Monday, June 29, 2009

Turkey Time

Wimbledon, well the only Slam that has the middle Sunday free, this might be a good or a bad thing, depending on whether you live near the courts or not, though in the alleged modern world, it's not like a major religious holiday, but at least it gives time to reflect on some things.

Better get the shit out of the way now. The Wimbledon organising committee are a bunch of clowns for the most part, seriously start matches on the outside courts at 11am, use some commonsense, especially when they are no lights on outside courts and start Centre court at noon. It's not like dew is going to be a problem at 11, then again this is asking too much. The matches suspended because of darkness would have better chances of completion Haas/Cilic starting an hour earlier, the South Tyrolean sex machines matches against Gicquel and Andreev. Gimeno-Traver's match against Dent, as for the WTA matches they should be moved to the Isle of Man.

Next point is the grass itself, it's a different kind of problem now to what they had in the horror days of the mid 90s, where the average rally point was 1,6 shots and it wasn't serve/volley tennis, it was just serving. It got to the point where they might as well started at the tiebreakers. The composition of the grass has been changed to be more durable and less slick than before, also the fact the balls are a lot slower are contributing to the amount of rallies seen now and it's not traditional grasscourt tennis. Has it gone too much the other way? It has, but that there has to be a compromise, a bit quicker wouldn't hurt the game, there is already too much homogenisation surface as it is.

The highlights so far Daniel Gimeno-Traver winning a match, he has the Moya gamestyle with a worse serve, too bad he has the Moya backhand, but he is a good guy. Very surprising he beat Dent on this surface, though Dent had a shocker, even then it should be good enough to win. Though DGT was in a lowlight as well, blowing a huge chance against Troicki up 4-2 40-15 on serve in the 5th set and blowing the match 7-5. He missed an easy volley and then a netcord went out for deuce, and Troicki took chances and they came off. It got too dark, Troicki was creating some antics "I cannot see, I cannot see", but hey he saw well enough to break serve.

Montañes making the 3rd round funny stuff. Leo Mayer has improved quite a bit from when I saw him personally and it's good to see, because del Potro is going to need some help in the future with Davis Cup, especially as Schwank is having a lot of problems at the moment.

Koubek once again fucks up a match, tactically played it the right way, but refused to knock off some easy volleys, though it was good that the battling Sela ended the Robredo nonsense.

Now to the last 16. Berdych has been playing well so far, but he has a fear of GS quarter finals. It won't be easy against Roddick, but they have never met on grass. Roddick loves the grass, it depends on how Berdych returns, has to be really on his game, if he does that, then he should be able to dominate the rallies, though with Berdych it's on instinct and mood. Hope he wins to prove me wrong.

Ferrero and Simon, big chance for JCF to make the quarters, he hasn't been able to back up big performances regularly. He did well to get out of the match with Fernando Gonzalez with a win, it was a hard fought match, but Gonzo had plenty of chances to take it and Ferrero took his.

Andreev in the 4th round of a grass Slam, haha that is some funny shit right there and he has nothing to lose against Haas who is the favourite here. Haas unlike Seppi has an effective slice backhand and should be able to use it to keep Andreev on the defensive and also make him hit the running forehand which is not the one that Andreev enjoys hitting. Would like this match to go to Andreev, but he has to get the serve working like he has so far in this event.

Hewitt will be too solid for sexy Stepanek, plenty of antics and facial expressions in this one. Murray and Stani, one plays a slightly disjointed but successful game and the other one hits tennis balls, the former isn't losing. Karlovic and Verdasco, someone has to win.

Federer will make Söderling a turkey tonight.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Andreas Seppi does tennis a favour

The grass isn't a favourite time of the year, but with the game on the surface changing, while not always for the better, though personally for myself it makes grass tennis better to watch.

Federer is looking for his 15th Slam title and hopefully he can it done here, so the whole Sampras record thing is buried and yes I will do a write up on the Basel boy, once he passes the record, then the Roland Garros thing can be mentioned in greater context.

So far at the big W, excellent win for the legend of South Tyrol Andreas Seppi over big James Blake. Seppi played an intelligent and thoughtful match, he was able to absorb the pace of the ballbashing from Blake, got him into backhand to backhand rallies, where he was going to be dominant in those. The key thing was that he served well throughout the match, and wasn't able to be exposed on the second serve, which is a liability. The calm nature helped in the 3rd set tiebreaker where Blake was up 5-0, but Seppi kept fighting, and was aggressive and got rewarded. Has an interesting match against Gicquel, has to take advantage of this draw.

Always a good day when Koubek wins, he won in 5 sets, doing it the hard way can be fun at times, but he needs to take out Robredo in the next round, he is not a grass lover, but Stefan will need to be aggressive and use his forehand angles to get Robredo out of court and then take control from there..

Gordo Calleri retires from tennis, but that will get a separate entry at another time.

King Oscar was in generous mood losing 15 games in a row against Leo "Aligator" Mayer, who isn't bad on grass, has the big serve and forehand, converted 6/6 break points in the first 2 sets hence the 6-0 6-0, but the King decided to play a little bit. though the grass is more useful for other things than playing tennis on.

Lucho's double partner Cuevas won a match at GS level and great comeback in defeating Chris Rochus 11-9 in the 5th set, of course as usual in the early round matches, there are never streams for the matches that are truly interesting. Good for Pablo and Dani Orsanic, who is a good coach and Pablo is good enough to be in the top 100, have to play well outside of Viña del Mar, has a big show against Jesse Levine in the next round.

Daniel Gimeno Traver had Taylor Dent in all sorts of problems, he won the first 2 sets, but was up a break in the 3rd and managed to lose 2 service games in a row to lose the 3rd set and play is suspended. It's a very difficult thing going to sleep, especially when you are in the lead and had chances to finish it in a day, then come back the next day to finish the match. That's part of the mental battle, it's now like another match starting from 0-0, and remembering what he did well in the match so far and implement that.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Robin Söderling saves Roland Garros

Good old Robin Söderling has saved Roland Garros, this might sound like hyperbole, but in reality it is justified due to the ridiculous level of dominance by Nadal on the Parisian clay. He had won 4 titles in a row going for a Borg record, but the man we like to call "the Toad" stopped it. The fact that is was from such a surprising individual made the win even better and it made worldwide headlines as one of the first stories in the global news. The result has created such a buzz around the event which hasn't been seen for years, this coming upon Novak Djokovic's defeat against Phillip Kohlschreiber in the previous round.


What makes it even better is that Söderling and Nadal aren't exactly friendly with each other, a bit of spice is never a bad thing. Söderling is very direct and calls it how he sees it, he isn't there to make friends. Nadal's comments after the match were definitely not in the image of a gracious loser, that is usually the way with him.

Here is the classic imitation of Nadal's timewasting rituals in between points





Onto Nadal's complaints about hitting the ball short. Well there were some good reasons for this, a guy called Söderling playing aggressive and attacking tennis, using his serve well to open the court up. Once he was able to do that, then he pounded his forehand and attacked Nadal's forehand, while it's a great weapon, a player has to go there to get short replies, but it has to be done with power and precision. The Toad was able to do this and as he was able to put pression on Nadal and rushing him, therefore leading Nadal to hit shorter replies and Söderling was able to punish these short balls with the contempt they deserved.

Söderling established the pattern, but the real question was whether he was able to implement the plan for the whole match. He had a few lapses in concentration, but was in control of his own destiny, through his aggressive play. The thing with Söderling is the talent has never been in question, but the mental application has as he has had meltdowns in the past and major ones, but working with Norman has changed that. It was a great result for tennis that Söderling won this match and apart from Nadal fans or people without perspective, will see the atmosphere and anticipation that it has created around the event.

Interview





Now onto to the other 7 players left in the quarter finals.

Davydenko : He has been under the radar even more than usual. An underrated player when he is playing very well, lightning fast footwork and very crisp timing on the groundies which rush the opponent into error, as he cuts down their time. He does have the odd problem on serve and if he is off, he can be quite off. He has been impressive in his last two matches against Wawrinka and especially against Verdasco, where he showed his limitations off. Interesting match with the Toad next, he has struggled against him in the past, but he has won a GS quarter final, whereas Söderling hasn't.

Murray : Highest seed in the section, but probably the weakest claycourter out of the four. Has had a good event and the last start against Cilic was a very solid showing, he has improved all round and listening to Corretja has helped his game. Yes, he some glaring weaknesses on the clay, but they are harder to expose, as he has improved his overall game. Cilic made some dumb errors in the first 2 sets at vital moments, but the best players step up when needed and this is the group Murray belongs to. Had an escape against Starace, but that isn't a bad thing. Gonzalez will love his chances on this surface against Murray, but if he is badly off, then Dunblane will chop him.

Gonzalez : Easy so far for him, dispatched the players easily as he should have. The forehand is awesome and even the backhand is stepping up to the plate, but with Murray that side is going to come under a lot of pressure. Gonzo has the weapons to exploit Murray on clay. The serve while not quick, he gets quality angles on it and if he gets a high percentage in, then he can open the court up and run Murray around with the forehand that is overloaded with spin and pace.

The bottom half matches, well Federer was so tight against Haas, it was horrible to watch, but he was able to get through in 5 sets from 2 sets down, while not playing well at all. The pressure is really on him, as this is his great chance to win the only GS he hasn't. Interestingly there has been a press ban by the Federer camp, so only interviews he will give are the usual press conferences and the on court interview,

Monfils and Roddick : This was a highly entertaining match that started very late, due to the chicks going late. First decent player Roddick has played and Monfils isn't losing to Roddick on clay, unless severely injured. Monfils looked comfortable in this match, defending well as he usually does, hitting the odd aggressive shot, he was able to convert his break point chances whereas Roddick didn't have a great rate. As the weather got darker, so did Roddick's mood and he was playing to try and get the match suspended due to darkness. Roddick was bitching to the umpire Enric Molina saying "what was it like when the match started and what is it like now"? Tournament referee McEwan was there as well keeping an eye on things, as the changeover came to an end. Monfils walked past with a big smirk on his face laughing at Roddick. Then when he turned around, Roddick mouthed off and said "you're not that good to be that cocky". I think that is what is known as the pot calling the kettle black. Monfils dropped his bundle for a short time, he got it back together and was able to run the match out in straight sets before the darkness set in.

Tandil man del Potro too steady for Tsonga, still lacks variation big time, but his one dimension is good. His opponent is Boredo, so for the good of the game del Potro needs to win this one.

Great that Söderling, the most unlikely of people to beat Nadal has breathed life into this event again.