Is the ATP Cultivating A New Villain Subculture For The Tour?

Scoop is obsessed with his “subconscious tanking” theory. I think Bianca is more than happy to win in SS, like she did in her USO matches before last night.

Her match ended at 12:40 am and I bet there were other things she would rather be doing, like sleeping. She and Taylor had a nice exchange at the net, but after that she was very subdued, with no real celebration of her win. Part of that may have been having the crowd against her, but I imagine she was simply exhausted. In her TSN interview she said it had been difficult to wait for 6 hours for her match to begin, but also said that is just the way tennis works.

Goerges SV on an 80-85 mph serve, which Vekic picked up on and promptly broke Goerges that point for 5-5 I think. Goerges was up 5-4 serving for the match, and SV down 15-40 I think, maybe even off a second serve, and off a soft serve. That wasn’t going to work and her nerves betrayed her. Vekic to her credit recognized it.

Goerges played well whole tournament I think. Well coached. Has to play a little more courageously at points. Small adjustments that should help her in other big matches.

Talking more to Gilad B he said too many players today have no subtlety to their games. Osaka, all it takes is for a player to hit the ball deep and move her around for 3 or more balls and she’ll miss. Now there aren’t too many players like that, but obviously Bencic is one of them.

He also said in his day, in the 90’s, there were 5 or 6 ways for a player to win a point, now there’s two or three. He said when he learned to play the object of the game was to move your opponent wide off the court and then come in and volley. But he said few players today really know how to volley and coaches today, brought up mostly in the modern game, don’t know how to volley either.

He’d like pro tennis to get more innovative like pro basketball with the 24-second shot clock and the three-point line. When Wilt Chamberlain dominated the game two feet from the basket, they widened the lane, added the three-second violation and brought in the 3-point shot so shorter players could play with equal or even more importance.

Gilad thinks with the light racquets players are serving and returning better. He mentioned the last two great male serve and volleyer’s, Rafter and Edberg, they didn’t hit hard first serves, they kicked their serves in to have time to get to net. He’d like to see either a rule that a player has to serve and volley twice a game. Then you’d know Nadal at 30-40 having only served and volleyed once in a game, would have to rush the net off his serve or lose the point.

Gilad would also like to see if not the serve and volley 2X mandatory rule, than a one-serve rule. If that happened, plays like Schwartzmann he said will win slams.

Konta vs Svito. I think this will be good. It will be an intense one, whoever loses will be crushed. Both feeling good.

Interestingly, Zverev was critical of both Tsitsipas and Medvedev and the bad boy image. He said players should emulate the class and grace of Roger and Rafa.

He didn’t mention either Kyrgios or Djokovic.

Where Djokovic falls short compared to Federer is the fact that he has not cultivated relationships with the top young players and taken them under his wing. Thus, they have fallen for the Federer/Godsick/Mary Joe Fernandez triangle. I think Djokovic should mentor the Russian players

Safin is still looking for his own mentor…😊

35 UEs from Konta puts Elina into the sfs. I’m not crazy about her style but a Slam sf is a Slam sf, no arguing with that. I think practising with Monfils has lifted Svito’s game.

Konta is going to be upset. And she should be

Medvedwv, wow. He didn’t just defeat Wawrinka. Even at four sets, from the highlights this looked like a thorough shellacking. Medvedev is making the field bend a lot. He will relish getting Dimitrov or Federer, and he has shown an interest in playing spoiler.

Federer doesn’t mind playing Medvedev because Federer has a lot of tricks, and Federer has beaten him everytime. Dimitrov shouldn’t mind either, given Dimitrov doesn’t mind varying the pace either.

But Medvedev has made his presence felt here. He has all summer.

Berretini – a right handed Rios! I had to do a double take. I thought Federer copied Rios shots and he did but Berretini has some of the nuance down, a little less aublime yet more artful and less expected. Almost as if he’s toying with opponents.

Again Fed has done this before but he’s been more bread and butter in terms of his combinations. I think Berretini is a very original player.

Can’t teach this style of playing. It’s too original.

Konta played well, Svito better. Harold was right, Svito has the fire. Konta hit unbelievable shots, but Svito hit very believable shots – Svitolina seemed to make Konta feel she had to hit big shots to win. Konta gave a nice interview afterwards. Delightful.

Svito could beat Serena. I think Serena will tee off the Svito serve, but Svito is moving well, matching opponents intensity, and pacing herself during matches.

I’m more impressed with Svito than I thought I’d be. And it’s nice to see two players proud of their performance. They raised it a level.

I’m surprised Wang even got a game. Serena’s had the easiest draw. She’ll take this one and retire ?

Wang put in the worst performance of a Slam quarterfinalist. She won 15 points with no winners. Not one game went to deuce. That is incredible. Serena actually choked in the one game Wang won.

Thank goodness the men played 5 sets because imagine paying 1,000s to watch a match like that. Fifteen points! Not one deuce game. Serena didn’t even need to ace her more than once it was so bad.

Just a black eye for women’s tennis and let’s hope everyone forgets about this match

For a funny look at the idea of “bad boys” in tennis:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/sep/04/us-open-tennis-bad-boys-rebels-daniil-medvedev-nick-kyrgios

“Then you have to consider the type of spectator the typical tennis bad boy is in rebellion against. Specifically: TENNIS spectators. At Wimbledon the Centre Court crowd applauds pigeons. Literally even my mother would be a rebel here.” (The Guardian)

Svito 4-0 on Konta. She liked her chances and played a perfect mix of consistency and aggression. Reminded of Bouchard 2014 ( up until Canada that year, when the scouting report on Bouchard may have been readily available!).

Hartt- Marina Hyde can be funny sometimes but I think this piece was a bit laboured and off the mark. Maria probably wasn’t around when MacEnroe, Connors, Nastase and other assorted bad boys played at Wimbledon – plenty of aggro on court and in the stands – and that’s happened more recently too.

It’s a myth that the Wimbledon crowd is a collection of snobby zombies. Been known to boo underperforming players as well – and you have to have sympathy considering the ticket prices.

Regarding Bouchard in 2014 I think there were a couple reasons she crumpled at the Rogers Cup. She was injured that summer, so did not have tons of practice, and she is a player who needs a lot of preparation. But the main problem was the expectations in Canada were simply crazy. The hype was too much and she couldn’t cope. During her match she actually said to her coach that she did not want to be on the court.

It is interesting to compare Genie to Bianca. The hype, although big, was not at the same level for Bianca. And Bianca, along with being a better player, is mentally tougher than Genie. She embraces the big moments, does not shy away from them.

Bouchard was tough! Her game was worse. Probably the player with worst game to win a slam has been Ostapenko?

The media will feature the bigger name. You see that all the time in headlines. It is “Big name” loses to “Not so big name” rather than featuring the winner.

I get downright excited when one of the big papers, like the NY Times, does a feature on a player other than a top one, because it is so rare.

Yes, they all have the games. I don’t think there’s much that makes those three to four players stick out. Their games are more average. I remember Majoli winning the French, and it’s as much a shock now as it was then.

Supreme accomplishment. I always liked Pennetta – scrappy player with a good game. But nothing fearsome, just all around solid. Ostapenko can turn on tue after burner on the right day, and I won’t take anything away from her slam. She earned it. Seven match wins in a row right to the title.

In terms of their shots their groundstrokes etc, I don’t think they had many weapons out their. They were all around solid. Myskina had a nice backhand.

I think it’s helping her more than him. He can turn on power beyond anything another woman can. Which is why most top women prefer to practise with men, or should do.
Gael can bang down Serena type serves.

(What did Kerber get out of practising with Woz ahead of USO ? Nothing.)

Too many tennis writers behave like fans – nothing new. It was worse when players and reporters were closer.