What a line-up we have at Madrid Open (formerly Madrid Masters) today. We have lots of top players in action, Nadal, Federer, Murray Ferrer, Berdych, Tsonga, to name a few. The most interesting match-ups in my mind is another battle of the double-handed backhanders (yesterday we had Tommy Robredo vs Tommy Haas in a well-played match) with young hot-shot Grigor Dimitrov taking on Stanislas Wavrinka, in-form Tommy Haas playing clay-demon David Ferrer and hard-hitters Verdasco and Tsonga pairing up in a heavyweight contest. Federer and Nadal are also playing of course, but as a heavy favorites. Murray and Simon will …
verdasco
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 …
This is the line-up for today’s matches in Halle and Queens. You can watch these matches at Livescorehunter.com I will comment on the most exciting ones and there are a few mouthwatering match-ups. Dustin Brown is a colorful and exciting player and not only because his Rastafarian hair, but also due to his eccentric playing style. He meets another unorthodox player in Florian Mayer. A tough one for Brown and I predict Mayer in three. Del Potro is in action again and this time against Istomin who can play good tennis but haven’t this year. Should be a quite straightforward affair …
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 …
First a sad message: Mr Juan Martin Del Potro, why do you get injured now when we need you the most to stir up Roland Garros and make it even more exciting? We will miss you and your fly-swatting shots… Yesterday I only bet on one match, the one between Monfils and Nishikori and then both got injured. Bad luck for me and even more bad luck for them. Many good matches on the menu today. Serve and volley battle between Lopez and Llodra. Croat clash between Karlovic and Cilic. Serving contest between Querrey and Anderson. Big hitting hate-match between …
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 …
Hmmmm…what’s on the menu for the tennis fan today? We’ll have action from Munich, Serbia and Estoril so let’s have a quick look… Djokovic plays his good friend and “imitator” Janko Tipsarevic in Serbia Open. Tipsarevic is playing good tennis at the moment, but I doubt him taking a set from the Djoker. It looks like Italian mini-man Filippo Volandri is back in good form. He takes on Feliciano Lopez in the other Serbia Open semi-final and I think he is in for a good chance. Lopez has been serving well though so he is the favorite. In Estoril Del …
Is anybody’s guess. He hasn’t been himself of late. Is it because he went from Tecnifibre to Dunlop or something else? The guy’s got a big game but when he said he wanted to play with Raonic on clay (indicating that the Canadian was all serve and no play) after losing to him twice on hard courts, you would start to wonder if he’s losing it a bit. Come on, Verdasco, we want to see that thunder forehand of yours. Vamos!
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 …
Nadal again. Of course. No one would have thought anything different. But he lost a set. He had to fight off Ferrer, and he didn’t look quite as impossible to beat as last week. 7-5 6-2 in the final. It was a rainy, patchy affair, extremely well played at times. Here is the best point by far: http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20100502/atp-rome-hot-shot-final_2252185_2041550 But there are others things to say about Rome Masters than just “Vamos Rafa”. Spaniards on clay Yes, they are always a force on the red stuff and we were on match away from having two all-Spanish semi-finals. Verdasco and Ferrer both …