Unser USA-Korrespondent Finn hat uns einen Post aus dem Sunshine State in der Landessprache gesandt. Weil sein Bericht sehr umfassend ist, haben wir nur den 1.Teil seiner deutschen Übersetzung dem englischen Original angeschlossen. Der zweite Teil der Übersetzung erscheint im morgigen Post.
Impressions from the Sony Ericson Open in Miami
By Finn Meinecke
Three college tennis players from the University of South Florida watching the world class of their sports at the fifth biggest tournament of the ATP Tour. Tennis in college applies to be very emotional and energetic, me and my two teammates were ready to see this energy on a higher level of play. Two days of inspiration were waiting for us – dead loss.
But let’s start with the positive aspects of our trip to Crandon Park, Key Biscayne. The tournament was elected the best tournament of the calendar six times in the last ten years of the players of the ATP Tour. And that for a reason, the tournament side is a large area with 22 hard courts, 4 clay courts, 2 grass courts and surprisingly even one Padel tennis court. Live music acts ensured that the spectators were kept in a good mood, combined with a food court that contained an unimaginable variety of food. All this surrounded by palms in little parks and rest areas, leading to a matchless atmosphere. It can really be said that the organization of this event took care of every little detail to make sure that everyone who steps into Crandon Park will have a great time.
Since we visited the tournament on the first weekend, we were able to see the first round matches of the tournament. And one thing became very obvious; the ingrained American tennis fans seemed to care more about the outcome of the match than the actual athletes. Maybe it was due to the fact that we were watching the first rounds of the tournament, but all of us agreed that the indifference of the professionals was shocking. Even big names of the game, like G.Monfils, T.Berdych or F.Lopez, who we thought would take us in to their ban, just played down their game as it would be a normal day in the office. Almost no emotions, and if they showed some they were negative. Considering the fact that these are the athletes that represent our sport, it was sobering to watch them doing their duty without any dedication or joy. Surprisingly the American crowd didn’t seem to notice that fact and still pushed their idols forward being undemanding and celebrating the rare moments of magic.
An exception was the Cypriot M.Baghdatis who played my fellow countryman P.Kohlschreiber. Even though having obvious trouble with his groundstrokes, he competed very hard and shared his emotions with the crowd. The crowd was that thankful that he rewarded the Cypriot with partially creative chants. Kohlschreiber on the other hand seemed to control the match and was definitely the better player on the court. But unfortunately his posture demonstrated the difference. Head down, complaining, racket throwing etc. and all this culminated with the breakage of his racket after a missed volley at 5:5 in the tie-break. He lost the next point and the match.
Afterwards I was forced to watch a doubles match between O.Marach/D.Tursunov and S.Gonzalez/S.Lipski by my teammate, since Santiago Gonzalez is the only Mexican player that participated at this event. I wish I could have shared my friend’s enthusiasm for this match. But unexpectedly it became a real thriller. Gonzalez and Lipski were up 9:2 in the champions tie-break of the third set. But Mexicans seem to have one thing in common at important points, they get tight, and this exactly happened to S. Gonzalez. Three overhead mistakes and two double faults speak for themselves. The consequence was a 9:11. My friend left the court downhearted and submitting to his fate.
Furthermore we watched the former college player John Isner against the highly praised talent Donald Young. John Isner, 2.06m tall, occasionally practices with our team on campus, since his base and home is Tampa. Even though Young was the better player from the baseline, he was as far away from a break as I am from home. He lost in three sets.
On the next day we arrived at Crandon Park around twelve o’clock and every hour that passed by I regretted it more to leave my shorts in the hotel room. It was hot as f…., and I was sweating like crazy in my jeans. My Mexican teammate signed up as a hitting partner for the pros. Luckily G.Monfils needed a sparring partner to warm up for his match. What happened on the court was a complete joke. It was probably the most uninspired practice session I have ever seen in my life. His radius of movement was not more than one and a half meters. He hit his backhand the whole practice session with one hand, which is quiet surprising considering that he has a two-handed backhand, and every third ball was a drop shot. One hour later in his match his attitude changed marginally and his intensity level was similar to that of an accountant. The final result was 2:6 5:7 against the by far worse classified player G.Garcia Lopez.
Another positive experience was the practice session of Dominic Thiem and Roger Federer. As soon as Roger Federer stepped on the remote practice court, thousands of people flocked to the court. We had a quite good view and watched Federers brilliance from very close. The aura of the maybe greatest players of all time was perceptible. And after 45 minutes of pure elegance they finished the session and Federer walked his way through the intense crowd with an unbelievable tranquility.
The last match that is mentionable was the one between Jarkko Nieminen and Aleksandr Dolgopolov. Court one, approximately capturing 4000 spectators was full to the last seat. And after a lot of disappointments watching the pros, we were finally amazed by the craziness of play that Dolgopolov demonstrated. One drop shot here, a slow moon ball here and suddenly a backhand missile. He definitely proved that is victory over Nadal was not only an accident of the Spaniard and that we can expect a lot more of him in the near future.
To sum up my trip, I have to say that I really enjoyed my trip to this amazing tournament. The ATP 500 in Hamburg is the only professional tournament I can compare it to, and despite all patriotism I have to admit that we can learn a lot of the Americans how they structure big events. Even though the tennis was not high class at all and big emotions in the matches were simply not existing, the spectators and the organization of the tournament aroused a feeling of a fabulous sport event. I was really surprised about the patience and modesty of the crowd on the courts and the joy and happiness in the parks and restaurants in Crandon Park.
Nevertheless one aftertaste remains. A great percentage of the professionals seemed uninterested in transporting emotions to the crowd and entertain them. At many other places this indifference from the side of the players could turn into disinterestedness on the side of the spectators, who we depend on, in the attempt to make tennis attracting to a larger part of the society again, since the ATP Tour can’t be in sunny Key Biscayne all year.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Impressionen von den Sony Ericson Open in Miami
von Finn Meinecke
Drei Spieler vom Team der Universität von South Florida in Tampa hatten sich auf den Weg gemacht, um die Weltspitze im Tennis bei dem fünftgrößten Turnier der ATP-Tour in Miami hautnah zu beobachten.
Das amerikanische College-Tennis ist sehr emotional und wird mit sehr viel Einsatz betrieben. Meine Teamkollegen und ich hatten uns darauf gefreut, diese Energien, diese Emotionen und dieses Engagement auf einem höheren Spielniveau in Miami miterleben zu dürfen. Wir sahen erwartungsvoll zwei Tagen voller Inspiration entgegen – und wurden enttäuscht.
Beginnen wir unseren Bericht mit den erfreulichen Aspekten unseres Trips nach Crandon Park, Key Biscayne:
Die Profitennisspieler haben diesen Event im Sunshine State Florida sechs Mal in 10 Jahren zum besten Turnier der ATP-Tour gewählt! Schon der erste Anblick ist gewaltig: ein riesiges Areal mit 22 Hardcourts, 4 Sand-, 2 Rasenplätzen – und zu unserer Überraschung sogar mit einem Padel-Court – breitete sich vor unseren Augen aus. Live-Musik sorgt auf der Anlage dafür, dass die Besucher bei Laune gehalten werden. In dem riesigen gastronomischen Bereich wird ein unvorstellbarer Reichtum an Gerichten und Getränken angeboten. Diese Fläche wird umrahmt von kleinen Palmenhainen und farbenreichen Parks. Eine unvergleichliche Atmosphäre! Die Organisatoren dieses Events haben sich um jedes Detail gekümmert, damit jeder, der Crandon Park betritt, sicher sein kann, eine phantastische Zeit zu erleben.
Da wir das Turnier am ersten Wochenende besuchten, hatten wir Gelegenheit, Matches in den Anfangsrunden zu sehen. Dabei gewannen wir bald den Eindruck, dass die engagierten amerikanischen Tennisfans sich viel stärker mit dem Ausgang der Matches identifizierten, als die Spieler. Vielleicht hatte es mit der Tatsache zu tun, dass wir nur Spiele aus den Anfangsrunden beobachten konnten, aber wir waren uns alle einig, dass eine gewisse Teilnahmslosigkeit bei den Spielern offensichtlich war. Sogar die großen Stars der Tennisszene, wie Berdych, Montfils oder Lopez, von deren Auftreten wir erwartet hatten, dass es uns in den Bann ziehen würde, haben ihr Match so heruntergespielt, als würde es sich um einen normalen Tag im Büro handeln. Da waren kaum Emotionen zu sehen und wenn jemand mal Gefühle zeigte, dann waren die meist nur negativ. Viele Flüche, viel Jammern – kaum einmal Freude über einen tollen Schlag. Wenn man bedenkt, dass diese Spieler unseren Sport repräsentieren, war es doch sehr ernüchternd, wie sie ihre Pflicht ohne Freude und totalen Einsatz herunter spulten.
Die amerikanischen Fans schienen das zu unserer Überraschung überhaupt nicht zu registrieren. Immer wieder feuerten sie ihre Lieblinge frenetisch an, feierten dankbar und begeistert die wenigen Momente, wo so etwa wie Magie zu spüren war.
Eine Ausnahme war Marcos Baghdatis aus Zypern, der gegen meinen Landsmann Kohlschreiber antrat. Obwohl er offensichtliche Probleme mit seinen Grundschlägen hatte, kämpfte Marcos um jeden Ball und ließ die Zuschauer Ballwechsel für Ballwechsel an seinen Emotionen teilhaben. Das Publikum dankte es ihm und zelebrierte erfolgreiche Punkte des Zyprioten teilweise sogar mit hymnenartigen Gesängen.
Eigentlich kontrollierte Kohlschreiber das Match und war definitiv der bessere Spieler auf dem Platz. Unglücklicherweise machte seine Haltung den Unterschied aus: Sein Kopf war meist gesenkt, er fluchte leise in sich hinein und warf frustriert seinen Schläger. Seine Überlegenheit führte noch zum Gewinn des 1.Satzes, aber sein Hadern ließ ihn im zweiten Satz alle Führungen verspielen. Die Tragödie erreichte ihren Höhepunkt, als er bei 5:5 im Tiebreak des entscheidenden Satzes einen Volley verschlug, dann sein Racket zerstörte und darauf sofort auch den nächsten Punkt verlor. Mit einer 6/3 6/7 6/7-Niederlage stieg er völlig unnötig aus dem Turnier aus.
(Wir setzen morgen Finns Bericht auf Deutsch mit dem zweiten Teil fort.)