AMAZING NEWS!! And against a legit player. If he is even competitive with Fognini it will be a great sign for his 2015 hopes.

January 13th, 2015 at 2:58 pm

Hopefully Del po will come back to his devastating best. 2015 has all the ingredients to turn out to be the most interesting tennis year of the decade i.e, 2010-2020. Reason being that there is Nole who would want to show he’s still the best, we’ve got Fed who’s still hungry and wants to add to his already legendary legacy, we’ve got Nadal who’ll try to redeem himself after a shallow 2014 and bridge the gap between his status and Fed’s. We also have Andy Murray who needs to show that he can do great things without Lendl being around, then we have the young guns in the form of Raonic and Dimitrov who’ve been around long enough to beat the big guys at the big stage, and then we have Del potro who’ll want to get back to his best after his injury woes, and of course then you have usual suspects in the form of Wawrinka, Nishikori, Berdych etc. who, frankly, by now have had enough of the big 4. So all of these guys will be super motivated to change the big 4 into a big 8 and beyond.

Looking forward to a super year of tennis.

January 13th, 2015 at 7:35 pm

I don’t know where to put this but Kyrgios may not be ready for AO. He played pretty good match (last two sets) last night against JJ, but he hardly could move in TB and I thought he is going to retire, whether he was cramping or something else but he himself is not sure anymore if he will play in Melbourne in a few days time.
There is something else that happened last night in that match, JJ/Kyrgios, that I want to share with you and made Jerzy J very upset and evrn when match finished and he won he couldn’t let it go and kept asking Mohamed Lahyani for answers, answer Lahyani didn’t have:
After one of JJ’s drop shots, right infront of the chair of Lahyani, Kyrgios managed to reach the ball but after rolling on top of the net, ball didn’t get over the net and Kyrgios lost the point. At that stage I didn’t know why JJ got really upset but when the point was shown again it was evident that ball bounced twice right info t of Lahyani, Lahyani answer to JJ question “why didn’t you call double bounce when you saw it?” was ” I was waiting to see if Kyrgios would win the point and then I would call it and give point to you (Jerzy)”!! That answer doesn’t make a sense, does it.
Lahyani did similar thing in the afternoon matches, Troicki / Klizan, when one of Tricki’s serve went inch long linesman didn’t call it, being outer court Klizan had accept it, when Klizan moved on the other side Lahyani looked at the linesman and pointed with his fingers how much ball was really out and warned him not to make mistake again, I was sitting right behin Lahyani. The question is why he didn’t call it when he saw himself that Troicki serve went long, he knew it. I don’t think he had good day yesterday.

January 13th, 2015 at 8:53 pm

Delpo is one happy man these days, nice win and good match with Fognini. This is all Delpo needs to build his confidence. Good luck big man.

January 14th, 2015 at 1:33 am

Welcome back DelPo!
I sure hope the injury days are behind him, he is needed and missed on tour.

Wog boy,
thanks for the info on Lahyani. He is considered one of the best umpires out there, one who rarely makes mistakes and generally, very fair. Whatever happened to him yesterday to make such calls?! Wasn’t he also in the chair when Raonic was caught in the net against DelPo?

January 14th, 2015 at 3:00 am

Troicki is on the roll, after Klizan he downed Andujar, keep it up Vićo:)

January 14th, 2015 at 3:52 am

Danica, no probs.

January 14th, 2015 at 3:55 am

After such a long lay off, the first match becomes crucial and thankfully Del Potro has passed the critical test. This is really a morale boosting win for him and must perk up his confidence levels as the opponent is no push over. It might be recalled, Stakh beat Roger at 2013 Wimbledon. Next comes Fognini and the task gets tougher. Hopefully, Del Potro should reclaim his best form early and come out with flying colours.

January 14th, 2015 at 6:21 am

Fognini was beaten by Delpo six hours ago, next comes Cuevas.

January 14th, 2015 at 6:47 am

^^correction, next comes Kukushkin.

January 14th, 2015 at 7:31 am

DelPotros win is great news for the tour!!

Bummer news about Kyrgios. Thanks for the update Wog.

January 14th, 2015 at 8:01 am

Hope DelPo keeps on winning, he can lose any match due to rustiness but the draw in Sidney is a good one as it stands now. He can very well win the tournament and that would be wonderful for him. The fastest he increases his rankings the better.

January 14th, 2015 at 10:46 am

Thinking that in picking my top 10 players for the end of 2015, I should have kept Raonic and put in DelPo as well. I guess there’s always 2016.

Raonic looked surprisingly good against Federer in some of the rallies.

January 14th, 2015 at 12:18 pm

Really glad for Juan Martin. Nice to see him out there playing again. A healthy and focused JMDP is a threat to crash the top five. I think we’ll see his best tennis come Wimbledon as he’ll have some more matches under his belt and grass is a surface he seems play very well on.

January 14th, 2015 at 12:21 pm

I have both of them in my picks (crossing fingers for luck)!!!

Just when I think Raonic has levelled off (or even regressed), he improves.

Two steps forward, one step back.

January 14th, 2015 at 12:21 pm

Elina…I think you made a good call. Good luck!

January 14th, 2015 at 12:29 pm

I don’t think that I have Stan though. I do not recall.

He will be near the bottom if he fails to make the semis. He looked good in Chennai though. Something about January seems to bring out his best.

I will not be surprised if we see another Stan Novak semi.

January 14th, 2015 at 12:38 pm

“The former fourth-ranked player from Argentina needed a wild-card entry to get into the main draw because his world ranking had dropped to 338 during his lengthy absence.”

http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/12165064/juan-martin-del-potro-ousts-fabio-fognini-reach-quarterfinals

Why would Del Potro need a WC? Doesn’t he get entry protection for direct entry? Under the rules, he can lose his seeding but I understood that he gets direct entry. No WC should be needed.

January 14th, 2015 at 12:48 pm

I think Fognini will slide down the rankings in 2015. Too many antics, not enough focus.

@Elina – it might be because of a cut-off date and when Delpo decided to play. Could also be because he would want to keep the protected ranking for bigger tournaments. I think they have a limited # of tournaments they can use the protected ranking for.

January 14th, 2015 at 2:13 pm

RZ, I think you are right. Part of the rule states and I quote:

“The Entry Protection shall be in effect for either the first nine tournaments that the player competes in using the Entry Protection (excluding wild cards and entries as a Direct Acceptance with his current position in the Emirates ATP Rankings) or for the period up to nine months beginning with the first tennis event that the player competes in, whichever occurs first.”

So he was probably able to negotiate a WC so as not to use one of his nine allowed protected events.

Regardless, the article should not state that he needed a WC to enter as that is inaccurate.

Good call RZ!!!

January 14th, 2015 at 2:29 pm

rz
Youre probably right about fognini

But I would love you to be wrong. He is such aan charistmatic player and boy canturn it on. He can play majesticly.

but those moments never last long enough to trilt believe he can break through.
mental midget.

January 14th, 2015 at 3:28 pm

I don’t really know what link to ask this question….but here goes. The powers that be aren’t really serious about the Fast 4 tennis, are they?? I just read a five set match would last about 75 minutes. Is this for real or just something for exos??

January 14th, 2015 at 3:34 pm

Okie,
I don’t think it will ever take off as offical or competitive sport, but idea is good in the sense to get more people (particulary very young people and their parents) interested and involved in tennis. Ones they are sucked in, they will stay with tennis for ever. Something like McDonald’s commercials, they are targeting kids not adults, ones they have kids as a customers they will have them for ever, plus their parents who have to come with them:)

January 14th, 2015 at 4:38 pm

why wouldnt it be good?

instead of 3 set tourney you get best of 5 with the new format.

Ik guess slam wont be changing. but for aan lot of 250 it might spicethings up.

January 14th, 2015 at 4:42 pm

^^ I’ll give yiu example with another sport that we both love and I even played it (as junior), that is basketball.

You have quite a few variation of basketball, depend on the circumstances, 1on 1, 3 on 3 (offical member of FIBA), around the world, lightning, game of 21… All these games are design to kee you playing basketball whether you are out on the courts by yoursef, two people, five and so on.

Where I grew up basketball game is #1 sport, we use to make halfcourt in the car park beetwen the “Shoe Boxes” where we lived (very happy life), and to play all day, whether it was only me (I could play basketball by myself for hours), or more boys from the block. The parents were happy to give us that corner of the car park, they could always keep an eye on us from the windows above. Next step, when we learned the trade, was to join local club, but we would always return to that makeshift halfcourt to play with the boys, we adicted to that court and corner shop where we would by beer after the game (as adults). I used to play that way with father of Marko Jaric ( Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Memphis Grizzlies) who use to be great player in his own rights. At the end of the day it was good system that produced great players, we are the only country with five World titles, sweetest one came in Indianopolis where we even beat USA in 2002 on the way to world title, the country where the basketball game was born, you can’t get better than that:)

January 14th, 2015 at 6:06 pm

@Wog…..I certainly hope it doesn’t…..maybe a shot clock would be what the sport needs if the issue is lengthy matches. Rafa and Nole are the slowest, so when they play each other it’s a marathon. I don’t think Rafa plays as well when pushed with the time, but rules are rules and he needs to abide by them. I think they are both doing so much better in speeding things up.

A new format to get more people interested in
tennis??? I’m not sure that would help. I told Skeezer the other day that the majority of people I know hate tennis…..they say “b o r i n g”…..so, long drawn out matches is what’s boring about it?? I just think the majority of sport enthusiasts like team sports better than individual sports….imho.

Wog, I played basketball and love the sport. Our biggest sport in our county is probably basketball first, football then baseball. We do have two schools that have tennis in their curriculum and our local college offers tennis scholarships. I met a young girl at one of our local restaurants and she was from Canada and was a former dubs partner of Eugenie B. We had a great visit and was so nice to visit with someone about a sport I love. Don’t have that opportunity very often……I guess that’s why I hang with TX!!

January 14th, 2015 at 7:03 pm

@Wog…..When I played basketball it was the 6 on….not crossing the center line. Now it’s 5 on 5
full court like the boys. I prefer 6 on 6….but that’s what I grew up with and I don’t like change….but that’s because I’m getting older and set in my ways…..just like I feel when it comes to tennis changes…..won’t like it but will deal with it!! Lol

January 14th, 2015 at 7:11 pm

If Delpo can only win this second set I have a feeling he can win the match, the only thing that is keeping him in the match is excelent serving, Kukushkin is winning ground battle and looks in the zone, Delpo looks tired, no wonder, this his third match in the middle of the day, worst heat.

January 15th, 2015 at 1:27 am

It wasn’t to be, all credit yo Kukushkin, he just outplayed big man, I remember the scare he gave to Nole in Shanghai, Delpo just didn’t have the answers and was tired.

January 15th, 2015 at 1:42 am

https://www.globaltennisnetwork.com/tennis-tournaments/bracket-challenges/bracket-challenge-page/homePage/688-tennis-x-bracket-challenge

Here you go all—-sorry I have been MIA at tennis x but I will always show up for a bracket challenge. Havent seen the draw for this one but I just don’t see how Djokovic doesn’t have this one…cant envision any other scenario. Hope im wrong.

January 15th, 2015 at 12:31 pm

AO draw is out.

Djoko x Wawa
Federer x Nadal

Top
Djoko x Raonic (DelPo in Raonic Quarter)
Wawa x Kei (Kei got Ferrer R16)

Bottom
Federer x Murray (Murray got Dimitrov R16)
Nadal x Berdy

Seems a balanced draw with bottom slightly heavier due to Fed, Nadal and Murray.

For Djoko: Raonic, Kei / Wawa and Fed / Nadal Murray. He will have to play only one of big 4 if one of them reaches the final (but can’t see one of them not reaching finals with the players on bottom half). One of them will be there, the question is who?

For Fed he would’ve to go through Murray, Nadal / Berdy and Djoko / Wawa / Kei to win.

For Nadal: Berdy, Fed or Murray and Djoko / Wawa / Kei

For Wawa: Kei, Djoko / Raonic, Fed / Nadal / Murray

For Murray: Fed, Nadal / Berdy, Djoko / Kei / Raonic / Wawa

Seems Murray gets the tougher draw.

It’s interesting that bottom half have big names and a bet 100% one of them will be in the final (Federer, Nadal or Murray) and in top half one of Djoko, Wawa, Raonic and Kei. With Djoko ahead of the pack. But defending champion is in his draw as the tow most dangerous players right now apart from old Big 4: Raonic and Kei. This makes for a balanced draw in my view and almost assured an all top 8 final.

Can’t see nobody else spoiling the party, not Dimi, Ferrer, Isner, Anderson, et al.

January 15th, 2015 at 7:57 pm

Nadal gets a tuff first round with Youzhny but other than that can’t see him losing to other guys, Anderson is his biggest treat in R16. Gullible is in Berdy quarter so this could be ideal for him to play himself into form. And if he reaches quarters to face Berdy (can’t see him beating Nadal ever again, unless he a disaster happens), Nadal could play Murray or Fed in semis, both players who he have an excellent record against. I wasn’t thinking he had a shot at first but if he plays himself into form and Fed and Murray play a exhausting match they could enter semis rewinding previous Slams encounter with Nadal. At that point anything can happen.

Don’t think we will get major upsets this tournament, think most seed with reaches quarters where the fun will actually began.

Fed only treat is R16 in Karlovic or Kyrgios, if they reach there.

Djoko is a lock to quarters with only Isner in his way in R16 if he reaches that stage. No way he loses before quarters in my view.

Murray is also lock, can’t see him losing to Dimitrov again not now unless Dimi finds his Wimbledon 2014 form again.

Wawrinka also lock for Quarters can;t see nobody beating him.

The only vulnerable is Kei who has Ferrer just coming of a title.

January 15th, 2015 at 8:07 pm

First time in the ATP history two qualifaires are playing final, Apia Sydney International, Troicki against Kukushkin.

Bravo Troicki, it was another great display today against man who served 25 or so aces last night against Tomic. Keep it up.

January 16th, 2015 at 2:55 am