12/05/2012 21:36 CEST - ATP Tour

Djokovic upset
in Madrid

Djokovic in Madrid

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Blue clay! Blue clay! Have you heard? This tournament in Madrid has dyed the clay blue! Looks sharp on TV, but players are not happy about it. Apparently the dye has turned the clay into butter, and verily each player’s compromised movement is the thing that stands out most when you watch the tournament. They sort of shuffle back and forth behind the baseline as though they’ve ventured onto a frozen pond in a pair of Chuck Taylors.

Players who hate it: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two highest ranked players in the world, both of whom have suffered earlier than normal defeats here in Madrid, and who have each vowed never to return until the clay is back to it’s familiar reddish hue.

If you can somehow block out the sea of blue in front of you, and just watch the players moving around out there, you’d swear you were watching a grass court match. Which is maybe why you’re hearing less complaining from the final member of the top (and Big) 3, Roger Federer. The Swiss great continued his march through Madrid, beating David Ferrer 6-4 6-4 and intent on cashing in every last point from winning the tournament—if he takes the title, he’ll be seeded second in Paris at the end of the month, which means (conceivably) that he might not have to play both Novak and Rafa if they draw each other in the same half at Roland Garros.

While Rafa’s loss to Fernando Verdasco came as a surprise (Nadal was up two breaks in the third before losing 5 straight games—oh you tricky blue clay!), anyone who watched Djokovic’s opening match against Daniel Gimeno-Traver probably could have predicted a less than full week’s worth of work from the world no. 1. Djokovic seemed to have made up his mind that this blue stuff, this tournament was not for him early on. He would slip on court, give the turf exasperated looks, demand breaks in the action to rake it out, and imply that the surface was fit for only Chuck Norris—all by the time his first post-match press conference was in the books.

Conspiracy theorists, start your engines. It has been floated about, on this turbulent thing called the internet, that Djokovic may have given a less-than-his-best effort on court today in a 6-7 3-6 loss to Janko Tipsarevic, in the hopes that he could move on from Madrid, forget the blue clay ever happened to him, and start calibrating his game towards the “real clay” (his words) in Rome and Paris. After all, with Rafa out of the picture, it’s not like he needs to show up for the next installment of Turf Wars.

I, for one, don’t buy it, but it is an interesting thought. It just seems that the real cause of Djokovic’s exit was Tipsarevic’s booming serve and his own bad mental space over the change of clay color. What I think mostly happened is that the Djoker, not confident in his movement on the slick stuff, and not willing to risk injury before the major he cares most about winning, fell victim to clinical serving and aggressive tennis from a top ten opponent who had everything to gain by winning this match. Did the Djoker tank? I don’t think so. But I’d also guess that he wasn’t going for his trademark broke on every point, for fear of slipping and major injury.

Tipsarevic’s forehand looked mean throughout the entire match, too. And speaking of forehand strokes, Roger Federer has a legendary one, and it was laser-guided tonight against David Ferrer.

Federer was a sparkling 12-0 against the Spain no. 2, and Ferrer looked to shake things up by attacking, of all places, Federer’s forehand. It was actually a sound strategy, since (did we mention?) movement is impaired on this blue (!) clay, and Federer nurses his backhand side, especially on clay in general, where he’d rather run around and hit a forehand instead of dealing with all that kick with his one-hander. So with Fed tracking always to ad corner, Ferrer would unload down the deuce line with success. But Ferrer was no match for his own erratic serving, which betrayed him at the worst possible times, including on break point in the third game of the first set. No mercy from Federer, either, as his serve was watertight, replete with aces and generally surgical all evening. Plus, the guy was putting on a forehand clinic, and all night the ball described the kind of arc you see in a hardcourt match, which is not a good sign for anyone playing Roger Federer.

Up next for Roger is Tipsarevic, while Juan Martin Del Potro meets Tomas Berdych in other half of the draw. Del Potro has looked particularly Eye-of-the-Tigerish this week, and a Fed/Del Potro final would be the best of all possible combinations at this point, as far as the tournament marketers are concerned. It’s hard to pick against Fed at this point, but given what we’ve seen already, we’ve forfeited our right to be shocked with whatever happens the rest of the week.

I actually think the zoning Del Potro raises the silverware on Sunday, a three set winner over Federer.

Daniel Anderson