Tennis

[leicsmac]

Shit, I knew I should have put some on Stakhovsky beating Gulbis today. Had a feeling.

[foxfanazer]

Brilliant match. Kuznetsov beats David Ferrer!

[leicsmac]

I'm surprised MP, I thought you'd be tipping Goffin to make the upset.

 

I'll be honest, if he catches Murray cold he's got the weapons to give an almighty scare at the least.

 

As for the tourney as a whole, Murray has an incredibly kind draw - only Dimitrov and Anderson in his quarter really pose a threat at all and the rest are mostly claycourters. Fognini won't be a hassle off his favoured clay. Also in Ferrer he has the ideal QF opponent - beaten him at Wimbledon before and it's perfectly possible he could fall before the quarters anyway. With the home support I'd certainly expect him to reach the semifinal, though after that all bets are pretty much off.

Djokovics draw is nasty in places - Tsonga, Youzhny, Cilic, Gulbis, Querrey et al all there to cause some trouble. That being said Novak has a habit of making it through the tough draws like this regardless, so I'd think he'll be the one fetching up against Murray in the top half SF.

Fed's quarter is interesting in the sense that it has players capable of wrecking-ball stuff on their day (Isner, Robredo, Mahut etc) but also totally capable of falling apart. You'd probably think it would be between him and Wawrinka in the QF as the seeding suggests but given what happened last year I'm making no assumptions there. I'll stick my neck out and say one of them won't make it to the QF - which one, I don't know.

Bottom section has Nadal up against a bunch of players with proven grasscourt pedigree - Raonic, Kohlschreiber and Gasquet amongst them. There's also the prospect of a very tasty 2nd round matchup against his old friend Lukas Rosol to possibly look forward to too. I actually think this is the most unpredictable quarter in terms of who is going to be showing in the semifinal - lots of players who on their day can beat Nadal and each other on grass.

Should be a tremendous couple of weeks! My tip for overall...head says Djoko beating Fed in the final, heart says Murray overcoming Fed in a thriller.

 

 

 Once in a while...

[foxes_rule1978]

Tsonga game starting to remind me of the isner mahut match, play suspended for the night.... neither player looking like dropping serve.. I don't it will reach anywhere near that match though ... can see this lasting maybe another 6 games tomorrow, I love the no tie break in fifth set..

Edited 25 June 2014 by foxes_rule1978

[Manwell Pablo]

Irrelevant...he's not played Djokovic on grass in that time. And remarkable player though he is, Djokovic hasn't won a Slam since then either.

Edit: Just to elaborate, I know it sounds like I'm arguing for the sake of it here, but I honestly believe that grass is so different that it plays to Murrays strengths and Djokovics advantages against him are vastly reduced on it. For that reason alone (as well as the support, home GS etc) I really don't think you can draw many conclusions about a potential Murray-Djokovic SF matchup from Murrays form up until now.

Hardly.

Won maybe not, appeared in finals, won 3 masters titles, and the World Tour finals at the end of last year he has managed though. Murray's got to two Semi Finals to his name in one calender year, and that's counting ATP 500 events.

I'm slightly perplexed as to why you remain so confident in him, to be totally honest, he's had some disastrous results and performances since winning Wimbledon, one of which cost us Davis cup progression.

I'd fancy Djokovic heavily myself.

[leicsmac]

Hardly.

Won maybe not, appeared in finals, won 3 masters titles, and the World Tour finals at the end of last year he has managed though. Murray's got to two Semi Finals to his name in one calender year, and that's counting ATP 500 events.

I'm slightly perplexed as to why you remain so confident in him, to be totally honest, he's had some disastrous results and performances since winning Wimbledon, one of which cost us Davis cup progression.

I'd fancy Djokovic heavily myself.

Becuase I know how inconsistent he is and how he can suddenly go from genius to idiot and back again from tournament to tournament. He's shown flashes of his past potential after coming back from his injury layoff, but never consistently for the whole length of a tournament. That's going to change at some point and he'll return to winning ways, unless there is clear evidence that the injury problems are permanent. It's not like everyone around him has suddenly got better and players like him don't just drop in form permanently during the middle years of their careers in that way without a serious and noticeable cause.

I think in his home tournament on (probably) his favoured surface it would be foolhardy to write him off, even against the best. If anything, this is the one tournament in the entire calendar where the external circumstances line up most in his favour.

[Manwell Pablo]

Becuase I know how inconsistent he is and how he can suddenly go from genius to idiot and back again from tournament to tournament. He's shown flashes of his past potential after coming back from his injury layoff, but never consistently for the whole length of a tournament. That's going to change at some point and he'll return to winning ways, unless there is clear evidence that the injury problems are permanent. It's not like everyone around him has suddenly got better and players like him don't just drop in form permanently during the middle years of their careers in that way without a serious and noticeable cause.

I think in his home tournament on (probably) his favoured surface it would be foolhardy to write him off, even against the best. If anything, this is the one tournament in the entire calendar where the external circumstances line up most in his favour.

Well we'll see, I've been accurate enough in the past when it comes to Murray though, obviously hope I'm wrong if he does beat Djokovic he's got a great chance.

Novak will run over him in no more than four sets for me though , but there we are.

[Facecloth]

Rosol just gone a break up against Rafa in the first set. Repeat of two years ago maybe?

[Manwell Pablo]

Rosol just gone a break up against Rafa in the first set. Repeat of two years ago maybe?

Hopefully.

[Facecloth]

Hopefully.

First set won 6-4. Fingers crossed.

[foxes_rule1978]

Rosol hitting heavy, grass is certainly makes Nadal very beatable, hasn't played well on it for a few years now not since he won in 2010

[leicsmac]

Nadal so vulnerable against a big server/hitter in the first week here when the surface is as it is. Bollieteri was just saying today what most keen watchers already knew. Long way still to go, though.

[howlinmadmurfdoc]

Need Tsonga to win to get £27 quid back on a 50p acca.

[Facecloth]

I think Rafa would have liked to have got an early break in the first set, or at least made inroads into Rosol's serve, but he hasn't got anywhere near breaking him. Even for a guy who's won as much as Rafa, it must be running through his mind, "Not again".

Rosol's a break up in the second now too.

[Facecloth]

1 set all after a tie break.

[kingfox]

Sexy Rafa doing what he does best, playing sexy Tennis.

I see the next generation on the Men's side have made an appearance today, with Kyrgios & Vesely getting big wins, excellent stuff.

Australia have some good up and coming talent, with Kyrgios, Saville & Kokkinakis.

[AKCJ]

Kingfox, I know you're a bit of a tennis geek.

What happens now that the games have been abandoned? Do they replay tomorrow from 0-0, do they continue exactly as they left or are they even hoping to get play started again tonight?

[foxes_rule1978]

Kingfox, I know you're a bit of a tennis geek.

What happens now that the games have been abandoned? Do they replay tomorrow from 0-0, do they continue exactly as they left or are they even hoping to get play started again tonight?

or do they flip a coin to see who wins? or just settle for the draw and a point each?

[foxes_rule1978]

Just caught the Monfils match, did he realise this wasn't an exhibition?

[kingfox]

Kingfox, I know you're a bit of a tennis geek.

What happens now that the games have been abandoned? Do they replay tomorrow from 0-0, do they continue exactly as they left or are they even hoping to get play started again tonight?

The match get's decided through a game of head tennis.

[AKCJ]

The match get's decided through a game of head tennis.

[kingfox]

Well, at least I said something imaginative, and didn't give the correct and boring answer.

[AKCJ]

 

Well, at least I said something imaginative, and didn't give the correct and boring answer.

 

 

But I wanted the correct and boring answer ffs.

[Manwell Pablo]

Kingfox, I know you're a bit of a tennis geek.

 

What happens now that the games have been abandoned? Do they replay tomorrow from 0-0, do they continue exactly as they left or are they even hoping to get play started again tonight?

 

Sorry but I struggle for sympathy, plenty of clued up people in here besides the king of banter and wikipedia and you decided to ask him of all people. 

Edited 27 June 2014 by Manwell Pablo

[kingfox]

Sorry but I struggle for sympathy, plenty of clued up people in here besides the king of banter and wikipedia and you decided to ask him of all people.  

 

 

This all started because of that Dan Evans bollocks, I've not been asked about anything else Tennis related on here, apart from Dan Evans.

 

Now Manwell, you tell me what has happened since his run at the US Open? Not much, he didn't even qualify for the Australian or French Open, while he bowed out in the first round this week, while also he has slipped back down the rankings.

 

What I don't get is, it's like you guys are forcing me to rate the guy, I don't have to like him if I don't want to. There are far more players who interest me, like Dimitrov, Raonic, Thiem, Sock & Kyrgios etc... the players who are meant to be next in line.

 

Now if I didn't know anything about Tennis, then I wouldn't have a clue who the likes of Luke Saville & Thanasi Kokkinakis are, but I do and I don't use wikipedia to find all that stuff.

 

I've been a big fan of Tennis since the likes of Agassi, Henman, Sampras, Rafter etc... and I would go as far as to say I prefer the sport over Football sometimes.