Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread X

[Tuggy]

They are also doing the Fed Cup draw. Canada drew Romania in the WG II. Romania will have choice of ground, tough draw.

 

[Tuggy]

We drew Croatia (choice of ground by lot, went to Croatia).

Not a great draw. They have Cilic and not much else but it's away. Hopefully our team will be fully healthy.

 

[discostu]

We drew Croatia (choice of ground by lot, went to Croatia).

Not a great draw. They have Cilic and not much else but it's away. Hopefully our team will be fully healthy.

Seems like a tough draw, as they have multiple top 100 players, but, I imagine it comes down to who shows up, which may be driven by how far people go in AO.

 

[Tuggy]

Seems like a tough draw, as they have multiple top 100 players, but, I imagine it comes down to who shows up, which may be driven by how far people go in AO.

If Cilic, Coric and Karlovic play it will be tough. I believe their choice of surface is typically hard court, so that's ok.

 

[discostu]

If Cilic, Coric and Karlovic play it will be tough. I believe their choice of surface is typically hard court, so that's ok.

I assume our full health team would be Raonic, Shapovalov, Nestor and Pospisil.

It really feels like that's a team that can compete with almost anyone. It's still the depth for inevitable withdrawal and injury.

What's Croatia's track record for getting top players to play? I presume if they are a seeded team in the world group, that it's probably good.

 

[Hadoop]

Raonic/Cilic would be an interesting matchup if it happens. Same with Shapo/Coric

 

[kihei]

Raonic/Cilic would be an interesting matchup if it happens. Same with Shapo/Coric

Not to put too much weight on it, but Shapo/Coric would be a nice little yardstick just at the moment.

 

[discostu]

In the Columbus Challenger, Peliwo beat Ramanathan 6-2, 6-1. It's hard to what if, but, the tie on the weekend could have gone very differently if Peliwo was put in and that was the result to start.

Dancevic also advanced to QF in same tournament, including beating Schnur in first round. But, maybe it was just fatigue for the guys that played.

 

[Loosie]

In the Columbus Challenger, Peliwo beat Ramanathan 6-2, 6-1. It's hard to what if, but, the tie on the weekend could have gone very differently if Peliwo was put in and that was the result to start.

Dancevic also advanced to QF in same tournament, including beating Schnur in first round. But, maybe it was just fatigue for the guys that played.

Likely, Bhambri was also there and retired from his match in the first round.

 

[Hadoop]

The inaugural Laver Cup is on this weekend in Prague. Can't read too much into the results given it's an exhibition of sorts, but Shapo played well in a losing effort against Zverev.

 

[Cruor]

Nadal & Federer are playing doubles together tonight

Highlights from Federer-Querrey:

 

[MsMeow]

Is the court black?

 

[Cruor]

Is the court black?

Yes.

Federer/Nadal vs Sock/Querrey highlights:

 

[kihei]

Fed looked great against Querrey. Must have got the treatment he needed.

 

[Hadoop]

Fedal actually happened. Rejoicing as a tennis fan right now.

 

[discostu]

Fedal actually happened. Rejoicing as a tennis fan right now.

I follow Lin Manuel Miranda on twitter, and he seemed to have a joyful reaction to it.

 

[kihei]

Ostapenko update.

Ostapenko won the Korean Open in three sets over Haddad Maia. Before giving up the ghost in the wee small hours, I watched the first set which she lost in a tie breaker. She is such a work in progress. She overpowered the Brazilian for the first half of the set, went up a break, and then Haddad Maia begin to time her. Error prone tennis with major league heat is what followed, though in Haddad Maia's case, she was basically feeding off of Jelena's pace. With Jelena, per usual, pounding the ball unmercifully, Beatrix begin to keep the ball in play long enough to tease out numerous unforced errors. Ostapenko deserved to lose the set.

Jelena seems to have only one speed, almost no margin for error crossing the net, and feet that don't always do what her brain tells them to do. The second serve is getting a little better but has a long ways to go. But, especially when she can step into the ball, those ground strokes continue to be nuclear-grade weapons. She needs a lot of smarts, a lot of maturity, a change of pace to go with the fastball, and a little less brattiness in general, but, power like that can forgive a lot of sins. Will be fun to watch her develop.

 

[kihei]

Fog takes the first set in the final of the St. Petersburg Open over the odious Dzumhur, 6-3. It must be one of the worst sets in finals' history as the two combined for but ten winners and 51 unforced errors.

Fog is, like, maybe in second gear. I half expect him to yawn at any moment....fittingly Mr. Casual gets broken, 3-2.

Later: Dzums takes the next two sets for the match for what is for him a big win. Fabio no doubt off doing something more interesting....like smelling daisies or staring at clouds.

 

[Hadoop]

Watching Laver Cup on Youtube. Say what you will about the uneven points system but this is actually kind of exciting. Too bad I'm heading out.

 

[kihei]

Nick with the upperhand against Roger, with Kyrgios winning the first set and just breaking back to get the second set back on serve.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

Watchinv those Fedal highlights gave me goosebumps. Was that the first time they ever teamed up? I know Rafa once played with Nole.

That will be the only time you would head Rafa screaming "Vamos!" after a Fed wins a point!

 

[Vamos Rafa]

I gotta see a pic of Rafa jumping on Fed's back while celebrating.

 

[Hadoop]

Just saw the highlights of Federer/Krygios. Say what you will about the super-tiebreaker, but that looked like 2 hours of spellbinding tennis.

 

[kihei]

I gotta see a pic of Rafa jumping on Fed's back while celebrating.

Damn, wish I could have seen that.

 

[kihei]

Going through the highlights of the weekend at the Rod Laver Cup. Man, those guys really took this competition seriously. Kyrgios was in tears after losing. Looks like the birth of tennis' own Ryder Cup has arrived. What a great idea.

Later: watched the whole Kyrgios/Federer match. I cannot remember Roger ever so animated as he was in this match, and from the sidelines there were a couple of points that Rafa couldn't even watch. That was intense.