ATP MASTERS 1000 Indian Wells: Let The Party Commence!

First topic message reminder :

At last!

Tennis is back in town. And sleepless nights, and bags under the eyes in the mornings.

For a fortnight or so, we'll forget about fast courts and GOATs and watch some good tennis for a change.

Indian Wells first 1000 Masters event of the year, first "big" tournament after AO.

All players are there, fit and raring to go, the "come-backers": Davydenko, Querrey, Simon, the "newcomers": Tomic (I think he's already out), Raonic, Dolgopolov, and last , but not the least the "big" 4.

I'm sure you'll forgive me for focusing on the top 4 players, because at the moment, they all seem be pretty keen to win this tournament (which is not always the case when it comes to non-slam tournaments).

Nole, who loves slow hard-courts of IW, will want to continue where he stopped in Melbourne, and should he bump into Murray in the semis, show him who's the boss.

Nadal, match-free for nearly 6 weeks, must've worked on his game or serve in the meantime, 2012 is his make or break season in many ways, and it's usually this time of the year he gets going as a warm-up for clay season.

Federer, on a good winning streak since last autumn (lost only two matches, one to Nadal one to Djokovic), will want to get a good result and possibly close the points gap between him and Nadal, or at least keep Murray at bay.

Murray, with, I believe Lendl again by his side, must be hoping that this 2012 is his slam-break-through year: he has been working very hard for several years and generally improving his game and shots. His win over Novak in Dubai must have boosted his confidence immensely, still, he failed to capitalise on it and win Dubai, failing to Federer.
He has few points to defend in IW and Miami, and a great opportunity to move up the rankings.

The players have had a party last night, and all seem to be happy to be there and play.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv8T10SOE

Indian Wells has apparently continued to improve their facilities and make life nicer both for players and fans :

( http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2012/03/nice-work-if-i-can-get-it.html )

In today's order of play, we have some interesting matches, and Novak and Murray out on central court.

Order of play for Friday, 16th of March:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/404/op.pdf



So, let's enjoy the return of tennis and may the Best win

Finally, last but not the least:

GO NOLEEEEE

LuvSports! wrote:I like to have a good moan now and then, what is it about? Ken Bates? The RFU? why they dont sell strawberry cheesecake anymore at tesco? that one particularly rankles

Try Waitrose apple strudel

Istomin is too strong. Ferrer needs a few miracles with his limited game!

Davy out with the bug...darn

Oh no...! Poor Denko!

knew that ages ago. Bellucci gets a rare route to the 4th round.

Presume you mean Thomaz not Monica
(now that would be worth seeing...lol)

lydian wrote:Presume you mean Thomaz not Monica
(now that would be worth seeing...lol)

Polished Man would be there in the first row

Delpo survives 6 set points and wins 2nd set tie-break to beat Tesco in straights

lol NITB...he wouldnt be the only one!

Tabasco...never quite has it up top!
Beating AM and pushing Nadal at AO09 is probably going to be the highlight of his career I suspect.

lydian wrote:lol NITB...he wouldnt be the only one!

Tabasco...never quite has it up top!
Beating AM and pushing Nadal at AO09 is probably going to be the highlight of his career I suspect.

Don't forget the Davis Cup, as well a former boyfriend of Ana Ivanovic

Yeah I wondered about putting the DC as that confidence carried him well into the following AO...

...and Wozniacki too. When it comes to the "laydeez", as he probably calls them, Nando is no chicken...

https://2img.net/r/ihimg/photo/my-images/407/12678zj.jpg/

Ferrer falls to Istomin in straights!

Come on Dolgo, "slice" him to death.

noleisthebest wrote:

lydian wrote:lol lags72, the petition of not complaining starts here!

lags72
NITB
lydian
...

I know Tenez is on the list with us in spirit

Of course! Add me in!!!

You tell me what it's all about.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

lydian wrote:lol lags72, the petition of not complaining starts here!

lags72
NITB
lydian
...

I know Tenez is on the list with us in spirit

Of course! Add me in!!!

You tell me what it's all about.

It's all pages and pages of small print. You don't want to spend 6 hours reading them, do you? It's worse than watching slow play on slow courts

Perfect. I never read the small prints....just tell me where to sign.

Any surface as long as Djoko gets a chance to meet Nadal, I am fine.

Interesting.
Nadal won 26/27 1st serve against Mayer. And he has won 100% so far vs grannollers. Perhaps he has worked on his serve during Feb.

WoW!! Nadal the new GOAT!

Dolgo:Baghdatis 6:4 2:2 so far.

Calm down Jahu...

I thought this Granola could play tennis...what an embarrassment.....why did I leave Dolgo match...

What a moonballer this Nadal. His only aim is to moonball as hard as he can.

Can't his fans see that?

Dolgo 5:5 second set.

Tenez wrote:What a moonballer this Nadal. His only aim is to moonball as hard as he can.

Can't his fans see that?

Cry me a river.

And you still stay up at 12:30 to watch him play
Perhaps in future spend your time doing something you like doing.

Nadal has hit more aces than Grannollers.

Good night all!

Dolgo:Bag 6:4 5:7 3:0.

Nadal should be the No:1, I mean he is killing this amateur.

Nadal wins 6:1 6:4, best match of the year so far.

Dolgo wins 6:4 5:7 6:4, super match.

Ha ha!

Have just read the comments of a certain two notorious Rafa "fans" (cough...) as they stayed up late to watch their favourite player. It sounds like they were a little disapointed that Rafa brushed Granollers aside a little too easily for their liking. From what was said I can almost imagine them stomping upstairs to bed, slamming the door shut stroppily and sulking like temperamental teenagers because things didn't go as they wanted...

hawkeye wrote:Ha ha!

Have just read the comments of a certain two notorious Rafa "fans" (cough...) as they stayed up late to watch their favourite player. It sounds like they were a little disapointed that Rafa brushed Granollers aside a little too easily for their liking. From what was said I can almost imagine them stomping upstairs to bed, slamming the door shut stroppily and sulking like temperamental teenagers because things didn't go as they wanted...

you don't say!

nalbo!!!! up next tsonga!

Federer beats Raonic. 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Granollers had BPs against Rafa.

Sounds as if Raonic gave Fed a tough match. That's the second time this year (Davydenko earlier) that Rog has come back from a set down. Don't remember him doing that very often in the last couple of years . Certainly in three-set matches, he's tended to win fairly easily or lose in straight sets.
Clearly, Raonic is gonna be quite a player and will probably learn more from this defeat than from victories, as is so often the case. Anyone see the match?

It'll be interesting to see in whose quarter Raonic will be in Miami next week. He could be even more dangerous there as the courts are faster.

It sure looks like Fed is - unlike in previous years - willing to put up a fight even in non-Slam events. Maybe he is after Sampras' record of weeks at #1 after all!

I did not watch the match bt it looks like it took Federer a set to work out Raonic's serve.

Fed is often aprehensive when he plays a young up and running player.

SFP: during the first set Fed could barely touch Raonic's serve, though he got one time at 40 all. It was also very windy out there......It looked like one of those matches Ivanisevic - Sampras where around 99% of the points was made behind the serve. Boring stuff really, I just wonder if this surface is really that slow......

Someone said Fed doesn't like the wind. Few do, I guess. What with Fed feeling not quite 100% by all accounts - I see Davydenko is the latest to succumb to the IW bug - this looks like a match it would have been very easy to lose.

The diff was that Raonic couldn't get a hold on Feds serve, his returning game needs to develop yet. Plus on a slow surface like this his groundies aren't as strong as Feds either. Good promise though...
Think there will be tougher tests to come yet...Nadal's off-forehand looking much better since he's returned too.

sirfredperry wrote:Someone said Fed doesn't like the wind. Few do, I guess. What with Fed feeling not quite 100% by all accounts - I see Davydenko is the latest to succumb to the IW bug - this looks like a match it would have been very easy to lose.

I hope not, the last thing he needs on this run is for something to get to him. Ever since 2008 it's been illness, back or whatever after a few months.

Fed being an early hitter of the ball and having a SHBH is always going to dislike the wind. He says it doesn;t bother him anymore but in his case it has a huge effect.

2 matches I remember had a bad impact:

Wimbledon 08 final. Forthe first 2 sets it was blowing pretty hard and only when it started to rain and got the break that he started to play better.

And the following year v Roddick. It was really string wind and we coudl see Federer was trying to keep the ball in court and had zero confidence.

I saw part of the match as I had a sofa scenario, i.e. went to sleep on the sofa with the lights on so that usually wakes me up within an hour or two (the AO/USO sleeping arrangement scenario)
When I tuned in it was the end of 2nd set.
Raonic serve was actually off, in the "tired" kind of way. But his forehand absolutely sizzled.
Federer was very unsettled and was hanging onto the match in a rattled kind of way.
Raonic made the slow evening conditions looks cracking fast.
His forehand was better than I have ever seen before.
He was easily hanging out with Fed in forehand baseline exchanges, and winning most of those, And that's saying something.
Balls were flying low over the net, like bullets.

Fed , being an experienced old dog, managed to use the tiniest dip in Milos's concentration and got him on a few backhands. That was it.
The third see was even, and at 3 all I simply could not keep my eyes open any more, so found out the score this morning.

Sad for Milos, but happy for Fed.

Apparently, Layani made a massive hash of two wrong line calls, advising inexperienced Raonic not to challenge and was WRONG BOTH TIMES!!!

One of those calls happened in the last game of the match when he got broken and Fed ran away with the match. Shame.

Order of play for today:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/404/op.pdf


Last 16 player all out today, some sizzling matches!
Another sofa night...

The most interesting matches are Nadal-Dolgopolov and Tsonga-Nalbandian IMO. And the winners of these matches will face each other in the QF!

noleisthebest wrote:I saw part of the match as I had a sofa scenario, i.e. went to sleep on the sofa with the lights on so that usually wakes me up within an hour or two (the AO/USO sleeping arrangement scenario)
When I tuned in it was the end of 2nd set.
Raonic serve was actually off, in the "tired" kind of way. But his forehand absolutely sizzled.
Federer was very unsettled and was hanging onto the match in a rattled kind of way.
Raonic made the slow evening conditions looks cracking fast.
His forehand was better than I have ever seen before.
He was easily hanging out with Fed in forehand baseline exchanges, and winning most of those, And that's saying something.
Balls were flying low over the net, like bullets.

Fed , being an experienced old dog, managed to use the tiniest dip in Milos's concentration and got him on a few backhands. That was it.
The third see was even, and at 3 all I simply could not keep my eyes open any more, so found out the score this morning.

Sad for Milos, but happy for Fed.

Apparently, Layani made a massive hash of two wrong line calls, advising inexperienced Raonic not to challenge and was WRONG BOTH TIMES!!!

One of those calls happened in the last game of the match when he got broken and Fed ran away with the match. Shame.

Great review NITB - I didn't stay up to watch match though I was very tempted but just too weary in the end with too much to do today!

What a great shame for Milos that Layani made such a mess up of the two bad line calls, but I am glad to read that his forehand was really sizzling too and that he was winning some of those exchanges - not that I wish anything but good for TMF but it is lovely to see/hear some of these youngsters gaining in confidence and coming good.

Good to hear Fed toughed it out as well. Sounds like it might be very interesting if they should meet again in Miami?

Absolutely!

Raonic is the guy you don't want to see in your quarter these days
What impressed me most about him is that he did not let his frame and size dictate his movement. He really went for it. OK, he was no Djokovic in court coverage, but considering his size and proportions definitely super-fast compared to all his giant-comrades....
I must say I did not expect him to improve this much this fast. Very exciting.

prostaff85 wrote:The most interesting matches are Nadal-Dolgopolov and Tsonga-Nalbandian IMO. And the winners of these matches will face each other in the QF!

I really don;t think Dolgo has the weapons to hurt Nadal. His sliced BH will prevent him of winning anything of note tonight like in the futre. To blast Nadal off court, he'd need to have a powerful BH as well as his great FH. On those sand paper courts, he will struggle hit the ball flat, especially as he is reather short.


The more I watch Dolgo, the less I am hopeful about his chance for the futre. Sure he can create an upset but they will be rare and few in between.....and certainly not this eve....unfortunately.

noleisthebest wrote:Absolutely!

Raonic is the guy you don't want to see in your quarter these days
What impressed me most about him is that he did not let his frame and size dictate his movement. He really went for it. OK, he was no Djokovic in court coverage, but considering his size and proportions definitely super-fast compared to all his giant-comrades....
I must say I did not expect him to improve this much this fast. Very exciting.

It's really annoying that the 2 players (Raonic and Delpo) who can really hurt Nadal almost always fall in Fed's draw.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Absolutely!

Raonic is the guy you don't want to see in your quarter these days
What impressed me most about him is that he did not let his frame and size dictate his movement. He really went for it. OK, he was no Djokovic in court coverage, but considering his size and proportions definitely super-fast compared to all his giant-comrades....
I must say I did not expect him to improve this much this fast. Very exciting.

It's really annoying that the 2 players (Raonic and Delpo) who can really hurt Nadal almost always fall in Fed's draw.

Nadal has notoriously easy draws. ALL THE TIME.

That aside, do you think Dolgo has any chances? I'd love to see him rattle Nadal and get him out of his comfort zone.