ATP Masters Series 1000: Indian Wells (+ WTA)

[hirdy_is_champ]

Great result for Ebden, I wasn't expecting a win, but it sounds like Fish was ordinary. I guess I really haven't seen much tennis post AO due to lack of foxtel and bad timezones so I just took this one by ranking.

A bit disappointing for Sam though, I guess at least she made a fist of it as apparently she was being well beaten before coming back. She's still got pleanty of time before RG to get more matches, but it seems she struggles to beat tough opponents in early rounds. Definitely needs kind draws to build momentum.

Berdych currently up 4-1 over Roddick in the third.

EDIT: also just read Fish did a bit of a Serena regarding the hindrence rule. Anyone see it? It seems Aussies induce yanks into causing such issues

 

[Chris_2593]

Great result for Ebden. Good to see him and Matosevic having good results.

Watched sets 2 and 3 of Sams match. Was waiting for Petrova to have a mental break down in the third set but it just never happened. Oh well. Watching Harrison Vs Garcia-Lopez now. Love Harrison.

 

[matt_897]

also just read Fish did a bit of a Serena regarding the hindrence rule. Anyone see it? It seems Aussies induce yanks into causing such issues

It was pretty much the same situation as the Serena match, he hit a drop volley and as Ebden was running to get to it just before he put a racket on it just getting the ball before it bounced twice, Fish yelled come on and the ball went into the net. Ebden put his hands up to the umpire (unlike Sam who basically hid in a corner) and the umpire immediately called him on it. Fish then made a dumb arguement to the ump for a few minutes. Fish was on top of the point but the hindince rule is there for a reason.

 

[matt_897]

Great result for Ebden. Good to see him and Matosevic having good results.

Watched sets 2 and 3 of Sams match. Was waiting for Petrova to have a mental break down in the third set but it just never happened. Oh well. Watching Harrison Vs Garcia-Lopez now. Love Harrison.

Ebden had a few poor results before this but it's good to see them take advantage of this part of the year as we had into the clay season and they will be playing challengers and Ebden getting smashed in lower level ATP clay events.

How did Sam play?

 

[Chris_2593]

Ebden had a few poor results before this but it's good to see them take advantage of this part of the year as we had into the clay season and they will be playing challengers and Ebden getting smashed in lower level ATP clay events.

How did Sam play?

Well i started watching when the score was 6-1 3-1 to Petrova so she did do well to come back. But the commentators were saying in the first set she was just hitting error after error. When i started watching Sam was playing ok as the match got her forehand was getting better but i assume Petrova got worse as she was just hitting the ball with so much top spin and just playing safe and not going for the lines. The game where Sam served for the match she just hit errors a few from the slice backhand. From what i saw she played better the Petrova but still too many errors. Shots that she can make easily. I think she should do well in Miami.

 

[Drummond]

Matty Ebden!!! Awesome!

Fish continues to show why he's one of the biggest jerks on tour. First his disrespectful comment to Ebden, “I’m good thanks for asking man”. Classy stuff right there. Then the whole hindrance debate, showing up the lack of knowledge he has about his own sport. Ebden was running quickly to get to the ball when Fish lets out a loud ‘cmon’. Ebden got a racquet on the ball and it went in the net but he clearly got there and made a pretty good fist of the return. Ebden throws up his hands; the umpire backs him up and awards the point to Matty and lets Fish know of the situation. Fish then carries on like a 5 year old, blaming the umpire for having an impact on the match, saying that his yell had no impact on the point. You may be right Mardy, but it is the RULE, look it up, it exists for this very reason. You just carried on for a couple of minutes on an issue you were 100% in the wrong for. Adler and Koenig also had a serve at Fish for his pathetic behaviour. How anyone can like this clown is beyond me.

As for Ebden, great win, I like his attitude and he has really good hands and feel around the net. This is a great tournament for him.

Watched Djokovic/Anderson, and it’s beginning to sound like a broken record but Novak was again well below his best. He won the first set 6-2 in over 50 minutes, and despite the comfortable looking scoreline it was a dogfight, Djokovic serving poorly and making too many errors. He lifted somewhat in the second, especially from 2-2, but he’s got to improve significantly if he is to repeat as champion.

Going back a day but Nadal produced the best tennis I've seen this week, incredible match he played against Mayer. Only 5 UE, over 70% first serve % and 96% points won on 1st serve, he was nearly flawless. No rust at all.

Nice win for Isner over Monaco, a fun match, one of the highlights being Koenig trying to explain a confusing Hawkeye challenge. He was getting himself confused trying to explain the situation so the end result was a mini disaster. “Well, we got there 3 days later”.

 

[Big Tezza]

I knew Fish had been in poor form, but I didn't really give Matty Ebden much chance. Absolutely stoked he got through.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's OOP.

Raonic vs Federer has been built up all week, so hopefully it lives up to the hype. It will be interesting to see if Federer can get a read on that ridiculous serve Milos has on him.

Other interesting matches on the men's side are Verdasco vs Del Potro, with Verdasco seemingly having regained some form, Baghdatis vs Dolgopolov, which should be a fun, quirky match and Nalbandian vs Tipsarevic although one never knows which Nalbandian will show up on the day.

The women's side looks interesting as well, with Azarenka vs Goerges, Wozniacki vs Ivanovic and McHale vs Kerber. McHale has really started to announce herself on the women's tour and it will be intriguing to see how she backs up her great win against Kvitova against another top 20 player in Kerber.

All in all, it should be a great day of tennis.

 

[Mint Condition]

Federer vs Raonic was quite entertaining and pretty high quality I thought. Both players with more winners than unforced errors. Federer could barely return a serve in the first set but got a much better read on it in the 2nd and 3rd which put a fair bit of pressure on Raonic's first serve and he started to miss it a lot more. Was probably the difference in the end. As usual Federer was able to exploit the bigger player's relative lack of movement (though tbf I thought Raonic wasn't too bad in that respect for such a tall guy...so much better than Tomic for instance). Won't be that long until Raonic makes top 10 IMO.

Rafa got through easily earlier. I thought he played pretty badly in the 2nd set but the match was always in the bag. He'll be able to step it up when challenged.

 

[Sir Vlado]

Was not at all expecting to see Ivanovic beat Wozniacki so easily then. Match #4 of 2012 between Azarenka and Radwanska tomorrow, oh god.

 

[Chris_2593]

Good to see ivanovic smash Caro! Radwanska and Vika had a falling out during there last match so should be interesting to watch.

 

[pepsi]

Good to see ivanovic smash Caro! Radwanska and Vika had a falling out during there last match so should be interesting to watch.

Glad she beat her comfortably. Watched a bit of the Woz v Arvidsson match yesterday and it seemed as if Woz was in crazy moonball mode, terrible tennis to watch.

Look forward to the Azarenka Radwanska match, can't believe it is the 4th time they are playing each other in only 2 and a half months.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

I don't really care for Ivanovic to be honest but I'm just thinking her win will probably be of benefit to Stosur rankings wise. Aga is still ahead of her but I don't think it will be by that much. I guess losing sets to Arvidson doesn't bode well for Caro though.

Mardy Fish is a w***er. Roddick, Serena and Fish all act deplorably on court. Good to see Isner buck the trend and not be an idiot. Hopefully Ebden does well tomorrow though.

 

[Chris_2593]

Ebden just lost to Isner 6-4 7-5. Good to see him keep it close. I watched the second set Matt hit some really nice passing shots against John and had a few break points but John's serve got him out of trouble a number of times.

Meanwhile Azarenka has just won the first set 6-0.

 

[matt_897]

Wish he got one of those sets to a tiebreaker, the bp chances he had in the 2nd were quickly snuffed out by Isner's serve. Great week but with Simon looking like the likely QF opponent, it would of given a possible chance for the semis. Hope Isner can take that.

Andjuar taking a set off Djokovic? Djoko must have the virus...

Azarenka Pure domiantion.

Federer in a battle with Bellucci, Fed's forehand was all over the place in the first set but has taken it to a 3rd.

 

[Sir Vlado]

Delightful beatdown by Azarenka. I want to see highlights.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

Not a bad scoreline for Matt, if anything its a good sign that he can probably push for a spot in the top 50. He's one of my favourite players, just love how he goes about things.

Hopefully Radwanksa makes no more comments about her former best mate now. As much as I dislike Azarenka, she's actually handled Aga's rubbish with class.

 

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

What did Radwanska say that was rubbish? The comments about grunting in women's tennis being out of hand? The comments about Azarenka's BS injury theatrics? Seems spot on to me.

 

[Sir Vlado]

All that she basically said is that she had 'lost respect' among other things which I also believe arose in further press conferences. There was a bit of bitterness involved with being incapable to at least take that particular match into a third set against an opponent playing on one leg. Radwanska's words have turned out to hurt her badly in the end after nearly getting double bagelled by the number one.

Radwanska did all the talking off court, Azarenka did all the talking on the court. The end.

 

[matt_897]

What did Radwanska say that was rubbish? The comments about grunting in women's tennis being out of hand? The comments about Azarenka's BS injury theatrics? Seems spot on to me.

Yep, Radwanska was spot on, especially about that match. But it's not the comments that make Azarenka smash Radwanska, it Azernka's better game.

 

[Drummond]

How was Azarenka having 'theatrics' in Doha?? She legitimately injured her ankle, and as the pain killers took effect, she started to improve. Same thing happened with Clijsters in Melbourne against Li, where are all the comments about that??

Couldn't be happier that Vika smashed Radwanska, what a little sook she is. 0 & 2, cop that Aga.

Djokovic losing a set to Andjuar... Even I could take a set off Djokovic in his current form.

And ESPN's coverage SUCKS. Majorly disappointed. Anyone else remember the years when Fox had it and for the first 4-5 days of Indian Wells it was like 12 hours of live coverage and then 12 hours of replays until the start of the next day. I miss that.

 

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

I remember the incident. Even the commentators were baffled as it looked like the most minor fall you'll ever see. No twist or roll of the ankle to be seen. Regardless of whether she was actually injured, which I doubt, she was running around like a rabbit during points and like she had been shot after them.

[YOUTUBE]-fOrVFDlDLU[/YOUTUBE]

7:53.

 

[Chris_2593]

Great match going on Eurosport. Kirilenko Vs Sharapova. Kirilenko won the first 6-3 and the Maria took the second 7-5. Not one for most people here who dont like the grunters but its been a good match.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

The thing is, Radwanksa comes off as incredibly bitter when she makes such comments. I mean I honestly cannot stand Azarenka, nor do I necesarily disagree with Aga, but she needs to consider how she'll now come across. People don't dislike Azarenka due to grunting as we all know Sharapova is very popular. The difference being, she never carries on like a pratt, and seems to be rather gracious in defeat. She apparently doesn't have much to do with the other players, but she probably just likes to keep to herself.
Here's an interesting article regarding Vika some of you might want to read.
http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2012/03/woo-hoo.html

Anyway, I'm watching the Shrapova Kirilenko match. Most points are being won off errors, but its still quite a decent match. There was some drama though when Kirilenko lost a poitn due to hinderence. Whilst she was waiting for Sharapova to hit the ball back, she hit her racquet on the ground about 3 times and the ump didn't want a bar of it. Can't believe she'd do that, pretty poor form. Its a set all.

 

[Sir Vlado]

Did not expect to see Kirilenko take a set off Sharapova. Surprised a straight set beating didn't eventuate.

 

[Mint Condition]

Surprised Del Potro got hammered. Looking forward to Nadal vs Nalbandian.

Federer looks like he's over his illness but can't see him beating Nadal on this surface. Djokovic shouldn't have any problem with Isner. Has had a very easy draw with Murray and Berdych going out early.