Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wimbledon Update

Sorry about the lack of a formal Wimbledon preview – I truly wish writing about sports was my only job, but alas, it’s not. Anyway, here are some thoughts regarding the action so far and some of the interesting potential matches I’m looking forward to.

1) Can some ATP pro PLEASE hire Darren Cahill as a coach?? I can’t stand listening to him – his voice, his commentary, his complete sense of humor deficiency, even his long narrow-face look….get him OUT of broadcasting!
2) Hoping for the all France 4th round battle between Tsonga and Gasquet in that section of the draw, and I think it might happen.
3) The French are kicking some serious butt on the grass – a dozen guys in the 2nd round, almost 20% of the draw. Of course, it would be a big surprise to see more than 1 in the quarterfinals (Gasquet? Monfils?), and a shock to see any in the semi’s.
4) Youzhny-Nadal 4th rounder could be very interesting – remember, Youzhny beat him at the US Open last year.
5) Baghdatis-Nalbandian in the 3rd round is an interesting potential matchup
6) Monfils has a very decent chance to make the quarters…I like his draw.
7) I know Berdych would be a big favorite, but I’m hoping he plays Tommy Robredo in the 4th round. I’m assuming that Robredo will beat Bjorkman in the 3rd round, the athletic, speedy clay-courter overcomes the cunning and guile of the veteran doubles star (whom of course, shocked the world in reaching the semi’s here last year).

Friday, June 22, 2007

Grass Court Tennis is Here

I never recapped the end of the French because everything went quite predictably after the quarterfinals. One comment I would like to make is that it would be nice to see Federer play at his best in the final there, or at least deliver his A-/B+ game, because the last two years we’ve gotten his B-/C+ game in the finals. Nonetheless, he is still a legend, and has had far more clay success than Sampras, who made the semi’s just once in Paris.

The grasscourt season opened with a bang, as unheralded 25 year old journeyman Nicolas Mahut from France, ranked 76 in the world, not only upset Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Queen’s Club Wimbledon tune-up, but also held a championship point in the finals vs. Andy Roddick. He lost the match 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, but shocked the tennis world nonetheless, as he also beat 2006 Wimbledon semifinalist Jonas Bjorkman, Ivan Ljubicic, and his veteran countryman Arnaud Clement, who himself made the 4th round at Wimbledon in both 2001 and ’02 (and had impressive wins last week over Ivo Karlovic and Novak Djokovic). Amazingly, Mahut still had to qualify this week for Wimbledon and did so, not dropping a single set in the process. Also at Queen’s Club, 18 year old Croatian Marin Cilic made a nice splash, beating Tim Henman in the 1st round and getting to the quarterfinals before falling to Roddick 6-3, 7-6. Roddick beat the hard hitting Dmitry Tursunov in the semi’s 6-4, 7-5. Tursunov’s game of hard, flat groundstrokes and big serves should translate to success at Wimbledon this year.

Meanwhile, at the Gary Weber Open last week, also on grass, Thomas Berdych defeated 2006 Wimbledon semifinalist Marcos Baghdatis in the final 7-5, 6-4. It’s nice to see Berdych come back strong on grass after his poor effort in Paris where he went down in the 1st round. Berdych is another young player whose tall stature and hard groundstrokes bode well for his chances during the Wimbledon fortnight – he lost in the 4th round there last year. Jarkko Nieminen and Philipp Kohlschreiber were the semifinalists. Look for a full Todd’s Tennis Takes Wimbledon preview on Monday. The draw comes out Friday, here’s the link:

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/scores/draws/ms/index.html

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

French Quarters - All Set

So the quarters are set and the Big Two have still not lost a set yet. There is a third member of ’12-0 in Sets Club’ – Tommy Robredo. He’s often the forgotten Spaniard, but he’s been a consistently steady presence at the French ever since he first played here in 2001. His worst showing was a 3rd round loss in 2002 as a 20 year old. Now 25, he’s in the quarters of the French for the third time in his career (note: he should have made the semi’s in 2003, up 2-0 in sets against Albert Costa, but, only 21, he got tight and lost the next three sets). Watching all of his last two matches against Tipsarevic and Volandri, I was reminded of how graceful, smooth, and yet lightening quick he is. His ability to change direction and time his slides perfectly is amazing and quite enjoyable to watch. In a world without Nadal & Federer, Tommy would be seeking titles here, not just quarterfinal appearances. He plays Federer next (same round he lost to him in Australia this year), and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him take a set off the living legend.

Nadal gets his fellow Mallorcan and good friend and advisor from his teenage days on the tour, Carlos Moya, next. The draw opened up nicely for the 1998 French Open champ – he hasn’t faced a seed yet – but I expect Nadal to take him down in 3, and I’d be surprised if Moya won 10 total games in the match. Novak Djokovic, who surprisingly struggled in the 3rd round against Olivier Patience, winning in five sets, easily handled the hard-hitting Spanish lefty Fernando Verdasco in the 4th round without dropping a set. Up next for him is Igor Andreev, who has now strung together 4 impressive wins in a row – Roddick, Massu, Mathieu, and then Baghdatis in the 4th round. The Russian will face his biggest test yet by far in Djokovic though, and will be a big underdog. I see a No Joke victory in four sets here.

The Nicolay Davydenko / Guillermo Canas match might end up being the most interesting of the four. They are quite similar players, both content to bang away from the baseline and chase down every ball in sight. Davydenko is younger and probably faster, but Canas is a pitbull who never quits. Both players are in top shape, and we could see a world of marathon rallies in this contest. I’ll take Davydenko to win in five sets – when in doubt, go with the youth.