Rafael Nadal will be back in action with a Doha quarterfinal spot at stake as he goes up against Tobias Kamke on Wednesday. Meanwhile, an all-French affair between Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils is also on the second-round docket.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Tobias Kamke
Nadal’s 2014 season did not get off to the most impressive of starts on the final day for 2013, but he still posted a satisfying win in the first round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The world No. 1, who lost to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon in 2012, got past the Czech 6-3, 7-6(7) to set up a first-ever meeting with Kamke. Following an offseason at the end of a 2013 campaign during which he went 75-7, Nadal says he is completely healthy.
That is bad news for Kamke, who booked his spot in the last 16 with a 6-3, 6-4 scalp of Malek Jaziri. The 27-year-old German compiled a 17-22 mark at the ATP level last season and he comes in at No. 74 in the world. Kamke is a solid all-court player with good speed, but he does not have the offensive firepower with which to trouble Nadal. This should be a straightforward second match for the top seed.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
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(5) Richard Gasquet vs. Gael Monfils
Gasquet and Monfils will be facing each other for the ninth time in their careers. The head-to-head series it knotted at four wins apiece following Gasquet’s 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 victory last season on the indoor hard courts of Montpellier. Gasquet enjoyed a stellar 2013 campaign that saw him through to the World Tour Finals, but a possible back injury hovers over his start to 2014. Still, he had enough in the tank to defeat Egyptian wild card Karim Hossam 7-5, 6-1 in his tournament opener.
Monfils scored a strong 7-6(1), 6-2 win over Santiago Giraldo on Monday. The world No. 31 stayed somewhat healthy in 2013; the only Grand Slam he missed was Wimbledon due to personal reasons. This is a rare occasion on which Monfils has no apparent physical problem while Gasquet may be struggling. At this point in his career and having played so well at Grand Slams last season, Gasquet will not risk anything prior to the Australian Open. As a result, signs point to Monfils advancing.
Pick: Monfils in 2
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Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
I think Rafa’s win over Rosol was impressive enough, considering Rosol was fired up to get a 2nd meal ticket at the expense of Rafa. Rafa needed a match against someone like Rosol rather than the knock-up Murray had with the WC. Rafa improves match by match and the harder he has to work the better he gets.
I think after Rafa’s nice win against Rosol, he should do well against Kamke. I am going along with the pick of Rafa in straight sets. I was a bit cautious and voted for Rafa losing 8-10 games. However, he may well do it losing only 5-7 games.
I agree with Ricky’s pick of Monfils over Gasquet. One would think that Gasquet would be the favorite, but as Ricky pointed out he is dealing with an injury. I also think that Monfils has the game to challenge Gasquet. He can be erratic, but Monfils is athletic and can produce some quality tennis when he is on his game.
I think Monfils will win in three.
Monfils is a slight favorite according to the odds
SET KAMKE
Rafa playing shiite defensive tennis. Is it the faster courts that bother him?
He should be pasting guys like #48 Rosol and now #74 Kamke.
Very poor ROS again today.
AO is traditionally slower but if Briabane is any example then maybe they are speeding up the courts for a certain Maestro. Cilic said they were some of the fastest courts he’s ever played on.
Maybe that was a condition for Fed playing there for the first time in addition to his appearance fee.
That said, I’m pretty sure that Rafa must get a nice fee for playing in cool Doha when he could be down under adjusting to the summer heat.
Nole not playing any warm up tournaments this year?
Aside: the commie on Eurosport (old guy can’t remember his name) is an obvious Fed fan and always annoying.
#BadMood
#HappyNewYear!!!
🙂
You nailed it @Hawkeye, the fix is in. Apparently the AO courts are playing extremely fast this year. They want Fed to get to 18 and make it impossible for Rafa to catch his Slam count……
@hawkeye, Rafa is struggling but he needs more practice, nothing quite unusual here.
HE will get through this match though…hope so !!
Regarding the court speed,well all the courts leading upto the OZ open have been quickened ! Pat cash said this today that both the courts and the balls are playing much quicker… The courts at Oz open are also expected to play much quicker…may be it has to do with Rafa-Djoko never ending battle in 2012
I couldn’t watch the match? how was rafa?
probably mediocre at best
Gulbis next
I still can not comment 😀 maybe it’s time to be quite again in this forum 😐
what email are u using?
doumdoum_nesbiat@yahoo.com
Rafa’s match stats were not bad compared to Kamke’s, apart from the BP conversion stat, pretty catastrophic. Rafa needs to manage his nerves better to get a hold of that stat:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=481983648589150&set=a.244237985697052.55295.229133313874186&type=1&theater
Ah well, at least @nadline gets to watch him play Gulbis tomorrow. Not holding out much hope for a Rafa win given how he struggled against Kamke today.
ricky I think it is fixed now! 🙂 thank you anyway 🙂
yep, those worked
#weird
“probably mediocre at best”
The person writing this match preview and this specific comment has not bothered to watch either of Nadal’s 1st two matches at Doha, yet has no problem whatsoever giving a “probably mediocre at best” to Nadal’s play there.
Please forgive me for having no problem whasoever giving a “probably mediocre at best” to such “writing”.
how would you assess it?
We are all ears.
I am watching my recording of the match now. I must say that Ricky is absolutely correct in his assessment. I just watched Rafa blow three break points and then get outplayed in the tb. I only have from 5-5 in the second set to the conclusion of this match. I am going to watch the rest of it, but this is a Rafa who just really needs to get his game going again. The timing and rhythm isn’t there on the groundstrokes and the ROS isn’t great either.
So my worst fear has been realized. It’s going to be Gulbis tomorrow. Somehow Rafa finds a way against him, but he is going to have to play better. Hopefully this match gave him a chance to get his game going..
No comment, sorry, did not see the match, My point, precisely.
I’ve watched enough tennis in my time to look at a Nadal-Kamke score and pretty much guarantee exactly what happened.
But if anyone other than me and RBM watched the match and can confirm what we already know, that would be ideal.
I watched the match. Rafa was mediocre for most part of the match. Return of serve was poor by his standards…forehand is misfiring and backhand was pretty average…I liked his outside serve on the ad court though….
A typical Nadal match in which he finds a way to do enough to win despite not playing anywhere near his best. Overall, it was a better performance from the previous match.
Kamke made the match interesting by playing a lot better than his ranking would suggest.
Gulbis will be really difficult to handle!
Corrections:
*forehand WAS misfiring (line 2)
* out-wide serve * line 3
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Daniel Brands takes the 1st set against Ferru. Brands is German, no? What the heck did these guys feats on over Christmas up there in Germany? Dustin what’s-his-mname takes out Dr. Ivo, Mayer takes out Muzza, Kamke gives Rafa fits and now Brands is running rings round Ferru…………
^^^”feast”….
I was getting really concerned about the outcome of this match because I’m only going to Doha because of Rafa. The last thing I wanted was for him to be out even before I got there! I’m looking forward to it now. I guess it will be the same sort of match against Gulbis.
These guys just go for broke against Rafa and Rafa was playing defensive because he is not comfortable with his game yet. He also needs to serve better.
I was impressed with Kamke’s play. He appeared to have a prepared game plan, utilizing a lot of the tactics that Novak employs against Rafa. Of course, as we know, the problem is always in the execution of said plan. For the most part, Kamke was able to do it with the weapons he has. He was using that crosscourt short-angled backhand that’s so effective against Rafa and was also pretty effective with the bhdtl when Rafa was on the other side of the court. He was hitting flat, well-paced forehands that Rafa could only defend and not convert to offense like he often does. Rafa’s own ROS was relatively poor by his standards. Too many of the returns were short, allowing Kamke to hit winners. Rafa was also standing incredibly far behind the baseline for ROS, even on second serves. My feeling is that Rafa just doesn’t have his confidence yet, so he’s falling back to his comfortable and familiar patterns if it’s good enough to get the job done.
Brands takes Ferru out.
I just caught the tail end of the Brands/Ferru match. I thought Brands might give David some trouble, and indeed he did.
One thing I will say is that Rafa has never played Kamke. So that along with him not being match ready. can also account for this being such a tough match. Kamke was quite impressive in that tb. He did seem to have a game plan and it’s no secret because Djoker has had success with it against Rafa. But it’s being able to do it. Kamke had some success because Rafa doesn’t have the rhythm and timing on his groundstrokes, he’s hitting balls short and they sit up and his serving and ROS need to improve.
It’s all because Rafa didn’t have the time to practice after getting treatment on the knee. In the long run, that stem cell treatment will hopefully enable him to play without pain through the entire tennis year. For this tournament it’s tough because these lower ranked guys just come out and swing for the fences.
Rafa will get there
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