BNP Paribas Masters

[Ugadalou]

Voja def. Ugadalou 6-0/6-0.

Obviously not much of a contest.Voja served and played amazingly,I couldn't stand up to him plus the Nadal-Nadal match-up was dooming for me to play against his style.

Stats:

[C4iLL]

It's strange Uga to see you taking double 6-0 :s
Hope our guys will perform better against him in next matches !

Anyway, I've played my first match @BNP against Aziz (Soderling) R32 : I won it 6-4, 7-5.

It wasn't a very funny match as it turned into an aces battle. We both served at a great level (he had 82% of first serve and 19 aces and won a lot of service to love).

On my side fortunately I was really great in service too (21 aces) and didn't face troubles on my service.

His level in service failed a bit 1 time in each set and that allowed me to break him with some nice passing shots on lines.

I have to notice that Aziz played that match with a fairplay behavior, not abusing dropshots at all for instance, I think he has then understood the lesson

[C4iLL]

The big clash of the 1/8 : an US Open semi-finalist, ranked n°8 vs the Winner of the Indian Wells M1000, n°9.
What was in game ? Qualification for the World tour Finals !
Head to head was 2-0 for Robbin, who played with Berdych so far. So he had the hedge

Result : N°8 (Llodra) won 6-2, 6-4 against n°9 (Murray).

This match, despite the score was really close. Every points were hard to win.

First set : I won easily my service at beginning, I earned a break by increasing my level, playing more deepshots and ajusting better my return.
At 4-2 anyway, it was a very hard service game for me, where he was about to break.

Due to rain on Bercy (the public didn't understand how it could have rained inside but there was a cloud inside ! Really !) we rehost the match at 4-2 advantage for me. He saved it, but I finally won that service so 5-2.

At that moment, I played a few deepshot and won the set on a wrong volley from Robbin.

Second set : he increased his level whereas mine stays high. That gave great exchanges that Robbin mostly dominated with Murray.
I fortunately played one of the best set of my career at service, always finding the lines and not loosing points on double faults. It was then a nightmare for him and a good security for me ^^

At 5-4 for me, the pressure was high on his shoulders and I knew I had to break him fast because on the tie-break it would have been far more difficult.
I then put all I had, a big baseline fight began : I mostly won every points of this game due to anormal faults from Robin (maybe the pressure ?) : 6-4.

Now i'm qualified for the world tour finals, everything will be bonus on this tournament !
Hope Robbin is gonna participate too because he showed a really high level in second set !

[p.napalm]

Just lost to Felipe10 7:6 6:7 3:6.
Small suggest for people who have internet on crank handle. Have some respect for other players and play Sims, not online tennis tournaments. Serving, ping 800-1000 (service sequence consists of 50 parts ), lost my serve and next game my opponent served with no delay and lag.
Very sad we couldn't play in normal conditions.
Best luck in next rounds.

[VMoe86]

The streak is over: Voja (Nadal) defeats VMoe86 (Nadal) 6-3, 6-2.

Voja deservedly won this match, congrats to him. It's good to lose again, I have to say. Good luck to the other semi-finalist.

About the match itself, I started a bit sluggish and gave a way too many points with errors in the beginning, so he got an early break. My plan was to be more aggressive than him from the baseline, but it was extremely tough to hit winners against him. He realized that I was tending to win the longer rallies, so he attacked frequently at the net and he is really good there. Good volleying with Nadal, anticipation for lobs and great timing for smashes, hats off! In the end he won about 54% of his net approaches, but he won important ones, which is what matters.

So, he shortened the points to some degree and I was finding more rhythm from the baseline. He was holding serve more easily, but I kept on fighting and even when he was up 5-3, 40-0 on his serve, I did not give up. I saved all three set points, saved another one, but to no avail, I could not turn it around.

In the second set I was serving first now, but since he got more into my service games than I did in his, it was not that much of advantage. After 1-1 we both exchanged breaks, but then at 2-2 I was broken again and somehow I was starting to make too many errors again, going for a bit too much. He also played his part in that equation, since he disrupted the rhythm nicely. He broke also a second time and then I finally played a couple of good points again, when I was double match point down at 5-2. I still believed that I could turn it around, saved a couple more match points (5 in total), had the chance to get one break back, but in the end he prevailed with one nice FH winner.

Good match Voja! Dare you if you don't win this tournament now. I see that Florian prevailed against Fox, only C4iLL and kyuuji are left to play their SF (will take place on Wednesday evening ). Definitely some interesting matches left, all of them!

Now, some days rest before WTF in London, which is a good thing for me personally.

[spencercarlos]

Late post: Voja def Spencercarlos 3-6 6-4 6-1



Not so difficult to describe this match, he is an all around player, and i tried to be agressive, i came to the net probably more than i have ever been in my life for this match, the main reason was to prevent him to tire me out and be him the one coming in or winning the long rally.

For the better part of the match i really thought i could pull it out, had small openings in the second set 15-30 or 30-30 points but he would come up with great shots to save the games. In the third set i even had break points at start breaking, but after 1-1 in the third he held his serves easier and my serve just faltered me, and lost all the patience needed to stay with him.

So congrats for him, he was a good sport, and apart from the short slice shot what i hate, there is nothing i can complain from this match, it was very high quality stuff the first couple of sets.

This tournament with Florian and Voja make it all very interesting, Voja already beat Vmoe whom i thought had better chances than i did, but then again a Nadal-Nadal match up is another story.

[C4iLL]

I'd say nobody will ever beat Voja on an Nada lvs Nadal official match ^^

[eliomelma]

Impressive!!! hope that one have the dmo file, so curious to watch it!

[C4iLL]

Kyuuji vs C4iLL = 6-7, 6-7 !

Wonderful match I won with a huge mental today and perfect level in both services / return.

First set : It was a big battle on his services, always going at 30-a, but I never got a break point opportunity, he played as a champion on the most important points of his services.

On my side, my service were less close because of a great service, and touching lines (as against Robbin in the previous round).

He had one break point opportunity but I saved it with an ace, without pressure.

We really played at a top level and I finally manage to take the advantage in the tie-break with a very fighting spirit. His level failed a bit on this tie-break whereas mine stayed at top or increased at that moment.

Second set : I had the mental edge and got break point opportunity on the first game. I was dominating but didn't get the break and that finally make him come back on the match.

After this game, I strrugle a lot more to save my service and had to be ultra concentrated to anticipate his return / serve well. On his services he was untouchable.

At 6-5 for him, I had to serve to stay in the set. The pressure was extremely high on my shoulders, and he had 5 set points !! But I all saved them with services on lines, volley on lines etc. I took full risk even on second serves ^^
The stress was at the maximum...

Tie-break : he got a mini break, I came back, and I won a new break with another net approach. I then served for the match, hiting nice volleys, but he catched them and hit a huge passing shot ! I told myself "damn, a match point on serve missed against the n°1 !!!"

Before, I would have collapse, but now I'm a rock : I kept playing my tactics and I got a new mini break. And I finished the match.

Conclusion : Kyujii played a really great match, it would have been deserved if he had won that in 2 sets. Fortunately I had the level required today to compete and that allowed me to win the most importants points.

[VMoe86]

Great win, C4iLL! It did not surprise me that much, though, because Nadal is not the best choice against Llodra. Offline, for example, I have an easier time against the CPU Llodra when I play as Harrison. It is a bit weird that for upsetting the volleys flat and powerful shots are more useful than putting spin on it.

I'd say nobody will ever beat Voja on an Nada lvs Nadal official match ^^

He is not unbeatable in this match-up, I'm convinced of it, but one has to be focused every second.

[eliomelma]

Great C4ill!!! 4 months ago you never thought that you could beat Kyuuji!! congrats!!!

[C4iLL]

Yep Vmoe what you say is partly true but yesterday I think I had less than 70% points won at the net which is not really exceptionnal in my case.

Despite the spin Kyuji was indeed really great in his passing shots (I have the feeling he hit really strong shots with this Nadal troughout the whole match) and he made me do a a lot of errors.

I have also noticed that in the both 2 sets, I won 60% of our 5-8 hits exchanges, that was maybe the key of the victory.

Fortunately I've the record, there are incredible points on this I think (I will upload it one day ^^)

[Voja]

Hey C4ill...can u anwser me? when can u play? i cant enter the forum chat , just so u know

[Voja]

Voja def C4ill 6/0 3/6 6/3 - SF
Nice match even tho I think it could have been better from both sides...see ya and GL

[C4iLL]

C4iLL vs Voja = 0-6, 6-3, 3-6.

By far the most strange match I ever played on ITST and on Tennis elbow ^^

Firs set : I don't know why but I had a lot of difficulty to put the ball on the court. I almost gave him the set : he just scored 3 or 4 winners, and me I did like 16/17 faults for 2 winners ^^ He won in like 5 minutes.

Second set : I saved a 0-40 situation on the first game, that woke me up. After that I began to put the ball on the court and get sensations. I broke him, and never lost my service again.
But the match was still very strange, with no rythm because of his very special style.

Third set : I lost my service with stupid errors and throughout all the set I tried to get it back. I had one break point opportunity I unfortunately missed.
I also saved 2 match points, but it was too late.

Sum up : it's a very ugly match with a lot of faults, maybe the worst from me since US Open, but it's because of the very specifical way Voja plays the game. I finished the match with 55 faults ! All my volleys went out, if I have done against Kyuji I would have lost in 2 sets ^^

A part from that, let's admit that Voja has BY FAR the best anticipation of the tour and very great passing shot skills.
The problem is that style is really not flamboyant : he doesn't hit strong shots, it's always slow balls he gives you, there's no rythm. It's like playing against Santoro in real life for those who know him : it's slow ^^

It's a very efficient style indeed, I don't contest that, but personaly, I appreciate more guys like Carlos, Fox, Robbin, Kyuji, Indian Florian and so on, who play an offensive tennis and who try to reach the lines everytime. Nothing personal Voja

Good luck for the final !