Open Seat Godo, Barcelona 2005

[lau]

Teresa said:

I was trying to get some info on both
Acasuso and Vincente

Acasuso last played first week of April Casablanca Clay and lost R32 to Simon

I could not find a thing on Vincente

He is not even listed as a wild card (which he is) under the list of players, and the ATP player search comes up blank....

Is it me? or is there no info on this guy?

Does anyone know anything about him? I think he played Davis cup Russia vs Argentina?

Vicente is a WC. I never heard about him, too. As far as I know, Acasuso is suposed to win that match and Marat is suposed to win his match against Acasuso. I guess is the same information you had ;D ;D ;D
Acasuso never played Davis Cup (99,9% sure ). He`s playing well lately (this means better than previous years), but Marat definitely is other kind of tennis player (a top 10). Acasuso is not so good (till today, you never know with tennis . Example: Gaudio post-RG, Gasquet this week, etc, etc). Anyway, if Marat plays decently, he´ll win. ;D ;D

[Cassie]

Um, didn't Acasuso win their only encounter on clay in 2003? I think I read that somewhere. Also, Vincente won against Marat in Moscow. So... there are no easy opponents, unless you get Srichaphan or someone who simply sucks on clay. With Marat, you never know, but I hope to God he gets into the semis.

[lau]

Cassie said:

Um, didn't Acasuso win their only encounter on clay in 2003? I think I read that somewhere. Also, Vincente won against Marat in Moscow. So... there are no easy opponents, unless you get Srichaphan or someone who simply sucks on clay. With Marat, you never know, but I hope to God he gets into the semis.

Yes!!!! You´re right Cassie!! ;D They have a positive Head-to-head against Marat!!!!!! This really surprised me!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D (BTW, Teresa, Acasuso defeated Marat in the the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf. Acasuso never played Davis Cup..... 99.9% sure ;D ;D ;D)
As you said, with Marat you never know. I don´t say they are easy opponents, but they are just in other level. This comes out when you compare their careers!!! But, again with Marat you never know
Anyway, Acasuso is suposed to beat Vicente and Marat is suposed to beat Acasuso (and Federer was suposed to beat Gasquet and Marat was suposed to beat Dent, etc, etc ). It´s not easy making predictions!!!! What I meant is that Vicente and Acasuso can´t be considered as good players as Moya, Feliciano Lopez, Gaudio, Cañas, Massú, etc ;D

MARAT WILL WIN!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!!!

[Cassie]

I can't be as optimistic as you are. In Monte Carlo, I was only confident he would beat Lee and Saulnier because they suck on clay. With Ferrero, I knew it was going to be difficult and it turned out to be exactly that.

[SAFINNO1]

Okay Marat has lost both his previuos meeting with Acasuso both on clay at the World team tounie

2002 World Team Cup, Clay, F
Dusseldorf, Germany Clay F Acasuso 6 2 3 6 0 3
2002 World Team Cup, Clay, RR
Dusseldorf, Germany Clay RR Acasuso 6 2 3 6 0 3

And vicente ,Marat has also lost their only meeting but that was not on clay.

Anyway these matches are all history they are all better players and personally i dont think marat is that worried.

[lau]

Cassie said:

I can't be as optimistic as you are. In Monte Carlo, I was only confident he would beat Lee and Saulnier because they suck on clay. With Ferrero, I knew it was going to be difficult and it turned out to be exactly that.

I wouldn´t compare Ferrero with Acasuso and not certainly with Vicente. But you`re right, it´s better to be cautious (is this the word?) with Marat. Acasuso is a clay player and I supose Vicente too (as he is from Spain). But, c`mon, we`re talking about players whose highest positions in the ranking are this ones (and years ago):

Acasuso: Career High INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking - Singles: 38 (9/30/2002)

Vicente: Career High INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking - Singles: 29 (6/12/2000)

I definitely have faith in Marat!!!!!! ;D ;D

[Andrada]

Safin seeking revival on clay
16/04/2005 15:50 - (SA)

Barcelona - Marat Safin will try to patch his sagging claycourt confidence when he plays as top seed at next week's Barcelona Open.

The Australian Open champion put in a disappointing opening week on the surface, exiting at the hands of Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round at Monte Carlo.

Safin, the 2000 Barcelona winner, admitted that his characteristic hot-and-cold form is not something he can usually control - but added that he's trying to focus with the May 23 start of Roland Garros approaching.

"That's my goal, actually, that's my goal for the whole career," he said of the French Open. "I'm trying, and I will try, try to win it. I've always played well there, but for some reason I'm missing something extra to win it."

The time to start will be next week at the tree-shaded real Club de Tenis, spiritual home of the game in Spain. Safin spent his teenaged years training in Spain and speaks the language.

Comfort zone

The Russian should be in his comfort zone, with extra time to practise due to a first-round bye handed to the leading eight seeds.

Trailing Safin in the 56-man field is French Open holder Gaston Gaudio, anxious to polish his own clay form for a Grand Slam title defence.

Surface specialists Carlos Moya, the 2003 champion and Argentine Guillermo Coria are seeded third and fourth respectively, with Guillermo Canas and defending champion Tommy Robredo rounding out the top six.

The event will be the fourth in succession this spring for Spain's young hero Rafael Nadal, who gave Roger Federer a fright in the Key Biscayne Masters Series final a fortnight ago.

Nadal, who has played non-stop on the clay since at Valencia and Monte Carlo, takes the eighth seeding.

Paradorn Srichaphan and British teenager Andrew Murray were awarded wild cards, with the Thai trying to earn his first clay win as he takes on Dane Kenneth Carlsen.

Murray, who trains at the academy of former Spanish player Sergio Casal, opens against Czech Jan Hernych.

[Teresa]

Thanks people for all your answers and in puts ;D

I always get nervous when Marat has to play a player like Acasuso or Vincente in his first round.
I am sure though that he will do what he has to do.

[Teresa]

Okay its long (again??) but it is an interesting read on the lead into the tournament.

Bob Larson's Tennis
Men's tennis preview Week April 18th

Barcelona is a much bigger deal -- and that's not just a reference to its 56-draw. Houston is at the bottom of the tier scale.

Barcelona, with big prize money and gold status, is near the top of the optional scale. Naturally it gets all the clay experts. It's not officially quite as strong -- the top seed is Marat Safin, who is ranked #4, compared to #3 Roddick at Houston -- but it doesn't peter out as quickly, either; it has four Top Ten players (Safin, #2 seed Gaston Gaudio, #3 Carlos Moya, #4 Guillermo Coria), and they all like clay.

And that strength continues below the top four:
Guillermo Canas is #5, defending champion Tommy Robredo, who missed Monte Carlo, is #6, Nikolay Davydenko #7, Rafael Nadal #8, though of course he comes in very tired. (He's really going to have to adjust his schedule if he keeps winning as much as he has lately.) This being a 56-draw, those eight seeds get byes; the lower seeds do not.

Nor are the lower seeds such solid clay types. Thomas Johansson is the #9 seed; you wonder why he even bothered. Dominik Hrbaty is #10; he'll be happy on this. #11 Radek Stepanek will tolerate clay as well. #12 Feliciano Lopez is Spanish, but he prefers faster courts (or, at least, he has better results there). #13 David Ferrer is fine with clay, though he has to be exhausted after all the matches he's played in the last month. #14 Juan Ignacio Chela is happy with the surface, too. You have to wonder, though, why #15 Paradorn Srichaphan took a wildcard to play dirt. Rounding out the seeds is Igor Andreev, who is happy enough on clay.

The organizers came up with an interesting little trick to save a wildcard. Juan Carlos Ferrero would easily have gotten direct entry based on his current ranking, but he was a lot lower when entries closed. He would obviously have gotten a wildcard had he needed it-- but because he did so well at Monte Carlo, he was able to get in as Special Exempt.


Safinno1........just for you ;D

The actual wildcards, apart from Srichaphan, include a couple of Spanish recovery projects, Fernando Vicente and Galo Blanco; a fading prospect, Marc Lopez; and, for some reason, Britain's Andrew M



There are several players with direct entry who are rather more interesting: Agustin Calleri, who showed two years ago that he's one of the best clay players out there even though he can't seem to get things together these days;

Albert Costa, who is having another career renaissance; also Younes El Aynaoui, though he is still struggling after his long layoff and probably won't be a factor.

Noteworthy First Round Matches

Barcelona, with all those byes, is rather deprived in the Hot Match department.

It features its own "can we please move this to a hardcourt" pairing as Kenneth Carlsen faces #15 seed Srichaphan. The match between #10 seed Dominik Hrbaty and Jerome Haehnel might be better.

Our pick for "best upset candidate" is the contest between clay-loving Stefan Koubek and clay-hating #9 seed Johansson. Max Mirnyi versus Albert Costa would be interesting on other surfaces; probably not here. Younes El Aynaoui last week got stuck facing Albert Montanes; this week, Montanes is one spot down the draw (facing Ferrero), so El Aynaoui gets stuck with another Spaniard, Alberto Martin. #12 seed Feliciano Lopez also faces a fellow Spaniard in Nicolas Almagro.

But the best all-Spanish contest -- maybe the best match of the first round -- has to be the one between #13 seed Ferrer and didn't-miss-seeding-by-much Fernando Verdasco. Particularly since Ferrer has been playing so well.

The Rankings


This is a funny week, because Monte Carlo 2004 comes off, which obviously overwhelms what happens this week. It's going to cost Tim Henman the #5 ranking, and Carlos Moya could also fall, and Guillermo Coria is going to lose some of the ground he gained at Monte Carlo.

Above that we will have no movement. Roger Federer of course remains the overwhelming #1. Andy Roddick is far behind Lleyton Hewitt, and Houston is too small to make an appreciable difference in that gap.



If Marat Safin had done better at Monte Carlo, he might have had a chance to gain ground on Roddick -- but he didn't, so no matter what happens this week, the top four will remain unchanged.


There will be big changes farther down, of course, as a result of Monte Carlo coming off -- but we covered that last week, so we won't go through it again, especially as we'll cover some of it below.

Key Matches

Because of the calendar change, this week's key matches were really last week, when players were defending their Monte Carlo points. The player with the most on the line is of course Monte Carlo champion Coria, who is playing at Barcelona. Finalist Rainer Schuettler is not in action. Semifinalists Moya and Safin, plus quarterfinalists Davydenko and Alberto Martin, are at Barcelona; quarterfinalists Nalbandian and Henman aren't playing.

Because Safin's ranking is safe, it's Coria and Moya who have the most to worry about, especially the latter (since Coria built up a reserve at Monte Carlo this year). The Spaniard has a generally nice draw: a bye, then a qualifier or Hyung-Taik Lee (now that's a nice clay draw), and only then a real challenge -- Albert Costa or Igor Andreev, probably. Then most likely Nikolay Davydenko, then Gaston Gaudio


We might note that Gaudio will be climbing to #5, and if he performs very well on clay, he just might have a chance at #4 before Roland Garros (though his odds are poor, to put it mildly). He needs a final to bump his points total at all, though, and a win to make any real difference. And his draw is not helpful: He will likely open against Felix Mantilla. Then either Ferrer or Verdasco. Then probably defending champion Robredo, or maybe finally-back-in-from Juan Carlos Ferrero. Then Moya, then Coria or Safin.

We'd also be watching Ferrero. In his last three events, he's had a good Miami, a bad Valencia, and a very good Monte Carlo. He has to be tired. But he has to be hoping for good luck in Spain. He'll be facing countrymen in at least his first two rounds: Albert Montanes, then Feliciano Lopez or Nicolas Almagro. He's likely to face a Spaniard after that, too: Either defending champion Robredo (who will, however, be playing his first event back) or Alberto Martin, with those Monte Carlo points to defend. That Robredo/Ferrero/Martin section is very interesting. If Ferrero wins that, he faces Gaudio. And if he wins the whole thing, believe it or not, he'll be very close to earning a Roland Garros seed.

[SAFINNO1]

Thanks Teresa for that article.
Atleast Marat is safe in the top 4 after this tournament,but hopefully he can gain points to roddick.

[edible]

Go Marat go! ;D

[annie]

1st Federer, R. 475

2nd Nadal, R. 313

3rd Hewitt, L. 253

4th Safin, M. 230

5th Ljubicic, I. 193

5th Roddick, A. 193

7th Agassi, A. 155

8th Coria, G. 136

9th Gaudio, G. 134

10th Ferrer, D. 124


That's the ATP Race as at today. So bloody right....GO MARAT GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[annie]

BUT.............



WE'RE ONE UP AND PASSED RODDICK IN THE ATP ENTRY RATING.............

[Andrada]

www.openseatgodo.com/images/index_md_img.jpg

[Andrada]

Acasuso and Vicente are playing their match at the moment.

Acasuso is leading 7-5; 4-3