ATP 250: Gstaad, Atlanta, Umag

Just like  Mondays come after Sundays, so do tennis tournaments seem to follow the same pattern of inevitablity!

Whether we care about it or not, whether we want to watch any of it at all: the ball keeps flying over the net and so to the ATP pros across the continents. 

This week, the action moves from Germany and Columbia over to Switzerland, US and Croatia. Me, myself and I, well, still on the same chair in front of this same computer, sipping my coffee from the same Wimbledon mug (need to get the USO one!), the only difference is that for a change, it's summer here as well...so here we "go" again...


ATP 250 Gstaad, clay
With one of the most spectacular backdrops of any ATP World Tour tournaments, the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad is situated in south-western Switzerland, near the border with France. Roger Federer was presented with a cow during a homecoming celebration in 2003 after winning his first Wimbledon title. Federer fell in the final that year to Jiri Novak but won the title in 2004.

I am so happy Federer is playing this week,it really makes all the difference, compared to the usual mid-July desert deadness feel to the tour always have at this time of the year.

Players: Federer, Wawrinka, Tipsarevic, Monaco, Lopez, Youzhny, Bellucci, Rosol, Dustin Brown, Strakhovski, Delbonis
Draw: 
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/314/mds.pdf
Order of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/314/op.pdf



ATP 250 Atlanta, outdoor, hard
Embracing the hustle and bustle of Atlanta's I-75 and I-85 corridors, the BB&T Atlanta Open headed downtown to a new venue at Atlantic Station in 2012. It is the first men's event of the Emirates Airline US Open Series.

Players: Isner, Anderson, Fish (welcome back!), Dodig, Hewitt, Blake, Sock, Sijsling, Harrison brothers, Vasselin, Karlovic
Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/6116/mds.pdf
Order of Play
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/6116/op.pdf


ATP 250 Umag, clay
The Vegeta Croatia Open Umag is more than just an outstanding ATP World Tour tennis tournament. The event has helped to establish Umag as a symbol of high-quality Croatian tourism. In 2012, Marin Cilic became the first homegrown champion since the tournament's inaugural edition in 1990.

Players: Gasquet, Seppi, Fognini, Dolgpolov, Robredo, Klizan, Monfils, F. Mayer, Troicki
Draw: 
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/439/mds.pdf
Order of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/439/op.pdf





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk9kecQqitY

Only one match looking interesting today, HPM-Youzhny, and probably no stream for it.

That aside, I had a terrible dream last night: I found my racquet smashed right down the middle, the strange bit was that  in the dream the frame was made from wood but the rest of it looked the same.

OK, so here come the updates:
Stakhovski managed his FOURTH STRAIGHT LOSS after beating Fed in Wimbledon (yes, I want to scream, too  
Dr Misha won the match of the day beating HPM
Granollers bt Rosol.
Umag still on the anonymous side at this stage, it's not that easy to get excited about De Baaker's win, is it? (sorry GP!)

Atlanta, matches happening as I am typing this, the "news" there is that Donald Young...yes, lost again.

So, watchable matches tomorrow ( not sure if there are going to be any streams still)

Dustin Brown-Hanescu
Delbonis-Bellucci 

and that's about it!

No order of play out yet for Atlanta, but can't imagine much interesting going on there on day two.

Just checked, and I was wrong about Atlanta:
Vasselin-Hewitt & Berankis- Zverev, also Fish returning after his long illness break.

I was looking for an old Number One thread and stumbled across this, didn't realise I've done a full circle with the ATP calendar  
Anyway, here it is, I bet nobody can remember who won last year:
https://ourtennisforum.forumotion.co.uk/t25-the-flogged-horse-atp-250-hamburg-gstaad-atlanta

As for tomorrow, well, still no Fed, but matches getting a tiny bit more interesting:
In Gstaad, no attractive match-ups despite a few good players playing, mainly Wawrinka.
Will add Umag and Atanta later.

News of the day!!! (no, nothing to do with the royal baby, sorry)

BERANKIS WON!!!  
At long last, the tie-breaks went his way: 7:6 2:6 7:6


As for the rest, I think Federer is sorted whenever he chooses to retire, this is his second cow he got as a present in Gstaad. I don't know if the first one is still around, though...

I don't think the cow and Fed are speaking the same language, though. Maybe she's not happy with the new racquet  

Here is the pic of the Feds first cow he got in 2004

In the meantime, I found out that the Fed's 2003 cow died.

It seems that farming is back in vogue, this is what Nole did  last week:

The only semi-decent matches taking place in Umag today:

Fognini-De Bakker
Gasquet-Montanes

Today's results: 
Montanes knocked Gasquet out in straight sets, Stan scraped through in a very tight match against Tarver. Also through - Fognini, Monfils, Monaco, Youzhny, Hewitt and Lopez.
Finally some good matches on tomorrow (Atlanta still going for today, no order of play for tomorrow yet):

Hanescy-Agut
Haase-Tpsarevic
Federer-Brands (interesting to see the two meet again in the same round in two consecutive tournaments)

In Atlanta, R.Harrison-Sijsling & Blake-Donskoy look interesting although, the other Ryan brother, Christian could be worth checking out, he is playing Isner.

So far:
Hanescu d. Agut, Granollers d. Delbonis, Haase seems to have demolished Tipsarevic.
In Atlanta, Dodig d Berankis in 3 (only one TB!) Christian Harrison bt Falla, Blake, Hewitt through.

And now, Fed time!!!! 

Fed break down and 1 game from losing the 1st set.

If stream is a problem, this one looks good to me : http://www.hahabar.com/20130722/v-tennis-607782-51ec8594680847.52907539.html

thanks, rotla, I've got a stream with millions of annoying adds.

Brands wins  first set with one break of serve, pretty fast.

It's moving to see with how much love the Swiss crowd are supporting Fed, they can certainly feel him very well.

Go Roger 

Fed is not playing too well here, one set down.

He turned it around last week I think though, so he should be able to do the same.

Julia Santamaria wrote:Fed is not playing too well here, one set down.

You should not underrestimate Brands, he's got a lot of fire-power.

noleisthebest wrote:

Julia Santamaria wrote:Fed is not playing too well here, one set down.

You should not underrestimate Brands, he's got a lot of fire-power.

Yes, good point. Big server and a very attacking game.

This is ludicrous, Fed looks to be complete control of his serve, then randomly throws in the most horrific service game to lose it.

That was a bad first game from Fed, he gets broken with 4 netted volleys. The new racquet may have a bigger sweet spot good for the base-line, but what about the feel at the net?

Or is it just the confidence...well, I'll keep believing till the last point

Come on Feds  

noleisthebest wrote:That was a bad first game from Fed, he gets broken with 4 netted volleys. The new racquet may have a bigger sweet spot good for the base-line, but what about the feel at the net?

Or is it just the confidence...well, I'll keep believing till the last point

Come on Feds  

It's a strange match this one.

Brands is playing well: great serving followed by coming to the net, and he can volley, as well.
No frills, simple game that works.

Fed needs to break him, which he can, just needs a bit of luck and a few 2nd serves fro Brands.

Fed's first serve has deserted him, confidence gone and Brands dictating the business even in receiving games now.

COME OOOOOON RO-GER!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 BPs saved, one with an ace the other with a S&V point, awesome guts from Fed, another BP for Brands, nooooo...saved with another good serve , phew!!!!

noleisthebest wrote:Fed's first serve has deserted him, confidence gone and Brands dictating the business even in receiving games now.

No I still think Fed is dictating his own service games, he just needs to cut out the unforced errors.

And the lion roars back, great hold  

Beautiful to see those hills and Die Berge in the distance, I can still recall the smell of that fresh, crisp summer air filed with wild flowers, what completely gorgeous countryside Switzerland has!

Fed's only hope of breaking Brantds atm is that Brands starts choking and missing 1st serves:run: 
But Germans don't choke, do they....

noleisthebest wrote:
But Germans don't choke, do they....

They do.

Fed saves MP with an ace. Then another ace. Then he nets a sitter inside out mid court FH. Another ace. And finally wins the long base-line point with a FH winner.
Brands playing very well.

Time to break, Brands serving for the match.
Double fault from Brands in the first point. Maybe they do choke after all...

2MPs for Brands. Fed saves the 1st. But not the second

2 MPs for Brands

It ends in Gstaad and very early too.

Weird match, Fed had two terrible service games.

Maybe he should switch back to his old racket?

Well that was that...the new racquet on clay made Fed look slow.

Let's hope it works better on hard courts. It has to.

Brands played a perfect match.

noleisthebest wrote:Well that was that...the new racquet on clay made Fed look slow.

Let's hope it works better on hard courts. It has to.

Brands played a perfect match.

Yes I suppose he even took a set off Nadal on clay so it's not all bad for Federer.

Its not the racquet, Fed was playing poor with the older racquet too. Changing the racquet is a step in the right direction, hence I don't blame it any bit. Its Fed's poor form that he is losing so poorly. Right now on form he isn't even in top-10.

This isn't rock bottom for Fed. Maybe he can only rise once he reaches there. If Fed continues to play this way, he will be out of top-10 by YE. I'm not expecting anything more than 4th Rnd for in any of the remaining tournaments

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:This isn't rock bottom for Fed. Maybe he can only rise once he reaches there. If Fed continues to play this way, he will be out of top-10 by YE. I'm not expecting anything more than 4th Rnd for in any of the remaining tournaments

You're over-reacting.
In the bigger tournaments Fed will play with bigger motivation and it will take a really inspired performance (ie Stak or one of the top 10) to beat him.

He is currently number 6 in the race rankings, and given the indoor season is still to come I can only seem him getting higher:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/rankings/ytd-singles.aspx

Julia Santamaria wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:This isn't rock bottom for Fed. Maybe he can only rise once he reaches there. If Fed continues to play this way, he will be out of top-10 by YE. I'm not expecting anything more than 4th Rnd for in any of the remaining tournaments

You're over-reacting.
In the bigger tournaments Fed will play with bigger motivation and it will take a really inspired performance (ie Stak or one of the top 10) to beat him.

Over reacting? No. His form and confidence is so poor right now, he surely would care to win some tournaments even its an ATP250. And surely he didn't plan to lose it in his opening match which even devoid him of any match practice that he so much needed.

Julia Santamaria wrote:He is currently number 6 in the race rankings, and given the indoor season is still to come I can only seem him getting higher:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/rankings/ytd-singles.aspx

 Do you think this Fed who can't even win an ATP250 will suddenly start winning matches and titles just because its indoor now? Fed isn't losing due to surface or racquet or anything but his own poor form and lack of confidence.

Brands is a good player but no matter how good he is Fed won't have lost to him in the opening match. but he did and in st. sets.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:
Over reacting? No. His form and confidence is so poor right now, he surely would care to win some tournaments even its an ATP250. And surely he didn't plan to lose it in his opening match which even devoid him of any match practice that he so much needed.

Although this loss will certainly not do much for his confidence, I wouldn't read too much into it. Brands played really well and was hard to break with that serving today.

Fed got a bit of match practice and a few bonus points, he'll continue to persevere with whatever he's got on his mind now.

I just hope he gets fully fit and ready for American hard-court season. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes back to the old racquet if it doesn't go his way in the USO.

What he gains with the the bigger frame seems to be costing his overall game, although it's not easy to judge this early, esp on clay.

We'll just have to be patient and wait another two weeks to see how it works in Canada.

No big deal.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Julia Santamaria wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:This isn't rock bottom for Fed. Maybe he can only rise once he reaches there. If Fed continues to play this way, he will be out of top-10 by YE. I'm not expecting anything more than 4th Rnd for in any of the remaining tournaments

You're over-reacting.
In the bigger tournaments Fed will play with bigger motivation and it will take a really inspired performance (ie Stak or one of the top 10) to beat him.

Over reacting? No. His form and confidence is so poor right now, he surely would care to win some tournaments even its an ATP250. And surely he didn't plan to lose it in his opening match which even devoid him of any match practice that he so much needed.

His form and confidence pick up ones he gets a few wins under his belt in the hard-court season.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Julia Santamaria wrote:He is currently number 6 in the race rankings, and given the indoor season is still to come I can only seem him getting higher:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/rankings/ytd-singles.aspx

 Do you think this Fed who can't even win an ATP250 will suddenly start winning matches and titles just because its indoor now? Fed isn't losing due to surface or racquet or anything but his own poor form and lack of confidence.

Brands is a good player but no matter how good he is Fed won't have lost to him in the opening match. but he did and in st. sets.

Nadal after the French Open 2012 only won two matches for the rest of the year, and even missed the beginning of 2013, but he still came back to win FO 2013 and many Masters.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Julia Santamaria wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:This isn't rock bottom for Fed. Maybe he can only rise once he reaches there. If Fed continues to play this way, he will be out of top-10 by YE. I'm not expecting anything more than 4th Rnd for in any of the remaining tournaments

You're over-reacting.
In the bigger tournaments Fed will play with bigger motivation and it will take a really inspired performance (ie Stak or one of the top 10) to beat him.

Over reacting? No. His form and confidence is so poor right now, he surely would care to win some tournaments even its an ATP250. And surely he didn't plan to lose it in his opening match which even devoid him of any match practice that he so much needed.

I agree with you again Raiders. Federer is done or close to it, sadly.

From Federer's post match interview today:


"I've had serious problems with the back, I had to get some anti-inflammatories last week in Hamburg due to the back pain," he said, adding that his first US Open build-up event, the Montreal Masters from August 5, could now be in doubt.
"It was so tough to play and move out there today. I'll just have to take treatment and see how it all goes.
"My back felt OK enough, but not enough to play at 100 percent. I knew coming into the match that it would be a tough one. I didn't decide to play until after the warm-up, that's what a close call it was.
"I played a decent enough match but I could not get away with the win."

I hope talk of "ageing" Federer has been put to rest with this. 
We can only hope that the back gets healed somehow.

Fed's tennis is fine and as good as ever. So very sad 

I am glad he came out with it at last, probably had enough of listening about various speculations, retirement suggestions, racquet question marks etc etc....

Finally he said its his back that's killing his game. I have to agree with gp, there isn't much he can do to fix it.