, she is reaching the end of her career. She is in Maria Butyrskaya land now. :) We'll see how long she perseveres if this keeps up. Again, it would be a shame to see her retire at such a low point.
I haven't seen Carolina Kostner skate yet this season, but I'm still seething from her totally unmerited silver medal at Worlds. What a sham!
Finally, Mao Asada, the world champ. Well, I was not only unimpressed but shocked at her performance at Trophee Eric Bombard. Yikes. Not only does she have bad music for her long program that is totally unsuited to her, she didn't skate well at all. She bailed out of so many jumps and jump combinations and totally botched a triple salchow attempt in the long. It is no wonder she's never competed it until this year. It was confusing to watch her because she skated with so little conviction and determination; it was more like she was doing a lazy run through. I was also disappointed because I wanted to see the result of such a talented skater working with such a revered coach. I know it's still just the beginning, but it doesn't look like a good collaboration thus far. I was watching them in the kiss and cry and trying hard to communicate through an interpreter. Something about their interaction looked awkward and uncomfortable. Tarasova looked like she had a lot she wanted to say, Mao looked like she had a lot she wanted to learn, but it didn't look like the message got through on either end. At least when Tarasova was working with Sasha Cohen, the latter could understand and speak a little Russian. There is something about not being able to understand your coach or student that isn't conducive to a flourishing relationship, but we'll see what happens.
As for the men, I'm still in utter shock that both Stephane Lambiel and Jeffrey Buttle retired before the start of the season. I'm particularly stunned about Lambiel because he is still so young and I thought that he made a smart coaching change to get ready for the season. That said, it leaves competition for the top wide open. The only person I've seen compete more than once this year is this new kid Takahiro Kozuka. He is terrific. It seems that the Japanese men are getting their act together and producing a more competitive men's program to be equal counterparts to the superstar women. Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek will still fight it out for U.S. supremacy but as always, the question will be whether or not they can break into the ranks of world's best. Daisuke Takahashi and Brian Joubert will probably be strong as well, and we'll see if the off-season has helped Tomas Werner overcome his predisposition for choking. It will be interesting as always.
Stay tuned!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
End and...
Hello, to all!.
The tennis season came to a close with Venus Williams and Novak Djokovic hoisting the end of year championship trophies. In many ways, as deserving as both champions were and are, there was certainly quite a bit missing from both year-end tournaments.
Ladies first.
Maria Sharapova is still MIA, and though most tennis fans can do without all the noise, her never-say-die competitive spirit is sorely missed when so much is at stake. As though that weren't enough, both Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams withdrew in their round robin matches because of illness and injury. Furthermore, Dinara Safina, who had a breakthrough year, didn't make much of a splash in her first appearance. Fortunately, Vera Zvonereva, who floats in and out of the top 10, made a surprising run, and made the championship match moderately interesting for one set. Jankovic, the steadfast semifinalist, played a terrific match against Venus in the semis. She ultimately fell just a little short of a huge win, which is analogous to her entire career.
One wonders whether or not consistency is preferable to peaks and valleys, which is what Ivanovic is more prone to. After making the finals of the Aussie Open, then winning the French Open, Ivanovic has been as productive as Justine Henin--who is retired! After bombing out early in the last two majors, and withdrawing from the Olympics at the last minute, she looked like she was slowly starting to get her rhythm back. But then she messed around and fell back into her slump when the stakes were highest again. We hear all the time about athletes who just do not function well under extreme pressure and attention, and Ana is very quickly developing that reputation. Sure, she was the first Serbian to ever reach number one, but what good is it if you don't stay there? Ask Carlos Moya and Patrick Rafter. She has gone nowhere but down ever since getting to the top of the ladder. Unless she gets it together in the off season, she will continue to decline because she has a lot of points to defend right off the bat.
You have to give it up for Venus, though. She was totally unfazed by all the hoopla going on around her and confidently won a long overdue title. Like her sister, when she is on the only person who can stop her is herself--and maybe her sister. She was on, she dismantled her sister in round robin, and never got in her own way after that. Kudos to her.
So who had the best year? Who will win player of the year? Oy. Who can possibly pick one over everyone else? No one clearly had a better year than anyone. There were many great accomplishments this season but lots of lulls to dilute their significance.
Let's go down the list:
Jankovic had the most consistent year: two grand slam semis, her first grand slam final, and the coveted number one ranking. But...she didn't win any majors or any really important titles that truly merit a number one ranking. She had several chances over the summer to win a title and thus the number one ranking, but kept fumbling the ball inside the red zone. She is number one because she played a lot and won a lot, but no breakthrough titles.
Serena? Well, she had a decent year, but not a great one. She didn't look like herself when trying to defend her Aussie Open title, only made it to the third round at the French, lost a heartbreaker to sister Venus in the Wimbledon final, and withdrew from the year-end championships after losing a chance for the final four. But, she played more and earned more points, and beat Jankovic for the U.S. Open title and the number one ranking. One major for Serena doesn't spell the year's best player for me, though.
Safina? The only one of the top guns who played more tournaments than her was Jankovic, and she won quite a few of those. She was so successful this year that many tennis fans have stopped calling her "Marat's little sister," and have started calling Marat "Dinara's older brother." Little sister won four titles this year, and was one of several to be within a stone's throw of the the number one ranking. She made it to finals of the French Open, the Olympics, the semis of the U.S. Open, plus a career high ranking of number 3.
But...if anyone watched that Olympics final--yikes. It was not one of Safina's shining moments, even though she came away with the silver. I have never seen someone choke quite as dramatically as she did, and she finished the match with 17 (!) double faults. And she pulled a Djokovic (haha) and bombed out of the year-end championships, not even managing to win a single set. I think she's a sure bet for the most improved player of the year, but overall player of the year is a stretch.
The rest of the top 10 list is easy: Dementieva: no way; Ivanovic: too inconsistent; Venus: eh, probably--winning a 5th Wimbledon and her 1st year-end championship puts big points in her corner, but the rest of her year wasn't that remarkable; Zvonareva: nope--having one result worth noticing won't cut it; Kuznetsova: in her dreams--how it is that she's still in the top ten confuses me; Sharapova: please--she didn't even play the second half of the season and didn't do much in the first half outside of her great Aussie Open win; Radwanska: yeah, um, no.
*Actually, as I fact check some of this, it's already been posted that Serena was named player of the year. The rest will remain to be seen.*
Next year will be interesting because we've had plenty of time to adjust to the void left by Justine Henin. Perhaps 2009 will be the year that someone steps up and establishes herself as the indisputable number one. Having all this parity is cool, but confusing.
The guys are a little easier to figure out (at least, in tennis). Player of the year will finally be someone other than Da Fed. It is most certainly Rafa Nadal, and deservedly so. Pulling off the French Open-Wimbledon double was enough to merit it, but then he messed around and won the Olympics, and removed Federer's stranglehold on number one. Plus, lest we forget, he made the semis in both the Aussie and the US Opens, which he'd never managed to do previously. Had it not been for the fact that his accomplishments were so momentous, it wouldn't be so easy to ignore that he basically disappeared after the US Open. Those knees of his totally gave up and tennis fans everywhere were denied the chance of seeing Nadal try for the year-end championship, as well. Major disappointment. This is the fourth time he qualified for the year-end tournament and the second time he withdrew beforehand due to injury. The other two times he went down in straights to Federer in the semis. It seemed like this was his year, but it wasn't to be.
It wasn't to be was Federer's theme for the year. Though he didn't have a bad year, per se, this year proved that he is in fact, human. But being human is a down year for Fed Express. Think about it: in his four year run, his most dominant year was probably 2006: three majors, one final, year end title, and a 92-5 record. That's just sickening. This year was marked by uncharacteristic losses to opponents he normally beats in his sleep, and losses to those who are simply catching up to him. A lot of people got a piece of Da Fed this year, and he has lost that swagger of someone who knows he will win.
You knew that the year was going to be rough when he almost(!) lost in the 3rd round of the Aussie Open to Tipsarevic (who has gone on to do nothing of note this year). But even after he assured everyone that he'd recovered from the mononucleosis that plagued him there, things didn't get that much better. He got slaughtered in the French Open final then had a devastating loss at Wimbledon. He redeemed himself somewhat by winning the US Open and the Olympic doubles title, but this was just not his year to win, well, everything. He is actually (gasp!) two points away from losing the number two ranking, every year is a different year. We'll see.
Novak Djokovic had a great beginning and finish to the season and some small highlights in between, which is pretty typical of him. There were a couple of times when he had chances to pass Nadal for second place in the rankings, but would have had to beat Nadal on clay to manage it. Yeah, that wasn't happening. The only really ugly thing from Djokovic, except that ill-conceived on-court interview at the US Open, was his inexplicable second round loss to Safin at Wimbledon. Overall, though, he played extremely well, and was ready to step up when Nadal and Federer weren't there to contend for the year-end championship.
If Nadal is a shoo-in for Player of the Year, Andy Murray has to get Most Improved Player. Well, I suppose Simon and Del Potro are also likely candidates. But, they gave the award to Djokovic last year, and I think Murray is this year's equivalent. Simon and Del Potro will fight it out for Newcomer of the Year. He established himself firmly as a top five player to be reckoned with and made his first Grand Slam final. He also has plenty of potential for ascension because he has no points to defend at the Aussie Open (he lost in the first round in 2008 to Tsonga). On the other hand, Nadal and Federer have to at least reach the semis just to hang on to their spots, and Djokovic has to win. Murray will have several opportunities to move up and loosen the stranglehold on the the top three. My only beef with Murray was the Masters Cup. He played so well throughout the tournament only to run out of gas in the semis against Davydenko. Though I can't blame him for playing hard in order to eliminate Federer, in the end it doesn't seem like it was worth it. I was looking forward to Djokovic v. Murray final, but oh, well.
Although the women's game will have a constant rotation of number one players, the men's game looks like it might have quite a bit of hard-fought contests for the top, as well. Rafa will not only have to wrestle with an angry and determined Federer, an ever-confident Djokovic, and an eager Murray to stay at the top; he will also have to battle his vulnerable body that breaks down at the end of the year, and defend the slew of points he accumulated during his incredible run. Though none of the top four have a clearer path to number one than anyone else, it seems that whoever has the better year of the four just might finish 2009 as the best player in the world. If any of them are not on their game, the others will be more than happy to supplant them. All four have everything to lose and everything to gain, so it should be an exciting battle.
Until next year!
The tennis season came to a close with Venus Williams and Novak Djokovic hoisting the end of year championship trophies. In many ways, as deserving as both champions were and are, there was certainly quite a bit missing from both year-end tournaments.
Ladies first.
Maria Sharapova is still MIA, and though most tennis fans can do without all the noise, her never-say-die competitive spirit is sorely missed when so much is at stake. As though that weren't enough, both Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams withdrew in their round robin matches because of illness and injury. Furthermore, Dinara Safina, who had a breakthrough year, didn't make much of a splash in her first appearance. Fortunately, Vera Zvonereva, who floats in and out of the top 10, made a surprising run, and made the championship match moderately interesting for one set. Jankovic, the steadfast semifinalist, played a terrific match against Venus in the semis. She ultimately fell just a little short of a huge win, which is analogous to her entire career.
One wonders whether or not consistency is preferable to peaks and valleys, which is what Ivanovic is more prone to. After making the finals of the Aussie Open, then winning the French Open, Ivanovic has been as productive as Justine Henin--who is retired! After bombing out early in the last two majors, and withdrawing from the Olympics at the last minute, she looked like she was slowly starting to get her rhythm back. But then she messed around and fell back into her slump when the stakes were highest again. We hear all the time about athletes who just do not function well under extreme pressure and attention, and Ana is very quickly developing that reputation. Sure, she was the first Serbian to ever reach number one, but what good is it if you don't stay there? Ask Carlos Moya and Patrick Rafter. She has gone nowhere but down ever since getting to the top of the ladder. Unless she gets it together in the off season, she will continue to decline because she has a lot of points to defend right off the bat.
You have to give it up for Venus, though. She was totally unfazed by all the hoopla going on around her and confidently won a long overdue title. Like her sister, when she is on the only person who can stop her is herself--and maybe her sister. She was on, she dismantled her sister in round robin, and never got in her own way after that. Kudos to her.
So who had the best year? Who will win player of the year? Oy. Who can possibly pick one over everyone else? No one clearly had a better year than anyone. There were many great accomplishments this season but lots of lulls to dilute their significance.
Let's go down the list:
Jankovic had the most consistent year: two grand slam semis, her first grand slam final, and the coveted number one ranking. But...she didn't win any majors or any really important titles that truly merit a number one ranking. She had several chances over the summer to win a title and thus the number one ranking, but kept fumbling the ball inside the red zone. She is number one because she played a lot and won a lot, but no breakthrough titles.
Serena? Well, she had a decent year, but not a great one. She didn't look like herself when trying to defend her Aussie Open title, only made it to the third round at the French, lost a heartbreaker to sister Venus in the Wimbledon final, and withdrew from the year-end championships after losing a chance for the final four. But, she played more and earned more points, and beat Jankovic for the U.S. Open title and the number one ranking. One major for Serena doesn't spell the year's best player for me, though.
Safina? The only one of the top guns who played more tournaments than her was Jankovic, and she won quite a few of those. She was so successful this year that many tennis fans have stopped calling her "Marat's little sister," and have started calling Marat "Dinara's older brother." Little sister won four titles this year, and was one of several to be within a stone's throw of the the number one ranking. She made it to finals of the French Open, the Olympics, the semis of the U.S. Open, plus a career high ranking of number 3.
But...if anyone watched that Olympics final--yikes. It was not one of Safina's shining moments, even though she came away with the silver. I have never seen someone choke quite as dramatically as she did, and she finished the match with 17 (!) double faults. And she pulled a Djokovic (haha) and bombed out of the year-end championships, not even managing to win a single set. I think she's a sure bet for the most improved player of the year, but overall player of the year is a stretch.
The rest of the top 10 list is easy: Dementieva: no way; Ivanovic: too inconsistent; Venus: eh, probably--winning a 5th Wimbledon and her 1st year-end championship puts big points in her corner, but the rest of her year wasn't that remarkable; Zvonareva: nope--having one result worth noticing won't cut it; Kuznetsova: in her dreams--how it is that she's still in the top ten confuses me; Sharapova: please--she didn't even play the second half of the season and didn't do much in the first half outside of her great Aussie Open win; Radwanska: yeah, um, no.
*Actually, as I fact check some of this, it's already been posted that Serena was named player of the year. The rest will remain to be seen.*
Next year will be interesting because we've had plenty of time to adjust to the void left by Justine Henin. Perhaps 2009 will be the year that someone steps up and establishes herself as the indisputable number one. Having all this parity is cool, but confusing.
The guys are a little easier to figure out (at least, in tennis). Player of the year will finally be someone other than Da Fed. It is most certainly Rafa Nadal, and deservedly so. Pulling off the French Open-Wimbledon double was enough to merit it, but then he messed around and won the Olympics, and removed Federer's stranglehold on number one. Plus, lest we forget, he made the semis in both the Aussie and the US Opens, which he'd never managed to do previously. Had it not been for the fact that his accomplishments were so momentous, it wouldn't be so easy to ignore that he basically disappeared after the US Open. Those knees of his totally gave up and tennis fans everywhere were denied the chance of seeing Nadal try for the year-end championship, as well. Major disappointment. This is the fourth time he qualified for the year-end tournament and the second time he withdrew beforehand due to injury. The other two times he went down in straights to Federer in the semis. It seemed like this was his year, but it wasn't to be.
It wasn't to be was Federer's theme for the year. Though he didn't have a bad year, per se, this year proved that he is in fact, human. But being human is a down year for Fed Express. Think about it: in his four year run, his most dominant year was probably 2006: three majors, one final, year end title, and a 92-5 record. That's just sickening. This year was marked by uncharacteristic losses to opponents he normally beats in his sleep, and losses to those who are simply catching up to him. A lot of people got a piece of Da Fed this year, and he has lost that swagger of someone who knows he will win.
You knew that the year was going to be rough when he almost(!) lost in the 3rd round of the Aussie Open to Tipsarevic (who has gone on to do nothing of note this year). But even after he assured everyone that he'd recovered from the mononucleosis that plagued him there, things didn't get that much better. He got slaughtered in the French Open final then had a devastating loss at Wimbledon. He redeemed himself somewhat by winning the US Open and the Olympic doubles title, but this was just not his year to win, well, everything. He is actually (gasp!) two points away from losing the number two ranking, every year is a different year. We'll see.
Novak Djokovic had a great beginning and finish to the season and some small highlights in between, which is pretty typical of him. There were a couple of times when he had chances to pass Nadal for second place in the rankings, but would have had to beat Nadal on clay to manage it. Yeah, that wasn't happening. The only really ugly thing from Djokovic, except that ill-conceived on-court interview at the US Open, was his inexplicable second round loss to Safin at Wimbledon. Overall, though, he played extremely well, and was ready to step up when Nadal and Federer weren't there to contend for the year-end championship.
If Nadal is a shoo-in for Player of the Year, Andy Murray has to get Most Improved Player. Well, I suppose Simon and Del Potro are also likely candidates. But, they gave the award to Djokovic last year, and I think Murray is this year's equivalent. Simon and Del Potro will fight it out for Newcomer of the Year. He established himself firmly as a top five player to be reckoned with and made his first Grand Slam final. He also has plenty of potential for ascension because he has no points to defend at the Aussie Open (he lost in the first round in 2008 to Tsonga). On the other hand, Nadal and Federer have to at least reach the semis just to hang on to their spots, and Djokovic has to win. Murray will have several opportunities to move up and loosen the stranglehold on the the top three. My only beef with Murray was the Masters Cup. He played so well throughout the tournament only to run out of gas in the semis against Davydenko. Though I can't blame him for playing hard in order to eliminate Federer, in the end it doesn't seem like it was worth it. I was looking forward to Djokovic v. Murray final, but oh, well.
Although the women's game will have a constant rotation of number one players, the men's game looks like it might have quite a bit of hard-fought contests for the top, as well. Rafa will not only have to wrestle with an angry and determined Federer, an ever-confident Djokovic, and an eager Murray to stay at the top; he will also have to battle his vulnerable body that breaks down at the end of the year, and defend the slew of points he accumulated during his incredible run. Though none of the top four have a clearer path to number one than anyone else, it seems that whoever has the better year of the four just might finish 2009 as the best player in the world. If any of them are not on their game, the others will be more than happy to supplant them. All four have everything to lose and everything to gain, so it should be an exciting battle.
Until next year!
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