ATP World Tour Finals London

Harry lost to Manny 1 and 1 in Knoxville. I think Harry’s career–or at least its place in the Top 100–is over. I know he’s only 22 but when you lose 1 and 1 on home soil to the No. 61st-ranked player in the world, it’s time to pack it in and go back to college or get a teaching pro gig.

Harry is so far down–he’s No. 186 and behind Americans like Chase Buchanan now–that he’s not coming back. His descent is one of hubris, the guy just plays a game with no backbone in it. He thinks he’s the Second Coming of Andy Roddick so he tried to play like Roddick without a complete game. Sad to see, but Harry is done. I said once that Fed was dead, and I was kind of wrong, but Harry is definitely done.

Don’t think Harrison’s game is like Roddick’s at all, not even that he tries to play like him. I think he blows up at people like Roddick and that it’s a punk like behavior (and that he hasn’t “mastered” the blow up like Federer, who uses the bad vibes to stay focused), and that it isn’t pretty when he does it. But I don’t think his game is Roddick’s at all.

I thought Harrison’s game looked better and that it looked like he was implementing some things that his coaches asked for, especially in the Virginia challenger. However I don’t think he’s quite “mastered” the new tactics and that it’s probably pretty easy for him to slip back to past tactics/ways of playing. Kind of like the Mardy Fish forehand – it was “repaired” and then came undone and then was repaired again, something that took place almost every match. I think it’s a lot different from Djokovic, who had a great serve, then worked with Todd Martin and had a lousy one. The switch back to “great serve” was possible and permanent because Djokovic’s original motion was a solid one.

Anyways, enough on Harrison. He doesn’t deserve the ink for now. That said I think he will earn it for good play, maybe in a year or two years he’ll have a good comeback.

Groth-mania, baby! My main man, Sam Groth, who has the biggest serve in the game, took out Alex Ramos in the first round of the Open this year, is into the finals of the Challenger in Knoxville. He routined Smycezk in the semis and is facing Mannarino in the finals today.

To give you an idea of how much better a regular tour player, a lower-ranked one like Mannarino, is than Challenger players, Manny has gone three matches in this Challenger losing a total 11 games. Guys like Harry and Broady, they make Manny look like he’s the Second Coming of Henri Leconte.

Let’s go Groth, one of T-P’s 5 favorite players on the tour, including D. Brown, Monfils, Kyrgios and Estrella-Burgos.

Big tour news:
Federer shows that you never forget a loss and beats Raonic in the WTF. Nishikori takes out Murray

How about Kvitova and Safarova and team Czech Republic. They really took it to Germany to win Fed Cup. The Czech Republic has become like a Switzerland in women’s tennis, maybe this is a preview of what team Switzerland will do to France. I think France will win but they have zero champions.

Challenger news:

JJ doing well on the Oz challenger and futures circuit in Australia. He rode a lot of momentum to make the first Traralgon finals vs. Klahn, but both of them lost in rd 2 of this week’s challenger. Still worth the risk.

Pierre Hughes Herbert won a challenger in France. Gojo won a challenger in Bratislava. The European challengers still look harder than both the U.S. and Australian challengers – no surprise to me that Mannarino is winning Knoxville and Klahn is winning Traralgon – Europe seems to have the top circuit, then the U.S., then probably Australia, then South America, then the Far East (random parts of Asia, including the Japan challenger Klahn’s currently playing).

Nice performance both by James Ward and Liam Broady, they are posting good results on the challengers. A nod also to Smyczek – I know no one wants to sing the praises of Smyczek, but he is looking very Iron Mike.

Dan’s totally right about the down year for the U.S. challenger players not named Steve Johnson and Jack Sock (Tentatively feel that the other talented lefty is staying on the ATP). However I give a pass to Kudla (illness – mono) and more or less to all of them, from Klahn through Rhyne Williams and Harrison because of their age. The tour rewards experience so I’d expect they don’t get too comfortable on the challenger circuit and prove, like Groth, that they can up their game.

Maybe the Australian challenger players are a lot better than I give them credit for. Millman won a challenger, following up his strong performance in California. I still think the European challenger players are the tops, maybe that’s why Goffin, by doing amazing in the hardest challengers, is beating big players on the ATP and other players like Carreno Busta are top 50.

Too early to write off the U.S. challenger playters for me, none of these guys are the 2nd coming of Tommy Ho, David Witt or Al Parker Jr. or Ivan Baron or who-ever – they haven’t peaked yet (certainly not at the junior level and not now, so there’s some room for improvement). They also aren’t content like a few U.S. players that stuck around the 90s in the ranking but never really threatened to do much better (not naming them but you know who they are – they aren’t Mike Russell but they are always around the 90s to 120s range – again they are never relevant but always maintain a decent ranking). To me the odd man out is Rhyne Williams – he had been doing well, beating players like Ginepri, Dancevic, playing tough and into the top 110 or so, and now he’s out of the top 200. Other players in the 200s are improving, even Sandgren (who as expected did well in Knoxville). If you think some player’s confidence is in the dumps, I’m thinking the player most in the dumps is Rhyne Williams, seeing players like Chase Buchanan (no offense) do better. While Buchanan is a steady performer I think I prefer to go to the dentist than watch a Buchanan match.

WTF news: Wawrinka d. Berdych 6-1 6-1 in 58+ minutes. Either Wawrinka is getting himself ready for Davis Cup through the WTF or Berdych is under-whelming again. He is awful when anything huge is on the line.

Look does this confirm Cilic was on steroids at the US Open!!? How can you go beat down on Fed and Nishikori at the Open and then lose like Harry 1 and 1 to Djoko? I mean, come on, that’s ridiculous, a US Open champ getting destroyed at the WTF Finals. What kind of game and guts does Cilic have to get rolled like that?

I think it’s dangerous to talk about steroids. Cilic is having a hard time adjusting, and he is by far not the first to have a hard time adjusting, to life as a Slam winner. I notice a tendency for people to forget his good form up to and including the US Open. It is as if he flashed bright for two weeks and that was it. I am saddened by his meek display in recent weeks but it is what it is.

I expect Nishikori to provide a very stern test for Federer. The young Japanese seems to be in the form of his life this year and he’s liking this surface. It might be a tad on the slow side for Roger and that will suit Kei very nicely.

Murray should be able to win his match and leave us with an interesting set of permutations for the group’s second spot.

How about Nadal getting stem cell therapy on his ailing back? I didn’t even know his back was bad. This guy is going through a lot of health issues: back, appendix, wrist and knee. One has to wonder if he’ll be playing when he’s Fed’s age.

Stem cell is good, I agree. Especially from an ethical stand point. I was alarmed that Nadal could be getting human growth hormone treatment as it is known that such treatment results in far greater benefits for the athlete and is not limited to the treatment of a particular injury.

Go Austin Krajicek. He is winning in the european challengers against the toughest opponents . Probably the most under the radar, under estimated u.s. player, who because of the lack of the spotlight is quietly closing in on the top 100. Unlike his peers he isnt in illinois (kudla is javong a modest comeback ) and unlike klahn he isnt facing lighter competition . Saw that a few u.s. players are south of the border as well i think in ecuador, good for them.

Uh, Krajicek hasn’t beaten a player ranked inside the Top 200 in any of these last few Challengers. The guy’s 24 and ranked No. 154. I’d be very surprised if he does much more than cracking the Top 100. He lost to Dustin Brown 3 and 6 in one of the Euro C’s. I wouldn’t be forecasting this dude to soaring new levels.

Geez, James McGee had a bad Challenger swing here over the last few weeks. I think he won only one match in three tries. Noah Rubin qualied in Champaign. How does this guy have time to play the qualis at all these Challengers and go to college?

If Dustin Brown beat Nadal I sure hope he beats Krajicek 3 and 3. Last year around this time we had a conversation about Jiri Vesely and how he basically entered the top 80 on the back of clay challenger wins vs. no names – he didn’t beat ANY top 100 players and had an 0 and 7 (that’s right – WINLESS) record on the ATP tour in 2013, riding all of that, a slew of challenger wins versus low ranked players and a fruitless effort on the ATP tour to a very respectable #83 ranking. One year later Vesely, all of age 21, is now a top 70 player at #68 (a modest 15 point ranking improvement), but what a different year it has been – he’s 16-17 on the tour (still on the losing end, but a LOT better than 0 for 7) and he has bagged many more wins against top 100 players (even a Monfils win at the big W), and certainly more wins against players with a higher ranking than he has – good reason his ranking went up – he’s better this year than last.

so here we have Krajicek, who has basically followed a Vesely pattern by going deep in European challenger tournaments (not winning them like Vesely but going deep and seeing a nice rankings boost). These are the same tournaments that David Goffin rose to a top 22 ranking (and a credible one). It’s nice to see a U.S. player brave the European circuit – hardly anyone does it, maybe out of homesickness or the super high costs.

Fact is he’s made a dent and passed a lot of players whose names take a lot of space and a lot of mindshare. Is he Kyrgios? No. Kokkinakis? Kokki beat him this year too. But he is winning and winning gives confidence, and confidence is a good train for any player.

Some other interesting matches:
Donaldson-Jaziri. I think Jaziri would have this match.
Mannarino-Ram. I’d think Mannarino has this too.
Rubin-Dancevic – here is a real match for Rubin!

How about Berankis. I think he’s positioned for a nice comeback in 2015, he has been doing well every challenger.

Russeljones – “Stem cell is good, I agree. Especially from an ethical stand point. I was alarmed that Nadal could be getting human growth hormone treatment as it is known that such treatment results in far greater benefits for the athlete and is not limited to the treatment of a particular injury.”

Oh for crying out loud. Rafa was NOT getting HGH treatment, he had PRP therapy treatments, just like hundreds of other tennis players and thousands of other pro athletes. They are not the same thing. HGH is a banned drug, PRP therapy is acceptable and allowed by WADA, the ATP, the IOC, and virtually all sports organizations around the world. Where do you guys get such nasty slanderous garbage about Rafa and why are you so anxious to spread it around about only him? Don’t bother answering that because I know where and it’s a slimy hate filled cesspool.

Excuse me Dan, but Nadal has played pretty damn well in the past too, especially against Federer whom he has beaten 23 times. And which mysterious injuries did Rafa have that caused him to pull out of slams? Just because YOU don’t follow any tennis players besides Americans doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a plethora of information about all of Nadal’s injuries.

What Spanish drug connection with Rafa has there ever been? You’ve repeated this slime before and several people on this forum, including me, have set you straight but you continue to debase yourself and this forum. There is no more of a Rafa Spanish drug connection than there is a Mardy Fish American drug connection, or Isner because he lives in Florida where there was a drug scandal or any American west coast player because of Balco.

Preternatural body build? Do I really have to dig up some pictures & videos of Rafa at 16 to disprove your garbage? He had a big left bicep and has always had a big butt but he’s actually quite slim and doesn’t have anywhere near a body builder type body. Hell, 17 yr old Borna Coric is more ripped than Rafa is or ever was. Google Coric images and check out the 1st picture in the 8th row, or check out the pic in this article. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/borna-coric-rafael-nadal-teenager-upset-swiss-open

Are you referring to Federer being lucky that he’s never had knee or wrist injuries? Fed’s had back injuries since he was a teenager. OMG! That proves it! Fed’s doping!!??!!! Delpo’s had major wrist injuries! He’s doping too!!??!! You’re too ridiculous for words.

Another day, another pair of wins from challenger player Berankis and Krajicek. As said before even a park win fills the confidence tank – even a doubles park parkwin.

Berdych looks on his way to beating Cilic. With each win Cilic is looking loke Andres Gomez, one slam man.

Nadal played a lot of bad ball this year. He grinded out the AO to the final (Nishikori and Dimitrov both had him on the ropes for periods – I thought Dimitrov would get him but he stopped playing brave ball and began to misfire on his big serve big forehand combos…the Dimitrov game unraveled in his first ever slam QF, but at least Dimitrov learned from it and put together his best ever year.). Nadal didn’t look like himself in the AO and I think he didn’t look like himself the whole year with the exception of a great French Open in the final rounds and a great match vs Rosol. Otherwise he looked very beatable and very vulnerable.

I’m used to Nadal the conquistador not Nadal the hobbling player – this year was the year of Nadal the hobbling player. Frankly I’d be surprised if he finds his form earlier than March 2015, but the Nadal team has surprised before. I’d think they would be pragmatic and take it easy, even if the ranking drops, for the early part of 2015 and make a come back through the South American clay circuit – arrive in Indian Wells in stronger form, play a good two back to back Masters and finally win Miami, then enter the rest of the clay season and build momentum there tournament by tournament. Mere speculation on my part but I think team Nadal pushed their luck this year in the first half of the year and paid the price on the back six months in the form of poor results, blamed rightfully I think on injuries (no way Nadal loses to Coric in their first ever match with a prepared Nadal, I don’t care what surface).

So yes, I believe “bad ball” for Nadal this year. Great season for anyone not named “Rafael Nadal” and some “shining victories” like Roland Garros, but all in all a downer of a year (and by downer I think you can even exclude the Australian Open loss to Wawrinka and still consider the year “bad for Nadal”).

In defense of jblitz (one time only) it is accurate that Nadal considers he’s playing well if he feels 100% – if it’s only minor injuries and his emotions and play are both positive and in tune, aka good feelings, good practice, good everything, good results – the flow.

Anyways, on to better topics like Krajicek. Yes, I like his approach on the Europe circuit. He may not be facing down Mannarino on an indoor Illinois court, but he is winning his matches on the hardest challenger route, even if he’s facing lower ranked players that he should beat. You can’t dispute winning – it speaks for itself. I’d congratulate Mannarino also for deciding, rather than facing his friends on the Euro circuit, to cast his die on the U.S. circuit. I think the Illinois results should be interesting – wonder how far Donaldson, Rubin can go.

Speaking of Euro players, why doesn’t Berdych hire Navratilova? She seems to like seeing Mauresmo’s Murray success (and by all measures it IS successful, he has “come back” to relevance). She is in every way the equal of Lendl in terms of tennis knowledge, she understands the game back and forth. Berydch with the Cilic win in WTF shows he still has something in the tank and he seems to understand the urgency of getting a slam when the opportunity is there (such as the 2015 Australian if Nadal doesn’t play). They are both Czech, there’s no worm involved.

Someone should tweet “Berdych, hire Navratilova!”

Scores. Djokovic d. Wawrinka 6-3 6-0. Wawrinka won’t be part of any Davis Cup victory with that kind of scoreline. This following the Berdych blowout of Cilic. The two new champs are playing like pseudo top ten players.

Illinois Champaign challenger results:
Kudla d. Hiltzik in suprisingly tough match. H. is a tough player, he beat Giron last year and had a few good tournaments as a freshman and Kalmazoo champ like Rubin.

Jaziri d. Donaldson in a tough three set match. Donaldson’s best move was hiring Taylor Dent.

Dancevic d. Rubin e-z.

Giron wins! Mannarino d. Ram in 3. Good effort from dependable Ram.

Don’t mean to interrupt this great discussion thread, but it looks like Robin Soderling has (more or less) decided to call it a day, he’s now the tournament director for the Stockholm Open:

https://twitter.com/rsoderling (check out the youtube link there)

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/sports/tennis/a-tennis-career-changeover-for-robin-soderling.html?_r=0

Tommy Robredo was able to make a big comeback, but I’m not so sure if Robin can do so (should he be able to).