NASDAQ 100 Open
Tuesday 30 March
UPDATE: The German duo fell to the second-ranked Mirnyi and Bhupathi, 46 06. Good news, however, in that Kiefer upset Sebastien Grosjean in his singles match earlier in today on the Grandstand, 64 62. A surprise in the afternoon as Agassi lost 26 67(2) to Argentina's Agustin Calleri.
Schuettler and Kiefer should be taking to the court any minute. At 3:10pm NY time the Knowles/Nestor doubles match has just ended. Go to the event's main page and click on either live scores or CourtCast to follow them against Mirnyi and Bhupathi.
Monday 29 March
RAIN: Your regularly scheduled doubles match will now be seen tomorrow, Tuesday. They are third up on Court 2, play starts at 11am over there.
Schuettler and Kiefer are still waiting to play doubles today. As of 5:48 NY time, the third match of the day on their court is at 31 in the first. Mirnyi is down 24 to Agassi right now as well, so the match won't start until he gets adequate rest anyways. Here's the schedule for Court 2 up before their match: 3. Elena Dementieva (RUS) [5] vs Jelena Dokic (SCG) [12]
4. Maret Ani (EST)/Libuse Prusova (CZE) vs
Nadia Petrova (RUS)/Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) [6] and the # 5 is RS/NK. The event's site has a live ticker where you can see the action on all the courts in play.
Friday 26 March
Rainer Schuettler, in a closely contested match, fell to countryman Nicolas Kiefer in the second round, 46 64 67(3). The match had five rain delays and their time on the court was 2.75 hours. Considering Rainer couldn't effectively practice all week, it was a good showing. Kiefer will next play Ginepri in the 3rd round on Sunday.
"I played again well, but in the crucial moment I did not have the luck again, over finally again to win", said Rainer. "The injury was not bad at the defeat. I went into playing fit - losing is what hurt more." Kiefer felt that the tiebreak was the best he ever played, adding "Before the first impact I had said myself: Kiwi, remain cool, then you draw the thing also. The match was a genuine hammer."
In doubles, the two will pair up again, facing second-seeded Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi in the first round. As a pair they reached the semis at Indian Wells, and teaming with Santoro, Bhupathi won both Auckland and Dubai.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Schuettler/Kiefer v Mirnyi/Bhupathi is scheduled for Monday on Court 2. Play begins at 11am and they are the fifth out of six matches for that court. I added a few more article links as well.
Here are some comments from me on the match from Friday night. Due to the rain delaying play for awhile, it was one of the few matches that the tourney really pushed to complete that night:
11:37 RS serving at 35, then it was 36 and Kiwi served out the match to take it at 64 46 76(3).
11:30 we're headed into the tiebreak, RS to serve first... RS had match point off of Kiwi's serve but couldn't convert. Was 1 for RS then 21 Kiwi, now 22 with RS serving... torture! 32 RS
11:05pm - oh man, it's 44 with Rainer serving at 30all, he was down in total points won 90-93, very tight match
10:45 NY time - play has resumed and Rainer won the 2nd set 64. They are in the third with Kiwi up 21, but Rainer got the break back and it's even at 2 each with Schuettler serving.
As of 8:15pm NY time, play is still suspended due to rain. Kiefer won the first set 64 and Rainer is up in the second 43 with Kiwi serving at 15-30. There is a ticker as well as live CourtCast on the event's main site.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Thursday 25 March
The Friday Kiefer-Schuettler match is scheduled for the Grandstand as the fifth match of the day. Play on that court starts at 10am.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Wednesday 24 March
ATP's Most Improved 2003
Today it was announced that Rainer Schuettler was voted the ATP's 2003 Most Improved Player:
Most Improved Player: Rainer Schuettler
Rainer Schuettler improved his year-end ranking for an ATP-best ninth consecutive season, jumping from No. 33 to No. 6 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking. He won titles in Tokyo and Lyon and reached the Australian Open final, finishing with 71 match wins on the season.
In Wednesday's court action, Nicolas Kiefer defeated Igor Andreev 63 64 to set up a second round German duel. This will be the fifth meeting between the two with Rainer holding the edge at 3-1. They seemingly meet once a year (except for 2000), here are their previous results: 2003 US Open Hard R64 Schuettler 61 75 26 64 (I was at that one); 2002 Sydney Hard R32 Schuettler 62 62; 2001 US Open Hard R128 Schuettler 57 64 10 and 1999 Halle Grass R32 Kiefer 46 16. Kiefer has reached the finals this year in Memphis and Scottsdale and in doubles has teamed up with Schuettler for Davis Cup preparation.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Monday and Tuesday
aka Key Biscane and Miami TMS
Rainer Schuettler is seeded sixth for this Florida Nasdaq-100 event, which you may hear all over the news as the "return of Serena tournament". The top four women players are not at this event, so Serena and Venus are the 1 and 2 seeds... the media will (blindly) go nuts if one wins, let alone a Williams v Williams final. On to Rainer... the other top men seeds here are Federer, Roddick, Coria, Agassi and Moya, while the 7 to 10s are: Henman, Nalbandian, Paradorn and Massu.
Schuettler receives a bye for the first round, but the second round shapes up to something that Rainer is never fond of - facing a countryman early in a tournament. He'll play the winner of the Nicolas Kiefer/Igor Andreev match. That match is slated for Wednesday as the second afternoon match on the Garndstand, first late match to begin "not before 5." Schuettler and Kiefer have had some good doubles showings as of late as they near their Davis Cup matches with Israel in April.
The calf injury that Rainer sustained during the doubles match at Indian Wells is still an issue. It's not certain that he will play here, but the first round bye will certainly help. "I still have pain in the left calf and yet to train... I fortunately still have a little time" for it to heal said Rainer.
Agassi is the three-time defending champ and has won this event a record six times. The previous record holder (men or women) was Steffi Graf with five titles, and Andre is also the youngest (19 in 1990) and oldest winner (32 in 2003) - I thought that was a neat stat.
There is a live ticker that covers all the courts, and you can even set the refresher time frame to what you want. There is also a link to CourtCast where you can see scores in real time.
Here is Rainer's bio page from the event's site, the photo is from his great Aus Open run.
Singles draw from ATP as well as the doubles as soon as it's available.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
UPDATE: The German duo fell to the second-ranked Mirnyi and Bhupathi, 46 06. Good news, however, in that Kiefer upset Sebastien Grosjean in his singles match earlier in today on the Grandstand, 64 62. A surprise in the afternoon as Agassi lost 26 67(2) to Argentina's Agustin Calleri.
Schuettler and Kiefer should be taking to the court any minute. At 3:10pm NY time the Knowles/Nestor doubles match has just ended. Go to the event's main page and click on either live scores or CourtCast to follow them against Mirnyi and Bhupathi.
Monday 29 March
RAIN: Your regularly scheduled doubles match will now be seen tomorrow, Tuesday. They are third up on Court 2, play starts at 11am over there.
Schuettler and Kiefer are still waiting to play doubles today. As of 5:48 NY time, the third match of the day on their court is at 31 in the first. Mirnyi is down 24 to Agassi right now as well, so the match won't start until he gets adequate rest anyways. Here's the schedule for Court 2 up before their match: 3. Elena Dementieva (RUS) [5] vs Jelena Dokic (SCG) [12]
4. Maret Ani (EST)/Libuse Prusova (CZE) vs
Nadia Petrova (RUS)/Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) [6] and the # 5 is RS/NK. The event's site has a live ticker where you can see the action on all the courts in play.
Friday 26 March
Rainer Schuettler, in a closely contested match, fell to countryman Nicolas Kiefer in the second round, 46 64 67(3). The match had five rain delays and their time on the court was 2.75 hours. Considering Rainer couldn't effectively practice all week, it was a good showing. Kiefer will next play Ginepri in the 3rd round on Sunday.
"I played again well, but in the crucial moment I did not have the luck again, over finally again to win", said Rainer. "The injury was not bad at the defeat. I went into playing fit - losing is what hurt more." Kiefer felt that the tiebreak was the best he ever played, adding "Before the first impact I had said myself: Kiwi, remain cool, then you draw the thing also. The match was a genuine hammer."
In doubles, the two will pair up again, facing second-seeded Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi in the first round. As a pair they reached the semis at Indian Wells, and teaming with Santoro, Bhupathi won both Auckland and Dubai.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Schuettler/Kiefer v Mirnyi/Bhupathi is scheduled for Monday on Court 2. Play begins at 11am and they are the fifth out of six matches for that court. I added a few more article links as well.
Here are some comments from me on the match from Friday night. Due to the rain delaying play for awhile, it was one of the few matches that the tourney really pushed to complete that night:
11:37 RS serving at 35, then it was 36 and Kiwi served out the match to take it at 64 46 76(3).
11:30 we're headed into the tiebreak, RS to serve first... RS had match point off of Kiwi's serve but couldn't convert. Was 1 for RS then 21 Kiwi, now 22 with RS serving... torture! 32 RS
11:05pm - oh man, it's 44 with Rainer serving at 30all, he was down in total points won 90-93, very tight match
10:45 NY time - play has resumed and Rainer won the 2nd set 64. They are in the third with Kiwi up 21, but Rainer got the break back and it's even at 2 each with Schuettler serving.
As of 8:15pm NY time, play is still suspended due to rain. Kiefer won the first set 64 and Rainer is up in the second 43 with Kiwi serving at 15-30. There is a ticker as well as live CourtCast on the event's main site.
- ATP's recap of Friday, RS only gets a one-sentence mention
- Sport.ard.de blurb on the result
- Sport1 article on the match.
- Tennis-X coverage of the day. Be sure to scroll down to their News, Notes, Quotes and Barbs section - some great reads in there!
- Netzeitung brief
- NEW Rhein-Zeitung article
- Malay Mail (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) piece, more on Serena's 1st match back
- Sport.de story
Thursday 25 March
The Friday Kiefer-Schuettler match is scheduled for the Grandstand as the fifth match of the day. Play on that court starts at 10am.
- Sport1 article on the upcoming match. Schuettler's injury still an issue, he wants to play as this year so far nothing has really come together.
- Sport.ard.de brief on "Kiwi's" results and how the lights at the facility went out
- TennisMagazin.de similar piece
- Sportbild same take
- Netzeitung mention of the award
- Netzeitung brief on the gace-off
- Netzeitung from Indian Wells doubles action
- ESPN brief on Denmark wanting a neutral venue named for their Davis Cup matches at Algeria
ESPN nice "inside stuff" piece on Roddick, Agassi and Safin talking about the play of Federer. No RS mention but a good read.
Wednesday 24 March
ATP's Most Improved 2003
Today it was announced that Rainer Schuettler was voted the ATP's 2003 Most Improved Player:
Most Improved Player: Rainer Schuettler
Rainer Schuettler improved his year-end ranking for an ATP-best ninth consecutive season, jumping from No. 33 to No. 6 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking. He won titles in Tokyo and Lyon and reached the Australian Open final, finishing with 71 match wins on the season.
In Wednesday's court action, Nicolas Kiefer defeated Igor Andreev 63 64 to set up a second round German duel. This will be the fifth meeting between the two with Rainer holding the edge at 3-1. They seemingly meet once a year (except for 2000), here are their previous results: 2003 US Open Hard R64 Schuettler 61 75 26 64 (I was at that one); 2002 Sydney Hard R32 Schuettler 62 62; 2001 US Open Hard R128 Schuettler 57 64 10 and 1999 Halle Grass R32 Kiefer 46 16. Kiefer has reached the finals this year in Memphis and Scottsdale and in doubles has teamed up with Schuettler for Davis Cup preparation.
- Sport1 update on injury, believed to now be a muscle fiber tear. His physiotherapist, Alex Stober, thinks he may still play
- SportBild brief on injury. Hordorff feels that if Rainer can play but hasn't had the proper prepartation it's better to skip the event. Friday would be his match.
- IAfrica report on ATP panel on supplements, Rainer is on the panel
- Fox Sports piece on the awards
- Sportal Australia's recap of awards
Monday and Tuesday
aka Key Biscane and Miami TMS
Rainer Schuettler is seeded sixth for this Florida Nasdaq-100 event, which you may hear all over the news as the "return of Serena tournament". The top four women players are not at this event, so Serena and Venus are the 1 and 2 seeds... the media will (blindly) go nuts if one wins, let alone a Williams v Williams final. On to Rainer... the other top men seeds here are Federer, Roddick, Coria, Agassi and Moya, while the 7 to 10s are: Henman, Nalbandian, Paradorn and Massu.
Schuettler receives a bye for the first round, but the second round shapes up to something that Rainer is never fond of - facing a countryman early in a tournament. He'll play the winner of the Nicolas Kiefer/Igor Andreev match. That match is slated for Wednesday as the second afternoon match on the Garndstand, first late match to begin "not before 5." Schuettler and Kiefer have had some good doubles showings as of late as they near their Davis Cup matches with Israel in April.
The calf injury that Rainer sustained during the doubles match at Indian Wells is still an issue. It's not certain that he will play here, but the first round bye will certainly help. "I still have pain in the left calf and yet to train... I fortunately still have a little time" for it to heal said Rainer.
Agassi is the three-time defending champ and has won this event a record six times. The previous record holder (men or women) was Steffi Graf with five titles, and Andre is also the youngest (19 in 1990) and oldest winner (32 in 2003) - I thought that was a neat stat.
There is a live ticker that covers all the courts, and you can even set the refresher time frame to what you want. There is also a link to CourtCast where you can see scores in real time.
Here is Rainer's bio page from the event's site, the photo is from his great Aus Open run.
Singles draw from ATP as well as the doubles as soon as it's available.
- TennisMagazin.de blurb on the injury
- NEW Sun Sentinel (Florida) article on injured seeds. Here's their Rainer portion:
"Two more players with recognizable names are out of the tournament and there's a major watch on world No. 7 Rainer Schuettler, whose lingering calf injury makes him only 50-50 to play... Schuettler made a quantum jump from No. 33 to No. 6 at the end of last season, kicking off his season with a runner-up finish at the Australian Open. This year, however, has not been good for him. He has been in six tournaments and gone out five times in his opening match and comes to Key Biscayne only 2-6.
He practiced for an hour with his left leg heavily taped from his ankle to just above the calf. He could only stroke from the baseline and hit service returns. He can't run or push off the left foot without pain. His coach, Dirk Hordorff, predicts the injury to be cured by Wednesday. He'll then hope for a Saturday start." - Miami Herald piece about mainly about Serena and the womens draw with some previewing of the mens.
- TennisMagazin.de blurb on Germans in the event
- Sport.de with same type of story
posted by Sprtswrtr @ 5:41 PM
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