It’s funny how quickly things change in tennis. An example of this change is the time between tennis seasons; it feels like I just said ‘goodbye’ to the 2011 season and I’m now I’m staring stright down the barrel of the 2012 tennis season. Boy was that fast! With the new season less than a week away (from the time I’m writing this blog post), we have a lot to look forward to. I just wanted to do a quick outline of what I am looking forward to in 2012.
The Players:
Starting with the obvious, can Novak Djokovic defend the 10 titles he’s won, including the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open? It’s not news anymore that he had a season of a lifetime in 2011, but the true challenge will be what he can do in 2012. The Serb has a lot of work ahead of him, I mean, his ranking should be safe if he does well during his schedule but I’m not confident that he will be able to win nearly as much as he did last year. Your thoughts?
There is also the lingering question of what Roger Federer can do in 2012? In a way, this could be his last year on the ATP tour – though he says other wise. He finished 2011 in his “classic Federer (I”m starting to hate this term)” fashion, with a bang! Winning a handful of tournaments gave him some good momentum and got him back at #3, but that’s not what’s really important, I’m sure he has his heart set on two milestones in 2012:
- Regaining the #1 ranking – All Federer needs is 2 weeks at #1 to take the title of “Most weeks total at #1” from Pete Sampras. Then he would have basically capture the majority of the hard to reach accomplishment in the modern day game of tennis.
- Winning Olympic Gold – This is by far probably one of the more important items on Roger’s To-Do list. The Olympic games are this summer, held in England, where he will play to win the Gold Medal in 2012. If Federer were to win Gold, he would be the third male to hold the prestigious “Golden Slam” – All four majors plus an Olympic gold medal in singles (current male Golden Slam holders: Andre Agassi & Rafael Nadal).
Rafa Nadal has plenty to look forward to in 2012, he could very well stand alone when it comes to French Open titles. Nadal is tied up with Björn Borg with 6 titles at Roland Garros; thankfully there has only really been 1 person to stop him on the red clay of France, Robin Soderling – but he’s been out for a while so, I don’t expect him to be in any shape to take Nadal out at the French. I’m sure capturing the #1 spot again is on the forefront of Nadal’s mind and just performing well all around this coming season. He’s going to have to work pretty hard to beat the determined players that want to prevent him from winning; let’s not forget, Nadal is a fragile creature who’s body tends to give out from time to time, so he should be especially mindful of the mileage he’s covering in 2012.
Like 2011, 2012 American tennis looks pretty bleak, I have an uneasy feeling that Mardy Fish will be dropping out of the top 10 after the first part of the 2012 tennis season (End of February). After Fish is Roddick, who, has been suffering dearly as his body is not cooperating with him. He could have a spark of inspiration and have a couple of runs but I think it’s finally time to put to rest the idea of him winning a second major, it just ain’t gonna happen. The “other” Americans; Young, Isner, Querry, Sock, Harrison, Sweeting, and Blake don’t quite have what it takes to compete with the top 15…yet. I have a feeling that we are on the brink of a resurgence from American male tennis players – at least I hope we are.
For all the other guys in the field, it’s much more of the same thing, picking up the scraps from what’s left over from senior management. They will pick up points from lower level tournaments, win a couple of titles that won’t be televised, and they’ll hold fast in their rankings…sad but true.
The Gear:
Honestly, this is what I”m looking forward to the most! 2012 is going to be a year filled with new tennis racquets, tennis strings, shoes, and tennis technology! I have already confirmed that Wilson will be releasing a new line of BLX tennis racquets, same with Babolat as they will be releasing a revitalized version of the Pure Drive; Yonex just released 5 new E-Zone frames, and Prince putting the new line of 2012 EXO3 Rebel frames. Another tennis racquet release for 2012, that I have somewhat confirmed is Head; in 2011 they released the YouTek IG Instinct, but they didn’t give any information about future tennis racquets. I did send them a tweet asking if we were going to be seeing any racquets from them soon:
In Conclusion:
No matter what happens with the players or the gear in 2012, I’m just about as ecstatic that I can be that we are that much closer to another thrill packed season of tennis! I hope to witness tennis history in 2012, be it Nadal, Federer, or Djokovic. I just want to spend countless hours glued to the TV watching match after match, being in my zone. If you want to be in the loop you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or you can sign up for my newsletter that I send out from time to time (more so during the bigger tournaments). Oh yeah, and like last year, I gave away a bunch of cool tennis gear, and I plan on doing the same this year, it might be bigger or it might not, but you still want free stuff right? Oh and I highly encourage you to leave your comments on this blog, I love hearing from you guys and gals!
- 2021 French Open Wilson Racquets - April 13, 2021
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