ATP Masters 1000: Cinncinati

76 Murray second set. Dimi did not choke but Murray was everywhere but also making Dimi run. This is this very simple physical ability which makes the top 2 players so consistent. It's a bit depressing for Dimi. He had double break in the second set...but like Goffin, if you are trying to pull winners you can never feel confident, but have to produce ridiculous good shots one after another.

Nadal is not nearly as powerful as he used to be. He is so "human" nowadays. Losing to Lopez for the second time consecutively!!!!

So no Fedal again! Same cause fed woudl have creamed that Nadal.

Dimi can actually turn into an excellent player. Top 5....if he gets his head into it.

Tenez wrote:Nadal is not nearly as powerful as he used to be. He is so "human" nowadays. Losing to Lopez for the second time consecutively!!!!

So no Fedal again! Same cause fed woudl have creamed that Nadal.

It's no surprise.  They should call Nadal 'Mr Duck 'n' Dive'.

Well I don't think Nadal wanted to lose yesterday. But I must say his game looks so outdated nowadays....he does look like Wilander 1982 more and more...cause it always did but before at least he had the power, now it's more like Bruguerra.

Dimi a double break up in the second set lost 76. Though it was Murray upping his game more and tiring Dimi. However in the second set Dimi rallied from 0/2 to 5/2 and serving for the set at 5/3 and there he really choked. then even had MP at 5/4 on Murray serve and made a poor UE on Andy's second serve.

Real shame as he showed some real potential.

Federer once again showing how tennis should be played. He probably had one of the toughest opponent outside the top 10 but completely annihilated him.....cause unlike v the top 2, Federer was not ask to run.

Tenez wrote:Federer once again showing how tennis should be played. He probably had one of the toughest opponent outside the top 10 but completely annihilated him.....cause unlike v the top 2, Federer was not ask to run.

I wish I saw t! Was so tired and dropped off.

I thought he'd sort Kev out with ease...he has his way of dismantling big servers and hitters - like knife through butter.
And receiving with a SBH!!!!!

.....and he has fun doing it!

"It's a pleasure to play that way because it doesn't happen very often that you feel this good,'' said Federer, who had only eight unforced errors.

So Nadal again escapes from a payback, it can't be a coincidence can it?
Fat chance there'll ever be another Fedal on a faster court.

Great order of play today, no matches overlapping:



Great to see 4 SBHs in action!!!

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:Federer once again showing how tennis should be played. He probably had one of the toughest opponent outside the top 10 but completely annihilated him.....cause unlike v the top 2, Federer was not ask to run.

I wish I saw t! Was so tired and dropped off.

I thought he'd sort Kev out with ease...he has his way of dismantling big servers and hitters - like knife through butter.
And receiving with a SBH!!!!!

.....and he has fun doing it!

"It's a pleasure to play that way because it doesn't happen very often that you feel this good,'' said Federer, who had only eight unforced errors.

Did not see it either.....but imagine tournaments, or slams without him...completely uninteresting....unless Stan or a similar player surprises us....but so unlikely.

gallery play wrote:So Nadal again escapes from a payback, it can't be a coincidence can it?
Fat chance there'll ever be another Fedal on a faster court.

I think that is the positive for nadal, but I don't think he wanted that result. His H2H is safe and the earlier he loses from now on the more likely he is to meet Federer. What saved nadal for many years is to be number 2 and prevented him to play Federer outside clay. Now if he loses early, he is going to have to play fed more often.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:

Tenez wrote:Federer once again showing how tennis should be played. He probably had one of the toughest opponent outside the top 10 but completely annihilated him.....cause unlike v the top 2, Federer was not ask to run.

I wish I saw t! Was so tired and dropped off.

I thought he'd sort Kev out with ease...he has his way of dismantling big servers and hitters - like knife through butter.
And receiving with a SBH!!!!!

.....and he has fun doing it!

"It's a pleasure to play that way because it doesn't happen very often that you feel this good,'' said Federer, who had only eight unforced errors.

Did not see it either.....but imagine tournaments, or slams without him...completely uninteresting....unless Stan or a similar player surprises us....but so unlikely.

Yes, I have thought about it...but prefer to keep my head in the sand and pretend he'll never retire...he lights every tournament up.
Ain't no sunshine when he's gone...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Stan has grown into a character recently, some other players maturing nicely, too.

I thought it was interesting how L'Equipe projected Paire into top 5 for 2018.
He certainly has a lot going for him, but it's hard to win consistently with his style of play.
He'd have to improve a few things: footwork and FH...but it's possible if he is a hard worker which I am not sure of.

Sometimes I think French players don't believe in their talent, not enough grit about them...
Simon is the only one that loves the fight.

Maybe when roadrunners retire or subside (provided new ones don't take off) the tour may loosen up a bit.

And to add to the above, conditions need to get faster asap.

New generations of big hitters are getting too tall to be good to watch, their movement is not graceful.

Nothing encouraging talent at the moment, it's just tennis factories pumping out baseline players.

But we just need one special talent to turn things around.

Problem is...they don't grow on trees!

But then you see Murray grinding Dimi and you know that it has to be even faster....

Dimi played really well...but shaking someone like Murray or Djoko si so bloody tough.

I saw a few points. He looked a different man - confident, aggressive.
About time he stopped scrambling!

Next thing for him is to work on his BH and try to take it as early as possible. He has this long, time consuming motion on it compared to others.
His SBH is the weakest one of all SBH-ers.

Does he have a new coach?

As for Murray, I am surprised at his level of fitness. Didn't expect him to last in the muscling mode for three hours.
How did Dimi manage to lose that double break?
Ran out of steam?

Btw, did anyone notice how he did those little pre service steps just like Sharapova, fiddling with his strings.
It was so funny!

I look forward to Nole-Stan.

Very curious to see how Nole is going to play him post that RG heartbreak.

He said he was struggling with his serve because of elbow/forearm injury, and that he couldn't practice because of it, but that doesn't make sense.

So it must be the shoulder.
Although he also said he is feeling fine now.

Stan, the shaken man (did anyone see the video of him post Coric match saying Kyrgios did not apologise to him - he is still quite upset) played like a woman those first two sets against Coric.

No chance of that tonight.

Stan the Man it will have to be.
Nole does tend to develop phobia of players that beat him regularly (anyone remember his early days against Roddick and Tsonga?)
I wonder if the way Stan beat him in Paris has caused a similar complex.

Stan-Nole matches have been really good in the last few years.

Stan only gets close in slams though.
In bo3 he is lobotomised.

has it started already?

Stan broken at 4 all......2 DFs.

Today, it's very clear why Stan won 2 slams on the slowest slams and got nowhere near winning on the fastest ones. He has not got the quick hands and makes many more UEs. Like Soderling and many heavy hitters they do better when the conds are slower as they can use their power more safely.

This is also the reason why Fed's BH is after all simply better as it can handle pace better even if it is less powerful.

Set and a break

Stan record on fast(er) HC TMS1000 like Shanghai and Cincy is actually very average compared to clay. And on grass it is not much better. Strange how he does not like fast pace as much.

Just got back, didn't see any of the match, looks like it wasn't that good.

Tenez wrote:Stan record on fast(er) HC TMS1000 like Shanghai and Cincy is actually very average compared to clay. And on grass it is not much better. Strange how he does not like fast pace as much.

I was thinking about it before the match...whether or not faster court works for or against Stan and wasn't sure, mainly because of his movement.

His serve maybe is not big enough to trouble Nole like Kev did in Wimbledon.

And he does not have very quick hands...was it at least close?

6-4 6-1.

Ouch!
I was just going to check the scores...looks like Nole had something to prove.

Dolgo will give him much harder time if he beats Berdych.

He's a set up! Go Dolgo!!!!!

Finally sat down to watch!
So many things to do...

Oh, Dolgo's in the mood!

Making Berd run and scramble to the net with dropshots, giving him zero rhythm!

The anti-robot.

Double break now serving for the match.

Sublime Dolgo!

I would love to see Dolgo-Fed final.
Tennis feast.

Actually women's tennis does have something to offer: watching Serena or Sharapova lose is almost as good as seeing Nadal get time violation.

Go Ana!

Serena is a nasty piece.

Won't watch until 10.30.....will miss Gasquet Murray.

I just started...3:3, Bernardes umpiring.

Murray playing his odious wheezing BH bludgeoning game. Forcing long rallies.
No initiative, just waiting for error.
Muscling the ball with all his might, draining Gasquet.

And then there are the commentators...drooling over the safe BHDTL putaways.

Richie has improved his serve.

Big 8th game.

After spending a lot of energy trying to break Gasquet in the 8th game and failing, Murray goes passive on his own serve and gets broken easily.

Then spits his favourite F word about 20 times in the changeover.

Richie serving fir the set.
And he does it to love!
Nice, clean, real tennis.

Nole was right about Richie's improved fitness. He is not wilting away that easily any more and that's really helped his confidence.
He never panicked in longer rallies (although he lost most of them)  good on him!

The level of Murray's improved fitness is surprising. He had 5 matches in Montreal with an extremely tough 3 hours final, yesterday he played another 3 hours match and here he is again forcing long rallies vs. his opponent. Very ugly match.

noleisthebest wrote:Oh, Dolgo's in the mood!

Making Berd run and scramble to the net with dropshots, giving him zero rhythm!

The anti-robot.

So glad we still have such imaginative players such as Dolgopolov. In the modern baseline robotic game he is such a ray of light. 

Very happy he beat Berdych today and will root for him tomorrow. It will be tough, :(but he should have his chances when he brings a high level of shotmaking and doesn't give rhythm. 

Poor Richie...he played so well in the third set, didn't see how he got broken.
He did look spent in the end.

I was impressed with his FH tonight. A big improvement, not as loopy as before.

Murray's scrambling is depressing.
His legs look shorter and shorter...

Autumnleaf wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Oh, Dolgo's in the mood!

Making Berd run and scramble to the net with dropshots, giving him zero rhythm!

The anti-robot.

So glad we still have such imaginative players such as Dolgopolov. In the modern baseline robotic game he is such a ray of light. 

Very happy he beat Berdych today and will root for him tomorrow. It will be tough, :(but he should have his chances when he brings a high level of shotmaking and doesn't give rhythm. 

Yes, it looks like Nole is fine, so it will be tough.

He made Berd look so slow and 1d today.

I love his serve. It's breathtaking.

So long as he keeps his temper in check he should be fine. The court suits his game.

noleisthebest wrote:Poor Richie...he played so well in the third set, didn't see how he got broken.
He did look spent  in the end.

I was impressed with his FH tonight. A big improvement, not as loopy as before.

Murray's scrambling is depressing.
His legs look shorter and shorter...

FH is still a weakness even against Murray. And his court positioning doesn't do him any favours either. He went 0-40 down in the third set, saved one BP with a beautiful CC FH winner and then relinquished with a doublefault. I had read he was sick last week though, so may not have been at the very height of his powers.

It's depressing and tough to watch when a player like Murray wins a lot. Gratifying when they lose.

I don't think his FH is a weakness any more.

He is looking good. Just not monstrously fit.
Funny that he got time violation from Bernardes, not Murray.

He was so puffed out...

You often have a DF after a long rally. Your whole body is a trembling mess inside without oxygen.

I think the key to winning against superfit players is to take the ball early.

But that is so hard and not many players can do it.

Instead, they muscle and spin the ball (Kokki) and play safe.
It can work, but that's very slippery ground to walk on against focused, relentless,scrambling Murray showed tonight.
It was soul-destroying.

It was written all over Richie's face at the postmatch handshake.

^^ this is where Gasquet is lacking, he gave up court position easily and was put under pressure from Murray of all people.

Don't know why he seems to think he can outgrind Murray, it won't happen.

Autumnleaf wrote:The level of Murray's improved fitness is surprising. He had 5 matches in Montreal with an extremely tough 3 hours final, yesterday he played another 3 hours match and here he is again forcing long rallies vs. his opponent. Very ugly match.

Yes....the most amazing display was actually at Queens, in that DC...it was absolutely absurd how he managed to hang on despite covering so much ground. Like Froome I feel they have reached new levels of undetectable doping.

I simply cannot believe that someone as big, running as much can go on for ever like he does without help.
Remember, back then Nadal had the fitness of one in a billion.....now there a few like him, even improved versions.

Autumnleaf wrote: It's depressing and tough to watch when a player like Murray wins a lot. Gratifying when they lose.

And when one does win v Murray or other RRunners, one loses feathers on the way. Federer was tired after his semi v Murray at Wimby!

I am not sure whether Federer wants or still believe he can win the USO but it would help if he were to get his number 2 spot before.

WIth a bit of luck he may only have to play the winner of Murray/Djoko. Whereas as number 3....he may have to play the 2 of them. I don't think the rest of the field would be a problem.

He was v unlucky last year... he had a perfect draw but it turned into a nightmare as Cilic had his best ever game.  Just at the wrong time.  So close.  Imho the US Open this year will be Federer'sv last chance of a Slam.  Possibly wimb 2016  but I doubt that.

I think US Open is the last.

He doesn't have to meet Djok or Murray, he didn't last year.  He just needs to have a good draw and not come up against someone playing like a demon.  In fact, Murray is is mentally like jelly... i don't mind him as a finalist or SF.

That was a nice little exchange between Feli and Fed at the net.

Some fantastic shots, too.

Feds to go through Murray and Djoko? 
V tough indeed.