Djokovic, Soderling Headline Clay Events; ATP, WTA Previews

Didn’t Montanes win Estoril last year? If so, I wonder why he’d play Serbia this year? And Gonza’s back! Lots of true clay-courters/Spaniards playing in Serbia, where there are a lot of big hitters (Raonic, Soda, Tsonga, Delpo) playing at Estoril. Interested to see what happens. Hope Nole hasn’t lost momentum.

April 24th, 2011 at 1:14 am

I think Novak was just riesting,he certanaly hasn’t lost momentum.I’m looking forward to see Del Potro,he’s one of my fevurites.Hope that he will be good on clay.

April 24th, 2011 at 7:51 am

aaarg!!, “big baby” not very nice. how about baby face?

April 24th, 2011 at 8:15 am

serbia open has all the players that djoko has baked bagels and breaststick against..

I think this is djoko tournament to lose..still hasn’t lost a match this year? amazing!

Estoril is a little bit tougher i think. go delpo.

looks like davydenko is finding his game slowly. he won couple of matches in barcelona

April 24th, 2011 at 8:23 am

Agree. Estoril definitely looks tougher, Kimmi, but just thought it is interesting that a few more grinders/classic clay courters are playing in Serbia. I see Nishikori is going there, though; I think he and Nole probably got to know one another in Miami when Nole arranged the soccer game for Japan support. Hope things are going well in Japan. We hear so little in the news after the fact.

April 24th, 2011 at 10:41 am

I digress, but things do not go well in Japan. They are hiding the truth which is not pretty. It is likely way worse than what anyone could imagine. Poor innocent folks, they’re the ones I feel horrible for.

BTW, no problems for Novak in his (and mine) birthplace. Barring injury, week from now his 2011 streak will be 28 matches and counting…

April 24th, 2011 at 4:37 pm

ah, nishikori. another player i really like. was very impressed with his game when he played nadal in miami. he went shot for shot with nadal; he lost but you could tell the guy has something special.

hope we see more of him and i hope we get to see his full potential!

April 24th, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Why is this site sputtering out? No Barcelona final report..an stale funk/trunk…this used to be a regular site…losing interest here…yawn

April 24th, 2011 at 8:08 pm

Great line-up at Estoril. Raonic has a tough first round, but a draw he should get through- including Simon- until a semi rematch with Big Crybaby “I hope to see him on clay” Verdasco. Very interested in this tournament to see if:
Raonic shows improvement on clay
Verdasco, Soderling, and Tsonga can get back into the swing
DelPotro can prove he really is a threat (another win over Soderling?)

Serbia looks pretty boring- can’t imagine Gonzo is going to show much already, Nole should have his streak intact at weeks end.

April 24th, 2011 at 9:11 pm

^ Finally an interesting Draw….where is Rafa now?

April 24th, 2011 at 9:13 pm

Running scared obviously.

April 24th, 2011 at 9:53 pm

clay court season is becoming awfully boring…nadal and ferrer in back to back tournaments?

April 24th, 2011 at 10:55 pm

Ya clay season is boring , started from 2005 till now and so was the grass season from 2003 to 2008,

April 25th, 2011 at 6:36 am

Jeez, I guess boredom means people want to start a fight with us Nadal fans. Skeezer and Tennis Vagabond, where was Nole at Monte Carlo? Why the heck would Rafa play one of these piddling 250 tourneys when he’s played 2 weeks in a row, and then has Madrid and Rome coming up? A lot of his fans were PO’d he was playing for 500 points in his own home tournament. As for the rest of clay season, as Rafa would say, “We gonna see what’s going on, no?”

April 25th, 2011 at 9:52 am

I know, lulu i was going to let it slide. Ludicrous. He is definitely hiding from the depth of the fields at the serbia open (especially) and estoril. Come on guys! Where is Fed? Is he “running scared” too?

Serbia is basically a mulligan for Novak. And Estoril, considering the defending champ is ALbert Montanes I wouldn’t exactly call it a premier event.

April 25th, 2011 at 10:03 am

Or maybe the line “running scared” to describe someone who hasn’t lost on clay in two years, winning, what 7 straight tournaments, and considered utterly dominant on the surface, might have been a joke?
Nah, too obvious.

April 25th, 2011 at 10:21 am

On another note If the guys are whining about not enough time off and shortening the season for needed rest why not chop off some these 250 / 500 tourneys…including Halle? No fight pickin here, that’s for my nose, pickin that is.

April 25th, 2011 at 10:49 am

Whilst watching Tipsarevic’s self-destruction against Nishokori (first set 6-2), it dawned on me that starting from my realisation last year that Tipsarevic reminded me of Sammy Davis Jr, the improbable could be extended to create the nucleas of a Serbian Tennis Ratpack. Nole (of course) is Sinatra and Troicki can fill the Dean Martin slot.

I can’t be bothered with the Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford roles, as they were little more than fellow travellers in the public’s eyes, as they were not big Hollywood stars.

April 25th, 2011 at 2:55 pm

^ ha ha, Lloyd Walters, to borrow from skeezerweezer’s lexicon, that is “classic.” :) I do see the Sammy Davis resemblance; it is in the chin, yes? Maybe the glasses too?

April 25th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

The chin and the nose match up.

I don’t know about Sammy Davis Jr’s legs, because he was always seen in a suit, so who knows – he might also have had Tipsarevic style legs, which are certainly unique on the tennis circuit.

April 25th, 2011 at 3:51 pm

lllllooooyyyyyd, laugh out loud at the library!
i see it, too-chin for sure, good call on the glasses, too jane.
but you will have to explain the legs on tipsarevic?

April 25th, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Nishikori out. Seems to be making a habit of atarting promisingly, and then gradually getting turned over. Worrying trend.

April 25th, 2011 at 4:28 pm

Yes Lloyd. I agree with dari on the legs reference: please, do tell!?

April 25th, 2011 at 4:29 pm

True, grendel, and am sad he is out – but the final scoreline is worth a consideration here. Tipsy had “home court” advantage, and he won by a nose, or maybe a leg. Or a song. “The candyman can cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good…”

April 25th, 2011 at 4:32 pm

Janko’s knee joints are simply different to the norm. Maybe he was born knock-kneed, or bow-legged, or had some other problem that was fixed with major surgical operations on him as a baby. They certainly work OK now, but to me they look peculiar.

I have a cousin who was born with hip joint problems. She spent the first two years of her life with her legs in a cast, doing the splits !!! So she was a late starter when it came to walking, but could do things with her legs that these days could have easily got her star billing in porno movies…

April 25th, 2011 at 4:33 pm

candy man! that was the first “popular” song i learned on the piano. man, tennis somehow brings memories from every corner of life

April 25th, 2011 at 4:38 pm

http://www.oddschecker.com/tennis/mens-tour/atp-estoril/atp-estoril-open/winner

interesting, vegas odds on estoril open winner favoring Delpo!

April 25th, 2011 at 6:06 pm

so close for nishikori. tie breaks are a toss up, can go either way. another try next time. tipsy is a tough first round.

April 25th, 2011 at 7:37 pm

grendel – petra kvitova. yes, i have seen her play. she can hit the ball very hard when she is set up to it but i don’t think she can move as well as most top players. I could be wrong, we will see!

April 25th, 2011 at 8:03 pm

Secret of Novak’s run is a change of diet and new doctor. It makes sense that he cut out the gluten since he was always allergic. Sorry if this is a repost.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/sports/tennis-djokovic-a-glutton-for-titles-after-dropping-the-gluten-1.358088?localLinksEnabled=false

April 25th, 2011 at 10:16 pm

sar, cool to know the health details, that’s good news whether you’re a tennis player or not.
I did notice that his physique was different but I didnt think he had lost weight, but was just more cut to
Anyhoo
Buen suerte to Juan marteen tomorrow on the red clay!

April 26th, 2011 at 12:08 am

Very cool sar: thanks for posting that as I hadn’t seen it. Good luck to Nole, JMDP and others tomorrow (haven’t even looked at the draws); am stuck in what are sure to be dreary meetings all day tomorrow. : /

April 26th, 2011 at 1:37 am

All good, Skeezer and T.V. I’m not always so quick on the uptake with the jokes! Anyway, there certainly are posters on other sites getting carried away with the Nole fever (and pinning unlikely hopes on Soderling) and making serious comments about Rafa running scared.

Hoping Raonic and Delpo do well at Estoril, also hoping Djoko wins Serbia, but that is a little scary!

April 26th, 2011 at 9:59 am

It’s gonna stop being news soon, but gulbis out of Serbian open first round to marchenko :/

April 26th, 2011 at 10:21 am

Raonic is so far not as formidable on Clay as on the HC, but me likes the experience he is getting on it, not running away, playing most every tourney….and excited to see how Delpo is going to do…..Nole is a given quality right now and have expectations there…

April 26th, 2011 at 10:33 am

Why does Gulbis even play professional tennis?

April 26th, 2011 at 11:03 am

polo-i’ve been trying to figure that out myself.

April 26th, 2011 at 11:50 am

Well, sorry Stan. Lost in three sets to D. Brown. But Congrats to delpo and gonzo!

April 26th, 2011 at 1:03 pm

Just saw a bit of the Raonic match but he looked good. Now an easy round before Simon.
I think those crushing forehands of Raonic will be tough on any service, and his kick serve should be very effective on clay. He could be one of the offensive clay players, like Soderling, Berdych, DelPotro who have been just as successful in the big picture as the defensive players other than Rafa, ie not very.

How did that dude win a set off DelPo? How’d DelPo look?

April 26th, 2011 at 2:10 pm

Further to WawWa losing to Dustin Brown. I noticed Brown was playing under the German flag. He played Murray at the US Open – I think as a Jamaican (he is, after all, Jamaican). At the time, there was much talk of his being recruited to boost British tennis. It is a recurrent theme, actually, this attempt to attract foreigners to play for England. Sometimes it succeeds, there was a Zimbabwean geezer whose name escapes me, and then of course there was Rusedski.

Might be hard to believe, but a few years ago there was talk of recruiting Djokovic. You could sense the saliva oozing in dollops in the LTA ranks as they contemplated the prospect of the entire Djokovic brood donning the Union Jack. Quite why Djokovic should have been singled out in this way, I have no idea. Perhaps they thought it was too late to suborn Federer, and maybe the spectacle of Nadal masquerading as an Hispanic Englishman seemed a touch improbable.

And now (alas, alack) Dustin Brown has resisted the lure of English gold and cast in his lot with the Germans. Why would he do that, now? What have the Germans got that we haven’t, eh? Well, I suppose there is always the fact the the Germans understand how to play tennis quite well….

April 26th, 2011 at 3:14 pm

Oh, wow, didn’t know he was playing as a German. I knew he was born there and I noticed he had a wild card, and thought it was nice of them to give him a wild card even though he is playing under Jamaica. Nope he’s with Germany at the moment.
I do remember hearing that djokovic British stuff! Seems so bizarre now

April 26th, 2011 at 3:22 pm

pedro sousa – whoever he is yes, got a set off delpo. must have been playing to the home crowd, sousa. or delpo is really rusty. i didn’t see any matches. actually thought about getting up to see gulbis (bad habit) but glad i didn’t. gulbis lost to marchenko. not a good sign at all. yeah he’ll be seriously dropping in rank.

raonic result is hopeful. andreev is sometimes tough on clay, isn’t he?
also happy gonzo is back and won his 1st match in belgrade.
i see davy won too.

oh i do hope to see raonic v verdasco – lol… i mean speaking of “hiders” why didn’t hot sauce come out to play in barcelona? ;) maybe ferrer is designated to take the drubbings from rafa this clay season? i can’t blame verdasco or anyone for hiding and skipping a beatdown. hide! hide! save yourselves!

Kimberly, for the record, i was completely neutral IW final but cheering for a hc rafa win by miami. now i’m back to cheering on nole – full on. really thinking nole is the only realistic hope to challenge rafa at all. unless murray’s elbow is ALL better soon. murray was impressive, what i watched of him in MC.

April 26th, 2011 at 4:30 pm

LOL…grendel! that whole paragraph made me snort my pop! “…Nadal masquerading as a Hispanic Englishman…”

April 26th, 2011 at 4:45 pm

isn’t dustin brown’s mom german? i mean i think there’s a reason ….have to look it up…

otherwise, yeah, would think the UK could have persuaded him? hm…

April 26th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

”dreddy,” dustin brown was born is germany. : ) i guess that’s a good reason to play for germany. his mom, Inge, is german but his dad is jamaican.

go dreddy! that might of been a great match to watch v wawa. 3 sets, 2 very close. makes me wonder about wawa’s clay form though.

April 26th, 2011 at 5:00 pm

Contador, thanks for info on D.Brown. He’s an entertaining player. Immediately prior to his match with Murray at US Open, he was talking himself up as if he had nothing to lose, he’d give it everything he’d got and some, and so on. Jamaicans were wheeled on to attest to Brown’s ferocity, rather as if he were a West Indian fast bowler eagerly about to gun for British flesh. Murray made a few sceptical grunts, and all in all we in the grendel household looked forward to an eccentric outing. And so it proved, with Brown smashing the ball with great gusto, the ball landing in various unexpected places, generally out of Murray’s reach, and sometimes in.Indeed it appeared, for a few delirious moments, as if Brown might even take the first set. Murray looked deeply disapproving of the whole affair. He went about his business rather in the manner of one who has agreed, against his better judgement, to perform a disagreeable task, and now wishes he hadn’t. This seemed to induce a kind of mini-sulk, Brown continued to make hay in the second set, but faded in the third as Murray finally pulled rank.

April 26th, 2011 at 6:57 pm

contador-hot sauce apparently didn’t play barcelona because he had a spat with the tournament organizers.

Its okay not to root for Rafa. I live with someone who cheers for his demise. He used to root for Rafa over the Andys because he doesn’t like them but now due to rafas dominance he will even root for the andys.

If i make cranky pro rafa or agressive comments it is likely i just lost a tennis match or a real estate deal. Its all cool. I’m here to have fun and i like everybody.

As long as everyone is nice to Colin05 and deals with his childish taunting all is good.

April 26th, 2011 at 8:08 pm