Posts Tagged ‘2009’
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Heres to an amazing 2010 
It was a pretty incredible year for tennis. As we all know, Roger Federer achieved the career grand slam and won back his Wimbledon title he lost to Nadal last year. Alot of people were fearing the worst for the Swiss at the start of the year as he had dropped to a shocking number 2 in the singles rankings in the middle of 2008. Not only did he regain that ranking this year but he beat all the “young up-and-comers” whom many assumed would start to take over the top of the rankings.
The rankings themselves didn’t change much and I’ve been fairly disappointed by it. The top 20 still contains regulars such as Roddick, Davydenko, Haas, Robredo and even Berdych is back in there. With the exception of Del Potro who did some damage on the tour this year, other players such as Cilic, Chardy and especially Ernest Gulbis have all failed to really do enough to win some big tournaments. Pity
And all the rest?
- Wimbledon got a roof
- Federer has a family
- Murray dissapoints again by failing to get a grand slam title as he planned
- Serena is still a horrible person
- Clijsters returns to the tour and makes a fool of everyone by winning the US Open singles title
- Poor Gasquet and his cocaine incident
- Everyone forgot about Jankovic and Ivanovic
- Nadal loses his first ever match at the French Open
- Del Potro showed us he will someday be number 1
- Nadal had some injury problems but managed to keep his number 2 ranking
I’m hoping for an even better 2010 and thanks for reading my last post of the year
Yours in tennis,
Joe
Tags: 2009, federer, nadal, review, Tennis
Posted in Tennis | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Tags: 2009, an post, budweiser, christmas, coca-cola, coke, geoffry, millons, new, remastered, snowman, stamp, toys r u, walking in the air
Posted in Holidays | No Comments »
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
The number 1
Federer didn’t get off to a great start and was outplayed by Verdasco to lose the first set 6-4. It was close up until the latter part of the second set when, like so so many player before him, Verdasco got close to winning and wasn’t able to handle the pressure. It was a good effort for Verdasco and there is no reason he cant get a win over somebody else in the group. Federer was too good in the end.
Andy Murray also won against Del Potro earlier in 3 tight sets.Federer now stands on top of Group A with a higher games winning percentage than Murray.
Tomorrow is all about Group B and Nadal will open the singles play.
Tags: 02, 2009, djokovic, federer, london, murray, nadal, o2 arena, soderling, Tennis, verdasco, world tour final
Posted in Tennis, World Tour Finals | No Comments »
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Lookin' smart
After all the stress of the floods in Cork, I think it’s only fair that I get the week off to watch tennis at home :p (I wish) But the fun all starts today at the o2 arena where Andy Murray (never saw that one coming…) opens up in the singles against Juan Martin Del Potro. I’m only surprised he wasn’t first on court before the doubles….
Order of play:
- Nestor/Zimonjic v. Frystenberg/Matkowski
- Murray v Del Potro 2.15
- Bhuphati/Knowles v Cermak/Mertinak 7.00
- Federer v Verdasco 8.45
Obviously any match that features Federer would be considered match of the day, but I cant see him having any problems.
Murray and Del Potro however….I don’t think anybody would argue that it could very easily turn into a 3 set dog fight. I’d expect nothing more.
Heres to a good week of tennis!
Tags: 02, 2009, Del potro, djokovic, federer, london, murray, nadal, soderling, Tennis, the o2, verdasco, world tour final
Posted in Tennis, World Tour Finals | No Comments »
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Tags: 2009, burst, car park, city, Cork, dam, flood, flooding, glucksman, images, mardyke, pics, pictures, rain, rte, the village, tide, UCC, uni hall, university college, vic lodge, victoria mills, western road, worst ever
Posted in Cork | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
London Eye
The tournament we’ve all been waiting for is finally almost here. With so much at stake be it prizemoney, ranking points or just the pride of it. The draw has been made in the London eye (was there only days ago!) and these are the groups
Group A
- Roger Federer
- Andy Murray
- Juan Martin Del Potro
- Fernando Verdasco
Group B
- Rafael Nadal
- Novak Djokovic
- Nikolay Davydenko
- Robin Soderling
Some amazing round-robin matches in the making here. Here’s to the start of play!
(Oh, and the doubles draw, incase anyone is interested)
Group A
- Daniel Nestor – Nenad Zimonjic
- Mahesh Bhupathi – Mark Knowles
- Frantisek Cermak – Michal Mertinak
- Mariusz Fyrstenberg – Marcin Matkowski
Group B
- Bob Bryan – Mike Bryan
- Lukas Dlouhy – Leander Paes
- Lukasz Kubot – Oliver Marach
- Max Mirnyi – Andy Ram
Tags: 01, 02, 2009, atp world tour final, Bryan brothers, Del potro, djokovic, federer, london, murray, nadal, o2 arena, Tennis
Posted in Tennis, World Tour Finals | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
The Magician
It was a shame Santoro didn’t leave the game with more of a “bang”, but instead he lost in his home masters series tournament in Paris to James Blake in the singles and to two unknown in the doubles partenering Sebastian Grosjean.
The player who frustrated many on the tour with his strange spins, slices and technique will however be dearly missed. Affectionaltly nicknamed “the magician”, his style of play was a favourite with the fans and he was a real crowd pleaser and certainly not someone you would want to play in the first round of a tournament.
Santoro has achieved a huge ammount on the tour and this is what makes him so great
- Beat 17 former number 1’s including Federer, Roddick and Sampras
- Winner of 6 singles titles and 24 doubles titles
- Won his first grand slam doubles title at the 2003 Australian open and defended it the following year.
- Is a general all around tactical genius.
We will probably never see a player like him again 
Tags: 2009, fabrice santoro, french, paris, retire, Tennis
Posted in Tennis | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Novak
Djokovic certainly had a good week anyway. Beating Nadal and then taking a masters series title by beating a french man Monfils in his home tournament is definetly not an easy task, especially so late in the year. Could Djokovic so well at the year end masters yet again? Hmmmmmm. Probably, but there is a huge amount at steak for the top two.
The way I see it is that its all gonna be about Federer and Nadal. The number 1 ranking could change but it is all hugely dependent on how other players do so it is quiet unlikely. There’s a few different ways Nadal could become number one but just taking the title doesn’t guarantee anything. This from the official atp site kind of explains it, kinda confusing but sher!
1. If Nadal is an undefeated champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (winning all-three round-robin matches, a semi-final and final) he will earn the maximum 1,500 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win all three round-robin matches OR reach the final to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
2. If Nadal goes 2-1 in round-robin play and wins the title he will earn 1,300 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win two round-robin matches OR win one round-robin match and reach the final to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
3. If Nadal goes 3-0 in round-robin play, wins his semi-final but loses the final he will earn 1,000 points. If that happens, Federer would need only to win one round-robin match to beat out Nadal for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title.
Anyway. Well done Novak and I actually cant wait for the finals in London. Should be a great week of tennis.
Tags: 2009, djokovic, london, masters, monfils, paris, Tennis, world tour finals
Posted in BNP Paribas, Tennis | No Comments »
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Freshly Qualified
Even more top seeds drop out early. Murray loses in 3 sets to the love him or hate him Radek Stepanek. The equally unpopular Robin Sodeling beat Davydenko (who qualified for the year end masters with his loss) in similar fashion.
You can’t help but think there was a slight lack of effort on their part, considering historically Federer and Nadal haven’t done well in both Paris and the year end masters. Murray also pretty much confirmed in his interview he was happy with the matches he got the last two weeks and got a good workout this week regardless.
Smiles all around it seems.
Watch out tomorrow for
- Nadal v Tsonga
- Djokovic v Soderling
- Stepanek v Gonzalez or Del Potro and
- Monfils v Cilic
Tags: 2009, bercy, Davydenko, masters, murray, nadal, paris, Tennis
Posted in BNP Paribas, Tennis | No Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Julien
Can’t believe Federer lost to Benneteau. I actually can’t. Del Potro in the US Open final, yes. Djokovic in the Basel final, yes. But Benneteau? C’mon like! He’s barely in the top 50 and has never even got into the top 30 of the rankings. All the top seeds have had unnecessary struggles in their first round matches but a loss to a top-50′er with no great achievments to his name is a bit unforgivable.
Federer was leading by a set and really shouldn’t have had any difficulty in the tiebreak. Another silly loss that is reminiscent of last year. Still, I’m confident he will win the year ending finals, dare I say without losing a match? Yes, I dared!
Tags: 2009, benneteau, federer, first round, julien, loss, masters, paris, Tennis
Posted in BNP Paribas, Tennis | No Comments »
