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The Tennis Thread

there goes soderling, lost in 4 sets to nadal

hopefully berdych can reach the final and possibly win it or murray/tsonga upsets nadal in the semis
 
DAMN IT AGAIN! I'll stop supporting any player right now. =/

I could say I'm all out for Murray winning Wimbledon, but I believe I would be just jinxing him.
 
ok now i have no clue who to root for, hell i'd say i like nadal more than berdych, though it would be better for nole and fed if berdych won hm hm hm
 
nadal wins wimbledon beating berdych in straight sets. nadals way clear in 1st place of the rankings and federer now drops to 3rd. now it isnt looking to good for federer
 
Looks like Federer will fall one week short of Sampras' record unless Nadal's knees go again, and even then it would still be a long shot.

1. Nadal / 2. Djokovic / 3. Federer / 4. Murray / 5. Soderling / 6. Davydenko / 7. del Potro / 8. Berdych / 9. Roddick / 10. Verdasco / 11. Tsonga / 12. Ferrer

Any guesses on who makes ATP Finals? Del Potro is out until November so essentially he is off the rankings. I would not expect Davydenko to make the finals either with the time missed from his injury.

Berdych will probably rise to #6 by years end, which is nice to see. I am really interested to see if Nadal will win the US Open this year. With Federer struggling and del Potro unable to defend his title, this may be his best chance to win.

Congrats to Nadal on his title. I would have liked to see Berdych do a bit better in the final though.
 
i'd say nadal/djokovic/federer/murray/soderling/berdych/roddick, roddick, though only 11th by now, was always best on hardcourt so i think he will be able to get back into the top 10 by the end of the year..
 
toronto / cincinnati began this week, first high-profile tournaments since wimbledon (still three weeks left until the big USO though)! only significant no-shows are roddick & the williams sisters (in addition to justine henin who declined to enter the USO itself citing injury)

for the first time in seven years, roger federer is not the #1 or #2 seed in a tournament! those honors go to rafael nadal and novak djokovic. federer did book his place in the third round today with a win over juan ignacio chela; there were flashes of the brilliance we know roger is capable of but some poor play saw him squander six set points before finally closing the first set in a tiebreak

twelve months ago, dinara safina was the (controversial) number one player in the world. should she lose her second round match to kim clijsters today - which looks very likely - she will plummet in the rankings to roughly #70 next week. probably the biggest drop ever for a world number one in the span of just one year; ana ivanovic is also a slumping former #1, but it took her TWO years to drop nearly as far as safina is likely to drop come next monday.

also fabbles, do you post on MTF? j/w
 
also in response to the discussion regarding richard gasquet, the guy is talent and that is about it. no motivation, no drive and certainly no results to speak of in the last two years. fancy shotmaker just like monfils but has probably peaked already.
 
This next month should be very exciting for tennis. I am really watching out for:

- Can Federer climb back to #2
- Can Nalbandian keep up his ridiculous run? At this pace he has the potential to be seeded at the Open, which is absurd.
- Will Murray get it together? It is very likely that Soderling will pass Murray in the rankings this week.
- Will Nadal have success on hard court? More importantly will he finally be able to make the final and win at the Open.

I would still like to think Gasquet has some flashes of brilliance left of him that I saw in 05-07... but you are exactly right, no motivation. The French Open loss to Murray was just disgusting.

I do not know what MTF is, but if it is a tennis forum I may be interested. I've been a casual fan for the past 5 years or so but I'm starting to get more into it.
 
i was fairly disappointed that djokovic really only reached #2 recently on account of federer's "slump;" he had several chances in 2008 to claim the spot from nadal but failed on three(?) occasions, and didn't even get there until shortly after murray. djokovic has had some pretty bad losses this year (olivier rochus in miami comes to mind; he was once someone who could trouble peak (2006) federer but is really nothing special these days) and has definitely underperformed, particularly in the slams (blowing a 2-0 lead against melzer and really putting together a mediocre performance against berdych). i would love to see him back up this ranking but at the moment nadal really looks to be the only one of last year's supposed "big five" who is stepping up to the plate.

that said, he is really going to refrain from playing his behind-the-baseline style of tennis and adopt a far more aggressive game (such as the one he implemented at wimbledon) if he wants the us open title. no doubt he is healthier now than he was last year, however his game is just far too easily exploited by flatter, harder hitters (del potro comes to mind, however as previously mentioned in this thread he will miss the us open and has opted for a return in bangkok a few weeks later), and as has been the case since 2004 he may lose to the first "on-song" hard hitter he faces in the tournament. no doubt he can do it, but he will really have to tighten some screws and start being more aggressive, as the nature of the surface warrants.

david nalbandian has risen 72 ranking spots this week on account of his title run at washington as a wildcard. i think it's absolutely wonderful to see this guy having some success even after his bad injuries in the past season and a half, and as you mentioned he has a very good chance to be seeded for the open. the question is, should he continue this freaky form and make a deep run in toronto this week (and cincinnati and new haven if he opts to play either of those), is he going to be able to back it up over the course of a slam fortnight? the guy lacks a slam title despite obviously having a game worthy of the best players in the world (if anyone recalls his incredible end-of-season madrid/paris duo in 2007, those two tournaments were just insane), and is a chronic underperformer when it matters (from the top of my head i can remember dancevic at wimbledon, chardy at the french open, baghdatis at the australian open after blowing a lead). the loss to nadal at indian wells was absolutely heartbreaking last year, but i have to say, when i speak of players who can really exploit nadal's game, nalbandian is one who absolutely comes to mind. if he is seeded 25-32 and draws in nadal's sixteenth of the draw, that could be nightmarish for the spaniard. all depends on whether dave can keep himself off the injury bench.

i would like to see soderling breaking the top 4 and upsetting the #1 - #8 seed balance in the us open. while murray is not playing his best tennis, i am sure none of the top 3 would like to meet him as early as the quarterfinals (despite the fact that he didn't manage that stage of the tournament last year), and he will definitely be one to watch out for as i think it's very likely that he'll claim a slam or two over the course of his career. already proven himself as dangerous on american hardcourt, and needs to show he's at slams to win them, not just to play.

MTF is menstennisforums.com; i discovered the site in 2007 and despite the fact that the general messages forum is overrun by retards who overuse the same phrases over and over and relentlessly bash some players (albeit not always undeservedly), i think it's a really informative and great forum.
 
i'm currently watching the rogers cup night match; it's a second round clash between rafael nadal and stanislas wawrinka. it's nadal's first match since he claimed the wimbledon title, and he just won the first set tiebreak 14-12 in what is likely to be one of the longest (tiebreak-determined) sets in tennis — 1 hour and 32 minutes. easily one of the most incredible sets of tennis i've seen, the sheer determination from both was clear to see (and this is not even a slam match). wawrinka hurt his ankle at 9-10 down in the tiebreak after unleashing on a forehand, but played on and lost the tiebreak after 26 brilliant points. he held five set points (one coming before the tiebreak), and nadal squandered three before finally forcing the error from the wawrinka backhand.

wawrinka is currently receiving medical treatment, it'll be interesting to see how much of a contest he can make this second set.

from MTF (damn, 17 minutes shy, still quite a bit):

The longest tie-break set: 1 hour 49 minutes
third set of the Davis Cup '07 rubber: Dudi Sela - Nicolas Massu 6-3 6-4 6-7(3) 6-4
 
tumblrl6tokr4esb1qzimsa.jpg
 
Fabbles said:
- Can Federer climb back to #2
- Can Nalbandian keep up his ridiculous run? At this pace he has the potential to be seeded at the Open, which is absurd.
- Will Murray get it together? It is very likely that Soderling will pass Murray in the rankings this week.
- Will Nadal have success on hard court? More importantly will he finally be able to make the final and win at the Open.
Click to expand...

Federer will be back at #2 at the end of this week, after beating Djokovic in the semi-finals at Rogers Cup.

I actually pointed the seeding out earlier on irc too, which I find absolutely thrilling and exciting. It'll be amazing to see him seeded in his first slam back, even though I hardly like him at all.

Murray defeated Nadal in a comfortable two-setter to reach the finals, Considering he is the defending champion, he had 1000 pts to defend which is no easy feat. If he loses to Federer in the finals he'll be 5th behind Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Soderling. I'm sure he can easily regain his rank before YEC, assuming he drops. He doesn't have 'much' to defend at USO (for his potential as a USO champion). I'm sure he merely had an 'off-game' the other week when he only had 40-some% first serves in ;x

I personally don't think Nadal will ever win a slam title at US Open. Federer, while in a 'slump', should still give him a hard time. Also Djokovic and Murray are better contenders for the US Open title anyway.

I hope Djokovic is able to win his second slam title - he is really due for one.

Del Potro won't be back until the asian swing. He's still hanging onto the top 10 despite not playing since his retirement at the Australian Open, but he's expected to be back after US Open, possibly before China Open. I hope this injury doesn't affect his game much !




In the women's tour, looks like the top 5 players of the noughties are beginning to once again establish themselves as the top contenders.
- Serena holds 2 of the 4 slams and is #1 by a long shot. She only really needs her points from AO (2000), RG (500), Wimbledon (2000) and Doha (1500) to stay at #1. That's to say even if she doesn't defend her points from Rogers Cup, US Open and China Open she will be #1.
- Venus is the epitome of consistency this year, making it to two Premier Mandatory finals (which is all the ones she participates in considering she boycotts Indian Wells). She's only lost before QF once this year in Roland Garros, which is understandable considering clay is her weakest surface.
- Justine Henin managed to climb to #13, without even playing at her best. She's booked herself in the top 20 despite injury as she has nothing to defend for the rest of the year.
- Kim Clijsters is pretty inconsistent but has had amazing runs, winning US Open, winning a premier mandatory at Miami and currently in the finals of premier 5 Cincinnati.
- Sharapova has re-established herself as a force to be reckoned with despite the psychological impact her shoulder injury caused, as well as it forcing her to change her service motion. She was the first person to take a set off Justine Henin in Roland Garros in many years, gave Serena her hardest match at Wimbledon, reached the finals at Stanford and is currently in the finals at Cincinnati.

Sharapova and Clijsters will face each other in the finals of Cincinnati. Sharapova has had an amazing run this tournament and finally not playing with a sloppy game. I just hope she maintains this for the final, for Rogers Cup and ultimately for US Open.

On a similar note, Ana Ivanovic, who entered a slump after her victorious Roland Garros '08 run, is beginning to find her game again after changing coach and fitness coach. She displayed a bit of her 2007-2008 game during her semi-final against Clijsters, which abruptly due to a foot injury. Clijsters defeated Ivanovic 2-1 ret., but during that time was still able to demonstrate the small proportion of peak-Ivanovic - she attacked Clijsters serve very well, hitting 3 service return winners to bring up a break point. I just hope she can find her forehand that brought her glory in 2008.

On the other hand, Safina, who was world no. 1 this time last year, will drop to world no. 70 when the new ranks are released at the end of this week, possibly marking the fastest fall in ranks from a world no. 1 - even faster than Ana ! But this opens up her ability to make a booming comeback next year when she has little points to defend.
 
junior said:
Federer will be back at #2 at the end of this week, after beating Djokovic in the semi-finals at Rogers Cup.

I actually pointed the seeding out earlier on irc too, which I find absolutely thrilling and exciting. It'll be amazing to see him seeded in his first slam back, even though I hardly like him at all.

Murray defeated Nadal in a comfortable two-setter to reach the finals, Considering he is the defending champion, he had 1000 pts to defend which is no easy feat. If he loses to Federer in the finals he'll be 5th behind Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Soderling. I'm sure he can easily regain his rank before YEC, assuming he drops. He doesn't have 'much' to defend at USO (for his potential as a USO champion). I'm sure he merely had an 'off-game' the other week when he only had 40-some% first serves in ;x

I personally don't think Nadal will ever win a slam title at US Open. Federer, while in a 'slump', should still give him a hard time. Also Djokovic and Murray are better contenders for the US Open title anyway.

I hope Djokovic is able to win his second slam title - he is really due for one.

Del Potro won't be back until the asian swing. He's still hanging onto the top 10 despite not playing since his retirement at the Australian Open, but he's expected to be back after US Open, possibly before China Open. I hope this injury doesn't affect his game much !




In the women's tour, looks like the top 5 players of the noughties are beginning to once again establish themselves as the top contenders.
- Serena holds 2 of the 4 slams and is #1 by a long shot. She only really needs her points from AO (2000), RG (500), Wimbledon (2000) and Doha (1500) to stay at #1. That's to say even if she doesn't defend her points from Rogers Cup, US Open and China Open she will be #1.
- Venus is the epitome of consistency this year, making it to two Premier Mandatory finals (which is all the ones she participates in considering she boycotts Indian Wells). She's only lost before QF once this year in Roland Garros, which is understandable considering clay is her weakest surface.
- Justine Henin managed to climb to #13, without even playing at her best. She's booked herself in the top 20 despite injury as she has nothing to defend for the rest of the year.
- Kim Clijsters is pretty inconsistent but has had amazing runs, winning US Open, winning a premier mandatory at Miami and currently in the finals of premier 5 Cincinnati.
- Sharapova has re-established herself as a force to be reckoned with despite the psychological impact her shoulder injury caused, as well as it forcing her to change her service motion. She was the first person to take a set off Justine Henin in Roland Garros in many years, gave Serena her hardest match at Wimbledon, reached the finals at Stanford and is currently in the finals at Cincinnati.

Sharapova and Clijsters will face each other in the finals of Cincinnati. Sharapova has had an amazing run this tournament and finally not playing with a sloppy game. I just hope she maintains this for the final, for Rogers Cup and ultimately for US Open.

On a similar note, Ana Ivanovic, who entered a slump after her victorious Roland Garros '08 run, is beginning to find her game again after changing coach and fitness coach. She displayed a bit of her 2007-2008 game during her semi-final against Clijsters, which abruptly due to a foot injury. Clijsters defeated Ivanovic 2-1 ret., but during that time was still able to demonstrate the small proportion of peak-Ivanovic - she attacked Clijsters serve very well, hitting 3 service return winners to bring up a break point. I just hope she can find her forehand that brought her glory in 2008.

On the other hand, Safina, who was world no. 1 this time last year, will drop to world no. 70 when the new ranks are released at the end of this week, possibly marking the fastest fall in ranks from a world no. 1 - even faster than Ana ! But this opens up her ability to make a booming comeback next year when she has little points to defend.
Click to expand...

murray has won matches with abysmal first serve %s as low as 17 before, the guy can generate wicked pace on the first delivery but can have a lot of trouble finding the mark.

djokovic is only "due" for another slam because of the time elapsed since he won one; he hasn't shown any consistency throughout 2009-2010 to infer that he's worthy of a slam title. winning the us open this year would be a huge turnaround for him as he went down so meekly in all of the other slams (tsonga match was plagued with 'breathing difficulties,' horrid choke against melzer, general abhorrent play against berdych). he has only lost to one man at the last three us opens though, so it will be interesting to see whether he goes all the way should he fail to meet federer.

as for venus's "consistency," that can only be said about her outside-of-slam form. the woman is done in terms of keeping it together for a slam fortnight. probably not really worthy of top 5 anymore, i see her as a 6-10 player.

henin and clijsters have had pretty dramatically contrasting comebacks. both have been hampered by injuries already, despite henin's being more numerous and severe. it really hasn't been a comeback worthy of her talent, and i can only hope she shows some resurgence and cracks the top 10 early next year. as for clijsters, i was never a fan but i'm so glad she's back at the top echelons of the sport. tennis needed her.

ivanovic and safina are trainwrecks at the moment :( don't like either but it would be nice to see them show some old form at the us open, or they'll just be perpetuating the wta-is-full-of-headcases stereotype (not that they're the only ones...)
 
Why isn't anyone commenting? The US Open is underway and two of the top 10 in men's singles are out. I didn't watch Berdych v. Llondra, but it seems like Berdych is not performing the way you'd expect him to after his results in the last two slams. I saw the Roddick v. Tipsarevic match in it's entirety(i got up at 03:30a.m.) and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It was a good match and losing Roddick hurts the tournament, but I'm Tipsarevic fan so I'm pleased. I found Roddick's outburst to be completely unwarranted. Even if you don't respect the line judge you don't hold up play for 5 minutes over nothing, it's just plain inconsiderate, and disrespectful to your opponent(and it WAS a foot-fault). Anybody else surprised it took Bandy five sets to beat De Voest, and that it took five sets for Djokovic to beat Troiki?
 
Well since Roddick is out, rooting for Federer I guess...tbh, didn't noticed the U.S. Open was going on until I was channel surfing earlier.
 
DrunkRacoon said:
I found Roddick's outburst to be completely unwarranted. Even if you don't respect the line judge you don't hold up play for 5 minutes over nothing, it's just plain inconsiderate, and disrespectful to your opponent(and it WAS a foot-fault). Anybody else surprised it took Bandy five sets to beat De Voest, and that it took five sets for Djokovic to beat Troiki?
Click to expand...

Yep, just seemed like he was being a bit of a dick tbh. Djokovic hasn't been at his best lately, losing to Roddick in Miami. I fully expect him to lose to Fish in the 4th round actually, that guy's on a roll.
 
djokovic struggling in five against troicki was not unexpected in the slightest, troicki should have closed it out in the fourth and the conditions certainly didn't suit djokovic as he was being made to play from behind in both the scoreline and the rallies in the intense heat against troicki, who has been in great form (he made a deep run in new haven just last week). troicki crumbled when it mattered and really had a very good chance to pull of a deserved upset, djokovic was very fortunate but props to him for sticking around.
 
I really hope Ryan Harrison does well, since I actually watched him play in the same tournament as me when I was younger. Of course he was wayyyyyy better than I was, but it's still cool when a guy you kind of knew becomes famous for the thing you knew him for.

Also I think this is one of Roger Federer's last chances at winning a major, but I think he has a good chance as well. Nadal hardly seemed invincible in his Second Round match against Istomin (going down 5-1 in the Second set Breaker), and honestly I don't buy that Murray can take Federer on a Hard court in a Major yet. Then again I didn't think Soderling could either, so who knows, but I am picking Fed to win this year, but that it will be his last major.

On the Women's side, I just don't see anyone knocking off Venus if she plays like she did in her first match.
 
Just wanted to say I hate Wozniacki, and anything related to her, ESPECIALLY katya and her vhost. She beats all my favorites and I am SICK of it.
 
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