Tennis Prose




May/16

7

Andy Shatters Nadal’s Illusion in Madrid

abrafaartThe illusion that the Rafa Nadal King of Clay was back has been shattered by Andy Murray’s straight set win in Madrid. Yes Rafa did look very good the previous weeks as he won titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona but we still didn’t know if Rafa would be able to handle Djokovic. Today we learned Rafa can’t even handle Andy Murray. Andy was just too strong and solid in the extended rallies and he was able to outlast and outwit Rafa with some fine touch shots to compliment the power and steadiness. Rafa was down a set and break at 75 52 but of course fought back as he always does. Rafa saved a match point and broke for 5-4 and even won the first point on the 5-4 gave with a vicious forehand winner up the line. After the winner Rafa pounded his chest three times and roared at his box. His unintelligible words seemed to shout: “I am the king of clay and you better believe I am BACK!” But Rafa missed the next two forehands wide and long and then at 15-30 despite control of the point netted the overhead. Down 15-40 and match point again Rafa netted an inside out forehand and it was over. It was a painful loss and Rafa showed intense frustration on his face. These were the kinds of matches the “King of Clay” used to win on instinct and nature. (Artwork by Andres Bella)

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40 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · May 7, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Good report, Scoop. Surprised that Rafa lost to Murray, but just like Djoko’s loss in MC might’ve been good for Nole, Rafa’s loss today might be good for him. And yes, Murray has become a lot better on clay.

  • catherine bell · May 7, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    Murray’s a lot better overall – which isn’t to say he’ll beat Djokovic – but he’s a thinking player, really intelligent about the game, clever. Always was, reads, studies – possibly gets more from Mauresmo in that way than he did from Lendl.

    Perhaps when he retires he can do a book or something similar –

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 7, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    Thanks Dan but I think this loss was very damaging to Rafa – Rafa’s had the upper hand on Andy most of their career and on most surfaces too – to lose on clay to Andy is a big big setback –

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 7, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    Jamie Delgado is the main coach for Andy now Catherine – he’s there in madrid – I would guess Andy values Delgado’s influence more than Amalie who I see more as PR move – I was told by a Czech that Berdych asked Lendl to coach him after he left Andy and in the Czech media Berd said that Lendl told him that he’s too old to change his game to win a major and politely declined the job offer from Berd –

  • Dan Markowitz · May 7, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    We are in an era now that I’ve never seen in my 45 years of watching tennis and that is one man is completely dominating the sport. Let’s face it, it’s Djoko’s Grand Slam to lose right now. Unless Murray shocks the world and himself tomorrow, Djoko will win yet another masters event. He’s beating guys like Nishikori and Raonic in straight sets. I know Fed and Nadal won three slams in a year, but they weren’t as dominant as Djoko because Fed was never going to win the French with Nadal around and Rafa was barely winning the Aussie, US Open and Wimby. Now you’ve got Djoko and he might straight set his opponents at the Aussie, French, Wimby and US Open finals and throw in the Olympics to boot.

  • Dan Markowitz · May 7, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    Geez, just looked at Futures in Florida this week, and remember Jarmere Jenkins, NCAA champ, Andrew was very high on him, he lost in second round. I guess Jarmere should’ve hired Vince when Vince was interested in coaching him.

  • catherine bell · May 8, 2016 at 2:57 am

    Scoop –

    I don’t agree Mauresmo was a ‘PR’ move – that’s been a constant snipe since he appointed her.
    And why would he bother to make an expensive PR move when there were plenty of options available to him ?

    Andy’s often made comments on how much they’ve benefitted from the collaboration. Why would he do that if it wasn’t true ?

    Andy’s known Delgado almost from childhood. Delgado’s there when Mauresmo isn’t. He’s in touch with her constantly, he’s said so, she doesn’t have to be in the box every match. Andy’s also said he prefers one coach at a time for a tournament. Makes sense.

    But in no way is Delgado ‘the main coach’ – if he was then Andy would have made that difference clear.

  • catherine bell · May 8, 2016 at 6:07 am

    Oh and just to add to that – from Andy’s comments in Madrid, it seems he talks to a lot of people, including his brother Jamie’s coach.
    Unlike some other players Andy doesn’t see any reason why he should just stick to one coach all the time for information and a different perspective.
    That’s what I meant by saying he’s a thinking, intelligent player.

    I can think of some others, particularly women, who could emulate him and maybe move on from their predictable and one-dimensional styles.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 8:28 am

    The last time I saw Jenkins he played Kyrgios in the Sarasota Open Challenger two years ago on Center Court in late afternoon and lost like 64 63 – good match – but since then JJ has faded and NK is rising – Good to see JJ won’t hang it up but he needs to get a good roll going soon – this could be his last hurrah before he becomes an assistant coach in college –

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 8:38 am

    Catherine: Just my observations – it’s a smart PR move and it paints Andy as a new ager – this will always be a part of his legacy – having female coaches through his illustrious career – I’ve watched many of Andy’s practices with her there and she just stands around holding a racquet – once in a while she says “good volley” or something inconsequential – never see her run over and instruct this or that or request this be done a certain way or lets work on this drill – she’s always just standing around on the side like a figurehead – just my honest observations – Stan doesn’t have a coach – neither does Nick Kyrgios – a lot of top players don’t have coaches and don’t need them – a lot of coaches are just along for the free ride – Yes Andy speaks nicely about Amalie but does he ever go into specifics about what she has to offer? No –

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 8:44 am

    No doubt Andy is a very very intelligent player – he’s just a slight margin below three of the GOAT – Fed Rafa and Stan – Andy has a lot of wins over each of these GOAT players – but also a lot of losses –

  • Harold · May 8, 2016 at 9:27 am

    Murray behind Wawrinka?

    Careers ended today, whose career would you rather have? I know Wawa won an important doubles title, but AM won the singles in Oly.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 9:33 am

    Dead even Harold – both win Davis Cup too – dead heat – tiebreaker could come down to head to head – which Andy leads by 8-7 –

  • catherine bell · May 8, 2016 at 10:03 am

    Scoop –

    Andy HAS spoken in detail about his working with Mauresmo – earlier this year in an interview with the Guardian – might be still around on their archive, don’t know.
    Not sure if you can gather very much from watching a public practice – it’s a kind of shorthand. Nobody’s going to give away anything in front of a bunch of journalists etc. And Mauresmo is a very experienced coach.

    Also, Judy Murray’s a shrewd Scotswoman, unlikely to encourage Andy to waste time or money on gesture politics. (She was involved in his choice)

    Yes – several players have done well without coaches – or used coaches intermittantly – BJK did that. But others need them, possibly more for psych reasons.

    But these are just opinions of course 🙂 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 11:00 am

    Catherine: Just not sure how much ATP players really respect womens tennis – they don’t watch it except if a girlfriend or wife is playing – and I have asked hundreds of players for their favorite tennis players to watch and I can’t recall one ATP player ever saying a WTA player – I saw a Hall of Fame player in the media lounge at US Open completely ignore the Stosur vs Kirilenko thriller on the TV – it was the longest tiebreak in US Open history and this Hall of Famer from the same country as Stosur had zero interest to turn his chair around to look at it – I just wonder what mauresmo really does for Andy – or what she could possibly tell him – Agassi told us: “image is everything” – we live in a media age of truth and propoganda –

  • catherine bell · May 8, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    Scoop –
    Oh yes – I’ve never known or heard of male players taking the slightest notice of women’s tennis or women players or interest in their game, and that’s going right back. Why should they ? Men and women don’t compete together and while women might learn from men, and do, it doesn’t go the other way round. Men do it better. Thus, so many men coaching women.

    However, speculating, perhaps Mauresmo can offer a different mental perspective on some aspects of the game – Andy doesn’t need intensive stroke coaching at this stage. Eg, in his interview he mentioned that he found it useful hearing Mauresmo’s comments on how she approached playing Serena, physically a much stronger player, and the mental set etc. That would be common to both men and women.

    And of course although she’s a coach on his team, he has guys around. Should imagine that was agreed early on.
    I remember BJK and Rosie C saying how much they learned from the brief time they spent as women pros with Laver, Rosewall etc in late 60s. I suppose it was like having multiple coaches !

    To be honest – I’ve never been a great fan of the women’s game – apart from a few exceptional players who transcend boundaries – and especially today where I think the styles are stereotyped and monotonous. I’d like to think differently – since I prefer a mixed sport, but I can’t. And on the whole, I don’t think raquet technology advances did women any favours – made it easy to stay in the backcourt, avoid the net and exclude a range of strokes from their games (I’m thinkin Halep here – delightful though she is). And many girls and women are very happy to stay in the backcourt or on the baseline.
    Needless to say these views didn’t make me terribly popular when I was around the game – and as you pertitently say, there’s truth and propoganda and I heard lot of propoganda and much evasion of the truth.

    End of essay 🙂 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 8, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    Catherine: Amalie is a really nice person and good company – I remember doing a Biofile with her and she said she hung out with the mens players playing backgammon and cards – I think she coached Llodra too for a while or one of the French guys – I’m sure she brings something to the table but for the most part it’s Andy doing her a favor and giving her a prominent place in the sport Imo –

  • sharoten · May 8, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    Felix Auger Aliassime became the first player born in the 2000s to reach a pro final at Lleida, Spain (clay). Unfortunately he lost against a 22 yr old Indian trained in Spain but still a great accomplishment for such a young guy.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 9, 2016 at 8:01 am

    Very happy to read that very good update on Felix AA sharoten thanks –

  • Dan Markowitz · May 9, 2016 at 8:42 am

    No way is Murray even with Wawa. Murray’s been to how many slam finals? Wawa has had an impressive late-career surge, but Murray’s been a top 3 or 4 player for all his career.

  • Harold · May 9, 2016 at 8:54 am

    In Scoops world, that Oly doubs win equals 6 GS finals losses

  • Dan Markowitz · May 9, 2016 at 9:52 am

    Oh, thanks, Harold, I didn’t get drift of Scoop’s career accounting.

  • Moskova Moskova · May 9, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    down goes mauresmo !

    murray gives her the boot after 2 yrs + recent loss to djoko lol

  • Andrew Miller · May 9, 2016 at 3:11 pm

    JJ and injuries. Hard to catapult the ranks. Mauresmo is adios. Djokovic’s to lose, he is now looking like the favorite, almost losing sets just to motivate himself to win in the end.

    Murray has had a strong year and has locked up the number two spot. I’d think he has his eyes set on Wimbledon and the US Open and probably targets the semis at Roland Garros, but will settle with a quarterfinal on the dirt. If Djoko gets shocked it becomes a different tournament for Murray – which would be the shocker of his career. Murray with a French slam would be ironic.

    Stranger things have happened in the tennis world.

    Nice to see Halep hoisting the hardware. Cahill has to be one of the sports best coaches.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 9, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    Harold how many players sparked their singles success with doubles success? – Serena Venus Hewitt Connors mcenroe Kuznetsova Stosur Wawrinka etc etc –

  • Harold · May 9, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    Yup, when I look back on Mac’s career, it will always be the Mixed French with Mary C that elevated him, not getting to the semis as a qualifier

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 9, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    Harold: which one was first?

  • Andrew Miller · May 9, 2016 at 8:02 pm

    Dubs is crucial. Roddick played a lot more dubs right as he was breaking through then concentrated on singles. Someone told me about a match where he played with Gambill in dubs before Roddick really hit the tennis world five months later. His game wasn’t quite there, but by September it was. Being on the court for more match play reinforced his singles game. You’re serving fifty percent more, hitting fifty percent more forehands, backhands, volleys.

    Gotta get your wins somewhere. Fish was a lot better singles player because of his dubs ability – wind the clock back to his match in Colombia to keep the u.s. in the world group. That match, which Roddick, Blake and one of the Bryans sat out, was all Fish! He won all his matches and headed into the next couple years as the top u.s. player and a top tenner.

    In part because of dubs. Fed the confidence tank and the tank kept on filling.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 10, 2016 at 7:39 am

    There is no doubt Andrew that doubles success can be and often is a springboard to singles success – there are countless examples – for some reason Harold is being stubborn about accepting doubles success is very often the stimulus for singles success – Good call on Fish I do recall that Davis Cup tie vs Colombia when he was the hero – and soon after he became top ten in singles –

  • Dan Markowitz · May 10, 2016 at 8:13 am

    How’s doubles success worked for Pospisil?

  • Harold · May 10, 2016 at 8:27 am

    Not being stubborn, outside of Fed winning the Oly dubs, then winning a Major, who has won a Major after winning a dubs title? I just dont think one has to with the other. I think they could get as much confidence from stealing the model sitting with Spadea, than winning dubs

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 10, 2016 at 8:51 am

    Pospisil did final in Wash DC but Sock is the better player Dan – By the way Dan when mcenroe won the French Open mixed title with carillo it was just before his SF run at 77 wimbledon – so one can conclude that that win in Paris paved the way for the wimbledon run –

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 10, 2016 at 8:54 am

    Hewitt and Serena’s first majors were in doubles/mixed – Kafelnikov’s first major title was doubles with Vacek at French Open (he also won doubles that same year) – Korda’s first major was 96 doubles in Australia with Edberg –

  • Dan Markowitz · May 10, 2016 at 11:27 am

    I’m not saying Mac winning the French MXd title had nothing to do with his semis at 18 at Wimby, but if you said they were closely tied and mentioned this to Mac I think he’d laugh in your face.

  • Andrew Miller · May 10, 2016 at 11:42 am

    McEnroe on McEnroe – you be the judge! Practice makes perfect – and to me, the more you practice under real world conditions, the better you perform under real world conditions.

    Let’s just say it now. McEnroe’s doubles play WAS his practice – and because he won his doubles matches, he “practiced” his confidence for his singles matches that took place the next day. What you’re going to have is John McEnroe, the man who is so confidant he’s probably going to tear the tour up. and he did.

    “To better make his point, McEnroe downplayed his own legendary doubles career, insisting it was all in service to his singles game. “I thought doubles was a good way for me to practice and get some reps in — I didn’t like to train in the gym as much as players these days,” he said. True enough, McEnroe didn’t enjoy practicing and believed doubles kept him sharp for singles.”

  • Andrew Miller · May 10, 2016 at 11:47 am

    Federer 2008 – where was he getting his confidence from anyways? He was in a super slump.

    – Lost to Djokovic in 2008 Australian semifinals. First time he had lost in Australia since 2005 quarters to Safin.

    – Lost to Nadal in 2008 French Open final, for the third time in a row.

    – Lost to Nadal at Wimbledon final – the first time he had lost to Nadal on grass and the first time he had lost to Nadal at Wimbledon, and the first time he had lost at Wimbledon since 2003.

    – Lost at Olympics.

    – FINALLY WINS OLYMPICS DOUBLES WITH WAWRINKA

    – WINS US OPEN

    Please – the record’s right there. Federer wins Olympic gold medal, doesn’t care that it’s in doubles just that he is now an Olympic gold medalist.

    Then Federer wins the 2008 US Open.

    Plain as plain can be.

  • Andrew Miller · May 10, 2016 at 11:57 am

    Listen it’s just my theory and it plays out. You win in one area and it carries over if you are already a skilled singles player.

    Nobody here is saying well, Jamie Murray, dynamite singles star because of his doubles success.

    But you could look at the Woodies – they were good singles players who were great doubles players. They did well in both areas and it was reinforcing.

    Tennis depends so much on confidence. And let’s be honest, in singles if you are on the tour you’re losing every week. How do you convince yourself you don’t suck? I mean chances are, somewhere in your brain, you think you lost because the other guy is better.

    Or maybe just better on the day.

    But then you go for time without match play. Suddenly you are just practicing shots, etc. Or maybe play to 7 or a few tiebreaks. How does that mimic real tennis match play?

    Suddenly you lose next week. And you forego doubles. So you don’t have another match for a while – again.

    And you slump.

    How do you get back?

    Why, winning more often. And where can you get more wins? Through dubs if you play.

  • Harold · May 10, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    Granted Fed needed to close a tournament, and get Olympic Gold, so maybe the win helped.
    Hewitt and Williams were kids when they won their Doubles Majors, they were only starting their careers.
    Show me some Doubles win in a Major, not Newport or Memphis, or Casablanca, where a doubles win propelled to a Major or even a Masters win( in Mens)

  • Andrew Miller · May 10, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    For players that do dubs, dubs is a place to get wins – not necessarily that a player suffering in singles will suddenly pick up a racquet and head to the dubs alley.

    I think Fed’s headed to the dubs quite a few times in his career. But Fed also seems to have a “no way dubs” policy for slams – diddo for Nadal, Murray, Djokovic.

    It’s a choice. McEnroe got his singles practice through doubles, he said that. He hated practice so he played doubles.

    Hingis hated practice too and settled on doubles.

    Two world champs right there.

    Does everyone? No. And if you’re good at dubs does that mean you’re good at singles? No.

    But if you play dubs, and you concentrate on singles, I’d say why not dubs with the right partner. It’s free low-pressure real world practice for singles matches.

    It’s helped Sock. Obviously it hasn’t helped Murray, he just doesn’t feed from that trough for his confidence and probably doesn’t want to steal the thunder from his brother Jamie.

  • catherine bell · May 16, 2016 at 11:14 am

    People used to say (long ago) that Rosie Casal’s singles career was harmed by her long (8 year) pairing with BJK.

    Actually, Rosie, like a couple of players mentioned above, hated practising and got most of it through her doubles – she was also good at mixed as well.
    Left to herself, and there were no travelling coaches in those days, her singles record wouldn’t have reached the level it did, briefly.

    Also, BJK, and possibly others I don’t know of, tended to enter all events at major tournaments because the competition kept her sharp.

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