Indian Wells is a strange tournament. The main draw is 96 players, which is more than any other tour event, except for the grand slams. One of the consequences of this unusual draw size is that the qualifying tournament is also pretty strange. There are 12 qualifying spots, 48 players in contention, and 24 of them are seeded. The top seed is Uzbek player Denis Istomin, while the 24th seed is American Jesse Witten. Here are my thoughts on the draw.
Istomin will have to beat two Americans to get into the main draw, and I think he'll be able to. Unless either Bobby Reynolds or Michael Yani have huge fanbases in California who are willing to help their main through a tough match in the quallies, I see the Uzbek through.
The second seed, Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, has a tougher road. He could face Donald Young in the deciding match for entry into the main draw. The "Donald" has had a pretty good year so far, and this is one of his last chances to make a splash - particularly on home soil - for a while. If he doesn't make noise here or in Miami, you can probably say goodbye to him until July.
Dustin Brown of Jamaica might face Gaston Gaudio for a spot in the tournament, which I would give to Brown on this surface. Gaudio's comeback has not been anything to write home about, thus far. But then again, I could just be hopeful, because I still want to watch Dustin Brown play a whole match.
Carsten Ball is making it through qualifying, no doubt. Somdev Devvarman has a chance, but he has a tougher road, which runs through veteran Stefan Koubek. Another veteran in the draw, Rainer Schuettler, should probably make it through.
One of the matches that I think could be interesting is the likely second round between Jesse Witten and Yen-Hsun Lu. We haven't heard much from Jesse since his close loss to Djokovic at the U.S. Open last year. Ryan Anderson is another player who hasn't done much lately, but these are his favorite courts and conditions.
There are some interesting players here, but I think that qualifying presents such a strange environment which is so different than the main draw of the tournament that almost any result can happen and not be a huge upset. We'll then have to see where these players land in the main draw, which I'll take a look at tomorrow.
Showing posts with label devvarman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label devvarman. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Week 5, Mid-week Summary
With the first week of post-Australian Open action about halfway done, there have been a few results of note. Nothing too shocking, but a few surprises. Before we get to the analysis, it's worth mentioning that the most important result of Nadal's inability to defend his title at the Australian Open was his ranking dropping from #2 to #4. He hasn't been ranked lower than #2 since July of 2005. He displaced Lleyton Hewitt in that spot.
I don't know if we've heard the last of Nadal's injury. He has a lot of points to defend in the near future. He won Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, and Rome last year, while he made the finals in Madrid. He also won Barcelona and made the Rotterdam final. That's 4,400 of Nadal's 7,600 points, coming up in the next three months before the French Open. Of course, if he can get his title back there, it will help his ranking considerably. But if he's not fighting fit, he could slide a long ways down the rankings in the months to come.
Djokovic moves up to number 2 for the first time in his career, but not because of any stellar performance on his part. He has to be happy to be at his all-time best ranking, but it would have been better if he'd gotten there by winning, rather than by Nadal's form dropping.
Anyway, on to this week's action. In Johannesburg, there are some quite matches coming up. Top-seed Gael Monfils will play his countryman Josselin Ouanna in the second round, and I picked Ouanna as a player on the rise this year. We'll see how well he can do against the number two French player. Ouanna is the #14 Frenchman, which is saying something since he's still ranked 121st in the world.
Dustin Brown, the greatest-ever Jamaican tennis player, finds himself in the quarterfinals with a winnable match against Frenchman Stephane Robert. Brown has a great attitude and a fun style of play. He does what everyone says all those tall players should do - he serves at volleys! He's surprisingly quick to net for a player who is 6'5". You can read more about him here.
The other notable upset at the SA Tennis Open is Indian number one Somdev Devvarman over Xavier Malisse, who has yet to do much with his overturned substance abuse policy ban. He hasn't won an ATP-level match since beating Rik De Voest at Queen's club, last year.
The pending match-ups at Santiago and Zagreb are not quite as interesting, from my perspective. But there's still potential! In Zagreb, Cilic and Koellerer are playing each other in the second round, and if there's anybody ranked outside the top twenty who I wouldn't want to see when I was exhausted after making my first grand slam final, it would probably be Daniel "Crazycakes" Koellerer. Berrer also beat Tipsarevic in the first round, but Tipsy is a very hot-and-cold player, while Berrer just came off a challenger win last week.
In Santiago, it doesn't look like anyone is planning to stand in the way of Gonzalez winning the tournament again. When he retires, they should just name this the "Fernando Gonzalez Open."
I don't know if we've heard the last of Nadal's injury. He has a lot of points to defend in the near future. He won Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, and Rome last year, while he made the finals in Madrid. He also won Barcelona and made the Rotterdam final. That's 4,400 of Nadal's 7,600 points, coming up in the next three months before the French Open. Of course, if he can get his title back there, it will help his ranking considerably. But if he's not fighting fit, he could slide a long ways down the rankings in the months to come.
Djokovic moves up to number 2 for the first time in his career, but not because of any stellar performance on his part. He has to be happy to be at his all-time best ranking, but it would have been better if he'd gotten there by winning, rather than by Nadal's form dropping.
Anyway, on to this week's action. In Johannesburg, there are some quite matches coming up. Top-seed Gael Monfils will play his countryman Josselin Ouanna in the second round, and I picked Ouanna as a player on the rise this year. We'll see how well he can do against the number two French player. Ouanna is the #14 Frenchman, which is saying something since he's still ranked 121st in the world.
Dustin Brown, the greatest-ever Jamaican tennis player, finds himself in the quarterfinals with a winnable match against Frenchman Stephane Robert. Brown has a great attitude and a fun style of play. He does what everyone says all those tall players should do - he serves at volleys! He's surprisingly quick to net for a player who is 6'5". You can read more about him here.
The other notable upset at the SA Tennis Open is Indian number one Somdev Devvarman over Xavier Malisse, who has yet to do much with his overturned substance abuse policy ban. He hasn't won an ATP-level match since beating Rik De Voest at Queen's club, last year.
The pending match-ups at Santiago and Zagreb are not quite as interesting, from my perspective. But there's still potential! In Zagreb, Cilic and Koellerer are playing each other in the second round, and if there's anybody ranked outside the top twenty who I wouldn't want to see when I was exhausted after making my first grand slam final, it would probably be Daniel "Crazycakes" Koellerer. Berrer also beat Tipsarevic in the first round, but Tipsy is a very hot-and-cold player, while Berrer just came off a challenger win last week.
In Santiago, it doesn't look like anyone is planning to stand in the way of Gonzalez winning the tournament again. When he retires, they should just name this the "Fernando Gonzalez Open."
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?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
2010 Tennis Season Underway!
After a long and lonely off-season, the 2010 tennis season officially begins this week. There are three official tournaments during week one: Brisbane, Chennai, and Doha. Meanwhile, there's the Hopman Cup mixed-doubles event in Perth as well. Not to mention last week, the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition took place in Abu Dhabi. The season really starts with a bang, doesn't it? Beginning next week, the entire tour becomes focused in Australia as things build up towards the first major of the year, but for one week, the players remain scattered across the globe.
First of all, looking back at last week's pre-season exhibition in Abu Dhabi, there is one very interesting result. Robin Soderling managed to find a way to beat Roger Federer in the semifinals, after losing twelve consecutive times to the Swiss maestro. While this is undoubtedly a thrilling result for Robin, Roger may have already pocketed his appearance fee and decided to head off to his next tourney. The sad truth is that these exhibition wins often don't make that much difference. Roddick beat Fed at Kooyong in 2007, but then won only six games when they played just a few weeks later at the Aussie Open.
Speaking of Roddick, he's the top seed at the tournament in Brisbane, which features the majority of the American and Australian players, save for Aussie number one Hewitt, who's at the Hopman Cup. The first week of the season is always fascinating, because you get to see how players who were injured at the end of last season have recovered, or whether those who finished the year on a tear can maintain their momentum. Roddick is hoping to have fully recovered from the knee injury which cut his season short. Brisbane also features Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey, and Taylor Dent, all recently injured Americans who hope to start 2009 off well. There are quite a few dangerous floaters in the draw, as well. Look for a more in-depth draw analysis tomorrow.
Moving westward to India, the Chennai tournament will struggle to be as exciting this year as it was in 2009. That was the year that local wildcard Somdev Devvarman made it through the first three rounds, beating Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic in the process, only to get a walkover from Rainer Schuettler in the semis. He lost to Marin Cilic in the final, but what a dream run. Devvarman will be hoping to defend as many points as he can, and Cilic will be hoping to have his first successful title defense of his career.
Further west, in the Middle East, where the money still seems to be flowing despite the world's economic downturn, you will find most of the big dogs. Only three of the world's top six players will be in official action this week, but they will all be in Doha. Federer, Nadal, and Davydenko will all be there, and only Davydenko enters with a winning streak. Can the Russian continue his stupendous form from the end of last year? He was injured early last year, so he has no points to defend. If he plays like he did in the closing months of 2009, he could jump up to the top 3 or 4 in the world. Two of the other most interesting storylines of 2010 will get started here, too: will Nadal's body be able to hold up, what with all of his injuries, and will Federer be able to stay as motivated as he has been in the past, considering how he has accomplished everything he could have set out to do?
The other member of the top six who is playing this week is Britain's Andy Murray, who is playing the Hopman Cup with British teenage phenom Laura Robson. She could meet American sensation Melanie Oudin, if the U.S. And Britain make it to the final. Of course, to do that, they'll each have to win their groups. Or maybe they could meet in the semis. I'm the first to admit that I'm not 100% clear on the way that Hopman Cup works. Regardless, there should be some firecracker matches. Watch for Dementieva to start her season in style.
First of all, looking back at last week's pre-season exhibition in Abu Dhabi, there is one very interesting result. Robin Soderling managed to find a way to beat Roger Federer in the semifinals, after losing twelve consecutive times to the Swiss maestro. While this is undoubtedly a thrilling result for Robin, Roger may have already pocketed his appearance fee and decided to head off to his next tourney. The sad truth is that these exhibition wins often don't make that much difference. Roddick beat Fed at Kooyong in 2007, but then won only six games when they played just a few weeks later at the Aussie Open.
Speaking of Roddick, he's the top seed at the tournament in Brisbane, which features the majority of the American and Australian players, save for Aussie number one Hewitt, who's at the Hopman Cup. The first week of the season is always fascinating, because you get to see how players who were injured at the end of last season have recovered, or whether those who finished the year on a tear can maintain their momentum. Roddick is hoping to have fully recovered from the knee injury which cut his season short. Brisbane also features Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey, and Taylor Dent, all recently injured Americans who hope to start 2009 off well. There are quite a few dangerous floaters in the draw, as well. Look for a more in-depth draw analysis tomorrow.
Moving westward to India, the Chennai tournament will struggle to be as exciting this year as it was in 2009. That was the year that local wildcard Somdev Devvarman made it through the first three rounds, beating Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic in the process, only to get a walkover from Rainer Schuettler in the semis. He lost to Marin Cilic in the final, but what a dream run. Devvarman will be hoping to defend as many points as he can, and Cilic will be hoping to have his first successful title defense of his career.
Further west, in the Middle East, where the money still seems to be flowing despite the world's economic downturn, you will find most of the big dogs. Only three of the world's top six players will be in official action this week, but they will all be in Doha. Federer, Nadal, and Davydenko will all be there, and only Davydenko enters with a winning streak. Can the Russian continue his stupendous form from the end of last year? He was injured early last year, so he has no points to defend. If he plays like he did in the closing months of 2009, he could jump up to the top 3 or 4 in the world. Two of the other most interesting storylines of 2010 will get started here, too: will Nadal's body be able to hold up, what with all of his injuries, and will Federer be able to stay as motivated as he has been in the past, considering how he has accomplished everything he could have set out to do?
The other member of the top six who is playing this week is Britain's Andy Murray, who is playing the Hopman Cup with British teenage phenom Laura Robson. She could meet American sensation Melanie Oudin, if the U.S. And Britain make it to the final. Of course, to do that, they'll each have to win their groups. Or maybe they could meet in the semis. I'm the first to admit that I'm not 100% clear on the way that Hopman Cup works. Regardless, there should be some firecracker matches. Watch for Dementieva to start her season in style.
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