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matt ebden

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Grass Court Season Kicks off With Libema Open 250 in the Netherlands
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

If you are tired of the red clay, you’re in for a treat starting Monday. The ATP grass court season begins with the 250 stop in the Netherlands that is a joint event with the WTA. Here is your look at the field with predictions for the week ahead.

Top Half:

The second round match between Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Jeremy Chardy looks to be a great one. Chardy has to defeat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez first to get there. I’ll go with Mannarino to find his form back on a faster surface and reach the quarters. At that stage Italy’s Andreas Seppi should be his opponent. Seppi will need to edge Mackenzie McDonald and Vasek Pospisil or Alex Bolt to get that far. Mannarino is my pick to reach the semis.

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Matt Ebden is my dark horse pick this week. Pierre-Hugues Herbert comes off a doubles final in Paris and Gilles Muller is struggling (his round 1 and 2 opponents). Presuming he beats Muller he should defeat fellow journeyman Yuichi Sugita in the quarters. Sugita gets Nikoloz Basilashvili in round 1 (he struggles on grass), with Marius Copil or Aljaz Bedene to follow, both beatable opponents.

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Bottom Half:

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Tournament favorite Richard Gasquet draws Evgeny Donskoy or qualifier Franko Skugor in round 2. Gasquet should win and also defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarters. The Greek opens with local wild card Tallon Griekspoor, Malek Jaziri or Max Purcell will follow.

Ivo Karlovic vs. Robin Haase looks like a crucial round 1 match. I’ll back the struggling veteran Karlovic to win that and also defeat Marcos Baghdatis or Bernard Tomic to reach the quarters. Tomic has a great chance in theory, but he’s far from consistent these days. Look for Karlvoic to face Daniil Medvedev in the quarters. Medvedev is good on grass and should upset Fernando Verdasco in round 2 after defeating Yuki Bhambri in round 1. I’ll back Karlovic to reach the semis.

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Predictions

Semis
Mannarino d. Ebden
Gasquet d. Karlovic

Mannarino beating Gasquet would be an upset but I’m not convinced Gasquet’s entirely fit and Mannarino is the type of player who badly needs points at the faster court tournaments like this.

Final
Mannarino d. Gasquet

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Veterans Ferrer and Isner, Young Gun Rublev Claim ATP Titles
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Bastad

David Ferrer grinded his way to his first ATP title in two years, claiming a third career Bastad title 6-4 6-4 over Alexandr Dolgopolov, who also sorely needed the ranking boost gained from reaching an ATP final, even at the 250 level. Ferrer’s record turned positive this year overall after wins against Federico Delbonis, Dustin Brown, Henri Laaksonen and Fernando Verdasco, as since reaching the third round of Wimbledon he’s looking much better in terms of form.

Dolgopolov also went above .500 this season overall, he defeated Leonardo Mayer, Horacio Zeballos, Karen Khachanov, and Andrey Kuznetsov, looking healthy in the process.

Julian Knowle and Philipp Petzschner defeated Sander Arends and Matwe Middelkoop in the doubles final.

ATP Newport

Overall, John Isner would have preferred more from his grass court season, but the 32 year old won Newport, and in the process gained his first ATP title in two years. His victims at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships were Sam Groth, Dennis Novikov, Bjorn Fratangelo, and surprise finalist Matt Ebden 6-3 7-6.

Ebden, a 29 year old qualifier, reached his first ever ATP final, Rajeev Ram, Lukas Lacko, Tobias Kamke, and Peter Gojowczky were the players he defeated en route, as Newport has a habit of generating interesting upsets. Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram beat Matt Reid and J.P. Smith in the doubles final.

ATP Umag

Andrey Rublev was much more than a lucky loser in Umag, he now wears the title of champion, as he won his maiden ATP title over Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-2. Rublev defeated Carlos Berlocq, Andrej Martin, Fabio Fognini, and Ivan Dodig as well last week. Lorenzi beat Aljaz Bedene, Jiri Vesely, and Alessandro Giannessi, it was his second ATP final this season, although he’s lost both.

Guillermo Durán and Andres Molteni defeated Tomislav Draganja and Marin Draganja in the doubles final.

Matt Ebden, Hiroki Moriya Shine During Shenzhen Qualifying

Posted by Admin on September 28, 2015

Posted in: Adam Addicott, ATP, Shenzen. Tagged: 2015, ATP World Tour, australian open, china, Hiroki Moriya, japan, matt ebden, qualifying, Shenzhen, Takuto Niki. Leave a comment

Matt Ebden, Hiroki Moriya Shine During Shenzhen Qualifying
Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

Matt Ebden

Matt Ebden

The Shenzhen Open is the first out of three Chinese ATP tournaments which will take place over the next month. Headlined by Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic, the ATP 250 tournament is a golden opportunity for the lower ranked players to grab some crucial ranking points during the final part of the 2015 season.

In the qualifying tournament world No.133 Matthew Ebden headed the field after Austin Krajicek was moved to the main draw following Richard Gasquet’s withdrawal. In his first match Ebden played little known American Nicholas Alexander Reyes. 20-year-old Reyes has won 5 main draw matches in his career and is ranked over 1000 places below Ebden at 1494th. Despite the enormous rankings gap, the match was a much closer encounter as the Australian took the match 6-3, 7-6 (1). In the final round he played New Zealand’s Michael Venus. Venus defeated sixth seed Lee Duck-hee in the second round after saving a match point during a second set tie-break. Venus was unable to reproduce another upset as Ebden cruised to take the match 6-2, 6-2. Ebden has claimed one Challenger title this year which was at the Aegon Surbiton Trophy in June.

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The only other seeded player to successfully qualify for the main draw was Japanese 5th seed Hiroki Moriya. Moriya defeated 19-year-old Xia Haitong in his opening match (6-1,6-3) to set up an encounter with France’s Johan Tatlot. Tatlot reached world No.5 in the junior rankings last year and is currently ranked 359th in the world. Tatlor stunned third seed Chen Ti in the second round by winning 6-4,1-6,6-4. Moriya experienced a tough start to the match as he trailed 2-4 before taking five out of the next six games to take the first set. In the second set the world No.219 broke in the penultimate game of the match to win 7-5, 6-3, after eighty minutes. Moriya is yet to win a title this year and has a 2015 main draw win-loss of 9-22.

Out of the seven Chinese entrants into the qualifying draw, only one was successful. 18-year-old Zhang Zhizhen produced one of the best wins in his career by beating 4th seed Luke Saville to reach the final stage of qualifying. In the final he played Sergey Betov from Belarus. Betov is currently ranked 73rd in the doubles rankings after claiming four titles on the Challenger circuit this year. The home player was too powerful for Betov as the 18-year-old booked his place in the main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Earlier this year Zhezhen claimed his first Futures title at a F10 event in France.

Finally, Takuto Niki enjoyed a milestone competition to reach the main draw. The 27-year-old beat China’s Chen Long in the first round to face 8th seed Mikhail Elgin in the second round. 33-year-old Elgin has won four Future titles this year. Despite being the underdog, Miki stunned the eight seed by winning 6-4, 7-5. The Japanese player was able to continue his winning momentum by defeating China’s Sun Fajing in the final round. He will now play in the main draw of an ATP event for the first time in his career.

The main draw matches:

Matthew Ebden (AUS) v Víctor Estrella Burgos (DOM) – This will be the second time that the two players have met and the first since 2012. In their first encounter Ebden took the match 6-3, 6-2.

Hiroki Moriya (JPA) v Ricardas Berankis (LTU) – First meeting.

Takuto Niki (JPA) v Bai Yan (CHN) – First meeting.

Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) v Go Soeda (JPA) – First meeting.

American Young Guns Donaldson, Paul Highlight BB&T Atlanta Open 2015 Qualifying Draw
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

Tennis action from Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA will begin tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. local time as the 2015 BB&T Atlanta Open (ATP Atlanta) kicks off with round 1 qualifying. The seven highest ranked players to enter qualifying receive byes into round 2, but two American young guns, Jared Donaldson, and Tommy Paul are not among those seeds, and thus will begin their qualifying campaigns tomorrow.

The 18 year old Rhode Islander Donaldson, who now resides in California, has scored ATP main draw wins on US soil in both Memphis and Newport this year and also has a challenger title in Maui, Hawaii, and a successful ATP qualifying campaign at London Queens on his resume this year. The American all-courter decided to turn pro in 2014, and has steadily risen up the rankings since then.

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He will open with 24 year old Gastao Elias of Portugal who has yet to break the top 100 in his career. Donaldson beat Elias on clay in both Houston and the Sarasota challenger this year, and given that’s Gastao’s preferred surface, Donaldson should be a favorite to win their matchup tomorrow as well. Elias is on a two match losing streak in singles and last played Davis Cup for Portugal (where they beat Finland on clay).

2015 French Open junior champion Tommy Paul (18) was formerly committed to the University of Georgia, but recently turned pro instead, and the young New Jersey resident is one of the top American junior players around. Paul will face off with a young American who does plan to go to UGA in the Fall Walker Duncan. The 19 year old will have local support as he’s from Atlanta, and he’s the #2 college recruit in the country right now, while Paul was the #1. Both of these Americans could have strong futures in the pro game, so it will be interesting to see the result of their matchup tomorrow.

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15 year old Trent Bryde, another Atlanta resident, and the national #5 recruit for his class gets a wild card and will face off with Catalin Gard, a Romanian journeyman who tends to bat around the challenger tour. The winner of that matchup gets Denis Kudla, who made a name for himself at Wimbledon this year where he reached the round of 16.

Below them in the draw, former Louisville Cardinal Andrew Carter faces Matias Castro of Argentina who prefers clay, and the winner of that will face Australian veteran Marinko Matosevic, who has endured an abysmal 3-17 season after previously being an ATP regular. Matosevic hasn’t won a match in months but barring disaster it’s hard to see him not reaching final round qualifying against Kudla, who likewise shouldn’t have trouble winning his first match.

Zimbabwe’s #1 Takanyi Garanganga, another Atlanta resident, will open with former top recruit (class of 2011) Evan Song, an American, given Garanganga is an active player and Song sticks with the futures tour, he should be the favorite to advance, and setup a match with Argentina’s Guido Pella round 2. Pella, who prefers clay, was once a top 80 player but he now sits just outside of the top 100 at 25, and comes off a round 1 loss in Bogota to Sam Groth in 3 sets. Given his limited record on hard courts, he’s not guarantee to reach the final round of qualies, and regardless he’ll be a big underdog against Donaldson/Elias, or J.P. Smith.

Smith, a 26 year old Aussie, comes off one of his best career results as he upset Bernard Tomic and reached the semis in Newport. The former Tennessee volunteer qualified for both Delray Beach and Wimbledon this year, and he just beat Donaldson in Newport, which may give him an inside track to qualify, as Pella appears beatable.

One interesting non-American name in the qualifying is Evgeny Korolev, Korolev was once a top 50 player and has an ATP final on his resume, but outside of Davis Cup for Kazakhstan he hasn’t made waves in years, and he’s playing just his third event of 2015 in Atlanta, where he will open with futures level player Antonio Ruiz-Rosales of Mexico. Even while rusty one would presume Korolev, given his abilities, will work his way into round 2 and setup a meeting with Austin Krajicek who comes off a tough round 1 loss in Bogota, but at 25 has made his move up to the near ATP level finally this year. Krajicek has been struggling in singles as of late but he qualified in Memphis, Acapulco, and Miami, all on hard courts this past spring, and is surely looking to get back in form.

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Krajicek-Korolev could be interesting, as conditioning will certainly play a factor given how hot and humid it will be here in Atlanta with the sun beating down. In final round qualies they could meet Paul/Duncan or Kevin King/Yuichi Sugita. King is a tall former Georgia Tech standout who has been around the challenger tour for a while now, while Sugita qualified for Wimbledon and won matches in both Newport and Bogota, suggesting the Japanese journeyman baseliner is in good form. I’d presume Sugita would have enough to qualify over most likely Krajicek unless he wilts in the heat.

Matt Ebden didn’t win a tour main draw match until Wimbledon this year, but he’s 34-15 below that level, and he qualified for both Newport and Bogota in confident fashion, suggesting he’s playing into form going into Atlanta. Ebden is likely to have to face top American junior Reilly Opelka of Florida in round 2. Opelka won the 2015 Wimbledon junior title and he just recently turned pro. He will face off first against Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan who is a relatively solid 27-11 in challengers and futures this year. I have a hunch Opelka is good enough to beat Sekiguchi, but an inform Ebden with his steady baseline offense probably proves too much, as the Aussie should reach final round qualifying.

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The last seed in the bracket is another player who regularly has played in Atlanta, Somdev Devvarman of India (and the University of Virginia). Devvarman is now 30, but he’s been in great form in recent weeks, he won the Winnetka challenger in Illinois on hard court, and also helped India win their Davis Cup tie. While he’s unlikely to turn into an ATP regular at this point, he’s still made a decent career for himself and will almost assuredly beat doubles specialist Treat Huey or 34 year old Ryan Haviland, an American futures regular, in round qualifying round 2. Devvarman-Ebden should be interesting, but given Devvarman’s form and his 2-1 h2h edge, I favor him to qualify.

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Picks to qualify:
Denis Kudla (d. Matosevic)
J.P. Smith (d. Pella)
Yuichi Sugita (d. Krajicek)
Somdev Devvarman (d. Ebden)

Tennis Atlantic will have on-site coverage from Atlanta all week, and be sure to keep checking the site for our latest reports from qualifying this weekend, and the main draw starting Monday.

Steen Kirby (Marseille)

Former NCAA star Sarkissian to make ATP Main Draw debut in Bogota (Weekend Qualifying Wrap Up Bogota/Bastad)
Steen Kirby and Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Bogota Qualifying

2015 Claro Open Colombia Qualifying Recap

2014 NCAA championship runner-up Alexander Sarkissian, a graduate of Pepperdine University, highlights the list of qualifiers for the ATP Bogota main draw. Three other players booked their spots in the draw via qualifying on Monday alongside him.

Sarkissian, who has been fantastic this season, posting a 43-15 record at primarily the futures level, with a few challengers mixed in, including Gimcheon where he took the title on hard courts, beat Juan Montes and Facundo Mena by a combined score of 24-7 in games. The California native will now face the unseeded John Millman in a winnable round 1 match, as he makes his ATP main draw debut. Given his results since turning pro, and his success in college, I’m sure we will see more of him in the future at the ATP level.

26 year old doubles specialist Marcelo Demoliner,a Brazilian, will also be making a surprise appearance in an ATP main draw. Demoliner beat Jesus Francisco Felix, Marco Chiudinelli, a Swiss veteran, and former GA Tech product Kevin King to qualify. His first round match will be against Illya Marchenko, another unseeded hard courter.

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23 year old Alejandro Gomez will be making his ATP main draw debut in front of supportive home fans, Gomez beat Andres Molteni in a close three setter in round 2, and prior to that beat Felipe Rojas in straights. He completed qualifying with a routine win over Juan Ignacio Londero. Gomez is unlikely to find much success in his debut as his first round opponent is the accomplished veteran Marcos Baghdatis.

Last but not least, qualifying top seed and grass court specialist Matt Ebden also found success on the quick courts in Bogota. He beat doubles specialist Colin Fleming in three sets, and then beat Juan Sebastian Gomez to qualify. Ebden will get a winnable round 1 match against Tatsuma Ito to start off with.

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ATP Bastad Qualifying

2015 Skistar Swedish Open Qualifying

Top seed Paul-Henri Mathieu was one of four men to successfully qualify for the main draw of the 68th Swedish Open, which takes place on clay.

The Frenchman was impressive throughout the three rounds as he didn’t drop a set. After beating wild card Daniel Windahl and Australia’s Peter Luczak, who came out of retirement to play qualifying for fun, Mathieu set up a final round match against 5th seed Giovanni Lapentti. The Ecuadorian player is currently ranked 75 places below Mathieu. Lapentti, who hasn’t played in a Grand Slam since the 2009 US Open, best result of 2015 was a runner-up position at the ATP Cali Challenger last May. Mathieu experienced little difficulty as he cruised to a 6-2, 6-3, victory after an hour and 13 minutes.

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31-year-old Rogério Dutra Silva qualified for his first ATP tournament main draw since April following a 6-2,6-4, win against Stéphane Robert. The Brazilian is yet to win a title in 2015 but came close in the ATP Milan Challenger, where he was runner up to Federico Delbonis. Prior to Robert, Silva also produced a solid win against tricky opponent Mischa Zverev. Zverev stunned Dominic Thiem and Andreas Seppi last month in Stuttgart but has recently encountered some disappointing results. Silva hasn’t won a main draw ATP level match since Sao Paulo in February 2014.

Andrea Arnaboldi endured a tough final match against Belarus’s Maxim Dubarenco to progress to the main draw. After a close opening set, which consisted of two breaks of service for the Italian, Arnaboldi battled to win 7-6(5), 6-3. The Italian was full of confidence coming into Bastad following his run to the last eight of a Challenger event in Todi, Italy. The 27-year-old justified his wild-card into the Italian event by defeating Victor Hanescu and Andrej Martin before prevailing to Matteo Donati.

Finally Julian Reister was the only man to beat two seeded players during the qualifying competition. In the second round, he produced a 6-3,6-4 win over 4th seed Renzo Olivo to set up a final match with 8th seed Constant Lestienne. World No.334 Lestienne reached his first ATP main draw in Estoril earlier this year. The Frenchman was however no match for Reister as the German won 6-4, 6-3.

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Bastad First round matches featuring qualifiers

Julien Reister GER v Alexander Zverev GER – First meeting
Rogerio Dutra Silva BRA v Federico Delbonis ARG – Rematch of the 2015 Milan Challenger final. On that occasion Delbonis won 6-1, 7-6 (6).
Andrea Arnaboldi ITA v Jerzy Janowicz POL – Janowicz won their only previous meeting which was at the 2010 Trani Challenger.
Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA v Jeremy Chardy FRA – Chardy leads the head-to-head 3-1, however, their most recent meeting was in 2012.

Adam Addicott TA Watermark

2015 Kolkata, Kyota and Cherbourg Challenger Previews & Predictions
Chris De Waard, Tennis Atlantic

Another week of clayless tennis on the Challenger tour, with tournaments taking place in India and France on hardcourt and on carpet in Japan.

Emami Kolkata Open 2015

ATP Challenger Tour
23-28 February 2015
Kolkata, India
Prize Money: $50,000

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: James Duckworth (112)
2: Alexander Kudryavtsev (129)
3: Ruben Bemelmans (144)
4: Somdev Devvarman (153)
5: Luke Saville (161)
6: Radu Albot (165)
7: Alex Bolt (167)
8: Kimmer Coppejans (183)

The last direct acceptance is Miki Jankovic, ranked 402nd.

First round match-up to watch

(4) Somdev Devvarman – Ramkumar Ramanathan

Last week’s New Delhi winner might be in trouble here against his almost ten-years-younger countryman. It is yet to be seen if one good week against relatively weak opposition is going to break Devvarman’s slump and Ramanathan showed last year that he can handle Devvarman. In Chennai, Ramanathan won 4-6 6-3 6-4 and he has a good shot at pulling it off again here.

Top Half

As I have mentioned in my recap, it’s dangerous to back top seed James Duckworth at the moment. He started a slump in sight of the top 100 and it’s hard to predict when he gets his mind straight again. His countryman Alex Bolt might trouble him enough in the quarterfinal to take him out, for example. In the second section Ruben Bemelmans has been displaying good form as of late, which should take him to the semi-final here, taking out his countryman Kim Coppejans in the quarterfinal in the process.

Bottom Half

Yuki Bhambri is the most dangerous player here, despite being unseeded. He seems to really struggle with Devvarman, so if he can avoid him in the semi-final I can see him taking down the title. In the quarterfinal he potentially faces second seed Alexander Kudryavtsev again, whom he took out in the first round last week. I can’t see anyone other than one of these three going through to the final, with Bhambri as the favorite to do so.

Predictions

Semis:

Bemelmans d. Duckworth
Bhambri d. Saville

Final:

Bhambri d. Bemelmans

This would be a rematch of the New Delhi semi-final of last week, when Bhambri won 4-6 6-3 7-5.

Shimadzu All Japan Indoor

ATP Challenger Tour
23 February – 1 March 2015
Kyoto, Japan
Prize Money: $50,000

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: Go Soeda (82)
2: Tatsuma Ito (94)
3: Yuichi Sugita (131)
4: John Millman (149)
5: Hiroki Moriya (158)
6: Ze Zhang (180)
7: Michal Przysiezny (185)
8: Benjamin Mitchell (212)

The last direct acceptance is Yusuke Watanuki, ranked 505th. 38 year old Takao Suzuki received a wild card. The oldtimer played his first Challenger in 1992 and reached his career high ranking of #102 in 1998.

First round match-up to watch

(5) Hiroki Moriya – Matthew Ebden

Ebden has been regaining some form after his enormous losing streaks of last year, but is still far from the level that saw him reach the top 70 a year ago. However, his two meetings against Moriya in 2013 ended in two easy straight set victories, so perhaps he will take confidence from that. Moriya isn’t in good shape himself either, losing in the first round of all four of his Challengers this year, two weeks ago in Launceston even to a player ranked outside of the top 1000.

Top Half

It’s hard to look past top seed Go Soeda here. He lives for these Asian events, and especially in Japan, he is really strong. The seed in his half, Michal Przysiezny, is potentially very strong on this rapid surface, but in his current state he is a long shot. In the second section #6 seed Ze Zhang has an excellent opportunity to reach the semi-final, especially considering #3 seed Yuichi Sugita has been struggling with his form and injuries.

Bottom Half

I suspect this will come down to an encounter between #4 seed John Millman and #2 seed Tatsuma Ito for a place in the final. Millman has been out for a couple of weeks with injury, so he might be struggling in the early stages of the tournament, but he has been in excellent form lately and I actually think he can make the top 100 this year. Nevertheless, the Japanese tend to have these events on lockdown, so Ito surely won’t go down easily. If anyone can do it, it’s Millman, however, as he closed off 2014 by winning a Challenger in Yokohama. They have played each other twice in 2013, splitting the matches, with Ito winning in five sets at the Australian Open, while Millman won in straight sets at Brisbane. In 2012 they faced each other three times on the Challenger circuit, with Ito winning all the encounters.

Predictions

Semis:

Soeda d. Zhang
Millman d. Ito

Final:

Millman d. Soeda

Challenger La Manche – Cherbourg

ATP Challenger Tour
23 February – 1 March 2015
Cherbourg, France
Prize Money: €42,500

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: Kenny De Schepper (103)
2: Steve Darcis (115)
3: Andreas Beck (117)
4: Farrukh Dustov (118)
5: Nicolas Mahut (119)
6: Benoit Paire (121)
7: Norbert Gombos (124)
8: Niels Desein (155)

The last direct acceptance is Tristan Lamasine, ranked 230th.

First round match-ups to watch

(1) Kenny De Schepper – David Guez

Upset alert. These two faced each other in the final qualifying round of Marseille last week and Guez triumphed, 6-2 2-6 6-3. He continued his form into the main draw, where he pushed world #35 Jeremy Chardy to three sets, 6-4 3-6 2-6. All in all, I would say there is about a 50% chance we will lose the top seed in the first match.

(3) Andreas Beck – Taro Daniel

Daniel is related to the previous story as well, losing to De Schepper in the second qualifying round, 7-5 6-3. This will be his first Challenger of the year, trying his luck in ATP qualifying events before, but only succeeding in Montpellier. Beck hasn’t been very successful either in his prior tournaments this year, making this another possibility for a seed to bomb out in the first round.

Top Half

Given De Schepper’s first round draw, he isn’t a solid bet to go far here. Benoit Paire is in his quarter, so even if he does make it to the quarterfinal stage, he is likely to go out against his flamboyant countryman. Paire reached second rounds at Montpellier and Marseille, together with taking down a Challenger in Bergamo, so he looks to have regained a big chunk of his pre-injury form. In the bottom section, Farrukh Dustov will show if he can perform in back to back weeks after winning the Wroclaw Challenger and reaching the top 100 for the first time. Nicolas Mahut is also still a competitor to take into account.

Bottom Half

Second seed Steve Darcis looks like the safest bet to reach the final. He lost to an on-fire Dustov last week, and only very nearly, but is unlikely to encounter that kind of opposition until the final. However, Daniel Brands qualified into this event and potentially faces Darcis in the quarterfinal, which could be very dangerous if the German brings his pre-injury form. In the other section, Niels Desein has an excellent opportunity to build on his first Challenger title in Glasgow and reach the semi-final.

Predictions

Semis:

Paire d. Dustov
Darcis d. Desein

Final:

Paire d. Darcis

Chris De Waard (Challenger Tour Finals)

2015 Hopman Cup Preview

Posted by Admin on January 3, 2015

Posted in: ATP, Canada, Hopman Cup, ITF, Niall Clarke, Steen Kirby, WTA. Tagged: 2015 Hopman Cup, 2015 Hopman Cup Prediction, 2015 Hopman Cup Preview, Aga Radwanska, Aganieska Radwanska, Alize Cornet, Andy Murray, atp, atp tour, Australian Open Series, Australian Tennis, Benoit Paire, British Tennis, Casey Dellacqua, Czech Tennis, eugenie bouchard, Fabio Fognini, Flavia Pennetta, French Tennis, Heather Watson, hopman cup, Hopman Cup 2015, Hopman Cup Prediction, Hopman Cup Preview, Italian Tennis, itf, ITF Tennis, Jerzy Janowicz, John Isner, matt ebden, perth, Perth Arena, Perth Tennis, Polish Tennis, serena williams, Team Australia, Team Canada, Team Czech Republic, Team France, Team GB, Team Great Britain, Team Italy, Team Poland, Team USA, Tennis Australia, Tennis Canada, Tennis France, Tennis Italy, Tennis Poland, USA Tennis, Vasek Pospisil, wta, WTA Tour.

2015 Hopman Cup Preview
Steen Kirby and Niall Clarke, Tennis Atlantic

2015 Hopman Cup Preview

The 2015 ATP and WTA Season will officially kickoff with another edition of the Hopman Cup from Perth, Australia. Eight star studded national teams featuring an ATP and WTA player will battle it out in a split groups format to determine this years champion. Here is a preview of all the action.

Hopman Cup
ITF Team Event
Perth, Australia
January 4-January 10, 2014
Prize Money: $1,000,000

Group A: Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, United States

Canada

The second best Canadian male player, Vasek Pospisil, will form part of the Canadian tandem at the Hopman Cup. He reached a career high ranking of 25 last season, but ended up finishing the year just outside the top 50, with a 20-23 ATP level singles record. He struggled in the second half of the season, not winning consecutive matches at any tournament after making the final in Washington. That said he reached one ATP final, an ATP semifinal and three ATP quarterfinals in 2014 and appears close to capturing his first ever ATP title. Vashy also is a very accomplished doubles player as he won 3 doubles titles, partnering with Jack Sock in 2014, including the Wimbledon title. Overall, the talented doubles pairing reached five ATP doubles finals, including a Masters final in Cincinnati. Given Pospisil’s ability to be successful in both doubles and singles, along with Bouchard being a top player herself, team Canada looks to be one of the favorites to take home the Hopman Cup.

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The WTA representative for Canada is their number 1 ranked player, Eugenie Bouchard. Bouchard translated her junior success to senior success in 2014. Genie had a breakthrough year where she reached the Wimbledon final and ended the year as world number 7. The 20 year old has an aggressive game, and looks to take the ball as early as she possibly can. Bouchard will be making her second straight Hopman cup appearance. In 2014 she partnered Milos Raonic, but they couldn’t make the final as Canada finished second in group A.

Czech Republic

Adam Pavlasek, who has yet to break the worlds top 200, and at age 20 is the lowest ranked male participant in this years Hopman Cup, will team up with Lucie Safarova to represent his country. Pavlasek is most notable for formerly dating Czech tennis star Petra Kvitova and beyond a pair of futures titles, failed to do anything particularly notable in 2014. That said, unheralded players have stepped up and performed well in the Hopman Cup before, and perhaps Pavlasek can put some good matchplay together and pull off some surprises.

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Partnering the youngster will be the experienced Lucie Safarova. Safarova knows how it feels to win for her country, as she was part of the Czech Republic team that won the Fed Cup last year. The 27 year old previously competed in the Hopman cup in 2008 where she partnered Tomas Berdych. Lucie had her best season to date in 2014, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals and finishing a career high, 14 in the world rankings. The leftie proved a difficult opponent for everyone on tour during the year

Italy

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In one of the most interesting pairings at this year’s Hopman Cup, the combustible Fabio Fognini will be partnering with his girlfriend, the veteran Flavia Pennetta as they look to put up a good showing for the Italian team. Fognini peaked just inside the top 15 in 2014, but finished the year at number 20 as he tanked the second half of the season and failed to win consecutive matches after reaching the quarterfinals in Cincinnati. Given the Italian team is better suited for a clay court surface, they are underdogs in this group, and are likely to be most interesting for the fireworks they might produce.

Flavia Pennetta will partner The Fog in this year’s competition. The 32 year old will be making her third Hopman cup appearance, and will be partnering Fognini for the first time on the court. Pennetta has tons of experience with this being her 15^th year as a pro, and 2014 was one of her best on tour. The Italian finished 13^th in the world and made the Quarter Finals in two majors. Flavia has also showed doubles prowess by reaching the US Open final with Hingis. She will no doubt be a threat in this tournament.

United States

John Isner didn’t have his best season in 2014, but he still earned a couple of titles and finished inside the top 20 with a very positive 39-20 singles record. Isner had a pretty balanced year overall and of course he will be playing on his favorite surface, with the best WTA player in the game, so team USA will have a chance to add to their Hopman Cup resume this year. Isner doesn’t play doubles often, but he’s known to be at least component.

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You don’t get any better than Serena Williams in women’s tennis. The world number one has dominated the tour for years, and cemented that by winning her 18^th major at the US Open. Serena has previously competed in the Hopman cup in 2003 and 2008. She won the title both times. If the past is anything to go by, the USA might just be favourites to win the tournament. With Williams you have the biggest serve on the WTA tour, and partnered with Isner you have a team that will be extremely difficult to break.

Group B: Australia, France, Great Britain, Poland

Australia

Formerly a top 70 player, Aussie Matt Ebden will be looking to bounce back in 2015, after a poor 2014 season that saw him finish outside the top 200 for the first time in over 3 seasons. The 27 year old Aussie baseliner went just 5-21 at the ATP level last season and didn’t make it past the second round of any tournament he played last year. The Aussies will have plenty of fan support, but have one of the weaker teams in this years tournament and are unlikely to win a lot of matches. There one strength is the fact both players have doubles ability, Ebden has won four ATP doubles titles in his career, including one last season, and Dellacqua has also had success with that side of the game.

Left hander Casey Dellacqua is heading into the tournament off the back of a good 2014 season which saw the 29 year old crack the world’s top 30. The Australian has also shown her talents in doubles, where she has reached the final of all four Grand Slam tournaments during her career. Dellacqua went one further in the mixed doubles in 2011, where she won the French Open title. The Perth native will be returning home to compete in her second Hopman cup. She only won one of her matches in the 2009 edition of the annual event.

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France

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Benoit Paire, a talented underachiever at this point in his career, who struggled with knee problems in 2014, after formerly being ranked as high as 24 in the world in 2013, will be looking to rise back to that level in 2015. Paire, who is now 25, posted a pair of ATP quarterfinals last season and as usual provided a lot of excitement and passionate antics with his tennis. He has one career doubles title, but I would be surprised if team France repeated as Hopman Cup champions with this pairing of Paire and Cornet.

The defending champion is back to defend her title. Alize Cornet partnered Jo Wilfried Tsonga as the French team proved too much for the competition last year. That win was just the start for Alize, as the French woman went on to have one of her best seasons to date. Cornet won her 4^th WTA title in Katowice and defeated top 10 players such as Serena Williams and Simona Halep during the year. The 24 year old will look to kick off her 2015 season in the same vein as last year, and defend the Hopman Cup title.

Great Britain

Andy Murray, who went through a transition year in 2014, as he was rehabbing from back surgery, and replaced Ivan Lendl with Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, will be looking to re-enter the top 5 in 2015. Murray went through some other changes in his coaching team in the offseason, but he finished 2014 on a strong note, winning all three of his ATP titles in 2014 after the US Open to help his bid to eventually qualify for the World Tour Finals. Murray faces some formidable talent ranked in front of him, and players like Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic are pressing on his heels from behind in the rankings, but he has a chance to get 2015 off to a great start and win the Hopman Cup for team GB. He’s the strongest singles player in the field, and has always done well for team GB in Davis Cup doubles. Murray comes off winning the Abu Dhabi exhibition, which will certainly be a boost for his mojo.

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Fellow British number one Heather Watson will partner Andy Murray in this year’s tournament. Watson recently suffered from mononucleosis, which saw the Brit fall outside the top 150. But the 22 year old rallied back to finish the year inside the top 50. Watson will bring a good blend of attack and defence to her maiden Hopman Cup tournament. Partnered with Andy Murray, Team GB will be hard work for anyone.

Poland

Jerzy Janowicz still has room to improve his tennis for sure but he slumped in 2014, and finished the year just 24-26 at the ATP level. He reached one ATP final, one ATP semifinal and a pair of ATP quarterfinals, in what was a disappointing season for the Polish male number one. Like many other participants, Janowicz is a capable doubles player, and with Radwanska being one of the best players on the WTA side of the field, team Poland will be one of the favorites.

Aga Radwanska is returning to Perth for her second Hopman cup appearance. She made the final in her debut last year and will look to go one better with her new partner, Jerzy Janowicz. The 25 year old is one of the craftiest players on the WTA tour, and that craft has seen her finish inside the top 10 yet again. The former Wimbledon finalist will be looking to express any improvements she has made under new coach Martina Navratilova.

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Predictions:

Group A:
Canada d. Czech Republic
USA d. Italy
Italy d. Czech Republic
USA d. Canada
Canada d. Italy
USA d. Czech Republic

Group B:
Poland d. Australia
Great Britain d. France
Poland d. Great Britain
France d. Australia
Poland d. France
Great Britain d. Australia

The USA should finish 3-0 in Group A, with their strongest test coming from team Canada in their second match. Canada likewise is likely to do well against Italy and the Czechs, as the USA and Canada have the strongest combined teams for a hard court surface.

In Group B, Radwanska should be enough to give Poland an edge over team GB, and like the USA, Poland should finish 3-0. Team GB with Murray is also formidable, while the Aussies will do well to win a match.

Final:

USA d. Poland

With Serena Williams in the ranks, Team USA will be too strong for the competition. Poland will once again reach the final, but fall short for the 2^nd straight year as Isner and Janowicz effectively cancel each other out with their similar big serving styles, and Williams should defeat Radwanska.

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