Tennis Panorama News

By Abigail Hinto

SHANGHAI, China – It’s a rainy day at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.  I’m ashamed to admit I may have brought it with me as it was raining in Manila when I left.

On the Thursday schedule, what I really wanted to see was the Bernard Tomic-Alexandr Dolgopolov contest – the tennis connoisseurs’ match of the day?  But with the rain, the match was pushed to one o’clock start.  As 1 pm approached and with rain still pouring down, I didn’t know if it would still begin as scheduled.  But by 1 pm, the match was on the scoreboard noting it was on Indoor Court 1.   After a long trek and even through some bushes, a couple of us managed to find it.  As it turned out, it was just an indoor practice court with three courts side by side.

By the time we arrived there, it was 4-3 on serve with Dolgopolov to serve.  Two deuces later and Tomic has broken Dolgopolov to try to serve out the set.  A clearly frustrated Dolgopolov was muttering to himself a lot.  But Tomic was unable to serve it out and Tomic breaks himself with a backhand slice into the net at break point down.  More mutterings and sighs from Dolgopolov and he gets broken trying to stay in the set at 5-6.  ”F**ng pingong” “Unbelievable” Dolgopolov shouts at himself.

With that tight first set, you’d think all the momentum would be on Tomic’s side.  But he was broken at the start of the second set, and it was all downhill from there, winning just one more game to lose the match 5-7, 1-6, 0-6.  By the final game, you knew he was out of it and barely making any effort at all.   Tomic has this nonchalant style, but by the third set, the nonchalance has gone overboard.  He did show his frustration once in the second set when he was down 0-2, serving and he started muttering in Croatian.  But he gets broken again.  He manages to get 1 break back off some errors from Dolgopolov but that would be the last game he’d win.

Tomic said that playing in the court was a bit weird, and that playing Dolgopolov was tricky.  He couldn’t really get into any rallies and that Dolgopolov had topped him mentally through the second and third sets.    There didn’t seem to be any clear turning point. At the end of his mini-presser, he was asked if getting to the No. 1 position by age 20-21 is still in his timetable “I think it’s possible,” Tomic said.  I don’t know about his game, but his mentally definitely needs more work in order to reach that goal.

Dolgopolov on playing the match indoors, “to just get used to the surface and the conditions we had. It wasn’t really good tennis from us. We were just trying to hold the ball in the game and not risking too much, a lot of unforced.

“Second set I just understood that I won’t win that way and I needed to change something up. So I started to play more aggressive. I mean, I pulled it off. I had good shots, winners. He struggled a bit with the speed, I think. He was just trying to play the same tennis, not changing anything.

“I was hitting pretty free on the court (in the last sets). I had some confidence. I just knew I had to go for the shots because I wasn’t feeling the game too good. I knew that I won’t overplay him, you know, just slow shots, that’s his game, more just rallying. I wasn’t comfortable with that game. It was bouncing really low from his shots. It’s tough to get used to them.”

Dolgopolov plays on Kei Nishikori on Friday to make the final four.

Photo by Tennis Panorama News

Ferrer on Nadal

It must be difficult for the other Spanish players to be constantly asked about their No.1 player, Rafael Nadal.  In David Ferrer’s news conference on Thursday after winning against another fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 saving three match points, and qualifying for the third time for the ATP World Tour Finals, he was once again asked about Nadal.  In particular, he was asked about Nadal’s season.  What was nice to see from Ferrer though was his very straightforward and thoughtful answer to the question.  It would be very understandable to see some exasperation on his part, but he goes on to give his honest assessment, ”Well, I think Rafa, he had bad luck this year.  Well, of course Djokovic had unbelievable season, no?  He won everything.  He lost I think two or three matches.”

“But Rafa, I think this season maybe in the important moments he didn’t play so good than the other years.  But I think he’s very close, no?  I think next year, it’s going to be better for him because this year, I think (Novak)  had something very difficult to repeat again the next year, no?”

With Ferrer winning his match and Nicolas Almagro losing his match to Andy Roddick 6-3, 6-4, Ferrer became the fifth man to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. ” I don’t think about this now, no, Ferrer said. “I am focusing in this moment, in the next match of tomorrow. After here, I come back to home. I will play to Valencia. I know is very nice for me this season, but I never think about the next year. Me, I am thinking just in the moment.”

Ferrer spoke about surviving three match points against him, “It was amazing, no?  I had three match balls down. I serve very good in important moments. I think I did two points with my serve and one point I did a passing shot in the last moment, no? When I won this game, and after this game I make the break up very fast.

“Maybe Juan Carlos, he was a little bit injury in the foot. Maybe in the third set it was more easy, no, for me.”

Ferrer will play Andy Roddick on Friday in a rematch of a July Davis Cup rubber when team Spain knocked out the United States in the quarterfinal round in Roddick’s hometown of Austin, Texas.

Abigail Hinto is in Shanghai as media covering the the Shanghai Rolex Masters for Tennis Panorama News.