Now after the low key week of Estoril and Münich, we are now in the Eternal city of Rome, well it’s the eternal city of chaos.
The Italian Open has always been the fastest of the clay TMS events, this is mainly cause they use less clay on the top surface than the other events and the hotter the weather, the faster the court plays combined with the surface that leads to the extra speed of the court surface, and if you want proof of this, then having Sampras vs. Becker and Agassi vs. Haas in previous finals illustrates this clearly, plus Rafter did well there and Roddick the biggest clay clown out of this group has done well here.
I really could just end this preview by saying this will be a Federer/Nadal final and live with another overhyped match between these two. The funny thing with the clay matches that they have had, is that Nadal has not had to play that well to win. He played better against Berdych in the semis than he needed to against Federer. I really hope this match doesn’t happen.
Federer well he starts off with a tough match against the Bye, but he could be playing “Superstar” who could either make it very difficult for him or lose very easily, while having a hissy fit and Almagro gave Federer plenty to handle and this is the best time for “Superstar” to get him. Verdasco and Gasquet again, well here will be another exhibition in how to lose a match he should win easily by Verdasco.
Berdych vs. Nieminen – This one is an intriguing match and the Berdman has made 2 semi finals in a row after a lean period of time and Nieminen hasn’t been in the best of form either and the question here will be whether the tricks from the Shark and changes of pace will piss off the Berdman, or will Berdych have enough patience and be able to hit through Nieminen.
The winner will play Wawrinka welcome back to the tour or Montañes who defeated blogger favourite Seppi in the last round of qualies, this is a good chance for either the Berdman or the Shark to make the 3rd round.
Acasuso hasn’t been in great form, but he is lucky that he has Verkerk, who is still coming back from injury, and illness and the speed around the court here will be gazelle like and they will be representing their nations in the 100m at the next Olympics and the winner will play Ljubo. Big Ivan lost a close one to Gasquet in Monte Carlo and he spent a lot of his life in Italy, so he will feel at home for sure.
Gaudio has a potential hazard here. One he doesn’t like playing in Rome generally, two cause of his form at the moment, matches that should seem easy are a lot harder than they should be. He plays “Fisker med” Mardy Fish, for those who don’t understand it means “Fishing with Mardy Fish” who is a claycourt clown, the problem is if he loses, then Gaudio’s mentality will be even worse losing to a joker like Fish. Then if he wins he will play Roddick who isn’t good on this surface, but a level above Fish for sure.
King Oscar Hernandez plays Hewitt and this is a big chance for Oscar to shine and take advantage of the lack of match play of Hewitt. The King has been in very good form lately and he is going close to a career high ranking and that can only be good for the game.
As for the other matches, hopefully Calleri can continue his good form and get a good result here, but Starace at home and has been in good form won’t be easy, it will be good to see a good result here, though I think a slower claycourt is better for El Gordo.
I’d love to see Nadal lose, but that won’t be likely.
11 comments:
Chucho won and now plays Ljubo, whom he gave one hell of a beating around this time last year, and I hope he can win again.
Wouldn't be surprised if Fish defeats Gaudio tomorrow, the court is fast and Mardy is less of a claycourt clown than Blake and Ginepri.
Murray still has a lot to prove on this surface.
King Oscar too strong for Hewitt and Mo screwed him big time on that line call, but it seemed to fire up the big Catalan and he was too strong.
Chucho and Ljubo again, for Acasuso's sake the weather needs to stay overcast and it was heavy today and that should sort out the clay clowns.
Almagro and Federer, well I think Nico is going to test him for sure.
Gaudio's mental state is so fragile and this match worries me and like I said I hope he doesn't go crazy and lose to a guy like Fish on this surface.
Der Kaiser Hernandez too much matchplay for Hewitt and once he cut down on the errors, then he showed his better clay skills and his backhand down the line, kept him in the match. Bad call from Mo, hope he is shown the footage of it.
Solid performance from Starace against a disinterested Calleri, hope he takes out Ferrero in the next roundbuscemi
Gaston took out Fish and it would be a total disaster if he didn't, now comes Roddick, it will be very interesting to watch. Igor took out Ferrer easier than I expected, and he has not gotten any luck in his draws. He badly needs the match play even more than the points, hopefully he can get past Chela. Marcos surprised me against Moya, definitely some signs of life after a good tournament in Munich last week. King Oscar was too consistent for a rusty Hewitt, I would love to see him getting past Boredo but he will need the latter to cooperate to get the W there.
Federer was too solid against Mucho and there was no way he would underestimate him as a first round opponent. Richard won against Verdasco but he is far from convincing, the match against Volandri is quite interesting. Chucho won comfortably against Ivan, not a surprising result on this surface. In the chess match of the week, Blake prevailed against Monfils.
Kyriakos
What are your thoughts on Nadal's sudden fondness for doubles?
Djokovic and Söderling was quite a bad tempered match and Robin showed why he is such a likable guy, yet he plays quite well on the surface and Djokovic won ugly.
Gaudio losing to Roddick on clay, well Roma is the only clay that Roddick plays well and Gaudio doesn't, but even then it's a still a poor loss taking into account his circumstances.
Baghdatis had another good win and Starace doing well against Ferrero, he can take the PMK out for sure.
Nadal. Who's going to beat him? He's looks so superiour it's ridiculous. It's interesting he uses the clay season to work on his attacking and net game. And he gets away with it. Perhaps he's going for a Björn Borg style RG-Wimbledon double?
I also wonder if he will play Hamburg. He has nothing to lose points wise. Has anyone won all big 5 clay tournies in one season before?
Volandri great effort by him and he only lost serve once for the whole match and Federer was just awful, but it happens to us all now and then, some less than others.
Chela laid the smackdown on Roddick and that was just great to see. He got a lesson in claycourt tennis, it wasn't spectacular but effective.
Berdman gave Acasuso another thumping, it seems Acasuso was either ill or disinterested to the extreme and this is a big chance for the final for him. I hope he or Gonzo make it, as they have a better chance against Nadal.
Nadal, I doubt will play Hamburg.
Great performance from Gonzalez against Volandri today, that was a huge beatdown and would love to see Nadal on the end of a hiding like this.
PMK played very well against Nadal and could have won this in 2 sets, but he froze when he had the chance in the 1st set. He played the match perfectly tactically, just couldn't hold it together at the end.
Gonzalez could not keep the same level in the final that he did against Volandri but full credit to Nadal, he recovered very well from his brutal semifinal against PMK and exploited Fena's backhand very well.
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