I know Agassi is in this. I understand that Roddick is going to pass. Anyone else know of any other players making it into this tournament today?. I guess the coverage will be on ESPN late this afternoon/evening.

It's a Masters event, so most of the top players participate. I'm surprised that Roddick isn't, actually. Safin is still out recovering from knee surgery; he's coming back at Cincinnati, hopefully. I think Roger pulled out too with an injury ... but I'm not 100% certain.

The big first round match-up is Moya vs. Nadal!

[ August 08, 2005, 06:36 AM: Message edited by: Gaga4Gaby ]

Roddick is in. The seeded players:

1. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
2. Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
3. Andy Roddick (É-U)
4. Andre Agassi (É-U)
5. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
6. Gaston Gaudio (ARG)
7. Guillermo Coria (ARG)
8. Mariano Puerta (ARG)
9. David Nalbandian (ARG)
10. Tim Henman (GBR)
11. Tommy Robredo (ESP)
12. Thomas Johansson (SUÈ)
13. Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)
14. Radek Stepanek (TCH)
15. Richard Gasquet (FRA)
16. Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)

Other than Nadal-Moya, first round matches include Coria-Ferrero, Henman-Hrbaty.

You going to any of the matches, Zeno?

Nadal is an interesting top seed. It will be fun to see his game transition to the hard court. I think he'll do well on the hard stuff and at the Open, but I wouldn't expect him to win this title. Probably Andy or Lleyton ...

As is often the case at the masters events, there are quite a few intriguing first-rounders:
In addition to Moya-Nadal, there's Srichaphan-Grosjean, Gasquet-Youzhny, Nalbandian-Chela, Ljubicic-Dent, Coria-Ferrero, Henman-Hrbaty.

Looking further ahead, there are potential clashes between Gasquet and Nadal and--oh, dear--Hewitt and Coria.

I guess Cliff and Patrick were wrong yesterday about Roddick not going to be there. Fine with me. Go gettem Andy. Also want to see Agassi continue to do really well.

Good win in straight sets this afternoon for Agassi, who started a bit slow, then got into his groove. Martin from Spain didn't have much in the way of weapons, but he was kind of easy on the eyes.
Tomorrow we get Nadal/Moya, which will be really interesting, then the afternoon match will be Roddick against Mathieu.

I was surprised when Agassi lost two games when up 3-1 in the first, it looked like he'd steamroll. But he broke twice after and closed the set out. Not a spectacular first round match, but enough hitting without too much time spent on the court. Mission accomplished for an early round. And yeah, Martin is a nice looking guy.

I watched the Agassi match and was rather unimpressed. That Andre is still capable of playing top ten tennis is amazing, I want to say that up front ... but I think over the last year or so he's really started to look old on the court. He seems slow to react, slow to move to shots. I hope that he can put together a good run at the US Open, because I don't know how much more he has left in him.

I think that the decision to retire should be up to him. I don't like that once an athlete hits their late 20s in tennis all of a sudden the retirement barrage begins. But I definitely feel like Andre's "advanced age" is starting to catch up with him.

Oh, and speaking of cute guys in Canada ... I thought Warinka (sp?) who lost to Rusedski - they showed the very end of that match after Andre's win and before the taped Henman highlights - was kinda cute.

Speaking of Henman, what's up with him? He's in terrible form lately ....

Who knows about Henman, Gaga. Its probable that his career has peaked, and maybe he has too many diversions within his family and all? Maybe just a hunch. It is true that he really doesn't have much in the way of any weapon in the game.

Oh I agree about Warwinka! I've seen him before, but I don't remember him looking like that.

I know we've been all over this here before, but I can't stand to hear another word from that damn Brad Gilbert, and Cliffy and Patrick aren't too far behind. The three of them last night were so up Andre's ass, that they barely mentioned Martin. And when Gilbert did, he referred to him as "Al Martin" (like Todd Martin, not that ugly kicker in the NFL Martin Grammatica-he who celebrated himself right out of the season a few years back). It just seemed a bit stupid, if you ask me. I love Andre, don't get me wrong, but whenever Alberto did hit a winner, or a nice shot, the total shock these three dolts expressed was unbelievable.

I'm not crazy about the P-Mac, Drysdale, Gilbert combo either and I agree 100% that Gilbert should at the very least know how to pronounce Martin's name. Really makes you miss Shriver and Mary Joe.

Patrick McEnroe is a smart, well-spoken commentator but he doesn't know how to separate his duties as Davis Cup captain. He knows it, too; he was thrilled to call the Blake/Roddick final in DC because he didn't have to try and be non-partisan towards Americans.

Cliffy is just senile. But what a festive little curl of bangs he was sporting the other day! Very Lisa Stansfield.

I think that's what pissed me off the most about Gilbert last night. He knows how to pronounce the name! The other guys were saying it right, and it's not like Martin is new to the game. He's been around awhile.

Oh it just gets to me...I don't know why!

Gilbert's a rube. He knows a helluva lot about strategy and how to play the game of tennis, but he's still a rube. And he might be the most macho man to ever pick up a tennis racquet. He's very testosteroney.

Andy or Lleyton: I'll take your order for a number 2 or 3... Coming right up. wink

No, I'm not going. I'll be watching some tennis on TV. With RDS and TSN, there are games at 11:00, 13:00 for the afternoon and 19:00 for the evening.

Tournament officials have already annouced a record attendance for the week.

I don't know if the Agassi match had broadcast rights in English to the American channel. It was on RDS but on TSN at the same time they were showing the Rusedski match. Found it strange.

A question for the tennis experts:
Is there a 1st serve % number that is considered "good" and at that level the player is considered to be serving well?

When they show comparative stats for a set or game between two players they put this number. I was wondering what the number you should be ideally.

Agassi had 49% and Martin 45% which seemed low. Perhaps it's mostly to compare to the opponent and not be used as an absolute number?

First serve percentage below 50% is not good; however, the key stat then becomes the percentage said player wins on his or her second serve. Normally, the second serve is more attackable, but if you're winning 95% of your second service points then does it really matter if you're missing the first serve so much? But because most people have weaker second serves, you want to have a higher first serve percentage ... I'd say in the sixties is alright, in the seventies is good, and anything in the eighties and higher is gonna win you alot of games and most likely the match.

The other thing I noticed about Andre yesterday was that it appears to me that he has lost some weight. Especially in the legs/thigh area. Anyone else notice this? Or maybe because of my advanced age, my sight ain't what it used to be. frown

[ August 09, 2005, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

It varies a bit from player to player, too, though below 50% is pretty much never good. Some players tend to go for more on their first serve, and others have particularly weak second serves. To use some examples, 60% is quite good for Justine Henin-Hardenne, disastrous for Elena Dementieva. 49% seems very low for Andre.

Good point, JC.

As for Andre, he's always had chicken legs!

Hewitt retired in the first set. I think he's been sick.

That really opens up his quarter of the draw. There are alot of players that could take advantage ... Ancic or Coria maybe. And Andre is in that half of the draw, so I think having Lleyton out would be good for him if he was to live up to his seeding.

Well Nadal is showing signs shere early where once again, he is a force to be reckoned with. Check out his arms and biceps!! Moya is too tentative and just doesn't have much conifdence..yet anyways. I can stil see Nadal causing lots of fits here for alot of players, I don't care who they are. Interesting comment from Gilbert on how Moya was spending so much time on his hair before they came out " trying to look pretty." eek!

See previous comments re: Gilbert is a rube.

If Moya is able to take this match I will be shocked, but he has picked up his game and confidence tremendously here in the second set, and in fact has just won the second set in a tiebreak. Very interesting...

Moya-Nadal is a duel of "look at my biceps" shirts.

Moya won the tiebreak 7-0. Third set now.

I think Moya is much better, personally. I have no other real investment in this admittedly very interesting first round match, so ...

Go Moya!

Boy, as soon as I opened my big mouth, Moya went from 3-3 in the third to losing the final three games of the match. Nadal survives!

The big surprise so far for me is Younes El Aynaoui beating Feliciano Lopez. Younes hasn't won a main draw match since he got injured in 2003.

Hewitt may really regret not having got his hard court campaign started earlier this year. He's now only got 1 or 2 tournaments to prepare for the Open.

I saw that about Younes as well and was really surprised. For all I knew, he retired! He's a really nice guy and deserves some good fortune, so I'm happy for him.

And Dent came back to take his match, I think. Plus Karlovich is toast, right? Wow. Big upsets.

Karlovic lost, but it wasn't an upset. He went out to the #12 seed, Thomas Johannson, former Australian Open champ and I believe a former champ here in Canada also!

Hey G. Did you mean in the match, on hardcourts, in the arms? Could be all 3, of course. Just was wondering if you think he's better on hardcourts than Nadal at this point.

Nadal has such potential on hard courts. It will be interesting if he adapts to them....he stands so far back when receiving a serve or at the baseline. On clay he has the time for that. But such positioning will present more opportunities for his opponents on hard (as it did on grass). And those who don't play a clay court style themselves can work that advantage, it would seem.

Oops. Yeah, I meant much better LOOKING. ha ha.

I was happy to see that Dent won a tough 3 setter after his disappointing final in Indy where he ran out of gas early in the match. If he gets in really top notch condition he could really do some damage. With Henman apparently on the downside, Dent may be the last best serve and volleyer in the game.

When Nadal took an injury time out in the third set and the trainer was called, I thought he would not play well after.

Feel sorry for Moya who managed to save many break points. He was also more often on the bad end of wrong line calls.

Thomas Johansson won in 1999. It was in Montreal since we have the men every two years.
List of past champions:

1999 Thomas Johansson (SWE)
2000 Marat Safin (RUS)
2001 Andrei Pavel (ROM)
2002 Guillermo Canas (ARG)
2003 Andy Roddick (USA)
2004 Roger Federer (SUI)

hmmm... Canas in 2002...

Andy Roddick defeated in first round by Paul Henri Matthieu, tha last player to make it into the draw. 7-5, 6-3

[ August 09, 2005, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: swiminbuff ]

Well, so much for Roddick's momentum. Credit Mathieu though, he played very well...Andy did not.

Andy stunk pure and simple. He should go back to his hotel and look in the mirror to see why he lost. But, Matthieu played th ematch of his career. Andys serve were so awful I couldn't believe it. I recall Patrick McEnroe saying earlier today that he didn't think Matthieu would hurt Roddick very much. Pat, how does your foot taste tonight???

Hewitt and Roddick both out in the first round. Shocking and it really opens up the draw. Rafa's chances of living up to his #1 seed have just moved up a bit. I don't really like the way he would match up with Agassi--Agassi might take advantage of the weak serve and short balls off the backhand side. David Nalbandian who was terrific in Davis Cup recently crushed Chela easily--I wouldn't be surprised to see him do well here. Ferrero had a surprisingly easy time with Coria and might be a factor. Nicolas Kiefer is another guy to keep an eye on. He always loves the American hardcourt swing.

How long has it been since Roddick was defeated, as opposed to withdrawing, in the first round of a tournament?

Not that long, actually--he went out in the first round in Hamburg in May. But I fully expected him to lose Nicolas Massu on clay--frankly, it was surprising the match was even close. As far as I can tell, he hasn't lost a 1st round match on a hardcourt since 2002.

taped the roddick/mathieu match. just finished, wow. he was mystifying roddick early on by sending so many of his serves back. his ability to guess/predict where they were going to land was pretty amazing. andy may not have been playing his top form, but mathieu kept the heat on and didn't give roddick a chance. his set-ups were hot, opening the court like a can of sardines. good for him. made for some good tennis at the end of the day.

and what the hell is a 'buggy whip'? 'wheelhouse'?...fer cryin' out loud.

[ August 09, 2005, 09:58 PM: Message edited by: tennisballs ]

The bottom line with Andy is that he is as good as his serve. When his serve is off he loses confidence in the rest of his game. His baseline game is not all that. I was at the Legg Mason final Sunday in DC. He did not have a good serving day and Blake won most of the longer baseline rallies. Unfortunately, Blake, as usual, made errors at critical points in the match. Federer and Hewitt have exposed this about Andy and thats why they have winning records against him. Mathieu exposed it tonight as well. Andy's backhand is nothing special but his forehand is his second biggest weapon. Often he'll open the court and then hit a laser forehand. But, when Andy doesn't ace you off the court its either gonna be tight or he's gonna lose. I have said this for years and until he does something different with his game I think he's gonna remain with 1 slam. The key to Andy is to start to read his serve and block it back. Make it a baseline rally and take it from there. Its ashame cuz I want to see him win more slams but his game lives and dies by his serve.

Moya is my second most favorite player. However, I am afraid that he might retire soon. It seems as if he just isn't good enough to hang with the top players and he is too susceptible to being beaten by player's who are ranked below him.

I agree with ltmdterp. Roddick's serve is the only thing that sets him apart from other players. If his opponent can return his serve and or serve as big as he does, the he is at a disadvantage off of the ground. And yes, Roddick has a big forehand. But who doesn't?

Dedric

I am the kiss of death. I said I thought Lleyton or Andy would win the tournament and look what happens!

I was shocked at the Roddick/Matthieu result as well, but it surprised me that Andy didn't start to anticipate the placement of Matthieu's forehand more. I didn't see him hit it to Andy's forehand once during the entire second set ... if Matthieu had a forehand in the deuce court, he hit it down the line; in the ad court, he hit it crosscourt. Andy should be used to most people attacking his backhand side anyway. I was really surprised he didn't adjust at all. And I'm not an observant or smart tennis player/viewer, so for me to notice it, it's got to be extremely obvious.

Agree with you Gaga. The other thing I noticed was Andy "adjusting" himself from time to time. eek!

Even though I don't think it's true, remember that at US Open time and do me a favor by not picking Kim or Lindsay. I'd love for one of them to win this one.

Bad news ... Kim is still my early favorite, although I'll have to wait and see the draw wink

I'd like to see Kim win but she has yet to step it up at the grand slams. She can win all the Tier 1s and 2s she wants to but come slam time she doesn't step it up when she needs to. I'd like to see Lindsay win the US Open. But, I wonder how confident she'll be this year. Last year she had swept the hardcourt tournaments and was the favorite going in and lost to Large Marge tractor woman, aka Kuznetsova. Then again, I think Lindsay prefers moving along under the radar and people not really talking about her. Rested up I have to put Venus up there as a major contender too. Wimbledon proved that she is more than capable. But poor Lindsay...I felt so bad for her after Wimbledon. Serena and Venus both have slams this year after the haters wrote them off so I'm satisfied and am rooting for Lindsay to take the Open.