Marseille Semifinals

Andy Murray and Mario Ancic will play in the Marseille Final.

Murray disposed 6-2 6-2 of the last remaining Frenchman, Paul. H. Mathieu, breaking his serve 4 times. He lost only 6 points on his serve and did not give Mathieu a chance of winning. Mathieu did not play as well as before this match, but that is maybe because Murray has a difficult style to play against.

Wild Card Mario Ancic defeated Marcos Baghdatis in 2 sets, score 6-2 6-4 and is set up to play the final against the Englishman tomorrow. Ancic, former World No. 8, improved his record at 4-0 this year.

I think this one may go either way, but my best bet should be Murray, because he played very well and his style can be very effective against Mario Ancic. But if Ancic has a great day on serve, this will go well for the Croatian.

Marseille Quarter Finals

P.H. Mathieu defeated countryman Gilles Simon and took their head to head score at 3-0 for him. The score was 6-3, 6-4 in 75 minutes as the defending champion Gilles Simon could not face the big serves of Mathieu (8 aces and a 87% win on the first serve). Mathieu will now face Andy Murray for a place in the final. Murray, World Number 11, defeated Nicolas Mahut 7-5 7-6, in one hour and 44 minutes

Croatian Mario Ancic (No. 135 ATP) reached the semifinals after defeating Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-3 6-7 6-2 in one hour and 48 minutes to improve his record at 3-0 this year. he will meet the winner of the Baghdatis-Youzhny clash.

I think a final between Andy Murray and Mario Ancic is most likely, but in Marseille a lot of things went wrong for the favorites.

Gasquet Out, Djokovic Out, Youzhny Still In

It has been a crazy day in Marseille as the first and second seeds have lost their round 2 matches today. If Djokovic can blame the sickness and the fact that the crowd was on Simon's side (the defending champion here in Marseille), Gasquet had the crowd on his side but did not manage to get past Robin Soderling. The Swede won the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Soderling hit 19 aces and converted on three of his seven break point chances against Richard Gasquet (Nr. 7 in the ATP Rankings). Soderling will match up with Mario Ancic in the Quarter Finals (Ancic defeated Gabashvili with an easy 6-3, 6-2). This one will most likely go to the Croatian player, as he has shown good tennis in this tournament.

Murray won the rematch of the Doha final, defeating Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1. He is now tied with the Swiss 2-2 in the head to head rankings. He will now meet Mahut in the Quarter Finals. Mahut defeated Ferrero in the second round, but the odds are Murray's side.

Simon will meet countryman P.H. Mathieu, who won his clash against M. Llodra with a 7-6, 7-6 score. This one can go either side, both players have played well. Mathieu is 3-0 against Simon and i might add that he has proven to cope well with pressure, winning all 4 sets in this tournament at the tie-break. My personal opinion is that Mathieu will win this one.

The favorite now to win the Open 13 is M. Youzhny, as he defeated Benneteau 7-5, 6-3. He is the best ranked player still in the tournament (World No. 8 in the ATP rankings). He will meet the winner of the Baghdatis - Karlovic clash.

Marseille : Day 2

3 things that I did not expect happened in Marseille today.

The first of them is not that amazing, but Karlovic defeated F. Lopez, a player i considered to be in a better form that Ivo Karlovic, but the head to head score was 3-3 before this game, and that many matches between 2 players tend to even the match up. The score confirms my theory : 6-7 7-5 7-6.

Another match i was looking forward to was the clash between Grosjean and Wawrinka, a match that the Frenchman lost 3-6 6-4 6-4. I must admit that i was almost convinced that Grosjean will win this one, but maybe the Doha finalist was too much for him. Wawrinka will meet Andy Murray in a rematch of the Doha final I reminded, a final won by Murray 6-4 4-6 6-2. I am expecting a close match, Murray coming back after an injury and so is Wawrinka, but the one sustained by the Swiss happened at the Australian Open, while Murray did not play in the Davis Cup because of this medical problem. I think that Wawrinka may win this one, but it will be a close one.

I also was not expecting Tsonga to fall against Mario Ancic. Ancic played only 12 tournaments in 2007 because of an injury, and he should of had some problems getting to his rhythm, but it seems that it was not the case. Ancic defeated the Australian Open runner-up 7-5 7-6. Maybe this was also because Tsonga was partying until the dawn this weekend in Romania, or maybe I am wrong, but one thing is clear : Ancic is trough and he will meet Gabashvili in the second round, a match I am convinced the Croatian will win.

Djokovic is back from the flu symptoms he suffered from this weekend and defeated I Dodig 6-1 6-4. He will meet G. Simon in the second round. If he is feeling well, he will win this match despite of the crowd's desire.

Right now, Djokovic is my favorite for this tournament, but that is only if he is feeling well, if not, my bet goes on Gasquet.

Marseille after day 1

He had a calm day in the first day of the Marseille tournament.

The biggest match of the day can be considered the contest between J.C. Ferrero and H.T. Lee. Ferrero won this match with a 6-4 6-1 score, taking the head to head score at 2-1 for him, and improving his record at 8-2 this year. He will now face Mahut for a place in the Quarter Finals, a place that is guaranteed if he keeps up the good tennis.

Romanian Andrei Pavel has retired at 6-1 1-0 for J. Benneteau, blaming back problems (as a personal note, these back problems seem to threaten his career) .

In another good match, Baghdatis defeated crowd favorite Arnauld Clement. Also Robin Soderling managed to get into the second round, defeating Jarko Nieminen.He have yet to witness a big clash in this tournament.

Week 7/2008 : Marseille

This week there are 3 major tournaments underway. Out of them, the tournament in Marseille is the toughest one, especially because the Frenchman are playing well and are also well ranked. So we will find here an ill Djokovic as the number one seed. I don't think he will play due to the flu picked up in Russia last weekend.

Gasquet and Youzhny are seed nr 2 and 3 (places 7 and 8) and both are in rhythm, playing for their national teams this weekend in the World Group, and both winning their singles matches ( Gasquet against Hanescu and Youzhny against Zimonjic) I think both these players can win the tournament.

He also have Jo-Wilfred Tsonga at this tournament, ranked as seed nr 7, and he is setting up for a Quarter Final with his countryman, Richard Gasquet. Juan Carlos Ferrero is also playing in Marseille, as a nr 5 seed, and having a tough first-round match against H.T. Lee.

Even tough Gasquet is probably my pick for this tournament, he has a tough preview. In the second round he will play against either Soderling or Nieminen (both former top players, both looking to come back on top of things), then maybe a Quarter Final against Tsonga (now that is a match i would like to see.
The best unseeded player here in my opinion is Grosjean, considering the fact that he is front of his crowd, and even tough he is not actually in top shape, maybe this will be the place to start playing good tennis.

As a subjective note, i will be cheering for Andrei Pavel (i am Romanian after all), and hoping we will defeat Benneteau as a partial revenge for the 5-0 defeat in the Davis Cup. Too bad for Pavel that even tough he will display the good tennis shown las weekend, and defeat Benneteau, he will meet Youzhny in the second round and that will be pretty much as far as he will go.

Tommorow i will cover the remaining 2 tournaments.

BTW : If you like this blog, or actually hate it, write a comment.

Davis Cup : Round 1 Results

Russia - Serbia 3-2. The Russians found themselves today in a very bad place, when Djokovic vas 2-0 in sets and 3-0 in the third. But then the Serbian fell victim to his illness and had to retire while leading 2-1 in sets. Djokovic accused dizziness and left straight from the arena to the hotel and then to a local hospital. He displayed a great tennis for 2 and 1/2 sets but suddenly, something was obvious wrong. Troicki defeated Dimitri Tursunov in a match that was only for statistical means.

Israel - Sweden 2-3. Jonas Bjorkman came trought for the Swedes, defating Harel Levy 0-6 6-4 6-3 7-6(6) in the decisive match. The tie was at scored 2-2 before the match, Elrich and Ram winning the doubles match and T. Jochansson defeated Dudi Sela in the morning. This tie was the only one that was disputed in a decisive match.

Germany - Korea 3-1. Germany are already trough after 4 matches. Kohlschreiber defeated a tired H.T. Lee today, and yesterday the German doubles team had no problem in defeating a Korean team in which Lee did not play.

USA - Austria 4-1. The USA team was already trough after the first 2 days, leading 3-0. The only match that posed problems was the first one, in which J. Melzer hanged on to an Andy Roddick that seemed more preoccupied by the clay court than his game. Roddick won the match 3-2.

Czech Republic - Belgium 3-2. The Czech team was already qualified after the doubles match, when they were leading 3-0. This is a draw in which the indoor court played a big role.

Romania - France 0-5. France won the doubles match in the fifth rubber, in a highly disputed match. Overall, France was just way bettter.

Argentina - Great Britain 4-0. This score was more than probable at the start of the draw. These are matches that have no history.

Peru - Spain 0-3. Spain is rough after the doubles match. They have yet to lose a set in this tie.