ATP 250: Nottingham, Wimbledon Qualifications, Boodles

Week three of pre-Wimbledon preparation.

We have ATP 250 in Nottingham, Wimbledon Qualifications and Boodles.

ATP 250 Nottingham, grass



and a link for PC fans
http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2015/741/mds.pdf

Wimbledon Qualifications

Draw:
http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/draws/index.html?event=QS

Boodles, Stoke Park
Djokovic, Gasquet, Kokkinakis, Fognini, Sock, Pouille, Isner, Anderson, Raonic, Robredo, Kohlschreiber, JJ, Ivanisevic Pioline...nice bunch  

http://www.theboodles.com

Rublev plays tomorrow in the qualies

wow....he could do with a wild card.

Guess what!!!
On the first day, two brothers have been drawn to play each other in R1...Jurgen and Gerald Melzer..

What a coincidence

I hope Rub survives.

Was surprised Harrison didn't get WC either...

Actually, ATP website is still horrible.
As if they are trying to stop people from using it.

I am doing my utmost best not to say what I really think!!!!!

PS
I managed to find the order of play for Nottingham...after10 clicks...L.Mayer-Chung would be good to see.
Mayer can play well on grass (saw him against Dimi last year) and this Chung would be worth checking out...grass is like an x-ray for a player, you can't hide anything!

I am not sure what went through their minds. It's ugly!

Tenez wrote:I am not sure what went through their minds. It's ugly!

What does your ATP contact say about it?

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:I am not sure what went through their minds. It's ugly!

What does your ATP contact say about it?

I don't have any as far as I remember....I have an LTA one.

I am tempted to go to watch Rublev today qualifying.....doubt I will though.

I heard qualies are good fun.
A guy from the club goes every year...dragging his poor 85 year old mother there just so he can park close to the courts with her disabled badge!!!

In his words: "it's great...you can get a cooked meal and eat with players...and the girls are just..."

Dirty old man!

I am so tempted to go and see Rublev....he is playing now and 10mn cycle from where I am.

Tenez wrote:I am so tempted to go and see Rublev....he is playing now and 10mn cycle from where I am.

Go, watch him.

How was first year of Uni Kim?

Kim Jong-Un wrote:

Tenez wrote:I am so tempted to go and see Rublev....he is playing now and 10mn cycle from where I am.

Go, watch him.

And I did!

The venue is beautiful. I actually drove there, very easy to free park. I rushed bumped into 2007 Wimby final referee (can't remember his name but the guy who warned Nadal about time between points before the final started). Asked him where court 12 was and rushed to it to watch the beginning of the second set. Just when I arrive Rublev falls holds his groin in pain. The referee asks him if he is ok, he nodes and carries on. The good thing again is you can be very close. I was even glancing from right behind the middle line judge. So I could see the whole court as if I was playing...something you cannot do at Wimbledon even.

There was hardly anybody watching. His Mum (I guess) his coach and another 20 people maybe. It's a very lonely place out there. I was lucky that Rublev lost a stupid game after having had a few game points which led to him spitting and swearing, a warning from the referee and a 3rd set, as I was keen to see more of him. As there were very few watchers, Rublev turn around and looked at me when I shouted loudly to encourage him (clearly I looked like a loony to everybody else, and rightly so I guess). So after losing the second set Rublev took a long break , I guess fixing his groin.  Then when Rublev started to serve and resume 3rd set, a very loud drone with cam and torches started to lift off the ground and hover over his opponent’s head. Players were mad! "what the f** is this? Do they realise we are playing? ". Despite the intervention of the ground ATP referee they were told they could not control it as it belonged to the club.

By then the sun was extremely low and provided a very nice light but quite annoying  for the players. Rublev breaks at 2/1 in the 3rd, but gets broken right back at 3/1 so 3/2 on serve. Both got some lucky points and both kindly apologised to each other. His opponent Kovalik was a pretty good player just struggling to cope with Andrei’s pace.

At 4/3, Rublev breaks again thanks to a couple of amazing FHs and a BH and this time serves it out.

I’ll post some pictures hopefully later  but I went to congratulate him (he replied a short unfriendly “thank you”, but his smiley Mum thanked me very much as she told me she saw me encouraging him. I said I had been following him for the last couple of months and wished him best of luck for the future.

I felt sorry for Novalik too. It’s a hard world out there for those youngsters.

He certainly is a very grumpy player, very much a la McEnroe and Murray. Even when he won he did not celebrate. He is not gracious, nor physically, nor mentally. In a way he reminds me very much of Sharapova without the hypocritical side of Maria. Same aggressivity on court.

He is extremely thin. His left arm is no bigger than a teenage girl’s and his legs and right arm are simply like most kids of his age, if not thinner. When he sat on his chair and bent over you could see his thorax ribs.

There is a lot more spin in his shots than can be seen on TV but his FH and BH hardly goes over 2 inches over the net and are very deep. That was quite remarkable.

It looks like he is on a mission though I guess they all do as they are so focused but it is even more impressive from a 17yo who you feel only winning Wimbledon will extract a smile of this killer’s face.

And that’s not going happen tomorrow! I think he has Dodig to play tomorrow and that won’t be easy! In fact I don’t think he stands much chance.

luvsports! wrote:How was first year of Uni Kim?

It was good, Imperial despite being a science uni do give us chance to talk to and meet patients and learn how to communicate, as well as learning science (unlike Oxbridge which is just science based for first 3 years).

The last few weeks were very stressful, and I had to learn a ridiculous amount of information, so so much more than A-levels. I think the exams went quite well in the end, although I was convinced I was going to do badly until I literally finished all the exams.

So yeah, it was a good experience but very stressful exam period

How's your journalism work going ?

Tenez wrote:

Kim Jong-Un wrote:

Tenez wrote:I am so tempted to go and see Rublev....he is playing now and 10mn cycle from where I am.

Go, watch him.

And I did!

The venue is beautiful. I actually drove there, very easy to free park. I rushed bumped into 2007 Wimby final referee (can't remember his name but the guy who warned Nadal about time between points before the final started). Asked him where court 12 was and rushed to it to watch the beginning of the second set. Just when I arrive Rublev falls holds his groin in pain. The referee asks him if he is ok, he nodes and carries on. The good thing again is you can be very close. I was even glancing from right behind the middle line judge. So I could see the whole court as if I was playing...something you cannot do at Wimbledon even.

There was hardly anybody watching. His Mum (I guess) his coach and another 20 people maybe. It's a very lonely place out there. I was lucky that Rublev lost a stupid game after having had a few game points which led to him spitting and swearing, a warning from the referee and a 3rd set, as I was keen to see more of him. As there were very few watchers, Rublev turn around and looked at me when I shouted loudly to encourage him (clearly I looked like a loony to everybody else, and rightly so I guess). So after losing the second set Rublev took a long break , I guess fixing his groin.  Then when Rublev started to serve and resume 3rd set, a very loud drone with cam and torches started to lift off the ground and hover over his opponent’s head. Players were mad! "what the f** is this? Do they realise we are playing? ". Despite the intervention of the ground ATP referee they were told they could not control it as it belonged to the club.

By then the sun was extremely low and provided a very nice light but quite annoying  for the players. Rublev breaks at 2/1 in the 3rd, but gets broken right back at 3/1 so 3/2 on serve. Both got some lucky points and both kindly apologised to each other. His opponent Kovalik was a pretty good player just struggling to cope with Andrei’s pace.

At 4/3, Rublev breaks again thanks to a couple of amazing FHs and a BH and this time serves it out.

I’ll post some pictures hopefully later  but I went to congratulate him (he replied a short unfriendly “thank you”, but his smiley Mum thanked me very much as she told me she saw me encouraging him. I said I had been following him for the last couple of months and wished him best of luck for the future.

I felt sorry for Novalik too. It’s a hard world out there for those youngsters.

Very interesting report, good on you for going out there and supporting him

From the impression you gave, he does seem like a bit of a d*ck, in Mallorca last year Nadal smiled and thanked me just for picking a ball up from the sidelines and throwing it to him. Maybe Rublev isn't used to support outside his home country, he's not really well known.

Also clearly you see some talent and some potential in him... but from what you saw does he have the mentality to cope and not choke in the big moments ? Is he mentally more like Djokovic or Gasquet you think ?

He is only 17 so I guess he is not much aware of the marketing side of the sport and how important it is to "please" the fans. His mother certainly is... She really smiled for him too as you may see in the picture.

I don't think he is a choker. he has a very risky game so he is more likely to choke than Djoko or Nadal but he is overly aggressive and each opportunity is seize to go for broke. That's very gutsy. It will cost him some matches probably but with such talent it is likely to win him more than he will lose. In that respect very much like Federer....bar the record of course.

Sounds like he is a real Russian.

They can be very deep and soulful and certainly haughty when it comes to small talk
and empty smiling, that's what I like about them.

Interesting comparison with Sharapova, I thought the same mainly because of his almost exclusive baseline game and those projectiles.
He is definitely very talented, and for me it shows in his serve.

Is that going to be enough?

His main weapon is his aggression, same as Thiem.

Did you see any sign of hands?

Is it going to be enough? I don't know. WHat I know is that he has more in his arsenal than many I have seen at the same age.

Wee know that to succeed and win multiple slams nowadays one needs to be a "professional", dedicated athlete a la Djoko, Murray or even Federer. He has the raw talent so if he works as much I can't see why he woudl not succeed.

Even though he is essentially a ball basher he has hands. One cannot send such bullets purely on timing 2 inch above the net without having a great feel for the ball. His arms are spaghetti thick so it is pure talent. He missed the only volleys and drop shots he tried to attempt though. But this is usually something one acquires with time.

just saw that.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOFDBndFcAs

Interesting.

Interesting to see he does not take the ball early, or maybe that was just how he was getting used to and able to control Nadal's spin...though they were just hitting relaxedly.

Still, amazing ballspeed. Imagine if he took the ball early!

Looks like he trusts his talent, almost casual with his footwork whereas Nadal has to have a perfect position for his FH.

He will be a disciplined version of Dolgopolov. Same madness but a lot more desire to win.

Nadal doesn't hit with much topspin while he's practicing though, he hits it much flatter.

Kim Jong-Un wrote:Nadal doesn't hit with much topspin while he's practicing though, he hits it much flatter.

Yes but it is on average 2 feet higher than Rublev on this clip. What happens is that if Nadal receives a pacy skiddy shot, he wont be given a chance to topspin as much. This is why Nadal struggled quite a bit at the USO before they increased the balls size.

By the way, the balls are huge this year again at Wimbledon....well for the qualif. It woudl be a very different tennis if they were playing with the Dunlop forte of pre-FO.

It's Marina Marenko who is on the pictures I believe, his mother. She trained Kournikova as well apparently.

She certainly smiles more than he does.

Judging by photos in this article, it looks like he takes after his dad (ex-boxer).  Nice big eyes.

I am amazed how much Serbian and Russian are similar, I can understand 90% of the text:
http://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/aceonsecondserve/625444.html

His mum coached Gavrilova, too, and Gavrilova is a good little player, beat Sharapova recently.

I hope Rubi does well. I actually like his grumpiness.

Certainly a youngster to look out for.

Just saw this...Nadal joining Boodles, as well...

So I may get to see him play Nole again, from row 1 on Thursday

http://www.theboodles.com

One wink with his "chocolate" eyes and you will join his long list of fans!

You bet?

Wow, you are desperate for a(nother) Nadal fan here!

Tomorrow Rublev plays Dodig at around 3 or 4pm. Plus a few other good players.

It's such a great venue.

Some reasonable matches today:

Nottingham:
Mannarino-Bolleli
L.Mayer-Vesely
Thiem-Dolgopolov
Roehampton:
Rublev-Dodig
Falla-Kamke
Some other matches, R. vasselin, HPM, P Herbert, the "Swedish" kid Ymer, Dan Evans...should be a great day!
Apparently, you can see Davis Cuo trophy there in ITF offices, and also buy new tennis balls for £1 a can, free entrance, not bad at all!

Boodles:
Fognini-Berdasco
Kohlschreiber-Pouile

There is a live video streaming for Boodles matches on their website.

I'm here!

Beautiful sunny day, Sijsling-Melzer about to start.
Gorgeous courts, I wish I could play!!!

Enjoy. I might go to Wimbledon Qualif later. Have a second look at Rublev. We shoudl have seeding for Wimby as well today, isn;t it?

Actually the seeding is out.

1 Novak Djokovic (SRB),
2 Roger Federer (SUI),
3 Andy Murray (GBR),
4 Stan Wawrinka (SUI),
5 Kei Nishikori (JPN),
6 Tomas Berdych (CZE),
7 Milos Raonic (CAN),
8 David Ferrer (ESP)
9 Marin Cilic (CRO),
10 Rafael Nadal (ESP),
11 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL),
12 Gilles Simon (FRA),
13 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA),
14 Kevin Anderson (RSA),
15 Feliciano Lopez (ESP),
16 David Goffin (BEL)

not much change with original ATP ranking. Rao up 1, Ferrer down 1, Simon and Tsonga swapping, and Lopez and Goffin swapping too.

Watching Vasselin virtually from the court, P. Herbert standing next to me supporting his countryman, nice.

Just met Rublev!!!!!

He was getting ready to warm up with hus Belorussian coach...lovely happy, very friendly and SMILEY lad!

It helped I said I was frim Serbia

Took some photos with him, and they promised me a ticket if he makes it to the final.

I even got a free wi-fi.

This surely is tennis heaven!!!!

noleisthebest wrote:I'm here!

Beautiful sunny day, Sijsling-Melzer about to start.
Gorgeous courts, I wish I could play!!!

Oh I thought you were at Boodles. Did not realise you were at Roehampton.

Enjoy. Might see you later.

noleisthebest wrote:
This surely is tennis heaven!!!!

It's great isn't it? When I mentioned to my club I went there, they were suprised it was my first time there and said it is well known to be "better than Wimbledon itself". Not sure about that but the free entry, proximity to the course and easy parking plus nice facilities without the crowd certainly gives it a close call.

Can't make it sadly. !!!

Back home - tired, sunburnt, a little sad but overall happy.

It's been such a lovely day: beautiful sunshine, blue sky, endless green fields and in the middle of them scattered tennis courts, players walking around, warming up, playing matches, eating a plate of plain spaghetti, people sleeping, sunbaking, some even watching tennis!

The balance of players/coaches and us mortals was probably 50/50 and that was great.

I spoke to James Kaethevong (about 20 sec rule), wished good luck to S. Robert, the famous lucky loser from last year's AO and many others...shared a moment of sadness with Copil when he told me he lost his match...
One feels for them, struggling financially, one wrong shot - back to the cheap hotel room packing your bag.

It's a very unique world...

And what to say of Andreii Rublev...

You know...all those players I saw there there were good (Melzer, Sijsling, Brown, PHM, Vasselin etc, etc..) some vere very good - Herbert;
But one of them - Rublev, stood out and made the day special for me.
A boy and a man at the same time.

A boy: impatient, happy, cheerful, showy.

A man: ferocious, single-minded, brave.

I met him and spoke to him before his warm up: he and his coach were very friendly and genuinely nice.

The coach joked with me he didn't know who Andreii was, so I joked back and said: well...that's a famous player - Andreii....Djokovic!
Future number one.

I said how wrong and bad it was he was not given a wild card either in RG (last year's junior champion) or Wimbledon (doubles champion), and you could see that upset him.

I said how I liked he was skinny and natural and his coach kept repeating how he'll have lot of muscle next year ()

Andreii was so relaxed and smiled all the time, a really lovely young lad.

Then when the match started I sat next to his mum (you are right T, she is a pro smiler!) who politely thanked me for all my compliments and good wishes.
In between sets I suggested they teach Rubi to volley and move inside the court more to which she gave me a confused look.
But however talented he is,  it has to be said - he does not know what to do at the net and plays very cautious shots.

She talked a lot in Russian to a man sat on the other side of her and I understood some of it.
Her diagnosis of her son was that he can't keep his concentration.

She tried to encourage him, but he didn't like it and signalled for her to be quiet, which she did.
But of course she being his mum couldn't so kept going and eventually left the court at 3:3 in the 3rd when his coach appeared on the opposite side of the court.

I thought that was quite interesting how they felt he needed this support, though he never looked at anyone much.

As for the perceived "grumpy" image, he had a few little dialogues with himself, but as they were in Russian, I understood them - he is basically (like all of us!!!) just berating himself, being upset with lost points, not even any rude language!

That's where he is a boy, and I thought it was quite cute as he is so, so tiny and thin - Dodig looked like Schwartzeneger compared to him.

And finally: his tennis.

At the moment he cannot do much, but what he can do - he is doing very, very well: his serve and FH are excellent, better than most top players.
His BH is pretty good, too.

But both shots are basic groundstrokes which is expected for his age in terms of variety.
The quality is way above his age - and that only means one thing - he is very talented.

His volleying is almost not non-existant, though he had 6-7, but it is clear he needs to work on it and I am convinced he'll be very good.

His BH slice was so rare, I though was a big hole in his grass game, as it would have saved him so much energy today.

Every time he used it (3-4) he won a point.

It is obvious he's a product of some tennis factory, but he has so much heart and passion in the game, I am pretty sure it will naturally find its way into his game as time goes by.

He has lovely big clever eyes and seems to be a good learner.
Today he lost on inexperience - had a set and a break and Dodig in the ropes...

Although his loss today felt like a mini heartbreak for me today, I can confidently say we have a future number on in Andreii.

He is an unpolished gem that will shine brightly one day!

Davai Andreii!

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:I'm here!

Beautiful sunny day, Sijsling-Melzer about to start.
Gorgeous courts, I wish I could play!!!

Oh I thought you were at Boodles. Did not realise you were at Roehampton.

Enjoy. Might see you later.

That's tomorrow!

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
This surely is tennis heaven!!!!

It's great isn't it? When I mentioned to my club I went there, they were suprised it was my first time there and said it is well known to be "better than Wimbledon itself". Not sure about that but the free entry, proximity to the course and easy parking plus nice facilities without the crowd certainly gives it a close call.

I agree with you.

It cannot be compared to Wimbledon, but I absolutely loved it, especially that there weren't thousands of people thronging every court, it was lovely and relaxed with plenty of yesteryear's charm, all normal people, no attention seekers, no posers, no security guards and uniformed health and safety soul killers.

Definitely a must for me from now on, another tennis date in my budding tennis diary

Tenez wrote:not much change with original ATP ranking. Rao up 1, Ferrer down 1, Simon and Tsonga swapping, and Lopez and Goffin swapping too.

I have been so busy I have no idea what's going on!

All should calm down on Friday when the draw is out.

I don't even know any scores, who won Dolgo or Thiem?
Anyone saw it?

I also went to ITF offices and saw Davis Cup in its full version, it looks beautiful!

There I bough about 5 cans of new balls all for £3.75!!!!

(dunlops and wilsons - even found white wilsons for grass!)

That's where I interviewed the scum sucking blotter jotter Dr Miller, ITF anti doping chief.

I thought that's where it was....

I had a good chat with Kaethevong who agreed on all I said about umpires being helpless as sponsors were running the show (you should've seen his face!)
told him how there are many of us real tennis fans who unfortunately don't have a voice but every time they put the foot down they make our day
I said how glad I was Mr Muscle is now struggling in his ranking as his thick blood can't get enough oxygen, and encouraged him  to persevere...expressing how sad I was for poor Bernardes, hoping he gets the final (as Kaethevong had last year's).

He said he suggested and current talk is to have slams and the best of 3 swapped - 25 seconds for slams and 20 for the rest, but I said it's not necessary as players will keep then wanting more time between the points, killing SBH off, enabling players to last longer in duller and duller exchanges....

He really liked that!

noleisthebest wrote:I thought that's where it was....

I had a good chat with Kaethevong who agreed on all I said about umpires being helpless as sponsors were running the show (you should've seen his face!)
told him how there are many of us real tennis fans who unfortunately don't have a voice but every time they put the foot down they make our day
I said how glad I was Mr Muscle is now struggling in his ranking as his thick blood can't get enough oxygen, and encouraged him  to persevere...expressing how sad I was for poor Bernardes, hoping he gets the final (as Kaethevong had last year's).

He said he suggested and current talk is to have slams and the best of 3 swapped - 25 seconds for slams and 20 for the rest, but I said it's not necessary as players will keep then wanting more time between the points, killing SBH off, enabling players to last longer in duller and duller exchanges....

He really liked that!

What did he say to you about Mr Muscle? 
I spoke to Jake Garner back in 2012 and he was so far on the fence he was carving his initials in it.