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Picks from Madrid Masters Round 1 and 2

by TN
written by TN

Screen Shot 2014-05-06 at 11.35.15Screenshot 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 to win this match.

That’s the big one for today.

Tomorrow we’ll have a flashy encounter between talented youngster Thiem and world number 3 Wavrinka. I think Thiem could take a set, but not more. Wavrinka is together with the obvious choice Nadal my favourite to win the tournament.

If you’re looking for upsets, I think the brilliant clay-courter Bautista-Agut could do some damage against Verdasco. Tsonga hasn’t impressed this year, while Giraldo has – so that’s another good one.

The rest is pretty much straightforward. Hats off to Nishikori who I think has the made the most impressive improvement in 2014 and who seems rock solid these days.

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Bucharest & Barcelona = Dimitrov & Nishikori

by TN
written by TN

It’s simple math. Two tournaments = two winners and in Barcelona and Bucharest we, not surprisingly (if you count on Nadal’s loss to Almagro of course!), had two young guys knocking on the top 10 door, Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishkori. Nishikori jumps up to 12th place now and Dimitrov to the 13th. Well-deserved for the future in tennis and two talented and hard-working guys.

Check out the rankings on the ATP World Tour website.

Winner quotes:

Dimitrov:

“It feels good to have won. I lifted my game, not having been happy with my previous matches in the tournament. I knew I had to lift my level, especially after the first set. Lukas is a very good winner, who hit some outstanding winners. It was a pleasure to play in front of Ilie Nastase and other greats. I have worked really hard to start winning titles. I have put in enough effort, time and sacrifices to get here.”

Nishikori:

“I was playing well. I felt I should be in the final and I’m very happy to win. This title and [my run in] Miami helped my confidence, especially this week on clay. There are three big tournaments coming up in Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros so I hope I can do well and increase my [Emirates ATP Rankings] points. My next goal is to get to the Top 10.”

Nishikori is known by his speed and looked ridiculously alert in Barcelona. Here are highlights from his toughest challenge, Ernest Gulbis:

And here are highlights from the final in Bucharest: Dimitrov’s win versus last year’s winner, Rosol.

The facts from ATP World Tour:

  • Grigor Dimitrov earned his third ATP World Tour title and second of the season, after Acapulco (d. Anderson) in February.
  • Dimitrov did not drop a set in four matches in Bucharest, including the 81-minute final against his Czech opponent. This was the 22 year old’s first outing as a tournament top seed.
  •  The Bulgarian will rise to a career-high No. 13 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday.
  • Lukas Rosol had been aiming to become just the second player to retain his title at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament. Gilles Simon did so in 2008. Nishikori lifted his third different trophy at the ATP World Tour 500 level and first at a clay-court event after defeating Giraldo in 73 minutes.
  • The Japanese No. 1 improves to 5-1 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Giraldo and ascends five spots to No. 12 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, one position shy of his career high.
  • Nishikori’s title marks the first by a non-Spaniard in Barcelona in 12 years, since Argentine Gaston Gaudio prevailed in 2002.
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Predictions

Red Dirt Season Preview

by TN
written by TN

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 break this amazing “duo”. Federer accepted a wild card for Monte Carlo and is a better clay court player than some people take him for, but going up against Djokovic and Nadal when they’re in form is a tough feat even for him.

There are other players that can threaten the two, especially big hitters like Gulbis or Almagro or up-and-comers like Dimitrov, Nishikori and Dolgopolov, but it’s difficult to see the finals in the upcoming major tournaments being anything else than a Djokovic vs Nadal affair.

But don’t let this boring prediction (there’s nothing boring about the Djokovic Nadal rivalry!) detract you from watching the beautiful clay season. It has already started in Houston where Verdasco takes on clay-demon Nicolas Almagro in today’s final and there’s also a less interesting tournament in Capablanca where Garcia-Lopez takes on Granollers (did someone say Spaniards?). Start by watching these finals as an appetizer for Monte Carlo Masters, which starts tomorrow.

Find the Monte Carlo Masters draw here.

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An Upsetting Day in Rome

by TN
written by TN

It might sound like a weird headline to you, but there were quite a few upsets in Rome Masters today. Since it’s popular to use lists I will rank them here:

Drumrolll…….

Upset 1: Andy “Muzza” Murray lost to Granola Bar (Granollers) after being down 6-4 4-1, getting treatment and making it back to a tie-break, winning the tie-break and then quitting the match. Apparently he has some hip problems. Not a good warm-up for Roland Garros for the Scot who hasn’t had a good clay court season.

Upset 2: Stan the Man Wavrinka didn’t show up against Dolgopolov. Don’t know what the problem was at the moment – but he has played a LOT of tennis lately. Body should be hurting.Goddamn you tennis!

Upset 3: Jeremy Chardy “Chardonnay” slaughtered “Special K” (lots of fibre in this post) Nishikori 6-4 6-1. We know the Frenchman can hit a heavy ball, but that heavy?

Upset 4: Jerzy Janowicz (who looks a bit like Lurch in Adams Family) played an amazingly inspired match and beat Tsonga 6-4 7-6. Afterwards “JJ” tore his shirt in a primal burst of happiness which upset lots of tennis aficionados. Maybe a bit too much for the second round, but what the heck – you only live once, right?

Upset 5: Gilles Simon made a volley.

Some matches still to be played. More upsets to come?

Stay tuned to Tennisnerd.

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Predictions

Madrid Open 2013 – Quarterfinal picks

by TN
written by TN

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 14.47.55

I don’t want to be a grouch, but the above is not really the most exciting line-up for the Madrid Open Quarterfinals. The absence of Djokovic and Federer stand out as glaring holes and personally I would have liked Haas and Dimitrov to beautify the draw with their all-court games and one-handed backhands.

But enough whining. We still have some great matches to look forward to. My pick for the Madrid Open Semi-finals: Nadal, Nishikori, Murray, and Tsonga.

Some thoughts on the separate matches:

Nadal vs Ferrer. Ferru is a runner, a terrier, but how is he going to beat Nadal on clay? Sadly, a bit predictable.

Andujar vs Nishikori – blockbuster match! Nah, seriously. Andujar could with some Spanish cheering be a semi-final upset. But Nishikori is in good form so I doubt it.

Murray vs Berdych – the hottest match of the day. 4-4 H2H and a great match-up between attacker and defender. I pick Murray, but that’s with my gut – nothing else. Will be three sets.

Wavrinka vs Tsonga – The shadow-Swiss is playing great, but his H2H record vs Tsonga is not great. I have a feeling the clever Frenchman will outwit the Swiss one more time.

 

 

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Predictions

Australian Open 2012: Quarterfinals

by TN
written by TN

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 spectacular when he crushed super-talented youngster Tomic and I think that form is going to be to difficult for Del Potro to cope with. I predict Federer in four pretty tight sets.

Fantasy scoreline Federer vs Del Potro = 7-5 4-6 6-4 6-2

Nadal vs Berdych – Tomas Berdych is playing really well right now, but he didn’t exactly win the hearts of the Aussie fans when he refused to shake hands with hot-tempered Almagro after he beat the Spaniard 4-6 7-6 7-6 7-6 (Almagro did hit a ball straight at Berdych, to be fair). Fans or no fans, he won’t be strong enough to beat Nadal who looks ready to prove himself and is dying for a rematch with Novak Djokovic in the semis. I think Nadal might lose a set, but the rest will be pretty straightforward.

Fantasy scoreline Nadal vs Berdych = 6-7 6-4 6-3 6-2

Murray vs Nishikori – The young Japanese talent Nishikori is playing the best tennis of his life and was very impressive in his five set win against Tsonga, but against a guy who always plays great in Australia and who seems very keen on impressive his new coach Ivan Lendl, I think the task is too tall. Kei shouldn’t be used to playing this many long matches and I sadly think he will lose in three.

Fantasy scoreline Murray vs Nishikori = 6-4 6-2 6-3

Djokovic vs Ferrer – At the time of writing Djokovic has just started his match against Hewitt, but no matter how great the crowd will be for the aging native, there’s no way he is going to book a place in the quarters, especially considering how ruthless Djokovic has been with his opponents and how much he loves playing in Australia.

Ferrer has also played well and is always such an inspiring fighter, but it’s hard to see what anyone can do against the world number one when he’s in this form. Ferrer will run everything down, but in the end I see only three sets.

Fantasy scoreline Djokovic vs Ferrer =7-5 6-4 6-1

This brings us to a mouthwatering semi-final line-up of: Federer vs Nadal and Djokovic vs Murray. The fantastic four of tennis back in action!

But maybe my crystal ball is lying?


 

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Predictions

The Grass Season Starts: Halle and Queens

by TN
written by TN

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 –  Lu had an amazing Wimbledon last year, but we haven’t seen much good from either player of late. I would say Nieminen might be the more solid player here.

Lopez vs Tursunov – Lopez is having the year of his career and he beat Nadal here last year. I don’t see how a the always funny Tursunov (@tursunovtales) can counter that.

Mahut vs Golding – Golding? Sorry, no idea who that is but ATP tells me he is a young brit. Marathon-man Mahut should be able to get the better of him on his favorite surface.

Kohlschreibier vs Stebe – We haven’t seen many good things from Kohlschreiber of late, but hopefully the grass can revive him. He should be able to beat Stebe who is ranked around 200.

Nishikori vs Querrey – This could be the match of the day. Nishikori seems to be doing well under Brad Gilberts tutorship while Querrey looking for the form of old. Grass should suit Querrey better though and I predict he will take it in straights.

Haase vs Dolgopolov – Can Dolgopolov’s funky playing style work on the green stuff? Why not? And Dolgo is always fun to watch!

Sweeting vs Ljubicic – Ljubicic had a good French Open and I see Sweeting as more of a top spin clay courter, so there’s only one winner here and that’s Ljubo.

All the above matches can be streamed live at Livescorehunter.com

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My Take On Tennis: May 10, 2011

by TN
written by TN

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 Soderling and Verdasco. Make sure to catch at least some of the action live online, either at tennistv.com or livescorehunter.com

Lot of talk about Djokovic’s chance at being number one in the world at the moment. If he wins Rome and Nadal loses before the semis (highly unlikely) he will be in the top spot on the ATP tour for the first time in his career. Looking at the way he’s been playing for the first half of 2011 it’s far from impossible that he’ll win.

But then you would have to think that Nadal will find a way to beat him on the more traditional, slower clay in Rome. Even though he has lost three straight times to Djokovic, within Nadal beats the heart of a champion and a champion finds a way to win. And I really think if will find a way to beat Djokovic in 2011, if not in Rome, then for sure in the five set matches of Roland Garros.

In tennis book news, excellent tennis writer Steve Tignor has published High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and the Last Days of Tennis’s Golden Ageand I’m looking forward to downloading and reading it on my Kindle.

That’s all for now, let’s hope for a speedy recovery for Delpo, Nishikori and Monfils and that today’s tennis action will be exciting and interesting. Follow me on Twitter to see more recent developments!

 

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