Well, there were certainly a handful of surprise finalists in last week's tournaments, and some surprise winners as a result. In Johannesburg, top seeds Monfils and Ferrer both lost in the semis, leaving the surprising final match-up of Lopez and Stephane Robert. The more experienced player won this one, as Lopez took the second title of his career. His previous title came all the way back in 2004, so this was quite a drought. It was an encouraging result by Robert as well, having made his first ATP final after reaching 24 at the level of the challengers and futures. He's playing the best tennis of his career at age 29.
The other surprise finalist was Tomaz Bellucci, who managed to unseat Fernando Gonzalez in the semifinals at his home tournament and then beat clay court veteran Juan Monaco in the final. The young Brazilian is making an assault of the top levels of the game. He hasn't had any shocking upsets or performances that are bringing him a great deal of attention, but he's quietly improving and winning more and more matches. Clay is his favorite surface, so watch for him at the French Open this year.
A young player who is earning his attention is Croatian Marin Cilic, who somehow managed to fight off fatigue and red-hot challenger player Michael Berrer to defend his second title of the year. That's incredibly impressive for a player who should be exhausted after his past few weeks. Kudos to Cilic for his spectacular start of the year.
On the challenger circuit, Bernard Tomic won his second career title on the challenger circuit, while Carsten Ball was upset by American Ryan Sweeting.
Looking ahead to the next week, some of the top players are back in action. With last week's lineups a bit on the weak side, it's good to see a handful of the big dogs on the court once again.
The weakest field is actually in Brazil, where Juan Carlos Ferrero is the top seed at 22 in the world, and the eighth-seed is Richard Gasquet, who is ranked outside the top 50. Despite the lack of top players, there could be some firecracker matches in the late rounds. In addition to Ferrero and Gasquet, who are both trying to get as much preparation for the French Open as possible, Bellucci is in the draw. He made the final here last year, in his own back yard, so he'll be wanting to go one step further. Igor Andreev is also here, undoubtedly anxious to beat someone into
submission after having Federer on the ropes in the first round of the Aussie Open. Horacio Zeballos is also there, trying to justify his relatively high ranking with some results of note on the tour level.
Next week will also be Novak Djokovic's first tournament after moving to number 2 in the world rankings, at Rotterdamn. This is really a loaded draw, despite the lack of last year's champion Andy Murray. Davydenko and Soderling are also there, as well as Monfils and Youzhny. Not to mention the most appetizing opening round of the whole week, unseeded Marcos Baghdatis against unseeded James Blake. They've each been involved in some of the best matches of the year. Davydenko also opens against Feliciano Lopez, fresh off a victory. Amazingly, the winners of those matches will play each other in the second round. The magic of the draw...
I'm a bit surprised to see Blake in Rotterdam, actually, since he could easily have been at the tournament in San Jose, where most of the other Americans are. Roddick, Querrey, Odesnik, Fish, Dent, Ginepri, Britton, Ram, Russell, and a few others. That's pretty much every American even near the top of the game, except for Blake and Isner. The Americans will have to compete with some tough foreign resistance, though. Last year's champ Radek Stepanek is in the draw, as is Fernando Verdasco and Tomas Berdych. You'll also find Tommy Haas, who just got dual German-American citizenship a week or two ago. I wonder if he'll get more support this way?
Showing posts with label johannesburg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label johannesburg. Show all posts
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Week 5 Semifinals
For a week when the top players (who happen to be in action) ought to have been tired from the Australian Open the week before, the top players are by and large dominating the three tournaments going on this week. All three feature the top seed and the third seed in the first semifinal, while the second seed is still in action in two tournaments. In Zagreb, Ljubicic dropped in the second round to Lukas Lacko.
The top seeds are all the favorites at this point, not only to make it to the final, but to win it all. I'm very impressed by Cilic's ability to last this long. He weathered a ton of aces from Ivo Karlovic in the last round so he can face Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, who should be less of a challenge, despite being a higher seed. He'll then face Michael Berrer, in all likelihood. Berrer is on a hot streak, winning last week's challenger event and then making it to the semis this week. Maybe he'll get lucky and find a tired Cilic.
Gonzalez continues to impress, furthering the cause of naming the tournament in Chile after him when he retires. His next round should be more of a challenge, but the crowd will be firmly behind him as he faces up-and-coming Brazilian Tomaz Bellucci. If he makes it through that match (as he likely will) he'll probably face Juan Monaco, who he has owned five times in the past, twice at this very tournament.
In Johannesburg, David Ferrer - the second seed - should breeze into the final. His opponent, Frenchman Stephane Robert, is ranked 86 places lower. He'll then meet the winner of Gael Monfils and Feliciano Lopez. It's their first meeting, so it could be interesting.
Also worth noting is the success of two young Australian players in challenger events this week. In Dallas, Carsten Ball is through to the final without dropping a set. In Burnie, Australia, Bernard Tomic has dropped two seeds on his way to the semis. With Lleyton Hewitt sidelined for a while with another surgery, things are looking brighter for the future of Australian tennis.
The top seeds are all the favorites at this point, not only to make it to the final, but to win it all. I'm very impressed by Cilic's ability to last this long. He weathered a ton of aces from Ivo Karlovic in the last round so he can face Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, who should be less of a challenge, despite being a higher seed. He'll then face Michael Berrer, in all likelihood. Berrer is on a hot streak, winning last week's challenger event and then making it to the semis this week. Maybe he'll get lucky and find a tired Cilic.
Gonzalez continues to impress, furthering the cause of naming the tournament in Chile after him when he retires. His next round should be more of a challenge, but the crowd will be firmly behind him as he faces up-and-coming Brazilian Tomaz Bellucci. If he makes it through that match (as he likely will) he'll probably face Juan Monaco, who he has owned five times in the past, twice at this very tournament.
In Johannesburg, David Ferrer - the second seed - should breeze into the final. His opponent, Frenchman Stephane Robert, is ranked 86 places lower. He'll then meet the winner of Gael Monfils and Feliciano Lopez. It's their first meeting, so it could be interesting.
Also worth noting is the success of two young Australian players in challenger events this week. In Dallas, Carsten Ball is through to the final without dropping a set. In Burnie, Australia, Bernard Tomic has dropped two seeds on his way to the semis. With Lleyton Hewitt sidelined for a while with another surgery, things are looking brighter for the future of Australian tennis.
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."
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Look at Week 5
So even though one of the biggest tournaments of the year just finished up yesterday, the tennis season is starting right up again, with three ATP tournaments and Fed Cup action next week. In fact, tennis action continued in the minor leagues during week 2 of the Australian Open, with top seeds Michael Berrer, Michael Russel, and Eduardo Schwank winning challenger events. Mario Ancic played in Germany, and lost in the first round to Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin. And in Hawaii, Donald Young beat Grigor Dimitrov (I'm calling it right now - they'll be playing each other again in the 2015 U.S. Open final) before retiring against eventual champion Russel in the semis.
In other challenger news, two-time grand slam finalist Mark Philippousis is playing in the Dallas Challenger event this week. He opens against 159th-ranked American Michael Yani. He hasn't played a match since 2006! Another former great ws in action in the lower tiers of the game last week, when former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio played in the qualifying tournament for the first clay court event of the year, in Santiago, Chile. He lost in the second round to an Argentine named Juan-Martin Aranguren. Who?
The Santiago event is an interesting one. The first event of the year that takes place on clay, and the only event in Chile all year. As a result, Chilean number one Fernando Gonzalez has owned this event, winning it the last two years and four times overall. He's back this year, and hopefully the move from Vina Del Mar to Santiago will not affect his success.
They really could just call this the South American Open, because the top six seeds are all from the continent, as well 17 of the 32 players in the draw. That number should go up by a few once the qualifiers are placed. Gonzalez is the favorite by far (the second seed is ranked 20 places below him), and he'll probably get another South American dirtballer in the final. Will it be Monaco, Bellucci, Zeballos, or Acasuso?
The other two tournaments going on this week are both hard court events, one in Johannesburg and one in Zagreb. The SA Tennis Open in South Africa is just in its second year, and the tournament still hasn't quite figured out how to draw the top talent in the week after the Aussie Open. It's a tough ask, but when your eighth seed is 104th-ranked Stephane Robert from France, your tournament is not in the best shape.
There are still some excellent players in the draw, with top seed Gael Monfils hoping to follow up his countryman Tsonga's victory last year. Tsonga opted not to try to defend his title, but another victory by a black tennis player would be just as poignant in South Africa this year as it was last year. He'll have to compete with David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, as well as some mid-level players who have shown potential for better things, like Marco Chiudinelli and Rajeev Ram. There are also a few dangerous floaters in the draw, like Jarkko Nieminen, Josselin Ouanna, and Dominik Hrbaty, who opens against the top seed.
I admit that I also like Dustin Brown, the top (and only) ranked Jamaican tennis player, who looks exactly like you might expect a Jamaican tennis player to look. But he'll have a tough opening round against Swiss number three Marco Chiudinelli.
The strongest field of the week is in Zagreb, where Marin Cilic is trying to defend his title from last year. It's going to be tough for him to keep up his momentum, since he has to be jaded after his run at the Australian Open. Ivan Ljubicic won the tournament the year before, and he's the second seed. They're both Croations, so they should enjoy playing in their backyards. Ivo Karlovic, the third-ranked Croation is also in the draw. The number two and three Serbian players are also here, Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic. The floaters here are probably the Rochus Brothers and "Crazy" Daniel Koellerer. But with these tournaments the week after slams, the top players can sometimes be overtired and the lower-ranked guys have a chance to show their stuff. And just like every week, anything can happen.
On the women's side, this week is all about the first round of Fed Cup. Since Fed Cup only has three rounds over the course of the year (compared to Davis Cup's four) there are only eight teams in action at the beginning. As is often the case, two of the potential winners, Serbia and Russia, are meeting in the first round. The U.S. will be Williams sister-less as they face France. The other two ties feature Italy against Ukraine and the Czech Republic against Germany. A few words on player selections.
The top two Serbs are in action for their team, Jankovic and Ivanovic, while the top seven (!!) Russian women are skipping out on this event. World number 31 Alisa Kleybanova is their top-ranked player for this tie. Not bringing any of your top seven players is going to make this tough for Russia.
It's not like the U.S., where the Williams sisters aren't playing but the #3 American, Melanie Oudin, is. America is also bringing one of the top-ranked doubles players in the world, so they'll have a shot. Fortunately, France isn't bringing their top talent, either. Their top player at the tie is world #65 and French #4 Alize Cornet.
I'll admit I don't have a lot to say about the Czech Republic and Germany, because those are eight players whose names I know, but whose achievements I can't list off the top of my head. I'm just not as well-versed in the mid-to-lower tiers of the WTA tour.
But I can say that the Ukraine-Italy tie may turn out to be the most interesting, amazingly enough. Ukraine is making due exclusively with the success of the "Flying" Bondarenko sisters (as Brad Gilbert calls them) and defending champs Italy have Pennetta and Schiavone. Can Italy be Fed Cup's answer to Spain in the Davis Cup?
In other challenger news, two-time grand slam finalist Mark Philippousis is playing in the Dallas Challenger event this week. He opens against 159th-ranked American Michael Yani. He hasn't played a match since 2006! Another former great ws in action in the lower tiers of the game last week, when former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio played in the qualifying tournament for the first clay court event of the year, in Santiago, Chile. He lost in the second round to an Argentine named Juan-Martin Aranguren. Who?
The Santiago event is an interesting one. The first event of the year that takes place on clay, and the only event in Chile all year. As a result, Chilean number one Fernando Gonzalez has owned this event, winning it the last two years and four times overall. He's back this year, and hopefully the move from Vina Del Mar to Santiago will not affect his success.
They really could just call this the South American Open, because the top six seeds are all from the continent, as well 17 of the 32 players in the draw. That number should go up by a few once the qualifiers are placed. Gonzalez is the favorite by far (the second seed is ranked 20 places below him), and he'll probably get another South American dirtballer in the final. Will it be Monaco, Bellucci, Zeballos, or Acasuso?
The other two tournaments going on this week are both hard court events, one in Johannesburg and one in Zagreb. The SA Tennis Open in South Africa is just in its second year, and the tournament still hasn't quite figured out how to draw the top talent in the week after the Aussie Open. It's a tough ask, but when your eighth seed is 104th-ranked Stephane Robert from France, your tournament is not in the best shape.
There are still some excellent players in the draw, with top seed Gael Monfils hoping to follow up his countryman Tsonga's victory last year. Tsonga opted not to try to defend his title, but another victory by a black tennis player would be just as poignant in South Africa this year as it was last year. He'll have to compete with David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, as well as some mid-level players who have shown potential for better things, like Marco Chiudinelli and Rajeev Ram. There are also a few dangerous floaters in the draw, like Jarkko Nieminen, Josselin Ouanna, and Dominik Hrbaty, who opens against the top seed.
I admit that I also like Dustin Brown, the top (and only) ranked Jamaican tennis player, who looks exactly like you might expect a Jamaican tennis player to look. But he'll have a tough opening round against Swiss number three Marco Chiudinelli.
The strongest field of the week is in Zagreb, where Marin Cilic is trying to defend his title from last year. It's going to be tough for him to keep up his momentum, since he has to be jaded after his run at the Australian Open. Ivan Ljubicic won the tournament the year before, and he's the second seed. They're both Croations, so they should enjoy playing in their backyards. Ivo Karlovic, the third-ranked Croation is also in the draw. The number two and three Serbian players are also here, Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic. The floaters here are probably the Rochus Brothers and "Crazy" Daniel Koellerer. But with these tournaments the week after slams, the top players can sometimes be overtired and the lower-ranked guys have a chance to show their stuff. And just like every week, anything can happen.
On the women's side, this week is all about the first round of Fed Cup. Since Fed Cup only has three rounds over the course of the year (compared to Davis Cup's four) there are only eight teams in action at the beginning. As is often the case, two of the potential winners, Serbia and Russia, are meeting in the first round. The U.S. will be Williams sister-less as they face France. The other two ties feature Italy against Ukraine and the Czech Republic against Germany. A few words on player selections.
The top two Serbs are in action for their team, Jankovic and Ivanovic, while the top seven (!!) Russian women are skipping out on this event. World number 31 Alisa Kleybanova is their top-ranked player for this tie. Not bringing any of your top seven players is going to make this tough for Russia.
It's not like the U.S., where the Williams sisters aren't playing but the #3 American, Melanie Oudin, is. America is also bringing one of the top-ranked doubles players in the world, so they'll have a shot. Fortunately, France isn't bringing their top talent, either. Their top player at the tie is world #65 and French #4 Alize Cornet.
I'll admit I don't have a lot to say about the Czech Republic and Germany, because those are eight players whose names I know, but whose achievements I can't list off the top of my head. I'm just not as well-versed in the mid-to-lower tiers of the WTA tour.
But I can say that the Ukraine-Italy tie may turn out to be the most interesting, amazingly enough. Ukraine is making due exclusively with the success of the "Flying" Bondarenko sisters (as Brad Gilbert calls them) and defending champs Italy have Pennetta and Schiavone. Can Italy be Fed Cup's answer to Spain in the Davis Cup?
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