Rome – QF

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Unexpectedly in the first quarterfinal, Florian Mayer totally outplayed Andy Murray in the initial phase of the match. The Brit changed his tactics at the beginning of the 2nd set, was playing more aggressively from the baseline and restored his authority in the next two sets, winning eleven out of the last twelve games and the match 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour 36 minutes. Murray hasn’t played a longer set than consisted of ten games in his nine matches this year on clay. He became the first British male since 1932 to reach the semi-finals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. “In the first few game I got a little bit uptight because I was not really seeing his game well and did not really put much pressure on him. He is a very tough player and he’ll probably will be in the Top 20 after this week. I managed to turn it round but I needed to get some emotion into the match. I needed to get myself pumped up, my legs moving and I seemed to get back into it.” analyzed Murray.
The five time champion of the Italian Open, Rafael Nadal had to win the quarterfinal match to maintain his status of the best player in the world regardless of Djokovic’s final result in Rome. “The king of clay” despite some troubles with a virus earlier this week, began his match with Marin Cilic in impressive style, leading 5:0* (30-15). The Croat found a way to hold his serve four times in a row (the fourth time after a 9-minute game) but since 3:2 in the 2nd set, he lost the next four games and the match 1-6, 3-6.
Richard Gasquet reaching the semifinal in Rome, achieved his best result since the Wimbledon semifinal in 2007. The Frenchman followed his sensational win over Federer with another 3-setter, this time against Thomas Berdych – 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 obtaining the crucial break in the 7th game of the 3rd set.
Novak Djokovic cruised into the semi-finals and extended his winning streak to 37 straight matches after defeating 5th-seeded Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-0.  It’s the sixth longest streak in the Open era, only five players (Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Roger Federer) won more consecutive matches than Djokovic – each of them at least 40.  The match with Soderling was balanced until 3:3 in the 1st set. In the 7th game Djokovic fought off two break points and Soderling, who had been playing very good match, completely lost his concept. The Serb finished the contest with two consecutive aces, winning the last 15 points!

Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | 2 Comments

Rome – 3R

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Voo de Mar

27-year-old unorthodox Florian Mayer [28] – the best German player at the moment – had never won a match in Rome prior to this week. Today he advanced for the first time in life to the quarter-finals of a ‘Masters 1000’ tournament, beating 7-5, 6-4 the Argentinian veteran Juan Ignacio Chela [42]. Mayer will reach the highest position in career next Monday.
Thomas Berdych [7] in contrary to Mayer, reaches quarterfinals of the biggest events regularly (this year lost quarterfinals in Melbourne, Miami and Madrid). The Czech dismissed ‘lucky loser’ Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 in 2 hours 41 minutes, being two points away from a 6-2, 6-4 win on Nieminen’s serve.
Marin Cilic [23] took an advantage of the favorable draw to book his berth in the last 8 of a ‘Masters 1000’ tournament on clay for the first time. Cilic last night outplayed Carlos Berlocq, who replaced injured David Ferrer; today the Croat had problems only in the 1st set against a tired Mardy Fish – the American spent more than 4 hours on court yesterday: 3 hours in singles (against Ljubicic), later on 1:15 in doubles (won a titanic super tie-break 19-17 along with Andy Roddick).
18-year-old Richard Gasquet [16] defeated Roger Federer at the Monte Carlo quarterfinal six years ago in their first encounter, saving three match points. Since then, Federer won their all eight meetings, dropping just two sets in the process. Today the Swiss seemed to be on the right track to notch the ninth straight victory over the Frenchman – after comfortable 6-4 in the 1st set, led 4:2* in the 2nd set. Gasquet broke back, saved a double mini-match point at 4:4, and played a fantastic tie-break. Neither player had a chance to break the opponent’s serve in the 3rd set (no ‘deuces’, only one game won to ’30’!) and a deciding tie-break was required… Gasquet played it with bigger risk and produced crucial winners to lead 3:1 (backhand DTL) and 5:3 (forehand cross-court). Federer hasn’t reached at least quarterfinal for the first time since last years Rome (lost in the second round to Gulbis) and for the third time in career has been beaten by a Frenchman with two losing tie-breaks! # Curiosity: Federer began the match winning 10 first points, Gasquet won the next 10! “I did a very good match for sure and as you can imagine I am very happy to beat Roger,” said Gasquet. “This does not happen so many times so I have to enjoy it. His forehand is very fast and the court today is very fast and very difficult conditions, but I tried to play good as I had nothing to lose and this is very important. I cannot play my game with a lot of pressure.“

# Federer’s 3-set defeats with two losing tie-breaks:
Halle 2001: P.Rafter   6-4 6-7(6) 6-7(4)
Miami 2003:  A.Costa    6-7(4) 6-4 6-7(7)
Miami 2007:  G.Canas      6-7(2) 6-2 6-7(5)
Montreal 2007: N.Djokovic  6-7(2) 6-2 6-7(2)
Cincinnati 2008: I.Karlovic    6-7(6) 6-4 6-7(5)
Montreal 2009: JW.Tsonga 6-7(5) 6-1 6-7(3)
Paris 2010:  G.Monfils   6-7(7) 7-6(1) 6-7(4)
Rome 2011:  R.Gasquet   6-4 6-7(2) 6-7(4)
Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | 1 Comment

Rome – 2R

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Probably vast majority of spectators expected that 29-year-old qualifier Paolo Lorenzi (only six ATP wins in career) would win four games at a push against Rafael Nadal. It’s always tough to say whether the Italian was playing match of his life or Nadal was explicitly below his standard form, anyway through set and a half Lorenzi went toe-to-toe with the best player in the world! Nadal led *5:3 in the 1st set tie-break when played a sloppy forehand, three points later the Spaniard lost the first set point despite playing two overheads! Lorenzi improved from 1:3 to 4:3* in the 2nd set, was just two games away from the biggest win of his life but it was a mountain too high to overcome for his psychical and mental abilities – Nadal won the next nine games and the match 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-0 in 2 hours 26 minutes.
Also nine games in a row won Novak Djokovic in his encounter with another qualifier – Lukasz Kubot [141]. The Pole had to play his best tennis at the net to break the streak of losing games to avoid a humiliating “double bagel”. Djokovic scored a 6-0, 6-3 win tying with four great players (Connors, Borg, Muster and Federer) who won 35 consecutive matches. If Djokovic wins another two matches, he will jump to the 6th place of the greatest winning streaks in the Open era.
The rivalry between Nadal and Djokovic is amazingly interesting this week, because the Serb for the first time in career might advance at the top of the ATP ranking – he needs to win the tournament, counting on Nadal’s defeat before the semifinals. The two best players in the world said after their opening matches:
Nadal:
“In general it was bad. I felt slow, I felt my forehand was short all the time. He played smart, too-good serves, good volleys. I played bad. And losing the final makes everything more difficult – you’re more tired and a little more sad. But I’m in the third round and that’s very positive for me.”
Djokovic:
“It is a great way to start. It is always great to have a straight set win and spend less time on the courts and save some energy for coming rounds.” – adding about his next opponent with whom played the final in Rome a couple years ago (Wawrinka) – “He likes this court and these conditions. It’s going to be a tough match.”
Robin Soderling miraculously avoided a straight set loss to Fernando Verdasco. These two players in  this year’s tournaments could meet at the earliest in the quarterfinals or semifinals, now they were gathered in the same section of the draw already in the second round because Verdasco lost many points in April and has slipped from No. 8 to No. 17. The Spaniard led 5:4 (40-0) on serve in the 2nd set having three consecutive match points. Soderling saved the first two with risky (especially the first one) powerful forehands, then Verdasco served two double faults in a row and the match turned around! Soderling won 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 saving a couple break points at 3:3 in the decider. Soderling’s first tournament with Fredrik Rosengren as a coach (the Swede replaced Claudio Pistotlesi, who had been working with ‘Toad’ the first four months of the season).

Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

Rome – 1R

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Andy Roddick [12] playing his 200th tournament at the main level, suffered an early exit being ousted in straight sets (3-6, 3-6) by Gilles Simon [19], who finished the match with forehand passing-shot and high backhand volley. It is fourth consecutive defeat for Roddick – he hasn’t got such a bad streak since 2002! # “He moves very well, which you don’t want to see when you are short of matches like I was today, when you are not getting clean hits,” said Roddick.
In the most dramatic first round encounter, Sergiy Stakhovsky [36] saved a triple match point in the deciding tie-break against Victor Hanescu [65] winning 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(6). Stakhovsky becomes a specialist of winning deciding tie-breaks out of nowhere. During the last year’s US Open he beat Ryan Harrison despite 3:6 in the 5th set tie-break, last week prevailed against Albert Montanes, trailing 0:4 in the 3rd set tie-break.
In an unusual meeting between two lucky losers Jarkko Nieminen (replaced Gael Monfils,  was seeded No. 10 – sickness) overcame in three sets Adrian Mannarino (replaced Kei Nishikori – kidney stone).  Again it’s tough to expect that a local favorite will reach quarterfinals in Rome, in the first round appeared seven Italians and four of them have been already defeated. Although a nice surprise produced qualifier Paolo Lorenzi [148], overcoming in two sets Thomaz Bellucci, who reached semifinal in Madrid a week ago where was a set and a break up against Djokovic!

# Roddick’s two worst losing streaks in career:
2002:
US Open: Sampras 3-6 2-6 4-6, Davis Cup: Clement 6-4 6-7(6) 6-7(5) 1-6, Grosjean 4-6 6-3 3-6 4-6, Madrid: Youzhny 3-6 4-6
2011:
Indian Wells: Gasquet 3-6 6-7(5), Miami: Cuevas 4-6 6-7(4): Madrid: Cipolla 4-6 7-6(7) 3-6, Rome: Simon 3-6 3-6
Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

The end of Nadal’s clay-court streak

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Voo de Mar

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Novak Djokovic broke yesterday Rafael Nadal‘s 37-match winning streak on clay (including 13 consecutive wins) in the Mutua Madrid Open final. It is Nadal’s second longest winning streak on clay and the sixth longest in the Open era on this … Continue reading →

More Galleries | 1 Comment

Madrid – final

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Voo de Mar

(2)Novak Djokovic d. (1)Rafael Nadal   7-5, 6-4
(2:17 h)  
—
Expectations were tremendous because on the same court two years ago they played the longest 3-setter in history and one amazing streak must have been finished in this final between the two best players in the world: either Nadal’s 37 consecutive wins on clay or Djokovic’s 33 consecutive wins (31 this year)! The local favorite had a double break point in the 1st game – Djokovic saved the first break point with forehand winner from his right-wing alley, maybe it was the crucial point for the final despite only five points were played… Ten minutes later Djokovic led *4:0 when Nadal came back on the right track, he cut the distance saving three set points at *4:5. In the 12th game the net-cord significantly helped Djokovic twice (!) and the set went to the No. 2 in the world. Nadal electrified his supporters in the 1st game of the 2nd set winning a point after a hot-dog lob. He got the first break but D’Joke broke back immediately. Next seven games went with serves. Djokovic leading 5:4 played a couple of astonishing backhands and won the Mutua Madrid Open on the second match point. He said about his 24th title (sixth this year): “Under the circumstances, I’ve played probably the best match of my life on clay against the World No. 1 and the player to beat on this surface. The way I played was just fantastic. I’m definitely satisfied with the performance and the overall tournament.”

Doubles final:
(1)Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan d. (6)Michael Llodra/Nenad Zimonjic 6-3, 6-3

Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

Madrid – SF

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Rafael Nadal for the second time this year overcame Roger Federer in the semifinal of a “Masters 1000′ event (previously in Miami). The Spaniard raced to a 4:2 lead, but Federer broke back and saved a triple break point at 5:5 with great serves. In the following game, powerful ground-strokes gave him the set. Nadal as usual, maintained his concentration throughout the match, Federer couldn’t afford to do it and lost the next two sets convincingly, however, had a break point in the last game after a spectacular combination of forehand, overhead and drop-shot – wasted Nadal’s second serve sending the ball into the net. The match (5-7, 6-1, 6-3) was played indoors due to rain. “I don’t think it was our best match for either of us, I think we both made some errors, more than usual,” commented Nadal.
In the second semifinal, Thomaz Bellucci who didn’t not lose his serve in the two previous encounters, won the 1st set against Novak Djokovic not being broken again and raced to a 3:1 lead in the 2nd set – major upset was wide open but D’Joke raised his level and won the next three games. In the 10th game he obtained the vital break to level at one set apiece and controlled totally the deciding set to get a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory which sent him to the six straight final! “I always believed throughout the whole match that I could turn it around and I was right,” reflected Djokovic. “He was definitely the better player for a set and a half. He was more aggressive. I just felt quite slow on the court from the start of the match and it took me a while to really get into the rhythm. But when I did, when I made that crucial break, it was much better.”

An interesting thing happened in doubles, in Saturday’s semifinals (The Bryan brothers vs.  Isner/Querry and Llodra/Zimonjic vs. Cilic/Ljubicic) was exactly the same scoreline: 4-6, 6-1, [12-10] – in both matches the losing team squandered one match point!
# Semifinalists of the first four ‘Masters 1000’ tournaments in 2011:
Indian Wells: Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Del Potro
Miami: Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Fish
Monte Carlo: Nadal, Ferrer, Murray, Melzer
Madrid: Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Bellucci
Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

Madrid – QF

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Voo de Mar

In the first quarterfinal between two players with the same initials (T.B.) Thomaz Bellucci upset Thomas Berdych 7-6(2), 6-3 avenging three consecutive defeats against the Czech player. There was only one break point, converted by Bellucci at 4:3 in the 2nd set, a game before Bellucci was forced to play ‘deuce’ on serve the only time in the match. It’s arguably the best tournament in career of the 23-year-old Brazilian, who has collected two ‘250’ titles.
Michael Llodra, just like yesterday against Daniel Gimeno-Traver,  couldn’t find a proper rhythm at the beginning of his match and found himself quickly at 0:4 against Rafael Nadal in the 1st set. Afterwards Llodra was helpless on return games (couldn’t deal with Nadal’s heavy topspins), but had a decent streak of four service games held knotting Nadal’s legs a couple times with precise volleys. In the 5th game of the 2nd set, “King of Clay” raised his defensive skills though, passed the opponent with a half-volley, made a successful run to a stop-volley and got a break with help of a backhand lob. The match was virtually finished then, ten minutes later Nadal posted a 6-2, 6-2 win on his third match point. “Today it was quite good, especially here with the altitude it’s a little bit more complicated because it’s more difficult to go over him” analyzed Rafa.
Roger Federer outplayed Robin Soderling in characteristic style. The Swede had astonishingly saved three set points in the 1st set before the tie-break, but in the breaker Federer as usual against Soderling, mixed the things up and repeated it at the end of the 2nd set, breaking him in the 9th game (with help of lucky net-cord) to score a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory in 1 hour 42 minutes. Federer has improved ‘heat to head’ with Soderling to 16-1 including 12-2 in tie-breaks!
The last quarterfinal was highly anticipated because David Ferrer seemed to be the only guy beside Nadal who would beat Novak Djokovic on clay this year, Djokovic had a winning record against Ferrer (5-4) but was defeated in their all three previous encounters on clay. The Serb used his forehand perfectly in the most important moments to notch a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over the Spaniard, finishing the contest just before midnight of the local time.

Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | 5 Comments

Madrid – 3R

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Unpredictable Michael Llodra [27] at the age of 31, not only achieved arguably the biggest clay-court success in his career, but also very likely will reach the highest singles position next Monday. The left-handed Frenchman, one of very few serve-and-volley specialists, took an advantage of extremely favorable draw en route to the Mutua Madrid quarterfinal. In the first round he ousted Sam ‘out-of-form’ Querrey, in the second qualifier Flavio Cipolla, for whom it was the best result at this level, in the third round another qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver [61], producing perhaps the best comeback in his career: after losing the 1st set 1-6, Llodra was *3:4 (30-30) in the 2nd set, and two points away from defeat at *5:6 (0-30) in the 3rd set. In the deciding tie-break Llodra obtained a mini-break in the very first point (Gimeno’s unforced error) and the next 10 points went with serve – Llodra prevailed 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(4).
Thomaz Bellucci [36] stunned Andy Murray 6-4, 6-2, with heavy forehand topspins from the back of the court. Murray never broke his opponent, having only three break points in the entire match. Bellucci has advanced to the last 8 of a “Masters 1000′ tournament for the first time in career. “I had to be solid, but at the same time, play aggressively, without letting him take all the control in the match,” stated happy Brazilian.
Novak Djokovic keeps his impressive form outplaying 6-1, 6-2 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in just 52 minutes. Djokovic lost only two points on serve (!) in the quickest third round encounter – 6 out of 8 games won to “love”. “[My] confidence is obviously very high and at this stage it plays an important role in my game and I’m trying to use it to continue this winning streak,” said Nole, unbeaten in 29 consecutive matches this year.
Juan Martin del Potro came to Madrid from Estoril in championship glory with a hip problem, but managed to win two matches in Spain. He decided though, that  wasn’t fit enough to conquer “king of clay” Rafael Nadal. DelPo withdrew from the anticipated meeting and explained: “I want to play as soon as I can and it would be a very nice match for me to play today. I really feel sad for that. It’s a nice tournament, nice people here, nice fans but I can’t.”

Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | Leave a comment

Madrid – 2R

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Voo de Mar

Roger Federer [3] raced to a 5:3 lead against Feliciano Lopez in the last match of the second round, and having beaten the Spaniard in all seven previous encounters, would have expected a standard 6-3, 6-4 win. Lopez somehow saved four set points in that 9th game and the match twisted rapidly. Since that moment, both players held their serves to the end of the all-tie-break match two hours later! In the 1st tie-break, Lopez had four set points (6:5, 8:7, 10:9, 12:11), Federer saved them all thanks to great service performance, especially the first one – an ace on second serve (!) – to finally convert his 9th set point, winning the breaker 15 points to 13; admittedly he is a specialist of winning long tie-breaks #. In the 2nd tie-break Lopez played impressive first three points (three winners from the baseline) which decided the final outcome. Federer had a triple break point at 3:2 in the deciding set, but Lopez escaped with great serves and third consecutive tie-break was required. Supported by partisan crowd, Lopez would have probably won the match if hadn’t missed an easy overhead after a bounce, leading 5:2*. Instead of 4 successive match points there was ‘5 all’. Federer made an unforced error which gave Lopez first match point, but the Swiss saved it with an ace ‘down the T’. Five points later Lopez sent backhand long and Federer could celebrate his first match point-down triumph since Shanghai 2006! He won also the battle of aces 25-23. Poor Lopez has lost four match point-up matches this year, including three all-tie-break defeats!## Other Top 5 players (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling) + virtual Top 5 player (Juan Martin del Potro) won their matches easily, however, Murray dropped a set against Gilles Simon. “I think he’s the worst rival to have to face in the second outing of a tournament,” said Nadal about his next opponent Del Potro. D’Joke posting a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Kevin Anderson (the Serb faced only two break points in one game), has joined the elite group of players with at least 30 matches won in a row. “It’s a fact that I am playing the best tennis of my life and I’m definitely happy about it,” he said after the 28th win of the year, stating that “strong mental ability to handle the pressure and play the right shots at the right time” are the keys to his amazing streak.

# Federer’s long tie-breaks (at least 20 points):
Won: 12-10 S.Draper, 14-12 M.Verkerk, 20-18 M.Safin, 11-9 F.Gonzalez, 11-9 T.Haas, 13-11 D.Nalbandian, 11-9 O.Rochus, 16-14 D.Ferrer, 12-10 T.Berdych, 13-11 A.Murray, 15-13 F.Lopez
Lost: 10-12 G.Canas, 9-11 T.Henman, 9-11 J.Blake
## Lopez’s match point-up defeats in 2011:
Sydney, 1R:   JM.Del Potro 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-7(3) – 1 m.p.
Johannesburg, 1R: F.Dancevic 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-7(8) – 1 m.p.
Davis Cup:   S.Darcis 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 6-7(3) – 1 m.p.
Madrid, 2R:  R.Federer 6-7(13), 7-6(1), 6-7(7) – 1 m.p.
Posted in Tournaments | Tagged | 5 Comments