Nadal_Power
Semi-Pro
http://www.**************.org/2003-...-step-towards-tennis-glory-articolo32433.html
Introduction: On 6th July 2003, Roger Federer finally fulfilled his potential and talent, winning his first Grand Slam title on the sacred Centre Court at Wimbledon, showing some astonishingly good tennis.
The 21-year old Swiss had never before gone further than the quarter-final stage at the Grand Slams. That year, he did just about everything right, especially in the final when it looked that he just couldn’t miss a shot. Roger became the first player after Richard Krajicek in 1996, to lose only one set en route towards the Wimbledon crown, and in the final match, he gave no chances to Mark Philippoussis to break his serve, defeating him in straight sets 7-6 6-2 7-6.
With only a few unforced errors and a full arsenal of variety of strokes that left Philippoussis completely powerless that day this was one of the most impressive debuts in the Grand Slam finals in the history of tennis and a nice prelude for all of Roger's successes at this tournament in the years to come.
Philippoussis had a terrific average of 27 aces per match before the final, including 46 against Agassi in the fourth round. Nevertheless, Roger stopped Mark's domination on serve with some great returns, neutralizing the Aussie in attempts to drive him off to the side of the court and to finish the point with an easy volley at the net. Federer became only the fourth player in the Open Era to win Wimbledon in both junior and senior competition, after Bjorn Borg, Pat Cash, and Stefan Edberg. At that moment, Roger was the youngest champion since Boris Becker in 1989, and it was highly unlikely that he would be passed in the years to come. There was another connection with the famous German that both players had won the title as the fourth seeds (Becker in 1986).
In some way, this was the tournament for proving themselves for both Mark and Roger. After his stunning victory against Sampras in 2001, Roger was put under the spotlight next year, but he lost to Mario Ancic at the start of the tournament. On the other hand, Philippoussis was virtually written down, and it all started exactly at Wimbledon in 1999 when he had had the match against Sampras in his hands before he was forced to retire due to a knee injury. His agony lasted until 2002 (three surgeries in 14 months) and it was not only that he spent some time in the wheelchair but there was also a chance that he might have never played tennis again.
As we can see, Mark raised himself above all his troubles and went on to reach another Grand Slam final, after losing the 1998 US Open final to a fellow Aussie, Patrick Rafter.In addition, Mark was also trying to become one of only a few players to have won Wimbledon without being seeded (Ivanisevic had done it in 2001).
How chaotic and interesting the first years of the new millennium were, we can see from the fact that Federer was the seventh different player in a row to win a Grand Slam title, starting from the 2002 Australian Open, where Thomas Johansson won his famous title. This had happened only twice before in the Open era, between the 1974 US Open and 1976 French Open, and the 1990 Australian Open and 1991 Wimbledon.
Few words about the tournament: A leitmotif at the start of the tournament was the absence of seven-time champion Pete Sampras, after 14 consecutive years of playing at his favorite tournament. Also, after the previous year’s final had seen two baseliners, things had gone back to normal, even though the defending champion Lleyton Hewitt re-wrote the history once again, this time negatively. Namely, he lost in the first round to the big server Ivo Karlovic, becoming the only second Wimbledon defending champion to lose in the first round. This shocker was echoing around the tennis world for days, as Karlovic was the 203rd ranked player in the world, who’d qualified to make the main draw (he’d failed to qualify for the previous 10 Grand Slam events), and he was a Grand Slam debutant! Also, Ivo was the tallest player to have ever played at Wimbledon, using his height to terrorize his rivals with booming serves.
Ivo had around 60 service winners but things could have been different, as Lleyton led 6-1 5-4 with set point for a two sets’ lead. But Karlovic fended it off with good serve (he saved six break points in the second set) to stay in touch, and he eventually won the set, which gave him a huge boost. One break of serve in each of the third and fourth sets was enough for the Croat to notch a huge win and create a big upset in the early stage of the tournament. Robby Ginepri drew attention by playing in the sleeveless shirt and for his marathon second round match against Arnaud Clement, the Frenchman winning 10-8 in the fifth set after more than four-and-a-half hours of play.
History will also remember the debut of Rafael Nadal at the Grand Slams, less than a month after his 17th birthday. He showed his class straight away by defeating Mario Ancic and becoming the third youngest player to have won a Wimbledon match in the Open era, after Mats Wilander and Boris Becker, 20 years earlier.
In the second round, there was a very tight encounter between Greg Rusedski and Andy Roddick and also a new great achievement for Nadal, who became the youngest player to reach the third round after Boris Becker in 1984. The hopes of the Brits were still tied to Tim Henman, who ousted the 2002 finalist David Nalbandian en route to reaching the quarter-final stage in the event for the seventh time in eight years.
When Philippoussis took down Agassi in the fourth round, there was an unusual scene in the quarter-final, with eight players who’d never won Wimbledon left in contention. This had occurred for the first time since 1973, when Wimbledon was boycotted by the best players.
Sebastien Grosjean broke the hearts of the home crowd once again in the quarter-final, beating Tim Henman 3-1 (Tim came from 1-5 down in the first set but he wasted four set points in the tie-break). Roddick continued his good run, defeating Bjorkman in straight sets to set up a semi-final clash with Federer. Both semi-final matches were finished in straight sets, for the first time since 1982.
Introduction: On 6th July 2003, Roger Federer finally fulfilled his potential and talent, winning his first Grand Slam title on the sacred Centre Court at Wimbledon, showing some astonishingly good tennis.
The 21-year old Swiss had never before gone further than the quarter-final stage at the Grand Slams. That year, he did just about everything right, especially in the final when it looked that he just couldn’t miss a shot. Roger became the first player after Richard Krajicek in 1996, to lose only one set en route towards the Wimbledon crown, and in the final match, he gave no chances to Mark Philippoussis to break his serve, defeating him in straight sets 7-6 6-2 7-6.
With only a few unforced errors and a full arsenal of variety of strokes that left Philippoussis completely powerless that day this was one of the most impressive debuts in the Grand Slam finals in the history of tennis and a nice prelude for all of Roger's successes at this tournament in the years to come.
Philippoussis had a terrific average of 27 aces per match before the final, including 46 against Agassi in the fourth round. Nevertheless, Roger stopped Mark's domination on serve with some great returns, neutralizing the Aussie in attempts to drive him off to the side of the court and to finish the point with an easy volley at the net. Federer became only the fourth player in the Open Era to win Wimbledon in both junior and senior competition, after Bjorn Borg, Pat Cash, and Stefan Edberg. At that moment, Roger was the youngest champion since Boris Becker in 1989, and it was highly unlikely that he would be passed in the years to come. There was another connection with the famous German that both players had won the title as the fourth seeds (Becker in 1986).
In some way, this was the tournament for proving themselves for both Mark and Roger. After his stunning victory against Sampras in 2001, Roger was put under the spotlight next year, but he lost to Mario Ancic at the start of the tournament. On the other hand, Philippoussis was virtually written down, and it all started exactly at Wimbledon in 1999 when he had had the match against Sampras in his hands before he was forced to retire due to a knee injury. His agony lasted until 2002 (three surgeries in 14 months) and it was not only that he spent some time in the wheelchair but there was also a chance that he might have never played tennis again.
As we can see, Mark raised himself above all his troubles and went on to reach another Grand Slam final, after losing the 1998 US Open final to a fellow Aussie, Patrick Rafter.In addition, Mark was also trying to become one of only a few players to have won Wimbledon without being seeded (Ivanisevic had done it in 2001).
How chaotic and interesting the first years of the new millennium were, we can see from the fact that Federer was the seventh different player in a row to win a Grand Slam title, starting from the 2002 Australian Open, where Thomas Johansson won his famous title. This had happened only twice before in the Open era, between the 1974 US Open and 1976 French Open, and the 1990 Australian Open and 1991 Wimbledon.
Few words about the tournament: A leitmotif at the start of the tournament was the absence of seven-time champion Pete Sampras, after 14 consecutive years of playing at his favorite tournament. Also, after the previous year’s final had seen two baseliners, things had gone back to normal, even though the defending champion Lleyton Hewitt re-wrote the history once again, this time negatively. Namely, he lost in the first round to the big server Ivo Karlovic, becoming the only second Wimbledon defending champion to lose in the first round. This shocker was echoing around the tennis world for days, as Karlovic was the 203rd ranked player in the world, who’d qualified to make the main draw (he’d failed to qualify for the previous 10 Grand Slam events), and he was a Grand Slam debutant! Also, Ivo was the tallest player to have ever played at Wimbledon, using his height to terrorize his rivals with booming serves.
Ivo had around 60 service winners but things could have been different, as Lleyton led 6-1 5-4 with set point for a two sets’ lead. But Karlovic fended it off with good serve (he saved six break points in the second set) to stay in touch, and he eventually won the set, which gave him a huge boost. One break of serve in each of the third and fourth sets was enough for the Croat to notch a huge win and create a big upset in the early stage of the tournament. Robby Ginepri drew attention by playing in the sleeveless shirt and for his marathon second round match against Arnaud Clement, the Frenchman winning 10-8 in the fifth set after more than four-and-a-half hours of play.
History will also remember the debut of Rafael Nadal at the Grand Slams, less than a month after his 17th birthday. He showed his class straight away by defeating Mario Ancic and becoming the third youngest player to have won a Wimbledon match in the Open era, after Mats Wilander and Boris Becker, 20 years earlier.
In the second round, there was a very tight encounter between Greg Rusedski and Andy Roddick and also a new great achievement for Nadal, who became the youngest player to reach the third round after Boris Becker in 1984. The hopes of the Brits were still tied to Tim Henman, who ousted the 2002 finalist David Nalbandian en route to reaching the quarter-final stage in the event for the seventh time in eight years.
When Philippoussis took down Agassi in the fourth round, there was an unusual scene in the quarter-final, with eight players who’d never won Wimbledon left in contention. This had occurred for the first time since 1973, when Wimbledon was boycotted by the best players.
Sebastien Grosjean broke the hearts of the home crowd once again in the quarter-final, beating Tim Henman 3-1 (Tim came from 1-5 down in the first set but he wasted four set points in the tie-break). Roddick continued his good run, defeating Bjorkman in straight sets to set up a semi-final clash with Federer. Both semi-final matches were finished in straight sets, for the first time since 1982.