Barcelona Open 2017, Barcelona, Spain, ATP 500

[Moxie]

DATE: Apr 24 - Apr 30, 2017
SURFACE: Clay
PRIZE MONEY: €2,324,905
FIELD SIZE: 48
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Rafael Nadal

Seeds:

1 MURRAY, Andy
Second seed Kei Nishikori has withdrawn
3 NADAL, Rafael
4 THIEM, Dominic
5 GOFFIN, David
6 BAUTISTA AGUT, Roberto
7 CARRENO BUSTA, Pablo
8 ZVEREV, Alexander
9 GASQUET, Richard
10 RAMOS-VINOLAS, Albert
11 CUEVAS, Pablo
12 KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp
13 FERRER, David
14 ZVEREV, Mischa
15 SOUSA, Joao
16 LOPEZ, Feliciano

About Barcelona

Barcelona, with 4.7 million inhabitant's is the second most-populace city in Spain, and 7th most in the E.U. It is a major cultural capital in Europe, as well as home to a pretty popular football club, FC Barcelona. A major feature of Barcelona is its "modernist" architecture by Antoni Gaudi, particularly the as-yet unfinished Sagrada Familia Cathedral, La Pedrera Apartments and the whimsical Parq Guell, and the city is also home to the museums of Picasso, Mirò and Tapiès, all local-boys-made-good. Although beautifully situated on the Mediterranean, for much of its history Barcelona was known as "the city that turns its back on the sea." This has changed in the last two decades, with the city embracing its beaches and waterfronts. La Barceloneta, one such rejuvenated neighborhood, is now a very popular beach in summer, as well has having numerous seaside restaurants with the best fish and best paella in town. On the upper end of food, Barcelona is the epicenter of one of the most innovative food movements in the new century, spearheaded by Ferran Adria and his ElBulli restaurant.

Tourism Video:

 

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The Draw:

 

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Nishikori pulls out, so Benoit Paire comes in as #17 seed to fill the gap.

 

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Chung beat Gulbis @Moxie and qualifies for the main draw.

 

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Rafa's got a pretty nice draw there. He looks finals-bound again. Trickier for Murray.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I waited for some Nadalite to start this thread. But, since none of them are doing it, I finally caved in.
As many might know, Samurai has withdrawn due to some injury. Andy has taken a WC in quest to get good clay feet. The idiotic organizers did not do a full rebalancing of the draw. But, it is not a big deal as Rafa and Andy are in different halves at least.

Here is the draw
Rafa's path is given below.

1R: Bye
2R: R. De Silva
3R: Ferrer
QF: Sasha/Kohly
SF: Goffin/Cuevas
F: Andy

Here is Andy's Path.

1R: Bye
2R: Tomic
3R: (GG/F) Lopez
QF: Ramos Vinolas / RBA
SF: Thiem/ PCB
F: Rafa

Andy's path looks harder; I doubt he will reach the finals.

Another La Decima for Rafa probably beating Thiem in the finals.

 

[Carol]

I'm only concerned about if Rafa is going to play in Roma and Madrid before RG, too many tournaments and more if he would reach every final like he usually did before (when he was playing well) then it would be very difficult to play in Wimbledon in his best level and more now that he is not 20 something anymore. Hope he skip Roma or Madrid but unfortunately I don't think he will

 

[the AntiPusher]

I'm only concerned about if Rafa is going to play in Roma and Madrid before RG, too many tournaments and more if he would reach every final like he usually did before (when he was playing well) then it would be very difficult to play in Wimbledon in his best level and more now that he is not 20 something anymore. Hope he skip Roma or Madrid but unfortunately I don't think he will

We go through this every year about Madrid..should/ will he play or not ..I doubt it this year

 

[the AntiPusher]

I waited for some Nadalite to start this thread. But, since none of them are doing it, I finally caved in.
As many might know, Samurai has withdrawn due to some injury. Andy has taken a WC in quest to get good clay feet. The idiotic organizers did not do a full rebalancing of the draw. But, it is not a big deal as Rafa and Andy are in different halves at least.

Here is the draw
Rafa's path is given below.

1R: Bye
2R: R. De Silva
3R: Ferrer
QF: Sasha/Kohly
SF: Goffin/Cuevas
F: Andy

Here is Andy's Path.

1R: Bye
2R: Tomic
3R: (GG/F) Lopez
QF: Ramos Vinolas / RBA
SF: Thiem/ PCB
F: Rafa

Andy's path looks harder; I doubt he will reach the finals.

Another La Decima for Rafa probably beating Thiem in the finals.

Andy may not make it passed the 4th round

 

[El Dude]

NextGen players to watch: Casper Ruud, Mikael Ymer, Thiago Monteiro, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov.

Khachanov has really cooled off this year, seems to be stagnating in the "Coric Zone." Chung has worked way back to #53, after falling out of the top 100. Seems on the rise. Monteiro is a bit older, turning 23 later this year, but is working his way up, just inside the top 100.

Ruud and Ymer, two Scandinavians, probably have the highest upside of the group. Ruud made a splash earlier the year by reaching the Rio SF. He's only 18, doesn't turn 19 until late December - after the year-end rankings, so will end the year at age 18. Anyhow, he's #6 in the Race to Milan rankings and has a good chance of being the youngest player there.

Ymer is a player I've been watching. He missed much of last year due to injury, so is playing catch-up - his highest ranking is #473. He's the type of player that could have a surprise tournament and jump into the top 200.

First Round Opponents
Ruud vs. Radu Albot
Ymer vs. Andreas Seppi
Monteiro vs. Daniel Evans
Chung vs. Denis Istomin
Khachanov vs. Tomaz Bellucci

The only player whose chances like of reaching 2R is Ruud. The rest are likely to go out in the 1R, but you never know...

 

[isabelle]

Maybe Sir Andy could manage to play some great tennis and (why not ?) win ? Am I too demanding with him ?

 

[El Dude]

I'm less worried about Andy finding his form than Novak. Andy just needs consistent time, and he should be back. That said, he might not return to his form in the second half of 2016, and even if he does it might not be good enough to beat Rafa on clay or Roger on grass or hards. Last year was a perfect storm of him playing well at the right time, with the Better Three all struggling or out. But I expect him to be a contender at Wimby, USO, and win at least a Masters or two later in the year.

 

[Kieran]

I'm less worried about Andy finding his form than Novak. Andy just needs consistent time, and he should be back. That said, he might not return to his form in the second half of 2016, and even if he does it might not be good enough to beat Rafa on clay or Roger on grass or hards. Last year was a perfect storm of him playing well at the right time, with the Better Three all struggling or out. But I expect him to be a contender at Wimby, USO, and win at least a Masters or two later in the year.

I'm kinda feeling that Andy is at a stage where Lendl needs to contribute more. I realise Andy had a crook elbow, but I don't think he's handled being #1 at all, and this is Lendl's area of expertise, being one of the great former #1's. I'm not sure he's earning his coin, just where that matter is concerned.

Agree about the rest of it, though - a win against even Andy at his best on clay isn't really an indicator that Rafa is "back..."

 

[Fiero425]

I'm less worried about Andy finding his form than Novak. Andy just needs consistent time, and he should be back. That said, he might not return to his form in the second half of 2016, and even if he does it might not be good enough to beat Rafa on clay or Roger on grass or hards. Last year was a perfect storm of him playing well at the right time, with the Better Three all struggling or out. But I expect him to be a contender at Wimby, USO, and win at least a Masters or two later in the year.

Well I would hope so being #1 at the time! Even Nole in his damaged state after Paris won Canada Masters! It just fell into his lap which is typical with the gutlessness of the rest of the tour! Looked as if we might have a changing of the guard until Fedal took the reigns back like it's 2007 instead of 2017! uzzled :nono :cover - - - - The Nole Blog - - -

 

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Results from the Barcelona Open Men's Singles Round 1 matches on Monday

Kevin Anderson (South Africa) beat Carlos Berlocq (Argentina) 2-6 7-6(4) 6-3
Nicolas Almagro (Spain) beat Steven Diez (Canada) 6-3 6-4
Marcel Granollers (Spain) beat Malek Jaziri (Tunisia) 7-6(3) 6-3
Casper Ruud (Norway) beat Radu Albot (Moldova) 6-2 6-2
Albert Montanes (Spain) beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) 6-4 6-4
Daniel Evans (Britain) beat Thiago Monteiro (Brazil) 6-7(4) 6-2 7-6(2)
Yuichi Sugita (Japan) beat Tommy Robredo (Spain) 6-4 6-3
Kyle Edmund (Britain) beat Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-3 6-4
Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Mikael Ymer (Sweden) 6-4 6-3

 

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