Qatar ExxonMobil Open...ATP 250...Doha, Qatar

[don_budge]

Novak Djokovic in the house. Who cares? But this event has some pretty good names and one of them happens to be Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka making a run a comeback. Defeated Karen Khachanov in the first round in straight sets which is a good start for his year. A couple of more good rounds and it may be a date with Djokovic. That might be interesting.

Thomas Berdych in the house as well. He has a looming match with Fernando Verdasco. Haven't heard much from Berdych. He has a big fan here on the forum. Dominic Thiem the number two seed is already gone. Dominic seems to suffer from exaggerated expectations and has somehow lost focus on the moment. That point in front of your nose.

[don_budge]

Coming soon:

Novak Djokovic to play the winner of Andrey Rublev (forehand the stroke of last month) and Nikoloz Basilashvili. Stan Wawrinka vs. Roberto Agut. Tomas Berdych and Fernando Verdasco.

The draw:

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/doha/451/draws

[don_budge]

Just in case you missed it Marko and Novak Djokovic (biological brothers) beat Damir Dzumhur and Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 in the deciding tie-breaker. I watched a good deal of the match and it was in a word...interesting.

Number one...the first thing I noticed was the bouncing of the ball in the pre-serve routine of Novak Djokovic. He bounce a variety of number of times. It wasn't the well thought out and ill conceived specific number as he does in singles. It never ceases to amaze me that he actually can concentrate long enough on every single serve to count out 15, 16 or even higher number of tosses. In the doubles with his brother he bounced in either once, twice or three times. Never longer. So it makes me wonder (not really) why he bounce it so damn much in singles. He uses it as a psyche weapon and keeps his opponent waiting. The longer they wait the more their anticipation wanes. The same with the other fake...Rafael Nadal.

The second thing I noticed was that this wasn't doubles at all the way I remember it. After every point the players much touch each other and/or gather together for a little confab. To me this looks utterly ridiculous as I know that if you play long enough with a player that you are attached together by a bond and not a word needs to be spoken to know what the other is going to do. Modern doubles has invented all kinds of stupid alignments which are meant to either fool or distract the other team. Give me John McEnroe and Peter Fleming and watch them go to work. Any of the other great classic doubles teams.

There was very little classic doubles net play as, for instance, Novak and Marko both played behind the baseline when receiving serve and they may as well have both played back on service as the default development of a point was a long baseline, crosscourt rally with the server.

It looked to me that Novak pretty much tanked his serve in the final set to lose the set. He was either trying to get the hell out of there to get ready for his singles or we was so fed up with his brother he wanted to end it. It almost looked as if he would have rathered packing it in. He did go out and win his singles later in three sets and he has advanced to the semifinals of the doubles as well. It is only a matter of time before he tires of this regime and packs it in with the doubles. Marko is ranked around #570 in the world in singles. Nowhere near the polished player his brother is. You have to sort of wonder why. It was a curious match.

[don_budge]

Stan Wawrinka right where he needs to be in his comeback attempt. Third round versus Roberto Bautista-Agut. Bautista-Agut is rock solid and aggressive enough to challenge all of the players on any given day. Wawrinka down a break in the first set has his work cut out for him. They have only played once before and Wawrinka won in straight sets which is enough to provide some added incentive for Roberto.

[don_budge]

Stan Wawrinka was in the right place and he received a lot of feedback as to where he stands in relation to his status as compared to his prior form. Stan has a history of rather mediocre performance in events that he doesn't really cherish. He won a couple of rounds here and that might just have been enough for him for the moment before he bets the house at the Australian Open. He played some decent tennis but in the end there is really only one Swiss Maestro. I really hope to see him perform well at the Australian. The tour needs some of these old familiar faces to reemerge and return to form. The talent pool is becoming rather thin.

Novak Djokovic once again struggled against a player who strongly resembles the player that he struggled against in the previous round. Not only that but he has an equally similar player that he faces in the next round who is just a tad more solid than the first two. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to Roberto Bautista-Agut. I don't see how Bautista-Agut can hurt "The Meteoric" Djokovic. But you never know...performance is a funny thing. But Novak seems to be a real master of the art of performance. When he wants to he really brings it. I still cannot get over the loss to Alexander Zverev in London. He pummelled him in the round robin before that tank job in the finals.

The Djokovic Brothers play doubles against a couple of really seasoned professionals tonight. In a couple of minutes actually. It will be another point of interest to see first of all how the younger Djokovic reacts to the pressure and secondly to see if Novak is interested in playing hard to win.

[stotty]

Novak is 3-0 up against RBA as I leave the door to go to work. Not much to see. Novak is just happy to rally endlessly against someone that cannot hit him off. RBA has no weapons to hurt Djokovic. Looks like it will be a dull game unless the dynamic changes.

[don_budge]

Novak is 3-0 up against RBA as I leave the door to go to work. Not much to see. Novak is just happy to rally endlessly against someone that cannot hit him off. RBA has no weapons to hurt Djokovic. Looks like it will be a dull game unless the dynamic changes.

Two hours later Bautista-Agut is up a break at 4-2 in the third. He won the second in a tie-break. The question is...can he serve it out?

[gzhpcu]

Yes, he can... and did...great playing by Agut...

[klacr]

6 months off and Berdych makes the final. 2019 is the year of the Berd!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

6 months off and Berdych makes the final. 2019 is the year of the Berd!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

I thought the guy had retired. Winning a little 250 event would be a great way to make a comeback.

[klacr]

Been doing great all week.
He was out the last half of 2018 with a back injury. Took some time to rest, enjoy some precious free time with his lovely wife Esther. Gained new perspective and is fresh. Playing like a man on a mission. Gotta love it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Been doing great all week.
He was out the last half of 2018 with a back injury. Took some time to rest, enjoy some precious free time with his lovely wife Esther. Gained new perspective and is fresh. Playing like a man on a mission. Gotta love it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Like a Phoenix rising from its own ashes?

I meant to mention the ascension of your man...your Bird Man. I watched him play Fernando Verdasco in the first set and Fernando was really having his way with him. Tomas Berdych must have "woken" to make it to the finals where he plays a man that he has a winning head to head against. It would be great if players like Tomas, Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga get back on track because without this pool of veterans last year's ATP talent pool was at an all time low. Roger Federer was playing on fumes and he kept the tour alive.

You've got to love this.

[klacr]

Not the result we wanted in the finals but an impressive week nonetheless. Happy for Berdych. Big year ahead.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Not the result we wanted in the finals but an impressive week nonetheless. Happy for Berdych. Big year ahead.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Exactly. But one note about the finals...I watched the first set and it really looked as if Bautista-Agut was going to have his way with your Berdych and make short work of him. Tomas hung in there and forced it to a third set. He deserves a lot of credit for that alone. After not playing for some time it must have been a long week for him. He beat three players in straight sets that if he were in top form would have been a nice week. I saw him play Fernando Verdasco and gave him up for gone but he hung in there for this match as well. All things considered he had an "impressive" week as you say.

It appears that he has the week off before the Australian Open which is a good idea. He probably needs to catch his breath and be well rested going into the best of five format. No sense over extending himself early on in his comeback. Early on it is but his form was pretty solid as was his match attitude. It is really nice to have him and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga back and hitting the floor running. It will make the Open that more interesting. The problem is that Berdych will be left at the mercy of the draw as his ranking is #57 (up from #71) and he might just catch a high seed early on. The draw will be loaded with guys like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and perhaps others that are ranked lower than their true value.

Great week for Berdych all in all. He beat the players that he should and he gave Bautista-Agut a tough match in the finals that must have kept the audience entertained. I would like to see him get to the net more often and be as aggressive as he can be.

[klacr]

Agree with you on the net thing. Yeah, approaching more would be ideal but not expecting him to get in as much as a Federer. But any increase would be more than welcome.
I liked his fight throughout the week. He was down and the Berdych of old would have rested on his laurels and said "its not my day". Instead, he found some testicular fortitude that has been missing in his game and he stepped up. Happy for him.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton