Mercedes Cup - Stuttgart ATP 250 - June 8-14

[GameSetAndMath]

The inagural grass warm-up tourney at Stuttgart is beginning in just a couple of days. The draw is out. Rafa may have lost at Rolland Garros. But, he is not going back to Mallorca for fishing. He, being a hard worker, is playing here to resurrect himself and is the #1 seed here. His potential path is given below.

1st round: Bye
2nd round: Marcos Baghdatis/Lukas Rosol
Quarterfinals: Tomic/Haas
Semifinals: Kohlschrbrier/Monfils
Finals: Cilic/Lopez

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

a new grass tourney. lovely.

 

[Front242]

Rosol potential first opponent? Nice That's a pretty tough draw there! Every round is tough.

 

[Kieran]

That makes it a good draw. He's going to have to chew up some good opponents if he's to get his sharpness and confidence back. Looks like a good tourney anyway...

 

[Front242]

Will miss it with work but would be impressive if he chewed them up. Might well be the other way round though

 

[Kieran]

Will miss it with work but would be impressive if he chewed them up. Might well be the other way round though

Absolutely. But that's the beauty of it. It'll be competitive, especially if he plays the stalker, Rosil, who loves to play villains. But this is the medicine he needs. No point in playing patsies at this stage. I always like Rafa's attitude and I'm glad he's playing this event. Good to use the extra week this year before Wimbledon...

 

[Carol]

When was the last time Rafa was #10, when he was 18 years old? it's difficult to believe it :nono
We'll see what is going on grass, it's going to be very interesting

 

[Fiero425]

Looking at the draw, I was commiserating with the players who don't normally have to deal with top flight entries, but I forgot even though Nadal's seeded #1, he's just barely in the top 10! He will have a real "time" trying to get through this field of players on grass with such a lack of confidence! How's he supposed to even make the semi? It doesn't look good for Rafa! ;-)

 

[brokenshoelace]

Rosol his first opponent? Yeah, Rafa isn't getting much grass experience leading up to Wimbledon this year.

 

[Carol]

Yep, Rosol probably has more grass experience than Nadal , he has won so many tritles......:snicker
But I have to say that there are good players playing this first grass tournament. I have not any idea how Rafa is going to play (hope better than on clay) here and Queens, if he will be able to win or not but at least it will be a good preparation for Wimbledon for sure

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Rosol his first opponent? Yeah, Rafa isn't getting much grass experience leading up to Wimbledon this year.

Rafa is playing in Stuttgart this week and then in Queens next week. Between the two, he will get reasonable practice before Wimby. I cannot imagine this three week gap helping any player more than Rafa.

 

[Kieran]

Did Rosol win his first match?

 

[Fiero425]

Did Rosol win his first match?

A Bing search came up with this scoreboard: Mercedes Cup, Men's Singles

Jun 08 - Jun 14 · Stuttgart, Germany · Surface: Grass

Jun 08 Alexandr Dolgopolov · UKR Starts at 11:00 AM EST
R1 Philipp Kohlschreiber · GER · (6) Center Court

Jun 08 Viktor Troicki · SRB · (8) Starts at 11:00 AM EST
R1 Borna Coric · CRO Mercedes Court

Jun 08 Andreas Haider-Maurer · AUT Starts at 1:00 PM EST
R1 Maximilian Marterer · GER Mercedes Court

Jun 09 Marcos Baghdatis · CYP Starts at 4:00 AM EST
R1 Lukas Rosol · CZE

Jun 09 Jan-Lennard Struff · GER Starts at 4:00 AM EST
R1 Bernard Tomic · AUS · (5)

Doesn't look like Rosol plays until tomorrow morning!

 

[Carol]

First Rafa's interview in Sttugartt

http://youtu.be/rkjDABf_ucw

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_BItmp0Bo[/video]

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2jRHhR0eA[/video]

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e059CsnBkw0[/video]

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_BItmp0Bo[/video]

hehe - i don't speak Russian, but i did understand "Boris Becker"

also, followers of the german yellow press could probably throw in a joke about Beckers of African descent, but that could end up in bad taste.

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mz7-fXpaAQ[/video]

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

sorry for the next un-tennis-y reply, but: can you actually hear the birds chirping in stuttgart? kind of cute