Gerry Weber Open, Halle, Germany, ATP 500

[Carol]

No one has told the guys at Tennis Channel, and they keep calling this guy Lu, I guess because he's Asian-looking. Oh...they finally figured it out.

Yep, it seems nobody is going to see the difference

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Almost perfect by Roger. Has got back in the zone apparently. Really good passing shots and serves. I think he can up his level a notch still especially on the forehand. He can still tighten that up.

Roger vs Mischa is going to be great on grass. Real good practice session for Roger that'd be and he will have to do well to win.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Sublime Roger on slick grass. There is nothing better.

 

[Busted]

Thank God Roger made it out of the first round. Look at the Aegon results - Murray and Wawrinka both loss and Roger lost in the first round last week. Wimbledon could be really interesting this year. I'm sure Nole has found him a patch of turf and is practicing his heart out - because the field looks wide open right now....as long as your name is Federer, Djokovic, Murray or Nadal. If there's one thing we've learned so far this year it's that there's still only 4 guys who have a real shot at winning a Slam. Sorry, Stan, but I'm not including you anymore. WTH was that mess in the FO final? Crikey.

 

[Busted]

Almost perfect by Roger. Has got back in the zone apparently. Really good passing shots and serves. I think he can up his level a notch still especially on the forehand. He can still tighten that up.

Roger vs Mischa is going to be great on grass. Real good practice session for Roger that'd be and he will have to do well to win.

Great for Roger...probably not much fun for Mischa Zverev. He's playing better now than the year Roger dropped 6-1, 6-1 beat down on him...but we all saw what happened at the AO...

 

[Moxie]

Great for Roger...probably not much fun for Mischa Zverev. He's playing better now than the year Roger dropped 6-1, 6-1 beat down on him...but we all saw what happened at the AO...

Mischa is a much improved player since then, but I still think you're right that it'll be good practice for him to play a good S&V player. I don't expect an upset from Zverev, but a better match than the last one.

 

[britbox]

Results from the Halle Open Men's Singles Round 1 matches on Tuesday

Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) 6-3 7-6(6)
1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Yuichi Sugita (Japan) 6-3 6-1
6-Lucas Pouille (France) beat Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany) 1-6 6-3 6-4
4-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Paolo Lorenzi (Italy) 6-3 6-2
Florian Mayer (Germany) beat Benoit Paire (France) 6-0 6-4
Karen Khachanov (Russia) beat Gilles Simon (France) 6-2 6-7(2) 6-3
Bernard Tomic (Australia) beat Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-4 6-4
Robin Haase (Netherlands) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 3-6 7-5 6-3
3-Kei Nishikori (Japan) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 6-7(7) 6-3 6-4
7-Roberto Bautista (Spain) beat Carlos Berlocq (Argentina) 6-0 4-6 6-2
Mischa Zverev (Germany) beat Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) 6-4 6-4



No real shocks unlike Queens, although Tomic beat Haas... Not sure which is the bigger surprise - Tomic winning a match this year, or Haas losing a first rounder on grass.

 

[Moxie]

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

I like the Halle field. Some floaters around, an S n V player, young talents, other one handers. Perfect Halle for me!

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

On Grass, Msicha's S&V game will come out better but Roger has tackled people like Karlovic and Soderling on grass so Mischa's serve shouldn't be a problem. Roger's BH is stinging again.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Lu has retired and LL Sugita will play vs Roger.

This is an occasion where we should call them UL as opposed to LL.

 

[isabelle]

Thiem could take the title ??? he played well monday

 

[britbox]

Kohli is no pushover on grass. Will be a good test for Sascha.

 

[Carol]

And Bautista has sent the dangerous Brown to home

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/image...708fc005039d98f72e0392b373097a96297638f28.jpg

 

[DarthFed]

Nice win for Sascha. I have a feeling this Wimbledon will be his coming out party as far as slams is concerned. I'd have him as a darkhorse and there are really only a few players going in that I'd favor to beat him.

 

[El Dude]

Sascha will go deep and upset someone, but don't think he'll win it. I'd love to see him in Rafa's quarter, with a chance to redeem himself.

 

[Carol]

I think more and more that Wimbledon is going to be very open, I mean I don't see a clear winner and Halle and Queens don't tell me too much about who is ready or not, on the contrary there are too many unexpected loses but everything could changes later

 

[Moxie]

Sascha will go deep and upset someone, but don't think he'll win it. I'd love to see him in Rafa's quarter, with a chance to redeem himself.

I bet you would. I'll be hoping he's in Federer or Djokovic's. But they'll all see him pretty late, so it will be interesting to see how far he goes. He's still pretty young. After winning Rome, he bombed out of RG in R1. (Clay may not be his surface, but he improved a lot on in during the season.) I also think he'll have a good run at Wimbledon, though. So far looking like one of the strongest amongst the "pretenders."

 

[britbox]

Results from the Halle Open Men's Singles Round 2 matches on Wednesday

Robin Haase (Netherlands) beat 2-Dominic Thiem (Austria) 6-3 7-6(7)
4-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 6-3 6-4
7-Roberto Bautista (Spain) beat Dustin Brown (Germany) 6-4 1-6 7-6(6)
Richard Gasquet (France) beat Bernard Tomic (Australia) 6-3 6-3



Sascha marches on.

 

[Moxie]