Andy Murray’s Radical Messenger Competition Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered Andy Murray’s Head Radical Messenger Competition.

The winners of the prizes are as follows.

HEAD Microgel Raptor OS Raquet – Kimberley Stone

HEAD Radical Backpack – Victor Storey

HEAD limited edition wristband – Claire Constable

Sky Sports tennis coverage – brilliant

On my Facebook information page I have listed ‘tennis on sky sports’ as one of my favourite TV shows.

At university my house mates and I often found ourselves glued to the tv screen watching an epic ATP tour match.

We were very much involved in the tennis gambling scene and there were some very entertaining moments when bets were going well or badly.

For instance I particularly remember when fellow Tennis Centre writer Andrew Johnson lumped £50 on Rafael Nadal when he was a set down to David Nalbandian.

I however had identified this match as a potential banana skin for Nadal and had backed Nalbandian at a massive starting price of 7/1.

Nadal was simply awful throughtout the contest and Andrew was furious with the Spaniard’s lackluster performance.

Items went flying around the room as he shouted at the TV that he would never bet on tennis again while I performed a ‘slide on knees’ celebration across the wooden flooring as the Argentine cruised to a 61 62 victory.

Although we have had many disagreements about who is going to win a match we both agree on one thing; the Sky Sports studio and commentary team are first class.

Presenter Marcus Buckland along with Mark Petchey, Barry Cowan, Barry Millns and Leif Sharas always provide lively commentary and insight with their tongue in cheek humour often making me chuckle.

Mark Petchey in particular is a truely gifted commentator who makes it look easy when it’s not. 

One of my favourite quotes during commentary is Petchey’s decription of Igor Andreev in a recent match. He said: “When his A game isn’t working that’s where his alphabet stops.” What a comment!

Another stand out moment for me was when Buckland and Petchey were discussing an upcoming match between Nadal and Del Potro.

A graphic came up on the screen listing a number of attributes and Petchey had to decide who was better in each department e.g forehand, backhand, serve, speed etc.

My friends and I cracked up as he said Nadal was better at everything and that it would be a very one sided match.

However Petchey didn’t write off Del Potro completely. He cheekily gave him one thing in his favour –  the ‘underdogs advantage’!

Thankfully for Petchey, his pre match analysis was proved right as Nadal comfortably defeated the Argentine in two sets.

Andy Murray’s Radical Messenger Competition

ANDY MURRAY’S Head Radical Messenger application offers you the chance of winning three top prizes.

The fun new app features Murray talking about his new racket – the YouTek Radical Pro as well as some amusing sketches with the British number one.

To enter log on to www.radicalmessenger.head.com, follow the on screen instructions and click on ‘shoot your friends a message’.

Write in thetenniscentre@london.com as a recipent and then include the answer to the following question in your message..

What is Andy Murray’s current world ranking? 

The three correct entries drawn out at random will win either a Microgel Raptor OS Raquet, a HEAD Radical backpack or a HEAD limited edition wrist band.

So what are you waiting for?! Click here now to be in with a chance of winning some top Head equipment.

The competition will run until September 26.

Federer keeps it red

Roger Federer is wearing a red shirt for his day time matches at the US Open for the second year running.

Fed turned out for his opening round match against Devon Britton in a very similar outift to last year – but this time he wore black shorts instead of grey.

Ususally the Swiss master enjoys experimenting with different colours and styles for grand slams however on this occasion he has kept with what he knows.

Personally I am not a fan of red but he pulls off the outfit well with a black bandana and wrist band.

For night matches he has opted for the ‘Darth Federer’ look which was last seen at the Open in 2007. This includes a black shirt, shorts, socks and trainers which I think looks pretty cool.

Federer US Open 2008

Federer US Open 2009

Darth Federer US Open 2007

Ward becomes British number 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tennis Centre’s James Ward has topped off his good form in 2009 by becoming the British number two.  

Ward, who has improved massively over the last 12 months, cracked the worlds top 250 for the first time in May following his tournament win in Sarasota, Florida and has not looked back.

He had an impressive summer notching his first ATP tour win against Victor Crivoi at Eastbourne as well as making his debut appearance at Wimbledon.

Now standing at #204, the 22-year-old Londoner is brimming with confidence and will be looking to carry on his meteoric rise up the rankings.  

Ward said: “It’s a great feeling to be ranked number two behind Andy (Murray).

“The last year has flown by and it seems everything has clicked for me.

“The grass court season was really encouraging for me as I got my first ATP Tour win.

“Playing on court one at Wimbledon was unbelievable and hopefully I’ll be able to play there again soon.  

“I still have a long way to go if I’m going to achieve my ultimate goal of getting in the top 100 but I’m feeling good right now so we will have to see what happens.” 

This month Ward has been in Brazil where he played two Challenger events.

At Campos Do Jordao he advanced a round before coming against experienced Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela who he lost to 3-6 2-6.

Davydenko on an 11 match winning streak

I’m very pleased to see Nikolay Davydenko back on form.

He missed a lot of tennis at the start of the year due to injury and subsequently saw himself drop out of the top ten for the first time since May 2005.

However this absence from the world’s elite did not last for long as the talented Russian reeled off ten straight victories to claim two titles in as many weeks moving into 8th place.

Davydenko is one of the best players to watch on the tour as he plays the game like nobody else with his machine like hitting from the back of the court.

His technique is flawless and when on song he peppers his opponent with powerful shots that land near or on the baseline which are simply impossible to deal with.

Just ask this years Wimbledon quarter finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero who was embarassed by ‘Kolya’ (the Russian nickname for Nikolay) 6-3 6-0 in the final of clay court tournament Umag which completed his ten match rout.

The Russian is surely due another decent showing in the Montreal Masters this week and he has already seen off Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round.

So the world number eight is anything but boring right?

Not according to The Sun who branded him ‘the most boring man in tennis’ in an article written in June during the French Open.

Boring? So a man with 16 career singles titles to his name, four appearances in grand slam semi finals, two wins over Rafael Nadal and an accusation of match fixing is boring?! I don’t think so.

Haas delivers

Tommy Haas fought back from a set down to beat Ivo Karlovic 4-6 7-6 6-4 in the Montreal Masters first round.

The German lost the first set after being broken early on however he managed to force the second into a tie break which he won 7-3.

He then took the deciding set 6-4 converting one of his three chances to break Karlovic.

As predicted the 6’10 giant could not repeat his scintilating Wimbledon form with his first serve percentage for the match down at 49 percent.

This match tip was provided by Pinewood who writes for our new sister site The Betting Battle.

Match Tip – 11/08 – Haas to beat Karlovic

 Tommy Haas vs Ivo Karlovic – Montreal Masters

Haas has had a brilliant summer and he is back in the world’s top 20 for the first time since January 2008.

The 31-year-old has clearly put his injury problems behind him now and his semi-final showing at Wimbledon proves this.

Straight sets loses to Querrey and Gonzalez in recent weeks may be a sign of tiredness however I feel he will have enough to get past big serving Karlovic.

The Croatian, like Haas, was at the top of his game at Wimbledon before being cast aside by Roger Federer.

However I wasn’t as impressed with ‘Big Ivo’ in a match against Andy Roddick at Washington last week.

He was a break up in both sets but was broken back and ended up losing 7-6 7-6.

If Karlovic was bang on form he would not be losing his serve as we saw for 14 sets in a row at SW19.

Haas has lost to the 6′10 giant on the last three occasions but the last time they played was in 2007.

The German is a brilliant returner and seeing as he is playing his best tennis in a long while, he should be able to pick off a few of the massive serves coming at him and advance to the second round.

This tip was provided by Pinewood, a writer for our new sister site The Betting Battle – click here to find out more.

Serena not as dominant as she thinks she is?

After winning Wimbledon Serena Williams made some sarcastic comments when asked if she was disappointed not to be number one in the world.

She has won two grand slams this year and many regard her as the best female player on the tour but last weeks quarter final exit to little known Australian Samantha Stosur suggests otherwise.

It has been well documented that the Williams sisters only play the ‘big’ tournaments these days but I didn’t see the family name being engraved on the Bank of the West Classic trophy in Stanford, Califonia – not a massive event but the $700,000 prize fund was enough to attract the multiple time grand slam champions. 

It was the world number 12 and former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli who took the spoils beating Venus in the final in three sets to claim her fifth WTA title.

While it’s clear they both bring their best form to grand slams I feel that if Serena wants to be number one, which she clearly thinks she should be, then maybe she should start bringing this type of form to all the other tournaments.

Dinara Safina currently occupies the number one spot and although she was dominated by Venus in the Wimbledon semi final I think she deserves to be there.

She has worked the hardest out of all the female players in recent times and has got the most rankings points as a result.

During the post Wimbledon press conference on July 4th Serena said: “I see myself as number two.

“I think Dinara did a great job getting to number one – she won Rome and Madrid,” which caused the room to erupt with laughter.

This is a funny comment but lets see what happened to Serena in the two tournaments she mentioned.

In Madrid Serena retired in the first round after losing the first set and in Rome she lost in the second round to Patty Schnyder.

Had Serena won these two events she would be number one in the world so perhaps the rankings aren’t so fickle after all.

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