Former NHL player analyzes Serena vs Wang

Matches today stink so far. Hate when the a gets added to my name. Arg.

Jeff – why do the matches stink ? WTA Everything going to plan. Halep, Kontaveit, Muguruza. Swiatek put up a fight.

I didn’t stay up to watch. Just in time for Kerber/Pavs.

The WTA will shortly allow coaches to be with the players on court during play. I know this.

Pavs and Kerbs slug away for 2hrs 20 mins in their 15th meeting and Pavs outruns Angie in the 3rd. Pavs 71 winners to 35 made a difference.

That was an exciting, high quality match between Rafa and Nick, with Rafa winning in 4 sets. I was impressed with the crowd. They cheered loudly for Nick between points, but generally were quiet when players were about to serve and during the points.

Nick kept himself under control for the most part, and concentrated on his tennis. If he continues to play like this perhaps he will make good use of his talent. But that is still an “if.”

Rafa gets Thiem next, and that should be another good match.

Angie’s last AO ? Could be. A good match to leave on.
She beats Giorgi and posts an IG victory yell – caption: ‘Here and Now’.

I’ll give her a caption losing to Pavs: ‘Now and Then’.

Kontaveit and Swiatek put on a show. Amazing Swiatek hit those shots during a match. Kontaveit finally breaks through.

Medvedev falters, Wawrinka avenges US Open loss. All the predictions of Medvedev’s AO wins, including mine, did not come true. That should have been clear from Medvedev’s performance since the Paris Masters.

Miraculously Zverev d. Rublev in straights. No idea how Zverev pulled that off.

And of course Nadal survives Kyrgios. Sorry Kyrgios couldn’t close this out, for Australia etc. Those 7-6 scorelines hide how far away Nadal’s competitors are.

Of women’s draw, 4 slam champs in QF. Halep’s the wildcard of the slam champs left. Not sure how Kenin, Jabeur, Kontaveit will fare – the rest of the way to the title is pure courage for these players in excellent tennis form.

Barty vs Kvitova
Kenin vs Jabeur
Kontaveit vs Halep
Muguruza vs Pavlyuchenkova

Medvedev…that X on his back grew too large 🙂

As though Novak doesn’t have enough advantages, Goran, as Milos’ former coach, will know the Raonic game very well. Novak won’t even have to pay extra for that info.

Where’s the evidence O’Shannessy paid Djokovic?

That’s speculation. They worked together for two yearsm. O’shannessy referred to Djokovic as his client and they parted ways after two years. That analysis re he paid his client looks totally wrong. Last time I checked the client pays the business. If you part ways that means the business relationship ends.

The fact a decision was made at all suggests that he was getting paid and hikes fees following performance, just like a coach. And Djokovic treated him like a coach, and sacked him.

Mouratoglou barters Gauff in facilities use and other perks. Since she was age 13 she gets to use his academy facilities for training when they are in Europe. Also access to physios there. Not a bad trade off, free place to stay and train in exchange for him getting visibility for his academy being in her box. He also arranged the sessions for her and Serena in Boca Raton with Mike Tyson and a few other celebrities. They held an autograph session that some of our tennis kids went to.

Mouratoglou is in a unique position because he has his own academy. So being seen with Serena and Gauff causes kids to come to his academy and that is where he makes his money. Notice the M logo for his academy is prominent when he and his trainer sits in her box.

O’Shannessy doesn’t have that. He has to pay IBM etc and real vendors for the analytics. Can’t do that be giving free stuff to Djokovic as the highest-earning client. If you sell data you do it by figuring out the highest value data and shielding that from the client, give them some data and then give them a deeper set of data and work with their team so they know how to use it.

The evidence suggests that once Djokovic figured out all this stuff, and once Ivanisevic jumped in and said Djokovic stop with the data stuff (which Ivanisevic did), that Djokovic decided fine, no more.

It may have also bothered Djokovic that O’Shannessy began advising Berrettini – presumably another paying client. Given Berretini’s loss at the Australian I would presume that O’Shannessy has to prove himself again.

I am just guessing here but I would imagine Shaughnessy gave away his info for free since wouldn’t he need to prove its value for Novak to pay him? I would highly doubt Novak paid him anything; just to work with the great Serb is a boost to his statistical career.

Kyrgios played very well and like I said I think he can win a Slam when the Big 3 are gone. But Zverev is my dark horse pick to win it. He seems like he is on a mission.

I think Novak is a nightmare matchup in best of 5 for Milos. I hope Milos can push him to 5 to make it interesting but I doubt it. The real focus is on the Sandgren express to see if he can make sports history by knocking off Fed, Novak and Rafa in succession. What a story that would be and I know we all want to see this happen.

They’re playing in Newport Beach. Bouchard goes out to A Glatch( seems like she’s been around forever) and Ryan Harrison lost to a wildcard

I’ve started to notice who looks at their box during matches after winners, and how often and why.

Among women, Kenin (see above) doesn’t, Pavs doesn’t, Simona does all the time, same Kerber, Barty sometimes – I’ll keep score.

Haven’t started on the men yet – do men do this less than women ? Is it just a habit or a confidence thing ? A sign of how well you’re getting on with your coach ?

Federer epic v Sandgren. Fed doesn’t look at his box very often.

Remember: Federer struggles against nearly all players he hasn’t played before. Excellent job by Sandgren to play the game this well. I’m still not clear why US players aren’t studying what Sandgren has done to compete in the biggest and best tournaments as a competitor. I can only believe that they don’t work enough on things and that they fall apart when facing larger tennis challenges. And that Sandgren’s competitive tennis knowledge is very high.

Sandgren may even pass Fish, Blake in # of slam QF, or tie Isner, Querrey by the time he hangs up his racquet.

Barty vs Kenin another big match. Can Kenin pull this off? I think the home crowd will be too much. This isn’t playing a popular hyped player. This is playing a national hero on their home court. She’ll need the equivalent of mental ear plugs.