Grass court season

Andy Murray’s run at Surbiton ends in the semi finals as Denis Kudla comes from a set down to see off the former #1.
5-7 7-6 6-3
Think Murray will be generally happy with how things went this week.

Andy said the conditions were ultra-blustery and he was not too disappointed about losing.

He goes on from here to Stuttgart and then on to Queen's. Be interesting to see just how many will want to play a "point-less" Wimbledon.

But as often been said, there are no asterisks in sport. Whoever wins it will be forever labelled "Wimbledon champion".

Ivanišević says Djokovic unlikely to play any warm up events before Wimbledon. Got to admit that’s slightly surprising. Obviously as 6 times champion he knows what to do at Wimbledon, but considering he’s only played 21 matches in 2022. He’s not exactly managing his workload.

Emma R in action today in Nottingham while Andy Murray plays in Stuttgart.

Harriet Dart had a good win at Nottingham yesterday, taking out a formerly highly-ranked player, Vekic. There were also wins for Dan Evans and Heather Watson.

Happy to hear Zverev will "only" be out 6-8 weeks, he will miss the whole grass tour, which is a shame, but he has a chance to make it to the usopen as it is 11 weeks from now

he is 28-16 on grass in his career and the best he has done is two finals in Halle. In wimbledon he  just has a couple of 4th rounds.

Considering no points are given at Wimbledon, I think it is not as bad as it could have been. I am glad for him.

Glad for Zverev the out-of-action period is not overlong. Given the "pointless" Wimbledon perhaps it's a good time to be injured.

Looks like Raducanu is heading to another injury-plagued exit.

The way Zverev was playing Nadal at Roland Garros in the semi-final - he looked like one of "them" - one of the greats. Zverev has delivered outside of the slams but I was thinking maybe RG 2022 was going to be his slam breakthrough. Five masters, two end of year ATP finals titles, and an Olympic Gold. He was a set and a break down against Djokovic in the Olympics semi-final, then he upped his level and Djokovic couldn't live with him. At RG he beat Alcaraz and then was fighting Nadal, toe to toe - over three hours for just under two completed sets - and then he was done. I hope he FULLY recovers so that we get to see what this new and improved Zverev can do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/61721537

Raducanu seems doubtful for Wimbledon

Andy Murray beats qualifier Chris O’Connell 6-4 6-3 in Stuttgart

I may be stating the bleeding obvious, but Raducanu needs a half-decent fitness trainer.

That's the third time she's had to retire in a match and, perhaps more alarmingly, it seems to be different problems each time.

Better news about Andy Murray. Having lost the first three games he had few probs after that, seeing off O'Connell in straight sets in Stuttgart. Next up is Bublik.

In Nottingham, Briton Ryan Winkle beat number two seed Vesely in three tiebreak sets.

It seems some potentially great tennis players just can't cut the "grind" of the professional tour (WTA or ATP) physically or mentally or both.   For the WTA there is not much difference between a slam tournament and a non-slam tournament apart from prestige, reward and media attention.  The same is not true for the ATP however. For Emma Raducanu her first wins on the WTA tour came in the grand slams and her first tournament win on the WTA tour was the US Open 2021.

I find, hilariously, that I can't use the name of Ryan Pxniston without it automatically being changed to Ryan Winkle.

Anyway, Mr Winkle has won again today. Perhaps he should change his first name to Wee Willie.

Dan Evans (normal name!) has also won in Nottingham, taking out experienced Italian Fabbiano 7-5, 6-0.

There was some doubt as to whether Heather Watson would be fit enough to play today, but she has started against Golubic

Fortunately, it seems Emma R's injury is nothing too serious. Still think she's doing something wrong in training if she's suffering aches and pains THIS regularly.

Andy Murray plays Bublik today with whom he has a 2-1 head-to-head record. Grass may give Andy the edge.

Murray fought back from 2-5 in the second set to win 6-3 7-6 (7-4) against Bublik where he will face the winner of Tsitsipas & Stricker.

these weeks finals (my bet)

Mannarino - Felix

Kyrgios - Berretini

Daniil Medvedev began his grass court campaign at 's-Hertogenbosch. Medvedev came from 2-5 down in the opening set to beat Giles Simon 7-5 6-4. Medvedev needs to work on his net game.

Would be terrific if Andy could overcome Tsitsipas today but at least the match will show the Scot where he's at.

Being on grass, the match gives Murray a chance, although I think the Greek will have too much for him.

Fine win for Harriet Dart over Giorgi in Nottingham yesterday. Dart faced three MPs at 4-5, 0-40 in the final set but came through.

Murray saves a set point at 5-6 & is now in a 1st set tie breaker against Tsitsipas.

ETA: Murray wins the first set on a breaker 7-4.

British wildcard Felix Gill lost his doubles semi-final 6-3, 6-4 at the Nottingham Open.
Coincidentally that was the score I lost to him by when I played doubles against him in a match 5 years ago (he was only 15 then).

Murray breaks mid way through the second to move to 4-2.

Murray misses 2 match points at 5-2 & Tsitsipas hold to move to 3-5. Murray to serve for the match.

That has to be Murrays best win for quite a while now, another poor indictment of the current standard of mens tennis though. A 35 year old with a metal hip is still capable of comfortably beating the world number four on his favoured surface.

Soul Requiem wrote:That has to be Murrays best win for quite a while now, another poor indictment of the current standard of mens tennis though. A 35 year old with a metal hip is still capable of comfortably beating the world number four on his favoured surface.

It shows that, despite what we say elsewhere, grass and clay are still rather different surfaces, and you have to be quite special to have success across all three surfaces.

Interesting RG fact - in getting to the RG semi finals, Marin Cilic became the 5th active male player to have reached at least the SF of each slam, after the big 4. Interesting that Stan has only got a best of 4th round at Wimbledon, and that was early in his career.

Murray's best win since he beat Djoko in the WTF in London in 2016.

I thought he might have a chance but he did really well to get it done in straight sets.

Next up for Andy in the semi could be Kyrgios.

Very good win for Andy Murray and he will play Nick Kyrgios in the semi-final of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.

If Andy could win the tournament and go deep at Queens it is a possibility that he could be seeded for Wimbledon. Anyway that is getting ahead of myself. He can tick another box off in his comeback - beating a player inside the world's top ten.

Always great to see Andy Murray doing well in the run up to Wimbledon. If he can maintain his level, he could be a real threat at Wimbledon.

In reaching the Stuttgart ATP250 semi-final Andy Murray has played in total six sets of tennis. I think although Andy Murray can beat nearly anyone on his day, in tournament tennis his body begins to fall apart if he accumulates too much time on the court.

No name Bertie wrote:In reaching the Stuttgart ATP250 semi-final Andy Murray has played in total six sets of tennis.  I think although Andy Murray can beat nearly anyone on his day, in tournament tennis his body begins to fall apart if he accumulates too much time on the court.

He is though, managing his schedule, far better now missing nearly all of the clay court season for example so that will definitely help. Besides Andy has only reached one final this year so it can't be said how his body will hold up for sure at the moment. Fitness-wise Andy is saying he is feeling fine.

Andy M comes through in straight sets against Kyrgios. The scores (I haven't seen any of it) suggest a tight first set and then Murray rather running away with it in set two.

Useful 150pts and Berrettini to come in the final. My views on the Italian are well known. All Andy has to do is stick everything on the backhand.

Incidentally Berrettini won today having forced only one BP. Like Isner, he relies totally on a huge serve, big FH and tiebreaks.

Andy may well have to play Berrettini in the second round at Queen's next week following publication of the draw there. He lost to the Italian at Q's last year but he's in far better shape this year and I can see him winning tomorrow (and may be next week as well).

Pleased for Andy ... Kyrgios is a bit of a goose but he can play when he's in the mood so that is a good job done in seeing him off in straight. Especially so quickly after beating Tsitsipas in the QF. Pretty good for a man with an artificial hip !

Would love to see him win the final ; but Berrettini won't be any pushover...

Apparently, Kyrgios did one of his "throwing all his toys out of the pram" acts and was penalised, first, a point and then a game in the second set.

It seems he's never going to grow up. It's such a pity as he is a wonderfully gifted player.

A real shock in Holland where local guy Van Rijthoven (who I thought was last heard of shooting down planes in the Great War) upset FAA to reach the final. VR is currently ranked 205 and has never been higher than 175.

I don't think anyone really believes Kyrgios will get any better at this point, either in terms of behaviour of in terms of consistent performance to the level he ought to be capable of.

It's up to him to prove that wrong at this point.

I think Murray has a real chance today. For all Berrettini's high ranking, the Italian hasn't beaten a top 10 player since the O2 in 2019.

You'd expect B to serve well and hit huge FHs. But he'll find Murray will be getting back a lot of those serves, particularly when B serves from the left court, with Andy fizzing back those cross-court BHs on to the Italian's suspect BH side.

But win or lose, this has been a good tourney for Andy, highlighted by the Tsitsipas match.

In Nottingham, Dan Evans has reached the final. It may only be a Challenger but there are 125pts at stake.

Watching some highlights of Andy Murrays match against Kyrgios he looks nearly a shadow of himself compared to 2015 and 2016. In a somewhat scrappy match he was still too good for Kyrgios - who showboated in parts of the first set and then lost his mind a little in the tie-breaker and the second set.

Britain's Paul Jubb, who has raised his lowly ranking quite considerably of late, has - commendably - qualified for Queen's.

Not sure he's ever played a main-tour match before. He makes the draw with a 7-6, 7-5 beating of Steve Johnson who was once ranked as high as 21.

Berrettini and Murray level at one set-all. Berrettini won the first set 6-4 and Murray has just taken the second set breaking in the 12th game to take it 7-5.

Berrettini breaks to lead 6-4 5-7 1-0.

A medical timeout for Murray. Looks like he's getting attention to his left knee.

Berrettini 4-2 up with Murray serving and another timeout for Murray not exactly sure where problem is.

sirfredperry wrote:A real shock in Holland where local guy Van Rijthoven (who I thought was last heard of shooting down planes in the Great War) upset FAA to reach the final. VR is currently ranked 205 and has never been higher than 175.

6-4, 6-1 over Medvedev in the final, first ATP title for a Dutch player since 2012.

Matteo Berrettini wins the Mercedes Cup beating Andy Murray 6-4 5-7 6-3. Hopefully, those timeouts were nothing too serious and Murray will still be able to play Queen's and Wimbledon or at least Wimbledon.

Was Andy impaired towards the end? Can't believe a player as limited as Berrettini can win tournaments.

Trouble is that with only Ruud of the top players appearing at Queen's next week, there's probably little to stop the Italian reaching another final.

Meanwhile, Baron von Richtoven has broken away from his fighter pilot career to, sensationally, beat Medvedev in the Dutch tourney with the long name.

Nevertheless, Medvedev will return to number one and Andy will also climb up the rankings.

Murray had various physical issues in that match but he didn't retire - he had one medical time out and another medical pause / assessment. I hear this was Berrettini first tournament since recovery from injury and he broke down in tears when winning this match. Berrettini has an excellent record on grass and was last years runner up at Wimbledon.

Great to see the Roman gladiator Matteo Berrettini back in the winners circle. As Bertie says, Matteo been hindered by various injuries in recent times.
Solid week for Andy Murray and proven right to ignore the clay courts.

Sir Fred - 6 titles now for Matteo. Not bad for a nobody....

I'm sure Matteo is a real sweet guy and there's no doubting he has made/is making the most of what he has.

But he can't beat the top players and only seems to win when the top guys are absent or playing elsewhere.

Berrettini perhaps a poor man's Andy Roddick - massive serve and forehand, that are very difficult on a fast court, but lacking the all-round skills to be right up there with the best of the era.

As for Murray, obviously encouraging that he's won a few matches in the last couple of weeks, including beating Tsitsipas, and pushed last year's Wimbledon finalist to 3 sets even if not quite at full fitness. If he's looking for a good run at Wimbledon (and realistically, against the field likely to be there he has the potential to be QF or SF if he avoids Djokovic earlier), then maybe skipping Queens would be a good idea, to let his body recover.

Wonder what the odds are for Murray being the last Brit standing in the singles? Evans is OK on grass, but can be overpowered, while Norrie hasn't yet shown much on the grass courts or in the Slams generally, while on the ladies side it's obviously Raducanu or nothing after R2.

Good win today for Jack Draper, beating Taylor Fritz in straight sets.
Also very good for Harriet Dart beating a top 50 player for the loss of only a couple of games.

Draper is starting to put together some really impressive results. Could be a real danger at Wimbledon if he can avoid the very top seeds.

Andy Murray has withdrawn from Queens with the abdominal injury he suffered yesterday.