BERCY 2005

[Annie]

Well PHM JUST managed to get into the second round, he won the third set 6:4 and therefore won the match

Blake-Ollie is on now, Blake leads 5:3 in the first set

[Annie]

Blake easily beat Oliie in 2 sets and will face Ljuibicic now. PHM to face Gonzales

[Annie]

Day two preview: the ''Frenchies'' attack

Sébastien Grosjean, Arnaud Clément and Fabrice Santoro, three leading faces of French tennis, hope to score a good start at home. While James Blake and the mighty Ivan Ljubicic will arm wrestle in the final match of the day.


Clément-Kiefer
Arnaud Clément will attempt in front of his home crowd, to end a losing streak against Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer. Winner of their last four duels, Kiefer has dominated Clément twice this year, at Roland Garros and at the US Open. Yet, Clément who is now back in the top 75 players in the world hopes that the loud support of the POPB fans will help him do better in a tournament where, so far, he has never gone past the second round.

Grosjean-Dent
Semifinalist in Lyon last week, Sébastien Grosjean is hoping to end on a high note, after a rather disappointing season which saw Richard Gasquet replace him at the top of the French hierarchy. His best result to date in 2005 is a final lost in Houston to Andy Roddick. Winner here in 2001, Grosjean will not have an easy task against the huge server from the United States, Taylor Dent, who will take every opportunity to come to the net. This will be a first meeting between the two players.

Santoro-Nieminen
Fabrice Santoro has just achieved in Lyon last week, the best result of his 2005 season, reaching the semifinals where he bowed to eventual champion, Andy Roddick. At almost 33 years of age, Santoro is still capable of defeating just about anyone, with his two handed game all in finesse and touch. His opponent Jarkko Nieminen of Finland seems to be back in fine shape, as he demonstrated this fall in Bangkok and Tokyo, reaching the semifinals, and at the US Open where he was only beaten by Lleyton Hewitt in the quarters. In their only previous meeting, Santoro easily prevailed, in Auckland in 2004.

Blake-Ljubicic
After some tough times, James Blake is seriously back. A win last summer in New Haven, a memorable quarterfinal loss to tour veteran Andre Agassi at the US Open, and recently a victory in the Stockholm arena proves just that. In his target a tall eastern european figure that scares more than one tennis player, even the day after halloween : Ivan "the terrible" Ljubicic. Maybe the third best player on tour behind Federer and Nadal, Ljubicic in desperate need of points to qualify for the Masters will have no choice but to serve huge. Only the strong will survive.

[Annie]

Some photos from yesterday

Nice hair Gregy LMAO



Little Vliegen



PHM fighting his way through ;D

[lena]

nice programm for today , but hopefully the website did not strike again like yesteray

[Annie]

I know lena!!!!!!!!!! that website is a nightmare

[Annie]

Coria just lost to Berdych 4:6, 2:6

Kolya up next..DAVAI SWEETIE!!!!!! UDACHI!!!!!!

[Annie]

Kolya won 6:2, 6:2 ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Annie]

Verdasco beat Lapentti in three sets

[Annie]

01/11 - 00h37
Day 3 preview: Here comes Andy !

Day three preview : After capturing in Lyon his fifth title of the season, n°1 seed Andy Roddick is making his tournament debut against countryman Taylor Dent. Clément of France will challenge the Spaniard Tommy Robredo while Paul-Henri Mathieu will be under the fire of the Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Robby Ginepri, Juan Carlos Ferrero as well as David Ferrer will enter the tournament. Read about three of Wednesdays major matches.


Clément-Robredo
The first round victory Arnaud Clément scored on Tuesday over Nicolas Kiefer was a considerable source of relief for the Frenchman. Beaten by Kiefer in their previous four encounters, Clément was finally able to overcome his rival in a thrilling final set tie-breaker.
His task will not get any easier now, as he is facing the athletic Spaniard Tommy Robredo, seeded 14th. Moreover, Robredo’s aggressive tennis makes him a dangerous opponent on fast surfaces like the one used at the BNP Paribas Masters. If Clément won the first meeting against the Spaniard in 2001, he lost the second one in the 2004 US Open. His popularity among French fans should give him a serious boost.

Roddick-Dent
Freshly arrived from Lyon where he captured on Sunday his 5th title of 2005, Andy Roddick is looking like the big favourite at the BNP Paribas Masters. The American ranked 3rd on the ATP ranking, has never won in Paris before. The presence of his parents in the stands might offer him an extra motivation as he faces a dangerous opponent: his countryman Taylor Dent.
Although Roddick has won his last three duels against Dent who defeated him once, in 2003, the two always had tight battles against each other. Furthermore, Dent displayed some very convincing tennis on Tuesday on his way to a straight set victory against Sébastien Grosjean. First serve percentage should be the key of this battle of big servers.

Mathieu-Gonzalez
After a disappointing couple of months, Paul-Henri Mathieu scored on Monday his best result since reaching the semis of the Tennis Masters Series Canada, in Montreal, last August. He came close to defeat however, against smooth Italian counter-puncher Davide Sanguinetti, before coming back and winning his first ever match in Bercy. His next opponent will be of higher calibre however.
A winner in Basel on Sunday, Fernando Gonzalez is proving to be very dangerous even on fast indoor courts. If Gonzalez won his two previous matches against Mathieu, he struggled in the 2002 US Open, only prevailing after a tough five setter. For their first meeting indoors, Mathieu will have to be very aggressive from the start if he wants a chance to score yet another nice win in front of his many Parisian fans.

[Annie]

OOP for Wednesday
can be found here

bnpparibasmasters.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters/default_en.asp?inc=live/prog.asp

[Annie]

Berdych Dents Coria's Tennis Masters Cup Hopes

Guillermo Coria's hopes of qualifying for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai are now in the hands of other players after a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Czech Tomas Berdych at the BNP Paribas Masters on Tuesday. Coria, No. 6 in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race, needed only to win his first match in Paris to qualify for the circuit finale for the third consecutive year.

Berdych dropped his opening service game but then held for the remainder of the match, not facing a break point in the second set.

Argentine Mariano Puerta, No. 12 in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race, saw his hopes of qualifying for Shanghai disappear when he suffered a 6-3, 7-6(9) loss to qualifier Novak Djokovic.

Nikolay Davydenko, who is No. 7 in the Race, began his quest to qualify for Shanghai confidently with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Greg Rusedski. The Russian must reach the final to be sure of qualifying for his first circuit finale. Davydenko saved the lone break point he faced in the 64-minute match while breaking Rusedski twice in each set.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco fired 26 aces during a 2 hour, 30 minute dogfight with Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, eventually winning 6-7, 7-5, 7-5.

Frenchman Arnaud Clement set up a meeting with 14th seed Tommy Robredo after defeating Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6). Clement withstood 20 aces from the recent St.Petersburg and Moscow finalist. There were no breaks of serve in the third set as the match went down to the wire, the Frenchman winning on his second match point after 2 hours, 42 minutes.

Serve/volleyer Taylor Dent survived what he described as a 'bad matchup for me" to defeat Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 7-6(4) in 1 hour, 10 minutes. Grosjean had an early break at 2-0 in the second set but could not hold it.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Rusedski: " I didn't feel like I played as well as I could. But I have to give him credit. He played extremely well. I think he must have made three or four unforced errors for the whole match.

"I still have to look at all the positives this year. I got my 15th career title, which many players don't do in their career, winning Newport this year. I think I was written off after Wimbledon, so it hasn't been too bad since then. I've got to look at all the positives from the year, just give it one more week. I'm going to give Ukraine (Challenger) the last chance to try to get that British No. 1 spot. If it happens that week, great. If it doesn't, then maybe next year.

"I'm planning to play a full year (after the birth of his first child). Then after that, have a few weeks off from the birth of the child. From there on in, get back to serious business."

Puerta: "It's very probable that I won't be able to go to Shanghai. In the beginning of the match I was not feeling good. It's great to play the Masters, and I was very close. It's really a pity. I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed, that's what I feel.

"I believe that he (Djokovic) will be a champion without any doubt. He's a young player. He plays very well. I believe very soon he will be Top 30 in the world."

Clement: "The difference was two points or maybe one point. He had a break point in the third set, I played a forehand along the line. If he had won that point, it would have been 6-4 for him. So it could have been either way."

Dent: "You get those matchups every so often. I played Lleyton earlier this year in Adelaide. You know, you just got to embrace the crowd; they're out there having a good time and you just have to kind of understand that you're not their favorite that day; maybe it will change in the future. It was fun. Any time you play with a crowd that animated, it makes it enjoyable.

"As far as my service games go, you know, he was returning great. I had to play some great tennis to hold on to my serve most of the time. He played a great game to break me early in that second set. It's a tough matchup for me. It's a good win for me to get through."

[lena]

I must shoot out my angy due to this bnpparibas website ...... , did the server is placed somewhere in this violent-quartier in Paris or did someone make a walk with the blade at the Seine....

[Annie]

tell me about it!!!!!!!!!!!! #$%#^%^%!!!!!

Last night I wanted to watch the SB because Mitya Tursunov was playing and they were showing Champions League on TV , so I went..and guess what?

Yup....the site was down..AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A real nightmare!!!! I hate it

[lena]

maybe the server only understand english and be on strike if someone will talk french to him