Sabbatical

I'm currently in the last stages of preparing my thesis, so this blog is on hiatus in the meantime. I may still post an article or two per week for the next month or so. Thanks for visiting!

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 7:25 PM  1 comments

Looking Good

What does a tennis player do when not on court? Pose for Sports Illustrated, that's what. Although she tries to avoid the Anna Kournikova comparisons and has surpassed the earlier blonde's career achievements in singles, Maria Sharapova can't help being the marketable poster girl for women's tennis. This year's SI swimsuit issue has Sharapova as the featured athlete. There's a nice cross-promotional deal for Nike as well: they provided the strings-and-triangles -- I mean, the swimsuits -- for the shoot.

Sharapova will be back on court this week, playing at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open alongside Amelie Mauresmo, Lindsay Davenport, and Justine Henin-Hardenne. Aaress at On the Baseline gives a good preview of the action to come. Hopefully Sharapova will not only look good, but play good as well. (Please ignore the grammatical error.)

Last week saw some good play on the men's tour. Carlos Moya surprised all observers by winning a title in Argentina, beating Juan Carlos Ferrero on the way to it and besting Filippo Volandri in the final. Moya has been plagued by a shoulder injury and lately had been exiting tournaments in early rounds; this was a good win for him.

Andy Murray furthered his case as the next British hope by winning his first ATP title and beating two top players in a row at the SAP Open. He toppled Andy Roddick in the semifinal and outlasted Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

At the same tournament, John McEnroe and Jonas Bjorkman had entered the doubles draw and ended up winning the whole thing. McEnroe had not played tennis on the tour since 1994 and turned 47 years old on the night of their first-round match, but showed he was still capable of his trademark mastery of the ball and court. I can't help thinking his run at this tournament was another shot in the arm for men's professional doubles. Things are looking good.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 10:18 AM  3 comments

Davis Cup First Round

Here in this part of the world, Davis Cup World Group ties aren't broadcast live, so I've had to make do with news reports and fan reports. By all accounts, it was an eventful weekend with quite a few stunning upsets and an an unexpected exhibition.

There were, however, two teams that accomplished a whitewash of their opponents in their first-round ties. Argentina steamrolled Sweden despite David Nalbandian losing one set to Robin Soderling in the first singles match, and the doubles team of Agustin Calleri/David Nalbandian losing the third set in the clincher doubles match against Simon Aspelin/Jonas Bjorkman. Last year, Argentina had gotten to the semifinals before losing to the Slovak Republic, this year's defending finalist. Argentina now moves into a quarterfinal tie against Croatia, the defending champion. Croatia comfortably beat Austria 3-2, despite the team-up of Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic having to fight back from being down 2 sets to love in the clinching doubles match.

Russia also beat the Netherlands with a 5-0 score. Having lost to Croatia last year in the semifinal, the team of Nikolay Davydenko (now the top-ranked Russian as a result of Marat Safin's long-term absence due to injury), Dmitry Tursunov, and Igor Andreev/Mikhail Youzhny for the doubles will face France in the quarterfinals.

France moved into the quarterfinals after defeating Germany 3-2; Germany scored the two dead rubbers after France's Sebastien Grosjean pulled off his grudge match against Nicolas Kiefer, and Tommy Haas fell in five sets against Richard Gasquet. Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra sealed the deal upon defeating Haas and doubles partner Alexander Waske in four sets.

From BBC:

Haas looked set to repeat the easy victory over Gasquet he took in Australia, storming through the first set with the loss of just one game.

But the Frenchman came back to win 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-7 (1-7) 6-3, silencing the boisterous local support at the Gerry Weber stadium in Halle.

Grosjean lost a bad tempered quarter-final to Kiefer in Melbourne last month and there was more controversy in this game, before the Frenchman came through 7-5 7-6 (9-7) 6-0.

Kiefer - who lost to Roger Federer in the semi-finals in Australia - appeared to lose concentration after a couple of line calls went against him at the end of the second set.

Amid booing and whistling from the 10,000-strong crowd, Kiefer and German coach Patrick Kuehnen berated the umpire and match referee, but the decisions stood.

It's a shame that Germany was knocked out of contention so early; they knocked the Czech Republic out of the World Group last year.

Spain fell in first-round action for the second consecutive time, this year to Belarus.

From Davis Cup.com:

In the absence of Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero, the Spaniards were unable to compete with the Belarus team, which has now won its last 11 home ties on the fast Taraflex, which suits both Mirnyi and Voltchkov. Tommy Robredo was the only Spaniard to offer any resistance.

Mirnyi, 'The Beast' drove through both singles and doubles rubbers masterfully, killing his opponents' hopes with deadly serves and superior net play: "We are a united team which is able to earn the three points necessary for victory. It doesn't matter what order we would play in."

The central figure of the whole tie, however, was Belarus No.2 Vladimir Voltchkov. Undergoing a career crisis and currently ranked No. 301, Voltchkov competed hard from the baseline against David Ferrer, directing one ball after another to different corners of the court with ease. He made us remember the time when he reached the 2000 Wimbledon semifinals as an unknown and remains one of the most unpredictable players on the world stage.

Belarus will be competing in the quarterfinals against Australia, whose lack of Lleyton Hewitt's participation in their first-round tie against Switzerland gave opportunity for Chris Guccione, Peter Luczak, and Wayne Arthurs/Paul Hanley to rise to the occasion. Australia defeated Switzerland 3-2 with Guccione winning the deciding live fifth rubber. Switzerland was playing on home soil but without the participation of world #1 Roger Federer.

Chile upset defending finalist Slovakia 4-1. With Slovakia reeling from the loss of Karol Beck's services (he's been banned two years for doping), Chile's Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu made quick work of Michal Mertinak and Dominik Hrbaty in the singles, and teamed up in doubles to clinch the tie against Mertinak and Lukas Lacko. In 2004 Massu won the Olympic gold medal in men's singles, and he and Gonzalez also won the men's doubles gold medal. Chile will face the USA in the quarterfinals.

The USA split the first two singles matches in their tie against Romania. USA team #1 Andy Roddick had already won two sets against Andrei Pavel in the first singles match when nausea, vomiting, and dehydration took their toll. Pavel took the next three sets and scored the first win for Romania. James Blake quickly evened the score for the USA by beating Victor Hanescu.

The following day, the doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan were counting on winning their match against Hanescu and Horia Tecau, but were surprised at the ease of it when Hanescu retired after the first set due to injury. As a conciliatory gesture to the crowd for the lack of a match to watch, an impromptu doubles exhibition was then staged between the teams of Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan and Patrick McEnroe/John McEnroe. They played a pro-set, with the Bryans coming out on top 8-4.

From an eyewitness account:

...the announcer said they were looking at putting together an exhibition match.

At that point, the whole crowd looked at the broadcast booth, and started yelling "John McEnroe," "John McEnroe." John took off his coat and tie, and we thought well, maybe... We also thought that perhaps Rod Laver would come out, as he was there for the coin toss yesterday.

And then Patrick McEnroe started hitting with the Bryans, and then a short while later it was announced that the McEnroes would take on the Bryans in a doubles exhibition. And the crowd went wild. In fact, if anything, there were more people in the stands then than there were for the earlier match.

Bud Collins was designated the chair umpire, and the McEnroes took the court. It was one of the most entertaining matches I have ever seen. They played one set, winner to get 8 games.

And they did all the usual gags. The McEnroes protested line calls, with hands of their hips. We were cheering them, yelling "You can't be serious." They were throwing racquets, and threatening the Bryans, saying they were going to lose their Davis Dup positions if they don't the Macs win.

Now, Patrick is a bit rusty, especially with serving. But it was no problem, when he got down 0-40, John would step in as the designated server. And as Bud Collins said, for the Macs, they can take as many serves "as needed."

But the Macs' volleying is still pretty good. And they were up 2-0, until the Bryans started getting serious. We had the cheers timed with the Bryan Bunch -- earlier we were yelling "Bob," and the other side of the stadium would yell "Mike." Now we were yelling "McEnroe" and they would respond, "Bryan." It was really fun.

Roddick was able to recover enough to clinch the tie for the USA by beating Razvan Sabau, the replacement for Hanescu. Blake defeated Horia Tecau in the dead rubber, giving the USA a 4-1 win over Romania.

Davis Cup action will recommence on April 7-9, when the quarterfinals will be played between Argentina and Croatia, USA and Chile, Australia and Belarus, and France and Russia.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 10:38 AM  0 comments

Go Fish

A friend of mine sent me this picture, but I have absolutely no idea why Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils are dressed that way:

Any ideas? Comment away!

(yes, I know it was a photo op.)

UPDATE: Thank you to Loreley, Ellen, Rob, and Manu for the replies. Loreley also provided us with a link to her blog, which has more fabulous pics from Doha.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 4:07 PM  5 comments

Moving Along Now...

While I've been suffering from a post-Australian Open hangover, the pro tennis world has been turning. Martina Hingis, who went out in the quarterfinal of the AO to Kim Clijsters but won in the mixed doubles, is playing in Tokyo at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. After defeating world # 61 Yoon-Jeung Cho in a first round drubbing (6-0,6-0), Hingis faced the much tougher Nathalie Dechy (ranked #21 in the world) in the second round.

From Asahi.com:

Hingis acknowledged that she got off to a shaky start against Dechy, but as the match wore on she started to find her groove. In the third set, she broke Dechy's serve in the second game and broke her again in the eighth game to seal the victory.

"I was a little nervous going into (Thursday's) match," said Hingis, who recently returned to pro tennis after ankle injuries forced her to take a three-year sabbatical. "I hadn't played (Dechy) in a while and she pushed me right away, but I adjusted to the way she was returning and I started reading her returns a little better Thank God I still have those skills, that was my saving grace."

Martina's won four Pan Pacific Open titles in the past, but she'll need to face Maria Kirilenko in the quarterfinal before possibly meeting defending champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinal. Sharapova's quarterfinal opponent is Samantha Stosur, whom Hingis defeated in three sets at the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, sunny Florida is hosting part of the men's tour at Delray Beach. After a brouhaha concerning whether Andy Roddick would play the qualifying rounds and the later revelation that he wasn't, the tournament certainly got itself off to a flying start with regard to media coverage. (If you're interested, there's a full wrap-up of the incident in two posts at Roddick Watch.)

Andre Agassi is the tournament's headliner, but almost crashed out in the second round to Ramon Delgado. The #1 seed won the match with a scoreline of 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0. From the tournament website:

Agassi found himself down quickly in this match despite an early break in the first set. He was leading 4-2 when Delgado won four straight games and the set to the surprise of the more than 5,000 who came out on a cool night in South Florida.

In the 10th game of the second set with Agassi serving and Delgado leading 5-4, Agassi faced two match points but erased both with winning volleys. The 35-year-old went up 4-1 in the tie-breaker before closing it out 7-4.

The third set was all Agassi as Delgado won only eight points.

The only other American left in the singles draw is Vince Spadea, who is now a quarterfinalist after defeating fellow American Robert Kendrick. Spadea, who at one time held the longest losing streak in the history of the ATP, is compiling his first set of consecutive victories in singles since the beginning of 2006.

***

UPDATE: Unfortunately for all the players I discussed previously, none of them won the titles for which they were contenders. Hingis blew past Sharapova 6-3,6-1 in the Toray Pan Pacific semifinal and moved into the final where she faced Elena Dementieva. The two players had met 4 times previously in their career, with Dementieva taking the last two matches. This match proved to be no different, as Dementieva overwhelmed Hingis 6-2,6-0.

From CNN.com:

Dementieva had beaten the Swiss 6-3 6-1 in Filderstadt in October 2002 in what was Hingis's last match before chronic ankle trouble forced her into early retirement.

[...]

Hingis was unranked three weeks ago but climbed to 117th after her strong run in Melbourne.

Her ranking is still set to rise to just outside the top 50 after reaching her seventh Tokyo final.

Dementieva will climb from ninth to eighth following her first tournament win since 2004 when she also reached two grand slam finals.

Prior to the beginning of the Toray Pan Pacific tournament, Sharapova said that Hingis could soon be in the Top 10. If Hingis keeps racking up these results and troubling the world's top women players, I trust that she could very well make Sharapova's prediction come true. It seems to me that Hingis has trouble with the match-up against Dementieva, but it was a satisfying run nevertheless. Dementieva is also making up lost ground after her shock first round upset at the Australian Open this year. From various reports, I've read that Dementieva served very well against Hingis, but I didn't see the tournament on TV. Has she finally fixed her serve, which has been the butt of many jokes since she jumped into the Top 10?

As for Agassi and Spadea at the Delray Beach tournament, neither of them made the final. Agassi was upset in the quarterfinals by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Spadea went one round better than the top seed, making the semifinal by beating unseeded Hyung Taik-Lee. Spadea and Tommy Haas faced off in the semifinal, and it seemed as if Haas was taking revenge on Spadea (for beating him in a practice match 6-3,6-0) by easing through in straight sets. Garcia-Lopez was defeated by Xavier Malisse, which would have set up another Battle of the Ponytails between himself and Haas, had Tommy not gotten rid of the ponytail. So it was the Battle of the Bolletierri kids (both players being alumni of the famous/infamous academy), and by all accounts it was a close one.

From the tournament website:

"It was extremely good tennis from beginning to end," understated Haas. "Based on Xavier's record in Delray Beach I'm proud to beat him here. He's a solid player, moves well and it showed today. I thought I was playing pretty good and when I needed to step it up a level, I did."

[...]

"He wasn't making any mistakes, " said Malisse, who has played in two finals in his first three tournaments of 2006. "I just had to keep grinding and I had to play more aggressive in the second and third sets and it worked well for me."

Both Haas and Malisse played close to textbook tennis in splitting the first two sets. Haas went up a break in the sixth game to win the first set and Malisse got his break in the eighth game of the second set.

"I was pleased with my game overall (this week)," said Haas. "I could have lost two matches here so this is a good result."

Despite the loss, Malisse was positive about his week in Delray Beach and his fourth trip to the finals here. "I'm feeling good about my game--two finals in three touraments. I didn't expect that great a start."

Haas certainly seems to be in a good groove lately, and he's been fortunate so far this year to avoid injuries and tragedy which have dogged him through the past few years.

The first round Davis Cup world group ties are to be played from February 10 to 12. That's this weekend, folks. I'm taking a break but will be back to write about the results of that.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 11:29 AM  2 comments