The 2017 In Between Grand Slam Thread

jr86

Not really surprised at thiem result tbh, as i alluded to yest, Nadal has been well past his brilliant best on clay a few years now, the only difference is murray and Novak and Stan have been cack this clay swing

Rjd2

jr86 wrote: »

Not really surprised at thiem result tbh, as i alluded to yest, Nadal has been well past his brilliant best on clay a few years now, the only difference is murray and Novak and Stan have been cack this clay swing

Rafa to be fair until today has been pretty immense on the surface, not at his peak clearly, but will take some stopping at the french.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

She's taken the punishment she was given and is now taking excess punishment and she's doing it without mouthing off or having a go at other players.




Players are entitled to their opinions on it all but it's absolutely ridiculous to compare her situation to what Lance Armstrong did.

As for Mladenovic, she's a real piece of work. Implying her former doubles partner is a lesser person to her because she can speak 5 languages and had a formal education is about as classless as you can get.

Fair enough, need to re read her comments on Garica, got the headlines. Apologies for this, and to Caroline in case she is reading.

She hasn't shown anywhere near contrition for me as her dire tweet the other day proved. However I suspect this will turn into a dull Roger v Rafa type debate, so will bow out for now.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Rjd2 wrote: »

She hasn't shown anywhere near contrition for me as her dire tweet the other day proved. However I suspect this will turn into a dull Roger v Rafa type debate, so will bow out for now.

I'm not saying she's shown contrition, I just mean she's taken her punishment and served the time and is being re-punished by the French Open, and she's taking that without complaint either. Even the WTA CEO critcised the French organisers for their reasoning for denying her a WC.

I'm not saying you have to automatically forgive her once her ban was up, you can judge her whatever way you want. I personally don't see anything wrong with how she's handled things since her return, is all I'm saying.

jr86

Rjd2 wrote: »

Rafa to be fair until today has been pretty immense on the surface, not at his peak clearly, but will take some stopping at the french.
.

Yes and no, he's shown great consistency and resilience but people pronouncing him French champion already is daft. He probably should have lost to fognini and has benefited hugely from the aforementioned 3 hitting slumps and Roger skipping clay

It looks like Novak is re-finding form again this week and will probably win rome so if he comes into the French with his tail up it'll be very interesting indeed. Novak on form thumped nadal on clay in their last two meetings before this year and murray won 2/3 save for a horrendous performance in Monte Carlo after winning set 1 6-1.

I put a few quid on Stan so hopefully he has an on-tournament

jr86

"Masterclass from Novak" hard to disagree with Petchey there. The depth in his ground-strokes are ridiculous. He's moving DP all around the court and exposing all the limitations he has hitting on the run and going backwards. Very positive signs for him

lostcat

serious first set from Djokovic, i'll still be looking out for his recently introduced '2nd set wobble' tactic, but he looks like putting 2 solid matches back to back for the first time in months

jr86

lostcat wrote: »

serious first set from Djokovic, i'll still be looking out for his recently introduced '2nd set wobble' tactic, but he looks like putting 2 solid matches back to back for the first time in months

Yeah since God knows when. Even in the French last year he stuttered a lot, he had a very fortuitous draw and Murray completely crumbled in the final after set one

yerwanthere123

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Good for her. I hope she slaughters everyone.

If anything, making it to Wimbledon via the qualies will only help her chances there. Grass has been her weakest surface for quite a while now and if she does make it through the qualies and doesn't lose R1 at Birmingham, she'll probably have played as many grass warmup matches as she ever has.

Rjd2 wrote: »

Pleased to see Svitolina do so well at the moment, my pick for the french, probably loses to Laura Robson in the first round now:pac:

https://twitter.com/MariaSharapova/status/864794112121335811?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fbaseline.tennis.com%2Farticle%2F66078%2Fkristina-mladenovic-interview-maria-sharapova-new-column

Yes Maria you are the victim:pac:

Can't blame her, she knows a lot of people are prepared to ignore the fact she cheated for so long, but still pretty depressing attitude to have. No wonder she is disliked so much on the tour.

Credit where its due to Lucic Baroni the other day.



http://www.tennisworldusa.org/news/news/Maria_Sharapova/43464/mirjana-lucic-baroni-compares-maria-sharapova-to-lance-armstrong/

Pleased also that Mlad continues to take no prisoners, tore into Garcia the other day also.

Tbf three weeks at the beginning of 2016 isn't that long.

Floppybits

That was some beating for Thiem. Djokovic might just be coming back into some form

RosyLily

Looks like Djokovic has found his mojo. Thiem just ran out of steam I'd say. Looking forward to the French Open if he continues like this. I found lacklustre Nole really odd. I suppose because he's usually in top form.

Women's final tomorrow should be good. Halep has been impressive this clay season. I really hope she has a decent run in Paris. She's one of my favourites to watch.

yerwanthere123

Halep into Rome final, if she wins she'll be the hot favourite for RG, which probably won't work in her favour. I'd be ok with her winning it though.

Meanwhile, thrilled to see Zverev in a Masters final, I wonder how many more of them we'll see him play in the future. His first time playing Djokovic too, here's to hoping he rips him a new asshole. If he can win the match I'd certainly put him as a contender for RG, and how cool would that be!

jr86

35 year old in the twilight of his career winning pretty much everything he enters, world number 1 barely winning a match. Declined nadal cantering to clay titles, loses to thiem, who gets battered by resurgent Novak, who gets straight setted by a kid in his first masters final.

Ladies and gentlemen men's tennis in 2017

RosyLily

Great performance from Zverev!! Can't believe he's only 20. He'll break into the top 10 for the first time tomorrow.

Djokovic has confirmed that he'll work with Agassi for the French Open. If it works out could be full-time. I don't know if a few weeks could change anything but you never know!

mickmackey1

Zverev is the real deal, finally a genuine successor to the Big 4.

Floppybits

Surprised at Agassi getting on board with Djokovic. Never had Agassi down as a coach especially the way he spoke about tennis in his book. Be interesting to see how this goes.

jr86

mickmackey1 wrote: »

Zverev is the real deal, finally a genuine successor to the Big 4.

Perhaps but it's very, very hard to know and early to tell. No-one can tell with potential injuries, loss of motivation, etc. Bear in mind he hasn't even made 4th round of a slam yet.

The WTA has thrown up plenty examples of complete flops over the years, after initial promise. The ATP hasn't had the chance really given the "big 4"'s dominance.

The likes of Berdych, Gasquet, Monfils were all pronounced multiple slam winners by pundits and commentators in their early years but of course it hasn't transpired. Hell even the likes of Janowicz, Simon, Tomic and Isner were tipped for greatness

To be honest a top 4 of Murray, Novak, Nishikori and Raonic in 2 years would not amaze me one ounce

A couple of interesting asides:

- none of Novak, Rafa, Roger won their first masters final (Murray did - somewhat ironically given his belated slam breakthrough)
- The Rome final has been a straight sets one-sided affair every year now for a while. They're trying to blag a 12 day event from 2019 but it honestly has been sh1te every year for a while now
- Novak hasn't won a "big" tournament in 9 months (and that Rogers Cup needs a huge asterisk minus Murray, Federer, Nadal)
- Novak has lost to 11 different players since his French Open win in the slams and Masters. ELEVEN

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Floppybits wrote: »

Surprised at Agassi getting on board with Djokovic. Never had Agassi down as a coach especially the way he spoke about tennis in his book. Be interesting to see how this goes.

Yeah, I can see him coming on board for one tournament or something but I can't see him being a long term coach.

yerwanthere123

jr86 wrote: »

35 year old in the twilight of his career winning pretty much everything he enters, world number 1 barely winning a match. Declined nadal cantering to clay titles, loses to thiem, who gets battered by resurgent Novak, who gets straight setted by a kid in his first masters final.

Ladies and gentlemen men's tennis in 2017

A kid? He's 20 years old, and he's not some randomer either, he's been threatening to break through for a while now. And for the first time ever, and after a lot of false starts, it really does feel as if someone from the younger generation if ready to start winning the big titles. I'm just so excited that it's Zverev, I don't think he's anywhere near ready to dominate yet, but I think with a bit of luck and a good draw he'd be able to win a slam. Just think he's like this at 20, imagine where he'll be in two or three years time. Also, this time a year ago he'd just reached his first final in Nice, and he won his first title less than eight months ago.

In RG qualies, James McGee is up against Tim Smyczek tomorrow.

jr86

A kid is a turn of phrase, 20 is an incredibly young age for a pro athlete. Bearing in mind most of the top 20 are the wrong side of 30 now

There's zero guarantee he'll be better in 2/3 years, a lot of players in all sports play their best stuff in their teens. If you Google "youngest premier league footballers" the majority - who would be mid 20s now - will be lounging down the divisions.

By all means he might go on and dominate but I think perspective is needed in a lot of cases like these

Floppybits

In terms of fitness and strength Zverev is a kid.  The reason why it is hard for 20 year old to win a slam nowadays has got to do with the fitness and conditioning of the older players on the tour.  Murray is a prime example, look at him when he first broke onto the tour and in most Slam matches he was cramping up, Now you rarely see it.  This is mainly due to the years of fitness and conditioning training that he has done and that Zverev is only embarking on, it will take another couple of years of an intense fitness and conditioning programme along with playing 5 set slam matches before we will see if Zverev reaches his potential.

walshb

I don't think Nadal wins the French. His success lately over 3 sets is a little misleading. He's 31 or thereabouts now and I think the physical grind of the FO will hurt him more than others..

jr86

Floppybits wrote: »

In terms of fitness and strength Zverev is a kid.  The reason why it is hard for 20 year old to win a slam nowadays has got to do with the fitness and conditioning of the older players on the tour.  Murray is a prime example, look at him when he first broke onto the tour and in most Slam matches he was cramping up, Now you rarely see it.  This is mainly due to the years of fitness and conditioning training that he has done and that Zverev is only embarking on, it will take another couple of years of an intense fitness and conditioning programme along with playing 5 set slam matches before we will see if Zverev reaches his potential.

Yeah well said, id fully agree with all this

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Azarenka planning to play Wimbledon. She plans on playing a grass court tournament before it to warm up.

jr86

walshb wrote: »

I don't think Nadal wins the French. His success lately over 3 sets is a little misleading. He's 31 or thereabouts now and I think the physical grind of the FO will hurt him more than others..

His slam record since his last win here is woeful by his standards.

A lot will depend on the draw. I dont see any real difference in clay Nadal in 2016 and this year up until this point. The main difference overall between the two years is the difference in murray and novak's level. Nadal was beating everyone else last year too

If murray is to step up at the french he can beat Nadal nowadays. Novak already looks in great shape again and a Novak near his best beats nadal these days. The only other serious contender I believe is Stan - and I'll be fascinated to see his draw in particular

Floppybits

jr86 wrote: »

walshb wrote: »

I don't think Nadal wins the French. His success lately over 3 sets is a little misleading. He's 31 or thereabouts now and I think the physical grind of the FO will hurt him more than others..

His slam record since his last win here is woeful by his standards.

A lot will depend on the draw. I dont see any real difference in clay Nadal in 2016 and this year up until this point. The main difference overall between the two years is the difference in murray and novak's level. Nadal was beating everyone else last year too

If murray is to step up at the french he can beat Nadal nowadays. Novak already looks in great shape again and a Novak near his best beats nadal these days. The only other serious contender I believe is Stan - and I'll be fascinated to see his draw in particular

The problem for Nadal is the same problem that has plagued Federer the last few years and thats the recovery length they need now after a long 5 set match.  The key to Federer and Nadal getting to slam finals now is quick matches where they use less energy and have more time to recover something that is not going to happen at the French Open.
I think this is why Federer pulled out because he new he doesn't have the quick recovery that he use to have. It probably takes him a day longer to get over a 5 setter than it use too, I think Nadal is going to find this as well. The clay takes it out of you and if you are not recovering as well as you use too between matches then you are going to suffer and get caught out on one of the days.

yerwanthere123

Terrific news about Vika, the tour is there for the taking. She probably saw Svitolina is #1 in the race and decided enough is enough.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Terrific news about Vika, the tour is there for the taking. She probably saw Svitolina is #1 in the race and decided enough is enough.

Even just to use the grass "season" to shake off the rust and come into the US hard season all guns blazing would be good for her. If she's as fit as she says she is I wouldn't bet against her at the US Open.

Floppybits

James McGee lost in the first round of the qualifiers for RG, 6-2, 6-0.  Tough loss for James.

yerwanthere123

Kvitova confirmed that she'll be back for Wimbledon. Wonderful news considering we were initially worrying her career might be over. If she's in any way fit then she could be a title contender.

yerwanthere123

Wow, Petra is flying to Paris now and might even be playing there. If she can she may as well, it's quite an open tournament. Halep, meanwhile, is apparently only 50/50 to play.

In other news, Lisicki will make her return on grass at Majorca.