By Amanda H. LeMay
Stepanek vs Querrey:
With both players struggling of late, this match was a bit of a toss up. Brad Gilbert was in attendance again and was very animated cheering for his player. Lots of fist pumping and even a little “line judging” when Sam wasn’t sure. 🙂
Querrey struggled from the beginning to find his rhythm and Stepanek came up with the early break in the first. Sam was gifted the break back as Radek double faulted at 30-40 when serving for the set. The tiebreak was up and down with both players choking away mini-breaks but Stepanek managed to close it out with some nice net play and a big first serve when it counted. The second set was all Radek. He broke Querrey to open play and never looked back as Sam was unnerved and surrendered 6-0 in the second. Just as a side note.. Radek, always the entertainer, engaged the crowd after the match by seeing which section could cheer the loudest for him as he was hitting signed tennis balls.
Isner vs Melzer
Melzer had to be coming in a little tired after winning two close 3rd set tiebreaks but what is even more remarkable is that he has been playing all week on a broken toe! Apparently he tripped on his bed sheets and broke it before the tournament even started. He showed no signs of discomfort though as he opened the set with a break and then held on to take the first set 6-3. He had the break in the second as well but failed to serve it out and Isner forced the tiebreak. Melzer was up to the task, however, and handed Isner his first tiebreak loss of the season. Needless to say Jurgen was a bit fired up in his press conference that followed. When asked about his upcoming semi-final against Radek Stepanek he replied “last time I kicked his ass pretty bad”. Haha!
So there are no Americans left in the tournament and the top two seeds are out. Getting interesting!
Rochus vs Raonic
In a bit of mismatch in all kinds of ways this one ended exactly as expected. Rochus put up a good fight in the first taking Milos to deuce a couple of times. But Milos broke in the 5th game to go up 4-2 and that was all it took for him to take the set 6-3. In the second Milos again broke at 2 all and it seemed it would be a similar story. But then out of nowhere Rochus caught fire and broke Milos as he was serving for the match. The crowd (which included Olivier’s doubles partner Julien Beneteau) literally went crazy cheering for Rochus. It was short lived, though, as Milos forced the tiebreak and eventually took it 7-3. Milos served up 26 aces and is looking hard to beat. After the match he did an on court interview where he was asked about playing three sets in each round here last year. He replied that he had learned from that and was trying to get them done in two this year so he wouldn’t be so tired in the final. So far so good!
Kubot vs Becker
These two unseeded players (who surprisingly share the same coach) closed out the day in a surprise quarterfinal. There were no breaks of serve in the first set until Kubot was serving at 5-5 and Becker took advantage of some loose points to get the game. Then he closed it out at love to take the first set. Becker broke in the first game of the second but Kubot got it back to get back on serve at 3 all. With renewed energy Kubot held and then broke Becker to go up 5-3. He failed to serve it out, however, and the tiebreak was inevitable. After Kubot blew a two minibreak lead Becker sealed the set and the match and advanced to the semi-final to face Raonic.
Melzer wins despite broken toe
Scoop Malinowski · February 25, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Wow, he broke his toe on the hotel bed sheets, are you sure he’s serious?! I mean, come on. Next we might hear a player say he fractured a finger trying to squeeze that last drop of toothpaste out. But that’s a heckuva a win by Melzer, showing he can still play that top 10 level of tennis. Maybe the courts are fast, Isner told us in Portland at the end of 08 when he was kind of in his slump after the big breakout, that he doesn’t like courts that are too fast. You gotta love the effort Rochus gives, that must have been a fun match and ending. Big wins for Becker and Stepanek. Thanks for the very detailed report Amanda.
Dan Markowitz · February 25, 2012 at 5:52 pm
I don’t think even BG can save Querrey. He’s wondered off on the wrong trail and doesn’t seem to have a compass. You can break your toe in the weirdest ways. I hit my pinkie toe against a bed stand last year and broke it. Melzer’s tricky as is Steppy, but realistically, especially on a hard indoor court, neither of these guys should be able to beat Querrey and Isner. I still feel this is why Isner will never go semi or final deep in a slam because there are too many Almagro’s and Melzer’s who can beat him.
loreley · February 25, 2012 at 5:56 pm
According to Austrian media Melzer “broke” his toe when he wanted to visit the bathroom in the night.
He is injured for sure and seems to needs painkillers.
Jürgen knows how to handle the big servers. Defeated Isner the 2nd time in Memphis. Owns Karlovic. Maybe because he is a lefty?
Beside of young Raonic all the other semifinalists are 30 plus years old. Tennis turned into an old men sport. 😉
Andrew Miller · February 25, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Ha Dan we should give BG a chance here, and Querrey one too. No one expected Sampras to be Sampras, either. Or Spadea for that matter. The BG system does take some time – immediate results usually are bad. Here’s an excerpt from Agassi’s book on the BG system and what it does to a player.
First, Agassi makes the final of Key Biscayne and loses to Sampras. The BG effect seems like miracles.
Then Agassi says:
“THEN THE TEAM goes on an epic losing streak. Adopting Brad’s concepts is like learning to write with my left hand. He calls his philosophy Bradtennis. i call it Bratitude. Whatever the hell it’s called, it’s hard. I feel as if I’m back in school, not comprehending, longing to be somewhere else. Again and again Brad says I need to be consistent, steady, like gravity. He says this over and over Be like gravity. Constant pressure, weighing down your opponent. He tries to sell me on the joy of winning ugly, the virtue of winning ugly, but I only know how to lose ugly. And think ugly. I trust Brad, I know his advice is spot on, I do everything he says-so why am I not winning? I’ve given up perfectionism-so why am I not perfect? I go to Osak, lose again to pete. Instead of gravity, I’m like flubber. I go to Monte Carlo and lose to Kafelnikov…in the first round…I go to Duluth, Georgia lose to Malivai Washington. Afterward, in the locker room, I feel crushed. Brad appears, smiling. Good things, he says, are about to happen…He says, you have to suffer. You have to lose a S&%^load of close matches. And then one day you’re going to win a close one and the skies are going to part and you’re going to break through. You just need that one breakthrough, that one opening, and after that nothing will stop you from being the best in the world.”
“You’re crazy.” to gilbert
“You’re learning.” to agassi
“You’re nuts” to gilbert
“you;ll see”. to agassi
So just to play diablo’s advocate here, let’s look at the actual match results and see if Agassi’s recollections match up to what actually happenned.
March 1994, Miami. Yes – Agassi loses in the final to Sampras, 3 sets after winning the 1st set. So far, so good (Agassi made a mistake in his book saying that after he beat Becker he was in the final. Nope – he won a few more matches after that before making the finals…anyhows).
Goes to Japan – true, and loses to Pete, true again. a Semifinal. So Agassi’s still doing pretty well under the new BG regime.
Yep, loses 1st round to Kafelnikov on red clay.
Quarterfinal to Mal Washington in Ga, true, on green clay i guess?
Loses to Pescolido in rome, 2nd round on red clay. So yeah, not his best surface, but still it’s not like there’s a fire lit yet.
French Open, loses in five sets to Muster in 2nd round.
Wimbledon, 4th round, five set loss to Todd Martin with Martin winning it “going away” – 6-1 in the fifth.
DC, loses a round of 16 (his 2nd) match to Brett Steven. New Zealand’s top player, #74 in the world.
Wins Toronto Masters.
Loses in L.A. to Stoltenberg in quarterfinal.
Loses a New Haven match to Jan Siemerink.
WINS THE US OPEN.
So I’d say, results suggest that the BG system takes time to absorb. Querrey seems like a player that doesnt shuck off a coach immediately – he’s not like some other way more talented, future of U.S. and World Tennis, way more talented than I can fathom players who keeps ditching good coaches.
Seems Querrey like Nishikori might give some time to Gilbert to see where the coaching takes them. So if anything, Querrey will answer a question – is BG like Bill Parcells – no matter the player, BG will make a difference? Or does he need a player who is #1 in the world material to make a difference?
I think he already answered the question with Nishikori. BG needs a player with tons of talent who hasn’t quite put it all together – you cant give him a Bogdanovic, who has not faced any significant success, and expected BG to turn him into a world beater. Querrey fits the bill here – Querrey has won titles on all surfaces and has beat or pushed great players. His worst enemy is himself. BG can work with that.
I would think results would emerge sometime mid-Summer and answer whether or not this is working. Not a horrible result in Memphis for Querrey and seems like a pretty good early result. History should see Querrey struggling to get used to Gilbert then really improving. That’s assuming that BG’s effect is the same on all players.
The only time this doesnt work is when a player feels there’s not enough space for BG in their life. Roddick, Murray both parted ways early on. But I can’t deny the results of either when playing under BG. Roddick won his US Open, and Murray went from a top 40 player to a top 11 player (and since, after a few early wobbles after departing BG, to a top 4 player). To think it’s a given that Murray would evolve is just not true – otherwise we’d be talking today about Dimitrov’s Australian Open finals performance or how awesome it is to finally see Raonic win his first Masters shield.
The reason we’re not talking about those two things is that they haven’t happenned. With BG, you know something’s going to happen.
Scoop Malinowski · February 25, 2012 at 11:17 pm
Who said tennis players aren’t tough? You always hear about NFL players sidelined because of “turf toe.” Here we have a player winning matches with a broken toe.
Scoop Malinowski · February 25, 2012 at 11:24 pm
Andrew, Dan is not a big believer in Querrey’s game and never really was. He is pretty adamant about it too. We’ll just have to wait and see how the Team QBG turns out. There is no doubt Sam can play this game, beating a hot Fish in the Queens Club final, one of his signature wins, proved it. But some big time talents fade away sooner than they should have (Rios, Mancini, Coria, etc). I agree, it’s way too soon to write off Sam and I think his best is yet to come and BG will be able to inspire it out of Sam.