PARIS — Some things are crystal clear. Mardy Fish told us,“[Novak Djokovic] has got to lose sometime.” Duh. Other things aren’t quite as clear. For instance, just what is Djokovic’s current winning streak? He’s advanced in 44 straight matches. But one at Roland Garros was a walkover. Fabio Fognini retired from their quarterfinal matchup. So the streak is 43. But two of those wins were in the Davis Cup in November. So it’s 41 straight circuit wins for this year. In Friday’s epic semi, if Djokovic beats Roger Federer for the fourth time this year, he'll tie John McEnroe's all-time streak of '84.
What's truly incredible is the nature of Djokovic’s run. He won two matches over France to help Serbia to it’s monumental Davis Cup win. He collected wins in small tournaments (the Hoppman Cup, Belgrade), won the big-money tournament in Dubai, beating Federer in the final, plus he won four Masters titles – Indian Wells, Miami (where he took down Rafael Nadal in a third-set tiebreaker in the heat, which Rafa loves and which gave the Serb problems in the past), Madrid, (where he beat Rafa in his homeland and on slow clay) and Rome (where he suffered a scare against Andy Murray). At the French Open, only a brief surge by Juan Martin Del Potro has been a blip on the screen en route to the semis.
To summarize: that’s Davis Cup, a Slam, four Masters titles, a win over Murray and three hard-court wins over Federer and four over Nadal, including two on clay – totally astounding. McEnroe’s streak was good, but not as impressive. He won the Masters, two Davis Cup matches and had wins over Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, Ilie Nastase and Vitas Gerulaitis. Incredibly, Mac scored four wins over Ivan Lendl until the Czech-American scored his revenge by stopping Mac’s streak with his famous victory in the ’84 French Open final.
In contrast, Guillermo Vilas’ streak of 46 wins included many small tournaments, like Louisville, Columbus and Kitzbuhel. The run by the Argentine baseliner with monster thighs included two Davis Cup victories, a win over Connors (in the U.S. Open final), Ilie Nastase, Jose Higueras, Brian Gottfried, Manuel Santana and Roscoe Tanner. But the vast majority of his victories were over lesser players like Deon Joubert and Lars Elvstrom.
Djokovic’s wins were far more impressive. But how does the Serb’s run compare with other tennis streaks?
1. Federer’s streak of 23 straight Grand Slam semis. This is arguably is the best record in tennis history and some say the best in all sports (including Joe DiMaggio’s 56'game hitting streak). The record came on all surfaces and Lendl is in second place with just 10 straight semis. The streak was broken when Fed lost to Robin Soderling at the French Open last year.
2. Chris Evert's 13 consecutive years with a Grand Slam tournament win in an era when Martina Navratilova was always lurking.
3. Navratilova's 74-match winning streak in ’84, when she went from January to December without losing.
4. Pete Sampras finished No. 1 for six consecutive years, a monument of both excellence and endurance in an era of many greats. Federer, who scored 42 straight wins on grass, was No. 1 for 237 consecutive weeks from February ’04 to August ’08.
5. Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay, which is the longest single-surface streak in the Open Era. BTW: After Fed snaped Nadal’s streal, the Spaniard won 82 of his next 85 clay-court matches.
NAME ONE CLAY-KISSING, SPIRITED ITALIAN WHO PREVAILED IN THE LONGEST MATCH IN WOMEN'S OPEN ERA HISTORY AT THE AUSSIE OPEN, WHO HAS A CHISELED, OH-SO ELASTIC FACE, SEEMINGLY ENDLESS OPTIONS, ADORES ROLAND GARROS, IS NOW FAVORED TO WIN THE FRENCH OPEN AND IS THE BEST MADE- FOR-CLAY WTA PLAYER SINCE HENIN: Francesca Schiavone.
SOMETIMES WE FORGET TO PLAY TENNIS: Schiavone told us how she is going to approach the final against Li Na: “So I think Saturday I will go on the court enjoying, breathing, say thanks for everything, because for me to arrive in final is fantastic, is big emotions. And then play tennis. Sometimes we forget to play tennis, and we go inside us and we break everything and we are upset. But is just tennis. It's fantastic. And I have the chance to play good.”
THE SKINNY: The favorites for the men’s title follow the seedings: 1. Djokovic 2. Nadal 3. Federer 4. Murray
GO FIGURE: Schiavone will drop in the rankings, even if she wins.
RELAXED, CANDID, ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT, PIONEER, POWERFUL, FUNNY: Li Na.
BJORN AGAIN: American Bjorn Franangelo is through to the boys' semis.
WHEN IN DOUBT, SHOP: Asked how she will deal with her loss in the semi, Maria Sharapova confided, “A little good retail therapy and I’ll be fine.”
JUST WONDERING: Just what’s going through Djokovic’s mind during his long four-day break since he last played? Does it seem like an eternity to him and will the break help or hurt?…How come women’s tennis is so much better in China then men’s tennis?…Before the season, who would have said that Li Na would have reached the finals of the first two Slams of the year?
FIGURITIVELY SPEAKING: In a seemingly positive tone of voice, broadcaster Chris Bowers said Sharapova “has a truly Amazonian figure… She’s well built.”
WILLIAMS UPDATE: Look for Venus Williams to play Eastbourne. (And the Wimbledon warm-up tournament is supposedly holding a wildcard for Serena Williams.)
SCHIAVONE’S MEMORY: After Schiavone said she does so well at the French Open because of her memories of Roland Garros, IT asked her to detail those memories. The Italian said, “When I came here the first year was in junior, and I played qualification…I played first round, second round, and then I lost in the quarterfinal, junior. During that week there was big match Steffi Graf, against Monica Seles. I remember that I went there with the camera with picture…Every year before come here, I go to watch that picture. And is one. Is one picture…I was in Suzanne Lenglen [stadium] like a normal person…and I say, I want to play in this court. I want to be like them…I remember that I have in my room two posters — more than two, but in those poster, there were both. So Steffi and Monica, big example. Steffi for mix it up everything and mentally strong, and Monica for an amazing talent and great moving and good, really tough mind. I think both of them are fantastic, were being fantastic.”
THE ONLY TENNIS COMPANY THAT HAS HAD NADAL AND NAPOLEON AS CLIENTS: Babolat.
DJOKOVIC: SEEING THE BALL LIKE A BEACH BALL: There have been a lot of opinions on why Djokovic has broken out. A new maturity and putting a lot of little things together are popular opinions. None other than Mardy Fish offered plenty of insights on the run. He noted that, “In the beginning, it was kind of joke. Let someone else win,” Fish told him way back at Indian Wells. “Now you almost stay away from Novak. It's almost like a pitcher going for a no‑hitter. I don't want to say anything about it. I don't want to be the guy that says, Hey, by the way, you're 38‑0 or whatever he is. Don't lose.I don't want to be that guy that makes him lose —unless he's playing me maybe. Maybe I should have said it in Miami. By the way, you haven't lost a match yet and you're playing me. Certainly, people are talking about it. It's incredible. It's pretty exciting just to be a part of. I certainly know the history of this game…and this will be right up there. This will be maybe past it, and we're here seeing it live. It's pretty cool. As many sort of weaknesses or knocks that you have as a top 3 player in the world — which aren't many. What were they? The heat was an issue for him, his serve maybe was an issue for him, and his forehand sometimes was the weaker shot.So maybe his fitness level a little bit [suspect]. That's probably it. Which is pretty amazing in its own right. He's answered every single one of those just incredibly.Then the clay, there's no way he's going to get through the clay undefeated. No way. He's not going to beat Nadal. Twice? No way. He's not going to win Rome. It's too slow. He's not going to beat Nadal there.He's beaten him in straight sets twice. He answered the bell in Miami when it was hot. Nadal just feasts on guys like that, in matches like that, winning long or physical matches in the heat. I mean, he's Djokovic has no weaknesses. Playing him in Miami on a surface that I was comfortable on, it's hard to pinpoint where you're supposed to attack, because he turns defense into offense quicker than anybody, better than anybody that I've ever played against — right now anyway. The guy is seeing it like a beach ball.”
BIG STUFF: The Sharapova-Li Na match featured players from the country with the biggest land mass in the world (nine time zones) and the country with the largest population (1.3 billion).
ANATOMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DAY: Sharapova’s shoulder has a mind of it’s own.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL STRINGER IN THE UNIVERSE: Eric Babolat, the head of the world’s second largest racket company, started as a stringer.
AN AUSSIE-AMERICAN TRIUMPH IN PARIS: No Andy Roddick, no Williams, no worries – there was a trimph for American tennis in Paris. Huntington Beach veteran Scott Lipsky – another former Stanford player by way of Long Island – teamed with Casey Dellacqua (famous for the sweetest grandmother ever, who cheered her during her ’08 Aussie Open run) teamed up to beat Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik 7-6 (6), 4-6, 1-0 (7) to claim the French Open mixed doubles crown.
