2019 European Open, Hamburg, Germany, ATP 500

britbox

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DATE: July 22 - 28 2019
SURFACE: Clay
PRIZE MONEY: €1,718,170
FIELD SIZE: 32
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Nikoloz Basilashvili

Seeds:

1 THIEM, Dominic
2 ZVEREV, Alexander
3 FOGNINI, Fabio
4 BASILASHVILI, Nikoloz
5 PAIRE, Benoit
6 DJERE, Laslo
7 STRUFF, Jan-Lennard
8 GARIN, Cristian

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The Tournament:

The European Open welcomes 32 top singles players and 16 doubles teams to the summer clay-court event as one of the 13 ATP World Tour 500 stops. The tournament is held in the heart of Hamburg at the Rothenbaum Tennis Center, which features a retractable roof stadium seating 13,200 spectators making it the largest centre court in Germany.

About Hamburg

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the eighth-largest city in the European Union. Its population is over 1.7 million people, and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region has more than 5 million inhabitants.

The city is situated on the river Elbe. Hamburg is a transport hub, being the 2nd largest port in Europe, and is an affluent city in Europe. It has become a media and industrial centre, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm + Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutcher Rundfunk and publishers such as Gruner + Jahr and Spiegel-Verlag are pillars of the important media industry in Hamburg. Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of the world's second-oldest bank, Berenberg Bank.

The many streams, rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges, more than London, Amsterdam and Venice put together. Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city in the world and more canals than Amsterdam and Venice combined.

Hamburg is the birthplace of Johannes Brahms, who spent his formative early years in the city, and the birthplace and home of the famous waltz composer Oscar Fetras, who wrote the well-known "Mondnacht auf der Alster" waltz.

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Tourism Guide:

 
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isabelle

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according to l'Equipe, Sasha criticized Lendl who's not focused on him during trainings....he asked him to focuse on tennis not on golf...Sasha's dad 'll coach him in Hamburg, I guess Sasha could fire Ivan soon ??
 

don_fabio

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according to l'Equipe, Sasha criticized Lendl who's not focused on him during trainings....he asked him to focuse on tennis not on golf...Sasha's dad 'll coach him in Hamburg, I guess Sasha could fire Ivan soon ??

Lendl-Zverev whole coach-player relation sucks. Lendl wasn't even around for 2 months during clay season, either you are with your player or you're not. It's not like they know each other for 10 years and can discuss things over a video call. This will break any moment if already not broken and they're just waiting to announce it.
 
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britbox

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Lendl-Zverev whole coach-player relation sucks. Lendl wasn't even around for 2 months during clay season, either you are with your player or you're not. It's not like they know each other for 10 years and can discuss things over a video call. This will break any moment if already not broken and they're just waiting to announce it.

I think there is probably more dimensions to this story... Lendl doesn't suffer fools gladly. I'm thinking if his appearance would have made a difference then he might have been there. I've got a lot of respect for Ivan. I like Sascha but getting the impression, he's looking for a scapegoat. Either way, I don't think this is a marriage made in paradise and won't last a whole lot longer.
 
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don_fabio

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I think there is probably more dimensions to this story... Lendl doesn't suffer fools gladly. I'm thinking if his appearance would have made a difference then he might have been there. I've got a lot of respect for Ivan. I like Sascha but getting the impression, he's looking for a scapegoat. Either way, I don't think this is a marriage made in paradise and won't last a whole lot longer.

That's an interesting point of view. In that case Zverev is the reason why it didn't click between them. Lendl probably told him the truth about whatever needs to be changed and how it has to be done and Zverev maybe disagrees trying to prove the opposite and failing while doing so, hence now all the blame game towards Ivan.

Zverev still did quite well in RG, but I expected more of him in Wimbledon.
 

herios

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That's an interesting point of view. In that case Zverev is the reason why it didn't click between them. Lendl probably told him the truth about whatever needs to be changed and how it has to be done and Zverev maybe disagrees trying to prove the opposite and failing while doing so, hence now all the blame game towards Ivan.

Zverev still did quite well in RG, but I expected more of him in Wimbledon.
Aside the issues Sasha has this year, this event is in his hometown and here he did poorly in the past, despite having pretty good results elsewhere, including 2 masters titles. If he fails to get at least to the finals, it will reflect that he cannot handle pressure well.
 
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herios

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18 year old Molleker eliminated 2 time champion Mayer
 

Fiero425

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Gawd, what happened to this tournament? It was a crown jewel of the ATP way back when! It gave record $$ and offered a solid gold racket with diamonds when the event was being held in Antwerp in the 80's as the Europeans Champions Championship! You had to of won an event in Europe to qualify & if a player won 3 out of 5 yrs they got to take the racket! Lendl got 1 of them; almost 2! :whistle: :oops: :rolleyes:
 
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herios

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Gawd, what happened to this tournament? It was a crown jewel of the ATP way back when! It gave record $$ and offered a solid gold racket with diamonds when the event was being held in Antwerp as the Europeans Champions Championship! You had to of won an event in Europe to qualify & if a player won 3 out of 5 yrs they got to take the racket! Lendl got 1 of them; almost 2! :whistle: :oops: :rolleyes:
Did you just wake up ?
It has been replaced 12 years ago by Madrid on the masters series.
The past is the past.
 

herios

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It was rhetorical babe! I'm just musing about those old days when this tourn. was relevant indoors and as a clay Masters 1000 event! :whistle:
I do think the German's federation losing to Spain's has to do with the lack of big profile players.
After Becker and Stich, they did not have any big contenders following in their footsteps, while Spain had plenty.
 

Fiero425

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I do think the German's federation losing to Spain's has to do with the lack of big profile players.
After Becker and Stich, they did not have any big contenders following in their footsteps, while Spain had plenty.

Oh, that's definitely the reason they lost a lot of clout! Without those men and of course Steffi, Germany's been relegated to 3rd world status! Not that long ago, they were almost as important as the United States! At one time they had 6 events to 8 in USA; 2 of the events the ATP YEC & the now defunct "Grand Slam Cup!" :whistle: :nono: :facepalm: :eek: :rolleyes: :sick: :ptennis:
 

herios

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I haven't seen anything of Molleker yet... any intel?
I saw the last 3-4 games of this match.
Molleker seems to have a strong first serve, pretty good groundstrokes.
The lateral movement is not the best, in the longer rallies, Mayer could win those points, when he moved Molleker around.
 

herios

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Duel of the hard hitting FH from two youngsters, Casper Ruud vs. Andrey Rublev.
 

mrzz

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Duel of the hard hitting FH from two youngsters, Casper Ruud vs. Andrey Rublev.

Rublev WON! And Rublev's forehand is way, way bigger. His brain is smaller but this does not matter one bit...

(seriously now): From what I have seen from Ruud, he hits hard, but he has a hard rallying forehand, with lots of spin, typical clay court style. Rublev not only is flatter, but goes more for winners. Anyway watching bits of the match would help to see the difference (later tell me if you catch some it, not my case).
 

herios

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Thiem makes a lot of easy errors.
 

herios

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Rublev WON! And Rublev's forehand is way, way bigger. His brain is smaller but this does not matter one bit...

(seriously now): From what I have seen from Ruud, he hits hard, but he has a hard rallying forehand, with lots of spin, typical clay court style. Rublev not only is flatter, but goes more for winners. Anyway watching bits of the match would help to see the difference (later tell me if you catch some it, not my case).
I saw some of the match, a portion of the second set. Yes Rublev hits harder, but because of that many times he is over hitting.
That explains probably why he cannot get any traction and is sitting for months now in the 70-80 ranking area.