Tennis Acumen

GISELA DULKO Surges into 4th Round at Roland Garros

PETE ZIEBRON

South American #1 Gisela Dulko    Pete Ziebron Images

Gisela Dulko matched her best ever showing at a Grand Slam, reaching the 4th round at Roland Garros with a convincing  6-4 1-6 6-3 win over 2010 Finalist Samantha Stosur of Australia.  Dulko, the South American #1, who is ranked 51st in the world hit 4 aces and converted all 5 break point opportunities en route to the win.

This year's Roland Garros marks the 31st major that Dulko has played.  Her best results in a major have been 4th round appearances in 2006 at Roland Garros and at the 2009 US Open.  

However 2004 was probably the most notable result at Roland Garros as Dulko defeated 2-time Champion Martina Navratilova in the 1st round.  Weeks later, Dulko would again beat Navratilova at Wimbledon in the 2nd round.  Navratilova won Wimbledon 9 times and won 18 Grand Slam Singles titles as well as 31 Doubles Grand Slam titles.

Gisela Dulko and doubles teammate Flavia Pennetta of Italy are the current #1 WTA Doubles team.  Earlier this year, they won the Australian Open for their first Grand Slam Doubles title together.  Gisela Dulko has won 4 career WTA Singles titles and 16 WTA Doubles titles, including 10 with Pennetta.  Her career high in Singles was #26 in November 2005.  

Next up for Dulko is world #11 Marion Bartoli of France in the 4th round.  Meanwhile, Dulko and Pennetta will play Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the 3rd round in Doubles.

 

 

Novak Djokovic Beats Rafael Nadal in Rome, Wins 39th Consecutive Match

PETE ZIEBRON

Unbeatable Novak Djokovic   Charles Gabrean Photography

Novak Djokovic continued his remarkable form, beating world #1 Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 in Rome today to win his 39th consecutive match and 7th title in a row.  Djokovic won his 9th Masters 1000 event and 25th career tournament and has taken 6 consecutive sets from Nadal.  

• Coming into last Sunday's Final in Madrid, Nadal was an astounding 189-6 on clay since 2005.  However, in the last 8 days, Nadal is 4-2 on clay, losing to Djokovic last week in Madrid as well as today in Rome.  

Yesterday Djokovic came from a break down twice in the final set against upset-minded Andy Murray.  The match was completed after midnight and gave Nadal plenty of extra rest as his semifinal against Richard Gasquet had been contested much earlier in the day.  Djokovic showed no ill effects nor no signs of fatigue in his Championship win over Nadal.

With the win, Djokovic continued to close the gap with Nadal for the world #1 ranking and Djokovic could very well become #1 the week after Roland Garros depending on his result.  Meanwhile, Djokovic improves to 11-16 all-time against Nadal, having won 7 of the last 9 matches as well as all 4 encounters in 2011.  Finally, with a Roland Garros title, Djokovic would tie Guillermo Vilas' all-time record of 46 consecutive victories.

2011 Masters 1000 Titles

Indian Wells       Djokovic d. Nadal

Miami                 Djokovic d. Nadal

Monte-Carlo        Nadal d. Ferrer (Djokovic DNP)

Madrid                Djokovic d. Nadal

Rome                  Djokovic d. Nadal

 

James Blake Feasting on Wild Cards & Challengers

PETE ZIEBRON

James Blake at home on the hard courts                               Pete Ziebron Images

Since late July 2010, former world #4 James Blake has played 13 ATP tournaments.  He has received Wild Cards into 12 of them and his best showing has been the 3rd round on 4 occasions.

Despite the fact that Roland Garros is played on clay, Blake decided to skip the European clay court season altogether and remained in the United States to play 3 ATP Challenger tournaments on hard courts starting in mid-April.

Perhaps Blake's hard court strategy will turn out to pay dividends.  After all, his ranking has improved from 163 to 109 in the last 4 weeks as a result of getting to the semifinals at the Tallahassee Challenger, winning the Sarasota Challenger two weeks later and appearing in the quarterfinal of the Savannah Challenger last week.  Blake earned a total of $14,770 after competing in 12 ATP Challenger matches at the 3 venues in the southern United States.

 Andy Roddick did not play competitive tennis at all in the month of April.  Along with all of the other Americans, Roddick skipped the beginning of the European clay court season in Monte-Carlo and instead, got underway last week in Madrid.  Roddick fell to world #160 Flavio Cipolla of Italy in the 1st round in Spain. Today, Roddick was again ousted in the opening round in Rome by Frenchman Gilles Simon, giving him 3 consecutive 1st round losses, all in Masters 1000 play, dating back to Miami in March.

While Roddick will await the beginning of Roland Garros in less than 2 weeks, Blake will need to decide if he will attempt to qualify for the second Grand Slam of the year in Paris or skip it entirely as he chose to do last year.

With his current ranking of #109, James Blake will have to once again rely on the plethora of Wild Cards that he will almost certainly receive to get into the main draw of the larger tournaments.  He will most likely receive his first of many subsequent Wild Cards at the AEGON Championships in London in June.