David Ferrer And Rafael Nadal Come Back To Defeat Germany And Completed An Epic Davis Cup

World No 1 Rafael Nadal and the veteran player David Ferrer accomplished an epic quarter-final of Davis Cup. They fight back to defeat Germany with the score 3-2 on Sunday.

Nadal, who has returned from injury continued his impressive game and beat Alexander Zverev, who is world rank 4 in straight sets of 6-1 6-4 6-4 and kept the hopes of Spain to stay in the competition alive and forcing a deciding rubber and fifth between Ferrer and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Ferrer, who is now 36, then rolled back the years to create an inspired score of five-set five-hour 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-5 marathon win against the world No 34 at the atmospheric Plaza de Toros in Valencia.
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Ferrer to play Goffin in the World Tour Finals

David Ferrer will play against David Goffin in the second round of the World Tour Finals.

Ferrer has had to make some hard yards to make it to the finals this year. He has not been able to strike the ball cleanly in his recent appearances.

He has not played any game against Goffin either. So, he would not have that much of an idea about the game of the Belgian.

Ranking-wise, Ferrer is quite a bit ahead, but, it’s the recent form which matters and not the ranking.

As far as Goffin is concerned, he still has to prove himself on the tour. He has not won against the top players too many times.

In fact, it has happened just once that Goffin has got better of a top 10 player. He did that last week when he beat Milos Raonic, but, one win is not an indication of anybody’s credentials, not at this level surely.

So, Goffin would be eager to win against Ferrer too and show everyone that the victory over Raonic was not a fluke.

This might be the start of a golden period for Goffin. If he topples Ferrer straight after Raonic, his confidence would reach sky-high and he would automatically become an interesting prospect, one to watch out for next season.

Considering Ferrer’s form, this game appears to be going to go all the way down to the wire.

As an outsider, you would still say that Ferrer would clinch it despite a bit of shakiness in his game, but, Goffin is a fantastic player too and an emerging one and those who have seen his encounter against Raonic knows that he is a giant killer. So, for the lovers of tough tennis, this is a match up they would not like to miss.

ROLLERCOASTER FOR KVITOVA

Petra Kvitova would have known now how great a leveller sports is. The 24-year old Czech who had lifted the shining trophy at the All England club just weeks ago was outplayed by a qualifier in the US Open the other day as she went down in straight sets in round three to make her way out of the tournament.

Aleksandra Krunic, a player from Serbia who is not even in top 120 in the singles world rankings, could not have had a better day than that. She could not believe what she had just done out there. She was utterly shocked as everybody else in the spectators’ area. Read more »

Opening Of Gerry Weber Upsets

The opening day of the Gerry Weber Open 2014 saw a couple of big upsets as two of the top players in the tournament, Mikhail Youzhny and Richard Gasquet, were sent packing from the first round.

Youzhny was found wanting against Ivo Karlovic, the Croatian player, while, Gasquet was shown the exit door by the Dutchman Robin Haase who won in the straights sets by 6-4, 6-4.

The defeat of Gasquet against Haase was more surprising because the former is a terrific player on the grass courts. Previously, whenever he had come across Haase on green surfaces, he had won hands down. He was supposed to do the same again, but, that wasn’t the case to be.

Haase’s ability to hit big left Gasquet clueless on quite a few occasions in both the sets and the points that he dropped during those key moments made the difference eventually.

Gasquet didn’t have a great French Open either. He had suffered a third round defeat there, but, that was bound to happen as he had not practised much before that tournament. He had just recovered from injury and travelled to Paris with lack of match practice.

Speaking in the post match interview yesterday, Gasquet revealed that he has established a fresh injury a couple of days ago while training and he was having pain during the match against Haase.

The Frenchman said, “I felt a bit of it (pain). It was hard for me out there, but, no excuses.”

Despite remaining out for a decent amount of time due to injury and getting out early from a couple of tournaments, Gasquet is still the top ranked French player in the world. The 28-year old player’s overall position in the World rankings is no. 11 though.

Monaco Not Participating In Wimbledon

Gabriela Sabatini’s countryman, Juan Monaco, is not going to participate in the singles competition of the Wimbledon Championships which will start next week.

Monaco who has suffered a number of losses on the tour this season is presently at the 71^st position in the World rankings. It’s not been long back when he was one of the top 10 players in the world, but, all of a sudden, his rhythm completely got lost and he has rapidly deteriorated in the rankings in the recent past.

His campaign at the recently finished French Open was not that encouraging either. He had been beaten in round no. 2 there.

In total, Monaco has played 20 matches in the 2014 season out of which he has won 8, while, lost 12. This is a very poor record for a player who was in top 10 a while back.

Monaco confirmed his withdrawal from the Wimbledon Championships by releasing a statement on a social networking site.

That statement reads, “Hello everybody. I am very disappointed to make you all aware that I would not be there taking part in the next Slam of this year i.e. the Wimbledon Championships. I am suffering from an injury because of which I have not been able to even move properly. So, it’s not possible for me to go out there and compete. I have been told that it would take me almost a month to get 100% fit. I hope my recovery goes well. I appreciate each and every positive message sent to me by you guys. Thank you.”

Monaco’s best in the Grand Slam singles so far has been an entry to the 4^th round. He has done that four times in his career, twice in the French Open and twice in the US Open, but, he hasn’t been able to go past that stage.

ROBREDO vs CILIC

David Ferrer’s countryman, Tommy Robredo, will take on Marin Cilic in his first match at Indian Wells.

It will be the 4^th time that Robredo will be playing against Cilic. He has already defeated the Croatian twice and would be looking for third win over him, but, that is not going to be easy as Cilic has been one of the most in form players on the tour in the recent times. He has won close to 20 games so far in the ongoing season.

The other thing which goes in the favour of Cilic is that he has played quite a bit on the hard courts of late. Robredo, on the other hand, has been playing on the clay courts after the Australian Open. So, it would be tough for him to adjust his game according to the nature of the surface in the Californian desert.

As far as Robredo’s form is concerned, it hasn’t been fantastic, but, it hasn’t been criticisable either. He has been producing decent results, but, he is now up against a player who is probably having the best time of his career. So, he will have to lift his game a little bit.

Robredo though is the more composed of the two players and he doesn’t panic that easily unlike Cilic who sometimes tries to show too much aggression and loses the plot in the process.

If the world rankings of the two players are compared, Robredo (18) is a few positions ahead of his Croatian opponent who is out of top 25 at the moment.

But, on the basis of the form that the two players have shown in the last few weeks, one would have to say that it’s Cilic who is the favourite in this contest.