McIntyre Tennis

Roger Federer Returns to Clay in Madrid

Today is the day that Roger Federer fans had to wonder if they would ever see again - the 20 time Grand Slam champion returning to play tennis on clay. Absent on the surface since 2016, Federer has surprisingly elected to return to the red dirt at the Mutua Madrid Open this year. After much speculation about what we can expect from him, Federer will open his clay court campaign against fellow veteran Richard Gasquet on Tuesday.

The Frenchman should provide a decent opponent for Federer to find his clay court form against as Gasquet himself is just returning to the tennis court for the first time all season after recovering from a groin injury that has kept him out of action for a significant portion of time. He won in his return 7-5, 7-6(5) against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to set up his 20th career meeting against Federer.

Their head-to-head unsurprisingly is lopsided in Federer's favour, with the Swiss great leading 17-2. Some solace can be taken from Gasquet in the fact that both of his wins have come on outdoor clay, a surface where they actually have split their four previous encounters. It has been a long while mind you since Gasquet beat Federer - that coming back in 2011 in Rome.

For Federer the possibilities for his comeback on clay are endless. He could flame-out early in Madrid and nobody would question the result after such a long absence from playing on the surface. With his talent level, previous success on clay and his incredible 18-2 record so far in 2019, a deep run likely also wouldn't raise too many eyebrows. Regardless of what happens it really is all gravy for Federer who has no points to defend from a year ago. If it doesn't work out then it's on to the grass court season which is undeniably his favourite place to be. While it seems we've still got a couple more seasons at the very least to enjoy watching Federer continue to dazzle us on the tennis court, this could be the last time we see him back on clay depending on how things go.

Federer's return has certainly created a buzz in Madrid as his face has been plastered all over the city in anticipation of his return. In a few week's time we'll see him back playing at Roland Garros, a Slam that he won ten years ago for the first and only time. He did play in five finals altogether in Paris and if not for one Rafael Nadal, he would have certainly taken at least another trophy or two there. While adding to his French  Open haul seems very unlikely, Federer fans and tennis enthusiasts should enjoy at least watching him try perhaps for one final time.

Australian Open Men's Draw Revealed

By: Mike McIntyre

The Australian Open draw was released on Thursday for both the men's and women's singles draws in Melbourne. For the men, 36 year old Roger Federer is the defending champion and will be considered the favorite among many with the match-status and conditioning of Djokovic, Nadal and Wawrinka all unknown as they return from injuries.

Let's take a look at the main contenders on the ATP side of things. Have a glance at your leisure at LeoVegas Sports as well for their take on the favorites in the first Grand Slam of the year.

Isn't it something that this year a 36 year old Roger Federer is considered the favorite for the first Grand Slam of the season. A year ago he was almost five years removed from his last major triumph. Then he went on a rampage winning in Melbourne, the two Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells and Miami as well as Wimbledon after having skipped the entire clay court season.

This year he is the only stable one amongst the "Big Four" with Andy  Murray having withdrawn after surgery on his troublesome hip and with Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Stan Wawrinka still having yet to prove themselves as 100% fit after injury issues.

Nadal holds the top seed and has the easiest draw of the big names mentioned above. He opens against Victor Estrella Burgos and doesn't seem to have any noticeable threats until a potential fourth round match with American John Isner and Marin Cilic as his projected quarterfinal opponent. The top quarter is really wide open aside from those players and we should see several surprising names still alive into the third round.

The second quarter gets a little more tricky with third seed Grigor Dimitrov having to likely face either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round. A Dimitrov/Kyrgios affair would be a re-match of their recent semifinal at the Brisbane International that Kyrgios emerged victorious from en route to the title. Kyrgios is going to win Grand Slams at some point in his career I have almost no-doubt. With the established talents on the ATP World Tour still getting over their injuries, could this be the Slam for Kyrgios to have his breakthrough? Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock are my picks for the final quarterfinalist spot in this section of the draw but neither is expected to make-it much further. Anderson took advantage (and good for him) of a nice draw at the final Slam of 2017 in New York, but I don't see that story playing out again here for the South African.

In the third quarter of the draw, Novak Djokovic would normally be considered the overwhelming favorite to advance. However, the former World No. 1 and 12 time Slam champion has not played a competitive match since Wimbledon due to an elbow injury that shelved the rest of his season in 2017. Djokovic was back on the court this past week at the Kooyong Classic exhibition event and displayed a new service motion that clearly is the result of his recovery from surgery. How this will impact his ability to hold serve remains to be seen and he could just as easily win the tournament or bow out early due to his inactivity. Let's not forget though that the Aussie Open accounts for half of Djokovic's Grand Slam career totals.

The Serb opens against American Donald Young and has a potentially tricky second round match against Gael Monfils looming. Monfils started his 2018 campaign in the best possible way as he picked up the title in Qatar. That being said, Monfils has come up a discouraging 0-14 against Djokovic in ATP sanctioned events during his career. A fourth round match against Alexander Zverev would be fun to watch, although Zverev might first have to get past his older brother Mischa the 32nd seed. Also in this quadrant is 5th seeded Dominic Thiem - whom Djokovic just defeated in Kooyong -  as well as another former Slam winner in Melbourne, Stan Wawrinka. Currently seeded 9th due to his own injury absence from the tour since Wimbledon, Wawrinka has been very low-key in the days ahead of the tournament and it still remains to be seen whether or not he will be fit enough to play. 

Federer meanwhile is the No. 2 seed and the defending champ finds himself with a decent starting draw in the final quarter of the tournament but things will quickly get intense for the 36 year old legend. He went 4-0 in singles play and 4-0 in mixed doubles with Belinda Bencic at the Hopman Cup to start the year. The only set he lost in singles was the opener in his final match against Alexander Zverev that he recovered to win 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-2. In terms of seeded players at the Aussie Open, Federer could run into Richard Gasquet in the third round and then 2016 Wimbledon foe Milos Raonic in the fourth. Gasquet has not challenged Fed in the past 8 matches they have played and the Swiss star leads their head-to-head by a staggering margin of 16-2. While Raonic did indeed deny Federer the chance to face Andy Murray in the 2016 Wimbledon finals, the Canadian has struggled with injuries since then and did not look sharp in his opening round loss to Alex de Minaur in Brisbane a week ago. In terms of quarterfinal opposition, Federer has the likes of David Goffin, Juan Martin Del Potro and Tomas Berdych as likely candidates to challenge him. Goffin has a nice draw until the fourth round while Del Potro is likely the player Federer would least choose to face in this section given their past history. Federer narrowly leads their past nine encounters by a margin of 5-4.

Check back with us throughout the two week even that begins Monday January 15th for recaps, analysis and plenty of pictures as well. You can also follow us on Twitter for more timely updates. Regardless of who wins it is certainly an entertaining period for the sport as we get to see all the big names kick-off the first Grand Slam of the year. 

Djokovic defeats Gasquet to advance to 4th Wimbledon Final

 

By Tia Ko

In the first semi-final of the day Novak Djokovic took only two hours and twenty one minutes to beat the 21^st seeded Richard Gasquet 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 after serving up a 40-love game and hitting a forehand cross court to finish off the Frenchman.

During the post-match interview, Djokovic was asked if he thinks he’s living the dream having made it to another Grand Slam final. He responded saying, “Yes, I’m living the dream; being here at Wimbledon, I’m playing on the best tennis court in the world. It’s a great honor and privilege to be out there and I have to keep going. The final of Wimbledon is the most watched tennis match in the world of course a lot is at stake but I’ll be ready for it.”

The opening set started off with an early break of serve giving Djokovic a 2-0 lead. Luckily, Gasquet was able to get the break back by firing a backhand winner. Both players held serve until 6-6 but eventually a sloppy tiebreak from Gasquet gave Djokovic the first set. The following two sets started the same with Djokovic easily breaking Gasquet; unfortunately, this time the Frenchman was unable to break back and the world number one ran off winning them 6-4, 6-4 including a love game to end it with triple match point.

Djokovic has improved his net play and movement tremendously with the help of his coach Boris Becker. He would often sneak up as a new part of his game and ended up winning 26 of his 39 trips to the net. The defending champ also broke down Gasquet’s forehand causing many errors from the right side of the court.

When asked who Djokovic thinks he’ll be playing in the final against on Sunday he dodged the question and said, “We will see, I cannot foresee the future but I’ll enjoy [Federer and Murray’s] match.”

 In a poll of 216 people, Djokovic was predicted to win with 91% of the votes leaving only 19 people believing in the underdog. I, too, didn’t believe Gasquet had a shot at beating Djokovic; it just didn’t seem possible. Novak is at the top of his game and it will take a genius to beat him in Sunday’s final… Will Roger Federer be the one to do just that?

Tuesday at the Rogers Cup in Pictures

By Mike McIntyre

There was more rain on day two of the Rogers Cup in Toronto but things eventually cleared up and by the afternoon everything was back on schedule. Roger Federer made his hardcourt summer debut and three Canadians all made an exit from the tournament leaving Milos Raonic as the only Canuck remaining in the draw. Here are some of my favourite shots from around the grounds today. Enjoy!

Frank Dancevic practices in the morning despite the rain shower.

Philipp Kohlschreiber's shirt might have jinxed the German as he was defeated 6-3, 7-6(3) by Tommy Robredo.

The drying machines proved their worth today and made several appearances throughout the morning as the rain continued to fall.

There's a first for everything. Dancevic looks incredulous as he is asked to sign a fans purse.

An auction item of the last Toronto Maple Leafs team to win the Stanley Cup. Hopefully we don't have to wait that long for a Canadian to win the Rogers Cup!

Despite the wet courts, "La Monf" flashes a grin during morning practice.

 

World Number One Novak Djokovic grins as he prepares to return a shot to coach Marian Vajda. Djokovic makes his singles debut Wednesday in Toronto.

Warning: being the world number one comes with high pressure. At least Novak has an emergency exit!

 

Here we can see reality sinking in for 612th ranked Brayden Schnur of Canada who fell 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round to Andreas Seppi who is ranked 561 spots higher than him on the ATP World Tour.

 Someone finally got a smile out of the normally very professional Milos Raonic. Had to be the Djoker!

Wildcard Jack Sock celebrates his 6-1, 6-3 win over Jurgen Melzer.

Dancevic faltered today in a match he should have found a way to win. He goes down 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 to Donald Young.

To say Young was happy with the result was an understatement.

Likely the scariest serve on the tour. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic

Monfils battled back from a 1-5 deficit in the second set to beat Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-5.

Tough day for Vasek Pospisil who admitted he has simply, "been on the road a lot of weeks." He loses the rematch with Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5.

 

And then there was Federer. Playing in his first match since an epic final at Wimbledon he looked ready to rock. Broken in his first service game of the night, Federer would not have any more hiccups in a 6-2, 6-0 victory against Peter Polansky.

The view from the very top of the Rexall Centre tonight for the Federer/Polansky match.

Former world Number One and six time Grand Slam champion Stefan Edberg was inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame this evening.

Federer doing some post-match press to end his night.

 

Stan Wawrinka saved a match point against close friend Benoit Paire and prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) to end another fantastic day of tennis in Toronto.

Check back with us often here at ProTennisFan as we continue to provide a glimpse at all the action at the Rogers Cup. Follow us on Twitter as well for regular updates and commentary. 

Murray Crashes Out On Day Two Of Rogers Cup

By Mike McIntyre

Two-time defending champion Andy Murray was sent packing in his opening match at the Rogers Cup by big-serving Kevin Anderson of South Africa. Anderson pulled off the second top-ten victory of his career with relative ease as he advanced by a score of 6-3, 6-1 in only one hour and nine minutes.

Blame it on the media, myself included, for confidently predicting a top-four semi-final finish here in Montreal. Of course we should have realized that with five weeks off since Wimbledon, anything was capable of happening.

Murray said he has been training hard in Miami to acclimatize himself with the hot summer conditions that often accompany this time of year in North America. Instead today the weather was relatively mild with cloud coverage permeating the skies.

The Scotsman did not hold back in his own assessment of his play today. "I just felt very slow," he mentioned. "The game seemed to be going so fast. Yeah, I mean, it's happened to me already once this year. I've trained really hard to get ready for the tournament. I've always played very well here. Today I couldn't get anything going. I started both sets really, really badly which doesn't help against someone that serves like Kevin. I was down a break early. Yeah, didn't get anything going at all.

On the bright side for the world number four, he will be playing doubles here this week with his older brother Jamie. While normally merely using the doubles to hone his singles game he revealed that he always tries to put a bit more into his efforts when supporting his brother.

 "When I play with Jamie, I obviously want to try to win because that's his career, where he makes his money," Murray said. "Tournaments like this, there's a lot of big ranking points which aren't at stake at some of the other tournaments he plays. If we can do well here, it's really good for his ranking. I always try and play my best when I'm playing with Jamie."

They will open Wednesday against the all-Canadian duo of Erik Chvojka and Pierre-Ludovic Duclos. If all goes according to plan Murray can get the match play he obviously still needs while also helping big brother with his own career ambitions.

The loss of Murray opens of his section of the draw leaving 6th seeded Mardy Fish along with perhaps the 14th seeded Stan Wawrinka as the leading candidates to advance.

In other daytime action completed today, Richard Gasquet of France got things started off on Center Court by soundly defeating Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-2. The pair had a closely contested Davis Cup match a month ago where Gasquet had to battle back from being down two-sets-to-one, but things were much more routine today. Gasquet will next face Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.

Canadian prospect Vasek Pospisil ranked 155th in the world had the second biggest upset of the day as he sent 22nd ranked Juan Ignacio Chela home early by a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Pospisil was down a break in the third but managed to use the home crowd support to his advantage and claw his way back into things. Life won't get any easier for Pospisil as he will next face Roger Federer in the world number three's first match on tour as a thirty year-old.

Other completed results today go as follows:

Philipp Petzschner d. Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-2

Sergiy Stakhovsky d. Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 7-5

Michael Llodra d. Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)

Viktor Troicki d. Michael Yani 2-6, 6-3, 6-1

Michael Russell d. Albert Montanes 7-5, 6-2

Janko Tipsarevic d. Alejandro Falla 7-5, 6-1

At 8:20pm ET the night matches have all been postponed until Wednesday by constant rain fall.

Men's Fourth Round French Open Preview

By Mike Mcintyre

Half-way to the finish line and all of the main threats in the men's draw at Roland Garros appear poised to live up to their billing in Paris.

Top ranked Rafa Nadal survived his first five-set French Open match against John Isner and a third set hiccup against Pablo Andular in round two to advance with ease to the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-3. 6-0 route of Antonio Veic. Next up is unseeded veteran Ivan Ljubicic who upset Fernando Verdasco in straight sets on Saturday. While Ljubicic is a wily veteran, he stands no chance against the defending champion and will go down in three in their meeting I'm certain. While Ljubicic has defeated the Spaniard twice before, both of those meetings came on hard courts. Nadal will own him on clay to advance to the quarter-finals.

The Gilles Simon vs. Robin Soderling fourth round match should be a good baseline battle between one of three remaining French hopes and the two-time returning finalist from Sweden. Soderling leads their head-to-head 4-2 but the pair have never met on clay before. Expect a long match with Soderling likely prevailing to set-up a fantastic quarter-finals match against Nadal. Not a player Rafa is looking forward to facing.

After the finals in Australia, Andy Murray is still waiting for his "I'm Back" moment of 2011. Following the first Slam of the year he tanked in the first round of three consecutive tournaments. Back on track after a semi-final appearance in Rome where he had the chance to serve for the match against unbeaten Novak Djokovic, Murray can hold is own on clay and if his ankle holds up he should be able to dispatch Serb Viktor Troicki. Troicki is at an all-time high of 15th in the ATP World Tour rankings but I don't think he'll be able to pull-off the win against an experienced player like Murray. Murray leads 3-0 in their previous encounters although they have never met on clay and their last match was almost two years ago. Murray's health will dictate the outcome here.

 Moving along we have a surprise quarter of Alejandro Falla, ranked 127th in the world, against veteran dirt-baller Juan Ignacio Chela who has maintained a top-forty ranking even at the age of 31. At one apiece in their career against one another, this match could go either way. Ultimately unless you are from Colombia or Argentina you probably don't care one way or the other. The victor will no-doubt be taken care of by the winner of the Troicki-Murray match.

In the bottom half speedster David Ferrer will meet up with the acrobatic and unpredictable Gael Monfils of France. Should be a fantastic match that has five sets written all over it. Monfils has made the semi-finals here before while Ferrer is certainly capable himself and both have the potential to give their likely next opponent, Roger Federer, a tough go. With the year he's been having I give Ferrer the slight edge.

Federer meanwhile will feast upon his fellow countryman Stan Wawrinka in their fourth round encounter. Roger holds an intimidating 8-1 record against his former gold medal-winning doubles partner from the Beijing Olympics. Wawrinka came back from two-sets down to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win a tough third round match and even if he was well rested I doubt he'd be able to topple Federer here at a Slam.

In another surprising fourth round match, Fabio Fognini will face Albert Montanes. While Fognini is a bit of a journeyman, Montanes is a legitimate clay court threat. Montanes is unseeded but reached a career-high ranking of 22 in the world last summer. He hasn't been lighting it up this year but won two clay court tournaments in 2010. He has played Fognini four times in his career and won the three most recent matches, all on clay.

The winner above faces the unenviable task of facing the winner between Novak Djokovic and...well, does it really matter? With a 40-0 record in 2011, Djokovic should be able to deal with Richard Gasquet in their match. Fresh off a four set send-off of Juan Martin Del Potro, Djokovic fears no one. While Gasquet took out Federer recently in Rome and definitely has a talent level that could trouble any player on tour, Djokovic is almost untouchable at the moment. It would take a Herculean effort from a Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal to have a chance at ending the Djoker's impressive streak right now.

Enjoy the fourth round and stay tuned for more analysis and updates from us here at ProTennisFan. Feel free to follow us on Twitter as well throughout the event and beyond.

Around The Corner: ATP Tour Puts Down in Europe

By Mike McIntyre

Back over to Europe for three indoor hard court tournaments this week on the ATP World Tour. The big news on the circuit last week was that Roger Federer tied Pete Sampras' all-time tournament tally with his 64th career win in Stockholm. Only another 45 before he equals Jimmy Connors mark of 109!

This week we have stops in Austria, France and Russia as the season begins to draw to a close.

Bank Austria Tennis Trophy

It's gimmick time in Vienna as the event has chosen to dust off 43 year-old Thomas Muster with a wild-card into the main draw. The former world number one and French Open champion has been playing a few challenger and futures level events this fall and has a 1-6 record so far in his "comeback."

Muster opens against enigmatic Ernests Gulbis in the first round. I'm not really too sure what to make of this stunt. Muster is over ten years past being able to play at a high level - why make a return to the tour now?

Local Jurgen Melzer gets the number one seed and deservingly so. Not only is he the defending champion at this event, but he has had a terrific 2010 that has seen him reach his first career Grand Slam semi-final and also defeat Rafael Nadal for the first time. Melzer gets a first round bye and could face wild-card James Blake in the second round.

Melzer will likely have to face Philipp Kohlschreiber in his section of the draw, and could also see clay-court guru Nicolas Almagro or veteran Xavier Malisse as well.

In the bottom half, Marcos Baghdatis and second seeded Marin Cilic are lurking. Cilic could really use a strong result to close out his season as it has been one great disappointment for him since a semi-final appearance at the Australian Open back in January.

Open Sud de France

Doesn't it seem like there is an ATP event in France every couple of weeks? The French must really love their tennis and who can blame them? They have an abundance of players in the top one hundred in the world. Their players also have a variety in their game that makes them among the most enjoyable to watch in the sport.

Look over the qualifying draw and you might be surprised to see an A. Agazzi entered. That would be Andrea Agazzi from Italy...no joke.

The main draw boasts number one seed Nikolay Davydenko who appears to be on his last legs of competitiveness since returning from a wrist injury back in the spring. His long-term hold on a top-ten position has reached its end as he has been unable to put together any type of consistent tennis all season. Davydenko gets a first round bye, which will probably actually hurt his chances.

Defending champion Ivan Ljubicic is in the top-half of the draw along with Frenchman Richard Gasquet who is my pick to win the tournament.

In the bottom half we find many other talented locals such as number two seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils. Again, what a great time to be a tennis fan in France. David Nalbandian is also present with a wild-card.

St. Petersburg Open

Russia welcomes Mikhail Youzhny as the top seed and a slew of other lesser known players into the field. It is arguably the weakest draw of the three tournaments and does not offer any first round exemptions.

Youzhny won the event way back in 2004 which speaks to his longevity on the tour. In 2009, Sergiy Stakhovsky emerged as the champion and he is back as the second seed this time around.

Viktor Troicki who just won his first ever tour event in Moscow is in the top-half of the draw, while Jeremy Chardy, Janko Tipsarevic and P.H. Mathieu are in the bottom section.

Enjoy the tennis this week everyone.

 

 

 

 

Men's U.S. Open Fourth Round Preview

By Mike McIntyre

The final week of Grand Slam play for 2010 is about to begin and there are sixteen players left in the men's draw. Noticeable absentees include the Andy's (Murray and Roddick) and Tomas Berdych. Other than that I suppose David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis bowed out slightly earlier than we had thought, but there are still several big names left in the draw.

Rafa Nadal has been rolling along just fine on the hard courts so far in this tournament. He'll get compatriot Feliciano Lopez next. Lopez took him out of the grass court tune-up event at Queen's Club in June so we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss him. Nadal will raise his game when required however and we all know how hungry he is to complete the career slam with a win in New York. I'm going with Nadal in straights.

Another all-Spanish battle features Fernando Verdasco the 8th seed against number 10 seed David Ferrer. Verdasco impressively knocked off Nalbandian in the third round while Ferrer advanced against a lesser-known hard court player in Daniel Gimeno-Traver. I'm looking at a tough five set Verdasco victory which would give us a nice re-match of the Nadal/Verdasco tilt from the Australian Open that went the distance in 2009.

American hopeful Sam Querrey and Swiss understudy Stan Wawrinka both have the opportunity to make their first career Grand Slam quarter-final. Querrey has had a great year at the lower-level tournaments winning three ATP Tour 250 events, and one 500 event. Let's see if he now has the game to make a splash on a bigger stage. Wawrinka just beat one of the U.S. Open favorites in Andy Murray. Can he keep that level up? I'm picking Wawrinka in four sets due to experience.

Mikhail Youzhny took out American John Isner in the last round and will now face veteran Tommy Robredo. Normally I'd go with Youzhny hands-down but I've learned to never count Tommy out. Just when you think his career is on the downward swing, he tosses in an excellent result. Still, talent wise, you gotta think Youzhny will pull this one out in four.

Monday gives us the four bottom-half matches, starting out with Richard Gasquet against Gael Monfils. This match should be one of the most entertaining between Gasquet's beautiful backhand and Monfils' colorful court antics. The all-French match holds a 2-2 career head-to-head with all meetings on hard court. Could go either way really as neither has enjoyed much success on this surface this summer, but Le Monf has my vote in a five setter. 

Mardy Fish is likely wishing that the heat would return to Flushing Meadows in time for his match against Novak Djokovic. Unfortunately cool temperatures are in the forecast giving Djokovic the ideal conditions he needs to succeed against the American. While Fish has had a great summer and has made the quarter-finals in New York once before, the Djoker has been picking up his game this week and looks ready to advance. Djokovic in four. 

Robin Soderling gets the easiest match on paper as he takes on clay-court specialist Albert Montanes. A straight set wins for the Swede should be in the cards, making him a very dangerous and well-rested player to face Roger Federer in the next round.

Federer gets resurgent Jurgen Melzer who has had the best season of his career for sure. The 29 year old had never before advanced past the third round of a Slam before 2010 and has now made the semi's at Roland Garros, the fourth round at Wimbledon and now again the fourth round at the U.S. Open. His run is about to end at the hands of Federer who will have one last routine victory before having to face a serious test in Soderling. Federer in straights.

Around The Corner: Gstaad, Umag and Los Angeles

By Mike McIntyre

Three ATP World Tour 250 events are on deck for this week and Andy Murray makes his first appearance since losing the semi-finals of Wimbledon. We have two clay-court stops in Europe in Gstaad, Switzerland and Umag, Croatia while the North American hard-court swing continues in Los Angeles.

Allianz Suisse Open

Russian Mikhail Youzhny has the top seed this week in Gstaad and will be playing for the first time since the Davis Cup quarter-finals two weeks ago where he went 1-1 against Argentina (beat Mayer, lost to Nalbandian). His last stop on clay-courts was at the French Open in May where he advanced to the quarters. Youzhny is currently the 14th ranked player in the world which is likely a bit higher than his talent level actually resides. He has had a solid year however, winning the title in Munich and finishing second in Dubai and Rotterdam. Without playing on clay for two months though I'm not expecting him to advance too deep in this week's draw.

Threats in the top-half of the draw include veteran Tommy Robredo - who every time I write about his weaknesses promptly goes out and wins a title, Albert Montanes - who won his opening match on Sunday 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) against Pere Riba of Spain, and Richard Gasquet - who won this event in 2006.

Brazil's Tomaz Bellucci is the defending champion and won his maiden ATP title here a year ago after advancing through the qualification stages. Bellucci opens against local Swiss hope Marco Chiudinelli and would face the tricky Igor Andreev in the second round.

Nicolas Almagro is seeded second and ended his 17-month title drought just over a week ago in Bastad. He followed that up by getting bounced in his opening match in Hamburg, so who knows which player we should expect this week?

I was hoping we might see Roger Federer play on home soil but such is not the case. With his recent struggles I would have thought a smaller tournament would be just what the doctor ordered for Roger to give him a much needed boost of confidence. Perhaps he doesn't want to touch the clay with some big hard-court tournaments looming on the schedule. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in the weeks leading up to the U.S. Open.

Farmers Classic

Andy Murray is the only top-five player in action this week and begins his hard-court preparations in Los Angeles. Murray has not won a title since November and the only final he participated in was his very first tournament of 2010 at the Australian Open where he lost to Federer. LA offers Murray the perfect opportunity to reverse his futility streak this year and begin to ramp things up for Flushing Meadows. He could face Ernests Gulbis in the quarter-finals who he holds a 4-0 record against.

American Sam Querrey is the second seed and also the defending champion here while Marcos Baghdatis is in the number three position.

Mardy Fish - who has been having a stellar summer thus far - plays Benjamin Becker in the opening round, although I wonder if he might play the injury card after making back--to-back finals in Newport and Atlanta.

Meanwhile James Blake will try to reverse his recent struggles against Leonardo Mayer in the first round.

Studena Croatia Open

Croatian tennis fans will be rooting for Ivan Ljubicic to capture the title in Umag where he has never won before. Ljubicic is seeded third and opens with a bye in the first round.

Nikolay Davydenko continues to enter tournaments each week and is still looking for his game to click as he comes back from a wrist injury. Davydenko again crashed out early this past week in Hamburg but you have to figure sooner or later he is bound to rediscover his top-ten form.

Austrian Jurgen Melzer is one of the hottest players on tour right now. Having excellent results at the past two Grand Slams, Melzer made the finals in Hamburg this past week where he lost to first-time champion Andrey Golubev.

Italian veteran Filippo Volandri also makes a rare main-draw appearance this year and opens against wildcard Franco Skugar of Croatia in the first round. Volandri used to be quite the clay-court player but has been limited to mostly futures events in his home country in 2010. 

This will be the last week involving any clay-court events at the ATP level until late September. The tour focuses on Washington D.C. and the Legg Mason Classic in a week's time, followed by Masters stops in Toronto and Cincinnati. Keep checking back as ProTennisFan will be covering the Rogers Cup in Toronto with live daily reports. 

Federer and Nadal Switch to Grass-Court Tennis in Halle and London

By Mike McIntyre

Less than twenty-four hours after Rafael Nadal’s impressive French Open victory and the ATP Tour is switching gears from the red clay of Roland Garros to the green grass of Halle and London. The short grass-court season is now upon us and over the next month we will witness a very different and exciting brand of tennis. Let’s take a closer look at what’s around the corner at the first two tune-up events for Wimbledon.

Gerry Weber Open – Halle, Germany

Halle will crown a new champion this year as veteran German player Tommy Haas is out with injury issues. In 2009 he defeated Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 for the title in his home country.

Roger Federer will be the number-one seed this year although he officially loses his number-one ranking on Tour on Monday as Nadal has surpassed him once again. Federer has won Halle five times before, from 2003-2006 and more recently in 2008. His first round opponent will be Jarkko Nieminen from Finland. The unfortunate Nieminen holds a 0-10 record against Federer and has never before taken a set off of him.

Interestingly enough, Federer signed a lifetime deal with the tournament on Sunday agreeing to participate in the event for as long as he is still playing professional tennis.

Federer could face the tricky Radek Stepanek in the quarter-finals and then either Juan Carlos Ferrero or Marcos Baghdatis in the semis. Both of those players have had success on grass, with Ferrero twice making the quarter-finals of Wimbledon while Baghdatis made the semi-finals in 2006.

In the bottom half of the draw Lleyton Hewitt is the 8^th seed and opens against fellow Aussie Peter Luczak. Seeded second is Nikolay Davydenko who will be making his first appearance on the Tour since a wrist injury in mid-March.

One first round match worth noting is veteran Nicolas Kiefer against Russian Mikhail Youzhny. Kiefer is still struggling to find his game after injuries kept him from playing most of 2009.

AEGON Championships – London, England (aka Queen’s Club)

Four time champion Andy Roddick brings a 29-4 career record into Queen’s Club this year. Who can forget just how close the American came to finally capturing Wimbledon a year ago, where he fell 16-14 in the fifth set to Roger Federer. Roddick has not played much tennis in the past two months, but will be looking to regain his form on his favourite surface.

As of right now, Rafael Nadal is seeded first in the tournament. He does have a first-round bye so hopefully that will give him enough of a rest after winning Roland Garros. Nadal won this event in 2008 - the year he won his first and only Wimbledon title. Nadal opens by playing the winner of Marcos Daniel vs. Blaz Kavcic – a nice way to open his grass-court season wouldn’t you say? Nadal has the most favourable quarter of the tournament with the highest seed he could face being Feliciano Lopez who is the number-eight.

Andy Murray is the defending champion as he won in 2009 against James Blake 7-5, 6-4. Murray could meet up with Marin Cilic in the quarters. The pressure to win his first Grand Slam is growing and Murray will be looking to gain some momentum heading towards the grass at Wimbledon.

In the bottom half we have potential quarter-finals of Novak Djokovic against Sam Querrey. It will be interesting to see how Djokovic responds after blowing a two set lead over Jurgen Melzer at the French. Since winning his first and only Slam in Australia in 2008, Djokovic has consistently disappointed in the majors.

The last quarter offers us a potential Andy Roddick versus Richard Gasquet meeting – a rematch of their epic five-set Wimbledon battle from 2007 where the American was up by two sets before falling 8-6 in the fifth.

For any Canadian tennis fans, Frank Dancevic makes his first tournament appearance of 2010 after missing many months recovering from back surgery. After winning three matches in the qualies he advances to face Dustin Brown of Jamaica in the opening round. Dancevic is an able grass-court player and made the finals of Eastbourne last year where he fell to Dmitry Tursunov.

Don’t expect many surprises in either of these two tournaments as the big-names will be setting the tone for the month-long grass court season. I expect Federer to win his first non-Slam tournament of the year in Halle while I feel Andy Murray is due to put up some serious results in front of his home fans in London.