MONACO VS MAYER

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Juan Monaco, will take on the experienced German player Florian Mayer in the first round of the US Open.

It will be the 8^th time that these two players will face each other. Out of the previous 7 matches, Mayer has won 5.

Monaco is not one of those guys who like to play aggressive tennis. He doesn’t go for fancy shots too often. All he tries to do is to make his opponent commit errors and that’s why, he has had such a fantastic record on slow surfaces.

But, when it comes to playing on hard courts, he is not so lethal. He didn’t have good outing in a couple of hard court tournaments played recently i.e. Cincinnati Masters and Winston-Salem Open. He got knocked out from the second round in both the tournaments.

The positive thing about Monaco is that he is a real fighter. He doesn’t commit too many errors. If you have to grab points against him, you will have to do it yourself as he is not going to giving you too many opportunities.

On the other hand, there is Mayer who is a wily customer. He has been around since a long time and he doesn’t mind playing on hard courts. His playing style is not conventional, but, it’s pretty effective.

Mayer’s recent form hasn’t been that good either. In his last couple of hard court tournaments, he lost at early stages and he would be a bit concerned about his form.

However, his record against Monaco is brilliant and that might give him a bit of confidence.

Both the players are quite hard to beat on their day, but, because of his experience and his past record against Monaco, Mayer can be considered as favourite.

NERVOUS TIMES

David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Martin Del Potro, has admitted that he couldn’t keep his nerves during the crucial times in the semi final match of the Wimbledon Championships.

Del Potro got knocked out of the Wimbledon Championships on Wednesday after suffering a close defeat against the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic.

Although, Del Potro lost the match but, he made Djokovic toil extremely hard for each and every point. He matched the Serbian superstar shot for shot and took the match into the fifth set.

Unfortunately, in the decider, the 8^th seed Argentinean panicked a little bit and ended up getting knocked out.

Talking to the reporters in the post match interview, Del Potro said, “I think I played at my very best in this tournament. I defeated some fine players on my way to final 4. Unfortunately, today, things didn’t go my way, but, I am happy with my outing in this tournament.”

“Novak is a world class player and it’s not easy to compete against him at any surface. He played the return shots incredibly well today.”

This was the first time that Del Potro had reached the semi final round of the Wimbledon Championships. He was not the favourite against Djokovic, but, he was expected to give the world no. 1 a tough fight and he did exactly that.

A large part of the crowd was behind Del Potro. They were chanting his name and cheering him up.

When asked about that, Del Potro said, “It was overwhelming to get that kind of support from the crowd. They motivated me and helped me to come back from tough situations. I want to thank all the spectators from the bottom of my heart.”

In the final match, Djokovic will take on the local boy Andy Murray.

MONACO VS TOMIC

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Juan Monaco, will take on Bernard Tomic of Australia in the second round of the Barcelona Open.

Tomic has been going through a tough time at the moment. His performance in the last few tournaments hasn’t been up to the mark at all. He had begun the year on a winning note by becoming the champion in Apia International Sydney tennis tournament, but, after that, he lost his form and has been getting knocked out of the events early.

It’s true that Tomic has got difficult draws in tournaments, but, the kind of potential he has got, he should be doing better than what he has done so far.

This year, Tomic has been beaten by some players against whom he was expected to win. In the opening round of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, he was defeated by Victor Hanescu and then, Alexandr Dolgopolov did the same to him in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Also, featuring for Australia in the Davis Cup clash against Uzbekistan, he lost to Denis Istomin. Had be played up to his talent, he would not have been defeated by these players.

On the other hand, Juan Monaco is a completely different player on clay courts. His game goes to the next level on this kind of surface. He would definitely have been backing himself to get better of the Aussie youngster.

Monaco is coming into this tournament with some good form. He had managed to reach the final 4 in the tournament in Houston and he was looking in good touch in the Monte Carlo Masters as well. He got defeated by Novak Djokovic in the third round there, but, he fought till the very end in that match.

Also, if we compare the world rankings of these two players, Monaco is ahead of Tomic by some margin.

So, one can say that it’s Monaco who is the favourite to win tomorrow’s match against Tomic.

KNOCKED OUT

David Nalbandian has been knocked out from the opening round of the ongoing Sony Open. He has been defeated by Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the first round. Nieminen won the match in three sets by 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. In the second round, Nieminen’s opponent will be Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

In the match against Nalbandian, Nieminen made a comeback from the verge of defeat. He had lost the opening set and he had dropped his first couple of serves in the second set as well. He was clearly struggling at 0-3 in the second set. All Nalbandian needed was three serve holds and he would have been through. But, that didn’t happen. From that stage, Nieminen fought back in a remarkable manner and eventually managed to get better of Nalbandian.

This was an absolute cracker of a contest. It went on for 109 minutes and the spectators would have enjoyed each and every second of those 109 minutes.

This was Nieminen’s fifth victory over Nalbandian. These two players have played against each other 13 times so far.

Nalbandian hit more winners than his opponent in the match. He hit 15, while, Nieminen hit 14. Also, Nalbandian committed lesser unforced errors (33) as compared to Nieminen (27).  Despite that, the Argentinean superstar had to suffer defeat.

Nalbandian didn’t start that well in the first set. He lost his very first service game in the match to get trailed by 0-1. Nieminen held his serve in the next game which gave him a 2-0 lead.

After the first couple of games, Nalbandian’s performance got better. All of a sudden, he started timing his shots to perfection and Nieminen was looking clueless. The Finnish player lost 9 games in a row and Nalbandian was not too far away from victory.

But, the momentum changed again. Nieminen broke in the 4^th game of the second set and that breakthrough put him on the right track. He didn’t look back from there. By winning 6 out of the next 7 games, he won the second set by 6-4.

In the decider, Nieminen got an early breakthrough and he kept that lead till the end to pull off a great victory.

TSONGA WINS OPEN 13

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has won Open 13 by defeating Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the final match. Tsonga defeated Berdych by 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4. This was the 10^th ATP title won by Tsonga in his career.

This was Tsonga’s second victory over Berdych in six meetings. Berdych was seeded higher than Tsonga in this tournament. The Czech player was given top seed, while, Tsonga was the third seeded player. Read more »

ARGENTINA FALL

David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Monaco, has been defeated by Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia in the first round of the Australian Open 2013. Kuznetsov won the match in the straight sets by 7-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Monaco became the first seeded player to be defeated in the first round. All the seeded players except him moved easily into the second round.

Monaco was not 100% fit before the match. During the match, he took quite a few injury timeouts to have treatment, but, even after that, his pain didn’t get reduced and he kept struggling in the last couple of sets.

Monaco had withdrawn his name from the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament last week because of a hand injury. His participation in the Australian Open was in doubt because of that injury. The Argentinean didn’t manage to regain complete fitness before the Australian Open, but, he decided to take part in the tournament.

From the beginning of the second set, it was evident that Monaco was struggling, but, he didn’t retire. He kept playing with the pain till the end of the match. The crowd out there applauded for Monaco’s spirit of not giving up till the end.

In the first set, Monaco was not feeling that much pain and he played quite well. But, after the first set, his pain increased and his performance deteriorated. He was completely outplayed in the last couple of sets.

Kuznetsov hit some powerful shots and took the match away from Monaco. The Russian smashed a total of 6 aces in the match.

In the post match interview, Monaco said, “I hadn’t expected myself to be beaten in the opening round. It’s disappointing. Had I been 100% fit, the scenario could have been different.”

When asked if his injury is a severe one, Monaco said, “No, I don’t think it’s a major injury.  I am sure I will get fit within next two weeks.”