Gael Monfils has been forced to withdraw from the French team due to play the USA in the 2nd Round of this years Davis Cup.
During a practice session on Sunday he developed pain and a subsequent MRI scan has revealed a lesion on his left oblique muscle. This injury will need approximately 15 days to heal putting his entry into the Monte-Carlo Masters at risk, the tournament starts on Monday 16 April. French Captain, Guy Forget, is yet to name a replacement.
Mardy Fish has not travelled with the USA team after a health scare brought about by a “heavy playing schedule”. Doctors advised the 30 year old to rest and team Captain Jim Courier has called on the services of young hopeful Ryan Harrison.
‘I’m extremely disappointed that I am physically unable to join the team,’ read a statement from Fish. ‘I had a minor health scare in Miami last week and stayed in Florida to heed the doctor’s recommendation to rest for a few days.
‘I hope to be able to resume my training later this week and possibly compete next week in Houston. I value every opportunity to compete in Davis Cup and wish I could be with my teammates this week.’
This is what Roger Federer will be wearing at the Masters events in Rome and Madrid. These outfits are of course Nike and specifically Nike Smash Clay range.
Questions are being raised on whether Rafa will be fit for the clay season, his success in the clay court stint has earned him the nickname “King of Clay”.
When Rafael Nadal edged past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to advance to the semi finals at the Sony Ericsson Open, he looked to have found form that would have beaten Roger Federer in the Desert at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The world number two cut out the forehand errors that were very common in his match against Federer, with Tsonga unable to answer the Spaniard’s exceptional speed and accuracy. Rumours started circulating, only hours after the match, that Rafa had suffered some kind of leg injury during the match. The following day, Nadal confirmed he had a left knee injury that needed a lot of treatment and rest.
While the World number 2 has stated he plans to be ready for his home masters tournament in Monte Carlo in two weeks, there are various officials casting doubt on whether he will be ready in time. The impact of his absence in Monte Carlo could have on his game is quite significant as it is the first masters of the year on clay and provides very good preparation for Roland Garros, which is only a month and a half away. Now while Rafa has plenty of time to recover before he begins his only Grand Slam defence, will he be playing his best tennis and able to not hold back on his left knee? We look back to January at this year’s Australian Open, Rafa stated he had to hold back on his stretching and putting weight on his leg, due to a crack before walking on court.
At the moment it’s all just speculation, we will have to wait and see what form the world number two has in a couple of weeks, but if he isn’t able to rely and put full strain on his left knee, I don’t see him defending his title in Monte Carlo or at the French Open.
Andy Murray yet again joined in with April fools day today, by suggesting he was skipping the entire clay court season to prepare for Wimbledon.
The world number four isn’t a stranger to April fools as last year he announced his new coach would be his friend, Ross Hutchins. Though Andy can sometimes be seen as “moody” and “grumpy” on court, these times are such a good reminder that he is quite a hilarious personality off court and is considered quite a joker among his fellow players on the ATP Tour.
Andy had this to say at his Announcement, “I spoke with Ivan and it just makes so much sense. At the French, I was looking at a semi at best, especially with Rafa around, so it’s down to me to get a head start on Nole and the others for my home grand slam. Right now, Wimbledon is my number one goal.”
While some have taken this announcement seriously, I think its good time to embrace the lighter side of Andy ahead of his very serious match against the world number one Novak Djokovic, in the Miami final tonight. Andy won their last meeting, in Dubai where the conditions are quite similar to that of Miami, I’m hoping for Murray’s first Masters title of the year, reliving his success in 2009.
Nick Bollettieri was at the Sony Ericsson Open 2012 cheering on Tommy Haas. Tommy Haas is still playing a few matches on tour, but he hasnt been able to get any good results of late.
It was recently announced that the Hopeman Cup would be moved into the ITF’s control. Moments after this happened, Founder Paul McNamee was sacked as tournament director.
A boardroom battle at an International Tennis Federation meeting in Vienna resulted in former Wimbledon doubles champion McNamee out of the unique tournament he founded almost a quarter of a century ago along with others including Aussie Wimbledon winner Pat Cash.
The ITF will take over the lucrative event before passing management rights onto its junior partner Tennis Australia.
I never knew that Juan Monaco was dating model Zaira Nara. Well anyways.. Juan Monaco had a great birthday yesterday as he defeated Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open and the win was watch by his girlfriend. Wonder what present she gave him for his birthday.
My main man, world number 4 Andy Murray hasn’t had much luck the last couple of years in Miami, since winning the tournament in 2009 Murray has failed to win a set, let alone a match at the Sony Ericsson open in Key Biscayne, with defeats to Mardy Fish in 2010 and Russian veteran Alex Bogomolov, Jr in 2011. Andy’s been having a ball in Miami this year, after his shock defeat in Indian Wells, he set off for Miami for early preparations with his coach Ivan Lendl and the work seems to have paid off! While Murray hasn’t really been tested yet, its been good to see him progress and not fall at the first hurdle as he has so done the last 2 years. Andy wiped out Alejandro Falla in round 2 after being byed through the first round, his promising match up with Milos Raonic wasn’t meant to be as the Canadian withdrew from their 3rd round clash with a right ankle injury, which meant Andy had reached a 4th round encounter with Gilles Simon.
The first game of the match, with Murray serving, was what I expected from two natural counter punchers, both playing differently paced balls and trying to force an error. The opening game lasted 17 minutes, with 7 deuces and 3 thrilling break points, but Murray’s defensive capabilities were too much for Simon and he held serve. The Frenchman was able to keep his first service game short, but not as short as Murray’s next service game, Andy used the 1-2 punch effectively against Simon, stepping in and taking the ball early to stop Simon’s incredible defensive techniques having any use, which led him to break the Frenchman’s serve. The remainder of the set went with serve, Murray came out to serve for it, earning 3 set points, he hit a second serve ace up the Tee to seal the first set.
Simon was unable to make any impact on the Murray serve throughout the second set, so he did his best to hold serve. The Frenchman held from 0-40 to lead 3-2 but was broken to 15 on his next service game. Simon couldn’t cope with some sensational shot making from the British number 1, including a so very precise forehand lob landing on the outer edge of the baseline. Andy very quickly earned 3 match points and finished up with an ace. The Brit plays 9th seed Janko Tipsarevic in the Quarters, with Andy leading their head to head 4-3, The world number 3′s performance today was a reassuring one and he should be extremely positive with his chances of repeating his 2009 success in Miami.
Let’s not beat around the bush, Andy Roddick hasn’t really had a great start to 2012. The American finished 2011 as the world number 14, three months into 2012 he is ranked 34, his first time outside the top 30 since 2001! You can’t knock Roddick’s consistency in rankings but his level in tennis has continually dropped over the last few years and his early exit in Memphis and shock defeat to Denis Istomin in San Jose hasn’t restored any confidence I once had in his chances to finally win another Grand Slam.
The American had only won 2 of his previous 23 meetings with the Swiss world number 3, including their 2008 meeting in Miami, with Federer winning all 6 meetings after 2008. When the Miami draw came out, I did predict a Federer-Roddick match up, however I couldnt be more wrong about the result.
Both players started strongly on serve with Federer using a lot of slice to take the pace off of the ball and Roddick using his booming forehand, that was reminiscent of his best tennis, to save 2 break points and take them to a first set tie break. With his crushing serve Roddick was able to take the first set tiebreak and when they rose from their chairs, he seemed the fresher of the two players. The Fed Express wasn’t about to be ousted easily though, he adopted a chip and charge technique effectively and broke Roddick’s serve 3 times in the second set and seemed to have taken control of the match. The American didn’t start the third set well, a couple of unforced errors and a cross court Federer backhand had him scrambling to save 3 break points, though he managed the save all 3 and go on to break Federer’s serve in the next game. Roddick seemed very comfortable towards the end of the match and knocked out last years semi finalist!
The world number 34 said afterwards “It was kind of a game of chess, I stayed back on the returns, which is something I have not done with him often early on. He might have been a little bit surprised by it.” The swiss decided to applaud Roddick’s performance and also drew attention to the Americans ranking slide, “I feel like I lost against a former Number 1, not that I lost against a guy ranked 30 in the world, I’m happy to see Andy play really well. He’s a great champion and enjoy him while you have him. It was a great night for him and America’s tennis.”
Roddick will play 21st seed Juan Monaco in the 4th round later today, with the American winning their only previous meeting last year at Winston-Salem. If Roddick plays the way he did against Federer then I can see him setting up a potential quarters meeting with fellow American and current American number 1 Mardy Fish, but we will see whether his consistency is back or if he caught Federer on a bad day.
Rafael Nadal has just resigned as vice president of ATP Player Council. Rafael has been very vocal about the length of the current tennis season, but it seems all his ideas have just gone on deaf ears. Thus, its time to move on.
