[Ome]

Our beloved clay court season is here!

All we need is a good and consistent serve from Paulo, plus a decent outfit from Adidas and we're ready to VAMOS




Schedule = Road to Success

1.Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
April 13-19, Monte-Carlo, Monaco

2.Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell
April 20-26, Barcelona, Spain

3.Internazionali BNL d’Italia
April 27-May 3, Rome, Italy

4.BMW Open
May 4-10, Munich, Germany

5.Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open
May 11-17, Madrid, Spain

6.Roland Garros
May 25-June 7, Paris, France

[PinkFeatherBoa]

Really looking forward to clay season this year, hard court season has dragged on too long imo...

Vamos Paulo, this is your season to shine again.

[tufani]

The Monte-Carlo draw , Paulo is in the second quarter:

[4] MURRAY, Andy GBR vs BYE
HANESCU, Victor ROU vs QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER vs BERDYCH, Tomas CZE
QUALIFIER vs [14] CILIC, Marin CRO
[12] NALBANDIAN, David ARG vs MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA
ACASUSO, Jose ARG vs GRANOLLERS, Marcel ESP
KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO vs SERRA, Florent FRA
BYE vs [8] DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS

Draws are getting worse from tournament to tournament this year, don't you think?
Okay, maybe it's just the first impression... Vamos Paulo!!

[tufani]

Paulo also plays doubles here with Marc! He actually was to play MC doubles with Jeremy, but they couldn't make it to the main draw due to low rankings.

[8] COETZEE, Jeff (RSA)/KERR, Jordan (AUS) vs BYE
MELO, Marcelo (BRA)/SA, Andre (BRA) vs DJOKOVIC, Novak (SRB)/TROICKI, Viktor (SRB)
LOPEZ, Feliciano (ESP)/VERDASCO, Fernando (ESP) vs ANDREEV, Igor (RUS)/SAFIN, Marat (RUS)
BYE vs [4] BHUPATHI, Mahesh (IND)/KNOWLES, Mark (BAH)

[5] SOARES, Bruno (BRA)/ULLYETT, Kevin (ZIM) vs BYE
ALMAGRO, Nicolas (ESP)/FERRER, David (ESP) vs CILIC, Marin (CRO)/KIEFER, Nicolas (GER)
[WC] GICQUEL, Marc (FRA)/MATHIEU, Paul-Henri (FRA) vs ARNOLD KER, Lucas (ARG)/CUEVAS, Pablo (URU)
BYE vs [2] NESTOR, Daniel (CAN)/ZIMONJIC, Nenad (SRB)

[Ome]

Marc is actually a decent partner, in my opinion

Nalbandian... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

I haven't been following tennis very closely this year. Where has Nalbandian been?
Honestly, I thought Paulo could draw worse

[tufani]

Well, Nalbandian won Sydney this year, made the semis of Buenos Aires, had a chance to beat Rafa in IW (5 MPs), but lost in the end. And then in Miami he got trashed by Troicki 1-6, 3-6. You know David, he can do great when no one expects it from him and vice versa.
So Paulo has been training in Monte-Carlo for a week now! Lets hope he got used to the surface and it won't be a problem in his first round match.
The fact that he has no points to defend is a bit relaxing tbh. It will be absolutely great if Paulo gains some ranking points from those Masters 1000 events.
He's not sheduled to play tomorrow (I mean, on Monday), so Tuesday it is, for both singles and doubles matches, I guess

[Ome]

I see... I've been missing a lot

Well, I do like Nalbandian as a player, but I hope he's out of shape here

[tufani]

Me too, Jai

OOP for tomorrow:

COURT DES PRINCES start 10:30 am
[Q] F Fognini (ITA) vs T Berdych (CZE)
[12] D Nalbandian (ARG) vs P Mathieu (FRA)
F Lopez (ESP) vs [10] D Ferrer (ESP)
M Safin (RUS) vs [WC] L Hewitt (AUS)
[WC] M Gicquel (FRA) / P Mathieu (FRA) vs L Arnold Ker (ARG) / P Cuevas (URU)

Paulo practiced with Rafa yesterday for about an hour (11-12 AM).

[Ome]

I hope they'll take turn to televise matches from this court as well!

Ohhh, interesting practice partner Thanks for the info, dear

[Truc]

I for myself don't mind since there are livestreams of both courts (and I actually prefer the Court des Princes because I find it more fun), but they should have put his match on Center Court, it's one of the most awaited matches of the 1st round imo.

[PinkFeatherBoa]

Vamos Paulo 2x.

I agree that it should be on Central but there are a lot of good matchups today. Oh well Court Princes has a nice atmosphere, I like that court fine for the occasion too. Paulo can have Central next round!

[tufani]

Good luck, Paulo!

[tufani]

That's an interesting start: three games - three breaks of serve. Paulo double faults on a BP again

I see Quiterie is on the stands

[tufani]

Lets try to get another break in this set, Paulo. Allez!

[tufani]

Nalbandian takes the first set, though Paulo had some real chances to go 5-all (Nalby served 3 doubles in the last game!). Oh well, at least Paulo plays better now compared to the start of the match. Keep it up!