Well might as well start off with another tennis post about something that could well be a concern for a certain player, who just happens to the British No.1 (or so it appears!) Andy Murray, and his grass court season so far has gone far from swimmingly, so here's my thoughts on that.
Starting with Andy at the AEGON Championships at Queens club, he was the defending champion, but he went out in his first match to Nicholas Mahut, albeit in a tight 3 set battle. After that Andy went on to take more time to prepare for his grass court season and entered an exhibition tournament, The Boodles Challenge at Stoke Park. This of course would be quite a challenge for any player, as it featured the creme de la creme of the tennis playing world, with so many top players such as Djokovic, Del Potro, Isner, Tipsarevic, Wawrinka and Dolgpolov playing. Andy played his first match against Janko Tipsarevic, who is now a well established top 10 player, so naturally it would be a tough match, and it proved to be just that. To be fair to Andy it was a close match as both players took a set, and played a decisive tiebreak (first to 10), but it was Tipsy that edged it as he closed out the match, winning in 6-7, 6-4, 10-7. So there is no great disgrace in losing out to a player of the calibre of Tipsarevic and it would be tough playing against anyone in the top 10. After this Andy was scheduled to play the World No.1, Novak Djokovic, which was today, after a rain delay, the two went out on court, but it was Djoko that played the better tennis, breaking Andy once in the 1st set, and twice in the 2nd set (after Andy broke back to make it 4-4, Djoko broke again) to win the match in convincing style with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
On the face of it there was nothing too disgraceful about Andy's defeats, and you wouldn't expect him to beat Djokovic who was on good form today, and his previous matches with Mahut and Tipsarevic were both very close. However it is a worrying sign that Andy keeps losing these matches, and not holding his serve at the crucial points, and that is something we have seen too much already this year where he has had his serve broken, or if he converts a break, he can't hold onto to it. So it does raise concerns over his chances at Wimbledon, and is it good for him to go into SW19 having not won a single match on grass? Possibly not, but at the same time there have been plenty of top players that have gone out in the first round of Queens, one of them being Tim Henman, who reached the Wimbledon semi finals four times in his career, which is in itself impressive.
However Andy no doubt will just see these matches as preparation for next week, and he will be less worried about the results, win or lose, its just practice, which is fair enough. But there is still that concern that Andy will drag his bad habits into Wimbledon, including poor serving, converting break points then failing to hold onto breaks, dropping serve all the time, and making a strew of unforced errors, but they come part and parcel with his game, so they will crop up, as they do in every player (with varying degrees!). For the last three years, Andy has played very well at Wimbledon, reaching the semi finals, despite losing to Roddick in 2009, and Rafa in the past two years, but will he be able to keep it up this time???? Well that's the million dollar question, will he??? Or will he just go out in the first round, which he could even be in danger of doing if he plays bad enough. Its only a theory just now, but there is that worrying possibility that it could become a reality.
And if Andy does go out early on in Wimbledon, whether it be the first, second or third round, then it will raise even further questions about his new working relationship with Ivan Lendl. And that's another key question, will Lendl be good for Andy in the long run??? Well if he loses early on in Wimbledon, I think it would be a clear indicator that Lendl won't be good for Andy in the long term, as this time last year, he was having the best season so far of his career, not to mention the most consistent season in the grand slams, reaching all four semi finals in 2011. And it really makes you wonder if Andy really needed a full time coach like Lendl to come along, in theory and on paper it sounded great, and for the first couple of months it looked promising, but since then it has backfired somewhat. And prior to Lendl's appointment as coach, Andy was playing some great tennis without his help, so it makes you wonder if he is really necessary. Time will tell on that one I guess.
However so far this year Andy has far from disgraced himself in the slams, having reached the semi finals at the Australian Open and the quarter finals at the French Open, which are fine results in themselves. But the question remains can he ramp it up at Wimbledon this year??? It looks doubtful, but for all I know, he could stun everyone and win the title, as Mats Wilander, the former French open champion once said, the tennis is there, and the ability to win the majors is somewhere within him, its just a matter of finding it. But of course other experts such as Andre Agassi, former Wimbledon champion, have pointed out that Andy is just cursed to playing in a golden age of tennis, when there are 3 of the greatest players to have played the sport, who are just dominating the game in Djoko, Fed and Rafa, and they are making it much tougher for him to achieve his goals.
And then there is the Olympics as well, which is also being held on the grass courts at Wimbledon, at the end of July. There again the top 3 guys in the game will also compete with Andy for the right to earn the Olympic gold medal, which is something Djokovic is desperate to achieve, along with winning the French Open, which he failed to do. And in that respect it would be great that if Andy didn't win Wimbledon (which he most likely won't) that he went on to win the Olympic gold medal, just to prove to those other three guys that he can take one of the ultimate prizes and do it on his home soil, and for once its not the top 3 that win something really important in their sport.
However from here, it all looks like a bit of a pipe dream for Andy Murray, and he will have to work very hard and up his game considerably from what it has been so far for the most of this year for him to get anywhere near lifting that much needed slam or claiming the Olympic gold. Its not impossible for him to achieve, but it will be extremely difficult, and with those 3 guys in his way, along with the rising competition below him, it doesn't get any easier.
And the Wimbledon draw has now been announced and it isn't the kindest by any means for Andy, as he will face Nikolai Davydenko in the first round, which will be a real tough opener, although Andy has won the last five of their nine meetings so hopefully he will win. But after that it doesn't get any easier as Andy may face giant and giant serving Ivo Karlovich in 2nd round, then possibly the giant Kevin Anderson in the 3rd, and maybe Milos Raonic or Marin Cilic in the 4th round, so that's potentially three big hitters in a row, all of them dangerous, so Andy will need to be really on his game in order to progress to the later stages, and it makes you wonder if someone in the tournament organisation doesn't want Andy to win this year, by giving him such a brutal draw! But its funny how in contrast that Roger Federer has a relatively easy draw with only John Isner to threaten him as a potential quarter final opponent, and at Wimbledon I can't quite see big man upsetting Fed. Djokovic also has a fairly decent draw as well with only one or two players that might give him some trouble, with Berdych most likely being his first real test in the quarter finals.
But whichever way it goes for the Muzza, I wish him the best of luck for SW19 and the Olympics, and I personally don't think we will see an early exit from him at Wimbledon, but don't quote me on that! ;-) And judging by his latest BBC column entry, he is raring to go and hungry to go as deep as he can into Wimbledon, and here's hoping he can, and dispel fears about a possible early exit. And we have to remember its his home slam, he has the crowd on his side and he can draw from that, and fingers crossed that he does.
Oh and as a quick update, I was really chuffed to see the unseeded player, Tamira Paszek, triumph at the AEGON International event at Eastbourne this weekend, as against all odds she beat the favourite, Angelique Keber, and current World No.8, to win the title. After being a set down, Tamira battled back to level the match, and saved 5 match points, before getting 3 of her own, she pulled off a great win to grab her first WTA Premier level event, with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 win, and its remarkable to think prior to this event she had only won two matches all year! So well done, its great to see the underdog come through for a change, and Tamira Paszek thoroughly deserves her win this week. The same goes to Andy Roddick, who has been going into decline in recent times, bounced back brilliantly as he reached the final of the ATP Eastbourne event and defeated Andreas Seppi in convincing fashion, with a straight sets win of 6-3, 6-2. This was his first title in well over a year and a half, so well done to Roddick, and here's hoping he does well at Wimbledon.
And on that note I will leave it there!
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Penalty kick at Queens Club
Wellllllllll, guess what??? Yup more tennis now! (naw!!). This post will be all about on the men's ATP AEGON Championships final, which was controversial to say the least in its outcome, so here is more on that.
So the men's final at Queens club was between, the Croatian player, Marin Cilic, and the former World No.3, David Nalbandian. The match itself for the first 1 hour and 20 minutes or so was very tight and entertaining, with play all square with Nalbandian serving at 3-3 in the 2nd set. But Cilic however managed to break Nalbandian's serve, to move ahead in the set 4-3, and at this point Nalbandian become angry and kicked an advertisement sign that was enclosed around a line judge's chair, which resulted in a shin injury for the linesman. As a result Nalbandian was disqualified from the match, which meant that Marin Cilic became the champion by default, with the scoreline reading 6-7, 4-3 in Cilic's favour, in what was a very dramatic end to a promising match.
It was a great pity that the final had to end in such a way as this, and I can understand that Nalbandian would want to vent a bit of frustration. But if you look back at the footage of what he did, you see it was almost like he was taking a penalty kick in a football match, as he really lashed out at the line judge's box chair, and there was really no excuse for it. However Nalbandian was quite apologetic afterwards and there clearly was no malicious intent in his actions, as it was just a spur of the moment thing. Nalbandian afterwards in his post-final interview apologised to the crowd for what happened, but he also went on to blame the ATP for their strict rules and he felt that they can do a lot to players and nothing happens. This didn't go down too well with the Queens club crowd, and I personally think Nalbandian should have just apologised to the crowd and the line judge, and left his comments about the ATP for some other time, but he continued re-stating them while being interviewed by Sue Barker, and even further so in his press conference. Marin Cilic himself wasn't too happy about winning in this way either, and he was sorry too for the fans, but on the face of it he was a more deserving winner, and its a pity his triumph was not the way he wanted it, as well as being overshadowed by Nalbandian's actions.
But it also does raise one or two questions about how the tournaments are organised as well as the line judge seats and how they have these silly enclosures, with advertisements on them, as clearly these enclosures are a bit of a safety hazard. If a line judge wants to get up from the chair, he or she could trip up on the enclosure for example, and in Nalbandian's case, he could have a lawsuit in the offing. The line judge himself was in a bit of shock after the incident and clearly his leg was bleeding afterwards. And as a result of this Nalbandian could face a hefty fine from the ATP, and its a pity it had to come to this for him, as he will no doubt face all sorts of questions in the press. Anyway despite all that, that's the end of another Queens club tournament, it was definitely quite a controversial one, not to mention it saw just about all the top seeds, including Andy Murray topple out of the event, one after the other.
As for Andy Murray, well he remains upbeat, despite his loss, he has said in his BBC column that it was in a way a good thing, as it allows him more time to prepare for Wimbledon than it did last year, where he hardly had any after winning the Queens title. So hopefully Andy will go into Wimbledon feeling alot fresher and fitter than last year, and hopefully his preparation at the Boodles Challenge event this week will give him a couple of wins (or at least one!) before the next slam begins. At least with this Nalbandian thing the press will get off his back (so to speak!) about his back, and they have something more meaty to get their teeth into.
But what are his actual chances this time around?????? Hmmmmm. To be honest I'm still not convinced he will win the title, as no doubt he will have to face Nadal in the semis, should he get there again. And last year after winning the first set in his match with Rafa, he missed one shot in the 2nd set and his game proceeded to fall apart. And he cannot let that happen this time around, as he will have to play as well as he did, if not better as he did in Melbourne earlier this year to have any chance to get past Rafa (again assuming he get's that far!). And for me it still has to be Rafa and Djokovic for the Wimbledon final, and the best we can hope for Andy is that he has a very tight semi final Rafa match like he did in Australia earlier this year against Djokovic in the semis there. But if he can improve on that performance then he surely will have a good chance of reaching the final and just maybe winning that elusive grand slam. However given his recent form I remain sceptical of his chances, but it is another grand slam and for Andy nowadays it is all about the majors, so here's hoping he can do well again on his home soil. But I think Andy will realistically only get as far as the semi finals again this year, that's assuming he can actually get there, but fingers crossed!
Anywayyyy that's it for now, more will follow on the ladies WTA Premier event this week from Eastbourne, which starts tomorrow, so that should be really good.
So that's it for now.
So the men's final at Queens club was between, the Croatian player, Marin Cilic, and the former World No.3, David Nalbandian. The match itself for the first 1 hour and 20 minutes or so was very tight and entertaining, with play all square with Nalbandian serving at 3-3 in the 2nd set. But Cilic however managed to break Nalbandian's serve, to move ahead in the set 4-3, and at this point Nalbandian become angry and kicked an advertisement sign that was enclosed around a line judge's chair, which resulted in a shin injury for the linesman. As a result Nalbandian was disqualified from the match, which meant that Marin Cilic became the champion by default, with the scoreline reading 6-7, 4-3 in Cilic's favour, in what was a very dramatic end to a promising match.
It was a great pity that the final had to end in such a way as this, and I can understand that Nalbandian would want to vent a bit of frustration. But if you look back at the footage of what he did, you see it was almost like he was taking a penalty kick in a football match, as he really lashed out at the line judge's box chair, and there was really no excuse for it. However Nalbandian was quite apologetic afterwards and there clearly was no malicious intent in his actions, as it was just a spur of the moment thing. Nalbandian afterwards in his post-final interview apologised to the crowd for what happened, but he also went on to blame the ATP for their strict rules and he felt that they can do a lot to players and nothing happens. This didn't go down too well with the Queens club crowd, and I personally think Nalbandian should have just apologised to the crowd and the line judge, and left his comments about the ATP for some other time, but he continued re-stating them while being interviewed by Sue Barker, and even further so in his press conference. Marin Cilic himself wasn't too happy about winning in this way either, and he was sorry too for the fans, but on the face of it he was a more deserving winner, and its a pity his triumph was not the way he wanted it, as well as being overshadowed by Nalbandian's actions.
But it also does raise one or two questions about how the tournaments are organised as well as the line judge seats and how they have these silly enclosures, with advertisements on them, as clearly these enclosures are a bit of a safety hazard. If a line judge wants to get up from the chair, he or she could trip up on the enclosure for example, and in Nalbandian's case, he could have a lawsuit in the offing. The line judge himself was in a bit of shock after the incident and clearly his leg was bleeding afterwards. And as a result of this Nalbandian could face a hefty fine from the ATP, and its a pity it had to come to this for him, as he will no doubt face all sorts of questions in the press. Anyway despite all that, that's the end of another Queens club tournament, it was definitely quite a controversial one, not to mention it saw just about all the top seeds, including Andy Murray topple out of the event, one after the other.
As for Andy Murray, well he remains upbeat, despite his loss, he has said in his BBC column that it was in a way a good thing, as it allows him more time to prepare for Wimbledon than it did last year, where he hardly had any after winning the Queens title. So hopefully Andy will go into Wimbledon feeling alot fresher and fitter than last year, and hopefully his preparation at the Boodles Challenge event this week will give him a couple of wins (or at least one!) before the next slam begins. At least with this Nalbandian thing the press will get off his back (so to speak!) about his back, and they have something more meaty to get their teeth into.
But what are his actual chances this time around?????? Hmmmmm. To be honest I'm still not convinced he will win the title, as no doubt he will have to face Nadal in the semis, should he get there again. And last year after winning the first set in his match with Rafa, he missed one shot in the 2nd set and his game proceeded to fall apart. And he cannot let that happen this time around, as he will have to play as well as he did, if not better as he did in Melbourne earlier this year to have any chance to get past Rafa (again assuming he get's that far!). And for me it still has to be Rafa and Djokovic for the Wimbledon final, and the best we can hope for Andy is that he has a very tight semi final Rafa match like he did in Australia earlier this year against Djokovic in the semis there. But if he can improve on that performance then he surely will have a good chance of reaching the final and just maybe winning that elusive grand slam. However given his recent form I remain sceptical of his chances, but it is another grand slam and for Andy nowadays it is all about the majors, so here's hoping he can do well again on his home soil. But I think Andy will realistically only get as far as the semi finals again this year, that's assuming he can actually get there, but fingers crossed!
Anywayyyy that's it for now, more will follow on the ladies WTA Premier event this week from Eastbourne, which starts tomorrow, so that should be really good.
So that's it for now.
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Seeds to the slaughter
Well well well, here's another quick update on the mens tennis this week at Queens, as this week so far, its not only Andy Murray, the defending champion that has been upset this week so far, but most of the other top seeds have suffered as well.
So to start off with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who after Andy was knocked out, was the next favourite to win the title. However Tsonga was up against the talented Croat player, Ivan Dodig, how last year had beaten Rafa in Shanghai in his first round match. And this proved to be the case too for Tsonga, as Dodig played a very consistent match throughout, despite a couple of service breaks in the 2nd set, which saw Tsonga take the set, but in the 3rd, Tsonga suffered an injury to his finger, however he still managed to play on, and the match went to a deciding tiebreak, which Dodig won to seal the match and winning in 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. After this match there were fears that Tsonga wouldn't be able to play Wimbledon as there was a chance that his finger was broken, but after a scan it was revealed it was just a severe sprain. So at least Tonga, even though he's out he will still be ok for Wimbledon.
And another casualty at Queens was Janko Tipsarevic, who also fell to an unseeded player, Lu Yen-Hsun, in 3 sets, as the young Taiwanese player beat the No.3 seed in 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5). In fact out of the top 16 seeds in the draw at Queens, there are now only two left, which are David Nalbandian and Marin Cilic, who is top remaining seed. Strangely enough the 2010 champion, Sam Querrey, is also still in the tournament, so there would be a nice even symmetry if he won the title this year!
But anyway that's it so far for Queens, now onto the ATP grass court event in Halle, the Gerry Webber Open, which Federer plays every year. This year due to the tax laws, Rafa chose to play at the event along with Federer, and having won his first match against the Slovak player, Lucas Lacko in 7-5, 6-1, he went on to face the defending champion, Philip Kolschreibber. Kolschreibber having never beaten Rafa before, was on this occassion in luck, as he played aggressively and took it to the two time Wimbledon champion, and upsetting him in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. This was quite an upset for Rafa, but at the same time, he has always not fared too great in the last few years after winning the French Open. Last year went out to Tsonga at Queens, and the year before he went out to Feliciano Lopez as well, and Rafa will no doubt be more interested in playing his best at Wimbledon. Federer however who played for the 3rd time against the very talented and big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, was again put to the test, but due to his experience and skills, Roger once again saw off the plucky Canadian after a very close match in 6-7, 4-6, 7-6. As for the others players left in the draw at Halle, there is Tommy Haas, who defeated Tomas Berdych, and Mikhail Youzhny who defeated Radek Stepanek.
So it just shows you that in the smaller tournaments that upsets can be abound everywhere, but I'm sure the top seeds will do better at Wimbledon. And one such man that needs to do is better Andy Murray, but I've already harped on about that one. But next week Andy will continue his preparation for Wimbledon at the exhibition event, The Boodles Challenge, which is held at Stoke Park. The Boodles Challenge is held every year, and this year Andy will be joined by a number of top players, including the World No.1, Novak Djokovic, as well as Juan Martin Del Potro, Stan Wawrinka, John Isner, Gilles Simon and Nicholas Almagro. Andy is scheduled to play two matches, so here's hoping he can win at least one of them!
Anyway the Queens club final will be on tomorrow and it will feature two of the only surviving seeds left, Marin Cilic, the Croation player and David Nalbandian, the former World No.3. who both came through today against Sam Querrey and Grigor Dimitriov respectively. So it promises to be a very good final, and will be worth a watch for sure.
So in the meantime that's it for now. More to follow on the Queens club champion once the event is over. Next week the ladies grass court season continues as well, as the WTA Premier event held at Eastbourne, the AEGON International, will start, which will see more of the top seeds fight it out, including Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova and the defending champion Marion Bartoli. So that promises to be good!
Byee!
So to start off with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who after Andy was knocked out, was the next favourite to win the title. However Tsonga was up against the talented Croat player, Ivan Dodig, how last year had beaten Rafa in Shanghai in his first round match. And this proved to be the case too for Tsonga, as Dodig played a very consistent match throughout, despite a couple of service breaks in the 2nd set, which saw Tsonga take the set, but in the 3rd, Tsonga suffered an injury to his finger, however he still managed to play on, and the match went to a deciding tiebreak, which Dodig won to seal the match and winning in 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. After this match there were fears that Tsonga wouldn't be able to play Wimbledon as there was a chance that his finger was broken, but after a scan it was revealed it was just a severe sprain. So at least Tonga, even though he's out he will still be ok for Wimbledon.
And another casualty at Queens was Janko Tipsarevic, who also fell to an unseeded player, Lu Yen-Hsun, in 3 sets, as the young Taiwanese player beat the No.3 seed in 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5). In fact out of the top 16 seeds in the draw at Queens, there are now only two left, which are David Nalbandian and Marin Cilic, who is top remaining seed. Strangely enough the 2010 champion, Sam Querrey, is also still in the tournament, so there would be a nice even symmetry if he won the title this year!
But anyway that's it so far for Queens, now onto the ATP grass court event in Halle, the Gerry Webber Open, which Federer plays every year. This year due to the tax laws, Rafa chose to play at the event along with Federer, and having won his first match against the Slovak player, Lucas Lacko in 7-5, 6-1, he went on to face the defending champion, Philip Kolschreibber. Kolschreibber having never beaten Rafa before, was on this occassion in luck, as he played aggressively and took it to the two time Wimbledon champion, and upsetting him in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. This was quite an upset for Rafa, but at the same time, he has always not fared too great in the last few years after winning the French Open. Last year went out to Tsonga at Queens, and the year before he went out to Feliciano Lopez as well, and Rafa will no doubt be more interested in playing his best at Wimbledon. Federer however who played for the 3rd time against the very talented and big serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, was again put to the test, but due to his experience and skills, Roger once again saw off the plucky Canadian after a very close match in 6-7, 4-6, 7-6. As for the others players left in the draw at Halle, there is Tommy Haas, who defeated Tomas Berdych, and Mikhail Youzhny who defeated Radek Stepanek.
So it just shows you that in the smaller tournaments that upsets can be abound everywhere, but I'm sure the top seeds will do better at Wimbledon. And one such man that needs to do is better Andy Murray, but I've already harped on about that one. But next week Andy will continue his preparation for Wimbledon at the exhibition event, The Boodles Challenge, which is held at Stoke Park. The Boodles Challenge is held every year, and this year Andy will be joined by a number of top players, including the World No.1, Novak Djokovic, as well as Juan Martin Del Potro, Stan Wawrinka, John Isner, Gilles Simon and Nicholas Almagro. Andy is scheduled to play two matches, so here's hoping he can win at least one of them!
Anyway the Queens club final will be on tomorrow and it will feature two of the only surviving seeds left, Marin Cilic, the Croation player and David Nalbandian, the former World No.3. who both came through today against Sam Querrey and Grigor Dimitriov respectively. So it promises to be a very good final, and will be worth a watch for sure.
So in the meantime that's it for now. More to follow on the Queens club champion once the event is over. Next week the ladies grass court season continues as well, as the WTA Premier event held at Eastbourne, the AEGON International, will start, which will see more of the top seeds fight it out, including Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova and the defending champion Marion Bartoli. So that promises to be good!
Byee!
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Not cutting it on the grass
Ooooooooh dear oh dear, its a pity to start a tennis post (yup another!) with some bad news, but I have to say that it appears to be habitual that every year that the British No.1, Andy Murray, always seems to suffer a slump, and right now, he is suffering it.
At the start of the grass court season, Andy came into the AEGON Championships at Queens club as the defending champion, and he had a tough opponent for his first match in the second round, Nicholas Mahut, who is an excellent grass court player. And in this match he proved just why he is, as Mahut quickly took to Andy and broke him in the first set, and held onto his own to take the first set. In the second set however, Andy held serve better and pushed the match to a 2nd set tiebreak, which he won to take it into a decider. In the decider, Andy had an immediate break on Mahut's serve, but he was broken straight back by the Frenchman. Play went by serve until the deciding tiebreak where Mahut turned on the turbo and overpowered Andy and went to a 6-0 lead, with Andy only managing one feeble point on serve, and after this Mahut served out for a big upset with the No.1 seed and defending being put out, with the scoreline reading 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.
This was far from the best start to Andy's grass court season, and also as he was the defending champion of the title, it was a big disappointment to see him go out so early on in the tournament. But Mahut was the better player it has to be said, as he played aggressive and held serve well, as did Andy in the key service games, but the fact he played such a poor tiebreak in the 3rd set, just leaves you puzzled as to what is going on with him. It was in all fairness a very tough first match and a very tough first round opponent and its not like in the grand slams where you can start with lower ranked players and ease into the matches. But when you look at the top 3, especially Federer who had a real tough match against Mahut in the French Open, you know they will find a way to win, but Andy just doesn't seem to have that ability at times, especially in the ATP tour matches, and the best of 3 sets.
It also makes you wonder just what Ivan Lendl, his new coach is actually doing with him and what advice he is giving him, as whatever it is, it isn't translating well into his game and match play. From what I gather Lendl was trying to help Andy with the mental side of the game, but so far Andy has reverted back to type, still berating himself on court and playing too passively. But its another setback from the great progress he made at the beginning of the year in Melbourne and even in Dubai and reaching the final in Miami. But in the end even Ivan Lendl probably has to realise that he is dealing with Andy Murray, and just maybe there isn't any changing him, but it also makes you wonder what they must be saying to each other just now. I also wonder if Ivan Lendl will be good for Andy in the long term??? As so far things don't seem to be going Andy's way, although they have just been working together over the last six months, so you can't expect miracles to happen overnight, it may take another year or two to get the benefit of Lendl's coaching.
However in his post match press conference Andy did say he wasn't overly worried that he lost the match, as it was very close, which it was, and it wasn't like he was blown off the court. And while it is far from the perfect preparation for Wimbledon to go out so early, it doesn't mean Andy won't have his chances at Wimbledon. But he does need to ensure that he can get more match play in before the next slam at SW19 starts, and there is talk that he might play a couple of exhibition matches (let's hope he doesn't lose them!). And in the grand slams so far this year, he has done very well in Melbourne and fairly well in Paris, so hopefully Andy will raise his game for when he plays at Wimbledon. Also in the best of 5 sets, grand slams can be that bit more forgiving and it has to be said that Andy is a bit of a slow starter in matches, so if he goes a set down, he still has those two extra sets to get back in the game. And as for the AEGON Championships at Queens, Andy Murray wasn't the only one to go out in the top seeds, Andy Roddick went out today to another Frenchman, Eduard Roger-Vasselin, and Gilles Simon was stunned by the Italian player, Simon Bolleli. So you are never alone.
But despite another setback in his season, I'm fairly sure that he will perform much better at Wimbledon (well he better!) as he has done so for the past three years. Even in 2010 when he had one of his worst seasons, he still managed to reach the semi finals of Wimbledon and played a pretty decent match against Rafa in the semis before losing out in a tight straight set defeat, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. However I'm still not convinced that Andy will win Wimbledon at all, but you would expect him to at least reach the quarter finals or the semis. So I will wish the best of luck for SW19 and hope he can at least reach another semi final.
Right that's it for now!
At the start of the grass court season, Andy came into the AEGON Championships at Queens club as the defending champion, and he had a tough opponent for his first match in the second round, Nicholas Mahut, who is an excellent grass court player. And in this match he proved just why he is, as Mahut quickly took to Andy and broke him in the first set, and held onto his own to take the first set. In the second set however, Andy held serve better and pushed the match to a 2nd set tiebreak, which he won to take it into a decider. In the decider, Andy had an immediate break on Mahut's serve, but he was broken straight back by the Frenchman. Play went by serve until the deciding tiebreak where Mahut turned on the turbo and overpowered Andy and went to a 6-0 lead, with Andy only managing one feeble point on serve, and after this Mahut served out for a big upset with the No.1 seed and defending being put out, with the scoreline reading 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.
This was far from the best start to Andy's grass court season, and also as he was the defending champion of the title, it was a big disappointment to see him go out so early on in the tournament. But Mahut was the better player it has to be said, as he played aggressive and held serve well, as did Andy in the key service games, but the fact he played such a poor tiebreak in the 3rd set, just leaves you puzzled as to what is going on with him. It was in all fairness a very tough first match and a very tough first round opponent and its not like in the grand slams where you can start with lower ranked players and ease into the matches. But when you look at the top 3, especially Federer who had a real tough match against Mahut in the French Open, you know they will find a way to win, but Andy just doesn't seem to have that ability at times, especially in the ATP tour matches, and the best of 3 sets.
It also makes you wonder just what Ivan Lendl, his new coach is actually doing with him and what advice he is giving him, as whatever it is, it isn't translating well into his game and match play. From what I gather Lendl was trying to help Andy with the mental side of the game, but so far Andy has reverted back to type, still berating himself on court and playing too passively. But its another setback from the great progress he made at the beginning of the year in Melbourne and even in Dubai and reaching the final in Miami. But in the end even Ivan Lendl probably has to realise that he is dealing with Andy Murray, and just maybe there isn't any changing him, but it also makes you wonder what they must be saying to each other just now. I also wonder if Ivan Lendl will be good for Andy in the long term??? As so far things don't seem to be going Andy's way, although they have just been working together over the last six months, so you can't expect miracles to happen overnight, it may take another year or two to get the benefit of Lendl's coaching.
However in his post match press conference Andy did say he wasn't overly worried that he lost the match, as it was very close, which it was, and it wasn't like he was blown off the court. And while it is far from the perfect preparation for Wimbledon to go out so early, it doesn't mean Andy won't have his chances at Wimbledon. But he does need to ensure that he can get more match play in before the next slam at SW19 starts, and there is talk that he might play a couple of exhibition matches (let's hope he doesn't lose them!). And in the grand slams so far this year, he has done very well in Melbourne and fairly well in Paris, so hopefully Andy will raise his game for when he plays at Wimbledon. Also in the best of 5 sets, grand slams can be that bit more forgiving and it has to be said that Andy is a bit of a slow starter in matches, so if he goes a set down, he still has those two extra sets to get back in the game. And as for the AEGON Championships at Queens, Andy Murray wasn't the only one to go out in the top seeds, Andy Roddick went out today to another Frenchman, Eduard Roger-Vasselin, and Gilles Simon was stunned by the Italian player, Simon Bolleli. So you are never alone.
But despite another setback in his season, I'm fairly sure that he will perform much better at Wimbledon (well he better!) as he has done so for the past three years. Even in 2010 when he had one of his worst seasons, he still managed to reach the semi finals of Wimbledon and played a pretty decent match against Rafa in the semis before losing out in a tight straight set defeat, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. However I'm still not convinced that Andy will win Wimbledon at all, but you would expect him to at least reach the quarter finals or the semis. So I will wish the best of luck for SW19 and hope he can at least reach another semi final.
Right that's it for now!
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun......
OK so here's a different post, this time its on one of the most celebrated and critically lauded series of all time, The Sopranos, which as we all know, or who are familiar with it, centres around a mob boss and his struggles with his job, his crew, and his family. This is tough to do one post on and it will be a LONG one, and its more my general anaylsys of the characters in the show and my thoughts on the show itself, so here goes....
Starting with the premise of the show, which basically is about a mob boss, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) who starts off as a capo in the DiMeo crime family. Tony suffers from panic attacks, which see him pass out, which leads him to go into therapy, where he meets with Doctor Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), an Italian American psychiatrist. At first Tony has a difficult and confrontantial relationship with Melfi, but soon after he settles into the therapy, and he takes medication for his panic attacks and depression. The main reasons behind his anxiety attacks being the pressues of his work, and also the aggravation of his homelife, particularly his mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), who is cynical, difficult, and almost impossible to please. As the series progresses Tony encounters difficulty from his Uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano (Dominic Chianese) who is in charge of the crime family, but at the end of the first series, Junior is arrested by the FBI, and put under house arrest in the second series.
Tony's crew also include his nephew, Chris Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who is similar to Tony in being hotheaded and impulsive, but also highly ambitious as he wants to climb the mob ladder. Other associates also include Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri (Tony Sirico), one of Tony's capos, who is quite eccentric, while also sociopathic (well they all are!) but also wisecracking, and Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt), Tony's consigliere (Italian for counselor), who is by far the most level headed out of his crew and provides valuable advice for Tony.
For the most part Tony's crew are loyal to him, but now and then there is dissension in the ranks, as Paulie at one point in the fourth series, while in jail, out of feeling left out and paranoid tries to side with one of the New York crime family high up figures, Johnny "Sac" Sacrimento, and discloses a joke about his wife, which was told to him by his nephew, which nearly starts a mob war. Chris also while he remains loyal to Tony, also proves to be a bit of loose canon at times, going off the handle on several occassions, particularly during his heavy period of drug abuse, and also abusing his girlfriend, Adriana La Cerva (Drea De Matteo). Tony has other crime subordinates that include Bobby Bacclieri (Steven R. Schirripa) who is a more sensitive and big hearted than the others in his crew, and Sal Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore), who is later revealed to be an informant for the FBI, who pinched him for selling heroin, and is of course later killed off.
As for Tony's family, he has a difficult and strained relationship with his wife Carmela (Edie Falco), and he also has several extra-martial affairs with other women, most of which end badly. Tony also has two children, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who is very intelligent (and pretty hot) and is A-grade student at her high school, and then proceeds to go off to college, where she does very well, and then there is A.J. (Robert Iller), who is quite the opposite, an underachieving, ignorant youngster who frequently gets himself into trouble at school. In fact A.J. for me has to rank as one of the most annoying and obnoxious little shits I've had the misfortune to watch on television, and he is someone who you would never tire of punching in the face. Regardless of the stress of his home life, Tony is a very loving father and he tries his best to keep his family away from the unpleasant asepcts of his work, and encourages his children to do well in their education and in life. He also has a rather distant and stressful relationship with his older sister, Janice (Aida Turturro) who is large as life, and is also rather manipulative like her mother, but she likes to think she is a free spirit, but is really just a nutter.
Tony himself is undoubtedly a complex character, as he has so many different sides to his personality, as he is shown as a tough, ruthless businessman, and he also isn't afraid to get his hands dirty as he would gladly mete punishment himself, and does so fairly often throughout the series. In fact Tony in certain episodes commits several murders himself, such as his cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi), who he did as an act of appeasment for the New York crime family, but also he brutally murdered one of his unstable associates, Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) for killing a prize stallion horse. But on the other hand Tony also shows in his therapy sessions that he is very vulnerable and that he is prone to anxiety attacks, and that this something that he keeps secret from his crime associates, as if they find out, it would be a sign of weakness, although later in the series, his therapy is revealed to his associates. And yet despite Tony's tough guy image, he has also shown to be quite sensitive towards certain comments made about him, especially in the episode in Season 5 where Junior finally starts to really suffer from dementia and insults Tony for his weight by saying at school "he never had the makings of a varsity athlete". He also was quite affected by the death of Ralph Cifaretto's horse, Pie o my (thereafter bludgeoning Ralph to death as he suspected him of destroying the horse in a fire) and in his therapy session with Dr Melfi, he suddenly breaks down in tears.
Tony also can show signs of compassion and kindness, as he often buys things for his family and gifts for his friends and business associates, and he has a close friendship with one of his friends from school, Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia), who is the chef of a local restaurant. He also is shown to have an affection for animals, which is displayed in the very first episode of the series, where he is happy to see some ducks in his back yard, which he plays with, and also a prize stallion horse, which he is very fond of, but is ultimately killed in a fire by the aforementioned Ralph Cifaretto. Even after some of his acts of violence, he is also shown to be remorseful, one example was when one of his less than bright staff Georgie, who works at his crew's local hang-out, Bada Bing, a strip club, enrages Tony, who proceeds to beat with a metal cash tray. After the event, Tony laments and gives Paulie some money to give to Georgie and says to him that he sees that Georgie gets the best treatment for his wounds.
Tony can also be quite mean spirited and manipulative, one example of which is were, despite his warnings, he let's a gambler and childhood friend David Scattino (Robert Patrick) play at a high steaks card game, in which Scattino get's into heavy debt, and is unable to pay back Tony. As a result Tony forces Scattino into handing over his sports and hunting store, in order to pay his debts, and as a result Scattino is left bankrupt. Tony's constant infidelities as a husband to Carmela are also a strain, who does her best to turn a blind eye to it for the most part. But that does change in the last episode of the fourth series, when Tony's cheating finally sends Carmela over the edge, after receiving a call from Irina, Tony's ex-mistress who tells her that Tony also slept with her sister, Svetlana as well, which leads to their separation. And at this point you have to really say that Tony got his just deserts, his cheating went on so long unpunished that something sooner or later had to give.
The show itself has been lauded for is writing and acting, which throughout the series is of the highest quality. James Gandolfini's central performance as Tony is superb, and he drives the series along, playing Tony with compassion, malice, rage and humour. James Gandolfini get's some of the best dialogue in the series as well, and one of his funniest lines is a threat he gives to the loose canon and made man, the wide-eyed Richie Aprile (David Proval) "don't give me those fuckin Manson lamps!".
Edie Falco is also great as Tony's long suffering wife, who is a good mother to her children, and aspires to be moral and upstanding, and is occassionally conflicted with her lifestyle, but she is also shown to be quite manipulative at times, and occassionally in the series she is seen flirting with some men that she fancies, such as Furio (Frederico Castelluccio), one of Tony's ruthless crime associates. Carmela also during her separation from Tony, for the first time in the series has a brief affair with a high school teacher (played by David Strathairn) and she clearly shows a degree of manipulation in getting from the teacher what she wants, while they have sex, she uses him in a way to get her son a higher grade for his poor essays. But Carmela is later accused by the teacher of her manipulating him into changing the grade, after which she angrily breaks up with him. Carmela also briefly warns the teacher to watch his step, but she does show some moral character by not saying anything about it to Tony, because obviously there would be horrendous repercussions on both sides.
Michael Imperioli, despite the fact I do not like Chris Moltisanti at all as a character, as he is an obnxious nasty prick, also gives an excellent performance throughout as Tony's loyal but troubled associate, through his own brashness and violent impulsive behaviour, get him into a whole lot of trouble. And despite the fact that Chrissie is mostly a despicable character you also admire the skill of Michael Imperioli's performance and portayal of such a bad guy. Although in the later series, Chris does mellow a bit, as he is no longer as outright abrasive and rash as he was earlier on in the series, especially towards the end where he settles down and gets married and has a baby (his wife that is!). However at this point Chris still dances with danger having an affair with a recovering (or not so recovering) heroin addict, Julianna Skiff (played by the saucy Julianna Marguiles) and re-establishing his heroin habit, albeit for a brief time. Chris also like Tony occassionally is shown to be quite sensitive about when he is made fun of, especially in the season 5 episode where Tony and his cousin Tony Blundetto make fun of Chris's nose and other things. Chris tries to hold back his feelings in front of the men, and the next day he drives off home, and we see he is nearly in tears, deeply hurt by the comments the two Tony's made.
Lorraine Bracco also deserves special mention as the Dr Melfi, Tony's psychiatrist, as she plays her with a level headed calmness, even in the face of Tony's anger, and he is frequently angry in his therapy sessions with her. Dr Melfi often has many entertaining exchanges with Tony, who is most of the time is quite defensive when she is trying rationalise his fears and thoughts. In fact one of my favourites is when Tony angrily says to Dr Melfi that he has been trying to control his anger, as he went out to a broken down slum area with his son and he confronted by some crackheads, but rather than get angry and start something, he let it go. So Dr Melfi replies "so I would expect you to give me the same courtesy that would give to a crackhead!".
Of some of the other main cast, Dominic Chianese is also terrific as the crime boss, Junior Soprano, who spends most of the series under house arrest, or awaiting trial, and later on in the series, starts to suffer from dementia. But Junior provides some of the most entertaining moments in the series, with some of the dialogue he has, one of my favourite scenes is where he flirts with a nurse who applies an oxygen mask to his face, and she says "I'll be back later", and he says "I'll be counting the beats!". Tony Sirico is also hilarious as Paulie, one of Tony's capos, as Paulie is usually quite eccentric, and makes wisecracks often, but at the same time he can also be quite cold and paranoid. One of Paulie's funniest pieces of dialogue is when he finds out that his mother that had raised him, in actual adopted him, as he meets his real mother later on, who was a nun, lying on her deathbed. When Paulie enters the hospital later to see Tony (who was shot by a senile Juior prior to this time), a priest asks him "How are you doing, Paulie?", and Paulie angrily replies "Alot better than those fuckin nuns you have up there!".
Then there is Aida Turturro (sister of the actor John Turturro) who plays the whacky Janice Soprano, which Aida plays to perfection as a manipulative, rebellious woman, who also a thing for kinky sex (one example being one of her former lovers, Richie Aprile who does her from behind while holding gun at her head!). And then there is the late Nancy Marchand, who passed away shortly into the 3rd series, who is a great as Tony's manipulative mother, Livia, who drives Tony mad, and at one point event conspires with his Uncle Junior to have him killed. She's a lovely woman. ;-) At one point in the series, Dr Melfi describes Livia as having a borderline personality, meaning she is not capable of showing love, or forming relationships with anyone.
The series also has many controversial moments in it, and also some rather shocking scenes of violence as well, the third season in particular has a very violent murder in it, where one of Tony's capos, the sleazy loose canon, Ralph Cifareto (Joe Pantoliano) beats his girlfriend, who is a stripper, to death outside the Bing. There is also the alarming scene where Dr Melfi is raped in a car park after leaving her work by a hood. Also the brutal murder of Fat Dom in the series 6, where Sal and one of the family's associate, Carlo, stab the big man to death in the back of the Bing. And one of the most surprising murders in the show (PLOT SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!) is Chris Moltisanti's where Tony and Chris are involved in a car crash, as Chris is high on drugs, and he is badly injured in the car wreck. Tony however just has cuts and bruises and gets out to call 911, when he notices that the baby carriage in the backseat (by then Chris had a wife and a baby) has been crushed by a tree branch, which pre-empts to suffocate Chris to death.
But for all its scenes of violence, the Sopranos is about so much more than that, as it goes much deeper into looking the gangsters families, their lives outside crime, and also even from the perspective of the FBI agents and the police who are after Tony Soprano and his crew. It also has many funny moments in it too, one of which is where after the death of Tony's mother, he is angered by his sister Janice's refusal to attend the funeral. When Carmela's parents arrive to give their condolences, Carm's father asks "how is Tony holding up??" and then we hear in the background Tony shouting "What the fuck??! Goddamn fuckin bitch!!". James Gandolfini also said what drew him towards the part was the humour of the show, and not the thought of playing a violent tempered bad guy, as he himself is a pacifist (although he has no qualms playing violent characters!) and had concerns over the scenes that involved guns.
David Chase, the creator of the show also deserves no end of credit for bringing the series to our screens, and he wrote many episodes of the series, and he made the decision to ensure the cast was mostly Italian American. Chase also throughout provides a great choice of soundtrack for the series, and he uses the music so well in many scenes. Some examples include the scene at the end of series two "Thru and Thru" by The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello's "High Fidelity" at the end of the first episode of series 3, which shows a shot of Tony's house. Not to mention the memorable theme song "Woke up this morning" by Maroon 3 (which is a remix version) and one of my favourites is The Pretenders instrumental track "Space Invader". They even use Radiohead's "Kid A" track really well at the end of one of the episodes in series 4. Chase also employs the use of some great classic tracks as well form a variety of different genres of music from folk, rock, classical, opera, ambient, electronica, and many more.
Anywayyyyyy so that's it for my critique on The Sopranos. Its easily the largest post I have done yet, and plenty has and will be added to it.
But that's it for now.
Starting with the premise of the show, which basically is about a mob boss, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) who starts off as a capo in the DiMeo crime family. Tony suffers from panic attacks, which see him pass out, which leads him to go into therapy, where he meets with Doctor Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), an Italian American psychiatrist. At first Tony has a difficult and confrontantial relationship with Melfi, but soon after he settles into the therapy, and he takes medication for his panic attacks and depression. The main reasons behind his anxiety attacks being the pressues of his work, and also the aggravation of his homelife, particularly his mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), who is cynical, difficult, and almost impossible to please. As the series progresses Tony encounters difficulty from his Uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano (Dominic Chianese) who is in charge of the crime family, but at the end of the first series, Junior is arrested by the FBI, and put under house arrest in the second series.
Tony's crew also include his nephew, Chris Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who is similar to Tony in being hotheaded and impulsive, but also highly ambitious as he wants to climb the mob ladder. Other associates also include Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri (Tony Sirico), one of Tony's capos, who is quite eccentric, while also sociopathic (well they all are!) but also wisecracking, and Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt), Tony's consigliere (Italian for counselor), who is by far the most level headed out of his crew and provides valuable advice for Tony.
For the most part Tony's crew are loyal to him, but now and then there is dissension in the ranks, as Paulie at one point in the fourth series, while in jail, out of feeling left out and paranoid tries to side with one of the New York crime family high up figures, Johnny "Sac" Sacrimento, and discloses a joke about his wife, which was told to him by his nephew, which nearly starts a mob war. Chris also while he remains loyal to Tony, also proves to be a bit of loose canon at times, going off the handle on several occassions, particularly during his heavy period of drug abuse, and also abusing his girlfriend, Adriana La Cerva (Drea De Matteo). Tony has other crime subordinates that include Bobby Bacclieri (Steven R. Schirripa) who is a more sensitive and big hearted than the others in his crew, and Sal Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore), who is later revealed to be an informant for the FBI, who pinched him for selling heroin, and is of course later killed off.
As for Tony's family, he has a difficult and strained relationship with his wife Carmela (Edie Falco), and he also has several extra-martial affairs with other women, most of which end badly. Tony also has two children, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who is very intelligent (and pretty hot) and is A-grade student at her high school, and then proceeds to go off to college, where she does very well, and then there is A.J. (Robert Iller), who is quite the opposite, an underachieving, ignorant youngster who frequently gets himself into trouble at school. In fact A.J. for me has to rank as one of the most annoying and obnoxious little shits I've had the misfortune to watch on television, and he is someone who you would never tire of punching in the face. Regardless of the stress of his home life, Tony is a very loving father and he tries his best to keep his family away from the unpleasant asepcts of his work, and encourages his children to do well in their education and in life. He also has a rather distant and stressful relationship with his older sister, Janice (Aida Turturro) who is large as life, and is also rather manipulative like her mother, but she likes to think she is a free spirit, but is really just a nutter.
Tony himself is undoubtedly a complex character, as he has so many different sides to his personality, as he is shown as a tough, ruthless businessman, and he also isn't afraid to get his hands dirty as he would gladly mete punishment himself, and does so fairly often throughout the series. In fact Tony in certain episodes commits several murders himself, such as his cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi), who he did as an act of appeasment for the New York crime family, but also he brutally murdered one of his unstable associates, Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) for killing a prize stallion horse. But on the other hand Tony also shows in his therapy sessions that he is very vulnerable and that he is prone to anxiety attacks, and that this something that he keeps secret from his crime associates, as if they find out, it would be a sign of weakness, although later in the series, his therapy is revealed to his associates. And yet despite Tony's tough guy image, he has also shown to be quite sensitive towards certain comments made about him, especially in the episode in Season 5 where Junior finally starts to really suffer from dementia and insults Tony for his weight by saying at school "he never had the makings of a varsity athlete". He also was quite affected by the death of Ralph Cifaretto's horse, Pie o my (thereafter bludgeoning Ralph to death as he suspected him of destroying the horse in a fire) and in his therapy session with Dr Melfi, he suddenly breaks down in tears.
Tony also can show signs of compassion and kindness, as he often buys things for his family and gifts for his friends and business associates, and he has a close friendship with one of his friends from school, Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia), who is the chef of a local restaurant. He also is shown to have an affection for animals, which is displayed in the very first episode of the series, where he is happy to see some ducks in his back yard, which he plays with, and also a prize stallion horse, which he is very fond of, but is ultimately killed in a fire by the aforementioned Ralph Cifaretto. Even after some of his acts of violence, he is also shown to be remorseful, one example was when one of his less than bright staff Georgie, who works at his crew's local hang-out, Bada Bing, a strip club, enrages Tony, who proceeds to beat with a metal cash tray. After the event, Tony laments and gives Paulie some money to give to Georgie and says to him that he sees that Georgie gets the best treatment for his wounds.
Tony can also be quite mean spirited and manipulative, one example of which is were, despite his warnings, he let's a gambler and childhood friend David Scattino (Robert Patrick) play at a high steaks card game, in which Scattino get's into heavy debt, and is unable to pay back Tony. As a result Tony forces Scattino into handing over his sports and hunting store, in order to pay his debts, and as a result Scattino is left bankrupt. Tony's constant infidelities as a husband to Carmela are also a strain, who does her best to turn a blind eye to it for the most part. But that does change in the last episode of the fourth series, when Tony's cheating finally sends Carmela over the edge, after receiving a call from Irina, Tony's ex-mistress who tells her that Tony also slept with her sister, Svetlana as well, which leads to their separation. And at this point you have to really say that Tony got his just deserts, his cheating went on so long unpunished that something sooner or later had to give.
The show itself has been lauded for is writing and acting, which throughout the series is of the highest quality. James Gandolfini's central performance as Tony is superb, and he drives the series along, playing Tony with compassion, malice, rage and humour. James Gandolfini get's some of the best dialogue in the series as well, and one of his funniest lines is a threat he gives to the loose canon and made man, the wide-eyed Richie Aprile (David Proval) "don't give me those fuckin Manson lamps!".
Edie Falco is also great as Tony's long suffering wife, who is a good mother to her children, and aspires to be moral and upstanding, and is occassionally conflicted with her lifestyle, but she is also shown to be quite manipulative at times, and occassionally in the series she is seen flirting with some men that she fancies, such as Furio (Frederico Castelluccio), one of Tony's ruthless crime associates. Carmela also during her separation from Tony, for the first time in the series has a brief affair with a high school teacher (played by David Strathairn) and she clearly shows a degree of manipulation in getting from the teacher what she wants, while they have sex, she uses him in a way to get her son a higher grade for his poor essays. But Carmela is later accused by the teacher of her manipulating him into changing the grade, after which she angrily breaks up with him. Carmela also briefly warns the teacher to watch his step, but she does show some moral character by not saying anything about it to Tony, because obviously there would be horrendous repercussions on both sides.
Michael Imperioli, despite the fact I do not like Chris Moltisanti at all as a character, as he is an obnxious nasty prick, also gives an excellent performance throughout as Tony's loyal but troubled associate, through his own brashness and violent impulsive behaviour, get him into a whole lot of trouble. And despite the fact that Chrissie is mostly a despicable character you also admire the skill of Michael Imperioli's performance and portayal of such a bad guy. Although in the later series, Chris does mellow a bit, as he is no longer as outright abrasive and rash as he was earlier on in the series, especially towards the end where he settles down and gets married and has a baby (his wife that is!). However at this point Chris still dances with danger having an affair with a recovering (or not so recovering) heroin addict, Julianna Skiff (played by the saucy Julianna Marguiles) and re-establishing his heroin habit, albeit for a brief time. Chris also like Tony occassionally is shown to be quite sensitive about when he is made fun of, especially in the season 5 episode where Tony and his cousin Tony Blundetto make fun of Chris's nose and other things. Chris tries to hold back his feelings in front of the men, and the next day he drives off home, and we see he is nearly in tears, deeply hurt by the comments the two Tony's made.
Lorraine Bracco also deserves special mention as the Dr Melfi, Tony's psychiatrist, as she plays her with a level headed calmness, even in the face of Tony's anger, and he is frequently angry in his therapy sessions with her. Dr Melfi often has many entertaining exchanges with Tony, who is most of the time is quite defensive when she is trying rationalise his fears and thoughts. In fact one of my favourites is when Tony angrily says to Dr Melfi that he has been trying to control his anger, as he went out to a broken down slum area with his son and he confronted by some crackheads, but rather than get angry and start something, he let it go. So Dr Melfi replies "so I would expect you to give me the same courtesy that would give to a crackhead!".
Of some of the other main cast, Dominic Chianese is also terrific as the crime boss, Junior Soprano, who spends most of the series under house arrest, or awaiting trial, and later on in the series, starts to suffer from dementia. But Junior provides some of the most entertaining moments in the series, with some of the dialogue he has, one of my favourite scenes is where he flirts with a nurse who applies an oxygen mask to his face, and she says "I'll be back later", and he says "I'll be counting the beats!". Tony Sirico is also hilarious as Paulie, one of Tony's capos, as Paulie is usually quite eccentric, and makes wisecracks often, but at the same time he can also be quite cold and paranoid. One of Paulie's funniest pieces of dialogue is when he finds out that his mother that had raised him, in actual adopted him, as he meets his real mother later on, who was a nun, lying on her deathbed. When Paulie enters the hospital later to see Tony (who was shot by a senile Juior prior to this time), a priest asks him "How are you doing, Paulie?", and Paulie angrily replies "Alot better than those fuckin nuns you have up there!".
Then there is Aida Turturro (sister of the actor John Turturro) who plays the whacky Janice Soprano, which Aida plays to perfection as a manipulative, rebellious woman, who also a thing for kinky sex (one example being one of her former lovers, Richie Aprile who does her from behind while holding gun at her head!). And then there is the late Nancy Marchand, who passed away shortly into the 3rd series, who is a great as Tony's manipulative mother, Livia, who drives Tony mad, and at one point event conspires with his Uncle Junior to have him killed. She's a lovely woman. ;-) At one point in the series, Dr Melfi describes Livia as having a borderline personality, meaning she is not capable of showing love, or forming relationships with anyone.
The series also has many controversial moments in it, and also some rather shocking scenes of violence as well, the third season in particular has a very violent murder in it, where one of Tony's capos, the sleazy loose canon, Ralph Cifareto (Joe Pantoliano) beats his girlfriend, who is a stripper, to death outside the Bing. There is also the alarming scene where Dr Melfi is raped in a car park after leaving her work by a hood. Also the brutal murder of Fat Dom in the series 6, where Sal and one of the family's associate, Carlo, stab the big man to death in the back of the Bing. And one of the most surprising murders in the show (PLOT SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!) is Chris Moltisanti's where Tony and Chris are involved in a car crash, as Chris is high on drugs, and he is badly injured in the car wreck. Tony however just has cuts and bruises and gets out to call 911, when he notices that the baby carriage in the backseat (by then Chris had a wife and a baby) has been crushed by a tree branch, which pre-empts to suffocate Chris to death.
But for all its scenes of violence, the Sopranos is about so much more than that, as it goes much deeper into looking the gangsters families, their lives outside crime, and also even from the perspective of the FBI agents and the police who are after Tony Soprano and his crew. It also has many funny moments in it too, one of which is where after the death of Tony's mother, he is angered by his sister Janice's refusal to attend the funeral. When Carmela's parents arrive to give their condolences, Carm's father asks "how is Tony holding up??" and then we hear in the background Tony shouting "What the fuck??! Goddamn fuckin bitch!!". James Gandolfini also said what drew him towards the part was the humour of the show, and not the thought of playing a violent tempered bad guy, as he himself is a pacifist (although he has no qualms playing violent characters!) and had concerns over the scenes that involved guns.
David Chase, the creator of the show also deserves no end of credit for bringing the series to our screens, and he wrote many episodes of the series, and he made the decision to ensure the cast was mostly Italian American. Chase also throughout provides a great choice of soundtrack for the series, and he uses the music so well in many scenes. Some examples include the scene at the end of series two "Thru and Thru" by The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello's "High Fidelity" at the end of the first episode of series 3, which shows a shot of Tony's house. Not to mention the memorable theme song "Woke up this morning" by Maroon 3 (which is a remix version) and one of my favourites is The Pretenders instrumental track "Space Invader". They even use Radiohead's "Kid A" track really well at the end of one of the episodes in series 4. Chase also employs the use of some great classic tracks as well form a variety of different genres of music from folk, rock, classical, opera, ambient, electronica, and many more.
Anywayyyyyy so that's it for my critique on The Sopranos. Its easily the largest post I have done yet, and plenty has and will be added to it.
But that's it for now.
Monday, 11 June 2012
Roland Garros Part 10.3: 7th heaven and the cruel twist of fate
Wellllllllllllllllllllllll that's the men's final at the French Open finally over with, as the world's two greatest players went at it for the right to make history on both sides, Novak going for the career slam, and Rafa for the record breaking 7th Roland Garros title.
Soooo I'll continue from where the match left off, with the state of play being Rafa with a 2 sets to 1 lead, but Djokovic had the ascendency at this stage with a break up in the 4th at 2-1. However when play resumed, Djokovic was unable to consolidate his break as Rafa broke back to level the scores 2-2, play from here went on serve until 6-5 (Djokovic servicing at 5 games) Djokovic was handed the cruellest of fates, in that Rafa having dealt a break point opportunity for championship point at 30-40, Djoko doubled faulted to hand the match and championship to Rafa. With that Rafa had made history winning his 7th Roland Garros title, after a hard fought 3 hours and 49 minutes, with the scoreline reading 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
This was an extraordinary end to what has been a terrific tournament, and thankfully we were given a great finale between the two best players in the world. Rafa had been in scarily good form throughout the tournament, crushing opponents left, right and centre to reach the final, and it was credit to Djokovic that he was able to push Rafa that far for nearly four hours. But clearly Djokovic for half the match didn't play his best, as he struggled on serve and made a host of unforced errors, which in the end tallied up to over 50. And with that loss it saw Djokovic's grand slam winning streak of 27 matches come to an end, and his chance for a career slam, and to hold all four majors at the same time come to an end as well.
And I have to say I felt sorry for Djokovic that he double faulted on such a crucial point to hand the title over to Rafa, and I'm sure that point will haunt him for quite a while, as his shoulders slumped in defeat as he went over to congratulate his opponent, and it was the cruellest way possible to end such a great effort. It also happened to Djokovic as well when he played in the final of the Rome Masters, but for it to happen in a slam is even more cruel. And another slightly troubling thing we have seen more of from Djokovic this year, is that his old negative habits have started to resurface, especially as we have seen in the French Open final, with his berating himself and smashing his racquets. Its a sign that he is going back to the Djokovic of old, and let's face it, we hardly saw that last year, because he did so much winning, but this year with six losses already, we can see that Djokovic is getting more frustrated. And I think the pendulum has swung for Rafa as that is now three matches he has won against Djokovic, so it looks like he could go a winning streak against the Serb, just like Djokovic did last year, but we will see.
But this really does show that Rafa is the greatest clay court player of all time and that no matter what that he was going to win the title and make history, and this is undoubtedly his finest clay court season of his career, with 4 titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Roland Garros. And on this form, there is a chance that Rafa can even wrestle that No.1 slot back from Djokovic come Wimbledon and points wise he can't be that far off the No.1 slot now, so it could be safe to say that Djokovic could lose his title defence at Wimbledon, but we can save that for another day.
Anyway that's the French Open finally over, after three rain delays, and an extra day required to finish the men's title, it has a great tournament, which has seen much controversy on the ladies side, and history on both sides with Rafa win his 7 titles, and Maria Sharapova completing her career slam.
So with that its time for the grass court season to begin, which begins today funnily enough with the AEGON Championships at the Queens club in London today, so more will follow on that. Andy Murray is the defending champion there, so we will see if he can hold onto his title, and he is highest ranked player in the draw, as Rafa is playing in Halle due to the British tax laws costing him money (its not like he has enough money as it is!) and Djokovic a week off to prep for Wimbledon.
So we will soon find out, and I've always enjoyed watching Queens club tennis, so I look forward to it this week, but they have been hampered by rain delays today as well, so it will be a while before play can commence.
OK that's it for now.
Soooo I'll continue from where the match left off, with the state of play being Rafa with a 2 sets to 1 lead, but Djokovic had the ascendency at this stage with a break up in the 4th at 2-1. However when play resumed, Djokovic was unable to consolidate his break as Rafa broke back to level the scores 2-2, play from here went on serve until 6-5 (Djokovic servicing at 5 games) Djokovic was handed the cruellest of fates, in that Rafa having dealt a break point opportunity for championship point at 30-40, Djoko doubled faulted to hand the match and championship to Rafa. With that Rafa had made history winning his 7th Roland Garros title, after a hard fought 3 hours and 49 minutes, with the scoreline reading 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
This was an extraordinary end to what has been a terrific tournament, and thankfully we were given a great finale between the two best players in the world. Rafa had been in scarily good form throughout the tournament, crushing opponents left, right and centre to reach the final, and it was credit to Djokovic that he was able to push Rafa that far for nearly four hours. But clearly Djokovic for half the match didn't play his best, as he struggled on serve and made a host of unforced errors, which in the end tallied up to over 50. And with that loss it saw Djokovic's grand slam winning streak of 27 matches come to an end, and his chance for a career slam, and to hold all four majors at the same time come to an end as well.
And I have to say I felt sorry for Djokovic that he double faulted on such a crucial point to hand the title over to Rafa, and I'm sure that point will haunt him for quite a while, as his shoulders slumped in defeat as he went over to congratulate his opponent, and it was the cruellest way possible to end such a great effort. It also happened to Djokovic as well when he played in the final of the Rome Masters, but for it to happen in a slam is even more cruel. And another slightly troubling thing we have seen more of from Djokovic this year, is that his old negative habits have started to resurface, especially as we have seen in the French Open final, with his berating himself and smashing his racquets. Its a sign that he is going back to the Djokovic of old, and let's face it, we hardly saw that last year, because he did so much winning, but this year with six losses already, we can see that Djokovic is getting more frustrated. And I think the pendulum has swung for Rafa as that is now three matches he has won against Djokovic, so it looks like he could go a winning streak against the Serb, just like Djokovic did last year, but we will see.
But this really does show that Rafa is the greatest clay court player of all time and that no matter what that he was going to win the title and make history, and this is undoubtedly his finest clay court season of his career, with 4 titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Roland Garros. And on this form, there is a chance that Rafa can even wrestle that No.1 slot back from Djokovic come Wimbledon and points wise he can't be that far off the No.1 slot now, so it could be safe to say that Djokovic could lose his title defence at Wimbledon, but we can save that for another day.
Anyway that's the French Open finally over, after three rain delays, and an extra day required to finish the men's title, it has a great tournament, which has seen much controversy on the ladies side, and history on both sides with Rafa win his 7 titles, and Maria Sharapova completing her career slam.
So with that its time for the grass court season to begin, which begins today funnily enough with the AEGON Championships at the Queens club in London today, so more will follow on that. Andy Murray is the defending champion there, so we will see if he can hold onto his title, and he is highest ranked player in the draw, as Rafa is playing in Halle due to the British tax laws costing him money (its not like he has enough money as it is!) and Djokovic a week off to prep for Wimbledon.
So we will soon find out, and I've always enjoyed watching Queens club tennis, so I look forward to it this week, but they have been hampered by rain delays today as well, so it will be a while before play can commence.
OK that's it for now.
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Roland Garros Part 10.2: Rain delays, comebacks, and more rain delays
Well this post isn't so much as a complete entry as its more of an update on the latest state of events with the men's French Open final, which has still to be completed due to play being suspended because of heavy rainfall.
So to start off with early on in the match it was Rafa who had the ascendency, dominating the play ruthlessly at the start as he raced off to a 3-0 lead. However Djokovic managed to somehow get himself back into the 1st set, reeling off the next 3 games to level the score, but on his service game at 4-3 (to Rafa), he doubled faulted to hand the break to Rafa, who went on to take the 1st set, 6-4. In the 2nd it was more of the same from Rafa, who went on to break Djokovic at 5-3 on Djoko's service game, to make it 6-3. However.... despite going a break down straight away, Djokovic broke back against Rafa, and went on to hold his serve to make it 2-2 in the 3rd set, and from then on, Djokovic fought his way back into the match, breaking Rafa's serve and rattling off the next 6 games to take himself into the 4th set, where he broke Rafa straight away in a thrilling first game on Rafa's serve. So after Djokovic held his serve, Rafa started to get a bit riled by the downfall of rain, which was starting to affect the tennis balls, which were getting heavy and the clay getting into them, so after he held his service game, play was suspended for the night, leaving the score of this very intruiging match at 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 1-2, in Rafa's favour for now.
Well it has to be said that this match has the similar feel to it as the Australian Open final did earlier this year, as that match was a real slow burner, and it took a while to take off, but when it did became an incredible contest, and the same can be said for this one. In the first two sets, Rafa clearly was in control, dominating a very frustrated Djokovic, who realised just how tough it was to play the king on his best surface on his favourite court, so much so he even smashed his racquet against his chair at one point, breaking part of the wood off of it (it was later replaced of course!). And at one point in the 3rd set, you really thought that Djokovic might go down in straight sets, but its all credit to Djokovic for fighting his way back into the match, and it just shows you, with the state of play as it is, when play resumes tomorrow, Djoko could still have a chance of winning the title.
There is no doubt about the fact that Djokovic still very much believes he can turn this match around and it wouldn't surprise if tomorrow that he levels the match tomorrow when play resumes. And given Rafa's form throughout this tournament, how he has managed too annihilate his way to the final (with the exception of Nicholas Almagro) it is remarkable that even on the Philip Chartrier court, where he has been so successful, that Djokovic can still push and challenge him to the extent that he has done, and no doubt will tomorrow, and he could well be the only person that can defeat Rafa tomorrow.
And as usual Djokovic seemed to succeed in getting into Rafa's head, as we clearly saw Rafa get frustrated at the beginning of the 4th set where Djokovic got the break, and Rafa was furious about the rain coming down and play not being suspended at that time. And its almost bizzare to see Rafa get so riled and angry on court, as we are always used to seeing him calm and collected on court, but he knows that Djokovic has a chance of beating him tomorrow, or whenever the match will conclude, and I think that has rattled him. And Rafa was able to beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo and Rome in the best of 3 sets, but in a grand slam, best of 5, it definitely will be a much tougher proposition and it will take Djokovic to go the distance to win, either that or Rafa will win in 4, but the way it is going I think it will go all the way. So history will need to wait on until tomorrow for play to resume and then we can see who will be the victor of this historic and now potentially very exciting tennis match, and if the quality of play continues as it finished off tonight, it will sure be one to remember. And it will be very intruiging to see which way this one is going to swing.
Right OK so more will follow once its all over tomorrow, if it is over should I say, as the weather forecast for Paris tomorrow isn't too great either with chances of more heavy rain, so we will see if they get a chance to get out on court.
So until then that's it for now.
So to start off with early on in the match it was Rafa who had the ascendency, dominating the play ruthlessly at the start as he raced off to a 3-0 lead. However Djokovic managed to somehow get himself back into the 1st set, reeling off the next 3 games to level the score, but on his service game at 4-3 (to Rafa), he doubled faulted to hand the break to Rafa, who went on to take the 1st set, 6-4. In the 2nd it was more of the same from Rafa, who went on to break Djokovic at 5-3 on Djoko's service game, to make it 6-3. However.... despite going a break down straight away, Djokovic broke back against Rafa, and went on to hold his serve to make it 2-2 in the 3rd set, and from then on, Djokovic fought his way back into the match, breaking Rafa's serve and rattling off the next 6 games to take himself into the 4th set, where he broke Rafa straight away in a thrilling first game on Rafa's serve. So after Djokovic held his serve, Rafa started to get a bit riled by the downfall of rain, which was starting to affect the tennis balls, which were getting heavy and the clay getting into them, so after he held his service game, play was suspended for the night, leaving the score of this very intruiging match at 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 1-2, in Rafa's favour for now.
Well it has to be said that this match has the similar feel to it as the Australian Open final did earlier this year, as that match was a real slow burner, and it took a while to take off, but when it did became an incredible contest, and the same can be said for this one. In the first two sets, Rafa clearly was in control, dominating a very frustrated Djokovic, who realised just how tough it was to play the king on his best surface on his favourite court, so much so he even smashed his racquet against his chair at one point, breaking part of the wood off of it (it was later replaced of course!). And at one point in the 3rd set, you really thought that Djokovic might go down in straight sets, but its all credit to Djokovic for fighting his way back into the match, and it just shows you, with the state of play as it is, when play resumes tomorrow, Djoko could still have a chance of winning the title.
There is no doubt about the fact that Djokovic still very much believes he can turn this match around and it wouldn't surprise if tomorrow that he levels the match tomorrow when play resumes. And given Rafa's form throughout this tournament, how he has managed too annihilate his way to the final (with the exception of Nicholas Almagro) it is remarkable that even on the Philip Chartrier court, where he has been so successful, that Djokovic can still push and challenge him to the extent that he has done, and no doubt will tomorrow, and he could well be the only person that can defeat Rafa tomorrow.
And as usual Djokovic seemed to succeed in getting into Rafa's head, as we clearly saw Rafa get frustrated at the beginning of the 4th set where Djokovic got the break, and Rafa was furious about the rain coming down and play not being suspended at that time. And its almost bizzare to see Rafa get so riled and angry on court, as we are always used to seeing him calm and collected on court, but he knows that Djokovic has a chance of beating him tomorrow, or whenever the match will conclude, and I think that has rattled him. And Rafa was able to beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo and Rome in the best of 3 sets, but in a grand slam, best of 5, it definitely will be a much tougher proposition and it will take Djokovic to go the distance to win, either that or Rafa will win in 4, but the way it is going I think it will go all the way. So history will need to wait on until tomorrow for play to resume and then we can see who will be the victor of this historic and now potentially very exciting tennis match, and if the quality of play continues as it finished off tonight, it will sure be one to remember. And it will be very intruiging to see which way this one is going to swing.
Right OK so more will follow once its all over tomorrow, if it is over should I say, as the weather forecast for Paris tomorrow isn't too great either with chances of more heavy rain, so we will see if they get a chance to get out on court.
So until then that's it for now.
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