Semis at Legg Mason

This wasn't what the sponsors had in mind for a semifinal. No sirree bob. Arnaud Clement. Marat Safin. Now, Safin's a decent player, but the rap's on him is that he's up and down, and so far, this has been a down year for him. He won the US Open in 2000, then the Australian in 2005. Two more times he was runner up in the Australian final.

He's been losing in the first and second round a lot lately. His record this season is a paltry 13-13. In the early parts of the year, he withdrew due to injury or lack of fitness. His ranking plummeted to 97. To be honest, Arnaud Clement's year has not been a whole lot better. He's been losing early in tournaments too. However, he had one win, in Marseille, and that's been enough to keep his ranking propped around 57, and good enough for an 11th seed.

The participants who were supposed to get this far was number one seed, James Blake, who Safin took care of two rounds ago, in two tiebreak sets, and Lleyton Hewitt, who Clement took care of in the previous round.

Indeed, Safin's been living and dying by the tiebreak. In the previous round, he beat Wesley Moodie (who? yeah) 7-6(7-5), 7-6(11-9), so that second tiebreak was a tough one. He beat James Blake in two tiebreaks as well, 7-6(8-6), 7-6(7-5).

When the match started it looked a bit like David and Goliath. Arnaud stands 5'8". Safin towers over him at 6'4". There's 8 inches separating them. Arnaud came in looking a bit like a reject in a remake of Easy Rider with his Emilio Estevez styled beard, a bandana, and wrap around sunglasses, he seemed to have stepped on the court by mistake, but was ready to enjoy things. Safin looked, well, more like a conventional player.

This tournament has, honestly, been the best result for both players this year, certainly for Safin.

This was a match that basically between brilliant but erratic Safin against steady and quick Clement. The crowd was probably 70-30 Safin, and that's the part of the crowd that cared either way, though Arnaud Clement supporters became a little more vocal. Chants of "Come on, Arnaud!" and the French "Allez, Arnaud" were heard. However, few offered the clever "Come on, Clement!" especially if you pronounce it Frenchified.

Safin was probably the more popular because he's somewhat more recognizable to fans. He's had better results in the past. It doesn't hurt that he's good looking. People don't seem to mind cheering the good looking guy. Lendl was often the bad guy because he seemed ruthless about his approach, and then he really made it worse by whining about bad shots all the time, slowing the game down, in an attempt to win. But it also didn't help that pretty much everyone thought he was ugly. Graf had this problem early in her career, but as she grew older, more people thought she became something of a swan. Her hair tied back, her fit legs, all lead to a natural makeover.

Fans of women's tennis might feel a bit more guilty. Cheering Kournikova, who never won a singles title, might cause a serious tennis fan to feel guilty. There's also the very Russian Maria Sharapova, who at least has a few titles under her belt. Men's tennis hasn't benefitted from too many good looking top male players.

But back to business.

Clement did two things that made it difficult on Safin. First, he was able to return Safin's serve reasonably well all day. Second, he took Safin's weak opportunities, and hit them down the line. Safin, slow of foot, often didn't bother to chase these shots down.

But Safin's worst enemy was himself. Numerous times he'd shank forehand, the thud of the ball resulting in bloopers of balls. He also had other control problems. He often didn't fare well in rallies that lasted a few strokes. By the second set, he was yelling at himself and the umpire.

Ah, there was a new feature that I hadn't seen yet. In the qualies, where Jan Michael Gambill faced Andrea Stoppini. I noticed they had a table that said "Challenges left". Both had zero. Figuring this was the qualies, I thought that meant the winner would get in the main draw (i.e., they had no more challenge rounds left in qualifying). That's an odd stat to put on a board.

Indeed, this was not what the stat was about. Instead, it refers to a new rule. Players can challenge calls, much like coaches tossing a red flag in the NFL. Each player has two successful chances. Each time you challenge, they replay the shot. I should say "replay" the shot. It's hard to tell, but they appear to do a graphical re-enactment of the play. Certainly the fiery tale, and the rotation of the camera on top of the line suggests something less than complete faithfulness. If you've watched some tennis on TV, you may have seen the technology. I had forgotten about this.

There were some three or four challenges, mostly by Safin, on close shots. Every challenge went the way of the challenger. The audience really got into these replays. They wanted to see what happened in the few seconds leading up to the replay decision, and cheered when the ruling was overturned.

Safin had one opportunity in each set to take control when he broke in the middle of the set both times. Both times, Clement immediately broke back, typically on poor Safin play.

Safin's problems resembled Gambill's. He doesn't move particularly well, perhaps because he's such a big guy. When he came to net, he'd miss easy volleys. And he made more errors than he had to. If he can cut down on those problems, he might begin to play like he did even last year.

So, this match ended like the last two of Safin's matches. In two tiebreaks. However, Safin lost both tiebreaks.

I had much the same sense I did when watching Gambill. He didn't seem as good as Stoppini. Even as Stoppini couldn't quite take advantage of Gambill, he just seemed like the better player. There was a sense that if Gambill could collect himself, he could steal a set and possibly a match.

(Gambill, by the way, benefitted from the main no-show of the tournament, defending champ, Andy Roddick. Roddick had withdrawn last week in LA, and decided not to come to DC this week. Due to that, Gambill got to skip the first round, and even won a second round match, before falling to Henman in the third round, doing at least as well as Stoppini, who knocked off Agassi in the second round).

With Safin, there were flashes that showed he could do something amazing. In one point, Clement took charge to the net, and Safin lofted a low lob, taking advantage of the fact that Clement is not a tall guy. In the games he broke Clement, he looked just as good as he looked bad in the following games where he gave back the games.

Still, Safin (and Clement) may be on something of a recovery. While I don't expect Safin to do real well at the US Open, there are still a few weeks left, and he might be able to improve his consistency between now and then, and get through a few rounds.

By all rights, the evening match should be a little stronger. Andy Murray is facing Dmitry Tursunov, who was a finalist last week in LA losing to Tommy Haas (he won a tournament?). Looks like Murray made quick work of Tursunov. Murray recently paired up with Brad Gilbert. Though he claims Gilbert hasn't had time to help his game, Murray's already in a final. He's seen as the new Brit hope (from Scotland) now that Henman has been fading due to age.

So it's Murray vs. Clement. I suspect Murray is the favorite, but who knows? Clement has been playing pretty solid, and it may be enough to win.