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There were four players to claim a title in their debut at the main level, five others won maiden tournament not having won a match before, Juan Ignacio Chela [176] is one of them (along with Butch Walts, Karel Novacek, … Continue reading
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Australian Open 2003 – it’s a tournament which defines Rainer Schuettler’s [845] status in tennis history. The German unexpectedly reached the final; Marat Safin helped him a bit withdrawing from their third round encounter, but it would be unfair to … Continue reading
(.888) 16-2 Nicolas Lapentti; (.818) 9-2 Marcelo Rios
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Prague (indoor-hard): Czech Republic – Spain 3:2 From left: Jaroslav Navratil (cpt.), R.Stepanek, T.Berdych, L.Rosol, I.Minar… Pavel Korda, Jan Kodes, Pavel Slozil, Tomas Smid & Ivan Lendl The Czechs become the first nation to win Hopman Cup, Fed … Continue reading
It was extremely prestigious final: the most successful player in the history of this tournament vs. the best player of the last two years. The level of the final fulfilled expectations (96-95 in points for the champion). The 1st set lasted 70 minutes which is a very long distance given Federer’s standards. Nothing indicated it would last so long at the beginning, it was “FedExpress style”, the Swiss jumped to a 3:0* (deuce) lead. The initial setback didn’t irritate Djokovic, even though he lost to ‘love’ first set to Federer a few months earlier in Cincinnati. He broke Federer twice and was serving at 5:4 (30/0) when his strong forehand was sent ‘out’ by inches. The final turned into a topsy-turvy battle, a moment later Federer was in similar position leading 6:5 (30/0) – D’Joke put it to the tie-break with very good serves. Federer played amazing point to level at 6-all in the tie-break with a combination of stretch-volley and passing-shot hitting backwards to the net! He made a backhand error afterwards, and Djokovic converted his third set point (he blew the first one in the 10th game) with an inside-out forehand winner. Federer began the 2nd set grabbing an 11-minute break-game. It could set up the third set, however, Djokovic is a hell of a fighter: he held at 1:3 saving a break point, later on trailed 3:5; Federer led 5:4 (40/15) on serve, so avoiding the decider seemed almost impossible… he made two errors though, especially the first one was painful for him and his fans because it was a solid forehand narrowly missed (Djokovic wouldn’t have replied on it). The Serb got four points in a row, broke back, and it pumped him up tremendously. He took the next two games to ’30’, delivering fantastic backhand passing-shot DTL on his first match point. Djokovic’s 34th title, the second ‘Masters’ triumph, certainly much more gratifying than the previous one claimed four years ago in Shanghai (he didn’t face any of the Big 4 players then). “It’s very satisfying for my team and myself to conclude this fantastic season with a World Tour Finals win,” said Djokovic. “I never got to the finals of this tournament in London. The furthest I got is semi-finals a couple years ago where I lost straight sets to Roger. I wasn’t really feeling this surface very well in past couple of years. But this year has been different. I got motivated, got a little bit more physically fresh. I wanted really to fight and I really wanted to get as far as I can in this tournament. Winning all the matches I played makes it even more special.” Stats of the match
Perhaps it was a lifetime opportunity for Bhupathi to finally win ‘Masters’, facing a pair of debutants deprived even of Grand Slam finals. The 38-year-old Indian, who has won all majors in mixed doubles, and three different majors in doubles (misses Australian Open) lost his fifth ‘Masters’ final in the last 15 years! # Both he and Bopanna made a few childish errors in the super tie-break. At first glance the Spanish duo doesn’t seem as a real threat, they both play on the back of the court on serves (Granollers sometimes runs forward in his service games, he is also more active at the net overall; 1st set against the Indians was won after his excellent BH reflex-volley), but this arrhythmic pace is their strength. Even though Spaniards are easier to break than most of the top doubles pairs, they are better than the rest on return games with their heavy top-spins and offensive lobs which cause plenty of volley errors. It’s 9th doubles title for both Spaniards… The 30-year-old Lopez was discovered in some sense for the tennis world as a doubles player thanks to Rafael Nadal, who wanted to improve his volley skills partnering Lopez from time to time or Tommy Robredo. Until 2009, Lopez hadn’t even won a doubles title, he was more an unfulfilled singles player through many years (in 2001 he had made a sensational ATP debut reaching semifinal in Stuttgart, but never repeated that achievement wandering at the Challenger level).
flat backhand was working exceptionally well, he was 3:1* (30/0) ahead. At 30-all in that game, Federer finally played a scintillating forehand winner, and yelled “come on!” He broke back in the 8th game. In the tie-break Murray led 3:1* once again, the sixth point of that tie-break was vital – Federer prevailed a 22-stroke rally with a forehand inside-out winner. When he led 5:4*, Murray netted a forehand which he should have played much more better, he broke the top of his racquet right after, and was booed by numerous groups of Federer’s fans. Once Federer got the opening set, he felt comfortably out there, his serve was magnificent in the 2nd set, Murray seemed indifferent since he lost his serve leading 40/0 in the 3rd game (lost five points in a row in a bad style). The Swiss added another break in the 7th game and served out the match to ’15’ displaying two fruitful S&V actions. He will play in ‘Masters’ final for the eight time, one final shy of accomplishment of Murray’s coach Ivan Lendl. “I think he played well,” said Murray. “I didn’t think it was incredibly high standard in terms of length of points. There were a lot of quick points. I started the match well. […] Once he gets ahead, he’s incredibly hard to stop. He tends to play better and better when he gets up.”
aggressively, Del Potro was forced to play several moon-lobs, two of them caused Djokovic’s pretty embarrassing overhead errors which might have affected his mindset even though he led 4:3 after seven holds. The Argentine took the initiative winning 5 out of next 6 games, including a break at 1-all in the 2nd set after a punishing rally consisted of many slices. Djokovic stayed cool, broke back immediately (after two ‘deuces’) putting himself in the driving seat. Although it was their seventh meeting, for the first time went to a deciding set. In the 3rd game of the decider, DelPo made two crucial narrow forehand errors, four games later he was broken again, this time D’Joke hammered it out striking brilliant forehands. He capitalized his superiority with huge serves and celebrated his second advancement to ‘Masters’ final (first one in Shanghai 2008) to the tune of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. Third time lucky in London for him, he lost two semifinals there in 2012 (Wimbledon to Federer, Olympics to Murray), now moves one step further. “Nole improved his game, basically, between the middle of the second set until the end of the match,” said Del Potro. “He deserved to win today. I think I played really good in the first two sets. If you don’t play [for the] whole match [at] your best level, it’s really difficult to beat him.”
No pressure at all, in fact some kind of an exhibition encounter, forgetting about 200 ATP points at stake (50 points more than gets a runner-up of the smallest ATP tournaments). The last match of the season for Tipsarevic, Ferrer with two rubbers against Czech players in a prospect next weekend. Obviously under these circumstances the Serb started with bigger eagerness. Actually the Spaniard was disinterested in the initial phase, perhaps frustrated that even straight sets victory wouldn’t give him a semifinal berth. Tipsarevic won first four games without any troubles, at 0:4 down “the Spanish terrier” felt the temperature of the match and even had a break point to level at 5 games all. Until the second break of the 3rd set all semifinalists were kept in a state of unconsciousness who would play who on Sunday: if Tipsarevic won, Federer would face Djokovic whilst the other semifinal pair would be consisted of Murray & Del Potro.
It was a tricky match for Federer. He had guaranteed semifinal spot, both Murray and Djokovic are so tough, that calculating which one is a better match-up in semifinals was rather pointless for him, nonetheless he said he would like to play Murray, who had beaten him twice lately instead of Djokovic whom the Swiss had defeated twice in the last four months… Could he say something different not being accused on unfairness? Anyway, Federer needed to get one set to top his group on the assumption Tipsarevic wouldn’t beat Ferrer – well, this is comicality of the ’round robin’ format. Ok, eliding from those off court things, here is a summary of the match which equaled a record for the most encounters between players within a season #: no breaks of serve in the 1st set with a highlight at 4:3 for Federer when both guys displayed great skills in two consecutive games including two hot-dogs; 2nd set – Del Potro loses opening two games to ‘0’; 3rd set – Federer is broken to ’30’ in his opening service game with rather poor effort. Game over. Four semifinalists of the Olympic event in London again are placed in semifinals in London. Ferrer is eliminated no matter what happens in his last match. Period. 
Tsonga got into the match like he didn’t believe in straight sets victory which would promote him further. In contrary, Murray caught the highest level of concentration as early as in the opening game, exposing Tsonga’s weakness on the backhand side. If Murray had converted a break point leading 2:0 in the 2nd set, Tsonga would have finished this tournament in quite pathetic style. He somehow hung in, Murray’s supporter, a famous actor Kevin Spacey entered the grandstand after five games of that set, Murray loosened up, and the crowd started to cheer for the Frenchman (!) counting on more entertaining spectacle. Tsonga broke back and even had a set point at 6:5* – sent a forehand wide. Murray, so good in tie-breaks in the last two years, came back on the right track after three consecutive tie-break defeats, and won it firmly with an ace as a final accent. Tsonga finishes 2012 losing four matches in a row – it’s his worst streak at the main level. Last year at this stage of the year he began arguably his best three-tournament period, reaching finals in Paris & London, and winning Doha in January 2012. He loses a lot of points for first two tournaments, if he doesn’t defend the title in Qatar or play greatly in Melbourne, he will drop outside the Top 10 in the first quarter of 2013.
D’Joke needed winning a set to finish the group as a leader. It’s a very nice mindset when you face a guy whose you’ve beaten nine times in a row. The Serb didn’t want to play anything spectacular, he was just concentrated on delivering long, flat balls on Berdych’s ‘no-mans land’ to decompose his best attributes. Djokovic lost his service game leading 2:1 in the 2nd set and the entire group situation became a bit more complicated. The Czech player raised his game above his normal level to get a 5:1* lead in the tie-break. At that moment he could even reasonably expect winning this match based on experiences of both players: Djokovic tanked the last set in similar circumstances four years ago, so did Ferrer playing last year against… Berdych. Djokovic got two quick points from *3:6 thanks to big serves, Berdych hit 130 mph on third set point, but Djokovic responded with a great return causing Berdych’s error. Three wasted set points built too much pressure in Berdych’s mind, he missed two easy balls, and is already outside the tournament with more time to prepare himself for the Davis Cup final next week: “I hope that the best moment is still to come.” This outcome opens a gate for Tsonga – if he beats Murray in straights, he will play in semifinals.
