Del Potro’s Highest Gear: The Ultimate Tennis Colossus?

I’ll remember this year’s men’s draw once again for the failures of players such as Berdych, Dimitrov, Querrey, Tsonga, Monfils for proving yet again why they have never won majors. Please don’t even get me started on a guy like Jack Sock or Isner and how they perform in Slams – well below par.

Domi Thiem can hold his head high even with that crushing defeat and A Zverev has been disappointing but in time he will fare better. So many of these other guys are flat-out underachievers – a guy like Lucas Pouille has two Slam QFs to his name and reached the fourth round this time so he is on the right track too, I would say.

US Open mens’s semifinals fun fact.

Since the start of 2015, Donald Young is 3-3 against these four players: 1-0 PCB, 2-1 Anderson, 0-2 Nadal and 0-0 DelPo.

Boy, did Coco Vandeweghe get flattened last night. Keys played a major keys style and just took out Coco. It’s hard to like Coco. She has a kind of built-in pomposity to herself that her uncle Kiki never had. Coco struts the court like she’s already a multi-slam winner.

Did not see Stephens v Venus, but heard it was a real good one. But the crowd for Coco v Keys was half empty. You’d think an all-USA semis would draw more fan attention, but maybe the total lopsided nature of the contest sent many to the exits.

Not expecting a lot out of KA and PCB, but Nadal-Delpo should be a classic.

I know it sounds a bit mean but I can’t get to like any of the women’s sfinalists this year.
It was a kind of skewed result – players lost earlier who should not have lost and there wasn’t much contrast in style or personality between the last 4. Maybe that’s what accounted for the empty seats.
Women’s tennis has to offer something a bit special to fill that stadium – punters turned up for Venus perhaps but not for CoCo/Keys
As for the play, even watching clips I felt like screaming – please, do something DIFFERENT.

Keys for the trophy but it’s not exciting me much.

What about Muguruza? She will be No. 1 on Monday, has won 2 Slams, has a big game, is attractive (since that seems to be important to the WTA and many fans), can be charming but has also caused some controversy (such as her comments about having friends on tour). If the WTA had any sense at all, they would be promoting Garbine like crazy.

Yes, that was an incredible third set between Stephens and Williams. There were a few points that Stephens won that she seemed out of and somehow made unbelievable shots. I love the Stephens-Keys matchup. A great counterpuncher against a great aggressor. Both are fast and move extremely well. Both don’t show too much outward emotion on the court but are two of the best people in tennis. Just watch their interviews, they are both charming. There’s no diva in either of them, which is refreshing and new for some American players (hint hint).

Dan – I probably missed it but I didn’t see Keys volleying a lot. I’ll have a look in the final. Her serve is pretty good though.
You can’t compare men and women players’ personalities – we see them in different perspectives – through different lenses. Can you imagine a female Kyrgios ? She’d be locked up. And ‘beauty’ is in the eye of the beholder, as we know. So much of that is a fault in our culture.
I don’t mention Simona so much these days – I’d like to see her cast off from Cahill and work on her weaknesses – serve, variety etc. And I talk about Angie because the trajectory of her career interests me – I wouldn’t expect many others to follow me there. As Barbara Rittner says, Angie’s introverted and her personality will never entrance crowds – not if she won another 4 GS. Even German media don’t fall over her, apparently. No wonder she often looks a bit glum.

Hartt – totally agree. Yet Muguruza was one of those players I thought should have won and didn’t. She seems satisfied with her season but it hasn’t ended yet. (The WTA draw in Wuhan looks like a parallel universe.)
I’d like to see Garbine get a second wind and run through Singapore. I expect she’ll be decked out in the usual PR finery there and the WTA will be promoting her to the nth.

Chazz – I just don’t get it about Stephens, but maybe she’ll persuade me someday.
Keys and Stephens are probably both lovely girls but I don’t rate players on their interview skills. Dan seems to want women to show lots of emotion on court. I think he longs for a diva. Maybe we’re all a bit confused. Or missing Serena ?

Coco is inconsistant and expends too much energy on acting up. But that’s one reason she dumped Kerber out of AO. Introverted people don’t like that kind of stuff. It puts them off. That’s my theory anyway.

Scoop – night matches at USO just go on too late and it would be a rare women’s match that would keep spectators around when most are, as you say, thinking about getting home.

scoop said:

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Catherine; It was odd how after Keys on and she did her interview with Tom Rinaldi, and it looked like most seats were empty and most people have left the stadium to get on their way home. Not very good vibe and totally unlike Del Potro fans who stayed and celebrated at the BJKNTC long after he left the court. Keys and Stevens and Venus and Coco all have nice games and personalities but you wonder how much this "Four Americans in the semis" dynamic will inspire a future generation. It was a nice achievement for USA Tennis but let's hope the final is an exciting thriller. Exciting thrillers are the kinds of matches that inspire kids to play tennis.Click to expand…

Funny thing is that even all her team members have left. When she said thanks for the team, no one was there.

GamweSetandMath –

Well I hope Madison got home allright 🙂

Auger-Aliassime is in the semis in Seville. He is the youngest person to crack the top 200 since Nadal. He beat Taro Daniel 1 and 0. That’s right, the same guy who took a set off Rafa at the Open.

The Canadians will have a heckuva Davis Cup team with him and Shapo.

Felix was pretty impressive in loss to Stakhovsky, he was right there all the way against a very experienced player. Match could have gone either way.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI0pLjPUwAAUSdr?format=jpg&name=small

Felix Auger-Aliassime won his SF at the Seville Challenger against Krajinovic and will play in the final tomorrow. He lost the first set but played better as the match went on. He had 4 aces in a row at one point, and ended up with a total of 14.

Felix and Denis have always pushed each other. They are great friends but are very competitive with one another. After Denis had his great run in Montreal, the 2 youngsters had a bet over a practice match. The loser would have to wear a bright, multi-coloured sombrero, and sure enough, there is a pic of the loser, Denis, wearing that crazy sombrero.

Canada should have some great success in Davis Cup. Pospisil, for all his woes, usually comes to life at DC and once Milos is injury-free he will be a force again. They are having Felix continue his education at those European Challengers instead of playing DC next week, but I imagine he will get the call in the near future. Right now Denis must carry the team on his young shoulders.

I’m very surprised to hear (after his sf) that Nadal is in favour of occ in GS tournaments. He’s obviously more than able to work things out for himself. And if he can’t, and he’s beaten, tough.
But I suppose it will come in the end (sigh).

Hartt – you’re right. I think Scoop is on to a winner here with his fist pump and COME ON workshops. Anderson could be a guest speaker 🙂

I’ve seen Angie do a fist pump but it was a very feeble one. Too ladylike. She should hire Scoop and dump the new (actually old) coach.

Reserved players can just pretend they’re the opposite during a match. Maybe that’s what Anderson is doing. Acting. Interesting to see how he behaves in the final.

Match of the day is not Keys vs Stevens. Its Gauff vs the super intense Maria Carle of Argentina. Saw her play and win Eddie Herr 18s at 16. I wish i can see this match. Carle has incredible intensity and defense, counterpunching, variety and cleverness.

So what happened in that match ? I didn’t see it – can’t believe the score. Is Sloane Stephens that good ? Be honest now.

I was watching Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Seville Challenger on a terrible stream at the same time I was watching the women’s final. What is with yellow clay – you can’t see the ball! Anyway, Felix won over a Spaniard, Inigo Cervantes, who is 10 years older, in 3 sets. This is his 2nd Challenger title. He had to play a French player in Lyon, and a Spanish player in Seville, but had crowd support both times. He is just such an appealing kid. 🙂

(NP) Felix is now No. 168 in live rankings. He has another clay tourney next week – in Bosnia & Herzogovina. It looks like he should make the top 150 in the near future.

Have to say that I did enjoy Felix’s match more than the women’s final. Partly because I was more invested in the outcome, and partly because it was a close match, right down to the end. Although not being able to tell if the ball was in or not was annoying – most of the time the only way I knew was by the player’s body language. I do hope the next tournament has nice red clay, forget this clay that is nearly the same colour as the ball!

All of Felix’s finals in Futures and Challengers, except one, have been on clay. How did this Canadian kid develop such an affinity for the red (or yellow) stuff?