McIntyre Tennis

ATP Tour Recap - Bastad, Newport and Umag

By Mike McIntyre

The ATP World Tour made the transition from the Grand Slam fervor of Wimbledon to a trifecta of smaller events in Bastad, Newport and Umag. Here is a recap of the results of the past week as we sink our teeth into the summer.

SkiStar Swedish Open - Bastad, Sweden

Impressively voted by the players as the 250 level tournament of the year between 2002-2011, it was captured this year by someone who enjoyed much success over that time period but not so much as of late. David Ferrer won his first Tour title since 2015 and sent notice that Roger Federer is not the only 35 year old who can still handle his own on a tennis court. It was the third time that Ferrer has hoisted the trophy in Bastad with previous wins in 2007 and 2012. We shall see if he can keep the five year pattern going and win one at the age of 40 in 2022! This time Ferrer took out Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals and then Alexandr Dolgopolov in the finals to take the tournament. The win bumps him up 13 spots in the rankings and within striking distance of a seeded spot at the U.S. Open later this summer.

Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open - Newport, Rhode Island

Continuing the trend of players who had not won a title of late, American John Isner used his commanding serve to his advantage on the grass in Newport. Isner had won a tournament every year from 2010-2015 but after winning in Atlanta two years ago he had come up empty. At the age of 32 and with his limitations being what they are, it is unlikely we will ever see the 6'10'' Isner ever win a Slam but he should be able to pull off at least a level 250 event with that serve being the weapon it is. When you see that Ivo Karlovic is doing just fine ranked 29th in the world at the age of 38, Isner should be able to continue his career for several more years. Not to take away from Isner's accomplishment but his opponents en route to the trophy were not exactly guys who should have given him trouble. It only took four wins for the championship and three of those were against opponents who were ranked outside of the top 200 in the rankings. Newport is the third grass court tournament win of Isner's career with all of them coming at this very same event. 

Plava Laguna Croatia Open - Umag, Croatia

From two well known tennis commodities to a lucky loser of champions in Umag. Russian Andrey Rublev at the tender age of 19 reminded us that it's not just the over-thirty crowd that can achieve success these days on Tour. The youngest current player inside of the top 50 in the rankings overcame six different opponents (including qualifying) to win the first pro title of his young career. Most unsual was the fact that Rublev lost his final qualifying match (in straight sets) to Italian Attila Balazs but found his way into the main draw none the less. He took out known clay court guru Fabio Fognini in the quarters, veteran Ivan Dodig in the semis and Paolo Lorenzi in the finals by a score of 6-4, 6-2. His victory must have Russian tennis fans excited as there hasn't been much to talk about on the men's side in that country since Kafelnikov and Safin retired. Those two remain the only men's Grand Slam singles champions from Russia.

Dolgopolov In Hot Water Over Instagram Pic

By Mike McIntyre

Wanted: new PR manager for Alexandr Dolgopolov.

It seems as though the 19th ranked Ukrainian has made a very poor judgement call with his use of social media. Dolgopolov posted the following picture on his Instagram account. Be warned that the picture is not appropriate to be viewed by children or in ones workplace. 

The general consensus on Twitter on the translation of the words beneath the picture is, "childhood is over, bitches."

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this was that Dolgopolov's Instagram account had to have been hacked. I mean, what professional athlete would post such a vulgar and offensive photo on their public account? Then I saw the following article from changeovertennis.com and realized this is not the first time that Dolgolpolov has posted questionable materials online. I guess he just doesn't get it.

The fact that this picture is still up on Instagram more than 24 hours after it was posted is just as mind-blowing as the original post itself. Does Dolgopolov not have someone in his inner circle who might have suggested, "hey dude, maybe this isn't such a great idea?"

The two main issues (among the many) that I have with this image are the fact that it sexualizes children and that it is openly displayed in a place that children could view it. If I were a young fan of Dologopolov's and I saw that picture, I would have plenty of questions for my parents about its content. While the internet did not yet exist when I was a young tennis fan, I could never imagine finding something like that posted by one of my idols like Pete Sampras or Stefan Edberg. They both possessed two things that Dolgopolov appears to lack - common sense and class.

Of course I'm sure if social media existed back in the day, we would have had plenty of controversies similar to this one. Imagine Johnny Mac with Twitter during the 1970s and 80s! I'm sure Ilie Nastase and Jimmy Connors would have gotten in all kinds of trouble as well. But that was then and this is now.

Pro athletes are so much more in tune with the watchful eye of the media and of the damage that social media can have on ones public image. Dolgopolov seems to be oblivious to this fact. With his morals appearing to be about as low as his service toss, Dolgopolov - one would think - needs to seriously reconsider if having an Instagram account is such a good idea. An apology and removal of the picture in question might be nice as well.

Around The Corner: Cincinnati Masters

By Mike McIntyre

As the Rogers Cup is set to wrap-up this weekend in Montreal with the men, the draw for the second consecutive Masters 1000 event has just been released in Cincinnati. With the U.S. Open just two weeks away now, players will be looking to fine-tune their games and round into form for the final Grand Slam of the year.

How will Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray rebound after poor showings in Canada? The answer to that question has a lot to do with the draws they have received as well as how they deal with their mental and physical short-comings from this past week.

World number one Novak Djokovic will enjoy the benefits of a first round bye at the Western and Southern Open and gets the winner of American Ryan Harrison and Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela. The progress that Harrison has made this year has been quite positive and he is giving U.S. tennis fans some real hope as they continue to search for the successor to Andy Roddick. Harrison should get by Chela, a player whose game is never really that dangerous on hard-courts.

Djokovic also has Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils in his section of the draw. Both of those players made the quarter-finals in Montreal this week. Djokovic can handle either, especially evidenced by his 6-2, 6-1 beating of Monfils on Friday evening.

Andy Roddick makes his return to the ATP World Tour after some injury issues of late. Currently ranked 12th in the world, Roddick could see his ranking start to fall quickly if he cannot put together some results this summer. Roddick has not played since a Davis Cup loss to David Ferrer on hard-courts in early July. He will open in Cincy against Philipp Kohlschreiber, a tricky opponent to be sure.

Djokovic should be able to advance through this section but having too much success just prior to the Open could be problematic down the road. A player does not want to peak too early, although it seems that Djokovic has found a way to keep his magical results going all year long.

In the following quarter of the draw, Roger Federer is not going to have an easy run. While he was fortunate to draw Canadian wildcard Vasek Pospisil in Montreal, his first adversary in Cincy will be either Juan Martin Del Potro or Andreas Seppi. No offence to Seppi, but it would be shocking if he could get by the 6'6'' Argentine.

Federer will be pushed to the limit by Del Potro and could see his U.S. Open preparations seriously harmed if he's not on top of his game. Federer holds a 6-2 advantage in their career head-to-head, but Del Po has won the last two encounters.

Tomas Berdych is also in this section of the draw as the 8th seed, but you can never get your hopes up with this guy. It seems like a mix of quarter-final and semi-final appearances this year are all we are going to get out of the talented but enigmatic Czech. He hasn't beaten a quality opponent all year long, so I wouldn't expect that to change now. This guy must drive his coach nuts!

On the other side of the draw Rafael Nadal will try to get things back on track after a surprising second round defeat to Ivan Dodig. While Federer losing to Tsonga in Montreal was always within the realm of possibility, I don't think anyone really saw that Dodig loss coming for Nadal.

The Spaniard will play either Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or a qualifier in his opening match. That should be the perfect prescription to get things going to him. A quarter-final match against Mardy Fish is a possibility for Nadal, although with Fish going deep in Montreal I wonder how much energy he will want to expend in back-to-back weeks.

Keep an eye on the talented Alexandr Dolgopolov who opens against Richard Gasquet in this quarter as well as Fernando Verdasco and veteran Xavier Malisse as a longshot who can still play the game quite well.

Finally, Andy Murray will try to find his form against the winner of David Nalbandian and a qualifier. Nalbandian can't seem to catch a break as he opened against Wawrinka in Montreal. Murray should be a good bet to dispatch of the veteran Argentine and hopefully the doubles action he saw with his older brother Jamie in Montreal will help him out here.

David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are also in this section and are fantastic hard-court players who could go deep here if Murray is still working out the kinks in his game.

Of the top-twenty players in the world, only Sweden's Robin Soderling is missing in action.

My picks for a final four this week will be Djokovic vs. Del Potro and Murray against Dolgopolov. I don't see Federer getting by his first opponent and something just didn't seem right with Nadal while practicing or playing in Montreal this past week.

Let the speculation for the U.S. Open continue. It will be here before we know it!

Rogers Cup Day One Review

 By Mike McIntyre

Day one from the Rogers Cup offered up some quality first round matches in Montreal. Some were able to meet expectations while others did not.

Falling into the category of the latter would be David Nalbandian against 16th seeded Stanislas Wawrinka. While the world's second ranked Swiss player held a solid 5-3 record against Nalbandian heading into the match, the Argentine won their last encounter with ease a year ago by a score of 6-1, 6-3.

Nalbandian has had a tough year, one that once again has been negatively impacted by health issues. Requiring not one, but two separate surgeries to his left leg/groin areas, Nalbandian missed three months on the tour and returned just in time for the brief grass-court season. He lost in the third round of both Queen's (Verdasco) and Wimbledon (Federer) before falling to James Blake in the first round of Washington where he was the defending champion. His inability to defend those ranking points sent him plummeting 24 spots in the ranking to his current spot of 51st in the world.

Nalbandian looked ordinary on Center Court against Wawrinka today and could not make a dent in his game. He looked somewhat lethargic and allowed Wawrinka to win easily 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the second round where he will now face the winner of the Michael Russell vs. Albert Montanes match scheduled for tomorrow.

Wawrinka was moving well on the court today and never seemed bothered by Nalbandian's game. His assessment of his opponent was pretty much to the point as he said that, "With him, you never know.  Today he was not playing really good. I think he's not really ready." He pointed out that perhaps at Nalbandian's age he is not quite as fit as he needs to be. "But maybe with the year (age), he's 29 now, maybe it's not easy for him to play many matches at the top level."

Nalbandian was practicing on the weekend with big-serving Ivo Karlovic - perhaps not the best player to prepare for a groundstroke battle with an all-round player like Wawrinka.

In the second match of the day on the main stage, the ever-present Juan Carlos Ferrero took on enigmatic Ernests Gulbis. JCF held a 1-0 head-to-head advantage coming into the match and had looked strong lately on clay in winning his sixteenth career title in Stuttgart. Ferrero's season has been a trying one however as he did not play his first tournament until April due to wrist and knee injuries. He was then out between May and July when those same ailments began acting up once again. Today was his first hard-court action of the year and he got off to a good start by taking the opening set 6-3.

Gulbis has been playing some of the best tennis of his career as of late as the 22 year old won his first title of the year and second of his career in Los Angeles against Mardy Fish. Could it be that Gulbis is finally going to deliver on his enormous potential? He dug deep today against Ferrero to comeback and win 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. Next on the horizon will be a match against the winner of tomorrow's match between Mikhail Youzhny and Michael Llodra.

Other matches of note on the outside courts included the talented Alexandr Dolgopolov, who survived a scare from Erik Chvojka of Canada who is ranked 290th in the world and was entered in the draw thanks to a wildcard from Tennis Canada. Dolgopolov had to battle to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Big serving Ivo Karlovic snapped out of a funk that has seen him lose seven of his last eight matches on the tour. He prevailed today against Juan Monaco 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(5) for only his second win since May. Speaking with him afterwards, Karlovic recalled that when he turned thirty it was, "the most depressing day of my life, so I know how Roger must feel now."

American Alex Bogomolov Jr. continued his surprising play of late by dispatching Adrian Mannarino in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4).

Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil knocked-off Andrey Golubev 7-5, 7-6(6). Golubev has now lost eighteen straight matches. He is quickly approaching the all-time losing record of Vince Spadea who at one point in his career lost twenty-one consecutive matches. Talk about having your resolve to keep playing thoroughly tested.

Marin Cilic, who it seems to me is due for some sort of breakthrough this year, was able to dispatch of Andreas Seppi 7-5, 6-4.

Nikolay Davydenko defeated Flavio Cipolla 6-3, 6-3 to advance to an interesting second round encounter. Davydenko will now face world number one Novak Djokovic in the second night match on Tuesday in Montreal. While a shell of his former self, Davydenko will be a tricky opening opponent for Djokovic. The Serb has not played yet due to a first round bye.

At night, Juan Martin Del Potro easily handled Jarkko Nieminen by a margin of 6-4, 6-0. I've personally stopped feeling any sympathy for Nieminen ever since he trounced Andre Agassi in the last two sets of the American's last appearance at the French Open. In that match in 2005, Agassi was up two sets to one until his back acted up and he was beaten 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-0.

The 19th ranked Del Potro is on a collision course to face Djokovic in the third round in what would be a marquee match-up that early in the event. The 2009 U.S. Open winner has been making some solid progress since missing most of the 2010 season due to injury and is certainly going to be back in the top ten, perhaps even top five if he continues at this rate.

Del Potro refused to speculate on facing Djokovic and gave the classic "one match at a time" answer when pressed.

"Yeah, I know that. But first I will have to play against Cilic. Will be very difficult match for both.  We know each other since juniors. We play many, many times. It's really difficult match for me because he knows everything about my game, and I know many things about his game, too. But first I have to beat him and then I will thinking if I have another match. Before (Djokovic), Cilic in the next round."

The final match of the night was between fan-favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fabio Fognini. The Frenchman advanced with some second set difficulty but was able to make Fognini the third in a trifecta of Italians to be bounced from the tournament. The final score was 6-4, 7-6(0). Tsonga was visited by the trainer in the second set when down a break and appeared to have - no joke - his head checked. Tsonga stuck around after the match to hit a few balls with a local wheelchair tennis player in a nice moment to end the evening.

One noticeable no-show today was birthday boy Roger Federer. With a bye in the first round he is not scheduled to play until Wedneday so we will have to wait until then to discuss how he feels about turning the big 3-0.

 

 

Around The Corner: Marseille, Memphis and Buenos Aires

By Mike McIntyre

Open 13 - Marseille, France

Fresh off his win in Rotterdam, Sweden's Robin Soderling looks to continue his impressive form this week in Marseille as the number one seed. This guy has certainly proved he belongs in the top five and the only thing really left for him to achieve at this stage in his career is to win a Slam at some point. With Roger approaching thirty and Nadal's healthy always a question, there is no reason why Soderling cannot accomplish this at some point in 2011.

Soderling gets a first round bye and will face either Frenchman Nicolas Mahut or a qualifier in the second round. He will have the likes of Jurgen Melzer or Ivan Ljubicic to contend with in the top-half of the draw.

Tomas Berdych is the second seed and still seems to be struggling with his game. Despite making the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, Berdych has not managed to be as consistent week in and week out like Soderling is. The Czech will face either veteran Arnaud Clement or a qualifier in the second round.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a more likely name to emerge from the bottom-half of the draw and lookout for Nikolay Davydenko or Gilles Simon - both unseeded - to also make a run in Marseille. The two former top-ten players face each other in the opening round and then have the "good" fortune of facing seventh seeded Mikhail Youzhny in round two. Getting through that kind of tough start could give them the momentum to go deep in the draw.

A Frenchman has won this event in four of the last five years. In 2010 it was Michael Llodra, who opens this time against Julien Benneteau. With all the big names entered in the draw I think it is a huge long-shot for Llodra to expect similar results this time around.

Regions Morgan Keegan Championships - Memphis, Tennessee

Andy Roddick makes his return to the ATP World Tour for the first time since the Australian Open where he surprisingly lost in the fourth round. He opens against Richard Berankis in a relatively easy opening match and then could face Janko Tipsarevic in round two. Tipsarevic has given him trouble in their past two meetings so this will be no easy draw for America's top player. Roddick could really use a tournament victory to show others he is still one of the top contenders on the circuit. It wouldn't hurt to prove that to himself either as he has not won a title since March of last year. Roddick has a lot of ranking points to defend next month and could see himself drop out of the top-ten if he doesn't bring his best game to the court.

Veteran Lleyton Hewitt is also in Roddick's quarter and the pair could meet up in the third round. Hewitt, even more-so than Roddick, needs to show he still has some fight left in him. Turning thirty in just over a week, the Australian is ranked 70th in the world and is looking for his first ATP level win of the season. 

The first-round match to watch here in Memphis will undoubtedly be that between wild-card Juan Martin Del Potro and sixth seeded John Isner. Standing at 6'6'' and 6'9'' respectively, these two players will be bringing some serious firepower to the court. Del Potro leads the head-to-head 2-0 but is still not back at 100%. He did take a giant leap forward in his comeback from wrist surgery when he made the semi-finals in San Jose this past week before losing to Fernando Verdasco.

Verdasco leads the bottom-half of the draw as the second seed and will face Canadian Milos Raonic in the first round. The interesting thing about this match-up is that the two have just played each other in the finals in San Jose. It is not often that you see two players meeting in the final of one event only to then meet in the first round of the next one.

Defending champion Sam Querrey is also in the bottom-half of the draw, but much like with Llodra in Marseille, I feel he will be hard-pressed to repeat as champion due to the tough competition. Ranked 17th in the world, Querrey has struggled mightily at the start of the season by losing both of his first round matches in Australia last month. We'll see if he can get back on track while playing in a spot like Memphis where he has so many positive memories from 2010.

Copa Claro - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The seemingly mandatory clay court event on the tour this week takes place in Buenos Aires where forgotten veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero is the defending champion. Unfortunately Ferrero has not been able to play yet this season as he recovers from wrist and knee surgery and will miss the event this year.

That being said there are several worthy successors to walk away with the title. Top seed Nicolas Almagro loves playing on red clay and just won the Brasil Open against Alexandr Dolgopolov. Almagro has always had trouble putting together back-to-back titles though, so don't expect another deep run this week. He often follows up a win with a second round loss for some reason. Should he get to round three in Buenos Aires, he will likely get a rematch with Dolgopolov.

David Nalbandian and Tommy Robredo represent the veteran presence in the top-half of the draw and while I would count on Nalbandian to emerge from this section, you can never really count out Mr. Robredo. This guy always seems to have a strong performance just when you think he's on the verge of disappearing from the radar.

The bottom half of the draw is led by second seeded Stan Wawrinka. While Stan has had a great season thus far, on clay I'd take guys like Juan Monaco and Alberta Montanes as more likely picks in this section of the tourney.

All in all this week has some great matches despite the lack of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray. Most of the other top players are in action and we also have some great new faces like Dolgopolov and Raonic to continue to keep an eye on. Enjoy the tennis everyone!

 

 

 

Aussie Open Men's Quarter-Finals

By Mike McIntyre

Few surprises remain as we examine the eight men still standing in the Australian Open draw. The top four contenders are all looking strong as we approach the finish line.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have been looking terrific and should all advance to the final four.

Nadal will take-on compatriot David Ferrer, the seventh seed, who had an early match scare against Canadian Milos Raonic in the round of sixteen. Nadal owns Ferrer with a career head-to-head advantage of 11-3 and has won the last seven matches in a row against him. Look for that trend to continue in straight sets.

Murray faces a tricky Alexandr Dolgopolov, who at 22 years old is looking like he could be ready to enter the upper-echelon of the men's game. Dolgopolov possesses a deceptive serve, delicate drop-shot and altogether some variety that we don't see from many players. For an ATP World Tour that has had the majors dominated by Federer and Nadal for many years, it is nice to see guys like Dolgopolov and Raonic starting to emerge.

Murray and Dolgopolov have only met once before and it was back in 2006 with the Scot prevailing. That result can be tossed aside and the young Ukrainian could indeed surprise Murray when they meet here in the quarters. Murray's experience in the Slams should get him through, but don't be surprised if it requires more than three sets.

The heavy-hitter match of the final eight has Tomas Berdych playing Novak Djokovic. The Serb holds a 4-1 advantage in career meetings including their last two encounters, however Berdych won their semi-final match last year at Wimbledon. It's nice to see Berdych really embracing and solidifying his position in the top-ten. He had strong Slam results at the French and Wimbledon in 2010 and appears ready to carry that over to this season. It should be a good one between the two here but I think Novak is going to be tough to defeat here on the hard courts.

Finally let's not forget Roger Federer who is going up against his compatriot and Olympic doubles partner Stan Wawrinka. Fed leads their series 6-1 and has only lost to the Swiss number-two player on clay. Federer has had a few simple matches of late by his standards but will certainly be challenged by either Berdych or Djokovic - the last two players to beat him in Grand Slam play - in the next round.

 

Dolgopolov Defeats Soderling at Aussie Open

By Mike McIntyre

Twenty-two year old Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine surprised many with his five set victory over fourth seed Robin Soderling at the Australian Open today. Despite Soderling winning the first set with ease 6-1, Dolgopolov was able to bounce back and take control of the match with a fantastic variety of shot-making abilities and a huge number of winners. Dogopolov hit 50 winners compared to 22 unforced errors and was clearly the more confident player as the match wore-on.

Dolgopolov was the youngest member inside the top one hundred players in the world in 2010 and has seen his ranking rise to 46th in the world prior to the start of this season's first Grand Slam.

With his 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory, Dolgopolov advances to his first Slam quarter-final where he will play another tough opponent in fifth seed Andy Murray. His previous best result at a major was at the French Open a year ago where he reached the third round. Interestingly enough, Dolgopolov has said he feels most comfortable on clay despite his strong-showing thus far on the hard-courts of Melbourne.

For more information on Dolgopolov check-out an interview he had with our friend Nima Naderi from July 2010. Nima also runs a nice site at Tennis Connected if you have time to check it out.