Heroes and Zeros: The Magic of Fed, Venus's New Lease, Li's New Leaf

By Chris Oddo

(August 20, 2012) -- It has been quite an unpredictable summer for the ATP and WTA tours, and reading the tennis tea leaves has proven to be nearly as difficult as trying to return a John Isner second serve with a hockey stick.

The early peak caused by the Olympic year has added an element of chaos to every event, causing a rash of injuries, withdrawals, and a beleaguered stable of players who are there in body but somewhere else in spirit.

With one week until the US Open begins, we are left to wonder: which end is up? Roger Federer seems to know, as does Li Na, so we’ll start off this week’s edition of Heroes and Zeros by mentioning them...

Hero: Roger Federer

What else can you say about the Swiss Maestro? Every time you start a sentence about the man it’s like sticking your hand into a grab bag filled with gifts with your eyes closed. He is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Federer is the second-oldest player to ever hold the No. 1 ranking, and even better, the 31-year-old looked--and played--like the youngest player in the draw in Cincinnati. He didn’t drop serve and only faced three break points.

In winning his 21st career Masters title against a player who many consider to be a wizard of the hard-courts, Federer announced himself as the clear -cut US Open favorite. He’s got the game to do it, and perhaps more importantly, he’s the master at peaking at the right time. In a crazy, mixed-up, muddled-up summer such as this, Fed’s ability to save energy and to avoid the physical and mental letdowns that seem to be plaguing everybody else on tour are what could make the difference in New York.

Zero: Jelena Jankovic

Poor, poor JJ. The Serb suffered her 13th first-round loss of the season in Cincinnati when she failed to convert on five match points in a marathon against Shuai Peng. Watching Jankovic get into a nice baseline rhythm is still one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see in the women's game, but the opportunities to do that are getting fewer and farther between. It's a shame for Jankovic because she's still only 27. With the success that so many older players are currently having on tour, one would think that the only thing that is holding Jankovic back is commitment.

She just seems so apathetic at times. What's with that?

Hero: Venus Williams

For me the high point of the Cincinnati event was vibing off the joie de vivre that Venus Williams currently possesses. Venus was spectacular in reaching her first semifinal of the year, and her high-intensity quarterfinal romp with Sam Stosur (her third three-set win of the tournament) was some of the most scintillating tennis of the whole event, men’s or women’s.

But even more inspiring was the fact that Williams, in spite of dealing with lower back issues that reduced her serve to a 65-mph puffball, would not quit in her semifinal against Li Na. "Yeah, I pretty much couldn't serve," Venus later said. "But I wanted to try. I mean, especially since this is my first semifinal of the year, I wanted to try to see if I could get to the final. Didn't work out for me."

It may not have resulted in a title run, but to see Venus giving everything she had in pursuit, well it was just plain priceless. She was asked why she continued to play by reporters, and of course, she knew how to answer.

"Because I like to live life with no regrets," she said. "I don't want look back and feel like I gave up or say I could have done this or that. That's not me. I wanted to go to the very end and at least know that maybe I missed some shots or maybe I wasn't feeling my best, but I gave it all."

Zero: Milos Raonic

Milos is a fantastic player, with oodles of potential, and he’s clearly earmarked for the top ten. But he’s sorely lacking in the killer instinct department, and that was once again made painfully obvious when he blew a 4-2 lead in the second-set tiebreaker against Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati. He lost in three, and remains a work still very much in progress.

Hero: Li Na

Of course we're not going to forget Li Na, who has been on quite a tear of late. She reached the Montreal final, losing out to Petra Kvitova, but bounced back nicely from that disappointment by winning her sixth career title in Cincinnati, and her first since winning the French Open in 2011. It's been a long time coming for the 30-year-old Chinese megastar. Now that's she's paired up with Carlos Rodriguez (the fabled longtime coach to Justine Henin) one can't help but wonder if Rodriguez might have a similar effect on Li's game as Michael Mortensen did when he started working with her just prior to her only Grand Slam title.

Zero: Francesca Schiavone

What has happened to the Italian of late? She's 21-20 on the year. Have we already witnessed the best of Schiavone? Say it isn't so.

Hero: Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka

The Czech duo won the title in Cincinnati and each moved to career-high rankings on Monday, with Hradecka cracking the top five and Hlavackova moving to No. 6. This year's Wimbledon and Olympic finalists have now won 18 of 21 matches.

(Photo Credit: CincyTennis FB)