it has no meaning.
BREAKING NEWS!

Novak not taking part in Serbian open.
He said it was one of the most difficult decision in his career, but that' can't be playing tennis and thinking of other things.
Obviously the grief must have hit home now that he's with the family in his hometown.
Next stop for Nole: Madrid.
wise decision

Krajicek and Krajinovic seemed too similar for not having any meaning. I checked on google translate and it means Region in Czeck and frontier/end in Croatian apparently....

Yes, seemed very affected by the loss of his GF....but understandable...especially if they were very close to each others.

Didn't not see a single rally but 61 62 for Nadal.

Q] Robert Farah (COL)

v
[16] Pablo Andujar (ESP)

As if the draw for Nadal was not easy enough they make sure his next opponent will have the latest match of the day.

I watch that grunting moonballing only under duress

Order of play out for tomorrow. Looking actually less appealing that today's

[6] Nicolas Almagro (ESP)

v
[11] Milos Raonic (CAN)

H2H
Not Before 1:30 PM

Santiago Giraldo (COL)

v
[2] Andy Murray (GBR)

H2H
[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP)

v
[Q] Robert Farah (COL)

H2H
Albert Montanes (ESP)

v
[3] David Ferrer (ESP)

H2H
Not Before 5:00 PM

[9] Fernando Verdasco (ESP)

v
[13] Kevin Anderson (RSA)

H2H

Pista 1 Start 11:00 am

[17] Albert Ramos (ESP)

v
[8] Kei Nishikori (JPN)

H2H
[7] Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

v
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)

H2H
Frederico Gil (POR)

v
[5] Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)

H2H


It's quite funny, all opponents of Nadal play on court 2. It woudl be too risky to give them the centre court so they coudl get used to the conds before meeting Nadal.

Raonic Almagro coudl be fun.

@Tenez

It's quite funny, all opponents of Nadal play on court 2. It woudl be too risky to give them the centre court so they coudl get used to the conds before meeting Nadal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TD and organizers will do anything to make sure their top seed wins the tournaments and sets up new records. Match scheduling and courts are the least of their problems.

I always think rise of Nadal could be a reason why Madrid was turned into clay court from the indoor hard in 2009 and on wards.

After a decent day with the predictions, lets see how they go for me today.

[6] Nicolas Almagro (ESP) -[11] Milos Raonic (CAN)

Their current h2h is 1-0 in Raonic's favor when he defeated Almagro on a medium-fast hard court of Chennai open. But this is Almagro's territory, slow clay. tough he himself is not in good form, but playing on clay gives him confidence. Raonic's serve is going to be his key as always. Raonic has to win it in 2, if it goes to the 3rd, Almagro will take it in most probabilities.


Santiago Giraldo (COL)-[2] Andy Murray (GBR)

These are the kind of matches which gives a wrong impression of how good Murray is on clay. Giraldo serves very poor, I remember him serving at below 100mph 1st serves in one of the South American clay tournaments this year. He will return a lot of balls and will win a lot of return points, though his returns won't be aggressive. He can easily execute his game here. He can be aggressive and defensive at will. And will win in 2 easy sets.

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP)-[Q] Robert Farah (COL)

Nadal in easy 2 sets like 6-2 6-2. Same old story, farah may have a few BPs, but won't be able to take any.

Albert Montanes (ESP)-[3] David Ferrer (ESP)

Both are good on clay, but Ferrer is much better. Ferrer in 2 sets like 6-4 6-3.


[9] Fernando Verdasco (ESP)-[13] Kevin Anderson (RSA)

Anderson is a little cold off late. He just doesn't finish the points well. But so is Verdasco. This one is a rider match for me with slightly in favour of Verdasco for home advantage and more experience. It can get interesting if Anderson brings his best serves and take a set in tie breakers. Only things certain in this match is lot of squandering of BPs and opportunities by both players.

[17] Albert Ramos (ESP)-[8] Kei Nishikori (JPN)

Ramos is in good form off late. With home crowd can play better than his normal level. Again a tricky match for Nishikori. Will he pass it? My guess is NO. Ramos in 3 close sets. But I'll be happy to be proven wrong in this case.


[7] Feliciano Lopez (ESP)-Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)

Feli should win this in 3. Not much of interesting about this match.

Frederico Gil (POR)-[5] Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)

Tipsy in 2 easy sets. Boring match.

I always think rise of Nadal could be a reason why Madrid was turned into clay court from the indoor hard in 2009 and on wards.
-----------------------------
Of course. Why didn't I think of that one? Such a shame considering Hamburg was an old and prestigious clay court.

I'll be curious to see what the balls will be in Rome and Madrid as they surely will be the same than the French. I wonder whether that's one reason Fed did not participate at MC. He may not have seen helpful to train there if the ball were going to be different than the last 3 clay tournaments.

I can see Raonic and Nieminen winning their match today.

But besides the first match Raonic Almagro, the other matches are not very appealing.

Why is Barca a 500?

@tenez

Why is Barca a 500?
---------------------------

Well an old tournament of a country with traditional clay court tennis. So thats okay. Its not as bad as Acapulco for me. Acapulco is the worst ATP500. Every year I see all empty stands and empty seats even on the semifinal days.

Sure but South America deserves more than a 500. They have had great champions for more than 7 decades and only have one 500. Maybe Acapulco is teh wrong place.

Rio is replacing San Hose from next year :

"The Bay Area's only stop on the ATP World Tour will soon be no more.

The 123-year-old event in San Jose, currently called the SAP Open, is moving to Memphis in 2014. The Memphis tournament is being sold and shifted to Rio de Janeiro.

The ATP Board of Directors approved the sale of the Memphis membership this week to IMX for operation of the 500-level event in Brazil. The ATP will determine the calendar and format for the events in 2014 and 2015 later this year.

The SAP Open began as the Pacific Coast Championships in Monterey in 1889 and has been played indoors recently at the home of the NHL's San Jose Sharks in February before dwindling crowds."

Today's matches sound so bad, I may end up watching Stuttgart

I'll watch Murray , Raonic, Niemenen and Tips on and off.
Ferrer Montanes will probably be the best match as both guys know how to play on clay.

I can't see any link of the Raonic's match.

I am really hacked off, II can't log in on TennisTv, jsut sent them an email about it.
Thay haven't headhunted Gav for the job there, have they

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Yep was right for Raonic. He is going to be tough to handle if he stays fit...very tough. A much better version than Isner imo.

I only saw Raonic on clay once, last week in MC, and can tell you that Isner moves better on clay than him.
I know it's weird, but that's how it is.
Isner is no Karlovic, as he appeared to be in the beginning.
His size will always be the big downside for him.
Raonic, on the other hand, is surprisingly agile for his size and strength, has a few gaping holes in his game, but has improved a lot since last year.
Will be very interesting on grass.

Raonic is probably not moving as well now...but I mean in a year or so, he will be much better than now. He is the kind of player who coudl do well on clay as grass....though maybe slices on grass might be too low for him.

Raonic's and Isner's game are very similar. They both rely on the serve and the big forehand to follow.
Raonic is a better mover along the baseline, Isner is better at the net.
Raonic could be devastating at Wimbledon if someone taught him to play approach shots properly.

Finally able to log in to TennisTv....

And?...anything interesting.

Farah is playing ok...he is givong Nadal a hard work.

The margins Nadal is playing with on clay are ridiculous.

He stands 4 m behind the baseline on receiving to make sure he doesn't make a stupid mistake. He is scrapping like he had all the energy and stamina in the world leaving no choice for teh opponent that try to go for too much....especially as his opponent tires quicker despite running much less.

Nothing change here. Just that I am very very worried about his fragile knees. Yep...very fragile.