Glasgow And Loughborough New British Events Andy Murray Could Make His Injury Return

Andy Murray makes his return in one of two Indoor events of Britain later in the spring after his hip surgery. After his operation Murray hopes to return either in grass court season or slightly before.

Scot, 30 in unlikely to want his return on physically demanding clay as the grass court season proceeds or elsewhere his options are limited. But two new indoor events Glasgow and Loughborough have been announced by LTA (Lawn Tennis Association). Both the tours will be staged on ATP Challenge tour and below ATP World tour the prize fund is $100,000. The first tour will take place in Glasgow in Scotstoun Tennis Centre from 28 April and 6 May and the second will take place at for Loughborough University’s Tennis Centre from 19 may to 27 may.
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Gasquet Campaign Ended

Richard Gasquet’s campaign in the Claro Open ended yesterday as he suffered a defeat against Estrella Burgos of Dominican Republic in the Round of 8.

It was a straight set defeat for Gasquet which would have left him embarrassed.

Being the first seeded player, Gasquet was expected to have an easy time against an opponent who is not even in top 90 in the world rankings, but, it turned out to be other way around. It’s actually Burgos who steam rolled through the Frenchman and got the match over in quick time, 65 minutes to be precise.

Gasquet got broken a couple of times in the opening set itself and that disturbed his rhythm completely.

In the second set, the Frenchman seemed to be in control with his serve until the 10^th game where he dropped his serve again, for the third time in the match, and that was the end of the proceedings.

Burgos is not a new man around on the tour. He has been there since 2002, but, he hasn’t had too many victories against top players. The 33-year Old is yet to win an ATP title in his career. He has been in the main draw of Grand Slams only twice. So, this win against Gasquet is huge for him.

Meanwhile, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia has made it to the Round of 4 as well in Bogota. He is the second seeded player in the tournament and the reigning champion as well. He is the prime contender for the title now after Gasquet’s departure.

Karlovic and Burgos will not take on each other in the semis though. The former will be up against Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic, while, the latter’s opponent will be Bernard Tomic of Australia.

Ferrer Beaten By Mayer

David Ferrer was beaten by Leonardo Mayer of Argentina in the title round match in Hamburg yesterday. The Spaniard lost in three sets by 6-7 (3), 6-1, 7-6(4).

This is the first time that Mayer has lifted an ATP trophy. He was absolutely elated at the end of the match.

Speaking in his post match interview, he said, “This is unbelievable for me. I had never thought that I would manage to get better of David and that too on clay court where he is as potent as anyone in the world. It’s a special feeling, really hard for me to sink it in.”

Ferrer also was full of praise for his Argentinean opponent while being interviewed after the match.

The Spanish no. 2 said, “He seized the key moments and thus, he deserved to win. He showed a lot of aggression which I was lacking.”

Mayer had continuously been winning in the straight sets on his way to the final and it seemed he would keep that record intact in the final as well when he won the first set in the tie break against Ferrer, but, that wasn’t the case to be.

Ferrer came out fighting in the second set and blasted his opponent away to win it by 6-1 to push the match into the decider.

The decider also went into the tie breaker and Ferrer failed in keeping his nerve this time around too pretty much like the first set.

Mayer won the tie breaker by 7 games to 4 and sealed the contest.

Mayer is currently at the 27^th position in the world rankings, but, this title win would surely get him a few positions higher, perhaps into the top 20. The Argentinean has never been in the top 20 before.

TOUGH START

Like quite a few other top players, Andy Murray also had a tough start in his first match at Indian Wells, but, his performance got better and better as the action proceeded and he won eventually to get into the third round of the tournament.

Murray’s opponent in the match was Lukas Rosol who is not quite in the league of the Scot. So, it was supposed to be more of a one sided contest.

But, Rosol who is a couple of years elder to Murray in age stunned everyone as he won the first set in comprehensive fashion. He just outsmarted his Scot opponent in that whole set which made people start wondering if an upset was going to happen, but, that wasn’t the case to be.

Murray came into the second set with ruthless approach and banged some powerful shots in to disturb Rosol’s rhythm. Once he did that, it was all too easy for him. He collected points frequently from that stage and ensured the exit of his Czech opponent from the tournament.

This was the first time ever that Murray and Rosol was playing a singles match against each other.

Talking to the reporters in the post match interview, Murray said, “Lukas is one of those guys who generate a lot of power. So, it’s important for you as an opponent not to let him dominate and that’s what my game plan was in the last two sets. I was on the attack so that I could unsettle him.”

“It’s not quite easy to bounce back from the situation which I was in at one point of time. Your character gets tested in such situations.”

Murray will be locking horns with another Czech player in the third round i.e. Jiri Vesely.

FORMER PLAYERS BACK IN FASHION

The top male tennis players in the world have been appointing some ex-players as their head coaches these days. This trend was started by Andy Murray during the 2012 season when he secured the services of Ivan Lendl, the former American player who won a total of 8 Grand Slams during his career.

The no. 1 player in the world, Novak Djokovic, followed his footsteps a few days back as he announced that one of the all time German greats Boris Becker would be his coach for the upcoming season. The Swiss superstar, Roger Federer, who has been struggling with his form in recent times has already been spending time with Stefan Edberg and  trying to regain his old charm back. Edberg is a former Swedish player and also Federer’s role model.

Lendl and Becker were the arch rivals during their playing days. There were 22 games played between these two out of which Lendl had won 12, while, Becker had won 10. But, whenever these two players met in the final of a Grand Slam, it was always Becker who came on top. Now, with these two guys taking charge as the coaches of the two top players in the world, there have been talks that the old rivalry might get renewed.

When Murray was asked about the top players appointing ex-greats as their coaches, he said, “It’s hard to say at the moment if it’s turning into a trend, but, it’s actually nice. The guys like Boris and Ivan who has got huge amount of experience can help you a lot.”

The latter half of the last season wasn’t that good for Murray, but, he would certainly want to put that behind him and start the new season on a fresh note.

DAVIS CUP DRAWS

The Davis Cup World Group draws have been revealed and Great Britain is scheduled to play USA in the opening round away from home. This is not an easy draw by any means for GB, but, their skipper Leon Smith is confident that his team is good enough to beat America on its home soil.

This will be the first occasion in the last 5 years that GB will be playing in the World Group matches.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Smith said, “It’s not the easiest of draws for sure, but, I think USA will be a bit concerned too.”

“With Andy and a couple of quality doubles players being there, we have got a strong squad. James and Dan have improved too in the last few months. So, there is no reason why we can’t beat them in their own backyard.”

“We have got full faith in our abilities and we will enter the tie with the belief that we can pull it off.”

The last time that USA and Great Britain had taken on each other in the Davis Cup was 14 years back in 1999. It was a thrilling clash. USA went up by 2-0 first and they were looking like winning it easily. But, then, GB bounced back with a couple of victories to bring it all down to the last reverse singles match which got decided in the 5^th set and it was the American player Jim Courier who sealed it to give his nation the winning lead.

When asked about that clash, Smith said, “There was a lot of drama in that tie. Unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side, but, that’s history. Hopefully, the outcome will be in our favour this time around.”