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Update on the Rome Masters
Uh-oh, Mr Murray has done it again. Poor guy. He shows great promise to do well and then something flies out of nowhere and he’s left wondering what on earth happened. The opponent wh managed to do such a number on the world No. 4, was qualifier Juan Monaco of Argentina. He came at Murray with a determination and energy that knocked the young Scot sideways and out of the competition in round two, although he doesn’t seem too disheartened. As he readily admits, he’s not quite as confident on clay as he could be in the future. And if Novak Djokovic doesn’t reclaim his title in Rome, then Murray climbs to the World No. 3 spot.
The less said about my Murray prediction last week the better….
Rafael Nadal has already disposed of his first round opponent, Italy’s Andreas Seppi. Next, he comes up against Robin Soderling, a competitor who he finally dispatched in a third round 2007 Wimbledon after 5 days and 5 sets. Tempers and frustration ran a little high then, and it’s been billed as one of the top matches to see; the last time they played on clay was back in 2006 and Nadal swept the Swede aside with litt more »
The Rome Masters Predictions and Beyond
Now that Rafael Nadal has shown everyone how it’s done at Monte Carlo, the King of Clay Courts has moved on to Barcelona. Once that is over, Nadal meets up with the best of the rest in Rome for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia tournmanet(the Rome Masters). This masters is another that Nadal would love to snatch a victory at, but then again so would everyone else.
So what would winning the Rome masters mean to some of the players looking forward to competing? And do I truly have the courage to make some proper predictions for the Rome Masters and beyond?
Well, I’ve taken four top players and had a stab at it.
Feel free to disagree; by the time I’ve posted this up I probably will do too.
Rafael Nadal: Well if he won at Rome, that would be the 15th Masters title he has scooped up, beating Federer’s best so far, and will be inching cl more »
Davis Cup Upsets & Cleansweeps
The Davis Cup for 2009 is underway and has seen some great tennis action from all parts of the globe. The theme of the weekend seemed to be a mixture of destructive tennis and surprising upsets.
The Upsets
Czech Republic defeated France 3-2
French men’s tennis is currently bursting with talent – just getting on the team is an achievement at the moment. Along with Spain they have more players in the world’s top 25 than any other nation and were rated as one of the favourites to win the title this year
But over the weekend their top ranked player, Gilles Simon went 0-2 in his singles matches which left his team mates too much work to do. “You should never forget a weekend like the one I just had,” said Simon, struggling unsuccessfully to hold back tears after the loss. “You need to ask yourself the right questions, in order to be ready when facing a similar situation in the future.”
France will now be forced to re-qualify for the world group for the first time in almost a decade.
Israel defeated Sweden 3-2
In one of the least atmospheric Davis Cup ties imaginable, Sweden went down to massive underdogs Israel in front of just 300 invited guests, with anti-Israel more »
Coming Down…
There’s always a bit of a come down after an event like the Australian Open – and I’m not just talking about the players here. It can be a draining experience for a tennis fan as well. You go all year watching limited tennis due to timezone differences then all of a sudden…BAM, 4 weeks straight, nothing but tennis 12 hours a day.
There’s bound to be a bit of a come down after that kind of committment. Sort of a smaller version of the come down a sports fan gets after the Olympics. There’s still a small vacuum in my life left as a result of the Sydney Olympics. I’m not sure that I’ll ever recover from that one. Well, not until the Olympics come back to Australia…in forty or fifty years.
So what do you do when you need a bit of a tennis fix – you jump on the internet and do a bit of browsing. And I tell you what, I may have come across the next big thing to rival tennis as the greatest racquet sport on earth. Once they get themselves a pin-up to launch a mass promotion campaign around, world domination will surely follow.
I’m talking about the burgeoning sport of…pickleball. Named after a favourite pet (aren’t all the great ones) this sport is described as a combination of tennis, badminton and table tennis. Can you picture it yet? No, me either. But apparently it’s popularity is growing fast and it will be a feature event of the upcoming San Antonio Senior Games. Well every sport has to start somewhere I suppose.
Stay tuned, it could be coming to an X-games more »
Looking Forward
So the Australian Open has been and gone, but like every other Grand Slam tournament, what we saw will echo throughout the tennis year. There’s plenty of things to take away from the tournament, by players, fans and Grand Slam organisers.
One of my only concerns when looking back over the tournament has been the organisation. The organisation has been a worry to players and audiences alike in two different ways: one is the way in which the tournament itself is placed in the tennis calendar. Before the Grand Slam started, Roger Federer (President of the ATP Player Council) called for the tournament to be pushed back a bit to allow players to play in more exhibition tournaments etc before coming to Australia. Players have to make the tough decision as to how many matches they can play before they come the Australian Open; finding a balance between resting themselves and getting back into the swing of things before the first Grand Slam of the year.
The second issue I believe that the tournament needs to address, is the way in which the matches are spread. There were many occasions in which a player had to battle through a tough match whilst t more »
