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Volume #0004

by Zach Bigalke  

This column originally appeared at FanNation from February to September 2008. You can find Bigalke riffing about a range of stories from sports around the globe weekly here at Informative Sports.

Sometimes I just sit here at the computer, having as hard a time coming up with salient topics about which to write as Romain Mesnil seems to be having as he seeks new sponsorship. Surely even the most traditional of American sports fans has seen this story somewhere in their web-surfing or SportsCenter gluttony. Mesnil, a French pole vaulter who placed second at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka but slipped to seventh at the Beijing Olympics, was summarily given his walking papers from the Nike stable. The swoosh requires gilding, and Mesnil wasn’t getting it done enough to warrant a contract extension.  

So instead of putting in his time on the track, building his musculature to return to the form that saw him hit a personal-best 5.95 meters way back in June 2003 in Castres, Mesnil has instead turned to that instant salesman of the digital age -- YouTube. In a stunt intended to gain visibility with sponsors, Mesnil made himself visible to the gathered throngs around Paris... in the starkest way possible. Stripped to his birthday suit, Mesnil runs with his pole in hand (the vaulting pole, that is) around the French capital. Will it land him a new shoe deal? For goodness sake, won’t someone step forward and give this man some athletic apparel?!  

Don’t worry, though... I am not biding my time to see if this ploy succeeds or fails. You won’t see me tossing off one article of clothing after another in a quest to find a venue to present the sports obscure to most American fans. I’ve got a perfectly good sponsor here at Informative Sports, so there’s no need to reveal that sweater underneath my sweater. So without further delay, try to burn the image of Mesnil’s nudity out of your mind as we embark on yet another journey into the world of a non-traditional sports fan in America...  

I am an old hat at following obscure pastimes. But it has been brought to my attention by one of my fellow writers here at the site that not everyone is aware where the men and women are playing tennis this weekend. Not every American knows which classic is coming up next on the cycling calendar. Few are aware of where a guy like Michael Phelps can find action in the pool between Olympiads. Even an event as widely viewed as the UEFA Champions League boggles the minds of many. 

So I will be providing a monthly calendar as an addendum to the first column of each month so that those of you who have a desire to follow along with the progression of more than just your traditional seasons of fanaticism can do so more efficiently. Call this your one-stop shop for all things non-traditional... this one’s for you, Dan.  

As the calendar shows, we’re entering a rich season for sports around the globe. While the men and women of the courts are off playing tennis in the sunshine of Miami, others prepare their frigid form as the World Men’s Curling Championships start on Saturday in New Brunswick. At the same time, Lycra-clad road warriors prepare for the cobblestones of the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, the race which kicks off the fever pitch of cycling’s spring classics...  

Novak Djokovic, who won his first Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open, had not been able to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga since that night in Melbourne fifteen months ago. In Miami, they squared off in the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters tournament for the fifth time since that hot Australian summer night. Tsonga had gone 4-0 since that crushing defeat. Despite with a rash of injuries which have kept him from realizing his full potential, Tsonga has been able to at least take repeated revenge for missing his chance to become the first Frenchman since Yannick Noah -- for all you traditional sports fans out there, the proud papa of Chicago Bulls forward Joakim and the winner of the 1983 French Open -- to take a Grand Slam title. But this fifth post-Aussie meeting would prove decisively in Djokovic’s favor.

The Serbian stroker played a strong match, finding the corners of the court and running Tsonga ragged. He was returning serves crisply, keeping Tsonga at bay and preventing him from getting any rhythm from point to point. When a first serve failed to make it in play, Tsonga was timid with his second. The final score (6-3, 6-4) failed to capture precisely how much the number-three player in the world dominated the number-eleven.

Opposite Djokovic in the semifinals is a resurgent Roger Federer, who enjoyed another defeat of perennial American foil Andy Roddick to book his passage to the final four. Roddick, though, prevented the match from becoming a rout... though he could not prevent Federer from extending his head-to-head career record to 17-2. Taming Roddick’s lethal serve in the first set, the former world number-one broke serve twice to jump to a quick 6-3 victory. But Federer would allow an opening for his counterpart, and Roddick jumped back with a break to take the second set.

The two dueled through the third, until a fluke clip of the net tape caromed Federer’s shot over Roddick’s outstretched racquet and allowed the Swiss powerhouse to set up match point. The next shot would not prove a fluke, Federer launching a crisp backhand past the advancing American and sending him through. Djokovic is playing fiercely right now, and this rematch of the 2008 Australian Open semifinals, in which Novak scored his breakthrough victory over Roger en route to the title, will certainly be an awe-inspiring spectacle.

Both competitors, though, will also have one eye to their likely opponent, world number-one Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard will face fast-rising Argentine sensation Juan Martin del Potro, already the number-six player in the world at age twenty. In the final quarterfinal match, Fernando Verdasco and Andy Murray will battle for the final spot in the semifinals. By the time we’re back here next week, the champion will be crowned in Miami and the clay-court preparatory tournaments in advance of the French Open will be in full swing. Here’s to hoping the remaining six matches in the Miami sun live up to their billing and provide stimulating fodder for next week...  

While the men duke it out on the courts, so too do the ladies in one of the few tournaments outside of the Grand Slams to host both sexes at the same time. The semifinals are set at the WTA Miami tournament, and the Williams sisters will face one another for a slot in the title match. Serena, hanging on in a tough 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 draw against tenacious Chinese challenger Li Na, had to battle to claim her spot. In her third straight match against a Chinese opponent -- Shuai Peng in the third round, Jie Zheng in the fourth -- she showed tenacity, if also a tinge of vulnerability. Serena would drop the first five games of the match before getting her head in the game.

Venus, cruising through in her match against Iveta Benesova to a straight sets (6-1, 6-4) victory, looks far more match-ready at the moment. She has shrewdly dispatched all comers to date in the tournament, and will be looking to gain the upper hand early on her sister. Either will surely face a formidable opponent in the final... in the other semifinal tilt, Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova are sure to ignite the court with their play. The women are on incredible form at the moment, with many a top star tumbling in the earlier rounds of this tournament to a well-prepared bunch of lesser lights. The beauty of the professional game, though, is that even in defeat, ladies like Ivanovic and Safina and Mauresmo will head to the next stop to play another day, another chance for a title just over the horizon as close as Ponte Vedra or as distant as Andalucia...

Turning northward, Kevin Martin gets his heavily-favored Canadian international curling squad prepared to defend its World Men’s Curling Championship title. The tournament, which begins round-robin play on Saturday and extends until April 12, offers Martin the opportunity to become only the fifth captain to lead his team to consecutive victories at the worlds. Eleven other countries will be descending upon Moncton, New Brunswick, with hopes of unseating the Canucks on their home soil.

That is likely to prove a difficult proposition, considering that Martin is coming off a repeat perfect performance at the Canadian Men’s Curling Championships. Last year he went 13-0 en route to the title; this year he duplicated the feat. Unlike the Utah Utes, 13-0 actually delivered all the spoils for Martin. The 43-year-old skipper from Edmonton will be coming into these championships with bucketfuls of confidence. Next week we should have a better bearing on whether or not the Canadians remain the favorites for the title...

Which brings us to the opposite side of the Atlantic, where the steep cobblestone hills of the Flemish country of Belgium beckon the diehard riders of the peloton for a shot at a lifetime of glory. All it takes to snatch that abundance of platitudes is survival in this race of attrition. Every Belgian rider dreams of winning this race; every man who considers himself among the preeminent riders of his generation will retire with a hole in his record lest he find a way to endure the 260-kilometer (161-mile) trek from Brugge, clawing his way over the prohibitively-steep ten cobbled and sixteen total climbs to emerge first across the line in Ninove.

Quick.Step comes in the heavy favorite, yet again. Led by the tandem of last year’s surprise winner Stijn Devolder and two-time winner Tom Boonen, the Belgian squad is racing on home roads in front of adoring home crowds. They will look to place Boonen in the main break, with Devolder and any other teammates who might come along, as part of the decisive group which naturally forms during the course of the race. Should the former world champion find himself in the right position, it would be foolhardy to bet against his chances of success. And if the field should get split, Devolder proved last year that he is more than up to the task of stepping in to snag the top step of the podium.

With the changing of the old guard, the Quick.Step squad leaders represent two-thirds of the total number of active riders who have claimed Flanders as their own. The third, Alessandro Ballan, will once again toe the line in Brugge with hopes of repeating his 2007 performance. Each of these three men would be more than worthy repeat champions.

But there is a slew of talented riders who are also anxious for their first taste of Flemish glory. Long-suffering George Hincapie comes to Flanders once again with Team Columbia, looking to climb two steps up the podium from his 2006 third-place finish. Leif Hoste, thrice the bridesmaid in what amounts to his national race, will lead Silence-Lotto in its quest to wrest control of the race from its Belgian nemesis. Nick Nuyens and Juan Antonio Flecha of Rabobank, second and third at the race respectively last year, will hope to complete the Dutch invasion this season.

Boonen, though, should be able to reclaim his podium position after a two-year absence. Hungry to prove after last year’s suspension for out-of-competition ingestion of cocaine that he is not washed up at only 28, Boonen will be right there celebrating his third victory in the race -- likely with another solo charge from the pack in the final kilometers. As the inheritor of the throne as the “Lion of Flanders” from Johan Museeuw and the keeper of a lineage which extends back beyond guys like Merckx and Buysse and Van Looy to the very birth of the competitive sport itself, Boonen has a lot to live up to...

Take these and any other prognostications I might throw your way with a grain of salt, folks. Nostradamus I am not... Bigalkedamus is no reincarnation of that clairvoyant. After all, I have been wrong far more often than I have been right. It is wholly likely that I may have lucked out by correctly predicting the first classic of the year, when Mark Cavendish persevered in the longest of the classics to take the season-opening Milano-Sanremo...

... or I might just be developing my own special sense for this prediction thing. But tell that to my NCAA bracket, though, right? (Yes, even a non-traditional sports fan must cross over into Americana from time to time.) I guess that’s what happens when you spend more time thinking about forehand winners and drafting technique in the final kilometer than foul shooting and zone defenses. It’s what is bound to happen when throwing blindly at a dartboard is entirely likely to yield higher-quality results.

But what I lack in basketball knowledge -- and you can get that from the rest of the crew here at Informative Sports -- I more than make up for in my desire to keep bringing you the best possible coverage of sports you might really enjoy if you just got the chance to understand and follow them better. So hopefully that calendar will be your guide to expanding those spectator horizons at some point during the month. Call it your April Fool’s Resolution...  

Submitted 4/2/2009

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