ATP 500/250: Barcelona, Bucharest

After the glorious opening in Monte Carlo, clay season continues in Barcelona and Bucharest.

Traditionally, top players rest this week preparing for the challenging 2 weeks of back-to back Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome.
Traditionally, as well, Nadal does not.

Barcelona 500

Staged at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899, the oldest Spanish tennis club, the Barcelona Open BancSabadell, Trofeo Conde de Godo, celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2012. The ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tournament is one of the most important events in Spanish tennis and on the Barcelona social calendar. Spaniards have won the past 10 editions, with Rafael Nadal lifting the trophy seven times in the past eight years.

Players: Ferrer, Nadal, Berdych, Almagro, Monaco, Nishikori, Raonic, Kohlschreiber, Paire, Gublbis, Dimitrov, Tomic

Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/425/mds.pdf

Order of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/425/op.pdf


Bucharest 250 (aka BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy)

Located in south-east Romania, Bucharest is the nation's capital city and industrial and commercial centre. The Palace of the Parliament is the largest building in Europe and the second largest in the world. The ATP World Tour 250 tournament, held since 1993, changed its name to the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in 2011 in honour of its two iconic ambassadors Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac.

Players: Tipsarevic, Simon, Seppi, Mayer, YOzhny, Fognini, Zebalos, Troicki, Monfils, Nieminen, Strakhovski

Draw:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/773/mds.pdf

Order of Play:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2013/773/op.pdf

First&second round matches of interest:

Stepanek-Gulbis
Davydenko-Berdych
Paire-Nadal
Berankis-Montanes
Simon-Nieminen
Monfils-Fognini

Not a lot happened in Barcelona and Bucharest today in the "big names" department.
Some noteworthy results:
Gulbis bt. Stepanek (in straights, coming from a break down in the 1st set)
Berankis lost in straights (mind you, Montanes is an old clay fox)
Goffin, Strakhovski thorugh in Bucharest.

Potentially interesting matches tomorrow:

Gulbis-Verdasco
Davydenko - Berdych

Dy two in Barcelona and we have:
Gulbis bt Verdasco in straights, Tomic, Berlocq, Robredo, Vasselin thorugh.

Davydenko - Berdych 5 all in the second set atm.

Tomorrow, starting at 10 AM

dimitrov-Robrdo, Ferrere-Tursunov, Berlocq-Nadal, JJ- Ramos
Raonic-Vaselin, Tomic-Monaco, Paire - Anduhar


In Bucharest,: Nieminen, Strakhovski, Rosol, Monfils thorugh.

Tomorrow:
Rosol-Sepi, Simon-Nieminen,

And Davydenko being a set up and having Berdych on the ropes at 5:4 with lots of deuces, manages to lose the match. The usual stuff.

Sad...He is so much more talented that Berds.

Tenez wrote:Sad...He is so much more talented that Berds.

Yesterday, I started watching at the end of the 2nd set and I don't know how he played before (must've been better since he won the first set), but Davy was just happy to rally from the BL, and inevitably ended up sending his forehand long. Same thing every time.
Berd just stepped in with some good serving one-two punch and there Davy went away in a puff of clay....

I've just come from 3 hours of play in the sun and feel totally dead...I don't know how they do it for 6 hours all their intensity & all the rest, I really don't....

Interesting scores in Barcelona, Monaco just bagelled Tomic in the first set, Rosol bread-sticked Seppi in Bucharest (who is now coming back in the 2nd), Ferrere lost the first set to Tursunov...

Earlier, Raonic bt Vasselin, and Dimitrov lost to Robredo in straights.

Nadal Berlocq could be interesting, if nothing else, then just to see how far Nadal has come from that match in Argentina earlier this year when he nearly lost to him.

noleisthebest wrote:I've just come from 3 hours of play in the sun and feel totally dead...I don't know how they do it for 6 hours all their intensity & all the rest, I really don't....

oh yeah....and it's only you who do not know. Courier, Lendl both great athletes don't know either.

But the real challenge is playing against someone like Nadal. I have a coach in my club who can do that fun and And I can tell you, you last 3 rallies. You don;t feel your legs and arms after 2 games. It's not different than asking to run a 100m after having ran 2 at full throttle.

Interesting scores in Barcelona, Monaco just bagelled Tomic in the first set, Rosol bread-sticked Seppi in Bucharest (who is now coming back in the 2nd), Ferrere lost the first set to Tursunov...

Earlier, Raonic bt Vasselin, and Dimitrov lost to Robredo in straights.

Nadal Berlocq could be interesting, if nothing else, then just to see how far Nadal has come from that match in Argentina earlier this year when he nearly lost to him

Robredo is coming back...I don't actually mind him.

Tenez wrote:
But the real challenge is playing against someone like Nadal. I have a coach in my club who can do that fun and And I can tell you, you last 3 rallies. You don;t feel your legs and arms after 2 games. It's not different than asking to run a 100m after having ran 2 at full throttle.

I suppose that is really the only way to explain why he's had so much success. Terrible, but true.
His match against Berlocq starting now.
Ferrer, Seppi out.

Clay in Barcelona looks super slow. Or maybe Berlocq and Nadal make it look like that both standing miles behind the BL.
Clay tennis at its utmost worst.

Nadal's forehand pretty inconsistent for his standards. Interesting.
Relatively close service games, too. It almost looks as if he is trying to practise his FH and doesn't care if he is missing it much. No usual intensity with which he normally tries to close his matches fast in the early rounds on clay.

It will be really interesting to see Paire play him tomorrow (that's if he beats Anduhar, trailing 1:4).

Nimi-Simi match looking nice and human. No grunting and bashing.
Simon does his trick again and dissolves Nimi's first set lead into serving for the match position.

Paire match stream not available

He came back from Anduhar serving for 5:1 to win that set, then lost the next and now on serve in the third.

So....Paire won! and so did Simon, Almagro, Troicki. Monfils retired against Brands. JJ out in 3, after the 1st set lead, loses to Ramos.

Tomorrow, matches begin to look a bit more interesting:

Chardy-Monaco
Paire-Nadal (what a complete and utter contrast in everything!!!)
Robredo-Berdych
Raonic-Gulbis (should be great fun!)

Strakhovski-GG Lopez
Youzhny-Hanescu
Goffin-F.Mayer

Tenez wrote: I have a coach in my club who can do that fun and And I can tell you, you last 3 rallies. You don;t feel your legs and arms after 2 games. It's not different than asking to run a 100m after having ran 2 at full throttle.

I am curious to know how long he is able to play like that and how many rallies he can last.

Does he just do it because he can, but not part of his style, or is he a full-on Nadal wannabe?

Apparently, in our club, the latest craze it to try and copy Nadal's forehand motion and "add/beef-up" spin like that...I think it all comes from one coach who is , surprise, surprise, sponsored by Babolat , and used to have a ranking on the tour a few years ago...

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote: I have a coach in my club who can do that fun and And I can tell you, you last 3 rallies. You don;t feel your legs and arms after 2 games. It's not different than asking to run a 100m after having ran 2 at full throttle.

I am curious to know how long he is able to play like that and how many rallies he can last.

Does he just do it because he can, but not part of his style, or is he a full-on Nadal wannabe?

Apparently, in our club, the latest craze it to try and copy Nadal's forehand motion and "add/beef-up" spin like that...I think it all comes from one coach who is , surprise, surprise, sponsored by Babolat , and used to have a ranking on the tour a few years ago...

He is an amazingly good player. He has the grace of Federer..honestly...huge talent but so shy and introvert that he never really had any chance on the tour...though he comes from the same club as Tsonga and knows all the people who surrounded Tsonga young.

Yes he likes Nadal....and Federer. I am having huge arguments with him cause he defends Nadal all the time, and I know why he does, cause Nadal has really increased the popularity of the game...and for him as a coach it's really important...but I am pretty sure he like the game and personality of Nadal...even if he prefers Fed's game.

I don;t know how long he'd last cause I cannot make him run like he makes me run. He is in his mid 30s and extremely fit but he agrees with me that without substances none would last long playing like they do.

Tenez wrote:

He is an amazingly good player. He has the grace of Federer..honestly...huge talent but so shy and introvert that he never really had any chance on the tour...though he comes from the same club as Tsonga and knows all the people who surrounded Tsonga young.

Yes he likes Nadal....and Federer. I am having huge arguments with him cause he defends Nadal all the time, and I know why he does, cause Nadal has really increased the popularity of the game...and for him as a coach it's really important...but I am pretty sure he like the game and personality of Nadal...even if he prefers Fed's game.

I don;t know how long he'd last cause I cannot make him run like he makes me run. He is in his mid 30s and extremely fit but he agrees with me that without substances none would last long playing like they do.

At the danger of sounding arrogant, for me the conversation ends at this point with people. Especially those who actually play the game, although, I have met only one person like that. He, too is a Federer fan, but when I scratched the surface (i.e. expressed my opinions about Nadal and his tennis), he couldn't understand why I disliked him so much.
I think some people get so hooked on winning that becomes their everything, almost like a lifeline. They start off loving the game and the joy of play and end up hating losing to the extent they enjoy the play less and less.

Wow!
Monaco bagelled Chadry in the first and they are playing a mad tie-break, 11 all, got to tune in asap !!!!
and ot my horror THERE IS NO LINK FOR THAT MATCH!!!!!

Paire Nadal starting

Rain delay.

Sky showing replay of Sunday's Monte Carlo final in the meantime. Don't mind at all

It seems that's it for the day in Barcelona. Rain all day.

New order of play for Barcelona tomorrow, hopefully the weather will hold:

9.30 UK time

Paire - Nadal
Robredo - Berdych
Almagro - Monaco Raonic - Gulbis

In Bucharest

Brands - Simon
Troicki - Rosol
Tipsarevic - GG Lopez

Action started in Barcelona, Paire - Nadal on the court

Paire up with an early break

COME ON PAAAAAIREEEEEEEEEEE

2:0 GO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!

Fantastic serving from Paire, and that backhand is beautiful!!!!! 3:1

Nadal playing his usual gamesmanship waiting-games mid point on Paire serve, so ugly!
4 all.

Toni sitting so close in the stands, almost in the court...coaching Nadal so blatantly, it's embarrassing....

Surprising to see so little crowd when Nadal plays. It's got a strange atmosphere.

The balls/conds are so much faster than IW.

IW was really a joke in terms of conds. Even Delpo looked like a fast mover on it!

Tenez wrote:Surprising to see so little crowd when Nadal plays. It's got a strange atmosphere.

The balls/conds are so much faster than IW.

IW was really a joke in terms of conds. Even Delpo looked like a fast mover on it!

Lots of people probably at work there, morning match, had to all be shifted because of yesterday's weather.

I hope Paire holds and goes into tie-break. Nice to hear the Frenchies there cheering him with the - a-leeeez

Horrible!! my strem just froze so waiting for another add to finish before it reloads

Shame that FH went out ... I really like the way Paire's playing this match, not being drawn into any energy sapping rallies.

And that's the TB gone

I hope he doesn't get hard on himself now and fizzles out in the second set. C'mon Ben, you can do it

noleisthebest wrote:Shame that FH went out ... I really like the way Paire's playing this match, not being drawn into any energy sapping rallies.

Way too inconsistent for my taste. The guy is playing with a light 100inc racquet, there is no reason to make so many UEs, especially since he is helped by his big size and has bigger margins than the average player.

On his good days he must be deadly but frankly I have not seen many of those!

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Shame that FH went out ... I really like the way Paire's playing this match, not being drawn into any energy sapping rallies.

Way too inconsistent for my taste. The guy is playing with a light 100inc racquet, there is no reason to make so many UEs, especially since he is helped by his big size and has bigger margins than the average player.

On his good days he must be deadly but frankly I have not seen many of those!

didn't know that. He reminds me of Kvitova the way he plays, the mindset. It is erratic, but so exciting to watch. I prefer to see that than safe clever-ing of rallies...

He'd be great with a bit of confidence and experience.

That was a sweet S&V point, so much flair in his game

But I know what you mean by the inconsistency....such a shame!

noleisthebest wrote:
He'd be great with a bit of confidence and experience.

And a mind! By going at 95% instead of 100% (break or make on every point) he coudl certainly be very dangerous....That woudl give him also more confidence on key points...which we know he hasn;t.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
He'd be great with a bit of confidence and experience.

And a mind! By going at 95% instead of 100% (break or make on every point) he coudl certainly be very dangerous....That woudl give him also more confidence on key points...which we know he hasn;t.

yes, same as Dolgopolov.
I think there's more hope that happens with Paire, though. I just think he's young and protour-match not enough experienced and should get the 100% urge out of his system in year....like Dimitrov did.
I don't think he ought to compromise the game (like Dimitrov did), though, it's very hard to strike that balance once you are on the court, isn't it?

And that was it

Nice match from Paire, I sincerely hope he builds on this experience.

Nadal, on the other hand does not have a lot to look forward to in the coming big clay tournaments. He will have to work very, very hard to win matches now, and I am not sure he will want to if/when he loses his next match to Djokovic.

Nadal will be out again later today to play another singles match, because of yesterday's bad weather.

Robredo-Berdych next.
Robredo coming back from 500 ranking position because of injuries, 'surprised" Forget and Mac weren't bothered with rallying for his protected rankings....

Raonic- Gulbis playing, too. Raonic up a break. Will take a quick peek, could be fun!

Alas, can't find any links.... Only Rosol - Troicki from Bucharest....

neither can I. They must be playing in a 3rd court to make sure they don;t wait too much time.

Raonic wins the first set. Even in the 2nd. Gulbis has won quite a few matches being a set down this year.
The winner of Raonic-Gulbis to play probably Berdych later today (another 2nd match catching up with yesterday's bad weather,although, just checked the scores, and Robredo looks like he's winning the 2nd set) and then the winner of that to play Nadal for the semis tomorrow.
Nadal to play winner of Ramos/Nishikori
I'd love to see any of Gulibs/Raonic/Berdych play Nadal tomorrow, esp Berd, as there is no love lost between the two when playing in Spain, although all 3 should give Nadal a good match, in fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUFTajFu1g

noleisthebest wrote:I'd love to see any of Gulibs/Raonic/Berdych play Nadal tomorrow, esp Berd, as there is no love lost between the two when playing in Spain, although all 3 should give Nadal a good match, in fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUFTajFu1g

Really? WHen was the last time he won a match v Nadal?

I want to see Rao play Nadal. Nadal will stand in the tribune.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:I'd love to see any of Gulibs/Raonic/Berdych play Nadal tomorrow, esp Berd, as there is no love lost between the two when playing in Spain, although all 3 should give Nadal a good match, in fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUFTajFu1g

Really? WHen was the last time he won a match v Nadal?

I want to see Rao play Nadal. Nadal will stand in the tribune.

No idea, but like players who don't roll out in front of Nadal, esp on his home turf.

Raonic, I would also like to see, but am beginning to be worried about the way he plays big points, tends to choke. He needs a big win asap. A bit of Berd Nadal-love would not go amiss in Raonic's mindset, he seems to respect top guys too much.

I caught a few games of him on clay recently and was glad to see he is back to his attacking ways and not glued to the base-line like last year.

Tie-breaks going on at the same time both in Berd-Robredo and Gulbis-Raonic matches!!!

So, Raonic wins his TB and the match, now waiting for the winner of Berdych-Robredo, Robredo levels the match by winning his TB, looking interesting!

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:I'd love to see any of Gulibs/Raonic/Berdych play Nadal tomorrow, esp Berd, as there is no love lost between the two when playing in Spain, although all 3 should give Nadal a good match, in fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUFTajFu1g

Really? WHen was the last time he won a match v Nadal?

I want to see Rao play Nadal. Nadal will stand in the tribune.

No idea, but like players who don't roll out in front of Nadal, esp on his home turf.

Raonic, I would also like to see, but am beginning to be worried about the way he plays big points, tends to choke.

Unlike Berdych!

Well, well, well!

Robredo beats Berdych in the end and is to play Raonic later today!

And that is what I was hoping for.

Tenez wrote:And that is what I was hoping for.

It would be funny if Robredo beat Raonic, though...but probably won't be able to dispatch another big hitter in the same day.

Did you see this clip from players party in Monte Carlo? I've always known that players with attacking games have lots of spark in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4dpv2emJ4E&feature=player_embedded

Fed's the only one that managed to keep it all under wraps so far, under the beady eye of Mirka, of course!

I like Robredo and am happy to see him back. He got lots of stick by fans as they called him a journey man but he is one of the few Spaniards with a SHBH and he is not a bad player...though his SHBH is far from agressive.....essentially slices but he is a smart player.

Yes, he is the old school tennis now, looks almost obsolete against modern players. Saw him in Wimbers against Nole on CC last year, just checked actually it was Ferrero, can't have been concentrated on the match properly or watching too much tennis it's all become one big blur now...same era though!

Nadal-Ramos & Robredo-Raonic starting.

4/1 Nadal.....but I have a feeling Ramos is getting used to Nadal's ball. It might be much closer from then on.

Nadal's ball is his biggest weapon. No-one sends teh ball like him on tour so it is almost impossible to to get used to it and the first time playing him is always harder as it takes a while to find any rhythm.

Tenez wrote:4/1 Nadal.....but I have a feeling Ramos is getting used to Nadal's ball. It might be much closer from the[/b[b]]n on.

Nadal's ball is his biggest weapon. No-one sends teh ball like him on tour so it is almost impossible to to get used to it and the first time playing him is always harder as it takes a while to find any rhythm.

I hope so.
He has definitely lost some of his old intensity. 7 months of holiday have left their mark. You can see he is desperately trying all the same stuff and patterns, but the x factor is gone. Still, works against most for now.
Madrid will be very interesting this year.

Ramos doing well considering how far behind the BL Nadal is pushing him.

Tenez wrote:4/1 Nadal.....but I have a feeling Ramos is getting used to Nadal's ball. It might be much closer from then on.

Got that wrong obviously....well right for a bit then completely wrong. I guess we had to factor in it was Ramos' 2nd match and he is not as fit as Nadal.