Tennis Scoops

It sounds like Bartoli has completely recovered from her illness. That is good news.

Dan –

Yes – Andy’s a puzzle. Very nice guy in private life but on court…

Mauresmo understood Andy in that way and knew she couldn’t stand it or do much about it so they parted. I gather Lendl wasn’t too happy either at the US Opoen but has clearly decided to stick around.

Nobody likes a whiner. But when Murray’s a winner, no one cares. I think the same will happen for Kyrgios. When he’s sulking and tanking we all want to stick the fork in his career. When he’s brilliant, can’t get enough.

So Sock will play Isner in the QFs. Jack has been playing so well lately, think he has a good shot at winning that match.

Am watching Murray vs. Pouille. So far Andy has been very restrained. Playing well probably helps! And his team members are sitting behind a couple rows of fans, likely a good idea. 🙂

I don’t mind if Andy mutters or even yells to himself about himself but get fed up with him when he yells at his team. I don’t understand why he seems unable to curb that; he must realize how bad it looks, and how unpleasant it is for everyone involved, including his fans.

Sock must be getting weary. According to an ATP site article he has played 31 matches, including doubles, in 32 days. Along with the Isner match he and Monroe are playing Nestor/Bopanna today.

Sock’s doubles results with different partners is very impressive. What might hold him back in the doubles rankings next season is he has said he won’t play doubles at the Slams, he wants to concentrate on singles then. I hope he changes his mind about that.

Am watching the Sock vs. Isner match. It looks like John will take it – he is up a break in the third. Have to admit that Isner played much better than I’d expected.

Jack Sock is now out of both singles and doubles, so his season is at an end. Milos won a tight 2nd set against Tsonga in front of that tough Paris crowd, so a good win for him. (He took the first set 6-2.) He faces Andy next. And of course it is Isner vs. Cilic in the other SF.

If Andy makes it to the final he will be No. 1 on Monday with 5 points over Novak!

Today was a good day for Canadian tennis because Pospisil and Nestor won their respective doubles matches. Bianca Andreescu lost to an American player (sorry, don’t know the name) in Toronto, but Gabriela Dabrowski won her SF in doubles (against 2 other Canadians) and will be in the final. 🙂

It will be interesting to see how Novak does in London – he will be up against other top players and yes, players don’t see him as invincible any longer. He has a lot of points to defend and now I think Andy will be the year-end No. 1. And he would deserve it, he has had a great season.

Although I will be rooting for Raonic in the SF would be surprised if Andy does not win that match and I think likely the title. The way Cilic has been going lately figure he will be the other finalist. Have to admit, though, that Isner played much better than I’d expected today. Every once in a while he seems to come to life.

So 2 big shocks today. Isner won over Cilic in SS. John played well overall. And Milos had to withdraw with yet another injury. He said he may not be able to play in London. So, as you can imagine, I am feeling pretty miserable about Milos. Just when he had started to play well again.

I was surprised that Isner won over Cilic but would be amazed if he won over Andy. Still, anything is possible!

When I see Isner playing well I always wonder why he can’t do this more often.

He can make the claim of best server. The ATP site has a list of the current top 20 players ranked by their combined first serve % and percentage of first serve points won. Because John was not in Top 20 they did not include him. Which is a strange omission when you are looking at serving. So I worked out his numbers.

Isner’s combined % was 56.5, better than no. 1 on the list, Karlovic who has 54% and Raonic who has 52%. The ATP has a list of of the top 10 in terms of 2nd serve points won (which includes past players such as Roddick). Isner is 3rd on that list, behind Rafa and Fed. So his record for both first and second serves is excellent.

To Dan point, as if eavesdropping on TP discussions, got to applaud the Williams sisters dedication of the two courts in Compton Los Angeles California. This is EXACTLY what i hope other players do. Almost actually I really believe the USTA should follow their lead and launch public park barnstorming exhibitions where excellent us players face off in tiebreak contests like fish vs fritz or dy against Stevie Johnson or Roddick Blake etc and the us women too to bring the game back to the people. Personally I think it would be awesome. And of course players may feel it’s dumb and may prefer an urban exposition schedule. But if you really want to drum up support I think they’d want to push a Wayne Bryan and Mayotte and McEnroe and Mal Washington endeavor where you do what Trabert Kramer and those guys did . It would be epic and you’d have the game reach more folks in a meaningful way.

Perhaps retired top pros could do more to help tennis at the grass roots level, at public parks, etc. I don’t know if he is still doing it but Wilander had a program where he took a van to different towns and had clinics for players at various levels.

Scoop why not an exo tiebreak the day before tournaments. They do it all the time at the majors, cannot imagine it would be a big deal for players to hit on nearby public courts . Their PR would really dig it!
“Nadal hits on local Bronx court, talks to local players” that’s the stuff that makes legends huge. Nike would get behind that. Easy for players security staff tournaments sponsors.

If they wanted to REALLY reconnect the game to the people they’d try somethiubg more humble and ambitious e.g. hit on courts that need a redo and draw attention to courts that need help. Lots of ways to do this, great pr for players sport game etc. Amd probably get some results, more players pick up a racquet etc.

Both Alexander AND Mischa Zverev ratcheted up their level post us open . Alex because he had a bad slam and Mischa because he was already picking up steam.

Isner put up a good fight against Murray today but Andy prevailed in the end. Must admit I did not expect such a close one. But Andy, as the new No. 1, could not lose that match! Now Andy has 405 points over Novak. Think 275 points come off later from last year’s Davis Cup final. (Somehow it seems unfair that he loses all DC points since DC no longer counts for points, something beyond his control.) Anyway, it looks like the battle for year-end No. 1 will come down to the WTFs.

Another thing top players could do is adopt a public tennis court, provide $ to refurbish it and to provide ongoing maintenance. Recently a boy launched a campaign to refurbish his local tennis court and I think Raonic provided the final $ necessary for the campaign. That could be a regular contribution by top players to give back to their sport.

Catherine,
What’s the conclusion on the Draper/Gilbert/Annacine era for the LTA? UK has had some talent rise through the crack

Andrew –

I’ve always felt that the LTA had and has a confused idea of its role – ie to support and develop the foundations of the game throughout the UK via various funding routes or to ‘create champions’ – which is the way the general public tend to perceive the organization and blame it of course when there are very few champions, or none. The massive dominance of Wimbledon tends to skew things a bit here as well.

The LTA’s job surely should be to provide a basic healthy structure at the grassroots, and champions will tend to ’emerge’, and if they don’t then maybe that’s down to all sorts of cultural and social reasons and not a cause for rating the LTA a success or a failure.

There’ve been successive regimes at the LTA and all sorts of plans and wheezes and imported coaches etc but the number of players who play at the professional level stays about the same.

I’d say the public image of the LTA isn’t a particularly good one but that’s partly down to the vast salaries some employees have arranged for themselves and the need for a convenient whipping boy. I recall the USTA has come in for some flack in its time and maybe that’s true of National Associations in general.