US Open - Round 2: Andy vs Paul Capdeville (CHI)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

US Open - Round 2: Andy vs Paul Capdeville (CHI)

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

It's 3 days for the opening round at the US Open, and given it is the top half who have already completed the opening round, Murray won't be back until Friday.

Wouldn't imagine he would get another night match on Ashe straight away, as either Nadal or the potential Del Potro/Safin match would be more likely to take the spot given Murray has already played in the evening.

Either way, Murray will win this in straight sets without really having to try that hard.

philwrig · Hall of fame

No chance of night match. But a certain victory.

Mikeduke · County player

Confirmed that he is not on the order of play for tomorrow

indiana · Tennis legend

As FD said Andy's 2nd round was always going to be a Friday match.

Top half plays 2nd round on Thursday with a slight taster ( Fererer and Hewitt ) on Wednesday, bottom half plays on Friday. As an aside maybe Lleyton can give Federer a decent match in the 3rd round and Fed's draw might not quite be the walk in the park that some have suggested.

Twas always thus, well at least recently smile

Although I was beginning to wonder as Radio 5 Live kept talking today about him playing again on Thursday. But kinda not unusual for BBC to be a bit clueless.

Maybe if they could ever manage to schedule to complete the men's first round by Tuesday, they could end up with men's semis on the Friday rather than Saturday and a proper break before the final. Who's that in the back saying that it actually has more to do with TV ? biggrin

OK, anyway to ze match who knows what about Capdeville ?

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 3rd of September 2009 01:12:30 AM

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

indiana wrote:

OK, anyway to ze match who knows what about Capdeville ?

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 3rd of September 2009 01:12:30 AM

Not a lot, except for MTF's nickname of inserting an "r" after the "C".

And wasn't he the guy who had a pushing & shoving argument with Ancic at a match a couple of years ago?

steven · Tennis legend

Yes he was - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbEzF3y6bUk

Capdeville is 26, 6'3" tall (1.9 m), right-handed and a clay court specialist, currently ranked 87 having reached a career high of 76 in May this year. Reaching R2 here equals his best performance at a slam - before this week, he had reached R2 of every slam twice except Wimbledon where he went out in R1 on his debut this year.

The Chilean had a losing streak of 9 matches on three different surfaces from mid-May to early August, including an embarrassing straight sets loss to Spadea (6-0! 6-4 7-5) at Wimbledon but suddenly returned to form in his second week on hard courts by winning the Binghamton Challenger then beating Nieminen in New Haven. However, his biggest success of the year so far was probably taking out Numpty Nalby in R1 in Estoril and going on to reach the semis.

Capdeville has been on the same court as Muzza before, when together they lost a doubles match to the Chileans Gamonal and Harboe (!) at the Santiago Challenger in 2005 and he has partnered Jamie Murray once too, also without much success.

The Chilean is 3-0 against Brits in singles, having beaten Rusedski in 4 sets in R1 at Roland Garros in 2005 and Baker in straights in Louisville in 2006, but Boggo took a set off him in Memphis ATP qualifying in 2007.

If he were to keep up his 100% record against Brits on Friday though, it would be a massive shock - the bookies see it as potentially the most one-sided of the remaining R2 matches offering 43/1 against Capdeville and Muzza as 1/50 favourite. However, as Andy will know, any opponent in a slam can be dangerous if you take them too lightly, so I'm sure he won't!

Btw, not directly related to this match but worth noting is the fact that at the end of the year when he turned 21, Capdeville was ranked 390 - Evo, Cox & Milton are all ranked higher than that at a lower age and even Eaton was ranked higher than that when he was 20, while three more 18/19 year old Brits, Smethurst, Meatball and the Wardinator, are all ranked higher than he was at the end of the year when he turned 19!

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 3rd of September 2009 09:31:33 AM

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

^^^

Considering Nalbandian hasn't played since the Estoril defeat because of his hip injury, and had withdrawn the previous week, don't think there's too much we can tell about Capdeville winning that match, and then beating Oscar Hernandez and Maxi Gonzalez isn't the toughest run to a semi final.

(Not really relevant, but Nalbandian, despite having not played since that loss in May, has actually risen 5 spots in the rankings from 19 to 14!!!)

steven · Tennis legend

ForeverDelayed wrote:
^^^

Considering Nalbandian hasn't played since the Estoril defeat because of his hip injury, and had withdrawn the previous week, don't think there's too much we can tell about Capdeville winning that match, and then beating Oscar Hernandez and Maxi Gonzalez isn't the toughest run to a semi final.

(Not really relevant, but Nalbandian, despite having not played since that loss in May, has actually risen 5 spots in the rankings from 19 to 14!!!)

LOL that must be due to doubled ranking points coming off from last year and I assume he's had virtually nothing to defend over the last few months. Staying at home eating doughnuts while your ranking goes up one place every month sounds like it should suit Numpty down to the ground. (though I'm sure he wants to get back on court really!)

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:

ForeverDelayed wrote:
^^^

Considering Nalbandian hasn't played since the Estoril defeat because of his hip injury, and had withdrawn the previous week, don't think there's too much we can tell about Capdeville winning that match, and then beating Oscar Hernandez and Maxi Gonzalez isn't the toughest run to a semi final.

(Not really relevant, but Nalbandian, despite having not played since that loss in May, has actually risen 5 spots in the rankings from 19 to 14!!!)
LOL that must be due to doubled ranking points coming off from last year and I assume he's had virtually nothing to defend over the last few months. Staying at home eating doughnuts while your ranking goes up one place every month sounds like it should suit Numpty down to the ground. (though I'm sure he wants to get back on court really!)

Just checked the provisional rankings on MTF, and he's actually moved up to 13 provisionally when US Open points drop off, although one more win for Monfils will see him re-overtake him.

Nalby will drop a lot considering he has Stockholm title, and finals in Paris and Basle to defend.

Last I heard was that he wasn't going to play on the tour again until next year, but had started some very light hitting again, which will make him a very dangerous floater for the first few months of his comeback and is not the player you'd want to draw in round one of the Aussie Open.

indiana · Tennis legend

Andy 3rd on Arthur Ashe tomorrow after Hantuchova and Serena matches.

Play starts 11 am with Serena's match not before 1 pm. So guess Andy probably on between 2 and 3pm ( 7 and 8 pm BST )

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Missed the first match because I can't stay awake all night. And I'm going to miss this one because, most unusually for a Friday, I have to be out tonight, having stupidly agreed months ago to help with a fund-raising event. Cheer Andy on for me, though he really should have no problem in this match.

indiana · Tennis legend

Cilic 2 sets down to Levine smile

Del Potro broken in his first service game against Melzer smile

( OK, this one may not last but you never know....)

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah....

Cilic smashes Levine in the last 3 sets and wins in 5

So I can't now use the line I was ready with that Capdeville at no 87 in the world is the highest ranked player Andy could possibly meet prior to the quarter finals.

Well, if Istomin or Lapentti were to beat Cilic in Round 3 ..... smile

And Del Potro goes 2 sets up on Melzer

indiana · Tennis legend

Serena takes her time in 2nd set but has won, so Andy will be on shortly.

And Del Potro has just won as well.