A new start...
Grass tournaments fully underway this week. It's such a change: the colour of the courts, the decreased length of the points, the suddenly-impregnable service games of many otherwise-limited players...
Through the magic of live streaming, I watched Fernando Gonzalez play an obscure British qualifier, Richard Bloomfield, at the Queen's Club tournament yesterday. Bloomfield has a world-class serve, a decent net game, and nothing much else that would challenge the Chilean. However, his familiarity with the surface from getting through the qualifying rounds, his relative obscurity as a player, and Gonzalez's jitters in coming in from a different surface contributed to a tight first set, where Gonzalez often stood around looking slightly bemused while aces bombed past him. I was actually wondering at one point whether he was trying to get his head around the court being green and not red. The set ended in a tiebreaker where Gonzalez's greater skill and big-match experience began showing through; he won the set, 7-6(5). Second set went more easily for Gonzalez, a 6-3 showing.
Credit must go to Bloomfield, though, for not losing concentration in one of his service games near the end of the first set, which went over ten minutes before he managed to hold. The Brit double-faulted numerous times to hand Gonzalez several break points at various times in the game, but he would then serve up aces to save the same. It would've been so easy just to lose concentration for one of those serves; one more double fault at the wrong time and it'd have been game over much more quickly for Bloomfield.
The difference in importance of the serve on grass compared to clay is like night and day when you've spent the past two months watching/scoreboarding clay matches. Suddenly service games become well-nigh unbreakable in quite a number of matches (absolutely boring match on Monday between Zverev and someone else in Halle, for example, where if the serve didn't result in a winner, an error would invariably end the point), and a lot more volleying happens.
As for today's matches, I managed to catch all three of the top men's players on livestreaming today for decently long spells (I'd dearly have liked to see Gonzalez-Safin and Gulbis-Seppi as well, but only the centre courts were being streamed). Nadal's win looked the most effortless; Bjorkman played a smart grass game but was overwhelmed, 6-2, 6-2. A particularly notable weapon of Nadal's was actually his serve, which no one really talks about but which I was quite impressed by today. As for Federer's match in Halle against Berrer today, he was dominant on his serve throughout and was never really troubled, but it took him the better part of a set to get used to reading Berrer's serve. Djokovic, on the other hand, seemed to be cruising to an easy victory over Karanusic, serving for the match at 6-2, 5-3, but sloppy play in that game allowed Karanusic to break back and eventually force a tiebreak, which the Serb eventually won to 7. Hmm. Seems like he wasn't all there, but his opponent couldn't take advantage, playing passively on points where he should've taken some initiative.
There're quite a number of interesting matchups coming up at the Queen's Club in the round of 16. I'm supposed to predict results for R16 matches, but I think I'll give that a pass this week. Will just try to enjoy the matches as and when I can, and so on.
1. In another clash of the young'uns, Andy Murray is playing Ernests Gulbis, which promises to be interesting, as Gulbis admits to being less comfortable to grass than on clay (reached the quarters at the French last week, I believe, before losing honourably to Djokovic), while Murray has had little match practice coming into this one.
2. Gasquet is playing Ancic. The Frenchman finally found his rhythm against Simone Bolelli today, winning 6-3 6-3, after a disappointing claycourt season. When on, Gasquet's a fine grass player, one who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year. Ancic's another one to watch on grass, so the two of them playing each other could potentially be an interesting matchup. We'll see, though; all the opponents they've beaten so far this week claim their best results on clay courts. Not a true predictor of form.
3. Tipsarevic finally managed to set up a meeting with fellow countryman Djokovic, after beating Ivo Minar today. They were one match from meeting in Hamburg; Tipsarevic got pulverised by Montanes, who then went out meekly to Djokovic in the next round.
4. In another "countrymen playing each other" sort of match, Mardy Fish gets to play Andy Roddick yet again. The head-to-head is 8-1 in favour of Roddick, with the sole Roddick loss being due to, er, retirement, back in 2003. My money's on Roddick to win this one.
About Roddick's chances for the title this week, I'm reserving judgment on that. It depends on whether his shoulder is completely healed; the injury that forced him to retire from the Rome semifinal is the kind that might threaten his huge serve, a major component of his winning game. Funny thing is that people predicted it'd happen much sooner owing to the huge strain he's put on his shoulder all these years, but he's enjoyed a resurgence of sorts this year, and it'd be a shame if an injury were to put an end to that.
Through the magic of live streaming, I watched Fernando Gonzalez play an obscure British qualifier, Richard Bloomfield, at the Queen's Club tournament yesterday. Bloomfield has a world-class serve, a decent net game, and nothing much else that would challenge the Chilean. However, his familiarity with the surface from getting through the qualifying rounds, his relative obscurity as a player, and Gonzalez's jitters in coming in from a different surface contributed to a tight first set, where Gonzalez often stood around looking slightly bemused while aces bombed past him. I was actually wondering at one point whether he was trying to get his head around the court being green and not red. The set ended in a tiebreaker where Gonzalez's greater skill and big-match experience began showing through; he won the set, 7-6(5). Second set went more easily for Gonzalez, a 6-3 showing.
Credit must go to Bloomfield, though, for not losing concentration in one of his service games near the end of the first set, which went over ten minutes before he managed to hold. The Brit double-faulted numerous times to hand Gonzalez several break points at various times in the game, but he would then serve up aces to save the same. It would've been so easy just to lose concentration for one of those serves; one more double fault at the wrong time and it'd have been game over much more quickly for Bloomfield.
The difference in importance of the serve on grass compared to clay is like night and day when you've spent the past two months watching/scoreboarding clay matches. Suddenly service games become well-nigh unbreakable in quite a number of matches (absolutely boring match on Monday between Zverev and someone else in Halle, for example, where if the serve didn't result in a winner, an error would invariably end the point), and a lot more volleying happens.
As for today's matches, I managed to catch all three of the top men's players on livestreaming today for decently long spells (I'd dearly have liked to see Gonzalez-Safin and Gulbis-Seppi as well, but only the centre courts were being streamed). Nadal's win looked the most effortless; Bjorkman played a smart grass game but was overwhelmed, 6-2, 6-2. A particularly notable weapon of Nadal's was actually his serve, which no one really talks about but which I was quite impressed by today. As for Federer's match in Halle against Berrer today, he was dominant on his serve throughout and was never really troubled, but it took him the better part of a set to get used to reading Berrer's serve. Djokovic, on the other hand, seemed to be cruising to an easy victory over Karanusic, serving for the match at 6-2, 5-3, but sloppy play in that game allowed Karanusic to break back and eventually force a tiebreak, which the Serb eventually won to 7. Hmm. Seems like he wasn't all there, but his opponent couldn't take advantage, playing passively on points where he should've taken some initiative.
There're quite a number of interesting matchups coming up at the Queen's Club in the round of 16. I'm supposed to predict results for R16 matches, but I think I'll give that a pass this week. Will just try to enjoy the matches as and when I can, and so on.
1. In another clash of the young'uns, Andy Murray is playing Ernests Gulbis, which promises to be interesting, as Gulbis admits to being less comfortable to grass than on clay (reached the quarters at the French last week, I believe, before losing honourably to Djokovic), while Murray has had little match practice coming into this one.
2. Gasquet is playing Ancic. The Frenchman finally found his rhythm against Simone Bolelli today, winning 6-3 6-3, after a disappointing claycourt season. When on, Gasquet's a fine grass player, one who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year. Ancic's another one to watch on grass, so the two of them playing each other could potentially be an interesting matchup. We'll see, though; all the opponents they've beaten so far this week claim their best results on clay courts. Not a true predictor of form.
3. Tipsarevic finally managed to set up a meeting with fellow countryman Djokovic, after beating Ivo Minar today. They were one match from meeting in Hamburg; Tipsarevic got pulverised by Montanes, who then went out meekly to Djokovic in the next round.
4. In another "countrymen playing each other" sort of match, Mardy Fish gets to play Andy Roddick yet again. The head-to-head is 8-1 in favour of Roddick, with the sole Roddick loss being due to, er, retirement, back in 2003. My money's on Roddick to win this one.
About Roddick's chances for the title this week, I'm reserving judgment on that. It depends on whether his shoulder is completely healed; the injury that forced him to retire from the Rome semifinal is the kind that might threaten his huge serve, a major component of his winning game. Funny thing is that people predicted it'd happen much sooner owing to the huge strain he's put on his shoulder all these years, but he's enjoyed a resurgence of sorts this year, and it'd be a shame if an injury were to put an end to that.