Vamos Gonzo

Gonzo’s ATP World Tour Uncovered video:

Never a dull moment with the big man.

ATP Week Ahead: Johannesburg, Santiago, Zagreb

No rest for the wicked. Or alternatively … on the road again …

Johannesburg

Draw here.

With defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga not returning, the top four seeds are Gael Monfils, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Marco Chiudinelli. Lopez and Monfils both have nice draws so we could be looking at a fun semifinal given their different styles of play. Ferru has what seems like some potential pitfalls in the shape of Ivan Navarro and the winner of Somdev Devvarman / Xavier Malisse, and I have no idea who’s coming out of Chiudinelli’s quarter. I’m confused by Chiudinelli even having a quarter.

Predicted champion: David Ferrer, if he’s healthy and I really hope he is.

Santiago

Draw here.

A pretty good draw with no less than six Argies in it. Top seeds are defending champion Gonzo, Pico, Nose Job and Pablo Cuevas. At first glance Pico has the toughest draw, meeting Nicholas Massu in the first round before possibly having to contest with Juan Ignacio Chela, but if he can get through those matches, he shouldn’t have too much trouble getting to the semifinals – unless of course the potentially unstoppable force that is Potito Starace can be, well, unstoppable.  Gonzo shouldn’t realistically have any trouble either unless zombie Kubot can pull off another death-defying run, but Nose Job has to contend with Nico Lapentti in the first round and quite possibly last year’s finalist Chucho in the quarters. If he makes it that far.

Predicted champion: Gonzo. He kind of owns this tournament. Possibly literally.

Zagreb

Draw here.

I can’t believe it was only a year ago that Mario and Marin played in the final. Anyway, as one might expect it’s appropriately Croatian, with the host nation supplying three of the eight seeds (Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic and Ivan Ljubicic). It remains to be seen what the defending champion’s form is like after his feats at the Australian Open, and he doesn’t have the easiest draw, seeded to meet Ivo Karlovic in the quarters (they’ve never played before). Ljubicic, on the other hand, has quite a nice draw if he can overcome fellow oldie Arnaud Clement in the first round. The Melzer-Korolev quarter is just packed, and there’s a strong possibility of an all-Serbian quarterfinal between Troicki and Tipsy which could be … interesting, under the circumstances.

Predicted champion: Ljubicic. I think Marin may well go out early and Ljubicic will be looking for some home-ground redemption after losing in the R16 last year.

AO Day Seven: The Tortoise and the Hare

Remember what I said the other day about Andy Roddick’s remarkable on-court work rate? Well, he proved me right. I’m just pointing it out because it’s a rare occurrence.

Andy withstood a blitz of inspired play from Fernando Gonzalez to progress to the quarterfinals, 63 36 46 75 62. He didn’t play the best I’ve ever seen him, but he hung in there like grim death, which is not easy to do when dealing with Gonzo hitting the kind of purple patch he did today. A little controversy with a line-call at the end of the fourth set distracted Gonzo and gave him his opportunity, and he seized it with both hands. Nice work.

As for Gonzo … well, his reputation for quixotic and wildly entertaining five-set Slam matches remains safely intact.

Andy will meet Marin Cilic next …

AO Day Three: Your Day in Picspam

Condensed bloggage tonight due to time (and timezone) constraints …

It took Marin untold hours and absurd amounts of effort to beat a small child with swine flu.

Not pictured: swine flu.

Aravane was dismissed by Angelique Kerber, thus making the Australian Open 1% more fashionable and at least 3.7% less awesome.

The eternal sad puppy that is Pavs was given a thorough kicking by Kuznetsova.

Gonzo won. In an angry fashion.

Ditto Dinara.

La Monf continued his winning ways.

Flavia was shown the door.

But by Wicky, so it was OK.

Florent Serra backed up his upset of Jurgen Melzer by beating Jarkko Nieminen.

Despite having no legs.

Has Marion been wearing the same kit for about three years, or what?

The Passion of the Nose Job.

I love this outfit. I don’t know why, because it’s disgusting. Anyway, she won.

Have an attractive photo of Rafa. No hate mail for me today!

Like looking into a mirror. And having your reflection repeatedly beat you.

Men’s Results

Singles – Second Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d L Lacko (SVK) 62 62 62
[4] J del Potro (ARG) d J Blake (USA) 64 67(3) 57 63 108
[5] A Murray (GBR) d M Gicquel (FRA) 61 64 63
[7] A Roddick (USA) d T Bellucci (BRA) 63 64 64
[11] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [LL] M Ilhan (TUR) 63 64 75
[12] G Monfils (FRA) d A Veic (CRO) 64 64 64
[14] M Cilic (CRO) d [WC] B Tomic (AUS) 67(6) 63 46 62 64
[19] S Wawrinka (SUI) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) 63 62 62
E Korolev (KAZ) d [21] T Berdych (CZE) 64 64 75
[24] I Ljubicic (CRO) d A Golubev (KAZ) 63 36 62 63
[27] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d W Odesnik (USA) 64 36 63 62
F Mayer (GER) d [29] V Troicki (SRB) 46 64 76(2) 61
[33] J Isner (USA) d [Q] L Sorensen (IRL) 63 76(4) 75
F Lopez (ESP) d R Schuettler (GER) 63 26 63 62
F Serra (FRA) d J Nieminen (FIN) 36 64 57 76(4) 75 – Saved 2 M.P.
I Karlovic (CRO) d J Benneteau (FRA) 26 61 63 63

Doubles – First Round
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d M Berrer (GER) / S Greul (GER) 64 75
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d [WC] S Groth (AUS) / J Kubler (AUS) 76(5) 63
[5] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) d J Chela (ARG) / D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 67(1) 63 61
[7] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d R Hutchins (GBR) / J Kerr (AUS) 64 26 76(4)
[8] M Granollers (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) d [WC] M Ebden (AUS) / B Klein (AUS) 62 64
A Clement (FRA) / J Erlich (ISR) d [10] J Knowle (AUT) / R Lindstedt (SWE) 67(3) 64 64
A Montanes (ESP) / M Vassallo Arguello (ARG) d J Acasuso (ARG) / S Prieto (ARG) 64 64
L Mayer (ARG) / H Zeballos (ARG) d [12] M Melo (BRA) / B Soares (BRA) 76(3) 64
[WC] R Junaid (AUS) / P Luczak (AUS) d [15] J Levinsky (CZE) / T Parrott (USA) 46 76(5) 62
[17] J Melzer (AUT) / P Petzschner (GER) d M Lopez (ESP) / A Ventura (ESP) 64 61
C Fleming (GBR) / K Skupski (GBR) d Y Lu (TPE) / J Tipsarevic (SRB) 75 64
L Arnold Ker (ARG) / H Tecau (ROU) d W Moodie (RSA) / M Youzhny (RUS) 46 76(4) 75
[WC] P Amritraj (IND) / S Devvarman (IND) d J Cerretani (USA) / T Rettenmaier (USA) 57 64 75
J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) d [Alt.] A Falla (COL) / S Giraldo (COL) 62 63
[WC] K Hensel (AUS) / G Jones (AUS) d [Alt] P Lorenzi (ITA) / C Rochus (BEL) 76(3) 36 76(2)
R De Voest (RSA) / S Lipsky (USA) d R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK) 46 61 76(6)
P Marx (GER) / I Zelenay (SVK) d [WC] N Lindahl (AUS) / M Reid (AUS) 63 64

Women’s Results

Singles – Second Round
(2) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 63 64
(3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 62 62
(WC) Justine Henin (BEL) d. (5) Elena Dementieva (RUS) 75 76(6)
(8) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. Katie O’Brien (GBR) 62 62
(11) Marion Bartoli (FRA) d. Sandra Zahlavova (CZE) 64 64
(Q) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. (12) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 76(2) 61
(15) Kim Clijsters (BEL) d. Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) 63 63
(19) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. Kaia Kanepi (EST) 64 64
Zheng Jie (CHN) d. (24) María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) 26 62 63
(Q) Angelique Kerber (GER) d. (26) Aravane Rezai (FRA) 62 63
(27) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) d. Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 64 63
Elena Baltacha (GBR) d. (30) Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 62 75
(31) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. Polona Hercog (SLO) 64 75
Sara Errani (ITA) d. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 62 63
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. (Q) Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) 63 61
Roberta Vinci (ITA) d. Vania King (USA) 76(7) 75

Singles – First Round
(4) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 64 62
(7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (WC) Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro (FRA) 62 60
(9) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. Kristina Kucova (SVK) 62 60
(16) Li Na (CHN) d. Marina Erakovic (NZL) 62 60
(22) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. Viktoriya Kutuzova (UKR) 36 61 75
Tathiana Garbin (ITA) d. (28) Elena Vesnina (RUS) 76(5) 64
(29) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 67(5) 62 61
Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. Stéphanie Dubois (CAN) 63 62
Iveta Benesova (CZE) d. Chang Kai-Chen (TPE) 75 62
Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) d. Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) 64 62
Stefanie Voegele (SUI) d. Melinda Czink (HUN) 75 67(5) 97
Julia Goerges (GER) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 60 36 63
Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) d. Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ) 64 64
(Q) Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) d. (WC) Jarmila Groth (AUS) 62 46 64

Doubles – First Round
(1) Black/Huber (ZIM/USA) d. Malek/Petkovic (GER/GER) 64 64
(2) Williams/Williams (USA/USA) d. (WC) Ferguson/Moore (AUS/AUS) 61 61
(3) Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez (ESP/ESP) d. Dokic/Kvitova (AUS/CZE) 75 60
(4) Hsieh/Peng (TPE/CHN) d. Goerges/Parra Santonja (GER/ESP) 63 64
(6) Raymond/Stubbs (USA/AUS) d. Koryttseva/Kustova (UKR/BLR) 64 61
(8) Mattek-Sands/Yan (USA/CHN) d. Flipkens/Oudin (BEL/USA) 63 62
Jans/Rosolska (POL/POL) d. Molik/Shaughnessy (AUS/USA) 26 75 64
Hlavackova/Hradecka (CZE/CZE) d. Chakvetadze/Paszek (RUS/AUT) 64 63
Chan/Niculescu (TPE/ROU) d. (WC) Adamczak/Kriz (AUS/AUS) 63 61
Bacsinszky/Garbin (SUI/ITA) d. Medina Garrigues/Wozniacki (ESP/DEN) 64 64
Coin/Pelletier (FRA/CAN) d. (WC) Groth/Rogowska (AUS/AUS) 63 75

AO Day One: ATP Round-Up

Rain, rain, rain. But quite a few matches did get finished, with Nadal, del Potro, Murray and Roddick all making it into the next ground in relatively untroubled fashion.

Put those things away.

Gonzo also made it through, although apparently without the consent of officials:

 

Don’t try to stop him, Tennis Australia!

To quote the BBC livetext: “As is traditional on the first day of a Grand Slam, someone has to get involved in a five-set epic with Ivo Karlovic.”

Today it was Steps. He lost.

Most of the other matches were rained off, including Gabashvili vs. Nose Job, Troicki vs. Lapentti, Marin vs. almost-definitely-probably-not-quite-retired Fabrice Santoro, and Gael Monfils against qualifier Matthew Ebden - although he didn’t look too bothered.

Singles – First Round
[2] R Nadal (ESP) d P Luczak (AUS) 76(0) 61 64
[4] J del Potro (ARG) d M Russell (USA) 64 64 36 62
[5] A Murray (GBR) d [Q] K Anderson (RSA) 61 61 62
[7] A Roddick (USA) d T de Bakker (NED) 61 64 64
[11] F Gonzalez (CHI) d O Rochus (BEL) 63 64 36 61
I Karlovic (CRO) d [13] R Stepanek (CZE) 26 76(5) 64 36 64
[24] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [WC] J Kubler (AUS) 61 62 62
[WC] B Tomic (AUS) d [Q] G Rufin (FRA) 63 64 64
W Odesnik (USA) d [Q] B Kavcic (SLO) 46 61 64 62
[WC] A Golubev (KAZ) d M Fish (USA) 62 16 63 63
F Mayer (GER) d P Petzschner (GER) 06 26 64 62 62
[Q] M Ebden (AUS) vs [12] G Monfils – To Finish 22
[14] M Cilic (CRO) vs F Santoro (FRA) – To Finish 75 42
[27] P Kohlschreiber (GER) vs H Zeballos (ARG) – To Finish 61 43
[29] V Troicki (SRB) vs N Lapentti (ECU) – To Finish 46 63 61 53
J Nieminen (FIN) vs N Lindahl (AUS) – To Finish 62 75 54
[Q] D Guez (FRA) vs J Benneteau (FRA) – To Finish 40
M Ilhan (TUR) vs S Grosjean (FRA) – To Finish 64 42
I Kunitsyn (RUS) vs J Acasuso (ARG) – To Finish 61 26 32
T Bellucci (BRA) vs T Gabashvili (RUS) – To Finish 63 75 46 32

Man Getting Hit By Tennis Ball

Gonzo’s painful moment, in case you missed it:

Thanks to Maria for the link.

Further Adventures in Exhibitionism

Well, he’s back. Juan Martin del Potro kicked off his 2010 season with a straightforward 63 63 victory over Ivan Ljubicic at the Kooyong AAMI Classic.

What can you really tell from an exo, though? Mainly that he hasn’t forgotten how to hit a tennis ball. Not that that stops people from writing rather unconvinced-sounding articles about the increased parity at the top of men’s tennis, etc., etc. …

Del Potro isn’t the package yet. But he thinks he can be the world’s best player and, indeed, that is one of his ambitions for 2010.

”I feel confident,” he said, when asked if he saw himself in the company of the dynastic duo. ”Of course, to beat Roger in the [US Open] final give to me a lot of motivation and confidence to keep, keep trying, keep working and when I get to the court with Roger, ‘Rafa’, I don’t feel too much different, and that [is] important for the career, for the future, and of course if I want to fight for the No. 1.”

Del Potro sounded almost blase about his lofty goals for 2010: ”Maybe win another grand slam, or fighting for the first position.”

Ljubicic, who had the rare experience of looking up at an opponent yesterday (Del Potro, at 198 centimetres, is five centimetres taller), reckoned Del Potro could be a future No. 1, with this rider: ”He will definitely need to play more consistent than what he was doing last year. I mean, he won the US Open, but he didn’t win a match until Paris, so if he wants to get to that level he will definitely need to be more consistent.”

source

Novak Djokovic not only defeated the often problematic Tommy Haas 62 63, he also – and possibly more importantly – debuted his brand new Sergio Tacchini threads:

Not much to write home about, are they? Although it’s a lovely colour on Nole, and at least he escaped this sort of thing:

Fortunately Verdasco’s game was looking better than his shirt, as he beat Fernando Gonzalez 75 61 in what by all accounts was a rather strange match. Gonzo got hit in the unmentionables by a first serve during Verdasco’s first service game, and thereafter was just … Gonzo, not that he needs an excuse.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rounded off proceedings by beating Robin Soderling, 76(0) 61. I must confess I missed this one, but I’m surprised by the scoreline. Robin a bit patchy of late? Or am I leaping to conclusions based on two exos and one bad day in Chennai? Answers on a postcard.

Anyway, he’s cute.

Tonight’s matches:

Tommy Haas v Fernando Gonzalez
Novak Djokovic v Fernando Verdasco
Robin Soderling v Ivan Ljubicic
“Crowd Bonus” match, Andy Murray v Sam Querrey

Exhibitionism in Kooyong

So, the AAMI Classic is happening in Kooyong this week. It’s the spiritual home of Australian tennis, you know. To be honest I’ve never really got the point of this one, but it’s an exo, it’s a warm up, it has good players, and I once met a lady in the pub who told me that she used to usher there and once had to hide Steffi Graf in the crowd when she was Andre Agassi’s Secret Love. So there.

And the players do tend to lend themselves to nice photoage …

They’ve more or less lined up the players in order of how much I like them, isn’t that sweet?

I know where you’re coming from, Ivan.

Well hello there, Nole.

And hello to you too, giant tanned man.

Just cute.

So that’s the field, basically. The draw’s here, although it makes me feel lost and confused. Basically, everyone will play, and then at some point someone will be handed a shiny trophy.

Oh, and Andy Murray – despite being turned down for a main draw spot in favour of Ivan Ljubicic (deal with that a minute) - will play a match against someone on Thursday ‘outside the round robin format’. So, basically he’ll be playing a mini-exhibition all by himself. This makes me sad.

Tonight’s action kicks off in about an hour or so:

Ivan Ljubicic v Juan Martin del Potro
Novak Djokovic v Tommy Haas
Fernando Gonzalez v Fernando Verdasco
Robin Soderling v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Delpo Has a Hooligan Problem

I wanted to repost this after Maria mentioned it in her comments to this post …

So last week Juan Martin del Potro played Fernando Gonzalez in an exhibition in Rosario, winning 64 75.

Which was all lovely, except that according to this article he fell foul of some football hooligans who accosted him in the locker room, where he was forced to hand over a racquet and some money. JMDP has reportedly said he won’t return to Rosario in consequence.

It all sounds a bit bizarre to me …

Shanghai: Now Marin- and Pico-Free

So today sucked in many ways. One of which was Roddick getting injured. Another of which was Pico losing 61 62 to Troicki. And the third of which was Marin inexcusably losing to Tomas Berdych, 64 in the third set.

I watched this match with increasingly frustrated attention, and it really illustrated beautifully a lot of my concerns about Marin. He said recently in Beijing that he was pleased with the way he was proving able to sustain his level throughout a match, but that’s exactly what cost him today. Don’t get me wrong, Berdych was playing beautifully, but I still think Marin could and indeed should have won in straights. He had the advantage in the tiebreak and surrendered it with unforced errors, and precisely the same thing happened in the third set when he was 4-2 up and had 0-40 on Berdych’s serve. It just wasn’t … necessary. Anyway. That kind of inconsistency is not going to get it done and that’s all there is to it, so home he goes. And credit to Berdych. I found it hard to focus on him but he was playing beautifully.

Elsewhere in first round action, Jurgen Melzer beat Jeremy Chardy 64 64 to set up a second-round meeting with JMDP, and Lleyton Hewitt put out an erratic John Isner 62 64. Soderling beat Hanescu easily enough, and Gael Monfils rolled over compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu.

With the exception of Roddick-Wawrinka, the second-round matches all went with seeding, as Kolya visited little-noticed destruction on Kunitsyn, Stepanek put out Beck in straights, and Gonzo beat Nose Job in a match that was, frankly, hot.

Singles – First Round
[9] R Soderling (SWE) d V Hanescu (ROU) 63 64
[11] G Monfils (FRA) d P Mathieu (FRA) 62 62
T Berdych (CZE) d [12] M Cilic (CRO) 76(8) 36 64
[15] T Haas (GER) d B Becker (GER) 76(5) 64
J Melzer (AUT) d J Chardy (FRA) 64 64
L Hewitt (AUS) d J Isner (USA) 62 64
I Ljubicic (CRO) d J Benneteau (FRA) 63 36 61
N Almagro (ESP) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) 67(2) 61 76(6)
V Troicki (SRB) d J Monaco (ARG) 61 62

Singles – Second Round
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [4] A Roddick (USA) 34 ret. (left knee)
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d I Kunitsyn (RUS) 64 62
[10] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [Q] T Bellucci (BRA) 63 64
[13] R Stepanek (CZE) d A Beck (GER) 75 64

Doubles – First Round
J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) d [WC] W Gao (CHN) / X Yu (CHN) 63 63
L Dlouhy (CZE) / P Petzschner (GER) d T Berdych (CZE) / P Kohlschreiber (GER) w/o (Kohlschreiber – right shoulder)
T Parrott (USA) / F Polasek (SVK) d J Blake (USA) / J Isner (USA) 75 62
J Benneteau (FRA) / J Tsonga (FRA) d M Llodra (FRA) / R Stepanek (CZE) 75 75