****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******
* Top six seeds make Kuala Lumpur quarterfinal
* Rosol upset in Bangkok
* Simon earns career win #300
****** TODAY’S MEN’S NEWS ******
Bangkok
Singles – Second Round: (2) R Gasquet def. L Lacko 6-3 6-2
An efficient start to Richard Gasquet’s title defense, but he is still a mere #10 in safe points — and needs another title, at least, if he is to keep his current #9 spot.
Singles – Second Round: (3) M Raonic def. M Matosevic 7-6(7-3) 4-6 6-4
A tough start, considering that Milos Raonic cannot rise above #11 no matter what he does here. He had sixteen break chances and converted only one. Which left him stuck out there for two and a half hours.
Singles – Second Round: (4) G Simon def. B Tomic 6-4 7-5
Bernard Tomic was defending quarterfinalist points, so it appears he’ll be falling out of the Top Fifty. If last year’s finalist Gilles Simon can win his next match, he’ll keep the #14 ranking he came in with. Even if he doesn’t, he earned career win #300.
Singles – Second Round: (5) M Youzhny def. D Istomin 6-3 6-3
Denis Istomin will remain below #45. Mikhail Youzhny will start to add points if he wins his next match, but needs a final to rise in the rankings.
Singles – Second Round: Y Lu def. (8) L Rosol 6-3 6-2
Lu Yen-Hsun now appears to have earned a Top Fifty spot. Lukas Rosol will stay right around the #46 ranking he came in with.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (2) Bracciali/Paes def. Cabal/Farah 6-7(4-7) 7-6(10-8) 10-8
Whew! This took more than two hours. You don’t see that often in doubles! But it was about as tight a match as you could imagine — each team had won 85 points going into the match tiebreak.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (3) J Murray/Peers def. (WC) Lu/Udomchoke 7-6(9-7) 7-5
There were three Thais in the doubles draw entering the day. Danai Udomchoke was the first to go…
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (4) Bednarek/Brunstrom def. Ratiwatana/Ratiwatana 7-5 6-3
…and now they’re all out. Too bad we don’t get attendance figures for doubles matches.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: Kas/Marach def. Gimeno-Traver/Lorenzi 6-4 6-4
Kuala Lumpur
Singles – Second Round: (2) S Wawrinka def. M Baghdatis 6-1 7-5
This means no upward move for Marcos Baghdatis this week. He might yet fall. Stanislas Wawrinka hasn’t yet added enough points to matter, but he will rise to #9 if he either makes the final here or Richard Gasquet fails to defend at Bangkok.
Singles – Second Round: (4) J Melzer def. (Q) M Zverev 7-5 6-4
Not the greatest start for Jurgen Melzer, given that he needs a final to add any points. If he can do that, he’ll hit the Top 25. Otherwise, he’ll stay at #26.
Singles – Second Round: (5) J Benneteau def. P Andujar 7-6(10-8) 6-2
Julien Benneteau has now defended about a third of his points from last year’s final, but he remains just barely above #40. If he can win his next match (against countryman Adrian Mannarino), he will probably be #35.
Singles – Second Round: (6) D Tursunov def. P Carreno Busta 6-2 6-4
This will probably take Dmitry Tursunov to #32. Each additional win would gain him one more spot.
Singles – Second Round: J Sousa def. P Cuevas 4-6 7-5 6-0
This really is the best month of Joao Sousa’s career — semifinal last week, now another quarterfinal.
Doubles – First Round: Butorac/Klaasen def. (1) Qureshi/Rojer 6-3 4-6 10-3
Eric Butorac used to be partners with Jean-Julien Rojer; evidently he knew to tricks to deal with him.
Doubles – First Round: (4) Huey/Inglot def. Melo/Sa 7-6(7-4) 6-2
Doubles – First Round: R Ram/Tecau def. Dlouhy/Hanley 6-4 7-5
Doubles – Quarterfinal: de Voest/Devvarman def. (2) Benneteau/Zimonjic 3-6 6-4 10-7
After a strong start to their partnership, the team of Benneteau/Zimonjic has struggled. But at least this didn’t take too long, so Benneteau’s singles shouldn’t be too affected.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: Cuevas/Zeballos def. Knowle/Melzer 2-6 7-5 10-7
****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******
Once In Love With Amry
The label on the back of the car said “AMRY.”
Getting a little closer, it was clear that it was a CAMRY with the letter C missing. But that set the author to thinking. What else could we do by chipping away letters? For example, take the R out of “AMRY” and you get “AM Y.” That could mean that the driver is very, very proud of his male chromosome. Or, if we read this according to Middle English spelling conventions in which I and Y are the same letter, it says “Am I.” Or we could take out the space and read it as “Amy.”
It happened that the author saw that just after a Richard Gasquet match, and so turned his mind to GASQUET and found that, by dropping letters, one could produce:
GAS
AS
GET
As well as the non-English word QUE.
Suddenly we have a new game (well, rediscovered; surely someone has done this before!). Call it Drop Letter. Let’s pick on a few others.
FEDERER isn’t good for much; too many repeated letters. All we could see were
FED
ERR
At least it’s better than NADAL, which gave us no true English words at all except the tennis abbreviation
AD
DJOKOVIC gave us only
DO
MURRAY yields
MAY
RAY
Turning to doubles, BRYAN has
BAN
RAN
AN
If you want a name you can have fun with, though, consider this one from the 2012 Bangkok draw: Peerakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA. Without even half trying, we came up with
SIR
SIRE
SUE
SUET
RILE
RAT
RAW
LET
THAT
HAT
AT
WATT
WAN
TAN
As well as Middle English SITH
And, of course, THAI
This year’s Special Thai is Wishaya TRONGCHAROENCHAIKUL. We thought we’d leave that to you; it took all our energy just to type that name once….
On the women’s side, AZARENKA offers
ARE
ARK
AN
ZEN (if that counts)
Doubles #1 Sara ERRANI offers:
ERR
ERA
RAN
AN
Pick your favorite player. How many can you come up with?
******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********
THIS WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Kuala Lumpur (250/Indoor Hard). Defending Champion: Juan Monaco
Bangkok (250/Indoor Hard). Defending Champion: Richard Gasquet
NEXT WEEK ON THE ATP WORLD TOUR:
Beijing (500/Hard). Defending Champion: Novak Djokovic
Tokyo (500/Hard). Defending Champion: Kei Nishikori
******** STATS AND FACTS ********
RANKINGS
Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of September 26, 2013
Rank &
Prior…Player………..Points
1..(1) Djokovic……….11120
2..(2) Nadal………….10860
3..(3) Murray………….7075
4..(4) Ferrer………….6710
5..(5) Federer…………4515
6..(6) Berdych…………4460
7..(7) Del Potro……….4425
8..(8) Tsonga………….3325
9.(10) Wawrinka………..3150
10..(9) Gasquet…………2960
11.(11) Raonic………….2610
12.(13) Haas……………2265
13.(12) Nishikori……….2250
14.(15) Janowicz………..2085
15.(14) Simon…………..2050
16.(16) Isner…………..2025
17.(17) Almagro…………1940
18.(18) Robredo…………1855
19.(19) Fognini…………1840
20.(20) Youzhny…………1780
21.(21) Anderson………..1775
22.(22) Seppi…………..1555
23.(23) Tipsarevic………1480
24.(25) Lopez…………..1455
25.(24) Kohlschreiber……1445
26.(26) Melzer………….1425
27.(27) Gulbis………….1386
28.(28) Paire…………..1380
29.(29) Dimitrov………..1375
30.(31) Querrey…………1265
**DRAWS
Bangkok — Week of September 22
………….QF
1 Berdych….(1)Berdych
8 Rosol……Lu
4 Simon……(4)Simon
7 Nieminen…Sijsling
6 Lopez,,,,,,(6)Lopez
3 Raonic…..(3)Raonic
5 Youzhny….(5)Youzhny
2 Gasquet….(2)Gasquet
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 Berdych
2 Gasquet
3 Raonic
4 Simon
5 Youzhny
6 Lopez
7 Nieminen…lost 1R (Sijsling)
8 Rosol……lost 2R (Lu)
Kuala Lumpur — Week of September 22
…………..QF
1 Ferrer……(1)Ferrer
8 Davydenko…Sousa
4 Melzer……(4)Melzer
7 Pospisil….Delbonis
5 Benneteau…(5)Benneteau
3 Almagro…..Mannarino
6 Tursunov….(6)Tursunov
2 Wawrinka….(2)Wawrinka
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 Ferrer
2 Wawrinka
3 Almagro……lost 2R (Mannarino)
4 Melzer
5 Benneteau
6 Tursunov
7 Pospisil…..lost 2R (Delbonis)
8 Davydenko….lost 1R (Cuevas)
******** SCORES ********
THURSDAY
Bangkok
Singles – Second Round
(2) R Gasquet def. L Lacko 6-3 6-2
(3) M Raonic def. M Matosevic 7-6(7-3) 4-6 6-4
(4) G Simon def. B Tomic 6-4 7-5
(5) M Youzhny def. D Istomin 6-3 6-3
Y Lu def. (8) L Rosol 6-3 6-2
Doubles – Quarterfinal
(2) Bracciali/Paes def. Cabal/Farah 6-7(4-7) 7-6(10-8) 10-8
(3) J Murray/Peers def. (WC) Lu/Udomchoke 7-6(9-7) 7-5
(4) Bednarek/Brunstrom def. Ratiwatana/Ratiwatana 7-5 6-3
Kas/Marach def. Gimeno-Traver/Lorenzi 6-4 6-4
Kuala Lumpur
Singles – Second Round
(2) S Wawrinka def. M Baghdatis 6-1 7-5
(4) J Melzer def. (Q) M Zverev 7-5 6-4
(5) J Benneteau def. P Andujar 7-6(10-8) 6-2
(6) D Tursunov def. P Carreno Busta 6-2 6-4
J Sousa def. P Cuevas 4-6 7-5 6-0
Doubles – First Round
Butorac/Klaasen def. (1) Qureshi/Rojer 6-3 4-6 10-3
(4) Huey/Inglot def. Melo/Sa 7-6(7-4) 6-2
R Ram/Tecau def. Dlouhy/Hanley 6-4 7-5
Doubles – Quarterfinal
de Voest/Devvarman def. (2) Benneteau/Zimonjic 3-6 6-4 10-7
Cuevas/Zeballos def. Knowle/Melzer 2-6 7-5 10-7
Topics: 10sballs, Atp, Bernard Tomic, Gilles Simon, Mikhail Youzhny, milos raonic, Richard Gasquet, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News