Re: Tennis Tipping #23 - Monte Carlo - Differences Posted
Monday's Commentary
The opening day of the 2009 TT Monte Carlo Masters Series event was full of shocks and surprises as both of last years finalists and the top three players in the world all crashed out in the first round, leaving the door open for one of the less well known players to storm to the title.
Last year saw FiBeR claim the title and his victory was seen as a sign of recovery for the nation of Argentina, but his attempt to retain the title was as successful as the Argentinean football team (how do you lose 6-1 to Bolivia anyway) as he was beaten in round one by the unheralded Georg of Romania.
He was though consoled by most of the TT community for the loss, and the bad day for Argentina continued when the outspoken ExcaliburII came through a personal battle against Machiavelli, claiming that the Croat had insulted him before the match, before accusing him of the heinous TT crime of using Betfair TT instead of the far more valiant Lapentti TT, which for the third day in a row paid off for the controversial qualifier.
But having been told to shut up by GlennMirnyi, who also reached the second round, and also has his fair share of critics, it seems the most eagerly anticipated clash of the tournament might not be on the tennis court but on the streets instead – unfortunately the two could only meet in the final.
Fellow qualifiers Gallina, Marcelwks, Betty and JohnJohn, and lucky losers FERNET, Starluk and Mishka Lovgi all made the second round in a great day for those who came through qualifying, the highlight being JohnJohn’s victory to leave him as just one of two Frenchman left in the draw as the French continue their struggle to win anything.
JohnJohn is joined in round two by Crocodile, who played up the stereotypical personality of a Frenchman by not bothering to make a pick for the Lapentti/Stepanek match, and then realizing his error, pleading his case to the TT Board, but they shot him down (not literally). That said, he still managed to have enough to beat 3rd seed Renaud, who sold his French nationality for money to play for the Kazakhs, which will give the French an excuse to drink long into the night (not that they need to do so)
The top two seeds also crashed out, with world number one Foosimoo struggling to adapt to the clay and going out to QWE of Chile, who is much more at home on the surface, and then not blaming the clay but the three stooges who cost him the defeat who couldn’t beat qualifiers.
And 2nd seed Bavaria100 though was happy to be off the clay after she continued her inability to play successfully on the surface, but had a tough match against fellow German and Miami champion ZachBusner, who edged through a close match. ZachBusner will now face his doubles partner from last week Forever-Delayed, who secured a rare win over Ekin to become the first player into the second round.
The Brit, who has barely won a match since reaching the French Open final last season has been desperately looking for wins and it seems that having taken over the running of the event, he has found himself back to winning ways – and if it continues, look out for him taking over several other events throughout the season.
Last years runner up Labamba continued his poor start to the season with a first round loss to Egiorazz, Lithuania’s greatest ever TT player, but their were victories for several other members of the TT Board, with Keqtqiadv, Adee-Gee (despite his vicious attack on Andreas Beck) and 4th seed Troickitard all reaching round 2, with Troickitard the highest ranked player left in the event, with Maldini, Chris84, Hellcat, Smasher, Gulzhan and Nando_L the other seeds still left in the event.