ATP 250: Eastbourne, Hertogenbosch + The Boodles

Shame on me!
All this time I've been moaning about how there is so little prep time for Wimbledon, when lo and behold, there is a whole shiny new week of tournaments starting tomorrow!
No big names, still... plenty of quality players to show off their skill on grass.

ATP 250 Eastbourne, grass
Formerly the International Women's Open, Britain's biggest international women's event joined forces with the ATP World Tour to host a combined men's and women's tournament at Devonshire Park, 100 yards from the Eastbourne seafront, in 2009. In past years the men's ATP World Tour event had been played in Nottingham.
Players: Gasquet, Dolgopolov, Simon, F. Lopez, GG Lopez, Stepanek, Golubev, Tomic, Young, Karlovic, Chardy
Draw
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/741/mds.pdf
Order of play
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/741/op.pdf



ATP 250 Hertegenbosch, grass
The Topshelf Open is just one of five ATP World Tour events played on grass, and hosts both the men's and women's tours in the week prior to Wimbledon. A pair of Dutchmen have titled at this tournament, with Richard Krajicek triumphing in 1994 and '97 and Sjeng Schalken clinching back-to-back wins in 2002-03.

Players: Ferrer, Granollers, Tursunov, Paire, Mannarino, Lajovic
Draw
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/440/mds.pdf
Order of play
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/440/op.pdf

Question of the week: this is apparently the only grass court in one city. Which city is it?

Match of the day:

Golubev-Tomic

I'll pass!

Ok, since noone's attempted to answer my question of the week in the OP, here it is:

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/the-unusual-hidden-tennis-courts-of-paris/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1

noleisthebest wrote:Ok, since noone's attempted to answer my question of the week in the OP, here it is:

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/the-unusual-hidden-tennis-courts-of-paris/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1

 
This is so eerie!
 
A French friend of mine in London works for the French MOD and his job is to work on the cooperation and strategies of both the UK and France armies. We only see each other every 6 months and decided last Saturday eve (2 days ago) to meet with our wives (they are actually the original friends) and have diner out. There while discussing I am showing off with our club's grass courts and invite him to play there. Not sure how it came to that but he asked me the same question as yours, "do you know there is only one grass court in France? guess where it is? I played on it, it's amazingly maintained." Of course he tells me it's at the British embassy and it plays beautifully.
 
And there you go....2 days later I realise you had asked that same question almost at the same time and I learn twice in the space of 2 days in my 1800 days or so life that there is a grass court in Paris! Had I read your OP I would have been able to answer it.....just!

I've decided to add The Boodles to the list of this week's tournaments.
I know it's only exhibition matches, but it has some very glammy names playing incl Nole and Gulbis.
I hope to see both on Thursday, as that is the day Nole traditionally plays there.

It's a superb opportunity to see the players live and close up on beautiful fresh grass courts in a cosy stadium. For about £60 per ticket, I reckon it's the best kept tennis secret around!

You get to see 2 singles and one doubles match, as well as various players practise on side courts.

I am hoping to go and play there myself, too and try out the vintage Dunlop Maxply wooden racquet.
First time on grass, it's got to be done in style!   

Boodles matches can be watched on their live stream from tomorrow:

http://www.theboodles.com

Matches of the day all happening at Boodles:  

Tuesday June 17
2.30pm
Milos Raonic (CAN) v Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
followed by
Dominic Thiem (AUT) v Kevin Anderson (RSA)
followed by
John Isner (USA) v Jack Sock (USA)

Match of the day:

Gasquet-Tomic

Matches of the day:

Order of Play on Day 3: Thursday 19th June - 2.30pm

Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Robin Haase (NED)

followed by

Ernests Gulbis (LAT) v Fabio Fognini (ITA)
followed by (not before 5pm)
Dominic Thiem (AUT) v Jack Sock (USA)

also:
Chardy-F.Lopez
Mahut- Agut

Will be going to Boodles today, the weather is perfect, so it should be a great day of tennis.
Look forward to seeing Gulbis and Fognini match very much, should be super fun!
Also very interested in seeing Thiem from close-up, esp his FH.
Last but not the least, my man - Nole  

Just came back from Boodles...

Got there nice and on time, had a glass of champers to get in the mood, sat in my seat, had my mini Serbian flag ready to fly....when the speaker announced that Nole was not going to play as a precautionary measure for his injured arm!!!   
I must say, I did not see it coming.
The crowd was obviously gutted, so were further told that he spent the morning there giving interviews etc....and the few people I spoke to later did confirm he had been there....
The announcer even had the cheek to ask us all to, wait for it: sing a song for Nole which he will hear on Twitter     
I got so annoyed I left the stadium...
I did not come to watch Isner - Haase.
So had another champers and a sandwich, strolled around, entered a few lucky draws, one of which was to have a guess at how many tennis balls were in a boot of the parked Ferrari....the other was to win a holiday in California...and watch Indian Wells!!!!
I was reassured those were REAL competitions....

I even got a pair of lovely sunglasses as a gift!

So....I went back to the stadium where Isner -Haase just finished and Haase cracked a decent joke.

Next up were Gulbis-Fognini.
First of all,  Gulbis is gorgeous! He looks so much better in flesh   

Tennis-wise it was a complete treat: i loved the contrast of Gulbis's simple power and nice clean ball-striking vs Fognini's flair and touch.

Fognini's BH is a thing of beauty! Real, real beauty.
Earnie's serve is A MONSTER!!!!!!
But...the match did not start as I expected, in fact, Earnie struggled with his movement and low bounce and crafty Fabio was really outplaying Gulbis with his slices, it was great to watch.
Gulbis then found his feet and started hitting his FH better which subtly swung the momentum and Fognini lost the will to battle.
There were some spectacular shots from Fognini, Earnie, too hit one of two jaw-dropping FHs and some 1st class stop-volleys.

But I tell you what....Fed leaves them both for dead...and by some margin.

After the match the super stupid announcer talked to Earnie and managed to upset Fabio by saying "Shame on Italy to beat England 2:1...booo Italy"  the crowd were stunned and so was Fabio who just packed his bag and left the stadium without talking to the idiot.

Next up were Thiem and Sock.

That was much more entertaining than I expected!
I was all eager to see Thiem's FH.
I must say...I was quite disappointed with it. Amazing how different it looked live, he spins it so much!
In fact, Sock's FH is faster as well as his serve.
So that was the future: both drenched in sweat from the sheer physicality of their ball-striking, both talented but completely wasted with this new technology. So very sad.

That made me think of Fed even more. We must enjoy him as much as possible while he is still playing and not be so critical.

Interesting account of your visit at the Boodles (what a name!   ). It's more expensive than Halle.   

I hope, Nole will be fine at Wimbledon; we need him. Probably precautionary, but he will be without any match practice on grass now.   

Didn't think of the Fog as a grass courter so far, Gulbis no surprise. He had some trouble generating power on the FH side at the RG match with Fed too and committed some errors there. I can only imagine, it will be worse on grass. And afair he has lost his first round match at Queens. Surprised he can look any more gorgeous in person though,  how is that even possible?  The announcer...   

Hmm, if that's so, Thiem probably won't go far in Wimbledon and his best surface is in fact clay. Too true about Fed.