{"id":39,"date":"2011-02-26T13:55:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T13:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=39"},"modified":"2011-02-26T13:55:24","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T13:55:24","slug":"saturday-topspin-roger-novak-and-evgeny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/26\/saturday-topspin-roger-novak-and-evgeny\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Topspin: Roger, Novak, and Evgeny"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rematch: <\/em>Once again, it’s Roger Federer<\/strong> and Novak Djokovic<\/strong> in a big match. \u00a0Last time they played, of course, was in Melbourne, when Djokovic scored a big win in straight sets. \u00a0The previous three matches, however, went Federer’s way.<\/p>\n

I’ve watched pieces of all of Roger’s matches this week, and it’s amazing how much he pushes opponents around the court. \u00a0The commentators talked continuously about how far back Richard Gasquet<\/strong> was playing. \u00a0Djokovic (along with Juan Martin Del Potro<\/strong>) is one of the few guys with the guts and the skill to hold his ground near the baseline.<\/p>\n

Neither player has had a particularly challenging road to the final. \u00a0Federer hasn’t played a seeded opponent, and the second set against Gasquet yesterday was the first time this week he was pushed to 5-5. \u00a0(In fact, Gasquet served for the second set at 5-4.) \u00a0Djokovic faced tough matches against Feliciano Lopez<\/strong> and Tomas Berdych<\/strong>, but the latter match was ultimately decided by injury.<\/p>\n

Today, I’m betting on Federer.<\/p>\n

Czech out: <\/em>Another day, another Davis Cup withdrawal. \u00a0The Czech team is in trouble, as Radek Stepanek<\/strong> is out<\/a> with the flu. \u00a0Berdych’s status must be in doubt, as well, after retiring from yesterday’s match in Dubai.<\/p>\n

The 3rd-ranked nation suddenly looks very weak; if Berdych can’t play, their top singles player is 102nd-ranked Jan Hajek<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

More young Russians: <\/em>Yesterday I mentioned<\/a> the strong future of Russian men’s tennis, with two players under 21 inside the top 250. \u00a0Just missing that cut was another up-and-comer, Evgeny Donskoy<\/strong>. \u00a0Currently ranked #259, he won’t turn 21 until May.<\/p>\n

And he’s about to get a boost in the rankings. \u00a0He had to play qualifying at the Casablanca challenger, and has now won seven matches there. \u00a0He’s set to face Alessio Di Mauro<\/strong> in the final. \u00a0If he loses, he’ll be up around #225; if he wins, he’ll just miss the top 200.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, while Donskoy was one of the youngest players in the Casablanca draw, Di Mauro was the oldest, at age 33.<\/p>\n

Di Mauro is also a clay specialist; he only played 1 of his 46 matches last year on a hard court. \u00a0Donskoy had more success on clay last year, as well. \u00a0I’m working on surface-specific rankings, and for 2010, I have Di Mauro as #133 on clay and Donskoy as #139.<\/p>\n

Acupulco<\/em>: Can David Ferrer<\/strong> stop Nicholas Almagro<\/strong>? \u00a0Ferrer dropped the first set to Alexander Dolgopolov<\/strong> last night, but came charging back, ultimately winning 5-7 6-1 6-1. \u00a0Almagro played a tight contest with Thomaz Bellucci<\/strong>, triumphing in straight sets for his 13th straight victory. \u00a0He’ll try to make it three straight titles tonight.<\/p>\n

Delray Beach: <\/em>For all of the withdrawals and upsets in Florida this week, everything went according to plan in yesterday’s quarterfinals. \u00a0Today, Kei Nishikori<\/strong> will face Janko Tipsarevic<\/strong>, while Mardy Fish<\/strong> will play Del Potro. \u00a0The latter match should another interesting test for the Argentine, as Fish plays a style of game that he hasn’t seen for a while.<\/p>\n

Giant-killers<\/em>: The doubles team of Feliciano Lopez<\/strong> and Jeremy Chardy<\/strong> beat yet another top seed yesterday, eking by Michael Llodra<\/strong> and Nenad Zemonjic<\/strong> 10-8 in a super-tiebreak. \u00a0To get to the finals, they had to win three matches, two against the 2nd and 3rd seeds, the third against Bopanna\/Qureshi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

They’ve just taken the first set from the similarly-unheralded team of Mikhail Youhzny<\/strong> and Sergiy Stakhovsky<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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

The rematch: Once again, it’s Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in a big match. \u00a0Last time they played, of course, was in Melbourne, when Djokovic scored a big win in straight sets. \u00a0The previous three matches, however, went Federer’s way. I’ve watched pieces of all of Roger’s matches this week, and it’s amazing how much … Continue reading Saturday Topspin: Roger, Novak, and Evgeny<\/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":[16,24,27,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challengers","category-daily-recaps","category-davis-cup","category-doubles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","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=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}