Tennis

[the sceptic]

Looks like Murray has been blood tested lately

 

[The Hitch]

Looks like Murray has been blood tested lately

Whats happening?

In Uk, sky bought US open so cant be watched

 

[roundabout]

Wawrinka is 2 sets and a break up

 

[the sceptic]

down 2 sets and a break in the 3rd against Wawrinka. Been completely outplayed so far, hasnt even had a breakpoint if i remember correctly.

 

[The Hitch]

Oh, so he's throwing the match cos hes scared of playing Djokovic

No other way a player like Wawrinka who's basically been 1 of the top 10 players of the last decade, would challenge him.

 

[thrawn]

Well Wawrinka completely outplayed Novak for most of their epic 5 setter in Melbourne this year and narrowly lost. Very good player, and has some insanely good days just isn't as consistent as the big guys. Happy that two guys with awesome single hand backhands - Stan & Gasquet have made it a long way into the tournament.

 

[sniper]

Oh, so he's throwing the match cos hes scared of playing Djokovic

No other way a player like Wawrinka who's basically been 1 of the top 10 players of the last decade, would challenge him.

otoh,
federer-robredo head to head was 10-0 before yesterday.
murray wawrinka was 8-5, so certainly less of a surprise.

btw, wawrinka being interviewed now straight after the match and boy does he look tired

 

[miguelsol]

Yep, she's a legit champion.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Magnus Norman

Stan Wawrinka - he started working with Magnus Norman in April. But as soon as I heard his name the alarm bells rang.

Norman worked with Robin Soderling who disappeared at age 27 SUDDENLY RETIRED which we have now come to learn is probably a Silent Ban. He was playing off the richter and then suddenly retires. Magnus Norman also disappeared from coaching after splitting with Soderling, end of 2010.

It was his fourth title of the year and he improved his record to 38-9. He was also ranked No. 5 in the world at the time.

That was July of 2011. Soderling has not returned to the court since, and has scarcely been seen, a bizarre mystery ...

http://www.tennisnow.com/Blogs/NET-NOTES/March-2013/Where-is-Robin-Soderling.aspx

Soderling was ranked No. 17 at the time but progressed rapidly under Norman and cracked the top 10 after Roland Garros in 2009, where he beat Rafael Nadal on his way to a final defeat against Roger Federer...

It was a major breakthrough for a player who before then had never been beyond the third round of a Grand Slam event, and Soderling has since established himself as one of the elite players in the game.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/527211-robin-soderling-to-split-with-coach-magnus-norman

And now we have Wawrinka

The ninth-seeded Wawrinka, who had fallen in his previous three major quarter-finals, recorded his seventh Top 10 win since April,

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2013/09/36/US-Open-Thursday-Wawrinka-Murray.aspx

Wawrinka began working with Norman after the Monte Carlo Masters in April and since then, they have enjoyed plenty of success. Wawrinka won the Portugal Open in April, producing some of the best performances of his career and beating David Ferrer in the final.

He continued to enjoy an extremely successful clay court season, reaching the final of the Madrid Masters and the quarter-finals of the French Open.

 

[The Hitch]

Now in that post you are talking some sense, and offering some good.information and food for thought.

Edit, im talking about the fact that they both had the same coach and improved after it. Not the conspiracy bit about a silent ban. Why would tennis give anyone a silent ban in the first place seeing as they clearly prefer to let them dope?

 

[roundabout]

Shouldn't the "silent ban" be up now?

Yes, it's a bit strange that it takes over 2 years to deal with mono, but I would not be making a giant conspiracy out of it.

 

[infeXio]

Söderling was out with mono and then suffered from a post-disease viral infection thingy - though 2 years is quite long.

He hopes for a comeback in Paris or Bercy later this year;

http://www.expressen.se/sport/tennis/soderling-hoppas-fort--farande-pa-comeback/

 

[sniper]

In the context of Norman, this news from 2005 is interesting
http://www.playthegame.org/news/detailed/new-book-professional-tennis-in-doping-scandal-1350.html
I haven't seen this discussed here, I think

ATP, the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit, has covered up a major doping scandal involving seven positive doping tests, claim Swedish tennis journalists, Jonas Arnesen and Patrik Cederlund, and former tennis star, Magnus Norman, in a new book "Tennis off the record".

The case started in Spring 2003 when ATP received seven reports of positive doping tests from the Swedish company, International Doping Tests and Management. The tests had been taken between August 2002 and May 2003, and normally it would take about a year for the ATP's Anti-Doping Tribunal to reach a decision on the cases.

and then:

However, in this instance it only took ATP five weeks of investigation to arrive at a theory about the positive tests which would excuse the players in question. The theory was that ATP's own staff had caused the positive tests by handing out some vitamin supplements and nutrient substances which had been contaminated during production by an illegal substance that causes nandrolon doping.

ok.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Wawrinka is certainly not as suspicious as the likes of Fish, Tipsarevic, Ferrer or Haas but it is striking the way so many players seem to improve in their late twenties nowadays (or return to their best way into their thirties in Haas's case). The way things are going, Nadal and Djokovic could reach new peaks in the next couple of years. Agassi set the standards for dopers playing into their old age (in sporting terms), it will be fascinating to see how well the current crop of dopers benefit as they get older.

 

[Papa Kel]

... Wawrinka who's basically been 1 of the top 10 players of the last decade

I hope for your sake this is sarcastic.

 

[Bicycle]

re Soderling 2 years seems too long for a silent ban. We know that the ITF does not make test results public until the whole process has finished - allowing the player to challenge the results and come up with an excuse that the ITF can accept. But 2 years?

I don't doubt most top players are doping. But there are undoubtedly the epic dopers who in order to gain maximum benefit cycle down and up again to peak at specific times. These players are characterised by periods of absence from the game usually backed up by a lame excuse. The greatest exponents of this have been Nadal, Serena and Agassi.

 

[the sceptic]

Wawrinka is certainly not as suspicious as the likes of Fish, Tipsarevic, Ferrer or Haas but it is striking the way so many players seem to improve in their late twenties nowadays (or return to their best way into their thirties in Haas's case). The way things are going, Nadal and Djokovic could reach new peaks in the next couple of years. Agassi set the standards for dopers playing into their old age (in sporting terms), it will be fascinating to see how well the current crop of dopers benefit as they get older.

Stan has always been pretty inconsistent but played the odd brilliant match now and then. If he suddenly turns it around now and becomes a top 5 player it will be very suspicious.

I think Nadal has a good shot at catching Federers slam count which would be hillarious and sad at the same time.

 

[The Hitch]

I think Nadal has a good shot at catching Federers slam count which would be hillarious and sad at the same time.

He does this, and even I now concede you were right, hes looking very good for it, hell be 1 slam away from winning each one twice. Which would already make him better than Federer imo even if Federer even if he were 3 gs's behind Federer.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Dodgey Djokovic

Just watching the Djokovic Youzhny match.

At only 2 hours on court Djoko is on the way to another blisteringly quick match. None of his other matches went beyond 2 hours.

Now the unexplained play starts....in the 3rd set.

4-3 on serve and Djokovic throws in a double fault at 15-40 to give Youzhny the break of serve.

'that was a gift that game' say the commentators.

5-3 and Youzhny puts the ball long. 15-0 and Djoko hits a ball out of the tramlines of an open court. An open court !! so now Djoko, who has been outplaying a tired and full of unforced errors Youzhny, cant hit a ball into an OPEN COURT

Even the commentators cant explain it and say 'maybe he was surprised at the defence'.

Youzhny hits 2 balls out of court so Djoko now 30-15 ahead.

Djoko hits the next ball in the net...'seeing some routine shots being missed here by the words number one, which you wouldn't expect at any stage especially at the business end of a set ' says the commentator on Eurosport.

30-30..hits the ball half way up the net. 'another surprising miss, all the points Youzhny's won have been unforced errors off the Djokovic racquet'

40-30 and Djokovic hits another ball half way up the net - 'would you believe it ! ' say the commentaors.

4th set and Djokovic annihilates Youzhny. 6-0 in the 4th set.

Djoko probably giving the crowd a longer match...it would have only been 2 hours on court when he'd have won that match - bear in mind its a night time primetime match for New Yorkers who wouldn't have been too happy at such a short match.

Or.....could have been to do with betting ?? just saying....

A long post but I now have to back up everything I,m stating or you guys accuse me of seeing elephants.

 

[The Hitch]

You are seeing elephants. Thats not an accusation, its a fact.

Youzhney is by quite some margin the best player Djokovic has faced, of course he is going to give Djokovic a harder match than his other opponents

And what on earth is wrong with Djokovic underperforming in a set? Tennis is a mental game. Fluctuations in performances during matches are the nature of the game.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Hitch - You should stick to the Cycling because you know knob all about tennis.

 

[The Hitch]

Hitch - You should stick to the Cycling because you know knob all about tennis.

If thats the case then maybe you can tell me, Mr expert, which of Djoker's previous opponents were as good as Youzhny

Was it Berankis, Benjamin Bekker, Jao Sousa or Granoles? Or maybe all of them

Or was it the bit where I said its not uncommon for player performance to fluctuate during matches that sold you onto me being clueless about tennis. Yeah you are right, it is extremely rare of for performances to vary during matches. And its almost unheard of for 2 different players to win a set during a match

In fact, you may really be onto something. Why are tennis games best of 5 sets instead of best of 1. Since its set in stone that whoever wins the first set will always win the next 2 anyway (because players always maintain the same level of performance no matter what), then it seems to me the entire format of tennis in grand slams is geared around a match fixing conspiracy. They do best of 5 so that the lizards who run this world can fix matches. Otherwise only 1 set is truly ever neccesary.

 

[Cycle Chic]

My post was concerning the 3rd set and score of that match.

If you think that the 3rd set was played legitimately and you can explain Djokovic's dramatic downturn in play then don't comment.

The 3rd set was thrown.

 

[the sceptic]

Cycle chik you need to work on your logic. Why should Djokovic bother to fix QF slam matches unless there are millions involved? do you really think he is going to risk throwing everything away for a little more money? And if there is that much money involved the bookmakers arent just going to sit back and watch the fixing taking place.

More likely he lost his focus in the 3rd, got ****ed and decided to steamroll the 4th. **** happens, not everything goes according to whatever idea you have in your head.

 

[The Hitch]

If you think that the 3rd set was played legitimately and you can explain Djokovic's dramatic downturn in play then don't comment.

lol what? If someone has an explanation that would disprove your wackjob conspiracy theory they shouldn't comment?

Well that is a good way to protect the theory i guess

If Djokovic threw the 3rd set why did he bother breaking back halfway through the set? Sounds unneccesarily complicated when he could have just let Youzhny serve out the set.