The 2017 In Between Grand Slam Thread

yerwanthere123 · 01-07-2017 1:27pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

I just find it hard to believe that, coming off one of the most impressive clay campaigns ever, you can say Nadal is declining. You're obviously entitled to that opinion, but anyone who has watched much of his play this year would agree that it is an impressive return to form. In fact, his serve and BH are better than ever, so it could be argued his all round game is the best it's been. He was clearly in some state of decline in 2015 & 2016, but looks a completely different player again now.

Sorry for delayed response. Sure he's playing better this year, but unless the last 2-3 years didn't happen, he's certainly declining overall. This year he's lost to Federer three times in a row, something that never happened to him before iirc, and he also lost a final to Querrey. That's hardly peak Nadal. Sure on clay he was certainly close to his best again, but, as jr86 said, the second half of his season will tell us a lot about where his level is in comparison to past years.

walshb wrote: »

Nole's form has nothing to do with Fed and Nadal playing top of their form tennis.

Can you point to any version of Fed that would be better than the Oz version? You could mention the 2006/2007 version as regards being a huger success, but actually a better player is up for debate.

Same for Nadal there and in RG?

What I said was their results have been "assisted" by Djokovic and Murray's sub par form, which I stand by. I'm not convinced Federer's actual level now is any higher than it was in say, the latter half of 2015, only this year he doesn't have Djokovic to contend with. We're only seeing 'peak Federer' this year because he's recovered from injuries and there's no-one to offer him a serious challenge.

Floppybits · 26-07-2017 1:44pm

Djokovic out for the rest of the year. Wouldn't be surprised to see Murray do the same?

walshb · 26-07-2017 4:22pm

Floppybits wrote: »

Djokovic out for the rest of the year. Wouldn't be surprised to see Murray do the same?

Wasters!

yerwanthere123 · 29-07-2017 12:17pm

Both men's and women's final of the AIG Irish Open will be broadcast on TG4 today at 2pm, fair play to them for supporting it. Ireland's Sinéad Lohan has made the women's final.

Johnmb · 29-07-2017 2:47pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Both men's and women's final of the AIG Irish Open will be broadcast on TG4 today at 2pm, fair play to them for supporting it. Ireland's Sinéad Lohan has made the women's final.

Great that they are showing it, but a little disappointing that the commentary is in English...

Rob2D · 29-07-2017 11:29pm

walshb wrote: »

Wasters!

Soft young fellas!

Floppybits · 03-08-2017 10:56pm

Kyrgios crying off injured again, this time its the shoulder. Got booed off in Washington.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 03-08-2017 11:02pm

Floppybits wrote: »

Kyrgios crying off injured again, this time its the shoulder. Got booed off in Washington.

Reminds me a bit of Djokovic in the early days. He used to quit matches a lot to the point that people started to think he was just a knob.

Floppybits · 04-08-2017 10:00am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Floppybits wrote: »

Kyrgios crying off injured again, this time its the shoulder. Got booed off in Washington.

Reminds me a bit of Djokovic in the early days. He used to quit matches a lot to the point that people started to think he was just a knob.

Yeah Djokovic was awful between 2009 and 2011 before he converted to gluten free.

As bad as Djokovic and even McEnroe and Connors were I don't any of them have ever been as bad as Kyrgios.

yerwanthere123 · 04-08-2017 4:54pm

Wawrinka is having surgery, won't be playing for the rest of 2017. The men's field at the US Open gets even thinner. Murray won't be playing Montréal, wouldn't be surprised if he's next to pull the plug on New York.

jr86 · 06-08-2017 8:16pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Wawrinka is having surgery, won't be playing for the rest of 2017. The men's field at the US Open gets even thinner. Murray won't be playing Montréal, wouldn't be surprised if he's next to pull the plug on New York.

I wonder will this be pretty much the end of Stan consistently challenging for slams? He'll sail down the rankings now and will he really have the desired hunger to get back to the top? He is pushing on too.

I think it's a prudent decision by Novak and I'm sure we'll see him much better in 2018.

Murray will probably play New York but it's hard to see him seriously challenging barring a completely collapsed draw

Federer could potentially stroll to the title again.

yerwanthere123 · 07-08-2017 2:09pm

Enjoyed this on Twitter, James McGee calling out Tennis Ireland for their silence as to his matches this weekend just gone:

https://twitter.com/jamesmcgee01/status/894278020030119936

They still haven't acknowledged it

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 07-08-2017 2:11pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Enjoyed this on Twitter, James McGee calling out Tennis Ireland for their silence as to his matches this weekend just gone:

https://twitter.com/jamesmcgee01/status/894278020030119936

They still haven't acknowledged it

The tennis Ireland account is really weird. They were tweeting random British guys results a few weeks ago.

yerwanthere123 · 07-08-2017 2:40pm

Sara Errani has reportedly failed a drug test. Will be holding a press conference on Wednesday.
http://www.ubitennis.net/blog/2017/08/07/report-sara-errani-fails-drugs-test/

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 07-08-2017 3:37pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Sara Errani has reportedly failed a drug test. Will be holding a press conference on Wednesday.
http://www.ubitennis.net/blog/2017/08/07/report-sara-errani-fails-drugs-test/

She's gotten a 2 month ban. Claims she accidentally consumed her mothers breast cancer medication that was accidentally dropped into her dinner

yerwanthere123 · 07-08-2017 3:48pm

Well, no one would've believed the kissing in a nightclub excuse I guess.

Hunchback · 07-08-2017 7:14pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote:

She's gotten a 2 month ban. Claims she accidentally consumed her mothers breast cancer medication that was accidentally dropped into her dinner

Cool story

Rjd2 · 07-08-2017 10:28pm

Sara is completely clean. I always admire the fact that for so many early years in her career she toiled away for so long and achieving **** all, but around 5 or so years ago she began to turn it around and was a real force in tennis for so long.:)

She also began to work with Luis Garcia Del Moral around that time, but I think its safe to say that we can't read anything into working with a such a fine upstanding gentleman.:)

Floppybits · 07-08-2017 10:40pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Enjoyed this on Twitter, James McGee calling out Tennis Ireland for their silence as to his matches this weekend just gone:

https://twitter.com/jamesmcgee01/status/894278020030119936

They still haven't acknowledged it

That wont be acknowledged till after the bank holiday weekend. Cant see tennis ireland working a bank holiday weekend. 😀

jr86 · 09-08-2017 7:34pm

Murray pulls out of cincinatti

I'd imagine a US Open withdrawal is imminent

Rjd2 · 11-08-2017 4:59am

Pretty grim week for the men's tour, so many supposed contenders bombing out to hard working but ultimately glorified journeymen.

Hopefully Zverev does not slip up, because anyone else from his side v Federer in a final =:pac:

jr86 · 11-08-2017 7:10am

I think it was yerwanthere who got a bit of stick earlier in year from the recency effect brigade for saying nadal was past his best. I fully agreed with him at the time citing his non-clay form

Outside of clay nadal has shown nothing for me to say he's back to the level of his heyday

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 11-08-2017 10:30am

Apparently Azarenka is in the middle of a custody battle. Her ex filed papers when she was just about to head to Stanford (?) for a tournament and because she's not a US citizen the baby was taken from her and given to the father. Apparently they've sorted a 50/50 deal out for the moment but there's another hearing in September. Puts the rest of her season in doubt as, according to reports, leaving the state might not be a good idea.

http://tennis.life/2017/08/10/report-azarenka-custody-battle/amp/

mickmackey1 · 11-08-2017 12:18pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

Pretty grim week for the men's tour

Zverev and Shapo are the most exciting talents we've seen in a long time.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 11-08-2017 1:18pm

mickmackey1 wrote: »

Zverev and Shapo are the most exciting talents we've seen in a long time.

That's how I'd look at it too. For so many years now nobody on the men's tour really takes advantage of the "Top 4/5" being injured or flopping. It needs a couple of these young guys to start winning things.

Rjd2 · 11-08-2017 3:37pm

mickmackey1 wrote: »

Zverev and Shapo are the most exciting talents we've seen in a long time.

Plenty of mediocrity also in the last 8, Haase, Mannarino, Schwartzman and Agut who scrapped by a pretty much dead Ferrer is nothing to celebrate whatsoever. We shall see with Shapo, but lets not forget he was losing to challenger mugs for the past few months.

Just checked, this superstar is outsider against the truly world class Mannarino.:pac:

Only Zverev will trouble Federer, the rest won't get a set of him. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

lostcat · 13-08-2017 11:18pm

Hats off to Zverev, didn't see it all but he seemed to he hitting the lights out and defending well when he had to . Federer looked a bit leggy I thought.

I read this on a blog just now, haven't checked the facts but:

The 20-year-old German joins Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as just the second active man other than the big four—Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Federer and Novak Djokovic—to win multiple Masters 1000 championships. Zverev is the first man other than the big four to win two Masters titles in the same season since David Nalbandian defeated Federer in the Madrid final then toppled Nadal in the Paris Indoors final in 2007.

Crazy the stranglehold the top 4 have had, things change slowly, but changing they may be...

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-08-2017 11:23pm

lostcat wrote: »

Crazy the stranglehold the top 4 have had, things change slowly, but changing they may be...

For me it's always seemed like the players that were the same generation as Nadal, Federer etc. were far too in awe of them whenever they played. They were still going out on court with the "wow it's Roger Federer!" attitude and they had lost before the match even started. Even some of the "younger" players of that generation, Dimitrov, Gublis etc. seem to have that problem.
Guys like Zverev, Shapovalov and even Kyrgios ,when he feels like it, don't seem to be constricted by the same mindset.

Ostapenko on the WTA is the perfect example of this young attitude. She's not in anyway disrespectful to who she's playing but she has 100% belief in her ability to win and, as we saw in Paris, it pays off.

mickmackey1 · 13-08-2017 11:30pm

Fed looked every day of his 36 years out there, didn't play well all week actually but thought he might raise his level for the final. Zverev looks the real deal alright but still plenty of doubt about his stamina over 5 sets.

Floppybits · 14-08-2017 11:59am

Federer participation in the US Open is in doubt after he hurt is back in the Rogers Cup Final last night. Can't see him Cincinnati now and risk the US Open. That would mean possibly 4 of the top 5 Men in the world would be missing from the US Open, Djokovic and Wawrinka have already pulled out, Murray is struggling to make it and now Federer.

The 2017 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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