Well its time for another tennis post and its now the start of the grass court season as the clay has been shuffled away for another year and I will look at the Queens club tournament where Andy Murray has made his return to the tour after taking time out from injury and missing the French Open.
So let's start with a recap of the some of the players who have been playing this week so far. Starting with Lleyton Hewitt who was a former four time champion here who had an impressive run here this week as he beat Grigor Dimitrov, Sam Querrey and Juan Martin Del Potro enroute to the semi finals. In the semi finals however Hewitt played the defending champion Marin Cilic, and the two of them engaged in a real battle which went the distance. The match itself was disrupted by the rain as they had to move it over from the centre court to the smaller Court 1, to allow for the other semi final match to played. But in the end it was Marin Cilic that came through in 3 sets with a hard fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win. This was a great run for Hewitt and its a pity in a way it had to end, but it will set him up well for going into Wimbledon in a week's time. Other players that played included Tomas Berdych who made his first appearance here since 2005, and he made good progress into the quarter finals, where Marin Cilic, who ultimately beat him in a tight straight set win 7-5, 7-6. Juan Martin Del Potro made good progress in the tournament until he met Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter finals and he lost to the Aussie in 3 sets.
On the British front we also had Dan Evans play who made an impressive stamp on the event by beating players ranked much higher than him, starting with the Argentine Guido Pella who he dismissed in 6-3, 6-1, he then chalked up a very impressive win against Jarkko Nieminen in 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. However Dan came to a sticky end against another Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro who dismissed the Brummie lad in a mere 6-0, 6-3 win. Dan has however shown some really promising signs this week by defeating higher ranked players, although his lower rank of 277 in the world, means he will need to play the Wimbledon qualifying tournament next week in order to try and gain a place in the draw at SW19, so he has alot of work ahead of him. And that has been a criticism levelled at Evans in the past in that he hasn't shown the focus and commitment to his training that he should, but if he had he would be much higher ranked now than he is, as sure does have the talent to take on the big players, but whether or not he will continue to show that commitment remains to be seen.
Now onto Andy Murray, the World No.2 and British No.1, who made his comeback from injury this week, having been forced to withdraw from the French Open due to an ongoing problem with his lower back, which was excacerbated by the clay surface. But after nearly four weeks of recovery and training, Andy made a very impressive return to the tour here at Queens as he allayed any fears of his back injury by showing some great play, top movement and chalking up some impressive wins. Starting with the tricky opponent Nicolas Mahut, who beat him at Queens last year, he was pushed again by the Frenchman, but he made a better start by taking the first set, but was pushed to a tiebreak in the 2nd, which he went on to win after play was delayed to the following day, with a 6-3, 7-6 win. Next up Andy faced (on the same day no less due to the scheduling and the rain) the Australian player, Marinko Matosevic, who he had no trouble getting past as he sped to a 6-2, 6-2 win. In the quarter finals Andy had a tougher time against the German player, Benjamin Becker, as Andy suffered lapses of concentration on serve in the 1st and 2nd set (he took the first set) and in the 2nd, Becker went up a break but Andy broke back. The match went to a tiebreak in the 2nd set and here Andy reasserted his dominance and he sealed the win in straight sets with a 6-4, 7-6(3) win.
And this brings me onto one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament so far, which the semi final between Andy and the French No.1, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The first set went by serve with Andy precariously holding on until 4-4 where his ropey serve came under severe pressure from Tsonga who brought up a break point, and Andy double faulted to give the break to him, which saw Tsonga serve out the 1st set. In the 2nd set play went by serve, and both men played some enthralling points for the crowd, and Andy at 3-3 came under real pressure from Tsonga again as he faced a break point 30-40 on his serve, which could have been match points for Tsonga. However Andy dug deep and saved the break and went on to incredibly break Tsonga's own serve in the next game and soon nab the 2nd set to level. In the 3rd after a terrific game at 1-1, Andy broke Tsonga to go ahead for the first time in the match and from here Tsonga started to misfire and make mistakes a'la French Open semi final style from last week which let Andy race into a 4-1 lead. And in the end Andy had no trouble in serving out the match with an ace down the T to seal his place in the final after a hard fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Well with these two players you would expect a showboat match and we sure got it as there were plenty of thrilling points throughout, especially from Tsonga who dazzled the crowd as he likes to do with his showmanship. However Andy in the end despite serving poorly in the match, once again showed his champion qualities by digging deep in the key points and after he broke Tsonga in the 3rd set, he cranked it up a gear to close it out in style. So this now sees Andy go into his third Queens club final, where he will take on Marin Cilic, the current defending champion, and this promises to be a really good match and no doubt a tough one. But Andy has a great head to head against Cilic as he leads it 8-1 and I'm sure he will come through it in probably three sets, but we will just have to wait and see. And if Andy does win the title again, it will see him come one of the few players to have won the title three times, which includes Pete Sampras and Boris Becker, so it promises to be a pretty good final.
So I will leave it there for now and report back once the Queens club final is over with.
Byeeee for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment