The Tennis Thread
Discussion
BlackLabel said:
So Stan beat Tsonga and Monfils hammered Federer 6-1 6-4 6-3.
No disrespect to Monfils but does this mean all is not well with Federer's back injury? Given the occasion I could have seen Monfils raising his game and perhaps even winning a close match but for Federer to get only 8 games suggests a problem of some sort. Now looks like advantage France to win the tie as I think they're probably favourites for the doubles today which would then leave the Swiss needing to win both the reverse single tomorrow (which looks unlikely given the performances yesterday).ETA: How wrong can you be?!!!
Edited by JNW1 on Monday 24th November 15:37
BlackLabel said:
Well it's that time of the year again - tennis is back with the Australian Open. Djokovic is firm favourite with Federer behind him. Nadal is back but he's indicated that he's still not 100% so can't win it. Del Potro is back too!
Del Potro has withdrawn, left wrist still wrong.BlackLabel said:
Murray vs Dimitrov will be starting around 10am UK time. It should be a good match with Murray playing a lot better than he did at Wimbledon where Dimitrov knocked him out.
Murray playing well at the moment, good recovery after his disappointing showing at the O2 in November; Djokovic probably the favourite to win the tournament but still a few others left in the draw who are capable of doing it and Murray's one of them IMO. Slightly surprised to see Federer fail to make the second week though - Seppi played well but I really didn't expect him to beat Fed in a best of 5 sets match at a Grand Slam.......
Dimitrov was very aggresive from the start and in patches during the match but while he was he looked at his absolute best, and yet still not convincingly better than Murray. Murray was much better in his own game the moment he showed a small amount of aggression and willingness to take a few risks, and at those moments looked easily better than Dimitrov. If a coach could induce Andy to take more risks and show more aggression at key moments in big marches his Grand Slam count would be on the increase.
It seems he easily has the talent and on-court skills to compete with Roge/Djok/Raf but has to manage his game a little better at those key moments.
Good game to watch today though.
It seems he easily has the talent and on-court skills to compete with Roge/Djok/Raf but has to manage his game a little better at those key moments.
Good game to watch today though.
Murray was better and I'm a big fan of his variety but Djokovic/Nadal would have kept Dimitrov a lot quieter. There were some great rallies sometimes because Murray didn't put away a straightforward shot. Out of all the top guys Murray still seems to lose his focus and get broken etc the most often, it's still his mind which does him over.
For whatever reason Murray seems to step up against Djokovic but I think Kyrgios maybe his downfall. I think relentless hitting will break him down but I still have hope Murray will one day soon turn a leaf mentally like Djokovic did.
For whatever reason Murray seems to step up against Djokovic but I think Kyrgios maybe his downfall. I think relentless hitting will break him down but I still have hope Murray will one day soon turn a leaf mentally like Djokovic did.
Babw said:
For whatever reason Murray seems to step up against Djokovic but I think Kyrgios maybe his downfall. I think relentless hitting will break him down but I still have hope Murray will one day soon turn a leaf mentally like Djokovic did.
For me, Krygios plays for the crowd and doesn't have the maturity to beat Murray. Saw him beat Rafa at Wimbledon last year, and Rafa was well below par. Off camera, you could see he was not fit.He played on Dimitovs backhand yesterday, and correctly so. The single hander may look superb, but he was hitting way to short....Muarray saw this and pummelled it.
Murrays strength is indeed mixing it up. He never rallies for the sake of it, his game plan is second to none. The young pups will continue to fall until they see that.
I don't think it's so much great quality tennis that Kyrgios will bring to the table but at 19 he already seems a bit more stable between the ears than Murray so IMO relentless hitting and Murray doing a bit of self destructing will be that.
Hopefully I'm wrong and we can see Murray v Nadal in the semis.
Hopefully I'm wrong and we can see Murray v Nadal in the semis.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
So Kyrgios has played 20 odd matches on the tour and Murray 600 odd so we can't really compare their mental strength on grandslam appearance/success records can we? Wouldn't it be better to judge against other players at similar stages of their career? If I remember at 19 Murray had nowhere near as potent game as Kyrgios and was built like a shrimp so the future is looking pretty bright for Kyrgios, I'm going to make a pretty wild assumption and say he might win a couple of slams! Like I said Murray plays such great tennis when he's on it and it's a credit to his game he's got such a great record even though he chokes and loses his cool on court as often as he does. I'd say how Kyrgios came back from 2 sets down shows a pretty strong mental game and great character, the fact he's happy to put pressure on himself by saying he believes he can beat Murray is great! Yes it's a bit cocky but this isn't diplomacy, it's sport at the end of the day.
You can bet your house that the Aussies will do their best to get into Murray's head. If he's stupid enough to shout at his box, feign an injury etc the crowd will pick up on it and won't live it down.
Should be a great contest.
Nick is going out there with an entire stadium on his side. You can never underestimate the mental affect of competing your tits off and receiving the very lightest ripple of applause, compared to the absolute pandemonium that will be going on in the arena should you make errors or Nick starts banging out winners. We had the experience of going against the crowd this week as the lone applauder, it may have been an echo but I think there a few brave souls that joined me.
This kid is the next big thing from Aus and the crowd who are usually on Andy's side won't be wanting him to win. Nick has the big game and a mentality to perform well on the biggest stages so it is going to be a tough one. Andy has to lock it him down quickly and establish control, punish weak 2nd serves and force Nick to make outrageous high risk shots to win points. If he does that for the entire match, too good. Otherwise Andy should hopefully crush his hopes slowly but surely through the course of the match. I am calling it 63, 62, 75 (late charge with the crowd trying to push their man through).
This kid is the next big thing from Aus and the crowd who are usually on Andy's side won't be wanting him to win. Nick has the big game and a mentality to perform well on the biggest stages so it is going to be a tough one. Andy has to lock it him down quickly and establish control, punish weak 2nd serves and force Nick to make outrageous high risk shots to win points. If he does that for the entire match, too good. Otherwise Andy should hopefully crush his hopes slowly but surely through the course of the match. I am calling it 63, 62, 75 (late charge with the crowd trying to push their man through).
Edited by Justices on Monday 26th January 19:06
He is hungry at the moment. Wasn't hungry at all last year, just going through the motions as his tennis dreams had been achieved. It's tough to motivate yourself and go through what is needed to compete let alone win at the highest level when you have obtained what you wanted from the very beginning. But I am glad to see him out there looking in great shape and in fine form (horrible under armour clothing though). There is a lot left in the tank and I have my money on him for the title here.
Edited by Justices on Monday 26th January 20:57
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Maybe our interpretation of "mentally strong" differ.I'm not meaning it in absolute terms, obviously Murray is in the top 1% of people in the world who can perform at his best knowing millions are watching his every move.
To me he is mentally weak/unstable relative to his peers. I can't think of anyone else in the top 10 that we might be wondering "if he turns up". Nadal might not turn up because he's injured, Djokovic will play 6 hours until he's beaten which is a stark contrast from what he was 5 years back, Federer will stick to his game plan and give nothing away in emotion, Wawrinka will keep trying to hit the cover off the ball until it's over, even the perennial underachiever Berdych will play his game within 10% of his best every time until someone better beats him at tennis.
Murray is the only guy where he is consistently mentally all over the place. The press make lots of excuses; bad day against Dimitrov at Wimbles, his team having disagreements, hangover from Lendl brake up, 1 year old hangover from back surgery, difficult to motivate himself etc
I'm not a psychologist but I'm sure he fits a "type" that's known to self destruct.
I actually think of all the top guys, Murray's the most likeable maybe because he has that more human/normal side compared to the other guys who are ultra focussed all the time.
Does anyone know why Dani and Jez left Murray camp? This is just a hunch but I reckon it's because Mauresmo realised that they cocked around too much and was generally not focussed enough on the job. Feel free to correct me.
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