ATP 500: Beijing, Tokyo

Tenez wrote:Just an observation: Nadal on the other side of Djoko's draw.

Let's see how often it reproduces!

I noticed it, too

Match of the Day:

Nadal-Pospisil
Querrey-Nishikori
Wawrinka-Ito

(Already finished - Muller def. Chardy, Simon def. Vesely)

travelling today and tomorrow....don't fancy Nadal's chances.

Tenez wrote:travelling today and tomorrow....don't fancy Nadal's chances.

Bon voyage!

Provided Pospisil is not injured, it could be an interesting one.
Better matches tomorrow.

Cuevas one set up against Berdych.

Nice player. Not mentioned enough, esp being a SBH-er!

Berd actually looks like he's put some weight on, shirt shorts, quite static on the baseline, heavy on his feet, bombing his groundstrokes safely.

Nice point at last with him coming to the net and deflecting two excellent passes from Cuevas.

Cuevas has such beautiful, elegant BH.

Just needs to work on it a bit more and go DTL with it.
Could make life so much easier fir him!

Atm, wasting too many chances by sending Berd short balls he puts away blindfolded.

Berdych complains about some lights in the ceiling and upsets Cuevas's serving routine.

Why, oh why.....

And since Cuevas is not able to take his chances, Berd gives him a break on a plate by missing to easy, unmissable shots.
Cuevas servig for the match.

Court in Beijing looks slower than clay. Pospisil has all the time in the world to run around his FH.

Nadal's moonballing game looks so passe now. To think it won him 14 slams is mind-numbing.

6 games played and Nadal is not sweating at all. What is going on?

Pospisil is useless.

Koenig commentating on Nadal's misses like a worried parent watching his child not being able to make first steps at the age of 2.

Nadal's got Pospisil exactly where he wants him: going for the lines...and of course missing.

Tennis at its worst.

noleisthebest wrote:Nadal's moonballing game looks so passe now. To think it won him 14 slams is mind-numbing.

He wasn't playing like this to win those 14.  He is a moonballer defender, but at his best he is faster, hitting with more depth, making far less unforced errors. Among a ton of other things.  The Nadal this year is the worst standard he has ever played.

Nope FK, he is playing better than ever

China 2013 ..one of Nadal's best year! ...Isn;t it?



China Open
Beijing, China
2013.09.30 - 2013.10.06
SGL 32  DBL 16
Outdoor Hard
Prize Money
$2,315,250
Total Financial Commitment
$3,566,050
ROUND RANK OPPONENT W-L SCORE
Finals 1

Novak Djokovic
L 36 46
Semi-Finals 5

Tomas Berdych
W 42 (RET)
Quarter-Finals 19

Fabio Fognini
W 26 64 61
Round of 16 25

Philipp Kohlschreiber
W 64 76
Round of 32 87

Santiago Giraldo
W 62 64
======================
Now you are telling me that Nadal's 2013 was way better and that his 64 76 v Kholi cannot be compared with Nadal's 2015 76 64 to Popisil? Or seeing nadal losing a set 62 to Fognini back then?

you guys are really good at spotting the difference.

Except we're comparing the whole of 2013 to the whole of 2015.

FedererKing wrote:Except we're comparing the whole of 2013 to the whole of 2015.

I am confused. You were saying "he was faster, hitting with more depth, making far less unforced errors" so it seems you were comparing his game and not "the whole year results".  What surprises me is that If "he was faster, hitting with more depth, making far less unforced errors" how come he was also having such tight scores at FO13?



Roland Garros
Paris, France
2013.05.27 - 2013.06.09
SGL 128  DBL 64
Outdoor Clay
Prize Money
€10,104,000
Total Financial Commitment
€10,104,000
ROUND RANK OPPONENT W-L SCORE
Finals 5

David Ferrer
W 63 62 63
Semi-Finals 1

Novak Djokovic
W 64 36 61 67 97
Quarter-Finals 10

Stan Wawrinka
W 62 63 61
Round of 16 15

Kei Nishikori
W 64 61 63
Round of 32 29

Fabio Fognini
W 76 64 64
Round of 64 35

Martin Klizan
W 46 63 63 63
Round of 128 59

Daniel Brands
W 46 76 64 63

You see 3 or 4 points there and then he coudl have lost in the first round of FO13 v Daniel Brands on clay in FO13. Weird for someone who was : "...was faster, hitting with more depth, making far less UEs" So The great Daniel Brands must have been at his peak then, And the great Klizan was also good enough to steal a set.

Match of the Day:

Fognini-Goffin
Kyrgios-Agut
Paire-Baghdatis

Wow!
Even in Fognini-Goffin match, survival of the fittest rules.
One set all.
Goffin going for the lines, Fognini happy to rally, no rush at all.
Still, a nice and interesting match.

Fabio never fails to deliver, great player!

I also saw a bit of Kyrgios - Agut.

Kyrgios completely blew Agut off the court. His bomb serve helped.

And Paire having a great start against Baghdatis, 3:0.
ALLEZ!!!!!

Paire is probably one of the loosest players, so rare and great to watch.

Paire loses momemtum amd tries to recover it by lying on the bench in the changeover, covering his face with towel, his long legs dangling over the armrest.
Legend!

As he gets broken after the changeover, he obliterates his racquer, match now heading to third set.

Fognini through waiting for Nadal

Big win for Paire in the end.
So happy he is able to deal with his uncompromising self these days. Not easy, but worth it.

Nadal beat Sock with ease, the old formula. Flatter but quicker moonballs.

Allez Benoit, crush the thug!

Kyrgios is a nasty piece.
An odious character.

Brilliant win for Paire!
His FH has imoroved and is more comsistent now, that's making all the difference,
Also his first serve is phenomenal, and he has a great, easy motion on it.
Playing Nishi tomorow.

Nole cruzing against Isner, returning his serve with amazing ease.

Superb matches tomorrow:

Nadal-Fognini
Paire-Nishikori
Wawrinka-Muller (playing very well atm)
Ferrer-Djokovic

I don't think I've ever seen Nole return so well.

Tenez wrote:
You see 3 or 4 points there and then he coudl have lost in the first round of FO13 v Daniel Brands on clay in FO13. Weird for someone who was : "...was faster, hitting with more depth, making far less UEs" So The great Daniel Brands must have been at his peak then, And the great Klizan was also good enough to steal a set.

You just fundamentally don't understand tennis sometimes. Brands was not 3-4 points away, and Nadal's performance in FO13 improved as the week went on, he didn't play his best absolute match in R1.

And he didn't need to either.  Champions save their strength in the earlier rounds and produce better stuff in later rounds.  Nadal won that match in 4 sets and Brands fell apart after set 2 anyway.  He was not going to take 3 sets regardless.  And he didn't even take 2.

Kim Jong-Un wrote:

Tenez wrote:
You see 3 or 4 points there and then he coudl have lost in the first round of FO13 v Daniel Brands on clay in FO13. Weird for someone who was : "...was faster, hitting with more depth, making far less UEs" So The great Daniel Brands must have been at his peak then, And the great Klizan was also good enough to steal a set.

You just fundamentally don't understand tennis sometimes. Brands was not 3-4 points away, and Nadal's performance in FO13 improved as the week went on, he didn't play his best absolute match in R1.

No. I clearly understand it better than you cause I have been pointing it out to you that Nadal has always had those tight matches in his career. problem is nowadays with the general level being up and Nadal's spinny shots no longer an UEs producing machine, he loses more often those close matches. A bit like when Federer's unretrievable FH started to be retrieved by Nadal and then by more and more players getting fitter.

Unlike you I can analyse why my preferred player loses more often and it does not depend on "my" player only as the opposition has a huge say in this sport!

Nadal taking eternity between points.

Interesting start, when Nadali's closer to the baseline his energy ball is lower faster longer and harder anto control for Fognini - so Fognini got broken.
In the next game he got broken straight back as Fognini returned well and was able to push Nadal back and get loopier, "old" type moonballs he could put away much more easily.
Nadal even double-faulted on the break point and looked very worried to see Fognini unraffled and calm.

Chung making little work of Gabashvili.

Yes Nadal is clearly lacking confidence still.,,,and maybe firepower too.

Fog playimg with composure.....making a huge difference than when they had closer matches in 2013 and befoere.

Tenez wrote: Fog playimg with composure.....making a huge difference than when they had closer matches in 2013 and befoere.

I was just going to say that! No panic any more, winning his service games with ease, making Nadal run.

Paire starting to play well against Nishi. Interesting to see him enjoy fast tennis and show all his variety, great hands!

In the end, he went for the lines....and missed.

Gifted that game and set to Nadal...but then again that's how Nadal wins.

Tenez wrote:Chung making little work of Gabashvili.

Yes Nadal is clearly lacking confidence still.,,,and maybe firepower too.

Good to hear, is that qualies for Shanghai?

Brilliant tennis from Paire!
One set all.
ALLEEEEEZZZZZ!!!

Just saw the end of Nadal-Fognini.

I think Fognini has declined overnight.

I don't know what's going on.
Nishikori has declined, too.
And he is only 26!


BRAVO BENOIIIIIOT!!!!!!!!

Same score as Ferrer I predict for Nadal. Djoko will win 2 and 3 or 1 and 2 even.

Just woke up, didn't see any of Paire - Stan.

6:2 6:4 for Stan....looks like tiredness caught up with Paire.

Ah welll...a 500 final isn't bed either.