The Week Ahead Now: Johannesburg, Santiago, Zagreb
Posted by gauloises1 on February 1, 2011
Johannesburg
250; Feliciano Lopez defending; draw here.
Top 8 seeds: Feliciano Lopez, Yen-Hsun Lu, Janko Tipsarevic, Kevin Anderson, Florent Serra, Adrian Mannarino, Rainer Schuettler, Michal Przysieny
Points of interest: Adorable Canadian giant Milos Raonic has qualified and will play second seed Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round. Also, that’s once more than I hoped to have to type “Michal Przysieny” in 2011. Twice now.
Santiago
250; Thomaz Bellucci defending; draw here.
Top 8 Seeds: David Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Thomaz Bellucci, Juan Ignacio Chela, Potito Starace, Tommy Robredo, Fabio Fognini, Santiago Giraldo
Points of interest: David Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Thomaz Bellucci. Seriously, the South American clay swing? Sexy. Also, Robredo also got through a potentially challenging first round match with Federico Gil. Is Ex-Disco Tommy a thing again? Can he not be?
Zagreb
a.k.a the Marin Cilic peep show
250; Marin Cilic defending; draw here.
Top 8 seeds: Marin Cilic, Ivan Ljubicic, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Richard Gasquet, Florian Mayer, Marcel Granollers, Philipp Petzchner, Michael Berrer
Points of interest: Well, it depends. If you think Marin Cilic has to hit rock bottom before he can begin to climb again, then you probably want him to lose in the second round. If you think he has to arrest the slide somewhere, anywhere, then you probably don’t want to watch his second round. He’s got a tough draw to get to the semis; first a probable match with Igor Kunitsyn, then either the suddenly-scary Florian Mayer (who beat him in straights at Wimbledon last year) or the always-sexy Radek Stepanek. There’s always Richard Gasquet and last year’s finalist Michael Berrer in his half, too. And watch out for Lukas Lacko hanging around the bottom half as well. No insinuation intended.
Also: Marin is playing doubles with Goran. Seriously. Their first match is 6 p.m. local tomorrow.
naughty T....urbane gentleman said
Boy a year goes by and we see how all our dreams crumbled and turned to crap. Still love how miserable Feli looks holding that trophy.. “they killed a beautiful thing and gave it to me as a prize” The Floozy is too sensitive for his own good really.
Point of interest may also be the Cilic/Goran doubles team… if you like that kind of tall, gangly please shag me senseless kind of thing.. twice over.
gauloises1 said
ARGH. My whole reason for doing this post was to have an excuse to mention the Ic’y doubles. Fail.
naughty T....urbane gentleman said
you were probably just so excited that your brain went into spasm.. completely understandable
naughty T....urbane gentleman said
I should say something about Bella.. but I look at him and words fail me. That is enough
linz said
Only Feli could look that emo while holding a trophy. The boy has talent.
Kris said
This post is worth it for likely the last time Bellu and Marin were smiling on the court (why does it figure that his shot is obscured like that).
Oh and the Goran/Marin doubles love.
neilintoronto said
Raonic took out number 2 seed Lu today in South Africa!!! Good to see he’s continuing his recent run of good form
irefusetotellyou said
I’ll ignore the obvious slight on Horseface by not mentioning his involvement at the Movistar thingamajig … (mainly since he already lost.)
Anyway, the main point of this is to say GO NALBATRON (assuming he hasn’t lost yet.)
irefusetotellyou said
PS: OMGGGGG did we know Horseface was playing doubles with THOMAZ himself!? This is fabulous news. (until they lose.)
naughty T....urbane gentleman said
and the Shwankster and Onions are a team too.. and still winning!
irefusetotellyou said
RIP Hornardo Maballos