I really liked this article about the new tennis generation (I guess esp. because I agree with the author in most cases, LMAO!) so I thought I'd share it:
HOT SHOTSRemember when the future of tennis was going to be all power and no style? Don't tell that to the game's latest young guns who've brought a new level of flash and dash to the court. We'll tell you more about them and try to answer THE BIG QUESTION:
WHO HAS WHAT IT TAKES TO REACH THE TOP?
1. The Tough Girl -- Jelena JankovicTHE PEDIGREE: The 22-year-old Jankovic is the daughter of two economists (can’t you tell?) from Belgrade, Serbia. But it was at the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where she’s been training since she was 12, that she became a sure-shot prodigy alongside Maria Sharapova. After disappointing early results, Jankovic made her breakthrough in 2006, beating Venus and Serena Williams and reaching the semifi nals of the U.S. Open.
THE PERSONA: Jankovic laughs loudly and quickly and can talk about Serbian music and her university studies with equal aplomb. She’s spunkiness personified, the tour’s resident tough girl. Which makes sense, because she grew up in the middle of the Serbian civil war and started her tennis career only after it became too dangerous for her to travel crosstown for piano lessons.
THE GAME: When Jankovic hits a ball, she does it without fear, without regard for the last shot, the last game, the last set, or the last match. That clarity of purpose, and a lethal two-handed backhand, is how Jankovic pushed Justine Henin-Hardenne around like a sparring partner for the better part of two sets in last year’s U.S. Open semifi nals. But she can lose that clarity in a hurry: After a mild disagreement with the chair umpire, Jankovic blew her lead over Henin-Hardenne as quickly as she had amassed it. “I had the match . . . I was dominating,” she said with a shrug afterward. “Then I lost my concentration.”
THE PROGNOSIS: There’s little doubt that Jankovic has game. One reasonable scenario is that she becomes the Jana Novotna of her day, winning the award for the Player Most Likely to Implode. But the other is that she tones down her gambler’s instinct just a bit and becomes a fixture in the second week of Slams.
2. The Big Hurt -- Tomas BerdychTHE PEDIGREE: Unlike many of his major academy–trained peers, the 21-year-old Berdych is a small-town boy who started far from the tennis mainstream, in Valasske Mezirici, a town of 30,000 in the Czech Republic. As a pro, Berdych had beaten Rafael Nadal three straight times as of January, won the only times he’d faced Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, and knocked Roger Federer out of the 2004 Olympics.
THE PERSONA: Berdych so far has distinguished himself as his generation’s on-court whiner. He often stalks around the court irritably and complains to umpires. In Madrid last year, after the crowd cheered for his mistakes in his third-straight victory over Nadal, he drew his finger to his lips and shushed the spectators, prompting Nadal to say to him at net, “You are very bad.” Berdych’s response? “When he says to you that you are very bad, for me it’s nice that a very bad player can beat him three times.” Off court, though, Berdych is an amiable guy. He’s dating Lucie Safarova, a Czech WTA player, and has close compatriots on the men’s tour as well. “In the Grand Slams, if we’re all together, there are like 10 or 14 guys,” Berdych says. “It’s like a big family. We’re all friends.”
THE GAME: At 6-foot-5, Berdych is one of the tallest baseliners in history, which has its pros and cons. He can generate power effortlessly, but his timing can also go completely awry—his straight-set loss to James Blake at the U.S. Open last year was an unsightly barrage of errors. As for touch and net skill, well, those aren’t really part of his repertoire. But if a match is close, his monster serve makes up for many of his sins.
THE PROGNOSIS: It’s safe to say Berdych can beat anyone on a given day. Thus far, he has been at his best in controlled indoor environments, but there’s no reason he can’t roll over all comers on the fast courts at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open.
3. Baby Federer -- Richard GasquetTHE PEDIGREE: In a rare case of sports-media foresight, the French magazine Tennis put Gasquet on its cover at age 9 with the headline: RICHARD G: THE CHAMPION FRANCE IS WAITING FOR? The son of two teaching pros, he was indeed a prodigy, becoming the No. 1 junior in the world by age 15. But he struggled with his temper in his early pro years—Gasquet was defaulted from the 2004 U.S. Open qualifying event for throwing his racquet and hitting a linesman in the face. It wasn’t until he ended Roger Federer’s 25-match winning streak at Monte Carlo in 2005 that he announced his presence on the pro tour.
THE PERSONA: If anyone can be said to resemble Federer in the style and personality department, it’s the 20-year-old Gasquet. The Frenchman has the same blend of feel and explosiveness, creativity and all-court skill, as well as the same shy diffidence. And just like Federer in his early years, Gasquet can be flaky.
THE GAME: Besides Federer, Gasquet can also be compared to a somewhat more obscure athlete: Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson, the Detroit Pistons guard of the late ’80s famed for heating up fast and making shot after shot. Every so often, Gasquet reaches a boiling point where virtually every ball he hits, from any part of the court, turns into a jaw-dropping winner.
THE PROGNOSIS: Can Gasquet convert his talents into Federer-like success? He doesn’t have the same range or defensive consistency that the world No. 1 has. And like many other French players of the past, he has yet to fi nd a go-for-the-throat killer instinct—a better name for him might be “Baby Leconte,” after his famously erratic countryman. But Gasquet’s all-surface skills and variety of weapons should earn him at least two major trophies by the time he hangs up his racquet.
4. The Blonde Bomber -- Nicole VaidisovaTHE PEDIGREE: Vaidisova’s stepfather, Alex Kodat, was an accomplished player, and he brought Vaidisova from the Czech Republic to Florida and the Bollettieri Academy when she was 11. After learning to speak English on the courts at Nick’s, she used the trademark Bollettieri power-baseline game to win three straight tournaments in 2005 and reach the semifi nals at Roland Garros last year.
THE PERSONA: What would Vaidisova be if she weren’t a tennis player? “A lawyer,” she says without hesitation. “I like to argue. My dad says I like it too much.” Poised almost to a fault, the 6-footer seems like the world’s oldest 17-year-old, handling every part of her career with ease. “It’s just normal,” she says. “Usually I have everything under control.” That includes her own brand: Vaidisova was scheduled to debut her clothing line with Reebok at the Australian Open in January. The garments are girly, with bright colors and maybe a bow or two, a contrast to the Breakfast at Tiffany’s styles worn by Maria Sharapova or the urban funk of Serena Williams. “It’s a long process,” Vaidisova says. “Right now we’re thinking about 2008.”
THE GAME: Watch Vaidisova’s two-handed backhand and it’s easy to see her as a work in progress. It looks like the same stroke she might have learned as a 6-year-old—she keeps the racquet close to her body and searches for every available ounce of leverage. Vaidisova also needs to work on her movement. While she’s fast, she sometimes stumbles as though her legs were a bit longer than they were yesterday. But her service motion is precise, and her size and strength make it a weapon.
THE PROGNOSIS: When her rough edges get polished, the sky will be the limit. By all accounts, Vaidisova has learned from the mistakes of blondes past and is keeping her eye on the big prize. “I want to be remembered as a tennis player first, and everything else second,” she says. “So I keep that in my mind and I try to make decisions based on that.”
5. The Brawler -- Rafael NadalTHE PEDIGREE: The classic tennis build is long and rangy. But the 20-year-old Nadal’s low-to-the-ground soccer-player’s body may become the new prototype for today’s physically demanding game—he’s got the upper-body strength to hit for power and the legs to do it all day. Nadal, who was trained in the island isolation of Mallorca, Spain, is an athlete first, tennis player second. His uncle Miguel Angel, known as the “Beast of Barcelona,” played on Spain’s World Cup soccer team, and his other uncle, Toni, a teaching pro, is the only coach Rafa has known.
THE PERSONA: Nadal is a reluctant star, a kid at heart who lives with his family in Mallorca and visited Euro Disney on his last summer vacation. It’s his high-octane on-court style that has earned him admirers worldwide. His two French Open victories have been among the highest-rated TV sporting events in Spain’s history—yes, right up there with soccer—and for a while he had dueling websites devoted to him: vamosrafael.com, started by a U.S. fan, and his own site, rafaelnadal.com (they work together now). Their female visitors were sorely disappointed last summer when Nadal revealed that he had a girlfriend, fellow Mallorcan Xisca Perelló.
THE GAME: Last year Roger Federer described Nadal’s game as “one-dimensional,” and the Spaniard is primarily a body-puncher. But there’s subtlety around the edges. Nadal regularly hits an extreme-angle, on-the-run backhand crosscourt passing shot, something he can do because, while he plays lefty, he’s a natural right-hander who uses that hand to get a little extra flick with his racquet. Nadal also has a diabolically disguised backhand drop shot. And for a guy with a mediocre serve, he owns one of the game’s most authoritative overheads.
THE PROGNOSIS: With two titles at Roland Garros, a No. 2 ranking, and a winning record over Federer, Nadal has already been to the mountaintop. He’s not proficient enough on all surfaces to dethrone Federer anytime soon, and his taxing style—he rarely wins any match without putting in a ton of work—could mean a short shelf life. Still, Nadal is strong on slow hard courts and few in the game’s history have had as much desire for success. That alone should be enough to bring him six or seven major titles (mostly on the clay at the French) and an extended residence in the Top 5.
6. The Crowd Pleaser -- Marcos BaghdatisHE PEDIGREE: Baghdatis is the first player from Cyprus to reach the Top 100, much less the Top 10. But if he’d had his way as a kid, he’d be a soccer player. His father, a tennis fanatic, pushed Baghdatis into the sport, shipping him off to train at an academy in Paris at age 13. Sometimes father knows best, because Baghdatis soon reached the top of the junior game. “Of course I would love to be the best soccer player in the world,” Baghdatis says. “But I have a great life. I won’t start crying about it. I love tennis, too.”
THE PERSONA: The smile says it all—Baghdatis is a crowd pleaser. The 21-year-old flashes his toothy grin many times a match, and spectators love it. “Any player would love the crowd to be with him, cheering you up. It makes it fun,” he says. Baghdatis is a big-match player because he feeds off the atmosphere at major events. He reached the 2006 Australian Open fi nal riding a wave of support from his 21 Aussie cousins, and at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Andre Agassi, Baghdatis used 23,000 New Yorkers to help him back into the match.
THE GAME: Baghdatis’ closest kin may be the man who beat him at the Open. Like Agassi, Baghdatis has compact ground strokes, blends offense and defense well, and is a shot-maker from both wings. But what got him into the Top 10 last year was his mental game. “He’s good at winning. He understands how to play the game,” says Patrick McEnroe, the U.S. Davis Cup captain and commentator for ESPN. “He can read his opponents quickly. He’s a shot-maker when he needs to be. He’s aggressive on his terms.”
THE PROGNOSIS: The weekly grind may never be his thing; consistency and concentration don’t typically go hand-in-hand with a happy-go-lucky personality. But, while that may keep him from becoming No. 1, his strength on all surfaces—and on the biggest stages—makes him a threat at every Grand Slam.
7. The Players’ Player -- Novak DjokovicTHE PEDIGREE: Like many young pros, Serbia’s Djokovic has a parent who was a top athlete in another sport. His father, Srdjan, was a skier for the former Yugoslavia, but no one in his family played tennis, Djokovic says. When he was 4, three courts were built in front of the restaurant that his father owned above Belgrade. By 7 Novak had decided he was going to be No. 1, a goal set with the encouragement of his fi rst coach, Jelena Gencic. “Whatever she told me, I did,” Djokovic says. “She kept telling me I had the talent to be No. 1. I believed her, and I still believe her.”
THE PERSONA: Anyone that driven since age 7 will ruffle a few feathers. Last year, Djokovic’s mother said he was interested in obtaining British citizenship not because of any connection to the country, but because she and Djokovic wanted to secure training for his younger brothers and further Djokovic’s sponsorship opportunities. Perhaps the most ruffled feather belongs to Roger Federer. After beating Djokovic, who has earned a reputation for taking dubious medical timeouts, in September, Federer said, “I think he’s a joke when it comes down to his injuries. The rules are there to be used, not abused. . . . I was happy to beat him.”
THE GAME: Djokovic is a “players’ player,” a guy with an unfl ashy devotion to his craft and nothing extraneous in his textbook ground strokes. Take a look at the shoulder turn on his two-handed backhand: Djokovic never cheats himself out of a full rotation and knee bend, and it makes his shot consistent and penetrating.
THE PROGNOSIS: Djokovic is not the most spectacular or daring of the young guns, but he may have what it takes for the long haul and a top ranking. He’s effective from every part of the court and on every surface, and he has confidence to spare. He certainly has Federer’s attention. But is that a good thing?
8. Le Freak -- Gael MonfilsTHE PEDIGREE: Like Nadal, the 6-foot-4 Monfi ls, whose father, Rufin, was a soccer player, represents the tennis player as über-athlete. The 20-year-old won the first three legs of the junior Grand Slam in 2004 and honed his considerable talents with French coaches in Paris before spending some time at the Bollettieri Academy this winter.
THE PERSONA: In an era where the code of conduct has all but driven on-court expression out of the game, Monfi ls is one of the sport’s origi-nals. He shakes his blown-out hair, pumps his fist, lectures himself in French, glares at his racquet (and occasionally his opponent, or the referee) with a flair that’s reminiscent of his spiritual progenitor and fellow Frenchman Yannick Noah.
THE GAME: There’s one quality that separates champions from also-rans, and that’s quickness. There has never been a slow champion. So when you learn that Monfils is perhaps the fastest player on tour, it makes sense that Roger Federer includes him on the short list of young players he’s watching. Another thing that impresses you about Monfi ls is his loose and easy service motion, which routinely results in 130-m.p.h. bombs—think Mariano Rivera with a tennis racquet. Thus far, though, Monfi ls doesn’t take advantage of that delivery as often as he could. Instead he’s content to sit far back in the court and rally rather than use his power and speed to make the fi rst strike.
THE PROGNOSIS: In today’s big-bucks world of tennis, cracking the Top 10 is enough to fi ll a villa with sports cars. The next step, from contender to champion, is almost a move of diminishing returns—unless you’re quelling a certain fire in the belly, a quality that exists irrespective of talent. Roger Federer has it. Marat Safin doesn’t. Does Monfils?
9. Ana 2.0 -- Ana IvanovicTHE PEDIGREE: It was seeing Monica Seles on TV when she was 5 that did it. Ivanovic begged her parents for tennis lessons and soon decided she had to be a pro. The 19-year-old daughter of a lawyer and an economist broke through on the minor-league ITF Women’s circuit in 2004 and won her biggest title last summer by beating Martina Hingis in Montreal.
THE PERSONA: With saucer-size brown eyes, a Lancôme complexion, and an easy 100-watt smile, the Serbia native has the face that launched a thousand Web browsers. Only Kournikova, Sharapova, and perhaps Vaidisova can rival her sex appeal—see the photo gallery on Ivanovic’s web-site—but ask her when she knew she was pretty and she all but blushes. “That’s very flattering. I never really thought about it,” she says. She prefers Abercrombie & Fitch to Prada, roller coasters to night clubs, and can still giggle about spotting Diddy at Nobu.
THE GAME: When Ivanovic is on the court, you can expect her to pound, but not punish, the ball. She belts it as hard as any woman, but while other players seem to take out their personal demons on the optic-yellow orb, that’s not the Other Ana’s style. After cracking a winner, she strolls away demurely.
THE PROGNOSIS: Ivanovic has an injury-prone shoulder—can she weather the tour grind? Toward that end, her fi tness coach has her sparring in the gym. What kind of punch does tennis’ next Million Dollar Baby pack? “I hit him pretty hard,” she said of her fi rst session. “I don’t think he expected it.” For now, Ivanovic remains a raw puncher, not a boxer on court. She needs another year of work before she has the consistency and defensive skills necessary to go deep at the majors.
Whole article:
www.tennis.com/features/hotshots/index.aspx
LOL 
I´m surprised they didn´t name his when they talked about that AO final 
;D