Tennis is back! Qatar, Adelaide, and Chennai all began this week: Davy, Murray, and Ljubicic are all through in Qatar, with only Robredo falling so far. Hewitt is still going in Adelaide. Rafa, Moya, and Youzhny are all through in Chennai, with only Baghdatis falling so far. Auckland and Sydney are next week, and then the first major of the year, the Australian Open is upon us! Hope it will be a great year! Hope everyone stays healthy and has a great season. Vamos Rafa Vamos!
Waking up early and watching the Australian Open is one of the things that I look forward to each year. They changed the surface this year though, basically the same as New York now, so I'm sure that it will be another Federer romp. It's a shame, I felt that Rebound Ace was the best surface to watch tennis on.
Poop, I was also pissed when I heard about the change. Through both were "hard", there was a distinct difference in surface between Melbourne and New York. Now, they are back to being basically the same. Oh well ... Qatar - Semis: (1) Davydenko vs. (3) Murray (4) Ljubicic vs. Warwrinka Adelaide: Hewitt still rolling. Chennai: Rafa, Moya, Youzhny still in.
Hewitt went out to Tsonga today. Sucks, I thought after the run he had at the end of the year that he might have regained some form. Rafa vs. Moya in Chennai tomorrow. I wish they would have it on tv somewhere.
Qatar: (3) Murray took out (1) Davy today 4 and 3. So Andy moves on to the finals to play Wawrinka, who took out (4) Ljubicic 7-6 (1), 6-4. Adelaide: Hewitt out. So the semis are (6) Tsonga vs. (3) Nieminen; Llodra vs. Sirianni Chennai: Semis - (1) Rafa vs. (3) Moya; (4)Youzhny vs. Cilic Looking forward to the Rafa/Moya match. Poop, I'll PM you with TV info.
Good question, Phil. Rebound Ace is actually better on the joints and such when compared to regular hards. I thought Melbourne liked having their own identity, rather than having the same surface as New York. I don't know why they switched. Perhaps Poop can chime in on this. Qatar: no change Adelaide: (3) Nieminen vs. Llodra Chennai: (1) Rafa and (3) Moya went at it this morning. Amazing match! Highest quality tennis you'll ever see to start out a season. They played for 3 hours and 54 minutes. Longest three set match since 1993. Rafa fought off four match points in the 2nd set to come back and win 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-1). He moves on to face (4) Youznhy in the final tomorrow morning.
Rebound Ace was softer, but it was horrible in regards to injures. The problem was that since it was a bit softer, added with the heat in Melbourne, the courts became very sticky. Players would tear up their legs when they would try to change directions quickly. The main reason though that the court was changed is the Aussies thought that this would provide Lleyton Hewitt the best chance to win.
Poop might be right in regards to changing direction on Rebound Ace. I didn't think of that. The point I was making is that because of the softer surface, there is less pressure/pounding put on the joints in regards to regular play. Play a couple of hours on a hard court. Then play a couple of hours on a softer court or clay court. The difference you will feel after the fact is amazing. If RA is sticky, though, I imagine twists and/or tears could be more probable.
Well, Rafa really had nothing left. After four hours on the court against his best friend ysterday, he was dead today. Got worked by Misha 0 and 1. That's the problem with week tournaments, if you get into a long match, you have no time to recover because of the consecutive days played. Ragardless though, Misha played well and deserved the win. Great job to him, and great job to Rafa for reaching the final in his first tournament of the season. I thought this quote from Misha was fitting ... ""I am very happy with this title but I did not play against Rafael Nadal today," said Youzhny. "He was dead and could not move, I have to thank Carlos (Moya) for keeping him on the court for four hours last night. I really can't say much more about the final, bad luck for Rafa. This week I started slowly but then played better and better round after round. It is a great start to 2008." In Doha, Andy Murray beat Warwrinka 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. In Adelaide, Llodra beat Nieminen 3 and 4. This week brings tuneups Auckland and Sydney before the Australian Open begins the week after. Ferrer, Ferrero, and Chela are all playing Auckland, while Gasquet, Robredo, Blake, Berdych, Moya, Hewitt are all playing Sydney.
Ouch!!! I just saw the box score and that's bad. I'm sure he was tired, but only winning 5 points off of Youhzny's serve is really bad. Anybody know if Federer is playing in an exo this week like he did last year?
Federer pulled out of the exhibition due to a stomach virus. Let's hope he's at top peak form by the time the Australian begins.
The draw is today at 5pm central time. I'm very interested to see what happens here. Will Dojkovic be on Federer's or Nadal's half. Who's quarter will Roddick be in? This is going to be a great start to the season. It all starts Sunday at 6pm Central.
Does anyone know why almost all of the Masters Series finals are now best 2 out of 3 sets? A few years ago most of them were best of 5.
Sydney Semis: Tursunov vs. Santoro Guccione vs. Stepanek Auckland Semis: Benneteau vs. (4) Ferrero (3) Monaco vs. Kohlschreiber
Sydney Final: Tursunov beats Guccione 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) Auckland Final: Kohlschreiber beats Ferrero 7-6 (4), 7-5 Kooyong Final (Exhibition tournament): Roddick beats Bahgdatis 7-5, 6-3.
