DAVYDENKO, ROBREDO, MURRAY FEATURE IN DOHA

Nikolay Davydenko, currently No. 4 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, starts as favorite for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open but has been drawn in the same half of the draw as 2007 runner-up Andy Murray and No. 8 seed Dmitry Tursunov.

Davydenko has been drawn to face a qualifier, but could potentially meet dangerous German Nicolas Kiefer or Tursunov in the quarterfinals. Murray, who split from his coach Brad Gilbert in November, plays Olivier Rochus of Belgium in the first round.

Defending champion Ivan Ljubicic challenges Stefan Koubek in the first round and could meet No. 6 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo could have his work cut out against Agustin Calleri of Argentina in the first round, with a quarterfinal meeting on the cards against big-serving No. 5 seed Ivo Karlovic – the Houston, Nottingham and Stockholm champion.

http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/week1_preview.asp

The beeb have started off their Andy campaign nicely...

Andy handed kind draw in Qatar

No pressure Andy... but you've got your new super dooper team and a kind draw.... off you go and win!

I have to say I fancy Andy's chances here and if he wins it will be the biggest tournament of his career. He has momentum a new team, rest added fitness, a relatively nice draw.

As Pebs said go get em Andy.

My two favourite players facing each other :o
'Mon Andy, and although Olli has the potential to beat Andy, his form last season doesn't really indicate so...
I fancy Andy to dispose of Olli in two clinical sets for his fatigue's sake, although I can't help but hoping that it'll be a wee bit tighter than that :unsure:

God am I bloody confused.

Is it on tele?

eurosport :D i got it on record cos im going out...duno wen andys on tho

Just watched it, well done Andy :ok: Textbook first set 6-0 Second should have been the same but Oli put up a little fight, bless him! Good start to the year :party:

Robredo is down a set and a break v. a very capable calleri :o

Was a good match from Andy... good to see him in such good form.
Did anyone see the Robredo match? Calleri at one point tried to hit a passing shot down the line to Robredo's forehand which was going well out but the ball whacked the singles stick propping up the net and then completely changed direction and landed on the BACKHAND tramline on Robredo's side and Calleri won the point.
Wasn't Robredo's day.

Thanks for the updates everyone. :D

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Singles - First Round
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) d [Q] B Dorsch (GER) 63 60
A Calleri (ARG) d [2] T Robredo (ESP) 64 64
[3] A Murray (GBR) d O Rochus (BEL) 60 62
[Q] C Rochus (BEL) d [5] I Karlovic (CRO) 76(2) 62
[8] D Tursunov (RUS) d A Montanes (ESP) 62 75
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d S Ventura (ESP) 36 63 64
[WC] R Schuettler (GER) d A Pavel (ROU) 16 62 60
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [Q] A Martin (ESP) 62 62
N Kiefer (GER) d [Q] S de Chaunac (FRA) 64 63

Doubles - First Round
S Aspelin (SWE) / T Johansson (SWE) d I Ljubicic (CRO) / A Seppi (ITA) 63 75
[1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d [WC] R Hutchins (GBR) / A Murray (GBR) 63 60
P Kohlschreiber (GER) / D Skoch (CZE) d A Pavel (ROU) / J Tipsarevic (SRB) 61 62
F Santoro (FRA) / S Wawrinka (SUI) d [4] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 75 60

:blink: not sure I would expect that result for Karlovic....

nice to see Tispy Turvy go through :)

and sounds like Mr Murray had a good game too - nice way to start off your year :)

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Singles - Second Round
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) d F Santoro (FRA) 63 63
[3] A Murray (GBR) d [WC] R Schuettler (GER) 16 60 61
[4] I Ljubicic (CRO) d J Tipsarevic (SRB) W/O (fever)
[6] P Kohlschreiber (GER) d F Volandri (ITA) 64 61
[8] D Tursunov (RUS) d N Kiefer (GER) W/O (right shoulder)
T Johansson (SWE) d M Berrer (GER) 63 75
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [Q] C Rochus (BEL) 62 75
A Calleri (ARG) d H Lee (KOR) 63 61

Murray had a bit of a flip in the first set it seems there..

Liking the look of Calleri in this tournie..
Not heard much of him before though.

:( Tipsy gone down with something too?

I hope all these things are done and dusted for a good showing at the AO

he had a fever apparently - maybe it's this winter vomiting virus.... :unsure:

isnt that supposed to knock you out for a week? :unsure:

nah, 2 or 3 days, but they have been recommending that people stay at home for a couple of days after symptoms have disappeared to avoid spreading it!

hmm....maybe i should do public service announcements....and possibly not in the tennis threads? :ban: :P

:lmaao: maybe...

Good win for Murray 7-6 and 6-0,
I thought we were possibly in for a different result at first when Johannson came out and smacked the ball so clean and hard...
In the end some of Murrays shots were really :bow:
Don't know how he pulls em off..

Great result for Andy :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Johanson is no push over, he's a canny experinced player with godo clean groundstrokes and is quite consistent.

He kinda lost it after his eye injury two years ago though.

Gosh! I can't believe that that incident occurred two years ago! Seems like only yesterday.

Didnt he win the AO a few years ago, beating Tim? :unsure:

Actually that was another great chance Tim had that year to win a Slam. 2002 .Sadly not to be :shrug:

Yep, it waa ToJo :) I knw he had an eye problem but he's still not a player who is gonna be pis easy to beat.

Yep, that was Tim's biggest chance, he was the highest seed left in it - No6 I think! :doh: He was beaten by Jonas Bjorkman.

Ah yes it was Bjorkman .Anyway well done Andy :ok:

I am a big fan of Jonas, btu could nto believe Tim lost to him. :(

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Singles - Quarterfinals
[1] N Davydenko (RUS) d [8] D Tursunov (RUS) 75 63
[3] A Murray (GBR) d T Johansson (SWE) 76(4) 60
[4] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [6] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 63 67(4) 63
S Wawrinka (SUI) d A Calleri (ARG) 63 60

Order of play today is Ljubicic vs. Wawrinka followed by Andy vs. Davy. Play starts at 4pm in Doha :ok:

I'll never forget that ecstatic look on Jonas' face after he beat Timmy...It's been forever haunting me....

:lol:

Murray v. Davydenko? that ought to be a good matchup. :tennis: :D

Brilliant result today for Andy :clap: So glad he beat Davy - I don't like the guy at all! Found out the match had been recorded for me when I got home from work so had a flick through. Not the pest performance from Andy but he ground it out. He's looking so much stronger too. Huge good luck for tomorrow :ok:

Friday, January 4, 2008

Singles - Semifinals
[3] A Murray (GBR) d [1] N Davydenko (RUS) 64 63
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [4] I Ljubicic (CRO) 76(1) 64

The final Murray vs. Wawrinka starts at 6.30pm in Doha (which is 3.30pm GMT :ok: )

anyone seen the BBC headline about Murray today?

MURRAY HOPES TO END WAWRINKA JINX

The two have played twice: once in 2005 in the Davis Cup, where Wawrinka beat Murray in straight sets. And then in 2006 in Miami where Wawrinka won is 3 sets.......and yet now there's a Wawrinka jinx? Gotta love the Beeb sometimes :doh:

Sounds like one of their standard phrases, they just change the names to suit. :huh:

Actually when I saw he was playing Stanislaw, the first thing that sprang to my mind was that he had lost to him twice :yikes: I remember watching that awful DC match too, on clay I think. But back then Murray wasn't the player he si now, however last year I expected Murray to win. Was he injured? :shrug:

Anyway I've though Wawrinka was one to watch since I saw him play in 2005. Not sure how far he will go but he's gotta be a cert for top15-20 if injury free. He's not a spectacular genius or anything but he's got all the potential. I'm thinking this will be a tough match but I think Andy should come through in 3. Good luck Andy :ok:

Very exciting match - Murray won the first set 64.

Where is Wawrinka ranked?

36th, and he's set to gain quite a few points as he got eliminated in the first round of this tournament last year :)

Murray beats Stan 6-2 in the third set :)

:clap: Andy :clap:

About 36 I think.

Good result for Andy, a very promising start to the year too :clap: :clap: :clap: