

By Chris Oddo | Sunday, October 26, 2014

Who knew October tennis could be this good? Die-hard tennis fans, that's who, and they were rewarded in spades during the week that was.



Photo Source: Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty

Many casual fans stop watching tennis the minute the last ball is struck at the US Open (we pity you but we understand: You’ve got your football, be it American gargantuan-style or European Premier League or Serie A-style, and your World Series and your NHL and NBA) but for those who’ve eschewed other more mainstream, prime-time events for the last few winding turns in the ATP and WTA Tour’s race to the year-end championships, a giant—no, colossal—reward came gift-wrapped on your live stream viewer this week.



ATP: Federer Claims Basel Title, Inches Closer to No. 1



I say “live stream viewer” because if you watched you more than likely watched on your computer or phone, or some other subversive devise, yet with all the trappings, great commentary, stat bundles and Twitter analysis you could handle. Tennis may be sitting with moth balls in much of the population’s closet right now, but for the die-hards it was in full bloom, rip-roaring, action-packed, drama-filled glory this week in Valencia, Spain, Basel, Switzerland and Singapore.



Granted, the tennis season is a grueling, arduous journey that begins before the New Year and won’t officially end until very late November, so it’s normal for fans to experience burnout. But even the most burnt-to-a-crisp fan couldn’t help feeling reinvigorated this week while watching some of the most intense, gut-wrenching tennis that we’ve seen all year.



Take Maria Sharapova’s gritty victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in Singapore. The Russian had a horribly disappointing week and saw her chances of claiming the No. 1 ranking as well as reaching the semifinals in Singapore go up in smoke when she dropped the second set of her final round-robin match of the week, but she swallowed the bitter pill like the warrior that she is and went back out to salvage a victory over the crafty Pole. “I'm very proud,” Sharapova would later say as she contemplated the bittersweet victory at her post-match presser. “It would've been very easy for me to get down on myself. I had so many chances being up [in the second set], having match point, and just saying you know what? I've lost two matches. Just so easy to just let it go. I didn't, and that's what I wanted for myself today. I got the job done. I know I'm not moving forward, but I'm proud of that effort and to finish the year off on this way.”



Singapore: Serena Completes First WTA Finals Three-Peat in over 20 Years



Tennis fans, holed up in the wee hours everywhere, were taking notice. If this was the kind of grit their worn-down, battered-and-bruised heroes were going to show in the season’s tenth—seriously, tenth!—month, then how could they not respond in kind by depriving themselves of some much-needed sleep?



For those who braved the time zone horrors of watching live tennis from Singapore in the U.S., there was a payback (besides the compulsory caffeine high)—a wildly entertaining week of high-octane tennis, with multiple storylines, dark horses, and, ultimately, the re-coronation of two of the greatest champions to ever pick up—and smash—a racquet, in Serena Williams and Roger Federer.



Over in Basel Switzerland, two of the game’s greatest players were on the ticket, and hometown fans were treated to a purposeful, crisp-like-autumn Roger Federer in the throes of an improbable yet suddenly very possible run at the No 1 ranking as well as the presence of his arch rival, Rafael Nadal. Here the fates of the two greats took divergent paths, much to the delight of some and the horror of others. A 17-year-old rising phenom named Borna Coric knocked off a haggard Nadal in one of the biggest upsets of the season as Federer rolled to the final like a house on fire.



Basel, which saw Federer eventually claim the title for a sixth time, highlighted what is preternaturally alluring about October tennis: it provides a platform for established stars to push to increase their bids for the ATP’s World Tour Finals in London, while at the same time giving opportunities to young, fresh-faced stars in the making who often take wild cards and pull major upsets due to the fact that they are facing veterans who are running on fumes this time of the year. It’s not important that Borna Coric would have a much more difficult time defeating Rafael Nadal in a week when the Spaniard wasn’t suffering from appendicitis and god knows what else. What is important is the fact that Coric, along with 17-year-old Alexander Zverev and suddenly virtually unstoppable David Goffin all took advantage of the opportunities they had to create the perfect chaos and buzz in Basel.



17-Year-Old Borna Coric Shocks Nadal in Basel



And let us not downplay Valencia, which saw two raging bulls in Andy Murray and David Ferrer clash for the third consecutive event with the last two all-important London bids on the line. These two titans didn’t disappoint. They held their seeds and reached the semifinal, with Murray once again downing Ferrer to reach the final. But what happened in that final, between Murray and veteran workhorse Tommy Robredo, is what epitomized everything that was resplendently awesome about the week that was in tennis. In a heated, punishing battle, Murray saved five match points to defeat Robredo in the longest ATP three-set final of 2014. The match, simply put, was a pugilist’s dream come true. Murray, weary from having played so much tennis and Robredo, always brimming for a fight, exchanging body blow after body blow, each seemingly down for the count at one time or another, but each rising up off the canvas to throw ONE MORE GIANT HAYMAKER.



In the end, Murray won the match, and kissed the trophy, but Robredo threw the last haymaker, flipping Murray the double-bird at the net in what was the coolest, most bad-ass, heartfelt net exchange of 2014.



You had to see it to believe it. Most missed it, but you, my fellow die-hard, followed your bliss to your live stream. Good on you!



The World Series, however it turns out, has nothing on all the glory tennis fans bore witness to last week. Next time somebody asks me why the tennis season doesn’t just end after the U.S. Open, I’ll tell them the story of the time Robredo gave Murray the finger while Roger Federer ate pizza with ballkids in Basel. They probably won’t know what the heck I’m referring to, but I’ve got tweets to prove it!