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Five Spaniards Including Pablo Carreno Busta and David Ferrer Invade @Swedish_Open

Posted by Admin on July 15, 2018

Five Spaniards Including Pablo Carreno Busta and David Ferrer Invade ATP Bastad
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The SkiStar Swedish Open is an ATP 250 on clay in Bastad, Sweden. A host of accomplished clay courters will take to the court, and here is your look at the action to come.

Top Half:

Diego Schwartzman should win this section over Roberto Carballes Baena/qualifier, and then the winner of Matteo Berrettini/Leonardo Mayer. I’ll back the rising Berrettini to post a good result, upsetting Mayer and then Gastao Elias/qualifier.

With Jaume Munar in good form, I’ll back him to upset Casper Ruud in round 1 in a battle of the wild cards, and then I have David Ferrer falling to his younger countryman Munar in the second round. Richard Gasquet should beat Gerald Melzer/qualifier, then Munar/Ruud to win this section.

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Bottom Half:

Pablo Carreno Busta is solid enough on clay to suggest he’ll defeat Thiago Monteiro/Elias Ymer in his opening match before facing off with fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the quarters. Verdasco opens with Lorenzo Sonego, Radu Albot/Pedro Sousa will follow. Carreno Busta over Verdasco is the sensible choice for this quarter.

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John Millman should get past Guido Andreozzi and Horacio Zeballos or Federico Delbonis. Fabio Fognini is the best player in this section and a potential champion though. Presuming the Italian is focused he should ease past Denis Istomin/Mikael Ymer, and then Millman to reach the semis.

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Predictions

Semis
Schwartzman d. Gasquet
Fognini d. Carreno Busta

I’ll go with the veteran Fognini as my champion this week in Bastad, there are a host of accomplished clay courters who could catch fire and win this thing, but Fognini seems due to make a run.

Final
Fognini d. Schwartzman

Jonas Bjorkman Talks with Tennis Atlantic
Glenys Furness for Tennis Atlantic

Jonas Bjorkman

Jonas Bjorkman is a former world number 1 in doubles and world number 4 in Singles, the Swede was added to Andy Murray’s coaching team in April 2015, initially to be on hand when Amelie Mauresmo was unavailable to travel with him. Taking on a more active role since Mauresmo announced after the Australian Open that she was pregnant, Jonas coached Andy through the first part of the clay court season, to the first 2 clay titles of his career, and through the grass court season where he won his 4th Queens Club title. Ameile was back with the team for Wimbledon, before going on maternity leave, giving Jonas the lead role through the hard court season and US Open.

Jonas took time out of this very important role whilst in between Montreal which Andy just won (his second Masters title of the season), and preparations for Cincinnati Masters to talk with me on his time on the Swedish version of Strictly Come Dancing, his charity foundation, and of course all things tennis.

Glenys: Why did you decide to go on the Swedish version of “strictly” and what did you get from that?

Jonas Bjorkman: “I love music and dance and I also like new challengers in life and especially to go outside of my comfort zone.”

Who is the better dancer – You or Judy Murray?

Jonas: “I haven’t seen Judy dance yet but I think I came further then her so I might be a little bit better :)”

Which is your favourite dance of all the ones you learned?

Jonas: “I think my Rumba when I danced like Mr Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey was the one that people still speak the most about but I really loved dancing Tango”

Why did you start up your Charity Z&B Foundation?

Jonas: “My great friend Måns Zelmerlöw wanted to start up his own charity but since I got so involved into his we change the name and started after one year to do it together instead. We both have tried to help as much as we can but you never really see a follow up where the money goes so we felt that having our own one we can be in touch with all four schools, help them with education or if they need something special like school uniforms which we just bought to our new school in Kenya.
www.zbfoundation.se if people want to read more about it.”

What impact have you seen already with the work the charity has been doing?

Jonas: “We had 27% of our kids in our high school who managed the last exam so they can continue for University and after 2 1/2 year we now have 100% which we are extremely proud of”

How can we donate to the cause?

Jonas: “You have all the information on our website. We also have our bracelets which you receive if you donate SEK 315” (Interviewer note: 315 SEK is approx $37 / £23.50 – depending on the exchange rate)

What did you feel you could bring to Andy’s game and do you see results already?

Jonas: “Andy wanted to improve on being more aggressive on his returns and he is looking to feel more comfortable at the net with having the right position. This was my strength as a player so I really like this challenge to be part of Andy’s journey to reach his goals that he still has left in his career together with Amelie and the rest of the team.”

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What has made the difference with Andy this year on clay compared to previous years?

Jonas: “Confidence and great fitness. Amelie and the rest of team have done an amazing job the last 12 months and I think his practice camp in Barcelona before the clay season gave him the perfect preparations.”

You & Andy, Stefan Edberg & Roger, Magnus Norman & Stan, what makes Swedes successful coaches?

Jonas: “I think we all are very calm and professional in our job.”

Has Andy learned any French (Ameile) or Swedish (you) yet?

Jonas: “Not sure about the French but I think he can a bit and so far only one word in Swedish”

You and Ameile are working well together, it appears to be an inspired choice (from a totally biased Brit that is), why do you think it works so well?

Jonas: “We know each other pretty well from when we both were active and both of us are very easy going and enjoying working in a team”

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As a tennis fan, seeing Rafa struggling on return from injury at the moment brings up memories from last year when Andy was in a similar position, do you think Rafa can make the same kind of recovery that Andy did?

Jonas: “I think for sure that Rafa will be back in good form but sometimes it takes a bit longer then everyone expect”

Andy, Jonas and the rest of the team continue the assault on the hard courts, after the win in Montreal and Cincy, it will be time once more for the US Open, as Andy will bid for his second title in New York.

Thank you Jonas for your valuable time at this busy period in the tennis calendar.

Esam Taha takes a look at under the radar young gun Elias Ymer (@eliasymer)

Posted by Admin on February 28, 2015

Posted in: ATP, Guest Writer. Tagged: atp, ATP Young Gun, ATP Young Guns, Elias Ymer, Sweden, Swedish Tennis, Tennis Sweden, Ymer.

Esam Taha takes a look at under the radar young gun Elias Ymer of Sweden
Esam Taha for Tennis Atlantic

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In an era hungry for young talent to make their presence felt in the upper echelon of tennis, a few names are starting to emerge. You might’ve heard of the likes of Borna Coric, Nick Kygrios, or even Alexander Zverev, all gifted young men indeed, however today I want to shed some light on a lesser known name. Elias Ymer.

So who is Elias? Elias, or ‘Eli’ as he has been nicknamed, is an up and coming 18 year old Swedish tennis player looking to make an impact on top flight ATP tennis. Elias began playing tennis at 4 years old in Sweden, introduced to the sport by his father who happens to be a professional long distance runner. It was clear that Ymer had talent from his early age, his forehand especially was advanced well beyond his years and remains his main weapon today. As he grew into his teens he started to stand out especially on clay courts, the surface that seems to suit his game the best.

It has been quite some time since Sweden had any top players, perhaps since the injury-riddled Johansson, and of course former slam finalist Robin Soderling, who sadly fell victim to Mono, but they might finally have something in Ymer. It didn’t take long for Elias to make his impact at the junior level, in 2012 he reached his first final down in Plantation, Florida at the Orange Bowl, where he lost a tight affair to Laslo Djere. Djere, a 19 year old Serb who seeks to lead Serbian tennis after the Djokovic/Tipsarevic generation, seems to have Ymer’s number as he also halted Ymer’s title bid at Eddie Herr by beating him in the semi-final. Despite the lack of titles at the junior level Ymer was ranked as high as 5th overall in the ITF junior rankings, mainly due to his well-rounded consistent performance.

It didn’t take Ymer too much time adjusting making the transition from playing with boys to battling with grown men. It also didn’t take him long to raise some eyebrows when he took on Grigor Dimitrov in his home country at the Bastad, Sweden 250 ATP event. He had Dimitrov on upset alert as he took the first set 7-5, however he’d eventually lose the match after battling out a closely contested 3rd set. Ymer seems to enjoy playing in front of his home crowd as he made it all the way to the final at another Swedish futures event. To the delight of his hometown crowd, Ymer would also become the youngest player since former world no.1 Mats Wilander to get called up for the Davis Cup. He would end 2013 ranked 816th in the world with 0 titles. 2014 would be a different story.

After a year under his belt, Elias had the experience he needed to step his game up and announce his presence. Only 17 years old at the time, Ymer claimed his first professional title at a futures event in Egypt without dropping a set. He seemed enjoy the clay courts and desert weather in Egypt as he went back to back less than a month later in another Egypt futures event. The young Swede was on a roll. He would add 3 more futures titles in the summer including one in his home country. Brimming with confidence, Ymer would claim his first ATP victory in the same tournament he gave Grigor a scare a year ago, ATP 250 Bastad, Sweden. He would convincingly defeat Mikhail Kukushkin, ranked 52nd at the time, in straight sets. He would lose in the next round to Jose Sousa, but it was exactly the kind of ATP level experience he needed at this stage of his career. Ymer would finish 2014 with 5 futures titles and an ATP world ranking of 267, moving up a whopping 549 spots from 2013.

Ymer continues to build on his 2014 form in 2015 with a win over Igor Sijsling in Chennai and making his first Grand Slam appearance at the Australian Open. Elias made it through qualifying only to lose a close to 4 hours 5 set grinder to Go Soeda in the first round. Under the tutelage of Magnus Norman, Ymer continues to improve and work on his game. He currently trains at Good to Great Tennis Academy in Stockholm, and setting his sight at cracking the top 100 this year. While the other young guns claim the lion’s share of the spotlight, keep a close eye on this young Swedish talent. He might just be the guy that gets between those other names and Grand Slam titles a few years from now.