This was a bit late, but a mix of preview and matches that have happened. Not the best nor the worst.
Estoril
The week of Estoril and Munich, just simmering before the stupid scheduling of Rome and Hamburg back to back and the ATP aren’t known for their brains and this is just another example of it. No Nadal this week, as he is off playing a Mickey Mouse joke of an exhibition with Federer on a half grass/half clay court. Yeah what an innovation that is, it will revolutionise the game of tennis.
Usually the courts at Estoril play very slowly and the conditions are heavy, but according to reports thanks Sylvester from MTF, the weather has been warm and dry so the courts were playing a lot faster than usual and for some reason they started the event on a Sunday.
Lucho Horna made his comeback to the tour after injury and he lost to the young American Sam Querrey 7-6 6-4 who is definitely not at his best on clay. Lucho has always struggled against the guys with big servers and he has a shocking return, he either hits them metres out or they bounce three times before they hit the net. Lucho was serving for the 1st set at 5-4, but lost it and was ahead 4-2 in the tiebreaker and failed to get it done. To be fair Querrey played well against an in form Starace and has been prepared to come over to Europe and work on his fitness and improve his overall game from playing on the clay and that can only be commended unlike some of his other countrymen who seem to hide from it except Spadea and Russell.
Calleri comes here after a big week in Barcelona and gets some more match practice. The PMK has won here before and loves his small events. Robredo is chasing another optional before he falls out of the top 10 with Hamburg coming up. Russell has a tough one here, but can make the quarters if he can get past Garcia-Lopez.
Andreev lost another tough match in a tiebreaker in very windy conditions against Djokovic. Yes, it was a tough draw, but that is life and he has to deal with that and he is someone that needs a lot of matches, it’s that old situation, losing matches and then playing more events to get the wins and then the form can get worse. Good for Djokovic to win in the tough conditions and should make the quarters here.
Münich
Baghdatinho wins his 1st match for a while against Hartfield and he is back with his childhood coach Yiannos and that can only be a good thing and hope he can enjoy his tennis again. Yiannos knows him so well and he is a very good man and has a good influence and Baghdatis could use that at the moment.
Koubek back after an injury break and lost to Youzhny in 3 sets, that’s a good sign and it’s not easy to win matches after beating out injured, but Koubek is so up and down, so it’s never easy to tell when the good form is coming or the run of about 10 1st round losses in a row.
Berdman plays the geeky German Mayer who could easily frustrate him with the 15 minute forehand swing, the 70km/h second serve and the two handed dropshots of the backhand. It will be intriguing to see whether he kills Mayer or gets the shits and lose.
Come on Hajek win a match on the main tour it’s about time.
4 comments:
Great title, as always. The field in Estoril is quite strong this year, and the top seeds are motivated to do well. I think that PMK will play well, provided that there was not any serious problem with his wrist. Djokovic survived against Igor, the following matches look nuch easier on paper for him. Gasquet fought well in Monte Carlo and he has improved his stamina. I though that Gonzalez would do well but PHM knocked him out. It seems that Fernando is overusing his backhand slice these days, it might be good for the short term to return to just running around his forehand and blasting the living daylights out of the ball. Calleri vs. Del Potro is an interesting match, it is great to see Gordo playing well, I just hope he stays healthy and plays the French.
Munich has also an interesting field. Tomas remained unimpressed against Mayer, and normally he should now have too much firepower against the vampiro but you never know with him. Marcos badly needs some confidence, hopefully getting back to his childhood coach will help. Canas withdrew, hopefully he just needs some rest and he should comfortably qualify in Rome.
Che Gueverra Vassallo has a chance to make the quarter finals in Munich against Grosjean and he needs to do well at these events as he has 4th round RG points to defend. Berdych has an interesting match against Massu and he really should be able to break down that Massu backhand, but with Tomas one can never tell.
Calleri/del Potro another time they meet this year. Calleri got the win in Auckland and it was quite a convincing one as well, he seems to be hitting the ball well again, and this will be a very good test for him. Andreev had his chance and blew it, but it happens and Djokovic should make the semi finals here.
Hehehe, Hajek can't win a match on the main tour. He's doing as well as Berlocq was last year. :(
Have a little Patience beating Davydenko again. Well PMK is playing his usual 100 events a season, so these losses are going to happen, it's just a question of when.
Baghdatis finally wins 2 matches in a row and he really should beat Waske, but one can never tell these days.
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