Winter, Spring, Summer…Wimbledon

Has there ever been more of a bore to watch as a top player than Murray? I mean he seems to have gone back to his looping forehand under Mauresmo and his junior defensive tennis days. It’s working out against Goffin, who’s never fulfilled his early promise, but Murray’s style always puts me to sleep. He doesn’t ever serve and volley or venture to the net at all. I am no fan of watching Murray.

Gambill good choice. Harrison hitting long off the Dimitrov serve – Dimitrov lucky to be winning the service games so easily, I think with a little higher string tension Harrison would be getting in on Dimitrov’s service games and putting pressure on him. Harrison also is hitting top of tape, seems he’s not staying with it enough. Dimitrov looking less than impressive.

This set could be for the taking if Harrison wants it.

Harrison gifted that tiebreak. No way Dimitrov should be up one set to none – he’s doing nothing special. Here’s hoping Harrison uses the pent up frustration from set one to get sets 2 and 3. He just turned completely red – knew he blew the tiebreak by playing loose, sloppy for no real reason – his game unraveled. He should reign it in, use a little higher tension on the racquets and channel that emotion to beat up on Dimitrov.

Djokovic’s today’s s perfomance can be compared to his level of play in the first round at the 2011 Australian Open and yet he played with the LEGAL shoes!

conclusions for men and women’s Wimbledon thus far:

Men: mostly uninspiring performances from ‘generation next’ with a nice match from Tomic; otherwise the favorites and veterans are moving on to round 2. U.S. men see an especially poor performance from the 2nd team/aka bench. Not particularly inspiring from Team Thiem. Absolutely not inspiring from U.S. players not named Isner and Querrey. U.S. contingent probably looking forward to watching claycourters win grasscourt matches and thinking, rather wishfully, that hardcourts will be better for them. U.S. men could use a dose of confidence as most of them exit the tournament. Querrey reasserts himself as the 2nd best U.S. player in the top 70.

Women: Both generation next and generation now have a pretty good day. Win of the day is definitely off the racquets of Kirilenko over Stephens and Coco over Muguruza. A pretty inspiring performance from U.S. women, Coco takes out Muguruza.

Harrison played well? Today? Really? No way. I watched the match and thought he was matching Dimitrov and then completely lost it – lost his composure and looked lost out there. Let us hope Gambill can motivate Harrison to stay in the match until the end – I saw poor body energy, bad decision making in the first set tiebreak, and a poor response when Dimitrov started finding his forehand. I’m glad Harrison made it through qualifying, but he played junior ball after set 1. The break in set 2 was particularly loose.

I don’t want to rain on a good result in qualifying for Harrison who as the commentators said is “a better player than his [140s] ranking”, and I’m not sure if Harrison himself expected to win, but I certainly didn’t think he stayed focus and made the kind of adjustments that put more pressure on a player like Dimitrov. Dimitrov for his part better play above his level today if he wants even round three. Maybe he is planning not to peak and played just well enough to coast today – hit a few volleys etc, hit a few big inside out forehands. This felt like a practice match.

Roger Rasheed is smart and should manage Dimitrov, but maybe this is all part of the plan for the tournament, to play loose and fluid tennis and not bring his best when he doesn’t have to. But this was by no means a good match and that holds for both players.

Dimitrov winning? I will wait until dan gives us the match of day options. SuperG is solid but today he didnt look like a semifinalist. Again maybe just lucky to draw a comeback player who didnt bring his a plus game.

It’s not going to happen (not that I wouldn’t love to see it) but Jon Wertheim is predicting a Dimitrov-Fed final.

I don’t see how anyone can fault Dimitrov for his performance. He was very professional and solid. Harrison is Harrison, I don’t think his play surprised anyone, least of all Grigor Dimitrov. Watch game 6 of the 2nd set if you were in any doubt as to who was in control of proceedings out on the court.

(Alternatively, you can attribute Harrison’s loss to a mental breakdown or Dimitrov’s luck, or a combination of the two)

Dimitrov, of course, will have to make an adjustment to account for the slower grass and higher bounce. At Queens his shots had more penetration, and especially the sliced back-hand, more venom. I do believe he played within himself as per a predetermined game plan. There were a couple of excellent points from Harrison that seemed to trigger his inclination to showboat but his newfound discipline overruled the passion on the occasion. Very interesting to watch a young player develop as a man. Dimitrov has matured noticeably over the last 8-9 months. Personally, I see him reaching the QF stage with a decent shot at reaching the Semi’s.

What is your view on players preserving energy in the early rounds? Is that a factor on grass, or do players prefer to play some patterns in order to get more confidence on the grass?

Thank you for the prompt response. My views on the subject coincide with yours. The upsets of the last 2 years must have had an impact. Are you keeping an eye on young Aussie Nick Kyrgios?

tom michael,

Novak made Golubev look bad.

Harry seemed discouraged after first set tiebreak. Like, “here we go again. Another close set loss, why can’t I win any of these doggone close sets with top players?”

Harrison cannot win because his entire game and mindset depend on serve and forehand, and if he cannot dictate with those two weapons, which he has shown he cannot, especially on the main tour, it adios Ryan, back to Challengers for you.

Probably will still get a few wildcards on the American hardcourts, so he might be able to save part of his year

Scoop Harrison seemedto express exactly that: “why is this happenning to me again at least i have one of those purple green gold towels” !

All good points. It seems to me that a lot of work needs to be done with Harrison’s backhand. I am not too optimistic that he can change much in that department. Perhaps a better net game could compensate somewhat.

Speaking of net game, does anyone have any suggestions for a source of net point stats? JMac’s claim that Nadal is the best volleyer in the top 100 has me chomping at the bit to find some stats. I just don’t see Nadal at the net often enough. His volleys are put-aways and he’s not really displaying the net game of a Stepanek or Lopez. I am fairly confident Federer’s volleys are also superior. Any suggestions gentlemen?

Scoop,

You’ve been on the Djoker train forever. I guess I should admire that you’re a true fan of his. But I’m afraid that you always overestimated him and underestimated Rafa, and have a lack of understanding of tennis in general. When it is all said and done, rafa will be the GOAT and Djoker will be a 6-8 GS winning level player; there is no shame in that, but he is not Fed or Nadal level. His win at Wimbledon is quite shady, and there is plenty of proof. There is more proof of that, than any PED’s that Dan would accuse Rafa of.

Djoker will fail at the big moments unless he has his edge. I will be proven right because Djoker will not win a second Wimbledon nor a second US Open because he is also bad in the wind. His failure this year at RG essentially means his chances of winning multiples of surfaces is essentially gone. Rafa has outlasted the critics in his longevity. Critics failed to see Djoker’s weaknesses. The biggest being his actual movement and stretching. The stretching is a strength in the begining, but with age it will be his weakness and downfall. He will not last so long because he lacks natural speed.

Remeber, Scoop, you owe me 2 dinners if Djoker fails to win 2 RG and 2 Wimbledons in his career. I will be proven right. Djoker will fail.

Tennis machine? What a Djoke!

Gusta

gustarhymes,

Nobody who is very knowledgeable about tennis will tell you that Golubev tanked the match. And if Djokovic fails to win Wimbledon it won’t be because he used legal shoes but because of the same reason he has not won any slam slam since January 2013.

To russell Jones,

Darkness allowed rafa to win? Actually Rain allowed Fed in the match in the first place. rafa was going to straight set him otherwise!

Djoker can’t express himself 2011 style. He’s fallen off. Yes he’s been consistant in non slams more than slams. Age is catching up with him. he doesn’t have rafa’s natural speed and movement around the court. The elasticity is his compensation. that compensation is decreasing with age, as well as his speed in general. Many critics of rafa said he would fall off quicker than Fed and djoker, but I see that happening more for Djoker. He has not won a slam since 2013 Oz, and that spells danger zone for him.

Rafa is lasting a lot longer than anyone realized. Rafa has managed to improve his serve and backhand over the years. He is superior to Djoker as an overall tennis player and athlete.

Djoker will not catch up in majors to fed or Nadal. If you or anyone thinks he will catch up, I will question there tennis knowledge. it goes against the trends of tennis history. to win many majors, you must do it young and consistantly. Djoker had 1 great season only. He did not win majors in 2009 or 2010. Rafa has had 3 great seasons in 2008, 2010 and 2013. The 2010 season is in fact the greatest season ever! The 2010 season is the only time in tennis history that a player won 3 slams on 3 different surfaces. I contend it is a greater feat than Laver’s slam on only 2 surfaces. since the advent of 3 surfaces it took longer to do than the periods of time between 4 slam winners Budge and Laver. The tennis world refuses to acknowlege this because of there prejudice against Spanish clay court players.

Gusta

“The fact that Spanish clay courters went from skipping the tournament, to winning it/contending it, must tell you something is seriously changed in the mix of surface conditions/balls.”

The reason Spanish clay courters stopped skipping the event has a lot less to do with the surfaces or balls. The main reason Spanish clay courters skipped Wimbledon originally was that the Wimbledon Seeding Committee made extreme seeding changes to their rankings. If they had a top 10 or 15 ranking, they were dropped 10 to 20 spots in the seedings. And bumped up the seedings of players outside the top 50. That is just an insult. They stopped doing those extremes recently, and now use milder changes to the seedings. Nadal said in 1999 when he was 13 years old he wanted to win Wimbledon. He would not have skipped it even with the original thin dirt packing under the grass, or the old grass mixture, or the actions of the Wimbledon seeding committee. Why? He is a great competitor, and great on all outdoor surfaces. He won Queens Club in 2008 on the old grass. Another reason, he probably believed in his ability to win Wimbledon after watching Corretja beat Sampras in Davis Cup in 2002 on grass in the US. Corretja’s look on his face was that of playing on grass is not a big deal—I should not have skipped Wimbledon all those years despite the actions of the seeding committee.

Nadal is not the greatest beneficiary of surface homogenization. Federer, Djokovic, and Murray won all their slams in this era of homogenization. And Federer has won the most slams so he is actually the greatest beneficiary. This talk of surface homogenization is ridiculous. The Australian Open’s plexicushion is faster than the original rebound ace. The US Open has never changed its surface. And French Open used faster balls from 2009-2011. Soderling managed to upset an injured Nadal in 2009, but Nadal still won 2010 and 2011, when healthy. Federer’s only French Open was achieved with the use of fast balls. They have used regular balls from 2005-2008, and 2012 to present. Wimbledon changed its surface in 2001, the year Federer beat Sampras. Otherwise Federer lost in the early rounds in 1999 and 2000, on the original old fast grass.

Nadal probably would have defended his non-clay slams at Wimbledon and US Open if not for cheating spikes Djokovic in 2011. He would have easily three or four channel slams by now. Again, Nadal would not have lost 7 matches in a row if not for cheating spikes. It would have ended at 4 wins in a row in 2011 for Djokovic. I believe Novak has not beaten Nadal in more than 4 matches in a row recently. And Nadal has won the last 4 grand slam meetings.

Vamos Rafa! May God restore him to full grass court glory. In Jesus’ name! Amen!