ATP 250: Brisbane, Chennai, Doha

My tennis season starts with AO (as Fed's ) so I'm not watching those matches but I really appreciate the thread nitb as it allows me to keep up with tennis in my off season Thanks!

I am with you there. I find it harder and harder to keep up with the smaller tournies nowadays....but it certainly spices up things at the AO knowing who is on form....who is not.

Thanks sphair

I'm not that desperate about the ins and outs of 250 tournies most of the time either, but it's good to have the record of what goes on.

It was a chore to start with, but now I don't mind as I learn stg about every tournament as I have to look at info on ATP site, and you get to hear about all these totally anonymous players.

That's how I found out about Paire during one of those dead ATP 250 weeks, he was playing in Serbian Open and got to the final and I got to see a few matches he played.
I would've never picked him out otherwise.

I know big names are be all and end all but in these smaller tournaments, the "rest" can really shine without the shadow of superstarts and you get to see some lovely matches, almost like in olden days, esp on European clay.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I watch almost every tennis tournament. I just don't mind watching tennis at all whatever tournament it be. Its good fun to track some of the unknown players as well, they are at times a surprise in their game.

Dimitrov taking Raonic out was awesome. Dimi has improved at lot. Long way to go, but the direction seems right.

Dimitrov just destroyed Melzer. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Nishikori won also.

go dimi!!!

murray beats istomin in 2 sets and will play nishikori in the semi's after he beat the dog in straight sets.

Baghdatis will meet dimitrov in the semi's after both players registered comfortable wins against simon and melzer respectively.

Novak demolishes Haas in Hopman Cup (6:3 6:0), Ana does the same against her opponent 6:1 6:0, so Serbia playing the final against Spain.

Will be interesting to see their doubles match and two former sweethearts playing against each other.

Yes...the not-so-young like Bagdha Nishikori are also reaching maturity and peak form.

2013 could actually be interesting.

Good semis in Brisbane:

Murray- Nishikori
Baghdatis- Dimitrov

In Doha:

Brands-Gasquet
Ferrer-Davydenko

In Chennai:

Cilic - Paire (playing as I'm typing this, 1 set all COME ON BEN!!!!)
Bedene-Wawrinka

paire goes through after winning the 3rd set 7-5

Paire!

AND he was a break down in the third set !!!

Great news from Doha: Davy is back!

At 31, ranked 44, he beat Ferrer 6:2 6:3 in the semis, so we are for a nice final tomorrow at 6 PM local time, (which should be 3 PM UK time)
between Davydenko and Gasquet.

In Brisbane, semis are to be played tonight between:
Murray-Nishikori
&
Baghdatis-Dimitrov

In Chennai semis:
Paire- Berdych/Agut
Tipsarevic-Bedene (your guess is as good as mine )

so... plenty of decent matches in the next 24 hours.....

go davy!!!! awesome

come on dimi! and maybe anyone but murray. wanna see those guys go up the rankings.

Novak played a very good match against Haas today W/UEs 33/9, net 11/15, a lot better than against Tomic.
I have only seen the last 4-5 games, I didn't notice anything much different, except very good serve placement.
You could clearly see Haas's limitations despite the fact that he is a very good player, which did look a bit odd, Haas definitely plays better on faster surfaces, although this one in Perth didn't look that slow.

I hope to see Davy tomorrow, I did miss him, he was really good this time last year and than totally disappeared.

The "Agut" playing Berdych for the place in Chennai semi-final against Paire, managed to beat Berd in 3 sets!!!

Just had a look, he is 24 and Spanish - Baptista Agut, all these new names coming out of woodwork all of a sudden, very interesting!

Yes, it's the youngs-not-so-young doing well and great to have Davy back...though Ferrer was badly beaten by Djoko recently so I suspect there might be something wrong with him.

Tenez wrote:though Ferrer was badly beaten by Djoko recently so I suspect there might be something wrong with him.

that crossed my mind as well. Too much weight lifting in the off-season...

yep...or turkey stuffing though not the kind.

Very interesting start to the season; let's hope it lasts. I am worried it may end up like all those Federer-Nadal matches.

Happy to see Dimitrov hopefully starting to get some results. He is the only one among the youngsters that I can see myself truly rooting for. But any youngster is better than no youngster. Also happy for Nishikori - not quite so young anymore but so much of his career has been hampered through injury that I still count him among the young ones.

Also glad to see Davydenko doing well - though I do not view him as a youngster anymore.

"Youngster" or not, so long as they play good tennis.
There is little evidence plus it's a bit unrealistic to expect the "youngsters" to change the world. They never stuffed it up in the first place.
It's great that anyone perseveres with single backhand like Dimitrov; worth checking how many under 25s play with it.

Yeah, but we do need some youngsters too. And the youngsters we are talking about are not even all that young anymore. They are all 20-22 years old at least.

I am finding out more and more how much I prefer SHBH. I only recently realized that I never truly rooted for anyone with a double hander.

Dimitrov is on in 55 minutes. The first match of the season for me, assuming I can find someplace to watch it. I do not think Tennis TV have a feed from Brisbane

I don't need youngsters. I don't watch tennis because of players' age.
Imagine top 100 consisting of s 100 17 year old Nadals.

noleisthebest wrote:I don't need youngsters. I don't watch tennis because of players' age.

Well yes, put this way it sounds fine. But the age distribution of the top players does tell you something about the health of the game overall. Ultimately, the older players will retire and the youngsters will take over no matter what. But if those youngsters are not able to compete at all now, that means that the overall health of the game is likely to decline.

hawkeye just fainted

Nice start, and some great play on the breakpoint.

6:3 first set. Nice. I hope he can keep it up. Have to run out for a bit but should be able to catch the third set if there is one (hopefully not).

Oh no, Grigor saves two set points but double faults on the third. We are one set apiece.

and more break points right at the start of the third.

But he saves them all

4:3 Baghdatis, on serve. Grigor starting to spray it a little more. Can he hold it together long enough to give himself at least a fighting chance?

A love service game now for Grigor, 4:4.

5:5

tie break time.

A gem of a backhand pass from Grigor. Followed by an unforced error. 5-5. An error from Marcos, match point for Grigor. Marcos 2nd serve, Some good defence from Grigor and we are done. First ATP final for Grigor.

Well done. Grigor showed some staying power too, he looked the second best (not by much though) in the first half of the decider, but he held it together and came through when it mattered.

Can he beat Kei tomorrow?

No, he cannot

Thanks for the comments SB. It;s a match I woudl have liked to watch. Has Dimi's footwork improved? That's really what he needed to improve. He is not as light footed and gracious as his "master".

I was watching the draws of the 1/4F and to my amazement there are players ranked in the 80s and 60s I never heard of!!!! That's really weird....is it a loss of interest from my side...or beginning of Alzheimer?

summerblues wrote:No, he cannot

Yes he sure can't now when its Murray who has won the semifinals with Nishikori retiring. So its Murray's vs Dimi . Could be intresting. Dimi should play with absolutely nothing to lose, no one expects him to win, so why not just play as freely as one can.

Tenez wrote:Thanks for the comments SB. It;s a match I woudl have liked to watch. Has Dimi's footwork improved? That's really what he needed to improve. He is not as light footed and gracious as his "master".

You would have a better eye to judge his footwork, plus I did not see enough of him in the past to have a good point of reference. I do not think I am able to judge the footwork per se, but he does seem to get cought off-balance quite a bit, from which I would infer he may need more work.

Really happy for Dimitrov!
Great he managed to beat Baghdatis AND in a tight match. Baggy is certainly no pushover and a real test for anyone, esp a SBH-er.

I'm pretty sure Dimitrov has a new coach now, and it's good to see instant results, I hope to catch the final tomorrow, should be interesting esp what kind of tactics he uses against Murray, I'm assuming a lot of all-court play.

I hope he's improved his serve, he'll needi it!

In Hopman Cup Nole beats Verdasco in straight sets, apparently was a good match.
Ana trying to win her singles match against Garrigues for the title at the moment. 5 all in the second set.

noleisthebest wrote:
I hope he's improved his serve, he'll needi it!

Again, did not see enough of him in the past to be able to judge any improvement, but his serve looked fine to me last night.

I think the final is scheduled for around 2pm (subject to a previous match completion), which is I think 4am in the UK. Will you watch? I am sure I will watch at least some of it, but the time is not so crazy for me.

summerblues wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
I hope he's improved his serve, he'll needi it!

Again, did not see enough of him in the past to be able to judge any improvement, but his serve looked fine to me last night.

I think the final is scheduled for around 2pm (subject to a previous match completion), which is I think 4am in the UK. Will you watch? I am sure I will watch at least some of it, but the time is not so crazy for me.

I'll try and stay up, my usual sofa scenario, I've been "training" for AO all week anyway

noleisthebest wrote:I've been "training" for AO all week anyway

Hehe. AO is definitely the most challenging slam for me. It often means waking up in the middle of the night to watch a match starting at 2am.

women playing tiebreak in the second set, Verdasco, greased, slicked-back ponytail standing in the front row cheering/fist-pumping for Garrigues....penny for Ana's thoughts

I find both AO and USO the same..., probably AO a little worse because it's during winter so harder to haul yourself for the rest of the day, but it's all worth once I get to wear Nole's t-shirt proudly on the Monday morning after the final

And Ana takes the match into the third set. Good atmosphere in Perth.

where ya from SB if its ok to ask?