Monday, May 26, 2008

Roland Garros: What's going to stop Nadal winning a 4th title in a row?

Well, the hopes of the scenario that I painted in my last post about Nadal playing average and winning Roland Garros is likely, so the take on this entry, will focus on who else can do well in this event and this is relative compared to their draws and rankings.

Federer got quite a comfortable draw, but that is to be expected. The 3rd round he will more than likely play the winner of Andy "South Tyrolean maestro" Seppi and Mario Ancic. Normally it would be that Ancic is the seeded player, but Seppi's excellent run in Hamburg and Ancic's recovery from glandular fever have changed that. Last time they met it was on a fast indoor surface that suited Ancic, this time on clay it will suit Seppi more, especially if there is the scheduled rain that has been forecast.

Pico Monaco got the Toad Söderling in the 1st round and as tough as this looks on paper. The Toad doesn't normally bring it in the Slams and whoever wins this match would have to fancy themselves a shot at making the 4th round. Monaco's better clay pedigree will get him over the line.

Stani Wawrinka newest member of the top 10 plays German Kohlschreiber. One thing for sure there will be some quality single hand backhands in this match. This one could go either way and Stani played a lot of tennis recently and had last week off from playing 4 weeks in a row, he should be refreshed and as long as he can keep relaxed with the foot movement. He'll get the W here.

Andreev and Starace, this will be a long one and now Andreev like Chucho is coachless and he has QF finals points to defend, but if he is able to defeat the tall Italian, then he is in a good position to defend those points and at the same time if Napoli's finest Starace can get the W, he'd fancy his chances in an open section as well.

Lucho Horna replaced Tsonga as a LL and has a good chance to make it through a few rounds as long as his calf injury holds up. At the same time he plays Jenkins who has a big serve and Lucho doesn't play those guys too well, just hope it's heavy and that will help him. The other seed is Ferrero, if fit he should be good enough to make the 3rd round, but this depends on his hip problem. Big Luczak is here as well and he has been having some issues with the hamstring, just hope he is healthy.

Calleri will never have a better chance to make a 3rd round here again than this time. He plays Fish out of clay and then he'd take on Hewitt or Mahut, that should be Hewitt, the only problem over Hewitt is his hip problem and he is probably using Paris as fitness for the grass season.

Berdych will be looking atone for his poor RG showing last year and will have a kind opening 2 rounds, but with the Berdman anything can happen. Good to see del Potro back on tour and the back seems fine so far and will play Baghdatis or ball bashing Bolelli in the next round, this one is tough for Baghdatis no form going into it.

The King and the protege (Marcel Granollers) are playing at the same time. Oscar Hernandez is playing Minar again and as long as his foot is alright, he should be able to win and get enough balls head high to Minar. Granollers plays the tank Berrer and like his 2nd round opponent Schwank, he has played a lot recently, but has had a bit of rest as well, big opportunity for both. Cañas and Odesnik definitely won't be one that will be a short match and one that Willy needs to win, to get his season back. Odesnik is the one American besides Russell that can actually play on this surface.

Nieminen and Marc Lopez, someone I like will at least make the 2nd round. Guccione is playing Devilder and it would be great if he won because he'd be playing Nadal in the 2nd round. Seeing the massive Guccione on a big serving day against Rafa on clay, will be different, though at the same time there is some comedy potential for sure, which is always good to see.

Goodbye Gustavo Kuerten, Sunday Starts suck, but glad to have Michelle and other friends in Paris at the moment

Yes, I know this is a bit late to start writing this, but there were other things that had to be attended to and also the fact I personally can't stand Sunday starts, it's not about the fans and it never has been about fans, it's about the corporation and the cash, where the lines between the business and sport become even more blurred than before.

At the same time, is there a point to writing a Roland Garros preview considering that the likelihood of Rafael Nadal winning his matches easily and playing at an average level, which will still be too good for an inept Federer in the final. Yes, this is something we have not seen before. This is likely to happen, but onto the fun stuff.

Guga Kuerten was competitive in his last match and it's disappointing to see one of the greatest clay court players of all time retire because his body gave out, but he achieved a lot and gave a lot of people happiness. He was able to remain an excellent sportsman and be respected all over the world. He was unique and sadly it seems Brazilian tennis was not able to get a boom after his success, but all the best in life away from tennis.

Nalbandian did what he needed to do against Berlocq. Acasuso without a coach now managed to beat Hrbaty and plays Murray in the next round and this is a big chance for Chucho. Whether he will take it or not remains to be seen, he does not have a great record in Slams and also as much as I like the man, he has been struggling, at the same time that is the case for Murray as well.

Almagro took out the racist Pashanski, though not sure about how his wrist is holding up. Big win baby Gordo Schwank over Moya in 5 sets. Schwankster has been playing a lot of tennis lately and was involved in the hotel fire in Bordeaux.
He looks like a bit like Lapentti and plays a bit like Zabaleta except with more power and he will the play the winner of Granollers or Berrer in the next round.

The warrior Nico Lapentti took out Tipsarevic, which was not a surprise really. Of course it took a while, but Lapentti does not mind the long matches, in fact he really enjoys them. This and his game can upset the rhythm of Tipsarevic who does better when he is not favourite.

Lapentti has a chance to make the 4th round and believe he will do it. It will be a pleasant change to see some different faces in the last 16 or last 8.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Michael Russell returning to tour and thanks the readers of this blog for the support

Michael Russell returning to tour and thanks the readers of this blog for the support

Sadly, once again Michael Russell’s year has been derailed by injury problems. After winning a GS match against Fognini in Melbourne, he was in a position to rebuild his ranking and finally take the next steps and make the quarter finals of ATP events, something which surprisingly hasn’t happened for him as of yet.

For those who haven’t read the article, though I know the good readers of this blog are literate and can appreciate quality journalism, well maybe not from me. The article linked below Perseverance paying off for Michael Russell reveals quite a lot about the man’s struggles and qualities, which make him among one of the more likable tennis professionals who survive in a very selfish and closed world.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2978555&type=story

The latest problem is a torn rotator shoulder cuff, of which there were signs of it in Delray Beach, but manifested itself in Memphis when playing his friend Sam Querrey. He was serving for the match against Big Sam, but wasn’t able to do win.

Mike is entered the Carson City and Yuba Challengers in the US and this week it’s ironic, the tournament where he gained the greatest notice against Guga Kuerten in 2001 Roland Garros starts this week and also Guga’s retirement as well.

A personal message from the man himself. “Thank you so much for their support and that I will be back soon fitter and stronger then before”. This shows what a positive attitude he has considering all the injury problems and also that appreciates our support.

If there is a man that deserves some good fortune it’s Mike Russell.

"El Fashionista” Stefan Koubek has back surgery

“El Fashionista” Stefan Koubek has back surgery

After a good finish to 2007 and a strong showing at this years Australian Open where he lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu in 5 sets in a match that he shouldn’t have lost.

Koubek has had some back problems that flared up in Zagreb and then decided to try play in Sunrise and Miami which made the problem worse. He tried resting and getting treatment, but this was not successful and last week Koubek had surgery in Vienna to correct the problem.

There is a chance that it could end his career, but Stefan sounded confident that this would not be the case and he will back on tour in his home event the Vienna Indoor. At that time, he will able to have a protected ranking which will be in the 60s.

Hopefully he can come back tour without further back problems and be able to play tennis and be involved in some of the more memorable matches like the famous Sopot 2007 match with Agustin Calleri where he was down 6-0 4-0 and Calleri served for the match twice in the 2nd set before losing 6-7(3). In addition to this Calleri lead 5-3in the 3rd and lost it 7-5.

Nearly as important as health, it would be great to see the yellow shorts make a return to tour.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Hamburg, no more trips to the Reeperbahn, matches played in 12 degrees and bye to slow and heavy clay Preview and Discussion

This is what possibly could be the last Hamburg event, after Fearless Leader aka Mr. Disney otherwise known as Etienne de Villiers the head of the ATP. The man who has 2000 ideas a day and 2001 of them are bad, but the ongoing lawsuit with the ATP over the downgrading of its status is among the many problems associated with the game at the moment. It won't be long, before he leaves and if he had any sense, he'd leave gracefully, though if he had any sense then he would not have introduced Round Robin play into regular tournaments.

Will this event have another nauseating and tedious Nadal and Federer final on clay, where Nadal doesn't have to get out of neutral to win or will something different happen? This time last year Nadal had won the big 3 events before playing Hamburg for the first time in a while and he was very heavy legged in the final and Federer played well and still could only win in 3 for his only win on the surface. Federer loves the Hamburg clay, it's slow enough, that the ball doesn't kick up as much and that helps him and Nadal, will be that bit better for having the week off, but enough of these two.

We already have 3 winners because another ingenious Mr. Disney idea is start events on a Sunday, so there is no TV coverage, but they only show minor matches, the winners were Ljubicic who got revenge on Darcis, with Ivan saving match points and Darcis served for the match, while Karlovic in a huge shock won 7-6 7-6 and Simple Simon beat Malisse.

Onto the good stuff, well depending on results. Nieminen has a chance to win a match against Schuettler, though if he does, he plays Federer and sadly for the Finn, he is cannon fodder for Federer, the second serve gets too easily exploited. Andreev and the Toad is the interesting match, as to whoever wins this one, will be favoured to make the 3rd round against clay clowns Mahut or Tsonga.

"Colonel" Youzhny makes a comeback after suffering some injury problems, he has played well in Germany in the past, but Verdasco is not an easy opponent, but can play quite well after a break. Cañas will be looking to get back on track here, though slow hardcourt is his preferred surface. David Ferrer should be freshened up after his early loss in Rome and has a comfortable 2nd rounder against LaLo or Minar.

Davydenko and Ljubo in the 2nd round could produce an upset. Ljubo is not in great form, but he knows how to play Davydenko, at the same time with all the negativity around the ATP and with Ljubicic's role as the main players representative have impacted on his tennis.

Monaco should be able to get the better of Volandri, he needs some more matches and this section of the draw is good for him to do that as Gasquet is the other seed. Marcel Granollers qualifies for his first TMS and will fancy his chances against free swinging Bolelli, he should get enough balls back on this surface to frustrate the flashy Italian. Seppi has a kind draw, but he had that and lost to Querrey and turned in a woeful performance against Blake, as to Gasquet, not sure what mood he will be in.

Almagro not sure about the status of his wrist and Acasuso is lacking confidence, but they had an exciting tussle in Acapulco with Mucho getting it 7-5 in the 3rd, whoever wins, will be relishing a 2nd round match with Montanes or Fish, as they both can hit through them and heavy games, that match up well on this surface.

Former champ Boredo and Kohlschreiber, will be a classic one aggressive player against a passive one, it all depends on whether Kohli can use his backhand well to dominate and expose Boredo and make less errors in doing so, if not then Boredo will get the cash, though big Karlovic is waiting and Robredo doesn't like him playing him anywhere.

Welcome back to tour for Berdych, after his ankle problem, not sure how he'll perform, but that's not unusual. He will either play Safin or Cilic, the revenge factor with Safin will be there, just hope his ankle is fine.

Last of all the Lucho Horna qualifies and plays Starace in the 1st round, just hope it's on a TV court, it will be tough either way and whoever wins will play Nadal in the 2nd round. Lucho gave him plenty to think about in their last match and also loves playing the top 10 players and it will be a better match up than Starace who has been handled easily by Nadal in their 3 matches.

Lets hope for a non Federer-Nadal final, well hope is free.

Arrivederci Roma: The Roman review as the likable Wawrinka makes the top 10 and my mate James the linesman was on the TV

Well Rome turned out to have quite a few strange things about it, and no the Italian fans aren't counted in this case.

The first day was so overcast and rainy, the courts played like Hamburg. On this day there were some great results well personally anyway. The "Peruvian Pearl" Lucho Horna beating Richard Gasquet more details in my previous entry, then he defeated Chucho Acasuso, one of his friends and then lost in the 3rd round to the crafty and sexy Radek Stepanek, who used an injury timeout at the beginning of the 3rd set to break the momentum and it worked, more on Radek later.

On the same day, we had a bit of needle in the Andy Murray and del Potro match, which is always good for the entertainment value. del Potro hits a few balls at Murray at the net, which is perfectly legal, then Murray says something about it. Juan replies about Murray acting like his mother and how it's always the same. Here is the link to the incident . The commentators in this Jason Goodall and Robbie Koening, wanting some biffo out of this, good for the game.

Rafael Nadal finally lost a match on clay this year to Juan Carlos Ferrero and of course the excuse makers are out there, trying to justify blisters as an injury. They aren't an injury and medical science backs that up. Sure, with the ridiculous schedule that is in place for the clay season, that is another post. He played 10 singles matches in the last 2 weeks and won easily for all of them apart from the set against Ferrer in the Barcelona final.

All this does is take away from the performance of Ferrero who tactically played a very good match and was able to execute his plan to the letter. While not a huge fan of Ferrero, too many tend to forget about how good he was on clay from 2000-2003, his forehand was one of the biggest and the speed as well. He will never get back to that level, the game has passed him by mostly, sure he can have the odd moments of brilliance, but not the day in, day out consistency of previous years. Not surprisingly he lost to finalist Stani Wawrinka in the next round, different day, different match up and it's always difficult to follow the big win, with another one in the next round.

The courts started playing the way they normally do in Rome, which is very fast. With Nadal gone, all eyes were on Federer to take another title, but this was killed by "Thunder Lips" Stepanek in the quarter finals, playing some aggressive, clever attacking tennis. The serve was working very well, and that made it easy to put his plan into process. He has pushed Federer before and Radek doesn't mind getting in the face of opponents, it works for him and also the crowd being so pro-Federer, made the win even sweeter for Thunder Lips and he pulled out the worm, which is never a bad thing Photobucket

The semis were decided by retirements. Stani Wawrinka played only 3 games and then "Duckboy" Roddick, who had to play such clay legends as Fish and Bolelli, then beating his pigeon Robredo for a place in the semis, decided to call it a day with back spams. If this wasn't bad enough for the crowd. Thunder Lips was down 6-0 1-0 and pulled the pin against Djokovic, with nausea and he didn't look right, and both Roddick and Stepanek have decided to be cautious and withdraw from Hamburg.

Djokovic definitely had a charmed life in making the final, having a Bye in the 1st round, then having retirements from Almagro in the QFs and Stepanek in the semis. Unlike Wawrinka who made the semis in Barcelona last week, then had to play Safin on Monday, he got his Bye on Saturday, but he has played a lot of tennis.

The final was quite a good match, with Stani starting well and keeping Djokovic back with solid serving and not making errors and he took the 1st set, he really had to win the final in 2 sets, because Djokovic was so much fresher and that was going to count the longer the match went. This, plus in addition to Djokovic adjusting his game, moving forward more and taking charge in the rallies, he was able to expose Wawrinka's forehand and by the end of the match, Wawrinka was not moving as well and leaking errors on the forehand side, he played well, but Djokovic's extra experience in these situations and freshness counted in this match and he deserved the victory.

Welcome to the top 10 for Wawrinka, he still has some significant improvements to make, but fantastic achievement for the pleasant and likable individual.

Big cheers to my friend James, who was calling the lines and saw you on the TV during the Blake vs. Seppi match, which was one of the worst I have seen and both players didn't deserve to make it through to the next round.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Luis "Lucho" Horna lays the smackdown on Richard Gasquet 6-4 6-1 in Rome

GeorgeWH/GWH2


Normally I don't write about individual matches, but there always good times to do something different.

Lucho Horna who is currently ranked outside the top 100, this is not a true reflection of his ability and talent. It's more a combination of his injury problems and also inconsistency, coming from a lack of practice to get his game going. The one season he didn't have injuries he finished in the top 40. The game is definitely there, but more about Lucho as I plan to do a write up on him at a later date.

Horna qualified defeated Max Mirnyi and Mischa Zverev, on paper they should be easy matches for a player like Horna at home on the clay, both of them presented tough challenges,. Rule number 1 in tennis, it's about match ups and most people forget this, though not the readers of this blog, these guys have games that explot Lucho's main problem the return of serve, but he came through this and drew Gasquet in the 1st round.

When I saw this draw, I thought there were good possibilities of a Horna win, due to the fact that as a qualifier, he is used to the conditions and that counts in the TMS events and also it's advantageous for the qualifiers to be playing on the Monday. This plus his aggressive game when on, can be very effective, using the heavy serve to open the court up.

The match started out fairly even, both were playing well off their service games and could hardly get a look at a break for the first 6 games, then at 30-30 on Gasquet's serve, then things changed for the better in concern to Horna's chances of winning this match. Gasquet served 2 double faults and Horna was there to capitalise for the break at 4-3. Horna continued serving well, getting a high percentage of serves in and then backing it up with solid groundstrokes, keeping good length in the heavy conditions and was winning the majority of baseline exchanges. There was a slight hiccup at 30-30 when Lucho served the set out 6-4.

Horna kept his level of play up and Gasquet afte Lucho broke his first game, it looked like he mentally checked out of the match and had his mind on other things besides tennis. Horna was mentally strong enough to close the door on any hopes of a comeback and finish off a disheartened Gasquet very quickly in the 2nd set. The Italians weren't very happy at all and being the expressive people they are, they let Gasquet know what they thought of his efforts which met with some boos and jeers for a lack of mental toughness in the 2nd set.

Lucho now has the excellent record of 9 wins against Top 10 players, considering where he has been ranked for his career. The list below is of his 9 victims and the Grand Slam ones are bolded,

1. Gasquet - Rome 2008 (10)
2. Nalbandian - Buenos Aires 2007 (10)
3. Ljubicic - Portschach 2007 (7)
4. Robredo - Båstad 2007 (8)
5. Gaudio - Acapulco 2006 (8)
6. Henman - Roland Garros 2005 (8)
7. Coria - Toronto 2004 (3)
8. Federer - Roland Garros 2003 (5)
9. Ferrero - Sopot 2003 (2)

The "Peruvian Pearl", will now play either his good friend Chucho Acasuso or Dmitry Tursunov for a place in the 3rd round, Acasuso is still looking for his confidence that is somewhere in Miami and Tursunov is just there for the food, the opportunity is there, but it has to be taken and this is not an area where Horna has excelled in following through after big wins.

Barcelona Review from the man on the grounds, no PR propaganda here

The best way to watch tennis is from the grounds and we all know this, so whoever wants to submit a report from an event, they go to and yes that includes the grass ones, then let me know.

This a review from Deivid who was at the Barcelona event and saw some quality matches and the Granollers bandwagon is there in Catalunya.

Here it is, read it and enjoy it.

This year we were there just until Wed , as usual a group of friends of mine and me arrived on Saturday morning to see qualies, but as even more usual, we ended up drinking and not going to the club on that day, so basically we went for a couple of hours on Sunday, to see some trainings and qualifying matches, where I could see a good match between that motherfucking fixer Schukin and Marc López, a guy that
used to play good tennis on dirt, but has been niggled by injuries during the last years, sadly. It was a good match and we liked the chances of the winner to win a couple of rounds if draw was kind enough, both were playing good stuff out there.

One funny thing was to see Marcel Granollers being assaulted by many people around as if he was some kind of new Borg, when we´ve always seen there totally unnoticed and almost carrying other´s rackets during past years. That´s what recent success carries with, a lot of cocksuckers making queue to salute him that didn´t even bother to say hello a few months ago. Talking about him. he was too tired in the 3rd set against Montañes to keep fighting and folded like a cheap tent after a promising 5-0 start in 1st set.

We always have tickets on the right corner of the same stand, as it´s the place where you can see all the 4 main courts (of course if a bit of height doesn´t make you dizzy) and although I went down to the outside courts sometimes, I basically spent my time there. Zverev was a toy in Ancic´s hands, when he doesn´t serve well, Misha has a lot of trouble, and that was the case that day, he definitely needs to get more on that serve of his if he wants to develop and turn into a dangerous player.
Polaco Brzezicki is still a cunt and a cheating bastard. He threw the match against his good friend Cuevas and even his girlfriend sounded like she didn´t have a clue about what was happening. I asked a friend of mine to go down and find out something by talking to her, but she was looking at his man a bit in disbelief, “He doesn´t look today like himself, looks a bit careless” lol . Shame on him.

It was good to see Dani Gimeno playing some good tennis, as I always thought he should have done much better with his career, but don´t know why he´s stuck in the rankings and with no convincent glimpses of improving too much. Ventura looks like he doesn´t like that court 1, I´ve seen a couple of awful matches from him there and this was another one. Starace looked way sharper in his match against Luczak than against Lapentti in MonteCarlo, he´s reaching top form when it counts most for him as he showed in the first set against Nadal later. Wawrinka had too much for both Sanchez de Luna, who has absolutely nothing to hurt Stan on his racket and against a good Schukin who at least made it competitive. Stan is growing as a player every year and it´s only a matter of time he´s reaching top 10 imo. RRH vs Gremelmayr was an excellent match from both players, it was clear the one who was winning that 1st set had a very good chance not only at winning that day, but going deep in the draw as well. Oscar played well, but Willy outgrinded him, at some point he just couldn´t find a way to win the points and if you think about it that was just bound to happen. Calleri played a very clean 1st set against David, but decided to play a bit of baseball for 5 minutes in the 2nd set, just enough to help Nalbandian a bit not to throw the match away and ended up paying a high price for that.

Tipsarevic rolled his ankle in the 2nd set against Gulbis, Minar had a thigh injury, Acasuso a brain injury, Troicki a Bermuda jetlag injury and that can easily summarize those matches.

Coria vs Tsunami was an interesting match, Coria started nervous, he made like 3 or 4 df´s in his first 3 service games, but after being 2-5 down, he cut them down and with some help of Tsunami´s brainfarting he scored 5 games in a row to win the set but he was not playing well and Gabashvili took the 2nd set. The third one was a very good set of tennis from both players, Coria was up 4-2 in it but although he basically made no ues/dfs in that last set, Tsunami hitted easily like 15 winners since he was broken and had too much for Coria to handle, but it was a pretty decent effort, fair to say.

Kukushkin played two excellent matches against Nieminen and Cuevas, both won fairly comfortably and he was hitting good length, changing directions smartly and without a problem and going for it when it was the right choice to do. Surely this is not his usual level, but he showed he has the ability, that´s for sure

On Wed afternoon he had to leave back home and I´ve not been able to watch anything bar the final yesterday, so that´s all from my side.