Zagreb - 250

[isabelle]

Youzhny lost, Cilic reached quarter

 

[herios]

Youzhny lost, Cilic reached quarter

Wow, this is a huge upset.
Youzhny is ranked 14, Bjorn Phau who he lost to is ranked 358 and is 34y old.
Good for the German veteran, bad for Misha

 

[Front242]

Bjorn Phau has caused a good few minor upsets in the past actually. Good victory alright.

 

[Moxie]

QFs line-up:

Haas v. Kuznetsov
Kohlschreiber v. Daniel Evans (GBR - LL)
Cilic v. Dodig
Sela v. Phau

_________

Kuznetsov (+15 to 127) and Evans (+14 to 133) move up briskly in the rankings for even getting this far. This puts Evans currently sandwiched in between Bagdahtis (#132) and Paul-Henri Matthieu (#134.) Anyone else surprised to see they'd fallen that far?

 

[Moxie]

Evans beat Kohlscreiber! Didn't see it, but Kohlscreiber is so reliable, generally. Hopefully get to see Evans play tomorrow then. Any scouting report on him?

 

[herios]

B. Phau leaps 137 ranking positions for his SF showing here thus far.

 

[Moxie]

SFs tomorrow:

Haas v. Evans

Cilic v. Phau

 

[Moxie]

Evans made a good effort, but the final will be Haas v. Cilic. Go, Tommy!

 

[kskate2]

Congrats to Marin on his 4th Zagreb title and 10th overall. :clap

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Haas has a new (non-famous) coach and has openly declared that his goal for
this year is to qualify for WTF. If he is losing to Cilic in straight sets, it would be
hard to achieve the goal. Also, he needs to be careful about scheduling events
to play in. Last year, IMO, he had a good chance to qualify and he messed it
up with bad scheduling by playing in too many stupid tournaments.

 

[Front242]

Haas has a new (non-famous) coach and has openly declared that his goal for
this year is to qualify for WTF. If he is losing to Cilic in straight sets, it would be
hard to achieve the goal. Also, he needs to be careful about scheduling events
to play in. Last year, IMO, he had a good chance to qualify and he messed it
up with bad scheduling by playing in too many stupid tournaments.

Good to hear about the WTF goal as it's crazy but he's never qualified for it all his career because of injuries, despite once being world number 2! He's actually often had tough matches against Cilic and in fairness, Cilic is very hot or cold but when he's playing well he's very tough and seems to match up well against Tommy. He gave Murray a hell of a match at Queens last year too. Must've been when he was doping Joking of course, 'cos he straight setted Murray at the 2009 US Open.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Well, there is also a home tournament advantage that Cilic had and so I am not
willing to write off Haas yet.

 

[herios]

Well, there is also a home tournament advantage that Cilic had and so I am not
willing to write off Haas yet.

If you have doubt he will make the WTF does it mean you are writing him off?
Top 8 is a tough ask for any player these days, except the usual suspects.
First he has to make the top 10 at least at one point this year and he has not been able to do that since he had this late career run. Tsonga is sitting on that position and we shall see if someone could displace him. JWT has been in the top 10 for 3 years + running.