Tom DeLonge - Angels and Airwaves
The ATP season is very much a touring road show. Not different then a successful rock band; traveling from city to city, continent to continent. Life on the tour can be draining, both mentally and physically, for any band, but once on stage all emotional distractions are left behind. Simply, it is the one place where both musician and spectator can find peace. The same can be said for a touring tennis professional. They are constantly picking up from city to city, in search of the next opportunity to perform. Once on court, they push themselves to the most extreme physical abuse, all because that is their stage. Their chance to put on their own show.
Angels and Airwaves is a band fronted by Tom Delonge (Blink-182), a truly passionate project that he embarked on a half decade ago. It is grand, profound, profane, touching, honest, insecure, violent and fun. If there is a band that shares the truth of life as a tennis professional, it is this one. Why? I will tell you.
Angels and Airwaves (AVA) aspires to greatness. They are a band with an established superstar, in Tom Delonge, and built with key pieces that contribute to the enduring sound they strive to achieve. Their music preaches hope. Their music inspires. Not unlike the current generation of tennis we are witness to. Tennis has it’s own established superstars. They provide hope for future generations of up and coming players; it truly is the new “Golden Age” of tennis. Watching what the top four men were able to accomplish in 2011, is truly remarkable. In short, it was inspiring.
The band released its latest edition “LOVE Part 2″ in November, the band’s fourth studio album. It gets better with each chunk of listens. I’m taking Angels and Airwaves’ latest album and using lyrics from tracks from the album as a bridge to the 2011 ATP season.
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images for Barclays ATP Finals
Track 1 – Saturday Love:
I know that I can’t tell you this light has slowly faded.
Like mail that’s never dated from towns still burned and raided.
And lost without a soul, with you forever more.
I’m sorry but I can’t tell you I feel like a pattern
Of shapes that will never matter, a color that will never flatter.
It’s all gonna’ come around. It’s all gonna’ make your eyes burn.
I really wanna’ tell you that love is like a furnace,
It burns in and out of purpose, so hot that it makes me nervous.
So large that it won’t cool out. So big that it can’t burn out.
Rafael Nadal has had an awfully difficult year. For a person who has consistently been known as the game’s fiercest competitor, it was tough to hear him say he has lost some of his passion. He came into 2011 off a monster 2010, where he bagged three Slam titles. Most people were speaking to the possibility of Nadal winning a calendar year Slam. Nobody could predict that at the end of 2011, he will have not won a tournament since defeating Roger Federer in the French Open Final.
Nadal, in my opinion is at a career cross roads. His internal flame still burns. In a year filled with adversity, the sign of a true champion will be his response. Soon he will take arm for his native Spain, were he is a national treasure. He could use a break, but he will fight – as always.
“I’ve had some losses that have affected me and I’m feeling the fatigue of many years of playing week in and week out,” Nadal told reporters. “Every career has higher and lower moments, mentally and physically, but I’m motivated for this final.”
AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS
Track 2 – Surrender:
There is a place to hide,
It’s in our minds,
It’s in the dark
It’s well known that we have a fragile heart
Its deep inside
It has a sound that you can follow
You feel like you hit a wall
But you survive
And it was hard for you to swallow
I’ve been to that place before
In spite of luck
When you awake, a new tomorrow
I, I will not surrender
No I, I will not surrender
No I, I will not surrender
No I, I will not surrender
Roger Federer is somewhat of a mystery. For a person who has accomplished everything in a career, before the age of 30; I cannot remember another athlete who has endured so many public funerals. It happened in 2008, again in 2009, and yet again in 2010. Each time he managed to do something over that time to prove his naysayers wrong. In 2011, he went slam less for the first time since 2003 – maybe this time he really was done?
Here we are again, Federer has decided to instill hope for his legions of fans, and look each pundit in the eye, as to say “No I, I will not surrender!” He wasn’t supposed to be the last man standing. Not after Novak Djokovic had beaten him four out of the past five times they played, including the US Open semifinal, where he held two match points. Definitely not after Andy Murray passed him for World No. 3 in the rankings.
Yet here we are, watching the 30 year old go 17-0 following the US Open. Federer won his sixth ATP World Tour Finals, and looks even more ready for 2012, then he did last year at this same time. He is still the only player on the planet, who defeated a healthy Novak Djokovic at the height of his 43 match win streak. Federer has made sure his name will still be in the mix come 2012.
Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images for USTA
Track 3 – Anxiety:
Waiting, we’re silly, we’re so reckless
The city it’s so heartless
A bottle full of crude
That washed up in the tide
Don’t pressure us, anxiety
I’m a passenger
So serious, anxiety
Just a passenger
Handsome and calloused, young believers
Hiding, plotting schemers
And rotting out like fruit
That was left here to die
Talking, waited after hours
Time is bending outward
I’m falling to my knees
To fall whole safe inside
Don’t pressure us, anxiety
I’m a passenger
So dangerous, anxiety
Just a passenger
In September, the players came together to voice their concerns over the high number of retirements at the US Open and the crammed schedule of the tour. Players felt that they were expected to play too many events, leaving them with little rest. Some of this was brought on by the emotions during a rain soaked fortnight in New York, but the concerns resonated. Players threatened strike.
Andy Murray, who was at the forefront of the strike talk, was quoted, “It’s a possibility. I know from speaking to some players they’re not afraid of doing that. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but I’m sure the players will consider it.”
With Novak Djokovic struggling since the US Open with fatigue and injury, Rafael Nadal exiting early, and Andy Murray having to withdraw from the World Tour Finals, the scene is set for renewed protests by players about the tournament schedule.
However, Roger Federer has flatly rejected the notion that players should go on strike.
“It was brought up a few months ago, the whole boycott thing. It’s nonsense,” Federer told reporters.
“It’s not going to happen anytime soon. Things are good right now, so I don’t see a reason why we should just boycott. There’s absolutely no reason for it.”
Without a new ATP CEO in place, it will be interesting to see what develops going forward in 2012.
Novak Djokovic was 6-0 against his Spanish Rival
Track 6 – Dry Your Eyes:
I can’t complain
It’s been good not great but the time flew by
It came from behind it was flying
It was hard to hold on every time we’d fight
And though it would end it’s exhausting
In the cracks that would grow in and out of mind
And into your heart like a virus
It would crawl and would crawl as we laid there blind
And broke you and I
So dry your eyes
Get on your feet don’t pretend to cry
Or fix you and I
Yeah we’re here again
So phony and today is the day it ends
Somewhere along the way, Novak Djokovic flipped on a switch. Maybe he was tired of being the third wheel? At some point towards the end of 2010, he decided that he was done chasing Roger Federer. He focused his aggression on another target – Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic figured out that they key to a successful ”trivalry,” is to force your way into it. If you don’t stack up against one side very well, put your work into breaking down the other. In this case Djokovic figured out how to beat Nadal.
Not only did Djokovic manage to find a weakness in Nadal, which was basically outworking him, he was able to take advantage of a poor serving year statistically from Nadal. He upended the former No. 1, handing Nadal six straight losses, including two on clay and the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals. The U.S. Open final, where Djokovic went down with injury, but still managed to shake Nadal, was a microcosm of the Serb’s determination to win in 2011.
Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images for ATP
Track 7 – The Revelator:
When we all have a choice then
Will you act a like a man?
Will you raise up your hands?
When the s**t hits the fan?
Turn white as a ghost
As the air leaves your throat
Will you throw me a rope?
Or go at it alone?
Can you tell me your name there?
Does the cat have your tongue?
Are you calling someone?
Are you waiting to run?
When the show will arrive
It will be right on time
So you better sit tight
It’ll be a great ride
What more can be said about the year put together by Novak Djokovic. I want to look at the person he was prior to his epic season. Djokovic was a perennial contender at the Slams, and at the same time, one big tease. Everyone predicted big things for the Serb, following his 2008 Australian Open title. However, he wasn’t quite ready.
In 2011, Djokovic certainly did arrive, and what a ride it was.
Three Grand Slams, a 43 match win streak, 10 Titles, 5 Masters 1000 titles. He joined the .900 club going 70-6 for the season.
Repeating such a year will be difficult. I hope he is healthy again, because he will literally be defending everything.
AFP PHOTO / DIMITAR DILKOFF
Track 11 – We Are All That We Are:
And we are
All that we are
Holding on
Until we fall apart
What better way to describe the state of the Men’s tour then the above lyric.
With that I bid farewell to the 2011 ATP Season. Let’s do it again in less then 30 days.
Angels and Airwaves
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