Australian Tennis Magazine - March 2010

MARCH 2010

A$7.50 NZ$8.40 US$7.50

JUSTINE HENIN

A CHAMPION TRANSFORMED

PLAYERS STAR

ON SCREEN

WORKING THE LINES

DJOKOVIC POSTER

NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO

YOUR GAME

PERSONALITY UNMASKED

THE BATTLES OF BEING BERNARD 3503 p 1 Cover.indd 1

PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE ADD SPEED & STYLE LEARN FROM MARIN CILIC BEAT A NEMESIS CLOSING OUT MATCHES

• • • • • PRINT POST APPROVED PP 349181/00187

THE OFFICIAL PATH

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MARCH 2010 FEATURES

VOL 35 No.3

A $7.50 (inc. GST) NZ $8.40 (inc. GST) US $7.50

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Andy Murray’s Great Expectations

Can Britain’s big hope bounce back from his Australian Open disappointment to achieve his Grand Slam dreams?

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A Happier Place

Justine Henin has returned to the tour in a much happier place than when she left it.

22

A ussie Women Regrouping

A suspense-filled win in Adelaide creates the opportunity for the Australian Fed Cup team to re-enter the World Group for the first time in four years.

24

Growing Pains

Bernard Tomic is learning some life lessons as he works towards fulfilling his potential on the game’s biggest stages.

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58

Russian Roulette

Why Nikolay Davydenko has emerged as one of the game’s more interesting characters.

Working the Line

There are some fascinating stories and a rewarding career path for the stony-faced officials you see on court.

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MARCH 2010 REGULARS 7

Top Spin

15

Your Serve

27

My Game

40

My Coach

FROM THE EDITOR

54

Court Talk

61

Grassroots

67

Club of the Month

68

Rankings

70

Scoreboard

e story on young Australian hop t’s tough to write a feature Australia love to be all-optimistic as Bernard Tomic. While you’d male star to match Lleyton searches longingly for a new eported can’t quite ignore the often-r Hewitt’s achievements, you rounded him. controversies that have sur relating knowledge that many issues Adding to the dilemma is the tive father, nded by his fiercel y protec to Tomic have been compou ’s career rseen every aspect of his son John, who has fervently ove

I

since day one. a teenager task knowing that he’s still How do you take a player to g? uences in his decision makin sifting through the many infl y, while licl pub er he is growing up so Especially when you consid an expectant nation. also carrying the hopes of ssed rd not to note that Tomic, ble At the same time, can we affo afforded careful nurturing, has been with a talent that requires dream er players his age will onl y many opportunities that oth about? about n sense his understanding In speaking to Tomic you soo debut in antages of his position. His both the challenges and adv at Melbourne m, against Chinese Taipei the Australian Davis Cup tea eld is the realisation of a long-h Park, will carry pressure, but team the nce for him to learn from dream, and provides the cha environment.

While his tralian tennis needs Tomic.

The bottom line is that Aus from certain atically grant exemptions star potential doesn’t autom looks ahead. ic needs our support as he standards of conduct, Tom VIVIENNE CHRISTIE, Editor

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EDITOR CONSULTING EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR ART DIRECTOR ADVERTISING MANAGER ADMINISTRATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER MY COACH CONTENT PHOTOGRAPHS

COVER PHOTO

Vivienne Christie Alan Trengove Daniela Toleski Naomi O’Bryan Jackie Cunningham Sherryn Dove Travis Atkinson, Karen Clydesdale Getty Images, John Anthony (All photographs by Getty Images unless specified) AAP/AP/Andrew Brownbill

Australian Tennis Magazine is published monthly by TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD, Private Bag 6060, Richmond, Vic 3121. Ph: (03) 9914 4200 Email: editor@tennismag.com.au Distributed by Network Distribution Company Printed in Australia by Webstar The views expressed in Australian Tennis Magazine are not necessarily those held by Tennis Australia. While the utmost care is taken in compiling the information contained in this publication, Tennis Australia is not responsible for any loss or injury occurring as a result of any omissions in either the editorial or advertising appearing herein.

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Andy Murray: Great Expectations

Two Grand Slam finals, two crushing losses.

The pressure grows as an expectant public waits for Andy Murray to become the first British man to claim major success in 74 years – but it’s nothing compared to the pressure the ambitious young man places on himself. By Alix Ramsay

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icture the scene: it is the Wimbledon final sometime in the future and Andy Murray has just beaten Roger Federer in five pulsating sets to become Britain’s first male Grand Slam champion in 74 years. All around him, 15,000 spectators scream and cheer while up and down the country, an emotionally retarded nation goes quietly – and politely – potty.

So what does out hero feel? Joy unbounded?

Delirium? Bliss beyond measure? No. He feels relief, pure and simple.

It is a strange thing about Grand Slam winners – when they win their first major trophy, they tend not to feel delighted but just plain relieved. All the years of waiting, working and hoping have come to an end; the eyewateringly hard work had paid off; the grafting around the Challenger circuit, the struggle up the rankings and the endless disappointments have finally been rewarded – they are, at last, a Grand Slam champion. The weight of expectation has been lifted from them and now they are free.

Imagine, then, what it must be like for Murray as he chases that first elusive Grand Slam trophy. Not only does he have his own hopes and ambitions to keep in check, but he also has 60 million fellow Brits watching his every move.

He is chased around the globe by a posse of journalists who speak to him daily, who write reams of copy on his every practise session and every match and who never let

him forget that, back home, a nation expects.

No other player is pursued like Murray.

Other countries have had far more success than Britain in the past 74 years, but no other nation sends a dozen or more journalists on the regular tour and adds to that number with star writers, flown in at the last minute, should their player reach a major final.

But the weight of such national expectation is as nothing compared to the pressure Murray puts on himself. He has now reached two Grand Slam finals – and lost to Federer in both – but he knows that he is getting closer and closer to achieving his goal: winning a major trophy. And if and when he does win, he thinks it will like open the flood gates.

“For myself, it is just something I have always wanted to do,” Murray says. “I know that if I do it, it will be a huge weight off my shoulders and I’ll play better tennis after I do it.

But I will still stay the same person regardless – just in tennis terms I will be a lot more relaxed when I am on the court.

“I believe I can I win one now. I always thought [before] that I could win the tournament but I just wasn’t ready to do it. I feel like now I am, I am physically and mentally ready and I think my game’s there – it’s just putting it all together. I definitely believe now and I think I know what it takes now.”

Of course, for the British, there is only one tournament that matters – Wimbledon. In Britain, the tennis year is divided neatly in two: the six months leading up to Wimbledon and

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