US open prediction game! Day 1!

Cibulkova (33) vs Ivanovic (7)

Coric (33) vs Nadal (8)

Nishi (4) vs Paire (33)

Monfils (16) vs Marchenko (33)

Albot (33) vs Ferrer (7)

Raonic (10) vs Smyczek (33)

Fognini (32) vs Johnson (35)

Jarkko (33) vs Tsonga (19)

Suarez Navarro (10) vs Allertova (33)

Goffin (14) vs Bolleli (33)

Groth (42) vs Dolgo (34)

Agut (23) vs Herbert (40)

My picks :

Cibulkova (33)

Coric (33)

Paire (33)

Monfils (16)

Albot (33)

Raonic (10)

Johnson (35)

Tsonga (19)

Allertova (33)

Goffin (14)

Dolgo (34)

Herbert (40)

Ivanovic (7)

Nadal (8)

Nishi (4)

Monfils (16)

Albot (33)

Raonic (10)

Johnson (35)

Tsonga (19)

Suarez Navarro (10)

Goffin (14)

Dolgo (34)

Agut (23)

very quickly..

1. Ivanovic
2. Coric
3. Nishikori
4. Monfils
5. Ferrer
6. Raonic
7. Fognini
8. Tsonga
9. Navvaro
10. Goffin
11. Dolg
12. Agut

Just as I finished making predictions... Cibulkova nailing the hell out of Ivanovic.

Paire won the 1st set... but nishi ahead in the 2nd.. going nice.

Soz for lateness, waiting on mates.

Me: Cibulkova, coric, paire, monfils, albot, Rao, Johnson, Tsonga, SN, Goffin, Dolgo, Agut. 

Titus schwell: ivan, nadal, monf, ferrer, rao, johnson, tsonga, suarez, goffin, groth, agut. 
Chanandler Bong: cibul, nadal, nishi, monf, ferrer, rao, fog, tsonga, suarez, goffin, dog, agut

Am annoyed that they did not make Federer play on Monday. I am wondering whether they will make him start on Weds.

Nishi in a real battle vs Paire. Could be heading for a 5th.

Nishi is going to feel the pressure of defending his final.

He must be. Throws away a mp, into a fifth set we go.

That was retarded

Ouch...out he goes. Probably still not 100%..though I also suspect a wavering mind.

ALLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ BENOIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

noleisthebest wrote:ALLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ BENOIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a performance.... 

awesome tennis..

sad for Kei, he is too fragile to last long on on tour.

Hand djoko the title now.

luvsports! wrote:Hand djoko the title now.  

Usopen has just started now. No need to be so upset already.

Souza is useless. I play better than him!

Nishi 100% fit?

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:ALLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ BENOIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a performance.... 

awesome tennis..

sad for Kei, he is too fragile to last long on on tour.

Yes, he was great, wasn't he?

I looove the way he plays. So relaxed and single-minded. And wild.

Very happy for him...When a brave soul wins, it's always a special day.

Nishi...actually got on my nerves during that match.
He was his old gutless self waiting for errors.

You can't blame him for trying it against Paire, but am so glad if didn't work. 64 beautiful winners!

Nishi has the talent to play like Federer, but the mind of Ferrer. All he really wants to do is grind, alas, his flesh is weak.
And to top it all - no heart.
What a waste of talent!

Same as Monfils and Tomic.
At least Monfils is having fun....

Nadal getting through but not without losing a set versus a weaponless 18yo.

Not sure what to think of it as I did not see the match. Surprised he lost a set.

Tenez wrote:Nadal getting through but not without losing a set versus a weaponless 18yo.

Not sure what to think of it as I did not see the match. Surprised he lost a set.

Coric is not weaponless as I see. He is an excellent mover and has some good serving and backhand. His inexperience and pressure of repeating the last performance he had to win against nadal was taking it toll.

I wouldn't call movement a weapon, it's more a strength.
Weapon is a shot with which you can finish the point quickly and it's usually either a great serve or FH (ideally both).

It's a shot you try and avoid as an opponent.

Movement just helps you to execute the weapon.

However...movement and court coverage have been winning a lot recently without weapons, so that may confuse people.

Btw, has anyone seen Nadal-Coric match?

How far behind the baseline was Nadal playing?
I suspect still quite behind...

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

luvsports! wrote:Hand djoko the title now.  

Usopen has just started now. No need to be so upset already.

Killjoys!

noleisthebest wrote:I wouldn't call movement a weapon, it's more a strength.
Weapon is a shot with which you can finish the point quickly and it's usually either a great serve or FH (ideally both).

It's a shot you try and avoid as an opponent.

Movement just helps you to execute the weapon.

However...movement and court coverage have been winning a lot recently without weapons, so that may confuse people.

Btw, has anyone seen Nadal-Coric match?

How far behind the baseline was Nadal playing?
I suspect still quite behind...

I saw the full match. First set was close, Coric holding serves easily and Nadal struggling on serve and Coric creating half chances. All till the business end of the set and thats where experience and a sensible head helps. Coric throw some very easy points, not even close to the lines. 

Nadal's shots are not hurting Coric. Mistiming a lot of those. Coric lost, but he will take experience with him. He doesn't seem too far from beating Nadal in most of their meetings.

That sounds interesting, looks like Nadal won on muscles and nothing else again.
I thought he may have tried to play closer to the baseline...but obviously didn't need to.
(though the mistimed shots you mention suggest otherwise?)

Diego Schwartzman next, he may give Nadal a bit more challenge as he can actually play the game, even though he is tiny.

noleisthebest wrote:That sounds interesting, looks like Nadal won on muscles and nothing else again.
I thought he may have tried to play closer to the baseline...but obviously didn't need to.
(though the mistimed shots you mention suggest otherwise?)

Diego Schwartzman next, he may give Nadal a bit more challenge as he can actually play the game, even though he is tiny.

I am hoping for a Nadal-Fognini 3rd round. Something tells me Fogna will be up for this and will win too.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Tenez wrote:Nadal getting through but not without losing a set versus a weaponless 18yo.

Not sure what to think of it as I did not see the match. Surprised he lost a set.

Coric is not weaponless as I see. He is an excellent mover and has some good serving and backhand. His inexperience and pressure of repeating the last performance he had to win against nadal was taking it toll.

I don't call moving a weapon in the real sense as a mover is usually there to absorb opponents' weapons. Though I agree in those slow conds they can certainly be seen as weapons...but not in "my" true sense anyway.

His serve and BH are good but nothing outstanding....actually I believe his serve is actually poor.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:....
I saw the full match. First set was close, Coric holding serves easily and Nadal struggling on serve and Coric creating half chances. All till the business end of the set and thats where experience and a sensible head helps. Coric throw some very easy points, not even close to the lines. 

Nadal's shots are not hurting Coric. Mistiming a lot of those. Coric lost, but he will take experience with him. He doesn't seem too far from beating Nadal in most of their meetings.

Interesting. I always thought so....but I figured that Coric was just too young to do it right now.

Not sure how many people here watched the match, I certainly felt Nadal was the more attacking of the two, hitting more winners than Coric, 40 in total. 

Nadal played a decent match in general, with the exception of a horrendous service game to give away the third set where he served 2 double faults. 

Another thing is that while his first serve was good (made to look better by some appalling returning by Coric though...), Nadal's 2nd serve was really really poor. It has been for a while too, barely any kick on it, just meekly putting it in play and even then it is unreliable with double faults.

How can one explain that weak 2nd serve suddenly? That surely is lack of confidence. 2nd serve has so much to do with mental strength/state.

He should try meth like Agassi. That will give him the guts.

I'm not sure what it is, his first serve is doing quite well. He's not getting any real topspin on it, some fans on another forum were saying it's because of previous back and shoulder problems so he's cutting the ball to protect his body, but I'm really not sure.

Kim Jong-Un wrote:I'm not sure what it is, his first serve is doing quite well. He's not getting any real topspin on it, some fans on another forum were saying it's because of previous back and shoulder problems so he's cutting the ball to protect his body, but I'm really not sure.

Means it's confidence. As I mentioned on another thread, talent and mental strength shoudl make 1st and 2nd serve closer than for those being weaker mentally and having less feel.

Tenez wrote:

Kim Jong-Un wrote:I'm not sure what it is, his first serve is doing quite well. He's not getting any real topspin on it, some fans on another forum were saying it's because of previous back and shoulder problems so he's cutting the ball to protect his body, but I'm really not sure.

Means it's confidence. As I mentioned on another thread, talent and mental strength shoudl make 1st and 2nd serve closer than for those being weaker mentally and having less feel.

Maybe confidence. When he was younger he used to have a very potent second serve, not necessarily quick, but lot of spin and uncomfortable for the opponent- but now he slices it in just about above the net very slowly. It's not even safer, just worse.

Yes as I said, with those new strings the harder you hit, the spinier hence the safer. I certainly noticed in the last few times I watched him, a loss in his spin power. I think GP sent some stats confirming that during the AO.

Well, with Nadal even the serve speed depends on the spin...i.e. bicep.
If he could time the ball he'd be fine.

I am surprised he hasn't thought using that  "special grip" that won him USO 2010

Fed said before the match that MAyer is about the toughest draw he could get in a 1R slam match. He breaks straight away though.

Strange start of the match, 3 service games, 5 DF's

The court seems reasonable fast.

Meanwhile Simon loses in 5 after a 2-0 lead. Good news for Stan i guess. this could make his third round a little bit more easy

Tenez wrote:Yes as I said, with those new strings the harder you hit, the spinier hence the safer. I certainly noticed in the last few times I watched him, a loss in his spin power. I think GP sent some stats confirming that during the AO.

Yeah, but those stats also showed an amazing progression of spin during the FO. It could mean 2 things: he has more strength at specifically the FO, and/or does not have the faith/ability to inject that much spin on faster court.

noleisthebest wrote:Well, with Nadal even the serve speed depends on the spin...i.e. bicep.
If he could time the ball he'd be fine.

I am surprised he hasn't thought using that  "special grip" that won him USO 2010

He explained later that very grip (resulted in 133 m/ph serves) gave him a sore shoulder eventually. Not sure what to believe of that..

Mayer looks quite dangerous with that big hitting (like a wilder version of Haas) but Federer uses the pace in his favour.

Gasquet is lucky Kokki is having cramps

Gulbis retires..What a crazy amount of retirements this year!

Federer on AA conditions: it definitly plays quick and because of the roof there's basically no wind.

Good news

Yes did not see any of the tennis so far ...but the result looked good for Fed. Mayer is number 33 so clearly that is the toughest opponent fed could get as a first round.....but he did little work of him.

Fed needs to save as much energy as possible top have a chance.

KA beats Rublev in 4. Good effort.

yes close sets...at least the first 3.....closer than I thought it woudl be.

Chung is the one going furthest it seems bit also the one with the easiest first round.