[Senator Clay Davis]

You know since Roger won Roland Garros in 2009, the general Rafa fan line has been that without Robin Soderling, Roger would not have the career slam. And for the most part that is probably true. So I wonder now will Rafa fans acknowledge that this major win is, pretty much without question, the least impressive major win ever? The highest ranked player Rafa will have beaten to win this is DelPo at 28, and he's the highest seed Rafa beat as well at 24. Stan winning two majors beating #1 and #2 in the world this is not. I'm guessing here, but this is the first time in ages, maybe ever, that a player has won a major without beating a single top 20 seed, or a single player ranked in the top 25. You don't have to give it back, it still counts, but it's probably not even as impressive as most of Rafa's 1000 event wins. It's been an awful tournament by virtually every measure.

But the first and last major of the year offered a glimpse at the choice tennis has for the future of the sport. On the one hand you have the US Open, with the slowest courts in years, promoting negative tennis and anti-tennis, and easily one of the most boring majors ever. On the other hand you have Australia, with the fastest courts in years that was an exceptionally exciting event, thrilling matches left, right and center, lots of offense and negative players being pushed aside early. But it's pretty clear once Roger leaves, a lot of fans are leaving with him if the future is what we're seeing in New York. Just ugly tennis, it's why people flocked to Denis because he was playing the kind of offensive tennis most of us love. But as we saw, even as beautifully as Denis played, negative players on slow courts will always be there to stop offensive players.