Meanwhile, in Mexico…
The semi-finals are set to go later today in Acapulco. First up, No.3 seed Nicolas Almagro (ESP) will take on Thomaz Bellucci (BRA). In the other semi, top seed David Ferrer (ESP) will face No.6 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR).
Of all the semifinalists, only Dolgopolov was able to win their quarterfinal match in straight sets. Dolgopolov upset fourth seed Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) last night, 6-4, 7-6(6). Each of the other three quarterfinal matches went the distance, including Ferrer's match against Argentinian Juan Manco which lasted a whopping 2 hours and 43 minutes. For a complete breakdown of the matches, check out this article.
Alexandr Dolgopolov hasn't been pushed to 3 sets yet in this tournament, so he should be pretty fresh for his match with David Ferrer. Almagro is riding high on an impressive winning streak and is carrying a lot of momentum into his semifinal against Bellucci.
If I understand the Rogers Sportsnet schedule correctly, the first semi-final from Acapulco will air on Sportsnet One starting at 6:00PM ET, and the second semi will air on Sportsnet Pacific at 10:00PM ET. At least that's how it looks at the moment. Not certain if what they're showing on the Pacific channel is a replay of an early round because the description given on my cable guide says "Live, quarterfinal-round play". Guess we'll find out soon enough.
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1 vs. 2 final in Dubai
We have a big final to look forward to in the Dubai tournament tomorrow. The top two seeds in the draw, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, will face off in a repeat of their Australian Open semi-final match. Federer has won Dubai several times, but Djokovic has claimed the title the last two years in a row. Here's how this dream-final has come to be:
Tomas Berdych retired due to injury in the third set of his semi-final match against Djokovic. Berdych won the first set in a tiebreak, but Novak took the second set and was leading in the third before Berdych retired. Read what Nole had to say about the match here.
Except for a slight hiccup late in the second set, Federer was able to run over Gasquet in a straight sets win, 6-2, 7-5. Gasquet had a chance to serve for the second set when he broke Federer at 4-4 to take a 5-4 lead. But Roger decided not to let Richard take the match to a third set and broke Gasquet right back. From there it was business as usual for the top seed, breaking Gasquet again to win the match in just 73 minutes. Roger talks about the match and the upcoming final here.
I don't expect the slight shakiness displayed by Djokovic today to carry into tomorrow's final against Federer. Nole will show up. He's not just defending a title, he's going for a three-peat. And he's got to do it against a man who is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time. If nothing else, Novak can go into the match knowing that he beat Federer recently at the Australian Open. Also, Federer is not RoboCop. That's got to be a huge relief for Djokovic.
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Dolgopolov def. Wawrinka
Next to Milos Raonic, Alexandr Dolgopolov has shown himself to be one of the most exciting players to watch on the ATP tour this year. Dolgopolov has followed up his surprising run at the Australian open by reaching the finals in the Brasil Open (lost to Nicolas Almagro) earlier this month, and now he's through to the semi-finals in Acapulco. Here are the results of the Dolgopolov vs. Wawrinka:
Dolgopolov is quickly becoming known for more than just his unusually low ball toss and quick service motion. His ability to zip around the court and come up with brilliant shots seemingly out of nowhere is a real treat to watch. The amount of sidespin Dolgopolov is able to generate with his backhand slice is reminiscent of the tricky stylings of Boo from Mario Tennis. Yeah, I went there. Anyone who has played the game knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Game Boo.
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Final Four in Dubai
The top three seeds have made it through to the semi-finals for the first time in Dubai. Richard Gasquet came back from one set down to defeat Gilles Simon and earn himself a spot in the next round. Gasquet will face Roger Federer, whom he hasn't beaten in his last seven attempts. Considering how Federer has cruised through the draw this week (he hasn't dropped serve yet), I don't think that streak will be broken anytime soon. Read about this match here.
On the other side of the draw, we have Novak Djokovic taking on Tomas Berdych. This has the makings of a great match. Djokovic is on a roll since winning the Australian Open, and it seems like Berdych is always playing well lately. More about this matchup here.
Will we see a (1) Federer vs. (2) Djokovic final? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
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Is Federer RoboCop?
According to Roger himself, he isn't. A shocking admission, I know. Speculation had abounded for years concerning his almost mechanistic uber-fitness and laser-like focusing abilities. Turns out, Federer sometimes comes down with an acute case of Wandering Mind Syndrome. I guess when you've won 16 major titles, it's hard to keep your head in the game in the smaller tournaments. No offense, Granollers.
But all joking aside, both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are through to the quarterfinals in Dubai. Federer had leisurely match today against Marcel Granollers (ESP), winning 6-3, 6-4. The same cannot be said for Nole who was tested in an exciting 3-set match against model/tennis player Feliciano Lopez. After handily winning the second set by a margin of two service breaks, Lopez was unable to keep that momentum going in the third and lost to Djokovic 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
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Memphis finals had it all
Great serving, swings in momentum, and even ref bashing. The final in Memphis truly had it all. Unfortunately for Raonic fans (guilty as charged), Roddick came away with the title. What a match, though. I could describe and dissect the details of the match, but that really wouldn't do it justice. In fact, it would be an injustice. You kind of had to watch it.
Good luck in Mexico, Milos.
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Raonic def. Fish
Once again, Milos Raonic needed all three sets in his victory over Mardy Fish this afternoon, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Fish was able to steal the second set away by breaking Raonic's serve at 4-5. Mardy also got into Milos' serve early in the second set, but Raonic was able to save 3 consecutive break points from 0-40 down and eventually win the game. After the somewhat shaky second set, Raonic got an early break in the third and didn't let Fish back in the match.
It seemed that Fish's style of play, with frequent visits to the net, caused Milos some trouble at times during the match. Fish ran down a lot of balls and made a lot of nice volleys, but he wasn't able to get into too many of Raonic's service games. Not surprisingly, the serve was steady (and powerful) enough to keep most of Fish's advances at bay. Raonic managed to rack up 23 aces, bringing his winning streak to 7-0 for matches in which he's served 20+ aces this year.
Here are the stats from the match (captured from the ATP live scores ticker):
Raonic hasn't played a 2-set match since winning the title in San Jose last week. With all this tennis he's been playing, he probably feels like he's competing in a Major tournament. Who knows, that may just be a good thing when it comes to preparing for the physical and mental strains of 2-week long best-of-five set tournaments.
The second semi-final has yet to be played in Memphis, so it'll be a few more hours until we know who Raonic will face in the finals.
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Just enough aces
Raonic advances to the semi-finals in Memphis after defeating Kendrick in another 3 set match, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. But unlike the first two matches of the tournament (which also went the distance), Milos did not require a tiebreak in the final set to win the match. Instead, he got an early break in the third and rode it all the way to the finish line.
After a somewhat dubious call (in Milos' opinion, who was clearly upset by it) which cost him a match point, Raonic came right back to blast an ace for the win bringing his match total to an even 20. According to the commentators, Raonic is 6-0 this year when hitting 20+ aces in a single match. That's a lot of free points.
Here are the stats from today's match (captured from the live scores ticker):
With the win, Milos moves inside the top 50 on the ATP Tour. Not too shabby, but I expect him to keep moving up the rankings over the coming weeks and months. This higher ranking means we'll be seeing much more of Raonic in the bigger ATP Masters 1000 tournaments -- with more points on the line, this is where all the big boys play.
Up next in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships is either American Sam Querrey (5) or also-American Mardy Fish (4). Their match has just gotten underway in Memphis, where Fish has taken the early lead by breaking Querrey's first service game. Beyond that, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Jaun Martin del Potro are all big names still looking to make it through the top half of the draw.
There is much more good tennis to come in Memphis. I know I'll be watching.
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Too many aces
How many aces is too many aces? The greatest philosophers throughout history have struggled with that question for millennia. In his victory over Radek Stepanek today, Milos Raonic hit 38 aces during the 3 set match. This is what scientists call a dizzying amount. It is apparently a career high for Raonic according to one of the match commentators.
After losing the second set tiebreak, Raonic flat out blew Stepanek off the court in the deciding third set tiebreak, winning it 7 points to 1. Impressive stuff.
With Stepanek down, Robert Kendrick is next. He's ranked outside the Top 100. That match will go ahead tomorrow, either in the morning or at night. No doubt Raonic is hoping for an evening match after playing a couple of tough 3-setters.
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Milos Raonic .vs. Fernando Verdasco (déja vu)
It was another close match between Fernando Verdasco and Milos Raonic at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, TN tonight. Although I could find no way to watch it (Sportsnet apparently starts their coverage tomorrow night - one night too late), I had the live score ticker from the tournament website always in a visible location. Milos was again victorious over Verdasco as he was a few days ago when he beat him in the final of the SAP Open in San José. In the end, the matched summed up nicely:
The match was a nail-biter even though I was only getting small text updates and changing scores every 15-45 seconds or so... We shouldn't have that problem in the future though since SportsNet.ca will be streaming the rest of the tennis from Memphis apparently.
If you're wondering what the match looked like:
And of course, no camera has a suitable shutter speed to capture Milos' serve but here was an attempt:
By the way, both of these photos were stolen from Bobby Chintapalli's twitter feed. She was at the game and mostly commented on how "dreamy" Fernando Verdasco was - but at least she took these pictures for us. Thank-you!
Best of luck to you in the second round Milos!
-- WACB
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