The views by the authors published at this web site will study, chronicle and profile the range of characters and issues that make the great sport of tennis.
Thank you Scoop for the excellent you were there take on yesterday. Looking forward to what you and Dan come up with today. Special request, some WTA notes.
If, outside the Christian Harrison mission, Dan comes away impressed with any WTA player today outside of Puig, who lost, and Crawford, who also put up a fight and lost, I’ll consider it a huge evolution in TP coverage. Bouchard, Pliskova, Serena Williams, Camilla Giorgi, Laura Robson…plenty of WTA players who play a nice style beyond mindless* ball bashing.
*We can’t call Giorgi’s style this. She plays like Agassi with Blake’s mentality of hit the winner before your opponent does, and probably feels this is her best chance to win.
Yeah I agree with everything Scoop said. I think Sock probably got this because of the crowd. I read he was talking a lot to the crowd from Steve Tignor’s report on tennis dot com, and that’s what he did when I saw him play live earlier this summer. Give the crowd a year or two and they’ll rally behind Fritz, or give Fritz a year or two to learn how to let the crowd in on your racquet.
I totally disagree that a player is alone out there. Players that don’t realize they are part of a larger thing are alone out there. For once I think Harrison realizes, I think Scoop saw this yesterday, that people are showing up for him. He’s always talked about not wanting to let anyone down. Now I think he gets that he can’t let them down if he pushes it and lets them lift him up. Even if it’s a loss, win and lose with more support. Any player who gets this has another thing to help him or her on the court.
About to deliver a “C-” grade for the American men, the intramural matches notwithstanding, until Stevie Johnson pulled a Houdini act against Donskoy. One of the all-time great escapes.
Breakthrough win for Donaldson after what seems like a long time putting the pieces of his game together…they finally clicked today in a very big way.
Round 1 from day 2. These players move on to rd 2.
Thiem d. Millman in 5.
Berankis d. Jaziri in 4
Carreno Busta, Winston Salem Champ, d. Ivashka in 3.
TIPSAREVIC d. Querrey in 4. I thought Tipsy might do it again
Johnson d. Donskoy in 5, comes back from 2 sets down as Leif said.
Del Potro d. Schwartzmann in 3 in all argentina bout
Fognin d. Gabashvili in 5, comes back from 2 sets down!
Ferrer d. Dolgopolov in only a partial set. Dolgo, man.
Kyrgios d. Bedene in 3.
Zeballos d. Meyer in 3.
Marchenko d. Dodig in 4. Nice win from Marchenko.
Dzumhur d. Tomic in 4. I like Dzumhur, but Tomic lost? How?
Zverev, Alex d. Brands in 4.
Evans d. Wildcard Ram in 4. Most U.S. wildcards lost!
Gianessi d. Kudla in 5. Kudla is having awful year.
Wawrinka d. Verdasco in 3.
Nishikori d. Becker in 4.
Khachanov d. Fabbiano in 4, Dan’s player moves on.
Mathieu d. Harrison Christian in 3. Christian won 3 games.
Must have been tough. Did anyone see that match?
Mahut d. Kohlschreiber, who retires after 2 sets
Karlovic d. Lu in 5 in a battle.
DY d Struff in 4
Troicki d. Albot in 5. Albot is from Moldova. Wow.
DONALDSON d. Goffin in 4. Saw that Donaldson backhand, looked world class. He really ran away with it. Amazing v.
Lopez d. Coric in under 1 set, retired. Can we agree now that young Coric is really over-rated as of now?
Sousa d. Estrella Burgos in 3. Estrella wins 2 games total
Chardy d. Mmoh in 3. Generation next next is Donaldson.
Dimitrov d. Cervantes in 3
Simon d. Stepanek in 3
Lorenzi d. Berlocq in 3.
Grannollers d Monaco in 3
Murray d Rosol in 3
WTA
Williams d. Makarova in 2
King d. Lottner in 2. Nice win for Vania King.
Larsson d. Knapp
Allertova d. Ivanovic in 2. Ivanovic still honeymooning.
Wang d Kasatkina
Shvedova d. Arruabarena
Zhang d. Perez
Stosur d. Giorgi despite Giorgi 1st set. Giorgi out early again.
Suarez Navarro d. Pereira
Jankovic d. Duque Marino. Nice to see Jankovic punch thru
Beck d. Podoroska
Vesnina d. Kontaveit. Yes! I like Vesnina a lot.
Babos d. Haas
Hogenkamp d. Watson
Safarova d Gavrilova. Gavrilova has a nifty game and is fun to watch. But I love Safarova’s lefty game. She is awesome.
Halep d. Flipkens in a hurry!
Radwanska d. Pegula. Radwanska shows how it’s done, she knows court so well, has so many kinds of spins. She is really similar to Santoro.
Broady d. Robson. Broady is the sister of Liam Broady
Siniakova d. Bouchard. Siniakova has a very clever game, similar to Radwanska! What is going on with Bouchard.
Garcia d Parmentier. Garcia another player with a nice game.
Konjuh d BErtens
Lepchenko d Peng
Bacsinsky d. Diatchenko
Pliskova d. Kenin. Pliskova should win this quarter.
Gonzalez d. Kovinic. Gonzalez is from Paraguay!
Mladanovic d. Hibino. NIce win.
Pavlyuchenkova d. Chirico
Siegemund d. Tig
GIBBS d. Krunic. The WTT MVP moves on!
Goerges d. Wickmayer
Venus Williams d. Kozlova in 3, barely! Holds on.
I don’t think it’s been a terrible round for the US players. For Querrey though, absolutely. And for almost all the wildcards – only Del Potro (Silver medalist), Donaldson and Escobedo (us open qualifying series winner) made it! Mmoh, McDonald, Tiafoe, Fratangelo, Ram – all lost, though Tiafoe had the hardest match-up. Baker used his protected ranking and did the best he could, losing in five up two sets to none.
As for the women, seems to be a great tournament so far. Head scratchers for Bouchard and Ivanovic. It’s hard to believe in Ivanovic’s path back, I don’t think she’s up for it these days.
I was pleasantly surprised re some of the ball striking on the women’s tour. I think you have to see the full spectrum at the slams to appreciate them, there’s a lot more variety. Radwanska alone plays tennis in a special way – she plays like someone who knows how to win because she knows tennis is about putting the ball where your opponent isn’t and how you do that is up to you. It’s like playing someone who looks like they are in their twenties but thinks like they have played five lifetimes!
I was out there today and let me tell you, getting a meal at the food court is not easy, unless you’re like me and on a hot day you eat the Indian food where’s there was no line when I dined. Something about hot spicy food on a 90 degree day I guess doesn’t jive with the US Open crowd.
I want to tell you, I can’t believe Donaldson won that match. I went down to Court 17 when JD was down a set and a break to Goffin and I sat right behind Goffin’s dress-wearing girlfriend and as it turned out, Thomas Johannsson, who I guess is Goffin’s coach, and it looked like Goffin was running away with the match. JD is a big wiry guy and he does smack the ball and move well, but for Goffin to lose 6-0 in the 4th set, I can never take the Beligium dude seriously again. You’re supposed to be a top 10 player and you lose like this!
So much for the Wimbledon bounce for Qball and I guess we shouldn’t anoint C Harry as an up and comer because he got slammed by a Frenchman who’s basically been playing Challengers the last few years. It was a good day for the Frenchman, as Chardy, Mathieu and Mahut all won. Chardy just took the woodshed to Mmoh beating him at love in the third. Mmoh has an awful second serve, he won’t be able to play at this level if he doesn’t improve it.
Saw some Daniel Brands and Alex Zverev, who in person looks like a bigger Bjorn Borg, but with the same sleek legs and flowing hair. Zverev always seems like he’s pissed when I see him play live. He does have a real nice backhand and he is smooth.
In the old Grandstand where Giorgi and Bernie Tomic both met their demise this afternoon. Bernie losing to Dzhumhur on the heels of him saying he’s flittered his career a bit, but would still like to win a slam, makes you wonder. Bernie just doesn’t have the eye of the tiger or whatever it takes.
So yes, Fritz, Tiafoe, Mmoh, C Harry, Opelka, Paul, Rubin, Kozlov are all out by the end of the first round and only JD with an impressive win remains. Maybe it says something for going off and training as a teen in Argentina or hiring a former big time player, Dent, as your coach when all these other guys have regular coaches or older coaches as their mentors.
When you look at it judiciously, men’s US tennis is back in the dumpster. SteveJo has lost in the first round of the Open 3 years running and then he almost lost again. Obviously, Flushing isn’t his cup of tea. Qball is Qball, he’s had a nice career for a Valley boy. Izzie has lost that special something and he’s no more than a big serve Southerner with no chance of scoring big anymore.
And of Fritz, Sock, Tiafoe and Donaldson, only JD has put his mark on this year’s Open and Goffin is one of those European players who’s also very suspect at the Open. So it comes down to JD or Harry making some noise because I don’t think Izzie or SteveJo are long for this Open.
I like Radwanska’s style too, reminds me of the old days – just a shame she can’t put it together at the big ones. Perhaps lack of staying power mentally, or techniqe ultimately.
Saw a clip the other day where R wins a good rally but she should have finished a stroke earlier – should have put a volley away and didn’t – that sort of thing, not down to lack of power etc.
Catherine, never seen Siniakova, is she Radeanska 2.0? Seemed to play with some spins to blunt Bouchard power. Both Radeanska and Boichard both need to finish off points quickly! Or more quickly. A volley transition game would definitely help out
Yes, also forgot Mac Mac and he went down on the first day too. Here’s where Andrew shows whether he is a true tennis genius if Harry beat Milos today.
How can you say Coric is overrated after having to retire due to an injury?
It’s not like he lost like C Harrison today
Coric has what most American plays don’t have ( besides Steve jo at this time) and that’s drive. These American plays play bang bang tennis, barely work the point or use any variety.
Yes Dan I think going down to South American def helped JD opposed to playing who can hit harder somewhere in FL.
American tennis may have some young guns but the odds they do anything such as what we’re seeing now is slim to none
Coric has the drive U.S. players don’t? Since when. His performance this year doesn’t spell that, he’s #41 in the rankings and there are 4 U.S. players ahead of him there – Isner, Johnson, Querrey, Sock – so obviously they have more drive because those results reflect performance this year. He’s a young guy at 19, super young, so he has plenty of time. And he didn’t make it out of the 1st round of slams this year with the exception of the French Open. Lost to Ramos Vinales with a pitiful, match throwing performance at the Australian where he gave up.
Please. Coric may own the future and he certainly has a game that should hold up and good strategy. But drive doesn’t equal results and they are good but not better than the U.S. guys ahead of him.
Tiafoe/Vickery! That’s awesome.
Agree with Dan’s earlier point re: Donaldson’s coaching. It says something that he’s stuck with Taylor and also says something that his training is more like Andy Murray’s than Andy Roddick, lots of time on the red clay to give him more than power out there. Nice to see him take a huge match.
ESCO-Edmund should be good, Escobedo likes pace so Edmund’s game should help him.
Agree with Ryan also re Donaldson coaching. The red clay teaches another way of looking at the sport. For anyone who wants to coach someone, playing in a different country and different courts makes players look at the sport differently. Dan would know this from his days in pro tennis.
Well, that’s very true, if you go back to 1987 and I’d just played Div III tennis and Eastern events and then I’m in France playing against Italians and Germans. And the main thing I noticed is they moved more smoothly and hit the ball more smoothly than Americans. They also had an affinity for the clay.
I like the contentious debate on this site about Coric. Ryan has long been a staunch Borna fan, I think that’s mellowed a bit of late, but I think Andrew makes a valid point. The Croat has stunk up the slams this year and if he has all that drive why did he tank in Australia and pull out in US Open after a month ago he beat Sock in DCup in five sets? Coric is not the future slam-dunk Top Tenner everyone thought he’d be when he was 17. I think in Donaldson, Fritz and Tiafoe you’ve got three guys younger than Coric and just as good or possibly better potentially. Good point a friend made on Fritz, though, he does everything well, but nothing spectacular. He doesn’t have a big weapon, but neither does Coric. Tiafoe’s forehand is probably the biggest weapon any of these Young Guns’ possess.
Kyle Edmond smoked Gasquet if he can destroy Gasquet like that and Escobedo beat him we will have a new young star to sing songs about here at tennis prose –
Dan I can’t believe DOnaldson won either – he looked dead earlier this year in miami – just dead after qualies and LL loss in first round – now he’s suddenly on fire beating a Tour titan in Goffin – incredible turnaround by JD – arguably the biggest ATP surprise of the year so far along with Harrison’s turnaround –
Gasquet was def not 100% I was at the match for the first two sets and noticed his back was heavily taped, Edmund did play very solid and had Annocone siting sideline the entire time as I believe he is workin with all the Britts.
As for Coric he does not have any big weapons besides his grit but as mentioned by others he is still young and has a long way too go.
Unlike many on this site my opinion of American tennis is very low as I grew up watching andre, Pete and Jim play for majors for many years – yeah Steve jo is having a great year and really that’s about it besides a win here and there for Isner or sock but is that is expectable for American tennis – they win a few rounds in a 250 or make the second week of a major and it’s like they won the tournament
I guess the expectations of results of the Americans has dropped….. By a huge margin
Excellent prediction by Andrew in calling the Harrison upset of Raonic – this is a career changing win for Harrison who looked like an ATP Top five player today – it’s incredible how swiftly a floundering career can suddenly explode
Kyrgios also looked great last night – he really can excite and inspire a crowd to cheer loudly for him – which annoys the opponent – Nick is going to be tough to beat in NY –
I have been saying all year Harrison has been playing well and flying around the court but he was just losing a lot of tough ones -now he has finally begun to win and gain confidence after Newport which was a tough draw as Dancevic won both two very close tough quali battles and was red hot when he ran into Harry –
Andrew Miller · August 30, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Thank you Scoop for the excellent you were there take on yesterday. Looking forward to what you and Dan come up with today. Special request, some WTA notes.
If, outside the Christian Harrison mission, Dan comes away impressed with any WTA player today outside of Puig, who lost, and Crawford, who also put up a fight and lost, I’ll consider it a huge evolution in TP coverage. Bouchard, Pliskova, Serena Williams, Camilla Giorgi, Laura Robson…plenty of WTA players who play a nice style beyond mindless* ball bashing.
*We can’t call Giorgi’s style this. She plays like Agassi with Blake’s mentality of hit the winner before your opponent does, and probably feels this is her best chance to win.
Andrew Miller · August 30, 2016 at 12:22 pm
Yeah I agree with everything Scoop said. I think Sock probably got this because of the crowd. I read he was talking a lot to the crowd from Steve Tignor’s report on tennis dot com, and that’s what he did when I saw him play live earlier this summer. Give the crowd a year or two and they’ll rally behind Fritz, or give Fritz a year or two to learn how to let the crowd in on your racquet.
I totally disagree that a player is alone out there. Players that don’t realize they are part of a larger thing are alone out there. For once I think Harrison realizes, I think Scoop saw this yesterday, that people are showing up for him. He’s always talked about not wanting to let anyone down. Now I think he gets that he can’t let them down if he pushes it and lets them lift him up. Even if it’s a loss, win and lose with more support. Any player who gets this has another thing to help him or her on the court.
Andrew Miller · August 30, 2016 at 2:56 pm
WTT champs Gibbs and Harrison: 2-0 thus far.
Leif Wellington Haase · August 30, 2016 at 9:46 pm
About to deliver a “C-” grade for the American men, the intramural matches notwithstanding, until Stevie Johnson pulled a Houdini act against Donskoy. One of the all-time great escapes.
Breakthrough win for Donaldson after what seems like a long time putting the pieces of his game together…they finally clicked today in a very big way.
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 12:43 am
Round 1 from day 2. These players move on to rd 2.
Thiem d. Millman in 5.
Berankis d. Jaziri in 4
Carreno Busta, Winston Salem Champ, d. Ivashka in 3.
TIPSAREVIC d. Querrey in 4. I thought Tipsy might do it again
Johnson d. Donskoy in 5, comes back from 2 sets down as Leif said.
Del Potro d. Schwartzmann in 3 in all argentina bout
Fognin d. Gabashvili in 5, comes back from 2 sets down!
Ferrer d. Dolgopolov in only a partial set. Dolgo, man.
Kyrgios d. Bedene in 3.
Zeballos d. Meyer in 3.
Marchenko d. Dodig in 4. Nice win from Marchenko.
Dzumhur d. Tomic in 4. I like Dzumhur, but Tomic lost? How?
Zverev, Alex d. Brands in 4.
Evans d. Wildcard Ram in 4. Most U.S. wildcards lost!
Gianessi d. Kudla in 5. Kudla is having awful year.
Wawrinka d. Verdasco in 3.
Nishikori d. Becker in 4.
Khachanov d. Fabbiano in 4, Dan’s player moves on.
Mathieu d. Harrison Christian in 3. Christian won 3 games.
Must have been tough. Did anyone see that match?
Mahut d. Kohlschreiber, who retires after 2 sets
Karlovic d. Lu in 5 in a battle.
DY d Struff in 4
Troicki d. Albot in 5. Albot is from Moldova. Wow.
DONALDSON d. Goffin in 4. Saw that Donaldson backhand, looked world class. He really ran away with it. Amazing v.
Lopez d. Coric in under 1 set, retired. Can we agree now that young Coric is really over-rated as of now?
Sousa d. Estrella Burgos in 3. Estrella wins 2 games total
Chardy d. Mmoh in 3. Generation next next is Donaldson.
Dimitrov d. Cervantes in 3
Simon d. Stepanek in 3
Lorenzi d. Berlocq in 3.
Grannollers d Monaco in 3
Murray d Rosol in 3
WTA
Williams d. Makarova in 2
King d. Lottner in 2. Nice win for Vania King.
Larsson d. Knapp
Allertova d. Ivanovic in 2. Ivanovic still honeymooning.
Wang d Kasatkina
Shvedova d. Arruabarena
Zhang d. Perez
Stosur d. Giorgi despite Giorgi 1st set. Giorgi out early again.
Suarez Navarro d. Pereira
Jankovic d. Duque Marino. Nice to see Jankovic punch thru
Beck d. Podoroska
Vesnina d. Kontaveit. Yes! I like Vesnina a lot.
Babos d. Haas
Hogenkamp d. Watson
Safarova d Gavrilova. Gavrilova has a nifty game and is fun to watch. But I love Safarova’s lefty game. She is awesome.
Halep d. Flipkens in a hurry!
Radwanska d. Pegula. Radwanska shows how it’s done, she knows court so well, has so many kinds of spins. She is really similar to Santoro.
Broady d. Robson. Broady is the sister of Liam Broady
Siniakova d. Bouchard. Siniakova has a very clever game, similar to Radwanska! What is going on with Bouchard.
Garcia d Parmentier. Garcia another player with a nice game.
Konjuh d BErtens
Lepchenko d Peng
Bacsinsky d. Diatchenko
Pliskova d. Kenin. Pliskova should win this quarter.
Gonzalez d. Kovinic. Gonzalez is from Paraguay!
Mladanovic d. Hibino. NIce win.
Pavlyuchenkova d. Chirico
Siegemund d. Tig
GIBBS d. Krunic. The WTT MVP moves on!
Goerges d. Wickmayer
Venus Williams d. Kozlova in 3, barely! Holds on.
I don’t think it’s been a terrible round for the US players. For Querrey though, absolutely. And for almost all the wildcards – only Del Potro (Silver medalist), Donaldson and Escobedo (us open qualifying series winner) made it! Mmoh, McDonald, Tiafoe, Fratangelo, Ram – all lost, though Tiafoe had the hardest match-up. Baker used his protected ranking and did the best he could, losing in five up two sets to none.
As for the women, seems to be a great tournament so far. Head scratchers for Bouchard and Ivanovic. It’s hard to believe in Ivanovic’s path back, I don’t think she’s up for it these days.
I was pleasantly surprised re some of the ball striking on the women’s tour. I think you have to see the full spectrum at the slams to appreciate them, there’s a lot more variety. Radwanska alone plays tennis in a special way – she plays like someone who knows how to win because she knows tennis is about putting the ball where your opponent isn’t and how you do that is up to you. It’s like playing someone who looks like they are in their twenties but thinks like they have played five lifetimes!
Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2016 at 2:19 am
I was out there today and let me tell you, getting a meal at the food court is not easy, unless you’re like me and on a hot day you eat the Indian food where’s there was no line when I dined. Something about hot spicy food on a 90 degree day I guess doesn’t jive with the US Open crowd.
I want to tell you, I can’t believe Donaldson won that match. I went down to Court 17 when JD was down a set and a break to Goffin and I sat right behind Goffin’s dress-wearing girlfriend and as it turned out, Thomas Johannsson, who I guess is Goffin’s coach, and it looked like Goffin was running away with the match. JD is a big wiry guy and he does smack the ball and move well, but for Goffin to lose 6-0 in the 4th set, I can never take the Beligium dude seriously again. You’re supposed to be a top 10 player and you lose like this!
So much for the Wimbledon bounce for Qball and I guess we shouldn’t anoint C Harry as an up and comer because he got slammed by a Frenchman who’s basically been playing Challengers the last few years. It was a good day for the Frenchman, as Chardy, Mathieu and Mahut all won. Chardy just took the woodshed to Mmoh beating him at love in the third. Mmoh has an awful second serve, he won’t be able to play at this level if he doesn’t improve it.
Saw some Daniel Brands and Alex Zverev, who in person looks like a bigger Bjorn Borg, but with the same sleek legs and flowing hair. Zverev always seems like he’s pissed when I see him play live. He does have a real nice backhand and he is smooth.
In the old Grandstand where Giorgi and Bernie Tomic both met their demise this afternoon. Bernie losing to Dzhumhur on the heels of him saying he’s flittered his career a bit, but would still like to win a slam, makes you wonder. Bernie just doesn’t have the eye of the tiger or whatever it takes.
So yes, Fritz, Tiafoe, Mmoh, C Harry, Opelka, Paul, Rubin, Kozlov are all out by the end of the first round and only JD with an impressive win remains. Maybe it says something for going off and training as a teen in Argentina or hiring a former big time player, Dent, as your coach when all these other guys have regular coaches or older coaches as their mentors.
Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2016 at 2:34 am
When you look at it judiciously, men’s US tennis is back in the dumpster. SteveJo has lost in the first round of the Open 3 years running and then he almost lost again. Obviously, Flushing isn’t his cup of tea. Qball is Qball, he’s had a nice career for a Valley boy. Izzie has lost that special something and he’s no more than a big serve Southerner with no chance of scoring big anymore.
And of Fritz, Sock, Tiafoe and Donaldson, only JD has put his mark on this year’s Open and Goffin is one of those European players who’s also very suspect at the Open. So it comes down to JD or Harry making some noise because I don’t think Izzie or SteveJo are long for this Open.
catherine bell · August 31, 2016 at 2:55 am
Andrew-
I like Radwanska’s style too, reminds me of the old days – just a shame she can’t put it together at the big ones. Perhaps lack of staying power mentally, or techniqe ultimately.
Saw a clip the other day where R wins a good rally but she should have finished a stroke earlier – should have put a volley away and didn’t – that sort of thing, not down to lack of power etc.
Coach ? 🙂
Jg · August 31, 2016 at 6:25 am
How’s this mixed doubles today Hingis/Paes v Tiafoe/Vickery. Dan you forgot Escobedo and I think he has a winnable match today against Kyle Edmond
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 7:36 am
Catherine, never seen Siniakova, is she Radeanska 2.0? Seemed to play with some spins to blunt Bouchard power. Both Radeanska and Boichard both need to finish off points quickly! Or more quickly. A volley transition game would definitely help out
catherine bell · August 31, 2016 at 8:02 am
Volley transition game ? 🙂
Well, as we say, chance would be a fine thing…..
Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2016 at 9:02 am
Yes, also forgot Mac Mac and he went down on the first day too. Here’s where Andrew shows whether he is a true tennis genius if Harry beat Milos today.
Ryan Balon · August 31, 2016 at 9:57 am
Andrew
How can you say Coric is overrated after having to retire due to an injury?
It’s not like he lost like C Harrison today
Coric has what most American plays don’t have ( besides Steve jo at this time) and that’s drive. These American plays play bang bang tennis, barely work the point or use any variety.
Yes Dan I think going down to South American def helped JD opposed to playing who can hit harder somewhere in FL.
American tennis may have some young guns but the odds they do anything such as what we’re seeing now is slim to none
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 11:40 am
Coric has the drive U.S. players don’t? Since when. His performance this year doesn’t spell that, he’s #41 in the rankings and there are 4 U.S. players ahead of him there – Isner, Johnson, Querrey, Sock – so obviously they have more drive because those results reflect performance this year. He’s a young guy at 19, super young, so he has plenty of time. And he didn’t make it out of the 1st round of slams this year with the exception of the French Open. Lost to Ramos Vinales with a pitiful, match throwing performance at the Australian where he gave up.
Please. Coric may own the future and he certainly has a game that should hold up and good strategy. But drive doesn’t equal results and they are good but not better than the U.S. guys ahead of him.
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 11:47 am
Tiafoe/Vickery! That’s awesome.
Agree with Dan’s earlier point re: Donaldson’s coaching. It says something that he’s stuck with Taylor and also says something that his training is more like Andy Murray’s than Andy Roddick, lots of time on the red clay to give him more than power out there. Nice to see him take a huge match.
ESCO-Edmund should be good, Escobedo likes pace so Edmund’s game should help him.
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 11:49 am
Agree with Ryan also re Donaldson coaching. The red clay teaches another way of looking at the sport. For anyone who wants to coach someone, playing in a different country and different courts makes players look at the sport differently. Dan would know this from his days in pro tennis.
Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Well, that’s very true, if you go back to 1987 and I’d just played Div III tennis and Eastern events and then I’m in France playing against Italians and Germans. And the main thing I noticed is they moved more smoothly and hit the ball more smoothly than Americans. They also had an affinity for the clay.
I like the contentious debate on this site about Coric. Ryan has long been a staunch Borna fan, I think that’s mellowed a bit of late, but I think Andrew makes a valid point. The Croat has stunk up the slams this year and if he has all that drive why did he tank in Australia and pull out in US Open after a month ago he beat Sock in DCup in five sets? Coric is not the future slam-dunk Top Tenner everyone thought he’d be when he was 17. I think in Donaldson, Fritz and Tiafoe you’ve got three guys younger than Coric and just as good or possibly better potentially. Good point a friend made on Fritz, though, he does everything well, but nothing spectacular. He doesn’t have a big weapon, but neither does Coric. Tiafoe’s forehand is probably the biggest weapon any of these Young Guns’ possess.
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Ryan: The US guys all have the drive – be sure of that –
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Kyle Edmond smoked Gasquet if he can destroy Gasquet like that and Escobedo beat him we will have a new young star to sing songs about here at tennis prose –
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Dan I can’t believe DOnaldson won either – he looked dead earlier this year in miami – just dead after qualies and LL loss in first round – now he’s suddenly on fire beating a Tour titan in Goffin – incredible turnaround by JD – arguably the biggest ATP surprise of the year so far along with Harrison’s turnaround –
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 1:13 pm
Dan try the Pat Lafrieda hoagies – the bread is incredibly great –
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Scoop, Edmund d. Escobedo in 3 tough sets. Edmund’s just due.
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 2:53 pm
I saw some of Escobedo in the first round and I liked what i saw. Firepower and intensity. Very good prospect.
Dan Markowitz · August 31, 2016 at 3:27 pm
Escobedo in size and style looks a lot to me like Spadea, who was out at the Open on Monday and watched Mac Mac and Tiafoe lose.
Ryan Balon · August 31, 2016 at 4:54 pm
Gasquet was def not 100% I was at the match for the first two sets and noticed his back was heavily taped, Edmund did play very solid and had Annocone siting sideline the entire time as I believe he is workin with all the Britts.
As for Coric he does not have any big weapons besides his grit but as mentioned by others he is still young and has a long way too go.
Unlike many on this site my opinion of American tennis is very low as I grew up watching andre, Pete and Jim play for majors for many years – yeah Steve jo is having a great year and really that’s about it besides a win here and there for Isner or sock but is that is expectable for American tennis – they win a few rounds in a 250 or make the second week of a major and it’s like they won the tournament
I guess the expectations of results of the Americans has dropped….. By a huge margin
Jg · August 31, 2016 at 5:33 pm
Andrew looking pretty smart right now with Harry
Andrew Miller · August 31, 2016 at 6:01 pm
Jg saw Harrison @ the Citi, he saw it too! All credit to Harrison Ryan.
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 7:07 pm
Excellent prediction by Andrew in calling the Harrison upset of Raonic – this is a career changing win for Harrison who looked like an ATP Top five player today – it’s incredible how swiftly a floundering career can suddenly explode
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 7:08 pm
Kyrgios also looked great last night – he really can excite and inspire a crowd to cheer loudly for him – which annoys the opponent – Nick is going to be tough to beat in NY –
Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 7:11 pm
I have been saying all year Harrison has been playing well and flying around the court but he was just losing a lot of tough ones -now he has finally begun to win and gain confidence after Newport which was a tough draw as Dancevic won both two very close tough quali battles and was red hot when he ran into Harry –