Men's Event Returns to Professional Tennis

In case you have noticed, for years there have been two singles draws: the women's and the Federer's. Finally, finally, finalllllllly that changed at the 2008 Australian Open, where Novak Djokovic lived up to his huge potential by defeating the man who, due to his outrageous talent, has made men's tennis more predictable than the drying of wet paint. Is it Djokovic's turn to make men's tennis every bit as dull, only with his name swapped in where Roger Federer's once was?
I doubt it, not with fast-rising talent like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
So, Tsonga already is 22, which among the professional women's tennis players often seems to be about the time when stars start to wane and retirement is not that far off on the horizon--at least a first retirement, as with Hingis or Clijsters. The men seem to hit their stride a little later, as was even the case with Federer, who won his first Grand Slam singles title when he was almost 22.
Tsonga played one Grand Slam in 2005 and three in 2007, which means that, he has, effectively, completed one Grand Slam season. And here he is already in the finals of a major, taking apart in this years 2008 Australian Open semi-finals a player as talented (and gorgeous) as Rafa Nadal. The future looks very bright for Tsonga indeed and, consequently, men's tennis, which might not be quite as predictably Djokovic's as it seemed destined to be last summer. Might the men's event turn into Tsonga's instead of Djokovic's? One almost hopes so after seeing pictures of an insanely pumped-up Djokovic after his victory over Federer.
The women's side for years and years was the dull one. You could practically just write in Evert's name or Navratilova's or Graf''s or Seles' or Graf's again or Hingis' as the victor almost before the tournament started. But for years women's tennis has been the unpredictable side and, consequently, the more interesting event.
Maria Sharapova, who may seem like she's been on the tour for 100 years even though she's only 20, seems intent on making the women's side of the draw significantly more predictable again. The only problem she has had so far in this year's 2008 Australian Open has been with her father, whose ungracious off-with-her-throat gesture after Sharapova's dismantling of professional excuse-maker Justine Henin was about as subtle as a freight train. I can't help wonder if Maria ever is going to distance herself from him. Even if her tennis suffered, doesn't it seem like her life might be a little more, well, chilled?
For years Ana Ivanovic has seemed as chilled as that ultimate laid-back dude on the court, Roger Federer. Up until recently, the Fed seemed to just kind of cruise in, win, without barely a peep, take the trophy home, wave, smile and that was it folks. Ivanovic has pointed to Fed as proof that you can be nice and a winner. (Winner doesn't seem like an adequate word for Federer, despite this year's loss at the Australian Open. But there you have it, the inadequacy of language when compared to the artistry of a tennis player of his caliber.)
This year though, Ivanovic apparently watched much of Sharapova's win against Henin and was inspired by it. Ivanovic increasingly looks like a Sharapova protege, with her back facing the other player as quickly as possible after points, staring at her strings like they are the very embodiment of the tennis gods, which I suppose, in a sense, they are, and peppering winners with obnoxious little "Come Ons," Lleyton Hewitt's legacy for the sport.
Maybe one day that phrase's utterance, every bit as boring and predictable as Federer's victories at Grand Slams used to be, also will be defeated.