Saturday: Verdasco and Stepanek reach the final in Brisbane

It was men’s semi-final day at the Brisbane International, a line-up that consisted of three out of four players that I had not yet watched live this week. Something that I was immediately pleased about, despite the fact that I intentionally overlooked some of Mathieu and Verdasco’s matches earlier in the week in favour of other players.



I must have had one of the best seats in the house this time, just high enough to be able to see the entire court without turning my head and situated right in the middle of the action. The match between Paul-Henri Mathieu and Fernando Verdasco, was one between two of the bigger shotmakers on the tour. Mathieu lost the crucial Davis Cup rubber in the final a number of years back for France, while Verdasco won it for his country. I just wonder how much that final win has helped Verdasco, considering that he has struggled mentally throughout his career.

Obviously what I wanted to see the most was Verdasco’s big weapon, the forehand, which was flowing as well as ever in this particular match. Seeing it live, it is one of the more unique shots on the tour, despite seemingly having a conventional technique, largely due to the spin that he generates on the ball. You can pretty much tell how much spin he puts on it based on the completely different sound that comes off his racquet.

Verdasco started off playing more within himself in the first few games, getting plenty of height over the net on the forehand but placing his shots well. His serve was also working particularly well, earning him plenty of cheap points at the start. One thing I was surprised about was how much time Verdasco seemed to have to set up to play his shots, and the relaxed swing that he possesses on both sides that sometimes it doesn’t even look like he gets that much racquet head speed on it, unless if he’s going for a big shot. But you can see the end result of his shots to know that he does.

His backhand looks so simple and basic mainly because of the relaxed manner in which he positions himself when he’s hitting the ball, almost like he’s walking through it. The kind of shot that you would think would be nothing more than solid, but he was consistently redirecting it to the right spots with ease. As the match progressed, he started to flatten out on the forehand more, and it started to dominate the match. With his forehand working that well, it looked like he was able to do whatever he wanted with it, and the winners were flowing off his racquet.

Mathieu, in comparison, has what I’d call laboured groundstrokes. It looks like he bludgeons the ball instead of relying on timing, and he didn’t seem to have the full range on the groundstrokes today. He has big backswings off both sides, and it’s like he has to swing through the ball at the right speed. If he does it too quickly then it lands long by large margins. He would cleanly strike the ball, but would send it too deep at times.

The way Mathieu sets up his groundstrokes, it looks like they would be easier to read than most players, and at times I could tell when he was going to hit a more aggressive shot, based on his preparation. It most definitely looked like he was mainly bashing the ball in the first set, not showing much finesse at all.

Then in the second set, he tried to exploit the angles more but with little success, although it did make the match slightly more aesthetically pleasing. Much of the reason behind the lack of success was that he’d open up the court, then fail to make the big down-the-line shot after. I think it’s safe to say that there wasn’t much to admire in Mathieu’s performance today given the one-sided performance, but the match ended up being more about Verdasco and his winners anyway. Which by the way, there is no way that Verdasco will be able to repeat this scintillating performance tomorrow, not to this extent anyway.



So just over an hour later, Richard Gasquet and Radek Stepanek took the court for the second semi-final. I strongly favoured Gasquet’s chances in this match-up because I thought his passing shots and natural feel would work well against a net-rushing Stepanek, given how easily Gasquet has dismantled players like Fish and Lopez in the past. Not to mention that Gasquet doesn’t seem to have any problems dealing with variety.

For Stepanek, this was a completely different match-up to the last time I watched him play against Llodra, in that he was playing against someone that would easily outplay him from the baseline. So Stepanek would have needed to throw in as much variety as possible, not so much to throw off the rhythm of his opponent but to avoid getting into baseline rallies that he would lose. There were plenty of slice backhands, short angles and well-placed shots. It worked out well for Stepanek at first, in the first two games as he got up an early break. But that’s where the match completely turned around, with Gasquet taking the next six games to convincingly take the set 6-2.

Stepanek basically tried to come in after every midcourt short ball, and Gasquet just passed him again and again. I think Stepanek barely won any points at net in the first set, but he continued to try to make his way up there anyway. Gasquet has very excellent improvisation skills, and I like how he adjusts his swing to hit shots on the dead run emphasising that he has a very natural feel for the game. It never looks like he’s lunging for the ball or muscling it. It was a very nice all-court game that he was playing. Of all the matches I had seen, this match featured some of the most variety overall from both players. That was probably the main appeal of the match, more than the quality itself which fluctuated during the match.

At this point, I thought that the match was mainly on Gasquet’s racquet and that the only way he would lose it, would be by dropping his own level. It didn’t really happen immediately or noticeably. It was more of a slow decline. Slightly more erratic play and not making as many passing shots, not moving with as much urgency as he had earlier in the match. It was seemingly out of nowhere when Stepanek broke serve to win the second set, then the match continued in a similar vein in the third set. Stepanek seemed to get a bit more sting on his approach shots forcing more errors out of Gasquet. Clearly persistence paid off for Stepanek.

Both players seemed very animated in this match for their standards, and it was clear that the match meant quite a bit to both of them. Predictably Stepanek’s antics drew quite a bit of laughs from the crowd, and having watched him a couple of times, Stepanek is definitely a guy that enjoys his tennis.

Given what had happened in the second set, I felt like I had no idea what would happen in the third, and unpredictable it was. Mentally Stepanek seemed to have the edge, showing far more positive body language jogging to the chair on changeovers and celebrating, or rather enjoying his own winners. But then Gasquet seemed to relax as soon as he went a break down, hitting a string of winners. However, as soon as the match went back to being an even contest, Gasquet started to display the same sort of tennis as he had earlier in the set to lose serve again. Stepanek then served it comfortably with big serves to take the match and advance to tomorrow’s final.