The real Tennis thread.

[Red Rick]

Juan Martin God Potro at it again, beating Andy Murray from 2 sets to 1 down in Glasgow in the first rubber of the Davis Cup semifinal. From what I've seen, Murray was playing pretty bad, but now all of Djokovic, Murray, Nadal and Wawrinka have fallen to God Potro this year, and Federer will likely fall as well should they meet again.

 

[Sciocco]

Pella wins later too. I think GB will even it up 2-2 but Argentina will take it in the end. Croatia or France could be very difficult but a Davis cup victory for Delpo to cap off this return season sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Red Rick]

Lol, Del Potro isn't losing to Kyle Edmund. Edmund only has a forehand. Nobody is beating Delpo in a forehand slugfest

 

[Sciocco]

Re:

Lol, Del Potro isn't losing to Kyle Edmund. Edmund only has a forehand. Nobody is beating Delpo in a forehand slugfest

That's what I'm saying, it was 2-0 but GB would (and did) win doubles. Tomorrow Is Murray v Whoever and Murray should win making it 2-2, then Delpo wins...

 

[Red Rick]

Argentinian coach is an idiot, for making Delpo play doubles.
Also, Smith should put up Dan Evans for the last rubber, he's been playing better then Edmund, and doesn't have a game that's too similar to Delpo. Frankly, I'm not even sure why Edmund was selected for the first rubber

 

[Red Rick]

Delpo not playing the deciding singles rubber. Lol

 

[Sciocco]

Maybe they are throwing...

 

[Red Rick]

Zverev through to another ATP final. Hopefully he can win this one, problem for him is that Wawrinka hasn't lost a final in years, despite playing the likes of Fed, Djoker and Rafa in said finals

 

[Red Rick]

Djokovic out of Shanghai, and Murray winning a 9th consecutive straight set match. There may be a fight for YE#1 yet.

 

[Sciocco]

Re:

Djokovic out of Shanghai, and Murray winning a 9th consecutive straight set match. There may be a fight for YE#1 yet.

Should make Paris and the WT Finals more interesting though Djokovic has quite a bit better record on indoor hard court. Well, at least in regards to Paris and the WTF.

 

[Red Rick]

If Murray wins tomorrow, and that seems likely, he'll be less than 1000 points behind. Next week both won't play, but Murray is set to play an ATP 500 in Vienna where he'd be the big, big favourite to win. So he could theoretically be less than 500 points behind before Paris-Bercy.

Djokovic needs to get his *** together, and quickly. At no point since RG has he played great. Murray is playing great right now, I've never seen him as aggressive as today.

Also WTF is a strange tournament. Top 8 will be playing. Nadal may skip, but most of these players should be able to beat Djokovic if he's playing like he is now. If Djokovic stops reaching finals, he's done. Murray has never reached the final of the WTF, but that's had a lot to do with injuries, fatigue or DC. He may tire himself a little bit too much by playing Vienna though, but it shouldn't be too bad if he doesn't play too many long matches.

 

[Sciocco]

915 with a victory tomorrow.

Djokovic has won the last three Paris-Bercy titles and last four WTF titles so a couple of weeks off and he could be ready to do decently well.

Losing the #1 could reignite Djokovic's competitive fire and the off-season rest should allow him to do that. I think if Murray gets #1 though he'll win the Aussie which would be nice since he has lost there so much.

 

[Red Rick]

Good win by Muzziah today. Made it harder than was necessary at the end of the first set though. Within 1000 points from Djokovic in the race now, and on a 20 set winning streak.

Next week isn't too interesting, only a few 250's and few of the big names playing. May try to watch a challenger should a young, interesting player make a run.

Week after is Vienna/Basel, with probably only Djokovic not playing

 

[Red Rick]

Today, Juan Martin Del Potro is playing his first ATP final (Olympics isn't an ATP event) since his comback. He'll be playing Jack Sock, another guy with a huge forehand, but technically a polar opposite. Todays match will decide how youngsters learn their forehand for centuries to come.

 

[Red Rick]

Andy Muzziah for #1 this year. I had predicted Murray would reach #1 right after the Australian open. My prediction is coming truer than I thought

 

[Red Rick]

Andy Murray, the new World #1 after Milos Raonic withdraws from the semi final. Just like every event with Raonic, he turns it into a complete anticlimax.

 

[Sciocco]

Congrats to Murray. I hope losing the #1 wakes Djokovic up and he gets hungry for success again. I want some good battles.

 

[del1962]

Re:

Andy Murray, the new World #1 after Milos Raonic withdraws from the semi final. Just like every event with Raonic, he turns it into a complete anticlimax.

Amazing to get there so quickly after being a long way behind Djokovic in points after French especially considering no points for Olympic points, we will see how Djokovic responds, he may get the position back after the London finals but he has a lot of points to defend early next year.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Andy Murray, the new World #1 after Milos Raonic withdraws from the semi final. Just like every event with Raonic, he turns it into a complete anticlimax.

Amazing to get there so quickly after being a long way behind Djokovic in points after French especially considering no points for Olympic points, we will see how Djokovic responds, he may get the position back after the London finals but he has a lot of points to defend early next year.

Yeah there's almost no question who will be going into the clay season as #1 next year. Murray looked far from Djokovic through the first months of the year, but in reality he's been going deep in every single tournament except for the Indian Wells + Miami swing. He only lost 500 points to Djokovic over the entire clay season, and since then Djokovic has been bleeding points everywhere.

Still I'm very suprised Murray has overtaken Djokovic so quickly. Obviously Djokovid had an insane amount of points to defend post RG, but Murray's summer HC had been lacklustre do to his draining Olympics run, whereas Djokovic had an easy 1000 points in Toronto where everyone played horrible against him, and the USO final, which to my memory is the absolute most laughable Slam final run ever.

If Djokovic doesn't get his *** together, I'm thinking Murray can be #1 for at least a good year, as I don't see anyone else stepping up quickly enough to start making inroads in early 2017, and Murray is too consistent and will still go deep just about everywhere. Next year I will expect a few guys to step up, as well as maybe good returns of Freddie and Ralphie. Competition has really tighened up in the top 15 outside of Murrovic, whereas last year you had super big gaps between Djokovic, then Federer and Murray, then the rest of the top 8, and then the rest of the field. Then there's Delpo who will be fighting his way back to the top 15 in the coming year.

For next year, I'm really expecting a lot more competition for the big tournaments, with upsets being more common and a lot more players contending for the wins on the biggest stages. Still I think Murray and Djokovic will just win too many matches and go too deep too often to be toppled from the top 2 steps. That said, decline often strikes sooner and harder than one might think. After the Aussie Open 2010, people where talking about 20 slams for Fed, after the 2013 US Open, people were expecting Rafa to break Fed's record, and even after RG this year, people where talking about Djokovic getting 18+ slams and easily breaking Fed's #1 record (for which he'd have to stay #1 until May 2018 or something).

The time of the Big 4 is coming to an end slowly. Djokovic's decline has set in after Rafa and Federer, and now Murray will have a short but well deserved period to shine as #1. But I think his window to really dominate will be very short, and is probably just limited to 2017, if at all. Wawrinka is 31 already, shows no signs of decline, and may be dangerous for the next 2 years to go on random Slam winning runs.

What happens after that is anyones guess really. The big 4 have set absolutely tremendous standards of dominance and consistency, and the generation after that have allowed them to reign long and break almost all records in the books together. Tennis landscape will change rather drastically, and I expect a little transitional era, rather than continued dominance of a few players. The young guy's at the top will definitely have very, very large shoes to fill.

 

[Sciocco]

Re: Re:

What happens after that is anyones guess really. The big 4 have set absolutely tremendous standards of dominance and consistency, and the generation after that have allowed them to reign long and break almost all records in the books together. Tennis landscape will change rather drastically, and I expect a little transitional era, rather than continued dominance of a few players. The young guy's at the top will definitely have very, very large shoes to fill.

It'll be welcome too as I would like to see some new faces collecting the slams. Nishikori for one, I think he'll have a small window of opportunity to collect one or two while Novak, Murray, etc. fall off. Also Delpo, a win in the USO one more time and just *** retire a champion.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Zverev, Coric, and Kyrgios are going forward. A lot of other young guys that I don't have quite as much hope for, i.e. Fritz or Thiem. I could see Thiem being one of those guys who hangs around the top 8 for five or six years without winning a slam but collects 20-30 tournaments.

 

[Red Rick]

Coric has no forehand. Having no forehand means you don't reach the top. Fritz is doing his best to ruin his career and has limited technique on his forehand. Even Thiem has forehand issues. Zverev has all the tools but his serve isn't what it should be and he overspins 90% of his forehands. Kyrgios has no head. When he gets one he'll reach the top 5 in no time.

I've been very impressed by Lucas Pouilles results and game this year. He has all the tools, but he hasn't shown the consistency yet.

 

[sir fly]

So, there's a fair chance that the year in which Đoković rounded up his Grand Slam collection, and imposed himself as a serious candidate for all times' best, will end with Murray as a top ranked player.

 

[Sciocco]

Re:

Coric has no forehand. Having no forehand means you don't reach the top. Fritz is doing his best to ruin his career and has limited technique on his forehand. Even Thiem has forehand issues. Zverev has all the tools but his serve isn't what it should be and he overspins 90% of his forehands. Kyrgios has no head. When he gets one he'll reach the top 5 in no time.

I've been very impressed by Lucas Pouilles results and game this year. He has all the tools, but he hasn't shown the consistency yet.

Coric and Zverev are still only 19 so who knows where they'll end up. Could be someone else who does anything notable.

 

[Red Rick]

Obviously they're still only 19. Zverev can get there next year even with the right improvements. Coric' issues are for a big part technical, and in a way that makes his ceiling lower.

Also very much looking at Khachanov next year, and then there's a few guys who have yet to break the top 100 that may rise very quickly in the next few years.

 

[Sciocco]

I just hope the ATP doesn't end up similar to where the WTA has been for a few years now with almost no consistent players.