Citi Open Notebook

Baghdatis is finding his form versus Harrison.

But this is why you can’t take Harry seriously. Whenever he plays a half-way decent player, because let’s face it, although I like Baggy, his ship as a top player sailed a long time ago, he gets beat soundly. His style of playing passively aggressive from the baseline and not using his speed and good hands to come up to the net enough (like basically every American player) just make him toast for a good player. He gets to 40 in the world by loading up at the Memphis’s and Atlanta’s.

As for loading up at Atlanta and feasting on points, it’s not like Lucas Pouille and Karlovic and Anderson aren’t doing the same thing. Most guys outside the top five are feasting on points at the lower level tournaments.

A man’s gotta eat!!!

Raonic hit a 151mph serve tonight. Bambri who took out kozlov is holding his own against Monfils. Scoop is working the grounds, doing interviews etc.

Lisicki d. Grammatikopolou. Nice to see Lisicki working through the draw.

Paul, comparisons sound right. He has fleet feet. Fast guy. An unorthodox backhand but effective – if it works it works.
How did Paul handle Pouille? Pouille is confounding, one week he’s polishing off a grass court tournament title and the next he’s out of Wimbledon.

It was a winner, Mahut looked shocked but who knows if it’s accurate, I say Scoop should go to the serving booth and report back what his speed is.

I really want to see Paul play. Whet a huge win.

This is a pathetic effort from Kyrgios. I agree with the announcer and I’m not buying the injury excuse anymore. He doesn’t want to be here.

Zverev didn’t play very well but gutted out the win.

Kyrgios flat out did not compete. Ridiculously timed drop shots and why not stick it out till the end. No reason to take the court to play like that yet again.

Scoop, 100 percent correct. Kyrgios wanted the match handed to him. Sandgren was all over the court and showed from the start it would be a long night. So Nick made it a short one for himself.

Sandgren is playing inspirational tennis. I wish Sock has his kind of attitude.

Andrew – Lisicki should go another couple of rounds without problems. But she’s another one who reached W’don final and then couldn’t build on that.
Probably not actually as good for her time as Her Who Can’t be Named, lacked the desire, maybe content with her career, who knows ?

I came across a Youtube clip with Lisicki and the other half-Polish player having a conversation in Polish. Funny.

Muguruza on a roll in Stanford. If she continues, bet SH is glad there’s a continent between them.

Are most tennis venues in parks for us pro tennis? I’m surprised the Aussies aren’t doing better, the Melbourne set up is the same. You can hear the crickets as players smash the balls!

Tomic and Kyrgios – misunderstood or far too familiar? I still hold that the Tomic interview on the Australian program was unbelievable. Always injured with no explanation. Appreciative of the rewards of tennis but not the practice of the profession. Genuine dislike of all aspects same the team dimension, in which neither get along nor enter doubles draws. And no concerns for the boos.
I understand. Hard lives. No one could save them from parents who pushed them to work on forehands and backhands when everyone else was working in Legos. I get it and to some extent, i say sure, it’s true, you are being robbed of your youth.
They could bolt the sport like Ancic, go back to school, leave it all behind. No one will stop them. It’s hard to understand.

Craig Kardon is smiling somewhere. He knows his doubles remedy is working for DY – after a tough loss to Nishikori, DY out there in the dubs showing the same thirst for competition, dicing volleys cracking overheads. Generally playing sound ball with the exception of the Lacko loss in Atlanta that Duke rightly criticized.

How about Sharpie pulling out of Stanford with a strained left arm! A strained left arm? That’s a new one. Wow, since returning and probably being off drugs, possible? Sharpie’s had a tough time finishing a tournament.

Sandgren was impressive last night. I’ve never seen a player sitting in his chair after only a few games of the first set, basically say, “No Mas!” That was really strange Kyrgios looking up after his cherubic mother in the stands, I guess his coach now, and mouthing, “I don’t want to play.” He should’ve gotten up and left there.

I was watching with my son and although I’m not one of those guys who says,”This is a bad example for the children,” this is a bad example for the children. Now my kid with three big tournaments coming up in August can say to me, “I don’t want to play like Nick Kyrgios” the same way when he smashed a racquet he said, “I saw Ernests Gulbis do it.”

But Sandren was impressive last night. When’s the last time an American player wore a pony-tail? I can’t remember one ever sporting one. They should send Kyrgios to France or Spain to live and train there and maybe he’ll find the hunger.

Scoop, Dan, any chance to get Paul from norcaltennis blog to post on what changed in us men’s tennis since the California challengers when Kozlov began knocking off vets? Last three years have changed us men’s tennis for the better, I think it began with the grilling in the press after Delray tournament in 2014 then revved up again in the challenger swing where Querrey won a pair of challengers. Paul had a front row seat to all of that.

Scoop, Russian nextgen, are these guys like the Russian women that took over the wta in early and mid 2000s? Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Sharapova, Myskina, of course Kirilenko 🙂 Vesnina etc? Like you said it’s as if everyone blinked and suddenly here is Dan talking about how good Medvedev is and Rublev, Khachanov are making us wonder if Kafelnikov, Davydenko, Safin have some legacy in the sport.
They may be better than Australia.

Down goes Puig – on goes Makarova !

I think both Tomic and Kyrgios should take a break from tennis, for however long it takes for them to decide to give their best effort to the sport. If that day never comes they both have tons of money to have a very comfortable lifestyle.

There is the story of Ferrer early in his career, leaving tennis and working at a real job, maybe construction. He lasted about a week before returning to tennis and we know what an insane worker and fighter he became throughout his career.

And we also have Ashleigh Barty, who turned pro at 15 and had early success, especially in doubles. She felt she could not handle the pressure of the limelight, took a break from tennis for about 1 1/2 years, even tried pro cricket. But she is back in tennis and it sounds like she is enjoying it much more this time around.

Scoop, my guess is Kyrgios likes hitting the ball around but is lacking the competitive fire and/or is too lazy right now to get into a battle on the court. Who knows, maybe he’s depressed from the breakup from his girlfriend and it’s taking a toll on him mentally. I just hate it when players fake injury after they are already on their way to losing.

Did anyone catch Steve Johnson vs. Medvedev? I read that it was a really tense match with Johnson angry at Medvedev for stalling and taking an injury timeout when Johnson had the lead. Then Medvedev went on a run and won the second and third sets. Johnson had some f bombs for Medvedev at the handshake.

Monica Puig must know, must be obvious to her, that she hasn’t improved and isn’t bringing the urgency she brought in Rio. Her drop has been worse than Bouchard, who hasn’t been stellar but who hasn’t fallen off the map either. Others around her past ranking have made more of a mark. Heck,
We are in a wta era when anyone has a shot at titles!
Where’s Monica Puig? Following up on Pennetta’s groundbreaking us open title she showed anyone can win a big title in the sport.
And just as suddenly, her performance fell off a cliff. Players must know there’s no floor to how much losing they can do.
Equally, it’s bizarre to me players have no ranking goals or weekly, monthly goals. How do they know where they are? Or judge a year?
Seems like a bad way of evaluating their play. It’s one thing to say ok after a year my game is more aggressive and I’m now able to hit more angles and move better on the court and my fitness is way better.
But right alongside there has to be and I’ve been going deeper into draws and it reflects in my seeding and ranking.

Andrew –
As far as I can see Monica, who is only 23, had moderate success before the Olympics, that is, she didn’t come from nowhere and had been slowly moving up the rankings.
Now she ‘s quickly moving down, obviously, and I’m sure celebrity had something to do with it, but not everything. Can’t see why some decent coaching and a good bit of career advice shouldn’t restore her to where she was before – not a future No 1 or W’don winner or anything like that, but a reasonable presence in tournament later rounds.
There was no pressure on Puig at Rio – no expectation – there was plenty on the silver medallist (AK) who shed tears over her failure. Monica had one of those once-in-a lifetime moments.

You often cite Pennetta as a groundbreaker – but Flavia was over 30, had spent years in the game, very experienced, and took advantage of Serena’s meltdown.
Flavia wasn’t an unknown.
I don’t actually believe ‘anyone’ can win a WTA title. Ostapenko won FO but Simona should have won it if she’d paid more attention to the way Ostepenko had been playing. Cahill doing any scouting ?

I agree some players exhibit a degree of tunnel vision but I’m sure the majority know where they are ranking wise, or their coaches do, or should. Fire them if they don’t.