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.
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