First of all it was a disgrace that Oscar Hernandez didn't get a wildcard to the singles in Madrid, then again when it's Santana and that crook Ion Tiriac involved in the organisation then this is not exactly surprising. The model ball girls are there to see, but fortunately I am more interested in the tennis, at the same time maybe it could inspire Safin to play better.
Monaco and Andreev, these guys have played plenty of 3 setters in their match ups and Andreev wasn't really there today. Monaco was up a break in the 1st, but couldn't hold it and for a change Andreev won a tiebreaker, then it's usually the final set tiebreakers that he loses. Igor should have been favoured here as he is better indoors than Monaco, but Pico has been improving off the clay and was able to hold his level of play for longer and let Andreev implode with errors everywhere. Definitely not the prettiest match, but got to take a victory anyway you can. Next up for Monaco is Haas, who would be very happy that he isn't playing Andreev.
Murray was impressive over Thunder Lips, he lobbed and passed very well and was able to keep Stepanek from closing the net with his varied play and the continental forehand of Stepanek broke down under pression and I like Murray's style of play and it will be interesting to see how he goes against the very solid Chela. He beat him last time at the AO in straight sets, he will need to exploit Chela's lack of forward movement.
Baghdatis vs Pavel: As usual Marcos is shit after a break and it was good for Marcos to get the win and the last set he played very well. The 1st set was tight and Pavel played one poor service game and Marcos converted and today he was serving well especially in the 1st and 3rd sets, the 2nd set was poor serving and Pavel maintained a good level from the 1st set and was able to convert his chances. Pavel's backhand wasn't as good as it usually is and Marcos kept attacking it. Hopefully he can play better against Nadal than he has in the past.
Good win for Koubek against Nieminen and he will need to be sharp to take out Ljubo. Del Potro did the expected job on Starace and now he has big chances against Boredo provided he serves well.
It will be interesting to see what reception Berdych gets from the Madrid crowd this time around. Nalbandian will be on as well against Clement and thanks to deivid for the background with Mucho Almagro being pissed off with Santana for not giving him a WC last year, he could use this as motivation to play with more discipline than usual. Having something to prove can do funny things to people.
4 comments:
The Madrid model ball girls, you have to laugh at the tournament's attempt to gain publicity this way (to be fair it has worked). I don't like the influence of Tiriac, but unfortunately he seems to pulling the strings everywhere now, and Mr Disney will probably name the tour after him in 2009.
The last set between Jarkko and El Fashionista was hilarious, but props to Stefan for reaching the 2nd round.
Nalbandian had better not lose to Clement. I would hate that to happen.
Ferrero should beat Falla before succumbing to Moya in the 2nd round.
While the quality wasn't high, Monaco had a good win over Andreev, but Haas beat him easily at Stockholm last week, and I'm expecting more of the same today.
Hopefully Stan will beat Kiefer to set up a 2nd round match against the Colonel.
It was nice to see Ancic making serene progress yesterday, although Blake in R2 will be tricky.
unfortunately, Safin was not inspired. thumbs up for Mucho getting to 2nd round.
Fish and Mathieu was an interesting experience with a lot of yelling and Fish accusing Mathieu of gamesmanship of taking an injury time out when Fish was about to serve.
Mardy isn't exactly known for this love of the French with the incidents he has been involved in. It would have been better if there were punches thrown.
Murray was impressive again against Chela, it looks likely he will play Nadal and that could be an interesting time.
Safin was woeful against Karlovic.
the contenders for the last TMS ticket were all wasting huge chances here, so that it will probably go down to paris-bercy for the final decision. good to see nalbandian playing well here, still far away from his best but what can you expect after this season.
koubek will be the austrian number one next monday ;)
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