Daily Men Tennis News – Update (05/23/12) Nice, Dusseldorf, Roland Garros

Nice

Singles – Second Round: (1) J Isner def. X Malisse 7-6(7-3) 7-6(7-5)

John Isner needs a title here to do him any good, but at least he’s getting in his clay practice….

Singles – Second Round: (2) G Simon def. (Q) G Dimitrov 6-3 6-3

Nothing that matters yet for Simon, naturally — but if he can hold seed and make the final, he just might hit the Top Ten.

Singles – Second Round: (3) N Almagro def. E Roger-Vasselin 7-6(7-5) 6-4

You know the story by now: Not enough points to count for Nicolas Almagro. He needs a final to add points, a title to rise in the rankings.

Singles – Second Round: (Q) B Baker def. (4) G Monfils (WC) 6-3 7-6(7-9)

What an event for Brian Baker! Just winning one match was amazing for him, and now he has two wins here. That will increase his point total by about 20%. But Gael Monfils finds his #13 ranking in some danger.

Singles – Second Round: M Kukushkin def. (5) B Tomic 3-6 6-2 7-5

This means that all the seeds from #4 on down are out of the draw here — plus it means that Bernard Tomic won’t rise above #28.

Singles – Second Round: N Davydenko def. (7) D Istomin 6-4 1-6 6-3

Nikolay Davydenko has been slumping. Denis Istomin really doesn’t like clay. No surprise that it was close to a draw…. The loss leaves Istomin still below #40, but moves Nikolay Davydenko close to a return to the Top Fifty.

Singles – Second Round: S Darcis def. F Volandri 3-6 6-2 6-4

Steve Darcis came here ranked #61 despite having very few memorable results in the last year. It looks as if he’ll be going a little higher.

Singles – Second Round: (Q) T Bellucci def. (WC) J Ferrero 6-4 6-3

Juan Carlos Ferrero had a very long, late match the night before. He was surely out of gas…. He remains below the Top Forty.

Doubles – First Round: (WC) Isner/Querrey def. (2) Bopanna/Marrero 6-3 6-3

No, we haven’t heard what happened to Mahesh Bhupathi. Bhupathi/Bopanna haven’t had great results, but they aren’t going to break up this close to the Olympics!

Doubles – First Round: Hanley/Knowle def. Butorac/Soares 3-6 6-3 11-9 (Match TB)

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (1) Bryan/Bryan def. Bracciali/J Murray 4-6 6-2 10-7 (Match TB)

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (3) Qureshi/Rojer def. Lipsky/R Ram 6-3 6-2

Dusseldorf

Day four, and still no Ivo Karlovic for Croatia. That meant that, once again, Lovro Zovko had to play singles. And that meant, once again, a loss — although Zovko was a little more competitive this time. Philipp Kohlschreiber beat him 6-2 7-6(7-2). And that clinched the tie for Germany, since that was their second win. But they won the doubles anyway, with Kas and Petzschner beating Dodig and Zovko in a match tiebreak. Bet the Croats will be glad to get out of there….

At least we’d heard of Zovko. Serbia — which, to be sure, had already won its tie against Russia — dug so deep that they teamed Nenad Zimonjic with Miki Jankovic, #887 in singles. Surprise, surprise, they lost 7-5 7-6 to Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn.

Japan won the first match of their first tie. But they’ve done nothing since, and it’s now over for them. Carlos Berlocq beat Go Soeda 6-3 6-4, after which Argentines Brzezicki and Jhela beat Ito and Sato in a match tiebreak.

The Czechs, meanwhile, were finishing up their demolition of the Americans as Cermak/Stepanek beat Roddick/Harrison in a match tiebreak. So the Red Group will feature the Czechs versus the Argentines in what amounts to a semifinal, while the Germans will face the Serbs. Japan and the Americans will face off for third place in their group, while the Croats will face Russia.

Roland Garros

No new withdrawals….