Analyzing Kyrgios

Greg Garber of Espn tennis has a great piece on the next generation us players. I agree with him that PMAC deserves a lot of credit for this and especially for co opting folks like Wayne Bryan and Mayotte. The goal was top hundred players and they did that.

It was great also to hear from the players themselves. Harrisons advice was spot on.

I disagree completely with Garber on Fritz even though I recognize his competitiveness. But to me the huge point Garber made about overall competitiveness between and among the peer group of us guys on tour as well as the old guard of us players and the higher ranked us men like Sock, that is everything.

I didn’t like hearing that Mmoh is likely taking off for Hawaii and that no one said anything about doubles. I wonder if any of these people actually study stuff like how players improve. I guarantee you it’s not by playing every tournament in sight. To me they miss the other dimensions of the game like scouting and working on specific things and getting real world opportunities like dubs and building an entourage or posse. Etc.

Harrison said the worst thing was trying to prove everyone wrong all the time and putting so much pressure on himself that it suffocated his love and joy for playing. Saw what we will about Harrison but I think that was one of his best quotes of all time.

Unfortunately no one saying much about the wta side of the ledger. Probably have to catch the Aussie news here. I’m glad to see Cirstea doing well. She played Genie tough in Genies’ breakout year of 2014. But has been a bit like Ivanovic since.

Dan good call on the Agassi/Kyrgios comparison. Agassi’s game was technically excellent with exceptions of his serve and volleys. He made up for both of them.

Yes I agree on the us next generation that they haven’t done much yet. Donaldson had a decent run at the us open and was the last of the us youth movement standing.

Having seen Fritz in action I’ll grant he hits an extremely hard ball. I’ve said before I have a lot of bones to pick on his backhand but he hits it effectively, not unlike Ginepri or Berasetegui, who also had awkward stroke production off one groundstroke.

Sorry Hartt –

Sir Andy, every time 🙂

American men are having horrible event as always. Down goes Tiafoe, DY and Esco winning a total of one set amongst them. Kind of shocking. DY made Kohly look like Ken Rosewall. How many slams has Kohly won? Sock and I believe Qball are only Americans left hobbling.

Agassi had superb footwork. Recall at club his dad taught pro tennis and Agassi got pointers from the greats. He was also pretty fast and as he aged his footwork ensured he was in right place and time.

Dan is right, looks like Sock as savior two tournaments in a row. Qball perhaps. Kohli is tricky and sadly DY gave up on himself. Zverev fired off a salvo there in one upping Tiafoe, a humbling. And Esco should call Spadea! Not sure if working with the same coach as Fritz is working for Esco.

Istomin, in coming back after losing 2 1/2 years because of the car accident, showed incredible determination. Always nice to see a guy like that do well.

Yes, Kyrgios has tons of talent but he is reaching the stage where we can look at what he has actually accomplished, rather than focusing so much on what he is capable of, “if only.”

He turns 22 in late April, so he is getting past the youngster category. He has 3 titles and his best Slam finishes are QFs in AO and Wimby, but those are at least 2 years ago now. A ranking of No. 13 is good but not amazing.

I am not going to get excited about Kyrgios one way or another until he makes top 10, gets at least to the SF of a Slam and/or wins 3 more titles. He needs to actually deliver some good results.

A full two years younger than Thiem. And he owns wins on almost everyone. Lets not write an obituary for Kyrgios just yet and recall Federer’s first slam came at the ripe old age of 22. Murray’s at 24. And Wawrinka’s at 29! Early bloomer Hewitt won his first slam at 20. Pat Rafter won his first slam at 25 after turning pro at 19.

I think we need to look at games and matchups here. I’m sure Murray was going crazy given his inability to win a slam until Lendl talked him out of the if only I played in another area dialogue.

A loss to Seppi 10-8 in the fifth shows some serious effort to win. He was still fighting and apparently was really cursing himself out.

Like Agassi a lot of people dislike Kyrgios immaturity. And marvel at his capabilities. He’s a polarizing guy for sure. But that doesn’t mean he takes losing lightly in front of a home crowd.

I guarantee it matters to him.

If i were his coach I’d enter him in dibs. And while we go after poor DY for his god-awful third set against Kohli, which betrays how far DY has come, I’d say good on him for entering the dubs with Querrey and delivering a shocking upset of Soares and Melo right?

Bottom line, winning wipes out the bad taste of losing.

Big four is done. Put a nail in that coffin. They dominate half the time.

Reading Sock result now, lost in 4 to Tsonga. He can’t seem to get by the big Frenchman who just seems to play Sock+ tennis against the American. I did see the first set and on one point when Sock approached to the Tsonga backhand, the Frenchman pulled a Gasquet, unleashing a one-hander that whistled cross-court for a clean winner.

The problem with Sock is that while ha has a good serve, it’s not a point-producer and while his forehand is dynamic, he misses it too often and with his grip, he has to stand too far back behind the baseline to return serve, and Tsonga riddles him with aces. There are too many holes in Sock’s game and I think it’s going to be very hard for him to beat some of the top players back to back with his game.

But he’s only 24, when he’s at his peak say in four years, all of his nemeses and the top players in the game, will be mostly past their primes, like Tsonga, who’s already past his prime, but just too good for Sock. Amazing, almost into the 4th Rd of the Aussie O and there’s still five Frenchman still in the draw and one of them isn’t even Pouille. The Americans are all gone.

I watched some of Kerber/Pliskova and although Angie won easily it really was dreary tennis. Like I mentioned before somewhere, Angie plays a more varied game when someone drags it out of her.

So I’m hoping for a better match v Vandeweghe but I can’t imagine Kerber losing on the day.

Bouchard seems to polarise people and has done since the day she appeared on the horizon.

Hartt –

Yes – our feelings about players, although we don’t know them, are pretty much the same as our feelings about people we do know, intuitive as you say – but I suppose we have to keep those feelings in perspective and recognise they aren’t ‘real’ and are based on the public face which is only part of the story.

Haven’t seen much of CoCo but I must say I don’t warm to her – should be straightforward for Angie although she’s not in tiptop form I don’t think. But she keeps a cool demeanour on court and is unlikely to be fazed by CoCo’s behaviour.

Scoop –

Yes this WTA lot seem a boring and well-behaved bunch to me – no chance of some big fat juicy scandal there I’m sorry to say 🙂

Tsonga is better than Sock and any us player. US players are suffering on courts that technically suite their games. And Sock needs to straighten out his sucky backhand. I’ve seen it live and it is flawed. This isn’t 2003 where Roddick ripped through a draw on the strength of his serve. You need a servicable backhand. Sock also can’t play Tsonga like opossum, you either take the game to Tsonga or he runs over you. And he ran over Sock, again. Kudos to Sock being the last us man standing and props to Tsonga for having a better game and better strategy.

How about Boris Becker was right when he said Djokovic wasn’t practicing like a #1? That he coasted?

I find it hard to support speculation over the real court action. Like every slam where Djokovic loses he lost in five. And like every slam he loses he took his foot off of the other player. Djokovic lost his aura of invincibility in 2014 and this website called it and said that match changed the world. It sure did. Since that moment Wawrinka and others emerged and they have collectively shaken up the sport. If anyone else emerges they should thank Wawrinka for leveling the big four.

I like Bouchard fine. That said I once said she reminds of Seles and someone rightly corrected me and said Bouchard really isn’t the same player. I think maybe she ought to talk to someone like Seles, beyond Graf, because Seles played a game that the Williams picked up and improved and it’s a more successful game than Graf’s, as it has more angles and fully deploys the backhand (versus Graf’s awesome slice!). Bouchards game is more similar to the new world approach of Seles and the Williams tha it is to Graf’s vastly upgraded classic approach to the sport. She might want to take counsel from some players who she can learn from due to more similarity in game. Someone also rightly said her shots often don’t fall deep enough and she could use some spin as well.this is all true.

In other words Bouchards game is the same as in 2014. CIRSTEA exploited it at the us open and showed its deficiencies and those haven’t been mended. So her loss is in keeping with that.

Folks here have said this before and I have too, a junior player is UNLIKELY to abandon the game that brought them to the dance.

In her ESPN interview Genie talked about concentrating on improving her game right now over short term results. When asked specifically what she was working on she said her serve to get some free points on it, getting better consistency while still being aggressive, etc. She knows she needs to improve her game over what it was in 2014.

Yes Seles and Federer both did two on ones, Seles hired several college guys one from Auburn from what I recall from press reports and a 1996 (?) sports illustrated article during her comeback.

Bouchard was doing some good things and I think that Kvitova match really broke her at Wimbledon. She wasn’t the same but sometimes she seems to have it. I noticed that players have picked up on her short balls, step in and slam it back. She was playing so far inside the court during her bigger matches in 2014. And now she’s more on the baseline. Maybe she should watch some old tape or something.

That’s great she’s pumping up her serve. I think she needs to work on doing more off the return which Agassi emphasized to her. And I think Graf said basically make sure you are fit as a fiddle so you are the last one standing.

What’s nice to see is she no longer feels the need to be thinner than paper. She looks buff! It’s better.