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The Berdych vs Thiem Practice in Miami Saturday
5 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
The first thing that arrested my attention today at 10:30 am was the Tomas Berdych and Dominic Thiem practice. They were hitting from the baseline and Berdych seemed to be getting the better of it enough so that Thiem started to grunt as if to boost his level to keep up with Big Berd. Berdych coach Daniel Valverdu seemed to anoint himself to the role as the conductor of the session by being the one to authoritatively bark out “One more minute” or “Water break.” Then they did forehand crosscourts and Berdych definitely kept the ball in better than Thiem. Thiem continued his grunting but clear edge to Berdych. Valverdu then ordered the change to backhand crosscourts. I guess the higher ranked player calls the shots in practices like this. Thiem was steadier with the backhands and was able to force Berdych into misses especially on his deep strikes to the corner. Berdych did sneak a few up the lines though Thiem never did – he kept every backhand going cross court. Again Valverdu barked out “water break” and the two players sat by the net post with Thiem on a chair to the left and Berdych as far away as possible on the right end of the bench a few yards away. They did not speak one single word to each other during the break or even acknowledge each other. Berdych fidgeted with his three Head racquets and Thiem drank water and toweled off. These two players are of different eras but they are both Europeans and it was a bit strange to see the distance between the two. When they resumed hitting Thiem announced or requested that he wanted something done his way. “Can we hit down the middle for one or two minutes” asked Thiem and without any spoken word Berdych and Valverdu accepted the nicely asked order. Thiem continued his grunting and seemed to increase his consistency. They each did volleys and overheads but I left the practice before it ended to go see a match. Thiem plays Nishioka and Berdych faces Johnson on Sunday in the R32.
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Andrew Miller · March 26, 2016 at 11:22 pm
Praise for Smyczek. First he houses Fritz in Delray. Today he took out Isner and he is our player in the third round of Miami along with Sock. Honorable mention to Kudla for playing Raonic close. And to Johnson yesterday for taking down Zverev.
Tsonga, Monfils and Radwanska are the most consistent players of 2016.
Querrey goes down on a heartbreaker to Mannarino.
catherine bell · March 27, 2016 at 7:39 am
Just a question re incident during Murray’s match: why do they use different balls for women in Miami ? Is this the rule at other tournaments ?
Pretty sure it wasn’t so in the past(but may have been and I never noticed…….)
Harold · March 27, 2016 at 9:52 am
Women always use ” Clay” balls on hardcourts for some bizarro reason
catherine bell · March 27, 2016 at 10:13 am
Harold –
Thanks -didn’t know that.
Doesn’t seem very ‘equal’ to me – and what do they do in mixed doubles?
I think we should be told more (:
catherine bell · March 27, 2016 at 12:39 pm
Later –
I understand the WTA balls are lighter and hence fly better and are easier to serve – but I wonder how long it’s been the case to use different balls to the men at certain tournaments and why this kind of manipulation was considered necessary.
Can of worms there…..