The last of these rubbish 96 player draws is upon us and thanks for that. The atmosphere in Miami seems to be quite good, mainly it's because of the high Latin population that give the crowds a bit more energy and life and the standard of tennis can be quite good, though it does get windy there as well.
Once this tournament is over then it moves onto clay and no more 96 player draws, though the Bye is always a great highlight of these events and usually plays with such flair. The question will this be another Federer vs Nadal final? The thing is I don't give a fuck really, the main reason is I enjoy their tennis for different reasons and as for domination, well it's up to the other players to lift their games and they will do it eventually.
Some of the 1st round matches completed were Agustin Calleri defeating Juan Monaco 6-2 6-1 and I would love to know what happened here. I hope Juan wasn't injured or maybe Calleri just hit everything in the middle of the racquet as that is a comprehensive defeat and he know plays Gael Monfils in the next round and that could be quite an interesting match, but with Calleri one can never tell.
Stan "The Man" Wawrinka beat Andy Murray in 3 sets for the second time now and there was some confidence in the press that on a hardcourt, that this would be Murray's revenge from the Geneva defeat, but this was not to be the case. Stani has an excellent backhand and can hit very well, just needs to improve his shot selection at times. For now Murray claims that clay is his favourite surface and soon enough and the tests will come. Now Stani plays Gonzo who has been struggling with some injury problems of late and anything could happen in this one.
Fabrice Santoro managed to break big Ivo Karlovic's serve and win in straight sets and now takes on his pigeon German Nicolas Kiefer. Santoro has never lost a set to this guy in 6 matches and I can see how Kiefer would get pissed off playing against the little trickster and hope Fab can serve up some more magic to piss off the German.
Chucho Acasuso wins 5-7 6-1 6-1 over Czech Challenger Bunny Tomas Zib and seems Chucho was having a sleep in the 1st set, but he only made 1 unforced error in the 2nd set and was able to carry through to the end of the match and has a potentially very interesting match with the Berdman Tomas Berdych. In this match whoever wins I can't be a loser, though I'd like to see Chucho win.
Malisse and Massu won their matches as well. I am not a huge Massu fan, but I would love it if he takes out Boredo in the next round. As for Xavi Malisse he gets to play Radek Stepanek again and I don't think Thunder Lips will be losing 1 and 1 again so soon, but this was the scene where Malisse blew up at the linesperson and got a holiday from the ATP, which of course Roddick and Agassihole wouldn't have.
As for the rest of the first round the only Aussie player I like Peter Luczak is up against that evil toad Arnaud Clement. I hope Luczak can play a blinder and win this match and not be too passive and keep a heavy length on his forehand. Lucho Horna plays the geeky German Florian Mayer and just hope he can remain focused and not get pissed off from the junk that Mayer hits, though the unorthodox two handed drop shot on the hop is a thing of beauty.
Andrei Pavel and Beto Martin are playing and hopefully one of these guys can knock Roddick out early and Pavel really needs some good performances soon, as he will be out of the top 100 if he fucks up in Münich and doesn't do well elsewhere. He has a 3-0 record over Beto, just hope he can continue on in this way. Then the pimp of Florida the rapping genius of Boca Raton Vinny Spadea is playing against Seppi and hope Seppi shows him the door.
Then the highlight of the tournament without a doubt besides the presence of the Bye. Donald Young vs Carlos Berlocq, someone will win their 1st match on the ATP tour and the only question is who. DY is talented, but so overhyped and getting more Wild Cards than a prostitute has sex in a full working week and Berlocq is a clay hound, but hopefully with Gaby Markus, he will improve and win this match and maybe DY should learn some lessons in humility, though I don't see this happening.
15 comments:
Hahahahaha, Carlos Berlocq wins his first ever match on the ATP tour main level and he beats the great American hype Donald Young 6-0 6-0.
I have to say I am surprised and happily surprised and DY needs to be kept off the main tour for some time.
Good work Lucho hope he can take out Haas in the next round.
About Mónaco and Calleri - well as you know I was lounging in my Hospital bed o Wednesday and not attending the match in person - but I'm reliably informed that Agustin played amazingly well in that match (as he obviously continued to do beating Monfils in the next round)- while Juan had one of his bad days:-(( Agustin's 1st serve percentage was very high and he hit a lot of great winners. Juan kept up with him in the 1st set despite the scoreline (he had plenty of break points on Agustin's serve) - but he just could not deliver, and in the 2nd set he got despondant and down on himself and gave no real opposition. In his post-match interview he said something like "I didn't have a clue how to play him" - sorry - can't remember the exact quote - I am on a visiting friend's laptop at the moment - when I get home I will try ad find it for you. Juan is playing the Mexico City Challenger starting on Monday - as far as I know he is not injured.
Calleri had another good performance against Monfils to make it through to the 3rd round, where he takes on Moya. I hope Calleri can do well in this tournament.
Volandri won another match on a hardcourt, things are getting interesting now.
Well Berlocq got the bagel from Blake, so that probably shows how far behind DY is.
Nalle is into the 4th round after beating Berdych in the last 2 sets for the loss of only 1 game and I need to see the highlights for myself as to how that happened.
Marcos losing a tough match to the PMK. well he has more time to prepare for the MM tournament in Houston.
I've seen that match between Nalle and Berdych. But as you wanna see the highlights for yourself, I won't say much. Just have to say I had never witnessed Berdych being so inconsistent. I knew it could happen though.
I found Bye's coach in Miami, am running off to places unknown with him. He was a welcome respite from the drunk and oversexed Frenchies at the player party, a true gentleman and needless to say, I'm in love.
Couldnt get to Gaston's match as Bye's Coach had me occupied on the beach, but suffices to say that his practices were dicey, he was not in a good place mentally. (Think the tired look in his photos explains it all, the link is on MTF)
Chucho's first match was a scorcher, was a veritable 96 degrees in the shade....but that second set was really quite amazing, Chucho fired off so many aces I lost count.
Kay, as Bye has some vacation time and has decided not to train for a bit, I'm off to keep his coach entertained.....
Michelle - does Bye's Coach have a friend for me? Maybe a Physical Trainer....?
I see the coach of Bye has stolen the lovely Michelle's heart and thanks for the update.
Back to the tennis side of things. It looks like there will be a preview to the Croatia vs Argentina Davis Cup tie in the quarter finals with Ancic playing Nalle and Calleri playing Ljubo.
Calleri has made the quarter finals after taking out Kiefer. The 1st set was hideous, he was just making forehand errors all over the place.
He turned it around in the last 2 sets and kept being aggressive and even served it out, which is something he hasn't always done. Plenty of beautiful backhands down the line and that's what has kept him in the match.
Nalle and Stepanek was an up and down match, both played some good stuff, just usually not at the same time and Radek was serving at 30 per cent of 1st serves in the 1st set and that's not getting it done when it counts.
Thanks for those comments/reviews of matches. Vamos Agustin!!!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Clay season start now, please!
Froggy Ferrer beating the Duck is always good and he should have done it last year in Paris on a much faster surface, but he won.
Nalbandian and Ljubicic is the match that I am more interested in watching as that could be important for next week in the Davis Cup.
Aphex, the Mexico City and Napoli challengers are going so the clay won't be too far away.
An awful match from Nalbandian. He looked like half asleep the whole match. Ivan's serve is incredible this week but Nalby's UEs are just disgusting.
Nalbandian just didn't seem to be there at all. I got pretty disappointed with this match, I was expecting a breathtaking three-setter. Anyway, as for DC I don't think the match will be as one-sided as this one, mainly because Nalbandian usually raises his level at this competition, more than Ljubo, and he'll be thirsty for revenge. And according to the Argentine press Calleri will likely be picked for the second singles spot and will play doubles alongside Bandy, which kinda takes out Argentina's initial advantage of having more depth than Croatia.
Back to Miami, Ferrer proved most people wrong and managed to defend his SF points. Now I expect a beatdown in the final and Fed taking the title once more.
Btw, gotta love Calleri's comments after beating Kiefer, something like "I won mainly because I got bothered with Kiefer celebrating his points by screaming towards me at the end of the first set and used it as a motivation factor."
Well Nalle's forehand that was an exhibition in how not to hit a forehand and he seemed to be in a daze and maybe he has his mind on other things than this match.
Davis Cup will be a different story for sure.
Thanks for those comments from Calleri about Kiefer and it's not surprising that this was the case. Personally Kiefer is what he is and only irritates me, but nowhere near as much as others.
Zabaleta is another one who is not keen on Kiefer either.
Speaking of tennis feuds there is a good article in one of the tennis magazines and I will copy it in here during the week, most of those arse clowns on MTF don't need to read it.
Federer to continue the beatdown of Ljubo and win again.
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