The Flogged Horse: ATP 250 (Hamburg, Gstaad, Atlanta)

Just like in some dark tunnel of this English summerless summer, ATP calendar keeps going without many noticing it.

Last week we had 3 ATP 250 tournaments on clay and one on grass.

This week, the rest of the best is spread across three tournaments: Hamburg, Atlanta, Gstaad


Hamburg (clay), once a prestigious tournament that hosted some memorable
matches among the tennis' elite, has now sadly and undeservedly become a
passing stop. Still a decent field is playing this week: Simon,
Almagro, Monaco, Verdasco, Cilic, Kholschreiber, F.Mayer, Troicki,
Davydenko and one and only ROSOL

The Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/414/mds.pdf
Order Of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/414/op.pdf

Atlanta (hard): Fish, Isner, NIshikori, Andersen, Roddick, Young, Baker, Sock, Blake
The Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/6116/mds.pdf
Order Of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/6116/op.pdf

Gstaad (clay): Ferrer, Tipsarevic, Lopez, Wavrinka, Granollers, Youzhny, Benneteau, Kubot, Dimitrov, Tomic, Strakhovski, AND Paire!
The Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/314/mds.pdf
Order Of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/314/op.pdf

So, a chance for us to steal a bit of Continental or Atlantic blue skies....the sun always shines on tennis courts

and Paire thrashes Tomic (6:0 6:4)

The Flogged Horse choice of the day:
Kholschreiber vs Phau (Phau being the in-form player at the moment)
Rosol vs Troicki (the battle of blasters Rossy's forehand vs Troicki's backhand)
Harrison vs Blake (young vs old, it doesn't get much better than this one)
Benneteau vs Dimitrov (quality players should be fun)
Bolandri vs Gulbis (can Gulbis lose another first rounder )

The Flogged Horse continues to gather gallop as it moves to the middle of the week. No particular grabbers, still, for those who are under the spell of the little green ball flying to and fro:

Haas vs Simon, F.Mayer vs Haase, Rosol vs Ramos, Wawrinka vs Mathieu, Belluci vs Youzhny, Roddick Mahut.
MATCH OF THE DAY Gulbis vs Paire

P.S.
Blake beat Harrison last night.

Yes, surprised to read that. There is still life in the old dog.

I was surprised, as well, haven't seen Blake play for ages.
I just don't get it with him he plays one tournament and then does nothing for 6 months.

Paire loses. And he had 4:2 in the second set tie-break.
Amazing what a split second of losing focus can do....

The Flogged Horse neighs results of the day:

Cilic,Ramos, Mayer, Haas thorugh (Haas beat Simon, Ramos beat Rosol)

In Gstaad: Mathieu beats Wawrinka!, Bellucci bt Youzhny, Lopez, Gulbis through.

Thanks for the update. All I need to know.

Good to see Haas can keep up his great form.

Tenez wrote:Thanks for the update. All I need to know.

Good to see Haas can keep up his great form.

I know He is such a "proper" player, could've won a slam or two had he not been injured all his life...much nicer game than Roddick.

Yes though I prefer Kholi's game but Kholi is not as strong mentally.

Kholi is a very compact all-courter, very natural as well. I enjoyed watching him during one of those dead ATP weeks a few months ago, plays lovely when he is relaxed.
Germans have got this elegant efficiency in their "school", not a lot of baseline bashing there....

The Flogged Horses Menu for the day:

Starters:
Dimitrov vs Brown

Main meal:

Kohlschreiber vs Fognini

Desert:
Almagro vs Davydenko


Bon Appetit !

The Flogged Horse is nearly there: the finish line is in sight!
After another grinding, weary day:

Almagro (bt Davydenko), Kohlschreiber, Monaco, Tipsarevic, Dimitrov, Kubot through.

Blake and Fish (ret.) out.

There is no respite for The Flogged Horse, the race continues:

Monaco vs Chardy, Mayer vs Haas, Almagro vs Kohlschreiber
Dimitrov vs Kubot , Lopez vs Bellucci, Mathieu vs Gulbis.

Is it just me, or are the matches getting even less interesting...I couldn't even pick a match of the day.....

For those with serious withdrawal symptoms:

Semi-final pairs for Hamburg & Gstaad:

Almagro vs Monaco, Cilic vs Haas

Tipsarevic vs Mathieu, Bellucci vs Dimitrov

Atlanta semi-final:

Soeda vs Muller

Roddick vs Isner

Tomorrow's finals:
Hamburg: Monaco vs. Haas
Gstaad: Tipsarevic vs. Bellucci
Atlanta?

Roddick vs Isner- that's a cracker

Muller Soeda on currently- 3-3 in the first set.

Wow!
somebody posted something on this thread and I'm not talking to myself any more :shock:

Funny, I don't like either Isner's or Roddick's game, but think that would be a great one to watch, don't ask why!

I like Isner's game. I want Isner to win this, but I want a cracker of a 3 setter.

I was watching Haas-Cilic match and surprised by Haas' performance.

Tipsarevic seems to be in a great form. He won Stuttgart last week and today advanced to the final at Gstaad, even though he is not a clay-court specialist at all.

I'm quite impressed by Haas's performances after his series of injuries. 34 year old man has a chance to win the Hamburg, after Halle, which is an amazing achievement. How many players have won both grass and clay tournaments in the same year?

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:I was watching Haas-Cilic match and surprised by Haas' performance.

A weak era no. 2 but still good to beat top 10 guys at the age of 34. Amzing comeback.

MartinJondzic wrote:How many players have won both grass and clay tournaments in the same year?

Till now only Federer this year, but Haas has a chance tomorrow against Pico. 8)

Sorry, even Ferrer has done it.

Did Ferrer win Eastbourne?

No Eastbourne was won by Roddick. Ferrer won something else, but in the same week.

S'Herchtesnbock or something.

And it's the Roddick vs Muller final in Atlanta....Who would've thought?

Saw the 2nd and 3rd sets of Atlanta Roddick-Isner. Anytime Isner is serving behind, he is always in a potential danger of being broken. And if that happens the likelihood of him breaking back is almost zero considering how poor he returns. Thats what happened here.

Roddick was patient in the match and played solid. Those are often enough against Isner.

Roddick, another old horse winning.

He'll probably beat Muller in the final- but these days Muller has a slightly bigger serve (than Roddick) so we'll have to see.

And in Gstaad Tipsarevic takes the 1st set 8-6 in the TB!

Bellucci wins

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Bellucci wins

how did the match go, to much relentless powerful hitting from Bellucci for old Tips?

Monaco Haas starting. Monaco doesn't seem to be in his best form, despite relatively good recent results.

Monaco wins in straight sets :king:

noleisthebest wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Bellucci wins

how did the match go, to much relentless powerful hitting from Bellucci for old Tips?

Was good entertaining one. Tipsy gave bit more errors in 2nd and 3rd, but Bellucci played very well, served fantastic almost like he did in Madrid 2011. Bellucci is a good player, I'm sure he can do better at least on clay if he builds up some stamina, often he runs out of gas.

noleisthebest wrote:Monaco wins in straight sets :king:

He will be inside top-10 tomorrow. wow!! One more proof how grinders are prevailing in the current tennis era, Monaco hardly has any bit of tennis weapons, yet a player approaching his career's dawn aged 28 cracks top-10 for the first time.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Monaco wins in straight sets :king:

He will be inside top-10 tomorrow. wow!! One more proof how grinders are prevailing in the current tennis era, Monaco hardly has any bit of tennis weapons, yet a player approaching his career's dawn aged 28 cracks top-10 for the first time.

There been a lot of that happening recently,veterans of the sport suddenly breaking into the top 10