Shanghai

Scoop,

There’s no way Sock is a big time performer in the making. You can’t go out and lose to Pat Benatar 3 and 4 after beating Nishikori. You have to win that match if you’re a player in the make. I don’t know what is it about Sock. Maybe it’s his backhand. I’m sure Benny zeroed in it on with his own superb two-hander. Maybe it’s Sock’s conditioning. He doesn’t able to seem to be able to win more than two matches in a row.

Here’s a nice stat for you…Sock has only won more than two matches in a row at Newport and Atlanta this year. That’s it. And at Newport he did beat Izzie, in Atlanta he beat nobody good. Not a good sign for Sock.

Now Harry bests him this year, he hasn’t gotten past the 2nd round of an ATP event this year. Hasn’t won a slam match and lost to DY love and 1 and to Smee love and 2 this year. I’ll make you a bet for any amount of $ you want to bet, Harry will never see Top 50 again. No way, no how. I don’t care if he gets Gilbert, Cahill and Paulie to tri-coach him.

Look, you and I disagree about the importance of doubles’ titles. A guy like Spadea would think having big success in doubles is not a good sign as as Sock might start thinking himself more as a doubles player than a singles player and once that starts happening, you’re doomed as a singles player.

I give you Sock has improved incrementally this year. But I think in the slams at least, he’s gotten worse this year. The loss to Andujar at the Open, the straight set losses to Raonic and Monfils at Wimby and the Aussie O, respectively and the 3rd round loss to Lajovic at the French, are not good results, they’re not even mediocre.

He’s done terrible in slams his whole young career so far, but even in 2013, he won only one less match in the slams than this year.

Do I think Spadea can coach Harry to Top 25? No, nada, not a chance. I haven’t talked to Vince in a while. We’ve fallen out of touch. I got bummed two Opens ago when he was practicing with Djoko and told me he was going to call me and tell me when and where they were practicing at the Open, and he never did. So no big deal, but I’m not asking him about his current coaching gigs (if any at all), but who has Vince Spadea ever helped become a Top 25 player but himself?

Vince would have to prove he’s a good coach. He knows the game, but I have great doubts that he’d be willing to give of his time and effort to take on a player like Harry and coach him. When I was talking to him a couple of years ago, and DY was in a similar but not so dire situation as Harry, Vince was not so gung-ho about coaching DY. So it would be interesting, but I doubt the Harry camp would ever see if Vince was interested in coaching Harry.

On Shanghai, Pete Bodo at Tennis.com pretty much takes Nadal at his word – that he wants to play tennis now, he doesn’t want to have to play catch-up and cede the #2 spot to Federer, and he definitely wants to get himself in order for 2015. But to me this year says something else about Nadal: the player is burned out.

Nadal’s had a fairly bad for Nadal year – his one slam 2014 isn’t his two slam 2013 with its two slam plus perfect summer hardcourt “best summer of all time” triumph. He’s been grimmacing an awful lot and I’d suspect he didn’t want to play the Australian Open (queue up the Nadal complaints about how long and unfair the regular season is even though players rack up the huge salaries and bonus pay!). In short this year Nadal has complained more than ever and played less than ever.

I don’t think Nadal even wants to hit a ball this Asian swing and I’d assume he just wants to play enough to keep his game intact. Uncle Toni and Nadal are playing for history and to do that you need to peak at the right moment. Shanghai doesn’t matter – Melbourne matters. Miami matters because it means something in Spain to win Miami – lots of spanish speakers and big kudos in Latin America, if you win Miami you get more fame and more fortune. Roland Garros matters more than anything. And Wimbledon matters because you like it there.

Nah I think Nadal’s been off for a while. I don’t believe he wants to play at all – he genuinely dislikes playing indoors because frankly it just doesn’t suite his game (or fit his idea that playing less is the best if only the ATP and ITF wouldn’t have so many requirements). Nadal likes outdoor courts, he likes wars of attrition and he likes to win. He doesn’t like any court that favors a big server who can get and stay hot and who takes time away for the Nadal game.

I think Bodo’s got it wrong here. Nadal plays in Asia to keep his name intact there and wants to play well enough so that his seeding is high enough in Australia and later tournaments so that he doesn’t have to play a guy like Kyrgios in round 1 in Melbourne (nightmare). If you play for history you only care about how Shanghai fits into your larger goals, not about Shanghai itself. So who cares if you lose to your countryman – at least it’s better than losing to Klizan.

Chalk this up to Nadal thinking and I think this is accurate, losing to Lopez isn’t that bad. He’ll beat him if they square off in Australia, no doubt!

Unfortunately there is the little and larger question of why Nadal missed the entire US Open hardcourt season including the US Open. It’s a black mark in the Nadal record that he’s missed a few slams this way – he wins an epic Wimbledon 2008, doesn’t show up in 2009 after losing to Soderling at French Open 2009, then makes a miraculous comeback in 2010 winning both the French Open and Wimbledon. Then in 2013, Nadal comes back (miracle of miracles!), doing a Latin America swing just like it’s 2005 (see Miami final and French Open first ever victory in his first try), wins the French Open then has the best ever U.S. hardcourt season and wins the US Open in a blaze of glory.

Then he complains about the indoor season, finds himself playing lousy ball in Australia but fortunately his lousy ball is just enough to get by Nishikori and Dimitrov until running into the truck known as Stan Wawrinka (who himself pulls a Rosol), and recovers again at the French Open. He wins and his happy, he beats Rosol at Wimbledon, then loses to Kyrgios and, let’s be honest here, he calls it a season after that match and blames everything on a wrist problem or something else.

Now I love giving the benefit of the doubt – I’m sure Nadal’s wrist hurts as much as Smyczek’s or any other player. But not playing a match? He wasn’t grimmacing in his Kyrgios loss was he? Nah, I don’t think so. I think this is Nadal’s “I’m spent routine”. If you want to win the most slams in history, you pace yourself. You prepare. You rest. You then manage expectations. You lose a few matches that on paper make no sense but to you make perfect sense because, hail, no one remembers Shanghai and guys like Klizan and Lopez have played you close before, are your friends like Lopez, or are both lefties so some charity is in order for fellow lefty players (even if you are right handed). Uncle Toni before the match probably says something like – listen Rafa, I know you don’t want to be here and you are sick of those garden rolls and spring rolls and want some of our amazing mallorcan seafood but let’s at least look like you’re trying. At least for your Asian fans.

So you do your best, still find yourself hating indoors, and find a way to lose with dignity against your buddy Lopez, who is ecstatic! But Lopez, being that he’s not stupid, probably says something along the lines of this is a great win but Rafa wasn’t himself.

However, Rafa knows better…he’s entirely being himself! He could care less about Shanghai. He just wants to get this whole thing over with and get home for fishing. He knows that in the end it makes no difference how he won the most slams of all time, only that he did it. He looks at examples of Serena Williams, who also did it her way and took no advice from no one, and says, hail – that’s the way to do it. Play when you want. Pick your spots.

But why can’t Nadal say this to the press say or right to the ITF? Because they make up the rules and will fine him for it. And so he makes it up.

I’m not saying he doesn’t have the medical problems he does have. Only that you have a few other players on tour – namely Murray, Federer and Djokovic, who take a lot less time off. They feel some kind of obligation to be out there. But then again, only one of those guys is a record holder, and you as Rafa need to beat him. So you just beat the record in the same way you always have – by playing when and where you want and picking your spots. You turn small injuries into enormous ones. You let the press believe what it wants to about your knees, etc (which do hurt, but you have also developed a better serve to get more free points so your knees don’t face the same kind of beating these days). And you let your fan club take care of the rest and protect your good name out there.

Because you’re Rafa Nadal. Aint nothing gonna stand in the way between you and history! Let everyone else believe what they want about you, because in your heart of hearts you know you the man.

And so does everyone one else.

Wow Andrew, nice fan fiction about Rafa. You really shouldn’t have used Rafa for your character’s name though because he’s nothing at all like the real-life tennis great Rafael Nadal. Couldn’t be more different as a matter of fact.

I’ll simply say that you don’t know Rafa at all. You have got his attitude completely wrong.

But carry on. For some bizarre reason people love to make stuff up about Rafa.

More fan fiction, this one more insulting than the last. Disgusting.

Thanks jblitz. Listen anyone who is on top of a sport has to face scrutiny, that’s the way it goes. I say everything in jest – I know it’s speculation. It is weird that Nadal misses more of the season than any other top 10 player but there’s a precedent: Serena Williams. They both pick and choose when to play etc and they play the sport with both reverence as well as the idea that if they’re not feeling well then they need to take care of themselves first. Nadal’s also made some very clear remarks about how he sees the season as too long (even though he also does exhibitions during those short off-seasons that bring in plenty of money). Some of Nadal’s complaints are off the wall and frankly they are self-serving.

I’m not saying and won’t ever say “nadal’s not a great champion”. As you can also see I generally say “I think” or “to me” – which means it’s just an opinion. I love the sport and look forward to seeing more of it. I have no insider knowledge of Nadal and his team. But when you have that kind of amazing record it’s not because Nadal plays every event in sight – he plays less and less every year.

It’s not a criticism but it’s real – he plays few tournaments. Challenger players – now those guys play more tournaments than anyone! But they aren’t grumbling about the length of the season, but someone should grumble about their pay per tournament so they don’t kill themselves chasing the sport from southern Tennessee to southern Timbuktu (and their pay on the whole has remained constant while pay at the top of the sport has gone up and up).

So Nadal’s a lot more interesting character in my opinion than he’s given credit for. Any journalist worth their salt shouldn’t take any top player’s story at face value. They are complex people and that should be a basic assumption – complex. I don’t think generally speaking that the Nadal team manufactures injuries, but I do believe that Nadal doesn’t set foot on any court without feeling that he’s ready to be back. I don’t think he made up the knee problems but I do think he’s compensated for them by developing new elements of his game so it’s no longer really much of a factor. I also think that Nadal, somewhat, over-played this year in the earlier part so that by Wimbledon he didn’t take a time off just because of a wrist injury but because he was spent. And I think that he took off the summer in order to recuperate because he was spent, and not just because of a nagging wrist injury (which affects tons of players).

It’s probably unfair to make this all about Nadal – after all, Andy Murray also took a huge amount of time off with his back injury. Djokovic took some time off too. But Nadal takes the most time off of all them and for that reason it’s the most interesting. You could say – well, he plays harder. Harder than Djokovic? Maybe, maybe not – not for me to know how much energy each expend per match. Or maybe, well – he;’s a greeater champion! Well that doesn’t explain it either.

You could then say, speculating here again, well he plays the game in a different way than say Sampras. That’s true also but if so, and if Nadal knows he’s injury prone, why not just develop a harder 2nd serve or work on his combos so that he gets off the court faster? Or make most of his season on clay? Well, he HAS done that.

Again I don’t have the answers and my speculation is just that. I do think it’s strange for a defending champion not to defend a slam. But maybe that’s why Nadal’s nadal and I’m not – because he has his reasons. Maybe he doesn’t want to defend a tournament he doesn’t have a 100% chance of winning (that might be why he shows up every year at Roland Garros and builds his season around the clay, where his winning percentage is obscenely high).

Nadal has his reasons. But to me there’s also some reason to believe (my speculation, so be it) that he returns when he wants to and plays well when he wants to. He’s lost a few matches (uncharacteristically and usually on hard courts) where he’s just not trying that hard at the end (watch them yourself!). A few years ago even with a ball clearly out he ceded a WTF final to Federer (the scoreline had “I don’t care” written all over it!). If that were the French Open he’d be up in arms about it. But then again if that were the French Open he’d have beaten Federer easy and wouldn’t be worrying about a line call here and there.

So that’s my speculation. Nadal cares when he cares and doesn’t when he doesn’t. It’s simple and straightforward and I can’t possibly prove it. But that’s what I gather anyways.

“I saw the highlights of Rafa vs. F Lo and it looked like Rafa was giving his all. F Lo was on his game. Did not look like a tank or injury loss at all. Rafa just got beat.”

Geez Scoop. Has everyone gone mad today??? Of course Rafa was giving his all – he always does, but his all wasn’t all that much. You only looked at the highlights. Watch the match to see the lowlights and you would see that his winners/ue ratio was terrible for him, something like 19/36. His shots were all landing short, his serve was way slower than normal and you could see him wince often. His fierce competitiveness overtook him at times and he would run for everything but he certainly didn’t do it all the time and when he did, as often as not, he would end up hunched over with his hands on his knees.

Feli wasn’t on his game either. He was very streaky. Sometimes he was great but other times he was flubbing it. It wasn’t a very good match but Feli deserved the win.

Of course he didn’t make up the knee problems. In case you didn’t know, he was born with a defective bone in his left foot which splintered when he was 19 and they thought his career was over. The treatment finally settled on was special orthotics in his shoe to cushion the bone but he still plays with pain in his foot every match and often has to have it anesthetized before matches. He was warned that it would throw his body out of balance and he would likely have knee or hip or back problems. He’s had all of them but it’s the knee that’s been worst and those of us who watch his every match can tell when it’s bad – like in the Rosol match. I have a picture that on close-up shows three needle marks in his knee from having it anesthetized before the match. For several years he went through extremely painful PRT treatments on his knee which helped but stem cell treatments he had a year or so ago finally seems to have helped and he says his knees feel better than they have in years.

He didn’t overplay earlier this year. He played the same amount he played every other year, actually a bit less because he didn’t get to the finals of every tournament he played. He didn’t take the summer off, he took about three weeks and then was back practicing hard. There’s plenty of video and pictures of it and even when his wrist was splinted, he still practiced hard. He wasn’t lolling around resting during the US hard court swing.

It’s just nonsense to suggest he doesn’t play if he doesn’t have a 100% chance of winning. His philosophy, expressed over and over and over again in pressers and interviews is that it’s sport and only one can win and losing is a part of sport, that all he can do is go out there and try his hardest and always give his best. He’s a very good loser because it’s the competition he thrives on, not the wins or losses. He will go down in history as one of the fiercest competitors ever, win or lose. Just think back to the AO final against Novak where he wasn’t devastated by the loss – he said he enjoyed the suffering!

“He’s lost a few matches…where he’s just not trying that hard at the end” – That’s just a dumb thing to say about Rafa. He ceded the final to Federer???? It’s Roger’s best surface and Rafa’s worst. If Rafa was giving it up to Fed, why did Rafa fight so hard to win the second set? And the ball wasn’t clearly out. Yes, from some angles it looked out but there was plenty of analysis afterwards and it had caught the line and Rafa knew it.

And all I can say is that your speculation is cuckoo and your conclusion that he “cares when he cares and doesn’t when he doesn’t” is really delusional.

The last set and a half of the Smee and Donaldson match was very entertaining. D was up a break in 2nd set and lost and then was up 2 breaks in third and lost six of last seven games. He was called for point penalty – obscenity on his serve but there was no obscenity, he was just being a jerk despite being up two breaks in final set. Crowd turned against him, started cheering his misses. The most embarrassing part was the purple Nike bandanna.

What to make of all these Spaniards having stellar results in their 30’s? I mean here’s Lopez who looked dead in the water until a couple of years ago and now at age 33 he’s in the semis of a Masters and ranked #16! Ferrer is still going strong as is Robredo. One wonders what’s happened to Verdasco because he’s a spring chicken compared to these guys and Almagro, where’s he been? Injured I guess or maybe he’s going through a round of the Spanish elixir.

Compare these guys to the Americans of their generation: Roddick, Fish, Blake, Dent, Ginepri…these guys are all long gone. Each one of the puttering and sputtering out, not making Masters semis or being ranked in the Top 15. Fish went out so mysteriously and un-spectacularly that one wonders whether he’s in the Witness Protection Program.

I for one, and I can really only be one because I’m not two, three or four, believe that Fish got caught taking PED’s (otherwise, why did they test him 4 times last year when he played in like 1 ATP match!?) and they said to him, “Mardy, retire and don’t come back, and we won’t make a big to-do about this positive test. Save some face for yourself and the flopping American men’s tennis world.”

And that’s the last we’ve seen of Mardy Fish. But the Spaniards of the same generation, who weren’t as good as this group of Americans (Ferrer wasn’t the player Roddick was. Lopez not the player Fish was. Robredo not the player Blake was.), are still going strong. How is that?

Jblitz i dont have a dog in the race. Glad to see such a spirited defense of a player who doesnt need it! Nadal will surprise me if he wins yec, because in my opinion it will mean he cares about it. Ill leave it there.

As for Donaldson wow, again Smycek similar to Russell but not at iron mike status is the bar on the u.s. challengers, so Donaldsin playing him tough is a big deal. It isnt a win but it does suggest that kozlov and donaldson have big ambition plus enough good sense or good advice to turn that ambition into a worthwhile result. Smyczek comes in for some praise – he really is solid. I think Smyczek may have some challenges when playing on show courts – at challengers at places that look like nearby public courts he hussles! He looks like a public parks player and has a solid blue collar feel to his game. Comes to work. Gets the job done! I think Smyczek should be a fan favorite.

He was acting up the entire 1.5 sets I saw, smashing his racket, screaming at himself, etc. The real problem was I think that there were matches on the adjacent courts while he was shouting at himself. Some of the fans were shhhhhing him. I think the umpire knew it wasn’t an obscenity, just wanted a reason to give a point penalty.

Actually it is hard to agree on slam results. Ferrer/Robredo/Verdasco and Flopez all have more slam semis and quarters on their resume. The armada probably gets the nod if compared against u.s. players not named Roddick ( if roddick were spanish he would be #2 in their lineup but Blake would not be #3 ).

Would be interesting to see what Dent thinks about Smyczek – Smee is now one of my favorite players to watch! I’d hope he’d say good things and not bad mouth him and say Donaldson, you’re better than Smee. The reality is that if you lose to them twice in a row, you’re not, so you better appreciate what the opponent is doing right and what to do next time to take them out of that game.

Wait a second, are we really getting excited and singing the praises of Tim Smee Smyczeck?! A guy who’s won a total of 5, count them, 5, slam matches in his entire career! I respect Smyczeck, but who’re going to get excited about next? Marcos Giron.

Alright, Jon, I know you’ve seen them all play, so rate who’s going to have the most/more successful career(s):

Kozlov
Tiafoe
Donaldson

Just saying Smee is a nice player who’s worth watching. I have a tough time watching Karlovic, I remember Agassi-Karlovic 2005, that was maybe the least enjoyable match ever! An Isner-Karlovic match can’t be the ticket of the tournament, can it?

As for Smyczek all I am saying is he plays good ball – not that he’s amazing. Not that he’s the best player of all time. Only that he’s a solid player – there’s a reason he excels “at the challenger level” – because for the most part he’s better than his competition. Do I expect Smyczek to break the top 50? I think that one’s a lot harder – he could but it’s a tall order!

And what’s Smyczek in relation to other members of the “lost generation”? That U.S. group (coined by Doug Robson of USA Today) includes the Oudsemas, the Evans’, the Scoville Jenkins, Tim O’Neilly, Phil Simmonds, turncoats Tim O’Neilly and “ain’t playin here no more!” Jesse Levine, Ryan (Kaley) Sweeting, and whose only fellow “still playing” compadre is Alex Kuznetsov? (no offense, I like Alex’ game a lot too and I’m glad he’s still working the circuit). Robson mentioned Nikita Kryvonos too (we can include even more but I think it’s unnecessary!).

The only survivors of that generation – the one that was “supposed” to happen post Roddick, Blake, Fish, Ginepri, Dent (Dent was a fine player!) – are Team Isner, Kuznetsov, Smee, Querrey and DYoung.

So sure, I think in comparison to say, Blake, no – Smyczek is not Blake. But he’s a solid player who more than holds his own. And he’s a survivor of a group that entered pro-tennis with huge expectations and no guidance. In comparison to all those guys, Smyczek is a prodigy and Sock is phenomenal!

Having watched a few of the matches of Smyczek over the past weeks, it is rather revealing of the US tennis state that you praise his play. He performed decently, not great, and it was on the challenger circuit. No disrespect to the player, he is solid and gritty but he just does not have good enough strokes. He is 26 and there is 0% chance he will ever be something remotely close to Ferrer. I had the impression that this was a unbiased blog about tennis, not simply a blog about ‘our players’

I think the unbiased wording was ill-used on my side (sorry – i guess my English has become worse!)

I did not mean that Hicham Arazi should be the next hot topic..:)
What I was simply wondering was how a 26 year old has become a hot topic by beating a 17 year old and a free-falling Harisson. What will happen if he beats a couple of top-50 players?
The players you mentioned had all much much better careers by 26 than smyczek, except victor estrella who is not a top50 player (yet).
Maybe all I meant was, that I too find it extremely hard to get excited about Smyczek..:)

What I found very exciting was the play of Coric, which has been consistent the last few months since his breakthrough. Not only winning some matches against higher ranked players, but, although fiery, he seems exceptionally strong mentally for a 17 year old. That I find the most promising upside of him for his age in terms of future success and separates him from zverev and other under-18 which are talented but are so not mentally strong.

My comments from approx 1 year ago countinue to prove out , but it is your writers sincere lack of humility (excluding scoop) that is turning out this trash . Blaming ryan harrss coaching staff in light of the fact that harrison is an uncomotted head case . I love how he felt it was his place too comment of Rogers lack ” fire” feom the podium , suggesting he just needed to get fired up to beat rafa etc etc. well look where is roger is today and where he is . I would say that is a reflectionn of his mentality , and lack of respect for the game