Next Generation Adelaide International

Tennis fan · Next Generation Adelaide International

Interesting to see how the round robin will pan out. It looks that the tie breakers will be based on %sets won and then %games won.

Here is the draw:
http://www.atptennis.com/en/commo...is.com/1/posting/2007/339/mds.pdf

J-man

Not the toughest set of players. But Gasquet should be able to make some dandy work out of the new round robin format for the win

dav6789

I was suprised that nobody picked Djokovic or Hewitt to win! I would think they come before Gasquet.

Anyway, the Australian Mens Hardcourts is usually the best tournament to start the year. They have had so many former champions, and it is one of the older events around the tour. Hewitt won his first title as a young teenager in 1998, and again in 2000. Davydenko won his first title there in 2003. Other champions are Ivanisevic, Courier, Kafelnikov, Enqvist, Henman, Haas. Nobody has defended the title since Mark Woodforde in 1988/1989, so the pressure is on Florent Serra!

I don't really like the idea of round-robin, but I am excited to see how it works out. There is an elimination round to start it off, with 16 players (including the 4 qualifiers and 3 wildcards). The 8 winners advance and join 16 other players in the round-robin stage. There are 8 groups of 3 players (each group has 1 seed). The winners of each group advance to the knockout stage and play for the title.

dav6789

Australian Wildcard Chris Guccione won the first ATP match of the year, beating Amer Delic 4-6 6-3 6-4.

Others who advanced to the Round-Robin stage were 2005 Champion Joachim Johansson, and other Australian hopes Alun Jones and Peter Luczak.

In Doubles, Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek beat Florent Serra and Gilles Simon 6-4 6-4.

J-man

Luczak has tons of game. The reason I picked Gasquet over Hewitt and Djokovic was because of the "consistancy", if you can really call it that of Gasquet vs Hewitt and Djokovic.

Benchwarmer1

Gasquet, Spadea Emerge From Round Robin Groups

French youngster Richard Gasquet and American veteran Vince Spadea both emerged unbeaten from the round-robin stage Thursday to clinch a berth in the Adelaide quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Gasquet, 20, who has finished inside the year-end ATP Rankings Top 20 for two consecutive years, had to fight harder than expected to shake off Canadian Frank Dancevic 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. In his first round-robin win over Florian Mayer, Gasquet dropped just three games.

Gasquet is looking to atone for a disappointing start to the 2006 season, when he suffered first-round losses in Doha, Sydney and the Australian Open. Indeed he won just one match in his first five tournaments. A strong start to the 2007 season will allow the spectacular shotmaker to make a run at the ATP Rankings Top 10. He is currently No. 18.

Spadea, who last reached the quarterfinals in April last year in Houston, faced just two break points and dropped serve only once in a 6-1, 7-6(6) win over Russian Evgeny Korolev. Spadea, an avid rapper, has advanced to the quarterfinals without dropping a set, having beaten third seed Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4 in his first round-robin match.

The 32-year-old American ended the 2006 season on a four-match losing streak at ATP level and dropped back to the Challenger circuit in November in search of matches and confidence, reaching the quarterfinals of the Nashville Challenger and the second round of the Naples Challenger.

Spadea, a former World No. 18, failed to reach 20 match wins in a season for the first time in four years and ended outside the Top 70 for the second consecutive season.

In a match that guaranteed the winner passage to the quarterfinals, big-serving Australian left-hander Chris Guccione defeated sixth-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement 7-6(4), 7-6(5). Guccione was clutch on serve, firing 11 aces and saving 10 of the 11 break points he faced.

ALLEZ RICHARD!!!!

and great job Spadea, never knew you had it in you (no offense)

J-man

Good job Spadea. Luck is great isn't it? Wink

Also congrats to Gasquet. Make me proud.

stevos14

Too bad for Frank, hes played so well against the big players but can't quite pull out the wins yet, he'll get there. At least he gets direct entry into the Australian, along with Aleksandra Wozniak Cool

dav6789

What a surprise! Only 2 of the 8 seeds advanced from the Round-Robin stage to the Knockout stage!

Rain has delayed play in Adelaide, but top seed Novak Djokovic got past Paul Goldstein 6-4 7-5, and Australian wildcard Chris Guccione upset 2nd seed Richard Gasquet 1-6 6-3 7-6. He has had an amazing run this week, already won 4 matches now- he had to play the Elimination Round before.

The other 2 QF matches are Vincent Spadea v Joachim Johansson and Juan-Martin Del-Potro v Igor Kunitsyn.

In the doubles, there is an exciting SF match between Clement/Gasquet and Djokovic/Stepanek. The other SF has yet to be decided.

PSALT

Djokovic's fans are really making me mad. They have cheered for Guccione's errors the entire match. I hate people like that. The Aussie crowd however has been very polite.

dav6789

PSALT

Djokovic won, sadly. I have never liked him. His is my least favorite 'young gun', even over Berdych. I never liked him after his half-hour (at least that's what it felt like) injury timeout against Monfils at the USO, after Monfils was running away with the match.

dav6789

I quite like him. I think he is exciting to watch and seems friendly and everything. The worst thing about him that makes him horrible to watch sometimes is the amount of times he bounces the ball before he serves. That makes my blood boil!

PSALT

Benchwarmer1

leftys_rock

dav6789

Djokovic will try and emulate Safina by winning a clean sweep to start the year. He will play the doubles final soon.