Potential Player Strike and Scheduling Issues

Apologies for not posting much recently, a lack of motivation at this time of the season, along with some other things going on in the outside world have been of higher priority.

Adam Helfant CEO of the ATP is stepping down, the best things that can be said about him, were that he wasn’t Etienne de Villiers (Mr. Disney) the former supremo and unlike Mr. Disney he was prepared to work in the background. No matter who the CEO of the ATP is, there have been problems with the schedule and implantation of changes to benefit the sport, unlike the Round Robin tournaments which were pushed through quickly that only Ion Tiriac and de Villiers were in favour of.


Andy Murray
Andy Murray has been complaining about the schedule in the press and there’ll be a player meeting in Shanghai about possible strike action. This has been an ongoing problem with the length of season and complaints about the schedule, however little has been achieved in regards to this particular problem.

Formation of the ATP
In theory the ATP means (Association of Tennis Professionals) but the reality is that it’s more favour of the tournament directors. Initially the group was formed as a partnership between tournament directors and players with ex-IMG Mark Miles as the head. It established the 9 Masters Series events the lower level below the Slams as their major events, but as time went on the partnership waned to such a degree that they are conflicting against each other. As the next quote will show this is not a new problem . On March 10, 1999 former world No. 1 Thomas Muster told the German newspaper Die Welt: “I look at the ATP not so much as a representative of players but as a firm that in marketing even works against the players. I don’t like the way tennis is dominated by Americans. The problem is that tennis is governed by the Americans and financed by the Europeans. Changes must come quickly, and the future of our sport is at stake”. Muster highlighted the problems of the ATP as it stood then and little has changed.

There is a player meeting in Shanghai, will be interesting to see what comes out of it, something or a whole lot of nothing. Roger Federer who has always been smart with his scheduling won’t be present, rightly or wrongly he is seen as an influential figure within the game. One thing that needs to happen eventually is that the players have their own union, so they can negotiate without feeling compromised within the existing structure. An example of this when a player comes back from a drug ban, that player shouldn’t get wildcards into tournaments, but they were overruled by the ATP who were once again in favour of the tournament directors.

Potential for Players Union
Currently there is a distinct lack of player representation collectively, individually it would be too costly to negotiate, therefore a union is needed lead by a respected member and negotiator to fight for and push through their interests. There are problems with this naturally in an individual sport as the needs for the top players are different for the guys who are battling through on the Challengers and Futures. Accounting for these diverse interests a Player union is a better alternative to the current situation with the ATP.

Murray said “"We just want things to change, really small things. Two or three weeks during the year, a few less tournaments each year, which I don't think is unreasonable.". The intent of the statement isn’t necessarily bad or whiny even, but Murray is a top player who has greater flexibility when it comes to scheduling than say players like Dustin Brown, Yuri Schukin etc etc. He has the 4 Slams, only 8 of the TMS events are compulsory since Monte Carlo got downgraded, plus 5 !SG events, plus a couple of tune ups for the Slams. The top 50 is very much the promised land, 50-100 is a mix of ATP events and challengers, so there is room for flexibility albeit on a smaller scale.

Challenger Issues
Outside of the top 100 is where the other side to fewer tournaments hits the hardest.
A factor that tends to be overlooked is how relatively speaking the prizemoney for Challengers and Futures hasn’t increased proportionally over a significant period of time. Yes, there has been an increase in ranking points, but the prizemoney for Challengers should also be increased. These players due to economic necessity for the most part have to play more tournaments to get the experience, gain or defend ranking points dependant on the situation, therefore earn more money, if there were less tournaments then they’re impacted negatively.

This is the perfect situation for a well organised union to talk to their members with diverse interests. The top players want to play fewer tournaments and have a longer off season, for those complaining about exhibitions, all they are glorified training sessions. The benefits of a longer off season are that the body has more time to rest and recover from a hard season of travelling, playing events and with the increase of slow hardcourts the surface which produces the most amount of stress on the joints doesn’t help either. With a longer off season, then the players can have more time to build their speed endurance base which is essential for tennis these days, as the game has become more physical. The average age of the top 100 is higher due to the physical factor along with surface homogenisation, it takes longer to breakthrough than before, this isn’t surprising as modern tennis dictates this. It would be up to the union rep to present a case to the lower ranked guys that even though there are less events, that they would benefit in the long run physically and mentally. The competitive aspect of tennis is very tough and the week in, week out nature, contributes to mental fatigue as well and unlike golf, tennis is a physical sport and out of the other main global sports it does have the shortest off season.


It doesn’t matter that players have been getting injured before, but since it’s the top players the cash cows who make money for the tournaments then it gets highlighted, instead of simmering in the background. Whether people like these players or not, the top players do generate extra ticket sales, advertising and more revenue for the tournament, so the tournament directors aren’t happy if these guys are withdrawing from events, as for the fans they are not usually the first people considered, as it is usually the corporate and the sponsors that are taken care of first, before the average fan is considered. Fans have only one thing in common in that they like tennis, what one fan might complain and sigh none of the stars are so they won’t watch, while others will take the opportunity and appreciate the tennis is on offer and not just cause of the name.

Davis Cup and TMS issues
When the TMS events went to best of 3 sets finals instead of 5 sets this was done to appease the top guys who wanted more money for playing for best of 5 and also giving them 1st round byes, so they would commit to all of the events. The ATP threatened to ban these players from the next TMS event if they withdrew citing injury, this was never going to happen so it was done as an inducement. Indian Wells and Miami are well attended events but they should be reduced to 64 players instead of 96, no need for any event outside of the Slams to go longer than a week.

Davis Cup is another problem that needs to be addressed, it’s a wonderful competition but the players are never happy. They wanted the Davis Cup schedule as it is currently, Ricci Bitti agreed to it, now some of the guys are whining when they got the dates they wanted. Ranking points for playing Davis Cup ties is fundamentally wrong, but it’s something that isn’t going away any point soon. Maybe having 14 teams in the World Group instead of 16, where the finalists have a bye in the 1st round, then quarter finalists and 1st round losers would play off for the 12 spots in the World Group. The ITF make a lot of money from Davis Cup, the game has been around a lot longer than the players, no one is bigger than the sport, though we all have evolve with the times, but a biannual Davis Cup isn’t the answer.

As it stands currently the Australian Open is a clear example of who has prepared well in the off-season and this should be rewarded, but in reality the lead up for a Slam is too short and in an ideal world there would be a TMS before it, though that would involve a large restructuring of the tennis calendar. The Australian Open has to be in January, best time for the event, which spent many years resurrecting its reputation. Wimbledon would move back a week or so and give the players an extra week to adjust to the grass, but Wimbledon is generally all about its own interests and not necessarily for the game, even more so than the other Slams. Tennis is a global sport and this needs to be reflected in the calendar.


ATP Organisation

It’s unlikely that there’ll be significant changes at any point soon. For something like this to be discussed, this would mean disparate groups such as the ATP, ITF, tournament directors would have to come together and make compromises for the better of the sport, if there are enough forward thinking individuals within the respective organisations to do that. Except that this would never happen. Therein lies the problem there is less than zero leadership within the leaders of the tennis community and a convention of blind people have more vision than the ATP.

Tennis has previously had player strikes it happened at Wimbledon 1973 when 79 players of the ATP boycotted the event due to Niki Pilic being banned for not playing a Davis Cup tie. It’s an industrial dispute which needs to be sorted, it’s disappointing it’s taken this to highlight the problem. There has always been a hierarchy in society and tennis is no different in this regard. If the top cash cows aren't playing, then the product suffers, for this reason alone, not for the good of the players, fans or the game that significant changes would be made.

Farewell Gaston Gaudio thanks for the memories

With my lack of interest in the US Open, 5th set tiebreakers, Stupid Saturday and general ambivalence to this part of the season, from this perspective I tend to be more interested in the Challengers and the upcoming of the Australian Open. The next two articles will be about players that have retired and left the tennis world behind, neither will be easy to write.

What was your main motivation for your return?

Gaudio : Well... (smiles) when you're a player, you fuck more.

Humorous and amorous Argentine Gaston Gaudio last week officially decided to retire from tennis. This was as surprising as clouds in the sky on a rainy day, as he has been active since Kitzbühel Challenger 2010 where he lost to Pablo Andujar 6-0 6-2. It was not the best way for him to finish, but Kitzbühel was one of his favourite stops on tour especially the Londoner which is a fine drinking establishment. Gaudio on Kitz “I thoroughly enjoyed going there, we had an amazing time. I always wanted to win that tournament. We went there to party, because the night-life is wild, really wild. Everybody who went there played in the tournament, exploded at night, and next day they couldn´t play. I used to go out every night, get up at noon and on top of that I´d win. Total madness, I swear”. So, it’s apt that his last professional match was at a venue that he loved.




Gaston with childhood coach Roberto Carruthers

Pre Tennis
Coming out of Temperely in Buenos Aires province, Gaudio wasn’t solely focused on playing tennis as a junior. He played football and rugby union as well, no he wasn’t your Mascherano type of footballer. A combination of factors led to Gaudio deciding to becoming a professional player. His fathers business was going through some tough times economically plus the beginning of health problems. In addition his best friend Mariano Zabaleta who was number 1 junior in the world and Mariano Puerta doing well on the tour, Gaudio didn’t travel much to junior events but wasn’t far from the standard of Puerta who was making money, this was able to help out the family business through the difficulties.

This was not an easy ride. The AAT (Argentine Tennis Federation) who aren’t known for being competent with player development or tennis management showed this at an early stage. Before the “Golden Generation” Argentine tennis was struggling just with Franco Squillari and Hernan Gumy flying the flag. At the same time they managed to have Agustin Calleri, Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Cañas, Zabaleta, Puerta and Gaudio all around the same age, yet the AAT had nothing at all to do with their development. There was an occasion when these guys were at a junior event in Spain, that the AAT didn’t have enough cash to get them back, yet they succeeded in spite of this incompetence.

Starting out on tour
If it wasn’t for Hernan Gumy helping Gaston out financially at the start of his career then the tennis world wouldn’t have seen one of the more different and expressive characters on the circuit. He started in 1996 like most players who don’t have IMG or a powerful federation he was playing in the Futures and Challenger circuit. Won his Futures event in 1998 then was able to win two challenger titles as well in that year the last being in Santiago defeating Karim “the dream” Alami during the Copa Ericsson/Copa Petrobras Series of challengers which were very hard fought events helping young South Americans toughen up before they joined the main tour and eased the financial burden.

In 1999 Gaudio made his first major impact on the tennis world he won 2 challengers then as a qualifier making the 3rd round at Roland Garros in the 2nd round defeated the “German Gigolo” Bernd Karbacher from 2 sets to 0 down. After that he lost to Alex Corretja who ended up with a 6-1 H2H record in their matches, which were enjoyable filled with some gorgeous single hand backhands but Corretja was mentally stronger. This was when Gaudio believed he could exist on tour and play with the good guys, “Yes, when I was 19 I played against Alex Corretja, one of the best players at that moment, and it was a very even match. That´s when I realised that I could play well. I remember that during the course of the match I would say to myself: ´This is Corretja?´ He didn´t seem all that special to me. That made me feel, that I could easily play (at that level).”



Alex Corretja and Gaston Gaudio milking a cow in Gstaad

Establishing himself on tour was the next challenge winning Braunschweig CH and making his first ATP final at Stuttgart losing to Franco Squillari. Gaudio wasn’t able to conquer Stuttgart losing in the final three times to Franco Squillari, Guillermo Cañas (both in 5 sets) and to Rafael Nadal. The winner of the event gets a new Mercedes straight from the factory. He joked “if I can’t win the title, then I’m going to steal the car”.

Winning the first title
It took a while for Gaudio to win his first title, but when it came in 2002 at Barcelona it was done in great style. Barcelona which is one of the most prestigious clay events on the tour the event has been won by Borg, Lendl, Vilas, Nastase, Muster, Wilander and Carlsson. He became the first Argentine to win there since Martin Jaite who was his coach at the time. He won it without losing a set beating some very impressive names, Moya one of the best on clay at the time, Hewitt who was number 1 in the world and thumping Albert Costa in the final, who ended up winning Roland Garros this year. This can be best summed up “Yes, I won Barcelona playing unbelievably”.


Gaston Gaudio wins Barcelona

64 W Albert MONTANES (ESP) 6-3 6-2
32 W Thomas ENQVIST (SWE) 6-4 6-2
16 W Carlos MOYA (ESP) 6-4 6-2
QF W Alberto MARTIN (ESP) 6-2 6-4
SF W Lleyton HEWITT (AUS) 6-4 7-5
FR W Albert COSTA (ESP) 6-4 6-0 6-2

Davis Cup
Davis Cup brings out different things in different players, some of them play well above themselves like Boris Becker, David Nalbandian and Dominik Hrbaty, then there were others like Stefan Edberg, Davydenko, Chela or Jürgen Melzer who played below their talents. Gaudio was different as he always has been coming from his background of team sports he loved the event, as Davis Cup has the habit of doing produced some of his best moments but also his worst career moments .

After having a comfortable start to his Davis Cup career playing home times on his beloved clay going 7-0 against players he should be beating. In 2002 he faced his first big pressure tie with Argentina playing Croatia in the quarter finals. Gaudio was the star of the tie defeating Ljubicic easily in straight sets, with the tie at 2-2 he chopped the big tree Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to take Argentina through to the semis.

Not long after this high Gaudio experienced the first low of his Davis Cup career playing against Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Russia on a fast low bouncing carpet a surface Gaudio wasn’t his best. This match was famous for one of the worst overrules in tennis, with the umpire being Jorge Dias who was well known for wanting to be part of theatre and lacking competency in his profession. Gaudio leads 5-1 in the 5th set with a match point which was overruled by Dias, naturally Gaudio and captain Gattiker go crazy at this decision, which the Russians didn’t protest the original call making the decision even more ridiculous. In spite of this Gaudio should have closed the match out, but the fragility which was never far from the surface got the better on this occasion.

What followed the next year in Malaga was the lowest point in Gaudio’s career. Argentina winning the Davis Cup is something they covet deeply, yet still haven’t done it. The team were in disarray with the main two players David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria missing the tie due to injury, there were rumours of Coria’s injury being exaggerated as to whether it’s true or not this is something that will never be known. Argentine squad were depleted to the point that Gaudio suffering from a lack of confidence and poor form was included due to his Davis Cup exploits.

In the opening match with Ferrero it was 4-4 in the 1st set, after this Gaudio didn’t win another game in the match. Ferrero was playing well but not that well, during the match Gaudio was getting heckled and jeered for a lack of effort. Naturally fans can boo or heckle if they pay their money and they don’t think he was putting in his best efforts. At the same time this must have been a horrible experience lacking confidence beforehand playing in a pressure match without the right mental balance. Tanking when playing for yourself is different, not that this was a tank at all because tanking in Davis Cup is not on. Gattiker needed to be a psychologist during this tie, but wasn’t capable.


Zabaleta was up 2 sets to 0 before cramping badly losing to Moya, after a horrid day 1 Argentina levelled after a doubles win plus Agustin Calleri coming in for Zabaleta playing lights out thumping Ferrero who was number 1 at the time. Calleri was blasting so many winners the Malaga crowd gave him a standing ovation. Gaudi has the chance to redeem himself but produces another poor performance losing in straight sets and Spain make the final. Yes, Gaudio was poor in difficult circumstances but the level of vitriol and abuse was intense. When he was back in Buenos Aires people would tell him what a shit performance it was, a disgrace and should never play Davis Cup again. Ironically Gaudio never played Davis Cup again this was more due to circumstances ( court conditions) or balance of the team.

After what happened in Malaga plus the following negative reactions from fans and press alike left Gaudio with a crisis of confidence. 2004 Gaudio reached the 2nd round of the Australian Open after giving Tommy Robredo a lesson, he played his nemesis Dominik Hrbaty in the next round. He asked me who won the match, I said Hrbaty his reaction summed it up “ Noo, not this guy I don’t want to play him”. Just wasn’t feeling it that day and got smoked in straight sets. He was talking about retiring thankfully this was not the case.

Rejuvenation
There were signs of life during the European clay season he was toying with Lleyton Hewitt at Monte Carlo leading 6-1 5-2 served for the match but choked as he did plenty of times in his career, while he lost the match it was the start of improvement. He reached the Barcelona final beating Moya on the way who was top 10 at the time losing to Tommy Robredo in the final where one of the most dodgy acts of gamesmanship occurred. Robredo up 5-4 serving for the title in the 5th set 15-40 calls for the trainer for cramps. First of all should only happen at change of ends, the umpire got conned by a bullshit move, while Robredo was celebrating the title better things were along the way for Gaudio. "The doubt prevails. But it was my fault: I got distracted afterwards. He used a great tactic, although I could never do something like that right" On a footnote the next time they played each other in Monte Carlo 2006 Gaudio hardly looked at Robredo in the face.

Gaudio lost another 1st round match in Hamburg to Federer, after the 1st set, Gaudio settled down played some classic clay tennis plenty of engaging rallies 7-5 in the 2nd, then serving to stay in the match at 4-5 dropped serve to lose as Federer won the event.

World Team Cup the week before Roland Garros Gaudio won a couple of matches against Verkerk or Hewitt, but nothing to suggest that he was going to perform one of the most surprising, enjoyable Roland Garros tournament victories with a bizarre final that’ll be very difficult to beat for the drama it created. Gaudio had never been past the 4th round at any Slam before 2004 Roland Garros nor did he achieve it afterwards. The potential was always there when in the mood the single hand backhand is a work of art, can drive well high or low, ability to change direction, feel on the backhand dropshot, slice wasn’t used so often but used well. The big key to his improvement was the forehand which was used mainly to set up the play for the backhand to finish off. Now the forehand was able to win more points outright with this shot and Franco Davin a calming influence all contributed.

As an unseeded player Gaudio wasn’t going to get an easy Very tough first rounder with fellow Argentine Cañas in 5, took out the seed Jiri Novak in 5 sets. Gaudio settled down took out Enqvist and Andreev without too much fuss. The quarter final with Hewitt was just brilliant Gaudio hardly any errors at all, the backhand working its magic, no shenanigans about how crap he was playing when the ball missed by the strings by 0.000001mm. Hewitt knew he was beaten by the better man and the Aussie commentators didn’t want to admit it though they weakened eventually. Next up was David Nalbandian in the semi final it was another brilliant showing from Gaudio, both guys were working the angles with the backhand. Gaudio took the 1st set, Nalbandian served for the 2nd set but Gaudio fought back to get into the tiebreaker, once he won the TB he was seeing the ball so well and Nalbandian had an injury problem as well though he knew early in the 3rd set the fork was in there.


Gaston Gaudio wins Roland Garros

R128 Guillermo Canas (ARG) 72 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
R64 Jiri Novak (CZE) 14 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
R32 Thomas Enqvist (SWE) 65 6-0, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4
R16 Igor Andreev (RUS) 77 6-4, 7-5, 6-3
Q Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 12 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
S David Nalbandian (ARG) 8 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-0
W Guillermo Coria (ARG) 3 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6

Gaudio vs. Coria
Yes, this has been a very long article before mentioning the man he beat in the final Guillermo Coria. There are just some things that aren’t meant to happen. Pineapple shouldn’t be on pizza, the sun doesn’t spin around the earth, Stoke will never play good football and only altitude sickness you will get in the Netherlands isn’t through the mountains. These two were just never meant to get on, they had a few incidents and the press loved stirring it up as well since it was good copy.

Coria was the kid who was bred to play tennis, whereas Gaudio wasn’t necessarily. Coria got support from the AAT whereas Gaudio and players from his generation didn’t. Before Roland Garros Coria booked a hotel for the celebration for winning the title as he was clearly the hottest player in 2004 on clay and expected to win over his foe. In Viña del Mar Coria won a close match they were giving each other some verbal shots. Gaudio got the revenge in Buenos Aires he unfurled an Independiente flag (the football team he passionately supports) and jogged towards Esteban Cambiasso, the team’s star who was celebrating Gaudio’s triumph. Coria swears that, while Gaudio was going towards Cambiasso, he “hit” him in the face with part of the flag.

While these were tasty the best one was in Hamburg 2003 where they played the semi final Coria won the 1st set, then Gaudio won the 2nd set. Coria then called for the trainer claiming he was cramping, he got treatment and afterwards was running around faster than he did before. It was a brilliant con job which Gaudio lost concentration losing the last 6-0. After the match they had to be separated as to whether Gaudio hit him as was allegedly claimed. The best answer for his was when Gaudio’s friend Lucho Horna who played Coria after the incident when Coria was whining he said “ shut up, I’m not Gaudio I will hit you”.

With all this bad blood before the final which both of them wanted to win so badly impacted negatively on the match itself, Gaudio was so nervous could hardly get the ball in court for 2 sets. Coria was very comfortable cruising along, then the French crowd were bored started doing the wave which relaxed Gaudio who started playing better. One moment when Gaudio hit a dropshot which Coria couldn’t quite make he pulled up short at 4-4 in the 3rd, this was when the fun started. After 90 minutes Coria cramps gets treated for it, definitely not due to lack of fitness more like anxiety and pressure.


Coria vs. Gaudio

Gaudio plays better wins the next 2 sets against a guy who can’t move. The 5th set was one of the most ridiculous, bizarre and crazy things to happen on a tennis court. Gaudio so nervous can’t hit the ball into court against a guy who at times can’t run, then explode with others. Coria has 2 match points gets tight, then the moment came 7-6 15-40 on Coria’s serve, Gaudio drills a backhand winner and the moment where his dream became reality. The Paris crowd loved the celebration high fiving the spectators, it was a popular win one because he was a huge underdog, two Coria wasn’t universally liked by his peers because of his sneaky weasel like antics. He was unable to complete his speech at the presentation breaking down in tears, it didn’t help that the father of Argentine tennis Guillermo Vilas was there to present the trophies.


Gaudio and Coria will always be linked together through this bizarre match, the mutual loathing they had even the fact that Franco Davin had been Coria’s coach previously. Coria was expected to win Roland Garros but never did, yet there is a delicious irony that Gaudio who choked many matches was able to come back from 2 sets down and 2 match points to win Roland Garros. He was never expected to win one, Coria and Nalbandian were meant to be the Slam winners, it’s good to upset the conventions in cases like this.

Gaudio had a good 2005 winning 5 titles all on clay, his Roland Garros defence ended in the 4th round against David Ferrer. He was leading 4-0 in the 5th set, yet got upset and said to Javi Piles the coach of Ferrer “ Don’t worry I’m not going to win today”. He was due to play Nadal if he won that match, if the good Gaudio showed up then perhaps a fun match but that’s in the land of “what if”. Though earlier in the year he managed to beat Nadal 0-6 6-0 6-1 in Buenos Aires, the crowd decided to welcome Nadal to the big leagues.

The beginning of the end
This was start of the decline of Gaudio’s career 2004 and 2005 were big seasons winning and playing a lot more matches, it was natural that a letdown was going to occur. There were more injuries as well, once his ranking fell down into the hundreds, he ended up playing challengers plus the odd main tour event. There were still glimpses of the talent at 2007 Roland Garros had Hewitt 2 sets up, but lacked the match practice combined with the frail nerve cost him. He last two titles were at Challenger level in Tunis and San Remo it was good that he wasn’t so proud that he wouldn’t go down to Challengers couldn’t imagine too many other Grand Slam champions doing this, well Agassi did it.

Quotes

- Those speaking of you and not knowing a tiny thing of tennis begin make up stories about you. A pile of things change that you would have liked not to change. But guess what? I won Roland Garros (hahahaha, laughing with his eyes shining)... and what I like is that it bothers some people but it's my achievement and it only has to make me and my people happy.

- On playing Nalbandian at RG. “They’re (Nalbandian and Kuerten) the Galacticos (Real Madrid) and I’m the Valencia. They have a special talent and in the top 10.”

Q. You mentioned Valencia. They have two titles.
GASTON GAUDIO: I'm just asking for one title, not two.

- Q. The foot faults, we’ve got to ask you a bit about the foot faults. There were a few of them. They were annoying weren’t they?

(Gaudio) It is, but it’s fun for the crowd.
(Gaudio) Maybe I should move the line a little bit forward.

Q. Or maybe you should move your foot a little bit back?

(Gaudio) I’m going to try with that one. I never thought about that one before.

Gaston Gaudio didn’t leave tennis fans indifferent, at times the skill level was brilliant and breathtaking, at others it wouldn’t be acceptable for Under 13 Division C tournament in Tierra del Fuego. For those who wanted lessons in Argentine Spanish in how to curse then Gaudio was a perfect teacher, while he was embarrassed with some of the stuff that came out of his mouth. Yet, he is very quietly spoken in interviews when decides to give them.


Mariano Zabaleta, Gaston Gaudio and Luis Horna all retired now

There are players who have won more titles, have more money and fangirls but Gaudio was very much like his idol Menotti it wasn’t about winning say like Bilardo, he had to win well or in style, if he didn’t that would irritate him. He knew that himself, people either liked him or hated him, after he won Roland Garros the same people that wanted to piss on him would be the first to perform oral sex acts if they could.

Hope he can enjoy watching Independiente, hanging out with Mariano Zabaleta, spending time with the friends and family, Bariloche in the winter, his apartment in Miami and the bars of Palermo (not the Sicilian city) . There was no fanfare with the statement, it was sensibly done in the manner “I wanted to make sure that I didn’t want to come back, so I took my time with it”.

Personally I’m not a fan of cats, but I loved “El Gato”’s tennis even in the bad moments like Malaga which made the Roland Garros win so special as it came out of nowhere and all the sweeter for it.

Thanks very much for reading this very long post, wasn’t easy to write but every chapter has to have a beginning and end.

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

Davis Cup Quater Finals, Play off Review, Canada comes back from 0-2

Davis Cup QF and Playoffs

There weren't any magical Davis Cup results this weekend either in the World Group or playoffs. This was the time where the top players who don't give a shit about Davis Cup (Djokovic can be excused this time) turn up so they can get their Olympic qualifications for next year.

Sweden vs. Serbia

Ever since Robin Söderling withdrew from the tie any chance the Swedes had of winning the tie went out the window. Djokovic was included just to cover any moves by the Swedes, though Thomas Enqvist isn't that smart to pull something like this enough. Lindell isn't up to Davis Cup level yet, especially on indoor surfaces and Vinciguerra was on the way out.

Aspelin/Lindstedt won the doubles which was the best they could've hoped for not to lose 5-0. Very comfortable weekend for the Serbians, though Ryderstedt did as well as he could in singles. The Serbs had fun partying in Halmstad and Båstad, now they will play at home for the semis vs. Argentina.

Argentina vs. Kazakhstan

Russia A couldn't win in Argentina, let alone Russia B. Cool and heavy conditions on clay against a team where Golubev has been on a run of 14 straight losses in fact his last win was over Berdych in the 1st round of Davis Cup.

Hope Russia B enjoyed the fine women and steaks of Buenos Aires. Argentine fans are happy, cause at least this is one team that could win unlike their footballers at the moment.

USA vs. Spain

Spain showed their superior player depth in addition to the fact the surface wasn't as quick as they'd have liked and the bounce was too high. LaLo who is having an excellent year his work with Berasategui has produced some solid form, yes he is still a burro but got give him pops for the improvement. He was able to carry his Wimbledon form and fried the Fish in the 1st tie. Ferrer the warrior too solid for Roddick.

Bryan Bozos got the US on the board as per usual. Ferrer stepped up to the plate closed the deal against Fishy. Sure Mardy has a lot of weight, moves a whole better than he did, but the technical deficiencies of the forehand are still there when he plays the better players who can expose him on that side

Germany vs. France

This tie was set up from the first match where Flo Mayer was up 2 sets to 0, but had some issues with cramping or maybe a muscle strain which allowed Gasquet to come back taking the match. Once Gasquet took the lead, then the French continued their dominance over Germany in Davis Cup play, but they aren't getting it done vs. Spain.

Playoffs

Switzerland vs. Portugal

Federer should learn from Söderling if he doesn't want to do the Davis Cup thing. Söderling played the first tie and Sweden preserve their World Group status, but it's the same old stuff with him. He says he wants to win Davis Cup, but got to play the event before he can win it.

Rarely they played in the Swiss German part of the country, normally they play in Romandie. Bern is a pleasant place and indoors they were never losing this at all.

Portugal with Gil and Machado love Davis Cup, and Machado played above his level against Federer. Winning a set against Federer indoors for a guy who has played 3 indoor matches before the weekend was excellent, but Fed was just cruising through this.

Italy vs. Slovenia

Seppi was out for Italy, and there was a small chance for Slovenia to win this, but this was lost after day 1 when the chances were on offer that these weren't taken. It's not easy to win in Italy, but not mission impossible.

Žemlja took the first set against the Fog 6-1 with good aggressive play, which is how he has to play as his defensive skills are average at best, and this came back to haunt him. The Fog started to play better, but Žemlja started making too many mistakes and being defensive which is not the way he plays at his best, as his poor footwork get exposed which the Fog did.

This meant Kavčič had to step it up over Starace. Blaž started well, hitting good length and not letting Starace into the match. Then Kavčič dropped the level, got a bit passive and Starace took advantage serving better especially on the ad side. He was using the kicker to the backhand pushing Kavčič further back into the court, dominated the rallies and worked his excellent dropshot to full effect.

With Starace was playing well, the DC captain didn't offer any solutions at all. Kavčič needed to stand closer to the baseline on ad side, as Starace jumped to left on the kick serve, return the ball down the line taking advantage of the positioning. Forcing Starace to vary it up and taking away his drop shot.

Ecuador vs. Canada

canada were down 0-2 losing their best player Raonic to hip surgery before the tie didn't help them. It was good to see Vasek Pospisil and Phil Bester able to turn around their first day losses to seal the comeback win for Canada, would be good if they could make World Group, though that isn't happening with Raonic.

Too bad many of the top players believe they are bigger than the sport.

Tennis Nickname Reference List

Since there are many silly names that are used for some of the players. This post will highlight some of them, yes some are obvious and not very witty, but a few are a bit different. If anyone wants an explanation as to how they came about, then please ask in the comments section and these will be address how some of these came about.

We all know why Radek Stepanek is sexy and why Andy Roddick looks like Donald Duck when he whines like a baby.

Radek Stepanek



The bottom one goes across to see the extra names, enjoy or be confused by the listing.

Wimbledon Review :125 years of Wimbledon and the people making the schedule are the same age then the tournament

Some things change and other things don't this applies to Wimbledon. What didn't change was the moronic scheduling not the fact that Serena Williams was whining about being on court 2, suck it up princess. There is a baseline, a net and a set of lines you have to hit over and in between. The tournament finished on time, and the rain fucked up the doubles schedule. Yes, doubles is lower down the food chain, but there shouldn't be best of 5 doubles matches until the final. Phillip Petzschner summed it up perfectly "125 years of Wimbledon and the people making the schedule are the same age then the tournament! It’s a fucking joke". They hadn’t completed their first round match while others were in the third round.

There were the usual rumblings about how the grass played during the tournament, as has been stated many times they've changed the makeup of the grass using heavier balls which has changed the dynamics of Wimbledon. To the point where it's only Wimbledon in name, this has been reflected for years and only new people to the game or delusional would state otherwise.

Andy Murray once again came up short at Wimbledon which was unsurprising. Murray has an interesting relationship with the British press, they build him up for 2 weeks of Wimbledon where everyone becomes an instant expert on the sport. He has a very dry wit, but due to bad experiences with the press, apart from the usual he wins he's British, he loses he's Scottish. Not a surprise he made the semis and Nadal took him out. If he's going to win a Slam, then it will be either Aus Open or US Open.

Bernie Tomic

Bernard Tomic a young man who has divided quite a lot of people mainly cause of his attitude. Personally never had a problem with Tomic though can see why he would be annoying to others. This was his breakthrough event, the grass is perfect for his game. He can move on the surface, which is where he struggles badly on the clay. The funky forehand while not as funky as Florian Mayer's is more effective on this surface. Tomic has plenty of variety, mixes up it with some junk like Murray and Dolgopolov, this stuff works to bring the ballbashers out of rhythm, while Tomic will never be Usain Bolt and the serve needs to improve, he has a great understanding of how to play tennis, the stuff you can't teach. He was never beating Djokovic, but excellent showing against him.

Novak Djokovic became world number 1 when he defeated Tsonga in the semi finals. Whether people like him or not, yes he's cocky, can't perform fake humility well but he's been the man since the Masters at the end of 2010 to now and thoroughly deserves to be top of the tree. What has led to such improvement within this timeframe, there are a few factors. First of all, he has managed to almost get back his old service motion which was tinkered with by Todd Martin and contributed to stagnation at best and regression at worst. He changed his diet where gluten was eliminated, this has given him more energy, surprise surprise the time outs haven’t been a factor whereas before if he had dandruff he’d call for the trainer. Another important factor is the improved forehand, previously the forehand would break down or used as a rallying shot. He has improved the stroke to a level where he can hit it with more pace and penetration, while having a good safety margin.

For those who don’t understand yes the Grand Slams has 2000 points, but the Masters events which there are nine of them winning those events, players get 1000 for winning. Djokovic won the Aus Open and four of the Masters events plus the Masters Cup, therefore it’s logical he reached the top of the tree with the rolling 52 week rankings for when a player starts their career.

Rafael Nadal made the final which was a fine effort, considering he took faking to levels Sergio Busquets would have been proud of in the match against del Potro. Before the 1st set tiebreaker acting as if he tore ligaments in his foot, then after 9 minutes comes back on court, moves like there isn’t anything wrong with him. The timeout rules are a joke, have been since Shuzo Matsuoka went over with cramps at the US Open acting like he had been shot. The rules need to be changed, want to get treatment before a change of end then forfeit the game, naturally players will take advantage of loopholes. At the same time this was from the winner of the ATP Sportsmanship Award which has much credibility as a North Korean election, let’s see regularly going over time in between serves, constant delay of the game, faking injury timeouts (Petzschner at Wimbledon, Fed at Madrid). Yes, that’s the epitome of great sportsmanship.

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic was too good for Nadal as he has been 4 times this year. With Djokovic’s improved fitness and forehand plus having the confidence of defeating him in all of their matches this season. The second set from Djokovic was brilliant, defending very well when he had to and attacking the short balls that Nadal was feeding. He had a lapse in the 3rd set, but was able to retain enough focus despite some nerves to break for *5-3 and served it out for a deserved title. The match wasn’t brilliant at all, but Djokovic was at a much higher level and deserved to win the crown.

First time since 2002 there was a non Fedal winner of Wimbledon. Any doubts that were lingering about Djokovic reaching the number 1 spot in the world were crushed today. As for how long he’ll stay there, who knows and it’s not really relevant it doesn’t matter whether it’s 3 hours or 3 years reaching number 1 in the world is a fine achievement.

Previously I’ve called Djokovic the poor man’s Ivan Lendl and still hold this particular viewpoint. Both aren’t pretty to watch, ruthlessly efficient, very good at what they do and making the most of their abilities. Lendl would have loved these grass courts, but players can only exist in their era, no amount of tennis nerdishness is going to change this.

The tournament itself wasn’t interesting, the distinctive nature of Wimbledon has pretty gone in the way the game is played on grass. It’s at a point now where the game has been saved from all serving machines brutalising the sport, now they can quicken the surface up and use lighter balls.

Not even Fabio Fognini can save Wimbledon Preview

Onto the third Slam of the year, it's a mix of the traditional, annoying and hyperbolic. As much as they have homogonised the surface speeds and nuances required to play on the surfaces. It's still good that each Slam has its own characteristics.

There are a few things to rant about when it comes to Wimbledon. The grass itself is a lot different than it used to be, whether this is a good thing or not depends on your viewpoint. How it came about is very important, in the 80s it was serve/volley tennis the grass bounced low, the areas which received wear and tear was at the net and not the baseline. This started to change after Agassi's title which was his best ever Slam win, winning it from the baseline against massive servers and solid volleyers when it was fast. What happened with Sampras, Ivanisevic, Krajicek, Todd Martin these guys on the grass were just the serve players, that were no points being played at all, it was just serve tennis where they might as well have played tiebreakers. The contrast to this was the fact that watching guys who had no clue how to play on grass (aka grasscourt gimps) is as amusing as the claycourt clowns.

After these developments at Wimbledon, they changed the composition of the grass which made it more durable not a bad thing, but it changed the way the game was played on grass. It became a lot slower and less of a challenge to adjust to the surface than previously, lets say Ivan Lendl would have had a hardon seeing the grass as it is currently. Pretty much the only thing that can't be adjusted is the movement on surface which is something say Davydenko and del Potro will always struggle with. You know it has changed when Marat Safin was thankful for the organisers in slowing it down so he could make the semis there one year. Personally it's better from the horrible days of just serving bombs, but like anything fixing that problem by using heavier balls, changing the composition, it takes away in other areas. They could easily quicken it up a bit, though with the weather there's only so much that can be done

Weather forecast for London isn't looking very good, but this is England and summer so this is to be expected. Fortunately they have a roof, so some play will happen. This will provide plenty of mental challenges to the players and fans. Hopefully the weather is shit, so they can play on Sunday it's not the 10th century anymore. It's only for two weeks of the year that the locals have to put up with the tournament, they have another 50 weeks where it's not an issue.

Wimbledon will be the focus for most of the sporting world, nearly most functionally literate people whether they have an interest or not in the sport knows Wimbledon. Because of this we have the massive rise in comparison to Zimbabwean inflation rates of the instant experts. They only watch tennis for 2 weeks of the year, forget the rest of the tennis season exists and know everything about anything when it comes to the sport, these kinds of people exist everywhere just like idiots. This where the English press want to claim Andy Murray as British and the quality of articles surrounding him become even more banal than usual. I'd like Andy Murray to win a Slam, just not at Wimbledon, but we all know as soon as he loses he becomes Scottish.

Onto the tournament itself, it will be between the usual suspects. Which grass court gimp will win the most matches is of greater interest. Best thing about this draw is that Mikey Russell and Daniel Gimeno-Traver will be on TV. Perhaps Kavčič can win a match then play Murray in the 2nd round, he has never won on grass before and no time like the present. His countryman Žemlja plays Slovak pretty boy Lacko who qualified, not the easiest one. Bolelli once again lucked out as a Lucky Loser, only way he can make Slams these days, at least he is a good guy and has a pretty wife. Too bad there won't be streams to see Ramirez-Hidalgo on grass because that's something that needs to be seen.

Isner-Mahut again, hehehehehehe. Lucky I'm not a conspiracy theorist as this match came about again. There isn't a way that they'll equal the drama of 70-68 from last year, it will be interesting to see whether they put it on court 18 or not.

It won't take long for commentators to say Wimbledon is the title that all players want to win. Thomas Muster, Yannick Noah, Gaston Gaudio, Vilas they don't want to return their Slam titles just for a Wimbledon, sure maybe for Lendl this might be the case but doesn't cover the whole tennis world.

As for who will win the event, the FC Basel supporter with the Super Mario lookalike for a father. But there will be rain.

Just like Germans win penalty shootouts Rafael Nadal wins Roland Garros

Could really just have the heading as the blog post and it would say more than enough, but this forgets most of the highlights of this event didn't involve the winner of the crown, more on him later.

Looks like there is a reason that the French want to start a Slam on a Sunday, instead of thinking about installing floodlights at the venue. Now they can do this since the site has been secured for the tournament. They had "Stupid Sunday" so they didn't want the masses to see Roberto Kendrick and Yen-Hsun Lu. If they truly cared about the fans, then they'd put these fine examples of claycourt clowns on a bigger stage than the first Sunday when not many people are there. Yes, it was tragedy that the high preist of clay clowns Roddick wasn't there, but the crowd love him there.

Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo Mr.Moonball

Marin Cilic was the first upset losing to the "Doctor of Moonballing" Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo who was almost in the back fence hitting some giant moonballs. The serve is a work of art and the sleeve roll up is unique, he fell in the next round but that was a huge win for him.

Blaž Kavčič defended his points from last season with an excellent performance over Gulbis who was allegedly ill, though with him one wouldn't know whether he was literally ill or had a case of "Idon'tgiveafuckitis". Kavčič was outclassed in the second round to del Potro in straight sets, which wasn't a surprise. Didn't serve well enough and also doesn't have the pace of shot or variation to expose del Potro's weakness. One funny incident in that match, there was a very short ball del Potro hit and Kavčič gently hits at him to win the point. Then del Pussy starts acting all indignant as if to say "who are you to do this to me" and I'm thinking he's lucky it's not Thomas Muster, Ivan Lendl or Michael Stich or there'd be some major tatoo action with no apology.

Andreas Seppi

Andreas "South Tyrolean sex machine" Seppi played well against "Tsunami" Gabashvili, but he was awful against Thomasz 'the Ostrich" Bellucci for the first 2 sets especially, but was semi respectable in the last set.

Carlos "the Panther" Berlocq was too good for Aussie wildcard Bernand Tomic who really doesn't have a clue on the clay, it reflects very poorly on Rui Machado who managed to lose to him in Monte Carlo this year.

One thing that was even more noticeable than usual was the qualifiers doing well at this event. Qualifiers have the advantage of being used to the conditions at the event, given the right draw they can win a main draw or match, if in very good form win make a few rounds like Milos Raonic at the Aus Open. Nothing will beat the qualifying run in 1997 of Filip Dewulf (link article) where he made the semis losing to Guga Kuerten.

This year there was Stephane Robert who was getting smoked by Tomas Berdych in the first two sets, then closes his eyes starts swinging hoping for the best, they went in and won the match leaving Berdych bemused at what happened. The next round he got smashed up by Fabio "the Fog" Fognini who became the star of the event.

Qualifiers were running wild in the 3rd round. Stevie Darcis took down Michael Llodra and Petzschner before falling to Monfils. Lukas Rosol with the big tattoo on his leg was victorious over last years semi finalist Jürgen Melzer in 5 sets after beating Roger-Vasselin in the 1st round in 5 as well. Antonio Veic, very small Croatian player who fights very hard, didn't have much money defeating Davydenko in 5 sets before getting pummeled by Nadal. Leo "Aligator" Mayer made the third round as well defeating Dustin "Dreddy" Brown and Marcos Baghdatis before being outclassed by Robin Söderling, lets see if Mayer can build on this result after the back problems he suffered.

Alejandro Falla

Alejandro Falla was the best of the qualies making the 4th round losing to Chubby Chela, taking out Starace, Flo "gigolo" Mayer and "Polish" LaLo Kubot who made the 3rd round from qualies as well coming back from 2 sets down to beat "El Cabezon" Almagro and Berlocq. It would be rare that this many qualifiers have made the 3rd round of a Slam, perhaps Wimbledon 2002 which was a hilarious tournament.

Which leads to the superstar of this mens event, yes it was Fabio "the Fog" Fognini. The Fog was involved in the epic 2nd round match last season against Gael Monfils coming back from 2 sets down and a double break in the 4th set, playing in epic darkness where they needed mining helmets to see the ball. Came back the next day and won it. He was involved in another hilarious and incident filled match, which was the thrid best match of the tournament, behind Ferrer-Monfils and Federer-Djokovic, but so far ahead in terms of entertainment and shenanigans.

The "Fog" has been in fine form this year. With his "I don't care attitude" on the court, tanking sets and matches when he can't be bothered, then making big comebacks when he can be bothered like in 2010 with the aformentioned Monfils match, also did it against Mikey Russell from 2 sets down. In Santiago he and Robredo played an ill-tempered match with so much gamesmanship that Vince McMahon would have been proud. it ended with Boredo refusing to shake hands, which is hilarious after some of the stunts he has pulled. Needless to say the Fog wasn't impressed after Boredo said some stuff to him, then he came out the classic "'Hombre de mierda", not exactly correct Spanish but the meaning is very apt. Second funny Fog moment was at Casachallenger against Kavcic down 6-2 5-1, he comes back to win the match 2-6 7-5 7-5, full report of that match here The Fog's Comeback

Entertaining match from these smaller guys, this was the real RG final. Montañes usual steady self with solid strokes and the Fog at times was more pro active, hit some fine dropshots. Montañes served for it at *5-3 in the 5th but was tight as a drum. At 15-30 *6-7 Fog gets an injury timeout for cramps. They thought he was faking an injury, getting a massage during a service game will get some people off side and the crowd gave it to him after that, though mostly they were on his side during the match Getting double footfaulted only Gaudio, Echagarry and the Fog can do this. Fog saving match points with dropshots and clean FH winners with the typical blase attitude. He wins the match, gets a mix of cheers and boos, but he was diagonised with a muscle problem and withdrew from the quarter final vs. Djokovic.

Fabio "the Fog" Fognini

Ferrer-Monfils was a brilliant match and it's a mystery why Monfils normally plays so passively a lot of the time, when he can step into the court and attack the ball. Ferrer was his usual consistent and dogged self, but just lacks that killer blow, whereas Monfils is erratic though this time he decided to play tennis and limit the circus activities.

Which leads into the Federer-Djokovic match which was clearly the match of the tournament. Very high standard throughout the match. Federer played his best match on clay for a very long time, if not best ever. Djokovic was trying to make his first RG final and he played quite well overall, just wasn't able to create enough chances and take them. This was due partially Federer's great serving and he deserved to win. The problem with Federer winning this match was that it'd involve another final with Nadal, which it has been too many times.

For the so-called greatest rivalry ever in tennis Federer-Nadal matches overall generally stink the joint out. Their best ever match was Rome 2006 final, if anyone who hasn't seen it do yourself a favour and watch it. Federer was being aggressive and not totally paralysed by fear and Nadal was his usual relentless self. Why the matches suck in general is they don't bring the best out of each other especially on clay. Nadal hits the heavy forehand to break down Federer's backhand, then works him over as his confidence is lost in shot and then Fed's forehand isn't as effective.

Nadal winning his sixth Roland Garros wasn't really in doubt. He struggled with John Isner and didn't play anywhere near his best during the early stages very similar to the German national team before Jogi Low took over, ruthlessly efficient, effective and got the job done. Sure Federer had a set point in the 1st set, but once he failed to convert, it reverted back to the usual script we've seen before. Nadal not making mistakes, Federer making errors and groundies breaking down. It was apt that it ended on an unforced error.

All the stuff about the different conditions, the warm weather, the dry courts, the Babolat balls while it created a bit of drama beforehand. The ending of the script was exactly the same apart from 2009, as it has been from 2005. Just like the Germans don't lose penalty shootouts (last one 1976), Nadal wins at Roland Garros.

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.

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.

Monte Carlo Reports from Merton Chess Genius, located in the comments

Monte Carlo Masters is upon us. One of the best settings on tour, no lack of money in the principality. Yes, the place is tacky but the courts are beautiful. Jimmy's Bar isn't too bad a place to visit.

Murray taking a wildcard when he and Berdych should have committed, yes I mean committed to the tournament, not committed to a mental asylum.

Will Gimeno-Traver win a match this season, he plays Giraldo for the third time. Nieminen plays Benneteau, who struggled to take out Tomic in qualies, which leads me to Rui Machado. I don't mind MacHado but losing to Tomic on clay is unforgivable at the best of times.

Enjoy the tournament for the settings, and the matches Nadal isn't involved in and I will be getting fan reports which are always good from Merton.

Allez Monaco

Pablo Andujar wins first title in Casablanca and his football team win 5-0

Andujar wins Casablanca

Pablo Andujar with Casablanca title

The spring clay season kicked off with a couple of surprising title winners in Casablanca and Houston. While Andujar had the capabilities of winning a small clay title, the fact that the Bahamian Ryan Sweeting won Houston is bemusing at best, besides his immediate family and friends no one thought he’d win. It shows Houston has some special characteristics. In addition that if Sweeting can win an ATP title, it should be inspiration to other players.

Casachallenger was quite entertaining this year. Had some good weather which made the courts play fairly quickly. There is only so much clay one can lay down, water, sweeping in either direction before Mother Nature takes its course. Since the readers of this blog are educated, there was very little point to this paragraph.

Before moving to Andujar. There was a brilliant choke in the 2nd round in the match between Blaž Kavčič and Fabio “the Fog” Fognini. This probably should have had a separate entry and it may do so in the future. It’s hard to write about this as Kavčič is someone who I happen to like and “the Fog” is just the “the Fog”. He’d be top 10 in the world if it was down to strutting ability.

Kavčič takes the 1st set 6-1 and the only game Fog got was because he broke the Kavčič serve. Second set is going along the same path, a few breaks and Kavčič is up *5-2 has a chance to serve the match out, fails to do it at the first time of asking. Then in the Fog’s next service game he had 4 match points couldn’t convert any. After this Blaž loses the next 4 games and set 7-5.

Third set was a breakathon and Blaž had another chance to serve it out at *5-4, loses his serve and then drops the 12th game to love and the Fog sneaks out another win. It’s annoying yet hilarious at the same time on a personal level. This should have been livestreamed just for the entertainment value alone, at the same time as a Blaž fan watching this on a computer could have done bad things to my health and sanity. It doesn’t help I had a small wager on him before the match at good odds. Choking to the Fog isn’t nice and it’s the second time this player cost me financially.

All players have choked matches away at some point, but it’s how they recover from it. Voinea has done great work with Blaž so far and it’s been a problem for Blaž too many times he gets defensive and tight, where he is just pushing the ball instead of hitting it. Naturally when the arm is tighter the racquet head isn’t going to accelerate as quickly through the ball, hence the fodder and short stuff that can be exploited.

Señor Andujar started the week by taking out Florent “que sera” Serra he dropped a set, which is more due to a lack of concentration, once he got that back it was 6-2 in the 3rd. After that he played the captain of the French baseball team Jeremy Chardy who makes PHM look like Einstein, believes in the close your eyes and hit as hard you can theory. Too solid for Chardy and “Arriba” Pere Riba in the quarter finals.

Andujar lifted his game for the semi against Montañes. He was placing the serve well, using excellent angles on the forehand especially pushing Montañes further back and finish many points at the net with good volleys. It shows that volleying can be effective on any court surface.

The best was yet to come for Andujar in the final, it was his second final after Bucharest last year where he was so tired and offered token resistence to Chela. This time around he was fresher and his opponent Starace who was favourite for the final had a brutal match with Hanescu in the semi. Starace had chances to serve out the match in 2 sets, then ends up in a 3rd set buster.

Andujar had a confident opening and broke Starace early, while the Italian was serving at a high percentage it wasn’t doing much damage. Andujar on the ad side was taking away Starace’s favourite serve the kicker wide. He was stepping into the court and hitting backhands down the line, to keep him off balance. Andujar playing good all round clay court tennis and yes this includes volleys wins 6-1.

Starace who seemed a bit heavy legged and tired lifts his game to a higher level. Many of the service games are hard fought this time around, but Andujar had the answers. The forehand doing the damage, the backhand solid and came into the net on good stuff.
Once Andujar broke for the final time he was able to serve out the match and well deserved winner of his first title.

As for Sweeting, less said the better.

2011 Clay season, same old shit with different dates

The clay season has started, well on the main ATP tour anyway. This could be one of the shorter previews that I will do and this is not a bad thing. In fact I could just end it with Rafael Nadal as long as he is semi fit and yes this means even at half capacity, he should win everything on clay as he usually does. Yes, it's boring and has been boring since 2005, but that's not his fault that his level of competition are incapable of presenting anything resembling token resistence. You know it's bad when his toughest Roland Garros win was against Mariano "I failed a drug test twice" Puerta in 2005.

Houston and Casachallenger are on this week. Already there have been some hilarious things happen, the worst of all was the Sweeting and Querrey match. Only bad thing was that I missed it and it sounded it was so bad, it was good. Mikey Russell lost to Andreev in straight sets, sure Andreev hasn't been at his best for a long time but a tough draw for Russell after all there were a lot of wood ducks in this draw and he got one of the better players. Charly Berlocq did the good Samiritan thing and let James "I'm went to Harvard, but play elementary tennis" Blake off the hook in their match, this result was popular among the locals. If he made main draw at Roland Garros, people will be praying to draw him.

Casachallenger hopefully there'll be a new title winner at this prestigious event. Pere Riba and Andujar are in the quarter finals playing each other, definitely not the most talented guys around but Andujar is alright by me. He hangs out with Gimeno-Traver and even plays doubles with him, so Daniel can get a winners purse this season, plus he took out the ballbashing buffoon Chardy which is never a bad thing. DGT needs to play Chardy, so he could get a win this season. He is getting closer at least he has taken sets in his last 2 losses but his break point conversion against Lurch Hanescu was awful.

Match of the day involves Fabio "I lack self confdence" Fognini against the feisty Slovenian Blaž Kavčič. The organisers have made an error putting this on a non-tv court. The gestures here could be quite funny with the Fog strutting around like he owns the tour and not giving a shit. Kavčič getting pissed off about something usually happens within the match. He has good chances today if he can play to his level, not making mistakes and providing his ankle is fine. The Fog can play but he is very moody even for a diva.

Not exactly inspiring, unless you are a Nadal fanboy or fangirl. Watching him beat up the opposition on clay, only difference is the dates of these executions. Greater interest in who will win the tournaments he isn't playing or who can make the latter stages of the events he is in.