Verdasco, Gulbis Showdown Friday in Barcelona

Any news about Del Potro , Davydenko comeback or health situation.

April 23rd, 2010 at 5:24 am

“Verdasco, Gulbis Showdown Friday in Barcelona”

LOOOL, like that title sean!

GOOOO Soda, pop pop p-o-p-p-i-n-g!

April 23rd, 2010 at 6:55 am

Anyone have a link to an online stream for the Nando-Gulby match?

April 23rd, 2010 at 9:12 am

Wow Gulbis has break point to serve for the match; where is the countess conty??

April 23rd, 2010 at 10:34 am

stu, try here:

http://www.fromsport.com/c-4.html

April 23rd, 2010 at 10:35 am

Ah, Verdy holds in a monumental game! How many break points and deuces did he fight through? A lot! Looks like this set is going to a tiebreak, very much like yesterday. I wonder if Verdasco can rally again? I see Ferrer served Bellucci a bagel, and Bellucci is not too bad on clay either.

April 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 am

I thought Gulbis had won the first set 6-2. Oops. Too early in the morning. So Verdasco is through in two and it’s Soda’s turn to pop.

April 23rd, 2010 at 11:14 am

Where’s Conty? Eduardo is a very pretty boy, pity about the name though….
kimmi: your soda pop looks as if he’s lost a stack of weight and moving quicker than usual, though not difficult….

April 23rd, 2010 at 11:51 am

The Baker man is playing well against Tsonga and he keeps reminding me of Ralph Fiennes with his new haircut.

April 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 pm

hi jane: yes, de Bakker had an excellent first set and now tsonga fights back! Good tennis, hope killerc is watching!

April 23rd, 2010 at 2:02 pm

margot – yep, these two are both playing great tennis at the net, I thought of KillerC’s comment too. LOL. Looks like it’ll go to a 3rd, and I am assuming Tsonga, with the more experience, will go through to meet Soderling. That should be a great match, and one of those big hitters will meet a Spaniard – either Hotsauce or Ferrer – in the final.

April 23rd, 2010 at 2:10 pm

jane: I really like the way both play so for once don’t mind who wins! De Bakker put out JCF so clearly he’s no slouch and only 22. One to watch definately.

April 23rd, 2010 at 2:20 pm

Ditto margot – normally I’d cheer Tsonga in this match up, but De Bakker has been impressive since the outset so let the best man win today. Yes, he is indeed one to watch; he’s good on hard courts too. Don’t know about grass.

April 23rd, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Thanks for the link Jane! If Jo wins this will be the most predictable semi line up in a long time!

April 23rd, 2010 at 2:48 pm

Best match I’ve seen for ages! Really liked de Bakker’s shot placement and way he returned serve. Not 22 apparently, 21. Gr8!

April 23rd, 2010 at 3:05 pm

Yes a very entertaining affair, and that has to be De Bakker’s biggest win.

April 23rd, 2010 at 3:10 pm

OK, I did not see his match vs ferrero yesterday and did not see him beat tsonga today but I am officially jumping into de bakker bandwagon! WOOOOOOT!

Two big upset in two days! Was just saying ferrero was his biggest upset..he does one better today. de bakker da man!

April 23rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm

Nando still going strong! Tomorrow match with ferrer should be a cracker..I give ferrer the edge but Nando never stop surprising me.

I am glad Gulbis did not get a beat down..after first set i thought here we go gulbis, but he hang in there and took the 2nd set to the tie break..though he lost not a bad perfomance!

April 23rd, 2010 at 6:02 pm

rome website wrote an article about the draw ( as i type draw not posted yet)

Nadal and federer the same half

The potential quarter-final ties based on seeding are as follows:

Federer (1) – Cilic (6)
Nadal (3) – Soderling (5)
Tsonga (7) – Murray (4)
Verdasco (8) – Djokovic (2)

http://www.internazionalibnlditalia.it/1/PopNews.asp?LNG=EN&IDNews=536

April 24th, 2010 at 8:18 am

i am surprised verdasco has better H2H against ferrer!

match is very close at the moment, hope we go to the tie break in this 1st set

April 24th, 2010 at 8:43 am

bad tie breaker by verdasco, ferrer takes 1st set!

April 24th, 2010 at 8:52 am

verdasco breaks back, still has life in him..can he do another big come back in this match…c’moon!

April 24th, 2010 at 9:32 am

vnando, what is he doing..4 set points went down the drain. you can’t give away soo many set points..c’moon

April 24th, 2010 at 9:49 am

finally he got one..great come back hotsauce, we have a match.

April 24th, 2010 at 9:50 am

ROME DRAW –

Fed’s very first match on clay this year will be against the winner of Gulbis and Baghditis (!), with Cilic being the probable quarter finalist he will have to get past before running into whoever comes out of Nadal’s quarter.

Looking at that part of the draw, based on his Monte Carlo play Nadal should emerge, but it will be interesting to see how the match goes if he and Soderling wind up against each other in a quarter final match. Obstacles that might prevent this matchup even happening is Berdych for Soderling and Andreev for Nadal.

On the other side, If Tsonga gets past Ferrero he will probably meet the winner of Andy Murray-David Ferrer in one semi-final. Given Murray’s recent funk and Ferrer’s skill on clay I call this a toss-up, even though we are talking a #4 seed against a #13 seed.

And in the remaining quarter, can anyone prevent a Verdasco – Djokovic clash in the last semi? If they bring their A- Game Youzhny won’t be much of a problem for Hot Sauce, and Isner shouldn’t put up too much to bother the Djoker.

Looks like the tennis gods didn’t give Fed any favours. The top half looks tougher than the bottom, IMO.

April 24th, 2010 at 9:54 am

gordo, just to let you know, sean just put a thread re: the draw, it will be better to move your post there :)

April 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am

Kimmi – holy crow look at Nando go!

April 24th, 2010 at 10:10 am

WOOT! verdasco does another great come back after being a set and break down…he is becoming a very good match player now!

April 24th, 2010 at 10:13 am

Hi jane..he was almost out..great to see him play like this!

April 24th, 2010 at 10:14 am

hope he can close it out though..remember montanes. Not over till the FAT LADY SINGS!

April 24th, 2010 at 10:15 am

True Kimmi – but he seems determined now. Another final – 2 in a row on clay, and I didn’t think this was his best surface. Well, it’s looking good right now. All he has to do is hold…

April 24th, 2010 at 10:17 am

choke choke choking..c’mooon nando. No montanez here

April 24th, 2010 at 10:19 am

YES! he did it. WOW! great to see..congrats verdasco.

April 24th, 2010 at 10:22 am

He did it – Ferrer helped with a few errors in that last game, but still a great win for Verdasco! Good for him.

April 24th, 2010 at 10:22 am

Will he have enough in the tank in rome though?
a lot of matches in a row..I wonder if he has not develop blisters…

April 24th, 2010 at 10:24 am

Hi jane, kimmi!
kimmi: welcome aboard the De Bakker bandwagon. Plenty of room at the mo., as it’s only jane and me, so hop right up! However, this kid’s got talent so I expect plenty will join us soon. Don’t think he’ll beat soda pop though, too much fire power there. Hopefully DeBak will be able to move him around a lot though and make a match of it.

April 24th, 2010 at 10:28 am

margot – i am hoping right in! yes, there is talent and most important, he did not choke when finishing sets or matches. it shows he has a lot of belief.

unfortunately did not get to see him play this week so hope he has enogh left in tank after those two long matches.

Soda pop p-o-p-p-i-ng!!…one of my fav but for this match i say let the best man win.

April 24th, 2010 at 10:40 am

soda already 3-0 up

April 24th, 2010 at 10:54 am

expected kimmi but de Bak has so much potential, brilliant mover, gr8 serve etc. can see why he was Wimbles junior champ…move over Andy there’s someone new in my heart….

April 24th, 2010 at 11:12 am

“..move over Andy there’s someone new in my heart….”

NO WAY..NO WAY margot. Andy will always stay. I was just checking the Rome draw for andy..the ferrer and ferrero are looming large..Go Muzza!

April 24th, 2010 at 11:15 am

oh dear de bakker..things are not going according to the script..

April 24th, 2010 at 11:18 am

Kimmi, margot, looks like de Bakker is getting a lesson today from Soda; I hope he can come around and make this second set a little more competitive. He played so well to beat Tsonga yesterday. But he seems outclassed and/or out of gas today.

April 24th, 2010 at 11:29 am

I know, I know kimmi but Andy is so full of angst, it’s just a bit wearing being a fan…

April 24th, 2010 at 11:30 am

margot de Bakker was Wimbledon juniors champ but he was also the world number 1 in juniors at one point. I guess he can play on all surfaces too, which makes him even more interesting to follow going forward.

April 24th, 2010 at 11:31 am

jane: yes, he’s one to watch and enjoy, from the top of our Bakker Bus!

April 24th, 2010 at 11:39 am

Soda is 4-1 over Verdasco but they’ve not played since 2008 and they have not played on clay since 2007.

Yay, Thiemo’s on the board.

April 24th, 2010 at 11:40 am

Hooray! Won’t make any difference except to his confidence.

April 24th, 2010 at 11:43 am

de bakker opening up his shoulder now! never too late..

April 24th, 2010 at 11:43 am

V. Nice to see de Bakker come around and get at least closer to his great form of yesterday.

April 24th, 2010 at 11:52 am

a little wobble there at the end but manage to close it out eventually.

Fantastic tourney for de bakker da man

Congrats Soda, can he pop all the way to the title?

April 24th, 2010 at 11:59 am

I wonder how the Spaniards feel about Soda, given his history with Rafa? He seemed to make an effort to be gracious at the end there, throwing things into the crowd and giving signatures. But he’s sure showing his run on clay and to the FO final last year was no fluke. He’s got a very good shot at winning this title now. Verdasco will fight hard as he won’t want to lose two finals in a row, and this is his home event, but based on the way Soda’s ploughed through to the finals as well as their H2H, he seems like the fave. However, he hasn’t been tested quite as much as Hotsauce has either. Hmmm… tough one to call.

April 24th, 2010 at 12:01 pm

interesting about the Spaniards take on soda..don’t think they like him so much.

I love soda. Since that breakthrough last year he is a different player. I hope we see him play rafa on clay again. They are drawn to meet in the qtrs but Berdych will be very tricky for soda.

Re: tomorrow final, yes i agree soda has the edge. And his flat hitting negates the big top spin verdasco has. But one can never know what verdasco will do..he is a very different player himself. I am impressed with his fitness though..too much mileage on court he covered in last two weeks.

April 24th, 2010 at 12:16 pm