2010 US-Open preview part 2

By 

HARTMUT HESSE

Today I want to take a look at the women’s draw of the 2010 US-Open.

It will be almost as interesting and wide open as the men’s draw, because Serena Williams and Justin Henin will miss the event due to injuries. This makes last years finalist and world no. 2, Caroline Wozniacki the top seed and one of the favorites for the title. It would be her first Grand Slam title and bring her very close to the no. 1 ranking as well. On top of that it will make her a lot richer, since she won the US-Open Series already and this will guarantee her an extra 1 Million Dollars if she takes the US-Open title. But her draw is not easy and it will be the question if she will be abler to handle the pressure of going into the tournament as the top seed or if the pressure and additional attention from the media will be too much for her. Winning the US-Open Series and last years experience of being in the finals will give her a lot of confidence and help her to handle all this.

But I still don’t see her reaching the final, because she will face some tough competition before she will reach a potential match-up with Maria Sharapova in round 4. And I see Maria winning this one in a thrilling night session. But before Wozniacki gets there she will have her hands full with some powerful tennis made in China. Kai-Chen Chang and Yuang-Jan Chan, both from Chinese Taipee, will test Mrs Wozniacki to the limit, because they have even better footwork than the blond Dane. It will not be enough to just keep the ball in play to beat these two great competitors from Taipee. And you never know, maybe one of the two will be the big story of this year’s Open, and take out both, Mrs. Denmark and Mrs. Russia and go all the way to the final!?!

But in the quartefinal there might be not another Mrs. Russia waiting, but at least great Russian footwork from Kuznetsova and more Chinese power footwork, in person of the no 8 seed, Na Li. So it is very likely that there will be a Chinese player reaching the semi finals from this section of the draw.

But today I would put my money on Mrs. Sharapova. She won the Open before, is in form and has the power to beat all the Chinese and Danish roadrunners.

In the next section of the draw, things look a lot clrearer to me, with jelena Jankovic being the highest seed here. She has a tough first round with Simona Halep and maybe a another tricky one with hard hitting Mirjana Lucic, but I think she will go through to face Janina Wickmayer from Belgium, last year’s surprise semi finalist, in the fourth round. This is a good match-up for her and she will win in two sets to face either Nadia Petrova or Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals. That will be a big fight for sure, but Jelena’s fitness will win the match for her.

The next section is the Venus Williams Section, which is also a very tough and open one, because there are plenty of up-coming players in this section. Very unpredictable, what is going to happen here!

Melanie Oudin, Polona Hercog, Tsvetlana Pironkova, Ksenia Pervak, Michelle Larcher de Brito and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will challenge the established players like Wiliams, Schiavone, Peer and Azarenka (who is also still very young…). This could be very likely a new face in a Grand Slam semi final. But if Venus is healthy, she will have the power to fight them all off and reach the semis, winning her quarterfinal match against Victoria Azarenka. But any of the new girls will make a break through soon. S, it could also be Larcher de Brito against Hercog… If de Brito screams her way to the semis, the WTA tour has a new star and Portugal a new heroe after Ronaldo choked at the World Cup…

But my money still goes to Venus here!

The last section of the draw holds the top 2 title favorites and a lot of headache players…

I see the highest seed in this section as the top favorites win the whole thing. That would be Sam Stosur and Kim Clijsters, the defending champion. They will for sure meet in the quarterfinals, and I believe that the winner will take the title. Stosur has only one really tough match to get to the quarters and might have to play Safina (who should get her act together soon again..), Elena Dementieva or Daniela Hantuchova, But she is my favorite against each one of them, since all these players are very unstable and will cause their coaches a lot more headaches in the future. Kim Clijsters will face Marion Bartoli or Ana Ivanovic (another headache for coaches…) in her quarterfinal match, but if she is motivated and focused she will win easily.

My Money would go to Kim to reach the semi final, too, but I would rather like to see these two in the final…

If I have to put my money for the final and the winner, it would be Kim over Maria in three sets.

Let’s see if I am right...

Enjoy the Open!

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

2010 US-Open preview

By 

HARTMUT HESSE

The 2010 US-Open will kick off tomorrow and it looks like the men’s and the women’s tournament will offer some very interesting matches and a possible first time US-Open Champion. Especially the men’sdraw is as open as it has not been in the past 7 years, since the dominance of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal started. And with Serena Williams not playing this year’s tournament, the women’s draw is also wide open for a surprise champion.

I want to start my preview with the men’s tournament, where Robin Soderling and Thomas Berdych might be two of the hottest candidates for a first Grand Slam title of their career, after reaching their first Grand Slam final this season in Wimbledon (Berdych) and Roland Garros (Soderling). Even though they have not been very convincing in the past hard court tournaments, I am sure that one of them will make a splash at the US-Open this year. Berdych won’t have many problems in his section of the draw, before he might run into Isner or Youzhny in the 4^th round. A match against John Isner, especially at the US-Open, is always a tough one. But I think he will go through, due to his newly found level of concentration and confidence. If he plays Youzhny, I see even fewer problems for him. But in the Quarterfinals he will meet Andy Murray and that will be the match that determines if he is ready for the title this year. I see the match at 50% – 50%, but if Berdych wins this one I think he will reach the Final as well. If Murray wins it, I would still put my money on Nadal, if he gets to the semi final.

Which brings me to the top half of the draw and Nadal’s section. His draw is not easy, because he has red-hot David Nalbandian in his part of the draw. The good news for Rafa is, that Nalbandian has to beat the no. 2 and 3 spanish players (David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco) before he could earn a spot in the fourth round. And these two matches will cost the reignited Argentine a lot of energy, even though I see him as the favorite against both. But before Nadal plays him, he also has his hands full with Michael Kohlschreiber (who trained with Roger Federer to get ready for the US-Open…) and probably Ivan Ljubicic. But I believe Nadal will go through and will face Nalbandian in a tough fourth round, 5 set match. I think that it all depends on how many sets Nalbandian lost to Verdasco and Ferrer, if he has a chance to reach another Grand Slam semi final at the US-Open. But right now I would put my money on Rafa, even though his warm-up tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronta have not been very successful. I think Nalbandian will play 9 sets against Verdasco and Ferrer to reach the match against Nadala and will be very tired. On top of that his Uncle Toni will be on his side again at the Open, and he will be ready and motivated for some tough matches. So my finalist of the top half of the draw will be either Nadal or Berdych.

In the bottom half of the draw Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are the top seeds. Novak Djokovic is running into Marcos Baghdatis or Mardy Fish in the fourth round, which  both showed great form in the past hard court tournaments. And Fish beating Djokovic in Cincinnati. So there might be some surprises around the corner and this section is very hard to predict, since all three players are very unpredictable themselves. If Djokovic goes through he will face more trouble, with Roddick, Monfils or Davydenko. Roddick will have to play Monfils before the winner will face Davydenko. This is probably the toughest section of the men’s draw and I see 6 players with basically the same chances to reach the semi-final.

If I have to put my money now, I would say Djokovic against Davydenko with a slight edge for Davydenko to win it, if he does not lose too much energy against Roddick or Monfils.

The Russian will face the strongest man in the Federer section of the draw, and if you just look at the stats of the past 5-7 years, there could be only one man coming out of this section. And his initials are RF…

But stats are there to be broken and especially after his surprise early exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, there are some reasonable doubts. Even though he has the easiest section of the draw to reach the 4^th round and the quarterfinals. He might face a former US-Open champion on his way to the fourth round with Lleyton Hewitt, and maybe plays another one in the fourth round (Ferrero). But both players have never given Roger too much trouble. The highest seed to reach the fourth round against him is Juergen Melzer, but he is not in good form and has not won many matches on hard courts this year. So, from all the top 10 players, Federer is the best bet to reach the quarterfinals. But that’s where the big test will come for him. He will most likely play Robin Soderling in the Quarters, who will have his hands full with De Bakker or Gonzales, and then Marin Cilic before he will have the honor to challenge the big Fed for a semi final spot. I see Federer a favorite for this match with 60%, because he will be very eager to take some revenge for his loss at the French Open, which was favored by many rain delays for Soderling. But with Soderling you never know. If he keeps hitting his winners, not even Fed has an answer…

If Soderling wins this match he will go to another Grand Slam final.

And who knows, it might be the two surprise first time finalists of the French and Wimbledon, who could meet in the final. It might be Berdych against Soderling. Like this at least one of them will have his first Grand Slam crown. And this could indicate a big change to come for 2011, in the Federer-Nadal-dominace of the past years.

But I would prefer another Federer Nadal final for this year’s Open. Berdych and Soderling still have some time left and I am sure the majority of the tennis fans would like to see the same final like I do. And if you just look at the stats, then it simply has to be Roger against Rafa.

Federer is always in the final… and he always played somebody else in the final for the past 6 years. So, why not Rafa?!? If Rafa wins, he would be the only player besides Rod Laver who won 3 consecutive Grand Slams in one year!

Here are some more interesting stats and facts about the past US-Open tournaments:

Nadal on his way to a career Grand Slam– Nadal, who captured his eighth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last month, is a US OPEN title away from completing a career Grand Slam. The 24-year-old Spaniard reached the semi-finals in Flushing Meadows the past two years. He would be the youngest player to accomplish the feat and he would become the seventh man to complete a career Grand Slam, joining Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, and Roger Federer.

No.1 Update – Nadal enters the US-Open as the No. 1 player for the 59th week overall (as of Aug. 30) in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings, the 10th-most (of 24 players). This past week he tied Jim Courier, who held No. 1 for 58 weeks.  Nadal enters the US OPEN with a 3,530-point lead over No. 2 Federer and he is guaranteed staying No. 1 after the tournament.

FEDERER-NADAL DOMINATION -- Since Nadal won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2005, he and Federer have combined to win 20 of the past 22 Grand Slam tournaments (except '08 Aust. Open, Djokovic; ’09 US OPEN, del Potro). During that stretch, Federer has won 12 Grand Slam titles and Nadal eight.
    

                                          

2010 Wimbledon                    Rafael Nadal d. Tomas Berdych


2010 Roland Garros               Rafael Nadal d. Robin Soderling


2010 Australian Open            Roger Federer d. Andy Murray


2009 US OPEN                      Juan Martin del Potro d. Roger Federer


2009 Wimbledon                   Roger Federer d. Andy Roddick


2009 Roland Garros              Roger Federer d. Robin Soderling


2009 Australian Open         Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer


2008 US OPEN                      Roger Federer d. Andy Murray


2008 Wimbledon                  Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer


2008 Roland Garros            Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer


2008 Australian Open           Novak Djokovic d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga


2007 US OPEN                      Roger Federer d. Novak Djokovic


2007 Wimbedon                   Roger Federer d. Rafael Nadal


2007 Roland Garros            Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer


2007 Australian Open           Roger Federer d. Fernando Gonzalez


2006 US OPEN                      Roger Federer d. Andy Roddick


2006 Wimbledon                  Roger Federer d. Rafael Nadal


2006 Roland Garros            Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer


2006 Australian Open           Roger Federer d. Marcos Baghdatis


2005 US OPEN                      Roger Federer d. Andre Agassi


2005 Wimbledon                   Roger Federer d. Andy Roddick


2005 Roland Garros              Rafael Nadal d. Mariano Puerta

Check out my next blog, where I will take a look at the women’s draw.

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Some Motivation for frustrated Tennisplayers!

Don‘t Quit !

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Author unknown

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Roger back on track?

By

HARTMUT HESSE

Roger Federer won the ATP-1000 Event in Cincinnati yesterday to capture his second title of the year. On his way to the final against Mardy Fish, he played only 2 full matches against Marcos Baghdatis and Nikolay Davydenko, which he won in straight sets. He had a bye in the first round and in his second round match Denis Istomin retired at 5:2 for Federer. In the next round Fed was even more lucky when he had a walkover, because Kohlschreiber was unable to play the match due to injury. Playing Mardy Fish in an ATP-1000 final can also be considered as quite lucky. By no means it was only luck that brought Roger back to winning ways on the ATP-tour, but he has seen tougher opponents on his ways to titles.

He himself was very pleased with his performance and was happy the way he was able to implement new strategies into his game, after having enough time after Wimbledon. He said that he was playing more aggressive than before and felt much fitter and healthier than before and during the Wimbledon tournament.

I have to say that I don’t see anything new in his game. I think that he played many slice backhands, because he does not have the confidence or aggression to play more top-spin. On top of that I don’t see any improvement in his fitness. Many times he looked tired and a bit slow to me. Nothing compared to the Federer of the old days…

But no matter what, this win will give him confidence for the US-Open, since the other favorites were not very convincing either. Berdych, Djokovic, Soderling and Nadal all need to improve a lot if they want to win the Open. It will be an interesting tournament this year with Nalbandian and Davydenko back in the game. Especially Nalbandian will be a big threat going into the US-Open unseeded. It is just too bad that Del Potro will not be able to defend his title. He could have made the draw even more open.

Let’s see who will be the Champion 2010…

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Rafael Nadal preparing for US-Open!

Rafa getting ready for US-Open series

Rafael Nadal Training in Manacor, Mallorca before the US-Open!

Rafa and Uncle Toni during a practice break

Rafa looking fit and determined during practice

Rafa signing autographs, even after a hard practice and the rain starting to fall !

...and then taking off in his new Mercedes 350 SL ...

...more pictures coming soon!

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Rafa ready for US-Open!

Rafael Nadal and his uncle and coach Toni during practice in manacor, Mallorca

By

HARTMUT HESSE

Rafa finished his preparation for the US-hard-court season 2010 today in Manacor, Mallorca. Tomorrow morning he will head to Toronto, Canada for the first of two ATP-1000 tournaments he will be playing before the US-Open.

I have seen most of his practice sessions with different sparring partners and even though he has not trained for a very long time since his Wimbledon victory, he looks fit and ready to go for the only missing Grand Slam in his record books.

And maybe the reduced amount of intense training will make the difference this year and he will be healthy and on top of his game when the second week of the Open starts.

At one practice session I thought I have noticed a little limping when he was forced to go hard into the corners. But the next days he was ok again and I did not detect any kind of pain or injury that would hold him back. His last practice session today, where he trained with his good friend and doubles partner, Marc Lopez, he did not play too well, but neither he, nor his coach Toni Nadal, seemed to be concerned about it at all. Not even when Marc Lopez (ATP 730 !) won the only set they played today…

In all his training sessions he practiced a lot of serve and volley and net approaches, which shows that he is willing to make some changes in his game to get the only missing Grand Slam title in his, already outstanding, career. And with the French Open and Wimbledon in his bag, he carries a lot of confidence on his shoulders to try new things.

In general all of his practice sessions have been in a very good atmosphere and he seems relaxed and in a good mood. Even when the many fans or some local TV stations disturbed his training sessions he took it easy and did not get upset.

So, I think he is the clear favorite for the US-Open title this year and the New York crown would put him on the same page with players like Agassi, Borg, Lendl, McEnroe and Connors.

And if his knees will stay healthy for another 3 or 4 more years, he might catch up to players like Sampras, Laver and Federer, or even pass by them.

Vamos Rafa!

HARDY HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM