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BNP Paribas Open - Indian Wells
Another title for Rafa Nadal, and the biggest win in Vera Zvonareva’s career sum up this year’s Indian Wells tournament.
Rafa strengthened his grip on the No 1 ranking with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory over Andy Murray in a one-sided final. As usual, Rafa used his Babolat AeroPro Drive racket strung with Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour strings at his usual tension of 55lbs. Andy Murray used Head’s Microgel Radical MP racket with Babolat VS Team natural gut main strings, and Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power crosses, strung at 57/55lbs.
Novak Djokovic continues to struggle with his Head YT Speed Pro. At Indian Wells he used the same string combination as Roger Federer, with Wilson Natural Gut main strings, and Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power cross strings. His tension was 55lbs. Sadly, this string job didn’t do the trick, as he went down in straight sets to Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals.
Vera Zvonareva achieved her big win playing with the Prince O3 White racket strung with Gamma Zo Tour strings at 53lbs main strings/55lbs cross strings. Zvonareva is Gamma’s No 1 endorsee, and whilst Gamma strings regularly rank highly in USRSA and other string surveys this is their first major tour title.
Ana Ivanovic, the beaten finalist and last year’s Roland Garros champion, has stayed with Yonex rackets, but is using different strings this year. Having won the French Open and reached No 1 in the world using Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power strings last year, this year she’s playing a hybrid of Wilson Natural Gut mains and Yonex Poly Tour polyester crosses. Her current choice of racket is the Yonex RQiS1 Tour XL.
Davis Cup First Round
The first round of the Davis Cup at the beginning of March didn’t produce any major upsets, although the fancied team from France fell to the Czechs in Ostrava. The French force of Top Tenners Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, along with Richard Gasquet and doubles expert Michael Llodra fell to a Czech team led by the resurgent Radek Stepanek, and, in this tie at least, an equally resurgent Tomas Berdych. Stepanek’s start to the season, (titles in Brisbane and San Jose, and finalist at Memphis), just keeps getting better, and his defeat of Gilles Simon in the fourth rubber sealed France’s fate. Stepanek’s game has improved markedly since he started playing with a custom frame made by American racket guru Warren Bosworth. His choice of string remains Pacific Prime Gut. Tomas Berdych played his part, rediscovering his old from and also taking down Simon in the first rubber of the match. Berdych is using Dunlop’s new 4D 2Hundred racket this year, strung with Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power.
Over in the States, the much anticipated and hyped clash between Roger Federer and the US team failed to materialise, Federer withdrawing a couple of weeks before the tie to allow his back to heal. The Swiss team did their best, Stanislas Wawrinka scoring an excellent win over James Blake, but without Roger they were always on a hiding to nothing. Not much to report here really, other than that Bob Bryan is back using Tecnifibre’s NRG2 string, having played with their Pro RedCode string last year. Bob’s had plenty of shoulder problems, and the switch to NRG2’s multifilament construction from Pro RedCode’s polyester could be in an effort to avoid further problems, NRG2 providing a much softer feel.
Elsewhere, Spain demolished Serbia 4-1, with Serbia’s only point coming in the doubles via Wimbledon doubles champion Nenad Zimonjic and Victor Troicki. Novak Djokovic continues to struggle with his new Head racket, his defeat to David Ferrer in the first rubber setting the tone for things to follow. In a clash of white frames, Ferrer played with the Prince Vendetta, a racket which only features in Prince’s European range.
Australian Open Report
The year’s first Grand Slam is concluded, with Rafa Nadal gaining his first Aussie Open and retaining his World No 1 ranking, and Serena Williams regaining the title she won two years ago, and regaining the No 1 position into the bargain.
In a pulsating Men’s Singles final Rafa maintained his stranglehold on Roger Federer, taking him down 6-2 in the fifth. As usual, Nadal played with the Babolat AeroPro Drive racket, strung with Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour strings at 55lbs tension. This string comes in three gauges, (1.25mm, 1.30mm, and 1.35mm), and Rafa chose the 1.30, as opposed to the 1.35 he uses on clay.
Roger Federer also stayed with his tried and trusted combination of the Wilson [K] Factor KSix-One Tour 90 racket, and his hybrid stringing of Wilson Natural Gut main strings and Big Banger Alu Power Rough cross strings. Information on his chosen tension for this event is not available.
Serena Williams demolition of Dinara Safina in the final was achieved with her usual Wilson [K]Blade Team strung, as always, with Wilson Natural Gut at 65lbs. Her success continues the great run of natural in the Ladies’ Singles at Grand Slam events, with only Ana Ivanovic’s victory with a Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power hybrid at last year’s French Open breaking the run. Dinara Safina finished a Grand Slam runner up for the second time with her Babolat AeroStorm Tour strung with Babolat Pro Hurricane at 55lbs.
Several new combinations of players/rackets/strings made their Grand Slam debut at the Australian, notably defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic and his white, as yet unnamed, Head Microgel. Having been a long time user of Tecnifibre X-One Biphase strings, Djokovic switched to Wilson Natural Gut last year, his last with Wilson rackets. Now that he’s with Head he’s back with Tecnifibre.
Gaël Monfils played with the new Prince EXO3 Rebel racket, strung with Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power, having left the Head racket and strings combination he’s played with for the past few years. He seems right at home straight away, no mean feat for someone changing both racket and strings.
Lastly, big serving Ivo Karlovic has also left Head, and is playing the same Babolat AeroPro Drive racket as Rafa Nadal. It’s difficult to imagine two more contrasting styles of play with the same racket. The change didn’t diminish Karlovic’s ace count, but his normally assured volleying seemed less reliable than usual, and his forehand was definitely wayward on occasions.
It’ll be interesting to see how these new combinations fare during the coming season.