Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Dudi Sela wins the battle of the fathers and Jaziri sneaks into the 3rd round

Luckily was able to have a sleep in and it was much needed since the next few nights could get hairy.

Troicki vs. Mayer

Good old Viktor Troicki this an epitomes the ugly but very effective when it comes to getting things done on the tennis court. It's a very good thing that he has Jack Reader as his coach who is a calming influence on a volatile on court temperament.

Big Leo starts off with an early break, but Troicki gets its back quickly and settles into the pattern of big serving but grinding from the baseline. Troicki was getting all excited at the prospect of being seeded for Roland Garros then Reader told him "pull your head in, work on your game, add some things and the ranking will look after itself". This match had some good hitting from both guys with Mayer trying to spread the court with the forehand and Troicki defending very well, they split the first two sets which was a fair indication of the match.


Troicki

Bean counters in sport don't get that not everything is measured by stats. The only stat that really counts in tennis is the one who wins the last point. Even then it normally it's just a few moments that sort out matches and this one was no different. The shotmakers tend to have what I call "the one dumb service game syndrome" in them while they're great to watch on their day, they are capable of playing dumb service game with needless errors that opponents can take advantage of. In this case Mayer got broken and had 0-30 on Troicki's serve then after Vik hits a good second serve into the body instead of taking it on the backhand side which he had been doing he tries to run around and a hit forehand down the line, once he failed there and Troicki held that was the match.

Troicki while wearing the Arnie Clement sunglasses and not quite as annoying had won the mental battle as Mayer in the last set just made too many errors only in the last 2 games of the set did he check out mentally. Berdych should stop Troicki comfortably.

Rosol vs. Sela

The battle between the new fathers. Sela has a 10 month old son and Rosol just became a father as well. They played once before and Sela was the victor indoors, in this match up it's about whether Rosol can execute his power game effectively enough to hit through Sela.

Rosol got the early break and was handling business comfortably on serve, then threw in the dumb service game which Sela took advantage of and levelled. Sela played an excellent tie break but as good as it was there was some poor shot selection from Rosol. The second set started on the same path both were timing the ball quite well, especially the "Hebrew Hammer" on the backhand side and was defending well. This time Rosol was able to break for the set and level it up.

In a way the 3rd set of this match was similar to the Mayer-Troicki one, except these guys were underdone unlike the others. Rosol had a lot of chances but on the forehand side was netting a lot of them it was like he wasn't committing to the shot properly. Sela urged on by the vocal Israeli fans was playing as well at Slam level as he had in the last 5 years. Getting enough balls to frustrate Rosol who had numerous opportunities but Sela was able to take them.


Sela

Rosol getting more pissed off with how he was playing. The thing that was disappointing that he didn't do enough of was changing the pace and height. The few times he did that he was able to win the points and break the rhythm of the Hebrew Hammer. Most of the time Rosol was giving the pace and Sela was counterpunching effectively and hitting some quality backhands even the forehand was working well. Once he got the double break up the match was his, yes he choked serving for the match the first time but no mistake at the second time of offering.

As per usual after the match Sela went over to the Israeli fans, embraced them took a flag on the court and celebrated. The Hebrew Hammer is one of the most well liked guys on the ATP.

Seppi vs. Chardy

This was just too sexy from the South Tyrolean Sex Machine. Not many opportunities in the first set but Kaltern's finest (sorry Karin Knapp) took a tight first set. Seppi kept up a solid level throughout the match whereas Chardy was up and down. Once Seppi got an early break in the 3rd it was back to the old Chardy where he was playing baseball hitting and hoping but definitely not scoring any home runs. Too bad it will end with Federer but Seppi has started the season well and almost back to the top 30 level of tennis he was playing.

Random stuff

Tunisian youngster Malek Jaziri made his way into the 3rd round of the Aus Open for the first time. Good old Roger-Vasselin he is a likable guy but so French in mentality when it comes to closing and taking opportunities. It was an entertaining match but Jaziri serving for it in the 5th set hardly makes a first serve and the second serve is 120km/h at best. On break point Roger-Vasselin has Jaziri pinned back, tries a dropshot that he hasn't made in 10 years. It sort of sums him up when it comes to singles, the guy can play very well but is fragile mentally lost many matches he shouldn't have. Today was Jaziri's day well it was his birthday yesterday.


Jaziri

Tomorrow the schedulers don't like Colombians putting them on all at the same time aka first match on court and Nieminen is on as well. Steve Buscemi plays Pospisil, though Dreddy Brown and Andujar playing doubles might be fun in its own way. The Jamaican German and the handsome Spanish well that should cover a few markets.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Top work again. Love the "Hebrew Hammer".

Martine said...

Thanks for the updates!
Loved them as always and "yay Seppi" :)

Marti

Denys said...

The Hebrew Hammer is a great name. Rosol is never one for science over brawn. Fun stuff as always.

Andy said...

Great to see Jaziri get up to face Kyrgios. Will be a massive atmosphere for him. The Hebrew Hammer and Seppi winning is always best for business, shame Rosol had to bow out though.