First week in the season: Doha, Brisbane, Chennai

[herios]

The season kicks off with the traditional 3 events on HC:

Doha, Brisbane and Chennai.

Among the top players, Novak, Rafa, Tomas and Ferru play in Doha, Roger and Kei play in Brisbane and Stan in Chennai.

Murray chose to play in Hopman Cup.

 

[Denis]

Happy to see Chung win, although I'm starting to notice that he is not great at making the best of his opportunities in terms of bp conversion.

 

novak through and Nadal lost in doubles. All in all a good start of the season.

 

[herios]

Happy to see Chung win, although I’m starting to notice that he is not great at making the best of his opportunities in terms of bp conversion. novak through and Nadal lost in doubles. All in all a good start of the season.

I was happy too to see him winning. Also, he is too young to cast him in any type of pattern. A win is a win.

 

 

[Billie]

Thanks herios for starting us with official tennis in this new year

From Doha:  Nole is through, Jeremy Chardy as well, but Feliciano Lopez was upset by another Spaniard Daniel Munoz De La Nava (an unknown to me)

Tomorrow we'll see the rest of round 1 matches:  Berdych vs Stakhovsky, Marchenko vs Ferrer, Rafa vs Carreno Busta, Verdasco vs Jaziri, Gabashvili vs Bolelli, Becker vs L. Mayer, Ramos-Vinolas vs PH Mathieu, Seppi vs Berankis, Andujar vs Lorenzi.

Spaniards seem to like this one as they are very well represented

 

[Billie]

Chennai:  Borna Coric is through with today's win over Granollers, in 3 sets.  That looks like it was fun.

Top 4 seeds (Wawrinka, Anderson, Paire, Bautista Agut) are not in action tomorrow.

 

[Billie]

Brisbane: Goffin meets Bellucci, Thiem vs Duckworth, Tomic vs Mahut, Troicki vs Johnson.

 

[Denis]

Rafa in trouble against an a Spaniard.

Ferrer lost to someone I never heard of.

 

also notable Kyle edmund won his first round match after battling through qualies.

 

[Denis]

Nadal takes the second, looks to be in control now.

 

[Denis]

Nadal employs one of his famous delay tactics and the other Spaniard double faults and grants the break to Nadal. Nadal up a break again.

Nadal wins, reasonably solid. Haase next, that should be easy. Right hander playing left handed against left hander playing right handed.

 

[Moxie]

Nadal employs one of his famous delay tactics and the other Spaniard double faults and grants the break to Nadal. Nadal up a break again. Nadal wins, reasonably solid. Haase next, that should be easy. Right hander playing left handed against left hander playing right handed.

I wasn't able to find a link to the match, so perhaps you'll tell me what this "famous" delay tactic that was that happened.  I'd be surprised, though, if you really think this was the only reason that Nadal won.  (It's not really unusual for a lower-ranked player to throw everything he has at a top guy in the first set, and then not be able to sustain it.)  But tell me how you saw the match, as I couldn't watch it...thanks.

Also, didn't know that Haase was a lefty who plays righty, so that's a nice bit of trivia.

 

[Denis]

Nadal was better, no doubt about it. Also some nice banana shots in the process. Delay tactic here was getting a new racket for no reason (looked like he wanted to play with a new one no strings broken tho) in the fourth game.

 

[Moxie]

Nadal was better, no doubt about it. Also some nice banana shots in the process. Delay tactic here was getting a new racket for no reason (looked like he wanted to play with a new one no strings broken tho) in the fourth game.

Thanks for the reply.  I think you make much of a small choice, but I know you're biased.  (It doesn't really explain a 6-1 3rd set, now, does it?)

Otherwise, tomorrow:  Djokovic plays Verdasco, who surprised me a bit with his h2h v. Djoker:  4-7, though I don't suppose that will mean much in this day and age.  Chardy will play Mathieu, and then they play doubles together later in the day.

Chennai:  Wawrinka to play the youngster Rublev.  Could be interesting.

Brisbane:  Has some interesting matches:  Cilic v. Chung and Tomic v. Stepanek (if the old guy is still up to his old tricks.)  Also, Nishikori debuts.

 

[Denis]

It was 2-1 third set and the opponent had just broken back. He went awol when he was broken again. Anyways he wasn't going to win in the first place. You're biased too btw. Everyone is. Otherwise tennis would not bother people who comment on tennis forums.

 

[Billie]

Ferrer's loss to Marchenko is a surprise.  I didn't watch any of the matches and probably won't till the weekend.

On the main stadium two Frenchmen Chardy and Mathieu start off tomorrow's day of tennis in Doha (later in the day they will team up in the doubles), followed by Nole vs Verdasco, Haase vs Rafa, Berdych vs Dzumhur (Berdych signed with Adidas, I read on Facebook).

Shorter hair and orange Adidas shirt for Tomas:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="655"]

Tomas Doha[/caption]

 

[Billie]

In Brisbane, Thiem just beat Denis Kudla in round 16, better match than yesterday.  Nishikori and Kukushkin will take the court next.

Can't believe Stepanek is still playing and winning.  Tomic will be a challenge, though.

Chung will square off against Cilic.  We'll see how the youngster will fare.  This one will be in the middle of the night/early morning for me.

 

 

[Moxie]

It was 2-1 third set and the opponent had just broken back. He went awol when he was broken again. Anyways he wasn’t going to win in the first place. You’re biased too btw. Everyone is. Otherwise tennis would not bother people who comment on tennis forums.

Being biased towards a favorite is not the same as looking at every action of your most hated as an infraction.  You buy into the concept that Nadal is some sort of a cheat because it suits you, and you're led around by the nose by others who have created the concept, and you choose, lazily, to keep it going.  It allows you to ignore that Nadal is by probably the more self-effacing and humble of the big 3, is always gracious to opponents in pressers, has never smashed a racquet.  It also allows you to think very highly of your favorite, Nole, even though he has been accused of arrogance in pressers, smashing racquets, and the odd MTO just when he needed it, too.  Just like Roger.  The current fashion for making a villain out of Nadal is all-to-obvious...since he threatens Federer's legacy, and Djokovic's bid for it.  Let's just say that they deal with loads of pressure, they all have their faults, and let it be about the tennis they play, shall we?  They are all superb players, and I don't think any of them is a cheat.  They live in the upper-stratosphere and expect that tennis conforms, a bit, to their will.  They're just not always right about that.

 

[Denis]

Well let's not get too dramatic about it shall we? There are two things I don't like about Rafa: 1. intentional and continuous court delays aimed at disrupting the opponents rythm (bad sportsmanship) 2. Self-serving nonsense in the pressers. I find his tennis quite enjoyable at times although I will not root for him.

 

[Denis]

Oh and I also really didn't like the whole Bernades affair, shows malintent too.

 

[herios]

Ferrer’s loss to Marchenko is a surprise.

 

There were many surprises in this event. Lopez eliminated by Munoz de la Nava, Klizan by Edmund, Ramos by P.H. Mathieu, Seppi by Berankis and yes, Ferrer by Marchenko.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Well let’s not get too dramatic about it shall we? There are two things I don’t like about Rafa: 1. intentional and continuous court delays aimed at disrupting the opponents rythm (bad sportsmanship)  

This applies to the player you root for as well. In fact, behind Nadal, he's the player this applies to the most. I understand why people may not like Nadal though. I don't know why fans get defensive when people dislike their player to begin with. I could legit list you 10 things for people to despise about both Nadal and Djokovic, and they'd all be valid (can't do so for Federer though, amazingly).