Though the season is already a couple of weeks in, I decided to take some extra time this year, as I overdosed on tennis last year. With some rest, I am back to overindulging on tennis this year. Last year started out great but then when to the dogs. It was hard to see Rafael Nadal go from winning the Australian Open to not being able to defend his title at Wimbledon in just four-short months later due to an extreme case of tendinitis.
Other low points last year include:
Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek broke up
Richard Gasquet’s suspension
Andre Agassi’s biography. Some of the revelations revealed the subsequent ridiculousness of Gasquet’s predicament
The tricolor charge did not live up to expectation. Let’s hope this year will be better
The year did improve with some things:
Juan Martin del Potro won the US Open
Spain repeated its Davis Cup championship
Novak Djokovic finally got his act together and is back to living up to his potential
Nikolay Davydenko’s rise again as force to be reckoned with
Gasquet cleared up his troubles and can now focus on tennis
Juan Carlos Ferrero and David Ferrer turned out the Valencia Open. It went from to some tiny tournament to a definite must-go-to stop on the tour. See for yourselves:
Jeremy Chardy has the Ps number. He defeated the pair with Gilles Simon in the first round last week in Cincinnati. This week, he and Fabrice Santoro defeated Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek 6-4 3-6 10-7 in their New Haven debut. It’s déjà vu all over again. Let's hope the Ps do not have to lock horns with Chardy & Company in the early rounds next week.
Chardy and Santoro now get to wait for winner of tomorrow’s Butorac/Coetzee-Soares/Ullyett match.
Jeremy Chardy and Gilles Simon took out doubles specialists Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek. After losing the first set, they rallied to win the second-set tiebreak. They then saved match point in the third-set tiebreak to surpass the American-Slovakian team 4-6 7-6(3) 12-10. The French duo will now face the Polish team of Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski. (Images: Denise/tennisfiend)
City:Gstaad, Switzerland Surface: Outdoor Clay Championship Points: 250 2008 Singles Champion: Victor Hanescu 2008 Doubles Champions: JaroslavLevinsky and Filip Polasek
Stanislas Wawrinka, PhilippKohlschreiber, Igor Andreev, Victor Hanescu, Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Kiefer, Feliciano Lopez and Paul-Henri Mathieu are the top-seeds at this tournament. This week could be a good opportunity for top-seed and hometown favorite Stanislas Wawrinka to win his first title this year, but Jeremy Chardy has been hot of late. We shall see how it all shakes out this week.
Tournament Draw Singles / Doubles (Images: AllianzSuisse Open Gstaad)
Rafael Nadal is set to return in time for Rogers Cup. Yeah! The ATP needs him desperately, as the tour is pretty dull without him (Rafael Nadal)
Richard Gasquet has been cleared of charges and will return to the tour (ESPN)
Jeremy Chardy won his first career title at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. Jeremy! Jeremy! (Mercedes Cup)
RoberSoderling captured the Swedish Open title. A Parrott-less, Filip Polasek recovered from the swine flu and won the Swedish doubles title withJaroslavLevinsky. Polasek also made it to the final in this week's Hamburg doubles final (SwedishOpen)
Spain, Croatia, Israel and the Czech Republic advanced into the Davis Cup semifinals (Davis Cup)
Roger Federer took the Wimbledon title, broke Pete Sampras' record and retained the ATP No. 1 ranking from an injured Rafael Nadal (Wimbledon)
Three players have caught the swine flu. All of them are doubles players. The pair of Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek are believed to have the virus, as well as Michael Mertinak who plays with Frantisek Cermak.
The tournament became aware of the situation when four ballkids were told to stay home after they were suffering from ‘flu-like’ symptoms:
Mertinak, aged 29, and Polasak, 24, were sharing a hotel room in London for the tournament while Parrott, 28, was Polasek's doubles partner. Mertinak is said to be preparing to fly home in the next couple of days.
They all went out at the second round stage of the men's doubles last week, while Mertinak withdrew from the second round of the mixed doubles because he was feeling unwell.
Last week several ball boys and girls were sent home with flu symptoms but there does not appear to have been any further outbreak of illness, according to an All England Club spokesman.
Let’s hope this is just a few isolated incidents and not an ATP outbreak.
Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski took out Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek 6-4 6-4 in the AEGON International doubles final today in Eastbourne, Great Britain. This is their first title this year and their ninth career title together. The tournament win should be a nice boost for the duo going into Wimbledon.
Also, good job to Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek for making it to the final. It was their second final of the year, but the Amercican-Slovakian duo have come up short both times. Maybe, three times is the charm.
Last time Federico Gil and Rafael Nadal met, Gil gave Nadal trouble in the first set in Miami. Nadal eventually won in straight sets. Now on clay, Nadal had no trouble dismissing the 24-year-old from Portugal 6-2 6-2. Nadal will play Belgian Christophe Rochus, who surprisingly upset Richard Gasquet, in the round of 16.
At the end of the day all the singles seeds advanced to the round of 16, except Robin Soderling and Richard Gasquet. It was not true on the doubles side. Top-seeds the Bryan brothers were the only seeded team to advance to the next round, as well as fourth-seeds Mahesh Bhuthi and Mark Knowles. The brothers had no trouble sending Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek packing (pictured right) 6-3 6-4. They will play Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in the quarterfinals.
Juan Monaco has no trouble with Marat Safin, who is playing in his last Barcelona Open tournament. Monaco dismissed the Russian 6-4 6-1 after 65 minutes of play. The Argentine will play the Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the next round. The two players have never met in ATP action.
Nicolas Lapentti had a more difficult time overcoming from fellow-veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu. The Ecuadorian qualifier persevered and bested the Frenchman 6-3 2-6 6-2. Lapentti had a good week in Monaco but will play Fernando Verdasco play in the next round. The Spaniard leads Lapentti 4-2 though Lapentti won their last meeting in Cincinnati in 2008.
On the other hand, Fabio Fognini did not survive after having a good week in Monte-Carlo last week. Fellow-qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver beat the Italian pretty handily 6-1 6-3. The Spaniard plays Juan Monaco in the second round.
Gaston Gaudio beat fellow Argentine Diego Junquiera 6-4 3-6 6-4. The 2004 Roland Garros champion will meet sixth-seed Tommy Robredo in the next round. The Argentine leads their match-up 4-3 with Gaudio winning their last meeting in Monte-Carlo in 2006.
The match of the day was Mikhail Youzhny versus Viktor Troicki. It looked like the Serb would take the match, but the Russian rallied from behind to send the Serb home 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 6-3 after 163 minutes of play. Youzhny will now play Stanislas Wawrinka, who made it to the semifinals in Monte-Carlo last week. The Russian is 1-0 over Wawrinka.
In doubles, all three Spanish teams lost today, plus Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez lost yesterday. Doubles team, Travis Parrot and Filip Polasek rallied to beat Frantisek Cermak and Mertinak Mertinak 6-7(4) 6-2 10-7. They will play top-seeds Bryan brothers in the next round. The Bryan brothers and Travis Parrott are the only American players currently playing on the European clay circuit.
Third seed Tommy Robredo was upset by Argentine Jose Acasuso in straight sets. Robredo was on a roll for the last month, but Acasuso broke that momentum with a convincing win over the Spaniard in straight sets. The Argentine exacted revenge on Robredo since the Spaniard has bested him in the semifinals of last two tournaments.
Acasuso will play second-seed Gael Monfils in the semifinals. The two players have never played in an ATP tournament.
AP
Nicolas Almagro is through to the semifinals after dismissing Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight sets. The defending champion will play Martin Vassallo next.
In doubles news, Oregonian Travis Parrot and Slovakian Filip Polasek beat Lucas Arnold Ker and Nicolas Lapentti in the quarterfinals. Parrott and Polasek are playing well this year where they have made it to the semifinals in Brisbane in January and the finals in Memphis last week. The third-seeds will meet the Czecho-Slovakian duo of Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak, who are the top seeds, in the semifinals. The last time the teams met was Brisbane this year and Cermak and Mertinak prevailed in straight sets.
Thursday’s Results:Singles Quarterfinals Martin Vassallo def. Daniel Koellerer (AUT) 6-3 7-6(3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP) def. Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 6-2, 7-6(2) Jose Acasuso (ARG) def. Tommy Robredo (ESP) 7-5 6-2 Gael Monfils (FRA) def. Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 6-3 6-7(4) 4-1 Ret'd
Doubles Quarterfinals P. Hanley (AUS)/Jordan KERR (AUS) def. B. Echagaray (MEX)/S. Gonzalez (MEX) 6-3 6-4 T. Parrott (USA)/F. Polasek (SVK) vs. L. Arnold (ARG)/N. Lapentti (ECU) 7-5 4-6 10-5 Lukasz Kubot (POL)/O. Marach (AUT) def. P. Starace (ITA)/M. Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 6-3 6-3 11-9 F. Cermak (CZE)/M. Mertnak (SVK) def. J. Ignacio Chela (ARG)/P. Cuevas (URU) 4-6 6-3 10-8 Wednesday's Order of Play
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