BNP Paribas Open day 4

Day 4 at BNP Paribas Open has the top players out in the sun

Exclusive picture by Jawad Bisharat 

Novak Has Routine Win in Dubai

Novak Djokovic has routine win in Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

By Jawad Bisharat          2/25/15

As easily predicted Novak Djokovic dismantled Andrey Golubev 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships today.

Djokovic increased his first serve percentage to 61% from 50% just a day prior. However he only hit 1 ace in his routine win and quest for 5th Dubai title.

“Having one match under my belt before today's encounter helped me to feel a bit more comfortable to move around on the court quicker, and I tried to take away the time from my opponent today,” said Djokovic. “It was just a much better performance than yesterday. Hopefully I can improve as the tournament progresses.”

Novak will face qualifier Marsel Ilhan who upset the left handed Spaniard and #6 seed Feliciano Lopez. Lopez admittedly came into the tournament under the weather...or lets hope that was the reason he was upset by the #104th player in the world. 

Federer, Murray and Berdych also move on to the QF's.

Although I am a definite fan of Marcus Baghdatis, I am surprised and disappointed by how he ended his match today. Who retires from a match during a 3rd set tiebreaker? This is one I have never seen before in my 35 years of watching tennis. Why not just play a few more points and give your opponent the win?? He didn't break his ankle, he had cramps, suck it up for 2 more minutes Marcus, you're better than that. 

Murray, Berdych reach ABN AMRO QF's

ATP Photo

Murray, Berdych reach ABN AMRO QF's

by Jawad Bisharat

New #4 in the world Andy Murray just avoided a 3rd set against Vasek Pospisil on Thursday in Rotterdam, winning the last four games to take the 2nd set and the match   6-3, 7-5 at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

Pospisil served for the second set at 5-4 and had one set point but couldn't deliver. Pospisil played a tough match but Murray's abilities, mental toughness and stamina came through after 1 hour and 44 minute match.

"Obviously, the second set was a lot of momentum swings," said Murray. "I went up a break, was feeling good, but then I lost my serve to love in the next game. In the game after that I got broken to 15. Obviously, when he was serving for it he was in a great position. But we had a 30-shot rally on set point. It was a very physical rally, I was making him do more of the running and I think it took quite a lot out of him.

"My level was good. I moved well and I felt like when I really needed to, I was able to improve my level and step my game up a bit. I found a little bit of extra intensity in the important moments and that was key."

Murray is bouncing back from a runner-up outing in his eighth Grand Slam final at the Australian Open.

Murray will face the eighth seed Gilles Simon, who defeated his countryman Jeremy Chardy, 6-4, 6-3, to reach his second straight ATP World Tour quarter-final. "Today I played well from the beginning till the end," said Simon. "That was a big improvement compared to my first-round match.”

Although Murray is 12-1 Head2Head over Simon that doesn't guarantee a victory. Simon who can massage a ball from anywhere on the court can defuse Murray's power and keep up with Murray in the defence catgory.

Simon is going into this match with a lot of confidence and knows he is close to breaking through against the Scot. “My coach Jan knows him well and has helped unblock me against him. I played much better against him in the past two matches even though I ended up losing them. He’s obviously a very strong player who always finds a lot of solutions.”

Third seed Tomas Berdych was able to get by Andreas Sepp in a see saw battle 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. Seppi playing in his first tournament since defeating #2 in the world Roger Federer at last months Australian Open seemed to only show up for the 2nd set. 

Berdych arrived to the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament as defending champion and will face Gael Monfils for a spot in the semi-finals. 

"I think it was a very solid game today," said Berdych. "The opponent was not easy at all. I had my game plan, which worked perfectly from the beginning. He just started to play much better and took his chance, the only one he had in the second set. But in the third set, I was able to finish it, get my chances and execute."

Gulbis forehand- Is it really that different?

Gulbis

Ernests Gulbis Forehand- Is it really that different??

By Jawad Bisharat

Berdych

Every time I watch Ernest Gulbis on televison I repeatidly hear the commentators discussing how akward Ernests Gulbis's forehand is. One commentator went as far as saying "Dad paid a lot of money for that forehand". 

So I wanted to break down Gulbis's forehand for myself and see if it was really that different. After all he is ranked #13 in the world, how bad could it be right? 

The reality is it is not bad at all. You will see by the pictures of Berdych, Murray, and Djokovic that Gulbis's forehand is very similiar and in someways better. That said, Ernest has been working with Larry Spefanki in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca to make his forhard more traditional. I saw a preview of his new forehand when he played for the San Diego Aviator's in the summer of last year. The main advantage of this new stroke is time. He has shortened his swing allowing his to prepare for on coming shots quicker. However, see below how the stroke was really not much different. 

Djokovic

Notice the similarity in the right arm of every player when preparing to hit the ball. Lets call this part 1. In part 1 all four players have their right arm nearly straight out towards the back fence and the face of the racket parrerel with the groud. If I were to cover the faces of the players and showed you only part 1 of the take back you would not be able to determine who is who. Yes, I know Novak plays with Head and Gulbis Wilson but you get my point. 

The commentators are either looking for something to talk about or mearly focusing on Gulbis's left arm which he extends out towards the ball. They described Gulbis's preperation as " He looks like he is stopping traffic". 

Murray

Yes, this is not how the forehand is traditionally tought and looks akward at first glance. Players are tought to bring their left arm further across their body and more parrerel with the baseline to create shoulder turn and body preperation. However, I would argue that Gulbis creates the same amount of shoulder rotation as any of the examples shown. 

Figure 1

See figure 1. If you were to draw a line from the tip of Gulbis's racket straight across his shoulders it would be nearly identical to Murray's eventhough Murray brings his left arm across his entire body. He is the opposite extreme as most players keep it at 90 degrees from their shoulder. 

 Now that I have shown how Gulbis's preperation is not far off convential and more popular forehands lets focus on point of contact. Thats what really matters right??

At contact all players have moved into the same and most common position to strike the ball. 

The elbow bends and slides along the right hip. The player also allows the racket head to drop below their hand. This is important, as they do not drop their hand much lower then the height of the ball. With the racket head dropped they move their hand across the same plane as the ball giving them penetration and spin. 

Of coarse different situations will call for the stroke to be adjusted but in this illustration I clearly show that Gulbis's forehand is very similiar to those of the world's top players. It's not necessarily how you start the stroke but more importantly how you finish it. 

Busy day at the BNP Paribas Open- Match previews

Wednesday is turning out to be a great day for matches and the BNP Paribas Open IN Indian Wells, CA.

Starting off the day is big serving Canadian Milos Raonic vs Andy Murray. Andy is coming off two tough matches that took him into 3 sets. Although in his press conference he said his back feels good and he is physically back in shape, I don't see the same Andy Murray on court. He doesn't appear to have much on his shots and leaving them hanging in the mid court. Lets be honest, he did everything he could to lose the match on Monday except actually lose! The unknown Vasely gave Andy all he could handle but couldn't close it out during the business end of the match.

Look for Raonic to lean on his serve today and take it to Andy. A Raonic win today would not be an upset as Andy is still building his match toughness after his long layoff during the winter where he underwent back surgery.

Everyone's new favorite players to watch is Stan Wawrinka. Today he takes on another big server in Kevin Anderson. Kevin who stands 6'8" posseses one of tennis's biggest serves and can hit big from both sides. Losing to Dimitrov in 3 sets in the finals at Acopluco, Kevin is playing the best tennis of his life. Currently ranked #18 in the world he could could Stan a run for his Money.

Stan on the otherhand is definitly playing his best tennis and dismissed the talented Italian, Seppi, on Monday  6-0 6-2. Stans is undefeated in 2014 and his massive strokes are proving too much for the player on the other side of the net.

Watching Stan practice with Rafa Nadal last week, he seemed to continue where he left off at the Australian Open. Winning the majority of the points during the practice match it left Rafa shaking his head.

Roger Federer and Tommy Haas, a couple of veterens and good friends, take the court today for their quarterfinal match. Federer holds a 12-3 record over Haas head to head. However, Haas is not affraid of Federer and has proved he can give him a match. Haas nearly upended Federer's Championship run at the French Open in 2009 having been up 2 sets to none in that match to only see Federer come back to win and continue on to his first and only French Open Title.

Other matches on the mens side

Marin Cilic vs Novak Djokovic - Upset Alert!! 
Alexandr Dolgopolov vs Fabio Fognini
Fernando Verdasco vs John Isner
Feliciano Lopez vs Julian Benneteau

Pictures from BNP Paribas Open

Novak doing a series of stretching prior to his practice session.

Andy Murray showing off his soccer skills at the BNP Paribas Open. 

Federer wants more drug testing in tennis

BBC:

Roger Federer wants more drug testing in tennis

Roger Federer wants biological passports similar to those used in cycling to be introduced to detect doping in tennis.

The Wimbledon champion reiterated his recent claims that blood tests are less frequent than earlier in his career.

Continue reading the main story

“There also will be more funding needed to make all the tests possible”

Roger Federer Tennis great

"A blood passport will be necessary as some substances can't be discovered right now," said the 31-year-old.

"But there also should be more blood tests and out of competition controls in tennis."

World number one Novak Djokovic recently complained that the number of tests he has undergone fell in 2012 from the previous year, while Andy Murray called for more money to be spent on testing procedures.

The International Tennis Federation carried out a total of 131 blood tests in and out competition in 2011 - the most recent year for which figures are available - alongside 2,019 urine tests.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, introduced biological passports in 2008 to check blood samples against a rider's original blood profile to detect any subsequent doping.

"I didn't get tested on blood after the Australian Open and I told the responsible people over there that it was a big surprise for me," added Federer, who has won a record 17 Grand Slam titles.

"But there also will be more funding needed to make all the tests possible and the Grand Slam tournaments should help to finance that as it is in their best interest to keep the sport clean and credible." 

First Saturday at BNP Paribas

First Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open is a good one with Roddick, Berdich, Djokovic and Murray all in action.
Roddick just sqeeked out his match against Kubot who served for the match in the 2nd set.
Berdich lost the first set and now up 4-2 in the 3rd.

Ginepri on his comeback up a break against Wawrinka but this is going to be a tough match for Robby to win. 

Novak set to come onto court now to face Golubev. Other notable players currently in action Sam Querry vs Almagro just getting under way.

Little lesson below. Look how low Berdich gets on his volley. Bending from the knees not the waist.
Also on his forehand. Notice his left hand tucked close to his body. This shuts down the body and allows the racket to swing freely around without pulling off your shot.