Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com
Since "deregulation" seems to be a hot word these days, let's apply it to tennis: We're in the deregulated portion of the tennis year, when it often seems that anything goes.
The fall, which I often call the Twilight Zone of the calendar, is the time when the top players have done their heavy lifting for the year and are looking mostly ahead to the time when they can put their feet up. That means players looking to pad their bank accounts or take advantage of the season to raise their rankings, maybe even qualify for a big payday at the Tennis Masters Cup, can have a field day.
It doesn't hurt that the fall calendar is choc-a-bloc with events that seem far flung to almost anyone who doesn't live in Bali, Metz, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Quebec City, Tashkent, Kolkata or Mumbai. This weekend we had two primetime Twilight Zone players emerge as winners: Tomas Berdych and Dmitry Tursunov. And we had one winner who might be called the exception that proves the rule: The Stuttgart champ and current WTA world No. 1, Jelena Jankovic.
Given the way the fall has gone these past few years, it's refreshing to see that Jankovic is still kicking butt and taking names after having spent so much of 2008 in the first-class transit lounges of this world. You can be a cynic about this and put it down to greed (for prize money as well as ranking points), but as someone on Wall Street once said, "greed is good." It certainly is in tennis.
So let's give Jankovic a ton of credit as a model WTA citizen who gets it when it comes to the idea behind a world tour and an 11-month game culminating in a year-end playoffs. And you know what? Judging by her scheduling, you could easily conclude that the WTA is dominated by a chorus of "No we can't" divas who just may be pampered, highly paid, borderline lazy beneficiaries of a sport that's become an entitlement program for elite stars. Jankovic simply embarrasses the rest of the tour with her work ethic and willingness to seize opportunities to play -- isn't that what pro tennis players have always wanted?
By contrast, Tursunov and Berdych are typical Twilight Zone headline grabbers. Tursunov is a gifted player who plays like a riverboat gambler; he's also subject to what can only be called mood swings that dramatically affect his degree of interest and effectiveness in the game. He blows hot and cold but doesn't seem to raise the temperature when it really counts.
Berdych has a similar profile. People have sat around for years waiting for this guy to take his place among the Roddicks and Hewitts of this world, if not the Nadals and Federers. Guess what -- odds are, it ain't gonna happen. The Czech kid gets all tied up in knots and loses the trail to the top 10 more often than he walks on it. For him, as for Tursunov and a few others (David Nalbandian is the king of the Twilight Zone primetime players), the fall is a Zone of opportunity, full of chances to salvage a season.
In all fairness to these guys, let's remember that the Berdych and Tursunov (as well as Nalbandian) have games ideally suited to indoor hard or carpet, and that helps explain their autumn success. But let's face it -- they're still not Jelena Jankovic.
Peter Bodo
