Gulbis is manhandling Rafa in Rome, 5-love right now

Scoop, Scoop, you’re right, that was the most amazing set I’ve ever seen anyone play against Nadal on clay. Gulbis just manhandled him and he was hitting to Rafa’s forehand mostly. That ungainly forehand delivery of Gulbis’s actually looked and produced devastating shots.

Will he win the match though?

He is fun to watch. The easy smile, the kid-like smile combined with the serious, workmanlike poise and power and effort. Rafa just broke to go up 5-3, but Gulbis amazingly broke right back. The Gulbis serve cannot be denied. Late in the second set, he had still not lost a point when he got his first serve in. Plus, Gulbis moves so well to both sides, and his little drop shot that he was using a lot in Delray, has been effective against Rafa who stands so far back in court.

I love the way Gulbis moves in, particularly on the backhand, on short balls and puts them away. Still, Rafa is battling.

I predicted Nadal in 3 sets on the TT board but so did many. Gulbis seems doomed to self-destruct in most big matches.

Janowiczs is cheater and he’s also a little nuts.

I don’t think Gulbis believes and there’s a
self-destruct script runs in his head. As soon as he made that joke in the 2nd set he lost his concentration.

SI.com: Jimmy Connors said the rivalries between the ATP’s top players are “soft” compared with those of his playing days. Would you like to see more tension at the top?

Gulbis: For sure, it’s too much [civility]. I respect them. Great for them. Everything works for somebody. But I miss some fire. I miss some fire that people have in boxing or basketball or hockey. People like it and it makes it more competitive. Here, it’s like, “He did a great game and I was a little bit better.” No. It’s bull—-. “S—, I won the match, I kicked his ass, he was worse than me, that’s it, go home.” That’s the attitude tennis is missing.

http://tennis.si.com/2013/05/16/ernests-gulbis-italian-open-interview/

Murray was doomed too. But things can change.

Would he have won the gold medal & the US Open with Nadal around? I doubt it.

Clearly it’s true that Gulbis loves hitting Nadal’s high bouncing forehand. It’s seems to be right in his strike zone.

Also, eventhough I’ve seen this many times, very impressed with Nadal knowing that things could go his way if he kept fighting and kept looking for solutions.

Congrats to Birdman for taking out the world #1. I think Djokovic should sit in the CVAC Egg and ponder what exactly is going on.

Gulbis left beast mode. HA!

Russia is a fake democracy. Putin doesn’t tolerate any opposition. It is hard to understand that a free spirit like Safin works for Putin’s party. On twitter his fans tell him that he is doing great work. I would like to know what he’s doing beside of getting photographed in schools with a bunch of ladies.

For almost nothing these girls from Pussy Riot went into prison. No free speech in Russia.

It also sucks that US citizens can’t adopt handicaped Russian orphans anymore. It was the only chance for these kids to get a better life. Putin only wanted to punish the US & the kids have to suffer.

I’m not sure Safin really supports all the ideas of Putin but I think everyone involved in the Russian government follows the line in terms of what they say on social media etc. Marat wanted to get involved in politics in order to further opportunities in sports for Russian kids (I believe). Perhaps he has gone too far in his support of the party lines though. Dan – for sure Marat does read. Perhaps he wouldn’t be interested in a tennis book but he was frequently seen with Russian literature books even while he was on tour. I think he is very intelligent – much like Gulbis.

We don’t know exactly why Safin may support Putin but Yeltsin also came to his matches and you have to show respect. Safin is Muslim and holds office in his country and maybe it’s his way giving back and a new challenge for him.

Putin has KGB background and from afar he’s like a James Bond villain come to life with his pet tigers, Sambo practice and other activities. I’ve asked Russians I’ve played tennis with about him and they don’t like him –this has been the consensus so far. I surely wouldn’t want to be a journalist in his world but he seems extremely smart.

Sccop, you’ve really got to stop injecting politics into this site. Yours sound somewhere between Dick Cheney’s and Sarah Bachman’s, which is fine, but it’s better not to project that small-minded nonsense here.

If you want to believe that the USA is a pseudo-democracy in the same way that Russia is, no one’s going to stop you, but as Michael Jordan said, “Republicans buy shoes, too,” and there might be a lot of people who think what you’re saying is not only foolish but despicable and smacks of Joe McCarthyism. They might want to just talk tennis and as Jordan said, not delve into politics.

You might think the Pussy Riot are “immoral” and un-Christian, but they’re not terrorists and they don’t deserve to be held without bail and then imprisoned for two years for demonstrating against the Church and Putin. This is a diverse world, Scoop, and not just Christian values can be espoused and followed, especially in a country as diverse as ours. There are Jews and Muslims and atheists and wasn’t it Billy Joel, a Jew, who said about his song, “Only the Good Die Young,” which was, by the way, perceived as anti-Catholic and banned by many radio stations, “The point of the song wasn’t so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust.”

Oh, well, guess we’ll have to cross that filty-minded Billy Joel “off your good clean positive messaged entertainment.”

My 2 cents on music is you shouldn’t be looking to rock music for morality in the first place. Not it’s original intent. Maybe you can find it in pop, maybe sometimes but still…

Some irony is that many of the old punk rockers are extremely conservative in their political views. Even the Sex Pistols had a song called “Bodies” which is a pro life song so there you go.

Safin and Gulbis – hard to see what Safin offers. Kind of need a coach that sees the game the Gulbis way, and tightens up a few aspects here and there. Nadal always has a sense of his options and based on what Gulbis says I don’t get that same take on him. There’s a fundamental difference between the top guys and the not top guys. The top players make mid match adjustments – they say ok I step back here, cover that down the line serve – cut off the backhand wing there, get my first serve percentage up – that should make me tough to beat this set.

The Gulbis, bless them, believe they almost had the match. Listen…he played a great match. But he’s not at the same level as Nadal. Sure we look at Nadal and say he’s humble blah blah blah. We all know that Nadal knows exactly what he needs to do about 99 percent of the time and how he sees himself vis a vis other players. Other players think they are close – they aren’t. Agassi made this point in his book when he played Blake and both of them said it was a great night for tennis at the 2005 US Open QF. Agassi said yeah, it was a great night for tennis. But the idea that he didnt win it? Agassi said hah, it was a huge achievement – he reveled in the turnaround and capitalizing on the small observations and microadjustments he made to turn the match and lure Blake into more mistakes.

Sorry but Gulbis played a great match and he’s far from Nadal on clay. He can make a legitimate claim on winning the match when he wins it. And then like Nadal he can invent reasons why he won it.