{"id":281,"date":"2011-04-20T14:10:33","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T14:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=281"},"modified":"2011-04-20T14:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T14:10:33","slug":"wednesday-topspin-lucky-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/wednesday-topspin-lucky-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Topspin: Lucky Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bye bye bye: <\/em>It only happens a few times a year, and it entertains me every time. \u00a0Both Andy Murray<\/strong> and Tomas Berdych<\/strong> had byes in the first round of Barcelona, and both withdrew. \u00a0They were replaced by lucky losers, who then got byes straight to the second round. \u00a0Good deal, right? \u00a0Lose in the qualifying round, then find yourself in the round of 32.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, neither Rui Machado<\/strong> nor Mischa Zverev<\/strong> could convert on their opportunity. \u00a0Machado, who replaced Berdych, lost to Kei Nishikori<\/strong>, while Zverev, who took Murray’s place, fell in a close contest to Juan Carlos Ferrero<\/strong>. \u00a0Ferrero may benefit the most from Murray’s departure–Nicholas Almagro<\/strong> is the main obstacle now between JC and a semifinal berth.<\/p>\n

In fact, the bottom quarter is the most interesting in the draw. \u00a0Earlier today, 16th-seed Juan Monaco<\/strong> won only five games in a loss to 5’8″ Italian qualifier Simone Vagnozzi<\/strong>, about as lowly an underdog as you’ll find in an ATP 500. \u00a0Vagnozzi only advanced to the second round thanks to Fabio Fognini’s<\/strong> retirement in the first, and today’s victory marks the highlight of his journeyman career. \u00a0Vagnozzi is Ferrero’s next opponent.<\/p>\n

Almagro may have his work cut out for him, as well. \u00a0Nikolay Davydenko<\/strong> reminded us that he’s still alive by knocking out Alexandr Dolgopolov<\/strong> yesterday, and he faces the relatively easy challenge of qualifier Eduoard Roger-Vasselin<\/strong> in the second round.<\/p>\n

Catching up: <\/em>I wasn’t able to follow Barcelona qualifying over the weekend, and looking back at how it played out, there are a couple of things worth mentioning. \u00a0Doubles specialist Marc Lopez<\/strong>, who rarely plays singles these days, took a wild card, then got to a third-set tiebreak against Jarkko Nieminen<\/strong> in the qualifying round. \u00a0Not bad–he might have fared better against Carlos Berlocq<\/strong> than Nieminen did yesterday.<\/p>\n

Up-and-coming clay courter Evgeny Donskoy<\/strong> was the lowest-ranked player in qualifying, yet he beat 9th seed Jesse Huta Galung<\/strong> in the first round, then lost Vagnozzi in the qualifying round. \u00a0Oddly, those two faced each other only a couple of months ago in a Futures-level final, and that day, the Russian came out on top.<\/p>\n

Looking forward: <\/em>\u00a0Still on the card for today is Milos Raonic’s<\/strong> second-rounder, against Simon Greul<\/strong>, as well as the Davydenko match. \u00a0Robin Soderling<\/strong> will begin his Barcelona campaign as well, against Ivan Dodig<\/strong>, who took a set from the Swede back in Miami. \u00a0Soderling’s standing as the last man to beat Rafael Nadal<\/strong> on clay makes him one to watch. \u00a0He’s seeded to face Nadal in the semis this week.<\/p>\n

By the time you read this, Nadal will probably be into the round of 16. \u00a0He’s up 5-0 on Daniel Gimeno-Traver<\/strong>, in a match where at least one oddsmaker set DGT at 81-1. \u00a0Rafa’s next victim will be Santiago Giraldo<\/strong>, who you wouldn’t think has any more of a chance.<\/p>\n

See you tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bye bye bye: It only happens a few times a year, and it entertains me every time. \u00a0Both Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych had byes in the first round of Barcelona, and both withdrew. \u00a0They were replaced by lucky losers, who then got byes straight to the second round. \u00a0Good deal, right? \u00a0Lose in the … Continue reading Wednesday Topspin: Lucky Winners<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barcelona","category-daily-recaps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}