The last main level ATP event of the year lovely Palermo is upon us and this means in the meantime I will have to follow clay challengers and then wait for Viña del Mar, while the indoor idiots rule the way. Sicily at this time of year is pleasant as it's not as hot as it is in the summer, but still warm and pleasant enough and there have been some good winners of this event.
The last 2 defending champions Andreev and Berdych aren't here this time around. Igor is still injured and in the loving arms of Tursunov after the successful Russian win on the weekend and the Berdman has gone to Mumbai this time around. Volandri the guy who was beaten in the last 2 finals is the number 2 seed here and has been playing well recently a final in Bucharest and played very well in a losing effort against Spain in DC.
That is the problem with these events after the Davis Cup, it's very hard to predict as to who will do well, either cause they might be still drunk from the celebrations or only having just arrived at the venue after a long flight, but with this tournament it doesn't seem to be the case with long flights. It's an open event and nearly anyone can win this.
Jan Hajek the man who has been on a tear at Challenger level is playing against Ulihrach who has come back from nowhere and winning matches. Seppi a man who is in poor form at the moment is playing Simon and he was a semi finalist last year, hopefully the Sicilians get behind him as he needs a big performance soon to salvage his year which has not been good.
Zabaleta is playing Olivier "Have a Little" Patience and Mariano is struggling badly at the moment losing to Zib is an indication of that, but as long as he can remain fit and fight hard, then the results will come for him. Nico Lapentti the winner of the big challenger in Poland plays Mathieu, who had some ankle problems in Bucharest, but has had about 10 days off and should be ready to go now.
Blogger fave Oli Marach fresh from winning his first 2 DC matches is up against the Spanish 'Superstar' Almagro who has had some injury problems and hasn't played too much. Almagro should win this easily, but with him one can never tell. Then Lucho plays Montañes and vamos Lucho save your season with a good performance in this event.
The tournament from Ho Chi Minh has been moved to Mumbai this year and neither finalist is there this year. Björkman is still in Brazil with Davis Cup and Stepanek is still out with back problems. It seems Martina has been working Thunder Lips too hard in the bedroom and his back has suffered cause of it. It's good that they have bought some big players to India and Moya is back there and he loves it there, it must be the food.
Tursunov will have fun adjusting from clay to outdoor hardcourt, but he should win his first match at least and apart from that anything is a bonus. This event has to be good Berdych, Koubek and Monaco are there and besides this the big Greek Economidis is there and he is literally a big guy. At the start of the year he had to play qualies of the Burnie Challenger 25K event and won it and now he is making it directly into this field. Too bad del Potro didn't get the easiest first round match available.
One night in Bangkok with the huge appearance money kicks off the indoor season and this event has some of the big names Ljubo, Safin, Baghdatis, Blake are there. There has been a coup in Thailand, but it doesn't seem to have to have had too much impact. I mean they played the South African Open when it was the apartheid regime, so they will do what they can.
Got to say it's funny seeing Vicente and Massa in an indoor event as direct entries and they are there for the holiday in reality as they play Ljubo and Nieminen respectively and Marcos has to play Chicken Man for the thrid time this year and he is 0-2 and will want to get a win over him as soon as possible.
4 comments:
Great article. Though the thought of Stepanek and "bedroom" in the same sentence still makes me feel a bit queasy! Still sad JMDP has to face Moya in the first round - but no point whingeing about it - just hope he can do his best.
Big win by del Potro and now he plays Ramon Delgado for a place in the quarters. He has progressed very well in a short time and with the right guidance the progession should continue.
Cernak a doubles specialist beating Pavel. Palermo has a lot of funny results, maybe there is mafioso gambling on this event.
Tiger Tim beats Murray for the first time as well.
Shame JMDP had to retire in the Delgado match - so still no Top 100 place for him - but he has plenty of time. And the good news was that it was only heat exhaustion causing him to be sick -not an injury as such. When he has recovered from the dehydration he will be fine.
Volandri got the last claycourt event of the year, well he should take some time off and get a serve.
Blake won the Bangkok bash and the Mumbai final between Tursunov and Berdych is on hold cause of the weather, hope they can play it.
Post a Comment