Stockholm 250

[herios]

The surprise of the day was Anderson losing to De Schepper 7-6, 4-6. 6-3

 

[Denis]

Ernie takes out JJ. Good for Ernie. I like both of them though.

 

[herios]

Ferrer - Gulbis 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
Dimitrov - Paire 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

can we dream ?..dare we ??..do we really dare to dream the undreamable dream..

that Sir Grigor of Dimitrov may actually finally at last finally win a tiny little title ?.

Go on my son, go out there and pretend you are Federer (which is what you usually do anyway), do it for the future of global tennis, do it for the cows in rogers garden that he keeps being given for winning stuff.

yes, I believe we do all dream the undreamable dream. go gregor, you can WIN.

 

[herios]

can we dream ?..dare we ??..do we really dare to dream the undreamable dream..

that Sir Grigor of Dimitrov may actually finally at last finally win a tiny little title ?.

Go on my son, go out there and pretend you are Federer (which is what you usually do anyway), do it for the future of global tennis, do it for the cows in rogers garden that he keeps being given for winning stuff.

yes, I believe we do all dream the undreamable dream. go gregor, you can WIN.

The fake Federer is 0-3 against Ferrer for now...

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Grigor and David walking on to the court. I hope both play well.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Tight first game . david had 3-4 break points, Grigor has the ad now and closes it with a crazy volley.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

David breaks in his 6th. BP. Up 2-1 in the first.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Grigor's slice is getting better...or maybe it takes better in this court, but it looks good to me. He breaks right back.

 

[Moxie]

can we dream ?..dare we ??..do we really dare to dream the undreamable dream..

that Sir Grigor of Dimitrov may actually finally at last finally win a tiny little title ?.

Go on my son, go out there and pretend you are Federer (which is what you usually do anyway), do it for the future of global tennis, do it for the cows in rogers garden that he keeps being given for winning stuff.

yes, I believe we do all dream the undreamable dream. go gregor, you can WIN.

That's certainly not MY dream. Anyway, Ferrer takes the first set, 6-2.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Grigor takes the second 6-3. Excited for the third.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Big moment for the Bulgarian. He is serving for it....

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Huge win for Grigor. Well done, especially being a set down against a fighter like David. Big milestone.

 

[Moxie]

JLLB says this would be his first title...is that true? Anyway, congratulations to him. Must have fought very well.

 

[tennisville]

Congrats on title no 1

Awesome week for Grigor

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

JLLB says this would be his first title...is that true? Anyway, congratulations to him. Must have fought very well.

True Moxie, on both counts. First title, and he fought hard for it. Against David it was not going to be any other way.

 

[tenisplayrla08]

Well Sloane may have let me down on the women's tour ending the year titleless. But Dimitrov came through. Great to hear. It's about time. Hopefully he can pull himself into the top 10 next year. It'll be stiff competition. Wawrinka and Gasquet shouldn't be too difficult to pass. But Ferrer, DelPo, Berdych, and Tsonga won't be easy. Oddly enough, if Federer can't clean up his act, baby Fed may help to push him out of the top 10.

If I had to pick someone other than Wawrinka or Gasquet to be pushed out of the top 10 though, I'm thinking Berdych. He had another really solid year this year. And while he does really struggle against the top 3 (can we still say the top 4 with Fed languishing so much) and against other top 10 and top 20 players, he deals with everyone else really well. So I could be wrong. He could go to the quarters of most of the tournaments he plays again and keep his top 10 spot. But I just feel like he's not really progressing right now. I feel like he's lost just a couple of matches here lately that he should have won. But looking at his record for the year, he's really only lost between 3 and 7 matches he should have won. There were a couple on clay that I'm not going to count because it's not his best surface anyways. He lost to Wawrinka a couple times this year but even when he wasn't top 10, Wawrinka is close in the rankings. I don't know, I just have a feeling that he may fall out.

But, another option would be Ferrer. Who in the last couple of months really has struggled. Until his final here in Stockholm, he hadn't been to a final or even a semifinal since his final at Roland Garros. I imagine that he'll still be more than competitive on clay next season. But elsewhere it looks like he's really beginning to struggle. 31 now, these guys just have too much power, athleticism, and shot making ability for him to just grind them all down. He won't disappear in a year. But I can see him falling out of the top 10 by the years end. At the same time, he could do well enough in the clay season to keep himself in the top 10. Or he could lose a round earlier in a couple of those clay events and fall down into the top 20.

If Tsonga gets injured early in the season, he'll be done because having missed everything since Wimbledon until Asia, if you start taking away some of his early season points he'll quickly fall out of the top 10.

I definitely think it's going to be a fight for the top 10 next year. Which is to say for the last 2 or 3 years we've had some staples in there like Tsonga, Berdych and Ferrer, who could be in trouble with guys like Dimitrov, Raonic, Paire, and Gulbis being more consistent. Gulbis is certainly no young gun. But he is a gun. An extremely talented gun who should have been in the top 10 a long time ago. If he starts focusing and actually playing well all year, he do some serious damage. And then there's still Bernard Tomic, who I despise, but who I expect will eventually get everything under control and start to progress back up the rankings.

Anyways... Congrats to Dimitrov! Maybe he can do well in Basel. I'd be down with him winning Basel if Fed can't get the title. Which of course is also to say that if he and Fed have to play I'd be pulling for Fed, though it's very possible if not even likely that Fed would lose that one the way he's been struggling. DelPo is the favorite I think though. Then again, while he won Tokyo, DelPo hasn't really proven himself indoors yet. So Fed or Berdych (not necessarily an indoors specialist either) could do some damage. IF Fed can come up with any sort of consistent play at all that is.

 

[tenisplayrla08]

OF COURSE, I waited until after I posted that last post to see if the Basel draw was out. It is already out and Fed and Dimitrov are slated to play in the quarters. Crap. Fed has to get through the young Mannarino first though. Mannarino isn't one of the top tier young guns, but he has shown some promise I think. I feel like last year we saw a bit of him and then he sort of regressed this year or something like that. I don't know. I do think Fed has already played and beaten him. But, with his young spry legs and Fed's shaky game lately, who knows.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

hurrah and huzzah for 'Sir Grigor' :clap

what a glorious day for global tennis as the mighty dimitrov machine hoovers up its first 'massive' title.

I had a strawberry (switchblade) sundae to celebrate, even though I was going to have it anyway.

 

[tented]

Congrats to Dimitrov. Hopefully this will be the kick in the butt he's needed.