Screenshot and odds taken from Bet365. My picks in offensive pink. So what to say about today’s matches? There are definitely, like in most Masters, a couple of exciting ones early on. Fognini vs Dolgopolov is definitely a real crowd-pleaser. Both have been playing well lately, but Fognini has had some mystical results which speaks of injury. But with Fognini you never know, sometimes he simply doesn’t show up. Dolgopolov has been making decent use of his talent in 2014, but he’s still a typical yo-yo player who sometimes goes for brilliance instead of points. Still, he’s my upset pick …
After a tough Davis Cup weekend where Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic and France emerged as winners and semi-finalists, we’re ready for perhaps the most exciting “season” in tennis – the red dirt. There’s something magical about the spring and clay court tennis. Add that together with classic tennis grounds like Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros, and you have the best feeling in tennis. Looking ahead, we have the usual list of title contenders, well, it’s actually a very short list consisting of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Yes, it’s hard to see how anyone else would be able to …
It has begun! For all us tennis fans the wait from the ATP World Tour Finals to the first slam of the year is excruciating, but at last we don’t need to wait no more. Here’s my brief summary of an exciting first day of Australian Open 2012. Australian youngster Bernard Tomic managed to come back from two sets down to beat Verdasco in five! Seems like Tomic is destined for great things and that is time to start is now. Verdasco, on the other hand, is far from the form he had a year or two ago. Federer had …
Today is the first official day of the 2011 grass court season and it’s not a bad one. The two main warm up events for Wimbledon are as usual Queens and Halle. The big question is of course which stars will come to play after a long and testing French Open, Federer (Halle), Nadal (Queens) especially. But even if they don’t participate we should be in for quite a treat. The first day action offers: Nieminen vs Lu – Â Lu had an amazing Wimbledon last year, but we haven’t seen much good from either player of late. I would say …
Yes, today at Roland Garros it was pretty much business as usual. At least for five time champion and world number one Rafael Nadal who won his match against Antonio Veic, losing only four games. Djokovic vs Del Potro was resumed and Djokovic resumed business being the invincible man and won today’s two sets 6-3 6-2 against a seemingly frustrated Del Potro. It’s hard to see how anyone except for Nadal can stop Djokovic in this tournament. Soderling and Simon both won their matches in straights and looked pretty impressive, but although they are both in good form it’s hard …
Today I’m cheering Kei Nishikori in his ATP Rome Masters first round match against Gael Monfils. A few thoughts the early Rome action. Let’s do it kinda bullet form to make it easier to read (and write) – I’ll call it “My Take On Tennis: (date)” Verdasco beat Raonic 6-4 6-4 yesterday after “trash-talking” him last time they played. He basically said that Raonic is all serve and if he could play him on clay it would be a different story. I think that was a really stupid thing to say, although it does make for decent publicity, because Raonic …
Yesterday was a strange day at the French Open. It wasn’t easy to predict how the action was going to unfold, but at least there should be a few “given” matches. But it didn’t pan out that way. Firstly, Roddick played a horrible match, losing against Gabashvili in three straight sets. He just couldn’t get enough lead on the ball. They were all sitting up for Gabashvili, who played aggressively and hit 60 winners. Maybe it wasn’t so strange that he couldn’t get the needed weight on his shots, that was always a reason that Roddick didn’t do well on …
After a rain-filled yesterday, the matches today have been of extremely high class. Some highlights and thoughts: I am happy short Italian Fognini beat Monfils after that darkness debacle. They should have stopped at 4-4. You can’t play if you can’t see the ball. But Monfils got the crowd all wired up and they started booing at Fognini for every point he won. It was a weird match that ended with Fognini winning the 5th set 9-7 the next day. The Ukrainian junior Dolgopolov is a great talent and a very skilled clay court player. I am not that surprised …
