Eastbourne offers invaluable preparation ahead of Wimbledon for numerous world-class tennis players. Whether on the practice courts or during actual match play. But Gilles Simon and Feliciano Lopez took it to a whole new level by tuning up for today's first round encounter at the All-England Club by playing each other in the Aegon International final!
It's just the luck of the draw, of course. Lopez and Simon knew, when the Wimbledon first round matches were revealed on Friday morning, that if they beat Ivan Dodig and Andreas Seppi respectively in the Eastbourne semi-finals, they would face each other twice in three days. And, incredibly, considering they've both been close to the top of the game for much of the last few years, they'd only played each other once before - in 2008.
The Eastbourne final was a high quality match, despite the fact that second-seed Simon had struggled with a bug for most of the week, and unseeded world no. 39 Lopez is on the comeback trail after missing a significant amount of the season so far with a wrist injury.
31 year old left-hander Feliciano is unusual for a Spaniard in having a game ideally suited to grass, with his serve-and-volley and backhand slice. He's a three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist, but is perhaps best known with the wider British public for Judy Murray's "Deliciano Lopez" comments!
He appeared to have the edge throughout much of the first two sets of the competitive tussle, but Frenchman Gilles was showing his canny ability to rally without error and go for the right shots at the right time. Last week there were several occasions when it seemed his opponents might have too much game for him, but he confounded expectations - as he's often done throughout a career that has seen him reach the world's top ten. This was encapsulated when, close to losing the match in the second set tie-break, a return winner as Lopez attempted to serve-volley gave him the crucial mini-break to lead 6-4, going on to take the tie-break and set up a deciding set.
But the first grass court title of Feliciano Lopez's career turned out not to be far away as he dominated the final set to triumph 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (5-7), 6-0.
And this evening Lopez repeated the result - defeating Simon, the 19th seed at Wimbledon, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11). Simon, whose play improved considerably by the end of the match (that third set tie-break seeing some truly brilliant tennis from both men), was very unlucky to have to face such a dangerous opponent in the first round. Lopez's Eastbourne victory saw him rise to 32 in the new rankings list - high enough for a Grand Slam seeding but, of course, just too late for this year's Wimbledon.
Tuesday 25 June 2013
Tuesday 18 June 2013
Watching Stosur Across The Globe
Eastbourne seems to bring the best out of Sam Stosur when she plays Nadia Petrova.
Today Petrova, the world no. 13, and the Aegon International's eighth seed, was upset 6-2, 6-3 on Court Two in the first round by Australia's Stosur, currently ranked just one place below at world no.14, but therefore unseeded.
Their career head-to-head record now stands at 6-4 in Petrova's favour, and the only match where Stosur conceded as few as five games against her Russian rival took place - yes, you've guessed it - in the first round at Eastbourne 2011 (6-1, 6-4).
True, Petrova beat Stosur in the semi-finals of Eastbourne 2008, but that was in the days when Stosur was just beginning to emerge as a singles contender, following her huge success in the doubles game.
I watched Stosur beat Petrova on Court One in their first round encounter at Eastbourne 2011 - the Aussie's first victory over the Russian in five attempts. But it was their next meeting that would become probably the most significant of all their matches so far - certainly in terms of Sam Stosur's career.
Having had the opportunity to speak with her briefly during Eastbourne 2011, and tell her that my Aussie relatives in Brisbane were very proud of her as a fellow Queenslander, I was visiting them - as well as Sydney and Melbourne - a few months later, as the US Open began.
Watching the Australian TV commentators talking up her chances, I wondered how realistic they were being, and of course thought of the similar situation in the UK regarding Andy Murray. Sam's talent and potential is extraordinary, but the chances of her performing close enough to her best throughout the whole tournament didn't look good, even though her form had been reasonable during the North American hardcourt tournaments after Wimbledon 2011.
When it came to her third round match against Nadia Petrova, the commentators pointed out Sam's easy win against her at Eastbourne, and sounded confident of victory, even as she struggled in the second set, having taken the first.
However, when I turned the TV off in my Melbourne hotel room, and headed for the airport, Nadia was leading 3-1 in the final set. It was over 24 hours before I found the result on the internet during a stopover in Singapore. I was somewhat surprised to read that Sam had won, and later discovered it was the longest women's match in US Open history since the introduction of the tie-break. She went on to have another epic win against Maria Kirilenko, having to go to a third set after Maria won the longest tie-break in women's Grand Slam history, 17-15.
Given that she'd lost to Serena Williams a few weeks earlier in Toronto - and the fact that she'd underperformed in her only previous Grand Slam final (the 2010 French Open, against Schiavone), the chances of her playing the match of her life in the 2011 US Open final to beat an in-form Serena - which it seemed she might well need to do - looked remote. But that, of course, is exactly what happened.
Watching back in Eastbourne, it was close to midnight when she wrapped up the 6-2, 6-3 stunner; it was early evening in New York; and as she pointed out in the on-court interview, breakfast time in Queensland. My uncle, who has always been positive about "our darling Sam", including during some disappointing losses in the last few years, sent an email with the subject line, "We love you, Sam Stosur!"
Today Petrova, the world no. 13, and the Aegon International's eighth seed, was upset 6-2, 6-3 on Court Two in the first round by Australia's Stosur, currently ranked just one place below at world no.14, but therefore unseeded.
Their career head-to-head record now stands at 6-4 in Petrova's favour, and the only match where Stosur conceded as few as five games against her Russian rival took place - yes, you've guessed it - in the first round at Eastbourne 2011 (6-1, 6-4).
True, Petrova beat Stosur in the semi-finals of Eastbourne 2008, but that was in the days when Stosur was just beginning to emerge as a singles contender, following her huge success in the doubles game.
I watched Stosur beat Petrova on Court One in their first round encounter at Eastbourne 2011 - the Aussie's first victory over the Russian in five attempts. But it was their next meeting that would become probably the most significant of all their matches so far - certainly in terms of Sam Stosur's career.
Having had the opportunity to speak with her briefly during Eastbourne 2011, and tell her that my Aussie relatives in Brisbane were very proud of her as a fellow Queenslander, I was visiting them - as well as Sydney and Melbourne - a few months later, as the US Open began.
Watching the Australian TV commentators talking up her chances, I wondered how realistic they were being, and of course thought of the similar situation in the UK regarding Andy Murray. Sam's talent and potential is extraordinary, but the chances of her performing close enough to her best throughout the whole tournament didn't look good, even though her form had been reasonable during the North American hardcourt tournaments after Wimbledon 2011.
When it came to her third round match against Nadia Petrova, the commentators pointed out Sam's easy win against her at Eastbourne, and sounded confident of victory, even as she struggled in the second set, having taken the first.
However, when I turned the TV off in my Melbourne hotel room, and headed for the airport, Nadia was leading 3-1 in the final set. It was over 24 hours before I found the result on the internet during a stopover in Singapore. I was somewhat surprised to read that Sam had won, and later discovered it was the longest women's match in US Open history since the introduction of the tie-break. She went on to have another epic win against Maria Kirilenko, having to go to a third set after Maria won the longest tie-break in women's Grand Slam history, 17-15.
Given that she'd lost to Serena Williams a few weeks earlier in Toronto - and the fact that she'd underperformed in her only previous Grand Slam final (the 2010 French Open, against Schiavone), the chances of her playing the match of her life in the 2011 US Open final to beat an in-form Serena - which it seemed she might well need to do - looked remote. But that, of course, is exactly what happened.
Watching back in Eastbourne, it was close to midnight when she wrapped up the 6-2, 6-3 stunner; it was early evening in New York; and as she pointed out in the on-court interview, breakfast time in Queensland. My uncle, who has always been positive about "our darling Sam", including during some disappointing losses in the last few years, sent an email with the subject line, "We love you, Sam Stosur!"
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