Tennis 13th - 20th (ATP Cincinatti, WTA Toronto)

[Wittmann 44]

Cincinatti

ATPtennis.com

Toronto

Tennis Canada

[Martens]

hello hello,

i am happy today not only because djoko won, but of course coz the era of pharaoh federer is over imo.

i said in previous days that nadal and djokovic are class above federer potentially, if we compare ages, somebody were laughing, hehehe, for me Murray is also class above, so in couple of years the top 3 of the world gonna be : djoko, nadal, murray...

as for federer, i dont know, he will fight strongly to find a place in top 10

it is very interesting to see his appearance in usopen, where he will try to defend the pharaoh title, but is not easy imo, many players are hungry to beat him, and i think us open trophy is a huge mountain in front of federer

lets see anyway...sometimes facts are totally diferent story than theories

for today Youznhy all the way, good pick imo

[Wittmann 44]

Cincinatti
fficeffice" />
Cincinatti is one of the fastest hard-court surfaces so the big servers tend to run well here.

Karlovic-Melzer

I was very surprised to see that Melzer leads the h to h 4-0 here and even more surprised to see that Karlovic has not managed to get a single set in any of those games. He will never have as good a chance as here to reverse that. Melzer has been plagued with wrist problems and his comeback against Blake resulted in a tight two set loss where he did not manage a single bp chance (Blake created 14). If Blake’s powerful serving game gave him a good workout last week then the bombs that Ivo will throw down will really see how well he has recovered. ffice:smarttags" />Murray’s loss to Foggini last week showed how much a wrist injury can affect a player and I’m willing to bet against Melzer’s wrist standing up here. Big Ivo has been very good to me recently (5 from 5 in the last weeks) and if Fed can’t manage a single bp against him I’m willing to chance him again.

2 Units Karlovic @ 1.64


Henman-Chela

I know as recently as a month ago I said (not for the first time) I’d never bet on Henman. That was in the aftermath of his first round defeat to Isner. Given how well Isner subsequently played in making the final you’d have to view Henman’s loss slightly more kindly. He has a good record here (Final, SF) and has split 8 games with Chela. The Argentine seems to be in a very mixed vein of form and even if Henman’s best days are well past he still looks some small value here.

0.75 Units Henman @ 2.9

Almagro-Mayer

Almagro up to his usual tricks last week when cracking at the vital moment against Russell. He should find Mayer slightly more to his liking. He has a 2-0 record against the German (1 hard) and Mayer is coming straight from European clay.

1.25 Units Almagro @ 1.92

Moya-Nalbandian

Signs of life last week from Bandy in making the 3^rd round before getting munched by a rampant Djokovic. Whether that should make him a 1.7 favorite against an in form Moya, who leads the h to h (3-2), who has a much better record here.

1 Unit Moya @ 2.38

[Wittmann 44]

as for federer, i dont know, he will fight strongly to find a place in top 10

Yeah right. Want to give me some odds on that? Don't go writeing Fed of on the basis of 1 defeat to Djoko. Ridiculous statement

[rcgills]

Originally Posted by Wittmann 44

Yeah right. Want to give me some odds on that? Don't go writeing Fed of on the basis of 1 defeat to Djoko. Ridiculous statement

Yes, seems a strange one to me too. Would be interested to see who else you think would leave Federer struggling to make the top 10, Martens. Even if (and it's a big "if") you think Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are all going to be (or already are) better than Federer, that's not even going to push him out of the top 5, never mind leave him struggling to make the top 10. What other players are around that could force Federer down the rankings? Davydenko, Roddick, Blake, Gonzalez, Robredo, Haas, Youzhny are the other current top 10 players, none of them are even close to Federer. The likes of Gasquet, Baghdatis, may make the top 10, but I can't see them challenging Federer. All of them at a push may be capable of beating Federer on a good day, but they're not, IMO, going to be forcing him down the rankings any time soon.

[Beanie]

I fancy a good day on the tennis so let's get busy.

Been looking at the Henman game this morning and I'm of the same mind Wittman - Henman really shouldn't be a backable prospect but he was only just edged out by Isner in the same way Monfils, Haas, Becker etc were. Henman faced a fresh Isner in the first round as well...the others had the benefit of playing him when fitness should have been a concern for the American.

In terms of this matchup, neither player is in particularly good form...Chela the better player. You'd have to balance that off against motivation here though - Henman given a wildcard which he has already acknowledged was fairly fortunate, and regardless of how well Isner went on to play he must know that too many more 1st round exits and his career playing the big tournaments will be over. Chela can be very good when he wants to be, very suspect otherwise.

Chela could dominate early on, but while Henman's skills are going a bit, and his fitness/speed too, he still has a decent tennis brain and if he can spot a weakness or two in JICs game he could put the pressure back on the Argentine, and it'll then be down to how much JIC wants it. Given the question marks over that, I too would make this a lot more even than the odds suggest.

4pts Henman @ 3.10
2pts Henman 2-1 @ 6.2

[Martens]

Originally Posted by Wittmann 44

as for federer, i dont know, he will fight strongly to find a place in top 10
 

Yeah right. Want to give me some odds on that? Don't go writeing Fed of on the basis of 1 defeat to Djoko. Ridiculous statement

if you consider any different opinnion of yours as ridiculus, i have no any problem, i never though say to anybody "hey you talk ridiculus things" i think this is rude...if you disagree, stay with your idea, i have my owns, btw i am talking about future,not tomorrow, some hundred young people are coming with ambitions, your idol is 26, he will not stay in courts for ever, and if starting loosing, then is loosing, but again is my idea, doesnt mean anything in real facts, nobody can move in time and describe the future at present

[Wittmann 44]

My apologies if I offended you but you never said when Federer would struggle to make the top 10. Your post seemed to suggest it was finished for Federer after this one defeat. I know he won’t stay at the top for ever. The only modern player (last 20 years) who left near the top was Sampras. He will still be there in my view in the next 2-3 years minimum if he has the desire.

Fed’s not my idol by the way. I do respect him as a great sportsman who has raised the standards in tennis to an incredible degree. The growth of Nadal and Djokovic is the best thing that could have happened the men’s game in my view. Great players need great rivals. The sport needs great rivalries to prosper. We now have a situation where Djokovic and Nadal are snapping at his heels. Whether they will overtake him before he decides to quit the game is questionable. Personally I would hate to see Fed go on like Agassi for far too long and lose to terrible players like Agassi did in his last two-three years. If I was him I would win the US Open a final time (like Sampras) and retire gracefully.

I forgot Gasqeut who Rc mentioned. I would think he will be a top 5 regular very soon. I like Baggy a lot but he is far too inconsistent right now. There will always be players coming from nowhere as well that we know nothing about now but who will shoot up the rankings.

[redroar]

Personally I think its premature to talk of Murray as a top three player, he has shown touches of brilliance but has still to match them with consistency and durabilty. Having said that i'd like to see him get an injury free run in a major just to see how good he is.

As for Fed it may be too soon to talk about a decline. However Djokovic's progress on all courts and Nadal's improvement on grass must be worrying him. I dont think we'll ever see fed out of the top ten as I imagine he'll retire if he feels his game slipping that much.

[Wittmann 44]

I dont think we'll ever see fed out of the top ten as I imagine he'll retire if he feels his game slipping that much.

My thoughts (and hopes) exactly.

[Martens]

ok, this is my coupon of sunday evening

bookie :Stanley

1. Gazianterspor home win ( result 2-0)

2.Galatasaray home win (result 4-0)

3.Lens 1X double chance (result 0-0)

4. Federer v Djokovic away win (result 1-2)

i think this is unique coupon, nobody i guess used this combination of events in one coupon, central offices based in liverpool , so i mean it what i post here, i was strongly beleiveing on djoko's win, thats the reason i was looking happy in my morning post

ok, this extreme to predicty that federer will be outside top ten, or fighting to find a place in top ten, i very well understand the opposide idea, that he will stay probably in top 5 for the rest of his carrere, besides, agassi paradigm proved it, but ok i was on high tempo to predict his defeat from djokovic

have a nice day all! my pick on youznhy is on low stakes, i wouldnt destroy my last night's thriamph under any way

[redroar]

i think this is unique coupon, nobody i guess used this combination

very well done to you

Just out of curiousity what odds did you get on you accumalator?

[Wittmann 44]

A quick one from the early ladies.

Srebotnik to beat Bondarenko 2 Units @ 1.52

Srebotnik in very solid form. Will make fewer errors than the error prone Ukrainian.

[Wittmann 44]

i think this is unique coupon, nobody i guess used this combination

I had three of those (in singles) - only one I hadn't was Gazianterspor.

Got Galatasary at 1.54 on Betfair which looked a crazy too good to be true price but wasn't in the end!

[Wittmann 44]

A few more

Verdasco-Volandri

Going to not only break the rule of Verdasco but tear it up completely and back the erratic Spaniard to wallop the clay loving Volandri. Volandri has lost 15 of the alst 20 on hardcourt – he is W2 L8 at Masters hardcourt evens (one of which was a retirement victory). Assumeing Verdasco turns up in any shape at all this should be very routine.

2 Units Verdasco 2-0 @ 1.58

Delic-Ljubcic

Two big servers meet here. Lube got shocked by Odesnik last week and might have another difficult game on his hands here. Delic walloped Andreev in qualifying without dropping a single break chance and their sole meeting (on clay) this year went to two tbs. Delic has a better chance than the odds imply.

Lay Ljub (1.00 Units) @ 1.47
0.50 Units Ljub 2-1 @ 4.2

Ferrer-Isner

Looks like a bit of an overreasction to Isner’s heroics recently. Ferrer is no pushover and quotes of 1.70 look very big to me.

1.75 Units Ferrer @ 1.71

Querry-Gicqeul

I’ve a sneaky suspicion Gicquel is not 100% as he hasn’t played in over a month. The switch to hard has thrown up a tough opener against the in form Querry (finalist in Vancouver and SF in Indianapolis) who will be throwing down some big serves. Gicquel is 2-5 for the year on hardcourt and I think he will be going through the motions a bit tonight.

3.00 Units Querry @ 1.48