Saw plenty of matches today and no there will not be any Roddick/Agassi ESPN propaganda from me, this is for sure. Though I think I should still take notes during the day.
Now onto the matches and two of the more unique things I have seen on the court. First I subjected myself to watching Mantilla playing like an absolute arse clown today. It was a horrible performance, as I was talking with his coach Joaquin Munoz before the match and he said he felt some pain around his Achilles and he wasn't moving that well. The thing was Mantilla made nearly as many unforced errors as Ascione, and we know Mantilla doesn't make many unforced errors, so his lack of confidence in his movement contributed.One of the funny things was Mantilla hit this mishit forehand that went very high and swirled in the wind, it just bounced once on the Ascione side of the net, then it bounced back on Mantilla's side and he won the point. Everyone in the crowd was laughing.
Arazi struggled initially and then overcame Mutis. Younes was there and I asked him about the injury and he said he wasn't sure about whether he will be able to play Davis Cup. That would be a tragedy for Morocco if he couldn't play, yes he is a great guy and he posed with everyone that asked for photos. Hahahahaha Coria is gone, and I can't say I am disappointed at all. I didn't see the match, but since I had one of my Argentine friends there, his analysis was Saulnier played well and Coria was ordinary and he did a little bit of usual whining when things aren't going way.
Yes, Corretja won and it was a very good effort though Verkerk definitely helped him with errors at vital points. Verkerk was very frustrated and did refer to the way Corretja was playing like he was gay, he probably should have mentioned Woodforde instead. It was good to see Corretja showing some of his determination and next comes Ancic another big server who exhales like Muster when he hits the ball. That will be very tough and I think Ancic might win, though I hope not.
Nandroman got the needle taken out of him by Costa. To put simply Rusedski didn't serve very well and he doesn't have anything else to back it up with. Costa was solid when he had the chances and was passing very well and that stands him in good stead against Arthurs in his next match.
Pavel played very well against the Beast. In fact he only had 5 unforced errors in the first 2 sets, he lost the tiebreaker on 2 dodgy calls, but he put it behind hm and was outstanding. Mirnyi played quite good as well and was fantastic signing autographs for 5 minutes after he lost. Pavel is a very outgoing guy and he was chatting with everyone after he won.
Calleri has lost weight and is not such a Gordo anymore, and that huge backhand was operating very well for the majority of the match. C.Rochus tried but the big Argie was too good when it counted. Next up for him is Canas who won easily and this is one that I will be going out to see.Nalbandian and Nadal were a total class above Mello and Tabara respectively, a Hewitt v Nadal match is looking very likely and me getting tickets is looking very unlikely.
Ah the second thing that happened today was in the Stepanek v Sanguinetti match. Yes, I decided to like Stepanek and after his great comeback there were more who like Radek. He lost the first 2 and then I came to the match halfway through the 3rd and he was lifting his game. He was playing some great drop shots, angles and lobs. In the 5th he was frustrating Sanguinetti so much, and the facial reactions needed to be seen, with the hip wiggles .Then it's Radek's match point and there is a bit of rain, but nothing that serious. Sanguinetti starts crying to the umpire to suspend play while the court was wet. Yes, yours truly led the chorus of boos on the outside court and then the slow handclapping. After 5 minutes they finished the match and I was wondering whether Sanguinetti would call for the trainer or take a toilet break while match point down.
Well for tomorrow I will be going to seeEscude v Söderling in the morning, and then I will see Gaudio take out that Hrbaty character ( no I am not confident) and later go and watch Jarkko against Safin. There are some others I will be keeping my eyes out on. The mens doubles begin on Thursday and there should be some interesting matches.
2 comments:
That was a good read and the whole Stepanek incident sounds very funny, it shows that many of the best matches are on the outside courts.
It was great to re-read these reports - and - of course, anything that brings the gorgeous Sr. Calleri back into my mind has got to be a good thing! I am looking forward to all the 2006 reports.
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