Welcome to the Topspin message board - the place for all Tim Henman fans!
This message board was set up primarily for members of Tim's official fan club, Topspin, but if you're still interested in what Tim's doing with tennis now he's retired then you're welcome to check here for news.
Please note - If your message is short you can type it all in the "subject" box so it appears in full on the board.
"I feel sorry for the players", a local journalist said to me as we watched Thomas Berdych getting very much the better of Feliciano Lopez in the fourth of the afternoon's five sets in Singapore today. The reference - to the poor crowds, and to the suddenly announced loss of both Roger Federer and Serena Williams from this year's shenanigans - could equally well have been made about the fans, who were here in their hundreds rather than the thousands for which the organisers were hoping, and who were, it was rumoured, being offered upgrades and refunds in the light of developments. Ticket prices have also been slashed to encourage the punters, but on a rainy Tuesday afternoon the local appetite for 'funny tennis' was clearly limited.
The statement from the IPTL had been downbeat, and mildly unhelpful, but seems to imply that the 'buyers', namely the wealthy individuals who for the past two seasons have been prepared to pay millions in appearance money to secure the top players, are holding back this year.
'Mahesh Bhupathi, founder and Managing Director of IPTL: “We have had challenges this year, and we were hoping to get past them. With the current economic climate in India and the uncertainty of spending money, I reached out to both Roger and Serena to explain the situation. They have been both been very supportive of the IPTL the first two seasons and we look forward to bring them in future years. We are sad to announce that Roger Federer and Serena Williams won't participate at this year's IPTL". To
The afternoon session saw the Indian Aces move to the top of the leaderboard, with ten points, beating a lacklustre UAE Royals team 26-19 in games, with 6-3 wins coming from Kirsten Flipkens (over Ana Ivanovic), Mark Philippousis (over Thomas Johansson) in the legends, and Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza triumphing similarly over Pablo Cuevas and Martina Hingis in the mixed doubles. Yes, the legendary Swiss player is still at it, "enjoying" her tennis despite being on the losing side this afternoon; it often seems to be thus with ageing Swiss tennis legends.
Tomas Berdych, arguably the only name to get excited about here in Singapore, and the only ATP year-end top 10 player - Kei Nishikori (no. 8) having elected to play only the Japan leg - battered Feliciano Lopez into submission 6-2; he reminded me, in the clinical brutality of his display against the Spaniard, of Matt Damon in his latest, and eponymous Jason Bourne film. Lopez secured revenge of sorts, immediately afterwards, teaming up with Ivan Dodig to beat Cuevas and Nestor 6-4.
The evening session saw the 'home team' the Singapore Slammers take on the Japan Warriors. Kiki Berthens breezed past Jelena Jankovic 6-2 before Fernando Gonzalez eventually capitulated 5-6 to the big-serving Rainer Schuttler.
The question was whether wild boy Nick Kyrgios, freed from the mind-numbing behavioural restraints of the official ATP tour, would produce some on-court magic for the Slammers later in the evening. He had been vociferously energetic, court-side, during his colleagues' earlier sets, frantically waving his towel, clapping and cheering ace after Schuttler ace, but these sort of antics are positively encouraged under the IPTL's 'Break the Code' régime, and may indeed have helped the German scramble to his impressively free-swinging victory against the Spaniard. An inspired 'power point' moment, whereby the receiving player is allowed to choose the next point to count double, was engineered by the Australian and executed by the German, thus securing Schuttler a break of serve, from 30-40 down at 1-all.
The afternoon's hundreds had not, unfortunately, become thousands in the stands when Kyrgios took to the court as a player, for the first of his two sets, partnering Marcos Baghdatis, against the ageing but ever-wily Jean-Julien Rojer and Fernando Verdasco. He acquitted himself adequately, but was replaced during the set by Marcelo Melo, in order to be able to rest for his singles against Verdasco; Melo duly pulled the score back to 5-5 from 5-2 down, and he and Baghdatis won 6-5 on the deciding point. The Australian is not as natural a doubles player as is the Brazilian.
In his singles against the Spaniard Kyrgios got an early break of serve, raced to a 4-1 lead, broke again for 5-1, and wrapped it all up on serve, with a glorious out-swinging ace, in little more than 20 minutes. The IPTL format and its free-wheeling atmosphere obviously suit him. His win ensured a clean sweep on the night, five sets to love, for the Singapore Slammers, 29-16 in games, much to the delight of the dwindling band of 'home' spectators, whose vocal enthusiasm seemed in inverse proportion to their number by the end of what was, nevertheless, an entertaining evening's tennis.
David Barnes/Topspin, 2016
-------------------------
Replies: There have been no replies.
You must register before you can post on this board. You can register here.