Right so now we get onto the second part of my look at the top 10 best matches of 2014 on the men's tour and this post will cover the top 5. So let's give them a look...
5. French Open 3rd round, Andy Murray d. Philipp Kohlschreiber, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10
Right so at No.5 is one of the year's most enthralling see-saw encounters, which featured the British No.1, Andy Murray who continued his way back from surgery last year and found some form at the French Open during what has been one of the toughest years of his career. And in this match Andy could not have been more up against it as he took on the talented German player, Philipp Kohlschreiber, an aggressive player who like Andy has some nice finesse and touch to his game. And it was the German who got off to the better start as Andy struggled on serve and Kohlschreiber broke him to nab the opening set. In the 2nd set however Andy started to settle and he fought back as he broke Kohlschreiber and took the set and he also continued his form in the 3rd set and broke the German once more to take the two sets to one lead. And despite being a break up in the 4th set, the Scot squandered it and let Kohlschreiber back into the match who went on to break Andy himself and he levelled the match at two sets all. And in the decider we were treated to an exciting and nerve wracking set where momentum seem to swing to and fro and Andy even went a break down, but it wasn't long before he broke back to get himself back into the match and played went by serve until 7-7 when played had to be suspended due to bad light. The next day played resumed again and both men played some high quality tennis for the crowd with Andy staving off several break points on his serve and ultimately he came through as he finally broke Kohlschreiber at 11-10 to win his hardest fought and longest match of the season in four hours and seven minutes, which saw him go down on the knees yelling in delight as he reached the last 16 at the French Open. There is no doubt this was one of the best matches of the year and it was a real nerve shredding see-saw contest which you would expect nothing less from an Andy Murray classic. It was also the first time that Andy was taken beyond 7-5 in the deciding set of a grand slam match as the final score went to 12-10. And there is no doubt he could have made things a bit easier on himself in this match as he had the two sets to one lead and a break in the 4th before he squandered it, but Kohlschreiber also deserves credit as he played his part in this match aswell and so it sits rightly here at in the top five.
4. Rome Open quarter final, Rafael Nadal d. Andy Murray, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
This match had to be one of the most anticipated encounters of the year as these two rivals hadn't played each other for the better part of three years before this incredible and thrilling contest took place. Given the fact it was two years and seven months since Andy and Rafa had last played each other in the final of the Tokyo open back in 2011, there was much riding on this one, and it didn't disappoint. Andy had just recently split from his coach Ivan Lendl around this time but his influence was still felt, particularly during the first set where Andy dominated Rafa and played perhaps his single best set of tennis since the Wimbledon final as he broke the Spaniard twice to take the opener. In the 2nd set however, Rafa did what he does and fought back to break Andy and push the match into a deciding set. And in the 3rd set both men produced some tremendous points and despite going a break down early on, Andy broke back and saved game point on Rafa's serve with an amazing backhand pass. Andy then went on to break Rafa's serve to go 4-2 up, however he couldn't consolidate the break and let Rafa back in the door. And at 5-5, Andy's serve finally caved in as he double faulted to hand the break to Rafa who went on to serve out one of his most memorable victories on the tour as he beat his rival for 14th time in their head to head meetings. This was a match that had just about everything in it and it showed once again Rafa's fighting qualities come to the fore after Andy had made such a blistering start. It also was great to see that after nearly three years their first encounter back together was a thrilling one and I'm sure Andy might rue not holding serve but in the end it boiled down to him playing against the greatest clay court player to have played the game. Such as it is it was a great match and well deserving a place here at No.4.
3. Australian open quarter final, Stanislas Wawrinka d. Novak Djokovic, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7
Next up at No.3 is a rematch of last year's Australian Open 4th round encounter between Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, which was unquestionably the match of the year, so this one had alot to live up to. But did it???? Well by far and large yes it certainly did as this rematch which saw a blossoming rivalry which started off last year continue in fine form this year when Nole and Stan went at it again. But this time it was Novak that made the stronger start as he took the first set with a double break, but it was not long before Stan reasserted himself and shook off his last easy defeat to Nole the previous year at the o2 in London and showed himself to be a big match player and broke Novak to claim the 2nd set. And in the 3rd set it was more of the same as Stan bossed Novak and took a double break lead and the two sets to one lead with it. But in the 4th set, the defending champion was not about to surrender his title so easily and Novak went on to break Stan to go 5-3 up and he roared with delight after he staved off some resistance from Stan threatening to break back and levelled the match at two sets apiece. And in the final set we were treated to a similarly lengthy set to that of last year, which saw Nole take an early break but Stan wrestled his way back into the set. And play went 8-7 when Nole did the unthinkable and went 30-40 down on his own serve and played a clumsy volley which went long and with it went his title defence which saw him sustain his first defeat in four years in Melbourne as Stan pulled off the mother of all upsets and dethroned the king down under in exactly four hours. While this match didn't quite reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor last year, it was still a highly entertaining battle and featured some tremendous points from both men. And it was testament to Stan's fighting qualities that he was able to pull off such an upset, but then he had been threatening to do so in the previous slam meeting at the US Open last year aswell so it was no surprise in a way he would do it sooner or later and it later filled him with the belief to go on and win the title. As for Novak well it was a real shocker in a way he lost this but it proved that even the very best can't win all of the time and he later in the season would bounce back. And while its not quite the epic of last year its still easily one of the best matches of the year and so that's why it sits here at No.3.
2. Valencia open final, Andy Murray d. Tommy Robredo, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (10-8)
At No.2 we have a rematch of Andy Murray's first final of the year in Shenzhen as he took on the in form Spaniard, Tommy Robredo again in the player's home soil. Andy had to save five match points in their previous final which featured a thrilling 2nd set tiebreak and some good play form both men off and on, but it had nothing on this match, which unquestionably is one of the best and most tense and nailbiting encounters any tennis fan will likely ever see. To recap the match in the opening set Andy struggled (as he does!) on serve and Robredo expertly showed his form as he broke to take the opener confidently. In the 2nd set however this is when the tables turned and it was Andy's turn to nab the break, but he squandered it and play went to a tiebreak, which saw Andy have to save a match point, which Robredo brought up in spectacular fashion with a backhand pass, but Andy saved it and went on to take the set to level. And in the 3rd set an already tense battle developed further into a nerve shredding contest with both men battling it out as hard as they could and Andy at one stage had a match point of his own at 5-4, but Robredo saved it. And it was not long before we went into a final tiebreak, and in the breaker Andy had to save yet another four match points before he finally grabbed his 2nd match point and sealed the deal and the title with a backhand pass, which saw him collapse on the floor with sheer exhaustion after an incredible 3 hour and 20 minute gruelling battle. Well this match just about had everything in it and to say it was dramatic was something of an understatement as Andy had to save yet another five match points against Robredo before he win the title. Robredo again showed what a brilliant player he is and at the age of 32 he is playing some of the best tennis of his career, and in this match he had several chances to close it out, but in the end he just couldn't take them as Andy proved to be just too good in the key points. Robredo despite his loss though did provide the match conclusion with one of the funniest moments on the tour this year as he wearily gave Andy the double finger as he greeted him at the net and the two men gave each other a hug after a real gruelling encounter. It also continued to show Andy's improved form late on in the season as he claimed his biggest title of the year (well OK an ATP 500 isn't that big) and that his fighting champion qualities were in fine fettle, even if he yet again did it the hard way! And at three hours and 20 minutes it holds the record of the longest final of the ATP tour this year, but its also not just the longest its also the best final of the year and it more than deserves its place right here at No.2.
1. Wimbledon final, Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer, 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-4
In a year which the slam finals were mainly pretty disappointing it was the Wimbledon final that made up for all that as this was a real showdown between two giants in the sport, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. And as such it was a fitting match to end the sport's biggest tournament of the year at SW19 and it remains one of the players best contests as well as the match of the year. Going into this match Roger was looking to secure his 8th Wimbledon title, whereas Novak was trying to win his 2nd and also gain some validation for all the recent slam finals he had lost to Rafa and also to Andy in last year's Wimbledon final. But getting onto the match itself it started off with a tense, high quality and even pegged set which went to a tiebreak and it was Rog who took the initiative the first set. In the 2nd set however Nole started his comeback and he broke Roger to grab the 2nd set and he also went on in the 3rd set to take it on the breaker. In the 4th set it looked very much like Nole had the match sewn up as he broke Federer early on but Roger showed much tenacity in breaking back, before Nole managed to break again to serve for the title at 5-3, but Roger was still not done and broke yet again. And after this Roger nabbed the next three games to push the match into a deciding 5th set, where again it was all even until 5-4, where Roger went down 15-40 and he finally capitulated on serve which saw Novak claim his 2nd Wimbledon title in a match that was just three minutes short of four hours. Well there is no doubt this was a fitting finale to a tournament which had plenty of surprises and dramas and it saw the two best players in the world just go at it in a match of real high quality, which saw both men produce some wonderful points for the crowd. The match is also not only one of their best encounters it is also their longest match at 3 hours and 57 minutes, its amazing to think that these guys haven't played a match longer than four hours, yet Andy and Nole have played nearly five and Rafa and Nole nearly six! But despite that this is a terrific final and it was the first real classic the tournament had for five years since Roger's clash with Andy Roddick back in 2009. It also proved that Nole had what it took to win more than one of the other majors at least once (other than the Australian open) which is certainly the mark of what makes a player one of the true greats in the game, which Novak without a doubt is. As for Roger well he came so tantalisingly close to winning Wimbledon this year and even though he didn't it showed he still might have at least another major left in him and he isn't done just yet when it comes to winning majors.
Soooooo that's it for my look at the best men's matches of the year, which has been fun to do and hopefully its a fair representation of the best of what we have seen this year on the tour.
And with that I shall leave yee there.
Monday, 24 November 2014
Top 10 men's tennis matches of 2014 Part 1: 10-6
Well the ATP tennis season is finally over for another year as it concluded the other day with the final of the Davis cup between France and Switzerland, which I will quickly mention.
Going into this tie, Switzerland were the heavy favourites, which was no surprise even though on the first day both countries took a point each, with Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils victorious in both their matches against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roger Federer respectively, with Monfils particularly who played an incredible match against Roger Federer to win in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. On the second day the Swiss boys, Stan and Rog took a crucial lead in the doubles as they beat the French pairing of Richard Gasquet and Julienne Benneteau in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. And in what proved to be the final decisive rubber which was between Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet and despite some nice tennis from Gasquet it was a one horserace with Roger outclassing the Frenchman and winning the title for his country in 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. So its a big well done to Switzerland on winning their maiden Davis cup title, which sees Roger Federer add to an already incredible trophy collection, although he insisted after the win that he had won enough in his career and it wasn't for him and "this one is for the boys". And with this victory no doubt Roger will go confidently into 2015 with the belief that he can win another major and on that basis it would be hard to argue with that and the same also goes for Stan Wawrinka who put in a great performance as well at the tie.
Sooooo now we get onto the main purpose of this post and it will cover the best men's tennis matches of 2014 so I will split it over two posts as I will cover the top 10 matches of the year as there has been some great tennis this year, even if the year end championships ended on an anti-climax. But despite that there is still plenty to choose from over the last 11 months, so let's get to it and have a look as I start the countdown.....
10. BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells Final, Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
So right at number 10 was the second clash of the season between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, which proved to be something of a slow burner but turned into a thrilling contest as it went on. Roger going into the final had been in scintilating form and he carried on that form in the first set as he played near perfect tennis in breaking Nole's serve and grabbing it. In the 2nd set Novak started his fightback as he managed to get a break of serve and secured the second set to push the match into a decider. And in the final set Nole took the early break as Roger trailed by a break but at 5-4 with Nole serving for the match, Roger played a spectacular game and broke serve and from here a tiebreak decided the match with Roger spraying some loose shots which cost him the title and it saw Novak claim his first title of 2014 in Indian Wells. This was a highly entertaining contest between what is currently the world's two best players and it was testament again to Novak's incredible ability to fight back from any down position to go on and claim his first title of the season after what had been a very atypical slow start to his season having been denied his title defence at the Australian open only two months prior to this. Roger probably must have been kicking himself after losing the final and he would again come close to winning another Masters final in Monte Carlo only to again come up short, but he would later on in the year have his day in Cincinnati and again in Shanghai when he claimed the Masters events there. So overall this was an excellent final and well worth putting in here at No.10.
9. Rio Open semi final, Rafael Nadal d. Pablo Andujar, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10)
In the earlier part of the season this epic contest saw Rafa take one of his fellow Spaniard's, Pablo Andujar in what proved to be a real thriller where Rafa was pushed to the absolute limit of his champion abilities before he eventually emerged victorious. The match saw Andujar start off the stronger of the two as pummelled Rafa's second serves back at him and played a superb set of tennis to break him twice to take the opener. In the 2nd set Rafa started to find his range and bossed Andujar from the baseline as he confidently took the match into a 3rd set. And in the deciding set we got a thrilling contest from both men who battled it out hammers and tongs to try and reach the final and it went into an amazing epic tiebreak which saw momentum swing to and fro before Rafa emerged triumphant in the breaker winning 12-10 to end a superb match. There is no doubt this was a great contest with both men going at it full tilt and there certainly were several moments where it looked like Rafa's fellow countryman had his number, but in the end Rafa showed his champion qualities and dug out a terrific win and he went on to win the title, providing again his status as the greatest clay court player to have played the game and so this match sits comfortably here at No.9.
8. US Open quarter final, Kei Nishikori d. Stanislas Wawrinka, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (7-5), 6-4
The final grand slam of the season certainly had its fair share of surprises and two rather unlikely finalists, one of them being Kei Nishikori, who played his part in this remarkable match which was probably the best match from the US Open this year. On paper Stan probably looked the likely favourite here especially as Nishikori had played a gruelling five setter in the previous round against Milos Raonic, but the Japanese player proved to be more than up to the task to go another round as the two men went toe to toe in this lengthy contest, which featured many great baseline rallies. Stan took the initiative early on as he broke Nishikori to take the opening set but the tables turned in the 2nd when Nishikori broke Stan to level the match after the Swiss double faulted. In the 3rd set play went by serve and we got a tiebreak which was topsy turvey but in the end Kei took the set and two sets to one lead. In the 4th set play again went on serve into a tiebreak but this time Stan took the initiative and got the minibreak to seal the breaker and take the match into a 5th and deciding set, which after an enthralling 4 hours and 15 minutes saw Nishikori seal the deal and his place in the last four of the US Open. With this match Kei Nishikori really showed that he is an emerging force in the game and he also showed real grit and determination to beat Stan in what proved to be his 2nd consecutive five set match after he defeated Raonic. Stan couldn't really have done much more here either as he played his part in what was an exhilirating match and one of the best of the tournament.
7. Wimbledon championships quarter final, Novak Djokovic d. Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (9-7)
Next at No.8 is this great clash which saw Novak Djokovic, the then World No.2 take on the rising Bulgarian star, Grigor Dimitrov, who had just stunned the defending champion, Andy Murray in the previous round. And right from the get go both men were out to play as Dimi showed Nole what he had although he went down a break in the opener which saw Novak close it out. In the 2nd set however, Dimitrov started to gain some momentum as he took advantage of a sloppy service game from Nole and he went on to level at a set all. And in the 3rd set both men played some wondeful tennis as they kept slipping and sliding all over the place on the court and play went to a tiebreak with Nole comfortably taking it 7-2 to grab the two sets to one lead. In the 4th set again both men went at it full tilt and there was no let up from Dimitrov who again pushed the match into a tiebreak where he gained some set points to take the match into a 5th set but ultimately let them slip as Nole proved too good again in the key moments and he sealed his place in the semi finals with a hard fought and memorable win. This really was a highly entertaining and high quality encounter from both guys and again it shows just how good a player Novak Djokovic really is that he can overcome just about anything as Dimitrov really threw everything he had at him, showing he too could become a future slam winner and there is no doubt this match deserves to be in here.
6. ATP World Tour Finals semi final, Roger Federer d. Stanislas Wawrinka, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6)
In what was a pretty disappointing tournament, the year end championships really didn't live up to expectations overall as too many matches were decided in straight sets, and easy straight sets for that matter, which must have left some of the punters in the crowd a bit disgruntled at the lack of a real contest. However this all Swiss semi final clash more than made up for that as after Roger Federer's straight set obliteration of Andy Murray he far from had it his own way when Stan Wawrinka came out all guns blazing as he broke Roger twice in the opening set, although Rog wrestled back one of the breaks, but Stan held onto the other to take the set. In the 2nd set Federer came under serious fire again from Stan who threatened to break Fed's serve yet again but the maestro held on and at 6-5, Rog fashioned a break of his own to level the match. And in the 3rd set Stan went up a break early on and even was serving for the set when Roger saved three match points and broke back to level 5-5. Play then went into a tense tiebreak where again Stan had a match point but he squandered it and before he knew it the tables were turned and Roger sealed the match on his first match point to land his place in the final after battling for 2 hours and 48 minutes. There is no doubt this was a great encounter between two great rivals and Stan once again showed his good form after suffering a dip during the season he reminded us all again why he won the Australian open. But in the end Stan just wasn't able to quite close the door on his good friend as Rog just would not be denied his place in the final. There was also some controversy during the match in the final set where Stan accused Roger's wife, Mirka, in calling out during his serve and she was audibly heard on the recording of the match saying "crybaby" when Federer was getting ready to serve. This lead to a backstage row between Rog and Stan but in the end it was all put aside and it also lead to Roger's withdrawal from the final as he sustained a back injury during the final set tiebreak. It was a pity that such a great match had a disappointing outcome with the crowd being denied a potentially classic final between Djokovic and Federer but the match itself did make up for the lack of high quality matches that went before so it certainly deserves to be on the list.
Right so that's it for the first part next up is the part two and the countdown from 5 to 1.
See you in a bit!
Going into this tie, Switzerland were the heavy favourites, which was no surprise even though on the first day both countries took a point each, with Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils victorious in both their matches against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roger Federer respectively, with Monfils particularly who played an incredible match against Roger Federer to win in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. On the second day the Swiss boys, Stan and Rog took a crucial lead in the doubles as they beat the French pairing of Richard Gasquet and Julienne Benneteau in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. And in what proved to be the final decisive rubber which was between Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet and despite some nice tennis from Gasquet it was a one horserace with Roger outclassing the Frenchman and winning the title for his country in 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. So its a big well done to Switzerland on winning their maiden Davis cup title, which sees Roger Federer add to an already incredible trophy collection, although he insisted after the win that he had won enough in his career and it wasn't for him and "this one is for the boys". And with this victory no doubt Roger will go confidently into 2015 with the belief that he can win another major and on that basis it would be hard to argue with that and the same also goes for Stan Wawrinka who put in a great performance as well at the tie.
Sooooo now we get onto the main purpose of this post and it will cover the best men's tennis matches of 2014 so I will split it over two posts as I will cover the top 10 matches of the year as there has been some great tennis this year, even if the year end championships ended on an anti-climax. But despite that there is still plenty to choose from over the last 11 months, so let's get to it and have a look as I start the countdown.....
10. BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells Final, Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
So right at number 10 was the second clash of the season between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, which proved to be something of a slow burner but turned into a thrilling contest as it went on. Roger going into the final had been in scintilating form and he carried on that form in the first set as he played near perfect tennis in breaking Nole's serve and grabbing it. In the 2nd set Novak started his fightback as he managed to get a break of serve and secured the second set to push the match into a decider. And in the final set Nole took the early break as Roger trailed by a break but at 5-4 with Nole serving for the match, Roger played a spectacular game and broke serve and from here a tiebreak decided the match with Roger spraying some loose shots which cost him the title and it saw Novak claim his first title of 2014 in Indian Wells. This was a highly entertaining contest between what is currently the world's two best players and it was testament again to Novak's incredible ability to fight back from any down position to go on and claim his first title of the season after what had been a very atypical slow start to his season having been denied his title defence at the Australian open only two months prior to this. Roger probably must have been kicking himself after losing the final and he would again come close to winning another Masters final in Monte Carlo only to again come up short, but he would later on in the year have his day in Cincinnati and again in Shanghai when he claimed the Masters events there. So overall this was an excellent final and well worth putting in here at No.10.
9. Rio Open semi final, Rafael Nadal d. Pablo Andujar, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10)
In the earlier part of the season this epic contest saw Rafa take one of his fellow Spaniard's, Pablo Andujar in what proved to be a real thriller where Rafa was pushed to the absolute limit of his champion abilities before he eventually emerged victorious. The match saw Andujar start off the stronger of the two as pummelled Rafa's second serves back at him and played a superb set of tennis to break him twice to take the opener. In the 2nd set Rafa started to find his range and bossed Andujar from the baseline as he confidently took the match into a 3rd set. And in the deciding set we got a thrilling contest from both men who battled it out hammers and tongs to try and reach the final and it went into an amazing epic tiebreak which saw momentum swing to and fro before Rafa emerged triumphant in the breaker winning 12-10 to end a superb match. There is no doubt this was a great contest with both men going at it full tilt and there certainly were several moments where it looked like Rafa's fellow countryman had his number, but in the end Rafa showed his champion qualities and dug out a terrific win and he went on to win the title, providing again his status as the greatest clay court player to have played the game and so this match sits comfortably here at No.9.
8. US Open quarter final, Kei Nishikori d. Stanislas Wawrinka, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (7-5), 6-4
The final grand slam of the season certainly had its fair share of surprises and two rather unlikely finalists, one of them being Kei Nishikori, who played his part in this remarkable match which was probably the best match from the US Open this year. On paper Stan probably looked the likely favourite here especially as Nishikori had played a gruelling five setter in the previous round against Milos Raonic, but the Japanese player proved to be more than up to the task to go another round as the two men went toe to toe in this lengthy contest, which featured many great baseline rallies. Stan took the initiative early on as he broke Nishikori to take the opening set but the tables turned in the 2nd when Nishikori broke Stan to level the match after the Swiss double faulted. In the 3rd set play went by serve and we got a tiebreak which was topsy turvey but in the end Kei took the set and two sets to one lead. In the 4th set play again went on serve into a tiebreak but this time Stan took the initiative and got the minibreak to seal the breaker and take the match into a 5th and deciding set, which after an enthralling 4 hours and 15 minutes saw Nishikori seal the deal and his place in the last four of the US Open. With this match Kei Nishikori really showed that he is an emerging force in the game and he also showed real grit and determination to beat Stan in what proved to be his 2nd consecutive five set match after he defeated Raonic. Stan couldn't really have done much more here either as he played his part in what was an exhilirating match and one of the best of the tournament.
7. Wimbledon championships quarter final, Novak Djokovic d. Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (9-7)
Next at No.8 is this great clash which saw Novak Djokovic, the then World No.2 take on the rising Bulgarian star, Grigor Dimitrov, who had just stunned the defending champion, Andy Murray in the previous round. And right from the get go both men were out to play as Dimi showed Nole what he had although he went down a break in the opener which saw Novak close it out. In the 2nd set however, Dimitrov started to gain some momentum as he took advantage of a sloppy service game from Nole and he went on to level at a set all. And in the 3rd set both men played some wondeful tennis as they kept slipping and sliding all over the place on the court and play went to a tiebreak with Nole comfortably taking it 7-2 to grab the two sets to one lead. In the 4th set again both men went at it full tilt and there was no let up from Dimitrov who again pushed the match into a tiebreak where he gained some set points to take the match into a 5th set but ultimately let them slip as Nole proved too good again in the key moments and he sealed his place in the semi finals with a hard fought and memorable win. This really was a highly entertaining and high quality encounter from both guys and again it shows just how good a player Novak Djokovic really is that he can overcome just about anything as Dimitrov really threw everything he had at him, showing he too could become a future slam winner and there is no doubt this match deserves to be in here.
6. ATP World Tour Finals semi final, Roger Federer d. Stanislas Wawrinka, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6)
In what was a pretty disappointing tournament, the year end championships really didn't live up to expectations overall as too many matches were decided in straight sets, and easy straight sets for that matter, which must have left some of the punters in the crowd a bit disgruntled at the lack of a real contest. However this all Swiss semi final clash more than made up for that as after Roger Federer's straight set obliteration of Andy Murray he far from had it his own way when Stan Wawrinka came out all guns blazing as he broke Roger twice in the opening set, although Rog wrestled back one of the breaks, but Stan held onto the other to take the set. In the 2nd set Federer came under serious fire again from Stan who threatened to break Fed's serve yet again but the maestro held on and at 6-5, Rog fashioned a break of his own to level the match. And in the 3rd set Stan went up a break early on and even was serving for the set when Roger saved three match points and broke back to level 5-5. Play then went into a tense tiebreak where again Stan had a match point but he squandered it and before he knew it the tables were turned and Roger sealed the match on his first match point to land his place in the final after battling for 2 hours and 48 minutes. There is no doubt this was a great encounter between two great rivals and Stan once again showed his good form after suffering a dip during the season he reminded us all again why he won the Australian open. But in the end Stan just wasn't able to quite close the door on his good friend as Rog just would not be denied his place in the final. There was also some controversy during the match in the final set where Stan accused Roger's wife, Mirka, in calling out during his serve and she was audibly heard on the recording of the match saying "crybaby" when Federer was getting ready to serve. This lead to a backstage row between Rog and Stan but in the end it was all put aside and it also lead to Roger's withdrawal from the final as he sustained a back injury during the final set tiebreak. It was a pity that such a great match had a disappointing outcome with the crowd being denied a potentially classic final between Djokovic and Federer but the match itself did make up for the lack of high quality matches that went before so it certainly deserves to be on the list.
Right so that's it for the first part next up is the part two and the countdown from 5 to 1.
See you in a bit!
Monday, 17 November 2014
2014 ATP World Tour Finals comedown and looking ahead to 2015
Right well this will be my last post of the tennis season and it will cover the events leading to the final of the ATP world tour finals, which appeared to be heading towards a Djokovic and Federer final showdown. Did they get there???? Well let's find out...
Well as a quick recap with Roger Federer knocking out Andy Murray in the round robin stage, that meant Kei Nishikori qualified for the semi finals (in the runner up spot as Rog guarantee himself as the the winner of group B) after he beat David Ferrer, the alternate who filled in for Milos Raonic who withdrew. And in group A, Nole qualified for the semis and also secured his spot at the top of the world rankings after dismissing Tomas Berdych in straight sets and Stan Wawrinka qualified for the runner semi final spot as he beat Marin Cilic in three sets.
So starting with the first semi final, as Novak Djokovic made his into the semis in a hugely impressive form as he had only dropped a mere 9 games! However Nole took on Kei Nishikori in the last four, who given the Japanese player's form it promised to be a tough encounter. But Nole made an imperious start as he broke Nishikori three times to ease to take the first set in just over 20 minutes. In the 2nd set however, Nishikori picked up his level after Djokovic went up a break and then double faulted to hand Kei a lifeline, which he exploited and went on to break a distracted Nole and he did the almost unthinkable in leveling the scores at a set all. And in the deciding set, danger lurked for Novak as he had to save two break points on his own serve, but after he did he then went on to romp his way to victory as he handed Kei a tasty bagel set as the Japanese player eventually succumb to the pressure on his own serve and ended the contest with a double fault, which saw Novak reach the final with a see-saw 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory. Despite the second set dip this again saw Novak in incredible form and it also meant that he had now won his last 31 indoor hard court matches in a row, which is an amazing result in itself. And going into the final Nole looked to be very much the favourite in everyone's eyes.
After this we had the second semi final which was a much anticipated all Swiss encounter as the Swiss No.1 and 2 took on each other, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. Roger had already shown incredible form in his previous matches during the week, particularly in his straight set demolition of Andy Murray where he dropped just the one game. But unlike Andy, Stan proved to be more than up to the task to try and pull off an upset as he bossed "the boss" in the opening set and soon took a double break lead, only to squander one of the breaks, however Stan still managed to serve for the 1st set at the second time of asking. In the 2nd set it was a tight affair as Stan threatened yet again to break Rog's serve but it took all of Swiss maestro's tenacity to hold on and he later himself fashioned a break of his own at 6-5 to level the scores at a set all. And in the 3rd set the audience were treated to a thrilling decider where Stan went an early break up and when he served for the match at 5-4, despite having three match points, he was unable to convert them and Roger levelled the scores breaking back at 5-5. Play then went into a tiebreak which was topsy turvey but in the end it was Roger who made the killer move and he ended his Swiss compatriot's stern challenge with a volley to seal his place in another year end championship after a hard fought epic 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 win.
There was no doubt this was the match of the tournament and it was a match that more than made up for what had been quite a disappointing event with too many one-sided matches on both groups leading up to the semi finals. There was also a slight controversry during the match where Federer neglected to challenge a ball, which ultimately lead to him being broken. And later it was rumoured that after the match Rog and Stan both had an argument backstage over something that appeared to involve Roger's wife Mirka making a comment during the match about how Stan didn't have what it takes to beat Roger, which Stan picked up on. And its a pity for Stan that he was not able to close out the match as he had four match points on his racquet and you figure that he definitely should have taken one of them but then again he was only up against the greatest player to have played the game.
Which leads us into the final, which promised to be a real cracker between the World No.1 and No.2, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. But..........unfortunately it didn't happen as Roger Federer made a personal on court announcement to the crowd that he had to withdraw from the final due to a back injury he sustained during his match with Stan. Roger said that he had tried everything he could to try and be fit enough to play the match but in the end he said that he was not "match fit" enough to play Novak, which saw the title automatically awarded to Djokovic, who claimed it for the 4th time in his career. And there is no doubt that this was a big disappointment for the fans but ultimately Roger made the right call and health has to come first and there would have been no point in his going out on court only to have to retire 10 minutes into the match, so its understandable that he would want to pull out prior to the match. And no doubt I'm sure Stan will be gutted with this outcome as had he taken one of those match points we would have gotten a final, although given the very one-sided nature of Stan and Nole's round robin match (with Nole winning 6-3, 6-0) it might have been more of the same.
So in the absence of the final, the tournament organisers instead came up with some alternate entertainment as Novak Djokovic took on Andy Murray in a one set exhibition match, followed by a doubles match which would also feature Andy along with John McEnroe as his partner and Tim Henman and Pat Cash both teamed up as well. Nole and Andy's exhibition match was a pro set, which meant the first to reach 8 games would be the winner and the match itself was quite an entertaining one and it saw Andy managed to put in a decent performance against the world no.1 before he was broken and Nole served it out to win the exhibition bout 8-5. After the match Andy joked to Mark Petchy (one of Andy's former coaches and current Sky Sports commentator) that he had been playing Mario Kart when he got the invite to come and play and he also apologised for "pushing Roger so hard" on Thursday night! This was followed by an enjoyable doubles match which saw Andy and Mac take on Tim and Pat as they played some typical fun exhibition stuff for the crowd, which eventually saw Andy and Mac win 8-6, which ended the night's entertainment.
And that's it for the ATP world tour finals and indeed the 2014 ATP tour season, which overall has been an excellent season although its finale in London has been overall a bit of a letdown given the number of one-sided matches and also that we were deprived of a final but well that can't be helped. But it does certainly once again cement just how good a player Novak Djokovic is as he was able to reclaim his No.1 spot this year again after losing it last year to Rafa and it sees Nole take the top spot for the 3rd time in his career. And as Novak finished up with 7 career titles, and among them the Wimbledon title, it shows that his game is going from strength to strength and next year he promises to get even better, which is a scary prospect as it is!
As for Roger well its pity his ATP tour season ended the way it has with him being injured but he still does have the Davis cup final yet to play against France, which begins on Friday, but there is still a big question mark hanging over Roger and whether or not he will be able to recover in time to play. One thing is for sure though is that if Roger doesn't play then it may seriously hurt Switzerland's chances of winning the title and that would almost automatically make France the favourites to win, especially as they are playing from home. So for the sake of the contest and competition we will just have to hope that Roger recovers well enough in time for Friday as it maybe a bit of a daunting task for Stan Wawrinka to try and pull it off on his own, but with Roger they have a legitimate chance to win should he be fit and well.
As for Andy well at least something good did come out of the tournament for him after his brutal dismissal last week as he was able to get back on the court and play two exhibition matches infront of the London o2 crowd. But with his 2014 season now at a close it does leave a few question marks hanging over his head in regards to where can he go from here? And the main question that should be asked is should he keep Amelie Mauresmo on as his coach???? Well in my opinion I don't think Andy should as I feel while she may have helped in some ways, she has not helped him to defeat any of the "big three" (i.e. Rog, Rafa and Nole) this year and that is what he needs to start doing as so far this season Andy has only managed to bag a single set off each of them and suffered nine losses combined to them. It also doesn't reflect very well on Mauresmo that Andy finished his season with such a devastating loss and if anything it shows that she lacks the edge and effectiveness needed to help him beat the elite guys in the sport.
And in my view if Andy stays with Mauresmo I doubt that he will be able to win another grand slam and he needs to find another coach who can help him get that aggressive edge back again that Ivan Lendl gave him. And in that regard perhaps Andy would benefit from another male coach such as John McEnroe, if he was willing to take on Andy then there is a chance that it could prove successful for him, or it could be a complete disaster, who knows??? One thing that is for sure regarding McEnroe is that he does possess a great serve and Mac has already stated in the media how Andy needs to improve his 2nd serve speed and just maybe if they did work together perhaps that is one area that they can finally try and resolve. Andy is said to be making the decision next month whether or not he will continue his parternship with Mauresmo into 2015, but for me personally and I'm sure many others, I would rather see Andy hire someone new so he can start the new year with a fresh perspective. And I mean no ill feeling toward Mauresmo either as she was a great player in her own right but in terms of coaching Andy and getting his game where it needs to be, so far she has fallen short of that mark. But at the end of the day it is of course Andy's decision and regardless of the choices that lie ahead for him, I think next year he will come back stronger and I believe he will start beating the top guys again as he is ultimately too good a player to keep down.
So that's it for now and I might be back soon with the result of the Davis cup final between France and Switzerland, with France who have the home advantage, and if Roger plays and is fit, it should be a cracker.
So until the next one bye for now.
Well as a quick recap with Roger Federer knocking out Andy Murray in the round robin stage, that meant Kei Nishikori qualified for the semi finals (in the runner up spot as Rog guarantee himself as the the winner of group B) after he beat David Ferrer, the alternate who filled in for Milos Raonic who withdrew. And in group A, Nole qualified for the semis and also secured his spot at the top of the world rankings after dismissing Tomas Berdych in straight sets and Stan Wawrinka qualified for the runner semi final spot as he beat Marin Cilic in three sets.
So starting with the first semi final, as Novak Djokovic made his into the semis in a hugely impressive form as he had only dropped a mere 9 games! However Nole took on Kei Nishikori in the last four, who given the Japanese player's form it promised to be a tough encounter. But Nole made an imperious start as he broke Nishikori three times to ease to take the first set in just over 20 minutes. In the 2nd set however, Nishikori picked up his level after Djokovic went up a break and then double faulted to hand Kei a lifeline, which he exploited and went on to break a distracted Nole and he did the almost unthinkable in leveling the scores at a set all. And in the deciding set, danger lurked for Novak as he had to save two break points on his own serve, but after he did he then went on to romp his way to victory as he handed Kei a tasty bagel set as the Japanese player eventually succumb to the pressure on his own serve and ended the contest with a double fault, which saw Novak reach the final with a see-saw 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory. Despite the second set dip this again saw Novak in incredible form and it also meant that he had now won his last 31 indoor hard court matches in a row, which is an amazing result in itself. And going into the final Nole looked to be very much the favourite in everyone's eyes.
After this we had the second semi final which was a much anticipated all Swiss encounter as the Swiss No.1 and 2 took on each other, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. Roger had already shown incredible form in his previous matches during the week, particularly in his straight set demolition of Andy Murray where he dropped just the one game. But unlike Andy, Stan proved to be more than up to the task to try and pull off an upset as he bossed "the boss" in the opening set and soon took a double break lead, only to squander one of the breaks, however Stan still managed to serve for the 1st set at the second time of asking. In the 2nd set it was a tight affair as Stan threatened yet again to break Rog's serve but it took all of Swiss maestro's tenacity to hold on and he later himself fashioned a break of his own at 6-5 to level the scores at a set all. And in the 3rd set the audience were treated to a thrilling decider where Stan went an early break up and when he served for the match at 5-4, despite having three match points, he was unable to convert them and Roger levelled the scores breaking back at 5-5. Play then went into a tiebreak which was topsy turvey but in the end it was Roger who made the killer move and he ended his Swiss compatriot's stern challenge with a volley to seal his place in another year end championship after a hard fought epic 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 win.
There was no doubt this was the match of the tournament and it was a match that more than made up for what had been quite a disappointing event with too many one-sided matches on both groups leading up to the semi finals. There was also a slight controversry during the match where Federer neglected to challenge a ball, which ultimately lead to him being broken. And later it was rumoured that after the match Rog and Stan both had an argument backstage over something that appeared to involve Roger's wife Mirka making a comment during the match about how Stan didn't have what it takes to beat Roger, which Stan picked up on. And its a pity for Stan that he was not able to close out the match as he had four match points on his racquet and you figure that he definitely should have taken one of them but then again he was only up against the greatest player to have played the game.
Which leads us into the final, which promised to be a real cracker between the World No.1 and No.2, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. But..........unfortunately it didn't happen as Roger Federer made a personal on court announcement to the crowd that he had to withdraw from the final due to a back injury he sustained during his match with Stan. Roger said that he had tried everything he could to try and be fit enough to play the match but in the end he said that he was not "match fit" enough to play Novak, which saw the title automatically awarded to Djokovic, who claimed it for the 4th time in his career. And there is no doubt that this was a big disappointment for the fans but ultimately Roger made the right call and health has to come first and there would have been no point in his going out on court only to have to retire 10 minutes into the match, so its understandable that he would want to pull out prior to the match. And no doubt I'm sure Stan will be gutted with this outcome as had he taken one of those match points we would have gotten a final, although given the very one-sided nature of Stan and Nole's round robin match (with Nole winning 6-3, 6-0) it might have been more of the same.
So in the absence of the final, the tournament organisers instead came up with some alternate entertainment as Novak Djokovic took on Andy Murray in a one set exhibition match, followed by a doubles match which would also feature Andy along with John McEnroe as his partner and Tim Henman and Pat Cash both teamed up as well. Nole and Andy's exhibition match was a pro set, which meant the first to reach 8 games would be the winner and the match itself was quite an entertaining one and it saw Andy managed to put in a decent performance against the world no.1 before he was broken and Nole served it out to win the exhibition bout 8-5. After the match Andy joked to Mark Petchy (one of Andy's former coaches and current Sky Sports commentator) that he had been playing Mario Kart when he got the invite to come and play and he also apologised for "pushing Roger so hard" on Thursday night! This was followed by an enjoyable doubles match which saw Andy and Mac take on Tim and Pat as they played some typical fun exhibition stuff for the crowd, which eventually saw Andy and Mac win 8-6, which ended the night's entertainment.
And that's it for the ATP world tour finals and indeed the 2014 ATP tour season, which overall has been an excellent season although its finale in London has been overall a bit of a letdown given the number of one-sided matches and also that we were deprived of a final but well that can't be helped. But it does certainly once again cement just how good a player Novak Djokovic is as he was able to reclaim his No.1 spot this year again after losing it last year to Rafa and it sees Nole take the top spot for the 3rd time in his career. And as Novak finished up with 7 career titles, and among them the Wimbledon title, it shows that his game is going from strength to strength and next year he promises to get even better, which is a scary prospect as it is!
As for Roger well its pity his ATP tour season ended the way it has with him being injured but he still does have the Davis cup final yet to play against France, which begins on Friday, but there is still a big question mark hanging over Roger and whether or not he will be able to recover in time to play. One thing is for sure though is that if Roger doesn't play then it may seriously hurt Switzerland's chances of winning the title and that would almost automatically make France the favourites to win, especially as they are playing from home. So for the sake of the contest and competition we will just have to hope that Roger recovers well enough in time for Friday as it maybe a bit of a daunting task for Stan Wawrinka to try and pull it off on his own, but with Roger they have a legitimate chance to win should he be fit and well.
As for Andy well at least something good did come out of the tournament for him after his brutal dismissal last week as he was able to get back on the court and play two exhibition matches infront of the London o2 crowd. But with his 2014 season now at a close it does leave a few question marks hanging over his head in regards to where can he go from here? And the main question that should be asked is should he keep Amelie Mauresmo on as his coach???? Well in my opinion I don't think Andy should as I feel while she may have helped in some ways, she has not helped him to defeat any of the "big three" (i.e. Rog, Rafa and Nole) this year and that is what he needs to start doing as so far this season Andy has only managed to bag a single set off each of them and suffered nine losses combined to them. It also doesn't reflect very well on Mauresmo that Andy finished his season with such a devastating loss and if anything it shows that she lacks the edge and effectiveness needed to help him beat the elite guys in the sport.
And in my view if Andy stays with Mauresmo I doubt that he will be able to win another grand slam and he needs to find another coach who can help him get that aggressive edge back again that Ivan Lendl gave him. And in that regard perhaps Andy would benefit from another male coach such as John McEnroe, if he was willing to take on Andy then there is a chance that it could prove successful for him, or it could be a complete disaster, who knows??? One thing that is for sure regarding McEnroe is that he does possess a great serve and Mac has already stated in the media how Andy needs to improve his 2nd serve speed and just maybe if they did work together perhaps that is one area that they can finally try and resolve. Andy is said to be making the decision next month whether or not he will continue his parternship with Mauresmo into 2015, but for me personally and I'm sure many others, I would rather see Andy hire someone new so he can start the new year with a fresh perspective. And I mean no ill feeling toward Mauresmo either as she was a great player in her own right but in terms of coaching Andy and getting his game where it needs to be, so far she has fallen short of that mark. But at the end of the day it is of course Andy's decision and regardless of the choices that lie ahead for him, I think next year he will come back stronger and I believe he will start beating the top guys again as he is ultimately too good a player to keep down.
So that's it for now and I might be back soon with the result of the Davis cup final between France and Switzerland, with France who have the home advantage, and if Roger plays and is fit, it should be a cracker.
So until the next one bye for now.
Thursday, 13 November 2014
That was the year that was Murray's 2014 season
Well this is the last post to cover Andy Murray's year that has been 2014 and its been a very difficult one for him overall as he has had some tough obstacles to overcome with returning from back surgery and also splitting with his coach Ivan Lendl, who lead him to his first grand slam success. So let's give another look at how Andy has been doing which takes us up to the end of his season at the ATP world tour finals in London.
So starting with the BNP Paribas Masters tournament in Paris, where Andy competed to try and seal his place in the top 8 for the ATP world tour finals in London. And the British No.1 got off to an excellent start there as he defeated the Frenchman, Julienne Benneteau in 6-3, 6-4 to put him within one match from qualifying for the o2. And that match was on paper a very tough one as he took on Grigor Dimitrov who handed him a pretty heavy loss at Wimbledon, but Andy ended up getting his sweet revenge over the young Bulgarian as he dismissed him with one of his best performances of the year in 6-3, 6-3, which saw him qualify in 5th place for the world tour finals. After this Andy next faced off against Novak Djokovic in their 4th meeting of the season, which given Andy's form promised to be a real cracker. However despite a tight first set, Andy dropped his serve to give Novak the set and in the 2nd set Andy suffered lapses of concentration again and went down a double break to hand the match to the Serb who won 7-5, 6-2. This saw Andy's lengthy six week run on the tour come to an end and gave him a much needed rest and a week off before the world tour finals would begin.
Now we get onto the ATP world tour finals itself and Andy's match started with him taking on the US Open finalist, Kei Nishikori in a promising opening clash for the tournament. Andy had won all three of their previous encounters all with Andy winning in straight sets, and it looked to be heading that way again at the start of the first set as Andy secured a break. However in typical fashion, Andy surrendered the break and it went to 3-3 and before we knew Andy was broken by Nishikori at 5-4 and the Japanese player took the first set. In the 2nd set, Andy dented his chances in the tournament further as he dropped his serve early on and Kei lead with the brea, but Andy then revitalised his chances as he broke back to go 4-4. But again Andy surrendered serve in the same way and let Nishikori grab a somewhat unexpected victory, his first over Andy with a 6-4, 6-4 win. This certainly wasn't the start Andy was looking for in the tournament as he looked pretty flat and tired from the offset with only one or two sparks here and there, but he looked well below the man he was during his successful six week trot in Asia and Europe. It also saw Andy's chances of staying in the tournament reduce somewhat as he would now need to win his next match to guarantee that he would stay in.
And this match was an unenviable match up with Milos Raonic, the big serving Canadian who Andy trailed in their head to head 1-3 going into this event. But knowing what was at steak Andy raised his game and went out and played a solid match against Raonic, who's main weapon (i.e. his serve) was misfiring and he struggled to get it working, which allowed Andy to break him and take the first set. In the 2nd set, things got a bit more competitive as Raonic went down a break but immediately broke back and he held his serve but at 5-5 he was broken again and Andy went on to serve out the match to keep his hopes alive for qualifying to reach the semis with a vital 6-3, 7-5 win. There was no doubt this was a much better performance from Andy as for the most part he served well and he exploited Raonic's inferior return game and also the fact that his big serve wasn't working, which ultimately so the Canadian's lacklustre performance in the tournament come to an end.
Which brings me onto Andy's last round robin match and it was a must win one to stay in the tournament and reach the semis and it was with none other than Andy's old rival, Roger Federer. At 11-11 it promised to be quite a treat, but........ it turned out to be a real nightmare instead for the British No.1, which I will get to in a bit. Going into this match there was a revelation that Raonic had withdrawn from the tournament due to an apparent quad injury, which meant that David Ferrer would step in as his alternate. And as a result Ferrer took Kei Nishikori on in the 3rd round robin match, which turned out to be easily the best and most entertaining match of the tournament so far and the only match to go to 3 sets, which eventually saw Ferrer fall to an in form Nishikori in 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. This meant that Nishikori now needed Federer to either beat Andy in either straight sets or in three to seal his place in the semi final and pip Andy to the post in doing so, and Andy could only qualify by beating Federer in straight sets.
Sooo..... this leads me onto the match itself which was... well no match at all as it more just a mere warm up for Rog who after a few rusty opening points went on a rampage and destroyed Andy's chances of qualifying in one foul swoop as he dished up a bitter bagel set for Andy to chew down on. At this point, Andy had nothing left to play for except maybe a bit of pride and dignity, but Federer barely allowed him that as Andy's dreadful serving and error-strewn performance got him in serious bother again and Rog's sublime touch was simply too much for him to handle as Andy dropped to 5-0. But Andy somehow managed to save being totally humiliated with a double bagel as he managed to hold serve once to claim a single game before Rog completed his destruction of the British No.1 winning in the most emphatic fashion possible with a 6-0, 6-1 rout and thereby ending Andy Murray's season.
To say this wasn't the ending that Andy had hoped for would no doubt be a total understatement and it is a bitterly disappointing end to what has been a very difficult and frustrating year for him. You could argue of course that Andy was still feeling the effects of fatigue of having played on those six weeks of the tour in succession in order to qualify but in all honesty Roger has to be credited with his performance as he simply outclassed Andy in every department and there is no doubt that indoor hard court suits Rog's game to a tee. So its an end that leaves quite a few question marks over Andy's current form, not so much over the players that are ranked below him as he has proven that late on in this season that he can beat top 10 players, but morely on his ability to beat the top three guys, in Roger, Rafa and Novak, as this year he has failed to beat any of them in any of their meetings. And it makes you wonder if Andy will be able to find that top form again against them? Personally I think Andy will find that form and hopefully he will go on to have a much better 2015 where he will a have a chance to come back stronger.
So that's it for Andy's 2014 on the ATP tour and its been a really mixed season to say the least as he has played some great matches (such as epic clashes against Rafa in Rome, Grigor Dimitrov in Acapulco, Tommy Robredo in the Valencia final and Philipp Kohlschreiber at the French Open) but also played some dreadful ones as well and its a pity that he saved the worst one for last as he did not deserve for his season to end on such a low, but that's the way it goes. The good thing is though Andy has still managed to successfully come back from his surgery with no physical complications or other issues and no doubt the recovery process was one of the toughest things he's had to endure this year. Not only that he also had to deal with the departure of his coach Ivan Lendl after two years together, and in hiring his new coach Amelie Mauresmo, there was much speculation and doubt over how effective she could be for Andy's game. And this in itself is still an issue as no doubt Mauresmo will come under fire again for Andy's heavy defeat to Roger here as it shows that she has not made any impact on improving his game against the top three so far, especially as Andy has failed to beat any of them this year. For now Andy has decided to continue his partnership with Mauresmo so we will wait and see how long it will last and pan out.
But that aside Andy still has managed to do some good things this year as he managed to win three titles, two back to back with Vienna and Valencia, and he won his first title in 14 months in Shenzhen to end the drought that went back to the Wimbledon final. Andy has also secured good wins over top 10 and former top 10 opponents such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, John Isner, Grigor Dimitrov and also Milos Raonic, which despite his current poor record against the big three, he is starting to compete much better against his other rivals and it sees him to start to work his way up again. So it may take some time for Andy to get back to that top level and hopefully he can as he started the year as No.4 in the world and dropped down to No.11, but after the exhertions leading into London, he is now successfully back in the top 10 sitting at No.6. Andy also insisted he played so much not only to qualify for London but also more importantly to improve his seedings for the grand slams next season as being inside the top 8 will help out Andy in not facing the big guys before the quarter finals.
So that's it for now and I think despite his shortcomings and disappointments in 2014, Andy Murray still has proven that he is a vital tennis player and hopefully he can build on the late form he has shown this year and put it into better practice in 2015. Until then I'm sure he will benefit it from a well earned break before the training starts for his 2015 season.
And with that I shall leave yee there and be back with the result of the final of the ATP world tour final finale, which let's face is most likely going to be Djokovic and Federer by the looks of it, but we will soon find out!
Bye for now!
So starting with the BNP Paribas Masters tournament in Paris, where Andy competed to try and seal his place in the top 8 for the ATP world tour finals in London. And the British No.1 got off to an excellent start there as he defeated the Frenchman, Julienne Benneteau in 6-3, 6-4 to put him within one match from qualifying for the o2. And that match was on paper a very tough one as he took on Grigor Dimitrov who handed him a pretty heavy loss at Wimbledon, but Andy ended up getting his sweet revenge over the young Bulgarian as he dismissed him with one of his best performances of the year in 6-3, 6-3, which saw him qualify in 5th place for the world tour finals. After this Andy next faced off against Novak Djokovic in their 4th meeting of the season, which given Andy's form promised to be a real cracker. However despite a tight first set, Andy dropped his serve to give Novak the set and in the 2nd set Andy suffered lapses of concentration again and went down a double break to hand the match to the Serb who won 7-5, 6-2. This saw Andy's lengthy six week run on the tour come to an end and gave him a much needed rest and a week off before the world tour finals would begin.
Now we get onto the ATP world tour finals itself and Andy's match started with him taking on the US Open finalist, Kei Nishikori in a promising opening clash for the tournament. Andy had won all three of their previous encounters all with Andy winning in straight sets, and it looked to be heading that way again at the start of the first set as Andy secured a break. However in typical fashion, Andy surrendered the break and it went to 3-3 and before we knew Andy was broken by Nishikori at 5-4 and the Japanese player took the first set. In the 2nd set, Andy dented his chances in the tournament further as he dropped his serve early on and Kei lead with the brea, but Andy then revitalised his chances as he broke back to go 4-4. But again Andy surrendered serve in the same way and let Nishikori grab a somewhat unexpected victory, his first over Andy with a 6-4, 6-4 win. This certainly wasn't the start Andy was looking for in the tournament as he looked pretty flat and tired from the offset with only one or two sparks here and there, but he looked well below the man he was during his successful six week trot in Asia and Europe. It also saw Andy's chances of staying in the tournament reduce somewhat as he would now need to win his next match to guarantee that he would stay in.
And this match was an unenviable match up with Milos Raonic, the big serving Canadian who Andy trailed in their head to head 1-3 going into this event. But knowing what was at steak Andy raised his game and went out and played a solid match against Raonic, who's main weapon (i.e. his serve) was misfiring and he struggled to get it working, which allowed Andy to break him and take the first set. In the 2nd set, things got a bit more competitive as Raonic went down a break but immediately broke back and he held his serve but at 5-5 he was broken again and Andy went on to serve out the match to keep his hopes alive for qualifying to reach the semis with a vital 6-3, 7-5 win. There was no doubt this was a much better performance from Andy as for the most part he served well and he exploited Raonic's inferior return game and also the fact that his big serve wasn't working, which ultimately so the Canadian's lacklustre performance in the tournament come to an end.
Which brings me onto Andy's last round robin match and it was a must win one to stay in the tournament and reach the semis and it was with none other than Andy's old rival, Roger Federer. At 11-11 it promised to be quite a treat, but........ it turned out to be a real nightmare instead for the British No.1, which I will get to in a bit. Going into this match there was a revelation that Raonic had withdrawn from the tournament due to an apparent quad injury, which meant that David Ferrer would step in as his alternate. And as a result Ferrer took Kei Nishikori on in the 3rd round robin match, which turned out to be easily the best and most entertaining match of the tournament so far and the only match to go to 3 sets, which eventually saw Ferrer fall to an in form Nishikori in 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. This meant that Nishikori now needed Federer to either beat Andy in either straight sets or in three to seal his place in the semi final and pip Andy to the post in doing so, and Andy could only qualify by beating Federer in straight sets.
Sooo..... this leads me onto the match itself which was... well no match at all as it more just a mere warm up for Rog who after a few rusty opening points went on a rampage and destroyed Andy's chances of qualifying in one foul swoop as he dished up a bitter bagel set for Andy to chew down on. At this point, Andy had nothing left to play for except maybe a bit of pride and dignity, but Federer barely allowed him that as Andy's dreadful serving and error-strewn performance got him in serious bother again and Rog's sublime touch was simply too much for him to handle as Andy dropped to 5-0. But Andy somehow managed to save being totally humiliated with a double bagel as he managed to hold serve once to claim a single game before Rog completed his destruction of the British No.1 winning in the most emphatic fashion possible with a 6-0, 6-1 rout and thereby ending Andy Murray's season.
To say this wasn't the ending that Andy had hoped for would no doubt be a total understatement and it is a bitterly disappointing end to what has been a very difficult and frustrating year for him. You could argue of course that Andy was still feeling the effects of fatigue of having played on those six weeks of the tour in succession in order to qualify but in all honesty Roger has to be credited with his performance as he simply outclassed Andy in every department and there is no doubt that indoor hard court suits Rog's game to a tee. So its an end that leaves quite a few question marks over Andy's current form, not so much over the players that are ranked below him as he has proven that late on in this season that he can beat top 10 players, but morely on his ability to beat the top three guys, in Roger, Rafa and Novak, as this year he has failed to beat any of them in any of their meetings. And it makes you wonder if Andy will be able to find that top form again against them? Personally I think Andy will find that form and hopefully he will go on to have a much better 2015 where he will a have a chance to come back stronger.
So that's it for Andy's 2014 on the ATP tour and its been a really mixed season to say the least as he has played some great matches (such as epic clashes against Rafa in Rome, Grigor Dimitrov in Acapulco, Tommy Robredo in the Valencia final and Philipp Kohlschreiber at the French Open) but also played some dreadful ones as well and its a pity that he saved the worst one for last as he did not deserve for his season to end on such a low, but that's the way it goes. The good thing is though Andy has still managed to successfully come back from his surgery with no physical complications or other issues and no doubt the recovery process was one of the toughest things he's had to endure this year. Not only that he also had to deal with the departure of his coach Ivan Lendl after two years together, and in hiring his new coach Amelie Mauresmo, there was much speculation and doubt over how effective she could be for Andy's game. And this in itself is still an issue as no doubt Mauresmo will come under fire again for Andy's heavy defeat to Roger here as it shows that she has not made any impact on improving his game against the top three so far, especially as Andy has failed to beat any of them this year. For now Andy has decided to continue his partnership with Mauresmo so we will wait and see how long it will last and pan out.
But that aside Andy still has managed to do some good things this year as he managed to win three titles, two back to back with Vienna and Valencia, and he won his first title in 14 months in Shenzhen to end the drought that went back to the Wimbledon final. Andy has also secured good wins over top 10 and former top 10 opponents such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, John Isner, Grigor Dimitrov and also Milos Raonic, which despite his current poor record against the big three, he is starting to compete much better against his other rivals and it sees him to start to work his way up again. So it may take some time for Andy to get back to that top level and hopefully he can as he started the year as No.4 in the world and dropped down to No.11, but after the exhertions leading into London, he is now successfully back in the top 10 sitting at No.6. Andy also insisted he played so much not only to qualify for London but also more importantly to improve his seedings for the grand slams next season as being inside the top 8 will help out Andy in not facing the big guys before the quarter finals.
So that's it for now and I think despite his shortcomings and disappointments in 2014, Andy Murray still has proven that he is a vital tennis player and hopefully he can build on the late form he has shown this year and put it into better practice in 2015. Until then I'm sure he will benefit it from a well earned break before the training starts for his 2015 season.
And with that I shall leave yee there and be back with the result of the final of the ATP world tour final finale, which let's face is most likely going to be Djokovic and Federer by the looks of it, but we will soon find out!
Bye for now!
Monday, 27 October 2014
Murray time: on the cusp for London
Right OK I thought it was time for a tennis related post as its been quite a while since I last did one and this again will cover Andy Murray's progress in the tail end of his 2014 season, which I think its safe to say that it has been a mixed bag, but at last it is taking a turn for the good. Last time I covered Andy's first title win in 14 months since winning Wimbledon last year as he triumphed in Shenzhen last month so this time I will cover his progress at the tournaments since then.
So starting with the China open, Andy continued his good run of form as he managed to battle his way past the big serving Jerzy Janowicz in a rematch of their Wimbledon semi final, Andy came from a set down to win the match. After this he dismissed Pablo Cuevas or Urugay in straight sets and then continued to pull off the biggest victory of his season so far as he toppled Marin Cilic, the US Open champ, as Andy outplayed the big Croat winning in 6-1, 6-4 to reach the semis in Bejing. However in the semis Andy came undone against Novak Djokovic who maintained his incredible unbeaten run at Beijing with a convincing straight set win over his old rival with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, which saw Andy's time in Beijing come to an end. This was a rather disappointing loss for Andy having done so well to reach the semi final stage but in the end Nole was just too good and he went to demolish Tomas Berdych in the final.
After this Andy headed on to Shanghai for the Shanghai Rolex Masters event which was a tournament where Andy has enjoyed success in the past as he has won the title there twice in the past in 2010 and 2011. Andy started off well with a tricky encounter from a Russian player Teymuraz Gabashvili but he managed to overcome him in straight sets. After this Andy went on to face Jerzy Janowicz again for the 2nd time in so many weeks but this time he made light work of the big Pole as he took a 7-5, 6-2 win over the big guy. However in the 3rd round Andy faced off against David Ferrer and despite making a strong start by taking the opening set he faded fast after that as Ferrer sped through the 2nd set breaking three times and in the 3rd set Ferrer broke Andy twice to end his time in Shanghai as the Spaniard won 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Given Andy's success in the past at this Masters event it was a letdown that he didn't manage to come through it and it also saw him lose the rag and smash his racquet during the match, which is starting to become something of a trend with him although perhaps with the absence of his coach Amelie Mauresmo, there is no one to temper his frustrations.
So next up Andy decided to bump up his efforts to qualify for the ATP world tour finals in London in November by playing in the Vienna Open, an ATP 250 tour event. Andy clearly showing high motivation to qualify for London he made short work of his first three opponents in Vasek Pospisil, Jan-Lennard Struff and Viktor Troicki all of whom he dispatched in straight sets. And this lead into the final which was a rematch with David Ferrer and this was an opportunity for Andy to get some revenge for his loss in Shanghai. However it was Ferrer that made the better start as Andy's serve went begging at 5-6 and Ferrer broke to nab the first set. In the 2nd set Andy managed to make inroads on Ferrer's service games and he broke the Spaniard twice to level the match and take it to a decider. And the deciding set itself was a dramatic one, which saw momentum swing to and fro and Andy took the early break but soon squandered and found himself a break down before he knew it, 4-2, but he broke back only to squander it once again to go 5-3 down. But.... Andy managed to fight back and break again and this time at 5-5 he managed to break Ferrer one last time and despite any signs of more drama, Andy dispelled further fears of dropping serve as he served it out confidently with an ace to grab his 2nd title of the year with a hard fought 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 victory. This was easily Andy's biggest win of the year to date as he toppled Ferrer it meant he had finally beaten a player ranked inside the top 8 (as Ferrer is currently No.5 in the world) and it would be one that would stand him in very good stead for what could lie ahead should he qualify for London.
And this brings us up to date (for now anyway) as Andy this week (or last now really!) entered the Valencia Open, an ATP 500 tour event, worth double the points then his last two titles, it was a very valuable tournament for Andy to compete in. And again Andy made a confident start as he swept past his first two opponents, Jurgen Melzer and the hot tempered Fabio Fognini in straight sets. However as Andy reached the quarter finals he had a real fight on his hands as he played the big South African, Kevin Anderson, who's massive serve proved to be a nightmare, which saw Andy have to fight back from a set down again to win the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. This set up yet another clash with David Ferrer, their third in as many weeks, and this time Andy had the initiative as he broke Ferrer early on in the first set to take it. However in the 2nd set despite going 3-0 up, Andy again dropped serve to have Ferrer roar back and take the next four games. Andy however managed to hold on and as play to 5-5 again, Andy managed to break and serve out the match to reach his 3rd final of the season with a 6-4, 7-5 win.
Which brings me onto the final which saw Andy have another rematch with Tommy Robredo, the in form Spaniard, whom Andy edged in Shenzhen to claim the title. But unlike thier previous match where Robredo faded away badly from fatigue and injury in Shenzhen there was no danger of that here in the indoor event of Valencia. And it was Robredo in the first set that made his move to break Andy's fragile serve as Andy showed strong signs of fatigue himself clearly after the exhertions of his last two matches. However despite that Andy dug deep to break Robredo early on in 2nd set but ended up blowing the lead at 4-4 and play went to a tiebreak, which was very reminiscent of their thrilling breaker in the Shenzhen final, which saw momentum swing back and forth and Andy again saved match points and went on to get the minibreak and nab the 2nd set. In the decider we were treated to a tense nailbiting contest as both men cagily held serve until 3-3 where Robredo made his move to break Andy's increasingly fragile serve, but it was short lived as the British No.1 broke straight back. From here play carried on with Andy having a match point chance snuffed out by Robredo and play again went into another thrilling tiebreak which saw Andy having to save four match points and he went on to defy all the odds and got the crucial break with a clean backhand pass, Andy clinched the title and collapsed to the floor with exhaustion as he claimed his 3rd title of the year with an incredible epic victory and a 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (10-8) result.
Well this was without a single doubt one of the best matches of the year so far as both men raised their level as the match progressed and they played some incredible points and the home crowd were firmly behind Robredo but they were awed by the quality of hitting from both guys and they produced a great atmosphere. And Andy yet again showed his champion fighting qualities in this final as he battled hard from being a break down in the 3rd set as well as having saved match points in the 2nd and 3rd set tiebreaks, he just wouldn't go away as Robredo had victory in his sights on several occassions. And Robredo put in such a tremedous and spirited fight that he too deserved to win this match and it was so close that there was no favourite, but he took his defeat in good spirits as he amusingly gave a double finger salute to Andy at the net just before their exhausted embrace! But its sheer testement to Andy's gutsy determination that he was able to come through this epic contest and it sees him rise to 5th place in the race to London, which means he is almost certain to qualify now for the event (well just about!).
However there is still one more event to go this week coming up at the Paris Masters, which is another indoor tournament and given the sheer physical torture Andy must have put his body through this week alone, not to mention having played five straight weeks in a row, it remains to be seen what condition he will be come his first match there. The one good thing though for him is with Rafa having ended his season to have surgery for his appendicitis this has opened up a spot in the ATP WTF event so Andy is almost certain to qualify should he not do so well in Paris. And with the withdrawal of Rafa and Marin Cilic from Paris this week coming, Andy will be seeded 8th, which will give him a bye into the 2nd round, which means he will have two days off before he needs to play again, which will let him recuperate for a while before he steps out onto court again. Unfortunately for Andy though his draw is pretty unkind in Paris as he could possibly face Grigor Dimitrov in the 3rd round and Nole in the quarters, so we will just have to wait and see how he goes and how much he has left in the tank when he reaches the city of lights. However if Andy reaches the quarter finals in Paris then he will qualify for London so I'm sure he will go hell for leather with whatever energy he has left to make it happen and come the quarter final maybe he will just let Nole thump him so he can go home and rest! ;-) Well maybe not, but we will just wait and see what is in store for the British No.1 this week.
Rrrrrrright so that's it for now and I will be back sometime soon with more results of the ATP tour and quickly I will mention the WTA tour as the WTA championships ended on Sunday with a very convincing win for Serena Williams, who thrashed Simona Halep in the final to claim her 5th year end title with a 6-3, 6-0 win. So well done to Serena and that sees the 2014 WTA tour season come to an end.
So that's me for now and until the next one its bye for now.
So starting with the China open, Andy continued his good run of form as he managed to battle his way past the big serving Jerzy Janowicz in a rematch of their Wimbledon semi final, Andy came from a set down to win the match. After this he dismissed Pablo Cuevas or Urugay in straight sets and then continued to pull off the biggest victory of his season so far as he toppled Marin Cilic, the US Open champ, as Andy outplayed the big Croat winning in 6-1, 6-4 to reach the semis in Bejing. However in the semis Andy came undone against Novak Djokovic who maintained his incredible unbeaten run at Beijing with a convincing straight set win over his old rival with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, which saw Andy's time in Beijing come to an end. This was a rather disappointing loss for Andy having done so well to reach the semi final stage but in the end Nole was just too good and he went to demolish Tomas Berdych in the final.
After this Andy headed on to Shanghai for the Shanghai Rolex Masters event which was a tournament where Andy has enjoyed success in the past as he has won the title there twice in the past in 2010 and 2011. Andy started off well with a tricky encounter from a Russian player Teymuraz Gabashvili but he managed to overcome him in straight sets. After this Andy went on to face Jerzy Janowicz again for the 2nd time in so many weeks but this time he made light work of the big Pole as he took a 7-5, 6-2 win over the big guy. However in the 3rd round Andy faced off against David Ferrer and despite making a strong start by taking the opening set he faded fast after that as Ferrer sped through the 2nd set breaking three times and in the 3rd set Ferrer broke Andy twice to end his time in Shanghai as the Spaniard won 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Given Andy's success in the past at this Masters event it was a letdown that he didn't manage to come through it and it also saw him lose the rag and smash his racquet during the match, which is starting to become something of a trend with him although perhaps with the absence of his coach Amelie Mauresmo, there is no one to temper his frustrations.
So next up Andy decided to bump up his efforts to qualify for the ATP world tour finals in London in November by playing in the Vienna Open, an ATP 250 tour event. Andy clearly showing high motivation to qualify for London he made short work of his first three opponents in Vasek Pospisil, Jan-Lennard Struff and Viktor Troicki all of whom he dispatched in straight sets. And this lead into the final which was a rematch with David Ferrer and this was an opportunity for Andy to get some revenge for his loss in Shanghai. However it was Ferrer that made the better start as Andy's serve went begging at 5-6 and Ferrer broke to nab the first set. In the 2nd set Andy managed to make inroads on Ferrer's service games and he broke the Spaniard twice to level the match and take it to a decider. And the deciding set itself was a dramatic one, which saw momentum swing to and fro and Andy took the early break but soon squandered and found himself a break down before he knew it, 4-2, but he broke back only to squander it once again to go 5-3 down. But.... Andy managed to fight back and break again and this time at 5-5 he managed to break Ferrer one last time and despite any signs of more drama, Andy dispelled further fears of dropping serve as he served it out confidently with an ace to grab his 2nd title of the year with a hard fought 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 victory. This was easily Andy's biggest win of the year to date as he toppled Ferrer it meant he had finally beaten a player ranked inside the top 8 (as Ferrer is currently No.5 in the world) and it would be one that would stand him in very good stead for what could lie ahead should he qualify for London.
And this brings us up to date (for now anyway) as Andy this week (or last now really!) entered the Valencia Open, an ATP 500 tour event, worth double the points then his last two titles, it was a very valuable tournament for Andy to compete in. And again Andy made a confident start as he swept past his first two opponents, Jurgen Melzer and the hot tempered Fabio Fognini in straight sets. However as Andy reached the quarter finals he had a real fight on his hands as he played the big South African, Kevin Anderson, who's massive serve proved to be a nightmare, which saw Andy have to fight back from a set down again to win the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. This set up yet another clash with David Ferrer, their third in as many weeks, and this time Andy had the initiative as he broke Ferrer early on in the first set to take it. However in the 2nd set despite going 3-0 up, Andy again dropped serve to have Ferrer roar back and take the next four games. Andy however managed to hold on and as play to 5-5 again, Andy managed to break and serve out the match to reach his 3rd final of the season with a 6-4, 7-5 win.
Which brings me onto the final which saw Andy have another rematch with Tommy Robredo, the in form Spaniard, whom Andy edged in Shenzhen to claim the title. But unlike thier previous match where Robredo faded away badly from fatigue and injury in Shenzhen there was no danger of that here in the indoor event of Valencia. And it was Robredo in the first set that made his move to break Andy's fragile serve as Andy showed strong signs of fatigue himself clearly after the exhertions of his last two matches. However despite that Andy dug deep to break Robredo early on in 2nd set but ended up blowing the lead at 4-4 and play went to a tiebreak, which was very reminiscent of their thrilling breaker in the Shenzhen final, which saw momentum swing back and forth and Andy again saved match points and went on to get the minibreak and nab the 2nd set. In the decider we were treated to a tense nailbiting contest as both men cagily held serve until 3-3 where Robredo made his move to break Andy's increasingly fragile serve, but it was short lived as the British No.1 broke straight back. From here play carried on with Andy having a match point chance snuffed out by Robredo and play again went into another thrilling tiebreak which saw Andy having to save four match points and he went on to defy all the odds and got the crucial break with a clean backhand pass, Andy clinched the title and collapsed to the floor with exhaustion as he claimed his 3rd title of the year with an incredible epic victory and a 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (10-8) result.
Well this was without a single doubt one of the best matches of the year so far as both men raised their level as the match progressed and they played some incredible points and the home crowd were firmly behind Robredo but they were awed by the quality of hitting from both guys and they produced a great atmosphere. And Andy yet again showed his champion fighting qualities in this final as he battled hard from being a break down in the 3rd set as well as having saved match points in the 2nd and 3rd set tiebreaks, he just wouldn't go away as Robredo had victory in his sights on several occassions. And Robredo put in such a tremedous and spirited fight that he too deserved to win this match and it was so close that there was no favourite, but he took his defeat in good spirits as he amusingly gave a double finger salute to Andy at the net just before their exhausted embrace! But its sheer testement to Andy's gutsy determination that he was able to come through this epic contest and it sees him rise to 5th place in the race to London, which means he is almost certain to qualify now for the event (well just about!).
However there is still one more event to go this week coming up at the Paris Masters, which is another indoor tournament and given the sheer physical torture Andy must have put his body through this week alone, not to mention having played five straight weeks in a row, it remains to be seen what condition he will be come his first match there. The one good thing though for him is with Rafa having ended his season to have surgery for his appendicitis this has opened up a spot in the ATP WTF event so Andy is almost certain to qualify should he not do so well in Paris. And with the withdrawal of Rafa and Marin Cilic from Paris this week coming, Andy will be seeded 8th, which will give him a bye into the 2nd round, which means he will have two days off before he needs to play again, which will let him recuperate for a while before he steps out onto court again. Unfortunately for Andy though his draw is pretty unkind in Paris as he could possibly face Grigor Dimitrov in the 3rd round and Nole in the quarters, so we will just have to wait and see how he goes and how much he has left in the tank when he reaches the city of lights. However if Andy reaches the quarter finals in Paris then he will qualify for London so I'm sure he will go hell for leather with whatever energy he has left to make it happen and come the quarter final maybe he will just let Nole thump him so he can go home and rest! ;-) Well maybe not, but we will just wait and see what is in store for the British No.1 this week.
Rrrrrrright so that's it for now and I will be back sometime soon with more results of the ATP tour and quickly I will mention the WTA tour as the WTA championships ended on Sunday with a very convincing win for Serena Williams, who thrashed Simona Halep in the final to claim her 5th year end title with a 6-3, 6-0 win. So well done to Serena and that sees the 2014 WTA tour season come to an end.
So that's me for now and until the next one its bye for now.
Monday, 29 September 2014
Ending the drought and the race to London begins
Right OK well I thought I do a slightly different (well actually in a way its not!) themed post as this one will cover Andy Murray's most recent progress on the tour as he came back to the ATP tour at the Shenzhen open in China last week so I'll have a look at how he has done and what it could lead to for him in the future.
Soooooooo starting with Andy's first match in Shenzhen, he played the Indian player, Somdar Devarrman who gave Andy a decent workout but in the end the Scot had a bit too much for the Indian players to handle and it saw Andy reach the quarter finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win. In the quarter finals Andy then faced Luckas Lacko of the Slovak republic who provided Andy with a fairly testing encounter but again Andy managed to dig in and break the Slovak in the first and second sets to take him to only his third semi final of the season with a 6-3, 7-5 result. In the semi final Andy faced a tough opponent in Juan Monaco, a former top ten player himself as Andy got off to a sluggish start and Monaco took full advantage with a double break to grab the first set. In the 2nd set however, Andy went up a break but soon squandered it as Monaco broke back and at 3-3 things hung in the balance as Monaco had a break point at 30-40 on Andy's serve, but Andy managed to save it with a rare and potent 2nd serve and after this Andy raised his level and broke to take the 2nd set. In the decider however, Andy found another gear and Monaco had become powerless to do anything about Andy's sizzling form as he handed the Argentine a bagel set and with that Andy booked his first final of 2014 after a hard fought 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
Now onto the final itself which saw Andy up against the talented veteran 32 year old Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, who has enjoyed good form this year and already secured a win over Novak Djokovic in Cincinnati last month. And the match itself promised to be a tough one for Andy and it certainly was that as the first set saw both men trade breaks of serve, but it was Robredo who made the move to go ahead 6-5 and with that secure the first set. In the 2nd set the audience were treated to some thrilling points from both men and Andy went up a break early to go 4-2 only to squander it again and let Robredo back in the door and back on serve. Play then became very tense between the two men as Andy secured two set points at 5-4, but Robredo saved them and play went on into a dramatic and thrilling tiebreak, which saw Andy miraculously save five match points, coming back from a 6-2 deficit to eventually claim the second set on the breaker 11-9. And in the 3rd set, Robredo's challenge started to finally fade as fatigue overtook him in the sweltering hot and humid conditions and Andy broke the Spaniard three times to grab his first title of 2014 and first since his triumph at Wimbledon last year, with a 5-7, 7-6 (11-9), 6-1 result.
Well to say that Andy needed to win this title is something of an understatement as he desparately needed somehow to get back in the winners circle and clearly that's why he chose to enter Shenzhen as he must have looked at the draw and figured it was quite favourable for his chances as the field of players suited his game and had decent head to heads over most of the players there. And this win will no doubt give Andy much confidence moving ahead into the rest of the Asian hard court swing, as he still has Beijing and Shanghai to play yet and as he was out with back surgery this time last year he stands to make up plenty of points in hope that he will qualify for ATP world tour finals at London in November. And Andy currently sits at 10th place in the rankings for the race to London so he needs to move up two more spots to 8th place to qualify.
As for the match itself it was a bit erratic in terms of the quality of the play but overall it was a very entertaining contest and both men produced some terrific points together with the 2nd set tiebreak in particular being the highlight of the match. And in that tiebreak we saw some true shades of the Wimbledon champion of last year and we have seen moments of it here and there this season but in that tiebreak we saw a level of grit and determination from Andy Murray that has been missing for most of 2014. And it actually echoed Andy's 3rd set tiebreak against Federer in the Australian open earlier this year where he saved two match points in the breaker to go ahead and reel off four straight points to win the 3rd set. It also even reminded me of Andy's defeat to Novak Djokovic in their superb Shanghai final two years ago when Andy had five match points and it was Nole that saved them all and went on to win, but its good to see Andy is on the flipside of the coin this time. And I myself knew that this tournament was Andy's best shot at winning a title all year and we all know he has had many opportunities this season so far where he could have won a title but missed all those chances due to lack of stamina from his back surgery, lack of form, poor concentration or just a loss of confidence.
Yet Andy has even had moments this year especially at Wimbledon where he looked every inch the champion for the first four rounds there but then inexplicably fell to pieces in his quarter final match against Grigor Dimitrov, which was pretty much the match that has brought him directly to the place he is at now in falling out of the top ten as prior to that he had gained valuable points at the French open which helped his ranking bump up to No.5. And on a similar note a funny thing about the Shenzhen final was that due to the intense heat Andy had to abandon his usual dark grey adidas kit and wear his white Wimbledon kit for the match, so at least this time round it played its part in helping him win a title! And another neat coincidence in the match was the umpire, the colourful Mohammed Layani, was also the umpire of the Wimbledon final last year aswell, so he must have served as a good omen for Andy here in securing his victory (sorry about the pun!).
But despite Shenzhen being a small tournament it is still nonetheless a very important one for Andy in terms of his season and with it hopefully he can build on his form to finish the year strong. It also proves that Andy is still a vital player aswell and that he isn't ready to go away yet and similar to Roger Federer, Andy is a player that you write off at your peril because the bottom line is that he is too good to keep down permanently. And after the end of match Andy was quite emotional as he sank exhausted with relief into his chair and sobbed into his towel, which showed that he had lifted yet another heavy burden after going 14 months without a single title to his name. So Andy deserves nothing but credit for pulling off this win and as for Robredo well you have to feel for him as he too was upset after the end of the match especially after he realised how close he was to winning his first title also in over a year. This result will also hopefully help allay the question marks over Andy's decision to hire Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, whom no doubt will be delighted that he has won his first title since they began their parternship even though she wasn't even there to witness it! But then again Mauresmo has only committed to so many weeks on the tour throughout the season with Andy so she can't make it to every event he plays, regardless however I'm sure she will be very pleased with the result. And despite the disappointment that Andy has had to deal with so far this season, overall he hasn't had a bad year if you look at his results as he has reached three quarter finals and a semi final at the majors, he has also beaten a top 10 player in Tsonga and now he has won his first title of the season as well so things are definitely looking up.
So next up for Andy is the China open this week in Beijing where he will join Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal, who makes his return to the tour this week after being laid off with a wrist injury. However Andy has a pretty unkind draw as his first opponent is a literally a big test as he takes on the big bean Pole, Jerzy Janowicz, who is an unenviable opponent for any player at the best of times! However Janowicz hasn't been at his best this season and has been very up and down so far in 2014, so it might give Andy a chance to win if the big guy is off his game, but if the Pole is on his game then Andy might be in real danger of an early exit in Beijing, so he will need to play a good match if he is to win. And if Andy does win the match his draw gets tougher by the minute as he could go on to potentially face the reigning US Open champion, Marin Cilic in the quarter finals, followed by a possible clash with Novak in the semis and Rafa in the final. Personally though I think it will be a real struggle for Andy to secure back to back wins in Shenzhen and Beijing given the strength of the field of players at Beijing and Andy still has to work on his inconsistent form (not to mention that serve has always been his undoing!). But regardless of his outcome in Beijing this week, there is no doubt that Andy is starting to move in the right direction and despite his dips in form he is beginning to show signs of being that player who just over a year ago triumphed at SW19 and that he still has that hunger and determination to win and get back to the top.
Right so that's it for now and once again I'll say congrats to Andy Murray for winning his first title in nearly 15 months after that historic victory at Wimbledon last year, and after his first week in China he has show he is far from done and hopefully there will be more titles yet to come for him.
And with that I shall leave yee there and be back again some time soon with more posts on that sport with the net and a fluffy yellow ball.
Until the next un bye for now!
Soooooooo starting with Andy's first match in Shenzhen, he played the Indian player, Somdar Devarrman who gave Andy a decent workout but in the end the Scot had a bit too much for the Indian players to handle and it saw Andy reach the quarter finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win. In the quarter finals Andy then faced Luckas Lacko of the Slovak republic who provided Andy with a fairly testing encounter but again Andy managed to dig in and break the Slovak in the first and second sets to take him to only his third semi final of the season with a 6-3, 7-5 result. In the semi final Andy faced a tough opponent in Juan Monaco, a former top ten player himself as Andy got off to a sluggish start and Monaco took full advantage with a double break to grab the first set. In the 2nd set however, Andy went up a break but soon squandered it as Monaco broke back and at 3-3 things hung in the balance as Monaco had a break point at 30-40 on Andy's serve, but Andy managed to save it with a rare and potent 2nd serve and after this Andy raised his level and broke to take the 2nd set. In the decider however, Andy found another gear and Monaco had become powerless to do anything about Andy's sizzling form as he handed the Argentine a bagel set and with that Andy booked his first final of 2014 after a hard fought 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
Now onto the final itself which saw Andy up against the talented veteran 32 year old Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, who has enjoyed good form this year and already secured a win over Novak Djokovic in Cincinnati last month. And the match itself promised to be a tough one for Andy and it certainly was that as the first set saw both men trade breaks of serve, but it was Robredo who made the move to go ahead 6-5 and with that secure the first set. In the 2nd set the audience were treated to some thrilling points from both men and Andy went up a break early to go 4-2 only to squander it again and let Robredo back in the door and back on serve. Play then became very tense between the two men as Andy secured two set points at 5-4, but Robredo saved them and play went on into a dramatic and thrilling tiebreak, which saw Andy miraculously save five match points, coming back from a 6-2 deficit to eventually claim the second set on the breaker 11-9. And in the 3rd set, Robredo's challenge started to finally fade as fatigue overtook him in the sweltering hot and humid conditions and Andy broke the Spaniard three times to grab his first title of 2014 and first since his triumph at Wimbledon last year, with a 5-7, 7-6 (11-9), 6-1 result.
Well to say that Andy needed to win this title is something of an understatement as he desparately needed somehow to get back in the winners circle and clearly that's why he chose to enter Shenzhen as he must have looked at the draw and figured it was quite favourable for his chances as the field of players suited his game and had decent head to heads over most of the players there. And this win will no doubt give Andy much confidence moving ahead into the rest of the Asian hard court swing, as he still has Beijing and Shanghai to play yet and as he was out with back surgery this time last year he stands to make up plenty of points in hope that he will qualify for ATP world tour finals at London in November. And Andy currently sits at 10th place in the rankings for the race to London so he needs to move up two more spots to 8th place to qualify.
As for the match itself it was a bit erratic in terms of the quality of the play but overall it was a very entertaining contest and both men produced some terrific points together with the 2nd set tiebreak in particular being the highlight of the match. And in that tiebreak we saw some true shades of the Wimbledon champion of last year and we have seen moments of it here and there this season but in that tiebreak we saw a level of grit and determination from Andy Murray that has been missing for most of 2014. And it actually echoed Andy's 3rd set tiebreak against Federer in the Australian open earlier this year where he saved two match points in the breaker to go ahead and reel off four straight points to win the 3rd set. It also even reminded me of Andy's defeat to Novak Djokovic in their superb Shanghai final two years ago when Andy had five match points and it was Nole that saved them all and went on to win, but its good to see Andy is on the flipside of the coin this time. And I myself knew that this tournament was Andy's best shot at winning a title all year and we all know he has had many opportunities this season so far where he could have won a title but missed all those chances due to lack of stamina from his back surgery, lack of form, poor concentration or just a loss of confidence.
Yet Andy has even had moments this year especially at Wimbledon where he looked every inch the champion for the first four rounds there but then inexplicably fell to pieces in his quarter final match against Grigor Dimitrov, which was pretty much the match that has brought him directly to the place he is at now in falling out of the top ten as prior to that he had gained valuable points at the French open which helped his ranking bump up to No.5. And on a similar note a funny thing about the Shenzhen final was that due to the intense heat Andy had to abandon his usual dark grey adidas kit and wear his white Wimbledon kit for the match, so at least this time round it played its part in helping him win a title! And another neat coincidence in the match was the umpire, the colourful Mohammed Layani, was also the umpire of the Wimbledon final last year aswell, so he must have served as a good omen for Andy here in securing his victory (sorry about the pun!).
But despite Shenzhen being a small tournament it is still nonetheless a very important one for Andy in terms of his season and with it hopefully he can build on his form to finish the year strong. It also proves that Andy is still a vital player aswell and that he isn't ready to go away yet and similar to Roger Federer, Andy is a player that you write off at your peril because the bottom line is that he is too good to keep down permanently. And after the end of match Andy was quite emotional as he sank exhausted with relief into his chair and sobbed into his towel, which showed that he had lifted yet another heavy burden after going 14 months without a single title to his name. So Andy deserves nothing but credit for pulling off this win and as for Robredo well you have to feel for him as he too was upset after the end of the match especially after he realised how close he was to winning his first title also in over a year. This result will also hopefully help allay the question marks over Andy's decision to hire Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, whom no doubt will be delighted that he has won his first title since they began their parternship even though she wasn't even there to witness it! But then again Mauresmo has only committed to so many weeks on the tour throughout the season with Andy so she can't make it to every event he plays, regardless however I'm sure she will be very pleased with the result. And despite the disappointment that Andy has had to deal with so far this season, overall he hasn't had a bad year if you look at his results as he has reached three quarter finals and a semi final at the majors, he has also beaten a top 10 player in Tsonga and now he has won his first title of the season as well so things are definitely looking up.
So next up for Andy is the China open this week in Beijing where he will join Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal, who makes his return to the tour this week after being laid off with a wrist injury. However Andy has a pretty unkind draw as his first opponent is a literally a big test as he takes on the big bean Pole, Jerzy Janowicz, who is an unenviable opponent for any player at the best of times! However Janowicz hasn't been at his best this season and has been very up and down so far in 2014, so it might give Andy a chance to win if the big guy is off his game, but if the Pole is on his game then Andy might be in real danger of an early exit in Beijing, so he will need to play a good match if he is to win. And if Andy does win the match his draw gets tougher by the minute as he could go on to potentially face the reigning US Open champion, Marin Cilic in the quarter finals, followed by a possible clash with Novak in the semis and Rafa in the final. Personally though I think it will be a real struggle for Andy to secure back to back wins in Shenzhen and Beijing given the strength of the field of players at Beijing and Andy still has to work on his inconsistent form (not to mention that serve has always been his undoing!). But regardless of his outcome in Beijing this week, there is no doubt that Andy is starting to move in the right direction and despite his dips in form he is beginning to show signs of being that player who just over a year ago triumphed at SW19 and that he still has that hunger and determination to win and get back to the top.
Right so that's it for now and once again I'll say congrats to Andy Murray for winning his first title in nearly 15 months after that historic victory at Wimbledon last year, and after his first week in China he has show he is far from done and hopefully there will be more titles yet to come for him.
And with that I shall leave yee there and be back again some time soon with more posts on that sport with the net and a fluffy yellow ball.
Until the next un bye for now!
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
2014 US Open Part 9: Men's and ladies finals
Rrrrright so now its time for my last post on the 2014 US Open which will cover the ladies and men's singles finals which saw who would lift the champion's trophy and claim that crowning slam glory (or something like that!). So let's gear up for the last time and give these matches a look....
So starting with the ladies final it was between the World No.1 and five time US Open champion, Serena Williams and the former 2009 finalist, Caroline Wozniacki. There last two matches were tight three set battles so this match promised to be quite similar although Serena has been in top form throughout the tournament so far. And the match itself turned out to be quite an easy affair for Serena as despite an edgy start and four breaks of serve at the start, Serena soon settled her nerves and got into the match and broke Caroline to take the opening set. In the 2nd set Caroline went down a break straigh away and Serena started to find her groove on serve and from here there was no way back for the Dane who tried in vain to serve at 5-3 to keep herself alive in the match but a couple of errors saw her lose the game, set and match to Serena who claimed her 18th grand slam title and 6th US Open title with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Well this final was a bit of a letdown in the end as after a tense start it just became one way traffic for Serena who effortlessly moved past Caroline, who played not too bad overall but on the day Serena was just too good. The match did have some good rallies though and both players shared a terrific 26 shot rally in the 2nd set which amazed the crowd, but in the end you knew there was only going to be one winner in this match. So this sees Serena now tied with Martina Navatrilova at 18 grand slam titles and there is no doubt that she can go on and surpass that record although she still has some way to go before she can equal Margaret Court's all time record of 24. And it was the perfect end to a difficult year for Serena who had struggled to make it past the first week in the majors at the French open and Wimbledon and throughout the tournament we saw how determined she was to win this one and no doubt she would and did it in very impressive style without even dropping a set. So going into 2015 Serena is in a good position to win more majors next year and no doubt she has a good shout at defending her title at the WTA championships at the end of the season next month.
As for Caroline well it was a shame she couldn't fight past Serena and in the end she was up against one of the all time great competitors, but she still did great in reaching her second US Open final and it showed some very encouraging signs for her tennis, which has really been up and down over the last two years, so thankfully now we are starting to see her get back to her best. And if it wasn't for Serena Williams then just maybe it would be Caroline holding that trophy right now and I still think one day she can win a major as she has now reached two slam finals she can sure reach another and just maybe third time round she might get lucky. And another good bit of news for Caroline is that she will return to the top 10 and is now ranked No.9 in the world and if she stays on course she might just qualify for the WTA championships, which she missed last year so let's hope she can get back in it, as she sure deserves her place in the top 10 again.
Now we get onto the men's final which featured two very unlikely finalists, Marin Cilic, the big Croatian and Kei Nishikori, the Japanese fella. The pressure was on for both men in this match as it was both their first grand slam final, but it was Nishikori that felt the pressure more as Cilic continued his impressive form after dismissing Roger Federer in straight sets and broke Kei early on in the set and with that he continued with some incredible serving to close out the first set. In the 2nd set it was more of the same as Nishikori struggled to get anything going, making more unforced errors and struggling to get his first serves in which saw Cilic grab a double break and with it the match by the scruff of the neck. Nishikori however managed to break back as Cilic tried to serve for the two set lead, but it was short lived as Cilic broke again to take that 2-0 lead. And in the 3rd set it was yet again more of the same as Nishikori played second fiddle to Cilic's might and his impressive serving and he went down a break and with the end in sight, Cilic with no nerves, served out the match at 5-3 to claim his first ever grand slam title with an almighty impressive 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win.
Well this wasn't quite the match I was expecting as I'm sure most people weren't as I thought we might get a five set pitch battle, and I figured Nishikori would be the slight favourite here given the dogged competitiveness, but in the end Cilic proved everyone wrong and pulled an incredible performance out of the bag to make a bit of a history for himself. But in a way it wasn't too surprising if you look at Cilic's previous two matches which were both won in straight sets as he defeated Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer with ease and Nishikori had spent significantly more time on court than Cilic had. And the fact that Cilic was able to win his first major and his last three matches in straight sets was in itself quite remarkable and it really shows this guy has got some serious chops and he maybe a big guy, but he's got the full package and all the shots that go with it. And its also good to see different players come into the big events now with chances to win the slams as it helps shake up the routine of seeing one or two of the big four (or three now really) reach the final of just about every slam. And Cilic himself deserves great credit for this win as does his coach Goran Ivanesivic who has helped immeasurably toward reaching this point and it doesn't hurt having a coach either with one of the best serves in the men's game (and I bet Andy Murray is kicking himself that he wasn't able to snap up Goran to help him with his!). And with this it looks likely that Cilic can go on and win a few more as well, although whether or not he does remains to be seen and he could just go the way of Juan Martin Del Potro, who just the one US Open title, but I guess we will soon find out.
As for Kei Nishikori well it was a great shame that he wasn't able to make more of an impression in this match than he was allowed to but you also got the fact that he looked rather fatigued for the most part and he had spent much more time on court up to that point. And in the end despite the fact that Kei lead their head to head, it didn't really matter in the end as Cilic was simply too good overall. But it does show by reaching the final that Nishikori also has announced himself to the world of tennis and he had already reached a big final in Madrid earlier this year where he almost certainly would have beaten Rafa in the final if it wasn't for his back injury. So despite his loss, the future is still very bright for Nishikori also and he might have more chances in the future to claim a maiden major title for his country and himself.
So that's it for this year's US Open which has come to a rather surprising conclusion with a unlikely but very well deserved champion in Marin Cilic and an altogether expected one for Serena. And despite two rather short finals it was a great tournament with some great matches on either side of the net (particularly the men's). And it also sees a big change up in the men's game with Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori both reclaiming their top 10 spots as the line up of the top 10 guys is now forever in flux. And with this win, Cilic has said it has opened the door for other players to go in and win slams and he hopes that his victory will also inspire other players to do the same.
However this change is not good news for Andy Murray (yep him again!) who has dropped out of the top 10 down to No.11, which marks the first time in six years that Andy has been out of the top 10. So this could be a very worrying time for him ahead unless he can gain more ranking points before the end of the year, he may also not qualify for the year end championships in London. And the lower ranked Andy is that means he will face the top seeds sooner which is not good, particularly not in the slams where he could meet the likes of Roger or Nole in the 4th round, which is not ideal at all. So we will just have to hope that Andy can get his game together and start building up those points before the end of the season as he still has potentially three tournaments to play before the race to London and if he doesn't get there it isn't the end of the world. But sooner or later Andy will really need to start stepping up his game in order to keep up with the rest of the pack but he did show some very encouraging signs in New York and he did manage to defend his points there and beat his first top 10 player since Wimbledon in defeating Tsonga. So now this is where the hard work begins for him and we will just have to see how the remainder of 2014 pans out for Andy and let's hope he has a much brighter year in 2015.
Right so that's it for now so I will goodbye for now and I'll be back sometime soon with more tennis stuff.
Bye the now!
So starting with the ladies final it was between the World No.1 and five time US Open champion, Serena Williams and the former 2009 finalist, Caroline Wozniacki. There last two matches were tight three set battles so this match promised to be quite similar although Serena has been in top form throughout the tournament so far. And the match itself turned out to be quite an easy affair for Serena as despite an edgy start and four breaks of serve at the start, Serena soon settled her nerves and got into the match and broke Caroline to take the opening set. In the 2nd set Caroline went down a break straigh away and Serena started to find her groove on serve and from here there was no way back for the Dane who tried in vain to serve at 5-3 to keep herself alive in the match but a couple of errors saw her lose the game, set and match to Serena who claimed her 18th grand slam title and 6th US Open title with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Well this final was a bit of a letdown in the end as after a tense start it just became one way traffic for Serena who effortlessly moved past Caroline, who played not too bad overall but on the day Serena was just too good. The match did have some good rallies though and both players shared a terrific 26 shot rally in the 2nd set which amazed the crowd, but in the end you knew there was only going to be one winner in this match. So this sees Serena now tied with Martina Navatrilova at 18 grand slam titles and there is no doubt that she can go on and surpass that record although she still has some way to go before she can equal Margaret Court's all time record of 24. And it was the perfect end to a difficult year for Serena who had struggled to make it past the first week in the majors at the French open and Wimbledon and throughout the tournament we saw how determined she was to win this one and no doubt she would and did it in very impressive style without even dropping a set. So going into 2015 Serena is in a good position to win more majors next year and no doubt she has a good shout at defending her title at the WTA championships at the end of the season next month.
As for Caroline well it was a shame she couldn't fight past Serena and in the end she was up against one of the all time great competitors, but she still did great in reaching her second US Open final and it showed some very encouraging signs for her tennis, which has really been up and down over the last two years, so thankfully now we are starting to see her get back to her best. And if it wasn't for Serena Williams then just maybe it would be Caroline holding that trophy right now and I still think one day she can win a major as she has now reached two slam finals she can sure reach another and just maybe third time round she might get lucky. And another good bit of news for Caroline is that she will return to the top 10 and is now ranked No.9 in the world and if she stays on course she might just qualify for the WTA championships, which she missed last year so let's hope she can get back in it, as she sure deserves her place in the top 10 again.
Now we get onto the men's final which featured two very unlikely finalists, Marin Cilic, the big Croatian and Kei Nishikori, the Japanese fella. The pressure was on for both men in this match as it was both their first grand slam final, but it was Nishikori that felt the pressure more as Cilic continued his impressive form after dismissing Roger Federer in straight sets and broke Kei early on in the set and with that he continued with some incredible serving to close out the first set. In the 2nd set it was more of the same as Nishikori struggled to get anything going, making more unforced errors and struggling to get his first serves in which saw Cilic grab a double break and with it the match by the scruff of the neck. Nishikori however managed to break back as Cilic tried to serve for the two set lead, but it was short lived as Cilic broke again to take that 2-0 lead. And in the 3rd set it was yet again more of the same as Nishikori played second fiddle to Cilic's might and his impressive serving and he went down a break and with the end in sight, Cilic with no nerves, served out the match at 5-3 to claim his first ever grand slam title with an almighty impressive 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win.
Well this wasn't quite the match I was expecting as I'm sure most people weren't as I thought we might get a five set pitch battle, and I figured Nishikori would be the slight favourite here given the dogged competitiveness, but in the end Cilic proved everyone wrong and pulled an incredible performance out of the bag to make a bit of a history for himself. But in a way it wasn't too surprising if you look at Cilic's previous two matches which were both won in straight sets as he defeated Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer with ease and Nishikori had spent significantly more time on court than Cilic had. And the fact that Cilic was able to win his first major and his last three matches in straight sets was in itself quite remarkable and it really shows this guy has got some serious chops and he maybe a big guy, but he's got the full package and all the shots that go with it. And its also good to see different players come into the big events now with chances to win the slams as it helps shake up the routine of seeing one or two of the big four (or three now really) reach the final of just about every slam. And Cilic himself deserves great credit for this win as does his coach Goran Ivanesivic who has helped immeasurably toward reaching this point and it doesn't hurt having a coach either with one of the best serves in the men's game (and I bet Andy Murray is kicking himself that he wasn't able to snap up Goran to help him with his!). And with this it looks likely that Cilic can go on and win a few more as well, although whether or not he does remains to be seen and he could just go the way of Juan Martin Del Potro, who just the one US Open title, but I guess we will soon find out.
As for Kei Nishikori well it was a great shame that he wasn't able to make more of an impression in this match than he was allowed to but you also got the fact that he looked rather fatigued for the most part and he had spent much more time on court up to that point. And in the end despite the fact that Kei lead their head to head, it didn't really matter in the end as Cilic was simply too good overall. But it does show by reaching the final that Nishikori also has announced himself to the world of tennis and he had already reached a big final in Madrid earlier this year where he almost certainly would have beaten Rafa in the final if it wasn't for his back injury. So despite his loss, the future is still very bright for Nishikori also and he might have more chances in the future to claim a maiden major title for his country and himself.
So that's it for this year's US Open which has come to a rather surprising conclusion with a unlikely but very well deserved champion in Marin Cilic and an altogether expected one for Serena. And despite two rather short finals it was a great tournament with some great matches on either side of the net (particularly the men's). And it also sees a big change up in the men's game with Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori both reclaiming their top 10 spots as the line up of the top 10 guys is now forever in flux. And with this win, Cilic has said it has opened the door for other players to go in and win slams and he hopes that his victory will also inspire other players to do the same.
However this change is not good news for Andy Murray (yep him again!) who has dropped out of the top 10 down to No.11, which marks the first time in six years that Andy has been out of the top 10. So this could be a very worrying time for him ahead unless he can gain more ranking points before the end of the year, he may also not qualify for the year end championships in London. And the lower ranked Andy is that means he will face the top seeds sooner which is not good, particularly not in the slams where he could meet the likes of Roger or Nole in the 4th round, which is not ideal at all. So we will just have to hope that Andy can get his game together and start building up those points before the end of the season as he still has potentially three tournaments to play before the race to London and if he doesn't get there it isn't the end of the world. But sooner or later Andy will really need to start stepping up his game in order to keep up with the rest of the pack but he did show some very encouraging signs in New York and he did manage to defend his points there and beat his first top 10 player since Wimbledon in defeating Tsonga. So now this is where the hard work begins for him and we will just have to see how the remainder of 2014 pans out for Andy and let's hope he has a much brighter year in 2015.
Right so that's it for now so I will goodbye for now and I'll be back sometime soon with more tennis stuff.
Bye the now!
Sunday, 7 September 2014
2014 US Open Part 8 men's event: Big four no more????
OK so now its time to look at the men's remaining quarter finals and the semi final matches from the 2014 US Open. So let's get to it....
Right the first match was between Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych as both men were looking for a place in the last four of the US Open and the two have a fairly close head to head with Berdych leading it 5-3 but Cilic had won their most recent encounter at Wimbledon. And it looked like this one was heading the same way as Cilic got off to a flyer and broke Berdych who struggled with the windy conditions on court and took the double break to grab the 1st set. In the 2nd set Berdych did a bit better but he was broken early on and kept it to the single break, but in the end Cilic's serving was in mighty impressive form and he soon took the two sets to love lead. In the 3rd set however there was a change of momentum as Cilic played a sloppy service game that let Berdych break and move ahead 4-1 but Berdych's concentration was broken when he failed to try and reach the ball on a point before it bounced twice and he tried to argue this case with the umpire to no avail and as a result he lost his break. Play then went onto a tiebreak where Berdych had an early advantage but he squandered yet again and Cilic went on to serve out the match in fine style to book a place in the last four of the US Open with a convincing 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 win. Well so far Marin Cilic has looked very impressive in this tournament and he continued to here in his match with Berdych as he served superbly for most of it and he played the big points very well and with Goran Ivansevic coaching him the improvements to his game have been immense so he could yet go on to win here.
Next up we had Roger Federer who faced the talented French showman, Gael Monfils in what proved to be an epic battle of an encounter where Roger got more than he bargained for. And it was Monfils who got off to a great start as he looked on course to carve out a major upset as he took a two set lead in just over an hour into the match over the five time champion. However Roger soon fought back and he started to dig in and broke Monfils to move ahead and take the 3rd set and in the 4th set he dug deep as he saved two match points on his own serve and went on to break Monfils to level the match at two sets all. And in the 5th set the momentum was firmly with Roger as Monfils began to make more errors and it saw Rog complete a miracle comebackas he won from two sets down for the 9th time in his career with an incredible 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 result.
This was a very entertaining match as you might expect between Rog and Gael as both men have great variety in their games and there were some great points from both of them throughout. The match also echoed Gael's match with Andy Murray earlier this year at the French Open (also a quarter final), except this time the position was reversed as Gael was two sets up and not two sets down (like he was at the French) but he went on to lose in the final set. But despite his loss Monfils has shown some great promise this year in the majors even though he may never win one he still has proved he is a very worthy competitor. As for Rog well this was quite a turnaround but you would expect nothing less from the former US Open champion but the rounds don't get any easier and Rog will have his hands full against Marin Cilic next in the semis.
So now we get onto the men's semi final matches which took place on Super Saturday (as they call it in New York!) and first up we had Novak Djokovic face Kei Nishikori who had made some very impressive progress in reaching his first major semi final after beating Stan Wawrinka in the previous round. Regardless of all that though Novak was still very much the favourite to win this match as well as the title despite Nishikori's great form in the tournament. However.... the match itself turned out to be quite a surprise as it was Kei that made the strong start as he broke Nole to grab the first set before Djokovic went on to grab the 2nd set with a double break. With things all level in the 3rd it would seem that Nole would have the match well in hand but Kei bested Nole again and broke him to move ahead but Novak then broke back and pushed played into a tiebreak, where Kei regained his momentum and took the breaker 7-4 and a two sets to one lead with it. And in the 4th set it was Nishikori that did the unthinkable and broke a shockingly sloppy Novak Djokovic who all of a sudden looked like he had swapped places with Andy Murray in their quarter final duel and trailed 5-3. And with Nole serving to make it 5-3 he capitulated on serve as Kei gained two match points, Nole saved one and went on to blow the other as he fell to a massive upset against the Japanese No.1 as Nishikori reached his first ever grand slam final with a dramatic 6-4, 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Well to say I wasn't expecting this was an understatement as Nole had looked in top form throughout the tournament and wasn't even threatened until he played Andy Murray in their gruelling quarter final match. But it just shows that even the very best can have a bad day out there and that certainly was the case with Nole in this one and it seemed to also echo his defeats to Tsonga and Tommy Robredo during the Masters events in Toronto and Cincinnati where he just looked flat. As for Kei Nishikori well there is no doubt he deserves this victory and I'm sure all of Japan will be going wild over the fact they finally have a Japanese player reach a grand slam final for the first time. And given how Nishikori has played so far in this tournament I'd dare say I would fancy his chances for a shot at the title, but that will all depend on the outcome of the next match...
And this match was between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic and Cilic has been in top form so far in the tournament whereas Roger had a close call against Gael Monfils in the previous round, but the match itself looked to be quite a close one despite Roger's emphatic 5-0 head to head over Cilic. But in the end that head to head meant nothing as Cilic looked determined to rewrite the book as he charged into a two set lead against Roger, just as he did against Berdych in the previous round, with some phenomenal serving and powerful groundstrokes. And if Roger was to win he would now have to dig deep for the second time in the tournament and at the start of the 3rd, it looked like Rog was capable of starting it off as he broke Cilic to move ahead, but in the end he couldn't maintain and let Cilic back in the door. Cilic then went on to secure a break of his own and with expectations of nerves lurking for the Croatian he quickly dismissed them as he served out the biggest game of his career so far with three aces and a backhand winner to reach his first ever grand slam final with a very convincing 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 result.
Well I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't have expected this outcome either as Roger looked pretty subpar throughout the match and Cilic grew with confidence as every point was played. There was a chance that Roger may have been physically or mentally fatigued after having to come back from two sets down against Monfils in the quarter finals but in the end it came down to the simple fact that Cilic was the better player on the day. So this really has seen the balance of the big four violently topple to the wayside as after Andy's ropey run of form this year after coming back from surgery, Rafa's surprise defeat at Wimbledon and his current wrist injury keeping him out of the game and now Nole and Rog's shock defeats here it signals just maybe the big four are starting to slowly come to an end. However I'm sure that they all have plenty of time left at the top of the game but these defeats certainly indicate that they are not the force they once were and also there are plenty of other very talented players on the rise as well threatening to upset their apple cart. But Cilic deserves alot of credit for this win as he played a superb match and served brilliantly yet again and it really does show that the hard work he has put in with his new coach and fellow Croat, Goran Ivanesvic is really starting to pay off. And its also great to finally see some new faces emerge into the finals of the big events and for the first time in so long we will have a new grand slam champion outside the big four both playing in a final of a slam at the same time.
So this sets up the clash between Kei Nishikori and Marin Clic and the question begs to be asked.... did I leave the kettle on??? No, sorry! Who will win???? (and no I didn't leave it on!). Well...... I don't know a great deal about their rivalry together but I'm going to go with Nishikori as I think he really has shown some great fighting spirit in this tournament and he also probably is the faster and more athletic of the two of them. Not only that Kei has a positive head to head record over Cilic as he leads theirs 5-2 but in the grand scheme of things I don't think that will really come into play here and it will boil down to who plays the better tennis on the day. Cilic has of course been playing great and he has served his way out of trouble very well and played the big points superbly in his matches and he too showed great fighting spirit against Gilles Simon in their dramatic 3rd round match. Cilic may have the advantage fitness wise as in his previous two matches he has spent significantly less time on court than Nishikori, but somehow Nishikori still managed to come through those matches and his match with Djokovic may have been a tricky one but overall it wasn't the longest encounter as it clocked in at just under three hours. So my prediction is that I think Nishikori will win this one in five tough sets to claim his first major title, I might be wrong of course as Cilic might comfortably beat Kei if he is heavily fatigued after his efforts to reach the final, but we will see, but it does promise to be quite a match. And while I like both players and both of them deserve to win, I think I would like to see Nishikori win because Japan have never had a Japanese grand slam singles champion and if Kei can pull it off that would be quite a feat in itself.
Sooooo that's it and I will be back soon with the results of who will win the champions trophies in the men's and ladies finals.
Until then bye the now!
2014 US Open Part 7 Ladies event: The last four
Right OK so this post will cover the ladies semi final matches at the 2014 US Open which would determine the finalists for the final slam of the season. So let's get to it...
So the first match was between former 2009 finalist, Caroline Wozniacki and the surprise of the tournament, the Chinese No.2, Peng Shuai who had never made this far into a grand slam before and never had even won a WTA singles title either so the match promised to be an intruiging one. And right enough the matche itself was of pretty high quality for the most part, particularly in the first set where both ladies traded some intense baseline rallies and there were beaks aplenty with Peng Shai eventually having an opportunity to serve for the first set at 6-5. However the nerves of the occassion got to Peng who then got broken and play went into a tiebreak which eventually went the way of the Dane, Caroline to get her half way toward reaching her 2nd US Open final. In the 2nd set things got tight again but Caroline managed to get an early break however it didn't matter in the end as Peng was forced to retire due to severe cramps and heat illness, which enabled Caroline to reach her 2nd major final at the US Open with a 7-6, 4-3 ret result.
Well it was a shame the match ended the way it did as it was for the most part very competitive and entertaining to watch, with nerves on both sides, but it seemed inevitable that Caroline would be the one who would eventually get through. And its great to see Caroline Wozniacki back in the final of another major as it proves that she is no one trick pony in reaching major finals and just maybe she will have a chance of winning this title although there are no guarantees of course. But for me Caroline has always been a very talented player who's tenacity and ability put her way ahead of quite alot of the other female competitors in the field, which was especially the case when she the was the world no.1. However Caroline has had her struggles even at the top of the game in trying to win a major as she in some cases she would get overpowered by her opponents and has always struggled against the big hitters such as Sharapova or Serena Williams. And I always equated her in a way to Andy Murray as a player (pre Ivan Lendl of course) who has all the talent in the world to win a major but has never been able to win one. But if Caroline can somehow come through this one then it could well change everything for her for the better and she could go on to win more in the future so I will keep fingers crossed for her.
As for Peng Shuai well it was a real shame to see her very impressive campaign at the US open come to an end in such an abrupt fashion as the poor girl was barely able to stand up in the 2nd set as she desparately tried to cling on and break Caroline's serve to level the match at 4-4. And after recieving a medical timeout in the end it was no use and Peng was forced to retire and due to her condition they ended up having to take her off court in a wheelchair! So it just shows you how severe the on court conditions must be over there in New York during the extreme heat of their summer, which also a reflection of what happened to some other players during the tournament one of them in particular being Andy Murray. So here's hoping for Peng Shuai that she will recover OK and continues to improve her form for the remainder of the season.
So now onto the second ladies semi final which was between Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia (Makarova that is, Serena isn't Russian!). Makarova has been a bit of an upset artist at the US Open as she scalped Victoria Azarenka in the quarter finals and she has even secured a victory over Serena herself a year ago at the Australian open so threatened to be a danger to the World No.1. But.... this time Serena had no such trouble against the Russian as she was clearly intent on revenge for her loss in Melbourne a year ago and she blasted Makarova off the court and dropped just four games on her way to victory as she reached the final with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 win.
So this sets up the ladies final between Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki and it promises to be quite a cracker if it is anything like their previous two meetings on the WTA tour, both of which were very close three set battles won by Serena. But this is a grand slam final however and things are a bit different here as the stakes will be even higher than before. So who will win???? Well I have to say it will be Serena as she has looked in top form throughout the tournament and is yet to drop a set going into the final and no one has dare to even take her past four games in a single set! So it remains an extremely daunting task for Caroline to try and pull off a major upset here (no pun intended!) but you never know until the match is under way. And in order for Caroline to win she will need to play the match of her life and play at her very defensive and aggressive best and also hope that Serena is a bit off her game as well. So for me I think Serena will win it in straight sets but I think it could be quite a tight close encounter as long as Caroline keeps serving well then just maybe we could see two tiebreak sets even. It is possible that Caroline could also extend the match into a deciding set but if Serena is right on top of her game then there will be no chance of that. But the match lies ahead and time will tell and let's just hope its a good win and personally I would love to Caroline win her first major to vindicate her status as a top player and prove that she has got what it takes to win a slam so I wish her all the best and will keep my fingers crossed.
So that's it for now and I will be back soon with the results for the ladies later but next up is the men's...
See you in a bit.
So the first match was between former 2009 finalist, Caroline Wozniacki and the surprise of the tournament, the Chinese No.2, Peng Shuai who had never made this far into a grand slam before and never had even won a WTA singles title either so the match promised to be an intruiging one. And right enough the matche itself was of pretty high quality for the most part, particularly in the first set where both ladies traded some intense baseline rallies and there were beaks aplenty with Peng Shai eventually having an opportunity to serve for the first set at 6-5. However the nerves of the occassion got to Peng who then got broken and play went into a tiebreak which eventually went the way of the Dane, Caroline to get her half way toward reaching her 2nd US Open final. In the 2nd set things got tight again but Caroline managed to get an early break however it didn't matter in the end as Peng was forced to retire due to severe cramps and heat illness, which enabled Caroline to reach her 2nd major final at the US Open with a 7-6, 4-3 ret result.
Well it was a shame the match ended the way it did as it was for the most part very competitive and entertaining to watch, with nerves on both sides, but it seemed inevitable that Caroline would be the one who would eventually get through. And its great to see Caroline Wozniacki back in the final of another major as it proves that she is no one trick pony in reaching major finals and just maybe she will have a chance of winning this title although there are no guarantees of course. But for me Caroline has always been a very talented player who's tenacity and ability put her way ahead of quite alot of the other female competitors in the field, which was especially the case when she the was the world no.1. However Caroline has had her struggles even at the top of the game in trying to win a major as she in some cases she would get overpowered by her opponents and has always struggled against the big hitters such as Sharapova or Serena Williams. And I always equated her in a way to Andy Murray as a player (pre Ivan Lendl of course) who has all the talent in the world to win a major but has never been able to win one. But if Caroline can somehow come through this one then it could well change everything for her for the better and she could go on to win more in the future so I will keep fingers crossed for her.
As for Peng Shuai well it was a real shame to see her very impressive campaign at the US open come to an end in such an abrupt fashion as the poor girl was barely able to stand up in the 2nd set as she desparately tried to cling on and break Caroline's serve to level the match at 4-4. And after recieving a medical timeout in the end it was no use and Peng was forced to retire and due to her condition they ended up having to take her off court in a wheelchair! So it just shows you how severe the on court conditions must be over there in New York during the extreme heat of their summer, which also a reflection of what happened to some other players during the tournament one of them in particular being Andy Murray. So here's hoping for Peng Shuai that she will recover OK and continues to improve her form for the remainder of the season.
So now onto the second ladies semi final which was between Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia (Makarova that is, Serena isn't Russian!). Makarova has been a bit of an upset artist at the US Open as she scalped Victoria Azarenka in the quarter finals and she has even secured a victory over Serena herself a year ago at the Australian open so threatened to be a danger to the World No.1. But.... this time Serena had no such trouble against the Russian as she was clearly intent on revenge for her loss in Melbourne a year ago and she blasted Makarova off the court and dropped just four games on her way to victory as she reached the final with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 win.
So this sets up the ladies final between Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki and it promises to be quite a cracker if it is anything like their previous two meetings on the WTA tour, both of which were very close three set battles won by Serena. But this is a grand slam final however and things are a bit different here as the stakes will be even higher than before. So who will win???? Well I have to say it will be Serena as she has looked in top form throughout the tournament and is yet to drop a set going into the final and no one has dare to even take her past four games in a single set! So it remains an extremely daunting task for Caroline to try and pull off a major upset here (no pun intended!) but you never know until the match is under way. And in order for Caroline to win she will need to play the match of her life and play at her very defensive and aggressive best and also hope that Serena is a bit off her game as well. So for me I think Serena will win it in straight sets but I think it could be quite a tight close encounter as long as Caroline keeps serving well then just maybe we could see two tiebreak sets even. It is possible that Caroline could also extend the match into a deciding set but if Serena is right on top of her game then there will be no chance of that. But the match lies ahead and time will tell and let's just hope its a good win and personally I would love to Caroline win her first major to vindicate her status as a top player and prove that she has got what it takes to win a slam so I wish her all the best and will keep my fingers crossed.
So that's it for now and I will be back soon with the results for the ladies later but next up is the men's...
See you in a bit.
Friday, 5 September 2014
2014 US Open Part 6 men's event: Going out swingin...
Right so now its time for the men's 4th round and quarter final matches from the US Open over days 9 and 10. So let's get started with this un....
OK so start off we had Grigor Dimitrov, who was tipped as a hot favourite to do very well here and was up against the flashy and talented French player, Gael Monfils, so it promised to be an entertaining match and one which still favoured Grigor. However it turned out to be quite the opposite as Monfils stunned Dimitrov by turning the match on its head and he took the first set with a break, the 2nd set on the tiebreak 8-6, and he went on to win the 3rd set with another break to reach the quarter finals with a surprising 7-5, 7-6, 7-5 victory. This was quite an upset from Monfils who has shown in the past that he can go on a hot streak in the big events and he certainly did so here with Dimitrov and beneath all of that flash there is indeed some serious substance as well and moving into the quarter finals Monfils could well be dangerous for who he plays next.
And the player he would be up against next would be the winner of the match between Roger Federer and Roberto Bautista-Agut. Agut is a player that has started to announce himself this year on the tour and he had already claimed one or two big scalps in earlier in the season such as beating Tomas Berdych in Indian Wells so he could be considered a dangerous outsider. But then again he was playing Roger Federer and Rog himself had no trouble whatsoever against the Spaniard and instead made him look pretty ordinary with his skill and class and he ended up sweeping past Agut in straight sets with a comfortable straight set win of 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Well there really was no question of who would win this one and right enough it was Roger who claimed it very comfortably in the end. And it has to be said that so far even though Rog has been looking pretty good he also has had quite a cosy draw and it makes you wonder just how he will respond to being really tested by the top players. But we do know one thing about Roger and that is he is the greatest player to have played the game so he knows a thing or two about taking on tricky opponents so regardless I think Rog might still be on course for the final. And with Monfils next he will be given a bit of a test but and it will be a very entertaining match but in the end I think Rog will come through in four sets.
So in other matches Tomas Berdych took on the talented youngster Dominic Thiem in what potentially could have been a real test for the Czeck No.1. But in the end Berdych showed his experience and class and outplayed Thiem and defeated him with great ease in straight sets to reach the quarter finals with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win. And lastly we had Marin Cilic who took on the Frenchman, Gilles Simon in what was a real battle and Cilic had never beaten Simon before in their previous four meetings. However that was all set to change as both men hammered it out over five sets and in the end it was Cilic that came through with a break in the 5th set sealing his first ever win over Simon and reaching his 3rd quarter final in New York with a 5-7, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win. This was a great win for Cilic who had never beaten Simon prior to this encounter and it shows under his new coaching from Goran Ivansevic that he is showing great form this year and more belief that he can go deep in the big events so Cilic might yet go all the way.
Now onto day 10 which had the blockbuster billing of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as the night match but I'll get to that one in a bit. So first I will look at what transpired to be the match of the day between Stan Wawrinka, the reigning Australian open champion and Kei Nishikori of Japan. Stan went into this match as the favourite as he had never lost to Nishikori before and beaten him in straight sets both times. However this match was a completely different thing altogether as both men engaged in an intense battle on Arthur Ashe stadium as they both locked horns for over four hours. Stan started off his perfect run of sets against Kei in the first as he took it with a break, but Kei soon fought back to level the match at a set all and went on to nab the 3rd set on a tiebreak to take the two sets to one lead. But Stan was not to be outdone and went on to push the match to a decider by taking the 4th set tiebreak, but in the 5th it was Kei that pulled off an amazing upset by stunning Stan with a five set victory winning in 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to reach his first grand slam semi final. This was a terrific contest between both men and it was sheer testament to Kei's determination and skill tht he was able to come through this match after having to battle past Milos Raonic in the round before also five sets. And with two whole days off before Kei needs to play again he should be well recovered enough to play for the semis on Saturday.
So..... now we get to the match of the night, which was the blockbuster between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, the former and current Wimbledon champions respectively in what promised to be an epic duel similar to their five set marathon back in the 2012 final. The match itself however didn't quite live up to its billing but for the most part the audience on Arthur Ashe were still treated to a thrilling contest between two of the game's biggest current rivals. And in the first two sets both men traded breaks of serve as well as some jaw droppingly intense rallies which wowed the New York crowd and they shared the first two sets on a tiebreak, with Nole winning the first and Andy the second. However in the 3rd set Nole started to assert his authroity on the match and Andy's intensity started to drop as he began to struggle physically with trying to keep up the pace, which saw him surrendered the set with a double break. In the 4th set Andy restored parity on serve until 4-5 when he was serving to stay in, it was clearly a set too far at this point as Nole had physically worn down his old foe which saw Andy eventually surrender his serve to end his US Open campaign and the Serb reach the last four with a gripping 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.
Well this wasn't quite the epic match alot of people may have hoped but it was still a largely enthralling contest between two great players. And despite the loss for Andy it showed some very encouraging signs after his bitterly disappointing defeat at Wimbledon to Dimitrov, he stepped up to the plate and for two sets he went toe to toe with the World No.1, who prior to this match in the event had never been tested. But the match did raise some concerns over Andy's physical conditioning as he clearly wasn't able to sustain the pace and keep up with Novak by the time they had played the 3rd set as the match ended with Andy's legs and hips start to stiffen up. And if Andy is to beat Novak over the best of five sets then he needs to be in perfect physical condition to do so and on the basis of this match there is still a ways to go yet for Andy before he can get back to peak physical form for the slams to contend with the world's best player and it remains to be seen if he can get back into that kind of shape in the future. But despite that it was still a gutsy and firey performance from Andy which saw him hit his forehand as about as massive as we have ever seen it and he showed high levels of aggression and intensity for the first two sets and if he was able to have maintained it then just maybe he might have had a chance.
So Andy's grand slam season has come to an end for 2014 but at least he went out giving it all he had and it was a promising sign of things to come in 2015 where he will during the interim period be able to try and get himself in even better physical shape and by then he should be able to seriously compete at the latter stages of the slams as he did before his surgery. So when you look at his year in the slams, Andy has not done badly at all as he has reached three quarter finals and one semi final, which for a man who has come back from a fairly big surgery is quite remarkable when you think about it even if the nature of his defeats at the French open and Wimbledon were particularly disappointing. Not only that, Andy also finally managed to get one monkey off his back by defeating a top 10 player in beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round at the US Open, which hopefully will also boost his confidence when taking on the other elite players in the game.
So for the remainder of the year Andy has two more tournaments scheduled to play in, the Shanghai and Paris Masters events and if he gains enough points he will be able to qualify for the ATP world tour finals in London at the end of the year. However Andy has said that qualifying to play at the o2 arena in London is not a big goal of his, so in that respect it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't qualify to play there, but we will just wait and see how Andy does in the tournaments that lie ahead which don't start until October although there is a chance he might accept a wildcard into one of the events prior to Shanghai, e.g the ATP 500 events in Beijing or Tokyo. But as it stands just now Andy will drop down to No.10 in the world again after the US Open has finished next week, which while it isn't ideal, it still keeps him inside the world's top players for now and hopefully he can gain more points to boost his ranking up further before year is over.
As for Novak well he was just too good in the end and we all know he is a remarkable physical specimen of a guy but he certainly did recognise the threat in Andy and when he finally won the match after 3 hours and 32 minutes, he didn't roar with delight like he tends to do, but instead breathed a sigh of relief, which was surely a mark of respect toward the challenge his opponent had given him. And for me Nole remains firmly on course as the favourite to lift the title in New York, with Roger a close second, but I just think in terms of fitness, defence, offence, speed and court coverage, just who can live with Novak Djokovic out there??? Just about no one! But we shall soon find out what happens.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back with more results soon in the next couple of days.
Bye for now.
OK so start off we had Grigor Dimitrov, who was tipped as a hot favourite to do very well here and was up against the flashy and talented French player, Gael Monfils, so it promised to be an entertaining match and one which still favoured Grigor. However it turned out to be quite the opposite as Monfils stunned Dimitrov by turning the match on its head and he took the first set with a break, the 2nd set on the tiebreak 8-6, and he went on to win the 3rd set with another break to reach the quarter finals with a surprising 7-5, 7-6, 7-5 victory. This was quite an upset from Monfils who has shown in the past that he can go on a hot streak in the big events and he certainly did so here with Dimitrov and beneath all of that flash there is indeed some serious substance as well and moving into the quarter finals Monfils could well be dangerous for who he plays next.
And the player he would be up against next would be the winner of the match between Roger Federer and Roberto Bautista-Agut. Agut is a player that has started to announce himself this year on the tour and he had already claimed one or two big scalps in earlier in the season such as beating Tomas Berdych in Indian Wells so he could be considered a dangerous outsider. But then again he was playing Roger Federer and Rog himself had no trouble whatsoever against the Spaniard and instead made him look pretty ordinary with his skill and class and he ended up sweeping past Agut in straight sets with a comfortable straight set win of 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Well there really was no question of who would win this one and right enough it was Roger who claimed it very comfortably in the end. And it has to be said that so far even though Rog has been looking pretty good he also has had quite a cosy draw and it makes you wonder just how he will respond to being really tested by the top players. But we do know one thing about Roger and that is he is the greatest player to have played the game so he knows a thing or two about taking on tricky opponents so regardless I think Rog might still be on course for the final. And with Monfils next he will be given a bit of a test but and it will be a very entertaining match but in the end I think Rog will come through in four sets.
So in other matches Tomas Berdych took on the talented youngster Dominic Thiem in what potentially could have been a real test for the Czeck No.1. But in the end Berdych showed his experience and class and outplayed Thiem and defeated him with great ease in straight sets to reach the quarter finals with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win. And lastly we had Marin Cilic who took on the Frenchman, Gilles Simon in what was a real battle and Cilic had never beaten Simon before in their previous four meetings. However that was all set to change as both men hammered it out over five sets and in the end it was Cilic that came through with a break in the 5th set sealing his first ever win over Simon and reaching his 3rd quarter final in New York with a 5-7, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win. This was a great win for Cilic who had never beaten Simon prior to this encounter and it shows under his new coaching from Goran Ivansevic that he is showing great form this year and more belief that he can go deep in the big events so Cilic might yet go all the way.
Now onto day 10 which had the blockbuster billing of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as the night match but I'll get to that one in a bit. So first I will look at what transpired to be the match of the day between Stan Wawrinka, the reigning Australian open champion and Kei Nishikori of Japan. Stan went into this match as the favourite as he had never lost to Nishikori before and beaten him in straight sets both times. However this match was a completely different thing altogether as both men engaged in an intense battle on Arthur Ashe stadium as they both locked horns for over four hours. Stan started off his perfect run of sets against Kei in the first as he took it with a break, but Kei soon fought back to level the match at a set all and went on to nab the 3rd set on a tiebreak to take the two sets to one lead. But Stan was not to be outdone and went on to push the match to a decider by taking the 4th set tiebreak, but in the 5th it was Kei that pulled off an amazing upset by stunning Stan with a five set victory winning in 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to reach his first grand slam semi final. This was a terrific contest between both men and it was sheer testament to Kei's determination and skill tht he was able to come through this match after having to battle past Milos Raonic in the round before also five sets. And with two whole days off before Kei needs to play again he should be well recovered enough to play for the semis on Saturday.
So..... now we get to the match of the night, which was the blockbuster between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, the former and current Wimbledon champions respectively in what promised to be an epic duel similar to their five set marathon back in the 2012 final. The match itself however didn't quite live up to its billing but for the most part the audience on Arthur Ashe were still treated to a thrilling contest between two of the game's biggest current rivals. And in the first two sets both men traded breaks of serve as well as some jaw droppingly intense rallies which wowed the New York crowd and they shared the first two sets on a tiebreak, with Nole winning the first and Andy the second. However in the 3rd set Nole started to assert his authroity on the match and Andy's intensity started to drop as he began to struggle physically with trying to keep up the pace, which saw him surrendered the set with a double break. In the 4th set Andy restored parity on serve until 4-5 when he was serving to stay in, it was clearly a set too far at this point as Nole had physically worn down his old foe which saw Andy eventually surrender his serve to end his US Open campaign and the Serb reach the last four with a gripping 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.
Well this wasn't quite the epic match alot of people may have hoped but it was still a largely enthralling contest between two great players. And despite the loss for Andy it showed some very encouraging signs after his bitterly disappointing defeat at Wimbledon to Dimitrov, he stepped up to the plate and for two sets he went toe to toe with the World No.1, who prior to this match in the event had never been tested. But the match did raise some concerns over Andy's physical conditioning as he clearly wasn't able to sustain the pace and keep up with Novak by the time they had played the 3rd set as the match ended with Andy's legs and hips start to stiffen up. And if Andy is to beat Novak over the best of five sets then he needs to be in perfect physical condition to do so and on the basis of this match there is still a ways to go yet for Andy before he can get back to peak physical form for the slams to contend with the world's best player and it remains to be seen if he can get back into that kind of shape in the future. But despite that it was still a gutsy and firey performance from Andy which saw him hit his forehand as about as massive as we have ever seen it and he showed high levels of aggression and intensity for the first two sets and if he was able to have maintained it then just maybe he might have had a chance.
So Andy's grand slam season has come to an end for 2014 but at least he went out giving it all he had and it was a promising sign of things to come in 2015 where he will during the interim period be able to try and get himself in even better physical shape and by then he should be able to seriously compete at the latter stages of the slams as he did before his surgery. So when you look at his year in the slams, Andy has not done badly at all as he has reached three quarter finals and one semi final, which for a man who has come back from a fairly big surgery is quite remarkable when you think about it even if the nature of his defeats at the French open and Wimbledon were particularly disappointing. Not only that, Andy also finally managed to get one monkey off his back by defeating a top 10 player in beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round at the US Open, which hopefully will also boost his confidence when taking on the other elite players in the game.
So for the remainder of the year Andy has two more tournaments scheduled to play in, the Shanghai and Paris Masters events and if he gains enough points he will be able to qualify for the ATP world tour finals in London at the end of the year. However Andy has said that qualifying to play at the o2 arena in London is not a big goal of his, so in that respect it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't qualify to play there, but we will just wait and see how Andy does in the tournaments that lie ahead which don't start until October although there is a chance he might accept a wildcard into one of the events prior to Shanghai, e.g the ATP 500 events in Beijing or Tokyo. But as it stands just now Andy will drop down to No.10 in the world again after the US Open has finished next week, which while it isn't ideal, it still keeps him inside the world's top players for now and hopefully he can gain more points to boost his ranking up further before year is over.
As for Novak well he was just too good in the end and we all know he is a remarkable physical specimen of a guy but he certainly did recognise the threat in Andy and when he finally won the match after 3 hours and 32 minutes, he didn't roar with delight like he tends to do, but instead breathed a sigh of relief, which was surely a mark of respect toward the challenge his opponent had given him. And for me Nole remains firmly on course as the favourite to lift the title in New York, with Roger a close second, but I just think in terms of fitness, defence, offence, speed and court coverage, just who can live with Novak Djokovic out there??? Just about no one! But we shall soon find out what happens.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back with more results soon in the next couple of days.
Bye for now.
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