CricketWeb Tennis - Season I

[SirBloody Idiot]

Indian Wells Masters (SFs) - Mar 12-22 Season I

Indian Wells Masters
Quarterfinals - Indian Wells

Top Half
Bottom Half
Finals
Seeds

World number twelve Sven Oxenstierna has yet again fallen before the final hurdle in a very disappointing display in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters. Coming in as only slight underdog against seventh seed Radivoj Daneu, Oxenstierna looked to try to force his way into his first career final, but ultimately fell woefully short. In just over an hour, the Serbian number one wiped the court with Oxenstierna - starting with two breaks of service in the first set to help him to a one set lead. The Ox showed glimpses of his previously good form early in the third as he came perilously close to breaking Daneu's serve, and at one stage was level 1-1. But the Serb lifted a gear and romped to victory 6-3 6-1.

His opponent in the final will be giant-killing world number 60 Almen Benaglio who upstaged Croatian sixteenth seed Miroslav Brdar in a three set classic. In undoubtedly the match of the tournament, it was the second and third set tiebreakers which proved the difference between the two players as the 23-year old pulled off a stunning reversal. After dropping the first set 6-4, the Swiss youngster kept at the heels of Brdar in the second and levelled the match in a short tiebreaker. The third set breaker was much more dramatic, and it was the underdog who booked his place in the Indian Wells final with a tremendous 4-6 7-6(3) 7-6(9) victory.

Seeds Out: 12-Sven Oxenstierna (CWL); 16-Miroslav Brdar (CRO).

Unbelieveable. Gutted for Ox, how many quarters and semis is that now?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I'm tempted to quote one Darren Murphy.

"try being less English, hey?"

(Third semi, fifth quarter or further...)

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Yeah I thought it'd be something like that. When I was simming it, ffs. Couldn't believe it.

As an aside, I've basically been writing down who participated where over the past week or so and what round they got to, and with about seven (including IW) to go, I'll hopefully be able to doublecheck all the points. So there'll probably be a few changes. Also emailed James last night regarding a subforum, so we'll wait on a response there.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Indian Wells Masters (Final Preview) - Mar 12-22 Season I

SUNDAY PREVIEW - DANEU AIMS TO GET MONKEY OFF BACK

No. 3 seed Radivoj Daneu of Serbia has the opportunity to break through for his first career title after five previous appearances in the quarterfinals and semifinals of ATP International tournaments. Daneu takes on 23-year old Almen Benaglio of Switzerland. Daneu has a 1-0 career record against Benaglio, winning the last time in straight sets at The Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai. Both players are trying to win their first ATP World Tour title; the first ATP Masters Series title on offer.

WHAT'S AT STAKE -
Winner: $555,000 and 500 ATP Ranking points
Runner-up: $277,500 and 250 ATP Ranking points

FINALS HISTORY -
Daneu: Appearing in his 1st career ATP World Tour final…He is 0-0 lifetime in finals
Benaglio: Appearing in his 1st career ATP World Tour final…He is 0-0 lifetime in finals

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH-UPS

HEAD-TO-HEAD

(7) Radivoj Daneu (SRB) vs Almen Benaglio (SUI) Daneu leads 1-0
I Dubai (U.A.E.) Hard R32 Radivoj Daneu 62 61

Daneu FastFacts:
Season I Highlights:
SF: Brisbane (Hurtado); Rotterdam (Hall); QF: Australian Open (Cowan); Zagreb (Berg); Dubai (Hall);
Season I W-L: 14-5
Season I Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: November 11, 1985
ATP Ranking: 7

- Daneu, 24, is making his first tournament appearance and en route to the final, defeated Kim Vollan (67 62 62), Eric Henson (76 61); Zoltan Varga (75 62); Radek Špidla (63 64) and Sven Oxenstierna (63 61)
- He is appearing in his first ATP Masters Series final, which is also his first tournament final
- His only Grand Slam showing was a quarterfinal loss to American Darcy Cowan
- Has made it to the quarterfinals and beyond in every ATP tournament he has appeared in this season.
- He won both his singles ties in Serbia's Davis Cup World Group first round match against France by beating Sébastien Lachance and Jean-Alain Depuis

Benaglio FastFasts:
Season I Highlights:
3R: Australian Open (Zhijun);
Season I W-L: 3-7
Season I Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: 3 February, 1986
ATP Ranking: 60

- Benaglio, 23, is making his first tournament appearance and en route to the final, defeated Aussie Matthew Tobin (63 61); Jefferson Drake (63 57 64); Valter Cordiero (62 26 60); Darcy Cowan (64 76); Davis Kennedy (63 57 64) and Miroslav Brdar (46 76 76) (and saving two match points)
- He is appearing in his first ATP Masters Series final, which is also his first tournament final
- His only Grand Slam appearance saw him make the third round.
- Benaglio had previously never made an appearance past the final eight of an international tournament
- Played a part in the Switzerland side which lost to Sweden in the Davis Cup World Group first round. He teamed with Christophe Haas and lost in the double match to Bjorn Donaldson and Henrik Henrikkson

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Indian Wells Masters (Final) - Mar 12-22 Season I

Indian Wells Masters
Quarterfinals - Indian Wells

Top Half
Bottom Half
Finals
Seeds

Serbian seventh seed Radivoj Daneu has surged into the world's top five with a comfortable win against brave Swiss youngster Almen Benaglio, prevailing in straight sets 6-4 7-5 to claim the Indian Wells Masters title. In front of a capacity crowd at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday, the world number seven took the match in one hour and fourty-seven minutes to hoist his first Open Era title. In a tight opening set, it was the fifth game which proved to be the difference between the two as Daneu broke the serve of Benaglio to love in a dominant display. But to the Swiss youngster's credit, he hung on against the favourite and, despite being on the court for six hours longer than his opponent, pushed him hard. But Daneu's class proved just too much for the unseeded Benaglio to overcome, and a dominant display in the second set tiebreaker helped him overcome a streak of quarter-and-semifinals appearances to finally break through with his first international crown.

Seeds Out: None.

 

[ripper868]

Gun

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Rankings

Daneu charges into third
Hall remains top, but gap closes

World number 1 Jason Hall still remains well ahead on the newly released ATP Rankings, but the gap has closed to 625 points following his third round exit at the Indian Wells Masters. Czech big man Radek Špidla still remains at number 2, but leads Indian Wells winner Radivoj Daneu by just twenty points. Daneu shot up four places to number three following his straight sets win over Almen Benaglio, and is now second on the season prize money board as well with US$837,715 in winnings. Benaglio was a massive mover for the week as he rose from 60 to fourteen following his finals performance, and he also had the biggest move inside the top hundred. Hungarian János Varga continued his slide following a disappointing tournament; he fell to number 37 from 31. The biggest fall inside the top hundred was shared by five players (Gómez, Gorshkov, Heug, Highsmith and Tobin) who all fell seven places.

Top Fifty

In CWLand, Sven Oxenstierna again made an appearance in a tournament semifinal - this time charging into the top ten to outright seventh. With US$305,860 in prize money, he has also been the highest earning CWLand player on the circuit. The other big movers were Jamee Hancianu and Roy Daniels. Hancianu's fourth round appearance at Indian Wells saw him climb to 32nd in the world and a probable seeding at the Miami Masters, whilst Daniels' win over Zhijun Sun saw him rise twelve spots to number 70. Davis Cup members Jefferson Drake and Brett Read saw slight falls, but both remain inside the top twenty and thirty respectively after disappointing tournaments.

CWLanders

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Injuries

Indian Wells quarterfinalist pulls out of tournament
Kennedy, Smeltz to miss Miami Masters

World number eight Davis Kennedy is set to miss the Sony Ericsson Open Masters event in Miami after a badly stubbed toe has temporarily left him unable to run. Kennedy, a quarterfinalist at the Indian Wells Masters, injured his foot whilst training in bare feet and ruled himself out ahead of the clay court season. CWLand's Randy Smeltz will also miss out after coming down with a virus which has left him bed-ridden since Saturday. The news comes as a blow for Smeltz who found himself on the cusp of the top fifty following the first Masters tournament of the season. Elsewhere, Thailand number one Adul Doungtong will miss two months with a torn PCL. Miami organisers will, however, be buoyed by the return of world number twenty Danijel Micic and Aussie Adam Murray who return from a damaged heel and torn knee ligaments respectively. Murray has been out of action since January and will hope to qualify for the tournament.

 

[Simon]

Dammit, should have played last week and rested with the illness this week, right when im so close to the top 50.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Will play in Miami, obviously. Should get a bye too now, I think.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

I'll probably just put every active player down as competing, and if you specifically want a rest just say and I'll exclude.

 

[NUFAN]

Crazy that Mitchell has more money then Bowenburg after winning just 1 match to my 4. He sure knows when to win.

11 CW's in the top 100. How awesome.

 

[Simon]

Theres bound to be a lot of CW players in the top 100 as I'd guess we have about four times as many players as any other nation.

 

[ripper868]

Yeew, 10 points. MAXUM will rise to the top...one day.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Miami Masters (Quals) - Mar 23 - Apr 5 Season I

But not this day!

Sony Ericsson Open
Qualifiers - Miami

Draw - Sections 1, 2 and 3

Despite just missing out on direct qualification, Billy Spleen has managed to earn a spot as qualifier for the Miami Masters after an impressive couple of wins. The second seed was in surprisingly ordinary touch in his first round qualifying match against world number 173 Ryan Miller in a two hour showdown. But after trading sets, Spleen started to find his touch against the South African and advanced to a finals showdown with Viktor Vuriak 6-4 5-7 6-4. The Ukrainian put up much less resistance against the world number 89 as he capitulated in just under an hour 6-2 6-2.

Joining Spleen in the main draw are Sven Svensson and Alex de Wet who both won their respective qualifying matches. A good run for Svensson in the Masters event could see him sneak into the top hundred, and his form in qualifying certainly showed promise. After a tough three set win over Brendan Tito in the first round, the CWLander only got better as he took on Australian teenager Harry Thomspon in his final. Showing that he cared little for the high praise heaped on Thompson, Svensson smashed the 16-year old 6-3 6-2 to advance to the main draw. Alex de Wet showed form which belied his ranking of 180 as he didn't drop a set in his two matches. After disposing of twelfth seed JC Genghini in his first match, 22nd seed Jefferson Quezada held no chance against the red-hot CWLander. In just seventy-five minutes, de Wet had earned himself a qualifying spot 6-3 6-1.

For two other CWLanders, qualifying wasn't such a happy experience. Martti Korpinen failed to qualify for the main draw as he was dispatched 6-2 6-1 by Quezada. The youngster Korpinen proved he still has a long way to go before joining the cream of the CWLand crop. Jarkko Maxum had a better time of it early as he edged past Frenchman Bertran Renard in his first match 7-6(3) 7-6(6), before falling to highly rated Belgian Yves Parmentier. In a tight three-set contest, Maxum showed great promise but just failed to keep up with the super-fit Belgian - falling 6-4 5-7 6-3.

Qualifiers: 1-Takis Georgilas (CYP); 2-Billy Spleen (CWL); Taavi Aleksejev (EST); 24-Massimo Prodi (ITA); 16-Jack Griffen (USA); 14-Felipe Pelayo (MEX); 7-Tal Cohen (ISR); 17-Gjorgi Dinov (MKD); 9-Yves Parmentier (BEL); Adam May (RSA); 21-Sven Svensson (CWL); Alex de Wet (CWL).
Wildcards: Anothy Ficher (USA); Jimmy Holland (USA); Adam Murray (AUS); Tino Boytchuk (CAN); Ivan Vuka (CRO).

First matches in main draw:

Alex de Wet (Q) vs. Pascal Schmidt (63)
Billy Spleen (Q) vs. Roberto Santos (50)
Rob Bowenburg vs. Eric Henson (69)
Heath Davis vs. Morton Blundell (67)
Sven Svensson (Q) vs. Gunther Heug (80)
Jojo Mustard vs. Vladimir Gryzlov (66)
Roy Daniels vs. Domingo Gutiérrez Gómez (83)

Second round clashes for those with byes to start:
7-Sven Oxenstierna vs. Felipe Pelayo (Q) (123) / Paolo Mandonna (85)
15-Jefferson Drake vs. Branko Arsov (84) / Kim Vollan (57)
26-Brett Read vs. Heath Davis (49) / Morton Blundell (67)
31-Jamee Hancianu vs. Jimmy Holland (WC) (102) / Massimo Prodi (Q) (153)

One change to the draw I cbf uploading for, Sam Lazzeri was a wildcard.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

26-Brett Read vs. Heath Davis (49) / Morton Blundell (67)

Really wanting to overcome Blundell here to set up a second round match with Read. Would be a sell out court, guaranteed.

 

[David]

So pleased I showed up to Miami...

Such is life.

 

[cpr]

Trumper-Jones announces anti-retirement from tour


In a truely bizarre press conference, Laurence Trumper-Jones today announced that he is returning to the tennis world. Stunning reporters who didnt even know he'd gone their in the first place. Trumper-Jones declared 'I didnt realise they played in such nice places, i've got holiday homes in most of these cities, so the travel expenses would save me some money filling up the private jet. Besides, apparently some of these female tennis players arnt dykes! Who knew eh'

Trumper-Jones, the 71st richest man in the UK with an estimated fortune of £600m, is alleged to have said any prize money will be 'donated to my accountants, should pay those fees they keep claiming I owe them'. Known for his fitness anyway, it'll be no surprise if he does start to rise in the tennis world ('Rich people usually rise above everyone else' he stated yesterday), though possible touring issues have been raised in regard to his wanted status in West Africa for involvement in diamond smuggling and various coups

 

[Mister Wright]

Tough match up against the world 66. Hopefully Mustard can overcome him.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Miami Masters (1R) - Mar 23 - Apr 5 Season I

Sony Ericsson Open
1st Round - Miami

Top Half
Bottom Half

It was a mixed day of results for CWLand in the first round of the Miami Masters as just three of the seven competitors to play managed to record victories. Heath Davis managed to set up an appetising second round clash with fellow countryman Brett Read with a straight sets win over Bahamas' Morton Blundell. Davis was switched on from the word go against the Bahamas number one, and sounded an ominous warning to those in his section - namely Read. The enigmatic Davis, who unceremoniously exited the Indian Wells Masters in the second round, fired down thirteen aces to complete a quick victory - advancing 6-4 6-2. Also on the winner's list was Jojo Mustard who proved a notch above forty-year old Russian Vladimir Gryzlov. Despite being evenly matched in terms of rankings, Mustard seemed to jump out of the blocks against the veteran as he claimed the first set 6-3. The second set proved much closer and went on service to a tiebreaker. It was there that Mustard shone through in a tight breaker to seal a 6-3 7-6(9) victory, and a second round clash with twentieth seed Li Wang. The final CWLander who will see second round action is Roy Daniels. Daniels upstaged Puerto Rican Domingo Gutiérrez Gómez in straight sets - Daniels continuing to look at home on the hard courts. He will, however, face an arduous task in the second round as he faces second seed Radek Špidla. Daniels did knock off then world number five Zhijun Sun at the Indian Wells Masters.

The round of 96 wasn't as successful for qualifiers Alex de Wet, Sven Svensson, Billy Spleen, and world number 79 Rob Bowenburg. Perhaps the biggest name casualty for CWLand, Bowenburg was knocked out by American Eric Henson despite taking the first set in a tight tussle. But after taking the early lead, Bowenburg capitulated as Henson ran through the 25-year old 4-6 6-1 6-2. de Wet avoided a second round clash with world number one Jason Hall by losing in straight sets to Switzerland's Pascal Schmidt. The inexperienced de Wet put up a decent fight, but the ever steady Schmidt managed to break early in both sets and maintain a strong lead to advance 6-1 6-4. Billy Spleen also was involved in a tough three-set match, and he too fell in a marathon tussle. After trading sets with Brazil's Roberto Santos, the decider was sent to a tiebreaker after a see-sawing encounter. But Santos' fitness allowed him to maintain his composure late in the third as Spleen struggled to maintain a powerful serve - the Brazilian setting up a difficult second round clash with Danijel Micic of Serbia. Finally, Sven Svensson's impressive qualifying campaign was not backed up against world number 80 Gunther Heug as he lost in straight sets. The German proved too strong for the erratic Svensson and prevailed in an entertaining encounter 6-4 6-2.