Wawrinka/Chela is a coin flip. Wawrinka seems to be starting favourite because of his 2 0 lead in the H2H. Having said that Chela is no mug on the hard courts and is consistant in his consistancy! I'll be taking the early price of 2.42 with a view to trading later.
You better have your time machine at the ready then! Game started at 4.10pm. Wawrinks won the first set, Chela the next two and Wawrinka is on the verge of winning the 4th.
LOL luckily i have my Delorian and its flux capacitor at the ready. Sorry I was actually quoting myself from my post from this morning. Was trying to post when chela took the third and my network crashed
Bit of a nightmare on the outrights as Nalbandian and Ferrer had a bit of a war of attrition that only served to knacker the hell out of the Ferrer(as I suspected the two might end up doing), who takes out the potentially more dangerous Bandy to boot.
It's almost as if they don't have my best interests at heart
Keep the faith, Beanie
QF should be an interesting match up, Chela was quoted in Marca yesterday after his win as saying he'd prefer to play Nadal. Both should be pretty tired, if my calculations are right they've both played exactly 7hrs 25mins in the last two rounds, with Chela having two 5-setters, and Ferrer a 5-setter against Nalbandian and 4 sets last night (by the way, do they normally start that late? I got up at 7 this morning, and they were only in the 3rd set tiebreak).
Think Ferrer can get past Chela, but the semis look more complicated. I think his best chance is probably if Moya can produce a repeat of Cincinatti and knock out Djokovic.
Bit saddened for Wawrinka but on balance Chela probably deserved to have his nose in front at the end and well done to Chief77 for being on the right side. I think if Stan learns how (and when) to be patient he´ll get past these tricky ties in future.
And well done to Ferrer. There aren´t many more personable guys on the tour and he has great chances of reaching the semis.
Anyone seen the Djokovic impersonations? He does Sampras, Roddick and Ivanesovic, among others, but his Lleyton Hewitt had me howling. They were screened on Spanish TV last night but I expect they´ll be all over Europe too.
Not much on the programme today. I expect to see szavay go the way of Azarenka and buckle under the brute force of Kuznetsova but do those odds look a tad suspicious?
I think we can regard Cincinnati strictly as a one-off, Rcg. Djokovic coming straight from Montreal and following a familiar pattern of going out first round. I suspect we´ll see some different apples this time.
I think we can regard Cincinnati strictly as a one-off, Rcg. Djokovic coming straight from Montreal and following a familiar pattern of going out first round. I suspect we´ll see some different apples this time.
You could be right, Peter. However, the fact that they've met twice this year and Moya's won both of them (the other was on clay in Hamburg) just gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, Moya has something up his sleeve and knows how to deal with Djokovic.
If not, Ferrer will just have to beat Djokovic himself Currently 1-1 from 2 meetings this year (Ferrer also beat him back in 2004, but that was when Djokovic was only ranked 272, so is irrelevant now really). Djokovic with the win on hard court (Indian Wells), Ferrer on clay (Monte Carlo).
Of course, all this is irrelevant if Ferrer doesn't get past Chela first.
Vammooossss David Did you watch rc? And if so, did Nadal's apparent injury seem to be a factor?
I quite like this quarter finals lineup - some interesting matchups and save for Federer trouncing all and sundry this could continue to be a very good tournament.
Davie F is tired by his own admission but he's also fit as a fiddle - a nice day off today but playing not much more than 36 hours after the Nadal match is tough, even if Chela had a 5 setter himself. Could really do with a quick and straightforward 3-0 for our Dave and he'll be back on track...although something tells me it won't be that straightforward.
Vammooossss David Did you watch rc? And if so, did Nadal's apparent injury seem to be a factor?
Saw the last 4 games of the final set, Beanie, all won by Ferrer, and although Nadal between points looked absolutely shattered, during the points he was still giving it everything. Was difficult to tell from the little I saw whether his problems were to do with injury or just tiredness, with Ferrer sending him all over the court.
A winner (Moya) and a loser (Williams) last night for a small profit on the day. Good
I’m another on Ferrer for small stakes at a big price so I’m hoping for quite a few things to go my way.
I think Ferrer and Chela are pretty similar as players but Ferrer is a little bit better at what they do – solid baseline play. The overall QF record favors Ferrer similar Chela W18 L27 , Ferrer W25 L16. At Masters and Slams however it is Ferrer W3 L12 and Chela has lost all 9 he has been in which would seem to indicate he doesn’t perform as well on the big stage. Ferrer is currently top 10 in two stats which I think indicate how the game will go – these are return points % earned on first serve (he is 8th) and return points % earned on second serve (he is 1st). Chela’s serve is solid and nothing more. If it starts to flag I think that Ferrer will win fairly comfortably. Even if it drags I still think that Ferrer will prevail – he is W5 L1 in 5 set Slam games (Chela is W3 L7).
Having said all that the match price is wretched and I’ll probably have a single on Ferrer.
I cannot see Moya making it against Djoko. He is playing out of his skin at the moment but as Peter said there are definite motivational questions over Djokos Cincinatti performance. I also think he had a blistering problem in Hamburg. I’ll double check that though.
Hard to see Roddick getting anything from Federer other than more misery despite the presence of Connors and a partisan crowd in his corner. Unless Fed needs the practice this could be 3-0 very easily.
Davydenko should see off Haas – Tommy has had two gruelling 5 setters and even if he leads the h to h I just can’t forget some poor patches in the earlier games. Dodgy Russian in 4.
Good day yesterday with Moya comfortably and Chela making it. just.
Cant look past Davydenko today. He has been playing extremely well this tournament and while Haas played well like Witt said he has played a lot more. I'll be taking a large chunk @ 1.55.
Realistically Roddick has no chance. Despite making consecutive quarters over the past couple of tournaments he seems to be playing below par. He nearly lost the first set to a half dead Berdych and was patchy against Acasuso. My only reserve would be that Fed could get bored and drop a set so I wont back him to win 3-0 and 1.09 represents no value to me.
Nadal's "injury" is going to overshadow what was a near flawless performance from Ferrer.
Nadal just couldn't live with Ferrer's patient game which frustrated Nadal and ended in him being completely outplayed. On this form Ferrer is going to be a very dangerous opponent.
Never seen Nadal being dominated so much as this game
Good day yesterday with all my picks coming up trumps. And the Chela bet @14/1 to win his quarter is still alive also.
Today i'm gonna take Davydenko @ 8/15 to beat Haas. Davydenko hasn't dropped a set so far this tournament. He's playing as though he's got a point to prove following the corruption allegations made against him a few weeks back.
Haas has been involved in 2 gruelling 5 setters in a row and has played 6 more sets in total than Davy. Haas lost at this stage last year in 5 sets to Davydenko in what was a very close match.
Gonna have to side with another favourite in the form of Chakvetadze. Rekon she's a decent bet @1/2 to take care of Peer. Peers serve isn't the strongest part of her game and unlike Chakvetadze she doesn't tend to get too many aces.
Holding her serve may well be a struggle while I reckon the Russian will be able to win a few cheap games on her own serve with a few handy aces. After a decent start to the year(she beat Chakvetzade in March) Peer has been in pretty poor form lately losing to players ranked outside the top 50, 3 times in the last 5 tournaments. Chak has been in great for reaching 3 finals in the last month or so.
Loss currently standing at 7 units which is a massive improvement on last Friday when it was nearly 18. Won’t break even but its manageable now.
For today
Peer-Chevatdze
This looks a lot closer than the 1.57 quoted on the Russian. Peer was hugely impressive against Vaidisova in a very high quality game and Paszek did not get a look in during a routine win for the Israeli. With the crowd behind her and an ability to trade shots with the Russian the main problem for Peer will be coping with Chekevatdze’s superior movement. They’re split 4 hardcourt games (3 in last 18 months) and Peer beat Chekevatdze on this verys surface as a junior in 2003. Should be close again but for value the Israeli is the shout.
1 Unit Peer @ 2.76
Davydenko-Haas
Davydenko has had a very easy run here – he dropped serve just twice so far and is yet to drop a set. Haas has done it very much the hard way – dropped sets against Darcis and Pretcheks and gruelling 5 setters against Grosjean and Blake. I’m not too sure how much he can have left in the tank against a much fresher player – this will be their 3rd Slam meeting in less than a year – the other two went to 5 (split between them) and another close game looks likely with Davydenko’s freshness possibly the telling factor.
Just came across this. Was never a fan of Djoko but this has made me find him rather amusing and that he doesn't take himself as serious as i thought he did.
First time i have seen it, maybe posted before? I dunno?
Just to even things up, I've sided with the Chief, and I'm on Chakvetadze, although I've gone for the 2-0 win. Think I can get away with saying that seeing as it's still with serve at 2-1 Chakvetadze in the first set.
US Open - 27th August to 9th September
TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1
Did you watch rc? And if so, did Nadal's apparent injury seem to be a factor?
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. Not playing anywhere as well as the previous night.
