ATP 250: Nice, Dusseldorf

Last week before the clay season reaches its climax in Paris.
We have two 250 tournaments: Nice and Dusseldorf.

ATP 250 Nice, Outdoor clay
The ATP World Tour returned to Nice in 2010 for the first time in 15 years with the inaugural Open de Nice Cote d’Azur, held the week before Roland Garros. Nice is one of five ATP World Tour events held in France, along with Marseille, Metz, Montpellier and Paris. After Richard Gasquet's triumph in the inaugural edition, Spaniards reigned for the following three years, with Nicolas Almagro winning back-to-back titles in 2011-12 and Albert Montanes triumphing in 2013.

Players:
Isner, Gulbis, Simon, Tursunov, Mahut, Monfils, Thiem, HP Mathieu, Tomic
Draw
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/6120/mds.pdf
Order of Play
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/6120/op.pdf



ATP 250 Dusseldorf, Outdoor clay
In 2013, the Rochusclub in Düsseldorf staged the first edition of the Düsseldorf Open, an ATP World Tour 250 tournament, held the week prior to Roland Garros. “We are delighted to continue with the strong tradition of ATP tournaments in Düsseldorf and welcome the arrival of an ATP 250 tournament at Rochusclub,” said Tournament Director Dietloff von Arnim. Argentina’s Juan Monaco won the inaugural edition.

Players:
Monaco, Kohlschreiber, Mannarino, Davydenko, Karlovic, Seppi, Nieminen, Sijsling, Melzer, Brown
Draw
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/6710/mds.pdf
Order of Play
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/6710/op.pdf

Not hugely eventful week, apart from a few comebacks: Monfils, Thiem and Tomic, who is on schedule to play Gulbis in round one.
Very sad for Paire who I was expecting to see in Nice. This time last year he was playing really well.

Match of the day:

Simon-Thiem (nb 5 PM UK time)

Just watched the last 3 points of Vesely v Davydenko....This Vesey is the number 1 Junior at 20. A left hander. He beat Slijing yesterday and Davy just now.

He is another LHer and though I did not see much of him he seems to have a boring game with safe spin and is very bulky for his age.

Looks like we have a new Nadal on board (though as said I just saw 4 points! max)

Tenez wrote:Looks like we have a new Nadal on board (though as said I just saw 4 points! max)

  Just what we need. He seems too tall though (1,98) to make a living off defensive baselining.    Though maybe that doesn't matter anymore nowadays.   

I remember Vesely from having played Murray in Indian Wells. He took the first set off Murray there in R 32.

Sad for Davydenko when I heard about his loss.

Match of the day:

Tursunov-Gulbis (about 2 PM UK time)

Autumnleaf wrote:

Tenez wrote:Looks like we have a new Nadal on board (though as said I just saw 4 points! max)

  Just what we need. He seems too tall though (1,98) to make a living off defensive baselining.    Though maybe that doesn't matter anymore nowadays.   

I remember Vesely from having played Murray in Indian Wells. He took the first set off Murray there in R 32.

Sad for Davydenko when I heard about his loss.

Exactly! But again his physique (tall and powerfull) is what can differentiate him from the other juniors and help him make a difference early in career. Did not realise he was that tall!

This Vesely guy (vesely means "cheerful/happy") seems to mean business. 6:1 6:1 demolition of Melzer today...playing Karlovic tomorrow. Servefest alert!

Gulbis edged Tursunov in the 3rd set tie-break.

I watched a bit of Vesely yesterday against Melzer. Melzer was completely off, couldn't keep the ball in the court at all. He was very annoyed with himself and it was his birthday too. Some nice dropshots! Won every point when he succeeded with them.

Vesely not fast enough to get to them in time, even though he is not as far back as Nadal and tends to step inside the court earlier. Won't ever be very popular, because he is not at all good-looking. I don't know where the Czechs take them from.

Ah yes, NITB, you're right wrt the meaning of the name, didn't notice it. (I speak Russian, has the same meaning there with a different pronounciation)

Good information Al. I will pay more attention to Vesely next time but not this week as he got kicked out by one of my favourite player....Karlo! ..of course in 2 TBs!

Autumnleaf wrote:I watched a bit of Vesely yesterday against Melzer. Melzer was completely off, couldn't keep the ball in the court at all. He was very annoyed with himself and it was his birthday too. Some nice dropshots! Won every point when he succeeded with them.

Vesely not fast enough to get to them in time, even though he is not as far back as Nadal and tends to step inside the court earlier. Won't ever be very popular, because he is not at all good-looking. I don't know where the Czechs take them from.

Ah yes, NITB, you're right wrt the meaning of the name, didn't notice it. (I speak Russian, has the same meaning there with a different pronounciation)

It comes from Czech tennis tradition. Tennis has been always very popular although also a bit snobbish sport a decade ago.
Vesely looks promissing. His LH with great serve, solid baseline games, cool head make him promissing. We have been comparing him with Berd lately and many tennis people say that he won't be a player of Berdych calibre, i.e. a longterm player top 10. Vesely's game performance is similar to Berd, both are a kind of robotish. I am not much optimistic about his outlook due to his height, he is 198cm, by 2cm taller than Berd. So, re chances to succeed at GS, Vesely will struggle against the best on hard courts due to his worse move, so his chances could be at Wimbledon.
Anyway he has a big potential to get to top10 in the future.
He is coached a current DC team leader, i.e. by Navratil. Before Navratil joined to Vesely, he was coached by Jiri Novak, former no. 5, who was the real talent of Czech tennis, very intelligent, super athlete and a cool man, who lives  in my region. But Jiri decided to devote his time to his family. That is a shame for Vesely. If he was coached by Novak, Vesely's game would progress much faster.
Nitb was right, Vesely means cheerful. If his name  would be Happy, then his name would be Stastny.

Otherwise Czech tennis has some real hopes in girls. Even Jana Novotna started coaching and Hana Mandlikova as well.

Ah Mandlikova.....What a talent!

Seems I have tuned in at the perfect time:
Delbonis Gulbis 1:6, 6:5
Delbonis just won his service game, crowd cheering him, Gulbis super annoyed about stg.... clay must be too orange probably

TIE-BREAK!

And Gulbis bags his 6th career title, recovering from a mini break.
Apparently, he is 6/6 in finals.

Earlier in Dusseldorf, Kholi beat Ivo.

Off to hear Earnie's speech!

Congrats to Gulbis   , hope he will live up to his seed in RG. 

Kohlschreiber defeating Ivo was never in doubt. I was quite surprised Karlovic even made the final, considering the form he was in this year so far, so kudos for that!

Autumnleaf wrote:Congrats to Gulbis   , hope he will live up to his seed in RG. 

Kohlschreiber defeating Ivo was never in doubt. I was quite surprised Karlovic even made the final, considering the form he was in this year so far, so kudos for that!

Funny thing, in his customary charming ways, during the presentation speech he said he looked forward to seeing Delbonis in Paris again tomorrow and then admitted he didn't even look at the draw...he then asked Delbonis if he knew who he (Gulbis) was playing in the first round...

noleisthebest wrote:

Autumnleaf wrote:Congrats to Gulbis   , hope he will live up to his seed in RG. 

Kohlschreiber defeating Ivo was never in doubt. I was quite surprised Karlovic even made the final, considering the form he was in this year so far, so kudos for that!

Funny thing, in his customary charming ways, during the presentation speech he said he looked forward to seeing Delbonis in Paris again tomorrow and then admitted he didn't even look at the draw...he then asked Delbonis if he knew who he (Gulbis) was playing in the first round...

 Gulbis is honest in his interviews, doesn't pose to be someone he is not. I like his straight forward talks. He said after his semis win that he won't see the RG draw before his Nice campaign is done as he wanted to concentrate on the current matches.