Posts Tagged ‘london’

Stats of the decade!

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Found this on the ATP website. Very interesting! Have a look (All courtesy of atpworldtour.com)

The man behind the stats

The man behind the stats

Most Aces In A Match
78*, Ivo Karlovic (L), 2009 Davis Cup SF vs. Radek Stepanek
55, Ivo Karlovic (L), 2009 Roland Garros 1st Rd. vs. Lleyton Hewitt
51, Joachim Johansson (L), 2005 Australian Open 4th Rd. vs. A. Agassi
51, Ivo Karlovic (L), 2005 Wimbledon 1st Rd. vs. Daniele Bracciali
50, Roger Federer (W), 2009 Wimbledon Final vs. Andy Roddick

Most Match Wins In A Season
92, Roger Federer, 2006
82, Rafael Nadal, 2008
81, Roger Federer, 2005
80, Lleyton Hewitt, 2001
79, Rafael Nadal, 2005

Most Titles In A Season
12, Roger Federer, 2006
11, Roger Federer, 2005
11, Rafael Nadal, 2005
11, Roger Federer, 2004
8, Rafael Nadal, 2008

Most Match Points Saved In A Match
10, Rainer Schuettler d. A. Seppi, 36 76(13) 60, 2004 Kitzbuehel 2nd Rd. 
9, Igor Andreev d. R. Soderling 36 76(14) 64, 2006 Indian Wells 3rd Rd.  
9, Vincent Spadea d. F. Serra 75 16 46 76(7) 97, 2004 R. Garros 1st Rd.  
9, Jiri Vanek d. Bohdan Ulihrach 26 62 76(5), 2004 Sopot 1st Rd.
9, Hicham Arazi d. Tommy Haas 26 76(8) 75, 2001 Hamburg  2nd Rd.
9, Felix Mantilla d. Albert Portas 26 76(4) 63, 2001 Palermo SF

Fewest Matches Lost In A Season (Top 10 player)
4, Roger Federer, 2005 
5, Roger Federer, 2006
6, Roger Federer, 2004
9, Roger Federer, 2007
9, Lleyton Hewitt, 2005

Most Times Qualified Into Main Draw In Decade
23, Cyril Saulnier
22, Christophe Rochus
21, Jan Hernych
20, Andreas Seppi
19, Albert Portas
19, Julien Benneteau
19, Teimuraz Gabashvili

Other Notable Stats Of The Decade

Longest Match Time (Best-of-five sets)
6:33* (over two days), Fabrice Santoro d. Arnaud Clement 64 63 67(5) 36 16-14, 2004 Roland Garros 1st Rd.

Longest Match Time (Best-of-three sets)
4:03*, Rafael Nadal d. Novak Djokovic 36 76(5) 76(9), 2009 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid SF                                                    

Longest Clay Court Match Winning Streak
81*, Rafael Nadal, April 2005-May 2007

Longest Grass Court Match Winning Streak
65*, Roger Federer, June 2002-July 2008

Longest Hard Court Match Winning Streak
56*, Roger Federer, February 2005-March 2006

Most Aces In A Season
1,318, Ivo Karlovic, 2007 

Most Weeks at No. 1
263 (as of Dec. 28, ‘09), Roger Federer, 2004-09

Most Consecutive Weeks at No. 1
237*, Roger Federer, Feb. 2, 2004-Aug. 17, 2008

Most Clay Court Match Wins In A Season
50, Rafael Nadal, 2005

Most Hard Court Match Wins In A Season
59*, Roger Federer, 2006

Most Grass Court Match Wins In A Season
16, Lleyton Hewitt, 2001

Most Clay Court Titles (Decade)
25, Rafael Nadal (2004-09)

Most Hard Court Titles (Decade)
39, Roger Federer (2002-09)

Most Grass Court Titles (Decade)
11*, Roger Federer (2003-07, ‘09)

* Open Era record (since 1968)

Davydenko, wow.

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

The Champion

The Champion

Well he actually did it. He won the year end masters title in London and with it beat 3 grand slam winners over the space of a week. Impressive? I certainly think so. He has yet to win a slam and is definetly not many peoples favorites to do so, but he is definitely capable of it

For Davydenko its the dream end to his season. For the others, not so much. But what is for sure is that Federer has cemented his place as world number one and has shown that he isn’t ready to give it up just yet…….much more to come

Federer and Del Potro through!

Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Should have reached a little further. Sorry Andy!

Should have reached a little further. Sorry Andy!

Murray, to the disgust of much of the British public, is out of this years year end masters. Even though he was victorious over over Verdasco, he didnt have a high enough percentage of games won to get through to the semi’s. Had Murray won 2 more games over his matches he would have got through to the semi’s. It’s complicated stuff, bit the decision eventually came!

Del Potro deserved it.

Tomorrow will decide the other two semifinalists! Soderling is already through, I think Davydenko will be the other.

Year-end number 1. SNAPPED

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Number 1

Number 1

He did it. Mr. Federer took the year number 1 ranking and with it became only the second player in history to lose and then eventually regain the year end number one ranking.  After beating Andy Murray, it guaranteed that there was no possible way for Nadal to achieve more ranking points by the end of the tournament.

  • Spent a record 237 consecutive weeks at number 1
  • On a streak of 21 consecutive weeks currently
  • Will likely finish the year with over $7 million just in prize money….

One of the best sets of tennis we’ve seen all year and a defeat for Murray in his home tournament

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Soderling

Soderling

What more could you ask for?!

Federer was right when he said he had Murray figured out despite his losing record against him. Federer played one of the best sets of tennis we have seen in months and made Murray look very amateur in the final set, dropping only 1 game in the process. Good stuff.

It’s kind of scary seeing Soderling playing so well though… Hes beaten Djokovic in straight sets and has the best record so far in the tournament. Not dropping a set so far and that includes beating Nadal. Some might say that he’s playing well.

Tonight?

Look out for Nadal v Davydenko at about 8.15. I think Davydenko has the edge in this one. He has beaten Nadal on hardcourt before and Nadal is still yet to find any rhythm here.

I can see this ending in tears…..

Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Gettin' ready

Gettin' ready

Nadal already had to suffer an historic loss at the French Open earlier this year to Soderling and now has a shot at some revenge as he takes him on here in the first round robin match. They don’t exactly have a history of having friendly off-court chats and sitting together for lunch. In fact, Nadal probably hates nobody more on the tour after the Wimbledon incident a couple of years ago.

If Nadal doesn’t get a great start in the match its easy to see Soderling causing lots of problems. He serves big, can hit amazing forehands when he gets going and indoors is by far his best surface. The crowd will hopefully get their moneys worth outta this match but Nadal has never won this title and will want to prove himself as the year ends. Play should start at about 2.15, depending on the doubles.

Other matches today

  • Djokovic v Davydenko
  • Bryan/Bryan v Mirnyi/Ram
  • Dlouhy/Paes v Kubot/March (never seen the last pair play before, I’ll be looking out)

Federer beats Verdasco and with it, secures the year end number 1 ranking

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
The number 1

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.

Ready steady go!

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Lookin' smart

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!

And the London draw is out!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
London Eye

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

London town!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Ahhhh, had a great weekend in London with Jason on the big adventure to visit Sarah! At one stage I thought I would never get there. Anything that could possibly go wrong was seeming to happen…..

  • HORRIBLE landing in Gatwick, actually thought I was going to die
  • Train from the airport broke down for ages and we had to get onto another
  • The tube station we needed to change at was closed and we didn’t find out until we were already on it
  • Some fool pulled the alarm at one of the stations and all the tubes were stopped
  • Acton – enough said

But I did finally get to Leicester square and meet Sarah I did.  :)