Qatar/Brisbane/Chennai

Finally, the wait is over.  The new tennis season is starting tomorrow in Brisbane, with Qatar and Chennai joining in on Monday.

Djokovic will not play until Melbourne, but Rafa, David and Andy are all in action in Qatar.  Other notables include Berdych, Davydenko, Gasquet, Gulbis and Monfils.

In Brisbane, Federer is the No 1 seed (he should enjoy it, there may not be many more tournaments like that).  Overall, the field is much weaker than in Qatar, with Nishikori seeded at No 2 and Simon at No 3.  Still, there are some interesting players to watch.  The field includes Grigorov, Duckworth and Kyrgios, as well as Cilic.

Chennai has the weakest field, with Wawrinka and Youzhny seeded at #1 and #2.  Vasek Pospisil (an ethnic Czech from Canada) and Jiri Vesely (an ethnic Czech from the Czech Republic) being the two youngsters to watch there.

Starting a thread for the first week of 2014 tennis.  My picks to win:

Qatar: Berdych (ok, maybe being slightly off-kilter here)
Brisbane: Federer
Chennai: Wawrinka

Draws

Brisbane - http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/339/mds.pdf
Chennai - http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2014/891/mds.pdf

Qatar is not up yet. I will update when available.

Just read that Nadal has drawn Rosol in the first round. In singles AND doubles...

...thus providing a chance for the sparks to start flying here...hopefully.

I'm a bit scared to mention Murray.... but I will    He has been drawn to face a Qatar wildcard ranked 2099 in the first round. Poor Rafa he got better draws when he was ranked 5.

hawkeye wrote:I'm a bit scared to mention Murray.... but I will    He has been drawn to face a Qatar wildcard ranked 2099 in the first round. Poor Rafa he got better draws when he was ranked 5.

The draw was rigged to protect Murray's tender back.

Glad to see 606v2 coming back to life, albeit slowly.   

Good thread SB. As you say, like a vampire seeking out a new victim we finally have something tasty to get our teeth into. Ok, poor analogy. Anyway, my predicted winners are Stan, Rafa & Rodge.

Anyone got details on the latest Fed racquet try out?

Rafa is traditionally a slow starter in Doha. Just have a feeling Berdych will finally get a win over him in the SF. Berdych v. Murray final.

Brisbane looks a weak field. Unless Fed struggles with the new racquet he should cruise to the final. Reckon he will face Simon in the final.

Chennai is Stan's to lose but that isn't usually a situation which suits him. I'm going to pick Fab Fognini to beat Youhzny in the final. Will be interesting to see if Kyle Edmund can do anything against Pospisil.

He is also competing in the doubles competition with 45-year-old Francisco Roig, who is one of his coaches. The pair played at the 2009 Coupe Rogers in Montreal (d. Djokovic-Vemic in R1).

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/12/52/Doha-Murray-Makes-Comeback.aspx

Dan Evans has reached the final round of qualies. Has a decent shot of making it through.

Brisbane is very fast. Federer on form there would be a nice watch.

Mind you I am giving up on free streams for at least a while after I got a virus today trying to watch something (in another sport). And I don't currently have paid streams access. So probably not watching anything for a while.

Sorry to hear that HB.

I bid good night to everyone with the first match of the 2014 season between Matosevic and Benneteau finely balanced at 5:5 in the third set.

Interesting that some early year surfaces are quick...Abu Dhabi, Brisbane, Dubai...good to see the variation.

Evans cruises through to the main draw in Doha. Will face Gulbis, Dodig or another qualifier. Great start to his year. Primary aim has to be qualifying in Australia.

Nice one for Evans, hopefully he's been physically building up over the winter.

Hey - did anyone realise Nadal is playing Rosol in R1 at Doha? (EDIT...HE did.... )

The first time they've met since that fateful Wimbledon 2012 afternoon.

And not only that...he's getting a double dose of Rosol as faces him in the doubles later too...with his coach Roig. Weird.

On other news David Goffin returns to tour after breaking his wrist in training last September.

He's playing a Challenger event in a place called Noumea, New Caledonia. Check it out on google maps...locations for a pro tennis event don't come much more obscure!!! Just look where it is...


All that travel and cost and guess what the winners prize is?
$10.6K, if you go out in the semis then $3.7K.

Bon chance Goffin, hoping he can make head way this year but the recovery since Sept will have stopped him bulking up as he needed so I fear he may slip into obscurity. Fingers crossed not.

Evans is building up my hopes already. I fear that's a mistake on my part, but you never know - it would be nice to see him break into the top 100, maybe top 75.

Karlovic up a set on Berdych and second set TB. Can he cause an upset?   

Yep Dr Ivo won 76 76, given Doha is a very quick surface he could be a handful this week.
He just needs to reach the TBs then the pressure is on the higher ranked player.
Probably an all Croatian tie up with Dodig next.

Some non celebrity coaches have to work quite hard to earn their bread and butter. Nadal's number two coach Francis Roig who I believe is in his forties is doing double duty as a doubles partner. Both he and Nadal are on court at the moment taking on Rosol and Andujar in Doha.

I have just checked and Roig is the same age as Becker and doesn't even have any slam titles. So what's stopping Becker? Together with Djokovic they would make a great team  

@HE… as I commented elsewhere, since Nadal does not need any coach, he is asking Roig to earn his living by going back on tour.

Good to see Dr Ivo win.

In his on court interview after his doubles win today Francis Roig said that "being a coach is no big deal, tennis is an easy game  " Well I think that's what he said  

hawkeye wrote:In his on court interview after his doubles win today Francis Roig said that "being a coach is no big deal, tennis is an easy game  " Well I think that's what he said  

Perhaps Edberg/Becker/Lendl should go back on tour with McEnroe/Connors/Borg/Rafter/Laver in tow.   

Henman Bill wrote:Mind you I am giving up on free streams for at least a while after I got a virus today trying to watch something (in another sport). And I don't currently have paid streams access. So probably not watching anything for a while.

I should add it was Sport Lemon or one of the variations of that and I got redirected immediately to a page saying the police were on to me and trying to direct me to pay a fine. It was an obvious fake, but I googled the text, and it was said to be associated with a virus, I did a scan, and some stuff was found (and deleted). Maybe from that but not sure.

Andy starting with a leisurely stroll. 5-0 up. Yet to lose a point on his own serve or on his opponent's serve. In typical Murray fashion, he is winning only 20% of points behind his second serve though.

In four matches with British players this Zayed chap has won a grand total of one game (Liam Broady hang your head in shame). Does beg the question how Monfils managed to drop three games to him last year - including being broken twice!

Serve stats for Murray:

Serve % 63%
Aces 3
DFs 3
First Serve Points Won 100% (20/20)
Second Serve Points Won 33% (4/12)

Gotta love Andy's play behind second serve!

Bit unlucky for Dan - got the toughest draw of any of the qualifiers against Gulbis. Probably got to hope Ernest has only turned up for the Doha parties as otherwise he will probably be a bit too powerful for Dan. Would have fancied his chances with any of the other qualifier draws.

Evans levels the match with Gulbis...1 set all.

...which seems to have fired Gulbis up...he's raced to 4-0 in the 3rd.

Nadal/Rosol up next!

Either my tv is on a strange setting or Rafa looks very thin this year.

NEWSFLASH
NADAL WINS THE FIRST POINT!

Dull match so far...woeful actually...as the commentator just said Nadal hasn't been any higher than 2nd gear.

Rosol really is a horrible player for Rafa to face. He has no control over the points. Just has to hope Rosol misses more than he hits - which fortunately he did when serving for this set.

Rafa gets it done. Must have been a bit concerned when Rosol blasted him around the court to get back from 3-6 to 6-6 in the second set tiebreak but Rosol couldn't quite find his Wimbledon 5th set level today. Still, a good second set workout though.

I may be wrong about this but I'd say there are no longer any top 50 players with a positive head to head against Rafa. Can anyone confirm?

Awful match ... Rafa was well below par and RSol is such a boring player to watch... he occasionally gets lucky but so erratic ... still Rafa got it done...looked more like a practice session

Born Slippy wrote:
I may be wrong about this but I'd say there are no longer any top 50 players with a positive head to head against Rafa. Can anyone confirm?

The Bat Signal summons Batman.

That question summons Hawkeye.

Just done a quick check. Two players (Sousa and Pospisil) have yet to face Rafa. Two players (Rosol and Mayer) hold 1-1 h2hs. The other 45 top 50 players all have negative head to heads against Rafa. So, it is the case that no current top 50 player has a positive head to head against Rafa.

I wonder if that's ever happened before.

Haddie-nuff wrote:Awful match ... Rafa was well below par and RSol is such a boring player to watch... he occasionally gets lucky but so erratic ... still Rafa got it done...looked more like a practice session

Lol.
Watching him hit 20 winners in one set was just so boring and lucky.   

HM. Ha ha! The only active player with a positive H2H with Nadal is Davydenko. But Davydenko is no longer in the top 50 (I think?). One minute Davydenko was an excellent player the next he just sort of disappeared..

lydian wrote:Dull match so far...woeful actually...as the commentator just said Nadal hasn't been any higher than 2nd gear.

You and the commentators weren't watching what I was then as it was fascinating. The body language of Rosol was extraordinary. Rarely have I seen a player looking so intent and aggressive. I wonder if he always plays like that? If so credit to him for such intensity but it would be a very difficult to maintain. He definitely brought all the mental tactics to the game. He stated by doing that "sit for extra long on the bench" strategy recommended by a well known celebrity tennis commentator. He didn't even start taking his jacket off until Nadal had been jumping about at the net for about a minute. He just hit every ball as hard as he could. Some into the net and some miles wide but a few went in   . Every time Nadal served he jumped up and down and just before Nadal hit the ball he slammed his raquet hard on the court (Is that what he did in that famous Wimbledon match?). All this worked as Nadal looked very unsettled (and maybe a little spooked) and made loads of unforced errors. At one point in the second set Nadal was only getting 29% of first serves in. Maybe because Rosol was slugging all his second serves for 6. All this nearly got Rosol the second set. And if looks could kill....

But if you were just watching the actual tennis it wasn't anything special

HE's account of the match is rather different from mine     

How rude. Imagine leaving your opponent waiting at the net at the start just for gamesmanship...

 

Odd, I watched the match and didn't notice Rosol banging his racquet hard on the ground each time Rafa served. Strange how you miss these things. Good job HE is here to provide a neutral perspective on the match.

This is how tapping the racquet on the floor should really be done:

https://youtu.be/C_3yLZTCBaE

HE, I really think you're reading far too much into the mental side. Unsettled, spooked, etc? I dont think so. For me - and I watched the whole match on Eurosport - he walked the first set 6-2 then simply went mental walkabout in the 2nd. His timing went and he couldn't get it back due to being rusty and the quick surface and Rosol's own error strewn game gave him nothing to settle back down on. Rafa was no more than 2nd gear at any point - any neutral could see that. Rosol knew his only chance against Nadal was blast & hope - aided by a quick surface - and he didn't disappoint. But he's not a clever player and doesn't have PlanB or any subtlety. Had they met a few months ago Rosol would have been lucky to win games - and you could see that today, if Nadal had been even half-decent he'd have taken the 2nd set by the same score but started making many basic errors on his FH & BH. So yes, fair play to Rosol, he took it to Nadal as expected but he's simply too inconsistent to really trouble any of the top guys outside a fluke result until he can build a game around what is actually a very decent serve.

Re: the top 50 H2H, Rafa will play Mayer tomorrow so that will change...in Mayer's favour if Rafa plays like that again! Was nice to Gasquet's SHBH in operation again too.

LuvSports! wrote:

Haddie-nuff wrote:Awful match ... Rafa was well below par and RSol is such a boring player to watch... he occasionally gets lucky but so erratic ... still Rafa got it done...looked more like a practice session

Lol.
Watching him hit 20 winners in one set was just so boring and lucky.   

Yes he is boring to me sorry... 20 winners...against Nadal in second gear... yes LUCKY 

LuvSports! wrote:Watching him hit 20 winners in one set was just so boring and lucky.   

Each to their own...I don't find anything interesting about error-strewn hit & hope tennis where the UEs > winners.
Rosol is a brain-dead player making a career out of brain-dead tennis.
Now and then he gets lucky but he's a journeyman nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LTul2h2VMo

https://www.youtube.com/user/brisbanetennis