After trashing Guillermo Canas 6-0, 6-3 in the MUTUA MADRILENA MASTERS MADRID 2007, Federer made the following comment;  "I was especially disappointed with the Miami loss, so to beat him later in the year after two tough losses is nice."

To me that answer did not make one bit of horse sense! Why would Federer be upset to have lost in Key Biscayne, Florida (U.S.A.)? when the altitude is about only 3 Meters (9 Feet) above sea level, the courts are relatively slow, the balls do not move at all, the humidity and heat are unbearable, breathing is a torture, the wind blows from every direction, all in all conditions that highly favored a marathon type player from torrid and humid South America like Cañas, with an extremely low unforced error percentage (the so called "paparra"*).

Roger's more honest answer would have been "Yep, Miami hurt but Indian Wells hurt even more because I was playing under conditions that favored me, with an altitude of about 500 FT (167 M) and weather identical to my city of birth, Basel 853 FT (260 M), on pretty quick courts, with fast high bouncing topspin shots, rather low skidding balls on my slices and volleys, but in the end Canas still nailed me!"

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Amazingly enough a great percentage of today's tennis matches are indeed won at the net. What does this mean to all players?  No matter how much you do not like to go to the net, if you want to win, you need to develop your net game skills and that means:

• The Volleys  
• The Net Footwork  
• The Serve and Volley  
• The Approach Shots  
•  The Smash  
• The Half-Volleys and other specialty shots 

Why does it have to end at the net?  After exhausting long rallies and having exploited all baseline possibilities against an opponent and all things are still equal, tennis players are often faced with the question, how am I going to win this match?

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In contrast with Wimbledon 2007 where apart from the final excitement was almost alien to the tournament, the US Open 2007 is bubbling with exciting matches and is the show case for  younger players many of them qualifiers some wild cards, who've proven themselves respectable opponents. Not in order of merit;  Paul Capdeville (24 ), Steve Darcis (23), John Isner (22), Donald Young (18), Philipp Petzschner (23),  Alun Jones (27), Ernests Gulbis (19), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (22), gave great account of themselves in very interesting matches and some are still contending for the title. 

John Isner and Ernests Gulbis stand out from the group for the dangerous nature of their games. Players beware of letting  "Big John" get enough points to be entered directly in the main draws at the up and coming indoor season!  Because if he does there will be plenty of upsets all the way to the top.

Ernests Gulbis is a 1000 karat diamond, handicapped by a slight weakness in movement and may be body strength due to his size and growing, otherwise he has it all!  This young men gave me flash backs of a young Pete Sampras in 1990;  smooth, sharp eyes, great service, first and second, fabulous hands, tactically smart, effective under pressure, mixes up intelligently,  serves and volleys when needed, loose as a goose and shooting from the hips from both wings. 

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In the last 25 years the challenges presented by performance enhancing drugs in sports and the inedequacy of the drug testing agencies to deal with it, has come to a point that even high ranked officials are venting their frustration.

"There's definitely a performance-enhancing effect if you use things that improve oxygen transport to the tissue," says Larry Bowers, an expert on athletic drug testing and senior managing director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. He says anonymous surveys of athletes indicate that only a tenth of them use performance-enhancing drugs. But he acknowledges that doped Athletes may win most of the time." 

"Charles Yesalis, an epidemiology professor at Pennsylvania State University who has written extensively on the use of  performance-enhancing drugs in sport over the past 23 years, believes a "large percentage" of record-holders probably doped their way to the finish line. "A lot of experts, at least in private, feel that way," he says."
"Yesalis maintains that drug testing, as practiced at past games, has been a "farce." "Just because of my own value system, I  have never seriously entertained legalizing drugs," says Yesalis. "But the stench of the hypocrisy is starting to outweigh my hesitation to just throw up my hands and say, 'Let everybody do whatever they want.'"   Performance Drugs Outrun The Olympics - Matthew Herper, 02.15.02, 12:00 PM ET  Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/15/0215ped.html

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