Vienna
The indoor circus moves to the stately Austrian capital Vienna. Where it's not hard to get a good coffee, beer, schnitzel and some great cakes, but enough of the promotion. Mr Vienna Ivan Ljubicic is back on tour after having problems with the kidney stones and it wouldn't surprise if he defended his title again for the 3rd time. He loves the court, just feels at home and then he becomes very hard to beat, especially since his serve has been broken only once in 3 years. He defeated Haider-Maurer and not that isn't Jorg Haider and he was the one to break Ljubo's serve and then Ivan had some problems with "Fisker med" Mardy Fish but he got over the line.
Calleri continued to struggle in his comeback in singles and he lost with Seppi in the doubles 10-7 in the champs TB against Damm/Paes. Gonzo was kidding himself losing a set to Volandri indoors, but came through and is in the quarters against Ferrero, who is hard to pick when he is going to play well or going to be shit and he defeated Canas who lead 5-3 in the 3rd and couldn't close it out and Benneteau. Nalbandian made a successful comeback and has a tough one against Wawrinka next time around.
Local hero Koubek defeated Moya in an impressive performance and he is keen to put behind the shenanigans after the ludicrous disqualification in Metz last week, seems that the umpire Steiner Recliner has problems in France and with Grosjjean. Good that he is using it as a positive and has a tough match against LaLo, but if he makes it he has a good chance of making the semis here, but with Stefan expect the unexpected.
The South Tyrolean Seppi has made the quarters for the first time in an indoor event on the main tour. He has won without losing a set in taking out Baghdatis easily 6-2 6-2, this is no surprise that he lost because he doesn't play well after a break, thescore was a definite surprise. Andy didn't blow the chance against Haase, hope he can win the event, but this is unlikely.
Stockholm
The news of this is that the King and Luczak are playing doubles and won their 1st match. Both had to travel from Spain after playing on the heavy clay to a fast indoor surface. Luczak was able to win and will now play Nieminen for a place in the quarters. Just hope Frankie "goes to Hollywood" Dancevic can end the James Blake streak, so we can have a finalist that is different. Welcome back to the tour for Pim Pim and his second round match should be the epitome of baseline tennis.
Here is a Luczak article in the main Swedish-language paper in Finland.
http://hbl.fi/text/sport/2007/10/10/d6477.php
Australian happy about the income
It should have been Benji Becker, but Jarkko Nieminen’s opponent today in the Stockholm Open is Peter Luczak.
In Finland the 28 year old Australian of average heigh is known for his finalist appearance in the Tampere Open this summer.
Luczak isn’t a player that Nieminen needs to fear. His latest assignment was made easier that Becker lost 2-6 6-3 6-4 to the “Aussie”.
Luczak is married to a Swede. This is his first year in the top 100 and he is unusual that he is reaching the peak of his career at an older age.
“Of course I have been trying to reach there for 6 years and it feels good. But also enjoy the effects. Now all of a sudden I am among the top 90, lately in the 80s. Luczak is now ranked 84th, his best ever.
The Australian who plays with steadiness and placement is unusual among the Australians who is at his best on clay. 19 out of his last 20 events have been on clay, except for the US Open on hardcourt, which strongly indicates a Nieminen win.
“I was actually in a Challenger final in Spain last week and played 5 Spaniards on slow clay. After a long trip here on Monday morning I had no absolutely no expectations. It was my first hardcourt event in ages and I could only hit one ball, but the following time it got better and yesterday I hit with “Pim-Pim” Johansson and it already felt decent.
Met twice
Jarkko Nieminen is familiar with Peter Luczak. “We are good friends and I have respect or him as a player, he is a good fighter” says Luczak.
“We have met twice. It was a long time ago in Sydney 2003. It was my first ever match on the ATP tour and I was so nervous that I lost the 1st set 6-0. But I was able to get it to a 3rd set and Jarkko successfully won 7-5.
In a Czech Challenger on clay in 2005 Niemien won 6-4 6-4.
Luczak is so far satisfied with the Stockholm Open. He has made the 2nd round in both singles and doubles. Better than he expected.
“Good money for me about 15 200 euro. Now I can provide food towards the baby for a week”, smiled the fair haired Aussie who was born in Poland.
Moscow
Vodka, mafia and hot women at the Kremlin Cup. Kunitsyn fucked up this time around. Safin/Andrev is an interesting 2nd round match and Russian will win the event.
Thunder Lips Stepanek is in the quarters with wins over Gabashvili and Tursunov, he will swoon the women with the moves and the swinging of the hips, though his game is definitely worth watching.
Chucho came through unscathed and that's a good sign.
Yayo Massa made a comeback to tennis, he lost 7-6 7-6, but he is back and that's good for me.
1 comment:
Luczak beating Benji Becker and winning an ATP level hardcourt match for the first time in ages, and Ugo reaching the doubles final at Vienna were highlights of the week.
Good on Kolya, defending his Kremlin Cup title and ending his 11 month title drought. I wanted Tojo to win his 3rd Stockholm title and I don't particularly like Ivo (although he does seem to be a funny guy).
Nalbandian's poor year continues, and Stan the man feasted on his woeful 2nd serve. His forehand and volleys, while they have never been brilliant, aren't as good as they were 18 months ago I would say.
Juanqui did well to take out Gonzo, but Stan was on fire when they met.
Seppi ending Ljubicic's reign at Vienna was good to see.
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