Helsinki 2009: Monday
Posted by Nathii on November 24 2009 08:12:33
For the end of the season we have a surprise - one more tournament coverage. Enjoy Ville's reports from the last big challenger event of the year.
Extended News
Helsinki Monday: Robin Haase on the way back + home heroes thrill the crowd in doubles
It’s always nice to be able to go and watch some good tennis at your home courts. You know the place, the courts, the people and the journey there doesn’t take too long. Helsinki challenger in the Tali Tenniscenter is that tournament for me. This afternoon I took a 20-minute bus ride to the stadium and went to pick up my media badge from the ticket office. Then I headed to watch the first matches of the day, which had just started when I arrived to the courts.
Niels Desein vs Lukas Rosol
I paid my attention first to this match played on Court 3. The outer courts here are the best ones to watch the action in my opinion; you get so close to the players and really feel the speed of the game. This was a high-quality encounter, both players were serving big and hitting some nice winners. Desein won the first set in a breaker, but the second one almost turned out to be a disaster for him. He wasted 5 match points (Rosol did well to save those on his own serve) and lost his cool a bit, but regrouped nicely in the tiebreak to win the match in two.
Ivan Navarro vs Adrian Ungur
After that thriller, I went to watch the match on Center Court between the serve&volleying Spaniard Navarro and the Romanian baseliner Ungur. Navarro had taken the first set, but Ungur struck back to take the match into a decider. The third set didn’t turn out to be a great one, both players made quite a few errors. Navarro showed some good touches at the net and held his nerve better. Ungur didn’t seem at home playing indoors, his one-handed backhand was the best part of his game.
Robin Haase vs Kamil Capkovic
Next up on Court 3 was the match I was really looking forward to during the day session, because I wanted to see how Haase was doing after his very long injury break. I must say he was looking impressive on the court and showed no signs of the knee injury that has trouble him so much. Capkovic was poor, but Haase played well enough to suggest he’s on the way back to the top and can go far here.
Stephane Bohli vs Alex Bogdanovic
The second match on Center turned out to be a borefest, so I decided to go and grab something to eat after the first set. Bohli won that set 7-0 in the breaker, in which Boggo showed absolutely nothing after looking like the better player for most of the set. After I came back from the restaurant, Bohli already had a break in the second set and had no trouble closing out the match.
Evgeny Kirillov vs Henri Laaksonen
In the first match of the evening session all eyes were on the Finnish youngster Laaksonen, who had shown a lot of promise this year in the juniors and also in Davis Cup action. The stands had filled up pretty nicely for this match and the atmosphere was good. The Finn ended up playing a decent match and hit plenty of winners on his forehand, but Kirillov was the more solid player of the two. Laaksonen still needs to mature into a better match player, he’s got the talent to make it far.
Kontinen/Nieminen vs Hutchins/Tecau
The highlight of the day was the last match on Center Court between the home crowd heroes Kontinen&Nieminen and the top seeds Hutchins/Tecau. The standard of play was excellent for most of the match, it was good ATP-level doubles tennis. The Finns had to dig deep to win the first set saving a few set points along the way and stepped it up in the second set for a straight sets victory. The crowd went home happy and the organizers were also pleased to have their stars safely in the next round. It was a successful opening day and I’m looking forward to another great day tomorrow with plenty of good action on the schedule.
Ville Talvenmaa