Goodbye to the clay for the year, well there are still some clay challengers and I will get around to those later. Now the European indoor kicks off in lovely Metz and the field has been weakened sadly with many withdrawals and almost looks like the French Closed Championships, though even then it’s a lot better than the addition in 2004 and we will be getting some reports from there with one of our special reporters.
Back to Metz later, the final in Mumbai has been held over to today and got to love the organisational genius that puts an event outdoors while that’s a good thing, it isn’t the smartest thing to do it in the Indian monsoon season and it would not be surprising if the final was not played at all.
Onto Metz, well for our reporter Choupi, she had some bad luck in that most of her favourites decided to pull out of Metz, this would be Acasuso, Calleri and Chela who are spending some more time at home, before they have to trudge the European indoor circuit and they deserve some time away and it’s too bad that Metz misses out. I am lucky I am not at this event in addition to Chucho and Calleri, Horna, Seppi and Pavel withdrew as well and Luczak lost in qualifying. At the same time it’s live tennis got to see some of it and make the best of it and Santoro is still playing and his uniqueness will be lost very soon.
As for the event itself it’s very open since big Ljubo isn’t there defending his title and the fact that Ferrer and Ferrero are the top 2 seeds mean it’s an open event for sure. Robin “The Toad” Söderling is seeded 8th and has come back from Brazil and he loves playing indoors and suits his game and can see him doing well in this event.
The highlight matches of the 1st round are Santoro vs. Mathieu a battle of guile and versatility against inconsistency and erratic play. Then another battle between countrymen between Safin and Youzhny, well Youzhny is the higher seed, but Safin is an indoor monster who seems to be coming into some form and this is his favourite part of the year. Then there is Richard “The show pony” Gasquet well he is seeded 5th and my feelings for him are pretty clear, he doesn’t support the Round Robin format, has a good backhand and the Pink Panther as coach and those are the best qualities, just wait if he wins here, then all the hoopla about him starts again.
The last outdoor event for the season is the Japan Open and Mr Roger Federer has turned up this time. He likes to play in Asia and he doesn’t mind the appearance money as well, plus the Bye is there and that has to be a good thing as well.
This event looks like a prime candidate for the Round Robin format with its 48 draw and it’s funny to see Benji Becker, Björn Phau and Paul Goldstein seeded for this event, but there are some interesting characters here as well. Koubek who had a SF appearance in Mumbai plays Galvani and if he wins then Moodie and he is in the same section as Federer, well at least he should have enough time to go back home to Vienna for the indoor event. Then señor Fernando Vicente continuing his Asian adventure, he could do quite well with the women being a blonde Spaniard and those Asian girls love the exotic Western look.
Tursunov is stuck in Mumbai and has to get to Tokyo, but he loves the travelling and he will be able to handle it and he has done very well this year and he is a bit like Andreev and Davydenko in the amount of tournaments he plays. Davydenko has taken some time off and 2 weeks free from tennis is like long service leave and maybe Irina is spending too much on his credit card and he is in shock.
Youngster del Potro is up against Stop and Go Soeda the Japanese buzzsaw and hopefully he can win that and take out Captain Charisma Robby Ginepri, that guy is ranked higher than he should be, but he will go down to the LaLo level, though at least LaLo has a good serve.
The match of the first round is over and it was a bit of a fizzer sadly Edgardo “Yayo” Massa who is a bit soft around the midsection played against the big Greek Kostas Economidis. This match should have been standing room only, but Yayo was too classy for the Big Greek and won 6-1 6-3 and imagining shrieking Japanese girls chanting “Yayo” would be enough to get the wax out of my ears.
On a sidenote, bad luck to Michael Russell he couldn’t win his Challenger final against Bobby Reynolds and that is not good, though he should be back in the top 150 soon.
Look forward to the reports Choupi.
13 comments:
Well yes, as announced by our famous blogger, I'll be in Metz this week. Though not the whole week, as I have to work some time. So that means I'll go on Wednesday and then for the weekend.
It's true that I've had some bad luck as many of the players I absolutely wanted to see decided to withdraw because of DC - which I totally understand, but I admit that being a DC lover helps resisting yelling out loud!!
There still is Santoro whose uniqueness will surely be missed and I hope I get to see him. As good as I like both Mathieu and him, I think that Paulo will have other opportunities so I'd like Fabrice to go further.
I'll take pics and I know that some regular readers here are already dreaming about a likely semi between Ferrer and Safin.
Vamos Ferrer:-)) And - yes - Choupi- that would be right - though I will probably be in Vienna by then and unable to follow scores. Have a great time in Metz.
Sorry Rosie. I'm afraid your dream semi won't happen. David lost in 3 sets to Gicquel. You will have your mind in peace in Vienna then.
Have fun there, Choupi! Looking forward to your reports. :p
It seems that things have gone against Choupi so far with all the withdrawals and now Santoro losing in the 1st round of the singles. Hopefully he can make it to the later rounds of the doubles.
Good win by del Potro there and he should enjoy the challenge of playing Henman.
I was in Metz yesterday and I saw 4 matches.
Benneteau/Mahut vs Friedl/Mertinak: that match was pretty boring I have to say, as it's been mostly one way if you see what I mean. Mahut and Chicken Man had the crowd for them, and many kids were still present, so that has been pretty easy for them to get through.
Grosjean vs Mayer: I was expecting a tough match between those 2. And I haven't been disappointed. Even if it didn't go 3 sets. Seb's forehand was working perfectly -it's a pleasure to see in live action. He was playing the lines and Mayer visited the court. This, combined to the fact that his serve wasn't working so well, Séb has had no particular hard time to conclude in 2 sets. But great rallies and a lot of tactical game from both made of that match a pleasure to watch.
Safin vs Youzhny: that was announced like THE SHOCK of the 1st round matches. And the public was there to witness the confrontation. Pb: Youzhny was totally paralyzed and couldn't play his game at all in the 1st set. Marat was focused and playing a great game, so 20 minutes and he had already the 1st set in his pocket. The crowd was totally amazed. Me included. Misha went out of the court for a couple of minutes, and when he came back, it was like he was another player. He suddenly played his game, and Marat was obliged to play more shots to make points. The 1st 6 games were great to see. Great rallies, dropshots, passingshots down the line. It was a show from both. But the 7th game has been lethal to Misha. He lost a bit of focus and ended up giving the game to Marat who only had to keep his serve to take it home. I have to say that the crowd was there for Marat, but seeing Misha in such a difficult situation, they've encouraged him loudly because they wanted to see a fight. But sadly, it's not been enough.
Gicquel vs Garcia-Lopez: the stands were pretty empty for that last match as it began really late. Gicquel is someone who can make great shots and who's totally boosted when he's got a whole crowd behind him. That was the case- for the few ppl who stayed that late-, so GGL could only try to get some points, mostly thanks to his big serve, as well as some great passing shots. But Gicquel was too much on fire yesterday -and I suppose that kicking out of the event the N°1 seeded player must have helped a lot.
That's all for today folks. I'll be back there on the weekend.
Thanks very much for the reports and maybe next year some players you like might turn up this time around.
Gicquel has been having a great year and hope that Safin can carry on with these types of performances during the tournament.
Choupi, it looks like you have the choice between 2 Frenchies or Djokovic and Melzer, not the best. Though you never know, there could be some good tennis there.
As announced, I was in Metz yesterday for the semis. I agree that some might consider the 4
players who were left as not the best choice possible but the matches I've seen haven't
been disappointing at all.
I first saw the doubles between Santoro/Gasquet vs Fyrstenberg/Matkowski. The Poles were fave on the paper, as seeded N°1 team, and I have to say that the match has been more than balanced. Very tight 1st set, which went to the Poles after a thrilling tiebreak. 2nd set has been pretty much the same, except that Fab & Richie took it after some fabulous points from those 2 who really get on well on a court. Then, match tiebreak. The Poles take the lead, with 4/1. The crowd gets totally crazy and Fab showed all his doubles experience there, reducing the score to finally ending up taking the match, qualifying for the final. It was great to see those 2 playing together, as Richie was born when Fab started to play tennis on some important level. It was like Richard was getting a lesson from Fab, and often, you could hear Fab give advice to Richie.
Gicquel vs Melzer. Having seen Gicquel play, I knew what he was able of, and especially those totally crazy shots he tries, having hardly anything to lose. I was hoping that against Melzer, he would keep on playing this way, for the 1st semi of his career. And it's been the case. The match has been pretty much balanced on the whole. It was just that Melzer had more experience and was able to make the difference on important points as well as Gicquel starting to run out of gas. And the crowd, especially the kids appreciated that, even if he lost and obviously was looking forward to leave the court for obvious reasons, Gicquel spent a long time signing autographs. While Jürgen was interviewed in French. And yes, his French is very good.
Grosjean vs Djokovic. That match was the shock of the day. The crowd was there for the Frenchie who was playing Metz for the 1st time, as well as because they were curious to see if he was able to compete with that Serbian player they had heard about before. It's been a great fight, with on one hand, Séb's forehand working perfectly, and on the other hand, Djokovic's great serve, saving him many breakpoints. Djokovic applauded Séb several time, and yes, the points were really amazing ones. 1st set taken by Séb on a tiebreak, and 2nd set by Djokovic also on a tiebreak. that gives an idea of how hard the struggle has been. We even thought that Djokovic would get totally mad after all the breakpoints he simply couldn't convert in the 2nd set. He smashed the racket and started showing deep frustration, but he finally got one and that has been enough to take the 2nd set. Then, I have to say I was thinking that Séb would lose it in 3, as he was really looking exhausted, far more than his young opponent. Yet, he broke Djokovic in the 1st game. But all his serve games have been pretty much hard to win. And, the unavoidable happened, he finally got broken, after some very bad double fault. And Djokovic only had to confirm to take the match.
In the post match interview, Novak said that he was expecting a long and great fight, with the whole crowd against him, of course, and he was considering himself very lucky to have been able to break Séb at the best of time, and take the match. He also invited the crowd to come back on the next day, this time, to support him..........Séb, like Gicquel, spent a long time signing autographs for the kids.
I didn't stay for the last doubles as it was really late and I had some driving. I have to say that this 2 hour break between the 2 singles semi was a total mess. Many ppl decided to leave the place. I hope organizers will think about it for next year.
That's all for today. More to come later.
Last report about Metz, the finals.
Djokovic vs Melzer. I had seen both play during the week, and I was really expecting Djokovic to take advantage of Melzer from the beginning. But I was wrong. It's been almost one way from the beginning of the 1st set till the middle of the 2nd. Even Novak admitted it's been tough for him and Melzer deserved that title during all that time because he obviously was the better player on the court at that moment. Only thing that was saving Nole was his serve. But Melzer was successful in everything he was doing. I can't remember the number of dropshots he made and that Nole has been unable to hit!! He got so frustrated. Poor racket. But suddenly, Melzer started to feel a bit tired and played to a lower level. That was an opportunity that Nole couldn't miss. He finally took the 2nd set. Unfortunately, Melzer couldn't really come back back after that "empty" moment. And Nole won the title in 3.
When he was waiting for the Trophy Ceremony, he changed his shirt and put on the one that some French fans had just offered him. It's a shirt of the French football team with Nole 4 written on his back. With the suited blue white & red cap!! The crowd appreciated it a lot. You can imagine why. He explained why he was wearing that shirt during his speech. And he also said that he had had a great surprise before the match, as his family -parents and bros- as well as a very close friend had arrived in Metz around 30 min before he was to play his final. Later, he went to hug them a lot, of course, as he should.
Santoro/Gasquet vs Melzer/Knowle. Those who know me will know that this was THE match I wanted to see. Melzer & Knowle were seeded, while Santoro/Gasquet weren't. So, this was anouncing a good match. And it has been.
The 1st set has been tough for the Frenchies as their opponents are a very good doubles team, used to work together for long now. And also because Gasquet seemed to have had some trouble entering the match entirely. He made some mistakes that he wasn't used to make in other matches they played. But it was nice to see how Fab, even in the final, was giving advice to Richard, like he was the teacher giving the lesson. The Austrians took the 1st set very logically, after a 4-1 lead. You could have thought that the ones who would take the title were the Austrians. But you would have been wrong. The Frenchies reacted in a good way. And Fab kept on being relaxed, smiling, even making fun at some point. You could see he was still confident, even after the loss of the 1st set. His experience showed all the way through. They won the 2nd set yet entered the match tiebreak very badly. Richard made his silly mistakes again. And the Austrians found themselves with 6 MPs, leading 9-3. That looked like a desperate situation, and it would have been for many other players. But not for Fab. He kept on believing, and both he and Richard kept on playing 200%. The Austrians didn't win anymore points. Fab & Richard went from being down 3-9 to 11-9, taking the title. The crowd, me included, was totally crazy and the atmosphere was like it was DC. Even officials in the stands couldn't stay still. I really loved to be there, as Fab, who's a very experienced player in doubles, admitted it was the best match ever he had played.
What is the reason that Nole wears the French shirt often?
Thanks for your wonderful reports Choupi and it is nearly always much better to read reports from the fans, than sanitised press releases etc etc etc.
It looks like the next event for you Choupi is Roland Garros next year. Thanks again and everything turned out well in regards to Fabrice.
You're welcome Denys. You're right, my next event will be RG. As for why Novak wears that French shirt, well, he explained that he has a lot of supporters in France and he was appreciating it, and this was his way of thanking them.
Thanks to the special reporter and it's good that Santoro decided to play well for you.
Post a Comment