Monday, April 24, 2006

Bye Bye Spanish Warrior Albert Costa in Barcelona and Casachallenger

It's disappointing this year that Barcelona has suffered a huge amount of withdrawals that isn't good for one of the best non-clay events on the calendar, some of the withdrawals are interesting
such as
- Nalbandian going back for a rally race
- Gaudio deciding to go back to Argentina and forgo playing in the city where he won his first tournament.
- Ljubicic injured a toe.
- Acasuso probably needs to get some more herbal infusion.
- Hanescu is probably still suffering from injury and the mental scarring of losing to LaLo on clay in Monte Carlo.

But there are still some good players on offer, plus the Bye is around as well and that ensures extra people in the club and it's meant to be a wonderful venue from all reports.

This will be last ever went for Albert Costa and I will be sad to see him go, but time moves on and he had a very good time in the game and he won his RG crown that his talent deserved and I hope he can beat the ATP rapper Vinny Ice and it's good that he finishes in the city that he lives in and he can spend more time at home with his kids and watching his beloved Barcelona football team. One of my other faves is very close to retirement big Felix Mantilla, seems only a matter of time.

Onto the tournament now. Calleri is making his comeback and plays Justin Gimelclown in the 1st round and that is what I call a dream draw, just hope he can get through this season without any more injury problems, as this is where he can establish some form, but with Calleri one can never tell.

Berdych is another one who has a tough draw against Montañes, well tough if he isn't ready to play, though to me he has the potential to end the Nadal streak on clay and he does have a very good game for him and they know each other very well, but this is a bit of speculation on my behalf.

Along with Berdych, Nieminen and Andreev are looking for some improvement on their Monte Carlo performances and this is a good tournament for them to do so, though to be fair Igor did get Safin and Ljubo as 1st round opponents previously, but that's the beauty of clay. A players weaknesses can be exploited in such a way that is difficult on other surfaces, if they aren't moving well and their serve is coming back and can't rely on brainless ball bashing.

Casachallenger is at its best again and anything could happen at this tournament and as much as I like Lucho Horna, he being the number 2 seed at an ATP event does have a certain Mickey Mouse credentials. It's meant to be a nice place and there have been some good winners of the event in the past.

Seppi and Lucho can do well here and Massu is the top seed, but I'd like to see the big Behrend do well here. Maybe it's cause he is a cheaper version of Acasuso, except slower and has a great grunt that can be heard from a long distance. Too bad he is not in Barcelona and not playing Ferrero.

Juan Monaco needs a big performance here and there is a chance for Marach as well to make a second round again and hope he can crack the top 100. He is a very good guy, though a bit of a nut on court and does get a bit pissed off with himself.

Let the fun begin.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Sliding Around in the Millionares Playground in Magnificent Monte Carlo

Now the first clay TMS of the season is upon us in Monte Carlo, this out of the three TMS events on clay that has produced the most winners of Roland Garros in the same year. This is probably cause these are the closest playing conditions to what they have in Roland Garros, which is not surprising.

The tournament has been hit with many withdrawals, though for the most part it's American players not playing cause either they are scared of getting flogged, they want to spend more time at home and not worry about this part of the season, or they don't like Monte Carlo which is understandable.

This in a way is good for the tournament as there are still plenty of quality 1st round matches and there is a distinct lack of claycourt clowns and that's a good thing.

Ferrero vs Tursunov: Ferrero is returning to a place of former triumphs, but he is not the same player and hasn't added an extra dimension since the glory days of 2003. Mitya is a loose cannon and though this is not his best surface, he is hitting the ball very well at the moment and I would like to see him win this match, but we'll see.

Ljubo vs Andreev: An intriguing first round match to get Ljubo's clay season under way and not one I think he would like too much. He has no points to defend during this part of the season and should be able to hold his place in the top 10, but big Igor is not an easy opponent at all.

Ljubo will have to serve well for sure and I will be interested to see how his forehand holds up on this surface. He is no gimp on this surface, but a guy like Andreev can break him down from the baseline, though Igor's favourite shot is the off-forehand and that goes Ljubo's backhand which his strength. For Andreev to win, he will need to keep his length very deep and then wrongfoot Ljubo a lot and test out his movement.

Massu vs Ferrer: There will be plenty of running and grunting in this match between these two tough players. As Deivid said this week Froggy Ferrer had some back problems and hopefully he has healed from that and will be able to play well against the "Raccoon" Massu who has shown signs of life this season and has been injury free and is always prepared to play for a long time, though he does take 30 min in between points.

Interestingly enough these two have never played each other and Massu has had time to prepare after not playing a tournament straight after Davis Cup and if Ferrer is ailing then he could take advantage, especially as Ferrer has quite a few points to defend from this event.

Santoro vs Berdych: This is a case of brains versus brawn in this encounter. It has been said and that is Berdych is similar to Safin and in many ways he is in a tennis way. I hope for Berdych's sake he doesn't have a Safin-like disposition to playing Santoro. It could easily happen that the variety of spin, slice and junk could throw the Berdman off and get him extremely pissed off and end up losing focus, and if it's windy that will give another advantage to Santoro, but I am interested in this one for sure.

Gonzalez vs Moya : What a match and these guys will be testing the geometrical dimensions of the court to see how far they can hang in the backhand corner to hit forehands, this is an unpredictable match as both have been a bit down this year, but they have the potential to do very well.

Gaudio vs Henman: Gaston hasn't won a set in 3 matches against Henman and he needs to ready from the first point against this chip/charge rubbish from Henman. It has been a long time since they played. Henman has had injury problems, but can pull out a good performance still and Gaston is out of form, so I hope the trend can be reversed. Gaston ring the big Zabaleta, he will tell you how to beat Henman.

Acasuso vs Volandri : Chucho plays well against Volandri usually and he hasn't played at these TMS events for a long time and I hope Chucho blows him away like he has done previously, their games match up quite well and hope this trend continues.

Should be a good tournament and I get good TV coverage and I am happy about this.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

No Time for Paella in Valencia or Texan Rednecks in Houston Special Comments from Valencia Correspondent

The claycourt season begins in Europe in Valencia and the former Mallorca tournament has been moved here and it will lead into my favourite 3 months of the year apart from that horrible month of grasscourt tennis.

Igor Andreev won his first title here in his second home of Valencia defeating another local boy David Ferrer, with the draw it seems Ferrer has the much easier section to navigate if he wants to make the finals again. It will be intruiging to see how they adjust to the clay and whether playing here will be an advantage before playing in Monte Carlo.

As for the draw it's wide open as PMK, Safin, Seppi and Tursunov will be coming from Davis Cup and there has been a tendency to have a let down after in the next tournament. Verdasco returns to the place where he won his only tournament so far, which is a poor return for a guy as gifted as he is. He faces Beto Martin a tough contender, but that is a slighter weaker half.

The match of the first round is between the Russian valencianos Andreev and Safin, Igor has the advantage, but whether he will win or not is debatable. In this section is Ferrero as well as Gaudio who is out of form, but if he can win a couple of matches that will be good. One first round match is of interest not for the right reasons either it's Andrei Pavel and Tomas Zib. Zib has lost 17 matches in a row and Pavel hasn't done much better, hope that changes as he needs a big run soon.

Houston

Well good luck Horna, Monaco, Behrend. Hope Koubek, Massa and Russell can make the main draw.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Famous Feuds in Tennis History

Well since some people don't like Davis Cup and boo to them, here is something that I found in a tennis mag and it was written by Paul Fein about famous tennis feuds.

This has been copied from the magazine onto here and the only thing adjusted was about Muster and the banana incident, the player was Felix Mantilla, he dropped the ball on a few of them, but overall it was worth typing it up.

Yes, there were female ones as well, but I am not going to talk about that on this blog. Make of these little feuds what you will.


Famous Feuds in Tennis History

I stumbled across this article and thought it was interesting and since I don’t deal with the rubbish WTA. I will type out the ones relating to the ATP, though they did miss some of the good stuff for sure.

The Bad Boy vs. The Brat

It was hate at first sight when Connors who had reigned with Björn Borg during most of the 1970s, confronted McEnroe, an equally fiery Irish-American. Proud and pugnacious, Connors resented the outrageously talented punk and at the 1979 Grand Prix Masters, dismissively predicted, “Remember he’s still a young boy. McEnroe will be good practice for me.” Connors retired after trailing 7-5 3-0 to signal the changing of the guard.

The younger (by six years) McEnroe came out on top 20-13 in their often controversial matches, although Connors led 8-7 in GS titles. However their verbal volleys were even and always entertaining. When McEnroe hectored officials during their 1980 Wimbledon semi final, Connors blasted, “My son is better behaved than you. I’ll bring him to play you.” McEnroe confided, “There were times on court when I wanted to beat Connors so bad. I felt I could easily strangle him.”

By 1984, a mellower Connors was winning over crowds with quips instead of alienating them with vulgarity, while irascible McEnroe inspired a love-hate relationship with the fans. “I don’t know that I have changed all that much. They just found somebody worse,” was Jimbo’s memorable zinger.

Mac wasn’t buying the nice-guy image Connors cultivated late in his career and fired back, “I don’t think I could ever be that phoney.”

In 2005, the long-time antagonists agreed to share the BBC broadcasting for Wimbledon. Would that little booth be big enough for these two combustible characters? You cannot be serious! It never happened

The Egoist vs. The Underdog

If 1970s’ champion Guillermo Vilas was a god in Argentina, Guillermo Coria is the current people’s choice. He’s so beloved in his homeland that when he appears in restaurants he gets standing ovations. Ironically, he’s far less popular with other players, including his fellow countrymen, whom he nearly always beats (23-5 at the last count). Coria has been known to mock his opponents after he wins and seldom gives them credit when he loses.

Like oil and water, Coria and kinsman Gaston Gaudio will never mix. They come from different family backgrounds and have different approaches to tennis and life. Coria was groomed from birth to be the greatest tennis player of his generation with his tennis coach dad naming him after Vilas.

Gaudio enjoyed football and rugby in his childhood and only picked up tennis because his older brother was playing at the time. He decided to turn pro only after his father had a heart attack, and the family experienced money problems, believing that tennis could help relieve their financial stresses.

Like Connors, Coria feeds on rivalries to fuel his competitiveness. Only someone with a superiority complex would rent a hotel for the anticipated victory celebrations before the 2004 French Open final, as Coria did. Lo and behold, he lost to the No.44-ranked Gaudio, who was so shocked that he confided, “I don’t know how I win. I can’t believe it yet. This is like a movie for me. And I don’t even know it, but I’m the star.”

In complete contrast, Gaudio finds it hard to compete against those he regards as friends such as Mariano Zabaleta, Juan Ignacio Chela, Carlos Moya and Lleyton Hewitt. A self-confessed perfectionist, he often says he’d rather play well than win.

The bad blood between these two 175cm opposites started in the 2001 Viña del Mar final which Coria captured. They celebrated points by glaring at each other. A week later the simmering feud heated up when they collided in the Buenos Aires quarter finals. In low voices they exchanged nasty remarks. After Gaudio won, he unfurled an Independiente flag (the football team he passionately supports) and jogged towards Esteban Cambiasso, the team’s star who was celebrating Gaudio’s triumph. Coria swears that, while Gaudio was going towards Cambiasso, he “hit” him in the face with part of the flag.

The most bitter confrontation happened after Coria prevailed in the 2003 Hamburg semi final. Coria asked for the trainer when Gaudio was gaining momentum going into the second set tiebreaker. After the short treatment Gaudio took the tiebreaker, but Coria, without showing any signs of cramping or any other injury, won the deciding set 6-0. When Coria limped to the net to shake hands, a provoked Gaudio insulted him by saying, “You are a ghost.”

Since then the two have managed a détente of sorts, perhaps due to the calming influence of Coria’s wife Carla, although Gaudio admitted that he initially thought Coria was again faking cramps in the 2004 Roland Garros final. Their animosity resurfaced at the 2005 World Team Cup when Coria withdrew from his round robin singles match against the two-time defending champions Chile, claiming his shoulder was injured. “I’m fed up, one has to tell the truth,” fumed Gaudio. “This isn’t a team because there’s someone who makes decisions choosing what’s best for him. Coria and I were the best team, but if we were a real team this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Coria is selfish, because he’s extremely competitive,” says a local journalist. “Gaudio is too sincere, he will say what he thinks, and he is justifiably envious that the Argentine media and National Tennis Association treat Coria better. I predict the feud will remain the same. They won’t talk to each other, but they will bad mouth each other.”

The Almost- Champion vs. The Media

“Henman-mania” has been a blessing and a curse for Englishman Tim Henman, who, for much of his career, has endured local pressure to become the first British men’s Wimbledon champion since Fred Perry way back in 1936. Not quite talented enough, he made four semi-finals and four quarter-finals at the All England Tennis Club. Late in his tennis career, as hopes faded, the tabloids became merciless with headlines such as “No Pressure Timbo, But Choke Now, and We’ll Never Forgive You”. Henman held his fire for many years but finally lost his patience when he charged that, “Most journalists don’t know what they’re talking about. A lot of people agree with me.”


The Intimidator vs. The Jerk

Ivan Lendl once called Austrian Horst Skoff “the biggest jerk in tennis”. Skoff earned his reputation by always finding an excuse whenever he lost and insulting linespeople. Equally offensive, fellow Davis Cupper Thomas Muster got his kicks by trying to maim players with vicious bodyshots. Once when an opponent (Felix Mantilla, come on Paul do better research) was eating a banana during a changeover, he walked by grabbed it and ate it himself. In a 1996 match at Queens, Muster kept yelling “faggot” at Mark Woodforde, whose girlfriend was watching courtside. “I’m not Mr Nice Guy. “I’m a tough cookie,” bragged Muster.

As juniors Skoff took a lot of flak for being the smallest kid in the training camp and one day Muster and his pals put him into a box and taped it shut. Their hatred later became public when Muster criticised Skoff’s training habits in the Austrian press. Skoff fired back in telling reporters he didn’t like Muster’s demands of being paid for Davis Cup.

Footnote: Ronnie “Der Arschloch” Leigteb was Muster’s coach, manager and also an organiser of Davis Cup ties. Missed that one again Paul.

For years they wouldn’t talk to each other. Muster upped the ante by not dressing in the same locker room as Skoff, and in 1993 he refused to play Davis Cup if Skoff was on the team.

To his credit, Skoff gradually matured, but the scowling Muster, who won the 1995 Roland Garros and briefly gained the No. 1 ranking, never mellowed.

Ubaldo Scangatta, Italy’s leading tennis writer recalled an irate Muster after whipping Skoff in a contentious Florence final. “In the locker room and nobody else was there, but his masseur. Thomas told me, “I’d like one day to find myself within four walls alone with Horst and finally have a chance to hit him with a lot of punches until I knock him down.’”


The Role Model vs. The Outsider

“I swear every time I passed Connors in the locker room, it took all my will power not to punch him in the mouth. It’s sickening. He and Bill Riordan could be such a good part of tennis, when they have wrecked the whole game?” wrote Arthur Ashe, a stalwart of the ATP players’ union, his 1975 book “Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion”

Before their unforgettable 1975 Wimbledon final, Connors filed a $5 million lawsuit against Ashe for calling Connors “unpatriotic” for his refusal to join the US Davis Cup tea,. Bad blood between these two opposites, the admired leader and the brash rebel persisted throughout their careers. When journalist Peter Bodo asked Ashe, “Is Jimmy Connors really just an asshole?” Ashe replied “Yeah, but he’s my favourite asshole.”

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Davis Cup Quarter Final Preview

Well it’s time for the Davis Cup quarter finals and unlike some people and some players I appreciate the unique qualities of this event and how they compliment the tour and provide different aspects from run of the mill events, but enough of the hooplah, it’s time to get on with the previews.

Croatia vs Argentina


Understandably the Croats are huge favourites in this match, as they are playing at home in Zagreb on a very fast carpet surface which could rival the Minsk ice rink in comparison to surface quickness and the other factor is the Croats have better players than Belarus will make this one of the tougher challenges for the Argentine team.

The Croatian line up is Ljubo, Karate Kid Ancic, Tuksar and Cilic. I am not sure what the reason that big Karlovic wasn’t included in the squad for this tie. The only thing is that if something were to happen to Ljubicic or Ancic, then it could be trouble for them, but that would be unlikely.

Argentina do have very good tennis depth in relation to players in the top 100, but they need to capitalise on this depth and win a Davis Cup soon, before the generational change which will impact on Argentine tennis and make it more difficult for them to do so.

As for this tie they have a chance of winning for sure, but Nalbandian will have to be at his best and he has never lost a Davis Cup singles tie and he seems to thrive in this environment and doesn’t suffer from motivational problems.

The second singles player is going to be an interesting choice either out of Acasuso or Calleri. As I think Chela is there for backup and the doubles combination will be probably who doesn’t play in the second singles spot. Calleri has the better recent form and seems to thrive in the DC environment. Chucho has a better serve and in theory should be harder to break on this surface, though he does take big swings on the ball, then again this hasn’t stopped Ljubo before.

Just hope it’s 2 all and the 5th match scenario would be great, Argentina managed to beat Australia on grass and they can win here, they just need to play to their abilities and the only ball and not the other stuff. I see the Croats as the winners of this tie.

Australia vs Belarus

This is a tie the Aussies should win and the Belarussians don’t have a great record away from the Minsk ice rink. It will be played on Rebound Ace and as for the pace of the court that is subjective as Hewitt wants it faster, whereas faster wouldn’t harm the either the Beast or Mad Vlad.

For the Aussies the team is Hewitt, Arthurs, Guccione (the Arthurs clone with a forehand) and Hanley. It’s disappointing that Luczak has missed out playing a tie in his home city, but he can now concentrate on playing on clay and getting into the some of the big events.
The Belarussians are led by the Beast and have Mad Vlad as his backup, the guy who does nothing on tour, but when he is playing for Belarus, he comes out of nowhere and plays above his normal level.

Hewitt needs a big performance here to establish some sort of form as he hasn’t had the best of starts to the year, but he truly loves the Davis Cup and is not easy to beat in Australia in this event. His early loss in Miami, may have helped him in a way, though we won’t know to next week. As for the second spot it will probably go to Ronald McDonald Guccione as he has been playing, something Arthurs hasn’t of late.

Big Wayno will be in the doubles with Hanley and they have a very good combo, but big Max is an excellent doubles player as well, at the same time it could easily be over after the doubles. If the Aussies manage to lose this tie, I wonder what Hewitt will complain about and who will bear the brunt of the criticism.

France vs Russia

These two countries must be sick of meeting each other in Davis Cup as it has seemed to happen quite a lot recently.

The Frenchies have chosen to play this on a carpet surface and the choice of surface is an interesting one as the Russians are very capable on all surfaces except grass and the only grass at the moment in France is either for grazing, for dogs to shit on or to play football on.

As for the squads the French have chosen Gasquet, Grosjean, Clement (Forget’s poodle) and Llodra, which was successful against the Germans last time. It seems that they will have Clement/Llodra for the doubles and the other two for the singles and the doubles is where they have the advantage over the Russians, elsewhere the Russians seem to have them covered.

The Russian czar Shamil has named Safin, Davydenko, Tursunov and Youzhny for the tie. Safin has come back very strongly and is the best player in the game under a roof and on carpet which has been chosen for this tie and as long as he is fit, he should take his place and cause of his injury problems he will be the number 2 on the team and will play Gasquet and he has the game to crush Gasquet on this surface. In addition if it comes down to a 5th match, he plays very well against Grosjean and he would be favoured to win that.

PMK will do what he does and go around unnoticed and he can play quite well on this surface and the French might have to target him to get wins against in the singles, if they are going to get over the line.

Too bad Napoleon Forget didn’t include Santoro in this squad, as the potential deciding 5th match between Santoro and Safin would be worth watching alone, but this is just a dream.

USA vs Chile

The Americans have done the only logical and sensible thing in relation to court surface was to choose the grass.

Gonzalez and Massu play with such passion when it comes to playing for their nation and the Athens Olympics was an example of this. It’s not just about playing for themselves and they take great pride in playing for Chile and this is an occasion where they will need it for sure.

In this tie it is the respective number 2 players in the team, that have been showing the better form especially James “I went to Harvard, but I don’t play Harvard tennis” Blake and Nicolas “I am not a vampire I just hate garlic” Massu has played quite well this season so far. The problem for Massu especially is the surface and I am not sure he can win any of his singles matches.

As for the number 1 players in the team, neither of them have been in outstanding form. At the same time Davis Cup is a different beast and it can inspire or hinder players and hopefully for the Chilean team Fernando Gonzalez can lift his game and he will need to win on Day 1 for the Chileans to have a chance in this tie.

Doubles could be interesting with the chest bumping Bryan brothers playing Gonzo and Massu who play a unique form of doubles just belting huge groundstrokes from the baseline and hope they can hit through the Bryans.

Mr Roddick isn’t even winning the Mickey Mouse events in North America that he usually does and he has never won against Massu, but if he can’t beat him on a grass court in his home country, then there are some serious alarm bells.

Blake and Gonzo has the potential to be an exhibition of brainless ball bashing or maybe some quantum physics can be incorporated into this match. This will be last time Blake will be winning consecutive matches for a while.

The Americans should be too strong in this one, though I want to be proven wrong.