Congrats to Nishikori and Garcia-Lopez who both got titles this week in Barcelona and Bucharest respectively. My attention however went to the Andujar who had a great week in Barcelona and defeated David Ferrer with some really clever clay court tennis including drop shots, varying pace, spin, and finishing many points at the net. If you can bewilder David Ferrer, you’re doing something right. Andujar played well in the final too, but it was Nishikori’s week. I can stop marvelling how much racquet head spin the current top 5 player gets on the ball. If he stays healthy I’m sure …
The battle that was on display between Nadal and Djokovic yesterday and which ended in the fifth hour with: 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-7 9-7 in the favor of Nadal – is hard to put into words. The match had everything. Fantastic points, high drama, nerves, comebacks, and brute physicality. It was another classic in their rivalry. In the end, Nadal had the edge of being (almost) unbeatable at Roland Garros and he managed to qualify for yet another final. Who awaits there? His good friend Ferrer. It’s a bit of anticlimax with an all-Spanish final, but at least we had …
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 …
You know Dimitry Tursunov? He hates clay. At least I thought so until he beat Ferrer yesterday. You only think that Ferrer must have had a shitty day. This is how he described his upset: “It wasn’t Ferrer’s best match. He didn’t play his best tennis,” assessed Tursunov. “He had the advantage over me because he’s been playing on clay. But I played very quickly and I didn’t make it easy for him. Ferrer was the favourite based on surface and ranking. It was a match where there were a lot of opportunities for both players.” It wasn’t Ferrer’s day simply …
I can’t say I’m very surprised with how Australian Open has turned out so far. All the top players are still in the draw and no really major upsets have taken place. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are all ready for the quarters and so let’s look at the opposition: Federer vs Del Potro – Del Potro looked back to grand slam winner form against Kohlschreiber and if he can keep that up he will be dangerous for Federer who has had problems getting past the QF stage of Grand Slams of late. On the other hand, Federer looked absolutely …
Been too busy to blog, but still some activity on Twitter! (Check it out and follow). To summarize my thoughts of the day so far: Have a hard time seeing Murray go very far in Cincinnati. He looks a bit uninterested. Maybe 2012 will be the year he gets it all together. Most improved player in 2011? @mardyfish – no question about it. Taking your physique and your game seriously is key. A true role model! Tough loss for Dimitrov against Ferrer, playing well, but forehand is lacking a bit of Federeresque zip. Major talent tho! Hard to see anyone …
The big talk of day 9 of the French Open was not how local hero Gael Monfils managed to beat marathon man David Ferrer. It was not about how Andy Murray fought back from 0-2 in sets to 2-2 before the match was postponed due to bad light against Victor Troicki. It was not how veteran Juan Ignacio Chela won a tough five setter against Colombian Alejandro Falla. It was all about how five time champion Rafael Nadal doesn’t look like himself this tournament, although he won in three sets against Ljubicic. Nadal doesn’t look as confident as he did …
Well, there’s not much excitement in predicting today’s matches. Troicki vs Ferrer Ferrer has played great tennis at the start of the year with a semi-final at Australian Open and a win at Heineken open. He is as usual in great shape and forces his opponents to come up with some pretty fantastic tennis to win a point. Troicki is a talented player that’s definitely on the rise, but I think he will have a hard time against “The Wall” and lose in straights. Federer vs Melzer Melzer was very impressive against Almagro yesterday, but Federer breezed through Cilic and …
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 …
I am happy to announce that I was right in all my quarter-final bets/semi-final picks for the Madrid Masters. Federer managed to fight back after being a set behind against Gulbis. He looks more mentally ready now and seems to have that button he can switch on and off when a slam is drawing near. He is also lucky to play Ferrer in the semi. Ferrer is of course dangerous, he beat Murray, but he has 0-9 in head to head against the Fed express and you don’t see him change that stat in this match. Ferrer just doesn’t have …
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