McIntyre Tennis

Upsets Galore At Rogers Cup in Toronto

By Mike McIntyre

With thirty Olympians entered into the singles draw here at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, you just knew that the possibility for upsets would be plentiful due to the taxing playing and travel schedule these athletes have been faced with.

As the second round of play heated up on Wednesday at the Rexall Centre, several high profile players lost matches that they very likely would have won under normal circumstances. The Rogers Cup is quickly turning into a tournament where the underdog is ruling the day.

The surprises started early on Centre Court with 6th seeded Juan Martin Del Potro giving a solid effort but ultimately a losing one as he went down courtesy of veteran trickster Radek Stepanek 6-4, 7-6(5). Del Potro showed flashes of the ability that reveal his incredible potential, in particular a lethal forehand that leaves spectators and opponents speechless, but could not do it consistently enough to defeat a quality second round opponent like Stepanek. After the match Del Potro was brief in his comments but revealed he was on the brink of exhaustion.

"It's  not easy to play after a big effort in the Olympics, but I tried anyway," he said. "Now I need time to recover my body if I want to stay healthy, you know."

Stepanek will now face Tommy Haas in the third round, the German moving ahead thanks to a 6-2, 6-3 dismantling of Gilles Simon, the 9th seed. I don't think many people would qualify this result as an upset given that the 34 year old German is quickly resembling a much younger version of himself now that he is healthy again. Haas has reached finals on three different surfaces so far in 2012, most recently on hardcourts in Washington D.C. last week where he lost a close match to Alexandr Dolgopolov. Keep your eye on this guy as a darkhorse as the U.S. Open approaches.

The upsets continued in the second match on the stadium court with an all-French battle between 3rd seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Jeremy Chardy. While ranked 47th in the world, Chardy has performed well here in Toronto before by making the quarter-finals in 2010. His strong play on Canadian soil continued as he was able to defeat Tsonga for the first time in his career by a score of 6-4, 7-6(4).

Just as was the case with Del Potro, Tsonga was dealing with mental and physical fatigue, the result of his long stay at the Olympics which culminated with a silver medal in men's doubles. He said after the match here that the loss had nothing to do with his game but merely the tough circumstances that brought him here.

"I think it's not about my game. You know, my game is my game. But I was just, you know, not enough - how you say that? I didn't have enough energy to move well," he revealed. "I mean I just played 287 games last week and I took the plane. There is a jet lag, and that's it."

Tsonga was not thrilled to lose but also made it clear he was here because of his obligations as a professional tennis player.

"You know...I'm disappointed because I lost it. But, you know, this is the rule. I have to play every week. You know, for me it's a mandatory tournament; I have to be here."

Fortunately for tournament organizers and sponsors, Andy Murray was ready to reverse the trend of upsets. Despite only arriving in Toronto Tuesday evening and admitting to little more than four hours of sleep each night since his big win at the Olympics, Murray was able to dispatch his opponent, Flavio Cipolla by a routine score of 6-1, 6-3.

While the scoreline looked easy enough, Murray struggled physically at various times during the match and was favouring his left knee that he had a trainer examine in the late stages of the match.

Murray assessed his condition as follows, "I feel okay. I feel a little bit sore in the joints and stuff a little bit. I mean, I feel tired mentally...I haven't really slept much the last few days, so that's probably catching up with me a little bit."

He understandably looked like he was in the twilight zone during his post-match press conference and as he hobbled off after answering multiple questions I wondered if he would be fit enough to compete tomorrow against Canadian Milos Raonic in a match that will certainly test him more than he was today.

Already having won their only career meeting thus far, Raonic could be considered the favourite heading into this third round match due to Murray's evident lack of readiness at the moment. Not only is he dealing with physical and mental burdens, but he still has not had the chance to properly experience all the emotions that come with winning an Olympic gold medal. On top of that, today was his first match on hardcourts since Miami back in March.

Indeed the Rogers Cup this year represents an excellent opportunity for those outside of the "big four" to make their mark as we rapidly approach the final Grand Slam of the year. The chances of Djokovic and Murray meeting in the final as the number one and two seeds is probably pretty slim. Instead look at a veteran like Haas, a relative rookie like Raonic or a steady guy like Mardy Fish, Juan Monaco or Janko Tipsarevic to make the most of this rare opening.

In other results today, Marin Cilic defeated Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-3. He will now face Tipsarevic, a 7-6(2), 6-4 winner over Mikhail Youzhny.

Marcel Granollers beat 15th seed Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4 to advance to play Chardy in the next round. 

Philipp Kohlschreiber took out qualifier Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2 and will face big-serving John Isner next.

In a match that last over three hours, 4th seeded Tomas Berdych survived a huge test from Julien Benneteau. Berdych would prevail eventually by a score of 6-7(10), 6-4, 6-4. He gets a tough match again tomorrow against the super-talented Richard Gasquet of France, who beat Mikhail Kukushkin 7-5, 6-3.

American Sam Querrey continued his hot summer streak that has put him atop the U.S. Open Series leaderboard with a win today over Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-3. Querrey has won an event in LA and made the semis in D.C. in recent weeks and is playing with some superb confidence at the moment.

Querrey will next face a gentleman by the name of Novak Djokovic who defeated 19 year-old Bernard Tomic, 6-2, 6-3 in the night match on Centre Court. Of all the top ranked Olympians to come to Toronto, he appears to be the freshest somehow. Maintaining his ranking points from last year's victory in Montreal will no doubt be on Djokovic's mind as he tries to minimize Federer's hold on the number one ranking in the world.

Keep checking back with us here at ProTennisFan for coverage all week long in Toronto. Follow us on Twitter as well for timely updates.

 

 

Injury Withdrawals Mounting at French Open

By Mike McIntyre

Need more proof that the grueling ATP schedule is taking its toll on the players? Look no further than the growing list of injury withdrawals at this year's French Open.

The men's field has been depleted by injuries that have removed some of the game's most exciting stars.

Most notable is the world number five Juan Martin Del Potro who is out of action until at least the U.S. Open after undergoing surgery on his right wrist. Del Potro will not be able to defend the ranking points he gained a year ago when he reached the semi-finals and pushed Roger Federer to a terrific five-set match. World number six and also a former French Open semi-finalist Nikolay Davydenko is also sidelined with a wrist injury.

Chronically injured David Nalbandian of Argentina is once again on the disabled list, this time with a left hamstring injury he suffered recently. The past year has been a health nightmare for the former Wimbledon finalist who has seen limited action.

Other players who will be missed at Roland Garros include American James Blake, big-serving Ivo Karlovic (right foot), former French Open champ Carlos Moya, Radek Stepanek, Tommy Haas, Igor Andreev and local hope Gilles Simon who is still trying to get into game shape following a knee injury.

I cannot remember a Grand Slam tournament with this many top-50 caliber players missing in action. In a tournament that is already likely to be dominated by two men (hello Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer) it is quite disappointing that the field has been so decimated.

The only positive is that this will certainly allow some other players the chance to make a name for themselves and perhaps enjoy some success on the clay that we do not normally see.

With only a few days to go before the singles tournament begins, stay tuned for more injury updates at ProTennisFan.

Around the Corner: Davis Cup and the Monterrey Open

By Mike McIntyre

A mixed bag of events are around the corner this week. To kick off the month of March, the men are involved in the first round of Davis Cup competition. The women meanwhile are in Mexico for the Monterrey Open. Both tour's are inching closer to the combined event in Indian Wells that begins in two weeks.

Davis Cup:

Here are the match-ups for the first round of the World Group starting March 5th.

Spain vs. Switzerland - Logrono, Spain;

No Nadal or Federer in this match-up unfortunately. Spain is the huge favorite as this will be played on clay and can rely on David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tommy Robredo.

France vs. Germany - Toulon, France;

Without veterans Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer, Germany will be in tough on hard courts against a French team that includes Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

Russia vs. India - Moscow, Russia;

Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny should own India in singles competition, but look for the Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati to win the doubles match.

Sweden vs. Argentina - Stockholm, Sweden;

The indoor hard-court conditions should be ideal for Sweden's Robin Soderling who should win both of his singles matches. This will be a tough match-up for Argentina as David Nalbandian is once again on the injury list.

Croatia vs. Ecuador - Varazdin, Croatia;

Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic are going to make life very difficult for the Lapentti brothers on the hardcourts in Varazdin.

Serbia vs. United States - Belgrade, Serbia;

This should be a very interesting match-up, with Novak Djokovic leading the way for Serbia and the Bryan brothers countering for the United States. In the end it will come down to how Sam Querrey and John Isner can respond as the lead singles players for the U.S. on the red clay in Belgrade. Serbia has the definite edge considering the chosen surface.

Chile vs. Israel - Coquimbo, Chile;

On paper, the Chilean squad led by Fernando Gonzalez should be favored on clay against Israel, but in 2009 the Israeli's put on quite a show in Davis Cup play and made it all the way to the semi-finals. They cannot be counted out in this tie in Coquimbo. The doubles duo of Andy Ram and Jonathan Elrich are quite the force.

Belgium vs. Czech Republic - Bree, Belgium

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek lead the way for the Czechs against veterans Olivier Rochus and Xavier Malisse. The Belgians will really have to rely on using the energy from the home-court advantage to have a hope against the higher-ranked Czech's.

Monterrey Open:

A year ago, Marion Bartoli won the innaugaural Monterrey Open against Li Na 6-4, 6-3.

This year, Jelena Jankovic leads the tournament as the top seed and perhaps this event offers her the opportunity to get her game back on track. Struggling mightily for the past year, the Serbian has great talent but a mental game that is as fragile as they come.

Other names to keep an eye on in Monterrey include Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Aleks Wozniak from Canada and Melanie Oudin of the United States. All of these players could benefit from a strong run and without many of the tour's top players in attendance should be able to get some momentum ahead of Indian Wells.

Jelena Dokic leads the qualifying tournament as the top seed and will be looking to post her first substantial result of 2010. While Dokic had a fantastic start to 2009 by making the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, she has failed to repeat that success this year and is 1-3 in tournament play.

Around The Corner

By Mike McIntyre

Now that they've had some time to recover from a fantastic Grand Slam in Australia that saw Roger Federer confirm his dominance in the men's game, many big-name players will make their return to the court. Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko are all back in action. Here's a closer look at the three tournaments we have around the corner this week.

SAP Open - San Jose, California

Of the three tournaments this week, the SAP Open has by far the biggest drawing card on day one by showcasing an exhibition match between Fernando Verdasco and fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras. The 38 year old Sampras will face the 12th ranked Verdasco on Monday. Sampras has faired well in the past couple of years with exhibition matches against Roger Federer, Tommy Haas and Andre Agassi.

“When you play a current player that's a really good player like Fernando, it's not going to be easy for me,” admitted Sampras, “I kind of have to get to work here a little bit and hopefully play well. I've seen him playing quite a bit over the last few years, and he's got a big game and he's one of top players in the world. He serves well, huge forehand. It's gonna be a competitive match. That's what I'm hoping for.”

As for the actual tournament itself, look for Andy Roddick, seeded first, to have a successful event. Roddick won the event in 2004, 2005 and 2008. If his shoulder is healed up he is the clear favorite and has already won a title in 2010. Tomas Berdych is the only threat in his section of the draw, and he has dismissed the Czech player once already this year.

Defending champion Radek Stepanek opens the tournament with a tough match against Xavier Malisse, while Taylor Dent and Sam Querrey could possibly face each other in an all-American second round match to look forward to. In the bottom half of the draw veteran Tommy Haas will be someone to watch, along with Verdasco.

One interesting note from the qualifying draw in San Jose was the appearance of American Jan-Michael Gambill who received a wildcard in order to participate. You know your career is in limbo when you require a wildcard to get into the qualies. Gambill won his opening match before falling to Giovanni Lapentti in the second round. His name has surfaced very rarely the past few years on the challenger circuit and at the age of 32 and currently ranked 833rd in the world, I think it's safe to say Gambill's professional career is pretty much done.

ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament - Rotterdam, The Netherlands

With a prize-purse twice the size of the other two events this week, Rotterdam has several quality players represented in the field. The tournament is guaranteed a new champion in 2010, as Andy Murray is not present to attempt to defend his title. The hard-court event features Novak Djokovic as the number one seed and he opens against Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round.

Gael Monfils and Mikhail Youzhny (the champion in 2007) are also in the top-half of the draw and will challenge Djokovic for a spot in the finals.

In the bottom section Russian Nikolay Davydenko is seeded number two and will look to continue his early season success. After admittedly choking against Federer at the Aussie Open, Davydenko should fare better now that he's playing a smaller level tourney. In the second round he will face the winner of an intriguing opening round match between Marcos Baghdatis and James Blake - both who are unseeded. Interestingly enough, the two have never faced each other before. 

Brasil Open - Costa do Sauipe, Brazil

Brazil hosts the only clay-court tournament this week and is also without its defending champion, as Tommy Robredo has elected to play in Rotterdam instead.

Former French Open champion Juan-Carlos Ferrero is seeded first in the draw and could face-off against Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals.

Albert Montanes is seeded second while hometown favorite and a finalist here a year ago, Thomaz Bellucci is seeded third.

Men's 2010 Australian Open Preview

By Mike McIntyre

The first Grand Slam of 2010 is about to get started in Melbourne and with the draw announced we can now start to debate who will be crowned champion in two weeks time. Will it be someone from the usual suspects - a Federer or Nadal perhaps? Or will someone new like Fernando Verdasco or Andy Murray breakthrough and claim their first major? Let's take a look at who has a strong shot at the title and some of the potential dark-horses as well.

The Favorites:

Every Grand Slam begins by looking at world number one, Roger Federer, and rightly so. Having "only" won the Aussie Open three times, Federer has not had as much success at the start of the year as you might imagine. He is three years removed from his last victory in Melbourne and with the draw he has in 2010 I wouldn't expect Federer to be the last man standing. In fact, I think this is the Slam where his record of twenty-two straight Grand Slam semi-finals may finally come to an end. It has to at some point, right?

Who is the most likely man to take Federer out? Igor Andreev is hoping it might be him in the opening round, and Andreev is a tricky player who just might be up for to the task. The pair have only met twice before, but Andreev gave Federer a rough-go at the 2008 U.S. Open where he pushed him to five sets before losing 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Andreev is as inconsistent as they come, but has come up big in the past during high-stakes matches as he displayed in ending Rafael Nadal's streak on clay back in 2005. This is not a guy that Roger wants to face in his opening match.

Federer may also have to face either Marcos Baghdatis or Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round, and potentially Fernando Verdasco or Nikolay Davydenko (who defeated him in Qatar two weeks ago) in the quarter-finals. Sure, Roger is still favored to make it deep in this tournament - but the potential for upset grows stronger each year.

Also in the top-half of the draw is third-seeded Novak Djokovic who has a nice section at this year's edition. The first seeded player he may face is little-known Jeremy Chardy of France in round three and the only true opposition I can foresee would be Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals. Tsonga actually leads their career head-to-head by a 4-2 margin, but Djokovic won their last encounter on hard courts easily in 2009.

Djokovic has not chosen to play any ATP tournaments thus far in 2010 which is puzzling. Instead he showed up at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament where he beat an aging Tommy Haas and then went down to Verdasco 6-1, 6-2 in an apparently meek effort. To make the start of his season even more troubling, Djokovic then played a friendly match against Australian Bernard Tomic and was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. These are not your typical Djokovic results but makes one question his off-season preparation.

Despite these early upsets and the fact that Djokovic's frail physique is not meant for the brutal Aussie heat, he does have a good path in front of him to succeed. A couple of easy wins could boost his confidence and make him tap into the success he had here when he won his first and only Slam in 2008.

Fernando Veradsco is a player to watch and just came off a victory at Kooyong over Tsonga in the finals. Verdasco pushed Nadal to his limits at the Aussie Open in 2009 and came ever so close to defeating him before falling in the fifth set. His problem is that he usually does not trouble the top-fve and lost to all his matches at the season-ending championships in London to Federer, Del Potro and Murray in November.

The bottom-half of the draw contains some serious fire power with Andy Roddick, Juan Martin Del Potro, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal all lumped together. Picking one of those four players to make it to the finals is easier said than done - although it will without a doubt come from this talented pack of four. I would be shocked if anyone but these four made it to the quarter-finals in the bottom of the draw. I will be glued to my television for the expected Roddick/Del Potro and Murray/Nadal matches. 

Roddick already won his first tournament of 2010 by defeating Radek Stepanek in Brisbane. Looks like he is healthy and should breeze through the early round matches.

Del Potro has broken through the Grand Slam barrier with his win over Federer in New York last year. His confidence should be high, but it remains to be seen if he is prepared to challenge at the Slams on a regular basis. Success can affect people in different ways, so Del Potro will want to start the year off strong so that everyone knows he is for real.

Andy Murray is aware that it's time to show the world he is capable of winning a major. He set high hopes after making the finals at the U.S. Open in 2008, but his results at the Slams in 2009 left a lot to be desired. The talent is there with Murray, but we've yet to see the mental consistency on the big stage.

Finally, defending champion Rafael Nadal must also be mentioned - I mean, he did win the thing a year ago! With no titles in the past nine months and injuries that derailed his season in 2009, it is easy to forget about Nadal's potential impact on the game in Australia. Due to last year's circumstances, the pressure will not be very high for Nadal in Melbourne and he is a strong possibility to repeat as champion.

Anticipated First-Round Matches:

Mikhail Youzhny vs Richard Gasquet: These two have only met three times before, and you can ignore the results in that series. Youzhny defeated a sixteen year old Gasquet at this tournament in 2003, Gasquet won on hard-courts in 2005, and then Youzhny won a tight five-setter in 2007 on clay. Youzhny is the 20th seed, while Gasquet should be ranked higher if not for his suspension last year. A coin-toss that I'd give the edge to Gasquet based on recent results and a heck of a first round match to watch.

Marin Cilic vs Fabrice Santoro: Just when you thought the magician had retired he is coaxed back onto the court to become the only player to appear in four decades as a professional tennis player. This will also mark Santoro's 70th career Grand Slam. The 37 year old has been training hard in order to make this a competitive appearance, but don't expect him to defeat the 14th seeded Cilic. It will be their first career meeting and I'm sure the veteran will have some tricks up his sleeve that the young Croat has likely never seen before.

Radek Stepanek vs Ivo Karlovic: The 13th seeded Stepanek surely hoped for an easier starting match than big-serving Ivo Karlovic. This match will feature two completely-opposite styles of play and probably not too many lengthy rallies.

Darkhorses:

As I mentioned before, beware of Igor Andreev to give Federer a stern test in the first round. Qualifier Xavier Malisse could push through a few rounds and upset Nicolas Almagro in the opener as well.

Overall though, this does not look like a tournament where someone is going to surprise us and come from nowhere to make headlines. It is a strong field with a small cluster of top quality hard-court players. One of the regulars should be hoisting the trophy when the final Sunday comes around.

Roddick Confuses and Conquers in Brisbane

By Mike McIntyre

By his own admission, Andy Roddick used a unique strategy of, "confuse and conquer" in his semi-final match against Tomas Berdych at the Brisbane International on Saturday. After being down 0-5 in the first set, Roddick managed to fight back for a tight three set victory, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Advancing through the tournament with relative-ease up to this point, Roddick responded well to his first adversity of 2010. Berdych was a solid opponent and had been playing well in the tournament as evidenced by his 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of Marcos Baghdatis earlier in the week.

Roddick will now advance to the finals where he will face Radek Stepanek, who defeated Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-1 in the earlier semi-final matchup of the day. Roddick leads their head-to-head by a margin of 5-1.

The American made a stand-up decision on Friday to announce that he will not compete in Davis Cup play this year. The number-one ranked U.S. player decided that for the sake of his recovering knee he will avoid transitioning from surface to surface this calendar year as much as possible. 

"In Davis Cup my view has always been you decide at the beginning of the year whether to go to everything or not and at this point we just decided that it was smarter as far as long term health is concerned, to at least be consistent with surfaces as much as possible."

Although U.S. coach Pat McEnroe will undoubtedly miss his star player, he must also have appreciated the respect that Roddick has shown for the team by making such a decision well in advance.

The Americans will now have to rely on Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey to carry the load, as James Blake has indicated he will not be on the squad either when they face-off against Serbia in March. Serve and volleyer Taylor Dent may also garner some consideration.