Early Obervations So Far 2017

You think Sampras will coach fritz at some point?

Tommy Paul lost in first round of the LA futures today to Colin Altamirano a UVA player, this must be a real come down.

S. Zverez went up in my book after watching a few games of the mixed dubs Germany v Swiss, players were having a lot of fun, Zverez appears to have a good sense of humor, not mechanical at all. Also, I was looking at the LA futures scores because Clay Thompson is playing and I heard a podcast with him and I suggest everyone listens to it, it’s on Tennis Files, the guy seems really smart, supplements his tennis by writing, was a poetry major and I think writes for video game companies, has great things to say about tennis, and makes a really good observation on his former teammate Mackenzie McDonald, he looks sad on court, has to liven it up a bit. It seems like he is looking into some type of sponsorship deals for challenger/futures players, says going to roll out soon.

I put zero stock in exhibitions. But it would be fitting for Alex Zverev and his brother Mischa Zverev to play the roles of spoiler in any tournament slam or not if they find themselves up against higher ranked players.
IF THEY MAKE IT THAT FAR!!!!!
Disclaimer: Tennis is a game of Match Ups and like boxing is one of few sports with an any given day dimension. The better player on the day wins. We can’t pencil a player in to win without acknowledging that it’s all guesswork!!!!!!

Andrew –

Yup – 5 out of the top 10 WTA players are now gone from their respective tournaments – any given day obviously kicked in there 🙂

Also – lots of stuff about the chaos etc in WTA but it strikes me that the ATP circuit may experience something similar this year. That is, if all these Next Big Things come through. Interesting prospects.

I’m saying putting stock in any result this week is a huge mistake for any tennis analyst!!!!! On par with predicting the winner of a slam before the final draw is out. However serious any player is in Hopman cup is no predictor of Australian Open slam success.

We’ve seen this before. Maybe they do well maybe not! In general I agree that last year’s mega shakeup on the wta may be what’s on the menu this year for the ATP. I’d argue it is but I couldn’t predict who gets the job done. It could be a vet. It may be a breakout player like Pouille. Or it could be Djoko facing a different player every final. Or it could be that Djoko faces Murray every final while the others feel the heat from generation next. Who knows. But its at the doorstep.

This is one excited Milos fan! 🙂 He did not play his best today but did bring up his level dramatically in the 3rd set. He has a great chance now to win his 2nd Brisbane title.

Don’t agree that Thiem is ranked too high. He has had success on all surfaces, is a hard worker and gained invaluable experience last season. It is difficult to predict how Pouille will do but would not be surprised if he at least maintains a top 15 ranking.

Edmund is decent. Don’t see much slack in his game and played a good us open routines Escobedo,an exhausted Escobedo!
Yes Milos entered AUS open with greatemotiomal base, feeling good confidence tank on full. I put stock in that, he had leveled Federer in that final and his movement though no ballet performance was pretty good for Raonic. He enters again on a crest of confidence. But I still believe any strong scrambler will test him. I’m not sure about big fellas, as Raonic seems to be fine in battlesof serving.

Doubles news: Something of a surprise in Doha. Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin won the title over Vasek Pospisil and Radek Stepanek. The French players have won a few doubles titles over their long careers (3 and 2 respectively). But Pospisil/Stepanek much more accomplished in doubles. Vasek has 6 titles, including Wimby and Radek has 18, including AO and USO!

Hey Ryan, Happy New Year’s to you and all our Tennis-Prose.com readers.How about this look-a-like combo, Almagro and Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny? Murray and Benedict Cumberbach?

A friend just recommended this tv show on Amazon Prime called, I forget now, but it’s about a pro in the 1980’s, tennis, anybody seen this? I’ll come up with name later. This same friend said a friend of his, big tennis guy, was standing right next to Raonic in an airport recently and was going on about seeing Raonic play in Cincinnati and Raonic completely stiffed the guy.

I can see this with the hairdo and the supermodel girlfriend, Raonic looks like a guy who’s too cool for school. Maybe that’s why he hooked up with Johnny Mac, who’s the original too cool for school guy. I’ll have to ask Johnny Mac about this when I see him tomorrow night in Brooklyn for the Seniors event there with Roddick, Blake and Courier. Geez, Blake and Roddick already despise me now i might have Johnny Mac, who’s usually pretty cool with me, breathing down my neck. Come to think of it, Courier once went nutso on me at the Chris Evert Charity Event of all places.

At least, Gulbis likes me. Any Gulbis sightings yet.

Never heard of it but it’s on Amazon, will check out! By the way, clay Thompson lost in round 2 in 3 tie breaker sets.

Catherine, that is great. Can I quote you (or Worhal)?

Hartt –

Certainly you can quote me if you cite your source 🙂

I was amazed by Pouille at us open because he played like a French version of Agassi. How much ambition does he have? Was this another one time great performance never to be seen again? Does he have the consistency of Schuettler or is he more like flash in the pan Ginepri who reaches a us open semifinal and is the last non Agassi non Roddick player to do that. A brilliant effort that he never replicated perhaps because of the Davis cup snub that favored Blake even though PMac said he’d base his 2005 year end Davis cup decision between both players on how well they did in that USOPEn

Yet another example of pmac conflicting Davis cup legacy. Yes he won a Davis cup. But he was no Yuri Tarposhev. And arguably other Davis cup coaches did more with less. I’ve said this before but Coach Courier never had the team McEnroe had, the luxury of several top ten or top fifteen players plus the Bryans in their prime. PMac did well, but I will always question his judgement and choices and the wisdom or lack of wisdom in playing favorites.
Now maybe it’s unfair after all in 2004 us vs Spain , Spain put up Nadal over 2003 French Open champ Ferrero and the rest is history – Rafa handed an epic defeat to Wimbledon finalist Roddick and thus the legend of Nadal took flight. Hard to argue in hindsight even though Ferrero was humiliated. Though Roddick in general owned Ferrero I think Ferrero, chicken pox and all, thought he could out duel Roddick on clay. Ferrero also played Davis Cup hero in a Davis cup tie later in his career, and he played dubs in the Seville 2004 tie as well, losing badly to a must win Bryans squad.
Point is Spain involved a full rotation of players and there was a quid pro quo, if you don’t play today we’ll get you in tomorrow or next time. That wasn’t team PMac. For PMac it was I’m the decider rankings be darned. I think it was am epically poor way to manage and I’m not convinced PMac has a great legacy in the sport outside of his announcing. I’d argue NO.

Scoop, Blake beat Nadal easily in the usope2005 and like Gimepri lost to Agassi in five sets but with match points. Isn’t it more likely that PMAC favored Blake because Blake destroyed Nadal on his way to holding match points against usope2005 finalist Agassi versus Gimepri who couldn’t get the job done against Federer in Cincinnati earlier that summer and then couldn’t get job done again against old man Agassi. I think it makes more sense this way. As much as I don’t want to credit pmac this choice makes a lot more sense. The spadea decision was ridiculous.

Must have been PMAC close call. I’m not sure PMAC set up clear criteria for the Davis cup squad and seemed to confuse players unnecessarily. Recall PMACs decision on playing Agassi in Cars

Scoop tisk tisk Nadal was fresh off grabbing his third masters title in Montreal beating Agassi in that final on a close match for first two thirds of it,after which Agassi complained and got down on himself. So Nadal came into usopem on a hot streak and the storyline going into usopem was whether Federer and would have a final with Nadal. Blake beat Nadal three straight times. Lets not deny Blake his due.

Any thoughts on the Murray vs. Djokovic match? It was certainly a close, exciting one. Will the Novak victory have a bearing on the AO?