Aleksandr Nedovyesov

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2016 @DavisCup WG Round 1 Recap: Serbia Survives, Czechs and Americans Prevail

Posted by Admin on March 6, 2016
Posted in: Davis Cup, Steen Kirby. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

2016 Davis Cup World Group Round 1 Recap: Serbia Survives, Czechs and Americans Prevail
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The Davis Cup World Group saw no opening round upsets this year, though a star studded Serbia team was put to the test against Kazakhstan. Here is a recap of all the weekend Davis Cup action.

Great Britain d. Japan 3-1

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Andy Murray nearly did it alone for team GB in Birmingham. The British #1 demolished Taro Daniel on Friday, then teamed with his brother Jamie to handle the Japanese doubles team of Yasutaka Uchiyama and Yoshihito Nishioka on Saturday. Kei Nishikori had beaten Dan Evans in a competitive three set contest on Friday to force competitive action on Saturday, but he would need to get past Murray to force a live fifth rubber.

Murray quickly build a two set lead, at which point Nishikori had his back against the wall. Kei forced a fifth set with improved play, but after five breaks of serve in the final set, Murray served the match out to win the tie. The fifth rubber was then canceled as Birmingham native Dan Evans was only needed once. Next for the defending champion Brits is team Serbia on the road.

Serbia d. Kazakhstan 3-2

Serbia had a top 20 doubles player,the world #1 singles player Novak Djokovic, and top 30 player Viktor Troicki on their squad. On paper, they should have swept at Kazakh team playing on the road without a top 50 player. When it came to the actual matches, the result ended up being quite different. Djokovic started the tie with a routine win over challenger veteran Aleksandr Nedovyesov in straight sets, but team leader Mikhail Kukushkin steadied his team and upset Viktor Troicki in straight sets to even the tie at 1-1 on Friday.

Andrey Golubev and Nedovyesov then combined to stun Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic for the biggest win of their career in doubles. Even more shockingly, the Golubev/Nedovyesov tandem got the job done in straight sets, as Djokovic was well off his game.

Facing elimination, Djokovic went up against Kukushkin in an all out war for the first three sets. Kukushkin won the first set in a tiebreak, lost the second set tiebreak, and then came back to win the third set, putting Serbia just a set away from elimination. Djokovic upped his game at that point however, overcoming any injury or rust he may be carrying to win the final two sets 6-3 6-2 and force a live fifth rubber.

Called on for the third time in the tie, Nedovyesov lost in straight sets to Troicki, who shook off his poor showing on Friday to erase any doubts of a Kazakh miracle win. Serbia still has some great players, but they won’t be able to afford to play so poorly against team GB in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, you have to admire the fight and warrior’s heart of the underdog Kazakh team.

Italy d. Switzerland 5-0

On indoor clay, Italy proved too much for a lowly ranked Swiss team. Marco Chiudinelli gave it his all in the opening tie, only to lose in a long fifth set to Paolo Lorenzi, a true dirtballing warrior. Andreas Seppi then finished off Henri Laaksonen in four competitive sets to give Italy a 2-0 lead.

In the final live rubber, Seppi and Simone Bolelli dominated an exhausted Chiudinelli/Laaksonen in straight sets to win the tie. In the dead rubbers, Lorenzi beat Davis Cup débutante Antoine Bellier, and Marco Cecchinato beat Adrien Bossel, both in straight sets. Italy will host Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Argentina d. Poland 3-2 (3-1 on live rubbers)

This tie was live on Sunday, but the Poles simply lacked the talent to defeat Argentina, even with the crowd behind them. The experienced Leonardo Mayer defeated Hubert Hurkacz, and Guido Pella defeated Michal Przysiezny in straight sets on Friday to give Argentina 2-0 lead. Poland then called on their veterans Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot to keep the tie alive, and they did so, defeating Carlos Berlocq and Renzo Olivo in four sets.

Mayer then defeated Przysiezny from a set down to win the tie, with Hurkacz winning his first Davis Cup rubber over Olivo in a dead fifth rubber. Argentina will travel to Italy for their next tie.

France d. Canada 5-0

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The Caribbean paradise of Guadeloupe saw the French tricolore waved proudly as a loaded French team dominated a weakened Canadian one without dropping a set. Gael Monfils demolished Frank Dancevic, and Gilles Simon outdueled Vasek Pospisil on clay to take a 2-0 lead on Friday. Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga then defeated Pospisil and Philip Bester to win the doubles rubber and capture the tie. Gasquet beat Bester in the dead fourth rubber, and Dancevic retired in the dead fifth rubber. France will next travel to the Czech Republic with a great chance to win the Davis Cup.

Czech Republic d. Germany 3-2

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An injury to Tomas Berdych resulted in this tie going to a live fifth rubber, but young gun Alexander Zverev was the weak link for team Germany at home. Philipp Kohlschreiber lead the way for Germany, winning an opening fifth set match against Lukas Rosol. Berdych then fired back with a tough five set win over Zverev, who put his heart and soul into the match. Berdych and veteran Radek Stepanek won the doubles in straight sets over Kohlschreiber and veteran Philipp Petzschner.

In the live fourth rubber, Kohlschreiber won the first two sets over Berdych, who then promptly retired with an injury. That thrust Zverev into the spotlight against Rosol, but the big hitting Czech demolished him 6-2 6-3 6-1. Zverev was never really into the match, even though it should have been more competitive. The Czech Republic will host France next.

USA d. Australia 3-1

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The unretirement of Lleyton Hewitt wasn’t enough to save Australia on grass against team USA in a battle between two of tennis’ historical giants. John Isner was the hero for team USA as the big server won matches over Sam Groth in straights on Friday, and Bernard Tomic in four sets on Sunday to clinch the tie. Isner had a surprisingly great return game on grass.

Tomic beat Jack Sock in four sets on Friday, and the Bryan Brothers beat John Peers, and Aussie captain Lleyton Hewitt in the doubles tie, though it went five sets, and Hewitt played quite well for a (just) retired player. Despite the leadership of Hewitt, the Australian team had a running spat all weekend about whether young gun Nick Kyrgios was fit enough to play and should have helped his country out. A frustrated Bernard Tomic accused Kyrgios of faking an injury in the match against Isner.

With the result, team USA will host Croatia in the quarterfinals.

Croatia d. Belgium 3-2

The young Borna Coric won a live fifth rubber to send Croatia into the quarterfinals of the World Group, and end the hopes of Belgium to reach the Davis Cup final once more. Coric lost his five set contest with David Goffin on Friday, though he battled to the end from 2 sets to love down. Marin Cilic beat Kimmer Coppejans in straight sets on Friday though to even the tie at 1-1.

Ivan Dodig and Franko Skugor then got the job done for Croatia over Ruben Bemelmans and Goffin. Goffin scored a minor upset over Cilic to force a live fifth rubber. With Bemelmans injured, Coppejans was called on again, and that was when Coric won in straight sets to send Croatia through.

Action outside the World Group

Wins for Ecuador and Chile in Americas Group 1 one set them up for battles with Brazil and Colombia respectively for a spot in the World Group Playoffs. India will face Korea, and China will face Uzbekistan in the final round of Asia’s Group 1. In Europe/Africa Group 1, Romania beat Slovenia, Dominic Thiem and Austria handled Portugal, Russia beat Sweden, and Hungary slipped past Israel. Romania hosts Spain, Ukraine hosts Austria, Russia hosts the Netherlands, and Hungary hosts Slovakia for spots in the World Group playoffs.

In notable Europe/Africa group 2 ties, Bosnia’s Mirza Basic won an 18-16 fourth set tiebreak and went on to lead his nation to a win over Malek Jaziri and Tunisia. Marsel Ilhan won twice to give Turkey a win over Bulgaria in a battle of neighbors in Ankara, Turkey.

Steen Kirby (Marseille)

 

 

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Scheveningen (@Sport1Open) Mid-Week Report; Golubev/Nedovyesov Match Fixing?

Posted by Admin on July 23, 2015
Posted in: ATP, Chris De Waard. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Scheveningen (@Sport1Open) Mid-Week Report; Golubev/Nedovyesov Match Fixing?
Chris De Waard, Tennis Atlantic

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My day started off with a first round match between Tim ‘Golden Set’ Puetz and second seed Daniel Munoz-De La Nava on Court 1. 33-year-old Munoz-De La Nava is playing the tennis of his life and might be entering the top 100 for the first time soon. He had a rocky start against the German, dropping the first set 6-4. But after a very long game in the second set, lasting about fifteen minutes, he broke through Puetz’s serve and started cruising from that point on. 4-6 6-3 6-1 was the final score.

Played at the same time was a match between Jordi Samper-Montana and Mathias Bourgue, who landed in a third set after a remarkable scoreline, with Bourgue handing out a bagel in the first set and Samper-Montana replying with a breadstick in the second. The third set was very heated, with both players regularly cursing and shouting at the top of their lungs after losing long points. In the end Samper-Montana prevailed, 0-6 6-1 6-4. He faced Munoz-De La Nava a day later in the second round and wasn’t able to take a set, although he kept it close with 6-4 6-4.

I didn’t catch Jesse Huta Galung’s 6-3 6-3 defeat against Andrey Kuznetsov, but after the match I overheard him saying that he hurt his wrist during the Davis Cup weekend and will visit a hospital soon to have it checked out. It didn’t prevent him from winning his doubles match later that day, so hopefully it isn’t a serious problem.

Over on the non-streamed Court 8m Andrej Martin faced Jan Mertl and wasn’t troubled. Spurred on by his girlfriend, they were both constantly saying ‘Pome, Pome, Pome’ as a sort of mantra. He won the match 6-4 6-2.

It was an amazing coincidence for Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov having to face each other in the first round after just having spent a Davis Cup weekend together in Australia. I took the picture for that reason, unaware that they might have been planning a fix right under my nose. I could have taken an educated guess, however, since their previous match followed exactly the same pattern.

Here in Scheveningen, only the winner was different with Nedovyesov winning 2-6 7-6(2) 6-2. The fix was clear as day, with Nedovyesov’s odds starting to drop in the middle of the second set already, while there were no signs of an injury for Golubev. On the contrary, Golubev only dropped one point on his serve until the tiebreak, when he suddenly dropped three. Before the match their odds indicated a 50/50 match, but in the middle of the second set Nedovyesov started to become the favorite, despite being a set down. A mini-break up in the tiebreak saw him become a 80% favorite, while something in the neighborhood of 40% would have been appropriate. The match has been reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit for irregular betting patterns, but I’m afraid nothing will happen, like we have seen so many times in the past.

The match I was looking forward to the most was that of Nikoloz Basilashvili against Philipp Davydenko, Nikolay’s nephew. Basilashvili is a big talent and his groundstroke power and natural shot-making ability will often leave you in awe. His biggest problem at the moment is that his game is way too low percentage, giving him nothing to fall back on when his game isn’t clicking.

Clay is also his worst surface and it showed against Davydenko, the world #575. Davydenko wasn’t doing a lot, mainly putting the ball back into play half-court, together with some fine singlehanded backhand winners, with which he can generate some great power from time to time. But it was enough to take the first set from the world #120, 6-4. He was supported by his girlfriend, who even changed sides with him. It was clear however that as soon as Basilashvili would find some rhythm and cut the wild unforced errors out of his game he would be able to turn the match around, which was exactly what happened. Basilashvili grinded out the win in the end, 4-6 6-3 6-3.

Over on Court 1, the highest quality match of the day was played between third seed Jan-Lennard Struff and Adam Pavlasek. Struff came out incredibly strong, dominating his opponent and making it hard to believe there would be a possibility of him losing the match. Pavlasek fought himself into the match, however, and won the very high-quality affair, 3-6 6-3 6-4. On Centre Court the Dutch players did well, with Thiemo de Bakker beating eighth seed Norbert Gombos 6-4 6-2 and top seed Robin Haase beating Aslan Karatsev, although Haase had considerably more troubles in his 7-5 5-7 6-4 victory. Thomas Schoorel didn’t manage to upset Adrian Ungur, despite having a set point in the first set, with the Romanian winning 7-6(6) 6-3. All in all a great day of tennis and there is plenty still to come, with especially the second round encounter between Basilashvili and Florian Mayer being a mouth-watering prospect.

Defending Champ Melzer Slayed by Goffin; Janowicz, Garcia-Lopez & Querrey Advance Day 3 @WSOpen

Posted by Admin on August 19, 2014
Posted in: ATP, Winston-Salem Open. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Eric Logan, Tennis East Coast

Winston-Salem Open 2014 Monday Recap

The second day of main draw play at the Winston-Salem open brought the first round to conclusion and saw fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez open the second round in the night session. The day’s play was on the whole a level higher than Sunday’s, with a number of exceptional clashes and notable names.

The day session was opened with defending champion Jurgen Melzer falling to qualifier David Goffin 6-3 6-4. Melzer, who would later lose in the first round of doubles as well, will see his ranking fall outside the top 100 after an injury-plagued last twelve months. Goffin, meanwhile, continues an incredible run of form that saw him win his first title in Kitzbuhel.

On court two, Jerzy Janowicz put up an impressive performance against Carlos Berlocq. Although the two are close in the rankings currently, Berlocq was a serious underdog on the quick hard courts of Winston-Salem and looked lost in the first set before steadying himself slightly in the second.  Janowicz, however, simply had too much power for Berlocq to absorb in the end, and won 6-1 6-4.

Janowicz dispatches Berlocq

Janowicz dispatches Berlocq

On court three, Federico Delbonis pulled off an upset victory over a superior hard-courter in Martin Klizan, 7-6(5) 6-4.  Klizan produced nearly all of the match’s best shots and received almost universal crowd support, but was too erratic and dealt with Delbonis’s impressive serving too poorly to prevail.  On the distant court four, Igor Sijsling defeated Andrey Golubev in a tight two-setter. Golubev failed to take advantage of poor volleying by Sijsling and allowed himself to be outrallied by the Dutchman, surrendering his serve from 40-0 for the decisive break in a 7-6(5) 6-3 match.

Delbonis with one of the first big upsets of the tournament

Delbonis had one of the first big upsets of the tournament

In what was surprisingly possibly the day’s best match, Frank Dancevic faced off against Thomaz Bellucci. Both players’ smooth and powerful serves and groundstrokes drew a larger crowd than one would expect on the third court, and Dancevic produced a number of stunning backhands equaled by a stream of Bellucci winners off the forehand wing. An extended rally saw Dancevic take a very tight first set, but Bellucci rebounded to take the second set with ease. In the end, it was the Canadian who prevailed in a three-set match interrupted by rain with Bellucci down break point in the third set, 7-5 3-6 6-2.

Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic survived a test from Bellucci

Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic survived a test from Bellucci

Around the grounds, there was plenty of action to be had between spurts of rain which included what was nearly a two-hour delay. Adrian Mannarino easily put away an erratic Damir Dzumhur 6-2 6-2. Aleksandr Nedovyesov crushed American hopes with a close 6-4 6-4  win over Marcos Giron in which the American was a dismal 1/7 on break chances. Blaz Rola prevailed in two tight sets over fellow leftie Wayne Odesnik, 7-6(3) 6-3. In one of the day’s two second round matches, Jarkko Nieminen came from a break down in the second to defeat Benjamin Becker 7-5 6-4.

Mannarino took flight against Dzumhur

Mannarino showed great form against Dzumhur

On Center Court, the night session was led into with a pair of low quality matches, Paul-Henri Mathieu’s messy 6-3 7-5 win over wild card Robby Ginepri and Sam Querrey’s 7-6(5) 6-4 win over Pere Riba, who is unimposing on a hard court. However, the first set of Dustin Brown taking on fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was probably the highest quality and most dramatic of the event thusfar. Brown’s big serve and beautiful volleys were pitted against Garcia-Lopez’s capable return and piercing groundstrokes off both wings. Brown saved two set points with two aces at 4-5, and took the tiebreak 7-5 after a Garcia-Lopez double fault. Brown’s resistance would fade, however, in the next two sets, with a lackluster final scoreline of 6-7(5) 6-2 6-2.

The doubles draw got underway today with some upset results. The second seeded team of Rohan Bopanna and defending champion Daniel Nestor lost in a pair of tiebreaks to the Columbians Cabal and Farah. Melzer was handed his second loss of the day as he and partner Lukas Rosol lost to Marcel Granollers and his unaccomplished partner, singles specialist Pablo Andujar 7-6(3) 2-6 10-4, with Melzer making a number of errors on critical points. The wild card team of Nicholas Monroe and Donald Young upset the Argentines Delbonis and Leonardo Mayer 7-6(4) 7-5. Robin Haase and Nicolas Mahut defeated Scott Lipsky and Max Mirnyi 7-5 6-4 in a match that may have been decided when Mirnyi missed a sitting duck volley at 5-5 40-40 in the first.

Tomorrow will be the day that fourteen of the event’s 16 seeds begin their campaigns. This includes two-time champion and hometown John Isner, whose practices are better attended than some of the main draw matches, and last week’s Cincy quarterfinalist Tommy Robredo, as well as the top seeded doubles pairing of Leander Paes (the other half of last year’s winning doubles team) and David Marrero. The forecast calls for more rain, but hopefully that will not prevent all the day’s tennis from being played.