The original intention was not to go to the tennis on this day, but somehow I managed to get tickets for both quarter finals a day and a night session, so these had to be taken of course.
Nadal vs. Nieminen :
It was a great feat for Nieminen to make the quarter finals, but the result of this match was never in doubt for a few reasons. Jakke Nieminen does not beat the higher ranked players, this is partly due to a lack of belief in doing it and also he doesn't have enough weapons generally.
The 1st set was quite good tennis with Nieminen coming out relaxed and nothing to lose (there is a story to this in the next entry) and was handling the heavy game of Nadal well with the backhand especially and wasn't passive all the time.
Both of them were holding serve comfortably until the turning point of the match in the 1st set, when Nieminen had 2 set points on Nadal's serve. Nadal hit a good 2nd serve that jammed Nieminen as he tried to run around and hit a forehand. Once Nadal held that service game, the inevitable break of serve came along and then Nadal served it out after that.
Jarkko had a mental let down after the lost opportunity and Nadal being Nadal turned the screws in and was able to keep comfortably ahead and took the second set very easily and Jakke even managed to hit a 2nd serve at 102 km/h, something that is memorable. The third set was closer, but even then there was no feeling that Nadal was in trouble and it went as expected.
It was a great event for Nieminen, too bad he couldn't take the 1st set and stir up the Mallorcan bull.
Tsonga vs. Youzhny:
The 1st set of this match was excellent tennis as both guys were serving very well. Tsonga with the massive serve and was serving at 80 percent in the set, always going to be tough to break and that got him in the mood.
Youzhny wasn't using the slice backhand as much and when he did big Jo was able to handle it and one thing about Tsonga, yes he is massive, but he is very fast for his size and had the crowd eating out of his hands and had the majority support. 30 all at 6-5 on Youzhny's serve was the big turning point here as Tsonga was defending like Nadal and Youzhny had an easy smash and netted it, to go down set point. Then Tsonga hits a huge backhand winner to take the set 7-5.
Tsonga took the momentum and rode with it after such a tough 1st set and crushed Youzhny 6-0 in the 2nd as he maintained his outstanding level of play. Youzhny had some taping on his ankles taken off, but he was moving quite well.
Thye 3rd was a very tight affair as well as Youzhny lifted his game and Tsonga was playing at a very high level, hitting some big winners, defending very well and serving huge that Youzhny who returns well didn't have a break point in the whole match. Youzhny had a couple of points to take it to a 4th, but it was not to be and Tsonga took the match in straight sets.
The young Muhammad Ali lookalike has taken the crowd by storm and he recovered from the back injury that he suffered for 2 years and other ones, lets hope that he can remain injury free and show more of the quality tennis he can play.
2 comments:
So now you've piqued my interest, GWH. I liked the way Jarkko came out to play vs Nadal, but he telegraphed the second he lost belief in himself and his game. I didn't watch the last two sets :( Oh, well, still a pretty positive way to start the year. Didn't see any of Tsonga-Youzhny, but Tsonga is playing pretty lights out right now vs Nadal so it must've been good stuff.
Tsonga played some great stuff in this match and during the 2 weeks, it was worth watching.
Nieminen has had a good start to the year.
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