Halle Website

Singles Draw

Doubles Draw

Disastrous draw for Federer.
O.Rochus (who had 4-5 MPS last year) first round with J.Niemenen, Boom Boom Becker, Fat Dave & Misha Youzhny all in Federer's half.

I think pretty much any draw on grass is in Federer's hands......

Probably the only time Fed is vulnerable on grass is post RG, where he has to be feeling a little fatigued, and it showed last year when he toiled to victory.

I think it should be rather the same story here as well :)

Federer has just pulled out of Halle, apparently in order to avoid injury after the French.

Doubt it'll make any difference, but it means he'll go into Wimbledon with no grass court preparation.

Not surprised he's pulled out of Halle, but surely there's scope for him to play a bit of grasscourt tennis before Wimbledon - how about deputising for Borg who's had to pull out of the exhibition tournament at Liverpool?

Thanks for the update Wise.
The last 4 years, Halle has served as a good preparation for Federer. This year he'll be going into Wimbledon with no practice. And seeing how vulnerable he is in the early rounds, expect the unexpected ;)

I was shocked that Federer pulled out of this. One would think he'd want the preparation. :shrug: Maybe he feels he is really tired and a break would be more beneficial than the matches. Hope it doesnt; leave him rusty for wimby.

I was surprised not to read anything about Halle in his yesterday interview. Now I probably understand that the journalist were probably not allowed to ask him the question...as the answer was already known and negative.

To be honest I don't know why Federer plays it anyway, he doesn't need the preparation or ranking points imo.

It's just extra working time, when he should be resting up physically and mentally for Wimbledon.

Did Sampras play grass warm ups regularly? I know Graf and the Williams sisters never really bothered.

Wimbledon is of course his number one priority.

If he believes that playing at Halle will jeopaardise his chances of winning Wimbledon this year, then of course he should pull out.

I thikn that it's quite a wise move. He will want to be fresh for Wimbledon, and he's far too good on grass to need that much preparation tbh.

And i'm sure that he will prepare for SW19 in some sort of way that will give him every chance of retaining his title as he has had in the last 3 years. :)

The only downside is that, like most tennis players, he is a little superstitious, and he usually equates the retention of his Halle title as a good omen for SW19. However, I'm sure that he will be as determined as he was last year, and am looking forward to SW19 in general. For some reason I don't think that i'm alone in preferring Wimbledon to RG? ;)

I wondered whether there might be a certain about of mental fatigue involved. Federer put a lot of time and effort, both physically and emotionally, in to winning RG, and I felt you could see yesterday just how dejected he was by his loss. I could imagine that going straight in to a competition is probably not what he wants right now - possibly a bit of time to recover and reflect will do him the world of good. :)

i almost got myself tickets for this wednesday in Halle, something went wrong with the order...so glad it did!
Last time i had tickets (final Rotterdam 2006) to see Fed, he also pulled out. Jinx or what?
But don't worry y'all, i'm not planning to go to Wimbledon ;)

Gasquet out in straight sets to qualifier Qureshi 7-6 6-4

Ahh well, he has variety in his game Liam, he can take comfort in that ;) .

another seed bites the dust-Nalbaddyun out in 3, 7-5 2-6 4-6

Man is he on a slump, he's been so inconsistent on grass too, getting to the final in 2002 and then last year after reaching the RG semis he went out in the third round didn't he? :blink:

That's a baffling loss for Gasquet. He does fairly well on grass (with two titles on it), and although you could chalk it up to surface transition and a qualifier will have had more match practice, his opponent was still ranked outside of the Top 300. :blink:

As for Nalbandian, I was vaguely considering him to be the main beneficiary of Federer's withdrawal, having been in the same section of the draw. So much for that, although Gicquel can be a tricky opponent.

Davydenko had a nice three-set victory over a class opponent in Melzer. It's only his second win on grass ever, if you can believe it. Looks like his form may survive the switch to his worst surface for a change.

Some odd serving mishaps going on in Germany. First Davydenko gets hit in the eye by Melzer's serve, causing it to swell up. Then apparently Gicquel was pasted in the groin by a 208kph serve from Becker. :hide: Both of these were German-speaking opponents, natch.

Anyhow the tourney doesn't seem to have attracted much comment but I'm fairly pleased with the semifinalists. Home favourite Kohlschreiber had a nice straight-sets upset against last year's Queen's finalist Blake, and will face off against Baghdatis, into his third consecutive grass court semi (he only won his first match on it last year - seems a long way gone now, eh?). Last year's finalist Berdych takes on Wimbledon quarterfinalist Nieminen in the other semi.

That is a good semi final lineup! It's difficult to predict who will make the final..

I rate Kohlschreiber. I thought that he played well against Rafa at the AO this year, and he has been consistently troubling the top players in other recent tournaments too.

It certainly has been a tournament of surprises though, as has Queen's. They both might indeed be little blueprints for Wimbledon itself where there might be similar surprises in store. Somehow I can't see the top 8 seeds at SW18 ll making it to the quarter finals..

I rate Kohlshcreiber too :ok:

I haven't followed Halle so much as I don't get to watch it. Shame as nice semis line up. I'd go Baghi, and on the other I really don;t know.

yes, he is cute :lol:

Berdych has beaten Nieminem 7-6, 6-4

In the other semi, Baggy beat Kohly by the same score, 7-6, 6-4..


Birdman v Baggy in the final :)

Come on Baggy!! :D

Why is he called Birdman?

I like Baghi so hope he wins. I want him in form for Wimbers cos he's great to watch on the big stage. :D Must admit I've hardly ever seen Berdych play.

berdych won, didn't he??

i wouldn't mind seeing good things for this guy. i saw him play in toronto last year. solid, big serve. given some honing and time, he'll be a consistent top 10er...

Yes, Berdych won in straight sets..

It was Baggy's 22nd birthday today too.. He got presented with a cake along with his runner's up plate I think :)

Good solid victory for Berdych against the ever-dangerous Cypriot. I like this gracious quote from him: 'I am a bit sorry to spoil his birthday party. We are good friends but on the court we are just fighting for the win.' Happy 22nd to Baghdatis, incidentally!

I would have been happy for either man to win it, but Baghdatis has won a title this season already whereas unbelievably the big Czech's last title came at the Masters event in Bercy way back in 2005. A shame that wasn't quite the breakthrough that many thought it was, but still good to see him back in the winners' circle finally; he also seemed the most natural beneficiary of Federer's withdrawal from Halle as he came up short against the No 1 in last year's final.

Lastly he edges back up to the threshold of the Top 10, sitting at No 11 only one spot from his career high of 10. Baghdatis also climbed up two spots to 16 - it was still a good result for him, and he seems to have confirmed that he has the game for grass.