Streaming video has failed me. For once, the tournament in Memphis was not being broadcast on any television, and as a result was not being streamed on the internet. And as a result of that, I couldn't watch Andy Roddick battle with James Blake for two hours before finally coming out on top. Starting at the quarterfinals, Memphis will be broadcasting via TennisTV.com, but until then, us fans are just out of luck. It's a shame.
It looked like it would have been a good match, but it certainly wasn't the only fine one of the day. John Isner squeaked past Jarkko Nieminen in three sets after losing the first in a tiebreak. He wasn't broken once, and Nieminen is no slouch in his return game. Xavier Malisse upset Tommy Haas, and the Belgian is gaining some momentum. But one player who isn't getting much momentum is Radek Stepanek, who may have squeaked by Kevin Anderson in the first round, but just lost to perpetual underachiever Ernests Gulbis in the second. Since making the final in Brisbane, Stepanek is 1-3. Neither is Mardy Fish, who completed folded in the second set against Leonardo Mayer. I imagine that he's still struggling with injury. Verdasco, who also lost in the first round, was probably just tired after his title run last week. He didn't get the extra day of rest that Roddick did, which probably proved essential.
Also in Memphis, Melanie Oudin and Maria Sharapova, the top two seeds (it says something about your field when the second seed is ranked 42nd in the world) have been doing well in turning their years around. Both were dominant in their second round wins, which may not have been against the staunchest of competition, but it's still good to build momentum. Oudin had lost to Dementieva last week, and Elena then retired with injury in Dubai. The top two seeds also lost in Dubai, Wozniacki and Kuznetsova both lost to lower-ranked opponents. Azarenka and Venus Williams are now the favorites at this tourney.
Hopping across the pond to Marseille, three of the four non-French seeds are already out. Youzhny withdrew before a ball was struck, apparently still bothered by the injury that made him retire from his final last week against Soderling, who happens to be the top seed and only non-French seed left. Baghdatis and Robredo are out as well. Tommy continues to stumble this year. Monfils, Tsonga, and Benneteau are still standing. If he gets past Llodra in the next round, there's nothing stopping him from another final berth.
And finally, on the red clay in Buenos Aires, some fun matches taking place. Nalbandian has won his first two matches back on tour, the last one in stunning, third-set tiebreak fashion. Horacio Zeballos, fresh off winning 2009 ATP Newcomer of the Year, had already beaten Gaston Gaudio in the first round, and he'll face Carlos Moya in the second. Two French Open winners from six and twelve years ago against one of the fresh faces on the clay court scene. Nadal excepted, this tournament does have some of the best clay courters are tour, like top two seeds Ferrero and Ferrer. Still lots of tennis to play here, too.
Some people are talking about shortening the tennis season but if they did, I'm really not sure what I'd do with myself.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week 6 Wrap-Up, Week 7 Preview
There were several wild matches to wrap up in the past weekend of tennis, and a couple enticing tournaments on the horizon, so I won't waste any time.
I was at the San Jose tournament for the quarterfinals, which turned out to be an excellent day of tennis. The semifinal between Roddick and Querrey turned out to be the match of the week, though. Roddick won in three sets despite never even getting a break point against Querrey's serve. Tough loss for the young American, but he's shown that he's clearly recovered from last year's injury and ready to be a force again this year. He emphasized that fact by winning the doubles title with Mardy Fish.
Unfortunately, all that tennis turned out to be a little much for Andy Roddick, who lost the final to Verdasco, who had a much easier road to the final. While Roddick was facing Querrey and Berdych, the Spaniard only had to get through Uzbek Denis Istomin and 19-year old Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. Not really equal competition on each side of the draw, in the end. Still, a strong performance from Roddick, who hopefully won't be too exhausted to perform well in Washington (more on that in a moment).
The finals at the other two tournaments this week weren't quite at the same level, even though though they did also each feature a player who had spent all of his energy just getting to that stage.
In Rotterdam, Youzhny had to retire against Soderling after the Russian had upset Djokovic in the semis, while Soderling notched his first big win of the year over the top-ranked Russian who had been the hottest three-set player on the tour, Nikolay Davydenko. Good for Soderling, who started off the year in poor form, to get things back on track.
In Costa do Sauipe, Ferrero breezed past Lukas Kubot, who apparently used up everything he had to beat Igor Andreev in the semifinals. Kubot managed only one game against the top seed. I was expecting Ferrero to face local favorite Tomaz Bellucci in the semis, but Bellucci was upset by another Brazilian player, the journeyman pro Ricardo Mello. Alas, Mello couldn't mount recapture that magic in the semis.
Looking ahead to next week's action, the next red clay tournament of the year in Buenos Aires features many familiar faces from the past two weeks. Ferrero is back, but Bellucci is taking the week off. The top seed this week is Spaniard David Ferrer, and there are also a handful of fresh faces, including wildcards Carlos Moya and Gaston Gaudio. Gasquet is supposed to be back in action this week, as well as the wayward Argentine, returning to play on home soil at least, David Nalbandian. He's been out of action for almost a year, so I'm eager to see how he does here.
In Marseille, last week's champion Soderling is back in action, as is finalist Youzhny, assuming he can recover from whatever forced him to retire. Tsonga, Monfils, and Benneteau make up the home-crowd seeds, and they're joined by Marcos Baghdatis and Tommy Robredo. Baggy is having a great year, but still hasn't quite reached his top ten form. Robredo hasn't done much of anything since winning the Hopman Cup over Andy Murray. The draw is filled out with a bevy of French and European players, including Arnaud Clement, the Rochus brothers, and Denis Istomin, who flew over from San Jose.
Speaking of San Jose, Roddick and Verdasco are the top seeds once again in Memphis, but who knows how tired they'll be. Surprisingly, Roddick plays unseeded James Blake in his first-round match, and James just had to fly back from the Netherlands. Why are these guys jetting around so much? Verdasco's opener isn't much easier, as he faces young, big-hitting Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The other seeds in the draw are mostly familiar faces, except for John Isner, who's back in action after his great start to the year.
Isner opens against American teen and qualifier Ryan Harrison. Surprisingly, Harrison qualified while "The Donald" Young fell short. There are a ton of interesting first-round matches here, though. Querrey plays Rajeev Ram, who beat him at the Newport final last year. Radek Stepanek opens against Kevin Anderson, Jarkko Nieminen plays Dudi Sela, Benjamin Becker plays Ivo Karlovic, and Xavier Malisse plays Tommy Haas. That's a lot of matches between players of very comparable skill levels, as of late. There could be some firecrackers in there. And if Roddick and Verdasco are tired from their play in San Jose, this tournament could bust wide open.
I was at the San Jose tournament for the quarterfinals, which turned out to be an excellent day of tennis. The semifinal between Roddick and Querrey turned out to be the match of the week, though. Roddick won in three sets despite never even getting a break point against Querrey's serve. Tough loss for the young American, but he's shown that he's clearly recovered from last year's injury and ready to be a force again this year. He emphasized that fact by winning the doubles title with Mardy Fish.
Unfortunately, all that tennis turned out to be a little much for Andy Roddick, who lost the final to Verdasco, who had a much easier road to the final. While Roddick was facing Querrey and Berdych, the Spaniard only had to get through Uzbek Denis Istomin and 19-year old Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. Not really equal competition on each side of the draw, in the end. Still, a strong performance from Roddick, who hopefully won't be too exhausted to perform well in Washington (more on that in a moment).
The finals at the other two tournaments this week weren't quite at the same level, even though though they did also each feature a player who had spent all of his energy just getting to that stage.
In Rotterdam, Youzhny had to retire against Soderling after the Russian had upset Djokovic in the semis, while Soderling notched his first big win of the year over the top-ranked Russian who had been the hottest three-set player on the tour, Nikolay Davydenko. Good for Soderling, who started off the year in poor form, to get things back on track.
In Costa do Sauipe, Ferrero breezed past Lukas Kubot, who apparently used up everything he had to beat Igor Andreev in the semifinals. Kubot managed only one game against the top seed. I was expecting Ferrero to face local favorite Tomaz Bellucci in the semis, but Bellucci was upset by another Brazilian player, the journeyman pro Ricardo Mello. Alas, Mello couldn't mount recapture that magic in the semis.
Looking ahead to next week's action, the next red clay tournament of the year in Buenos Aires features many familiar faces from the past two weeks. Ferrero is back, but Bellucci is taking the week off. The top seed this week is Spaniard David Ferrer, and there are also a handful of fresh faces, including wildcards Carlos Moya and Gaston Gaudio. Gasquet is supposed to be back in action this week, as well as the wayward Argentine, returning to play on home soil at least, David Nalbandian. He's been out of action for almost a year, so I'm eager to see how he does here.
In Marseille, last week's champion Soderling is back in action, as is finalist Youzhny, assuming he can recover from whatever forced him to retire. Tsonga, Monfils, and Benneteau make up the home-crowd seeds, and they're joined by Marcos Baghdatis and Tommy Robredo. Baggy is having a great year, but still hasn't quite reached his top ten form. Robredo hasn't done much of anything since winning the Hopman Cup over Andy Murray. The draw is filled out with a bevy of French and European players, including Arnaud Clement, the Rochus brothers, and Denis Istomin, who flew over from San Jose.
Speaking of San Jose, Roddick and Verdasco are the top seeds once again in Memphis, but who knows how tired they'll be. Surprisingly, Roddick plays unseeded James Blake in his first-round match, and James just had to fly back from the Netherlands. Why are these guys jetting around so much? Verdasco's opener isn't much easier, as he faces young, big-hitting Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The other seeds in the draw are mostly familiar faces, except for John Isner, who's back in action after his great start to the year.
Isner opens against American teen and qualifier Ryan Harrison. Surprisingly, Harrison qualified while "The Donald" Young fell short. There are a ton of interesting first-round matches here, though. Querrey plays Rajeev Ram, who beat him at the Newport final last year. Radek Stepanek opens against Kevin Anderson, Jarkko Nieminen plays Dudi Sela, Benjamin Becker plays Ivo Karlovic, and Xavier Malisse plays Tommy Haas. That's a lot of matches between players of very comparable skill levels, as of late. There could be some firecrackers in there. And if Roddick and Verdasco are tired from their play in San Jose, this tournament could bust wide open.
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