There was one big upset yesterday, and one almost-upset. In Auckland, John Isner avenged his defeat at the Hopman Cup by Tommy Robredo, beating the Spaniard in three tight sets. Isner hit twenty aces, but even more surprisingly, broke Robredo three times! I'd consider this a very impressive win for the big American, and while I don't put him in contention for winning the Aussie Open (that field is big enough already) I do think he can build on his win over Andy Roddick last September by upsetting another big seed.
The near-upset came at Sydney, when Serena Williams was nearly defeated by Aravane Rezai. Down a set and 5-3, Rezai served for the match, but couldn't close the door. Afterward, she said she wasn't impressed by Serena, and that she could have won. If Serena had been the one to break her while she was serving, or if she had gotten the break on a net cord winner or something, I could see her saying this. As it stands, she gave it away when she had the match in hand, so it seemed pretty classless to denigrate her opponent after choking. Still, it was an impressive performance when I had considered the match to be a mere formality.
The other semifinal was supposed to be more competitive, but turned out to be boring. Dementieva plowed through Azarenka, setting up the best final that we could have asked for. Serena and Dementieva played one of the best matches on the women's tour last year, so they could rival the Clijsters-Henin final of last week. Serena's looking to break her streak of not winning a regular tour event, while Dementieva wants everyone to know that she's in the hunt at the Aussie Open, this year. It's a big match.
Also in Sydney, the last seed on the men's side fell, when Baghditis beat Lleyton Hewitt in three tight sets. It wasn't quite as epic as their clash at last year's Aussie Open, but it was an impressive performance from both. Hewitt looked like the Hewitt of old during the first set, but then Baggy played like the guy who made the 2006 final in the next two.
Hewitt was the second-last Australian in the draw, but the last one didn't hang around much longer. Thirty-year old Peter Luczak fell to Mardy Fish in the night match, in another tight contest. In the end, Fish made a few too many shots, Luczak made a few too many errors, and he went to the drop shot well a few too many times. Still, an impressive show from the Aussie who is experiencing his greatest ever run after most players are considering retirement.
As a result, Fish plays Baghdatis in a rematch of last week's Brisbane first round. That was a tough one, with Baggy winning 7-5, 7-5, and as John Isner has just demonstrated, a player can lose one week and win the next. That should be an exciting semifinal.
The other semi could be the match that Serena-Rezia should have been, as Richard Gasquet faces Julien Benneteau. They played at this tournament, two years, and Gasquet won easily. He should do so, again. If "Baby Fed" doesn't win this match, he's going to be very disappointed with his showing.
The other most important thing to note is that Juan Martin Del Potro pulled out of his match against JW Tsonga at the AAMI Kooyong exhibition tournament, citing a wrist injury. He's been troubled by tendinitis before, so maybe he's just being careful. Then again, this could affect his chances at next week's Open. So the final at Kooyong will be Verdasco, who breezed past Djokovic (pun intended, they were playing in ridiculous winds) and Tsonga. Both players have done well at the Australian Open, but both also have a lot to prove.
Showing posts with label kooyong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kooyong. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Noteworthy upsets and withdrawals plus Aussie Open quallies!
The second week of the season has featured a few surprising upsets and not-so-surprising withdrawals, but I'd imagine the tournament organizers were none too happy to see these players out of their tournaments before Wednesday.
Nalbandian withdrew from Auckland before playing his match against Kohlschreiber, which I think puts the Argentine in doubt for the Australian Open, since this would have been his only tune-up event. Gael Monfils also withdrew from Sydney, which is not so much of a surprise, considering how heavily he was taped last week in Brisbane. Vera Zvonerava also stopped her match against Elena Vesnina after only six games with an ankle injury. This is on top of Justine Henin and Roger Federer withdrawing from their events, earlier in the week.
In Sydney, Evgeny Korolev beat Sam Querrey in the first round, which will mean that the recently-injured American will be 0-2 going into the first grand slam of the year, which is certainly not the way he would have wanted to start out his year, I'm sure. The Bryan Brothers also lost to first time doubles pairing Wassen and Zeballos, which was definitely a shock. On the women's side, Dominika Cibulkova beat third-seeded (and ranked) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Aggi Szavay beat Jelena Jankovic, and Na Li beat fourth-seed Caroline Wozniacki, so the upset bug is all over.
It just goes to show that some of the top players have trouble finding their form at the very start of the season, which is why the Australian Open often has the most surprising winners and finalists of any of the grand slams.
With all these upsets and withdrawals, some players are getting an easy route through their tournaments. Serena Williams can't face another seed until the final, for example. Others are not so lucky. The bottom quarterfinal of the women's draw in Sydney will feature Elena Dementieva against Dinara Safina, which has the potential to be an exciting match, or at least a good bellwether of how these two players' years are starting.
In Kooyong, the organizers were apparently unable to woo either of the Andys into playing the full three days, so they ended up replacing Roger Federer with Ivan Ljubicic, who is a fine player, but probably not what they had hoped for this year. So the Kooyong matchups are Djokovic-Haas, Fernando-Fernando, Soderling-Tsonga, and Ljubicic-Del Potro. It will be interesting to see who out of that group of top players has started the year on form.
Looking to the Aussie Open qualifying draw, there are some very interesting first-round matches. The quallies are incredibly important to the players in them, because getting a few rounds in a grand slam is the best way to rack up a chunk of points for the following year, but you have to win these mini-tournaments to have a chance. Here's my list of significant match-ups:
Xavier Malisse-Alex Kuznetsov, Marc Lopez-Donald Young, Josselin Ouanna-Joseph Sirianni, Yuki Bhambri-Jan Minar, Ryler DeHeart-Stefan Koubek, Grigor Dimitrov-Robert Kendrick, and Peter Polansky-Marcel Ilhan. Sixteen out of these 128 players will get into the main draw, which is a tough cut. There are a ton of up-and-coming players here, as well as more establish challenger pros who are knocking at the door of the top 100. It should be fun to see who makes it through.
Nalbandian withdrew from Auckland before playing his match against Kohlschreiber, which I think puts the Argentine in doubt for the Australian Open, since this would have been his only tune-up event. Gael Monfils also withdrew from Sydney, which is not so much of a surprise, considering how heavily he was taped last week in Brisbane. Vera Zvonerava also stopped her match against Elena Vesnina after only six games with an ankle injury. This is on top of Justine Henin and Roger Federer withdrawing from their events, earlier in the week.
In Sydney, Evgeny Korolev beat Sam Querrey in the first round, which will mean that the recently-injured American will be 0-2 going into the first grand slam of the year, which is certainly not the way he would have wanted to start out his year, I'm sure. The Bryan Brothers also lost to first time doubles pairing Wassen and Zeballos, which was definitely a shock. On the women's side, Dominika Cibulkova beat third-seeded (and ranked) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Aggi Szavay beat Jelena Jankovic, and Na Li beat fourth-seed Caroline Wozniacki, so the upset bug is all over.
It just goes to show that some of the top players have trouble finding their form at the very start of the season, which is why the Australian Open often has the most surprising winners and finalists of any of the grand slams.
With all these upsets and withdrawals, some players are getting an easy route through their tournaments. Serena Williams can't face another seed until the final, for example. Others are not so lucky. The bottom quarterfinal of the women's draw in Sydney will feature Elena Dementieva against Dinara Safina, which has the potential to be an exciting match, or at least a good bellwether of how these two players' years are starting.
In Kooyong, the organizers were apparently unable to woo either of the Andys into playing the full three days, so they ended up replacing Roger Federer with Ivan Ljubicic, who is a fine player, but probably not what they had hoped for this year. So the Kooyong matchups are Djokovic-Haas, Fernando-Fernando, Soderling-Tsonga, and Ljubicic-Del Potro. It will be interesting to see who out of that group of top players has started the year on form.
Looking to the Aussie Open qualifying draw, there are some very interesting first-round matches. The quallies are incredibly important to the players in them, because getting a few rounds in a grand slam is the best way to rack up a chunk of points for the following year, but you have to win these mini-tournaments to have a chance. Here's my list of significant match-ups:
Xavier Malisse-Alex Kuznetsov, Marc Lopez-Donald Young, Josselin Ouanna-Joseph Sirianni, Yuki Bhambri-Jan Minar, Ryler DeHeart-Stefan Koubek, Grigor Dimitrov-Robert Kendrick, and Peter Polansky-Marcel Ilhan. Sixteen out of these 128 players will get into the main draw, which is a tough cut. There are a ton of up-and-coming players here, as well as more establish challenger pros who are knocking at the door of the top 100. It should be fun to see who makes it through.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Week 1 Champions and Week 2 Preview
The remaining two finals from the first week of the 2010 ATP season have been contested. In Chennai, defending champion Marin Cilic beat Stan Wawrinka in two tiebreak sets. It was a close match, and really In Brisbane, Andy Roddick beat defending champion Radek Stepanek in two tiebreaks. Really, there was very little to choose between these two players. Cilic served at 57%, Wawrinka at 59%. They both won 61% of their second-serve points. They both converted two break chances. The only difference, in the end, was that Cilic won 72% of points on first serve, while Wawrinka won only 62%. Still, a close match, and both players should be encouraged by their performance this week.
In Brisbane, the match between Roddick and Stepanek went to two tiebreaks as well, but the second-set was absolutely bizarre. Stepanek went away and Roddick went to a 5-1 lead thanks to a pair of double faults on break points by Radek, only to be broken twice while serving for the match. Roddick's play didn't drop a great deal (it did drop, though) but Stepanek raised his game and changed his strategy to frustrate and bamboozle Roddick.
In the tiebreak, Roddick made it to 6-2, and then lost five consecutive match points to get back to six-all. He had another match point at 8-7, when Stepanek put himself out of his misery and double-faulted again. This has to be disappointing for both players. Roddick has to be shaken that he couldn't close out after getting two huge leads, and Stepanek has to be upset that he couldn't take advantage of Roddick being off his game and clearly in a bad mental state. That said, a win is a win, and Roddick will be happy to lift his first trophy since early last year. Roddick now has the longest active streak of years with at least one tournament win.
Looking ahead to the second week of the season, it's a tale of two tiers. In Sydney and Auckland, which both hosted women's events last week, there are ATP tournaments which feature a good list of mid-range talents. But all of the top players are either taking the week off or playing in the Kooyong exhibition. No top ten player is in official action, this week.
Of course, that's not to say that there won't be some exciting tennis. In Sydney, Monfils, Wawrinka, Berdych, Hewitt and Querrey lead the field and are the favorites to make it deep into the tournament, but there are a handful of dangerous floaters in the draw. Mardy Fish opens against Carsten Ball, while Baghdatis starts against Nick Lindahl. Fish will have his hands full, but Baggy shouldn't have any trouble getting through his wildcard opponent. Chennai semifinalist Dudi Sela is also in the draw, as is Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who opens against Feliciano Lopez.
In Auckland, the top seed is Tommy Robredo, fresh off his Hopman Cup win, who is joined by three other Spaniards to make up the top four: Ferrer, Ferrero, and Almagro. The seeds also feature Monaco and Montanes, so you might be forgiven for thinking that this could be a claycourt tournament. It's a pretty wide open draw, and there's a chance for some lower-ranked players to make a deep run.
John Isner opens against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, which should be an interesting match-up. Isner will surely be hoping to start his year as well as he ended last year, and will be looking to forget his modest results at the Hopman Cup last week. Swiss number 3 Marco Chiudinelli and Tomaz Bellucci face each other in the first round as well, for the privilege of facing the winner of the best first-round match-up of the week.
I'm speaking, of course, about David Nalbandian's return to competitive tennis, in which he faces German Phillip Kohlschreiber. It will be fascinating to see how Nalbandian is feeling. Has he recovered from his surgery? Has he worked on his fitness in the off-season? Will his unearthly timing and shotmaking have survived his long layoff? Only time will tell.
Kooyong is an interesting story this week. Federer opted not to play at the last minute, and it's still not clear who is going to take up that last spot. The other players in the field are Djokovic, Del Potro, Gonzalez, Tsonga, Soderling, Haas, and Verdasco. That's a strong field, no question. But it doesn't have Roddick, Murray, Nadal, Davydenko, or Federer. The draw won't be released until the 12th, so they'll have to fill in the last spot by then. I'm interested to see what the organizers do to deal with this unusual situation.
On the women's side, there's another sharp difference in the field between the two tournaments going on this week. Sydney features eight of the top nine players in the world, with only Venus Williams not present. In Hobart, on the other hand, the top seed is 27th-ranked Annabel Medina-Garrigues. Since the winner in Sydney takes home nearly $100K, while the Hobart champion gets only $37K, this may not be a surprise. But this also means that most people are going to be watching Sydney.
Play started earlier than I thought it would, and Russians Kuznetsova and Dementieva have already moved on to the second round. It's really tough to see anyone but the top seeds making it to the semis or final here, since the top of the field is just so tough. It will be interesting to watch Dinara Safina and see if she can recover from how dismally she finished up 2009, or if that was just the first step in a precipitous decline. I hope to see her bounce back and even break through to win a slam in 2010.
In Brisbane, the match between Roddick and Stepanek went to two tiebreaks as well, but the second-set was absolutely bizarre. Stepanek went away and Roddick went to a 5-1 lead thanks to a pair of double faults on break points by Radek, only to be broken twice while serving for the match. Roddick's play didn't drop a great deal (it did drop, though) but Stepanek raised his game and changed his strategy to frustrate and bamboozle Roddick.
In the tiebreak, Roddick made it to 6-2, and then lost five consecutive match points to get back to six-all. He had another match point at 8-7, when Stepanek put himself out of his misery and double-faulted again. This has to be disappointing for both players. Roddick has to be shaken that he couldn't close out after getting two huge leads, and Stepanek has to be upset that he couldn't take advantage of Roddick being off his game and clearly in a bad mental state. That said, a win is a win, and Roddick will be happy to lift his first trophy since early last year. Roddick now has the longest active streak of years with at least one tournament win.
Looking ahead to the second week of the season, it's a tale of two tiers. In Sydney and Auckland, which both hosted women's events last week, there are ATP tournaments which feature a good list of mid-range talents. But all of the top players are either taking the week off or playing in the Kooyong exhibition. No top ten player is in official action, this week.
Of course, that's not to say that there won't be some exciting tennis. In Sydney, Monfils, Wawrinka, Berdych, Hewitt and Querrey lead the field and are the favorites to make it deep into the tournament, but there are a handful of dangerous floaters in the draw. Mardy Fish opens against Carsten Ball, while Baghdatis starts against Nick Lindahl. Fish will have his hands full, but Baggy shouldn't have any trouble getting through his wildcard opponent. Chennai semifinalist Dudi Sela is also in the draw, as is Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who opens against Feliciano Lopez.
In Auckland, the top seed is Tommy Robredo, fresh off his Hopman Cup win, who is joined by three other Spaniards to make up the top four: Ferrer, Ferrero, and Almagro. The seeds also feature Monaco and Montanes, so you might be forgiven for thinking that this could be a claycourt tournament. It's a pretty wide open draw, and there's a chance for some lower-ranked players to make a deep run.
John Isner opens against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, which should be an interesting match-up. Isner will surely be hoping to start his year as well as he ended last year, and will be looking to forget his modest results at the Hopman Cup last week. Swiss number 3 Marco Chiudinelli and Tomaz Bellucci face each other in the first round as well, for the privilege of facing the winner of the best first-round match-up of the week.
I'm speaking, of course, about David Nalbandian's return to competitive tennis, in which he faces German Phillip Kohlschreiber. It will be fascinating to see how Nalbandian is feeling. Has he recovered from his surgery? Has he worked on his fitness in the off-season? Will his unearthly timing and shotmaking have survived his long layoff? Only time will tell.
Kooyong is an interesting story this week. Federer opted not to play at the last minute, and it's still not clear who is going to take up that last spot. The other players in the field are Djokovic, Del Potro, Gonzalez, Tsonga, Soderling, Haas, and Verdasco. That's a strong field, no question. But it doesn't have Roddick, Murray, Nadal, Davydenko, or Federer. The draw won't be released until the 12th, so they'll have to fill in the last spot by then. I'm interested to see what the organizers do to deal with this unusual situation.
On the women's side, there's another sharp difference in the field between the two tournaments going on this week. Sydney features eight of the top nine players in the world, with only Venus Williams not present. In Hobart, on the other hand, the top seed is 27th-ranked Annabel Medina-Garrigues. Since the winner in Sydney takes home nearly $100K, while the Hobart champion gets only $37K, this may not be a surprise. But this also means that most people are going to be watching Sydney.
Play started earlier than I thought it would, and Russians Kuznetsova and Dementieva have already moved on to the second round. It's really tough to see anyone but the top seeds making it to the semis or final here, since the top of the field is just so tough. It will be interesting to watch Dinara Safina and see if she can recover from how dismally she finished up 2009, or if that was just the first step in a precipitous decline. I hope to see her bounce back and even break through to win a slam in 2010.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Surprisingly Good Quarterfinal Day!
Considering the strength of the draws in Auckland and Sydney this week, I'm really surprised at how good the quarterfinals are today.
All of the seeds are through in Auckland, except for Juan Monaco and Albert Montanes, who lost to Viktor Troicki and John Isner, respectively. I already know the outcome of one match, and American Sam Querrey upset Nicolas Almagro. Good for the big-serving American! We've also got Kohlschreiber (defending champion) against number two seed David Ferrer. Troicki is up against Juan Martin del Potro, who should move through comfortably, and Isner is up against Robin Soderling. Lots of aces are on the way in that way, but Soderling is much more solid in the rest of the game, so I'd expect him to move through.
In Sydney, you've got some big upsets - Gasquet over Gilles Simon, Hewitt over Fish and then Tipsarevic, and Mario Ancic over Tommy Robredo. Jarkko Nieminen also beat Chris Guccione, who ousted Tomas Berdych earlier. Three spectacular semis: Djokovic-Ancic, Tsonga-Nieminen, and Nalbandian-Hewitt. Gasquet has the easiest time with surprising quarterfinalist Jeremy Chardy. I'll take Djoko, Tsonga, Nalby, and Gasquet into the semis. And that's a pretty enticing pair of matches, too!
In Kooyong, Ljubicic is having some trouble - his best days are definitely behind him, as he even lost to slumping Marcos Baghdatis. Federer is currently in the process of thumping Fernando Verdasco, and later in the day we'll see Moya v. Cilic (two players at opposite positions in the arc of their careers) and, presumably, Wawrinka v. Gonzalez, even though it isn't on the schedule. It's quite a motley crew of players out there, this year. Not a lot we can glean about the AO from the play at Kooyong.
I'm getting a DVR for my cable tomorrow so that I can watch as much of the Australian Open as is humanly possible. I'm rather excited.
All of the seeds are through in Auckland, except for Juan Monaco and Albert Montanes, who lost to Viktor Troicki and John Isner, respectively. I already know the outcome of one match, and American Sam Querrey upset Nicolas Almagro. Good for the big-serving American! We've also got Kohlschreiber (defending champion) against number two seed David Ferrer. Troicki is up against Juan Martin del Potro, who should move through comfortably, and Isner is up against Robin Soderling. Lots of aces are on the way in that way, but Soderling is much more solid in the rest of the game, so I'd expect him to move through.
In Sydney, you've got some big upsets - Gasquet over Gilles Simon, Hewitt over Fish and then Tipsarevic, and Mario Ancic over Tommy Robredo. Jarkko Nieminen also beat Chris Guccione, who ousted Tomas Berdych earlier. Three spectacular semis: Djokovic-Ancic, Tsonga-Nieminen, and Nalbandian-Hewitt. Gasquet has the easiest time with surprising quarterfinalist Jeremy Chardy. I'll take Djoko, Tsonga, Nalby, and Gasquet into the semis. And that's a pretty enticing pair of matches, too!
In Kooyong, Ljubicic is having some trouble - his best days are definitely behind him, as he even lost to slumping Marcos Baghdatis. Federer is currently in the process of thumping Fernando Verdasco, and later in the day we'll see Moya v. Cilic (two players at opposite positions in the arc of their careers) and, presumably, Wawrinka v. Gonzalez, even though it isn't on the schedule. It's quite a motley crew of players out there, this year. Not a lot we can glean about the AO from the play at Kooyong.
I'm getting a DVR for my cable tomorrow so that I can watch as much of the Australian Open as is humanly possible. I'm rather excited.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A note on the state of tennis broadcasting
I don't have a lot to say about play from today. The problem with the tennis season while it's taking place in Australia at the beginning of the year is that play is already taking place when I get home from work and want to write about it. Do I write about the day before? Or the play that's already started? It's just tough for me to quite work out, so I can't do the end-of-day summaries that I like.
As for the updates for today, Del Potro beat Gulbis and Querrey beat Gilles Muller in three. Tipsarevic beat Fish yesterday, who is now 0-2 on the season, and is currently up a break on Lleyton Hewitt, who struggled in his first round Julien Benneteau. Gasquet beat Tursunov, and Stepanek retired against qualifier Jeremy Chardy. It kind of interrupts your momentum if you win a tournament and then retire during you next match. Australian number 2 Chris Guccione upset perennial underachiever Tomas Berdych, as well. Djokovic managed an easy win against Paul-Henri Mathieu, which is good for him.
As for Kooyong, I know that the first two rounds are completed, but I have no idea who won them. I'll bet Federer beat Moya, but I don't know who would win between the badly-streaking pair of Baghdatis versus Wawrinka. I'll take both Fernandos to win later in the day, Verdasco over Cilic and Gonzalez over Ljubicic.
I'm cheating a bit on that prediction, though, because I'm watching live, streaming Kooyong action on www.channelsurfing.net, and I can see that Cilic is a bit flat while Verdasco is playing very well, so far. It may be shocking, but this is the first actual tennis I've been able to watch this year.
Unfortunately, I live in a building where my internet and cable providing options are extremely limited. Limited to one, in fact. And the one that I have does not offer the tennis channel, no matter how much I could offer to pay them. In addition, they don't make me eligible to enjoy the live streaming of espn360.com. That means that I don't have a lot of options to watch tennis, even though as you can see I'm a raving fanatic.
Fortunately, there are often chances to watch streaming tournaments of varying quality and dubious legality, and I take advantage of them whenever I can. Last year, I purchased live streaming for Wimbledon and the Masters Series events, and I would have done it for every Grand Slam (and almost every tournament) if I could have. This year, the ATP is expanding the scope of tournaments that their official video website will broadcast, and I couldn't be more happy. If ESPN doesn't want to show tennis, and if my cable provider doesn't want to show the Tennis Channel, I'm happy to get my fix however I can. I would pay $200 a year to watch streaming video from a tournament every week. Maybe more.
As for the updates for today, Del Potro beat Gulbis and Querrey beat Gilles Muller in three. Tipsarevic beat Fish yesterday, who is now 0-2 on the season, and is currently up a break on Lleyton Hewitt, who struggled in his first round Julien Benneteau. Gasquet beat Tursunov, and Stepanek retired against qualifier Jeremy Chardy. It kind of interrupts your momentum if you win a tournament and then retire during you next match. Australian number 2 Chris Guccione upset perennial underachiever Tomas Berdych, as well. Djokovic managed an easy win against Paul-Henri Mathieu, which is good for him.
As for Kooyong, I know that the first two rounds are completed, but I have no idea who won them. I'll bet Federer beat Moya, but I don't know who would win between the badly-streaking pair of Baghdatis versus Wawrinka. I'll take both Fernandos to win later in the day, Verdasco over Cilic and Gonzalez over Ljubicic.
I'm cheating a bit on that prediction, though, because I'm watching live, streaming Kooyong action on www.channelsurfing.net, and I can see that Cilic is a bit flat while Verdasco is playing very well, so far. It may be shocking, but this is the first actual tennis I've been able to watch this year.
Unfortunately, I live in a building where my internet and cable providing options are extremely limited. Limited to one, in fact. And the one that I have does not offer the tennis channel, no matter how much I could offer to pay them. In addition, they don't make me eligible to enjoy the live streaming of espn360.com. That means that I don't have a lot of options to watch tennis, even though as you can see I'm a raving fanatic.
Fortunately, there are often chances to watch streaming tournaments of varying quality and dubious legality, and I take advantage of them whenever I can. Last year, I purchased live streaming for Wimbledon and the Masters Series events, and I would have done it for every Grand Slam (and almost every tournament) if I could have. This year, the ATP is expanding the scope of tournaments that their official video website will broadcast, and I couldn't be more happy. If ESPN doesn't want to show tennis, and if my cable provider doesn't want to show the Tennis Channel, I'm happy to get my fix however I can. I would pay $200 a year to watch streaming video from a tournament every week. Maybe more.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Kooyong Classic!
Surprisingly, both Andys are taking the week before the Australian Open off. This may not be too odd for Murray, but Roddick has played the Kooyong Classic exhibition for as long as can remember. He's the three-time defending champion there, and he's not playing it, this year. It's not as strong a field as it has been in the past, and Federer is leading the group. If he doesn't win every match he plays at this tournament, then his odds at the AO drop drastically.
He's up against Baghdatis, Marin Cilic, Ivan Ljubijic, the two Fernandos, Verdasco and Gonzalez, Carlos Moya, and Stan Wawrinka. Nobody in that group has beat him in the past year, if I'm not mistaken. Gonzo beat him at the end-of-year Masters in 2007, but that's it. Fed should decimate this field, if he's even a shadow of his former self.
In other news, the opening rounds at Auckland and Sydney have some interesting things going on. Sadly, Frank Dancevic (a player I root for whenever I get the chance) lost in the first round to Igor Andreev. The Canadian number one really deserves a break-out performance, one of these days. Nishikori retired with an injury agaisnt Juan Carlos Ferrero, and I hope he recovers in a week.
While Dancevic didn't do so well, both John Isner and Gilles Muller won their opening round matches in Auckland, with Isner beating seventh seed Albert Montanes. Ernests Gulbis also won his first-round match, which means he'll be playing Juan Martin del Potro, soon. Gulbis may have beaten a rusty Djokovic last week, but I'm not sure that lightning is going to strike twice.
He's up against Baghdatis, Marin Cilic, Ivan Ljubijic, the two Fernandos, Verdasco and Gonzalez, Carlos Moya, and Stan Wawrinka. Nobody in that group has beat him in the past year, if I'm not mistaken. Gonzo beat him at the end-of-year Masters in 2007, but that's it. Fed should decimate this field, if he's even a shadow of his former self.
In other news, the opening rounds at Auckland and Sydney have some interesting things going on. Sadly, Frank Dancevic (a player I root for whenever I get the chance) lost in the first round to Igor Andreev. The Canadian number one really deserves a break-out performance, one of these days. Nishikori retired with an injury agaisnt Juan Carlos Ferrero, and I hope he recovers in a week.
While Dancevic didn't do so well, both John Isner and Gilles Muller won their opening round matches in Auckland, with Isner beating seventh seed Albert Montanes. Ernests Gulbis also won his first-round match, which means he'll be playing Juan Martin del Potro, soon. Gulbis may have beaten a rusty Djokovic last week, but I'm not sure that lightning is going to strike twice.
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