Monday, July 24, 2006

Servus Kitzbühel it was nice knowing you and sunburn in Umag

The last ever Kitzbühel event is happening and hope it is a good one, though they have some funny things there about the site. First of all on the tournament web page it has a picture of LaLo on it and he is not even playing the event.

It seems Mafioso Tiriac isn’t happy with the event and also the fact that they didn’t pay their bills on time in the last couple of years, plus the town wouldn’t let him build a big mansion there and Ion the svengali wants to move the event, it’s just a question of where it will go now.

The tournament sees the comeback of the PMK and Boredo and it’s a surprise the PMK took a week off, that is a rare thing for him and Boredo now has a new coach in Jordi Vilaro who used to work with Beto Martin and Felix Mantilla, well 2 out of 3 isn’t bad is it.

It’s good that they play in the mountains with a bit of altitude around, though not as high as the Mexico City or Bogota in the old days, it’s definitely cleaner air wise and the ball does fly further and the players need to adjust their length and be even fitter to play well at altitude.

The field isn’t as strong as it was, especially with the growth of Umag and the fact that Umag has matches starting at 6pm , so people can hang on the beach during the day and then enjoy the parties in the evening. There is no secret that Mr Carlos Moya is the Umag king and he loves the place, a beach and a party. So the question is whether you are a beach or mountains person.

Onto the events itself in Kitzi well the Bye makes an appearance the Bye is always welcomed. The best thing is the big Serbian Maltese living Boris Pashanski has a Bye and with that it’s the first 2nd round he has made in his last 11 tournaments. This was the man who made the top 100 last season, without winning an ATP match, he started out OK this year, but he has gone 0-11 in his last events.

Both finalists Gaudio and Verdasco are in the same section and they would need to improve on their recent form to reach there again. Gaudio has now won more doubles titles this season than singles and he loves playing in Kitzi, but maybe this could give him some impetus to improve his singles results and disappointingly he and Max are not playing doubles in Kitz, so the odd couple are no more. Verdasco is the epitome of talented, but tactically inept player on the tour, so trying to guess his results are like trying to find neo-nazi skinheads in Saudi Arabia.

- As for the rest Seppi has the Bye and could play Yayo Massa.

- Lucho is back and hopefully his shoulder/elbow are ready to go.

- Big Marach after his QF showing in Stuttgart, is now at his best ever ranking and wants to do well at home, he has a potential meeting with Gordo Calleri.

- Nieminen comes back after Davis Cup and that disappointing loss to Boredo in Båstad and this event could be good for him.

- Pavel well he got a Bye and he has done well enough to stay in the top 100 and that’s a good thing as I don’t want him to retire just yet. I mean look at the thighs Jonas Björkman has come out of nowhere and played a couple of good singles events and now can keep going, so there is hope for Pavel.

- Luczak qualified and made the second round over challenger maestro Minar and could make the 3rd round as he plays German ballbasher Kohlschreiber.

Umag sees the new Stuttgart champ David “Froggy” Ferrer as the top seed and whether he has been partying too much or not it should be still enough to defeat Carlos “I thrashed DY 6-0 6-0 on hardcourt” Berlocq. He is in the same section as “Mr Umag” Carlos Moya who will probably do well here and quite possibly win it.

Among the other matches, there is a match between promising youngsters Marin Cilic and Evgeny Korolev. Cilic, like most Cro players is tall with a big serve, but he says clay is his favourite surface and both are familiar to each other, if all goes well then these two will make some noise on the ATP and they have already done well this year.

Vicente plays form horse Ramirez Hidalgo, who has been doing something Vicente hasn’t of late, that is winning matches. Then “Dropshot” Dlouhy against the “Chicken Man” anything could happen there.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

French Gnome Choupi and Radical Rosie Reporting From Spätzliland Stuttgart and Amersfoort on the side

Well we are in the lovely south west of Germany this week and also in Amersfoort for the summer clay circus, just wish that they didn't move the event from Amsterdam to Amersfoort and such is life.

Best of all there will be some correspondents there, so that means that there will be some reports from matches that most of us won't be able to see and that is always appreciated. As is the Bye making his return to the Tour and watch the large amount of women that will want to talk to the Bye, this is a given.

Too bad Luczak and Koubek didn't qualify, but Hartfield and del Potro did so there are enough Argentines in the field.

Stuttgart has had stronger fields, but even then there are still enough interest in this field. I have to say I love how they managed to put most of my favourites in the one section. For example Gaudio could play his friend Zabaleta, but Zab has been struggling of late and is no sure thing to defeat Waske. Lucho has a bye and then hopefully Saretta is put off with the rubbish Portas game, though one can never tell how focused Saretta is at times.

Seppi and Acasuso is a possible 2nd round match, though I hope Chucho and Ferrer do end up meeting as I can see Chucho smoking Ferrer out of the match and he has the firepower that can hit through Froggy and he has done that on numerous occasions.

Other guys that I hope to do well are Pavel and he can stay in the top 100 as he has no points to defend for the rest of season. Dlouhy and Wawrinka has some good comedy potential and if Stani doesn't want to run and "dropshot" Dlouhy is on his game, then it could be a bad loss, but Stani is inconsistent to say the least and could play a blinder here. If you get a chance to see Marach, it should be taken as he is quite the fiery guy, but not in the Dani Köllerer league, but he does have some very colourful language.

While it's mainly about Stuttgart, there is another event in the Netherlands and they have had some great finals there in the past, but now the weasel is the number 1 seed and for some reason I see that the Coria slump isn't going to continue for too long and he got a local wild card and a 2nd round potential match with Marin Cilic would be intruiging.
Calleri made the final here last year and would like to go one better and as it's a very open tournament anything can happen. Massu the vampire is lurking and scowling. Moya is playing here as well and loves the small clay events these days and Edgardo Massa is back on tour, it would have been fun if he drew with Massu. Hope Vinciguerra can qualify and the young junior from the Netherlands de Bakker.


Look forward to the Stuttgart reports.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Båstad the best IS event and Gaudio chasing the fondue in Gstaad

The summer clay season is back after 4 weeks of that nauseating Wimbledon, though to be fair it has not been as painful as usual, the slowing down of the courts have had something to do with this.

Enough of the grass crap and back onto the clay and the Båstad event. The organisers have done an excellent job with this event, it clearly used to be poor relation compared to Gstaad when it came to attracting the top claycourt players in the 90s after the golden Swedish generation ceased except for Gusten and Magnus Norman. It was the dark days when Cheech Marin won the title in 1999.

It’s a small town on the beach that is very popular in summer and tennis is a big thing there. Yes, with that, there are a lot of rich snobby wankers from Stockholm and other places with their huge summer houses and other stars that go there to be seen and not care about the tennis. There was a funny incident last year when Zabaleta had enough of these idiots and told them to shut up, then again he was losing to the Berdman at the time.

It’s a very good field and has won the best International Series Event 4x in a row and the fact that they don’t pay appearance money makes it a good thing. Nadal has pulled out, but that is only because of his finalist appearance at Wimbledon and it’s understandable that he has withdrawn.

PMK is the top seed and he plays Beto Martin and that won’t be an easy match and actually it’s quite possible for Beto to take this match and there are some very good 1st round matches.

Massu/Zabaleta: There aren’t many secrets between these 2 guys. Massu is a time wasting Vampire, but a tough guy to play and Zabaleta hasn’t been in great form since his comeback, it’s going to take time and it only takes a couple of good wins to change things for him. Zabaleta is huge in Båstad and 2 of his titles have come at the venue and he loves the place and small things like that can help a player.

Acasuso/Coria: Chucho and the weasel have both taken a break and it will be interesting to see how they both come back from the layoff. Just hope Chucho can smoke the Weasel, previous matches well the last one was 3 years ago and the fact that both are a lot different from then. Coria wasn’t missing and dissecting opponents and Chucho wasn’t as good then as he is now, they do know each other quite well, so this could impact on the quality of the match.

Berdych/Almagro : This is a quality 1st round match and both have been winners of the MTF Bandwagon player of the month award and that is a very prestigious award. They have played only once and what a surprise it was at Båstad last year and the Berdman won 6-4 in the 3rd and wouldn’t be a surprise to see if it was that close again. Berdman did have some problems with his shoulder at Wimbledon, but with some rest he should be OK and he has finalist points to defend from here. It will depend on how Almagro returns the Berdman serve as to how this match will pan out.

Chela/Nieminen: Chela loves the clay and the Shark is quite adept on at as well, this time Nieminen comes in as the higher ranked player and having less time to adjust back to the surface after his Wimbledon exploits. Chela has won the only 2 matches they have played on clay, but Jarkko does quite well here and he is the highest ranked player in Norden (Scandinavia to those people who don’t get the term Norden) , maybe the Shark can win this one.

As for the other matches. Lucho is playing Thomas Johansson, in theory Lucho should win this cause of his greater expertise on the clay, but he could just as easily lose this match. Calleri has a qualifier and I am just happy he is back playing again.

Marach and Prpic are playing each other and the best thing about this match is that one of them will get to the next round, both are pretty good guys and Marach is very funny on court especially when he gets shitty.

Vinciguerra is back at Båstad and I’d love for him one day to win this title, but that will be unlikely, if he can stay injury free then that’s a good thing. He is great to watch, interesting he is played the Nadal game before Nadal, but now that has changed. The thing I don’t like is that his backhand doesn’t seem to have improved.


Hope big Peter Luczak can qualify for the main draw it would be good for him to do, he has had some problems this year after such a good start.

While there are quite a few snobs in Båstad, it’s worse in Gstaad. The good thing is that there is plenty of quality Swiss cheese and chocolate there. So the choice is either hang on the beach or play at altitude, though at least in Gstaad they offer $$$$$$$$$$ in fees and we know that is what makes the world go around.

It’s a weaker draw in Gstaad, and no real standout matches in the 1st round. This is the start of the defense of all his points he has in this 3 week winning in Gstaad and Kitzi with a finalist appearance in Stuttgart, if he does not defend those points, then a decline in the rankings is going to happen and how he bounces back will be a key about his mental state.

Hopefully Gaston, Pavel and Seppi can do well. Moya is back for the first time in a long time in Gstaad, big Saretta is there as well. I am surprised he is there, then again the draw is easier, but parties are better in Båstad.


Good to see the tennis back on the clay again.