The Tennis Blog

 

Hai karamaba, Wimbledon’s 1^st week is already over!

So much happened!

The sun God won the weather battle, bathing the lush green courts with warm bright beautiful sunshine, leaving the rain God with only ½ day of lost play.

The top players exited early in quick succession to shock defeats by much lower ranked players.

First to go on the opening day was Nadal, falling to 137^th ranked Belgian Darcis in 3 sets 7-6(8), 7-6(4), 6-4.

Roger Federer’s dream of an 8^th title were shattered 2 days later when 117^th ranked Ukrainian Stakovsky beat him 6-7(5-7) 7-6(7-5) 7-5 7-6(7-5). 

Dreadlocked Jamaican, German Dustin Brown’s happy, brave, free flowing serve and volley game entertained the crowds.

He claimed Leyton Hewitt’s scalp in 3 sets and a deserved record £63,500 winnings.  

A record number of players pull out injured on “Injury Wednesday”. 

The majority blame the slick grass surface. Injured men included Isner, Tsonga, Cilic, Darcis and Stepaneck.

In the women Azarenka was the biggest victim.   

Surprisingly some injured players played in the doubles competition later on! Huh!!

All 10 American men are out causing panic in USA.  It’s the first time in 100 years no American man has made it into the third round.

3 American women cruise into the week 2.    

In the men Andy Murray, Djokovic, Ferrer, Del-Potro, Hass and Youzhny are the big names advancing into the 4^th round.

Great Britain celebrate Laura Robson making it into the fourth round and are guning for a bigger celebration if Andy reaches the Mens finals

Here’s your take away message:

Every time you step on court you have a 50:50 chance of winning so give it your best shot. Darcis and Stakovsky proved this to be true this week. So can you.

Yours in Tennising

Rajesh 

For once the sun was shining and the winds took a day off. The temperature climbed as did the crowd anticipation of a British player qualifying for Wimbledon next week. 

10 players remained. 7 women and 3 men.

Qualifying has no winner. From a total of 224 players fighting for a grand prize of a 1^st round draw at the All England Club only 28 will make it through.

All 3^rd round winners get into the main.

Sadly by the end of the day the mood was a dour as the overcast skies as no British player made in into the coveted 3 round.

On the men’s side Bogdanovic fought back from a 1 set deficit to lose 6-3 in the last set against Evgeny Korolev from Kazakhstan. Baker also put up a brave fight against Russian Igor Kunitsyn losing in 3 after taking a tight first set 7-5 in the tie break.

Remaining men’s player David Rice bowed to the 24 seeded Italian Flavio Cipolla in 2 straight sets.     

Only 2 women made it into the 2^nd round.

Naomi Brody gave the 3^rd seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia a real fright losing narrowly in 2 closely fought tie-breaks.

373^rd ranked Windley playing in her 1^st Wimbledon qualifying event was soundly beaten 6-4, 6-1 by the 18^th seed Kahzakstani Sesil Karatancheva.

And so ends another year. A year to build on for the ladies and a reminder to the men to work harder.

All eyes now turn to Andy Murray.

Happy Tennising

Rajesh 

Fighting for main rounds has begun on the green grass of the National Training Centre (NTC).

The stakes are high, with a guaranteed first round place in Wimbledon's main draw and a £23,500 cheque (62% up on last year).     

Sadly Dan Evans failed in his quest yesterday going down to 31 year old Spaniard Daniel Munoz-de la Nava in 3 sets.

However new Brit Dave Rice, and a resurgent Jamie Baker safely reached the second round.

“Veteran” Alex Bogdanovic also pulled through.

Sadly fellow vet Josh Goodall chances of bagging and income boost were dashed by Australian Groth who beat him in 2 sets.

Elsewhere, the top 2 men seeds both suffered shock defeats.

Today it’s women’s day. All eyes are on 7 Brits.

They are, Katy Dunn, Naomi Brody, Emily-Webley Smith, Jade Windley, Anna Smith, Lisa Whybourne and Amanda Carreras.

I wish all of them the very best.

Looking forward to reporting on more good news.

Happy tennis till then.

Rajesh  

After missing the French Open to rest his painful back, Andy Murray faced last years winner, Cilic on a damp, typically English summer day.  

Andy raced into a lead,playing confident attacking tennis using his big forehand to finish off the points. A mid set potential injurious slip at the back of the court stemmed Andy's momentum with Cilic taking full advantage, winning the set 7-5.

Cilic was unable to extend this gain in the second set as the number of his unforced errors continued rising. Andy despite a loss of concentration forced Cilic to play more balls.

The tactic paid off. Cilic's serve let him down as more double faults tallied on the scorecard. Andy turned on the aggression once again at 6-5 in the second, winning the set with a fist pump.
 
Andy didn't look back in the third set. He maintained the momentum by powering up his 1st serves which set him up for nicely for for mid court forehand put-aways. Cilic was broken and Andy rolled on quickly taking the last set in 43 minutes.

He will be very proud of this well deserved win. Great preparation for Wimbledon next week. Let the games begin:) See you then. 

Yours in Tennis 
Rajesh 

A cold dreary opening day that had players starting play with top layers and blowing into their hands to stay warm!

Seeded players on both sides were rattled by contenders hoping to take full advantage of their early nerves.   

On the women’s side Poland’s Urzula Radwanska ranked 37 in the world succeeded by beating 30^th seeded Venus Williams who has been struggling with form after returning from a long absence because of Sjogren’s Syndrome. This condition is associated with dry eyes, mouth and joint pain and leaves the player very fatigued. I wish her better soon.

Her sister Serena, quickly restored family pride showing why she is number 1 by powering through Georgian Anna Tatishvili 6-0, 6-1 in 51 minutes hitting 27 winners in the process.

107^th ranked Petra Martic scared 14^th seeded Anna Ivanovic who fought back the nerves  to win 6-1,3-6, 6-3 in just under 2 hours in first meeting.

On the men’s side Leighton Hewitt fought hard over 3 hours and 19 minutes to depose local boy Simon of his 15^th seed perch only narrowly missing out at the last hurdle losing 7-5 in the 5^th after clawing his way back from 5-0 down and being 2 sets to love up. It’s good to have Leighton back again.  

My pick for big round 1 matches of the day on Monday are the returning Frenchman Monfils against 5^th seed Berdych in the Men’s. In the Womens its Laura Robson against the struggling former World number 1 Caroline Wozniacki who has suffered first round losses in her last 5 tournaments. Robson will fancy her chances having beaten top players Li Na and Radwanska recently.

Looking forward to a great day of tennis. Will another upset be on the cards?

Have a super day :) Don’t ever stop giving your very best just because you are playing the best. It will pay off as it did for today’s winners.

Yours in Tennis

Coach Rajesh

 

                                                     Copyright©2013RajeshSharma

It’s the Italian Open ATP 1000 men’s final in beautiful Italy. An exiting prospect as Roger Federer faced Nadal again.    

 

Fresh off winning in Madrid, Nadal’s continued dominating with tennis as beautiful as the pine trees and statues silhouetted against the warm blue sky of a packed stadium.

 

Playing against his arch rival and world number 2 Roger Federer, Nadal once again showed why he has earned the right to be called the “King of Clay. His quick 6-1, 6-2 win in 1 hour, 9 minutes extended his winning recorded to 15 of his last 17 matches on clay since returning from a 7 month injury break.

 

It was crushing, dominating tennis.  He had Federer scrambling from corner to corner like Berdych in the semi- finals a day earlier. Federer tried everything to counter Nadal’s relentless pressure and winners, but in doing so ended up hitting 4 times more unforced errors than Nadal, currently ranked 3 spots below him in the world rankings.

 

Nadal on the other hand dug his heels into his favourite surface and continued pounding the corners and hitting deadly accurate passing shots leaving Federer stranded at the net wondering what he did wrong. Nadal looked the winner from the first 3 games of the first set and never really looked back. It was a storming clay court performance and the match to watch for any players aspirating to make clay courts their favourite surface.

 

Federer will be relishing returning to his favourite hunting ground Wimbledon followed by another hard and indoor court season leading up to the World Championship finals in London.

 

I get a feeling he is happy letting the next generation take the lead in redefining the game as he did when he burst on the scene. But he still has the fire to make their work as difficult as possible while enjoying the game as much as he can.   

 

After 2 sublime clay court finals, Nadal goes into the French Open in 2 weeks clearly the favourite.

He must be riding high with confidence.

Will anyone stop him at the French? 

Enjoy your tennis till then.

Dedicated to improving your tennis game

Coach Rajesh

Yesterday's ATP Madrid 1000 final between Stanislas Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal was fast.

Both players were in a hurry.

Rafa asserted his authority from the first point maintaining the pressure till the winning ball. Wawrinka never settled down. His normally strong backhand deserted him. He looked nervous and very tired. It's not surprising. His last 2 weeks have been tough. After winning the final in Portugal last week, he took 3 sets to beat Berdych,Tsonga and the upcoming youngster Dimitrov in this tournament.

It all ended when he ran into a "hungry" Nadal, wanting to remind everyone why he is the king of clay. He did this with a fast, straight sets, ruthless, tight and calculated win.  A very strong message he is hungry to win the French Open again!

How hungry are you to improve? How much of a rush are you in to play your best game?

We can all learn lots by taking a page out of Rafas' book and continue working steadily towards improving with each and every match. Is that how you view your training and matchplay? Try it and enjoy.

Dedicated To Your World Of Improving Tennis
Coach Rajesh