Sa Watch: One of our favorite blotters makes its annual appearance as we check in on Andre Sa; he’s in this year’s U.S. Open doubles event with partner Olivier Rochus. The duo lost to Julian Knowle and Horacio Zeballos in the first round. (And in case you missed it, the Bryans were upset by the team of Karlovic and Moser. (Draw: See how the rest of the dubs bracket is stacking up.)
(image by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Brazilian doubleist Andre Sa didn’t advance too far in this year’s men’s doubles draw at the 2010 US Open. He and partner Stephen Huss lost 3 and 3 against the team of Rajeev Ram and Bobby Reynolds.
Taking the cake: The winners of course, were the Bryan Brothers who shut down the dream run of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4). Mazel to them.
(images and video by TSF)
Andre Sa and his partner Vera Zvonareva beat hometown faves Jamie Murray and Laura Robson 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of mixed doubles (that’s the way to endear yourself to the Brits, right?).
FYI, he and partner Huss are out of men’s doubles; they lost lost to Aussies Ball and Gooch.
In the latest installment of TSF’s Sa Watch, we drop in on our favorite (active) Brazilian tennis player, who’s doubles partners with Marcelo Melo, as he works on pre-2009 U.S. Open kinks at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Conn.
Sa and Melo took care of Brits Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins 7-5, 6-3 in the first round. They’ll next face the third-seeded team of Czech Frantisek Cermak and Slovak Michal Mertinak, who beat Wesley Moodie/Horia Tecau 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-7.
Cute headband, no?
(photo by TSF)
The Brazilian doubles team of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa — seeded 10th at this year’s French Open — lost in the first round to an unseeded pair, Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov. The Russian team fell in the quarters to top seeds Zimonjic and Nestor. And in the finals, Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes will face Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman.
Doubles partners Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa are vying for their first title in 2009 as the eighth seeds at the Australian Open. They’re off to a good start, taking out the local team of Brydan Klein and Matthew Ebden 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the first round.
Behind their backs are three titles from their successful 2008: Costa do Sauipe, Portschach, and New Haven immediately before the U.S. Open (where they reached the third round). The duo also made the semis in Memphis and Metz; and the quarters of Vegas, Stockholm, and the Paris Masters.
Kit: Sa joins Melo in wearing Centauro. One less person wearing Diadora?
(photo by Getty Images)
Bulging biceps, tag teams, marathon sessions, tattoos, bears, Eastern Europeans, Brazilians…
Yes, my friends, it must be Davis Cup!
World Group 2008 – Semifinal
Argentina v Russia, 3 – 2
Tarpischev’s doubles trick couldn’t shake off del Potro.
Spain v USA, 4 – 1
America’s rich Davis Cup history gets blown to bits when a tie is contested on clay. Against Spain.
World Group, Play-offs 2008
Chile v Australia, 3 – 2
Gonzo distracted the Aussies with his chest.
Great Britain v Austria, 2-3
For British newbie Bogdanovic, playing in front of the home crowd at AELTC caused some performance anxiety against Peya.
Switzerland v Belgium, 4 – 1
The dream team of R-Fed and S-Waw cleaned up.
Croatia v Brazil, 4 – 1
Save for a clutch doubles match by Melo and Sa, Croatia takes all the matches.
Israel v Peru, 4 – 1
Harel Levy, Andy Ram, Noam Okun, and the Smurf-esque Dudi Sela all did the home crowd proud.
Netherlands v South Korea, 3 – 2
Hyung-Taik Lee swept his singles matches, but it wasn’t enough.
Romania v India, 4 – 1
As expected, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi win their doubles match.
Slovak Republic v Serbia, 1 – 4
Novak Djokovic kept his clothes on.
Caroline Wozniacki defeated Anna Chakvetadze in the women’s singles final at Pilot Pen. The 18-year-old is currently the only Dane in the Top 400 of the SEWTA Tour.
Meanwhile, Brazilians Andre Sa and Marcelo Melo won their doubles final over Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 7-5, 6-2.
And Croat Marin Cilic downed Mardy Fish 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 to win his first ever ATP singles title. Congrats to him.
(photos by Getty Images)
This one’s for you, Mikey: Our Sa Watch 2008 begins with the duo of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa — locals — winning the Brazil Open doubles trophy over Albert Montanez and Santiago Ventura. Leave it to Andre to wear yellow socks on the court. Cute.
Meanwhile, it was a battle of the lankies as British fourth seed Andy Murray took out Croatian Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-4, at the ATP Open 13 in Marseille, France.
In Delray Beach, Kei Nishikori surprised everyone (including finalist James Blake) with this impressive 6-3, 1-6 and 4-6 upset. Our buddy Ichizo took this video of Kei while playing against Zack Fleishman in Japan last October.
By the way, look out for Ichizo to launch his japanese language tennis blog sometime soon. This is one of the few times I’m sad that I don’t know Japanese. That, and everytime I can’t read anything in Men’s Non-No aka the best magazine in the world.
And we are sure that Mama Murray is proud of her other son, Jamie, who teamed with Max Mirnyi to upset the top seeded Bryan Brothers. (Watch: See Jamie use finger code to communicate with Max.)
A beaut! The Proximus Diamond Games tops itself with a racquet encrusted with 2008 diamonds (get it?) totalling more than $1.5 million. 1,611 of those diamonds are on the ball itself. Unfortunately for Justine Henin, who beat Italy’s Karin Knapp, 6-3, 6-3 in the final match, she has to win the tournament three times in five years before she takes home that puppy. It’s not an impossible feat, though; Amelie Mauresmo did the same last year and took home the first diamond trophy.
Singles: Sorry, guys. I was too crushed by the early loss of Guga Kuerten in singles (and doubles, actually) at the Brasil Open to care about who won. Props to Nicolas Almagro for besting mainstay Carlos Moya 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-5.
Lastly, Flavia Pennetta wore her multi-collared Sergio Tacchini all the way to a title at the Vina del Mar tourney in Vina del Mar, Chile. Her opponent: Klara Zakopalova.
(Mirnyi/Murray video via ATP; photos by Getty Images)
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Bah. Marcelo Melo received a two-month doping ban after the ITF determined he tested positive for isometheptene at Queen’s Club earlier this spring.
The ban is usually two years long, but was reduced because Melo didn’t take the substance to enhance his sporting performance.
He’ll forfeit prize money and rankings points. Which is sad, since he and partner Andre Sa had a decent run, making the doubles semis at Wimbledon and the quarters at the U.S. Open.
(AP via ESPN)
It’s nice to see Guga Kuerten taken out of reserve to play the doubles rubber with Andre Sa at this week’s Davis Cup.
These Brazilians faced Austria in a Word Group Play-off tie. Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle won the match 6-1, 6-1, 6-4, which put the Austrians in next year’s World Group (aka the main Davis Cup draw).
I love the yellow socks. Nice touch!
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>> TSF’s davis cup coverage
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We’re sad we missed it: TSF faves Guga Kuerten played doubles with Robby Ginepri at this year’s U.S. Open. They faced Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa in the first round, and lost 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Guga’s optimistic and baggage-free with his recovery from hip surgeries, and is using doubles as a segue back into the pro circuit:
“I’m not regret with everything that happened, even with all my injuries,” he said. “The only difference (is) I have some white hair in my head. I feel a little bit the signs of age.
“I’d rather stick with doubles a little bit, see if my body can respond a little bit better for the future.” (source)
Guga on reserve: Kuerten will be on reserve for the Brazilian Davis Cup team facing the Austrians (in Innsbruck on Sept 21-23, 2007). He’ll back up the team comprising Flavio Saretta, Ricardo Mello, Andre Sa and Marcelo Melo.
Still standing: Meanwhile, at the Open, Sa and Melo will face the Czech team of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl, seeded 15th.
(photo via Magic Jewball)
After this year’s Wimbledon, everyone’s going home with their own “crazy rain delay” story. For example, Robin Soderling lost his fellow players’ respect after his marathon match with Nadal, Venus survived a scare against Morigami, and Brazilian doubles pair Andre Sa and Marcelo Melo, well, uhm…
…they beat Hanley and Ulyett after a record-setting fifth set (28-26). Bad weather forced the match to span almost six hours over five days.
Sa said: “We were lucky to have Gustavo Kuerten here with us. Guga watched the game and gave us some help with the match and also gave us the confidence to believe we can go out there and win. With results like this he might get a full-time coaching job, but we think he will probably be too expensive!”
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>> sa watch 2007
>> Tennis Served Fresh’s Wimbledon coverage
It was a busy week for small tournaments, since they pretty much won’t be heard from until early June (when the French ends). Let’s take a look at the trophies. At least they all looked different this time…
SEWTA: At the J&S Cup in Warsaw, Justine Henin beat Alona Bondarenko in straight sets for the gold trophy (photo, left), and Greta Arn (wearing blue) got a crystal cup for beating Victoria Azarenca (in orange) at the Estoril Open.
ATP: Estoril did slightly better on the men’s side with these white and green urns painted with guys in old-school sporting outfits. Nole beat Richard Gasquet in a three-setter, 7-6 (9-7), 0-6, 6-1. Doubles winners Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa received the same:
And Philipp Kohlschreiber (left) beat Justin Timberlake doppelganger Mikhail Youzhny in three sets to win the BMW Open in Munich. What is giong on with that trophy? It looks like a car phone my dad had in the early ’90s.
Finally, Champions Cup Boston is DEAD to me. But Kudos to Pete Sampras on his win:
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RELATED PAGES
>> CBHM main trophies page
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You can always count on the Canadians to do things by the book. Very little of their on-court uniform at last weekend’s Davis Cup tie against Brazil (in Brazil) could confuse them for the locals:
Dancevic against the Brazilian, Melo; Polansky
Canadian colors all the way.
Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer; with costume change
And Brazil stuck to their colors:
Flavio Saretta; Guga Kuerten playing doubles with Andre Sa
If only all countries could follow in their footsteps.
p.s. Brazil won. It’s good to know that even if Guga doesn’t make it far in ATP tournaments, we’ll at least be seeing him at the next round of Davis Cup (barring injury, of course). Here they are, celebrating:
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For at least four times a year (fingers crossed), my life as head of the Guga and Sa Watches 2007 get easier, when both players join up to play doubles for Davis Cup. Here they are, playing against the Canadians:
Gustavo Kuerten (left) and Andre Sa
via Yahoo! Tennis
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