Back In Town...

SUMMER in Australia means a number of things: cricket seemingly always on the telly; the Boxing Day beginning of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race; the major golf tournaments and, in January, Australia’s international tennis for the year.
This summer is a little different so far as the lead-up tournaments go, with Brisbane hosting an international tournament for the first time in over a decade with the Brisbane International at the shiny new tennis centre out at Tennyson.
It’s shaping to be a nice little tournament as well, with Ana Ivanovic and Amelie Mauresmo in the women’s competition and defending Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic
(outed in the first round would you believe?) competing with beaten finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men’s section.
It was interesting to catch a bit of the Jelena Dokic vs Mauresmo first round match. Mauresmo ended up winning 7-6 7-6, but towards the end of the second set (the one I caught sight of) it seemed to be a case of who was worst at losing the match. Both Dokic and Mauresmo seemed to tighten up when they had chances to win (or level the match in Dokic’s case). Dokic had AUS next to her name, which has to be a good thing for Australian tennis should she rediscover the form that made her a Wimbledon semi-finalist around ten years ago.
The one thing that struck me about the match though wasn’t both players lack of killer instinct, nor the fact that Dokic still looks remarkably young despite all she’s gone through, but the fact that neither player would go anywhere near the net.
This got me wondering whether the serve-volleyer has gone the way of dodos, dinosaurs, and Diana conspiracy theories. We saw an excellent example of two serve-volleyers in the Rafter-Ivanisevic Wimbledon final back in 2001, back since then? Insert crickets chirping here.
In the latter part of the more recent match, Dokic had many chances to head towards the net and really put Mauresmo away. Instead, she preferred to backpedal so that she returned one lob from miles behind the baseline instead of halfway to the net if she’d had the courage to come forward. Dokic eventually came tentatively forward, only to see Mauresmo rocket one past her.
Strictly speaking, this shouldn’t be a problem if you come up to the net properly. Like any gambler, the serve-volleyer should be prepared to have the baseliner hit a few past them for the reward of winning points they otherwise may not have.
Of the current players Roger Federer seems to be the only one capable of coming up to the net, although he does that infrequently. Other than that, maybe Max Mirnyi?
A few more serve-volleyers would liven tennis up – and make watching the sport a little more tolerable.