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Italian Tennis

36K views 295 replies 37 participants last post by  Champion number 1 
#1 ·
Instead of individual player threads I think this is easier for me.

Right now our tennis is pretty good. We have 5 inside the top 100 with 2 more ready to break into it.

Volandri is looking good in the top 35, although whether he can get to top 25 or so on seems hard as he is useless on any surface but Clay.

Seppi is slowly moving up the rankings now. Up to 77 and still moving up. Hopefully he can get nearer to 50 by the end of '05

Starace is going downwards and is already down to 94. Hes not in good form so he will need to get his confidence back quickly and surely he will want ton stay in the top 100 this year.

Di Mauro is at 99, but to be honest he is not really a top 100 player. He is not good on the main ATP tour but he has done well to reach his mark.

Sanguinetti in the top 60 is great,m the old man still has legs.

To come.... Bracciali, Aldi, Bolelli and Fognini :worship:
 
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#2 ·
Bolelli did well this week, he reached the semi final of the challenger in Rimini and Bracciali is in the final of the grass court challenger in Manchester. I really like the way Bracciali plays, he needs to put his best game together more often for him to make a impact on the top 100.
 
#3 ·
finally somewhere to talk about the italians i've waited ages!

i'm not italian obviously but i do love daniele i think he's awesome and very underated, volandri is playing well and potito is too,

daniele won manchester today! said he wants the grass season to go on forever coz he's enjoying it :)
 
#4 ·
Yes going against Italian tradition, Bracciali is actually one of the only Italian players ever to favour the faster surfaces (Grass and Hard). The fact he is quite decent on clay also gives him a good chance of progressing inside the top 100 should he stay in such form.

His height and physique would make you suggest he is a typical clay court slugger with somewhat average attributs apart from some good ground strokes. In fact this is wrong. Bracciali is an absolute wonderful server (consistent 125-130 MPH). A superb vollyer, and also very good at hitting. In fact I am surprised he has taken so long (25 years) to realise his potential. For a long time he has slowly but surely moved up the rankings and now he is at the best stage yet. After the Manchester win he will move close to the top 100.

Bolelli did well also this week, but in terms of Ranking points Im not sure how many places he moves up as this time last year he won the Italy F15 event and the Semi of Rimini doesnt bring you so many more points I dont think. Good for his confidence though. 6 wins (including qualies) in a row without a loss of Set before losing to Navarro.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Éowyn said:
daniele won manchester today! said he wants the grass season to go on forever coz he's enjoying it :)
Thanks for the information! :worship:
I'd thought the grass season had been already (in Newport) over...

:bigclap: :clap2: Congratulations to Daniele! :clap2: :bigclap:

How wonderful he played at Wimbledon!!! :hearts:
Daniele is for me the most impressive player at Wimbledon 2005.
I was queueing and queueing and queueing and queueing in order to get a ticket for his match on Thursday and Friday. :devil:

I hope he will reach the Top 100 and higher ranking! :D
 
#6 ·
Champion number 1 said:
Bracciali is an absolute wonderful server (consistent 125-130 MPH). A superb vollyer, and also very good at hitting. In fact I am surprised he has taken so long (25 years) to realise his potential. For a long time he has slowly but surely moved up the rankings and now he is at the best stage yet. After the Manchester win he will move close to the top 100.
:yeah:
 
#7 ·
yeah it's over everywhere else but the wonderful thing about england is of course we love our grass courts so we have numerous challengers on grass! and manchester was this week.

for what it's worth heres the article of teletext about his win today.
Manchester Trophy, didsbury.

Italian Daniele Bracciali took his second grass court title of the summer when he beat Igor Zeleneay of the Slovak republic in straight sets 6-4 6-4.

Bracciali added manchester to the Surbiton title he won at the beginning of June: "I have had a fantastic time on grass and I wish it was longer."

"I was happy with my game but my serve was not working as good as at Surbiton. But I returned serve well so it's OK."
personally i really like the way daniele plays i had only seen him a couple of times before this season and always said i'd keep an eye out for him and then never erally saw much on him, then when i watched him play RG at RG (i like saying that so easily entertained :lol: ) on tv i thought damn he's improved he really impressed me, my friends went down to surbiton and said i'd have been really proud of him!

i saw him play at the wimbly qualies and he impressed me by how much he has matured and yes it has taken alot of time but he's obviously been working hard and he's also a very lovely guy to talk to even if he does still struggle with his english :p i worked at wimbly and saw him there too and he was one of the few oplayers i saw actually wandering around the grounds (unnoticed i might add) and watching matches of other players, he looks like he generally loves his tennis and is very comfortable with himself now!

against ivo he played brilliantly to have 51 aces against you and still win is amazing! and he really did play well i warned just before teh tournament started that i thought he would be a very dangerous player and i was very nervous for andy when he played him! obviously as an andy fan i wanted andy to win but i wanted daniele to do well to keep his confidence up and i'm sure that match did do alot for his confidence and he seems to be constantly learning.

he's also one of the few players who does realise that if your opponent has an injury time out it's good to keep moving and keep warm, when capdeville was injured in his match (an injury i truly doubt actually existed i think he just didn't want to be thrashed) danielle put his jacket on ran around the court did stretches on the net etc and just seemed to keep himself motivated and his head in the game (something i wish mardy would learn) and i just have a lot of respect for him he's taken his time but he's kept working and his belief is obviously there now! I hope he does well in holland this week and i think he could cause an upset and could take out raemon in the 2nd round if he gets through his first match.
 
#8 ·
just looked at the rankings

Daniele has gone up 15 places in the entry system and is now ranked 118 his highest ever :) he's closing in on the top 100 now :)
 
#9 ·
Yes a good tournament this week in Holland will surely see Bracciali move up some more valuable places. It will be hard for him though as he may be too tired. Although he didnt lose a set in Manchester, he will surely be feeling his matches. Still I have hope that he gets to at least the quarters which would make a good tournament for him.

This week the rankings for Italians are:

34. Volandri (prev position, 34) - 130 points from the top 30.
60. Sanguinettti (59) - 75 points from top 50.
77. Seppi (77) - 34 points from top 70.
95. Starace (94) - 80 points from top 75.
105. Di Mauro (99) - 10 points from top 100.
112. Aldi (111) - 30 points from top 100.
118. Bracciali (133) - 40 points from top 100 (QF in Holland needed this week)


Others:

Uros Vico improved 12 places to 226
Bolelli IMPROVED 36 places to 268.
Winner of the F21 event Marco Pedrini is now 413 in the world.

Young guns, Fognini moved up 9 places without plaing to make him 373 in the world and Naso is still very low at 789. They both need to move quicker up the rankings although still young.
 
#10 ·
actually i don't think he does need 40 points! coz some of the people around him have points from la etc that will come off this week if they don't defend them he will jump up regardless!
 
#11 ·
Thanks a lot for interesting informations!
Before Wimbly 2005 I didn't know Daniele. I wanted to see Karlovic only a little. And there I saw another great player! Daniele played so fantastic and impressed me so much that I wanted him play again. On Friday I saw only his match because I was queueing to get a resale-ticket for the center court and it begann to rain after his match. But I was quite satisfied.
Sorry, it's not easy to write in English because I'm not good at it...

I love this thread! :D
(but not the Forum's name "Rest of the world")
 
#12 ·
Today Bracciali faces Zitko. Its a winnable first round match so here is to hoping.

Aldi faces Marin in round 1 also.

Yesaterday Seppi won again and defeated Mayer in Germany (A very good win) to move to round 2. Today Starace faces Monfils in round 1 while Volandri plays Simon in round 2. All Italians have a chance of progressing today.
 
#14 ·
well we could request an italian forum if enough people want it i'm sur ethey'd let us have one
 
#15 ·
Volandri lost in 3 against Simon, dissapointing result, he isn't in very good form at the moment and with the american hardcourt season starting soon i don't think volandri is going to have much of a chance to move up all that much in the rankings. There are still some clay court tournaments left this season but not that many eg Umag, Palermo
 
#16 ·
if daniele wins against raemon he'll be top 100 for sure :)
 
#17 ·
Yes at the moment Daniele only goes up a couple of points because this time last year he went out of a 25k challenger event in the QF. So it means the 2nd round here doesnt bring you so many more points, but if he reaches the quarters then he receives an extra 30 pts and that should take him to the top 100 or at least very near. Come on Daniele you can beat him.

For the others. Seppi and Starace have very tough matches v the Spaniards Martin and Robredo respectively in their round 2 matches.

Volandri failed us. He will lose many ranking pts as this week the Umag tournament (where he reached final) is coming off the rankings and entered will be this crappy event for him. He has a chance to make up for it next week in Umag though

He hasnt won an ATP tour match since the French where he was injured in the 3rd round. This seems to have downed him. Still, hes only had 3 matches since then and got to a semi of a challenger so he should always look forward.
 
#18 ·
More good news is that Bolelli went through in the first round of the Tampere challenger event. He won after ketola retired 3-0 down in the third. Before that both shared a tie-break a piece. Must be a tough match physically for Bolelli so hes impressing at the moment. Next another tough challenger competitor, Daniele Koellerer.
 
#19 ·
as i say thought alot of people around danielle in the rankings are defending points and not doing very well i might add! so he may go up more than expected! but still keep it up danielle :)
 
#21 ·
Yo guys its been a good day for Italian tennis.

Firstly, Bracciali has got through to the quarters with a superb 3 set win over Sluiter. Bracciali lost the first easily but he fought through and now top 100 is on the cards for Daniele.

Secondly, Bolelli impressed and qualified for the QF of the Tampere challenger beating Koellerer and now faces Minar. Important ranking point already here

Last and most impressively is the victory of Andreas Seppi. He beat Robredo in 3 sets and goes into the QF of the Mercedes Cup. I think Seppi can now get to the top 50 by the end of the year if he stays with this form.
 
#22 ·
daniele has fernando gonzalez next will be interesting to see how he copes :)
 
#23 ·
Well both Italians lost sadly.

Bracciali went down in easy straight sets to Gonzalez but he was getting tired so 6-3 6-3 is not so bad. Hes played like every day for the last 2 weeks so hes done well.

Seppi after 2 impressive wins lost 6-2 6-3 to Nieminen. Still, Seppi has a lot to look forward too.
 
#25 ·
Yes great result for Di Mauro. Easy win and now hes starting to be competitive on the tour. Aldi is struggling though, he lost in straights again today.

As for the rankings.

Volandri is down 3 to 37. This week in Umag and needs a good torneo.
Sanguinetti remains at 60. This week in Recanati challenger strangly.
Seppi up 8 to 69. A great tournament last week. This week he has a tough first round so will be hard to progress.
Starace up 1 to 94. Well he needs to go up the rankings. A 1st rounbd match v Ferrer in Umag will not help.
Bracciali up 15 to 103. Well not quite the top 100, but this week he is in recanati. A really good tournament in this challenger will help.

Further down the list and more promising of all is Bolelli. who is now around 230 in the world. He moved up another 37 places and every week he is growing.
 
#26 ·
[QUOTE
Sanguinetti remains at 60. This week in Recanati challenger strangly.
QUOTE]

i think davide is playing in that challenger for family reasons, i remember reading an interview with claudio pistolesi a while back and it said that davide is very family orientated and at times gets distracted at tournaments because of this, i figure thats why he is playing at recanati, because its in italy so he can be close to his family etc, instead of going to Austria, Croatia etc. Also to note he hasn't played in tournaments for a couple of weeks.
 
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