After finishing the day late, and driving over three hours and fifteen minutes (8 PM to 11:15 PM) from the tournament site to the place where I stay, in the center of Istanbul, I am sorry to say that I do not have the strength to write an extensive report. However, I will scribble down four anecdotes from today that you may find unusual…
The first two took place in the beginning and the end of the encounter between Denis Istomin and Thomaz Bellucci. During the five-minute warm-up, as is the case at every tournament, the players were introduced by the announcer to tennis fans inside the center court (by the way, the announcer does this from mid-level stands in the corner, and not from courtside like it is done at most tournaments). In the middle of Istomin’s career highlights we heard the following phrase: “Istomin who came back from death at the age of 15 following a car crash…” I had my “really? really dude?” moment and wondered if I just heard him correctly. Did that really need to be announced to highlight a tennis player’s career? It happened on the way to a tournament in Uzbekistan but can someone tell me where that fits in Istomin’s career statistics? Was the announcer (or the one who wrote the script) so sure that it did not leave traumatic scars in the young man’s psyche, to the point where he/she felt it was appropriate to include it so that it can be heard on the loud speakers for all the public to hear? I am just relieved that Istomin does not understand Turkish.
Bellucci served an ace on the match point to close out the match, except that the line judge called the ball out. But, the chair umpire, Istomin, and Bellucci were so casual about how the call was incorrect that I almost felt sorry for the line judge who yelled “out” from the top of his lungs. As a matter of fact, if you watch the clip below closely, although the line judge just called his serve out, Bellucci is so sure that he won the match with an ace that you can see him pumping his fist in victory as soon as he notices the chair umpire getting off his chair to check the mark, and walking to the net to shake Istomin’s hand. Istomin also begins to walk to the net as soon as he sees the chair umpire come down. By the time the chair umpire gets to the mark and corrects it, Istomin and Bellucci are about to shake hands.
The third anecdote concerns the attendance. The number-two seed Grigor Dimitrov’s match drew barely over a thousand people in actual attendance, which is bitterly disappointing in more than one way. First of all, it shows that for many self-proclaimed tennis fans in Istanbul, this tournament really means “Federer Open” and not Istanbul Open. In other words, you are a Federer fan, not really a tennis fan. If this is your first ever opportunity to watch live, world-class ATP tennis, and you only chose to watch the elite player named Federer, and not the others, including a Major semi-finalist and the number 11 player in the world, and several excellent clay-court players, then you are not a tennis fan. See the clip below, filmed in the beginning of the second set during Dimitrov’s match against Andrey Golubev, and keep in mind that around 200 of the total number of spectators in the upper stands were from the neighboring Bulgaria, there to support Dimitrov. There is simply no excuse that can cover for the stands being this empty at 6:24 PM.
Last anecdote comes from Dimitrov’s press conference. A reporter asked about Dimitrov’s “unexpected practice” session with Federer when they first arrived to Istanbul. In the middle of the reporter’s question, Dimitrov interrupted: “Unexpected? Let me tell you how “unexpected” it was: we agreed on it in Monte-Carlo, one week ago.”
Friday features four great quarterfinal duels. I hope to see less empty seats, especially during the three matches other than the one involving Federer.
Follow MT-Desk on Twitter for live updates from Istanbul Open: @MertovsTDesk
During the match between the local favorite Cem Ilkel and Daniel Gimeno-Traver, you could already see the excitement on the kids’ faces. They lined up by the entry to the lower stands early in the match, and during the next two change-overs, they eagerly filled up one side of the stadium’s lower level.
Kids and parents, patiently waiting in the stands, ready for the clinic
You could see the excitement on their faces. They were going to be a part of something special, a clinic led by the world’s best-known male tennis face, the 17-Major champion Roger Federer. They patiently watched with their parents the rest of the match between Ilkel and Gimeno-Traver. Once it was over, they got invited to the court and the equipment needed to hold the clinic was rapidly brought to the court by the staff. The kids warmed up, and the much-awaited announcement filled the air: Roger Federer was on his way to the center court. By the time he arrived, the atmosphere was electric the setup was complete. The Swiss joined the party with a microphone hooked up to his head. He masterfully entertained the public of the center court, kids and adults, for about half an hour in a way that no other top name in tennis can. He showed that he not only possesses great skills on the court, but also in the art of showmanship. He literally gave a clinic on how to entertain a large group of crowd. He engaged the kids in various fun drills, kept a running commentary, and cracked jokes here and there keeping either the kids or the crowd laughing continuously.
Federer approaching the net, he got passed on this occasion!
The organizers successfully picked kids that play tennis and have attained a certain degree of skill, which led to some fun rallies between Federer and them, sometimes with the kid winning the point and the crowd roaring. The Swiss maestro kept a smile throughout, encouraged the crowd’s participation, and simply made every kid feel special with his cheerful personality. Even when the clouds covered the sky and it started drizzling, he remained upbeat and never made the conditions feel like a threat to the flow of activities.
When it was all said and done, a mesmerized crowd applauded both Federer and the children for an extended period of time. Federer lined the kids up one group at a time for plenty of pictures, and made sure to sign as many of the giant balls as possible.
Federer taking his time, as usual, to make sure every kid gets a picture taken with him
Having seen many kids’ day activities at various professional tournaments at all levels, I was impressed with the planning and the execution of the event. Just as failures deserve criticism (see the previous blog entry), successes deserve praise; therefore the organizers should get an A+ for convincing Federer to fully engage himself as the main attraction of the event, making sure all the necessary measures were taken for a smooth operation, arranging the equipment, and setting up the court and its surrounding ahead of time. Careful planning spells success and the Tuesday late afternoon at the Istanbul Open proved that it can be done.
Wednesday features four singles matches on the center court, ending with the main star of the tournament, Federer, taking on the seasoned veteran Jarkko Nieminen.
The first ever ATP Tour Event in Istanbul, Turkey, officially named TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open, not that anybody will ever bother using its full name, kicked off at Garanti Koza Arena on Saturday with qualifying round matches. The excitement created around this tournament is tremendous, mainly because of the appeal of one of the world’s most popular athletes, Roger Federer. If there are any studies centering on how a celebrity name can impact the attention drawn to an event, Istanbul Open should earn a chapter in that study all by itself. To illustrate, when tournament organizers announced, with wide smiles on their faces, few weeks ago that Federer would participate to the tournament, they had no idea that tickets for all sessions and seats would sell out in less than two hours. Federer’s arrival to the airport on Sunday was broadcast live on TV by one of the leading sports channels, as well as his first practice that afternoon (more on that below). His first press conference on Monday afternoon was held not at the tournament site, but at the plush Four Seasons Hotel, located a considerable distance from the tournament site.
The organizers did not stop there and they also convinced Grigor Dimitrov to come. For the inaugural session of an ATP 250 level event that is scheduled the week preceding two successive ATP 1000 Masters tournaments (Madrid, Rome), this is a tremendous achievement. Add clay-court specialists Pablo Cuevas (no.23), Santiago Giraldo (no.37), and Andreas Haider-Maurer (no.47) to the rest of the participants such as Mikhail Youzhny, Jarkko Nieminen, and local favorite Marsel Ilhan, and you have a very solid ATP 250 draw with one marquee name, one star player, and bunch of established top-50 names. Attracting high-level competitors was probably the area where the tournament organizers had the most success.
As a result, Turkish tennis fans are upbeat and those that came to watch the qualifying round matches yesterday (entrance was free!) were treated to a surprise. Federer and Dimitrov took the center court for a practice session during which hundreds of fans present applauded every good shot, laughed at every smile that they could garner from the players, and cheered them on every time they switched sides or got up their chairs to walk back to the court following a short water break.
Federer and Dimitrov, first practice on the red clay of Istanbul.
Part 2: And Yet…
Unfortunately, the tournament’s day-to-day operational problems, and the inadequacy of the facilities do not live up to the excitement that the pre-tournament announcements had generated. Let’s first start by the arrival to the tournament. If you are driving, at most ATP and WTA Tour events, the signs pointing everyone in the right direction begin from miles away, sometimes at the first exit that you take from the nearest major highway. Here, not only are there NO SIGNS anywhere at all in traffic to guide you to the venue, but once you arrive to it, there are no signs indicating the location of the entrance, and furthermore, the entrance itself does not correspond one bit to the type of entrance that one would expect from a tour event. See the two pictures below and judge for yourself:
Does this resemble the main entrance of an ATP event?!?
So, if you are driving and you arrive to the above so-called “gate”, it is likely that you will simply keep driving, thinking that the real entrance must be coming up elsewhere, except that it never does. You can’t turn around either because the road is a one-way traffic, thus you end up driving around another 10-15 minutes just to find your way back to the so-called entrance that resembles the back alley entrance of a wholesale store in small town USA. There is no transportation arranged to the tournament site from any of the major populated areas in Istanbul, and yes, considering that the tournament’s location is far outside Istanbul, that is a handicap. One can use public transportation to get close to the tournament, and then walk to it in about 10 to 20 minutes, but once again, there will be no signs indicating them where to turn, how to find the entrance, etc.
Once you walk in the venue, you are treated to the sounds of repair tools, and to stands and tents that are still in a state of construction. There is literally construction noise that you cannot avoid. Just to clarify, this is happening on the weekend of qualifying matches. Main draw matches begin Monday and some preparations are still not complete; one hears hammers and drilling at various spots. There is only one food provider and the prices on its menu basically scream “Yes! You are tennis fans, thus you have money by default, and yes, we are here to milk it with grossly overpriced menu items”!
The area surrounding the tournament venue, is full of construction, and quite frankly, ugly! How ugly? Look at the picture below.
Behind courts 1 & 2
What you also notice on the picture are three ball boys, with two of them standing on top of the stony and dusty hill, one climbing up toward to the two other, with a racket in his hand. Here is the back story: Nikola Mektic loses to Thanasi Kokkinakis and chucks his racket outside the court in frustration. He may not have realized that there was big construction drop right behind the court, but that is not the point. The racket flies down all the way to the bottom where there are literally iron bars sticking out. Obviously, someone in charge asked the ball boys to go and fetch the racket. While I was watching them from a distance, my heart was heavy because I could only imagine the danger if the ball boy lost his footing and started to fall down (see again, the picture above)! Then, I noticed Mektic watching them from the top of the building on the other side with one other person (his coach?) and literally smiling and chatting. I got somewhat mad; mad at Mektic for throwing his racket and not telling the ball boys to forget it when he realized how dangerous the area where his racket ended up was, and mad at the person, whomever it may be, who initially told the ball boys to go and fetch the racket. And the fact that Mektic and his friend/coach clapped the boys when they finally retrieved the racket did not ease my frustration with the whole scene. Very few people witnessed the sequence. I certainly hope that this write-up will bring awareness to it, and those who are in charge will do what is necessary to avoid this type of fiasco.
Mektic in a losing effort to Kokkinakis
There are not many stands in the area where fans can stand and socialize outside the courts; moreover, there is hardly any covered space in case of rain! Beware those spectators who come without an umbrella. Also to the spectators who desire to watch a match on Court number 3: sorry folks! It’s simply not possible. You can’t believe it? Let me explain in clear words: there are NO spaces (yes you read correctly, none!) planned for the spectators to watch a match court. You don’t believe me? See this picture:
Court 3
Your eyes are not deceiving you. There is actually an ATP Tour event that allocates matches to a court where there is literally NO possibility of it being seen by spectators. That couple that you see standing on the next court, and watching, happen to be the parents of one of the two players in action, thus an exception is made for them to stand on the side of the next court where there are other players practicing.
Courts 1 and 2 have stands indeed, but only one entrance each, through a small door on one side. There are no passages in the middle, no door on the other side. If you are a seasoned spectator at tournaments, you can imagine what mayhem that already caused in the qualifying rounds: spectators accumulating on the inside by the door to get out, while the ones waiting outside accumulate to get in! As one expects, there were many times where there was just enough time for the inside spectators to get out and not enough to let the outside ones in. Players had to wait after the game change while the referee kept yelling in vain “Time”, “Please sit down, players are ready to play,” or “Please don’t let anyone in.” At one time you even had the person responsible of lifting the chain (obviously with no clue how a tennis match works) at the door letting the outside people in, while the ones inside could not get out and accumulated right there. Players walked to the court to play the first point, referee kept yelling at the thirty or so people who couldn’t get out and at the thirty or so who just walked in, to sit down. One fan waiting to get out yelled back at the referee in English to make sure next time that the ones inside should get out first before letting the others walk in (which really should have been directed at the person lifting the chain who probably speaks no English). You get the picture…
Speaking of outside courts, one court suffered surface problems during a match, which caused the players to move to center court to resume their encounter on Saturday (originally, no matches were scheduled on center court on that day).
Let’s now move to the center court which should be the jewel of the tournament. Yes, it is the largest tennis arena in Turkey (see below):
The biggest tennis stadium in Turkey
But again, that should not stop anyone from pointing to its faults. The upper stands are extremely steep and the steps not large enough for safety. The bars at the bottom are not tall enough either (see the picture below).
View from the top row… Watch your steps!
Thus, if anyone were to tumble and fall at the top, they would surely end up falling all the way to the bottom which presents a safety issue. When the stadium is filled to capacity (8,000 people), you will have fans hurrying up and down those stairs during game changes, and I do not dare to think any further. The media room is set up at the lower level, with its entrance directly giving way to the stairs, only several meters from the court. In other words, the media people will be walking in and out while the players on center court are playing a match. Did nobody know that the main entrance to the media room should always be from the outside of the court not by the court itself? Imagine this possible scenario on Saturday: Dimitrov wins his semifinal match, and Federer begins his semifinal. At that time, Dimitrov comes to the media room to hold his after-match press conference. How will they keep the tranquility at the entrance of the media room with journalists running in and out of the room (rightfully so, to get to the press conference) and people perhaps wanting autographs from Dimitrov while Federer’s match is being played close by with the capacity 8,000 people watching?
I must point out that the organizers had good intentions. For example, they brought in from Roland Garros two clay-court specialists to prepare the courts and supervise them. They successfully attracted top names to the tournament. They successfully found sponsors. The tournament directors have experience. But it’s hard to avoid inefficiencies when you have generals with no army, and no coordination. I witnessed myself the French clay-court expert complain about the workers allocated to him, that they have never seen a tennis court in their lives (as he was saying this, the men were watering the backdrops and the advertisements, before he yelled at them that their job was to water the court and not what is around it!!). Unfortunately, the concept of “preparations done on time” was not on the radar. In this article, I talked about some major inadequacies, yet there were many minor ones too, such as the electronic scoreboard outside on the grounds to inform spectators of the scores and the match schedule not working (yet).
There is one excuse that everyone keeps hearing: “This is the first time an ATP event is organized so some problems should be expected”. No, sorry that does not wash my friends! The fact that an ATP event in Istanbul is a first, yes it’s correct; but that a tennis event of this magnitude is something new to Istanbul is utterly incorrect! Istanbul Cup, the WTA event, has been held since 2005, and last year’s edition was held precisely at this same venue. Istanbul hosted WTA year-end championships three years in a row with much success. Adequate measures should have been taken on time. “We could not foresee this (or that)” is simply not an acceptable sentence!
My upcoming articles this week will focus a lot more on the matches and on tennis. However, these problems must be pointed out to anyone who is open to criticism. Hopefully, when next year’s tournament takes place, I can write about how the organization has improved and what a treat the tournament has become for the fans due to its efficient management. For this year, Roger Federer’s appearance may have saved the day, but you can’t bring a Federer each year to save the day.
Istanbul, the city that spans across two continents, is hosting its inaugural ATP Tour event next week (April 27 – May 3): TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov will headline the tournament, joining clay-court specialists such as Pablo Cuevas, Santiago Giraldo, Juan Monaco, as well as Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan.
Mertov’s Tennis Desk will be on site throughout the week. Check here daily for pictures and reports throughout the week.
For up-to-the-minute live updates throughout the tournament, follow MT-Desk on Twitter: @MertovsTDesk
(Picture via Istanbul Open Official Facebook Page)
The crowd’s disappointment could be heard from miles away. Roger Federer had just double-faulted on break point at 2-3 down in the third set against Novak Djokovic in the men’s finals of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament. Djokovic led 4-2, and during the next 10 minutes, if it lasted that long, he rolled through two relatively quick games to triumph over his rival 6-3 6-7 6-2, and win the prestigious “5th Major” of the year, as some like to call the tournament in the desert. It was one of the quietest two-game stretches at any final match of a tournament.
This is the kind of crowd response that Djokovic, one of the great champions of the modern era, has to face every time he takes the court against his two main rivals, Federer and Rafael Nadal. Who can forget the bitter clapping gesture that he made to the crowd at Philippe Chatrier when he lost the final match of Roland Garros against Nadal on a double fault last year? He dealt with a pro-Nadal crowd at that match too. He has a unique challenge, one with which no other great player in the modern times had to deal. He has been, is, and will remain to be, the “third best” of his times. The “has been” and “is” portions are guaranteed as he lacks titles and accolades to surpass either of them in the perennial “Greatest Player of All-Time” debate. The “will be” part is still up for debate.
However, the thirdness of Djokovic has nothing to do with the on-court accomplishments. It stems from the timing of his arrival to the scene, and the saturated market of fan base. He is the tennis world version of that third cola company that is desperately trying to garner customers who will embrace its brand over those of the long-existing and beloved PepsiCo and Coca-Cola companies.
It is the price that Djokovic has to pay every time he sets foot on a tennis court across the net from Nadal and Federer. The Spaniard and the Swiss are class acts, but so is the Serb. Anyone who follows the tour closely, media members, and other players, can attest to the fact that Djokovic treats everyone, including tennis fans, with the utmost respect, no more or no less than the two other great champions of his time.
However, Djokovic arrived to the top of the game at a time (late 2000s) when most tennis fans, if not all, have made their choices between Federer and Nadal. There was no room for a Serbian player with a rather vociferous team in the player’s box rooting for him. Everyone knows how harshly and subjectively die-hard Federer fans scrutinize every word that comes out of Nadal’s mouth, or every injury that he gets. The reverse is equally done with ardor by Nadal fanatics whenever Federer loses a match or makes a “twistable” comment. Now imagine both groups of fans combined to apply the same scrutiny on one single player… Djokovic is that player!
Why Djokovic?
Because not only is he the outsider in their eyes, but he also does a pretty darn effective job of challenging their beloved players…
Because he pushes them around quite efficiently on the court…
Because he frequently shakes their hands as the winner…
One could even rightfully make the case for Djokovic being the best player in the first half of the current decade. The numbers say so, his ranking says so, and will continue to say so for the rest of 2015 due to the large lead that he holds over his opponents.
How dare he? The answer matters less than the fact that he does dare, and thus becomes the target of millions of fans who do not want to see the domination that their duo enjoyed in the mid-to-late-2000s comes to an end.
Unfortunately for them, it seems to have come to a crushing end, at least on the court! Unfortunately for Djokovic, the chances of its end crystalizing in the imaginary “third” position of popularity will probably not arrive anytime soon.
The much more mature Djokovic of today understands that and deals with it accordingly. He praises his two main rivals and often talks about how much positive influence they had over him and his game. Never mind that if he were to put the racket down today and never pick it up again, he would still have a career comparable to, if not better than, the past great champions such as John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, and Stefan Edberg.
Yet, Djokovic has no intention of doing that. He continues along his path and aims for the two players that are considered the top two greatest players of all times by many. His chances of catching them in terms of tennis accomplishments: slim! In terms of popularity: none!
We can however speculate comfortably that he deals with a unique challenge, a singular place in history, with more courage and clarity than many other players would.
