2008 Campbell's HoF ATP, Newport, July 7-13 (Prakash runner-up!)

[PKBasu]

Excellent work by Rohan to qualify in. The first round matches shouldn't be too difficult as the top four seeds will not be playing, and the field is fairly weak for an ATP tour event. Taylor Dent, if he is in any decent serving form, will be a big challenge ofcourse, even if he is just a wild-card. 

[gbelday]

Good to see Rohan getting through his Q1. With him getting a good feel of conditions at Newport now..

Great job Rohan!!  It was raining all day on Saturday and that may have thrown Rohan off a bit. Forecast for Sunday was better...

[PKBasu]

OK, Rohan Bopanna plays Kevin Kim (USA, 181) in the first round. I think that is an eminently winnable match for Bops, against a player who has no particular grass-court aptitude. But he would then run into top-seeded Mardy Fish in the second round -- which should be a serve-fest, with tie-breakers likely deciding the outcome. Prakash too has a relatively tough R2 match-up, against either 5th-seeded John Isner or Jesse Levine. And Aisam (if he beats Benjamin Becker) plays Fabrice Santoro (the holder, albeit beatable at his age... ) in R2.

[PKBasu]

Of the 60 singles points from the Dublin Challenger title last year, Rohan has now defended 5 by qualifying in at Newport. He gets 15 more for winning R1, and will have accumulated 55 points here if he beats Mardy Fish in R2.

[gvhvhg]

OK, Rohan Bopanna plays Kevin Kim (USA, 181) in the first round. I think that is an eminently winnable match for Bops, against a player who has no particular grass-court aptitude.

There we go again! PKB--I wish you had atleast paid the slightest bit of attention to what I said a few weeks ago when you were so sure that Prakash would beat Stakhovsky, and that Rohan would beat Canas. You also referred to both as lacking in grass court aptitude. The truth is that the necessity for 'traditional' grass court aptitude has diminished, and that grass court aptitude as an entity has changed....you dont need to have a serve and volley game OR a big serve to have grass court aptitude. Id also argue that just being a more consistent and higher ranked (as a result of that consistency) player is more important than grass court aptitude. With that being said, Kevin Kim has qualified into Wimbledon THREE times (albeit once as a lucky loser) has won a round, and has won matches at tune ups and at the Forest Hills challenger. That is more aptitude than Rohan has ever shown on grass. As I said last time with Prakash and Stakhovsy and Rohan and Canas....I am not saying Rohan wont beat Kim---but to say it will be a cakewalk is ludacris.

Please PKB, atleast show me enough respect this time for a response. I put alot of time and energy into that last post (maybe you missed it...it was somewhere in the Ordina open thread) and you just ignored it.

[Rajiv]

good news for bops to qualify.
good luck to amritraj and bops , go guys make some noise.

[jaydeep]

Today only Rohan having his singles match ... His match against Kevin Kim is first match on Center Court at 11:00 am.

[10nnix]

Please PKB, atleast show me enough respect this time for a response. I put alot of time and energy into that last post (maybe you missed it...it was somewhere in the Ordina open thread) and you just ignored it.

I pity you ghvhvg, what ever (what a funny handle). I understand, silence as a response can be deafening, I hope you hear it loud and clear.

[Prashant]

FWIW I completely agree with what gvhvhg says. I would say that Rohan will probably lose to Kevin Kim. Its not an impossible opponent, but RB should still not be favored.

[PKBasu]

OK, Rohan Bopanna plays Kevin Kim (USA, 181) in the first round. I think that is an eminently winnable match for Bops, against a player who has no particular grass-court aptitude.

There we go again! PKB--I wish you had atleast paid the slightest bit of attention to what I said a few weeks ago...

....I am not saying Rohan wont beat Kim---but to say it will be a cakewalk is ludacris.

Please PKB, atleast show me enough respect this time for a response. I put alot of time and energy into that last post (maybe you missed it...it was somewhere in the Ordina open thread) and you just ignored it.

Ashish (gvhvhg), I did respond to your post in the Ordina Open thread at some length, if you would bother to check. There were only 2-4 posts between your post and my response. But to expect that you will get a response when you are persistently rude is asking for a lot  : if you think someone is "dimwitted" (as your last response to one of my posts called me), surely you don't expect a response!

I am a fan of these guys, and believe in pumping them up. We have had a good deal of back and forth on this topic. I generally tend to be optimistic about our players' prospects, and I do tend to go a bit overboard in my celebrations of their victories. Often (but not always) I will provide a bit of additional analysis to back up my optimism about their prospects for the next match following some of these wins (which, frankly, have been rare in singles for the past year, especially for Rohan). If you want to add some analysis to what I have said, you're welcome to do so, but to expect a response from me when your post starts "There you go again, PKB!" suggests you don't particularly care for my opinion, so I am surprised you expect a response.

But since you asked for a response, here it is: to say that a match is "eminently winnable" is not the same thing as saying it will be a cake-walk. Far from it: "winnable" is not a guaranteed win, the word merely suggests the possibility of a win. You yourself claim you are "not saying Rohan wont beat Kim" -- which is pretty much the same thing. This is Clinton-esque parsing to find an excuse to rant at me, which you appear to take much pleasure in these days for reasons unknown.

On the basic premise that there is no such thing as grass-court ability, I beg to differ. I know (as I have said elsewhere) that the ATP tour is doing all it can to make grass-court tennis more like hard and clay-court tennis (by increasing ball sizes, removing them from their cans long before a match, etc.). But there is still such a thing as grass-court ability -- and Rohan has oodles of it, as does someone like Ivo Karlovic (although Ivo displays it everywhere but at Wimbledon). Prakash sadly seems to have it only at Newport and in Davis Cup, and has not consistently done better on grass. Rohan demonstrably has done better on grass (and near-grass) courts than any other surface, especially in the past year. Newport is his last opportunity to garner some of the valuable tour points that he gained at the Dublin Challenger last year. I hope he is able to win a couple of rounds at Newport, although my head suggests it will be very tough for him to beat Mardy Fish in R2. Kim may have won a single match in a Wimbledon main draw (beating Britain's Bogdanovic) but he isn't a grass-courter. Among the opponents (such as Taylor Dent, Santoro, etc.) Rohan may have encountered at Newport, Kim is among the least intimidating on grass courts. Had there been 4 months of grass tennis every year, Rohan would have been ranked at or higher than Kim's level -- that is what I am contending. On the particular day, of course, Rohan's game (especially his serve) needs to be firing if he is to fulfil the potential he possesses to win this eminently winnable match-up.

[Rajiv]

come on gvgh you are making a mountain of a molehill that pkb has to write a long reply ,
as far as i am concerned this is forum is to speak one's mind ,express their views and not to beg for respect, if your post's elicit a reply  than good, if not than fine - get on with it.
and talking of respect you call yourself a friend of prakash amritraj , but when prakash was wining matches in Ireland or the doubles title there was stoic silence from you and not a single congratulatory message before -during or belated ,  now isn't this disrespectful.

[jaydeep]

Truce guys, we know eachother for quite longtime … So I m surprised to see we still misunderstood each other’s personalities which are known to every forumer through their posts … No need to tell any one of u contribution of other forumers make to our forum.

So chill out guys, here no one is bound to accept others view … U can disagree and write about it … Don’t take things personally while posting that only murkier nice relationship we all r sharing.

As our famous forumer once said, “If u disagrees, then attack post but never attack the person!” ...

Just my 2 cents thoughts ...

[PKBasu]

Actually, Prakash has an unpredictable (and potentially troublesome) opponent in R1 this year. Joseph Sirianni is a late-bloomer of a sort that is pretty rare in Australia (but more common in Asia). He reached his career-high ranking of 143 on 28th January this year, 11 days after his 33rd birthday -- following a terrific run to the SF of the International Series ATP event in Adelaide (beating Stepanek, Querrey and Mathieu), and then a wild-card into the AO where he took Tipsarevic to five sets. Before 2007, he rarely came anywhere close to 200 in the rankings, but this ATP yeoman (a term I would prefer to "journeyman") burst forth quite dramatically last year with two consecutive Challenger titles in Australia (in the second of which, he beat Smeets, Guccione and Soeda). His results haven't been quite as eye-catching since, but he did make R2 at Queen's (beating Britain's Bogdanovic in R1, which is a relatively easy tour win!). PA needs to be on guard, serving and volleying at his best to subdue this fellow, who seems like a typical Aussie scrapper.  

[usaindian]

Rohans  Match started  and he is leading 3-2

[sameerph]

Rohan's match has started . Rohan leading 3-2 in first set.


Rohan faced 5 breakpoints in his second service game but saved all of them. Then, he himself had a couple of breakpoints in a long Kim servive game with lots of deuces but Kim hold on. Pretty close match so far with 27 points each. Rohan has 6 aces so far but has also served 3 double faults.

Kim held at 15 & then Rohan held at 30. Bops leading 4-3 on serve.
And Rohan breaks Kim at 30 helped a bit by 2 double faults in that game by Kim. 
Yess. Rohan serves it out in style at 15 with 2 aces in that game.

Rohan Bopanna leads Kevin Kim 6-3 .

Go Bops.