A quick look into Roland Garros

Hi guys! Hope all is well. We have arrived to the second major of the year. One that the Spanish thrive their professional lives on. The clay calls to them. Especially one of them. Rafa is going to try to capture his eighth title in Paris. He has the amazing record of 52-1 match wins here. Might he add another one this year?!!

I think Rafa has a good shot of making it [at least]  to the semifinals. His most likely opponent in that round would be Novak Djokovic. That would be a treat to see given their recent rivalry.

David Ferrer is looking to repeat his success from last year. He’s had a bumpy couple of past months. I know this is his favorite grand slam and he’s always tries his utmost best here. It’s gonna be a tough road for him if he is to progress. There may be a certain Roger lurking there who he’s never been able to beat.

Marcel and Feli are to meet up in round one. I’m looking forward to seeing how Nico will do in this tournament. He had some tough matches this year which ended up not in his favor.

This had to be a short post only because I am once again away from my home. I’m going to try to k.i.t. though.

Small update

I hope all of you are doing well. Summer is around the corner, I hope you guys have something fun planned! Hopefully I’ll be able to post regarding Roland Garros this weekend. It appears to be a rather slow week!

**I will post by this weekend when I have a chance to take a look at the Roland Garros draw. It’ll come out by Friday. Check it out here. Have a nice day!

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Hi guys! I’m back finally. So sorry for the absence. I know there was a major update…

I want to highlight the fact that Rafael Nadal was able to get his 24th masters title. He now has seven Rome titles. Quite impressive. He beat Roger Federer in the final as if his opponent didn’t even know how to play the game! I think all roads look good for Rafa in regards to Roland Garros. Coincidentally now Rafa is ranked four in ATP and will also be seeded fourth for the upcoming major.

*It’s kind of a slow week for the Spanish Armada. I’m sure they are gearing up for next week! I’ll update this site if anything new and exciting happens.

Hope you’ve all been well!

Rome Masters updates

As I expected Ferrer was going to have some trouble with fellow compatriot Verdasco. He did manage to win 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in nearly 2.5 hours. It’s kind of hard to follow an entire match here in the states because they usually show the main court matches on t.v.; so I wasn’t able to see the end couple of games. I was sighing with relief that David won. He’ll next play Kohlschreiber in which he leads a 7-3 H2H.Marcel must be feeling double-y happy! It was his first win over a top ten player today. Maybe it’s not fair to give him a 100% credit, but he did manage to compete at a high level. The thing is that Andy Murray had to retire as soon as the second set was completed due to back problems. (On a side note I feel bad for Andy because Roland Garros is right around the corner!) Playing with Marc is going good so far too because they’re into the third round where they’ll play Lipsky/Gonzales.

As for Rafa, same old story! But that’s good. As usual he is making it look easy out there! He beat the Fog 6-1, 6-3. He’ll play Gulbis next. I remember a couple of years ago he gave Rafa some trouble on clay. The only time I feel Gulbis can be a threat is when he hits those unexpected drop-shots because they are often unplayable!

*I know this is a late notice, but I just realized it right now. For the next few days I wont be able to post because I’m going on a lil vacation. I don’t think I’ll be able to post regarding the quarterfinals all the way to the finals. In fact I’ll probably be able to blog next around Wednesday. (I’m sorry). I really do hope that we have a great final to watch and it’s not one-sided!   *** I hope you’re all doing well and please stay safe! All the best…Iram

In Rome…

Hi! First of all check out what Masum found-MicaelaBryans tweet. She is the adorable daughter of Bob Bryan. I LOVE this pic. It’s nice to see Ferru getting practice of holding babies. I would love to see pics of his future kids while he is still on tour.

Haha~ was this an under-sided jab at Rafa regarding last years clay in Madrid?

David Ferrer is playing Fernando Verdasco. If you had asked me to pick a winner in 2011-up until pre-Barcelona ofthis year, I would have not even thought twice before replying “David”.

I am not the biggest *Fer* fan; and I think he has had a terrible year of so far. Yet I still feel Ferru is a teeny-bit vulnerable…I know that Fer is so desperate to get some wins for 2013. I will give D.F. the edge here, but if he wants to win tomorrow, he better not let down his game for a moment.

Rafa will take stage tomorrow as well and play against Fognini. I know the Italian can be a threat on clay and he will have to crowd rooting for him. But let’s be realistic and realize that the Mallorcan will have his way on court.   

Congrats to Rafa (again)!!

If Rome brings amazing Italian food, scrumptious gelato and wonders-of-the world like the Colosseum, then the city is bound to bring us incredible tennis. Or at least that’s what we hope for.

But first lets recap the weekend. Firstly major props to Pablo Andujar again for his first semifinals appearance. I hope he can build on this for the rest of the season. In fact he moved up 59 ranking spots. (I took a look at Fernando Verdasco and he’s fallen even more now- to #53, yikes!)

Rafael Nadal was able to capture his 23rd masters title in Madrid on Sunday. He beat Stan Wawrinka easily 6-2, 6-4. It wasn’t much a match…more so it didn’t seem like a final! I think the Swiss may have also run out of steam; and was unable to give Rafa more of a challenge. Remember that Stan won in Portugal last weekend and he played well against some top players this week. Regardless it was going to be tough for Stan, he had trailed a 0-8 H2H going into this match and had never even taken a set off [Rafa] for that matter!

“I’m very happy… I think I played the best match of the whole week today in the final. Being able to play here in Madrid and being able to win in front of all my people, is something really special.”

Rafael is now ties with Thomas Muster with 40 clay court titles. He has yet to beat Guillermo Vilas who has 46. Somehow I think that’s a very doable achievement for the Mallorcan! I think he has a sure shot for this week. He is going to try to defend his Rome title from last year. It might be more of a challenge this week because both Roger and Nole had embarrassing early exits in Madrid and they’re going to be hungry for success in Rome.

I will keep you guys posted on what is happening in Rome. Bye from me for now. All the best!

What happened Ferru?

Firstly, congrats to Rafa and Pablo both. More so for Pablo. This guy was granted a wildcard into the tournament. Ranked 113 he has made it to his first semifinal appearance in a masters. I think he’ll have a very tough time against the pumped up Rafa, but I hope he’s able to play his heart and soul out on the court!

“Very happy for being able to reach my first [Masters 1000] semi-finals in my career, especially here in Madrid.  I think that I cannot ask for anything else.” P.A.

Okay, so back to what’s bugging me-today’s match. I thought David played one of his best matches this year minus the last set. I say that because he was giving the Clay-god a super tough time in the first two sets. In fact David was causing Rafa to make errors that we normally don’t see from him! I thought that this would be David’s first win over Rafa on clay since 2004. The Valencian was up a break in the second set. I think when Rafa was able to level things out, the match just “clicked” for him. Rafa played the tiebreak better. The third he literally ran away with.

Guess who came to watch! CR7 with Irina and Sergio Ramos

I was so freakin’ excited with the way things were going for Ferru early on in the match. He was on fire! I suppose at the end of the day I am relieved that he didn’t just give away the match to Rafa. (It could have been worse.) Not sure if I really want to call it a “choke”. I get this tiny lil feeling in me that when David is super close to winning a match like this or in Miami, he gets super excited mentally and that impacts his next few moves which end up being disastrous. Anyway best of luck to him in Rome.

I’m really excited for Fernando and David. Those two are in the semis and will face Peya/Soares on Saturday.

Good luck to all those guys. As for all of my followers, have a lovely weekend.

Quarterfinals in Madrid

So here’s what is going on in Madrid:

*David was successful in the end of his match against Tommy Haas. Honestly he got lucky because the German was up a break in the third set. I’m glad he got thru it.

*Rafael is eager to progress into the final. Now Federer is out as well (whom he might have run into in the semis.) Rafa beat Youzhny 6-2, 6-3.

So with that being stated, the Madridistas who are gonna show up on Friday are in for a treat. It’ll be a clash of the top Spanish players. I know *most* of the Spanish still feel that Rafael Nadal is the number one Spanish tennis player. David had suffered a bad loss against him in Acapulco earlier this year; but I really hope he comes into the match with his full determination.

*I don’t think anyone had expected Pablo Andujar to get to the quarterfinals. Good for him. He’ll take on Kei Nishikori next who had defeated last years champion Roger Federer.

*Fernando can still be happy that he’s competing in this tournament. He did lose to Tsonga, however him along with Marrero ousted number two seeds Lopez/Granollers.

                            *Will post again after the quarterfinals. Take care!