I suppose, to look on the bright side, it will be fun watching him climb back up again. Though to be honest, I'm not expecting much of an improvement until next year.
i think andy will make the semis of one of these masters either here in madrid or paris. Also think he will go well in moscow and st petersberg it may have been a wise descion not to go to asia and basel as the entry list look relativly week for the two in Russia.
(8)ROBREDO, Tommy ESP vs BYE (WC)DEL POTRO, Juan Martin ARG vs STARACE, Potito ITA CLEMENT, Arnaud FRA vs NALBANDIAN, David ARG (9)BERDYCH, Tomas CZE vs BYE
(15)CHELA, Juan Ignacio ARG vs BYE STEPANEK, Radek CZE vs MURRAY, Andy GBR BAGHDATIS, Marcos CYP vs [Q]PAVEL, Andrei ROU (2)NADAL, Rafael ESP vs BYE
Poor lad. With the ATP meeting hanging over his head, too.
For a masters cup draw it's not too bad...offers reasonable chances of defending last year's points. There could have been worse rd1 draws - Nalbandian or Baghdatis for example ! Not great to have Rafa lying in wait so early but indoors is probably the best surface to play him and who knows, Baggy might spring a big surprise in rd2
Some interesting early clashes in the other sections....Federer-Canas in rd3 could be one !!
Yeah I thought it was an ok draw when I saw it. I suppose pretty tough first round, though not too tough as it worked out. 2nd round you can't do much better than 15th seed really and as has been said if you're going to play Rafa better on this surface than any other. He could have been in a quarter with Fed or Novak which would have been tougher.
Needs some big points from one of these 2 masters.
Karlovic doing really well at the moment, i thought he was just a grass court specialist!
His game from the baseline has improved a lot over the last year or so, and now he no longer has to win tiebreaks to win matches, as he is breaking serve an awful lot more.
The serve is still his major weapon, but he is no longer solely about the serve
With Gasquet and Blake losing along with Haas, does Andy stand a genuine chance of getting to Shanghai.
Ideal combination is to Win in Madrid, Win in St Petersburg and a Semi Final or better in Paris Masters.
However, i doubt it will happen because hes got minor tournies being counted among his best 18 results this year so i suppose he wont go to Shanghai regardless if that ideal combination did happen.
With Gasquet and Blake losing along with Haas, does Andy stand a genuine chance of getting to Shanghai.
Ideal combination is to Win in Madrid, Win in St Petersburg and a Semi Final or better in Paris Masters.
However, i doubt it will happen because hes got minor tournies being counted among his best 18 results this year so i suppose he wont go to Shanghai regardless if that ideal combination did happen.
He doesn't really need to do that well! With everyone other than Gonzalez, Robredo and Canas above him losing, if he wins Madrid, he will go to 8th or even 7th in the race, and put himself right back in contention
It is a genuine possibility mathematically speaking. However, I think tomorrow's result (v Nadal) will tell us more about whether it's a realistic possibility or not.
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