Monday, February 18, 2008

Nalbandian back in Buenos Aires and Raemon Sluiter finishes his career in Rotterdam

Before writing the previews for this week, will round up some of the recent results. Finally Seppi won an event in the Bergamo Challenger, he usually doesn't play challengers, now has to take that on board and be able to do well in major events.

Andy " I am scared of the Last Tango in Buenos Aires" Murray came through to win in Marseille and his decision to skip the Davis Cup tie in Buenos Aires, hence the name for him seemed justified, though the way he went about it was poor, sure he won the event, but this event was more newsworthy in that Mario "Karate Kid" Ancic came back to the tour and made the final in his first event back after suffering glandular fever and other injuries. This tournament also had the comeback of Robin 'the Toad" Söderling from a wrist problem and was defeated by Ancic and the Toad loves a roof, so he is now the hope of Swedish tennis.

Congrats to the young Japanese Kei Nishikori for winning MM Delray Beach, which was like a challenger field and taking out James Blake in the final who loves an American Mickey Mouse event for sure, doing it as a qualifier even better, and this is one Asian guy who doesn't mind a clay court.

Mucho Almagro won the title in Brasil and it's his 3rd title and he defeated Moya who had been playing 3 setters all week, where he should have lost in the 1st round to Santi "the clay detective" Ventura who created a lot of chances, but played the big points poorly and the King Oscar Hernandez up 4-1 in the 3rd set and couldn't close the deal. Almagro is an interesting case and will do a write up on him soon, he needs to fire in the big events. Acasuso and Andreev even by their standards had comical losses this week, well Acasuso might have been drunk after the Davis Cup losing to Decoud, but still should have won. Andreev got thumped by Schwank aka baby Gordo and he didn't get a break point at all in the match, big Andreev is going through a rut at the moment.

Onto this weeks events well since San Jose is a Mickey Mouse event, the only comments about this event are that I hope Joel he knows who he is, has a good time there and that Mike Russell turns around that loss to Ginepri that he had in Delray Beach.

Buenos Aires, well it's a strong field this time around and no Round Robin bullshit either, which is the way tournaments are meant to be played. Coria and Gaudio both were meant to play here, but couldn't take their place as Gaudio still has the ankle problem and Coria didn't take the wildcard that was on offer for him. Nalbandian is back here and has never got past the quarters at this event and the fact that Jaite his coach doubles as the tournament director is a good reason for him to play here, he has a fairly good draw, but anything is possible here. Too bad the clay loving Aussie Peter Luczak didn't get a better draw, but at this event, there aren't that many easy matches, especially if their level isn't up to standard.

King Oscar and Zabala are playing each other in the 1st round and that will be on centre court. Oscar had a good run in Brazil and defeated Zabaleta last time they played in Florianopolis and Zabala needs to get back on track. It's the old thing, to get match tough, players need to win matches, but not winning matches, then it gets harder to get that way. The winner of that will play Almagro or Che Vassallo, and Mucho will be a bit tired from his win in Brasil, so there is a chance there for either Oscar or Zabala.

Igor "I am in very poor but I will still beat Gaudio form" Andreev needs to get on back track at this event and has drawn Montanes someone he has a 3-0 record ever and hope he can turn it around starting at this event. Andreev doesn't defend very well and it seems he has got worse in that department or maybe the fact he fought back so well in 2007 from the injury problems in 2006, that he is a bit flat at the moment and that can happen, well it happened to Muster after his knee problem, but would like to see him play either Acasuso or "Mr Buenos Aires" Moya in the quarters. Acasuso has a big shot here at Moya, he does play well at home and Moya hasn't been able to prepare as much as he'd like for the Buenos Aires Slam.

Los Mastellis, they are Horna and Monaco both coached by old fox Mastelli make a return to tour, though not sure how their bodies will handle it. Horna has an elbow problem, that could be a chronic thing, if not taken care of and he really needs the points to build back his ranking to where it should be. Monaco is back after spraining his ankle and missing Davis Cup, hope he can play, but there are doubts whether he will and he has a tough 1st rounder against Calleri in his title defence, just hope he can play with no pain.

Rotterdam

Krajicek has got a strong field here at Rotterdam. Nadal got an interesting draw and him losing would be worth it, though not sure if Tursunov will be on or off. Would like a rematch with the Toad and Nadal. Seppi playing Hewitt, this is a good time for Seppi to take advantage of Hewitt's lack of match play.

Berdych and Ljubo is a quality 1st round match and either one of them could make the final on the weaker side of the draw. Karlovic is playing Oli Rochus, he should just concentrate on hitting kick serves that bounce over head. Colonel Youzhny and Tipsarevic, well the Colonel should win this match and he is the defending his title and should make the semis here, but what should and does happen are two different things.

This will be the last event for Raemon Sluiter and perfect place to retire in your hometown and hope he can win a match here and have a good life after tennis.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Davis Cup World Group 1st Round Summary

Well this really won't take too long as there really weren't that many interesting ties and also some of the teams weren't at full strength for varying reasons like Andy Murray who was too scared to face the chorus music in Buenos Aires. Nadal couldn't be bothered in Peru and Master Federer doesn't believe in Davis Cup unless he can be the saviour.

Russia vs. Serbia 3-2 : No surprise that the Russians won especially with Djokovic and Tipsarevic not playing on Day 1 due to illness and injury respectively. Djokovic made an appearance in the doubles with Zimonjic and then played the 4th match and once Davydenko started to get some momentum and he retired from the match due to his illness. No need to play Marseille for him, but he will anyway. Zimonjic and Troicki did an excellent job in tough circumstances, now they play at the Czechs at home on clay.

Czech Republic vs. Belgium 3-2 : Good that the Czechs have finally made a QF of the World Group again and they have a very good unit with Berdman, Stepanek, Dlouhy and Vizner and I think next time against the Russians on clay that Dlouhy/Vizner should play instead of asking Berdych and Stepanek for the doubles, as they will be needed on Day 3. This one was done and dusted by the doubles and the Czechs had fun at the bar on Saturday night.

Argentina vs. UK 4-1 : Baker the Scotsman defeating Calleri in the 5th match was the highlight for this tie and the Argies might be shattered that there was no 5-0 in this tie.

Sweden vs Isreal 3-2: Lack of a number 2 singles player cost the Israelis here and good to see that the old fox Bjorkman was able to preserve World Group status for the Swedes, who go back to Argentina for a drubbing on clay in the quarter finals.

Germany vs. Korea 3-2 : Never in doubt for the Germans and Kohli had too much class on the clay for the Koreans.

Spain vs. Peru 5-0: Too much depth for the Spanish team and also the fact that the Peruvian warrior Lucho Horna injured his arm on the warm up and couldn't play on Day 1 hampered any chance of the Peruvians making it to Day 3 as a live rubber, will be interesting to see what the surface the Germans use this time around.

France vs. Romania 5-0: Tsonga had a very successful debut for the French team and they will be hopeful he can keep that up in future DC ties and too classy for the Romanians.

USA vs. Austria 4-1: Clownish performance by the Austrians at home. They had enough chances to be leading 2-0 after Day 1 and somehow they managed to be 0-2 down after Melzer up a break in the 5th set against Roddick and making too many errors wasn't stable enough to overcome his nemesis.

Koubek leading 7-5 5-2, then loses the 3rd and 4th sets 6-2 6-2 with an effort that looked like he didn't compete at all and was too passive. There are questions that need to be asked of Gilbert Schaller's leadership when Koubek was struggling, this was where Muster would have been able to get the best out of him, but this wasn't the case.

The Bryans slapped around Knowle and Melzer like they were gimps at a bondage party, the dead rubber well Eschauer didn't do himself any favours losing to Bob Bryan.

The Quarters should be more interesting.