Saturday, May 21, 2011

2011 Roland Garros Preview, Andy Roddick withdraws from denying the USA a claycourt champion

Roland Garros starts this Sunday, of course nothing but a money grab. though expecting major events to care about fans is the equivalent of transparency at FIFA.

Apart from the horrible news that one of the premier claycourt clowns Andy Roddick has withdrawn from event has made fans and gamblers alike very mad. Fans who can watch the movement of a constipated rhino on ice skates is a sight to behold and the bluff coming to net. Gamblers aren't happy cause they can get good odds on an early round loss for Rawdick.


This time around the lead up clay season has been different, it's usually Rafael Nadal playing at 5% capacity and thrashing his opponents. Well this has happened for the most part, but this time Novak Djokovic has been able to stand up to him and win Madrid and Rome without losing a set in the finals.

The questions which will be answered in 16 days are has Nadal lost a bit on clay while trying to improve on other surfaces. Will the gluten free diet of Djokovic be good enough to take him through to his first RG title. In reality he is still a poor mans Ivan Lendl with less humour, flair and a better backhand. Djokovic's forehand has improved significantly and at the moment isn't having problems with Nadal's groundies, defensively Djokovic has always been excellent but he is able to take the initative to put Nadal on the defensive when the chance arises. As Nadal gets pressured, he goes back into moonball or defensive mode as that's his comfort zone which isn't threatening "gluten free" at the moment. Best of 5 is a different beast when it comes to Nadal, but at least there is a bit of buzz around instead of tedious inevitability.

Some interesting 1st round matches

Nadal vs. Isner : Unless is steaming hot and Isner serves at 87% 1st serves, then big John isn't getting it done.

Federer vs. LaLo : LaLo almost got Fed last time they played, but even with Alberto Berasategui in LaLo's corner. It won't help him and Fed will continue on his way to make LaLo his turkey (10-0+ in H2H).

[Q]Gremelmayr v [28]Davydenko: Just not sure what kind of form the PMK is in at the moment. He's due to meet Nadal in the 3rd round if seedings go to plan, though this doesn't always happen. Davydenko won Munich more so because he was in less poor form than the others, at the same time if he gets to play Nadal he can lift, but don't see it happening.

Monaco v [16]Verdasco: For the good of tennis Monaco has to win this match up. Anyone that loses to the Grand Pubah of clay court clowns in Lu doesn't deserve to win anything. Pico has an excellent record against Verdasco, he makes enough balls back into court for Verdasco to make errors. As Querrey is the other seed in this section, it's a big chance for Monaco to make the 4th round.

Daniel Gimeno-Traver

Gimeno-Traver v Haase: DGT well I don't say he's truly on the way back, but has managed to win some matches of late. Haase is an explosive player with a big game, clay isn't his best surface but far from a goose on the surface. Not sure if a cooler day would help DGT in this match for him, it depends on how his backhand holds up to the flat shots of Haase. Either way the winner of this would be playing "Fisker med" Mardy Fish or Mello, which are almost dream matches for a 2nd round on clay, but that one match a time cliche is there for a reason.

Dustin Brown

[Q]L.Mayer v Brown : The Aligator and Dreddy, there will be plenty of huge serving in this match. Not the best qualifer for Dreddy Brown to have drawn, maybe he can use his sexy forehand slice winners and dropshots to get Mayer out of rhythm. The main thing for Brown is as always the shot selection and how erratic he is. Brown winning means more entertainment for the crowds and can see the Parisians really cheering him on.

[LL]Bolelli v [Q] Dancevic : Go the poor mans Federer in this one against the guy who can't return a phone call.

Berlocq v Tomic: Charly "the Panther" Berlocq got a great 1st round draw against Tomic, who is a shocking mover on clay at best. Bernardo doesn't really have any interest at the moment improving on clay, though his varied game could do well on the surface. The Panther will relish the chance to take down another young gun like he did to Donald Young in Miami 6-0 6-0, not sure it will be a triple bagel. But with Berlocq the mullet, the grunt will give Tomic a clay lesson.

[7]Ferrer v Nieminen : Jakke Nieminen must have pissed someone off to get this draw, when there are so many gimps that he could have drawn. Sure Ferrer doesn't have a great RG record mainly cause the amount of pression he puts on himself to do well here. Nieminen hasn't been near top form recently, hope he gets a better draw at Wimbledon.

Nishikori v Lu: Nishi should retire from tennis if you lose to Lu on this surface. The Taiwanese is one of the greatest clay court clowns to grace this sport. He can live off his result of beating Verdasco on clay. If Kei withdraws, then it would be a true lucky loser.

[Q] Schoorel v M.Gonzalez: The "Dutch Karlovic" has improved quite a lot in the past few months and it's not a surprise that he qualified for main draw. He has a very good chance against Machi Gonzalez, who fights very hard and is aggressive, came back well from long term injury. This one could be a very good match as Schoorel besides the serve is reasonable from the ground, being a leftie helps as he can break the weaker backhand side of Machhi. At the same time the big Dutchman is erratic.

Serra v Andreev: Both are in shocking form, if I back Andreev this means Serra wins. As Andreev has the better looking girlfiend Davai Igor.

Kendrick v [30]Garcia-Lopez: Bye for GGL against a quality clay court clown.

Gabashvili v Seppi: Interesting match up here for the South Tyrolean sex machine. Gabashvili has 4th round points to defend and can play some very inspired tennis at the same time he can be insipid. Seppi just coming back from injury, only played a few matches. He needs a lot of matches before he plays his best tennis. I hope Seppi gets up, but not too sure. Winner of this plays either Golubev or Bellucci in a ballbashing classic.

[25]Del Potro v Karlovic: del Potro is coming back from injury, not exactly sure how fit he is. Best of all he is going to be the shorter and quicker player in this match coming from someone who is 1.98m that's an impressive feat. Not sure how many engaging rallies there'll be in this match, it's not like this will be a match for delPo to get any rhythm. It would be good if Karlovic won, but can see him making a few too many mistakes where he gets broken or loses the busters.

Blaž Kavčič

Gulbis v Kavčič: Interesting match here mainly because it's not sure which Gulbis will turn up. The one that doesn't give a shit about anything and will put balls into the River Seine or the one that shows his ability.

It's well known what you'll get with Kavčič, plenty of fighting spirit, hard work, feisty attitude on court plus some poor serving at times. Kavčič has done well this season, unlike 2010 where he played so much, at one point it was 8 weeks in a row. He has been smarter with his schedule and it has paid off so far.

Kavčič has chances of course to win this match, but he has be prepared to handle the mix of ballbashing and dropshots. Sure it would be better if it was heavier, but got to take what you can with this game. At the same time Gulbis can make a lot of errors, so Kavčič needs to vigilant and take his chances.

As for who will win anyone outside the top 4, there needs to be a surprise winner of a Slam again.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Stefan "El Fashionista" Koubek retires from tennis

Stefan Koubek

It's never easy to write these entries but with anything there is a beginning and an end, the only thing that differs is the time in between these two points.

Last week Stefan "El Fashionista" Koubek retired from the tour, while he couldn't play Roland Garros or Wimbledon one last time he was able to retire on his terms. He refused a wildcard to Kitzbühel, but he will get the farewell he deserves at the event.

As for why Koubek was called "El Fashionista" this man wore bright clothes before it was cool to do so. Some people are imitators and others are innovators, Koubek was an innovator.




Koubek turned pro in 1994, it took him some time to establish himself on tour and won his first Challenger title in 1998 at Alpirsbach defeating Stanoytchev then losing to El Ayanoui.

In 1999 Koubek had the breakthrough year winning his first title as a qualifier on the green clay in Atlanta for the loss of 1 set smashing Seb Grosjean in the final.

Qualifying Rounds

32 Christophe ROCHUS (BEL) 6-0 7-6
16 Dirk DIER (FRG) 6-3 6-1
QF Xavier MALISSE (BEL) 6-2 5-7 6-1

Main Draw
32 Todd WOODBRIDGE (AUS) 6-2 7-6
16 Michael CHANG (USA) 6-1 6-4
QF Alberto MARTIN (ESP) 7-5 6-2
SF Magnus LARSSON (SWE) 5-7 6-4 6-1
FR Sebastien GROSJEAN (FRA)6-1 6-2

Later in that year he made his RG debut and achieved his best result there making the 4th round losing to Alex Corretja in straight sets. He took out Grosjean again in straight sets for the first 2 sets against Corretja he looked nervous then stepped it up in the last set but couldn't take his chances. Too bad he couldn't face Corretja in the next round who had a very bad allergic reaction and was fodder for Meligieni. He finished the year with 28 claycourt wins second behind Albert Costa for that season.

Koubek started off on tour with his best results on clay but over time evolved into a better slow hardcourt player than he was on clay, especially in the later years. He won his 2 other titles at Delray Beach 2000, this was the year where he reached his best ranking of 20, then Doha 2003 without losing a set. When he won the titles, they came out of nowhere, no real momentum coming in and not much after the wins. That was part of his charm.

At his best he was able to keep great length use his leftie groundies to open up the court with angles and defensively nothing would get past him. He also fought very hard and was involved in quite a few dogfights, he started out with an excellent 5 set record but he was still above average at the end of the career.

Like most Austrian players coming through Thomas Muster was an inspiration while both were left handed, blond and had feisty temperaments there weren't that many similarities. Muster had a reputation for being difficult with his peers (not that I have a problem with him). Koubek on the other hand was popular with peers well apart from Dani Koellerer, but that was a long simmering feud which could have came to blows if there weren't so many people around.



He was an excellent Davis Cup player for Austria even in his declining years he was available to play most of the time. Due to Jürgen Melzer's poor DC form, it was up to Koubek on many occasions to win singles rubbers to keep Austria competitive, though they never won a World Group match since the retirement of Muster and Skoff.

There were a few controversies in Koubek's career, where he got disqualified from Roland Garros 2000 playing Attila Savolt where he hit the ballboy with his racquet ( no it wasn't deliberate). In 2004 Koubek was suspended for 3 months for taking glucocorticosteroids at the 2004 French Open after receiving an injection for an injured wrist. There was no intention to dope, it was to come back from injury but failed to fill out the correct paperwork. Koubek was disqualified in Metz against Sébastien Grosjean while leading 5–7 7–6 4–2 after using abusive language to the tournament supervisor Thomas Karlberg while disputing a call. Koubek said he directed the "Fuck you" at the situation and not at Karlberg personally.

Koubek has been involved in some hilarious and memorable matches, not all of them in his favour. The two personal favourites at the 2002 Australian Open where there was a rain delay he was playing Cyril Saulnier on Court 12. There were hardly any people around, he was being coached by Joakim Nyström at the time. He was down 0-6 1-6 1-4 15-40 with myself and an Austrian friend cheering him on. He was able to come back to win the last 3 sets 7-6(6), 6-4, 8-6. He broke for the match after saving break points in the previous game. Then he came back from 2 sets to 0 down against the ballbasher James Blake in the next round. He was able to gain some confidence and reached his best ever GS result beating Fernando Gonzalez in an excellent 4 set match, then Jiri Novak was too solid for him as usual taking him out in the QFs.

Sadly the other hilarious match that I wasn't able to see was his match with Agustin Calleri in Sopot. Koubek came back from a 6–0 4–0 deficit to defeat Agustín Calleri 0–6 7–6 7–5, where Calleri served for the match three times, twice in the 2nd set and at *5-3 in the 3rd. He saved 5 match points in the process, which broke a streak 21 consecutive games lost after losing 6–4 6–0 to Daniel Köllerer in Kitzbühel the previous week. These matches are ones that have to be seen in person.

Wimbledon 2004 he and Ferrero played a brilliant match one of the best ones there easily, for sure it wasn't classical grasscourt tennis. It was in the early stages of the change of the grass composition. Both guys were hitting the ball well on the rise using the whole court, there was the odd volley done at the right time. Koubek had plenty of chances in this one, it was close but very entertaining albeit not as frustrating as the next and last one of the memorable matches.

The 2008 Aus Open Koubek played two high quality matches defeating Charly Moya and Calleri without the drama of their Sopot match which makes what happened next even more frustrating. He played Paul-Henri Mathieu and really should have won this match in straight sets but somehow managed to lose this in 5 sets despite winning more points, hitting more winners, less unforced errors, having a better break point conversion rate and winning more break points in addition to leading a break in every set. It was such a strange atmosphere for the match afterwards, it takes a special kind of skill to lose to Mathieu when all those things were in your favour.

Koubek had one more good run at the Aus Open after having surgery on his back to fix bulging discs, but the game moves forward and it's time for Stef to enjoy his life after tennis.

He will still play Austrian league tennis, look after his snakes spend more time with his wife. It's not about the titles, Koubek provided some fine entertainment and even better fashion combinations.


Best way to end this entry

Q: Stefan, what happened to the yellow shorts?

A: I wore them so much, they aren't yellow anymore and Nike stopped giving them out.