ATP and WTA results
Here are some results for grass court warmup tournaments around the world:
Nottingham quarterfinal matchings and (some) results:
R. Gasquet vs. A. Clement
This is the first real test for Gasquet as he tries to defend his title. Clement has been playing well lately and made it to semifinals of Queens, opposed to Gasquet who was upset in the first round.
J. Bjorkman vs. P. Mathieu
I. Karlovic defeats J. Del Porto 7-6, 7-5
No suprise here, as Karlovic is almost impossible to break on grass.
G. Garcia-Lopez vs. D. Tursunov
There hasn’t really been any big surprises at Nottingham, all the major seeds and contenders advanced to quarterfinals. It surprises me a bit that Bjorkman has done as well lately as he has on grass (good showing at Queens, semifinal last year at Wimbledon). He doesn’t have the prototypical “grass” court game. I hope Gasquet holds it together and wins his third title, as he is a very exciting player to watch when he is “on.”
The Ordina Open (men)
The Ordina draw and results can be found here:
Results
The Ordina Open usually hosts weaker competition than Nottingham. I think that I. Ljubicic will make it to the finals and win, while B. Becker could be his runner-up. Of course T. Robredo could stand in Becker’s way in the semifinal, but Robredo’s game isn’t the best on grass, and I feel like Becker has a chance.
International Women’s Open Semifinal matchings
J. Henin vs. M Bartoli
Henin has looked good on grass this tournament, winning her first two matches with relative ease. She’s looking to complete a career slam and winning a title this week could aid her confidence going into Wimbledon. She faces Bartoli who upset fourth seed E. Dementieva in the third round.
A. Mauresmo vs. N. Petrova
These match-ups present an interesting scenario if both Mauresmo and Henin win. It would be a rematch of last year’s final and a potential preview of this years, as both players have to be considered favorites. In their current form Henin would have to be considered the favorite, however Mauresmo is best on grass, while grass is the only surface Henin hasn’t won a slam on.
Ordina Open Quarterfinal Matchups (women):
J. Jankovic vs. A. Bondarenko
D. Safina vs. F. Pennetta
A. Kerber vs. A. Chakvetadze
D. Hantuchova vs. A. Ivanovic
Other news:
Blake warns Murray about fitness
Ancic pulls out of Wimbledon-This is pretty big news as Ancic was a semifinalist last year at Wimbledon and has a strong grass court game.
A good read about interesting Wimbledon moments and facts
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:11 am
It will be interesting to see how Karlovic fares this year at Wimbledon.
His baseline game has improved a lot (won a tournament on clay) and he can be dangerous to every top player, including the top two seeds.
Especially if he feels that he has nothing to lose…
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
Defiantly, Hewitt isn’t quite the threat he used to be but he always loses to Karlovic, even when he was highly ranked. Karlovic is so hard to break, it usually comes down to a tie breaker and that hurts every player who “should” win the match.