Post-US Open tournaments 2009

[louise]

Ah. Thanks for the clarification.

Anyway, Nadal looked quite human against Davydenko in that match, in which Davydenko volleyed quite well, using both a traditional volley and a drive volley. He volleyed well against Djokovic, too. Maybe he worked on his volleys during his down time.

Watched the 2002 Paris Masters QF match between Hewitt and Federer on TC the other day. Hewitt won. Federer was downright cranky and seemingly rather slow, if you can believe it. Combine that with the too-short shorts, the too-big shirt, the bad hairstyle -- who'da thunk what was to come?

[funches]

Now that the ATP has a running tally of the race for London, it's easy for us lazy people to figure out the deal.

Although Davyndenko has not officially clinched, Soderling, Verdasco and Tsonga realistically are competing for the last spot, in that order if Soderling cruises to the Stockholm title like he should.

Tsonga has some work to do, but he's fully capable of defending his title in Paris and getting the 1,000 points he needs. Gonzo, Simon and Cilic (who's not playing until Paris) are mathematically alive but either aren't playing well enough (G,S) or are too far behind (C) to have a legit shot.

I like Tsonga's game, but he does not deserve to be in the top 8 based on his slam performances. Verdasco and Soderling are equally deserving. This is one year where there won't be any pigeons in the draw, unless Roddick is still bothered by his knee.

In other news, Baghdatis will be close to getting back in the top 50 if he reaches the semis of Stockholm, and after crushing Ferrero today, I have a hard time seeing him losing before then. Lousy work ethic or whatever, he's far too talented not to become a factor again.

And one other thing. Horacio Zeballos, who got into the top 70 without my ever having heard of him, is up to No. 54 now even though his tour-level record for the year is 1-2. The highest-ranked player he beat in a Challenger was No. 93 Nicolas Massu. I know this is far too obscure for general interest, but there's something wrong with the ranking system when a player can get that high beating no one of consequence in Challenger events.

[louise]

oh, come on, funches. let the little guys have their chances.

i forgot to mention something about federer circa 2002 -- he used to bounce the ball between his legs before serving -- you know, that irritating little thing that Bagdhatis and Isner do?

by the way, simon played great against Djokivic. Djokovic played just a tad better.

i wish i could see last year's madrid final between simon and nadal. wonder if ttc will repeat it.

[Forehand_lob]

The WTA's year end championship begins in Doha tomorrow.

Group 1: Safina, Wozniacki, Azarenka, Jankovic
Group 2: Serena, Venus, Kuznetsova, Dementieva

Nice to see the random draw was so fair!

I'm liking Kuzy to take the whole thing.

[hellgod]

How lame is it that the alternate needs to be replaced by another alternate because of injury? Or that Jankovic is safely through to the semis by virtue of winning a match with a 1-1 (retired) score, and beating Caroline who had to play 6 hours of tennis in < 3 days?

I really shouldn't care that much about this, except I've suddenly grown very attached to Caroline this past year.

Oh, and unless Azarenka pulls of the upset, looks like Serena will win her first non-Grand Slam title of the year.

[funches]

I see the entire nation was atwitter when Serena beat Venus in the final.

Actually, I'm guessing 90 percent of the population does not even know the tournament happened. I was pulling for Venus to win, leaving Serena as the No. 1 player in the world without having won a regular tour event all year.

[Forehand_lob]

Well, I liked Kuzy to win, and she didn't make it out of the round robin portion so...

Date-Krumm is participating in Bali. How did she get in since she's ranked 101? I mean, she beat Anabel Medina, so it looks like she belongs, but it strikes me as odd.

I didn't realize that Djokovic was competing in Basel. Federer v. Djoker could be a very interesting final for a pretty small tournament.

[funches]

^^^^
Date being included seemed bizarre to me, too, but I found the explanation at the bottom of this AP story:

The tournament features winners of a WTA Tour event this season who didn’t qualify for the WTA championships in Doha, Qatar.

I believe those were the only main-tour matches D-K won all year until today. I read a story a couple of months ago where she said she planned to play two more years.

I'm all for more tennis, but I agree with Vach (or whoever wrote the funk/trunk on the home page this week) that this tournament is one of the dopiest ideas in tennis history. They got rid of consolation games in most sports a long time ago, and this is a consolation tournament. Strange. Of course, Wertheim thinks it's a great idea. He also believes Serena could hang with Gaston Gaudio. Fantastic writer, flaky opinions.

[funches]

i wish i could see last year's madrid final between simon and nadal. wonder if ttc will repeat it.

They repeat everything eventually.

[Forehand_lob]

They repeat everything eventually.

That's one of the problems with the Tennis Channel. After showing Chrissie v. Martina for an hour or two, it's really hard to gather any interest for even for something top-tier like Jankovic v. Ivanovic.

Wickmayer is also suspended for a year over her whereabouts 3 times over 18 months. What a way to kill momentum for her (see: Sesil K, has she done anything since getting over her suspension?). Malisse is supposed to have the same punishment. I'd probably see this as somewhat fair if WADA wasn't so publicity-grubbing. And, I'm still annoyed at the Hingis suspension.

EDIT: And I've read that Kimiko Date is through to the semi-finals because Wickmayer withdrew. She'll face Bartoli.

[funches]

Is it just me, or is it impossible to start a new thread. I've been getting the same error message all week, and when I try to email the administrator, I get the same error message.

I have a Mac, so somethings things that happen to me don't happen to others.

[ccm]

Ditto, but I'm on a Mac too. I get this:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Field 'topic_last_post_subject' doesn't have a default value [1364]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.

I sent an email to the board admin too.

[louise]

I tried, too. It didn't work for me, either, so I've also written the BA.

The error message didn't really say "fetching," did it?

[funches]

There was a fetching match between Nadal and Almagro today. Almagro served for the victory in the second set and was up 40-0 before Nadal came back to break him and win the second-set tiebreak, strangely reminiscent of what Blake did to Rafa a few weeks ago.

Of course, Rafa recovered to polish off Blake, and it looked like Almagro was going to follow suit against all odds. After getting broken to start the third set, he broke Rafa twice in a row to go up 3-1, lost that advantage to make it 3-3, then broke again for a 5-3 lead. He got broken at love and I'm not sure he won more than two points the rest of the way as Rafa prevailed 7-5.

All credit to Rafa again for his never-say-die attitude, but he shouldn't be down triple-match point to Almagro. Anyone watch it? What the heck happened when Almagro was serving for the second set, and how the heck did he get ahead 5-3 in the third?

[summerinok]

only saw the 3rd set, was so pissed off at Almagro, who was playing beatiful tennis, hitting winners at all corners. had multiple chance to go up 4-1, blew it, hitting 2 routine shots at the net. got serious cramps at 4-3, still after sitting down was able to break Nadal to go up 5-3. from there, he could not serve, could not run, was basically just standing there to let the match finish. pissed off at him b/c he looked like he just did not want to win that game serving at 3-1, playing beatifully down break points but at deuce and game point, seemed just to throw hell of a winner shot out of impossible corner (did not learn of him wasting 3 match points serving at 6-5 2nd set, guess there's a reason why 2nd tier guys are just 2nd tiers)

nadal for his part, was not moving well, hit the balls short, lucky to get out of that one, facing robredo next, now prob go all the way to the final