Andy Murray A Champion Again In Antwerp

Jon King, it must be nice to drub an opponent into submission. I think the history of the sport shows that pace works like your said until it doesn’t, and I think a player may enjoy the sport more if they know the ins and outs, or like you said can do what the over 70 crowd can do with all sorts of side spins and dice shots etc.

I knew some juniors that hit some of the harder flat balls I’ve seen especially when they were dialed in. They had a coach that taught a series of trick shots (they were Australian and knew a lot of Aussie legends before Hewitt’s time, worked at tons of Florida academies). What he taught worked well – drop shot returns, off spin passing shots, a whole kaleidoscope of ways to p/o opponents.

I don’t know how a player picks and chooses among shots, it’s easier to rely on tried and true patterns. Now with the rise of analytics people actually believe they can outsmart other people based on tendencies. Personally I don’t think so – we saw Nadal studying Kyrgios during the Laver Cup on TV and he verbalized a few of Kyrgios tendencies to Federer, which Federer then exploited.

Thinking on your feet has come in handy for sports for decades! You can win by pouncing on an opponent weakness or hitting them a steady diet of high shots to the backhand that they haven’t practiced, or simply keeping them off guard an entire match a la Andreescu so they never get going, ever.

I think the only risk with all of this is a player could go insane. Maybe the only reason Medvedev is intact is his wife, who seems to have helped him go from total talented jerk to talented jerk that stays focused for more than three matches. Quite a transformation. He’s a player, Berretini too, who I think have some madness going on.

Like Scoop said, Hsieh, yes, excellent, forgot her. I really like this way of playing, but don’t want to encourage anyone to be Santoro. He beat every number one under the sun, but he couldn’t do anything but crazy spin. Mixing it up seems reasonable for any player.

Scoop, yes we love the mini tennis! Like you said, great for touch and spin.

Andrew, yes sir, shot selection is an issue now. She spent years being able to blast her way through most kids, now a year on developing some excellent angles, volleys, side and back spins.

Having lots of weapons is great, but the struggle is learning when to use what. It can be a frustrating sport.

My old Serbian tennis dad buddy used to say “in Serbia parents have a curse they use when they want to wish someone ill…..may your kids become tennis players!”.

We will rarely get predictions right, but it is fun to try!

Probably best thing is to develop confidence with one new tool. As that shot becomes dependable and you see need for another, add the new one in.

Otherwise it IS madness. Back way back the big deal was having a top spin lob. But players could have done well being able to better gauge how to handle a passing shot attempt at net and guessing right. Things should probably grow from the game you have.

If we take player X and teach them a zillion shots, then they’ll probably throw their racquet over the fence. But if it’s like ok last time we saw this happen. Let’s see what we can find her to address that. Then work on it and make it part of the repertoire, then use it in dubs or a low pressure context, then use it for real – if you win set one easy and set two going well, maybe use the garbage time to practice some other combos.

Don’t want to stress kids out. There’s too much pressure on them and learning new shots can be a lot of fun and especially if a player learns they can use it after some practice.

Injured players, don’t blame them. Brian Baker is a great story. Kosakowski from some Google research was a big college tennis recruit and one of the top players nationally and top five in California, and comes from a huge and prominent tennis family (as in every Kosakowski plays and they all play well, like the Sampras clan).

Anyways, I think his injury was very bad. I watched him and thought his game held up well at the pro level, and nice to see a good one handed backhand, a power shot that he drove.

Can’t blame injured players who can’t pick up a racquet afterwards. That Murray is back is a miracle, that surgery could have easily seen Murray hobbling to hand out trophies right now as a retired player if it went badly.

Scoop, it is unfair to call Milos a journeyman. He needs to be able to play a few tourneys without injury for us to know his actual level.

(Raonic, best journeyman on tour, but still a journeyman. Hopefully he reclaims the mantle as a top ten player and best in Canada).

Andrew, I was going to cite Milos’ results ant the AO and IW. At IW he lost to the eventual titlist, Thiem.

Whatever it takes to wake these guys up. Raonic could have been “the man” if Federer and Nadal coached Raonic instead of Zverev at Laver Cup. Hopefully a Lloyd Carroll type quip will work for Raonic. He can’t be silent Raonic forever.

What’s interesting is Fish didn’t like the term Journeyman and it motivated him. Somehow he got it that he wasn’t at the level he was capable. Raonic could retire today and will be seen as successful. Before Andreescu he was arguably Canada’s most accomplished player and among best not to win a slam. I think he is still hungry. My bias is generally if you are fortunate to have good technique and kinstinct then you have the basis for a good comeback.

I worry about big fellas like Raonic. They have more medical problems, but maybe that’s not true. Nadal has said that if he weren’t injured when playing some big matches he’s lost he’d be the goat (shows how supremely confidant (I’d use a different word that means something different) top players can be.

Raonic can also serve out of a tree so a fast surface should help him. If I were Raonic I’d use the time to get stronger and strategize. He’s better than his Canadian peers and at his best because of his desire and toughness he’s better than everyone save top six or so.

He should net a few more Masters and I hope another slam semifinal or two.

Men’s tour highlights, man they are all sporting a great array of shots. Winning with power alone isn’t even working at standard ATP tournaments! I think the game changed again.

– Basel / Fognini, so hard to play like this when a player is dialed in. Wish I knew how to hit behind players! Handles the young Popyrin easily.
– Vienna – Thiem was fired up in front of a large home crowd in taking out Tsonga. I still don’t get how he takes full swings at the ball. Agassi was one of few to do this way back. Thiem showed a lot more touch than I am used to seeing him deploy. He had Tsonga’s number.
– Simon played well in dispatching Feli Lopez
– Berretini vs Edmund, I think Berretini is fantastic. Hard to play this unpredictable style.
– Dimitrov is playing well in beating Dzumhur. Dimitrov seems confidant. He had the full set of shots working, but I think if your opponent is Dzumhur this becomes easier
– Khachanov vs Hurkasz. I don’t understand why Hurkasz isn’t winning this match. Khachanov hits hard and that’s it. He’s the worst top ten player! Hurkasz has so much variety. He’s dipped since the Winston Salem victory and first round US Open loss.

Otherwise sorry to see Copil lose in a comfortable match for Bautista Agut. Copil had a lovely one handed backhand. But Bautista Agut is a better player, more aggressive and works harder each point.

Penko played well – but I think Julia was below her best – dropping her coaching team (with maybe some emotional fall out),defending title, end of the year etc. Not that she’s someone who’d ever make excuses and Jelena had the confidence to make the most of the weakness across the net.

Not so long ago she wouldn’t have been able to do that. Progress there.

I think if Milos plays his best, at his 2016 level, he can beat the youngsters. As I keep saying, the big issue is one injury after another. It would be quicker to list the body parts he hasn’t injured than those he has. And once he has an injury in one part of the body he is even more likely to sustain an injury there again.

So I have sort of given up on Milos, not because I don’t think he is capable of playing good tennis, but because he doesn’t have a chance if he is forever off with injuries or trying to come back after a long layoff.

Luxembourg court is fast, not fantastic. The Moscow matches were more exciting, Moscow court a better one. Even the Linz court was better!

Looked like Ostapenko is better and a better player. There’s a reason she has a French open title to her name, but finals at any WTA event is a very good result, no shame. Ostapenko went for it and Bartoli seems to be having an effect.

Only thing is the Ostapenko game hasn’t evolved all too much.

Goffin had a straightforward win over Cilic in Basel, 6-4, 6-4. Cilic is now ranked No.23, and at 31 years old, you have to wonder if Marin is getting towards the end of his career. He has had a 21 – win/loss record this season. Not a total disaster, but not great either.

Yastremska had Vekic on the back foot in Zhuhai – the fast court suits her – showed off her shots, of which she has quite a few when she’s in the mood. Donna looked pretty tired – time to go back to Geneva.

As usual around 4 spectators. I’d be interested to see if more turn up in Shenzhen since it’s the first time the Finals will be held there.

Keys lost without much of a fight.

I was curious to know how many points Sock had from Paris last year. It is 180. What is also interesting is his ranking at that time – No.23.

Beware, salty comment incoming.

I heart Yastremska. Can’t get enough mindless tennis. Ball bashing at absolute finest. Her US Open was a total gem of how to ruin your own chances. GEMS life beat her easily. A match where Svito decided ok I’ll just go with it and this girl will wonder how she hits so hard on her way to losing in straight sets. I saw a bunch of that match, 6-2 6-0, and in reflecting on it now I’m glad many WTA players have moved beyond Yastremska style of hit super hard and hopefully it goes in.

The Svito vs Yastremska match was so notable that reporters even moved on to other questions in the interview room. They didn’t even say hey Svito you just tore that player apart.

Interview Room, Svitolina after beating Yastremska 6-2 6-0.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How happy are you with your performance? What are you most proud of?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, it was a really solid performance I thought for me. I didn’t give many unforced errors. I think also she’s a good player. She can strike the ball very good.

I had to stay really focused from the beginning. For me, was important to stay solid from the baseline, then take my chance, which happened.

It was really good performance from me.

Q. Pliskova was here earlier in the week and said how hard it was to play someone from her country. Is it safe to say for you maybe opposite?
ELINA SVITOLINA: No, I wouldn’t say opposite. It is always tricky because I think it’s a different nerves. Each time you step on the court in a Grand Slam, everyone has nerves.

But I think when you playing someone from the same country, and in our case from the same city, which is special, you have to handle it, you have to try to really be, I don’t know, just in yourself.

Today I think I did it pretty well. She needs more experience in these kind of matches, so that’s why it happened my way today.

On Saturday, Alexander Volkov, former semifinalist of US Open 93 and No.14 in the world, died. It is supposed that alcohol was the cause of his death, really sad story.

Here is the link to paper:
https://www.championat.com/tennis/ne…-i-ne-pit.html

Chesnokov – about the death of Volkov: he could not overpower himself and not drink

October 19, 2019, 15:51 Tennis / ATP 0

The famous Russian tennis player Andrei Chesnokov commented on the death of the ex-14th racket of the world of the US Open 1993 semi-finalist Alexander Volkov .

“It all happened because he could not overpower himself and not drink. I talked with him this summer, in early June, offered to go to the World Cup in August. He said that, most likely, he could not get out of hard drinking. To which he replied that until August two more months, you will gather, I believe in you. He said he would try. A month and a half after our conversation, they told me that he left after the hospital and that he was fine.

We always communicated well, lived in the same room, played together. It was part of my life in tennis. We played a tournament together five years ago. In the evening they sat down to dinner, I ordered a bottle of wine to drink by the glass, to which he replied: “I won’t, because I won’t be able to stop,” said Chesnokov in an interview with the Championship correspondent Pavel Prokhorov.

Noah Rubin therefore is right about players and their addictions. Players are people and people have problems. Happens to be that Volkov had a very fine tennis mind that would have come in handy today. And seems to have been thoroughly decent.