ATP Chennai 2007

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RE: ATP Chennai 2007

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

The Draw's out. http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/891/MDS.pdf

not much interest for us except in the tennis predictions and if Aucks manages to qualify.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Doubles draw here: http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/891/MDD.pdf

Aucks is the only Brit in the draw and he partners Stephen Huss (ex Wimbledon winner). They face fourth seeds Peya/Phau in the first round.

Have these two played together before? Whilst Huss (and Moodie) won Wimbledon in 2005 they were a bit of a one-tournament wonder team and I don't think he's made too much of an impression since, mainly due to a lack of permanent partner. However he is still a top50 doubles player so can't be too bad!

Salmon · Tennis legend

So Nadal got Salva-Vidal in.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Arka wrote:

So Nadal got Salva-Vidal in.

It certainly looks that way.

What do you know about the other two singles wildcards Arka? Do you follow the Indian tennis much or stick to the Brits?

-- Edited by imoen at 14:29, 2006-12-30

Salmon · Tennis legend

imoen wrote:

What do you know about the other two singles wildcards Arka? Do you follow the Indian tennis much or stick to the Brits?

-- Edited by imoen at 14:29, 2006-12-30

I follow Indian tennis thoroughly till Challenger levels. Not much below that, I guess.

Karan Rastogi's WC is very well deserved. Rastogi is finding things very difficult at senior level, but he was ranked as high as 4 in Juniors!! That shows that he has a lot of potential.

Not in favour of the WC given to Prakash Amritraj.

Rohan Bopanna was the first choice, but he is playing in the Hopman Cup. It should have gone to Harsh Mankad, a decent player who can do a lot of damage on fast surfaces.

Another choice was a 16 year old boy called Akash Wagh.
He was tried out in ATP Bombay last year and did extremely well to lose only 62 75 to eventual champion Dmitry Tursunov. He actually outaced Tursunov in that match! Wagh looked solid in the second set. No signs of nervousness, which is unusual for a 16 year old. The serve is very good for someone of his age and 5 feet 9 inches of height.

I fully expected a double bagel in that match because even world class Juniors usually lose heavily to top 30 players. Gastao Elias is rated as the best 1990 born player but lost 2 and 1 to the same Tursunov on clay. So maybe there is a lot of talent in Wagh.

I must say that our future in men's tennis looks pretty bleak. The only ones who have a good chance of cracking the top 100 are Rastogi and Akash Wagh. All the others need to improve a lot.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

Thanks for that info Arka, very interesting.

Aucks is scheduled to play second on court tomorow after a 10am start local time. I guess that means he'll start around 6am GMT.(They're 5 1/2 hours ahead)

steven · Tennis legend

QR2: James Auckland WR 390 trails (q7) Michael Berrer (GER) WR 152 by 3-4

Berrer got a double break and then James got one of the breaks back in the 6th game.

steven · Tennis legend

Berrer took the 1st set 6-4 but hopefully the break back in game 6 will give James a bit of confidence going into the 2nd set.

steven · Tennis legend

James got broken in the 1st game of the 2nd set and eventually lost that 6-4 too.

Jonny's conqueror from yesterday made it two bagels in the row when he took the 1st set against Skoch, but Skock hit back, winning the 2nd set t/b 6-1 then handing out a bagel of his own in the final set - what a turnaround!

Sheddie · administrator

James lost 6-4, 6-4

Match stats:

James hit 4 aces, 2 double faults, served at 58%, won 66% of 1st serve pts and 46% of 2nd serve pts. He saved 6/9 bps.

Berrer hit 5 aces, 2 doubles, served at 70%, won 79% of 1st serve pts and 63% of 2nd serve pts, saved 5/6 bps.

Looks like Aucks didn't serve as well as he did against Goodall and that cost him. He didn't get as many freebies on serve in this one and that was always going to be vital as Berrer is a superb retriever, just gets so many balls back and also has a pretty big serve.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Shame that no British players go through to the main draw.
A good run in doubles from Auckland and first round defeats for Nadal and Salva-Vidal can make me feel a bit better though.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Congrats to Rastogi for winning his first senior match.

And it was great to see Salva-Vidal lose.

It's a shame that he will take home more than $3500 for losing first round though. What a great way Nadal found to ensure that his childhood buddy can fund a few Futures trips.

Salva-Vidal's game is incredibly like Nadal's on occasions, except that it is highly weakened (obvious... he would be ranked in the top 10 if he was as good as Nadal). But the backhand is incredibly strong and he was hitting a few winners which we are more common in top 50 players.

In case anyone is interested, Salva-Vidal doesn't pull his shorts up during serving like Nadal does. Thank God...

-- Edited by Arka at 14:45, 2007-01-02

Salmon · Tennis legend

OOP:

http://www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackIt.asp?file=http://www.atptennis.com/1/posting/2007/891/op.pdf

Auckland and Huss' doubles match clashes with the X Man's match against Galvani. So no TV coverage of Auckland.