Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will kick off their Halle campaigns on Thursday. They are set for respective openers against Dustin Brown and Joao Sousa.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (WC) Dustin Brown
Nadal will be right back in action four days after winning his ninth French Open title when he takes the court on Thursday at the Gerry Weber Open. The top-ranked Spaniard generally struggles–understandably so–making the extremely quick transition from clay to grass without a week in between. He has a single match victory in two previous Halle appearances, having most recently lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 2012 quarterfinals. Similarly, Nadal has made it past the Queen’s Club quarterfinals only once in five forays to that event (he won the title in 2008).
Up first for Nadal this week is Brown, whom the No. 1 seed has never faced. Brown did almost nothing on clay aside from a Houston upset of John Isner en route to the quarters, but his attacking style is always going to work better on grass. The 83rd-ranked German successfully qualified for Wimbledon each of the past two seasons and he reached the third round in 2013. This should be competitive in part because of Brown’s grass-court prowess, but mainly because of the fact that there is no way Nadal will be 100 percent physically or mentally. Still, the favorite should have enough left in the tank to get through at least one match this week.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing more than 8 games
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Joao Sousa vs. (2) Roger Federer
Federer and Sousa will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Thursday. The 32-year-old Swiss is coming off a French Open quarterfinal loss to Ernests Gulbis, but he will be well-rested and obviously motivated to succeed at what is basically a home tournament for him. Federer is 43-5 lifetime in Halle with six titles and he has made it to the final in eight consecutive appearances.
Sousa broke onto the scene last season and he has a decent 10 ATP-level match victories this year, but he also has 18 losses. Although the world No. 47 is a solid all-court player, he would obviously much rather contest this one on clay as opposed to grass. He opened his week on Monday with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 beatdown of Jan-Lennard Struff. Sousa will make Federer work, but this should be one-way traffic from start to finish.
Pick: Federer in 2 losing 5-7 games
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I did see this coming…not this early though since I thought Rafa would lose to Kohly…however, this loss means nothing…I think Rafa was not playing tennis today…we could clearly see from his body language that he was there to try to do it fast…and when this crazy-tennis guy started hitting returns from nowhere Rafa just could not reorganize the whole game and did not bother after all…he wasn’t practicing his serve lately so he really could not get any free points and chasing those fast balls from Mr. Wild Card was simply not feasible at this point since Rafa was afraid not to get injured…and on top of it Rafa must be tired…he needs to rest…
You know, it must be so difficult for players to switch from clay to grass in such short time…even for us fans it looks weird all of the sudden to watch big serving and 3-4 hits at most…and I still have vivid memories of those long rallies and beautiful points from the RG final…
I somehow think Rafa will do much better this year in Wimby…I am starting to dream the same dream as Sanju… 🙂
Vamos Rafa!
He is probably sitting with a glass of some kind of cool drink in his hand watching the WC. He deserves some down time. Too much is expected of players, they are only human and can’t keep going for months on end without a break.
Bed time for me!
Rafa says he will go to Mallorca and rest for the next 3 days, no tennis and then he will head to Wimby on Wednesday.
Vamos Rafa!!
The bottom line is the schedule is brutal for the top players and having these two Majors involving the transition from clay to grass so close together is the most brutal of all. In the current era only Rafa and Roger have managed to pull off the Channel Slam: in Rafa’s he has done it twice.
I would love to hear from anyone watching Halle (Queens is geo-blocked where I am) on the ATP Livestream. It has changed since the last time I used it and I am in 2 minds whether to renew my subscription. I used to enjoy the experience, now it’s crap. Tennis Channel TV is doing the streaming now and it’s God-awful service. I never had cause to complain before but already I streamed Halle twice and had cause to complain on both occasions. And when I complained they put through to a live-chat where someone was supposed to assist me, and by the names of the “help” it was clear this was some call centre in Asia, and they knew bugger-all about what I was talking about!
I have sent a formal complaint to the ATP but don’t expect any change to be honest………bureaucrats.
ritb, I used to have problems as well then I started logging in through FB. Just click Sign In on the ATP WEBSITE, put in your email address and click the FB or Twitter icon and you’re in. Viewing goes on swimmingly now. .
^^^Don’t key in your PW.
Thank you for the feedback, @nadline10. *groan*, so I have to log in through Facebook? I suspended my Facebook account after it was hacked and really do not want to re-activate it, tbh. But I will take your advice on board and make a decision either way in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks.
rafaisthebest (at 7:19 am),
I watched only Rafa’s match on TennisTV.com. I didn’t have any problems.
I always Sign In on TennisTV.com site. There has been something wrong with ‘Sign In & Sign Out’ for a long time: I have to click ‘Sign Out’ before signing in.
Actually, I don’t understand what your problem is.
rafaisthebest (7:19 am)
As for the Queen’s tournament, it has always been Eurosport’s bread and butter.
RT @pmouratoglou : “I love soccer but hate that almost one match out of 2 there is a major mistake from the referee that finally decides who is the winner.”
Isn’t this what the ATP is trying to do with the Time Violation Rule?
re: ATP streaming. I have the same problem. I think the BBC is behind it. They are obsessed with stopping people downloading their material from another country via the internet. If ATP are streaming the BBC transmission that would explain why neither of us can receive it but can access Halle. I don’t get this problem with Eurosport Player which I originally invested in to watch the TdF with English commentary. It’s hard enough to follow what’s happening in English, let alone at 200 wpm in French 🙂
Croatia was better organised and played better in the 2nd half, the referee was god awful giving that penalty away to Brazil .. shameful..
^^It’s clear who “they” want to win the WC: Brazil.
One of the British Commies said they need Brazil in the competition for as long as possible for the atmosphere. He said that to justify the penalty. This just proves that all sport is prone to some kind of fixing.
RT @NickBollettieri : “WOW, @RafaelNadal out of Halle and @andy_murray out of Queens. Will we we see the same at Wimbledon?”
No.
Rafa’s post match conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZXoZh5md44
Well, well……………..it’s only gossip, but, I had to laugh……………..
RT @KYevgeni : “Latest gossip. Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg betted Mansour Bahrami,that Rafa Nadal will win NO more grand slam! Wager unknown.”
was this before or after the final on Sunday?
^^no idea, but I would like to think it was before Sunday
Wow! It’s the famous tennis player Yevgeni Kafelnikov, who spread this news
https://twitter.com/KYevgeni/statuses/477375189265965056
Who is Mansour Bahrami?
^^French player of Iranian descent. Famous for his moustache and entertaining tennis.
He sounds very ‘down’. Ominous remarks about his back too.
Makes one appreciate the efforts Rafa has put in to remain at #1 and win a 9th RG in spite of that bad back. Look how a bad back wrecked Fed’s 2013.
So my dream and hope of another Channel slam flushed down the drain? (:- Oh noo
Another early exit in Wimby..noo noo..Rafa you have to win it
Remember how “down” he also sounded after his match against Lajovic at RG? He then came out and smoked Ferru……………..
Let’s wait and see………….
Borg must have wagered the Coupe des Mousquetaires then.. and he dutifully handed it over 🙂
^^Hehehe, good one!
Hey @littlefoot, Rafa is sending his apologies to you in Germany!
“Back home, I have a few days’ rest before travelling to Wimbledon… I’m not happy about yesterday’s result in Halle. I appreciate the support of my fans, especially in Germany.”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152284995606026
ritb, you can log in through twitter.
Thanks @nadline, I logged in through LinkedIn. Touch wood.
rafaisthebest (at 2:23 pm)
Have you tried to Sign Out and THEN to Sign In on Tennis.TV.com?
@augusta08, my problem was more to do with the new site layout which took me a while to get used to. I just liked the old one better, didn’t have to search for information like one has to with this new one. But I’ll get used to it I suppose………………
rafaisthebest (at 2:40 pm),
Have you clicked the Hamburger Button in the upper left corner of the Front page ?
@augusta08, I am logged in right now. The live match right now is Nishikori vs Johnson, I know because I can see the live scores on the ATP page! However, the TennisTV stream is saying: live NOW Falla vs Gojo and Nishikori vs Johnson “coming up” and the screen is showing Falla/Gojo!
I am not paying subs to watch recordings, I am paying to watch live matches! What do I do to watch a live match without having to ask for it first?
Now I am watching the Nishikori/Johnson match LIVE and you wanna how I got there: by going to the TennisTV website, clicking on the schedule of matches, clicking on Nishikori/Johnson! This is rubbish. Why do I have go through hoops to watch a match I want? I never had to do this on the old ATP site. This sucks!
rafaisthebest (at 3:16 pm),
My streaming shows the match Nishikori vs Johnson.
I had this kind of problems a long time ago. I wrote to LIVE SUPPORT and each time they sent me a link to the live match I wanted to see.
@augusta08 at 3:28pm
THIS is the problem I have been talking about! The last 2 days I had to livechat for support and they then sent me the link to the match I wanted to see. I never ever had this problem pre-RG. I never used to ask for links to matches I wanted to see, the site used to have ALL matches taking place clearly outlined on the page and all you had to do was click on the match you wanted. Now you have to ask for a link? Rubbish service!
I was thinking of subscribing. Think I’ll hold off for now.
Wise man. Gosh, I can think of a thousand things I would rather “waste” my brain matter thinking about than “how do I get the link to today’s live match?”
Tossers.
RITB, is that with the new iPad app or the web site. I’d heard nothing but positives about the new app.
Might just be a short term problem. tennisTV have been tweeting several apologies for technical problems this week.
#Fail
rafaisthebest (at 3:37 pm),
I have had a lot of problems during 3.5 years. But, I have preferred TennisTV.com to free sites.
Once upon a time, I had freezing problems. I got rid of them after I started to use Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer (& a faster internet connection).
@hawkeye63, I use my desk-top for streaming.
@augusta08, I never had problems till now streaming Halle. I have streamed using internet explorer without any problems. In fact, I remember praising the ATP streaming service before RG 2014. I never use free streaming sites. I suspect the ATP has handed over all streaming to Tennis Channel TV and this is the result: drop in service. Before my experience, I had seen nothing but bad reviews about Tennis Channel service. Now I know why……..
Surely you don’t mean Tennis Channel in the US, do you?
Isn’t TennisTV still using Robbie Koenig, Jason Goodall, etc.?
I’m done with Halle for this year, will only watch Queens now.
I’ve lost interest in even that with Andy gone. Will come back for the SF and Final. Me an’ my dog, we’re off to enjoy this glorious sunshine at the beach.
You missed a great tiebreak.
Brown showed amazing consistency and variety. But no other nr.1 and winner of wimbledon would ever loose to Brown.. Nadal is so one dimensional running only from left to right.
In Iater stages of tournament he is different player ofcourse, he is the best of building and improving his game.
Well, maybe Djokovic needs to become more “one dimensional” then. Might win him the Slam he covets so much. I wonder who he will enlist next in his quest for the holy grail, Soderling?
9, and counting…….
Just like no other winner of wimbledon would ever “loose” to Stakhovsky.
Rafa plays as good as required and saves his best to kick Nole’s ar$e in “later stages” of last four slam matches.
Let Federer have his 250 points and Nole have No. 2.
Nole wins a few battles but Rafa wins the wars.
#YoureWelcome
#RafaGOAT
Maybe Borg and BB thought they were betting on Djoker who has been trying to prove that he can win another slam since Jan 2013.
comments like anatoliijs’ – June 13, 2014 at 12:21 pm – are so ever present against Rafa but all he says to back it up is ‘running from let to right’… doesn’t really provide any other reasoning .. what is 1 dimensional exactly? does Rafa only run from left to right? what about the multiple titles he has on all surfaces, is this also part of the on 1 dimension?… and then he says that he’s the best player at improving his game, so this is more than one dimension? ….. sorry anatolijs but … no sense at all
anatrolljis
@Shireling, anatoliijs is not here for a civil discussion or to make sense. He is a troll, who only appears if he is in pain, usually after a Novak drubbing by Rafa.
Exactly. If Rafa only runs from left to right how come he’s only lost 89-1 in best of 5 sets on clay, and has won 64 titles?
So Kolhs beat Dustin 18-16 in the 3rd set TB. I am glad Dustin was no push-over, proves he really was on fire yesterday.