Noventi Open Mid-Week Numbers - UBITENNIS

Noventi Open Mid-Week Numbers

Numbers do an interesting job of telling the day’s story at the Noventi Open.

By Staff
5 Min Read

By Mark Winters

Wednesday, at what was once the Gerry Weber Open, but twelve days ago became the Noventi Open, was warm – sultry says it better. This is not typical for Halle,  Germany’s weather in June. The collection of second round contests, on the day’s match card, were also sultry, but not in the way an attractive woman can be. In truth, they were seductive from a numbers standpoint.

In today’s world many references to numbers bring about a – figures don’t always tell the truth – exclamation. Ordinarily, this may be the case, but tennis is different. Data, actually, opens many discovery doors.

For example, the age range of the participants in today’s four matches ran from 33 (Sergiy Stakhovsky the Ukrainian qualifier) to defending champion Borna Coric of Croatia, who is 22. There was a clot of late 20s performers – David Goffin of Belgium and Pierre-Hugues Hebert of France are both 28; and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany and Radu Albot of Moldova are both 29. Then there were the “Almosts”.  Two players were almost the oldest and almost the youngest – Joao Sousa a qualifier from Portugal is 30 and Karen Khachanov of Russia is 23.

Adding to the counting coincidences, Struff and Khachanov, along with Coric and Sousa, were meeting for the first time in their ATP careers. Consistency continued its run with Goffin being 2-0 against Albot in career play, and Herbert enjoying the same advantage over Stakhovsky.

For each of these players, it would probably be quite safe to say that grass is not their favored surface. Looking at Halle’s win-loss records going into play today, they seem to bear this out – sort of… Since he is making his tournament debut and having won his first match, Albot’s record was a perfect 1-0. Of those who are in the “veterans” category, Coric, at 7-2, was the best. Khachanov, a semifinalist in 2017, was second at 6-2. Goffin at 3-2 and Herbert with 2-1 on his tournament score card, brought up the tail end of the positive grades. Sousa tops the “down but not out” list at 2-4, and Struff, who earned his first tournament victory on Tuesday, is 1-6 in the count game.

ATP ranking (at the beginning of the tournament on June 17th) and tournament seeding are another “count them” qualifier. Khachanov ranked No. 9, is seeded No. 3. Coric, who is right behind him positioned at No. 14, is seeded No. 4. All the rest are unseeded. In by the numbers order, Goffin is No. 33; Struff, No. 35; Albot, No. 41; and Hebert, No. 43. The qualifiers – Sousa and Stakhovsky – are No. 71 and No. 123 – respectively.

The final entry in the numbers of the day saga is a “win one, lose one, win in conscience but lose in the end” item. Stakhovsky was leading 5-1 with Herbert serving at 40-0 . He hit what seemed to be an ace (the ball touched the line and brought up chalk), but it was called a fault. The Frenchman approached the chair umpire and asked for an overrule, but the official informed him that he didn’t have any more challenges. Unable to “officially” contest the call he asked Stakhovsky what he thought. The Ukrainian said the ball was good, but to give Hebert the point, he, Stakhovsky, had to challenge the call. He did and the replay proved the “fault call” was not correct. Herbert had, indeed, hit an ace to win the game.

So Stakhovsky challenged himself; lost the point; gave Herbert the game; but won the first set, serving it out, 6-2. Unfortunately, the “good guy” move result didn’t carry the day. Herbert recovered from the 0-1 deficit to win the next two sets, 7-6, 6-4.

All of this proves that at the Noventi Open, after 26 years under the Gerry Weber banner, the first year sponsor, Noventi will enjoy some very good numbers.

 

 

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