Week 17 (PTA): Barcelona [Blanco]

[SirBloody Idiot]

Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell II – Singles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Páez Blanco is the defending champion.

[SirBloody Idiot]

Analysis:
Back in Barcelona for the prestigious PTA Tour 500 event where Daniel Páez Blanco is defending champion after beating Sanchez Emelio in the final last year one and one. Some big names who were present last year are missing here - Randy Smeltz (SF), Sven Oxenstierna (QF) and Davis Kennedy (QF) are notable omissions. Neverthless, while those players are gone the likes of Zoltán Varga, Rasmus Olesen and Henry Charles make their debut appearances.

Some good stuff for the CWLanders here. The only seeded player is Heath Davis though he has a tough run being drawn in Olesen's eighth. A possible showdown with Scotland Rivers in the second round awaits, but Rivers has to get past Ivan Genov who is the highest ranked unseeded competitor. Jarkko Maxum meanwhile gets a cruisy start against little known wildcard Juan Manuel Cortés, and a second round clash with CW Open finalist Oneil Stewart is very winnable - the Jamaican is an unknown quantity on clay.

Spas Delev gets a lucky break with the withdrawal of Sergio Joaquín and should have no problems making the third round. It gets a lot trickier there against Season I semi finalist Illya Altman. Finally Rob Bowenburg gets it real tough - finalist from last season Sanchez Emelio stands in his way and it is tough to see him winning.

A rematch of last year's final could be in the making by the quarterfinals, and Daniel Páez Blanco is rightly favourite to retain his crown despite losing in Monte Carlo last week. The best two players in the draw are in the same half and I imagine will meet in the semis again, so my prediction is Blando def. Z.Varga in the final.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Heef on Clay ---> Epic Fail. Expecting to be dumped out by Dorogan in Round 1. If not, then Rivers will have enough in the 2nd round.

[ripper868]

Very Happy with the draw...cue 1st round bagel and bagel

[Samuel_Vimes]

gl Heef, Rivers, Bowenburg

[Paid The Umpire]

Good Luck to all CW'ians.

[ripper868]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

gl Heef, Rivers, Bowenburg

This won't be forgotten...

[Johnners]

Indeed, FRC scum!

[SirBloody Idiot]

lolling at the non-World Group nation.

[SirBloody Idiot]

Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell II
PTA Tour 500 - 1st Round - Barcelona, Spain - Clay (Red)

• West CWLand's Rob Bowenburg has snared the biggest win of his clay career; upsetting Season I finalist Sanchez Emelio in the boilover of the first round at the Torneo Godó. A big outsider against the tenth seed, Bowenburg put himself in a great position early as he claimed the first set 6-3 with a late break of serve despite being largely written off by the local commentators. After a poor first set, Emelio ramped up the pressure in the second and in taking it 6-1 looked to have returned to business as usual. But Bowenburg stuck close in the third and capitalised on some key errors and poor serving as he brought up three match points on the Emelio serve. The Spaniard saved one with a great wide serve, but at 15-40 a poor second serve was easily run around by Bowenburg who cracked a winner with confidence to secure a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 upset. He now plays former Roland Garros finalist Johan Ortiz who ousted fellow RG finalist Roberto Santos in three sets.

• The great run of form for Spas Delev looked to have continued after he claimed the first set against Jefferson Quezada, but his night out soon turned into a nightmare as he was beaten over three sets. Delev was awful in an error-laden second set as he failed to build on his recent momentum; the Chilean merely had to keep the ball in play as Delev routinely missed makeable shots. He tightened his game up considerably in the third set and at one point brought up a match point on the Quezada serve, but the unseeded Chilean held on to take it to a tiebreaker. There Delev got off to a poor start and was made to rue some bad backhands as Quezada pushed his way into the second round 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) having saved one match point.

• Jarkko Maxum looked good in victory as he ousted Juan Manuel Cortés of Spain in straight sets. Many expected Maxum to still be ironing out kinks in his game after a long absence, but in a 26-minute first set he showed few weaknesses as he thoroughly dominated the wildcard entrant. Maxum suffered at times last season due to a lack of power, but a lengthy strength and conditioning campaign with his good friend Bowenburg has seen him improve significantly. While Cortés played far better in the second set, he still was behind Maxum who broke three times in a difficult second set to win 6-0, 7-5.

• He doesn't like the clay, but Heath Davis is through to the second round in Barcelona after accounting for Roman Dorogan in straight sets. The sixteenth seed came from a break down in both sets as he secured a 6-4, 6-4 win as Dorogan failed to really produce good tennis under pressure. Davis offered just two break points all match in a largely solid serving display but found himself in trouble as Dorogan converted both of them. Despite struggling with his movement and the longer rallies, Davis looked fitter than at the same stage last season as he produced enough power and aggression to notch a rare clay win.

• He will play Bulgaria's Ivan Genov after he rallied from a set down to beat Scotland Rivers. Genov is a great mid-rank player and would have been a big scalp for the West CWLander, but Rivers isn't quite there yet on clay as Genov bossed the rallies. Rivers still produced some fine shots, but made too many errors and was outworked by the unseeded Bulgarian who eventually prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

• Elsewhere, eleventh seed Zhijun Sun was beaten by Monte Carlo quarter finalist Viktor Vuriak and Almen Benaglio served José Navarro a double bagel.

• Seeded players out: Sanchez Emelio; Zhijun Sun.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Phew. Good to get a win on Clay. What's my Win/Loss record on Clay? Pretty poor I reckon. Am I defending any points for this week?

Great win from Bowenburg. Can't be far from being one of his biggest wins on tour.

[SirBloody Idiot]

Not defending points this week, but you've got 130 points to defend before and including Roland Garros.

Record on clay at PTA level is 3-4 including that win. You won Lugano at Challenger last year and I'm not sure if you've had Davis Cup matches on the stuff.

[Johnners]

Might as well give up on clay.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by SirBloody Idiot

Not defending points this week, but you've got 130 points to defend before and including Roland Garros.

Record on clay at PTA level is 3-4 including that win. You won Lugano at Challenger last year and I'm not sure if you've had Davis Cup matches on the stuff.

Ah. That's right. I was failing so badly that I did my French Open preparation at a Challenger and won the thing. Can't see me getting past the next round here, but good to chalk up a win.

[Mister Wright]

Go Heath!