The 2013 In Between Grand Slam Thread

the_monkey

StevoTG

Well, I wasn't on here last week but was thrilled by Delpo's run. He's probably my favourite player after Hewitt and it was great to see him play such well measured, intelligent tennis (even if his use of the slice was mainly brought about by his wrist injury).

While Delpo will be looking at cracking the top 5 ranking spots, fellow Argie Juan Monaco could plummet in the rankings this week. He made it inside the top 10 last year but hasn't won a match outside of the Davis Cup yet this year. He has been struggling with a hand injury though. He's currently ranked 15 in the world and plays Albert Ramos this week. He has semi final points to defend this week and then 250 points to defend in Houston.

RosyLily

Azarenka has withdrawn from Sony Open due to a right ankle injury. She was due to play Madison Keys in the 2nd round. Lauren Davis takes her place in the draw.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

RosyLily wrote: »

Azarenka has withdrawn from Sony Open due to a right ankle injury. She was due to play Madison Keys in the 2nd round. Lauren Davis takes her place in the draw.

And is currently kicking Key's bum! 6-1 in the 1st set, 5-5 in the 2nd. :eek:

RosyLily

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

And is currently kicking Key's bum! 6-1 in the 1st set, 5-5 in the 2nd. :eek:

And Davis has won it! 6-1, 5-7, 7-6. Nearly a 3 hour match! If only it was live on tv. Trying to find a decent stream that doesn't crash is time-consuming!:p

yerwanthere123

If Laura Robson can find her form again then she's got a super chance of reaching the Miami quarter-finals.

Also, remember the 16-year-old that Kim Clijsters beat in R1 of the US Open last August, Victoria Duval? Well she's been given a wildcard into Miami and beat Andrea Hlavackova in the first round. An excellent win, I'd always hoped we'd hear more from her

RosyLily

James Blake had a good win over Julien Benneteau, won 6-2, 6-3. Nice to see him get a win under his belt. Popular with fans. He'll play Albert Ramos in the 3rd round.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

James McGee had a great run in Canada this week. Playing a challenger with some relatively big names in it. Lost to Vasek Pospisil in the QF today. Pospisil was serving for the match in the 2nd set but McGee hung on and won it on a TB. Was down 4-1 in the 3rd but managed to come back in that too, but eventually lost it 7-5.

RosyLily

Seen his tweet. Apparently he's off to Guadeloupe now. Would love to see him do well on the Challenger. Maybe get a WC for Wimbledon...:)

mickmackey1

Typical DelPo :rolleyes:

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

After a huge rain delay play finally got back underway about an hour ago, and then all the lights went out. Miami really losing this imaginary competition with IW this year.

yerwanthere123

Another early loss for Wozniacki, to Muguruza this time.

Holy crap Kvitova was bagelled by Flipkens in the first set:eek:

yerwanthere123

Haas beat Djokovic... WOW! Wish I could have seen the match.

StevoTG

Tommy Haas has always been one of the greatest ball strikers around. If not for injuries and the fact that he's a bit of a headcase who knows.. but to beat the world number 1 at 35 years old, that's fantastic stuff from a sublime player!

James McGee's match with Sergiy Stakhovsky was rained off until today with James serving at 3-4, 30-15.

Rob2D

Tommy is such a f***ing boss!:D He's always been one of my favourites and hope he goes on to win loads this year!

Also, Tommy is the best player to watch if you need help developing your strokes. His game is near flawless; he's like some sort of tennis robot!:pac:

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Haas beat Djokovic... WOW! Wish I could have seen the match.

Here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75nO_KzvrzU

RosyLily

Great stuff from Haas! Even if the result messes with my predictions.:( I'd love to see him win it.

Anyone see that spinning shot from Radwanska last night? Amazing!!

Rob2D

Not that impressive really, it was a fluke if anything. At the very end she even shakes her head and holds up her hands as if apologising.

She just stuck the racquet out on impulse. But I suppose you have to do that sometimes too. Just stick it out there and see what happens!

Funnily enough, its quite similar to another hot shot from a couple weeks back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkL8fDnhDrk

yerwanthere123

RosyLily wrote: »

Great stuff from Haas! Even if the result messes with my predictions.:( I'd love to see him win it.

Anyone see that spinning shot from Radwanska last night? Amazing!!

That was class! I think my favourite thing about it though was Flipkens "Wtf!" reaction

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

That was class! I think my favourite thing about it though was Flipkens "Wtf!" reaction

I thought she was actually annoyed about it at the time, but the WTA tweeted the video of it afterwards and she replied to them that she was happy to be a part of it and that they had been practicing it before the match So I guess it was just shock on her face

yerwanthere123

Serena destroys Aga 6-0 6-3. Serena hit more winners than Aga won points! Would love for the final on Saturday to even be somewhat competitive, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Trust Serena to turn it on at the last minute. She's been dire up until this match. Poor Masha, this will be her 5th Miami final, I think. Last year was he chance to win it when she played Aga but she blew it.

She's been playing pretty poor this tournament too. She can't beat Serena when she's on top form, she definitely can't do it when she's DFing in double figures.

yerwanthere123

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Trust Serena to turn it on at the last minute. She's been dire up until this match. Poor Masha, this will be her 5th Miami final, I think. Last year was he chance to win it when she played Aga but she blew it.

She's been playing pretty poor this tournament too. She can't beat Serena when she's on top form, she definitely can't do it when she's DFing in double figures.

Maria was pretty impressive against Jankovic though! Although it doesn't matter, she's never going to beat Serena again, is she. I think I'd be happy is she just took a set off Serena, or maybe even more than 4 games in a set.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Poor Tommy Haas. So close but didn't quite get there. Surely he did enough for someone to nab a clothing sponsorship off someone.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Maria v Serena is pretty intense, as usual. Maria playing exceptionally well. Has broken Serena for the first time since Madrid last year. Can she keep it up though? Probably not

RosyLily

Impressed with Maria so far. First time she's taken a set off Serena since Charleston in 2008. Hope she can keep it up and win her first Miami title.

yerwanthere123

Maria's on fire!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

This is insanely good tennis from Maria. I want her to win Miami so bad, and to beat Serena so bad!!! I think I'm going to be sick.

yerwanthere123

And that's that.

RosyLily

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Maria's on fire!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

This is insanely good tennis from Maria. I want her to win Miami so bad, and to beat Serena so bad!!! I think I'm going to be sick.

RosyLily wrote: »

Impressed with Maria so far. First time she's taken a set off Serena since Charleston in 2008. Hope she can keep it up and win her first Miami title.

I think we jinxed her.:(

She played amazing for the first set and a bit then dropped her level a little. Sooo close!!! There's always next year Masha.

yerwanthere123

Next year? I dunno, I'd say it's written in the stars for Maria: she simply cannot win Miami!

Today was unbelievable though, to think after going up a break in the second set she didn't win another game? Incredible.

Do you think today was the death knell in terms of Maria ever being able to beat Serena? Or does it have to happen sometime?

RosyLily

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Next year? I dunno, I'd say it's written in the stars for Maria: she simply cannot win Miami!

Today was unbelievable though, to think after going up a break in the second set she didn't win another game? Incredible.

Do you think today was the death knell in terms of Maria ever being able to beat Serena? Or does it have to happen sometime?

Ahhh, bitta reverse psychology there eh? I see what you're doing!!:pac:

Maria hasn't beaten Serena in 9 years. I don't think she'll beat her again...but I'll be delighted if she did.

Men's singles and women's doubles finals today. If Andy wins, he'll become No.2. I'd like to see a good match. Both Andy & David are 6 all in their H2H. Last time they played on a hard-court was at the 2011 Tour Finals; Ferrer won that in straights.

Laura Robson is in the doubles final with Lisa Raymond. Managed to beat the No.1 seeds Errani/Vinci in less than an hour in the SFs. They'll play Petrova & Srebotnik later.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Murray vs Ferrer was a God awful **** fest. The British press are of course calling it an epic battle and all that usual nonsense. If that had been the WTA final it'd be getting so much abuse in the press.

What an idiot move from Ferrer stopping play on MP to challenge a ball that was clearly in. Andy got very lucky.

All in all Miami was a pretty awful event this year. I'd say honestly that the first set and a half of the women's final was the only decent bit of tennis of the whole two weeks.

Roll on clay.

walshb

Delighted that screaming irritant, Sharapova, lost.

Pighead

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Murray vs Ferrer was a God awful **** fest. The British press are of course calling it an epic battle and all that usual nonsense. If that had been the WTA final it'd be getting so much abuse in the press.

What an idiot move from Ferrer stopping play on MP to challenge a ball that was clearly in. Andy got very lucky.

Woah, that's fairly harsh. Ok, the standard wasn't brilliant but it was an exciting match with the fact that neither player was serving well making it really unpredictable.

Also the ball wasn't 'clearly in' on match point. It barely caught the back of the line. It was just about in. Ferrer was cramping up something awful at that stage so you can forgive him for convincing himself that it had just gone long.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

That's more than barely catching the back of the line.

yerwanthere123

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

That's more than barely catching the back of the line.

To be fair I'd say that that's worth a challenge

Pighead

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

That's more than barely catching the back of the line.

God bless your eyesight if you were certain that was in. I watched it when it was on and the commentators were both unsure if it was in or out. That to me is a very close call.

yerwanthere123

How many matches has Sloane actually won since the Australian Open? Two or three? Really hope she picks up again soon.
Sabine Lisicki continues to be the one of the biggest question marks on tour. Winning her opening match in Charleston with a double-bagel, then losing in the next round to someone who's been a professional player less than a year.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Ivanovic also won 6-0 6-0 in R1 in Monterrey, then lost her R2 match to someone she should have easily beaten. It's a funny old sport.

yerwanthere123

Now you mention Ana Ivanovic, I'd like to ask something about her. I didn't actually follow tennis when Ana was at her best back in 2008, so I'd like to know why you think she went in that big slump and never recovered? I know obviously she struggled with the pressure of being a first time slam winner and of course getting to #1, which is understandable, but why did she never recover? Did the pressure affect her game permanently, or was it that the game simply moved on, thus she was never able to catch up again? And did she only get to #1 and win a slam in the first place because of the weakness of the tour at the time?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

It's probably a combination of all of the above. She was a really good player. The year she won RG she had been in the Aus Open final too, where she lost to Sharapova. She beat the then #3 Kuznetsova, #2 Sharapova to make the RG final in 2007, made the SF on Wimbledon that year too. So it wasn't a lack of quality on the tour that got her a GS.

I think it was the pressure and attention after she won that affected her, as it does a lot of players. She just really fell off the map and struggled to recover. Also after a bit of a bad patch post GS win she dropped her coach and was in that Adidas Player Development program, which is a terrible idea as far as I'm concerned. Fine for up and coming players but not established players. That didn't last too long but her performances dropped her out of the top 50 which made her draws at big events pretty tough, so her bad results continued.

Serbian press are pretty harsh on their athletes too. They're worse than the British and Americans. Win something and you're idolized, but lose, or start to struggle a little and they tear you to shreds, which probably didn't help her either.

She'll be working with Nigel Sears 2 years come this summer and I think he's worked wonders with her but I am starting to wonder is this as much as he can do for her. She's gotten super fit and lost a lot of weight, too much some might say. She's sorted out her mental state a lot. She was really bad when he started working with her. Calling him on court nearly every change over, looking to her box after every point. She's really gotten away from that now.

I think it's still a mental thing though with her. This recent loss was a bit of a shock, but everyone has their bad days, but it's her results against the players above her that are cause for concern. She never even comes close. When she's playing well she should be able to at least put it up to the likes of Kvitova, Wozniacki etc. but she never seems to perform when it matters. Which to me says it's still her mental state that needs to be improved.

Rob2D

She's an odd one that Ana. I think she still plays fairly well. She has this fiery, swing for the fences style to her that makes her fun to watch.

When you consider how well she can hit the ball I'm surprised she's ranked where she is these days. But I wouldn't analyse women's tour too much. Its all over the place really.

mickmackey1

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

She's gotten super fit and lost a lot of weight, too much some might say.

Too true, not as attractive as she was tbh.

yerwanthere123

Thanks for the responses, very interesting. In the (very unlikely) event that Ana starts playing at her peak again, how far do you reckon it'd take her? Think she'd be able to challenge the top 3? Her forehand is pretty awesome when it's on.

Venus is through to the semis in Charleston, looks like we'll have our first Serena-Venus match since 2009. It will also be just their third match on clay, and first since the FO final back in 2002!

JosephPatrick

The Venus/Serena match was very disappointing. I'm not a fan of either of them to be honest but it's always fun to see them go at it given their legacy and. Venus only managed 3 games and it was difficult to watch at times. (Serena went on to win Charleston against Jankovic, of course.)

And as for Ana, I don't think she will ever hit the heights of winning the French Open again. As good as her forehand is, her play is too erratic too often. She just doesn't have the mental strength. (Dinara Safina also had a similar fall from grace after winning the French Open)

The same goes for a lot of the players on the tour too. So so many great ball strikers and stylish players who just didn't have the mental strength. Remember Patty Schnyder in her glory days? She was a joy to watch and could play every shot in the book but was so self destructive on court (her INSANE husband didn't help matters either)

Anyway. Definitely looking forward to Monte Carlo next. One of my favourite tournaments of the year and it officially rings in the men's clay court season. Hard to bet against Nasal winning it and insane 9th time in a row!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

JosephPatrick wrote: »

And as for Ana, I don't think she will ever hit the heights of winning the French Open again. As good as her forehand is, her play is too erratic too often. She just doesn't have the mental strength. (Dinara Safina also had a similar fall from grace after winning the French Open)
!

Safina never won the French Open, or any other Grand Slam. She was the original Wozniacki, #1 but never won a slam. Unfortunately her back injury made sure she never will.


Monte Carlo will be interesting, especially considering Djokovic twisted his ankle pretty bad in the first set of his Davis Cup match today. Had to be helped back to his chair, got it taped up and played on for 4 sets. Won it in the end clinching the tie but can't have done it a lot of good. We'll have to wait and see how it is.

Rob2D

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Unfortunately her back injury made sure she never will.

That and chocolate.

yerwanthere123

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Safina never won the French Open, or any other Grand Slam. She was the original Wozniacki, #1 but never won a slam. Unfortunately her back injury made sure she never will.


Monte Carlo will be interesting, especially considering Djokovic twisted his ankle pretty bad in the first set of his Davis Cup match today. Had to be helped back to his chair, got it taped up and played on for 4 sets. Won it in the end clinching the tie but can't have done it a lot of good. We'll have to wait and see how it is.

Safina's fall from grace really was quite spectacular. Her last grand slam match being that bagel loss to Clijsters.

Speaking of falls from grace, Vera Zvonareva is now ranked #222. If she doesn't play some matches before the Olympics points drop she no longer will have a ranking. I wonder is a retirement imminent? She doesn't really have anything left to give.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Zvonareva has had illness/injury problems since this time last year. She had surgery on her shoulder not that long ago. But yeah, she's at an age where she's going to find it extremely hard to come back. She hasn't played since August (I think?) so she should have protected ranking whenever she does get back on court, so at least she won't have to play qualifiers for the bigger events.

JosephPatrick

My apologies! Safina was indeed just a finalist a couple of times.

I would imagine Zvonereva will retire, it must be difficult going from no. 2 to possibly not being ranked at all in the space of a couple of years. Although who knows, stranger things have happened in the women's game. She is a quality player and it only takes a good run at a couple of premier events and a grand slam to get you back into the top 20.

Any predictions on Monte Carlo? Draw isn't out yet of course but its hard to bet against Nadal. I hope Djokovics' twisted ankle won't be an issue, I imagine he would have retired from his match if it was a genuine risk to the next few months, he has a lot of points to defend from a final appearances at Rome and Paris.

It is scary to think that Nadal is ranked No.4 and has absolutely zero points to defend after Wimbledon...