Dubai, Acapulco, Delray.....

noleisthebest wrote:Btw , whoever designed this UPS delivery guy outfit for Nole should be forced to wear it 24/7

Leave who designed. Think about who approved it and is wearing it 24/7

Blockbuster SFs in Dubai. Very important for Delpo, it will test what is he made of. Delpo has actually beaten Djokovic only once if we leave out the retirement. If there is any hopes of him becoming #1 or even a top-4 this year, this match is a great proportion.

Both are playing well so it could be a good match.

Yes, great matches today, all 4 players in good form, Novak and Federer looked superb.
I can only hope for one sumptuous final between the two tomorrow!

I must say I am not that impressed with Delpo's game. Sure he moves well for a tall guy but his shots should be pacier for a guy of his size.

Regarding the Berdych/Fed's match, it's down to Fed's serving quality. It's been very poor on Mond and Weds. If he has a Ace/DF ratio > to 5 he should win. (it was 5/0 v Davy and that simply explains his pretty easy win).

Very interesting BP in that 2nd set between Djoko and Delpo. 30/40 down and guess what djoko does? throw a 20shot rally in....but strangely he is the one going for the kill...and misses!

Djoko making sure the ball gets back and extend rallies.....Delpo catching his breath costing him a time warning.

Training it back from London and a gorgeous celebratory corporate lunch
What's the score?
Good news only please

Tenez wrote:Very interesting BP in that 2nd set between Djoko and Delpo. 30/40 down and guess what djoko does? throw a 20shot rally in....but strangely he is the one going for the kill...and misses!

See?!!!

It's amazing that even on those fast courts they manage to keep the ball for such longs rallies. That's again the strings technology.

Again I think Delpo simply doesn;t go for enough enough and tend to rally with Djoko too much.

If he were going for more he could lose more easily...but also have a slim chance to win but playing like Djoko woudl guarantee a loss. I don't understand why he keeps rallying v Djoko.

Delpo is a strange player. I think he actually likes slower play as he is just a bit lazy, can't keep himself going in long stretches, a bit soft on the inside I guess...
He looks a but heavy on his feet these days,too. And mentally, he can't be looking forward to playing a guy who is relentless in absorbing all he has to throw at him. Similar to Berd in that department. Not able to detect a weakness and go for it, so just runs out of will to fight I suppose.

Tenez wrote:It's amazing that even on those fast courts they manage to keep the ball for such longs rallies. That's again the strings technology.

Again I think Delpo simply doesn;t go for enough enough and tend to rally with Djoko too much.

If he were going for more he could lose more easily...but also have a slim chance to win but playing like Djoko woudl guarantee a loss. I don't understand why he keeps rallying v Djoko.

Completely agree on this.
Delpo doesn't seem to miss much of the short-combination rallys, he gets it trouble when he gets moved around...
I think it's a lack of self belief. He plays against Djoko like he did for a while against Federer: like a sparring mate.
I also think the problems he had with the wrist has led to this held-back-serve, it's not powerful enough.

game on Fed-bird.

There should some motivation on court, they don't like each other

noleisthebest wrote:Delpo is a strange player. I think he actually likes slower play as he is just a bit lazy

Yes. true. His serve is not good enough to really take advantage of fast surfaces. He has a poor serve for his size.

red figures on the ace-df ratio already..

Yes, the serve is really average. Surprised e hasn't done anything about it;must have been told by others more than once, just look at Rao!

noleisthebest wrote:Yes, the serve is really average. Surprised e hasn't done anything about it;must have been told by others more than once, just look at Rao!

I don't think he had a serious practice session after the AO

TennisTv commentators say that Dubai court is the fastest on tour according to the players. To me Cincy looks just as as fast.
Has Nadal ever played in Dubai?

yes he played and beat Fed even....

I don't think the serve issue is down to practice. He was wearing a t shirt v Davy again.

Tenez wrote:yes he played and beat Fed even....

I don't think the serve issue is down to practice. He was wearing a t shirt v Davy again.

I think it was more than a t-shirt as he appeared to have a "pouch" under which wasn't there the day before or today. Probably some kind of thermal belt. He's doing well, nonetheless.

He is not playing great but stay with Berdych.

Berd's bullets are not easy to contain, esp on a fast court.
But that last service game was a bit odd.

Any particular reason why some tennis players are now wearing this extra shorts/tights under the normal shorts?

Phew... Glad Fed broke back!

Amazingly easy service game from Federer for 5 all. Fine balance hitting those lines and missing them by an inch.
Wind picking up is not going to help Berd.

come on fedsssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

noleisthebest wrote:Berd's bullets are not easy to contain, esp on a fast court.
But that last service game was a bit odd.

Sure but typically hw would be rushed himself and he would spray many of his bullets wide.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Berd's bullets are not easy to contain, esp on a fast court.
But that last service game was a bit odd.

Sure but typically hw would be rushed himself and he would spray many of his bullets wide.

Berd's been handling Fed's pace surprisingly well today. Having said that, Fed's forehand has not been that sharp and "rushing" today.....

Can't watch How's the TB progressing?

sphairistike wrote:Can't watch How's the TB progressing?

4 all in the Tb, Fed's just equallised on Berd's serve (had a mini break up at the start) with a fantastic net point. Bers's still on serve.

Takes the next point as well with Berd netting a groundstroke. 5:4 and serving. Ace. 2 MPs.

Fed sends a FH long, 6:5, Berd back on serve. 6 all!

so tense!

Set point for Berd now. Fed back on serve.

7 all Ace. Another MP for Fed. Big serve from Berd. 8 all. Misses first serve, Fed sends a FH long (in a long rally) and Berds gets his 3 set point. Fed to serve. Berd returns Fed's second serve with a winner and its one set all.

Very sloppy form Fed to miss 2 consecutive MPs.

One feels Berdych is motivated by his dislike of Federer.

Fed losing TBs, doesn't make sense to me...

Seems like it will be an early break for Fed in the decider though!

What's Fed doing??

He is not playing well Sphair...that's all I can say.

bird bird bird bird is the bloody, damn word that beat feds!

Seems like it, losing to Berd head having 2 MPs Seems like last year was the swan song after all. What do you think? Is it the start of the end?

sphairistike wrote:Seems like it, losing to Berd head having 2 MPs Seems like last year was the swan song after all. What do you think? Is it the start of the end?

he was playing terrible again. He is not arching as much in his serve motion, doesn;t move nearly half well as he can and that means he is spraying his FH all over the place. Ever last year....from Madrid onwards, he played well 2 weeks out of the remaining 7 months (2nd week of Wimby and Cincy)....the rest was not good.

He has 0 chance in India Wells....and 0 for slams untils he fixes his back....though I doubt he can do anything about it.

I didn't see the third set. Disappointed there will be no Nole Fed final
Easy picking for Nole now, though.

sphairistike wrote:Seems like it, losing to Berd head having 2 MPs Seems like last year was the swan song after all. What do you think? Is it the start of the end?

No swan song at all! Did you see his match against Granollers, pure poetry !

Tenez wrote:

sphairistike wrote:Seems like it, losing to Berd head having 2 MPs Seems like last year was the swan song after all. What do you think? Is it the start of the end?

he was playing terrible again. He is not arching as much in his serve motion, doesn;t move nearly half well as he can and that means he is spraying his FH all over the place. Ever last year....from Madrid onwards, he played well 2 weeks out of the remaining 7 months (2nd week of Wimby and Cincy)....the rest was not good.

He has 0 chance in India Wells....and 0 for slams untils he fixes his back....though I doubt he can do anything about it.

Spot on Tenez!

I don't think he has a chance at IW, maybe SF at best, then he can easily lose his #2 ranking to Murray for the FO and that bodes super badly then for the FO as he might have to beat Nadal in QF, Murray in SF and Nole in F to win it, so that would make it impossible...

Also, agreed on last year, he got lucky to win Wimbers and then somehow managed to serve well in Cincy...

If I were him I'd seriously consider getting my back fixed during whatever time off I have. It's obvious something is wrong and maybe his lighter schedule is supposed to help the recovery process, but somehow, it's not really helping

noleisthebest wrote:

sphairistike wrote:Seems like it, losing to Berd head having 2 MPs Seems like last year was the swan song after all. What do you think? Is it the start of the end?

No swan song at all! Did you see his match against Granollers, pure poetry !

Who cares really? I'm only interested in seeing him beat the best, not journey men. Otherwise I'd ask him to play me and shoot a movie of that poetry

He should focus on getting his back fixed as making SFs is not enough for a player who used to win everything of importance pretty much. Maybe he should have made a push at year end last year to defend his #1 spot and win WTF in style then retire on top... Too late for that

You Fed fans are really hard on your man!!!!

I thought he had a fantastic year last year and did make a huge push at WTF and nearly beat Nole there.
SF in Dubai is not the end of the world, the thing that is worrying is those two unconverted MPs.
Back, hard to fix, but not unless you do a hula-hoop 45 mins every day

I'm sure he's harder on himself. He really did not want to give this match away especially to Berdych. Although this tournament on its own is not alarming, the start of his season is. He's only playing slams and tourneys he has wins to defend and he's not even getting to the finals. This is alarming as he can start dropping from the top 2 first and then, he could drop even further. The fact that his serve is not working is also alarming.

Last year is over, so we cannot talk too much about it, but had he planned on retiring, he could have made a harder push at year end and retire on a high, he didn't as he was planning long term but maybe for once his planning was wrong and he should have taken what he could have when he could have as his back was not going to last for long...

I think Fed should just shut it down and see what they can do for the back. This is kind of pointless in the scheme of his carreer to whip through the midlevel players while in pain, just to face a top guy and get beaten.
I wish the Comms would start talking about the back too. I don't know what they are watching.. Yesterday Fed is wearing a compression shirt, has no arch to his back during serve (how he served so well was there was no pressure) but they were going on and on about what a beautiful service motion he has, how he's never hurt,etc....... Uh- you don't notice the guy is using a different service motion than the past 1000 matches? That he's wearing a compression shirt?

Why do you want him to retire?

I wouldn't worry too much about today's loss. And remind yourself about this time last year, did you think, he'd recapture number one and win Wimbledon?

He obviously has some impediment and most likely it's his back. Pure wear and tear. So the only way to "fix" it is to rest it. I'd definitely do hula-hooping, as that relaxes and destiffens the lower back no end, whatever the exact problem is, as there are so many different things that can can go wrong there (I suspect is sciatica).