Finals of Week 9

Sorry that i was not able to cover the matches this week, but in addition to my personal problems, i noticed that nothing exciting went on in the 3 major tournaments.

In Zagreb, Ljubicic met Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky, who was actually a lucky loser at this tournament.
Ljubicic, number 23 in the ATP rankings and first seed at this tournament was looking strong coming into this final, after defeating Gabashvili in the quarterfinals and Ancic in the semifinals (the latter being an outcome i did not expect, even tough it was not actually an upset).
On the other side, Stakhovsky is currently ranked 209 in the ATP, and lost in the third round of the quallies here. He got a spot on the main draw as a lucky loser and started strong by defeating Ivo Karlovic, the second seed, then Victor Troicki, Tipsarevic and Boelli en route for the final.
I must admit that i did not expect this outcome, even tough i was not excluding it, not only considering Ljubicic as a player that cannot win finals, but also looking at this season so far and realising that upsets are starting to come more and more often in the tennis world.

In Acuapulco, it seems that we encountered the first normal tournament of the season. I don't think that any other final (out of the major tournaments) was disputed by 2 seeds. Well this time we have the honor of watching David Nalbandian (first seed) and Nicolas Almagro (sixth seed) playing for the trophy on the clay of Acuapulco.
Nalbandian, ranked 11 in the ATP, showed a tremendous form of play in this tournament not losing a single set so far.
On the other side, Almagro played a long and spectacular semifinal against Jose Acasuso and also a 3 setter against Nicolas Massu.
I thing Nalbandian is most likely to win this one, not only because he spent less time on the court, and should not be as tired as the Spaniard, but also because i find that Nalbandian is on a hot streak.

In Memphis, Soderling confirmed my opinion that he is playing a good tennis at the moment by reaching his second consecutive ATP final. And not only this, by also by defeating players like Roddick (first seed at this tournament) and also the fourth seed, Radek Stepanek. His games record for this tournament is great 50 - 24. He did not lose a set, played great and i think he will continue to play well, throughout the season. My guess is that he will defeat his opponent, Steve Darcis

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Memphis : Week 9 / 2008

He had a quiet first round in Memphis, as all seeds that played their matches have progressed in the second round.

Only 2 interesting things happened :
1. James Blake (ATP world number 9 and second seed) announced that he will not play in this tournament due to a knee injury. I hope that James will return as soon as possible on the court, because he is a very explosive player and always a pleasure to watch. Blake was replaced by Sam Warburg (as a Lucky Loser), who was defeated by Donald Young.

2.The other thing that caught my attention was the match between T. Johansson (number 54 in the ATP and sixth seed) and Russia's Marat Safin. Johansson was the winner of this match, with a contested 7-6 7-6.

Roddick (first seed) faces Gilles Muller in the first round. The German player that defeated him at the US Open 2 years ago. This will be a nice match to watch, but i think Muller's odds of repeating the upset are slim to say the most.

Llodra does it again...

World No. 58 Michael Llodra won his second title of the year, defeating Robin Soderling from a set down 6-7 6-3 7-6. His previous title was captured in Adelaide, as he defeated Jarko Nieminen. It was a very close match, decided by the few key-points, as there were no breaks in the first and third set. Soderling hit a double at 3-4 in the decisive tie-break and could not come back. This was the first meeting between these two players.

As it appears on the ATP official website, Soderling declared "In a match like this a few points decide everything. Michael played really well on the important points and he deserved to win. I made a few bad mistakes in the two games he broke me and maybe I didn't play my best tennis during those games.".

It was still a great week for Soderling as he returned from his 6 months of injury. He is now 6-2 for the season, winning some very important matches against good players.

On the other side, Llodra, already topped his previous season record (13-18) as he reached 14 wins and only 3 losses. This is the most important title for the Frenchman, as he managed to get past a tough crowd : Sluiter, Davydenko, Haase, Karlovic and now Soderling. I must confess i was not impressed by his level of play, but it seems he is able to win the key points, thus winning matches.

Llodra will now meet Serbian Victor Troicki on carpet in Zagreb.

I will cover this weeks tournaments as soon as i will analyze the draws.

Rotterdam Final : Soderling vs Llodra

Sweden's Robin Soderling has played very well in the last 2 weeks as he returned in the ATP Circuit from a wrist injury sustained in Montreal against Marat Safin in July 2007. He 6-1 this season as he reached the quarterfinals last week in Marseille where he lost against Croatian Mario Ancic.
As i have stated yesterday, Soderling is playing very well and his results are backing me up : He defeated in only 2 weeks players like : Nieminen, Gasquet, Baghdatis in 3 sets and has blown past Verdasco, Seppi and Simon in this tournament in straight sets. He reached the final after defeating Frenchman Gilles Simon with a 6-2 6-1 push while losing only 7 points on his serve.

On the other side of the court we will find Michael Llodra, a player i expected to lose yesterday against Karlovic, but has managed to win and therefore improve his record this year to 13-3, tying his 2007 record, when he was 13-18 at the end of the season. The Frenchman played good, winning in Adelaide, reaching the quarterfinals in Auckland and now reaching the final here, in Rotterdam.

I think Soderling will win this one, as he is the more explosive player, that being a big advantage on this court.