Tsitsipas better than Federer at 21?

Social media can be detrimental to everyone. There are a few books being published now by the people who invented it and now want to disinvent the monster they created. Too late.

Patrick was probably checking to see how many pictures there were of himself 🙂

Nah. Federer was better. We forget how good these guys were, talking seventeen, eighteen years ago. Hewitt would have feasted on the Tsitsipas serve. Tsitsipas is very good. He has the worst serve I’ve seen for a top player in a while, somewhat like Dementieva in that his goal is just to start the point. His serve has no other purpose and given player reluctance to change serves (outside of Nadal, who improves it and then his serve needs a correction as bad habits come back) he’s going to be compensating with other parts of his game for a while.

Rest of the Tsitsipas game is quite nice. He has the same joy of any top player after winning, a mega watt smile that lights up a stadium. It’s nice to see another one hander that can handle the pressure.

My opinion and I am often wrong, there are a lot of good players. Whoever is drawing first blood now only does just that. The biggest thing happening on the men’s tour is the young guys are beginning to believe they have a chance. That should motivate them to work harder – not to beat the big three – but to beat each other and out do each other. It’s the competitive nature that matters – how badly they want the next win and how hard they are willing to work to make sure it’s them at the finish line.

I believe a lot of players that have a say in this weren’t in London. Scoop pointed out the “veteran” move by Shapovalov to hire Youzhny (and that is a veteran move!). If I were Shapo heck hire a SECOND veteran to help with another aspect. Just keep building. And hit the gym and or track and ball machine so that the game holds up. Pull some Lendl moves.

FelixAA might have overwhelmed himself this year, getting to finals and getting so close to tasting ATP tour titles, maybe well before he was ready to “seal the deal”. I’ve heard he hits practice courts after matches and hope he and his coaches review tape. FelixAA owned Tsitsipas until only very recently. And given his loss he’ll want to get that back.

There are many many young guys now that sense opportunity. Monfils and other veterans do too, like Fognini, and they’re in better position to get some good titles, but the younger guys may be more hungry.

I expect we will get the equivalent of a sentimental win by a fan favorite or another big run to semifinals by a player fans have always liked or appreciated. This is the last few years that kind of player can do this before the opportunity disappears for them and retirement looks more appealing than dying on the court.

Congratulations Scoop!

Love Tsitsipas and the greek goddess Sakkari. The only thing preventing Stefanos from surpassing Fed is a private plane!!

This so so exciting! After wins against Fognini and Berrettini yesterday, Pospisil defeated Opelka and Shapo defeated Fritz, both in SS. This is the first time Canada has ever defeated the US in Davis Cup.

Now the team is in the QFs and will play the winner of Group D.

Scoop, my cracked crystal ball has shattered and I’m sweeping up the pieces.
– Big three may be tired from short off season, but will benefit from “a match every other day” format of Australian. Djokovic may or may not be “fully restored” as he came back too soon from injury. Federer has looked more vulnerable lately. Crowd support will be on side of the big three.

– Thiem showed a lot this off season, arguably as much as Tsitsipas and Medvedev. Expect Thiem to slam in 2020. Medvedev has cooled off somewhat and beaten silly every match of ATP finals, which casts some doubt on whether he will conjure up his Nalbandian-like magic again. He went zero for three, and also lost early in Paris. That’s four straight losses, so he’s not entering 2020 well.

– Expect the “sentimental” favorites such as Monfils, Tsonga, perhaps Dimitrov has moved into the role of sentimental favorite vet, Gasquet to put in some enjoyable performances. Dimitrov may be a contender as he seems to have rediscovered he’s a formidable player.

– Among next gen I think they had a very good 2019. I believe they still get shut out of slams in 2020. That’s even with Medvedev getting within twelve points of a US Open title, and with next gen players making Masters finals or winning Masters titles. I think for now they are all versions of Kyrgios: love the big stage but may not escape the outer limits of the early rounds.

– I expect next gen that are lower profile to sneak up on players. Shapovalov and Felix,and even Fritz, Struff, Tiafoe, Sinner, De Minaur (De Minaur still best here – most titles, most finals, most heart), I think they make things interesting. While the big guys are soaking up the attention, these are the guys that are not and can do most away from the spotlight. Like James Blake sneaking up on the field a long time ago.

– No prediction for women. Serena I think makes another slam finals. I like Svitolina chance, Konta to maybe make a final? Bencic, good bet for a final. Not clear whether the new powers of Osaka, Andreescu shut everyone out, or Kvitova finds her form long enough, Pliskova cares, etc. Bencic. I think Bencic makes a final.

Maybe a US men’s player gets top ten. There’s no sign of that.

Andrew, you are a brave man, making these predictions. I am working on my predictions for ATP top 10 next season, but am not even going to try to do that for the WTA.

I did not do too badly for 2019. I got 4 of the top 5, although not the actual order. I had Novak, Sascha, Rafa, Dominic and Fed. Obviously Fed did better than I’d expected and Sascha worse.

I did not get any of the next 5. Injuries played havoc with those predictions, with players like Delpo and Anderson out for much of the season. And I wrongly thought Stefanos would have a sophomore slump.

This is subject to change (anytime before the start of the new season). But at the moment I have: Novak, Rafa, Dominic, Stefanos, Sascha, Fed, Daniil, Shapo, and Matteo for the top 9. 10th spot is between Kei (if not injured), Stan and Karen.

I am predicting that de Minaur, FAA and Rublev will make top 15. And that Fritz, Sinner and Pospisil will all go up significantly in the rankings.

Kiki loses her coach and her boyfriend both in a month or so – makes her performance in the Fed Cup seem more valiant than ever.

Apparently Kiki and Domi deleted each others’ IG’s.

Don’t think either will be ‘single’ for very long. Domi’s next gf won’t be a player, I bet.

Mladenovic, I’d like her to do well in 2020. She’s jilted player of 2019. I hope this is her motivation, prove her doubters wrong, nothing personal for her opponents just slam before Thiem. Would be awesome. Imagine that a victory speech where she says and I’d like to thank Thiem and Sacha because you didn’t believe in me I found people that did so thanks you jerks!

Would be epic. Doubt it happens but would be epic and I’d welcome that as a tennis fan and observer!!!

Andrew, why does it have to be Dominic who ended their relationship? Maybe it was Kiki.

I think predictions are fun, as long as we don’t take them too seriously. So many unexpected things can happen that we will never get many right, but it is amusing to try.

Strycova announced that David Kotyza would no longer be her coach in a gracious way. After talking about what they had achieved, she wrote:

“David is one of the best coaches in the Czech Republic and because my tennis retirement is approaching, I found it a little selfish to keep him at all costs.

“David, thanks for the hard work, for all the advice, and for your patience. It was a ride, it was up and down and it was great!” (WTA site)

I hope someone does a chart of the WTA coaching changes. It will be impossible to keep track of them otherwise.

Hartt: I don’t know. People seem to break Mladenovic heart. Maybe it’s otherwise, and Mladenovic has issues. Maybe just young people. My sense of watching Mladenovic is that she’s an excited, intense person who flourishes with support. I’ll also go ahead and say that she’s a good looking player. I saw her hitting with Bouchard and Mladenovic struck me as very decent. Bouchard struck me as a harder worker at that point than has been credited to her (by me too – Bouchard is a confusing player).

Some Canadian reporters weren’t right about her in terms of her practice, she hits with anyone she can at a tournament, male, female whoever. Contrast that with Giorgi:

“Hey do you want to hit with Christina? (McHale)” (from McHale’s coach).

Giorgi: Shakes her head. McHale is like a court right next to her, no dividers or anything!

Something to appreciate about Tennis Tonic: how thoroughly they embellish some things and miss the story. But I like reading it anyways. Sometimes the tabloid stuff is enjoyable.

I have been enjoying Scoop’s dishing on the former Canadian wunderkind. She should write a book: Wimbledoned: I made the Wimbledon final, then I lost in Toronto, I slipped in the shower in New York, and I’m now an internet sensation. The true story of why I’m not playing great tennis these days.

Scoop to me it’s just funny. For all I know X player loses at Y tournament BECAUSE of the Canadian…or wins 😉 I’ve heard that a few times even from Renae Stubbs who said for female players, if whatever you’re doing takes place while you’re winning and as players are superstitious they keep doing it. Even if it’s a mess personally!!!

Yeah she said that. And yes she was referring to super brief player relationships.

Anyways not my thing. I like knowing the more full story because it helps explain why a player is serious or not etc. The Canadian is serious then not whatsoever. So I tend to believe: player not interested in the sport anymore.