ATP 250: Brisbane, Chennai, Doha

Ana loses her singles match ant it's all going to be down to doubles now, that's got to be good to see, esp Verdasco serving to Ana

Davy Gasquet starting their final in Doha any minute now.

luvsports! wrote:where ya from SB if its ok to ask?

Originally somewhere in Eastern Europe but have been living on the US East Coast for a number of years now. One nice thing about it is that I can usually get to see some US Open matches live and it is not too much of a hassle.

whereabouts in eastern europe? i wanna go interailing this summer so wanna hear the views of as many peeps as possible on where to go!

Dashing Paire having to wait 5 minutes for Agur between the sets
6:3 1:6 (classic Paire!) third set just started.

Agur's knee is strapped. Must be a Spanish thing. Breaks playful Paire straight away.

C'MON BEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!

Paire breaks back

And Paire loses 6:4 in the third
Awful to see nice flair tennis get smouldered by nothing more than a tidy game.
Agur to play Tipsarevic in the final tomorrow.
Now back to doubles in Perth

Poor Ana, really suffering on that court today, naughty Fernando!

All down to Nole, as usual

I don't know if it's me, but Nole's racquet head looking a lot smaller, not like the old bat he had last year.
Nole being an utter gent, unlike Verdasco.

almost there davy!

Brilliant doubles match going on in Perth!!!!!
Claws, fangs, nails, all is out

Verdasco nets Ana's return, priceless!

Nole looking pumped like mad, never seen him so wild, & intense....shame doesn't rub off Ana at least a little bit.
5 games all in the third, Ana serving

Spain break and are serving for the championship. A few hilarious moments from Verdasco & Ana.
And Spain win Hopman Cup
Nole will be livid.
Ana, the Tin(wo)man of tennis.

Gasquet trying to take the match into the 3rd set, 2nd set tie-break.

And he does it, third set here we come, both players seem to be playing very well, beats any slam QF+ tennis

I can't make my mind up who needs the title more Gasquet od Davy?

And no, I'm not asking YOU Irina!

Davy having MTO at deuce on his first service game, hip trouble

That's been 9 minutes flat for assessment and MTO, let's see if it affects the match.

davy had break point to go 5-2 up in 2nd set

Yes...I think Davy is a better player than Richard.

Now he is chocking. Its not just mental lapses, Davy lacks severe variety in his game. How many times Gasquet was pushed as far back as the linesman, yet Davy couldn't finish the point. He just doesn't vary pace, or spin or try to volley or a drop shot. He just can't get behind his opponent in shotmaking.

Another break. Its a sad and very disappointing end to what might have been a dream start to the new season for Davy. Instead its going to be a good start for Gasquet.

What a glorious point form Gasquet for a double break, some phenomenal backhand striking from him in this match....lovely match-up against Davy, who is not at his best today but pretty good.

And Gasquet does his little nervous coughing three points away from the title, nerves?
The answer is - yes!, Davy gets one break back.

So we have the winner of one of the three tournaments this week.
A big for Gasquet, Doha champion and the returning runner-up Davy , some lovely tennis.

We have two more finals left:
In Chennai Tipsarevic vs Agut
In Brisbane Murray vs Dimitrov.

They both actually suffer from mental lapses and nerves. The match was gift-wrapped for Davy, but he blew it. I don't think this loss is going to inspire anything good for him now. Also he isn't much fit, not sure how did he pick up that injury after such a long break from tennis.

Variety in play, its so important in big matches. This match reminds me of Berdych-Nadal encounters.

And news from Australia: Spain wins the Hopman cup 2013. I saw both the singles matches and Medina played some real great tennis to bring spain back in contest.

for Spain. Well played Serbia too.

gasquet is nadal??

Allez Gasguet!!

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:They both actually suffer from mental lapses and nerves.

Davy has (or had) an excellent record in finals.

Tenez wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:They both actually suffer from mental lapses and nerves.

Davy has (or had) an excellent record in finals.

Maybe but he often loses matches from winning positions which may not be finals. He so many times is leading into a match and then a sudden drop in level and he just doesn't know what to do.

What I see lacks in his game is:

1. Poor net play. Thats why he rarely comes in. Even though the opponent is pushed beside the linesman, he still won't be able to come in and volley. I saw he tried 1-2 times yesterday but failed on all occasions ( bar 1 IIRC).
2. No soft hand. I have seen many of his matches but I don't remember a single good drop shot from him.
3. Lacks deception. We very very rarely will see anyone getting wrong footed by Davy and those rare occasions must be absolute sitting-duck balls. How important is it in tennis. He takes the ball early, but he never waits long enough to go behind the opponent.

luvsports! wrote:gasquet is nadal??

No, but what Gasquet implied in play yesterday was same what Nadal does against Berdych. Berdych also lacks variety in his game.

First blood to Dimitrov. Some good hitting from him.

Nice BH

Oh dear. Serving for the set, Grigor gives up a break. All four points he lost were unforced errors. He was looking so good until then.

That BH slice is very nice but he overdoes it a bit for my liking. Not as bad as Tomic but I would still like to see him hit topspin a bit more often.

That said, he just hit a lovely BH topspin DTL winner.

Another lovely BH DTL now.

Tie break time.

Tie-break 7-0 to Andy. It is getting kind of late here. Unless Grigor does something early in the second, I think I will call it a night soon.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:
1. Poor net play. Thats why he rarely comes in. Even though the opponent is pushed beside the linesman, he still won't be able to come in and volley. I saw he tried 1-2 times yesterday but failed on all occasions ( bar 1 IIRC).

I don;t see it like you. He is a baseline player for sure but his net game is actually very good for someone stuck in teh baseline. He plays a creative volley.

2. No soft hand. I have seen many of his matches but I don't remember a single good drop shot from him.

Excellent hands if you ask me trying drop shots, angled volleys, etc...and doing this better than anyone versus the toughest ball to handle (Nadal's).

3. Lacks deception. We very very rarely will see anyone getting wrong footed by Davy and those rare occasions must be absolute sitting-duck balls. How important is it in tennis. He takes the ball early, but he never waits long enough to go behind the opponent.

Really weird cause again wrong footing is his speciality.

I have not seen him play since he went down the ranking but the player I knew is very different fromn the one you describe.

We appear to be totally opposite about Davydenko . I'll wait to see what some others think, then perhaps take the conversation forward.

nitb,luvsport, sb, anyone?

Seems it was a good match inBrisbane final.
Didn't manage to wake up, as I didn't leave the lamp on (he, he).
So when I did wake up at 6.30 instead of 4 and saw the score it was a and back to sleep.
How did Dimitrov play on the whole, esp how did he serve?
He can't have played on the base line all the time?
Did he choke in the TB to lose 7:0?
Did Murray scrape through or did he just wear Dimi out and frustrate him?

raiders.

i agree to an extent.
For me he is not a natural volleyer, a lot of the time he will use both hands to volley but he has a deft touch with drop volleys and short angle volleys, but in terms of put away, higher up volleys imo it certainly isn't one of his strengths.

I haven't watched him enough recently, but i rewatched his match vs feds at rotterdam (v.good match btw check it out) he was in a similar position but imploded somewhat and couldn't take his chances (reminded me a bit of aus 2010).

He was wrong footing feds a lot actually but when the pressure was on and feds upped his game he faltered. He did try to mix it up but it didn't work that well.

Davy?
A very unique player, light-footed, great ball-striker on both wings fantastic when on fire and given rhythm, but not an all-rounder and all-court player, unfortunately too happy to stay on the base-line.

I saw the end of second set and most of the third and he was very close to his best, aggressive, stepping into court with his forehand, Gasquet's defense from his backhand was insane and I think that kind of tipped the balance with Davy, who also took an MTO for a discomfort/problem with his hip, so I don't know how and if that affected his movement as he was a bit late on some of his forehands and sprayed them a bit, but then he tends to do it in general anyway.

Davy's main weakness is the lack of grit and perseverance, he tends to give up on himself for more than just a point or two in a match and then hands back the momentum on a plate to the opponents, and that's game over.

Yesterday he was relying on his CC shots on both wings too much, I don't think I saw many/any down the line ones.
He was trying to break Gasquet's backhand but didn't succeed.

Had Davy had a bit more self-belief, it could've been a tougher contest.

All in all, it was a nice match and I'm glad I saw part of it.

And Tipsarevic completes the winning trio for this week, by beating Agur-The-Who? coming back from a set down.

So the winners are:

Brisbane: Murray
Doha: Gasquet
Chennai: Tipsarevic

luvsports! wrote:raiders.

i agree to an extent.
For me he is not a natural volleyer, a lot of the time he will use both hands to volley but he has a deft touch with drop volleys and short angle volleys, but in terms of put away, higher up volleys imo it certainly isn't one of his strengths.

I haven't watched him enough recently, but i rewatched his match vs feds at rotterdam (v.good match btw check it out) he was in a similar position but imploded somewhat and couldn't take his chances (reminded me a bit of aus 2010).

He was wrong footing feds a lot actually but when the pressure was on and feds upped his game he faltered. He did try to mix it up but it didn't work that well.

Alright. Lets leave it here. I like Davy's game, but at times can be frustrating.

noleisthebest wrote:Seems it was a good match inBrisbane final.
Didn't manage to wake up, as I didn't leave the lamp on (he, he).
So when I did wake up at 6.30 instead of 4 and saw the score it was a and back to sleep.
How did Dimitrov play on the whole, esp how did he serve?
He can't have played on the base line all the time?
Did he choke in the TB to lose 7:0?
Did Murray scrape through or did he just wear Dimi out and frustrate him?

What a fantastic match Dimi played. Only got nervous and anxious on important points when he was ahead in the game. Possible given that he was playing his first final. Was serving for the 1st set at 5*-3 but played horrendous game and lost his serve. Even had a set point on MUrray's serve but Murray fired an ace to save it. Tie-breaker his lack of experience clearly showed and he made many errors.

He started of very solid in 2nd, troubling Murray and holding his serves comfortably. Broke Murray to go 4*-3 up, but again too anxious and lost next 2 serves to lose the set and the match. Dimi served very good, except for the 2 games when he was ahead.

All in all a very good match, some experience will help Dimi a lot. Nothing much to gain for Murray, he perhaps would have known that it just could have been a different result. Nonetheless first title of the year in the bag.