Archive for: julien benneteau
A host of top players are currently playing a exhibition tourament at the Paris Country Club in Rueil Malmaison.
The 4th Masters Guinot Mary Cohr is playing host to two teams of players and are Captained by Julien Benneteau and David Nalbandian.
Del Potro, Raonic, Murray, Tsonga & Verdasco are just a few of the players taking part.
This looks like a nice fun way to watch some tennis and get close to the stars. I almost wish I had booked my trip to include this tournament.
David Nalbandian was fined $8,000 for his outburst on Friday where he threw water at a staff member at the Australian Open. The incident happened in his match against John Isner and frankly I can easily see why he got upset!
Nalbandian commented about his penalty and said, “ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires.”
Other penalties included:
Julien Benneteau’s $2,500 penalty for verbal abuse is the next highest.
Marcos Baghdatis was fined $1,250 for smashing four rackets on Wednesday.
Overall, I think Baghdatis got the best out of the penalties, it could have been a lot worse! Additionally, it got him a huge amount of press!
Jarkko Nieminen was a qualifier at the Sydney International and today he has walked away with the title. Jarkko defeated Julien Benneteau 6-2 7-5 in the final.
Jarkko Nieminen had a great tournament in Sydney which saw him defeat James Duckworth, Radek Stepanek, Bobby Reynolds, Denis Istomin and then Julien Benneteau. As you can see from his draw it ended up quite simple compared to other players.
p.s. Poor old Benneteau remains winless in six ATP World Tour finals.
Rafael Nadal has been able to gain some much needed form with a 6-4 7-5 win over Julien Benneteau in Cincinnati.
“The moments that I spend one week ago in Montreal when I lost the match, serving for the match, always the confidence goes down a little bit after one match like that. So that probably affected me a little bit today with 5-4 and the serve. For the rest I am happy. I have to keep going, and that’s what I will try.”
Nadal will now face fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Day 4 saw the start of the doubles events on the outside courts, thus you will notice more quick round ups.
Mens Singles:
In the mens draw it seemed like today was a bit of a non-event. All of the seeds in action today won through their matches and with relative ease. Great performances by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, but thats not really new. On the outside courts there was a match that caught my eye, Fabio Fognini vs Stephane Robert. Robert had played a very solid match in the first round, but he came up against Fognini who was on fire! Fognini killed it and progressed 6-2 6-1 6-0. Is Fognini a player in watch in the draw?
Womens Singles:
In the womens draw all of the main players progressed through their matches. There was another great perfomance by Samantha Stosur and she is shaping up to be a real contender for the title! The only seed to lose today was Tsvetana Pironkova (32) who lost to Gisela Dulko 6-4 6-2. Dulko looked to be playing some very solid tennis on the outside courts. Last years champion Schiavone also played some great tennis today, sweeping aside Vesna Dolonts 6-1 6-2.
Mens Doubles:
First round of the mens doubles was today and it saw a very close opening match for the Bryan brothers (1) who only just progressed in three sets to Santiago Giraldo and Pere Ribe. For me there are three unseeded teams who have a great chance in the mens doubles: Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut (been playing doubles together since juniors and have won Grand Slam titles together as juniors), Ivo Karlovic and Ivan Dodig, Xavier Malisse and Alexandr Dolgopolov. Watch out for one of these teams to make it a long way in the tournament.
Womens Doubles:
I really enjoyed two doubles matches today and the two teams to look out for in the womens doubles is: Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder, and Andrea Hlavachova and Lucie Hradecka. Both of these teams played great matches today and beat favoured opponents.
Mixed Doubles:
For me there is only one mixed doubles pair and thats Leander Paes and Iveta Benesova. They played an amazing match today and looked a class above the rest, and thats on the day where a few top seeds fell.
Mens Singles:
In the mens first round we saw the early performances from David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who both won their matches in straight sets. Ferrer looked incredibly good as he swept past a strong Jarkko Nieminen.
In other results Julien Benneteau performed well in front of his local crowd, while Stanislas Wawrinka looked at home on the French clay. The only real upset of the day was Marin Cilic (19) falling to Spaniard Ruber Ramirez Hidalgo.
Womens Singles:
Julia Goerges has continued her great form with a very strong performance in the first round defeating Mathilda Johansson. Winners also included Samantha Stosur, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavluchenkova.
The only real upsets on the womens side of the draw was Shahar Peer (19) losing to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, and Flavia Pennetta (18) being defeated by Varvara Lepchenko in three very tough sets.
Overall:
The performances of the day definitely came from Samantha Stosur who will look to go one step better this year and win the title. While on the mens side David Ferrer was very strong and it will take a lot to defeat him on the clay.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga downed fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 to record his maiden win at the French Open on Tuesday and celebrated the occasion by wearing a tie to his post-match news conference.
“This is my first victory here. I celebrate this victory like this,” a beaming Tsonga told reporters while showing off his navy blue tie. “I wanted to come in a tuxedo … but my sponsor didn’t really want me to. Now I’ve found a solution.”
Asked if he would wear a bow tie if he ended up winning the tournament, Tsonga responded: “If I win, I will wear whatever you want but not a G-string.”
Tsonga, who lost in straight sets to Andy Roddick in his only appearance at Roland Garros in 2005, prevailed after two hours 43 minutes on a windswept Centre Court.
