Silver Lining for Nole

Nole made an unexpected exit from the singles at Queens this week at the hands of Xavier Malisse, which I can’t shed any light on as I didn’t have court 1 tickets (I was watching Marin play doubles by himself, I mean with the incredibly useful Andre Sa as a partner, so all I saw of Nole’s match was the occasional spiky kitten-head bobbing up over the fence and, once, a racquet soaring into the air). Still, he doesn’t leave empty-handed, after teaming up with Israel’s Jonathan Erlich to take the doubles title, 67(6) 62 10-3 over Beck and Skoch.

I’d have rather seem him smooching a bigger trophy (and without assistance), but these days I will take any happy Nole I can get, sad to say.

Queens: USA 2, England 0

Sam Querrey d. Mardy Fish, 76(3) 75

Big, jug-eared trophy, big, jug-eared man.

Sam Querrey came out on top in the Final No-one Saw Coming, capitalising on being the only seed left in the draw after everyone’s picks for the title crashed out earlier in the competition: Rafa Nadal lost to the excellent Feliciano Lopez, Novak Djokovic to Xavier Malisse, Andy Murray to Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick to pocket rocket Dudi Sela, and Marin Cilic to Michael Llodra. It was that sort of week, so credit to Querrey and Fish for making it to the final. Fish looked the better player all week and indeed served for the second set, but seemed to be overpowered by his own desire and rather collapsed at the end of the match, leaving the field clear for Sam’s well-executed baseline game.

Both boys were suitably charming in the post-match analysis, with Sam earning bonus points for meretriciously picking England to win the World Cup and thereby deserving the traditional somewhat awkward Queens locker-room trophy photo shoot.

Strike a pose, it turns out there is something to it.

That’s Sam’s third title for the year (only Rafa has more) and he’s picked up one indoors, on clay and grass. Not a bad year for the emo one. Not bad at all.

Incidentally, if anyone’s still interested in my Queens experiences earlier in the week, I’ll try to write something. Actually, I probably will even if nobody is. So there.

ATP Week Now: Halle, Queens

Halle

Draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Radek Stepanek, Jurgen Melzer, Marcos Baghdatis, Lleyton Hewitt

The good news? Kolya and Steps are back. The bad news? Boss and Baggy are already out. Somehow.

Monday’s results

Singles – First Round
[LL] D Meffert (GER) d [4] J Ferrero (ESP) 63 75
P Petzschner (GER) d [7] M Baghdatis (CYP) 64 63
[8] L Hewitt (AUS) d P Luczak (AUS) 62 62
L Lacko (SVK) d J Chardy (FRA) 75 76(0)
T de Bakker (NED) d [Q] R Bopanna (IND) 64 76(11)
V Troicki (SRB) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 61 76(4)

Doubles – First Round
S Stakhovsky (UKR) / M Youzhny (RUS) d [4] M Kohlmann (GER) / J Nieminen (FIN) 16 76(8) 10-5
C Kas (GER) / P Kohlschreiber (GER) d [WC] Y Allegro (SUI) / R Federer (SUI) 64 76(6)

Queens

Draw here.

Top 8 seeds: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Marin Cilic, Gael Monfils, Sam Querrey, Feliciano Lopez

The good news? I’m going to be there Wednesday and Thursday, and @rachaelsimpson is already there tweeting in classic style. The bad news? Rain. Lots of rain.

Monday’s results

Singles – First Round
[9] J Benneteau (FRA) d A Clement (FRA) 62 64
[11] R Gasquet (FRA) d K Nishikori (JPN) 63 63
[12] M Llodra (FRA) d A Golubev (KAZ) 63 62
E Korolev (KAZ) vs [13] S Giraldo (COL) – to finish 33
[14] D Sela (ISR) d C Guccione (AUS) 67(4) 76(5) 64
[16] D Istomin (UZB) d [WC] J Baker (GBR) 61 64
R Ginepri (USA) d [WC] J Ward (GBR) 63 75
[Q] A Bogdanovic (GBR) vs [WC] G Dimitrov (BUL) – to finish 46 63 21
K Anderson (RSA) d T Dent (USA) 67(7) 63 75
M Fish (USA) vs S Devvarman (IND) – to finish 61 32
R Schuettler (GER) d D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 61 62
R Ram (USA) d K Beck (SVK) 16 63 64
J Levine (USA) d [WC] R Harrison (USA) 63 63
I Navarro (ESP) d D Koellerer (AUT) 63 64
P Lorenzi (ITA) d P Riba (ESP) 64 64
I Kunitsyn (RUS) d I Marchenko (UKR) 16 64 63
G Muller (LUX) d M Przysiezny (POL) 76(3) 63
M Daniel (BRA) d B Kavcic (SLO) 61 64

Doubles – First Round
A Murray (GBR) / J Murray (GBR) vs S Lipsky (USA) / S Querrey (USA) – postponed due to rain
[WC] J Delgado (GBR) / J Marray (GBR) vs N Djokovic (SRB) / J Erlich (ISR) – postponed due to rain
[WC] C Eaton (GBR) / D Inglot (GBR) vs M Cilic (CRO) / A Sa (BRA) – to finish 26
A Clement (FRA) / N Mahut (FRA) vs M Granollers (ESP) / F Lopez (ESP) – to finish 52

Now That’s Over With …

Let’s get on to the fun stuff. The good stuff. The green stuff. QUEENS.

Defending champion Mandy had a haircut. Looking businesslike. I approve.

I am genuinely looking forward to watching Roddick on grass. What a difference a year makes.

Rafa practiced in the rain, just to be *deliberately* cute about it.

And Momo was there for no reason. Just there. Hanging around. Being perfect.

This is the magic of Queens.

Three Lions On The … No, Wait.

Defending champion Andy Murray announced formally that he’s coming back to the AEGON Championships at Queens this June. This is a not merely a thing, it is a Good Thing.

Mandy also revealed that he’s hooked on the election debates (you and the rest of the country) and took the time to reveal the nature and extent of his World Cup England-related rooting:

The subject turned to football, and the World Cup and England. Murray, mindful of being trapped the last time he was asked about their prospects, answered in a manner that suggested the Scot may have a future in politics. “When England play in the World Cup and concede a goal, I’m not jumping up in front of the TV because I’m happy they are losing,” he said. “If one of my English friends is watching and England score, he’ll be on his feet yelling and screaming and, though I’m happy, it’s not the same sort of passion.

“If England lost, my friends will be deflated and disappointed and I will be, too. But I’m not cheering whoever England’s opponents are. That’s absolute ****.” Subject closed.

source

The Queens field also includes Nadal, Djokovic, Roddick, Verdasco, Tsonga and Cilic. And, in a spectating capacity, me. I’ve got my tickets for two whole days (bloody World Cup) and I am frankly unbelievably excited about it. Anybody else out there planning to attend? I’ll be the girl drinking beer and watching Michael Llodra lying on the ground. For an hour.

Elf Does Vogue, Will Play Queens, Is a Sweetie

I realise I may have missed the boat on blogging several pieces of salient Elfnews. But I had to call some of them to your attention.

There have been some nice pieces on the boy of late, including this from Deuce on his homecoming:

“I want to gain expertise at net play and develop my attacking game.  The serve, volley, definition in general, that has to be massively improved by the end of next year, and I think we are in the right direction,” says del Potro.  “I’ve got to try to serve and volley sometimes, but if I don’t polish up my volley, if I don’t learn how to finish the points at the net, I will not beat the top guys often.”

[...] 

Del Potro thinks he still needs to gain experience to challenge the likes of Roger and Rafa.  “To be like them, I would have to win the US Open at least ten times a year,” he jokes.  “They don’t have four or five good weeks per season; they are reaching the latter stages of every tournament they enter.  And they don’t lose in the first round of the tournament after a Grand Slam win, as happened to me in Tokyo.”

Well worth reading, as are these from the Guardian, the Independent, and a snippet from the Telegraph where he says of grass-court tennis “It’s difficult, but if Ivanesevic and Safin can play on it, maybe I can too.”

Oh, and in other news: Delpo will play Queens in 2009, has re-signed with long-time manager Ugo Colombini, and reportedly did a photoshoot for Vogue while in Paris. Busy little Elf …

The Withdrawal Method: Rafa Doesn’t Bangkok

At least not when he has an abdominal strain. Nadal has withdrawn from next week’s Thailand Open, citing the need to recover from the muscle tear he has been carrying since Cincinnati which hampered him in the US Open and prevented him from competing in Davis Cup.

Serious question to Chris Kermode of Queens and a few other choice tournament directors: have you ever considered the wisdom of the Spice Girls? Because, you know, too much of something is bad enough, but something should be coming over you to make you wonder if too much of nothing is just as tough.

In other words: pay for Novak Djokovic next time.

I Don't Fancy Yours Much

Murray and Haas celebrate with the women in their life.

Queens: Suck It, Rest of World

Andy Murray today became the first British man to win Queens since 1938 when he defeated James Blake 75 64.

C’MON TIM.

And it only took 71 years. Who says British tennis is crap?

The party line from the Murray camp seems to be that Andy is totally unaffected by all the pre-Wimbledon hype and pressure. I’m not convinced. He looked a bit more stressed than usual during this tournament – all the string-punching and consequent knuckle-bleeding – and a bit nervous today, especially at the beginning when he dropped serve immediately after breaking Blake.

Still, his first grass-court title. I’m delighted. Although even as a Murray fan, the media over the next week is going to be unbearable.

Good result for Blake though – his second final of the year after Estoril? And he was pure class throughout. Good show.

We give the foreigners the tiny trophies.

Queens Results: Murray, Blake into Finals

Queens

Andy Murray will face James Blake in the finals of the AEGON whatever. Murray is the first British man into the finals since 1938. So, you know, no pressure. He defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 62 64.

The first set was pretty much an exo, but the second set was much tighter and this is Ferrero’s best result on grass since … ever, maybe? Mark Petchey recounted a conversation he’d had where the Spaniard said that he believes he can get back into the top 15, and that he thinks he’s playing better than he did when he was world no. 1 – but the game has moved on in the meantime.

Still got amazing thighs though.

After that quick match, it was time for Blake-Roddick, but sadly it was a bit of a damp squib as Roddick turned his ankle on the lip of the grass at the back of the court and was forced to retire.

I don’t think it should have any impact on Roddick’s Wimbledon, and Blake was playing some great tennis including a sublime open-stance backhand up the line, so it should be a fun final.