Ronnie Del Potro
I have made a mistake in a previous blog entry, saying about Juan Martin Del Potro that he was the Mark Williams of tennis. It seems that he is more Ronnie O’Sullivan. That is so because in the last tournament (the World Tour Finals) he did exactly what Ronnie does in his tournaments. Meaning that he went out there on Sunday to play the final with the Master. Roger Federer that is. Only that the Master has lost the semi-final against Davydenko. So, Del Potro was out there waiting to face Federer once more. He beat him in the Final at US Open, he beat him in Round Robin of the Finals and he was waiting for him in the final again. When he saw that he will not be playing the Master after all, he has lost interest. And has lost the match too. It is pretty much the same with Ronnie O’Sullivan. When he plays an opponent he did not really expect to play, and even more, when he expected to play with one of his favourite opponents, specifically Hendry, Higgins or Williams, and these do not make it through, than he becomes morose. And he plays badly. It was the same with Del Potro. He never had that killer look in his eyes, he never really had the chance to win. True, Davydenko played his best tennis in years, but that still would not have been enough against the Del Potro we know. It was enough against Ronnie Del Potro, however. And so, the Monster from the Pampas did not really growl. He bent his head and allowed himself to be tamed. Until the Australian Open that is.
Attila Andrasy
03/12/2009
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Anyway, can you blame him? Davydenko is soooooooo boring... Whatever... the young Monster from the Pampas needs challenge in terms of grace, perfect coordination, divine inspiration maybe, a certain sort of touching the ball that only the greatest of the players display. And when he meets one of those 3, 4 maybe, it is the moment when art meets sport. When Darth Vader is awaken, rules are overwritten, and miracles happen. Otherwise, del Potro goes in the arena and simply plays badly. It takes two for 'tennis from another planet' after all...