Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread iX

[Tuggy]

Pospisil, who qualified for his 3rd straight tournament, won his first round match in Eastbourne. He's playing much better these days.

Big test up next against Djokovic to get ready for Wimbledon.

 

[kihei]

Bouchard playing a typical Bouchard match. She looks really good in long stretches and then inexplicably her game goes south. Down two service breaks at the moment to Strycova, 3- love in the third.

 

[kihei]

After startiing strongly, Suarez-Navarro has been reduced to being a helpless spectator as Ostapenko finds her game, 3-2 and up a break. When that kid goes on a hot streak, she really goes on a hot streak....cools down fast, too, 3-3....momentary blip, as Ostapenko heats right back up and blows Suarez-Navarro off the court, 6-3. If a player has a weak second serve, she shouldn't play Jelena. Carla won a grand total of one point on her second serve that set.

2nd set: ...and it's like somebody flipped a switch and very quickly Carla is up two breaks, 3-love. Jelena does this baffled "I can't believe I missed that, wtf" look after nearly every missed point. Carla quietly takes note. How to motivate your opponent in one easy lesson....continuing to moan about every close line call, Ostapenko digs a deeper hole and in the process is beginning to mess up her own strokes, 5-love....Jelena has tweaked a knee and is going off for medical attention--not good....thigh wrapped tightly, so probably a hamstring pull of some sort. Hard to play on...Carla moves her around the court and holds at love for the set....long, difficult service game for 5-2. Only ill effects of thigh injury are evident on first serve which Ostapenko is having trouble controlling.

3rd set: if Jelena can't move any better than she did in the final game of that set, she should definitely retire....Ostapenko's movement seems restricted but she keeps bombing away for the hold, 1-love, as Carla blows a love-30 lead....breaks at love--looks like the roller coaster is moving upwards again. 2-love...;oops, check that--with help from Ostapenko's suddenly misfiring ground strokes, Suarez-Navarro gets back in the match, 2-2...goddamn, the worm turns again, 4-2 Jelena. The worm is getting dizzy from all this turning.....serving for the match, Jelena throws in her worst service game, ai yi yi, 5-4....Carla's turn for a mediocre service game and the match is Jelena's.

What do you say about that match? "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"? Guess so--seeing as Jelena acts like a little dickens sometimes.

 

[kihei]

#222 ranked Ramanathan currently blowing Thiem off the court, 3-love....and wins it 6-3. Ramanathan struggled from 30-love on in the final game, but before that point, nobody in history ever made winning a set look easier. The clock has probably struck midnight now, though. I expect Dominic will now roll through him.

2nd set: Dominic, who ain't exactly having a high energy day, recovers from love-40 on serve only to **** the game away anyway, 3-2. Interesting. Still think Thiem wins in three....listless and unconcerned Thiem goes down another break in the laziest fashion imaginable, 5-2. I still think that....oh, **** it....and Ramanathan serves it out. Damn nice win for him.

Awful prep for Wimbledon for Thiem. The single worst piece of news is that, if this match is any evidence, and it may not be, Dominic cannot volley for ****. Unless he improves dramatically before The Fortnight, his chances going in are zilch; he's a very bad bet at the moment.

 

[Hadoop]

#222 ranked Ramanathan currently blowing Thiem off the court, 3-love....and wins it 6-3. Ramanathan struggled from 30-love on in the final game, but before that point, nobody in history ever made winning a set look easier. The clock has probably struck midnight now, though. I expect Dominic will now roll through him.

2nd set: Dominic, who ain't exactly having a high energy day, recovers from love-40 on serve only to **** the game away anyway, 3-2. Interesting. Still think Thiem wins in three....listless and unconcerned Thiem goes down another break in the laziest fashion imaginable, 5-2. I still think that....oh, **** it....and Ramanathan serves it out. Damn nice win for him.

Awful prep for Wimbledon for Thiem. The single worst piece of news is that, if this match is any evidence, and it may not be, Dominic cannot volley for ****. Unless he improves dramatically before The Fortnight, his chances going in are zilch; he's a very bad bet at the moment.

Considering a lack of any semblance of volleying prowess as well as how far behind the baseline he positions himself most of the time, I would agree that Thiem is a prime candidate to lose early at Wimby, probably before the 3rd round.

 

[kihei]

Considering a lack of any semblance of volleying prowess as well as how far behind the baseline he positions himself most of the time, I would agree that Thiem is a prime candidate to lose early at Wimby, probably before the 3rd round.

Speaking of another player who sets up deep, if the extended highlights of the match are any indication, Zverev was drop shot within an inch of his life by Federer in Roger's big blow out on Sunday. Lot of adjustments to be made by both Alexander and Dominic if the are going to survive to the second week.

 

[Tuggy]

Pospisil lost to Djokovic this morning in straight sets.

Vasek played well but needed to be better to trouble Nole.

 

[kihei]

Can Tiafoe survive with that big, weird windup to his forehand on grass? Currently 2-2 versus Gasquet. Despite the fact that Frances sometimes looks like he is walking on egg shells out there, he's taken the set to 6-5. Gasquet is hitting principally to his backhand....Tiafoe breaks Gasquet for the set, 7-5, and looked good doing it.

2nd set: Richard steps it up a notch but still just barely stays even, 3-3....Tiafoe had so many chances to finish off Gasquet, who saved five break points and always seemed to be trailing love-15 or love-30 on serve, but couldn't do it. Frances even blew an overhead four feet from the net. Richard eventually takes the tie breaker.

3rd set: Such a familiar pattern. The more experienced player, having survived the second set after losing the first, immediately starts the deciding set with a break, 2-love....And Richard keeps his foot firmly on Frances' throat the rest of the way, 6-3. Good learning experience for Tiafoe, though painful.

 

[kihei]

One really gets to appreciate these guys reflexes on grass. It's almost superhuman.

 

[Loosie]

Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime have been given WCs into the Rogers Cup in Montreal this year.

 

[kihei]

This Boodles crowd looks pretty posh. Centuries of inbreeding on display.

Kyrgios, showing no ill effects of any lower body injury, wins his exhibition against Troicki, looking good while doing it. A healthy Nick could be a big factor once Wimbledon starts.

 

[Tuggy]

The 21 year old Medvedev should give Novak a match today. He's looking good.

 

[kihei]

The 21 year old Medvedev should give Novak a match today. He's looking good.

Same set score, but I thought Nole pulled away in the second set. Moving in the right direction anyway.

 

[Tuggy]

Same set score, but I thought Nole pulled away in the second set. Moving in the right direction anyway.

Looking like Eastbourne was a very good decision as a tune up.

 

[kihei]

Monfils battles through a potentially dangerous knee injury to take a thriller from Gasquet, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6. It looked for awhile that Gael would have to default; in fact, it seemed the wise thing to do. He considered his options at the end of the second set but decided to continue. Though he hit a few flat spots along the way, Monfils looked very good for the most part, ending the final set with a 141 mile per hour serve, the hardest of the tournament so far.

 

[kihei]

Wozniacki has been playing terrific tennis all week, and Pliskova looks far more at home on grass than she did on clay. In a match off to a fine start from both players, Kristina gets the first break, 3-2...Katrina wins a beautifully played set, 6-4. She had 18 winners and only 3 unforced errors (Caroline was 8/2).

2nd set: the level of play dropped but still remained high. The result was the same: an impressive win for Pliskova. This result easily makes her one of the favourites for Wimbledon, maybe the favourite.

 

[kihei]

Nole takes the first set from Monfils behind an early and a late service break, 6-3. He looks pretty damn good today....and he wins in straight sets, a win that certainly insinuates himself into the Wimbledon conversation in a big way.

 

[Hadoop]

Nole takes the first set from Monfils behind an early and a late service break, 6-3. He looks pretty damn good today....and he wins in straight sets, a win that certainly insinuates himself into the Wimbledon conversation in a big way.

Indeed. Though it remains to be seen whether his decision to ignore HFBoards posters' recommendations to 'take some time off' will bear fruit.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

He did look good today. Serve was surprisingly good. That's his main weakness heading to Wimbledon. He needs to go a bit bigger on first serves. Way too many points on his serve have been "neutral" points.

 

[kihei]

Post GS palette cleanser: Buyukakcay over Hercog, 7-6 in the third set, Bucharest Open. Damn good match actually. Hercog couldn't close at 5-3 and Buyukakcay took advantage.

 

[Hadoop]

Turns out we armchair pundits were right after all. Novak should've skipped Wimby.


I wanna say I can't wait for the USO. But that would be a lie because I wanna savour the history we've all witnessed in the last month and a half first.

 

[Epsilon]

Any word on what Murray and Djokovic are going to do for the rest of the year? It seems crazy that either or both would skip the US Open, but they obviously need at least some weeks of rest, and there might not be a ton of time to get back in playing shape before it.

 

[kihei]

Any word on what Murray and Djokovic are going to do for the rest of the year? It seems crazy that either or both would skip the US Open, but they obviously need at least some weeks of rest, and there might not be a ton of time to get back in playing shape before it.

I could have missed something, but I don't think that either player has announced a course of action, although a reference from ESPN suggests that Murray's hip injury may require surgery. Such announcements will likely be coming pretty soon, though. There is nearly a month and a half lull until the US Open with only relatively minor 500 and 250 level tournaments taking place between now and New York, but even that respite may not be long enough for either player to recover from his injuries.

 

[Tuggy]

There are no official announcements regarding their plans yet.

Speculation of surgery (Murray/hip - Djokovic/elbow) is a scary thought.

Of course it would depend on the surgery, but they are both 30 years old now and entering the back 9 of their careers. Not trying to sound over-dramatic, but I'm very curious what the next 6-9 months holds for these two. Mentally and physically after 30 history is not on their side. Federer is an anomaly in that regard.

 

[kihei]

I always moan about how incorrect Wimbledon's scoring of winners and unforced errors is. So now that this year's final is on youtube, I decided to play scorekeeper myself and then compare my results to the official results available on Wimbledon's 2017 site. Anything remotely looking like a forced error, I did not count either way. Combined there were slightly more than a dozen of those. Here's what I came up with regarding the rest:

Wimbledon results followed by my results:

By set:

#1 set

Federer: 6/4....11/8
Cilic: 3/10....3/15

#2 set

Federer: 6/2....8/1
Cilic: 4/5....6/7

#3 set

Federer: 11/2....14/3
Cilic: 9/8....10/11

Overall

Federer: 23/8....33/12
Cilic: 16/23....20/33

Total calls in match

Wimbledon officials: 70
My take: 98

I'm not suggesting one match is definitive, but I do think Wimbledon employs very erratic standards about what constitutes winners and unforced errors in their matches.