J
uan Martin del Potro has worked hard to eventually defeat Gilles Simon 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 to book a place in the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time in his career where he will face defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Delpo seemed to have recovered from an awkward slip on the grass yesterday. After the slip Juan Martin took some time before he peeled himself slowly off the court but against Simon his slapping powerful ground strokes were two powerful, his serve too big. Read more
Posted in Gilles Muller, Gilles Simon, Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon
Rafael Nadal finally worked out how to break down the serve of Gilles Muller’s serve after a rain delay to re-plan his tactics and have some treatment on his sore leg. Today Nadal came out leading 7-6 and then took the match 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 for a place in the fourth round in the second week of Wimbledon where he will face the winner of Gilles Simon and Juan Martin del Potro. Read more
Posted in Gilles Muller, Gilles Simon, Injury, Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon
Yesterday at Wimbledon just before rain started to fall both Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro slipped and fell on the grass at the back of the court. With the grass around the baseline wearing thin it is not uncommon for players to slip when they move back into more defensive positions. Read more
Posted in Gilles Muller, Gilles Simon, Injury, Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon
To break the lengthy draw analysis in two parts I have separated the explanation about what’s at stake for the big boys Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and what to look for in the early rounds into another post (click here).
If we look at the draw as a whole it’s hard to look beyond Federer as champion. Read more
Posted in Alejandro Falla, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, David Ferrer, Dudi Sela, Ernests Gulbis, Fabio Fognini, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Injury, Ivan Dodig, Ivan Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, John Isner, Juan Martin Del Potro, Juan Monaco, Marcos Baghdatis, Mardy Fish, Milos Raonic, Nicolas Almagro, Nicolas Mahut, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Thomaz Bellucci, Tomas Berdych, Viktor Troicki, Wimbledon
Given the recent form of some of the higher ranked players (Berdych I’m looking at you here) and the significant number of highly ranked fatigued (Djokovic, Federer, Nadal) and injured players (Simon, Fish) looking at the first round match ups took longer than it normally does. Recently players like Ivan Dodig, Andreas Seppi, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Janko Tipsarevic have stepped up and played some great tennis on grass and should make for an interesting Wimbledon. Read more
Posted in Andy Murray, Fabio Fognini, Fernando Gonzalez, Fernando Verdasco, Gilles Simon, Injury, Ivan Dodig, Ivan Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic, Janko Tipsarevic, John Isner, Marin Cilic, Milos Raonic, Nicolas Mahut, Novak Djokovic, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Philipp Petzschner, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Robin Haase, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Wimbledon
R
afael Nadal has booked a place in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros after defeating Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 in today’s fourth round match. Read more
G
illes Simon, with Richard Gasquet, is leading the way at his home tournament in Roland Garros where the French players have had less that stellar results in the past few years, making his way into the fourth round where he will face the winner of Soderling V Mayer. Simon beat Mardy Fish handily today 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours. Read more
Posted in Gilles Simon, Leonardo Mayer, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, Robin Soderling, Roland Garros
This years men’s Roland Garros draw has the potential to produce a great tournament with some really interesting match ups if the seeds perform. The fluctuating recent form of the top male players doesn’t give me much hope of this happening but lets look at the draw anyway.
The really interesting first round matches are: Read more
Posted in Alexandr Dolgopolov, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Arnaud Clement, ATP, Benjamin Becker, Bernard Tomic, Clay courts, David Ferrer, Estoril, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Frederico Gil, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Injury, Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Juan Martin Del Potro, Julien Benneteau, Jurgen Melzer, King of Clay, Marcos Baghdatis, Milos Raonic, Nicolas Almagro, Nicolas Mahut, Novak Djokovic, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Thomaz Bellucci, Tomas Berdych, Tommy Haas.
Andy Roddick has really been struggling to find any consistent decent form over the last two years. He was dealt a bad draw in Rome, being scheduled to face Gilles Simon in the first round today after a first round knock out in Madrid.
In their first round match Roddick was shown up on his least favourite surface as Gilles easily won 6-3, 6-3. It was clear that Roddick had only one game plan, his normal big serving sometimes volleying and attempt to hit through the court, which just didn’t work against a great scrambler like Gilles who moves more naturally on clay. Read more
Posted in Andy Roddick, Clay courts, Flavio Cipolla, Gilles Simon, Madrid, Rome
Andy Murray has finally snapped his horrible losing streak in Monte Carlo, having not won a match since losing the Australian Open final. The Scot has now won two consecutive matches in Monte Carlo, most recently defeating the ailing Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3. Murray was booed after his match against the injured Frenchman, not for his terrible hair, but for his poor form repeatedly playing drop shots (which Murray does irritatingly frequently anyway) taunting the often injured former top ten player. Read more
Posted in Andy Murray, Gilles Simon, Monte Carlo, Rafael Nadal
