ATP 250: Nice, Geneva

All eyes are on Paris.

What is the draw going to be like?

Is Nadal going to win it for the 10th or Nole for the 1st time?

Is Federer going to steal the show and fool us all?

Or is somebody else going to storm out of nowhere? Stranger things have happened....


In the meantime, as all these and other questions keep heart-beating us into live tennis history pages, there is another week of tennis to be played in Nice and Geneva.

ATP 250 NICE, outdoor clay

Draw




ATP 250, Geneva, outdoor clay

Draw

So...we have two watchable matches tomorrow:

Dolgopolov-Sakhovsky
&
Cilic&Rublev

Tennistv not showing Geneva

http://live.drakulastream.eu/players/free-live-video-streaming-rublev-cilic-atp-geneva-tennis-atp-69899.html

.......

Tenez wrote:http://live.drakulastream.eu/players/free-live-video-streaming-rublev-cilic-atp-geneva-tennis-atp-69899.html

.......

Thanks, T!

Rublev looks tiny, but he's already 1.88m .
Impressive FH.
And serve.

And he takes the first set!

He is really holding his own with the hard-hitting Cilic who is twice his size...
And I like he's always n the centre of the court, he likes to be the boss

I only saw the SP......but just this simple BH winner whch again looked so risky but made look easy. Stunning! This is a new era coming.....or the real continuation of Federer's reign. It's federer with a DHBH!

I think Riblev should reach the top 20 by end of year....if he manages to get decent draws.

I really hope he doesn't get injured.

Tenez wrote:I really hope he doesn't get injured.

I can't believe it.
I just logged in to say the same!

I also hope he doesn't break his body with any stupid work in the gym.
I hope he can afford a decent fitness trainer, like Federer has done with Paganini, to look after and develop his body properly and gradually.

You were right about his BH, so aggressive!

Doesn't he go for his shots!!!

Fading in the 3rd

10 secs between serves, like it! Teach your mate nole a ting or two!

luvsports! wrote:10 secs between serves, like it! Teach your mate nole a ting or two!

Nole is not my mate.

luvsports! wrote:Fading in the 3rd

Shame, didn't see it...on Skype, my dad's birthday....

Yes I am not surprised Cilic came back...if anything I am surprised the second set was that close and had MPs.

Well at least he will be fresh for the French Qualif.

But the qualies have already started!

Some nice matches today:

L.Mayer-Pouille
Kyrguis-Thiem
Dolgopolov-Gulbis
Andujar-Mannarino

Tenez wrote:Yes I am not surprised Cilic came back...if anything I am surprised the second set was that close and had MPs.

Well at least he will be fresh for the French Qualif.

k
I really feel sorry for all teenegars trying to break through in this physical rallying era.

They have to have the full package in order to succeed: be twice as strong, fit, talented, sharp, experienced than if they were starting 10-15 years ago.

Kyrgios has the weapons but the body fails him.
Rulev is inexperienced and not strong enough.
Thiem is dulling his talent by muscling the ball.
Coric...he doesn'r have any weapons, does he, just very good movement.
That Chung guy...too far off from playing in the tour week in week out.

You basically need to be a superman now.

noleisthebest wrote:
They have to have the full package in order to succeed: be twice as strong, fit, talented, sharp, experienced than if they were starting 10-15 years ago.



You basically need to be a superman now.

This is what I thought....but Rublev is about to show he just needs talent again. That's why I find this prospect so interesting. It's early days but he seems to have the potential to succeed earlier than Fed...essentially thanks to his DHBH.

He certainly lacks stamina but that will come. Will he have enough naturally? that is directly linked to his talent. The more talented the less stamina he will require.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
They have to have the full package in order to succeed: be twice as strong, fit, talented, sharp, experienced than if they were starting 10-15 years ago.
You basically need to be a superman now.

This is what I thought....but Rublev is about to show he just needs talent again. That's why I find this prospect so interesting. It's early days but he seems to have the potential to succeed earlier than Fed...essentially thanks to his DHBH.
He certainly lacks stamina but that will come. Will he have enough naturally? that is directly linked to his talent. The more talented the less stamina he will require.

I agree about the talent.
Watching him yesterday, I again got excited.

I think he could bypass fitness route easily if he moved forward a bit more.
He needs to start volleying.
His serve is quite good and should have no problem there.

Also, he has natural attacking instinct and dislike of "rallying", but it needs to be streamlined.
Otherwise, he will burn out both physically and emotionally if he doesn't start moving forward.

Maybe a different coach could help.
Fed could lend Edberg to him, couldn't he?

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
They have to have the full package in order to succeed: be twice as strong, fit, talented, sharp, experienced than if they were starting 10-15 years ago.
You basically need to be a superman now.

This is what I thought....but Rublev is about to show he just needs talent again. That's why I find this prospect so interesting. It's early days but he seems to have the potential to succeed earlier than Fed...essentially thanks to his DHBH.
He certainly lacks stamina but that will come. Will he have enough naturally? that is directly linked to his talent. The more talented the less stamina he will require.

I agree about the talent.
Watching him yesterday, I again got excited.

I think he could bypass fitness route easily if he moved forward a bit more.
He needs to start volleying.
His serve is quite good and should have no problem there.

Also, he has natural attacking instinct and dislike of "rallying", but it needs to be streamlined.
Otherwise, he will burn out both physically and emotionally if he doesn't start moving forward.

Maybe a different coach could help.
Fed could lend Edberg to him, couldn't he?

If talent and ball striking alone could have won slams then players like Rios, Coria and Nalbandian wouldn't have been scrapping the barrel just with an odd slam final. Rublev needs to learn how to win, and that has nothing to do with tennis talent.

I've never been crazy about Nalbandian.

For me, real tennis talent will always express itself in wanting/being able to move forward and end points as fast as possible.

Dave loved his baseline too much.

Today's players have some excuse for staying on the baseline, but Dave didn't.

He did have lots of game but just lacked that main ingredient called instinct and aggression.

One of the reasons he could not survive in current era and had to retire.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:If talent and ball striking alone could have won slams then players like Rios, Coria and Nalbandian wouldn't have been scrapping the barrel just with an odd slam final. Rublev needs to learn how to win, and that has nothing to do with tennis talent.

Well, it was a very closely missed shot (inside the court) that stopped him from winning his match yesterday.
He was serving at 5:4 in the TB I think.
He did nothing wrong in that point, maybe the nerves affected the execution.

How would you teach him to win?

It was a great match by the youngster Rublev, who has the best game fundamentals of any youngster I have seen so far. He has the game to hold his own already vs. a top 10 player which is mightily impressive. They showed it on Eurosport here in the evening in replay, so I could even see more than pixels. If he had the physic of Nadal at the same age, he'd have easily won.

As it was he reminded me more of young Federer, both physically and mentally. Physically he is truly undeveloped yet and really looks 17, unlike someone like Coric who looked very mature already at this age. 

Mentally - he really must reign in these bursts of anger, they won't help him much. I know he mourned his lost chances in the tiebreak, where he lost minibreaks several times. Unlike Cilic, he found a first serve too rarely sadly in the tiebreak. which would likely have won him the match. And it decided the match, because he began to fade badly imediately after the tiebreak with Cilic ruthlessly exploring his weakness.

Unfortunately he won't play the French Open, since he missed the QR. Due to his lacking fitness I don't see him doing much damage there for the time being though anyway. He is a flashy player, will be a favourite, should he make it big.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:
If talent and ball striking alone could have won slams then players like Rios, Coria and Nalbandian wouldn't have been scrapping the barrel just with an odd slam final. Rublev needs to learn how to win, and that has nothing to do with tennis talent.

talent just earnt Federer 17 slams ROTLA!!! That's the beauty of talent. Federer was on a par with many other players on the other departments. So as we are talking on relative terms it is fair to say that Talent is what made Federer so special. He did not have to be over aggresive a la Roddick, cheating, building absurd muscles or get 4 lungs to win his slams. When you look at federer play tennis, the main noticeable thing is his talent, timing and eye/hand coord. And if anything Federer was not that good at "winning" either as he has lost more matches and slams he should have won than won he should have lost.  
I see something extremely similar with Rublev. Winning is a bit like money, it comes naturally with such talents.

My main reg Rublev concern is injuries.

Earnie bagelling Dolgo in the 3rd set!

Dolgo still injured possibly.

Tenez wrote:Dolgo still injured possibly.

He is so fragile
Just as he starts to play well - he fades.

I wonder how many more shots are played per point/game on average now compared to 10, 20 and 30 years ago.

Plus they are all hitting the ball so hard now.

Had a look at Nalby Fed clip another one where they look like in slo-mo.
Playing 3 sets than and now are two different stories. Not to mention 5 sets...

Pouille got bagelled by L. Mayer in the 2nd set...

I hope he does not fizzle out like Paire who is playing well after injury  atm but strugling to string a few wins in a row.

All because he put on a tiny bit of weight and stressed the knee.
He was so promising three years ago and had a great RG.

Kyrg retired against Thiem at 4:3 in the first set....
I hope it's nothing serious.

Wow!
Even Simon, the top seed withdrew from Nice and may not play RG!

http://news.yahoo.com/top-seeded-simon-withdraws-open-nice-135121469.html

Monfils seems to be carrying an injury or at least is not able to play more than two matches with the same intensity, Tsonga trying to come back from one same as Gasquet, Pouile looks like he's got some trouble...
Frenchies are falling to bits before their home tournament

At least Piere-Herbert won his qualifying match today...

Tenez wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:
If talent and ball striking alone could have won slams then players like Rios, Coria and Nalbandian wouldn't have been scrapping the barrel just with an odd slam final. Rublev needs to learn how to win, and that has nothing to do with tennis talent.

talent just earnt Federer 17 slams ROTLA!!! That's the beauty of talent. Federer was on a par with many other players on the other departments. So as we are talking on relative terms it is fair to say that Talent is what made Federer so special. He did not have to be over aggresive a la Roddick, cheating, building absurd muscles or get 4 lungs to win his slams. When you look at federer play tennis, the main noticeable thing is his talent, timing and eye/hand coord. And if anything Federer was not that good at "winning" either as he has lost more matches and slams he should have won than won he should have lost.  
I see something extremely similar with Rublev. Winning is a bit like money, it comes naturally with such talents.

My main reg Rublev concern is injuries.

Talent alone was enough Fed should have been winning slam since age 17, but did he? Maybe he didn't have enough fitness to deal with the likes of Hewitt back them. So talent + some decent fitness was needed. Maybe he needed a better coach to help him with his mental approach in a game. So talent + fitness + mental strength + right focus also needed. 

That's why I think Rublev needs to first prove himself against his own peers, the likes of Thiem, Coric etc. Win some titles on challengers and get into the main draw through qualification and not WC. 

Maybe then I can assess how good can he get. Maybe its my lack of ability to see it that far, but I can't draw how well can he do just looking at some good shots that he can pull. Gubis was my next-big-talent when he emerged in 2008-09, but where is he now. He has only managed 2 wins this year.

Rublev did prove himself against his peers, he was the junior champion for 2014.
He us 4 years younger than Thiem and a year younger than Coric.
He'll catch them all fast, don't worry.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote: So talent + fitness + mental strength + right focus also needed. 

Thats why we are talking in relative terms. It's not Fed's fitness which beat Hewitts fitness in that USO 05 final, it;s not Fed's mental strength who beat Hewitt and Roddick in their slams finals, neither his superior focus.

That's why I think Rublev needs to first prove himself against his own peers, the likes of Thiem, Coric etc. Win some titles on challengers and get into the main draw through qualification and not WC. 

I am not saying he is going to win a slam tomorrow. I am saying he will be in the top 20 by year end....bar injuries.

Maybe then I can assess how good can he get. Maybe its my lack of ability to see it that far, but I can't draw how well can he do just looking at some good shots that he can pull. Gubis was my next-big-talent when he emerged in 2008-09, but where is he now. He has only managed 2 wins this year.

Have you watch Rublev play?
Good point about Gulbis. money, and/or injury, is what could destroy Rublev. Russian are not known to be hard workers asap they get a bit of money.[/quote]

Match of the Day:

Gulbis-Thiem
&
Isner-Lajovic, The SBH pride of Serbia

noleisthebest wrote:Rublev did prove himself against his peers, he was the junior champion for 2014.
He us 4 years younger than Thiem and a year younger than Coric.
He'll catch them all fast, don't worry.

Just checked, Coric is actually 2 years older than Rublev.
That makes him even more amazing!

no, it's only one year difference between those 2. In fact just short of one year.

You're right...I can't belive myself these days

Lajovic playing some nice tennis against Isner, one can never get enough of lovely SBHsDTL...

Gulbis lost to his god friend Thiem. Gulbis will drop out of top-100 by RG end.

Yes, Gulbis looks finished...this clip is only a few days old though

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Media/Video-Landing/*/Tennis/Media/Videos/Uploaded/2015/5/9/Ernests-Gulbis-ATP-Player-Profile-Delivered-By-Fedex.aspx

This week's winners:

In Nice, Thiem, in a close three setter 7:6  5:7  7:6, good one! His first title
In Geneva, Bellucci 6:4 7:6

Thiem potentially playing Monfils in R3
Bellucci - Nishikori, also in R3

Well done to Thiem.  I suspect he will now go out early at RG but it was worth it - it is unlikely he was going to go deep there anyway.