ATP 500/250: Rotterdam, San Hose, Sao Paolo

Monf's scrapping reaches epic proportions, makes Nadal and Murray look like amateurs....

And Monf counter-punches himself to dust....Delpo wins in two easy sets.
Nieminen V Goffin next.

Another good day of tennis waiting tomorrow:

In Rotterdam
Troicki-Gasquet
Viola-Simon
Paire-Baghdatis
Benneteau-Hanescu
Federer-Zemlja
Dimotrov-Davydenko

In Sao Paolo
still nothing exciting.

In San Hose
same as Sao Paolo

I don't know what went wrong, but poor Goffin got double bageled By Nieminen last night in Rotterdam

clearly a physical impediment.

Poor Goff....he is such a nice player. It can't feel great to get bageled like that in front of a crowd injured or not.

So folks, i have my tickets. Both afternoon and evening sessions for tomorrow. I'll try to pick up some Federer's practice session in the afternoon. Unless something strange happens tonight in his first match of the tournament...

gallery play wrote:So folks, i have my tickets. Both afternoon and evening sessions for tomorrow. I'll try to pick up some Federer's practice session in the afternoon. Unless something strange happens tonight in his first match of the tournament...

Enjoy the day gp.

joker! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFqBfa2oPSo

love gulbis

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

gallery play wrote:So folks, i have my tickets. Both afternoon and evening sessions for tomorrow. I'll try to pick up some Federer's practice session in the afternoon. Unless something strange happens tonight in his first match of the tournament...

Enjoy the day gp.

cheers rotla.
I will post a review

gallery play wrote:So folks, i have my tickets. Both afternoon and evening sessions for tomorrow. I'll try to pick up some Federer's practice session in the afternoon. Unless something strange happens tonight in his first match of the tournament...

Wonderful news GP!!!

Hope you have a gorgeous day and you MUST enjoy it for us, too. I always think of everyone here when I'm at a match and try to feel even more extra happy

Make sure you don't turn down any corporate champers, will you

I've just come back from my tennis after a break of 6 days which for some reason felt like an eternity!
Am in the queue to buy tickets for RG, but their website is not working that great. Spent waiting in 2 hours this morning only to have the page crash in the end....But still hoping...

luvsports! wrote:joker! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFqBfa2oPSo

love gulbis

thanks LS
Lovely to see Ernest, the lover of life back on the tennis court. I hope he's got a few things out of his system by now and matured with his focus.
It's great to have him again with us: great presence on the court both with his tennis and as a character.

Yipeee! Managed to get the ticket for Chatrier for the 28th

luvsports! wrote:joker! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFqBfa2oPSo

love gulbis

Can one be any cooler? Sad to see that now there is no room in tennis for a bit of life and success....a choice needs to be made.

Morning/afternoons session results:

Gaquet def. Troicki
Baghdatis def. Paire (by retirement, but a dodgy looking one)
Simon def. Viola
Benneteau def. Hanescu
Bachinger(who is he?) def. Seppi

Fed serve/volleying on almost all his serves....and very efficient at it. Making the most of a fast surface...and not against a bad opponent.

Kraji must be delighted to see Federer go through so he can give GP and other fans the chance to see him play one more and maybe last time on the tour.
Davy v Dimi next...won't be able to see it unfortunately but should be an interesting match. I woudl typically favour Davydenko ....but the fast conds should provide Dimi with a good chance as he has the heavier shots.

I take it Fed won his match...

Davy vs Dimi now...always interesting to watch the "future" try to take on the "past"

Tenez wrote:Kraji must be delighted to see Federer go through so he can give GP and other fans the chance to see him play one more and maybe last time on the tour.

Yeah, chances are running out. We've go to go out and see him live while we can.

@nitb: you picked the first round at RG? Doesn't the number 1 ranked player start first (monday)?

gallery play wrote:

@nitb: you picked the first round at RG? Doesn't the number 1 ranked player start first (monday)?

Tbh, I didn't pick, that was the only day left on Chatrier...you never know it may rain heavily on Monday! I'm glad I got anything,,, booked the Eurostar, too, so excited!
Worst case scenario I get to see Fed and cheer AGAINST him, just to spite the crowd, for all the evil stuff they did in the past, I'll probably take my NOLEISTHEBEST flag and cheer for Nole anyway, that would be the appropriate punishment for all of them. Fed's quite used to my voice from his last match in the O2, so he'll recognise it for sure

I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow!

Dimi has a pretty strong service game. Davy's a proper returner but has no chance to break

I'm still expecting Davy to win. He's just a better player.

noleisthebest wrote:

gallery play wrote:

@nitb: you picked the first round at RG? Doesn't the number 1 ranked player start first (monday)?

Tbh, I didn't pick, that was the only day left on Chatrier...you never know it may rain heavily on Monday! I'm glad I got anything,,, booked the Eurostar, too, so excited!
Worst case scenario I get to see Fed and cheer AGAINST him, just to spite the crowd, for all the evil stuff they did in the past, I'll probably take my NOLEISTHEBEST flag and cheer for Nole anyway, that would be the appropriate punishment for all of them. Fed's quite used to my voice from his last match in the O2, so he'll recognise it for sure

I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow!

In that case you can always sell your ticket on OTF. I think you'll get rid of it

NO way! I'm planning to go and have a ball

Davy is beginning to show his age a bit. He is beginning to remind me of Hewitt: kind of is as fit as can be, but just lost that light, quick, flying step he used to have, that was his trademark, such a shame....

BTW: quite a line up tomorrow:
baghdatis - gasquet
Gulbis - del potro
Federer - de Bakker
Sijsling- Klizan

That's about at least 1 personal favourite in every match.

noleisthebest wrote:Davy is beginning to show his age a bit. He is beginning to remind me of Hewitt: kind of is as fit as can be, but just lost that light, quick, flying step he used to have, that was his trademark, such a shame....

He's going through the motions. But that can be said about almost any player of that generation

Pretty boring, uninspiring, grinding base-line tennis, disappointing.
Dimitrov's worked out already which side his bread's buttered on...

Good win from Dimi. At least, of the "young" ones, he seems to have worked out how to play a match and win it.

Paire on the other hand ...but I wouldn't ever swap him for all the Dimis in this world !
He's one of the few remaining tennis bohemians and romantics left on the ATP tour.....

I heard Paire didn't behave very well today. It's was kids day but the enthousiasm of the kids annoyed Paire, so he hit a ball in the audience..

gallery play wrote:I heard Paire didn't behave very well today. It's was kids day but the enthousiasm of the kids annoyed Paire, so he hit a ball in the audience..

Yes we have kids day at the FO too (and on Weds too) so no excuse to Paire as he should get used to...the thing is he seemed injured as he retired and that was probably enough top get him over the edge.

I cannot see Stan in the Brazilian draw.///wasn't he meant to be part of it?

Stan't picture is there with all the other players, but he's unfortunately not in the draw. I don' t know how/why. Instant drop in quality and opposition of the tournament. Maybe they paid him not to take part last minute

Maybe that's why Pope resigned, too....he couldn't cope with popularity contest with Nadal in Latin America ....

yes...weird isn't it? I was looking at the draw and the dangerous players ( HZ, Nalby) were in Almagro's side...and of courses Chardy is with Nadal;s.

Tenez wrote:yes...weird isn't it? I was looking at the draw and the dangerous players ( HZ, Nalby) were in Almagro's side...and of courses Chardy is with Nadal;s.

....that must be because he's so hot, the whole stadium is smoking when he walks in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BogYLhNQ1s


btw, I've no idea what Nalbandian's doing there...he should be in the other half of the draw......

HZ lost in his opening match. Still celebrating his maiden ATP title win.

yes I think he was exhausted actually and needed a bit of rest. He unlike others is pretty human and cannot go on for ever.

Tenez wrote:yes I think he was exhausted actually and needed a bit of rest. He unlike others is pretty human and cannot go on for ever.

Yes,Zeb's mixing with the wrong crowd...he should be in Rotterdam, with Rog, the king of being fresh as a rose, never injured and never tired...I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing one or two of his secrets....

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:yes I think he was exhausted actually and needed a bit of rest. He unlike others is pretty human and cannot go on for ever.

Yes,Zeb's mixing with the wrong crowd...he should be in Rotterdam, with Rog, the king of being fresh as a rose, never injured and never tired...I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing one or two of his secrets....

Fed is no king of being fresh as a rose or a daisy. Now you want to quote what Nadal said which is strange becoz normally you won't agree to it. Fed is never injured isn't even true. He has a chronic and a very long back problem which do start to show severe effect at times. Though Fed doesn't quit a match in between it doesn't mean he is never injured.

Fed is also not 'never tired'. A large a number of his loses are due to exhaustion.

HZ should mix up with Djokovic actually. Who knows he might get access to Djo's *secret* training/dietary/ routines.

Gasquet out after losing being broken each time at the beginning of both sets and not able to recover the break despite many opportunities in the first set
Tight match so far between Delpo Gulbis. .

Tenez wrote:Gasquet out after losing being broken each time at the beginning of both sets and not able to recover the break despite many opportunities in the first set
Tight match so far between Delpo Gulbis. .

Baggy can be one tough grinder. He's obviously got fit. I hope Gulbis Delpo is still going!

No, it's not.....Gulbis out

Gulbis was very close to Delpo so it's good news for him. What he lacked was essentially more matches like this and the confidence that goes with it. He really coudl have won that first set. He did not play the big points very well but that's something that wil come with time....if he keeps trying.

From memory Gulbis plays well on clay, so look forward to seeing him in Europe.
This American hard court season is really weird the way it comes AFTER Australian Open. They should turn them the other way round.

IW and Miami are the worst part of the tennis season for me. I woudl certainly much prefer to have them turned into TMS clay events in South America...even replacing some of the European ones (like Madrid) and allow for a couple of grass TMS instead before Wimby.

Tenez wrote:IW and Miami are the worst part of the tennis season for me. I woudl certainly much prefer to have them turned into TMS clay events in South America...even replacing some of the European ones (like Madrid) and allow for a couple of grass TMS instead before Wimby.

Same here. Nadal would be happy, as well.
They could turn one into another clay masters and the other a grass one prior to Wimbledon.
There's plenty of hard courts masters 1000 tournaments. IW and Miami should both be made optional just like Monte Carlo.

But we don't see that happening, do we, not with IW's boss planing to throw all this extra cash into prize money:

"According to multiple sources, at Tuesday's ATP board meeting in London,
the following issue was on the agenda: Should the ATP accept an offer
from Larry Ellison to boost prize money at the Indian Wells BNP event by
$800,000?

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20121107/atp-indian-wells-prize-money/#ixzz2KtLBVodD "

Bloody Larry..so happy he is no longer my boss.

pfew, that was one hell of a (long) day.
And i can say i was pretty close

wow.....yes...too close for sharp image if anything. So you saw the genie up close.