Right this is now the penultimate post of the Sony Ericsson Open entries, covering the tournament from Crandon Tennis Park, as it is now reaching the end of the event with the ladies final today and the men's final tomorrow.
So starting with the men's semi finals as a catch up, there were two matches set up, the first being a very much anticipated match between Andy and Rafa, which unfortunately didn't take place because Rafa had a knee injury, which forced him to withdraw from the event, which saw Andy get another walkover into the final. The other match was between Djokovic and the Argentine No.2, Juan Monaco, who had reached his first 1000 Masters semi final. The match itself proved to be a fairly tough encounter for Djokovic, who breezed through the first set with ease, but in the 2nd he faced a fightback from Monaco who after going down a break down, broke back to make it 5-5 all, and pushed the match to a 2nd set tiebreak. However in the tiebreak Djokovic once again prevailed as he did against Ferrer in their excellent quarter final match, and securing his place in the final, winning the match in 6-0, 7-6(5).
Well well well, this sets up another showdown between two of the best players in the world, Novak and Andy, and its already their 3rd meeting this year, and they have both won one match each, so who will win this one?????? It really is tough to decide, as on one hand Andy hasn't played a match in three days so he will feel fit and fresh going into the final, however on the other hand, Djokovic has had match play over the last few days, which could give him the edge as he may be sharper on court tomorrow. And if Andy gets off to a rusty start, it could give Djokovic a strong advantage, which is something Andy can't afford to give him. But Andy also has a way of fighting his way into a match, like he did in Rome last year during the clay season, where he lost the 1st 6-1, and went on to win 2nd and play a very close match in the 3rd, which he lost. So if I'm going to pick a winner, I can't really say for sure, but if Andy comes out a bit rusty I can see Djokovic take an earlier advantage and possibly close it out in straight sets or 3 sets, but Andy might prove to be very sharp and take it to Djoko and win in straight set or maybe 3. The best we can hope for is a very tight final like we got last year from Djokovic and Rafa, but either one of them could win, and there are no favourites. Whatever way it goes, I think it promises to be a great final, so watch this space....
So today we have the ladies final which is between Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska who defeated Marion Bartoli in the semi finals in straight sets. And this also promises to be a very interesting match, and a much more intruiging one than if Victoria Azarenka where in the final, because we all would know what to expect if she was! Maria however has an emphatic lead on their head to head, with a 7-1 win loss in her favour, but looking at their past matches, they have been quite close, so this could be a very good one, with their last match being at the French Open last year, where Maria won in 7-6, 7-5. But Agnieszka since then has improved even more as a player, so I think this one could be even tighter, and regarding both players, Radwanska is a counterpuncher, who has a clever and creative game, and Sharapova is the aggressive baseliner who can hit flat out winners from anywhere on the court, so it really is a fascinating contrast in styles once again. Whichever way it goes it should be a very entertaining final.
So more to follow tomorrow once the tournament is over and we know who has lifted that nice glass trophy.
Saturday 31 March 2012
Thursday 29 March 2012
Miami Part 4: The Lazarus of tennis, 26-1 and first Semi in!
OK now into part 4 of the Sony Ericsson Open from Miami which saw some great tennis on display and a pretty big upset in the ladies tournament which I will delve into more in a bit.
Starting with the men's tennis we had some good stuff on display as Andy Murray started off his quarter final match against the Serb No.2, Janko Tipsarevic who gave the British No.1 a real run for his money, although Andy himself was struggling with a stomach bug, and didn't look that well in the first set, which was a topsy turvey affair, which Janko won. In the 2nd set, Andy didn't start any better either as he went down a break straight away, and he had to call the doctor onto the court at one point to have a look at him. However after that Andy fought back and levelled the match, breaking Tipsarevic at 3-3, to make it 4-3, he moved ahead, and in the decider, Andy got the crucial break and closed out a hard fought match in 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. This was another gutsy effort from the Muzza, who I honestly thought was dead and buried in this match, especially in the 2nd set being 2-0 down, but he did another Lazarus and pulled out the win as he has been known to do. Overall despite being a mixed bag in quality, it was quite a good match, and again a fine example of how resilient Andy is in the face of adversity, although his serve was once again questionable, which will hinder him in the next round if he doesn't improve.
In the second men's quarter final match, Rafa Nadal took on the World No.6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, which proved to be a really tough encounter. Tsonga had beaten Rafa in their previous two meetings, but this time Rafa started out strong winning 6-2 in the 1st, but after making some errors in the 2nd set, Tsonga hit back and rattled off 3 games in a row to take the 2nd. But in the 3rd it was down to Rafa who secured the break at 3-3 and went onto close out the match, eventually winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in an exhaustive 2 hours and 49 minutes. This was Rafa's first big test of the tournament and he did well to come through it, as he was having trouble with tendonitis at one point in the match. So this sets up another very potentially exciting meeting with Andy Murray, which should hopefully be a real belter. Rafa leads the head to head with an overwhelming 13-5 ratio in his favour, but hard court is Andy's best surface and he won in Miami back in 2009, so hopefully he can utilise that to try and win, either way it promises to be a really good one.
So now onto the ladies, and starting with Agnieszka Radwanska, who will move up to the world no.4 after this event, who took on a resurgent Venus Williams, who impressively made it to this stage. The match itself however was a bit of a mixed affair, with Venus coming out quite strong in the first set, and being broken, but breaking back, but soon broken yet again by Radwanska. By the second set however, Venus was clearly feeling the effects of her previous matches and the toll it had taken on her, and slipped away from the match, leaving Radwanska to close it out comfortably in 6-4, 6-1. Despite the scoreline though, this match was quite a tricky one for Radwanska, as she had to deal with some old school tennis from Venus, probably something she hasn't been used to up until now. But Radwanska was by far the fresher of the two, as she has yet to even drop a set in the tournament.
And noowwww onto the second quarter final match between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and World No.7 Marion Bartoli, which promised to be quite a match up. The match itself however was quite a surprise as Bartoli came out strong and broke Victoria straight away, and secured a double break at 4-0, but Vika soon found enough to break back, however it wasn't enough as Marion served it out for 6-3. And in the 2nd set Azarenka broke Bartoli's serve, and it looked like we were heading for another fightback and a from behind victory. But it wasn't to be as Bartoli broke back once again and made another crucial break, and did what no one else was able to do so far in 2012: beat the World No.1 the first time, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. This was quite a performance Marion Bartoli, and I always though she had a chance of beating Azarenka at some point, and I also think after playing and winning 26 consecutive matches, that physically it had token its toll on Victoria. I think though Dominika Cibulkova did most of the hard work in the previous round to run Azarenka ragged, and it was Bartoli who delivered the final knockout blow. But take nothing away from Bartoli as she is definitely a player who has beaten the best in the past, including Azarenka, and she deserved to win without a doubt.
As for Victoria Azarenka, well she knew this day would have come sooner or later, but she has put together a very very impressive run of form, especially in such a time where tennis is so competitive, so to win 26 matches and 4 titles in a row is quite an achievement. So she can at least take heart in knowing that while her winning run is over, she has made a great start to 2012 and she can work on that for the rest of the year, and I think she has a strong chance of going on to win more slams this season as well.
So this sets up an exciting semi final match up on the ladies with Radwanska vs Bartoli, and Sharapova vs Wozniacki.
And as an update I couldn't help but give my opinion on the Sharapova/Wozniacki match which has now finished (as of 29/03 913:PM typing this!) as on paper it looked like a fascinating match up between the aggressor and the counterpuncher. And thankfully the match lived up to expectations as the two players battled it out and put on a terrific display for the near full capacity crowd. Sharapova came out the stronger of the two with brute force and accuracy as she bludgeoned many of Wozniacki's second serves back at her, and raced to a 4-1 lead. However at that point the errors started to creep into Sharapova's game, which let Caroline break back, and before we knew it, it was 5-4 with Caroline serving it out for the 1st set. In the 2nd set however Maria found her range and effectively powered past Caroline, and secured a double break to level the match. In the 3rd however things got really interesting as Sharapova broke twice and on serving out at 5-2, Caroline broke back, playing two very aggressive games to get her back to the single break. However in the final game, it was Sharapova who managed to close it out and secured her place in her 4th Miami final, winning in 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
This really was a terrific match from both women and it was also a great contrast of styles, watching the aggressive baseliner and the counterpuncher go at it. The match itself also had a bit controversy at the end, with the second last point being called out by a line judge, but the umpire made a correction saying the ball was good. At this point Caroline had run out of challenges (you get 3 per set) and argued with the umpire because he insisted the ball was good, and wouldn't let Maria challenge as he was convinced it was, and as it turned out, it was. So at the end, the Wozza was pretty miffed as she refused to shake the umpire's hand, Kader Nouni, when the match finished.
To be honest I don't blame Caroline for not shaking his hand as Nouni has in the past shown he can be a dick, an example of this is the Australian Open this year during a match between David Nalbandian and John Isner. In the match, Nalbandian made a challenge, but because he took a short time to make the decision to challenge, Nouni refused to let him challenge, which had a knock on effect in the match, which possibly cost him losing the match. And Nouni himself referred to Caroline, reminding her that she had used up all her challenges just before she was about to serve at 5-3 in the 3rd set, and even saying that her coach and father Piotr Wozniacki was giving Caroline too much advice. Basically the guy was interfering just a bit too much in my opinion, but that's umpires for you, they do a tough job themselves, and they aren't always popular with the players.
In regards to Caroline in the match, she did at times did struggle with her first serve, which left her 2nd serve frequently getting blootered by Sharapova, who overall hit 50 winners in the whole match. But it didn't take away from the highly entertaining contest that both of them brought to the match, and Caroline despite her shortcomings battled bravely until the end. She also in those two final games she won showed glimpses of how she should really play in the future, as she really attacked Sharapova's serve at 5-2, and held serve well after that. If she can keep up that kind of pace then she definitely has a chance of winning the bigger titles or a major, but it she stays as a counterpuncher, it will be something she will struggle to do. But I still admire Caroline as a player, as she is a great competitor and one of the best defensive players in the game today, and she has such a great positive outlook on life, and comes across as a good fun person. And this has been a really good tournament for Caroline which sees her move forward in the right direction, so here's hoping she can continue to, and her semi final even though didn't produce the result she wanted, it was one of the real highlights of the tournament. And as I said the contrast in styles made this match a very entertaining contest, as if it was just another example of Sharapova playing Azarenka, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good or competitive.
OK that's it for now, more soon to follow on the remaning men's quarter finals, Djokovic vs Ferrer, and Fish vs Monaco, and on the remaining ladies semi finals. Should be very good!
Bye the now (me).
Starting with the men's tennis we had some good stuff on display as Andy Murray started off his quarter final match against the Serb No.2, Janko Tipsarevic who gave the British No.1 a real run for his money, although Andy himself was struggling with a stomach bug, and didn't look that well in the first set, which was a topsy turvey affair, which Janko won. In the 2nd set, Andy didn't start any better either as he went down a break straight away, and he had to call the doctor onto the court at one point to have a look at him. However after that Andy fought back and levelled the match, breaking Tipsarevic at 3-3, to make it 4-3, he moved ahead, and in the decider, Andy got the crucial break and closed out a hard fought match in 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. This was another gutsy effort from the Muzza, who I honestly thought was dead and buried in this match, especially in the 2nd set being 2-0 down, but he did another Lazarus and pulled out the win as he has been known to do. Overall despite being a mixed bag in quality, it was quite a good match, and again a fine example of how resilient Andy is in the face of adversity, although his serve was once again questionable, which will hinder him in the next round if he doesn't improve.
In the second men's quarter final match, Rafa Nadal took on the World No.6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, which proved to be a really tough encounter. Tsonga had beaten Rafa in their previous two meetings, but this time Rafa started out strong winning 6-2 in the 1st, but after making some errors in the 2nd set, Tsonga hit back and rattled off 3 games in a row to take the 2nd. But in the 3rd it was down to Rafa who secured the break at 3-3 and went onto close out the match, eventually winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in an exhaustive 2 hours and 49 minutes. This was Rafa's first big test of the tournament and he did well to come through it, as he was having trouble with tendonitis at one point in the match. So this sets up another very potentially exciting meeting with Andy Murray, which should hopefully be a real belter. Rafa leads the head to head with an overwhelming 13-5 ratio in his favour, but hard court is Andy's best surface and he won in Miami back in 2009, so hopefully he can utilise that to try and win, either way it promises to be a really good one.
So now onto the ladies, and starting with Agnieszka Radwanska, who will move up to the world no.4 after this event, who took on a resurgent Venus Williams, who impressively made it to this stage. The match itself however was a bit of a mixed affair, with Venus coming out quite strong in the first set, and being broken, but breaking back, but soon broken yet again by Radwanska. By the second set however, Venus was clearly feeling the effects of her previous matches and the toll it had taken on her, and slipped away from the match, leaving Radwanska to close it out comfortably in 6-4, 6-1. Despite the scoreline though, this match was quite a tricky one for Radwanska, as she had to deal with some old school tennis from Venus, probably something she hasn't been used to up until now. But Radwanska was by far the fresher of the two, as she has yet to even drop a set in the tournament.
And noowwww onto the second quarter final match between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and World No.7 Marion Bartoli, which promised to be quite a match up. The match itself however was quite a surprise as Bartoli came out strong and broke Victoria straight away, and secured a double break at 4-0, but Vika soon found enough to break back, however it wasn't enough as Marion served it out for 6-3. And in the 2nd set Azarenka broke Bartoli's serve, and it looked like we were heading for another fightback and a from behind victory. But it wasn't to be as Bartoli broke back once again and made another crucial break, and did what no one else was able to do so far in 2012: beat the World No.1 the first time, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. This was quite a performance Marion Bartoli, and I always though she had a chance of beating Azarenka at some point, and I also think after playing and winning 26 consecutive matches, that physically it had token its toll on Victoria. I think though Dominika Cibulkova did most of the hard work in the previous round to run Azarenka ragged, and it was Bartoli who delivered the final knockout blow. But take nothing away from Bartoli as she is definitely a player who has beaten the best in the past, including Azarenka, and she deserved to win without a doubt.
As for Victoria Azarenka, well she knew this day would have come sooner or later, but she has put together a very very impressive run of form, especially in such a time where tennis is so competitive, so to win 26 matches and 4 titles in a row is quite an achievement. So she can at least take heart in knowing that while her winning run is over, she has made a great start to 2012 and she can work on that for the rest of the year, and I think she has a strong chance of going on to win more slams this season as well.
So this sets up an exciting semi final match up on the ladies with Radwanska vs Bartoli, and Sharapova vs Wozniacki.
And as an update I couldn't help but give my opinion on the Sharapova/Wozniacki match which has now finished (as of 29/03 913:PM typing this!) as on paper it looked like a fascinating match up between the aggressor and the counterpuncher. And thankfully the match lived up to expectations as the two players battled it out and put on a terrific display for the near full capacity crowd. Sharapova came out the stronger of the two with brute force and accuracy as she bludgeoned many of Wozniacki's second serves back at her, and raced to a 4-1 lead. However at that point the errors started to creep into Sharapova's game, which let Caroline break back, and before we knew it, it was 5-4 with Caroline serving it out for the 1st set. In the 2nd set however Maria found her range and effectively powered past Caroline, and secured a double break to level the match. In the 3rd however things got really interesting as Sharapova broke twice and on serving out at 5-2, Caroline broke back, playing two very aggressive games to get her back to the single break. However in the final game, it was Sharapova who managed to close it out and secured her place in her 4th Miami final, winning in 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
This really was a terrific match from both women and it was also a great contrast of styles, watching the aggressive baseliner and the counterpuncher go at it. The match itself also had a bit controversy at the end, with the second last point being called out by a line judge, but the umpire made a correction saying the ball was good. At this point Caroline had run out of challenges (you get 3 per set) and argued with the umpire because he insisted the ball was good, and wouldn't let Maria challenge as he was convinced it was, and as it turned out, it was. So at the end, the Wozza was pretty miffed as she refused to shake the umpire's hand, Kader Nouni, when the match finished.
To be honest I don't blame Caroline for not shaking his hand as Nouni has in the past shown he can be a dick, an example of this is the Australian Open this year during a match between David Nalbandian and John Isner. In the match, Nalbandian made a challenge, but because he took a short time to make the decision to challenge, Nouni refused to let him challenge, which had a knock on effect in the match, which possibly cost him losing the match. And Nouni himself referred to Caroline, reminding her that she had used up all her challenges just before she was about to serve at 5-3 in the 3rd set, and even saying that her coach and father Piotr Wozniacki was giving Caroline too much advice. Basically the guy was interfering just a bit too much in my opinion, but that's umpires for you, they do a tough job themselves, and they aren't always popular with the players.
In regards to Caroline in the match, she did at times did struggle with her first serve, which left her 2nd serve frequently getting blootered by Sharapova, who overall hit 50 winners in the whole match. But it didn't take away from the highly entertaining contest that both of them brought to the match, and Caroline despite her shortcomings battled bravely until the end. She also in those two final games she won showed glimpses of how she should really play in the future, as she really attacked Sharapova's serve at 5-2, and held serve well after that. If she can keep up that kind of pace then she definitely has a chance of winning the bigger titles or a major, but it she stays as a counterpuncher, it will be something she will struggle to do. But I still admire Caroline as a player, as she is a great competitor and one of the best defensive players in the game today, and she has such a great positive outlook on life, and comes across as a good fun person. And this has been a really good tournament for Caroline which sees her move forward in the right direction, so here's hoping she can continue to, and her semi final even though didn't produce the result she wanted, it was one of the real highlights of the tournament. And as I said the contrast in styles made this match a very entertaining contest, as if it was just another example of Sharapova playing Azarenka, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good or competitive.
OK that's it for now, more soon to follow on the remaning men's quarter finals, Djokovic vs Ferrer, and Fish vs Monaco, and on the remaining ladies semi finals. Should be very good!
Bye the now (me).
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Miami Part 3: The return of the Wozza....
OK so now onto Part 3 of the Sony Ericsson Open posts, which saw more action at the event from the Crandon Park Tennis Centre. Today we saw the men's 4th round matches being wrapped up and the ladies quarter finals get under way.
Starting with the men, and Andy Murray first who took on the Frenchman Gilles Simon, whom he has a very good record against and in this match it was no different, despite a very tough and long first opening game on the Muzza's serve, Andy came through it and soon after broke Simon's serve and closed out the first set in 6-3. In the second Andy broke once again and this time Simon managed to keep it close, but in the end the British No.1 had just too much for him and closed it out 6-3, 6-4. So this sets up a clash with the Serb No.2 in the world, Janko Tipsarevic, which could well be a tough one, so we will see how that goes, but Andy should hopefully prevail. In other matches World Numero one, Novak Djokovic took on the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, and after a tight first set, which Djoko won, it got easier for the Serb as he broke Gasquet early on, but meet a bit of resistance toward the end, but Djoko won in7-5, 6-3, to reach the quarters. David Ferrer took on Del Potro and this promised to be a tough match and strangely enough it turned out to be fairly straight forward for the Spaniard, as he dispatched the big yin in 6-3 6-3, to set up a very intruiging encounter with Djokovic. Andy Roddick however despite his win over Roger Federer, went down against Juan Monaco, despite being a break up in the first set, Roddick lost the way and ended up losing it in 7-5, and in the 2nd set he was nowhere and the Argentine moved ahead in 7-5, 6-0. And Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also had a fairly easy time of it against Florian Mayer who he breezed past in straight sets. So today we have two very exciting quarter finals in the making, with Andy taking on Janko, and Rafa who defeated the tricky Kei Nishikori in 6-4, 6-4, taking on Tsonga, which should be a belter.
Now onto the ladies quarter finals, which were a bit of a mixed bag, first up we had Maria Sharapova who played Li Na, the Chinese No.1, but it was pretty easy going for Sharapova who broke Li Na once in the first set, and three times in the 2nd, winning a very easy 6-3, 6-0 in just over 67 minutes. However the next proved to be quite a different and far more entertaining encounter between two former World No.1's, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Naturally I thought Serena would be the hot favourite to win this match, given her head to head against Caroline has been very good, as Caz has never beaten her. But it turned out to be quite different this time round, as Serena clearly wasn't playing her best, making quite a few unforced errors, while Caroline played a very solid match. Caroline took a single break in the first set, and in the 2nd she was up a double break, but on serving it out at 5-2, Serena broke back to make it 5-4, but Caroline didn't the same trouble the second time round and closed out the match and her first ever win against one of the best players to have played the game in 6-4, 6-4.
I was really chuffed for Caroline that she won this match as she really needs a big win like this to boost her confidence, which has taken quite a beating of late, and to beat a player of Serena's calibre can do no harm for anyone's confidence. So just maybe this could be the match that could turn round Caroline's year, could it???? Well you can hope so. Admittedly Serena wasn't playing her best by any means, especially by her lofty standards, but a win against her in any circumstances is a great result. So next up for Caroline is Maria Sharapova, which Sharapova leads the head to head 3-2, but I sincerely hope Caroline beats her this time and here's why. If Sharapova beats Caroline, she will be in the final again, and most likely she will face Azarenka once again, which means it could be another whitewash. But if Caroline reaches the final and plays Azarenka we could really be looking at a match here, and a very close one hopefully, and if anyone can beat Azarenka, for me its the Wozza. But first things first, she needs to get past Sharapova, which will not be easy, and here's hoping she can.
In the meantime we have the remaining quarter finals for the ladies coming up with Agnieszka Radwanska taking on the remaining Williams sister, Venus, which promises to be very good, and I would have to bet on Venus winning, but you never know. And Victoria Azarenka will play the gutsy, battler that is Marion Bartoli, so that promises to be a really good one, but I think Vika will come through it. But both matches promise to be really good.
So I will leave it there. More soon!
Starting with the men, and Andy Murray first who took on the Frenchman Gilles Simon, whom he has a very good record against and in this match it was no different, despite a very tough and long first opening game on the Muzza's serve, Andy came through it and soon after broke Simon's serve and closed out the first set in 6-3. In the second Andy broke once again and this time Simon managed to keep it close, but in the end the British No.1 had just too much for him and closed it out 6-3, 6-4. So this sets up a clash with the Serb No.2 in the world, Janko Tipsarevic, which could well be a tough one, so we will see how that goes, but Andy should hopefully prevail. In other matches World Numero one, Novak Djokovic took on the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, and after a tight first set, which Djoko won, it got easier for the Serb as he broke Gasquet early on, but meet a bit of resistance toward the end, but Djoko won in7-5, 6-3, to reach the quarters. David Ferrer took on Del Potro and this promised to be a tough match and strangely enough it turned out to be fairly straight forward for the Spaniard, as he dispatched the big yin in 6-3 6-3, to set up a very intruiging encounter with Djokovic. Andy Roddick however despite his win over Roger Federer, went down against Juan Monaco, despite being a break up in the first set, Roddick lost the way and ended up losing it in 7-5, and in the 2nd set he was nowhere and the Argentine moved ahead in 7-5, 6-0. And Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also had a fairly easy time of it against Florian Mayer who he breezed past in straight sets. So today we have two very exciting quarter finals in the making, with Andy taking on Janko, and Rafa who defeated the tricky Kei Nishikori in 6-4, 6-4, taking on Tsonga, which should be a belter.
Now onto the ladies quarter finals, which were a bit of a mixed bag, first up we had Maria Sharapova who played Li Na, the Chinese No.1, but it was pretty easy going for Sharapova who broke Li Na once in the first set, and three times in the 2nd, winning a very easy 6-3, 6-0 in just over 67 minutes. However the next proved to be quite a different and far more entertaining encounter between two former World No.1's, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Naturally I thought Serena would be the hot favourite to win this match, given her head to head against Caroline has been very good, as Caz has never beaten her. But it turned out to be quite different this time round, as Serena clearly wasn't playing her best, making quite a few unforced errors, while Caroline played a very solid match. Caroline took a single break in the first set, and in the 2nd she was up a double break, but on serving it out at 5-2, Serena broke back to make it 5-4, but Caroline didn't the same trouble the second time round and closed out the match and her first ever win against one of the best players to have played the game in 6-4, 6-4.
I was really chuffed for Caroline that she won this match as she really needs a big win like this to boost her confidence, which has taken quite a beating of late, and to beat a player of Serena's calibre can do no harm for anyone's confidence. So just maybe this could be the match that could turn round Caroline's year, could it???? Well you can hope so. Admittedly Serena wasn't playing her best by any means, especially by her lofty standards, but a win against her in any circumstances is a great result. So next up for Caroline is Maria Sharapova, which Sharapova leads the head to head 3-2, but I sincerely hope Caroline beats her this time and here's why. If Sharapova beats Caroline, she will be in the final again, and most likely she will face Azarenka once again, which means it could be another whitewash. But if Caroline reaches the final and plays Azarenka we could really be looking at a match here, and a very close one hopefully, and if anyone can beat Azarenka, for me its the Wozza. But first things first, she needs to get past Sharapova, which will not be easy, and here's hoping she can.
In the meantime we have the remaining quarter finals for the ladies coming up with Agnieszka Radwanska taking on the remaining Williams sister, Venus, which promises to be very good, and I would have to bet on Venus winning, but you never know. And Victoria Azarenka will play the gutsy, battler that is Marion Bartoli, so that promises to be a really good one, but I think Vika will come through it. But both matches promise to be really good.
So I will leave it there. More soon!
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Miami Part 2: Upsets and clinging on
OK now here's the 2nd part of my updates on the Sony Ericsson Open from Miami, which saw some terrific tennis from both then mens and ladies. So far the tournament has had some great stuff and the Miami crowds have been terrific, far more lively and animated than the sleepy buggers at Indian Wells. Now we are will into the tournament and yesterday we had the ladies 4th round and men's 3rd round matches, so here's more on that....
OK starting with the men, the upset of the day came from a much anticipated match up between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. Roddick has been on the losing side of the net in their past 20 odd meetings and has only beaten Federer twice in his career up until then. However in this match Roddick played some of his very best tennis, clinching the 1st set in a tiebreak, losing the 2nd, but getting a key break in the 3rd round, and Andy never looked back, closing out the match in 7-6, 1-6, 6-4. This was a great effort from Roddick and it was the second time he beat Federer in Miami, where Andy has since been the champion there twice in the past. Roddick also snapped Roger's 16 match winning streak on the ATP tour, and if you think about it, this is the first match he has lost at the ATP tour level since the US Open last year (if you discount his Aussie open and Davis cup losses this year).
Other men's matches saw Djokovic make safe passage through to the 4th round as he played against his fellow Serb, Viktor Troicki, and Novak had no trouble dispatching him, winning in 6-3, 6-4. Djokovic is looking pretty good here I have to say and with Federer out the picture, it could definitely increase his chances of getting to the final. David Ferrer also made it past the Frenchman Julien Benneteau in a tight match winning in 7-6, 6-4, and Juan Martin Del Potro also got past the similarly tall 6' 6" Croatian, Marin Cilic in straight sets 6-3, 7-6. And out today in the men's matches will be Andy Murray who plays the Frenchman Gilles Simon, which promises to be a good match, and Andy has a comfortable head to head advantage against him. Rafa will play against the talented Japanese player Kei Nishikori, who has been fast rising up the ranks, and Djokovic will play another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, which should be interesting.
Now onto the ladies which saw some really great stuff on display. Starting with Serena Williams and Sam Stosur who had a US Open re-match, and it has to be said this one was a different, much tighter affair altogether. In the first despite being a break down against Stosur, Serena then went on to break back, and got a crucial break herself at 5-5 to win out the first set. In the second Stosur gotten broken again but held in there and continued to fight, but ultimately it was Serena, who fired up a record 20 aces in the match, that came through in 7-5, 6-3. Despite not being a fan of Serena, I was hoping she would get through as I really would like to see her get to the final, just in case we get an Azarenka showdown, which just might be on the cards, but we'll see.
Maria Sharapova also made it past Ekerena Makarova, her Russian compatriot (although to hear Maria you would never have guessed it, since she sounds so American!) in a mixed quality match in 6-4, 7-6, with Sharapova, probably giving one of the worst performances of her career, with a ridiculous 11 double faults and 53 unforced errors. But she still got the win, and a win is a win, no matter how ugly it maybe. Caroline Wozniacki also made it through against Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets, despite the first being a very tight contest, the second was a pushover for Caroline, and won the match 7-6, 6-0. Caroline will go on to face Serena Williams in the quarter finals, but to be honest I don't rate her chances of winning, as she has never beaten Serena and for me she doesn't have the power or aggressive game to hit through her, so I think it will be a straight set win for Serena. Marion Bartoli had the easiest match of all as she breezed past Maria Kirilenko in 6-2, 6-1. And finally Li Na advanced into the quarter finals as well, and defeated Sabine Lisicki for the first time in their three meetings, winning in 3 sets.
But the match of the day, and most likely the tournament was the world No.1 Victoria Azarenka,who came up against an inspired Dominika Cibulkova, who very nearly came close to ending Vika's unbeaten start to 2012. The pint sized Slovakian player Cibulkova, came out firing on all cylinders in the first set and made Vika look like the World No.100 player instead of the No.1, as Cibulkova hit winners for fun against Victoria, left, right and centre (literally!). And in the second set it was the same as Dominika kept up her blistering form, however at 5-2, with a chance to serve out for the biggest win of her career, the Slovak started to show signs of crumbling and double faulted to let Azarenka break back, and from there before we knew it, Azarenka finally found her form and levelled the match to 5-5 all, and took the 2nd set in a tense tiebreak. In the third it looked like Azarenka was the firm favourite and broke Cibulkova early on, but Dominika refused to go away and continued to break back until it was 5-5 all again, but this time, Victoria got the final crucial break, and after a tight final game at 6-5, Cibulkova sailed a forehand just long, which saw Victoria's unbeaten winning streak carry on to 26 matches and counting, winning after an exhaustive 1-6, 7-6(7), 7-5.
This was a terrific match with some high quality play, particularly from Cibulkova, who came out so strong and pretty much played brilliantly throughout, but ultimately I think Dominika was hurt by too many double faults, 10 to be precise. But for the first set and a half the crowd cheered on Cibulkova, as she fired winner after winner, and with every shot she made Azarenka look so ordinary. And Victoria herself, didn't play a particularly good match herself, her level improved in the 2nd and 3rd, but she really survived match more than won it. As for Cibulkova she was off the court like a bullet once she lost, clearly very disappointed that she had lost, which was a great shame, as she came so close. But it does show that Azarenka truly is a worthy No.1 and she very much like Djokovic last year, so far has proved to have an indomitable spirit. Next up for Victoria is one of my favourite players on the WTA tour, Marion Bartoli, which should prove again to be another very tough match, but I'm sure she will come through it. And after that its getting down to business as Victoria could very well face Venus Williams in the semis, which could make for a very exciting match, and just maybe we could get Serena in the finals, which could be a great match. But in the meantime its all ahead of us.
But it has to be asked, can Azarenka beat either of the Williams sisters???? Well I've just looked at her win loss record, and regards to Venus, she has never beaten her in their two meetings, and she has only beaten Serena once, which was funnily enough at this event. But in her current form I still think Azarenka has a strong chance of beating either of the sisters, but it will make for a very exciting match up if she should meet both or either of them. I just hope Sharapova isn't in the final because it will be yet another cakewalk for Azarenka, and I think we shouldn't be robbed of very exciting potential match up of the Williams's versus the world's current best player.
So on that note I'll leave it there.
OK starting with the men, the upset of the day came from a much anticipated match up between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. Roddick has been on the losing side of the net in their past 20 odd meetings and has only beaten Federer twice in his career up until then. However in this match Roddick played some of his very best tennis, clinching the 1st set in a tiebreak, losing the 2nd, but getting a key break in the 3rd round, and Andy never looked back, closing out the match in 7-6, 1-6, 6-4. This was a great effort from Roddick and it was the second time he beat Federer in Miami, where Andy has since been the champion there twice in the past. Roddick also snapped Roger's 16 match winning streak on the ATP tour, and if you think about it, this is the first match he has lost at the ATP tour level since the US Open last year (if you discount his Aussie open and Davis cup losses this year).
Other men's matches saw Djokovic make safe passage through to the 4th round as he played against his fellow Serb, Viktor Troicki, and Novak had no trouble dispatching him, winning in 6-3, 6-4. Djokovic is looking pretty good here I have to say and with Federer out the picture, it could definitely increase his chances of getting to the final. David Ferrer also made it past the Frenchman Julien Benneteau in a tight match winning in 7-6, 6-4, and Juan Martin Del Potro also got past the similarly tall 6' 6" Croatian, Marin Cilic in straight sets 6-3, 7-6. And out today in the men's matches will be Andy Murray who plays the Frenchman Gilles Simon, which promises to be a good match, and Andy has a comfortable head to head advantage against him. Rafa will play against the talented Japanese player Kei Nishikori, who has been fast rising up the ranks, and Djokovic will play another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, which should be interesting.
Now onto the ladies which saw some really great stuff on display. Starting with Serena Williams and Sam Stosur who had a US Open re-match, and it has to be said this one was a different, much tighter affair altogether. In the first despite being a break down against Stosur, Serena then went on to break back, and got a crucial break herself at 5-5 to win out the first set. In the second Stosur gotten broken again but held in there and continued to fight, but ultimately it was Serena, who fired up a record 20 aces in the match, that came through in 7-5, 6-3. Despite not being a fan of Serena, I was hoping she would get through as I really would like to see her get to the final, just in case we get an Azarenka showdown, which just might be on the cards, but we'll see.
Maria Sharapova also made it past Ekerena Makarova, her Russian compatriot (although to hear Maria you would never have guessed it, since she sounds so American!) in a mixed quality match in 6-4, 7-6, with Sharapova, probably giving one of the worst performances of her career, with a ridiculous 11 double faults and 53 unforced errors. But she still got the win, and a win is a win, no matter how ugly it maybe. Caroline Wozniacki also made it through against Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets, despite the first being a very tight contest, the second was a pushover for Caroline, and won the match 7-6, 6-0. Caroline will go on to face Serena Williams in the quarter finals, but to be honest I don't rate her chances of winning, as she has never beaten Serena and for me she doesn't have the power or aggressive game to hit through her, so I think it will be a straight set win for Serena. Marion Bartoli had the easiest match of all as she breezed past Maria Kirilenko in 6-2, 6-1. And finally Li Na advanced into the quarter finals as well, and defeated Sabine Lisicki for the first time in their three meetings, winning in 3 sets.
But the match of the day, and most likely the tournament was the world No.1 Victoria Azarenka,who came up against an inspired Dominika Cibulkova, who very nearly came close to ending Vika's unbeaten start to 2012. The pint sized Slovakian player Cibulkova, came out firing on all cylinders in the first set and made Vika look like the World No.100 player instead of the No.1, as Cibulkova hit winners for fun against Victoria, left, right and centre (literally!). And in the second set it was the same as Dominika kept up her blistering form, however at 5-2, with a chance to serve out for the biggest win of her career, the Slovak started to show signs of crumbling and double faulted to let Azarenka break back, and from there before we knew it, Azarenka finally found her form and levelled the match to 5-5 all, and took the 2nd set in a tense tiebreak. In the third it looked like Azarenka was the firm favourite and broke Cibulkova early on, but Dominika refused to go away and continued to break back until it was 5-5 all again, but this time, Victoria got the final crucial break, and after a tight final game at 6-5, Cibulkova sailed a forehand just long, which saw Victoria's unbeaten winning streak carry on to 26 matches and counting, winning after an exhaustive 1-6, 7-6(7), 7-5.
This was a terrific match with some high quality play, particularly from Cibulkova, who came out so strong and pretty much played brilliantly throughout, but ultimately I think Dominika was hurt by too many double faults, 10 to be precise. But for the first set and a half the crowd cheered on Cibulkova, as she fired winner after winner, and with every shot she made Azarenka look so ordinary. And Victoria herself, didn't play a particularly good match herself, her level improved in the 2nd and 3rd, but she really survived match more than won it. As for Cibulkova she was off the court like a bullet once she lost, clearly very disappointed that she had lost, which was a great shame, as she came so close. But it does show that Azarenka truly is a worthy No.1 and she very much like Djokovic last year, so far has proved to have an indomitable spirit. Next up for Victoria is one of my favourite players on the WTA tour, Marion Bartoli, which should prove again to be another very tough match, but I'm sure she will come through it. And after that its getting down to business as Victoria could very well face Venus Williams in the semis, which could make for a very exciting match, and just maybe we could get Serena in the finals, which could be a great match. But in the meantime its all ahead of us.
But it has to be asked, can Azarenka beat either of the Williams sisters???? Well I've just looked at her win loss record, and regards to Venus, she has never beaten her in their two meetings, and she has only beaten Serena once, which was funnily enough at this event. But in her current form I still think Azarenka has a strong chance of beating either of the sisters, but it will make for a very exciting match up if she should meet both or either of them. I just hope Sharapova isn't in the final because it will be yet another cakewalk for Azarenka, and I think we shouldn't be robbed of very exciting potential match up of the Williams's versus the world's current best player.
So on that note I'll leave it there.
Monday 26 March 2012
Miami Part 1: The Vikanator continues
Ok finally after taking a good break of 5 posts that have had nothing at all to do with tennis I thought I would get back to it and post up something about the Sony Ericsson Open tournament in Miami, which started last week there. So far we are into the 3rd round, with the 4th round just (pardon the pun) round the corner, so here's a quick catch up.
On the men's side of the net, Federer got through his 2nd match against the American lad Ryan Harrison, who gave him a bit of tough time in the 2nd set, before closing it out in a tiebreak, winning 6-2, 7-6. This will set up a potentially exciting encounter with Andy Roddick, whom Roger will play tonight, so it might be either be a doddle or a very interesting contest, we will soon find out. Rafa also comfortably made his passage into the 4th round, after defeating Santiago Giraldo and Radek Stepanek easily in straight sets, although next up he will face Kei Nishikori, who has been fast rising up, so it could be his first test. Andy Murray also made it through with ease against his first round opponent, Alejandro Falla, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, despite having a mini wobble in the 2nd set, dropping his serve, he broke back and closed it out no probs. Andy after receiving a 3rd round walkover, will next face Gilles Simon, the Frenchman in the 4th, whom he has a very good record against, although they have had some tough matches in the past, but it should be a good one, and the Muzza should get through. And Djokovic also made safe entry into the 3rd round, although he had a tougher match against Marcos Baghdatis, and faced a few break points in the 2nd set, but Djoko came through and won in 6-4, 6-4. Next up for Djoko is his fellow Serb, Viktor Troicki, so that should be an interesting one, but I'd imagine it will be a straight set win for the Djokster.
Now onto the ladies, which so far has been very interesting, and has seen a few underdogs come through, who have toppled out some of the seeded players. One of those particular players in the wee British player, Heather Watson, who undoubtedly is worth keeping an eye. In her first match, Heather played against Simone Cirstea of Romania, and was at one point 0-5 down in the 3rd set, but she made an amazing comeback and rattled off the next 5 games to draw level, and she went on to win the tiebreak and the match. This was quite a comeback for the young British player, and in the 2nd round she was even more impressive, when she faced the Czeck player Lucie Safarova, who is ranked in the top 30, and despite that ranking, Heather crushed her in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. However in her 3rd round match, Heather was given a no-win scenario against the World No.1, Victoria Azarenka, and right enough it proved to be just that, as the Belursian flattened the spirited Guernsey lass in 6-0, 6-2, ouch. To be honest we couldn't have expected anything less from Victoria who has been utterly unstoppable so far this year, and has now raked up 25 match wins in 2012 and counting. And for Heather it was unfortunate that she wasn't able to produce her best tennis against the best player in the world, but she simply wasn't able to or allowed to, so that's that. But Heather should definitely take heart in what has been a very impressive effort at a Premier Mandatory level event on the WTA tour.
Moving onto other ladies matches, the Williams sisters returned to the game in Miami, and they have both so far managed to make it into the 3rd round, with Serena today having a US Open final re-match today against Sam Stosur. This promises to be a really good match, but I have to say I think Serena will win this one this time. And despite the fact I'm not a big fan of hers, I hope Serena does win because it will give her a chance of advancing into later rounds and just maybe she could set up a final with Azarenka, now that would be a real mouth watering prospect. As Serena is probably just about the only player on the tour just now that could possibly beat Victoria, but if they were to meet I would still favour Vika as the favourite to win, simply because of her extensive match play and confidence and believe levels are through the roof, but more on that in a tick.
Venus Williams also made a very impressive comeback to the game after being out with Sjorgen's Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder than causes chronic fatigue. Venus in the 2nd round defeated the reigning Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova in 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, and went on to defeat a very tricky opponent, the Canadian Alexsandra Wozniak in a very close match, which was a real see-saw battle, which Venus eventually won in a tiebreak, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. This sets up a 4th round encounter with the former World No.1 and saucy Serb, Ana Inanovic, who just knocked out Daniela Hantuchova in the 3rd just there. And in other matches, Caroline Wozniacki defeated Petra Cetkovska, in a tight straight setter, 6-3, 7-5, as they shared a few breaks in the 2nd set. Caroline will next face Yanina Wickmayer, who upset Kim Clijsters, in straight sets, where again they traded breaks, but Yanina won the match in the 2nd set tiebreak, 6-4, 7-6. So I'm hoping Caroline will win this one, but given her current dip in form of late, Yanina could be the favourite here. Meanwhile Agnieszka Radwanska, who has been sky rocketing up the rankings lately, and just made the World No.4 spot, had no trouble at all getting past her 3rd round opponent Soler Espinosa in 6-1, 6-2.
As for Victoria Azarenka and her current run of form, here's a bit more about that, which I have to say so far has been really impressive. I quite like Victoria as well, off court she comes across a nice person, who is quite easy going and enjoys a laugh, on court she definitely has that aggressive demeanour, that may alienate her from certain people, not to mention her ridiculous grunting, but I can forgive that to be honest. And so far she remains unbeaten with a perfect 25-0 record this year so far, and it looks like it is in no danger of ending soon, or is it??? With the Williams sisters back in the picture in Miami, it makes things a bit more interesting and exciting, and despite the odd match or two, Azarenka has rarely been tested this year. So if she were to meet with both sisters, and she is in the same half of the draw as Venus, so if Venus wins her match against Ana Ivanovic, then they are almost certain to play each other. And if Serena makes her way to the final, which she could well do, then it could be a very exciting final, and pretty much the best we can hope for. And without the Williams sisters in Miami, and if they are knocked out early, then I can't see anyone else in the draw who can stay with Azarenka in a match. The only other possible players that could give her a match are Marion Bartoli, and Caroline Wozniacki, particularly Caroline. I say this because they have a close head to head, which Caroline leads 4-2 in her favour, although given her current dip in form, Victoria could potentially beat her easily. But for me Caroline is like to Victoria, what Andy Murray is to Novak Djokovic, a potential nemesis, and I look forward to their next meeting, which I hope isn't too far away.
Right that's it for now, more soon on round 4.
On the men's side of the net, Federer got through his 2nd match against the American lad Ryan Harrison, who gave him a bit of tough time in the 2nd set, before closing it out in a tiebreak, winning 6-2, 7-6. This will set up a potentially exciting encounter with Andy Roddick, whom Roger will play tonight, so it might be either be a doddle or a very interesting contest, we will soon find out. Rafa also comfortably made his passage into the 4th round, after defeating Santiago Giraldo and Radek Stepanek easily in straight sets, although next up he will face Kei Nishikori, who has been fast rising up, so it could be his first test. Andy Murray also made it through with ease against his first round opponent, Alejandro Falla, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, despite having a mini wobble in the 2nd set, dropping his serve, he broke back and closed it out no probs. Andy after receiving a 3rd round walkover, will next face Gilles Simon, the Frenchman in the 4th, whom he has a very good record against, although they have had some tough matches in the past, but it should be a good one, and the Muzza should get through. And Djokovic also made safe entry into the 3rd round, although he had a tougher match against Marcos Baghdatis, and faced a few break points in the 2nd set, but Djoko came through and won in 6-4, 6-4. Next up for Djoko is his fellow Serb, Viktor Troicki, so that should be an interesting one, but I'd imagine it will be a straight set win for the Djokster.
Now onto the ladies, which so far has been very interesting, and has seen a few underdogs come through, who have toppled out some of the seeded players. One of those particular players in the wee British player, Heather Watson, who undoubtedly is worth keeping an eye. In her first match, Heather played against Simone Cirstea of Romania, and was at one point 0-5 down in the 3rd set, but she made an amazing comeback and rattled off the next 5 games to draw level, and she went on to win the tiebreak and the match. This was quite a comeback for the young British player, and in the 2nd round she was even more impressive, when she faced the Czeck player Lucie Safarova, who is ranked in the top 30, and despite that ranking, Heather crushed her in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. However in her 3rd round match, Heather was given a no-win scenario against the World No.1, Victoria Azarenka, and right enough it proved to be just that, as the Belursian flattened the spirited Guernsey lass in 6-0, 6-2, ouch. To be honest we couldn't have expected anything less from Victoria who has been utterly unstoppable so far this year, and has now raked up 25 match wins in 2012 and counting. And for Heather it was unfortunate that she wasn't able to produce her best tennis against the best player in the world, but she simply wasn't able to or allowed to, so that's that. But Heather should definitely take heart in what has been a very impressive effort at a Premier Mandatory level event on the WTA tour.
Moving onto other ladies matches, the Williams sisters returned to the game in Miami, and they have both so far managed to make it into the 3rd round, with Serena today having a US Open final re-match today against Sam Stosur. This promises to be a really good match, but I have to say I think Serena will win this one this time. And despite the fact I'm not a big fan of hers, I hope Serena does win because it will give her a chance of advancing into later rounds and just maybe she could set up a final with Azarenka, now that would be a real mouth watering prospect. As Serena is probably just about the only player on the tour just now that could possibly beat Victoria, but if they were to meet I would still favour Vika as the favourite to win, simply because of her extensive match play and confidence and believe levels are through the roof, but more on that in a tick.
Venus Williams also made a very impressive comeback to the game after being out with Sjorgen's Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder than causes chronic fatigue. Venus in the 2nd round defeated the reigning Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova in 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, and went on to defeat a very tricky opponent, the Canadian Alexsandra Wozniak in a very close match, which was a real see-saw battle, which Venus eventually won in a tiebreak, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. This sets up a 4th round encounter with the former World No.1 and saucy Serb, Ana Inanovic, who just knocked out Daniela Hantuchova in the 3rd just there. And in other matches, Caroline Wozniacki defeated Petra Cetkovska, in a tight straight setter, 6-3, 7-5, as they shared a few breaks in the 2nd set. Caroline will next face Yanina Wickmayer, who upset Kim Clijsters, in straight sets, where again they traded breaks, but Yanina won the match in the 2nd set tiebreak, 6-4, 7-6. So I'm hoping Caroline will win this one, but given her current dip in form of late, Yanina could be the favourite here. Meanwhile Agnieszka Radwanska, who has been sky rocketing up the rankings lately, and just made the World No.4 spot, had no trouble at all getting past her 3rd round opponent Soler Espinosa in 6-1, 6-2.
As for Victoria Azarenka and her current run of form, here's a bit more about that, which I have to say so far has been really impressive. I quite like Victoria as well, off court she comes across a nice person, who is quite easy going and enjoys a laugh, on court she definitely has that aggressive demeanour, that may alienate her from certain people, not to mention her ridiculous grunting, but I can forgive that to be honest. And so far she remains unbeaten with a perfect 25-0 record this year so far, and it looks like it is in no danger of ending soon, or is it??? With the Williams sisters back in the picture in Miami, it makes things a bit more interesting and exciting, and despite the odd match or two, Azarenka has rarely been tested this year. So if she were to meet with both sisters, and she is in the same half of the draw as Venus, so if Venus wins her match against Ana Ivanovic, then they are almost certain to play each other. And if Serena makes her way to the final, which she could well do, then it could be a very exciting final, and pretty much the best we can hope for. And without the Williams sisters in Miami, and if they are knocked out early, then I can't see anyone else in the draw who can stay with Azarenka in a match. The only other possible players that could give her a match are Marion Bartoli, and Caroline Wozniacki, particularly Caroline. I say this because they have a close head to head, which Caroline leads 4-2 in her favour, although given her current dip in form, Victoria could potentially beat her easily. But for me Caroline is like to Victoria, what Andy Murray is to Novak Djokovic, a potential nemesis, and I look forward to their next meeting, which I hope isn't too far away.
Right that's it for now, more soon on round 4.
Saturday 24 March 2012
Chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!
OK so for another change I thought I would do a critique of a Doctor Who story, The Daemons which came out this week on DVD and it is generally hailed as one of the all time great stories from the Jon Pertwee era, so here's a bit more about the plot.
The story starts with one of the residents of Devil's End, a small village in Wiltshire, dying of fright from seeing something in the local graveyard. The local village doctor says that the man simply died of a heart attack, but the local white witch Miss Hawthorne (Damaris Hayman) insists there is evil afoot. The BBC are also at this time doing coverage of the excavation of the Devil's hump, an ancient burial ground. Miss Hawthorne also interrupts the broadcast and warns the archaeologist, Professor Horner (Robin Wentworth) that if he opens the tomb then he will bring death and disaster upon the village. The Doctor at this time having been watching the live coverage on TV, decides to go to the dig himself with Jo (Katy Manning, probably looking at her best in this story). On arriving at the dig, the Doctor is too late to stop Horner from opening the tomb and there is a freak gust of snow and ice that blows out of the tomb, apparently killing the Doctor and Professor Horner. The Doctor is soon dug out (or excavated) off the earth and snow and taken to the local pub, the Cloven Hoof, where he lies in a coma.
In the meantime however, a certain familiar looking figure who goes by the name of the Magister, dressed as a Reverend, has been holding ritual ceremonies to try and bring about the appearance of a demon called Azal (Stephen Thorne). This is of course the Master (Roger Delgado) who has been at work trying to raise the demon Azal, who in actual fact is a creature from another world, who has been lying dormant but has been on Earth for over 100,000 years. The Doctor soon recovers from his coma, after a freak heat wave hits the village, and he then explains his theory to the locals, and he is accompanied by Sergeant Benton (John Levine) and Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin). The Doctor tells them that Azal is a daemon from the planet Damos, who came to Earth to try and advance the human race and pass on their knowledge as part of an experiment, however, man is in danger of being destroyed if Azal chooses to. The Master also finally summons Azal and speaks with him, and he asks that Azal pass on his power to him in order to fulfil his desire to rule the Earth. Azal considers this but says there is another one of the Master's race here, referring to the Doctor, he said he will speak with him also before making up his mind, and that he will appear once more, but he says he will either choose to pass on his power or to destroy the Earth.
And another problem arising from these circumstances is that Azal's awakening causes a heat barrier to be place around the village, preventing anyone from leaving the village or from any one to enter it, as the UNIT commander Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) soon finds out when he tries to get to the village. The Doctor contacts the Brigadier and tells him there might be a way for him to gain access to the village, but it will involve building heat exchanger energy machine that will help bypass the barrier, and the Doctor soon comes to the Brig (within resonable distance of the barrier) to help them build it. As this is all going on the Master then through his hypnotic powers of persuasion gets quite a few of the village locals on his side, and to help him with this ritual ceremony in the cavern's of the church, in order to summon Azal once more and so he can control the daemon. The Master soon successfully summons Azal for the last time, just as he does, Jo and Mike enter the cavern and witness Azal grow to huge size right infront of them. The Doctor also manages to get into the cavern and past the Master's gargoyle and heavy Bok (Stanley Mason) whom he has been using throughout the story for his own evil ends. The Doctor once in the cavern confronts the Master and Azal in deciding the fate of the planet.
The Daemons is without a doubt one of Jon Pertwee's best stories, made back in 1971, when the series made the crucial change in tone from the doomish Quatermass style that appeared in Pertwee's first season. The story which was written under the psuedonym of Guy Leopold, was actually written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman, and its a fine example of how good the scripts could be in the show. Letts and Sloman make very clever use of the themes of witchcraft, demonism, religion, faith and duplicity, and I also like how they explain the background of the daemons helping man throughout the ages in advancing their knowledge. You could almost say that the Daemons were babysitters for mankind and they helped instruct them in how to grow, although the Doctor at one point does state to Azal, that thanks to him now man can blow up the world and probably will, which is something Azal says that the planet smells of failure. This ultimately points to man being his own downfall, and to Azal the Earth is just a failed experiment which he is in danger of destroying.
The characters in the show are all well catered for, especially the UNIT members, Benton and Yates, who are given more to do here than usual in a Doctor Who story. Yates and Benton make their way to the village and get tangled up in the choas of what happens there, being beaten, abducted, and giving chase to the baddies. Benton particularly is given plenty to do in helping out Miss Hawthorne, in the church where he beaten up telekinetically on a marked stone, and staving off an attacker in the pub, as well as finally giving in to having a dance with her at the end! It also makes a nice change of pace to have the Brigadier separated from his team, as he goes off to a dinner at the start of the show, but later comes into the show when he is informed that his helicopter has been taken by Yates and Benton, and the heat keeps him apart from the Doctor and the others.
In terms of the performances, the regular cast are on fine form here, Jon Pertwee had wonderfully grown into his part of the Doctor by then and plays him as well in this story as he ever has, and his relationship with Jo has blossomed very nicely by the end of the season. And by then the Doctor and Jo really have formed their partnership well, and Katy Manning, who looks rather fetching in this story (with her outfit, which apparently she didn't like!) over the space of that one season has matured nicely from the young lassie who first stepped into UNIT office, where the Doctor patronisingly said to her "no tea today, thank you!". If there is however on aspect of their relationship that seems a bit off then that is the Doctor's way in which he puts down Jo or puts her in her place quite a bit, like a father telling off their child. This is conveyed in the scene where the Doctor tells the Brigadier how stupid it would be to organise an aerial assault on the barrier surrounding the village, and Jo agrees with the Doctor afterward who says "Jo, the Brigadier is doing his best cope with an almost impossible situation and seeing that he is your superior officer, you should try and show him a little respect." Its like Jo is trying to win over the Doctor's respect but he just rebuffs her and tells her off rather than agrees.
John Levine and Richard Frankling are also both very good in their respective roles of Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates, as they too have comfortably grown into their roles, and they share a nice bit of banter with each other, especially in the scene where Benton moans while watching the TV that his football team lost in the first episode, and he flicks a coin he lost in a bet to Yates. And Roger Delgado as the Master is great as ever in his role as the charming, suave and incredibly evil character, who has a hold over the village and poses as the local reverend, although by then in the 8th season, he had appeared in every single story, so it was no longer much of a surprise when he showed up. Perhaps at the time of the show there was a bit of controversy over the user of the incantations used to raise Azal as they might appear to be a temptation for children to copy (well maybe there wasn't!), but amusingly enough Delgado only really used the nursery rhyme "Mary had a little lamb" backwards, and at one point he even says Damaris Hayman's name backwards when he wards off Azal.
As for the supporting cast Damaris Hayman does fine with her character of Miss Hawthorne, the headstrong and stubborn white witch who forecasts doom and disaster on the village, although her performance is a bit cheesy overall. Stephen Thorne as Azal is quite impressive although his appearance is rather brief as you only really see him in the last episode, but the effects and make-up for his character are actually very good, and yes those are tights he is wearing in the scenes where you see his hooves! The only really silly addition in the cast is Stanley Mason as Bok, the Master's gargoyle, which he uses to bump off the villagers that oppose him, as prances around in the white lycra suit, and the face make-up for Bok appears to have his tounge sticking out for some strange reason!
The story itself has plenty of enjoyable scenes including the scene where the Master tries to persuade the villagers to his way of thinking, the scene where Benton fights of a thug in the cavern and is attack invisibly by an unknown force when he lands on a paving stone. I also quite like the scene where the Doctor is tied up and about to burned alive by the locals for being a "witch" and Miss Hawthorne pretends he is a great magician, and she uses Benton to make it look like the Doctor can use his magic to shatter a street lamp or shoot the weathercock. And there is of course the final confrontation between the Doctor, the Master and Azal, which is well performed. The heatwave barrier effect is also quite well done, and nicely directed, as we see a milkman in his van, jump out as the thunderish noise crashes in and we see his van go up in flames, and later the Brigadier throwing bits of rock or wood at the barrier and it disintegrates. And one of the story's most memorable pieces of dialogue in the story comes from the Brigadier who once he has gotten into the village addresses on one of his soldiers to shoot Bok, "Jenkins, chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!".
My only slight niggle about the story however is the end where (SPOILER ONCE AGAIN) Azal cannot understand Jo's decision to save the Doctor from being killed by him, by offering herself as a sacrifice instead. The decision seems to totally baffle Azal and send him into self destruct mode, but I suppose that Azal is a creature that only deals in absolutes and can't handle the notion of such an intervention of selfless-ness. But you can't help but think, wait a minute, in order to defeat this guy all we had to do is just confuse him????? And that's it???? Surely we should have thought of that sooner! The resolution of ridding the world of Azal seems just a bit pat and convenient that all it takes is one action to confuse him and that's him taken care of.
As for the DVD extras, there is a very good new documentary, which covers the making of the story, and its revealed the pub, The Cloven Hoof, which in reality was called something else, still have the sign that was outside the pub, which the owners proudly have kept behind the bar. There is also a really funny bit in the documentary where Katy Manning refers to the scene with the Brigadier and Mike Yates, where Mike asks the Brig for a dance who says "I'd rather have a pint", and she said that Nick Courtney at the time said "Well that's settles it, the Brigadier is an alcoholic and Mike Yates is gay!". The DVD commentary of the story itself is also quite enjoyable as some of the cast Katy Manning, Richard Franklin and Damaris Hayman all reminisce of their time making the story.
So the Damons remains a classic Doctor Who story which rightfully remains one of the most fondly remembered from the classic series. And it also reflected the time where the UNIT family was at its peak and one of Jon Pertwee's finest.
And that's it.
The story starts with one of the residents of Devil's End, a small village in Wiltshire, dying of fright from seeing something in the local graveyard. The local village doctor says that the man simply died of a heart attack, but the local white witch Miss Hawthorne (Damaris Hayman) insists there is evil afoot. The BBC are also at this time doing coverage of the excavation of the Devil's hump, an ancient burial ground. Miss Hawthorne also interrupts the broadcast and warns the archaeologist, Professor Horner (Robin Wentworth) that if he opens the tomb then he will bring death and disaster upon the village. The Doctor at this time having been watching the live coverage on TV, decides to go to the dig himself with Jo (Katy Manning, probably looking at her best in this story). On arriving at the dig, the Doctor is too late to stop Horner from opening the tomb and there is a freak gust of snow and ice that blows out of the tomb, apparently killing the Doctor and Professor Horner. The Doctor is soon dug out (or excavated) off the earth and snow and taken to the local pub, the Cloven Hoof, where he lies in a coma.
In the meantime however, a certain familiar looking figure who goes by the name of the Magister, dressed as a Reverend, has been holding ritual ceremonies to try and bring about the appearance of a demon called Azal (Stephen Thorne). This is of course the Master (Roger Delgado) who has been at work trying to raise the demon Azal, who in actual fact is a creature from another world, who has been lying dormant but has been on Earth for over 100,000 years. The Doctor soon recovers from his coma, after a freak heat wave hits the village, and he then explains his theory to the locals, and he is accompanied by Sergeant Benton (John Levine) and Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin). The Doctor tells them that Azal is a daemon from the planet Damos, who came to Earth to try and advance the human race and pass on their knowledge as part of an experiment, however, man is in danger of being destroyed if Azal chooses to. The Master also finally summons Azal and speaks with him, and he asks that Azal pass on his power to him in order to fulfil his desire to rule the Earth. Azal considers this but says there is another one of the Master's race here, referring to the Doctor, he said he will speak with him also before making up his mind, and that he will appear once more, but he says he will either choose to pass on his power or to destroy the Earth.
And another problem arising from these circumstances is that Azal's awakening causes a heat barrier to be place around the village, preventing anyone from leaving the village or from any one to enter it, as the UNIT commander Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) soon finds out when he tries to get to the village. The Doctor contacts the Brigadier and tells him there might be a way for him to gain access to the village, but it will involve building heat exchanger energy machine that will help bypass the barrier, and the Doctor soon comes to the Brig (within resonable distance of the barrier) to help them build it. As this is all going on the Master then through his hypnotic powers of persuasion gets quite a few of the village locals on his side, and to help him with this ritual ceremony in the cavern's of the church, in order to summon Azal once more and so he can control the daemon. The Master soon successfully summons Azal for the last time, just as he does, Jo and Mike enter the cavern and witness Azal grow to huge size right infront of them. The Doctor also manages to get into the cavern and past the Master's gargoyle and heavy Bok (Stanley Mason) whom he has been using throughout the story for his own evil ends. The Doctor once in the cavern confronts the Master and Azal in deciding the fate of the planet.
The Daemons is without a doubt one of Jon Pertwee's best stories, made back in 1971, when the series made the crucial change in tone from the doomish Quatermass style that appeared in Pertwee's first season. The story which was written under the psuedonym of Guy Leopold, was actually written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman, and its a fine example of how good the scripts could be in the show. Letts and Sloman make very clever use of the themes of witchcraft, demonism, religion, faith and duplicity, and I also like how they explain the background of the daemons helping man throughout the ages in advancing their knowledge. You could almost say that the Daemons were babysitters for mankind and they helped instruct them in how to grow, although the Doctor at one point does state to Azal, that thanks to him now man can blow up the world and probably will, which is something Azal says that the planet smells of failure. This ultimately points to man being his own downfall, and to Azal the Earth is just a failed experiment which he is in danger of destroying.
The characters in the show are all well catered for, especially the UNIT members, Benton and Yates, who are given more to do here than usual in a Doctor Who story. Yates and Benton make their way to the village and get tangled up in the choas of what happens there, being beaten, abducted, and giving chase to the baddies. Benton particularly is given plenty to do in helping out Miss Hawthorne, in the church where he beaten up telekinetically on a marked stone, and staving off an attacker in the pub, as well as finally giving in to having a dance with her at the end! It also makes a nice change of pace to have the Brigadier separated from his team, as he goes off to a dinner at the start of the show, but later comes into the show when he is informed that his helicopter has been taken by Yates and Benton, and the heat keeps him apart from the Doctor and the others.
In terms of the performances, the regular cast are on fine form here, Jon Pertwee had wonderfully grown into his part of the Doctor by then and plays him as well in this story as he ever has, and his relationship with Jo has blossomed very nicely by the end of the season. And by then the Doctor and Jo really have formed their partnership well, and Katy Manning, who looks rather fetching in this story (with her outfit, which apparently she didn't like!) over the space of that one season has matured nicely from the young lassie who first stepped into UNIT office, where the Doctor patronisingly said to her "no tea today, thank you!". If there is however on aspect of their relationship that seems a bit off then that is the Doctor's way in which he puts down Jo or puts her in her place quite a bit, like a father telling off their child. This is conveyed in the scene where the Doctor tells the Brigadier how stupid it would be to organise an aerial assault on the barrier surrounding the village, and Jo agrees with the Doctor afterward who says "Jo, the Brigadier is doing his best cope with an almost impossible situation and seeing that he is your superior officer, you should try and show him a little respect." Its like Jo is trying to win over the Doctor's respect but he just rebuffs her and tells her off rather than agrees.
John Levine and Richard Frankling are also both very good in their respective roles of Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates, as they too have comfortably grown into their roles, and they share a nice bit of banter with each other, especially in the scene where Benton moans while watching the TV that his football team lost in the first episode, and he flicks a coin he lost in a bet to Yates. And Roger Delgado as the Master is great as ever in his role as the charming, suave and incredibly evil character, who has a hold over the village and poses as the local reverend, although by then in the 8th season, he had appeared in every single story, so it was no longer much of a surprise when he showed up. Perhaps at the time of the show there was a bit of controversy over the user of the incantations used to raise Azal as they might appear to be a temptation for children to copy (well maybe there wasn't!), but amusingly enough Delgado only really used the nursery rhyme "Mary had a little lamb" backwards, and at one point he even says Damaris Hayman's name backwards when he wards off Azal.
As for the supporting cast Damaris Hayman does fine with her character of Miss Hawthorne, the headstrong and stubborn white witch who forecasts doom and disaster on the village, although her performance is a bit cheesy overall. Stephen Thorne as Azal is quite impressive although his appearance is rather brief as you only really see him in the last episode, but the effects and make-up for his character are actually very good, and yes those are tights he is wearing in the scenes where you see his hooves! The only really silly addition in the cast is Stanley Mason as Bok, the Master's gargoyle, which he uses to bump off the villagers that oppose him, as prances around in the white lycra suit, and the face make-up for Bok appears to have his tounge sticking out for some strange reason!
The story itself has plenty of enjoyable scenes including the scene where the Master tries to persuade the villagers to his way of thinking, the scene where Benton fights of a thug in the cavern and is attack invisibly by an unknown force when he lands on a paving stone. I also quite like the scene where the Doctor is tied up and about to burned alive by the locals for being a "witch" and Miss Hawthorne pretends he is a great magician, and she uses Benton to make it look like the Doctor can use his magic to shatter a street lamp or shoot the weathercock. And there is of course the final confrontation between the Doctor, the Master and Azal, which is well performed. The heatwave barrier effect is also quite well done, and nicely directed, as we see a milkman in his van, jump out as the thunderish noise crashes in and we see his van go up in flames, and later the Brigadier throwing bits of rock or wood at the barrier and it disintegrates. And one of the story's most memorable pieces of dialogue in the story comes from the Brigadier who once he has gotten into the village addresses on one of his soldiers to shoot Bok, "Jenkins, chap with the wings there, five rounds rapid!".
My only slight niggle about the story however is the end where (SPOILER ONCE AGAIN) Azal cannot understand Jo's decision to save the Doctor from being killed by him, by offering herself as a sacrifice instead. The decision seems to totally baffle Azal and send him into self destruct mode, but I suppose that Azal is a creature that only deals in absolutes and can't handle the notion of such an intervention of selfless-ness. But you can't help but think, wait a minute, in order to defeat this guy all we had to do is just confuse him????? And that's it???? Surely we should have thought of that sooner! The resolution of ridding the world of Azal seems just a bit pat and convenient that all it takes is one action to confuse him and that's him taken care of.
As for the DVD extras, there is a very good new documentary, which covers the making of the story, and its revealed the pub, The Cloven Hoof, which in reality was called something else, still have the sign that was outside the pub, which the owners proudly have kept behind the bar. There is also a really funny bit in the documentary where Katy Manning refers to the scene with the Brigadier and Mike Yates, where Mike asks the Brig for a dance who says "I'd rather have a pint", and she said that Nick Courtney at the time said "Well that's settles it, the Brigadier is an alcoholic and Mike Yates is gay!". The DVD commentary of the story itself is also quite enjoyable as some of the cast Katy Manning, Richard Franklin and Damaris Hayman all reminisce of their time making the story.
So the Damons remains a classic Doctor Who story which rightfully remains one of the most fondly remembered from the classic series. And it also reflected the time where the UNIT family was at its peak and one of Jon Pertwee's finest.
And that's it.
Thursday 22 March 2012
The Apprentice returneth
BE AWARE THIS POST HAS SOME SPOILER INFO IN IT!! (That's as if anyone would ever read this!)
So the new series of The Apprentice started last night, and its now into the eighth series of its very popular run, with a whole new bunch of candidates, once again looking to become Lord Sugar's business partner, as apparently they have done away with the "job" from the first six series.
And the first task was to create a small printing business, where they would print their own designs onto savouniers and sell them on to tourists in London. So the guys and gals were split up into their respective sexes (or teams, i.e. guys in one team and gals in the other) with the men naming themselves as team Phoenix, and the girls as team Sterling. The guys team, as usual in the first week had an attack of indecisivenss as to who would be the team leader, so Justin Bieber look-a-like, Nick, put himself forward for that task. And in the girls team, Gabrielle, who looks like the dead spit of Michelle Rodriguez from The Fast and the Furious, lead the task.
The men's team came up with the idea of selling souvenier Teddy bears with the Union Jack logo on them, and bags that simply said "This is a...." with the picture a bus on them, pretty imaginative stuff really! However the girls thankfully had Jade on their side who has been in the printing business and came up with some pretty cool customised logos. But when it came to selling the girls struggled to sell much to the public, and despite doing well at London Zoo, they left their selling in the hands of Bilyana, who made the daft decision to try and sell the remaining stock in shops which were ages away from where they were. When the girls finally managed to get to local shops, they went in as a group and overlwhelmed the shop owner, who was intimidated by their sales technique, and asked them to leave. The men however did quite well with their sales, but the printing on the handbags, was pretty poor at times, and one woman whom they sold to complained that the print had leaked through onto the other bags in the pile she was given, which meant they had to refund her.
And in the boardroom we soon found out who won the task, and (SPOILER!!!!!) despite their pretty banal and obvious choice of design, the guys won the task as they took the most profit. The girls in comparison sold very little and ended up losing the task, and in the boardroom, the team leader Gabrielle took Bilyana and Katie back in with her. In the boardroom, Gabrielle said that while she was not present with the other team mates she had brought in, the feedback she got from the others in the team were not so good. Bilyana did of course argue with the other team mates when they were out trying to sell on the streets, and she also wasted alot of time looking around for shops, but Katie apparently didn't do much at all except stand around and wait for things to do, which she mostly didn't. And it looked to me like Katie would have been the favourite to go, but she did ask for Lord Sugar to give her another chance, which threw her a life line, and ultimately it was Bilyana who's refusal to shut up when Lord Sugar told her to, that cost her place in the process.
To be honest I think Lord Sugar made the right decision, and it is difficult to make the choice of who's to go in the first week, when no one really knows anybody yet, but Bilyana did appear to be the sort of girl who doesn't really listen to anyone, and I'm sure Lord Sugar wouldn't want to do business with someone like that. As for Katie, I am surprised that people like her apply for the show as no doubt when you go on The Apprentice there will be a lot of loud voices and big personalities to work with, so you have to shout to be heard at times. Anyway for now she has been given another chance so we will see if Katie improves in the following weeks.
As for the guys so far, most of them seem fairly grounded, but no doubt I'm sure there will be a couple of egocentric numpties in there just waiting to be found. Although out the lot of them black guy Duane, appears to be the most savy of them from what little I've seen in the show, but its way too early to tell who out of who is the best. And last year's winner Tom, seemed the most unlikely to win especially as he was a bit out of his depth in leading a team, but in the end he was a very creative guy with ideas for inventions, and its all about going into business, so as the series unravels we will find out who's who.
Right on that note I'll leave it there for now, until the next episode.
So the new series of The Apprentice started last night, and its now into the eighth series of its very popular run, with a whole new bunch of candidates, once again looking to become Lord Sugar's business partner, as apparently they have done away with the "job" from the first six series.
And the first task was to create a small printing business, where they would print their own designs onto savouniers and sell them on to tourists in London. So the guys and gals were split up into their respective sexes (or teams, i.e. guys in one team and gals in the other) with the men naming themselves as team Phoenix, and the girls as team Sterling. The guys team, as usual in the first week had an attack of indecisivenss as to who would be the team leader, so Justin Bieber look-a-like, Nick, put himself forward for that task. And in the girls team, Gabrielle, who looks like the dead spit of Michelle Rodriguez from The Fast and the Furious, lead the task.
The men's team came up with the idea of selling souvenier Teddy bears with the Union Jack logo on them, and bags that simply said "This is a...." with the picture a bus on them, pretty imaginative stuff really! However the girls thankfully had Jade on their side who has been in the printing business and came up with some pretty cool customised logos. But when it came to selling the girls struggled to sell much to the public, and despite doing well at London Zoo, they left their selling in the hands of Bilyana, who made the daft decision to try and sell the remaining stock in shops which were ages away from where they were. When the girls finally managed to get to local shops, they went in as a group and overlwhelmed the shop owner, who was intimidated by their sales technique, and asked them to leave. The men however did quite well with their sales, but the printing on the handbags, was pretty poor at times, and one woman whom they sold to complained that the print had leaked through onto the other bags in the pile she was given, which meant they had to refund her.
And in the boardroom we soon found out who won the task, and (SPOILER!!!!!) despite their pretty banal and obvious choice of design, the guys won the task as they took the most profit. The girls in comparison sold very little and ended up losing the task, and in the boardroom, the team leader Gabrielle took Bilyana and Katie back in with her. In the boardroom, Gabrielle said that while she was not present with the other team mates she had brought in, the feedback she got from the others in the team were not so good. Bilyana did of course argue with the other team mates when they were out trying to sell on the streets, and she also wasted alot of time looking around for shops, but Katie apparently didn't do much at all except stand around and wait for things to do, which she mostly didn't. And it looked to me like Katie would have been the favourite to go, but she did ask for Lord Sugar to give her another chance, which threw her a life line, and ultimately it was Bilyana who's refusal to shut up when Lord Sugar told her to, that cost her place in the process.
To be honest I think Lord Sugar made the right decision, and it is difficult to make the choice of who's to go in the first week, when no one really knows anybody yet, but Bilyana did appear to be the sort of girl who doesn't really listen to anyone, and I'm sure Lord Sugar wouldn't want to do business with someone like that. As for Katie, I am surprised that people like her apply for the show as no doubt when you go on The Apprentice there will be a lot of loud voices and big personalities to work with, so you have to shout to be heard at times. Anyway for now she has been given another chance so we will see if Katie improves in the following weeks.
As for the guys so far, most of them seem fairly grounded, but no doubt I'm sure there will be a couple of egocentric numpties in there just waiting to be found. Although out the lot of them black guy Duane, appears to be the most savy of them from what little I've seen in the show, but its way too early to tell who out of who is the best. And last year's winner Tom, seemed the most unlikely to win especially as he was a bit out of his depth in leading a team, but in the end he was a very creative guy with ideas for inventions, and its all about going into business, so as the series unravels we will find out who's who.
Right on that note I'll leave it there for now, until the next episode.
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Guess who's coming to the party....
Last night I went to see STG's (Strathclyde Theatre Group) latest production, which was of the classic 1970s comedy-drama Abigail's Party. This is a play I am very familiar with myself as I appeared in a production of it with my old drama group The Patter Merchants, which was nearly three years ago. So here's my thoughts on STG's production and bit more about the plot.
The play starts with a middle aged couple, Beverly Moss (played by Angela Strachan) and Laurance Moss (Donald Munro) who are having a drinks party for their new neighbours. Beverley is a rather domineering and controlling woman, and a bit of a flirt, while Laurence is an uptight workaholic estate agent, who is always out working (probably to avoid his wife!). Their neighbours are a young couple, Angela (Jennifer Ann Watt) and Tony (Nick Jones), who Beverley warmly greets, while Laurence superficially polite but at the same time quite dismissive of them. Angela is quite a sweet natured by somewhat naive and socially tactless young woman, who at certain points says the wrong things which offends her gruff and not so talkative husband Tony. Beverly also invites around their next door neighbour Susan (Judith Hastie) who is a rather reserved woman, who he is a recent divorcee and her daughter Abigail, is having a party next door. After the initial socially awkward initial conversation, the night soon unravels as the drink flows and things slowly but surely (as Laurnce would say!) get out of hand.
Abigail's Party is without a classic play and definitely one of my favourites, which I have very fond memories of myself from the production I was involved in, where I played Laurence (I also had to grow a tache for it too!). And STG have done a fine job in realising the play, and I really liked how they used their venue, the Brunswick Hotel, as they used the upper rooms in the Penthouse suite, and the set and props were all great, they even had a terrific old style music system with record player and tape player built in! Peter Lamb, the director, who I know quite well, has done a really good job with the play and staging, and nicely brought the differences in class, with Beverly and Laurene aspiring to be upper-middle class, while Angela and Tony appears as lower middle class. The social awkwardness of the play is one of the key elements as well and I thought that they conveyed that very well throughout.
Performance wise, the cast were all very good, and each part was very well cast too. Angela Strachan as Beverly, is essentially perfect for the role (although I couldn't help notice that she kept referring to her script which she held throughout!), as she played her with an almost predatory quality, who acts as the bubbly host, but at the same time she forcefully foists her opinions on her guests. Beverley also throughout keeps forcing her guests to have more drinks, and even for Angela and Tony to have cigarettes despite the fact they are trying to give up. Beverly also frequently argues with her husband Laurence, and while Laurence tries to have his say Beverly ultimately is the one in charge. Donald Munro as Laurence was excellent as he really conveyed Laurence's snobbish qualities, and unlike me he played the part a little more relaxed than I did, which I thought was a nice spin, rather than him being a neurotic mess. Jennifer Ann Watt was also really good as Angela, as she conveyed her sweet and naive nature very well, and she wore a great garish 70s outfit. Nick Jones too did a good job as the quiet and somewhat quick-tempered Tony, although his voice seemed to be at a louder register than everyone elses in the cast. And then there is Judith Hastie, who I knew quite well from my days in the Patter Merchants and from acting classes, and Judith was great as Susan, playing her as a rather mousy and polite woman, but basically would rather not be at the party, especially as the circumstances of the play worsen as they go on.
Mind you if I had to pick one or two negative qualities from the production then it would have to be that possibly at times, the play lacked a bit of pace at times. Also as I mentioned the actress Angela Strachan, while she had Beverly down pat, she clearly kept referring to her script, and while she was able to do this in an unobtrusive way, as a performer you really should know your lines inside and out by the time you are ready to go on and perform. And just maybe the play was a little low-key in its energy too, as I remember in the Patter Merchants production we all gave it laldy when he had too, and the climax where we are all frantic and screaming the house down. But in a way that's not a bad thing, as that's maybe one thing we could have done differently in our production at the time, probably brought down the hysteria and loudness a bit.
Regardless of all that, STG did a fine job with a classic play, and I wish them the best for the rest of the play's run.
The play starts with a middle aged couple, Beverly Moss (played by Angela Strachan) and Laurance Moss (Donald Munro) who are having a drinks party for their new neighbours. Beverley is a rather domineering and controlling woman, and a bit of a flirt, while Laurence is an uptight workaholic estate agent, who is always out working (probably to avoid his wife!). Their neighbours are a young couple, Angela (Jennifer Ann Watt) and Tony (Nick Jones), who Beverley warmly greets, while Laurence superficially polite but at the same time quite dismissive of them. Angela is quite a sweet natured by somewhat naive and socially tactless young woman, who at certain points says the wrong things which offends her gruff and not so talkative husband Tony. Beverly also invites around their next door neighbour Susan (Judith Hastie) who is a rather reserved woman, who he is a recent divorcee and her daughter Abigail, is having a party next door. After the initial socially awkward initial conversation, the night soon unravels as the drink flows and things slowly but surely (as Laurnce would say!) get out of hand.
Abigail's Party is without a classic play and definitely one of my favourites, which I have very fond memories of myself from the production I was involved in, where I played Laurence (I also had to grow a tache for it too!). And STG have done a fine job in realising the play, and I really liked how they used their venue, the Brunswick Hotel, as they used the upper rooms in the Penthouse suite, and the set and props were all great, they even had a terrific old style music system with record player and tape player built in! Peter Lamb, the director, who I know quite well, has done a really good job with the play and staging, and nicely brought the differences in class, with Beverly and Laurene aspiring to be upper-middle class, while Angela and Tony appears as lower middle class. The social awkwardness of the play is one of the key elements as well and I thought that they conveyed that very well throughout.
Performance wise, the cast were all very good, and each part was very well cast too. Angela Strachan as Beverly, is essentially perfect for the role (although I couldn't help notice that she kept referring to her script which she held throughout!), as she played her with an almost predatory quality, who acts as the bubbly host, but at the same time she forcefully foists her opinions on her guests. Beverley also throughout keeps forcing her guests to have more drinks, and even for Angela and Tony to have cigarettes despite the fact they are trying to give up. Beverly also frequently argues with her husband Laurence, and while Laurence tries to have his say Beverly ultimately is the one in charge. Donald Munro as Laurence was excellent as he really conveyed Laurence's snobbish qualities, and unlike me he played the part a little more relaxed than I did, which I thought was a nice spin, rather than him being a neurotic mess. Jennifer Ann Watt was also really good as Angela, as she conveyed her sweet and naive nature very well, and she wore a great garish 70s outfit. Nick Jones too did a good job as the quiet and somewhat quick-tempered Tony, although his voice seemed to be at a louder register than everyone elses in the cast. And then there is Judith Hastie, who I knew quite well from my days in the Patter Merchants and from acting classes, and Judith was great as Susan, playing her as a rather mousy and polite woman, but basically would rather not be at the party, especially as the circumstances of the play worsen as they go on.
Mind you if I had to pick one or two negative qualities from the production then it would have to be that possibly at times, the play lacked a bit of pace at times. Also as I mentioned the actress Angela Strachan, while she had Beverly down pat, she clearly kept referring to her script, and while she was able to do this in an unobtrusive way, as a performer you really should know your lines inside and out by the time you are ready to go on and perform. And just maybe the play was a little low-key in its energy too, as I remember in the Patter Merchants production we all gave it laldy when he had too, and the climax where we are all frantic and screaming the house down. But in a way that's not a bad thing, as that's maybe one thing we could have done differently in our production at the time, probably brought down the hysteria and loudness a bit.
Regardless of all that, STG did a fine job with a classic play, and I wish them the best for the rest of the play's run.
Monday 19 March 2012
Throwing the dice
Right OK for another change I thought I would do another film critique, analysis etc thingy. This time around I have chosen to look at another Martin Scorsese film Casino which was released back in 1995, and again Marty collaborated with Nicholas Pillegi, who co-wrote the screenplay with him for Goodfellas, as well as the book of the same on which the film is based.
Casino is based on true life events and starts back in the 1970s where Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a sports handicapper who is associated with the mob, is sent to Las Vegas and asked to run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by the Teamsters (the American labour union). At first Sam refuses but is soon persuaded into doing it by one of the mob's associates Andy Stone (Alan King). Once Sam takes over the casino he uses his expert innovations and experience in book making and gambling to double the casino's profits. The mob who are running the casino in the background, at the same time are doing a skim on the casino's profits, and the bosses send out Sam's friend and Caporegime Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his crew to Las Vegas, in order to protect the mob's interests in the casino. However as things progress Nicky lets himself known in town and around the casinos, and before he knows it, he is banned from the casino or any casino in Las Vegas. Meanwhile this happens Sam starts seeing a female hustler, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) whom he falls in love with, however Ginger doesn't feel that way about Sam. Regardless of that, Sam persuades Ginger into marrying him and promises to set her up for live by giving her a joint account where she will have over 2 million dollars to her name. After they marry however things start to crumble as Ginger still hangs around with her ex-boyfriend and pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods). On finding this out Sam sends Nicky's men to beat up Lester, which horrifies Ginger who then resents Sam for his actions, and she starts to confide in Nicky, although she isn't aware of his involvement in the incident.
While this is all going on, Sam although he is running the casino he hasn't officially filed for a licence, and he has been re-naming his job title in order to avoid attracting attention toward this. But soon after Sam fires one of his employees Don Ward for incompetence, Don's brother Patt Webb (L.Q. Jones) comes to see Sam about it and asks that he hire Don back, but Sam refuses. Webb though however is a county commissioner and he soon finds out through the newspapers that Sam has stated he is the boss of the Tangiers in Las Vegas, he then asks that an investigation take place to see if Sam has filed for a licence or not. This leads to further complications as on the day of Sam's trial hearing for presenting his case to petition for a licence, he is denied in the hearing, which leaves Sam outraged. Sam also soon after deliberately raises as much media attention about his case as possible by going on TV, with a live show from the Tangiers, which has guest stars etc. The mob realise that this is pissing off friends of theirs in business, send Andy Stone to talk to Sam, who tells him he should quit the job, but Sam insists he can't, but rather he wishes that Nicky would take a break and leave for a while. On hearing this, Nicky is furious and sets up a meeting out in the desert with Sam, where he confronts him and tells him "You're warned, don't you ever go over my fucking head again, you motherfucker you!!".
By this time, Nicky has brought alot of heat on himself with the Las Vegas police force who were once co-operative with the casino officials and mob associates, are now so pissed off they want to nail him for anything they can. Nicky is also determined to plant his own flag out in Vegas and to go after everything, the skim, the casino, his old bosses back home including Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano) who is the most powerful boss in the crime family. But Nicky in bringing heat on himself, he allows himself to become sloppy and disorganised, as he and his crew get all hopped up on drink and cocaine. Sam's relationship with Ginger has also deteriorated really badly as well by then, as by this time she has become an alcoholic. Ginger also goes to Nicky for help in order to try and get her money that she and Sam placed in the bank, and at this time they begin having an affair behind Sam's back. Sam however soon finds out, and is horrified as he knows if word of the affair gets back to the mob bosses, they will be all killed, as its bad for business.
As the film nears the end, events spiral even further out of control, as Ginger has a wild row with Sam at a restaurant after she has tied up their daughter at home. When they go home Ginger storms out on Sam, and comes back in the morning, ramming her car up the drive and screaming hysterically at Sam to come out the house to confront her. By then the police arrive and calm down Ginger, who asks to go in and get some of her stuff, but she actually goes in to get the key for safe deposit box at the bank, containing her and Sam's money. Ginger manages to get to the bank and takes some of the money from deposit box, but soon after leaving she is arrested by the FBI. And the film culminates with the FBI coming down on the mob associates, having gathered evidence through wire taps, making arrests on many of the crime associates and other people involved in the skim. The mob also make their own moves on "silencing" any one who has been arrested or may have skipped before being caught, which leads to the downfall of the mob's involvement with the casinos.
Casino is an even more ambitious film than Goodfellas is, however in terms of critical acclaim, Goodfellas has always remained the more lauded of the two, and it appears that Casino will always play second fiddle to Scorsese's first crime drama. But for me I really don't see it that way, and if anything is possibly even a better film, as it covers so much more ground and scope than Goodfellas did. It was always pretty much a well known fact that the mob had ties with the casinos back in those days, but despite being the obvious, as usual Scorsese takes this subject matter and turns it into a gripping and highly entertaining film. Like he did in Goodfellas, Scorsese heavily uses the narrative in the film here, and he constantly has Sam and Nicky narrate the film, and there is even a short passage with Frank Vincent narrating too (who plays one of Nicky's crime associates, Frank Marino). And it never hinders the film, in fact it really plays a crucial part in the film and keeps the story flowing nicely. And one of the neatest touches in the narrative is the scene where Nicky finally meets his demise in the cornfields at the end and as his crew mate Frank Marino hits him with a baseball bat, Nicky's narration cuts off with an "aghhh!". It also helps to have Pesci in the film right up until the end as he carries a fair amount of the film's energy, like he did in Goodfellas, so it was great that he is in it throughout.
Character wise, Casino rarely has any sympathetic characters in it at all, in fact they are all mostly fairly despicable, and Sam himself is such an arrogant obssessive control freak, that its hard to like him. However Sam is not without his redeeming qualities, as he clearly loved Ginger, and he wanted his marriage to work, and you do feel a bit of sympathy for him when he realises how he could never reach her, and how the weight of managing the casino takes it toll on him. Sam also comes across as a good father to his daughter, Sammie, and this is clearly shown in a couple of scenes. Ginger is even less likeable, as she too is massively self-absorbed in her own greed and marries Sam merely as a forced convenience so she can eventually get her hands on his money. And in a way that's probably one of the film's lesser aspects is that Sam and Ginger's relationship is a forced one, and Sam's love is very much unrequieted, unlike in Goodfellas where Henry and Karen Hill both loved each other as a couple, despite their differences. The character that is actually easier to empathise with is the one character you probably shouldn't and this is Nicky, and its probably morely because he is a married man with a family, and he has a son, little Nicky, and we see Nicky's humanity come out in certain scenes in the film, particularly where he makes breakfast for his son every morning, no matter what he was up to. As a bad guy, while he is pretty vicious, and he has his fair share of vicious scenes in Casino, Nicky also displays some shreds of decency, one being where he has one of the rival mob guy's beaten to a pulp, as the guy refuses to talk, Nicky has the man's head stuck in a vise, where he pleads with the man and says "don't make me do this, come on, don't make me be a bad guy". And that's difference between Tommy in Goodfellas and Nicky in Casino, you really don't give a shit about Tommy, as he is a bad seed, with no family, and he cares about no one or nothing.
Performance wise, Casino is pretty much top drawer, with Robert De Niro giving an excellent performance as Sam Rothstein, who was in reality based on Franky "Lefty" Rosenthal, who was a sports better for the mob. De Niro's take on Sam is that he is an arrogant twat, who bosses around everyone in the film, hires and fires staff at the drop of a hat, and while he is quite controlling of Ginger at times, you do realise he does lover her, and that he is driven crazy her. Sharon Stone also gives a really good performance as Ginger, and while she rarely suceeds in portraying Ginger with any sense of empathy or much in the way of likeability, (well you can't really), she does a great job in showing what a car wreck of a person Ginger is. In fact Sharon's best scenes in the film come when she shows Ginger's vulnerability, when confiding to Nicky (whereafter she blows him! ;-), and also her blind rage when confronting Sam near the end of the film, crashing her car out in their drive, she berates him and throws leaves and grass at him, which is great. I also particularly liked that scene because Sharon when she gets out the car, she slams the door and falls on the ground, but I'm not so sure if that was a mistake or not, but either way it works.
But the film's best performance once again is from Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro (based on real life capo Tony "The Ant" Spilotro), and Pesci does a superb job, playing yet another gangster, but with a different slant as I already said above, he isn't just a wild loose canon (well he is) but he also is a family man as well, which helps bring out some shades of humanity in his character. Pesci also has some great dialogue in the film, and he of course delivers some of the best lines, one of my favourites is when he speaks to a gambling loser at a bar who owes him money, and he says to him "You call yourself a man???? Do you know that you are a lying low-life motherfuckin gambling degenerate prick???!". He also bluntly and rather unflatteringly refers to Sam as the "golden jew" which in itself a real insult but he delivers the dialogue so well you just have to love it, as well as calling Arabs "sand niggers". And one of Pesci's best moments is at near the very end (PLOIT SPOILER AGAIN!!!) where he meets his fate and is brutally beaten near to death with baseballs bats and buried alive in a corn field, as he watches his brother being beaten to a pulp he breaks down and sobs, and its almost like he there and then wants to receive forgiveness for his sins. Its also the film's most uncomfortable and unpleasant scene to watch, and while it isn't quite apparently what happened in real life, as in real life, it was said that Tony Spilotro and his brother were in fact executed in a basement, and then buried out in a grave. The violence in the film itself is of course quite strong and bloody, but it is what you would expect from a Scorsese film, which is nothing too new in itself.
The supporting cast all excellent as well, and Don Riccles, a well established American comedian, puts in a fine performance playing the straight man for once, as Billy Sherbert the casino manager. Frank Vincent also does really well as Frank Marino, one of Nicky's main crime partners, and this time around after playing Billy Batts in Goodfellas, who get's brutally murdered by Joe Pesci's character Tommy, Frank gets revenge on Pesci's character Nicky, by being his own nemesis. James Woods is terrific in a small role too, as Lester Diamond, the lowlife pimp who Ginger can't seem to leave behind, and Woods himself delivers one of my favourite lines in the film, as he bitches to Ginger about her daughter Amy who winds him up, "I'm going to send this kid to Bolivia in a fucking box!!". And as usual even Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine Scorsese gets involved in the film, playing the mother of an incompetent mob boss, Artie Piscano (played by Vinny Vella), and the two of them almost have a little comedy duet going on, where she chastises her son for using bad language, and he keeps swearing.
Moving onto the music in Casino, which again plays a integral part of the film, and Scorsese makes great use of old classic tracks from bands such as The Rolling Stones, Devo, Roxy Music, Nilsson, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Crean and Otis Redding. My favourite use of a track in the film comes in the scene where Nicky kills off one of the mob's problems, a real-estate agent Anna Scott, and the track which I don't know the name of, is a cheery organ number, which offsets the murder scene itself. I also like the use of The Animals "House of the Rising Sun", which acts perfectly as a moral foreboding as the events of the film unravel at the end, with all the mob associates being arrested by the FBI, or being bumped off.
Soooooo after that pretty exhaustive analysis on Casino, I still rate it as one of my favourite films from American cinema in recent years, and it definitely deserves its place in the epic crime dramas from the last 30 or 40 years.
And I will it leave it there.
Casino is based on true life events and starts back in the 1970s where Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a sports handicapper who is associated with the mob, is sent to Las Vegas and asked to run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by the Teamsters (the American labour union). At first Sam refuses but is soon persuaded into doing it by one of the mob's associates Andy Stone (Alan King). Once Sam takes over the casino he uses his expert innovations and experience in book making and gambling to double the casino's profits. The mob who are running the casino in the background, at the same time are doing a skim on the casino's profits, and the bosses send out Sam's friend and Caporegime Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his crew to Las Vegas, in order to protect the mob's interests in the casino. However as things progress Nicky lets himself known in town and around the casinos, and before he knows it, he is banned from the casino or any casino in Las Vegas. Meanwhile this happens Sam starts seeing a female hustler, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) whom he falls in love with, however Ginger doesn't feel that way about Sam. Regardless of that, Sam persuades Ginger into marrying him and promises to set her up for live by giving her a joint account where she will have over 2 million dollars to her name. After they marry however things start to crumble as Ginger still hangs around with her ex-boyfriend and pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods). On finding this out Sam sends Nicky's men to beat up Lester, which horrifies Ginger who then resents Sam for his actions, and she starts to confide in Nicky, although she isn't aware of his involvement in the incident.
While this is all going on, Sam although he is running the casino he hasn't officially filed for a licence, and he has been re-naming his job title in order to avoid attracting attention toward this. But soon after Sam fires one of his employees Don Ward for incompetence, Don's brother Patt Webb (L.Q. Jones) comes to see Sam about it and asks that he hire Don back, but Sam refuses. Webb though however is a county commissioner and he soon finds out through the newspapers that Sam has stated he is the boss of the Tangiers in Las Vegas, he then asks that an investigation take place to see if Sam has filed for a licence or not. This leads to further complications as on the day of Sam's trial hearing for presenting his case to petition for a licence, he is denied in the hearing, which leaves Sam outraged. Sam also soon after deliberately raises as much media attention about his case as possible by going on TV, with a live show from the Tangiers, which has guest stars etc. The mob realise that this is pissing off friends of theirs in business, send Andy Stone to talk to Sam, who tells him he should quit the job, but Sam insists he can't, but rather he wishes that Nicky would take a break and leave for a while. On hearing this, Nicky is furious and sets up a meeting out in the desert with Sam, where he confronts him and tells him "You're warned, don't you ever go over my fucking head again, you motherfucker you!!".
By this time, Nicky has brought alot of heat on himself with the Las Vegas police force who were once co-operative with the casino officials and mob associates, are now so pissed off they want to nail him for anything they can. Nicky is also determined to plant his own flag out in Vegas and to go after everything, the skim, the casino, his old bosses back home including Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano) who is the most powerful boss in the crime family. But Nicky in bringing heat on himself, he allows himself to become sloppy and disorganised, as he and his crew get all hopped up on drink and cocaine. Sam's relationship with Ginger has also deteriorated really badly as well by then, as by this time she has become an alcoholic. Ginger also goes to Nicky for help in order to try and get her money that she and Sam placed in the bank, and at this time they begin having an affair behind Sam's back. Sam however soon finds out, and is horrified as he knows if word of the affair gets back to the mob bosses, they will be all killed, as its bad for business.
As the film nears the end, events spiral even further out of control, as Ginger has a wild row with Sam at a restaurant after she has tied up their daughter at home. When they go home Ginger storms out on Sam, and comes back in the morning, ramming her car up the drive and screaming hysterically at Sam to come out the house to confront her. By then the police arrive and calm down Ginger, who asks to go in and get some of her stuff, but she actually goes in to get the key for safe deposit box at the bank, containing her and Sam's money. Ginger manages to get to the bank and takes some of the money from deposit box, but soon after leaving she is arrested by the FBI. And the film culminates with the FBI coming down on the mob associates, having gathered evidence through wire taps, making arrests on many of the crime associates and other people involved in the skim. The mob also make their own moves on "silencing" any one who has been arrested or may have skipped before being caught, which leads to the downfall of the mob's involvement with the casinos.
Casino is an even more ambitious film than Goodfellas is, however in terms of critical acclaim, Goodfellas has always remained the more lauded of the two, and it appears that Casino will always play second fiddle to Scorsese's first crime drama. But for me I really don't see it that way, and if anything is possibly even a better film, as it covers so much more ground and scope than Goodfellas did. It was always pretty much a well known fact that the mob had ties with the casinos back in those days, but despite being the obvious, as usual Scorsese takes this subject matter and turns it into a gripping and highly entertaining film. Like he did in Goodfellas, Scorsese heavily uses the narrative in the film here, and he constantly has Sam and Nicky narrate the film, and there is even a short passage with Frank Vincent narrating too (who plays one of Nicky's crime associates, Frank Marino). And it never hinders the film, in fact it really plays a crucial part in the film and keeps the story flowing nicely. And one of the neatest touches in the narrative is the scene where Nicky finally meets his demise in the cornfields at the end and as his crew mate Frank Marino hits him with a baseball bat, Nicky's narration cuts off with an "aghhh!". It also helps to have Pesci in the film right up until the end as he carries a fair amount of the film's energy, like he did in Goodfellas, so it was great that he is in it throughout.
Character wise, Casino rarely has any sympathetic characters in it at all, in fact they are all mostly fairly despicable, and Sam himself is such an arrogant obssessive control freak, that its hard to like him. However Sam is not without his redeeming qualities, as he clearly loved Ginger, and he wanted his marriage to work, and you do feel a bit of sympathy for him when he realises how he could never reach her, and how the weight of managing the casino takes it toll on him. Sam also comes across as a good father to his daughter, Sammie, and this is clearly shown in a couple of scenes. Ginger is even less likeable, as she too is massively self-absorbed in her own greed and marries Sam merely as a forced convenience so she can eventually get her hands on his money. And in a way that's probably one of the film's lesser aspects is that Sam and Ginger's relationship is a forced one, and Sam's love is very much unrequieted, unlike in Goodfellas where Henry and Karen Hill both loved each other as a couple, despite their differences. The character that is actually easier to empathise with is the one character you probably shouldn't and this is Nicky, and its probably morely because he is a married man with a family, and he has a son, little Nicky, and we see Nicky's humanity come out in certain scenes in the film, particularly where he makes breakfast for his son every morning, no matter what he was up to. As a bad guy, while he is pretty vicious, and he has his fair share of vicious scenes in Casino, Nicky also displays some shreds of decency, one being where he has one of the rival mob guy's beaten to a pulp, as the guy refuses to talk, Nicky has the man's head stuck in a vise, where he pleads with the man and says "don't make me do this, come on, don't make me be a bad guy". And that's difference between Tommy in Goodfellas and Nicky in Casino, you really don't give a shit about Tommy, as he is a bad seed, with no family, and he cares about no one or nothing.
Performance wise, Casino is pretty much top drawer, with Robert De Niro giving an excellent performance as Sam Rothstein, who was in reality based on Franky "Lefty" Rosenthal, who was a sports better for the mob. De Niro's take on Sam is that he is an arrogant twat, who bosses around everyone in the film, hires and fires staff at the drop of a hat, and while he is quite controlling of Ginger at times, you do realise he does lover her, and that he is driven crazy her. Sharon Stone also gives a really good performance as Ginger, and while she rarely suceeds in portraying Ginger with any sense of empathy or much in the way of likeability, (well you can't really), she does a great job in showing what a car wreck of a person Ginger is. In fact Sharon's best scenes in the film come when she shows Ginger's vulnerability, when confiding to Nicky (whereafter she blows him! ;-), and also her blind rage when confronting Sam near the end of the film, crashing her car out in their drive, she berates him and throws leaves and grass at him, which is great. I also particularly liked that scene because Sharon when she gets out the car, she slams the door and falls on the ground, but I'm not so sure if that was a mistake or not, but either way it works.
But the film's best performance once again is from Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro (based on real life capo Tony "The Ant" Spilotro), and Pesci does a superb job, playing yet another gangster, but with a different slant as I already said above, he isn't just a wild loose canon (well he is) but he also is a family man as well, which helps bring out some shades of humanity in his character. Pesci also has some great dialogue in the film, and he of course delivers some of the best lines, one of my favourites is when he speaks to a gambling loser at a bar who owes him money, and he says to him "You call yourself a man???? Do you know that you are a lying low-life motherfuckin gambling degenerate prick???!". He also bluntly and rather unflatteringly refers to Sam as the "golden jew" which in itself a real insult but he delivers the dialogue so well you just have to love it, as well as calling Arabs "sand niggers". And one of Pesci's best moments is at near the very end (PLOIT SPOILER AGAIN!!!) where he meets his fate and is brutally beaten near to death with baseballs bats and buried alive in a corn field, as he watches his brother being beaten to a pulp he breaks down and sobs, and its almost like he there and then wants to receive forgiveness for his sins. Its also the film's most uncomfortable and unpleasant scene to watch, and while it isn't quite apparently what happened in real life, as in real life, it was said that Tony Spilotro and his brother were in fact executed in a basement, and then buried out in a grave. The violence in the film itself is of course quite strong and bloody, but it is what you would expect from a Scorsese film, which is nothing too new in itself.
The supporting cast all excellent as well, and Don Riccles, a well established American comedian, puts in a fine performance playing the straight man for once, as Billy Sherbert the casino manager. Frank Vincent also does really well as Frank Marino, one of Nicky's main crime partners, and this time around after playing Billy Batts in Goodfellas, who get's brutally murdered by Joe Pesci's character Tommy, Frank gets revenge on Pesci's character Nicky, by being his own nemesis. James Woods is terrific in a small role too, as Lester Diamond, the lowlife pimp who Ginger can't seem to leave behind, and Woods himself delivers one of my favourite lines in the film, as he bitches to Ginger about her daughter Amy who winds him up, "I'm going to send this kid to Bolivia in a fucking box!!". And as usual even Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine Scorsese gets involved in the film, playing the mother of an incompetent mob boss, Artie Piscano (played by Vinny Vella), and the two of them almost have a little comedy duet going on, where she chastises her son for using bad language, and he keeps swearing.
Moving onto the music in Casino, which again plays a integral part of the film, and Scorsese makes great use of old classic tracks from bands such as The Rolling Stones, Devo, Roxy Music, Nilsson, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Crean and Otis Redding. My favourite use of a track in the film comes in the scene where Nicky kills off one of the mob's problems, a real-estate agent Anna Scott, and the track which I don't know the name of, is a cheery organ number, which offsets the murder scene itself. I also like the use of The Animals "House of the Rising Sun", which acts perfectly as a moral foreboding as the events of the film unravel at the end, with all the mob associates being arrested by the FBI, or being bumped off.
Soooooo after that pretty exhaustive analysis on Casino, I still rate it as one of my favourite films from American cinema in recent years, and it definitely deserves its place in the epic crime dramas from the last 30 or 40 years.
And I will it leave it there.
Arkham City
OK just for a change I thought I would post up about something else completely different and its...... the video game Batman Arkham City, which I recently finished on the PC. Being a bit of a gamer I quite like playing a few games now and then, and I've spent the last few months mucking about with my PC trying to optimise it a bit more, by chopping and changing hardware. I must admit though I have been doing this way too much lately, and I have finally grinded to a halt with the upgrading, which is just as well since I am currently out of work.
But anyway here is more about the game itself, as the plot focuses on Bruce Wayne (voiced by Kevin Conroy, who previously did Arkham Asylum)) at the start of the game being captured by the villanous Hugo Strange (Corey Burton), and left at the mercy of the prison population of Arkham City. Arkham City itself is a section of Gotham City that has been closed off and populated by the low life, criminals and other villains that inhabit or inhabited Gotham. Wayne is left to the limited mercy of the Penguin, but he manages to escape and climbs to the rooftops where he contacts his butler Alfred, who sends him a package with his batman suit. Wayne puts on his Batman outfit and then scouts Arkham City to try and locate Catwoman (Grey DeLisle) who has been captured by Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (Troy Baker). Batman soon finds Catwoman and rescues her from Two Face who he ties up over a pit of acid and leaves him there, but at this point a bullet is fired at Catwoman, which misses. Batman then scans and analyses the trajectory of the bullet to where it came from, and soon finds out that the Joker was behind the assassination. Batman on tracking down the Joker finds out that his arch-villain has been infected with a compound known as Titan that is slowly killing him, and Joker captures Batman and straps him to a chair, wired up to a drip which Joker has injected his blood into Batman. Joker then kicks Batman through a window, who now has to try and find a cure, as he too will die if he doesn't. Batman then tries to locate Freeze, who he believes may have the cure for the Titan virus, but after a battle between the two, Freeze tells him there is no known cure, but there is one hope that if he can mix a compound which he created with an old foe of Batman's, Ra's Al Ghul, then he might have a chance to survive. In the meantime Hugo Strange is planning on using his Titan compound to wipe out the population of Arkham City, which he calls Protocol 10. So Batman has to both try and find the cure for the Titan formulae and stop Protocol 10 from happening.
Batman Arkham City is a terrific follow up to the excellent Batman Arkham Asylum, and it features a great cast of villains and colourful characters. The voice acting here is top notch, with Kevin Conroy giving a fine performance as Batman, and he always plays the dark knight with such great confidence, and at times he sounds almost arrogant. Mark Hamill also makes a great return as the demented and villaneous Joker, and plays the character with usual amount of insane glee and viciousness. It also highlights what a good actor Mark Hamill really is, and how underrated he is as a performer, whether he is on screen or behind it. The other voice actors are also very good, although I'm kind of surprised that they always seem to go for making a few of the villains with English accents, such as the Penguin and Freeze. The plot is also really compelling and it keeps you interested in what is going on, and it helps with the voice acting being of such a high calibre.
Gameplay wise, Arkham City is superb, as the controls are very easy to use and the combat system is great, with a whole variety of upgrades available for Batman, including gadgets as well as new combat moves and combos. You also get to play as Catwoman, which isn't too bad either, as its not bad watching a saucy looking video game character, with a great butt in leather running round the rooftops. However one gripe I had about the controls was the use of Batman's gliding and using the dive bomb move, this was especially really annoying to use in the fantasy scene where Batman has to follow Ra's Al Ghul through his virtual reality world, because if you touch any part of the world you die, and I kept dying over and over, trying to get use to the dive bomb mode!! But that's about my only real grip about the game.
Graphically the game is also great, and the environments are beautifully realised with great detail, however I did find the game was a bit jittery and buggy now and then on the PC. Being a new release, it also features DirectX 11 enhancements such as texturing and tessellation (which basically means texturing of shapes leaving no gaps, such as honeycombs and tiling). But I did find these to be quite buggy aswell, so I turned off the Directx 11 features, and it runs much smoother without them from what I heard. With updated drivers this will no longer be a problem I'd imagine, but in the end its just some fancy features which just adds a little bit of eye candy to the image. Basically Arkham City is quite a demanding game PC wise so you do need quite a powerful system to run it, in fact I had read the recommended requirement for a graphics card was a Radeon HD 6970, and I only have a 6870, which is fast as it is!
Another very noteworthy aspect of the game is its music score, which is absolutely superb, and it sounds similar to the music from Christopher Nolan's Batman films. However this score also has its own feel to it, and there are many great dramatic passages in there, and the theme tune used on the menu screen is really good, as soon as you hear the score you know its a good one.
Soooooooo that's my critique on Batman Arkham City, its a great game and a superb follow up to Arkham Asylum, so if you are a gamer and haven't tried it yet, give it a go as you will not be disappointed.
But anyway here is more about the game itself, as the plot focuses on Bruce Wayne (voiced by Kevin Conroy, who previously did Arkham Asylum)) at the start of the game being captured by the villanous Hugo Strange (Corey Burton), and left at the mercy of the prison population of Arkham City. Arkham City itself is a section of Gotham City that has been closed off and populated by the low life, criminals and other villains that inhabit or inhabited Gotham. Wayne is left to the limited mercy of the Penguin, but he manages to escape and climbs to the rooftops where he contacts his butler Alfred, who sends him a package with his batman suit. Wayne puts on his Batman outfit and then scouts Arkham City to try and locate Catwoman (Grey DeLisle) who has been captured by Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (Troy Baker). Batman soon finds Catwoman and rescues her from Two Face who he ties up over a pit of acid and leaves him there, but at this point a bullet is fired at Catwoman, which misses. Batman then scans and analyses the trajectory of the bullet to where it came from, and soon finds out that the Joker was behind the assassination. Batman on tracking down the Joker finds out that his arch-villain has been infected with a compound known as Titan that is slowly killing him, and Joker captures Batman and straps him to a chair, wired up to a drip which Joker has injected his blood into Batman. Joker then kicks Batman through a window, who now has to try and find a cure, as he too will die if he doesn't. Batman then tries to locate Freeze, who he believes may have the cure for the Titan virus, but after a battle between the two, Freeze tells him there is no known cure, but there is one hope that if he can mix a compound which he created with an old foe of Batman's, Ra's Al Ghul, then he might have a chance to survive. In the meantime Hugo Strange is planning on using his Titan compound to wipe out the population of Arkham City, which he calls Protocol 10. So Batman has to both try and find the cure for the Titan formulae and stop Protocol 10 from happening.
Batman Arkham City is a terrific follow up to the excellent Batman Arkham Asylum, and it features a great cast of villains and colourful characters. The voice acting here is top notch, with Kevin Conroy giving a fine performance as Batman, and he always plays the dark knight with such great confidence, and at times he sounds almost arrogant. Mark Hamill also makes a great return as the demented and villaneous Joker, and plays the character with usual amount of insane glee and viciousness. It also highlights what a good actor Mark Hamill really is, and how underrated he is as a performer, whether he is on screen or behind it. The other voice actors are also very good, although I'm kind of surprised that they always seem to go for making a few of the villains with English accents, such as the Penguin and Freeze. The plot is also really compelling and it keeps you interested in what is going on, and it helps with the voice acting being of such a high calibre.
Gameplay wise, Arkham City is superb, as the controls are very easy to use and the combat system is great, with a whole variety of upgrades available for Batman, including gadgets as well as new combat moves and combos. You also get to play as Catwoman, which isn't too bad either, as its not bad watching a saucy looking video game character, with a great butt in leather running round the rooftops. However one gripe I had about the controls was the use of Batman's gliding and using the dive bomb move, this was especially really annoying to use in the fantasy scene where Batman has to follow Ra's Al Ghul through his virtual reality world, because if you touch any part of the world you die, and I kept dying over and over, trying to get use to the dive bomb mode!! But that's about my only real grip about the game.
Graphically the game is also great, and the environments are beautifully realised with great detail, however I did find the game was a bit jittery and buggy now and then on the PC. Being a new release, it also features DirectX 11 enhancements such as texturing and tessellation (which basically means texturing of shapes leaving no gaps, such as honeycombs and tiling). But I did find these to be quite buggy aswell, so I turned off the Directx 11 features, and it runs much smoother without them from what I heard. With updated drivers this will no longer be a problem I'd imagine, but in the end its just some fancy features which just adds a little bit of eye candy to the image. Basically Arkham City is quite a demanding game PC wise so you do need quite a powerful system to run it, in fact I had read the recommended requirement for a graphics card was a Radeon HD 6970, and I only have a 6870, which is fast as it is!
Another very noteworthy aspect of the game is its music score, which is absolutely superb, and it sounds similar to the music from Christopher Nolan's Batman films. However this score also has its own feel to it, and there are many great dramatic passages in there, and the theme tune used on the menu screen is really good, as soon as you hear the score you know its a good one.
Soooooooo that's my critique on Batman Arkham City, its a great game and a superb follow up to Arkham Asylum, so if you are a gamer and haven't tried it yet, give it a go as you will not be disappointed.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Indian Wells Part 7.2: Short and windy
The title of this post refers basically to length of each of the finals of the BNP Paribas Open from Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, which has just drawn to a conclusion so here is more about that....
So starting with the ladies, as they were on first anyway, and the final was between the world's top two tennis players, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. After their last match, Sharapova would no doubt be out for revenge, but unfortunately she wasn't able to get anywhere near that this time round either. In the first set, Sharapova was broken twice by Azarenka, and in the 2nd she was broken straight away, but Maria did break back at one point and had a chance to cling to make it 5-4, but on her serve at 5-3, she lost her way and ended the match, albeit on a very entertaining point, with a high lob going way long as Vika dropped her racquet and ran round the court in delight, cruising to victory in 6-2, 6-3.
Well for me I didn't expect alot from this match as every time they meet its a pushover for Azarenka, and it wasn't exactly a great contest but to be fair it did have its moments and overall it was not too bad. And what was bizarre about this match was Sharapova's first serve percentage was so high, in fact it was in the 80s! But despite that as usual she made a truckload of unforced errors, and against Victoria Azarenka you simply cannot do that, and as I predicted she was made to pay. And its a shame that Vika's other main rival Petra Kvitova was defeated earlier on in the tournament as if they were both playing it would have made for quite a final. But once Petra get's back into the game, then should they meet it will make for quite a match, just hope it isn't too far off.
So regardless of the easy nature of the match, Victoria deserves a great deal of credit for what she achieved so far this year, and she really has taken on that much needed mantle in the ladies game, a dominant figure in the sport, which has been missing for quite a while. So a big well done to Vika who has now won 23 matches in 2012 and remains unbeaten, so she definitely is working towards beating that Djokovic record, and she just might do it. And despite the fact that Victoria is not yet the most popular of champions, probably due to her on court grunting and aggressive demeanour, she is good fun and adds a bit of character to the sport, as I quite liked the end of the match where she jogged around the court screaming, and doing a funny dance, like Andrea Petkovic does (known for her on court victory dances).
Right now onto the men's final which was between Roger Federer and the big upcoming American John Isner, as they went at it for the right to lift the big glassy starry shaped trophy. And depsite the fact that their match was, for once, SHORTER than the ladies final, it was a pretty entertaining close match. In the first set there was little to separate the two men, and for once Roger looked quite pressured by Isner's big serve, but once they hit the tiebreaker, which was pretty close, Roger managed to win it and the set. And in the 2nd set, Isner got unlucky as Federer broke at 4-3, and pretty soon had no trouble closing out the match to lift his 4th title at Indian Wells, and the 73rd of his career, winning in 7-6(7), 6-3.
In regards to the outcome of the men's match I am not surprised who won, but it does leave me surprised that Djokovic wasn't able to defend his title, and again I suspect his weakness for winning tiebreaks let him down, and let Isner reach the final. Regardless the big guy deserves alot of credit for reaching his first Masters final, and for a set and a bit holding his own against the greatest player to have played the game. But Federer was always going to be the winner, and he appears to be on a mission this year to get that No.1 spot back, and on the ATP tour he remains unbeaten this year, and this year along he has raked 2000 points to his ranking, and if he wins in Miami coming up that should put him back up the No.2 spot, so he will be half way there! But can he sustain this level in the slams that's the real question, as with Rafa and Djokovic, you can beat your butt that they will try their best to beat him, and Rafa has never been defeated by Roger in a slam since 2007. So its all waiting to happen, but we'll see.....
Anyway so that's the 2012 BNP Paribas Open over with, and overall it was a really good tournament with some fine tennis from both the mens and ladies. Next up will be the Sony Ericsson Open from Miami, which is another biggie, a Masters 1000 title for the guys and a Premier Mandatory for the ladies. Roger and Vika are the favs already to win there, and Vika is the defending champion, but can she defend it???? I think so, when you are the best player in the world playing with that much confidence its tougher to lose than to win, but it shall be soon seen. But I quite like Victoria actually, she comes across a nice person, who is quite down to earth and has little in the way of bullshit or attitude off court, and certainly isn't like the Williams sisters. And at the moment people may not yet be warming to her, but she is far more likeable and personable then the Williams sisters ever were. And in her post final interview with the BBC sports correspondent, Jonathan Overend, she spoke with some real maturity about her attitude toward the sport, and how she felt that confidence and pressure are overrated, and for her its more about adapting to any given situation in a match. It shows she is an intelligent young woman with a good head on her shoulders when it comes to tennis and its also really commendable with how she is coping with the expectations of being the World No.1.
And as for Andy Murray..... well here's hoping the guy doesn't go out early again like he did in Indian Wells, (and as he did in Miami last year too!). In fact I'm almost certain he won't, well he better not! But for Andy this year, more than anything else, it should be about the majors, he shouldn't worry about not winning more Masters titles because he has plenty as it is, its all about peaking at the right time. And if Roger is peaking just now and winning all the ATP tour events then that's fine, but I just hope with Lendl's instruction and advice that Andy can make that transition this year and play his best tennis when it counts the most. But in the meantime I hope he does much better in Miami than last year (well he couldn't do any worse!).
So that's it, one tournament down, bring on the next one....
So starting with the ladies, as they were on first anyway, and the final was between the world's top two tennis players, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. After their last match, Sharapova would no doubt be out for revenge, but unfortunately she wasn't able to get anywhere near that this time round either. In the first set, Sharapova was broken twice by Azarenka, and in the 2nd she was broken straight away, but Maria did break back at one point and had a chance to cling to make it 5-4, but on her serve at 5-3, she lost her way and ended the match, albeit on a very entertaining point, with a high lob going way long as Vika dropped her racquet and ran round the court in delight, cruising to victory in 6-2, 6-3.
Well for me I didn't expect alot from this match as every time they meet its a pushover for Azarenka, and it wasn't exactly a great contest but to be fair it did have its moments and overall it was not too bad. And what was bizarre about this match was Sharapova's first serve percentage was so high, in fact it was in the 80s! But despite that as usual she made a truckload of unforced errors, and against Victoria Azarenka you simply cannot do that, and as I predicted she was made to pay. And its a shame that Vika's other main rival Petra Kvitova was defeated earlier on in the tournament as if they were both playing it would have made for quite a final. But once Petra get's back into the game, then should they meet it will make for quite a match, just hope it isn't too far off.
So regardless of the easy nature of the match, Victoria deserves a great deal of credit for what she achieved so far this year, and she really has taken on that much needed mantle in the ladies game, a dominant figure in the sport, which has been missing for quite a while. So a big well done to Vika who has now won 23 matches in 2012 and remains unbeaten, so she definitely is working towards beating that Djokovic record, and she just might do it. And despite the fact that Victoria is not yet the most popular of champions, probably due to her on court grunting and aggressive demeanour, she is good fun and adds a bit of character to the sport, as I quite liked the end of the match where she jogged around the court screaming, and doing a funny dance, like Andrea Petkovic does (known for her on court victory dances).
Right now onto the men's final which was between Roger Federer and the big upcoming American John Isner, as they went at it for the right to lift the big glassy starry shaped trophy. And depsite the fact that their match was, for once, SHORTER than the ladies final, it was a pretty entertaining close match. In the first set there was little to separate the two men, and for once Roger looked quite pressured by Isner's big serve, but once they hit the tiebreaker, which was pretty close, Roger managed to win it and the set. And in the 2nd set, Isner got unlucky as Federer broke at 4-3, and pretty soon had no trouble closing out the match to lift his 4th title at Indian Wells, and the 73rd of his career, winning in 7-6(7), 6-3.
In regards to the outcome of the men's match I am not surprised who won, but it does leave me surprised that Djokovic wasn't able to defend his title, and again I suspect his weakness for winning tiebreaks let him down, and let Isner reach the final. Regardless the big guy deserves alot of credit for reaching his first Masters final, and for a set and a bit holding his own against the greatest player to have played the game. But Federer was always going to be the winner, and he appears to be on a mission this year to get that No.1 spot back, and on the ATP tour he remains unbeaten this year, and this year along he has raked 2000 points to his ranking, and if he wins in Miami coming up that should put him back up the No.2 spot, so he will be half way there! But can he sustain this level in the slams that's the real question, as with Rafa and Djokovic, you can beat your butt that they will try their best to beat him, and Rafa has never been defeated by Roger in a slam since 2007. So its all waiting to happen, but we'll see.....
Anyway so that's the 2012 BNP Paribas Open over with, and overall it was a really good tournament with some fine tennis from both the mens and ladies. Next up will be the Sony Ericsson Open from Miami, which is another biggie, a Masters 1000 title for the guys and a Premier Mandatory for the ladies. Roger and Vika are the favs already to win there, and Vika is the defending champion, but can she defend it???? I think so, when you are the best player in the world playing with that much confidence its tougher to lose than to win, but it shall be soon seen. But I quite like Victoria actually, she comes across a nice person, who is quite down to earth and has little in the way of bullshit or attitude off court, and certainly isn't like the Williams sisters. And at the moment people may not yet be warming to her, but she is far more likeable and personable then the Williams sisters ever were. And in her post final interview with the BBC sports correspondent, Jonathan Overend, she spoke with some real maturity about her attitude toward the sport, and how she felt that confidence and pressure are overrated, and for her its more about adapting to any given situation in a match. It shows she is an intelligent young woman with a good head on her shoulders when it comes to tennis and its also really commendable with how she is coping with the expectations of being the World No.1.
And as for Andy Murray..... well here's hoping the guy doesn't go out early again like he did in Indian Wells, (and as he did in Miami last year too!). In fact I'm almost certain he won't, well he better not! But for Andy this year, more than anything else, it should be about the majors, he shouldn't worry about not winning more Masters titles because he has plenty as it is, its all about peaking at the right time. And if Roger is peaking just now and winning all the ATP tour events then that's fine, but I just hope with Lendl's instruction and advice that Andy can make that transition this year and play his best tennis when it counts the most. But in the meantime I hope he does much better in Miami than last year (well he couldn't do any worse!).
So that's it, one tournament down, bring on the next one....
Indian Wells Part 7.1: Upsets and windy upsets
Now onto Part 7 of the Indian Wells thingymabob, which I thought I would split into two parts so I conclude this stuff in just 7 parts (or 7.2 parts!) and this post covers the semi finals action on the men's side of the BNP Paribas Open.
The two semi final matches promised to deliver much, and to large extent they certainly did, and to kick off with the first match, which was between Novak Djokovic and the big guy John Isner. I somehow thought this would be a really tough match given Isner's current form and big serve, and I was right, as he really took on the World No.1 and played as the aggressor. In the first set however, Isner was a break down but then he broke back and they soon went to a tiebreak, which Isner won, but in the 2nd set Djokovic secured a break at 4-3, and took the set, but once again in the 3rd it went to a tiebreak where again, and this time Isner sealed Djoko's fate and handed the world's best player, his 2nd defeat of 2012. Without a doubt this was the biggest win of Isner's career, winning in a tighter than a tight thing score of 7-6(7), 3-6, 7-6(5).
From what I saw of it, it looked like a really gripping match, with some highly impressive and aggressive play from Isner, and now that Isner is playing the best tennis of his career, he will prove to be a real nightmare on tour with that serve and height of his. Djokovic by no means played a bad match here, but once again it did highlight what I've always said was his main weakness, and that is tiebreaks, as he seems lose that bit of concentration needed in the vital moments. So that is the 2nd title this year Djokovic has failed to defend, and it clearly shows that his incredible winning streak from last year, right enough has proved to be impossible to repeat. But Djoko will have plenty more chances ahead of him, and he said himself he will prioritise the slams this year and the Olympics above everything else, but whether or not he can win the remaining slams or not we will see. I also think after the incredible success he had last year, he realised he chased after everything and just about got it all, but it took its toll on his body, so I'm sure he will prioritise his schedule more this year, and he might not play in certain tournaments and conserve his energy for the bigger ones.
But anyway onto the second men's semi final, which of course proved to be the more highly anticipated of the two, between Roger and Rafa. To be honest their meetings on the tour can be a bit hit and miss at times, and this one I have to say was more of a miss, as throughout Roger dominated the play and give very few chances for Rafa to get into the match. Although Rafa broke back once in the 1st set and again in the 2nd, but after a very short rain delay, ON match point no less, Roger closed it out with one single ace, for a place in the Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open final, winning in 6-3, 6-4.
So this sets up the men's final which I think promises to be a really good one, between Roger and John Isner. Who's gonna win then?????????? Again very tricky to tell, Isner is one of the two players that has defeated Roger this year, as he did in the Davis Cup last month, and if he plays like he did yesterday he's got a strong shout of lifting the biggest title of his career. On the other hand, we have arguably the greatest player of all time, who eats pressure for breakfast, lunch and dinner, who has won numerous Masters and Slams, and might just snatch another one today. So my gut instinct here will be Federer in either two tight straight sets, or in 3 sets, but I just think it might be one to watch.
And that's it for now, and tonight first up is the ladies BNP Paribas Open final, with Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova fighting it out for a chance to lift that big awkward glass starry shaped trophy. My money is firmly on Azarenka for this one, but who knows???? Just maybe Sharapova could play a great match and end Vika's winning streak, but I doubt it, but I just hope it isn't a straight set pummelling like their last meeting was, so fingers crossed its a good one.
That's it for now.
The two semi final matches promised to deliver much, and to large extent they certainly did, and to kick off with the first match, which was between Novak Djokovic and the big guy John Isner. I somehow thought this would be a really tough match given Isner's current form and big serve, and I was right, as he really took on the World No.1 and played as the aggressor. In the first set however, Isner was a break down but then he broke back and they soon went to a tiebreak, which Isner won, but in the 2nd set Djokovic secured a break at 4-3, and took the set, but once again in the 3rd it went to a tiebreak where again, and this time Isner sealed Djoko's fate and handed the world's best player, his 2nd defeat of 2012. Without a doubt this was the biggest win of Isner's career, winning in a tighter than a tight thing score of 7-6(7), 3-6, 7-6(5).
From what I saw of it, it looked like a really gripping match, with some highly impressive and aggressive play from Isner, and now that Isner is playing the best tennis of his career, he will prove to be a real nightmare on tour with that serve and height of his. Djokovic by no means played a bad match here, but once again it did highlight what I've always said was his main weakness, and that is tiebreaks, as he seems lose that bit of concentration needed in the vital moments. So that is the 2nd title this year Djokovic has failed to defend, and it clearly shows that his incredible winning streak from last year, right enough has proved to be impossible to repeat. But Djoko will have plenty more chances ahead of him, and he said himself he will prioritise the slams this year and the Olympics above everything else, but whether or not he can win the remaining slams or not we will see. I also think after the incredible success he had last year, he realised he chased after everything and just about got it all, but it took its toll on his body, so I'm sure he will prioritise his schedule more this year, and he might not play in certain tournaments and conserve his energy for the bigger ones.
But anyway onto the second men's semi final, which of course proved to be the more highly anticipated of the two, between Roger and Rafa. To be honest their meetings on the tour can be a bit hit and miss at times, and this one I have to say was more of a miss, as throughout Roger dominated the play and give very few chances for Rafa to get into the match. Although Rafa broke back once in the 1st set and again in the 2nd, but after a very short rain delay, ON match point no less, Roger closed it out with one single ace, for a place in the Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open final, winning in 6-3, 6-4.
So this sets up the men's final which I think promises to be a really good one, between Roger and John Isner. Who's gonna win then?????????? Again very tricky to tell, Isner is one of the two players that has defeated Roger this year, as he did in the Davis Cup last month, and if he plays like he did yesterday he's got a strong shout of lifting the biggest title of his career. On the other hand, we have arguably the greatest player of all time, who eats pressure for breakfast, lunch and dinner, who has won numerous Masters and Slams, and might just snatch another one today. So my gut instinct here will be Federer in either two tight straight sets, or in 3 sets, but I just think it might be one to watch.
And that's it for now, and tonight first up is the ladies BNP Paribas Open final, with Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova fighting it out for a chance to lift that big awkward glass starry shaped trophy. My money is firmly on Azarenka for this one, but who knows???? Just maybe Sharapova could play a great match and end Vika's winning streak, but I doubt it, but I just hope it isn't a straight set pummelling like their last meeting was, so fingers crossed its a good one.
That's it for now.
Saturday 17 March 2012
Indian Wells Part 6: Top 3 + 11, + Top 2
Soooooooooooooooooooooooo here is yet another update on the Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open tournament which saw things get more interesting as the remaining men's quarter finals took place and the ladie semi finals as well.
Right starting with the ladies we first up had a first time meeting between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and the promising rising German player Angelique Kerber. Kerber actually did quite well in this match as she pushed the No.1 player quite far especially in the first set as they traded breaks, and the same in the 2nd set, also due to the windy conditions on court. But it was Victoria who once again came through and sealed her 22nd match win this year, remaining perfect in 2012, and winning in 6-4, 6-3. This definitely shows that Victoria Azarenka is without a doubt truly the World No.1 in ladies tennis, and so far she has put together a very impressive run, which seems to be in rush of ending soon, and its easy to make comparisons of her winning streak with Djokovic's last year, so it will be interesting to see how far she can go. In the other ladies match, Maria Sharapova took on Ana Ivanovic, and in the first set it was a high quality contest, which Sharapova eventually took the break and the set. However Ivanovic starting having lower back pain and took a medical timeout, during the first set, but in the second it proved to be too much for Ana, who was forced to retire, which secured Sharapova's place in the final with Azarenka.
So this sets up a very intruiging final between the world's tour best players on the ladies tour, however in their last meeting in the Australian Open final, Azarenka absolutely trounced Sharapova, in 6-3, 6-0, and I fear that the result this time will be the same. It would be great if Sharapova can cut out the unforced errors and improve her serve for tomorrow's final, but she can be very erratic, as she can be either brilliant or bloomin awful. Sharapova can afford to make these errors against any player ranked below her, but not with Azarenka, as she will make her pay if she does, and it will be just like fish in a barrel for Vika. But despite what happens it promises to be a good final, and hopefully this time we will get a battle that goes the distance, or maybe not, just wait and see.
And now onto the mens quarter finals, starting off with Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro, who met for the fourth time this year. Roger so far has had the measure of Delpo this year, and this match proved to be no different, which Roger take apart Delpo in just over an hour. After a very long first game on Federer's serve, there was a problem with the hawkeye system, which affected a call made by Delpo, and as a result this knocked Del Potro's concentration off, as Roger dispatched him in their easiest meeting to date. This was a shame for Del Potro as he has continually struggled to get past Fed this year, and their previous meeting in Dubai, was a very tight encounter, which promised more in this one, but once again it just wasn't to be. Now onto Rafa's match, which couldn't have been more different, as Rafa faced another Argentine David Nalbandian, who has been in very good form of late, having already defeated Janko Tipsarevic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. And early in the match Nalbandian really was the better player, as Rafa struggled and made quite a few unforced errors, particularly with his backhand, which Nalby take the first set. In the second however, despite coming within two match points of defeat at 5-4, on Rafa's serve, the former No.1 turned it around and held serve, and soon broke Nalbandian's to take the match into the decider. In the final set, Rafa made the early break and held on, and after a close last game, Rafa won the match in 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
So this sets up yet another mouth watering encounter between two of the greatest rivals in the sport, Roger and Rafa. Last time they met they played a terrific high quality match in Melbourne at the Aussie Open, so it will be interesting to see what happens this time. So who's my money on?????? Really hard to say, on one hand, Roger has had two tough matches this week, but an easy one against Delpo, whereas Rafa has just come off a tough one, so it depends who has the most energy. Given Federer's impressive run on the ATP tour so far this year, he remains unbeaten (the Davis Cup and Australian Open defeats aside, cos they aren't part of the actual tour) so the odds could be in his favour. But something tells me no matter what Roger throws at him, Rafa will probably come through this one, but I'm not sure, so time will tell, but if I had to pick a favourite, if it goes the distance, I would say Rafa might just edge it, either that or Roger will end it in straight sets.
And in the other semi final, which is almost equally intruiging, we have Djokovic against the big un John Isner, who has really been in form of late. This match could be a real struggle for Djokovic, as Isner has been playing the best tennis of his career lately, and his big serve, makes him a nightmare to break down. However as I said before, Djokovic is a great athlete, and he will no doubt find a way to defeat the big Yank, so my money is definitely on him winning this. But it promises to be a really good match.
Well that's it for now, more to follow, once we know the finalists in the men's, should be really good.
The End.
Right starting with the ladies we first up had a first time meeting between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and the promising rising German player Angelique Kerber. Kerber actually did quite well in this match as she pushed the No.1 player quite far especially in the first set as they traded breaks, and the same in the 2nd set, also due to the windy conditions on court. But it was Victoria who once again came through and sealed her 22nd match win this year, remaining perfect in 2012, and winning in 6-4, 6-3. This definitely shows that Victoria Azarenka is without a doubt truly the World No.1 in ladies tennis, and so far she has put together a very impressive run, which seems to be in rush of ending soon, and its easy to make comparisons of her winning streak with Djokovic's last year, so it will be interesting to see how far she can go. In the other ladies match, Maria Sharapova took on Ana Ivanovic, and in the first set it was a high quality contest, which Sharapova eventually took the break and the set. However Ivanovic starting having lower back pain and took a medical timeout, during the first set, but in the second it proved to be too much for Ana, who was forced to retire, which secured Sharapova's place in the final with Azarenka.
So this sets up a very intruiging final between the world's tour best players on the ladies tour, however in their last meeting in the Australian Open final, Azarenka absolutely trounced Sharapova, in 6-3, 6-0, and I fear that the result this time will be the same. It would be great if Sharapova can cut out the unforced errors and improve her serve for tomorrow's final, but she can be very erratic, as she can be either brilliant or bloomin awful. Sharapova can afford to make these errors against any player ranked below her, but not with Azarenka, as she will make her pay if she does, and it will be just like fish in a barrel for Vika. But despite what happens it promises to be a good final, and hopefully this time we will get a battle that goes the distance, or maybe not, just wait and see.
And now onto the mens quarter finals, starting off with Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro, who met for the fourth time this year. Roger so far has had the measure of Delpo this year, and this match proved to be no different, which Roger take apart Delpo in just over an hour. After a very long first game on Federer's serve, there was a problem with the hawkeye system, which affected a call made by Delpo, and as a result this knocked Del Potro's concentration off, as Roger dispatched him in their easiest meeting to date. This was a shame for Del Potro as he has continually struggled to get past Fed this year, and their previous meeting in Dubai, was a very tight encounter, which promised more in this one, but once again it just wasn't to be. Now onto Rafa's match, which couldn't have been more different, as Rafa faced another Argentine David Nalbandian, who has been in very good form of late, having already defeated Janko Tipsarevic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. And early in the match Nalbandian really was the better player, as Rafa struggled and made quite a few unforced errors, particularly with his backhand, which Nalby take the first set. In the second however, despite coming within two match points of defeat at 5-4, on Rafa's serve, the former No.1 turned it around and held serve, and soon broke Nalbandian's to take the match into the decider. In the final set, Rafa made the early break and held on, and after a close last game, Rafa won the match in 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
So this sets up yet another mouth watering encounter between two of the greatest rivals in the sport, Roger and Rafa. Last time they met they played a terrific high quality match in Melbourne at the Aussie Open, so it will be interesting to see what happens this time. So who's my money on?????? Really hard to say, on one hand, Roger has had two tough matches this week, but an easy one against Delpo, whereas Rafa has just come off a tough one, so it depends who has the most energy. Given Federer's impressive run on the ATP tour so far this year, he remains unbeaten (the Davis Cup and Australian Open defeats aside, cos they aren't part of the actual tour) so the odds could be in his favour. But something tells me no matter what Roger throws at him, Rafa will probably come through this one, but I'm not sure, so time will tell, but if I had to pick a favourite, if it goes the distance, I would say Rafa might just edge it, either that or Roger will end it in straight sets.
And in the other semi final, which is almost equally intruiging, we have Djokovic against the big un John Isner, who has really been in form of late. This match could be a real struggle for Djokovic, as Isner has been playing the best tennis of his career lately, and his big serve, makes him a nightmare to break down. However as I said before, Djokovic is a great athlete, and he will no doubt find a way to defeat the big Yank, so my money is definitely on him winning this. But it promises to be a really good match.
Well that's it for now, more to follow, once we know the finalists in the men's, should be really good.
The End.
Friday 16 March 2012
Indian Wells Part 5: The Survivor
Ok so here's Part 5 of the BNP Paribas Open coverage from Indian Wells, which saw another very eventful at the tournament with some great stuff on display particularly from the ladies.
Starting with the men first, Djokovic played against yet another Spaniard, Nicholas Almagro, who really wasn't a match Djokovic, as Djoko broke Almagro in the opening game, and held his own to take the first set. In the second set Djokovic again got the crucial break at 4-4, and had no trouble serving it out to take him to another semi final at Indian Wells. In the other match, there was a tougher passage for the American giant, John Isner, who took on the Frenchman Gilles Simon, as they battled it out in a very tricky encounter, which Isner eventually closed it out in 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Isner said that neither himself or Simon were at their best in the match, but it was pretty close regardless, and Isner now extends his win streak over Simon 2-0. However Isner's next match up will be an ever tougher one as he will take on Djokovic, and I'm sure neither men are envying the match up. Isner is definitely most players nightmare, due to his height and his big serve, so it could be very tough for Djokovic to cut down the big yank. However Djokovic is by the far the better athlete, and if necessary he can outlast Isner if it becomes a physical match. But I think it promises to be a cracker, as Isner has come on leaps and bounds, as he is just sitting outside the top 10, a number 11, and this is his second Masters semi-final, so he really is knocking on the door of the big time.
Oh and today promises to be a real cracker for the men's quarter finals, as we will have the remaining matches, which is Rafa vs David Nalbandian, which should be very good, and Roger who once again takes on Juan Martin Del Potro. They have played 3 times already this year, with Fed getting the better of Delpo each time, so I don't really expect the result to be any different this time, although Fed hasn't been 100% this tournament, feeling the effects of a flu bug, but he said he is feeling better, and with a 10-2 win record over the big Argentine, you really can't bet against him. So today is a real mouth watering set up for the remaining guys in the draw.
Rrrrrrrrrright now onto the ladies, as they completed the quarter finals matches, first up was Ana Ivanovic, the saucy Serb who has recently got back on form, who took on the No.7 seed Marion Bartoli. Last year Bartoli beat Ivanovic in straight sets at the quarter finals, however this time Ana was the sharper of the two, as Bartoli clearly wasn't 100% on court, feeling the effects of tiredness and dizziness, at one point she had to call a doctor on court, to check her blood pressure etc. However Bartoli, being the gutsy fighter she is, fought till the end, where she fell to Ivanovic in straight sets who won in 6-3, 6-4. Given Bartoli's condition this wasn't a bad match and first set was pretty good, but it was a shame that Bartoli's illness cut it short really, as it could have been a great contest, but it wasn't to be, so that's Ana safely into the semis, where she will face her next opponent I will speak of now.
Sooo the next match was between two Russian players, two Marias in fact, Sharapova vs Kirilenko, and by heck did Sharapova have her hands full in this match. Naturally Sharapova was the favourite to win this one, but Kirilenko came out all guns blazing, breaking Sharapova early on and taking the first set. However the 2nd set featured some terrific battling from Sharapova, who fought from 0-2 down to level, and she took the crucial break at 6-5 to take the match into a decider. However in the decider, Sharapova dominated the play, although Kirilenko broke back at one point and held her next service game. But in the end Kirilenko engineered her own downfall and double faulted to hand the match to Sharapova, finally winning the epic three hour struggle in 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
This so far and could well be the match of the tournament, as for the first two sets both women played some terrific tennis for the crowd. Sharapova however as usual made a stream unforced errors throughout her service games, but there were plenty of tight games with many deuce points. Kirilenko herself played really well throughout, but I have to say she didn't do herself any favours when during the second set, she kept tapping her racket on the ground tauntingly at Sharapova during points, and the umpire rightfully pulled her up for it. This is really unsporting behaviour and I have to say Kirilenko went down in my estimation when she did it, even Azarenka who has her moments on court with umpires etc, would never have done that. But in the end the right woman won, but as usual it wasn't so much a win as a survival, as Sharapova more often than not survives her tough matches, but Sharapova is without a doubt one of the best fighters in the womans game and in the history of the sport.
Sooooooo this sets up an exciting match up in the ladies semi finals, as we have Victoria Azarenka up against the German Angelique Kerber, which should be a good one, either a battle or a doddle for the World No.1, we'll soon find out. And then there is Sharapova vs Ivanovic, who haven't played each other since the Australian Open in 2008, so that's quite a while, but it promises to be a pretty good un.
Annnnnd that's it for now, I'll report back (to myself) when they're done.
Starting with the men first, Djokovic played against yet another Spaniard, Nicholas Almagro, who really wasn't a match Djokovic, as Djoko broke Almagro in the opening game, and held his own to take the first set. In the second set Djokovic again got the crucial break at 4-4, and had no trouble serving it out to take him to another semi final at Indian Wells. In the other match, there was a tougher passage for the American giant, John Isner, who took on the Frenchman Gilles Simon, as they battled it out in a very tricky encounter, which Isner eventually closed it out in 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Isner said that neither himself or Simon were at their best in the match, but it was pretty close regardless, and Isner now extends his win streak over Simon 2-0. However Isner's next match up will be an ever tougher one as he will take on Djokovic, and I'm sure neither men are envying the match up. Isner is definitely most players nightmare, due to his height and his big serve, so it could be very tough for Djokovic to cut down the big yank. However Djokovic is by the far the better athlete, and if necessary he can outlast Isner if it becomes a physical match. But I think it promises to be a cracker, as Isner has come on leaps and bounds, as he is just sitting outside the top 10, a number 11, and this is his second Masters semi-final, so he really is knocking on the door of the big time.
Oh and today promises to be a real cracker for the men's quarter finals, as we will have the remaining matches, which is Rafa vs David Nalbandian, which should be very good, and Roger who once again takes on Juan Martin Del Potro. They have played 3 times already this year, with Fed getting the better of Delpo each time, so I don't really expect the result to be any different this time, although Fed hasn't been 100% this tournament, feeling the effects of a flu bug, but he said he is feeling better, and with a 10-2 win record over the big Argentine, you really can't bet against him. So today is a real mouth watering set up for the remaining guys in the draw.
Rrrrrrrrrright now onto the ladies, as they completed the quarter finals matches, first up was Ana Ivanovic, the saucy Serb who has recently got back on form, who took on the No.7 seed Marion Bartoli. Last year Bartoli beat Ivanovic in straight sets at the quarter finals, however this time Ana was the sharper of the two, as Bartoli clearly wasn't 100% on court, feeling the effects of tiredness and dizziness, at one point she had to call a doctor on court, to check her blood pressure etc. However Bartoli, being the gutsy fighter she is, fought till the end, where she fell to Ivanovic in straight sets who won in 6-3, 6-4. Given Bartoli's condition this wasn't a bad match and first set was pretty good, but it was a shame that Bartoli's illness cut it short really, as it could have been a great contest, but it wasn't to be, so that's Ana safely into the semis, where she will face her next opponent I will speak of now.
Sooo the next match was between two Russian players, two Marias in fact, Sharapova vs Kirilenko, and by heck did Sharapova have her hands full in this match. Naturally Sharapova was the favourite to win this one, but Kirilenko came out all guns blazing, breaking Sharapova early on and taking the first set. However the 2nd set featured some terrific battling from Sharapova, who fought from 0-2 down to level, and she took the crucial break at 6-5 to take the match into a decider. However in the decider, Sharapova dominated the play, although Kirilenko broke back at one point and held her next service game. But in the end Kirilenko engineered her own downfall and double faulted to hand the match to Sharapova, finally winning the epic three hour struggle in 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
This so far and could well be the match of the tournament, as for the first two sets both women played some terrific tennis for the crowd. Sharapova however as usual made a stream unforced errors throughout her service games, but there were plenty of tight games with many deuce points. Kirilenko herself played really well throughout, but I have to say she didn't do herself any favours when during the second set, she kept tapping her racket on the ground tauntingly at Sharapova during points, and the umpire rightfully pulled her up for it. This is really unsporting behaviour and I have to say Kirilenko went down in my estimation when she did it, even Azarenka who has her moments on court with umpires etc, would never have done that. But in the end the right woman won, but as usual it wasn't so much a win as a survival, as Sharapova more often than not survives her tough matches, but Sharapova is without a doubt one of the best fighters in the womans game and in the history of the sport.
Sooooooo this sets up an exciting match up in the ladies semi finals, as we have Victoria Azarenka up against the German Angelique Kerber, which should be a good one, either a battle or a doddle for the World No.1, we'll soon find out. And then there is Sharapova vs Ivanovic, who haven't played each other since the Australian Open in 2008, so that's quite a while, but it promises to be a pretty good un.
Annnnnd that's it for now, I'll report back (to myself) when they're done.
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