Hopman Cup 2014
Dec. 28 -- Although the Hopman Cup > http://hopmancup.com/ < doesn't carry any ATP or WTA points, it's a great choice for Milos and his partner Genie Bouchard to warm up for the Australian Open, and another opportunity to carry the flag for Canada: three guaranteed singles matches on alternating days (and a shot at the Final for a fourth) plus mixed doubles. Canada is in Group A with Australia, Poland and Italy, and started off day one with a bang, defeating host Australia thanks to an upset 4-6 6-2 6-3 victory by Genie over Sam Stoser, following Milos' workmanlike but convincing 7-6 6-1 win over Bernard Tomic. A point-by-point commentary can be found at: http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/12/28/bernard-tomic-vs-milos-raonic-2014-hopman-cup-live-scores-blog/ < Read from bottom up. Tomic and Stoser did win the mixed doubles 6-2 6-4 but that was a dead rubber which will only count against Canada if they end up tied with one of the other Group A teams. So right now Canada is looking pretty good for that Final slot vs the winner of the Group B round-robin.
January 10th, 2014 - 14:49
Not such a great draw for Milos for the Aussie Open. First two rounds aside he’s got a tough path to go through after that. Dimitrov is tricky opponent who finished his 2013 pretty strong and will look to further his progress here. Del Potro I think has a pretty good chance of winning this tournament and he too has been playing very well. Nadal of course is the number one player in the world. Couldn’t have asked for a tougher draw in my opinion, but Milos does have the ability.
Pospisil will have 2 winnable matchups to start with groth followed by ebden/mahut. He then gets a rematch with Wawrinka. I thought he played very well against Stan a week ago before retiring with an injury. He earned quite a few break opportunities but was just unable to convert them. I look forward to this rematch and I hope the week off helped Vasek recover quickly.
Eugenie has a chinese qualifier followed by an opponent that will be ranked around 100. Errani is up in the third round and while she is ranked 7th in the world she doesn’t seem to have a lot of success recently and seems like a favourable potential opponent for Bouchard. I see this as a pretty favourable draw for her, although I admit I am not as familiar with players in the WTA.
I do think there is a pretty good chance we see all three of the seeded Canadians into the third round. They seem to have avoided any potential landmines from the unseeded players in the early rounds. This should be a very exciting tournament to watch.
January 3rd, 2014 - 18:57
not much of a warm up. They really didn’t get to play much compared to other players on tour. Also no points this Davis Cup I think should be for less skilled players. It interferes with the top tennis players focus.