Gerry Weber Open / Halle
Saturday 12 June
Schuettler Stopped in Semis
“It was my first career semifinal on grass, in Halle in front of a Germany crowd. I’m very happy about that. After such a loss you are always disappointed but in general this was a very good week for me.”
With that, Rainer Schuettler's hopes for his first career title in Germany came to an end as Mardy Fish squeezed by in a three set battle, 64 46 76(4). Fish, making his first appearance at the Halle event, capitalized on Schuettler's double fault at 4-4 and now proceeds to the finals against top-ranked Roger Federer. Federer defeated third seed Jiri Novak 61 64, and heads into the final with a chance to claim yet another 2004 title as he prepares to defend his Wimbledon 2003 win. This will be the fourth meeting between these two, with Federer winning all three, though Fish took a set off of him at last year's Wimbledon.
“It was 7-6 in the third so it was a very close match. Mardy was serving great on the big points. I’m happy with my performance but a little bit frustrarated losing a very close match. I’m happy that I had a great week in Germany and I’m looking forward to play three more weeks on grass.”
“I’m disappointed, it was a very close match. After being break down I was fighting back well. Especially bitter was the double fault at 4-4 in the tie-break. It was very close, I wasn’t fully content with my returns, but otherwise I think it was a good match.”
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Schuettler Shots... Photos
Friday 11 June
Schuettler Into Semis
Rainer Schuettler defeated Nicolas Kiefer today in the quarters 63 76(2) to advance to his second semifinal of the season. He'll face American Mardy Fish, the sixth seed. They play Saturday on Centre Court at 1pm. Fish defeated Verdasco 62 62 in their quarterfinal match.
This will be the third meeting between the two, they stand at a win apiece heading into Saturday. Their two matches came last season on hardcourt surfaces, with Fish winning in Cincinatti 76(4) 76(6) in the semifinals while Rainer won in Sydney in the quarters, 76(5) 64.
"These matches are always difficult to play, we know each other really good. Nicolas wanted to win absolutely today because he played the final last year. I stayed cool, he put himself under pressure. Perhaps that was my advantage today," said Rainer on facing Kiefer.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Schuettler Shots... Photos
ESPN has their Wimbledon TV schedule available now.
However, STILL no Rainer listing in their player profile page - check it out here.
Thursday 10 June
"It reassures me that I’m able to win also against a youngster like him."
Rainer Schuettler advanced to the quarterfinals today in Halle with a tight 76(5) 64 triumph over Joachim Johansson. No doubt he stuck around or hurried through his own post match interviews to watch the next match between Nicolas Kiefer and Jonas Bjorkman, for the winner is his next opponent. As I do this update, Bjorkman is serving at 4-4 in the third (75 46 44). Career-wise, these two were at an even 5-5 against one another coming into Halle. ** UPDATE: Kiefer wins, 57 64 64. The Schuettler-Kiefer match is Friday on Centre Court, not to start before 2pm. **
After the match Schuettler spoke on facing friend, countryman and doubles partner Kiefer next round, "Kiwi has always played sensationally good here." Against Johansson the crowd cheered every point for Rainer, who grew up near Halle - with Kiefer vs Schuettler in the quarters it will be a loud match for sure. Responding to questions about his 2004 season and the early loss at Roland Garros, Rainer stated "Paris was really frustrating for me, especially losing the doubles after a tough match, too. Afterwards I didn’t want to see a tennis ball for one week. I absolutely needed the break. It’s done me well obviously." Schuettler has settled into playing on grass this week and would love to find himself playing Federer in the final. Satisfied with his tennis and serving on grass - he enjoys the German crowd as well. "I always like to go here, I feel pretty much at home, today I even had some support from my home city. Halle is close to my hometown. I play the quarters for the first time this year, and I hope I can even go a little bit further. I think the crowd enjoyed it today, too. The atmosphere is great, it’s really something special."
Against Bjorkman, Rainer is 1-1, winning the most recent match in Moscow (2002) Carpet R16 61 63 while Jonas took the first one in Sydney (2001) Hard Q 36 46.
Facing Kiefer, Schuettler holds a 3-2 edge. Here are their results: 2004 Miami TMS, Hard, R64
Kiefer 46 64 67(3); 2003 US Open, Hard, R64 Schuettler 61 75 26 64; 2002 Sydney, Hard, R32 Schuettler 62 62; 2001 US Open, Hard, R128, Schuettler 57 64 10; and 1999 Halle, Grass, R32 Kiefer 46 16.
Keep track of the draw here.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Schuettler Shots... Photos
Wednesday 9 June
Rainer's match vs Johansson is scheduled for Thursday on Centre Court. Play begins at 12:45 and a live ticker can be found through the event's site, try this scoreboard link. Following Schuettler's match is Kiefer/Bjorkman.
* German word of the week: Konzentrationsschwächen
* Keep up the emails about Y or N on the proposed merchandise, so far it's been a thumbs up. I also may have a new (as opposed to none before) logo for the site, and that can go on some things to buy as well... stay tuned.
Tuesday 8 June
Schuettler Advances
Rainer Schuettler won his first Halle match against qualifier Jan Hernych 63 62, and now meets Joachim Johansson of Sweden (probably Thursday). Johansson defeated Robin Soderling (of Oz Open 'fame') 76(3) 46 63, and of the guaranteed Swedish opponent in the next round, Rainer stated, "But next round I have to deal with a Swede in each case, and I already lost against both. Thus I’m warned."
They have met once before, this year in Sydney as Johansson won 64 64 in the first round. This year Johansson won Memphis and was a quarterfinalist in San Jose, and in doubles reached the semifinals in Boca Raton and Munich.
"I felt pretty comfortable and, of course, I’m satisfied," said Schuettler after winning his first grass match of the year and advancing out of the first round, a rare accomplishment so far in 2004. "I didn’t want to fail once again in the first round. All the times I survived this magic first round this year, I played successful. Afterwards I found my play and got more confident," said Schuettler.
Playing on grass is something that Schuettler doesn't dislike as he can play well on all surfaces. He arrived in Halle early to get a few days' practice on the surface and, as always, is intent on playing well. "My main goal is to show pretty good and successful tennis. I already arrived last Friday in Halle. So I were able to practice on grass for some more days. I like to play on grass, I had some great matches here. You won’t believe that, when you see how far I got in the previous years, you must not look on my previous results, but my game was pretty good. I like the support from the crowd. It’s very nice to be here and to play on the courts."
A couple more seeds have lost, # 4 Verkerk lost to Verdasco and # 5 Safin fell in a thriller to Bjorkman 62 67(3) 76(4). Bjorkman next faces Kiefer while on Wednesday Federer will meet Youzhny.
There's Something About Rainer... Articles
Site Insight and random thoughts on the French Open... although it's nice to see some newer faces reach the finals, I serve about as well as Dementieva. I didn't see the women's final at all (work) and turned off the men's final at the start of the 3rd set, did a few things around the house and then turned it back on - to my utter amazement. Truly one of the oddest things I've seen in sports, but Gaudio's victory speech was great to see - at least they showed us that, normally they cut away before any non-American takes the mike. I did feel badly for Coria though, that really was his title, but he will win one (at least) for sure in the future. I thought that the ESPN update show at night was a great concept, but it would have been better if they didn't use that time to play, make that replay for the 3rd + time the same old matches that we already saw a day or two before - and those were already on tape-delay. I would rather watch 30-45 minutes of some roving reporter meeting up with players or fans and doing interviews or little mini featurettes instead of seeing the same matches over and over. Hell, hire me, I'll troop around and ask people about tennis.
May's traffic to the site was less than 100 hits away from breaking the monthly record, so possibly this June we can set a new mark. Lots of new people see the site daily, which is great, and the site continues to be a top Google result which blows me away. I am considering taking some of my own pictures of Rainer and creating things that visitors/readers can purchase. I found a site that does all the work and takes almost all the money, but it would be a fun option - they do things like the basic mousepad and mug to quality tshirts and sweatshirts and hats (I don't think I'll take them up on the Rainer underwear). Drop me an email if you think this is a thumbs up or down option, I also snagged a new GMail account and I'd love to put it to work.
As always, thanks for reading!
Grass Season Begins
Schuettler Seeded Second
With a bizarre French Open now in the history books, some of the ATP is in Halle, Germany for the Gerry Weber Open. This grass event (that sports one of my favorite logos) finds Roger Federer as the top seed and defending champ with Rainer Schuettler seeded second. Schuettler sees action first with doubles partner Nicolas Kiefer on Monday as they face fourth-seeded Israel duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. They play on Court One and are the third match, play starts at noon. The German pair hung in there, but ended up falling 64 67(5) 26. In notable results, Alexander Popp upset # 7 Andrei Pavel and wildcard Tommy Haas upset # 8 Feliciano Lopez.
On the singles side, Schuettler plays qualifier Jan Hernych in the first round. They are scheduled as the first match of the day on Centre Court, play to begin at 1pm.
This will be the first time they face one another. In 2004, Hernych won Prague, was a finalist in Wroclaw and a quarterfinalist at Kosice. Also in Kosice he reached the finals in doubles with fellow Czech Petr Kralert.
Rainer's profile from the event's site
Order of Play should be found here, if not, look for the word Spielansetzungen to get the latest schedule.
Live ticker can be found on the event's main site for all four courts, and via TennisMagazin.de at Sportal.de.
Of note, grounds passes for the first few days of the US Open go on sale today.
Schuettler Shots... Photos
These are small, from the event's site, Rainer signing and at the player party from previous year(s).
Schuettler Stopped in Semis
“It was my first career semifinal on grass, in Halle in front of a Germany crowd. I’m very happy about that. After such a loss you are always disappointed but in general this was a very good week for me.”
With that, Rainer Schuettler's hopes for his first career title in Germany came to an end as Mardy Fish squeezed by in a three set battle, 64 46 76(4). Fish, making his first appearance at the Halle event, capitalized on Schuettler's double fault at 4-4 and now proceeds to the finals against top-ranked Roger Federer. Federer defeated third seed Jiri Novak 61 64, and heads into the final with a chance to claim yet another 2004 title as he prepares to defend his Wimbledon 2003 win. This will be the fourth meeting between these two, with Federer winning all three, though Fish took a set off of him at last year's Wimbledon.
“It was 7-6 in the third so it was a very close match. Mardy was serving great on the big points. I’m happy with my performance but a little bit frustrarated losing a very close match. I’m happy that I had a great week in Germany and I’m looking forward to play three more weeks on grass.”
“I’m disappointed, it was a very close match. After being break down I was fighting back well. Especially bitter was the double fault at 4-4 in the tie-break. It was very close, I wasn’t fully content with my returns, but otherwise I think it was a good match.”
- Yahoo Deutschland article from Saturday
- AOL Sports had this update
- Reuters UK report
- Event article from Saturday
- Rainer's post match comments, in German, no English page up, but here are some highlights:
"One is naturally disappointed after losing such a match. It was really close... then this stupid double error happend. But overall I played well... only with my return am I not so content. ...I played in the semi-final, the first time before German public, that particularly makes happy me. As said, one is at the beginning always disappointed, but this evening that will have already passed. I played good tennis and had good matches, particularly happy with my serve and very content. The week was thus altogether very positive, I feel good and believe it's a very good start to the grass season. I am in the best way prepared for Wimbledon to come... When you lost your serve in the first set, the straight roof had been closed. Did that disturb you?
It is naturally always with difficult, if the roof is closed, that each change is difficult. That has effects on the height of the ball throw, and the sun dazzles differently. But that's not the reason I lost serve. I brought no first serve in the service in the field. If I would have changed that, I would have also won the play." - Interview with Fish, in English. "What is your comment about the German crowd here?
Well, they really love Rainer, don’t they? But I love it, when the crowd is firing him up euphorically, this is more fun for me. I love to play against good opponents. It’s great to beat a top 10 player, especially in his home." - ATP news with Saturday information
- Interview audio clip with Rainer, in English
- Sport.ard article on the match
- Fox Sports report
- San Francisco brief from Saturday
- Channel News Asia from Saturday, has Federer vs Fish info
- MSNBC tennis news from all events, mainly on Roddick's new serve record
- Voice of America report on ATP results
- Telegraph (UK) tennis results
- Sunday Herald (Glasgow) tennis article
- Netzeitung article
- Netzeitung mini update
- Netzeitung article on doubles from the 11th, and this from the 8th
- N-TV.de brief
- Rhein-Zeitung report
- Spiegel.de article
- Sport1.de report from Saturday
- Sportbild mention
- Sportbild article from quarterfinal win
- TennisMagazin.de article
Friday 11 June
Schuettler Into Semis
Rainer Schuettler defeated Nicolas Kiefer today in the quarters 63 76(2) to advance to his second semifinal of the season. He'll face American Mardy Fish, the sixth seed. They play Saturday on Centre Court at 1pm. Fish defeated Verdasco 62 62 in their quarterfinal match.
This will be the third meeting between the two, they stand at a win apiece heading into Saturday. Their two matches came last season on hardcourt surfaces, with Fish winning in Cincinatti 76(4) 76(6) in the semifinals while Rainer won in Sydney in the quarters, 76(5) 64.
"These matches are always difficult to play, we know each other really good. Nicolas wanted to win absolutely today because he played the final last year. I stayed cool, he put himself under pressure. Perhaps that was my advantage today," said Rainer on facing Kiefer.
- Sport1 article from Friday's win
- Event article from site
- Post-match interview from event's site in German
- Comments in English
- Sport.ard audio clip found here, in German
- ATP site had this audio clip, in English
- Netzeitung article
- Fox Sports (Australia)
- Sports Network brief on the semi matchups
- SkySports on Friday's Halle results
- The Age (Melbourne) tennis report from Friday
ESPN has their Wimbledon TV schedule available now.
However, STILL no Rainer listing in their player profile page - check it out here.
Thursday 10 June
"It reassures me that I’m able to win also against a youngster like him."
Rainer Schuettler advanced to the quarterfinals today in Halle with a tight 76(5) 64 triumph over Joachim Johansson. No doubt he stuck around or hurried through his own post match interviews to watch the next match between Nicolas Kiefer and Jonas Bjorkman, for the winner is his next opponent. As I do this update, Bjorkman is serving at 4-4 in the third (75 46 44). Career-wise, these two were at an even 5-5 against one another coming into Halle. ** UPDATE: Kiefer wins, 57 64 64. The Schuettler-Kiefer match is Friday on Centre Court, not to start before 2pm. **
After the match Schuettler spoke on facing friend, countryman and doubles partner Kiefer next round, "Kiwi has always played sensationally good here." Against Johansson the crowd cheered every point for Rainer, who grew up near Halle - with Kiefer vs Schuettler in the quarters it will be a loud match for sure. Responding to questions about his 2004 season and the early loss at Roland Garros, Rainer stated "Paris was really frustrating for me, especially losing the doubles after a tough match, too. Afterwards I didn’t want to see a tennis ball for one week. I absolutely needed the break. It’s done me well obviously." Schuettler has settled into playing on grass this week and would love to find himself playing Federer in the final. Satisfied with his tennis and serving on grass - he enjoys the German crowd as well. "I always like to go here, I feel pretty much at home, today I even had some support from my home city. Halle is close to my hometown. I play the quarters for the first time this year, and I hope I can even go a little bit further. I think the crowd enjoyed it today, too. The atmosphere is great, it’s really something special."
Against Bjorkman, Rainer is 1-1, winning the most recent match in Moscow (2002) Carpet R16 61 63 while Jonas took the first one in Sydney (2001) Hard Q 36 46.
Facing Kiefer, Schuettler holds a 3-2 edge. Here are their results: 2004 Miami TMS, Hard, R64
Kiefer 46 64 67(3); 2003 US Open, Hard, R64 Schuettler 61 75 26 64; 2002 Sydney, Hard, R32 Schuettler 62 62; 2001 US Open, Hard, R128, Schuettler 57 64 10; and 1999 Halle, Grass, R32 Kiefer 46 16.
Keep track of the draw here.
- Brief from event's site after win
- Sport.ard mini report
- Sport1 piece from Halle
- Another Sport1 pice
- TennisMagazin.de piece on Haas with Rainer mentioned at end
- The Nation (Thailand) tennis update, has this mention: Schuettler, ranked eighth by the ATP, drew loud cheers for every winner from the 9,000 spectators on centre court at the grass court event, a tune-up for Wimbledon, which starts in two weeks. “I grew up a 100 kilometres [60 miles] away – maybe a lot of people from my home town came out to support me,” Schuettler said. “I like playing on grass. I can use my speed.”
- Site's piece on Kiefer's win
- Post match comments from Rainer in English, as well as the same remarks in German.
- TV clip from event's site on Wednesday's match
- ATP news from Tuesday, has a couple quotes and a link to audio
- Yahoo Deutschland piece on Halle results
- Yahoo Deutschland mini report on the win
- ESPN AP report titled "Schuettler Thwarts Johansson"
- Sports Illustrated's AP version
- BBC Sport brief on win
- Canada.com Sports brief from Thursday
- International Herald Tribune (Paris) tennis recap
- ABC Sport (Australia) piece on win
- Telegraph (UK) story
- Daily Times (Pakistan) brief on July's Generali Open in Kitzbuehel, Austria, where Rainer will probably be the top seed
- Newcastle report on the Kiefer and Schuettler wins
- Eurosport mini report
- Taipei Times complete tennis recap
- Netzeitung Kiefer article
Wednesday 9 June
Rainer's match vs Johansson is scheduled for Thursday on Centre Court. Play begins at 12:45 and a live ticker can be found through the event's site, try this scoreboard link. Following Schuettler's match is Kiefer/Bjorkman.
* German word of the week: Konzentrationsschwächen
* Keep up the emails about Y or N on the proposed merchandise, so far it's been a thumbs up. I also may have a new (as opposed to none before) logo for the site, and that can go on some things to buy as well... stay tuned.
Tuesday 8 June
Schuettler Advances
Rainer Schuettler won his first Halle match against qualifier Jan Hernych 63 62, and now meets Joachim Johansson of Sweden (probably Thursday). Johansson defeated Robin Soderling (of Oz Open 'fame') 76(3) 46 63, and of the guaranteed Swedish opponent in the next round, Rainer stated, "But next round I have to deal with a Swede in each case, and I already lost against both. Thus I’m warned."
They have met once before, this year in Sydney as Johansson won 64 64 in the first round. This year Johansson won Memphis and was a quarterfinalist in San Jose, and in doubles reached the semifinals in Boca Raton and Munich.
"I felt pretty comfortable and, of course, I’m satisfied," said Schuettler after winning his first grass match of the year and advancing out of the first round, a rare accomplishment so far in 2004. "I didn’t want to fail once again in the first round. All the times I survived this magic first round this year, I played successful. Afterwards I found my play and got more confident," said Schuettler.
Playing on grass is something that Schuettler doesn't dislike as he can play well on all surfaces. He arrived in Halle early to get a few days' practice on the surface and, as always, is intent on playing well. "My main goal is to show pretty good and successful tennis. I already arrived last Friday in Halle. So I were able to practice on grass for some more days. I like to play on grass, I had some great matches here. You won’t believe that, when you see how far I got in the previous years, you must not look on my previous results, but my game was pretty good. I like the support from the crowd. It’s very nice to be here and to play on the courts."
A couple more seeds have lost, # 4 Verkerk lost to Verdasco and # 5 Safin fell in a thriller to Bjorkman 62 67(3) 76(4). Bjorkman next faces Kiefer while on Wednesday Federer will meet Youzhny.
- Site report on Tuesday's win
- Interview in German from event site
- Interview in English also from the site, could say the same thing, I haven't translated it yet
- Yahoo Deutschland brief from Tuesday
- Another Yahoo piece
- Third blurb from Halle
- Fox Sports mention, mainly on Federer, but had this Rainer quote: "I was happy with my first match on grass. Playing a qualifier is always difficult."
- Sport.ard brief
- TennisMagazin.de report from Halle
- Event story from Wednesday
- Sports Illustrated wire report on post-French Open rankings
- Sports Illustrated editorial on ESPN's French Open coverage. Can I get an Amen?
- Jon Wertheim's Sports Illustrated's tennis column, 50 ponderings on the French Open, includes these highlights:
26. Lots of questions about the Williams confidence-slash-arrogance and their, shall we say, stinting praise for their opponents in defeat. On the one hand, yes, it would be nice if they walked off the court after losing, and simply said, "She was better than I was today. All credit to her. I was beaten squarely." End it there and make no references to playing like an amateur, to being 10,000 percent worse than usual, to tummy aches and headaches and gingivitis and scurvy and bagworm. On the other hand, when you've won a mess of Grand Slam titles, been No.1, and basically run roughshod over the field for five years, you're entitled to a little swagger. And when you play measurably worse than usual for reasons having little to do with your opposition, you should be entitled to claim as much.
29. In response to the many of you who asked: We took no issue with Marat Safin's "moon phase." Taken in context, it was all in good fun. His blisters, however, were obscene and completely inappropriate for public viewing.
33. If Serena Williams (pink), Andy Roddick (St. Patty's Day green) and Carlos Moya (dandelion yellow) stood in the same room, the clashing of their outfits could replicate nuclear fusion.
***Wertheim says that next week's reader questions will be foreign-related - so go ahead and email him (form is in the link) all the creative Schuettler questions you want! - Sports Illustrated notebook blurb from the French, but had this zinger I couldn't resist: "Martina Hingis took a verbal jab at former doubles partner Anna Kournikova. Asked what it might be like to struggle with serving the way Elena Dementieva did in the French Open final, Hingis smiled, then said: "Ask Anna Kournikova, I don't know." Kournikova once won an Australian Open singles match despite serving 23 double-faults, 13 more than Dementieva had Saturday."
Who says rivalries in women's tennis are dead?
These next three were added Wednesday...
Generic Tennis...
Site Insight and random thoughts on the French Open... although it's nice to see some newer faces reach the finals, I serve about as well as Dementieva. I didn't see the women's final at all (work) and turned off the men's final at the start of the 3rd set, did a few things around the house and then turned it back on - to my utter amazement. Truly one of the oddest things I've seen in sports, but Gaudio's victory speech was great to see - at least they showed us that, normally they cut away before any non-American takes the mike. I did feel badly for Coria though, that really was his title, but he will win one (at least) for sure in the future. I thought that the ESPN update show at night was a great concept, but it would have been better if they didn't use that time to play, make that replay for the 3rd + time the same old matches that we already saw a day or two before - and those were already on tape-delay. I would rather watch 30-45 minutes of some roving reporter meeting up with players or fans and doing interviews or little mini featurettes instead of seeing the same matches over and over. Hell, hire me, I'll troop around and ask people about tennis.
May's traffic to the site was less than 100 hits away from breaking the monthly record, so possibly this June we can set a new mark. Lots of new people see the site daily, which is great, and the site continues to be a top Google result which blows me away. I am considering taking some of my own pictures of Rainer and creating things that visitors/readers can purchase. I found a site that does all the work and takes almost all the money, but it would be a fun option - they do things like the basic mousepad and mug to quality tshirts and sweatshirts and hats (I don't think I'll take them up on the Rainer underwear). Drop me an email if you think this is a thumbs up or down option, I also snagged a new GMail account and I'd love to put it to work.
As always, thanks for reading!
Grass Season Begins
Schuettler Seeded Second
With a bizarre French Open now in the history books, some of the ATP is in Halle, Germany for the Gerry Weber Open. This grass event (that sports one of my favorite logos) finds Roger Federer as the top seed and defending champ with Rainer Schuettler seeded second. Schuettler sees action first with doubles partner Nicolas Kiefer on Monday as they face fourth-seeded Israel duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. They play on Court One and are the third match, play starts at noon. The German pair hung in there, but ended up falling 64 67(5) 26. In notable results, Alexander Popp upset # 7 Andrei Pavel and wildcard Tommy Haas upset # 8 Feliciano Lopez.
On the singles side, Schuettler plays qualifier Jan Hernych in the first round. They are scheduled as the first match of the day on Centre Court, play to begin at 1pm.
This will be the first time they face one another. In 2004, Hernych won Prague, was a finalist in Wroclaw and a quarterfinalist at Kosice. Also in Kosice he reached the finals in doubles with fellow Czech Petr Kralert.
Rainer's profile from the event's site
Order of Play should be found here, if not, look for the word Spielansetzungen to get the latest schedule.
Live ticker can be found on the event's main site for all four courts, and via TennisMagazin.de at Sportal.de.
Of note, grounds passes for the first few days of the US Open go on sale today.
These are small, from the event's site, Rainer signing and at the player party from previous year(s).
posted by Sprtswrtr @ 3:38 PM
