The Båstad and Gstaad Review aka The Andy Seppi Show

Båstad and Gstaad Review (The Andy Seppi show)

Finally now that horrible grass season is over and therefore my motivation is there to write again and it was good to be able to watch these events, even though the Bet and Win livestream is just above fucking small, it’s a good test for my eyesight.

I watched more tennis that week than I had for the last 7 weeks, it’s funny how when Federer and Nadal aren’t at events, they seem to be more interesting unless they are American Mickey Mouse events where Roddick is a dominant figure.

This week was about Andreas Seppi, yes he is a blogger favourite and there could be some bias in what is to follow, but who cares this blog isn’t exactly the highest level of journalism.

Seppi had a wonderful week and to think he would have made his first ATP final at the start of the week, there would have been guys wanting to put you in the straitjacket and the fact he didn’t win it, was down to his old problems of closing out important matches, they say when the pressure is at its highest, this is when the respective weaknesses of your game and character tend to be found out and this was no different.

Leading 5-3 in the 3rd set and had the chance to serve it out, the pressure was too much and Seppi was too nervous to play the kind of tennis that got him to that lead, the well placed serves, the good tactics, hitting the good shots, but with nerves it becomes harder to move and the breathing is impacted, therefore the decision making isn’t as clear and this showed that.

Fair play to Paul-Henri Mathieu who has been very consistent of late and since linking back with Thierry Champion they have worked well together and winning the last 4 games to take the match 7-5 in the 3rd from someone who has struggled on the mental side it was a big effort.

Good to see Andreev take out the showpony Gasquet, who was tired from his Wimbledon exploits, but Igor is a bad match up for him and Roitman as usual plays good tennis against the higher ranked player, but when it comes down to the big points he can’t make it through.

Vassallo Arguello won a couple of matches as well, before losing 10 games in a row to Seppi in the quarters. The tournament at the start had the wet Wimbledon syndrome, but the weather improved and the tennis wasn’t bad, just wish Gaudio’s losing streak would come to an end.

The Seppi and Koubek match was the highlight for me, both players I like, but I was cheering for Seppi as he needed the points more and is better than his ranking at the time suggested and he was rubbish in the 1st set and then it was close and entertaining and came through in 2 tiebreakers, which is something he hadn’t been successful in this year and that gave him confidence for the rest of the week, the question is now can he build on it for the rest of 2007.

Båstad

Båstad suffered a lot this year cause of the Wimbledon scheduling and players such as Berdych, Djokovic and Cañas withdrew from the event and that left a hole there for sure.

The event started off well with Lucho Horna giving Boredo a lesson 6-1 1-6 6-1. Lucho played very well in this match and this was his 9th win over a top 10 player in his career, though with Horna it’s not his tennis that is the issue, more like consistency and also niggling injury problems. He had a snooze in the 2nd set, but recovered well when Boredo was trying to hit moonballs and came to the net at the right moments.

Lucho lost to Almagro 7-5 6-4 after leading a break in the 1st set, the serving went off and then the rest of the game followed and Mucho just played it simple and let Horna make the mistakes.

The Toad played well in Sweden as he does and had a good match with Verdasco, but as well know Verdasco and mental strength don’t go together that well, but he was outgunned by Moya.

David Ferrer he was the man this week, he must have enjoyed the surroundings and apart from the 2nd round match with Massu which was 6-3 3-6 6-3, he lost a total of 10 games in 4 matches against Garcia-Lopez, Simon, Volandri and Almagro, that is an excellent achievement against these guys on clay, some would say where was that form at Roland Garros, well it was one of those dream weeks that can happen to a player now and then.