Week 31 - ATP 500 - Washington Open (Hard)

BradMarx90 · County player

Week 31 - ATP 500 - Washington Open (Hard)

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

R3 likely to be Pablo Cuevas WR 29

Spectator · All-time great

(3) Rohan Bopanna & Florin Mergea (IND/ROU) CR 18 (10+8) d Andy Murray & Daniel Nestor (CAN) CR 314 (289+25) ... or CR (3+25 depending on how you do it) 2-6 6-1 10-3

indiana · Tennis legend

Very decent to go to a MTB although two strangely uneven sets.

I"d always, by the way, go with the actual doubles rankings in CRs ( which does appear to be how we do it ) so here indicating how relatively pish Andy is at doubles. OK, it is no sort of true indication with him, but in general doubles rankings for doubles, irrespective of the entry criteria.

Spectator · All-time great

I think it's best to put doubles rankings as is the custom ... but I also like to add the singles in a note where it's relevant ... everyone will probably have a different view! It's not actually that Mr Murray is no good at doubles; he just doesn't often play. So in a sense, neither ranking gives a fair assessment of his prowess ... but both together give a sense of why he (or another) might ... or might not ... be good on any given day.

The MTB, as noted elsewhere, is online. And Mergea was just phenomenal. A scratch pairing didn't stand a chance. Don't know what the rest of the match was like, but if Mergea played that way in the 2nd set, it's no wonder that it was as it was. I do also wonder whether Nestor is tiring more quickly - I've seen (and/or seen scores from) several matches recently where he began well and then tailed off a bit.

indiana · Tennis legend

Gabashvili beat Berankis ( oops - or maybe even Becker ! ) 4-6 6-1 6-3, so ...

R2: (1) Andy Murray WR 3 vs Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) WR 53 ( CH 50 last month )

Scheduled on Stadium Court not before 7.30 pm local, 12.30 am BST

Winner to play Cuevas or Berankis.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 5th of August 2015 12:26:56 PM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Just how many shots does Berankis get at this ......?

Spectator · All-time great

New rules. If a country has 5 or fewer players on the Tour, as is the case for Lithuania, its players are given an extra try in one tournament a year. They have to state at the start of the tournament that this is their chosen event. If they actually win the event on the first go, they do not get another "extra try" - so it requires careful scheduling. It's in section XI of the ATP rule book, p. 315 (of which copies are available at 221b Baker Street or in the WH Smith opposite the entrance to Blandings Castle).

Or maybe it's just, more prosaically, that Gabashvili actually beat Benjamin Becker in the first round, while Berankis beat Yen Hsun Lu (easily done to get the lines mixed up ... been there, etc)

-- Edited by Spectator on Wednesday 5th of August 2015 11:59:17 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah so ...

I did wonder what that silly Optimist was waffling about Berankis and still didn't get it even then disbelief

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 5th of August 2015 12:34:11 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Ouch. The 3rd round opponent becomes a moot point:

Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) WR 53 d. (1) Andy Murray WR 3 6-4 4-6 7-6(4)

Did not see that one coming.

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 6th of August 2015 03:34:41 AM

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Noooo!!!! Anyone see the match and how he played?

rich81 · Social player

Stuart Fraser from the Mail said (on Twitter) "Andy Murray knocked out in his singles opener in Washington as Teymuraz Gabashvili plays the match of his life to win 6-4 4-6 7-6."

Obviously not the desired result, but I suppose it looks like it was an atypical performance from Gabashvili, rather than from Andy.

indiana · Tennis legend

Even without reading about Gabashvili's performance ( although yes that is better to hear ) I was already less than hugely disturbed by earlier hearing of Andy's defeat.

He has played a heck of a lot of tennis since the start of his clay season run, twice to the point of exhaustion - when he withdrew from the Rome Masters and at the Davis Cup.

I would actually hope that he hasn't done that much since the Davis Cup, relaxed a bit and had some quality time with Kim, and if so he may have come into this week a fair bit less than ideally prepared.

Whether he even should have / needed to play this week is maybe questionable ( sometimes in the past many would say he played too little, but certainly not this last year ). But he got a couple of matches in, counting both singles and doubles ( and there looks to be a Davis Cup agenda there ), saw where his game was at and can now step it up ( if it's been stepped down ) over the next few days in preparation for the two Masters weeks. I'm really not sure how much a big run here would have overall benefitted Andy.

So, onward ...

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 6th of August 2015 06:47:34 AM

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Dismaying, though. He hasn't lost to a much lower-ranked player for a while.

theemptyvessel · Club Coach

It was clear on the night that Andy was not at his best, mostly just the typical struggles transitioning from grass back to hard courts. Gabashvilli had on the other hand been playing Team Tennis here for the last two weeks and was in the zone having finished up as MVP for the Austin team last week. Andy actually still could and maybe should have won, he won more points overall and was in a lot of return games without forcing enough breaks but to be fair, Gabashvilli played the only way he could, he attacked relentlessly and went for everything and everything he tried seemed to work so it was just his lucky night.

I do agree with Indiana though, the 2 Masters events and the US Open are the real targets and this was an odd choice of tournament, I really did not want to see Andy go too deep here and end up wearing down too soon. Hopefully he has worked out some kinks and shaken off the rust here and can prepare for the next 2 weeks properly. That said I do find it baffling that he has signed up to play doubles again next week, this time with Paes. I just don't know what he is going to get from it and he runs the risk of overplaying.