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As you can notice by quick glance, there haven’t been many updates recently. Part of that is because of a busier personal schedule but most of the lack is because the site is going through a major facelift that will probably take a little while.

In the meantime, enjoy all of the tennis of the US Open, Davis Cup, and tournaments beyond.

Progress to the US Open: Marat Safin

Over the next few days leading up to the US Open, players will be profiled as part of COUNTERPUNCHING.COM’s Progress to the US Open series. Top players are chosen based upon ranking, recent performance and story heading into the final Grand Slam event of the calendar year. First off is the soon to be retired Marat Safin…

Marat Safin has held the title before, but how close can he get in his final shot?

As he reaches the final days of his pro tennis career, Marat Safin must be starting to feel a lot of relief. Well, he definitely is as he has said it numerous times in his interviews. The former world #1 has had a long, successful career and has many days ahead of him where he won’t have to worry about the pressures of the frequent travel, the tournaments and all of the other obligations that come with being a pro tennis star. Will the final days of his career be a reiteration of the missteps he’s taken this year or will he be cast as the lead role for his final act?

Going out with a bang –

It can be debated whether or not Marat Safin is going to try terribly hard throughout this tournament. He has had weak results throughout the course of the year, is currently ranked 58th and has given a “things happen” kind of attitude about the losses. Physically, his conditioning is there but he doesn’t push himself to get that extra point. Emotionally, it seems like he checked out as soon is he announced this eventual retirement. Does that mean, though, that the former US Open Champion will continue with the same sort of reaction at a place where he has won it all before? At place where he will be playing his last major tournament? Probably not.

Marat Safin will be trying his hardest to go out with shades of the US Open success he had at the earlier part of this decade – not the first and second exits that have plagued him at the event in the following years. Despite his dismal 10-15 record this year, Safin is going to be one of three previous US Open champions in the draw this year which may give him a little bit of a mental edge going into the tournament – a mental edge that was thought to be gone.

Going through the tournament, expect Safin to be showing the same intensity that he would have back in his prime years but don’t expect to see him get past any of the top players in the world. Depending on how the US Open draw turns out, he might be able to fight his way through to the quarterfinals, but it’d take a miracle for him to go beyond that. I wouldn’t put money on a first round exit, either, though.

Either way, Marat is going to end his pro tennis career at the end of this year and he’ll be happy whether he comes out with a strong showing at the US Open or a dismal display to cap his career.

UPDATE 08/28: With the draw having been released now, I can say that there is very little chance that Marat Safin will make it beyond the second round. In the first round he has Jurgen Melzer and, if he can even get past that, he’s likely to face the man of the hour – Juan Martin Del Potro. It has been great having you in the sport Marat!

Cincy Day 3 Results

Yesterday’s prediction results: 7-7

SINGLES

[1] Roger Federer (SUI) d Jose Acasuso (ARG)
6-3, 7-5

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) d Andreas Seppi (ITA)
7-6(4), 7-6(3)

[3] Andy Murray (GBR) d Nicolas Almagro (ESP)
7-6(3), 6-2

[4] Novak Djokovic (SRB) d [Q] Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)
7-6(5), 6-4

Sam Querrey (USA) d [5] Andy Roddick (USA)
7-6(11), 7-6(5)

[Q] Chris Guccione (AUS) d [7] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
7-6(12), 6-2

[8] Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) d Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)
6-2, 1-6, 6-3

[16] Radek Stepanek (CZE) d Marat Safin (RUS)
4-6, 6-3, 6-1

Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) d Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
7-6(9), 6-4

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d [Q] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS)
7-5, 6-3

[LL] Julien Benneteau (FRA) d Jurgen Melzer (AUT)
6-2, 3-6, 6-2

Tomas Berdych (CZE) d Philipp Petzschner (GER)
7-6(8), 6-7(7), 6-4

Jeremy Chardy (FRA) d John Isner (USA)
6-7(1), 6-3, 4-1 ret. (illness)

Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs Benjamin Becker (GER)
6-3, 6-3

DOUBLES

David Ferrer (ESP) / Tommy Roberdo (ESP) d Frantisek Cermak (CZE) / Michal Mertinak (SVK)
6-4, 6-7(2), 10-7

Jeremy Chardy (FRA) / Gilles Simon (FRA) d Travis Parrott (USA) / Filip Polasek (SVK)
4-6, 7-6(3), 12-10

Max Mirnyi (BLR) / Andy Ram (ISR) d [WC] Jesse Levine (USA) / Rajeev Ram (USA)
6-2, 6-2

[4] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) / Mark Knowles (BAH) d Feliciano Lopez (ESP) / Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
5-7, 6-4, 12-10

Michael Llodra (FRA) / Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) d [5] Bruno Soares (BRA) / Kevin Ullyett (ZIM)
6-0, 6-3

[7] Wesley Moodie (RSA) / Dick Norman (BEL) d Tomas Berdych (CZE) / Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) walkover (Berdych – fatigue)

Tennis Canada Prepares to Make Terrible Decision for Rogers Cup

My experience in Montreal for the ATP Rogers Cup this year was AWESOME. The venue, the atmosphere, the people and the tennis all exceeded my expectations. Up until this morning, I was really looking forward to the possibility of heading back there in 2011 in an attempt to duplicate my positive experience with the tournament. Well, it looks like that might not be happening.

Starting in 2011, the WTA and ATP Tours are making Tennis Canada hold both the men’s and women’s tournaments during the same week. Obviously Tennis Canada doesn’t want to lose the money it has made by staggering the two tournaments and they want to give people an opportunity to see both WTA and ATP players in a single year. So what do they plan on doing? Splitting both draws between Toronto and Montreal, of course.

The proposal would put one-half of each of the women’s and the men’s draws in Toronto and the other half in Montreal. They would play through their halves of the draw as normal then after completing the semifinals, one winner from either the ATP or WTA would fly to Toronto and the winner of the opposite would fly to Montreal. Yes, that’s really what they’re proposing. This is one of the WORST ideas they could have possibly come up with and here is just a couple reasons why:

Tickets – I’m not really into a lot of the WTA events right now. There just aren’t many successful players who are capturing my attention. Sure I’d like to see Safina, Clijsters, Sharapova or Cornet, but if they were playing at the same time as Federer, Nadal, Murray, Tsonga, Roddick, or just about anybody ranked through #70 (Robby Ginepri) – and even a few names ranked below him – I would skip their matches in a second.

I’d really like to see which side of the draw most my favorite players are on before I buy my tickets. Also, there’s a chance that there might be some better matches on one end and some potential blowouts on the other. I don’t want to run the risk of buying Montreal tickets a month in advance and ending up going to a draw with Murray, Djokovic, Del Potro and Davydenko when I could be seeing Federer, Nadal, Roddick and Tsonga. I like the former 4 players a lot, don’t get me wrong, but I’d like to be presented with an opportunity to see all 8 of them and not four of them, Safina, Venus and company.

The draw is released the weekend before the tournament begins, so I’d think that a lot of people would hold off on purchasing tickets until the draw has been released. If that happens, it’s very possible, even probable, that it would result in a flood of phone calls for one event and a lesser amount of sales for the other. You’re going to have the locals who go the closest event no matter what, so those are guaranteed sales, but it’s going to hurt for people who are traveling with the intent to see their favorite players. You can’t book hotels in advance, plan other events aside from the tournaments, etc. This will be a major disadvantage for the Rogers Cup against tournaments.

Doubles – They have been doing a GREAT job recently in encouraging some of the bigger names to come out of the doubles draw. Tsonga, Nadal, Djokovic, Davydenko, Simon, Haas, Robredo, Ferrer, and Wawrinka are just some of the names involved in the doubles draw at the Montreal even this year. That’s not even including the top ranked doubles teams.

Should they split up the event, they’re going to lose the momentum that the tours have been working to build for the doubles scene. You run the risk of separating regular partners, people not being able to commit to doubles until they know which site they’re going to be designated to and a loss in fan interest about doubles. One of the better attended matches that I went to while in Montreal was Nadal/Roig vs Djokovic/Vemic.

The court was filled before the prior match had even finished. People were rushing to find seating so they could watch this match. All of the seats were taken, people were sitting in the aisles and standing all along the available perimeter just to catch a glimpse of the two top 4 players and to see Nadal play in his first match since his loss to Robin Soderling at the French Open. There was a crowd gathered at Uniprix Stadium, watching over the rails and neglecting the match that was on the center court.

It’s possible that Nadal wouldn’t have even played this match had the event been split between two cities. What if his doubles matches were in Toronto and singles in Montreal? Obviously the doubles event is the casualty. So the match that was the highlight for many on that day wouldn’t have even happened.

I’m sure you can argue for it. There have to some positive elements out there. I’m sure there are some people who would love to take a chance on seeing two halves of both draws and hope for a line-up of stars. I’m not one of those people, though. You’ll find me heading to other tournaments instead and that’s too bad because I really enjoyed my first experience with the Rogers Cup.

Cincy Day 3 Predictions

My predictions have been awful so far in Cincy so if I were you, maybe I wouldn’t use these picks for any major decisions. If your life is riding on who wins between Melzer and Benneteau, don’t blame me if you pick Benneteau because I said to. Anyways, here are my predictions on the day:

Djokovic d. Ljubicic
Tsonga d. Guccione
Karlovic d. Mathieu
Youzhny d. Garcia-Lopez
Federer d. Acasuso
Safin d. Stepanek
Benneteau d. Melzer
Petzschner d. Berdych
Murray d. Almagro
Davydenko d. Kuntisyn (the d. in this one stands for DESTROYS)
Isner d. Chardy
Nadal d. Seppi
Roddick d. Querrey
Hewitt d. Becker

ENJOY!!!

Cincy Day 2 Results

Yesterday’s prediction results: 5-7. At least I was positive in the win column yesterday.

SINGLES

Tomas Berdych (CZE) d [10] Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)
6-4 ret. (knee)

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d [11] Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
7-6(4), 7-6(4)

Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) d [12] Robin Soderling (SWE)
3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4

[Q] Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) d Victor Hanescu (ROU)
7-5, 6-2

Jurgen Melzer (AUT) d Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
5-7, 7-6(4), 7-6(7)

Andreas Seppi (ITA) d [Q] Jan Hernych (CZE)
3-6, 6-4, 6-1

[Q] Chris Guccione (AUS ) d Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)
7-5, 2-6, 6-3

Philipp Petzschner (GER) d [Q] Simone Bolelli (ITA)
7-6(6), 6-3

Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) d James Blake (USA)
7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-4

John Isner (USA) d Tommy Haas (GER)
7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(3)

[9] Gilles Simon (FRA) d Igor Andreev (RUS)
7-6(5), 6-7(6), 6-1

David Ferrer (ESP) d [14] Marin Cilic (SRB)
7-6(4), 62

DOUBLES

[2] Daniel Nestor (CAN) / Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) d Robert Lindstedt (SWE) / Marcelo Melo (BRA)
6-4, 6-4

Michael Llodra (FRA) / Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) d Jurgen Melzer (AUT) / Radek Stepanek (CZE)
7-6(2), 6-4

Cincy Day 2 Predictions

There’s a good day of tennis (as usual) coming up today. We have a battle of the Spaniards to kick things off with Verdasco vs Garcia-Lopez which is followed by Lleyton Hewitt vs Robin Soderling, the return of James Blake who will be playing against Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn and John Isner vs Tommy Haas. Sounds like a decent day considering those are only the Center Court matches. Here’s a complete singles match list for the day in the form of my predictions. If you want to check out the actual order of play for today, click HERE!

Verdasco d. Garcia-Lopez
Youzhny d. Hanescu
Lopez d. Melzer
Hewitt d. Soderling
Hernych d. Seppi
Kohlschreiber d. Guccione
Blake d. Kunitsyn
Gonzalez d. Berdych
Petschner d. Bolelli
Simon d. Andreev
Haas d. Isner
Ferrer d. Cilic