ATP 500/250: Dubai, Acapulco, Buenos Aires

Final week of February and three good tournaments with all top 10 competing.
Following the post AO break, Nole and Fed back in action in Dubai.
Murray replaces Nadal at number three.

Interesting times ahead!



ATP 500 DUBAI, outdoor hard
Since its inaugural tournament in 1993, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships has consistently showcased the world's best players in competition and also in spectacular locations around Dubai. In 2005, two ATP World Tour Champions - Andre Agassi and Roger Federer - scaled the Burj Al Arab for a friendly practice session atop the helipad at the iconic hotel. The tournament has won the ATP World Tour 500 award 10 times in 11 years (2003-06, 2008-13).

Players Djokovic, Federer (defending champion), Murray, Berdych, Gulbis, F. Lopez, Agut, Goffin, GG Lopez, Kohlschreiber, Puille
Draw http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/495/mds.pdf
Order of Play http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/495/op.pdf


ATP 500 ACAPULCO, outdoor hard
The Abierto Mexicano Telcel, one of 11 ATP World Tour 500 series tournaments, switched to blue hard courts in 2014 after 20 years on clay. The event, held at the Fairmont Acapulco Princess, is a favourite destination amongst players. In 2007, Acapulco won the ATP World Tour award for best tournament of the year in its category.

Players Nishikori, Ferrer, Dimitrov (defending champion), Anderson, Dolgopolov, Karlovic, Young, Lajovic, Kokkinakis, Tomic
Draw http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/807/mds.pdf
Order of Play http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/807/op.pdf


ATP 250 BUENOS AIRES, outdoor clay
The Argentina Open presentado por Buenos Aires Ciudad is the final stop of the four-tournament Latin American 'Golden Swing' , and is contested on clay at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, known as the "Cathedral of Argentinean tennis". An Argentine has reached the final in nine of the 12 editions of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament, with champions including Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio, Juan Monaco and David Nalbandian.

Players Nadal, Robredo, Fognini, Vesely, Almagro, L. Mayer, Andujar, Bellucci, Busta, Monaco
Draw http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/506/mds.pdf
Order of Play http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/506/op.pdf

Come on Gulbis... for once.. just win a match...

Interesting to see Fognini on the same side of nadal again....and vesely to face Fog first too. No draw fixing here it seems.

I remember that last year there was only one ATP500 in SA...now there are 2?

I didn't realise Acapulco was 500.
Will edit now.

Nadal surely knows which one to choose...look how weak the field is in Argentina/Mexico compared to Dubai...clearly an ego healing/recovery mission.
It would be a big blow to him if he fails to win it...

More likely to be Acapulco not having the means to pay for more higher ranked players.....plus they want him in the final.

With Nadal wearing his hair the same length as Fed and Fed wearing the same gear as Nadal, they almost look like twins from the distance...

noleisthebest wrote:I didn't realise Acapulco was 500.
Will edit now.

Nadal surely knows which one to choose...look how weak the field is in Argentina/Mexico compared to Dubai...clearly an ego healing/recovery mission.
It would be a big blow to him if he fails to win it...

 Its been taken care of.

Gulbis  loses again . If he keeps on losing this way. he will end the year with 0 wins.. That will be some unusual feat..

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:I didn't realise Acapulco was 500.
Will edit now.

Nadal surely knows which one to choose...look how weak the field is in Argentina/Mexico compared to Dubai...clearly an ego healing/recovery mission.
It would be a big blow to him if he fails to win it...

 Its been taken care of.

Thanks!
I even managed to get the surface wrong...so will change that now. I thought it was clay, no wonder Nadal chose Buenos Aires, then...
Gulbis...don't know what to think, he seems to have long breaks, then works hard and rejoins the tour for the spring/summer season. It has worked in the last few years.
This time, though, it looks like the pack have moved beyond his calculation in the meantime.
I hope he gains some confidence on clay. Competition on hard courts is ruthless now.

It's a beautiful, sunny day and we have some great matches today!

Harrison-Young
Almagro-Andujar
Pouille-Bolleli
Murray-Muller (that's going to be really interesting!)
Djokovic-Pospisil
Agut-Thiem (second week in a row)
Goffin-Baghdatis

sad to see Melzer not able to qualify for Dubai.....
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/495/qs.pdf

Just saw the result...Pretty lame from Pouille.....I guess he did not recover from celebrating his birthday yesterday.

Yes...but Bolleli has been playing really well and lots recently.

I feel all Pouille needs is a bit of winning momentum, maybe try and play smaller tournaments regularly if he is healthy.

Really curious to see how Murray plays on this fast-ish surface against Muller.
Go Gilles!!!

What is Coric still doing in Dubai.....he lost in the Qualification....I guess it is worth having Nike as a sponsor.

Yes...I was surprised to see that, too. Not even the LL next to his name...
And a nice, fixable local opponent, too...
And since they are both Nike's, I just want to know why him and not Pouille?

Well Pouille did qualify....unlike Coric.

Tenez wrote:Well Pouille did qualify....unlike Coric.

I know he did...
I was thinking more along the lines of Puille getting no coverage at all on the ATP website, or elsewhere.

Media can't get enough of pushing vith Dimi and Coric.

Did you see the photo of Coric there...looks quite funny, Nadal's face with Nole's hair:

I think I know the one.

I guess Coric is younger than Pouille. And also it'all to do with that x factor....which seems to be different than my/our xfactor.

Tenez wrote:I think I know the one.

I guess Coric is younger than Pouille. And also it'all to do with that x factor....which seems to be different than my/our xfactor.

I've been thinking about it.
I still believe it can and is largely manufactured (Nadal, Coric).
Maybe x-factir is the artificial commodity and charisma is natural (Safin, Gulbis)...then, there is "aura" which some earn by sheer success (Federer, Sharapova...)
Some, despite their successnever get/have any (Henin, Murray)

Looks definitely play a big part, but Sciavone for example who is not an oil painting has lots of charisma due to big personality.

Having said all this, I've also got my own little theory that x-factor can be helped by a player's confidence, or cockiness. That's where I think Pouille and Coric differ most.

I think that in southern countries where mothers are not dominant and where there is less metrosexual trend - men will be naturally more cofident, even if they have nothing to back that confidence up with.

Dimi's (24) just lost the 2nd set to Filip Krajinovic ( to turn 23 in a few days).
Much as I'm happy for Filip ( the original Nike's poster boy and a great hope from Boletieri Academy, even trained with Fed), I admit I did not expect this.
Dimi is very low on confidence, and that is not a good place to be in.

noleisthebest wrote:I was thinking more along the lines of Puille getting no coverage at all on the ATP website, or elsewhere.

Media can't get enough of pushing vith Dimi and Coric.

Pouille is 21 years old and is yet to enter top 100.

Coric is 18, #84, has beaten Rafa and is - I believe - the youngest player to have cracked top 100 since Rafa.

Of course they talk more about Coric than Pouille.  If they did not, it would show an awful bias in favor of Pouille.

I did not realise Coric had beaten Nadal.....though to be fair that is big achievement nowadays.

Yes, I think Coric beat him in Basel last autumn.

I suppose he did make a breakthrough at a young age unlike Pouille, and it's so rare to see 18 year old winning main draw matches these days.

We'll see how he deals with Baghdatis today.

Match of the Day:

none stand out in particular, all "big" names playing today.

can you watch the side courts with tennis tv?

Yes, quite often, depends on the day.
Strangely their server is down arm, really annoying, but it's the first thing it's happened for the 3 years I've been with them.

Nole-Golub starting....TennisTV still down

Golubev can't keep the ball in the court. Disappointing.

Still no tennistv.
Useless pathetic outsourced "help " centres.

I hate this cheap, globalised rubbish tip this world has become!!!!!

We all have to have z-grade lives so that 0.5% can swim milk and honey.
Junk food, junk tv, junk service, junk clothes, junk films, junk music...

I can't take it any moooooooore!!!!

Finally got hold of a stream on bet 365

3:1 Verdasco!

Didn't see the first 3 games, but Fernando is in his turbo mode!

Fed must have slept when he got broken...don't see him losing this match.

noleisthebest wrote:I hate this cheap, globalised rubbish tip this world has become!!!!!

remember the good old days...2 channels only, no tennis, no forum!

Fed demolishing Verdasco, got him right into his 5th spinning gear, he doesn't know what's ht him!

Crowd too noisy in favour of Federer....but federer played beautifully winning 16 points or so in a row. Serving for the set now.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:I hate this cheap, globalised rubbish tip this world has become!!!!!

remember the good old days...2 channels only, no tennis, no forum!

I forgot about that...
Have been hung up on the live online help 5 times in a row!!!
And every time they had the cheek to ask for the customer satisfaction survey!

wow....last 20 points in a row!!!!! to close the set.

Verdasco certainly got upset with the noise which sent him off track as he was playing very well until then....but regardless....Fed stepped it up and crowd or no crowd it was an amazing piece of tennis from 1/4 down to 6/4!

Yes, that screaming woman was terrible!
What on earth goes through some people's minds...

Still, Fed was just awesome in his most rampant attacking mode, just like in the old (or young ) days

what happened in that 2nd set..how Did fed got broken back? I coudl not watch it.

I don't think he got broken, both still on serve.

he did...He was broke Verdy straight away in that 2d set ...never mind....back up a serve again. In fact Verdy won 9 of the last 10 points at 2/1.

I didn't see it either.
Well, that was a proper Fed-express...he really was in the mood tonight!

Another match finished within 60 minutes.

I don't understand how his back can come and go....but come again so quickly.

I couldn't see any back issue, though I missed the first 3 games of the first set.
Fernando had a great start.
Not sure what happened at the beginning of 2nd.
Did you notice anything?

Tenez wrote:I don't understand how his back can come and go....but come again so quickly.

I wonder if it's sometimes more a mental thing-  feels a tweak- starts to worry its a reaggravation, but then after a short time and realizes it's not getting worse or subsides, plays freely again.  I know I went through similar mental battles after my back problems started and sciatica set in.   I would feel something- and start stressing I reherniated it-- meanwhile it was just the sciatica issues that were always going to come and go.    Once my mind was satisfied it was just the sciatica, I would go back to thinking freely.

Tenez wrote:What is Coric still doing in Dubai.....he lost in the Qualification....I guess it is worth having Nike as a sponsor.

It keeps getting better!
Baghdatis retired at 4:4 in the third set TB.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/02/25/baghdatis-loses-out-in-bizarre-fashion-in-dubai/

If that's not a fixed match, I don't know what is.

Seems Coric is the new "lucky one"...

Earnie explains eberything!

"The shoulder didn’t affect me in Wimbledon. In Wimbledon I lost [in the second round] because I played bad. But then later on it affected me during the USA swing, including the US Open.
And then afterwards, end of last year, it was just bad. I was trying to deal with playing tournaments and healing the shoulder but it didn’t work. So I had time in the off-season to heal it more or less. Now it’s almost 100 percent so that’s a good thing. The rest [is down to] matches, you win some, you lose some. It’s a matter of one tournament to win one or two rounds, the confidence will be back. I don’t see a big problem with it.

I have no timing. In practice I have been playing worse than in the match … I’m making everybody very calm, distracted by my bad results and then I’m going to shoot. One good result an I am going to shoot."

and then concludes in style:

"This is a distraction, it’s the calm before the storm.

truffin1 wrote:

Tenez wrote:I don't understand how his back can come and go....but come again so quickly.

I wonder if it's sometimes more a mental thing-  feels a tweak- starts to worry its a reaggravation, but then after a short time and realizes it's not getting worse or subsides, plays freely again.  I know I went through similar mental battles after my back problems started and sciatica set in.   I would feel something- and start stressing I reherniated it-- meanwhile it was just the sciatica issues that were always going to come and go.    Once my mind was satisfied it was just the sciatica, I would go back to thinking freely.

I very much doubt it has anything to do with his mind. It happens usually after long matches or more so matches succeeding each others. Looks like resting helps him. Not sure if you saw him play today but he had a beautiful patch. As good as ever ....plus Serve and volleying galore. But we know that a sudden crank will make him look like a B Seppi!

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:What is Coric still doing in Dubai.....he lost in the Qualification....I guess it is worth having Nike as a sponsor.

It keeps getting better!
Baghdatis retired at 4:4 in the third set TB.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/02/25/baghdatis-loses-out-in-bizarre-fashion-in-dubai/

If that's not a fixed match, I don't know what is.

Seems Coric is the new "lucky one"...

That's weird....I was wondering what was that 6 all! What was Bagdha's excuse?