St. Petersburg Open - Hard

[Moxie]

Here is the draw:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Share/Event-Draws.aspx?Year=2013&EventId=568&Draw=ms

Dilemma for I Haychew: Fabulous Fabio Fognini seeded #1, with Dr. Youhzny seeded #2.

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

I like F3 quite a bit, his nickname is the designation for one of my cameras.

 

[Moxie]

Nice camera!

 

[isabelle]

Fognini retired after a lot of gesticulations and a clash with umpire....he was losing his match anyway !!

 

[isabelle]

Gulbis is in semi

 

[Moxie]

Sorry, I Haychew. GG Lopez also took out Youhzny.

Today Lopez d. Istomin, Sousa d. Tursonov, Przyiezny d. Rosol, and Gulbis d. Bautista Agut

SFs are set:

GG Lopez v. Joao Sousa
Przyiezny v. Gulbis

Opportunities for points-gathering. Gulbis would be a fool to miss this opportunity.

 

[isabelle]

Sorry, I Haychew. GG Lopez also took out Youhzny.

Today Lopez d. Istomin, Sousa d. Tursonov, Przyiezny d. Rosol, and Gulbis d. Bautista Agut

SFs are set:

GG Lopez v. Joao Sousa
Przyiezny v. Gulbis

Opportunities for points-gathering. Gulbis would be a fool to miss this opportunity.

Gulbis is a fool.....but hope he can clinch the title in spite of his madness !!

 

[Moxie]

Good one, isabelle! :laydownlaughing

GG Lopez v. Gulbis for the final. I'll be rooting for the Spaniard, anyway.

 

[Iona16]

Did anybody see the Gulbis v Bautista-Agut match? I know Gulbis called Agut a "spoiled princess" in his post-match interview. Ah the irony. I know Agut felt Gulbis was deliberately trying to put him off. The following clip does show Gulbis getting a warning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XNnHd3XXfU

He seems to have been in the press lately and for all the wrong reasons. He sure does like to mouth off quite a bit.

 

[Moxie]

Gulbis is such a putz. (And yes, the irony of calling anyone else a "spoiled princess.") He's also recently said that Djokovic is a changed man since his success, and he doesn't like him any more. If this came from anyone else, you might worry. From Ernie, not so much. He seems to think that being controversial will make him relevant, since his tennis rarely does.

I hope Willie Lopez beats the pants off of him tomorrow.

 

[Front242]

Did anybody see the Gulbis v Bautista-Agut match? I know Gulbis called Agut a "spoiled princess" in his post-match interview. Ah the irony. I know Agut felt Gulbis was deliberately trying to put him off. The following clip does show Gulbis getting a warning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XNnHd3XXfU

He seems to have been in the press lately and for all the wrong reasons. He sure does like to mouth off quite a bit.

Spoiled princess is a pretty hilarious comment alright coming from the son of a millionaire who flies to even mickey mouse tournaments in his dad's private jet! That said, there's little that you can do on those kind of surfaces where shoes tend to squeak easily so I doubt any of those were deliberate apart from the ones after the warning where he was clearly just doing it even more to wind his opponent up.

Anyway, the squeaking shoes were hardly the only reason for the lopsided score so probably a load of moaning about nothing from Bautista-Agut, who the commentator said would probably get one himself at the end. It's a welcome change anyway from all the fake you're my best friend on and off the court crap imo.

 

[Moxie]

You're welcome to your opinion, Front, but I don't see why being a jerk is a breath of fresh air over being a good sport. I think the top guys right now are letting their tennis do the talking, and "smack talk" is not necessary. Gulbis feels the need because he can't do it with his racquet.

 

[Front242]

You're welcome to your opinion, Front, but I don't see why being a jerk is a breath of fresh air over being a good sport. I think the top guys right now are letting their tennis do the talking, and "smack talk" is not necessary. Gulbis feels the need because he can't do it with his racquet.

Maybe against the top guys (but even then he plays them, especially Nadal, very close a lot of the time and just loses focus towards the end) but he certainly seemed to let his racquet do the talking there. 6-1 5-2? I didn't watch it but he was clearly annihilating his opponent there. No point being a clown over nothing, agreed, but the point is the squeaking wasn't at all intentional apart from when he did it to annoy him after the warning.

 

[Moxie]

You're welcome to your opinion, Front, but I don't see why being a jerk is a breath of fresh air over being a good sport. I think the top guys right now are letting their tennis do the talking, and "smack talk" is not necessary. Gulbis feels the need because he can't do it with his racquet.

Maybe against the top guys (but even then he plays them, especially Nadal, very close a lot of the time and just loses focus towards the end) but he certainly seemed to let his racquet do the talking there. 6-1 5-2? I didn't watch it but he was clearly annihilating his opponent there. No point being a clown over nothing, agreed, but the point is the squeaking wasn't at all intentional apart from when he did it to annoy him after the warning.

Point being, he DID resort to gamesmanship and clowning against Bautista-Agut, a guy he could surely own, and did. There is no high-mindedness to Gulbis.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Gulbis wins the last set 6-0 to win today. I have not watched it but maybe Lopez was hurt, or just ran out of gas?

 

[Front242]

Didn't watch it but he won by a similar scoreline yesterday so maybe he was just on fire. He has periods every year like that where he's a total beast. Unfortunately for him it's usually just for one match and flat as a pancake in the next. Maybe he had 2 in row this time.

 

[Moxie]

Bummer.

 

[Iona16]

Gulbis is such a putz. (And yes, the irony of calling anyone else a "spoiled princess.") He's also recently said that Djokovic is a changed man since his success, and he doesn't like him any more. If this came from anyone else, you might worry. From Ernie, not so much. He seems to think that being controversial will make him relevant, since his tennis rarely does.

I hope Willie Lopez beats the pants off of him tomorrow.

I read that interview. What was it he said? "To be honest I actually like to provoke others sometimes. I said few times about Nadal and other top players that they are boring in their interviews and such. Everybody just acts the same, everybody’s the same. I don’t want to be like all the others, I want to be different."

Well, he doesn't have to worry. He is NOTHING like the big 4.

"Roger definitely played for money for some time. Then he got the money, he played for the fame, got the fame and played for records. Now that he has fallen in the rankings I think he plays to prove that he can make a comeback."

I didn't know Gulbis was Federer's biographer.

 

[Moxie]

And he more recently said this:


"I've known him since I was 12 years old,” Gulbis said. “We trained and lived together in the same room in Munich. I remember he was a normal, cool guy. But when he achieved his first big success then the look in his eyes just changed. You could just feel it. It's not like we argued or anything, I just feel like he has changed and I don't like that in people. I like strong characters who don't change when first success or money appear—that's the most important quality for me and it's also important for myself not to change.”

And he also said this:

"Djokovic used to be a normal person, but today he and I have nothing in common. Money and success have struck him in the head. I really don’t like that kind of people. These are people without a true character. Are there other examples? Of course there are. I am the one. I left unchanged no matter what happens around me.”

Pretty hubristic, since he's always come from money. What a jerk.

 

[britbox]

Gulbis was 4-1 down in the second. He reeled off eleven straight games.