It’s now the 3rd and last of the clay TMS events in Hamburg and more than likely after 2008, the tournament won’t exist in the brave new world of Mr. Disney’s ATP visionary, who is blinder than Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder combined.
Hamburg suffers a lot from poor scheduling and we know the clowns at the ATP haven’t thought about that. As the 3 TMS events it’s usually the worst indicator of how a player will do at Roland Garros, this is mainly cause of the very heavy conditions and the damp weather. This presents another challenge and not surprisingly Roddick (The Duck) has ducked this event again, seems like beating an in-form Gaudio is enough clay preparation for him.
The qualie rounds have some interesting matches, in fact more interesting than many of the main draw ones and there are a few favourites there and the horrible feeling of two favourites playing each other.
Finally Lucho got a win over a big server and it was Mirnyi, this one will be big come Davis Cup time and Lucho will need to beat Max to get Peru back into the World Group and just hope he doesn’t lose to que sera Serra, who is annoying flea and has the skill of when you want him to lose, then he will win and vice versa. As long as Lucho serves well and stays patient and then can use his heavy forehand and make sure this pest doesn’t make the main draw.
Monaco and Koubek, well either way I’d be happy with the result, though El Fashionista always adds something with his wonderful clothing attire. Big Russell has a tough one against the sneaky Massu, who will pull every trick possible and others to win a match, on this slower surface Massu is a clear favourite. Russell needs to use his serve to outmanoeuvre Massu and break down that poor backhand of his.
Last qualie match between Seppi and the King, well tennis will be the winner here. Big Oscar on this surface will be hard to hit through with that huge backhand and those cat like reflexes around the net. I want Seppi to go through he needs it more than the King at the moment, but this is a good result either way.
The Bye is making an appearance and will be hard to stop. Soderling and Ginepri, this is the battle of the grand chessmasters that will make Karpov and Kasparov look like under 5s level. These two are the epitome of claycourt tennis acumen and the Germans won’t have seen such skill on a grand level.
Volandri has a chance to inflict more clay pain on Andy Murray and we know Brad Gilberto has great clay skills that he passes on to his pupils. Berdych and Verdasco anything could happen here and is likely to. Calleri should be nice and rested and getting ready to roast Hewitt. Gaudio against Gasquet, well the answer would be good luck Gaston.
Acasuso needs to defend his points here, but the qualifiers for the most part aren’t going to be duds and just hope Chucho hasn’t been shagging dodgy women of the night as can happen in Hamburg. Bring it on as they say.
5 comments:
Its interesting you mention the clay TMS events as indicators of RG success, considering Monte Carlo's track record in that regard. Clearly there are other factors in axing MC & Hamburg, and the lack of respect for clay tennis and its crowning jewel, Roland Garros, is crystal clear.
Here's hoping Hamburg will have better weather than Berlin last week, when almost every day was rained out and the doubles players had to play 3 matches a day. But that's women, so no sympathy eh GWH?
Excellent preview as always, mentioning the battle of the chess masters brought a huge grin on my face, for sure the viewers will enjoy the display of tactical nous on that one. The King qualified and he has excellent chances against Becker. I don't think that Nadal will play here, he will show up, site exhaustion and go home. Andreev finally got a reasonable draw, he should win against Dima and he has good chances against the winner of Marcos-Philipp. The other quarter of the bottom half is loaded, I would love to see Calleri taking out Hewitt (likely) and superstar taking out Boredo (less likely but certainly possible).
From the top half, Berdych-Verdasco is a match where anything might happen. It will be interesting to see how Nole will do, it is his 3rd straight tournament this week. Federer should sleep-walk through this draw, but it will be interesting to see how he plays.
Long life to the King, the one and only........hehehe!!!
Hewitt being playing very well this week, though Mucho should have too much for him and not just ego this is.
Nieminen had good chances to put away Djokovic, but couldn't get it done, just hope he can build from this week for RG and Wimbledon.
Nadal played the match sensibly and Igor was giving out the errors like a man who has been offered free vodka for a month and Altur (Andreev's coach) was sitting there with a what the fuck look on his face.
Federer finally ended the Nadal streak and thank fuck for that and he showed why he is Mr.Hamburg, once he got the first serve working in the 2nd set and saving the break points at 1 all in the 2nd set, then it was plain sailing
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