New kids slam door on former powers

ON TENNIS:The European revolution could have benefits for Ireland in years to come

THERE HAS been a revolution going on in tennis over the past five years. It has been happening in Ireland's back yard, yet we have not been able to join in or take advantage. While geographical shifts in power are a part of the regular cycles of sport - witness the state of Irish soccer and athletics now compared to the way they were 15 or 20 years ago - the current dominance of European tennis is unprecedented.

The revolution has even left behind the Grand Slam nations of Britain, Australia and the USA, while the French men particularly have been holding their own and actually contributing strongly to the power shift.

A look at the draw in Roland Garros confirms that the shift is not only well advanced but is also increasing its influence. What is happening in the French Open reflects what is happening all around the world and the pattern at Wimbledon will be similar.

In the men's side of the draw yesterday two of the players in the quarter-finals, Rafa Nadal and Nicolas Almagro, were Spanish, while in the other pairing, Ernests Gulbis was from Latvia and Novak Djokovic from Serbia.

Of the quarter-finalists on court today, Roger Federer from Switzerland meets Fernando Gonzalez from Chile, and Gael Monfils of France meets another Spaniard, David Ferrer, for a place in the semi-finals.

Of all the players, men as well as women, who contested the fourth round of singles, 30 of 32 were Europeans, including all 16 of the women. Of those 16, five were Russians, two were Czechs, two were Serbs and the rest came variously from Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Belarus, Estonia and Switzerland.

The only two men who made it that far into the draw (fourth round) and were not from Europe were America's Robby Ginepri, who lost in his next match, and Gonzalez. Such dominance by European nations has not been seen at any Grand Slam event since the open era began.

Although Russia has provided the most top-20 players and appears to be able to produce tennis players in a higher ratio than even that at which Ireland produces elite golfers, Serbia has gone top of the class for the quality. Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic are all seeded in the top three here and will be when the tennis circus arrives in London for Wimbledon in two weeks' time.

Others have been capturing headlines for other reasons.

Latvia, a Baltic nation with a population less than half that of Ireland, turned up the unseeded Gulbis, a fresh-faced, articulate, multilingual teenager with a huge serve and forehand. Gulbis made it to the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory over Michael Llodra. Ranked 80th in the world, he is the first Latvian to break into the top 100.

In the women's side of the draw Kaia Kanepi has emerged from Haapsalu in Estonia. She finished in the top 100 last year for the second time and has had her best ever run in a slam here over the last two weeks. Tall and unseeded, she beat Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic for a quarter-final place.

While Ireland has no players in the senior or junior events there is a growing feeling that as Europe becomes smaller politically and more mixed ethnically Irish tennis could profit in the coming years (Australia has, incidentally, a class act of Croatian extraction in the juniors here; Bernard Tomic is 15 years old and is top seed in the under-18 competition).

Already Mariyana Levova has integrated into Irish tennis and will play Federation Cup, while the Georgian junior Lazare Kukhalashvili, who was once as high as 36th in the ITF world rankings, is training and playing out of Ireland. Already his work ethic around the DCU campus and his willingness to train with the scholarship athletes at the university and do interval running in addition to his usual tennis training are changing the mindset of the Irish players around him. That can only be good.

We may have missed the first wave of new Tennis Europe. Maybe we have talented players, but what the Russians and Czechs and Latvians have shown is that you don't have to go to the US on a tennis scholarship or book into an academy in Florida.

All they needed was the right coach and the right mindset.

Long live the revolution!