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Clay-Court Specialists Cecchinato and Bagnis Dominate @ArgentinaOpen Qualifying

Posted by Admin on February 8, 2016

Posted in: Adam Addicott, ATP, ATP Qualifying. Tagged: 2016, Albert Montanes, Argentina Open, ATP Qualifying, ATP World Tour, buenos aires, Facundo Bagnis, Gastao Elias, Marco Cecchinato, rafael nadal. Leave a comment

Clay-Court Specialists Marco Cecchinato and Facundo Bagnis Dominate Argentina Open Qualifying
Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Argentina 2015 HD TA Background

This year’s Argentina Open will see the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, kick-off his clay court season. As Argentine fans wait for the arrival of Nadal, the were treated to a series of entertaining matches over the weekend in the qualifying draw.

Half of the entrants in this year’s 16-strong qualifying draw were from the home country, however, only one Argentine successfully qualified to the main draw. 25-year-old Facundo Bagnis has already won two clay court titles this year. On the Challenger circuit Bagnis has claimed back-to-back titles in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bagnis, seeded second in the draw, started his qualifying run with a roller coaster 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-0, win over Pedro Cachin. Next up for the second seed was Slovenia’s Blaz Rola. Rola dropped only two games in his opening match against home player Hernan Casanova. Ranked 49 places higher than Rola in the rankings, Bagnis eased himself to the 7-5, 6-1, win. During his second round match, the Argentine won 72% of his service points.

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Italian top seed Marco Cecchinato was also impressive during his two qualifying rounds. The world No.91 was yet to win a match this year going into Rotterdam after falling at the first hurdle in his three previous tournaments. In the first round in Buenos Aires the top seed eased past world No.378 Juan Ignacio Galarza 6-1, 6-2. Awaiting him in the second round was another home player, fifth seed Facundo Arguello. Cecchinato won 68% of his service points and saved 7/7 break points to beat Arguello 6-3, 7-5, to book his place in the main draw.

Argentina Open 2016

Albert Montanes reached the main draw without dropping a set. After some intense off-season training, the 35-year-old didn’t start his 2016 season until the end of January at the Bucaramanga Challenger in Colombia, where he lost in the first round. He won his first match of the year at the Ecuador Open after defeating Jozef Kovalík in the first round. In Argentina, Montanes first match was against Brazilian world No.275 Jose Pereira. Despite there being over 100 places separating the two players, Montanes was made to battle before clinching the match 7-6(5), 7-6(6). In his final qualifying match, the Spaniard faced Italy’s Filippo Voladri. The fourth seed fired six aces during his straightforward 6-3, 6-4, win over Volandri.

Finally, Portugal’s Gastao Elias will play in his first ATP World Tour main draw since last year’s Portugal Open after his double win in qualifying. Opening up against world No.317 Tomás Lipovsek Puches, the sixth seed was pushed harder than expected during his 6-2, 7-6(4) first round win. Then in the final round of qualifying, he faced Guilherme Clezar. Clezar produced a shock 6-3, 6-2, win over third seed Daniel Gimeno-Traver in his first round match. Eilas required an hour and 50 minutes to edge past Clezar, winning 7-5,7-6(9).

First round matches

Q Marco Cecchinato ITA – Juan Monaco ARG (first meeting)
Q Gusta Elías POR – Daniel Munoz de la Nava ESP (Elias trails the head-to-head 0-1)
Q Albert Montanes ESP – Nicolas Almagro ESP (Montanes leads the head-to-head 5-2)
Q Facundo Bagnis ARG – Renzo Olivo ARG (Bagnis leads the head-to-head 4-1)

Young Frenchmen Pouille and Hemery Qualify in Hamburg and Gstaad
Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Hamburg Qualifying Recap

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Top seed Lucas Poullie booked his place in the main draw of the International German Open after surviving two tricky matches. In the first round he played former top 40 player Carlos Berlocq. After dropping the opening set to the 32-year-old, Poullie battled back to win 3-6, 6-1,6-3 to set up a final match with another Argentine player, Renzo Olivo. Similar to the first round the Frenchman dropped the first set before winning 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Pouille is currently at a career high ranking of 87th in the world. Recently he reached the semi-final of the ATP Poznan Challenger in Poland before losing to eventual champion Pablo Carreno Busta.

Another player who is currently at their career ranking high is Íñigo Cervantes. The world No.117 has claimed three Challenger titles this year with his most recent being in Germany at the start of this month. During qualifying he shocked eighth seed and fellow countryman Daniel Muñoz de la Nava to win 6-4, 3-6,6-3. In the last round he played Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos. Gombos beat third seed Damir Dzumhur in the first round. Cervantes made light work of Gombos as he won 6-4, 6-4, to move into the main draw.

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Taro Daniel is the only player to qualify for the main draw without dropping a set. After beating German wild-card Daniel Masur in straight sets. He faced another German test which was in the form of Maximilian Merterer. Merterer knocked out Italian second seed Marco Cecchinato in the first round. The inexperienced 20-year-old was no match for Daniel as he only dropped four games to win 6-3,6-1.

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Finally, Albert Montanes encountered a major blip before beating Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-0, 2-6, 6-4. After losing the second set, Zverev opened up a 3-0 lead in the final set before the Spanish player staged an impressive comeback to edge the German out after two hours and 11 minutes. Since June, Montanes has reached the final at three Challenger tournaments, narrowly missing out on the titles.

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First round match results for the qualifiers

Taro Daniel and Albert Montanes were both shown the door, Daniel falling to Jerzy Janowicz early on Monday, and Montanes falling to German veteran Florian Mayer. Pouille beat Cervantes in a qualifier vs. qualifier matchup.

ATP Gstaad Qualifying Recap

Following top seed Facundo Bagnis early exit in the first round of qualifying at the ATP Swiss Open. The draw opened for some of the lesser known names on the ATP Tour to get their own taste of life on the main stage of men’s tennis.

20-year-old Calvin Hemery knocked out two seeded players to reach his first ATP main draw event. The Frenchman stunned 4th seed Gerald Melzer in round two before beating Italy’s Andrea Arnaboldi in three sets in the final round. After suffering a first set hammering, Hemery beat the Italian 1-6, 6-3,6-2. The 20-year-old is currently at a career ranking high of 211th in the world. In May he won his first pro title by winning the Italian F9 Futures.

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Second seed Horacio Zeballos eased his way into the main draw following a 6-2, 6-4, win against fellow countryman Pedro Cachin. The Argentine encountered little difficulty during the three qualifying rounds with straight sets wins over Alexander Lazov and Tomas Lipovsek Puches prior to his final round triumph. The 30-year-old is currently ranked 136th in the world and is yet to claim a title this year. Going into the tournament, Zeballos beat Brazilian world No.89 Joao Souza to reach the quarter-final of the ATP Braunschweig Challenger.

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Elsewhere in Gstaad there was joy for former world No.83 Julian Reister as he qualified for his second successive ATP main draw. Last week he qualified for the main draw of the Swedish Open where he lost to Alexander Zverev in the first round. The German, who used his protected ranking to enter the draw, knocked out seventh seed Giovanni Lapentti in the first round before easing past Adrien Bossel in the second. In the final round, he had a tough match-up against 3rd seed Kenny de Schepper however, he breezed past the Frenchman with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

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Finally, Maxime Teixeira overcame two extremely close sets to beat world No.374 Daniil Medvedev. Teixeira required almost two hours on the court before winning 7-6 (5), 7-6 (12), with his eighth match point. The Frenchman also knocked out veteran player Nicolas Hanescu in the second round. This is the first time that the Frenchman has qualified for the main draw of an ATP event since the Stockholm Open back in 2012.

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First round match results for the qualifiers

Zeballos upset Andrey Rublev, Teixeira fell to Denis Istomin, while Hemery found himself foiled by Dusan Lajovic in straights, and Reister is still yet to play Blaz Kavcic who he trails in the h2h 1-3.

Adam Addicott TA Watermark

Garcia-Lopez Defeats Anderson, Muller reaches Quarterfinals At Estoril Open 2015 Thursday
Manuel Traquete for Tennis Atlantic

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Thursday at the Portugal Open saw the end of the round of 16. After the #1 seed Feliciano Lopez went out in his first match yesterday, today the #2 seed of the tournament Kevin Anderson followed the same path, losing in 3 sets against a very in-form Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who’s still in the hunt for a second consecutive ATP title. Anderson’s huge serve proved insufficient as the Spaniard dominated the rallies all throughout the match, moving the big South African around the court with ease for the most part and exposing his movement.

Garcia-Lopez d. Anderson 6-4 3-6 6-1

Garcia-Lopez will now take on Borna Coric, who prevailed in a titanic duel with Rui Machado under the lights on Center Court. With both players lacking the power – on both serve and groundstrokes – to hit through the court and finish points quickly, the match featured consistently long and physically grueling rallies. Machado, spurred on by an enthusiastic home crowd, played well above his ranking for the first 2 sets, often prevailing in those lengthy baseline exchanges with Coric and playing some absolutely inspired points late in the second set to force a decider. In the third set though Machado cracked physically and started getting late to balls and piling up to errors; despite his age, Coric is far more used to matches of this intensity than Machado and that showed in the decider. The Croatian is now only a win away from breaking into the world’s top 50 in the ATP rankings. This match also featured one of the worst overrules ever seen by Fergus Murphy late in the second set.

Coric d. Machado 6-4 5-7 6-1

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In the morning, Pablo Carreno Busta secured a quarterfinal spot with an easy win over lucky loser David Vega Hernandez, who replaced Tommy Robredo in the main draw. Busta will now face Gilles Muller in the quarterfinals, after the Luxemburgian eked out a win over 2010 and 2011 Estoril champion Albert Montanes, who had 3 match points, one of them on his own serve. It was a roller-coaster of a match, with Montanes taking the first set, but then Muller dominating the proceedings with his huge serve and excellent net play, barely getting troubled on serve at all until he had to step up to the plate and serve out the match at 5*-4 in the decider. Muller failed to continue his serve dominance in that game and made a few errors off the ground to get broken back; in the tiebreak, it looked like Montanes’s match at 6-4, but Muller saved the first match point on his serve with a volley that clipped the line and then Montanes double faulted on his second match point. He’d get a third match point, but it was once again saved by an incredibly accurate volley from Muller, who went on to take his first match point to secure a rare clay quarterfinal appearance.

Carreno Busta d. Hernandez 6-1 6-2

Muller d. Montanes 4-6 6-3 7-6(7)

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Machado upsets Sousa, Gasquet, Kyrgios make strides Estoril Open 2015 Tuesday
Manuel Traquete for Tennis Atlantic

Tuesday at the Estoril Open featured the end of the first round of the main draw, a total of 8 matches in 3 different courts.

The day started on a negative note for the Portuguese contingent with crowd favorite and 2-time quarterfinalist at this tournament Gastao Elias losing in 3 tight sets to Kenny de Schepper. In his post-match presser, Gastão mentioned his inability to hurt De Schepper with his shots and move him around as his biggest shortcoming and highlighted the two break points he squandered at 1-1 in the third set as the deciding moment of the match, with De Schepper riding the momentum from there. The man from Bordeaux will now face his countryman Richard Gasquet, who blew out Marinko Matosevic in the second set after a very tight opening set; asked about how he’s feeling on court after a prolonged absence due to injury, Gasquet said he’s feeling good but that he has no expectations of winning this tournament, where he was a finalist twice before, since he’s not ready to win titles yet.

(Q)de Schepper d. (WC)Elias 6-2 2-6 6-3

(5)Gasquet d. Matosevic 7-6(7) 6-1

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On court 3, Pablo Carreno Busta’s consistency from the baseline proved too much for the inexperienced Lestienne, who kept leaking errors on his way to a 3-6 1-6 defeat. Carreno Busta will now face Tommy Robredo in the second round. Next on court 3, the 2009 and 2010 champion Albert Montanes survived a tough 3-set battle against Martin Fischer to book a date with Gilles Muller in the second round. Another Spaniard advancing was Nicolas Almagro; the holder of 12 claycourt titles put in a very strong serving performance to defeat Stephane Robert in straights even if the rest of his game wasn’t really firing, which it will need to be in order to beat Leonard Mayer in the second round. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also prevailed over countryman Roberto Carballes Baena, with unexpected ease considering the former’s efforts last week and how close this matchup had been in the 2014 Casablanca semifinal. This time around though, Carballes Baena simply couldn’t defend against Garcia-Lopez’s superior serving and ballstriking skills and the Spaniard’s quest for back to back ATP titles will continue against the second seed of the tournament, Kevin Anderson.

Carreno Busta d. (Q)Lestienne 6-3 6-1

Montanes d. (Q)Fischer 6-4 4-6 6-3

Almagro d. Robert 6-3 7-6(4)

Garcia-Lopez d. (Q)Carballes Baena 6-2 6-2

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In the battle of the two highest ranked Portuguese players ever on center court (career high #35 for Joao Sousa and #59 for Rui Machado), it was the underdog who prevailed, with a gutsy, aggressive performance, while Sousa once again failed to live up to the pre-tournament hype and accused the pressure of playing in his home tournament again. Machado will now take on Croatian upstart Borna Coric, looking to reach his second QF at this event after doing so back in 2010.

Machado d. Sousa 7-6(5) 6-3

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The day ended with what will likely go down as the most memorable match of the 2015 Estoril Open, featuring Albert Ramos and Nick Kyrgios. The young Aussie got off to a fast start, breaking Ramos in the second game of the match and serving his way to a 6-3 first set win. In the second set, Ramos remained unable to return Kyrgios’s monster serves, but he somehow managed to stave off break points (including what looked like virtual match points at 5-5) and then faced with defeat at 5*-4 down in the tiebreak he managed to string two points on Kyrgios’s serve to force a decider. In the 3rd set, Kyrgios’s serve lost some potency and Ramos scored an early break and never really looked like being broken back until 5*-4, where, with his back against the wall Kyrgios produced an excellent return game to avoid elimination. He then had two match points of his own with Ramos serving at 5-6, but a terrible miss on a FH sitter on the second match point seemed to spell the end for Kyrgios who then threw away the next few points with bad errors to go into the tiebreak and get himself an early minibreak down.

That was when things really got real; Kyrgios threw the ball into the stands in frustration and he had already got two code violations, a third one would have resulted in a game penalty and thus outright losing the match. But the umpire didn’t give him the infraction, leading to Ramos practically begging him to do so for about 5 minutes, with the Portuguese crowd booing him for trying to get Kyrgios defaulted. To no avail, as he completely lost focus, the tiebreak and the match, being booed off the court as he exited the tournament, while Kyrgios goes on to face Krajinovic in the second round. I asked Kyrgios some questions in his press conference after the match, which you can find here

(7)Kyrgios d. Ramos 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(3)

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Tomorrow, 4 round of 16 matches will be played, with Almagro and Leo Mayer starting a day in what must be considered a clash of two title candidates; Mayer is the current Hamburg champion and always a threat on the red clay, while Almagro’s career achievements on the surface speak for themselves despite his bad start to the year post-injury. Almagro won their two previous encounters on clay, but those happened when the Spaniard was at the peak of his career and Mayer yet to hit his stride, while the roles are now practically reversed and the Argentine must be considered the favorite in this battle of one handed backhands.

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The winner of this clash will face the winner of another one handed backhand clash between Gasquet and De Schepper; when asked by me what he needed to do to beat his countryman, who he’s never faced before, Gasquet said he had to ‘play well’ and while that sounds like an incredibly generic and cliché answer, it’s hard to argue that if Gasquet plays well he should win easily against his much lower ranked countryman, who’s simply not comfortable at all on the red clay.

The 1 seed of the tournament, Feliciano Lopez, will open up against Robin Haase and while the rankings would suggest an easy Lopez victory the truth is the Spaniard is quite prone to early losses in smaller events and he has lost both matches he’s played on clay against Haase so this one is far from a given. The winner of this match will face the winner of the first ever night session match in a Portuguese ATP event, between Nick Kyrgios and Flip Krajinovic; the edge seems to be with the Aussie in this one, but he could well be tired after his battle against Ramos today and Krajinovic has the weapons to make it difficult on a good day.

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2014 Cordenons and Meerbusch Challenger Recaps

ATP Challenger Tour

Cordenons Challenger

With practically all the good Italian players placed in the top half of the draw, a home country finalist was likely, although the eventual player to make it was not first seed Paolo Lorenzi. Potito Starace had the honor to play the final after ousting Lorenzi in a marathon match: 5-7 7-5 6-4. This meant his first top 100 victory since beating Kenny De Schepper in QR1 of Monte Carlo in April.

With Lorenzi at 32 years of age and Starace 33 this looked to be a tournament for the veterans, a trend that got confirmed in the bottom half, where Albert Montanes (33) and Daniel Gimeno-Traver (29) took on each other. They already had an extensive history of playing each other, with the head to head being dead even at 3-3. Their last meeting at Viña del Mar last year ended in a 6-4 6-4 victory for Gimeno-Traver. Things were different this time around, however, as Montanes took home the match in three sets: 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2.

This set up a repeat of last week’s match between Montanes and Starace in the first round of the San Marino Challenger, where Montanes booked a relatively easy victory: 6-2 7-6(3). This week’s final followed a similar pattern as Montanes crowned himself the 2014 Cordenons champion with a 6-2 6-4 victory. The final only meant a minor jump of five ranking spots for Starace, as he reached the semi-final last year, he now is ranked #156. For Montanes the jump was more significant, as he rose twenty spots to #114.

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Meerbusch Challenger

One thing is for sure: nobody predicted the Meerbusch winner correctly. The tournament began on a negative note with the match fixing scandal between Boy Westerhof and Antal van der Duim, which is currently being investigated by the Tennis Integrity Unit. More details on that are surely to come. The only top 100 player in the draw, top seed Albert Ramos, got upset in the first round by Mattias Bachinger in straight sets: 6-4 7-6(4). The other clear favorite to reach the final, Andrey Kuznetsov, didn’t disappoint as he made it. However, he was the only seeded player to reach the semi-finals as he was joined by #340 Jozef Kovalik, #289 Tristan Lamasine and #259 Peter Torebko, making Kuznetsov obviously the clear favorite with his 108th ranking spot.

However, it was 21 year old wild card Kovalik who absolutely crushed Kuznetsov in the final, winning 6-1 6-4. Amazingly enough he only dropped one set the entire tournament and even that match was a comfortable win: 2-6 6-2 6-0. This obviously resulted in a major ranking jump, as he rose 105 spots to #235, only five shy of his career high ranking of #230. Kuznetsov had some consolation as well, as he re-entered the top 100 at #97, a jump of eleven spots.

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—Chris De Waard, Tennis East Coast

Last Call for Dirtball: 2013 ATP Kitzbuhel Preview, Predictions

Posted by Admin on July 27, 2013

Posted in: ATP. Tagged: Albert Montanes, atp, austria, beat at home, Clay, cup, fernando verdasco, juan monaco, kitzbuhel, Kohlschreiber, picks, predictions. Leave a comment

Dirtballers unite! The last clay court event of 2013 has arrived!

I’m talking about the ATP 250 event in Kiztbuhel, Austria.

bet-at-home Cup Kitzbuhel
ATP World Tour 250
Kitzbuhel, Austria
July 28-August 3, 2013
Prize Money: €467,800

Top 4 seeds (who all receive first round byes)

1: Phillip Kohlschreiber
2: Juan Monaco
3: Fernando Verdasco
4: Jurgen Melzer

First Round matchups to watch:

Carlos Berlocq vs. Daniel Brands

Berlocq comes off a bad 2nd round loss in Umag to the poor form Horacio Zeballos, but has performed very well on clay post-Wimbledon. He will get a tough opening round meeting with Daniel Brands, who he has never played before. Brands topped Roger Federer en route to the Gstaad quarters, and I give a slight edge to Argentine Berlocq in this match.

Top Half:

Kohlschreiber hasn’t played since Stuttgart, where he reached the final, and he will play the winner of Leo Mayer/Kenny De Schepper in his opening match. In the quarters, Kohli will most likely face Gstaad quarterfinalist Marcel Granollers, if Granollers can beat Mate Pavic and Horacio Zeballos/Qualifier. Zeballos retired in his last match in Umag with a back problem.

Fernando Verdasco comes off quarters in Hamburg and will take on Thomaz Bellucci or Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Bellucci lost his opening match in Gstaad, and GGL lost in the 2nd round of the same event. Verdasco should face Berlocq/Brands or current Gstaad finalist and twice defending champ Robin Haase. Haase opens with Guillaume Rufin in Round 1.

Bottom Half:

Gstaad quarterfinalist Pico Monaco will face Andreas Haider-Maurer or a qualifier. Haider-Maurer retired from his last match in Umag. In the quarters, Monaco should face Roberto Bautista Agut, if RBA can beat a qualifier and Dani Gimeno Traver/Qualifier.

Jurgen Melzer will be in his first tournament back since Wimbledon, hopefully fresh and healthy, as he takes on Andrey Kuznetsov or up-and-coming Austrian wildcard Dominic Thiem. The winner will get one of Gstaad semifinalist Victor Hanescu/Umag quarterfinalist Aljaz Bedene/Umag quarterfinalist Albert Montanes/Adrian Ungur, in a stacked section.

Dark Horse: Albert Montanes

Montanes can play very well periodically and does his best on clay. I mostly picked him as a darkhorse becuase of his draw. After Ungur, he will get Hanescu or Bedene. Hanescu may be tired and Bedene was honestly lucky to make the Umag quarters. With Melzer the seed in the quarterfinals section, the semifinals or even a final is possible, depending on Melzer’s form (and Monaco’s).

Predictions:

Semis:

Verdasco d. Kohlschreiber

Monaco d. Montanes

Verdasco, assuming he can get past Kitzbuhel GOAT Haase.

If Robin makes it that far, he is 4-5 career against Peppo but they haven’t played since 2010.

I still give the Spaniard an ever-so-slight edge to advance.

Monaco isn’t in the greatest form, but beyond Bautista-Agut, I see nobody to stop him until the final.

Montanes, Melzer or perhaps Hanescu probably won’t. Montanes is 2-1 against Monaco, but his 2 wins were back in 2006 and 2009. Monaco won the 2012 meeting in 3 sets on clay.

Final:

Verdasco d. Monaco

Monaco is 4-2 against Verdasco on clay, and 5-4 overall.

But given their current form, I still like Verdasco if this is the final.

—Steen Kirby

Monaco and Montanes Win First Titles of 2013 in Dusseldorf and Nice

Posted by Admin on May 25, 2013

Posted in: ATP, Dusseldorf, Nice. Tagged: 2013, Albert Montanes, atp, Dusseldorf, gael monfils, igor sijsling, juan monaco, mens, Nice, recap, review, tennis. Leave a comment

Monaco and Montanes Win First Titles of 2013 in Dusseldorf and Nice

ATP Dusseldorf:

Juan Monaco won his first title of the year in Dusseldorf, toppling the veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-4 6-3. It was a rewarding result for Monaco, who has recovered from an early year slump and is back playing top 20 level tennis. Earlier in the week he defeated Andre Ghem, Tobias Kamke and surprise semifinalist Guido Pella, who beat seeded players Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki to reach the semis.

The steady Nieminen is now a tremendous 21-13 on the year at the age of 31 and is back in the top 40. He beat Lukas Lacko, Roberto Bautista-Agut and another surprise semifinalist, Igor Sijsling, to reach the final. He also got a quarterfinal round walkover against Tommy Haas who withdrew with a cold. The Dutchman Sijsling upset Phillip Kohlschreiber and rolled over Jan Hajek in succession to make the semis.

Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich beat Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot for the doubles title.

ATP Nice:

32 year old Albert Montanes won his first title since 2010 and his 6th career ATP singles title with a confident 6-0 7-6 victory over Gael Monfils. Previously, the veteran Spaniard beat Victor Hanescu, Paul Henri-Mathieu and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in 3 sets to reach the final, while a rejuvenated Monfils took out Santiago Giraldo, Fabio Fognini, Robin Haase and Pablo Andujar all without dropping a set.