This week on the Changeover Podcast, hosted by Brodie of Mind The Racket, Amy, Lindsay, and Juan Jose discuss Rafa’s return, all the Fed Cup and ATP action from last week, and make predictions for this week.
Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes!
4 Responses
Comments are closed.
Well done to everyone for the 50 minute entertaining and informative session on the week events. Wished Zagreb would have gotten a little more love but can understand why it did not.
Linz,
Since Mary Joe Fernandez took over the team in 2009, she has been able to get the most out of what she has to deal with. In 2009, USA managed to win over Argentina 3-2 (Dulko was playing well at that time). Before her Wimbledon & USO run, this is where Oudin came on the scene and managed to play well in set 2 against Dulko and carried that moment with a win on Sunday to keep USA alive and Craybas used her experience to get a single win over Jozami(??) then in the doubles, Huber and Ditty(??) won the doubles. In the next round, Glatch won 2 matches at Czech Republic easier than planned. Think Glatch defeated Benesova and Kvitova if I recall then Huber/Mattek-Sands rallied from a set and 5-2 with Peschke having match point on her serve to lift the team to the final.
In 2010, Mary Joe Fernandez got her team to the final once again defeating Russia 3-2 despite losing both singles matches to Dementieva. Mattek-Sands defeated Makarova to force the decider where she and Huber destroyed Dementieva and her partner(Makarova??). I was at that tie live in Birmingham,AL. Dementieva and Oudin was having a real breakfast as the first 10 games was won by the receiver and it was a physical battle.
In 2012, Mary Joe Fernandez managed to get S Williams to play in 2 ties(guess, S Williams wanted to play in the Olympics so Fernandez dangled that carrot in her face) which USA won both to get back to World Group I status after falling to World Group II in 2011 which was not a complete surprise. McHale won all 4 rubbers against Belarus and Ukraine to assist in that effort.
In 2013, Mary Joe Fernandez almost got USA the win as Lepchenko probably played the best tennis of her career which reminded me of Glatch in 2009 but Errani and Vinci was too much in the deciding doubles rubber after Hampton only won one set in 2 days and all sets lost was not close. Now, will be interesting to see what Fernandez will do in April after finding out tomorrow who USA will be playing b/w Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. If USA is playing Germany, USA might as well drop to World Group II if S Williams is not on that roster.
Saying that, could you write up the history on Mary Joe Fernandez as a player, coach and TV analyst at your earliest convience.
Juan Jose,
We managed to let Gasquet average a win per month in 2013 thanks to winning Montpellier. Monaco is probably playing despite wrist issues because his PlayStation buddy is on the Latin American trail. By the way, Nadal will win his 8th French Open title.
Linz,
Need to give Safarova a little more love as she did win 2 matches in the 2012 final to help her country defend the cup. Also, Stosur is known not to close out matches very well and I still believe to this day, S Williams match ended late in the SF against Wozniacki due to CBS TV coverage and the ATP SF lasted 5 and 4 sets respectively was the reason why Stosur managed to win the 2011 USO title as Stosur match was on the Grandstand(Armstrong had issues with the court -remember Roddick and Ferrer match on Court 13) and despite a 3 setter against Kerber, match ended pretty quick.
Weekly predicted winners : S Williams, Federer, Raonic and Nadal. I am not predicting a WTA 125 event in Cali.