Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XI

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discostu

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Lucky, I had hoped to go tonight but it was a no go.

Great job by Denis to win in straights!

I really wanted to get to this one. Given how Olympic years have limited fields, it's 4 years between really good opportunity to watch the men's side in Toronto. Even with Federer and Murray out, this feels like the last tournament of this top tier era with Djokovic and Nadal still in, while also ushering in a great era for Canadian tennis.
 
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Baxterman

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Well I expected all the Canadian men to lose and they almost swept.

Maybe the organizers knew something I didn't because that was some really pathetic performances from their opponents out there.
 

kihei

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Donskoy over Rublev 6 and 4: Jesus, Rublev hits his forehand hard. The problem is he doesn't seem to know when not to. Donskoy played better tennis than I have ever seen him play, including hitting a half dozen down-the-line blazers that had me shaking my head at his audacity.

Shapovalov over Chardy 1 and 4: Man, Denis looked great. He has such effortless command of the court today. I was impressed as hell. Chardy never stood a chance.

And a late, late one after a two hour and 30 minute rain delay:

Cilic over Coric 6-3, 3-6, 6-1--I never realized just how similar their games are which makes sense as they are both Croatian and Borna obviously idolized Marin growing up. Because of the rain delay, I was allowed in the expensive seats so I sat in the second row at the back of the south court right on the service line. Both their games depend more on variety and placement than power (though he can still sting the ball occasionally, Cilic plays a percentage game these days) and it was fun watching them play cat and mouse with one another.

In eight hours I'm back at York.
 
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Tuggy

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Well I expected all the Canadian men to lose and they almost swept.

Maybe the organizers knew something I didn't because that was some really pathetic performances from their opponents out there.

The draws aren't rigged :shakehead
 

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Not a great performance from Djokovic but Polansky had nothing that could hurt him. Straight sets win for Nole.
 

MsMeow

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Hope DelPo's injury isn't serious.

Milos lost the first set in a breaker. Won the second but is getting beaten pretty handily in the third. Down 4-0 including 2 breaks. Now 5-0 even though Milos was up 15-40. He looks so slow. Tiafoe wins 6-1 in the third.

Denis is up 4-1, 1 break, to Fog. Denis was down 1-4 in the second but is now up 6-5. Looks like Denis and Fog are chirping at each other as they're sitting down during the changeover.

Denis wins 7-5!!! Haase next.
 
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Shapovalov advances in straight sets over Fognini.

Raonic crashes out against Tiafoe with a brutal 3rd set.

Felix on the schedule after Nadal.
 

Tuggy

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Hard to take Thiem seriously off clay. He is zero threat.

Nadal not having much trouble with Paire.
 

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Early nerves for Felix but he's settling in. 3-3 first set.

Felix gets the break and follows it up with a love service game. 5-3.

Wow Felix starting to take over. Breaks easily overpowering Medvedev to take the first set 6-3
 
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MsMeow

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Felix is incredible. I've only seen him occasionally and not for an entire match but watching him at Rogers Cup I am struck by his poise and his power. He's super athletic, too. I think he's better than Denis right now.

Edit: Nice jinx by me.
 
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Scandale du Jour

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Felix dropped a match he should have won. Hopefully, he will learn from it.

4-1 up in the set and 4-1 in the tie break. Gotta win those. Gotta close the door. Many mistakes he could have avoided, especially in the tie break.

He turns 18 today, he'll learn from it. Cannot drop those in the future though. Not if he wants to be top 10.

Anyway, let's not be to hard on him, great learning experience. He battled hard.
 
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kihei

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Complete matches:

Nole over Polansky in straight sets: Nole was only as good as he had to be, but Polansky deserves a lot of credit for bringing his "A" game and making the match appear close, at least on paper. It is nice to see Nole hitting strokes with such depth again, but he will need to be better from here on out.

Shapovalov over Fognini in straight sets: Rain delays, of which there were two long ones with a third threatening all afternoon, have some advantages. This match got kicked to a cosy backcourt and, despite weather interruptions and recurring nearby thunder, it was a dandy. Denis won the first set easily. In the second set, Fog sauntered off to a 4-love lead looking like a colossus, and then Denis just reeled him in and won 7-5 with Fabio playing a minor villain along the way. The thing is Denis won the match from the backcourt which against a player as accomplished as Fognini is no small accomplishment.

Zverev over Klahn in straight sets: Sascha really does look like the deluxe edition--everything you could possibly want in a tennis player except the volley. Klahn kept it respectable, but the issue never really was in doubt.

Last bits of:

Tsitsipas over Thiem in a third set tiebreaker: Tsitsipas, fairly new to hard courts, looked more comfortable than Thiem on them. As I said before, Stefano learns fast, and he has some pretty impressive weapons, not the least of which is his ability to place balls just about anywhere he wants them. Like a lot of the new guys, he needs to put on about fifteen pounds, but he may become one of the top threats in the game in the long run.

Anderson over Donskoy in a third set tiebreaker: This match was played in a deep backcourt so I could virtually stand up next to the fence and watch them. Anderson served for the match, choked badly with a couple of double faults and lost his serve just like the old Kevin, but then blew Donskoy away 7-0 in the tiebreaker doing everything but beating him with a shoe in the process. The story here, standing like ten yards away from him, was how thorough and how deep Anderson's concentration was. He was like somewhere totally within himself. Oddly impressive to watch.

Side note: for a city that prides itself on being the multicultural flagship for the world, there are sadly very few people of colour at this tournament. The crowd could be a Trump rally. The only darker skinned folks that one sees are in menial jobs or as volunteers. Tennis has a lot of work to do in this area, but it never quite seems to get around to doing it.
 
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kihei

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I think he's better than Denis right now..
Non, non, non, mon ami. While I agree that Felix has the highest ceiling around, even higher than Denis'; FAA ain't there yet. I saw his match tonight on TV, and he still has an awful lot to work on. His second serve is the chief culprit, but more troubling were all the balls that he hit into the net tonight, usually caused by a problem in stroke production, specifically in not following through on his strokes. He rushed way too many shots and in the tiebreaker seldom went for winners, hoping instead to draw mistakes from Medvedev who was very steady in tight situations. Plus I think that first serve needs work as well--it has to become a weapon that wins him more free points outright--it doesn't do that right now.

Contrast this with the improvements that Denis has made. He has returned serve much, much better this tournament than in previous tournaments that I have watched him play. And he can now navigate a match against a talent like Fognini and more than hold his own from the backcourt. Those are problems that Raonic had coming up that he is still struggling with. In his entire career Milos has never once been as tough from the ground against a quality opponent as Denis was this evening against Fog. Shapovalov's game is improving in all the right ways, and right now he is the better player in comparison with FAA.
 
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Tuggy

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Felix dropped a match he should have won. Hopefully, he will learn from it.

4-1 up in the set and 4-1 in the tie break. Gotta win those. Gotta close the door. Many mistakes he could have avoided, especially in the tie break.

He turns 18 today, he'll learn from it. Cannot drop those in the future though. Not if he wants to be top 10.

Anyway, let's not be to hard on him, great learning experience. He battled hard.

The match was on his racket but he couldn't close.

Obviously a tough loss to swallow but he showed what he is capable of. He has immense potential and I agree with @kihei that Denis is still ahead of him in terms of 'at this very moment'. Regardless, assuming no health issues between them, Denis and Felix have a very very bright future.
 

discostu

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I'm heading out to the grounds in a feeling hours. Disappointed that both Felix lost last night, as he would have been on centre court during the day.

Djokovic and Zverev are both on the schedule during the day. Unfortunately, i won't have a chance to see Nadal or Shapovalov in action, who play in the evening. But, weather should become nice and decent matches on the secondary courts, so I shouldn't be lacking in action.
 
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Felix had mentioned potentially playing Vancouver before the USO qualifying, but I would imagine he'll skip Vancouver.

His goal of reaching the top 100 is definitely possible but still lots of work left.

He has 136 points left to defend this year (that includes 90 from his title in Seville). He's sitting at 113 in the live race rankings and 119 in the live rankings.

Qualifying for the USO would go a long way towards reaching his goal.

Not sure what his plan is for his schedule in the fall.
 

discostu

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Felix had mentioned potentially playing Vancouver before the USO qualifying, but I would imagine he'll skip Vancouver.

His goal of reaching the top 100 is definitely possible but still lots of work left.

He has 136 points left to defend this year (that includes 90 from his title in Seville). He's sitting at 113 in the live race rankings and 119 in the live rankings.

Qualifying for the USO would go a long way towards reaching his goal.

Not sure what his plan is for his schedule in the fall.

Aren't there a lot of clay Challenger tournaments in the fall? I recall him playing those last year and doing well. I can see him playing those again.

The NextGen race seems like it's out of reach this year, barring a Shapovalov style USO run. With the points he has to defend this fall there may not be a lot he can move up the rankings, but, because he's focused on the Challenger tour, he's building up a strong base of experience by getting a lot of matches in.
 

kihei

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I'm heading out to the grounds in a feeling hours. Disappointed that both Felix lost last night, as he would have been on centre court during the day.

Djokovic and Zverev are both on the schedule during the day. Unfortunately, i won't have a chance to see Nadal or Shapovalov in action, who play in the evening. But, weather should become nice and decent matches on the secondary courts, so I shouldn't be lacking in action.
Something that I should have mentioned earlier, there is a big advantage to going to the day sessions as opposed to the night sessions. Once the three principle daytime Stadium matches are over, you can stay on the grounds the rest of the day. You don't have seats for the two big matches in the evening sessions, but you get to see everything else all day. This is especially advantageous as the Grandstand has been scheduling as good a line-up of matches as the Stadium most days. Also, on the even smaller, more intimate courts, it's a lot of mind-blowing fun to stand virtually next to these guys and watch them play. For example, among others I watched Wawrinka, Tsitsipas, Thiem, and Anderson last night from a few yards away, roughly the same distance away as a ball kid or a linesperson.
 
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kihei

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Aren't there a lot of clay Challenger tournaments in the fall? I recall him playing those last year and doing well. I can see him playing those again.

The NextGen race seems like it's out of reach this year, barring a Shapovalov style USO run. With the points he has to defend this fall there may not be a lot he can move up the rankings, but, because he's focused on the Challenger tour, he's building up a strong base of experience by getting a lot of matches in.
Yeah, I liken it to baseball. He's in Triple A right now with a couple of courtesy trips to the bigs. You can see how his development is helping him to learn how to play at the next level. Next year at some point, he will be ready to come up and stay. It's a smart way to do it.
 

Tuggy

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Aren't there a lot of clay Challenger tournaments in the fall? I recall him playing those last year and doing well. I can see him playing those again.

The NextGen race seems like it's out of reach this year, barring a Shapovalov style USO run. With the points he has to defend this fall there may not be a lot he can move up the rankings, but, because he's focused on the Challenger tour, he's building up a strong base of experience by getting a lot of matches in.

Yeah his Seville (CH clay) title came in September last year. He'll probably go back there depending on how the USO goes.

Maybe he'll get a WC along the way but his ranking his definitely in the range for qualifying for 250's.

A lot of decisions might not be made until after they see how he does at the USO.
 

MsMeow

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Something that I should have mentioned earlier, there is a big advantage to going to the day sessions as opposed to the night sessions. Once the three principle daytime Stadium matches are over, you can stay on the grounds the rest of the day. You don't have seats for the two big matches in the evening sessions, but you get to see everything else all day. This is especially advantageous as the Grandstand has been scheduling as good a line-up of matches as the Stadium most days. Also, on the even smaller, more intimate courts, it's a lot of mind-blowing fun to stand virtually next to these guys and watch them play. For example, among others I watched Wawrinka, Tsitsipas, Thiem, and Anderson last night from a few yards away, roughly the same distance away as a ball kid or a linesperson.

For sure. Unless there's someone I really like on centre court, I prefer the outer courts.
 
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