So the final part of my ATP/WTA Barcelona Open and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix posts is here and it covers the finals of both tournaments, so why not start with the men.
In the men's final, we see two clay veterans take each other on, Rafa Nadal and David Ferrer, and it was quite a final, and easily the toughest match Rafa has played on clay this year so far. The first set featured some incredible tennis from the two men, and Ferrer being as dogged in defense as he possibly could, managed to stave off break points, as did Rafa, who himself had to fight off 5 set points, but ultimately managed to push the match into a tiebreak, which he domianted. In the 2nd set, Rafa got an early break against Ferrer's serve, however Ferrer was steely as ever and managed to break back and levelled the scores, until 5-6, on his serve, Ferrer finally gave in, handing the match and the championship over to his clay nemesis, after an exhausting and gruelling 2 hours and 40 minutes, in 7-6(1), 7-5.
I didn't catch all of the match but judging by the stats and the scoreline it was quite an encounter and more than a worthy final that kept the Spanish crowd enthralled. Ferrer gave his all in this match and you have feel for him as you would guess that this could have been one of his best chances of winning the title. But in the end you know there was only going to be one winner and that man is the king of clay, Rafa, who now has 48 titles to his name, and his 7th in Barcelona. So the clay season continues to look very good for Rafa, and with Madrid and Rome coming up he is still the hot favourite to win there, and yes Djokovic could defeat him, should he regroup, but I'm beginning to think otherwise, as Rafa really does appear to have gotten his mojo back, and looks very much the man to beat again. So we will see how the rest of the clay season pans out. In the meantime, a big well done to Rafa for his great victory and the rest of the season is looking pretty good for him.
So onto the ladies final in Stuttgart, which was between the two best players in the world, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. Azarenka given their recent matches was the favourite to win here, but Maria surprised us all by coming out really strong in the 1st set, serving superbly and crushing Azarenka's serve, breaking her twice to take the opening set. However it was revealed during the interval that Victoria had injured her wrist and had to have it re-taped before starting play again. But despite a shaky start on her serve, Victoria managed to makes things a bit more competitive and got herself into the 2nd set, by holding serve and putting a bit of pressure on Maria. But Maria never faltered on serve and at 3-3 all on Victoria's serve, she got the crucial break, and at 5-4, Maria seized the chance she was looking to finally get her first win of the year over her nemesis, and her first title in Stuttgart, with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
This was actually not too bad a final and I was pleasantly surprised to see Maria pull off the win, and I'm sure it was a much needed one, after the last two drubbings she faced at the hands of Victoria in Melbourne and Indian Wells. With Victoria being injured it looked fearful that she would be able to carry on, but she deserves credit for carrying on as well with the match and making it more of a contest in the 2nd set. Clearly however you could see how disappointed Victoria was when she lost and when accepting her runner up trophy, but hopefully she won't be a poor loser. ;-) As for Maria it was obvious delight that she was able to lift her first trophy of the year, and it was thoroughly well deserved. Its also the fourth clay court title she has won in her career, so it does really show that her game is well suited towards clay, and its a surface she can compete well on with any player. And at this rate you can't write off her chances in the French Open, as long as she doesn't double fault as much as she did last year!
Anyway that's it for now for the tennis posts, more will follow on other stuff, and more on the tennis stuff once Madrid starts off.
Till then that's ittt.
Sunday 29 April 2012
WTA/ATP Stuttgart and Barcelona Part 4: Keys in the ignition and we have an all Spain final in errm..... Spain
OK so here's Part 4 of the updates for the ATP and WTA tournaments from Barcelona and Stuttgart respectively.
Starting with the men quickly, the two semi finals took place on Saturday and were between David Ferrer and Milos Raonic, and Rafa Nadal and Fernando Verdasco. First up was Ferrer who play against the talented, giant serving Canadian Milos Raonic, who took out Andy Murray the other day. In this match however, things were a bit more tightly contested, as neither player got a break of serve in either set, and it took a tiebreak to separate them both. However with a head to head of 3-0 in Ferrer's favour, he was able to utilise his clay court skills and dig out another win against the big Canadian, to reach his 4th Barcelona Open final in 7-6(2), 7-6(5). And in the next match, Rafa took on his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, however their match was something of a cakewalk in comparison, as Rafa ruthlessly dominated in the 1st set, handing Verdasco a clay bagel, but in the 2nd set, Verdasco did a little better to hold, faltering once to hand the crucial break to Rafa, which saw Rafa storm into the final with a crushing 6-0, 6-4 victory.
So this sets up a potentially very good final, which deservedly is between the two best clay court players in the game just now (excluding Djokovic and Federer as they aren't traditional clay courters) and this will be their 4th final together. But asking who is going to win this one, really is a no brainer, and it has to be Ferrer, ahem! Sorry the other guy! ;-) Yes there's no doubt at all that Rafa will be the winner this time as well, as he has already won the event six times, as Ferrer has never won it, and it would take a mighty special performance from the gutsy 5ft 9" Spaniard to do it. But you have to look at the stats and Rafa has not even yet dropped a single set on clay this year, which is a very scary fact, and I'd be surprsied if he even dropped one today. However I just hope Ferrer gives Rafa a good match today and that they play a worthy final.
Right now onto the ladies matches in Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis event, which saw the top four players in the world go at it for a place in the final. First off we had the No.1 Victoria Azarenka take on the No.4 player, Agnieszka Radwanska in what turned out to be a very one-sided match, with Victoria ruthelessly dominating the play in the 1st set, breaking her opponent twice. In the 2nd set things got a little more competitive from Radwanska, who suffered only the one break of serve, and did her best, with a back injury (which she had a medical timeout for). But it was a case of too little too late, as Azarenka closed the barn door on the Pole for the 5th time this year, securing her first final in Stuttgart with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 victory.
I could just tell right from the get go that this would be a one sided match, as Vika has already ruthlessly brushed past Radwanska in their previous meetings, and I didn't see why this would be different. I have to admit, although while at times I'm not her biggest fan, I did feel a bit sorry for Radwanska, as she really cut a forlorn figure on the court, as she almost looked resigned to the fact that she was going to get beat, and in the end she was powerless to do anything about it. But I find it bizarre that the 4th best player in the world struggles so much to even take more than 4 or 5 games off the World No.1, whereas a player such as Barthel can push her all the way. It seems like Azarenka is the one player who can get into Radwanska's head, and the only to have done so this year so far. I just wish in a way that Azarenka would play someone else in the semis like Caroline Wozniacki, where you know she will give her opponent a match, but that's the reality of it so far. However Victoria once again did show why she is the best player in the world just now, and she deserves to be in the final.
Next up we had Maria Sharapova take on last year's Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitova, who Sharapova had defeated in their last meeting in the Australian Open semis. And unlike the previous Vika and Aga match, this one was far more competitive and entertaining as Maria and Petra really went at it on the red clay. The first set went to Maria securing a crucial break, and in the first set Petra kept going for too many winners off Maria's 1st and 2nd serve. The 2nd set however was far more tight, and despite getting a break at 6-5, with Maria serving for the match, Petra broke back to take it into a tiebreak, where Maria once again dominated and sealed her place in the final, winning 6-4, 7-6(3).
Well well well, there is no doubt it that in this match Maria was the better player, and she rightfully so far has proved to be 2nd best player in the world, as she has managed to defeat everyone else except Azarenka (well and Radwanska, so maybe Radwanska should be No.2! ;-)). And this match was further evidence of Maria's terrific competitiveness and determination. I'm also really surprised at just how well Maria has improved her movement as she has become much faster around the court, and surprisingly enough her game is well suited to clay, which you wouldn't expect, as she is very much a hard court player. Maria also showed a touch more deftness in her shot making, coming into the net playing a few vollies, rather than just blasting the ball from the back of the court, which is really good, as she needs to inject a bit more variety into her game, which could help her in the next match.
So who will win the Stuttgart final? Or more to the point, who will win the fancy Porsche sports car they have on display in the court???? Well once again I have to say Victoria will win the match, as she really is the best player in the world just now, and her wins over Maria this year alone have been pretty emphatic, having crushed her in the Aussie final 6-3, 6-0, and in Indian Wells 6-2, 6-3. Which is why I get disappointed every single time they play in a final, as its just way too easy for Azarenka, and that's one of things I don't like watching about Victoria's finals in general, they are just too one-sided in her favour, so it could be just more one-way traffic, which could make for a rather tedious final. However Maria has said that she will try and look at her mistakes from last time and try to work on them, and I hope she does, because I don't see her winning today but all you can hope for is she turns it into a more competitive match, but whichever way it goes, I'm still looking forward to it.
Rrrright that's eeeeet for the now. More to follow after the finals.
Starting with the men quickly, the two semi finals took place on Saturday and were between David Ferrer and Milos Raonic, and Rafa Nadal and Fernando Verdasco. First up was Ferrer who play against the talented, giant serving Canadian Milos Raonic, who took out Andy Murray the other day. In this match however, things were a bit more tightly contested, as neither player got a break of serve in either set, and it took a tiebreak to separate them both. However with a head to head of 3-0 in Ferrer's favour, he was able to utilise his clay court skills and dig out another win against the big Canadian, to reach his 4th Barcelona Open final in 7-6(2), 7-6(5). And in the next match, Rafa took on his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, however their match was something of a cakewalk in comparison, as Rafa ruthlessly dominated in the 1st set, handing Verdasco a clay bagel, but in the 2nd set, Verdasco did a little better to hold, faltering once to hand the crucial break to Rafa, which saw Rafa storm into the final with a crushing 6-0, 6-4 victory.
So this sets up a potentially very good final, which deservedly is between the two best clay court players in the game just now (excluding Djokovic and Federer as they aren't traditional clay courters) and this will be their 4th final together. But asking who is going to win this one, really is a no brainer, and it has to be Ferrer, ahem! Sorry the other guy! ;-) Yes there's no doubt at all that Rafa will be the winner this time as well, as he has already won the event six times, as Ferrer has never won it, and it would take a mighty special performance from the gutsy 5ft 9" Spaniard to do it. But you have to look at the stats and Rafa has not even yet dropped a single set on clay this year, which is a very scary fact, and I'd be surprsied if he even dropped one today. However I just hope Ferrer gives Rafa a good match today and that they play a worthy final.
Right now onto the ladies matches in Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis event, which saw the top four players in the world go at it for a place in the final. First off we had the No.1 Victoria Azarenka take on the No.4 player, Agnieszka Radwanska in what turned out to be a very one-sided match, with Victoria ruthelessly dominating the play in the 1st set, breaking her opponent twice. In the 2nd set things got a little more competitive from Radwanska, who suffered only the one break of serve, and did her best, with a back injury (which she had a medical timeout for). But it was a case of too little too late, as Azarenka closed the barn door on the Pole for the 5th time this year, securing her first final in Stuttgart with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 victory.
I could just tell right from the get go that this would be a one sided match, as Vika has already ruthlessly brushed past Radwanska in their previous meetings, and I didn't see why this would be different. I have to admit, although while at times I'm not her biggest fan, I did feel a bit sorry for Radwanska, as she really cut a forlorn figure on the court, as she almost looked resigned to the fact that she was going to get beat, and in the end she was powerless to do anything about it. But I find it bizarre that the 4th best player in the world struggles so much to even take more than 4 or 5 games off the World No.1, whereas a player such as Barthel can push her all the way. It seems like Azarenka is the one player who can get into Radwanska's head, and the only to have done so this year so far. I just wish in a way that Azarenka would play someone else in the semis like Caroline Wozniacki, where you know she will give her opponent a match, but that's the reality of it so far. However Victoria once again did show why she is the best player in the world just now, and she deserves to be in the final.
Next up we had Maria Sharapova take on last year's Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitova, who Sharapova had defeated in their last meeting in the Australian Open semis. And unlike the previous Vika and Aga match, this one was far more competitive and entertaining as Maria and Petra really went at it on the red clay. The first set went to Maria securing a crucial break, and in the first set Petra kept going for too many winners off Maria's 1st and 2nd serve. The 2nd set however was far more tight, and despite getting a break at 6-5, with Maria serving for the match, Petra broke back to take it into a tiebreak, where Maria once again dominated and sealed her place in the final, winning 6-4, 7-6(3).
Well well well, there is no doubt it that in this match Maria was the better player, and she rightfully so far has proved to be 2nd best player in the world, as she has managed to defeat everyone else except Azarenka (well and Radwanska, so maybe Radwanska should be No.2! ;-)). And this match was further evidence of Maria's terrific competitiveness and determination. I'm also really surprised at just how well Maria has improved her movement as she has become much faster around the court, and surprisingly enough her game is well suited to clay, which you wouldn't expect, as she is very much a hard court player. Maria also showed a touch more deftness in her shot making, coming into the net playing a few vollies, rather than just blasting the ball from the back of the court, which is really good, as she needs to inject a bit more variety into her game, which could help her in the next match.
So who will win the Stuttgart final? Or more to the point, who will win the fancy Porsche sports car they have on display in the court???? Well once again I have to say Victoria will win the match, as she really is the best player in the world just now, and her wins over Maria this year alone have been pretty emphatic, having crushed her in the Aussie final 6-3, 6-0, and in Indian Wells 6-2, 6-3. Which is why I get disappointed every single time they play in a final, as its just way too easy for Azarenka, and that's one of things I don't like watching about Victoria's finals in general, they are just too one-sided in her favour, so it could be just more one-way traffic, which could make for a rather tedious final. However Maria has said that she will try and look at her mistakes from last time and try to work on them, and I hope she does, because I don't see her winning today but all you can hope for is she turns it into a more competitive match, but whichever way it goes, I'm still looking forward to it.
Rrrright that's eeeeet for the now. More to follow after the finals.
Saturday 28 April 2012
WTA/ATP Stuttgart and Barcelona Part 3: There are big hitters and then there are more big hitters
Right so here's my latest post on the mens and ladies ATP/WTA tours respectively, as I follow more action from the events from the women in Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis, and the Barcelona Open from the men.
Starting with the men, so I will get them out of the way, I'll start with Andy Murray's match against the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who we expected to be a stern test for the Muzza. And right enough it proved to be just that, as the 6ft 5" Canadian (same height as Berdych funnily enough, what is it with these big guys????!) made life hell for Andy as he rained down serves well over 140mph, making it tough for Andy to return. So to recap the match, in the 1st set there was one break of serve as Andy dropped serve at at 3-3, and Raonic took the advantage and ran away with the first set. In the second set Andy again went a break down at a crucial time at 4-4, handing what looked like the final break needed, but Raonic thankfully got tight on his serve allowing Andy back in the door to make it 5-5 all. But fate twisted the knife in again as the two men went into the tiebreak, which saw Andy hopelessly outgunned by the big Canadian, losing his second clay court event quarter final, this time in 4-6, 6(3)-7.
I have to say when I read results of Andy's matches like this, I can't help but feel frustrated for him and at him, as I just keep thinking he shouldn't be losing to lower ranked players, especially as he is the world no.4. However as I've said in the past, its impossible even for the top 10 players to play consistently well in every single tournament on every surface throughout the year, so sooner or later they will get beat, just as Ferrer did last week by Thomaz Bellucci in Monte Carlo. But today for Andy, being a first meeting with Raonic, you get that the Canadian would know a whole lot more about Andy's game than Andy knows about his, and the first time you play a player can be the worst (well I don't know I'm just guessing since I don't play myself!). It was the same for Federer when he first played Raonic, as he too struggled against the big Canadian's serve, but unlike Andy, he came through the match. However Milos Raonic clearly has been and continues to be a very promising and talented player, and with a serve that big, its a nightmare for anyone to get past him (except maybe John Isner), so well done to him for his impressive effort. And I do have to say beating Andy Murray in the best of 3 is one thing, but beating him in a grand slam is quite another, and I would like to think that if it were a grand slam that next time he will get revenge, but that's for another time.
But that's the second time in so many weeks that he's lost to another big hitter, so I don't know if Andy has been reverting back to type, playing more defensive, if so, he needs to step it up more again, and become more aggressive. I sometimes think after his loss to Federer in Dubai, that his very aggressive game plan which he executed so well there and in Melbourne, kind of went down the pan, and reverted back to being a counterpuncher, but it won't guarantee him winning in the slams if he does that, so he will need to get that gameplan back in order to take it to the top 3 guys and all the other big hitters on tour. In the meantime all the best to Andy and here's hoping he can do better in Madrid and Rome before Roland Garros comes along next month, and you have to remember that clay isn't his best surface so I guess he will suffer a few more defeats on it than on hard court.
Anyway so quickly in other mens matches, Rafa won very comfortably against Janko Tipsarevic in 6-2, 6-2, and he has already showed his mastery on the clay so far this year in Monte Carlo and looks to continue to do so, as he has yet to even drop a set on the red stuff. David Ferrer however came through a much tougher test against his fellow Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, as it took Ferrer nearly three hours to dispatch Lopez, finally winning in 6-,7 7-6, 6-3. Meanwhile Fernando Verdasco had no such trouble getting past Kei Nishikori because the Japanese player was forced to retire. So that sets up two semis between Rafa and Verdasco, and Ferrer and Raonic, both which should be good, particularly the Ferrer/Raonic match. But I am gutted that it isn't Andy Murray playing instead.
Sooooo onto the ladies tour, which saw the Stuttgart WTA quarter finals matches get underway, and there was some terrific stuff on display today from the top seeds. The first match was between the World No.4 Radwanska and No.8, Li Na, and Li started out the stronger of the two, taking the first set, but after going down a break in the 2nd set, you could see Aga fight her way back in, and from then on you knew she would close it out to seal her place in the semis, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Radwanska so far in 2012 has proved to be pretty much the 2nd best player in the world, despite her No.4 ranking, she even managed to beat Sharapova in the finals in Miami to lift her biggest title to date. So next up she will face her nemesis Vika whom I have written more about her extraordinary match in the next paragraph, and Azarenka remains the only player to have beaten Aga (Agnieszka's nickname) so I'd imagine the outcome is no different, but we will see.
Now onto the aforementioned second match of the day, which was one of the best matches of the year so far, between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, and the unbelievably promising Mona Barthel, currently ranked at 35 in the world. For nearly three hours, the young German player took the best player in the world right to the wire, as the two of them shared breaks, and in the 2nd set, despite being a break down on two occassions, Barthel broke back, and ultimately pushed the set to a tiebreaker, which she won. In the 3rd it was breaks aplenty again, however at 6-5, with Barthel serving to make another breaker, she sadly brought a thrilling match to an anti-climax with a double fault, to secure Vika's place in the semis, after a gruelling epic 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 battle. Its amazing to think that with so many players ranked below Azarenka, particularly during her winning streak, that she was able to crush them, but with Barthel, ranked No.35 in the world, she was taken the distance and given a real battle in the process. And it was incredible just how many winners Barthel managed to hit throughout the match, as she blasted 62 winners, which was enough to put even Sharapova to shame. It was a shame though that Mona ended the match on a double fault, but she gave her all in that match, and it was a superb effort, and I'm sure the future will be very bright for her in the next while or so.
The next match up saw two veterans of the ladies game, Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur hammer it out on the clay, as they certainly did. In the past Sharapova had a convincing 9-1 win loss record in her favour, and most of those matches were easily won, but this one was far from easy, as the two ladies had to battle it out, and put on a high quality contest for the German crowd. The match itself only had 3 breaks of serve in it, and after a set a piece, in the 3rd it was Sharapova that took the crucial break to finally win after an exhausting 3 hour match in 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. In this match Stosur at certain points looked actually like the likely winner, but once again its testament to Sharapova's incredible determination and competitiveness that she was able to come through after such a battle. And the level of tennis once again from both women was terrific with some superb shot making from the pair of them, and again it shows just how impressive the level of the sport is becoming, in fact at times I think even the ladies tennis tennis puts the mens to shame! ;-)
And in the final match we saw the last German standing, Angelique Kerber take on the World No.3 Petra Kvitova. However this proved to be far from the long drawn epic matches that went before, as Petra had little trouble in getting past Kerber, and despite a few breaks, Petra blasted past Kerber in just over an hour, hitting many winners on the way, and showing just why she is in the top 4, winning in 6-4, 6-4. Its amazing the difference between Petra and Caroline Wozniacki in this match, as it really does show, the game boils down to the big hitters once again coming through to win the matches. And Caroline clearly isn't a big hitter, and as such struggles (as did Andy today) against players like Kerber, but Petra made easy work of the German today, and that's what it takes, it also helps when you are a grand slam champion as well of course! ;-)
Anyway so here is a rare one, and a very welcome one at that, for the first time in a while on WTA tour event, we have the top 4 players in the world, in the semi finals, which I think is great for the sport, and it would be great if they can do that more often. In the last couple of slams on the men's tour, it was the same, as all four guys got to the semis and I think it would be great if in future slams for both men and the ladies that we get the same. Its just a shame in a way that the top players dont play in these events altogther at the same time more than they use to, but that's just how it goes.
Anyway as I'm writing this my fingers are starting to seize up so I will leave it there and no doubt add more sometime soon. More will follow on the outcome of the WTA Stuttgart semis and the ATP Barcelona open semis.
Till then that's it.
Starting with the men, so I will get them out of the way, I'll start with Andy Murray's match against the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who we expected to be a stern test for the Muzza. And right enough it proved to be just that, as the 6ft 5" Canadian (same height as Berdych funnily enough, what is it with these big guys????!) made life hell for Andy as he rained down serves well over 140mph, making it tough for Andy to return. So to recap the match, in the 1st set there was one break of serve as Andy dropped serve at at 3-3, and Raonic took the advantage and ran away with the first set. In the second set Andy again went a break down at a crucial time at 4-4, handing what looked like the final break needed, but Raonic thankfully got tight on his serve allowing Andy back in the door to make it 5-5 all. But fate twisted the knife in again as the two men went into the tiebreak, which saw Andy hopelessly outgunned by the big Canadian, losing his second clay court event quarter final, this time in 4-6, 6(3)-7.
I have to say when I read results of Andy's matches like this, I can't help but feel frustrated for him and at him, as I just keep thinking he shouldn't be losing to lower ranked players, especially as he is the world no.4. However as I've said in the past, its impossible even for the top 10 players to play consistently well in every single tournament on every surface throughout the year, so sooner or later they will get beat, just as Ferrer did last week by Thomaz Bellucci in Monte Carlo. But today for Andy, being a first meeting with Raonic, you get that the Canadian would know a whole lot more about Andy's game than Andy knows about his, and the first time you play a player can be the worst (well I don't know I'm just guessing since I don't play myself!). It was the same for Federer when he first played Raonic, as he too struggled against the big Canadian's serve, but unlike Andy, he came through the match. However Milos Raonic clearly has been and continues to be a very promising and talented player, and with a serve that big, its a nightmare for anyone to get past him (except maybe John Isner), so well done to him for his impressive effort. And I do have to say beating Andy Murray in the best of 3 is one thing, but beating him in a grand slam is quite another, and I would like to think that if it were a grand slam that next time he will get revenge, but that's for another time.
But that's the second time in so many weeks that he's lost to another big hitter, so I don't know if Andy has been reverting back to type, playing more defensive, if so, he needs to step it up more again, and become more aggressive. I sometimes think after his loss to Federer in Dubai, that his very aggressive game plan which he executed so well there and in Melbourne, kind of went down the pan, and reverted back to being a counterpuncher, but it won't guarantee him winning in the slams if he does that, so he will need to get that gameplan back in order to take it to the top 3 guys and all the other big hitters on tour. In the meantime all the best to Andy and here's hoping he can do better in Madrid and Rome before Roland Garros comes along next month, and you have to remember that clay isn't his best surface so I guess he will suffer a few more defeats on it than on hard court.
Anyway so quickly in other mens matches, Rafa won very comfortably against Janko Tipsarevic in 6-2, 6-2, and he has already showed his mastery on the clay so far this year in Monte Carlo and looks to continue to do so, as he has yet to even drop a set on the red stuff. David Ferrer however came through a much tougher test against his fellow Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, as it took Ferrer nearly three hours to dispatch Lopez, finally winning in 6-,7 7-6, 6-3. Meanwhile Fernando Verdasco had no such trouble getting past Kei Nishikori because the Japanese player was forced to retire. So that sets up two semis between Rafa and Verdasco, and Ferrer and Raonic, both which should be good, particularly the Ferrer/Raonic match. But I am gutted that it isn't Andy Murray playing instead.
Sooooo onto the ladies tour, which saw the Stuttgart WTA quarter finals matches get underway, and there was some terrific stuff on display today from the top seeds. The first match was between the World No.4 Radwanska and No.8, Li Na, and Li started out the stronger of the two, taking the first set, but after going down a break in the 2nd set, you could see Aga fight her way back in, and from then on you knew she would close it out to seal her place in the semis, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Radwanska so far in 2012 has proved to be pretty much the 2nd best player in the world, despite her No.4 ranking, she even managed to beat Sharapova in the finals in Miami to lift her biggest title to date. So next up she will face her nemesis Vika whom I have written more about her extraordinary match in the next paragraph, and Azarenka remains the only player to have beaten Aga (Agnieszka's nickname) so I'd imagine the outcome is no different, but we will see.
Now onto the aforementioned second match of the day, which was one of the best matches of the year so far, between the World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, and the unbelievably promising Mona Barthel, currently ranked at 35 in the world. For nearly three hours, the young German player took the best player in the world right to the wire, as the two of them shared breaks, and in the 2nd set, despite being a break down on two occassions, Barthel broke back, and ultimately pushed the set to a tiebreaker, which she won. In the 3rd it was breaks aplenty again, however at 6-5, with Barthel serving to make another breaker, she sadly brought a thrilling match to an anti-climax with a double fault, to secure Vika's place in the semis, after a gruelling epic 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 battle. Its amazing to think that with so many players ranked below Azarenka, particularly during her winning streak, that she was able to crush them, but with Barthel, ranked No.35 in the world, she was taken the distance and given a real battle in the process. And it was incredible just how many winners Barthel managed to hit throughout the match, as she blasted 62 winners, which was enough to put even Sharapova to shame. It was a shame though that Mona ended the match on a double fault, but she gave her all in that match, and it was a superb effort, and I'm sure the future will be very bright for her in the next while or so.
The next match up saw two veterans of the ladies game, Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur hammer it out on the clay, as they certainly did. In the past Sharapova had a convincing 9-1 win loss record in her favour, and most of those matches were easily won, but this one was far from easy, as the two ladies had to battle it out, and put on a high quality contest for the German crowd. The match itself only had 3 breaks of serve in it, and after a set a piece, in the 3rd it was Sharapova that took the crucial break to finally win after an exhausting 3 hour match in 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. In this match Stosur at certain points looked actually like the likely winner, but once again its testament to Sharapova's incredible determination and competitiveness that she was able to come through after such a battle. And the level of tennis once again from both women was terrific with some superb shot making from the pair of them, and again it shows just how impressive the level of the sport is becoming, in fact at times I think even the ladies tennis tennis puts the mens to shame! ;-)
And in the final match we saw the last German standing, Angelique Kerber take on the World No.3 Petra Kvitova. However this proved to be far from the long drawn epic matches that went before, as Petra had little trouble in getting past Kerber, and despite a few breaks, Petra blasted past Kerber in just over an hour, hitting many winners on the way, and showing just why she is in the top 4, winning in 6-4, 6-4. Its amazing the difference between Petra and Caroline Wozniacki in this match, as it really does show, the game boils down to the big hitters once again coming through to win the matches. And Caroline clearly isn't a big hitter, and as such struggles (as did Andy today) against players like Kerber, but Petra made easy work of the German today, and that's what it takes, it also helps when you are a grand slam champion as well of course! ;-)
Anyway so here is a rare one, and a very welcome one at that, for the first time in a while on WTA tour event, we have the top 4 players in the world, in the semi finals, which I think is great for the sport, and it would be great if they can do that more often. In the last couple of slams on the men's tour, it was the same, as all four guys got to the semis and I think it would be great if in future slams for both men and the ladies that we get the same. Its just a shame in a way that the top players dont play in these events altogther at the same time more than they use to, but that's just how it goes.
Anyway as I'm writing this my fingers are starting to seize up so I will leave it there and no doubt add more sometime soon. More will follow on the outcome of the WTA Stuttgart semis and the ATP Barcelona open semis.
Till then that's it.
Thursday 26 April 2012
WTA/ATP Stuttgart and Barcelona Part 2: The Germans roll on and settling in on the clay
Well here's another update on the two ATP/WTA events, the Barcelona Open for the men's tour, and the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis tournament from Stuttgart for the ladies.
Starting quickly with the men there was Andy Murray out first who played against the Colombian qualifier, Santiago Giraldo, who is something of a clay court speciliast. However the Colombian didn't really show many signs of that as Andy thoroughly outplayed Giraldo, with another mighty impressive performance on the clay in Barcelona, as he dispatched his opponent with much ease in 6-1, 6-2, breaking twice in both sets, although he did allow Giraldo to break back at one point in the 2nd, but it was short lived and Andy went on to close the match out.
This really was a very impressive effort from Andy, and it was also a big improvement on service as despite a small wobble in the 2nd set where he dropped serve, his 1st serve percentage was about 63% for the match, which is really good. So tomorrow Andy will face a tougher challenge as he will take on the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who is working his way up the ranks, now at No.25. Raonic just dispatched the Spaniard Nicholas Almagro there in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, so it shows his potential, and I'm sure he will prove to be a very dangerous opponent for Andy, and its also their first meeting, so it will be very tough, however Andy should hopefully come through it (well he better!). But so far Andy has made a fine start to his campaign in Barcelona, and it looks so far like he is starting adjust nicely to the change of surface on the clay, so here's hoping he continues his potentially good run on the red dirt.
In other matches Rafa took on a player Robert Farah, who put in a spirited effort, as the pair of them had several tight close deuce games in both sets, but ultimately Rafa made the breakthrough and closed the match out in 6-2, 6-3. This was a pretty gutsy effort from a player ranked in the top 300, and Farah put on a performance that to an extent belied his ranking, but there was no doubt the king of clay would make it through. David Ferrer breezed past Albert Montanes in their match as he gubbed his fellow Spaniard, 6-0, 6-2, and Janko Tipsarevic also eased past the Portuguese player Frederico Gil in 6-2, 6-2. This result with set up a quarter final match for Rafa with Tipsarevic which promises to be a very good one, but no doubt the king of clay will come out on top, as he has lead their head to head 2-0.
So that's it for the men for just now, now onto the ladies tennis from Stuttgart, where there were plenty of the top seeds in action today. Starting off with Marion Bartoli, the World No.7, who played against the very talented German player (there are alot of Germans in this event!) Mona Barthel, who actually made Bartoli look very ordinary and almost dazed out on court how to deal with her, which lead to an upset victory of 6-3, 6-1, which so far ranks as the best win of Barthel's career. After that Sam Stosur played the defending champion, Julia Goerges, who naturally was feeling a touch of nerves in the 1st set as she was broken twice, but in the 2nd, Julia fought back to take it, guaranteeing a double break. But in the 3rd set, Stosur got the crucial break and served superbly to secure her first win over Julia in their three meetings, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Next up was the return of the world no.1 Victoria Azarenka, who played her first clay court match against the German No.1 player, Andrea Petkovic, who recently returned to the sport after a back inury. However after dropping the 1st set and fighting back from a break down in the 2nd to make it 4-4 all, Petko twisted her ankle and unfortunately had to retire from the match, which was a great shame as up that point it was a high quality, hard fought encounter. And Victoria was very supportive and decent in helping Andrea off the court, as clearly her ankle had swollen up from the fall, which is a real shame and here's hoping she recovers soon.
And so finally onto the last match of the day which was between the fast rising and highly talented German player, Angelique Kerber, and the former World No1, Caroline Wozniacki. Kerber two weeks ago won against Caroline for the first time in her career in Copenhagen at the E-Boks open, and in this match she obviously was in a winning frame of mind, as she taught the Wozza a lesson in how to play tennis. Caroline fighting as hard as she could wasn't able to break down Kerber's defenses and Kerber pretty much played one of the best matches of her career, hitting winners from all sorts of ridiculous angles and winning points she had no right to win. In the end Kerber closed out the match breaking Wozniacki twice in the 1st and 2nd set with a comprehensive scoreline 6-1, 6-2.
This really was a dismantling of the former world No.1 by Kerber and it was almost shocking to watch Caroline get thumped as much as she did. And it wasn't like Caroline played a bad match, she didn't, she was just thoroughly outplayed, outhit and outdone by a player who right now is playing her best tennis. And to be fair Caroline did try her best to take it to Kerber and play aggressive, but it just didn't come off on this occassion. So I really think its time Caroline went back to the drawing board and try to make adjustments to her game, as right now, quite a few players like Kerber, are just hitting right through her. And one of the Eurosport commentators, the former ladies World No.5, Joe Durie, made an excellent point, that Caroline should try and makes changes to her game, step up the aggression, and even if it makes her ranking drop, then try and work with those changes until she gets them right, and then try and work her way back up the rankings again. It would make more sense to do that, as right now if she carries on like this, she will drop very soon out of top 10 into even maybe the top 20 or 30 by the end of the year! And more to the point Caroline will end up swapping ranks with Kerber way before long, who is not far off the top 10 with the tennis she has been playing.
And Caroline who was the top seed in the Copenhagen open two weeks, failed to win there against Kerber, who is ranked No.14 in the world, and just shows you, how much she is struggling to win a title just now even against players ranked lower than her in the top 20. Its almost like unless she can play in tournaments that don't have players like Goerges, Sharapova, Kerber or any other big hitter, then doesn't have a chance of winning. But anyway that's something Caroline will need to work on throughout the year, as it stands for now, her title drowt will continue until she get's it right.
So that's it for now, more great matches to follow tomorrow, particularly from the ladies, with Radwanska taking on Li Na (should be good!), Victoria Azarenka playing Mona Barthel (yep another cracker in the offing!), Petra Kvitova vs Angelique Kerber and Sam Stosur vs Maria Sharapova. So not too shabby a line-up!
More to follow after this.
Starting quickly with the men there was Andy Murray out first who played against the Colombian qualifier, Santiago Giraldo, who is something of a clay court speciliast. However the Colombian didn't really show many signs of that as Andy thoroughly outplayed Giraldo, with another mighty impressive performance on the clay in Barcelona, as he dispatched his opponent with much ease in 6-1, 6-2, breaking twice in both sets, although he did allow Giraldo to break back at one point in the 2nd, but it was short lived and Andy went on to close the match out.
This really was a very impressive effort from Andy, and it was also a big improvement on service as despite a small wobble in the 2nd set where he dropped serve, his 1st serve percentage was about 63% for the match, which is really good. So tomorrow Andy will face a tougher challenge as he will take on the big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who is working his way up the ranks, now at No.25. Raonic just dispatched the Spaniard Nicholas Almagro there in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, so it shows his potential, and I'm sure he will prove to be a very dangerous opponent for Andy, and its also their first meeting, so it will be very tough, however Andy should hopefully come through it (well he better!). But so far Andy has made a fine start to his campaign in Barcelona, and it looks so far like he is starting adjust nicely to the change of surface on the clay, so here's hoping he continues his potentially good run on the red dirt.
In other matches Rafa took on a player Robert Farah, who put in a spirited effort, as the pair of them had several tight close deuce games in both sets, but ultimately Rafa made the breakthrough and closed the match out in 6-2, 6-3. This was a pretty gutsy effort from a player ranked in the top 300, and Farah put on a performance that to an extent belied his ranking, but there was no doubt the king of clay would make it through. David Ferrer breezed past Albert Montanes in their match as he gubbed his fellow Spaniard, 6-0, 6-2, and Janko Tipsarevic also eased past the Portuguese player Frederico Gil in 6-2, 6-2. This result with set up a quarter final match for Rafa with Tipsarevic which promises to be a very good one, but no doubt the king of clay will come out on top, as he has lead their head to head 2-0.
So that's it for the men for just now, now onto the ladies tennis from Stuttgart, where there were plenty of the top seeds in action today. Starting off with Marion Bartoli, the World No.7, who played against the very talented German player (there are alot of Germans in this event!) Mona Barthel, who actually made Bartoli look very ordinary and almost dazed out on court how to deal with her, which lead to an upset victory of 6-3, 6-1, which so far ranks as the best win of Barthel's career. After that Sam Stosur played the defending champion, Julia Goerges, who naturally was feeling a touch of nerves in the 1st set as she was broken twice, but in the 2nd, Julia fought back to take it, guaranteeing a double break. But in the 3rd set, Stosur got the crucial break and served superbly to secure her first win over Julia in their three meetings, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Next up was the return of the world no.1 Victoria Azarenka, who played her first clay court match against the German No.1 player, Andrea Petkovic, who recently returned to the sport after a back inury. However after dropping the 1st set and fighting back from a break down in the 2nd to make it 4-4 all, Petko twisted her ankle and unfortunately had to retire from the match, which was a great shame as up that point it was a high quality, hard fought encounter. And Victoria was very supportive and decent in helping Andrea off the court, as clearly her ankle had swollen up from the fall, which is a real shame and here's hoping she recovers soon.
And so finally onto the last match of the day which was between the fast rising and highly talented German player, Angelique Kerber, and the former World No1, Caroline Wozniacki. Kerber two weeks ago won against Caroline for the first time in her career in Copenhagen at the E-Boks open, and in this match she obviously was in a winning frame of mind, as she taught the Wozza a lesson in how to play tennis. Caroline fighting as hard as she could wasn't able to break down Kerber's defenses and Kerber pretty much played one of the best matches of her career, hitting winners from all sorts of ridiculous angles and winning points she had no right to win. In the end Kerber closed out the match breaking Wozniacki twice in the 1st and 2nd set with a comprehensive scoreline 6-1, 6-2.
This really was a dismantling of the former world No.1 by Kerber and it was almost shocking to watch Caroline get thumped as much as she did. And it wasn't like Caroline played a bad match, she didn't, she was just thoroughly outplayed, outhit and outdone by a player who right now is playing her best tennis. And to be fair Caroline did try her best to take it to Kerber and play aggressive, but it just didn't come off on this occassion. So I really think its time Caroline went back to the drawing board and try to make adjustments to her game, as right now, quite a few players like Kerber, are just hitting right through her. And one of the Eurosport commentators, the former ladies World No.5, Joe Durie, made an excellent point, that Caroline should try and makes changes to her game, step up the aggression, and even if it makes her ranking drop, then try and work with those changes until she gets them right, and then try and work her way back up the rankings again. It would make more sense to do that, as right now if she carries on like this, she will drop very soon out of top 10 into even maybe the top 20 or 30 by the end of the year! And more to the point Caroline will end up swapping ranks with Kerber way before long, who is not far off the top 10 with the tennis she has been playing.
And Caroline who was the top seed in the Copenhagen open two weeks, failed to win there against Kerber, who is ranked No.14 in the world, and just shows you, how much she is struggling to win a title just now even against players ranked lower than her in the top 20. Its almost like unless she can play in tournaments that don't have players like Goerges, Sharapova, Kerber or any other big hitter, then doesn't have a chance of winning. But anyway that's something Caroline will need to work on throughout the year, as it stands for now, her title drowt will continue until she get's it right.
So that's it for now, more great matches to follow tomorrow, particularly from the ladies, with Radwanska taking on Li Na (should be good!), Victoria Azarenka playing Mona Barthel (yep another cracker in the offing!), Petra Kvitova vs Angelique Kerber and Sam Stosur vs Maria Sharapova. So not too shabby a line-up!
More to follow after this.
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Food for the masses
OK now for my next post (or rather this one) I am doing an update on the latest episode of The Apprentice. This time the two teams, had to come up with quality food they could sell on the streets of Edinburgh, the food wasn't to be too cheap in quality or bog standard pies, rolls and sausage etc.
So the two teams Sterling (lead by Jenna) and Phoenix (lead by Adam) came up with their ideas of what to sell, with team Sterling coming up with the idea of doing a beef cassarole, and Phoenix doing an Italian meatball dish. Adam went against Lord Sugar's instructions to sell good quality food, and went for cheap low quality meat, which they decided to sell at a football match. Now you would think the last thing that football fans would want during the day and on the interval of a match, would be an Italian meatball dish, so needless to say they didn't sell well at the match and they over priced the food as well at £5.99. Team Sterling however chose to sell their cassarole, which was of better quality on the city centre streets, although it was revealed that they spent alot of money on the ingredients and making the food. And after the botched attempt at selling at the football match, Adam moved his team to try and find customers on a tour bus, and they tried to entice them to come along and taste their food, which also backfired, but they did eventually sell some of their food in the city centre.
When it came to the boardroom Lord Sugar after getting the usual feel of what the two teams came up and asked the inevitable "good team leader???" questions, he got down to the numbers and it was revealed that it was a close call between the two teams, with team Sterling narrowly taking more profit than Phoenix by £20. Back in the boardroom, the team leader Adam decided to bring Katie and Azhar back in with him, as he felt with Katie that she made a bad decision in deciding to try and sell the food at the football match which cost them alot of time and money, and Azhar didn't contribute much to the overall task. However despite Azhar's quiet nature and alleged lack of contribution, he did defend himself well in the boardroom when saying why he shouldn't be fired. And Adam despite bungling the task somewhat also managed to get off due to his energetic and enthusiastic nature which saved him from the firing line, which left Katie who after being in the boardroom three times in the bottom three, was finally let go by Lord Sugar.
I have to say though once again that I'm not sure I agree with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Katie, and throughout the process I think she was used as a bit of scapegoat for the failure of the tasks. However on this occasion, her contribution unfortunately really did cost the task, as they simply wasted too much time in trying to sell the food in the wrong places. And Adam for me mismanaged the task quite badly in this one, and he lost sight of what was going on, as he was much more concerned with trying to keep the costs of the food production low, so that way they could sell more at a cheaper price, but £5.99 certainly wasn't cheap. So in my opinion Adam probably should have went instead, and I have to say there are times where he really doesn't have a clue and comes across a real numpty, which is probably why they have kept him in, as he makes for amusing telly. As for Azkhar I think while his lack of contribution was an issue, he was quite articulate in his defence in the boardroom, which is crucial if the candidates wish to stay in the process, so fair enough and he might show more potential in future episodes.
So that's us down to 10 in the process now, and another episode awaits, which at this point I'm not quite sure what the next task is, but no doubt we will find out soon.
And on that note, that's it the now. Now get out of my shop!
So the two teams Sterling (lead by Jenna) and Phoenix (lead by Adam) came up with their ideas of what to sell, with team Sterling coming up with the idea of doing a beef cassarole, and Phoenix doing an Italian meatball dish. Adam went against Lord Sugar's instructions to sell good quality food, and went for cheap low quality meat, which they decided to sell at a football match. Now you would think the last thing that football fans would want during the day and on the interval of a match, would be an Italian meatball dish, so needless to say they didn't sell well at the match and they over priced the food as well at £5.99. Team Sterling however chose to sell their cassarole, which was of better quality on the city centre streets, although it was revealed that they spent alot of money on the ingredients and making the food. And after the botched attempt at selling at the football match, Adam moved his team to try and find customers on a tour bus, and they tried to entice them to come along and taste their food, which also backfired, but they did eventually sell some of their food in the city centre.
When it came to the boardroom Lord Sugar after getting the usual feel of what the two teams came up and asked the inevitable "good team leader???" questions, he got down to the numbers and it was revealed that it was a close call between the two teams, with team Sterling narrowly taking more profit than Phoenix by £20. Back in the boardroom, the team leader Adam decided to bring Katie and Azhar back in with him, as he felt with Katie that she made a bad decision in deciding to try and sell the food at the football match which cost them alot of time and money, and Azhar didn't contribute much to the overall task. However despite Azhar's quiet nature and alleged lack of contribution, he did defend himself well in the boardroom when saying why he shouldn't be fired. And Adam despite bungling the task somewhat also managed to get off due to his energetic and enthusiastic nature which saved him from the firing line, which left Katie who after being in the boardroom three times in the bottom three, was finally let go by Lord Sugar.
I have to say though once again that I'm not sure I agree with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Katie, and throughout the process I think she was used as a bit of scapegoat for the failure of the tasks. However on this occasion, her contribution unfortunately really did cost the task, as they simply wasted too much time in trying to sell the food in the wrong places. And Adam for me mismanaged the task quite badly in this one, and he lost sight of what was going on, as he was much more concerned with trying to keep the costs of the food production low, so that way they could sell more at a cheaper price, but £5.99 certainly wasn't cheap. So in my opinion Adam probably should have went instead, and I have to say there are times where he really doesn't have a clue and comes across a real numpty, which is probably why they have kept him in, as he makes for amusing telly. As for Azkhar I think while his lack of contribution was an issue, he was quite articulate in his defence in the boardroom, which is crucial if the candidates wish to stay in the process, so fair enough and he might show more potential in future episodes.
So that's us down to 10 in the process now, and another episode awaits, which at this point I'm not quite sure what the next task is, but no doubt we will find out soon.
And on that note, that's it the now. Now get out of my shop!
WTA and ATP how about that?????
OK here's a mixed post of tennis for a change with updates from the WTA Porsche Grand Prix tennis event from Stuttgart a Premier event level, and the Barcelone open on the ATP tour, an ATP 500 level event (basically they are both about the same in terms of points, WTA is 470).
Starting with the ATP tour, there were some of the seeds in the Barcelona open that withdrew, one of which was Tomas Berdych who had sustained a shoulder injury, as well as Radek Stepanek with a stomach virus and Juan Ignacio Chela, the Argentine, with an achilles tendon injury. However there was plenty of action yesterday and the No.2 seed and World No.4, starting with Andy Murray who was in action and he took on the talented Ukraine player Sergiy Stakhovsky, but he easily dimissed him in straight sets, putting on a masterful display, winning in 6-3, 6-2.
This sounds like a similar display that Andy put on at the start of Monte Carlo, although his serve was inevitably only about 50%, but the rest of his game was great, and sounds like the best to start his campaign in Barcelona. Its also great that he was able to play in Barcelona this year, as last year he had to withdraw before the event with an elbow injury. And the more matches Andy can get on clay the better, as he said himself its his least best surface and it takes him time to adapt to it. But its a very impressive start all the same and here's hoping he can improve on his mixed performance from last week in Monte Carlo. Although next up he could face Robin Haase from the Netherlands, who is a dangerous player and gave Andy quite a scare in their last meeting at the US Open, where Andy came back from two sets to love down, but in the best of 3 on the tour, he won't have that luxury, so he will need to turn it around quicker if he is to lose the opening set, but that's yet to come.
Onto other men's matches, some of the other top seeds made it through, Fernando Verdasco, the former 2010 champion eased through against Steven Darcie from Belgium (who played in the Davis cup at Braehead arena earlier this month) in 6-3, 6-1. And Nicholas Almagro also made it through although he had a tougher encounter against the Frenchman Eduardo Roger-Vasselin, but he eventually won in 7-5, 7-6(3). And upcoming upstart (sorry!) Bernard Tomic from Aussie, made it through with fair ease against the Latvian player, Ernests Gulbis in 6-3, 6-4. Being a home event for the Spaniards, you can expect them to do very well here and I'm sure they will be really tough to get past here. Today however we see two of the top three seeds out today, with Rafa taking on fellow Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (who took out Andy Murray earlier this year in Indian Wells), but I'm sure he will have no troubles against him. And David Ferrer I'm sure with have a potential doddle of match against the young wildcard Serbian player, Filip Krajinovic, who is ranked 789 in the world! But these lower ranked players, even as low as the top 800 can surprise you, but I'm positive Ferrer will come through.
As for Novak Djokovic here is a brief update as he has confirmed that he won't be playing in the Serbia Open next week, as he has said he wishes to take some time out, following the news of his grandfather's death. And its hard to argue with his decision as last week Novak was clearly struggling in his matches after hearing the news, but he still fought gutsily to the final in Monte Carlo, even though he lost. So its understandable that we won't see Novak for a while on the tour, and I hope he comes back soon.
Soooo onto the ladies, which so far has proved to be a very good tournament, and there is a real mouth watering setup at this event as all of the top 8 seeds will be in action at this event, or should I say the top 8 players in the world. Starting with Sam Stosur, the World No.5, and reigning US Open champion, who took on the Chinese No.2, Peng Shuai, and Stosur had quite an easy match as she dispatched Peng in 6-2, 6-2. Marion Bartoli the French No.1, similarly had an easy match, taking out the wildcard Iveta Benesova in 6-3, 6-2 and Li Na toughed it out against the Czeck, Lucie Safarova winning in 7-6, 6-4.
Which brings me onto the German home favourites, starting with Angelique Kerber, who is now currently the German No.2 ranked player at No.14 (Petkovic is the No.1 German at World No.12), who really has come into her own in the last year or so, and already has won 2 WTA titles this year. Kerber took on the Italian player Roberta Vinci anc convincingly dispatched her in straight sets in 6-2, 6-3 (a popular scoreline! or 3 and 2!) . Meanwhile the defending champion Julia Goerges had to tough out a very difficult opening match against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (now there's a name!). Going into the tournament as the defending champion clearly showed that Julia had a touch of nerves and she dropped the opening set, and made a rash of unforced errors, clearly putting the ball long or wide on many ocassions. However she regrouped and in the 2nd she got a key break to take the set, and in the 3rd once again she made the vital break, and closed out the match in 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. And finally Andrea Petkovic, who has been out of the game for a few months with a lower back injury made a winning return against her fellow German player, Kristina Barrois in 6-1, 6-4. However Petko's next opponent will prove to be the toughest as she is up against the world no.1, Victoria Azarenka, who has only been beaten once this year, so has a 26-1 record in 2012 so far. But Petkovic is no shrinking violet and is a powerful and aggressive baseline player, so I'm sure it promises to be quite a good match, although Azarenka could scoosh it, but I hope not.
Later today there will be more great tennis, as more of the top seeds will play each other, with Ana Ivanovic playing a potential very tough German opponent, the up and coming Mona Barthel (the lassie with very bad acne). Agnieszka Radwanska in her first match, will take on Greta Arn and Maria Sharapova will play her debut match against Alize Cornet. However the day will end with a mouth watering set up between the former World no.1's, Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic. This promises to be a really good one, but I would favour Caroline to win it, as she has won their last few meetings. However Jankovic has played a key part in securing Serbia's first final in the Fed Cup, which they made there at the weekend, so she might be feeling more inspired, so we shall see, but it promises to a very good one.
So a quick though on who is going to win the title in Stuttgart???? (because the winner of the Barcelona Open on the men's is a no-brainer!). To be honest my favourite is Angelique Kerber, as she really is making a name for herself, and she is fast rising, and she also has home advantage, and no doubt she will soon become a top 10 player. And despite the fact there are many players ranked higher than her, and you could say Radwanska and Azarenka are firm favourites (especially as Radwanska has only been defeated by Azarenka this year), I think Kerber will have the most inspiration being on home soil, but we will find out soon enough.
OK so that's it for now, more to follow on the mens and ladies later.
Starting with the ATP tour, there were some of the seeds in the Barcelona open that withdrew, one of which was Tomas Berdych who had sustained a shoulder injury, as well as Radek Stepanek with a stomach virus and Juan Ignacio Chela, the Argentine, with an achilles tendon injury. However there was plenty of action yesterday and the No.2 seed and World No.4, starting with Andy Murray who was in action and he took on the talented Ukraine player Sergiy Stakhovsky, but he easily dimissed him in straight sets, putting on a masterful display, winning in 6-3, 6-2.
This sounds like a similar display that Andy put on at the start of Monte Carlo, although his serve was inevitably only about 50%, but the rest of his game was great, and sounds like the best to start his campaign in Barcelona. Its also great that he was able to play in Barcelona this year, as last year he had to withdraw before the event with an elbow injury. And the more matches Andy can get on clay the better, as he said himself its his least best surface and it takes him time to adapt to it. But its a very impressive start all the same and here's hoping he can improve on his mixed performance from last week in Monte Carlo. Although next up he could face Robin Haase from the Netherlands, who is a dangerous player and gave Andy quite a scare in their last meeting at the US Open, where Andy came back from two sets to love down, but in the best of 3 on the tour, he won't have that luxury, so he will need to turn it around quicker if he is to lose the opening set, but that's yet to come.
Onto other men's matches, some of the other top seeds made it through, Fernando Verdasco, the former 2010 champion eased through against Steven Darcie from Belgium (who played in the Davis cup at Braehead arena earlier this month) in 6-3, 6-1. And Nicholas Almagro also made it through although he had a tougher encounter against the Frenchman Eduardo Roger-Vasselin, but he eventually won in 7-5, 7-6(3). And upcoming upstart (sorry!) Bernard Tomic from Aussie, made it through with fair ease against the Latvian player, Ernests Gulbis in 6-3, 6-4. Being a home event for the Spaniards, you can expect them to do very well here and I'm sure they will be really tough to get past here. Today however we see two of the top three seeds out today, with Rafa taking on fellow Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (who took out Andy Murray earlier this year in Indian Wells), but I'm sure he will have no troubles against him. And David Ferrer I'm sure with have a potential doddle of match against the young wildcard Serbian player, Filip Krajinovic, who is ranked 789 in the world! But these lower ranked players, even as low as the top 800 can surprise you, but I'm positive Ferrer will come through.
As for Novak Djokovic here is a brief update as he has confirmed that he won't be playing in the Serbia Open next week, as he has said he wishes to take some time out, following the news of his grandfather's death. And its hard to argue with his decision as last week Novak was clearly struggling in his matches after hearing the news, but he still fought gutsily to the final in Monte Carlo, even though he lost. So its understandable that we won't see Novak for a while on the tour, and I hope he comes back soon.
Soooo onto the ladies, which so far has proved to be a very good tournament, and there is a real mouth watering setup at this event as all of the top 8 seeds will be in action at this event, or should I say the top 8 players in the world. Starting with Sam Stosur, the World No.5, and reigning US Open champion, who took on the Chinese No.2, Peng Shuai, and Stosur had quite an easy match as she dispatched Peng in 6-2, 6-2. Marion Bartoli the French No.1, similarly had an easy match, taking out the wildcard Iveta Benesova in 6-3, 6-2 and Li Na toughed it out against the Czeck, Lucie Safarova winning in 7-6, 6-4.
Which brings me onto the German home favourites, starting with Angelique Kerber, who is now currently the German No.2 ranked player at No.14 (Petkovic is the No.1 German at World No.12), who really has come into her own in the last year or so, and already has won 2 WTA titles this year. Kerber took on the Italian player Roberta Vinci anc convincingly dispatched her in straight sets in 6-2, 6-3 (a popular scoreline! or 3 and 2!) . Meanwhile the defending champion Julia Goerges had to tough out a very difficult opening match against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (now there's a name!). Going into the tournament as the defending champion clearly showed that Julia had a touch of nerves and she dropped the opening set, and made a rash of unforced errors, clearly putting the ball long or wide on many ocassions. However she regrouped and in the 2nd she got a key break to take the set, and in the 3rd once again she made the vital break, and closed out the match in 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. And finally Andrea Petkovic, who has been out of the game for a few months with a lower back injury made a winning return against her fellow German player, Kristina Barrois in 6-1, 6-4. However Petko's next opponent will prove to be the toughest as she is up against the world no.1, Victoria Azarenka, who has only been beaten once this year, so has a 26-1 record in 2012 so far. But Petkovic is no shrinking violet and is a powerful and aggressive baseline player, so I'm sure it promises to be quite a good match, although Azarenka could scoosh it, but I hope not.
Later today there will be more great tennis, as more of the top seeds will play each other, with Ana Ivanovic playing a potential very tough German opponent, the up and coming Mona Barthel (the lassie with very bad acne). Agnieszka Radwanska in her first match, will take on Greta Arn and Maria Sharapova will play her debut match against Alize Cornet. However the day will end with a mouth watering set up between the former World no.1's, Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic. This promises to be a really good one, but I would favour Caroline to win it, as she has won their last few meetings. However Jankovic has played a key part in securing Serbia's first final in the Fed Cup, which they made there at the weekend, so she might be feeling more inspired, so we shall see, but it promises to a very good one.
So a quick though on who is going to win the title in Stuttgart???? (because the winner of the Barcelona Open on the men's is a no-brainer!). To be honest my favourite is Angelique Kerber, as she really is making a name for herself, and she is fast rising, and she also has home advantage, and no doubt she will soon become a top 10 player. And despite the fact there are many players ranked higher than her, and you could say Radwanska and Azarenka are firm favourites (especially as Radwanska has only been defeated by Azarenka this year), I think Kerber will have the most inspiration being on home soil, but we will find out soon enough.
OK so that's it for now, more to follow on the mens and ladies later.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Busting the moves
Well here's a late update on the fifth episode of The Apprentice series 8, which saw both teams this time being asked to come up with a gym workout program, which they can sell to gyms.
So the two teams, Sterling, this time lead by Ricky, and Phoenix, which was lead by Stephen (Phoenix) had to come up with ideas for the program. Ricky for team Sterling came up with the idea of combining dance moves with martial arts, and the promotional video they filmed for program was directed by Duane, and starred Laura, who headed up the workout moves. Meanwhile team Phoenix came up with the idea of a 1980s themed workout program, complete with space hoppers and hula hoops, and their promo video featured Azhar as the instructor. The two teams then approached retailers with their sales pitches and promo videos, where Ricky's professional pitches were appreciated, but their video was disliked by the retailers. And in team Phoenix, the team leader, Stephen, messed up on the costing of his workout accessories, but they liked their video.
In the boardroom however it was all about which team made the most profit, and in the end it turned while team Sterling had orders from two gyms for over £7000, team Phoenix had one order for over £12000, which meant they won the task. Ricky then decided to bring Duane back in the boardroom for his poor direction of the promo video, and Laura for not showing the combat moves along with the dance ones. However after quite a debate between the three team members, Lord Sugar decided to fire Duane, as he ultimately blamed him for the failure of the task. Meanwhile however Lord Sugar decided to let Laura stay as he wasn't convinced that Ricky made the right decision bringing her back into the boardroom, and Ricky was kept in because of his capable performance so far in the process.
To be honest I'm not sure that Lord Sugar fired the right person this time, as Duane was a very capable candidate, and he had a better attitude than Ricky, who has so far been very arrogant, but it does appear the arrogant guys do go further in the process, as we have seen in the past. Duane however did show signs of becoming defensive when his decisions were challenged, and that he really wasn't that prepared to listen to other people when given feedback. And while I do think that she should remain in the process, I'm not overly keen on Laura, as she comes across as a bit of a nippy sweety, and her Glasgow accent at times is a bit grating and shrill on the ears. But Lord Sugar clearly wasn't impressed with Ricky's decisions to bring in the two creative people in the task rather than the others on the team who sat in the background, but it does have to be said that the failure of the task did boil down to Duane, and that's that.
So that's another episode done with, next up the two teams have to sell food out on the streets of Edinburgh, and no doubt it will be all about who profits the most, so more on that later in the week.
And that's it for nowww.
So the two teams, Sterling, this time lead by Ricky, and Phoenix, which was lead by Stephen (Phoenix) had to come up with ideas for the program. Ricky for team Sterling came up with the idea of combining dance moves with martial arts, and the promotional video they filmed for program was directed by Duane, and starred Laura, who headed up the workout moves. Meanwhile team Phoenix came up with the idea of a 1980s themed workout program, complete with space hoppers and hula hoops, and their promo video featured Azhar as the instructor. The two teams then approached retailers with their sales pitches and promo videos, where Ricky's professional pitches were appreciated, but their video was disliked by the retailers. And in team Phoenix, the team leader, Stephen, messed up on the costing of his workout accessories, but they liked their video.
In the boardroom however it was all about which team made the most profit, and in the end it turned while team Sterling had orders from two gyms for over £7000, team Phoenix had one order for over £12000, which meant they won the task. Ricky then decided to bring Duane back in the boardroom for his poor direction of the promo video, and Laura for not showing the combat moves along with the dance ones. However after quite a debate between the three team members, Lord Sugar decided to fire Duane, as he ultimately blamed him for the failure of the task. Meanwhile however Lord Sugar decided to let Laura stay as he wasn't convinced that Ricky made the right decision bringing her back into the boardroom, and Ricky was kept in because of his capable performance so far in the process.
To be honest I'm not sure that Lord Sugar fired the right person this time, as Duane was a very capable candidate, and he had a better attitude than Ricky, who has so far been very arrogant, but it does appear the arrogant guys do go further in the process, as we have seen in the past. Duane however did show signs of becoming defensive when his decisions were challenged, and that he really wasn't that prepared to listen to other people when given feedback. And while I do think that she should remain in the process, I'm not overly keen on Laura, as she comes across as a bit of a nippy sweety, and her Glasgow accent at times is a bit grating and shrill on the ears. But Lord Sugar clearly wasn't impressed with Ricky's decisions to bring in the two creative people in the task rather than the others on the team who sat in the background, but it does have to be said that the failure of the task did boil down to Duane, and that's that.
So that's another episode done with, next up the two teams have to sell food out on the streets of Edinburgh, and no doubt it will be all about who profits the most, so more on that later in the week.
And that's it for nowww.
Its not human.... yet
Ok for a change from the tennis marathon I thought I would do a post on another film, this time its the prequel of the classic 1982 sci-fi horror film, The Thing, which was very much anticipated by fans of the original, so here's more on the plot (SPOILERS ahead!!).
The film starts with a Norwegian survey team out in the Antarctic back in 1982, who come across an alien spaceship embedded deep in the ice. Back in the US, a paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is recruited by Dr Sander Halvorsen (Ulrich Thomsen) and his assistant Adam Finch (Eric Christian Olsen) to go to the Antarctic to investiage the team's findings, to which Kate agrees. On arriving, the Norwegian team show Kate the alien spaceship and also what appears to be a surviving alien which is embedded in a block of ice. The team take the block of ice back to the base, where Sander orders for a tissue sample of the alien to be taken, against the advice of Kate. Later that night the alien bursts free from the block of ice, and soon runs rampant round the camp, and starts to kill off the team members, but they manage to burn it before it kills anyone else. On performing an autopsy on the alien they discover that it has absorbed the team mate Henrik, and Kate suggests that the thing was digesting his cells and trying to shape them to his body. As some of the team leave in a chopper to get outside help, Kate in the base stumbles across some fillings and blood in the shower, she then runs out to wave the chopper down. However as the pilot Carter (Joel Edgerton) turns the chopper back to land, one of the crew turns into a thing and attacks one of the men, the chopper then goes down.
With no way out of the base, Kate tells the others in camp of her theory that the thing is capable of imitating a human being and has presumably already imitated some of the men. Kate suggests that they peform blood tests to check who is human and who isn't, however the test lab is sabotaged. On finding the lab burnt in a fire, Kate then says there is another way to check who's human, as she spotted with the fillings, that the thing is unable to imitate non-organic objects, so she checks the men's teeth to see who has fillings or not. However some members such as Sander and Adam don't have fillings so Kate has them put under watch, but as this happens Carter and Derek return to the base, and they suspected straight away, and the paranoia reaches its limits as the men start to argue with each other, and one of the team Peder, threatens to burn Carter and Derek, but Derek shoots him dead, but Peder's flamethrower pack ignites, which causes an explosion, knocking one of the men, Edvard unconscious, who is dragged into the rec room by the others for treatment, but he then transforms into the thing. In the ensuing chaos the thing assimilates Adam and escapes (this is of course the two headed monster whom we see the burned remains in John Carpenter's film). Later Kate and Carter join forces after burning Derek who was stabbed by one of the thing's tentacles and Jonas who was also infected by one of the thing's tentacles. They try to locate Sander, who has become infected as well, and follow him back to the alien spaceship where they intend to destroy the thing once and for all.
Right off you can't expect this prequel to live up to the expectations of the 1982 classic, but The Thing (2011) is by no means a bad film, in fact I'd almost say it was good. And one of the film's main strengths is the way in which is plots the events that lead up to the Carpenter, and it does it very well. Character wise perhaps though there are too many in the film, way more than in the Carpenter film (where there was only 12), and its hard to identify with them in the same way, as there is no way each character has enough time on screen to be given any development. However Kate as the main character in the film works very well and she is almost like Ellen Ripley, who is thrown into a horrific situation and tries her best to survive it. Although it does make you wonder what happens to her after the end of the film as its almost like she is just a character device for the film, but who knows what becomes of her after, but I'd imagine they are deliberately leaving her fate as being ambiguous.
However if the film does have any flaws then of course it is that for one thing (pardon the pun) its monster CGI effects aren't the best, and while some of them are not bad, overall you just get the Thing is just a samey looking creature, it becomes just a messy mish-mash of limbs and twisted faces, which lacks the gross individuality of the Things seen in Carpenter's film. Also gore wise, the effects don't have an organic feel like Rob Bottin's had, which were dripping deep red goo, blood and guts, which of course is what made the 1982 classic so effective and stomach churning. Here the effects look not too bad, and the two-headed monster is one of the better creature effects in the film, but one at the end is almost laughable (with Sanders head!). And the thing creatures also lack the intelligence and sutble ambiguity of the ones in John Carpetner's movie, as you really don't know who and what sabotages events in 1982 remake, but here the thing is all too quick to reveal itself in its host and from that point of view the creature lacks the same suspense than the remake, as at times its just like another run of the mill monster movie. However the effects team do deserve some credit for their effort in re-imaging the Thing's horrific and ambivalent appearance. And another flaw is in certain scenes it borrows heavily from the 1982 classic, with the blood test, and the scene where they burn the things (done almost in the same style). Also the inside of the thing's spaceship is very similar to the alien spaceship from the film Alien (and interior corridors look almost like the cocooned ones in Aliens!). Nowadays that is something that runs through film franchises, such as Predators and Alien, they just keep borrowing from what went before, which you can expect, but sometimes they can borrow a bit too much.
Performance wise here things (pun again!) aren't too bad, most of the Norwegian crew members are ably performed by the actors. However Mary Elizabeth Winstead's main performance is very good, as she plays Kate Lloyd, nervously at first, but she soon takes charge of the situation, as it all goes thing shaped, and its funny how she has matured nicely since I last watched her in Die Hard 4.0, in short, she's still very nice. By the end you clearly see how she is almost numbed by her experience, after having burned so many infected crewmembers, you just know she will either not escape from there, or if she does, and isn't infected, her life will never be the same.
Score wise just briefly Marco Beltrami, who has scored many films in the past, does a good job here, building up some suspense, and yeah ok there is a little bit of the Ennio Morricone sinister synth also. And the director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. has done a good job in bringing the complicated and creepy beast back to the big screen, and throughout he manages to maintain a fair sense of unease and dread, even though it lacks the overall intensity of the Carpenter film.
Sooooooooo that's it for The Thing analysis, I should really do one for the 1982 version, which it has to be said is far superior. But as far as it goes, The Thing isn't a bad film at all, and its worth a watch, even if you are curious to see it, and if you go into without too much high expectation, then you are sure to enjoy it.
Till then that's it for now.
The film starts with a Norwegian survey team out in the Antarctic back in 1982, who come across an alien spaceship embedded deep in the ice. Back in the US, a paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is recruited by Dr Sander Halvorsen (Ulrich Thomsen) and his assistant Adam Finch (Eric Christian Olsen) to go to the Antarctic to investiage the team's findings, to which Kate agrees. On arriving, the Norwegian team show Kate the alien spaceship and also what appears to be a surviving alien which is embedded in a block of ice. The team take the block of ice back to the base, where Sander orders for a tissue sample of the alien to be taken, against the advice of Kate. Later that night the alien bursts free from the block of ice, and soon runs rampant round the camp, and starts to kill off the team members, but they manage to burn it before it kills anyone else. On performing an autopsy on the alien they discover that it has absorbed the team mate Henrik, and Kate suggests that the thing was digesting his cells and trying to shape them to his body. As some of the team leave in a chopper to get outside help, Kate in the base stumbles across some fillings and blood in the shower, she then runs out to wave the chopper down. However as the pilot Carter (Joel Edgerton) turns the chopper back to land, one of the crew turns into a thing and attacks one of the men, the chopper then goes down.
With no way out of the base, Kate tells the others in camp of her theory that the thing is capable of imitating a human being and has presumably already imitated some of the men. Kate suggests that they peform blood tests to check who is human and who isn't, however the test lab is sabotaged. On finding the lab burnt in a fire, Kate then says there is another way to check who's human, as she spotted with the fillings, that the thing is unable to imitate non-organic objects, so she checks the men's teeth to see who has fillings or not. However some members such as Sander and Adam don't have fillings so Kate has them put under watch, but as this happens Carter and Derek return to the base, and they suspected straight away, and the paranoia reaches its limits as the men start to argue with each other, and one of the team Peder, threatens to burn Carter and Derek, but Derek shoots him dead, but Peder's flamethrower pack ignites, which causes an explosion, knocking one of the men, Edvard unconscious, who is dragged into the rec room by the others for treatment, but he then transforms into the thing. In the ensuing chaos the thing assimilates Adam and escapes (this is of course the two headed monster whom we see the burned remains in John Carpenter's film). Later Kate and Carter join forces after burning Derek who was stabbed by one of the thing's tentacles and Jonas who was also infected by one of the thing's tentacles. They try to locate Sander, who has become infected as well, and follow him back to the alien spaceship where they intend to destroy the thing once and for all.
Right off you can't expect this prequel to live up to the expectations of the 1982 classic, but The Thing (2011) is by no means a bad film, in fact I'd almost say it was good. And one of the film's main strengths is the way in which is plots the events that lead up to the Carpenter, and it does it very well. Character wise perhaps though there are too many in the film, way more than in the Carpenter film (where there was only 12), and its hard to identify with them in the same way, as there is no way each character has enough time on screen to be given any development. However Kate as the main character in the film works very well and she is almost like Ellen Ripley, who is thrown into a horrific situation and tries her best to survive it. Although it does make you wonder what happens to her after the end of the film as its almost like she is just a character device for the film, but who knows what becomes of her after, but I'd imagine they are deliberately leaving her fate as being ambiguous.
However if the film does have any flaws then of course it is that for one thing (pardon the pun) its monster CGI effects aren't the best, and while some of them are not bad, overall you just get the Thing is just a samey looking creature, it becomes just a messy mish-mash of limbs and twisted faces, which lacks the gross individuality of the Things seen in Carpenter's film. Also gore wise, the effects don't have an organic feel like Rob Bottin's had, which were dripping deep red goo, blood and guts, which of course is what made the 1982 classic so effective and stomach churning. Here the effects look not too bad, and the two-headed monster is one of the better creature effects in the film, but one at the end is almost laughable (with Sanders head!). And the thing creatures also lack the intelligence and sutble ambiguity of the ones in John Carpetner's movie, as you really don't know who and what sabotages events in 1982 remake, but here the thing is all too quick to reveal itself in its host and from that point of view the creature lacks the same suspense than the remake, as at times its just like another run of the mill monster movie. However the effects team do deserve some credit for their effort in re-imaging the Thing's horrific and ambivalent appearance. And another flaw is in certain scenes it borrows heavily from the 1982 classic, with the blood test, and the scene where they burn the things (done almost in the same style). Also the inside of the thing's spaceship is very similar to the alien spaceship from the film Alien (and interior corridors look almost like the cocooned ones in Aliens!). Nowadays that is something that runs through film franchises, such as Predators and Alien, they just keep borrowing from what went before, which you can expect, but sometimes they can borrow a bit too much.
Performance wise here things (pun again!) aren't too bad, most of the Norwegian crew members are ably performed by the actors. However Mary Elizabeth Winstead's main performance is very good, as she plays Kate Lloyd, nervously at first, but she soon takes charge of the situation, as it all goes thing shaped, and its funny how she has matured nicely since I last watched her in Die Hard 4.0, in short, she's still very nice. By the end you clearly see how she is almost numbed by her experience, after having burned so many infected crewmembers, you just know she will either not escape from there, or if she does, and isn't infected, her life will never be the same.
Score wise just briefly Marco Beltrami, who has scored many films in the past, does a good job here, building up some suspense, and yeah ok there is a little bit of the Ennio Morricone sinister synth also. And the director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. has done a good job in bringing the complicated and creepy beast back to the big screen, and throughout he manages to maintain a fair sense of unease and dread, even though it lacks the overall intensity of the Carpenter film.
Sooooooooo that's it for The Thing analysis, I should really do one for the 1982 version, which it has to be said is far superior. But as far as it goes, The Thing isn't a bad film at all, and its worth a watch, even if you are curious to see it, and if you go into without too much high expectation, then you are sure to enjoy it.
Till then that's it for now.
Sunday 22 April 2012
Monte Carlo Part 3: 8th time lucky after all!! And better luck next time GB
Welllllllll, that's the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters final over with between the world No.1 Novak Djokovic and No.2 Rafael Nadal, which saw the two men fight it out over the trophy in Monte Carlo.
The final itself was very much anticipated, and it was another chance for Rafa to seek redemption for his seven prior straight losses to Djokovic, and of course great things were expected from this match. However it wasn't quite what you would expect from the final, as from the start Djokovic, who looked very undercooked all week, mainly due to the passing away of his grandfather, didn't excel here either, as Rafa, who looked sharp as a tack, and hadn't dropped a set all week, went on to break Djokovic twice in the opening set. In the 2nd Rafa went one better and broke Djokovic twice again, however at 4-0, Rafa threw Djokovic a lifeline by dropping his serve, allowing him to break back, but in the end it made no difference, as Djokovic capitulated in gaining any momentum, and made a rash of unforced errors, to finally hand Nadal his first win over him in 8 meetings, as well as Rafa's 8th consecutive Monte Carlo title, the final score reading 6-3, 6-1.
This was a pretty underwhelming final, and clearly from the start Djokovic looked very ropey, and well below par. Obviously with his grandfather passing away this week, was a real pyschological blow to Djokovic, and he had struggled throughout the week, particularly in his matches with Dolgopolov and Berdych, as well as the windy conditions on court. But I did at least expect a bit more from the Serb and with his winning record over Nadal, you would at least think he could dig deep and find something to even level the match, but I guess it just wasn't Djoko's day. So that now marks his 3rd loss of the season already, and at this time last year, he was still on his invicible winning streak, but things change, and you can't go on winning forever. However I'm positive Djokovic will have his chances next week in the Serbia Open in his old hometown of Belgrade, which given his circumstances could prove to be a very emotional return to his old home, so the best of luck to him there.
But I am really pleased that Rafa won, as it was an important victory for him, which he really needed, especially after suffering the psychological blows he was dealt last year at the hands of Djokovic in the Masters and Grand Slam finals. But even in the Australian open we could see that Rafa had much improved from last year, and he had exorcised his demons that haunted him in 2011, so it was only a matter of time before he would secure a win over Djokovic, and I am really pleased that he did today. But that's only beginning of the clay season, and I'm sure Djokovic will improve throughout the rest of it before its over, and he will be determined to beat Nadal in the French Open.
But I think this is the start of Nadal getting his mojo back and it looks like the king of clay has finally arrived once again, and things are looking pretty good for him next week in Barcelona already, well for a start he doesn't have Djokovic playing there! But I also think that now Rafa has got that win over Djokovic that it could give him the impetus to go on a winning streak of his own, against his rival, now wouldn't that be something! But in Barcelona this week, one player will be playing there and that is Andy Murray, however there is no guarantee that Andy will get as far as the final, but I do hope that he does, as it would promise to be a good one. But Andy has yet to even reach the final of a clay court tournament so its probably a bit much to ask that he get's there, particularly as he will possibly have to face clay court specialists such as Almagro and particularly Ferrer (and he's never beaten Ferrer on clay), but you never know.
So once again a big congrats to Rafa for that much needed win against Djokovic today and it really does signal the return of the former World No.1, and just maybe he stands a chance of wrestling that No.1 spot back from Djokovic this year too, but time will tell on that.
Oh and as a very brief update on the ladies Great Britain team who played against Sweden in their Fed Cup tie over the weekend, they unfortunately did not come through this one as they lost the tie 4-1 to the hosts Sweden. On the first day, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong both lost their rubber rounds in straight sets to the singles Swede players, Sofia Arvidsson and Johanna Larsson. And today, the team Captain, Judy Murray, took a risky move and put Laura Robson, who had no prior Fed Cup match experience, to play the crucial rubber. And despite clearly being the lower ranked player, Robson put in a very gutsy performance, as she battled against the higher ranked Arvidsson and made life difficult for her, recovering from 4-0 down to make it 5-4 (in Arvidsson's favour) before losing the 1st set. However in the 2nd set, Robson found some inspiration and managed to fight back and push Arvidsson to take the set, breaking her twice. In the 3rd however, Robson was broken again by Arvidsson, and despite a valiant effort to hold serve to make it 5-3 in Arvidsson's favour, she was unable to keep the match alive any longer, as the Swede No.1 closed out the match to win the tie, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
This was a terrific effort from the young Laura Robson, who really showed incredible promise in this match, and considering how much was on the line, she put on a very ballsy performance against her opponent. The second last game of the 3rd set itself was great, as Laura managed to save 8 match points in order to hold serve to make it 5-3. And you couldn't help but feel for Laura after the match finished, she broke down in tears, as her team mates tried to console her. And despite Great Britain's loss today, they still put a good battle against their opponents over the weekend, and Laura Robson should be proud of her brave efforts. And it wasn't all bad on the last day as team GB did at least walk away with the consolation prize, with Elena Baltacha and Heather Watson winning the dead rubber in doubles with a straight sets win 7-6(3), 6-1. So at least GB avoided being totally whitewashed, and they walked away with one win and it was the last match of the day, so that's better nothing, even though its far from what they would have hoped for.
But sadly for team GB in the Fed Cup, just like the men's team in the Davis Cup, that's their involvement over with for the year, and they have failed to reach the World Group II stage and will remain, like the Davis cup GB team, in the Africa/Europe Group I, but they acquitted themselves well with some good efforts, especially today from the whole GB team. And strangely enough they lost their tie 4-1 just like the GB Davis cup team lost theirs, and they also won the doubles rubber too! Weird eh????
Well that's it for now. More soon on Barcelona and other stuff.
The final itself was very much anticipated, and it was another chance for Rafa to seek redemption for his seven prior straight losses to Djokovic, and of course great things were expected from this match. However it wasn't quite what you would expect from the final, as from the start Djokovic, who looked very undercooked all week, mainly due to the passing away of his grandfather, didn't excel here either, as Rafa, who looked sharp as a tack, and hadn't dropped a set all week, went on to break Djokovic twice in the opening set. In the 2nd Rafa went one better and broke Djokovic twice again, however at 4-0, Rafa threw Djokovic a lifeline by dropping his serve, allowing him to break back, but in the end it made no difference, as Djokovic capitulated in gaining any momentum, and made a rash of unforced errors, to finally hand Nadal his first win over him in 8 meetings, as well as Rafa's 8th consecutive Monte Carlo title, the final score reading 6-3, 6-1.
This was a pretty underwhelming final, and clearly from the start Djokovic looked very ropey, and well below par. Obviously with his grandfather passing away this week, was a real pyschological blow to Djokovic, and he had struggled throughout the week, particularly in his matches with Dolgopolov and Berdych, as well as the windy conditions on court. But I did at least expect a bit more from the Serb and with his winning record over Nadal, you would at least think he could dig deep and find something to even level the match, but I guess it just wasn't Djoko's day. So that now marks his 3rd loss of the season already, and at this time last year, he was still on his invicible winning streak, but things change, and you can't go on winning forever. However I'm positive Djokovic will have his chances next week in the Serbia Open in his old hometown of Belgrade, which given his circumstances could prove to be a very emotional return to his old home, so the best of luck to him there.
But I am really pleased that Rafa won, as it was an important victory for him, which he really needed, especially after suffering the psychological blows he was dealt last year at the hands of Djokovic in the Masters and Grand Slam finals. But even in the Australian open we could see that Rafa had much improved from last year, and he had exorcised his demons that haunted him in 2011, so it was only a matter of time before he would secure a win over Djokovic, and I am really pleased that he did today. But that's only beginning of the clay season, and I'm sure Djokovic will improve throughout the rest of it before its over, and he will be determined to beat Nadal in the French Open.
But I think this is the start of Nadal getting his mojo back and it looks like the king of clay has finally arrived once again, and things are looking pretty good for him next week in Barcelona already, well for a start he doesn't have Djokovic playing there! But I also think that now Rafa has got that win over Djokovic that it could give him the impetus to go on a winning streak of his own, against his rival, now wouldn't that be something! But in Barcelona this week, one player will be playing there and that is Andy Murray, however there is no guarantee that Andy will get as far as the final, but I do hope that he does, as it would promise to be a good one. But Andy has yet to even reach the final of a clay court tournament so its probably a bit much to ask that he get's there, particularly as he will possibly have to face clay court specialists such as Almagro and particularly Ferrer (and he's never beaten Ferrer on clay), but you never know.
So once again a big congrats to Rafa for that much needed win against Djokovic today and it really does signal the return of the former World No.1, and just maybe he stands a chance of wrestling that No.1 spot back from Djokovic this year too, but time will tell on that.
Oh and as a very brief update on the ladies Great Britain team who played against Sweden in their Fed Cup tie over the weekend, they unfortunately did not come through this one as they lost the tie 4-1 to the hosts Sweden. On the first day, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong both lost their rubber rounds in straight sets to the singles Swede players, Sofia Arvidsson and Johanna Larsson. And today, the team Captain, Judy Murray, took a risky move and put Laura Robson, who had no prior Fed Cup match experience, to play the crucial rubber. And despite clearly being the lower ranked player, Robson put in a very gutsy performance, as she battled against the higher ranked Arvidsson and made life difficult for her, recovering from 4-0 down to make it 5-4 (in Arvidsson's favour) before losing the 1st set. However in the 2nd set, Robson found some inspiration and managed to fight back and push Arvidsson to take the set, breaking her twice. In the 3rd however, Robson was broken again by Arvidsson, and despite a valiant effort to hold serve to make it 5-3 in Arvidsson's favour, she was unable to keep the match alive any longer, as the Swede No.1 closed out the match to win the tie, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
This was a terrific effort from the young Laura Robson, who really showed incredible promise in this match, and considering how much was on the line, she put on a very ballsy performance against her opponent. The second last game of the 3rd set itself was great, as Laura managed to save 8 match points in order to hold serve to make it 5-3. And you couldn't help but feel for Laura after the match finished, she broke down in tears, as her team mates tried to console her. And despite Great Britain's loss today, they still put a good battle against their opponents over the weekend, and Laura Robson should be proud of her brave efforts. And it wasn't all bad on the last day as team GB did at least walk away with the consolation prize, with Elena Baltacha and Heather Watson winning the dead rubber in doubles with a straight sets win 7-6(3), 6-1. So at least GB avoided being totally whitewashed, and they walked away with one win and it was the last match of the day, so that's better nothing, even though its far from what they would have hoped for.
But sadly for team GB in the Fed Cup, just like the men's team in the Davis Cup, that's their involvement over with for the year, and they have failed to reach the World Group II stage and will remain, like the Davis cup GB team, in the Africa/Europe Group I, but they acquitted themselves well with some good efforts, especially today from the whole GB team. And strangely enough they lost their tie 4-1 just like the GB Davis cup team lost theirs, and they also won the doubles rubber too! Weird eh????
Well that's it for now. More soon on Barcelona and other stuff.
Monte Carlo Part 2: 8th time lucky or unlucky????
Well we are now into the final of the men's Monte Carlo Rolex Masters event from Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in Monaco (well strictly in between it). And today promises to be a real cracker of a final as once again the world's two best players, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, will have it out on the red dirt to claim their right for the trophy in Monte Carlo. But here's a bit more first the men's semi finals....
To start off with we had the first semi final between Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych, who took out Andy Murray there on Friday. This match promised to be quite a tough close affair and it rightly turned out to be just that, as both players hammered it out, and they not only were fighting each other, they were also fighting against the blustery, windy conditions on court, which wreaked havoc with their serves. Djokovic particularly in the first set struggled, and his usually composed manner on court, show signs of cracking as he grew frustrated with the windy conditions, smashing his racquet angrily on the court at one point (without breaking it though), which despite after being a break up against Berdy, dropped his own serve and the Czeck broke straight back. After that Berdych broke Djokovic again and took the opening set, in the 2nd however, it was Berdy's time to struggle, and Djokovic managed to get the break and moved ahead to take the set, and in the 3rd, once again Djokovic proved too good for the big Czeck player, breaking twice and closing out the match in 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to reach his 2nd Monte Carlo final.
This definitely was a match that had its moments, and for the first half, Berdych was the better player, but Djokovic did what he always does in these situations and upped his level when he needed it the most and after winning the 2nd set, you knew there was only one winner. The blustery conditions on court however proved to be a real nightmare for both players, and even Djokovic said it was probably the toughest conditions has had played under, but in the end, it was he that managed to come through it when it mattered.
So onto the 2nd semi final which was between Rafa and the talented Frenchmen, Gilles Simon, who upset Jo-Wilfried Tsonga the other day. But this time Simon really had his work cut out against the King of Clay, who had not lost a single match in Monte Carlo in many years. And the result naturally didn't prove to be any different than what went before as Rafa stamped his authority early in the 1st set and getting the crucial break, however in the 2nd set it proved to be a tighter contest, as Simon broke back after being broken, but he still wasn't able to capitalise on his break and handed the advantage back to Rafa, who went on to close out the match in 6-3, 6-4. To be fair to Simon, he played well in this match and despite the scoreline it was tougher than it suggested, as the two of them fought on for the better part of two hours. But right from the get go, you knew there was going to be only one winner and it wasn't going to be the Frenchman.
Soooooo this sets up yet another potentially exciting clash between the World No.1 and No.2. So the big question begs to be asked: who's going to win??????? Well there are two ways to look at it, on one hand, Djokovic is the favourite from the point of view that he's beaten Rafa in their last seven meetings, and he has also beaten him on clay before, so you would be nuts to write him off here. However on the other hand, Rafa has been looking match sharp here, whereas Djokovic certainly hasn't, and Rafa has never lost a match in Monte Carlo in a long long time (probably since 2003!) and he has played his very best tennis here for many years, and so far he hasn't even dropped a set at this tournament this year. But..... in the last seven matches, what we have seen from Djokovic, particularly in their previous meeting in Melbourne, is that no matter how down and out the Serb may look, his will to win is unceasing, and you would have to say it could very likely see him through here yet again.
However.... I also do believe that somewhere along the way that something has to give for Rafa, and that Djokovic simply cannot go on winning indefinitely against him, so even if it isn't today, somewhere in the near or distant future, Rafa will get his revenge and will win. I would love to see Rafa do it today, but I'm not sure the Serb is ready just yet to lose to his rival, but Rafa has to start somewhere and why not today???? But if there is one place he really needs to do it, then that place is at the French Open, but that's a wee while away yet, in the meantime, let's look forward to today's final and wish Rafa the best of luck in his continuing quest to try and solve the Djokovic conundrum.
So that's eeeeet, I will report back after the final. :-)
To start off with we had the first semi final between Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych, who took out Andy Murray there on Friday. This match promised to be quite a tough close affair and it rightly turned out to be just that, as both players hammered it out, and they not only were fighting each other, they were also fighting against the blustery, windy conditions on court, which wreaked havoc with their serves. Djokovic particularly in the first set struggled, and his usually composed manner on court, show signs of cracking as he grew frustrated with the windy conditions, smashing his racquet angrily on the court at one point (without breaking it though), which despite after being a break up against Berdy, dropped his own serve and the Czeck broke straight back. After that Berdych broke Djokovic again and took the opening set, in the 2nd however, it was Berdy's time to struggle, and Djokovic managed to get the break and moved ahead to take the set, and in the 3rd, once again Djokovic proved too good for the big Czeck player, breaking twice and closing out the match in 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to reach his 2nd Monte Carlo final.
This definitely was a match that had its moments, and for the first half, Berdych was the better player, but Djokovic did what he always does in these situations and upped his level when he needed it the most and after winning the 2nd set, you knew there was only one winner. The blustery conditions on court however proved to be a real nightmare for both players, and even Djokovic said it was probably the toughest conditions has had played under, but in the end, it was he that managed to come through it when it mattered.
So onto the 2nd semi final which was between Rafa and the talented Frenchmen, Gilles Simon, who upset Jo-Wilfried Tsonga the other day. But this time Simon really had his work cut out against the King of Clay, who had not lost a single match in Monte Carlo in many years. And the result naturally didn't prove to be any different than what went before as Rafa stamped his authority early in the 1st set and getting the crucial break, however in the 2nd set it proved to be a tighter contest, as Simon broke back after being broken, but he still wasn't able to capitalise on his break and handed the advantage back to Rafa, who went on to close out the match in 6-3, 6-4. To be fair to Simon, he played well in this match and despite the scoreline it was tougher than it suggested, as the two of them fought on for the better part of two hours. But right from the get go, you knew there was going to be only one winner and it wasn't going to be the Frenchman.
Soooooo this sets up yet another potentially exciting clash between the World No.1 and No.2. So the big question begs to be asked: who's going to win??????? Well there are two ways to look at it, on one hand, Djokovic is the favourite from the point of view that he's beaten Rafa in their last seven meetings, and he has also beaten him on clay before, so you would be nuts to write him off here. However on the other hand, Rafa has been looking match sharp here, whereas Djokovic certainly hasn't, and Rafa has never lost a match in Monte Carlo in a long long time (probably since 2003!) and he has played his very best tennis here for many years, and so far he hasn't even dropped a set at this tournament this year. But..... in the last seven matches, what we have seen from Djokovic, particularly in their previous meeting in Melbourne, is that no matter how down and out the Serb may look, his will to win is unceasing, and you would have to say it could very likely see him through here yet again.
However.... I also do believe that somewhere along the way that something has to give for Rafa, and that Djokovic simply cannot go on winning indefinitely against him, so even if it isn't today, somewhere in the near or distant future, Rafa will get his revenge and will win. I would love to see Rafa do it today, but I'm not sure the Serb is ready just yet to lose to his rival, but Rafa has to start somewhere and why not today???? But if there is one place he really needs to do it, then that place is at the French Open, but that's a wee while away yet, in the meantime, let's look forward to today's final and wish Rafa the best of luck in his continuing quest to try and solve the Djokovic conundrum.
So that's eeeeet, I will report back after the final. :-)
Friday 20 April 2012
Monte Carlo Part 1: Seeing red on the dirt
Ah welll, I've not said a great deal this week about tennis, but I will post up something now about the men's ATP tour event, Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 1000 tournament, which seen all the tops seeds in action except for Roger Federer. This is a bit of a late one as we are now into the quarter final stages, so here's an update on that.
Starting with Novak Djokovic, who after getting off to a comfortable start, winning in straight sets against Andreis Seppi of Italy, 6-1, 6-4, faced a tougher match ahead of him with Alexandr Dolgopolov. This was actually probably one of the toughest matches Djokovic has played, not because of his opponent, but because he had learned a few hours before play, that his grandfather had passed away. Clearly struggling in the opening set, Djokovic was broken twice by Dolgopolov, but in the 2nd set he regrouped, taking it in 6-2, and in the 3rd at 4-4 all on Dogly's serve, Djoko got the break he needed to close out the match. After the match Djokovic was clearly very emotional, relieved to have won, but also crying as he walked off court, understandly.
This really was a test for Djokovic's mental strength that he was able to come through this match, and its testament to his ability as a player to come through all sorts of adversity no matter what. Clearly Djokovic was understandly under par in this match, but he still did what he needed to do in order to win it. Growing up I think Djokovic maintained a close relationship with his grandfather, and during the bombings in Serbia, it was in his grandfather's shelter that he and his family hid in. So I think he deserves alot of credit for pulling that match out of the tennis bag and dealing with his emotions as well as he did on the court, and I offer my commiserations to him and his family for his loss. Next up for Djokovic is Robin Haase, from the Netherlands, a talented player, but already Djoko is a set and a break up as I type this, so I'm sure he will close it out quite comfortably, to shift into the semi finals.
And quickly onto Rafa who is looking very comfortable so far on his favourite surface, and probably one of his favourite tournaments at Monte Carlo, having been the winner 7 times in a row there. In his first match against Jarko Nieminen, he came up against a good quality opponent, but came through in 6-4, 6-3. And in his second match, he breezed through against Mikhail Kukhushkin in just over an hour, as he flattened the Kazikstanian in 6-1, 6-1. So this sets up a quarter final match against Stan Wawrinka, which he holds a very comfy head to head against in 8-0, so you can only favour Rafa as the favourite.
Soooo this brings me onto the British Numero uno, Andy Murray, who up until today, also had a relatively straight forward entry into the quarter finals. In the 2nd round, he dispatched Viktor Troicki in a masterful performance, which his 1st serve percentage as about as high as we have seen it, in the 80% region! Troicki clearly was nowhere in the match and bowed out losing in 6-0, 6-3. In the 3rd round, Andy had a much tougher opponent in Julien Benneteau, who played very well, matching Andy point for point, but in the 11th game at 5-5 all, Benneteau fell and twisted his ankle, and after taking a lengthy medical timeout, he was forced to retire, with Andy winning in 6-5 ret. But his relatively easy progress what cut short by the big serving Czeck, Tomas Berdych, who put him to the test in a very tough encounter. In the first set, Andy struggled to hold serve and had to stave off several break points, and even a few set points, but he managed to come through and win the tiebreak. In the 2nd set however, Berdych took charge and broke Andy twice, and in the 3rd set, Berdy broke twice again, taking command of the match, leaving a very frustrated and infuriated Murray behind, winning in 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.
This was definitely a way below par match from Andy and a big disappointment, especially after how well he played during his opening match against Troicki. But his serve clearly once again deserted him, and he made all sorts of careless errors in the 2nd and 3rd sets. Berdych on the other hand looked far more solid throughout and also held his service games comfortably, only being broken once in the 3rd, but Andy let him break straight back. I guess to be fair though, Andy went into Monte Carlo with not as much time to get ready for the clay season as he would have liked, and with no matches prior to this on the clay behind him, Berdych who by then had won 4 matches on clay, was the easy favourite. And Andy was very gracious in defeat as he left a message on Facebook saying congrats to Berdych and that he played better and deserved to win, which is really good to see that he is quite sporting, and Andy is usually perceived to be a sore loser, but he really isn't. Just like people assume when he loses his rag on court and he looks to his box, that he's berating them for losing, but he's berating himself and he has said this several times in the past, yet commentators and critics are all too quick to judge him and think that he blasting abuse at his box, but that's not the case at all. Once again Andy Murray remains a man who is very much misunderstood.
However it is a letdown that he lost, and yes Andy did shows signs of his old bad habits coming back with swearing, losing the rag, and apparently samshing a racquet on court (which he rarely ever does and I didn't witness myself as I didn't see that part!). And it has to be said that is something Andy will need to work on and improve, and I just wonder what the impassive onlooking Ivan Lendl must has thought when he saw his player lose it on court. To be fair he has done a better job of that in the last year or so than in the past of keeping the heid, but every now and then, he still does let his emotions get the better of him.
But that's just the beginning of the clay season and there is more to follow, and Andy's next tournament is next week in Barcelona, and in that tournament Berdych will be playing again! However this time thankfully Andy will not be in the same half of the draw as Berdych in Barcelona, so they won't face each other unless its in the final, which I sincerely doubt as Rafa will undoubtedly be the man for that spot. So if Andy plays well enough, he will stand a good chance of reaching the final there and potentially setting up a mouth watering finale with his old rival Rafa, however he is also in the same half of the draw as Ferrer, who is no slouch on clay, and he has yet to beat him on that surface, so it will remain to be seen how it all pans out, but it would be a potentially great final if it is the Rafa and the Muzza in that last match. It would also signal the first British player to have reached a clay court event final in many years. But in the meantime here's hoping Andy can improve his performance next week on the red dirt and get back on track.
So I will leave it there! More to come on the Monte Carlo semis between Djoky and Berdych, and Rafa and Gilles Simon, but I think we know who's going to be in that final already! ;-)
Bye the now.
Starting with Novak Djokovic, who after getting off to a comfortable start, winning in straight sets against Andreis Seppi of Italy, 6-1, 6-4, faced a tougher match ahead of him with Alexandr Dolgopolov. This was actually probably one of the toughest matches Djokovic has played, not because of his opponent, but because he had learned a few hours before play, that his grandfather had passed away. Clearly struggling in the opening set, Djokovic was broken twice by Dolgopolov, but in the 2nd set he regrouped, taking it in 6-2, and in the 3rd at 4-4 all on Dogly's serve, Djoko got the break he needed to close out the match. After the match Djokovic was clearly very emotional, relieved to have won, but also crying as he walked off court, understandly.
This really was a test for Djokovic's mental strength that he was able to come through this match, and its testament to his ability as a player to come through all sorts of adversity no matter what. Clearly Djokovic was understandly under par in this match, but he still did what he needed to do in order to win it. Growing up I think Djokovic maintained a close relationship with his grandfather, and during the bombings in Serbia, it was in his grandfather's shelter that he and his family hid in. So I think he deserves alot of credit for pulling that match out of the tennis bag and dealing with his emotions as well as he did on the court, and I offer my commiserations to him and his family for his loss. Next up for Djokovic is Robin Haase, from the Netherlands, a talented player, but already Djoko is a set and a break up as I type this, so I'm sure he will close it out quite comfortably, to shift into the semi finals.
And quickly onto Rafa who is looking very comfortable so far on his favourite surface, and probably one of his favourite tournaments at Monte Carlo, having been the winner 7 times in a row there. In his first match against Jarko Nieminen, he came up against a good quality opponent, but came through in 6-4, 6-3. And in his second match, he breezed through against Mikhail Kukhushkin in just over an hour, as he flattened the Kazikstanian in 6-1, 6-1. So this sets up a quarter final match against Stan Wawrinka, which he holds a very comfy head to head against in 8-0, so you can only favour Rafa as the favourite.
Soooo this brings me onto the British Numero uno, Andy Murray, who up until today, also had a relatively straight forward entry into the quarter finals. In the 2nd round, he dispatched Viktor Troicki in a masterful performance, which his 1st serve percentage as about as high as we have seen it, in the 80% region! Troicki clearly was nowhere in the match and bowed out losing in 6-0, 6-3. In the 3rd round, Andy had a much tougher opponent in Julien Benneteau, who played very well, matching Andy point for point, but in the 11th game at 5-5 all, Benneteau fell and twisted his ankle, and after taking a lengthy medical timeout, he was forced to retire, with Andy winning in 6-5 ret. But his relatively easy progress what cut short by the big serving Czeck, Tomas Berdych, who put him to the test in a very tough encounter. In the first set, Andy struggled to hold serve and had to stave off several break points, and even a few set points, but he managed to come through and win the tiebreak. In the 2nd set however, Berdych took charge and broke Andy twice, and in the 3rd set, Berdy broke twice again, taking command of the match, leaving a very frustrated and infuriated Murray behind, winning in 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.
This was definitely a way below par match from Andy and a big disappointment, especially after how well he played during his opening match against Troicki. But his serve clearly once again deserted him, and he made all sorts of careless errors in the 2nd and 3rd sets. Berdych on the other hand looked far more solid throughout and also held his service games comfortably, only being broken once in the 3rd, but Andy let him break straight back. I guess to be fair though, Andy went into Monte Carlo with not as much time to get ready for the clay season as he would have liked, and with no matches prior to this on the clay behind him, Berdych who by then had won 4 matches on clay, was the easy favourite. And Andy was very gracious in defeat as he left a message on Facebook saying congrats to Berdych and that he played better and deserved to win, which is really good to see that he is quite sporting, and Andy is usually perceived to be a sore loser, but he really isn't. Just like people assume when he loses his rag on court and he looks to his box, that he's berating them for losing, but he's berating himself and he has said this several times in the past, yet commentators and critics are all too quick to judge him and think that he blasting abuse at his box, but that's not the case at all. Once again Andy Murray remains a man who is very much misunderstood.
However it is a letdown that he lost, and yes Andy did shows signs of his old bad habits coming back with swearing, losing the rag, and apparently samshing a racquet on court (which he rarely ever does and I didn't witness myself as I didn't see that part!). And it has to be said that is something Andy will need to work on and improve, and I just wonder what the impassive onlooking Ivan Lendl must has thought when he saw his player lose it on court. To be fair he has done a better job of that in the last year or so than in the past of keeping the heid, but every now and then, he still does let his emotions get the better of him.
But that's just the beginning of the clay season and there is more to follow, and Andy's next tournament is next week in Barcelona, and in that tournament Berdych will be playing again! However this time thankfully Andy will not be in the same half of the draw as Berdych in Barcelona, so they won't face each other unless its in the final, which I sincerely doubt as Rafa will undoubtedly be the man for that spot. So if Andy plays well enough, he will stand a good chance of reaching the final there and potentially setting up a mouth watering finale with his old rival Rafa, however he is also in the same half of the draw as Ferrer, who is no slouch on clay, and he has yet to beat him on that surface, so it will remain to be seen how it all pans out, but it would be a potentially great final if it is the Rafa and the Muzza in that last match. It would also signal the first British player to have reached a clay court event final in many years. But in the meantime here's hoping Andy can improve his performance next week on the red dirt and get back on track.
So I will leave it there! More to come on the Monte Carlo semis between Djoky and Berdych, and Rafa and Gilles Simon, but I think we know who's going to be in that final already! ;-)
Bye the now.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Die Hard Part 4: A timex watch in a digital age
OK now this is the final part of my Die Hard posts, and this will cover the latest installment in the franchise, Die Hard 4.0 (or, Live Free or Die Hard as its called in the US). So as usual why not start with a bit more about the plot...
Starting at the start, the film begins with police officer John McClane (Brucey) being order by his superior officer at the NYPD to bring in a young hacker, Matt Farrell (Justin Long) to protective custody. On finding Matt, an attempt is made on the young hacker's life, and McClane manages to get him out of there before the assassins kill him. McClane takes Matt to Washington D.C. where he will be taken into custody by the FBI, and Matt explains that he was going to be paid a large sum of money for writing some security code for Mai Linh (Maggie Q) who turns out to be one of the cyberterrorists, lead by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), who was once a DOD (Department of Defence) analyst for the Government who was dismissed after finding flaws in the security systems. On arriving in D.C. the traffic lights stop working all over the city, and traffic is grinded to a gridlock. McClane gets Matt to the FBI cyber crime division, where they talk to Depty Director, Miguel Bowman (Cliff Curtis). At this point the television networks are filled with a video compilation of the former presidents of the USA, stringing together a threatening speech from past speeches. Matt soon realises that Gabriel is planning a "firesale", which is an attack on the country's computer infrastructure, which means Gabriel will take out the nation's electricity, fuel and water supplies. Bowman has McClane and Matt escorted by agents to the FBI headquarters, but their car is intercerpted by a chopper enroute, which takes out the agent driver. McClane and Matt soon escape sight of the chopper by going into a tunnel, abandoning the car, McClane gets into another car and uses it to launch an attack on the chopper, as he revs it up and it flies up over a damaged toolboth, thereby destroying the chopper.
After this McClane with Farrell's help find out that the terrorists next target will be a power grid and they drive to a power station in West Virginia. At the station McClane takes out the team of terrorists and Mai, McClane contacts Gabriel, informing him his team and Mai are dead (who was his girlfriend), which pisses off Gabriel, who then sends by remote control, the stations gas supply into it, and McClane and Farrell narrowly escape being killed in the resulting explosion of the station. After Farrell decides to get the help of his hacker friend, the "Warlock" Freddie Klaudis (Kevin Smith) who is initially reluctant to help them, especially as McClane is a cop, but he tells them that the piece of code Farrell wrote, was part of a code that will enable Gabriel to download all personal and finanical records into a secure facility based at Woodlawn, Maryland. However Gabriel discovers and tracks Freddie's hack and speaks to McClane, and tells him that he will go after his daughter Lucy McClane (Mary Elisabeth Winstead), who he tracks by use of her mobile phone, and sends his men in to kidnap her. McClane then heads off to Woodlawn with Farrell, once they get there, McClane takes out most of Gabriel's men, however Gabriel captures Farrell, who is caught encrypting the data that Gabriel has downloaded, and he escapes with Farrell and Lucy. McClane follows them and in pirsuit kills one of Gabriel's men, driving a truck, but Gabriel is able to hack into the Military corps computers, and convinces a nearby jet fighter airpilot into believing that McClane is in fact a terrorist. The pilot launches an attack on McClane's truck, but McClane narrowly escapes by launching the truck into the aircraft, which destroys both the aircraft and the truck. McClane soon after tracks Gabriel to a warehouse, where Gabriel forces Farrell to decrypt the data, and there we have the inevitable final showdown....
Die Hard 4.0, or Live Free or Die Hard, if you like, is another enjoyable entry in the franchise, and while it isn't the strongest of the four, it definitely is more entertaining than Die Hard 2 was. It was inevitable that with ever changing technology, that Die Hard would sooner or later get to cyberterrorism, and while its hardly an original concept or plot (look no further than the James Bond film, Goldeneye, and you will see the plot is very similar!) the film is still very enjoyable. In Die Hard 4.0 we see John McClane is becoming more and more out of touch with technology, as he clearly is an old school guy, and is very wary throughout of all technical jargon he faces from Farrell. In fact there times where McClane's character is almost overly simplified because for him its all absolutes, as he says things like "I'm gonna find the bad guy and kill him, and get my daughter" or "how about I find you, kick your ass out of your own party!". However that is pretty much the essence of McClane's character, as Gabriel points out at one stage that he is "a timex watch in a digital age", he's a dinosaur in modern age.
However character wise, Die Hard 4.0 has quite a lot going for it, Bruce Willis once again as McClane is as reliable and likeable as he usually is, and his over protectiveness of his daughter is quite amusing, especially at the start when he spies on his daughter Lucy making out with a guy in a car, and he pulls the guy out of the car, and Lucy accuses him of spying on her, and McClane defensively says "I wasn't spying on you!". He also has the odd moment of personal reflection where he says to Farrell how his life isn't all that great that way it has worked out, being divorced from his wife Holly, and that its up to him to do what he has to do to keep Farrell alive and safe.
Matt Farrell played by Justin Long is not a bad character, although there are a few scenes where he does annoy me, one which is where he berates McClane for listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", and says it "I'd rather have a pine cone shoved up my ass than listen to this!". However at the start you hear the crappy Goth metal pish music that Farrell listens to, and I gladly would put the mute on any day rather listen to that, in fact where is the pine cone????? (OK I pushed it too far there, ahem!! ;-). Another annoying and pointless scene with Farrell is where they break into a car and instead of letting McClane hotwire it, he begs with the car's automated voice system to start the car by pretending that he was in a bad car accident, after which it eventually starts the car. I mean why bother????? It would be much quicker to just hotwire it anyway!! Lucy McClane is also very well represented by the rather nice Mary Elisabeth Winstead, who personality wise follows in her father's footsteps, in being headstrong, stubborn and gutsy. In fact Justin Long as Farrell get's one of the best lines in the film when Mary (as Lucy) says "look do you wanna grow some balls??!", to which Farrell replies "Wow! I'm use to hearing that tone, but its funny to hear it from someone with hair!".
Supporting character wise the film also benefits from some fine performances, particularly from Cliff Curtis as FBI deputy director Bowman, who is very good. Curtis is also a very chamaeleonic actor, and from one film to the next, there are times you wouldn't recognise it was even him! Accent wise Curtis also is quite versatile, as he has played Americans, Hispanics, Muslims and of course New Zealand (where he is from!). Maggie Q is also fine (and is foine!) as the icy cool assassin Mai, who at one point McClane says to Gabriel on the phone that "that little ninja chick was smokin hot!". And of course Kevin Smith plays a very amusing cameo role as the "Warlock", the hacker, who literally lives in his mum's basement. Smith also has one of the film's most amusing exchanges with Willis, in the scene where McClane looks at one of Warlock's figurines of Bobba Fett, and Warlock says "are you a fan of the Fett?" and McClane none the wiser replies "no, I was always more of a Star Wars guy!".
The film of course however does have a few flaws, the main one probably being that as the franchise has progressed, it has gotten more and more over the top and proposterous, and here it reaches it limits. In Die Hard 4.0, McClane is now taking out choppers by launching cars at them, and facing off marine aircraft and taking them down. Even by the standard of what went before in the series, this is getting really ridiculous on the "credibility" stakes, and has you shaking your head in disbelief. The other film's main flaw for me is Timothy Olyphant, who makes for the least most effective villain in the Die Hard franchise. Olyphant's Gabriel is more of a whining nerd, then a menacing baddie and at no point do you really get that he is that much of a match for McClane. Olyphant also clearly lacks the courage of his convictions in killing anyone himself, as he really is like a boy sending men to do his work for him, unlike the Gruber's, who are seasoned professionals and not to be toyed with. That's not to take away Timothy Olyphant's performance, which is not too bad, but he clearly has been short changed by his character. Perhaps also another slight flaw in the film, is just perhaps due to its lower PG-13 rating (still rated a 15 certificate in the UK), the film contains much less profanity, which possibly takes away from the grittiness that fuelled the previous films well. But I don't think that's a bad thing though, as it does provide a welcome change and proves that you don't really need a lot of effin and blinding to make a film work.
Direction wise though Len Wiseman, who was responsible for directing the awful Underworld films, acquits himself quite well here with Die Hard 4.0, and handles the action scenes very well, as well as the pacing of the film, and he also neatly leaves the film's conclusion wide open for another film to follow.
Soooooo that concludes my Die Hard franchise analysis, and Die Hard 4.0 is a very worthy way to leave the series for now, until another one in the near future hopefully will be made.
And on that note I shall leave it there. Yippeee ki-yay, mutha fu***!!!!!!!!!
Starting at the start, the film begins with police officer John McClane (Brucey) being order by his superior officer at the NYPD to bring in a young hacker, Matt Farrell (Justin Long) to protective custody. On finding Matt, an attempt is made on the young hacker's life, and McClane manages to get him out of there before the assassins kill him. McClane takes Matt to Washington D.C. where he will be taken into custody by the FBI, and Matt explains that he was going to be paid a large sum of money for writing some security code for Mai Linh (Maggie Q) who turns out to be one of the cyberterrorists, lead by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), who was once a DOD (Department of Defence) analyst for the Government who was dismissed after finding flaws in the security systems. On arriving in D.C. the traffic lights stop working all over the city, and traffic is grinded to a gridlock. McClane gets Matt to the FBI cyber crime division, where they talk to Depty Director, Miguel Bowman (Cliff Curtis). At this point the television networks are filled with a video compilation of the former presidents of the USA, stringing together a threatening speech from past speeches. Matt soon realises that Gabriel is planning a "firesale", which is an attack on the country's computer infrastructure, which means Gabriel will take out the nation's electricity, fuel and water supplies. Bowman has McClane and Matt escorted by agents to the FBI headquarters, but their car is intercerpted by a chopper enroute, which takes out the agent driver. McClane and Matt soon escape sight of the chopper by going into a tunnel, abandoning the car, McClane gets into another car and uses it to launch an attack on the chopper, as he revs it up and it flies up over a damaged toolboth, thereby destroying the chopper.
After this McClane with Farrell's help find out that the terrorists next target will be a power grid and they drive to a power station in West Virginia. At the station McClane takes out the team of terrorists and Mai, McClane contacts Gabriel, informing him his team and Mai are dead (who was his girlfriend), which pisses off Gabriel, who then sends by remote control, the stations gas supply into it, and McClane and Farrell narrowly escape being killed in the resulting explosion of the station. After Farrell decides to get the help of his hacker friend, the "Warlock" Freddie Klaudis (Kevin Smith) who is initially reluctant to help them, especially as McClane is a cop, but he tells them that the piece of code Farrell wrote, was part of a code that will enable Gabriel to download all personal and finanical records into a secure facility based at Woodlawn, Maryland. However Gabriel discovers and tracks Freddie's hack and speaks to McClane, and tells him that he will go after his daughter Lucy McClane (Mary Elisabeth Winstead), who he tracks by use of her mobile phone, and sends his men in to kidnap her. McClane then heads off to Woodlawn with Farrell, once they get there, McClane takes out most of Gabriel's men, however Gabriel captures Farrell, who is caught encrypting the data that Gabriel has downloaded, and he escapes with Farrell and Lucy. McClane follows them and in pirsuit kills one of Gabriel's men, driving a truck, but Gabriel is able to hack into the Military corps computers, and convinces a nearby jet fighter airpilot into believing that McClane is in fact a terrorist. The pilot launches an attack on McClane's truck, but McClane narrowly escapes by launching the truck into the aircraft, which destroys both the aircraft and the truck. McClane soon after tracks Gabriel to a warehouse, where Gabriel forces Farrell to decrypt the data, and there we have the inevitable final showdown....
Die Hard 4.0, or Live Free or Die Hard, if you like, is another enjoyable entry in the franchise, and while it isn't the strongest of the four, it definitely is more entertaining than Die Hard 2 was. It was inevitable that with ever changing technology, that Die Hard would sooner or later get to cyberterrorism, and while its hardly an original concept or plot (look no further than the James Bond film, Goldeneye, and you will see the plot is very similar!) the film is still very enjoyable. In Die Hard 4.0 we see John McClane is becoming more and more out of touch with technology, as he clearly is an old school guy, and is very wary throughout of all technical jargon he faces from Farrell. In fact there times where McClane's character is almost overly simplified because for him its all absolutes, as he says things like "I'm gonna find the bad guy and kill him, and get my daughter" or "how about I find you, kick your ass out of your own party!". However that is pretty much the essence of McClane's character, as Gabriel points out at one stage that he is "a timex watch in a digital age", he's a dinosaur in modern age.
However character wise, Die Hard 4.0 has quite a lot going for it, Bruce Willis once again as McClane is as reliable and likeable as he usually is, and his over protectiveness of his daughter is quite amusing, especially at the start when he spies on his daughter Lucy making out with a guy in a car, and he pulls the guy out of the car, and Lucy accuses him of spying on her, and McClane defensively says "I wasn't spying on you!". He also has the odd moment of personal reflection where he says to Farrell how his life isn't all that great that way it has worked out, being divorced from his wife Holly, and that its up to him to do what he has to do to keep Farrell alive and safe.
Matt Farrell played by Justin Long is not a bad character, although there are a few scenes where he does annoy me, one which is where he berates McClane for listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", and says it "I'd rather have a pine cone shoved up my ass than listen to this!". However at the start you hear the crappy Goth metal pish music that Farrell listens to, and I gladly would put the mute on any day rather listen to that, in fact where is the pine cone????? (OK I pushed it too far there, ahem!! ;-). Another annoying and pointless scene with Farrell is where they break into a car and instead of letting McClane hotwire it, he begs with the car's automated voice system to start the car by pretending that he was in a bad car accident, after which it eventually starts the car. I mean why bother????? It would be much quicker to just hotwire it anyway!! Lucy McClane is also very well represented by the rather nice Mary Elisabeth Winstead, who personality wise follows in her father's footsteps, in being headstrong, stubborn and gutsy. In fact Justin Long as Farrell get's one of the best lines in the film when Mary (as Lucy) says "look do you wanna grow some balls??!", to which Farrell replies "Wow! I'm use to hearing that tone, but its funny to hear it from someone with hair!".
Supporting character wise the film also benefits from some fine performances, particularly from Cliff Curtis as FBI deputy director Bowman, who is very good. Curtis is also a very chamaeleonic actor, and from one film to the next, there are times you wouldn't recognise it was even him! Accent wise Curtis also is quite versatile, as he has played Americans, Hispanics, Muslims and of course New Zealand (where he is from!). Maggie Q is also fine (and is foine!) as the icy cool assassin Mai, who at one point McClane says to Gabriel on the phone that "that little ninja chick was smokin hot!". And of course Kevin Smith plays a very amusing cameo role as the "Warlock", the hacker, who literally lives in his mum's basement. Smith also has one of the film's most amusing exchanges with Willis, in the scene where McClane looks at one of Warlock's figurines of Bobba Fett, and Warlock says "are you a fan of the Fett?" and McClane none the wiser replies "no, I was always more of a Star Wars guy!".
The film of course however does have a few flaws, the main one probably being that as the franchise has progressed, it has gotten more and more over the top and proposterous, and here it reaches it limits. In Die Hard 4.0, McClane is now taking out choppers by launching cars at them, and facing off marine aircraft and taking them down. Even by the standard of what went before in the series, this is getting really ridiculous on the "credibility" stakes, and has you shaking your head in disbelief. The other film's main flaw for me is Timothy Olyphant, who makes for the least most effective villain in the Die Hard franchise. Olyphant's Gabriel is more of a whining nerd, then a menacing baddie and at no point do you really get that he is that much of a match for McClane. Olyphant also clearly lacks the courage of his convictions in killing anyone himself, as he really is like a boy sending men to do his work for him, unlike the Gruber's, who are seasoned professionals and not to be toyed with. That's not to take away Timothy Olyphant's performance, which is not too bad, but he clearly has been short changed by his character. Perhaps also another slight flaw in the film, is just perhaps due to its lower PG-13 rating (still rated a 15 certificate in the UK), the film contains much less profanity, which possibly takes away from the grittiness that fuelled the previous films well. But I don't think that's a bad thing though, as it does provide a welcome change and proves that you don't really need a lot of effin and blinding to make a film work.
Direction wise though Len Wiseman, who was responsible for directing the awful Underworld films, acquits himself quite well here with Die Hard 4.0, and handles the action scenes very well, as well as the pacing of the film, and he also neatly leaves the film's conclusion wide open for another film to follow.
Soooooo that concludes my Die Hard franchise analysis, and Die Hard 4.0 is a very worthy way to leave the series for now, until another one in the near future hopefully will be made.
And on that note I shall leave it there. Yippeee ki-yay, mutha fu***!!!!!!!!!
Saturday 14 April 2012
Die Hard Part 3: Simon says....
OK-doke now I'm onto the 3rd installment of the Die Hard posts, which covers Die Hard with a vengeance, the 3rd film funnily enough in the Die Hard franchise. So here is a fair bit more on that and the plot....
The film begins with a bomb going off in New York Manhattan at the Bonwitt Teller department store during a hot summer morning. The NYPD receive a call from a mysterious caller that uses the phrase "Simon says" and asks for John McClane (Bruce Willis of course!), who at this time is on suspension of duty. The caller insists that John McClane get to Harlem and wear a sandwich board, or else, the caller will set off another bomb. The major case unit inspector Walter Cobb (Larry Bryggman) of the NYPD goes and talks with McClane and tells them that he must do as "Simon" says, so McClane has no choice but to wear the sandwich board which says "I hate niggers" on it. On walking through the streets of Harlem, a local shop owner and electrician Zeus Carver (Samuel L.Jackson) spots McClane and tells him to get out of there, but as McClane explains what he is doing, a local gang spot him and attack him, but Zeus manages to grab McClane's gun and they escape the scene in a taxi, back to the police station. Back at the station, the police have found that "Simon" has stolen thousands of gallons of bi-chemical agent explosive. Simon then calls again and speaks with McClane and insists that he and Zeus go on a series of games of games in order to prevent him from detonating more bombs. McClane reluctantly manages to get Zeus to go along with him, and their first port of call is trying to prevent a bomb going off in one of the New York subways, which McClane barely gets there in time, finding the bomb in one of the carriages of a subway train, he throws it out the window and it blows up just in time before destroying the train.
Soon after this, McClane and Zeus are taken to meet two FBI agents, who show them pictures of a few men, asking them to identify them, but they soon explain that the mysterious caller is in fact the brother of Hans Gruber, the villain from the first Die Hard, and his real name is Simon Peter Gruber (Jeremy Irons). At this point Simon calls again and tells them he has planted another bomb in one of the schools in the city, and that McClane and Zeus are to solve more puzzles in order to find the location of the bomb. After the two men find a bomb in one of the parks, they disarm it and take it away, afterwards McClane spots a kid cycling away from a store, having stolen some food and stops him, where the kid says "Look at this place, there is no one here, the cops are into something, its like Christmas, you could steal City Hall!". At this point McClane realises something is up and it dawns on him that this is actually been all about a heist, as Simon and his men, are in actual fact there to steal the gold bullion from the Federal Reserve Bank. So Simon and his team, disguised as policeman and construction workers, enter the bank and kill or incapacitate the security guards inside, and break into the bank vault, and use dump trucks to load up the gold. McClane soon after enters the bank, who is spotted by Simon's men, and Simon gives them instructions to kill McClane. McClane getting into a lift with Simon's men soon spots, that one of the men, has taken the police badge one of the dead NYPD officers, and kills the men in the lift. McClane thereafter finds one of the remaining bars of gold and with Zeus they go after the trucks and follow them to tanker, which they board, but are captured by Simon and his men.
Meanwhile the NYPD have been distracted by the choas of finding the school and through McClane's help they have found that the school in question is the Chester A. Arthur school, where the police indeed find a big bomb, with two big cylinders of the chemical agent, that the police found earlier. As the bomb counts down, the police evacuate the school, while their bomb expert Charlie Weiss (Kevin Chamberlin) tries to cut the wires to deactivate the bomb, however as he does, the cylinders simply leak out, what is in actual fact pancake syrup. On the tanker, McClane at this point realises the bomb is only a decoy, and Simon finds him and tells him that there was no bomb in the school, but the real bomb is on the tanker. Simon then cuffs McClane and Zeus sitting on the bomb's cylinders, leaving them to be killed in the explosion, the tanker supposedly filled with the gold will sink. However McClane and Zeus soon manage to escape, just before the bomb detonates and destroys the ship. McClane having been given a bottle aspirin (as he has been suffering a bad hangover throughout the film!) by Simon before he departed, finds it has the name of the Canadian bordertown where Simon's team have presumably gone to. Right enough Simon's team have indeed gone to the border town and the gold has been loaded safely onto the dump tracks. However soon enough McClane arrives in a chopper with the Canadian police, to face down his enemy for the final time.
Die Hard with a vengeance is a very enjoyable entry in the franchise, and it sees the series get back on track after the rather disappointing Die Hard 2. The film is also helped along by a very enjoyable and somewhat hammy performance from its villain, Simon Gruber, played by Jeremy Irons, who in a way is the perfect choice for the role, as he is very similar in manner to Alan Rickman. And his character makes for a refreshing take on the Gruber family, and is a far more entertaining a villain than the very cut and dry Colonel Stuart from the second film, although my one criticism of his performance is he gives the worst ever phoney American accent (in the one scene he uses it!). I also quite like the fact Simon isn't really portrayed as monsterous villain, his idea to plant the bomb in the school was just a ruse, and at one point even gives Zeus a chance to be let go, rather than be killed by his men, as he realises he was just an innocent guy who got caught up in his scheme. He also clearly isn't too keen on unecessary killing in the film as well, as he clearly is shown as incapacitating most of the guards in the bank, and when his blood thirstry girlfriend Katya (Sam Phillips) viciously stabs the last remaining guard in the bank, he grabs her hand forcefully, stopping her from doing more damage to the dead man, and says "I think he's dead my dear".
The other character of course which makes it so enjoyable is Zeus Carver, played by Samuel L.Jackson, who almost comes across like he is some kind of militant black man who has a mistrust of white people. Samuel also gets most of the best dialogue in the film, I especially like his line where he says to McClane about his name "My name is Zeus, not Jesus! Like the father Apollo, Mount Olympus, don't fuck with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass! Zeus!!". Although Zeus of course appears to some kind of racist towards white people (which I guess he isn't really) he does form a good relationship with McClane as the film goes along, and there is no doubt that Bruce and Samuel share a really good onscreen chemistry with one another. And Bruce Willis does a fine job as John McClane, and he is perhaps at his most likeable in this film, as he has a good down to earth way with people, acting as a police officer and being polite with the public, even in extreme situations.
One thing they have sorted out in a way in Die Hard with a vengeance is their attempts to no longer make the police force look as stupid as they did in the first two films. And the police characters are all quite well drawn, particularly Inspector Cobb and Joe Lambert, one of the detectives in the film, played very well by Graham Greene. Here the cops are actually fairly smart and they show that they can do their job well, and they aren't all bungling idiots like they were portrayed in Die Hard and Die Hard 2. Perhaps there is a little bit too much inane chatter among the cops at times in the film, but it definitely is an improvement from the first two films. Its also good to see McClane at work in his own town, as opposed to being in LA or in Dulles Washington, where he is a stranger and has no jurisdiction (not that the word meant much to him anyway!).
My only niggles about the film however probably are first off, the ending of the film is very silly, with McClane going after Gruber the way he does, and how he interrupts Gruber who is about to have it off with his girlfriend and says "Hey, dickhead, did I come at a bad time???" from a megaphone in a chopper. Its also pretty daft as the writer of the screenplay, Johnathan Hensleigh pointed out in the DVD commentary, that Zeus would come along with McClane in the chopper ride, as he really isn't needed, but I guess maybe Zeus wanted to see it through to the end as well. Another criticism I have is the scene with the police psychologist explaining the psychosis of "Simon" and how "we are talking about a pyschopathic personality, with possible schizophrenia, and he wants control over McClane, and his actions". Its just really feels superflous to the whole film, and unecessary exposition, we don't really need a psychologist to explain all this stuff as its something we can all pretty much work out for ourselves, even McClane knows what Simon is all about without the help of the "shrink".
Music wise the film is well catered for as Michael Kame provides another good score for the film, and adds a few extra new passages to the already well established Die Hard score, he also incorporates "When Johnny Comes Home Marching", into the film quite alot as well (you will know it as soon as you hear it). The start of the film is also really good, and is perhaps the best beginning of all the Die Hard films, as it has the New York backdrop and the great song "Summer in the city" by The Lovin Spoonful playing in the background, which is used to perfection here, right up until the moment where the first bomb goes off at Bonwitt Tellers.
But Die Hard with a vengeance is a very entertaining film and worth a watch if you haven't already seen it and with John McTiernan at the directorial helm once again it makes for a worthy inclusion to the series.
The film begins with a bomb going off in New York Manhattan at the Bonwitt Teller department store during a hot summer morning. The NYPD receive a call from a mysterious caller that uses the phrase "Simon says" and asks for John McClane (Bruce Willis of course!), who at this time is on suspension of duty. The caller insists that John McClane get to Harlem and wear a sandwich board, or else, the caller will set off another bomb. The major case unit inspector Walter Cobb (Larry Bryggman) of the NYPD goes and talks with McClane and tells them that he must do as "Simon" says, so McClane has no choice but to wear the sandwich board which says "I hate niggers" on it. On walking through the streets of Harlem, a local shop owner and electrician Zeus Carver (Samuel L.Jackson) spots McClane and tells him to get out of there, but as McClane explains what he is doing, a local gang spot him and attack him, but Zeus manages to grab McClane's gun and they escape the scene in a taxi, back to the police station. Back at the station, the police have found that "Simon" has stolen thousands of gallons of bi-chemical agent explosive. Simon then calls again and speaks with McClane and insists that he and Zeus go on a series of games of games in order to prevent him from detonating more bombs. McClane reluctantly manages to get Zeus to go along with him, and their first port of call is trying to prevent a bomb going off in one of the New York subways, which McClane barely gets there in time, finding the bomb in one of the carriages of a subway train, he throws it out the window and it blows up just in time before destroying the train.
Soon after this, McClane and Zeus are taken to meet two FBI agents, who show them pictures of a few men, asking them to identify them, but they soon explain that the mysterious caller is in fact the brother of Hans Gruber, the villain from the first Die Hard, and his real name is Simon Peter Gruber (Jeremy Irons). At this point Simon calls again and tells them he has planted another bomb in one of the schools in the city, and that McClane and Zeus are to solve more puzzles in order to find the location of the bomb. After the two men find a bomb in one of the parks, they disarm it and take it away, afterwards McClane spots a kid cycling away from a store, having stolen some food and stops him, where the kid says "Look at this place, there is no one here, the cops are into something, its like Christmas, you could steal City Hall!". At this point McClane realises something is up and it dawns on him that this is actually been all about a heist, as Simon and his men, are in actual fact there to steal the gold bullion from the Federal Reserve Bank. So Simon and his team, disguised as policeman and construction workers, enter the bank and kill or incapacitate the security guards inside, and break into the bank vault, and use dump trucks to load up the gold. McClane soon after enters the bank, who is spotted by Simon's men, and Simon gives them instructions to kill McClane. McClane getting into a lift with Simon's men soon spots, that one of the men, has taken the police badge one of the dead NYPD officers, and kills the men in the lift. McClane thereafter finds one of the remaining bars of gold and with Zeus they go after the trucks and follow them to tanker, which they board, but are captured by Simon and his men.
Meanwhile the NYPD have been distracted by the choas of finding the school and through McClane's help they have found that the school in question is the Chester A. Arthur school, where the police indeed find a big bomb, with two big cylinders of the chemical agent, that the police found earlier. As the bomb counts down, the police evacuate the school, while their bomb expert Charlie Weiss (Kevin Chamberlin) tries to cut the wires to deactivate the bomb, however as he does, the cylinders simply leak out, what is in actual fact pancake syrup. On the tanker, McClane at this point realises the bomb is only a decoy, and Simon finds him and tells him that there was no bomb in the school, but the real bomb is on the tanker. Simon then cuffs McClane and Zeus sitting on the bomb's cylinders, leaving them to be killed in the explosion, the tanker supposedly filled with the gold will sink. However McClane and Zeus soon manage to escape, just before the bomb detonates and destroys the ship. McClane having been given a bottle aspirin (as he has been suffering a bad hangover throughout the film!) by Simon before he departed, finds it has the name of the Canadian bordertown where Simon's team have presumably gone to. Right enough Simon's team have indeed gone to the border town and the gold has been loaded safely onto the dump tracks. However soon enough McClane arrives in a chopper with the Canadian police, to face down his enemy for the final time.
Die Hard with a vengeance is a very enjoyable entry in the franchise, and it sees the series get back on track after the rather disappointing Die Hard 2. The film is also helped along by a very enjoyable and somewhat hammy performance from its villain, Simon Gruber, played by Jeremy Irons, who in a way is the perfect choice for the role, as he is very similar in manner to Alan Rickman. And his character makes for a refreshing take on the Gruber family, and is a far more entertaining a villain than the very cut and dry Colonel Stuart from the second film, although my one criticism of his performance is he gives the worst ever phoney American accent (in the one scene he uses it!). I also quite like the fact Simon isn't really portrayed as monsterous villain, his idea to plant the bomb in the school was just a ruse, and at one point even gives Zeus a chance to be let go, rather than be killed by his men, as he realises he was just an innocent guy who got caught up in his scheme. He also clearly isn't too keen on unecessary killing in the film as well, as he clearly is shown as incapacitating most of the guards in the bank, and when his blood thirstry girlfriend Katya (Sam Phillips) viciously stabs the last remaining guard in the bank, he grabs her hand forcefully, stopping her from doing more damage to the dead man, and says "I think he's dead my dear".
The other character of course which makes it so enjoyable is Zeus Carver, played by Samuel L.Jackson, who almost comes across like he is some kind of militant black man who has a mistrust of white people. Samuel also gets most of the best dialogue in the film, I especially like his line where he says to McClane about his name "My name is Zeus, not Jesus! Like the father Apollo, Mount Olympus, don't fuck with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass! Zeus!!". Although Zeus of course appears to some kind of racist towards white people (which I guess he isn't really) he does form a good relationship with McClane as the film goes along, and there is no doubt that Bruce and Samuel share a really good onscreen chemistry with one another. And Bruce Willis does a fine job as John McClane, and he is perhaps at his most likeable in this film, as he has a good down to earth way with people, acting as a police officer and being polite with the public, even in extreme situations.
One thing they have sorted out in a way in Die Hard with a vengeance is their attempts to no longer make the police force look as stupid as they did in the first two films. And the police characters are all quite well drawn, particularly Inspector Cobb and Joe Lambert, one of the detectives in the film, played very well by Graham Greene. Here the cops are actually fairly smart and they show that they can do their job well, and they aren't all bungling idiots like they were portrayed in Die Hard and Die Hard 2. Perhaps there is a little bit too much inane chatter among the cops at times in the film, but it definitely is an improvement from the first two films. Its also good to see McClane at work in his own town, as opposed to being in LA or in Dulles Washington, where he is a stranger and has no jurisdiction (not that the word meant much to him anyway!).
My only niggles about the film however probably are first off, the ending of the film is very silly, with McClane going after Gruber the way he does, and how he interrupts Gruber who is about to have it off with his girlfriend and says "Hey, dickhead, did I come at a bad time???" from a megaphone in a chopper. Its also pretty daft as the writer of the screenplay, Johnathan Hensleigh pointed out in the DVD commentary, that Zeus would come along with McClane in the chopper ride, as he really isn't needed, but I guess maybe Zeus wanted to see it through to the end as well. Another criticism I have is the scene with the police psychologist explaining the psychosis of "Simon" and how "we are talking about a pyschopathic personality, with possible schizophrenia, and he wants control over McClane, and his actions". Its just really feels superflous to the whole film, and unecessary exposition, we don't really need a psychologist to explain all this stuff as its something we can all pretty much work out for ourselves, even McClane knows what Simon is all about without the help of the "shrink".
Music wise the film is well catered for as Michael Kame provides another good score for the film, and adds a few extra new passages to the already well established Die Hard score, he also incorporates "When Johnny Comes Home Marching", into the film quite alot as well (you will know it as soon as you hear it). The start of the film is also really good, and is perhaps the best beginning of all the Die Hard films, as it has the New York backdrop and the great song "Summer in the city" by The Lovin Spoonful playing in the background, which is used to perfection here, right up until the moment where the first bomb goes off at Bonwitt Tellers.
But Die Hard with a vengeance is a very entertaining film and worth a watch if you haven't already seen it and with John McTiernan at the directorial helm once again it makes for a worthy inclusion to the series.
Wednesday 11 April 2012
Die Hard Part 2: How can the same shit happen to same guy twice???!!!
OK so onto part 2 of the Die Hard entries, and this is funnily enough all about Die Hard 2 (who'da thought that????!). Die Hard 2 followed two years later after the huge success that was the original, so the idea was still much the same, so here's more about the plot and all that.
The film starts on Christmas Eve 1990, where John McClane (Bruce Willis) is waiting at Washington Dulles International airport for his wife's flight to come in. McClane while waiting in the airport bar notices two men, who appear to be wearing army fatigues and carry parcels. McClane follows the men to the baggage area, where he confronts them, and they pull a gun on him, in the enusing gunfight, McClane kills one of the men, while the other gets away. McClane after the incident speaks with the police captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) who dismisses his request to close off the baggage area and investigate further, as he thinks it was just a punk stealing luggage, McClane is then escorted out Lorenzo's office. After this McClane manages to borrow a fingerprint press and lifts prints off the dead man's hands, and calls up his fellow police officer Al Powell (Reggie VelJohnson again) and faxes a copy of the man's prints to check out who he is. Al soon calls McClane back and informs him that the man was a former army sergeant who apparently died two years ago. McClane then goes to the chief of the airport tower's operations, Trudeau, with his findings, but at that point the airport runway lights all start to go off. It is soon revealed the airport has been taken over by a terrorist group lead by an ex special forces Colonel, Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) who wish to use the airport for their own means, so that they can intercept a plane carrying the drug lord General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), who has been brought to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking charges.
With the terrorists now in control of the airport tower systems, all communications to the planes have been cut off, which leaves the planes in the air, unable to land, which includes Holly's plane. And a botched attempt by Lorenzo's SWAT team and the airport tower's director of communications Barnes (Art Evans) to re-establish comms with the planes, ends with all the team killed by Stuart's men in an ambush, but McClane at the last moment steps in saves Barnes, and shoots Stuart's team. This enrages Colonel Stuart who then recalibrates the instrument landing system, and pretends to be the tower chief, and causes one of the planes to crash into the ground, killing 230 people onboard. McClane realises he must do something to stop the terrorists and try to ensure that his wife's plane will be able to land, and Trudeau tells him his wife's plane will soon run out of fuel. Meanwhile on Holly's plane, she suffers the misfortune of having to share the same aisle as Dick Thornburg (Richard Atherton), the sleazy news reporter from the first film, who protests that he is put near Holly, as he filed a restraining order against her for assaulting him (at the end of the first film again).
McClane with Barnes help soon locates the terrorists hideout, which is an old church, and by then a Special Forces platoon is brought in to help try and resolve the terrorist situation, lead by Major Grant (John Amos). Colonel Stuart and his men soon evacuate the church when the Special forces team arrive, a firefight ensues, and McClane chases after Stuart on snowmobiles, but Stuart gets away. McClane having taken one of Stuart's machine guns soon realises that the ammo they used was actually blanks, and it dawns on him that the Major Grant and his team are working together with Stuart. McClane goes back to Lorenzo and after failing to convince him that Grant is in cahoots with Stuart, he fires the machine gun loaded with blanks at him. Lorenzo then sends out all his police units to go after Stuart and Grant's men, and McClane catches up with the pesky news reporter Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy) who has been bothering everyone throughout the movie, to get a ride in her news chopper, in order to stop Stuart and Grant's men from leaving on a plane. McClane soon with help of the ride, jumps on the plane before it takes off and a final fight ensues with the terrorists.
It has to be said for me anyway, that Die Hard 2 is the weakest of the films in the franchise, however that's not to say it isn't enjoyable, it is, but in comparison to the other films in the series, it falls short of the mark a little. The problem mainly stems with the script and characters, particularly the bad guys who are really get the worst dialogue, and are basically like something out of a comic book. Colonel Stuart's character in particular makes for a pretty bland villain, who lacks the charm, wit or humour that Hans Gruber had. And Stuart's suborindate baddies are all very much the same, and they get some bog standard dialogue such as "I'm gonna kick your fuckin ass!". There is also generally too much hackneyed dialogue between the police officers such as Lorenzo to Major Grant, as Grant says : "Make sure no one get's past us", Lorenzo says "You got it!". Lorenzo even gets one of the cheesiest lines of all time, when McClane confronts him toward the end and they realise what they must do, "Its time to kick ass!". Oh yeah sure. Again I think the writers of the Die Hard series have a thing for making the police look like idiots.
Performance wise things aren't too bad here, but the film suffers again from poorly realised characters, particularly Colonel Stuart, played William Sadler. Sadler himself is an excellent actor, as an example he stood out very well in The Shawshank Redemption, playing a colourful part of a prison inmate, but here he is just playing a cardboard cut-out villain, delivering loaded threats without any real sense of menace. Other supporting cast members however are better, such as Dennis Franz, who plays he Airport police chief, who is quite amusing in his part, playing the police chief, as very stubborn and has no interest in listening to McClane, and is more concerned about the traffic going through his airport than anything else. John Amos is also fine as Major Grant, the Special Forces unit leader, and he plays him with an expected sense of machismo, although he too does get some cringeworthy dialogue, especially the line where McClane says to him "I guess you're not such an asshole after all", to which Grant replies "No, you were right, I'm just your kind of asshole". God.
The regular cast however do very well in their respective roles, with Bruce Willis, once again playing John McClane to perfection, or as much to perfection as he can expect. In Die Hard 2 we get more wise cracking from McClane, but Bruce also throws in some deft little touches where he shows McClane's vulnerability. The scene in particular after the terrorists crash the plane, McClane sadly moves through the wreckage afterwards and picks up a singed doll, and later sits silently in the airport tower, lamenting how he failed to help the people on the plane. However now and then McClane's dialogue is a bit trite as well, especially then line near the end where he says "My God, John, what the fuck are you doing on the wing of this plane????". Bonnie Bedelia is certainly not forgotten about here, and she too provides some of the film's fun moments, especially where she has to sit and listen to the arrogant sleazy Dick Thornburg, and she says to him "if you wish to sit this close to me, could you consider changing aftershave, and a stronger mouth wash would be good". Another fun scene Bonnie has with Richard Atherton is where as Dick Thornburg, broadcasts his propoganda about the airport takeover by the terrorists from the airplane toilet and says "If this should be my final broadcast", Bonnie eventually comes into the toilet and tasers him and says "Amen to that! Dick!".
Action wise though Die Hard 2, has plenty of fine set-pieces and Renny Harlin does a good job with the action scenes, and overall he does a pretty good job at picking up the pace of the franchise where it left off. Michael Kamen also contributes another fine score to the film, building on the original score and adding some extra passages, as composers tend to do in sequels! Track wise, Let it Snow is used once more, but an additional fine choice is Sebilius's Finlandia, which is used really well at the end where planes come in to land, once the whole situation has been "dealt" with.
So there you go, that's the Die Hard 2 analysis over with, its not a bad action film by any means, but it has to be said with its bland baddies and hackneyed dialogue, its not the best in the series by a longshot, but its worth a watch once in a while.
So I'll soon be onto Part 3.....
The film starts on Christmas Eve 1990, where John McClane (Bruce Willis) is waiting at Washington Dulles International airport for his wife's flight to come in. McClane while waiting in the airport bar notices two men, who appear to be wearing army fatigues and carry parcels. McClane follows the men to the baggage area, where he confronts them, and they pull a gun on him, in the enusing gunfight, McClane kills one of the men, while the other gets away. McClane after the incident speaks with the police captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) who dismisses his request to close off the baggage area and investigate further, as he thinks it was just a punk stealing luggage, McClane is then escorted out Lorenzo's office. After this McClane manages to borrow a fingerprint press and lifts prints off the dead man's hands, and calls up his fellow police officer Al Powell (Reggie VelJohnson again) and faxes a copy of the man's prints to check out who he is. Al soon calls McClane back and informs him that the man was a former army sergeant who apparently died two years ago. McClane then goes to the chief of the airport tower's operations, Trudeau, with his findings, but at that point the airport runway lights all start to go off. It is soon revealed the airport has been taken over by a terrorist group lead by an ex special forces Colonel, Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) who wish to use the airport for their own means, so that they can intercept a plane carrying the drug lord General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), who has been brought to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking charges.
With the terrorists now in control of the airport tower systems, all communications to the planes have been cut off, which leaves the planes in the air, unable to land, which includes Holly's plane. And a botched attempt by Lorenzo's SWAT team and the airport tower's director of communications Barnes (Art Evans) to re-establish comms with the planes, ends with all the team killed by Stuart's men in an ambush, but McClane at the last moment steps in saves Barnes, and shoots Stuart's team. This enrages Colonel Stuart who then recalibrates the instrument landing system, and pretends to be the tower chief, and causes one of the planes to crash into the ground, killing 230 people onboard. McClane realises he must do something to stop the terrorists and try to ensure that his wife's plane will be able to land, and Trudeau tells him his wife's plane will soon run out of fuel. Meanwhile on Holly's plane, she suffers the misfortune of having to share the same aisle as Dick Thornburg (Richard Atherton), the sleazy news reporter from the first film, who protests that he is put near Holly, as he filed a restraining order against her for assaulting him (at the end of the first film again).
McClane with Barnes help soon locates the terrorists hideout, which is an old church, and by then a Special Forces platoon is brought in to help try and resolve the terrorist situation, lead by Major Grant (John Amos). Colonel Stuart and his men soon evacuate the church when the Special forces team arrive, a firefight ensues, and McClane chases after Stuart on snowmobiles, but Stuart gets away. McClane having taken one of Stuart's machine guns soon realises that the ammo they used was actually blanks, and it dawns on him that the Major Grant and his team are working together with Stuart. McClane goes back to Lorenzo and after failing to convince him that Grant is in cahoots with Stuart, he fires the machine gun loaded with blanks at him. Lorenzo then sends out all his police units to go after Stuart and Grant's men, and McClane catches up with the pesky news reporter Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy) who has been bothering everyone throughout the movie, to get a ride in her news chopper, in order to stop Stuart and Grant's men from leaving on a plane. McClane soon with help of the ride, jumps on the plane before it takes off and a final fight ensues with the terrorists.
It has to be said for me anyway, that Die Hard 2 is the weakest of the films in the franchise, however that's not to say it isn't enjoyable, it is, but in comparison to the other films in the series, it falls short of the mark a little. The problem mainly stems with the script and characters, particularly the bad guys who are really get the worst dialogue, and are basically like something out of a comic book. Colonel Stuart's character in particular makes for a pretty bland villain, who lacks the charm, wit or humour that Hans Gruber had. And Stuart's suborindate baddies are all very much the same, and they get some bog standard dialogue such as "I'm gonna kick your fuckin ass!". There is also generally too much hackneyed dialogue between the police officers such as Lorenzo to Major Grant, as Grant says : "Make sure no one get's past us", Lorenzo says "You got it!". Lorenzo even gets one of the cheesiest lines of all time, when McClane confronts him toward the end and they realise what they must do, "Its time to kick ass!". Oh yeah sure. Again I think the writers of the Die Hard series have a thing for making the police look like idiots.
Performance wise things aren't too bad here, but the film suffers again from poorly realised characters, particularly Colonel Stuart, played William Sadler. Sadler himself is an excellent actor, as an example he stood out very well in The Shawshank Redemption, playing a colourful part of a prison inmate, but here he is just playing a cardboard cut-out villain, delivering loaded threats without any real sense of menace. Other supporting cast members however are better, such as Dennis Franz, who plays he Airport police chief, who is quite amusing in his part, playing the police chief, as very stubborn and has no interest in listening to McClane, and is more concerned about the traffic going through his airport than anything else. John Amos is also fine as Major Grant, the Special Forces unit leader, and he plays him with an expected sense of machismo, although he too does get some cringeworthy dialogue, especially the line where McClane says to him "I guess you're not such an asshole after all", to which Grant replies "No, you were right, I'm just your kind of asshole". God.
The regular cast however do very well in their respective roles, with Bruce Willis, once again playing John McClane to perfection, or as much to perfection as he can expect. In Die Hard 2 we get more wise cracking from McClane, but Bruce also throws in some deft little touches where he shows McClane's vulnerability. The scene in particular after the terrorists crash the plane, McClane sadly moves through the wreckage afterwards and picks up a singed doll, and later sits silently in the airport tower, lamenting how he failed to help the people on the plane. However now and then McClane's dialogue is a bit trite as well, especially then line near the end where he says "My God, John, what the fuck are you doing on the wing of this plane????". Bonnie Bedelia is certainly not forgotten about here, and she too provides some of the film's fun moments, especially where she has to sit and listen to the arrogant sleazy Dick Thornburg, and she says to him "if you wish to sit this close to me, could you consider changing aftershave, and a stronger mouth wash would be good". Another fun scene Bonnie has with Richard Atherton is where as Dick Thornburg, broadcasts his propoganda about the airport takeover by the terrorists from the airplane toilet and says "If this should be my final broadcast", Bonnie eventually comes into the toilet and tasers him and says "Amen to that! Dick!".
Action wise though Die Hard 2, has plenty of fine set-pieces and Renny Harlin does a good job with the action scenes, and overall he does a pretty good job at picking up the pace of the franchise where it left off. Michael Kamen also contributes another fine score to the film, building on the original score and adding some extra passages, as composers tend to do in sequels! Track wise, Let it Snow is used once more, but an additional fine choice is Sebilius's Finlandia, which is used really well at the end where planes come in to land, once the whole situation has been "dealt" with.
So there you go, that's the Die Hard 2 analysis over with, its not a bad action film by any means, but it has to be said with its bland baddies and hackneyed dialogue, its not the best in the series by a longshot, but its worth a watch once in a while.
So I'll soon be onto Part 3.....
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