ATP 500: Basel & Valencia

Tennis 2012 is nearly at its end: we have a week of 500, a week of the last 1000 tournament, WTF and Davis Cup final left.

Some players have wound their season down, others, trying to grab one of the last few places left at the WTF, are pushing full steam on!

Federer and Djokovic are fighting for a year end number one spot, Murray is fighting for the good pole position for the start 2013.

Rafael Nadal? Don't ask...not even Uncle Toni knows!

So, here we are in two beautiful European locations again:

BASEL
(indoor hard)

From ATP website:
"From Ball Boy To Basel Champion
Roger Federer, who once served as a ball boy at the Swiss Indoors Basel, fittingly became the first player to win five titles at his hometown tournament in 2011. Switzerland’s leading sport event boasts an impressive list of former champions, including tennis Hall of Famers Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras."

Despite a few players pulling out last minute due to injuries (Nishikori, Monfils) and scheduling weight distribution (Djokovic, Murray), the field is first class, featuring Federer and Del Potro as top two seeds. Also playing: Gasquet, Youzhny, Wawrinka, Paire, Dimitrov, Tomic, Davydenko, Chadry, PH Mathieu, Benneteau, F. Mayer, Seppi, Troicki.

The Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/328/mds.pdf
Order of Play: (updated daily)
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/328/op.pdf


VALENCIA:
(indoor hard)

From ATP website:
"The Valencia tournament was reborn in 2009, transitioning from a spring clay court event to an indoor hard court ATP World Tour 500 tournament held in the second-to-last week of the regular season. With its new calendar position, the Valencia Open serves as a prime battleground for the men’s best tennis players as they attempt to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals."

Also boasting quality field: Ferrer, Tsonga, Tipsarevic,Isner, Monaco, Almagro, Cilic, Raonic, Lopez,Dolgopolov, Simon, Robredo, Klizan, Verdasco, Kohlschreiber, Hewitt, Fognini, Melzer, Muller.

The Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/573/mds.pdf
Order of Play (updated daily)
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/573/op.pdf


And I shall continue to to colour the black and white vistas of tennis tour with some appropriate musical hues from the countries tournaments are played in.

Now, Switzerland....the land of soulless drabness when it comes to music and poetry....well I REALLY struggled, so...this will have to do !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyX9L2g2y6c

Valencia (for all mums and their scoubidou daughters ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WbPsEu456I




Take it away!

For those who were wondering about Murray's sudden withdrawal from Basel, from the tournament's official website:

"The last minute withdrawal of Scotland’s Andy Murray from the Swiss Indoors due to injury has not exactly earned the Olympic champion any new fans from within the tennis world. Many people felt that asking for, and promptly receiving, a wildcard into last year’s tournament in Basel and then pulling out again the following year, despite signing a contract, was not really acceptable. Christoph Schwegler, Basel’s stadium announcer, demonstrated the general, slightly cool feeling. Inspired by the famous song by American Bobby McFerrin, he joked, “Don’t Murray, be happy!”
"In world tennis, the risk of injury increases towards the end of a long season. Late on Friday evening, news reached Switzerland from the ATP World Tour’s European headquarters in Monaco that Scotland’s Andy Murray had been forced to withdraw from the Swiss Indoors Basel due to a back injury. The Olympic champion was seeded second behind current title holder Roger Federer at the tournament, which is the highlight of the Swiss tennis calendar.
Murray’s relationship with Basel has been marked by a series of unfortunate events. The most notable of these occurred just last year: the star from the island was chasing important ATP ranking points and asked Basel for a wildcard, which was awarded to him by the tournament management at the expense of Basel’s Marco Chiudinelli. However, Murray then had to withdraw from the tournament with a strained gluteal muscle on the first day of play. As a result, the Scot volunteered to make up for his misfortune in 2011. By last autumn, he had already made a binding, definitive promise to the Swiss Indoors that he would take part in this year’s tournament.
“There is a fine line between good luck and bad luck”, said tournament director Roger Brennwald, who launched the tournament’s first “British Day” – held on the Tuesday this year – not least in honour of the Olympic champion. With four decades of world-class tennis behind it, Basel will overcome this setback – and the draw remains extremely strong. Murray, for his part, may pay a physical price for his outstanding season. The 25-year old Scot is considered to be relatively injury-prone – just last year he was forced to withdraw from the ATP World Tour Finals in London, in front of a home crowd, due to injury. Murray’s withdrawal from Basel means that Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (no. 68 in the ATP Rankings) earns a place in the main draw."

NITB.. you have the OoP link for the Draw and OoP both for Basel. Can you update it?

A sumptuous 3rd match of they day in Basel tomorrow: Stepanek vs Llodra

Well, I danced Julio's song a couple of times away in the chair, could almost feel warm summer night atmosphere of the concert: the woman from the crowd in red and the guy on the sax, ok and the dancing girls behind Julio and Julio himself....loved watching people enjoy themselves, che notte ! Just like in a tennis match, you get that unforgettable magic only when the crowd and players are fully engaged and breathe as one. Doesn't happen every day but when it does...it's special!
...and on that I bid you all good night!

Murray's credibility regarding his injuries is zero in my opinion. He keeps overacting on court showing he is deeply injured, all in attempt to distract his opponent. In fact its so overdone these days that even commentators who are often diplomatic in their views, don't hesitate to talk straight about it.

I love the line "Don't Murray, be happy"..

So Fed is playing Basel. I'm thinking now he might lose early in Bercy. .. or maybe not.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:So Fed is playing Basel. I'm thinking now he might lose early in Bercy. .. or maybe not.

Apparently, he's having second thoughts on Bercy now .

Tennis, lovely tennis back in action, get you fix while you can, as it's only going to last for a few more weeks before it goes into Christmas off-season hybernation!

Today in Basel:

Federer-Becker
Gasquet-Haase

noleisthebest wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:So Fed is playing Basel. I'm thinking now he might lose early in Bercy. .. or maybe not.

Apparently, he's having second thoughts on Bercy now .

If he is doubtful, then he may not be committed to putting his 100% even if he plays. Just like in Rome and Halle this year. Thats why I think he may lose early even if he doesn't chose to skip it. WTF is his priority for the remaining for the season, and we know how dearly he loves this year-end battle among the top-8 players.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:So Fed is playing Basel. I'm thinking now he might lose early in Bercy. .. or maybe not.

Apparently, he's having second thoughts on Bercy now .

If he is doubtful, then he may not be committed to putting his 100% even if he plays. Just like in Rome and Halle this year. Thats why I think he may lose early even if he doesn't chose to skip it. WTF is his priority for the remaining for the season, and we know how dearly he loves this year-end battle among the top-8 players.

I know. But I'll miss him in Bercy. Stupid ATP scheduling...they have messed up this year collosally!

Yes...all that to give Nadal a longer break between seasons.

He certainly got a long one!

Yes, if only he managed to sort out that 2 year ranking system.....he'd probably still be number one....

Indeed....though on the bright side, we would have been guaranteed not to see him near the top for another 2 years!

I must say it's a bit weird to see a guy like Matosevic in the main draw, F. Mayer as the 7th seed and Llodra Stepanek having to play the qualifiers...

Tenez wrote:Indeed....though on the bright side, we would have been guaranteed not to see him near the top for another 2 years!

doh, I knew every cloud had a silver lining

Shame no TV broadcasting from Basel today as there were some good matches on, it starts tomorrow:

Chiudinelli-GGLopez
Davydenko-Wawrinka
Troicki-Dimitrov.

In Valencia, Hewitt "the spent force" dispatches Monaco the WTF spot contender ( ) in straights.
Dodig beats Kohlschreiber, Verdasco bt Robredo and Goffin bt Anduhar.


In Basel, Fed slogging away against Becker (won the first set 7:5), Kubot bt Lacko, and Benneteau bt Kuznetsov.

6-3 Federer takes it .

Good tennis day for an ATP 500 Tuesday:

in Basel:
Youzhny - Tomic
Wawrinka - Davydenko
Troicki - Dimitrov
GG Lopez - Chiudinelli
Nieminein - Anderson

in Valencia:

Simon - Tipsarevic (I think this is their third time in the last three tournaments)
Malisse - Tsonga
Dolgopolov - Volandri
Querrey - Lopez

Some interesting scores from Basel:

Youzhny demolishes the future of tennis "young" Tomic 6:0 6:2
Baker beat Stepanek in 3.

In Valencia:

Ferrer, Querey, Dolgopolov and Melzer through.

Looks like Ferrero is playing his last match. Not playing bad, but looks like just the occasion is overwhelming.

Stan vs Davydenko next in Basel. Should be interesting.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Looks like Ferrero is playing his last match. Not playing bad, but looks like just the occasion is overwhelming.

Stan vs Davydenko next in Basel. Should be interesting.

It's always moving whoever is playing their last match. I'd be a puddle on the chair next to my racquet bag even before the coin toss

Will tune in for Stan & Davy, hopefully, Davy gets his act together thanks to the beady spending eye of Irina watching from the stands!

Ferrero lost, and there goes another GS winner from the main tour. This year 2 GS winners retired and 1 entered ( Murray ). I am expecting Hewitt to play his last match in AO2013 and so another GS winner will move out. Do we expect any more new GS winners in 2013? A topic for discussion on its own.

Anyone know why Tsonga retired against Malisse.

laverfan wrote:Anyone know why Tsonga retired against Malisse.

Parisbercytis ?

Davy in business tonight, break up, serving at 4:3.

Stan's backhand has definitely improved, became kind of smoother and more fluid, hit with more control and confidence.

Atrocious game from Davy sees him doublefaulting and handig Stan break back on a plate without Stan having to lift his finger.

Stan was up a break at 2-0. Not very consistent tonight.

At moments, Davy back to his light-footed, ball-caressing best, takes the first set in the tie-break.

Apparently, Ferrero said that Federer is the only player he played against that made him feel inferior

Davy dishing out a laser show to Stan.

And Stan is out. Great tie-break from Davy
Irina can go and buy a new pair of shoes now, maybe even a

In Valencia, after Tsonga's bakchache retirement, Tipsarevic retires in his first set against Simon.

Pathetic.

Ferrero just retires

Baby Federer through, beats Troicki.

noleisthebest wrote:Some interesting scores from Basel:

Youzhny demolishes the future of tennis "young" Tomic 6:0 6:2
Baker beat Stepanek in 3.

In Valencia:

Ferrer, Querey, Dolgopolov and Melzer through.

Tomic is another player I seriously suspect, He plays amazing at the AO able to run for ever, then cycles down end of season.

noleisthebest wrote:And Stan is out. Great tie-break from Davy
Irina can go and buy a new pair of shoes now, maybe even a

Happy for Davy's win. And how early does he picks the ball, the best was the forehand winner in the 1st set TB to wrap up the set. Tough loss for Stan but he had his chances but was too shaky.

Tenez wrote:
Tomic is another player I seriously suspect, He plays amazing at the AO able to run for ever, then cycles down end of season.

Well, atm I'm not able to say this. A lot of players do well in front of their home crowd. Inconsistency is always possible with new players. If it looks periodic then it may raise some eyebrows. But for now I have no reasons to doubt him. It could be otherwise too, but for now I'll not suspect him.

How's this for a magic trick shot from Dimitrov against Troicki last night!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tEAkvegtPyw

So good, Troicki wants to see a replay on the court.

Always sad and very moving to see a player hit his last shot. I admire their composure, I'd be an utter mess....
Ferrero says goodbye to professional tennis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eA85BIDRA0Q#!

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Tenez wrote:
Tomic is another player I seriously suspect, He plays amazing at the AO able to run for ever, then cycles down end of season.

Well, atm I'm not able to say this. A lot of players do well in front of their home crowd. Inconsistency is always possible with new players. If it looks periodic then it may raise some eyebrows. But for now I have no reasons to doubt him. It could be otherwise too, but for now I'll not suspect him.

Yes, that would be the wise thing to do but I can usually see a potential doper simply through his/her style of play. When you are tall like Tomic and you chose to defend, I find it very tricky.

I remember watching Erani's game last summer and automatically suspected her as her game was simply based on keeping the ball in court. Only more recently did we learn she was being treated by the now banned LA doctors.

Yes I might be wrong for Tomic but some clues are already there.

I am really annoyed there is no coverage for Paire Seppi match

YES!YES!YES!

Paire comes back from a set down and beats the in-form Seppi!

IN Valencia, Raonic playing another man of the moment - Muller.

Muller wins the first set 7:5

This Matosevic should be worth a look , seems to be demolishing F. Mayer.

Raonic Muller playing tie-break.

Raonic out in straight sets to Muller, loses tie break 7:1. Can't be good for his confidence. Time for a new coach?
Goffin beats Isner in 3.

Goffin

Fed already a break up, nice. Hopefully he's made the adjustments from R1 match on Monday and he'll be more efficient from now on for the BP conversion.

Raonic.

Federer-Bellucci heading for a TB in second set?