Things are a bit tough in New Haven for the US faithful. Donald Young and Taylor Dent both lost today, after winning the first set. Disappointing for both - and James Blake was unable to finish his match, due to rain. So if he wants to progress, he'll need to beat Dolgopolov and Troicki (in all likelihood, as the Serb is on the verge of victory against Nieminen) in one day. That's a tough ask for a player on the comeback trail.
And two of the three American players on the women's side - Melanie Oudin and Varvara Lepchenko - lost in the first round, as well. Only Bethanie Mattek-Sands won her first match, so she's the last American standing on the women's side. And she gets Nadia Petrova next round. Oof.
It's worth noting that the women's draw is much stronger than the men's, despite their tournament being smaller. Four of the top ten players are here - or at least, they were. World number seven Francesca Schiavone is already out, losing in the first round to ... Dinara Safina? Can that be right? Maybe Safina is going to come back; I really hope to see her do well again, because she is a great player to watch when she's not breaking down. I'm surprised to see Wozniacki playing here, since she just won the tournament in Canada last week and has a lot of points to defend from her finals showing at last year's U.S. Open.
Speaking of the U.S. Open, qualifying is just underway, and I'm starting to get excited. I'll give you some of the highlights I can see from the qualifying draw as it's laid out, so far:
Unfortunately for the Japanese fans, two of the four Japanese players in the draw play each other in the first round, Go Soeda and Yuichi Sugita. Tatsumi Ito has already won his first round, but the Japanese player with the most upside (despite being the number two player from his country) is yet to play. Kei Nishikori, who made the fourth round of the Open in 2008, opens against Chilean Paul Capdeville. While Nishikori hasn't had a great year at the top level, he's won three challenger tournament. I'm looking forward to seeing back in the top 100.
The only players I know who have already lost are thirteenth seed from Austria Martin Fischer, and Australian Chris Guccione. Fischer lost to Swiss vet Martin Lammer, while the Gooch lost to Bobby Reynolds. Ivo Minar also lost to Frank Dancevic, but we're early on. A bunch of the other recognizable players are going to be gone before this thing ends.
On that subject, though, there aren't that many former big name guys toiling their way through the quallies, this year. Usually, there's a couple top-30 players whose ages are just about topping 30 as well, who are trying to get their rankings back into more respectable territory. I'm not seeing too many - if any - of those guys, this year. Stefan Koubek may be the only one I can spot.
I do see a bunch of young guns, though. Some teenagers and a bunch of guys in the 20-22 year old range. It's been a while since we've seen a real breakthrough from one of the younger guys on tour, so it's always good to keep an eye out for it on this stage. In addition to Nishikori, watch for Ryan Harrison, Ricardas Berankis, Milos Raonic, Bernard Tomic, Filip Krajinovic, Chase Buchanan, Jerzy Janowicz, and Brydan Klein. None of them over 20 - and that's not counting the wildcards, which all went to US teens (except one, see below), but I'm not expecting too much from those guys. We'll see if a couple of the guys I listed above can make some noise. It's always good to see new faces in the mix - I'm surprised not to see Gianni Mina in the qualifying, but maybe he's playing the juniors tournament again this year.
The other wildcard went to American Blake Strode, who played through the US Open wildcard tournament, just to get this wildcard, where he has to win another three rounds before he even gets into the main draw. Ouch. He doesn't have the best draw, either - it starts off okay, but to get into the Open, he's going to have to beat either top seed Marcel Ilhan (the best Turkish tennis player ever) or Australian hope Bernard Tomic. Tennis is not a forgiving sport by any means. Best of luck to Blake, though.
I'm hoping to see Josselin Ouanna make it through. The tournament definitely needs him, as Tsonga has (I think) withdrawn due to knee problems. Ouanna may not be the genuine article, but he's the next best thing, and he had a good run here last year. He's another player I want to see do well on a more consistent basis. He's lots of fun to watch, when he's on.
I'll admit, I'm disappointed to see Nicolas Mahut in the qualifying draw. The USTA really should have given him a wildcard directly into the tournament, after his accomplishment over the summer. There's no doubt that he did a lot more for tennis's popularity by playing that match than anyone who actually received a wildcard this year. On the plus side, he won't have to play any more marathon matches, thanks to the fifth (or third, in qualifying) set tiebreaker at this major.
My last note is about the American player and frequent tweeter Amer Delic, who is making his return to pro tennis in the USO quallies after a layoff of more than a year. I've been looking forward to seeing him back on the tennis court for a long time, so I hope he has a good run this year. It's got to be tough to come back after so long away, but he has the right attitude. I'm wishing him luck, too.
Showing posts with label blake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blake. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wimbledon Day 2
Okay, that's how we were expecting the first round at Wimbledon to go. The second day of action at SW19 proceeded in a fashion much more in tune with what one what expect. The top seeds breezed through, almost entirely untroubled. Nothing like that the top seeds had to struggle through on day one. The toughest match for one of the top players was JW Tsonga's victory over Robbie Kendrick, which took four sets and two tiebreaks. But Nadal, Murray, Soderling, and Ferrer all made it through in straight sets, all of which were pretty routine. The same could be said for the players on the women's side, with one exception.
The only upsets of note were the defeat of Juan Carlos Ferrero by Xavier Malisse, Nicolas Almagro's loss to Andreas Seppi, and Marcos Baghdatis's loss to Lukas Lacko. All three could have made deep runs here, but they weren't among the favorites. The biggest upset took place on the women's side, where French Open finalist Sam Stosur, who went down pretty tamely to Estonian Kaia Kanepi. I really though that Sam was poised for a deep run here, what with her excellent net-play. Oh well, maybe next year.
The other interesting match was James Blake's loss to Robin Haase. Despite the fact that it was only Blake's second match back after an extended injury layoff, Blake was extremely unhappy after the loss. He was clearly still troubled with some pain in his knee, and that left him antsy on court. His focus was all over the place, and his cause was not helped by being able to hear Pam Shriver announcing from the sidelines. That was quite an unusual confrontation, the way Blake yelled at her in between points. I really hope to see Blake come back and play close to the level he's capable of, but if he's not physically capable, then I don't want him to cause himself any more pain. Still, I do hope he makes a recovery. It's still too soon to make any definitive call about his future, especially considering his mumblings about retirement were made in the heat of the moment, after a frustrating loss.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, there are a handful of matches that promise to give us some of the excitement that today's action lacked. First of all, there are three matches entering their final set that are to be completed tomorrow after being suspended due to darkness. Thiemo De Bakker and Santiago Giraldo are just going to start the fifth set, while Daniela Hantuchova and Vania King are entering the third. But the tightest match has been between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Both are good on grass, and that should be an interesting fifth set.
In addition, Andy Roddick plays last week's Eastbourne titlist Michael Llodra, who is now being coached by Amelie Mauresmo. As an aside, that's the only instance I know of a male player having a female coach. The other titlist from last week, Sergiy Stakhovsky, was forced to retire down two sets to Sam Querrey, so it will be interesting to see how Llodra fares against last year's finalist. This is by no means a gimme for Roddick, as Llodra is a very talented grass-court player. It should be an interesting match.
Djokovic, who was very troubled by Olivier Rochus, could also have some problems with his next opponent, American serve-and-volleyer Taylor Dent. The American will have to play better than he did in his opening round, but if he can serve well and volley well, then Djokovic will also have to up the level of his game. Djoker might also prefer a big hitter from the service line and a target at night like Dent, as opposed to a speedy little slice-and-dicer like Rochus, so maybe he won't have as much trouble. We'll see what kind of form he's in.
I am also looking forward to Hewitt-Korolev, Berdych-Becker, Clement-Luczak, and Troicki-Melzer. One last match to watch is Kohlschreiber-Gabashvili, since the winner of that match might get Andy Roddick on Friday. Federer should have a much easier time tomorrow than he did on Monday - his opponent is a Serbian who has never even been ranked inside the top hundred. If Fed doesn't absolutely cruise through this match, then we'll know that he's really feeling off, and the rough fight with Alejandro Falla wasn't just a fluke. But based on that performance, it's tough to see Federer defending his title. I expect that the Fed we all remember will be back tomorrow.
The only upsets of note were the defeat of Juan Carlos Ferrero by Xavier Malisse, Nicolas Almagro's loss to Andreas Seppi, and Marcos Baghdatis's loss to Lukas Lacko. All three could have made deep runs here, but they weren't among the favorites. The biggest upset took place on the women's side, where French Open finalist Sam Stosur, who went down pretty tamely to Estonian Kaia Kanepi. I really though that Sam was poised for a deep run here, what with her excellent net-play. Oh well, maybe next year.
The other interesting match was James Blake's loss to Robin Haase. Despite the fact that it was only Blake's second match back after an extended injury layoff, Blake was extremely unhappy after the loss. He was clearly still troubled with some pain in his knee, and that left him antsy on court. His focus was all over the place, and his cause was not helped by being able to hear Pam Shriver announcing from the sidelines. That was quite an unusual confrontation, the way Blake yelled at her in between points. I really hope to see Blake come back and play close to the level he's capable of, but if he's not physically capable, then I don't want him to cause himself any more pain. Still, I do hope he makes a recovery. It's still too soon to make any definitive call about his future, especially considering his mumblings about retirement were made in the heat of the moment, after a frustrating loss.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, there are a handful of matches that promise to give us some of the excitement that today's action lacked. First of all, there are three matches entering their final set that are to be completed tomorrow after being suspended due to darkness. Thiemo De Bakker and Santiago Giraldo are just going to start the fifth set, while Daniela Hantuchova and Vania King are entering the third. But the tightest match has been between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Both are good on grass, and that should be an interesting fifth set.
In addition, Andy Roddick plays last week's Eastbourne titlist Michael Llodra, who is now being coached by Amelie Mauresmo. As an aside, that's the only instance I know of a male player having a female coach. The other titlist from last week, Sergiy Stakhovsky, was forced to retire down two sets to Sam Querrey, so it will be interesting to see how Llodra fares against last year's finalist. This is by no means a gimme for Roddick, as Llodra is a very talented grass-court player. It should be an interesting match.
Djokovic, who was very troubled by Olivier Rochus, could also have some problems with his next opponent, American serve-and-volleyer Taylor Dent. The American will have to play better than he did in his opening round, but if he can serve well and volley well, then Djokovic will also have to up the level of his game. Djoker might also prefer a big hitter from the service line and a target at night like Dent, as opposed to a speedy little slice-and-dicer like Rochus, so maybe he won't have as much trouble. We'll see what kind of form he's in.
I am also looking forward to Hewitt-Korolev, Berdych-Becker, Clement-Luczak, and Troicki-Melzer. One last match to watch is Kohlschreiber-Gabashvili, since the winner of that match might get Andy Roddick on Friday. Federer should have a much easier time tomorrow than he did on Monday - his opponent is a Serbian who has never even been ranked inside the top hundred. If Fed doesn't absolutely cruise through this match, then we'll know that he's really feeling off, and the rough fight with Alejandro Falla wasn't just a fluke. But based on that performance, it's tough to see Federer defending his title. I expect that the Fed we all remember will be back tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Indian Wells Tuesday - Stunning Upset!
As the action draws to a close today, we finish what was a day of not all that thrilling tennis, up until the last match. First, a look at the other action around the grounds. Most of the seeded players cruised today. Roddick, Soderling, Murray, and Robredo all made it through without dropping a set. Only Soderling even went to a tiebreak. Tsonga lost a set on route to victory, but it was only a momentary lapse, and Montanes did not really have his teeth in the second and third sets.
The second-last match of the night, between James Blake and Nicolas Almagro, was a tight one, but was marred by some admittedly questionable calls at key moments, and subsequently more frustration than is necessary from Blake. He was playing well, but Almagro was serving bombs and smacking winners off both sides. Usually, Almagro can't keep that up for an entire match, but he was on tonight. It's no shame that James lost, and hopefully he'll be encouraged by the strength of his player this week.
The following match had all of the intensity and none of the controversy, as well as a much more marquee match-up. Twenty-seventh seed Marcos Baghdatis was facing Roger Federer in a rematch of the pair's Australian Open final from 2007. They had faced each other five other times, and Baghdatis was 2-15 in sets against the mighty Fed. When Federer won the first set 7-5 tonight, it looked like it would be more of the same. But Baghdatis fought back. Even though he was down by several match points, he brought the match to a third-set tiebreak and won with a single minibreak, 7-4. It's really a famous victory for the Cypriot, who is playing like he was when he made the top ten. There's no reason he can't find his way back there, if he can keep up this level of play.
As Cara Black and Liezel Huber also lost today, that means that the only top seeds left in the tournament are Nestor and Zimonjic in the men's doubles. This really is an odd tournament, in terms of favorites dropping like flies. Today, the women's side was relatively quiet, with the only upset between Maria Martinez-Sanchez and Yanina Wickmayer, which isn't a huge upset by any means. And Suarez-Navarro and Kleybanova are still on-court, so who knows what will happen there. So far, there have been six breaks in seven games, so Suarez-Navarro is up a hold.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the two halves of the tournament come together. Baghdatis is really at a disadvantage, having had to play so late and then come back tomorrow. Fortunately, he'll be last on Court 2 to play Tommy Robredo, but just based on health, it's going to be a tough ask for the Cypriot to follow up that win.
Also on court 2, Guillermo-Garcia Lopez plays Juan Monaco, which is not quite the match-up that you'd expect this deep into a hardcourt Masters series event. Good for both of these guys for making it this far, though. Unfortunately, they don't have much interest here in the states, so they're up first. Look for that match to be poorly-attended. Next up, Ivan Ljubicic faces Novak Djokovic, and if Djokovic decides to leave the court for a set again this match, expect the veteran Ljubicic to take advantage, unlike Kohlschreiber in the last round. There might be another upset here, depending on whether or not Djokovic shows up. Finally on court 2, Viktor Troicki will play his second game of the tournament against Tomaz Berdych. I'll admit that I don't give Troicki much of a shot here, particularly with how well Berdych played against Verdasco.
On center court, there are some real crackerjack matches. John Isner is playing Rafael Nadal, and though Nadal's knees have not seemed to be troubling him thus far this tournament, the big-hitting giant will give them their sternest test yet. After that, Tsonga and Soderling are playing in the earliest meeting of top ten players in this tournament. Both are playing great, but Soderling has a 2-0 advantage. Tsonga sometimes doesn't handle playing against big servers that well, which is strange since he's one of the best servers on tour. Soderling may have the advantage, but this should be close.
In the night session, both Andys are in action, but not against each other. Andy Roddick faces Austrian Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, who got a walkover from Simon Gruel. Roddick's last opponent had gotten a retirement as well, and it didn't seem to do him much good. But Melzer is a tougher opponent, even though Roddick is 9-0 against him. As Bagdhatis showed today, a dominating head-to-head does not mean a dominating victory. The last match of the day features Andy Murray against Nicolas Almagro. Now Almagro is exactly the type of heavy-hitter who can trouble Murray, and if the Spaniard plays (and particularly serves) as well as he did against Blake, then Murray could be in trouble. But Murray can have a way of blunting those players' power, and getting them off their game enough to start missing. Look for him to do that tomorrow.
One final little NB - Isner and Querrey are playing Karlovic and Vemic in doubles tomorrow. The two biggest players on the tour on opposite sides of the net again.
Really, the latter stages of the tournament begins tomorrow in earnest. I'm anxious to see if the trend of upsets continues.
The second-last match of the night, between James Blake and Nicolas Almagro, was a tight one, but was marred by some admittedly questionable calls at key moments, and subsequently more frustration than is necessary from Blake. He was playing well, but Almagro was serving bombs and smacking winners off both sides. Usually, Almagro can't keep that up for an entire match, but he was on tonight. It's no shame that James lost, and hopefully he'll be encouraged by the strength of his player this week.
The following match had all of the intensity and none of the controversy, as well as a much more marquee match-up. Twenty-seventh seed Marcos Baghdatis was facing Roger Federer in a rematch of the pair's Australian Open final from 2007. They had faced each other five other times, and Baghdatis was 2-15 in sets against the mighty Fed. When Federer won the first set 7-5 tonight, it looked like it would be more of the same. But Baghdatis fought back. Even though he was down by several match points, he brought the match to a third-set tiebreak and won with a single minibreak, 7-4. It's really a famous victory for the Cypriot, who is playing like he was when he made the top ten. There's no reason he can't find his way back there, if he can keep up this level of play.
As Cara Black and Liezel Huber also lost today, that means that the only top seeds left in the tournament are Nestor and Zimonjic in the men's doubles. This really is an odd tournament, in terms of favorites dropping like flies. Today, the women's side was relatively quiet, with the only upset between Maria Martinez-Sanchez and Yanina Wickmayer, which isn't a huge upset by any means. And Suarez-Navarro and Kleybanova are still on-court, so who knows what will happen there. So far, there have been six breaks in seven games, so Suarez-Navarro is up a hold.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, the two halves of the tournament come together. Baghdatis is really at a disadvantage, having had to play so late and then come back tomorrow. Fortunately, he'll be last on Court 2 to play Tommy Robredo, but just based on health, it's going to be a tough ask for the Cypriot to follow up that win.
Also on court 2, Guillermo-Garcia Lopez plays Juan Monaco, which is not quite the match-up that you'd expect this deep into a hardcourt Masters series event. Good for both of these guys for making it this far, though. Unfortunately, they don't have much interest here in the states, so they're up first. Look for that match to be poorly-attended. Next up, Ivan Ljubicic faces Novak Djokovic, and if Djokovic decides to leave the court for a set again this match, expect the veteran Ljubicic to take advantage, unlike Kohlschreiber in the last round. There might be another upset here, depending on whether or not Djokovic shows up. Finally on court 2, Viktor Troicki will play his second game of the tournament against Tomaz Berdych. I'll admit that I don't give Troicki much of a shot here, particularly with how well Berdych played against Verdasco.
On center court, there are some real crackerjack matches. John Isner is playing Rafael Nadal, and though Nadal's knees have not seemed to be troubling him thus far this tournament, the big-hitting giant will give them their sternest test yet. After that, Tsonga and Soderling are playing in the earliest meeting of top ten players in this tournament. Both are playing great, but Soderling has a 2-0 advantage. Tsonga sometimes doesn't handle playing against big servers that well, which is strange since he's one of the best servers on tour. Soderling may have the advantage, but this should be close.
In the night session, both Andys are in action, but not against each other. Andy Roddick faces Austrian Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, who got a walkover from Simon Gruel. Roddick's last opponent had gotten a retirement as well, and it didn't seem to do him much good. But Melzer is a tougher opponent, even though Roddick is 9-0 against him. As Bagdhatis showed today, a dominating head-to-head does not mean a dominating victory. The last match of the day features Andy Murray against Nicolas Almagro. Now Almagro is exactly the type of heavy-hitter who can trouble Murray, and if the Spaniard plays (and particularly serves) as well as he did against Blake, then Murray could be in trouble. But Murray can have a way of blunting those players' power, and getting them off their game enough to start missing. Look for him to do that tomorrow.
One final little NB - Isner and Querrey are playing Karlovic and Vemic in doubles tomorrow. The two biggest players on the tour on opposite sides of the net again.
Really, the latter stages of the tournament begins tomorrow in earnest. I'm anxious to see if the trend of upsets continues.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Week 8 Mid-week Update
In two of the three tournaments going on this week, the majority of the top players have been upset. Not quite what the promoters were hoping for when only three or four seeds even make it to the quarterfinals, which was the case in both Dubai and Del Ray Beach.
In Dubai, which is probably the richest non-Masters Series event on tour, Novak Djokovic was the only top 10 player to make the semifinals. He barely did, dropping the first set in his quarterfinal match-up against Ivan Ljubicic and then squeaking out the second set before bulldozing his way through the third. Ljubicic had already beaten Tsonga, who appeared to be struggling with some injury problems. Davydenko was similarly hobbled, forced to retire against Michael Berrer with a bad left wrist.
Andy Murray had lost in the second round to an inspired Janko Tipsarevic, who then couldn't put it together the next day and lost to Youzhny in straight sets. Youzhny probably was expected to face Marin Cilic, one of the hottest players on tour, but he too was felled to Jurgen Melzer, who was having a spectacular day. The final quarterfinalist is Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Berrer in the quarters.
If Djokovic wasn't still in the tournament (and if he doesn't make it to the final) the organizers and tennis fans who paid to see the top tier of the game is going to be disappointed. He really should walk away with this one, though. Youzhny, Russia's number two, is looking like he's ready for an assault on the top ten once more. Good to see him back at the top of his game. And Baghdatis, too. Both of these guys were about four places lower in the rankings a year ago, so I'm glad to see them improving.
Things are also fairly topsy-turvy in Del Ray, although in this case I imagine that the organizers are pretty happy with the surprises left in the draw. With the weather, not so much. The week has been rain-soaked and it's been difficult to get in any continuous play, but at the quarterfinal stage, there are two Americans left, and that's something. Mardy Fish and James Blake are still standing, and they'll each have tough but winnable matches tomorrow. Fish goes up against Jeremy Chardy, who is a big hitter but has been having a terrible year, and Blake takes on Ivo Karlovic.
If the weather continues to be muggy, it should slow down Karlovic's serve and give Blake a better chance of blocking some returns back, and should also give him time to wind up on his forehand. In any case, this match will feature a ton of aces for the big man, because Blake goes for as much off the return as anyone, and ends up getting aced a lot. Except for their very first meeting, Karlovic has never hit fewer than 22 aces against Blake.
The top half of the draw features a handful of players who would each be lucky to make it to the final. Ernests Gulbis beat the player who knocked out top seed Tommy Haas, Benjamin Becker got a walkover from Wayne Odesnik, Leonardo won the battle of the Mayers against Florian, and Jarkko Nieminen absolutely ran away with the match after losing the first set to Evgeny Korolev. It's a pick-em, up here. Whoever can come out on top from this four will really get a boost, both in terms of ranking and momentum.
The only place where sanity seems to have reigned is in Acapulco, where all of the semifinalists are clay-court players that you might expect to see in this situation. Juan Monaco ousted top seed Fernando Verdasco, who despite being Spanish is not the greatest clay-courter around. Ferrero continued his ridiculous run, beating twice-defending champ Nicolas Almagro. His winning streak is now 13 matches long, which is by far the longest on tour at the moment. Monaco is a tough competitor, but unless Ferrero's 30-year old body is starting to get tired, it's not easy to see him beating this Spaniard, who is right at home on clay.
The bottom half of the draw has an equally appetizing semifinal, which features David Ferrer and Fernando Gonzalez. It's a match-up of a big, big hitter and a big returner, so it'll be interesting to see if Gonzo can hit his spots better than Ferrer can run them down.
It's also worth noting that in Acapulco, defending champ and top seed Venus Williams recovered from from being down 5-3 in the third set against 25-year old Spanish qualifier Laura Pous Tio, who is ranked 399 in the world, to win the set and the match 7-5. Gutsy save from the elder Williams. After making it through that tough match, can she go on to defend her second title consecutively?
In Dubai, which is probably the richest non-Masters Series event on tour, Novak Djokovic was the only top 10 player to make the semifinals. He barely did, dropping the first set in his quarterfinal match-up against Ivan Ljubicic and then squeaking out the second set before bulldozing his way through the third. Ljubicic had already beaten Tsonga, who appeared to be struggling with some injury problems. Davydenko was similarly hobbled, forced to retire against Michael Berrer with a bad left wrist.
Andy Murray had lost in the second round to an inspired Janko Tipsarevic, who then couldn't put it together the next day and lost to Youzhny in straight sets. Youzhny probably was expected to face Marin Cilic, one of the hottest players on tour, but he too was felled to Jurgen Melzer, who was having a spectacular day. The final quarterfinalist is Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Berrer in the quarters.
If Djokovic wasn't still in the tournament (and if he doesn't make it to the final) the organizers and tennis fans who paid to see the top tier of the game is going to be disappointed. He really should walk away with this one, though. Youzhny, Russia's number two, is looking like he's ready for an assault on the top ten once more. Good to see him back at the top of his game. And Baghdatis, too. Both of these guys were about four places lower in the rankings a year ago, so I'm glad to see them improving.
Things are also fairly topsy-turvy in Del Ray, although in this case I imagine that the organizers are pretty happy with the surprises left in the draw. With the weather, not so much. The week has been rain-soaked and it's been difficult to get in any continuous play, but at the quarterfinal stage, there are two Americans left, and that's something. Mardy Fish and James Blake are still standing, and they'll each have tough but winnable matches tomorrow. Fish goes up against Jeremy Chardy, who is a big hitter but has been having a terrible year, and Blake takes on Ivo Karlovic.
If the weather continues to be muggy, it should slow down Karlovic's serve and give Blake a better chance of blocking some returns back, and should also give him time to wind up on his forehand. In any case, this match will feature a ton of aces for the big man, because Blake goes for as much off the return as anyone, and ends up getting aced a lot. Except for their very first meeting, Karlovic has never hit fewer than 22 aces against Blake.
The top half of the draw features a handful of players who would each be lucky to make it to the final. Ernests Gulbis beat the player who knocked out top seed Tommy Haas, Benjamin Becker got a walkover from Wayne Odesnik, Leonardo won the battle of the Mayers against Florian, and Jarkko Nieminen absolutely ran away with the match after losing the first set to Evgeny Korolev. It's a pick-em, up here. Whoever can come out on top from this four will really get a boost, both in terms of ranking and momentum.
The only place where sanity seems to have reigned is in Acapulco, where all of the semifinalists are clay-court players that you might expect to see in this situation. Juan Monaco ousted top seed Fernando Verdasco, who despite being Spanish is not the greatest clay-courter around. Ferrero continued his ridiculous run, beating twice-defending champ Nicolas Almagro. His winning streak is now 13 matches long, which is by far the longest on tour at the moment. Monaco is a tough competitor, but unless Ferrero's 30-year old body is starting to get tired, it's not easy to see him beating this Spaniard, who is right at home on clay.
The bottom half of the draw has an equally appetizing semifinal, which features David Ferrer and Fernando Gonzalez. It's a match-up of a big, big hitter and a big returner, so it'll be interesting to see if Gonzo can hit his spots better than Ferrer can run them down.
It's also worth noting that in Acapulco, defending champ and top seed Venus Williams recovered from from being down 5-3 in the third set against 25-year old Spanish qualifier Laura Pous Tio, who is ranked 399 in the world, to win the set and the match 7-5. Gutsy save from the elder Williams. After making it through that tough match, can she go on to defend her second title consecutively?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Scheduling is a mess...
... when you've got tennis taking place in places that are ten hours apart. In my current time zone, the tennis in Auckland starts at around 6 PM, Brisbane starts at 6:30, Chennai starts at 6 AM, and Doha starts at 7. It's tough to figure out how to watch all of that and still find time to sleep! I'm glad I caught as much as I did yesterday, though.
Brisbane is where all the action is. Justine Henin's comeback continues, and she's into the semifinals, where she'll play Ana Ivanovic, which is definitely the dream match-up for the bottom half of the draw. Both players have been doing well, and even though she may be rusty, I'm inclined to give this one to Justine based on experience. She managed to pull out a tight one against Melinda Czink, squandering five (possible six) match points before winning in a third-set tiebreaker.
Another player who squeaked through in a third-set breaker was James Blake, who saved three match points against Marc Gicquel before winning 10-8. Blake played very well, and was a bit more patient than I'd seen him be in these types of tight matches. He was still blowing winners by Gicquel whenever he gets the chance, but he took the time to set up more points than I'm used to seeing. That's a positive for Blake. His first real test comes tonight, though, when he plays Frenchman Gael Monfils. I don't care how late it is, I'm staying up to watch it, since it's a match between two of the best shotmakers in the game. And Monfils has been struggling in his first two rounds, playing six sets and four tiebreaks.
Another high-quality match in Brisbane was Andy Roddick against Carsten Ball. Ball did not play like a challenger-regular whose ranking has never dipped inside the top hundred. For twelve games in the first set and then seven games in the second, there was very little to choose between these two players. However, Roddick showed his variety and his experience in the tiebreak, winning all seven points, and then breaking Ball in the second set before serving out the match. Despite the loss, it should be an encouraging performance for Carsten. No doubt we'll see the big-serving lefty again.
I have to say that the matches in the other three tournaments taking place this week haven't really been at the same level. Most of the players in Chennai and Doha cruised over the past few days, particularly the big three in Doha. However, two of them face their first challenge in the next round, potentially. Federer goes up against Ernests Gulbis, and Davydenko takes on Ivo Karlovic. I expect that both of them will come through those matches, but there's an outside chance of an upset in each.
There were a few matches that had the potential to be exciting, but then didn't deliver. After beating DeHeart in the first round, Younes El Aynaoui excited everyone about his potential to play Nadal, but his body just didn't hold up, and he was vanquished easily by Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis. In Chennai, local hopeful beat former top-ten player Rainer Schuettler in the first round, only to be shut down by Janko Tipsarevic 2 and 1.
American Wayne Odesnik looked to be challenging defending champ Radek Stepanek in Brisbane as well, breaking the wily Czech and serving for the first set. But Odesnik seemed to tweak something in his back, and from that point on, he was never in the match. Additionally, he seemed to repeatedly forget that Brisbane didn't have the hawkeye challenge system in play, and had to be reminded by the umpire twice.
As we move into the final rounds of this first week of the season, I have to wonder how I got by without tennis for two months.
Brisbane is where all the action is. Justine Henin's comeback continues, and she's into the semifinals, where she'll play Ana Ivanovic, which is definitely the dream match-up for the bottom half of the draw. Both players have been doing well, and even though she may be rusty, I'm inclined to give this one to Justine based on experience. She managed to pull out a tight one against Melinda Czink, squandering five (possible six) match points before winning in a third-set tiebreaker.
Another player who squeaked through in a third-set breaker was James Blake, who saved three match points against Marc Gicquel before winning 10-8. Blake played very well, and was a bit more patient than I'd seen him be in these types of tight matches. He was still blowing winners by Gicquel whenever he gets the chance, but he took the time to set up more points than I'm used to seeing. That's a positive for Blake. His first real test comes tonight, though, when he plays Frenchman Gael Monfils. I don't care how late it is, I'm staying up to watch it, since it's a match between two of the best shotmakers in the game. And Monfils has been struggling in his first two rounds, playing six sets and four tiebreaks.
Another high-quality match in Brisbane was Andy Roddick against Carsten Ball. Ball did not play like a challenger-regular whose ranking has never dipped inside the top hundred. For twelve games in the first set and then seven games in the second, there was very little to choose between these two players. However, Roddick showed his variety and his experience in the tiebreak, winning all seven points, and then breaking Ball in the second set before serving out the match. Despite the loss, it should be an encouraging performance for Carsten. No doubt we'll see the big-serving lefty again.
I have to say that the matches in the other three tournaments taking place this week haven't really been at the same level. Most of the players in Chennai and Doha cruised over the past few days, particularly the big three in Doha. However, two of them face their first challenge in the next round, potentially. Federer goes up against Ernests Gulbis, and Davydenko takes on Ivo Karlovic. I expect that both of them will come through those matches, but there's an outside chance of an upset in each.
There were a few matches that had the potential to be exciting, but then didn't deliver. After beating DeHeart in the first round, Younes El Aynaoui excited everyone about his potential to play Nadal, but his body just didn't hold up, and he was vanquished easily by Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis. In Chennai, local hopeful beat former top-ten player Rainer Schuettler in the first round, only to be shut down by Janko Tipsarevic 2 and 1.
American Wayne Odesnik looked to be challenging defending champ Radek Stepanek in Brisbane as well, breaking the wily Czech and serving for the first set. But Odesnik seemed to tweak something in his back, and from that point on, he was never in the match. Additionally, he seemed to repeatedly forget that Brisbane didn't have the hawkeye challenge system in play, and had to be reminded by the umpire twice.
As we move into the final rounds of this first week of the season, I have to wonder how I got by without tennis for two months.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
First big upset of the year!
Ah, the tennis season is officially underway, now. We've had the first match with a really big and unexpected upset. Robin Soderling, the top seed in Chennai, was in such good form at the end of last season and at the exhibition at the beginning of this year, that I don't think I even mentioned his first-round match against world number 100 Robbie Ginepri. It's clear that was an oversight on my part, because Ginepri has proven in the past that he can occasionally produce the form that allows him to play with the best in the world, and it was on display when he ousted Soderling in straight sets. It's too early to call it a comeback, but it would be nice to see Ginepri put together a couple of good matches this week.
The other interesting result from Chennai was from the rematch of last year's semifinal-that-never-was. Rainer Schuettler withdrew with injury, giving Somdev Devvarman a place in the final. This year, Devvarman again received a wildcard, and again made good use of it by beating the German in straight sets. Can he make it back to the final again, this year?
Another wildcard who is doing very well for himself is Younes el Aynaoui in Doha. Now 38 years old, Aynaoui beat American Ryler DeHeart in two tiebreak sets. This made him the oldest player to win a match on tour since Jimmy Connors in 1995. That's quite a record to have. Aynaoui has a bit of luck, since his second-round opponent is another qualifier, since Steve Darcis beat eighth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. If he makes it to the third round, he may face Nadal.
Speaking of the top three seeds in Doha, Nadal, Federer, and Davydenko all cruised through their matches. This was expected, of course, but it was good to see each of them playing in such fine form. Granted, their opponents may not have been the best set of opponents to demonstrate how they're feeling at the start of this season, but these wins are no doubt encouraging. Each should have a sterner test in their next round, so we can see if they're on the collision course they appear to be on.
In Brisbane, there were some excellent matches yesterday. Sam Querrey and James Blake played in what could have been a changing of the guard, but Blake refused to play along with that storyline. After getting broken in the first set, he started smacking his forehand to places where Querrey could never reach it. Granted, Sam played a little passive, possibly assuming that James would start hitting errors eventually, but Blake stuck to his guns, and ended up winning in three. But Querrey played well, and he did not seem to be too affected by his injury. Also worthy of note is that the Querrey-Blake match was 5-6, 6-4, 6-4 and took only an hour and twenty-eight minutes. This may have been the quickest 31 game match of all-time.
For reference, Mardy Fish lost a tight match to Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 7-5, and those 24 games took an hour and forty-one minutes. Taylor Dent lost a crackerjack to Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 6-2. Hopefully, both Fish and Dent will be inspired by how close these losses were, rather than frustrated. Those were just unlucky first-round opponents, and both players should do better this season.
Australian Qualifier Matthew Ebden (who I'll admit I know nothing about) upset sixth-seeded Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, which gives him a match-up against Richard Gasquet. The winner of that match will play the winner of Andy Roddick and Carsten Ball. Now Carsten has never had a win comparable to a player like Roddick, but Andy's knee has apparently been bothering him. I'm hoping for a Roddick-Gasquet faceoff in the third round, and I imagine the tournament organizers are, too. Despite the fact that it calls for two Australians to lose.
There were a few notable upsets in the doubles, as Jeremy Chardy made up for his disappointing loss in the first round to Alejandro Falla by teaming with Marc Gicquel to beat third seeds Knowle and Lindstedt. While that is an impressive result, it's nothing compared to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Albert Montanes topping top-seeded Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets! As the second-ranked team after the Bryans, this is not the way the pair was hoping to start their 2010 campaign.
Some good tennis to be played yet, too! It's just started in Brisbane, and as the sun moves across the sky, I'll be able to follow the tennis to India and then to Qatar. If schedules hold up and I can stay awake, I may be able to watch tennis for the next sixteen hours straight. Can't beat that, huh?
The other interesting result from Chennai was from the rematch of last year's semifinal-that-never-was. Rainer Schuettler withdrew with injury, giving Somdev Devvarman a place in the final. This year, Devvarman again received a wildcard, and again made good use of it by beating the German in straight sets. Can he make it back to the final again, this year?
Another wildcard who is doing very well for himself is Younes el Aynaoui in Doha. Now 38 years old, Aynaoui beat American Ryler DeHeart in two tiebreak sets. This made him the oldest player to win a match on tour since Jimmy Connors in 1995. That's quite a record to have. Aynaoui has a bit of luck, since his second-round opponent is another qualifier, since Steve Darcis beat eighth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. If he makes it to the third round, he may face Nadal.
Speaking of the top three seeds in Doha, Nadal, Federer, and Davydenko all cruised through their matches. This was expected, of course, but it was good to see each of them playing in such fine form. Granted, their opponents may not have been the best set of opponents to demonstrate how they're feeling at the start of this season, but these wins are no doubt encouraging. Each should have a sterner test in their next round, so we can see if they're on the collision course they appear to be on.
In Brisbane, there were some excellent matches yesterday. Sam Querrey and James Blake played in what could have been a changing of the guard, but Blake refused to play along with that storyline. After getting broken in the first set, he started smacking his forehand to places where Querrey could never reach it. Granted, Sam played a little passive, possibly assuming that James would start hitting errors eventually, but Blake stuck to his guns, and ended up winning in three. But Querrey played well, and he did not seem to be too affected by his injury. Also worthy of note is that the Querrey-Blake match was 5-6, 6-4, 6-4 and took only an hour and twenty-eight minutes. This may have been the quickest 31 game match of all-time.
For reference, Mardy Fish lost a tight match to Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 7-5, and those 24 games took an hour and forty-one minutes. Taylor Dent lost a crackerjack to Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 6-2. Hopefully, both Fish and Dent will be inspired by how close these losses were, rather than frustrated. Those were just unlucky first-round opponents, and both players should do better this season.
Australian Qualifier Matthew Ebden (who I'll admit I know nothing about) upset sixth-seeded Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, which gives him a match-up against Richard Gasquet. The winner of that match will play the winner of Andy Roddick and Carsten Ball. Now Carsten has never had a win comparable to a player like Roddick, but Andy's knee has apparently been bothering him. I'm hoping for a Roddick-Gasquet faceoff in the third round, and I imagine the tournament organizers are, too. Despite the fact that it calls for two Australians to lose.
There were a few notable upsets in the doubles, as Jeremy Chardy made up for his disappointing loss in the first round to Alejandro Falla by teaming with Marc Gicquel to beat third seeds Knowle and Lindstedt. While that is an impressive result, it's nothing compared to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Albert Montanes topping top-seeded Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets! As the second-ranked team after the Bryans, this is not the way the pair was hoping to start their 2010 campaign.
Some good tennis to be played yet, too! It's just started in Brisbane, and as the sun moves across the sky, I'll be able to follow the tennis to India and then to Qatar. If schedules hold up and I can stay awake, I may be able to watch tennis for the next sixteen hours straight. Can't beat that, huh?
Monday, January 5, 2009
2009 officially underway
It was the first day of the 2009 tennis season, and while nothing too spectacular happened, I was still thrilled. Thank goodness tennis has one of the shortest off-seasons in all of professional sports, because I don't know how much longer I could have lasted. As for the action that took place today...
Andy Roddick, who I'm still hoping makes a good run at the grand slams and maybe captures a few masters series shields this year, had a good day against Ivan Navarro in their first meeting. It's always nice to have an easy first official match of the season to get things underway. Monfils also did well, routing Jan Hernych. Both Fernando Verdasco and Dudi Sela (who I saw play at last year's New Haven tournament) won today. New Haven champ Marin Cilic also had a good day, but New Haven runner-up Mardy Fish wasn't quite so lucky, losing to Jurgen Melzer.
Fish is one of a few American players in their late twenties that I think may be on their ways out this year. James Blake is another. He lost again today, making his record for the season 0-2. At least his official ATP season hasn't started yet! He lost to Dominik Hrbaty in the Hopman Cup. Of course, I hope they both do well, but I wouldn't be shocked if they both started a slide.
The other big match of the day was Baghdatis/Nieminen, as I mentioned yesterday. Unfortunately, Baggy went down in three sets. He served under fifty percent and had eleven double faults. His ranking is hovering around 100 and he does not seem together, physically or mentally. It's a shame, because he's such a dynamic and fun player to watch, when he's on his game. He's only 23 - I hope he can pull himself together this year. He might just need a favorable draw to get some matches under his belt. Of course, that's tough when your ranking is slipping...
There's quite a few very exciting matches tomorrow, too. Nadal versus Fabrice Santoro! The magician just will not retire! Nadal should come through in straights, but I bet it will be entertaining. Also, Bobby Reynolds vs. Kei Nishikori (He's currently ranked 61, but I bet he finishes the year in the top 20) and the marquee match: Novak Djokovic against Ernests Gulbis. I don't think Gulbis has much of a shot tomorrow, but depending on how tight Djokovic is coming out of the off-season, an upset is an outside possibility. Regardless, expect Gulbis to make some waves over the course of the season.
And Federer looks to start off his year by beating Potito Starace for the fourth straight time. I'm sort of surprised to see that he's between a 12:1 or 23:1 favorite at the tennis odds websites I like to check. It could be 500:1 and it would still be a foolish bet. Federer wants to start 2009 better than he started 2008, and I'll bet he wants to do it emphatically.
Andy Roddick, who I'm still hoping makes a good run at the grand slams and maybe captures a few masters series shields this year, had a good day against Ivan Navarro in their first meeting. It's always nice to have an easy first official match of the season to get things underway. Monfils also did well, routing Jan Hernych. Both Fernando Verdasco and Dudi Sela (who I saw play at last year's New Haven tournament) won today. New Haven champ Marin Cilic also had a good day, but New Haven runner-up Mardy Fish wasn't quite so lucky, losing to Jurgen Melzer.
Fish is one of a few American players in their late twenties that I think may be on their ways out this year. James Blake is another. He lost again today, making his record for the season 0-2. At least his official ATP season hasn't started yet! He lost to Dominik Hrbaty in the Hopman Cup. Of course, I hope they both do well, but I wouldn't be shocked if they both started a slide.
The other big match of the day was Baghdatis/Nieminen, as I mentioned yesterday. Unfortunately, Baggy went down in three sets. He served under fifty percent and had eleven double faults. His ranking is hovering around 100 and he does not seem together, physically or mentally. It's a shame, because he's such a dynamic and fun player to watch, when he's on his game. He's only 23 - I hope he can pull himself together this year. He might just need a favorable draw to get some matches under his belt. Of course, that's tough when your ranking is slipping...
There's quite a few very exciting matches tomorrow, too. Nadal versus Fabrice Santoro! The magician just will not retire! Nadal should come through in straights, but I bet it will be entertaining. Also, Bobby Reynolds vs. Kei Nishikori (He's currently ranked 61, but I bet he finishes the year in the top 20) and the marquee match: Novak Djokovic against Ernests Gulbis. I don't think Gulbis has much of a shot tomorrow, but depending on how tight Djokovic is coming out of the off-season, an upset is an outside possibility. Regardless, expect Gulbis to make some waves over the course of the season.
And Federer looks to start off his year by beating Potito Starace for the fourth straight time. I'm sort of surprised to see that he's between a 12:1 or 23:1 favorite at the tennis odds websites I like to check. It could be 500:1 and it would still be a foolish bet. Federer wants to start 2009 better than he started 2008, and I'll bet he wants to do it emphatically.
Friday, January 2, 2009
2009 starts early!
Well, when I saw that the ATP season started next weekend, I failed to notice an exhibition tournament going on this week in Abu Dhabi. It started off pretty tame, with Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko beating James Blake and Andy Roddick, both in straight sets. I didn't see any of either match, but I would give it to Murray over Blake any day, and both of the Americans have the sort of games that would probably be rather shaky after however many weeks off. I'm sure they enjoyed getting their appearence fees, though.
Here's hoping that Roddick is fully recovered from his injury and that he finds his form in 2009. 2008 wasn't a terrible year for him (three titles) but it was his worst since he won the U.S. Open. If he wants to remain a contender into his late 20's and early 30's, he needs to show that he can keep up with the younger generation. That sentiment is even truer for James Blake, who also had a lackluster year and is getting up there in age for a tennis pro. He'll need to make a statement this year.
However, that first round gave way to another Murray-Federer matchup, which you can read about here, and which looks like it was a real stunner. Murray won, 4-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6). It looks like whenever these two get together, there are fireworks. This bodes well for the coming year.
Nadal also toppled Davydenko with little difficulty. It's encouraging to see that he's probably recovered from the injuries that kept him out of the end of the season in 2008. Nadal v. Murray is taking place tomorrow. That will be a very interesting match-up, and even though there are no ranking points on the line, you can bet there's a lot of pride and confidence going in to the big tournaments this season. Also, $250K. So that's not bad, either.
Here's hoping that Roddick is fully recovered from his injury and that he finds his form in 2009. 2008 wasn't a terrible year for him (three titles) but it was his worst since he won the U.S. Open. If he wants to remain a contender into his late 20's and early 30's, he needs to show that he can keep up with the younger generation. That sentiment is even truer for James Blake, who also had a lackluster year and is getting up there in age for a tennis pro. He'll need to make a statement this year.
However, that first round gave way to another Murray-Federer matchup, which you can read about here, and which looks like it was a real stunner. Murray won, 4-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6). It looks like whenever these two get together, there are fireworks. This bodes well for the coming year.
Nadal also toppled Davydenko with little difficulty. It's encouraging to see that he's probably recovered from the injuries that kept him out of the end of the season in 2008. Nadal v. Murray is taking place tomorrow. That will be a very interesting match-up, and even though there are no ranking points on the line, you can bet there's a lot of pride and confidence going in to the big tournaments this season. Also, $250K. So that's not bad, either.
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