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Friday Sony, Team Bresnik Goes Down
12 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
![2103-161954[1]](https://www.tennis-prose.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2103-1619541.jpg)
Rough day for the Gunther Bresnik Brigade, Dominic Thiem lost a close battle with Robredo 46 67, blowing a break up late in the second. But his flashy backhand winners, forehand strikes, big serves and clutch volleys wowed the crowd. Also, it was interesting to see Ryan Harrison arrive at this match in the middle of the second set, presumably to see Thiem, who defeated Rosol in the first round. Harrison lost in straight sets to Rosol at the Dallas Challenger last week.
Then later on grandstand, Ernests Gulbis was up 52 in the third on Benneteau but he let it slip away. Some failed drop shots at 45 seemed to be the turning point. The French veteran won the last five games in a row.
Marcos Bagdhatis won another third set thriller, taking down Kohlshreiber 86 in the tiebreaker. The German missed a forehand volley into the open cross court and smashed his Wilson in a rage. Bag, the recipient of three straight wildcards and ranked around l50 now, may have regained his lost confidence with this win and his dynamic comeback against Giraldo from 25 down in the third. Bag once again riled the crowd into a frenzy with his super tennis and exceptional showmanship skills.
I officially started my Facing McEnroe project (article or book, not sure yet) with Mats Wilander and let me tell you it’s off to a fantastic start. Mats really explained his pal Johnny Mac’s competitive nature as well as anyone ever has. He also shared some cool insights about their friendship and matches.
Martina Hingis has joined forces with Sabine Lisicki and Hingsicki defeated Hlavackova & Safarova in two tough sets. It was nice to see the late baseline exchange between the Hingis backhand and Lucie forehand cross court, the rally lasted about ten shots until finally Lucie netted a forehand. Hingis looks very good and she closed it out on her own serve without any problem.
Grigor Dimitrov held off a determined Albert Montanes in three sets on grandstand. Super G’s popularity is soaring, the fans love the show he puts on.
Roger Federer edged Dr. Ivo 64 76. Every single match they have played has had a close scoreline.
Caro Wozniacki was tested by Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, surviving a tough third set, with Rory, mom and pop, and friend, current WTA player and former Playboy poser Marta Domachowska in her box.
Christina McHale lost a heartbreaker 6767 to the tough Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
I was able to ask Rafa Nadal some questions about Facing Hewitt and he some very kind words about the Aussie legend.
I gave a copy of my “Facing Federer” book to the affable Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times and he said he’s heard good things about it, which was very nice to hear. I also gave a copy to Arnaud Clement today, as he helped me out sharing his Fed memories last year at the US Open.
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Scoop Malinowski · March 21, 2014 at 11:04 pm
Federer sat front row at the Heat game tonight.
Mitch · March 21, 2014 at 11:59 pm
Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Wade’s kids did the coin toss before the Nadal-Nishikori night match a few years ago. Would be nice to see them show up again.
loreley · March 22, 2014 at 10:46 am
Bad day at the office for Gulbis yesterday. He seemed not 100 %. Had stomache troubles early on. Told his box, that he has no power in his legs. But he also screwed too many chances to win the match. Very low first service percentage.
Thiem gave Robredo a good fight. Kinda sorry for him that he had suffer Ernests’ loss right after his own.
Scoop. Where is your biofile with Dominic? You can’t make us waiting that long. 😉
Harold · March 22, 2014 at 11:34 am
I like Gulbis, I tend to like players that have that extra noise in their head(JMac,Safin)but unlike those guys, Gulbis will never win Masters Series events or Majors.
Used to think he was unlucky for a while, getting bad draws early in big events. Now, he is older, and just not taking advantage of chances to gain points. Didn’t play Miami last year, so if he beats Bennetau and has to play Robredo, a match he could win, he could have piled up some points, going into the probable Djoko meeting. If you are a top player, you cannot lose to Benny in Masters series events. Plain and simple.
Tummy ache excuses don’t fly either.
loreley · March 22, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Don’t be so harsh.
I’ve been told that Gulbis was ill since the day before the match. He didn’t look well. Is it better to withdraw or to try it?
loreley · March 22, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Times have changed a lot since McEnroe & even Safin played.
90 points till Djokovic in 4th round are not that much. Players have to be 100 % against anyone. It won’t make much difference. It’s still early season.
Bryan · March 22, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Can’t believe Gulbis lost that after he was serving for the match. I predicted his racquet smashing incident 10 minutes before he did it. Unlike guys like McEnroe he doesn’t seem to regain focus after blowing up, he loses it. He needs to fix that.
Jerzy and Monfils crash and burned today. All my faves are out except John Isner now. Not happy with any of this.
Harold · March 22, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Gulbis cannot be losing to a near 33 year old Bennetau, who cant hurt him with anything, other than being more steady.
JJ flamed out big, Cilic too. Bad day for the big boys, Isner just broke DY, in the 3rd set
Andrew Miller · March 22, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Dy must’ve played decent – match was about two hours vs isner. Harrison looks like he is about to lose to Ben Becker. Ivanovic beats flavia penneta. Querrey loses ! Sock is still in the match with raonic. If sock wins that would be amazing. Given that he can run around his BH vs raonic that’s not that far fetched.
Dan Markowitz · March 22, 2014 at 8:41 pm
Surprised Harry came up short in 3rd set breaker against Becker, who’s 32 and #93 and has won only 3 matches all year. In fact, Harry routined him back in Sydney at the beginning of the year. Harry is going in the wrong direction. The past few years, he usually had some nice results in U.S.
Cilic losing to Roger-Vasselin is very surprising. I know the Frenchman is solid, but Cilic has disappointed after Delray. I had hoped Q-ball would give Almagro a good match, but 4 and 4 is about as good as the Valley boy can do these days, it seems, against a Top 20 player.
Mitch · March 22, 2014 at 9:05 pm
Doesn’t seem like it’s been officially confirmed, but the big news is that Del Po is reported to be going in for wrist surgery on his left wrist, which would likely end his season. What a shame.
Scoop Malinowski · March 23, 2014 at 12:24 am
Lor it’s going to run on the ATP site during Davis Cup week. But I might pop it up on Tennis-prose earlier )