2012 FO Day 7 OoP & Discussion

[suliso]

I know in the States Roddick was expected to dominate tennis adter he won the US Open in 2001. Juan Carlos Ferrero was hot and Carlos Moya made it to #1. Safin burst on the scene by beating Sampras.

In 2003, but yes that part I remember well! That hope didn't really die for few more years after it...

I mentioned Serbia before but no one thought Spain would become the powerhouse it has. There were US commentators making fun of the system that was just being put in place back then.

I don't think Spanish tennis actually changed all that much from the 90-ties. They found someone really special in Nadal, but the rest of the guys are very comparable to the previous generations (Bruguera, Moya, Corretja etc). The general slowing down of surfaces helped them a bit as well.

Good players tend to come in groups from the same country and it often lasts for a long time. Bjorn Borg made Swedish tennis wave has completely dissipated only very recently.

[mmmm8]

RESULTS
Men's Singles - Third Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d [Q] E Schwank (ARG) 61 63 64
[4] A Murray (GBR) d S Giraldo (COL) 63 64 64
[6] D Ferrer (ESP) d [27] M Youzhny (RUS) 60 62 62
[8] J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [29] J Benneteau (FRA) 63 75 64
[12] N Almagro (ESP) d L Mayer (ARG) 64 61 62
[13] J Monaco (ARG) d [19] M Raonic (CAN)[COLOR="rgb(160, 82, 45)"] 67(5) 63 67(5) 63 64[/COLOR]
[17] R Gasquet (FRA) d [Q] T Haas (GER) 67(3) 63 60 60
[20] M Granollers (ESP) d [WC] P Mathieu (FRA) 64 64 16 46 61

Women's Singles - Third Round
Maria Sharapova (2), Russia, def. Peng Shuai (28), China, 61 62
Petra Kvitova (4), Czech Republic, def. Nina Bratchikova, Russia, 62 46 61
Li Na (7), China, def. Christina McHale, United States, 36 62 61
Varvara Lepchenko, United States, def. Francesca Schiavone (14), Italy 36 63 86
Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic, def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (22), Russia 63 75
Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan, def. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain 64 75



Men's Doubles - Third Round
Ivan Dodig, Croatia, and Marcelo Melo, Brazil, def. Jurgen Melzer, Austria, and Philipp Petzschner (8), Germany, 6-3, 6-1.
Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace (14), Italy, def. Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski (4), Poland, 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Men's Doubles - Second Round
Max Mirnyi, Belarus, and Daniel Nestor (1), Canada, def. Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr, Australia, 6-1, 7-6 (0).
Bob and Mike Bryan (2), United States, def. Lukas Dlouhy, Czech Republic, and Nicolas Mahut, France, 6-0, 6-2.
Michael Llodra, France, and Nenad Zimonjic (3), Serbia, def. Yen-hsun Lu, Taiwan, and Go Soeda, Japan, 6-3, 6-3.
Mikhail Elgin, Russia, and Denis Istomin, Uzbekistan, def. Leander Paes, India, and Alexander Peya (7), Austria, 6-4, 6-1.
Eric Butorac, United States, and Bruno Soares (12), Brazil, def. Dudi Sela, Israel, and Filippo Volandri, Italy, 6-3, 6-2.
Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram (15), United States, def. Benjamin Becker, Germany, and Lukasz Kubot, Poland, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.


Women's Doubles - Third Round
Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci (4), Italy, def. Nina Bratchikova, Russia, and Edina Gallovits-Hall, Romania, 6-4, 6-2.
Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka (5), Czech Republic, def. Liga Dekmeijere, Latvia, and Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thailand, 6-2, 6-4.
Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina (6), Russia, def. Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan, Taiwan, 6-3, 6-4.
Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova (7), Russia, def. Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja (11), Spain, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (12), Spain, def. Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone, Italy, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

Women's Doubles - Second Round
Vania King, United States, and Yaroslava Shvedova (3), Kazakhstan, def. Simona Halep, Romania, and Aleksandra Wozniak, Canada, walkover.


Mixed Doubles - Second Round
Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) / Oliver Marach (AUT) def [3] Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) / Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 6-2 7-5
Elena Vesnina, Russia, and Leander Paes (5), India, def. Mathilde Johansson and Marc Gicquel, France, 6-2, 6-0.
Natalie Grandin, South Africa, and Paul Hanley, Australia, def. Stephanie Foretz Gacon and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France, 6-2, 6-4.



Mixed Doubles - First Round
Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL) / Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) def [6] Nadia Petrova (RUS) / Daniel Nestor (CAN) 3-6, 6-3, 10-8
Alicja Rosolska, Poland, and Alexander Peya, Austria, def. Jarmila Gajdosova, Australia, and Bruno Soares, Brazil, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 10-8 tiebreak.
Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Germany, and Marcin Matkowski, Poland, def. Julie Coin and Nicolas Mahut, France, 6-4, 6-1.
[WC] Virginie Razzano / Nicolas Devilder (FRA) def. Vladimira Uhlirova (CZE) / Scott Lipsky (USA) 3-6, 7-5, 10-6

[MeganFernandez]

In 2003, but yes that part I remember well! That hope didn't really die for few more years after it...




I don't think Spanish tennis actually changed all that much from the 90-ties. They found someone really special in Nadal, but the rest of the guys are very comparable to the previous generations (Bruguera, Moya, Corretja etc). The general slowing down of surfaces helped them a bit as well.

Good players tend to come in groups from the same country and it often lasts for a long time. Bjorn Borg made Swedish tennis wave has completely dissipated only very recently.

Keep thinking about this convo during the Fed-Goffin match. Is THIS the next champ? Love him!

[Ti-Amie]

I didn't see the Fed match but I've heard nothing but good things about Goffin's play. How would you describe it? A style all his own or parterned after someone? I understand he's a Fed KAD. It's going to be interesting to see where and how he plays coming into the summer hard court season.

As for Sloane her problem closing out sets bit her in the butt today. She began to recover her mental balance too late to come all the way back. I was also glad to see she's got Katrina Adams on her team. i guess it's similar to Amelie working with Azarenka.

I've been thinking about what Suliso said about the Williams sister's success mot inspiring more young women to take up tennis. I think I disagree but my thoughts are still unfocused. I will toss it put for discussion that Sharapova was trained to play the same style as Venus and while she has added her own style now she hasn't veered much from that mold.

Ducking behind the couch now.

[Edmond Dantès]

Reportedly a number of attempts at gamesmanship by Julia during the third set, including snarking at Rus's box and an MTO. Makes me wonder if her kvetching merely bolstered Keo's resolve not to call for darkness.

I really think that the light situation should be taken out of the hands of the umpire/supervisor person. Often the decision makers get themselves into trouble by letting play go on too long and then finding themselves under pressure to complete the match.

Doesn't help when they stubbornly stick to these over ambitious schedules at the French. When a tournament doesn't have floodlights they should be relying on a light meter to decide when play comes to an end (unless there is overwhelming agreement from both players to continue on).

Rus vs. Kanepi instead of Serena vs. Wozniacki


makes me laugh

Rus is obviously an admirer of the work of Pironkova at Wimbledon and is seeking to take up the Roland Garros franchise.

Kanepi has really got herself in shape. From the regular camera angle, there wasn't a lot of difference between her physique and that of Wozniacki.

Just using your comment to shoehorn my own in

More than I have ever seen in my decades of watching tennis: There are currently two ATP players who believe they can win Slams and can, and one ATP player who believes he can win Slams but can't anymore. The rest would clearly be thrilled to have a career of making their millions and a GS QF now and then. The ATP is pointless right now. (The WTA has the opposite problem. Too many contenders seemingly- albeit of course some will drop out of the contender category any minute now.....It HAD been Sam Stosur's destiny to have a Helena Sukova career.....)

Yeah, but Nelslus, you are a miserable basta and will probably never be happy

My views aren't as severe. I would like to see the top guys challenged more in the first week of the slams. At the moment, I don't feel at all compelled to tune in and see Rafa, Novak and Roger slaughter whoever they happen to be playing. I'll check in to see what's going on, but that's about the limit of it. Reducing the number of seeds would maybe make things more interesting (though the results would generally be the same) - don't imagine that's going to be happening though.

As I said earlier in the week, I enjoy the relative 'democracy' of the women's tour. What it could really do with are some fantastic finals......how many of those have there been in slams in recent years? Too many finals are one sided affairs, or even if they are relatively close, they can be over with in under 90mins. I don't know if anything can be done about this. I guess the only sure thing is the emergence of some close rivalries.......if they do come about, I just hope they aren't as far above the rest as we have with the men.

I guess if you look at the whole thing in total (men + women) then there is some kind of cosmic balance to the way things are just now.

Of course he does, but this is not an upset, not by a long stretch. Monaco is #14 in the world with a great clay record, Raonic is a crazy-tall guy with a weakish backhand for long rallies and no clay record to speak of. Gotta be realistic here, I think top-10 and a GS QF or 2 would be a pretty successful year. That's a big leap over 2011 which was already a huge leap over 2010.

Yep. Monaco's having one of his best, if not the best year of his career. He has twice given Djokovic a rough time of it in 2012. Clay is his best surface.

Whereas Raonic's clay results are a mixed bag and I'm sure it's his worst surface. He had a chance to win this match, but I don't think he was the favorite.

In general, I do expect he and (eventually) Tomic to get themselves in the mix for these types of tournaments. However, the bar has been set incredibly high and even the guys from around 5-10 in the rankings are well established. They have work to do to put themselves up there with the Tsongas, Berdychs etc of this world, nevermind Murray and then the top 3.

[nelslus]

Yeah, but Nelslus, you are a miserable basta and will probably never be happy

Your contempt continues to intoxicate me. OH, Edmond, Sweet Edmond, only you can appreciate the real me.