This brief relapse into clay-court tennis is moving along nicely, and we're down to the last eight in each of the two tournaments taking place this week. The only top five seed who hasn't made it to this stage of the tournament is Nikolay Davydenko, who lost in a tight match to Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Davydenko is still not having a great time after his injury lay-off. Other than that, the rest of the players that you would expect to have made it this far have done so.
But the way the match-ups have broken down, the only two seeded players meeting tomorrow are at the bottom of their respective draws, but those are also the best match - on paper - by far. Tommy Robredo, who's been on quite a slide lately, meets Fernando Verdasco, who also hasn't been making much noise since before the French Open. They're 4-4 against each other, but this is only their third meeting on clay, which is a bit of a surprise to me. It should be a good match.
That's in Bastad, and in Stuttgart, Albert Montanes gets Jurgen Melzer, who might just be bound for the top ten if he can keep up the sort of form he's had lately. I give him the edge over Montanes, for sure.
Other than those two matches, I think the seeded players have the advantage in all of their matches, and Swiss number three Marco Chiudinelli may make it to the semifinals in place of Davydenko.
Another reason that this little stretch of the tennis calendar is somewhat dead is that this is also the World Team Tennis season, such as it is. It's a really strange little league, filled mostly with fourth or fifth-tier players, while each team has one or two stars to draw the crowds. I saw the Bryan Brothers play tonight in Kansas City, and it was a really weird experience. In addition to the Bryans, I saw Ricardo Mello, Rik De Voest, Martin Damm, Chanelle Scheepers, Carly Gullickson, and Jarmila Groth. All fine players, but it became immensely clear once Damm and De Voest took on the Bryans in doubles that they were on a completely different tier. It was great to see the Bryans in action, but it sure didn't last very long.
I'm looking forward to things to pick up a bit - and next week's inaugural tennis tournament in Atlanta (after Indianapolis lost its sponsor) just got a big boost as Andy Roddick agreed to play. He was doing so great in the U.S. earlier this year, his performance dipped a bit in Europe. Here's hoping he can get back to his prior level next week.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Newport and Davis Cup Wrap-up, Week 28 Preview
At the Campbell's Hall of Fame tennis championships, Mardy Fish won a tightly contested match against Olivier Rochus to take the title. This was a very impressive and steady performance from Fish, who has a pretty abysmal record in finals. Fortunately for him, Olivier Rochus's is not much better. The American recovered from being frustrated at some line calls at the end of the first set to win the second two cleanly enough - he got one break in each of the second two sets. In the final game of the match, Fish saved two break points - the first ones that Rochus had since the very first set.
It's a big win for Fish, who lost the Queens final about a month ago, and will hopefully bode well for the rest of his year, and the next few years of his career. It's unfortunate to think about, but as Fish is now 29 years old and has had a lot of injury problems, so he probably can count the number of good tennis years he has left on one hand. If he can keep up this form, though, I can see him making it back to the top 30, top 20, with pretty high confidence.
As for the Davis Cup, the action today was pretty exciting. Nikolay Davydenko overcome a slow start against Argentine Eduardo Schwank to beat him in four sets and redeem himself after losing his first singles match and playing his part in losing the doubles point as well. However, there was nothing he could do to help Mikhail Youzhny against David Nalbandian, who played like a man possessed this weekend. When is Nalby going to get back in action on the main tour, because he demolished both Davydenko and Youzhny, each in three sets, by blasting winners from every part of the court. I want this guy back in the top 20, where he belongs!
In Croatia, Marin Cilic put up a spirited effort against Novak Djokovic, and the crowd nearly rushed on court to break Djokovic's legs if they could have. The Croatians were warned numerous times to keep quiet, lest their man be docked a point. It was the last thing that Cilic needed, because he had enough trouble just handling Djokovic's stunning ground-stroke depth. There was nothing Cilic could do - this was the best I've seen Djokovic play in a long time. He was actually playing like the number two player in the world. We'll see if he can keep up that form during the U.S. hardcourt season.
Looking ahead to this next week, we have a strange, carryover week of clay court tournaments, before the U.S. hard court season starts in earnest. The tournaments in Bastad and Stuttgart are on the red clay. This Indian Summer of the clay court season has some interesting match-ups on offer. I'll do a quick overview of each.
In Stuttgart, Davydenko, Melzer, and Monfils are all in action. Also, an odd wildcard went to Dustin Brown, who was playing on grass this week in Newport. It'll be interesting to see how his net-rushing, big-serving game works on clay. The stronger field is probably in action at Bastad, where all the top Spanish players (minus Rafael Nadal) are going to try to forget about their recent Davis Cup loss. While hometown boy Soderling is the top seed, he'll need to navigate a field with Ferrer, Almagro, Verdasco, and Robredo. It'll be fun to see the last bit of clay-court tennis until next year.
It's a big win for Fish, who lost the Queens final about a month ago, and will hopefully bode well for the rest of his year, and the next few years of his career. It's unfortunate to think about, but as Fish is now 29 years old and has had a lot of injury problems, so he probably can count the number of good tennis years he has left on one hand. If he can keep up this form, though, I can see him making it back to the top 30, top 20, with pretty high confidence.
As for the Davis Cup, the action today was pretty exciting. Nikolay Davydenko overcome a slow start against Argentine Eduardo Schwank to beat him in four sets and redeem himself after losing his first singles match and playing his part in losing the doubles point as well. However, there was nothing he could do to help Mikhail Youzhny against David Nalbandian, who played like a man possessed this weekend. When is Nalby going to get back in action on the main tour, because he demolished both Davydenko and Youzhny, each in three sets, by blasting winners from every part of the court. I want this guy back in the top 20, where he belongs!
In Croatia, Marin Cilic put up a spirited effort against Novak Djokovic, and the crowd nearly rushed on court to break Djokovic's legs if they could have. The Croatians were warned numerous times to keep quiet, lest their man be docked a point. It was the last thing that Cilic needed, because he had enough trouble just handling Djokovic's stunning ground-stroke depth. There was nothing Cilic could do - this was the best I've seen Djokovic play in a long time. He was actually playing like the number two player in the world. We'll see if he can keep up that form during the U.S. hardcourt season.
Looking ahead to this next week, we have a strange, carryover week of clay court tournaments, before the U.S. hard court season starts in earnest. The tournaments in Bastad and Stuttgart are on the red clay. This Indian Summer of the clay court season has some interesting match-ups on offer. I'll do a quick overview of each.
In Stuttgart, Davydenko, Melzer, and Monfils are all in action. Also, an odd wildcard went to Dustin Brown, who was playing on grass this week in Newport. It'll be interesting to see how his net-rushing, big-serving game works on clay. The stronger field is probably in action at Bastad, where all the top Spanish players (minus Rafael Nadal) are going to try to forget about their recent Davis Cup loss. While hometown boy Soderling is the top seed, he'll need to navigate a field with Ferrer, Almagro, Verdasco, and Robredo. It'll be fun to see the last bit of clay-court tennis until next year.
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