Three days in the stands at SW19

My apologies for the lack of content recently – last week I jumped on the train to Wimbledon on three occasions in four days.

I dreaded the sweaty uncomfortable hour-and-a-half journey but once I arrived at Southfields Station my travel woes were forgotten and I was looking forward to the day of tennis ahead.

I had ground tickets on Wednesday, court one tickets on Friday and centre court tickets on Saturday which meant for a high intensity Wimbledon experience! Read Wednesday’s match analysis here.

On exit from Southfields the first port of call was always the bookies to check a few prices followed by a cheese and bean melt from Greggs.

Depending on the heat and time constraints a choice would then be made to either walk to the grounds or take the £2 bus.

I used this particular bus on the Saturday as I went to meet my more organised brother, part of this years Wimbledon stringing team, who was already sitting in his front row seat on court one. 

I stepped onto the bus to hear the ramblings of two lads who could only be described as arrogant toffs. They asked the ticket inspector where they could sell their centre court tickets because ‘we care more about money than watching tennis’. It is ridiculous that these two ediots have got tickets over the thousands of people that queue over night to get in.

Sitting in the front row was an amazing experience and my brother and I returned home that evening to our Mum excitedly showing how many times we appeared on camera on a Sky+ recording.

The other advantage of being front row was that shout outs could be heard loud and clear and we had a few requests from friends who wanted to hear us on TV and we gladly obliged.

The newest additon to the Tennis Centre writing team, Amir Mehrad, joined me on Wednesday and he has written an in depth analysis of the epic match we saw between Nicolas Almagro vs Andreas Beck. Read it here. 

On Saturday I attended with fellow Tennis Centre writer Richard Shapcott who was furious when Andy Roddick, who was playing Jurgen Melzer dropped a set to lose him his 3 sets to love bet. It was another victory for me over Shapcott as I had bet than Melzer would get a set!

Nadal makes shock exit

I always find myself moaning about how the supposed best women players always seem to lose in the early rounds of grand slams, however at the French Open this year it has been the men who have suffered.

Two of the ’big four’ have lost before the quarter finals and I am truly shocked in the fashion they have bowed out.

A friend text me after the Nadal match claiming he thought the result was predictable which is ridiculous. Nadal’s loss to Soderling is simply unbelievable considering he hasn’t lost a set at the French Open since the 2007 final and the Spaniard really looked second rate today.

He did not hit with enough length throughout the match and Soderling punished this fact.

From start to finish the Swede hit every ball as hard as he could which worked perfectly as Nadal surprisingly couldn’t cope with the power he was generating.

I and everybody else watching this match thought that Soderling would have a dip sooner or later and Nadal would then gain control but it just never came. Take a look at Nadal’s demise here.

My immediate thought is that Nadal’s schedule has been too rigorous this year considering he has been to the final of every tournament he has played coming into the French. However he shot down this type of suggestion from journalists in his press conference but I reckon deep down he knows he is physically and mentally tired.

By the way I thought Nadal’s French Open attire was quality. Check out my review.

On the Djokovic front I have no idea how he managed to lose in straight sets to Kohlschreiber. Don’t get me wrong, the German is a masterful player on his day but his performances fluctuate so much it’s untrue.

I would put a hefty amount of money on whoever ‘Kohly’ is playing next because despite his immense talent, he is always liable to play like a complete donkey.

For example at the Australian Open earlier in the year he started with a decent straight sets win over Sam Querrey and then got himself into a right mess against old boy Fabrice Santoro losing in five.

Machine like Davydenko advances into final

I suspected Murray would be tired today and he certainly was. He was spotted looking blankly at his team in the third game after a losing a long rally.

In my previous post I wrote :: “The question is, will Murray be tired for his next match tomorrow against Nikolay Davydenko? He certainly can’t play any better than he did today and if Davydenko, who has had a day to prepare, plays as well as he did in his last match I think we could be seeing the Russian advance into the final.”

 His 3 hour marathon match with Federer was energy sapping and it showed today as he could not keep up with the barrage of quality coming from his opponent. Davydenko was simply stunning from the back of the court and Murray had no answers.

The Russian hit with such high intensity and precision and he was clearly prepared to hit forehands and backhands all day until Murray faded. He is comfortable off both wings and his shot technique is impeccable. I became a fan of ‘Davy’ after he won the Miami Masters event dominating Nadal in the final last March. Read the post here.

He isn’t as consistently good as the top four players in the world however when he’s at his best he certainly matches up with them.

He faces Djokovic in the final who has looked shaky this week. Despite the fact he lost to the Serb in the group stage I’m going to predict Davydenko will take the title.

Battling Murray sends Federer home

Andy Murray showed once again why he is the best player in the world at the moment as he fought out a 3 set victory over Roger Federer 4/6 7/6 7/5 in the Shanghai Masters Cup.

This match was fascinating from start to finish with the majority of the crowd in support of Federer. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different for Murray when compared with the match he played against Gasquet at Wimbledon where everyone was behind him. However he didn’t seem too bothered.

The only incident where the crowd did effect Murray came in the second set where clapping could be heard every time he missed a first serve. This proved crucial as he double faulted on break point after appearing frustrated to allow Federer to break back bringing the score back to 5-4.

This just shows the world wide respect that Federer has earnt over the years during his time at the top of the mens game.

With Federer serving at 4-5 in the third, I witnessed the most spectacular service game I have ever seen. The world number two saved seven match points by playing some breathtaking tennis and then won the game which took over 15 minutes to complete. 

 I even found myself slightly wanting the Swiss master to come back from the dead and win the match after an amazing show of courage and fight to bring the contest to 5-5 despite clearly being extremely tired.

I have to say that Murray at this point with the match duration approaching 3 hours, still looked as fresh as ever and I knew there was only going to be one winner.

The question is, will Murray be tired for his next match tomorrow against Nikolay Davydenko? He certainly can’t play any better than he did today and if Davydenko, who has had a day to prepare, plays as well as he did in his last match I think we could be seeing the Russian advance into the final.

Introducing the ‘David Cup’

A very interesting article appeared on The Tennis Times website recently. It featured Juan Martin Del Potro and David Nalbandian commenting on the venue of the Davis Cup final.

Take a look at the headline and then check out the picture of Juan Monaco which was strangely used to accompany the story!

 Credit for this spot goes to a member of the Talk Tennis forum who goes by the name of ’Love Game’.

The picture has now been removed on the website however the headline typo still remains in all its glory.

Stepanek borrows rackets and… socks!

Radek Stepanek flew into Shanghai from Thailand to replace the injured Andy Roddick only to find that all his equipment was stuck in Chinese customs. Fear not.

Fortunately Novak Djokovic was on hand to lend him some rackets and maybe not so fortunately Andy Murray lent him some socks.

 I’m just trying to imagine the moment when Murray strolled over to Stepanek, mouldy socks in hand and said in his mild Scottish accent: “Alright mate, I’ve heard you need some socks? Here you go, these are pretty good, helped me to get to the US Open final you know.”

 I wonder what could have been going through Stepaneks mind as he contemplated accepting the horrible second hand socks. I reckon he was so scared that Murray would erupt into a trademark incandescent rage that he just took them and walked off quickly to place them in the nearest washing machine. Why didn’t he just buy some from the nearest sports shop?!

This episode has lead me into to asking the following question. If you had to borrow socks from any professional tennis player who would it be?

I would definitely opt for the king of style, Roger Federer. Imagine him strutting over and giving you a pair of glistening white, perfectly preserved Nike socks presented on an marble plaque.

It was not specified what the Czech did for underwear but when considering his trademark match winning celebration is ‘the worm’ some reported that he went commando for the occasion.

Stepanek performing the worm after a victory

Unfortunately Stepanek lost his match to Federer but he did manage to take the first set into a tie break which isn’t bad when your playing with someone else’s rackets!

If you were wondering why Stepanek was selected to be an alternate as opposed to the many players ranked above him, its because they all turned the opportunity down. Poor Show.

Read the ’socks story’ here.

Murray will have to prove me wrong again

Murray played sensationally against Haas and sent out a message that he is in serious form.

The German tested Murray in the second set before the British number one upped his game in the third and fourth set.

Gasquet is another step up in class in my opinion and has been playing brilliant tennis this week.  He is one of my favourite players on tour and has the ability to hit a winner from anywhere on the court as well as having a very decent serve.

Murray will need to do some serious defending against the Frenchman who will attack from start to finish using his majestic backhand to dictate points.

If I get this wrong, Murray will have certainly proved to me and everyone he has what it takes to go all the way to the final but at the moment I think beating an on form Gasquet is a step too far for him.

Predicted Winner :: Gasquet

 

Murray vs Haas Prediction

This match will be no walk in the park for Andy Murray like his previous two rounds.

If Haas hadn’t been injured so much over the last couple of years he would be a top 10 player so his world ranking of 38 can be cast aside.

They currently have a head to head record of 1-1 with Haas winning the last encounter in March in a tight three set encounter.

The German is masterful from the back of the court and can hit winners from both wings as well as being gifted at the net. Murray as we know has a range of shots available to him also so this match will be very even.

Its difficult to pick a winner here and although I want Murray to win I think Haas could steal a win in five sets.

Predicted winner :: Haas 

 

Roddick makes an early exit – Is it that much of a surprise?

Andy Roddick went out in the second round of Wimbledon yesterday which isn’t a big shock in my opinion. His preparation for the tournament wasn’t brilliant as he had only played two competitive matches since a back injury sustained on May 5th ruled him out of Hamburg and the French Open.

As a result he simply wasn’t match tight against a very talented opponent. As I said in my predicition Tipsarevic was going to cause him trouble as the Serb is a better player from the back of the court.

It seems strange when people act like this result was an un-thinkable shock. Tipsarevic has had a string of good results this year after his five setter against Federer in the Australian Open which seemed to make him believe he could be one of the best players in the world.

This year Tipsarevic has beaten Fernando Verdasco, James Blake, Mikahil Youzhny and Paul Henri Matheiu which tells everyone he is some player.

It is fair enough to say Roddick was not at his best today but the Serb took advantage of this and got the job done.

Novak Djokovic’ loss to Marat Safin on the other hand is a bit more of a surprise. Again similar to Roddick’s case, you could say Djokovic wasn’t at his best but Safin didn’t give him a chance to play and get into his stride.

Safin put pressure on the Serb constantly and instead of responding in his typical impressive fashion, Djokovic on this occasion wilted under the barrage of power and precision from the strong Russian. It was like watching a heavy-weight versus a light-weight.

Djokovic couldn’t come up with any answers during the match but he did reveal he was mentally tired after the match. Nadal has won three tournaments in a row and is currently on a 19 match winning streak. Shouldn’t he be playing a poor match soon then where he does two double faults to lose the match? I’d put my bank on the Spaniard not losing as easily as this during Wimbledon.

I’m afraid Djokovic just didn’t show up for this match and was outclassed by a past master who may just have re-found that winning feeling.

I must add that James Ward, the British Number 8 who blogs for this website won a set off Marat Safin at Queens, something Djokovic could not do!

Match Prediction – Wimbledon – Second Round

These predictions are for matches to played on Thursday 26th July. The player in bold is my selected winner. I will update the post to include if I got each prediction correct or wrong.

Andy Roddick vs Janko Tipsarevic – Although I think Roddick will win, this will not be an easy ride for the American number one. He did not look all that comfortable on the grass during the warm up tournament for Wimbledon, Queens, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in the semi-final. Roddick also hasn’t played a lot of tennis recently since withdrawing from two clay court tournaments in May with a back injury. Tipsarevic has an all court game and is a brilliant shot maker. He is better than Roddick from the back of the court but I feel that the American’s serve will guide him through the match. – Wrong

Chris Eaton vs Dmitry Tursunov – Eaton beat Boris Pashanski, 500 places above him in the rankings in the first round. Eaton used his impressive serve to get him through the match which frustrated the Serbian journeyman. I would be very surprised if he beat Tursunov here as he looked limited from the back of the court. The Russian is sure to put more balls back in court than Pashanski and should go through in straight sets. – Correct

Nicolas Almagro vs Guillermo Garcia Lopez – Wrong

Rainer Schuettler vs James Blake – Wrong

Paul Henri Mathieu vs Jeremy Chardy – Correct

Marin Cilic vs Jarko Nieminen – Grass is Cilic’ best surface and I really fancy him here against Nieminen. Since his exceptional performance at the Australian Open at the start of the year the Finn has lost in ten first round matches and is very much off form. Cilic on the other hand has had an encouraging year and got to the semi final of Queens. – Correct

Jurgen Melzer vs Jesse Levine – Correct

Arnaud Clement vs Benjamin Becker – Clement beat Bjorkman in the first round as I predicted. Becker beat Davydenko in a minor surprise as we know the Russian is not comfortable on grass, especially against such a big hitter. Becker also has a big serve which i think Clement will have trouble returning and I make him the favourite here. Clement actually beat Becker last week in a tight three setter but a five set match in a Grand Slam is a very different prospect and the German will be full of confidence after a straight sets victory over the world number four. - Wrong

Richard Gasquet vs Sebastian Grosjean – Gasquet was sublime in his first round match and I expect him to cruise through against Grosjean who is not the player he once was. Grosjean hasn’t had a brilliant year and has withdrawn due to injury from three of his last four tournaments previous to Wimbledon, a sign perhaps that age is catching up with him. Theres no doubt though that the pint sized frenchman will still pull off a few amazing shots and keep Gasquet on his toes. – Correct

Augustin Calleri vs Giles Simon – Correct

Tommy Robredo vs Tommy Haas - Providing Haas is 100 percent fit he will win here. He has struggled with injuries this year however a four set win over Canas in the first round should give him a fair amount of confidence. Robredo is solid from the back of the court but I feel a lot more is needed to beat the talented Haas who can hit flashy winners off both wings. – Correct

Xavier Malisse vs Andrew Murray – Correct

Ernests Gulbis vs Rafael Nadal – Gulbis is a very talented player clearly with a bright future. He took down the one dimensional John Isner in the first round and dealt with his serve well. However I can’t see him troubling Nadal who is without a doubt on the form of his life. – Correct

Total Correct :: 9/13