Monday, July 11, 2011

Båstad and Stuttgart Tournament with fan reports from Choupi

The summer clay season is upon us starting this week from Båstad and Stuttgart. Luckily enough there will be fan reports from my special reporter Choupi in Stuttgart, as it's always better to get fan reports and I will cover Båstad. The reports will be in the comments of this post.

It's still disappointing that both of these are competing against each other, it was better when they were separate. Båstad only has 28 player draw, but that makes sense so they can spend more time at the beach and at Pepes Bodega in the evening. Lets say this is not the place to take your girlfriend.

Båstad


Onto Båstad itself, there are the usual suspects here Söderling who played shit all event last year, but ended up losing to Almagro in the final. These two characters are quite combative and their matches have some spice about them, needless to say both are a big chance of winning the title. Almagro loves an IS clay event and wouldn't be surprised if he has trained to peak for this event.

Nicolas Almagro 2010 Swedish Open Champ


Not that it always goes to seeding but Ferrer who looms in Almagro's section will be the big danger. He's on his way from Texas and with the bye shouldn't be required until Thursday enough time to adjust. Boredo two time champ coming back from injury will be moonballing, hooking and using all forms of gamesmanship.

Young Brazilian Swede Lindell plays arriba Riba, he has a very aggressive game, would like to see how he has developed since the last time I saw him vs. Nieminen in Båstad. Kavčič has a good chance to get back on track after a poor DC performance against Starace. The court isn't too fast, but can still get some good bounce on serve and shots.

Vinciguerra too bad he never could win this event. He has been injured for so long, hasn't retired as of yet but would be good if he won a match here.

As for who wins the event, doesn't matter too much as long as it's not Robredo.

Stuttgart (Choupi Reports)


Stuttgart the home of Mercedes and whoever wins the event gets a free Mercedes, though most of the players here could afford to buy one. The players who have played Davis Cup not exactly sure how their motivation is for the event. Monfils is the top seed and now he is coachless after splitting with Roger Rasheed.

Gimeno-Traver who has had an awful year so far but hasn't paid the price will do so now unless he can defend his semi final points from last season. Lacking confidence it's hard to get out of it, got to play through, losing becomes a habit as well. It will be tough for him against Kubot, but possible to win this match.

Seppi back on the clay, he has been playing some Bundesliga matches, he should have too much for Elvis Granollers, there are some good opportunities. Giraldo vs Melzer and Lurch vs. Monfils aren't bad first rounders at all.

Not sure who I think will win this, but they'll enjoy the car.

Great to see King Oscar Hernandez back playing again.

Looking forward to the fan reports

12 comments:

Lance said...

great read as always!

Choupi live from Stuttgart said...

Yes, this is again this time of the year, when I get sunburnt, but for the good cause. Isn´t it blogger?

Today I saw neckless man, aka Sorensen vs Donskoy. This was a great battle from the baseline, with many passingshots. A lot of serves that were lost. Sorensen wasn`t in top form, unless yesterday. He kept swearing in German, which could be funny for the ones who aren`t familiar with him. He made errors he wasn` making yesterday and logically lost the match 6-7 4-6

I saw a lot of training sessions today, like Davydenko, Youzhny, Andujar, Melzer or GGL. GGL`s coach is still so friendly. And I`ve been surprised to see how good Pablo`s French was. The accent is lovely, hehehe.

ok onto GGL vs Stepanek. I have to say Stepanek hasn`t played well at all. He got broken in the 1st game, and couldn`t hold a serve game until he made 2 dropshots that have been successfull. But GGL took the 1st set 6-1.

Stepanek was making so many errors but he stuck to dropshots to finall win some points and games. But GGL broke at 2-1 and Stepanek made some DFs that have been lethal. Final score for GGL 6-1 6-3

Denys said...

Great preview and look forward to reports of course, as they are always much better to read.

Vinciguerra had an early break in the 3rd set too bad he couldn't close the deal. It hasn't helped that he hardly plays these days.

Kavcic won singles and doubles big day for him, he can relax at the beach tomorrow.

choupi Stuttgart day 2 said...

Watched much training this morning, before matches began. I saw mostly Ferrero and Chardy.

Then I picked a place in the shade to watch blogger`s fave Daniel Gimeno Traver. I had never seen him play and I have to say I was eager to.
He was playing Kubot. 1st set began tight and DGT broke in the 7th game, but he couln`t confirm in the following game, due a certain lack of precision. Tiebreak has been tight too but he lost it, giving 1st set to Kubot.

In the 2nd set DGT broke again, in the 4th game. And this time he confirmed, hence taking the 2nd set 6-3.

Things got worse in the 3rd when he got broken at 3-2. Thus he`s had 3 breakpoints, he couln`t convert any of them. I guess he totally stopped believing when he served at 2-5, losing his serve once again.

Then, I wandered around, watching who was training, and also wanted to watch some doubles too. I attended 2 of them, and the last I have to say has been my personal pleasure. Blogger will understand..

Sigurd Sigurdsson said...

Kavčič was brave coming back from 3-5 in the 3rd set against Benneteau.

Loving the reports so far a mix of analysis and good old fashioned perving hehe-

Choupi day 3 report said...

Ok a bit late but always better late than never.

Let´s come to Seppi vs Granollers. It had rained all night and conditions were very heavy. Both players began 1st set in getting breakpoints but the 1st to finally convert one was Granollers making it 2-1 for him. When he serves at 5-3, Seppi plays more aggressive and gets a breakpoint but sadly can´t convert it. Granollers takes 1st set 6-3.
Blogger´s fave DGT watched some games.

Seppi breaks straight at the beginning of 2nd set and confirms, leading 3-0. But Granollers breaks back a little later, making it 4-3. Then, another break from the South Tyrolean Sex Machine who serves for the set and takes it 6-3.

From now on everything starts again. Andujar and GGL are there, supporting Marcel. Seppi gets broken straight by Granollers who confirms 3-0. Stupid errors by Seppi I have to say. Then a very long game in which nobody wants to give it up. But sadly, another break by Granollers 4-0. Seppi breaks back 4-1. Granollers on a small cloud breaks again 5-1 and serves for the match, taking it. Bye Mr Seppi.

Hope you´ve appreciated the reports, no specialist but fan ones.

aphex said...

Thx for the reports Choupi! Any pics?

cobalt60 said...

Thanks for the reports Choupi; always nice to read a fan take on matches. And I'd say you did great at analysis too! I can never be bothered to keep tabs :p Enjoy the rest of your vacation!

Marc said...

Great reports Choupi and not everyone can or should write like blogger boy. Have enjoyed them and seems like she enjoyed looking at Andujar hehe

getta said...

great reports, Choupi.
surely watching players training provided you with food for thought for days. lucky you.

Hewitt=Legend said...

Nice reports, sounds like you are having a fun time haha

Martine said...

Great reports Choupi! Glad you had a great time and I enjoyed reading the "specialist fan reports" hehe :)))