Rod Laver Court speed

I’m hearing repeatedly that the Vourt is playing faster than last year. What’s anyone think?

Obvious important implications should a certain two players meet in the final.

John Millman was saying the balls were slower (fluffier) than last year....but he did not talk specifically about laver's court.

I can't tell. If it is, it is marginal I think.

Surely it changes from day to night. Not only the ball flies faster in the heat, the players do slow down too, which makes the court faster.

I doubt it's as fast -let alone faster- than last year. I do have seen quite some retrieving, besides, imo last year everyone talked about the faster conditions, this year not so much, or did i miss all of it?

I must have heard it said three times that the Court was playing faster, and there’s always retrieval when so many players play somewhat passively (I could have retrieved most of what Zverev was sending down today, just a step or two to each side would do it).

I also don’t think it’s bouncing too much. That’s even more important.

Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

If Fed and Nadal meet in the final, Fed will need to win in 3 sets, max 4 as he won’t have the luxury of extra day of rest.

The court is neither here nor there in this particular case.

Kyrgios may have a say, too.

Tenez wrote:Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

Alexander Zverev, monfils, raonic, dimitrov

Tenez wrote:Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

I dunno, Nadal's is very pumped up, celebrates even regular points. He looks like he's having fun out there.

He’s only played lightweights so far. It’d be interesting to see how he would play focused Kyrgios (if that exists).

naxroy wrote:

Tenez wrote:Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

Alexander Zverev, monfils, raonic, dimitrov

These players are only hard if playing Fed

Anyway, back to the topic......

Does anyone think Rod would struggle with his movement now?

He looked a little flat footed against Roger a few years back!

I’d actually believe Tenez if he told me Laver’s fitness had fallen away midway through the first set!

bogbrush wrote:Anyway, back to the topic......

Does anyone think Rod would struggle with his movement now?

I still laugh at the time legendkiller, during a debate on whether Roger was losing it physically or was better than ever posted that clip and said something like “you can see Rod still has it but he might have lost a step”.

gallery play wrote:

Tenez wrote:Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

I dunno, Nadal's is very pumped up, celebrates even regular points. He looks like he's having fun out there.

Not what I saw today. I think the heat really affected him. he made so many UEs by his standard.

He even threw 4 balls in the net on returns in order to save energy for serving the 3rd set out. Nadal saving energy wa unthinkable last year.

DECIMA wrote:

naxroy wrote:

Tenez wrote:Very simply look at Nadal and how he does tomorrow. IMO he doesn;t feel comfy on those courts. Remember last year he still reached teh final....though he played nobody again, apart Dimi the choker.

I think this year he has less chances to reach the final...in spite of an even easier draw.

Alexander Zverev, monfils, raonic, dimitrov

These players are only hard if playing Fed

Once again, how can you be taken seriously?

Zverev has never passed the 3 rd round of a slam. Lost again 6/0 against Chung in spite of a full year of "improvement". Monfils can only run and has no weapons, Raonic has been injured for years and Dimi is just lucky to be in the tournament...He is the biggest chocker since Coria!

bogbrush wrote:

bogbrush wrote:Anyway, back to the topic......

Does anyone think Rod would struggle with his movement now?

I still laugh at the time legendkiller, during a debate on whether Roger was losing it physically or was better than ever posted that clip and said something like “you can see Rod still has it but he might have lost a step”.

What's very funny is that it was most of you guys, including McEnroe, saying he had lost a step in 2007....10 years ago!

Not many have the guts to say I was right once again, when talking about peaking. Now that I see Fed heavy on his feet this year, most of you I am sure can't see a difference with last year.

Aging by one year at 35 is not the same at aging by as much at 25!

We’d all seen him lose mobility years and years ago, and he did. Peak Federer coverered the Court like a blanket.

I don’t know what you’re on about here.

bogbrush wrote:We’d all seen him lose mobility years and years ago, and he did. Peak Federer coverered the Court like a blanket.

I don’t know what you’re on about here.

First it is not obvious he lost mobility up to 2014. he had back probleck whuich affected his mouvement, beut even last year all commentators were saying he was as fast as ever. So when you say he lost mobility "years and years ago" you are clearly making it up.

But most importantly, I was not talking about mobility, I was talking about peaking, even at the cost of losing mobility.

“Most commentators”? Are we being serious here?? Like Grinnng Greg and the Eurosport hyperbole crew?

If you’re talking about peaking why did you get involved with my post about Rod losing a step?

You don’t need any commentators to see how good Fed’s footwork is.

It’s immaculate.

To me, his only problem is freshness of legs, looking light on the feet.

The court speed can make anyone look slower or quicker.

Nadal is certainly not comfortable in Melbourne courts and I think he finds hem mentally exhausting more than physically.

What sucks is tha Nole is in Fed’s half of the draw...which is al ost equivalent (for Nadal) as if AO was slow.

It’s all relative.

bogbrush wrote:“Most commentators”? Are we being serious here?? Like Grinnng Greg and the Eurosport hyperbole crew?

I should not have said "most" but all, including McEnroe himself contradicting his 2007 statement!

If you’re talking about peaking why did you get involved with my post about Rod losing a step?

It's linked, isn't it? It's also funny you say he lost mobility years and years ago when clearly it was not obvious but for some reasons can't see a difference between now and 12 months ago?

noleisthebest wrote:Nadal is certainly not comfortable in Melbourne courts

Agree with that.  Whatever the reason, he looked very uncomfortable last night.  You could see it in his face too.  He looked more tense than normal.  He was also making quite a few errors.  Schwartzman, even though he has no big weapons, was able to push Rafa around quite a bit.

I think Schwarzy has weapons.....but he himself became so inconsistent today.

Tenez wrote:

bogbrush wrote:“Most commentators”? Are we being serious here?? Like Grinnng Greg and the Eurosport hyperbole crew?

I should not have said "most" but all, including McEnroe himself contradicting his 2007 statement!

If you’re talking about peaking why did you get involved with my post about Rod losing a step?

It's linked, isn't it? It's also funny you say he lost mobility years and years ago when clearly it was not obvious but for some reasons can't see a difference between now and 12 months ago?

I could see it but maybe I just see these things earlier.

I loved McEnroe the player. The commentator doesn’t hold a consistent opinion from one week to the next.

Tenez wrote:I think Schwarzy has weapons.....but he himself became so inconsistent today.

Yes, I was most surprised at how easily he was missing the BP...in the set I watched.

I did not see sets 3&4, but they were both quite inconsistent in the first two sets. Schwartzman actually played better in the first set than in the second. The second set was full of errors from both. Rafa went up a break three times, yet he was broken back every time.

summerblues wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Nadal is certainly not comfortable in Melbourne courts

Agree with that.  Whatever the reason, he looked very uncomfortable last night.  You could see it in his face too.  He looked more tense than normal.  He was also making quite a few errors.  Schwartzman, even though he has no big weapons, was able to push Rafa around quite a bit.

Yes, the tiny Schwartzman was even firing aces past Nadal...was it 15 in the first set ?

bogbrush wrote:I loved McEnroe the player. The commentator doesn’t hold a consistent opinion from one week to the next.

He used to be a great commentator when he first started. I think he has learned over the years that, with commentators, hyping things up is preferred to being honest.

With Mac, one just needs to discern when he is selling and when he is saying what he really thinks.

noleisthebest wrote:was it 15 in the first set ?

I don't think it was 15, but it was quite a lot. I think maybe 5 in his first two service games, and then a few more after that.

Here is what Rod thinks about court speed this year.



Maybe he is not telling the whole thing but in any case, I see enough pace to make rafa uncomfortable...and look at the difference with teh USO! Huge.

noleisthebest wrote:With Mac, one just needs to discern when he is selling and when he is saying what he really thinks.

Exactly.

But I do not really blame him for all that hype so much. Tennis is a minor sport in the US that needs to compete hard to even get space on major networks where most viewers are not tennis aficionados. And he is trying to sell tennis to that audience. All other sports that tennis competes against hype themselves, so he may as well hype tennis too.

I remember in the earlier days of Mac's commentary, his co-commentator (a professional commentator, not a tennis player) would talk about how fantastic the then-current players were compared to earlier generations, and how much better shots they were able to hit. Mac interrupted and started explaining how it was misleading to say so, because it was really the strings, and not the improved players, that had made those shots possible. His co-commentator was trying to nudge him away from that line of reasoning but Mac just went on and on. He would not make the same mistake now.

But when Mc said that balls were not making a big impact unlike his co-commentator Woodford who was saying balls were getting bigger and bigger or saying Nadal is the best volleyer, who does he sell that to?

I understand the hyping but saying in 2007 that Fed lost a step like other stupid things he said means he simply not that good a commentator. Koening Henman or Mats are simply better evaluating tennis.