Tennis thread

[spyretto]

I do most of my bets on tennis nowadays and I have so much time in my hands as to follow everything that's going on...I love tennis, I realised it's probably my favourite sport to watch because it has so many twists and turns, and great characters.
Like haku does with the European top 40, I'll be updating this thread every now and then. I hope I'm not a nuissance, but you'll read the stories from the horses' mouth.

I got video feeds for 4 tournaments at the moment, 3 atp and 1 wta

[spyretto]

some updates:

Blake ( contender for the choker of the century award ) misses several match points and losses in 3 sets to Ivo Karlovic - in the Sap Open.
Safin tired and unprepared losses to Benjamin Becker in the same tournament. He almost lost in the previous round as well.
Murray and Roddick still in the tournament playing later.

Baghdatis beats Youzhny to reach the semi of the Open 13 in Marseille. He was down in most of the match but played some massive points in the 2rd set to turn the match in his favour. 2 points in particular had probably the best strokes I've ever seen. He was really entertaining tonight and is the big fav with the crowd.

So the situation in Marseille is as follows:

semis of Open 13

Baghdatis v Nieminen
Soderling v Simon

Marcos will be the fav here but he hasn't been convincing and he could lose to any of the other 3. Simon and Soderling seem particularly solid.


In the wta tournament in Antwerp the favs are currently cruising except for Petrova who lost to Chakvetadze earlier today. ( that's her reward for fixing her previous match by feigning injury and illness then smashing her opponent for some extra $$$ )

So the situation in Antwerp is as follows:

semis

Mauresmo v Chakvetadze
Golovin v Kljisters

The San Jose (Sap) Open is in the quarter final stages at the moment, while the wta Bangalore Open will feature Santangelo v Savchuk and Obziler v Shvedova as all the favs have already been knocked out ( Santangelo is the only one left )
Last but not least, the atp clay Brazil Open has been interrupted by patches of rain and hasn't even reached the quarter finals stage yet. Lots of Latin americans there as expected.

[spyretto]

3 favs down 2 to go?

Baghdatis loses to youngster Simon ( Marseille )
Mauresmo upsets Clijsters in front of her country folks ( Antwerp )
Another youngster, Shvedova upsets the no 1 seed and defending champion Santangelo ( Bangalore )

They all won in straight sets.

Brazil next and the fav Canas meets Ferrero
Later a week of tennis tournaments will conclude with the final of the SAP Open where Murray ( after thrashing Roddick once again ) will try to instill some British pride vs the serving powerhouse of Ivo Karlovic. Ivo served 27 aces in his semi match alone

Winners of this week:

Simon (Marseille )
Mauresmo ( Antwerp )
Shvedova ( Bangalore )
Canas ( Brazil )
Murray ( San Jose - Karlovic won the 1st set and served 26 aces in that match but it wasn't enough )


Winners of this week's tournament (19-25/02)

MEMPHIS:

Women: Venus Williams ( in her succesful comeback after 5 months )
Men: Tommy Haas ( beating RodDICK, who took his revenge from Murray in the semis )

ROTTERDAM:

Youzhny

BUENOS AIRES

Monaco

BOGOTA

Vinci ( match between her compatriot Garbin was very strange and Garbin retired after being 3-0 up in the 3rd set! - the result of match fixing most likely )

[spyretto]

Doha, Dubai, Acapulco, Las Vegas, and no tennis in Europe this week

Mouth-watewing match in the 1st round of the Dubai atp Open coming up later: Markos v Nadal
Fingers crossed for Markos ( don't like Nadal at all but he will probably win )
Federer made it diffucult v Danish superkid Pless but he's through...so are the two Slovaks ( Stepanek, Berdych )
Nothing exciting in the other tournaments, the big big names will be in the wta tournament in Doha but we're still in the 1st round and some had a bye to the 2nd already ( like Henin, Jankovic ).
Mexico has the usual clay mops ( Spaniards, Argies, Italians etc )
Las Vegas is in early stages still but Blake is the defending champion and is there ( so is Hewitt )

However all attention will be in Dubai this week.

[taty994945]

spyretto, did you hear about the bizarre incident regarding James Blake?
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news;_yl...ters&type=lgns

To be honest, I'd prefer if the ATP reverted to its original format instead of the round-robin.

[spyretto]

They decided they're going to disqualify him??That's really strange because the last I heard was that he was granted a place in the semi on account of the retirement of jhis opponent!
This is VERY unfortunate, can give room for all sorts of dodgy decisions and match fixing.
A player who has no interest in a match can "retire" to help a player who is not playing.

They have to do away with this format as soon as possible and I expect it to happen soon. Tennis is not football.

In other news, Michail Youzhny is the star of the last 2 weeks, after winning Rotterdam he bowed out Nadal and Soderling in Dubai to reach a very well deserved final vs Fedex.He's playing some great tennis, has amazing support by the Russians in Dubai and he's the sentimenatl choice. Surely a top 10 place in the ranking is not far off. I'm a Youzhny fan this week
In other tournaments, Henin reached the final of the Qatar open after beating Jankovic in a bizarre match and she will play Kuznetsova.
JC Ferrero - also very strong in the last couple of weeks - looks to be cruising to the final of the Mexican Open beating Moya 5-1 in the first set and finally Hewitt's form is back, he is the semi of that now controversial Las Vegas open.
Still lots of confusion on Blake's decision as they even announced hm to play Querrey in the quarters!!.they have to take it all back now.

Blake is not shy of controversies, if he beat his opponent in the first match none of that would have happened. He chokes 3 times in 2 weeks in matches that he should have won.

ps: Moya seems to be fighting back, he's leading Ferrero 3-0 in the 2nd...never easy when two Spaniards are playing...

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/tennis/at...o1103240.shtml

The top seed was then told he would not advance as the rules stated games won or lost in a walkover did not count and his place would be awarded to Korolev before the ATP backtracked saying Blake would be given the group win "on the basis that the rules were not sufficiently explained".

That is a bizarre rule indeed. did they try to sneak Blake in the quarters in spite of that rule? It's all comedy...

[spyretto]

So all the favourites -at tleast the ones who reached the finals - won more or less

Federer won the Dubai Open for a 4th time
Hewitt won the Las Vegas Open for a 4th time
Henin won in Qatar
Chela beat Moya in Mexico

Alas, there's no tennis this week other than the qualifiers for the Indian Wells Pacific Open. This is a big tournament that will occupy all next week

p.s ooooops, correction. The 1st round of the wta tour starts on Wednesday, it's just that all big seeds have a bye

[spyretto]

Federer was beaten!
In straight sets to Guillermo Canas who shouldn't even be in the Indian Wells main draw as he lost in the qualifying round ( but got through as the "lucky" loser )
what do you know...

"The shocking loss ended Federer's bid for immortality, snapping his 41-match winning streak, which had tied Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg for the fourth-longest run of the Open Era.
Federer had needed six more wins to break the all-time record of 46 set by Guillermo Vilas in 1977. Indian Wells seemed the perfect venue as the Swiss superstar was the three-time defending champion in this hardcourt event."

One record gone, or maybe he has to start again now

It wasn't the only surprise of the second round

Hewitt, Safin, Fish, Robredo, Baghdatis all out...Nalbandian had to fight from a set and two games down

[taty994945]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Federer was beaten!

A shocking result! Canas of all players. He sounds crap. Indian Wells is gonna be boring with all the no names but good on them for beating their more fancied opponents.

[spyretto]

Tennis is turning into proper comedy imo...I can't believe how many players can choke from match points and so on to lose the whole match. It doesn't happen once every now and then as it used to but again and again. Yesterday Acasuso missed 2 match points vs Ferrero and then collapsed in the third but the funniest thing of all was when Radwanska played Safarova. Radwanska missed 3 match points ( she was up 5-3 and 40-0 in the 2nd ) and another one in the tie break in the 2nd and then another one(!!!) in the 3rd set tie break to succumb to Safarova 6-3, 6-7, 6-7. She must be the mother of all chokes

Oh Sharapova was knocked down in style today, she wasn't quite crusing but was 6-4, 5-3 vs Zvonareva and was serving for the match. Then she managed to lose the remaining 4 games of the 2nd and lose the set 7-5; then proceeded to coolly lose the last set 6-1.
Total blank for the number 1 player in the world who lost her 9 out of the last 10 games. PATHETIC!
But she'll get her even money at Wimbledon.
So no Federer and no Sharapova and we're not even in the quarters yet.

More nonsense in the match that finished a while ago, Ljubicic called the doctor twice early in the 1st and proceded to lose the set 6-2 to Nalbandian, so Nalby was "cruising". Then surprise, surprise, Ljiubo made a miraculous recovery to win the next 2 sets and the match. Well, maybe no surprises for Nalby there, he had survived 2 rounds coming back from a set down so this time he had to properly choke after winning his 1st set to make things even

Nice drama isn't it? By the way another top 10 wta seed is out ( Jankovic ) and Vaidisova just lost the 1st set to Bartoli ( of all people )
The favs are dying fast in the Indian Wells.

[taty994945]

Nadal beat Roddick, a fantastic result! I wonder if Murray can beat Djokovic.

[spyretto]

Why would Murray beat Djokovic, I like Djoko better, glad he made the final.

ok, the Indian Wells is now over, Daniella Hantuchova has shaken off the joke of being Daniella Hantuchoka and crashed Kuznetsova ( the huge fav ) in the final while Nadal beat Novak Djoko who isn't gonna choko as he's becoming a very good player, I can see him hitting the top ten very soon...same for Daniella. Both won in straight sets - things are getting too serious in the finals for messing up I guess.

We're staying in the US for now as the next tournament is in Miami ( both atp and wta )
I'm a little tired now but will check all the details tomorrow ( who's in, etc - well, all should be in since theire's no other tourney )

Oh the ceremony of the winner for the mens Indian Wells featured Boris Becker as presenter and the guy stole the show. You can't beat the old classix

[spyretto]

bbc sports:

"ATP abandons round-robin format"

Announced today, though it might continue in some small tournaments....wise choice anyway.

Well, we're in the first round of the Miami tournaments, all the big names in both the atp and wta had a bye to the 2nd round. Today the action was interrupted by rain, hopefully that won't continue into the week.

Tennis matches update, Thursday 22 March

just check the weather report

Rain again on the 23th...honesty, why do they hold a tourney in this banana republic? ( of Miami )
Makes absolute no sense to me...

[spyretto]

What are the odds of Federer losing to the same qualifier in back-to-back matches?
Well, it happened again!. Mr "unbeatable" lost to Canas again this time in Miami, 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, when it seemed that he sorted himself out and would cruise in the 3rd!!

Now he will be seeing Canas in his nightmares,

So once again the tournament is wide open, Murray, Roddick, Djokovic, Ljubicic and Nadal are licking their lips in delight...especially Nadal, hehe

[spyretto]

Novak Djokovic finished what he started in Indian Wells with his first atp tournament ( by defeating Canas in straight sets in Miami )

Awesome talent, some say future no 1...will see about that.
He's already in the top 10.

oh Serena won the womens tournament ( after losing the 1st set 6-0 to Henin and being 2 mp's down.

But the headlines is deservedly about Novak this week.


Already following the WTA tournament in Amelia Island, Florida; it's the only tournament for this week, started on the 2rd of April. This is a clay tournament - green clay in fact - as we're already entering the clay season - the climax of which will be the French Open.
My compatriot, Eleni Daniilidou finally had a good match vs "maid" Marion Bartoli ( no 23 in the world but having a pretty mediocre season thus far.) She beat her 6-0, 6-4, so she's off to the 2nd round in flying colours. I kinda predicted she'd do well in this particular match but it looks like an one-off, as she's still to find some kind of form this year. There's another up and coming Greek talent in Eleni Gerasimou, who's in the top 300 and she might be pushing for the Greek no 1 spot soon, if she works on her condition, because mentally she's great. She won various small tournaments in the last couple of years, but I'd like to see her competing on the bigger stage vs the big names soon ( in this year's Wimbledon maybe ).

Hmm, other early victims - apart from Bartoli - were Dulko ( quite typically ) Shaunghessy, Molik and Panetta. Venus Williams starts her campaign tomorrow ( vs Rezai who could be a tricky opponent ) Golovin, Hantuchova and the current holder Petrova enter the second round after they had a bye in the 1st. It will be interesting to see if Venus is in good enough shape to win this tournament - it will be her second this year after coming back from long-term injury. Her younger sister is doing fantastically well so far.

...More to come

[taty994945]

Novak Djokovic sounds pretty good. He's always reminded me of Mario Ancic for some reason...probably because their bodies are similar in shape, lol.

[spyretto]

Davis Cup quarter finals ( in progress )

World Group 2007 - Quarterfinal
Russia v France 3 - 2
Belgium v Germany 2 - 3
USA v Spain 3 - 1
Sweden v Argentina 4 - 1

Blake is playing Lopez at the moment and seems to be in control...so the USA and Sweden look to clinch the semi final place easily while Russia and Germany might have to fight all the way...

The Amelia Island wta title is over ( to be honest I haven't been following it much ) and it's Golovin - that Russian with the tutu - who won her first title. So after Hantuchova I guess everybody has a chance of winning a title

Well, tennis comes to Europe next week and will have more chances of watching some, lol

[spyretto]

An update on the tennis tournaments completed today:

Ivo Karlovic, the kind giant, won the claycourt tournament entitled "U.S Championships" in Houston beating Zabaleta in straight sets. He only had 10 aces today but Zabaleta had none so I guess it was a factor. The guy has a humongous serve.
Almagro won the small Valencia clay venue beating the Potato in the final..
The wta "family circle" in Charleston was won by Jelena Jankovic, who beat Venus and Safina in the semi and final respectively. She will "star" in the top 5 soon.

The Monte Carlo is starting tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it , as it's the last biggish tournament before the Roland Garros.

I also found a stream for the Tennis channel on the net, it's channel 21491 on TVU player. Pretty solid

[spyretto]

An insanely stupid match I saw today between Gasquet and the choker/joker of the century Verdasco... Verdasco lost the first set 7-5, after missing several chances to win the set; then the second set went to tie break where Gasquet missed 5 (FIVE) match points to lose it 14-12...then in the third I can't remember anybody keeping serve at one point , there were 5 out of 6 breaks of serve.
At the end Gasquet won this in the tie break but it was some crazy crazy match I expected him to lose...all credit to Verdasco for choking again, he was with a 5-3 lead in the 3rd.

The rest of the tournament hasn't been too exciting although some favs are already out. Roger starts now against Andreas Seppi. Wonder if his form will be back - on clay of all courts. Time to watch some good tennis cause I'm having a headache from watching the previous match.

Roger was unconvincing again, 7-6, 7-6. He'd probably lose to a better better, and he almost did to Seppi. He has to sort his game out soon, or this may be the end of the Roger era, loil.
Last match on centre court and Marat is blowing away Vliegen. He's like the Marat of old, maybe cause he lives down the road so he don't care.. It'll be interesting to see which Marat turns up in the next match, the unbeatable or the real fool hehe

PS. Oh well, no need to do that, as the joker has lost...yes from 6-0 1st and 3 match points in the 2nd...the guy is just a complete dork.

[spyretto]

So we got the semi finalists of the Monte Carlo open: Nadal, JC Ferrero, Federer and Berdych.

Ferrero and Berdych's matches were the most interesting today, Berdych won 12 straight games vs Soderling who literally stopped after going 1 set and 3-0 up.
In almost equally ridiculous fashion JCF came back from 1 set and 1-4 down to beat Gasquet ( who incintentilly, escaped defeat twice before vs Verdasco and Ljubicic so it was only fitting to go down in flames. )
As for Federer and Nadal, Nadal was his usual self ( his opponent Korhlscheiber was particularly weak ) while Fed raised his game at the right time to beat Ferrer and now it seems that Federer and Nadal are heading for a final showdown.

Davis Cup semis are this weekend I think and will be watching for the first time.

I think I'll stop updating this thread for a while, until there is some interest on the sport. I expect people will be back in time for the French and Wimbledon. See ya then